Quote of the Day -- On Fascism

“The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity .…They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution..."

"...They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.” --Vice President Henry A. Wallace, April 9, 1944.

Proof the Time Warner-Comcast merger shouldn't go through

So there is a proposal that the two telecommunications giants, Time Warner and Comcast should merge and there is no better example of why these two shouldn't merge than the upstart T-Mobile and their story:

T-Mobile Turns an Industry on Its Ear

The fourth-ranking carrier blew up the rules on smartphones and wireless contracts, to the benefit of many consumers.

Little, fourth-placed T-Mobile needs to get more customers and business, so what happens?

They lower their prices and come out swinging.

And what happens?

They get more business.

And who won, because of it?

You and me. The consumers.

If the Time-Warner/Comcast merger goes through, not only do the customers of these two companies lose and they likely get higher prices, but it's better for every other big telecommunications company. You know, like the biggest one? The one on the Fortune 500 list that rhymes with Bay Dee and Dee?  Yeah, that one. They win big, too.

Fewer companies, vying for the same customers.

Us.

If it goes through, folks, it's one more way we, as consumers, are screwed.

If you're not already against this possible merger, you should be.

It could have been said yesterday

"They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection." —Henry Wallace, (1888–1965), U.S. Vice President 1941-1945, presidential candidate for the Progressive Party 1948

Insane imbalances

I've been convinced that some of the worst things humankind ever did involved creating the nuclear bomb--of course--the automobile and the television, not necessarily in that order.

These things have created a great deal of our problems--the nuclear blast, pollution, I can't even think of what TV has done to us but it hasn't been good.

But I recently came across what I think is one of the number one things humankind has created that has caused so many problems and unfairness and inequality over time.

Ironically, I learned of the formal name for it on my first ocean cruise, last March. While on this cruise, I read a bit of a book about Central America and what had happened to it. It was then and there I learned the term and siituation.

Mankind's "downfall", if we can call it that here, is is "the monopolization of land."

It's the monopolization of land that inflicts the huge, gross inequality between "have" and "have not" people and groups.

Think of it.

Abotiginal groups--be it in Australia or in the United States with the indigenous, native Americans (that term doesn't seem appropriate, frankly), all functioned as one people, all utilizing what they had and all of virtually equal material status.

Very natural. Very fair. Very equal.

Then, the white, "New world" people came in to whatever area they were occupying, be it Australia or some portion of America or wherever, and divided areas up into "yours" vs. "mine".

Instead of all sharing all the resources, it was divided up into people's individual interests, resulting in some with a great deal of resources and wealth and others with less, little or not much at all.

Later, then, this could and did feed into the corporation and its ability to own items and people and productivity, distorting wealth even further.

This is the way you create people with outrageous amounts of wealth (google images of the Cote d'Azur) vs. poverty, starvation and other degradations of imbalance and unfairness.

It has been happening down through humankind's time. It's happening now in Nigeria, with their new discoveries of oil, for instance.

Most people, sadly, won't understand what I'm even saying here.

The land and earth should be and should have been for all of us--not just some small, self-selected few, be they some "royalty" or oil firm or what- or whomever.

Food, clothing, healthcare and a good, basic, healthy way of living should be for all of us, not just some small few.