Enabling The Next Geological Age

For some time I have suspected my reading has been way too concentrated on science fiction and this has had a negative impact on my world vision.

For several years now a persistent thought echoes through my aching brain: the entire purpose of the human race on earth is to prepare its host planet for the next geological age.

I hope I am wrong.

As I witness the merciless, continuous depredations committed against my home, my planet's life support systems by the mindless, unaccountable, unmanageable, apparently indestructible multinational institutions that have gained control of it, I cannot but fear I am right.

Barach Obama was supposed to stem the tide. It appears to me that in the four years of his presidency, it has actually gained force, not lost it.

The United States of America has handed over its birthright lock, stock and barrel to multinational institutions. The disempowerment of its population is well underway.

The European Union is completely in thrall to the leviathan financial institutions that are bringing it to its knees.

If the earth's greatest hope lies in poisonous, Communist/Capitalist China, what hope is left? That somewhere out there in the vast universe some other life forms are faring better than we?

As for me. I surrender. I will continue to fight for survival for my loved ones as best I can. I might even still vote, but spinsters' phrases by political pundits, candidates, PACS are fantasies in which I no longer dare to believe.

It's all over now, Baby Blue

The recall of Governor Walker of Wisconsin, darling  of the Koch Brothers, poster boy of Citizens United and Scourge of Working  Stiffs everywhere, evidently failed. Early returns and a preemptive call by NBC have named Walker the winner in the recall election.

Robocalls to voters informing them they did not have to vote if they signed the recall petitions.

Robocalls to voters informing them the election was Wednesday, not Tuesday.

Eight to one funding and spending advantage, most of the funds from out of state.

And the state with the proudest progressive history in the country joins the chilling march toward corporatocracy.

If this is democracy, I am a rocket scientist. God help us all.

The People are Not Happy

It did not start on Wall Street, or in Madison, Wisconsin, in Libya, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Syria, Chile or London. It did not start with the Tea Party protests. It did not even start with the massive crowds Barack Obama attracted in the United States and around the world when he campaigned for the U. S. presidency on a platform of "change you can believe in."

For years the G-8 summits have been picketed and protested by large, committed groups of opponents to the Plutocracy that decides the economic fate of the globe.

When the U. S. declared war on Iraq, millions of protesters demonstrated in cities across the globe, including the U. S. itself. Of course the mainstream media downplayed or ignored them, so perhaps they did not really happen at all? I guess THEY were not part of the "coalition of the willing."

What is significant is that the unrest is increasing; the momentum is growing; the demonstrations are now stretching from India to Greece, from Chile to London, from New York City to Portland, Oregon.

Throughout history the rich and powerful have oppressed the poor and weak. And throughout history, when the pendulum swung too far in favor of the rich and powerful and the "small people" were ground down to the point where they had nothing left to lose, societies lost their glue and revolutions occurred.

Intelligent billionaires like Warren Buffet see the danger and attempt to avert it. But the mindless nature of most corporate empires precludes such perception. Our society has reached the tipping point. I do not believe we have yet crossed the point of no return. But the gathering storm no longer can be denied.

Barach Obama was elected because he offered the "hope" of "change." That change has eluded us. The man who received the Nobel Peace Prize and went on to wage ever greater wars, is not, perhaps, the vessel of change we thought we elected.  His administration has coddled the financial industry that mindlessly dropped us into economic disaster, insisted government must pick up the tab, and then, by successfully resisting all attempts of that same government to reform it, ended up more powerful than the governments (read Great Britain, Germany and France (i.e. the European Union) and the United States) that rescued it from disintegration in the vain hope that action would also rescue their economies (read FAIL to that!).

Make no mistake. The Old Regime will not "go quietly into that good night." It will adopt the measures of Syria and Libya. It will use the same subterfuge the Egyptian military did to foil the true advocates of change by sacrificing its figurehead. Non violent demonstrators will be corralled, beaten, maced and tear gassed. Predator drones, already used on innocent bystanders in foreign countries, will be deployed on native soil. Homeland Security will track down dangerously adept leaders and their naive supporters alike.

The best case scenario would be a pragmatic awakening in Washington. A coming together to solve our terribly urgent problems. Our leaders might already be too deeply in thrall to their corporate overlords to attempt this.

The creation of a viable third party might avert the inevitable meltdown of our democracy. But far too many roadblocks already are in place to make this outcome at all likely.

Tough times a coming.

Economic Dilemmas in Hard Times

My thoughts... .

1. Policymakers that put raising taxes off the table in deficit reduction negotiations are disingenuous about their agenda.

2. During tough economic times, those who are doing well need to pick up the slack to help those who are doing badly survive.

3. Defunding public education and laying off tens of thousands of teachers guarantees an unskilled underclass in a society.

4. A negative balance of payments of tens of billions of dollars a year renders budget balancing initiatives futile.

5. Unregulated corporations destroy democracy. Regulation is an indispensable component of free enterprise. Unregulated competition inevitably results in monopoly and oligopoly.

6. Private ownership of natural resources is dangerous to human welfare. Destruction of the environment to make a profit is criminal.

7. Contracts that harm the public good should be invalidated.

9. The same institutions that destroyed global economic stability now control the global economy. This is a BAD thing.

10. Corporations that are "too big to fail" need either to be broken up or nationalized.

11. Corporations are not citizens. They are NOT entitled to equal rights and MUST be subordinate to the public will. Any members of the Judiciary that rule otherwise have violated their oath of office and deserve impeachment.

FCC Chairman Baker's Big Move

Meredith Attwell Baker is "moving on up." Last winter as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), she signed off on Comcast's acquisition of NBC. This week it was announced she is leaving her regulatory post to become a lobbyist for Comcast.

The rewards for government regulators whose decisions please the top players in the industries they monitor can be sweet.

Comcast's acquisition of NBC means Comcast not only now controls cable access in given geographical areas, it produces a major slice of its content. The acquisition also opened the door wide to a new round of consolidation in an industry already controlled by a tiny handful of corporations.

Why should I care? you ask.

Because this tiny handful of companies - Newscorp, Time Warner, Disney, Viacom (CBS), NBC that is now Comcast - control most of the information you receive and control access to the sources of information.

What about the Internet? you ask.

Cable and telephone companies control access to the Internet, most of its content is filtered through companies like Microsoft, Google, AOL, Apple. Google now owns YouTube. Microsoft plans to buy Skype. AOL recently bought Huffington Post. Reddit's parent company is Conde Nast.

If a small business owner who lunches with a government official with whom he/she has a contractual relationship picks up the check, the businessperson might be accused of attempting to gain favor with that official. For a major corporation to hire a top government official who has just ruled in its favor has become "business as usual" not only in Washington, but in many state capitols.

One might conclude that our laws and regulations only apply to "the small people." You know - you and me.

Surprise - Corporations Win Again

While the media focused on preparations for the royal wedding in Great Britain and Donald Frump's birther brouhaha, corporations won a major victory against American citizens yesterday.

The U. S. Supreme Court ruled yesterday that corporations can use arbitration clauses to prevent consumers from banding together for class action lawsuits. According to the Los Angeles Times (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-court-class-action-20110428,0,4701430.story) the decision (5-4 along party lines) ruled that the Federal Arbitration Act of 1925 "trumps state laws and court rulings in California and about half the states that limit arbitration clauses deemed to be "unfair" to consumers."

Soooo, when your telephone company charges questionable fees, I guess you'll just have to grin and bear it. When your employer discriminates against you, even if it is part of corporate policy with widespread effects, if you signed an arbitration clause, you are on your own. The ruling said arbitration clauses must be enforced even if they are unfair.

This ruling comes at a time when conservatives in Congress are working to defund or eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and all regulatory agencies are under the gun.

So much for "government of the people, for the people and by the people."