Ralph welcomes Eva Borgwardt from the grassroots Jewish-American organization IfNotNow to bust the myth that Palestinian rights and Jewish safety are mutually exclusive. Then, Ralph is joined by CPA and corporate accountability advocate Dr. Ralph Estes to discuss his book “Fight the Corpocracy, Take Back Democracy: A Mad As Hell Guide for the 99%."
Many Arab Americans will not be voting for Biden again. I think I read that in the last election, approximately 65% of Arab-Americans voted for Biden and 35% for Trump. It will be much lower for Biden in this coming election.
At some point it is going to be judgment day for the wanton and murderous Israelis who think that they can continue their vicious genocidal murders because their victims are powerless and few are standing up in their defense.
And the President, Vice-President, Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense along with the Congress are all guilty of mass murder - war criminals all.
And 95% of Americans are just fine with it. Those are your neighbors.
Statistics on the Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip (07 October - 03 February 2024)
I found the ideas of Dr. Estes particularly interesting since I am involved with a similar phenomena in the arena of voting. Corporations are evaluated on the basis of the profits they make, without considering the costs of the damages they do to the environment and to the public. Similarly, when we vote, it is only the level of voter support that is counted, with no accounting for the level of voter opposition to them.
Voting systems that take opposition as well as support into account I call balanced and if anyone is interested I have a series of articles about them:
The very largest national corporations with more than 5,000 employees should be required to pay between 10% to 50% of total pre-tax profits to their workers. William Lazonick, professor, has been on Ralph's show, his studies show that 90+% of pre-tax corporate profits go to shareholders through dividends or stock buybacks from 2003 to 2023. That would be $2.2 trillion in 2023 (I looked at the Fed's Flow of Funds report, page 10, line 9.) The math is simple, but I shouldn't confuse anyone with numbers. The main fact is that wage income for "nonsupervisory workers", 83% of all workers, their average weekly earnings were actually higher in 1968 than in 2023 -- you can check at this BLS web page: https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0500000031 -- You can also check "median weekly earnings for production and nonsupervisory workers" at the Fed's FRED page -- https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q -- I show those two so no one will argue with me, they can argue with the BLS or the Federal Reserve. Wages for most workers have NOT tracked economic growth. We have harmful inequality and economic fragility, and pain for millions who are struggling. For instance, the "average household income" for all households is around $170,000 now; but for 2022 the lower half of households all had incomes below $74,580 (U.S. Census). RealTime Inequality, a web page created by Univ. of Calif. Berkeley economists, shows that since 1976 income distribution has shifted, the lower-earning 90% were earning 63% of all income in 1976, now they earn 48%, a shift of 15.4%, and that amounts to $3.4 trillion; and if they lower 90% had that $3.4 trillion, then every one of the 117 million households, all earning less than $200,000, would have $29,000 more income each year. And that would change things, a huge improvement -- HUGE, as Sanders would say.
My argument is that we need to nationalize the corporate charters for the largest corporations, all with over 5,000 employees (with an average of over 20,000 employees), to pay an annual bonus to their workers. I got that 20,000 figure and others from Wm. Lazonick's papers published at INET economics. My blog explains most of this: http://benL88.blogspot.com, Economics Without Greed, Part Two. It's on the first paragraphs.
The greatest harm the largest corporations are doing is stifling wages for most workers. States could take them on one by one. In California there was a referendum to force Walmart to pay higher wages, but it lost. Same with the Uber drivers, it lost. I think we need a national campaign to subdue the power of these mega-corporations. Shawn Fein, UAW president, has mentioned holding a 'general strike' on May 1, 2028, the date when the UAW contract expires. Only 4 years' away.
The Fed FRED page shows that "Real (inflation adjusted) disposable personal income per capita" increased by 170% since 1968. But wages for 80% of workers, the nonsupervisory workers, have been frozen, with either no increase or only 3% increase, virtually nothing. We have about 40% of the population struggling and in poverty or near poverty. People struggling will listen to bombastic angry promises and can be persuaded to attack the capital to overthrow elections -- it's time for some big changes.
Steve was struggling to respond to someone who did not understand the call for a ceasefire. There seem to be a lot of people who believe that Israel's security problem is caused by Hamas or Hezbollah. The fascists want people to believe that Israel is the victim of irrational hatred. This is the big lie at the heart of Israeli fascism, just as all fascism is rooted in a big lie. And it is obvious if one just bothers to think for a minute. If a society maintains, very violently, a system of apartheid that abuses millions of people, those people will resist. The more violent the imposition of the injustice, the more violent the resistance will inevitably be. This is why October 7 was inevitable. Zionism wants people to not think and just accept lies. The fact is, the basic human fact is that if Israel gave up its apartheid system and treated everyone with equal rights it would not have a security problem. That is the reality that Israeli fascists and their supporters must convince people to ignore. But more and more people are putting two and two together -- violent repression creates violent resistance. It is that simple: No apartheid no security problems.
Personally I'll require myself to listen to this, in its entirety, twice. A lot to absorb. Meanwhile folks = boycott.thewitness.news A-Z businesses "as usual" who support the IDF *Israel Defense fighters.
Congress created the current state of corporations and now the corporations create the Congress by funding the campaigns.
If we want a Congress that will recreate the corporations in a form closer to the original intent then we need to recreate the Congress by boycotting the candidates that take the corporate money for their campaigns.
We can demand small donor candidates for Congress in 2024 and enforce that demand with our votes by only voting for small donor candidates or using a write in vote when there are no small donor candidates on the primary and general election ballots to create and demonstrate demand for small donor candidates in future elections.
It will not succeed in 2024 but it will make it possible to start electing small donor candidates in 2026 or 2028 as participation grows.
It will yield results much faster than spending another forty plus years voting for big money candidates and waiting for eventually to happen.
Ralph has said politicians want our votes more than big money campaign contributions.
Let's put that theory to a test by demanding small donor candidates and enforcing that demand with our votes.
Perhaps Ralph has heard of the word that describes when citizens make a demand and enforce it with our votes.
I haven't heard that idea that Eva Borgwardt spoke about, that the U.S. was using Israel as a buffer zone for their hedge against the East, and sacrificing Jewish lives for U.S. foreign policy --with the help of right-wing Jewish elements, which are never in short-supply, ever since we heard about the Transfer Agreement -- in a long time. Personally, that's the view I have always held. Right-wing Jews and the U.S. don't care if Jewish lives are sacrificed. Look at the way the U.S. and the right-wing Israel govt. acted when Hitler was killing Ashkenazi Jews. They were used as the reason WHY the right-wing needed Israel, so obviously innocent Jews -- 99.9% of Jews -- had to die. I'm very proud of Eva Borgwardt and her group, which I have long been a big supporter of. And particularly proud of Eva's keen intelligence and strength to oppose what I consider to be the biggest forces on earth. A true Davidess and Goliath story.
I did my first semester in College at the Hebrew University in 1973, and was there for the Yom Kippur War. The first thing I noticed when we drove into the country, was all the, what I call "Concentration Camps," having recently been in Germany, dotting the landscape. I couldn't figure out what the hell was going on! And when I brought this fact back to the U.S., nobody knew what I was talking about, and nobody believed me, either.
Wasting, defined as low weight-for-height, is the most visible and lethal type of malnutrition.
Severe wasting, also known as severe acute malnutrition, is its most deadly form. It is caused by a lack of nutritious food and repeated bouts of diseases such as diarrhoea, measles and malaria, which compromise a child’s immunity.
How is it impacting children?
Severe wasting turns common childhood illnesses into killer diseases.
Children who are severely wasted succumb to those diseases because their bodies provide virtually no protection against the bacteria, virus or fungi that infect them.
They die because their digestive systems can no longer absorb nutrients.
A severely wasted child is reduced to the most basic bodily functions. It takes all their energy just to keep breathing.
Since Bibi has been dictator of genocidal Israel, all U.S. presidents have said, "no matter what, Bibi, we have your back." And since then, Bibi has intended a war with Iran (remember the bomb cartoon?), knowing the imperialist U.S. would back him up, even if he starts that war.
The imperialist actions of Genocide Joe in the region have led to expert analysts predicting a wider regional Middle East war. Both Bibi and G J Biden know that wartime presidents, and Crime Ministers are most always re-elected.
Old, senile, Genocide Joe is not very popular at home with his partnership in the genocide of Palestine. And Bibi, although he has 99% support of the murdering Zionist occupiers for his genocide, is facing problems with his fascist government.
So, a full scale Middle East war seems in the offing! And six million slaughtered Palestinians to those two, and their filthy administrations? Meh, worth it.
A big advantage of allowing voters to express either opposition or support (or neither) and letting them do this for all candidates is that it would undermine the two-party system and give voters more choices.
Voting for some other candidate is not the same as voting against that candidate. That is why we have the two words, "for" and "against"; we cannot make due with just one of the two words.
And in an election with three candidates voting for one of them has the same effect on the election outcome is the same a giving half a vote favoring each of the other two, for someone trying to interpret voter opinion, that is simply a source of confusion.
Many Arab Americans will not be voting for Biden again. I think I read that in the last election, approximately 65% of Arab-Americans voted for Biden and 35% for Trump. It will be much lower for Biden in this coming election.
At some point it is going to be judgment day for the wanton and murderous Israelis who think that they can continue their vicious genocidal murders because their victims are powerless and few are standing up in their defense.
Euro-Med stats (Day 120): 35,096 killed (13,642 children, 30,571 civilians)
And the President, Vice-President, Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense along with the Congress are all guilty of mass murder - war criminals all.
And 95% of Americans are just fine with it. Those are your neighbors.
Statistics on the Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip (07 October - 03 February 2024)
https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6135/Statistics-on-the-Israeli-attack-on-the-Gaza-Strip-%2807-October---03-February-2024%29
I found the ideas of Dr. Estes particularly interesting since I am involved with a similar phenomena in the arena of voting. Corporations are evaluated on the basis of the profits they make, without considering the costs of the damages they do to the environment and to the public. Similarly, when we vote, it is only the level of voter support that is counted, with no accounting for the level of voter opposition to them.
Voting systems that take opposition as well as support into account I call balanced and if anyone is interested I have a series of articles about them:
https://www.opednews.com/populum/seriespage.php?r=326&s=time_sorting
The very largest national corporations with more than 5,000 employees should be required to pay between 10% to 50% of total pre-tax profits to their workers. William Lazonick, professor, has been on Ralph's show, his studies show that 90+% of pre-tax corporate profits go to shareholders through dividends or stock buybacks from 2003 to 2023. That would be $2.2 trillion in 2023 (I looked at the Fed's Flow of Funds report, page 10, line 9.) The math is simple, but I shouldn't confuse anyone with numbers. The main fact is that wage income for "nonsupervisory workers", 83% of all workers, their average weekly earnings were actually higher in 1968 than in 2023 -- you can check at this BLS web page: https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0500000031 -- You can also check "median weekly earnings for production and nonsupervisory workers" at the Fed's FRED page -- https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q -- I show those two so no one will argue with me, they can argue with the BLS or the Federal Reserve. Wages for most workers have NOT tracked economic growth. We have harmful inequality and economic fragility, and pain for millions who are struggling. For instance, the "average household income" for all households is around $170,000 now; but for 2022 the lower half of households all had incomes below $74,580 (U.S. Census). RealTime Inequality, a web page created by Univ. of Calif. Berkeley economists, shows that since 1976 income distribution has shifted, the lower-earning 90% were earning 63% of all income in 1976, now they earn 48%, a shift of 15.4%, and that amounts to $3.4 trillion; and if they lower 90% had that $3.4 trillion, then every one of the 117 million households, all earning less than $200,000, would have $29,000 more income each year. And that would change things, a huge improvement -- HUGE, as Sanders would say.
My argument is that we need to nationalize the corporate charters for the largest corporations, all with over 5,000 employees (with an average of over 20,000 employees), to pay an annual bonus to their workers. I got that 20,000 figure and others from Wm. Lazonick's papers published at INET economics. My blog explains most of this: http://benL88.blogspot.com, Economics Without Greed, Part Two. It's on the first paragraphs.
The greatest harm the largest corporations are doing is stifling wages for most workers. States could take them on one by one. In California there was a referendum to force Walmart to pay higher wages, but it lost. Same with the Uber drivers, it lost. I think we need a national campaign to subdue the power of these mega-corporations. Shawn Fein, UAW president, has mentioned holding a 'general strike' on May 1, 2028, the date when the UAW contract expires. Only 4 years' away.
The Fed FRED page shows that "Real (inflation adjusted) disposable personal income per capita" increased by 170% since 1968. But wages for 80% of workers, the nonsupervisory workers, have been frozen, with either no increase or only 3% increase, virtually nothing. We have about 40% of the population struggling and in poverty or near poverty. People struggling will listen to bombastic angry promises and can be persuaded to attack the capital to overthrow elections -- it's time for some big changes.
Steve was struggling to respond to someone who did not understand the call for a ceasefire. There seem to be a lot of people who believe that Israel's security problem is caused by Hamas or Hezbollah. The fascists want people to believe that Israel is the victim of irrational hatred. This is the big lie at the heart of Israeli fascism, just as all fascism is rooted in a big lie. And it is obvious if one just bothers to think for a minute. If a society maintains, very violently, a system of apartheid that abuses millions of people, those people will resist. The more violent the imposition of the injustice, the more violent the resistance will inevitably be. This is why October 7 was inevitable. Zionism wants people to not think and just accept lies. The fact is, the basic human fact is that if Israel gave up its apartheid system and treated everyone with equal rights it would not have a security problem. That is the reality that Israeli fascists and their supporters must convince people to ignore. But more and more people are putting two and two together -- violent repression creates violent resistance. It is that simple: No apartheid no security problems.
Personally I'll require myself to listen to this, in its entirety, twice. A lot to absorb. Meanwhile folks = boycott.thewitness.news A-Z businesses "as usual" who support the IDF *Israel Defense fighters.
WOh❗️ SO MUCH POWERFUL Information. THANK YOU ALL. PUBLC FIDUCIARY GOVERNING IS STEP ONE.
We need time stamps to aid in targeted sharing, thanks.
Congress created the current state of corporations and now the corporations create the Congress by funding the campaigns.
If we want a Congress that will recreate the corporations in a form closer to the original intent then we need to recreate the Congress by boycotting the candidates that take the corporate money for their campaigns.
We can demand small donor candidates for Congress in 2024 and enforce that demand with our votes by only voting for small donor candidates or using a write in vote when there are no small donor candidates on the primary and general election ballots to create and demonstrate demand for small donor candidates in future elections.
It will not succeed in 2024 but it will make it possible to start electing small donor candidates in 2026 or 2028 as participation grows.
It will yield results much faster than spending another forty plus years voting for big money candidates and waiting for eventually to happen.
Ralph has said politicians want our votes more than big money campaign contributions.
Let's put that theory to a test by demanding small donor candidates and enforcing that demand with our votes.
Perhaps Ralph has heard of the word that describes when citizens make a demand and enforce it with our votes.
That word is democracy.
Isn't it time that we gave it a try?
Regarding your opening theme, please raise "stand up..." song about 5 db to match rest of the opening. THank you.
Thanks Ralph and Eva for Thee. TRUTH BE TOLD. Blessings Dave Pii
I haven't heard that idea that Eva Borgwardt spoke about, that the U.S. was using Israel as a buffer zone for their hedge against the East, and sacrificing Jewish lives for U.S. foreign policy --with the help of right-wing Jewish elements, which are never in short-supply, ever since we heard about the Transfer Agreement -- in a long time. Personally, that's the view I have always held. Right-wing Jews and the U.S. don't care if Jewish lives are sacrificed. Look at the way the U.S. and the right-wing Israel govt. acted when Hitler was killing Ashkenazi Jews. They were used as the reason WHY the right-wing needed Israel, so obviously innocent Jews -- 99.9% of Jews -- had to die. I'm very proud of Eva Borgwardt and her group, which I have long been a big supporter of. And particularly proud of Eva's keen intelligence and strength to oppose what I consider to be the biggest forces on earth. A true Davidess and Goliath story.
I did my first semester in College at the Hebrew University in 1973, and was there for the Yom Kippur War. The first thing I noticed when we drove into the country, was all the, what I call "Concentration Camps," having recently been in Germany, dotting the landscape. I couldn't figure out what the hell was going on! And when I brought this fact back to the U.S., nobody knew what I was talking about, and nobody believed me, either.
350,000 Gazan children under 5 are starving to death
Hundreds of thousands are starving in Gaza as famine arrives at ‘incredible speed,’ UN aid chief warns
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/16/middleeast/gaza-famine-starvation-un-israel-war-intl-hnk/index.html
Without sufficient nutrition, if they don't die straight out, their growth will be stunted and they will have permanent mental retardation.
An entire generation brain damaged. Incredible.
And right in front of our eyes.
This is exactly what the Nazis would do.
The current leaders of Israel and their Army are literal Nazis.
Congratulations to those Israelis on becoming actual Nazis.
From UNICEF:
https://www.unicef.org/child-alert/severe-wasting
What is severe wasting?
Wasting, defined as low weight-for-height, is the most visible and lethal type of malnutrition.
Severe wasting, also known as severe acute malnutrition, is its most deadly form. It is caused by a lack of nutritious food and repeated bouts of diseases such as diarrhoea, measles and malaria, which compromise a child’s immunity.
How is it impacting children?
Severe wasting turns common childhood illnesses into killer diseases.
Children who are severely wasted succumb to those diseases because their bodies provide virtually no protection against the bacteria, virus or fungi that infect them.
They die because their digestive systems can no longer absorb nutrients.
A severely wasted child is reduced to the most basic bodily functions. It takes all their energy just to keep breathing.
Always watch "Democracy Now" for updates on this crisis. One author who was featured today wrote this article for "The Intercept": https://theintercept.com/2024/02/07/gaza-israel-netanyahu-propaganda-lies-palestinians/
Since Bibi has been dictator of genocidal Israel, all U.S. presidents have said, "no matter what, Bibi, we have your back." And since then, Bibi has intended a war with Iran (remember the bomb cartoon?), knowing the imperialist U.S. would back him up, even if he starts that war.
The imperialist actions of Genocide Joe in the region have led to expert analysts predicting a wider regional Middle East war. Both Bibi and G J Biden know that wartime presidents, and Crime Ministers are most always re-elected.
Old, senile, Genocide Joe is not very popular at home with his partnership in the genocide of Palestine. And Bibi, although he has 99% support of the murdering Zionist occupiers for his genocide, is facing problems with his fascist government.
So, a full scale Middle East war seems in the offing! And six million slaughtered Palestinians to those two, and their filthy administrations? Meh, worth it.
A big advantage of allowing voters to express either opposition or support (or neither) and letting them do this for all candidates is that it would undermine the two-party system and give voters more choices.
Voting for some other candidate is not the same as voting against that candidate. That is why we have the two words, "for" and "against"; we cannot make due with just one of the two words.
And in an election with three candidates voting for one of them has the same effect on the election outcome is the same a giving half a vote favoring each of the other two, for someone trying to interpret voter opinion, that is simply a source of confusion.