Connecting the dots?

What do the following have in common?

BP’s little problem in the Gulf of Mexico?

Goldman Sachs?

A little meltdown on Wall Street?

Could it be that it’s time to re-consider the rightful role of government in managed capitalism?

The next time a right wingnut tells you it can’t work, ask them how America managed to be so successful, building the biggest, fattest middle class economic juggernaut in history during the mid twentieth century, with plenty of tough market regulation.

The real question isn’t should we, it’s can we?

Help Public Citizen fight for Medicare for all

After spending billions lobbying Congress, the health care industry is trying to take over the entire health care reform process to ensure maximum profits no matter the cost. And the cost is the 100 Americans who will die this very day because they lack basic health insurance.*

How many more men, women and children must suffer and die before we say “Enough!” to the immoral corporate profits insurers reap by denying millions of Americans health insurance?

Single-payer, Medicare-for-all reform is the only way to drive that number to zero. That’s why Public Citizen needs your help to fight the insurance industry lobbyists.

Our Board of Directors has pledged $20,000 if 400 people join us in this fight by making a donation to Public Citizen by midnight tomorrow! Please join the 151 people who have already contributed. Your gift could earn us an additional $20,000!

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Overwhelming democracy while battling for competitive edge

Updated on Friday, February 13, 2009 at 21:35 by mavenandmeddler

“The flow of corporate money into Washington has accelerated over the last several decades because of supply and demand. … It has been like an arms race.” Robert B. Reich, from “Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life”

Many years ago, I was visiting the Mexican city of Oaxaca, and while on a tour out to the pyramids there, encountered the usual gauntlet of poor children. It was like being mobbed, and all I could see was blur of faces and grasping hands, all looking for a Peso, or better yet a Dollar. What would the harm be in giving these dozen or so kids a few bucks? This is the very definition of ‘slippery slope’, because the obvious question is “where will it end?” If I had given out the money, a dozen more would have appeared instantly.

This sort of mob driven giveaway is unsustainable. And so it is with corporate lobbyists.

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What this country needs...

We had a wonderful little dinner party here this evening, at my sister-in-law, Joan’s home in Ft. Meyers, Florida. The guest for tonight is a local friend from the French Sector of Berlin, Germany, Klaus. Of course the dinner conversation made the rounds of all the normal topics of discussion, from Obama’s chances of straightening out the fine mess we’re in to the current state of the state in the DDR ( … that’s Germany ).

Capitalism or Socialism? Isn’t there a middle ground? Do we have to keep thinking in extremis?

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