We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, November 2, 2015

'Absolute Crap' But Brilliant: Corporate America's Plan to 'Misbehave Without Reproach

Click here to access article by Jon Queally from Common Dreams. 

It appears that our corporate-connected masters are now inserting a clause into consumer contracts to circumvent laws and due process by shunting consumer disputes to more friendly "arbitration panels" instead of courts of law. Notice the similarity here with the Investor-State Dispute Settlement in relation to international trade treaties which places corporations on an equal plane with nation-states and disputes are settled in a business-friendly arbitration tribunal.
An independent investigation by journalists featured in the New York Times on Sunday offers an in-depth look at the way American corporations have used the inclusion of "arbitration clauses" within consumer contracts to strategically circumvent judicial review of their behavior and immunize themselves from class action lawsuits –"realistically the only tool citizens have to fight illegal or deceitful business practices." 
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