Wouldn't it be nice if there was 5 different cable lines hanging on the poles outside, or on my house? Meanwhile back here in the land of Reality...

First thing I would do is hook up a screen, keyboard, and pointing device and use it for a computer. Imagine.. a Beowulf cluster of these!

It's the Free Market (TM) at work, doing God's Work (TM)! Why do yuo hate America!?!?!?

Practical question: how do you plan to tip strippers? I don't think they appreciate coins in the hooch...

Dr. Sbaitso doesn't live onboard, though. You need a standalone sb card to tell him anything you want, anything at all...

I was around when they passed the seat belt laws. This is exactly what happened. Ditto for the daytime running lights and airbags. The premiums *never* went down.

I'm just going to re-quote this for emphasis:

The development of global finance rules under the guise of âtradeâ(TM) was the brainchild of senior executives of AIG, American Express, Citicorp and Merrill Lynch in the late 1970s. Their role, and subsequently a broader lobby called the Financial Leaders Group, is well documented. The former director of the WTOâ(TM)s services division himself acknowledged in 1997 that: âWithout the enormous pressure generated by the American financial services sector, particularly companies like American Express and Citicorp, there would have been no services agreementâ(TM).16

As the lobby evolved it was still led from Wall Street, but expanded to include the major insurance and banking institutions, investment banks and auxiliary financial services providers, from funds managers to credit-rating agencies and even the news agency Reuters. They were later joined by the e-finance and electronic payments industry, which includes credit, stored value and loyalty cards, ATM management, and payment systems operators like PayPal.

The industry lobbyists have also set the demands for financial services in TISA. The Chairman of the Board of the US Coalition of Service Industries is the Vice Chairman of the Institutional Clients Group at Citi. When the industryâ(TM)s demands, as expressed in the consultation on TISA conducted by the US Trade Representative in 2013, are matched against the leaked text it becomes clear that they stand to get most of what they asked for. Extracts from their submissions are listed at the end of this document.

Why is it OK for for private businesses to negotiate worldwide treaties, but not let citizens have any say in the treaty? They are both private entities, not the government. But somehow, the financial sector is given special privilege in this regard.

"

This thing is bad. It completely bypasses all the traditional controls of democracy. The people will have no say in it even tho its their money and lives. We need to keep the heat on this kind of thing just like SOPA only much, much more.... some good analysis and commentary over at Naked Capitalism these guys tell it like it is. Basically its looking like a global corporatocracy.

+3, Funny (because its true)

I think you mean "pedant"

In the early 1990s, I remember the mass layoffs in that recession being blamed on "the lazy US worker" compared to the stereotypical [1] Japanese worker who was touted as someone who would give his or her life for the firm he worked for.

[1]: Yes, stereotypical.

I remember hearing the same thing during the Carter administration. Its nothing new. What *is* new is that we now realize that maybe the Japanese didn't wreck the US economy all by themselves - instead our own 1%-ers did. The Japs were just a handy scapegoat to deflect the blame - "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!" -style of distraction.

What broke things is called "Free Trade" IMHO. You know, NAFTA, GATT, the TPP... and the list goes on. The USA does not have import restrictions like most other countries, and now its worrkers are being forced to compete with rather low global wages. We do not have reciprocal agreements. Notice how manufacturing has been almost completely killed in this country? Its no accident, it was done on purpose by those who hate paying for labor. Who do you think paid for the lobbyists behind these free trade agreements? Who got rich off the situation? Hint, it wasn't mom-n-pop and Main Street.

And at that point you cross the line from science into ideology.