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Diaries

My Back Pages - US Government and Corporations Cooperate To Create Your Dystopian Future

Submitted by joe shikspack on Sat, 03/26/2016 - 12:09pm

I'm slowly bringing some of my old articles over to post here on C99. This is one that I originally published Jun 21, 2013. Now that we are in the midst of FBI vs. Apple wherein the FBI is attempting to compel Apple to become an arm of the surveillance state, some of this seems pretty current in a way.

The US government works closely with thousands of corporations to bring you everything from national security to the drivers of climate change.  The connections between these entities are diverse and often quite opaque making it difficult for citizens to tell who is really in charge.  Is it the corporations with their ultimate responsibility to make a profit for their owners and shareholders, or is it the government with its ultimate responsibility to the electorate that is in charge?  Do the principles of government or business apply to joint decision making processes when government invests in businesses and sits on their boards, or when government agencies have representatives of business sit on task forces and decision making structures?

The economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith wrote, “people of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.”

What happens when the interests of business and government so align, that they are fundamentally, "in the same business?"

Alpha's Alaska-Washington-Hawaii Primary watchers thread.

Submitted by Alphalop on Sat, 03/26/2016 - 11:43am

Hi guys!

I missed the last couple primaries on here due to a combo of personal and a family members health issues so I figured I would check and see if someone had already jumped in to fill the void while I was gone. Smile

If not, we can do it again tonight on this thread or if someone is doing a better one just let me know and I will jump in!

Today's KKKrazy Konservatives are nothing new. They've been with us forever.

Submitted by PastorAgnostic on Sat, 03/26/2016 - 11:27am

When our country was grappling with the scourge that was slavery, we held a party. For reasons unknown, this very uncivil event was misnamed the Civil War, at least by the Yankees. To the loser south, they called it The War Between the States.

One sorry result of our (very un)Civil War was the rapid, widespread growth of a group that named itself after the sound of a firearm being loaded, Ku Klux Klan. Its first appearance was in the late 1860s and slowly petered out to something much smaller by 1890. It was violent, it targeted black leaders, it targeted Republicans. At that time, the GOP was the party of Lincoln. It was liberal, empathic, caring, anti-slavery, pro-worker, and pro humanity, as we might describe it now.

Open Sesame 03/26/16

Submitted by hecate on Sat, 03/26/2016 - 3:07am

When the brown people, they make the bombs and the shootings, in the cities in the countries of the white people, the white people, they wonder: why for art thou, the brown people, making the bombs, and the shootings? Do they hate us for our freedoms? Are they wanting to put food on their familes?

Bread and Roses

Submitted by Gerrit on Fri, 03/25/2016 - 11:08pm

I love protest songs, of all kinds, all eras, all genres, pretty much all the time. Like many here, I'm particularly fond of protest songs from the 60s & 70s; I'm such a folkie, it's embarrassing. I have no expertise but lots of enthusiasm, and I so hope you'd contribute some of your knowledge and experiences of the songs. First, what is a protest song? Phil Ochs has the best definition of them all. Please see below.

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