I'm often wrong, but I was really wrong on something I wrote six years ago.

Money Central reports that the best paid workers are in Japan.

OC Organizer has an interview with Gilbert Gonzalez of UC Irvine about American investment causing huge immigration from Mexico. It covers the pattern of US domination of Mexico's economy, and proactive movement of labor northward.

An anti-immigrant site linked me to Paul Craig Roberts, who seems to be some kind of white supremacist in a professor's robe, and some fella at the Hoover Institution. He had an interesting article that seems to advocate against free trade, and for protectionism. Specifically, he sees current policies creating a class division that will inevitably lead to class war.

What's more interesting is that he is a supply sider, a position that basically advocates making the rich people richer, so that they can "invest" their money and make the economy come to life. (See: Supply Side Revolution.) This is from several years back.

So, he seems to like it when people have concentrated money and power... but only wants that money and power used to benefit people of the nation, to prevent a class war where the workers will overthrow the rich and powerful.

A site to find or give away scrap material.

Greg Palast has an incendiary article about the farce of No Child Left Behind and testing. It's got questions about tennis and country clubs.

Palast's article

I suggest a revised test. It's called "No Rich Child Left Behind".

1. Sav-Mart has chicken on sale for $2.75 a bird.  Jon's Super has chicken
 for 2 for $5.  Which is the better deal?

a. Sav-Mart
b. Jon's Super
c. depends on the size
d. liver

2. You have $600 in the bank, your daddy died young for no reason at all 
they say.  School and books at the community college cost $150 per class.  
How many classes can you take this semester?

a. 5
b. 4
c. 3
d. can't go to school, need to work and pay rent

3. Rita from Detroit has good grades and good SATs, and got into U Mich,

Damn. No pometry today. This "social security crisis" is bogus. It's just a scam to increase demand for stocks and risky bonds. The post-war economy will be shitty, because the economy is always shitty when you lose a war and don't return from the invaded nation with the natural resources, and newly opened markets for goods.

If you force more people into the riskier markets for stocks, your typical returns on investment must decrease. There's more capital supply (from these new investors), and thus the price for investment capital must decrease. Simultaneously, the demand for stocks and bonds increases, because people MUST put their money into something, so the price for these things stays high.

Rosemead just voted Wal-Mart into the city.

To say the least, I'm crestfallen.

After two years of fights, after seven months of meetings, and a couple months of intense organizing, we lost.

I can't say that I didn't see it coming. The only time that a big developer is opposed is with the support of the City Council, and it appears, from the start, that most of the City Council was siding with Wal-Mart.

Reports from people visiting the city offices seemed to indicate that there was a gag-rule about the project. They wanted to keep the project as secret as possible so that people wouldn't get up-in-arms about it.

The big disappointment, for me, was Margaret Clark. She said she was supporting it, but then whipped out her past positions opposing NAFTA/GATT and her seat on a clean air committee. If there's any company out there that exemplifies NAFTA and GATT, it's Wal-Mart. Just look at their China office.

The nice surprise was Bob Alarcon, who did address some of the concerns in his questions. That was something. Gary Taylor, who had managerial ties to Wal-Mart through his family, was especially defensive.

I was a little bummed out about the amount of rancor in the room. People's helplessness and disgust with the system were palpable, and it came out with angry statements. I sat on the right side of the room, where the pro- side sat, for a while a while, and the smugness there was also palpable.

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Date: Tue Sep 7, 2004 3:31:02 AM US/Pacific
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