It comes down to values and power. The fate of America turns on the outcome of a contest between forces aligned behind two competing economic systems with dramatically different values, structures, and agendas. One is the greed-driven, money-serving corporate-ruled Wall Street Economy that measures its success exclusively by the financial profits it generates for the already rich. It neither acknowledges nor accepts responsibility for the economic, social, environmental, and political devastation it leaves in its wake.

The other economy is comprised of the democratic, community-rooted, market-based life-serving Main Street economies that ordinary people are rebuilding across the nation and around the world. This emerging New Economy measures success by its contribution to securing adequate and meaningful livelihoods for everyone in a balanced relationship to nature.

Huh. Interesting take, but the first paragraph seems to be an “Incredible Hulk” version of the second paragraph since the second paragraph describes what the Western World was like for quite a while.

This is why I always take issue with people telling me I’m anti-corporate—I’m not. I just believe in moderation.  I’m 99% sure that if we go back in time with how corporations are run (not just to make as much money as possible, aka, not to the extreme) we’d see a return to the good old days of the American economy.  I think we need to regulate the shit out of corporations, passing laws that prohibit any outsourcing of ANY and ALL jobs, ban tax incentives for businesses completely, make it a jailable offense to hire illegal immigrants, force environmental and worker safety standards, require products be made with materials ONLY found inside the country and put caps on executive salaries.

Will this kill a lot of businesses in the US? Damn right it will. But only the assholes.  Good people who run businesses are already doing this sort of thing.  RIGHT?

Oh, you say you’re a good person who is running a business that would be killed by this draconian, sweeping changes? Well, good riddance then.  Because if you’re not caring about your workers, your customers, the environment, and you’re only in it for the money you can’t call yourself a good person.

We need to grow up and face the music.  Our economy is falling apart around our ears and we’re mostly pretending it isn’t.  Only sweeping changes like this will make a difference.  We need to pull back from the extreme we’ve let the corporations get to. 

Oh and the “emerging new economy” the original post refers to? I have no idea what the fuck they’re talking about.  Nothing “market-based” ever has a “balanced relationship to nature.”  We need to constantly ride the levels of regulation.  Sometimes we need a bit more and sometimes a bit less, but clearly, we need a LOT more right now as corporations are just a bunch of sociopathic Godzillas.

GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney, on why the U.S. shouldn’t raise taxes on corporations to shield Social Security and Medicare from cuts. “Everything corporations earn goes to people,” he told the audience.  (via officialssay)

Bahhahahahahahahahah!  I laugh to keep from crying. Right, Mitt. Right.

(via baxterp2)

#Indeed.

Now, if only corporations ACTED like people, instead of mindless greed-machines. >_<

Check out what the guy who used to play Kryten on Red Dwarf had to say about the London riots and what one feminist had to say about who is to blame for them and then be sure to read the comments.

Essentially, it rips a page from the old TV ad campaign for Captain Power (any scifi geeks out there remember him?) and pretends to be a regular news video that gets interrupted by someone from the future who then implores us to stop the dystopian nightmare of tomorrow from happening by voting.  Of course, in typical mass-marketing fashion, the video message comes from a hot, skinny future-chick who’s got a handsome, passionate black man as a sidekick who comes in toward the end.  Also, in typical mass-marketing fashion, it utilizes Facebook to make the video personal.  Check out these screencaps:

Check out the pic that the black sidekick keeps in a locket around his neck:

I have to admit I totally LOLed, but the sad reality is that the future is already lost.

See, they make a big joke about corporations owning everything (even people) but they conveniently skip over the part where corporations already own the candidates.

On the way back from the big Rally for Sanity and/or Fear this weekend I had a conversation with a guy who said he saw hope for the future if young people would just get out there and vote.  The thing is, big money (aka corporations, in most cases) already determine who we can vote for because it’s legal for them to donate as much as they want to whom they want.  This means anyone with corporations backing them up can pretty much wipe out any message from someone with less money.

What’s the point in voting for change if someone else is already limiting the selection of people promising change?

As we now know for certain, change is more than just skin deep.  Sure, the world is definitely a better place when Democrats win, but ultimately, every elected official in government is in someone’s back pocket.  Too bad our wallet got stolen from our back pocket long ago, not that it matters since We, The People, could never afford to buy our own politicians in the first place.

Hmm… “It’s too late for the future.”  That’s good!  I’m going to use that in a story somewhere. I CALL COPYRIGHT/TRADEMARK DIBS!!

Oh and speaking of a story, have another look at the first screencap above—check out the image to the left in that first screencap.  Now go here and notice the title of a novel I wrote under the pen-name Scott Campbell a bunch of years ago.

Tee-hee!

The state’s new law could send hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to prison. An analysis of fund-raising documents, lobbying records and corporate reports shows that the private prison industry helped draft and pass the measure.

So, here’s a private corporation that is LITERALLY creating criminals.

HOW IS THIS LEGAL?

Corporations that do this are actually harming society.

Chickens are turned into this goop so we can create delicious chicken nuggets and juicy chicken patties. It’s obscenely gross and borderline alien…

and:

…because it’s crawling with bacteria, it will be washed with ammonia, soaked in it, actually. Then, because it tastes gross, it will be reflavored artificially. Then, because it is weirdly pink, it will be dyed with artificial color.

Wow… WTF is wrong with the people serving this “food” to us? This isn’t a case of being an educated consumer—who knows to be THIS INSANELY paranoid about food?

Well, you and me, now… sheesh…

Weeeee! Now corporations are impervious to lawsuits for doing bad things abroad!

I also found this at atstoday.blogspot.com:

Judge Pierre Leval concurred in the dismissal of the case, but expressed concern about the scope of the ruling. “The majority opinion deals a substantial blow to international law and its undertaking to protect fundamental human rights,” he wrote. “According to the rule my colleagues have created, one who earns profits by commercial exploitation of abuse of fundamental human rights can successfully shield those profits from victims’ claims for compensation simply by taking the precaution of conducting the heinous operation in the corporate form.”

Yikes.

Well, humanity had a good run!  The new dominant life form on planet Earth is definitely shaping up to be the corporation.

OOPS—and this from the original DN blurb I link to above—the same judge also said:

So long as they incorporate, businesses will now be free to trade in or exploit slaves, employ mercenary armies to do dirty work for despots, perform genocides or operate torture prisons for a despot’s political opponents, or engage in piracy—all without civil liability to victims.”

Double yikes.

Major Corporations Are Downloading Those 100 Million Facebook Profiles off BitTorrent

Who’s surprised? HANDS UP!

Read one reason this is bad. Another reason is this: why must corporations work so hard to make EVERY THIN DIME THEY CAN??

Yes, yes, I know “because they’re greedy” but that’s not a reason. That’s an excuse to be shitty.

The harvest has begun.. Ron Bowes is from Canada, and he is a security consultant. Just this week, Mr. Bowes changed the world as we know it, perhaps ever damning the word “privacy” into the trash heap of history. And how did he do it? Using the very data that people knowingly and happily gave up themselves on Facebook..

Bowes collated 100 million Facebook users’ names, addresses, and unique ID numberson a single 2.8 gig file and posted it online..Facebook also enabled this grand release of private data.

via coalspeaker.com

I would quit Facebook in a New York second if only I could convince my family and friends who treat the site like a religion to quit, too.

Maybe I should bite the bullet and set the good example.  The problem with that is simple: FB as lame as it is, is great for networking.  Plus, it saves me money on business cards—I barely give them out. I just tell them the socnets I’m on and they find me if they want to.

I just wish Zuckerberg wasn’t such a douche with our stuff.

See, I get that I make my info public. 

What I don’t like is how Facebook and other socnets make it so easy for other things to be done with my info. 

I don’t know if it there needs to be a law against it or if Facebook and other socnets should be forced to give us the ability to not just block all info from being public but to also prohibit the info from being copyable by anyone.  I put my content out there for people to view it where I want them to—I don’t like the idea of my content being in some massive list or on some other site that doesn’t share revenue with me.  This may be a brave new world, but I’ve got bills to pay, just like everyone else.  Let me control my shit—the least you can do is pay me for it when you use it.

Target Donates $150,000 To Fund Anti-Gay Politics.

jlamere:

feralnostalgia:

ifighttheonesthatfightme:

mohandasgandhi:

sweetupndown9:

Welp. Looks like I’m boycotting Target. 

A friend of mine posted this on Erika’s facebook. I’m really glad I saw this before I moved, so I can avoid there store when I shop for my new house stuff. 

From the article. 

Follow the money. At least, that’s the message delivered by an article at sfist.com by Matt Baume, who tracks $150,000 from Target’s coffers, through a political action committee (PAC) known as Minnesota Forward, all the way to Tom Emmer, who himself supports a Christian rock band in Minnesota that travels around the state saying that it’s moral and righteous for religious people to kill gays and lesbians.

For those into algebra, it looks a little like this: Target + Minnesota Forward + Tom Emmer = Support for a rather dangerous and radical political philosophy that diminishes LGBT people to pests that should be murdered. And Target is cool with this?

Sign the Petition demand answers for this.

Oh, HELL NO.  What the FUCK, Target?  You’re done.

seriously?  the religious right was boycotting them a few years back because they were “pro-gay” - they’ve donated to gay rights causes and AIDS charities and such in the past too…now I’m just confused.

maybe instead of trying to be picky about which amoral-by-design corporations we consume from, we ought to switch to production instead.  Swadeshi Movement style…

 I think this might have more to do with bashing the founding family of Target and Emmers competition for governor, Mark Dayton. Either way, it’s pretty ridiculous.

OK, let’s boycott Target—but then where will we shop?  Wal-Mart? K-Mart? Actually, there’s really no source for anything we buy that doesn’t eventually connect back to some sort of horrible thing.  Whether it’s hating gays or paying pennies for hours of labor or buying conflict minerals or oil from terrorist regimes, there isn’t a dollar in our bank accounts that hasn’t paid for someone’s misery somewhere in the world. 

If there was a source for every day items that sold products that are made entirely within the US with materials originated inside the US, I’d agree with a boycott.  But boycotting Target just means you’re going to add support to some other company that is just as bad in the same or different ways. 

We’re living in an era of extremist capitalism, where the shortest route to profits is the highway (or low-way) nearly every damn company takes.  

In the end, which is worse? Hating gays or not caring about human dignity at all? 

coalspeaker:

And, as a population, we need to smarten up.. there are dangers in the chemicals we injest.. There are complications with too many articifial sweeteners..

Activity Post website details some of the ways we may be getting posioned.

Yeah, I don’t think it matters whether there is a conspiracy or not—all that matters is that there may as well be.  Just keep your eye on the ingredients labels on the food you eat.  Just do it and see if you don’t start to worry.  Or hit the above link to ActivistPost.com and get really worried.