Category Archives: Corporations

How Much Worse Can It Get?

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In just 10 months, the Trump regime has already implemented 48 percent of the actions outlined in Project 2025. Those changes have almost irreparably dimmed the shining city on the hill, previously known as United States of America. But if MAGA and the Trump regime are successful in implementing the entire plan, the nation will become unrecognizable, and our democracy may cease to exist.

Following are just some of the lowlights of the remaining 52 percent:

DHS & IMMIGRATION

  • End the Flores Settlement Agreement, which sets basic standards of care for immigrant children in custody.
  • Enforce income requirements for immigrants obtaining green cards and certain visas blocking entry for most refugees.
  • Repeal Section 235 of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, which protects unaccompanied minors who are seeking asylum.
  • Eliminate or significantly reduce the number of visas issued to foreign students.
  • End “chain” migration like that of Melania Trump’s parents who followed her to the U.S. as immigrants.
  • Break up the Dept. of Homeland Security or, at least, combine ICE and CBP to form a “Border Security and Immigration Agency”.
  • Block federal grants to sanctuary cities to ensure their cooperation with ICE.
  • Eliminate the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis making us more vulnerable to external threats.
  • Ban mixed-status families (citizens and noncitizens) from living in all federally assisted housing.

ECONOMY AND TREASURY.

  • Enact a two-income tax bracket system that will raise annual taxes by $3,000 for the median family of four.
  • Permanently reduce the corporate income tax rate to 21 percent making it lower than most advanced economies.
  • Abolish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
  • Eliminate the Federal Reserve mission of full employment.
  • Abolish the Federal Reserve and move to a “free banking” system.
  • Repeal the Corporate Transparency Act which aims to combat money laundering.
  • Repeal key sections of Dodd-Frank Act that was passed following the Great Recession to make the financial system safer for consumers and taxpayers.
  • Withdraw from OECD, the intergovernmental organization that promotes policies to improve the economic and social well-being of people worldwide.
  • Privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
  • Limit FHA mortgages to first-time buyers.
  • End cash grants to small businesses (including disaster aid).
  • Allow religious entities to receive Small Business Administration loans.
  • Abolish the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.
  • Consider whether the Federal Trade Commission should enforce antitrust laws or even continue to exist.

ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT

  • Expand energy exploration in Alaska, including in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
  • Repeal the Inflation Reduction Act and rescind unobligated funds.
  • Repeal the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and rescind unobligated funds.
  • Eliminate carbon capture utilization and storage programs.
  • Restart the coal leasing program.
  • Eliminate the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
  • Eliminate all considerations of greenhouse gas emissions.
  • Ensure liquified natural gas export applications are approved quickly without consideration of climate change.
  • Reverse Biden-era decisions to retire parts of the nuclear arsenal.
  • Reject the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty for nuclear weapons.
  • Repeal the Antiquities Act of 1906 which gives presidents the power to create national monuments.
  • Repeal the Global Change Research Act of 1990 requiring research of climate change.
  • Eliminate the Office of Public Engagement and Environmental Education.
  • Eliminate the Office of Children’s Health Protection.
  • Eliminate the EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assistance.
  • Undermine the California waiver which allows the state to enact more stringent pollution reduction from vehicles.
  • Eliminate the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP)

FEDERAL ELECTIONS COMMISSION

  • Limit campaign finance enforcement.
  • Raise contribution limits for election campaigns.

FEMA

  • Limit FEMA-issued grants to states that “comply with all aspects of federal immigration laws.
  • Shift the majority of FEMA’s preparedness and response costs to states and localities.
  • Privatize the FEMA National Flood Insurance Program.

INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES

  • Re-negotiate intelligence sharing protocols with the EU.
  • Prohibit the intelligence community from monitoring domestic disinformation.

LABOR

  • Close the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion; treat the participation in any DEI initiative as grounds for termination.
  • Reclassify thousands of federal employees making it easier to fire career civil servants.
  • Reduce federal employees’ pay and benefits.
  • Weaken or ban federal employee unions.
  • Privatize TSA screening.

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

  • Fund studies on the risks and complications of abortion.
  • Correct “misinformation” about the comparative health and psychological benefits of childbirth vs abortion.
  • Cut federal funding to states that do not provide detailed abortion reports.
  • Prohibit the use of “aborted fetal cells” in developing vaccines.
  • End taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood.
  • Withdraw Biden-era guidance that retail pharmacies must dispense abortion medication and contraception.
  • Eliminate the ACA’s requirement to cover the morning after pill.
  • Withdraw HHS funding, including 10% of Medicaid funds, from states that require private health insurance plans to cover abortion.
  • Restore religious and moral exemptions to the ACA’s contraception requirement.
  • Enforce the Comstock Act to prevent the distribution of abortion pills.
  • Reverse FDA approval of the mifepristone abortion pill or ban telehealth prescriptions and mailing of mifepristone.
  • Prevent the VA from covering abortion services even in cases of rape and incest.
  • End or limit fetal stem cell research and use.

USDA

  • Weaken regulations on baby formula.
  • Repeal or, at minimum, reform Dietary Guidelines.
  • Repeal the federal mandate to label genetically engineered food.
  • Prohibit schools from grouping together to utilize the Community Eligibility Provision that enables those in low-income areas to serve breakfast and lunch at no cost to all enrolled students.
  • End broad-based eligibility for SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).

VETERANS ADMINISTRATION

  • Reduce disability ratings for future claims, partially reduce for existing claims.
  • Sunset the Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection.

How Project 2025 Is Destroying America.

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Remember Project 2025? You know, the plan that Trump denied any knowledge of during the campaign despite previously praising its authors by saying, “This is a great group, and they’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do…”

Not surprisingly, many of its authors have been awarded key roles within the White House and government agencies. Indeed, Russell Vaught the key architect of the plan is now Washington’s most powerful man as director of the Office of Management and Budget. And, under his guidance, the Trump regime is radically changing (aka destroying) the federal government.

Far from making America great, it’s destroying the very fabric of our nation as surely as Trump demolished the East Wing of the White House. For example, here are some of the things the Trump regime has done by implementing Project 2025:

  • To ferret out alleged “widespread” waste and abuse, the Trump regime created DOGE, an unelected and unvetted group of twenty somethings who broke laws and violated the Constitution by firing government employees, shutting down numerous agencies, and blocking congressionally approved funding. Even more concerning, they allegedly downloaded the personal information of millions of Americans.
  • Church membership has been falling, so it is imposing Christianity into public schools and workplaces.
  • The rate of births among white Americans has dropped, so it calls for banning all abortions and using the Comstock Act to prevent the delivery of abortion drugs to individuals. It also calls for ending ACA funding of contraceptives.
  • Women and minorities have been gaining rights and positions of authority, so it is attacking DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) programs to keep them in their place. And to keep women in the home, it calls for ending subsidized day care and, instead, funding at-home daycare payments.
  • To push MAGA’s pro-birth ideology, it prohibited USAID from funding “sexual reproductive health and reproductive rights” and “gender equality” programs. As a result, the regime intends to incinerate nearly $10 million worth of taxpayer-purchased contraceptives.
  • Most highly educated voters support Democrats, so it’s attacking public K-12 education and universities. It is also eliminating the Department of Education.
  • Scientists support many Democratic goals like addressing the climate crisis, so it’s attacking science by defunding agencies like the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It has also withdrawn from the Paris Accords on Climate Change and canceled at least 130 climate and clean energy contracts.
  • The academic freedom of public and private universities permits professors to teach subject matter that is counter to the MAGA ideology, so it is using government contracts as leverage to eliminate DEI and other “woke” policies.
  • MAGA was furious over vaccine and mask mandates during the pandemic. So, Trump withdrew from the World Health Organization and, following Project 2025, he blocked much of the funding for National Institutes for Health and the Centers for Disease Control. The CDC has been decimated leaving us largely unprepared for the next health crisis.
  • Publicly supported independent media pose a threat to autocracy by presenting the unbiased truth, so it rescinded all federal funding for NPR and PBS.
  • The authors of Project 2025 believe we spend too much on foreign aid. So, it all but eliminated USAID and programs such as international disaster aid, food aid and family planning.
  • The Trump crime family has created its own highly speculative cryptocurrencies, so it has reduced regulations by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission.
  • Corporations have been restricted and held accountable for environmental abuses, so it calls for repealing many of the regulations and lessening protections for vulnerable species.
  • There has been recent growth in worker wages which has reduced corporate profits, so it is attacking labor unions and increases in minimum wages. It’s also increasing unemployment levels through tariffs and other means.
  • Renewables have been quickly replacing fossil fuels, so it calls for replacing incentives for renewables with even more incentives for oil, gas and (choke) coal.
  • The percentages of black and brown minorities have been increasing, so it has expanded ICE and CBP to detain and deport millions of Latinos and blacks. It has also deployed military to help guard our borders.
  • To ensure future MAGA control, it has encouraged MAGA-controlled states to implement extreme gerrymandering and to rig elections by changing voting laws.
  • Schools, museums and other institutions have increased our citizens’ understanding of the nation’s past excesses, such as ethnic cleansing, slavery, and Jim Crow, so it is banning books and rewriting history.
  • It recognizes that nonpartisan federal employees restrain authoritarian power, so it is firing thousands of government workers and replacing them with MAGA loyalists.
  • Government watchdogs, such as Inspectors General, impose ethical standards that restrain corruption, so they have been fired and replaced with loyalists.
  • Trump was furious at attempts to hold him accountable for crimes. So, longtime employees of the Department of Justice and FBI were fired to better weaponize the system against his investigators, prosecutors and political opponents.
  • An independent Congress and judiciary act as restraints to the executive branch, so the regime has taken control of Congress and SCOTUS to cede power to the executive branch.
  • The Constitution is the last barrier to autocracy, so it is simply ignoring it.

Addressing The Nation’s Real Problems.

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MAGA (formerly known as the Republican Party) would have you believe that billionaires don’t have enough money, that multinational corporations don’t have enough power, that our debt is the result of giveaways to poor people, and that immigrants are destroying our nation.

Of course, the opposite is true.

In the meantime, our nation’s real problems and their underlying causes are being ignored by MAGA as well as by some politicians on the left side of the aisle. Indeed, most of the decisions made by the current MAGA regime are making the problems worse!

For example, outside of a widespread nuclear conflict, climate change is the greatest existential threat to the planet. The rise in global temperatures as the result of carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels is not only a threat to humanity in the form of more extreme weather events. It threatens most of the planet’s species. Scientists warn that failure to aggressively address climate change will result in the extinction of more than a million species within a few decades – species that not only make our planet more fascinating and enjoyable. Many of them are species that humans rely on for food. Yet the MAGA regime is eliminating every initiative intended to address the issue. It has revived the oil and coal industries and rolled back regulations on pollution and the emissions of greenhouse gases. At the same time, it has eliminated incentives for solar, wind generation, and electric vehicles.

Such madness will certainly make our planet less livable and cost many thousands of high-paying American jobs. Moreover, the failure to mitigate our changing climate will cost trillions more in rebuilding following storm disasters.

The MAGA intent to remove up to 12 million immigrants is another ongoing MAGA-fueled disaster. ICE has stated that it will remove 600,000 immigrants by the end of the year. In addition, it claims that 2 million immigrants threatened by ICE have left the US on their own. That’s 2.6 million workers. 2.6 million customers of American businesses, and 2.6 million neighbors and friends. And it begs the questions: Who’s going to harvest our fruits and vegetables? Who’s going to process our meat? Who’s going to cook our food, do our landscaping, clean our businesses and hotel rooms, or care for the elderly? The truth is, we need these workers, and our lives and economy will suffer without them.

Next on the list of our problems, but no less serious, is the ongoing consolidation of industries such as grain, meat, agriculture, groceries, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, media, trucking, banking, oil, real estate and more. In fact, most of our industries are controlled by fewer than a dozen corporations. This has led to the extreme wealth disparity in the US along with the near collapse of small and midsized cities and a press that has increasingly prioritized profits and political propaganda over news. In addition, price fixing is an almost inevitable consequence of corporate consolidation. And the political power wielded by these corporate leaders is overwhelming.

At the same time, our bought-and-paid-for government has looked the other way as billionaires and millionaires use their economic muscle to game the stock markets then hide their ill-gotten gains offshore to avoid taxes.

Other pressing issues are a healthcare industry that forces Americans to pay four times more per capita for care than every other advanced nation in the world. Artificial Intelligence is expected to eliminate up to 100 million jobs in the US. Our out-of-control military-industrial complex is given a trillion-dollar annual budget. Yet it has failed audits seven years in a row, and $21 trillion of its taxpayer money is unaccounted for!

Our public education system that was once the envy of the world is being attacked by MAGA. In addition, MAGA has attacked academic freedom leading to a brain drain as some of our best scientific minds leave the US for Canada and Europe. These attacks will have long-term effects, which will allow other nations to surpass our technology.

Not the least of our problems is our unhealthy relationship with guns. Indeed, guns are now the leading cause of death for children. And there are more than 500 mass shootings in the United States each year. MAGA tells us that’s the price of having the Second Amendment to prevent tyranny. Yet thanks to MAGA, a tyrant has taken over the White House without firing a shot.

What Is Patriotism?

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Today’s conservatives are fond of calling themselves patriots. But is there really a patriot among them? Their support for the Felon-in-Chief and their acceptance of his dismantling of our government would indicate otherwise.

Patriotism is defined as “devotion and vigorous support for one’s country.” How does that square with those who watched, or even applauded, as the Trump regime encouraged and then pardoned insurrectionists who violently tried to overturn an election? How does it fit with those who support a twice-impeached president that has repeatedly violated numerous sections and amendments to the US Constitution? How does it describe those who have chosen Party over country? Who have approvingly watched as Dear Leader uses the justice department to attack his political opponents? Who have silently stood by as the regime builds a 32,000-member version of Hitler’s gestapo that arrests people who are legally in this country, denying both immigrants and citizens due process?

None of that. I repeat, none of that is patriotic. Indeed, it’s very much the opposite!

Far from being patriots, the MAGA cult consists almost entirely of racial and socio-economic bullies. Bullies who believe they are superior by birthright. Bullies who demand that others do as they say. Some strut around with weapons and tactical gear to intimidate political opponents. Others hide their true feelings from the public. But when they are exposed, as were the texts between leaders of Young Republicans, it’s clear that they are antisocial, antidemocratic, anti-Semitic racists and fascists.

To be clear, these Young Republicans aren’t exceptions. They are representative of the entire MAGA cult. They were encouraged and promoted by the likes of Charlie Kirk, vice-president J.D. Vance, speaker MAGA Mike Johnson and the Putinesque fascist who has taken up residence in the Oval Office.

Of course, in public many of the cult members recite passages from the Bible to justify their actions and claim to be Christians while ignoring every aspect of Christ’s teachings. They claim to support “family values” even as they cheer on the ICEstapo as it rips families apart. They take perverse joy in threatening and abusing innocents, especially immigrants. They talk and act tough. But at their core, they are soulless, mindless cowards.

Others of the cult use their wealth and positions within large corporations to manipulate the government and the economy to serve their personal interests, not caring about the effects of their actions on those who cling to lower rungs of the economic ladder.

No amount of flag waving and Bible thumping can excuse the actions of these people or make them what they claim to be. All of that is mere theater. In fact, the more they wave the flag and the more they proselytize, the more clear it becomes that they are imposters. And that their “patriotism” fails to extend beyond themselves and their self-interests.

Our nation’s Founders went to great lengths to create a constitution that would prevent tyranny. And history provides many examples and warnings of how tyrants rise to power. Yet these so-called patriots have not only ignored those warnings. They have voted a tyrant into office, and many continue to cheer him on as he accumulates power and diminishes our freedoms.

Such people are not patriots. They’re losers and traitors. And they’re as phony as the gilded yard sale trash that’s now tacked all over the walls of the White House.

The Death Of Journalism.

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Beginning with Benjamin Franklin in the U.S., journalism was once considered a noble profession – the fourth estate – practiced by giants such as Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, Eric Sevareid, Judy Woodruff, David Brinkley, Chet Huntley, Peter Jennings, Jim Leher, Gwen Ifill, and many, many more. These people not only reported the news, they helped us understand the news. For example, when Cronkite tired of reporting the body counts of the Vietnam War, he almost single-handedly ended the war by vividly showing us the futility of continuing it.

Journalists have routinely risked their lives to inform us. Indeed, over the past 20 years 1,668 have been killed – most the result of murders, ambushes, contract killings and war. Just recently, it appears that the Israeli military specifically targeted seven Al-Jazeera journalists reporting from Gaza. To put the number of journalists killed in perspective, over the same 20-year time period, fewer law enforcement officers have been killed in the U.S. (roughly 1,300).

And journalists in the U.S. are now under attack as never before.

Reliable news outlets are labeled fake news while Fox News, NewsMax, OAN, and many radio and online “news” outlets report a wide-ranging litany of misinformation and disinformation in support of MAGA and the Republican Party. These outlets are little more than Joseph Goebbels-style propaganda megaphones, a fact made obvious by the large number of Fox News commentators who were nominated for key government positions by Trump.

Meanwhile, the MAGA regime defunded public broadcasting because its independent reporting made it appear too “liberal.” ABC bowed to Trump by “donating” $15 million to settle a frivolous lawsuit. Even more troubling, Paramount’s CBS settled another lawsuit for $16 million and agreed to accept a “bias monitor” that reports to the Liar-in-Chief.

Such deals should immediately raise questions about the networks’ objectivity!

Will they, too, become mere megaphones for MAGA? It seems they have already softened their criticism of the regime. How can any of their reports about politics be trusted? How can the Washington Post be trusted after its refusal to publish a cartoon by Ann Telnaes that accurately showed the newspaper’s owner bowing at the feet of Trump? Their willingness to submit to threats from the Felon-in-Chief stands in stark contrast to the legacy of Murrow, Cronkite, Woodward and Bernstein who often spoke truth to power at great personal risk.

Too often, the Trump regime’s lies go unchallenged or unreported.

This situation is partially due to the monetization of news beginning in the 1980s. Prior to that, networks did not seek to profit from news. It was considered a public service in much the same way as PBS and NPR treat news reporting. But traditional news media is now governed by readership studies and ratings. Unlike Cronkite who believed his job was to give you the news you need to know not the news you want to know; today’s reporting seems the reverse.

News reporting has become a popularity contest with Americans seeking news outlets that fit their ideologies. Truth, substance and context seem to matter less than speed and ideological affiliation. Where once the vast majority of the public got their news from three reliable networks, today news reporting and, not coincidentally, the public are divided and fragmented as never before.

Traditional newspapers are struggling for survival. Local TV news is overly sensationalized with crime reports. News from social media is, at best, suspect. And most online news sites are either single-issue focused or hopelessly biased. As a result, many Americans have spurned the news altogether. With dwindling audiences, more and more news gathering organizations are seeking funding and hiding their reporting behind paywalls.

Those Americans who crave truth and accuracy are forced to search for trustworthy journalists on platforms like Substack, Zeteo, DropSiteNews, or the ICIJ (International Consortium of Investigative Journalists). Ironically, some of the best alternatives for accurate reporting of national and international news are foreign news organizations like BBCAmerica, The Guardian, and Al-Jazeera. Even CNN International seems to have higher standards than its American version.

Of all our nation’s problems, I believe this is the most pressing. Without widespread acceptance of shared truths, our nation is doomed to collapse as we fail to address real issues while focusing, instead, on culture wars.

Consequences Of The Trump Regime.

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Most people are concerned about the impact on separation of powers, the Constitution, and our democracy. But there is much more to be worried about. Following is a partial list of consequences to the planet, the nation and its citizens as a result of the regime’s policies:

  1. Increased debt and interest payments thereby mortgaging the future of the next generations as a result of tax cuts for the wealthy.
  2. Increased inflation due to tariffs.
  3. Increased political division and political violence.
  4. Further weakening of institutions and norms.
  5. Increased hunger and homelessness along with a widening of the wealth gap.
  6. Massive decline in necessary workers for the food industry, construction and hospitality from deportations.
  7. More bankruptcies of family farms resulting in further corporate consolidation of our food chain.
  8. Increased vulnerability to terrorists and rogue nations as a result of the brain drain at the CIA and National Security Agency.
  9. More political control of our nation by billionaires (deepening of the oligarchy).
  10. Massive brain drain from cutting funds to universities and research.
  11. Further consolidation of media and erosion of first amendment rights.
  12. Weakening of public education furthering the wealth gap and brain drain.
  13. Further erosion of separation of church and state.
  14. Weakening or elimination of FEMA, NOAA and NWS resulting in lack of preparedness for extreme weather events.
  15. Further accelerating the global climate crisis by increased use of fossil fuels, increased lumbering, oil drilling in national parks and erasing incentives for electric cars and other mitigation efforts.
  16. Weakening of CDC and NIH resulting in lack of preparedness for another pandemic.
  17. Increased bankruptcies of hospitals and other healthcare facilities as a result of cuts to Medicaid and the ACA.
  18. Increased health insurance rates as a result of forcing the uninsured into ERs because they can’t afford routine medical visits.
  19. Undercutting citizen faith in vaccines making children more vulnerable to deadly disease.
  20. Weakening of our nation’s stature around the globe making us a global bully and pariah as a result of tariffs along with ICE and its concentration camps.
  21. Weakening of the arts by elimination of funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.
  22. Increased racism and misogyny as a result of the attacks on DEI.
  23. Overloading of the foster system by unwanted births due to denial of abortions.
  24. Mass extinctions of species as a result of ending mitigation policies for global warming.
  25. Increased state and local taxes as a result of cuts to federal grants.
  26. Massive loss of revenue from foreign tourists and foreign students.
  27. Loss of revenue from exports to foreign nations due to tariffs and offensive statements.

Given the regime’s policies, these consequences are inevitable. Are they what you voted for?

How The U.S. Became An Oligarchy. And Some Thoughts On How To Change It.

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Over the past five decades, the American economy has dramatically changed for the benefit of the wealthy and large corporations in ways many don’t understand. This led to the hollowing-out of the middle class and an ever-increasing number of working poor.

Unfortunately, the few politicians who fight for American workers have necessarily focused on trying to deal with the symptoms of our rigged economy by funding food shelves, food stamps, school lunches, homeless shelters and more. But they have been unwilling or unable to address the underlying causes.

If we are to ever develop real solutions, we first must acknowledge how we got into this mess. This requires an understanding of economics and history beginning with the 1970s and 80s.

Trickle-Down Theory. It was in the 80s when one political party convinced voters that, if they wanted to prosper, they needed to embrace the widely disproved concept of trickle-down economics. A concept based on the belief that if you cut taxes on the wealthy and corporations, enough money will trickle down to the workers. So, the highest personal income tax rate was cut by 20 percent. And the highest capital gains tax (the source of funds for the wealthy) was cut by 8 percent.

At the same time, the IRS did away with tax write-offs for interest on car loans and other personal loans, except for mortgages. Of course, that had little negative effect on the wealthy. But it cost working Americans plenty. In addition, the government permitted credit card companies to dramatically increase interest rates – yet another blow to the working class.

Buying The Competition. Around the same time, large corporations found that it was often less expensive to buy their competition than to compete with them. That resulted in large corporations swallowing up small and mid-size companies, which led to less competition, higher prices, fewer jobs, and the destruction of the middle of our economy.

Compensation Based On Share Prices. At about that very same time, CEOs convinced their boards of directors to base their compensation on stock performance. The higher the company’s share price, the more they get paid. That, in turn, led to CEOs like Chainsaw Al Dunlap, a supposed “turnaround specialist.” In reality, he was a brand killer and a job killer. After taking control of companies, he almost immediately sold off resources and laid off employees. That drove up share prices, profits soared, and he padded his bank account. Unfortunately, it was all a fraud. Most of the companies were sold or closed their doors.

Exporting Jobs. The 1970s and 1980s also marked the beginning of the mass exodus of manufacturing jobs to Mexico, China and elsewhere. After all, in order to pump up stock prices, CEOs needed to cut costs. In developing countries, workers could be hired for a fraction of the cost of American workers. Moreover, there were no labor unions, and most workers were willing to work without healthcare and retirement benefits, which in the US roughly equaled salaries. Again, corporate and CEO profits soared.

End Of Pensions. Yet another development at the time was the 401(k). It was sold to voters as a supplement to traditional employee pension plans. But, almost as soon as it was passed by Congress, corporations began eliminating pensions. That left most workers with less retirement funds and benefits.

Consequences. The consequences of all this are the continuing consolidation of industries, increased prices, worse customer service, the disappearance of the American middle-class and the redistribution of wealth upward.

Also, the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine has led to many news outlets becoming megaphones of propaganda for those politicians supported by the wealthy. And several decisions by the Supreme Court of the United States have permitted corporations and the wealthy to spend whatever it takes to buy the government they want. Putting this all together, it’s easy to see why our nation has become an oligarchy. But, instead of addressing these fundamental problems, politicians keep us distracted by their culture wars.

Possible Solutions. Now that you know how we got here, we can start to formulate solutions.

Personally, I’d begin with reinstating some form of Fairness Doctrine for electronic media, so we can all make decisions based on the same set of facts.

Next, following the lead of Teddy Roosevelt, I’d break up the most dominant corporations in every industry to increase competition and create jobs. I’d limit the number of brands and the percentage of sales for each corporation. And that would be quickly followed by increased taxes for the wealthy along with some sort of controls for executive compensation. (Incidentally, the best way to tax the oligarchs is to increase the capital gains tax on large sums.) Of course, that would also require doing away with tax shelters, both in the US and offshore.

I’d reinstate usury laws limiting the interest rates on all personal loans, including credit cards. I’d also require corporations with more than 50 employees to have employee representatives on their boards of directors.

And that’s just for starters.

What Did You Vote For?

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Did you vote for increased inflation and higher prices due to tariffs? Did you vote to pay higher taxes so that billionaires and multinational corporations could receive large tax cuts? Did you vote to increase the deficit and add trillions to the national debt? Did you vote to consolidate more power in the executive branch by taking power away from the courts and your elected representatives?

Did you vote to have unvetted 20-something-year-old geeks sort through all of your private information and cut thousands of federal jobs? Did you vote to make America more racist again by eliminating DEI programs and firing government and military leaders just because they are women or people of color? Did you vote to have inexperienced and unqualified people take control of government agencies?

Perhaps you voted to arrest and deport immigrants who are violent criminals, but did you vote for mass deportations of essential farm workers and those who work in meat processing plants? Did you want to see families torn apart? Did you vote to have your immigrant neighbors and community members arrested and deported without due process? Did you want to see innocent immigrants and US citizens imprisoned in El Salvador and beaten and tortured or thrown in concentration camps?

Did you vote for cruelty?

Did you vote to have masked men with military weapons kidnap working Americans without warrants? Did you vote to have armed military in our streets? Did you vote to have judges and congressional representatives arrested?

Did you vote to dispense with the rule of law?

Did you vote to deport Afghan interpreters who saved the lives of US troops? Did you vote for massive cuts to the Veterans Administration? Did you vote to see millions thrown off Medicaid, including elderly in senior care? Did you vote to make healthcare unaffordable for millions of your fellow Americans? Did you vote to close hundreds of rural hospitals? Did you vote to cut funding for the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control? Did you vote to cut medical research on cancer, Alzheimer’s and other diseases?

Did you vote to eliminate foreign aid programs that save millions of lives? Did you vote to alienate are most loyal allies, including Canada? Did you vote to make foreigners afraid to visit our country and to stop buying our products? Did you vote to end Voice of America? Did you vote to help Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians?

Did you vote to ignore climate change while cutting funds for NOAA and the National Weather Service and eliminating FEMA? Did you vote to increase the use of fossil fuels and lease public lands to oil companies?

Did you vote to lower taxes on gun silencers? To watch our leaders engage in massive bribery schemes and corruption? Did you vote to pardon the criminals who violently beat police and planned to hang the Vice-President and many in Congress on January 6? Did you vote to have the president pardon felons in exchange for presidential bribes? To sell green cards for millions of dollars?

Did you vote for increased attacks on freedom of the press and freedom of speech? Did you vote to undermine the US Constitution?

Maybe you didn’t intend to vote for many of those things. But if you voted Republican in 2024, that’s what you got. Indeed, that’s who you are. Because your vote is a reflection of you.

Imagine The Worst Thing That Can Happen To Our Country.

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Whatever scenario you come up with, the Felon-in-Chief will do worse. Since taking office, his actions have exceeded every worst-case scenario Democrats and even his own voters could have imagined.

For example, he didn’t just nominate a cabinet of staunch conservatives; he nominated unqualified and wholly incompetent extremists. He didn’t just pardon the January 6 insurrectionists that invaded the Capitol, he pardoned those who brutally beat cops.

He’s not just deporting immigrants who are violent criminals as he promised, he’s trying to deport law-abiding immigrants and lawful residents including essential workers, parents, children with cancer, educators, students, refugees, even US citizens.

He’s not just lining his pockets by peddling influence to international leaders, he’s lining the pockets of his entire crime family and his billionaire friends.

He’s not just reshaping the government; he randomly fired tens of thousands of nonpartisan federal workers so he could replace them with MAGA loyalists. He’s not only discriminating against minorities by banning DEI programs in the federal government, but he’s also punishing universities and corporations that fail to follow his lead. He not only purged black and female leadership from our military, he’s all but erased the civil rights movement and LGBTQ rights movement from history.

He’s not just calling news reporters and the media “enemies of the people,” he’s suing networks for reporting the truth and threatening to take away their broadcast licenses.

He didn’t just alienate our closest allies. He’s sucked up to some of our worst adversaries and dictators. He didn’t just invoke tariffs to protect American industries; he invoked tariffs on all goods entering the U.S. resulting in higher prices and increased inflation. And he’s not only pushing a bill to cut taxes on billionaires and multinational corporations, but he’s also raising taxes on workers and taking healthcare access away from millions of ordinary Americans.

His DOJ isn’t just investigating those who worked on his own criminal investigations, it’s now arresting political opponents and charging them with crimes. His DHS isn’t just sending the heavily armed ICEstapo into communities to arrest innocent workers, the Felon has unnecessarily sent National Guard troops and Marines into Los Angeles to incite protesters in hopes he can invoke the Insurrection Act. And according to his executive order, it’s obvious that he plans to send the military into any city he considers worthy of his ire.

He ordered a $40 million Soviet-style military parade to celebrate his birthday. That’s bad enough, but don’t be surprised if he orders the troops and tanks to stay in Washington to take over the city and threaten Congress. (He did, after all, direct his supporters to overturn the 2020 election and hang his disobedient VP.) He didn’t just have the DOGE bros collect personal data on every living American, he’ll likely use them to electronically rig upcoming elections.

And these are but a few examples. What’s the worst you can imagine? Almost certainly, it won’t be as bad as the eventual reality.

The Trump Regime’s Toxic Racism.

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The MAGA movement began with racist attacks on Mexican immigrants and attacks on political correctness (aka courtesy and civility). It incorporated the slogan “America First” previously used by the Ku Klux Klan. And it gained momentum with the claim that Critical Race Theory was being taught in K-12 classes. (It was only taught in law schools to help attorneys understand the disadvantages faced by minorities.)

And now that Trump is, once again, in the Oval Office, his blatant racism has permeated the entire federal government as well as both private and public institutions with his assault on DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion), a long overdue initiative to create fairness for all Americans. The regime is even using its distaste for DEI to bludgeon corporations and universities by withholding federal contracts and research grants from those that refuse to accept the regime’s racist policies.

The Trump family’s well-known history of prejudice has led his loyal cabinet members to decapitate our military leadership by firing black and female military leaders and ordering the military to ban transexuals. It has led to the firings of minorities throughout the federal government. It has led to his takeover of the Kennedy Center for the Arts, the Smithsonian, and the Library of Congress. He and his MAGA minions have banned books featuring histories of slavery and any reference to the LGBTQ community.

None of this should come as a surprise. Since the late 1960s, the Republican Party has been built on racism and vicious attacks on minorities following the SCOTUS ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, which ended segregation of public schools. It counted on Jim Crow, attacks on gay marriage and voter suppression to win elections.

The Party continued to create new scapegoats and culture wars including the myth of black “Welfare Queens” and the racist belief that poor black women relied on abortion as a method of contraception. It gained power by claiming that all Mexican immigrants were murderers and rapists. And that boys and men were emasculating themselves as transexuals just so they can enter girls’ bathrooms and succeed in sports against girls and women.

Now the Trump regime is rewriting the history of the George Floyd murder suggesting that Floyd was a violent criminal who deserved to be choked to death or that he actually died of drug abuse. The regime’s “Justice” Department is seeking to dismiss police reforms enacted following racist murders in Minneapolis and Louisville. And, in a clear sign of racist immigration policies, the regime has welcomed white Afrikaaners as refugees while pushing to end the Temporary Protected Status of black and brown refugees from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba, and elsewhere.

Not long ago, the House of Representatives banned the nation’s first transexual congressional representative from using the Capitol’s women’s bathrooms. What’s next? Labeling federal buildings as white only?