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same people who wrote the Bill of Rights.

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Actually the great thinkers who INFLUENCED the founders of this nation would be more accurate.

and recommended!

This is refreshing, and a reminder that a good forum can be a place to explore different worldviews, and maybe challenge our own. Capitalism requires consumption. The spiral of consumption is not sustainable. Physically, we simply run out of material. Spiritually the ritual of consumption so alienates us from our human nature that we eventually walk away. The second form scares the stuff makers to death. What if one day we realised that there is more happiness in a community garden than a bank full of money. What if one day acquisition was not the reason you got out of bed? You opened a very large box here...so many good ideas. I hope you post more.

This I agree with completely:

committed massive crimes were prosecuted. Whether there were decent people who were willing to do so. It's a question that will be asked imo, by future generations.

I think those people do exist, however it seems to me that there was a decades long plan to get to this point. They thought of everything, or almost everything.

They worked to get laws overturned, Glass Steagal eg. Bush withdrew from the International Court. I believe they knew they would be committing crimes in order to get the kind of money to achieve the power they now have.

When they were exposed for spying on the American people, the law making that a crime, was changed, retroactively to cover they period of the crime.

It's not as if this hasn't happened before in history. Narcissistic, unethical, immoral individuals grab power and then make their criminal behavior legal.

As for anyone who might have wanted to prosecute them, Congress is where that should have begun, but Congress is populated by people who are bought and paid for.

They have achieved so much power at this point that turning it around will take a long time, and it will take more than a few good politicians.

It will take an overwhelming uniting of the American people imo, to stop them. So long as they can keep the people divided, left/right etc, they are safe. I do think that is beginning to happen. See OWS which was non-partisan. That scared them as they watched it grow and refusing to be political, made up of people from all over the political spectrum.

people freely understand the 99% - it took a while for it to sink in, but I believe it worked - it challenged perceptions, but once the cheap shots were out of the way, there was a lasting impression. Researchers started publishing data, the economics became clear, people started taking notice.

Much like climate change took a while, most reasonable people acknowledge it and understand the consequences.

Perhaps people are being too patient, but I think there is an expectation that our Government must tackle these problems, regardless of corporate loyalties.

As long as people like yourself keep chipping away at the lies and duplicity and the abstract 3rd dimensional bullshit covering the asses of the ruling class and distracting us from needed reform, maybe we can make a difference.

I don't know, I'm not usually optimistic but maybe a few Bernie speeches has lifted my spirits. What an amazing contrast to Hillary Clinton.

decades to catch on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilderberg_Group to name just one.

ALEC, domestic and foreign. http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/ALEC_International_Relations_Task_Force

Think tank after think tank.

Etc.

I don't know how we combat it, unless we fund at least one think tank that respresents no one but John and Jane Average Citizen.

First time I've contributed directly to a candidate since wasting a ton of cash on Obama and a few idiot blue dogs that DLC types tricked me into thinking were necessary to save the world but they only ended up fucking us over.

I will never again put party above principals.

Bookmarked to keep referring back to.

Of course, though, the banks were not punished because no one in power wanted to punish them and no one's really fixed "too big to fail" because the banks didn't want it fixed.

stay within the lines to an extent never before seen. Technology made it possible to parametrize every aspect of their development. Only the most compliant and non-threatening can succeed. The goal seems to be one of rote intellectual development without the distractions of considering right and wrong. Winning *really* is everything.

I see it pervasive in industry where someone will make a cost cutting decision based on "the best data we had at the time". They are expert at the analysis and power point presentations and don't waste valuable corporate resources on inefficient "what if" exploration.

For example,

An engineer says - "you are replacing the ignition switch with a cheaper one to save $0.50, but it's spring lock mechanism is weaker and could turn the engine off while a car is in motion. I can't approve this."

The technocrat says - "you have no data to back that assertion. People don't weigh down their key chains with junk. Our research shows that we'll save several hundred thousand dollars this way and our tests using a typical key chain with 2 keys passed all of our tests. People must be responsible for making sure they don't abuse our switch." The technocrat fires the engineer and sends his job to a low wage worker in India who is unburdened with such esoteric concerns.

When the shit hits the fan and hundreds die, the technocrat announces "nobody could predict this failure, we made our engineering decision based on the best data and computer modeling available at the time."

The same technocrat probably told Obama "deep water drilling is absolutely safe, we have all the technology in place. There's never been a leak."

Same with banking de-regulation, "we could not predict the volatile market conditions that occurred to precipitate this crisis. Such an event has never before occurred in our economic history, therefore, it is only fair that, as a nation (*), we all share the difficult sacrifices that must be made to ensure America maintains its position as the world's safest investment option."

(*) meaning the middle class and below

All of this shit becomes much easier for corporations if they start while kids are young and monitor their development using corporate standards. Hence, Bill Gates and Arne Duncan are literally automating our education system with robot teachers assembling kids to the tightest corporate tolerance possible.

Our education and political system is beating ethics and morality out of our population in order that corporations can operate without fear of opposition or dissent. Certainly a SEC regulator whoring for banks will have a much easier time of it if the thousands on the staff are carefully selected for their ability to follow directions without asking a lot of dumb questions.

BTW- the same technocratic mindset is the one that calls Snowden a traitor because he broke a rule. He wasn't compliant. Never rmind that the NSA was doing something abhorrent and wrong and violating everyone's civil rights and constitutional protections. Snowden didn't follow the rules.

Human life is not valued. Greed is. Automaton people are easier to deal with than people who can analyze. Let's make sure our education system doesn't turn out latter---and makes private parties rich with tax dollars.