The Power See Saw

Posted on September 12, 2019 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me, as surveillance of the people goes up, so does the opacity of government, alternatively, as the people are freed from government’s all seeing Sauron’s eye, government becomes more transparent. Imagine a variable one way mirror between you and government. The more you can see them, the less they can see you, and the better they can see you, the more hidden they become from you. This is because our relationship with government is fundamentally one of power. When the power of one goes up, the power of the other goes down, and visa versa. Moreover, statistics show that one is twenty times more likely to be killed by one’s own government, than by random crime! Doesn’t this suggest it wise to… police our government officials at least to the extent they police us?

People old enough to remember the Soviet Bloc recognize the danger of a surveillance State. The USSR was a police state and so it’s vassal states followed and were as well. Every country under the yoke of socialism had a secret police, phone taps and a network of spies. East Germany had the vaunted Stazi, a notorious secret police force that included an enormous percent of the population. It was said that in East Germany that everyone was a spy. The result was that despite a strong and active fifth column in the West, a fifth column that is still active in the post modernist movement, as well as the consensus of economists at the time (1970’s) was that the rationally planned economy and State ordered society would win. How could it not, rational versus irrational…?

As our ability to oversee our government, so that it does not become corrupted is reduced… the propensity of government to become corrupt is increased. Take a random individual, give them access to vast sums of money and no effective oversight, if you only give the opportunity to a few people, then it is likely no one will embezzle money. Pass thousands of people through that test however, and it becomes certain someone will… and once one does, the precedent will be set and others will follow. Moreover, since people follow their leaders, the people will become corrupted as well. If it works for them, why not me? When our ability to oversee government is taken away, government must become corrupt, then we follow and become corrupt ourselves, leading to mass shootings, misery and poverty.

On the other hand, give even the most corrupt person access to vast sums of money, and put a video camera over his shoulder, wiretap his phone, drug test him and have in place powerful punishments for any infraction… and you can rest assured your money is safe. In truth, a person likely to engage in embezzlement, is repulsed by a position that is scrutinized. They are attracted to positions without oversight. Look at the States in the US that are one party progressive run, and you will quickly notice embezzlement by city treasurers, town clerks and bureaucrats is rampant, and those caught are only the tip of a vast iceberg of corruption. This is only common sense, we all understand that monitoring makes people follow rules, look over the shoulder of a cashier at Dollar General.

Letting the power relationship between us and government get skewed is a sure path to oppression, suffering and economic disaster. This is done by giving government carte blanche to monitor and regulate us. Especially when we allow arbitrary rule. While we need police to keep order, we do not need secret police to keep us silent, afraid and oppressed. The surveillance State radically swings the power relationship between the governed and the governors, to the side of the governors, guaranteeing they will eventually become oppressors. A more enlightened approach would be to, monitor, regulate and severely punish any wrongdoing by our government elite. Yet it would appear by recent news… we have accepted arbitrary rule, even as we cower before the surveillance state. How progressive.

Sincerely,

John Pepin

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Fallout From the Russian Collusion Hoax

Posted on September 9, 2019 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me, the biggest casualties of the Russian collusion hoax, are the reputations of the FBI and DOJ. Law enforcement must have as a baseline, the trust of the public, else it becomes something different. If law enforcement does not have the trust of the people, it has become a tool of despotism, at least in the eyes of the citizenry. When law enforcement is seen as the tool of despots, law is only followed because of the implied punishment, not out of a sense of duty. Where law is followed out of fear, rather than duty, it is ignored whenever punishment is not likely… which is the path to chaos. From this, we see that the result of the corruption of the DOJ and FBI, has done far more harm to our nation than it would at first appear. In truth, we cannot really know the depth of the damage.

Institutions are what the people believe them to be. Because, “What makes a king a king? Public opinion.” Take the memory from everyone but the king one night… and voila, the next morning he is no longer king, but an insane person who believes himself king. This is because there is nothing in him intrinsically that makes him a king, only the public’s opinion. This is true of everything about politics and government. The IRS used to be an agency to operate the tax system to fund the government, but Obama made it something else. Now it is a tool to harm people who are not aligned with the progressive faction… as the FBI and DOJ have become. So you see, the fight is not just to restore the integrity of the FBI and DOJ, (a near impossible task)… it is also to restore public opinion.

While public opinion is often fickle, it can be insightful, and once the hoi polloi are betrayed… and know it, we are loath to trust again. In the case of the FBI and DOJ, we are forced by the government’s monopoly on violence, to obey, but not believe. This has a very negative effect on our willingness to follow the law. Doing it, increasingly, out of respect for the government’s monopoly on violence, rather than a sense of duty. As time goes on our very belief in justice itself is eroded. Once the common sentiment is, every man is at war with every man… prosperity will cease and famine will reign. No society is immune. A look across the planet and history shows this to be truth. Those countries that are corrupt, with corrupt police forces, have an underclass… and a gargantuan GINI score.

Machiavelli said, “A corrupt society can never be free.” and Confucius said that people follow their leaders, if the leaders are corrupt, the people will be corrupt, and if the leaders are virtuous, the people will be virtuous. Which is a formula for a societal feedback loop. Corrupt rulers will lead the people to corruption, creating a need for more draconian regulations, to reign in such corrupt people. Those regulations and laws will be seen as only a way for the despot to get richer, and so are ignored whenever possible, leading to more corrupt people… Because in the end, why follow laws that are only there to keep you down? That would be self defeating. Carneades the Skeptic said, Mankind imposed upon himself a set of laws and customs as an expedient… (then argued the opposite the next day).

Police can enforce just laws for the benefit of the whole of society, or it can be the strong arm of a tyrant or oligarchy, but it cannot do both. Moreover, once it changes from enforcing just laws for the benefit of society, to becoming a tool of oppression, few ever change back. The history on this is very disappointing. Perhaps the FBI and DOJ, not to mention the IRS and other agencies who’s fundamental role was changed, can stand in the face of historical precedent, returning to enforcing just laws for the benefit of society? The strong likelihood is they will not, since Pandora’s box is opened, they will become the oppressive tool of whatever faction is in power… and is willing to use it. This doesn’t bode well for the US, or the world. Maybe it’s about time we fully explore the Numa idea?

Sincerely,

John Pepin

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The Problem of History to Utopia

Posted on September 7, 2019 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me… all of history is an indictment of progressive policies. Maybe that is why progressive so despise history? Every policy that progressives hold near and dear to their hearts, has been proven a catastrophe by history, over and over. One of the core beliefs of progressives is that they are above the common lot of mankind. Smarter, more educated, wiser and more politically intelligent… just ask their professors. They believe themselves so far above the rest of us it is their duty to run our lives for us. Not out of hubris or a lust for power but out of charity, that we be elevated to the sublime reaches of the possibilities for us… if only we accede to becoming their lab rats. Yet even that “enlightened” mindset has been discredited by history, no wonder progressives openly avow to rewrite history.

Humanity has tried socialism before. The Pilgrims wanted to live as eclectic lives as possible. To that end they eschewed owning land and instead owned the land in common. The first winter almost all of them starved. They then adopted property rights and each was given a lot of his own for his family. Then they thrived. Every time socialism has been tried it has resulted in famine. The extermination of the Kulaks, the Ukrainian famines, the Famines in China, the hyper inflation that destroyed family legacies in places like Argentina, the suffering from economic hardship caused by socialists and socialist policies, are as gut wrenching as they are numerous. Socialism always ends up making almost everyone impoverished… but those at the top of the political hierarchy extremely rich.

Humanity has tried despotic government before. Many of Plutarch’s stories are those of despots and those who sought to unseat them. Dion versus Dionysius for example. Despotic government is perhaps the first kind of government that ever came into existence. The form has never gone out of style in some circles, but has been out of vogue in general since the Enlightenment. The progressive faction embraces the possibilities that despotic government offers them for the betterment of humanity. If not for the negative connotation that autocracy has, in the minds of those who know history, Progressives could get on with it, again, history is a conundrum. Yet if the progressive faction could effectively change the minds of the people, by rewriting history, this problem could be overcome.

Humanity has tried appeal to authority before. Appeal to authority is one of the primary goals of the progressive faction. The underlying philosophy of modern progressivism, is post modernist theory. It is the idea that all history is best characterized as the struggle between groups of people. They have evolved Marxist historiography, from the class struggle, to group struggle. In this notion of group struggle, they propose that all facts are subjective, to the group struggle and the power of that group. Even science, mathematics and history, post modernists argue, are untrue because they promote the established patriarchal hegemony. Since truth is a mere means to power, to a progressive, appeal to authority, (the ability to decide what is truth) makes it a super highway to absolute power.

It is no wonder that progressives are intent on rewriting history more to their liking, every part of it proves their philosophy to be pernicious, evil, destructive and corrosive to the soul. It is a testament to their audacity that they tell us openly they intend to rewrite history. It shows they believe they cannot be stopped anymore. This is of course made possible by the fact they have rewritten history, in the public school system, for several decades now. The student, sufficiently inculcated in progressive philosophy, and held in historical ignorance of the consequences of those policies, is made the puppet of the progressive faction. So it might be a good idea to hold on to some old history books. In a few decades it will be amusing, and saddening, to compare them to the “modern” versions.

Sincerely,

John Pepin

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Defrauding Shareholders for a Bigger Bonus.

Posted on September 5, 2019 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me, one of the biggest surprises to me, about the China trade war is that corporations that do business in China, have to give their corporate secrets to the Imperial People’s Chinese Republic! In other words, for Kentucky Fried chicken to open a store in China, they have given up Colonel Sander’s secret recipe. Which is giving the asset of the shareholders away, so the executives can lower the cost of manufacture or otherwise take advantage of the Chinese market, while destroying the actual value of the company they run. Now that I know that, I will be looking into all the stocks I own, and any that do business in China… will be sold. Because the basis of the share value was given away by the executives for a larger bonus. Which, even if not criminal, is very immoral.

Corporate secrets are the foundation of value of any corporation. Colonel Sander’s Secret Recipe is just one obvious example. Every firm that becomes big enough to fall into the hands of Wall Street, is based on some corporate secret. A new way to manufacture something, a product, recipe, process or innovation. These are what build corporate brand names. Coke is just such a firm. Their brand is their special soda taste, which now, since they do business in China, is replicated around China for pennies on the dollar. These knock offs lower the public’s view of the worth of Coke when there are other alternatives that are exactly the same, because they use the same proprietary formula. The value of a share of Coca-Cola is based on the secret formula for the soda. Which is no longer secret.

If an executive was caught selling corporate secrets to another company, or foreign government, the punishment would be severe. How is giving away corporate secrets for a bigger bonus any different? In both actions, someone personally benefits, while harming the interests of people they are duty bound to protect. In the first example, the perpetrator profits directly by cash payments, in the second, the perpetrator profits much more, and from the very people he or she defrauded! At least in the first example, the fraudster gets paid by the entity benefiting from their crime, while in the second, the victim is victimized twice! How progressive! Identical in nature, mindset, result and intent, the two crimes, the one illegal the other not, show there is more to the story.

So how is giving corporate secrets away for a bigger bonus not illegal? Because the elite don’t want it to be, nor do they want it to stop. If they did they would address this problem. That they don’t shows they see some benefit for themselves in it. I fail to see how giving the Chinese government every US corporate secret in any way benefits the US? Unless they see the downfall of the US as a boon to them. Nevertheless, if members of congress started getting letters demanding our corporations be barred from revealing corporate secrets, to any foreign government, especially Imperial People’s China, they would have to act. Probably against their will, since most are reliably progressive, even many republicans. That is why the elite stand united with China against Trump.

This information, which I would think should be the front page lead article on every actual news outlet in the US and Europe, is rarely reported! Highlighting the fact the progressive elite want China to continue taking US corporate secrets. Possibly because China is their dream come true, a one party state, run by Marxists. The pattern the progressives want to use to form their one world government. Establishing a one party global government, run by professional administrators, rationally ordering our economy, laws, society, culture and lives for us. Without our foolish interference and chatter about Rights, limited government and all that. To that end, allowing, nay encouraging corporations to give corporate secrets to The People’s Republic of China, is a means to that end.

Sincerely,

John Pepin

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To Establish A One Party State

Posted on September 2, 2019 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me, you can tell what a person wants by what he does, this is true in people… and political movements. If we examine the actions of the progressive faction, it becomes obvious they seek to create a single party state. They have succeeded in California as well as Vermont and it is clear they want to emulate that success across the nation. To that end, there is not a bridge they will not cross then turn around and burn behind them. Such a revelation should be alarming to anyone, but what is most distressing, is that a faction so bent on power they would pervert every cultural, religious and civil norm to get it… are so close to getting absolute rule. Judged by their actions, hubristic, conniving, and haughty… they are exactly the people that should never be allowed near the levers of power!

California and Vermont are single party states today. California more than Vermont, but in Vermont, the republicans are reliably progressive… making it a defacto one party state. In both states, the progressive faction has made it known, they will kill you over a soda straw or plastic bag. The role of the state has grown in the once conservative Vermont from live and let live, to one of bend your knee, or get it broken. The government’s of both states are extremely overpaid, compared to similar positions in the private sector, they regulate every action imaginable, and have devoted vast armies of bureaucrats to just that end, and both have a media and voting system that punishes anyone who is not of the party. Once a single party state is established, any other party is by definition, counter revolutionary.

The progressive faction has perverted education, monopolized the media that calls itself unbiased, run our corporations, bureaucracy, judiciary, Internet search and social media as their pawns. They exploit every one of these to establish their one party state. Google manipulates search results to subliminally change people’s minds who to vote for. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc… pretend to be platforms, and exploiting every prerogative that gives them, while at the same time acting as publishers, censoring users based on arbitrary rules. This is made possible by the bureaucracy, media and Judiciary that laud the goals of the social media giants… in creating a single party state in the US. Our corporations join in on the fun, when executives break the law, and the shareholders pay the fine.

The progressive faction has twisted the role of the education system, from educating children to be able to make the most of their lives, to indoctrinating students into being good little socialists. We can track the progress in several ways. One, is that news people in the 1980s were told to write their stories for people with a sixth grade education, today, 2019 they are told to write them for third graders. If nothing else, that is how the new class progressive faction regards the rest of us. A more objective measure is lowering the difficulty of the SAT test to keep it relevant. Common core has hollowed out Gen X’s knowledge of history, civics, decimated their ability to do math, has utterly failed them in teaching logic, and in every other way… except to lie to them that Marxism has never been tried.

People who are willing to go to such great lengths for power, and who have demonstrated they will abuse that power once they get it, who break their own laws with impunity, ala Hillary Clinton, Comey, McCabe, Brennen, Holder, and the rest (Obama)… are people who’s faction should be barred from power. Imagine if the same people had autocratic rule of the nation, who are willing to kill your daughter over a soda straw, and make no mistake, if she “illegally” handed a customer a soda straw in California, then refused to submit, the State would escalate the conflict to the point of shooting and killing her… over a soda straw. Believing they are in the right the whole time. They want absolute control, and believe me, it is not for your interests that they want a One Party State… like China.

Sincerely,

John Pepin

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Police of the Elite

Posted on August 28, 2019 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me, the reason the great thinkers of the Enlightenment as well as their predecessor Aristotle, reasoned that a republic is the best form of government, is because no matter how effective a monarchy is, flexible an aristocracy or fair as polity… each of them has a predilection to become oppressive, ie, tyranny, oligarchy and democracy. In a mixture of them however, they stand against the constant incentive to oppress far better than any alone. As a despot will blunder into a war over a slight, an oligarchy will plunder the wealth of a nation by inflation, or a democracy will “liberate” private property for the “beneficence to the poor.” Republics dampen this… but even a republic has it’s flaws.

As the old adage goes, “in a democracy if the majority want your bike, it is theirs, but in a republic, your bike is yours and no one can take it.” The same cliche could be used for tyranny or oligarchy, if the oligarch or despot want’s your bike… Which is saying, one measure of a wrong form of government, is the predilection to take what it doesn’t own, in the name of whatever sophist justification the thieves, sorry, rulers want to use. If we accept a government is a form of entity, with self awareness, self interest, free will and action. It must then be held to the same standards we hold all entities to. If a dog bites random people it is put down. If a government slaughters millions the leader is lionized and remembered. In this case we see that a dog is held to a higher standard than a ruler.

History shows us that republics generally only last as long as the first few generations after it’s founding. Only Rome lasted for nearly eight hundred years, before collapsing into the tyranny of the Praetorian Guard, (the standing army in Rome) and their puppet emperors. During the Enlightenment, people who sought not to be ruled by tyrants, created Constitutions, to maintain a republic for more than two or three generations. Having limited success, and that success only in places where the elite didn’t immediately become an oligarchy, the people didn’t start voting themselves largess from the public treasury… or a despot didn’t rise up, in the name of the people, to subdue the constitution and install a glorious revolutionary government.

Even in the US, our Constitution has been reduced to a chiffon dress covering naked oppression, since almost everything our government does today is unconstitutional, by an originalist reading. That is why our rulers, sorry, representatives, demand we abandon original intent and embrace the progressive’s living breathing doctrine. Because let’s face it, the Constitution is a set of negative liberties, telling the government what it cannot do to the people… instead it “should” tell the government what to do to the people… at least that is the progressive angle on constitutional law. Which is essentially a means to undermine it’s liberties, by eliminating our Natural Rights and making us dependents. The Judicial Branch has embraced this view on Constitutional law… removing our last line of defense.

Since republics and constitutions have failed, maybe we should pit the elite against the elite, by adding a forth branch of government… a Numa. A Numa would be the police of the elite. Every office, meeting room, phone and apartment of every judge, congressperson, senator, cabinet member, top bureaucrat and even the President, would be constantly surveilled. The video and sound sent to the internet in real time for citizens to watch. They would be randomly drug tested. Any meeting that was deemed national security, and thus off limits to real time surveillance, would have to go through a judge ahead of time. If granted the meetings recorded and released at a later date depending on the judge’s ruling. Any member of the elite caught in criminality would be made an example of. Because, if they are making our laws and ruling over us, shouldn’t they be held to the highest standards, or none at all… like today?

Sincerely,

John Pepin

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A National Pension Fund

Posted on August 25, 2019 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me, anything put in the hands of government is quickly politicized, because politics is the nature of government, and a thing cannot divest itself from it’s very nature. So why would we want to put anything, let alone our retirement, in the hands of politicians? That is an absurdity. It is an assured way for the people to get bilked eventually. Put our retirement funds in a universal account that draws it’s income from dividends and bond payments instead, rather than the “full faith of the government,” and the people are far more likely to profit. Especially, since we are not being forced to pay off the government’s debt to us, at gun point. The answer to universal retirement is, Capitalist Social Security (CSS), I have put forth this idea in the past, and in this article I will revisit the concept.

The central theme is to create a fund independent of government, but government sanctioned, that invests in firms that pay dividends and to a lesser extent, in bonds. Chartered by the shareholders with minimum overhead. The goal of the CSS fund would be to drive corporations to productivity, rather than conniving, create a safe vehicle for the public to invest their hard earned money, and drive down speculation, in favor of long term investing to grow innovation and production, while diminishing profits by political favor. The beauty of this idea is in it’s multi generational design. Once someone invests money, that money cannot be withdrawn, but will pay dividends forever, to them, their heirs and their heirs, until the end of time… or the end of the CSS fund, whichever comes first.

The CSS fund would be required to invest only in firms that pay dividends. The stock would be held onto until the dividends become jeopardized or are cut. Then the fund would divest the same amount of stock as the dividends are cut. No firm could be owned more than forty nine percent by the CSS fund. Moreover, every CEO, board member and executive leading firms that cut dividends, pay fines for corporate wrongdoing, or any other management misconduct… would be blacklisted by the CSS fund. Firms they are involved in would be off limits to investment and or divested if they become involved. Controls on executive pay would also be required. The principle agent dilemma would not be tolerated. The CSS fund would only invest in firms and bonds to grow the productive base and foster innovation.

Once someone invests in the CSS fund they will have options. They could take immediate dividends from that investment, reinvest dividends until they reach any age they wish, or differ payments for their heirs. Once a CSS fund share is passed to someone they will be given the same options. As the fund grows, so will the payments. The CSS fund will distribute fifty percent of it’s monthly earnings as dividends and the rest will be reinvested to grow income. That fifty percent dividend will be evenly distributed per share to the owners… every month. If there were five shares for example, and the monthly earnings was twenty dollars, ten would be reinvested and ten would be distributed to the shareholders… two bucks each. That income would continue “forever…” and grow.

A CSS fund would counter drastic swings in the markets, acting as a dead weight, giving the markets a moment of inertia they don’t presently have. This would smooth out recessionary pot holes. The predilection of the trustees, of any fund, to engage in politics might be stifled by using some form of AI, to administer the buy and sell contracts. The code would have to be open sourced… obviously. Such a system would create an underlying ocean of wealth in the hands of working people. Providing capital for innovation, and increases in productive capacity, it would also smooth the transition to a zero unit cost of labor economy. The CSS fund would also create consequences for the malfeasance of corporate executives. A CSS fund would be a boon to any nation that implemented it.

Sincerely,

John Pepin

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The Purpose of a Corporation

Posted on August 22, 2019 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me, the purpose of a corporation, is to provide a return on the shareholder’s investment, it is in the accomplishment of that goal where confusion might come in. There are as many opinions about how a company can get the best returns for the shareholders as there are people. In most cases, the executives of a corporation have a different opinion, than someone who owns the firm himself. While there may be legitimate differences in opinion about the best way to get profits, there can be none about the purpose of a corporation. It was started, grown and matured to make money for the entrepreneur who created it, investors put money into it to get a return, and the employees work for a wage, the executives do not work as charity nor would they. It’s fundamental purpose then is to earn money.

How is getting a high and sustained return on investment best done? The way an owner runs a business is far different than the way a professional executive runs one. We can see this clearly by examining the life cycle of a company. They are born by entrepreneurs, who nurture them into empires of commerce, by rewarding hard work, keeping costs low, streamlining processes, worshiping customers and bending over backwards to meet their needs and wants, along with other outdated and inefficient ways to make money. Wall street is where companies go to die. Once the entrepreneur is too old or wants to move on, she will sell the firm to Wall street. If she continues running it, it usually does fine. If she steps aside or is forced out, for more “intelligent” management though, the company eventually fails.

Apple is just one such company. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built the firm into a cutting edge technology company. Then sold it to Wall street… and were promptly forced out for more “wise” executives. Soon the company was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, despite having such “smart” people running it. Jobs was brought back to take the blame for it’s ruin. Instead, he changed the corporate ethos back to innovation, valuing employees, especially the creative ones, and cherishing customers, then amazingly, the company rocketed back to the top. Steve Jobs has been dead a few years now, so Apple has changed back to a professionally run firm. Soon, it will be another once glorious company, become a zombie corporation, sustained by cronyism and eating the brains of smaller firms.

Drawing from company histories, it seems clear that when a firm is run by it’s owner, who has a stake in it, it’s reputation, and it’s profits… great care is taken to get and maintain quality employees, be a good neighbor in their communities, provide quality products and services to customers, who are valued and know they are valued, innovate by cherishing and nurturing creative people, etc… in other words, earning their profits. Corporations run by professionals, on the other hand, have a totally different idea how a company is profitable. They squeeze the employees, until all the best people leave, lower the quality of the goods, shrink package size, knowingly sell defective products, commit fraud, and seek cronyism… they embezzle, defraud and rip off for their profits. So progressive!

Today the people who run our corporations make millions, even when the companies they run lose money and pay huge fines for criminal fraud. Playing Three Card Monte, CEOs (who are agents of shareholders) have signed a new statement of the purpose of a corporation. Shockingly, it is not to provide a return on investment to shareholders, it is to establish the premise the shareholders are of secondary importance. The flowery language, that mirrors the way the bourgeoisie usually run businesses, is nothing more than a red herring, the firms purpose is still to make money, for the executives and employees, else they will leave… just not for the investors. How psychopathically self serving of the new class progressive elite!!!

Sincerely,

John Pepin

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Shareholders… or Bagholders?

Posted on August 21, 2019 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me, when someone tells you they are going to steal from you, it is wise to listen. I have opined for years on this site, how corporations are no longer, if they ever were, run for the benefit of the shareholders, employees or customers… they are run for the benefit of the executives and board members. This couldn’t have been proven true any more than by the recent articles making their way across the financial news, that corporate CEOs believe that corporations obligations to society, supersede those to the shareholders. In other words, they are running the businesses owned by others, not for the benefit of the owners, but for their own selfish interests and the political favor they can buy with the shareholder’s money. The very definition of the principle agent dilemma.


These CEOs are in fact openly telling their shareholders that they will be stolen from, to purchase political favor for the executives and board members of that corporation… instead of make money to pay shareholders. What’s worse is that the government is complicit in stealing from investors! Take any given quarter, there will be a multi million dollar fine paid by one of the companies run by one of the CEO’s, who subscribes to the philosophy, that their obligations are to themselves and progressivism, over the shareholders. In 2016 J P Morgan Chase for example, was fined 264 million for bribing foreign officials. Don’t worry though, no executive involved lost his or her bonus… let alone their job or suffered prosecution for breaking the law. The shareholders became the bag holders.

Despite the propaganda to the contrary, most stocks are owned by retirees, pensions, IRAs, 401ks, etc… If you have a 401k, you probably own stocks. Many times through derivatives like those provided by T.Rowe Price, Vanguard, Merrill Lynch, J P Morgan Chase, etc… the very companies are run by CEOs who subscribe to the philosophy, shareholders, customers and employees are the enemy. These companies are in the business of stealing from the customers and shareholders, to enrich executives and buy political favor. So the real victims are retirees, savers, widows and orphans. Even as the media reporting on this open embezzlement, call the shareholders psychopaths, for wanting a return on investment of our hard earned money. How much do those media elite give to charity?

When a middle class person puts money into an ETF she has gone without to save that money. It is not from her surplus she takes it but from her necessity. She didn’t go on vacation, buy a new car, eat out, have the newest phone or have a giant home. She went without so she could be more independent later. Benjamin Franklin would be proud. She goes without so Jamie Dimon can have extra. He will steal the profits that are rightfully hers, lower the value of her investment by dirty dealing, pay out more of her returns in fines for his criminality, and then have the audacity to tell her to her face… her investment means nothing to him, he will do with it as he pleases, she can go straight to Hell as far as Jamie Dimon is concerned. Now that is psychopathic… even as the unbiased media calls her a psychopath.

Jamie Dimon has the right to deplete the tens of millions he gets a year to societal “good.” Spending as much of his enormous wealth… pushing abortion, open boarders, undermining our Constitution, installing a despotic world government, abetting child trafficking to pedophiles, putting people in jail over a soda straw or mistaking the recycling bin’s color, censoring pro constitutional speech, corrupting our governments, undermining the democratic element of our republic, or any of the other societal “goods” he wants to put our money to. Not his own… ours, the money we saved by going without. Jamie Dimon is ratcheting down our standard of living to elevate his. Such a good progressive corporate leader!! If I owned a share of a company run by one of these weasels I would sell it today!

Sincerely,

John Pepin

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Despots Rule While Leaders Lead

Posted on August 18, 2019 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me, a leader leads by example, while a despot leads by violence and fear. This is why, when leaders lead by example instead of ruling by force, there is prosperity, peace, low crime and the children are safe. In those places where rulers live the most hideous lives imaginable, they must use force, violence and coercion, else the people will follow them into utter corruption, while society and the economy collapse into total ruin. This cannot be allowed… since it would infringe on the elite’s good time. So the elite must control the hoi polloi by fear, regulations and violence. As a result, you can tell when you are ruled by a despot, instead of someone who leads by example… by whether or not they lead by example, or drowned you in regulations and rapidly escalate any defiance to violence.

Probably the greatest example of a man who led by example was Jesus Christ of Nazareth. He lived a sin free life, turned down temporal opulence and power, while acceding to being nailed to a cross and dying ignobly rather than use the power granted to him, to subdue those who accosted him. A man with ultimate power, showing us how to live, rather than forcing us to live the way he wants. On a more mundane level… John Adams, Confucius, Lincoln, Truman, Gandhi and Bonhoeffer were men who led by example. They lived as they proposed others do. The backlash from those who resisted living virtuous lives, often led to war, revolutions and societal convulsions, but the suffering was the result of those, who would force others to live a life they would never tolerate for themselves.

Human history is a story of despots who ruled by force, violence and fear. This is the single reason humanity has been stuck for millennia in poverty, wars and famine. Stalin, Mao, Kim, Castro, Che Guevara, Lenin, Hitler, Tamerlane, etc… are all examples of people who lived as they pleased, while forcing others to live as slaves. A thing they would never tolerate for themselves. Of all this crowd, only Hitler lived as an example of his ideal, an evil example to be sure, but an example nonetheless. The rest were hypocrites of the highest order. Old fat Mao didn’t miss many meals… even as he starved 45 million to death. Tamerlane delighted in the slaughter of millions of Hindus, even as the slightest insult to him, was punished by death. Che loved shooting people as they begged for mercy. Great guys.

Today we see human history playing out again in Hong Kong. The people are demanding that the despotic imperial Chinese government simply follow the agreement it signed. Which, to a despot, is unacceptable! The people of Hong Kong, human beings in every sense, are demanding the Imperial Chinese government stop scooping people up off the streets arbitrarily, and deporting them to the mainland, where they are never seen again. Can you imagine a despot like Xi to accept such a situation reversed? Of course not! He is a progressive, hypocrisy is a sacrament to them, so to force the situation, he is readying columns of tanks and troops, to do a Tienanmen Square massacre, to make examples of those who demand they be treated as human beings… so no one will have the guts to do it again.

Confucius was asked by the Duke of Lu, how to get the people to stop lusting after money, other men’s wives, etc… Confucius answered, “You could lead by example and stop doing those things yourself.” Confucius and his disciples had to flee Lu State. By his actions it appears we can count Xi in the second group, despots who use the Golden Rule as toilet paper. Hypocrites who live in luxury as their people groan under the jack boot of their oppression. In the case of the People’s Imperial China, it is okay, because the single party that rules it is Marxist. The goal of all progressives. So don’t expect there to be much complaining from the progressives. They are on the side of the despot. Looks like China will reap the rewards of having a hypocritical despot in charge, all hail Xi, the new duke of Lu!

Sincerely,

John Pepin

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