The Progressive Era (1901–1929) was a period in the United States during the early 20th century of widespread social activism and political reform across the country.[1][2] Progressives sought to address the problems caused by rapid industrialization, urbanization, immigration, and political corruption as well as the enormous concentration of industrial ownership in monopolies. Progressive reformers were alarmed by the spread of slums, poverty, and the exploitation of labor. Multiple overlapping progressive movements fought perceived social, political, and economic ills by advancing good democracy, scientific methods, and professionalism; regulating business; protecting the natural environment; and improving working and living conditions of the urban poor.[3] Corrupt and undemocratic [[political machine[[s and their bosses were a major target of progressive reformers.To revitalize democracy, progressives established direct primary elections, direct election of senators (rather than by state legislatures), initiatives and referenda,[4] and women's suffrage which was promoted to advance democracy and bring the presumed moral influence of women into politics.[5] For many progressives, prohibition of alcoholic beverages[6] was key to eliminating corruption in politics as well as improving social conditions. Another target were monopolies, which progressives worked to regulate through trustbusting and antitrust laws with the goal of promoting fair competition. Progressives also advocated new government agencies focused on regulation of industry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Era (more)

From the Great Depression through now. 2 separate Economic Transitions. (A Brain Fart started in 2009.) (more)

Agile Product Development, Product Management from MVP to Product-Market Fit, Adding Product To Your Startup Team, Agility, Context, and Team Agency, (2022-10-12) Accidental Learnings of a Journeyman Product Manager (more)

Rule by the few. The real A-List. Oligarchy is a form of government where most political Power effectively rests with a small segment of society (typically the most powerful, whether by wealth, military strength, ruthlessness, or political influence). The word oligarchy is from the Greek for "few" and "rule". Many political theorists have argued that all societies are inevitably obligarchies no matter the supposed Political System. Oligarchies are often controlled by a few powerful families whose children are raised and mentored to become inheritors of the power of the oligarchy, often at some sort of expense to those governed. This power may not always be exercised openly, the oligarchs preferring to remain "the power behind the throne," exerting control through economic means. http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligarchy See also kleptocrat/klept/kleptocracy, plutocrat/plutocracy/billionaire; cf ostracism, pathological; fascist/authoritarian/corporatism; Crony Capitalism, Theocracy (more)

power-holder in oligarchy

On August 23, 1971, prior to accepting Nixon's nomination to the Supreme Court, Lewis Powell was commissioned by his neighbor Eugene B. Sydnor Jr., a close friend and education director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, to write a confidential memorandum for the chamber entitled "Attack on the American Free Enterprise System," an anti-Communist and anti-New Deal blueprint for conservative business interests to retake America.[17][18] It was based in part on Powell's reaction to the work of activist Ralph Nader, whose 1965 exposé on General Motors, Unsafe at Any Speed, put a focus on the auto industry putting profit ahead of safety, which triggered the American consumer movement. Powell saw it as an undermining of the power of private business and a step toward socialism.[17] His experiences as a corporate lawyer and a director on the board of Phillip Morris from 1964 until his appointment to the Supreme Court made him a champion of the tobacco industry who railed against the growing scientific evidence linking smoking to cancer deaths.[17] He argued, unsuccessfully, that tobacco companies' First Amendment rights were being infringed when news organizations were not giving credence to the cancer denials of the industry.[17] (more)

Lewis Franklin Powell Jr. (September 19, 1907 – August 25, 1998) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1972 to 1987... He worked for Hunton & Williams, a large law firm in Richmond, Virginia, focusing on corporate law and representing clients such as the Tobacco Institute. His 1971 Powell Memorandum became the blueprint for the rise of the American conservative movement and the formation of a network of influential right-wing think tanks and lobbying organizations, such as The Heritage Foundation and the American Legislative Exchange Council. In 1971, President Richard Nixon appointed Powell to succeed the late Associate Justice Hugo Black. He retired from the Court during the administration of President Ronald Reagan, and was eventually succeeded by Anthony Kennedy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_F._Powell_Jr.

Anne Irene McGill Gorsuch Burford (/ˈɡɔːrsʌtʃ/ GOR-sutch; April 21, 1942 – July 18, 2004), also known as Anne M. Gorsuch, was an American attorney and politician. Between 1981 and 1983, while known as Anne M. Gorsuch, she served under President Ronald Reagan as the first female Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Her son is sitting Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Neil Gorsuch. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Gorsuch_Burford

James Gaius Watt (January 31, 1938 – May 27, 2023) was an American lawyer, lobbyist, and civil servant who served as U.S. Secretary of the Interior in the Ronald Reagan administration from 1981 to 1983. He was described as "anti-environmentalist" and was one of Ronald Reagan's most controversial cabinet appointments.[1] His tenure as Secretary of the Interior was controversial primarily because he was perceived as hostile to environmentalism. Watt opened up nearly all of America's coastal waters to oil and gas drilling, widened access to coal on federal lands, and eased restrictions on strip-mining.[2] His proposals to sell off federal lands failed due to extensive opposition.[2] In 1983, he resigned after controversially remarking that a panel reviewing his coal-leasing policies had "every kind of mixture—I have a Black. I have a woman, two Jews and a cripple." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_G._Watt

Joseph Coors, Sr. (November 12, 1917 – March 15, 2003), was the grandson of brewer Adolph Coors and president of Coors Brewing Company... Brewery Workers Local 366 in Golden, Colorado, struck the Coors plant in August 1977. Coors continued brewery operations and replaced the striking workers who stayed out. The new workers voted to decertify the union in December 1978, officially ending the strike.[3] The strike and decertification caused a 10-year boycott of Coors by the AFL-CIO. In the aftermath of the strike, Coors required new employees to take lie detector tests, which were discontinued in August 1986.[3] In 1977, after a regional agreement prevented the movement of toxic aluminum waste from aluminum can production across adjacent state borders, Coors set up the Mountain States Legal Foundation, headed by local lawyer James G. Watt to fight the environmental constraints in the courts. Watt later became U.S. Secretary of the Interior, and appointed local attorney Anne Gorsuch as head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to dismantle toxic waste disposal laws, causing an outcry that got her sacked by Reagan after 22 months, after which Watt was forced to resign for politically insensitive remarks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Coors

The Heritage Foundation (sometimes referred to simply as "Heritage"[1][2]) is an American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1973, it took a leading role in the conservative movement in the 1980s during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, whose policies were taken from Heritage Foundation studies, including its Mandate for Leadership. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Heritage_Foundation (more)

George Mason was founded in 1949 as a northern branch of the University of Virginia and became an independent university in 1972. It has since grown into the largest public university by student enrollment in Virginia... Since the university's founding, two of its economics professors have received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics: James M. Buchanan in 1986 and Vernon L. Smith in 2002. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Mason_University

Richard Harold Fink (born May 31, 1951)[1] is an American businessman and academic. He is the former executive vice president of Koch Industries, the second largest privately held company in the U.S. In the late '70s, Richard Fink met Charles Koch to discuss founding a research center devoted to teaching Austrian economics thought at Rutgers. Fink met with Koch in Wichita and planned what became the Mercatus Center... Fink co-founded Citizens for a Sound Economy,[9] where he served as president,[10] and co-founded the Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation, which is now the Americans for Prosperity Foundation.[disputed – discuss] He also sat on the board of the Institute for Humane Studies, and the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He previously served on the Consumer Advisory Council[11] of the Federal Reserve Board and the Commission on Privatization. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Fink

The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cato_Institute (more)

The Mercatus Center was founded (in 1977) by Richard Fink as the Center for the Study of Market Processes at Rutgers University. After the Koch brothers gave more than $30 million to George Mason University,[9] the Center moved there in 1980. It took its current name in 1999... The Mercatus Center is located at the George Mason University campus, however the organization is privately funded and its employees are independent of the university.[4] It is directed by Benjamin Klutsey and its board is chaired by American economist Tyler Cowen. Taking its name from the Latin word for market, the center advocates free-market approaches to public policy. During the George W. Bush administration's campaign to reduce government regulation, The Wall Street Journal reported, "14 of the 23 rules the White House chose for its 'hit list' to eliminate or modify were Mercatus entries". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercatus_Center

Charles Koch and David Koch (more)

Big Media owned by Rupert Murdoch (more)

controller of NewsCorp (more)

The channel was created by Australian-born American media mogul Rupert Murdoch in 1996 to appeal to a conservative audience, hiring former Republican media consultant and CNBC executive Roger Ailes as its founding CEO. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_News

The New York Post (NY Post) is an American conservative[3] daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The Post also operates three online sites: NYPost.com;[4] PageSix.com, a gossip site; and Decider.com, an entertainment site. The newspaper was founded in 1801 by Alexander Hamilton, a Federalist and Founding Father who was appointed the nation's first Secretary of the Treasury by George Washington. The newspaper became a respected broadsheet in the 19th century, under the name New York Evening Post (originally New-York Evening Post).[5] Its most notable 19th-century editor was William Cullen Bryant. In the mid-20th century, the newspaper was owned by Dorothy Schiff, who developed the tabloid format that has been used since by the newspaper. In 1976, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp bought the Post. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Post