Corporatism, and the 'rebuttal to the defense of Ted and Don'

"Critics of capitalism often argue that any form of capitalism would eventually devolve into corporatism, due to the concentration of wealth in fewer and fewer hands.

Color bathymetric charts are a far cry from heaving a lead line with butter on the lead. That's how my grandfather did it starting before WWI out of Petersburg, when Anchorage might have had a white population of 10.

A permutation of this term is corporate globalism. John Ralston Saul argues that most Western societies are best described as corporatist states, run by a small elite of professional and interest groups, that exclude political participation from the citizenry."

A reader sent this article about corporatism just to help us understand why you can't get in to see your congressman, even if you crawled across the continent from North Pole, Alaska to Washington D.C. How's that for cynicism? I see that the current poll on AlaskaReport.com is pretty reflective of this.

And while I'm at it, Tony Knowles will have some explaining to fishermen for his role in giving away all the fish the last time he was Governor. We'll be keeping an eye out for another reporter singing his praises all summer with the promise of a plum job. Especially if the guy does a repeat, saying, "hey John, what do you want to do in the Administration afterwards?" And if Tony does a repeat, you can bet the reporter will be left out in the cold come election time. By no stretch of the imagination is that to be construed as self-fulfilling prophesy.

I have one reader that took exception to the contributor's defense of Congressmen Ted and Don in my last post, even though he didn't say they had a good excuse for caving in to demands for special treatment. This discussion is valuable if we are to craft a Magnuson-Stevens Act that will grow the country as well as the fish stocks. Sometime I'll repeat the story of how my father tweaked the Alaska King Crab Quality and Marketing Control Board and got king crab marketing off to a good start. It made millionaires out of so many people that never knew what he did for them.

Here's the 'rebuttal to the defense of Ted and Don.'

"John, I'll leave 'you know who's' name out so you can print some of this. The writer is seeking to ingratiate himself with Ted and Don by blaming the State for all the evils of AFA and Crab Ratz. Mr. Benton was NOT working for the State during crab ratz, but he or his (wink, wink) foundation did receive a substantial grant of land, including a lighthouse, courtesy of Ted.

Mr. Benton and Mr Duffy's current jobs are made possible in a large part by the windfall to their employers via AFA and Crab Ratz. Mr. Benton serves on the North Pacific Research Board which exists on free blow job money via Ted. One could say that in everything but name, Benton and Duffy are Trident employees. The only question is WHEN they assumed their current positions.

When AFA was being crafted, and Mr Benton did work for the State, he was not allowed behind the locked doors in Ted's offices for much of the negotiations. Imagine that! The State rep. having no place in crafting monumental changes in the largest fishery(in Alaska and in the world).

Word has it, and I know this is just gossip, that it was a call from (Senator)Ted to (Governor)Frank that put Doug Hoedel on the NPFMC. You think there may have been other calls? Does the writer expect us to believe that the council doesn't do EXACTLY what Ted wants?

Your contributor's success as a lobbyist would benefit from warm relations with Ted and Don. He has nothing to lose from blaming Benton and Duffy for everything. Don't get me wrong. I'm not defending them but they are foot soldiers not the generals in all of this.
Thanks"