How Much Have You Been Manipulated?

According to a groundbreaking working paper by Carter C. Price and Kathryn Edwards of the RAND Corporation, had the more equitable income distributions of the three decades following World War II (1945–1974) merely held steady, the aggregate annual income of Americans earning below the 90th percentile would have been $2.5 trillion higher in 2018 alone.

The cumulative figure? $50 trillion — redistributed upward from the bottom 90% to the top 1% over the past several decades.

This isn't speculation. It's not partisan rhetoric. It's a peer-reviewed economic analysis using decades of income data.

Ask yourself: Why isn't this the lead story every night? Why do you know more about celebrity drama than the systematic extraction of $50 trillion from working Americans?

This video demonstrates pure propaganda in action. Watch how the same media figures flip their positions on NSA surveillance based solely on which party holds power:

• When a Republican is in office: surveillance is necessary for national security
• When a Democrat is in office: the same practices are depicted as a constitutional crisis

Such inconsistencies underscore the importance of objective, fact-based reporting — and why it's so rare.

Presentation is never what it seems. You have to dig deeper past the narrative.

A good example occurred during a Florida election when a marijuana legalization bill was on the ballot. Sheriffs ran ads warning that legalization would make public spaces reek of marijuana, even suggesting people would smoke in restaurants.

That claim didn't hold up to basic scrutiny. What was really at stake was a revenue stream: civil asset forfeiture.

Under forfeiture laws, police can seize property — cars, cash, homes — without ever charging the owner with a crime, let alone convicting them. If marijuana were legal, law enforcement would lose a mechanism that allows them to take grandma's car over a joint and force her to prove her innocence to get it back.

George Orwell's 1984 depicted "Hate Week" — organized events designed to focus public anger on designated enemies of the state. It was meant as a warning.

Soviet literary theorist John Rodden noted that Orwell's "Hate Week" anticipated anti-American events in the Soviet Union that followed the book's publication. Scholar Scott Boulding argues there are similarities between the dystopian hate week and Stalinist efforts to supplant religion with devotional services to the state.

The question for today: When you watch cable news, social media outrage cycles, or political rallies — how different is the mechanism? Designated enemies. Focused hatred. Two Minutes of Hate, extended to 24/7 coverage.

Sometimes long relationships end not because of politics, but because of values.

I stopped spending time with someone I had known for decades after witnessing behavior that conflicted with basic honesty and accountability. He sold a defective firearm to a mutual acquaintance while knowing it had serious issues. The problem was not disclosed at the time of the sale, and when the buyer later realized what had happened and asked for a refund, it was refused.

That moment changed how I viewed him. I had always believed he was a stand-up person, and seeing him avoid responsibility made it difficult to continue the relationship.

We had shared many important moments over the years, which made the realization even harder. Sometimes you learn, even after decades, that you did not truly know someone as well as you thought.

Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist David Cay Johnston has spent decades documenting how the tax code, regulations, and legal structures have been systematically rigged to benefit corporations and the wealthy at the expense of everyone else.

This video shows how corporations legally dodge taxes — and it's shockingly creative. The loopholes aren't bugs; they're features, written by lobbyists and passed by the politicians they fund.

By David Cay Johnston

There needs to be one thread of truth in every believable lie. Although corporate promises sound good, the reality is far different.

This book gives you the facts on Big Business and its failure to pay taxes. You will discover that all of us would have 40% more money in our pockets if big businesses paid their fair share.

Johnston exposes how corporations legally steal billions through hidden fees, rigged contracts, and privatization schemes. Billionaires are robbing us blind, and no one talks about it. Healthcare debates? Just a drop in the bucket compared to what's being extracted through fine print.

By Jane Mayer

In her fourth book, Mayer draws on court records, extensive interviews, and private archives to examine the growing political influence of extreme libertarians among the one percent — including the Koch brothers.

She traces their ideas about taxation and government regulation, and their savvy use of lobbyists to further an agenda that advances their own interests at the expense of meaningful economic, environmental, and labor reform.

The book sheds light on how the nation has been infiltrated and dominated by a select group of ultra-wealthy individuals. These individuals exert significant control over the political landscape by leveraging their financial resources to influence politicians and shape public policy — effectively diverting tax dollars away from the general population and into their own pockets.

War is a Racket & The Plot to Seize the White House

Many people don't know that in 1933, a group of wealthy industrialists — working closely with groups like the KKK and the American Liberty League — planned to overthrow the U.S. government and run FDR out of office in a fascist coup.

Their plan: turn unhappy war veterans into American brown shirts, depose Roosevelt, and stop the New Deal.

They asked Medal of Honor recipient and Marine Major General Smedley Darlington Butler to work with them and become the first American Caesar.

Fortunately, Butler was a true patriot. Instead of working for the fascist coup, he revealed the plot to journalists and to Congress.

Butler also wrote "War is a Racket," exposing how wars are fought by the poor to enrich the wealthy. His famous quote: "I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers."