I’m very excited. My book, Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America: Working Together To Revive Our Democracy, is finally ready for distribution. The book is a compelling call to all Americans to focus on an extremely critical issue: The power huge sums of money has to unfairly influence U.S. elections and public policy in favor of special interests and contrary to the needs and desires of most Americans.

To order a copy of the book, go to: http://www.breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.

I want to emphasize that the book is most importantly about bringing Americans together to build a Democracy Movement to take control of our country away from Big Money and corporate America. Like the women’s movement, the civil rights movement, the environmental movement, the LGBT rights movement, the labor movement and the anti-Vietnam War movement, when millions of Americans work together real positive change can happen.

While many of us feel disheartened and/or helpless regarding the current state of American politics, what I hope is really provocative and uplifting about the book is it provides a viable way to fix our broken political system and revive our democracy. As Randy Kehler, the former national coordinator of the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign explains:

“This book persuasively argues that the dominance of Big Money not only corrupts government itself but also blocks effective action on virtually every major issue Americans care about. As Bruce Berlin makes clear, and our history confirms, the only force capable of challenging Big Money’s corrupt and powerful hegemony is a diverse, nonpartisan, grassroots movement for democracy based on a politics of human dignity and equality…Fortunately, Berlin lays out a credible roadmap showing how we can create it. I hope it’s read by millions.”

As I indicate in the book, we need to see ourselves as modern day Paul Reveres sounding the alarm to our friends, neighbors, business associates, relatives and others that Big Money and corporate America are taking over our country to the great detriment of most Americans. The book calls for people to respond to this grave threat by forming DOCs, democracy organizing committees, in communities across the country to fight Big Money’s takeover and revive democracy in America.

Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America is a guidebook on how we can come together and achieve this goal. So, I’m hoping you will want to participate with me in helping to start a new American Revolution to put control of our country in the hands of we, the people.

Now that the Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Agreement has been made public some are saying it’s worse than they thought it would be. According to Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch: “From leaks, we knew quite a bit about the agreement, but in chapter after chapter the final text is worse than we expected with the demands of the 500 official U.S. trade advisers representing corporate interests satisfied to the detriment of the public interest.”

On issues ranging from climate change to food safety, from open Internet to access to medicines, the TPP “is a disaster,” declared Nick Dearden of Global Justice Now. “Now that we’ve seen the full text, it turns out the job-killing TPP is worse than anything we could’ve imagined,” added Charles Chamberlain, executive director of Democracy for America. “This agreement would push down wages, flood our nation with unsafe imported food, raise the price of life-saving medicine, all the while trading with countries where gays and single mothers can be stoned to death.” See http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/11/05/worse-we-thought-tpp-total-corporate-power-grab-nightmare.

All this from the president who promised us “change we can believe in.” Yet, once again, Big Money and corporate America are calling the shots in Washington to the great detriment of most people. But, we don’t have to stand for it. Contrary to Obama’s corporate giveaway scheme, the TPP agreement can be the motivational vehicle for change we can really believe in. The trade agreement provides a compelling organizing opportunity for the American people to rise up and break Big Money’s grip on our government.

As I suggest in my new book, Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America,we need to build a Democracy Movement by organizing thousands of DOCs (democracy organizing committees) in towns and cities across the country. Opposition to the TPP can be the force that brings us together, liberal and conservative, Republican and Democrat, Independent and Liberatarian, to form local DOCs. We can work together to take control of our country away from Big Money and put it in the hands of the people where it belongs. For more information about building a Democracy Movement and my new book, go to http://www.breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.

I saw Truth yesterday, the movie about the 60 Minutes report in 2004 that George W. Bush did not fullfill his National Guard commitment and actually went AWOL back in the early 1970s. The 60 Minutes report caused a big stir, which resulted in Dan Rather being forced to apologize on air and take early retirement. Mary Mapes, the producer of the show, was fired as were a number of others associated with putting that program together.

Whether one believes the allegations against Bush or not, I thought it was an excellent movie.  Cate Blanchett has a very good shot at a Best Actress oscar for her portrayal of Mary Mapes. The whole cast was quite good. And, the story is truly riveting.

There are too many aspects of the movie to go into all of them here. However, here’s just a few that really stood out. First, one gets an inside glimpse of the intensity of investigative reporting. Good investigative reporters take a lot of risks to uncover their stories and inform the public.

Second, the movie demonstrates how much the news can be and, in many instances, is compromised or worse. With the 2004 election looming, the 60 Minutes story threatened Bush’s re-election. According to the movie, a deal was made between Viacom, CBS’s parent company, and the Bush administration for CBS to recant the story and for Dan Rather to apologize on the air, since CBS News never 100% authenticated the documents that supported the allegations against Bush.

In fact, in doing some research on the incident, I found that some people believe that the documents were false and actually planted by Karl Rove, Bush’s primary political operator, to detract attention from the primary issues of what was Bush’s service record and did he fulfill his 6-year commitment.

Finally, the movie once again exposes the corruption of our political system. The Bush administration apparently did pressure Viacom to recant the story. Clearly, the Bush campaign had the ability to deny the CBS account of Bush’s National Guard record, and give its own version of what happened. But, it went much further than that in forcing Dan Rather to publicly apologize and take early retirement.

That rasies the question of whether we still have a free press in our country. When corporate America and our political leaders are so intertwined, we, the people, are the big losers. My book, Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America, addresses this issue and what we can do about it. The book will be available early next month.

Craig Barnes passed away yesterday. Craig was a tireless fighter for reviving democracy, in Santa Fe, in New Mexico and in our country. A retired attorney, international negotiator, playwright and author, Craig was the founder and leader of WeArePeopleHere!, http://www.wearepeoplehere.org, a Santa Fe grassroots organization that sponsored the Alliance for Democracy conference in 2012 and is now working to establish a public bank in Santa Fe. Craig also served on the national board of Common Cause.

While Craig wore many hats, he was always a compassionate and thoughtful man. Though soft-spoken, he made compelling arguments and gave inspiring talks, both on local radio and in-person, on a variety of important social issues. Craig was a highly respected member of the Santa Fe community. He was a good, supportive friend who will be fondly remembered and dearly missed by many, many people. My heart and prayers go out to his lovely wife, Makaela, and his family.

Here’s a link to a new Princeton study finding that our country is no longer a democracy, if it ever really was: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/princeton-experts-say-us-no-longer-democracy.  My book, Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America, also supports this finding.

Here’s another current example of Big Money’s grip on America which supports the finding that our country is not a democracy because it is run by the corporate elite:

Ordinary Americans have been given no voice in the new Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement. Most Congressional Republicans and some Democrats, including President Obama, support it, as does corporate America. Advocates claim the TPP will increase American exports, protect intellectual property rights, and level the playing field between American companies and their foreign competitors. While hundreds of corporate advisers helped craft the TPP, the general public has been shut out of the process and unable to evaluate it because Obama classified the negotiations and the document. Though members of Congress were allowed to read it, they were forbidden to talk about it with their constituents. Once again, corporate America is calling the shots in Washington.

When the TPP is finally made public, citizens may have only a brief period in which to convince Congress to reject it. Significantly, Congress cannot amend it since the “fast track” legislation it passed several months ago means that they can only vote the TPP up or down. Most congressional Democrats, led by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, as well as environmental organizations and labor unions, argue that the TPP increases income inequality, reduces American jobs, jacks up the cost of medicines, rolls back Wall Street reforms, and empowers corporations to attack environmental and health safeguards. And Hillary Clinton has finally decided she opposes it, even though as secretary of state she called it the gold standard of trade agreements.

Perhaps the most troubling problem with the TPP is that the agreement does not include China, and thereby sets up a power struggle between the United States and China over influence in the Far East. Instead of working with China for the common good, our corporate-controlled government has pushed China aside and forced it to set up a competing organization. Isolating a country and its people, whether it’s our neighbor Cuba or China, cannot lead to a positive outcome. We need to work together with those with whom we may disagree. If we continue down this path of isolating China, we could end up in armed conflict some day, which would be catastrophic for both countries.

This example, like the two in my last blog, demonstrates the necessity for breaking Big Money’s grip on our government before we suffer another national disaster. Moreover, until we break Big Money’s grip on our government it will continue to block our efforts to solve other crucial issues, like affordable healthcare, climate change, gun violence, homeland security, immigration reform, Social Security, and income inequality.

More to come on the TPP and related matters.

It’s been a few days since I’ve written here.  A main reason I hadn’t started a blog before now is I wasn’t sure I could write often enough to keep my readers’ engaged and interested.  So, I’m being tested on that now.  I’d sure like your feedback about the blog, as well as your just jumping into the discussion about how we can revive democracy and your willingness to be actively involved in a Democracy Movement.

So, you probably know that Congress voted last December to guarantee risky Wall Street ventures with taxpayers’ funds again, despite what those same bankers did in 2008 to crash America’s economy, causing millions of Americans to lose their homes and millions more to lose their jobs?

But, did you know that the $700 billion TARP bailout of Wall Street in 2008 was only the tip of the iceberg?  According to a study of all 35 Federal Reserve and Treasury Department programs, the actual bailout with our tax dollars was closer to $4.7 trillion.  Can you believe our representatives are backing Wall Street ventures again with our money?

Why would Congress support more Wall Street gambling after the crisis it caused in 2008? You know why? Because Wall Street bankers, corporate executives and K Street lobbyists give huge campaign donations to our Congressional representatives to have their legislative needs met. We have a political system where Big Money provides the bulk of the funds for our representatives’ election campaigns, and in return our representatives enact laws that favor Corporate America and Big Money at our expense. In plain language, it’s legalized bribery.

In addition, Big Money makes it so easy for Congress. Their lobbyists write the legislative sections they want and all our representatives have to do is insert those provisions into the bills. Citigroup, in conjunction with other big Wall Street banks, actually wrote the new section in the 2015 omnibus bill that restored taxpayer-backed funds for reckless Wall Street ventures like credit default swaps. While some lawmakers opposed the bill, Wall Street had its way with 162 Republicans and 57 Democrats voting for it in the House of Representatives. In the Senate, though 21 Democrats and 19 Republicans voted against the omnibus bill, the bill also passed. Even President Obama threw his weight behind the bill.

It makes me mad as hell!  How do you feel about it?  Isn’t it time we did something about it?