legalizing corruption

The government is supposed to be preventing or at least acting to minimize, corruption, by catching criminals and punishing them, rather than by doing what they're currently doing, legalizing the corruption, which is what in fact the current system of lobbying and the way they "punish" corporations are: bribes to pass legislation that favor interest groups and wrist-slapping companies with fines instead of sending malfeasant executives to jail.

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controlled inflation

Conservative business people claim that they don't want wage and price controls because they see it as a form of socialism and they want a "free market" instead. But they know goddam well that we haven't had a truly free market for nearly a century and that we already have wage and price controls. The fed controls the prices via ill-controlled inflation, manipulating the money supply in the way criticized by the Austrian School model. By this method, business is assured that prices will continue to slowly rise and deflation will seldom if ever occur, and if circumstance get so bad that deflation cannot be prevented, then the government will step in and divert huge blocks of taxpayer money into the business system to make sure that the value of the business inventories does not drop (as with GM and the banks recently); because inflation benefits business and deflation benefits consumers.

And wages are controlled via the INS, which works to insure that a constant supply of lower level workers enter the US every year so that business can hire them at wages that keep the entire wage system as low as possible by making available to employers not only low cost day laborers, temporary workers, and entry level employees, but also shifting the indigenous worker class up one level (or into unemployment; the choice is theirs) where they can pay them less than they normally would have to; and so on up the wage scales, which leaves all that much more room at the top for huge corporate bonuses to high ranking executives.

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corporate shite

When you make me an offer of a benefit or a sale or whatever, I don't want to have to go out of my way to contact you to ask you make good on your promise (when you haven't done it of your own volition) when I have purchased your product or service in good faith. I want whatever was promised to be there, without question. I don't want to have to call you or email you or write you or whatever to get what was promised to me, and I especially don't want to hear the old "Oh, I'm so sorry, sir. We must have made a mistake. We'll correct this problem right away" speech. But, if I do hear that speech, then the mistake better be corrected in the speedy way that you say it will. I very especially don't want to have to contact you a second time about it. When I get this kind of delaying, "We're so sorry, please excuse us" behavior, it's probably the last time I'm going to ever do business with you again. And, I'll do my very best, in person and online, to influence friends, family, and total strangers never to do business with you either. Because I'm fed up with all this corporate shite and I have no intention of putting up with it any more.

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common carrier

“Net neutrality” is stupid
Robin Harris
“Net neutrality” is another term for “common carrier,” first used for US telecommunications over 150 years ago. If advocates would just use “common carrier” instead of “network neutrality” we could quickly put this debate behind us.

Instead, by making “network neutrality” something new, controversy is created in what should be a settled area: common carrier status for communication infrastructure. Common carrier simply means that carriers handle all comers at a set fee, instead of auctioning access to their network.

The auction model

If network access is sold through an auction, the wealthy get good service and the rest of us get the leftovers. Carriers put their time and energy into maximizing revenue instead of minimizing costs.

If network access is available to all comers for a fee, then we all have equal opportunity to use the Internet for work or play. Providers can offer different service levels at different prices.

Look at FedEx: overnight costs more than 3-day delivery. But the important thing is that overnight costs everyone the same. Imagine going to a FedEx office with a time-critical legal document and instead of a flat fee they said “we have 1 overnight slot available - you’ll bid against these other people.” Very profitable for FedEx - not so good for you - or the country.

Same argument against providing electricity, natural gas, and water and sewage fees discounts for high-usage business customers while charging residential customers standard, non-discounted rates. Reverse socialism: enable business interests at the expense of average citizens. One more way of diverting money to the rich.

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arbiters of classism

The essence of winter is to survive it, which is so very good for the people who live in those large houses with fuel bills of multiple hundreds of dollars that are, for them, easily affordable.

But I, even if I were as warm as I would ever want to be, withdraw my essence deeper, bring everything inside that might be damaged by the cold out there, and wait, crowded in, for the season to change.

Meanwhile, I watch the local news as the vapid, overly socialized reporters tell me that I can save money by turning my thermostat down to sixty-five during the day and sixty or even fifty-five at night.

That does it. I snap. Who the fuck made the local news the arbiter of classism in America? If the poor (or the overly frugal) choose to live in a less than comfortable manner to save money, that's one thing.

But for the local news station to take it upon itself to suggest that we "cope" with bad economic times by turning down our thermostats... Why would they not, instead, ask us to write to our representatives?

"Dear So-and-so, Please inform me as to why, when we can least afford it, our utility bills keep going higher and higher while corporate CEO's get million dollar bonuses for declining profits."

That's the kind of thing that local (and national) news would suggest if they were really looking out for the working class. Instead, they gloss over real problems and deal with mere symptoms.

Because it's the role of TV in postmodern America (and around the world), not to agitate, but to appease; make people feel better about their declining health and wealth while the elite rake in the cash.

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whizzinator conspiracy

Makers Of Whizzinator Guilty Of Conspiracy
Monday, November 24, 2008

PITTSBURGH -- Two men whose company sold a male prosthetic known as the Whizzinator that helped men cheat on drug tests have pleaded guilty to conspiracy in federal court in Pittsburgh.

George Wills and Robert Catalano each pleaded guilty Monday to two conspiracy counts. The two men owned the California-based Internet company Puck Technology, which made and sold products including the Whizzinator.

U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan's office said the goal of the Whizzinator and a device called Number 1 was to help both men and women pass drug tests. The devices were sold from October 2005 through May 2008.

The men, both of whom are from California, are scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 20. They face up to eight years in prison, a fine of $500,000, or both.

This is the same fed bitch that prosecuted Tommy Chong for selling bongs. This is why conspiracy charges are so not right:

When a person is arrested, as likely as not, the arrest involves, not legitimate suspicion of guilt, but either prejudice or personal or political ambition. This is unacceptable; and it's the reason why citizens by and large do not trust the law enforcement community any more than they trust the government, which has proven by its long-term behavior over time that its spokespeople are going to always favor lying over telling the truth.

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laissez faire

Business interests (media business stooges) are complaining that, if Obama is elected, he will get rid of our free-market economy. But we haven't had a free-market economy in this country for a hundred years. If business wants a free market environment, it has only to look to itself to get it. What does business in America think it's going to end up with when it continually lobbies government as special interests for special favors and wheedles the government to bail it out every time it gets into a little bit of economic trouble as a result of its greedy, manipulative policies and practices? If business wants to operate in a free market economy, if it wants government to leave it alone, then it should leave the government alone. What goes around, comes around.

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