Condescending Hillary fans: Man, did this pro-Bernie blogger get it right.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

227. Thank you, kind fans!

I've always been good at English and wrote good papers. I also am fortunate to have a good education and graduated from a pretty good liberal arts college. I earned a law degree working at the courthouse and going to night school. I must have been nuts. I was what is known as a professional student or a college bum. Somebody who loves school.

Capitalism must be regulated by government (Pure Food and Drug laws, OSHA, EPA, wage and hour laws, Deceptive Trade Practice Acts, etc.) and also by personal injury/wrongful death/defective product lawsuits in a system not rigged by the corporations. Corporate donations to judges who have to run for office are going to influence them favorably toward the donor, just like with regular politicians. Corporations get away with murder, literally. Read about "dead peasant" policies taken out by Wal-Mart and other large corporations. Tort reform is a boogey monster invented by the big corporations and insurance companies to scare people. When a corporation hurts or injures someone and a jury decides the defendant wins, the burden of the injured person is laid upon the taxpayers instead of the person or corporation or entity that hurt them.

As an example, our governor, Greg Abbott, was out jogging one day in West University Place, a rich area of Houston. The "University" in the name refers to Rice University. A tree fell on him and he was paralyzed and in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. He sued the homeowner. He got a damage award of over ten million dollars. That is what he lives on now.

However, as governor and AG, he has promoted tort reform, and put over the idea that people who are not really injured can soak an insurance company for thousands of dollars faking it. He's scared people over frivolous lawsuits. There is a remedy for frivolous lawsuits called a Motion for Summary Judgment. That means that the judge sees no issues of merit brought by the plaintiff. The Defendant usually files one as a matter of course. This is the remedy for frivolous lawsuits. It's a very basic part of court procedure and has probably been around for hundreds of years in England.

When you have caps of say, a million dollars, on a seriously disabled person's award, and that does not cover their lifetime medical costs, the taxpayers end up paying the bills instead of the insurance company that insured the defendant that caused the injury. So this means that it's OK for Greg Abbott to get a huge settlement to cover his pain and suffering and disability, but for the rest of the people, there should be caps on damages and awards.

Can you say "hypocrite"?

Deregulation ruined the airlines. Reagan made the skies far more dangerous by busting the Air Traffic Controllers' union. The invisible hand of the free market is a passing reference of Adam Smith's, not a firm principle. And I am no economist.

Rich people and corporations with power cannot be trusted to do the right thing. They will do the greedy thing, which is what the John Maynard Keynes quote is about.


The idea that rich people are morally superior is part of John Calvin's Protestantism, and part of the prosperity gospel scam that some preachers promote. People gripe about plaintiff's lawyers, but they forget that the defense lawyers would rather be paid by the insurance company they represent, fight a claim, and end up costing the insurance company more money than it would cost to just pay the claim. Not economically smart, but their principle is to fight at all costs.


Molly Ivins pointed out long ago that a corporation would much rather have injured workers than spend the money to install safety equipment so there are few injured and dead workers costing the company money. Not real bright, and expensive to the company, but they are going on principle.