Even educated historians would have a hard time making
the case
that presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush haven't been the most
destructive, villainous Americans this country has had to suffer. Now
that ring of infamy has been joined by Justice Scalia and Justice
Thomas is right on the door step. Not only did these 2 do their best to
elect GW Bush in 2000, now they have joined the majority in the
horrific Citizens United v FEC, "free speech" decision last week which
opens the door to corporate buying of all the congressmen and every
other elected public official in federal and state governments.
Supposed non-activists, these 2 reverse themselves when corporate
advantage is involved. The hell with what's best for the country.
Reagan nominated Scalia and daddy Bush nominated Thomas and sunny Bush
acted to surpass even Reagan as the worst American ever with the
nomination of Roberts and Alito, who proved their worth to the
corporate controllers with this latest, most egregious ruling. Along
with all the damage he has done and left for President Obama, Bush 43's
the legacy of Roberts and Alito may make him the all time most heinous
American when all is said and done.
And said and done the America dream of government of, by and for the
people is, or soon will be, if the infamous 5 on the court, which now
includes Justice Kennedy, are not thwarted in their attempts to turn
the U.S. into a certified plutocratic corpocracy. And before the issue
fades away and everyone adjusts to the new, denigrated reality,
something must be done to undo the court's damage. This year.
Keith Olberman, in a "Special Comment" on his MSNBC Countdown
show, recited a list of almost certain consequences resulting from
bought and paid for congressmen wholly representing big business
interests. They included more tax cuts for the rich and program cuts
for the disadvantaged (of course), driving unions out of business,
closing down all independent opinion outlets, WallMarting the country
and so forth. When our business interests are willing to employ
Haitians for 70 hour work weeks at a dollar an hour, you can imagine
how our work force will fare when the takeover is complete. Soma
(Brave, New World) distribution was not mentioned. Olberman admitted
that he might have gone too far, perhaps all legislation won't have to
run through the corporate gauntlet but he left the viewer with this
question: "Who will stop it?"
Certainly not major media. The 3 major network nightly news anchors
barely mentioned this most important decision. Perhaps that is because
ABC, CBS and NBC and station affiliates stand to make loads more in
advertising revenue. Curic, Sawyer and Williams stand indicted for not
warning us of the potential harm headed our way, instead they all
showed a dog being rescued from flood waters. No one mentions firing
the lot of them. The Sunday morning talk shows did bring up the issue
but only gave it second or third place priority.
Corporations are not, and never have been, people. That is obvious to
all sentient humans. They should never have been considered legal
people in the first place. This was the ideal opportunity to overturn
that questionable 1886 court decision. It would have involved less
judicial activism than overturning the precedents established since
then. It is time to start finding ways to impeach the infamous 5 before
they do more damage to the country. Think Dems have the courage to do
that?
America's dissolution just took a big step closer. Get ready for the
inundation of pointed, negative political advertising and remember that
a lie or distortion, repeated loud and long enough, will be believed.
Corporations have the money to do that, citizens, even political
parties, don't. Only congress stands in the way and Republicans, who
now can stop anything in the Senate, stand in the way of corruption
reform.
January 26, 2010
JBM
Knockoff
Tim Phillips
2005
This book is devoted to alerting the reader to a
growing world
wide crime wave in counterfeit goods. Phillips tells us about regions,
countries and organizations whose economies depend in large part on
swindling the public, from high end designer clothes and accessories to
computer software to illegal copies of music and movies to reprocessed
and substandard airline parts to fake prescription and recreational
drugs.
But the picture is complicated. Globalization means that trafficking in
counterfeits is easier than ever. Distribution and chains of
transactions which make tracing sources is more difficult. Anything
that can travel the Internet can be sent from and to almost anywhere in
the world. Bribing officials and police is just a cost of doing
business--and that cost is low in some places. Overpricing goods in the
still developing world invites counterfeiting.
The costs are high. From the public's cynicism that develops from being
frequently victimized to the discouraging aspect of invention and
development of a product to the increased dangers of traveling to the
suffering and premature deaths due to substandard or poisonous
medications to the gangster criminal offshoots and the funding of
terrorists, this lawlessness takes countless lives and increases untold
suffering.
We learn about "The Scene", an untraceable pyramid of operatives
(suppliers, crackers, testers and packagers) and servers which grab
pre-release prints of movies, music videos and computer games and
distribute them peer to peer over the Internet. Hackers and
distributors work for bragging rights. Digital technology means that
the copies are virtually, if not actually, perfect. The industries are
being devastated. Between 1/2 and 2/3s of the Internet is being devoted
to the knockoff economy.
Although Phillips goes into the counterfeiting going on in the
industrialized west, he also describes the situation in semi and
underdeveloped nations. Russia has it's own knockoff economy going, as
well as India and China. In the deprived nations he describes Nigeria
which is known for its criminality but he says that it is slowly but
surely policing its counterfeit economy.
Complications arise from Big Pharma which tries to lump generics (the
only affordable medications in the 3rd world) with counterfeits and
substandard drugs. The big drug companies don't want to prosecute the
perps because of the fear of bad publicity curtailing their sales.
Business cooperation is insufficient.
Four remedies need enhancement: governments the world over must respect
intellectual property more than they do and become more intolerant of
domestic and foreign fakes; international policing; stiffer penalties
for the big fish and a profound education of the consuming public
looking for a bargain. None of this is on the horizon.
The increasing tolerance of unethical behavior and outright criminality
should be a concern to all. The burgeoning field of counterfeiting is
undermining the intolerance that still remains. This book is easily
read and well laid out. It's contents should be present in the well
rounded mind.
09/April/2006
JBM
A new decade begins but a forecast 10 years out won't
be
presented here. As previously predicted, 2009 was a busy year, however,
little remediation was accomplished. Republicans coalesced to block or
hinder almost every initiative the Democrats proposed, health care
reform demonstrating the most outlandish recalcitrance .
But, as predicted, it was the underlying economy which was most
important. The financial sector bailout, which put off financial
collapse, got back of the hand treatment from the recipients. The
meager main street stimulus could not keep unemployment from reaching
double digits, albeit later than the summer expectation. Nothing
tangible was done about the environment and it is now clear that we
will always be chasing the curve of climate change; never heading it
off. In a Conservative, every-man-for-himself world, sacrifice for the
common good is perceptively foolish. If a health care bill passes, it
will be seen as little better than nothing, if not worse than that.
Nothing was done about congressional corruption so nothing efficacious
was really done about anything.
What would impact millions of Americans in their living rooms would be
the virtual collapse of over-the-air TV. The Leno experiment, according
to USA Today
at least, has been a flop. Fox is already demanding money from the
cable providers and Comcast has bought up NBC and will move better
programming to its cable outlets such as USA. More viewers will desert
ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox until a tipping point is reached. The question
then will be federal subsidies or the end of 1 or more "free" TV
channels and its newscasts. That is not likely to happen this year but
don't be surprised if more talk of such possibilities becomes common.
Two other economic factors are likely to become more visible. High end
commercial property, built to house well to do buyers and renters,
continues to stand empty and will remain so. The write downs are
inevitable but there will be a battle to unload the costs on others.
Along with housing foreclosures, this could push the economy downward
again. As also pointed out in the Jan/Feb The American Prospect,
our loss of America's manufacturing capabilities will hold up the
unemployment numbers as well as diminish industrial property values.
Export competitor nations will use every trick in the book to keep us
dependent on their goods and some, like China, don't have public
sentiment to worry about. Frustration will mount and if Dems just keep
playing defense, as they have done for so long, then look for
Republican gains in congress in the fall despite being the nihilistic
party of "NO". One can always be safe in predicting the masochistic
stupidity of the American voter, especially out of the urban centers.
And we are certainly overdue for a Muslim terrorist attack here. This
could usurp other debates and delay even inadequate attempts to
recover. Finger pointing will ubiquitous.
All in all, this will continue to be an interesting period, although
not a pleasant one. It looks like another caustic year.
January 1, 2010
JBM
Just How Stupid Are We?
Rick Shenkman
2008
Subtitled "Facing the Truth About the American Voter",
Shankman
dares to take on the myth that we are competent citizens. Calling us
"The People" he explores why neither the right or the left is willing
to tell us the truth, how dumbing us down serves their purposes. He
goes into U.S. history, back to the founding fathers and their
anxieties about self government.
As our society has grown increasingly complex in the last half century
and the population less aware due to inadequate schooling and media
coverage, as well as entertainment distractions, more reliance on
public opinion, however underinformed, has shaped our politics. Polling
is more extensive than ever. Primaries weed out more thoughtful
candidates. More initiatives and referendums are offered for public
decision. More of the underinformed are allowed to vote in the name of
democracy. This combination is driving the country and other parts of
the world to decline and decay due to the poor choices we are making.
Image and trust substitute for the work of understanding who the
candidates really are and what they stand for.
Commercial TV comes in for much of the blame. This is particularly true
when it comes to properly informing the voter near election time. Ever
shorter commercial spots overwhelm the casual viewer but in depth,
incisive interviews are relegated to Sunday mornings at best. As Leslie
Stahl famously found out during the Reagan administration, pictures far
out weigh substance.
Denial provides comfort for the under informed even if they are
intelligent. Myths are more enticing than pragmatic investigation. And
so we collude to look the other way, or not at all. Many are easily
duped; for instance all Republicans who don't gain from the plutocratic
tendencies of the party leadership, let alone its immoralities. Our
real needs remain unaddressed.
Shenkman's remedies involve making polls more informative and less
distortive, reforming media "public service", teaching civics all
through school even if it means subsidizing the classes and increasing
newspaper subscriptions with subsidies. The last deserves a quick
public debate as papers are declining and disappearing
fast.
This is a short (183 pages), 5"x 8" book written at high
school
level. If it blows up the myth of the competent citizen it will have
served a very valuable purpose, for we first have to recognize the
problem before we will do anything about it.
April 2, 2009
JBM
reaction and response: E-mail JB Masters at: jzkingjz@coosnet.com
The Future of Capitalism by
Lester Thurow
Peoples History of the United States by
Howard Zinn
Rich Media, Poor Democracy by
Robert McChesney
Bowling Alone by Robert
D. Putnam
Primal Scream and other works by
Author Janov PhD.
Who Will Tell the People and Secrets of the
Temple
by William Greider
America: What Went Wrong and
America: Who Really Pays the Taxes by Bartlett
and
Steele
The Overworked American by Juliet Schor
The End of Work by Jeremy
Rifkin
Ingenuity by Thomas
Homer-Dixon
The World Is Flat by
Thomas
Freidman
The Big Con by Jonathan
Chait
Deer Hunting With Jesus by Joe
Bageant
ACKNOWLEDGMENT: This Web page would not have been possible
without the generous technical help from Bruce Moon. He
unexpectedly
died on 5/Jan/1997. This page has continued with the help of
others.
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