Peter Lemkin Wrote:...I think that IS the definition of fascism and with this Court ruling we now, IMO, officially have sanctioned it. How nice :dancing:

Peter Lemkin Wrote:AMY GOODMAN: We begin our show today looking at yesterday’s landmark Supreme Court ruling that will allow corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money to elect and defeat candidates.
...
Well, we need a movement for a constitutional amendment to declare that corporations are not persons entitled to the rights of political expression. And that’s what the President should be calling for at this point, because no legislation is really going to do the trick.
...

Myra Bronstein Wrote:In addition to pushing for a constitutional amendment, isn't it theoretically possible in the US to recall supreme court justices?

Dawn Meredith Wrote:Thus far this admin. is a re-run of W's miserable eight years. Can anyone show me any demonstrable "change"?

Dawn

Ed Jewett Wrote:Bruce, somehow I missed your "entry" to DPF so let me extend now and here a hearty welcome. I too stopped voting some years ago, probably for similar reasons. I'd guess there are three elements with which some of us look at the range of topics covered here and elsewhere: 1) the simple, deep and detailed research to figure who did what to whom; 2) the ongoing monitoring of the world and news and op-ed to see what's going down now; and 3) having some discussion with someone somewhere as to what can be done about it. Many of the founders and principals at DPF are heavily into category #1 and, to a large extent, I'm not qualified to do much but read, try to follow along, and wash their coffee cups so they can keep working. My personal orientation tends to category #2, because of my initial interest in news, documentary film, and the like. Increasingly, I am moving into category #3 if only for my children and theirs. I don't hold out much hope for changing or stopping the inexorable trends we see through politics, petitioning, or -- alas -- even civil disobedience. There is something to be said for a discussion at the small-group local interpersonal level for figuring out how to sustain, survive (and I don't refer to militia-based survivalism) and thrive in a world gone mad and dominated by others. Category #3 is a topic for a different thread, even a different web site, as I'm not sure it's one in coherence with the intent and focus of the DPF founders. Even Category #2 might be outside the normal realm except as it pertains to the same sinister inputs, modes and methods. At any rate, welcome... Any meaningful, respectful discussion is valid because it is apparent that the powers that be don't even want us to know, read or discuss anything except that which meets with their approval.

Peter Lemkin Wrote:http://freespeechforpeople.org/

:heeeelllllooooo:

"American citizens have repeatedly amended the Constitution to defend democracy when the Supreme Court acts in collusion with democracy's enemies, whether they are slavemasters, states imposing poll taxes on voters, or the opponents of woman suffrage. Today, the Court has enthroned corporations, permitting them not only all kinds of special economic rights but now, amazingly, moving to grant them the same political rights as the people. This is a moment of high danger for democracy so we must act quickly to spell out in the Constitution what the people have always understood: that corporations do not enjoy the political and free speech rights that belong to the people of the United States."

- Professor Jamin Raskin, constitutional law expert at American University's Washington College of Law and Maryland state senator

Myra Bronstein Wrote:

Peter Lemkin Wrote:...I think that IS the definition of fascism and with this Court ruling we now, IMO, officially have sanctioned it. How nice :dancing:

Good point Peter.

"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.

This is the most surreal episode imaginable. And it should dispel any doubts about the position of the US on the fascist continuum.