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Ever get a surprise cold shower? No fun but a real wake up.

November 5th made clear that, high-jinks and voter suppression aside, 31.2% of the eligible voters in the USA, the oldest democratic republic in the world, voted to burn it all down.

How did this happen in a liberal democracy? This country has survived slavery, civil war, public corruption of all sorts, domination by monopolies, regular market manipulation, Savings and Loan corruption, and 14 years ago a banking scandal so severe it threatened to take down the world economy.

Bailing out the banks was probably the last straw for many citizens and not just the millions who lost their homes but the hundreds of millions who watched it all go down under the Hope and Change president. It hurt to watch. By this time Politicians apparently believed the BS they fed to potential voters, Even after a 2014 study(1) found that “lobbyist’s issues” created more laws than citizen needs did.

Meanwhile the powerful business interests were implementing the Powell Memorandum (2), their manifesto to take power back from consumers. It was written by Supreme Court justice Louis Powell shortly before Nixon was ousted and his resignation probably energized the project .

Nixon’s advisors, including Dick Cheney, Roger Ailes, Donald Rumsfeld, and Roger Stone all went on to provide cover and excuses for boondoggles and politicians . In the last 50 years, guided by the Powell Memorandum, businesses across the US economy have shifted over 50 billion dollars(3) from the middle class to the now bloated top 10%. It is a shame these folks aren’t on team USA.

Nixon may have been a crook but he was also a leader with vision (China, the EPA, etc, 4) who cared about the USA. He knew the golden rule of crooks that is lost on common thugs: Don’t kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.

Watching this house-of-cards of captured agencies, stock trading officials, science deniers and oath breakers, Donald realized that he’d be a good fit and he was for four years.

And though democracy got a break, 50 years of a shrinking middle class, pointless wars and most critically, violated trust by both parties, could not be reversed in 4 years and Donald came back to finish the job.

Let’s not be naïve, Trump doesn’t want to run the USA: he wants to own it.

And apparently our justice system is not interested in dealing with his crimes; insurrection, retained documents, or violated oaths. The real question is: Who is running the USA and What Is Their game plan?

Now that the “dog” did catch the “car”, what can it do? while a democratic republic runs smoothly on laws and public trust, Politicians traded those off years ago to win elections and feather their nests. That leaves us, the citizens, to reactivate the system. And we will not do it with more BS. We will need to build genuine community and trust based on results.

Democracy is not a spectator sport. We all have to get informed, learn the ropes, understand the strategies and tactics of the opposition, and take time to exercise citizenship.

Just as “True the vote” organized racists to suppress and eliminate tens of thousands of voters across the country, we will have to empower those Same voters and More, turning them into staunch and informed citizens. We have plenty of work ahead of us. We have been sleep-walking: now we are awake.

And it is not enough to vote in elections. Every act we do should create the world we want. Don’t waste any energy on the endless nonsense from “social media.” It is just there to distract you.

Citizens need current, in-depth information about issues and politicians. At The Work FM we will provide you with informative content that puts the news of human failings in context so we can stop doing and allowing stupid stuff.

WRWK tells you about the world where society and the USA work. We know that a livable society is possible. We promise to keep you updated, and along with the issues, we will review solutions.

You can be part of it. Let’s be resilient and strong, leaving ‘fragile” behind. Fixing the world is not for dilettantes. Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work.

We value your input. Listen in, tell us your concerns, and send your ideas to:

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Ron Skinner

Theworkfm WRWK FM 93.9

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Notes

1. https://journalistsresource.org/politics-and-government/the-influence-of-elites-interest-groups-and-average-voters-on-american-politics/
2. https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/powellmemo/
3. https://time.com/5888024/50-trillion-income-inequality-america/
4. https://guides.hoover.org/nixon-administration-watergate-50

debate?  It was a charade.  Cnn pretended to have a debate, two journalists pretended to moderate, Trump pretended to debate while ignoring most questions and repeating his most popular fabrications, while the President, apparently amazed at the betrayal by CNN attempted to answer the debate questions.

We know Trump’s record, we know what the President has actually done. What surprised me was how profit seeking has reduced cnn to pandering.  There is little left of their credibility.

The following quotes describe our path to this point.

    “When a man unprincipled in private life desperate in his fortune, bold in his temper, possessed of considerable talents, having the advantage of military habits—despotic in his ordinary demeanour—known to have scoffed in private at the principles of liberty—when such a man is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity—to join in the cry of danger to liberty—to take every opportunity of embarrassing the General Government & bringing it under suspicion—to flatter and fall in with all the non sense of the zealots of the day—It may justly be suspected that his object is to throw things into confusion that he may “ride the storm and direct the whirlwind.”  (Alexander Hamilton)

      “We may congratulate ourselves that this cruel war is nearing its end.It has cost a vast amount of treasure and blood. . . .

It has indeed been a trying hour for the Republic; but I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless.” [The passage appears in a letter from Lincoln to (Col.) William F. Elkins, Nov. 21, 1864.]

  “I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

 “We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

 “If there is anything that links the human to the divine, it is the courage to stand by a principle when everybody else rejects it.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

“If you assume that there is no hope, you guarantee that there will be no hope. If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, that there are opportunities to change things, then there is a possibility that you can contribute to making a better world.” ~Noam Chomsky

On our collective birthday in 2024 we find our government under a cloud of dark money, creating confusion among participants and apathy among bystanders. Its no wonder the crazies seem to reign, they feed on mayhen while rational people avoid it.

My birthday wish is that we arrest the popular criminals, label media according to Accuracy only make voting easier, ban or label any dark money and require that the oath of office be at the end of a civics course that explains that government is in the business of growing an educated and involved middle class, repelling attempts by business to dominate and keeping all citizens engaged in making the USA live up to its original Declaration of Independence, made into a world where None of it was true at the time, and now some of it is.

That’s our job.

Happy Birthday United States of America!