(09-19-2024 08:31 PM)tanqtonic Wrote: (09-19-2024 07:39 PM)JRsec Wrote: The most destructive move came later under his progeny when corporations were given the rights of citizens under the law.
Are you talking solely about the ruling in Citizens United, or about any number of rights under the law? Like --
Property rights: Corporations can own property.
Contract rights: Corporations can enter into contracts.
Sue and be sued: Corporations can sue and be sued.
Due process: Corporations have due process rights.
Equal protection: Corporations have equal protection rights.
Fourth Amendment privacy rights: Corporations have Fourth Amendment privacy rights.
Fifth Amendment Takings and Double Jeopardy Clause: Corporations have Fifth Amendment Takings and Double Jeopardy Clause rights.
Sixth Amendment: Corporations have Sixth Amendment rights to speedy trial and jury trial in criminal prosecutions
Seventh Amendment right: Corporations have Seventh Amendment right to jury in civil matters
If solely to First Amendment rights, why precisely shouldnt a group of people (ex: gunowners) be able to band together (ex: NRA) and pursue political goals common to them under a common 'roof'?
Because it shifted the balance of power away from what is best for all citizens to what is best for coalitions of the wealthiest, which changes the equation of the consent of the governed by skewing it to what is actually what is best for a minority within the population base. And it permitted the broader use of political contribution money to buy candidates on both sides of the aisle instead of using the means simply to lobby. Now they didn't have to persuade representatives and senators but could essentially purchase them.
In short it was an overt step toward fascism and one that should have received condemnation from both sides of the aisle. Only none dare call it treason if it profits, huh? I find only a small opposition to it from within the Republican party and practically none from within the Democratic party and it is what has in essence created a Uni-party solely interested in global trade rather than the health of the nation.
Until then they couldn't claim carved out privileges permitted corporations and claim the rights of a common citizen. CEO's and the people in the boardroom always had the rights of a citizen, but when PAC money was made legal to direct toward any single candidate it skewed the balance, and we haven't recovered.
It reminds me of when the Southern Company placed on retainer solid graduates from a state law school when they returned to rural counties whether in Georgia, Florida, or Alabama. They would wait about 6 months after they graduated knowing that they would be cash poor and then offer to place them on retainer to represent the Southern Company for $500 a month. So in the 60's and 70's the Southern Company wound up with oodles of state house members and state senators who were once on their payroll for as cheap as $6000 a year. They knew attorneys would seek political office in rural counties to supplement or replace their legal practice.
That practice created a massive amount of loyalty to their interests in that tri state region. So much so that the Public Service Commissions allowed for the sale of power from one state to another in which added costs would jack up the rates for electricity in said transactions.
Put that on the national and global scale and you get what is happening with Corporate Multi Nationals who purchase favor in Parliament, the Bundestag, Congress, or whatever the form of government may take at the nation state level.
In the United States the citizens were once the only means of political contribution. The founding fathers of the nation grasped directly the necessity of this having suffered at the hands of the Hudson Bay Company and other large Trade interests in European countries.
The G20 or whatever the number is up to now controls more resources and more legislation than people realize, and Treaties for Trade circumvent the laws of nations by agreement of elected representatives and corporations.
The ills facing the world today could be more rationally addressed at the local levels of government if not for many of those treaties and the corporate interests behind them.
When the talking heads which represent those corporations speak in terms of there being 5 billion too many people on the planet the masses should be concerned. They have the power to purge. Marxism to them is another opiate for the masses of poor. When business controls government it's something else entirely, it's fascism. And if the 20th Century taught us anything at all it is that as Lord Acton said absolute power corrupts absolutely and a dictatorial faceless nameless body can execute 100s of millions in a relatively short period of time. AI and control of Big Pharma means that next time around it will be billions efficiently done by mandated inoculations or with denial of the purchase of resources needed.
Sometimes what sounds paranoid and dystopian, is actually a legitimate concern. Can you imagine the horror that could have been exponentially multiplied if Stalin, Mao, or Hitler had possessed computers and had the means to track and impose sanctions upon every citizen without having to have a physical presence among the people in the form of secret police? What if they could have just caused their pagers to explode, or utilize a precision drone strike on their vehicles or homes? Or simply killed them with soundwaves, or EMPs which matched the frequency of a human heartbeat. And sadly, none of that is science fiction.
It's time the left and right quit having dumb*** catfights and thinking that in verbally counting coup they had accomplished anything but a waste of time. We have a greater enemy than any of us have ever faced and all people on the planet need to get up to speed about just how much lethal power is in the hands of the precious and privileged few who think there are 5 billion too many of us. And this time there are no Allies to liberate us from whatever form the death camp takes.
Verstehen sie?
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