From my clippings file

Every so often, I email an article to myself for future reference, often with the idea of writing a blog entry.  Most likely I don’t get around to it.  So, since I don’t have a hot topic in my head this week, I thought I’d muse about some of these clippings.  Don’t worry, I won’t write about all 59, just enough to fill a Reader Weekly page.

One apropos to the attempts to take some auditing work from the State Auditor was a letter to the Duluth News Tribune by Paul and Susan Schurke of Ely.  They praise Rebecca Otto for pointing out that nobody knows what the potential cost to taxpayers of new mines will be.  Is it any wonder that the corporate-lovers in the Minnesota legislators want reduce Otto’s authority?  Strange that this same crowd complains about taxes.

“Otto’s common sense mining position can unite us all.”  Duluth News Tribune, 2013-12-09.

Pete Seeger wrote long ago that we have the best politicians: “We elect them again and again.”  One of the reasons we elect them again and again is that a plutocracy finances too many elections.  Plutocracy is government by the rich.  “Capitalism vs. Democracy” by Thomas B. Edsall (http://nyti.ms/Msy71t) asks “Is deepening inequality inevitable?  The case for a global wealth tax.” - New York Times, 2014-01-28.  It is a review of Thomas Piketty’s “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”.  Edsall quotes Piketty’s assertion “when pay setters set their own pay, there’s no limit”.

A reverse on a wealth tax is offered by D. J. Tice in “There’s no pot of gold for the working poor”, Star Tribune, 2014-02-09.  His first suggestion is “to stop raising their taxes.”  He also suggests expanding both the State and Federal Earned Income Tax Credit.  He also writes that any hike in the minimum wage will probably result in fewer workers over the long term.  Think of how you once bought an ice cream cone.  Somebody bent over the freezer and scooped your choice into a cone.  Now you can go to Chilly Billy’s and fill your own cup with your choice of frozen yogurt.

My answer to when pay setters won’t set their pay is when the sun sets in the East.  Joe Nocera wrote about all the gimmicks that CEOs and their boards use to keep raising the CEOs pay to ridiculous levels.  See “CEO Pay Goes Up, Up, and Away”, New York Times, 2014-04-14 (http://nyti.ms/1erLn2H).  Shareholders can vote against boards that grant obscene pay, but they will probably be outvoted by institutional investors who exercise “fiduciary responsibility” by voting in management’s favor.  Even if that responsibility were directed at reducing executive pay, current law says that “Say on Pay” is only an advisory; management doesn’t have to honor the shareholders vote.

Have you considered that the wealthy wield much more power than kings of old?  Except they don’t need armies of soldiers to stay in power, just armies of lawyers and lobbyists.

You can know that things are out of control when a “conservative” columnist calls attention to the inequalities.  My favorite “conservative” columnist, Ross Douthat, wrote  “College, the Great Unequalizer”, New York Times, 2014-05-03 (http://nyti.ms/1kzuuRQ).  He says that the Party Scene at many colleges benefits the well-heeled student and sucks in the “lower-status” student.  The well-heeled can rescue those who practice an excess of vices, but the less-well-off can’t.  The well-heeled will go on to social or economic success regardless of their performance.  Others will rarely join that social class.

And the upper-class is finding many ways to get their way no matter the cost to the rest of society.  It is well-known, to those who care, that the Koch Brothers through their American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) are writing our laws in cahoots with Republican legislators.  One of the current examples is “right-to-work” laws.  Many of the laws are almost identical to what ALEC proposed.  “Wisconsin’s law was a virtual copy of the 1995 model bill promoted by” ALEC.  See “Scott Walker and the Fate of the Union”, New York Times, Dan Kaufman, 2015-06-12.

The article points out how the upper-class minions don’t care about much more than keeping their masters happy.  The accident rate among workers is higher in right-to-work states.  Scott Walker promised the president of the state-wide union of heavy machine operators that the “right-to-work bill” would not make it to his desk.  Walker got his contribution and the labor guy lost Walker’s commitment.

How the Republican Party has changed!  The 1956 Republican Party platform included “The protection of the right of workers to organize into unions and to bargain collectively is the firm and permanent policy of the Eisenhower administration.”

And it even gets worse.  See “Energy Firms in Secretive Alliance With Attorneys General”, Eric Lipton, New York Times, 2014-12-06.  The attorneys general are sending letters of complaint about air pollution to the Environmental Protection Agency that are almost duplicates of letters written by the lawyers of energy companies.  These attorneys general are getting huge campaign contributions from energy companies.  Thanks to these contributions, 27 of the states’ attorneys general are Republicans.  Who was it that wrote, “We have the best government money can buy”?

Or to blaspheme Abraham Lincoln, “A government of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations shall not perish from the earth.”  Or should it be “shall destroy the earth”?

Corporations: sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander

"But now critics are pushing back [at proxy advisers], accusing the firms themselves of conflicts of interest and secrecy. Corporations are aiming to limit what they see as inappropriate influence."
– "Proxy advisers face challenge from corporate critics", Jim Spencer, Star Tribune, 2013-11-30.

Proxy advisers are firms that advise large institutional shareholders about voting for or against the management and boards of corporations.

I think the irony of this push back is that the large corporations don't consider being members of ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) or any of their own lobbying efforts or political contributions as "inappropriate influence" on "the government of the people, by the people, and for the people".

Google does no evil?

After learning that Google had joined ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, I sent the following letter (paper) to Larry Page, CEO and a founder of Google.  I forgot to include that Google got its start with a federal grant.

By the way, I think that paper letters have far more influence than petitions, online or otherwise.  It's easy to add your name to a petition; it takes time and thought to write a letter.

I didn't take the time to fit into my letter a reminder that Google's start was made possible by a government grant.  See the very interesting "On the Origins of Google".

Larry Page
Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View CA 94043

Dear Mr. Page:

I was surprised and disappointed to learn that Google had joined ALEC, an organization that is opposed to much of what Google stands for:

From “Ten things we know to be true” on your company philosophy:

“You can make money without doing evil.”

ALEC is an anti-democratic organization if there was ever one.

Consider the words of Adam Smith:

"The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order [those who live by profit], ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most scrupulous, but with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men, whose interest is never exactly the same with that of the public, who have generally an interest to deceive and even to oppress the public, and who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it."

Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith, 1776

For more tidbits from Adam Smith, see “The Invisible Adam Smith” at http://magree.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-invisible-adam-smith.html

I wonder if I want to keep using Google products.  But maybe I should use Google products to fight whatever “evil” Google may do.

I did something truly unique but "ignored"

As I inserted "ALEC" as a label for "Poster: A warning from the 'Invisible Hand'" Google's Blogger offered the suggestion "ALEC's Bag-Time Band".  Oh! That's clever.  Oh! I had used it in another blog entry.  I did a search for it and received two hits and only two hits!  It was for "Republicans are not republicans" that I wrote in May 2012.

The good news is that my phrase was a first and unique.  The bad news is that nobody passed it on.  No wonder the reverse spammers from Russia and elsewhere make so many hits on my blog:(

Poster: A warning from the "Invisible Hand"

Here is a poster for you to send to any writer or politician who has taken a position for or against corporate influence in public affairs.  Drag the poster to your favorite document or mail program and print or send as many copies as you would like.  All I ask is that you include the link at the bottom.

A super-efficient corporation

The St. Louis Dispatch published an editorial "ALEC's backers run and hide from Durbin inquiry" on August 14.  It was republished in the Star Tribune on August 18.

I sent a thank-you email to Tony Messenger, the editorial page editor of the St. Louis Dispatch, with my usual quote, and he sent a thank-you email one minute later!

It is also good to see that not all members of a group march in lockstep with what some members of that group demand.

The true names of the Republicans and the Democrats

I've often thought that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats live up to the names of their parties.  The Republicans are more in favor of res privata than res publica and the Democrats may often make noises of being the party of the people (demōs) but often bow to corporate interests.

I've often thought of the Republicans as the Republicants or the Republiwonts because they are often such nay-sayers to anything the Democrats may propose.  Then a few years ago I noticed the all the Republicans seemed to be all in lockstep on a laundry list of issues.  They must be anti-abortion, pro-war, lower and lower taxes, climate change deniers, America firsters, anti environment protection, anti safety rules, anti-labor unions, and pro-pro-pro business.  They all must bash the public schools and their "greedy teacher unions".  They all must decry run-away spending without being specific about what really should be cut, except for the military that they think needs more money without limit.  They all must decry deficits without considering that running a deficit may be because of investments that will pay off in the future.  They must decry subsidies for alternate energy but must demand subsidies for sports stadiums.

Then I heard about ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council run by the Koch brothers and others.  Ah, so, the Republicans are not a bunch of politicians with similar ideas who may disagree on some points.  They have almost all become beholden to ALEC and its ideology.  They have become puppets of and parrots for a small plutocracy.  So, their true party name is Repuppetans or Reparrotans.  We could also call them Reprivateers, because they put the private interests of a few far over public interests.

The Democrats at least make some effort to put public interests above private interests.  Of course, it's hard to do so when the private interests provide so much larger campaign contributions than the general public does.  They also lack the energy of a Teddy Roosevelt, a Franklin Roosevelt or a Harry Truman who were willing to face down large corporate interests in favor of the public interest.  I wonder if modern Democrats should be called Democravens or Democave-ins.  From reports I've had of the October 2, 2012 debates, these could be very apt names.

Greedy CEO Unions

The mantra of "greedy teacher unions" or "greedy unions" or "greedy overpaid government workers" appears in letters to the editor, blogs, and even in articles by people who should be more objective.  These phrases have the same nebulousness as "paying fair share".  "Fair share" generally means "more" but little thought goes into why some should pay more taxes.

"Greedy unions" generally comes from those who not only don't want to pay more taxes, but they don't want to pay more wages to their employees.  And guess what they form to advance their agenda?  Unions!

They aren't called unions, but they are in the sense of coming together to advance an agenda.  These include Chambers of Commerce, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), numerous "conservative" think tanks, and many, many trade associations.

Like every other group, they work more to advance their short-term interests than to advance the public good.  They want government off the "people's backs", but then they rush to government for contracts or laws favoring one industry over another.

Like every other group, they purport to represent all like them.  As the Occupy movement claims to represent the 99%, these CEO unions claim to represent all businesses.  But the large corporations do not all have the same interests, and the large corporations do not have the same interests as smaller businesses.  McDonald's does not represent the interests of all restaurants, and Walgreen's does not represent the interests of all pharmacies.

Organizing to promote a special interest is the American Way.  It was going on before the ink was dry on the Constitution.  We just have to be vigilant in our reading to look for hidden agendas and slogans over careful thought.  It's a hard job being a good citizen and voter.

Immigration "reform" – follow the money

I've never understood why ALEC and its legislative lackeys are so big on immigration "reform".  I thought that the employers of low-skilled workers would want to keep wages as low as they could.  A large supply of immigrants guarantees lower wages, and a large supply of illegal immigrants guarantees even lower wages.

An op-ed in today's Star Tribune gave a hint of how one industry really benefits from immigration "reform".  Carol Gronfor and three fellow students at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs wrote "Immigration case: Winners and Losers".

"The private prison industry has made billions of dollars by detaining people suspected of illegal immigration under the authority of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The majority of these people have no criminal record."

Ironically, ICE is fighting the recent Arizona law because it has its own record of abuse of suspected immigrants.  ICE is ultimately accountable to the people of the United States.  Private prisons are only accountable to their shareholders.

Oh, that's somebody else's worry!  Think again.  One percent of those detained by ICE are U.S. citizens.  See "U.S. citizenship no defense against deportation threat", Paul McEnroe, Star Tribune, 2011-11-27.

Republicans are not republicans

The current Republican party is in no way republican.  The word "republican" comes from the Latin "res publica" meaning public thing.  In the Eighteenth Century Anglo-American world, it meant considering the public good over private gain.  In the Twenty-First Century United States too many Republicans consider the private good of large corporations over the public good of a well-governed nation.

So many Republicans do the bidding of ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, and take big bags of campaign donations from the member companies to promote these companies' private gain, I wonder if the Republicans shouldn't be called ALEC's Bag-Time Band.

Fortunately, we do still have a republic with a democratic foundation.  Some of the people are getting fed up with a narrow-minded party that many movements have begun to get us back to some semblance of civility and interest in the public good.

There is the Coffee Party that calls for "civility and reason".  Although many of its stances might be considered on the left, it is more for people rather than corporations.

It has a "community" called Coffee Party Conservatives: The Conservative Side of the Coffee Party USA, but it is a aggregator of news that generally finds fault with the current Republican Party, though Obama and the Democratic Party do get a bit of criticism.

One of the interesting articles referenced is "A Phoenix Rising: Common-Good Conservatism" by Michael Stafford and D.R. Tucker, Truthout, 2012-04-27.  Stafford and Tucker are or were Republicans.

Even a member of the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, Norman Ornstein, along with Thomas E. Mann has written a critique of the current Republicans: "It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How The American Constitutional System Collided With The New Politics Of Extremism"
by Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein.  You can listen to an interview of them on NPR and read a summary of the interview at "Extremism In Congress: 'Even Worse Than It Looks'?", 2012-04-30.

Adam Smith didn't care for the ALECs of his day

I received an email from a group that asked people to thank Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton for vetoing a tenth ALEC-sponsored bill.  ALEC is the American Legislative Exchange Council.  Adam Smith predicted the problems of working against such groups.

I sent the following to Gov. Dayton via web form:

Thanks for vetoing ALEC created and sponsored bills.  Who elected them anyway?

"The member of parliament who supports every proposal for strengthening this monopoly, is sure to acquire not only the reputation of understanding trade, but great popularity and influence with an order of men whose numbers and wealth render them of great importance. If he opposes them, on the contrary, and still more, if he has authority enough to be able to thwart them, neither the most acknowledged probity, nor the highest rank, nor the greatest public services, can protect him from the most infamous abuse and detraction, from personal insults, nor sometimes from real danger, arising from the insolent outrage of furious and disappointed monopolists." - Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations

Find more interesting excerpts from Adam Smith at http://magree.blogspot.com
- End of email to Gov. Dayton

If you live in Minnesota, you can send your own comments to Gov. Dayton at http://mn.gov/governor/contact-us/form/.  Also, wherever you live, be sure to vote in each and every election.  Groups such as ALEC depend on voter apathy.  Or they even work to reduce the number of eligible voters.

ALEC takes a licking, sheds crocodile tears

In response to several large corporations withdrawing their membership or promising to withdraw from the American Legislative Exchange Council, ALEC has issued a press release "…on the Coordinated Intimidation Campaign Against Its Members".  The truly ironic statement by an organization that behind a well-funded, expertly co-ordinated intimidation campaign of manipulating public policy is "Today, we find ourselves the focus of a well-funded, expertly coordinated intimidation campaign."  See http://www.alec.org/2012/04/alec-responds/

For commentary on how ALEC does not believe in the free market it promotes, does not really want small government, and definitely does not want free speech see "As Donors Flee, Corporate Front Group ALEC Whines That Critics Are Trying To 'Eliminate Discourse'", Zaid Jilani, Republic Report, 2012-04-11.

The Republic Report gives its purpose as "Investigating How Money Corrupts Democracy".  One of the articles featured in today's issue (2012-04-15) is "Corruption Responsible for 80% of Your Cell Phone Bill", Matt Stoller, 2012-04-09.  However, if you think the Republic Report is a left-wing rag trying to discredit Republicans, see "The Real Hilary Rosen Scandal: Does Her Firm Sell Access To The White House To Powerful Corporations?", Lee Fang, 2012-04-13

Wisconsin's Selective Free Markets

Many in the Wisconsin Senate want to relax the "restrictive regulations" on permits for iron mining.  Others claim that those restrictions will ensure protection for the water and land near the proposed mine. "Updated:(Gogebic Abandons Mine Plans!) Wisconsin Mining Bill Sent Back To Committee", Eric Bau, Daily Kos.

A few years ago there was a big hullabaloo about a high-voltage line in Wisconsin.  Many who lived in the area of the right-of-way were opposed.  I don't remember what setback was required for the line, but many residents felt that it was too little.  There were also strong complaints about property rights.  The project went through and the line was built.

Now a company is trying to put wind turbines in several areas of Wisconsin.  Some landowners object to the size of the setbacks and the amount of access to be granted the wind companies.  Suddenly, the Wisconsin legislature is falling all over itself to increase the setbacks and other regulations on the wind companies.

What is so different about the third case that doesn't apply in the first two cases?  That is, why do large companies' interests trump the rights of individual property owners in the first two cases, but the rights of individual property owners should be paramount in the third case.

I have my suspicions, but I would need a lot more documentation than I care to look for now.

Foreign policy rhetoric can bite you back

There are tabloids and there are tabloids! There's the National Inquirer and then there's the Onion. They both make up stories to titillate their readers. The Inquirer makes up stories hoping its readers will believe them. The Onion makes up stories hoping readers will see the irony in them.

One such unbelievable ironic story is "New Breeding Program Aimed At Keeping Moderate Republicans From Going Extinct".

You know, I know, the writers know that there is no such program. But given the way that so many Republicans who don't fall in lockstep with the ALEC program are being sidelined, don't you wish there was a way to bring back Republicans who think for themselves.

The story that inspired the title of this entry is "Iran Worried U.S. Might Be Building 8,500th Nuclear Weapon". The Onion has Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi parroting much of the rhetoric that the U.S. has used to describe Iran. Unfortunately, U.S. military policy based on short-term goals too often loses sight that U.S. actions may be causing more problems than they solve. Remember, the U.S. toppled the democratically elected Mossadegh of Iran and supported the Shah; then Iranians toppled the Shah and got the ayatollahs. The U.S. hasn't forgiven Iran for the capture of the Embassy and Iran has forgiven the U.S. for the installation of the Shah.

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton promises to veto ALEC-sponsored bills

The Coffee Party Facebook is all abuzz about Gov. Dayton's promised veto action. See http://news.coffeepartyusa.com/p/1247743475/minnesota-gov-calls-out-corporate-front-group-alec-vetoes-its-bills.

I sent Gov. Dayton a thank you at http://mn.gov/governor/contact-us/form/.

Thanks for vetoing ALEC's bills.

Those who cite Adam Smith's "invisible hand" often ignore the rest of his cogent observations, including:

"It is by this superior knowledge of [the merchants and manufacturers] own interest that they have frequently imposed upon [the country gentleman's, often a member of Parliament] generosity, and persuaded him to give up both his own interest and that of the public, from a very simple but honest conviction, that their interest, and not his, was the interest of the public."

From "Political manipulation - begging the question"
--------

I posted the above on Facebook as well as the next: Cookbooks in German are Kochbücher. Does this mean that legislators who enact ALEC drafts are Koching by the book?

Minnesota House votes to jettison legislator seniority

The Minnesota House voted Thursday to scrap legislative tenure in the state and replace it with a plan that gives house leaders the authority to consider performance when making decisions about committee assignments. "Experience matters, but the number of years served is not an adequate measure of ability, competence and success in forming legislation," said House Speaker Kurt Zellers, R-Maple Grove. "We need to stand up for voters." Oh, my bad! That was "scrap teacher tenure", "decisions about layoffs", "success in teaching kids", and "We need to stand up for kids." See "House votes to jettison teacher seniority system", Kim McGuire, Star Tribune, 2012-02-16. However, what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Too few politicians are noted for consistency.

Two misdirected efforts concerning voter fraud

We have the Republicans loudly claiming voter fraud. Oops, that's ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) claiming voter fraud and its Republican lackeys obeying their contributors. Oops, that's bribers.

Nobody has ever proven any wide-spread voter fraud other than a few instances, and mostly ignorance on the part of convicted felons who forgot or were not informed that their voting rights hadn't been restored.

On the other hand we have Democrats loudly claiming voter disenfranchisement, especially of minorities, students, and the elderly. I wonder what percentage of the non-voting population these people represent.

We had a 63% turnout in 2008, that's over a third of the eligible voters who didn't even show up!Why not work harder get more of the 37% to show up at elections? Blaming the Republicans for the turnout is far less productive than encouraging the no-shows. The blame could be allowing no-shows to absolve themselves of their dereliction of good citizenship.

Rather than getting petitions and creating court cases, why not raise money for publicity to encourage people to vote? Put up billboards with catchy slogans. Give out or sell lawn signs and bumper stickers:

Vote! Be the Demōs in Democracy!
Don't blame me! I voted!
Be counted! Vote!

I found the Flying Spaghetti Monster and it is not pretty

The "Flying Spaghetti Monster" is a spoof on mythology. Rather than gravity keeping us all on the ground, the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM) uses its zillions of spaghetti-like tentacles to hold everybody to the ground.

I'm sorry to tell you that the Flying Spaghetti Monster really exists, and it is using thousands of its tentacles to convince legislators and voters to support its interests. Except, its abbreviation is not FSM but ALEC - American Legislative Exchange Council.

I've often wondered how Republicans seem to be following a script of issues rather than thinking independently in a "conservative" way. I've long known about ALEC, but through the wonders of Facebook and The Coffee Party, I found a site that has a laundry list of people who are involved in Alec: from profit-above-public-good CEOs to state representatives. It is Alec Exposed http://alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed.

In addition it has article after article about how corporate profits are more important than the public good, from worker safety to child safety. Like the maker of d-Con thinks that children ingesting rat poison pellets is an "acceptable risk" – "Kids Eating Rat Poison Is an 'Acceptable Risk' for ALEC", submitted by Brendan Fischer to PRWatch of The Center for Media and Democracy, 2011-12-06 http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/12/11171/kids-eating-rat-poison-acceptable-risk-alec

The Flying Spaghetti Monster analogy is so appropriate because ALEC members provide many of the goods and services that we depend on. If you want to starve the Flying Spaghetti Monster, you are going to have to avoid most big box stores, you will have to give up on some "socially responsible" products (like Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream), you will have to give up your home phone and cell phone, and you will have to ship packages only with the US Postal service. See the complete list at "Alec Corporations http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=ALEC_Corporations.

If you think we have a democracy or a republic, think again. We have a corporatocracy or a massive oligarchy. ALEC wants to reduce the number of people who vote by claiming voter fraud; when will it decide that we should again have a certain amount of property to have the right to vote?

Who's taking whose freedoms away?

Many candidates and commentators complain bitterly that the "government" is taking our freedoms away. These same people also want a large military to "protect our freedoms". However, they never seem to recognize that their own positions threaten our freedoms.

They also think that the Revolutionary War was fought to gain the various freedoms of speech, assembly, and so on. No, it was fought for the freedom to govern ourselves rather than being governed by a country three thousand miles away.

Now, these same candidates and commentators want to take the freedom to govern ourselves away, and they often consider themselves patriotic because they support a strong military, pledge allegiance to the flag (including "under God"), and wear flag pins. How are they taking away freedom to govern ourselves? By raising the false specter of "voter fraud" and hoping to keep away from the polls people who might not vote for them.

I've written about many of them being hypocrites in religion; they are hitting a double by being hypocrites in patriotism.

Protect your freedom: VOTE!

Are our two "major" parties misnamed?

From what I see, the Republicans no longer believe in governing a republic, not in the sense that the writers of the Constitution envisioned. The Democrats don't get overwhelming support from people who call themselves Democrats; these people don't show up at elections. You can't have a democracy without the demos (Greek for people).

Maybe we should call them the Gung Ho Corporate Party and the Lukewarm Corporate Party. And maybe we should call the Tea Party the Kool-Aid Party because of the poison they are drinking given to them by the Koch brothers, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and other non-elected organizations sponsored by corporate interests.