October 6, 2024

Regarding the New York Times, America's 'newspaper of record.'

Warning: I'm going to be talking about policy!

I cancelled my NYT subscription a couple of months ago due to their 'Biden old, Biden old, Biden old' drumbeat.

Because of the legal doctrine of shareholder primacy, established through a MI Supreme Court ruling back in 1919 against Henry Ford in favor of the Dodge brothers, AND Reagan killing the Fairness Doctrine back in '87, the fiduciary responsibility of executives at these publicly traded 'news' organizations is ONLY to generate shareholder profits, with NOTHING...

I repeat NOTHING requiring them to report the truth...

virtually all of the reporting we get from ABC (Disney), CBS (Paramount), NBC (Comcast), NYT (Ochs-Sulzberger), CNN (Warner Brothers Discovery) is ALWAYS going to be BIASED in such a way as to generate and maximize shareholder PROFITS.

This is why we have a 'horserace' folks. It is better for PROFITS.

This is why Trump is being 'sanewashed'. It is better for PROFITS.

This is why all the lies he and Vance tell are being glossed over. Again better for PROFITS.

And finally, it is why X, Fox and other right-wing 'news' sources keep their audience is a complete bubble of conspiracy theories. Because they can (no Fairness Doctrine) and because it is good for PROFITS.

There are two major PROFIT centers here:
1. Ad revenue based on ratings, and
2. Campaign ads - due to Citizens United, we have THE most EXPENSIVE political campaigns in the world. Billions of dollars.

You want to change that?

One little rule-change in corporate governance - instead of the interests of shareholders being held above everything else, we could require an expansion of the fiduciary responsibility of media executives (and every other corporate officer in a publicly traded company) to consider the interests of workers, consumers (including truth in news reporting), and the environment EQUALLY with the interests of shareholders. A stakeholder approach to corporate governance.

If we had our members of Congress legislate that, as well as making the changes required in the Supreme Court so they are no longer so partisan, and if we ENFORCED this new rule of corporate governance, we would save the republic for years to come.

Oh, and let's not forget legislation that reverses the most recent Supreme Court rulings - Dobbs, the ruling against Chevron, and Citizens United.

Then the billionaire parasites would have to play their 'long game' again to undermine the republic. Heck, with any luck it would take them fifty or sixty years to get us to the stage we're at now - the verge of a fascist dictatorship.

Oh, I know it is wonky. And as an experiment, if you have read this far, please either 'rec' this post or reply. Most people won't, I know because policy is BORING. This is why we've been so thoroughly fucked by Wall Street and the billionaire parasites. You know that, right? Look at Project 2025. BOR-ING!!! But if they put it in place, our republic will be history.

September 28, 2024

Florida university to host extremist after DeSantis-led lurch to right

Scientific racism???? Sigh.

Here's the link: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/28/new-college-of-florida-hosting-extremist-writer-steve-sailer

September 26, 2024

Revealed: how the fossil fuel industry helps spread anti-protest laws across the US

Fossil fuel lobbyists coordinated with lawmakers behind the scenes and across state lines to push and shape laws that are escalating a crackdown on peaceful protests against oil and gas expansion, a new Guardian investigation reveals.

Records obtained by the Guardian show that lobbyists working for major North American oil and gas companies were key architects of anti-protest laws that increase penalties and could lead to non-violent environmental and climate activists being imprisoned up to 10 years.

Emails between fossil fuel lobbyists and lawmakers in Utah, West Virginia, Idaho and Ohio suggest a nationwide strategy to deter people frustrated by government failure to tackle the climate crisis from peacefully disrupting the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure by enacting tough laws with lengthy jail sentences.

Here is the link: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/26/anti-protest-laws-fossil-fuel-lobby

I thought this interesting enough to post here. Good investigative journalism.

September 16, 2024

Report from Main Street in metro Denver, Colorado

Today, I had occasion to visit the office of my insurance agent. He has been my agent for around 30 years or more. A long time, and in all honesty he's a good agent.

So, anyway I walked into the office and his wife is on the front desk. She is a nice lady, well into her 70s. They've made it a family business.

Her husband, our agent, was on another line so I engaged her in conversation. She is convinced immigrants are the root cause of all of America's troubles, Trump is misunderstood, Obama was terrible, Biden was forced to step down, betrayed by his own party, etc.

The whole litany. You all know.

Well, I'm an economist so I am quite capable of reeling off many facts and figures off the top of my head. When I told her that Trumpy killed the bipartisan border bill, which gave the GOP everything it wanted, increased agents and so on, she did not believe me. I then went on to talk about how genuinely good we are at data - we really do leave everyone else in the world in the dust when it comes to the scope and depth of the data we report - Census, BLS, etc.

I also mentioned shareholder primacy and told her about the fulcrum. Said that government isn't the enemy, but Wall Street and the billionaire parasites are.

If I'm honest, I kind of doubt I convinced her of anything. She's been thoughtlessly voting Republican for years because they are 'better for business.' Still, I may have planted a seed. I did mention how my granddaughters do not now have the same rights as their mothers fought for. That didn't seem to register.

Sigh. Lucky Harris and Walz are running a really, really effective campaign and putting out lots of stuff on social media to younger voters.

But I tried.

September 5, 2024

Trump is 4F as a presidential candidate.

He is a Flailing, Fearful Felon who is Frantically trying to keep himself out of prison.

I was just thinking about this because my dad was a WWII vet. Now, during WWII, a draft was instituted, and if you were fully combat-ready, you were 1A. If you were incapable of serving because of a disability or other factor, you were 4F. Essentially, the 4F people were those rejected from military service.

Don't we all think at this point that Trumpy should be REJECTED from further service as president? The guy shouldn't even be allowed to get near the White House.

August 15, 2024

Frustrated with Comcast. Yesterday, this company was supposed to perform work

to 'enhance' our customer experience. Note that Comcast owns NBC...

Anyway, they didn't do the work yesterday, and for some reason couldn't complete the work today. So everything is back up....internet at lightning speed (I have an ethernet cable), landline working, and cable TV all working great...

EXCEPT...

WAIT FOR IT...

MSNBC. The ONLY channel that doesn't yet come in.

Now think about that. Today the Harris/Biden event in MD is on. We're having to watch it on CNN because we have NO MSNBC.

Think about that for a minute. One channel.

August 6, 2024

Thoughts on the MSNBC morning show narrative on Walz.

"Walz is the safe choice."

The effort by the Trump campaign to pull the Harris campaign to the left...

Wedge issue with Jewish voters.

Anti-Semitism in the party.

We thought it would be Shapiro because he is more centrist.

Blah, blah, blah...

Remember, all of you, that MSNBC is owned by Comcast, which is publicly traded. The big fund managers lean on Comcast corporate officers, and Comcast corporate officers lean on executive producers and directors.

The 'street' WANTS a horserace, so Andrea Mitchell, and the guy before her, as well as Morning Joe were careful to lay out this narrative. Better for ratings, which increases advertising revenue, which generates higher SHAREHOLDER PROFITS.

Nothing about truth in news, just the absolute fiduciary responsibility to generate profits for shareholders.

July 26, 2024

Irish Dem for the win - coins a great slogan. The only thing Trump is successful at is FAILURE!

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219240987

Check down thread on this link above.

The only thing Donald Trump has ever been successful at is FAILING.

July 22, 2024

Joy Reid just reported the AFL/CIO has unanimously endorsed Harris. n/t

July 18, 2024

Well, I am hearing the Pelosi, Schumer, Obama and Jeffries are now pressuring Biden to exit the race.

This whole thing is a bunch of horse shit.

The Democrats have lost all sense. They are pressuring Biden out. What will follow is a bitter internecine struggle that will leave our party divided FOUR MONTHS BEFORE THE FUCKING ELECTION.

Two things:
1. If we are STUPID enough to do this because we are so intimidated by polls, we will lose the presidency, and possibly the senate and house. And I didn't capitalize any of those because I'm so fucking disgusted.

2. If we lose the fucking billionaire parasites who want 'just a little more' at our expense will do fine, but we will be fucked. You know why?

The 2025 project. It will create an American Reich and that's no shit. We aren't just talking about huge tax increases for middle class people so the worthless billionaires can pad their pockets.

Nope. We are talking about the end of the ACA, privatization of Social Security, the end of social safety nets. Deportations, concentration camps, and of course our wives, daughters and granddaughters will no longer have control of their own bodies - they won't even have fucking birth control. They are ALL gonna have big government in their uteruses.

And our grandkids. They are NEVER going to hear the truth because school curriculum will be subject to censorship and 'guidance' from know-nothing Trump loyalists and our public monies will go to send rich kids to private school while poor kids suffer.

But no worries! Drill-baby-drill and global warming won't even kill us.

Because Trump will stop supporting Ukraine and disband NATO, which will lead to a world war.

Assuming the American Reich will last about as long as Germany's did, in maybe 10 years enemy soldiers will be picking their way through the ruins of our cities while our grandkids starve and our people's blood runs in the gutters.

You know what kills me? All these people that have become preppers - spouting the bullshit maxim 'only the strongest survive.'

What utter shit! The thing that has kept us from going extinct for millennia is that we cooperate. If we were all social Darwinists believing only the strongest survive, we'd have gone extinct a long time ago.

And this is all happening because of the raw greed of 813 billionaires and the doctrine of shareholder primacy. It's utterly banal, but it will be fucking miserable and bloody. Millions will die because of fanatical fucks like Vance, Johnson, Bannon, Miller and the rest. Millions.

You know what? The last time the Democrats drove a sitting president out, we got fucking Nixon. And that was a walk in the park compared to what we'll get with Trump.

Unfortunately, if the Democrats are so intimidated by polls ordered and bought by publicly traded media companies that want a horserace because its good for fucking PROFITS, then they will be gone as a party. Bannon gave a straight arm salute after telling us they will be 'coming for' leading Democrats. You think he was kidding????

Yep, leading Democrats doing this misguided shit will get exactly the government they deserve, but they will all be rounded up anyway. Nacht und nebel anyone?

See the problem here is I do NOT deserve that government. Nor do my kids and grandkids, but its gonna happen because party leaders, people we've counted on, were too timid to get out and FIGHT.

In the meantime we have 'only the strongest survive' types stockpiling food, guns and building bunkers because they want to help God by ushering in the apocalypse. They are gonna find out the hard way that this 'only the strongest survive' state of anarchy will be just that, and most of them won't last a minute.

I'm sorry for us all. I really am. Because our own stupidity looks like it will usher in exactly what we do not want.

Sigh.