Category: Law

Dane Rudhyar – The Roots of American Nation

Posted on by PathFinder

A few month ago, we talked about the book written by Dane Rudhyar’s 1974 book The Astrology of America’s Destiny, since then few discussion had been cover it. The recent wars and conflicts in different part of the world again challenge an old American belief: These words — “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”, which “reclaimed the beliefs of a relatively small group — of educated men who had been stirred by the ideals formulated by the Humanists and the intellectuals of the Renaissance and the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries”. I would like to read together with you the Chapter Two: The Roots of American nation.

Part of The Roots of the American Nation – Page 2

Every birth has antecedents which conditions its character and define its essential purpose. It has a purpose because it satisfies a need inherent in the time and place of its occurrence. We may think of this need in terms of the desire of the parents for a child who will fill their emotional wants, prolong their existence, perpetuate their sociopolitical and religious beliefs, and contribute to the preservation of the human race. We may also refer this need to an overall planetary process of spiritual-mental development (a religiously inclined person would speak here of “God’s plan”) which requires that a particular type of person should be born in a particular environment to fill a definite place in that vast evolutionary scheme, somewhat as a particular cell fulfills a definite function in the body of a human being.

      Relatively speaking, a great personage or genius uniquely fills some need of his time and society; but, any human being can be said to be born in answer to some collective human need. Whether he is actually able to fulfill this need is another matter. He may fail or only partially succeed, but the potentiality inherent in the fact of his birth was there, whether it is actualized or not. It is this “Potentiality” that a birth chart formulates in the astrological code represented by the positions and interactions of the celestial bodies in the cosmic environment of the birth. The birth chart defines the potentiality, but not the degree or the quality of the actuality — that is, of what the person will turn out to be and to achieve.

      This applies equally to the birth of a collective person — a national organism. A nation is born at a certain time, in a particular place and under definite telluric, climatic and magnetic conditions in order to contribute in a more or less definite way to the evolution of mankind as a whole. What it is to contribute is essentially a certain quality of humanhood — a special way of meeting the problems involved in existence within the Earth’s biosphere and of responding to the challenges which life in an international and geophysical world constantly brings to a nation and to its leaders in all fields of human activity. We can speak of such a “quality” as the character or temperament of the people participating in the collective activities of the national whole; it is possible, for instance, to characterize the English, American, French, German, Russian, Arab or Indian temperaments.

      Such a national character both produces and results from a particular culture. A typical way of life and characteristic institutions are built in order to actualize, consciously in rare cases, but mostly unconsciously and according to “the force of circumstances,” the birth-potential of the nation and to externalize the motives that brought about the formation of the national entity and its emergence from whatever surrounded it and led to its birth. A nation is often formed in a violent or somehow cathartic manner by “colonists” from an older nation who wilfully seek independence from the mother country that through them had sought to extend its field of operation and to export its economy and its culture. In other cases a nation is born when after overcoming a disintegrating society, a number of migrating tribes coalesce into their own sociopolitical organism. This is what happened in Europe during the early Middle Ages as Germanic and Slavic tribes developed into small feudal units which eventually were absorbed by a powerful governmental nucleus giving its characteristic organization to the nascent national entity.

      The ideas stated above imply a purposive view of history and of human (and even planetary) evolution. They are not likely to be acceptable to most academic historians of our day. Neither is the concept of cycles of civilization popular in academia, in spite of the extensively documented work of historians like Oswald Spengler (whose major work, The Decline of the West, was written sixty years ago) and Arnold Toynbee (whose A Study of History was written after World War 1). The cyclic concept of the development of civilizations, however, is implied in the astrological approach to history, and the study of great planetary cycles and precessional Ages provides an objective and rational foundation for the belief that civilization — or “societies,” in Toynbee’s use of the term are — much like organisms which are born, develop and disintegrate — according to some kind of structural rhythm.

      In this study of the destiny of the American nation we therefore have to deal with two basic factors: on the one hand we should survey the development of the karmic relationship between the new American nation and the nations and cultures of Europe, and particularly England as the official mother country; on the other hand, we should consider the basic reasons and the more external and temporary motives which enabled the people of the Colonies, or at least their leaders, to become I willful and effective protagonists in a vast historical process of transformation of human society which had begun many centuries before the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble of the Constitution set the pace for a spreading sociopolitical revolution. Such a revolution may be only the first phase of a more far-reaching, more deeply rooted, upheaval — a revolution in consciousness.

The Roots of the American Nation – Page 3

The “vast historical process of transformation of human society” to which I am referring can be identified with the development of Western civilization, a development which really began around the sixth century B.C. in Greece. It had been heralded by the great and unsuccessful reform of Egypt’s religion by Akh-en-Aton, and by the also relatively unsuccessful revelation which Moses brought to his people: the revelation of a God Who declared Himself to be the very principle of I-am-ness — thus, of individuality in its most absolute sense. The foundation of our Western civilization indeed is the concept of the individual person, along with the assertion that this individual person has an essential “worth and dignity” regardless of its condition and circumstances of birth, and of what it can produce in and for the society into which it is born.

      The story of Western civilization is one of attempts to a concept of society allowing, nay encouraging, its members to regard themselves as individuals — individuals who are essentially “free and equal” and as such endowed with inalienable rights in any social conditions. These attempts have been constantly frustrated; they represented a definite challenge to the foundations upon which all societies had previously been built, foundations we can characterize as the expression of the “tribal order.” This tribal order was a manifestation of biological and psychic realities. It was rooted in the deep feeling that the unity of the social grouping — the tribe — was derived from a reality, a more or less mythical Great Ancestor or a god, that was in the past. Everything “sacred” was meant to reproduce a past event, a creative event by gods or a man-woman pair of a quasi-divine origin.

      It is this concept of the tribal order — and later on, of a social order based on the different abilities of human beings to produce wares, ideas or acts of service to the expanded community, kingdom or empire — that our Western civilization has tried to supplant, or at least to polarize, The tribal and post-tribal order emphasized production and made human beings almost totally subservient to the requirements of this production. In contrast, the essential character of the democratic order is that it stresses the absolute spiritual character of the individual person. In more recent times our Western society has also stressed the nearly absolute individual rights of its collective persons — thus the concept of “national sovereignty”.

      It is evident that these two rights — the right of a community to enforce patterns of productivity for the welfare of all its members, and the right of the individual to become and remain an independent person centered in his truth-of-being and essential spiritual identity — have a polar character. From the point of view of Western civilization, both have to be recognized and kept operative. The basic problem concerns the relative strength and value accorded to each by any particular society, nation or community. Because these two concepts of rights easily become the foundations of two opposite philosophies of life and of social organization — individualism versus collectivism — they constantly generate internal as well as external. conflicts: conflicts within nations, and conflicts between nations which at least theoretically, have opted for a way of life and institutions emphasizing one or the other of these principles. The basic conflict even manifests in two opposite concepts of knowledge and scientific inquiry, atomism versus holism.

      Western civilization at all levels has been and is based on this polarization. We see its manifestation in the contrast between the ideals of free enterprise (or laissiee-faire capitalism) and socialism. The two-party system in the United States is a watered-down aspect of this polarization. The essential point is that our civilization is based on conflicts, and that because of this it has proven to be exceedingly dynamic; but this dynamism nevertheless tends to express itself in the form of violence, violence which has become a way of life.

      Such a dialectical way of life has been accepted and even justified by our American nation, which inherited it from the European past. America inherited the religious form of violence strongly implied in Puritanism — violence against oneself and one’s biopsychic urges, and violence against dissenters and scapegoats (the burning of witches). It inherited also the conquistadors’ kind of violence, which led to the destruction of Indian tribes and the crude, even if at times heroic, conquest of a vast continent subjected to all kinds of depredation and exploitation for personal gain. America also went one step further than European serfdom by importing thousands of African slaves and allowing as many to die in transit from their native land.

      The destruction of Indians, Negro slavery, and finally the wholesale pollution of the land, water and air — plus the psychological pollution accompanying the cult of violence featured by motion pictures, television and a myriad of popular books — have been a heavy price to pay for an amazing, yet chaotic, productivity and for a life of abundance which, welcome as it is, has often turned out-to be morally and biologically self-defeating because of its implications and its uneven repartition. Feverish and ruthless forms of competition, always an inch away from the boundaries between legality and crime — and often ignoring these boundaries — constitute only the shadow of the individualism and the freedom which Western civilization has been meant to uphold. By making an ever more intense productivity possible, science and technology exacerbated and intellectualized man’s instinctual drive for power; power over other human beings as much as over physical nature, power whose great symbol became the dollar.

Here is Part of: The Roots of the American Nation -Page 7

We can lump the various movements against which the builders of Christian orthodoxy fought under the general term of Gnosticism; but there were many kinds of Gnostics, some linked with the Hermetic movement in Egypt, others with what, at a later period, was set down as the Hebrew Kabballah and no doubt was influenced by the old Chaldeans’ wisdom of Babylon. Still other Gnostic groups sought to prolong the Orphic, Eleusian, neo-Pythagorean and neo-Platonic traditions, and even the teachings of the Buddhist missionaries who, in the time of the great Indian King Asoka, had settled on the shores of the Dead Sea.

      The Catholic Church was successful in condensing, appropriating and transforming much of the complex esoteric material that had been poured out by the Gnostic “sects,” center in what it was able to keep of all these highly intellectual ideas and of the great symbols of the ancient Mysteries around the personage of Jesus Christ, considered the one and only Son of God. After a series of councils in which dissident groups were anathematized, the Church triumphed and became the official religion of the disintegrating Roman Empire, then of the slowly settling down Germanic and Slavic tribes. It also absorbed the old Celtic traditions. But this success was never total. Gnostic movements sprang up here and there during the Middle Ages. The Crusades, by bringing French, English and German noblemen in contact with the still flourishing centers of Near Eastern culture and tradition — especially with the Sufi Movement, which had become the esoteric aspect of Islam(4) — spurred the spread of mystical and occult movements. This was especially the case in southern France, where the influence of the Mozarabic culture of Islamic Spain, and of kabbalistic doctrines, had been strongly felt. There the Albigenses flourished along Gnostic lines; and in northern France the Order of the Templars also gained in importance and (unfortunately for its members) in wealth.(5) This led the French monarch to savagely destroy the two movements, with the help of the Pope.

At the same time, and under the influence of similar ancient traditions, the masons who were building the magnificent Gothic cathedrals, under the leadership of architects whose names are mostly lost, incorporated in these cathedrals and their rose windows an immense amount of traditional occult and astrological symbolism. These lodges of “operative” masons were precursors of the lodges of “speculative” Masons which were formed in the early eighteenth century or a little earlier. On June, 24, 1717, a Grand Master, Anthony Sayer, was elected and for the first time given jurisdiction over several Masonic lodges, marking the effective beginning of modern speculative Freemasonry. (It is called “speculative” because it used basic philosophic concepts and symbolic rituals to bring to the intellectual classes of the Western world a free, nondogmatic, nonecclesiastic approach to man, God and the universe.)

      A fast-growing network of Masonic lodges became the means whereby the rationalistic and humanistic ideals that for three centuries had been developing in Europe could effectively be propagated. Masonry had reached the American colonies during the seventeenth century, and according to the Encyclopedia of American Facts and Dates (a fascinating mine of information published by T. Y. Crowell Company), in — 1682 one John Skene became the “first Freemason to settle in Burlington, New Jersey. He belonged to the Lodge in Aberdeen, Scotland, and came to the colonies through arrangement with the Earl of Perth, chief ‘proprietor’ of New Jersey and an outstanding Freemason.” Later, in 1730, “Daniel Coxe became the first appointed Grand Master of Masons of the Provinces of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.”

Here is part of The Roots of the American Nation – Page 9

In 1789, less than three months after Washington had been inaugurated, the French Revolution began with the storming of the Bastille. In the ensuing years Paine urged President Washington to declare America’s support for the country which had been of such great assistance during our revolutionary crisis; but Washington was both afraid to involve the United States in a conflict which might have been detrimental to our early national growth, and repelled by the radicalism of the French revolutionists — a radicalism very foreign to his nature. The President may have been right from a national point of view, but not only did his actions not avoid the War of 1812 with England, but he established an isolationist policy that lasted for a century
      The sharp disagreement between Paine and Washington symbolized the basic conflict between political-economic realities and the humanistic idealism which has ever been strong in American history. It is also the conflict between two concepts of social organization: one seeking to perpetuate whatever can be saved of Europe’s aristocratic past, and the other founded upon the new vision of society which had emerged from the minds of a few Greek thinkers as well as from Jesus’ teachings — a vision which never has had much chance to be fully implemented. This conflict also took form in the contest between Jefferson and Hamilton.

…. …

The Roots of the American Nation – Page 10

The practical realities and expediencies of life, especially in a newborn nation, had evidently to be considered, and the stand taken by Hamilton and Washington had value; but developments that occur in infancy do persist in later years, and once a definite quality of social and national living becomes habitual, it becomes extremely difficult to alter it, except perhaps through violent crises which often solve nothing fundamental.

The question that should be asked by anyone accepting a purposive approach to history and human evolution is: To what extent has this collective person, the United States of America, fulfilled its destiny as a new and powerful agent within the cycle of Western civilization?

      The answer to this question, I believe, rests upon a grasp of what the Industrial Revolution and our more recent Electronic Revolution have meant. Undoubtedly the development by Western man of new intellectual, faculties made available a tremendous amount of power. But when power is made available, another question immediately arises: To what use will it be put?

      In a very real sense the answer was already foreshadowed in the first cargo of Negro slaves that reached Virginia. It was further implied in the refusal by delegates of Southern states to accept the provision against slavery that Jefferson had included in the original draft of the Declaration of Independence. It was reasserted when Benjamin Franklin’s example of friendship to the Indians was negated by nineteenth-century men intent upon the development of a big powerful nation dominated by an individualistic yearning for power and wealth and utterly conditioned by dogmatic ideas concerning the absolute value of their religion and culture. It is true that in the past the building and growth of a nation or empire have never proceeded humanely, but America was to be “the New World” and not merely a new nation. Two basic conceptions of America have always been in conflict: the great new ideal of world Americanism which Walt Whitman extolled, saying: “O America, because you work for the world, I work for you” — and that of a nationalistic United States.

      Many people will say that the United States had to be and now more than ever must be a strong united nation to offset the drive for power of other nations embodying social systems opposite to what I have described as the great and so often frustrated ideal of our Western civilization. But how can we effectively fight for principles and values which we uphold in beautiful phrases while in so many ways betraying them in actions and in a general quality of living and behaving?

      What we are facing today in America is not merely a political crisis, but a crisis in collective consciousness. We have to reassess the fundamental meaning of what our Western civilization has brought to mankind and what the meaning and destiny of America essentially are now. We have to try, first of all, to clearly understand, the present world, which we have been largely responsible for transforming through our industrial and managerial skills, and the example of which we eagerly export.

      Talleyrand once said that politics is the art of the possible; but so is civilization. What is possible today? Economic or political theories are not inclusive enough to provide a truly satisfying answer. An individual of course has his intuition, or whatever is back of his consciousness as a guiding power, to show him the way. But when we deal with vast collective and global issues, the real answer lies in the universe itself and in its majestic rhythms that, no man or nation can deviate or alter. We can ask of the universe that surrounds us: What time is it for mankind according to the clock of planetary destiny? What time is it for America?

      A brief study of some of the larger cycles which define this global “time” should give us a background for a more detailed analysis and interpretation

Monumental Myths of the Modern Medical Mafia and Mainstream Media and Multitude of Lying Liars that Manufactured Them

Posted on by PathFinder

As it is depicted in the Movie The Matrix, we are living in a web of illusions. There are two types of reality, one is the state of ultimate truth as experiences by Buddha that described in Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra. Another type is secular truth for us standard human being, we should call a spade a spade. In a era of so much confusion, disorientation and drug abuses, speaking truthfully, frankly, and directly about a topic, even to the point of bluntness or rudeness, even if the subject is coarse, impolite or unpleasant, is the only way of keeping our sanity. Yes, John 8:32 says: “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” In a similar manner Buddha taught his disciples to vividly visualize the interior of a human body, with blood, coarse intestines etc, etc as a way to counter lust, or go to the graveyard to do meditation to get into your senses of the impermanence nature of life.

Contrary to what talk show host George Noory claimed that “Monumental Myths , is a veritable buffet for so-call conspiracy theorists”, when certain themes of phenomenon keep on repeating itself, you find so-called “conspiracy theory” turned out in time to be reality, and the so-called “conspiracy theorists ” are actually conspiracy analysts, who are the courageous heroic whistleblower. These “conspiracy theorists” turned out are the ones that called out the Emperor is naked!

Monumental Myths of the Modern Medical Mafia and Mainstream Media and the Multitude of Lying Liars That Manufactured Them Paperback – November 5, 2013 mentioned above is truly a eye opener. The author Ty Bollinger, wrote at the conclusion of the book, “George Orwell couldn’t have been more accurate when he said, ‘In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.’ It reminds me of an old proverb: ‘It’s hard to accept the truth when the lies were exactly what you wanted to hear.’

Ty Bollinger continues, ” I told my wife that this book was going to be the one that got me killed, so if you hear about me committing “suicide” by shooting myself in the head twice (like Investigative journalist Gary Webb purportedly did) or committing “suicide” by beating and torturing myself like Officer Terry Yeakey (Oklahoma City Policeman) allegedly did, or committing ‘suicide’ by shooting myself in the head and then wiping off the fingerprints after I’m dead (like deputy White House counsel during the first six months of the Clinton administration Vince Foster allegedly did) … don’t believe it. If I die in suspicious circumstances, then you can rest assured that ‘they’ got to me. Honestly, I’m not worried about it in the least. God is sovereignly controlling all things and I’m his kid, so He’s watching out for me”.

“God gives us the power of reason ‘for a reason,’ to discover truth. By definition, monumental myths are not true. They are contrary to reality. They turn truth on its head. they point fingers the wrong way. They’re pretexts for militarism, wars, mass killing and destruction, sickness, occupations, domestic repression, and other extremist national security state measures.

Hopefully, this book has helped you understand and appreciate why I said in the introduction that most monumental myths are not really as much of a ‘riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma’ as they are a ‘furtive foothill of foul-smelling feces wrapped in a fairytale inside a fable of fabrications and falsehoods.’ I hope that this book has inspired you to think for yourself, so that when the next false flag occurs (yes, there will be more false flags), you will not ‘blindly believe’ everything that the bimbo bobble-head bleached blonde on television tells you.”

” …. Since the invention of television, untold billions of people have been relying on a ‘television anchor’ to ‘explain the pictures.’ And even if the official explanations make no plausible sense, most folks believe them because ‘they’ told us so, and we all know that ‘they’ would never lie. As a result, scores of people, like lemmings, following one another right off the proverbial cliff. It is time to end the insanity. And this doesn’t just apply to television. it also applies to the ‘anchors’ in the ‘health’ care (which some folks refer to as ‘sickness perpetuation’) industry. ‘Well, Mr. Smith,’ the M.D. says, as he pins an X-ray to the wall. ‘See this thing? Right here? This lump? We’ll need to start chemo immediately, we’ll follow up with several rounds of radiation, and then, just in case, we might want to remove a large chunk of your brain. Then, as a preventative measure, we may need to remove an eye. If you find yourself in this position, say NO!!!!”

.

How Confucianism Can Lend Political Wisdom to the American Social Decay Plagued by Mercantilism

Posted on by PathFinder

子曰：“非礼勿视，非礼勿听，非礼勿言，非礼勿动“。本来三界唯心，万法唯识。（指十方三世一切有漏无漏法，皆因八识心王而有而显，八识心王复依第八识及无明而现于三界，无明业种及上烦恼随眠复由各自第八识所持而藉缘变现色身及世界山河，唯依第八识心而有，依第八识心而现，以第八识为根本。 心者：总有八识，唯第八识如来藏恒常坚住不坏，自凡夫位乃至成佛，皆是此识。） 但是如果我们的修行境界还没办法到达那样的高度，那么就要 不符合礼不看，不符合礼不听，不符合礼不说，不符合礼不做； 要符合礼的看，要符合礼的听，要符合礼的说，要符合礼的做。Confucious taught his students do not watch, listen, speak or do anything that does not ahere to the ethical standard. We have to be very vigilant in adhere to the rules. This requires constant introspection and self-reflection. And be alert the sway of the mind. I have to admit this is very hard to achieve in an environment bombard with all the information explosions. The power that be intentionally want to create many disinformation to confuse people, as they are afraid to the correct information that expose their not-so-decent intentions and abusing of power.

Amitabha Buddha taught something similar in his 48 vows. Amitabha Buddha’s 16th vow (out of 48 total vows) is: [16] If I should attain Buddhahood, yet humans and heavenly beings in my land would even hear the name of any unwholesomeness, may I not attain perfect enlightenment. (Reference to: Categorizing Amitabha’s 48 Vows in the Infinite Life Sutra )

This vow indicate to us the importance of culture and environment in influence our mind, body and spirit. That was why Amituofo had worked very hard to create a western paradise for advanced being to further cultivateboosting their practices. So Amituofo and Confucious teach us the same thing about interaction with media.《四种清净明诲》这是修出轮回的基础，是戒律中最高的“摄心为戒”。淫心、杀心、盗心、妄心，都是无量诸佛共同宣说的内容，是放之四海而皆准的恒定准则。 These practices is to help you depart from the four type of attachments. 所谓由戒生定，由定发慧，是为三无漏学。

Grown up in China Fujian Province where there was a general deep culture influence of Chan Buddhism and Confuciounism, I could not understand the widespread corruption and decline of moral standard in America, until I read the reseach paper Eclipse of Rent-Sharing: The Effects of Managers’ Business Education on Wages and the Labor Share in the US and Denmark by Daron Acemoglu (MIT), Alex Xi He (University of Maryland), and Daniel le Maire (University of Copenhagen). Fundamentally, the business degree including MBA education, which posts a huge number of college enrollment and tuition income, has plague the nation with a selfish mind and rent seeking greed, the silent destruction to the world is more violent than that of the neclear weapons.

When the elites of a country leverage their social status and power for self enrichment, the country has no hope. We see this manifested in sex offender, financier and international sex trafficking criminal Jeffrey Epstein. JPMorgan allegedly processed more than $1bn for Epstein over 16 years. Now four years after his death in prison, still questions swirl as lawsuit draws billionaire investor deeper into Epstein scandal. ‘Rambling’ Emails Reveal CREEPY Correspondence Between Jeffrey Epstein & Bill Gates: Report. “He’s Not Being Honest!” – What’s Elon Musk’s Connection To Jeffrey Epstein? Tara Lee Rodas, She is risking her life literally exposing the Biden Adminstration as ‘Middleman’ In Child Trafficking Operation.. She gives her opening statement on the child migrant crisis to the House Judiciary Committee.

Financial Money had turned into corruption of every cornor of the society. Even the most top power circle can not avoid such downfall. Max Blumenthal Details What Elites Are HIDING At Secretive Bilderberg Meetings.

The elites’ ethic debasement ranges from political arena to business, diplomatic circle to military group, from CEOs to school education, the decay from toxics of the mind is beyond words to describe. The research paper (Eclipse of Rent-Sharing mentioned above) provides evidence from the US and Denmark that managers with a business degree (“business managers”) reduce their employees’ wages. Within five years of the appointment of a business manager, wages decline by 6% and the labor share by 5 percentage points in the US, and by 3% and 3 percentage points in Denmark. Firms appointing business managers are not on differential trends and do not enjoy higher output, investment, or employment growth thereafter. Using manager retirements and deaths and an IV strategy based on the diffusion of the practice of appointing business managers within industry, region and size quartile cells, we provide additional evidence that these are causal effects. We establish that the proximate cause of these (relative) wage effects are changes in rent-sharing practices following the appointment of business managers. Exploiting exogenous export demand shocks, we show that non-business managers share profits with their workers, whereas business managers do not. But consistent with our first set of results, these business managers show no greater ability to increase sales or profits in response to exporting opportunities. Finally, we use the influence of role models on college major choice to instrument for the decision to enroll in a business degree in Denmark and show that our estimates correspond to causal effects of practices and values acquired in business education – rather than the differential selection into business education of individuals unlikely to share rents with workers.

According to AFL-CIO, The average S&P 500 company’s CEO-to-worker pay ratio was 272-to-1 in 2022. The Wikipedia wage ratio revealled that in 2017, the Leader of the Opposition Jeremy Corbyn called for an enforced wage ratio for any company awarded a government contract, of 20:1 between the executives and the lowest-paid employee. Switzerland had set a Popular Initiative “1:12 Initiative – For fair wages”  by a referendum in 2013. In Canada, The Wagemark Foundation, a Toronto-based not-for-profit organization is working to create an international wage standard certifying organizations that can prove they operate with a wage ratio of 8:1.

Confuciounism is the totall opposition of the Mercantilism. 子曰：“无欲速，无见小利。欲速，则不达；见小利，则大事不成”。为什么不要只关注利益？孟子跟梁惠王讲了一个故事，深有启发。不与民争利；欲望是无止境的，民众得到再多的利益，也是永远不会满足。 只有让大家不要关心利益，而是关心仁义才能得到长治久安。 这里的仁义就是利己和利他。 如果整个国家的人都是自私自利，只有每一个人都能关心他人，整个国家才能得到蓬勃发展。 孟子的思想就是集体主义精神.

第二方面是与民同乐而不要独乐，这是仁政思想的另一个体现。 古之人与民同乐，故能乐也。 周文王修建高台灵池，百姓非常喜欢， 因为周文王与民同乐。 夏朝的夏桀是个暴君，他独自享用高台灵池，却得不到快乐。

第三，仁者无敌。 养民教民。 要战胜别人，首先要自强，要能战胜自己。让百姓辛勤劳作， 让人们学习孝悌忠信.

第四，国家领导应该推己及人，把自己的恩惠和仁德推广开来，给人民树立好的榜样， 他的影响力就会越来越大， 保民而王，莫之能御也。

王孟源【金融】【戰略】國際金融未來趨勢
【後註三，2023/09/18】因爲美式MBA教育所帶來的商界文化腐朽，是消滅生產效率、推高貧富不均的重要推手，我在上周的訪談節目（參見《龍行天下》）中甚至開玩笑，說他們是現代社會的最大毀滅力量之一，甚至可怕過戰略核武。

於是有讀者和我分享了一篇論文（參見《Eclipse of rent-sharing: The effects of managers business education》），針對美國和丹麥商業主管接受MBA教育後的實際表現做了詳細統計分析，發現他們不但不增加產品銷量，連對利潤都沒有絲毫貢獻，唯一可以測量到的差異，在於他們大幅改變了薪資結構：削減底層而圖利高層。論文作者進一步確定，支付這些薪資的資金來自公司舊有的生意傳承，和他們的“管理”毫無關係。總結來説，資本主義體制是圖利大資本的設計，而商學院教育在其中所扮演的角色，在於通過誘惑鼓勵經理階級參與分贓，來為掠奪勞工生產價值做普及和掩飾；這些MBA別説對國家社會，就是對公司和商場也是毫無正面價值的毒藥，有興趣深究的讀者可以參考聯想的案例。

Is U.S Constitution and Supreme Court Outdated for Constructive Change ? – an Exploration of Public Trust and Social Contract

Posted on by PathFinder

Eugene Luther Gore Vidal, one of our greatest intellectual treasures, was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit. His novels and essays interrogated the social and cultural sexual norms he perceived as driving American life. Beyond literature, Vidal was heavily involved in politics. He is boasted John F. Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt, amonst others his best friends. He had always said USA is a country founded by rich white wealthy men, FOR rich white wealthy men, the country they wanted was a nirvana for the small percentage of the wealthy, it was never built for majority of the poor. The United States of Amnesia-Gore Vidal (2013) [Documentary] What an amazing, brilliant man who lived life fully; and saw the whole picture.

Written by 55 of the richest white men of early America, and signed by only 39 of them, the constitution is the sacred text of American nationalism. Many Americans have opinions on the constitution but have no idea what’s in it. The book We the Elites: Why the US Constitution Serves the Few – a class analysis of the US Constitution, (Pluto Press, 2022) is an adroit collection of essays exposing the constitution for what it really is – a rulebook to protect capitalism for the elites. Author Robert Ovetz’s reading of the constitution shows that the system isn’t broken. Far from it. It works as it was designed. The misplaced faith of social movements in the constitution as a framework for achieving justice actually obstructs social change – incessant lengthy election cycles, staggered terms, and legislative sessions have kept social movements trapped in a redundant loop. This stymies progress on issues like labor rights, public health, and climate change, projecting the American people and the rest of the world towards destruction.

In this Democracy At Work program – Economic Update: Why The US Constitution Is An Obstacle To Change, Prof. Wolff presents updates on the US banking crisis, plant closing injustice, growing child labor in the US, Biden’s budget’s tax “proposals,” and a new book that shows US homelessness is an economic problem. In the second half of the show, Wolff interviews Prof. Robert Ovetz on how and why the US Constitution blocks social change.

One of the premises within the US political parties is that private capital is to be left to those who are entrepreneurs, and not to go after the profit making. If businesses start being created under a democratic process brought on by the labor that produces the goods and services that creates those profits, the only response to stop would be outright fascism (we already operate under that in way already). Power that be always talk about free enterprise, until that freedom goes from the few to the masses.

The Homelessness is a Housing Problem discussion a very pressing issue offering a case in point about the homeless is an economic issue. Gregg Colburn, an assistant professor of real estate in the University of Washington’s College of Built Environments. Ph.D. in Public Affairs, … and Clayton Page Aldern, a writer and data scientist. They team up to seek to explain the substantial regional variation in rates of homelessness in cities across the United States. In a departure from many analytical approaches, Colburn and Aldern shift their focus from the individual experiencing homelessness to the metropolitan area. Using accessible statistical analysis, they test a range of conventional beliefs about what drives the prevalence of homelessness in a given city—including mental illness, drug use, poverty, weather, generosity of public assistance, and low-income mobility—and find that none explain the regional variation observed across the country. Instead, housing market conditions, such as the cost and availability of rental housing, offer a far more convincing account. With rigor and clarity, Homelessness Is a Housing Problem explores U.S. cities’ diverse experiences with housing precarity and offers policy solutions for unique regional contexts.

In the book Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s urgent mission to bring healing to homeless people Hardcover – January 17, 2023, the non-fiction, award winning author, Tracy Kidder has given new insight into a difficult and disturbing feature of contemporary America: an ever increasing homeless population.  Kidder shadowed Dr. James O’Connell as he treated the homeless of Boston in clinics and from a mobile unit on the streets at night. The powerful story of an inspiring doctor who made a difference, by helping to create a program to care for Boston’s homeless community. Tracy Kidder spent five years following Dr. O’Connell and his colleagues as they served their thousands of homeless patients. It all started when Jim O’Connell graduated from Harvard Medical School and was nearing the end of his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, the chief of medicine made a proposal: Would he defer a prestigious fellowship and spend a year helping to create an organization to bring health care to homeless citizens? Jim took the job because he felt he couldn’t refuse. But that year turned into his life’s calling.

Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor Paperback – Illustrated, August 6, 2019 is written by Virginia Eubanks is an American political scientist, professor, and author studying technology and social justice.  Eubanks launched a powerful investigative look at data-based discrimination and how technology affects civil and human rights and economic equity. The State of Indiana denies one million applications for healthcare, foodstamps and cash benefits in three years―because a new computer system interprets any mistake as “failure to cooperate.” In Los Angeles, an algorithm calculates the comparative vulnerability of tens of thousands of homeless people in order to prioritize them for an inadequate pool of housing resources. In Pittsburgh, a child welfare agency uses a statistical model to try to predict which children might be future victims of abuse or neglect.

Author aruges that since the dawn of the digital age, decision-making in finance, employment, politics, health and human services has undergone revolutionary change. Today, automated systems―rather than humans―control which neighborhoods get policed, which families attain needed resources, and who is investigated for fraud. While we all live under this new regime of data, the most invasive and punitive systems are aimed at the poor. The U.S. has always used its most cutting-edge science and technology to contain, investigate, discipline and punish the destitute. Like the county poorhouse and scientific charity before them, digital tracking and automated decision-making hide poverty from the middle-class public and give the nation the ethical distance it needs to make inhumane choices: which families get food and which starve, who has housing and who remains homeless, and which families are broken up by the state. In the process, they weaken democracy and betray our most cherished national values.

Eubanks offers historical context about the role of the poorhouse in earlier American societies to explain how, through technology, we’ve built a digital poorhouse that is just as abusive and stigmatizing. This is a critical read for anyone who is trying to understand poverty in America and why well-intended technology is only going to be used to exacerbate existing social inequities. “Automating Inequality” is ethnography at its best, on par with Barbara Ehrenreich’s “Nickel and Dimed” or Matt Desmond’s “Evicted.” This book details how algorithmic technologies are upending basic government programs supporting the unhoused in accessing shelter, providing access to welfare, and managing child services programs. 

With so many school shooting, another topic at the center of debates is Gun control. As a Buddhist, I am strongly against the use of weapon for the danger of violating the precepts of not killing – one of the very important precepts in the Buddha’s teaching. But after these several years of research into American social political and economic system, I can understand why there are also strong arguments about keeping the gun for self protection. Just like Marijuana, Fentanyl and many other additictive drugs, the government did not spend any resources to prevent the usage in the first place – another case of resources misallocation.

One of these arguments came from John R. Lott, Jr., an American economist, political commentator, and gun rights advocate, on his battle with disinformation over gun control! In this book, Gun Control Myths: How politicians, the media, and botched “studies” have twisted the facts on gun control Paperback – July 3, 2020 John brings together an impressive array of data and statistical analysis to argue that much of what we hear in the mainstream media — and from politicians — about gun violence and gun control is incorrect and biased. He has a point – well, several actually. This book should be read by anyone concerned about gun violence and, most importantly, by anyone who writes about gun violence. The book might not change many opinions, as positions in the gun violence and control argument are set pretty hard…but perhaps even those with the firmest-held beliefs will be forced to reflect and think carefully about some of John’s data, analysis and conclusions. They should, if they are truly interested in the truth.

Another book The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America Hardcover – June 1, 2021 Carol Anderson powerfully illuminates the history and impact of the Second Amendment, how it was designed, and how it has consistently been constructed to keep African Americans powerless and vulnerable. The Second is neither a “pro-gun” nor an “anti-gun” book; the lens is the citizenship rights and human rights of African Americans.

The recent instance of a young African teen were shot when knocking someone’s door is an reflection of the deep anxiety of America. Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship since Brown v. Board of Education Paperback – November 1, 2006 The author Danielle Allen, a professor of public policy, politics, and ethics at Harvard University, brought focus back to the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954 and to the famous photograph of Elizabeth Eckford, one of the Little Rock Nine, being cursed by fellow “citizen” Hazel Bryan, Allen argues that we have yet to complete the transition to political friendship that this moment offered. By combining brief readings of philosophers and political theorists with personal reflections on race politics in Chicago, Allen proposes strikingly practical techniques of citizenship. These tools of political friendship, Allen contends, can help us become more trustworthy to others and overcome the fossilized distrust among us. Sacrifice is the key concept that bridges citizenship and trust, according to Allen. She uncovers the ordinary, daily sacrifices citizens make to keep democracy working—and offers methods for recognizing and reciprocating those sacrifices. Trenchant, incisive, and ultimately hopeful, Talking to Strangers is nothing less than a manifesto for a revitalized democratic citizenry.

Why Trust Matters: Declining Political Trust and the Demise of American Liberalism Hardcover Using both individual and aggregate level survey data, Marc Hetherington, an American political scientist, shows that the rapid decline in Americans’ political trust since the 1960s is critical to explaining this puzzle. As people lost faith in the federal government, the delivery system for most progressive policies, they supported progressive ideas much less. The 9/11 attacks increased such trust as public attention focused on security, but the effect was temporary. Specifically, Hetherington shows that, as political trust declined, so too did support for redistributive programs, such as welfare and food stamps, and race-targeted programs. While the presence of race in a policy area tends to make political trust important for whites, trust affects policy preferences in other, non-race-related policy areas as well. In the mid-1990s the public was easily swayed against comprehensive health care reform because those who felt they could afford coverage worried that a large new federal bureaucracy would make things worse for them. In demonstrating a strong link between public opinion and policy outcomes, this engagingly written book represents a substantial contribution to the study of public opinion and voting behavior, policy, and American politics generally.

Slanted: How the News Media Taught Us to Love Censorship and Hate Journalism Hardcover – November 24, 2020. takes on the media’s misreporting on Black Lives Matter, coronavirus, Joe Biden, Silicon Valley censorship, and more. For the past four years, five-time Emmy Award–winning investigative journalist and New York Times bestselling author Sharyl Attkisson has been collecting and dissecting alarming incidents tracing the shocking devolution of what used to be the most respected news organizations on the planet. For the first time, top news executives and reporters representing every major national television news outlet—from ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN to FOX and MSNBC—speak frankly, confiding in Attkisson about the death of the news as they once knew it. Their concern transcends partisan divides. We have reached a state of utter absurdity, where journalism schools teach students that their own, personal truth or chosen narratives matter more than reality. In Slanted, Attkisson digs into the language of propagandists, the persistence of false media narratives, the driving forces behind today’s dangerous blend of facts and opinion, the abandonment of journalism ethics, and the new, Orwellian definition of what it means to report the news. 

With loving kindness taught by the Buddha, with divine principle as our guideline, with a sincre notion that we are all equal at the soul level, everyone of us all can strive to make this World Be A Better Place ! Because in uplifting others, we uplifting our own spirit.

The Pros and Cons of Globalization 2 – Taxes, Budget, National Debt

Posted on by PathFinder

The Inflation Reduction Act signed into law authorized $80 billion in funding for the Internal Revenue Service over the next 10 years. More than $45 billion is earmarked for enforcement — part of an effort to close the estimated $600 billion “tax gap,” the difference between what Americans owe and what they actually pay. In fact, research by the Wharton School of Business concludes that the Inflation Reduction Act “would have no meaningful effect on inflation in the near term but would reduce inflation by around 0.1 percentage points by the middle of the first decade.”

And then it is reported a couple days ago that U.S. IRS to hire nearly 20,000 staff over two years with $80 billion in new funds. We wonder if that will resolve the problem of inequality? While experts generally agree that the legislation will modestly help slow the growth of prices, its benefits to the consumer is unclear.

Our Selfish Tax Laws: Toward Tax Reform That Mirrors Our Better Selves by Anthony Infanti (The MIT Press) Hardcover – October 2, 2018 written by a Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and a Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, explore the topics of Why tax law is not just a pocketbook issue but a reflection of what and whom we, as a society, value. Most of us think of tax as a pocketbook issue: how much we owe, how much we’ll get back, how much we can deduct. In Our Selfish Tax Laws, Anthony Infanti takes a broader view, considering not just how taxes affect us individually but how the tax system reflects our culture and society. He finds that American tax laws validate and benefit those who already possess power and privilege while starkly reflecting the lines of difference and discrimination in American society based on race, ethnicity, socioeconomic class, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity, immigration status, and disability. Infanti argues that instead of focusing our tax reform discussions on which loopholes to close or which deductions to allow, we should consider how to make our tax system reflect American ideals of inclusivity rather than institutionalizing exclusion.

 Infanti offers two comparative case studies, examining the treatment of housing tax expenditures and the unit of taxation in the United States, Canada, France, and Spain to show how tax law reflects its social and cultural context. Then, drawing on his own work and that of other critical tax scholars, Infanti explains how the discourse surrounding tax reform masks the many ways that the American tax system rewards and reifies privilege. To counter this, Infanti urges us to work together to create a society with a tax system that respects and values all Americans.

The recent CPI numbers indicated that The index for shelter was by far the largest contributor to the monthly all items increase. This more than offset a decline in the energy. Housing played a major role in the February CPI all-items index, with shelter accounting for 70 percent of the increase. There is a different argument that The Biggest Driver of Inflation Is a Price That No One Is Actually Paying. Which one is more reflective of reality?

The Book, Only the Rich Can Play: How Washington Works in the New Gilded Age revealed the underbelly of a system tilted in favor of the few, with the many left out in the cold. David Wessel, a senior fellow in Economic Studies at Brookings and director of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy, unveil incredible tale of how Washington works-and why the rich keep getting richer-starts when a Silicon Valley entrepreneur develops an idea intended as a way to help poor people that will save rich people money on their taxes. He organizes and pays for an effective lobbying effort that pushes his idea into law with little scrutiny or fine-tuning by congressional or Treasury tax experts-and few safeguards against abuse. With an unbeatable pair of high-profile sponsors, bumper-sticker simplicity and deft political marketing, the Opportunity Zone became an unnoticed part of the 2017 Trump tax bill.

In another book, Red Ink: Inside the High-Stakes Politics of the Federal Budget Paperback – July 2, 2013, David Wessel, the Pulitzer-Prize-winning reporter, columnist, and bestselling author of In Fed We Trust, dissects the federal budget in this New York Times bestseller. In a sweeping narrative about the people and the politics behind the budget–a topic that is fiercely debated today in the halls of Congress and the media, and yet is often misunderstood by the American public–Wessel looks at the 2011 fiscal year (which ended September 30) to see where all the money was actually spent, and why the budget process has grown wildly out of control. Through the eyes of key people, including Jacob Lew, White House director of the Office of Management and Budget; Douglas Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office; Blackstone founder and former Commerce Secretary Pete Peterson; and more, Wessel gives readers an inside look at the making of our unsustainable budget.

Red Ink is a sobering look at the 2012 federal budget, including an analysis of the “unsustainable trajectory” of federal borrowing—which has expanded significantly in the seven years since this book was published. The U.S. government will spend $1.28 for every dollar it receives in 2020, and is set to run trillion-dollar yearly deficits as far as the eye can see. And now in 2023, Federal budget deficit hits $1.1 trillion over six months: CBO estimates. U.S. government posts $378 billion deficit in March.

At this rate, by 2049 federal debt will equal 174 percent of U.S. Gross Domestic Product—the value of all goods and services produced in this country in one year. And gone are the days we could console ourselves by saying the national debt is no problem “because we owe it to ourselves.” Today, around half our debt is owed to foreign nationals, over $2 trillion to China and Japan, societies that saved while we borrowed.

Public economics and public policy: The ideas and influence of Martin Feldstein, 1939-2019 spoke of the method Martin Feldstein deployed in institutional data collection and policy making bases. Maybe congressional government need to establish committees to work on these important issues.

Pitfall of Corporate Power, Structural Fraud in Tax Code, War Economy, Gun Violence and Huge Disparity in the Era of Globalization

Posted on by PathFinder

In The New Human Rights Movement – Reinventing the Economy to End Oppression, Peter Joseph wrote: “Today the US leads the world in terms of both economic influence and military force, endlessly pushing the neoliberal values of “free trade” as a root priority. The incentives that are at play in the US war economy is like a philosophical crusade, it has been deemed an imperative of Western business-political leaders to ensure that people comply with what is in effect the new global religion – a religion that invariably prioritizes commerce over everything else, with human rights increasingly subordinated to business rights. When one understands how the rules of trade, property, and exchange have become the determining mechanisms of society, decoupling focus from actual life-supporting means and factors of social trust, the dehumanized, conflicted-ridden nature of the modern world begins to make a lot more sense.

Given this ethic, educations is simply another product to be bought and sold and little more. The US government allocates roughly 2 percent of its annual budge to education. This is in stark contrast to the 20 percent of its annual budget to military, suggesting war is more beneficial to the nation’s leaders than an educated population.” New Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz questions the double standard of Republican party: “558 people has been murdered in school, who cared about the cost? What about the kids? No hearings for them! Three hundred thirty thousand kids experience gun violence in this country, the number one killer of school age children in this country is gun violence.”

Just see Who REALLY Won the War in Afghanistan. This list is just a drop on the bucket. The list of who got super rich off the war is longer than any of us can fathom. The incentives are at play in the US war economy – this is a structure issue as well as a moral issue. Edward Snowden says “When exposing a crime is treated as committing a crime, you are being ruled by criminals”. What blows our mind is that killing innocent Iraqi civilians can be swept under the rug without any consequences but leaking publishing information about can get you jailed for multiple years, as in the case of Julian Assange who is a hero to expose the corruption. We thankful to these people who take the time to defend society’s true freedom. The fact that the most powerful country of the world feel so threatened by a man like Julian Assange speaks of itself. ‘The object of power is power. The object of torture is torture.’ -1984, Orwell.

In The Code of Capital: How the Law Creates Wealth and Inequality Paperback – November 3, 2020 Katharina Pistor, a legal scholar demonstrates how the rights of capital have been entrenched in the international legal system, opening a thoughtful discussion about the treaties on capital flows and privileges that need to be rewritten. The book explains how, behind closed doors in the offices of private attorneys, capital is created―and why this little-known activity is one of the biggest reasons for the widening wealth gap between the holders of capital and everybody else. The book explains the various ways that debt, complex financial products, and other assets are selectively coded to protect and reproduce private wealth. This provocative book paints a troubling portrait of the pervasive global nature of the code, the people who shape it, and the governments that enforce it. The author argues that almost everything that we call wealth is ultimately a human construction based in law and subject to review and change. What is the point of endlessly arguing about the ineffable logic of economics if that logic largely emerges from the fabric of law? Much more likely those laws are merely another political landscape upon which the endless struggle between the powerful and the rest plays out. And as such, they are changeable – and with that change, outcomes will be different. Moreover, this discussion is morally necessary because it is ultimately the power of the state – as the representative of the people – which is being used to enforce the claims of wealth among its citizens. A powerful new way of thinking about one of the most pernicious problems of our time.

Today people almost take for granted big corporate money in American politics. Not only can congresspeople trade stocks, they can insider trade without repercussions. It’s absurd. But it started with the Powell memo. The Corporate “Heist” of the United States Government Began With this Memo in 1971. Lewis Powell was a corporate attorney from Virginia who was asked by his friend at the US Chamber of Commerce to write a secret strategy memorandum for the chamber in 1971. Two months later, Richard Nixon nominated him to the Supreme Court of the United States, where he served a number of years. The memo became a rallying cry among corporate executives for how to reassert corporate dominance over the American economy and its government, which it had lost during the era of the New Deal. The memo openly stated that corporations should punish their political enemies and should seek political power through both the law and politics. It encouraged challenges to what it saw as left-wing activities by people such as Ralph Nader and US academics. By 1978, the US Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable defeated pro-labor law reforms through a filibuster by Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, which signaled the demise of organized labor as a significant opponent of organized money.

Economist Robert Reich wrote in Worse Memo in American History: Wealthy individuals also accounted for a growing share. In 1980, the richest one-hundredth of 1% of Americans provided 10% of contributions to federal elections. By 2012, they provided 40%. Although Republicans mostly benefited from a few large donors and Democrats from a much larger number of small donors (more on this to come), both political parties transformed themselves from state and local organizations that channeled the views of members upward into giant fundraising machines that sucked in money from the top.

Senator Joe Manchin has been Congress’ largest recipient of money from natural gas pipeline companies. He just reciprocated by gaining Senate support for the Mountain Valley pipeline in West Virginia and expedited approval for pipelines nationwide. Senator Kyrsten Sinema is among Congress’s largest recipients of money from the private-equity industry. She just reciprocated by preserving private-equity’s tax loophole in the Inflation Reduction Act.

In a interview on political economic laws, Mark Karlin, Managing Editor of Buzzflash on Truthout, asked: Playing the role of devil’s advocate, despite the planned evolution of a pro-corporate majority on the Supreme Court, one of their most significant rulings in the past few years, Citizens United, was not able to buy them the 2012 presidential election. Was this a fluke, or are changing demographics starting to counterbalance, at least on some key occasions, the insidious influence of big money?

Thom Hartmann, an political commentator views it this way: “I think it’s both. First, the selection allowed them to calibrate their systems for future elections. I mean, when you think of what an incredibly bad candidate Mitt Romney was – a predatory banker who was born a millionaire and couldn’t even pull decent approval ratings numbers in the state where he had been governor – what should shock and horrify all of us is that he was able to get, ironically, 47 percent of the vote. You have virtually every Republican member of the House of Representatives who voted for Paul Ryan’s budget – which would have decimated the middle class, voucherized Medicare and dropped Mitt Romney’s tax rate to zero – and enough of them, with billionaire support, were able to get elected but they held the House. I see these as very dangerous and, frankly, frightening trends. And not only will they be back, but it’s already begun.”

Look at this group of multi-millionaire and billionaire CEOs who, along with a few shill former politicians, have started this multi-million-dollar AstroTurf “fix the debt” group. We didn’t see the end; we just saw the very beginning. Unless we amend the Constitution to say that corporations are not people and that money is not speech, America will soon become a full-blown oligarchy.

It is interesting how the term philanthropy, defined as “the desire to promote the welfare of others,” has become associated almost exclusively with the wealthy; a badge worn to show how they “give back” to the community. Yet, rarely is the question of why there is the need to give back considered from the standpoint of market dynamics itself. While there is indeed growing global concern about increasing inequality, existing poverty, and so on little real effort is being made to counter the problem from the standpoint of altering the social structure to correct what are clearly systemic problems inherent in or society. In fact, philanthropy appears to be the only practice to redistribute wealth that isn’t met head-on with great disdain by the prevailing intelligentsia, especially in America. Even quite basic traditional platforms, such as increased taxation of the rich, are routinely met with contempt by gatekeeper of the capitalist religion. In the words of conservative Forbes contributor Jeffery Dorfman, “Income Redistribution’s Logical Conclusion Is Communism…. once you admit that income redistribution is fair, there is no logical stopping point short of communism.” This kind of anti-social dogma is nothing new, prominently set in motion in the early to mid-twentieth century when the threat of communism was putting capitalist hegemony at risk. The long-term consequence has been a reactionary Western culture that sees any direct government action toward economic equality, especially if it inconveniences the wealthy, as little more than a move toward bureaucratic tyranny.

While all charity is admirable, once it becomes institutionalized and funded to the extent seen by organizations such as the Gates Foundation, it turns into something different, with extended social ramifications. These elite charities are true, large-scale institutions with power, engaging in lobbying, transnational partnerships, political policy alignments, and so on. Where and how the George Soroses and Bill Gateses of the world mobilize money can have powerful effects on industry, politics, culture, academia, scientific research, national policy, and the like. In the case of Gates, his foundation is “undeniably, the most powerful an influential global health charity in history,” in the words of health-law professor Lawrence Gostin. What critics rightfully point out is that, regardless of good intention, unaccountable, singular private power in global health affairs poses serious problems, in the same way autocratic dictatorships pose serious problems for democracy and liberty. Any organization with the power to actually affect the lives of millions of people needs transparency, accountability, and a democratic presence. Thee private institutions have little to non.

What we have is the rise of a new breed of pseudo-egalitarian capitalists. They generate their great wealth by way of often ruthless competitive behavior in the private sector, arguably promoting the very mechanisms that have led to the vast structural violence and extensive poverty existing on Earth to begin with. They then turn around and offer their charity as the solution to the problems created by the very system that rewards them. Once again, this has nothing to do with intent. It is about an underlying hypocrisy that bypasses and obscures the real problem-solving focus desperately needed to further human-rights justice. That focus can only be structural.

At the same time, this institutionalization of philanthropy also serves to placate the public, giving a caring face to those who have often extracted such great wealth at the cost of others’ well-being. In the words of activist Slavoj Zizek, “Charity is the humanitarian mask hiding the face of economic exploitation.” There is a deep psychological need in those of great wealth to feel that their exceptionalism is justified. They naturally wish not only to ensure everyone believes they deserve what they have, but also to justify it to themselves. An example of this is the “Giving Pledge” project it is very difficult not to view the entire project as a PR stunt for the upper 0.1 percent. There is no transparency, so the public might never know whether a person gave or not.

For those who do follow through, there are prominent tax incentives, specifically in the United States. Since donations to charity and philanthropic foundations allow for reduced tax liability for the rich, giving money away often becomes an act of strategic self-interest. Very often, the rich simply set up their own foundations and move money through them via tax loopholes. Estate taxes are interesting as they relate to the rich only. In the US when wealthy people die, s In 2023, the federal estate tax ranges from rates of 18% to 40% and generally only applies to assets over $12.92 million. The rich work around this tax in various ways, with charitable foundations forming the most common means. A study done by the Tax Policy Center in 2003 found that “the estate tax encourage charitable giving at death by allowing a deduction for charitable bequests” and “also encourages giving during life.” The Congressional Budge Office corroborated this finding and added that during life, this same class would also reduce giving by up to 11 percent.

With globalization wealth inequality explode to a level never seen before. Disparity is not a Democratic or Republican problem. It is a problem challenging our great cities, sprawling suburbs and rural heartland.  Asian Americans are among the fastest growing group in US. But Why income inequality is growing at the fastest rate among Asian Americans. According to Pew Research Center, the median household income for Asian American households was $85,800 in 2019, slightly higher than the total U.S. median household income. Burmese Americans, however, bring in a household income of $44,400, about half of the median income for Asians in the United States. It’s an example of the widening income inequality within the Asian American community. Aggregate economic data often overshadows poverty experienced by many Asian Americans. Even in Taiwan, one of the most well-to-do and democratic politics in Asian regions, the Housing Affordability Crisis is closely related to Government Policy Actions in Taiwan.

In June 2020, US House Speaker Pelosi appointed the Select Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth. The Committee was suppose to develop solutions to the key economic issue of our time: the yawning prosperity gap between wealthy Americans and everyone else. America is more unequal today than it has ever been, and far more unequal than other developed nations. Great wealth disparities slow our economy, poison our politics and offend our moral sensibilities. The Committee was dissolved in January 2023 at the start of the 118th Congress, is not fair and justice one of the most pressing issues of our time? With government cutting social welfare, Assisted-living homes are rejecting Medicaid and evicting seniors. How to balance business interest with humanitarian and needs is something our government needs to address.

The Maker Versus the Takers: What Jesus Really Said About Social Justice and Economics Paperback – August 23, 2022 by Jerry Bowyer (Author). Jesus definitely wants His followers to be compassionate and generous, He had no problem with those who accumulate wealth honestly, by hard work or even shrewd investments, enjoying the fruits of their efforts. Rather His issue is with those in positions of power who prosper by exploiting the less fortunate. As the author puts it, “What you will see is Jesus confronting the takers of wealth, not the makers of it”. Jesus never said anything negative about wealth or rich people when preaching in Galilee, which was characterized by numerous moderately prosperous tradespeople and small family farms, what today we would call “small businesses.” It was only in Judea, and especially Jerusalem, where a powerful ruling class exploited the people for their own profit, that He had harsh things to say to the rich.

Financial Crisis and Its Tie with U.S. Government Irresponsibility

Posted on by PathFinder

The sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank was met by an equally swift response from US regulators. But the crisis is far from over, and the nature of the authorities’ response introduces problems of its own….. time inconsistency in policy making (coming up with new tools and rules after the fact) does present a difficult problem. In this case, a bank run suddenly rendered an optimal policy – limited deposit guarantees – suboptimal. But by breaking their own rule, regulators jeopardize their own credibility. Rescuing all SVB depositors – including those with deposits above the FDIC ceiling – is not without controversy, says Takatoshi Ito, a former Japanese deputy vice minister of finance, a professor at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and a senior professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo.

However, there are ways to mitigate moral hazard. First, depositors should be guaranteed for their principal, but not for interest payments (or at least for above-average payments). Second, bank executives’ salaries for the period leading up to the crisis – say, the previous three years – should be clawed back, and any pending bonuses should be denied. One reason why the 2008 bank bailouts were so unpopular was that executives still received bonuses. This must not be repeated in the current crisis.

In a piece with Project Syndicate, An Insolvency Iceberg, Ito detail analyze the logic, assuming the media’s reporting tells the whole story:

This is where moral hazard comes in. Now that US authorities have issued an ex post blanket guarantee, all depositors will expect that any and all deposits will be protected. They will duly pour deposits into institutions offering higher interest rates; but such competitive rates tend to be offered on large deposits by weak banks with tight liquidity constraints. These weak institutions’ depositors can now anticipate being made whole if the institution fails. Accordingly, they will cease to play any monitoring role within the financial system.

And make no mistake: bank executives will be motivated to take on a lot more risk. On one hand, if their risky loans do not become non-performing, their institutions will reap large profits, and they will be compensated handsomely. On the other hand, if their loans go south, they will just leave the bank and move on to the next thing (recall that SVB paid out bonuses on the very day that it was failing).

…..In Japan, where the inflation rate is much lower than in the US and Europe …… and the Bank of Japan is still intervening in the market to cap the ten-year bond rate at 50 basis points. But if the inflation rate in Japan continues to rise for the rest of the year, some regional Japanese banks may confront liquidity crises, which could trigger bank runs. Though this is far from the baseline scenario, it cannot be ruled out.

Over the last few months, a G7 economy (the United Kingdom), a midsize US bank (Silicon Valley Bank), a small African economy (Ghana), a lower-middle-income South Asian economy (Pakistan), and the fastest-growing global services sector (technology) have all faced short-term cash constraints. Monetary-policy tightening in the United States – where the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 475 basis points in the space of a year – has produced knock-on effects around the world. But the stark disparities in how these effects are being treated speak volumes about current global financial arrangements. As in past systemic crises, this one is revealing major flaws in the international financial system. Vera Songwe, Chair of the Liquidity and Sustainability Facility, is a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, wrote in Where Is the Global South’s Rescue Brigade?

In another article The Fed’s Role in the Bank Failures by Raghuram G. Rajan, former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, and Viral V. Acharya, a former deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India, pointed out There are four reasons to worry that the latest banking crisis could be systemic. The article re-examines bank behavior and supervision, reminds the Fed that it cannot afford to ignore the role that its own monetary policies (especially QE) played in creating today’s difficult conditions.

The two authors called attention to a under-appreciated fact in a paper presented at the Fed’s annual Jackson Hole conference in August 2022. As the Fed resumed QE during the pandemic, uninsured bank deposits rose from about $5.5 trillion at the end of 2019 to over $8 trillion by the first quarter of 2022.

Yanis Varoufakis, a former finance minister of Greece, is leader of the MeRA25 party and Professor of Economics at the University of Athens, suggest in Let the Banks Burn, ” In fact, regulators and central banks knew everything. They enjoyed full access to banks’ business models. They could see vividly that these models would not survive the combination of significant increases in long-term interest rates and a sudden withdrawal of deposits. Even so, they did nothing. “

Humanity Have to Live According to Cosmic Order

Posted on by PathFinder

Today there is an article talked about AI Develops Cancer Treatment In 30 Days, Predicts Survival Rate. This paper try to persuade readers the evidence of the capacity for AI to transform the drug discovery process with enhanced speed, efficiency, and accuracy, and Michael Levitt, a Nobel Prize winner in chemistry is an enthusiastic supporter of this, as well as big corporations. In my not so humbled opinion, this is allopathy model scare the heck out of me. After the covid-19 vaccination development and still the virus mutate all the time, AI methods is just going to create more virus rather than healing. AI model is one that of arrogant 简单粗暴, deviate from cosmic wisdom. What a pity AI can not treat itself of cancer! What confidence you put on people who do NOT follow the maxim of “do it to others as you would like to do it onto yourself”?

My sucepticle come from my understanding of Traditional Chinese Medicine mechanism, which does not relate so well with chemistry because TCM used organic herbal compounds rather than single non-organic chemical abstracts. Western chemical is based on quantifiable 109 table of elements of the world. This model of worldview separates matter(Yang) and spirit (Yin), causing biased understanding of the human body function. The characteristic of TCM diagnoses is based on balance of Yin Yang and Five Xin (Water, Wood, Fire, Earth and Metal). I believe other holistic treatment like India’s Ayveda and Native Americans energy medicine all follow this kind of approach.

中国著名中医学家、国医大师周仲瑛教授临证六十余载，擅长恶性肿瘤诊治，从“癌毒”辨治恶性肿瘤取得了突出的疗效。周老根据他60年临证经验， 认为癌毒是恶性肿瘤的病机关键，恶性肿瘤的治疗务必以“消癌解毒”为首要。肿瘤病机虽有多端，但概而言之，不外“虚、毒、痰、瘀”四端，四者之间常相互夹杂、相兼为患。 临证根据邪正虚实、标本缓急，或以攻毒祛邪为主，或以补虚扶正为主，或攻补兼施。根据癌毒与痰、瘀、湿、热等病理因素兼夹主次情况，配合化痰、祛瘀、利湿、清热等治法。初期，正虚不显时，以消癌解毒配合化痰软坚、逐瘀散结为主；中期，兼有脏腑功能失调时，可适当伍入调理脏腑功能之品；晚期，正虚明显者，则以补益气血阴阳为主，兼顾消癌解毒、化痰软坚、逐瘀散结等法。

Continue with the idea of cancer derived from toxic not expelled out from body and accumulate over the time causing the Yin Yang out of balance （cell mutation), we notice this phenomenon is manifested in social political economic sphere as well. Human ego’s crave for perpetuate growth, desire with having more, which is not in align with how universe operate. Just observe the four seasons with each season contribute to the development of next one. People have observed when there are no obvious winter season, the plants does not bloom in spring and summer. Before the globalization, different regions lived different life style and pace of growth, allowing complementary space. After Columbus discover the new continent, all the development is exploited on the idea of colonization or expanding territory. The last five hundred plus year witnessed the process of exploitation to Earth resources now verged on exhaustion. That western philosophy was winner takes it all, which build in human’s fight and flight response to life, had now spread to rest of the world with globalization as norm. Human’s insatiable desire keep on taking from the nature without any giving back. But the covid-19 is the siren waking us to our self-destructive behavior. Russia Ukraine war is another loud alarm for impending nuclear war! Humanity HAVE to live their life according to cosmic order, divine principle, or face the danger of extinction, similar to the 9-11 disaster symbolism of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.

The recent bank insolvency of Credit Suisse and potential many others accidents waiting to happen. Living on the doctrine of survival of the fittest, the Western mindset is based on that of dominance and predatory, so there no moral condom of either colonization or other similar aggression behavior as organized crime. Industrial revolution, science revolution and now digital revolution are all build on a mentality of dominance for power and control. That is the root cause of WWI and WWII. Weaponize the currency and structured exploitation using finance scheme is evidence of such strategic of state craft. Then eye for an eye response triggers potential of war violence and nuclear war. Confrontation rather than inter-dependence overtake our rational mind.

Iraq war and Middle East wars certain is the manifestation of the American empire’s military power. But American has lost a lot for what it hope to gain. There is no winner in the war. 【苑举正】俄乌战争已进入决战期! 台大教授解密：未来世界格局如何发展？

I still feel the decade of 1960s is the start of current decay we are undergoing. One way of evidence is planet Pluto and Uranus conjunct on 18 Virgo, which is a 127 year cycle. Virgo is the sign of huge shift from individual psychology to social interactions. Coming from Leo of creative, dramatic, complacency and self-center, Virgo is a adjustment before entering into Liberal which is a relationship sign. Virgo promote detoxification, improvement, analysis, methodology, introspection. The 1960s Pluto and Uranus conjunction is close to U.S. Neptune of 22 degree Virgo in the natal chart. And all these three is square to U.S Mars (symbolic of aggression) in Gemini at natal chart. And we can recall beatles, flower love, psychedelic drug usage, Vietnam war, Cuber Missile contention, space exploration… all the confusion, disorientation of high octave planets is long terms effects on collective psyches. Another way is Professor Zheng ShiQiang talking about 《皇極經世》, which indicate 巽 （1924-1983）之蛊（1964-1973）。 Now we have 鼎 （1984-2043）之蛊 （2014-2023）is further decay from the 1960s。

中國最嚴重的問題上不了兩會，習近平真的沒把民眾當回事； 李克強為何漏掉關鍵一段？是故意的還是出狀況？ Compare to France, where the union workers can protest, China’s retirement account has eleven provinces already exhausted their funds. The communist party led government has money to bribe corruptions, throwing money on one belt projects. The peasants were robbed of their lands and force to work in the factories, and now they do not have money for the retirees, because central government had drew all taxes from all provinces, leaving each provinces hang in despair. 专制与时代精神不合拍. 在黑暗的时代不反抗，就意味着同谋。——萨特

If we do not correct our problem, purify ourselves from the toxics, the cancer will take over the body.

In Search for Functional Government in the Era of Modern Globalization 5 Mind Control and Dictatorship with the Appearance of a Democracy

Posted on by PathFinder

The energy of Planet Uranus is associated with transformation, restructure, freedom, innovation, breakthrough, detachment, unpredictable, individualist, ruthless, eccentric, chaos. Planet Uranus denotes an energy that strives to keep the universe flexible by preventing too much order. It break one out of patterns that have become too rigid. It represents the random element of mutation that is necessary for creative innovation However it operate suddenly and with extreme eccentricity, whatever it may affect or symbolize takes the form of something unusual, far different from the everyday world. It is said to rule enlightenment, expanding of consciousness, it is the lightning flash that illuminates a dark landscape. It is a force of nature that operates outside human culture or human concern, often takes the form of revolutions, natural disasters, and other disruptions. Uranus people often have no concern for individuals at all, but only for a process of revolutionary change with which they have identified. To deal with Uranus energy, one must not stick to the status quo. The problem with Uranus is being ready for it, and most people are not. To the extend people are not grow to certain point of maturity, self discipline, accountability, doing the necessary preparation for growth, Uranus will be experienced as traumatic.

Uranus energy is affiliate with change, thus the saying: change is constant. It reminds us one of the four noble truth – The truth of suffering is perhaps the most straightforward of the Four Noble Truths. It simply means that life is full of all kinds of physical and emotional pain. The pain of sickness, the pain of change, the pain of loss, and the general ‘suffering’ that comes with being human are all included in this truth. It helps us see that life is not all sunshine and rainbows. As much as we might try, things will always go wrong. The truth of suffering emphasizes that suffering is a part of life. Individually, suffering originates from our minds. Greed, hatred, and delusion are the three ‘poisons’ that contribute to suffering. Humanity, as a whole, we create collective suffering. If we can accept this truth, it will help us live with more awareness and compassion towards ourselves and others. All these poisons operate within us to some extent. When we are aware of them, we can weaken their influence and start living a more mindful life. By following the Eightfold Path, and Ten Wholesome Ways of Actions and living a meaningful life, we can alleviate suffering for ourselves and others. 众恶莫做，众善奉行. 淨空老法師 – 解決痛苦，最殊勝的方法。 賢首禪苑 體佛法師讲解 大方廣圓覺經对我们适应当下纷乱动荡的社会生活是很好的启示。 这个系列很长，不过这一集又很多概括和总结。

Good government starting from each of us individually. It looks like American society is taking on the form of lower end manifestation of Uranus energy. “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: But when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.” ‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭29‬:‭2‬ ‭ One of the irony is that government allow online pornography, but do not allow religious teaching of saints and sages in school. Government approval for gun purchase, but did nothing to reduce social problems that causing the shootings that threat the peace and stability of daily life. Ingraham on the epidemic of lonely Americans, call out the culprits out there, chief among them are brazenly corrupt public health sector, their media lap dogs and those love power and control. Americans reportedly flocked to gun and firearm stores on Black Friday this year. Judge Jeanine: You want to defund the police, how about you defund the FBI? The FBI needs to be cleaned out from the top down and held accountable.

Free speech creates dialogue which creates empathy. Suppression of speech isolates thought and creates extremism. But the government should regulate the technocracy/monopolies which intruding privacy and preying on the youth by misled them. Governor Kristi Noem had baned TikTok for South Dakota state agencies. Why Apple’s Board of Directors should be looked at amid China protests: Kissel. Audience said, “the fact that Microsoft still exists means that the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) doesn’t!” People who can maintain their integrity are in the rare these days. Elon Musk contradictory behavior: he on hand talked about harms of AI much more serious than nuclear weapon, on the other hand he is the one working vigorously to profit from it: REVEALED His NEW AI Girlfriend, Tesla’s HUMANOID Female Robot. The proliferation of humanoid robots purchased by real persons who can then benefit and profit from their robots will essentially be a re-invention of slavery in all aspects except for not being living entities. So what happens when the robots artificial intelligence grasps this concept and objects to it? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a meaningful conversation with an AI friend without it turning into a full blown biological female argument? After all, is not Elon Musk instigating the lust and darkness in human nature? – one of the impurities: killing, double-check/double standard in speech and action, sexual misconduct, stealing? Our government should charge highest taxes for this type of business! because they produce many society disease. ‘Dear Lord, Save Us From The High IQ Stupid People!‘: John Kennedy Eviscerates ‘Woke’ culture, but it should be not limited to Democrats.

It is inspiring to see so many people like John Paul who stick to their integrity. Kayne West, rapper, songwriter, record producer and fashion designer, joins ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ to discuss politics, BLM, Hollywood, relationship with Barack Obama and more.   A genuine good smart person that wants the best for our country and the whole world, he came out to speak of the truth. Audiences said, for those who have ears to truly hear him, will know he’s not crazy. He is very much authentic and doesn’t let anyone change him. He’s not crazy he’s smarter than “THEY” want him to be. We’ve got a lot of respect for this guy. His a lot smarter than people give him credit for. Same goes to Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning and now Elon Musk. In addition to all the anonymous warriors for us to have a better world.

There is a huge struggling of the mind every where. Can we find a way to give education back to kids? College and University has became the place of indoctrination nowadays, rather than place of disseminating truth and wisdom. Secularism certainly is one of the culprit. You send your kids off to college, you are proud, so happy. Then the kid comes back and hates not only you and the country but himself, and the chances of that child having a happy productive personal life go to about zero. One of the case in point is former Mount Holyoke student Annabella Rockwell says she was taught by the liberal college that she was a victim of patriarchal oppression and had to undergo ‘deprogramming’ after graduation. This isn’t just college, it’s happening to grade school and high school kids as well. We need to end this evil somehow. There are lots of anxiety among kids and young people these. Helping kids understand their relationship with reality is of ultimate importance in the era of virtual reality. Practicing spirituality is the way to go. Knowing where we come from, and where we go to, will help young people anchor their mind amid all the chaos.

Who exactly runs the Biden administration? One of the senior officers in the Department of Energy Sam Brinton, non-binary Biden official. One audience said: “I am an Military Veteran, served during Desert Shield/Desert Storm, I offered my life to keep this country strong and free, I love America and what I just watched tonite, felt like I took a punch to my chest…. I am just very sadden tonight.” “The perfect dictatorship would have the appearance of a democracy, but would basically be a prison without walls in which the prisoners would not even dream of escaping. It would essentially be a system of slavery where, through consumption and entertainment, the slaves would love their servitudes.” – Aldous Huxley

In Search for Functional Government in the Era of Modern Globalization 4 Sickness as Symptom of Western Culture Mental Collapse

Posted on by PathFinder

President Andrew Jackson created Democratic Party, which is regarded as the oldest political party in the world. At his time there was a massive problem of corruption in the government and on every action taken by the administrations. Jackson established the party along with numerous other supporters with the objective of economic equality, the welfare state, fair government regulation in the economy, environmental protection, and support of labour and the unions. And he made good use of the Veto power based on the political grounds instead of the constitutional grounds.

Today there is a total systematic corruptions on both parties in American politics. From numerous situations and cases, people began to recognize the deceptive nature of the political elites and system. The democrats are using their self-imposed status as the party of the people to manipulate us because they feel they have the moral high ground to do so. We watched how those who were elected to serve the people enter the political sphere with modest means and good intentions and exit multi-millionaires with a closet full of skeletons. The culture of corruption is on a roll.

Even worse Democratic party are leading some dark and horrifying development. For example, a lawmaker in Virginia called Elizabeth Guzmani is introducing a bill that will charge parents who are not wholeheartedly endorse their minor children’s sex change whims, if you object to the kid’s request to have a mastectomy, send you to jail. Another example is the recent liberals’ use of Fetterman in Philadelphia midterm election – one of the most famous politicians in the country merging with computer(it is said he had brain damage) – this is the future technocratic have imagined, the most cynical political move in US history. Where exactly is the software end and the John Fetterman’s consciousness begin? Pennsylvania could very well be sending one of the computer program to the senate which will inevitably be hacked. What is more irony is, for a long stretch lasting well into his 40s, Fetterman’s main source of income came from his parents. Alas the New York Times told its reader, who did not know better, that Fetterman turned his a blasted town into national symbol of hope, hard work, and authentic blue jeans.

One more issue – we lost a hundred thousand Americans in drug abuse, just last year, mostly are young people, and many hundreds of thousands over the past five years. And yet when was the last time we see politicians mention about fighting for people with drug additions and their families ? We have just a reversal of Roe vs. Wade, yet there is no mention of protection or supporting of the single moms and their baby, in the media or politician’s speech. The left has created a breakdown in law and order and fail to do things that improve American life, as a result many social disadvantaged groups are put under stress and deranged by the dysfunctional system which the left has turn a blank eye to. Then in 2016, the liberals can no longer say “Give us 50 years, we will turn Baltimore into Geneva!” Many liberals’ wild ideas which were based on delusions fall flat face. Every single liberal enthusiasm failed, from money illusion of Friedman monetary policy to market economy, from radical feminism to urban renewal, from out-sourcing to shared economy, each and every one turned out to be disaster. After all these, are they now going to jump on board of AI and planting computer chip to human as the next fad? One reader commented that there is more sheep in this country than people who love this country and love the Lord !!

Richard D. Wolff | America’s Major Tax SCAM , reminds people that President Roosevelt in the state of union speech in 1944, a time of war, had proposed the top income tax bracket to the richest people he was in favor was 100%. What that meant was every dollar over $25K (that was the cut off amount then, would be about $380K-$390K now) will sent government. Eventually it was settled at 94% with the support from both Republican and Democratic. After Roosevelt passed away, the top bracket remained above 90% for the next 20 years. Even in 1970s, it was at 70%. In 1945, for every dollar tax from individuals, government also get $1.5 from corporations. The total from corporations was 50% more than from individuals.

Today for every dollar tax from individuals, corporations turn in 25 cents. And we have a top personal tax bracket at 37%, and many corporations evade taxes by hiring top accountants to take advantage of loop holes. 60 Top Corporations Paid $0 Federal Taxes Under Trump Tax Law. And we know many corporations use the cash to buy back stock to boost their executives compensation packages and reward investors who benefits tremendously from loosing Federal Reserve Bank monetary policies since the Green Span, Bernanke years. As a result the last 50 years witnessed the rolling back the tax on corporate and shift on individuals, and rolling back the tax on wealthy individuals and put it instead to all the less advantaged.

The Chris Hedges Report interviewed with Richard Wolff on the issue of Inflation, Europe’s energy crisis, and the Fed. Professor Wolff said, price went up because the people who had the power raise them, and our government had not protected the consumers. A tiny minority of American, a less than one percent who are employers, that is the corporate employers, one after another, raised the prices, and imposed the inflation on the rest of us. It is of course reasonably to ask why employers raise price, they raise price to make profit. The problem is, the employers are very tiny minority, and we the consumers are the majority. They make up excuses like supply chain disruption issues, the Chinese delayed because of COVID-19 related concerns, or just because other people are raising the price. The American media overwhelmingly service the employer class by giving enormous attention and exaggeration to all the excuses they claimed, with minimal investigative scrutiny, and almost never point out to Americans, that what you grumbled about supermarket or department store are the decisions made by a small unaccountable minority looking to make more profits. There are a lot of providential support that inflation are going together with nice corporate profitability improvements.

The Europeans are paying a heavy financial price for the war in Ukraine, but here in American, the power that be are leading the charge to the sanction of Russia for oil and gas export. The Russians might very well come up with counter sanctions of their own, which together with sanctions from the west, drive up the total cost of energy, especially for the Europe. The discriminatory impact of the sanction program on Europe, as well as the subsidize program on industry here in United States put Europe in jeopardy. In addition, the Ukraine are suffering from proliferation of winter weather and the energy facilities damage from war.


…. more to come ….