I guess it's not simply the corporations but the "corporate raiders - now more politely deemed private equity managers and activist investors - who take over or push corporations to make more money."

Why the American economy isn’t working for most Americans in the age of shareholder capitalism by Robert Reich

In 1985, after winning control of the now-defunct Trans World Airlines, Icahn stripped its assets, pocketed nearly $500 million in profits, and left the airline more than $500 million in debt. Former TWA chair C.E. Meyer Jr. called Icahn “one of the greediest men on earth.”

Another of Icahn’s raids involved RJR Nabisco, the food and tobacco giant, which he pushed to spin off its food business, leading Icahn to make a cool $884 million when he sold his stock in late 2000.

Icahn has estimated that his activist campaigns at a dozen companies, including Apple, eBay, PayPal, Forest Labs, Herbalife, and Netflix, helped generate $300 billion in additional value for the shareholders of those companies. His campaigns also made him one of the wealthiest people in America......

4/20/20

We are lucky to be Americans. Just heard on the BBC about people in poor countries with no health care that covid-19 means not working and starving or risking the virus. That's sort of an extreme verion of what the Trump supporters want - to get back to work. It only kills about one persent of the people infected and those people are "on their last legs anyway". Americans, however, have more to lose. Researchers at Imperial College in London have found that COVID-19 could cause 40 million deaths and infect 7 billion people - almost the world's entire population worldwide - without preventative measures. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/196496/coronavirus-pandemic-could-have-caused-40/ Sequestering and social distancing can slow the rate of infection down so that hospitals and infrastructure do not immedeiatly become overwhelmed. Maybe the same number of people become infected - just stretched out over time. Slowing it down would save lives becasue the medical system can save maybe half the people who are admitted. They also can administer to people with heart attacts, and other health problems or who have had accidents many of whom might die if the hospitals are overwhelmed.

Also, slowing down the rate of infection may allow time to develop a vaccine or for the virus to mutate and become less virulent. Best to stay home and take care not to become infected for as long as possible. Maybe not everyone will get infected, of those who do maybe only 2% will need hospitalization and of those maybe half will survive - and by then maybe the virus will have become less virulent or there will be a cure or vacine. Sequestering and social distancing could reduce uresticted projectd deaths by 90%, say the researchers, and save 38 million deaths world-wide and reduce deaths in the US from three million to around 300,000. What it looks like today:

60% to 85% of all people will eventually become infected. Researchers at Imperial College in London have found that COVID-19 could have caused 40 million deaths and infected 7 billion people - almost the world's entire population worldwide this year without preventative measures

Sequestering and social distancing can slow the rate of infection down so that hospitals and infrastructure do not immedeiatly become overwhelmed. But maybe the same number of people become infected - just stretched out over time. Slowing it down would save lives becasue the medical system can save maybe half the people who are admitted. They also can administer to people with heart attacts, and other health problems or who have had accidents many of whom might die if the hospitals are overwhelmed.

Also, slowing down the rate of infection may allow time to develop a vaccine or for the virus to mutate to a less viral form.

Best to stay home and take care not to become infected for as long as possible.

We still don't know much about immunity or the dose required to infect.

4/18/20

Amercians - nay the world - are sequestered at home due to the dovid-19 pandemic. It's not really bad yet. The US government (and many other governments) is sending people money. Makes me wonder if this isin;t a pretty good system. Also makes me wonder who is the working class. Certainly clarifies who we need to do essential work.

We also may have been handed a lot of power. People went on a general strick after WWII. We can already see the power of not going to work and not shopping.

So who are "The People"? Do we want to include good landlords and business owners who don't gouage? Maybe the new movement can be pretty includive - with fair graduated taxes.

I still like the now defunct Australian union - The Federated Miscellaneous Workers' Union. There is also a growing movement of gig workers. There is a movie, Ken Loach's film, Sorry We Missed You,on the "gig economy". And, with the covid-19 "essential workers" has taken on signigficance.

So how about the International Union of Essential Workers (IUEW) or the Union of Essential, Miscileneous and Gig Workers (UEMGW)

3/7/20

Biden surged in Super Tuesday after South Carolina voted. Blacks led the way and apparently whites followed their lead. Turnout was good but didn't seem to help Bernie much.

I'm disappointed that Bernie isn't doing better but my position all along is to support any Democrat who wins the primary in order to get rid of Trump. AND, regardless of who wins, keep the Movement going to make the Democrats more progressive or even lay the groundwork for a third Progressive Party.

Poor Bernie. He hasn't lost yet but it has been apparent for months that he's not going to win going head to head with the drug companies, insurance companies and fossil fuel corporations and maybe all corporations and the one percenters.

If I were Bernie I would name Stacy Abrams as vice president if he wins, tell Elizabeth Warren that he would like to name her as Attorney General but that it's awfully important that she stay in the Senate. I would also not pick fights with all the rich and all the corporations at the same time. Target the corrupt and greedy but work with the few who see that regulation and fair taxes benefit us all and keep the system sustainable.

Bernie might have one last dramatic chance. But most importantly we all need to keep the Movement going. What is the Movement? The Progressive Caucus, Justice Democrats and Courage to Change as well as Bernie and AOC??

1/11/20

Good news about Bernie and other Progressives. I imagine the corporate powers including those within the democratic Party will be on the attack. I'm supporting various progressive groups like the Progressive Caucus, Justice Democrats and Courage to Change as well as Bernie and AOC. I don't know which, if any progressive group will emerge potentially as a movment of party after the election.

I would vote for any Democrat to beat Trump but after the election, if we do beat Trump, I think it's time to form a "democratic socialist" or "progressive" party. I think a three or four party system would be more democratic and way less likely to be sabotaged by one party. It hasn't been possible so far in my lifetime but hopefully the Trump party will fall apart like any cult giving both the progressives and conservatives an opportunity to reconstitute their parties or form new ones.

Potential Progressive Prties:

Progressive Caucus - PAC focus on US Congress, Pramila Jayapal, co chair and supported by Bernie, AOC, et.al. Donate through Act Blue.

Justice Democrats - PAC focused on US Congress with platform promoted by AOC, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Pramila Jayapal, et.al. Donate through Act Blue.

Courage to Change - PAC formed by AOC in reaction to DCCC and funded through ActBlue

Act Blue? They seem to provide a great service but to any Democrat. Anybody else? And they survive on tips averaging 10% of all the money they process - four billion since 2004 for tips of about four hundred million.

Hope

Support any Democrat to defeat Trump. Hopefully the Democrats will take the House and Senate too. The Republicans will be in disarray.

Then the Democrats will screw things up, as usual. But there will be an opportunity to form a Progressive third party from progressive Democrats, Socialists and the disenfranchised who voted for Trump.

There will be some important things to fix, of course, but at least revise the electoral process to eliminate the Electoral College and promote a system of proportional approval voting (PAV) which will favor more civilized elections and more cooperation among elected officials.

10/28/19

The Big Questions:

What happens if trump loses the 2020 election? Will he leave?

With Corporate America funding all the Republicans and most of the Democrats what chance do we have of regulating corporations? Or universal health insurance, gun control or tax reform?

One reason "fake news" works is because most Americans have never been taught how to verify or vet what they see or read. Most print and broadcast news organizations do have a vetting process requiring two or more sources and some documentation or evidence. Maybe they should run stories to educate us about vetting and what they do to assure us that the news they print or broadcast is true and help us recognize typical propaganda techniques or other strategies and gambits used in "fake news".

3/9/19

Elizabeth Warren's new plan: Break up Amazon, Google and Facebook is good and relates to long-established manufacturer-dealer relationships. In our maosnry business we don't sell to contractors at dealer prices because it would give those few contractors advantage over everyone else. We want dealers to not be contractors and sell to all contractors at the same price. We could elimiate dealers and sell to eveyone at the same price ourselves but, if we want dealers to promote and stock product to save time and freigh costs, then we can't undercut them by selling to a contractor at the same price the dealer pays.

Isn't that what Amazon does? They sell third party products but also create their own products to compete. Or do they? Does Amazon actually own manufacturing plants or do they just look for other competing products?

3/4/19

Fight Political Corruption Locally to fix the Broken National System
All politics is local

Stop political bribery and fix our broken elections to wrest power from the corrupt establishment
End gerimandering
Ranked choice voting
Automatic voter registration
Overhaul lobbying and ethics laws
Transparent political spending
Voter vouchers

More information or join The Comonwealth

2/28/19

DSA debates endorsing Bernie Sanders before the Convention.

1/27/18

Money Laundering and other pervasive corporate crimes.

Mueller's investigation progresses is really very interesting. But the elephant in the room is money laundering. Making his golf courses and Trump Towers available to Russian gangsters to hide their money is the real crime - not that collusion with the Russians to meddle with our elections or the subsequent obstruction of justice or perjury aren't important but these pail in comparison in my mind to the money laundering, tax evasion and outright racketeering. Why isn't the media more interested? Maybe Mueller is - we don't know yet. Why does the stock market keep gong up? Why has Trump been as well received at Davos as he has?

Maybe that's because it's common. Everybody does it. Maybe international corporations in general are run like Trump runs his rackets. Look closely into a bank in Panama or Switzerland and you find a lot of people and corporations you thought were legitimate laundering money and avoiding taxes.

Are Trump's clownish antics just a side show to divert us from the pervasive crimes of big business and the one percenters?

Social Media instability

Google, Facebook, Twitter, et.al. figure out what you like and feed it to you. Good targeted advertising, perhaps, but the practice does real harm to the truth. It feels good to read only what I already believe but I would rather - and think it would be better for our country - if there was more truth and balance.

It's not just political. If I want to see how my website ranks on Google I type in "Rumford" and I see that the top three or four listings are for my pages. But is this what everyone sees? Maybe Google just knows that I like Rumford fireplaces.

Maybe using only browsers that are encrypted or hide your identity would be good. And maybe the open source promised by Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies is the way to go. But wouldn't that make it een easier for corporations to launder money?

Corporate Taxes

In the Eisenhower era federal corporate taxes were about 90% of profit but now we have to reduce our corporate taxes from 35% to 25% to encourage corporations to keep their money in the US?

Let's see if I have this right. Corporations only pay taxes on profits. Profits may sound good to investors but corporations could reduce profits, and pay less tax, by paying their employees more or re-investing in production. So who benefits from low taxes on profits? Isn't it the investors, owners and stockholders who are keen on amassing great fortunes? If so then the issue isn't corporate taxes so much as personal taxes. If corporations were taxed more like 90% like they were under Eisenhower we would foster more production in the US and grow the middle class. Let the people who gamble in investments take their paper money anywhere they like.

4/4/17

So with the "nuclear option" invoked to elect Gorscuch, which might mean even less bipartisan cooperation in Congress, we need a third party so that no single party has an absolute majority. Maybe cooperation between factions within each party coud work.

2/26/17

So, maybe, as Aaron says, I'm too hard on the establishment Democrats who don't seem to have a problem with corporate money. Maybe Bernie is almost unique and it's unreasonable to expect every Democrat to renounce Big Money. Every one of the Washington Democrats, who I voted for, take big Pharma and Boeing money.

The new leadership of the Democratic Party, Perez and Ellison, say they want to move forward together. Let's take them at their word and see what moving forward would mean.

First of all, for my support, the Democratic platform would have to include a pledge of transparency and justification for any Big money accepted. For example, an elected official or candidate might reveil that he or she accepts money from the drug lobby but only to stave off open opposition while working toward a single payer heath system. Or that they accept Boeing money because they wouldn't be elected if they didn't and, while Boeing pays it's CEO too much and screws it's unions, they are big Washington employers. But we don't take money from the oil industry or Wells Fargo or any other entity that skirts the law and greases it's larder at the expense of the people.