In every election cycle since the 2010 Citizens United ruling, the influence of billionaires and corporate interests has increased, muting the voices of regular voters.
While I agree that much of the blame should rest on Roberts and the billionaires, in the end most of the blame lies with ill- and uninformed voters and, especially, all those millions of non-voters.
Just in my circle of relatives, friends and acquaintances, there are several well-informed moaners and groaners about politics who did not vote or voted for third-party candidates whom they fully well knew had not chance whatsoever.
Just look at the hundreds of thousands who voted for RFK Jr. even though he dropped out before the election!
I think both political parties have failed American citizens. We knew back in the 70s that our system was moving towards choosing poorer overall candidates. The 2024 election had to be the peak disastrous year for candidate choices of both major parties. My first reaction after Harris was chosen, after an enormous sense of disappointment, was Shakespearean: A pox on both your houses!
We can only hope that the amount of attention being brought to bear on this contest really lights a fire under the sane voters of Wisconsin. And that we see really serious campaign finance reform in our lifetimes.
SCOTUS protected the corporation’s “freedom of speech” by allowing them to drown out the speech of citizens. It’s shocking that the inordinate rights of an organization outweigh actual humans.
I will view businesses and corporations as individuals when they have to pay the same levels of income tax that I do, and don't get to take advantage of loopholes that I can't. Until then, they are not people. The Supreme Court was wrong.
They get the rights of people but not the responsibilities…and of course tax benefits and legal protections. The “corporate veil” needs some serious transparency. Personal accountability at executive level for “corporate decisions,” limits to political donations direct and indirect, taxed at same rate as citizens, and no nested ownership where we have no idea who owns what and where compensation/profits go (off shore). They act criminally and without responsibility or as contributing citizens and deserve oversight they have brought on themselves.
I sympathize. But companies can be criminally charged, and corporate leaders have gone to prison.
That decision has gotten us to a place where corruption seems inevitable and certainly the appearance of corruption is a real problem. Plus, with Trump, we now know that 26 billionaires were able to fund 43% of Trump’s total donations. You think those people (and their businesses) don’t have special access to Trump? Heck, one of them almost got a top secret private briefing on our strategies vis a vis China. It’s beyond corruption.
"But companies can be criminally charged, and corporate leaders have gone to prison."
Not nearly enough of either actions have taken place to serve the rest of them as examples, and fines levied against them are chump change to their operations. They can even likely be deducted as a "cost of doing business".
I am wondering why Musk isn’t being prosecuted under Wisconsin laws. It’s my understanding that offering payments to voters is a felony. We all understand that Trump’s DOJ isn’t going to prosecute.
Yes paying people for registering to vote as well as paying people to vote is illegal with $10,000 fine and or 5 years in prison or both and that goes for the receiver of the funds too.
What Elon is offering is money to sign a petition that says you pledge your support for the First and Second Amendment. But here's the fishy part, you have to be registered to vote to qualify for the money and you have to sign the petition, if however you are not registered you must register and then sign the petitions. On it's face it looks like he is paying people to register to vote except for the damn petition, you have to sign the petition to get the money and that is not illegal.
I think you are naive to believe there is no harm and no foul because it is not obvious to you. The optics are pretty clear, the minute you accept the money you become a participant in the scheme do you not? You become a participant in the attempt to undermine your country's democracy. You are taking the money from a person who you know fully intends to undermine our democracy and you do it anyway.
And I don’t play that, ”it’s ok because in the voting booth no one really knows how you vote.”ok. What I know is that these people are making a conscious choice to take that $47 and that makes them corruptible ok? Elon may not be successful this time around but because they took the money they have helped him to lay the groundwork for next time haven’t they? He knows as well as I do, if these Americans have willingly lined up like pigs at the trough once, they will do it again. There are people who are bought and paid for every day but what we have never witnessed, is our fellow Americans surrender their dignity and our democracy at such a bargain price.
I was not always informed about political issues: I was a literary person with an interest in wildlife. Then there was Trump. Then there was the invasion of Ukraine. Now, I’m totally incensed that Democrats didn’t pull out all the stops to overturn Citizens United or push through the ERA. Grrr.
Citizens United, which was bipartisan was overturned by a 5-4 Supreme Court. Too many voters did not comprehend that when you put Republicans in charge of the Senate and the presidency, you get justices who reflect their desire to hold onto power by any means. BTW, Mitch McConnell was a major mover behind the Citizens United lawsuit.
Now that would really hit Musk in the heart. His number one dream in life is to put a human colony on Mars. Space X is how he hopes to do it. He eliminated or fired all the regulating agencies (who’d gone after his companies’ numerous violations) but is also getting insider access to new contracts without competing for them, like everyone else. By gutting large programs, like Social Security, etc., Musk wants to make sure there is enough cash to get American taxpayers to pay for his ambition. I say, hell no.
This is straight out of Tammany Hall! Can't Wisconsin's AG charge Musk with bribery now (AKA "drowning out the voices of voters")? This is the first cousin to "the Doge Dividend".
Sure, fine. A tiny light in the darkness. Except that NO ONE seems to care that over half of Americans are having their rights violently abrogated all over the country. Democrats and the media need to pay attention and speak out.
They're Arresting Us for Miscarriages Now
"The 24-year-old—found bleeding and unconscious outside her apartment complex—was charged with ‘concealing a death’ and ‘abandoning a dead body’ after placing fetal remains in the trash.
~
Georgia has no law dictating how to dispose of miscarriage remains, but police arrested her anyway. Her mugshot is already splashed across the local crime pages. Did you know that one million American women miscarry every year? I hope the cops are ready to run out of film.
~
While this young woman sat behind bars, Georgia lawmakers considered a bill that would lock up even more women: The Prenatal Equal Protection Act (HB 441) would charge abortion patients as murderers—a crime punishable by life in prison or the death penalty.
~
After arresting and jailing the young woman in Georgia, Tifton police subjected her to one more indignity—they sent the remains of her miscarriage for an ‘autopsy’. Even after the results showed she’d lost the pregnancy naturally, the county prosecutor stood by the charges.
~
You wouldn’t know it from looking at the headlines. From the Associated Press to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, HB 441 is being covered as a “total abortion ban” rather than a radical step toward punishing women.
~
Fertility doctors could also be jailed for life; under HB 441, discarding frozen embryos would be a criminal offense. Fertility specialist Dr. Karenne Fru asked lawmakers at a Thursday hearing, “Am I guilty of murder? That makes me a serial killer.”
~
This isn’t an issue of a single extremist state. The legislation in Georgia is one of eleven ‘equal protection’ bills that have been introduced across the country since the start of the year. All of them seek to punish women who have abortions. The rest of us, of course, remain suspect: An Idaho legislator explained to a reporter last month that his ‘equal protection’ bill would allow for the investigation of miscarriages.
~
We’re barely three years out from the end of Roe. Still think feminists are ‘hysterical’?"
And hardly a peep from the MSM, or the Contrarian. For shame. Why does the persecution of innocent Venezuelan men (however heinous that it is) rate higher media coverage than the violent subjugation of the more than half the US population that is female?? Women are being stripped of their rights and dignity as we speak.
One of the fundamental international legal definitions of a slave is a person who has no bodily autonomy, usually due to the official actions of a government. American women now have the legal status of sexual slaves and it is only going to get worse.
We need to hear from Jessica Valenti on the Contrarian. Please make that happen, Jen & Norm. If this doesn’t enrage all of us, there’s no hope after all.
The Supreme Court helped to wreck elections with the disastrous 2010 Citizens United decision. Congressional members have surely profited from the generous donations that it spawned. Apparently money overrides honor, integrity, and ethics. They should still pass legislation to nullify it.
Even as I write this, my husband is doing a phone back with Indivisible for Susan Crawford. It's not going well, from what I overhear. I wrote letters to voters through Vote Forward. We have been donating monthly, but, needless to say, we don't have even 1% of Musk's capital. We lost two fundamental protections of fair elections: Citizens United, in which money rules, and the Fairness Doctrine, killed by Reagan, that allowed balance in political advertisements. The grotesque ads put out by the rethugs during the last election tell us all we need to know about swaying feeble and even average minds.
Publicly financed elections would level the playing field.
Political reps would not have to spend the majority of their term seeking huge contributions from wealthy donors so they can afford to get re-elected.
They would not have to be under a tacit "quid pro quo" agreement to carefully review all legislative designs and desires from their biggest contributors.
With no campaign contributions beyond the public subsidy allowed, they would be freed to represent THEIR CONSTITUENTS.
Other countries do this. We can, too.
But we would have to get Citizens United overturned, which would be a heavy lift.
We must end Citizens United.
Right on
While I agree that much of the blame should rest on Roberts and the billionaires, in the end most of the blame lies with ill- and uninformed voters and, especially, all those millions of non-voters.
Just in my circle of relatives, friends and acquaintances, there are several well-informed moaners and groaners about politics who did not vote or voted for third-party candidates whom they fully well knew had not chance whatsoever.
Just look at the hundreds of thousands who voted for RFK Jr. even though he dropped out before the election!
I think both political parties have failed American citizens. We knew back in the 70s that our system was moving towards choosing poorer overall candidates. The 2024 election had to be the peak disastrous year for candidate choices of both major parties. My first reaction after Harris was chosen, after an enormous sense of disappointment, was Shakespearean: A pox on both your houses!
We can only hope that the amount of attention being brought to bear on this contest really lights a fire under the sane voters of Wisconsin. And that we see really serious campaign finance reform in our lifetimes.
SCOTUS protected the corporation’s “freedom of speech” by allowing them to drown out the speech of citizens. It’s shocking that the inordinate rights of an organization outweigh actual humans.
I will view businesses and corporations as individuals when they have to pay the same levels of income tax that I do, and don't get to take advantage of loopholes that I can't. Until then, they are not people. The Supreme Court was wrong.
I will view corporations as individuals when one is sentenced to death for its crimes.
How about just holding them liable to begin with? We've seen far too often that they get to skate, or are fined so minimally that it's a joke.
My former employer, Arthur Andersen & Co., was actually killed, in effect, and their conviction was even overturned by the Supreme Court.
They get the rights of people but not the responsibilities…and of course tax benefits and legal protections. The “corporate veil” needs some serious transparency. Personal accountability at executive level for “corporate decisions,” limits to political donations direct and indirect, taxed at same rate as citizens, and no nested ownership where we have no idea who owns what and where compensation/profits go (off shore). They act criminally and without responsibility or as contributing citizens and deserve oversight they have brought on themselves.
Hear hear, and well said, though they haven't brought enough oversight upon themselves as they have bought the exemptions that they don't deserve.
I sympathize. But companies can be criminally charged, and corporate leaders have gone to prison.
That decision has gotten us to a place where corruption seems inevitable and certainly the appearance of corruption is a real problem. Plus, with Trump, we now know that 26 billionaires were able to fund 43% of Trump’s total donations. You think those people (and their businesses) don’t have special access to Trump? Heck, one of them almost got a top secret private briefing on our strategies vis a vis China. It’s beyond corruption.
"But companies can be criminally charged, and corporate leaders have gone to prison."
Not nearly enough of either actions have taken place to serve the rest of them as examples, and fines levied against them are chump change to their operations. They can even likely be deducted as a "cost of doing business".
I am wondering why Musk isn’t being prosecuted under Wisconsin laws. It’s my understanding that offering payments to voters is a felony. We all understand that Trump’s DOJ isn’t going to prosecute.
Yes paying people for registering to vote as well as paying people to vote is illegal with $10,000 fine and or 5 years in prison or both and that goes for the receiver of the funds too.
What Elon is offering is money to sign a petition that says you pledge your support for the First and Second Amendment. But here's the fishy part, you have to be registered to vote to qualify for the money and you have to sign the petition, if however you are not registered you must register and then sign the petitions. On it's face it looks like he is paying people to register to vote except for the damn petition, you have to sign the petition to get the money and that is not illegal.
I just saw where Rachel Maddow is reporting Wisconsin is suing Elon. Fingers crossed for Wisconsin.
I think that didn’t work.
But regardless of whether or not the sign the petition or register to vote and sign the petition, they will be alone in the voting booth.
One can only buy your vote if you let them.
I think you are naive to believe there is no harm and no foul because it is not obvious to you. The optics are pretty clear, the minute you accept the money you become a participant in the scheme do you not? You become a participant in the attempt to undermine your country's democracy. You are taking the money from a person who you know fully intends to undermine our democracy and you do it anyway.
And I don’t play that, ”it’s ok because in the voting booth no one really knows how you vote.”ok. What I know is that these people are making a conscious choice to take that $47 and that makes them corruptible ok? Elon may not be successful this time around but because they took the money they have helped him to lay the groundwork for next time haven’t they? He knows as well as I do, if these Americans have willingly lined up like pigs at the trough once, they will do it again. There are people who are bought and paid for every day but what we have never witnessed, is our fellow Americans surrender their dignity and our democracy at such a bargain price.
There will always be people desperate enough for money at this point, to do anything for the cash. Musk needs to be arrested and deported
It's technicalities like this that wreck the system of fair and equitable elections. The influencers and manipulators like to play on the edges.
Attorney General Josh Kaul has hit roadblocks but has not given up. Here's the latest - https://youtu.be/iIIsIlnkaTw?si=i5LpjsOp401yvEU0
why not sign and donate the $ to Susan Crawford's campaign?
(and donate (what's left of) your Tesla stock to Planned Parenthood?
I donated to her campaign. It feels like the Widow's Mite, given Elon's money dump of millions he will not even miss, but we have to cultivate hope.
I was not always informed about political issues: I was a literary person with an interest in wildlife. Then there was Trump. Then there was the invasion of Ukraine. Now, I’m totally incensed that Democrats didn’t pull out all the stops to overturn Citizens United or push through the ERA. Grrr.
Citizens United, which was bipartisan was overturned by a 5-4 Supreme Court. Too many voters did not comprehend that when you put Republicans in charge of the Senate and the presidency, you get justices who reflect their desire to hold onto power by any means. BTW, Mitch McConnell was a major mover behind the Citizens United lawsuit.
And the sad thing is desperate Americans will take money from anyone who gives it to them.
not only desperate Americans. Greed is a universal malady in the US
Money IS the root of all Trump/Musk/Miller’s EVIL.
There's a fair amount of cruelty and lack of empathy for people too.
Space X must be nationalized. Now!
Now that would really hit Musk in the heart. His number one dream in life is to put a human colony on Mars. Space X is how he hopes to do it. He eliminated or fired all the regulating agencies (who’d gone after his companies’ numerous violations) but is also getting insider access to new contracts without competing for them, like everyone else. By gutting large programs, like Social Security, etc., Musk wants to make sure there is enough cash to get American taxpayers to pay for his ambition. I say, hell no.
No telling who Musk might owe royalties to.
Musk and Trump both should be in jail. They’ve both committed crimes.
This is straight out of Tammany Hall! Can't Wisconsin's AG charge Musk with bribery now (AKA "drowning out the voices of voters")? This is the first cousin to "the Doge Dividend".
Sure, fine. A tiny light in the darkness. Except that NO ONE seems to care that over half of Americans are having their rights violently abrogated all over the country. Democrats and the media need to pay attention and speak out.
They're Arresting Us for Miscarriages Now
"The 24-year-old—found bleeding and unconscious outside her apartment complex—was charged with ‘concealing a death’ and ‘abandoning a dead body’ after placing fetal remains in the trash.
~
Georgia has no law dictating how to dispose of miscarriage remains, but police arrested her anyway. Her mugshot is already splashed across the local crime pages. Did you know that one million American women miscarry every year? I hope the cops are ready to run out of film.
~
While this young woman sat behind bars, Georgia lawmakers considered a bill that would lock up even more women: The Prenatal Equal Protection Act (HB 441) would charge abortion patients as murderers—a crime punishable by life in prison or the death penalty.
~
After arresting and jailing the young woman in Georgia, Tifton police subjected her to one more indignity—they sent the remains of her miscarriage for an ‘autopsy’. Even after the results showed she’d lost the pregnancy naturally, the county prosecutor stood by the charges.
~
You wouldn’t know it from looking at the headlines. From the Associated Press to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, HB 441 is being covered as a “total abortion ban” rather than a radical step toward punishing women.
~
Fertility doctors could also be jailed for life; under HB 441, discarding frozen embryos would be a criminal offense. Fertility specialist Dr. Karenne Fru asked lawmakers at a Thursday hearing, “Am I guilty of murder? That makes me a serial killer.”
~
This isn’t an issue of a single extremist state. The legislation in Georgia is one of eleven ‘equal protection’ bills that have been introduced across the country since the start of the year. All of them seek to punish women who have abortions. The rest of us, of course, remain suspect: An Idaho legislator explained to a reporter last month that his ‘equal protection’ bill would allow for the investigation of miscarriages.
~
We’re barely three years out from the end of Roe. Still think feminists are ‘hysterical’?"
And hardly a peep from the MSM, or the Contrarian. For shame. Why does the persecution of innocent Venezuelan men (however heinous that it is) rate higher media coverage than the violent subjugation of the more than half the US population that is female?? Women are being stripped of their rights and dignity as we speak.
One of the fundamental international legal definitions of a slave is a person who has no bodily autonomy, usually due to the official actions of a government. American women now have the legal status of sexual slaves and it is only going to get worse.
https://jessica.substack.com/p/theyre-arresting-us-for-miscarriages?publication_id=11153&post_id=160096161&isFreemail=false&r=2q82ub&triedRedirect=true
We need to hear from Jessica Valenti on the Contrarian. Please make that happen, Jen & Norm. If this doesn’t enrage all of us, there’s no hope after all.
Can someone explain why Musk's actions aren't:
Buying votes?
Election tampering?
Unethical?
Illegal activities?
The Supreme Court helped to wreck elections with the disastrous 2010 Citizens United decision. Congressional members have surely profited from the generous donations that it spawned. Apparently money overrides honor, integrity, and ethics. They should still pass legislation to nullify it.
Even as I write this, my husband is doing a phone back with Indivisible for Susan Crawford. It's not going well, from what I overhear. I wrote letters to voters through Vote Forward. We have been donating monthly, but, needless to say, we don't have even 1% of Musk's capital. We lost two fundamental protections of fair elections: Citizens United, in which money rules, and the Fairness Doctrine, killed by Reagan, that allowed balance in political advertisements. The grotesque ads put out by the rethugs during the last election tell us all we need to know about swaying feeble and even average minds.
Publicly financed elections would level the playing field.
Political reps would not have to spend the majority of their term seeking huge contributions from wealthy donors so they can afford to get re-elected.
They would not have to be under a tacit "quid pro quo" agreement to carefully review all legislative designs and desires from their biggest contributors.
With no campaign contributions beyond the public subsidy allowed, they would be freed to represent THEIR CONSTITUENTS.
Other countries do this. We can, too.
But we would have to get Citizens United overturned, which would be a heavy lift.