Crashing the Corporate Christmas Party

Will we ever be delivered from the malfeasance of the banksters? We can't trust the government to do it, the fox is in that henhouse. Do it yourself! Disconnect from their profiteering services, cut up your credit cards, divest yourself of unethical stocks, pay off your debt and don't get into debt again, ever.

Lastly and perhaps most importantly, disconnect from consumerism to whatever degree you can. The model that got us into this mess is not the one that will get us out of it.

As published over at Care2Causes by Zach Carter;

"Nomi Prins details the disconnect between Wall Street and the rest of us for AlterNet. The government’s massive giveaways to big banks did not stop with the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. In fact, earlier this month, the Internal Revenue Service granted Citigroup a $38 billion tax break for, well, nothing. Like every other financial boon the Treasury and the Federal Reserve have granted banks since 2008, this special holiday gift will help boost Citigroup’s profits, but does little to boost lending to small businesses, lower credit card interest rates or help struggling borrowers stay in their homes....

Like dozens of other lenders, WaMu employed extremely lax lending requirements that encouraged outright fraud by loan officers and mortgage brokers. In Guadardo’s case, his broker falsified his income statement to indicate that he made over $8,700 a month, when in fact, he made less than $2,000. WaMu never checked the broker’s records and Guadardo couldn’t decipher the mortgage paperwork until it was too late. Now he can’t pay his mortgage and his bank has not offered him a permanent mortgage work-out that will allow him to stay in his home.....

Massive bailouts for Wall Street have helped save the nation’s largest banks from economic catastrophe. But high stock prices for banks will not benefit the rest of the economy unless the government puts the same effort into saving our communities that it put into saving our financiers."

The Green Economy, If we don't do it, someone else will.

With the certainty of peak oil relentlessly drawing ever nearer and the damage from climate change growing ever more obvious there is no doubt that the future will be green. If we want a vibrant sustainable economy we have to create it. Read Tom Friedman's take on this over at Worldchanging.

Here is an excerpt;

"The jobs argument is a core message for winning the public debate about the clean air, clean water, clean energy jobs bill.

Friedman is a centrist who advances the argument because he knows it is true, because he understands climate science is real, and because he is a hard-core capitalist who sees the tough dynamic the U.S. is facing in the global economy. If you’re not first, you’re probably last.

The importance of the clean energy jobs message is evidenced by the fact that the corporate polluters and their right-wing allies in the media will do anything to kill it, from publishing phony studies attacking clean energy jobs to pushing their vile assault on Van Jones, who has been a leading articulator of the message (see “Fox News blurts out its agenda: “Now that Jones has resigned, we need to follow through…. First, stop cap-and-trade, which could send these groups trillions,” and then put “the whole corrupt ‘green jobs’ concept outside the bounds of the political mainstream”).

How else do we know the clean energy jobs message is crucial? Obama also uses it at every opportunity, including his recent Labor Day speech. In spite of the media’s strong desire to push the message that Obama has lost interest in the climate and clean energy bill, once again he said:

We have to build a new foundation for prosperity in America….An America where energy reform creates green jobs that can never be outsourced and that finally frees America from the grip of foreign oil.

And here’s yet another way to frame the job message — from Obama again (4/22):

The choice we face is not between saving our environment and saving our economy. The choice we face is between prosperity and decline… We can allow climate change to wreak unnatural havoc across the landscape, or we can create jobs working to prevent its worst effects…. The nation that leads the world in creating new energy sources will be the nation that leads the 21st-century global economy.

And Obama again (3/19):

We can let the jobs of tomorrow be created abroad, or we can create those jobs right here in America and lay the foundation for our lasting prosperity.

Another way to frame the message that polls well is :

Opponents of bill – oil companies, special interests – fighting against energy reform
• They’ve made America less secure, and more dependent on foreign oil.
• They’ve protected corporations that pollute the air our children breathe and water they drink.
• This bill protects the American people – by creating 1.7 million new jobs and reducing our dependence on foreign oil.

The international competitiveness argument works — but as it turns out, it works best if it is linked directly to the loss of American jobs. This paragraph tests very well in polling of swing voters:

China has a million workers in the clean energy economy. India is doubling their clean energy market in 4 years. Germany is creating nearly three hundred thousand clean energy jobs. If we do nothing, America will lose its competitive edge and American jobs will continue to go overseas" - Joe Romm

Video; A New Sound, Green For All

A cool little video produced by Green For All
Thanks to Worldchanging for the heads up on this;

The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems | celsias°

Imagine if we had invested 700 billion into a sustainable economy, imagine if we had invested the trillions we've spent on oil war on renewable energy instead. As GW gave billions directly to the oil industry he also allowed them to stop paying royalties on their leases on US soil. Now he has given them carte blanche to despoil public lands with oil shale development.The last eight years will go down as the largest plunder of the commons in US history, corporate welfare run amuck.

Here is another option, I just hope the corporate thieves have left us the resources to pursue it.

The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems | celsias°

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