Readers' Comments

I appreciate your analysis of ALEC but I'm troubled by how little this article actually discusses the law in question

Kind of likepassing Obamacare eh? "We have to pass this bill so we can find out what's in it" Thank You Nancy Pelosi...

Private prisons are simply immoral. To profit from making a fellow countryman into a criminal is immoral. States that permit private prisons should not have their statehood in the United States continued. We know that there are laws designed to increase the number of people convicted in order to fill the prisons for the profit of the few immoral and greedy investors. Private industries then move into these prisons using the entrapped prisoners as cheap labor. We never talk of these jobs that are "insourced". Now the majority of these prisoners are people of color but as the business of private prisons and the industries they house builds all people will be fair game for them. These degenerate practices mock real law and order and humiliate all America.

The limping quackers certainly knocked the bejeezus out of Michigan working people , and in record time, too! Had it been an actual fight, there would have been a record number of sprained duck shoulders in Lansing, since organized Labor has been so MIA lately that there was scarcely a target for Snyder & Co. to land a punch on.

Just seven hours was all it took here in the staggered ex-union heartland , where we're mainly still so thrilled that Walter Reuther marched w/ M.L. King back in 1963 that we usually neglect to notice that it's been more than 50 years since we started to coast downhill from the peak of our organized power.

But, if it's any consolation , which it isn't outside of your local insane asylum, Patrick Devlin ( Michigan Building Trades' amazingly ineffective lead observer , and sad-eyed mumbling spokesperson ) is no doubt as excited as ever to still 'have a seat at the table'. Snyder Inc.'s table , that is. Yo, Patrick... you were on the damn MENU, dude.

- John A. Joslin ( IBEW local # 58 -Detroit )

This needs to stop. We need to get rid of the gerrymandering that is screwing up our vote. It's not IDs that are needed, it's the losers redistricting themselves into the winners seat that must be stopped. Please sign this petition to get the White House to get some standardization so our votes cannot be tampered with by partisan governors. https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/standardize-national-laws-regulating-electoralvoting-procedures-protect-us-elections-partisan/F2tR3l5n

Yeah. Right. I think I know why all those people "quit looking." They don't care anymore. I don't care anymore. I recall my first lesson in "Right to Work" way back at the beginning of political correctness and at the dawn of "how to say it backward or not at all," thereby nullifying. The old double negative. Well, they got my body, but they didn't get my mind. Whatever the language, I can root out what it said in reality. It's a gift, one for which I studied hard. But-- Right to Work sure did top the cake.

Pearson Vue (in Colorado, I think) is administering the tests for issuing licenses for licensed professionals in WI. This is the first year for their contract - and they seem to be doing a good job. Is this group related to Pearson LLC?

I second that. And then turn the attention of the FBI,IRS and CIA to investigating the Koch Brothers as the largest polluter in America.

I agree with a previous comment that this has nothing to do with their
earnings but that there is a political motivation behind it--possibly
even ALEX (the Koch Brothers and their puppet Scott Walker and others of
their ilk). They do not want the truth about anything getting out to We
the People. They want us to be uninformed and uneducated so that we will
be like sheep led to the slaughter. It's getting nasty out there--they
are pulling out all the stops.

Thank you, Anonymous. Yes, I do see that BofA's character has not changed, and I am aware that people are flocking to credit unions and local banks, which are being choked by the Corporate Banksters. And yes, I can also hear BofA still howling, as you say.
I merely responded to the news that BofA withdrew from ALEC. That is one tiny step forward.
I do believe there are other banks that we can create for the people, called public banks, like the Bank of North Dakota. I haven't seen anyone on this website discuss public banks as an alternative to the TBTF Banksters like BofA, Chase, Wells Fargo, Citi, and of course Goldman Vampire Squid (and the rest).
Maybe you are familiar with the work of Ellen Brown, or Dr. Michael Hudson, or Prof. Wm Black, who have written quite a bit about public banking? And BTW, public banks are NOT government banks or credit unions.
IMO, as an alternative to the Corporate Banksters, Public Banks can radically change the way the financial system works in America. It would return control of the banks back to the people whom they are supposed to serve. This type of Banking has already been used in North Dakota successfully for almost a hundred years.

There is a description of what public banks are at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=LawAiv18xig

Author and Attorney Ellen Brown writes extensively about public banks and other kinds of banks on the ‘Public Banking Institute Newsletter at:
http://publicbankinginstitute.org
and her Web of Debt blog at:
http://WebofDebt.com

There is also great discussion of the history of banking in the video documentary “The Secret of Oz” (by Mr. Bill Still) which can be found at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swkq2E8mswI

I am convinced that public banking is ONE great way to solve the banking dysfunction problems we have. Regulations, the Robin Hood Tax, and a financial transaction tax would be great too. But the behemoth corporate banks are risking our money, creating great waste and abuse of hard-earned taxpayer money, and paying almost no interest. They are choking us.
And yes, the banksters probably will not want people to know anything about banks like the Bank of North Dakota, but there is a growing grass-roots movement for public banks in quite a few states now. The more people learn about them, the more I believe, they will want to participate in them.

I am currently involved in the climate change movement and am a veteran of the 1980s South Africa divestment movement. After years of study I came to realize that while it was a decent organizing tool it is financially ineffective. Any stock that is artificially undervalued due to divestment will be immediately snapped up in the global marketplace by those without moral restraint, thus instantly negating any supposed gains.

It's not possible to organize around the tactic without misleading folks as to its real world effect. Stock prices and investor profits just aren't going to change as a result.

This is even more true for fossil fuel companies than it was for the relatively limited number of corporations that were very active in South Africa. Enough of the entire world divesting from fossil fuel stocks to make the bosses sweat? C'mon.

At my school we created an uproar, did not achieve divestment, and had exactly the same PR effect on South Africa and its corporate benefactors as those schools that did divest. I eventually wished that we'd pushed the school for shareholder resolutions, product and intellectual boycotts, and other corporate campaign strategies - things we likely would have won and that would have had a more direct impact on the corporations and South Africa.

My two cents worth.

ALEC most certainly is not open to honest debate, how do you explain their 'corporate written legislation' being implemented only by Tea Party state legislatures? In case your not real clear on the concept, corporations that write policy using shrouded language designed to weaken workers rights and lowering pay (or) repeal of emmission standards which leads to thousands dying from asthma each year and, getting it passed by like minded and hand picked political pawns is called fascism.