The top 1 per cent have the best houses, the best educations, the best doctors, and the best lifestyles, but there is one thing that money doesn’t seem to have bought: an understanding that their fate is bound up with how the other 99 per cent live Throughout history, this is something that the top 1 per cent eventually do learn. Too Late.” Joseph Stiglitz
Corporations drop bills off at one end, and they come out the other, stamped with the imprimatur of a nonprofit, “nonpartisan” group of state legislators. Among other things, ALEC is a bill laundry.
Pssst … Wanna Buy a Law? - BusinessWeek
Fascinating read.
(via taylordavidson)
Insanely disturbing.
The Koch Brothers - People & Power - Al Jazeera English
A disturbing read about the power and influence the .1% can exert in political, economic and social power.
“What is it you want?” answers from Occupy. […]
The No 1 agenda item: get the money out of politics. Most often cited was legislation to blunt the effect of the Citizens United ruling, which lets boundless sums enter the campaign process.
No 2: reform the banking system to prevent fraud and manipulation, with the most frequent item being to restore the Glass-Steagall Act – the Depression-era law, done away with by President Clinton, that separates investment banks from commercial banks. This law would correct the conditions for the recent crisis, as investment banks could not take risks for profit that create kale derivatives out of thin air, and wipe out the commercial and savings banks.
No 3 was the most clarifying: draft laws against the little-known loophole that currently allows members of Congress to pass legislation affecting Delaware-based corporations in which they themselves are investors.
The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy | Naomi Wolf | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
To all the people who say that OWS has no message, fuck off if you still believe that.
