Reply #95: It took me a long time...

[stillcool]

to give up the ghosts, and finally come to the understanding that the federal government is by, for, and of the corporations. The difficulty I have with fine-tuning my perception is the multitude of individual parts that make up the whole. It seems that unintended consequences are what shapes policy and forces different interests to make their moves. I remember reading somewhere, that the difference between today's world and that of yesteryear, is that the hierarchy from village, town, city, state, nation, and world has been obliterated. Main Street has been replaced with the likes of corporations doing business on a global scale. Town, City and State governments all have to play nice with the multi-national corporations within their jurisdictions as they are the life-blood of every metropolis. And, with the use of foundations, holding companies, and the morphing of corporations it's impossible to really know who owns what, and where it's interests lie. The boards of directors for the major players are all made up of a smattering of former defense, government, and banking higher-ups...and even former executives from a competing corporation within the same industry. It seems the dye was cast for today's reality in another lifetime, and what I see is also the manifestation of a long line of actions taken in the wake of unintended consequences.