Being born above my dad’s grocery store and being immersed in the grocery business, Summers and weekends, for many years, I thought I knew a few of its tricks. I’m now finding out how little I knew.

Admittedly, I have not had much recent connection with the industry, as my father retired about 25 years ago. He ended up in charge of a major regional chain’s warehouse.

Why have I had this recent epiphany? Why am I reading every label? I am on a diet.

When you go well past 300 pounds, particularly at my age, you begin to wonder why. I was following the standard diet guidelines and going to the Y 5 days a week. My metabolism was in the proper range and I had no tumor or other obvious reason for all of that weight gain.

I said to hell with the FDA’s guidelines. To hell with the AMA’s and Heart Association’s recommendations.

I did a ton of research and decided to eat the way my grandparents ate, before epidemic heart disease, fructose, soy everything, oleomargarine, processed foods, Cargill and ADM. I have rediscovered taste. Butter, butter everywhere. Real butter. I began eating a quarter or a third more food. I quit taking Crestor.

After 3 months of this heresy, I received the best blood test results ever. After a bit more than 4 months, now, I am approaching a weight loss of 50 pounds.

So, now I read the labels. No vegetable oils, except olive, coconut and flax seed. No bleached flours. No soy products, with one small exception. Reduce all sugars to the extent possible and totally eliminate high fructose corn syrup. No MSG.

However comprehensive that may seem, you could be forgiven for thinking that it was unnecessary to scrutinize every label. The food industry is the nation’s largest industry. That means it has more money to advertise its lies, so it can lie more. So, it does. It takes all of the supermarkets to contain all of the lies the industry produces.

A product may announce in large type that it is MSG-free. Read the label. If it includes natural flavors among the ingredients, those natural flavors are likely enhanced with MSG. So much for government-required labels being honest.

I look for a salad dressing. Soy oil is the first listed ingredient on almost all. There are even some vinegar and oil and vinaigrette dressings that boast of olive oil where soy oil is listed first and olive oil fourth. For any who are unaware, the ingredients are supposed to be listed in the order of the amount.

My favorite dressing was always blue cheese, even when it was still called Roquefort. Roquefort is made in France from sheep’s milk. They became upset when others called their product Roquefort and threatened lawsuits. That was when the others changed the name to blue cheese dressing. Almost all of these blue cheeses are now made from cow’s milk. Gorgonzola, a blue cheese from Italy is made both with cow’s milk or goat’s milk. I found one brand of dressing that listed Gorgonzola. It didn’t specify the animal source. Believe me, there is a difference.  Anyway, that dressing also was mostly soy oil. I can no longer find a store selling Roquefort in this area.

As much as I enjoy blue cheese, I thought I could avoid the soy oil by changing to one of those vinaigrettes. No such luck. Soy oil is everywhere. For the nonce I must also avoid salads, unless I bring my own olive or coconut oil and vinegar.

Meat should be meat, right? No, unless a soy bean has legs. No natural food is good enough for Americans unless it has been augmented with a soy product and blessed by those family farmers at Cargill, ADM, Tyson and their neighbors. I think I could put every thing in a supermarket that contains no soy or fructose into a single buggy and still have room for a couple of my grandkids.

Why are soy and corn products in everything? Is it because they are healthier? No. It’s for two special reasons. They are cheaper and more malleable in the laboratory. They are very productive per acre. They are easy to harvest with a minimal number of human workers. And, corn is subsidized. Why? Because the people with enough money to bribe Congress got what they wanted.

And I bet you thought they are putting all of those processed toxins into your food because they are concerned with your well-being. They eliminate the nutrients from your diet. Your body tries to get more. You consume more. You become obese. You consume more. They get richer.

Avoid low-fat, no-fat, skim and such. Fat, animal fat, is where all of the taste and nutrients are. Removing the animal fats would mean something less than tasty. They have found the solution. Sugar. Processed sugar, missing its few nutrients, replaces the nutrients that were removed. Without the enzymes found in animal fats, much of your food doesn’t get properly processed and ends up as fat or is discarded with its nutrients not having benefited your body.

Every few days, it seems, soy is said to cure another cancer, eliminate obesity, destroy cholesterol, save you from halitosis. Someone has to dream those things up. They have to get paid. They are marketing people, not scientists. Soy has some toxic properties; particularly in the amounts found in the American diet. It will help your body generate estrogen. Unless you are going through menopause, that is probably not a good thing.

I have a daughter-in-law that was a nurse. She is feeding my grandson a soy milk formula. That’s not good but my wife tells me to keep my mouth shut. Excessive soy in the diet is now the prime suspect in the premature development of 8- and 10-year old girls.

There is only one form of soy that is truly safe. Soy sauce was brewed from time immemorial in a process that takes 5-6 months. Scientists have now developed a method that produces soy sauce in two days. If the label says something to the effect that it is traditionally brewed, it’s safe. If not, save your money and protect your health.

They tell you that cereals are healthy, even the ones that are more than half sugar. Sorry. Not true. Steel cut oats are just about the only breakfast cereal that has any nutrients remaining after all of the processing. Granola? They are cereals without nutrients sugar, fructose, more sugar and honey.

If you don’t read the labels you miss all of the lies. If you do read the labels, the chances are they have tricked you into believing those lies.

Well, you think it might be a good idea to head over to the vitamin counter? Good luck. The pills are processed with large amounts of heat and pressure. In addition to oxygen, those are the prime killers of nutrients. It is estimated that the average vitamin pill or supplement contains from 0 to  5% of the claimed amount of that particular nutrient stated on the label.

It’s better to get those nutrients in your diet. Natural foods have those vitamins and nutrients and their co-factors. It is rare for nature to produce or use any nutrient as a singularity. Glucosamine won’t help your joint much on its own. You can get it and its co-factors from putting a joint bone with its fat and gristle into a crock pot and making a stew and some gravy and some stock. Those labs don’t make and factories don’t produce any co-factors.

Eat well.

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What caused the debt? That sounds like an easy question. Could that be the problem?

One would hope that our “leaders” could get their arms around a simple question. Well, apparently we never learn.

The short-bus riders on The Hill are pretending to deal with what to do about the debt. It seems logical to ask the question in the title of this article before addressing any possible solutions. Knowing how you got here might be helpful in finding your way back.

Back to the initial debt question.

Even conservative economists acknowledge the role the tax cuts of the early aughts played in eliminating the surplus and creating a major portion of the debt. No rocket science required. No dispute, except among those who prefer playing politics and maintaining “Their” seat in Congress.

Rule of thumb: If a politician considers his career more important than the well-being of the people or the country, he/she does not belong in any public office.

Should American corporations enjoy loopholes that let them snub their noses at our country? Other countries aren’t so considerate. They use our government’s protection, services, infrastructure, airports, ports, education of their employees and enjoy other benefits of being and operating in our country.

Over two-thirds of the largest paid no corporate tax. They are freeloaders. They are parasites. And, many still get subsidies. Even some foreign corporations have discovered how to do the same. That means that you are paying their way. It means you are subsidizing them to send our jobs overseas and pay taxes to other countries. It’s difficult to fully appreciate your generosity.

Our glorious new Secretary of Wars is visiting our money in Iraq and Afghanistan. He tells us that we are close to defeating al-Qaeda. After only 10 years and we are close to defeating them? All 24 of them? Why not throw in another couple of hundred thousand and finish them within this decade?

They tell us they are drawing down a couple of squads this year from the 100,000-plus US troops over there. Why didn’t they mention our mercenary forces? They actually outnumber our troops. Whatever, I have been told in the utmost of secrecy that those military operations added somewhat to our present debt.

The oil industry needs subsidies? Enough said.

There have been various other expenses. We average consuming 170 pounds of sugar every year for every man, woman, child in this country. Aren’t we sweet? But, that just isn’t enough. Somehow, that industry just can’t survive without my pocket change. Ooops! They do survive without it. They get some of that Chinese money that puts us in debt.

If it were only the sweet guys. But, no. You either don’t have enough fingers and toes to count those struggling to get by on corporate welfare, or you belong in Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Museum.

Luckily, I already had 3 years of Chinese language courses in grad school. I can beg in their native tongue.

Cargill, Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM), Land O’Lakes, Monsanto, Dole, Chiquita, Perdue Farms. These are needy family farmers that can’t afford to increase their fleets of corporate jets as much as they would like unless you go deeper into debt. Please, consider helping your neighborhood agricorp.

One more biggie; the drug lords. Medicare Part D. That needn’t cost the government any money, except they agreed to refrain from negotiating with the pushers and pay whatever their asking price is. Medicare is much larger than the Veterans’ Administration. They could have a lot more bargaining weight than the VA, which pays half as much as Medicare.

So, where do we cut?

That’s easy. First you cut Medicare and Social Security. Why? Because old geezers don’t need no stinking private jets, or sufficient and decent food (cat food is cheap and convenient), or full doses of their meds. They can move in with their kids. If those kids are unemployed they can squeeze out a little to help with the mortgage.

Neither Medicare (except Part D) nor Social Security has added a single nickel (or yuán 元) to the national debt. They are paid completely from taxpayer contributions via the payroll tax. Both are, and have been, running large surpluses. Those surpluses are projected to disappear in the future; Medicare, in about 12 years, or so. Social Security in several decades. Whatever, neither has contributed to our present debt problem.

We can save a few farthings by cutting the funding to such frills as air traffic control, highway maintenance, matching funds to states and local governments for practically everything they do (cops on the beat, firemen on pumpers, education, etc.), courts, passports, parks, prisons, paychecks for the troops we claim to support, the FBI, airport security, medical research, subsidies to hospitals and too many more to list.

The President says the Social Security checks may not go out on time next month. I might get upset if they decide not to send my Social Security checks. The IRS charges penalties if my taxes are late. Does anyone have any ideas about what size of a penalty I should impose?

Are our “leaders” serious? Are they planning and preparing for any of those doomsday scenarios that  are no longer unthinkable? Since it has never happened before, we really can only guess at what we will face. No. They are not planning and preparing. No. They are not serious.

Pay Up.

That first item I mentioned as playing a major role in creating our present mess needs revisiting. We have the lowest income tax rates in more than 60 years. Low taxes means the creation of jobs, so we are told. Then why are we creating the fewest jobs of the last 6 decades in the decade since the latest tax cuts? Because that old saw is a lie. With all of the misinformation, ideological nonsense and other lies getting the attention of the media, it’s time to cut through the BS and look at the realities.

For real? That’s the top marginal rates for the wealthiest taxpayers? Actually, not. That fails to take into consideration two fairly important factors. The wealthy have more deductions than those seniors without a private jet (by the way, those jets are deductible). They have so many it pays them to compensate CPAs and tax attorneys very well to make sure they don’t miss any.

The other factor is that most of the wealthiest don’t work for most of their income. They let their money work for them. That’s called capital gains. That little scam is taxed at less than working for a living. The capital gains tax rate is only 15%. Money gets a nice little benefit when it works. You don’t when you work.

You might be interested in a couple of further points about the other countries listed on these graphs. First, surveys have shown that the citizens of each of those countries are significantly happier with their lives than are Americans. Second, the overwhelming majority in each of those countries prefer their health care system to the American system. Are we missing something?

But, Mitch McConnell just repeated on the tube, with 9.2% unemployment, it isn’t the time to raise taxes, particularly on those poor benighted job creators. Well, have I got news for you. All of those other countries in the graph above that have much higher taxes, are all also doing better with employment. Look for yourself.

Note: Since this graph was constructed US unemployment has increased .5%. The others are the same or lower.

Social Security and Medicare are entitlements. We are entitled because we pay for them and were promised, by law, that we would receive them.

So, our “leaders” decide to make those who are entitled to be paid bear the burden while those who are not entitled cavort in their private jets and enjoy unconscionable incomes and subsidies. The 400 wealthiest are worth as much as 150,000,000 Americans on the other end. Yet, many pay no income tax.

We partied on a credit card for the past 30 years and the loudest voices scream for more tax cuts. I’m getting just a mite upset with some of my fellow Americans for wanting more tax cuts so we can consume our way out of debt, while damning everyone but themselves for the debt and proclaiming their patriotism. The new American motto seems to be, “No pain, just gain.”

I was not totally into the celebrations of this 4^th of July. I am not quite in the mood to lead everyone in a chorus of, I’m Proud to Be an American.

Will our honorable representatives treat us fairly? Surely, you jest. I’m inclined to agree with Jay Leno, “If God had wanted us to vote, he would have given us candidates.”

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Despite what some may think, I was not around for the Dred Scott decision. That aside, I had comforted myself that the Supremes could not make a worse ruling than the one that gave us Bush the lesser.

I was wrong, horribly so.

We are now the only developed country in the world that allows corporations to legally spend unlimited amounts to control the government. Aren’t we special?

Stay with me a couple of minutes. You will see how stupid and/or corrupt at least five of the Justices really are.

How did we get here and what needs to be done? It is simple but the ramifications cannot be overstated.

First we are dealing with a bunch of hypocrites. The radicals of the Court loudly proclaim that they believe in following the intent of the Founding Fathers. They also maintain that the courts should not legislate, nor usurp the legislative role. Yeah, sure.

No Supreme Court has come close to the activism of the present Court. They have overturned more legislation, by far, than any Court of which I am aware. That tendency alone was sufficient to make all predictions on the latest travesty easy. Commentators from the entire spectrum got it right. This ruling was no surprise.

How about their claimed devotion to what they term ‘strict construction?’ That is also a gross mischaracterization. What was the Founding Fathers’ opinion of corporations? It may not be common knowledge but is far from a secret to any scholar or amateur enthusiast of our founders.

With the exception of Alexander Hamilton, all of the founders hated and/or mistrusted and/or feared corporations and the threat they represented to the nation to which they had given birth. This at a time when corporations were relatively rare and weak compared to the present. Back then one must prove a societal need, a benefit to the public, in order to obtain a charter.

Corporations are not mentioned in either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. The last time I checked, the wording was still “We the people . . .” Corporations had only the latitude to function as was delineated in its charter. Where did this idiotic concept of corporations having a legal personality originate? Not from the Supreme Court. It came from an essentially parenthetical couple of sentences by one Justice.

The year was 1886. The case was Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company. The doctrine of corporate personhood was included by Justice Morrison Remick Waite before the beginning of arguments. He stated, “The court does not wish to hear argument on the question whether the provision in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids a State to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, applies to these corporations. We are all of opinion that it does.”

So, two sentences by a single, junior Justice changed the Constitution, laws and the dictionary definition without argument, without discussion, without any attempt at rationality. It subsequently became the very foundation of corporate law.

Let’s look at this. It doesn’t require looking too deeply. It doesn’t require a degree in Constitutional Law. It does require more intelligence than five of the present Justices. It requires common sense. It requires an absence of devotion to the plutocracy, a jettisoning of ridiculous ideologies. Here we go.

Everyone acknowledges that a corporation is property. It, and/or its shares, not only can be owned, by its very nature it must be owned. If it is a person, it enjoys the constitutional prohibition of slavery. You are not permitted, under any circumstances to hold a person as property. Ask your wife.

A corporation speaks with one voice. Although the textbooks tell you that the shareholders control it, or that the directors control it on behalf of the shareholders, the reality is that management rules. Management’s priorities are rarely the same as the stockholders. Stockholders also are further removed from participation by mutual funds, hedge funds and similar devices. Does anyone believe that corporate lobbying efforts are always (sometimes) consonant with the interests or opinions of shareholders?

While many other legal and logical arguments reach the same, or supportive, conclusions, no serious arguments have been proposed that contradict those arguments. We have no need to pursue any further the irrationality of claims for corporate personhood. Let’s proceed to the ramifications.

The last presidential campaign was easily the most expensive in history. The estimates I saw last year were well over $1 billion but less than two. I haven’t seen your checkbook but to me that is significant change. Actually, I consider that amount obscene. It distorts and corrupts. There is no upside for anyone who values their right to vote.

Now let’s look at real money. The major Wall Street casinos have announced record, or near record, profits. These profits are after record amounts being set aside for bonuses. Have you paid attention? These bonuses total about $150 billion.

If Wall Street decided to redirect only half of that amount to campaign finance, we would never have to watch another non-political commercial in an election year (every other year) again. Although that might seem initially to be an attractive side-benefit, all you have to remember is how quickly campaign advertising begins to pall.

While we know better, politicians owned by special interests insist that they are not swayed by lobbyists’ bribes. Given the amounts now available to them, they likely will not even bother to address such questions. The $150 billion cited above represents only that available from the major institutional players of one corrupt industry. Factor in the insurance industry, PhRMA, agribusiness, energy and a host of others wanting laws that benefit them, to our detriment.

There would not even have been the sham of the healthcare debate with its foreordained outcome. The drug pushers could sell morphine as a toothing medication for infants again, as Bayer did before it became famous for its aspirin. The Department of Agriculture could eliminate all of those pesky areas and become a foundation to channel taxpayers dollars directly to ConAgra, ADM, et al. Exxon and its peers would not have to waste another nickel cleaning up after themselves. There no longer would be a need to debate global warming, or spending any funds on research. Government could really be streamlined.

How much have you ever donated to a political campaign? Look on the bright side. Now there is no need to.

I believe that there has never been a law or ruling which so drastically changes and damages our system.

Many people get upset about the power of the government. Permit me to reminisce. Back in the late 1960s or early 1970s there was a little flap at Delta Air Lines, where I was working. You need to understand that at that time aircraft mechanics were treated like royalty. They were the princes of the industry and highly prized by the airlines.

One of these princes let his sideburns grow to the level of the bottom of his ears. No, they were not mutton-chop sideburns. Though wild hairstyles could be seen everywhere across the country, his could not be considered wild by any definition. He was fired.

Except when I was in military service, I would never expect the government to be so intrusive, so controlling of the minutiae of people’s lives. Corporations are not bound to respect any of your rights, beyond the prohibition of discrimination. The government is constrained by the Constitution. With the Founding Fathers, I have always feared corporations far more than I feared the government – until now.

All is not lost. The Court struck down campaign finance laws, not corporate laws or regulations. The Congress unquestionably has the authority to control corporate behavior through changes in corporate law. It could be done by regulation. You and I are, as people, are not controlled by laws in this area so it cannot be claimed that corporations are being discriminated against or denied that to which people are entitled.

I would ask that you notify me the next time you see a bunch of corporations exercising their right of freedom of assembly or, perhaps, their freedom of religion. I would love to attend a baptismal ceremony for one of these ‘guys.’

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