As if on queue, a stunning snapshot of the psychopathy of violence and hate.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/04/22/israeli-violence-claims-more-lives-across-the-occupied-west-bank/

Ah the mighty Petrodollar.

What does this all mean?

https://consortiumnews.com/2026/04/17/vijay-prashad-the-petrodollar-the-war-on-iran/

Great overview from Vijay!

The Epstein Class and the systems it controls is destroying us all.

https://liberationnews.org/epstein-the-ruling-class-and-the-capitalist-system/

And there'll be no justice for any of its victims.

Aside from the 'horrible situation', I wonder if the rail worker strike being prevented by crapitalism directly contributed to this.

 

An oldie but a goodie .... ALEC returns!

https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/11/11/secrets-of-an-att-scandal/

Gotta thank Bill Clinton for that Telecommunications Act of 1996 -

Digging deeper, the most hidden “secret” of the AT&T Illinois bribery scandal involved a 2017 state legislature vote regarding what is known as “Carrier of Last Resort” (COLR), that “terminated AT&T Illinois’ costly obligation to provide landline telephone services to all Illinois residents.” Still more hidden, the secret involved the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), one of the most important groups influencing telecom policy.  It promotes itself as a “nonpartisan individual membership organization of state legislators that favors federalism and conservative public policy solutions.”

Quote of the day - 08-07-2020.

Rob Urie via CounterPunch:

  "The establishment Democrats would rather lose elections than put forward policies that their donors object to."

 

 

 

The US 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary is a repeat of the US 2016 Democratic Presidential Primary.

In both cases, the primary is fixed against a progressive.

In other words, the establishment cheated again.

https://youtu.be/G7L3c1s2B58

I disagree with Jen here though - I truly believe the major political parties are never going to change, because they are effectively controlled by the establishment in order to continue crapitalism and American Exceptionalism to continue.

Looks who's back! The corruption of ALEC continues.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/cracking-down-on-pipeline-protests-wyoming-now-third-state-to-propose-alec-bill/5629951

Cracking Down on Pipeline Protests. Wyoming Now Third State to Propose ALEC Bill

Who objects to an increase in Minimum Wage?

Why, those assholes at ALEC:

“The only wages ALEC seems to like are the $1 an hour wages paid in countries like Vietnam,” said Mary Bottari, deputy director of the Center for Media and Democracy. “ALEC was a huge backer of the Trans Pacific Partnership and every trade agreement that has shipped US jobs overseas.”

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/06/16/alec-and-the-minimum-wage/

Wonder why the AARP might be negative about Medicare and Social Security in the last couple of years?

Could it be they are tied to ALEC?

http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/6405/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=12417

Why the NRA should never ever be considered a voice of anything other than a lobby for gun corporations.

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/06/16/gun-maker-colt-neared-bankruptcy-made-payments-nra-political-allies-former-general-mcchrsytal/

The creditor matrix document filed by Colt doesn’t list amounts, but shows that the firm owed money to the National Rifle Association along with the NRA’s affiliated foundation and its “Life of Duty” outreach program to law enforcement. In recent election cycles, the NRA has used its nonprofit entity, backed with money from corporate partners and dues-paying members, to run aggressive campaign advertisements, largely to elect Republicans to Congress.

Here we go again - those ALEC assholes trying to fuck up another County.

This time they're trying to fuck with my previous County of residence.

http://nwlaborpress.org/2015/04/clark-county-residents-blast-proposed-right-work-resolution/

Let's face it - 'right-to-work'=ALEC idiocy. While on those subjects, let's hear from the 'multimillionaire business owner serving in his first term' - you know - the person who supposedly drafted this legislation.

Ah, let's not. I don't need to give ALEC more space.

What I will give is more space to the residents and union members who spoke out -

“These resolutions are of no value to this community. They serve no purpose other than to be destructive to a current workforce that works very hard and has been very successful,” said Vancouver resident Mike Richards,  executive secretary of Office and Professional Employees Local 11. Local 11 represents some Clark County employees.

Union Carpenter Ron Robbins of Camas said right-to-work isn’t about rights and it isn’t about work.
“Right-to-work, let’s not kid ourselves about it—lowers wages. There’s not a state in this union where that experiment’s been tried that it hasn’t. So it’s complete B.S. to say that isn’t what it is. It’s about lowering the wages  of the working man,” he said.

Robbins pointed to Idaho, a right-to-work state since the mid-’80s. “They have the lowest personal income of any state in the union. They passed up Mississippi last year … congratulations.” Idaho’s number one export, he said, “is their young people. They have to get out of there, or they can’t survive.”

Beatrice Jenkins, a 20-year member of Operating Engineers Local 701 who lives in Woodland, said “people who think we don’t need unions any more are wrong.”

She told councilors how difficult it is for women working in the construction industry, especially nonunion. You can’t speak out if a job is unsafe, for fear of being fired, she said. And pay isn’t always equal. “If you take away the union, you take away the voice that women have out there,” she said.

IBEW Local 48 member Kevin Lux of Vancouver told councilors that he is from a conservative Republican family—all of whom are or were union members. Lux then read pro-union quotes from Presidents Eisenhower and Lincoln. “So, if  you can’t believe us as Democrats or labor people, look to those Republicans from the past—the stances they took, and the elections they won.”

Retired Laborers Union official Dave Letinich of Vancouver reminded councilors that union members make up a large portion of the “citizens “of Clark County. He said he was offended by a councilor’s remark at a previous meeting complaining that they (councilors) hadn’t heard much from regular citizens.

“You look at the hundreds of us here that are opposed to these resolutions—we are the citizens. Just because we’re in the union …”

Vancouver resident Sid Clark, a member of Teamsters Local 117, said councilors opened a pandora’s box.”The people of Clark County, we’re Republicans, we’re Democrats, and we’re independents, but when we come together for a common cause … we’re going to stand up,” he said."

Thank you folks for doing so.

The cost of voting in right-wingers - those asshole ALEC corporate stooges have plans in 2015.

http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/11/12666/alec-buoyed-election-results-lays-blueprint-2015

Blocking Local Minimum Wage Increases
Local Right to Work
Depriving Low-Wage Workers of Health Insurance
"The Onslaught of Shareholder Activism"
Tobacco, Trade, and Teeth

Easier than it sounds.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-to-beat-the-nra-in-7-not-so-easy-steps-20140714

The article has a big flaw in it.

It mentioned 'stand your ground' laws, but fails to mentioned who organizations like the NRA partnered with  - namely ALEC.

When that connection is made, you then realize that the NRA is really truly nothing more than a lobbying organization for arms manufacturers, not actual individual gun owners.

Science confirms what I've long suspected - The United States of America is a Democracy In Name Only (DINO).

Read the results yourself -

http://www.princeton.edu/~mgilens/Gilens%20homepage%20materials/Gilens%20and%20Page/Gilens%20and%20Page%202014-Testing%20Theories%203-7-14.pdf (h/t to pajoy @ Daily Kos)

Fucking damning and depressing for sure -

"What do our findings say about democracy in America? They certainly constitute troubling news for advocates of “populistic” democracy, who want governments to respond primarily or exclusively to the policy preferences of their citizens. In the United States, our findings indicate, the majority does not rule -- at least not in the causal sense of actually determining policy outcomes. When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites and/or with organized interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status quo bias built into the U.S. political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favor policy change, they generally do not get it."

Those stinking assholes at ALEC are at it again.

No, KXL is is not a good thing - especially if the oil industry says so.

Oil Industry Conjures Illusion of Public Support for KXL Using ALEC Politicians

These politicians really look stupid, don't they?

"CMD previously reported on the pro-KXL resolutions in the 2013 session in a series of articles, including reporting about Rep. John Adams from Ohio who, after attending an ALEC/TransCanada trip to Alberta, was asked by ALEC to send "thank you notes" to the lobbyists who paid for the trip and took him for dinner. As CMD documented, not long afterward, Rep. Adams introduced a pro-KXL resolution provided to him by a TransCanada lobbyist.

In Florida, freshman representative Walter Bryan ''Mike'' Hill sponsored a pro-Keystone resolution, HM 281 in December 2013. Laying the ground for his bill, in December Hill published an opinion piece in the Pensacola News Journal in Florida, his local newspaper.

According to emails obtained by CMD under the Florida Public Records law, the language for Hill's opinion piece came directly from API lobbyist David Mica, who sent Hill's staff member, Ryan Gorham, a draft version on November 26th. "I have ideas for distribution... please give me a holler," wrote Mica attaching the draft."

If you can complete reading through this without puking, you're a better person than me.

http://www.opensecrets.org/resources/10things/

Seriously, I could not get past page 3 without feeling nausea.

Wow Google and ALEC in bed together.

Not smart for them or the rest of us.

http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/11/12319/google-funding-grover-norquist-heritage-action-alec-and-more

Sign the petition - http://org.salsalabs.com/o/632/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=14651#

The follies of believing repeated falsehoods - are delusion, poor decisions, and eventually death.

http://consortiumnews.com/2013/09/19/how-fake-2nd-amendment-history-kills/

"Yet that is not and never was the actual history. When the First Congress passed the Second Amendment in 1789, the goal was to promote state militias for the maintenance of order in a time of political violence, potential slave revolts and simmering hostilities with both European powers and Native Americans on the frontiers.

The amendment was never intended as a blank check for some unstable person to massacre fellow Americans. Indeed, it defined its purpose as achieving “security” against disruptions to the country’s new republican form of government. The Second Amendment read:

“A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” In other words, if read in context, you would see that the Second Amendment was enacted so each state would have the specific right to form “a well-regulated militia” to maintain “security,” i.e. to put down armed disorder."

Excellent article debunking the lies told by the American Right about the 2nd Amendment. Buried within the article is a nice link to a list of misquotes by said Right -

http://kryo.com/2ndAmen/Quotes.htm

In the face of gun violence tragedies like the ones that have taken place over the last few months, I believe looking back to learn where things went awry is the first step to understanding how to

1) Derive ways to clean up the current mess
2) Find ways to avoid making the same mistakes over again

The question American society has to ask themselves is - are they going to continually allow themselves to be bombarded by the Global Establishment's message about how it's just business as usual ...

...

Or perhaps collectively society might wake up and see the false narrative that's been created around them largely for the benefit of said Establishment; and subsequently do something different to improve their lives?

Global Confederation - The new Corporation Establishment Empire.

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2013/02/barack-obama-second-term-climate-change-globalization

(Thank you Mound of Sound)

We are in a day and age where the establishment in each industry across Planet Earth at an enterprise/conglomerate level now owns or effectively controls pretty much all aspects of human life across all forms of human society.

The new emperor is not a person - it's a global confederation of establishment enterprise corporations. And they seek only to thrive and exist like a cancer on a patient; they don't think, they aren't altruistic, they don't care outwardly for anyone and anything other than themselves.

Never mind that the greatest threat to human civilization and its future - global warming - is also the greatest threat to this new confederation. It doesn't think to react or plan to that, because it's not meant to by-design.

They use tools like lobbyists, organizations like ALEC and their weapon of choice - money - to achieve their aims.

The confederation's only accountability is to earn profit for its shareholders - nothing more.

Whether it's media, food, technology, transportation, entertainment, health, education, weaponry, you name it - our future is tied to their's.

The problem is - it doesn't think. It's not a real person. Certainly it cannot really think ahead. And because of this, and the large amount of power and control it wields in our lives, it makes it a grave impediment to our collective future.


To solve the problem of global warming before it's too late, will involve human civilization coming up with a suitable recourse to the effective control this confederation has. That is, human civilization must effectively unleash its collective strengths - our minds and our numbers.

Unless human civilization can  - overwhelmingly - think and act together - we will never move forward and we will not survive much longer.

What's needed is a uniting mechanism to do this.