at the destruction, division of their country by occupying armies, and absence of their Jewish neighbors to see how badly wrong they had been. Consensus at embracing reform was much easier.
Today in the US, the Trump excuse factory is still running at full steam. The dangers of calling for major reform on the scale of a Constitutional Convention could modify even worse values. It's clear who holds the power and that they know how to yield it.
Yes, there are many things to fix. I found myself saying, "How" to so many suggestions in this essay. I am not surrendering, but I do feel rather helpless.
Have been having this very conversation with many astute and like minded friends. We cannot accept a return to the status quo; it was rotten in ways that turned many to desperation.
You are right, Trump is the fruit of our two-party system grown from decades of jiggery pokery laws.
America’s politicians have enacted laws that allow big business to lie and legally steal your money with impunity. Most financial laws were drafted by the jiggery pokery of big business lobbyists in cahoots with shady politicians. The resulting legal loopholes codify the abuse.
Well placed businessmen seek and are granted special privileges unavailable to most citizens, at all levels of government. Having laws that grant special favors, knowing which laws can be ignored, how laws can be circumvented, who to bribe, blackmail, or flatter, and how laws can be mitigated in court is the key to power, to economic success when jiggery-pokery laws are on the books.
Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” championed capitalism. America’s constitution enthroned capitalism as the basis for economic freedom. Freedom, once an unrealistic dream became a reality for the masses. They could own land.
Capitalism promotes the owning of capital, mostly land and its improvements, as the bedrock of our economy. Capitalism has produced wealth and freedom for many Americans.
When laws are just, capitalism works and there is equality. Clever people have figured out how to manipulate laws and take. Using lying deception they have perverted laws. They take without paying the price, they take with lies and malicious deception.
People seek fulfillment without loving their neighbor. They take without earning, they take without effort, they take without respecting the giver of precious gifts, they take without considering the needs of those around them, they take without properly rewarding the laborer, they take without gratitude and grace, they take with lies, they take without loving their neighbor.
There are no cheat codes in nature, you can’t short circuit the laws of nature. Lasting peace, enduring love, and eternal joy evade the cheaters.
It's time for civil disobedience. What jiggery-pokery laws are you willing to go to jail to oppose?
Who is the grass-roots leaders we should rally around?
This is essential reading. We are indeed at an opportunity moment to begin reconceiving American democracy. Democrats and Democratic values need to lead the way toward a better, fairer democracy, but they need to start articulating the way forward right now.
I like charts. They tell the story: 1973 roughly marks the last year America’s “middle class” thrived from government policies designed to bolster and expand middle class opportunities and success. The wealth gap was at historic lows.
Since then, for many reasons including political failures of both parties, the American middle class has been in decline, and the wealth gap has exploded. Every necessity of life is now monetized for profits that flow to a relatively small number of wealth aggregators like private equity groups. A chart of wealth and income distribution since 1973 makes the point.
Yes, we cannot return to the pre-Trump status quo, nor can we allow corruption, greed, cruelty and nihilism to destroy democratic institutions. Bernie has been right about many things. We need new leaders with his clarity and vision for a saner future that serves the majority first.
After WWII, Germans merely had to look
at the destruction, division of their country by occupying armies, and absence of their Jewish neighbors to see how badly wrong they had been. Consensus at embracing reform was much easier.
Today in the US, the Trump excuse factory is still running at full steam. The dangers of calling for major reform on the scale of a Constitutional Convention could modify even worse values. It's clear who holds the power and that they know how to yield it.
Yes, there are many things to fix. I found myself saying, "How" to so many suggestions in this essay. I am not surrendering, but I do feel rather helpless.
Have been having this very conversation with many astute and like minded friends. We cannot accept a return to the status quo; it was rotten in ways that turned many to desperation.
You are right, Trump is the fruit of our two-party system grown from decades of jiggery pokery laws.
America’s politicians have enacted laws that allow big business to lie and legally steal your money with impunity. Most financial laws were drafted by the jiggery pokery of big business lobbyists in cahoots with shady politicians. The resulting legal loopholes codify the abuse.
Well placed businessmen seek and are granted special privileges unavailable to most citizens, at all levels of government. Having laws that grant special favors, knowing which laws can be ignored, how laws can be circumvented, who to bribe, blackmail, or flatter, and how laws can be mitigated in court is the key to power, to economic success when jiggery-pokery laws are on the books.
Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” championed capitalism. America’s constitution enthroned capitalism as the basis for economic freedom. Freedom, once an unrealistic dream became a reality for the masses. They could own land.
Capitalism promotes the owning of capital, mostly land and its improvements, as the bedrock of our economy. Capitalism has produced wealth and freedom for many Americans.
When laws are just, capitalism works and there is equality. Clever people have figured out how to manipulate laws and take. Using lying deception they have perverted laws. They take without paying the price, they take with lies and malicious deception.
People seek fulfillment without loving their neighbor. They take without earning, they take without effort, they take without respecting the giver of precious gifts, they take without considering the needs of those around them, they take without properly rewarding the laborer, they take without gratitude and grace, they take with lies, they take without loving their neighbor.
There are no cheat codes in nature, you can’t short circuit the laws of nature. Lasting peace, enduring love, and eternal joy evade the cheaters.
It's time for civil disobedience. What jiggery-pokery laws are you willing to go to jail to oppose?
Who is the grass-roots leaders we should rally around?
This is essential reading. We are indeed at an opportunity moment to begin reconceiving American democracy. Democrats and Democratic values need to lead the way toward a better, fairer democracy, but they need to start articulating the way forward right now.
Very well said!
I like charts. They tell the story: 1973 roughly marks the last year America’s “middle class” thrived from government policies designed to bolster and expand middle class opportunities and success. The wealth gap was at historic lows.
Since then, for many reasons including political failures of both parties, the American middle class has been in decline, and the wealth gap has exploded. Every necessity of life is now monetized for profits that flow to a relatively small number of wealth aggregators like private equity groups. A chart of wealth and income distribution since 1973 makes the point.
Yes, we cannot return to the pre-Trump status quo, nor can we allow corruption, greed, cruelty and nihilism to destroy democratic institutions. Bernie has been right about many things. We need new leaders with his clarity and vision for a saner future that serves the majority first.