Thieves in the Temple.

Around the table: of dictatorships and monopolies, and the good folks who fight them.

Murtaza Hussain at The Intercept assesses “The Dark Odds Facing Iran’s Brave Protestors.” Protests have followed the state’s murder of a woman for not wearing her hijab in strict accordance with new right-wing government laws, and though we want better for good Iranians, Egyptians and Syrians have failed to capitalize on the Arab Spring because “life under dictatorship had not allowed any alternative institutions to grow that could easily replace the tyrannies now in place”; Iran’s police state has similarly suppressed such institutions. That’s a cautionary tale for those Americans who think crime is the number one issue facing them because they’ve watched the same four or five clips on the TV news for two years now.

Matt Stoller assesses our progress in our fight against monopolies. Long story short: yes, our government loses antitrust cases in court, but has also made progress on right-to-repair, wage-fixing, and price-fixing. Still, “(i)n a highly concentrated economy, losing merger challenges simply shouldn’t happen,” but he also reminds us that we lose before very, very bad judging. Mr. Stoller remains hopeful that lawyers will figure out how to win cases even against bad judges, and that judges aren’t evil per se but “just operating on autopilot with antitrust. And he also reminds us that the “narrative of powerlessness is perhaps the most powerful weapon in the monopolists’ arsenal, because it causes us to give up on self-government itself.” We definitely need to hear that more often! The “phony war” metaphor at the beginning is a bonus.

When I hear that 80% of Americans want a federally-funded paid family/medical leave program, I recall that Newt Gingrich used to say if 70 percent of Americans want something, they should get it, though I bet he would just mouth a bunch of BS about it now and our “liberal” media wouldn’t challenge him on it. I’ll bet most of Joe Manchin’s constituents want a paid family/medical leave program, too, and if he’s scared that his approvals in West Virginia are upside down now that he’s helped bring the Inflation Reduction Act to fruition, I would remind him that his job ain’t just to do his constituents’ will, but to convince them when he’s actually done it.

Ho hum, Nevada’s Republican Secretary of State candidate wants to end mail-in voting because of alleged/nonexistent “voter fraud,” but not only has he voted by mail numerous times, he’s also done it while living in a different state from the one in which he was voting. In a sane, moral, and decent civilization, this news would finish his campaign; in this sick, immoral, and decadent society, he needs only hope he’s worshiped enough at the altar of His Personal Lord and Savior Donald Trump to please the big man’s votaries. Having claimed to be a “victim of election fraud” as the Republican nominee for Nevada’s 4th U.S. House district in 2020 – he lost that race by over 16,000 votes and nearly five percentage points – he may be well on his way toward this goal.

When I hear that Republicans actually plan to campaign on repealing drug-pricing caps passed entirely with Democratic votes – and that they’re using the same horsedoodle arguments about “stifling innovation” and “drug takeover schemes” and “price controls,” phrases that anger far-right partisans and literally no one else – all I can say is that I guess they’re counting on gerrymandering to deliver them the House, because they sure ain’t counting on making winning arguments. The shame of it is that it might work, especially given our well-founded suspicion that Democrats don’t want to win elections as much as they want to raise campaign money.

Finally, how about some good news? Over 270 workers at the Roosevelt Boulevard Home Depot in Philadelphia have filed a petition with our National Labor Relations Board to form a union. Much like Walmart, Home Depot has unusually terrific workers they get to treat like crap because those workers don’t have the opportunity to take their skills somewhere else anymore – which, of course, is because Home Depot has crushed smaller, independent hardware stores everywhere it’s gone. So let’s add “balancing monopoly power” as yet another reason we need more unions.

Action: concerning corruption, phone justice, and the right to repair.

Long story short: tell your Congressfolk to ban stock-trading by Congressfolk and pass the Martha Wright Prison Phone Justice Act and the Fair Repair Act. Use the tools in the upper right-hand corner of this page (or, if you're on a cellphone, the bottom of this page) to find your Congressfolk's phone numbers and/or use the email/petition tools in the following paragraphs.

Stand Up America helps you tell your Congressfolk to ban Congress from trading in stocks. Time was our Congressfolk avoided even the appearance of corruption, so afraid were they of the people’s wrath; the people’s wrath hasn’t exactly abated over the years, but politicians have gotten very good at two things: changing the definition of “corruption” so that it includes a whole lot less corruption, and redirecting their wrath at undeserving targets. So we need to bring back the America that punished political corruption, and banning Congressional stock trades would help that project immensely. Don’t believe the hype that Congressfolk know better and can police themselves. That kind of hype kills civilizations.

Color of Change helps you tell your Congressfolk to pass H.R. 2489, the Martha Wright Prison Phone Justice Act. By now you know the drill: prisons contract with big telecoms to charge prisoners exorbitant rates for phone calls to their families, such that they hardly call their families, even though the science tells us that prisoners who regularly contact their families don’t go back to prison nearly as much as prisoners who don’t, or can’t. Why, it’s almost like that’s the whole idea! You see a prisoner, but a private prison sees dollar signs. The Martha Wright Prison Phone Justice Act would correct this injustice, so we should make Congress pass it.

Finally, Penn PIRG helps you tell your Congressfolk to pass H.R. 4006/S. 3830, the Fair Repair Act, which would essentially enshrine the right to repair in our laws again. Too many corporations make their products essentially impossible to repair – except by themselves, at exorbitant prices! – and they claim the info you’d need to repair it is a “trade secret” or some such rubbish, but this is essentially an unfair trade practice, and the Fair Repair Act would force big corporations to make diagnostic, maintenance, and repair equipment and manuals available to independent repair shops. Presumably you recognize the evil the right to repair would fight: monopolization. So let’s fight that.

Action: concerning the right to repair, Social Security, and internet freedom.

Long story short: tell your Pennsylvania state legislators to pass a right to repair bill, tell your Congressfolk to expand Social Security, and tell your Senators to confirm Gigi Sohn to our FCC. Use the tools in the upper right-hand corner of this page (or, if you're on a cellphone, the bottom of this page) to find your Congressfolk's phone numbers and/or use the email/petition tools in the following paragraphs.

Pennsylvania residents, take note: Penn PIRG helps you tell your PA state legislators to pass SB 998, a “right to repair” law which would force corporations that make “electronics and appliances that contain embedded software” to make “information and parts” available to “consumers and independent repair shops.” (All quoted passages are per SB 998’s memorandum.) The bill would also force corporations to “fully disclose any contract provision standing in the way of full repair and reuse,” and while I’d prefer to just make corporations stop “standing in the way of full repair and reuse” – which is a monopolistic practice, after all – this bill will improve matters and deserves to pass.

The Coalition on Human Needs helps you tell your Congressfolk to expand Social Security benefits by $200/month, and raise the payroll tax ceiling so income over $250,000 can be taxed into the system to pay for it. With bankster Blake Masters actually running on privatizing Social Security in the Arizona Senate race, and with Sen. Lindsey Graham putting privatization on the table like anyone should run to him for advice, you know it’s just a matter of time before our “liberal” media start crying about Social Security running out of money like it never does. Better to get ahead of the drama by demanding more benefits and specifying how you’d (very easily) pay for them.

Finally, Daily Kos helps you tell your Senators to confirm Gigi Sohn as our fifth FCC Commissioner. Of course we don’t expect Ms. Sohn, as one of the architects of net neutrality, to get any Republican votes – only Republican voters like net neutrality, not Republican politicians! But a few recalcitrant Democrats are saying they just don’t know whether to vote for her. I don’t know why this is such a hard decision for anyone to make. She had me at “one of the architects of net neutrality.” Apparently she had Joe Biden there, too, because he’s nominated her twice. So our Senators need to do their damn job.