Thom Hartmann on Big Brother. Gasoline fraud on us all. Union movement update. Right-Wing exchange.
Thom Hartmann discusses The History of Big Brother in America. The gasoline fraud on Americans explained. Evette Avery Herrod discusses state of union movement. A civil exchange with a conservative.
Notes
Thom Hartmann on the hidden history of Big Brother in America.
Why gasoline prices are a fraud on us all, and here is the solution that will re-empower us all.
Worthwhile reads.
Evette Avert Herrod discusses the state of the Union Worker Movement
Right-Winger called the radio station & complained about my “leftist message.” HERE’S MY CALL TO HER!
Notes
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I am screaming (rhetorically) as loud as I can to whoever would listen. We must stop these cycles created by those who run our economic system. These boom and bust cycles are not ordained. While many will blame our current inflation on supply chain problems and an over-stimulated economy, we can attribute all of these to the failure of the corporatocracy and their political influencing degeneracy.
The supply chain problem is their failure to build in safeguards to mitigate disruptions. The supposed overstimulating of the economy by providing relief to the poor and middle-class America is a direct result of them underpaying the masses as they corruptly bribe politicians to give them tax cuts. We are supporting them with our intellect and labor as they reap the spoils, the profits.
Corporations cannot justify raising prices at the same time that they made record profits even before inflation set in. Worse, they cannot justify inflation if there are no real significant shortages. Again, I am screaming to all who will listen. WE ARE ALL BEING HAD, AGAIN. It is simple math that they all, corporations, neoliberal politicians, and the owned mainstream media, would like us to disregard it.
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Thom Hartmann on the hidden history of Big Brother in America.
Thom Hartmann visited Politics Done Right to discuss his new book “The Hidden History of Big Brother in America: How the Death of Privacy and the Rise of Surveillance Threaten Us and Our Democracy,” which is quite a take on the subject all should read.
We have another great jobs report. The following is from yahoo/finance.
The U.S. economy added back the most jobs since July 2021 in February, with job growth accelerating even in the already-tight labor market as new Omicron cases from earlier this year came down.
The Labor Department released its February jobs report Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET. Here were the main metrics from the print, compared to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg:
Non-farm payrolls: +678,000 vs. +423,000 expected and an upwardly revised +481,000 in January
Unemployment rate: 3.8% vs. 3.9% expected, 4.0% in January
Average hourly earnings, month-over-month: 0.0% vs. 0.5% expected and a downwardly revised 0.6% in January
Average hourly earnings, year-over-year: 5.1% vs. 5.8% expected and a downwardly revised 5.5% in January
February’s jobs report presented yet another upside surprise to investors, and marked a fourteenth consecutive month of payroll growth. Last month, January’s jobs report also showed many more jobs returned than expected, with payrolls rising by 400,000 versus the 125,000 expected at the time. In Friday’s report, January’s job gains were also upwardly revised even further to show 481,000, compared to the 467,000 previously reported. And December’s payrolls were upwardly revised again to 588,000, compared to the 510,000 posted in last month’s revision.
We must promote the job’s message. Most importantly, it is essential to justifiably point out that the parasitic corporations continue to suck up the gains of the average American just because they have pricing power.
I repeat ad nauseam, our inflation, for the most part, is not caused by shortages. Yes, we have spot shortages caused by the failure of the private sector because of offshoring and just-in-time inventory. But that is a failure of the private sector, not the government.
So let us keep a strong, aggressive, and assertive message going. We built back the economy. Now we must fight the corporatocracy from taking it away with their monopolistic and parasitic pricing power.
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Why gasoline prices are a fraud on us all, and here is the solution that will re-empower us all.
Reputable and unreputable outlets instill in us that oil shortages justifying gasoline price hikes are justified. The price hikes are a fraud.
As I watch the news about inflation and gasoline prices, the price of a barrel of petroleum, I cannot help getting irate. Shenanigans, corporations, and politicians-on-the-take hurt us all in real-time. Their fraud will affect the personal financial well-being of most because they use these tools, oil, and inflation to take back all that the ordinary person fought for decade after decade.
Mostly everything that these economic terrorists are doing is legal. Supply and demand are natural. Wars, pandemics, and climactic disasters are real. These occurrences can create shortages. And when there are shortages, inflation is justified on the products and services in short supply.
Forget much of what the mainstream media, neoliberal politicians of any party, and business schools are telling you. They are vested in our model of capitalism, which ultimately creates income inequality and wealth disparity, as those with access to capital can grow much faster than those with little or none. Ironically, the real engines of our economy are the average American citizens, read most who have limited or no capital.
It’s easy to blame the post-pandemic demand and war for our current inflation rate. The reality is that our plutocracy, read oligarchy and bought politicians, created the pathways for this fraudulent inflation and high gasoline prices.
There is no shortage of oil. Those in power won’t tell you this on CNBC or mainstream media, but common sense alone is enough to see it if we think for ourselves. Russia’s oil is replaceable through various methods that we decided to keep offline. Venezuela is a country swimming in oil. It has the largest discovered reserves in the world. In the past, we used Chavez and now Maduro as scapegoats to keep their oil off of the market.
China, where citizens have few rights, is one of our largest trading partners. How can comparatively tiny Venezuela not be allowed to participate commensurate with its oil reserves irrespective of its form of government? The pariah, Russia, continues in commerce.
One has to understand the dynamics of our form of capitalism. Russia, China, Saudi Arabia are relatively big and powerful countries for different reasons. Our corporations could not possibly get paid-off politicians to force too lousy a deal.
But in the case of Venezuela, the corporatocracy will never allow a Democratic Socialist regime where the population by decree shares in the profits from their natural resources. It is too close to home, and Americans may start demanding the same on our public lands. So we wait until we coerce a government willing to betray its people and join the oil barons to take the Venezuelan oil. This statement is not a defense of any wrong deeds by Chavez or Maduro. Our corporatocracy is complicit in some much more catastrophic to humanity.
So, if we claim inflation is primarily because of oil supply, then you understand why I call it fraudulent. But there is more. After the pandemic, Americans realized they could survive with a simpler life. They were not going to go back to work as much for slave wages. The corporatocracy had to pay a bit more. But the wage component of inflation is nowhere close to the inflation rate. Ultimately, we have inflation because we are devoid of pricing power. We have a few corporations that control the basics, energy (oil, etc.,) healthcare, and others. They set the prices because they can, and the small business person and every American transfer their wealth to this legal form of robbery.
It is all a fraud. Anyone who believes in democracy and free enterprise understands that the government should nationalize primary industries. Utilities, energy, and healthcare are too crucial to life to leave in the hands of selfish profiteers. Everything else should remain under free enterprise. The corporatocracy then could no longer extort P\private businesses.
Some would say that the above would limit innovation. That is categorically false. Those of us who invent and create and serve are not the ones who make the mega-profits. Why do we need to be manipulated by those who only see us as widgets to create bonuses and shareholder value? We don’t. A private manager is no better than a manager who works for the government or non-profit. I would wager the converse.
Remember, the maligned United States Post Office is a government-operated business enterprise. Even with the sabotage from Republican politicians, they deliver efficiently and cheaper to every single address in America. The private sector FEDEX, UPS, and others use them to deliver mail they cannot deliver profitably. That should tell you something about the misinformation in this country.
It is time that America forgets the tropes and starts thinking about what is best for us all. They have brainwashed too many of us for much too long.
Evette Avert Herrod discusses the state of the Union Worker Movement
I wanted to know if the power to choose that we see from workers today was permanent. The best person to ask was Evette Avery Herrod, a union activist.
Recently I saw a video that Evette Avery Herrod made at a union rally. I try to keep at least somewhat informed on what the activists closest to the people are doing. Evette is always, as we say in Panama, “en-la-ola.” She is always on the wave that is doing something.
Evette is not only just a union activist for the sake of activism. She lived the unfairness of our employment system fighting the big boys for herself and others, and she developed the hashtag #standwithevette, a call to action.
Evette refreshed us about the differences between Right to Work [for less] states and actual union states. She told us about the mineworkers in Alabama who have been on strike for nine months. She was out there helping with donations and logistics.
We must support unions. They are the backbones for rebuilding the middle-class. Those who are hesitant should note that corporations have their own in the form of the Chamber of Commerce and scores of other organizations supporting the corporatocracy.
Right-Winger called the radio station & complained about my “leftist message.” HERE’S MY CALL TO HER!
I got a message from my KPFT 90.1 FM Houston Station manager. A listener complained about my suggestion that we nationalize oil. Here is what happened when I called her back.
Like most Americans, I am upset about inflation and gasoline price extortion. I have done many radio shows explaining why both are farces. From elementary school to graduate school to business school, our education system brainwashed us to believe in an ordained economic system. They made our thinking, in many areas, anathema to both math and reality. Worse, it taught us to accept the word of those with ulterior economic interests on faith.
I provided a complete segment detailing why the price of gasoline is a farce. At the end of the radio segment, I said we should nationalize specific industries like energy and healthcare delivery to stabilize our economy. Many jump on that statement as being Marxist. Ironically, those in business who echo that sentiment are the same ones that say companies want predictability and stability.
If it were up to the corporate sector, they would privatize everything. Ironically, that is a recipe for economic collapse because of the permutations that expand the degrees of failure. But that is for another more expansive blog post.
Could you ponder this? Just like humans had nothing to do with putting water on earth, the same applies to oil, hydrocarbons, and minerals. We-the-people, the government, generally process water and distribute it at cost. Nobody owns water or makes a windfall on it. Bottle water and the attempt to privatize it is for another post, but the government controlling this vital resource is not Marxist. I would proffer that gasoline, heating oil, etc., are no different than water. While right-pricing will be necessary for environmental reasons and the level of scarcity, we have enough computing power to ensure stable prices. What do businesses in a free enterprise system want? A fair system, where essential resources in the commons are not used to extort, steal, and transfer the wealth and income of the many to the few.
The listener called the radio station to tell them that she would stop donating to the radio station because of my “Marxist” ideas. Interestingly, the support for the message I am putting out brings us more new station supporters than losses because I justify my positions unabashedly.
It was clear talking to this lovely lady that so much misinformation and factless information surrounded her that specific keywords triggered her. When I asked specific questions, she could not help but agree. But that muscle memory of the nonsensical information continuously pulled her. But ultimately, it was clear that she went from a person uninterested in discourse to one that would allow her mind to open.
Many continue to give me hell from engaging these folks. These videos that I make will have zero effects on those with liberated minds, progressive minds, or those prone to independent thinking. But it will plant seeds in many who quietly listen. I point out a lot of this in my book “It’s Worth It: How to Talk To Your Right-Wing Relatives, Friends, and Neighbors.”
I know many want us to concentrate on the Progressive base. We must do both. The Right is relatively successful with a corrosive and destructive ideology because they invest in talking to people in every corner that will allow them to enter. We cede rural America and the red states to the Right because we are often unwilling to meet people where they are. Some don’t have the patience. I, along with many others, do. We must invest in both methods, especially now, where misinformation is in vogue and ubiquitous.
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