On Wednesday, May 22, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer visited the White House to discuss an infrastructure bill. Earlier in the day, Pelosi had accused the president of a cover-up. Given the president’s childlike temper and past acts, Pelosi and Schumer should have expected a grandstanding stunt, and had one of their own ready. In fact, theirs would have perfectly leveraged the president’s insistence of his innocence from both Russian collusion and obstruction of justice.

Such grandstanding by Pelosi and Schumer would have garnered national attention, if done with the right cadence and timing.

An aide should have had the two volumes of the Mueller report in a briefcase. Pelosi and Schumer should have had talking points already written out. They should have placed the 400-page printout on a podium, and then said something like this:

The Mueller report is more than 400 pages long. We cannot expect our busy citizens, trying to make ends meet, to read it all. That is our job. And we did. This report is a fact-finding mission and it is our job to analyze the results and act appropriately. What we have found in this document is that our president and his team were corrupt. Now we must decide what course we must take that will best serve the country.

• The 2nd paragraph of the Mueller report states that “The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion. Evidence of Russian government operations began to surface in mid-2016.”
• Throughout volume 1 of the report, it is clear that many of Trump’s people had several interactions with Russian operatives. While the investigation did not result in a charge of treason or some other crime, every American must be concerned that Trump’s people had relationships with these characters.
• One must not forget the last-minute, out-of-the-blue change to the Republican Party platform that was favorable to the Russians at the expense of the Ukrainians. 
• There are already dozens of indictments, and several of Trump’s closest team members are already serving time in prison.

The enumerated list should have then continued with page numbers and allegation after allegation, in a sort of sonnet form.

For some time I believed impeachment would have detracted from the Democratic message, and not been worth it. Now, with the bullying, taunting president openly obstructing the process, impeachment is a must, lest Democrats seem weak.

Joy-Ann Reid’s commentary on The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell was both prescient and notable. She made it clear that the Democratic leadership has bought into a fallacy: a mystical belief that Trump has a hold on the electorate when he, in fact, does not. Reid said the Democratic leadership continues to fear the Trump voter, more so than the backlash from the Democratic base.

Let’s hope that changes sooner rather than later.

Ironically, as they take their unearned spoils, many of their employees are working several jobs to keep up, or relying on food stamps. This truth is not rocket science. It is the same pathology that keeps many majorities at the behest of immoral minorities (read: South Africa).

Here is a sad reality: Food stamp con artists share much in common with most of the unfettered capitalists. They both make money off of the labor and intellect of others. They both work out schemes in which they benefit financially on the backs of others. They both produce nothing to move society forward.

I know many will take exception. After all, didn't Bill Gates’ and Steve Jobs' intellect create mega computers that revolutionized efficiency and productivity? Again, that is what you were taught to believe. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were good at what they did. But most importantly, they were chosen—and then their monopolies froze most out of their markets.

Does anyone believe that only a few dozen Americans have the intellect and insight to do what they did? Just like thousands of churches have singers as good or better than Mariah Carey but aren’t plucked from obscurity for fame and fortune, the same applies to technology.

The GOP does an outstanding job at turning words used by progressives into pejoratives. We must do the same with their words. Interestingly, we would not have to use Cuba or Venezuela to prove the failure of the economic system. We only have to ask average citizens to look at their paychecks, bank account statements, and credit card bills over time.

There is a basic tenet we must recognize in our economic system, explained by the article "Why our economic system is designed to keep most people broke by robbing us legally":

Pricing of any product in our economic system has its basis on a corrosive concept known as "Whatever the market will bear." And what will the market bear? All of your income plus your total creditworthiness, how much you can borrow.

Sadly, the reality is that corporations whose fiduciary responsibility is to their shareholders and their huge undeserved salaries will keep raising prices until people are simply unable to afford what they are selling. If it is something they must have, Americans will spend up to their limit to get it.

The tenets of the current economic system are predicated on this behavior that effectively prevents us from saving. It makes us entities that are nothing but conduits of our income used to create the increasing wealth of a few, those who determine prices, the Plutocrats.

Ultimately, those with unregulated and unlimited pricing power on necessary products and services can ensure the rest of us will never accumulate wealth. They own you. They can extort you.

The above reality defines our economy, which has evolved into an odious form of capitalism. The proof is a continual decline in the wealth of the masses as the few get a more significant percentage. If this remains unchanged, math will prevail. Welcome to indentured servitude.