About 30 % of the population have learned, but there is 30% of the population that is easily manipulated by their fears,needs and insecurities, basically Christian, mostly white, nationalists,
And the morbidly rich use the power of the press and pulpit to manipulate them by playing on those fears, needs and insecurities, if not actually creating them.
The other 40% live day to day, don't pay much attention to anything other than fulfilling their immediate needs, but can be swayed by a steady drumbeat of propaganda. The source of which is owned or controlled by the morbidly rich.
It is all about information control, and always has been. Attila and the witch doctor, the King and the Pope have controlled the information and thus induced the hapless sap to give up his life and treasure for KING and country, or for their god. The father figure.
If the excesses and failures of the past year are not enough to inspire a progressive revolution within the populace I honestly don't know what would. In my mind they have discredited the entire conservative movement already. When will all this artificially induced pain finally be enough???
Pater familia, racism, homophobia,misogyny trumps everything else, sadly.
“If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.”
― Lyndon B. Johnson
That is truer than liberals want to imagine. They have bought into the idea that we are economic men. Well we are, when we can't feed ourselves and our families, but as long as we have full bellies,warm and dry beds to sleep in and toys galore, it is a different story.
Are you familiar with Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs.?
Seems the wealthy [and the Russians] understand us better than we do ourselves.
They locate our weaknesses, primarily hatred, and they deal it out in packets, i.e., TV and radio commercials, programs, and even reading material.
And just like that, the wealthy reveal themselves to be more into themselves than into us and our pathetic little hatreds.
Hate? It was just an organizing force. We, the majority, were just iron filings, whilst they, the few, were the magnet: targeting, positioning, and holding us static, always to our detriment.
They are the pigs, separate and more equal, and we are the random animals on their farm, subhuman at best.
VOTE !!! No matter what !!! [84% of Rs heartily approve of Donald's dysfunction: Gallup]
At the risk of sounding like a sycophant myself, Thom is a hit writing machine. This Report is of course another one. I have nothing to add to the context. Just read it.
People like Musk don't have a sense of noblesse oblige, do not even identify as "American."
Gates, senior, had it. His son has it to a certain extent. The "Buffett Gates Foundation" is a historic philanthropic relationship between Warren Buffett and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Over the years, Buffett has gifted billions of dollars in Berkshire Hathaway stock to the Gates Foundation, which has received the largest share of his philanthropic donations. However, Buffett has stated his will does not include future donations to the Gates Foundation, as his wealth will be distributed to his children's foundations after his death.
I knew Gates, senior, from the ABA -- the American Bar Association. For many years the Judicial Division had a "Lawyers' Conference" that was populated by many of Gates' associates. Eventually Gates, Senior's, firm became the largest in the US. It did so my merging with Kirkpatrick, Lockhart, Pomeroy and Johnson. Pittsburgh. "Johnson" was from my home town. His mother was the heiress to the Phillips Oil company. They were my neighbors. Among the members of the firm were Richard Thornburgh, former Pa governor and twice attoreny general of the US.
Many of the lawyers in the Lawyers' Conference were also originally from my home area.
I'd hope that many of them still have a sense of noblesse oblige. This morning, the NYT Dealbook documents that "Michael Dell remembers watching the quarters and dollars he put into a passbook savings account as a young child grow through the power of compound interest. It was a lesson that helped set him on a path to becoming one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the United States.
"A half-century later, Dell and his wife, Susan Dell, are worth an estimated $150 billion, and they want children around the country to have a similar experience. This morning, they announced that they planned to give $250 to roughly 25 million children through the so-called Trump accounts created in this year’s tax bill, Nicholas Kulish reports. The total amount will be $6.25 billion, one of the largest gifts ever to go directly to Americans.
"Some background: This year’s tax bill created a new type of investment account for children that allows deposits (with certain limits) to grow tax-free. The bill called for the government to give $1,000 each to babies born from Jan. 1, 2025, to Dec. 31, 2028, to seed their accounts."
I hope that there are a few of the CEOs, even if morbidly rich, have an empathy gene. As I said a few days ago those CEOs do NOT own "public" companies. Shareholders do.
Many of those companies have union shareholders, state pension funds, and people like us who can help.
E.G. Big Oil is restrained by shareholders. AI. Multiple US states, including California, Minnesota, and Rhode Island, have filed lawsuits against major oil companies, alleging deception about the harms of climate change and seeking accountability for climate-related damages. These lawsuits accuse companies like Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and BP of misleading the public about the link between their products and climate change and argue the companies should help pay for the resulting costs. In some cases, states have passed legislation to identify and invoice companies for these damages, which has prompted counter-lawsuits from the Department of Justice.
Michael and Susan Dell saving account rap is bullshit. It's a backdoor to privatizing Social Security. They want to privatize our entire social system. We're fucking usable chattel to them. They can shove that right up their ass. The greedy bastards and their bullshit philanthropy. Fuck them all the way to hell.
Something I read said that the money is only a way "of keeping score". We are living the plot of Game Of Thrones. Currently winning is Xi, with Putin TRYING harder than anyone else.
That said, here in the USA we are in a living hell with the very people you so aptly described, Thom. Rich. Insane. Stupid.
TRump and his Administration are psychopaths. It's pretty clear he inherited both of his conditions, Alzheimer's being the other one. Hegseth is trying to out-crazy him. Both should to be on display. The committee hearings are a start.
Donold is failing spectacularly. Let's not go down with these criminals. They don't win if we expose and prosecute them---take their money. It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it. See you in the streets.
Alis,great post. I just wonder when the offense is going to wake up and identify 2 or 3 key Trump sycophants and go after them, Start with Stephen Miller,Russell Voight.There is so much ammunition that can be used against them and none of it is being used. I don't get it.
Their wealth becomes so excessive, and their pursuit of it so obsessive, that they can't relate to the idea of democracy. It doesn't serve their interests. Capitalism and democracy are really opposing philosophies, and there is a continual tension between them that leads to war, depression, and scandal.
Great post! No psychologist or neurologist has yet determined how to address this issue in humans. It is a wiring problem hundreds of thousands of years old, older than Mammon or money. We survive it; we have never fixed it.
Unless the Democratic Party clearly articulates how they will work to reverse the Big Ugly Budget, it will continue to represent the values the country espouses as budgets do. If the GOP spent a decade to repeal and replace the ACA, the first act of a democratic congress should be to repeal and replace the toxic sections of the BBB. That would include reversing the tax cuts enacted by Bush and Trump and increase corporate taxes and taxes on the morbidly rich. Further, the public must have shares in all companies that receive subsidies from the treasury like the defense contractors, the fossil fuel industry and oligarchs like Elon Musk. We cannot shower these organizations with money and call them capitalists.
Good idea. Maybe our country should be one big corporation, with all citizens having shares and a voice in its direction and operation. Now, that sounds like socialism, doesn't it?
I I would like to answer Mr. Sir Hartmann this way:
I would like to offer a modest proposal. For your holiday reading and gift giving a book named “Against the Machine” by the English writer Paul Kingsnorth. In it he strongly suggests that when the current dictatorship falls as it must and inevitably will, we will at first rejoice but then realize that we have entered a very dark place. We will be faced with a very real choice as a people. Those who have benefitted from and flourished under what he calls “The Machine” will seek to rebuild it in its former image.
That should not be allowed to happen. Good, caring, thinking people must reexamine in a very basic way what we have become and seek radical change. We do not run the machine, it runs us. We are merely parts of a system that has benefited some, but not by any means all. Yet we are all trapped in its reality and have accepted it as inevitable.
There is another way, he urges. Return to the culture that was acknowledged and realized in the words and ideas of the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the Constitution:
That we are one people with declared and protected rights of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” and that these things are “self-evident”, natural, a part of human creation. They are protected by the Constitution for the “Common Good” to create a more “perfect union”.
He declares that these things have been lost, crushed by the machine that feeds on growth, production, the pursuit of capital, as its only fuel. Our religion is driven by the love of money.
Only if we return now to that culture of the American Dream will our civilization survive. Otherwise, it will be too late. We must substitute light for the coming darkness and voraciousness of the machine.
Please read it, give it and as we approach our 250th anniversary, spend a few precious hours watching Ken Burn’s stirring documentary on the Declaration, and become less dependent on a system that cares not about our union.
It seems that the American memory of the past, despite being alerted to its dangers, is limited to that same generation, and doomed to repeat a never-ending cycle of democracy vs authoritarianism.
My only hope is that even in the midst of our present administration, we can somehow inculcate those lessons of history and civic values that much of this generation has forgotten - but under this administration, it seems to me, that hope seems futile.
This administration is dying by its own hand. It is still a rocky road. Heroes and heroines are finally appearing (though some are strange to behold). What we have going for us is that Republicans up for vote finally have doubts about whether staying loyal is good strategy. It is politics and personal survival all the way down.
I want to underscore your opening statement that Trump has (unconsciously, unintentionally) given the US a huge gift by demonstrating that success in hoarding money is not due to genius, hard work, or morality.--but to greed, narcissism, and psychopathy.
Your guest yesterday, Laurence Rees, pointed out that youth under 25 haven't developed their objective thinking skills yet. Trump won in 2024 due to the male, youth vote. Desire for a
lavish life-style has become, as you point out, the modern goal of life. One might even say
it's the new religion of the entire country.
If people weren't so caught up with the idea of financial success, Trump would never have been elected the first time...let alone a second time. We have some "educating" to do...and Trump
is currently at the head of the class--our country.
We almost got the message from Trump 1.0....but that obviously wasn't enough, so now we're
in 2.0--and things are going quickly from bad to worse.
But it's the power of the average citizen--especially at the ballot box--where we can change
direction by throwing him & his sycophants out. If enough pain is felt--an odd thing to wish
for--, but if that's what it takes, then we'll finally change direction....like FDR managed to do following the Republican Great Depression & WWII. We are in the 4th Turning Crisis of the saeculum's wheel. I hope we get it right (again) this time, but it's going to be a struggle. Thanks for keeping on, Thom !
“Research on CEOs finds that around 20 percent exhibit psychopathic traits — lack of empathy, superficial charm, impulsivity — compared to about one percent of the public.”
Thom, I think that stat is seriously low. After all, human attitudes and especially daily business decisions can’t possibly be measured impartially or in a studied environment. One decision leads to another in a mind filled with grandiose power schemes that people usually, even the sicko ones are too smart to publicize or talk about.
Lack of empathy, with respect to the whole of society, is there in a person’s daily attitude, decisions, and overall contribution, or lack of same, toward the improvement of the whole of society rather than a single person’s welfare or benefit.
How much have these people really improved anything toward the overall quality of life for the whole? Yes, your name in a library or art museum does say something, but that isn’t even apparent in these days and times.
What are they actually doing to improve society as a whole? Extreme wealth should at least come with some responsibility to the society where it came from and where the wealth has meaning. After all, our economic system is a zero sum game. You have to take from another’s wealth in order to have wealth.
IMO, these traits of power brokering and hoarding wealth are all a part of an addictive pattern. Just like any other, it usually starts slowly and is built upon.
Our whole system of economics favors this addictive pattern. Society rewards these patterns and we are taught that the lacks that are also built in to our system will be eased or eliminated when and if we attain this lofty position of wealth.
The way we treat each other in business and in our daily lives contributes to society’s over all attitudes toward wealth. Are we encouraged to help or to step on the competition?
Are we encouraged as a whole to be kind and help lift up the quality of life? Are men encouraged to see family and women in particular as important contributors to society or is the ideal picture all about male excesses of money, sex, good times, and a free hand to let the most base aspect of the individual psyche reign free?
Our society is structured to reward base behavior and attitudes and addictions. There’s definitely something wrong with the whole mess.
Appropriate questions for sure. Look at how certain religions preach of gospel of prosperity. It's built in the culture. Empathy must be taught. Emotional intelligence must be taught in our schools. In fact, a preschool my grandson was attending in Colorado was teaching a Yale sponsored program to teach that very issue.
There isn't a cure for malignant narcissism. Over 60 million people suffer from narcissistic abuse in this country. Psychologists are reevaluating how they need to address narcissism. Less than 1% are ever diagnosed. The only cure that i know of is irrelevance or death. Which ever comes first. I have a lifetime of experience with these assholes of humanity. They have no soul.
Powell was a democrat. It would be worth remembering how many elites were Democrats and influenced the party's policies, moving it from a party concerned about the working class to one focused on issues of the college-educated coastal elites. About the same time as the Powell memo, the editorial board of the New York Times gave Milton Friedman a full page to promote his conservative economic ideas. Soon, the party, under Clinton, adopted the misleading term of 'centrist', which is not moderate. It is socially liberal but Friedman/Reagan-level right-wing conservative on economic policies.
Larry Summers admitted in 2006 that the influential Democrats had adopted Regan's economic guru, Milton Friedman, as their own: "Any honest Democrat will admit that we are now all Friedmanites."
When the Democrats get back into power, will the elites continue to influence that party to continue to adopt conservative fiscal policies under the guise of centrism and continue to fail the working class?
Rank and file Democrat members may be quite opposed to Friedman's influence, recognizing he is Reagan-level right-wing, but according to Larry Summers, who had access to the highest levels of that party, the decision makers are Freidmanites.
Certainly, Clinton was a dud, but he was head of the Democratic Leadership Council that promoted centrism. He was also a part of the international movement to the right that included Tony Blair in England. As The Nation notes, "Since , the 1970s, centrist-minded Democrats had been trying to shift the political and ideological direction of the party in a more conservative direction". https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/third-way-dlc-bill-clinton-tony-blair-1990s-politics/
So it's important that the members of the Democratic Party who oppose Friedman's neoliberal influence recognize how much it has penetrated the upper levels of the Democratic Party and remove it when that party gets back in power.
This says more about his ego than anything else. Full of bullshit.
It's true that they tried to get traditional Republican donors, and it's true that we adopted a few of their suggestions, but we never imposed any of the "reforms" Friedman was selling. In fact, we still have a safety net. Still have the aphabet agencies Trump is trying to elimininate.
I am trying to understand why the Democratic Party once appealed to the working class in the middle states, but now those people have rejected it and favour Trump. I believe the cause is 'centrism', liberal on social policies but conservative on fiscal policies. What do you think the reason is?
Years ago, as a lobbyist, I was in a meeting where Michigan Democratic Governor Granholm announced that auto plants would all be auto-mated and our union workers sent to college to learn how to run the computers that built the cars. She sounded disdainful of line workers. After that, anyone I hired to work on my house sounded very disdainful of her.
As I have posted here before, billionaires are not smarter than the rest of us. As Thom articulately points out, they are just more ruthless and predatory. My first exposure to the myth of the superiority of the rich was on my grammar school playground when overhearing arguments in which one kid insults another by asserting, "Oh yeah! Well, if you're so smart, how come you're not rich?"
Later, in high school, we were brainwashed to view US capitalism as the best economic system in history - way better than communism, where it was impossible for one to get rich and famous. Back in the 20s, all Western countries were freaked out by communism as monarchies were dying and labor unions were expanding. The owners of the Gilded Age were terrified that they would lose wealth by having to pay higher wages, or worse, that communism would foreclose on their wealth and power completely. Many viewed fascism too as Stage-1 communism as Mussolini and Hitler started taking over industries.
After the Allies took Berlin, General Patton vainly encouraged Ike to finish off the commie Russians. Barely mentioned in HS history was that the Marshall Plan was created when it became clear to America's super-rich that the Soviets were rebuilding postwar faster than the capitalist Western European nations. They were fearful that it would lead to another communist revolution in Europe. Obviously, greed triumphed and we are here today watching democracy slowly morphing into oligarchy. Americans need to own this, and we enabled greed to overtake honor.
"The truth is that America has always been at its strongest when it remembers that great nations are built by great communities, not great fortunes."
---
It's remarkable how the communities that didn't go MAGA are blamed for "ignoring" the communities which did vote MAGA, instead of credited for the way they have resisted the custom built military that MAGA has used to invade us, and the overwhelming media campaign that makes declaring war on us seem reasonable, after a strategy of demonization and factionalism.
Our great communities have learned, but they are given no credit for it. Instead we are disowned, blamed, invaded and occupied by the forces of "REAL" America for not saving the communities voting for "the party of personal responsibility."
About 30 % of the population have learned, but there is 30% of the population that is easily manipulated by their fears,needs and insecurities, basically Christian, mostly white, nationalists,
And the morbidly rich use the power of the press and pulpit to manipulate them by playing on those fears, needs and insecurities, if not actually creating them.
The other 40% live day to day, don't pay much attention to anything other than fulfilling their immediate needs, but can be swayed by a steady drumbeat of propaganda. The source of which is owned or controlled by the morbidly rich.
It is all about information control, and always has been. Attila and the witch doctor, the King and the Pope have controlled the information and thus induced the hapless sap to give up his life and treasure for KING and country, or for their god. The father figure.
If the excesses and failures of the past year are not enough to inspire a progressive revolution within the populace I honestly don't know what would. In my mind they have discredited the entire conservative movement already. When will all this artificially induced pain finally be enough???
Pater familia, racism, homophobia,misogyny trumps everything else, sadly.
“If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.”
― Lyndon B. Johnson
That is truer than liberals want to imagine. They have bought into the idea that we are economic men. Well we are, when we can't feed ourselves and our families, but as long as we have full bellies,warm and dry beds to sleep in and toys galore, it is a different story.
Are you familiar with Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs.?
Seems the wealthy [and the Russians] understand us better than we do ourselves.
They locate our weaknesses, primarily hatred, and they deal it out in packets, i.e., TV and radio commercials, programs, and even reading material.
And just like that, the wealthy reveal themselves to be more into themselves than into us and our pathetic little hatreds.
Hate? It was just an organizing force. We, the majority, were just iron filings, whilst they, the few, were the magnet: targeting, positioning, and holding us static, always to our detriment.
They are the pigs, separate and more equal, and we are the random animals on their farm, subhuman at best.
VOTE !!! No matter what !!! [84% of Rs heartily approve of Donald's dysfunction: Gallup]
At the risk of sounding like a sycophant myself, Thom is a hit writing machine. This Report is of course another one. I have nothing to add to the context. Just read it.
Get a friend to read it - start a chin reaction...
People like Musk don't have a sense of noblesse oblige, do not even identify as "American."
Gates, senior, had it. His son has it to a certain extent. The "Buffett Gates Foundation" is a historic philanthropic relationship between Warren Buffett and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Over the years, Buffett has gifted billions of dollars in Berkshire Hathaway stock to the Gates Foundation, which has received the largest share of his philanthropic donations. However, Buffett has stated his will does not include future donations to the Gates Foundation, as his wealth will be distributed to his children's foundations after his death.
I knew Gates, senior, from the ABA -- the American Bar Association. For many years the Judicial Division had a "Lawyers' Conference" that was populated by many of Gates' associates. Eventually Gates, Senior's, firm became the largest in the US. It did so my merging with Kirkpatrick, Lockhart, Pomeroy and Johnson. Pittsburgh. "Johnson" was from my home town. His mother was the heiress to the Phillips Oil company. They were my neighbors. Among the members of the firm were Richard Thornburgh, former Pa governor and twice attoreny general of the US.
Another Microsoft lawyer was Bill Neukom. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Neukom
Many of the lawyers in the Lawyers' Conference were also originally from my home area.
I'd hope that many of them still have a sense of noblesse oblige. This morning, the NYT Dealbook documents that "Michael Dell remembers watching the quarters and dollars he put into a passbook savings account as a young child grow through the power of compound interest. It was a lesson that helped set him on a path to becoming one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the United States.
"A half-century later, Dell and his wife, Susan Dell, are worth an estimated $150 billion, and they want children around the country to have a similar experience. This morning, they announced that they planned to give $250 to roughly 25 million children through the so-called Trump accounts created in this year’s tax bill, Nicholas Kulish reports. The total amount will be $6.25 billion, one of the largest gifts ever to go directly to Americans.
"Some background: This year’s tax bill created a new type of investment account for children that allows deposits (with certain limits) to grow tax-free. The bill called for the government to give $1,000 each to babies born from Jan. 1, 2025, to Dec. 31, 2028, to seed their accounts."
I hope that there are a few of the CEOs, even if morbidly rich, have an empathy gene. As I said a few days ago those CEOs do NOT own "public" companies. Shareholders do.
Many of those companies have union shareholders, state pension funds, and people like us who can help.
E.G. Big Oil is restrained by shareholders. AI. Multiple US states, including California, Minnesota, and Rhode Island, have filed lawsuits against major oil companies, alleging deception about the harms of climate change and seeking accountability for climate-related damages. These lawsuits accuse companies like Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and BP of misleading the public about the link between their products and climate change and argue the companies should help pay for the resulting costs. In some cases, states have passed legislation to identify and invoice companies for these damages, which has prompted counter-lawsuits from the Department of Justice.
Michael and Susan Dell saving account rap is bullshit. It's a backdoor to privatizing Social Security. They want to privatize our entire social system. We're fucking usable chattel to them. They can shove that right up their ass. The greedy bastards and their bullshit philanthropy. Fuck them all the way to hell.
It's a contest....
Something I read said that the money is only a way "of keeping score". We are living the plot of Game Of Thrones. Currently winning is Xi, with Putin TRYING harder than anyone else.
That said, here in the USA we are in a living hell with the very people you so aptly described, Thom. Rich. Insane. Stupid.
TRump and his Administration are psychopaths. It's pretty clear he inherited both of his conditions, Alzheimer's being the other one. Hegseth is trying to out-crazy him. Both should to be on display. The committee hearings are a start.
Donold is failing spectacularly. Let's not go down with these criminals. They don't win if we expose and prosecute them---take their money. It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it. See you in the streets.
Alis,great post. I just wonder when the offense is going to wake up and identify 2 or 3 key Trump sycophants and go after them, Start with Stephen Miller,Russell Voight.There is so much ammunition that can be used against them and none of it is being used. I don't get it.
Good choices, David. The source of the policies for sure, but the jeopardy is going to go to the ones giving the orders and those executing them.
Congress can get the investigations started and name them. The independent press absolutely already has.
All of it may be a pipe-dream with 3 years to go and TRump's power of the pardon. A blanket pardon for everyone and everything they did is a reality.
The term psychopath was coined in 1847, and the Founding Fathers did not plan on handing one the power of the pardon.
Their wealth becomes so excessive, and their pursuit of it so obsessive, that they can't relate to the idea of democracy. It doesn't serve their interests. Capitalism and democracy are really opposing philosophies, and there is a continual tension between them that leads to war, depression, and scandal.
Wealth is power made tangible. That's impossible to avoid except by high wealth taxes.
Great post! No psychologist or neurologist has yet determined how to address this issue in humans. It is a wiring problem hundreds of thousands of years old, older than Mammon or money. We survive it; we have never fixed it.
Unless the Democratic Party clearly articulates how they will work to reverse the Big Ugly Budget, it will continue to represent the values the country espouses as budgets do. If the GOP spent a decade to repeal and replace the ACA, the first act of a democratic congress should be to repeal and replace the toxic sections of the BBB. That would include reversing the tax cuts enacted by Bush and Trump and increase corporate taxes and taxes on the morbidly rich. Further, the public must have shares in all companies that receive subsidies from the treasury like the defense contractors, the fossil fuel industry and oligarchs like Elon Musk. We cannot shower these organizations with money and call them capitalists.
Sounds like socialism. But what’s in a name if it works for the people.
Good idea. Maybe our country should be one big corporation, with all citizens having shares and a voice in its direction and operation. Now, that sounds like socialism, doesn't it?
I I would like to answer Mr. Sir Hartmann this way:
I would like to offer a modest proposal. For your holiday reading and gift giving a book named “Against the Machine” by the English writer Paul Kingsnorth. In it he strongly suggests that when the current dictatorship falls as it must and inevitably will, we will at first rejoice but then realize that we have entered a very dark place. We will be faced with a very real choice as a people. Those who have benefitted from and flourished under what he calls “The Machine” will seek to rebuild it in its former image.
That should not be allowed to happen. Good, caring, thinking people must reexamine in a very basic way what we have become and seek radical change. We do not run the machine, it runs us. We are merely parts of a system that has benefited some, but not by any means all. Yet we are all trapped in its reality and have accepted it as inevitable.
There is another way, he urges. Return to the culture that was acknowledged and realized in the words and ideas of the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the Constitution:
That we are one people with declared and protected rights of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” and that these things are “self-evident”, natural, a part of human creation. They are protected by the Constitution for the “Common Good” to create a more “perfect union”.
He declares that these things have been lost, crushed by the machine that feeds on growth, production, the pursuit of capital, as its only fuel. Our religion is driven by the love of money.
Only if we return now to that culture of the American Dream will our civilization survive. Otherwise, it will be too late. We must substitute light for the coming darkness and voraciousness of the machine.
Please read it, give it and as we approach our 250th anniversary, spend a few precious hours watching Ken Burn’s stirring documentary on the Declaration, and become less dependent on a system that cares not about our union.
It seems that the American memory of the past, despite being alerted to its dangers, is limited to that same generation, and doomed to repeat a never-ending cycle of democracy vs authoritarianism.
My only hope is that even in the midst of our present administration, we can somehow inculcate those lessons of history and civic values that much of this generation has forgotten - but under this administration, it seems to me, that hope seems futile.
This administration is dying by its own hand. It is still a rocky road. Heroes and heroines are finally appearing (though some are strange to behold). What we have going for us is that Republicans up for vote finally have doubts about whether staying loyal is good strategy. It is politics and personal survival all the way down.
Thanks for the book recommendation.
I want to underscore your opening statement that Trump has (unconsciously, unintentionally) given the US a huge gift by demonstrating that success in hoarding money is not due to genius, hard work, or morality.--but to greed, narcissism, and psychopathy.
Your guest yesterday, Laurence Rees, pointed out that youth under 25 haven't developed their objective thinking skills yet. Trump won in 2024 due to the male, youth vote. Desire for a
lavish life-style has become, as you point out, the modern goal of life. One might even say
it's the new religion of the entire country.
If people weren't so caught up with the idea of financial success, Trump would never have been elected the first time...let alone a second time. We have some "educating" to do...and Trump
is currently at the head of the class--our country.
We almost got the message from Trump 1.0....but that obviously wasn't enough, so now we're
in 2.0--and things are going quickly from bad to worse.
But it's the power of the average citizen--especially at the ballot box--where we can change
direction by throwing him & his sycophants out. If enough pain is felt--an odd thing to wish
for--, but if that's what it takes, then we'll finally change direction....like FDR managed to do following the Republican Great Depression & WWII. We are in the 4th Turning Crisis of the saeculum's wheel. I hope we get it right (again) this time, but it's going to be a struggle. Thanks for keeping on, Thom !
“Research on CEOs finds that around 20 percent exhibit psychopathic traits — lack of empathy, superficial charm, impulsivity — compared to about one percent of the public.”
Thom, I think that stat is seriously low. After all, human attitudes and especially daily business decisions can’t possibly be measured impartially or in a studied environment. One decision leads to another in a mind filled with grandiose power schemes that people usually, even the sicko ones are too smart to publicize or talk about.
Lack of empathy, with respect to the whole of society, is there in a person’s daily attitude, decisions, and overall contribution, or lack of same, toward the improvement of the whole of society rather than a single person’s welfare or benefit.
How much have these people really improved anything toward the overall quality of life for the whole? Yes, your name in a library or art museum does say something, but that isn’t even apparent in these days and times.
What are they actually doing to improve society as a whole? Extreme wealth should at least come with some responsibility to the society where it came from and where the wealth has meaning. After all, our economic system is a zero sum game. You have to take from another’s wealth in order to have wealth.
IMO, these traits of power brokering and hoarding wealth are all a part of an addictive pattern. Just like any other, it usually starts slowly and is built upon.
Our whole system of economics favors this addictive pattern. Society rewards these patterns and we are taught that the lacks that are also built in to our system will be eased or eliminated when and if we attain this lofty position of wealth.
The way we treat each other in business and in our daily lives contributes to society’s over all attitudes toward wealth. Are we encouraged to help or to step on the competition?
Are we encouraged as a whole to be kind and help lift up the quality of life? Are men encouraged to see family and women in particular as important contributors to society or is the ideal picture all about male excesses of money, sex, good times, and a free hand to let the most base aspect of the individual psyche reign free?
Our society is structured to reward base behavior and attitudes and addictions. There’s definitely something wrong with the whole mess.
Appropriate questions for sure. Look at how certain religions preach of gospel of prosperity. It's built in the culture. Empathy must be taught. Emotional intelligence must be taught in our schools. In fact, a preschool my grandson was attending in Colorado was teaching a Yale sponsored program to teach that very issue.
There isn't a cure for malignant narcissism. Over 60 million people suffer from narcissistic abuse in this country. Psychologists are reevaluating how they need to address narcissism. Less than 1% are ever diagnosed. The only cure that i know of is irrelevance or death. Which ever comes first. I have a lifetime of experience with these assholes of humanity. They have no soul.
Powell was a democrat. It would be worth remembering how many elites were Democrats and influenced the party's policies, moving it from a party concerned about the working class to one focused on issues of the college-educated coastal elites. About the same time as the Powell memo, the editorial board of the New York Times gave Milton Friedman a full page to promote his conservative economic ideas. Soon, the party, under Clinton, adopted the misleading term of 'centrist', which is not moderate. It is socially liberal but Friedman/Reagan-level right-wing conservative on economic policies.
Larry Summers admitted in 2006 that the influential Democrats had adopted Regan's economic guru, Milton Friedman, as their own: "Any honest Democrat will admit that we are now all Friedmanites."
When the Democrats get back into power, will the elites continue to influence that party to continue to adopt conservative fiscal policies under the guise of centrism and continue to fail the working class?
1. Powell was appointed as a REPUBLICAN by Nixon.
2. We never adopted Friedman policies. Clinton was a dud, not an ideologue.
According to lawyer Bill Blum, Powell was a lifelong Democrat: https://www.theusconstitution.org/news/the-right-wing-legacy-of-justice-lewis-powell-and-what-it-means-for-the-supreme-court-today/#:~:text=Yes%2C%20that%20guy.,it%20was%20anything%20but%20moderate
Yes, Powell was appointed by Nixon because Nixon realized Powell, the Democrat, was a kindred spirit economically.
Summers appears to disagree with you about the Democratic Party's policies at the highest level. In 2006, Summers wrote an article in the New York Times praising Friedman as the great liberator and asserted, "Any honest Democrat will admit that we are now all Friedmanites". https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/19/opinion/19summers.html#:~:text=Another%20example%20of%20Mr.,Milton%20Friedman%20the%20public%20philosopher.
Rank and file Democrat members may be quite opposed to Friedman's influence, recognizing he is Reagan-level right-wing, but according to Larry Summers, who had access to the highest levels of that party, the decision makers are Freidmanites.
Certainly, Clinton was a dud, but he was head of the Democratic Leadership Council that promoted centrism. He was also a part of the international movement to the right that included Tony Blair in England. As The Nation notes, "Since , the 1970s, centrist-minded Democrats had been trying to shift the political and ideological direction of the party in a more conservative direction". https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/third-way-dlc-bill-clinton-tony-blair-1990s-politics/
So it's important that the members of the Democratic Party who oppose Friedman's neoliberal influence recognize how much it has penetrated the upper levels of the Democratic Party and remove it when that party gets back in power.
This says more about his ego than anything else. Full of bullshit.
It's true that they tried to get traditional Republican donors, and it's true that we adopted a few of their suggestions, but we never imposed any of the "reforms" Friedman was selling. In fact, we still have a safety net. Still have the aphabet agencies Trump is trying to elimininate.
I am trying to understand why the Democratic Party once appealed to the working class in the middle states, but now those people have rejected it and favour Trump. I believe the cause is 'centrism', liberal on social policies but conservative on fiscal policies. What do you think the reason is?
Years ago, as a lobbyist, I was in a meeting where Michigan Democratic Governor Granholm announced that auto plants would all be auto-mated and our union workers sent to college to learn how to run the computers that built the cars. She sounded disdainful of line workers. After that, anyone I hired to work on my house sounded very disdainful of her.
Is this why the working class often viewed the Democratic Party as being composed of college educated snobs?
I keep sayin' it ain't economics, it's all about the culture.
"How Many Times Will the Morbidly Rich Crash America Before We Learn?"
If WE ain't learned after 400 years, WE ain't likely to... until abject disaster strikes.
And it shall.
As I have posted here before, billionaires are not smarter than the rest of us. As Thom articulately points out, they are just more ruthless and predatory. My first exposure to the myth of the superiority of the rich was on my grammar school playground when overhearing arguments in which one kid insults another by asserting, "Oh yeah! Well, if you're so smart, how come you're not rich?"
Later, in high school, we were brainwashed to view US capitalism as the best economic system in history - way better than communism, where it was impossible for one to get rich and famous. Back in the 20s, all Western countries were freaked out by communism as monarchies were dying and labor unions were expanding. The owners of the Gilded Age were terrified that they would lose wealth by having to pay higher wages, or worse, that communism would foreclose on their wealth and power completely. Many viewed fascism too as Stage-1 communism as Mussolini and Hitler started taking over industries.
After the Allies took Berlin, General Patton vainly encouraged Ike to finish off the commie Russians. Barely mentioned in HS history was that the Marshall Plan was created when it became clear to America's super-rich that the Soviets were rebuilding postwar faster than the capitalist Western European nations. They were fearful that it would lead to another communist revolution in Europe. Obviously, greed triumphed and we are here today watching democracy slowly morphing into oligarchy. Americans need to own this, and we enabled greed to overtake honor.
"The truth is that America has always been at its strongest when it remembers that great nations are built by great communities, not great fortunes."
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It's remarkable how the communities that didn't go MAGA are blamed for "ignoring" the communities which did vote MAGA, instead of credited for the way they have resisted the custom built military that MAGA has used to invade us, and the overwhelming media campaign that makes declaring war on us seem reasonable, after a strategy of demonization and factionalism.
Our great communities have learned, but they are given no credit for it. Instead we are disowned, blamed, invaded and occupied by the forces of "REAL" America for not saving the communities voting for "the party of personal responsibility."
Bingo! I'm sick of the absolute sh*t people makeup about who is responsible. Progressives are supposed to save ourselves AND our criminal enemies?
And Jed, half the time this crap comes from a former conservative who claims to have found the light.
Well said!