Mn-prog-events Mailing List: Progressive Calendar 08.25.06

[David Shove (shove001]

            P R O G R E S S I V E   C A L E N D A R    08.25.06

1. Northwest strike 8.25 4pm
2. Palestine vigil  8.25 5:30pm
3. Phillips photos  8.25 7pm

4. Provencher et al - Let Ken Pentel debate
5. Green Party      - The big ride for single payer health care
6. Jane Smiley      - CEO president

--------1 of 6--------

From: Karen Schultz <schulars [at] bitstream.net>
Subject: Northwest strike 8.25 4pm

Countdown to  Schedule Update 08/24/06

Strike Deadline is Friday August 25, 2006 at 10:01pm EDT; 9:01pm CDT;
8:01pm MDT; 07:01pm PDT; 04:01pm HST.

CHAOS may occur any time after the strike deadline passes.

We've rejected the unlivable TAs. We've won the Court ruling. We've
endured NWA management's broken promises and assaults on our dignity and
self-respect for far too long. The time has come to join together and
stand united for fairness, dignity and righteousness. We have given
management every opportunity to reach a respectable agreement, while
providing for the continuing and competitive operation of the corporation.
Their incompetence is unacceptable and their treatment of employees
outrageous. We will be seen. We will be heard. We will be respected and we
will be victorious in this fight for a fair wage, livable work rules and
management's respect.

All CHAOS events are open to Northwest Flight Attendants, families and
friends. Please bring your airline ID. CHAOS t-shirts will be available at
most events. Any Flight Attendant may attend unless you are on duty
between the time of airport sign-in and pattern release.

MSP

Leafleting: Friday August 25, 2006 4:00pm to 6:00pm. Meet at the Employee
bus drop-off point at the Transit Area.

Picketing: Friday August 25, 2006 7:30pm to 9:15pm. Meet at the Employee
bus drop-off point at the Transit Area.

Contact: Bob Felechner 612.220.3310 rfelechner [at] mn.rr.com


--------2 of 6--------

From: erin [at] mnwomen.org
Subject: Palestine vigil 8.25 5:30pm

Friday, August 25: Women's International League for Peace and Freedom weekly
vigil in solidarity with the people of Palestine. 5:30PM at the intersection
of Summit and Snelling Avenues in St. Paul. For more information contact
651/458-7090.


--------3 of 6--------

From: flo x <flowalksfree [at] justice.com>
Subject: Phillips photos 8.25 7pm

YOUTH OF PHILLIPS DEFINE THEIR REALITIES THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHY
Art of This Gallery
3222 Bloomington Ave Minneapolis
612 721 4105
www.artofthis.net
gallery [at] artofthis.net

Opening: August 25th 7-9pm
Gallery Hours:
Saturday August 26th 1-6pm

The Phillips neighborhood of South Minneapolis is considered one of the
worst, most violent, crime and poverty-ridden areas of Minneapolis. Yet,
beneath it all is a life rich with culture and diversity, a place the
residents call home and care about.

7 girls, grades 7-9, from the Phillips neighborhood set out in June of
2006 to capture their neighborhood on film.  All residents of Phillips,
these young women understand the stereotypes and perceptions that surround
their neighborhood and them as residents, yet also understand a side those
from the outside will never know.

As part of the Waite House Community Center summer programs, these young
women have taken 9 weeks to create a photography exhibit that will break
these stereotypes and pre-conceived notions of what Phillips is and who
they are as residents.

"Probably u think wrong about this Phillips community. If you look up
close and pay attention this neighborhood is a neighborhood full of joy,
fun and respect." --Raquel, Phillips Youth Photographer

"People should come see this show because it inspires us to keep being
happy and proud to be apart of this community and not ashamed because what
other people say. Plus, it displays the good and bad to equal "PHILLIPS
NEIGHBORHOOD". " --Rose, Phillips Youth Photographer

"I think people should come because they can see the good things about the
Phillips and so they don?t think it bad and so when they come they can see
that the Phillips is not all bad. It?s a good neighborhood and not all
bad." --Nina, Phillips Youth Photographer

"People should come see our exhibit because it expresses what our
community is like through our eyes. It shows all the good qualities of our
community as well as the bad." --Dorothy, Phillips Youth Photographer

For More Information, or to schedule an interview with the youth, contact;
K. Flo Razowsky flowalksfree [at] justice.com 612 872 4995


--------4 of 6--------

From: PRO826 [at] aol.com
Subject: Let Ken Debate

Greens and environmentalists,
  Due to our minor party status, the Green Party Pentel for Governor
campaign is being deemed as insignificant and is being shut out from
participating in a very important debate sponsored by several
environmental organizations.

Please contact The Envision Minnesota Project and request that Ken Pentel
be allowed to participate since we ARE the environmental political party.
Read more below.

Thanks, Danene Provencher Green Party of MN endorsed Lt. Gov candidate

-- 
Contact Us
The Envision Minnesota Project
1000 Friends of Minnesota
26 Exchange St E Suite 317 St Paul Minnesota, 55101
Telephone: 651-312-1000 Fax:  651-312-0012 Email:
info [at] envisionminnesota.org

Please join us for a Gubernatorial Debate and Citizens' Convention
Saturday,  September 16th
9am-1pm
St Cloud State University
Hosted by WCCO's Don  Shelby

Dear Friend of Minnesota's  Environment,
Be sure to attend this year's only governor's candidate debate focused on
the environment and the economy.  Stay afterward for the "Citizen
Convention." Attendees will engage in discussions and get to vote (by cell
phone, a la "American Idol") on environmental and conservation issues that
mean the most to them.  You'll then identify ways to elevate the issues of
growth, energy and conservation in public debate.

The following organizations are  participating in this campaign:
1000 Friends of  Minnesota
Audubon  Minnesota
Clean Water Action Alliance of  MN
Fresh Energy (formerly  ME3)
Friends of the Mississippi  River
Izaak Walton League of  America--Minnesota Division
Minnesota Center  for Environmental Advocacy
Minnesota  Environmental Partnership
Minnesota LCV  Education Fund
Minnesota League of  Conservation Voters
Minnesota  Project
Parks & Trails Council of  MN

Sponsored by Envision Minnesota to elevate issues of growth, energy, and
conservation

---
From: Kristen Olson  Krisrose02 [at] aol.com
Subject: [discuss] Envision Minnesota Gubernatorial Debate

To Whom it May Concern,

I am writing to express my disappointment that you are not including the
Green Party candidate, Ken Pentel, in the Envision Minnesota gubernatorial
debate.

I respectfully ask that you do.

Ken Pentel is the most environmentally savvy candidate in the race this
year, and the Green Party's platform most expresses Ecological Wisdom and
Environmental Justice of any party platform.

The Greens were able to raise 17,365 signature to get their candidates on
the ballot in only two weeks.  I believe that is a very good indication
that Minnesotans want to hear from Green Party candidates, and are willing
to vote for them in November.  Please also consider the showings of the
Green Party candidates for Mayor in Minneapolis and St. Paul last year,
receiving 14% and 20% in their respective primaries (with Elizabeth
Dickinson nearly unseating the incumbent candidate in St. Paul.)

Again, I respectfully request that you invite Ken Pentel to debate.

a voter in Minnesota, Kristen Olson 651-210-0789 2425 County Road C2 #216
Roseville, MN 55113

---
From: Mark Snyder <snyde043 [at] tc.umn.edu>

To whom it may concern:

While I appreciate the invitation to your event, I was disappointed to
learn that your planned gubernatorial debate would exclude Green Party
candidate Ken Pentel, who ironically, would be the gubernatorial candidate
with the strongest environmental credentials among those invited. Pentel
has been a tireless advocate for renewable energy, sustainable agriculture
and other environmental issues for many years.

I cannot consider attending an event that would bill itself as a "Citizen
Convention" while ignoring the voices of the 17,365 Minnesotans who stated
they wish to see candidates of the Green Party of Minnesota participate in
2006 elections. I hope that you will reconsider your decision and allow
Pentel to participate in this event.

I look forward to hearing from you on this issue.

Mark Snyder 2302 Johnson St NE Minneapolis, MN 55418 snyde043 [at] umn.edu


--------5 of 6--------

From: "Berger, Dave" <dberger [at] inverhills.mnscu.edu>
Subject: The big ride for single payer health care

Green Party of Minnesota
Contact Rhoda Gilman, Green Party of MN Politics Chair: 651-224-6383
_rhodagilman [at] earthlink.net_ (mailto:rhodagilman [at] earthlink.net)

GREEN PARTY CANDIDATES ADVOCATE A BETTER ROUTE FOR HEALTH CARE IN
MINNESOTA -- JOIN US ON THE BIG RIDE FOR SINGLE PAYER HEALTH CARE

Edina, Minneapolis, St. Paul** This Labor Day, September 4, Green Party
candidates for MN House, MN Senate, US Senate, US House, Governor, State
Auditor, and Attorney General will pedal a seven-seated cycle from Edina,
through the Fifth Congressional District, to the State Fair Grounds in
Falcon Heights, and on through St. Paul to a Green Party-sponsored Single
Payer Picnic at Harriet Island.

The candidates chose to ride the seven-seated cycle (a.k.a. cycle seven)
as a symbol of better health for our citizens and a better environment for
our state.  They will stop in several locations to address the press and
public on the need for universal single-payer health care for all
Minnesotans.

"The Big Ride for Single Payer Health Care" will kick off in Edina at
8:30am, at Fairview Southdale Hospital outside the parking ramp (On the
West side of France Avenue just South of Highway 62).  Julie Risser, Green
Party candidate for MN Senate in District 41 and Dave Berger, Green Party
candidate for State Auditor will address the press and public at the
kick-off point for the cycle seven.

"One of the biggest flaws in our system is that health insurance is tied
to employment. You lose your job you are dealt a one-two punch: loss of
income, loss of health coverage."  Risser says.  "Implementing a universal
single-payer system in Minnesota would ensure access to needed health care
for all Minnesotans, and reduce the administrative and financial burden on
Minnesota businesses.  It is time for Minnesota to lead the way to a
better health care system."

"This ride is a chance for us to work together in a healthy and fun way to
promote accountability and justice in the Minnesota health care system,"
says Dave Berger, candidate for Minnesota State Auditor.  "The current
system is an out-of-control corporate bureaucracy that allows gigantic
health insurance companies and executives to make billions of dollars from
insurance premiums. We need to reduce this waste and corruption by moving
to one simple form with a single payer representing all of the people in
this state and nation."

Jay Pond, candidate for US House in the 5th Congressional District will
speak at the Children's Hospital in Minneapolis (2525 Chicago Ave) between
10:20 and 10:30 am.

Jesse Mortenson, candidate for MN House in district 64A will speak at the
Family Tree Clinic in St. Paul between 12:20 and 12:30am.  The clinic is
located at 1619 Dayton Avenue in St. Paul.

Ken Pentel, candidate for Minnesota Governor will join the others and
speak when the bicycle reaches the Minnesota State Fair at 2:10pm, at the
Main Gate in Falcon Heights (Snelling and Dan Patch Avenues).

The candidates will then stop by the Capitol building for a photo op at
3:20pm.

Michael Cavlan, Candidate for US Senate, and Papa John Kolstad, candidate
for Attorney General will speak at Regions Hospital in St. Paul between
3:55 and 4:10 pm.

"The Big Ride" will end at 5:00 pm at Harriet Island, where all of the
candidates will assemble for a press conference and picnic at the main
entrance to the park.

"As a nurse, I work in the trenches of health care. Every day, nurses and
doctors observe the corrupting influence of HMOs on the health care
industry," says Michael Cavlan, candidate for US Senate. "I call for
Minnesota to lead the nation by instituting single payer health care.
Single payer health care will not only be good for the people of
Minnesota, but it will be good for business."

The Green Party of Minnesota is founded on the values of Grassroots
Democracy, Non-Violence, Social and Economic Justice, and Ecological
Wisdom

For more information on the Green Party candidates see:
www.mngreens.org/candidates

For more information on the Green Party see: _www.mngreens.org_
(http://www.mngreens.org)

For more information on Universal Single-Payer Health Care see:

Minnesota Universal Health Care Coalition _www.muhcc.org_
(http://www.muhcc.org) Physicians for a National Health Care
_www.phnp.org_ (http://www.phnp.org)

For more information on the cycle seven see: _www.cycleseven.com_
(http://www.cycleseven.com)


--------6 of 6---------

This blog by Jane Smiley, novelist and Professor of English at Iowa State,
was published in Ariana Huffington's e-mail.

CEO PRESIDENT
Jane Smiley

In the late eighties, I wrote a novel called A Thousand Acres. Everyone
thought it was about incest and "King Lear". To me, those were plot
elements that I was using in service to the theme, which concerned the
transformation of the midwestern American landscape from a unique,
diverse, and rather fragile natural ecosystem that supported methods of
European animal and grain farming imported by German, English, and
Scandinavian farmers during the nineteenth century to a denuded and
lifeless "food" factory in which a few crops (corn, soybeans, hogs, and
beef) and the money that could be made from them pushed every other
consideration of human endeavor and biodiversity to the margins, or
snuffed them out entirely.

My book was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and made into a movie. American
agriculture got worse.

In the early nineties, I wrote another novel about farming called Moo, a
comic novel that took place on the campus of a land grant university.
While researching Moo, I discovered BSE, which was only just then (1992)
emerging in the UK as a relative of scrapie, a form of brain-wasting
disease that occurs in sheep. As far as I know, the references to BSE in
Moo were the first to appear in the US. The characters in Moo discuss the
practice of feeding cows, normally vegetarians, the animal byproducts of
sheep farming. They are appalled. And it still seems like a no-brainer. If
cows eat offal and then people eat cows, a certain proportion of people
will become ill with sheep and cow diseases, and, voila, scrapie crossed
two species barriers - to cows and to humans - because the agriculture
corporations either didn't know what they were doing or didn't care.
Nevertheless, American agriculture got worse.

After I left Iowa and started writing about other things, the ag companies
(according to Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma and the film "The
Future of Food"), continued to perpetrate vicious idiocies, and to do so
in a more and more aggressive manner, challenging the rights, and the
abilities, of people in all parts of the world to have any say in the
nature and composition of the food we put into our bodies. They have done
so, as far as I can tell, solely for profit. They have exhibited greed
that crosses over from mere selfish immoral criminality into actual
insanity.

Here's an example. By the time I was writing A Thousand Acres, it had been
apparent for some twenty-five or thirty years that insecticides and
herbicides were contaminating the landscape and the water supply, killing
off wildlife, destroying fertility in males and females of all species,
and causing disease in the farmers themselves and their families. The
common sense solution to this increasing problem would have been to
acknowledge the destructive power of these unnatural chemicals, and to
have shifted American agriculture away from their use. The ag companies,
however, preferred to remake the ecosystem so that farmers would use more
chemicals rather than fewer; they genetically modified seed to make it
resistant to an herbicide, Round-up, that when applied would destroy every
living plant around it except the proprietary seed plants also owned by
the corporation that formulated Round-up. This is exactly analogous to an
act of war against the natural ecosystem.
  It produced acts of war against the farmers, too, because Monsanto
aggressively pursued royalty payments from anyone and everyone who had
those genetically modified plants in their fields, no matter how they got
there, and even if the farmer didn't want them there. Let's say vandals
invade your house, eat all your food, drink all your liquor, and make a
terrible mess. After they burn the house down, they send you a bill, and
sue you if you don't pay it. And the judge backs them up. That is what
Monsanto has done to the farmer, and what it is doing to the ecosystem.
  Still, it's a no-brainer. If chemicals are killing us and our world, we
stop manufacturing the chemicals, unless we are insanely greedy and
demonically possessed by the idea that every single element of life, every
seed and bit of DNA can and must be owned by someone. Here's what the big
ag companies want to do - they want to own and contaminate the entire gene
pool of all the world's food resources for their own profit and without
the knowledge or input of anyone who will actually be eating the food or
living in the world they create. So far, the French and the Japanese and
some other nations are standing firm, but the US government, our
government, your government, is trying to enforce the will of the big ag
companies.
  With regard to ag policy, Clinton and Gore were bad, but Bush and Cheney
are infinitely worse. Let's call a spade a spade here. By means of
corrupting the Congress and the Executive and the Judiciary branches of
our government, the ag companies have changed the rules, and deregulated
themselves. They have given their crimes against humanity technical
legality, but they are still crimes against humanity (and, in fact,
against the entire natural world).

The model, of course, is big tobacco. As was reaffirmed again this past
week, big tobacco knew fifty years ago that there was nothing beneficial
about their product. Tobacco is a bad plant, a bad industry, and a bad
product. Faced with the truth, big tobacco changed their advertising ,
stonewalled, and lied in order to maintain profits. What big ag did not
learn from the experiences of big tobacco was to first, do no harm.
Rather, big ag learned to hide the harm it is doing and befuddle the lines
of liability, as well as to force deregulation, to buy off the politicians
and the researchers, and to present the world with a genetic fait
accompli, a crime and a sin that cannot be undone. Sort of like the Iraq
war.

Everyone knows at this point that Halliburton (that is, big war) and big
oil were the prime movers in instigating the war in Iraq through their man
Cheney and their poodle, Bush. And, of course, Halliburton and the other
war industries and Exxon and the other oil companies have been the only
ones to profit from the Iraq war. They have not sent members of their own
families to fight; they have suffered no bombings of their own plants or
their own homes. They thought they had a fool-proof plan for profits, and
indeed, they did. We, the taxpayers, have paid for their adventure with
money and lives. They have not gotten the Iraqi oil (let's say plan A),
but they have driven up prices and profits (plan B). The president of
Exxon is the happiest old man in the world, I am sure.

Big ag, big tobacco, big war, big oil, and their enablers on Wall Street
always congratulate themselves on "wealth creation". This is what the
"free market" does - it takes something that was supposedly worthless,
like mountaintops in West Virginia or corn varieties in Mexico or oil
deposits in Alaska, and gives them "value". But this is a fiction. The
model here is big water. The earth abounds in rivers and lakes. Wealthy
water companies (the water rights in my river are owned by a company in
England that is now in trouble for mismanaging their own Thames) go to
other countries and buy or take the water rights of those people and then
sell them back to those very people at a price they can hardly afford.
This is "wealth creation" - creating wealth for stockholders, even though
they already have more wealth than they know what to do with, by stealing
the resources of the poor and the powerless. The "free market" always
talks about buying low and selling high, but it specializes in theft. And,
as an alternative, if the "wealth creators" cannot use what you own, say a
hardy seed that works well for your ecosystem, they will render it useless
so that you will have to buy their seed just to live.

Given what these big corporations routinely do, we have to ask, are they
filled and peopled from top to bottom by ruthless monsters who care
nothing about others, and also nothing about the world that we live in?
Are these CEOs and CFOs and COOs and managers and researchers and
stockholders so beyond human that, let's say, the deaths in Iraq and the
destitution of the farmers and the tumors and allergies and obesities of
children, and the melting of the Greenland ice cap and the shifting of the
Gulf Stream are, to them, just the cost of doing business? Or are they
just beyond stupid and blind, so that they, alone among humans, have no
understanding of the interconnectedness of all natural systems?

One thing you have to ask yourself, faced with American corporate culture,
is, what is it about Americans, in particular, that makes them so
indifferent to consequences, especially the consequence of doing harm to
others, over and over and over? Why did those big tobacco folks persist,
for fifty years, in poisoning their customers and attempting to get more
customers? Was that what Jesus told them to do?

I bring up Jesus because many, if not most of these companies are
headquartered in red states, states proud of their Christian heritage. Big
tobacco is (or used to be) located in the south, big oil in Texas, big ag
in St. Louis, Minnesota, and Iowa. If Christianity abounds in these
states, and people working in these corporations, and running them, are
professing Christians, and these people give themselves a license to steal
and destroy every day of the year, what does that say about Christianity?
Let me tell you. It says that Christianity, especially American
Christianity, is the religion of death. Or it says that corporate culture
is one thing and religious belief is another, and the religious side is
powerless to confront any of the deadly sins perpetrated by the corporate
side. But either way, American corporations are set up, not to "create
wealth", but to plunder the wealth of everyone not powerful enough to stop
them. And the rest of the world understands this. Why do they hate us,
again? Oh, yeah. Our values.

When George Bush was elected, the big industries breathed a happy sigh.
Finally, they had a "CEO president". The implication of that phrase was
that Bush would know how to run the company, to reduce labor costs and
outsource various services. The fact was that neither Bush nor Cheney had
ever actually succeeded in business, but that was a detail. Failures
though they were, they were steeped in corporate ways of thinking, and
they owed a lot to big oil, big war, and big ag. They showed immediately
that they knew how to do business in the corporate way by cheating in the
2000 election (let's call this "deregulating themselves and their
governing behaviors"). This was the true mark of a "CEO President" - do
what you can get away with, dare the others to stop you, act always as a
predator rather than as a custodian of the common good, because according
to theorists of the "free market", there is no common good. Thank you,
Milton Friedman. And it doesn't matter how well or poorly they run the
government. As they drive it into the ground, they are still acting as
good CEOs in the American tradition, preparing their own golden
parachutes, sticking it to the suckers (customers, suppliers,
stockholders, citizens, soldiers), and treating the property of the
corporation (for example the US Army) as their own private stock.

Deregulation has made this debacle.

This is what I remember about the 1980 election. When I got up the morning
after and found out the result, I stood in front of my television and
wept. I was right to do so. Ronald Reagan busied himself deregulating
everything he could - the airlines, the savings and loans, the protections
of consumers and workers, health care and the health of the nation itself,
the industries that people relied upon for jobs. Babies, children, old
folks, farm animals, you name it, he made their lives worse. Possessed of
a nice ranch of his own, he assigned James Watt to wreck the environment
for everyone else. And he just kept smiling. Americans loved it. He died a
couple of years ago with the reputation of a saint. Why would that be?
  Well, he made Americans proud of themselves again, but for what?
Profligate waste? Ignoring every sign that the era of big oil would
someday come to an end? Accelerated destruction of natural resources for
the sake of Conspicuous consumption? An increase in the number of homeless
people in big American cities? Worthless fiddling in the concerns of other
nations, like Nicaragua? Is it the US that gives corporations a bad name,
or corporations that give the US a bad name? In 1980, the Republicans
invited the corporate elite to have it their way. The world we have now,
violent and selfish and brutal, contaminated and in danger of
environmental collapse, is the world they made, both by actually
dismantling the regulatory environment and by letting powerful people get
in the habit of thinking that doing whatever they felt like, no matter how
grossly harmful, was their right and their privilege.

American corporations always defend their activities by pointing to how
innovative they are. This is especially galling when the food companies
and the ag companies do it, because they have no good innovations to offer
and never have. Olestra? Margarine? Dr. Pepper? GM foods? Roundup? Roundup
Ready seed? Salty, fatty fast foods that have ruined the health of
millions of Americans? High fructose corn syrup? Chickens raised in cruel
and inhuman conditions, contaminated with E. coli and other bacteria? Rice
carrying carotene supposedly invented to help starving children, except
that children below a certain percentage of body fat can't metabolize the
carotene? Whoops! A nice bowl of regular old brown rice and some tofu
would work better, but no ag company can figure out how to own all of it.
Or a piece of pumpernickel bread and some aged cheddar. Since humans know
how to feed themselves, the only thing that the ag companies can do is
introduce deceptively marketed products and take for themselves money that
might have gone to feeding someone. Oh, yeah, and they can irrevocably
change the world so that all biodiversity is reduced and destroyed. Once
again, you've got to ask, are they inhumanly evil or inhumanly
short-sighted? Oh, well. They are always wrapping themselves in the flag,
so it must be the American way.

And it is. American corporations are uniquely free to do business in an
irresponsible manner because of what you might call a typo in the 14th
Amendment to the Constitution, which uses the word "person" without
defining it as a human being. Since then, corporations have repeatedly
interpreted their personhood in their own favor - they get to have the
rights that humans have, such as free political speech (bribing candidates
with contributions), but none of the consequences (mortality, moral
reciprocity, full liability for bad actions). The result is all around us
and threatens to destroy us.

A hundred years ago, the rapaciousness of the business elite spawned a
century of war and social conflict. The power of Socialism and Marxism was
in the rage people feel when their means are stolen from them, when they
are duped and fooled and used as cannon fodder by people like George W.
Bush and Dick Cheney, when the world they live in grows more and more
inhuman and self-evidently stupid. That rage is growing now. Anarchists
have been replaced by suicide bombers. Marxists have been replaced by
Islamicists and lefty bloggers. But, of course Bush and Cheney and the
capitalists have empowered their own opposition because the human pattern
is the same. The war machine, as in Lebanon (epitomized by aerial
destruction) is just as clumsy as it ever was. You cannot torment and
injure and murder and disfigure people into liking or agreeing with you,
only into going underground while they prepare their revenge. You cannot
treat people, even people who don't speak your language or dress like you,
as suckers and babies (as in, taking candy from a baby). The average
person knows this, but CEOs and CEO Presidents apparently do not.
  The fact is, the day Ronald Reagan was elected and the corporations
decided to roll back the regulations that limited their power, greed, and
egomania was the day they doomed themselves and all of us, because it was
the day they began living the lie that there are no consequences to
corporate activities. By deregulating themselves, they made sure only that
the consequences of their misguided policies would be bigger - global
climate change rather than higher gas prices, contaminated gene pools
rather than lower profits from pesticides, global famine rather than
localized corn blight, tens of thousands dead in Iraq rather than higher R
and D costs, the death of the Ford motor company rather than a shift to
less profitable, more fuel efficient cars. The list is endless. And their
defense of what they do gets harsher and more shrill. We are given to
understand that if they don't have their way at this point, conflagration
in the middle east - war with Iran, possibly nuclear - will result. What
kind of person plans such a thing? Inhumanly callous or inhumanly stupid?
We have our answer - a CEO President, someone who epitomises both
qualities.

Regulation was good because it rationalized not only business activity and
human governance, but also because it rationalized the way the business
elite saw themselves. It did not simply confront power with power, as
Marxism did, it took details into consideration and broke up the huge
gamble that is capitalism into a plethora of smaller gambles with perhaps
fewer profits but also fewer consequences. You may have bought a piece of
swampland in Florida, thinking you could develop it, and subsequent
understanding of the ecosystem may have lowered the value of your
particular piece of property. Too bad you had to eat that investment and
come up with some other use for your acquisition, but your business
failure is not a reason to destroy the Everglades. Too bad you put your R
and D into SUVs, but that is not a reason to destroy Iraq, endanger
Israel, and bomb Iran.

Of course there are less predatory corporations than big ag, big oil, big
war, and big tobacco - Costco comes to mind, and, lately, even Walmart. As
a retail corporation, Walmart is sensitive, at least on the surface, to
appearances and to the opinions of customers. Monsanto, whose customers
are a captive base of farmers, so far thinks it can suppress or ignore the
truth about what it does. As always, it is those who most dislike
regulation who need it. Traditional wisdom and common sense are correct -
people who are primarily interested in power and money are the very ones
who can least be trusted. We can assume that Genghis Khan, for example,
would have hated regulation. But George W. Bush is not Genghis Khan, at
least not so far. We should start by regulating him and go on from there
to regulating everyone else who shows indifference to the welfare of the
world that we all share.


===
[Collage from the above:]
The "free market" always talks about buying low and selling high, but it
specializes in theft. American corporations are set up, not to "create
wealth", but to plunder the wealth of everyone not powerful enough to stop
them. This is "wealth creation" - creating wealth for stockholders, even
though they already have more wealth than they know what to do with, by
stealing the resources of the poor and the powerless. Do what you can get
away with, dare the others to stop you, act always as a predator rather
than as a custodian of the common good, because according to theorists of
the "free market", there is no common good. The "free market" always talks
about buying low and selling high, but it specializes in theft. [end
collage]

Free market = corporations = ruling class = theft

Thefts of the Rich and Famous
Falcon Theft
Thefts to riches
Follow the thefts
Thieve unto others before others thieve unto you
Steal away
US Steal

Time we overhauled this corrupt bassackwards society.  Think what we could
do with all the money and power they have stolen from us. -ed


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

   - David Shove             shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu
   rhymes with clove         Progressive Calendar
                     over 2225 subscribers as of 12.19.02
              please send all messages in plain text no attachments