Category Archives: Advocacy

Democratic Debate in New Hampshire

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The mariner is pleased with the debate between Bernie and Hillary. For the first time in any 2016 presidential debate, republican or democrat, the voter was given a clear view of the personality and talents each candidate will bring to the office of President in 2016.

The heart of each candidate, that is, their desire to deliver to the electorate what is most needed by that electorate, is identical. Both are champions of human need, economic reform, and what’s best for the forgotten majority.

For the first time, the agenda of each candidate became clear. Bernie intends to fix the systemic issues that have led to oligarchy. Banks, Corporations, tax reform, bribery and collusion in the election process, and a plan to attack gerrymandering, are at the top of Bernie’s list. By fixing the political abuses, proper legislation and discretionary funding will right themselves and deliver programs to the people. However, Bernie will be prone to compromise when it comes to program specifics.

Hillary intends to develop programs first. She will attack current legislation that defeats the spirit of discretionary funding. Hillary will prioritize human rights, expand education funding, and reduce medical costs – but not through single payer. By fixing specific programs, the Ship of State trims its sails more in line with public interest. However, Hillary will be prone to compromise when it comes to fixing the oligarchy.

If the voter is interested in the programs of government, then Hillary sounds more appealing. If the voter is interested in the policies of governance, then Bernie sounds more appealing. The mariner is reminded of one of his father’s pop psychology tools: Bernie is a why-how person while Hillary is a how-what person1. That being the case, there are far more how-what folks in the population than why-how. For no other reason than the difference between their personalities, Hillary may fare better once the primaries leave liberal states and head into the prairie.

On such subliminal attributes, political success rises and falls.

REFERENCE SECTION

1For more detail on Pop’s Psychology, see post from December 21, 2015.

The Congress has ninety days to vote for or against a fast track of the TPP trade agreement. Mariner is firmly opposed to fast track and prefers that the TPP be examined by Congress – that’s as close as citizen review is possible. Note that the majority of presidential candidates, including both democrats, are opposed to the trade agreement. For a good, clear, and easy read about the TPP, see:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/12/business/unpacking-the-trans-pacific-partnership-trade-deal.html?_r=0

President Obama is in favor of the TPP because, in his opinion, the TPP makes the United States a central player in future Asian economics, dampening the future influence of China. All well and good – but at what price to the common citizen? Corporations will have unfettered control of profits, taxes, human rights, and the future wellbeing of nine nations.

Ancient Mariner

 

At the Caucus

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About 100 folks attended the Democratic Caucus in mariner’s home town. Two attendees stood in Martin O’Malley’s corner – mariner and his wife. It was only a few moments before we were asked to move to the ‘undecided’ table because Martin did not have enough votes to meet the minimum 15% required to be a sustainable candidate.

But we weren’t undecided. No matter, we had to abandon our candidate and choose another one. The Iowa Democratic Caucus, unlike the town republicans, and for that matter, the rest of the caucuses and primaries across the nation, has the right to deny one’s vote as valid. Clearly, this winnowing procedure is designed to glean “probable” winners from others who, at the first caucus, have yet to generate sufficient interest from the voters.

The mariner respects the interaction and debate fostered by the Iowa caucus process. Further, the caucus forces big-time candidates to meet local voters face to face, eat barbecued chicken, let the voters touch them and ask questions no politician will answer directly. In too many jurisdictions around the United States, the primary process is sterile, mechanical and allows no moment for the voter to see or listen to a real-life candidate.

The mariner has concern that the very first ‘democratic’ primary in the national election process tosses out legitimate candidates any of which may become a dark horse later in the season. He especially is concerned that the democratic party has the right to coerce a voter to cancel their preferred vote and select another candidate – shades of Boss Tweed! True, one could be obstinate and refuse to change their vote but one foregoes representation in the caucus process.

Despite the romantic grandeur cast over Iowa’s unique primary process, the process is outdated. For months ahead, sophomoric news media derails any legitimate attempt to compare candidates on a level playing field. Consider the dominance of Donald on news broadcasts, gleaning more than 100 minutes of free air time compared to virtually none for any of a half-dozen legitimate politicians. Further, so much money is available to candidates that they can continue to campaign despite their irrelevance. Consider Jeb – then consider O’Malley who had to suspend his campaign with only $175,000 left in campaign funds. Yet, Jeb has spent and still has coffers that will carry him to the Convention with half the voter percentage that O’Malley has.

Seasoned attendees to the Iowa Caucus have stories to tell about the dissolution of friendships because open debate among voters is allowed and, if nothing else, one can see who chose which candidate. Even at this caucus, the mariner must patch the hard feelings of a good friend because he did not stand for the appropriate candidate.

All things considered, mariner is most troubled that one person, one vote does not prevail. What makes the Iowa democratic party any different than race discrimination in Alabama and Mississippi? They, too, prevent one from having one’s voice heard at the ballot box; those states just do it differently.

Ancient Mariner

Signs of Citizen Rebellion

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The mariner is challenged about the dark side of plutocracy suggesting that the citizen and labor rebellions described in history do not exist today – a challenge that has merit. First, Mariner wrote a recent post that said watching culture change was too slow, unfocused, and too broad to watch closely. What everyone notices, however, are incidents that seem unusual; incidents are signs of cultural shift but one must step back to measure broad circumstances, that is, to observe cultural shift.

Second, here using extremes to demonstrate differences, the wave of bankruptcy that occurred in Massachusetts in 1786 was caused by the same manipulation of mortgages that caused the recession in 2008. Yet, times were greatly different in a cultural sense. One doesn’t have to grab the shotgun in the corner and march down to the bank offices and blow the door off or threaten the courts with physical harm if they didn’t clear the docket and get out – though this older behavior seems more gratifying. Note that the age of one corner, one gun has returned; is that an indicator of dissatisfaction with government, concern with exposure to physical harm and mistrust on a grand scale? Today, is this is a form of rebellion framed in a more mature culture with millions of citizens?

Continuing in today’s “mature” culture, has society allowed law enforcement to deal with the underclass just as the sheriffs in 1920 that shot first and shot again to keep dissidents in line? Has one noticed the relative innocence of the victims and the number of bullets used in today’s shootings? Were the riots in Ferguson and Baltimore not a replication of labor riots in 1920?

Is denying a share of the “company’s” profits to the workers who were virtual slaves in 1885 the same as denying worker raises in line with inflation and productivity since 1980 – yet raising prices at what constitutes modern Company stores so much that the husband and the wife have to work?

Today, using collusion between government and corporations permits blatant destruction of unions by using the “right to work” law. (This is bordering on short-fuse behavior in some industries)

Has one noticed, in a more mature culture, that the “Company” (corporations) has the same resistance to regulations and imposed responsibility for citizens?

Has one noticed the war-mongering bully who leads the republican party in the 2016 Presidential campaign? His followers certainly are in a rebellious mood – particularly toward a do nothing government fully owned by corporations.

Has one noticed the history-making difference between fat cat wealth and flaunted waste compared to public wages that oppress sharing success with the disappearing middle class? Does one remember the “Occupy” movement that protested abuses in Wall Street? Mariner suspects that when the middle class becomes sufficiently abused, there will be more outbreaks over the cost of living and the loss of a great democratic dream.

The mariner makes the case that we live in different times than we did 100 years ago. Still, even in today’s litigious culture, the issues are simmering and rebellion grows more and more obvious.

A lot hangs on changes in Congress, state legislators, Governors and especially who the next President will be.

REFERENCE SECTION

Regarding the puzzle from the previous post: The question was posited “How was the conman able to correctly project whether stocks would go up or down ten weeks in a row?”

The conman started with a large mailing list, perhaps 1,500 recipients. To one half he sent a flyer saying the price would go down; to the other half he sent a flyer saying the price would go up. The next day, he discarded the half that was wrong; to the half that was right, a week later he repeated the process with half saying “up” and half saying “down.” Again, the next day he discarded the half that was wrong; a week later, he divided the correct remainder in half sending half with an “up” prediction, the other half a prediction that was “down.” This continued for ten weeks. Eventually, a mark would respond willing to make a large investment through the broker – an amount that never reaches the stock market because the conman absconds with the cash. From How Not to Be Wrong: the Power of Mathematical Thinking, by Jordon Ellenberger.

Ancient Mariner.

Plutocracy – The Dark Side

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The mariner used the word ‘plutocracy’ recently and realized it was an empty word but growing in importance. 99.9% of US citizens have not witnessed an armed workers rebellion since the coal miner’s rebellion near the turn of the twentieth century; who has memories of Warren G. Harding? If, in the next two to three years, we experience another deep recession or the travesty Ron Paul predicts in his commercials, we citizens may suffer hardship in large enough numbers to take on the police, the National Guard, the hired thugs called ‘detectives’ and the property of the corporate bosses who hired the thugs. That’s how bad the coal miner rebellion was – and there have been similar confrontations in the twentieth century.

This is not just a phenomenon of America’s recent past. Plutocracy was around in 1786 resulting in Shay’s rebellion.

US history books recount the colonial years with events that follow a narrow gauge track describing the wonderful advances in government, politics, and business. But day-to-day life was hell. None of the working class or laborers had any protections that exist today. Working class jobs had no required wage, no safety requirements, no health requirements, no limits on hours, and no limits on hiring the youngest child at the least expensive wage. Further, many businesses, especially isolated ones like coal and lumber companies, had a ‘company store’ which employees were required to use to buy groceries and supplies. This unfair game of very low wages and very high prices meant that no employee had money of consequence and eventually was deep in debt to the store. As Ernie Ford sang in ‘Sixteen Tons’ in 1955:

You load sixteen tons, what do you get?

Another day older and deeper in debt.

Saint Peter, don’t you call me, ’cause I can’t go;

I owe my soul to the company store…

A pleasant song sung by a nice person – all clean and neat in his string tie. The real life experience could not have been more oppressive. Business, politics, and law enforcement worked together to contain worker resistance. Troublemakers often were gunned down in the middle of the street. Employees received little cash because they had their Company Store bill taken out first. They owned no property because they were required to live in very cheap business-owned housing. The truth of the matter is they were slaves – not an iota’s difference.

The real history of citizens is not recorded in history books. The next paragraph is a quote from http://www.alternet.org/ Alternet.org is a website that posts liberal and progressive articles. The author is writing about today.

“The sedimentary nature of power fears the chaos of protest. What the plutocrats know as stability, the middle class knows as convenience. Struggle is unstable and inconvenient. It pushes here and there, seeking ruptures in the fabric of the present. Success is not guaranteed. What is clear, however, is that the time of the present, of the possible, has become irrelevant to millions of people. They are seeking the time of the future.”

What brought the mariner to this subject was the feeling that the word plutocracy (the rich control society) did not have the meaningful clout that it should have. The more he pondered why the word seemed out of sort, the more he realized that society in twenty-first century USA is a full-blown plutocracy in every respect – and it carries the same threat of rebellion.

When he watched a new film called Plutocracy: Political Repression in the USA, mariner made note of how identical today’s oligarchy is to the class conflict during terrible rebellions in the past. Worker rebellions occurred under conditions exactly like the conditions that exist today. In fact, a housing bankruptcy occurred in 1786 in Massachusetts just like the one that brought down the US economy in 2008. Having relatively no rights, citizens back then were on their own to push back. Carrying arms, the citizens forced the banks and courthouses to close. This rebellion is in the film. The film tells the story of the workers; something seldom seen in history books. It is a free download at:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/skt261c6c2ebmnd/Plutocracy-%20Political%20Repression%20In%20The%20U.S.A..mp4?dl=0

Mariner recommends that you download the film to your computer. It is free. Some may have noticed that the situation is such that the US has a poor man’s army; best trained but virtually all working class folk. Richer people don’t worry about their children going off to die in a useless war. Remember George W. Bush and his assignment to a flight squadron that never was called up? In fact, George didn’t report for a year. This situation is a classic example of plutocracy. One wonders if the US actually would have had these wars if the upper classes had to fight in them.

Another example is the continuous pressure by powerful people to eliminate government services that protect the common citizen. For example, The Environmental Protection Agency, The Atomic Energy Commission, anything proposed by Senator Elizabeth Warren to protect citizens from banking abuse, the Security Exchange Commission, The Federal Department of Agriculture, The Federal Aviation Administration, Affordable Care Act, Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, Unemployment Insurance and Social Security. All these agencies impose regulations in behalf of public interest – and they are openly opposed by business and financial firms because they add overhead, reduce profits, and require concern for human lives – a throwaway that is easily replaced.

These behaviors are plutocracy in action. Add to this behavior salary oppression and disappearing benefits since 1968 and it feels very much like 1786 or 1920. Clearly, the voter’s future is in the hands of plutocrats.

One solution not requiring armed rebellion is to take back the government from control by the plutocrats. First is to wrest the election process from the plutocrats. Do that by requiring political campaigns to go on a diet. Remove redistricting from political control; institute term limits to anyone reaching age 70 in their next term (this ensures a more understanding official that at least can relate to changes in the nation’s gestalt); limit fund raising to the local area of representation; rewrite a fair taxing system that uses excess profit to fund a fair USA.

The mariner feels that dealing with the crooked election scheme is the first step in moving policy control back to the voters who in the past represented this nation’s moral character, that is, reinstitute democracy as the mechanism that keeps our country in a leadership role for the entire planet. We may not even have to go to war.

REFERENCE SECTION

http://www.shaysrebellion.stcc.edu/shaysapp/scene.do?shortName=Petition

The new documentary ‘Plutocracy’ is a comprehensive and powerful study of America’s early working class made up of farmers, miners and industrial laborers from Shays’ Rebellion in 1786-87, through rapid industrialization and inequality in the post Civil War 19th century era of the Robber Barons to the intense labor struggles of the 1920s.

A new book is out about common sense mathematics: How Not to Be Wrong: the Power of Mathematical Thinking, by Jordon Ellenberger. It is a nice companion to Nate Silver’s The Signal and the Noise. Here is a conundrum from Ellenberger’s book:

A person receives a flyer from a stock broker. It says that a certain stock will go up tomorrow. Sure enough, the next day the stock goes up. A week later, the person receives another flyer from the broker. It says a certain stock will go down tomorrow. Sure enough, the next day the stock goes down. This scenario goes on for ten weeks. The broker never makes a mistake. Needless to say, the person is ready to entrust the broker with a large investment – but it is a con. How is the broker arranging always to be right?

The answer will be provided in the next post if you haven’t worked it out.

Ancient Mariner

Food and Water plus a bit more about Joseph Campbell

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A report from Food and Water Watch about the Omnibus Appropriations bill just passed by Congress:

Our policy staff just finished combing through the 2,000-page omnibus appropriations bill that Congress must pass this week to keep the government running, and here’s how some of the key issues that impact our food and water fared.

Let’s start with some good news:

1. We stopped the Monsanto rider that would prohibit states from labeling genetically engineered foods (a.k.a. the DARK act). After thousands of phone calls and letters from people like you, legislators didn’t include it in the appropriations bill.

2. An amendment to label genetically engineered salmon was included. We’ll still be working to stop the introduction of GMO salmon in our food system, but this is an important step.

3. The attempt to overturn our national parks’ ability to ban bottled water did not make it into the final bill. Thank you to all of our supporters who took action on this issue!

4. We kept important food safety measures in the final bill including banning the purchase of chicken processed in China in school lunches and limiting the beef imports that may have been exposed to foot and mouth disease.

Now the bad news:

1. The 40-year ban on exporting crude oil is being removed. This fossil fuel industry giveaway happened despite massive opposition from everyone involved in fighting climate change and working for a renewable energy future.

2. Mandatory Country of Origin labeling for beef and pork is being repealed despite massive consumer and farmer outcry about the importance of these labels for our everyday decision making. Unfortunately because these deals were made behind closed doors and Congress didn’t follow the normal appropriations process, our members of Congress will only get a single up or down vote on the entire 2,000-page bill that includes these and many other amendments that affect a whole range of issues. It’s likely that this bill will pass this week to avoid a government shutdown, but that doesn’t mean we’ll stop working to protect your food and water. – F&WW

The mariner would like to add that the bill includes full funding of health care for first responders to 9/11 – a bill championed by Jon Stewart.

While on the topic of sustaining quality food and water sources, in a recent post, the mariner recommended viewing the series Breakthrough on the National Geographic channel. The most recent episode covered some of the new methods for extracting fresh water from many sources. It is an excellent review of an issue that is worldwide and growing worse as fresh water becomes scarcer. In a scant 100 years, human population will grow from 7 billion to 12 billion. Water ranks with climate change as a critical issue that transcends national differences. If you missed the show, it can be seen online at: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/breakthrough-series/episodes/water-apocalypse/

REFERENCE SECTION

There is an interest in further inquiry about Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth. The mariner strongly recommends acquiring a DVD copy of the Bill Moyers interview and to purchase Campbell’s lecture series either in DVD or book form.

Transformation (metamorphosis) of consciousness, requiring consciousness to let go of the body, is of particular interest. In the interviews, Campbell says that everything in our known world has duality – an opposite value. For example, birth and death, consciousness and unconsciousness, physical and metaphysical, good and evil, before and after, etc. Transformation requires the separation of consciousness from the physical self. Transformation lifts consciousness into a unilateral existence where duality does not exist.

Mariner asked readers to identify the role of a few animals in mythology:

In Europe, the dragon – In many western myths, serpents and dragons are conflated into fearsome figures of evil that must be slain by heroes.

In Asia, the dragon – Dragons represent good things, good fortune and power. Only the Emperor could wear the golden five-toed dragon.

Lakota tribe (North America), the bison – Bison represented the source of the way of life for the plains Indians.

In China, the boar – The boar represents wealth and good fortune.

Celts in Britain, the boar – Boars were a symbol of courage in battle.

Ancient Mariner

Will the Next Generation have Their Lives Lived for Them?

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The mariner admits he is a privacy advocate. It stems from his first job in computer systems: he was responsible for a corporation’s system and data backups. Security was an aspect of the job. Throughout his career in systems, he was aware of the power of information in the automated world. The mariner has written many times about the disappearance of privacy.

Generally, the younger generations have less or no concern about individual privacy in exchange for the toys, correspondence, convenience, and social media. In this post, the mariner asks a few questions to demonstrate the kind of control and abuse a computer can impose on your personal life.

Assuming that most folks eventually will order groceries online, the grocery store wants to know your shopping preferences. At least grocery stores are willing to pay for this information with discounts on gasoline or sale prices. With your history of purchases, two things occur: first, the grocery store can trim its inventory overhead by providing only those items you are likely to buy. This seems reasonable but you will be offered fewer options to buy other items unless the grocery store wants to show them to you. It will be to the store’s advantage to offer only those items or brands they want you to see.

Second, you cannot price shop; the options are offered via the Internet showing the grocery store’s pricing to you, the individual buyer. Are your prices the same as everyone else’s? Are your prices competitive with other grocery stores? Will your income, bank balance or credit score determine how much you can buy? You have traded independence for convenience; you have surrendered private shopping preferences to anyone who wants to see them for their own purposes. Mariner wonders whether a shopper has lost control of grocery shopping decisions.

Anyone who owns a computer today, whether it’s a PC or the multitude of handheld devices, has experienced unwanted popups and other advertisements that almost trap the reader into making a purchase – wanted or not. How many inexperienced folks have bought computer cleaning software because they couldn’t get rid of the popup? Further, have you noticed that advertisements and email for automobiles are limited? They are limited because the seller knows your credit score, your entire history of auto purchases, and your income.

A store clerk will not see ads from Cadillac and Tesla; more likely, it will be Kia and Mitsubishi Mirage. On the surface, this limit of choices seems innocuous; on the other hand, someone else is deciding what car you will buy. In a subtle way, someone else is telling you what you can’t buy. Can’t is the operative word: today, interest rates are based on risk – not only your credit score but if the store clerk is buying a Cadillac, the interest will be higher because a Cadillac doesn’t fit the clerk’s profile.

Banks know your credit situation before they send you an offer for another credit card. Is your credit score high? You have the opportunity for a higher line of credit and many credit options; if your credit score is low, your line of credit will be low and your interest rate higher. You actually have little choice in the matter; the full array of credit card choices is not shown – someone else has selected your card for you.

The mariner receives thousands of junk email from boat suppliers, hardware companies, woodworking companies and especially plant nurseries. How do all these retailers know about the mariner’s propensity for boat, shop and gardening? The businesses have two external sources: they buy customer lists from other businesses and they buy from the worst lot of them all, the companies that control your access to the Internet.

That brings us to Google – the worst thief of the bunch that, usually without your knowledge or any recompense, takes your personal life and makes large profits selling that information to anyone who wants it. Why do others want your information? They want to live your life for you – using their products, of course.

I mentioned in a post a few years ago that I had written an email using an AOL account; Google was my link to the Internet. In that email, I used the word “depression.” The next day, when I launched Google, three separate ads for psychiatrists appeared. Google reads our mail even if we don’t use gmail. Google knows everything. It knows the brand, model and configuration of your device; it knows every website you ever visited; Google knows all the information available through government agencies like your birth certificate, driver license, social security number, and all your insurance policies. Google denies its obsession to know everything about everyone. Google says they don’t read people’s mail – but their computers do and the computers sort, select and bundle your information to obtain the highest price from information buyers.

Another growing use of your personal data is psychological evaluation. By cross-matching your computer activity over time, Google (and anyone wanting to pay for it) can determine the status of your life. The mariner knows for a fact that Google can deduce you had an increase in pay from your purchasing patterns; Google can deduce that a divorce is imminent; Google knows your political disposition and can determine who you will vote for by cross-matching the shows and channels you prefer on television, the neighborhood you live in, the car you own, your arrest record…need the mariner go on?

What provoked this post on privacy is the fact that Google again is caught red handed modifying settings in school PCs so that Google can monitor the use of the PCs unbeknownst to anyone. Further, a student cannot modify the setting to turn off Google’s snooping. The news article is a MUST READ. See:

http://www.zdnet.com/article/google-invading-student-privacy-with-chromebooks-eff/

Mariner says it again: Don’t worry about what NSA knows about you; it’s Google who knows a lot more than NSA ever will and can use it without accountability. Besides, at least the NSA doesn’t want to live your life for you.

A recent advancement in computer technology is the use of “clouds.” A cloud is a data storage service where you can leverage many processing devices to process your data. The cloud also stores your data. This is a boon for large companies and science research that need faster processing than possible in their own locations. These large scale users have IT specialists to assure security and accuracy – specialists that you may not have to protect your data for you. The issue of privacy is bound up in the cloud service because the smart phone companies store your smart phone activity on clouds whether you need high powered processing or not. However, the smart phone companies use the high powered processing to sort through your data just like Google always has.

The next chapter in limiting your choices in life will come soon when you can no longer buy your own processing system and programs. You will rent them from owners of the clouds. Like the child who picks up a dirty object and you say, “Don’t put that in your mouth – you don’t know where it’s been!” you may also be able to say that about your data.

Ancient Mariner

Pondering the Role of Corporations

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As the world becomes smaller because of communication technology, transportation technology, international awareness of other nations, cultures, and geography, this smallness has changed corporate behavior. Because a corporation’s sole goal is profit, every act – however slight or invasive or rewarding – is an effort not intended to benefit any element of fairness, kindness, cultural improvement, employee rights, or to balance the economy. Every act is dedicated to that corporation’s wellbeing and ever to increase its own corporate profit. Today, as national boundaries soften in this smaller world, corporations have escaped national and local governance.

The conflict between government authorities and businesses is not new. The struggle for business independence likely goes back to the earliest civilized cultures. It is a natural conflict; a government ostensibly exists for the wellbeing of its citizens while a corporation exists only for its own wellbeing and profit.

To provide a quick history lesson, the following paragraphs are quoted from

http://reclaimdemocracy.org/corporate-accountability-history-corporations-us/ not for its advocacy but for its concise exegesis:

 

“When American colonists declared independence from England in 1776, they also freed themselves from control by English corporations that extracted their wealth and dominated trade. After fighting a revolution to end this exploitation, our country’s founders retained a healthy fear of corporate power and wisely limited corporations exclusively to a business role. Corporations were forbidden from attempting to influence elections, public policy, and other realms of civic society.

Initially, the privilege of incorporation was granted selectively to enable activities that benefited the public, such as construction of roads or canals. Enabling shareholders to profit was seen as a means to that end….

…. For 100 years after the American Revolution, legislators maintained tight control of the corporate chartering process. Because of widespread public opposition, early legislators granted very few corporate charters, and only after debate. Citizens governed corporations by detailing operating conditions not just in charters but also in state constitutions and state laws. Incorporated businesses were prohibited from taking any action that legislators did not specifically allow.

States also limited corporate charters to a set number of years. Unless a legislature renewed an expiring charter, the corporation was dissolved and its assets were divided among shareholders. Citizen authority clauses limited capitalization, debts, land holdings, and sometimes, even profits. They required a company’s accounting books to be turned over to a legislature upon request. The power of large shareholders was limited by scaled voting, so that large and small investors had equal voting rights. Interlocking directorates were outlawed. Shareholders had the right to remove directors at will.” (end quote)

One quickly notices the difference in the relationship between governments and corporations today. In the early days referenced by the quote, the US was still a pure democracy. Society was an all inclusive concept that included freedom of religion, the power of the vote, and any organized activity that may affect the citizens. Today, with the Supreme Court’s blessing of Citizens United, the untold wealth used to buy every aspect of government authority, and the resultant unbridled power of corporations, the only restraint on corporations is money. Control by government has been weakened to the point of uselessness. Capitalism trumps democracy. Capitalism is a religion, not an economic theory. It is more important and culturally acceptable for a corporation to ignore the wellbeing of human beings as it pursues more profit.

The mariner is reminded of when the Holy Roman Church was more powerful than the governments of its time. Unbridled power enabled the HRC to engage in brutal inquisitions, suppress scientific advances, and approve heads of state. First Baron Acton was right about power.

Today, the fossil fuel corporations suppress the growth of renewable fuel industries, attack the Clean Air Act, and, until the public had enough abuse from pipelines destroying property and claiming right of way, ran pipelines across the continent with no constraint or liability.

Today, corporations – not governments – negotiated the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) encompassing nine nations; TPP permits corporations to ignore constitutional law, civil rights and avoid taxation.

Today, communications corporations grow wealthy by usurping personal information, personal associations, family links, friend circles, medical history, credit history, and retail history. Did corporations ask permission? Did they even tell you they were collecting information without your knowledge? Did corporations tell the reader they were selling your history and preferences about everything to other corporations who want to know things and do things the reader may not want disclosed? On the other side of the issue, an old battle about the rights and accountability of content providers versus service providers continues. The difference has been smudged by mergers between the two and the evolving Internet broadcasting market. It is impossible to manage what is broadcast on social media and across the Internet. The National Security Agency is not the one to fear; Google knows a lot more about you. Even China cannot block Google. All these abuses are without accountability.

Sounds like the old days when HRC was omnipotent instead of corporatism.

Stick a pin in a communication CEO and they leap into arguments about freedom of speech. Similar to the gun issue, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are showing their age. Some might say the same about the Supreme Court (That’s another post). The founding fathers sought to constrain oppression of speech, not to encourage access to one’s privacy. However, there was a lot of space between one town and the next and reproducing pictures and words was somewhat difficult. In the eighteenth century, privacy was an environmentally protected phenomenon. Consequently, privacy as a concept drew short shrift in legislation as communication advanced through the centuries to the omnipresent state it is today.

Three examples have been examined to demonstrate the issue of corporatism. There are many more examples: banks that can destroy the US economy; lack of citizen-wide participation in the military; conflict of interest between elected officials and private enterprise – whether bought by lobbyists or sitting on legislative committees that govern personal interests.

The mariner chose the enclosed quote because it demonstrates clearly the transition from democracy to corporatism.

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In case the reader does not follow replies to the mariner’s posts, a reader (Robert) provided us with an inexpensive source for less recent publications: A great source of cheap books is Edward R. Hamilton that sells remaindered books in Connecticut. Check out their huge catalog at:

http://www.hamiltonbook.com/

Ancient Mariner

Old is Tough

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A very old man lay dying in his bed. In death’s doorway, he suddenly smelled the aroma of his favorite chocolate chip cookie wafting up the stairs. He gathered his remaining strength and lifted himself from the bed.  Leaning against the wall, he slowly made his way out of the bedroom, and with even greater effort forced himself down the stairs, gripping the railing with both hands. With labored breath, he leaned against the door frame, gazing into the kitchen. Were it not for death’s agony, he would have thought himself already in heaven. There, spread out on newspapers on the kitchen table were literally hundreds of his favorite chocolate chip cookies. Was it heaven? Or was it one final act of heroic love from his devoted wife, seeing to it that he left this world a happy man?  Mustering one great final effort, he threw himself toward the table. The aged and withered hand, shaking, made its way to a cookie at the edge of the table, when he was suddenly smacked with a spatula by his wife.

“Stay out of those,” she said. “They’re for the funeral.”

 

 

A little, silver-haired lady calls her neighbor and says, “Please come over here and help me. I have a very difficult jigsaw puzzle, and I can’t figure out how to get started.”

Her neighbor asks, “What is it supposed to be when it’s finished?”

The little lady says, “According to the picture on the box, it’s a rooster.”

Her neighbor decides to go over and help her with the puzzle. When he arrives, the old lady shows him the puzzle spread out all over the table. He studies the pieces for a moment, then looks at the box, then turns to her and says:

“First of all, no matter what we do, we’re not going to be able to assemble these pieces into anything resembling a rooster.” Then he takes her hand and says, “Secondly, I want you to relax. Let’s have a nice cup of tea, and then…” and he says this with a deep sigh…

 

“Let’s put all the Corn Flakes back in the box.”

Three seniors are out for a stroll. One of them remarks, “It’s windy.” Another replies, “No way. It’s Thursday.” The last one says, “Me too. Let’s have a soda.”

 

On an overseas flight, a lawyer and an older man were in adjoining seats.

The lawyer asked the senior if he’d like to play a little game. The older man was tired, and he told the lawyer he only wanted to sleep.

But the lawyer insisted the game was a lot of fun.

“Here’s how it works,” he said. “I’ll ask you a question. If you can’t come up with the answer, you have to give me a dollar. Then it’s your turn to ask me one. But if I can’t answer it, I have to give you $20.”

The senior figured if he just got this over with, maybe he could get some sleep. So he agreed to play.

The first question from the lawyer was “How far apart are the earth and the moon?”

The senior stayed completely silent, reached for a dollar, and gave it to the lawyer. Then he said, “My turn. What walks upstairs backward and comes downstairs forward?”

The lawyer was stumped. He thought and thought. He tried to remember all the riddles he knew. He searched every corner of his brain.

He even cheated and asked the flight attendants and other passengers.

Finally, he gave up. He woke up the older man and gave him a twenty. The senior stuffed the twenty in his coat and immediately went back to sleep.

The lawyer couldn’t stand it. He woke up the older man and said, “I have to know. What walks upstairs backward and comes downstairs forward?”

The senior got out his wallet, gave the lawyer a dollar, and went back to sleep.

  • –   –   –   –   –

 

Old folks live in a different society. Virtually none of them work and have days to fill. Memories and maladies are their stock in trade which leaves them free to invent their own world, their own way to cope.

One thing seniors do very well is remember entire family trees that go back to the Cleveland administration and even sometimes to the first President Adams. They consider it fun to debate each other to prove what really was the name of the son of Sadie Mathers who was divorced from the uncle of Harry Thompson who lived in the green house next to the Smiths – the family everyone was really talking about.

Younger folk often aren’t aware of the reality that seniors experience. There are simple things, somewhat debilitating but not worth advertising: that bit of arthritis that keeps the hand from lifting the fry pan; weakened sphincters that require Depends or antacids; a hip that can’t be repaired because they don’t earn enough at the part-time job to take time off for an operation; slack muscles that can’t keep one’s balance when they walk – requiring a cane or walker; the waning vision and hearing that reduce social interaction; months or even years coping with impending death, and, despite excellent memories of people long past, dealing with confusion about the last ten minutes.

The mariner is an old fogey, too. It grates him that those with the power to support seniors, to give them ease from time to time, to prop up their self esteem and financial security, instead ignore them. Mariner speaks of governments who bargain with health services as if they were auctioning tobacco and too many would shut down all senior entitlements if they could. He speaks of pharmaceutical providers that have worse social ethics than big banks. He speaks of insurance companies who are more interested in profit margins than proper benefits and coverage. He speaks of the entertainment industry that marginalizes senior’s television shows because advertisers want shows for younger folk who still spend money.

Mariner knows an elderly man who still has a sharp mind but is crippled and subject to seizures. His daughter, unemployed, did not want him to stay in her home. The other daughter did not maintain much contact with the father. One day, the two daughters put the man in the car and dropped him at a nursing home. No one thought to pack clothes; no one thought about the nursing home environment. No one asked the elderly man what he thought. Did the man feel like he was trash taken to the dump? No doubt.

The daughters were excessively thoughtless but an underlying chasm exists between younger, purposeful, healthy, engaged-in-life folks and senior citizens who virtually live in a different dimension. The young know newer things, absorb the leading edge of culture while the old folk know older, well, useless things and cannot fathom nor participate in the leading edge of culture. Even a horse put out to pasture has a better daily life than too many lonely, ailing, dying seniors.

The worst prejudice is one we don’t know we have. Mariner fears that such a prejudice sits between the young folks and the old folks – even with parents and other relatives. One forgets, or perhaps doesn’t even know, how much an old person has contributed to the betterment and stability of the young person’s world. One example that is seen frequently is the lame old guy looking for handouts. No one knows he was a war hero awarded the Medal of Honor. All seniors are heroes. They have laid down their lives for the betterment of society.

Consider old people when you vote for every office on the ballot in 2016.

Ancient Mariner

Time to Act against TPP

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The infamous Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is on its way to congress. Details finally have been released through several channels. The TPP is heavily tilted toward increased power for corporations. If TPP passes, it will be a new era where business begins to dictate to government regarding the rights and wellbeing of the citizenry. Church and state is small potatoes compared to the corporate intrusion into the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Since World War II, the generic corporate model began to operate between nations; tax evasion, hidden funds, no allegiance to workers, no need to sustain environmental or product quality – all are indicators that corporations have become a new kind of nation not bound by traditional government authority. The TPP is the same as a military invasion aimed at taking away the authority of target nations. Plain and simple, the US is under attack to increase corporate profit and to avoid responsibility for citizen wellbeing.

This week, Wikileaks released the long-secret investment provisions of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that revealed the trade deal would give big business the ability to sue governments for protecting the public interest – confirming our worst fears about the trade deal being pushed by the business community, Republican leadership and the Obama administration.

Mariner asks for a small inconvenience from his readers. Will you please write or call all federally elected politicians, especially your senators, that represent you; tell them to veto the TPP. There are different ways to do this:

Write a letter using the US Postal Service.

Write an email; the address of your representatives can be found using searches for Congressional Representatives.

Call your representatives; phone numbers are on the same websites as addresses.

Use the following link to Food and Water Watch to use the convenient procedure for sending your opinion to your representatives. Do not feel hesitant about providing your information; elected officials want to know you live in their district and may want to respond. Uncheck the boxes if you do not want FWW to contact you in the future.

https://secure.foodandwaterwatch.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1777&s_src=blg#_ga=1.267545422.1527426085.1431442204

Visit your representatives in their home offices.

The precedents set by TPP will create a world-wide culture where citizens are not the first priority – profit is.

Thank you very much for this favor.

Ancient Mariner

 

2016 – A Signal Election

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In the last post about lawless gun ownership, the mariner suggested that 2016 was a signal election where serious change may be possible. This perception is still true. However, attacking the gun issue will require more than a compromised registration solution. The real issue is that money is awash in elections at all levels of campaigning. A quick and simple way to disrupt the control of money is to limit a candidate’s funds to the region for which they would be responsible if elected. We would live in a fantasy world if campaign funds were required to be net zero balances – that is no funds can be carried over to the next campaign, making campaigning a fair activity that may improve turnover in legislative bodies.

If a Senator was campaigning for office in Ohio, fund raising would be limited to Ohio; similarly, a state legislator campaigning for state office could only receive funding from his or her district. If such legislation were passed, candidates would not be able to depend on arbitrary corporations like the NRA. Wherever NRA headquarters is located, the NRA could contribute only to that district’s campaigns. For a set of issues that can easily be remedied in 2016, search mariner’s archives for a January 17 2014 post titled “The Big Picture.”

Ancient Mariner