WMail #55: "Joining the Circle"

the latest issue of the free WMail 'Working Minds' philosophy & activism email newsletter is sent out, and also posted online

the essay topic is "Joining the Circle", posted online at http://www.working-minds.com/WMessay55.htm; the full issue includes news & comments and a couple dozen quotations, and that is posted at http://www.working-minds.com/WM2005b.htm#55

the topic of the last issue was "F*** the Fed" (opposing the Federal Reserve System), and the January issue will be on the topic "The 51% Solution"

each issue is posted online –
see http://www.working-minds.com/WMailindex.htm;
and the essays are also posted separately –
see http://www.working-minds.com/WMessays.htm;
the quotations are posted by author
at http://www.working-minds.com/WMquotes.htm

sign up for the free ezine via email here

State of the Union 2006

the U.S. Constitution is under a full to-the-death attack from the neo-con fascists, and the matter has reached a critical point, such that we may be living in a dictatorship before another month has passed

• • • the appointment of Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court is a travesty, and a disgrace; the danger is obvious from his record, which includes the invention of the principles of 'unitary executive' and 'signing statements' and years of knee-jerk approval of anything that the Executive Branch or Big Business proposes; a filibuster by the Democratic Party seems to be the only route to preserving the Constitution

• • • Dubya's movement toward more & more actions based on the 'unitary executive' principle looks a lot like Germany in 1933: the burning of the Reichstag [27 February] is the equivalent of the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center; our Patriot Act removed extant civil liberties as did the Reichstag Fire Decree; and the Democratic Party is removed from participation in the Legislative Branch (Hitler blamed the Reichstag arson on the Communist Party and had its leaders jailed)

• • • laws have no meaning for the Bush Gang, and laws they don't like are just interpreted as not binding on the Executive Branch; torture? war profiteering? malfeasance in office? perjury? bribery? warrantless surveillence?; if Dubya says it is okay, then the Constitution cannot stop him — how is that different from Saddam or Adolf or Stalin or any other dictator?

• • • Dubya stated proudly & publicly that he intends to continue to violate his own Patriot Act by wire-tapping American citizens without bothering to get even rubber-stamp FISO Court warrants — the scary & logical conclusion is that these wire-taps are illegal & indefensible even under FISO

• • • back in December 2004 Bush ordered the Pentagon to construct plans for an invasion of Iran, and Condi & Rumsfeld have recently pounded the war drums on the Sunday talk shows — a pattern: Bush ordered plans for invading Iraq in May of 2002, Condi & Powell & Rumsfeld testified falsely on camera for months, and the justified-by-falsehood invasion of Iraq began in March 2003

• • • America's finances are in disarray; George Dubya took office with a budget surplus and yet has in five years increased the U.S. National Debt by 42.8 percent {see counter on right side of blog homepage for the latest figure}

• • • the U.S. House of Representatives has been in recess since December 17th, an event without precedent in U.S. history for the year-end holiday break; the likely cause is the G.O.P.'s inability to sweep aside the DeLay & Ney & Taft & Abramoff scandals (no Democrats are involved); Republicans are scrambling for a diversion, such as the recent Osama tape, but have found none – the evidence is clear and the G.O.P. is losing credibility and fealty from even members of its own party in Congress

• • • be very alert to what Dubya says in his State of the Union speech on January 31st: Congress re-convenes that day at Noon; in the intervening week, the G.O.P. spin-machine will have a busy time preparing & sowing 'talking points' parsiflage to support Dubya's statements; I will not be surprised if the Bush Gang stages an emergency and declares martial law or some such thing, for there is no other way out of this political box-canyon — except impeachment or resignation

• • • the liberal-American majority does not want impeachment, because the cost to the Country is enormous, both politically and operationally; the other down-side is that Dubya's resignation gives us President Cheney; if both Bush & Cheney are impeached or forced to resign, that gives President Dennis Hastert [GOP-IL]; next in line is President Pro Tempore of the Senate Ted Stevens, the 'pork barrel king' of Alaska; fourth in line is [oh, shudder!!] Secretary of State Condi Rice, followed by Secretary of the Treasury John Snow and Secretary of War Donald 'Who Knows?' Rumsfeld — in all, a motley crew and not much better than King George; if I had to choose, I would cross my fingers and hope that Hastert is merely the Gerald Ford of the XXIst Century

• • • the mid-term elections are, however, a long way off; Hastert may not return to the House in November, and a Democratic majority in either House or Senate could tip the balance back toward democracy; the new Speaker might be Harry Reid [Dem-NV], which will be excellent; 'Bulldog' Patrick Fitzgerald is preparing further TreasonGate indictments, Jack Abramoff is confessing to a grand jury (giving at least 60 G.O.P. Congressmen and -women sleepless nights), and 'Scooter' Libby's trial starts in February – the Bush Gang is in a lot of battles that Dubya is destined to lose

I have said before that 'Freedom exists in the exercise thereof" and that still holds true; but such exercise gets harder and harder as the Bush Gang tightens its grip on the Culture-Structure and chops away further portions of America's unalianable rights and the Rule of Law

the rights that America has in November 2006 will be the ones that YOU do not give up, the ones that YOU stand for preserving

REGIME CHANGE IN NOVEMBER 2006 !!!

Monopolies Я Us (part 1)

Part of the hold that the Oligarchy has on the U.S. economy is the creation of not-quite-monopolies that control major industries here – with similar connections within the European Union and among the multinational mega-corporations around the globe.

A true monopoly is when one corporation controls all of an industry, or all of a product or commodity, and performs dastardly acts to stifle competition.

The mega-corporations of the XXIst Century are more subtle: half a dozen entities buy up a majority of an industry and merely work in concert to stifle smaller, independent companies. A key factor are the business barons who serve on the boards of many corporations – a kind of 'team-style' monopoly.

Perfectly legal: no violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, the Clayton Anti-Trust Act, and other statutes. But the result is the same as a monopoly.

Data has so far been difficult to uncover; research continues. Even the Departments of Commerce and Transportation and Energy obscure such matters as 'gross annual revenue' by industry. For example, online statistics on the U.S. oil industry are displayed by barrels (of crude oil), not by annual revenue – that I have so far been able to locate.

Industries to be covered in this series of blog-postings include motion picture exhibition, book publishing, petroleum, railroad freight, self-storage, soda pop, and banking.

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MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITION INDUSTRY
The industry group N.A.T.O. {National Assn. of Theater Owners} says that 2004 box office for the U.S. was $9.53 billion dollars, with total U.S. screens of 36,652.

Statistics gleaned from their website show that the six largest corporations own 50% of the movie screens in America.

1 Regal of TN ............................ 6,264 ... 17.1%
2 A.M.C. + Loews ...................... 4,735 ... 12.9%
3 Carmike of GA ........................ 2,450 .... 6.7%
4 Cinemark of TX ....................... 2,347 .... 6.4%
5 Cineplex Galaxy of Toronto ....... 1,560 .... 4.25%
6 National Amusements of MA ..... 1,099 .... 3%
. . . . . . 18,455 screens ÷ 36,652 total = 50.4%!
7 Century Theatres of CA ....... with 985 = 2.6%
8 Kerasotes of Chicago .......... with 609 = 1.7%
9 Marcus of WI ..................... with 503 = 1.4%

Total box office revenue for 2005 looks to be $8.75 billion, which is down from $9.53billion in 2004. The obvious reasons are the stagnant economy and ticket prices, which only go up. Usually, ticket prices are raised in New York City, and within a week or two, prices go up across the country.

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WORLDWIDE SODA POP INDUSTRY

The Coca-Cola® Company, with all their various brands & flavors, sells 51% of the world soda pop market (February 2004).

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RAILROAD FREIGHT INDUSTRY

There are only seven 7 Class I railroads in the U.S.A., and according to Trains Magazine, they handle ninety-one percent of the railroad freight business, which in 2004 was total operating revenue of $40.5 billion. In Canada, the situation is similar, with large portions of C.N. and C.P. revenue coming from their U.S. subsidiaries.

{Figures below are in millions of U.S. dollars.}
Union Pacific ................ $12,215M
B.N.S.F. ....................... $10,946M
C.S.X Rail .................... $8,020
Norfolk Southern ........... $7,312
Kansas City Southern ...... $639.5
Grand Trunk {U.S division of CN} – (data not located)
Soo Line {U.S division of CP} – (data not located)

Canadian National ....... $5,457M
Canadian Pacific – (data not located)

Mother Jones Tidbit #2

"Union membership has collapsed from 35 percent of the labor force in the mid-1950s to a mere 7.9 percent in the private sector today ... The corporate share of the federal tax burden has declined in eerie lockstep with union membership – from 35 percent in 1945 to 10.1 percent in 2004."
— Dr. Gar Alperovitz, University of Maryland Professor of Political Economy

Tales of Hypocrisy

the U.S. taliban are hypocrisy personified

besides the camel/needle issue posted previously, there is the matter of 'doing unto others that which you would have done unto you'
such as:
— invading another country for mercenary profit?
— torture?
— electronic surveillence with no warrant?

the Rove-Cheney cabal survives by bearing false witness

the Oligarchy is giving less to Caesar than five years ago, working closer to giving nothing – they do not give to their god, their god is themselves and they only take

it is about time that the money-handlers were thrown out of the temple – Halliburton continues its monoploy on war profiteering and no-bid government patronage

the phrase 'Christian Republican' or 'Republican Christian' is an oxymoron

Recycling in New Mexico

in California, I got real used to recycling virtually everything, as I wrote in WMail Issue #28 – golly, three years ago:
"Waste Not, Want Not" [Oct 2002]

but things are different in New Mexico, including recycling being tough or non-existant

— magazines are taken to the library in B-town

— newspapers and heavy cardboard and waste paper get hauled to L-town, whenever I take the 12-mile drive up there for shopping, etc

— there is NO deposit on soda cans in NM, but a commercial operation in a semi-trailer on Highway 314 pays something for aluminum, which gives the homeless and-or indigent a means of earning some cash by picking up roadside litter

— waste plastic & plastic bottles and tin cans and other metals are taken along on trips to Albuquerque (a 30-mile drive); the drop-off is just off the I-25 Freeway at a school parking lot, in a giant bin, the sign says open M-F 8-5

— I've heard that there is some place in Albuquerque that pays for plastic soda bottles, but haven't found it; nor have I found anywhere to take worn-out clothing, like Gospel Army or Goodwill, where really bad items are sold by them as rag-scrap and re-enter the system

— I have no yard waste; the front lawn is brown stubble since August, and a Landmark friend brought me a 'burn barrel' for the tumbleweeds in the back yard, the removal of which is good exercise

the trash pickup here is $45 a month, by the Waste Management monopoly, and I have not signed up with them: I take my little plastic bag – mostly teabags and coffee filters – and drop it in the trash at the gas station every week or ten days

P.S. – saw a sign on the road to B-town for what appears to be a local tradition: drop off your dead Xmas trees for recycle in a dirt lot next to a local auto dealer, and B-town will have them taken away, turned into chips or something; the pile was already as big as a bus

Rites of Passage

both my parents hated their middle names; so they made a pact and when I was born I was given no middle name, and they followed suit with my three later siblings

shortly after I turned twelve, while on a trip 'up home' to the East Bay area (from L.A.), they took me to the county courthouse and got my chosen middle name added to my birth certificate, above a caret-mark

I chose my father's name; brother Tom chose Carl, after his grandfather, brother Richard chose Mom's maiden surname; Melissa was always called 'Melissa Jane', but nowadays she uses 'Melissa Ann'

I always thought this was very cool, a great surprise gift from my parents, and the only 'coming of age' rite in our family


I heard a parallel tale, years ago, possibly out of Readers Digest (one of those little human interest paragraphs)

a father somewhere in the Midwest saved the doctor's bill when each child was born, and it was understood that each kid would repay their father from their first earnings, and then have the receipt for their own birth

it was a ritual for giving them possession of their own life, for providing each of them the 'deed' of their personal sovereignty

not many of us have such 'proof of ownership' paperwork

Your Tax Dollars At Work

here's a link to detailed info on the BILLIONS of dollars unaccounted for in the early days of the U.S. invasion of Iraq
http://www.amconmag.com/2005/2005_10_24/cover.html

the corruption continues...

Murrow Quotation

          We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty, We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another.
          We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men – not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend just causes that were, for the moment, unpopular.

          — Edward R. Murrow, on "See It Now" [CBS News, 6 April 1954]

Got Physicians Formula Oil?

many years ago, I discovered a marvelous clear oil that was sold at SavOn & Thrifty Drugs that just made chafed or burned or itchy dry skin get all kinds of better; I used it myself on occasion, and when my father was being treated for cancer, his arms got all messed up - blotchy and dry and bruised - so I loaned him my bottle of Physicians Formula Oil and his arms were better the next day; he was much relieved by the improvement; the same improvement showed when my mother used the Oil on a patch of shingles

when my bottle of Physicians Formula Oil later ran out, I went looking for another, but could find nobody who even knew about the Oil; apparently the Physicians Formula company is now producing only makeup and skin toner (with ginseng & collagen!) and the original, wonderful product is no longer available anywhere

but perhaps the magic of the internet can locate a source elsewhere: I have in mind something like the websites that sell Nehi® sodas or nostalgic candy from Fifties matinees or places in Vermont that sell real maple syrup (from trees)

and if no such source now exists, maybe somebody can arm-wrestle the formula/process for manufacturing the Oil from the mean old corporation, and set up a boutique lab up in the mountains somewhere, and set up a website ...

Warning for Republicans

“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”
— Jesus of Nazareth (Matthew 19:24, Mark 10:25, Luke 18:25)

Mother Jones Tidbit

the average salary for top U.S. CEOs in 1980 was 42 times that of the average worker

in 1991, CEOs were making 140 times the salary of the average worker

in 2004, the U.S. CEO salary average was $11.8 million, which is 431 times the worker average

in November 2005, General Motors announced 30,000 jobs will be cut, without mentioning that automobile industry CEOs were paid a median income of $4.2 million in 2004, which figure is up 72% from 2003

{mostly based on Mother Jones November 2005 issue}

Dearth of Capitalism

Ayn Rand stated in 1967 that no actual capitalist economy has ever been instituted, and my essay "Paleo-Capitalism" – WMail ezine Issue #40 – redefined capitalism as 'the creation of jobs, products and services'

non-capitalism is evident wherever there is exploitation of natural resources, downsizing, reduction of employee power and benefits, economic slavery & indentured servitude, closing of factories and-or off-shoring of jobs

the only major Paleo-Capitalist in America today is Warren E. Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. finds companies, invests in them, reorganizes them for productivity, treats their employees with respect, and makes a ton of money

if Mr. Buffett cared, I would give him an award

those in the also-ran or short-listed category include:

Bill Gates: lucky man, and hard-working, and a sincere philanthropist, but still in the thrall of his stockholders

Ted Turner: a classic entrepreneur, but lately a guilt-ridden member of the Oligarchy {Ted: not your fault what Time-Warner does with your former enterprises}

Robert Redford: low-key filmmaker and environmentalist; he is honorable but silent on most important issues

The Waltons: Sam Walton may have been a good guy, but his descendents/heirs are prime examples of the damage being done in the name of [pseudo-] capitalism these days

George Soros: made a literal 'killing' in the financial markets, now tries to implant democracy & human rights in poor countries whose gross national product is in many cases less than his annual interest income

I say: "The people of the U.S.A. have the unalienable right to take back responsibility for control and management of the American economic system."

Frontier Justice

living in a small town can be real different; don't know the facts of this matter, but this is some recent hearsay 'from the street'

across the river in B-town, the cops are lackadaisical and seldom seen; the citizens believe that the Police Dept. is under orders NOT to be aggressive, to let speeders go unchallenged, to just lie low until an actual emergency call comes in, at which time dispatch then wakes up one of the two patrol cars...

the blame is laid on the female City Manager, 'Ms. G', who runs things from her corner office overlooking Main Street

the idea is that non-aggressive police reduces paper work, and thus reduces the crime statistics turned in to the F.B.I. by the city (required of all jurisdictions in the U.S.); this is intended to record false crime rates, so the real estate-developer faction can advertise 'low crime in B-town'

sounds like Republican anti-Reason tactics to me, since the reality of crime in B-town is known to all residents, who are well-informed via the local 'grapevine' as to events committed outside the fake statistics, such as the un-documented & thus unsolved annual paint-ball assault on Main Street office buildings last week

solutions abound, but the ones I like best are a recall election of the City Manager and-or an investigation of the falsified reports that were sent to the F.B.I.

Evolution is Science

The proponents of 'intelligent design' and its forebear, creationism, brook no compromise with their demands to corrupt science with their anti-Reason beliefs. Respond to them by suggesting that fairness to both 'sides' of the issue requires equal time for Darwinian evolution being taught in the churches.

Priorities

Materialism vs. Art
the self-storage industry in America grew to $14 billion dollars in revenue in 2004, compared to the entire motion picture industry which had domestic box office revenues of a mere $9.5 billion – one-third less!

Materialism vs. the Planet
"Americans spend $8 billion on Christmas decorations [each year], almost four times what they give to protect animals and the environment." — Mother Jones Magazine (Dec 2005)

Cure for Genital Herpes?

back in 1995, I broke my left ankle; the damage included restriction of some blood vessels among the bones, such that my foot was swollen for several months; finally, the doctor gave me a prescription that eliminated that problem, with the enexpected side effect of stopping breakouts of the blisters from the genital herpes that had I acquired many years before

I have had NO blisters in the ten years since that treatment; a couple times when I was really stressed there was a little itching, but NO blisters or anything close; I am clear that this is not a true 'cure', but the absence of breakouts is a very, very good thing

I still carry the virus, no doubt, and 'shedding' is still a social/sexual restriction, but I figured early on that this accidental benefit might be of use to Mankind, specifically the 20% of the population who carry the herpes simplex virus (known or unknown)

so I contacted the Herpes Society and was referred to a doctor in Los Angeles County and talked to him on the phone; he pooh-poohed my report, and explained his position, coming from being a medical professional; one, one incident means nothing; two, the medicine involved is a steroid, and steroids often have the effect of making the disease worse (he said); he told me to forget my idea

so I let that go, but kept thinking about getting this info out to fellow herpes 'sufferers'; when I finally got onto the internet, I researched the steroid medicine – I have kept the package – on various websites & search engines, hoping to alert a manufacturer to the idea that a little research & development might evolve into a product designed for use by 20% of the population, or at least some portion of them, and they could make a ton of money

turns out that this steroid medicine was already a generic drug, manufactured by the chemical name, so I had no idea who to contact and attempt to enroll

so this info is now being made public by me with the intention that someone, some 'insider' in the drug industry or medical field, take this ball and run with it, for the improvement of a lot of people's lives (and maybe make some bucks, that is okay)

any medical professional who wants further details can contact me using the email link on my Profile; I DO want to know your bona fides, as I believe that steroids are often misused and do not want some internet-savvy drug dealer to open up a new illegal market that could risk lives, etc

such a product could relieve a lot of stress & anxiety among a major segment of the population, and anybody who is willing to risk a little R&D could benefit themselves and Mankind at the same time

American Forces Radio

rabid reactionary talk radio host Sean Vanity is losing markets to Air America radio, such as in Boulder-Denver, Colorado

'Mister Oxycontin' Limp Rushbaugh is all atwitter these days, falsely accusing liberals of attempting to cancel his A.F.R. airtime [false] and chooses to defend himself by saying that he appears only one hour a day on A.F.R.

this is true, he airs 8pm-9pm daily, but this is a non-sequitur: the problem being corrected is that right-wing talk radio broadcasts bald-faced lies to the troops around the world 64 HOURS A WEEK on A.F.R., with NO rebuttal from the left

and the Congressional twits and Taliban bureaucrats in charge reject highly popular 'lefties' like Al Franken based on false 'rules' and spurious, ad hoc criteria

Economic Tsunami

selections from an article by Richard Wolf in USA TODAY on Nov 14th
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-11-14-fiscal-hurricane-cover_x.htm

"We face a demographic tsunami" that "will never recede," [the comptroller general of the United States] David Walker tells a group of reporters. He runs through a long list of fiscal challenges...

To hear Walker, the nation's top auditor, tell it, the United States can be likened to Rome before the fall of the empire. Its financial condition is "worse than advertised," he says. It has a "broken business model." It faces deficits in its budget, its balance of payments, its savings — and its leadership.

Without major spending cuts, tax increases or both, the national debt will grow more than $3 trillion through 2010, to $11.2 trillion — nearly $38,000 for every man, woman and child. The interest alone would cost $561 billion in 2010, the same as the Pentagon [budget].

Inaction could have these consequences, experts say:
Higher interest rates.
Lower wages.
Shrinking pensions.
Slower economic growth.
A lesser standard of living.
Higher taxes in the future for today's younger generation.
Less savings.
More consumption.
Plunging stock and bond prices.
Recession.

my comment: would you settle for 3 out of ten? 5 out of ten? why?
'staying the course' with Dubya will deliver TEN out of ten as above

Revolution 101

"All that we have to do is make the people in our lives feel special; all that requires is to tell them the truth." — G.E. Nordell