Righteousness, Freedom, and Peace

I present here two sermons from the Rev William Tatter, 1893-1963, from the West Pullman Hungarian Baptist Church in Chicago, IL, USA for the 1958 and 1959 holiday season. He was an intellectual, living without much means on a tiny salary, unlike the megachurch evangelists of today, who have seemed to lost the true meaning of righteousness, freedom, and peace. He was committed to using and encouraging the “free pulpit”.

The Rev William Tatter was born in the Austrio-Hungarian Empire to a family of Baptist ministers, with a long history of being discriminated against and jailed for preaching and giving out bibles. This is why they came to America – for religious freedom. He was my grandfather. He preached in Chicago, Kipling Saskatchewan Canada, and in New York during WWII.

These two sermons from his mature years are worthy of renewed contemplation and renewed commitment to loving spirituality through relationships, behavior, and attitude towards our fellow man. Nourish lasting concern for the best which can be expressed in living in harmony with all others.

Evidence that we in the U.S. live in a totalitarian police state

Americans brag about our “freedom”. Yet we have very little of it. Our founding fathers would turn over in their grave if they knew how our “democracy” has turned into an oligarchy where the public is just a bunch of ignorant happy slaves.

If you are ill, the decisions between you and your physician are over-ridden by the private for-profit insurance companies that waste half our healthcare dollars on increasing their profits for shareholders and corporate CEOs. Whether you obtain needed treatment depends on the OK from a pencil pushing poorly trained nurse reviewing your request for approval for treatment. Your dog gets more rational, loving care from you and your veterinarian than you get from the healthcare system.

If you run a business you will be subject to so many regulations that don’t make sense that your head will spin, so many forms you won’t be able to do any business as you’re spending so much time filling out the forms, and you’ll be in a constant state of worry that you may have missed compliance with some regulation and will end up with a huge fine for being “in violation.”

The cost before you even begin will be huge as you may have to get a license and pay through the teeth for courses and certification and more courses and re-certification even to apply nail polish to someone’s fingers.

From retirement to buying a house, to running a small business selling nail polish we are over-regulated, overtaxed and over-papered. The only way you can avoid this is if you are one of the 1 % who has the means to pay the bribes, find the loopholes, and make your own decisions.

We are at the mercy of our masters and our despotic kings behind the scenes. The Illinois legislature is run by a handful of people who decide who will put their names on bills and which bills will be passed. Who is elected president little matters. The 1% will control him/her.

Republican or Democrat, it doesn’t matter. The 1 % is a cabal of corruption that have figured out how to exploit our “democracy” and hide the exploitation from the happy ignorant masses.

We must restore our Constitution, bring up our education to a world-class level, and strengthen our checks and balances so that patronage and corruption no longer have the upper hand. Until then there is very little hope for the masses.

We have seen in recent years that the bursting of the housing bubble has allowed the 1% to scoop up much of the assets of the 99 % at record low prices making the 1% richer than ever and in control of more of our property and assets than ever. Tax rates for the 1% in the lst 50 years have dropped from 65 % to less than 20 %. The elite are consolidating their power and wealth.

Our country is a totalitarian police state run by a few rich people and multinational corporations, sort of like the King in Robinhood and the inherited Lordships. In Illinois the King is Former Gov. Jim Thompson (R) and his inherited Lordships are the Daleys (D), the Madigans (D), the Burkes (D), the Lipinskys(D), the relatives of former Sheriff Sheahan (D), the Beavers (D), the Jacksons (D), the Brosnahans (D), and many others.

You don’t get a judicial appointment or get elected as a judge unless you have the stamp of approval of Alderman Burke and have paid a $10,000 bribe to have your campaign signs printed and posted on the lawns of employees of the Secr. of State and Cook County Sheriff’s offices. You don’t get to be a supervisor in these offices unless you post signs and sell tickets to fundraising events. You don’t get contracts with Illinois, Cook County, or Chicago unless you pay a 15% bribe from the income you make from the contract to political funds such as “Friends of Madigan”. Then the money is laundered through phony foundations such as now defunct Save-A-Life foundation, through purchases of homes for $1 where they are then resold using under the table cash (like Lisa Madigan does with a dozen homes in Maricopa County, Arizona), etc. Judges ignore the law with impunity in Cook County and likely elsewhere. I have discovered the above facts from numerous anonymous inside sources.

You can’t keep your job with the Cook County Sheriff or other Cook Count agencies unless you donate 15% of your salary to the election campaign of your boss such as the Cook County Sheriff – this was told to me by correctional officers at Cook County Jail. There are myriad of ways to get you fired from phoney job evaluations to planting drugs in your car (several Chicago Police officers went to jail when drugs were planted in their cars). Unless the masses employed by the State stand up and turn in their supervisors to federal officers by squealing, this will never change.

The gullible masses are brainwashed and ruled by fear – and hate -blinded to their masters’ greed (Corporate CEOs & Multinational behind closed doors oligarchs)

I don’t believe this will change until we have a viable united party controlled by the PEOPLE/UNIONS voting in numbers > 80% of voters to balance the cabal of corruption that consists of BOTH the Republicans and the Democrats.

As long as:
1 – a few media magnets own ALL media & can transform the “news” media into mere tabloids with failure to educate that consuming only biased extremist one-sided #FakeFoxNews or equivalent & one-sided select social media➡ brainwashed thoughtless stupid policies & acts ,
2 – the government can keep our population stupid and uneducated,
3 – the public can be appeased to be like an audience watching gladiators on the news (Anthony trial, reality shows, etc),
4 – the public remains uninformed and willing to accept as “facts” anything fed to them like geese being force fed for foie gras production,
5 – the corrupt leaders can deal with dissidents by throwing them in jail on phoney charges or defaming them as mentally ill without an objection from the public or exposure on the media,
6 – the nation is turned into a prison nation (only jobs available as jobs have been shipped overseas),
7 – our rich are allowed to ship jobs overseas for their profit,
8 – and the rich 1% in this country can continue to get richer during the economic downturn due to the above,

there is no hope.

Top tax rates in the United States correlate with economic health

Top tax rates in the United States

Occupy Chicago – Fight Corruption

Read about corruption in Chicago here (Crook County Courts and Judges), here (general Illinois Corruption), here (Crook County Sheriff deputies), here (Chicago FBI), and here (Chicago Federal 7th Circuit and District Courts).

Write your Senators and Congressmen and demand change in the law to take “personhood” away from corporations so they DON’T have more power than the people!

Demand that the rich pay their fair share!

Demand hearings to change the family and probate court system so that BILLIONS in Title IV-D Social Security funds are used to preserve families and support children, the elderly, and  the disabled instead of prolonging divorce cases by promoting argument and falsely villifying one  parent as “dangerous”, getting fraudulent orders of protection, in order to enrich court appoint counsel and counselors, as well as the corrupt court system; to care for the elderly instead of kidnapping them, abusing them, and stealing their estates when corrupt guardians make fraudulent presentations to the courts; and to protect the disabled instead of abusing them for profit. Read about how veterans are committing suicide after losing their families and being falsely villified here.

The judicial kidnapping of your own children under the color of law is like a repeated relentless rape

– a part of you – being ripped from you and there is nothing you can do about it!!! –

Sandra Padrone, judicially gagged mother of 4 children who have been kidnapped for 1 1/2 years – separated from the mother, under false pretenses.

18 veterans killing self daily, 90% new veterans divorced within 5 yrs, more die of suicide than of war, stop gov abuse http://wp.me/po8T5-9e

Demand hearings to change the justice system so that non-violent offenders don’t get long sentences and instead get public service saving billions in tax dollars and producing true rehabilitation. Stop retaliation against whistle blowers fraudulently charged with crimes they didn’t do to cover-up corruption of public officials.

Death from lack of dental care increasing in United States

Tooth and gum disease is a leading cause of infections, heart disease, and poor nutrition, especially in the elderly.  The fact that our supposedly civilized country has so neglected this necessary health care is a sorry fact.  A country is judged by the way it treats the least among it.  Poor people in the United  States have lost man of their teeth before the age of 40 and the  percentage who need dentures despite advancements in dentistry is appalling.

Several years ago our church janitor, a gentle man who had a tough life with some personal problems, lived in our church apartment and cared lovingly for our church building.  He didn’t have the money to pay for dental care and had a horrible abscess and pain from rotten teeth.  he kept buying ibuprofen (Motrin or Advil are the brand names).  He took large quantities of this drug for a long time.  The end result was that the drug caused a bleeding ulcer and we found him deaf in the church school in his 40s, having bled out from his bleeding ulcer in a  pool of blood.  This was a preventable death.

The number of Americans dying of preventable complications of dental caries is rising at an alarming rate.  There is no excuse for our country  to neglect its citizens like this.  Health care should be a right and not a privilege and this should especially be true of mental health care.

How much money are we going to waste paying for persons who come to ERs with advanced terminal illness that was preventable? How many productive years will be lost?  How many kids will grow up without a parent, under financial stress and inadequate supervision?

This news article paints this grim picture in more detail.

Woman with cancer told can’t sell her property in yard sale to pay bills

SALEM, Oregon.  Jan Cline has a bone marrow cancer that is eating holes in her bones. The treatment is expensive and her illness has taken away her independence by causing her to be unable to work.

She has been selling her treasured possessions for pennies at weekend yard sales , tucked in her back yard and kept very clean and organized. Yet the City has shut her down by enforcing an ordinance limiting yard sales to three per year.

Thousands in the United States have inadequate health insurance and are becoming bankrupt and destitute due to lack of funds or insurance.

This story reveals how America is no longer great. America is now a sad place, a heartless land, where the rich get richer and the needy are ignored and disgarded. Our “greatness” is no longer.

Stop voting for politicians who find this acceptable!  Start acting like an American.  If you have money – spend it to campaign against heartless, unethical politicians who perpetuate this disgusting system.

Doctor’s Pay and HMOs – How to Fix HealthCare System

I do not believe that my colleagues who make 1 million dollars per year for doing open heart surgery deserve that amount of salary off of people’s misery. I do believe many are vastly overpaid – especially hospital administrators for “not-for-profit” hospitals that make $600,000+ per year. I believe physicians should be salaried like police or firemen. Then the incentive to see more than a hunded patients a day and move them through the “mill” will be gone and doctors will spend the time with you that they need to spend.

A VA like system could still use the existing health care networks.

An HMO style system where doctors are paid monthly per patient no matter how many times the patient sees them is very bad as the incentive is to have as large a panel of patients as possible to increase income and then to see the patients as little as possible, order as few tests as possible, and shortchange the patient by moving them through the office like a factory or mill.

The payment to the doctors should be totally disconnected form the Number of patients they see or the Type of illness they treat. Doctors who perform procedures like orthopedic and heart surgeons should not be payed obscenely more than doctors who talk to patients and counsel patients like psychiatrists and pediatricians. Talking and counseling therapy is as valuable and as difficult to learn as surgery.

We don’t need to add more dollars to medical care. We need to cut waste! Pharmaceutical companies spend half their money on advertising. Stop advertising and the cost of drugs will vastly decrease. Half of our health care dollars are spent on end-of-life futile treatments. We need to have clearer guidelines in this area. Instead of spending small amounts on preventive care, our citizens don’t get the care they need to prevent more expensive needed medical care. There are a LOT of areas where savings can be found and the money saved can be channeled into a more rational system.

Questions for Obama and America – Solutions for Change

I very much would like the public to engage in a debate on these suggestions – which are a beginning and food for thought – help me develop these ideas! Send a comment – by clicking comments at the end of the post.  I have sent all these questions to the Obama-Biden Transition team.

ENDING CORPORATE CONTROL AND PERSONHOOD – RESTORING POWER TO THE PEOPLE

 

“Would you support a 28th Amendment proposed by famed author, advocate, marine biologist, public speaker, Riki Ott, who wrote the Book about the Exxon Valdez disaster consequences to end “corporate personhood”, and return the government to the people?”

 

“Will you hire/ appoint as advisors civil rights activists, dissidents, ex-cons especially someone who has been wrongfully convicted, whistle blowers, and others in the trenches and not just use professional politicians, lobbyists and political hacks?”

 

TRANSITIONING FROM THE PAPER AGE TO THE DIGITAL AGE – MODERNIZING AMERICA

 

“Communications a new frontier – money wasted; no standardization of bills & records; difficult finding data; privacy & security concerns; elderly/disabled concerns; education concerns. Do you support new Cabinet position for Communications Secretary?”

 

FIXING HEALTH CARE

 

“50% or so of health care dollars is spent on advertising. What will you do to stop this waste. Health care providers should be like the police and fire departments, a necessary public service that does not advertise.”

 

“Would you support a steeply progressive and very high tax on advertising of drugs to discourage this practice? This would quickly reduce the cost of drugs as presently 50 % of drug company budgets are advertising costs. Or would you ban advertising?”

 

“Whether to do Phase 3 clinical trials of new drugs is decided by drug companies – encourages excessive costs by testing unnecessary “me too”  drugs with no benefit. Would you support FDA taking over this decision analagous to IL hosp plan commission?”

 

“Our veterans in chronic pain are thrown narcotics in high doses making them nonfunctional addicts instead of treating pain properly with multiple modalities (TENS units, therapy, muscle relaxants, meditation). Will you help them reclaim their lives?”

 

“Medical care at Cook Co. Jail & IL prison system is so inadequate inmates have had their leg amputated for lack of antibiotics & prisoners who were disabled lay on the floor in diarrhea for days unable to obtain water/care. Will DOJ investigate?”

 

“In Illinois Atty Gen Lisa Madigan, several Governors, and their corrupt accomplices fraudulently deny mental health care to those on Medicaid and wrongfully prosecute health care providers who are trying to provide this service. Will you investigate?”

 

 

ENDING CORRUPTION

 

“Truth commissions worked in S Africa to encourage confession, transparency, healing, accountability, and reconciliation. Couldn’t they work in the U.S to save money, increase openness, and allow us to get beyond corruption and move on constructively?”

 

 

FIXING GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION

 

“AAG Patrick Fitzgerald doesn’t have half the manpower he needs to prosecute all the corruption in Illinois. Will you remedy this and make stamping out corruption a priority along with prosecuting felony civil rights violations?”

 

 

 

CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUES IN JUSTICE SYSTEM

 

“Prosecution of felony civil rights violations – been stopped by Bush. Will you prosecute systemic intentional civil rights violations in prisons and jails that have led to death and loss of limb by intentional withholding of medical care and meds?”

 

“In Illinois 1 prison law librarian handles ALL requests from all 40,000 prisoners for legal research, legal documents, etc. This cannot be considered access to the courts. Will the DOJ investigate and prosecute such systemic civil rights violations?”

 

 

FIXING [IN]JUSTICE SYSTEM – HELPING CIZITENS TO REACH THEIR POTENTIAL AND JOIN THE WORK FORCE – FIXING THE ECONOMY

 

“Torture, medical neglect, abuse, denial of access to courts is routine in American prisons. What will you do to fix this and reduce the prison population which is 40 X greater than in any civilized country and is tearing down our economy?”

 

“Excess incarceration is killing our economy. Will you lead the battle to replace incarceration with restorative justice for non-violent offenses. Skilling should be working and  paying 99.9% of his salary to those he harmed!”

 

 

“Torture, medical neglect, forced drugging, withholding of medical diets, falsification of records by guards, beatings resulting in death is standard practice in US jails and prisons. Will you hold Congressional hearings on this topic to expose it?”

 

“Rural areas have attracted for profit prisons. The prison/industrial complex now employes 1/10 Americans. This is not productive – guards and prisoners don’t contribute to the economy – they suck the wind out of it. What will you do to fix this?”

 

“Brain surgeons go to medical school for 4 years then do internships and residencies to learn this skill for another 7 years. I don’t want a family doc doing brain surgery. Shouldn’t judges be required more education than 3 years of law school?”

 

“All sorts of roadblocks are put up to prevent pro se litigants from defending themselves and litigating in courts. Will you see that pro se manuals are written, judicial education is improved, and citizens can have access and fairness in the courts?”

 

“Judges are arrogant, incompetent, corrupt, and they routinely deny civil rights – right to self-representation, right to access courts, introduce evidence, etc. They abuse orders for fitness exams. Will you hold hearings and change this?”

 

“Corrupt politicians and police illegally use fraudulent charges of disorderly conduct, trespass, resisting arrest, etc., as retaliatory tools against whistle blowers and dissidents. Will you hold Congressional hearings on this and stop this practice?”

 

 

FIXING TORTURE, ABUSE, MEDICAL NEGLECT IN JAILS AND PRISONS

 

“US Atty Fitzgerald found systemic medical neglect and violence by guards against inmates at Cook Co. Jail. YET NO INDICTMENTS for this intentional battery resulting in many deaths have occurred. Will you prosecute these criminal officers/officials?”

 

PRESERVING OUR CULTURE AND THE ARTS

 

“Japan preserves its crafts by funding “living national treasures” – top craftsmen and artists. They are given a govnt salary to maintain and teach their skill like swordmaking, flower arranging, Samari skills. Should we do this?”

 

What’s Wrong with Government in America? The Basics!

Tickle down and charity doesn’t work to meet the needs of the people who can’t care for themselves. If it did then why do we have increasing problems with elderly, ill, disabled, abandoned children?

We have a huge problem with government corruption and waste of resources and money. In Illinois and C[r]ook County most contracts require a 10% kick-back (bribe)that goes into the political coffers of corrupt politicians. We have more politicians per capita than any other state.

We need small efficient and honest government. That would save probably 20% or more of the budget!

When we elect people who pledge to get rid of redundant government like many townships in Illinois, who stop the unmonitored hemorrhage of funds through schemes like purchasing cards, who tear down patronage hiring of incompetents and rip off artists, who consolidate redundant government agencies,and when we bring true compassion and sacrifice into our government offices, then we will have an advanced, small, efficient, honest, and truly compassionate government run by professionals and their elected leaders that meets the needs of its people without exploiting them as slaves.

Our Economic Crisis – Causes and Fixes

I believe the best analysis of the situation is by George Soros on Bill Moyers Journal on October 9, 2008.

 

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10102008/transcript1.html

 

Three of the things he says are very important:

 

The first has to do with the fact that for 25 years we have been consuming more than we were producing and living more and more on credit that evolved into virtual credit and then into noxious instruments that no longer reflected the true value of the items for which credit was given (houses etc).

 

1) “You see, for the last 25 years the world economy, the motor of the world economy that has been driving it was consumption by the American consumer who has been spending more than he has been saving, all right? Than he’s been producing. So that motor is now switched off. It’s finished. It’s run out of — can’t continue. You need a new motor. And we have a big problem. Global warming. It requires big investment. And that could be the motor of the world economy in the years to come. “

 

The second thing he points out is that the free market does not work without the invisible hand described by Adam Smith. You can’t let the fox (banks and wall street) watch the hen house (noxious instruments). Credit has had a disconnect with the true economy (actual goods and services) growing twice to three times as fast. All of a sudden (actually over time but quickly) the world has realized that their virtual money (credit and noxious instruments) have no clear relationship with actual goods (houses etc) and services in terms of value, and that the agencies evaluating the risk (whether the instruments are good or not) has made totally bogus judgments based on faulty assumptions (credit ratings like AAA).

 

2) “There was a failure of regulations because they couldn’t understand these new instruments. But they said, “Oh, well, the banks have very good risk management techniques. So we leave it to them to calculate their own risks.

And, you see, it wasn’t only in the housing market. There were all kinds of other financial instruments. So there was not just one bubble. I describe in my book there is the housing bubble. But this housing bubble, when that burst, it was only the detonator that exploded the bigger bubble, the super bubble.

 

Which is this 25 years of constant credit expansion using greater and greater leverage. The amount of credit in the economy has been growing at, I don’t know, I don’t know the exact figure, but maybe at least twice as fast as the economy itself. I think it’s more like three.

 

And now, suddenly, you have a contraction of credit. And it’s a sudden thing. And it’s a period of great wealth destruction. And that’s how these poor people in Texas suddenly find that their 401(k) is worthless. “

Finally he essentially says that unbridled greed which is fueled when there is a disconnect between actual value and virtual value (credit) ignores the interests of society and replaces self-interest must be controlled by the invisible hand.

 

3) “Actually, these market fundamentalists are making the same mistake as Marx did. You see, socialism would have worked very well if the rulers had the interests of the people really at heart. But they were pursuing their self-interests. Now, in the housing market, the people who originated the houses earned the fee.

 

And the people who then owned the mortgages their interests were not actually looked after by the agents that were selling them the mortgages. So you have a, what is called an agent principle problem in socialism. And you have the same agent principle problem in this free market fundamentalism. “

 

He also states something very disturbing – that Paulson doesn’t know what he is doing and it was obvious that the 700 billion bailout was useless at that time. He suggests that the first step is buying equity shares in banks – injecting capital at that point. Read the whole transcript and it makes a lot of sense. He should be Secretary of the Treasury.