Thursday, February 24, 2011

Holy Plutocracy Batman!

Plutocracy: (n.) Government by the wealthy. <usage> a country or society governed in this way; an elite or ruling class of people whose power derives from their wealth.

This is just incredible. Look at these charts showing the wealth distribution changes since 1979:

Inequality

After you look at that, you might want to read my series on plutocracy in America:

Democracy: Are We Living in a Plutocracy?

In The Pocket of Billionaires

I've stated before on this blog, that I believe the U.S. has moved sharply in the direction of a plutocracy (rule by the rich). Corporate interest are extremely involved in politics and have an inordinate amount of influence on American political policies. Here's an article about a prank call to a governor that I think says it all. Can you call up your state governor for a twenty minute chat to discuss strategies that will help you become richer?
Corrupt Governor

Monday, February 21, 2011

Toxic Gulf

I've never believed these reports by BP or US government organizations that say that the Gulf is doing great after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Both parties have great economic and political incentives to skew the evidence in a way that makes things look better than reality. It simply is not plausible that you can release 53,000 barrels of crude oil per day into the gulf for nearly three months straight and not have major environmental impact. That's an estimated 4.9 million barrels. And let's not forget that it was mixed with methane gas - probably the equivalent of about 2 or 3 million barrels. Does anyone believe you can release 7 to 8 million barrels of toxic sludge into any environment without creating some catastrophic problems?

Well, an independent study of the gulf disaster has finally come out. It was done by the University of Georgia, and guess what they found? Just what you'd expect, lots of sludge and dead animals. Wow, that's shocking...

Here's an article about the study's findings:
Toxic Gulf

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Not Inspired

I only post on this blog when I feel inspired to rant about something and I'm just not feeling that right now. Sorry. Check back at some point in the future and maybe I'll have written something. It might even be worth reading...no promises though.