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 5 multi national corporations!  Therein lies the problem.

Discovering My Grandfather's Daily Devotional

I’m discovering an insight to my grandfather who died in 1962 at the age of 82.

I recently received his book “Johann Friedrich Starck’s Morgen und Abendandachten”, translated means Morning and Evening Prayer, a 1901 copy of a 18th century theologian’s writing.  Reviewing my grandfather Georg (without “e” pronounced GAY-org) Reiter’s daily devotional book, it is fragile, very worn and obviously much used.  To connect with a particular day’s prayer is to wonder how many times has this person read this particular prayer on this particular day over a lifetime.  And, the wonder is also a warm feeling and thought that this person was a good and righteous person.

 I’m seeing a pattern with each day’s prayer ending with psalms, hymns, carols, and ballads.  Here is the Evening - Prayer (Abend) for 21 February.  I used an internet on-line translator as I wrote from the original German text these sentences, trying to interpret the old Gothic letters, used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 to well into the 17th century, if the letter was a U or A. 

Some words do not exactly fit the logic in this translated prayer, because words in all languages become outdated and not easily translated.  This text is probably translated in the 19th century from the 18th century, which would further outdate todays translation.  

So, here is my translation from page 105 and at the bottom is from Pslam 51:

Evening Prayer for 21 February

Return to me, saith the Lord Almighty, so I will teach you, saith the Lord Almighty   Zech. 1.3

Almighty and gracious God! As night falls, I see all my trust and confidence in you and your merciful side.  I ask you humbly, Lord, to forgive me all my sins and transgressions out of grace. Like a sheep strayed from the herd heading for his shepherd. So I too want to turn to you, faithful Jesus, and hold myself to you, so that I will never leave you again.  Without this inner conversion no one has ever found grace before your eyes. A David, a Peter, a Paul have become completely changed people through your spirit power, so give me such a new meaning, O my merciful.  In grace you will abdicate all uncleanness and all damages from me. Let your holy angels encamp around me so that I may enjoy a good night's sleep under their care.  Ah, Lord, come to me when I pray, and hear me; Comfort me when I am depressed, save me when the floods cross over me. Comfort me when I'm sick and lonely.  Will you, sir, attribute sin, who will prevail? Let my soul, when leaving that mortal coffin, open the entrance into your heaven, where I will be eternally united with you. Amen.

I want from my wrongdoing

to convert me to the Lord;

You want help and advice for yourself

for that, O God, bring

and your spirit's power,

that creates new hearts in us,

grant me with mercy.

The Nature of Communication

Ancient scholars deduced that language is symbolic, metaphorical to reason and understanding for the individuals’ thought process. Symbolism language is powerful.

Hieroglyphics were the early form of writing, communication used in Ancient Egypt and the Anatolian Hittites dating back to the Bronze Age 12 century BCE, a combination of logographic symbols. Much like the Emoji of today.

But the timeline of most of History shows that most people were illiterate, could not read or write even up through the Middle Ages. They depended on Oral Tradition, a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and culture was received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another.  The transmission was through speech or song including folktales, ballads, chants, or prose and poetry.

Part of Human Existence, is Oral Tradition before written language. One can hypothesize religion was founded upon explaining the unexplainable, giving reasons to fractured happenings before scientific knowledge gave birth. Homer’s Odyssey reveals Human Nature.  ‘Achilles' heel myth for example.

Greek Mythology, when Achilles was an infant, it was foretold he would perish at a young age. Preventing his death, his mother Thetis took Achilles to the River Styx which folklore supposed to offer powers of invulnerability. She dipped his body into the river water but, because she held him by his heel, it was not touched by the water of the river.

One can see, for example, the Pictures displayed as Art throughout the walls and ceilings of Hagia Sophia, built 360 CE, telling the story of Christianity, a method of Oral Tradition.

In 1454 Gutenberg took the task of the laboring Scribes and put the mass media in motion. The printing press innovation put the written word to the masses, inspired the ‘read’.

Over centuries, Scribes upon Scribes, upon more Scribes rewriting lead to distortions in meaning. Imagine ancient script with no spaces/punctuation.

Charlemagne, 8th century, gave us Carolingian ‘miniscule’, Upper Lower cases, spaces between words, punctuation, and even Cursive Writing. 

Consider the importance of these  innovations, since the Ancient Scribes had this to deal with: allofthesechangesmadeitmucheasiertoreadtheyeliminatedthesourcesofmanyscribalerrors

Add to the Insanity with the Bible having many contradictions because of the Scribes’ distortions over centuries. Maybe one Scribe had a ‘Bad Day’ with his wife and relegated her to “Sit Down & Be Quiet” 1 Timothy 2:12: “I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.”

“I learned a very important lesson that night. People believe whatever they read. Something magical happens once it’s put down on paper. They figure no one would have gone through the trouble if it wasn’t the truth.  Responsibility was my new watchman.” Eugene Morris Jerome - Niel Simon’s Biloxi Blues

“Nature of Reality in the conscious mind is thru Stories.”- Deepak Chopra

Corporate Media controls the Stories. Therein Lies the Problem.

One could hypothesize, that ‘Social Media’ is the New “Ancient Oral Tradition”

since Journalism is DOA and Corporate Media is Infotainment.

One must realize Corporate Media Mainstream Media is owned by 5 corporations and is not only the filter, but the interpreter of HAPPENINGS.  An Unchallenged Lie perpetuates same. 

The Word “News” connotes Journalism, and one would expect a standard like a placard outside an office “Lawyer” or “CPA”.  Corp Media MSM replaced Journalism with ‘INFOTAINMENT’.

A savior of our communicated thoughts revolves around Lucius Seneca 4 BCE - 65 CE, Roman Philosopher, Stoicism: “You can’t control the situation, but you can control your reaction to it.”  

Speaking Corporatese

“Sergeant Toomey:  What would you do if the entire Japanese Army were behind you?

Private Eugene Jerome: Surrender and get some sleep.

Private Selridge:  If this keeps up, we'll lose this war. They'll be speaking German in Chicago.” 

from Biloxi Blues by Neil Simon

Today it’s not obvious to identify those who want to destroy the basic foundation on which we preach freedom, the Great Middle Class and the pinnacle of democracy.  

President Roosevelt referred to them as  Economic Royalists and “Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob”. 

President Truman said: “The Republican Party, … favors the privileged few and not the common everyday man.”  President Jimmy Carter said that we are now an Oligarchy.  

And now today we speak Corporatese.  Our news media speaks of Dow Jones Industrials, NASDAQ, which does not reflect the happenings of the majority of working Americans, but in reality reflects the Wall Street gangs.  

We speak of Corporate Inversions which is the moving of American jobs and American factories to other countries. We speak of Off Shore Tax Havens. All legal.   

Our cities throughout the Rust Belt, the name given to our devastated industrial heartland, resemble the bombed out 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 the population of Detroit is under 700,000 with the difference in resident’s abandoned houses resembling what time did in lieu of bombs.

The text book definition of Profit is a 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 Conspiratorial 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, a systemic 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.  

We now have a corporate press free from the Fairness Doctrine, which the FCC under Reagan in 1987,  left broadcast corporations worry free about broadcasting in the public interest." 

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 Republican agenda of closing factories in the United States to the tune of 50,000 factories and moving American jobs to China continues. 

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

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.”

Our health care is like no other in the world and defines what profit means today by holding hostage and skimming off the top to a destructive degree.  The health care insurance is a sham with CEO billionaire “banksters” reaping rewards. Health care has morphed into a disease. 

How can we define and justify profit with private prisons?  Where can efficiency occur in this prison for profit industry except by sacrificing basic human needs?  The Private Prisons takes the word profit to a disgusting definition.

A new business model for profit is government subsidies. The largest retailer is the apparent founder of this business model whereby they pay their workers below substance wages. Their employees then apply for food stamps and medicaid in order to live, all subsidized by the American taxpayer.

Ronald Reagan’s infamous 9 words: “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”  Reagan’s First Inaugural: “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! 

The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) is a United States federal statute enacted by the 109th United States Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush on December 20, 2006, a poison pill mandating that the USPS pre-fund 75 years of benefits for its employees within a 10 year window.  

An all inclusive example of Corporatese is GOP Governor Rick Snyder of Michigan who Installed Emergency Managers to sell off city assets to the rich. 

Here was Gov Snyder’s game plan: give $1.8 billion in tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations at the expense of Michigan cities’ budgets, then ask the individual cities to make up the difference. 

Knowing that this shorting the cities of expected revenue sharing, many cities would have hardships and struggles to make up the difference, especially cities with large black populations like Benton Harbor, who lost a children's lakeside park to a rich private golf park, given in perpetuity by the Klock Family in memory of their lost child to the children of Benton Harbor.

When the individual cities fell behind in their fiscal obligations, Rick Snyder sent in his appointed Czar, an Emergency Manager to sell off the city’s assets, in other words a transfer of wealth upwards.

Let’s privatize everything because the Market Place is the best arbiter of freedom!  Just a few examples of innumerable …

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 who speak only Corporatese!  Therein lies the problem.

The Moral Compass

Today, overwhelming evidence shows that people vote against their own best self interest.

Ike was last legit Republican President, Nixon conspired with Viet Nam to continue the war (Treason), Reagan conspired with Iran to hold the hostages, (Treason), George H.W. Bush came from Reagan, George W. Bush was appointed by SCOTUS, and Trump lost the popular vote.

Paul Weyrich, religious conservative political activist and commentator of the New Right said: “I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people, they never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.”

The GOP wins power by the slimmest margins, only because the election process is theirs through Gerrymandering, voter suppression, voter crosscheck purge, corporate so-called news, SCOTUS Citizens United, Electoral College, Billionaires with Dark Money.  It would take a tsunami of progressive voter turnout to overcome.

Sen Whitehouse’ reply to GOP when they ruled “because we can”: “Don’t think when you have established the rule of ‘because we can,’ that should the shoe be on the other foot, you will have any credibility to come to us and say: ‘yeah, I know you can do that, but you shouldn’t.”

The Dumbing Down of America with 40 years of  Reagan’s “Government is the Problem”, no Civic Classes taught in school, and his appointing Bennett Education Secretary who despised public education, can be traced to the source of our woe.

Long standing Eloise Psychiatric Hospital is now a strip mall, golf course & condominium thanks to Reagan’s policy of making mental illness a homeless problem.

Irony: the poor & disenfranchised cleave to the very people who cause their Woe - the GOP. Why? “If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.” - Malcom X

The Republican Health Care Plan: “Don’t Get Sick, And if you get sick, Die Quickly” - Alan Grayson 

Who are the nefarious “They” that we keep referring to in our everyday political discourse?  James Madison, fourth President of the United States, in his Federalist Papers No. 10, explained that Factions, like minded groups, were the natural state of man.

A Faction when standing alone is Benign, but when aligned with other Factions is dangerous when the uniting Cancer is HATE coupled with fear and prejudice. That’s the “They” and the GOP is the Cancer.  

Here is a short list at random of issues which the Republican Party votes against solving:

1. Toxic waste
2. Homelessness
3. Guns
4. Hunger
5. Pregnancy
6. Cancer
7. Hate
8. Tearing children from their parents
9. Cutting Medication
10. Lack of Healthcare
11. Coivid 19
12. Misogyny
13. Student debt
14. Racism
15. Poverty
16. Autocracy and strongman government
17. Untreated mental health, closing Eloise
18. Air and Water Pollution

Reminded:

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

Visitor from Planet Ethics would agree with Deepak Chopra that “The Nature of Reality in the Conscious Mind is thru Stories.“ The Corporate Media controls the stories, is owned by five corporations, and is the source of our woe. Main Street Media shows no guilt in replacing Journalism with Infotainment.

The GOP is the antithesis of ethics. What is mysteriously scary is the question: are Republican Candidates the Fomenter or Reflection of their Electorate?

The GOP has "morphed" into an "incredibly dangerous" party, says Ken Burns.  "It's going to be difficult for the Republican Party to figure a way to escape the specific gravity of the darkness that engulfs it."

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”

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.