Corporate Fascism
By John Johnson
The current media onslaught of political mud slinging and hate-based self-promotion (“I’m tougher on immigration than my opponent,” for example) is beyond absurdist/comical.
The world totters at the edge of disastrous climate change. Wall Street, banks and corporations are putting the cash they swindled into Cayman island accounts, destroying most of the world’s economies. Including our own.
The war against women, abortion and contraception is just another sideshow, but is, in the meantime, putting the lives of women and children in real jeopardy.
Oil companies lobby to drill in the arctic. Their “fracking” mines trigger earthquakes, contaminate ground water for hundreds of miles and cause widespread air pollution, even though there isn’t any lack of oil.
Romney won’t disclose the taxes he hasn’t paid, and he just became a “birther”.
While government refuses to make corporations and the mega-rich pay their fair share of taxes, government agencies reduce services and raise fees. The Congress and California are actually cutting food stamps allowances.
The Obama Administration doesn’t go after Wall Street or the Bankers as they once assured us they would. But they go after Whistle blowers even more than the Bush administration did. Bradley Manning is still being tortured as a lesson to other would-be whistle blowers.
The Banks and mortgage companies are still foreclosing on homes, throwing families out on the street, for the phony schemes they set up in the first place. As one politician said, “the rents are still to damn high”. Inflation and food prices continue to rise. jobs are still be exported to The war in Afghanistan has only become more brutal after Obama’s promise to wind it down. Police and federal enforcement agencies have mirrored military tactics in Afghanistan in the attacks and crack downs on the Occupy movement.
The Justice Department is not responsive to Republican voter repression campaigns that blatantly assault the Voters Rights Act from the Sixties. These are direct efforts to disqualify minority voters, African and Latin Americans, and the poor. (With new fees, no weekend voting, etc.)
Recently a scumbag casino operator promised to put 100 million into Romney’s campaign. Why? Because he believes that a Romney victory will ensure his making another billion. There are no reports of his agenda in the “media,” in part because corporate broadcast networks will rake in millions from the ads.
Two months ago my car was totaled. This month my computer crashed, again. And, again, I had to call the Geek Squad. Some of the software I use for Change-Links
was damaged. I reinstalled some older versions which I was able to use, this time, but I need to buy newer versions.
One of our major distributors, Mark Andrews, had to withdraw from distributing. He put out over 2,000 copies every month in the greater LA area, including Long Beach, Orange County, the Inland Empire, Palm Springs and Riverside. I have a list of his drop-offs and really need one or more volunteers to step up to the plate.
Except for some loyal supporters, fundraising has been slow and low. Independent newspapers are an endangered species. Even more so, a newspaper that puts readers in touch with hundreds of progressive and activist groups, meetings and events every month.
C’mon, folks! Dig deep… Uh, a little deeper, okay? Keep it coming, so that we can keep you linked up!