Week of 02/24/2020

Since When Is Wealth Itself Evil?
– by David Matthews 2

There is an old saying that money is the root of all evil.

In the King James version of the New Testament, the first book of Timothy warns that “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

It’s not the first time that the Bible has gone after rich people.  There’s always the passage in the Book of Matthew about a camel having a better chance of going through the “eye of the needle” than a wealthy man entering heaven.  There are plenty of references to wealth being a hindrance to being good people and thus worthy of that great reward in the hereafter.  These are hypocritical given the number of wealthy evangelical leaders who put a certain orange-skinned narcissistic conman in the White House and proclaim him to be chosen by God.  But that is a subject for a different time.

No, today is about the idea that having money itself is evil, especially when you are supposedly on the side of the “have-nots” in America.  Whether you’re a Democrat, or just a progressive, or just a secular humanist, or just an independent that says that the ongoing economic screwjob in the world is wrong, it seems a second condemnation is being hurled if you also happen to have some serious coin in your bank account.

Yes, every presidential wannabe in the 2020 Presidential Fraud is wealthy.  Especially the ones that serve or have served in the United States Senate.  They’re all millionaires and billionaires in the Senate.  There are even two wealthy people in the running – Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg – that are betting that their own wealth can buy their way into the White House.  Bloomberg especially is betting on the idea that he can skip the early primaries and caucuses and focus on the big ones to win.  He’s already peppering the nation with his ads long before anyone else.  Will it work?  Time will tell.

But even the wannabes not named Bloomberg or Steyer are getting criticized for having money while criticizing the wealthy.  The red-hats are whining like Walmart brats that Senator Elizabeth Warren has money.  She’s sold books that have made her wealthy.  How “dare” she criticize the wealthy, they exclaim!

Same with Senator Bernie Sanders, the self-proclaimed democratic socialist and perpetual presidential wannabe who has been in and out of the Democratic Party for so long he could almost qualify as a sex worker.  (And now that idea will be stuck in your head forever.  You’re welcome.)  Wouldn’t you know it?  He also published a few books and made some coin off those.  How “dare” he, they whine!

How “dare” people with money complain about other people with money!  How “dare” people with money champion ideas that affect other people with money!  That seems to be the hypocritical claim.

While it is true that traditionally the biggest critics of the haves are those that have-not, being wealthy in and of itself should not be a disqualifying factor.

Here’s a dirty little secret: not one of America’s founding fathers were poor.  They all had wealth in one manner or another.  Not everyone could vote in America either.  So the ones that ratified the United States Constitution and those early Amendments and voted in the delegates that would form the Congress and help elect the President of the United States were white, male, Christian (usually Protestant), and were landowners.  That meant that you had to have some money in order to own land.  If you were poor, if you were female, if you weren’t Caucasian, if you were not of the dominant religious belief, and if you didn’t own land, you did not matter.  The Constitution still applied to you, but you had no power over the political process.

So how is it that the ideas still applied to everyone, rich or poor, and the founders were cherished for bringing them to be, when none of them were poor?

Well the answer is simple: It’s not about money, or even having money.  It has always been about how that money is used.

Let’s get brutally honest here... money in and of itself, having wealth in and of itself, is neither good nor evil.  It is a means to whatever end you decide.

There have been countless stories of people who have lived long lives seemingly in near poverty, living in the same home, driving the same car, never making any extravagant purchases, being frugal to a fault.  Then, after they die, you find out they have small fortune stashed away that they kept to themselves and they never spent.  Did having all that money change them?  Of course not!  They were the same people throughout their lives, whether they saved up one hundred dollars or one million dollars.

Then you see all these con-artists who bilk people while dressing to the nines and living the life of a millionaire.  They get caught, they lose it all, they go away (sometimes to prison), and then they come back and they play the same game all over again someplace else.  Money doesn’t really change them either, because they’ve always been that way.  It’s just how they are.  They’re grifters.  Confidence people.  Scam artists.  Frauds.

It’s not having the money that makes them good or evil.  It is how they acquire it and what they do with it that makes them so.

So, getting back to our millionaire and billionaire presidential wannabes and the causes they champion, is it wrong for someone like Senators Warren and Sanders to have some coin from book sales or speaking engagements?  No.  Should they be required to live like hermits in order to champion the downtrodden?  Should they have to give up their homes in order to champion the homeless?  Should they give up their cars in order to defend those who have to take the bus?  Should they starve in order to champion those who are suffering from hunger?

It seems that we set some unrealistic expectations on the liberals and progressives who want to defend the poor and middle-class.  We buy into this myth that they should be poor in order to help those who are.  But that “rule” only applies to them. 

A certain reality-show narcissist gets the support of the “common man”, and, while he claims to “give up” his millions, he really doesn’t.  His golf courses and luxury hotels get droves of new international guests who seek his favor.  He helps out his wealthy friends with tax breaks and tax cuts at the expense of the national debt.  He engages in a trade war that threatens our economy just so he can claim ownership of a new “deal”.  And he still struts around like a pampered princess, and nobody calls him on it... but those same people that idolize him are quick to condemn a certain former bartender-turned-congresswoman for wearing a borrowed dress on TV instead of sackcloth and ashes.

The problems we face in America today – wealth inequality, poverty, homelessness – come from how wealth is gathered and how it is used.  We place profit over people, and the wealth of business over its health.  We let investment groups buy businesses they have no idea how to manage, only how to pilfer and profit and exploit like the parasites they are.  We give tax breaks and tax cuts to the wealthy who then add that to their profit margins.  We focus on the success of Wall Street instead of Main Street or even our own streets.  And everyone seems to love debt... personal debt, hospital debt, student loan debt, corporate debt... until the bill goes unpaid.

Sounds familiar, don’t you think?  Maybe something that happened three presidential elections ago?

These are the issues we need to deal with, and we can’t do that if we’re haggling over who is championing the cause and whether or not they’re “too wealthy” to do so.

I’m going to leave you with this quote:

“Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.”

The person who said that was not some union leader or Democratic presidential wannabe.

The person who said that was Sir Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin Group.  A man who still makes money today but doesn’t forget why his empire is the way it is today.  Maybe if we had more people like him in the business world, we wouldn’t have need for solutions from people like Sanders and Warren and Steyer and Bloomberg. 

Week of 02/17/2020

America Needs To Understand This For 2020
– by David Matthews 2

So we are in the midst of yet another presidential screwjob.  Oh, sure, we may call it an “election”, but, really, you know this game is being rigged at every opportunity.  If you thought Russia was tampering with it four years ago, just wait until you start reading about all of the fun stuff going on this time around!

Of course there are opportunities to strengthen security, but a certain political faction led by a certain narcissist in the White House is blocking any bills that would do just that.  It appears that the party that screamed that it’s a “rigged system” four years ago is making sure that it stays rigged in their favor.

But... what do you expect, right?  Fairness?  No such thing for the party that has made #cheat2win their campaign strategy.

However, part of the reason why the game is rigged is that we refuse to accept a few things.  Whether it’s hard-wired in our thick skulls or because certain brains are just under-developed or it’s because of our own goddamned egos, there are some truths that are out there that get forgotten or ignored during every election cycle.

These are some of the things that Americans need to get into their self-important self-entitled skulls this time around.  I’d like to think they’re important.  I’m sure some of you will too.  I’m saying them to try to save some time.

1. The President of the United States is a lying, manipulative, narcissistic thug.  That is not speculation.  That is empirical.  He has flip-flopped and reversed himself on statements he has made on numerous occasions, admitting doing somethings, then denying them, then flipping again and taking pride in them, and then claiming he’s never said or did it.  He claims that his ego-wall would be paid for by Mexico, then say that Mexico will compensate afterward for it, then claim that he’s never specifically said that Mexico would pay for it, and now he’s pilfering spending from the military and any other place in the federal budget to build it.  That issue alone is proof that he cannot be taken at his word for anything, including the time of day.

2. There is no “bottom” with supporters of the narcissist in the White House.  There is no limit, no boundary, no subject that the supporters of the narcissist in the White House will consider to be out of bounds.  Their idolization of their leader is such that they will put him over everything, including their own well-being.

Look at all the farmers who voted for him and how they are losing their farms because of his trade war.  Look at the truck drivers who are losing business because of the same trade war.  Look at all of the factory workers that are losing their jobs for the same reason.  Do you think any of them will change their minds?  Don’t hold your breath on that.  They have been conditioned to believe in their political messiah no matter what he does to them.  They all firmly believe that they will get their “riches” soon, if they haven’t already.

The media operate on the delusion that there is some sort of limit that people will reach that they will eventually say “no” to.  They don’t want to think that people could be so blinded that they would tolerate anything, no matter how cruel or destructive or even self-destructive.  The media has ignored and have even failed human history 101.

These supporters and enablers are people that believe with every cell in their being whatever fiction the narcissist in the White House sets down and is reinforced by his propaganda mills, and they cannot be swayed by it, even when the truth is made plain.  Their cognitive dissonance will not accept the truth if the truth contradicts their passionate support.  And, really, the media, and specifically the Washington DC press corps, need to understand that.

3. Stop trying to turn those who cannot accept reality to the truth.  Again, this is all the problem with the media, and specifically the Washington DC press corps, who seem to have it in their heads that the people who have been conditioned for years... literally decades.... with an alternative view of the world can somehow change if they’re just told the truth. 

We are talking about an alternate history and worldview that says that their icon, the narcissist in the White House, has done nothing but good things all his life.  That the political faction that has been engaging in open and partisan sabotage of the American system for the past two decades is somehow doing it for the good of the nation.  That the economy is doing great and their lives are somehow better specifically because of the narcissist in the White House, even when it is falling all around them.

I’ve seen this with cult followers, with religious extremists, and with those who have been conned by financial scammers.  They all believe the fiction that is told to them, and nothing in the world will dissuade them of it until the bitter end.

Remember the followers of David Koresh?  Their house was literally burning down all around them, and this was after an armed assault on their compound, but they still believed what he told them right to their grisly deaths.

You know all those people fleeced by white collar criminals on “American Greed”?  They all believe whatever the con artist tells them about their investments right up to the point where it’s all gone.  They all firmly believed that the money they gave without question would still pay out for them, and nothing you could say would sway them.

You cannot change the minds of these kinds of people.  You cannot get them to switch or to flip because they have mentally invested themselves into the cause.  The more you try, the more resilient they are.  You can only insulate yourself from them and hope to minimize the damage.  If they do change, it has to come on their own, without prodding or pestering.

4. Wall Street is not the economy!  People keep looking at Wall Street as somehow being the barometer to the whole economy.  That’s like judging how well a vehicle is performing by looking at the washer fluid reservoir.

The rise and fall of stocks in Wall Street are not a barometer to the economy.  The Dow Jones is literally owned by the same corporation that owns the Wall Street Journal and the propaganda mill that calls itself “Fox News”!  It had might as well be just another propaganda operation.  It rises and falls based on rumors and fears.

Think about all of the times that you hear about the Dow Jones rising or falling based on rumors or fears in just this past year alone!  The narcissist in the White House or his toadies and lackies say something and the Dow races up or crashes down.  Something completely unrelated to finance like a viral outbreak can shake up the stock market for that day.  Does that sound like a reasoned barometer?

The economy is greater than the financial crack house that is Wall Street, or even Corporate America.  Yes, the corporations are doing great.  The wealthy have always been doing great.  But what about the rest of us?  What about the millions that have been doing nothing but struggling to make ends meet and keep themselves from bankruptcy?  Retail chains are shutting down.  Banks are laying people off.  Factories are closing.  Even trucking companies have filed for bankruptcy!  All the promised Amazon warehouses can’t make up for those things.

And, yeah, the “official” unemployment numbers have been low, but they cannot stay that way.  We saw this happen twelve years ago.  All of those layoffs and closings will translate into higher unemployment sooner rather than later.

But, yeah, let’s look at the Wall Street crack house and sing “Let the Good Times Roll” along with the narcissist in the White House.

5. Whatever opposition exits, it will always be branded as “socialist”.  It doesn’t matter who gets the nomination for the Democratic Party in 2020, that person will instantly be branded a “pinko-leftist commie socialist Satanist atheist” by the followers and supporters and enablers of the narcissist in the White House.  Yes, that includes “Mr. Money” Mike Bloomberg, the supposedly self-made (actual) billionaire.

This advances the script, the fiction, the fairy tale, by the political faction that enables the narcissist in the White House that they and only they are the supporters and defenders of peace and freedom and capitalism and prosperity and God in America.  It doesn’t matter who is really left or center of anything on the side of the Dems.  You could even have an old Blue Dog Democrat in the running, and it would not matter because they will all be tarred and feathered by this slur.  In fact, they already are.

It quite literally is “with us or against us” with these people.  And if you’re not “with” them, then you are considered a “pinko-leftist commie socialist Satanist atheist”.  And, yes, that includes my friends in the Libertarian Party who are not supporters of the narcissist in the White House by any stretch of the imagination and are nowhere near the category of “socialist” or “communist”.  In that regard, the people that support and enable the narcissist in the White House are extremists, and extremists can only see things in absolute zero-sum concepts.

And finally...

6. Whomever the nominee is against the narcissist in the White House, it will not be a “perfect” candidate.  We seem to have this delusion that whomever is running for the White House has to be the “perfect” candidate.  The one with no flaws.  No skeletons in their closet.  No past that contradicts who they are today.  The one with the stances that everyone agrees with.

The reality is that this kind of candidate not only does not exist, it can never exist.

Let’s get brutally honest here... we all make mistakes in our lives.  We grow and we change as we get older.  Our stances and our beliefs evolve over time.  Some things we used to believe in when we were young and stupid we now reject and we either abandon them or we evolve them to adapt to the realities around us.  If you think that you are somehow the exception to this rule, then you are not only dead wrong, but you may need medical help getting your head out of your colon.

I know the delusion we have about the primary and caucus portion of the presidential election is that the “winner” is someone that is “the best” of whatever political party there is.  However, that kind of delusion pretty much was slaughtered in the 2016 Farce, when one party cheated to favor a certain overbearing self-entitled nominee, and the other party was literally bullied into accepting the narcissist and walking hypocrisy that is in the White House today.

The question that you have to ask yourself is this: do you really want an unstable and malignant narcissist in the White House to stay there for four more years and continue to put America and the whole world in peril for that time?  Or do you want someone else?  Anyone else?  Even if they’re not perfect?

I have frequently said to vote your conscience.  So can your conscience allow that unstable and malignant narcissist to stay in the White House when your vote can change that?

Think about it.  But don’t think too long.  November will be here before you know it.