The Corporation

I hope everyone will see the documentary THE CORPORATION.

It is available via Netflix (streaming or via mail), and Blockbuster and YouTube (free at youtube!). You can view a short trailer here.

I think it’s important that everyone in the United States see this documentary so they understand the illness that our nation is suffering from and why we need to stop the vicious cycle of elections funded by corporations – a cycle that is leading America and it’s people into 3rd World nation status where the there is a majority of people living in poverty and a tiny rich elite – with no middle class!

Here’s a synopsis:

“In the mid-1800s, corporations began to be recognized as individuals by U.S. courts, granting them unprecedented rights. The Corporation, a documentary by filmmakers Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott and author Joel Bakan, delves into that legal standard, essentially asking: if corporations were people, what kind of people would they be? Applying psychiatric principles and FBI forensic techniques, and through a series of case studies, the film determines that this entity, the corporation, which has an increasing power over the day-to-day existence of nearly every living creature on earth, would be a psychopath. The case studies include a story about how two reporters were fired from Fox News for refusing to soft-pedal a story about the dangers of a Monsanto product given to dairy cows, and another about Bolivian workers who banded together to defend their rights to their own water supply. The pervasiveness of corporate influence on our lives is explored through an examination of efforts to influence behavior, including that of children. The filmmakers interview leftist figures like Michael Moore, Howard Zinn, Naomi Klein, and Noam Chomsky, and give representatives from companies Burson Marsteller, Disney, Pfizer, and Initiative Media a chance to relay their own points-of-view. The Corporation won the Best Documentary World Cinema Audience Award at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival.”  ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

Please watch this documentary and spread this page around so others will watch it! You can share this page by passing along this url:
http://uwagdotorg.wordpress.com/2011/09/02/the-corporation/ ‎

Thanks for reading!

-PDS

Democracy Is For People!

I hope that everyone will join DemocracyIsForPeople.org,
sign up for their newsletter and if you can afford to, DONATE (even $5 will help! If EVERYONE you know who believes in the fight against corporatocracy would donate  just $5, maybe we could save our country from the path or ruination it is on!).

Here is their latest Newsletter, and I think it is important that EVERYONE be aware of these facts and realize how destructive our current election process is to our nation and our people! If you can pass this along to your friends I think this might help us to save our country! In fact I think it’s one of the only hopes we have left!

-PDS

An e-newsletter about the movement to curb corporate influence in politics and restore our democracy

Issue #76 • September 2, 2011“Money and Democracy Update” is Public Citizen’s weekly e-newsletter about the intersection of money and politics. It is part of our ongoing campaign to track the results of — and ultimately overturn — the U.S. Supreme Court’s reckless decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which allows for-profit corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money to support or attack political candidates. We’ll update you regularly with select news stories and blog posts, legislative developments and ways to get involved. Stunning Statistics of the Week: 25: The percent of his money that presidential candidate Mitt Romney has raised this year from the finance, insurance and real estate sector $4.65 million: The amount in dollars that he has raised from that sector 10: The percent of his money that has come from the general business sector $1 of every $20: The ratio of money that has been donated to Romney by lawyers and lobbyists Super PACs are fundamentally changing presidential campaigns Super PACs are starting to rival the fundraising operations of candidates in size and scope, The New York Times reports. This is setting off a fundraising arms race that is fundamentally shifting the way presidential campaigns are run. $52 steaks, gin and cucumber puree When AT&T was seeking U.S. approval for its merger with T-Mobile USA, it went into overdrive to fete congressional lawmakers and raise money for their campaign coffers, Bloomberg News reports. The lawmakers dined on $52 steaks and sipped $15 drinks made of gin and cucumber puree. AT&T’s political action committee has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to lawmakers, and the company has hired the top lobbyists in town, including firms headed by former U.S. Sens. John Breaux (D-La.) and Trent Lott (R-Miss.), and former U.S. Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.). Draft executive order on disclosure is MIA Whatever happened to that draft executive order on disclosure that we heard so much about in the spring? This is the order that would require companies vying for federal contracts to disclose their political contributions. Good government groups are clamoring for it to be enacted. Says the White House, it is still undergoing review. While we’re on the topic … SEC mulling disclosure proposal Ten law professors are urging the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to require corporations to disclose political contributions in annual proxy statements. The SEC is mulling over a proposal that would require public companies to disclose their political contributions. Many say it’s good, but doesn’t go far enough. How quickly they change A number of members of the House of Representatives who promised voters they would change the way Washington works appear to have fallen onto the same reward-thy-funders rhythm as their colleagues, USA Today has found. These freshmen have been pushing legislation that could benefit their most generous campaign contributors. Visit DemocracyIsForPeople.org to learn more!

To get regular e-alerts about opportunities for activism and other ways to help with Public Citizen’s work, sign up for the Public Citizen Action Network.

I usually don’t ask people to contribute money to anything. I know how tight money is and most of us don’t have any to spare.

However, I think this particular cause is about the only hope we have of taking our country back from corporate rule.
Why are there no jobs? Why are they not taxing the rich? Why are they trying to ruin medicare and social security?

The answer is: Corporate Power. Our system is broken. It no longer is run by The People but by corporate donations (i.e.; our Congress, Senate and President are owned and operated by corporations and bankers on Wall Street).

The only solution is election reform and changing the laws to give our country back to its people.

If enough of us contribute our time and/or money to the organization below, and others like it maybe we can do it!

If you can spare even $5 that will help. If you can’t contribute even $5 then please consider promoting this message via email, twitter, facebook, etc. to others who can, and/or  contributing your time to the cause.

http://tinyurl.com/3pdx7rz

Thanks!
PDS
uwag.org

MESSAGE FROM PUBLIC CITIZEN:

Our society counts many things by the billions.

The damage Wall Street’s recklessness inflicted on our economy. BP’s profits just a year after causing the worst oil catastrophe in our nation’s history. The stockpiles of cash Big Business hoards while so many people are struggling. The budgets of vital programs and protections held for ransom during the debt and deficit debacle in Congress.

But what is a billion dollars?

Suppose you make the average annual salary in the U.S. of $44,410. It would take you 22,517 years to earn a billion dollars. (Assuming you paid no taxes. Like many of the most profitable corporations.)

Staggering.

And here’s something else we’ll be counting by the billions: the amount of Big Business money that will flood the 2012 elections.

How can we maintain democracy when our elections are overwhelmed by corporate spending at such an inhuman scale?

How can we preserve government of, by and for the people when our politicians are beholden to the corporate greed that benefits from perpetuating such an unnatural system?

There is a way.

We must expose the corporate spending and its corrosive, corrupting influence. And we must overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling that allows corporations to spend literally as much money as they want taking over our elections, our government and our lives.

I’m thrilled to announce that Public Citizen is escalating our capacity for grassroots organizing in communities around the country as the next phase in our “Democracy Is For People” campaign to prevent corporate money from drowning out the voices of We the People.

We’re hiring three experienced organizers to work full-time building on the tremendous popularity of our petition for a constitutional amendment to undo the court’s disastrous ruling.

They’ll work to pass resolutions in key states calling for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. They’ll continue Public Citizen’s leadership role in bringing other organizations and individuals together in a robust coalition focused on making the amendment a reality. They’ll draw in more members of Congress to support our amendment campaign. And they’ll reach out to hundreds of thousands of your fellow citizens to join this critical movement.

But the full scope and impact of their work hinges on the financial resources we can attract. We need to raise $75,000 to support our national grassroots campaign and our other work to keep corporate power in check.

Despite Mitt Romney’s folksy assertions, corporations are not people. And you and I know that democracy is for people.

Together, we are spreading that message and reclaiming our democracy. And I need your help to take the campaign to the next level.

We don’t need billions. But we do need you.

PLEASE CLICK OR COPY AND PASTE THIS LINK INTO YOUR BROWSER:
http://tinyurl.com/3pdx7rz

Onward,
Robert Weissman
President, Public Citizen

re “Howard Zinn Explains Barack Obama…”

Howard Zinn explains Barack Obama :
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/06/16/985791/-Howard-Zinn-Explains-Barack-Obama—-And-Everything-Else-About-American-Politics#comments

My comment on the above linked article by “Conceptual Guerilla”:
I think this article, while trying to be pragmatic, represents the problem, not the solution.

Re-electing Obama is not the solution. Will social security be saved from the Tea Party as the article tells us? I doubt it. Will anything really be saved? I doubt it.

Why? Because what the article says about the capitalist oligarchy being in control is true.

“Put pressure on the President and Congress” is the author of the article’s advice?? Ask the 99ers how well that turns out! Ask anyone. Congress no longer listens to the people, they listen to their Corporate Masters. Period.

This article is – forgive my bluntness – bullpuckey. Electing Obama in 2012 will get us more of the same decline into corporatocracy that we have been getting. It might be a little slower, true. “Might” is the key word here. (Based on recent events re the debt ceiling, I’d say “might” is being overly optimistic.”

Obama sucks and we may as well vote for someone we BELIEVE in and stop voting for these Repug/Dim corporate lackeys sooner than later…

People do indeed get the government they deserve. Or, I should say, we all get the government deserved by the majority of the minority who vote. Or hell, maybe not. Maybe we get the government scripted by the powers that be who control the elections by propaganda at minimum, and very likely by rigged voting machines as well.

At some point if there is to be a future for the USA (and at this point it seems there isn’t going to be), then we have to start running some REAL candidates who want REAL change, and vote for them en masse and stop running headlong towards total disaster.

Continuing to elect Repugs and Dims just won’t get us anywhere good. Voting out incumbents might shake things up a bit, but I advise that only as a stop-gap measure, just to get their attention, perhaps.

What we really need, though, is  to elect some real agents of Change, not continue to support the capitalist oligarchy, corporatocracy or whatever you prefer to call this mess we’re in.