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[Royal☭]

So yesterday, the Supreme Court took the biggest blow to our democracy that has ever been waged.  In a 5-4 party line ruling, they struck down over 100 years of corporate campaign finance reform.  This is law that's been going since Teddy Roosevelt's anti-trust days.  Now corporations are free to spend as much on electioneering as they want with no oversite or regulation.  Corporations that have several billion dollars just lying around that they can throw at political candidates are supportive of their agendas.

Now, the same also applies to labor union but I'm not even going to pretend that labor unions can match that kind of spending.  This ruling basically insures that when election time comes around, whoever is most friendly to a corporation won't have to worry about lifting a finger to get donations.  It's gross, it's outrageous, and it seems like the twilight of America has come and gone.

[Mothra]

So yesterday, the Supreme Court took the biggest blow to our democracy that has ever been waged.  In a 5-4 party line ruling, they struck down over 100 years of corporate campaign finance reform.  This is law that's been going since Teddy Roosevelt's anti-trust days.  Now corporations are free to spend as much on electioneering as they want with no oversite or regulation.  Corporations that have several billion dollars just lying around that they can throw at political candidates are supportive of their agendas.

Now, the same also applies to labor union but I'm not even going to pretend that labor unions can match that kind of spending.  This ruling basically insures that when election time comes around, whoever is most friendly to a corporation won't have to worry about lifting a finger to get donations.  It's gross, it's outrageous, and it seems like the twilight of America has come and gone.

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucccccccccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

[yyler]

I don't even know, like, how America can ever come back from that. I should move to Northern Europe.

[Norondor]

Yeah, we're done here.

[Mongrel]

Saw that. Wasn't happy.

This is easily on par with (or much worse than) the Glass-Steagal repeal.

[PhilosopherDirtbike]

Time to break out my old Shadowrun books and start studying in preperation for the America of tomorrow.

[McDohl]

So, SCOTUS is completely, totally infallible?  Nobody can say, "Hey, hey, hey, whoa.  What the fuck?"

[Brentai]

I don't know what you guys are talking about, this is perfect.  With any luck corporate America will drive itself into the ground trying to match dollars against each other, and after that we can go ahead and rebuild from the ashes.

[Burrito Al Pastor]

I wasn't aware that there were limits on how much money corporations could give to campaigns. I'm not sure how much of a difference I'll notice.

And to be perfectly fair to SCOTUS, it's actually a quite sensible ruling, in the context of the idea that corporations are people, too. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find somebody who agrees with the general body of precedent regarding corporations as people but disagrees with this particular ruling.

So, SCOTUS is completely, totally infallible?  Nobody can say, "Hey, hey, hey, whoa.  What the fuck?"

Of course not! The Founding Fathers had contingency plans for everything. SCOTUS can revisit their previous verdicts and change them (although obviously a few judges have to tag in before that's plausible), and of course Congress can always pass constitutional amendments to make whatever was unconstitutional constitutional. So all you need to do is write to your elected representatives and explain to them that it's very important that they try and get two-thirds of their peers to agree to not take great big stacks of cash from corporations!

[Thad]

I don't know what you guys are talking about, this is perfect.  With any luck corporate America will drive itself into the ground trying to match dollars against each other, and after that we can go ahead and rebuild from the ashes.

You're assuming they're actually competing with each other instead of colluding with each other.

And to be perfectly fair to SCOTUS, it's actually a quite sensible ruling, in the context of the idea that corporations are people, too.

Right, it's the perfectly logical conclusion of a BATSHIT FUCKING CRAZY premise.

Garbage in, garbage out.

I think you'd be hard-pressed to find somebody who agrees with the general body of precedent regarding corporations as people but disagrees with this particular ruling.

Unless they think "people with more money are entitled to more freedom of speech" is an insane premise.

...which, I suppose, if they think corporations are people, they probably don't.  Fair enough.




...was going to admonish Catloaf for his post, but fuck it, big red letters + vague references to assassination of people he disagrees with politically = go directly to jail.

[Royal☭]

Obama to "freeze" federal spending


































Remember when people were saying 2010 couldn't possibly be worse than 2009?  We're not even out of January yet!

[Disposable Ninja]

Well... uh... shit.

Ummmmm...

Well, at the very least I'm looking forward to watching all the conservative pundits' heads explode.

[Detonator]

Well, at the very least I'm looking forward to watching all the conservative pundits' heads explode.

you really think that, huh?

[Disposable Ninja]

... no.

There isn't an emoticon for uncontrollable sobbing.

[Doom]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSNeL0QYfqo

[AČ]

...
....can someone tell me if this means I will not get my disability check or not?

And if the answer is no, listen for the loud FUCK coming from the northwest US.

[Brentai]

I suppose we should just agree to expect large swear words in a topic titled "America is Fucked".

You're assuming they're actually competing with each other instead of colluding with each other.

Some of them are, but I have faith in the theory that as long as at least two rich people are alive, at least two rich people are going to try and screw each other at some point.

[Brentai]

Oh, they tacked an update to that post for you, Lyrai.

The administration insist that important programs will be kept alive and functioning, and that funding for, say, education initiatives will rise, while funding for other programs will decline -- and that the president's priorities will be well-funded.  The freeze is irrelevant to health care because medicare, medicaid and taxes are all mandatory. So too are many of the programs for the neediest, such as unemployment insurance and Pell Grants.  And many of the other programs were plussed up recently so the White House is freezing them at a very high level.

Which basically sounds like "No New Taxes" but whatever, bottom line is he's not shutting off the valve to "necessary" services which I am inclined to assume includes disability.  So calm down.

[Shinra]

If they do shut down disability payments I will be the only person in this house of four adults with an income.

Provided I find a job before this takes effect.

[Royal☭]

The issue here is that government spending currently makes up a large portion of GDP.  It's basically acting as the finger in the dikd to keep things from getting worse.  But since Obama is listening to these brain dead idiots who suddenly find themselves caring about the deficit after 8 years of total silence, we stand a good chance of this recession getting much worse.

All this time we were wondering if Obama would be a Clinton or a Carter.  Who knew he'd throw a curveball and become a Hoover?