"... Power presumes the ability to control the actions and beliefs of others through favor, fear, fraud, force and to manipulate the social environment to one's advantage.."
Professor of Political Science Michael Parenti "Democracy of the Few" 1983.
In the book "Derelict Landscapes" Professors John Jakle and David Wilson describe the powerful as, "... wielding influence to obtain agendas and goals... the influential are naturally drawn together in coalitions to consolidate the exercise of power.."
When Galileo discovered that the Earth was (in fact) NOT the center of the Universe he ran into a little trouble with the powerful and influential of the time. You see, the prevailing doctrinaire was a plethora of long since debunked 'junk science'. The Universe revolved around the Earth , the Earth was flat and anything scientific was the work of Satan.. Makes sense, right? Islam does the same thing with a whole host of malarkey unique to itself and so does the Anthropogenic Climate Change Disco Crowd.
With dance steps that never change this group has determined (like the Priests of old) that the science has been settled. And, like the Priests of old, new strict laws are being laid down to punish the wicked and purge society of Satan's (err.... opposing think tank's) evil influence.
As the legal boom gets lowered on groups opposing the theory of man made climate change we can see another classic manifestation of a powerful, centralized government. Entities align with a scripted approach and a broad brush. With no regard for local communities, local businesses and individuals government hands down dictums to be followed without question or dire consequences can/will result. Centralized bureaucracies then work in unison NOT to serve the public good but to lord over it. Oddly enough, how this monster gets created many times come directly from a localized need to solve a localized problem. The 'environmental movement' is a prime example. What started out as communities looking to hold companies accountable for air and water quality has morphed decades later into a behemoth with the authority to ruin your life for the smallest infraction including disagreeing with those bureaucrats.
A trend is playing out once again. With some of most stringent environmental, permitting, safety and labor laws in the world small American businesses are financially hobbled before they can open their doors. Meanwhile, powerful conglomerates in league with government passing such regulations (please refer back to the first two paragraphs) can either bypass such regulations, pay off officials (usually campaign donations) or just anti-up the fines as a cost of doing business.
In the case of General Electric (and when does GE ever not have a 'case'?) according to cleanupge.org. they are responsible for over 78 Superfund sites across the country. In Massachusetts GE was levied a $200 million dollar settlement for dumping PCB's into the Housatonic River in Pittsfield. While Plaintiffs claim this to be a success $200 million dollars is a pittance compared to GE's global profits. GE bought off the town of Pittsfield with 'redevelopment' plans of it's former site. To this day no one is in jail and GE just packed up their factory to pollute another river somewhere else in China or Mexico. However, if Joe's Burger Joint fails to pass a Health Inspection because they don't wrap something up correctly its asta-lavista-baby for poor Joe.
Yet GE is one of the major players in today's push for 'green energy'. They produce most of the wind turbines around the world despite a long history of defrauding the government ranging from the Minuteman Missile to jet engines. They received bailout money during TARP thanks to a $20 million campaign donation to the Obama Campaign.
The point of this digression is to expose how double standards exist. It is almost a modern day version of how royalty was able to get away with murder while the peasantry suffered immeasurably under the yoke of tyranny. It is the same as the Catholic Church destroying science and progress from Copernicus and Galileo during the Inquisition while enjoying that same science to construct cathedrals still standing today. Our 'nobles' today comprise of the powerful elites passing Draconian laws with the sole intention of denying the citizenry their God given rights. It will be a walk in the park for Exxon to fight supheonas on their climate research but potential ruin for smaller groups and activists. It is here that the AG's know who will be easy pickings. In fact, lumping in large corporations in this witch hunt is just a ploy to deceive the public into thinking something substantial will result from all of this. The real reason is to target, marginalize, bankrupt and eventually prosecute smaller organizations that represent vast amounts of Conservatives. Or, in the case of recent California Legislation, the individual.
Lois Lerner and the IRS scandal? That was only a Beta-test. The only thing missing with the roll out of this new version is Steve Jobs at center stage....
.... And That Is The Diatribe....
