Well, maybe I am wrong about all this . . . still, the fat-cats are cutting their own throats and they don't even see it.
They paid Congress to give them tax rebates to move our industrial jobs to Walmart, I mean China -- so now we have 14 million people out of work -- who are subsequently NOT buying their products . . . and the only thing China is buying from us is our government bonds . . .
They paid the legislators to deregulate the banking industry, then built up the housing market and knocked it down -- now the banks are stuck with countless properties that they can't sell because the unemployed -- now homeless -- can't afford a place to live . . .
Look what the OWS is doing -- people in droves are so pissed off that they're pulling their money out of the BailOut Banks and putting it into credit unions. I know, it won't make a noticeable difference, but it may not take much more of this to get a REAL boycott going (something we haven't seen) . . . or maybe a good old-fashioned torch-and-pitchfork parade.
They're being awfully hypocritical, too -- they want to scream "Infringement!" every time they see their name in a place that THEY didn't put it -- but when THEY put their name on something, they call it "product placement." Ever see a Tommy Hilfiger shirt? You can read it from a block away, and the
buyers are
paying for the privilege of advertising the stuff. I think this could actually be a good counter-argument for anyone getting sued for infringement -- "Your Honor, they should be delighted at the free advertisement they're getting -- in fact, THEY should be paying ME. This isn't a
shirt, Your Honor -- it's a
billboard! Is seeing it accidentally on a website any different from seeing it on the street?"
Internet? Hell, they have pop-up ads that defeat my pop-up blocker . . . THEY can splat their name over the page I'm trying to read, but if I put their name somewhere by accident -- much less obtrusively -- they want to sue me.
I'm at least somewhat serious about that: someone visiting a website and hearing a song they like in the background might well go look it up and buy a copy. It may not happen in reality (though I bet it does), but in the theoretical world of the courts, it's an argument that could at least gum up the works a little for the fat-cats.
This could get ironic, and amusing, in a dire, grim sort of way. BigCorp tries to sue Joe Jobless over his video post: JJ spent nothing to post the vid, and since he's now living under a park bench, has nothing to pay, while BC spent bunches to persecute him. Arrest him? Great, now he has food, shelter, and healthcare -- at taxpayer expense.
China is starting to think our T-notes may not be such a good investment after all . . .
Post by rick tornello » November 20th, 2011, 8:42 am
Lester you want to see how monitoring can be done?
look at China.
Yeah, but the ones who are just a little savvy have found ways around that.
It's just sad that the scum is rising to the top so fast. We should outlaw paid lobbying . . . and I've been telling people for thirty years that this country is turning into a third-world dictatorship.
I'd move to Canada, but I can't afford it, and they probably wouldn't let me.