- Banned
- #1
RATS 'N K & LOUIS BRANDEIS (Robert Reich)
(Not Reich's title-just my acronym-no hidden meaning implied)
====================================================
"The Selling of American Democracy: The Perfect Storm
by Robert Reich
Whos buying our democracy? Wall Street financiers, the Koch brothers, and casino magnates Sheldon Adelson and Steve Wynn.
And theyre doing much of it in secret.
Its a perfect storm:
The greatest concentration of wealth in more than a century courtesy trickle-down economics, Reagan and Bush tax cuts, and the demise of organized labor.
Combined with
Unlimited political contributions courtesy of Republican-appointed Justices Roberts, Scalia, Alito, Thomas, and Kennedy, in one of the dumbest decisions in Supreme Court history, Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission, along with lower-court rulings that have expanded it.
Combined with
Complete secrecy about whos contributing how much to whom courtesy of a loophole in the tax laws that allows so-called non-profit social welfare organizations to accept the unlimited contributions for hard-hitting political ads.
Put them all together and our democracy is being sold down the drain.
With a more equitable and traditional distribution of wealth, far more Americans would have a fair chance of influencing politics. As the great jurist Louis Brandeis once said, we can have a democracy or we can have great wealth in the hands of a comparative few, but we cannot have both.
***"
=============================================
I titled the piece "RATS 'N K AND LOUIS BRANDEIS" not as being descriptive of the authors of CITIZENS UNITED VS. FEDERAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION,
though some may consider that to be so,
but because like many people my age I need an acronym to remember the names of the authors of the majority opinion
and, unfortunately, within a day or two, I may forget the acronym--
sometimes it happens that way though I doubt it will where CITIZENS UNITED is concerned
(Sure wish you had joined my one man effort to nominate Reich for President) [/SIZE]
(Not Reich's title-just my acronym-no hidden meaning implied)
====================================================
"The Selling of American Democracy: The Perfect Storm
by Robert Reich
Whos buying our democracy? Wall Street financiers, the Koch brothers, and casino magnates Sheldon Adelson and Steve Wynn.
And theyre doing much of it in secret.
Its a perfect storm:
The greatest concentration of wealth in more than a century courtesy trickle-down economics, Reagan and Bush tax cuts, and the demise of organized labor.
Combined with
Unlimited political contributions courtesy of Republican-appointed Justices Roberts, Scalia, Alito, Thomas, and Kennedy, in one of the dumbest decisions in Supreme Court history, Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission, along with lower-court rulings that have expanded it.
Combined with
Complete secrecy about whos contributing how much to whom courtesy of a loophole in the tax laws that allows so-called non-profit social welfare organizations to accept the unlimited contributions for hard-hitting political ads.
Put them all together and our democracy is being sold down the drain.
With a more equitable and traditional distribution of wealth, far more Americans would have a fair chance of influencing politics. As the great jurist Louis Brandeis once said, we can have a democracy or we can have great wealth in the hands of a comparative few, but we cannot have both.
***"
=============================================
I titled the piece "RATS 'N K AND LOUIS BRANDEIS" not as being descriptive of the authors of CITIZENS UNITED VS. FEDERAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION,
though some may consider that to be so,
but because like many people my age I need an acronym to remember the names of the authors of the majority opinion
and, unfortunately, within a day or two, I may forget the acronym--
sometimes it happens that way though I doubt it will where CITIZENS UNITED is concerned
(Sure wish you had joined my one man effort to nominate Reich for President) [/SIZE]
