Business leaders with a conscience? That's possible?

I never thought I'd see the day when people who would benefit from campaign contributions (bribes) would actually not put the dollar above the person. Although I still see the system as broken and the system still continuing after this, it is a bright light in a very, very dark place. I'm sure business leaders may be nice people, good values, good morals and the whole 9 yards. But in the grand scheme of things, I don't see them as much more than lords with the American people as mere serfs in a feudal system. It always seems like they put the dollar over the person, wealth over equality, inhumane-ness over decency. However, after reading letters sent by business leaders who value the people, I have developed a small level of hope. Perhaps the system can change no matter how many doubts I have.

I am damn proud to see business execs who actually have a moral compass.

http://rawstory.com/2010/01/business-leaders-finance-ruling-extremely-troubling/


Letters to the house and Senate:

http://www.publicampaign.org/sites/www.publicampaign.org/files/business-leaders-letter-house.pdf

http://www.publicampaign.org/sites/www.publicampaign.org/files/business-leaders-letter-senate.pdf

These lone acts of courage are not going to change much without the support of the people and responsible politicians like Alan Grayson (D) of Florida. It is going to take the will of the people and the acts of the people. Those in power are only in power because we, the people, let them be in power. Those in power become powerless when the people refuse to be mere serfs. It can be seen all through history that with a few sparks and educated individuals, the world can change drastically.

I wish I had read this article when it was first written back in January but I suppose I was just seeing red from then until now. Those 5 Supreme Court Justices' who voted to allow this limitless corporate finance should be ashamed of themselves. They just corrupted the election process of a democracy. Lately I haven't had much hope for the future of the Corporate States of America but this one little light made me think twice. Maybe we can go back to the United States of America but that's all going to take time, time that I hate to give up.

People need to be kept educated. You cannot take news from corporately owned media at face value. All stations, whether it be Fox, MSNBC, CNN or whatever, they distort and mislead. Real research is required in a democracy. DemocracyNow.org and other indepent news stations are probably the only ones worth trusting. Democracy is not a spectator sport. Change does not happen overnight. It takes struggles and sacrifices. Change may take years and years as seen in the civil rights struggles of the 60's. Apathy has crippled us the past few decades. People need to get off their asses. The ill-informed tea-partiers are admirable, although they are ignorant of what they are fighting against. But we should look at them as something that shows people can actually be united under a common cause. I have not seen that kind of unity in the States for quite some time.

Now then, back to my point of this post. This kind of feudal-like institution needs to change. When the public is misinformed, it votes against itself. Trickle down economics is a perfect example of the widening gap between rich and poor. That kind of policy does not work. Tax cuts for the rich is just as bad as giving money to the rich. That won't make them want to bring jobs to the States. It will just make their wallet a little heavier. Incentives need to be made to bring jobs to the United States. You have to make things cheaper to make in the United States rather than having workers in Chinese sweat shops who are paid pennys on the dollar. Perhaps increases in trade tariffs, or increased taxes on corporate products. Whatever the solution may be, it is possible, but it is not easy to achieve. I hope some may read this and find it interesting, but my true hope is to inspire people to educate themselves and make up their own minds. You cannot parrot the teachings of nimrods on major news networks on both ends of the spectrum. Make up your own damn mind.

It's been too long since I last ranted

This rant is going to be a little one about US war crimes. The picture above is that of a SMALL portion of the masscare at My Lai in March of 1968 during the Vietnam war. This may be too long of a post to read and most will not read it because of sheer laziness. That's why this country remains ignorant to all of its crimes against humanity. Now then...

Sometimes, often times, the US refuses to admit wrong doing. It's just the way the United States works. If we had lost WW II there is a good chance much of the staff of the White House would have been tried for war crimes against humanity for the napalm bombings of towns like Dresden, the fire bombings of Tokyo, and the nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Other war crimes directly in conflict with the Geneva Convention took place through military coups in south America and south eastern Asia. Others took place in Israel, the US puppet in the middle east. Due to the fact that Africa does not hold key commodities like oil US involvement is fairly seldom. I find this pretty humorous and sad since we went in to Iraq under the disguise of preventing a murderous dictator killing his own people when this happens all the time in Africa.

Numerous massacres took place during the Korean war, usually between North and South Korea but if you research enough it is easy to find incidents of war crimes the US committed (Hoengseong for one) in the name of preventing the spread of communism. Others can be found through US backed coups and government take overs, specifically in south America. US support was given to known drug dealers and warlords who were well known to kill their own people, not unlike Saddam Hussein. That is yet another example of US hypocrisy. Condemning and starting a war against a person who killed his own people while at the same time backing others.

Now then, in to the Vietnam war where numerous massacres took place, we refuse to admit we were wrong. Just take a look at My Lai. Through the years it has become harder and harder to find evidence of US massacres. If you want absolute evidence of US war crimes in the present, look at the video footage showing the shooting of journalists in Baghdad:

http://wikileaks.org/

What it all comes down to is the propaganda shown on major media outlets and government cover-ups. Propaganda does not always include pro-US footage. It is not always the American superiority complex. A large amount of propaganda includes what we do not see. The control of information by major news networks is extraordinary. Conglomorates and corporations who are in bed with government officials are the same ones who own the air waves. Scandals kept out of the news networks are not uncommon. Look up the court case New Communs of Tampa, Inc v. Akre. That is a perfect example of propaganda. Manufacturing consent is the prime motive of corporately owned media.

Although we do not live in an authoritarian or totalitarian state, we do have somewhat of a limit on what we do and do not know. It is amazing when you think about it. We are not mad at our government because of what they keep from us. We are perfectly content with that because of the vast amounts of pro-America mindsets in this nation. The majority of Americans have become mindless drones, the tea-partiers for example. Ask them what they are protesting, the tenants of socialism or the stipulations of the health care bill and you'll find out they won't say anything out of ignorance or them parotting the things Rush Limbaugh and/or the clowns on Fox Noise say.

It's only going to get worse. About three months ago a decision from the Surpreme Court has doomed us all, but of course most of us don't know about it. Read Citizens United v. FEC. It is the most absurd decision since Dred Scott v. Sanford. To give some background, in 1886 the Surpreme Court decided that corporations are people under the law. Now then, the Citizens United case decided that since corporations are not allowed to donate literally limitless amounts of money to a candidates running for office, they are not getting their first amendment rights. Now corporations, the same ones who control what we do and do not know, can buy politicians like they are commodities.

I truly believe that it's all connected. People refuse to admit it because it seems too hard to believe. If Americans saw have the things we are responsible for then there is no way that we would support such a violent nation. Read up on the government coups in South America. Nicaragua, Panama, Brazil, Guatamala, Cuba, Columbia... All of those are places where the US has tried or did train people to overthrow the government or US troops have directly overthrown the government. The reason: we wanted a pro-US dictator in charge. We, through both direct and indirect ways, control most of middle and southern America. The US has probably the most amount of war criminals in the world. The reason we don't get in trouble: anyone who opposes us will be demonized, we will impose trade sanctions or just simply crush them with military might.

Many of our own people believe we are the police officer of the world. In reality, we're the criminals of the world. One question I keep asking other Americans is, "What if these massacres happened to American civilians? How f*cking furious would you be?" But the answer is always the same from the pro-American fanatics and it's always something like, "Well they attacked us. We're justified. Might makes right." They never address the question. Numbers have desensitized us. With numbers, there is no human factor. It's just a number. If people hear the number of Iraqi civilian deaths is upwards of 100,000, we'll just say "That's horrible" and go back to eating a burger. Each and every one of those people were a picture in someone's wallet. Those pictures were an aunts, uncles, fathers, brothers, sisters or mothers of that person. They were a person for f*cks sake! I want to know why this is happening. Why can't people just be peaceful? What is so scary about peace? Why don't people want it? Why do they want bigger and better bombs? I sometimes want to shake people and ask them "What the hell is wrong with you?! Are the innocent civilians not people?!"

I am getting to worked up. For more on US war crimes, go here:

http://www.uswarcrimes.org/index.php/download-war-crimes-report/

" I suddenly had this feeling that everything was connected. It was like I could see the whole thing; one long chain of events."

~Eric Finch (V For Vendetta)