Nothing ever stays the same. Nothing. Consequently, when you make a statement like free-market capitalism "cannot ensure that profits are gained in a fair way, or distributed in a fair manner" you are basing your assumptions on yesteryear.

A clever lady and I were talking. My answers tend to be much better with a smarter questioner and listener, and our conversation was one of the best political conversations I've had in recent memory. We were talking about my political goals. I forget her exact question. I do recall my answer (typically super-egotistical me).

I think she asked me, 'If we devolve Federal power to the states, am I concerned there will be a backlash on civil rights issues?' Federalism's shining triumph might be the Civil Rights Act of 1968. Unfortunately, as is often the case, the Feds give with one hand, take with ten more you see, and a hundred more of which you aren't even aware. Welfare wives married to the state are just one example of slavery in the 21st century being done legally, yet just as debilitatingly for blacks & whites.

My answer to her question was, people need to grow up. TAKE RESPONSIBILITY.

the problem with palimpsests

Within the last month or so, I was reading Miss Bell's biography on Wikipedia. I found a fascinating quote of an exchange between her and an Arab diplomat. For reasons I attribute to Harvey Ethel, that quote has disappeared. As I recall, the quoted conversation went something like this.

Miss Bell and an Iraqi were dining at a formal dinner. Miss Bell, a bit of an Arab nationalist, assured the Iraqi that the British would eventually grant the Iraqi's their independence. The Iraqi diplomat replied

Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell, CBE (14 July 1868 – 12 July 1926)
Hulton Archive/Getty Images

United States Departments of Defense & State
USA Facts

Whether it is a foreign nation that has been sucking our titty for way too long, or it's a black family being persecuted in America. We must cut that umbilical cord. You can, and will make it on your own. We, the American people will help. The Federal government will not. We, the People, will give you a hand up. Not a handout.

We must use the Internets. We must expose wrongdoing. When we shine a light on the cockroaches that perpetuate wrongdoing, they run. The Aerostate can help shine a light on those cockroaches. Too many cockroaches are feeding on government largesse, clandestine and otherwise.

We need to unionise. Not the historically organised crime riddled unions of American socialism. REAL unions, who play an active, healthy role as intermediaries between corporations and labour, weeding out the slackers, validating the valid complaints and genuinely uniting labour to streamline negotiations for employers.

You, the American taxpayers, paid Israel $3.3 billion last year. Over $9 million a day. FOR WHAT?

Simultaneously, you pay a whole bunch of countries to wage war on Israel.

Concern

Why is America financing both sides in the perpetuation of a millennia old first testament war? Because we, the American taxpayers, are being bamboozled. Again. And the rest of the world is laughing at you.

That's why we will make one.

1910-15 map courtesy of the Royal Geographical Society
signed by Mark Sykes and François Georges-Picot 8 May 1916.
The National Archives
Kew, (not Q) Richmond
available under the Open Government Licence v3.0