CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENCY
HAVE BROKEN THEIR OWN RULES
FOR THE SOLE BENEFIT OF MONOPOLIES
SUCH AS WALL STREET SPECULATORS
AND BIG OIL
The way that members of Congress and the Presidency manage our country is fiscally irresponsible and is inconsistent with the customs, practices, and traditions embraced by Americans in their Declaration of Independence, federal and state constitutions, and their common law.
First, they start wasteful wars of dubious legality in the Middle East and elsewhere to make ordinary Americans fight and die for "freedom" while American corporations reap financial gains from the wars. Second, they ship billions of Americans' dollars by plane to Afghanistan and Iraq only to learn that they do not where the dollars disappeared. Third, they use information from their jobs for their personal financial gain. Fourth, they allow illegal monopolies like oil speculators on Wall Street or elsewhere and Big Oil to impoverish ordinary American with record high prices for gasoline and other necessaries of life despite the availability of the federal antitrust laws to lower those prices. Fifth, they too quickly raise the national debt of Americans. Sixth, they set a bad example that it is good to waste money and live beyond your means.
Sovereignty is another word for governmental protection. Do the rulers of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia want to protect Americans from high prices for gasoline and other necessaries of life? Do the members of Congress and the Presidency protect ordinary Americans by use of the federal antitrust laws against illegal monopolists? The answer to both questions is clearly NO and the answer to the second question is also NO because the Presidency has not used the federal antitrust laws against illegal monopolists.
Click
http://www.econedlink.org/lessons/index.php?lid=628&type=educator to read an everyday discussion about monopolies with the title HISTORY OF MONOPOLIES IN THE UNITED STATES. Courts have always branded monopolies as illegal when they can control prices especially for necessaries of life by suppression of competition.
Click
http://www.ohioverticals.com/blogs/akron_law_cafe/2011/03/popular-sovereignty-and-seven-fundamental-principles-of-constitutional-law/ for more details about sovereignty and constitutional law.
Here at home in America, why has the President totally
failed to sue the Wall Street speculators and Big Oil to use the federal antitrust laws against them with the price for gasoline near $4.00 a gallon? Many families, especially those without jobs, in America struggle with high prices for necessaries of life.
To learn that Congress, and presumably the Presidency, knew about the record high prices for gasoline at least as early as 2008, click
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20670001&refer=home& sid=aDXobDFcwNuM to read Bob Wills' article on June 15, 2008, with the title Congress Should Take on Oil Speculators, Senators Say and
http://money.com/2008/06/17/news/economy/oil_trading/index.htm to read the article by Steve Hargreaves, CNN Staff Writer, on June 17, 2008, with the title Congress takes aim at oil speculators.
An important purpose of any government is to make rules of law to control human behavior. A rule for the regulation of prices for necessaries of life allows inhabitants to enjoy normal lives is example of a legal rule. This rule is the main topic of this blog and is St. 1919, c. 298. See Part 3. This criminal law of only 118 words was part of the Massachusetts statute books from 1919 until 1978. This law is superior [for reasons see NOTE 1 below] to any antitrust law. Its simple presence in the statute books of any state with the threat of criminal prosecution with possible jail time deters operators of illegal monopolies from their predatory practices in "any necessary of life".
We may name this statute the Coolidge-Walsh Law after its chief sponsors, Governor Calvin Coolidge and Senator John Walsh of Massachusetts. The original text of the legal rule in St. 1919, c. 298 appears in IMAGE 1 at end of Part 3.
Another example of a legal rule are the rules that collectively make up America's federal antitrust laws, 15 USCA Section 1 et seq, which starts with the 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act. These laws are to maintain competition and break up illegal monopolies - at least in theory. Members of Congress and the Presidency have not used these laws for many decades and the federal antitrust laws are inferior [for reasons see NOTE 2 below.] to the Coolidge-Walsh Law. Those members have broken the very rules that they sworn to uphold which include their duty to protect Americans from monopolies.
The purpose of both rules is to maintain competition among smaller companies to keep lower prices for gasoline that, in turn, lower prices for other necessaries of life and even luxuries. Without lower, stable prices, Americans will not be able to plan and enjoy normal family lives. Politicians, many of them lawyers, have allowed gasoline prices continue to rise without regard to Americans' ability to pay them. Loyal politicians take positive action when their people cry out in pain. See Part 4 to read excerpts [hi-lited in yellow] from the opinion of the Supreme Court of Missouri that vividly describes the devastation that greedy monopolies impose on ordinary American families with their high prices for necessaries of life and the court's position that governments must intervene to protect helpless families from illegal monopolies.
By their own choice, monopolies now trade in the "global markets" where nobody represents the interests of Americans. Congress and the Presidency have utterly failed to use the authority [federal antitrust laws] to protect Americans who are without anybody to represent them in this country as well - when it comes to necessaries of life. Their sovereignty and economy are like mirages in a desert and are in serious danger. Global markets only benefit illegal monopolies and their owners such Goldman, Sachs & Co. and ExxonMobil at the expense of ordinary Americans who are trapped by a basic need to live. These markets are the topic in Part 5.
In parts of Massachusetts, the price of a gallon of lead-free regular gasoline is $3.89 but the price of a gallon of whole milk is $2.40 which is substantially less.
Why should gasoline be 62% higher in price than milk per gallon? Milk is, without doubt, a necessary of life. Americans from babies to teens to adults drink milk to sustain their lives. Today, gasoline, oil for heat, and natural gas are also everyday examples of necessaries of life. People can not live without necessaries of life in contrast to luxuries such as a diamond ring which have competitive substitutes.
The price of milk is subject to
state regulation.We can only wonder about how high the price per gallon of whole milk to ordinary Americans will go if the Wall Street speculators were also able to gamble in, and manipulate, the price of milk that Americans need to lead healthy lives?
The prices of gasoline, oil for heat, and diesel fuel must also be subject to regulation by the
states. Those products are no less necessaries of life than milk is in today's society.
From their world headquarters in Congress and the Presidency, Wall Street speculators and Big Oil have forced grocery stores to increase the price of a gallon of milk to ordinary Americans via higher transportation costs from gasoline and diesel fuel.
To read an example of a titanic transfer of wealth from Americans to five speculators in Oklahoma, click
http://money.cnn.com/2011/05/24/markets/oil_price_speculation/index.htm?iid=Popular to learn about their heist that snatched $50,000,000 from our economy and concentrated our wealth into the hands of a few. A person with an annual salary of $50,000.00 will have to live
1,000 years to earn $50,000,000 - before taxes! The speculators and Big Oil use pen and paper ["short contracts"], not a gun and bag, to steal money from Americans in a matter of either days or weeks. They do not even need a get-away car. These heists are unhealthy for America's economy.
Heists such as the one in the previous paragraph do not make America great. They are too close to larceny for comfort. Congress and the Presidency have put their imprimaturs on these heists by failure to break up monopolies such as Wall Street speculators and Big Oil.
In sharp contrast to heists, an excellent model to make jobs and wealth in America by creativity is Xerox Corporation. Many decades ago in 1937, Chester Carlson invented xerography [from Greek dry writer] He developed, manufactured, and marketed photocopiers with the financial help of Joe Wilson of The Haloid Company whose attitude was not to make quick money and retire on his riches. Joe Wilson wanted his company to make a positive impact on the world and they both were successful.
Today, Xerox Corporation has about 130,000 employees who manufacture high quality products through creativity, not "short contracts". Wall Street speculators and Big Oil examples are not at all like Xerox Corporation. They are examples of illegal monopolies whose goals greatly differ from the goals of Chester Carlson and Joe Wilson whose company was a success from the magic of creativity, hard work, and honesty.
Click
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/gas-prices-outrage-coast-coast-15789435 to view a video on how some Americans creatively avoid the use of a gun and bag to steal from a gasoline dealer. This "fight fire with fire" approach is not healthy for America and it exists only because Congress and the Presidency silently refuse to do their jobs to break up monopolies like Wall Street speculators notably Goldman. Sachs & Company and the companies that make up Big Oil by enforcement of the antitrust laws.
The Presidency's failure in 2008 to provide the [questionable] $700 billion bailout earlier allowed Bear, Stearns and Lehman Brothers to collapse and, either by accident or design, the failure strengthened Goldman, Sachs into a stronger illegal monopoly. Henry Paulson, Secretary of the Treasury in 2008, earlier had been in charge of Goldman, Sachs & Company.
Congress and the Presidency certainly have not given ordinary Americans their "tax dollars worth" by their failure to protect them from those monopolies whose lobbyists work in Washington, DC. The new "global markets" where illegal monopolies trade make their failures look intentional.
No law is perfect and, if perfect, humans administer laws. The Coolidge-Walsh Law; St.1919, c. 298; gave stability to prices for necessaries of life from 1919 until 1978 by its mere presence in the Massachusetts statute books even as Americans worked and slept 24/7. Americans should give this law a second chance. They will receive their "tax dollars worth" from it.
Why have members of Congress and the Presidency, all of whom have sworn to uphold the laws, broken the rules, in this case, the federal antitrust laws?
Click
www.amandala.com.bz/index.php?id12083 to read the article with the title "Of Perks and Politicians" on January 5, 2012, which compares America's federal government with the Belizean government in Central America. The article ends with the idea that Belizean politicians spend millions of dollars to obtain a job in government that has an annual salary of $90,000. "Perks, baby, perks. Perks and power." This idea applies to American politicians as well.
You, the readers, be the judges at the polls this November 2012, and decide if there is a good reason to fire members of Congress and the Presidency who have even appeared to have broken our country's rules in exchange for "perks" from Wall Street speculators and Big Oil. Let new people have a chance to protect Americans from illegal monopolies.
NOTE 1: This law, in effect, removes gasoline and other necessaries of life from the commodities markets and the mere presence of this law on the statute books of any state makes monopolies obey this law and not trade in "any necessary of life" under the threat of criminal prosecution, and possible jail time upon conviction, . Unlike the federal antitrust laws, this law brands the violators as criminals no matter how well they otherwise behave.
NOTE 2: The antitrust laws leave gasoline and other necessaries of life in the commodities markets. Americans will have to wait until prices are too high for comfort by illegal monopolies and the government will have to make a lengthy investigation then go to court. By that time, consumers may have no cash and no home. The worst part is that a court may say that a monopoly has behaved well enough to escape a break up.
