More Evidence Corporations own America (Page 4): You all come across as brainwashed partisan hacks. There is no difference in either arm of the corporate party and elections really...

buffalo Loc: Texas

You all come across as brainwashed partisan hacks. There is no difference in either arm of the corporate party and elections really don't matter to them. It just keeps the sheople distracted with thinking their vote really matters. If voting really mattered it would promptly be declared illegal by BOTH arms of the corporate party.

http://ivn.us/2012/11/06/100-ways-republicans-are-just-like-democrats/

She Wolf Loc: Currently Georgia

Trooper745 wrote:

Okay, let's go with your idea, and mine. If we take corporate money completely out of politics, how do we stop the leftist news media from controlling elections?

Supposedly the air waves belong to the people. Each TV and radio station has a license to broadcast. We simply take away their use of our air waves when they violate the trust of the American people. Allowing them to report only facts they can back up with hard evidence. We give equal air time to all candidates and do not allow the purchase of additional time. We limit what a candidate can spend to get elected and jail those who do not comply.

How many members of Congress are guilty of ethics violations and still serving? You want to be a "public servant", you obey the ethics of your office or we place you in one of our many, many, prison cells. Why not get our money's worth from the CIA, FBI, and the NSA? Spy on each other for a change instead of the people who pay your damn salary.

Limit the terms of Congress, the Supreme Court, as well as the President. Prosecute instead of giving high paying jobs to these crooks when they leave office.

rebob14

Then I think we should stop putting alll our eggs in the federal basket. We have a Constitution which adequately protects state and local municipalities. The feds have never survived a showdown with them when seriously confronted (see Joshua Glover in Wisconsin under the Tenth Amendment). Federal encroachment is a cancer in the civic body and can be excised only by stopping the addiction to federal kool aid and following the laws already in force.

ghostgotcha Loc: The Florida swamps

rumitoid wrote:

Its been five years since the Supreme Court decided Citizens United, which allowed unlimited corporate money into the political system and increased the domination of democracy by the wealthy elite. Money has indeed overwhelmed the system since 2008. This rise of big money in politics has endangered democracy and emboldened those who want to put democracy up for sale to aggressively attack the modest campaign spending regulations that still remain.

A recent Demos report explores how, since Citizens United, the following have occurred:
In the 2012 election .01 percent of all Americans contributed more than 28 percent of all individual contributions.
In the 2012 election, Sheldon Adelson spent an estimated $150 million, $98 million through dark money channels. In 1980, by contrast, the largest donor gave $1.72 million (inflation-adjusted).
A 2013 study finds, millionaires receive about twice as much representation when they comprise just 5 percent of the districts population than the poorest wealth group does when it makes up 50 percent of the district.
Another 2013 study finds that the richest 1 percent of Americans are extremely active politically and that they are much more conservative than the American public as a whole with respect to important policies concerning taxation, economic regulation, and especially social welfare programs.
In the 2014 midterms, in the most competitive races, candidates got 86 percent of individual contributions from donors giving more than $200.

Americans are increasingly skeptical of claims that democracy by the wealthy is compatible with their interests. In a recent study commissioned by CNBC and Burson-Marsteller, 73 percent of American consumers believe that the government is more on the side of corporations than average citizens. Research by Pew suggests that trust in government has reached an almost record low, and the most recent ANES data find that 63.4 percent of Americans earning less than $30,000 agree (24.5 percent strongly agree) that public officials dont care what people think.

Read more at http://www.salon.com/2015/01/24/the_true_cost_of_citizens_united_the_roberts_courts_darkest_hour_revisited/

I have been harping on this theme since I got here. We have been set up by the true powers that be, Big Business, to be at each other's throats while they steadily take our nation as their private plantation. No more lobbyists! No more dark money!

Its been five years since the Supreme Court decid... (show quote)

Want to live in Cuba?

buffalo Loc: Texas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjSb2JU0SBM

Now, tell me again how voting matters.

buffalo Loc: Texas

There aren't a whole lot of politicians I generally admire, so of course, one of the few that I do is a dead Canadian-Scotsman that may or may not have been a proponent of eugenics in his youth. If youve never heard of Tommy Douglas, he was this guy that was the Premier of Saskatchewan, and hes pretty much responsible for creating Canadas universal health care system. He was probably one of the best orators of the later half of the 20th century, and his iconic Mouseland speech remains one of the most amazing, awe-inspiring things Ive ever heard spill forth from a politicians mouth.

As Douglas so brilliantly put it, as voters, were generally nothing more than a bunch of mice given the choice of voting between two cats to slaughter us. Call me crazy, but I think its just a little suspect that in a nation where almost half of the population lives on less than $50,000 annually, the two guys running for president in 2012 were dudes that made, respectively, $11 million and $200 million-plus in 2011. Im not sure what the official stats are - and if anybody can give me evidence to the contrary, feel free to notify me here - but I cant think of a SINGLE member of the U.S. political system - presidents, cabinet members, representatives, senators, state reps, federal judges, etc. - that make LESS than that $50,000 threshold. Now, am I being cynical when I say that I doubt all of these elected figures have the best interests of half the U.S. population at heart, or am I just being too damn truthful about the nature of class-stratification in the political process?

If youre part of that lower dyad of the U.S. population (which I certainly am,) then why should I believe that all of these dudes with suspiciously speckless suits and well-manicured nails gives one iota of a damn about my concerns and worries as a citizen? Is it ignorant of me to assume that these political people will pay more heed and attention to the multi-million dollar conglomerates and special interests groups and bankers and committees that bankrolled their campaigns than half-starved, multicultural trash such as I?

If this was a TRUE representative democracy, at least one of the guys up there would be someone representing people from my socioeconomic bracket, not some Ivy-leaguer that comes from Old World money and hobnobs with celebrities and sells $300 a plate dinners at banquets that cost $12,000 to attend. If were not given the choice of voting for a man of the people, than we should we waste our time voting for two shades of people that dont give a shit about us?

She Wolf Loc: Currently Georgia

buffalo wrote:

There aren't a whole lot of politicians I generally admire, so of course, one of the few that I do is a dead Canadian-Scotsman that may or may not have been a proponent of eugenics in his youth. If youve never heard of Tommy Douglas, he was this guy that was the Premier of Saskatchewan, and hes pretty much responsible for creating Canadas universal health care system. He was probably one of the best orators of the later half of the 20th century, and his iconic Mouseland speech remains one of the most amazing, awe-inspiring things Ive ever heard spill forth from a politicians mouth.

As Douglas so brilliantly put it, as voters, were generally nothing more than a bunch of mice given the choice of voting between two cats to slaughter us. Call me crazy, but I think its just a little suspect that in a nation where almost half of the population lives on less than $50,000 annually, the two guys running for president in 2012 were dudes that made, respectively, $11 million and $200 million-plus in 2011. Im not sure what the official stats are - and if anybody can give me evidence to the contrary, feel free to notify me here - but I cant think of a SINGLE member of the U.S. political system - presidents, cabinet members, representatives, senators, state reps, federal judges, etc. - that make LESS than that $50,000 threshold. Now, am I being cynical when I say that I doubt all of these elected figures have the best interests of half the U.S. population at heart, or am I just being too damn truthful about the nature of class-stratification in the political process?

If youre part of that lower dyad of the U.S. population (which I certainly am,) then why should I believe that all of these dudes with suspiciously speckless suits and well-manicured nails gives one iota of a damn about my concerns and worries as a citizen? Is it ignorant of me to assume that these political people will pay more heed and attention to the multi-million dollar conglomerates and special interests groups and bankers and committees that bankrolled their campaigns than half-starved, multicultural trash such as I?

If this was a TRUE representative democracy, at least one of the guys up there would be someone representing people from my socioeconomic bracket, not some Ivy-leaguer that comes from Old World money and hobnobs with celebrities and sells $300 a plate dinners at banquets that cost $12,000 to attend. If were not given the choice of voting for a man of the people, than we should we waste our time voting for two shades of people that dont give a shit about us?

There aren't a whole lot of politicians I generall... (show quote)

Agreed. Canada and most of the free world can afford universal health care but America can not. It's pure crap. Insurance companies, the AMA, and large Pharm. companies decide who lives and who dies. Fear rules. Just tell some of the middle class they will loose their elite status and they are more than willing to let Vets, their Grandmothers, and the poor die. Forget most of them were given their insurance by their employers, something which is no longer offered to the young people today. America one nation under Greed.

As my biker neighbor is fond of saying, "It is not weather you are owned but who owns you."

eagleye13 Loc: Fl

There are many here who consider themselves on either the Left or Right:
IMO - Most good honest people want the same things for all; Fairness, and equity. We differ on how to make that happen.
What has to happen is for those on the Right and Left to discover how they are both being used by the PTB; the ones with the Money that George Carlin warned us of.
Both sides hate unfairness, and Corporatism.
I doubt good honest Liberals want pure Communism/leftist cronyism (the trick is to not submit to Communists, as happened in Russia. That is where the Big Money is behind.)
I doubt that good honest Conservatives want Corporatism/ Rightist cronyism (the trick was not to submit to fascist NeoCON cronyism. That is where the Big Money is behind.)
IMO - The Constitution was written to prevent that; but it no longer is the rule of the land. The Constitution has been subverted and covertly replaced. Our Republic has been turned into a Corporation, and not enough Americans have figured out Who has manipulated us into this abomination. It now takes over 100 billion to get the nomination for President in either party. The Big Money interests are laughing all the way to THEIR banks.(TV, Radio, Newspaper, Magazine ads. and etc.)
The Solution? Wake up, and then wake up others. Then vote in candidates that will go after The Federal Reserve slave masters. Go back to using Constitutional, United States notes, instead of what was foisted on America in 1913 ( the Fed Res notes with perpetual, unpayable interest tied to them.) It is now $18 Trillion, and going up a Trillion a year. We are being bankrupted, with the interest being paid to scoundrels.

I find the fact that people are so willing to fall for all the imaginary crisis our government comes up with to keep us divided appalling. It reminds me of the fairy tale, "Chicken Little". The sky is falling.

The only answer I can see at this point is total anarchy.[/quote]

:thumbup: :thumbup:

eagleye13 Loc: Fl

There are many here who consider themselves on either the Left or Right:
IMO - Most good honest people want the same things for all; Fairness, and equity. We differ on how to make that happen.

Entered once, Came up twice, WHY???
Had to go back to edit to clear one.
Admin. why does this happen?

Aufie

Personal insults doesn't add to any debate. It shows a lack of knowledge

eagleye13 Loc: Fl

Yep!

Aufie wrote:

Personal insults doesn't add to any debate. It shows a lack of knowledge

:thumbup:

eagleye13 Loc: Fl

Yep!

Aufie wrote:

Personal insults doesn't add to any debate. It shows a lack of knowledge

Entered once. Why it came up twice?????
:thumbup:

Aufie

Bad computer. Once was enough to get the point across

Coos Bay Tom Loc: coos bay oregon

Aufie wrote:

Bad computer. Once was enough to get the point across

Well it was a darn good point that some posters should take to heart.

Aufie

Thank you