Corporations now have the right to spend money directly to influence elections

Started by BabylonHoruv, January 21, 2010, 09:55:12 PM

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Bebek Sincap Ratatosk

It's one of my favorite things to scream about.

A CORPORATION IS NOT A PERSON, GODDAMNIT!

The Bill of Rights and the Constitution of the United States describes the Rights of Citizens. A Corporation is not a fucking citizen.

Citizen A says "I want to support candidate B and give him $5,000" I may not like it, but that is a free choice by a citizen, protected by the First Amendment. It's his money, his opinion, his speech.

Corporation A says "We will give $5000 to candidate B" but it isn't an individual, it isn't the individual's money and it isn't the individual's speech. If the CEO likes candidate B and the President of the Board likes candidate C and most employees like Candidate A, then who gets the money? Whose speech is being protected? That $5000 is a profit made from the hard work of all employees and the shareholders... do you think that all support the same candidate? Hell no... this is simply a blanket to cover up saying "You rich old boys, feel free to grease the wheels and keep these plebes from electing people that aaren't in our plan."

But, hey we all got a sammich and thats what matters!*   :lulz:

- Rat


*It's even supersized
- I don't see race. I just see cars going around in a circle.

"Back in my day, crazy meant something. Now everyone is crazy" - Charlie Manson

LMNO

Wait, we all get a sammich?


Forget I said anything.  Gimme dat sammich.

President Television

Quote from: LMNO on January 22, 2010, 03:39:07 PM
Wait, we all get a sammich?


Forget I said anything.  Gimme dat sammich.

Mayo! I will not rest until we have mayo in every fridge and a pickle in every jar.
:jihaad:
My shit list: Stephen Harper, anarchists that complain about taxes instead of institutionalized torture, those people walking, anyone who lets a single aspect of themselves define their entire personality, salesmen that don't smoke pipes, Fredericton New Brunswick, bigots, philosophy majors, my nemesis, pirates that don't do anything, criminals without class, sociopaths, narcissists, furries, juggalos, foes.

Dimocritus

God, I hate this shit. Y'know what, maybe we should just start a corporation (The League of Dynamic Discorp?). This is bull. Fuck this "rights for the highest bidder" shit. Makes me wanna go all Ron English.
HOUSE OF GABCab ~ "caecus plumbum caecus"

The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: dimo on January 22, 2010, 04:49:01 PM
God, I hate this shit. Y'know what, maybe we should just start a corporation (The League of Dynamic Discorp?). This is bull. Fuck this "rights for the highest bidder" shit. Makes me wanna go all Ron English.

Welcome to the Post-American Century™, Dimo.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Dimocritus

What was it like, Roger? Y'know, when Ameri-co was still America? I never got a chance to really get to know it before it was replaced by this bizzarro-world doppleganger. Is it even possibe to pin-point the exact moment that the country died? I'm sure those greedy bastards snuck in the moment it flat-lined, in the still of the night, and replaced it with this cheap cardboard cutout, a placating place-holder, before anyone had a chance to even realize. And how did no one realize it was happening, anyway? I'll be willing to bet that they all looked up from their TV's at each other and asked "Is America acting weird, or is it just me?" and they responded, "I wouldn't worry too much about it. I'm sure he's got it in control. Hell, the teevee still works, don't it?"

It'll never come back, either. At least not the way it was supposed to be, anyway. Nope. If we do ever get to ressurect it, it won't be much more than a re-animated corpse, a sausage monster, if you would. All Frankensteiny, slow and mumbly. Just the sum of its zombie parts, the "people" that consider themselves "Americans".

So, Roger, was it as cool as imagine it? Before the amber waves of grain were paved over for use as a parking lot for a new wall mart plaza. Before the purple mountain majesty was blasted to peices for the gathering of "resources." (Of course, they kept some of it intact, how else would they generate money for the tourisim and postcard industries?) When the word "People" and "Citizens" meant something different than "Corporations." Was it cool, or is the memory itself a cheap device to make Western poets swoon, to develop a sense of "patriotism" in the "people" so they won't think twice about spending their money on some American flag (that was, incidentally, made in China) to wave in the face of the rest of the world?
HOUSE OF GABCab ~ "caecus plumbum caecus"

Captain Utopia


Dimocritus

Quote from: FP on January 22, 2010, 05:47:53 PM
With minor edits, this very well could have been written in 1950.

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
HOUSE OF GABCab ~ "caecus plumbum caecus"

The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: dimo on January 22, 2010, 05:30:20 PM
What was it like, Roger? Y'know, when Ameri-co was still America? I never got a chance to really get to know it before it was replaced by this bizzarro-world doppleganger.

Um, I'm not THAT old.  This was all done back in the late 1800s.

But things weren't always THIS bad. 

I remember a time when things were different.

I remember a time of chaos.

Ruined dreams.

This wasted land.

But most of all, I remember The Road Warrior.

The man we called "Max".

To understand who he was, you have to go back to another time.

When the world was powered by the black fuel. And the desert sprouted great cities of pipe and steel.

Gone now, swept away.

For reasons long forgotten, two mighty warrior tribes went to war and touched off a blaze which engulfed them all.

Without fuel, they were nothing. They built a house of straw. The thundering machines sputtered and stopped.

Their leaders talked and talked and talked.

But nothing could stem the avalanche.

Their world crumbled. The cities exploded. A whirlwind of looting, a firestorm of fear. Men began to feed on men.

On the roads it was a white line nightmare. Only those mobile enough to scavenge, brutal enough to pillage would survive. The gangs took over the highways, ready to wage war for a tank of juice.

And in this maelstrom of decay, ordinary men were battered and smashed.

Men like Max. The warrior Max.

In the roar of an engine, he lost everything. And became a shell of a man, a burnt out, desolate man, a man haunted by the demons of his past, a man who wandered out into the wasteland.

And it was here, in this blighted place, that he learned to live again...
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Salty

I, for one, am relieved.

I'm tired of waiting. It's not as though corporations have been on the sidelines, waiting for their moment. And, in my mind, there's only been the inevitable take-over of the rest of...what? The rest of what? They haven't left anything untouched.

You name it, they've got a stock number for it. And they continue to find ways to capitalize on anything they can.

There WILL be advertisements floating above earth, right next to the moon. They will be etched on your bagel, your urinal cake. They will imprint trademark symbols onto the DNA of the coffee beans that end up in your caramel machiato. They will find any way to drive The Message directly into your brain because it's easier than standard propaganda and makes more money.

I see these things as inescapable, only a matter of time.

We know these fuckers are evil, we know they make politicians, ready-to-order, your way.

I want Sponsored Politicians and I want them now.
I want Obama, and every asshole after him, wearing a suit that looks like a nascar...eh, car. That goes for the Senate as well.

Besides, they're just advertising, right? Surely, the American people aren't going to be persuaded to make a choice on what's best for the people as a whole, for the greater good, based on a corporate advertisement. They would know that they would have to make their own decisions based on hard evidence of practical, competent leadership. Right?

The world is a car and you're the crash test dummy.

Dimocritus

HOUSE OF GABCab ~ "caecus plumbum caecus"

The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: dimo on January 22, 2010, 06:20:24 PM
That was released the year I was born. Synchronicity? :asplode:

No such animal.  Coincidence.

And I am old as fuck.   :x
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Captain Utopia

Quote from: dimo on January 22, 2010, 05:57:15 PM
Quote from: FP on January 22, 2010, 05:47:53 PM
With minor edits, this very well could have been written in 1950.

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
I think it just is.  The kids in 60 years time will doubtless feel a detached nostalgia for today, much in the way we pine for a few sterling qualities in past lovers, while not spending much time thinking about all of the bullshit in minutia.  Does this help us choose new lovers who echo those qualities?  Sometimes, but not always.  It's a mechanism which provides pretty good results though.  Over time, and trial and error.

But I say this because the 50s and 60s were a time which coalesced some of the thoughts and principles which still animate us today.  They came into being because of problems and deficiencies of thought processes which still plague us, and maybe they can be defeated somehow, or maybe only parried to be made slightly less significant.  I think every period of history has at least one Elvis, but that there is a real danger of getting distracted by the nostalgia and forgetting the message.

Btw, I'm not picking on you here.. I'm not even sure where I'm going with this.   :?

Freeky

Quote from: FP on January 22, 2010, 06:23:16 PM
But I say this because the 50s and 60s were a time which coalesced some of the thoughts and principles which still animate us today.  They came into being because of problems and deficiencies of thought processes which still plague us, and maybe they can be defeated somehow, or maybe only parried to be made slightly less significant.  I think every period of history has at least one Elvis, but that there is a real danger of getting distracted by the nostalgia and forgetting the message.


I'm curious. Who's today's Elvis?

Dimocritus

Quote from: FP on January 22, 2010, 06:23:16 PM
Quote from: dimo on January 22, 2010, 05:57:15 PM
Quote from: FP on January 22, 2010, 05:47:53 PM
With minor edits, this very well could have been written in 1950.

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
I think it just is.  The kids in 60 years time will doubtless feel a detached nostalgia for today, much in the way we pine for a few sterling qualities in past lovers, while not spending much time thinking about all of the bullshit in minutia.  Does this help us choose new lovers who echo those qualities?  Sometimes, but not always.  It's a mechanism which provides pretty good results though.  Over time, and trial and error.

But I say this because the 50s and 60s were a time which coalesced some of the thoughts and principles which still animate us today.  They came into being because of problems and deficiencies of thought processes which still plague us, and maybe they can be defeated somehow, or maybe only parried to be made slightly less significant.  I think every period of history has at least one Elvis, but that there is a real danger of getting distracted by the nostalgia and forgetting the message.

Btw, I'm not picking on you here.. I'm not even sure where I'm going with this.   :?

Ok, I thought I was the only one...
HOUSE OF GABCab ~ "caecus plumbum caecus"