A recent article in the New Yorker described the anti-solar panel efforts of fossil fuel companies such as those owned by the Koch brothers, through groups they fund like American Legislative Exchange Council, better known as ALEC. In order to keep fossil fuel companies profitable, they have started a campaign to suppress the use of solar panels on homes, by charging them fees of $50 a month, payable to the for-profit energy provider. These corporations have blocked the practice of selling back excess energy at the going rate, which was one incentive to put solar panels on a home.

One solution is for municipalities to start their own power companies. Some cities have already taken over their power management, others are examining the possibility. When the power company refuses to serve the community, the community has the power to take over the service. People's power companies is an idea whose time has come. No more punishing people for generating clean source power!
Some readings:
Cities Weigh Taking Over From Private Utilities
Solar Power Battle puts Hawaii at Forefront of Worldwide Changes
People power beats corporate utility 2-to-1 in Boulder

In a 7/22/15 article in Huff Post titled Attacks Against Bernie Sanders Have Reached New Depths, Warren J. Blumfeld provides a detailed and definitive definition of "Democratic Socialism," a la Bernie Sanders. I have created a shareable meme of my favorite parts.

Patriotism is sometimes vilified as propagandized xenophobia, but there is no other term that is as useful in describing the deep and abiding love I feel for the country of my birth. I love my country as I love my family, my species, life on earth itself, the biosphere that supports all life, and our planet, this blue pearl.

As a child I was poor. I was different from others and knew it. In some places I would have been an outcast, a pariah I suppose, but instead I was provided a public education where I was treated with equality and respect.

I loved school from the first day of Kindergarten. I loved school so much that not too long ago I acquired the terminal degree, a Ph.D. My country has been good to me, providing me the opportunity to earn a living, conduct business, to teach, to educate my children in public schools, to drink clean water, to consume uncontaminated food, to visit national parks, and most importantly, to participate in a democratic process of electing public officials by voting.

But just as there was a cancer on the presidency of Richard Nixon, a corruption of the executive branch by powerful moneyed interests, a corrupting disease now debilitates our country, reducing it to a shadow of its former self. Like a cancer that has metastasized, the illness infects the circulatory system, the skeletal structure, the digestive system, and all the major organs of nation. 

The disease is complex and has many moving parts, but in my narrative, the continual cause is the profit-based consumption of resources by mindless soulless algorithms known as corporations. Transnational corporations like Monsanto owe allegiance to no country and serve only profit. Consumption of natural resources, exploitation of human resources, destruction of democratic practices, and all manner of evil require no consciousness for oversight, no introduction of human values to the equation.
If a smoke stack scrubber that costs $20 million will save ten lives over ten years and the death related lawsuits will cost an average of $1 million dollars per death, then the corporation has no real choice but to resist the scrubber. It may saves lives but it dents the stockholders for $10 million dollars. It’s just not cost efficient.

It is the role of human beings, through their elected governments, to provide oversight – to identify the externalization of costs and reign it in. Sadly for our species, the transnational corporations are one step ahead of us at each bend in the road.
ALEC, Citizen’s United, the corruption of politicians and even the Supreme Court brings us to the verge of total control of world commerce by transnational corporations through the TPP, TTIP, and TiSA. Prima facie examples of the new world order have presented themselves of late; corporations overruled the decisions of the people’s governments in the imposition of further “austerity” in Greece and in the loss of “country of origin” labeling of meat in the US. Secretly negotiated trade agreements have been blithely promoted in the US by a president who said “trust me” after having destroyed any credibility by signing legislation nicknamed the “Monsanto Protection Act” as an unnoticed part of a budget package. The top contender in the current presidential election hired a former Monsanto lobbyist to run her presidential campaign and served on the Walmart board for years.  With friends like that who needs enemies?

Still, we live and must struggle for survival, not particularly for our individual lives but for the survival of our species. To do otherwise is to die a thousand deaths. If we succeed in the fight to control the destiny of the biosphere through legal actions that overwhelm the transnational corporations, our children will survive to reproduce. We will live in balance with the terms of the deal – restoring and preserving the life giving air, water, and soil that are our birthright. Future generations will look back on our work and they will be grateful.

I am put in mind of World War II: “A grateful nation remembers,” “Never was so much owed by so many to so few,” and Dunkirk. The evacuation at Dunkirk may not be well known today, but it was a collective act of courage when non-military British seamen and others supported the evacuation of trapped soldiers at Dunkirk. A flotilla of over 800 boats included merchant marine boats, fishing boats, pleasure boats and even lifeboats. Over eight days, over 300,000 troops were rescued from certain capture or death at the hands of the Nazi army.

Winston Churchill spoke about Dunkirk in a speech delivered in June of 1940, concluding:

 “We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old. New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.”

We shall fight them to the bloody end.

Ten ways Hillary and Jeb are the same candidate:
1. They both have blatantly corrupt corporate ties
2. They are both major war hawks
3. They both support the Patriot Act and NSA mass surveillance
4. They both support fracking
5. They both support the Drug War
6. They both aggressively support big banks and bailing them out
7. They both support Monsanto and GMOs
8. They will both spend billions on the upcoming election
9. They both support the secretive and dangerous TPP agreement
10. They both support the death penalty
Link to source of support for these claims:

In Spring of 2012, I was in Washington D.C. as a member of the Oregon Delegation to the Jobs with Justice Conference. We were fortunate to have a meeting with our wonderful State Senator, Jeff Merkley, (as opposed to our evil, "Dr. Strangelove," Senator, Ron Wyden.) 
As we left the building, we spotted Senator Bernie Sanders, by himself, striding down the sidewalk away from us. We took off running and yelling and were able to catch up with him. We told  him how much we appreciated his work and had this photo snapped. Look how excited we were.
In one of my earlier blog posts, I wrote about Bobby Kennedy. I was inspired by  Bobby, and all my political life I have worked for political campaigns that reflect the commitment I felt working for him. His murder, denying the people their chosen leader, welded my outrage to my activism, for all time.
I have never found another candidate for president to inspired me until now. Each and everyone of them was a compromise, a "better than the alternative."
Bernie Sanders inspires me. Watch his Madison speech.  Near the end (at around 1:00:00) he advises us to "Think big."  I agree with this. STRONGLY.

The TPP appears to be a fait accompli – a done deal. Future prospects for our species are dim. There is one spot of light – Bernie Sanders is running for President. For those who grasp the possibilities of this last chance to fend off the almost inevitable corporate take-over of world food and water supplies, I offer the following primer.

It is not about money, it is about getting out the vote. This is a labor intensive activity; anyone can help with the project.

The only election that truly matters is the Democratic Party Presidential Primary. It doesn’t matter who the Republicans choose from their very odd clown car. Hillary-Shillary has made it clear that her true constituents are transnational corporations including Monsanto. If she wins there will be no actual difference between the two parties.

The key to choosing Bernie Sanders as the Democratic nominee is registering voters who will vote for him. Therefore:

STEP ONE: Learn how to register voters. Look it up on-line or call your local Democratic Party and ask them.

STEP TWO: Wear a “Bernie for President” shirt and stand at locations where people can see you and have free speech rights. People will approach you – register them to vote. Have a pen and a clipboard. They MUST register as Democrats to vote for Bernie in the primary here in Oregon where I live.

STEP THREE: Get out the vote in the primary. If you have kept track of the people you registered to vote – make sure they actually vote. The Democratic Party in your area will sponsor Get Out the Vote (GOTV) activities – if you show up to help make it happen.

STEP FOUR: After he wins the nomination, volunteer a shift a week at Democratic Party Headquarters in support of Bernie. Some ways to help are walking door-to-door, making phone calls, updating computer data bases, and stuffing envelopes.

We can do this. It is not exaggerating to say that the fate of our species hangs in the balance.