One of the Quietest Most Invisible Things that is Hurting You and Your Family

Perhaps the tide is turning. I hope so. This excerpt is from this article on Matt Stoller's Antitrust website: "The Most Boring Conspiracy is Big Law." Did you ever wonder where most of America's competition went?

As I’ve worked through politics, I’ve come to realize that giant conspiracies are far less interesting than they seemed to have been when I was younger. Don’t get me wrong. There are conspiracies, and they are far-reaching. It’s just that most of them, at least when it comes to corporate power and antitrust, are not run by titanic cackling geniuses, but by middle aged slightly overweight lawyers with bad posture who live in and around Washington, D.C., New York, and San Francisco and love talking about wine clubs.

A few weeks ago, New York Times reporters Cecilia Kang and David McCabe published a useful article on the hot market for antitrust lawyers. “Antitrust work — once a relatively sleepy area of the legal world — is now providing a windfall for the big firms,” they wrote. “Top partners at a large firm often bill $1,000 to $2,000 an hour, and the scores of young associates who help them charge hundreds of dollars an hour.”

Restoring anti-monopoly policy will be a slog, because corporate lawyers are intimidating, and policymakers and judges tend to believe what they say. They have been trained for decades to look credible, and they do. But ultimately, what they are doing is helping their clients violate the law, and in doing so, make a mockery of democracy itself. And that should not stand.

. . .

Anti-Monopoly Midterm Election Candidates Begin to Emerge: I’m noticing a trend of candidates who are starting to talk about big business on the campaign trail. What’s interesting is that, like the anti-monopoly movement, it doesn’t break down by party. Here are the candidates I noticed.

Wisconsin Democratic Senate candidate Tom Nelson has talked about why it’s so “crucial to fight corporate power.”

In his first ad, Ohio Republican J.D. Vance in Ohio called Jeff Bezos and Google members of “the ruling class.”

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, who is running for reelection in 2022 to the Governor spot, wrote a long blog post attacking meatpacker consolidation.

Here’s Republican Blake Masters in Arizona, attacking “corporations that have gotten so big they think they are bigger than America."

Missouri Democratic Senate candidate Lucas Kunce, is pledging to “end monopoly domination of our economy.”

And here’s Iowa Democratic Senate candidate Dave Muhlbauer, going after meatpackers and “corporate farms.”

Both Odessa Kelly and her opponent Jim Cooper in a Tennessee Democratic primary race praised Biden’s executive order on competition.

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Ben Franklin: It’s “a Republic, if you can keep it.”

On September 17, 1787, as delegates left the Constitutional Convention in Independence Hall, Benjamin Franklin was asked what kind of government do we have?

"A Republic," he replied, "if you can keep it."

I am stunned at the willingness of many on the political left to ignore the First Amendment out of convenience when it comes to their favorite issues. As I predicted several days ago, the ACLU has been silent. Many of us who used to fear government censorship are publicly warming up to that idea.  In recent days, Glenn Greenwald has commented repeatedly. For example:

Those who remember the recent past the federal government be able to declare and enforce its version of the "truth" re COVID.  Here's a few examples:

There is apparently something in the water that is causing Americans to become obtuse, unable to understand their own history, their own government and nuance. Many people who hear my opinions of these topics accuse me of liking it when malevolent and stupid people kill other people by spreading lies about COVID.  They think I like it when harmful false ideas are spread through social media. Many of them are proud Americans who wave flags and celebrate the Fourth of July, but they don't understand the function and power of the First Amendment and free speech (the latter of which is a broader issue). It's as though they don't understand that many truths are complex, making them unendingly imperfect and tentative. It's as though they don't understand that by allowing the marketplace of ideas to run its course, we will be in the best position to understand what is going on around us on every topic and every issue. It's as though they want to completely trust a government that excels in spewing out lies, year after year, administration after administration.

Is it too much to ask that Americans understand their own Constitution before willingly shredding parts of it?

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The Stoics and the Serenity Prayer

Have you ever noticed that one of the key tenets of the Stoics is essentially the Serenity Prayer?

The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself to the choices that are my own.

— Epictetus, Discourses, 2.5.4–5

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.

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Loud Noise at City Parks – Pro and Con

Can we agree on anything anymore? I often like to walk through Tower Grove Park, close to my house in St. Louis. On many evenings I like sit on a park bench and read and write. I've found it increasingly annoying that so many loud vehicles/motorcycles cruise through the park (some loud enough that you can hear their engines growling 1/2 mile away). Every night or two, somebody parks their vehicle, near a beautiful pond and garden area, opens their windows and blasts their music loud enough that you can hear it thumping 1/4 mile away. I see these two things as problems, so I called the park office and asked what we can do about this. I was told we can't do anything about the loud car engines, but I was given the park ranger's phone number in case someone "is playing their music very loud" or "blaring" their music.

I shared my concern on the Nextdoor.com website for my neighborhood and ten neighbors promptly "liked" the post. But I also received a long comment (liked by six people) who reminded me that it is a "public park," calling me "passive aggressive," suggesting that I am over-wrought and needing meditation and suggesting that I avoid the park during popular times. Ergo, we have two factions re loud park noise: Pro and Con.

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