The Fourth Estate

 “Well, all I know is what I read in the Papers.” said Will Rogers

The term Fourth Estate hails back to the 19th Century European concept of the realm of three estates:  the clergy, the nobility, and the commoners.  The Fourth Estate being a Free Press.

Thomas Jefferson believed in the necessity of a free press as a watchdog keeping citizens informed in government affairs, and that the press had the responsibility of accuracy in their reporting.

Unlike the Postal Code, Article I, Section 8, giving Congress specific power to establish Post Offices and postal road, and to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper, the 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the more broadly power to protect Free Speech and Free Press equally.  

Our 1st Amendment is so profoundly imbued that it even guarantees money as Free Speech, thanks to Right-Wing, GOP appointed SCOTUS with Buckley v Valeo, Citizens United decisions. Therein Lies the Problem.  

It’s ok to buy Congress to kneecap the United States Postal Service, and allow monopolies, wherein five multi-national corporations own the Mass Media aka Main Street Media.

Unrest and civil disobedience is being fueled by Fox-so-called-News.  It's no longer anecdotal but propaganda.

The Postal Accountability & Enhancement Act. Passed by Republican Congress and signed by President George W. Bush 2006, a “poison pill” designed to destroy USPS requiring it to pre-fund its Retiree Health Benefits Fund 75 years in advance.

Postmaster DeJoy, appointed by Republicans, defies the Constitution by criminally destroying USPS property with over 700 automated sorting machines dismantled and thrown in the trash. And, DeJoy is not charged with a crime!

Deepak Chopra on PBS said: “Nature of Reality in the conscious mind is thru Stories.”  Corporate Media controls the stories.  And, they show no shame in removing Journalism and replacing with Infotainment.

After the FCC stopped enforcing the Fairness Doctrine under Reagan in 1987, broadcast corporations stopped having to worry about broadcasting in the public interest.

Leslie Moonves CEO - CBS said about Donald Trump: "It May Not Be Good for America, but It's Damn Good for CBS”  A disservice to America!

The spread of misinformation, disinformation clearly falls on Corporate Media, MSM, and they show no remorse in removing Journalism and  replacing it with INFOTAINMENT. The Billionaire$ money in Government is systemic. 

Obviously, it’s difficult to govern with an uniformed public. A Free Press, Fourth Estate, with accuracy in their reporting is vital to a functioning democracy”

Conspiratorial Capitalism

The text book definition of Profit is the measurement of efficiencies between competitive companies. Since we no longer enforce the Sherman Anti Trust Act via Ronald Reagan, profit has morphed into a destructive force entity with Crony Capitalism  thrust upon us today coupled with the monopoly factor.  

We see, for example, the increase in prices for life saving medicine increasing 600% to 3,000% for no other reason but that Big Pharma can.  We have replaced text book Capitalism with  Conspiratorial Capitalism, or Crony Capitalism - a systematic, corrupt system bought and paid for by legislators and corporate lobbyists.

Conspiratorial Capitalism is the collusion among legislators, right-wing judges, and corporate mass media.  The Federal Government lowers the tax rate for the wealthy, stops enforcing the Sherman Anti-Trust Legislation, anti-labor and essentially gives corporations and Wall Street free will.  

The powerful right-wing network that hijacks state politics and government through the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) continue their nefarious agenda of wealth redistribution upwards to the Rich. 

Composing legislation, calling for a conference of all state legislators to attend, then handing out previously composed legislation for the legislative attendees to take back to their state legislation to vote upon is what ALEC is about. And, with a majority of Republicans in many state legislatures, the vote is “Aye.”

We now have a Corporate Press free from regulation thru the FCC relaxing the Fairness Doctrine, the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and the FCC revoking Net Neutrality.  Today’s News is mainly infotainment!

There is nothing in the Corporate News about the decline of the middle class, which the last 35 years has left America destroyed while the right-wing agenda of closing factories in the United States to the tune of 50,000 factories and moving American jobs to China continues. 

Capitalism in a competitive world Profit was a measure of efficiencies, comparative advantage. Remove competition and Profit morphed into Greed, a cancer rooted in Reaganomics, deadly in its effects and it has metastasized.

Our cities throughout the Rust Belt, the name given to our devastated industrial heartland, resemble the bombed ruined cities of WWII Germany.  Detroit, for example, had a population of over 2 million residents in its heyday and was listed as the richest city in America due mainly to its industrial base revolving around the manufacturing of automobiles.  

Today’s population of Detroit is under 700,000 with the difference in resident’s abandoned houses resembling what time did in lieu of bombs.

A rewarding model for business is government subsidies. This business model sets the condition whereby companies pay their workers below substance wages, then their employees apply for food stamps and medicaid in order to live.  All subsidized by the American taxpayer.

Republicans in the U.S. Senate continue  blocking legislation to restore the American manufacturing industry. We do not enforce our tariffs that all other countries use to protect their manufacturing base!

Republican Senator McConnell, Senate Majority Leader, continues to object to Legislation from the House of Representatives dealing with all sorts of remedies, from Russian  interference in our voting, voter security, monopolies, and more. 

Ronald Reagan’s infamous 9 words: “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”  And, “Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”  

From this foreboding idea that government is incompetent sprang the buzz word “privatize”.  Let’s privatize everything! 

Perhaps the enemy is only an idea, albeit a bad idea.  The solution would be to educate the American public through the Mass Media.  

But the Mass Media is owned by 6 corporations!  Therein lies the problem.

The Religious Right Is Wrong

James Madison, fourth President of the United States, in his Federalist Papers No. 10 explained that factions, alliances, were the natural state of man, that the like minded would form in groups.  But he warned of the inherent danger when these Factions turned political to the detriment of the public interest. 

The adherents of the Religious Right focus on the “me” society rather than the “we” society.  Therein lies a major conflict with the Bible: Matthew 25:45 “Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”  

The Religious Right is an exclusive group choosing the phrases in the Bible exclusively to further their prejudices.

Another difference between the members of the Religious Right and mainstream Christian Churches is the former are political, and Republican.  The so-called christians who subscribe to the various groups do so willingly knowing the positions that the hate groups stand by, albeit refuse to identify them as hate groups.  Moreover, these groups claim to be christian but they take passages out of context from the Bible and twist the meaning to further their agenda: money.

Here is an example of an un-christian religious ceremony introduced and promoted by Randy Wilson.  At public display, the father ceremoniously marries his daughter to hold her to swear before God her virginity which the father swears before God to hold until she marries his choice.  Totally sick and creepy!  This religious ceremony is against the Bible and a sacrilege:  

Matthew 5:34-37  But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne:  Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

James 5:12  But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath:  but let you yea be yea; and you nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.

There are many issues with so-called Religious Right Christian views.  The Jews are going to hell as one Religious Right person told me years ago.  These mis-directed sycophants are carrying on the same instilling of hate towards the Jews carried on generation after generation since the Diaspora of ancient time to the Holocaust of the 20th Century.

In his acceptance of the Ecumenical Council of 1960-1965, Vatican II, Pope John Paul II asserted that as a descendent to the throne of St. Peter, the true message of Jesus was all inclusive, that all people of the world were saved.  I believe all main-stream Christian Churches believe the true message of Jesus was love for all religious communities since all mainstream religions believe and practice the same love. 

But let’s not forget the Evangelical Religious Right homeschooling who believe that it is the parents right to instill in their children the need to save this country from the Jews, Catholics, the LGBT, the Liberals, and anyone who does not believe in the views of Mike Pence.  Let’s take back the Country for Christ.

Here’s what Mike Pence stands for:  He’s very pro-gun; he’s very anti-abortion. As Governor of Indiana, he signed a law mandating funerals for fetuses; he’s hostile to LGBT rights; he supports the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP); he wants to cut taxes for the rich.

The LGBT community is the target of Focus On The Family and has made anti-LGBT activism a cornerstone of it’s “pro-family” cause.  The millionaire James Dobson is not an ordained minister of the pulpit, but a graduate Psychologists who discovered the propensity to make money selling religion to the vulnerable.

It is one thing for a person to hold his opinions to him self but for a person to act out his prejudices by pursuing organizations that cause harm to others is wrong. 

Former President Jimmy Carter, who in 2000 officially severed ties with the Southern Baptist Convention after the SBC declared its opposition to female pastors and reiterated its calls “for wives to be submissive to their husbands.”   He condemned the mistreatment of women by religious leaders, writing: “the words of God do not justify cruelty to women.”

In an opinion piece published “Losing my Religion for Equality.”  President Carter said that a “twisted interpretation of the word of God” taught by male religious leaders has been used to justify the oppression of women:  “The truth is that male religious leaders have had — and still have — an option to interpret holy teachings either to exalt or subjugate women. They have, for their own selfish ends, overwhelmingly chosen the latter.”

There are phrases in the Bible that exalt women and here is just a sample of many:  Romans 16:1New International Version (NIV) Personal Greetings 16 “I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae”; Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus”; Romans 2:11 “For God shows no partiality”; Ephesians 5:21 “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ”.

How can this faction be morally right when its leaders, like Franklin Graham, James Dobson, Pat Robertson do not condemn President Trump in his relationship to racism and white supremacy, but praise him and campaigned for him?  Christian Right leader Jerry Falwell owes his claim to fame fighting to uphold segregation with his sermons on how integration was offensive to God.  

President Trump pandering.  The Christian Right’s plan is simple: Dominate the courts, state legislatures, and push their twisted morality on all of us.

I refuse to live in their world.  A world where men are superior, where women are subordinate, controlled, and relegated to motherhood.  A world where anyone different from me are not only shunned, but pursued.  

What’s right is St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians: 1 Corinthians 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.  The Bible is replete with God’s message of Joy and Salvation for all religious communities of the world. Inherent in a gift is there is no payment in return.

The Power Of Prayer

While serving in the Army Security Agency from 1963 to 1966, but In Turkey for an 18 month stint, some of the relaxation activities on our Post Det 27, located 20 miles south west of Ankara, was the Service Club, NCO Club to imbibe and play Bingo, the library, and the Gym.  

On one occasion on a Sunday I joined a group from the barracks to play basketball at the gym.  I’m not a good basketball player but agreed to join in the fun.  But the fun turned sour when I jumped for the basket and landed badly spraining my ankle.  

I had to loosen my shoe, and limp to the movie theater. 

While watching Marlon Brando in the 1963 hit Mutiny On The Bounty, my ankle swelled. 

While limping back to the barracks I feared the worse:  tomorrow Monday was the beginning of PT (Physical Training).  I dreaded having to fall out of formation with an injury.  What a dilemma!  

My remedy was prayer.  I prayed for my foot and ankle while lying in my bunk, pulling the blanket from my left foot because of the pressure.  I fell asleep praying.

Upon awakening in the morning, 6AM wakeup for PT, my ankle was completely healed. 

I was amazed.  I jumped up and down for feeling.  There was no swelling, no pain, and my foot was back to normal!  

Hope

The profundity of faith  compared to coincidence is in the eye of the beholder.  

While stationed at Ft. Leonard Wood in the Army Basic Training many years ago, I attended church regularly.  Basic Training for this 20 year old soldier, and for all the other soldiers, was grueling and physically draining, especially in the cold winter of January - I literally watched a water puddle freeze while standing in formation. 

We had Saturdays and Sundays off and the $79.00 per month salary in the early 1960’s left you pretty much broke by the end of the month.

On the last Sunday of the month while attending church, I had a decision to make as the donation platter was being passed among the pews.  I only had one nickel in my pocket, the only one nickel before payday. 

It was a difficult decision because as a routine we all lined up at the candy machine outside the barracks to soothe the hunger before bedtime - a Snickers Bar was 5 cents.

With the theme of most church services sermons Acts 20:35 “It is more blessed to give than to receive ” the collection plate came closer. 

My thought was donate or candy, donate or candy.  If it was Snickers, God would understand.  The collections plate was handed to me and donate won.

The Ft. Leonard Wood church was a white painted wooden chapel, as were most of the barracks made of wood, left-overs from WWII.  I exited the church walking down the 3 wooden steps and grabbing the white wooden hand rail, watching my foot steps down the stairs. 

And, to my amazement at the bottom left on the ground was a nickel.