Not to worry...the moneymakers will survive this PR crisis

Let's see...

Starting in the 80s, major deregulation occurred within the financial industry, culminating with the end of Glass-Stiegal in the late nineties. All due to pressure from the rich and powerful financial institutions and their cronies (read: Washington legislators who were paid millions by Wall Street lobbyists). Ten years later, a world financial crisis happens because of the egregious manipulation of derivatives by Wall Street.

Regulation is sorely weakened with major loopholes within the mining industry by the manipulation of rich and powerful mining interests. Last month, the worst mining disaster in forty years occurs. Last week, another mine collapses killing two miners. Both mining companies had major safety violations going years back.

Regulation is very weak in the oil industry due to lobbying and pressure from the rich and powerful multinational petroleum corporations. We are now on the brink of an oil disaster in the Gulf that will exceed the Exxon Valdez catastrophe. I just heard today that a safety device that would help cap an underground oil leak is not a regulation for U.S.-based oil platforms, but is required throughout the rest of the world. British Petroleum has the device on its platforms elsewhere around the world, but not here in the U.S. Had that been in place, it is very possible the U.S. wouldn't be facing this debacle.

Anyone else see a pattern here? Obviously, rich and powerful giants pose a great danger to the rest of us on this planet. Once they get the big bucks, all sense of decency for the human race gets defenestrated. There needs to be some check that keeps these money cartels from lessening the restrictions on them. I don't know how, but as long as there aren't checks in place, we, the people (and our planet), will be in grave (and mortal) danger.

As for the oil spill, I predict that once the dust settles from the immediacy of the situation (whether weeks or months), a "reason" for the explosion will be reported (and guaranteed it will happen even if they have to make a reason up). Beltway Washington will back them up (and thank them for the multinational corporations' due diligence in this time of crisis) and mainstream media will transmit the meme out to the sheeple. A fall guy (or minor corporate division) will be held responsible and appropriately "punished."

The oil multinationals will "fix" the "reason" for the explosion and say that the oil platforms are now safer than ever, with all the 21st century technology in place. We can all rest easy. Then it will be back to business as usual, Obama pushing for platforms on the East Coast (because that's part of his "energy plan") and putting all of the oil workers and our planet in danger yet again. All for maximum profit.

Same with the Wall Street (continued derivative manipulation, among other things) and the Mining Corporations (sidestepping safety regulations). Trust me. This will happen.

The "let me see your papers" law

I've been pretty much remiss in keeping this blog up to date. My basic reason is that I've been posting on a weekly basis to the Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC) site. For anyone who is interested, my two posts are published every Saturday.

I thought I would put up one of my recent posts here. I am very unhappy about the new Arizona bill that I call the "Let me see your papers" law (I made a small edit...I added a link that I didn't have available when this went online at the BORDC):

Talk about opening up a can of worms. Arizona governor Jan Brewer signed into law the "Let me see your papers" immigration bill (as I call it). The very idea of allowing "authority" to exercise proper "reasonable suspicion" is absolutely outrageous.

According to the article,

With hundreds of protesters outside the state Capitol shouting that the bill would lead to civil rights abuses, Brewer said critics were "overreacting" and that she wouldn't tolerate racial profiling.

...and I've got a bridge to sell you in the Florida swamplands. Real cheap.

If history tells us anything, it's that "authority" does not use restraint. In my opinion, if and when this law comes into effect, forget just racial profiling, the authorities can stop anybody, let me repeat that...anybody, demand papers and claim it was "reasonable suspicion." I predict that there will be many arrests and seizures founded on the "authorities" having "reasonable suspicion" that the "perpetrators" were illegally in our country. ("Oh, and the we smelled marijuana in the car!") So much for the "search and seizure" laws in Arizona...hey, they were reasonably suspicious that the perps were illegally in our country! That's all it would take.

In addition, on Friday, Keith Olbermann brought up the possible financial hits Arizona could take because of this law. As an example, he wonders how much pressure the baseball cactus league teams, which play in Arizona during the spring, will receive from the teams' home states. He imagined Manny Ramirez driving on his way to a spring game being stopped by the police.

Tuesday, Mr. Olbermann and Rep. Raul Grijalva (D) discussed bringing economic sanctions to the state.

OLBERMANN: I have never heard of a congressman in the history of this country proposing retribution against his own state. So, I‘m assuming you‘re even angrier about this than I am.

GRIJALVA: No. It is—we are codifying into law—if the governor signs this—racial profiling, discrimination under the Constitution. We‘re codifying the fact that law enforcement now has a free hand to stop anybody that looks the part in terms of undocumented people, ask them for verification.

It‘s unprecedented. It is a horrible, horrible precedent for the nation. And it—and we can‘t allow it to continue as though there are no consequences. And the consequences that we can only bring up right now is economic sanctions. We‘re asking organizations, civic, religious, labor, Latino organizations of color to refrain from using Arizona as a convention site, to refrain from spending their dollars in the state of Arizona until Arizona turns the clock forward instead of backwards and joins the rest of the Union.

Personally, I don't think this law will see the light of day. And that will be a good thing. The scary part is that there are those in authority that find it perfectly reasonable to trample on rights that were given us over 250 years ago.