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What is evident is that unbridled Capitalism is anathema to Democracy. The ferocity that Big Business has set about over the last decades to obliterate the needs of the people -essential for Capitalism to function- is astonishing as it is unrelenting. That they have bought and installed Democratic Party "politicians" speaks volumes in that there needs to be an equivalent organization to counter Big Business!! Unions and Guilds have proven unequal to the task as being targeted for annihilation or being excessively weak to be of consequence. There really is no representation of the average person in our politics, leaving us with the task to vote for the least harmful, which by definition is a Democrat, but that is not so comforting as it has barely proven to be effective. The alternative, however, has been shown to be a disaster!!

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Thank you Professor Reich. I had read excerpts from this memo before, It is the most disgusting piece of propaganda I have ever read. We need to publish the sources of financial assistance to all 435 members of the Legislative Branch and the Executive Branch (not naming individuals or exact amounts but indicating donations exceeding $2500 per year and whether it is an individual, corporation, union, etc). I knew the lobbyists had increased astronomically, I just didn't understand how or why. With so many politicians being on the take it will be difficult to reverse. What I resent is how the memo lumps socialism with communism (which doesn't exist) and fascism which is the polar opposite of socialism. Was Powell really that stupid that he couldn't distinguish between forms of authoritarianism (dictators) and socialism which is government for the people. We did have a great American Democracy in the 40's 50's and 60's. While the corporations largely cared about their employees and communities, and ordinary citizens had a fair share of the economy. I know all corporations weren't good, and some labor unions (notably the Teamsters of that period) were bad. but with the government going after the mafia injection into the Teamsters, and people like Ralph Nader exposing corrupt corporations we were muddling through. I am shocked at his attack on college campuses. I was in College from 1964 to 1972 and while we did participate in the Civil Rights movement and the Anti Viet Nam war Movement, we were not 'radical'. We were attempting to right wrongs, We weren't destructive, we didn't hate America. And my Economics professor was a very conservative Republican, who welcomed my liberal/progressive outbursts and encourage me to speak out.

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As has been said so many times before - we have the best government money can buy. And it has. We have nothing over the corrupt nations around the world.

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Thanks for this. I have been wondering for a long time what the basis was for what seems to be the excessive influence Big Money and Big Business has on Politics. This is nothing more than legalised corruption.

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A fascinating memo from Powell. Thanks for sharing it. It reads like a road map for the Koch Brothers. What followed are the think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, the Hudson Foundation (which funds corporate agriculture thinking), the Hoover Institute and much more. Essentially all of these are an attempt to quash the supposed academic tilt to the left by funding a strong "academic" shift to the right. However, all of these "think tanks" have a predetermined economic and cultural end they seek that does not necessarily need guidance by actual fact, or broadly accepted scientific or social consensus. If it makes money it is good, if it blocks making money then it is leftist, communist, socialist and bad. When your criteria for success is narrow you blind yourself to realities that could easily result in the death of the planet. If that sounds to extreme, ask a Californian with a burned out house; a Kentuckian cleaning mud off their ceiling; a Bangladeshi farmer trying to keep her farm from washing into the Bay of Bengal. Powell's memo deserves a broader historical evaluation and hopefully a significant rebuttal. If it continues to guide the political process then humanity may just drown in the refuse of corporate success.

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Aug 11, 2022·edited Aug 11, 2022

Seeing that today’s Newsletter opens by naming 2 Senate Democrats who are among the highest recipients of corporate money, I wish mostly to amplify some of what everyday people have lost due to how these 2 Senators have voted in the past 8 to 10 months.

I start with the Senate’s failure, by 2 votes this past January, to pass the $1.75 trillion budget reconciliation climate and care economy package (negotiated down from the $3.75 trillion bill that had passed in the House in fall of 21), and underscore how the public-at-large was denied an extension of the child tax credit, affordable, quality childcare and universal Pre-K, investments in housing, in eldercare, in expanded ACA subsidies, in climate, and much more.

While the $4+ billion Inflation Reduction Act that received support, this past week, from all 50 Senate Democrats surely will contribute, despite some concessions, to helping make the transition from the fossil fuel industry to clean energy, most of the care economy piece that would have improved life for tens and tens of millions of working people, plus most of the tax reform provisions, were dropped.

Additionally, but for Manchin and Sinema, who, this past January, supported the federal voter protection bills that would have safeguarded our democracy and then, on a second vote, joined the 50 Senate Republicans to oppose an extremely modest change to the filibuster that eventually would have allowed for an up or down vote, GOP controlled State Legislatures would have been blocked from continuing to lay the groundwork for changing state election rules to change who can be in charge, how votes are counted, and how they’re certified.

If these 2 detailed iterative examples don’t mount a convincing case for moving towards getting dark money out of politics, I don’t know what would.

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Money broke our system of governance.

Full stop.

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I knew something was wrong when sportscaster Roone Arledge was appointed run ABC news and People magazine appeared in supermarkets. I also recall when organized labor was ordered to sit in the corner when a Democrat-run Congress shot down common situs picketing in 77. I didn't know what it was until I heard Bill Moyers' address at the 40th anniversary of Public Citizen where he mentioned and described the Powell memo. Then it became clear. The Powell memo is a declaration of war and battle plan. He may have had benign goals when he wrote it, but the class war has gone and is going very well for the elite. Every plant closure and every stock buyback is an attack against us.

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This is so GOP! Imagine that anything that tries to keep capitalism in balance with other human needs (worker welfare, public safety, …), is an existential threat that must be stopped at all costs.

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"But most of the essential freedoms remain: private ownership, private profit, labor unions, collective bargaining, consumer choice, and a market economy in which competition largely determines price, quality and variety of the goods and services provided the consumer."

Thanks to what resulted from this memo, we no longer have much beyond private ownership and profit. As Dr. Reich has documented, the end of anti-trust enforcement and the resulting corporate consolidation has perverted the market economy. As the founder of Whole Foods wrote a few years back, we now have a rigged "crony capitalism".

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wow- that was a lot to ingest/digest the system isnt broken- its being built this way. the right time to do the right thing is right now- sadly, we are so distracted by just trying to fight over crumbs that we lose sight of the bigger picture. and trump and his minions are sucking all the oxygen out of the room.

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Didn’t finish reading yet but a note on WV..my relatives worked in the coal mines there for many years. And many died from Black Lung Disease. Didn’t know about the pipe line. I will have to focus on this post. Chock full of info!!!

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Thanks for including the entire memo. The Memo is a very carefully crarfted long range plan of attack on our "Government Of by and for the People" and well organised and carefully worded to be pointed with the monicur The American system to replace the more obvious Corperate America we have come to recognise as the entire government to the benefit of the Elite whose primary effort is to profit and control that alows them to continue to maintain control of it's greaest "asset" the working class, the one comodity that fuels their source of "wealth" and power. The original sin of greed exposed.

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"The threat to the enterprise system is not merely a matter of economics. It also is a threat to individual freedom." What bullshit, in truth it's the exact opposite. A wiser man once said "Never let companies get together or they will collude against the public interest."

Chilling, but interesting to note that there was all this talk about Communists, Marxists and socialists destroying American business. Even Milton Friedman was there in 1971.....and then came Reagan.

Sinema is a nauseating symbol of this corruption. If this nonsensical thinking is not thwarted it's the end of America, we'll go down faster than Rome.

However I find it encouraging that with only 50 seats in the Senate, some small semblance of sanity is beginning to emerge there. Just think what 53 seats may achieve.....

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Like Ralph Nader said on his book title "Unsafe at Any Speed". Powel wanted to defend the indefensible. Honor cannot be forced onto the Dishonorable, no matter how organized and powerful the attempts to do so.

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Looks like Big Business wants to control the Schools, starting with high schools, then Colleges. I guess they want to indoctrinate and brainwash everyone and use the courts as a weapon. Looks like they are already at it. I never liked the Chamber of Commerce, because it seemed so obvious what it is about. If business has good policies and respect for the consumer and the environment, it would not need to 'attack' and 'be agressive' and essentially take over the textbook industry, schools and the law itself. Sadly, it seems that it actually has, with passage of Citizens United. We see the stacked court.

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