Forum Post: How to stop the Empire--the Citizens United version

Posted 10 years ago on Jan. 25, 2014, 11:38 a.m. EST by mrbadexample (15) from Brooklyn, NY
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This is an updated version of my play HOW TO STOP THE EMPIRE WHILE KEEPING YOUR DAY JOB. It has some specifics about Citizens United. 'Jerry' doesn't have much faith in the citizens campaigns and the petitioning to overturn Citizens United, and he gives out his top ten list of means of resistance because "we need a Plan B". Link is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGzx-7PGJYs

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[-] 1 points by ImNotMe (1488) 2 years ago

"The Largest Political Donation in US History - Took Place in the 2022 Midterms"! ... by Sasha Abramsky:

https://truthout.org/articles/the-largest-political-donation-in-us-history-took-place-in-the-2022-midterms/

From which: "Despite GOP-orchestrated Voter Suppression & the disenfranchisement of many voters, tens of millions of people exercised their right to vote on November 8 - and the 2022 midterms did not usher in the more widespread and acute breakdown of the democratic process, that many had feared could occur.

"Yet - even as we breathe a sigh of relief that the basic mechanisms of the US voting process, are still functioning, we must not lose sight of the ongoing crisis at the heart of US democracy; unprecedented, and largely secretive, role that the super-rich now play in managing U.S. electoral outcomes.

"A huge amount of Dark Money now funds both super PACs and also, more generally, political interest groups. Earlier this year, The New York Times and ProPublica reported that 90-year-old Barre Seid - a secretive Chicago manufacturing tycoon,had donated $1.6 billion to the Marble Freedom Trust to push its agenda of securing conservative judicial appointments - up and down the ranks of state and federal judiciary.

"This is long-term investment that over the coming years & decades, will buttress conservatives as they groom the next generation of right-wing legal scholars, & work to ensure the election of politicians, who will nominate ever more right-wing figures to judicial benches.

"The money, the largest one-off political donation in US history, instantly made Seid, hardly a household figure in US public life; one of the country’s most important arbiters determining the face of the US legal system and, by extension the country’s regulatory edifice, its environmental policies, access to abortion, voting rights, the fate of gun control laws, civil rights and so much more — over the coming decades.

"And it catapulted Barre Seid, into the top tier of politically active billionaires, joining a club that now also includes Charles Koch, on the right; George Soros, on the left; and a handful of others.

"But modern US billionaires do not confine themselves to just setting up or funding think tanks and other organizations ...intended to shape The Public Debate on key issues. It has now been 12 years since the Citizens United Supreme Court Ruling, opened up the floodgates to Corporate Donations & Super PAC monies coming into elections.

"As a result - each election cycle since then has seen the growing consequences of this decision, as the super-wealthy use their money to prop up pet candidates and determine crucial citizens’ initiatives.

"The disproportionate influence, played by a handful of billionaires and by ... opaque "Outside Spending" groups, on the country’s political system isn’t healthy for democracy. Yes, the country dodged a bullet on Tuesday by rejecting election deniers who'd sought to capture critical state offices, in order to undermine the integrity of election systems.

"But we are a very long way from repairing a political system that remains disconcertingly on the hook to corporate donors and to unaccountable billionaires."

Also see: https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Barre_Seid
& further try to consider: https://www.desmog.com/barre-seid/

The facts are clear for all those with the eyes to see and my only gripe with the article is line - "joining a club that includes Charles Koch, on the right; George Soros, on the left" ... as 'The Left' - in this context constitutes the 'Not Quite as RW' and so is a relative term; as Soros is a 'Liberal Billionaire' who has no truck with Any Actual Left, as represented by eg.OWS! Essentially, US MSM has lost sight of "The Left" & who and what it is and who and what it actually represents!! This an act of RW political propaganda!!!

respice, adspice; prospice - et caveat!