Our Last, Best Hope for Peace

Corporations are NOT people. While the road is long and rough and there is no certainty of victory, this is our first step out of the darkness.

"The corporate barbarians are through the gate of American democracy. Not satisfied with their all-pervasive influence on our culture, economy and legislative processes, they want more. They want it all.

Two years ago, the United States supreme court betrayed our Constitution and those who fought to ensure that its protections are enjoyed equally by all persons regardless of religion, race or gender by engaging in an unabashed power-grab on behalf of corporate America. In its now infamous decision in the Citizens United case, five justices declared that corporations must be treated as if they are actual people under the Constitution when it comes to spending money to influence our elections, allowing them for the first time to draw on the corporate checkbook – in any amount and at any time – to run ads explicitly for or against specific candidates.

What's next … a corporate right to vote?

...
The US Constitution has served us very well, but when the supreme court says, for purposes of the first amendment, that corporations are people, that writing checks from the company's bank account is constitutionally-protected speech and that attempts by the federal government and states to impose reasonable restrictions on campaign ads are unconstitutional, our democracy is in grave danger." - Senator Bernie Sanders

We Must Stop This Corporate Takeover of American Democracy
(via The Guardian)

The Dirty Truth Behind Apple's Success

This is a terrifying view into what all our of futures may hold, that is, if we are lucky enough to have jobs at all.

"Apple executives say that going overseas, at this point, is their only option. One former executive described how the company relied upon a Chinese factory to revamp iPhone manufacturing just weeks before the device was due on shelves. Apple had redesigned the iPhone’s screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight. 

A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.

“The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,” the executive said. “There’s no American plant that can match that.” 

Similar stories could be told about almost any electronics company — and outsourcing has also become common in hundreds of industries, including accounting, legal services, banking, auto manufacturing and pharmaceuticals."

Karl Marx is smiling smugly in his grave...

Apple, America, and a Squeezed Middle Class 

(via NY Times)

How to Make Money by Running Your Company Out of Business

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney made his millions through scams just like this. The formula is simple, borrow other people's money to buy up businesses, fire a bunch of people to make it more profitable, and then sell it to other investors before your scam is discovered.

How Private Equity Firms Make Their Profit 
(via The New Yorker)

And the Gloves Come Off...

Former Sentator turned lobbyist Chris Dodd is now publicly threatening congressmen who bail on SOPA/PIPA support to "stay bought or else". Never have I seen bribery discussed so openly.

"Those who count on quote 'Hollywood' for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who's going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job is at stake,"-Chris Dodd


MPAA publicly threatens politicians to keep good on their bribes
(via TechDirt.com)

The Assault on Unions Contines

More and more US companies are attempting to break their unions once and for all. When is organized labor going to realize they are about to be put on the endangered species list? When is the American public going to realize their only hope at maintaining anything like a middle class or a ghost of upward mobility in our society also lies with unions?

Lockouts, Once Rare, Put Worders on the Defensive 
(via NY Times)

NY Times Considers Fact Checking

I thought this was the different between "reporting" and "repeating stuff I heard". Seriously? What are they teaching in journalism schools these days?

Should the Times be a truth vigilante? 
(via NY Times) 

What is "Anonymous"?

In recent months the hacker collective known as "Anonymous" has gained increasing mainstream media attention. Sometimes portrayed as heroes and other times as villains the jury seems to still be out on who exactly these people are and what they want. And after you read this three part series by Wired Magazine you'll begin to understand why that is Anonymous' natural state of being and is unlikely to change anytime soon.

Part 1:
Anonymous 101: Part 1
Part 2:
Anonymous 101: Part 2
Part 3:
Anonymous 101: Part 3
(via Wired Magazine)