The Observation Deck

Mark Kindt wrote:You Need To See The Television Ad

I want to emphasize that you really need to see this particular television ad. It is the worst kind of propaganda exercise imaginable, brutally racist in tone and character. Return of the "Yellow Peril".

We can assume that it was created by intelligent and highly-compensated professionals at the request and participation of other intelligent and highly-compensated professionals.

I see the ad every evening. It is both overtly racist with a clear invitation to vigilantism.

Viewers are invited to call a hot-line to report petition "circulators". (For what purpose, we can only speculate. --Presumably to call-out the "monitors".) Creepy!

Was there no one in that chain of decision-making asking themselves whether as a highly-regulated corporation they should be mounting a massive "anti-Asian" campaign with incitement suggestions against other citizens?

The Red Menace is at your doorstep! You need to report them!

If I had a better understanding of the issue, I'd do what I can to defeat this side. The ads are appalling. But i recall from the previous campaign, the other side was no better at messaging.

Mark Kindt wrote:

Mark Kindt wrote:You Need To See The Television Ad

I want to emphasize that you really need to see this particular television ad. It is the worst kind of propaganda exercise imaginable, brutally racist in tone and character. Return of the "Yellow Peril".

We can assume that it was created by intelligent and highly-compensated professionals at the request and participation of other intelligent and highly-compensated professionals.

I see the ad every evening. It is both overtly racist with a clear invitation to vigilantism.

Viewers are invited to call a hot-line to report petition "circulators". (For what purpose, we can only speculate. --Presumably to call-out the "monitors".) Creepy!

Was there no one in that chain of decision-making asking themselves whether as a highly-regulated corporation they should be mounting a massive "anti-Asian" campaign with incitement suggestions against other citizens?

The Red Menace is at your doorstep! You need to report them!

In Arizona, Arizona Publice Service (APS), the state's largest electric utility, blatantly bought the regulatory AZ Corporation Commission via the 2014 election, pushed through rate hikes that ~ tripled APS' net income, funded opposition to a major citizens' initiative on solar energy (hello, stranded coal generation assets), AND funded opposition to another citizens' initiative to raise taxes to properly fund public education. APS is pretty much the dark money man for Gov. Ducey, who is a Koch Bros lackey. Corporate money talks in Arizona, as I'm sure it does in Columbus.

Another FirstEnergy Failure

--Their corporate diversity training programs. Each of their executives needs remedial diversity training on the history of discrimination and abuse directed against Asian immigrants.

They ran a new ad last night. Less Red Menace, more Yellow Peril. --Still overtly racist in an over-the-top-fashion.

I cannot repeat the themes here without sounding racist myself. Still an outrageous corporate exercise against Ohio citizens of Asian descent and, of course, other decent folks.

Unbelievable.

Same solicitations to vigilantism. --More "report" the "circulators".

For Mr. Alaimo: the issues have been written-up at the Plain Dealer, Crain's, the Scene, and Cleveland.Com.

I have, mostly, been a life-long resident of Ohio. I have never ever seen anything this outrageous and abusive in Ohio politics. I am NOT going to be balanced or neutral on this.

This is all about breaking long-standing democratic processes using corporate dollars.

Mark Kindt wrote:
For Mr. Alaimo: the issues have been written-up at the Plain Dealer, Crain's, the Scene, and Cleveland.Com.

I've seen most of the articles and all of the ads, but I'm still confounded.
I need the equivalent of a 30-second elevator pitch, hopefully objective. And I'd like to see it as part of every one of the articles and ads.
I'm asking for this personally, but also in my role as moderator because I'm sure others are also confused, but are afraid to ask the dumb question, which I am not.

A Quick Summary

The Akron-based corporation FirstEnergy, a diversified energy corporation ranked around 219th on the Fortune 500 List of largest corporations, is reorganizing its business. As part of that plan, some of its business units have filed for bankruptcy in an attempt to strand certain future liability costs, predominantly associated with the impending and very expensive closure of two of its nuclear power plants (Davis-Besse & Perry) via a bankruptcy determination.

This attempt to strand these future liabilities via bankruptcy has not been successful. It and others mounted a legislative campaign to secure sufficient funds for a bail-out from the Ohio Legislature. House Bill 6 was signed into law and that bill provides a subsidy to them in the amount of $150,000,000 annually for seven years via rate-increases imposed on some, but not all utility customers. The size of the bail-out is over $1 billion.

FirstEnergy or its subsidiary will decommission these two nuclear power plants over the next several years at a cost of several billion dollars. The decommission process will take decades (60 years).

(Additionally, the federal government pays nuclear plant operators a direct financial subsidy for the "temporary" storage of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel at nuclear power plants.)

Through its proxies, an overtly racist "Big Lie" media campaign has been launched to oppose the efforts of those opposed to this and other bailouts (for two coal plants) to collect signatures to quality a ballot referendum on House Bill Six. Lawyers that oppose the petition campaign have gone to the Ohio Supreme Court to attempt to block the collection of citizen/voter signatures on petitions.

The media campaign is an extraordinary fear-based, race-baiting campaign, that denigrates Chinese and other Asians with classic anti-Asian propaganda. It is deeply offensive. I was appalled to watch it.

As I have noted in my posts, the campaign implies that those collecting signatures are agents of a foreign (Oriental) government up to dastardly deeds. It has all the classic Yellow Peril racist tropes, except, so far, the Fu Manchu moustache.

More troubling to me is the vigilante aspect of all of this -- a pretty clear call-out that these "foreign" agents should be reported to a hot-line. Companies are on payroll to identify and observe those citizens/voters soliciting petition signatures from the rest of us.

The whole campaign is one of the sickest things, I have ever seen.

Again, I note that two countries (U.S. & Canada) rely upon FirstEnergy to safely manage their nuclear safety responsibilities. If this is what it really means for corporations to have political civil rights under Citizens United, we're screwed.

The most recent ad is pugnacious, offensive and still racist. It still has the clear invitation to vigilantism.

I certainly hope that CEI meter readers are not mistaken as being armed and a threat to our community.

Also, I've been thinking that First Energy should be prosecuted for its mail solicitations of duplicative emergency repair services

One final observation: can people of a certain age remember when Ronald Reagan was a shill for General Electric and in his promotion of nuclear power he would assert "It will be to cheap to meter"

Mark Kindt wrote:A Quick Summary

The Akron-based corporation FirstEnergy, a diversified energy corporation ranked around 219th on the Fortune 500 List of largest corporations, is reorganizing its business. As part of that plan, some of its business units have filed for bankruptcy in an attempt to strand certain future liability costs, predominantly associated with the impending and very expensive closure of two of its nuclear power plants (Davis-Besse & Perry) via a bankruptcy determination.

This attempt to strand these future liabilities via bankruptcy has not been successful. It and others mounted a legislative campaign to secure sufficient funds for a bail-out from the Ohio Legislature. House Bill 6 was signed into law and that bill provides a subsidy to them in the amount of $150,000,000 annually for seven years via rate-increases imposed on some, but not all utility customers. The size of the bail-out is over $1 billion.

FirstEnergy or its subsidiary will decommission these two nuclear power plants over the next several years at a cost of several billion dollars. The decommission process will take decades (60 years).

(Additionally, the federal government pays nuclear plant operators a direct financial subsidy for the "temporary" storage of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel at nuclear power plants.)

Through its proxies, an overtly racist "Big Lie" media campaign has been launched to oppose the efforts of those opposed to this and other bailouts (for two coal plants) to collect signatures to quality a ballot referendum on House Bill Six. Lawyers that oppose the petition campaign have gone to the Ohio Supreme Court to attempt to block the collection of citizen/voter signatures on petitions.

The media campaign is an extraordinary fear-based, race-baiting campaign, that denigrates Chinese and other Asians with classic anti-Asian propaganda. It is deeply offensive. I was appalled to watch it.

As I have noted in my posts, the campaign implies that those collecting signatures are agents of a foreign (Oriental) government up to dastardly deeds. It has all the classic Yellow Peril racist tropes, except, so far, the Fu Manchu moustache.

More troubling to me is the vigilante aspect of all of this -- a pretty clear call-out that these "foreign" agents should be reported to a hot-line. Companies are on payroll to identify and observe those citizens/voters soliciting petition signatures from the rest of us.

The whole campaign is one of the sickest things, I have ever seen.

Again, I note that two countries (U.S. & Canada) rely upon FirstEnergy to safely manage their nuclear safety responsibilities. If this is what it really means for corporations to have political civil rights under Citizens United, we're screwed.

The most recent ad is pugnacious, offensive and still racist. It still has the clear invitation to vigilantism.

Thanks Mark. How's this for a shorter summary?

Bankrupt First Energy has received a $1 billion bail out from the state, which will ultimately be passed on to consumers. Petitioners are objecting and the utility has launched a strong-armed media and personal campaign to stop a referendum.

Dan Alaimo wrote:

Mark Kindt wrote:A Quick Summary

The Akron-based corporation FirstEnergy, a diversified energy corporation ranked around 219th on the Fortune 500 List of largest corporations, is reorganizing its business. As part of that plan, some of its business units have filed for bankruptcy in an attempt to strand certain future liability costs, predominantly associated with the impending and very expensive closure of two of its nuclear power plants (Davis-Besse & Perry) via a bankruptcy determination.

This attempt to strand these future liabilities via bankruptcy has not been successful. It and others mounted a legislative campaign to secure sufficient funds for a bail-out from the Ohio Legislature. House Bill 6 was signed into law and that bill provides a subsidy to them in the amount of $150,000,000 annually for seven years via rate-increases imposed on some, but not all utility customers. The size of the bail-out is over $1 billion.

FirstEnergy or its subsidiary will decommission these two nuclear power plants over the next several years at a cost of several billion dollars. The decommission process will take decades (60 years).

(Additionally, the federal government pays nuclear plant operators a direct financial subsidy for the "temporary" storage of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel at nuclear power plants.)

Through its proxies, an overtly racist "Big Lie" media campaign has been launched to oppose the efforts of those opposed to this and other bailouts (for two coal plants) to collect signatures to quality a ballot referendum on House Bill Six. Lawyers that oppose the petition campaign have gone to the Ohio Supreme Court to attempt to block the collection of citizen/voter signatures on petitions.

The media campaign is an extraordinary fear-based, race-baiting campaign, that denigrates Chinese and other Asians with classic anti-Asian propaganda. It is deeply offensive. I was appalled to watch it.

As I have noted in my posts, the campaign implies that those collecting signatures are agents of a foreign (Oriental) government up to dastardly deeds. It has all the classic Yellow Peril racist tropes, except, so far, the Fu Manchu moustache.

More troubling to me is the vigilante aspect of all of this -- a pretty clear call-out that these "foreign" agents should be reported to a hot-line. Companies are on payroll to identify and observe those citizens/voters soliciting petition signatures from the rest of us.

The whole campaign is one of the sickest things, I have ever seen.

Again, I note that two countries (U.S. & Canada) rely upon FirstEnergy to safely manage their nuclear safety responsibilities. If this is what it really means for corporations to have political civil rights under Citizens United, we're screwed.

The most recent ad is pugnacious, offensive and still racist. It still has the clear invitation to vigilantism.

Thanks Mark. How's this for a shorter summary?

Bankrupt First Energy has received a $1 billion bail out from the state, which will ultimately be passed on to consumers. Petitioners are objecting and the utility has launched a strong-armed media and personal campaign to stop a referendum.

Very pithy!

Mark Kindt wrote:

Dan Alaimo wrote:

Mark Kindt wrote:A Quick Summary

The Akron-based corporation FirstEnergy, a diversified energy corporation ranked around 219th on the Fortune 500 List of largest corporations, is reorganizing its business. As part of that plan, some of its business units have filed for bankruptcy in an attempt to strand certain future liability costs, predominantly associated with the impending and very expensive closure of two of its nuclear power plants (Davis-Besse & Perry) via a bankruptcy determination.

This attempt to strand these future liabilities via bankruptcy has not been successful. It and others mounted a legislative campaign to secure sufficient funds for a bail-out from the Ohio Legislature. House Bill 6 was signed into law and that bill provides a subsidy to them in the amount of $150,000,000 annually for seven years via rate-increases imposed on some, but not all utility customers. The size of the bail-out is over $1 billion.

FirstEnergy or its subsidiary will decommission these two nuclear power plants over the next several years at a cost of several billion dollars. The decommission process will take decades (60 years).

(Additionally, the federal government pays nuclear plant operators a direct financial subsidy for the "temporary" storage of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel at nuclear power plants.)

Through its proxies, an overtly racist "Big Lie" media campaign has been launched to oppose the efforts of those opposed to this and other bailouts (for two coal plants) to collect signatures to quality a ballot referendum on House Bill Six. Lawyers that oppose the petition campaign have gone to the Ohio Supreme Court to attempt to block the collection of citizen/voter signatures on petitions.

The media campaign is an extraordinary fear-based, race-baiting campaign, that denigrates Chinese and other Asians with classic anti-Asian propaganda. It is deeply offensive. I was appalled to watch it.

As I have noted in my posts, the campaign implies that those collecting signatures are agents of a foreign (Oriental) government up to dastardly deeds. It has all the classic Yellow Peril racist tropes, except, so far, the Fu Manchu moustache.

More troubling to me is the vigilante aspect of all of this -- a pretty clear call-out that these "foreign" agents should be reported to a hot-line. Companies are on payroll to identify and observe those citizens/voters soliciting petition signatures from the rest of us.

The whole campaign is one of the sickest things, I have ever seen.

Again, I note that two countries (U.S. & Canada) rely upon FirstEnergy to safely manage their nuclear safety responsibilities. If this is what it really means for corporations to have political civil rights under Citizens United, we're screwed.

The most recent ad is pugnacious, offensive and still racist. It still has the clear invitation to vigilantism.

Thanks Mark. How's this for a shorter summary?

Bankrupt First Energy has received a $1 billion bail out from the state, which will ultimately be passed on to consumers. Petitioners are objecting and the utility has launched a strong-armed media and personal campaign to stop a referendum.

Very pithy!

Pith r me.

In Today's Plain Dealer

The Plain Dealer editorial board takes a stand against the outrageous attempt to block the citizen referendum against House Bill Six.

See, "The aggressive tactics by those against the HB6 referendum must stop" at page E2.

"In plain English, it's a lie."

"But the TV ads and the mailers demonstrate the over-the-top demagoguery of Ohioans for Energy Security. The dark-money group is determined to keep Ohioans from getting a crack at HB6 at the ballot box that is setting a new and dangerous low for campaign tactics in Ohio."

"The ads have to stop."

The Billion Dollar Bailout

I have continued this discussion under a new title:

http://lakewoodobserver.com/forum/viewt ... =7&t=25403