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Mammon America

Born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1918, 'Charles Birch started out as an agricultural scientist, switched to biology and ecology and soon confronted questions that were to occupy him for the rest of his life: where humankind was really going, preoccupied as it was with its its eternal conflicts and relentless pursuit of wealth. The world could not sustain this forever and he believed progress could only be made when spiritual values were married to the empirical world he probed as a scientist.' The Sydney Morning Herald, 23 December, 2009.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/a-man-of-science-and-religion-20091222-lbpx.html 

In 1976, Charles Birch said, 'Lip service is given to noble ideals, but in fact what is mainly served is mammon.' So it is in America, where the words 'In God We Trust' inscribed on the coinage struck President Teddy Roosevelt as a vulgar mingling of God and Mammon. (Mammon derives from the Aramaic for riches and is a personification of riches as an evil spirit or deity.) Roosevelt 'ordered the phrase removed from newly designed gold coins in 1907. A public outcry forced Congress to backtrack.'

While there have been numerous concerns that the reference to God should be removed in the interest of preserving the separation between church and state, in 1983 retired Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, wrote that 'slogans such as "In God We Trust" have "lost any true religious significance." '

And besides, it is very clear that the God that America trusts in is Money.  

TIME, How 'In God We Trust' Got on the Currency in the First Place

https://time.com/4179685/in-god-we-trust-currency-history/

Donald Trump Jr signed on at the investment firm, 1789 Capital in November 2024. The idea for 1789 (named after the year the Bill of Rights was introduced) came from a 2022 Palm Beach gathering of the Rockbridge Network, the secretive group of wealthy technology executives and allies that has become a major force within the Republican Party's donor class. They were discussing government overreach and how to use the financial industry to 'preserve freedom' — certain that they represented the silent majority. 

Trump Jr's role in 1789 has been as a MAGA magnet sourcing deals and investments for the firm from among America First bona fides. 

One recent investment being in the Enhanced Games, a start-up looking to host an Olympic-style competition in which athletes are allowed to take performance-enhancing drugs.

Trump Jr says that the firm 'genuinely believe(s) in the parallel economy.' Omeed Malik, one of the founders, happy to invest in weapons, e.g. GrabAGun, an online firearms dealer, and fossil fuel-related companies,  likens the potential of MAGA-style investing to the boom in environmental, social and governance of the 'woke' liberal agenda, derided as threatening to American capitalism.

There are other firms also engaged in getting into MAGA business, backing companies that 'support the national interest'. 8VC, the firm of Joe Lonsdale, Silicon Valley investor, Trump supporter and friend of Musk, states on its website that American ideals 'are worth striving for'.

 

But do ideals exist anymore in America? 

 

Trump Jr's plan to monetise MAGA, Gillian Tan, Katherine Burton, Bloomberg.

https://edition.theage.com.au/shortcode/THE965/edition/9cb07dad-e5d8-ddfa-4f18-5a7258fec962?page=dd062922-7fcd-e197-b4db-3d0be893c2aa


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