I **LOVE** this!!! We need more Democrats like this! Representative Anthony Weiner (from New York) tells it exactly like it is. And the House tries to say that he’s being offensive. It’s such a shame that telling the truth is deemed “offensive” by the House. Ugh.
So, let me get this straight… you hate paying taxes and you want to privatize everything? You want schools, police and fire privatized? And you want your healthcare to remain private, too?
Okay….Here’s what you’ll get from a government office – and won’t get from a corporation:
Under the Consitution…
I’m not against corporations. I’m just against replacing governments with corporations. I don’t believe we should be allowing corporations to write laws that benefit them at our expense – like the kind of legislation that created Medicare Part D. I don’t believe in allowing oil companies to donate huge amounts of money to lawmakers or to pay for high-priced lobbyists who are only interested in helping corporations gain more power (i.e. by obeying fewer regulations).
We are at the mercy of the corporation — an entity that only once existed for the benefit of stockholders, investors, and people who wanted to gain greater tax benefits. Now, there is absolutely nothing that is sacred anymore. Not even our constitution or our government.
Please be wary when you hear anyone talk about getting rid of “big government” by “privatizing” it with big corporations. It might sound glitzy and secure. But it has proven to be nothing less than our worst nightmare.
To put it simply, it’s really about the business and profits of putting people in jail.
In China, it is against the law to move without the government’s prior written permission – which is almost impossible to get, if you’re even lucky enough to get a response at all. If you leave your house for more than x-number of days, you need to have permission.
What does this all mean? I suppose it should either mean you can’t travel — or you must always worry about getting thrown in jail when you “break the law” for leaving your home for too long.
What this actually really boils down to is, you can basically be thrown in jail for literally doing nothing wrong. If you piss the wrong people off (by saying the wrong thing, reading the wrong things, etc), you will more than likely go to jail, because anyone in China can be found guilty of this one particular law. A law that forces people to leave their villages to big cities to find work – which means they have to break the law or starve to death while trying to support a family.
It’s crazy and very sad. But, it’s also extremely profitable for the very few who build jails.
As crazy as that sounds, our own government has a very similar set of laws here in our own country — the three strikes law. Someone who commits three non-violent felonies – like possession of an illegal substance (which can be as minor as medicinal marijuana), driving under the influence (which can often include pharmaceuticals), and even being drunk or under the influence in a public space. In California, it is simply that common to have such offenses lead up to a minimum 25-year-to-life sentence.
This is completely unfair, and it is sold to the public as a way to keep criminals off the streets. No one is against ridding crime. But it is never a problem to get convicted rapists and murderers lifetime sentences. It might be complicated, but it certainly never leads to the guilty walking away free.
So why the excessive need for such legislation??
The whole notion of three strikes legislation was begun by the prison industry as a way to insure their industry could be bankrolled by the federal government with lucrative building contracts. A good example of a few such companies are Wackenhut Corrections and Master Enterprises Inc, private builders of federal prisons.
We’re all in favor of locking up criminals. But at what cost will it be to our whole society when you lock up people for non-violent offenses?
There are tons of non-violent offenders out there who are almost immune from ever seeing the inside of a jail.
For example, there are CEO’s out there putting dangerous products in our marketplace – but not a single one will ever see the inside of a jail because of it (limited liability laws for corporations) and bankers out there abusing usury laws (skyrocketing interest rates for small loans and credit cards), and of course, healthcare companies letting mothers die because they had the audacity to have acne as a kid and can’t get coverage for chemo treatment or medicine – because they can call acne a “pre-existing condition”. And by the way, that’s exactly how insurance companies get richer – by denying coverage while charging you a very high premium and deductible. Here is an example of a website that describes, in detail, “bad faith” insurance issues (insurance companies who often rip off clients for flimsy reasons).
But to lock up people for life because of three minor offenses? That’s just nuts – and it costs taxpayers too much money, while making jail-builders too much profit.
Republicans love to say that Democrats are weak on crime and terrorism. The truth is, Democrats are in love with obeying the law and protecting and enforcing it. They are, in essence, nerds who love to master their knowledge of the law. Republicans aren’t in love with that part of the law, but instead are in love with finding ways to profit off of it. The War on Terror, just like the War on Drugs, has bankrupted this country, morally and financially. But, hey, at least we got ourselves into a couple of expensive wars which have made some very prolific warmongers (the military industrial complex) very, very rich.
And that is exactly how you make crime into a business…or rather, the crime of “crime profiteering”. (You become motivated in putting as many people in jail as possible, so you can call your ideas “a success”)
CEO’s are treated like rock-stars. Today, your power as a CEO for a giant corporation is almost limitless. And if you run for office, you’re given even more unlimited power over every American life. You’re not just an executive in charge of millions of employees – You’re an executive with almost limitless amounts of power. And if you hate the whole notion of paying taxes or obeying the law – well then, government life just got a whole lot sweeter.
Back during the mafia’s glory days of Capone and such, large cities like New York, Chicago, and even Los Angeles, were completely at the mercy of what mob bosses wanted from them. If you tried to stand up to them, you were “taken out” – with a strong message to others who might try to do the same. It was back during the roaring 20′s, right up until the Great Depression.
Big Oil, Big Pharma and Health Care, have strangled every branch of government by taking away it’s power to govern or go after them. A government that is extremely neutered like ours insures that mafia-ish corporations can operate with as much illegal behavior as possible. They can literally do whatever they want to whoever they want. I really should include “Big Media”, also. It’s a fourth branch of government and it’s all owned by large corporations – foreign and domestic.
And quite literally, they can charge whatever they want – like unreasonably high gas prices, health insurance premiums, sky high prices for life-saving drugs and medication, etc.
They can control what is said about them – they can remove people who talk too much. In the old days, you were simply killed or thrown into the ocean or river. These days, it’s a little more subtle, yet effective. Corporations can retaliate against whistle-blowers and force people to stay-silent about problems and corruption. With this kind of guaranteed government-assisted protection, they can lie and steal from anyone they want. And, again, it’s all done under the protection of our own government.
Think this sounds crazy?
Recently, Al Franken tried to push through legislation to make it legal for an employee who had been raped by it’s employer to sue in federal court. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? I mean, any normal person should be able to go to the feds and talk about illegal behavior by their bosses, right? So you shouldn’t need to get special permission to sue your boss for rape, right? Well, actually, no. Most of the time, you have to agree to have it done in arbitration – i.e. a hired judge. More than likely, a judge that has a nice long record of siding with your bosses. The kind of judge that wants to put away whiney, greedy employees with an axe to grind. Oh, and if your boss is KBR/Halliburton – and you want to speak out against them for criminal behavior, they can pretty much retaliate against you any way they want. Even if it means you getting raped by them.
How do these guys do it? How do these guys literally get away with so much crime???
Well, it’s no secret. For starters, they don’t want any – ANY – kind of regulation over them (i.e. police over their them), regardless of their criminal history. We even let them have giant billion dollar government contracts, regardless of their personal connections to anyone in office.
It’s actually kind of funny…or ironic…when you think about it.
They like to say that the big, bad scary government is trying invade the marketplace and that we should simply leave them alone. But instead, it’s actually the opposite that is happening. It’s the corporations who are invading government – and all they have to do is yell “rape”…or rather “socialism” and every one shuts up to protect them.
In the old days, people were thrown out of office if they were caught providing special favors, like contracts to businesses. It was like a political bribe or special favors and promises. Today, they’re all considered legal, in many ways. Large donations, fundraisers, no-bid contracts, etc. We even let them write legislation – actual laws – that will give them all the power and protection they seek.
And it’s all done without any complaints from the public. Well, actually, there would be lots of complaints – or actual riots and angry protests, complete with burning cars and broken glass.
But it’s really hard to get mad about any of that when the mainstream media – also owned by huge corporations – won’t tell you about any of it.
And we are basically stuck with a corporatocracy.
A corporatocracy or corpocracy is a form of government where corporations, conglomerates or government entities with private components, control the direction and governance of a country. This is sometimes considered to be a form of fascism.
And that’s how you end up with today’s mafia running (and ruining) your life.
Obama – and the voters – thought McCain’s idea of an across-the-board spending freeze was a disastrous idea. Just like Bush’s tax cuts, which only benefited the wealthiest, while hurting the middle class and the poor. It was akin to a business giving mega-huge rebates to 1% of it’s biggest customers, while jacking up prices for 99% of the remainder of it’s clients. Domestic spending cuts means 99% of Americans will suffer with slashed government programs and services – while making sure the top 1% (in this case, the Pentagon and wasteful, corrupt, criminal and crony defense contractors) all get the green light to continue sucking off the taxpayers.
Oh, but wait, they’re “keeping America safe” – so I shouldn’t be so critical of them, should I?
Never mind the fact that no one has been fired for the lousy job they’ve been doing at keeping airlines safe, terrorists out, or allowing sleaze-ball fame-hungry reality-show-wannabe’s from getting into the White House.
It’s insane.
Republicans love tax cuts and spending freezes because they simply have no idea how to run a government. It’s like running a business but hating customers, hating employees, hating bills, and hating hard work. But gosh darn it, ya just love handling cold, hard cash. So you continue to run a business, even when you’re bad at it. That’s what Republicans are. Greedy, corrupt business men who hate playing by the rules, but love it when they’ve got a scam that gets them rich fast and keeps them from getting caught.
And – to top it all off – they have complete ownership of 99% of all media outlets – which means that they can fire anyone who tries to report on their corruption. And, they can trash talk Democrats who try to investigate them – and praise weak Dems who collapse like a wet suit when bad ideas can be spun into good-sounding ones (Lieberman comes to mind right away).
Obama, please don’t manage the government like a Republican when you promised to change the way Washington would be run. You promised accountability and transparency. But instead of going after illegal behavior or incompetence, you think it’s simply enough if you simply say, “I made a mistake” or “I take full responsibility”. This isn’t accountability – this is protection for those who didn’t do their job. You’re supposed to fire people – not lie for them. If it were me who failed to do my job at work, I certainly wouldn’t expect someone else to cover me. I’d expect to be talked to about it – and I certainly wouldn’t want my boss to say he is holding himself accountable when he didn’t even hold me accountable to begin with.
Two hours ago, five conservative Supreme Court Justices ruled that corporations have the same rights as people.
This is probably the worst thing to have happen to our sacred rights as citizens since George W. Bush peed all over the constitution with his Patriot Act crap and his removal of the Magna Carta from our system of law.
Actually, this is worse.
Multinational Corporations are now the same as people. They can now sue you the same way a person can. They can now run for office. They can now be a voice in our democracy. Corporations that aren’t even based in this country now have the same rights as you and I. Actually, they have more. They live forever – humans don’t. We go to jail if we break the law. They don’t – Corporations have tons of immunity.
Corporations don’t live in houses, make babies, have kids to raise or worry about how they are going to feed themselves or their kids when money is low. In fact, they are usually the reason why we end up having to worry about things like paychecks and maintaining our standard of living.
Michael Moore tried to warn us with his movie about our love affair with Wall Street. But most Americans still don’t get it. And understandably, they probably won’t for a very long time.
I know – because I used to have my own kind of love affair with the notion of working and succeeding within a corporate structure. Right out of high school, I went to a trade school to become a legal/executive secretary. Since 1984, I worked as a temp for some of the biggest and baddest corporations out there – I dreamed of making it big, taking home the same kind of gigantic paychecks they did. But as the years went by, I saw what they really were all about. I finally learned that while there are humans who work there, the people who run them are not. They are entities that are immune from laws that they break. Okay, sometimes they get “caught” breaking the law, and have to pay us humans for damages. But please know that corporations fight very hard to keep from getting caught from breaking the laws. Lawyers are like vitamins – they keep corporate criminals healthy and free – out of jails and out of the news (especially since they own them, too).
I just don’t know what else to say.
But I’ll bet you’re wondering why no one is saying this on the news. News organizations are owned by giant multinational corporations which care only about public relations and advertising, which protects their profits, because it keeps the general public in the dark about who they really are.
Imagine yourself as a huge multinational corporation. Let’s say you’re in the business of selling health insurance or pharmaceutical drugs. Now let’s imagine your corporation has having recently been discovered as making huge donations to a number of elected officials, lawmakers, judges (yes, you can do this, too), and anyone else you’d need to keep you out of jail for all the lies you told – I mean, all the unsafe products you’ve put out on the market.
Imagine how worried you’d be as a giant drug company who has been selling drugs that don’t work at all – but you’ve managed to fool people into buying them. In a world where the laws protected consumers, you would be worried about consumer groups coming after you. You’d be worried about news stories exposing your harmful products. You’d be worried about negative feedback by consumers and complaints by families of loved ones who’ve died from your faulty products.
Well, under this new law, and the previous administration’s generous heap of protection on corporations (that’s why Bush installed the last two judges – they are VERY corporate-friendly), you’d have every right to retaliate against – i.e. sue anyone – who spoke out against your product (even if it was true), you can hire judges (the technical process is called an arbitration – but corporations call it judges-for-hire), and you can sue for lost profits and can even prevent news organizations from saying one damned thing about it.
Because, afterall, corporations are just like you and me.
This weekend, my local candidate for City Council Member, called me back after I left a message asking a question about his flier/advertisement.
He stated in his conversation with me that he believed a government should be run like a business. I said, “No – No, it shouldn’t be. It should be run like a household – You pay your bills and balance your books. You spend wisely and put your savings into the bank for a future rainy day.” Suddenly, he agreed – unexpectedly to my surprise. I asked, “then what do you mean when you say ‘You should run your government like a business” – He said “You shouldn’t be trying to please your friends instead of trying please your voters”.
I think he accidentally tried to use something that is popular with voters – but actually meant the opposite of what he meant – which was actually a relief to my ears.
We agreed – Don’t try and appease your donors – Appease your voters, instead.
I’m still wondering if he truly meant what he said – or if he was simply trying to twist my arm. He’s a politician, after all. I was just happy enough that responded to my call.
Still – I’m here to say: DON’T RUN A GOVERNMENT LIKE A BUSINESS. A BUSINESS IS RUN FOR PROFIT – A GOVERNMENT IS RUN TO KEEP A CITY RUNNING. TAXES MAKE THE CITY RUN. PROFITS MAKE A BUSINESS RUN.
