So right now, we have a volunteer army. That means that the only people who
serve are the ones who can't find work anywhere else, the poor people, the
working class, and some lost souls who believe they'll find themselves, or a
purpose to their lives, in the military. But there aren't enough of them which
is why so many had their terms of service extended and which is why we also
have these military contractors serving, like Blackwater and its predecessors.
We have a mercenary military, separate from everyone else. Most people aren't
touched personally by our ongoing wars, certainly not our college educated or
more affluent families. Yes, the working class has always been sent off to
fight, but it was always a larger percentage than now.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Monday, July 31, 2017 5:56 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Steve Bannon Wants Facebook and Google Regulated
Like Utilities
Miriam,
This is one of those subjects that I swing back and forth on, depending how I'm
feeling at the time. Draft or Volunteer. To my way of thinking, the Violence
and Greed running rampant in this nation's Ruling Class makes it a mute
question. Yes. In the best of all worlds it would serve us, the American
People's Government, well to have our children serve a period of time working
for the betterment of the Nation. And included along with their paycheck would
be free schooling and other benefits similar to what we now provide our
military service persons.
But here we are, now training young women to kill...murder people they know
nothing about. Where I once advocated that women and, yes, even disabled
people could serve our nation in the military, I now am totally opposed to it.
Could you imagine Donald Trump deciding that instead of refusing to allow
transgender people to serve, he had them all marched to the front lines? Along
with the blind and mentally delayed? "Hey," Trump might say, "Look at all the
tax dollars we save while they are doing their patriotic duty...I mean that's
real patriotism...really!...I mean, like going down like a man...proud...really
proud to serve."
Carl Jarvis
On 7/31/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Except that now that women want equal opportunity, this includes equal
opportunity to participate in the military in the same positions as
men. So now women can also brag about killing the enemy, whoever that
happens to be at the moment. And speaking of the military, I don't
remember where I heard this, perhaps on The Real News, but someone
said that moving to a volunteer military was one of the worst
decisions our country has made. And that reminded me that this is
something that Sylvie and I disagreed on. She was opposed to having a
military draft because she thought it led to militarizing our society.
I think that even with its disadvantages, it was the existence of the
draft that created the anti-war movement in the 60's. I think that
every young person in the US, regardless of educational status or
professional aspirations, should be subject to a national service
requirement and that if the country is at war, then military service
should be required. I believe that the government would have a much
more difficult time, initiating wars, if everyone knew that their children
would be involved.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Monday, July 31, 2017 10:49 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Steve Bannon Wants Facebook and Google
Regulated Like Utilities
Hi Miriam,
Thought this described where we're at today. Replace the unnamed
evils and miseries with Monster Billionaires and Pandoras Box will
reflect where we are.
Carl Jarvis
PS. In case anyone cares, it's interesting that women always get
blamed for the horrors of the World(see Eve in the Garden of Eden),
but it's Men who always seem to be marching off to war...or whatever
they do today instead of marching?
Pandora's box definition. In classical mythology, a box that Zeus gave
to Pandora, the first woman, with strict instructions that she not open it.
Pandora's curiosity soon got the better of her, and she opened the
box. All the evils and miseries of the world flew out to afflict mankind.
On 7/30/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
It is very confusing. Bannon is a trip. So is the new director of
communications. They keep switching positions. The only things that
remain stable are their wealth and their self interest.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl ;
Jarvis
Sent: Sunday, July 30, 2017 7:50 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Steve Bannon Wants Facebook and Google
Regulated Like Utilities
Articles like this one leave my head spinning.
Sometimes I feel like an Indian watching the first European ships
laying anchor and coming ashore full of promises and double talk.
Carl Jarvis
On 7/30/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
≡
(c) First Look Media. All rights reservedTerms of use
Steve Bannon Wants Facebook and Google Regulated Like Utilities
Ryan Grim
July 27 2017, 12:31 p.m.
Facebook Inc. and Google Inc. logos are displayed on computer
screens in this arranged photo in New York, U.S., on Monday Jan. 30,
2012. A Facebook IPO would provide funds to help the
social-networking service maintain its expansion and fend off
competition from Internet rivals such as Google Inc.
and Twitter Inc. Photographer: Peter Foley/Bloomberg via Getty
Images Facebook Inc. and Google Inc. logos are displayed on computer
screens.
Photo: Peter Foley/Bloomberg News/Getty Images
Tech companies like Facebook and Google that have become essential
elements of 21st-century life should be regulated as utilities, top
White House adviser Steve Bannon has argued, according to three
people who’ve spoken to him about the issue.
Bannon’s push for treating essential tech platforms as utilities
pre-dates the Democratic “Better Deal” that was released this week.
“Better Deal,”
the branding for Democrats’ political objectives, included planks
aimed at breaking up monopolies in a variety of sectors, suggesting
that anti-monopoly politics is on the rise on both the right and left.
Bannon’s basic argument, as he has outlined it to people who’ve
spoken with him, is that Facebook and Google have become effectively
a necessity in contemporary life. Indeed, there may be something
about an online social network or a search engine that lends itself
to becoming a natural monopoly, much like a cable company, a water
and sewer system, or a railroad. The sources recounted the
conversations on the condition of anonymity because they were not
authorized to give the accounts on record, and could face
repercussions for doing so.
(It’s not Bannon’s only counterintuitive proposal to float this week:
he has also told people close to him he wants to raise the top
marginal tax rate to 44 percent for people who earn more than $5
million per year.)
Regulating a company as a utility does not mean that the government
controls it, but rather that it is much more tightly regulated in
what it is able to do and prices it is able to charge. And it
doesn’t mean every element of the company would be regulated in that
way. For Google - which now calls itself Alphabet and has already
conveniently broken itself up into discrete elements - it may only
be the search function that would be regulated like a utility.
Under the Obama administration, the Federal Communications
Commission moved forward on a plan to regulate internet service
providers as utilities, barring them from slowing down traffic to a
site in order to pressure it into paying higher fees. The Trump
administration is pushing to reverse that move, which complicates Bannon’s
message.
Bannon’s argument is bolstered by an unlikely player: Facebook
founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. For years, Zuckerberg routinely
described Facebook as a “social utility.” Indeed, it was originally
part of the company’s slogan.
In an interview in 2007 with Time magazine, he was asked to
elaborate on what had become a central talking point.
Time: Why do you describe Facebook as a “social utility” rather than
a “social network”?
Zuckerberg: I think there’s confusion around what the point of
social networks is. A lot of different companies characterized as
social networks have different goals - some serve the function of
business networking, some are media portals. What we’re trying to do
is just make it really efficient for people to communicate, get
information and share information. We always try to emphasize the utility
component.
The emphasis on the utility component has disappeared now that
Zuckerberg is surrounded by lawyers well versed in monopoly laws,
but the argument is as resonant today - in fact, more so - than it
was a decade ago.
Tech companies, meanwhile, have feuded publicly with the
administration, particularly over its decision to back out of the
Paris climate accord, a move driven by Bannon.
Silicon Valley’s liberal cultural politics puts it at odds
occasionally with more conservative, rural Trump voters. Facebook
was confronted by a backlash over its news curating during last
year’s presidential campaign.
With insiders claiming there was an anti-conservative bias, Facebook
pulled its live team off the project. Instead, the social media
giant turned its curation over to an algorithm that had little
ability to detect whether an article had been utterly fabricated,
giving rise to the explosive growth of “fake news” (before the
moniker morphed into a description of any news a reader objects to).
Silicon Valley caught on late to the Washington game. In 2011, Sen.
Pat Leahy, D-Vt., then the chairman of the Judiciary Committee,
complained that Google had waited too long to hire an armada of
lobbyists. “Sometimes a company should pay attention early on, not
just when matters happen,” he said. “But I can’t tell them, nor
would I, who they should hire or not.”
Google was playing catch up at the time, and hiring every committee
staffer who wasn’t nailed down. “I consider myself a public works
project right here,” Leahy said of the antitrust investigation he
was leading. “My colleagues call it the Leahy Full Employment Act.”
They have since caught up: In the first few months of the Trump
administration, tech firms set new lobbying spending records in
Washington.
