Corporatism

Repubs and Dems Unite For Austerity

October 23, 2013 Shamus Cooke, www.counterpunch.org Resist! Austerity, Corporatism, Finance and the Economy, Medicare, Social Security

In practice, Obama’s neoliberalism is blatant: after bailing out the banks he continues to approve of the printing of thousands of billions of Federal Reserve dollars to give to the wealthy and big banks who are racking in record profits, while the jobs crisis is ignored and public services slashed on a state by state level without hope of a government bailout. Since Obama has been in office, a shocking 95 percent of income gains went to the richest 1%. This is not the blind hand of the free market, but government policy, which can be adjusted to reflect the priorities of working people. Obama dodges responsibility for his neoliberal policies by giving empty speeches about “hope” and whining about the very wealth inequality that he creates via policy. He gives speeches to labor unions about how it’s “unfair” that the rich just happen to be getting richer, while working people continue to suffer. Working people learned long ago to ignore Obama’s “progressive” blather, while the leaders of national unions drink in his words as if gulping from the Holy Grail.

How The Resistance Movement Is Changing Politics

October 23, 2013 Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org Strategize! Corporatism, Government, Occupy

There are early signs of some populist stirrings among a minority in the Democratic Party. It is still a party dominated by corporatism, Wall Street, Clintonism and Obamism but social movements may be creating a zeitgeist in the culture for a new kind of politics. I have my doubts this will end up showing itself inside the two parties, the Democratic Party has a long history of destroying social movements, and I am convinced that if it is going to manifest itself the movement needs to remain independent of the two parties and be like Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King said of the two parties of his era " look objectively at both parties and be the conscience of both—not the servant or master of either." At the same time third party pressure must build so that those within the two parties see the results of elections will be impacted by a third party that clearly puts forth an agenda of people and planet before profits.

Privatization Benefits 1%, Public Services Benefit Everyone

October 23, 2013 Paul Bucheit, www.thecontributor.com Educate! Austerity, Corporatism, Finance and the Economy, Government

Individual initiative? Our publicly supported communications infrastructure allows the richest 10% of Americans to manipulate their 80 percent share of the stock market. CEOs rely on roads and seaports and airports to ship their products, the FAA and TSA and Coast Guard and Department of Transportation to safeguard them, a nationwide energy grid to power their factories, and communications towers and satellites to conduct online business. Perhaps most important to business, even as it focuses on short-term profits, is the long-term basic research that is largely conducted with government money. As of 2009 universities were still receiving ten times more science & engineering funding from government than from industry.

NSA Busted Conducting Industrial Espionage Around The World

October 23, 2013 Staff, www.washingtonsblog.com Educate! Corporatism, NSA, Surveillance

Spying on allies for economic advantage is a crucial new assignment for the C.I.A. now that American foreign policy is focused on commercial interests abroad. President Clinton made economic intelligence a high priority of his Administration, specifically information to protect and defend American competitiveness, technology and financial security in a world where an economic crisis can spread across global markets in minutes. *** At the Treasury Department, the trade representative’s office and the Commerce Department, officials say they now receive a torrent of information from the C.I.A.

How To Protest In The Age Of Austerity

October 23, 2013 Richard Seymour, www.theguardian.com Strategize! Austerity, Corporatism, Labor

Aloof from official politics, non-party-aligned and sometimes distant from trade unionism, such movements reflect the growing prominence of issues and forms of profound social conflict that emerge outside the workplace. Capitalism has demonstrated a tendency to politicise ever-growing areas of life, from the environment to the genetic code, and the profusion of "new social movements" since the 1960s reflects this. This is something that filled conservatives with horror, and led to the "crisis of democracy" thesis according to which overactive citizens were overloading governments with demands and causing their breakdown. There was also some standoffishness in parts of the left, at least insofar as these were seen as displacing the central emphasis on class struggle. But the rise of the social movement is something the left should welcome.

ACA Is Wrong Direction, Time For Medicare For All

October 22, 2013 Margaret Flowers, www.greenshadowcabinet.us Educate! Corporatism, Health Care

In what is perhaps the greatest corporate scam ever, not only did the health insurance corporations write the federal health law, called the Affordable Care Act (ACA), to enhance their profits, but now they also have the government and non-profit groups doing the work of marketing their shoddy products. The foundation of the ACA, the mandate that uninsured individuals purchase private insurance if they do not qualify for public insurance, begins in 2014 and the state health insurance exchanges where people can purchase that insurance opened on October 1. We cannot cross our fingers and hope that the ACA ‘works.’ That attitude means hundreds of thousands will suffer and die from preventable causes and millions of families each year will continue to go bankrupt because of medical illness and costs. The moral imperative is to realize that health care never has been and never will be a commodity and to stop treating it as such by taking it out of the marketplace altogether. We need Medicare for all now

The Affordable Care Act–A System That Doesn’t Make Sense

October 21, 2013 Helen Redmond, www.socialistworker.org Educate! Corporatism, Health Care, Human Rights

"With my part-time, pretax salary of $30,000, the exchange recommended that I purchase the bronze plan offered by Blue Shield of California. Here are the numbers--annual deductible: $5,000; primary care co-pay: $60, specialty care co-pay: $70, urgent care co-pay: $120, generic medication co-pay: $19, brand medication co-pay: $50, lab tests: 30 percent co-pay, x-ray co-pay: 30 percent, maximum out-of-pocket: $6,350. The total cost of the monthly premium is $512. My share would be $213, and Blue Shield would get $298, courtesy of U.S. taxpayers. Cha-ching! What a great deal...for the insurance industry. On my salary, there's no way that I can afford a monthly premium of $213, cover the outrageous $5,000 annual deductible before insurance kicks in, or pay all those co-pays. I'll have to opt out and remain uninsured--and for that, I'll be penalized by the IRS on my tax return. If I get sick, medical bankruptcy is a real possibility." On my salary, there's no way that I can afford a monthly premium of $213, cover the outrageous $5,000 annual deductible before insurance kicks in, or pay all those co-pays. I'll have to opt out and remain uninsured--and for that, I'll be penalized by the IRS on my tax return. If I get sick, medical bankruptcy is a real possibility.

Detroit Manager’s Income Padded By Anonymous Corporate Fund

October 21, 2013 Paul Egan, www.lansingstatejournal.com Educate! Corporatism, Government

Gov. Rick Snyder’s controversial NERD Fund will be shut down, a spokeswoman confirmed today. The New Energy to Reinvent and Diversify Fund “had simply become an unnecessary distraction,” said Sara Wurfel, Snyder’s press secretary. “A new fund is being created that will go far above and beyond what the law requires,” Wurfel said in an e-mail. “That will include disclosure of donors and amounts given as well as detailed overview of expenditures by category. Both will be shared and posted online quarterly.” The fund raised about $368,000 in 2012, down from about $1.3 million in 2011, according to reports filed with the Internal Revenue Service. The fund has been controversial because it can accept unlimited corporate donations from anonymous parties.

Jeb Bush Education Reform Group Accused Of Abusing Non-Profit Status

October 21, 2013 Josh Eidelson, www.salon.com Educate! Corporatism, Education

This year’s annual FEE’s ed reform summit kicked off Thursday morning with a keynote address from former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the potential presidential aspirant (and son and brother to ex-presidents) who chairs the group. ProgressNow’s Davis noted in his IRS letter that the attendees at FEE’s summits include not only legislators but FEE donors “many of whom are for profit corporations selling education products…” The Nation’s Lee Fang charged in a 2011 investigation that “Through Bush, education-technology companies have found a shortcut to encourage states to adopt e-learning reforms.” The same year, Mother Jones‘ Stephanie Mencimer wrote that by diverting funding, virtual schools, like vouchers, “can wreak havoc on public school budgets – which, to Bush and others working to privatize elements of the education system, may be exactly the point.”

End Of Impunity? Indigenous Guatemalans Bring Mining Co To Court

October 20, 2013 Arij Riahi, www.dominion.mediacoop.ca Educate! Corporatism, Human Rights, Indigenous Rights

For the first time, a Canadian mining company will appear in a Canadian court for actions committed overseas. Hudbay Minerals, Inc, will be standing trial for murder, rapes and attacks committed against Indigenous Guatemalans by security personnel working for Hudbay’s subsidiary, Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel (CGN). The court case is proceeding thanks to a precedent-setting decision from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, which ruled this past July in favour of the Mayan Q'eqchi' people of Lote Ocho, near El Estor, Guatemala. “It is a massive victory for our clients and for human rights,” Cory Wanless, an attorney with the Toronto-based Klippensteins law firm, told The Dominion. “Before this decision, no claim brought by individuals that had been harmed by Canadian mining abroad had ever gotten into Canadian courts at all. They didn’t even have the ability to forward their claims.”

Heavy-Handed Response To Elsipogtog Blockade In NB

October 20, 2013 Peter Raaymakers, www.ottawacitizen.com Educate! Corporatism, Environment, Fracking, Government, Indigenous Rights, Sovereignty

The Mi’kmaq people of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, including the Elsipogtog First Nation, have never signed a treaty relinquishing authority to the land on which the Route 134 blockade stands today, or that on which SWN Resources is conducting exploratory testing. They signed a Peace and Friendship Treaty in 1761, which was re-affirmed in 1982 with Canada’s Constitution Act and then again in a 1999 Supreme Court of Canada decision, but that agreement included no mention of the surrender of any lands. Although the federal and New Brunswick governments are currently engaged in exploratory discussions to address issues of land ownership, rights, and sovereignty, there has been no agreement yet.

Corporations Using Foreign Tribunals To Attack Domestic Court Rulings

October 19, 2013 Shannon Gough, Eyes On Trade, www. typepad.com Educate! Corporatism, Government, TPP

Should an international tribunal of three private attorneys, sitting outside of any domestic legal system, have the power to overrule domestic courts? That’s the question addressed in the recent analysis, “Investment Agreements versus the Rule of Law?,” published on UNCTAD’s Investment Policy Hub by Todd Tucker, Gates Scholar at the University of Cambridge’s Centre of Development Studies. The piece highlights the little-known but creeping practice of corporations asking foreign tribunals to second-guess domestic court decisions not in their favor and to order taxpayer payment as compensation. These tribunals are the product of the “investor-state” system, a little-known creation of “trade” and investment deals that empowers foreign corporations to skirt domestic courts and directly challenge governments before extrajudicial tribunals for policies and decisions that they claim as undermining “future expected profits.”

JP Morgan: The Man And The Bank

October 19, 2013 Jim Hightower, www.nationofchange.org Educate! Corporatism, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Finance and the Economy

Moving the clock forward, we come to JPMorgan Chase, today's financial powerhouse bearing J.P.'s name. The bank also inherited his pattern of committing multiple illegalities — and walking away scot-free. Oh sure, the bank was hit with that billion-dollar fine, but that's hardly devastating to a behemoth that hauled in $6.5 billion in just the previous three months. Besides, note that not a single one of the top bankers who committed gross wrongdoing were charged or even fired — much less sent to jail. Fining banks is not a crime-stopper, for banks don't commit crimes. Bankers do. And they won't ever stop if they don't have to pay for their crimes.

This Snack Food Corporation Has a Creepy Plan to Spy on You in the Grocery Store

October 19, 2013 Brian Fung, www.washingtonpost.com Educate! Civil Rights, Corporatism

Mondelez International, whose properties include Chips Ahoy, Nabisco, Ritz and other high-profile snack brands, says it's planning to debut a grocery shelf in 2015 that comes equipped with sensors to determine the age and sex of passing customers. The shelf, which is hooked up to Microsoft's Kinect controller, will be able to use basic facial features like bone structure to build a profile of a potential snacker, Mondelez chief information officer Mark Dajani told the Wall Street Journal. While pictures of your actual face won't be stored, aggregate demographic data from thousands of transactions will be.

Longshoreman Strike Shuts Down Port Of Baltimore

October 18, 2013 Jaisal Noor, www.therealnews.com Resist! Corporatism, Labor, Worker Rights and Jobs

Well, what's happening here is a local strike which is part of a nationwide negotiation, East Coast negotiation by the Longshoremen's Association. And as I said, it's intensified by the expanding of the Panama Canal and the changing of the industry, because ships will now, which normally would only go to the Pacific Coast ports, will now come here. And so the Maritime Institute seems to have felt that this is a time where they need to go after the union, both on a national level on issues of wages and benefits, and then on a local level. And the strike here is over local issues. And every large national negotiations involves two levels, one of which is the money and the benefits, which is done industry-wide, and in this case up and down the East Coast, plus local issues, which vary from region to region, local to local.

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