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Google and Verizon Close to Inking Deal That Would Kill Net Neutrality and Turn the Internet Into One Big Mafia-like ‘Protection Racket’ [UPDATE]

August 5, 2010 By James View Comments

In case you haven’t been paying attention today you may want to start because we could be witnessing the end of the internet as we know it. Apparently Google decided to take its corporate philosophy of “You can make money without doing evil,” and turn it into, “Hey, Evil! Cool, let’s do it.”

Google and Verizon, two leading players in Internet service and content, are nearing an agreement that could allow Verizon to speed some online content to Internet users more quickly if the content’s creators are willing to pay for the privilege.

What does this mean? Well if you’re familiar with mafia protection rackets then this needs no explanation, but in case you’re unfamiliar with such sleazy tactics CrunchGear sums it up nicely:

Mountain View is in talks with Verizon that would allow the Big V to prioritize Internet traffic as it sees fit. So, if Site A wants to pay Verizon $X so that it loads faster than Site B, Site B has two options: it could either pay Verizon $2X so that it loads faster, or it can be content with the fact that its rival just paid for better access to the same customer base.

Or, let’s say there’s a nifty new online service like Rdio. In a world without Net Neutrality, ISPs would be able to say to it, “Look, you have a nice service there. But if you want to reach our customers at anything more than [arbitrarily low speeds], you’re going to have to pay for that. Don’t like it, tough.”

If you have a blog that you like to see your site get traffic you better hope that someone else blogging about similar topics isn’t greasing Google and Verizon because, if they are, your content may never even make to the eyes of potential readers. Sound fair?

If we don’t manage to rattle enough cages and make our voices heard and this deal actually goes through, I don’t think it’s reaching to say that the internet as we know it dies as soon as this deal is sealed.

Update

Google responded to the original New York Times article with this tweet:

I’m not completely convinced. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Filed Under: Tech Tagged With: corporate whoredom, extortion, google, net neutrality, verizon

As Opposition to Health Care Reform Continues to Decrease Seniors Still Alarmingly Misinformed

July 29, 2010 By James View Comments

For more than a a hundred million years there have been two absolute certainties in life. Two constants that are integral in balancing out the randomness of the universe. Two universal truths that you can absolutely count on.

  1. Death
  2. Taxes (It’s a little known fact that even dinosaurs paid taxes. Recent archeological evidence uncovered has revealed that a little more than 65 million years ago a “conservative” dinosaur was elected dinosaur president and almost immediately cut taxes on the rich dinosaurs in a completely futile and ridiculous attempt to stimulate the dino-economy. Not only was it a miserable failure, it eventually resulted in massive agency cutbacks and the closing of the DMDA, the Dinosaur Meteorite Detection Agency (See #1).

    3. One hundred million years later two more certainties have been added to that list.

  3. An astonishingly large number of hard-working, decent Americans will, given the choice, vote against their own best interest in favor of the interest of the corporations.
  4. There seems to be some correlation between a person’s age and how emphatically they will argue a point and make sweeping generalizations on a subject they are woefully misinformed on. (Hint on the age: People aren’t getting wiser with years.)

A large number of seniors “mistakenly believe the law includes provisions that cut some previously universal Medicare benefits” and 36% think that the law creates ‘death panels.’ Also, only 14 percent of seniors know that the law will increase the Medicare Part A trust fund by 12 years “and nearly half (45%) of seniors think the health reform law will weaken the financial condition of the fund.
”

One of the GOP’s favorite tactics besides fear-mongering is blatantly doling out misinformation to keep people in the dark. It’s just another form of fear-mongering considering most people are afraid of the unknown.

Considering senior citizens make up a large part of the Republican demographic that it would be in their best interest to inform their constituents. Of course that would mean setting aside the partisanship and actually caring enough about your core group of supporters enough to give them the facts and allow them to make the decision for themselves.

  • Only 14% of seniors knew that the law does not cut Medicare payments to doctors; 45% answered incorrectly and 41% said they did not know.
  • Only 24% of seniors knew that it is projected to extend the solvency of the Medicare Trust Fund.
  • Only 28% knew that the law improves the availability of long-term care at home for seniors with disabilities.
  • Only 22% knew about improvements in chronic care.
  • Only 33% knew about the new, free yearly wellness visit Medicare will now provide.
  • Two out of three seniors either did not know (43%) or gave the wrong answer about the future growth of Medicare spending. Only 34% knew that it will continue to grow under the new law, just more slowly.

It’s pretty alarming to think that with the seemingly limitless amount of information we have at our fingertips, people seem to be misinformed now more than ever.

[Image courtesy of Natalie Dee]

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: corporate whoredom, gop, health care, Politics

Insurance Company Profits From a Fallen Soldier While Simultaneously Ripping Off His Family

July 28, 2010 By James View Comments

I wish I could say this story was somehow shocking or the exception rather than the rule, unfortunately, for anyone who’s even somewhat paid attention over the past decade or so it’s obvious that this is par for the course.

There seems to be no end to what the greed of corporate executives will drive them to do. If you’re wondering why the gap between the haves and the have nots is ever widening, you need look no further than this story and then multiply it 20 or 30 million times.

We’re not just talking borderline shady or questionable actions, we’re talking about downright despicable policies that blatantly put corporate profits ahead of the well-being and interest of the people they’re supposed to be serving. The very people who are responsible for their success in the first place.

For Prudential insurance it doesn’t even seem to matter that the person whose life in question is an American soldier who lost his life fighting in Afghanistan.

Sgt. Ryan Baumann was out on a mission riding in his Humvee when he spotted an IED, his immediate reaction was to shout to the driver to “turn left”. That left the IED directly under himself. Sgt. Baumann was killed instantly while the driver, gunner and medic that were with him survived.

His mother was forced to face one of the most unimaginable things a parent can face. Having to bury their own son or daughter.

It was hard to accept life without her son, until a casualty assistance officer asked her to choose how she would like to receive his death benefits. 

“At that moment, you realize this was real,” she said. “I also knew that you know, to me, it felt like I was profiting from his death, you know, by getting money.” 
She eventually filed, electing to receive a lump sum of $400,000. But the check never came. Instead, she received a check book and a packet from Prudential saying the money had been placed in its “alliance account” where it was “available immediately” and would “begin earning interest” right away.

Everything seemed fine, until she tried using the checks. 

“I was told that the check could not be verified,” she said.

Here’s the gist of what’s going on. Instead of actually giving out the lump sum as requested, Prudential holds the money in an account of its own and sends out checks to use. Meanwhile, Prudential is paying out less than one percent interest on the money to the family member while collecting nearly five percent from their own investment of the money.

Yes, I am aware that this isn’t an anomaly and that many corporations capitalize on death in one way or another. The question is how long can corporate America keep draining the resources of the bottom ninety percent of Americans before our entire system destabilizes and implodes on itself?

Filed Under: News Tagged With: corporate whoredom, Economy, insurance, military, prudential

President Obama Speaks Out Against the GOP’s Attempt at a Hostile Corporate Takeover of America

July 27, 2010 By James View Comments

Regardless of whether or not you’ve been completely, 100% happy with what President Obama has done since he’s been in office, it’s usually speeches like this that keep bringing me back to his defense.

We, as citizens, and the politicians we elect that truly are looking out for our best intrests should be running these people and these politicans out on a rail. 

The Republicans are supporting a bill that would allow unlimited corporate donations, both foreign and domestic, to politicians, without even having to disclose who it came from.

We’ve turned into a feudal system where the corporations are our lords and masters and openly slap us across the face and skim money off the top as we smile and ask for more.

Please watch this video and pass it around to as many people as you can.

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: corporate whoredom, gop, Politics, president obama

The Persecution and Assassination of the Middle Class of America

July 26, 2010 By James View Comments

I recently  wrote about how ludicrous it is that anyone in our political system is opposing the expiration of the Bush era tax cuts. As the middle and lower-classes continue to be mired in bankruptcy, overwork and misery, there are politicians “gearing up for a fight” against a few percent tax on the less than 5% or Americans who are fortunate enough to make more than $250,000.

Bush created the tax cuts for the wealthy claiming it would boost the economy, the old GOP standby of “trickle-down economics”.

A friend of mine pointed out awonderful follow-up to my post, an article in the Business Insider about how the middle class is being systematically wiped out.

To think, we are so self-loathing and full of contempt for ourselves and our fellow Americans that we openly allow our politicians to think, even for a moment, that Bush era tax cuts for the rich should not be allowed to expire.

Ninety percent of American make less than $100,000 a year and we’re scared to death to think that the few people who make more than $250,000 a year might some how punish us, or make things worse (is that possible) if we raise their taxes a few percent. I hope our grand tradition of voting against our own self-interests comes to an end soon.

Click after the jump to see the 22 statistics that prove the middle class is being systematically dismantled and destroyed by the haves:

  • 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.
  • 61 percent of Americans “always or usually” live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.
  • 66 percent of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.
  • 36 percent of Americans say that they don’t contribute anything to retirement savings.
  • A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.
  • 24 percent of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.
  • Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008.
  • Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.
  • For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.
  • In 1950, the ratio of the average executive’s paycheck to the average worker’s paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.
  • As of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.
  • The bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.
  • Average Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.
  • In the United States, the average federal worker now earns 60% MORE than the average worker in the private sector.
  • The top 1 percent of U.S. households own nearly twice as much of America’s corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago.
  • In America today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks.
  • More than 40 percent of Americans who actually are employed are now working in service jobs, which are often very low paying.
  • or the first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that number will go up to 43 million Americans in 2011.
  • This is what American workers now must compete against: in China a garment worker makes approximately 86 cents an hour and in Cambodia a garment worker makes approximately 22 cents an hour.
  • Approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 – the highest rate in 20 years.
  • Despite the financial crisis, the number of millionaires in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009.
  • The top 10 percent of Americans now earn around 50 percent of our national income.

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: america, corporate whoredom, Economy, middle class, Politics

Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao Suggest BP CEO Should Do the Honorable Thing and Kill Himself

June 15, 2010 By James View Comments

Back in the day the Asian culture didn’t mess around with someone bringing this kind of disgrace upon themselves and their family without having some serious repercussions. Like a giant knife your belly.

Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) today called for McKay to resign. But during today’s hearing before a subpanel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao, the Vietnamese-American Republican who represents New Orleans, suggested a harsher form of punishment.

“Mr. Stearns asked Mr. McKay to resign,” Cao said. “Well, in the Asian culture we do things differently. During the Samurai days, we just give you a knife and ask you to commit harakiri.”

What do you guys think? Too harsh, not harsh enough?

What’s incredibly frustrating about the greed of huge, multi-national corporations is that Hayward may not even lose his job over this and even if he does he’s sure to be the CEO of another company sooner or later.

I think death would actually be an easy way out. I think he should be stripped of all of his personal assets and be forced to live in a trailer on the Gulf Coast for the rest of his life with a huge sign on top of his trailer saying, “I’m the asshole that used to be the CEO of BP and and I personally oversaw the most devastating ecological disaster in American history.”

Filed Under: Politics, Uncategorized Tagged With: bp, corporate whoredom, joseph cao, oil spill, Politics, tony haward
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