Absolutely, so right!!! It's just like when the late, great President General Ike Eisenhower (a Republican) sternly and gravely warned us of the rise of the military industrial complex. Nobody heeded his warning. Most historians consider him the last great POTUS of America. We've been paying the price for not heeding his warning, perhaps even more than ever in this second time of the dark evil days of Trump. "1" was bad enough, coupled with the pandemic, "2" is worse. I think about what would happen if another pandemic happened now in "Trump 2". It's a horrific thought on top of the horrors we've already experienced since Jan. 2025.
If we can’t enforce antitrust laws, where are we as a nation without laws? Where are the Congressional representatives who promised to protect us? If they can’t bother to uphold their oath or promise to protect us, we are truly a broken system.
People need to read the history of William Howard Taft and Teddy Roosevelt. They enforced the antitrust laws and they broke up monopolies, oligopolies vertical and lateral trusts. A lot of people that they don’t remember that one time the Republican Party was the good guy.
I would say that at least 60 to 70% of members of congress are complicit with the corporate criminals and it’s on both sides of the aisle. There’s a site called wealth in Congress and most of them are millionaires and when it was compared with how much money they made in the stock market Compared to the S&P 500 collectively they exceeded the S&P 500 by 55%. If you were to filter out the 30 to 40% of congressman and senators who are not involved in insider trading they exceed the S&P 500 by a lot more than 55% in their gains. What they’re doing is criminal behavior and they need to be prosecuted for that but we know this never gonna happen. The only justice I see for this kind of theft is do it yourself justice.
People today are so naïve and so easily bullshitted by the media that they failed to realize what the government actually is. It’s the corporations dumbasses!
I get it Ticketmaster is a monopoly, fix it. What I do not get is the public allowing itself to be extorted for purely discretionary hedonistic entertainment. Has the public become so addicted to T/Swift they just have to spend $500-$5000 for a couple of hours of screaming and madness? Those who have no financial nor emotional maturity deserve what they get. It was their choice. Some lessons hard learned. All of it done on a credit card paying 21% interest.
Any wonder how many of the same are screaming we need to improve our cities, healthcare, eradicate homeless. Nah, concerts are more fun.
I have a working theory about that kind of thing especially when it comes to music.
Pop music today is horrid. It is lame. It is boring. It is an original and it has no message. It’s fake.
The music industry is 100% corporate. They control the content. Corporate can make people think that a shit sandwich is delicious and then they could sell dozens of them to every idiot who thinks Taylor Swift doesn’t suck.
The other thing that has been banned by the corporate music criminals are protest songs. The idea is to push something lower than mediocrity and that keeps people stupid stupid stupid.
The NFL is a big corporate whore. That Taylor Swift Travis Kelce thing was nauseating.
Taylor Swift came to be because her parents invested $500,000 into her to give her the push she needed in spite of the fact she’s mediocre at best. I used to host open mic nights and young people with real talent would perform and the sad thing is none of those kids are ever going to make it no matter how good they are in no matter how good their son rating is.
Taylor Swift is an example of one more great big giant shit sandwich that people love to eat
One of the reasons America is the land of dreams, is that they can be manufactured, packaged and sold. One of Trumps lines is that you have to make opportunities. Short for persuasion. Make them a deal they cannot refuse. Point being like you said, make something up, push the hell out of it and the weak minded will buy into it. Works in politics. Propaganda is making people buy into something they normally would not.
On monopolies, grocery stores in the Portland, OR area are being taken over by Kroger's. Once they have the market, prices in all their stores will increase. I have seen 20% increases over the last year on the few products I buy. So, I go to WinCo, which is supposed to be employee owned, frequently but it is 9 miles away vs 2.
Same occurred in rural areas with Walmart. Home Depot and Lowes is quickly putting local hardware and lumber stores out of business.
Perhaps not monopolies but large companies out compete small stores. And, then online stores ...
FANTASTIC piece! We need a new Teddy Roosevelt in the WH following our current Scammer-In-Chief who is a monopoly protector and ( Musk Industries comes to mind) monopoly feeder. As you note, the "Too big to fail" banking myth has led to open 'usury' by the big banks, Visa, Mastercard, Discover and Amex, and is outrageous. For those of the "c"hristian America First and remaining MAGA's movements, there are multiple admonitions against such usury, within the Bible. Where is your outrage and comdemnation of these practices? As for Congress they are all reliant on the big monopolies and corporations for their 'campaign' funds (read jobs) and thus shy from controlling legislation and enforcement efforts when they arise.
Casinos, airlines, shoes, ties, meats, wines, cryptocurrency, university, bibles, models, Pageants, and confidence (all of it and he doesn’t stop) although, all bankrupt including our treasury.
TR famous words "speak softly, but carry a big stick" does resonate. However we now have the opposite. Unrelenting loud mouth used against his own, but a little stick when dealing with Putin and Xi.
Pearl Jam selflessly faught Tickmaster decades ago, before this 2nd era of Robber Baron Predatory Monopolies, and valient as it was, was unsuccessful trying to fight and/or bipass the then 'mini' version of Ticketmaster. Giving fuel & gumption to today's dumpster fire of mega multi-national (as in loyal to no one but themselves) untouchable oligarchies . Straight out of every great, scary predicted future in the, then sci-fi books & movies written in the 20th century I gobbled up.
Citizen's United is a major cause for the dire straights where we now reside. We need to raise taxes on corporations and the ultra-wealthy, and enforce the laws already on the books. Corruption is also running rampant and destroying the country.
I’ve been to one live show in the last five years. I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay that much money to be herded like goddamn cattle. I haven’t been to an arena show since 1985.
As our corrupt 2-party dictatorship so aptly displays, by its inaction regarding regulation of big-money businesses, perhaps we should borrow a page from the Albanian people and demonstrate our disapproval of our parasitic capitalist system, as they did with their prime minister's real estate deal with Ivanka and Jarod, by torching his residence.
We also need someone who will charge corporate owners of all the media outlets when they violate the 1st Amendment guaranteeing freedom of the press and the punishment MUST PUT FEAR IN THOSE WHO MIGHT ATTEMPT IT IN THE FUTURE! And those who would think to put out information that is clearly a falsehood,they have to be made aware that they run the risk of losing their licenses to broadcast or to print!
Take care. When the rubber hits the road there are the ripoff gaints and the giants that make it so the everyday person can afford more and better products so we can eat and have clothes.
Yes, push back hard on dishonest marketing. Regulate scalping tickets or what ever products.
Whenever a company wants to charge the high dollar and rake in more apparent dollars for open substandard prpducts, they yell unfair to those marketing to the everyday, getting by consumers. These folks cannot pay you pie in sky prices.
Project 25! And no one paid attention, when they were told! and now they are paying the price for their ignorance and stupidity!
Absolutely, so right!!! It's just like when the late, great President General Ike Eisenhower (a Republican) sternly and gravely warned us of the rise of the military industrial complex. Nobody heeded his warning. Most historians consider him the last great POTUS of America. We've been paying the price for not heeding his warning, perhaps even more than ever in this second time of the dark evil days of Trump. "1" was bad enough, coupled with the pandemic, "2" is worse. I think about what would happen if another pandemic happened now in "Trump 2". It's a horrific thought on top of the horrors we've already experienced since Jan. 2025.
If we can’t enforce antitrust laws, where are we as a nation without laws? Where are the Congressional representatives who promised to protect us? If they can’t bother to uphold their oath or promise to protect us, we are truly a broken system.
If we can’t enforce our laws, why do we pay Congress people and senators to sit atop Capital Hill to make laws?
People need to read the history of William Howard Taft and Teddy Roosevelt. They enforced the antitrust laws and they broke up monopolies, oligopolies vertical and lateral trusts. A lot of people that they don’t remember that one time the Republican Party was the good guy.
I would say that at least 60 to 70% of members of congress are complicit with the corporate criminals and it’s on both sides of the aisle. There’s a site called wealth in Congress and most of them are millionaires and when it was compared with how much money they made in the stock market Compared to the S&P 500 collectively they exceeded the S&P 500 by 55%. If you were to filter out the 30 to 40% of congressman and senators who are not involved in insider trading they exceed the S&P 500 by a lot more than 55% in their gains. What they’re doing is criminal behavior and they need to be prosecuted for that but we know this never gonna happen. The only justice I see for this kind of theft is do it yourself justice.
People today are so naïve and so easily bullshitted by the media that they failed to realize what the government actually is. It’s the corporations dumbasses!
I get it Ticketmaster is a monopoly, fix it. What I do not get is the public allowing itself to be extorted for purely discretionary hedonistic entertainment. Has the public become so addicted to T/Swift they just have to spend $500-$5000 for a couple of hours of screaming and madness? Those who have no financial nor emotional maturity deserve what they get. It was their choice. Some lessons hard learned. All of it done on a credit card paying 21% interest.
Any wonder how many of the same are screaming we need to improve our cities, healthcare, eradicate homeless. Nah, concerts are more fun.
I have a working theory about that kind of thing especially when it comes to music.
Pop music today is horrid. It is lame. It is boring. It is an original and it has no message. It’s fake.
The music industry is 100% corporate. They control the content. Corporate can make people think that a shit sandwich is delicious and then they could sell dozens of them to every idiot who thinks Taylor Swift doesn’t suck.
The other thing that has been banned by the corporate music criminals are protest songs. The idea is to push something lower than mediocrity and that keeps people stupid stupid stupid.
The NFL is a big corporate whore. That Taylor Swift Travis Kelce thing was nauseating.
Taylor Swift came to be because her parents invested $500,000 into her to give her the push she needed in spite of the fact she’s mediocre at best. I used to host open mic nights and young people with real talent would perform and the sad thing is none of those kids are ever going to make it no matter how good they are in no matter how good their son rating is.
Taylor Swift is an example of one more great big giant shit sandwich that people love to eat
One of the reasons America is the land of dreams, is that they can be manufactured, packaged and sold. One of Trumps lines is that you have to make opportunities. Short for persuasion. Make them a deal they cannot refuse. Point being like you said, make something up, push the hell out of it and the weak minded will buy into it. Works in politics. Propaganda is making people buy into something they normally would not.
When it comes to critical thinking, Americans suck at it.
On monopolies, grocery stores in the Portland, OR area are being taken over by Kroger's. Once they have the market, prices in all their stores will increase. I have seen 20% increases over the last year on the few products I buy. So, I go to WinCo, which is supposed to be employee owned, frequently but it is 9 miles away vs 2.
Same occurred in rural areas with Walmart. Home Depot and Lowes is quickly putting local hardware and lumber stores out of business.
Perhaps not monopolies but large companies out compete small stores. And, then online stores ...
FANTASTIC piece! We need a new Teddy Roosevelt in the WH following our current Scammer-In-Chief who is a monopoly protector and ( Musk Industries comes to mind) monopoly feeder. As you note, the "Too big to fail" banking myth has led to open 'usury' by the big banks, Visa, Mastercard, Discover and Amex, and is outrageous. For those of the "c"hristian America First and remaining MAGA's movements, there are multiple admonitions against such usury, within the Bible. Where is your outrage and comdemnation of these practices? As for Congress they are all reliant on the big monopolies and corporations for their 'campaign' funds (read jobs) and thus shy from controlling legislation and enforcement efforts when they arise.
He is a Trumpazon
Casinos, airlines, shoes, ties, meats, wines, cryptocurrency, university, bibles, models, Pageants, and confidence (all of it and he doesn’t stop) although, all bankrupt including our treasury.
TR famous words "speak softly, but carry a big stick" does resonate. However we now have the opposite. Unrelenting loud mouth used against his own, but a little stick when dealing with Putin and Xi.
When Trump is impeached (and we know he will be), consider the fact that VP Vance will pardon him. Once again, oily Trump will be vindicated.
Pearl Jam selflessly faught Tickmaster decades ago, before this 2nd era of Robber Baron Predatory Monopolies, and valient as it was, was unsuccessful trying to fight and/or bipass the then 'mini' version of Ticketmaster. Giving fuel & gumption to today's dumpster fire of mega multi-national (as in loyal to no one but themselves) untouchable oligarchies . Straight out of every great, scary predicted future in the, then sci-fi books & movies written in the 20th century I gobbled up.
Fought. Sorry. No edit option.
Citizen's United is a major cause for the dire straights where we now reside. We need to raise taxes on corporations and the ultra-wealthy, and enforce the laws already on the books. Corruption is also running rampant and destroying the country.
I’ve been to one live show in the last five years. I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay that much money to be herded like goddamn cattle. I haven’t been to an arena show since 1985.
As our corrupt 2-party dictatorship so aptly displays, by its inaction regarding regulation of big-money businesses, perhaps we should borrow a page from the Albanian people and demonstrate our disapproval of our parasitic capitalist system, as they did with their prime minister's real estate deal with Ivanka and Jarod, by torching his residence.
Magic Spoon has dairy in all products. A cheap filler that is not necessary. They can use pea protein for the protean and fiber.
We also need someone who will charge corporate owners of all the media outlets when they violate the 1st Amendment guaranteeing freedom of the press and the punishment MUST PUT FEAR IN THOSE WHO MIGHT ATTEMPT IT IN THE FUTURE! And those who would think to put out information that is clearly a falsehood,they have to be made aware that they run the risk of losing their licenses to broadcast or to print!
Take care. When the rubber hits the road there are the ripoff gaints and the giants that make it so the everyday person can afford more and better products so we can eat and have clothes.
Yes, push back hard on dishonest marketing. Regulate scalping tickets or what ever products.
Whenever a company wants to charge the high dollar and rake in more apparent dollars for open substandard prpducts, they yell unfair to those marketing to the everyday, getting by consumers. These folks cannot pay you pie in sky prices.
Then corruption prevails