Power corrupts #1

I will occasionally post links to articles which exemplify the how various forms of corruption manifests in public life. I make no assertion in any of these posts that the extent of corruption is absolute, only it exists...

Racial bias in many American police departments and judicial systems can lead to corrupt practices...
Darren Wilson and Daniel Pantaleo Weren't the First: A Short History of Brutal Cops Let Off the Hook by the US Justice System.

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"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."

And this is unexpected?

So a “sovereign citizen” with the legal right to own and possibly openly carry firearms was due in court on drug and weapons charges. Feeling threatened [“His emotional state was very fragile. He was very sensitive, very, very, scared. He has no prior criminal history. He was obsessed with not going to jail,” said Marx’s former attorney Ann Shafer.] he decided to exercise the Castle doctrine of his state to carry his personal enactment of the Bush Doctrine. So now a courthouse deputy has been shot and he was killed by the police…

Not to worry, the NRA will soon offer a solution to excessively armed public... more arms for all!

Gun rights for me, not thee…

A man was free to stalk a children’s baseball game in Georgia. Apparently he was not doing anything explicitly illegal.

One of the parents present who called 911 is a gun rights advocate. She had this to say:

"I own a gun. I have no problems with the Second Amendment. But they do not belong in a parking lot where we have children everywhere. If you want to make a statement, go to the Capitol."

NIMBY meets the Second amendement.

Mr. O’Reilly, what is a socialist?

By his own admission, Bill O’Reilly doesn’t know what socialism means (he asked for a definition).  Keep this in mind the next time (and recall all past times) he calls someone a socialist.

The myth of American exceptionalism…

The myth of American exceptionalism… has been corrupted by a major American political party into a thin justification for xenophobia further morphed into racism which they use to bait the fear of their voters.

NSA spying (on Americans, foreigners, anyone…) is not about criminal activity

A question was asked on Wednesday on Democracy Now…“Why should the government not be able to hold records, when, as they say, they’re only looking at them if they have specific intelligence to go after criminal activity?”

The answer is… it’s not about criminal activity. If it were, there’s plenty of ‘intelligence to go after criminal activity’ regarding Wall Street malfeasance, Deepwater Horizon negligence in the Gulf oil spill, Freedom Chemicals carelessness in the West Virginia chemical spill, West Fertilizer’s recklessness in the Texas explosion… (need I go on?) It is about what the wants of the corporate heads of these companies. NSA spying is another tool in their arsenal to target their perceived enemies. It is evident that the government is not for and of the people but rather for and of the monied.

Obamacare in CBO Report

 The Congressional Budget Office has released a report which projects the national budget until 2024. Many reporters and Republican lawmakers have misinterpreted its findings to claim Obamacare is a ‘job killer’. Considering the ~30 votes to repeal Obamacare in the Republican led House, this is not surprising. But aside from the swipe at Obamacare, this is also an opportunity to justify low wage jobs. One reason for the high competition for jobs is the need to stay at unrewarding positions to maintain health insurance; this drives down wages. When workers can choose to not work a low wage job for health insurance, there is pressure on employers to increase wages. Whose interests are served by Republicans and most media types again?

What do they care?

There’s a new study out predicting a ‘surge in homeless deaths’. That is unless these are policy changes. Call me cynical but what do politicians care about dead homeless people? Or regular voter for that matter?

They persuaded American voters to wage ‘war’ on terror, drugs and crime to justify funneling huge amounts of taxpayer funds (and future taxpayer funds) into corporate contractors and subcontractor supplied ‘war’ goods and services (with over-inflated, non-competitive contracts at that). Then they talked us into real conflict with the lie of Saddam Hussein’s ‘weapons of mass destruction’. They sweet talk the impressionable youth of this country into fighting a distant war against a nation whose oil fields are highly coveted by American corporations. And in this conflict, corporate contractors and subcontractor supplied ‘war’ goods and services through over-inflated, non-competitive contracts.

We now have major military and veterans related problems in sexual assaults, domestic violence, PTSD and other mental health issues, homelessness and health care and pension benefits. But politicians aren’t concerned about these issues; they answer to corporate contractors and subcontractors who’ve already got what they asked for.

Our ‘so called’ recovery is leaving many under if not unemployed but  politicians aren’t concerned about these issues; they answer to corporations and Wall Street who’ve already got what they asked for and pocketed and stashed all the proceeds.

Our environment is falling prey to polluting corporations which spill oil all over the Gulf of Mexico and Prince William Sound. And chemical explosions in West, Texas and spills in West Virginia. And our food… E.coli contaminated chicken can’t be recalled and antibiotic resistant bacteria riddle our food supply due to unrestrained non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in our food supply. But politicians aren’t concerned about these issues; they answer to anti-regulation corporations who’ve already got what they asked for.

Our gun policy allows and arguably condones the shooting of unarmed innocents in all manner of locations and circumstances: schools, movie theaters, sidewalks… But politicians aren’t concerned about these issues; they answer to gun producing corporations who’ve already got what they asked for.

So yes, call me cynical. I don’t see any prospect of positive policy change in the near future.