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 Corporations wanna do ya, too. Lying, cheating, cover ups, scams... motives are only slightly different, but their means are on a grand scale. Monopoly status or a mandated domestic market is a good start. International trafficking in drugs, weapons, humans, intel and influence is the best. |
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We begin with - what was - the biggest daylight robbery in history ('was' being operative term).  Following the Great Depression and Wall Street crash of 1929, Congress passed the Banking Act of 1933 designed to prevent future financial meltdowns and restore faith in failed U.S. financial institutions by creating the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Government was actually capable of accomplishing things back in those days.Banks, of course, spent the next 30-40 years trying to get out from under these regulations, culminating in an illegal merger - temporarily approved by Congress - between Citibank and Travelers Insurance, which included one of the largest security firms in America, Smith Barney. This 1998 merger created Citigroup and signaled a return to pre-depression business-as-usual for the banking industry, allowing banks to get back into insurance, investment and other businesses. Bill Clinton then signed the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 officially deregulated the banking system and creating more mega-mergers. An artificial economic boom took hold for the next few years based on unsecured loans, "derivatives" and other fictitious financial instruments. The Fed took to seizing and closing small local banks around the country and stepped-up printing money out of thin air. It took less than ten years of unbridled greed to again drive the nation toward depression. With the economy teetering on the brink of collapse in 2008, George Bush signed the notorious TARP bank bailout on his way out of office, and Barry Obama stepped in to double-down on the program. Big banks and the Fed survived, thanks to an estimated $7.7 TRILLION taxpayer dollars - largely unaccounted for - with no one held responsible. Business as usual at the Fed.
2024 will begin with a national debt of approximately $34 Trillion. $7.7T in 2008 dollars is over $11T today.
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Stimulate the economy Put Betti on the Twenty!
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Remember Enron? Formed in 1985, Enron was to function as energy broker between suppliers and consumers. With the blessing of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and a newly deregulated energy market, Enron and PG&E were free to stick it to ratepayers by hiking the price of natural gas, followed by inflated electricity rates.
 Soon they were creating artificial shortages and rolling brownouts all over California while steadily increasing rates and cooking the books. Profits were so huge that Enron became a Fortune 500 company overnight and was the darling of Wall Street. While the CPUC looked on and California government collected its share of the profits, revenue jumped nearly 800% in four years with an assist from Arthur Anderson's creative audits (one of the world's largest and most prestigious accounting firms at the time).All was going as planned until a whistle blower did the math, smelled a rat and sounded the alarm. By the end of 2001, Enron's high-flying stock was worthless and Arthur Anderson was no more, despite shredding several tons of documents and thousands of computer records in an attempt to hide their crimes. Enron's demise was the largest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history - until the failure of WorldCom about a year later. What happened to all that money? Ask PG&E. Enron employees won back $85M of $2B lost, investors recovered only $11.4B in a $40B lawsuit, but PG&E ratepayers got zero, zip, nada. Rates established by PG&E and Enron continue to climb, thanks to monopoly status endorsed and enforced by the CPUC. Then came "smart" meters that report exact usage on a daily basis, ignored in favor of tiered rates established by PG&E/CPUC, making the new meters little more than a spying device. Costs were covered by padding utility bills when removing the old meters. Nice. PG&E declared bankruptcy in 2001 after the state's bogus "energy crisis" and was considering it again in 2017 due to wildfires. Seems California law assigns liability to PG&E if any PG&E equipment is involved, whether negligence is involved or not. Then came another series of devastating fires. PG&E declared bankruptcy - again - in January of 2019. The utility obtained $5.5B to finance operations during court proceedings, and the CPUC approved a $373 million rate hike to help defray expenses in April of 2019. PG&E/CPUC plan more rate increases they say will add $22-$25 to an "average" bill for "wildfire safety," which includes rolling 48-hour blackouts if the wind blows. Other "wildfire safety" programs include mass mailers, radio ads and public meetings that are all focused on evacuation. With the highest utility rates in the nation and a sketchy history, PG&E was already bereft of fans; pinning blame on 'em for the horrific fires of recent years isn't helping any. Regardless, there's plenty of blame to go around, including CalFire's forest management plan (i.e. let wildland fires burn if no structures are threatened). BTW, laws passed to prevent another Enron were subsequently used against Donald J. Trump.
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California Department of Forestry was officially founded in 1905 under the newly formed U.S. Forest Service to conserve, manage and protect forest land in California. It received its first fire engines and seasonal firefighters around 1930, with a good deal of manpower provided by work relief programs during the Great Depression. CDF was responsible for unincorporated state land outside the jurisdiction of city, county, federal and private property, including fire protection and forest management. By the mid '40s, CDF had established mutual aid agreements with most counties and fire districts, exchanging emergency services for heavy equipment and manpower when needed, including crews formed from honor farms and prison inmates. This arrangement served California's fire and emergency needs well for nearly seven decades.  In 2007, CDF's reorganization into CalFire was complete. By 2011, California's financial crisis had forced significant budget cuts and layoffs to the department, even as CalFire worked to eliminate volunteer city and county fire departments by way of mandated state regulations. Assuming responsibility for 31 million acres with paid services and personnel also meant added expense to counties expected to foot the bill, pushing some to the brink of bankruptcy. Closing stations, liquidating assets and reducing manpower to save money, response times increased while available equipment and staffing decreased. The results were disastrous. From December of 2017 to December of 2018 - starting with the Thomas fire - California had six major wildfires within 12 months, each setting a new state record surpassed only by the next fire. Six record fires in 12 months.... December 2017's Thomas fire burned 282,000 acres and damaged or destroyed over 1300 structures. The 2018 fire season saw a record 483,000 acres consumed with 24,000 structures destroyed and at least 100 lives lost, ending with the Camp fire which completely destroyed the town of Paradise (14,000 homes, 86 lives lost). Another record 500,500 acres were consumed in 2019, along with 700 structures. 2020 losses include over 494,000 acres and 11,000 structures. 2021 was another record 535,000 acres and nearly 4,000 structures. New record 554,000 acres and 1200 structures lost in 2022. Yet another record 595,000 acres in 2023.... it's a wonder there's anything left.
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Beginning as the Bell Telephone Company founded by the phone's inventor, Alexander Graham Bell, regional offices sprang up all over the U.S. from Pacific Bell on the left coast to Atlantic Bell in the east with many others scattered across North America. Parent corporation AT&T took over in 1899 and became the monopoly Bell System we all learned to despise. Brunt of jokes and evil influence in many old television and movie plots (most famously a 1967 flick starring James Coburn called "The President's Analyst"), Ma Bell got her comeuppance in 1982 when the Feds broke AT&T's monopoly into a bunch of "Baby Bells" to foster competition. But, like the metallic bad guy in a Terminator movie, they just coalesced back into an even bigger and badder AT&T that proved to be worse than ever. AT&T bought Dish Network (including Hughes) in order to expand into satellite and cellular services as wired landlines began to disappear. Your world, tapped and recorded: Often the biggest corporate donor in American politics (to both parties), AT&T spends millions to lobby Congress and usually gets whatever it wants. Landlines are now history, as is AT&T's monopoly, replaced by VoIP and cellular where competition is alive and well. AT&T also struck up a cozy relationship with the NSA who praised AT&T's extraordinary assistance in spying on Americans. Thanks to Edward Snowden, we learned that all communications go directly to the NSA in real time, including cellular, landline and digital. Next time you hear "your call is important to us," you'll know it must mean the NSA since AT&T couldn't care less.
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Like the phone company, cable has long been a necessary evil. And, like Ma Bell, cable is having to invest in fiber optic infrastructure in order to continue as internet service providers. Both are competing (or colluding) to collect Big Bucks as gateways to the internet, with competition from satellite services. Satellite has the distinct disadvantage of latency, which means it cannot compete with fiber transmission at the speed of light. While Ma Bell has moved into satellite, Comcast purchased NBC in a move toward broadcasting and entertainment markets. Both are trying to maintain nearly identical monopoly pricing in a rapidly changing broadband market. Comcast famously claims bandwidth it can't always deliver - and, somehow, gets away with it. (Bandwidth translates to "speed" for practical purposes.) When they can only deliver a fraction of the "speed" claimed on your bill, don't be surprised if they blame you. Do a speed test; unless you're on fiber optic, you're bound to get results well below what you're paying for over traditional coax cable. Fiber optic - obviously - is as good as it gets, Both companies have instigated multiple ways to jack up your bill. If you suspect collusion, here's your proof: Both began by allowing three devices with an additional monthly charge for each additional device. Both had data caps, both charge extra for movies and programs you stream, both lease proprietary equipment to their users, and both charge dearly for high speed. Oddly enough, rates and contracts between the two companies are nearly identical. It's important to note the distinction between governing access and censoring content. While the former has largely been resolved for now, the latter - blocking posts, barring users and deviant search results - is a growing problem.
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 Those of us who remember the former Soviet Union before its collapse in 1991 will certainly recall the USSR's official Soviet news agency, TASS. That's close to what AP (et al) has become here in the States: A mouthpiece for deep state propaganda, fear and division.As we suffer thru seemingly endless political campaigns, we've grown accustomed to seeing daily hit pieces, bogus polls and slanted stories designed to maintain the status quo (corruption) and keep America divided by race, status and gender. Add manufactured fear of covid with all of its associated lies, and control was nearly complete for a short time. No place for logic or decency in the sometimes violent, but always disgusting, world of official hypocrisy. The former "mainstream media" might end up being the biggest loser in all this, with their fake news and manufactured fear. Trump's win in 2016 exposed a great deal of corruption we might not have known about otherwise - no thanks to news media. AP FACT CHECK: Legacy media's history of contempt for the public has long been on full display, obvious to all but the most brain dead among us. They've lost all respect as people turn away from media insults, lies, base humor and perverted, hate-filled rhetoric. They've just about finished the self-destruction of whatever reputation they once had. Search engines and most social media are no better. But, like the skanks they are, they continue to talk even tho no one is listening. |
California has been circling the drain since before the recall of Gray Davis in 2003. Only the second Governor in U.S. history to be recalled from office, things actually got so bad that the people of California organized a recall election that attracted 150 candidates in all, including everything from strippers to Hollywood actors. (The state constitution has since been modified to prevent an open election from ever happening again.) California voters elected Arnold Schwarzenegger - the Terminator - who promised to clean house but promptly sold out once in office.
All hope was lost when California voters handed the Governor's office to Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown in 2010 for the second time (previous two terms were from 1975 to 1983). Brown ran unopposed and took office with zero effort. By that time, Democrats controlled everything in the state. The election process in CA, subverted to favor Democrats with state laws allowing ballot harvesting and mail-in ballots, a Democrat administration is virtually guaranteed for the duration. And how they do love to tax and spend... Jerry Brown's "crazy train" from LA to SF was estimated to cost $33B in 2008 and was scheduled to be completed in 2020. All these years and $98B later, the project has next to nothing to show for all the money spent and is projected to require another $100B. Then came Jerry's hairball "water tunnel" project, said to make Boston's Big Dig look like a child's sandbox: Twin 40-foot diameter tunnels, buried 150-feet below ground for 30-miles. Known officially as the "California Water Fix and Eco Restore," it had an estimated cost of $23B, now approaching three time that amount. It would have had enough capacity to divert the entire Sacramento River. Governor Nuisance has proposed downsizing the project to one tunnel - with half the capacity at 9/10ths the cost - but he seems afraid to stop it. Link The state is drowning in debt with unfunded liabilities, including over $240B in gov't pensions. California has succeeded in driving out virtually all manufacturing and much of its tax base, with heavy-handed regulations and unreasonable requirements, sending companies fleeing to other states - Texas, Colorado, Nevada, Arizona - where they're welcomed with open arms, tax breaks and assistance. CA now has the highest taxes and homeless count of all 50 states.
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