TigerSoft Freedom News Service    7/9/2011       www.tigersoft.com      Stock Market Predictions

          America's Undeclared Class War:
         
   Plutocracy Is Winning
.

                       When Will There Be A Back-Lash?
              


               wpe1B9.jpg (2207 bytes)     The first American Civil War was caused by the obscene
         greed and unlimited power of Southern slave-owners.  The second
         civil war could be caused by the obscene greed, callousness
         and unlimited power aspirations of the Super Rich who seem to think
         Americans can be turned into peons working on their new corporate
         plantations.


           wpe1BC.jpg (6358 bytes)    By now, most of us understand that America has
         the most inequality of any major industrial country.  Taxes on the rich
         are the lowest in 80+ years. See "The Starkly Bleak Consequences of
         Accelerating American Inequality."  Readers here also understand
         that the President (despite his populist rhetoric and accusations
         that he is a "Socialist") is peculiarly unwilling to fight for the poor
         and working people when it comes to standing up to Corporations,
         Wall Street or demanding renewed taxation of the Rich, despite all
         his campaign pledges of 2008. (See November 15, 2010:

         http://www.tigersoftware.com/news_updates_to_tigersoft_blogs_.htm )

             
"La majestueuse égalité des lois, qui interdit au riche comme au pauvre de
                     coucher sous les ponts, de mendier dans les rues et de voler du pain." Anatole France


             
“There’s class warfare, all right,” Mr. Buffett said, “but it’s my class, the rich class,
                      that’s making war, and we’re winning.”

                   
"The rich are tolerable only so long as their gains appear to bear some relation to
                      roughly what they have contributed to society.
"   John Maynard Keynes

            It is high time to continue the discussion here.  If we do not
           respond soon, the American experiment in Democracy will surely
           be destroyed by Plutocracy.

           Part 1 here is the first of a new series of eight articles to be
           posted on Plutocracy's Take-Over America and How This
           Dangerous Trend Might Still Be Reversed.


   
      PART 1     - WALL STREET NO LONGER NEEDS MAIN STREET
        - WALL STREET IS CELEBRATING PLUTOCRACY'S APPARENT VICTORY
        - WARNINGS OF CIVIL UNREST
        - THE SUPINE SUPREME COURT's HIGH TREASON

                                     by William Schmidt, Ph.D. -  Creator of Tiger Software.   

wpe1B5.jpg (33251 bytes)  

 

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      America's Undeclared Class War    


                                    
wpe1B5.jpg (24702 bytes)

                        
   The June Jobs' Report Was Awful

                                                         wpe1B9.jpg (4687 bytes) Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

                  Today's Jobs' Report was terrible.  It was tragic.  But it understates the dire Truth out there. 
               State and Local Government jobs are being shed just when the Private Sector is failing the
               most.  All the while, advanced Public Education is being priced out of reach for millions. A
               permanent underclass has been created in America.  Boasting that we live in a democracy that
               offers opportunity for all rings very hollow now. . 
   

                      WALL STREET NO LONGER NEEDS MAIN STREET

             
    Watching Wall Street;s June rally, many economists expected June to show much stronger job
                creation by the private sector.  These economists fail to understand that Wall Street does not need
                Main Street anymore.  Stocks are mostly owned by the rich.  American workers are superfluous
                as producers, as consumers and as investors.  The rich are happy with overseas' investments and a
                rising market fueled by the Fed's cheap money programs.  Laying off American workers can be very
                profitable!   And an "army of unemployed" serves to keep wages down.

                   
     WALL STREET IS CELEBRATING PLUTOCRACY'S VICTORY

                Right now, corporate plutocracy rules America as never before.  The poor and the middle
                class are as powerless as ever before in the US.   Wall Street is celebrating their victory and
                the absence of any credible threat, so total is their control of the American political process.
                But their celebration may be premature.  Americans are waking up.  Protests are on the rise.
                By the time protests come to Wall Street itself, as in 1920 and 1970, a bear market will probably
                be in place.  The recent rally seems to have been fueled by Professionals driving in premature
                short sellers. Professionals are notoriously quick to jump ship in locking down a profit. r

DATA.BMP (1024854 bytes)

                             Employers hired a mere 18,000 workers in June, the Labor Department said,
                            the fewest number in nine months and far below economists' expectations for a gain
                            of 90,000. The unemployment rate rose unexpectedly in June to 9.2 percent, the highest
                           since December, from 9.1 percent in May.  Officially 14.1 million Americans
                           are unemployed.  6.3 million have been unemployed for more than 6 months.

                          
Whereas the economy needs to add 125,000 jobs a month just to keep up with the
                           growing population, it added only 18,000 in June.
  And the net jobs added numbers
                           for April was revised downward to 217,000 and for May was revised downward from
                           54,000 to a mere 25,000.  More than 8,000,000 jobs have been lost since the "Recession"
                           started in December 2007.  The US now has fewer jobs than it did a decade ago.

Manufacturing employment changed little in June. Following gains totaling 164,000 
between November 2010 and April 2011, employment in this industry has been flat for 
the past 2 months. In June, job gains in fabricated metal products (+8,000) were 
partially offset by a loss in wood products (-5,000).

Construction employment was essentially unchanged in June. After having fallen 
sharply during the 2007-09 period, employment in construction has shown little 
movement on net since early 2010.
In June, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls 
decreased by 1 cent to $22.99.
In June, average hourly earnings of private-sector 
production and nonsupervisory employees declined by 1 cent to $19.41.                          
Employment in government continued to trend down over the month (-39,000). Federal 
employment declined by 14,000 in June. Employment in both state government and local 
government continued to trend down over the month and has been falling since the 
second half of 2008.


                                              ECONOMIC RECOVERIES
                               IN PAST RECESSIONS
   
wpe1B8.jpg (13934 bytes) Source: NY Times 7/8/2011
                            http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/09/business/economy/job-growth-falters-badly-clouding-hope-for-recovery.html



                              
The System Is Failing Tens of Millions                     

                              How long are the unemployed expected to wait
                                     peacefully for just a job?


                 We already see Depression like numbers in many areas of the country if we count those
                 those who have given up looking for work and so are not counted in the official numbers or those who
                 have taken part time jobs but want full-time jobs are also not counted in the official "U-3" methodology.
                 The less publicized "U-6" numbers better represent the magnitude of the current tragedy.

                                     U-6 Unemployment - June 2011
                                            California: 22.0
                                             Nevada: 23.7
                                             Michigan 20.3
                                             Los Angeles County   24.1%                                 


                 The October 2007-early 2009 Stock Market Crash was steeper than the same first 18 months
                 after September 1929.  Paul Krugman wrote that after the Lehman Brothers collapse “key economic
                 indicators—world trade, world industrial production, even stock prices—were falling as fast or
                 faster than they did in 1929-30.  The 2009 plunge was stopped by loaning a trillion dollars to
                 the biggest banks, by massive Fed buying of these banks' "toxic assets", give-away-low interest rates
                 and the continued pay-out of unemployment, Social Security and Medicare benefits plus
                 a pitifully small Public Works stimulus. 

                 Now the resurgent Congressional Republicans demand these economic shock absorbers
                 be cut back, and the Super Rich Bush tax cuts not be rolled back.  This would seem to invite another
                 1937-1938 like Stock Market Crash if the Fed raised rates or stops buying US Debt securities
                 with its paper money.  


wpe1BB.jpg (8468 bytes)          Abraham Lincoln's Warning
                                                 about Corporate Plutocracy

                  
"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me
                       to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned, an era
                       of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will
                       endeavor to prolong it's reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the
                       wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.
                       *Source:
http://books.google.com/books?id=WJBJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA118&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false )

          wpe1B5.jpg (20738 bytes)            

                                                       Monopoly Finance Capitalism


                Monopoly Finance Capitalism is my way of referring to the main characteristics of the current
                financial system:  They are:
                        1) Fewer and few huge global banks dominate consumer and business finance.
                                    
Two years after Lehman Brothers failed, the "too big to fail" banks have grown
                                       much bigger
See others' comments.
                        2) Big banks can now be both commercial investment banks, brokerages and consumer banks.
                                     
In 2000, the banks got Congress and the President to abolish Glass-Steagall,
                                      despite prescient warnings this would cause a financial melt-down in 10 years.
                                      Little has changed. The banks wrote most of the 2010 Financial "Reform" Law.

                        3) Big Bank are now global multinationals.
                                     
Foreigners have a bigger and biger stake in them and they eagerly invest overseas.
                                      
Their loyalties are not to the US or its people.
                                       They would be happy exporting all American jobs if it would maximize their profits.

                        4) They comprise much of and dominate most Government Policy-Making:
                                     
Example: Goldman and Federal Reserve Board, Commodities Regulation, US Treasury.
                        5) They are among largest campaign contributors to Democrat and Republicans running
                                       for the Presidency and Congress. 
                                     
Example: TARP recipients spent $77 million on lobbying and gave $27 million in
                                                       campaign contributions in 2010.

                                     
Example: Goldman Sachs was Obama's biggest campaign contributor.
                                                      
Is Goldman Obama's Enron? No, it's worse!
                        6) Their policies, rather than those of Main Street America, have become US government
                             policies and laws.
                                     
Examples - Free Trade instead of Protection of American Manufacturing.
                                                        - The abolition of the short-selling on down-tick rules.
                                                        - The creation of highly leveraged Short ETFs.
                                                        - Highly leveraged Commodity Speculation allowed.
                                                        - "Slap on the wrist" punishment for defrauding investors".
                                                        - No big banker has spent a day in jail despite their Criminal Fraud.
                                                        - No capping of obscenely high big bank CEO pay.
  

                                     
   MORE JOBS SHOULD COME FIRST!                 

                       As a result of the control that the Big Banks have over policy-makers and the US economy,
                neither President Obama nor the House Republicans have a clue about what to do about
               creating the desperately needed TEN MILLION JOBS needed in the US.  That is the
               real economic Problem, not the size of the deficit.

                      All the White House and the Republicans can do is to fight over which group of poor people
                will be called on to sacrifice, in the federal cutbacks they plan.  Taxation of the Super Rich is off
                the table.  Reduction of overseas military spending is off the table.  Closing huge corporate
                loopholes and ending government subsidies for oil companies are off the table. Only in Washington DC
                could the rich and powerful show such a total disregard for what is happening in Main Street
                America.  


                                      wpe1B8.jpg (21076 bytes)          
                           The Class War Will Be Reciprocated.

                 Abolish Medicare?  Deny unemployment benefits? Reduce Social Security? Cause a
                 Credit Default by US over tax increases on the Super Rich?  A lot of pundits believe
                 Republicans are playing with fire and will lose control of the House of Representatives
                 in 2012.  See    
                        
Republicans Experience Voter Blowback, Run Away from GOP Budget
                         GOP braces for Medicare blowback - Yahoo! News                    
                         Freshman Republican warns of 'backlash' if cuts are too deep
                        
Republican lawmakers nervous about public backlash against meddling with Medicare
                         BTL:Populist Backlash Against GOP Anti-Union Legislation,
                         Freshman Republican warns of 'backlash' if cuts are too deep    
                          Latino Backlash Against GOP Hardliners                        
                          Essay: Ryan Budget Blowback Should Scare the GOP in Iowa,


           The 150,000 protesters in Madison who occupied the State Capital for weeks in  the
                 middle of winter should be a warning to the Plutocrats.

      
A few days ago, Zbig Brezezinski, my old grad school professor, surprised me. 

                He appeared on WNBC TV with his daughter, Mika the show's hostess and boldly
                told Americans  what they already know but the Corporate Mass Media moguls never
                allow to be heard: namely, that America is sliding towards class war.
                Listen to him here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjfRAP8hFOU

                His thesis was that when the economy was growing, it was tolerable that the rich were
                paying themselves vast, obscene sums of money.  But now, with the working middle class gutted
                and shrinking, with tens of millions permanently unemployed through no fault of their own and jobs
                being outsourced as fast as ever, it is flat-out immoral that the rich refuse to be taxed more.

                I was a little surprised at his outspokenness.  And I was surprised that we agreed.   He had been
                a failed cold  warrior.  He was an ardent supporter of the war in Viet Nam.   And he failed to
                predict the end of the Soviet Union.  And, it still smarts, he only gave me an A- when I   wrote a
                seminar paper showing  that "economic revisionism" was going to force the Communist Party
                to have a much reduced role in managing East European economies.  I remember that he put
                approving check marks only where I made points that he agreed with.

                Still Brezesinski did teach me many things, not least of which was that Marxism was a lot more than
                propaganda used to control large populations, it was also a realistic way, perhaps all too realistic,
                a way to view economic and social contradictions.  Its theme, of course, is that class contradictions
                govern historical development.  Brezinzki believes it is not too late to make the Super Rich in the
                US to  wake up and see that they have created the World's most economically divided country.
                To this, there will be eventual 'blowback".  The class war will be reciprocated.   This is essentially
                what Warren Buffet warned several years ago.


            James Carville, Democratic TV pundit said the same thing on June 6th.   Only 25% of Americans
            think the country is going in the right direction. On March 8th, even the Wall Street Journal
            acknowledged "America's coming civil unrest."


       
  Rebellion, Civil War or Accommodation by The Plutocrats

        
The Declaration of Independence presents the dilemma we are now in:: 

                "...(A)ll men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

 
               
Plutocracy or A Compassionate Meritocracy?
               
     
   Eight Reforms Are Necessary or there will be another
        Civil War in the US:
                   
                   1) Deny the Supreme Court The Right of Judicial Review of
                   a Law of Congress.
                   2) Abolish the Senate
                   3) Officially make Corporations "Non-People"
                   4) Enforce Sherman Anti-Trust Laws, especially in Mass Media.
                   5) Tax the Super Rich like IKE did.
                   6) Make the Government the Employer if the Private Sector Fails.
                   7) Overseas Military Bases and the Military Budget must be
                        drastically reduced.
                   8) Free Public Education.

           

           wpe1B8.jpg (8538 bytes)

          
    #1 Deny the Supreme Court The Right of         
           Judicial Review of a Law of Congress.

     
   A year ago, the US Supreme Court supinely acceded to Plutocracy the unlimited right to
                corruptly buy out the entire US political system.  Instead of battling for the individual and
                the consumer, it ruled in Citizens United vs.FCC, absurdly that corporations are people
                and citizens of the US, and thus have the same first amendment rights as real people do.
                Any attempt to limit corporate campaign contributions abridges those rights.  The Supreme
                Court has paved the way for big multinationals to buy any politician they want by making
                as big a campaign contribution they wish.  And there is nothing anyone can do about this!

                This is disastrous for Democracy.  It is disastrous for America.  Obama should have accused
                 the High Court of TREASON!

                A recent CNN poll found that 86% of Americans think that elected officials are mostly influenced
                on issues by major campaign contributors. That 86% includes pretty much everyone but those
                like the Roberts 5 who benefit from this corrupt system.

                What political shil of the plutocrats in Congress will ever stand up for keeping jobs in the
                US and for raising wage, health and work standards here?  Obama and the Democrats were
                already without a moral compass and a backbone.  Congressional staffers says their bosses'
                cowardice in the face of corporate greed has just gotten much worse. The degradation of wages for
                most Americans since Reagan will now accelerate.  Corporate logos will soon be placed on the
                American flag instead of stars.

                The absurd doctrine that Corporations are Citizens is only the latest evidence of TREASON
                on THE HIGH COURT. Last month the SUPINE COURT prohibited the use of Class Action
                law suits to recover small fees that corporations have stolen from them. In 
AT&T Mobility
         LLC v. Concepcion

                  The shocking truth is that the Supremely Supine Court has no Constitutional right to protect
                 Plutocracy by declaring unconstitutional a law of Congress.  This ugly truth is never taught in
                 school or mentioned on the corporate media.  To repeat: the US Constitution did was not to give the
                 Supreme Court the right to overthrow a law made by the People's representatives in
                 Congress and the President.  It seized, misappropriated and stole this power from the
                 American People.

                 This issue is not new.  The Supine Supreme Court usurped the right of judicial review in 1801
                with their Marbury vs Madison decision.  Judicial review was deliberately NOT put into the
                US Constitution. Thomas Jefferson made this clear over and over again in his lifetime.  Think
                about this.  In the Marbury vs Madison decision, the Court claimed it could overthrow any law
                it wanted to even though the law had been enacted by Congress and signed by the President,
                both popularly elected.  This was a breach of English Common Law.  It was USURPATION.
                Such Judicial Usurpation has been abolished in England in 1688.

                Giving the Courts this power was patently undemocratic.  Robert Yates, who wrote about the
                Federalist Papers at the time. presciently warned the Courts' judicial review would let them
                "mold the government into almost any shape they wished."  The ultimate arbiter of a law is
                the People.  Thomas Jefferson warned further:

                        "To consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions is a
                         very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism
                         of an oligarchy...(T)heir power (is) the more dangerous as they are in office for life
                        and not responsible, as other functionaries are, to the elective control."

                         "The Constitution on this hypothesis is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the Judiciary"
                                              (See  
Thomas Jefferson's Reaction to Marbury v Madison )

                             "The Constitution on this hypothesis is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the Judiciary"
                                                           (Thomas Jefferson)

               Appointed for life, the Supreme Court, has long represented the rich and powerful.  The oldest
               Republicans there are Scalia (75), Kennedy (75) and Souter (72).  Mandatory retirement at 70
               would go a long way to solve the problem! 

               The Supreme Court has long been the protector of big corporations.  In 1886, the Supreme Court
                struck down 230 state laws passed to regulate corporations.  This was the year of the famous
                Santa Clara County vs Southern Pacific Railroad, wherein the Court declared that persons were
                corporations under the 14th Amendment, except that where as citizens have responsibilities and
                social obligations, corporations had only rights and privileges.

               Between 1890 and 1910, only 19 of the 288 cases arising out of the 14th Amendment dealt with
               the civil rights of Black Americans.  

               Congress passed the Sherman Anti-Trust law in 1890 to limit the trend towards corporate
                monopolies.   That did not stop the Supreme Court in finding new ways to benefit corporations.
                "Between 1894 and 1905, a host of anti-labor rulings were issued by the court. Before this time,
                it was common under state law for the state to limit the number of hours a person was allowed
                to work. In 1894, the court struck down the eight-hour shift for mechanics and labor in Low v. Rees
                Printing.
Colorado eliminated its eight-hour day for mining and manufacturing by House Bill 203.
                In 1895, in Ritchie v. People, the eight-hour day was removed for women garment workers. Lochner v.
                New York
eliminated the ten-hour day for bakers in New York in 1905. In 1895, the court ruled that
                the Sherman Antitrust Act could be used against interstate labor strikes because such strikes were a
                restraint on trade. In 1895, the court upheld a monopoly of 98 percent of the country’s sugar protection
                in U.S. v. E.C. Knight Company ruling that the Sherman Antitrust Act applied only to commerce
                and not to production." (Source: http://www.spiritone.com/~gdy52150/colawp2.html )

                Nothing changed in 1918 when the world was supposedly made safe again for Democracy.
                "The Keating-Owen Child Labor Act was struck down in 1918 by the Supreme Court which ruled
                that goods produced by child labor did not fall under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act because it only
                applied to commerce.  Between 1920 and 1924, the court granted corporations the protection of the 4th
                Amendment ruling that government officers seizing corporate documents violated the provisions against
                unreasonable searches in Silverthorne Lumber v. U.S and FTC v. American Tobacco. This decision
                came just as investigations into profit mongering by arms makers during WWI were heating up.
                Likewise, the decision provided protection for those corporations that signed cartel agreements with I.G.
                Farben and other German corporations during WWII."  
                (Source: http://www.spiritone.com/~gdy52150/colawp2.html )

               FDR, of course. battled the "nine old men" on the Supreme Court in the 1930s after they struck
               down   several New Deal economic recovery programs that Congress had voted for overwhelmingly.
               Pending before them were state minimum wage laws that most predicted they would have
               vetoed had not FDR threatened to increase their numbers in early 1937.

               World War II.  "One good example of corporate having the rights of a person without the obligations
               was during WWII when individuals could be drafted and forced to serve their country. Initially after the
               bombing of Pearl Harbor the army was overwhelmed with volunteers. However, throughout five long
               years the army relied on the draft to maintain the army's strength, but the critical factor was a shortage
              of supplies." Corporations could and did refused to produce war munitions.  Profits came first.
              Key supplies like gasoline were held back.  Price-fixing was common. To make matters worse,
              "America faced the armies of the Third Reich supplied by products built by American corporations...
               (M)ore than three hundred corporations did business with the Third Reich during the war.

          
               Further Historical Reading
                       Google offers us Republican Senator Pettigrew's, Triumphant Plutocracy
                     

Contents


 

                       Howard Zinn
A People's History of the United States
                       Duane Lockard The Perverted Priorities of American Politics
             
         Beards’ Rise of American Civilization
                       Kendrick and Hacker’s History of the United States Since 1865
                       John Chamberlain’s Farewell to Reform
                       Richar Matthew Pettigrew Imperial Washington: The Story of American Public Life from 1870 to 1920.
                                Free-Silver Republican              Anti-Imperialist League founder
                          
                                                            

                                     
                  to be continued...