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)

Rolling Stone Interviews Scott Olsen

Excellent interview from Rolling Stone magazine with Scott Olsen, the veteran ex-marine shot in the head with a 40mm tear gas canister by the Oakland Police Department while peacefully protesting as part of Veterans for Peace.

Scott Olsen - Casualty of the Occupation 
 (via Rolling Stone)


For those of you new to the story here is a short clip of Oakland Police throwing more tear gas and a flashbang at peaceful protesters rushing to aid Olsen after he is critically wounded. I warn you, it is very difficult to watch this happen to an American serviceman on American streets at the hands of American police.

(via Majority FM Radio)

 

Greyhound Driver Evicts Occupy Supporters from Bus

Protesters who were not actively protesting, merely using Greyhound to get to the Occupy Congress protests in DC were evicted from a Greyhound bus because the driver didn't agree with their reasons for traveling to DC.

Just another argument for better public transportation. Private corporations are free to restrict your rights to travel and to speak, the government (ideally) is not.

Greyhound Driver Evicts Occupy Supporters from Bus with Help from Texas Police 
(via opednews.com)

Oil and Gas Companies Hire Climate Scientists to Help them Prepare for Climate Change

As if we needed any more evidence that climate change is real. Now major energy companies are hiring the same climate scientists they publicly discredited to help them ensure they can adapt to the changing conditions as climate change starts to have a real world impact on their operations. 

They Know But Won't Admit It
(via Good Magazine)

Great Recession for the Poor, GreatProfit for the Rich

So much for all that talk about "shared sacrifice"...

Large Businesses Benefit from the Great Recession 
(via Time Magazine)

On the Ground Report from Occupy Congress

Two very important observations from this article:

One, while they were loud outside to get attention they knew to speak softly inside such that their message is actually heard.

"They chanted and cheered and hollered...then all stood in line patiently to get through building security. Once inside the building, the previously boisterous group split apart, becoming suddenly deferential inside congressional offices. Raucous on the outside; concerned average citizen on the inside. One California Occupier I followed walked into his congresswoman's office and asked quietly, "We're doing this correctly right? Asking these people to represent us?" He then went on to tell the staffers that his parents cannot retire and will have to work until they die."

Two, the "disorganized" style of the Occupy protests has some clear advantages.

"And Occupy Congress did manage to pull off a massive protest on the steps of the Supreme Court. This was not planned and had it been, it likely wouldn't have happened. It's illegal to demonstrate on the steps of the highest court in the nation. In October, Cornel West, on the day of the dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial, held a sign reading, "Poverty is the worst form of violence" and was swiftly arrested in "solidarity with the Occupy Movement." Tuesday, with only a handful of Capitol Police around over a thousand Occupiers rushed the steps of the Supreme Court. There was no way for the police to arrest that many people in a massive act of civil disobedience. The protesters then stood on the steps, cheering and chanting for a few moments, before just as swiftly leaving for the White House.


Had they known what they pulled off by accident was so unusual in the post-9/11 world, they might have stayed longer on the steps of the building where Citizens United was decided, facing arrest and forcing a point about the Court. Instead, the "leaderless" movement traipsed down Pennsylvania Avenue to the current home of President Obama."



On the Ground Report from Occupy Congress 
(via The Atlantic Magazine)

They Only Call It Class War When We Fight Back

"Everything the conservative movement stands for is a massive transfer of wealth and power from the poor and working class to the super rich and their wealthy special interests. They only call it class war when the working class and poor fight back. I plan to fight like hell because my dad wasn't a rich Governor like Romney's dad, my dad was a union carpenter who served in Vietnam, and the fact that my dad paid a higher tax rate than Mitt Romney does is fucking obscene."

I didn't come to start a class war, I came to end one
(via Daily KOS)

Did Psychopaths Take Over Wall Street?

"How do people with such obvious personality flaws make it to the top of seemingly successful corporations? Boddy says psychopaths take advantage of the “relative chaotic nature of the modern corporation,” including “rapid change, constant renewal” and high turnover of “key personnel.” Such circumstances allow them to ascend through a combination of “charm” and “charisma,” which makes “their behaviour invisible” and “makes them appear normal and even to be ideal leaders.”

This reminds me of many people I know who get promoted and hired away to new and better paying jobs. How about you?


Did Psychopaths Take Over Wall Street?
(via Bloomberg)

The Coming War on General Computation

"The last 20 years of Internet policy have been dominated by the copyright war, but the war turns out only to have been a skirmish. The coming century will be dominated by war against the general purpose computer, and the stakes are the freedom, fortune and privacy of the entire human race.

The problem is twofold: first, there is no known general-purpose computer that can execute all the programs we can think of except the naughty ones; second, general-purpose computers have replaced every other device in our world. There are no airplanes, only computers that fly. There are no cars, only computers we sit in. There are no hearing aids, only computers we put in our ears. There are no 3D printers, only computers that drive peripherals. There are no radios, only computers with fast ADCs and DACs and phased-array antennas. Consequently anything you do to "secure" anything with a computer in it ends up undermining the capabilities and security of every other corner of modern human society.

And general purpose computers can cause harm -- whether it's printing out AR15 components, causing mid-air collisions, or snarling traffic. So the number of parties with legitimate grievances against computers are going to continue to multiply, as will the cries to regulate PCs.

The primary regulatory impulse is to use combinations of code-signing and other "trust" mechanisms to create computers that run programs that users can't inspect or terminate, that run without users' consent or knowledge, and that run even when users don't want them to.

The upshot: a world of ubiquitous malware, where everything we do to make things better only makes it worse, where the tools of liberation become tools of oppression.

Our duty and challenge is to devise systems for mitigating the harm of general purpose computing without recourse to spyware, first to keep ourselves safe, and second to keep computers safe from the regulatory impulse."

Cory Doctorow

(via the Chaos Communication Congress - 2011)

Chicago to Outlaw Protest

Here's a free history lesson. Anytime someone in power tells you something is "temporary" or "one time only" call them a liar and immediate begin plans to remove them from office.

"Not even a month has passed since Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, a Democrat, requested that the Chicago city council enact what he termed “temporary” and “one-time only” anti-protest measures in advance of the overlapping NATO and G-8 summits that will be held in the city from May 15-22. During a press conference held on January 4, Emanuel claimed that he “misspoke,” and that many of the proposed antidemocratic ordinances will in fact be permanent."



Proposed Chicago anti-protest laws to become permanent 
 

Republicans Attempt to Stop Students from Voting

"William O’Brien, the speaker of the New Hampshire State House, told a Tea Party group earlier this year that students are “foolish” and tend to “vote their feelings” because they lack life experience. “Voting as a liberal,” he said, “that’s what kids do.” And that’s why, he said, he supported measures to prohibit students from voting from their college addresses and to end same-day registration."

 If you are a student who lives out of state plan early to either vote as an absentee or get your driver's license updated to reflect your local college address before election season 2012.


Keeping College Students From the Polls

CA Occupiers Face Felony Lynching Charges

In a gross perversion of the original intent of anti-lynching laws from the Klu Klux Klan days police in California have begun to charge certain people arrested for peacefully protesting during Occupy rallies with lynching. Yes, that kind of lynching. At what point will the police just drop the pretense and start arresting people for protesting in general?

Occupy Activists Lynching Allegation 
(via MSNBC)

The Mainstream Media Finally Understand SOPA/PIPA

At least it appears the mainstream media has both noticed and recognized the importance of SOPA/PIPA.

SOPA Explained
(via CNN)

Wikipedia goes dark on piracy bill protest day
(via MSNBC)

5 things to know about the SOPA protest
(via FoxNews)

You could be forgiven for thinking this means the fight is over. However, it is much more likely that the fight is just beginning. Now that the 1% has noticed the power of the internet expect future attempts to censor the internet to be more cunning and stealthy.

Stephen Colbert on the NDAA

A blistering critique from Stephen Colbert on the National Defense Authorization Act. Basically the NDAA, which Obama signed into law, makes it legal for the US Military to indefinitely detain anyone, including American Citizens, anywhere in the world, including in the US.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/405274/january-05-2012/the-word---catch-2012 
(via Stephen Colbert)