Sacramento for Democracy - Corporations

Explaining the Matrix (Think Up/Down Not Right/Left)

Sun, 26 Aug 2012 03:09:32 +0000

In his 2000 work “Escaping the Matrix: Are You Ready for the Red Pill?” Richard Moore begins:

The defining dramatic moment in the film The Matrix occurs just after Morpheus invites Neo to choose between a red pill and a blue pill. The red pill promises "the truth, nothing more." Neo takes the red pill and awakes to reality--something utterly different from anything Neo, or the audience, could have expected. What Neo had assumed to be reality turned out to be only a collective illusion, fabricated by the Matrix and fed to a population that is asleep, cocooned in grotesque embryonic pods. In Plato's famous parable about the shadows on the walls of the cave, true reality is at least reflected in perceived reality.

snip

Most of us expect rhetoric from politicians, and take what they say with a grain of salt. But as my own picture of present reality came into focus, "grain of salt" no longer worked as a metaphor. I began to see that consensus reality--as generated by official rhetoric and amplified by mass media--bears very little relationship to actual reality. "The matrix" was a metaphor I was ready for.

Inside The Private Empire of ExxonMobil

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 16:14:05 +0000

Steve Coll

Steve Coll is the author of Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power and former Managing Editor of The Washington Post. ExxonMobil's influence on climate change policies are just one themes Steve Coll talks about. He writes that ExxonMobil spends more money lobbying the U.S. Congress than any other corporation.
Source: Steve Coll: ExxonMobil and American Power

(more below the fold)

Debunking Bailout Myths: Banks Have Only Repaid a Fraction TARP Funds (mostly with Gov $$$), and Only 3% Has Gone to Homeowners

Thu, 10 May 2012 23:53:15 +0000

Tarp Overseer Debunks Bailout Myths: Big Companies HAVEN’T Repaid Tarp Funds … And Funds to Help Homeowners HAVEN’T Been Disbursed

Posted on April 25, 2012 by WashingtonsBlog

Debunking Bailout Myths

Apologists for government bailouts push two main myths:

That all of the bailout funds have been repaid

That the bailouts helped the average American

But the official government overseer of the Tarp bailout program – the special inspector general for TARP, Christy L. Romero – has debunked both myths.

Today, Romero wrote the following to Congress:

Jack Abramoff explains how lobbyists control Congress

Thu, 10 May 2012 18:35:21 +0000

Jack Abramoff

Once the most influential lobbyist in Washington, Jack Abramoff presents an inside look at the lobbying industry and the power it has on Capitol Hill. He discussed his insights with Eliza Newlin Carney, staff writer for CQ and Roll Call, covering lobbying and influence.

Convicted in 2006 of mail fraud and conspiracy, he was at the heart of an extensive corruption investigation that led to the conviction of White House officials J. Steven Griles and David Safavian, U.S. Representative Bob Ney, and nine other lobbyists and Congressional aides. He served three years, six months of a six-year sentence in federal prison before being released early to a Baltimore halfway house on June 8, 2010.
Source: After Words With Jack Abramoff

Chris Woods

Scott Horton Interviews Chris Woods

Chris Woods, documentary producer and freelancer for The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, discusses drones and CIA tactics in Pakistan include targeting rescuers and funerals. He calls for formal investigations of the “secret” war in Pakistan.
Source: Scott Horton Interviews Chris Woods

Play Program or Download(below the fold)

An Expose Of Petroleum Pigs And Finance

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 21:28:11 +0000

Greg Palast presents his investigation of the BP oil spill and talks about the corruption that permeates the oil industry, the financial sector, and government. Greg plays the part of a hard-bitten detective. He participated in five movies and authored four books including Armed Madhouse and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.
Source: Vulture's Picnic

The world fears the U.S.

Ex-Senator and former U.S. presidential candidate Mike Gravel says the U.S. is like a drunkard who charges to war with any country who might pose a threat.
Source: 'World fears US as a war-hungry drunk' - ex-Senator

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Yanking the BP Disaster Out of the American Memory Hole

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 21:37:29 +0000

It’s been two years. Two years since our collective shock and awe over the worst environmental disaster in American history.

Horrified we watched for three long months as hundreds of millions of gallons of oil relentlessly bled into the Gulf of Mexico.

BP pr handlers and Obama spokespeople asked America to trust that this corporation and our government were seriously responding to the crisis and would do everything possible for future prevention of another such catastrophe.

Here is a stack of resurrected revelations and new revelations about the disaster that we must not let disappear into a national memory hole.

Eleven men died when BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig exploded. (Robert Weissman)

The blowout spewed nearly 5 million barrels of oil and more than 6 billion cubic feet of natural gas into the Gulf of Mexico. (Common Dreams)

BP made a conscious decision not to install a $500,000 safety device that could have prevented the blowout. (Robert Weissman)

Cenk Uygur Slams Millionaire CNN Host Erin Burnett for Protecting Her Own With Fawning Coverage

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 23:13:29 +0000

Cenk Uygur Slams Millionaire CNN Host Erin Burnett for Protecting Her Own With Fawning Coverage

Offshore Tax Havens Cost Average California Taxpayers $423 a Year, Each California Small Business $2,010

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 03:51:04 +0000

Offshore Tax Havens Cost Average California Taxpayers $423 a Year, Each California Small Business $2,010

a new study released by CALPIRG

Every year, corporations and wealthy individuals avoid paying an estimated $100 billion in taxes by shifting income to low or no tax offshore tax havens. Of that $100 billion, $60 billion in taxes are avoided specifically by corporations. A GAO study found that at least 83 of the top 100 publically traded corporations use offshore tax havens.

How The Wealthy Buy Politicians

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 17:36:37 +0000

Lawrence Lessig & Jack Abramoff

Jack Abramoff is a former lobbyist who pleaded guilty in 2006 to charges of fraud, tax evasion, and conspiracy to bribe public officials. Abramoff also worked as businessman, movie producer and writer. Abramoff's lobbying and the scandals and investigation are featured in a documentary movie "Casino Jack and the United States of Money" and a political satire movie titled "Casino Jack".

Lawrence Lessig is a law professor at Harvard. He has been the lead counsel in important cases concerning copyright laws for digital content. His current work concerns institutional corruption.
Source: Lawrence Lessig interviews Jack Abramoff

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Privatize Everything in the Universe?

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:25:39 +0000

I wrote this song, "Privatize Everything," back in 2000. The song was meant as political satire, but unfortunately, many of these lyrics have already become reality in recent years.

The oceans are being privatized under NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco's "catch shares" program that concentrates ocean fisheries in fewer, increasingly corporate hands.

Ocean conservation management has been privatized under the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative's creation of so-called marine protected areas in California that fail to protect the ocean from oil spills and drilling, pollution, military testing, corporate aquaculture, wind and wave energy project and all other uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering. Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the President of the Western States Petroleum Association, chairs the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force that imposed the "marine protected areas" that went into effect in Southern California waters on January 1, 2012.

The water in Central Valley rivers and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is being privatized though the Obama and Brown administration Bay Delta Plan (BDCP) to build the peripheral canal, designed to increase water exports to corporate agribusiness interests, including Beverly Hills billionaire Stewart Resnick and the Westlands Water District, and Southern California. Habitat "restoration" and infrastructure "improvements" under this corporate water grab will be funded through the $11.4 billion Water Bond.