Corporations to America: We Own You
By Thom Hartmann A...
When he was governor of Louisiana in 1930s, Huey Long had a slogan.
It was “Every man a king.”
The idea was that with Long in the governor’s mansion, every person, no matter their job, would enjoy the kind of wealth and happiness normally enjoyed only by monarchs.
Hence the phrase “Every man a king.”
Today’s Republicans actually have a similar slogan, although they've never come out publicly and said it.
Their slogan is “Every businessman a king,” and the message to American workers is simple: “Your boss owns you. And if you’re a woman, your boss owns rights to your body, too.”
Don’t believe me?
Get this: Right now, House Republicans are trying to give employers here in our nation’s capital the right to fire their employees if they go on birth control.
Seriously, I’m not kidding.
Last year, the Washington, D.C. city council passed a law called the Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Act of 2014 (RHNDA), which bans employers from firing or otherwise punishing employees for the private decisions they make about their reproductive health, like for example, going on birth control.
Naturally, right-wing religious groups started freaking out, and that got the attention of House Republicans who see the religious folks as great suckers who'll vote Republican because of their religion, even though the Republicans are robbing them blind economically.
These Republicans in congress are now using the oversight powers they have over Washington, D.C. to try and block the RHNDA.
If they get their way, a woman working in Washington, D.C. could be fired for something as simple as having a child out of wedlock.
The Republican line, of course, is that, like the Hobby Lobby case, this all about protecting the religious liberty of the employer. But that’s just a flat-out lie.
This isn’t about religious liberty at all - this is about the enthronement of the business class above everyone else in our society.
This is about turning business owners into modern-day kings and turning American workers into modern-day peasants.
This is about trying to induce Stockholm syndrome in workers by putting every aspect of their lives under the control of their employer.
This about doing away with the traditional role of corporations - to shield business owners from liability and risk - and ushering in a new era where corporate “persons” have more rights than actual people.
And this is, above all, about sending capitalism back into its natural state, which, not surprisingly, looks a lot like feudalism.
At the top of the social pyramid of “natural capitalism” is the CEO or business owner who has all the powers of a king, and often lives and travels like one.
Then, just below him, are the senior executives or middle managers who, like feudal lords, amass great wealth and control the lives and fates of those under them.
Then, at the very bottom are the workers, who are basically serfs, and if they dare defy the king or his lords, they can be punished in ways up to and including imprisonment.
This is the type of world so-called “religious liberty” laws that are meant to create, and this is the type of world that generations of Americans lived under until the rise of the labor movement and the passage of the Wagner Act in 1935.
That's because, like the legislative branch in our checks-and-balances system of government, unions are a counterweight to the power of organized money - the corporation.
Without that counterweight, capitalism reverts back to its feudal origins, which is exactly what's happened since the Reagan years.
Now, just like they could 500 years ago in medieval Europe, employers can treat everyday people like their personal property, and, if House Republicans get their way, they’ll soon even be able to tell their employees how and when they have sex.
Besides good legislation, the only thing that can stop this long slide back to feudalism is a strong union movement.
So call your local congressperson today to tell them you support card check, oppose right-to-work-for-less laws, and believe that, as the old labor song goes, "there is power in a union."
Comments
#2
As always, male employees’ entitlement to Viagra, Cialis and other limp-dick remedies covered in THEIR insurance policies is never challenged
Because those procedures do not terminate pregnancies.
Also, the owners of Hobby Lobby aren't Catholics. They're Penecostals.
Also, they aren't against all contraception. Only the forms of contraception that kill a fertilized human egg, which they see as an abortion.
Tubal litegation, vasectomies, and condoms (both male and female) are not considered immoral. Birth control pills that prevent ovulation are also fine.
It's the "Plan B" pills and IUDs that cause the moral dilemma.
#3
Quote ChicagoMatt:I take it as a compliment that you all think I am some sort of professional shill. It means my writing is above average and I make good point. :)
But no, that's not me. I'm just a teacher who likes to practice writing, likes to argue, and likes to procrastinate. I get all three done here...
Plus, you all should be thanking the dissenting viewpoints that show up on this blog. We keep the conversation going. Look at all of the longest threads. They all have one thing in common: non-Progressives making a point, and Progressives piling on... Which is to be expected on a Progressive blog, I suppose.
Anyway, you're welcome. I'm helping you keep your minds sharp....
ChicagoMatt ~ Well, that's the first thing you've said on this thread that I can agree with. However, you should realize that the role you are describing here is called, "The Devil's Advocate."
For playing your role so well, you deserve an Oscar, and our thanks! ;-)
#4
This thread rocks!
You're welcome. See... I make things interesting. :)
If anyone were paying me, it should be Thom.
#5
When I'm teaching my students how to debate, I often have to play the "Devil's Advocate" (a Catholic term, btw)... Because the students usually all have the same opinion, and it's not a debate without dissenting opinions.
#6
Quote ChicagoMatt:Also, they aren't against all contraception. Only the forms of contraception that kill a fertilized human egg, which they see as an abortion.
ChicagoMatt ~ Fine. Them let them protect their own eggs. What gives them the right to claim ownership of other people's property and other people's bodies? That is the problem. They can do as they wish with their own eggs. They have no business controlling the body parts of anyone else. That is the height of fascism!
#7
Although I'd love to waste the better part of this weekend discussing this dead Hobby Lobby topic, I'd much rather discuss these more pertinent ideas from a previous post. Since our discussion has brought us to a new page, please allow me to repost it for all to see:
Quote DAnneMarc:Loren Bliss, Aliceinwonderland, and Mark J. Saulys ~ After giving the real question of this thread some careful thought I think I have a couple of suggestions I'd like to toss out there. There are two things you've said, Mark, that I think really ring true; however, I'd like to expand on them a bit.
You've mentioned that the solution to our social problems might be in establishing a true form of social democracy; because, that is what has worked best in pre industrial antiquity. I agree; and, I think I might know how to do that.
First, our problem right now is industrialization. It has taken away from our simple agrarian based society and moved it from a agricultural Gemeinschaft model to an industrialized Gesellschaft mode. I believe that most of the ills from this change has been brought about from the easy money available from the fossil fuels industry. The first thing we need to do is to change that back. Fossil fuels MUST BE BANNED! We need to become a green society that relies more on agriculture, and the means to produce it, than on industry.Industry must become dependent upon agriculture. Since that conversion is also vital in our efforts to combat climate change, it should be a rather easy, if not inevitable, cycle of human progress to make that change happen. Eventually, at least.
Secondly, how do we bring about a democratic socialistic utopia in a modern high tech and population dense society? Well, I think the solution to that question lies in the question. At this point in our technological advancement, we are at a stage where traditional democratic government forms are really obsolete. Soon, technology will enable every citizen to vote online electronically from the comfort of their own homes. Public access points can be set up in public venues that can even accommodate the homeless--if there still exists homeless in the future; which, I highly doubt there will be. A new form of democratic socialist government that directly involves the citizens for final approval of legislation eliminates the "importance" of elected officials. In this system, our elected officials will only serve to gather information and write and submit proposals for public scrutiny and vote. They will be held directly accountable to every voter for every action. There will be no need for voter ID laws either because thanks to technology and fingerprint, retinal, and, eventually, DNA scans, everyone will always carry a positive ID with them everywhere. Every vote will be counted and every voter will be accounted for. Power to the People never before was so potentially possible as it is today.
It is my firm belief and hope that with those two issues factored into the equation, a sound and functional democratic socialist government of the future could be created that would make it quite impossible for corporate fascist influences to flourish like they currently do. In fact, they too, along with the fossil fuel industry, will become a thing of the past. A story parents tell their children to frighten them into behaving. Once we eliminate greed from the equation, everything else will fall into line like dominos.
Any thoughts would be welcome.
#8
Reply to #2 Pg. 2: Matt the Rat, non-limp dicks cause pregnancies, many of them unplanned and unwanted. Where the hell do you think babies come from?! Here’s a creative solution to the "moral dilemma" of male Catholics, Penilecostals and other dick worshippers: How about if all men who think it’s their place to dick-tate what women do with their eggs, fertilized or not, treat themselves to vasectomies? Hey, this procedure could even be performed as a religious sacrament! Or to put it more simply: Put up or shut up, hypocrites.
Men who nurse “moral dilemmas” over terminated pregnancies, religious or not, are simply dime-a-dozen variety control freaks hiding their true motives under fake halos.
Reply to #7, Pg 2: Marc, I love your common-sense solutions to these problems corporatists would have us believe are inevitable and unsolvable. Just one concern I have, regarding your endorsement of high-tech online voting: until some genius figures out how to make such a system hack-proof and tamper-proof, good luck with that. I'm not saying it'll never happen, but until then, I'd rather stick with paper ballots.
#9
AIW -- Go, Alice, go after that LNG carbon corps.
#10
AIW -- Viagra costs me $49 a pill out of pocket. Whose insurance provides it for free?
#11
DAnneMarc -- Your pure democracy via net has the same problem we have now. That problem is best summarized by the stat from the last election cycle: 83% of population did not know which party was in control of the House of Representatives.
#12
Chi Matt -- You say the money that Hobby Lobby is paying the insurance companies does not belong to the employees. DAnneMarc says it does. I would ask either one of you to provide more detail except I disagree with both of you.
I'll go with Jesus of Nazareth. That money belongs to the government. With our constitution that means it belongs to "We the People". In Rome, it meant it belonged to Caesar.
We the People provide Hobby Lobby with LLC protection, copyright protection, a resonable stable currency, fire dept etc. If Hobby Lobby wants to operate in commerce then it should not be able to cherry pick what it wants.
#13
Reply to #10: Chuck, I’ve heard repeatedly from various sources that Viagra has been covered by health insurance policies. Maybe not all of them. Not having had the occasion or the need to use it, I lack first-hand experience and have to rely on hearsay. But even Thom Hartman has spoken on this topic, and that seems to be his impression too.
Reply to #12: I don’t understand your logic about who owns those insurance benefits an employee has earned. Please explain further, if you would. But long as it doesnt counter Marc’s and my point that these are EARNED benefits not gifts, you’ll get no argument from me.
By the way, thanks for cheering me on in my fight against Veresen, its cheerleaders and enablers. Much appreciated.
#14
DAnne, thank you! Glad to be here, and thanks for checking out my suspicion. Chicago Matt is claiming not to be that Matt, but the similarities remain spooky.
#15
Chicago Matt, while Hobby Lobby isn't as restrictive as Catholic businesses, its opposition to abortifacient methods is hypocritically dangerous to female employees. Like the Catholic Church, it ignores the hundreds of natural abortifacients, many served in Hobby Lobby and Catholic break rooms! Coffee, tea, colas, and many herbs trigger embryo flushing. I know many women who experienced miscarriages after drinking teas and colas, including my own hypocrite mother and an ex-co-worker at USA Today. Shouldn't such "baby killing" beverages be banned for religious consistency? And if all such flushed "babies" count as fully human, why no "baby" tampon funerals in the Catholic Church? Shouldn't priests be baptizing and saying funeral masses for these used bloody tampons? Why aren't you attending tampon funerals every day for all female relatives and co-workers? Could it be the ick factor?
Moreover, Catholic businesses commit illegal Munchausen by Proxy medical abuse, fraud and womb trafficking by restricting all women to fraudulent and deadly UNnatural Family Cramming. NFP is a scam invented by pedophile priests because most women ovulate two and three times per month, thereby having NO infertile cycles and being at higher risk for intersex offspring whom you Catholics will then hound into suicide. You can't be anti-gay and pro-NFP at the same time because NFP stooges, like my mom, then have the most gay children, like my two XXY Klinefelter Syndrome "brothers." My youngest brother, a Bobby Jindal lookalike, is definitely a chimera singleton fusion from TWO fathers -- my dad and mom's affair with an Indian missionary Jindal deadringer. Older NFP eggs can also be fertilized by more than one sperm! Chimerism is obvious in my Jindal brother because of his calico-patterned blue and brown eyes. Bruce Jenner is slightly intersexed because he likely has XX DNA in his brain FROM HIS OLDER SISTER! -- this results from microchimerism between older and younger fetuses and mothers! This also explains why big Catholic families have younger gay sons!
We know that Catholic misogyny and homophobia are heresies because Jesus himself served ABORTIFACIENT miracle wine to the Cana bride and her female guests, never preached against abortifacient Silphium imported by his cross-bearer Simon of Cyrene, and he whipped the money changers, not the midwife-ABORTIONISTS!
You forced-birthers never hound adulterous, fornicating and pedophile male employees and priests over their insurance-covered Viagra. You don't hound missionary nuns for their birth control pills that prevent rape pregnancies. You only further abuse trafficked rape victims by forcing them to risk death and foul bladder and bowel incontinence by breeding for rapists! You ludicrously think Litter Sister Oppressing the Poor Sosefina Amoa's infanticide is less sinful than popping birth control pills! You hypocritically ignore all the abortions and infanticides committed by priests to hide the evidence of their mistresses and rape victims. Most unforgiveably, you cite Paul VI to justify your war on women's right to life and bodily integrity, never mind that he funded Nazi Ustasha Ante Pavelic's genocide of 1 million Serb Orthodox Christian "heretics" in WWII to "fight abortion" by gutting pregnant Serbs and dicing their "heretic" fetuses! What is so respectable about a mother-killing encyclical written by a Nazi genocider on behalf of your spoiled pedophile priests?
Shame on you, Matt, for forcing such Munchausen by Proxy mayhem on the rest of us!
#16
Mary-- WOO-HOO! Brilliant. You go girl.
Condensed down: We're mad as hell. We're not suffering in silence anymore.
The very idea of someone who can't get pregnant telling someone who can what she's supposed to do or not do about it is not only ridiculous, it is arrogant in the extreme. The damage it has inflicted on the lives of millions of women is mind boggling. These penis-worshipping patriarchs are not only cramping our style, they're literally killing us.
As a Unitarian, I was raised to respect all religions. But I will respect NO religion that doesn't respect me. - Aliceinwonderland
#17
Thanks, Alice! We need a global birth strike to cut off pedophile priests' supply of fresh victims. Since most governments won't arrest priests and collude to keep us in incubating slavery, a global grass roots birth strike would achieve an end-run around corrupt governments.
#18
Great idea, Mary!
How I wish women of childbearing age, world wide, would participate! It would take something huge like that to convey the message to the men of this world, exactly WHO is in charge of the gateway to life.
As for me personally, it's a done deal, being well past childbearing age already. But I opted out of motherhood long before my biological clock hit the midnight mark. Call it intuition or whatever, I knew before I was out of high school that in all liklihood, having kids wasn't my destiny. I could write at great length on this topic, detailing why. But here and now, I'll just say, I've no real regrets. Even had I wanted the responsibility, my circumstances were never that favorable to the many hazards & vulnerabilites of motherhood... including but not limited to the medical risks associated with pregnancy and childbirth, and our lame-ass healthcare system. Even in the 1970s, the time period of my early adulthood when biological motherhood was still an option, I did not want to subject myself and my child to such a hostile environment as American's socioeconomic purgatory. I had that much figured out, long before Reagan's wrecking-ball economic plan was enacted, making that environment so much worse for struggling single mothers. Thus I escaped that fate.
I'll follow this with an article I wrote a few years ago called "Womb For Rent".
#19
WOMB FOR RENT - (Published in the March 2012 issue of The Advocate)
Do you recall Sigmund Freud’s famous theory, that girls suffer from so-called “penis envy”? As I observe the shenanigans going on in Congress nowadays, it seems the opposite is true.
If there’s one thing old-school patriarchs can never get a grip on, it’s an ability women have that none of them will ever possess, despite all the advantages to being male in a “man’s world”. Only females have access to this unique form of power. It sets us apart, for we are the gateway to life itself. Whether a blessing or a curse, it is our exclusive domain, the power to open or close that gate. It is something we’ve inherited as females and it is our birthright. Can you imagine any reality more basic to the laws of the natural world? Which begs the question: what could be more sharply at odds with a patriarch’s worldview than this simple fact of life?
Through the ages, patriarchs have compensated for this by keeping us marginalized, disempowered, handicapped via artificial means. They accomplish this through a variety of methods, ranging from religious custom and repressive legislation to plain old brute force. This battle over the womb has dragged on, literally, for millennia. We women now find ourselves pitted against the current generation of misogynist bigots who are determined to roll back the proverbial clock. This could condemn women and girls to second-class citizenship status, at a level few of us, of either gender, are old enough to recall. Regardless of what motivates these womb-obsessed woman haters, their efforts to keep us down, at the mercy of our own biology, are relentless and never-ending. Womb envy? Perhaps.
The latest episode of this ancient power struggle has erupted in the halls of Congress. We’ve just witnessed a drama so archaic, I’ve had moments when I’ve found myself wondering which century I’m living in. Imagine the implications of an all-male group of legislators, monopolizing a discussion about birth control! These men get to decide on policies that determine who has access to birth control and who doesn’t. It is a dialogue where no woman is allowed to participate, from which we’ve been brazenly and willfully excluded. Never mind that it is our reproductive health on the line, not theirs!
With this planet in such peril, its life support systems collapsing while the fate of humanity hangs by a thread, you’d think our elected officials would have better things to do than attack women’s hard-won rights. As the next presidential election looms near, corporate media’s pundit shills busy themselves filling the airwaves with their loud, toxic drivel. It is so transparent, so predictable, I’d find it laughable if only the stakes weren’t so high. Armed with their latest wedge issue, these guardians of the status quo have picked their target; not abortion, mind you, but birth control! Neo-con legislators not only want to re-criminalize abortion, they aim to take away all means of prevention as well. Yet when it comes to having babies, we’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t, especially if we’re poor.
Like all wedge issues, this one was manufactured to keep us collectively distracted from real problems we face: overpopulation, global warming, the nuclear threat, decaying infrastructure, monopoly crony capitalism, economic injustice, privatization of the commons with its ugly consequences, the erosion of democracy and so on. But for patriarchs and oligarchs, this tired old debate serves a duel purpose. As a wedge issue, it divides and conquers us - the “masses” - while simultaneously, keeping women “in their place”. Double bonus, for them! So here we are at the dawn of the 21st Century, having to fight for access to birth control yet again, while at the same time, a man’s access to gender-specific healthcare services is never scrutinized.
Just blows my mind, this ongoing obsession over the womb. Seems bizarre to me, how a mere body part can provoke so much controversy. Our wombs are fought over nonstop, coveted as if mere territory to be conquered. This uniquely female organ has been the object of male envy throughout recorded history; something highly valued, despite all the negative ways its value might manifest in patriarchal cultures.
With living-wage jobs so scarce these days and the “fruit of the womb” in such high demand, I see a potential source of revenue here. This could be the opportunity of a lifetime! So ladies, if you are of childbearing age, why not transform burden into bounty, leasing womb space to the wombless among us? In hard times like these, you’ve got to think creatively to get ahead. Were I not past childbearing age myself, I’d post an ad in the classifieds: “WOMB FOR RENT”. Hey, I’m a 99er too! I could use some extra cash.
#20
Alice, my growing up disfigured revealed ugly truths about looksism that refute everything pompous Christians and psychotherapists lectured me on -- that for women, looks really are everything, especially when dealing with religious conservaturds. My worst insults always come from anti-choice GOPers. Straight men's biggest fear is being stuck married to and impoverished by aging, unattractive women, especially if the women are disfigured by multiple unwanted bankrupting pregnancies with disabled children. Gay men fear being forced to marry the same women! Straight and gay pedophile men just gleefully wait around for the miserable couples to fight so they can make beelines for their neglected kids. Centuries ago, straight and gay looksist Christian playboys and pedophiles realized they could all be winners by simply denying women safe sex. Non-stop lethal childbearing guaranteed that divorce-denied Christian playboy widowers could have multiple, ever-younger wives, while pedophiles enjoyed unlimited homeless orphans.
Democrats really can permanently sink Rethugs with their own pretzel-twisted bigotries just by tying in our overrun borders and outsourced jobs to Rethug opposition to "baby-killing" international family planning. Nothing exports our jobs faster to overpopulated womb and sweatshop slaves, and guarantees overpopulation refugees jumping our borders than GOP/RCC contempt for family planning in those nations.
Democrats need to harp on the true costs of childbearing here: typical childbirth, even with insurance, costs $5,000 to $5,000,000! A nurse in Baltimore was rudely dumped by her husband and insurance company when an infected c-section destoyed her entire torso. She was hospitalized for months and needed mutiple organ transplants and grafts that cost taxpayers $5 million. And the Rethug First Wives Club is made up of embarrassed brood mares who wear Depends because of icky obstetric incontinence!
I realized in my teen years that pregnancy would further disfigure and impoverish me. Why multiply misery?
#21
Conservaturds... I love it!!
#22
AIW -- I am working on detailing how Jesus' statement "Then Jesus told them, 'Give back to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.' And they were amazed at Him" [Mark 12:17] applies to the employer-employee relationship. I also am amazed at Jesus' understanding of Modern Monetary Theory. To compose those details so someone besides me knows what I am talking about may take a little time. Please stay tuned, at least, to critique my thoughts. Thanks.
#23
ronaldluck -- Could you add a few more words? What do some take as a tradition?
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Aliceinwonderland ~ By the way, if commercials and comedians have taught me anything, what you refer to as "limp dick" is properly called, "occasional erectile dysfunction." Of course, as far as that particular condition goes, that is all I really know about it. However, if you really need to know more about it, I'm quite sure that our conservative friend Mr. Chicago Matt Abbott can fill you in. (Please, pardon the pun.) HAHAHA
(Sorry! I just couldn't resist.) This thread rocks!