Although PG&E is not forcing anyone into concentration camps, there are recognizable whiffs of fascism in the 'smart' meter rollout- lack of choice, a failure of democracy, and high level collusion between government and corporations
Fantastic article yesterday in the Lake County Record Bee- pasted below (emphasis ours):
SmartMeters: What’s next?
By Howard Glasser
It’s a sad state of affairs when your peaceful, serene county begins to feel like a war zone and you have to stay home, stand guard and keep watch for the SmartMeter installation trucks rolling down your street to protect your home because PG&E doesn’t understand the meaning of the word “no.”
What part of “no” don’t they understand? We’ve posted signs saying do not install. We tell them no at the door. Kelseyville’s District Supervisor Rob Brown has followed Wellington trucks to people’s homes advising residents that they can say no when PG&E’s SmartMeter messenger and facilitator tells us we don’t have a choice. Like other cities and counties around the state, our county supervisors passed a moratorium putting a ban on installation until AB 37 has its chance in Sacramento to provide customers with an opt-out position. People have formed citizen blockades to stop SmartMeter installations. We’ve written our legislators. We’ve contacted PG&E and the CPUC. What more do we have to do? It seems that with all this and an ongoing, ever-growing movement of health professionals and scientists, community groups and regional organizations all essentially saying “stop!” we’re nonetheless being besieged by an industry with deadlines they are bent on meeting come hell or high water and the public be damned in the process.
What’s the rush? Can’t we afford the time to responsibly review the findings since the first installations went in
and see if maybe some of the problems reported by thousands of people and businesses from San Diego northward have validity? Why would so many people with no connection to each other report the same symptoms and illnesses and ridiculous and inexplicable rate hikes since SmartMeters were installed? Are these people all suffering from the same mass hysteria? Why do the cynics so quickly label all of these people as if they were lunatics wearing tin hats? Haven’t we experienced in our lifetime, the assurances of one industry or another telling us that everything is fine with their glossy brochures and P.R. campaigns and media ads, only to find out later that they either weren’t telling us the truth or didn’t have the facts or were covering up something that would be inconvenient for us to know because it would impact their bottom line? Haven’t we learned anything from the industry’s rush to profit, from the lobbying money that pollutes our political process, from “bought” science, from regulatory corruption, from payoffs to political collusion and coercion?
I think it’s high time we stood up with one, large voice and said “no” in no uncertain terms and if that means marching on Sacramento in numbers that simply can’t be ignored and making news to get the attention of those we put in office, then so be it. I think it’s time to move from blogging to marching. This country was founded on the rights of its people to protest in the face of tyranny and if this isn’t tyranny, I don’t know what is. I think it’s time we woke up and sounded the alarm and took the kind of action it takes to get government to respond when our more passive resistance goes unacknowledged. It’s either that or we all lay down and go to sleep and say, that’s the end of it, it is what it is and there’s nothing we can do about it. That’s not America to me. America is a place I grew up in where the individual mattered. Are we to just step aside while corporations and industry take over our democracy and wield their will on a powerless people or are we going to take back our place as citizens of a country that stands for freedom and make our will known to those who have assumed a position of arrogant and immovable power over us?
Know this. If we as a people united in ways that our legislators haven’t seen in years and stop falling prey to those who would have us splintered in to little groups all pitted against each other while they passed laws and adopted rules and regulations that oppressed us and diminished our rights and freedoms, we’d regain the power we all have and never lost no matter what anyone tells you. The power is in the people. The problem is we have to start acting like one people and get out of our skins and political affiliations and speak to government as a nation that rises up and says “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!” as Peter Finch told his broadcast viewers in the 1976 strikingly prophetic movie, “Network.” If you haven’t seen that film, it’s worth renting if only to rekindle a spirit that empowers and makes you realize once again that your voice matters, that you have the right to be heard and that you will accept nothing less than your rightful place in the decisions that are made that affect your everyday lives.
Wake up, be heard and don’t be beaten down by those who would criticize or mock your beliefs and have you conform, get in line, go along with the program and just take whatever hand you’re dealt even if you are being dealt from a stacked deck.
Howard Glasser
Kelseyville
A good place to begin is next Thursday’s CA Public Utililities Meeting, 9am March 24th 505 Van Ness at McAllister, SF. Get your friends, family, children, and local government representatives to speak at the meeting where they will be discussing their “generous” opt out plan in which PG&E customers are forced to pay their utility extra for the privilege of not being directly radiated in their home. Arrive by 8:45am to sign up to speak for one minute.
Thank you Howard ! We are standing guard at or house in Loch Lomond. I have stage 2 Parkinsons, 78, but ready to march !
with appreciation,
Crane
Howard, this is one excellent and provocative letter you’ve written and I’m in TOTAL agreement with all you’ve said. We’ve laid down long enough and been rough shod over by corporations and government power. PGE is helping us to really see how a force like this can intrude into our very homes and harm us without even asking us if we want this technology and refusing to stop regardless of what any of us are saying! The agony of mothers being told that they can’t protect their children and spouses who can’t protect their sick mates from this toxicity is beyond belief! I have a friend who has been told repeadedly by PGE that it doesn’t matter that she’s had cancer – she’s getting a meter! She’s standing up to them and refusing it and so far she’s succeeding. You are so right – the only way to stop this abuse is to stand together in numbers and publicly declare that they can’t do this! Just think about how much division among ourselves has been healed by uniting in this common goal of securing our safety! We need to be willing to peaceably unite to stop this monster of modern technology and greed. Thank you for writing an excellent letter.
I think the smart meter issue is analogous to the vaccine issue. Vaccines are rife with toxic issues. Parents are not told they can opt out when in fact they can. They just need to sign a waiver testifying to the fact that they have a philosophical disagreement with injecting their children with dangerous vaccines. I’ve written letters to the editor every year trying to inform parents of their rights.(BTW: APA now mandates 69 shots for your baby before he reaches the age of 18!)
We must just say NO!–LOUDLY OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
I would like Mr. Glasser to email me if he and others feel that the combined citizenry of 34 cities in our State (and growing) are worth a Class Action Suit? I am not an atty, but I would be a plaintiff. I agree with everything he said. I live in Sonoma Co. and fascism is already alive and well in our local gov’t. It is a special irony that at a time in the world where other people are rebelling against tyranny and fighting for democracy, we are losing ours. It is on life support in America and our Constitution is gasping for oxygen. Loss of privacy, loss of rights, and loss of personal freedoms, coupled with an intolerance of dissent, IS fascism! It’s here. It’s real. It’s not Sci Fi.
It appears that some people think that is a big privilege to be able to buy power from PG&E, and that we should be thankful and let them have there way with all customers.
In fact, the opposite is true.
PG&E is one who is privileged to be able to serve us, making lots of money doing so, being the monopoly that they are.
Granted, the power grid and generation business is the largest single business investment in this country, be it a public or private agency. And no doubt that the initial investment on the grid, power plants and switchgear is enormous. And now with even more federal tax money being diverted to these private utility agencies, there are huge profits to be made. There is more competition these days than in the past, and the investor owned utilities who got in with their franchises to serve the public long ago should get too complacent into thinking that they are gods given one.
Even in little Marin County where there is not much industry, there are the various public sewer and water agencies that use taxpayer money to operate treatment plants and pumping stations that are the largest energy consumers.
Then there are many more very large energy consumers like supermarkets in almost every city and town, big box retail stores, shopping malls, street lighting and traffic signal systems, auto dealerships, radio stations, schools and many other publicly funded buildings.
That is a gravy train for PG&E and their share holders, and they should be more humble and friendly to the public that has allowed them in the first place.
Maybe their franchises should be reviewed and other alternatives considered.
That’s what deregulation and the free market is all about, right ? Or even better yet, get rid of the fascist private utility agencies and let them be run by the public , cut the fat profits out of the loop and let the people have their power under their own control at a more reasonable and affordable rate without the greedy corporatists running the show.
People might be interested in this:
Democrats and Progressive Democrats of Marin present,
PUT THE PUBLIC BACK IN PUBLIC UTILITIES
Tuesday, April 5th, 7:00 pm at the Town Center Community Room, 201.
This in the office building at 77o Tamalpais Dr., Corte Madera.
You are invited to learn how you can influence Public Utilities’ prices and policies.
Featured speakers are Mark W. Toney, Ph.D., Executive Director of TURN, The Utility Reform Network, and Megan Matson, Director of LEAN Energy US.
For information: patkunstenaar@comcast.net or phone (415) 488-9037.
Those who live in Southern CA might wish to join Southern Californians Against Smart Meters by visiting http://www.electrosmogprevention.org and click Join. There are definite parallels in how we are being treated and the fascism that Jews were subjected to in Nazi Germany. In this case, they don’t need to send us to camps, they just kill us in our homes using smart meters. Should we allow this? I agree – hell, no!