The selling of stupid.

Sold to the highest bidder.

Who is in control, who has the power, translates roughly in todays world as who has the money.

When asked about increasing or decreasing literacy in the US, Google responded with the nugget above.

Look around today. Seventy nine percent is the nationwide average for literacy in the United States in 2023. Fifty four percent of adults have a literacy level of below the sixth grade level. Studies confirm it impacts an individuals income by indicating a employment level as well as impacting health. A 2020 Gallup study on behalf of the Barbara Bush foundation for Family Literacy found adult literacy may cost the nation $2.2 Trillion a year. Acknowledged as a solvable problem (all or most people can achieve literacy if taught), literacy numbers have not increased in ten years. Economic equity and what’s described as economic mobility in families and communities add up to our nation as a whole equals what can be called underperformance.

Q. The thing we lived with that changed our lives that seems to be gone now, like disco, could be considered a “moment”. Q, much like disco, made little sense and how this presence communicated was through social media, especially 4chan, 8chan. QAnon is, (surprise!) very international. Considered a conspiracy theory that seems to have an answer for every question and leaves considerations to time and space to fend for themselves. How else can JFK and his adult son both be counted to appear in 2022? People learned the ins and outs of these story lines like it’s one of their telenovelas (the ever popular Lain American soap operas). Fun, exciting and being an insider to the new Q “drops” can mean being in with the in crowd. Q is complex.

The clips of Marjory Taylor Green and in the last couple days from the new Speaker of the House, McCarthy, seems so genuine in their concerns for the country and how they will finally be able to get work done and hopefully bring the country back on track. More gentle that the wild performances from this part of the party, this is also performative talk since most of the country sees the republicans as telling falsehoods, gaslighting the American public and it is working for some quite well. It’s not working for democracy.

Words. They are the building blocks of communication. Ideas and reasons to communicate are born in us somewhere and we all choose ways to reach out and connect. We are artists, presenting pictures or visuals. We are orators, talking at length. Writers, relying on some kind of printed word or mix of communication style.

Words are the bricks of communication often. Not every word is simple but can convey a wealth of knowledge that presupposes an understanding of the concepts offered. Some are very specific to a line of work, like an electrician, doctor or philosopher. Some are generally known by everyone. There are ways of measuring literacy which is the ability to read words as well as what one understands from them.

Seventy nine percent literacy. Fifty four percent below sixth grade level. Arguably half the country may not grasp some of the difficulties we are experiencing but only assuming postures of those they “like”. Or, maybe I’m just understanding the pickle we are in.

Education is driven by a particularly simple metric. The number of teachers. Teachers have been dropping out from the profession because of low pay, and the myriad of problems they face with little resources and increased pressure from gun lobbies who are winning their battle to keep guns everywhere including schools. In a rolling increasing crisis, public schools have become war zones as zealots insert themselves into the school systems demanding curriculum be altered to exclude parts of science, parts of American history as well as include more Evangelically styled Christianity. Music and art have long been disappeared from most public schools, 20 - 30 years ago.

The following are dictionary definitions:

Democracy means a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.

Meaning of the word oligarch. A ruler in an oligarchy which is a conceptual form of power structure in which power rests with a small number of people. An oligarch, especially in Russia, a very rich business leader with a great deal of political influence.

We live in a country that is run by government. A great deal of us work for a corporation. The two are run very differently and where someone works often sets the tone of their day, their schedule, family life and where they live. Bluntly, we live in an oligarchy, in a background that is run by a democracy. The folks who are attack dogs for corporations are now voted in.

Things are changing rapidly in this nation of ours. Corporate America has long been getting bigger and more powerful. More control and more lobbing power. Guys like Elon Musk play around openly with peoples livelihoods. Arguably he is the worst, however he is using the power he has to do what he wants which seems to be a self serving agenda. His company, his call.

Tesla is now offering cars at lowered prices because of Musk leveraging his auto company to float the social media platform he is destroying most say, purposefully. Tesla stock is down from a high of 400 to todays price of 122 in a fast one year trip. He is not the only one that has power and abuses it. But we see him and just how much power that is, although power is never absolute. If blows his money and can’t pull out through bank magic, his CEO days may be numbered. Bank magic, not for everyone, and not really much of a fail safe mechanism.

Corporations enjoy the kind of power they have and simply taxing them may not be enough but may be a start.

If we want to turn things around in the long term, education is the way. National education. It is obvious. Protect teachers. Protect our schools. Teach our children to read. The idea that government is somehow second rate and slow, says schools are second rate and not worth anything. This is an old republican talking point that is wormed into our psyche.

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