Niccolo Machiavelli, the father of modern politics, warns in his masterwork, The Discourses:
All those who have written upon civil institutions demonstrate…that whoever desires to found a state and give it laws, must start with assuming that all men are bad and ever ready to display their vicious nature, whenever they may find occasion for it.
If their evil disposition remains concealed for a time, it must be attributed to some unknown reason; and we must assume that it lacked occasion to show itself. But time, which has been said to be the father of all truth, does not fail to bring it to light.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Where the crimes of corporate employers are concerned, we do not have to wait for their evil disposition to reveal itself. It has been fully revealed for decades.
It’s time to recognize that a country can be betrayed for other than political reasons. It can be sold out for economic ones, too.
Trea$on
The United States desperately needs a new definition of treason–one that takes the above-mentioned truth into account.
- Employers who set up offshore accounts to claim their American companies are foreign-owned—and thus exempt from taxes—are traitors.
- Employers who enrich themselves by weakening their country—by throwing millions of qualified workers into the street and moving their plants to other countries—are traitors.
- Employers who systematically violate Federal immigration laws—to hire illegal aliens instead of willing-to-work Americans—are traitors.
And with a new definition of treason should go new penalties–heavy fines and/or prison terms–for those who sell out their country to enrich themselves.
A starting-point must be an all-out campaign to educate voters on the need for major reforms in corporate law.
One non-profit, non-partisan organization that’s already pursuing this is Public Campaign.
Its goal: Eliminating special interest money in American politics by securing publicly-funded elections at local, state and federal levels.
According to its website:
“Twenty-five profitable Fortune 500 companies, some with a history of tax dodging, spent more on lobbying than they paid in federal taxes between 2008 and 2012….
“Over the past five years, these 25 corporations generated nearly $170 billion in combined profits and received $8.7 billion in tax rebates while paying their lobbyists over half a billion ($543 million), an average of nearly $300,000 a day.
“Based on newly released data by Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ), these 25 companies actually received tax refunds overall those five years.
“So most individual American families and small businesses have bigger tax bills than these corporate giants. Unfortunately, most American families and businesses do not have the lobbying operation and access these 25 companies enjoy.”
25 Companies That Spent More On Lobbyists Than Taxes | Public Campaign
Then comes the list:
Several companies on this list are well-known–and spend millions of dollars on self-glorifying ads every year to convince consumers how wonderful they are.
Among these:
- General Electric
- PG&E Corp.
- Verizon Communications
- Boeing
- Consolidated Edison
- MetroPCS Communications
But non-profit organizations alone can’t mount and sustain the sort of nationwide, bluntly-worded educational effort that’s long overdue.
The United States Government–through such agencies as the Justice Department–should start and maintain a nationwide advertising campaign of its own. Its goal: To educate voters on the real-life greed and public irresponsibility of such corporations.
It should be modeled on the efforts of former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy to publicize the dangers of organized crime.
During that campaign, he issued the following warning:
“If we do not, on a national scale, attack organized criminals with weapons and techniques as effective as their own, they will destroy us.”
That warning applies equally to criminal corporations.
Robert F. Kennedy
Republicans–and some Democrats–have worked tirelessly to defend the greed of the richest and most privileged 1% of America.
For example, they ingeniously dubbed the estate tax–-which affects only a tiny, rich minority–-“the death tax.” This makes it appear to affect everyone.
As a result, millions of poor and middle-class Americans who will never have to pay a cent in estate taxes vigorously oppose it.
By doing so, they unknowingly support the greed of the very richest Americans who despise the needs of those poorer than themselves.
Democrats should thus cast reform efforts in terms that will prove equally popular. For example:
“Corporate Criminals: Giving You the Best Congress Money Can Buy.”
“De-regulation = Let Criminals Be Criminals.”
“[Name of corporation] Pays a Lower Percentage in Taxes than You.”
“Corporations Are Greedy People, Too”
“Owning a Corporation Shuldn’t Be a License for Treason”
Such an advertising campaign could lay the groundwork for an all-out Federal effort to reign in that greed and irresponsibility thrugh appropriate reform legislation.
It was Stephen Decatur, the naval hero of the War of 1812, who famously said: “Our country, right or wrong.”
Stephen Decatur
Billionaire tax-cheats and their Right-wing allies have coined their own motto: “My wallet–first and always.”
Bureaucracybuster's Blog 
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JUNE 6: ONE DAY, TWO ANNIVERSARIES
In History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on June 5, 2015 at 12:38 am“For it is the doom of men that they forget.”
–Merlin, in “Excalibur”
June 6–a day of glory and tragedy.
The glory came 71 years ago–-on Tuesday, June 6, 1944.
On that morning, Americans awoke to learn–-from radio and newspapers–-that their soldiers had landed on the French coast of Normandy.
In Supreme Command of the Allied Expeditionary Force was American General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Overall command of ground forces was given to British General Bernard Montgomery.
Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion to liberate France from Nazi Germany, proved one of the pivotal actions of World War II.
It opened shortly after midnight, with an airborne assault of 24,000 American, British, Canadian and Free French troops.
This was followed at 6:30 a.m. by an amphibious landing of Allied infantry and armored divisions on the French coast.
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel–-the legendary “Desert Fox”–-commanded the German forces. For him, the first 24 hours of the battle would be decisive.
“For the Allies as well as the Germans,” he warned his staff, “it will be the longest day.”
The operation was the largest amphibious invasion in history. More than 160,000 troops landed–-73,000 Americans, 61,715 British and 21,400 Canadians.
Initially, the Allied assault seemed likely to be stopped at the water’s edge–-where Rommel had always insisted it must be.
He had warned that if the Allies established a beachhead, their overwhelming advantages in numbers and airpower would eventually prove irresistible.
German machine-gunners and mortarmen wreaked a fearful toll on Allied soldiers. But commanders like U.S. General Norman Cota led their men to victory through a storm of bullets and shells.
Coming upon a group of U.S. Army Rangers taking cover behind sand dunes, Cota demanded: “What outfit is this?”
“Rangers!” yelled one of the soldiers.
“Well, Goddamnit, then, Rangers, lead the way!” shouted Cota, inspiring the soldiers to rise and charge into the enemy.
The command also gave the Rangers the motto they carry to this day.
The allied casualty figures for D-Day have been estimated at 10,000, including 4,414 dead. By nationality, the D-Day casualty figures are about 2,700 British, 946 Canadians and 6,603 Americans.
The total number of German casualties on D-Day isn’t known, but is estimated at 4,000 to 9,000.
Allied and German armies continued to clash throughout France, Belgium and Germany until May 7, 1945, when Germany finally surrendered.
But those Americans who had taken part in D-Day could be proud of having dealt a fatal blow to the evil ambitions of Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich.
So much for the glory of June 6. Now for the tragedy–-which occurred 47 years ago, on Thursday, June 6, 1968.
Twenty-four years after D-Day, Americans awoke to learn–-mostly from TV–-that New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy had died at 1:44 a.m. of an assassin’s bullet.
He had been campaigning for the Democratic Presidential nomination, and had just won the California primary on June 4.
This had been a make-or-break event for Kennedy, a fierce critic of the seemingly endless Vietnam war.
He had won the Democratic primaries in Indiana and Nebraska, but had lost the Oregon primary to Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy.
If he could defeat McCarthy in California, Kennedy could force his rival to quit the race. That would lead to a showdown between him and Vice President Hubert Humphery for the nomination.
(President Lyndon B. Johnson had withdrawn from the race on March 31–-just 15 days after Kennedy announced his candidacy on March 16.)
After winning the California and South Dakota primaries, Kennedy gave a magnaminous victory speech in the ballroom of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles:
“I think we can end the divisions within the United States….We are a great country, an unselfish country, and a compassionate country.
“And I intend to make that my basis for running over the period of the next few months.”
Then he entered the hotel kitchen–-where Sirhan Sirhan, a 24-year-old Palestinian from Jordan, opened fire with a .22 revolver.
Kennedy was hit three times–once fatally in the back of the head. Five other people were also wounded.
Kennedy’s last-known words were: “Is everybody all right?” and “Jack, Jack”–-the latter clearly a reference to his beloved older brother, John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
Almost five years earlier, that brother–-then President of the United States–-had been assassinated in Dalas on November 22, 1963.
Then Robert Kennedy lost consciousness–-forever, dying in a hospital bed 24 hours later.
Kennedy had been a U.S. Attorney General (1961-1964) and Senator (1964-1968). But it was his connection to President Kennedy for which he was best-known.
His assassination–-coming so soon after that of JFK–-convinced many Americans there was something “sick” about the nation’s culture.
One of the best summaries of Robert Kennedy’s legacy was given in Coming Apart: An Informal History of America in the 1960′s, by historian William L. O’Neil:
“…He aimed so high that he must be judged for what he meant to do, and, through error and tragic accident, failed at….
“He will also be remembered as an extraordinary human being who, though hated by some, was perhaps more deeply loved by his countrymen than any man of his time.
“That too must be entered into the final account, and it is no small thing. With his death something precious disappeared from public life.”
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