If we used Pluto’s new celebrity status as an opportunity to see Earth—from afar–as part of the solar system and part of a Galactic Trade Organization, would we gain any new insights? Pluto is a trip-and-a-half. The word pluto means both wealth (plutocracy) and hell (Pluto as god of Hades), so, already economics, myth, and …
You want a Seat at the Table. You fight for it. You get it. Yippee. Let’s consider it. (Welcome back to the DTP Blog. I’ve been absent from this table because, among other things, May is a huge month for gardening in Wisconsin and mine needed lots of TLC so I could put food on …
A Short Preface: The View from 2015… The piece below, once available as a pamphlet, was written in 1998 to try to induce “activists” to pierce the invisible force field that seems to keep them from reading the history of corporate law. Whether or not it succeeds in that sense, it offers a perspective on …
Corporate Law Secrets Exposed By Anthropologist (1998/2015) Read More »
Crumbling pages in the rare books room of the Wisconsin State Law Library may hold the key to breaking the corporate stranglehold on the democratic promise so long dormant in the heartland. I’ve read those pages in that cool, dim room. But you can find the same info in the well-thumbed regular stacks that are …
Wrinkle in Ancient Corporate Code Reveals Democracy Remedy (Not for the faint of heart) Read More »
Wow, I feel more powerful already.
OK, here’s a joke about a regulatory agency, as told by the corporate manager of a big polluting factory. He says…So, I’m in my office one day and the Man from EPA comes in and slams down a huge stack of papers, saying — You’ve got 22,221 violations, and you better do something about them …
Why There Aren’t Any Jokes About Regulatory Agencies Read More »
Like small-town mayors across the nation on Groundhog Day, the Supreme Court will get to make the call on whether Obamacare casts a shadow. The Affordable Care Act (ACA, aka Obamacare) is again on its way to the Court for further review, as they say in the NFL. Its future is on the line, but …
Groundhog Day for Obamacare: Back to the Supremes Read More »
Gather a bundle of your inkiest exclamation points to put at the end of the next sentence. An outfit called ALEC, funded by wealthy right-wing ideologues, has put together a collection of model laws that they like, and is trying to get legislatures to pass them!!!!!
“Don’t make a federal case out of it.” I used the phrase countless times without understanding its origin. But it turns out it’s full right up to the post-hoc-ergo-propter-hoc with historical significance: lessons about corporations, democracy and local control–what you might call community rights. Take the train-hits-cow cases. Railroads began a rapid expansion in the …
There are two kinds of corporate anthropologists. First, the kind that works for corporations and gets paid. I’m the other kind. The first kind works for and with corporations to increase worker productivity, advise what color greeting card to send a Chinese executive, or figure out how to sell personal hygiene products to Mayan grandmothers. …