Auntie Trust is already dead...
...but the big corporations continue to dance on her grave. Bank One and J.P. Morgan Chase plan to merge, and you can bet that the Bushies won't take any anti-trust action to stop them. Your real options for getting a mortgage, checking account or credit card will be reduced further, and the merger will be used as an excuse for "downsizing" staff at both corporations. (Chances are many will be replaced by Indians working for one-fifth as much.) Excess corporate executives will be given multi-million dollar golden parachutes. In other words, the rich get richer, the poor get poorer as their number gets larger, and the fascist state advances.

I've got a Bank One Visa card which supposedly helps support Amnesty International (I got the offer from AI). Is the pittance going to AI worth more to the future of the world than withdrawing my patronage of this soon-to-be-even-larger multinational corporation would be? Has AI sold out just by offering the card?

I've been thinking about writing a major rant about boycotts and how progressives should spend their money in general, but I'm not sure that I can come up with much of value to say. I'm certainly holier than some in this area, but I've got lots of contradictions--that Diet Pepsi I'm drinking right now, for instance. If anyone out there knows of a good article or web site to help guide us in our purchasing decisions so they help to create a better world, please send me a link!