Corporate greed, corruption, and the coming collapse

[Joanne98]

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=30453
The U.S. government, once crafted as a system that would serve the interests of the people, has devolved into a system of plutocracy where corporations control both the government and the people. Virtually every government regulatory department, for example, is now run by the corporations it is supposed to be regulating. Just look at the FDA, USDA, FTC, FCC, NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) and most other government regulatory bodies and you'll find a room full of politicians and bureaucrats who utterly disregard the People while prioritizing the financial needs of influential corporations.

Our nation's policies on health, finances, agricultural, national defense and even education are increasingly slanted towards enriching the corporations, usually at the expense of the People. Even worse, the People have come to fear their government here in the United States, and any time a government gains so much power that the people begin to fear it, the scenario is set for police state atrocities against the citizens. In a healthy society, you see, the government fears the people, and it's this fear of being replaced or kicked out of office that keeps government bureaucrats in line. But in America, that's been lost, replaced by a tyrannical system of government that treats the people like common criminals. Don't believe me? Just try to board an airplane without being detained and searched against your will. Try to bring a bottle of water on an airplane and see how much "freedom" you still have left in America today.

How did the corporations gain so much power over government and the people? It's simple: Campaign finances. The corporations hire hoards of lobbyists who dart in and out of lawmakers' offices in Washington, leaving behind trails of cash and corruption. Most lawmakers hardly ever meet with the actual people they claim to represent. Instead, they spend their time cavorting with corporate rabblerousers who operate based on the simple principle of greed. Think Enron, but times a thousand. That's who controls Congress today.

To keep the People in line, public protests have been limited and outlawed in many areas, where new fenced-in "free speech zones" have been set up to force protestors to protest out of the way somewhere. (Note to all: If free speech is limited to a "zone" then it isn't free speech at all!) At every turn, the U.S. government seeks to marginalize the power of the People and expand its own reach and power, usually at the behest of the wealthy corporations pulling the strings backstage.

The natural cycle of collapse and rebirth

So where is it all heading? To a desperate place, unfortunately.
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=30453

[Phredicles]

1. Posting for ease of re-finding when I have access to a printer...

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[NMDemDist2]

6. welcome to DU AmericanAlways

:hi:

but I have to ask what the heck does that old WTC7 chestnut have to do with the corporations?

if you want to discuss the WTC7 please make your self at home in the 9/11 forum.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=125

As for the open borders, I agree that it's too easy for possible terrorists to slip over that porous border, however, I would remind you at all of the 19 hijackers had entered this country legally. The illegal immigration will stop when the immigrants can no longer find work, and that won't happen until the Corporations start paying the price for depressing wages by hiring thousands of illegal immigrants.

In the mean time, don't buy into the Republican scare tactics eh?

[bluerum]

9. Da fence boss, da fence.

The whole fence idea is simply hilarious and I can't believe that anyone would seriously buy into that crap.

My hope is that you forgot the :sarcasm: smiley, or that you expected people to realize you were being facetious.

[proReality]

11. Tell me...

Do you honestly believe that a fence at the Mexico-U.S. border will keep illegals or criminals or terrorists out? Will no one try to cross from the Canadian side? Or for that matter, what about the thousands of miles of open coastline on the east and west sides of this nation?

Anyone who believes that a fence will solve a problem, or that any part of life offers true security, is viewing life through tunnel vision. I don't mean that as an insult, only that all people need to get over being so myopic in their views on security.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

12. but the fence creates JOBS and MONEY

except we have to hire dem wetback ill-eagles to build the damn thing just to keep the profits up.

a forty foot fence means a 41 foot ladder.
a three mile fence means a 1.6 mile walk.

[proReality]

14. Well, hell...

let's get started on a fence construction company of our own. After all, money is what we're all about and fear is our motto. We can make a fortune on our round-the-nation fence that we can then turn into a bigger fortune by selling shovels and cement to fill in all the holes in the sand and earth that the illegals, criminals and terrorists dig to circumvent our fence. As a sideline we could make another fortune by printing signs of warning to keep children off the beaches due to the danger of the landmines that we lay down as another deterrent. The possibilities are endless for making a fortune here.

Move over Halliburton! antifaschits and I are going into business.

[tbyg52]

3. Yes! "It's the corporations, stupid!" nt

[Vincardog]

4. WE need to institute the Death Penalty for Corporations found to be Parasitic and working

Contrary to the Interests of Human beings and living things everywhere.

[tbyg52]

15. Exactly.

The only case in which I am in favor of the death penalty!

[Flatulo]

22. That could pretty much apply to every corporation.

[progressoid]

5. marking this for a late night read.

[OwnedByFerrets]

7. This needs more recommendations

[blondie58]

8. great article, Joanne 98

yep, this is exactly what is going on with our great country.

[femrap]

10. We need to outlaw Lobbyists.

Turn K Street into low-income housing.

[tomreedtoon]

13. The deal-breaker: he's a "holistic nutritionist."

In other words, he's a person defrauding people on a small scale, possibly envious of the corporations defrauding people on a large scale. For decades, people like this have been telling us "horror stories about your food" while convincing us to eat pine cones and old automobile carburetors...or selling us their hyped-up "all natural" cures...or selling us massagers with "healing light" on late-night TV infomercials.

Thanks, bud, and I do believe there are hard times for America ahead, but I think I'll face them as part of the reality-based community.

[Joe Chi Minh]

18. Work for Monsanto, do we? Del Monte? You wouldn't know reality

from a hole in the ground.

[Chico Man]

20. How about the "detoxification foot spa"!

Using negative ions no less.

http://www.doctorajadams.com/DetoxFootSpa.html

[Webster Green]

23. Where did you pick up that load of crap?

"pine cones and old automobile carburetors"?

WTF are you talking about anyway?

[MrPrax]

39. He's a spammer as well!!!

If you read farther down the page!!

He probably uses his email operation to spam his New Age-y "mercury-free, energy-efficient LED lighting products"!!.

At this point, I am inclined to put more stock in what some old guy who "enjoys outdoor activities, nature photography, Pilates and adult gymnastics" says over the President of the United States or you anyway. I figure less people would be hurt with guys like this in charge.

Thank You for pointing out history's worst monster...
...some old guy with an opinion and a small internet business. :eyes:

[Odin2005]

41. When ever I see the word "holistic" I assume "quackery"

"Holistic" is such an abused word it's pathetic. The New Age crazies and the quacks that parasitize them have turned a perfectly good word into a symbol of kookiness.

[DemReadingDU]

16. morning kick

[Highway61]

17. Is anyone else here scared?

I read this last night...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3336261

Just when I think I have read or seen it all...I get wowed all over again. This is not just serious...we're in crisis mode here folks. Why oh why, when the people spoke in November, did Pelosi even mutter the words "impeachment is not on the table!" Why isn't EVERYONE in congress outraged? Have they had their heads in the sand?
Yesterday morning on Meet The Press they talked about a 3rd party on the ballot. "This is the perfect time for this sort of thing." (Sounds like Rove is in the mix again.) The Dems are, by no means, as aggressive as they should be...so to add a "3rd party" to the mix will divide those who will vote Dem and the Re-pugs will win again (with a little help from electronic voting machines) as they are united in numbers as they always will be. Simple math (as well as simple scheming)
There is zero room for error and complacency...Gitmo isn't going to close...It's just that there is too much light on them there so they will move the "prisoners" to a new undisclosed location out of the lime light. Those "prisoners" could very well be you and I....simply for being on the "wrong" side of the tracks politically....Check this out...it is very chilling...

http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2004/FEMA-Concentration-Camps3sep04.htm

:cry:

[Chico Man]

19. Searching people before they board an airplane is hardly tyrannical

Does the author propose we eliminate airport security?

[Wednesdays]

29. To be fair, there is a difference between real security

and knee-jerk paranoia, which is what I think the author was pointing out.

[BlueEyedSon]

21. Revoke Corporate Personhood

[The Cleaner]

24. Welcome to the Bush years.

Glad it's almost over...

[NeedleCast]

25. The End Is Near!

Meh, I'm not buying. Yeah, things are bad here in the states, but I'd still rather be here than just about any other country. This doom-and-gloom stuff, I'm just tired of it. Really not much different than it's always been since the days of priests standing on the corner telling us to repent because the end is near.

Further, the arguments in the article are not good ones. I'm not sure how it's tyrannical to have to pass through a security checkpoint before we get on a plane. Pain in the ass for sure, but we live in a society that has laws. Extrapolating from the authors argument, he might also say "drive 85 MPH in a 45 MPH zone, get stopped for speeding, punch the cop in the face and see how much "freedom" you have." I fly at least once a month and have been detained and searched against my will zero times.

The author's argument seems to be that peopel can't protest freely now. With the exception of major political events, this is also false, as there are still daily protests of a myriad of things right in front of the white house.

I agree that our rights have been seriously erroded under the Bush administration and that it's a dangerous trend, hopefully one we're going to see broken in 2008, but I'm tired of this end is near bullshit.

I'm going to keep fighting. I'm not going to give up. I'm not going to buy into this doomsday scenario.

[Stevepol]

26. It's not just campaign finance that has made America fascist.

Here's the statement from the article:

"How did the corporations gain so much power over government and the people? It's simple: Campaign finances. The corporations hire hoards of lobbyists who dart in and out of lawmakers' offices in Washington, leaving behind trails of cash and corruption. Most lawmakers hardly ever meet with the actual people they claim to represent. Instead, they spend their time cavorting with corporate rabblerousers who operate based on the simple principle of greed. Think Enron, but times a thousand. That's who controls Congress today."

Don't forget the electronic voting machines. If we can get the corporations out of our elections, I'll take my chances on all the other forms of corporate control. W/o the voting machines, both the individual machines and the central tabulators, all types, I am certain Bush wd not have won in 04 and of course he didn't win in 2000 and wouldn't have if people had had enough courage to push the issue to the breaking point and beyond. If Bush is not elected, all these incompetents and frauds wouldn't be manning all these agencies. The key to my mind remains the voting machines.

The dirty tricks are important too, the ex-felon lists, caging lists, ID requirements, etc. etc. ad infinitum, but their overall effect isn't great enough to put these criminals in high office. But there's no court of last resort to use in dealing with the voting machines. This is it. What you see is what you get: totally secret voting basically without verification of any kind.

[Tellurian]

33. I agree, and here is how we got there!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=3325856

and here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=3337239&mesg_id=3337239

[HCE SuiGeneris]

27. kick

[emald]

28. long have I advocated the elimination of personhood for corporations

too much power, too much wealth. Corporations should be taxed heavily and regulated minutely. They fuck us all the time, re gas prices. Time to screw them.

[katty]

34. yup, 'personhood' for corps?! as if they care about the 'individual'

or the health of a society...

[bbgrunt]

30. this says it all.

[yardwork]

31. This is absolutely true and the real problem facing us. k&r

[Tellurian]

32. I don't believe the author of this article has a good grasp

How did the corporations gain so much power over government and the people? It's simple: Campaign finances. The corporations hire hoards of lobbyists who dart in and out of lawmakers' offices in Washington, leaving behind trails of cash and corruption. Most lawmakers hardly ever meet with the actual people they claim to represent. Instead, they spend their time cavorting with corporate rabblerousers who operate based on the simple principle of greed. Think Enron, but times a thousand. That's who controls Congress today.

of why thing are the way they are..corporations cannot dictate. They are at the mercy of whoever is in power at the time. The Bush Administration is operating in the extreme of the spectrum of power, simply because, they have shredded the Constitution, People's Rights and seek to Privatize every aspect of government. Changing Campaign Finance Rules have nothing to do with corporate power. Corporations are always at the mercy of the next administration. So, the author's narrative is based on a false premise that all administrations are the same..They're not!

[Prophet 451]

35. No, but all administrations do share certain things

Or, at least, all recent admins have. All recent US administrations have been, to one extent or another, corporatist. They have all, to one extent or another, believed in teh US's right to rule the world.

[Tellurian]

43. I don't have a problem with that..

When the US is controlled by Democrats, they are perceived as benevolent.

When the US is controlled by Republicans, they are true to form, malevolent!

[Prophet 451]

44. The rest of the world does though

It's difficult to get across to Americans how insulting the idea is that the US has either the duty or the right to rule the world. I'm a Brit, we've been down that road and it turned out to be the world's biggest cluster-fuck. No one nation can or should be allowed to rule the world.

[Tellurian]

45. Yes, I feel your pain!

Britania has always been the conquerer, colonializing every world it touches. Now, the US has stepped into the role of doing the dirty work for the UK, which is not something I admire or relish as the pit bull representative for greed and power.

[Prophet 451]

46. Um, you're not doing our dirty work

Yes, we were bastards and colonised everything we could lay hands on. That was a collosal mistake. We admit that (well, most of us do). The US is currently doing it for reasons of it's own, not because we want them to.

[Tellurian]

47. nnnnnnno!

Well, if you think I'm going to swallow that bit of shakey history down whole, Tra-La-La! Try, again! :rofl: Have you heard of British Petroleum, aka BP (petrol)? Of course you have. When the Brits finally realized they didn't have to colonize the US (and please, don't think I mean to offend) and King George lengthened the leash, it all worked out perfectly for the Brits living across the pond. After all, KGI said, "we don't have to feed them! Our arms will extend across the sea!"

We've always had a partnership with Britian for as long as they've been chronicaling history. They are the ties that bind..

please forgive sp errors...spellck on holiday!

[Prophet 451]

48. What the fug are you talking about?

BP are an oil company, they're not that powerful and George III didn't "lengthen the leash", you kicked us out! (with the aid of the French)

If Britain has so much power over the USA, why did Reagan invade Grenada (a crown protectorate at the time) without a word to us?

This is just a shot in the dark but you do know that the John Birch stuff is bollocks, right?

[Tellurian]

49. No shot in the dark..

There have always been secret meetings between The UK and the US inconsistent with appearances. And Britain did indeed lengthen the leash as was evident, due to secret negotiations, after the Battle of Yorktown.

George III didn't "lengthen the leash", you kicked us out! (with the aid of the French)

"Benjamin Franklin never informed France of the secret negotiations that took place directly between London and Washington. Britain relinquished her rule over the Thirteen Colonies and granted them all the land south of the Great Lakes and east of the Mississippi River. However, since France was not included in the American-British peace discussions, the alliance between France and the colonies was broken. Thus the influence of France and Spain in future negotiations was limited."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France_in_the_American_Revolutionary_War

The pov expressed here has nothing to do with Birch and everything to do with the secret meetings and dynamics between the UK and the US whether historically documented or not. You may disagree, that is your privilege, but I don't believe we would have invaded Grenada without the consent and knowledge of the UK. (Thatcher may have feigned surprise and been publicly appalled, but she knew.)

Just ask yourself, when has it ever been a mandate and incumbent on government to be honest with the public?

[Prophet 451]

50. OK, I'll give you that one

But still, it's a long jump from some kind of secret cooperation to the US doing our "dirty work".

[truedelphi]

36. The power that has been gained is not simply

Related to corporate financing of the elections.

Although the corporate financing as such is part and parcel of the de-empowerment of the indiviual,
to a great degree, the average individual has lost his pwoer to a confluence of regimentation.

We are TOLD that science is the new religion - and then barraged with ads for the latest medications and vaccines. People are waking up and beginning to realize that alternative health
practices may be far more likely to help their particular medical condition.

People are beginning to wake up to the fact that the first wave of scientifically proven
"advancements" has come at a cost - the pesticides, fertilizers that were part of the "Green Revolution" can also bring about impaired an immune system, chronic health conditions like Parkinson's and MS and cancer.

With the recent pet food scare, people are now doubting that these "regulatory" agencies are anything special. I am surprised at the numebrs of people that still think that it is only our pet food oversight that is minimal - these are people who are gonna be sucker punched by many of the worst products that the FDA and other agencies are approving. (it has been bad enough to watch friends mourn their sick and dying pets - what happens when we get to watch first hand the famines that will occur beause of genetically modified foods, weeds, bacteria, viruses?)

[Prophet 451]

37. Mildly alarmist

The author seems to be predicting full-scale societal collapse. I don't think that's a viable scenario. The story of Germany between the wars wasn't down purely to hyperinflation, it was also contributed to by the humiliating defeat of WWI (shades of Iraq, admittedly) and the massive social upheaval that most of the western world went through in the twenties and thirties (and I don't think that one's true of the US).

Rather, I think we're more likely to be looking at a scenario similar to the opening scenes of V For Vendetta (the film, not the book) where a fascistic administration uses the fear of the masses to install itself and maintains it's power both through sheer force and through the fear of chaos. This is how most dictatorships (in the modern sense) maintain their power, not just through force but through the human fear of the unknown, the idea that without them providing the iron fist (with or without the velvet glove), things would be even worse.

I think what you will see (and Bush has already laid the groundwork for much of this) is increasing social unrest caused by both a lowering of living standards and massive social change. However, because the people of the US, while not evil, are easily distracted, the rage will be mostly undirected. They'll rant and rave about things going to hell but they won't know what to do about it or who to blame and, like people in similar situations tend to, they'll swing to the right. They'll vote in Bush or Cheney or somebody like them who will train that unease toward easily victimised targets they (the administration) dislike while gradually and mostly quietly, eroding personal freedoms. We are at this point RIGHT NOW. The oil won't run out for some time yet so I suspect what we're likely to see is some national emergency (possibly genuine, possibly invented) which will be used to assert martial law and the powers of a dictator (or very nearly). However, they won't go as far as, say, Saudi Arabia because that provides them with a figleaf of legitimacy. They'll be able to say "We don't behead people" and thereby legitimise themselves.

Where things go after that depends on the brains and mindset of the person in power. If they're bright and pragmatic, you'll see a massive scaling back on the use of oil, possibly rationing, possibly justified by some war effort. The wasteful, energy intensive lifestyles of Americans (and much of the western world, to be fair) would be corrected by rigid oppression. Worrying as that thought is, it's better than the alternative. The alternative course is that the leaders are either stupid or fatalistic and continue that energy intensive lifestyle, probably as a kind of "bread and circuses". That woudl lead to more wars to control the resources and probably a draft because it would be the only way to staff teh military. Read Orwell for some idea of where that might end up.

One thing I'm sure of: Something's coming. I can't put my finger on it but there's almost a psychic sense of something building, a feeling that change is in the air. Whether that's a change for good or ill remains to be seen.

[EVDebs]

38. YouTube has a link to The Corporation movie

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=FA50FBC214A6CE87

an interesting 'synopsis' showing that corporations are pathological,

"The Pathology of Commerce

Dr. Robert Hare, a consultant to the FBI on psychopaths, draws parallels between a psychopath and the modern corporation. His findings corroborate the following behavior:

Callous unconcern for the feelings of others
Incapacity to maintain enduring relationships
Reckless disregard for the safety of others
Deceitfulness: Repeated lying and conning of others for profit
Incapacity to experience guilt
Failure to conform to the social norms with respect to lawful behaviors"


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Corporation

[trekbiker]

40. I have Kunstler's book. Very good book but oil isnt about to

run out anytime soon. Oil will be around for hundreds of years, only it will be too expensive to frivolously burn up cars. A much larger problem isnt the lack of oil, its what turning a trillion tons of coal into oil and burning it will do to our environment, not to mention the coal fired electric plants China and the rest of us are bringing on-line every week or so.

I agree with the OP that corporations own our country but I think the fall of our empire is going to play out over a longer time period, maybe even the rest of this century

[lovuian]

42. Capitalism ishaving its last gasp

its got death rattles can't you hear it