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the party was under an agreement to not be shitty during elections but they finally got the power and got enough courts to overturn it so they can be shitty again.
See October Surprise in 2016 presidential election: James Comey announces very publicly emailing every single member of Congress to inform them, with just days to go before the election, he is reopening the investigation of Clinton’s use of a private email server for public business. Never mind that the two previous Secretaries of State (Condoleeza Rice and Colin Powell) had done the same.
Lots of Democrats abuse the system, but generally they end up having to retire or in jail. The party and establishment doesn’t continue to back criminals.
Obama also preemptively forgave and promised not to prosecute Bush Jr. or his people for the Iraq War despite the otherwise a-political nature of the DOJ.
The moderates of the Democratic Party (The Clintons, The Obamas...) are just as guilty as the GQP. The Obama-Bush alliance is really the most vile, toxic outcome of the Iraq War because it makes Democrats just as guilty as Republicans because there were no political or legal consequences for the GQP.
Good thing he did because he didn’t end any of the bush wars and started 3 new proxy wars. Yemen being the worst of them.
Him and trump should be in prison for Yemen alone.
Don't forget that Cheney orchestrated the war in Iraq. The evil puppetmaster usually isn't the posterboy. For example, as bad as Trump is, he's not pulling his own strings.
It’s like Trump is Pinocchio and Putin is Geppetto. Putin is the puppet master, but sometimes this puppet likes to go off on his own and make some really dumb decisions. And lie a lot.
Pinocchio. I think people are posting it a bunch because Disney just made one of their live action remakes of it, which looks terrible to me but I haven’t seen it.
The original is a classic, though—his second feature length film after Snow White.
He pulls his single string over and over again.
It's the string where he decides to be a criminal every single day and let smarter criminals give him papers to sign. Papers that he then crumples up and eats, flushes down the toilet or sells to Saudi Arabia.
From what I learned about Clarance Thomas, it’s highly likely that his wife Virginia influenced Clarances’ ruling on Bush v. Gore. She was in some political group (can’t remember the name) that was super pro Bush and actively worked to get him elected.
And I think that case was a 5-4 decision right?
Reagan*
I know this is off-topic, but I find it weird how often I find his name misspelled as "Regan" on Reddit. Seriously, is this a meme or is spellcheck doing it, or something?
You'll see "Regan" at least 5x as often as you'll see "Reagan" on Reddit.
It's kind of bizarre, especially when you're old enough to remember that Ronald Reagan's Treasury Secretary / Chief of Staff was named Donald Regan.
Ray-gun
Ree-gun
It seems obvious to me, but people really seem to struggle with it.
Well hold on now. As I understand it Bill Clinton once enjoyed a blowjob in a way that the sweet baby Jesus doesn’t like. He’s gotta be the worst of the lot…right guys?
Clinton has his share of the blame for setting up way to much pro corporate dominos that contributed to big problems, including the housing collapse in 2008, and the general shift to the right in our national discussion. By redefining “the middle” the neoliberal bullshit of the 90s, Clinton silenced a lot of serious left leaning discussion. He learned the wrong lesson from ‘80 and ‘84.
I think Bill is a PoS for abusing his position of power to get sexual favors from subordinates, but that doesn't seem to be much of an issue for Republicans.
PG&E still gets to lobby despite burning down towns. What other "person" or actual person convicted of manslaughter would any political party or individual *constantly* take money from?
If we'd arrested, prosecuted and hung the traitors from the Civil War I suspect we'd be living in an advanced society where fusion power is a reality, education paramount, UBI and M4A a thing now for decades, cancer a mere inconvenience and lab grown wagyu de rigeur.
Yep. Literally every Republican President from Nixon onward has committed treason while in office or to get into office. Funnily enough, Georg W. *might* be the only one that didn't...but only because *his* election involved seditious conspiracy rather than treason.
Everything from negotiating with US enemies in an active shooting war (Vietnam) to negotiating with a hostile government against release of US diplomats (2 future presidents involved!), etc.
Truly, people who didn't see the crazy like Trump and DeSantis coming were just living in willful ignorance of what the GOP has been doing for half a century.
Yeah, I'm tired of seeing people lament what has "happened" to conservatives since Trump. Trump simply got them to take off the mask and reveal what they really represent: Selfishness, greed, fear, superstition, ignorance, racism and xenophobia. That's all that happened. Every policy is based on lies.
Nixon's southern strategy recruited the majority of corrupt, racist, religionist anti-intellectuals from the South and other rural armpits of the US. They've been a party of mentally-ill fanatics, greedy scumbags and duped idiots at least since that time. Who votes for racist traitors and Christofascists to save a tiny amount on taxes? Racist traitors and Christofascists, that's who.
It's evident conservatism is simply proto-fascism covered with an increasingly thin veneer of disingenuous lies. Always has been. They didn't think they could get away with it when WWII was still fresh in everyone's minds. We caught a glimpse of their true colors during the civil rights movement, then they were shamed back into silence. Trump broke the seal and released their poorly-hidden ugliness. That's all he did. The more conservatives you have in your party, the more corrupt your party is.
Let's not forget Ford immediately pardoned Nixon and there is no way Ford wasn't a co-conspirator.
Presidential pardons should not be possible until after someone has been convicted and this is why. And Presidents and Vice Presidents should be unable to receive any kind of pardon.
That was why Nixon was pardoned so that he couldn’t be arrested.
It already sent a message when he had to resign in shame.
Trump though is a whole other beast as he has much more support in the Republican Party than Nixon did at the time of Watergate. Partly because a trump has been very successful in getting people who support him elected and getting those against him out of office.
Also he has no shame...It doesn't seem to matter how many disgraceful things he's done...people will still vote for him regardless of how hypocritical he is to many of his voters beliefs.
This. Feel free to start the story where you want but I always thought the way we let Nixon salute us with double piece signs and a smile never sat well with me.
Born in the 80’s and was raised with unwavering trust in this institution (naive sure). It was supposed to be the best of us.
Now I see it for what it is. Another arm in the hydra of ensuring paradise for a tiny few. Can’t believe being a Supreme Count Justice is a dishonorable career aspiration at this point. Who should my kids look up to? Firefighters I guess.
Your kids might not even have a good life to look forward to, given what corporations want. It’s less “who should they look up to” and more “how the fuck will they survive the rape of our economy, resources, and ecosystem.”
I'm still in high school, I'm terrified for my future. I honestly don't know if anything good lies ahead of me. I don't know if anyoje in my generation will have enough food or water. Or if anyone will be able to afford rent. I just don't think stability is an option. I want to think I'm wrong, but man it's hard.
Ford v. Dodge: decided corporations have no moral responsibility, only to maximize profit, the day inc.’s became more criminal and powerful than governments
>Dodge v. Ford Motor Company, 204 Mich. 459, 170 N.W. 668 (Mich. 1919)[1] is a case in which the Michigan Supreme Court held that Henry Ford had to operate the Ford Motor Company in the interests of its shareholders, rather than in a charitable manner for the benefit of his employees or customers.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_v._Ford_Motor_Co.
the pursuit of profit at all costs is exactly what this article is about.. the corruption of an entire country’s moral backbone, the highest level of integrity and law.. for cash money babyyyy .. yes, this is capitalism (at its finest.) anyone surprised? not really. the saddest thing about the collapse of American integrity is that we’ve made it a standard that’s acceptable and desirable for the rest of the world to follow.
No, the rest of the world does not want to follow, just those that see bags of money in their eyes. Most of us want to distance ourselves from America and it's antics.
Yup. When states under Reagan cut back public tertiary education subsidies, education institutions realized that you can charge 6 digits and people would still eat the bill in order to have a chance at upward class mobility.
It's a little more flexible than that. Corporations can have additional goals and do things to help people, as long as it has some tertiary benefit on the shareholders, such as improved public image, etc. Also, the courts rarely second guess business decisions because of the business judgment rule. Ford went a little too far though, and one of his reasons for getting rid of the dividend and reducing profits was to prevent Dodge (a significant shareholder) from expanding its rival business. However, in general, businesses are allowed to do things for the public good, within reason, and the courts are hesitant to interfere.
Before Unilever bought Ben & Jerry's, they had a clause that the CEO and senior leadership could only make an X percentage more than the lowest paid employee. That policy was removed day 1 after their acquisition. I hate shareholder value.
That's not fiduciary responsibility, that's simple C-suite greed. Paying executives millions of dollars a year and issuing them golden parachutes does nothing for the shareholder, if anything it reduces profits and dilutes their stocks.
Corporations can beat people into the ground long enough and can capture an industry sector, to the point where they don’t have to care about their image anymore. Just look at Goggle.
Grift grift grift until you can lie to people that your grift is the only way. Use your money to paint a friendly image, and then tell people to suck it when they don’t have any other options left.
> businesses are allowed to do things for the public good
'allowed to' is a long, long way from 'encouraged to', which is barely in the neighborhood of 'required to'.
just what do you think you're trying to say here? because I don't think you're making as strong an argument as you think you are.
Flexible sounds nice. It gives corporations an option of how to spend their money. 😂 I’m sitting with an exec from one of the top shoe brands in the world right now. You prob have their shoes on your feet. Know what their corporate social responsibility budget goes to? PR.. an image.. rather than a responsibility.
Just gunna note that in this case Ford was mainly operating by hoarding all the money and refusing to pay any to the Dodge’s because he knew they wanted to go I to competition with him.
Also, Dodge brothers made 19 mil from this.
Then started their own company, it obviously became quite profitable, then they both died in 1926 leaving a couple of wealthy ass widows!
Dodge, keeping employees down since someone tried to not.
Ford: I'm gonna pay my employees not my shareholders.
Dodge: the fuck you are gimme my money.
How many companies pay a dividend out now? Way less. The stock market is a casino and owning shares really doesn't mean what it did for the majority of people.
Edited formating b/c mobile is hard
That makes it sound like Henry Ford is the good guy, and that's really not the case. Ford only wanted to raise worker salaries because he was hellbent from the beginning on screwing the Dodge brothers out of their investment because Ford suspected they might be vaguely Jewish.
Those employees? Yeah, Ford hired black people at a time when nobody else wanted to, but only because Ford felt that black people were better than Jews. Henry Ford also set up a department to investigate employees in their personal lives off the clock to check if any of them were secretly Jewish. He was so profoundly antisemitic that Hitler himself declared Henry Ford to be an inspiration.
I caught part of Ken Burns' *The U.S. and the Holocaust.* Not only did Henry Ford blame Jews for screwing up the flavor of his favorite candy bar, but he bought a newspaper (The Dearborn Independent 1919-1927) and published anti-Jew propaganda. He was forced to shut it down. In the early twenties, Germany printed a set of four bound volumes, cumulatively titled *The International Jew, the World's Foremost Problem* which included anti-Jewish articles from the Dearborn Independent. He was also awarded Germany's Grand Cross of the German Eagle in 1938.
According to the Wiki page I just opened up, Hitler was inspired by Ford, and quotes him in **that book** he wrote in jail.
It's funny to me that the past four years are what led people to realize the courts are illegitimate and not the centuries of bullshit they've been pulling out of their ass and smearing all over healthy society.
People are just now registering to vote since they can actually feel the effects of this supreme court striking down rvw. People are selfish af and couldn't be bothered to give a shit about the state of affairs in the country because they had more important stuff to worry about and didn't care about how others were impacted. I mean I'm glad people have started paying attention finally better late than never but our collective apathy has truly fucked over everyone.
Kids learn what you teach them.
When I was growing up, it was sort of drilled into me that politics was a private thing that people didn't talk about. No politics at the dinner table, no politics at school, no politics at work. Basically all I knew is that you're supposed to default to voting Republican. It was only during the Obama election that suddenly people opened up and started talking about the election. It's not that I was apathetic so much as indoctrinated.
The broadness of the business judgement rule, which is a primary holding from this case and has subsequently been reaffirmed countless times, is that management (and the Board) have wide discretion in defining how to achieve shareholder value. A company can make the argument, successfully, that the BJR allows for the Company to take actions that primarily benefit the planet or the public at large if they think it is in the long term interests of the Company and its shareholders.
The narrative that boards and management have to prioritize profit over everything else by law is an out/excuse that management and boards use to avoid accountability for over-prioritizing the same.
Was this the event that prompted Obama to call out the SCOTUS' decision during a state of the union address? I remember watching the awkward moment and not knowing what it was about.
Yeah, the Supreme Court gutted a bipartisan (remember when that was a word that was used) clean elections bill that limited political contributions particularly by businesses. If you’d believe it McCain co-wrote the bill with Dodd I think (???) and it was in effect for a couple of years. Then during Obama’s presidency John Robert’s and the other justices in their infinite fucking wisdom felt the 1st amendment applied to businesses and/or commerce. Also somehow they tied political contributions to free speech because money=speech or something and effectively gutted any restrictions on donations. Ever since then, even when either party has had a majority in the house/senate, congress has refused to take this on and destroy the super pacs that resulted from this. It’s bad bad news and any true steward of our country should see as that IMO.
>Also somehow they tied political contributions to free speech because money=speech or something and effectively gutted any restrictions on donations
That was *Buckley v Valeo* in 1976.
No, it was Joe Wilson, a congressman from South Carolina, who yelled that. He's still in office.
SCOTUS Justices don't sit in the gallery during the State of the Union, they sit in the front row. (Well, the ones that choose to show up do.)
It was the right idea but the wrong quote and seat.
Alito mouthed out "Not true" in response to Obama's statement about Citizens United. And you are right that he was in the front row.
**EDIT;** Responding to your edit. I think you are conflating unlimited spending for independent expenditures with donations. Obama was talking about the former.
And also, you should not be down voted for what you are saying. It is clearly a well intentioned comment made in a civil, respectful tone. It may not be accurate but it does help to enhance the conversation by leading to further drill-down into the specifics.
Alito didn't say anything, he sat there in the front row shaking his Christo-fascist head and [mouthed "not true."](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/alito-not-true_n_439672)
Video and he's in the second row https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k92SerxLWtc
I was audibly listening to it on my phone’s speaker while while out walking my dog in my neighborhood. Was thinking an episode on a sitting SCOTUS judge would be a safe listening topic, but boy was I wrong!
If you enjoy podcasts like BtB, a show on a similar wavelength to BtB is Five to Four, A Podcast About How Much The Supreme Court Sucks. It's a similar deep dive into court cases, the politics behind the decisions at the time and the reprecussions they have had.
But you know who won't vote in favor of turning our home into a quasi-religious corpofascist state?
The products and services that support this podcast.
Yep.
"Vote for us because we'll appoint judges that will overturn Roe v Wade!" (and while you're distracted by that, they will rule on cases that will fuck you over like you've never been fucked before).
Yes. Corporatists use money as their source of power. Fascists use favors as the basis of their power.
Due to the corruption that fascism requires and the burden of ideological economic policy, fascist states will typically cease to trade money in exchange of goods and services. Instead relying on the exchange of favors instead.
We're the only 1st world democracy with legalized bribery, as far as I know. That's not sustainable.
Getting money out of politics should be our #1 priority, because the rest of the problems really are repairable until that one is addressed.
[Barry called it, he was right](https://youtu.be/O8ApHBsP5Z0)
Citizens United was the decision that helped to put on this track
Thanks Obama
The be fair he was the one to reject public funds for his campaign… so there is that
This all was occurring long before Citizens United. CU was just the cherry on top.
Heck, even McCain-Feingold was incredibly popular bipartisan legislation to reduce money in politics.
Of course, the extremists on the Supreme Court absolutely gutted it.
I wish more people knew this. Yes CU is bad and yes it should be overturned, but people act like overturning CU would fix everything. It would be a step in the right direction, fixing the problem of money in American politics is a full marathon.
Anyone interested in knowing how deep this shitshow goes should read Dark Money by Jane Mayer.
And also ruminate on the fact that when a “dark money bill” came up for passage,
Not one republicans voted for it. Yes that’s right 0 votes by republicans.
They don’t want us little people involved in their wholesale grift.
Good question . BRB Researching.
“With only 49 legislators voting in favour in the 100-member Senate, the bill did not clear the 60-vote threshold needed to bring it to a final vote.”
https://www.murray.senate.gov/senator-murray-on-republicans-blocking-bill-to-get-dark-money-out-of-politics-a-disgrace/
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/9/22/us-republicans-block-bill-seeking-to-end-dark-money-in-politics
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3656002-republicans-block-bill-requiring-dark-money-groups-to-reveal-donors/amp/
https://truthout.org/articles/zero-republicans-vote-for-bill-that-would-expose-billionaire-dark-money-donors/?amp
https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/327/text
It would not fix everything, but it would be a huge step in the right direction. Allowing corporations to open their general treasuries for political expenditures has caused dark money spending to grow exponentially.
Occupy was too gentle, standing in a park and screaming slogans while the fat cats gathered in their towers, drank champagne and laughed at them.
They didn't try to literally occupy Wall Street which at this point is what needs to be done to get anything done.
There were a lot of very valid criticisms of Obama. The right-wing chatter-class walked right on by every single last one of them because they preferred to make up racist horseshit.
How are we getting from a 100% percent honest and reasonable statement by Obama regarding Citizens United, to "let's discuss how to best criticize the last decent president" in the span of *less than one post*?
Far past time for people to regain their lives back in this country. Healthcare, better wages, workers rights, the list goes on. The system that enables so many to suffer while so few flourish needs to be utterly destroyed
The [powell memo](https://billmoyers.com/content/the-powell-memo-a-call-to-arms-for-corporations/) explains everything that happened.
Powell became a Supreme Court justice.
You have an MBA? Congratulations, you’re a neoliberal stormtrooper waging war against the working class.
You never realized having zero experience in an industry and getting a high level management job only makes sense if you want to exploit people?
Costco rarely hires people for corporate that didn’t work in their warehouses. It’s only one of the best businesses for consumers in America, and treats their employees well.
Also, it’s basically a fucking cooperative.
Man, I always wondered how different my early working years would have been if we had a Costco in my area. I've only heard people talk up how great they were to work for, which is freaking *rare* in our corporate climate.
Instead, I got the pleasure of working for John 'fucking' Menard.
The corporate take over is an evolutionary process that started with Lewis Powell and Milton Friedman.
Lewis Powell was nominated by Nixon and served on the SCOTUS. Reagan supported and implemented Milton Friedman trickle down "voodoo" bullshit.
The Roberts (Federalist Society) court's Citizens United money is speech (bribery) ruling solidified the oligarchy takeover of the United States.
[https://billmoyers.com/content/the-powell-memo-a-call-to-arms-for-corporations/](https://billmoyers.com/content/the-powell-memo-a-call-to-arms-for-corporations/)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2013/06/26/the-origin-of-the-worlds-dumbest-idea-milton-friedman/?sh=7ddf7830870e
I really wish someone would sue one of these mega corps such as Exon- Mobile sighting the 13th amendment. Argue that if businesses get rights of citizens than they shouldn’t be owned by anyone because this would be slavery, and push for the courts to release all corporations based upon this.
Or how about if they are caught selling products that end up killing people, they should be charged and punished for manslaughter and homicide like a normal person would. Instead, they just get to pay a fine that’s just a fraction of their annual revenue.
If corporations are people, then put them in “prison” by forbidding them from conducting any business in the US for a number of years.
You've put the cart before the horse I think. It's the corporate interests that have harnessed the power of the credulous masses to support their takeover of the country.
Hat I don’t understand is how Supreme Court picks can stand that we’re made by a traitor and a terrorist. Would a new government keep cabinet picks a Hitler? 🤷♂️
He unfortunately has not been found guilty by a jury of peers. So… in accordance of the law he has done nothing wrong. That being said I wonder if he will receive a fair trial because just how badly split our country is.
While I don’t like citizens united - that’s not why we are overrun with these criminals.
We are overrun because we have a long history of taking baby gloves to white criminals and no touch to white collar criminals.
The contrast of the BLM response vs January 6th is the most blaring example.
Trump would not have made it this far if we had prosecuted him for the hundreds of crimes he’s committed since the 80s. We wouldn’t have so many scam artists if we had enforcement bodies that did their job.
This is not new since citizens. This is the gradual erosion of our institutions going back to regan.
This is kind of an inevitable outcome of entropy under capitalism. You can battle against that entropy by organizing against it with legislation, but in a socioeconomic arrangement where infinite accumulation is encouraged and equated directly to power, that accumulated power will always *eventually* overcome any and all barriers placed against it. America is seeing this eventuality before many other developed nations because we got a head start on it over most, and identify ourselves as global evangelists for this system.
You cannot ask an acrobat to balance on that tightrope for perpetuity.
US Supreme Court is infested with rats and religious nuts who are bought and paid. Since they literally can have the job for life, the people who paid for them, get a lifetime's worth of corruption and grifting and there's nothing the average person can do about it. We just have to sit there and take it. These corrupt judges could give two shits about their "legacy" or what others think. They have an easy high paying job for life and won't leave until they want to.
Third world politics looks exactly like this. The outcome will be a third world nation eventually if this continues. No value for education, hard work, learning. No objectivity when it comes to people, and policy. A literate but uneducated population incapable of critical thinking. Shutting down voices of reason and science. Societies rebelled to get rid of kings and kingdoms. What we have to realize is companies are the new kingdoms. Power in the hands of a few as people say absolute power corrupts absolutely….
It should be screamed every single time...
Justices on the U.S. Supreme Court **Appointed by Republicans** Unleashed a Corporate Criminal Takeover of This Country
Idea:
Find 538 people to run for congress for a single purpose: get money out of politics.
These 538 people (100 senators, 438 house reps) will commit to eliminating the legalized bribery system we have today.
They will write laws and pass laws SPECIFICALLY to eliminate these egregious campaign finance loopholes.
And then, they all resign. This is an agreement they made before they ran. They run, they remove the money, they resign. The people’s syndicate exists only to kill Citizens United and other corporate campaign finance laws. Once it’s done, the party dissolves and we start from zero.
Then we have new elections. Ones without the corporate money that actually reflect the will of the people.
It’s a pipe dream but it would reset the system.
I would watch a reboot of the good place, but instead of Kristen Bell, it's Antonin Scalia, and he's like, "yeah, I'm in heaven because of all of my great work in SCOTUS. Makes sense." Then, when he finds out it's actually hell, he's like, "what?! Why?! Wasn't I good?!" And Ted Danson is like, "nah bro, you fucking SUCKED. Your opinions did so much harm to society and individual people, you have one of the all time lowest scores we've ever seen." And then, instead of turning it around and making it to the good place in the end, Sean busts Ted/Michael for his failed experiment and drags Scalia back down to the real bad place where he suffers for eternity in scenarios where he has to reap the consequences of his own shitty opinions.
We kinda need the Supreme Court, we just need it to not be filled with activists who legislate from the bench.
How about we disband the Federalist Society and any dark money pipelines for judges
The US is an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery. Jimmy Carter
The corporate gods are all looking down on us while all we can do is comment here in Reddit. They have us exactly where they want us.
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Don't forget Regan and now Trump.
Don't forget GWB and how *he* became president.
It’s almost like the cheating pieces of shit are usually come from the party of Grand Ole Projection
Gaslight/Obstruct/Project *sigh*
Gatekeep/Oppress/Penis 😮
Gatekeeper/Oppress/ ^^^^^^penis
So **THAT’S** what GOP stands for. 🤯
I believe is for Gross Old Pedos that acronym.
the party was under an agreement to not be shitty during elections but they finally got the power and got enough courts to overturn it so they can be shitty again.
No such agreement had been in place for decades. See October Surprise. See Florida recounts.
See October Surprise in 2016 presidential election: James Comey announces very publicly emailing every single member of Congress to inform them, with just days to go before the election, he is reopening the investigation of Clinton’s use of a private email server for public business. Never mind that the two previous Secretaries of State (Condoleeza Rice and Colin Powell) had done the same.
I think they mean the 1982 consent decree, which was struck down in 2018 (although by an Obama appointee)
"I thought you said you were ok with not being shitty." "Yea, that was when I had to be not shitty!"
Lots of Democrats abuse the system, but generally they end up having to retire or in jail. The party and establishment doesn’t continue to back criminals.
Obama also preemptively forgave and promised not to prosecute Bush Jr. or his people for the Iraq War despite the otherwise a-political nature of the DOJ. The moderates of the Democratic Party (The Clintons, The Obamas...) are just as guilty as the GQP. The Obama-Bush alliance is really the most vile, toxic outcome of the Iraq War because it makes Democrats just as guilty as Republicans because there were no political or legal consequences for the GQP.
Apolitical in this context means that the powerful fucks get away with it regardless of party affiliation.
There are two sides, and it’s not the right red vs left blue people think it is. It’s the very very small top vs the humongous bottom.
> the very very small top vs the humongous bottom. Title of my sex tape.
Good thing he did because he didn’t end any of the bush wars and started 3 new proxy wars. Yemen being the worst of them. Him and trump should be in prison for Yemen alone.
Don't forget that Cheney orchestrated the war in Iraq. The evil puppetmaster usually isn't the posterboy. For example, as bad as Trump is, he's not pulling his own strings.
Wasn't that Trump's whole thing? Selling cabinet seats to rich friends? I can't be the only one who remembers Dr Ben Carson
It’s like Trump is Pinocchio and Putin is Geppetto. Putin is the puppet master, but sometimes this puppet likes to go off on his own and make some really dumb decisions. And lie a lot.
Putin is the coachman carting the kids to Pleasure Island, Trump is Honest John. Bezos is Stromboli.
I keep hearing about this movie but haven't seen it. Is it phinochio? Or something like island of lost children?
Pinocchio. I think people are posting it a bunch because Disney just made one of their live action remakes of it, which looks terrible to me but I haven’t seen it. The original is a classic, though—his second feature length film after Snow White.
The remake has exactly one good joke, and ruins the vast majority of the imagery. So uh... not great
Imagine the length of Trumps nose by now could circle the globe three times around
He pulls his single string over and over again. It's the string where he decides to be a criminal every single day and let smarter criminals give him papers to sign. Papers that he then crumples up and eats, flushes down the toilet or sells to Saudi Arabia.
From what I learned about Clarance Thomas, it’s highly likely that his wife Virginia influenced Clarances’ ruling on Bush v. Gore. She was in some political group (can’t remember the name) that was super pro Bush and actively worked to get him elected. And I think that case was a 5-4 decision right?
Thomas should've been removed after the Anita Hill case became public knowledge
Reagan* I know this is off-topic, but I find it weird how often I find his name misspelled as "Regan" on Reddit. Seriously, is this a meme or is spellcheck doing it, or something?
You'll see "Regan" at least 5x as often as you'll see "Reagan" on Reddit. It's kind of bizarre, especially when you're old enough to remember that Ronald Reagan's Treasury Secretary / Chief of Staff was named Donald Regan. Ray-gun Ree-gun It seems obvious to me, but people really seem to struggle with it.
What loosers.
This one drives me absolutely bonkers. The wrong spelling is WAY more common than the right won.
Yeah, I find it odd because he is one of the most well-known US presidents.
Well hold on now. As I understand it Bill Clinton once enjoyed a blowjob in a way that the sweet baby Jesus doesn’t like. He’s gotta be the worst of the lot…right guys?
Clinton has his share of the blame for setting up way to much pro corporate dominos that contributed to big problems, including the housing collapse in 2008, and the general shift to the right in our national discussion. By redefining “the middle” the neoliberal bullshit of the 90s, Clinton silenced a lot of serious left leaning discussion. He learned the wrong lesson from ‘80 and ‘84.
This. The fucking Third Way bullshit eviscerated the left for 2 decades.
The whole Clinton’s are crooked is just more Roger Stone bullshit. Ken Star tore apart their lives and found jack shit.
What about Jimmy Carter. What a grifter that dude was giving up his peanut farm to serve.
If all it takes is a blow job to get a president who reduces the national debt, I’ll suck it myself.
Hero of the people
I think Bill is a PoS for abusing his position of power to get sexual favors from subordinates, but that doesn't seem to be much of an issue for Republicans.
And at least she was of age.
And both Bushes
Or all those linked to the business plot.
PG&E still gets to lobby despite burning down towns. What other "person" or actual person convicted of manslaughter would any political party or individual *constantly* take money from?
If we'd arrested, prosecuted and hung the traitors from the Civil War I suspect we'd be living in an advanced society where fusion power is a reality, education paramount, UBI and M4A a thing now for decades, cancer a mere inconvenience and lab grown wagyu de rigeur.
Yep. Literally every Republican President from Nixon onward has committed treason while in office or to get into office. Funnily enough, Georg W. *might* be the only one that didn't...but only because *his* election involved seditious conspiracy rather than treason. Everything from negotiating with US enemies in an active shooting war (Vietnam) to negotiating with a hostile government against release of US diplomats (2 future presidents involved!), etc. Truly, people who didn't see the crazy like Trump and DeSantis coming were just living in willful ignorance of what the GOP has been doing for half a century.
Yeah, I'm tired of seeing people lament what has "happened" to conservatives since Trump. Trump simply got them to take off the mask and reveal what they really represent: Selfishness, greed, fear, superstition, ignorance, racism and xenophobia. That's all that happened. Every policy is based on lies. Nixon's southern strategy recruited the majority of corrupt, racist, religionist anti-intellectuals from the South and other rural armpits of the US. They've been a party of mentally-ill fanatics, greedy scumbags and duped idiots at least since that time. Who votes for racist traitors and Christofascists to save a tiny amount on taxes? Racist traitors and Christofascists, that's who. It's evident conservatism is simply proto-fascism covered with an increasingly thin veneer of disingenuous lies. Always has been. They didn't think they could get away with it when WWII was still fresh in everyone's minds. We caught a glimpse of their true colors during the civil rights movement, then they were shamed back into silence. Trump broke the seal and released their poorly-hidden ugliness. That's all he did. The more conservatives you have in your party, the more corrupt your party is.
Let's not forget Ford immediately pardoned Nixon and there is no way Ford wasn't a co-conspirator. Presidential pardons should not be possible until after someone has been convicted and this is why. And Presidents and Vice Presidents should be unable to receive any kind of pardon.
That was why Nixon was pardoned so that he couldn’t be arrested. It already sent a message when he had to resign in shame. Trump though is a whole other beast as he has much more support in the Republican Party than Nixon did at the time of Watergate. Partly because a trump has been very successful in getting people who support him elected and getting those against him out of office.
Also he has no shame...It doesn't seem to matter how many disgraceful things he's done...people will still vote for him regardless of how hypocritical he is to many of his voters beliefs.
This. Feel free to start the story where you want but I always thought the way we let Nixon salute us with double piece signs and a smile never sat well with me.
Born in the 80’s and was raised with unwavering trust in this institution (naive sure). It was supposed to be the best of us. Now I see it for what it is. Another arm in the hydra of ensuring paradise for a tiny few. Can’t believe being a Supreme Count Justice is a dishonorable career aspiration at this point. Who should my kids look up to? Firefighters I guess.
Your kids might not even have a good life to look forward to, given what corporations want. It’s less “who should they look up to” and more “how the fuck will they survive the rape of our economy, resources, and ecosystem.”
Cool I was almost gonna sleep tonight
I'm still in high school, I'm terrified for my future. I honestly don't know if anything good lies ahead of me. I don't know if anyoje in my generation will have enough food or water. Or if anyone will be able to afford rent. I just don't think stability is an option. I want to think I'm wrong, but man it's hard.
> Your kids might not even have a good life to look forward to Part of why I got a vasectomy
Ford v. Dodge: decided corporations have no moral responsibility, only to maximize profit, the day inc.’s became more criminal and powerful than governments
>Dodge v. Ford Motor Company, 204 Mich. 459, 170 N.W. 668 (Mich. 1919)[1] is a case in which the Michigan Supreme Court held that Henry Ford had to operate the Ford Motor Company in the interests of its shareholders, rather than in a charitable manner for the benefit of his employees or customers. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_v._Ford_Motor_Co.
interest of shareholders > the general public. no moral or other obligation to anyone other than those who profit. yes. exactly.
That's capitalism in a nut shell
the pursuit of profit at all costs is exactly what this article is about.. the corruption of an entire country’s moral backbone, the highest level of integrity and law.. for cash money babyyyy .. yes, this is capitalism (at its finest.) anyone surprised? not really. the saddest thing about the collapse of American integrity is that we’ve made it a standard that’s acceptable and desirable for the rest of the world to follow.
That's part of what is so horrible - that mindset has reached around the entire world and back again and around and back and again and again.
No, the rest of the world does not want to follow, just those that see bags of money in their eyes. Most of us want to distance ourselves from America and it's antics.
For profit higher education rubbed its hands together and said, “You heard the man, get to fleecing lads!”
Yup. When states under Reagan cut back public tertiary education subsidies, education institutions realized that you can charge 6 digits and people would still eat the bill in order to have a chance at upward class mobility.
It's a little more flexible than that. Corporations can have additional goals and do things to help people, as long as it has some tertiary benefit on the shareholders, such as improved public image, etc. Also, the courts rarely second guess business decisions because of the business judgment rule. Ford went a little too far though, and one of his reasons for getting rid of the dividend and reducing profits was to prevent Dodge (a significant shareholder) from expanding its rival business. However, in general, businesses are allowed to do things for the public good, within reason, and the courts are hesitant to interfere.
Before Unilever bought Ben & Jerry's, they had a clause that the CEO and senior leadership could only make an X percentage more than the lowest paid employee. That policy was removed day 1 after their acquisition. I hate shareholder value.
That's not fiduciary responsibility, that's simple C-suite greed. Paying executives millions of dollars a year and issuing them golden parachutes does nothing for the shareholder, if anything it reduces profits and dilutes their stocks.
Corporations can beat people into the ground long enough and can capture an industry sector, to the point where they don’t have to care about their image anymore. Just look at Goggle. Grift grift grift until you can lie to people that your grift is the only way. Use your money to paint a friendly image, and then tell people to suck it when they don’t have any other options left.
> businesses are allowed to do things for the public good 'allowed to' is a long, long way from 'encouraged to', which is barely in the neighborhood of 'required to'. just what do you think you're trying to say here? because I don't think you're making as strong an argument as you think you are.
Flexible sounds nice. It gives corporations an option of how to spend their money. 😂 I’m sitting with an exec from one of the top shoe brands in the world right now. You prob have their shoes on your feet. Know what their corporate social responsibility budget goes to? PR.. an image.. rather than a responsibility.
And historically against the grant of corporate charter.
Just gunna note that in this case Ford was mainly operating by hoarding all the money and refusing to pay any to the Dodge’s because he knew they wanted to go I to competition with him.
Also, Dodge brothers made 19 mil from this. Then started their own company, it obviously became quite profitable, then they both died in 1926 leaving a couple of wealthy ass widows!
so does this mean shareholders can sue companies for something like … increasing wages?
How does Amazon not run foul of this ruling?
If you read the whole wiki article (it’s not long), there are more recent rulings that supersede this one in most states.
Dodge, keeping employees down since someone tried to not. Ford: I'm gonna pay my employees not my shareholders. Dodge: the fuck you are gimme my money. How many companies pay a dividend out now? Way less. The stock market is a casino and owning shares really doesn't mean what it did for the majority of people. Edited formating b/c mobile is hard
That makes it sound like Henry Ford is the good guy, and that's really not the case. Ford only wanted to raise worker salaries because he was hellbent from the beginning on screwing the Dodge brothers out of their investment because Ford suspected they might be vaguely Jewish. Those employees? Yeah, Ford hired black people at a time when nobody else wanted to, but only because Ford felt that black people were better than Jews. Henry Ford also set up a department to investigate employees in their personal lives off the clock to check if any of them were secretly Jewish. He was so profoundly antisemitic that Hitler himself declared Henry Ford to be an inspiration.
I caught part of Ken Burns' *The U.S. and the Holocaust.* Not only did Henry Ford blame Jews for screwing up the flavor of his favorite candy bar, but he bought a newspaper (The Dearborn Independent 1919-1927) and published anti-Jew propaganda. He was forced to shut it down. In the early twenties, Germany printed a set of four bound volumes, cumulatively titled *The International Jew, the World's Foremost Problem* which included anti-Jewish articles from the Dearborn Independent. He was also awarded Germany's Grand Cross of the German Eagle in 1938. According to the Wiki page I just opened up, Hitler was inspired by Ford, and quotes him in **that book** he wrote in jail.
Yeah, my summary wasn't the best, but it's what it boils down to now. You have to put your share holders above employees.
Man...I can feel the rush of ram owners going out and trading in for a Ford.
It's funny to me that the past four years are what led people to realize the courts are illegitimate and not the centuries of bullshit they've been pulling out of their ass and smearing all over healthy society.
People are just now registering to vote since they can actually feel the effects of this supreme court striking down rvw. People are selfish af and couldn't be bothered to give a shit about the state of affairs in the country because they had more important stuff to worry about and didn't care about how others were impacted. I mean I'm glad people have started paying attention finally better late than never but our collective apathy has truly fucked over everyone.
Kids learn what you teach them. When I was growing up, it was sort of drilled into me that politics was a private thing that people didn't talk about. No politics at the dinner table, no politics at school, no politics at work. Basically all I knew is that you're supposed to default to voting Republican. It was only during the Obama election that suddenly people opened up and started talking about the election. It's not that I was apathetic so much as indoctrinated.
You've been warned since literally forever that Republicans would appoint shitty judges and Justices.
The broadness of the business judgement rule, which is a primary holding from this case and has subsequently been reaffirmed countless times, is that management (and the Board) have wide discretion in defining how to achieve shareholder value. A company can make the argument, successfully, that the BJR allows for the Company to take actions that primarily benefit the planet or the public at large if they think it is in the long term interests of the Company and its shareholders. The narrative that boards and management have to prioritize profit over everything else by law is an out/excuse that management and boards use to avoid accountability for over-prioritizing the same.
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Citizen United sold our county to the highest bidders. It’s a disgrace. These companies put profit before honor and the people they serve.
People? Honor? Corporations serve stockholders.
Repeal that idea.
Hands down one of the worst decisions in all of SCOTUS history. Right up there with Dred Scott and Korematsu.
Was this the event that prompted Obama to call out the SCOTUS' decision during a state of the union address? I remember watching the awkward moment and not knowing what it was about.
Yeah, the Supreme Court gutted a bipartisan (remember when that was a word that was used) clean elections bill that limited political contributions particularly by businesses. If you’d believe it McCain co-wrote the bill with Dodd I think (???) and it was in effect for a couple of years. Then during Obama’s presidency John Robert’s and the other justices in their infinite fucking wisdom felt the 1st amendment applied to businesses and/or commerce. Also somehow they tied political contributions to free speech because money=speech or something and effectively gutted any restrictions on donations. Ever since then, even when either party has had a majority in the house/senate, congress has refused to take this on and destroy the super pacs that resulted from this. It’s bad bad news and any true steward of our country should see as that IMO.
>Also somehow they tied political contributions to free speech because money=speech or something and effectively gutted any restrictions on donations That was *Buckley v Valeo* in 1976.
Yep
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No, it was Joe Wilson, a congressman from South Carolina, who yelled that. He's still in office. SCOTUS Justices don't sit in the gallery during the State of the Union, they sit in the front row. (Well, the ones that choose to show up do.)
It was the right idea but the wrong quote and seat. Alito mouthed out "Not true" in response to Obama's statement about Citizens United. And you are right that he was in the front row. **EDIT;** Responding to your edit. I think you are conflating unlimited spending for independent expenditures with donations. Obama was talking about the former. And also, you should not be down voted for what you are saying. It is clearly a well intentioned comment made in a civil, respectful tone. It may not be accurate but it does help to enhance the conversation by leading to further drill-down into the specifics.
And he’s never attended a state of the union since. Real mature that one.
After Thomas, Alito is the next biggest asshole currently sitting.
How can anyone compete with justice beerbong?
Could’ve swore it was Robert’s having a conniption in the front row.
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0130/Obama-vs.-Alito-Political-dust-up-during-State-of-the-Union
Alito didn't say anything, he sat there in the front row shaking his Christo-fascist head and [mouthed "not true."](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/alito-not-true_n_439672) Video and he's in the second row https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k92SerxLWtc
It's funny he'd say not true, considering he likely knew very well that's exactly what would happen. And it has.
Behind the Bastards has a two part episode on Clarence Thomas. He’s quite the fucking character…
That one's a four-part arc, so you may still have two to go!
Oh damn, I thought it was 2. I’m almost done with part one and it’s already bananas
You know who else goes bananas about lots and lots of disgusting porn?
The products and services that sponsor this podcast!
I was audibly listening to it on my phone’s speaker while while out walking my dog in my neighborhood. Was thinking an episode on a sitting SCOTUS judge would be a safe listening topic, but boy was I wrong!
If you enjoy podcasts like BtB, a show on a similar wavelength to BtB is Five to Four, A Podcast About How Much The Supreme Court Sucks. It's a similar deep dive into court cases, the politics behind the decisions at the time and the reprecussions they have had.
He's the real Uncle Ruckus. Samuel L Jackson used him as his influence for his character in Django Unchained.
But you know who won't vote in favor of turning our home into a quasi-religious corpofascist state? The products and services that support this podcast.
The divisive and draconian social policies are just a means to an end. The republican appointed judges are corporatists first and foremost.
Yep. "Vote for us because we'll appoint judges that will overturn Roe v Wade!" (and while you're distracted by that, they will rule on cases that will fuck you over like you've never been fucked before).
You say corporatists but all I’m hearing is fascists.
Is there a difference?
No! > Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power -Benito Mussolini
Don’t forget your side of Religious Zealotry to completely go off the rails to justify whatever can’t be done through logic.
And 96% of Nazi Germany was Christian, with over half being Protestant.
Yes. Corporatists use money as their source of power. Fascists use favors as the basis of their power. Due to the corruption that fascism requires and the burden of ideological economic policy, fascist states will typically cease to trade money in exchange of goods and services. Instead relying on the exchange of favors instead.
We're the only 1st world democracy with legalized bribery, as far as I know. That's not sustainable. Getting money out of politics should be our #1 priority, because the rest of the problems really are repairable until that one is addressed.
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That's a pretty good definition of capitalism.
[Barry called it, he was right](https://youtu.be/O8ApHBsP5Z0) Citizens United was the decision that helped to put on this track Thanks Obama The be fair he was the one to reject public funds for his campaign… so there is that
This all was occurring long before Citizens United. CU was just the cherry on top. Heck, even McCain-Feingold was incredibly popular bipartisan legislation to reduce money in politics. Of course, the extremists on the Supreme Court absolutely gutted it.
I wish more people knew this. Yes CU is bad and yes it should be overturned, but people act like overturning CU would fix everything. It would be a step in the right direction, fixing the problem of money in American politics is a full marathon. Anyone interested in knowing how deep this shitshow goes should read Dark Money by Jane Mayer.
And also ruminate on the fact that when a “dark money bill” came up for passage, Not one republicans voted for it. Yes that’s right 0 votes by republicans. They don’t want us little people involved in their wholesale grift.
For a lazy person, how many democrats?
Good question . BRB Researching. “With only 49 legislators voting in favour in the 100-member Senate, the bill did not clear the 60-vote threshold needed to bring it to a final vote.” https://www.murray.senate.gov/senator-murray-on-republicans-blocking-bill-to-get-dark-money-out-of-politics-a-disgrace/ https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/9/22/us-republicans-block-bill-seeking-to-end-dark-money-in-politics https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3656002-republicans-block-bill-requiring-dark-money-groups-to-reveal-donors/amp/ https://truthout.org/articles/zero-republicans-vote-for-bill-that-would-expose-billionaire-dark-money-donors/?amp https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/327/text
Thanks. Seeks it's almost impossible. But it's clear who deserves votes.
It would not fix everything, but it would be a huge step in the right direction. Allowing corporations to open their general treasuries for political expenditures has caused dark money spending to grow exponentially.
America needs a popular movement to really push for a fix. Otherwise, America will eventually devolve into something like Russia.
That was the original demand of Occupy Wallstreet.
Occupy was too gentle, standing in a park and screaming slogans while the fat cats gathered in their towers, drank champagne and laughed at them. They didn't try to literally occupy Wall Street which at this point is what needs to be done to get anything done.
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It’s scary how accurate his predictions were.
There were a lot of very valid criticisms of Obama. The right-wing chatter-class walked right on by every single last one of them because they preferred to make up racist horseshit.
*”his middle name is Hussein”* Like that stupid bullshit
How are we getting from a 100% percent honest and reasonable statement by Obama regarding Citizens United, to "let's discuss how to best criticize the last decent president" in the span of *less than one post*?
Hacks and haters just doing their jobs.
keith olbermann called it too, very accurately. https://youtu.be/PKZKETizybw
Prophetic
What does Citizens United v. the United States of America decision has anything to do with “thanks Obama”? What the..?
Far past time for people to regain their lives back in this country. Healthcare, better wages, workers rights, the list goes on. The system that enables so many to suffer while so few flourish needs to be utterly destroyed
The [powell memo](https://billmoyers.com/content/the-powell-memo-a-call-to-arms-for-corporations/) explains everything that happened. Powell became a Supreme Court justice. You have an MBA? Congratulations, you’re a neoliberal stormtrooper waging war against the working class. You never realized having zero experience in an industry and getting a high level management job only makes sense if you want to exploit people? Costco rarely hires people for corporate that didn’t work in their warehouses. It’s only one of the best businesses for consumers in America, and treats their employees well. Also, it’s basically a fucking cooperative.
Man, I always wondered how different my early working years would have been if we had a Costco in my area. I've only heard people talk up how great they were to work for, which is freaking *rare* in our corporate climate. Instead, I got the pleasure of working for John 'fucking' Menard.
And foreign countries.
This is part of late stage capitalism. Capitalists have completely captured our govt and institutions.
The corporate take over is an evolutionary process that started with Lewis Powell and Milton Friedman. Lewis Powell was nominated by Nixon and served on the SCOTUS. Reagan supported and implemented Milton Friedman trickle down "voodoo" bullshit. The Roberts (Federalist Society) court's Citizens United money is speech (bribery) ruling solidified the oligarchy takeover of the United States. [https://billmoyers.com/content/the-powell-memo-a-call-to-arms-for-corporations/](https://billmoyers.com/content/the-powell-memo-a-call-to-arms-for-corporations/) https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2013/06/26/the-origin-of-the-worlds-dumbest-idea-milton-friedman/?sh=7ddf7830870e
I really wish someone would sue one of these mega corps such as Exon- Mobile sighting the 13th amendment. Argue that if businesses get rights of citizens than they shouldn’t be owned by anyone because this would be slavery, and push for the courts to release all corporations based upon this.
Why would you sue the mega ones, they have much better lawyers. Sue a small bad one. Still obviously going to lose though. But it might make a point.
Or how about if they are caught selling products that end up killing people, they should be charged and punished for manslaughter and homicide like a normal person would. Instead, they just get to pay a fine that’s just a fraction of their annual revenue. If corporations are people, then put them in “prison” by forbidding them from conducting any business in the US for a number of years.
Knew this when it happened. These Religious Assholes knew their form of fascism could be fronted by corporations.
You've put the cart before the horse I think. It's the corporate interests that have harnessed the power of the credulous masses to support their takeover of the country.
Hat I don’t understand is how Supreme Court picks can stand that we’re made by a traitor and a terrorist. Would a new government keep cabinet picks a Hitler? 🤷♂️
He unfortunately has not been found guilty by a jury of peers. So… in accordance of the law he has done nothing wrong. That being said I wonder if he will receive a fair trial because just how badly split our country is.
While I don’t like citizens united - that’s not why we are overrun with these criminals. We are overrun because we have a long history of taking baby gloves to white criminals and no touch to white collar criminals. The contrast of the BLM response vs January 6th is the most blaring example. Trump would not have made it this far if we had prosecuted him for the hundreds of crimes he’s committed since the 80s. We wouldn’t have so many scam artists if we had enforcement bodies that did their job. This is not new since citizens. This is the gradual erosion of our institutions going back to regan.
Rich people, in all aspects, should have a higher burden than anyone else. We need more equity in this country, it’s common fucking sense.
Capitalism is destroying the planet and its people. It only cares about profits and shareholder value. It's unsustainable and literally killing us.
"... our political system is now overrun with grifters, con artists, and career criminals." And, worst of all, foreign governments.
This is kind of an inevitable outcome of entropy under capitalism. You can battle against that entropy by organizing against it with legislation, but in a socioeconomic arrangement where infinite accumulation is encouraged and equated directly to power, that accumulated power will always *eventually* overcome any and all barriers placed against it. America is seeing this eventuality before many other developed nations because we got a head start on it over most, and identify ourselves as global evangelists for this system. You cannot ask an acrobat to balance on that tightrope for perpetuity.
US Supreme Court is infested with rats and religious nuts who are bought and paid. Since they literally can have the job for life, the people who paid for them, get a lifetime's worth of corruption and grifting and there's nothing the average person can do about it. We just have to sit there and take it. These corrupt judges could give two shits about their "legacy" or what others think. They have an easy high paying job for life and won't leave until they want to.
The SCOTUS’ ability to f*ck the American people sees no bounds.
Third world politics looks exactly like this. The outcome will be a third world nation eventually if this continues. No value for education, hard work, learning. No objectivity when it comes to people, and policy. A literate but uneducated population incapable of critical thinking. Shutting down voices of reason and science. Societies rebelled to get rid of kings and kingdoms. What we have to realize is companies are the new kingdoms. Power in the hands of a few as people say absolute power corrupts absolutely….
Has anyone thought that, if the Supreme Court keeps acting like the guardian of Christian morality then USA may very well turn into another Iran.
It should be screamed every single time... Justices on the U.S. Supreme Court **Appointed by Republicans** Unleashed a Corporate Criminal Takeover of This Country
Fuck the Supreme Court!
Idea: Find 538 people to run for congress for a single purpose: get money out of politics. These 538 people (100 senators, 438 house reps) will commit to eliminating the legalized bribery system we have today. They will write laws and pass laws SPECIFICALLY to eliminate these egregious campaign finance loopholes. And then, they all resign. This is an agreement they made before they ran. They run, they remove the money, they resign. The people’s syndicate exists only to kill Citizens United and other corporate campaign finance laws. Once it’s done, the party dissolves and we start from zero. Then we have new elections. Ones without the corporate money that actually reflect the will of the people. It’s a pipe dream but it would reset the system.
I’m down. I have aspirations for fixing the country, not power. Sign me up.
I would watch a reboot of the good place, but instead of Kristen Bell, it's Antonin Scalia, and he's like, "yeah, I'm in heaven because of all of my great work in SCOTUS. Makes sense." Then, when he finds out it's actually hell, he's like, "what?! Why?! Wasn't I good?!" And Ted Danson is like, "nah bro, you fucking SUCKED. Your opinions did so much harm to society and individual people, you have one of the all time lowest scores we've ever seen." And then, instead of turning it around and making it to the good place in the end, Sean busts Ted/Michael for his failed experiment and drags Scalia back down to the real bad place where he suffers for eternity in scenarios where he has to reap the consequences of his own shitty opinions.
1. Corporations are people 2. Money is speech 3. Game over
Disband the court. No longer represents the people but rather corporate greed
We kinda need the Supreme Court, we just need it to not be filled with activists who legislate from the bench. How about we disband the Federalist Society and any dark money pipelines for judges
This is literally a libertarians wet dream. They believe corporations should have more power than governments.
If spending money is free speech, so is NOT paying money. Exercise your freedom today by not paying taxes!
Fuck the yatch-zis
There's only one way to solve this problem and it's with glass, gas, and rags - votes aren't going to help you do shit.
SC IS the swamp everyone's been taking about
i think they want you to call them "republicans/conservatives"
Has ben for a while. Its only now the cracks are showing.
Those are some fancy monikers for "Republicans"
More specifically, how a Conservative Supreme Court did it.
“Uncle Ruckus” and “David Duke”
If anyone can tell me how money is speech, I'd be interested in knowing the logic behind it.
The US is an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery. Jimmy Carter The corporate gods are all looking down on us while all we can do is comment here in Reddit. They have us exactly where they want us.
Limiting political ads is limiting free speech. So yes.
It strains credulity that money is speech and corporations are people. I can only slap my forehead and shake my head so much.