6 Corporations That Control Your Perception | Think Tank

Corporatizing Seeds of the Commons: Patents Enabling BigAg Control | Common Dreams

Corporatizing Seeds of the Commons: Patents Enabling BigAg Control | Common Dreams
"The paradigm shift that has transferred control of seeds from the commons to corporations has brought harmful consequences to farmers, seed diversity and the environment while making a few agricultural firms owners of the "irreplaceable element of all food," according to a report reased Tuesday"

Welcome to the Network of Global Corporate Control: Meet the Global Corporate "Supra-Government" (Part I)

Welcome to the Network of Global Corporate Control: Meet the Global Corporate "Supra-Government" (Part I)
"Corporate culture creates, over time, a totalitarian culture as this dominant institution seeks to remake society in its own image - where people are punished and impoverished as corporations are supported, rewarded and empowered."

Is the U.S. #1, or #What? | Alternet

Is the U.S. #1, or #What? | Alternet
"Gross Domestic Product is the only factor where the U.S. ranks as #1, which we do both on "GDP” and on “GDP as a Share of World GDP.”

Health Care has the U.S. ranking #34 on “Life Expectancy,” and #41 on “Infant Mortality.” Education in the U.S. is also mediocre. On “Quality of Primary Education,” we are #38. On “Primary Education Enrollment Rate,” we are #58. On “Quality of the Educational System,” we are #28. On “Quality of Math and Science Education,” we are #47. On “Quality of Scientific Research Institutions,” we are #6. On “PCT [Patent Cooperation Treaty] Patent Applications [per-capita],” we are #12. On “Firm-Level Technology Absorption” (which is an indicator of business-acceptance of inventions), we are #14. Trust is likewise only moderately high in the U.S. We rank #10 on “Willingness to Delegate Authority,” #42 on “Cooperation in Labor-Management Relations,” and #18 in “Degree of Customer Orientation” of firms."

Breaking the Chains of Debt Peonage | Common Dreams

Breaking the Chains of Debt Peonage | Common Dreams
"The only way to break this fear and passivity is to organize workers to break the cycle of mounting debt. And the first step to achieving independence from debt—the primary form of political control by the corporate state—is to raise the minimum wage. There are other solutions—forgiving mortgage and student debt, instituting universal health care, establishing a nationwide jobs program to rebuild the country’s Third World infrastructure, and green energy—but none of this will happen until we are able to mount a sustained mass movement that discredits the corporate state. This mass movement will arise, as Nader says, when we mobilize around the minimum wage."

Criminalizing Dissent and Punishing Occupy Protesters: Introduction to Henry Giroux’s "Youth in Revolt"

Criminalizing Dissent and Punishing Occupy Protesters: Introduction to Henry Giroux’s "Youth in Revolt"
"In the United States, the state monopoly on the use of violence has intensified since the 1980s and in the process has been di­rected disproportionately against young people, poor minorities, immigrants, women, and the elderly. Guided by the notion that unregulated, market-driven values and relations should shape every domain of human life, a business model of governance has eviscerated any viable notion of social responsibility and conscience, thereby furthering the dismissal of social problems and expanding cutbacks in basic social services."

AIG and Ethics: The Corporatization of Public Higher Education

AIG and Ethics: The Corporatization of Public Higher Education
"The notorious insurance monolith AIG gave two-thirds of the Ethics Center’s $16,000 first year budget. What might AIG’s intentions have been for funding the Center? AIG has not been known for its ethics. In fact, the insurer’s risky bets on derivatives were central to the 2008 economic crash. They received a $182 billion bailout. Yes, billion."

Why We Need a New Year's Revolution Against the Corporatocracy | Alternet

Why We Need a New Year's Revolution Against the Corporatocracy | Alternet
"Starting today, not next year, we all have to become climate hawks and democracy activists, breaking corporate control over the marketplace and over our elections, media, and public policy. Starting today we must move together to save our climate, our civilization, and Mother Earth."

How Corporate Interests Killed Common Sense

How Corporate Interests Killed Common Sense
"All in all, $40 million was spent to defeat a measure which would have expanded food labels. Food labels! Here is the million-dollar plus Hall of Shame, much of it reported after the election:"

The US Chamber of Commerce's Multimillion-Dollar Attack Plan | Common Dreams

The US Chamber of Commerce's Multimillion-Dollar Attack Plan | Common Dreams
"The 2012 elections in many ways represent a crossing-the-Rubicon moment. Can the democratic system survive being swamped by hundreds of millions of dollars of Super PAC money? Can it endure the rise of superfunders like Sheldon Adelson (Newt Gingrich’s backer in the primaries, who has since thrown his financial muscle behind Romney’s campaign), Foster Friess (Rick Santorum’s sugar daddy), Texas billionaire Harold Simmons and the powerful Koch brothers, as well as the overwhelming clout of organizations like the Chamber of Commerce? Will citizens rally around investigations such as the one launched by Schneiderman, and will they demand limits to independent expenditures during elections as well as the disclosure of those who seek to buy the country’s elections and legislative process? Or will ever more politicians who oppose the Chamber’s values simply suffer the fate that befell Alan Grayson in 2010?"

How the GOP Can Accomplish 98% of their Corporatist Agenda

ALEC Goes After the Center for Media and Democracy | Common Dreams

ALEC Goes After the Center for Media and Democracy | Common Dreams
"As calls for investigation of ALEC's lobbying activities and financing practices mount (with three complaints now filed before the IRS and other ethics investigations at the state level), it will take more than Edelman PR and "combat journalism" to rescue ALEC from the trouble it is in."

Six More Corporations Dump ALEC; 38 Companies Have Now Cut Ties with Corporate Bill Mill

Six More Corporations Dump ALEC; 38 Companies Have Now Cut Ties with Corporate Bill Mill
"Corporations that have publicly cut ties to ALEC since the launch of ALECexposedand related public interest campaigns include Amgen, General Motors, Walgreens, Best Buy, Hewlett-Packard, MillerCoors, John Deere, Dell, Johnson & Johnson, Wal-Mart, Amazon.com, Procter & Gamble, Mars, Wendy's, McDonald's, Kraft Foods, PepsiCo, and Coca-Cola. The addition of GE, Western Union, Sprint, Symantec, Reckitt Benckiser, and Entergy brings the total to 38. Four non-profits -- Lumina Foundation for Education, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA), the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), and the Gates Foundation -- and 70 state legislators have also cut ties with ALEC."

What Is ALEC? Dragging the Secretive Conservative Organization Out of the Shadows | Alternet

What Is ALEC? Dragging the Secretive Conservative Organization Out of the Shadows | Alternet
"Most people are unaware of the existence or reach of this shadowy organization. The members of ALEC would rather you remain ignorant of their purposes. In fact, these folks are so uncomfortable with anyone knowing about them that a University of Wisconsin history professor is being hammered by the Republican Party of that state for suggesting in an entry on his blog that in order to better understand the actions in various states with new Republican governors whose radical legislative proposals are remarkably similar, it might be worthwhile paying attention to theAmerican Legislative Exchange Council(ALEC)."

Inside ALEC's Powerful, Right-Wing Indoctrination Machine | Alternet

Inside ALEC's Powerful, Right-Wing Indoctrination Machine | Alternet
"The ultimate return sought by ALEC is nothing less than the rollback of the state and the establishment of unfettered corporate rule."

Corporations Can't Pledge Allegiance | Common Dreams

Corporations Can't Pledge Allegiance | Common Dreams
"Outcries against the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, extending corporations' 1st Amendment rights, point to many advantages giving corporations the edge over natural persons: "Limited liability" protects company owners from personal responsibility for business debts; and corporations are virtually immortal -- a big advantage. Mostly, though, critics point out the obvious: that a corporation's resources -- Exxon Mobil earns $1,300 per second -- typically dwarf those of ordinary mortals.

But whatever one's stand on "free speech rights" for corporations, what seems inarguable is that once the Court -- notably in its 1976 Buckley v. Valeo decision -- began conflating spending and speech corporations and the wealthiest among us have been the big winners. Their vast resources enable them to morph into ear-shattering bullhorns drowning out regular citizens."

5 Ways Privatization Is Ruining America | Alternet

5 Ways Privatization Is Ruining America | Alternet
"A grand delusion has been planted in the minds of Americans, that privately run systems are more efficient and less costly than those in the public sector. Most of the  evidence points the other way. Private initiatives generally produce mediocre or substandard results while experiencing the usual travails of unregulated capitalism -- higher prices, limited services, and lower wages for all but a few 'entrepreneurs.'

With perverse irony, the corruption and incompetence of private industry has actually furthered the cause of privatization, as the collapse of the financial markets has deprived state and local governments of necessary public funding, leading to an even greater call for private development."

Report: US Tax Dollars Funding Exhorbitant CEO Pay | Common Dreams

Report: US Tax Dollars Funding Exhorbitant CEO Pay | Common Dreams
"While austerity hits everyday Americans, seemingly scarce tax dollars are being squeezed from their pockets to fund exorbitant CEO pay, according to a report released Thursday from the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS)."

Koch Brothers' Moonshine

Koch Brothers' Moonshine
"Question: If you mix a cocktail of "black liquor," biofuels, diesel and a generous splash of tax subsidies -- then have it shaken vigorously by a U.S. senator and served in a golden goblet by corporate lobbyists -- what do you call it? Answer: Koch Brothers Moonshine."

Wall St. "Cheetahs" and the Financial Transaction Tax