Our government is corrupt.

[kentuck]

This latest scandal at the IRS with conservative groups rushing in to get their 501(c)4 exemptions is the cherry on top. But it was corrupt before that.

It's a depressing thought and I apologize for that. But the majority of our Congress and Senate are in government to fill their pockets and the pockets of their friends. I got mine. Screw you.

They have manipulated our election processes with their gerrymandering tactics. They have taken bribes from those that can guarantee their hold on power in the form of huge campaign contributions. Their money is their free speech. They cannot hear your faint whispers.

They have built up a military machine that is spread around the world and is draining our Treasury from needed expenditures. In the process, they have created a world of terror to scare the citizens into giving up everything, including their liberties.

They have passed legislation so American jobs could be moved to the far corners of the world and have made it possible for these huge corporations to keep their ill-gotten fortunes in tax havens in the middle of the oceans.

Then they turn the people on each other. They fight and argue over who should or should not be getting food stamps. They tell the hard workers at the bottom that it is the unions fault that they do not make a fair wage and living for their families. It is always the people's fault - it is never the fault of our elected government. And considering that the people continue to put them into office, it is our fault.

Today, in Washington, some Senator or Congressman will make a deal to enrich themselves at the detriment of the rest of the country. Greed is rampant and it is not good. Our government is corrupt and rotten to the core. If we, the people, do not fix it, we will lose it.

[PuraVidaDreamin]

1. The Environmental Legal Defense Fund is teaching Community Bills of Rights

Through their Democracy School. I'm organizing one right now for my region.
It seems like it may be the only way to slow that process down.

celdf.org

Here is their Mission Statement


Mission Statement

“Building sustainable communities by assisting people to assert their right to local self-government and the rights of nature.”

Why this?

We believe that we are in the midst of an escalating ecological crisis, and that the crisis is the result of decisions made by a relatively few people who run corporations and government. We believe that sustainability will never be achieved by leaving those decisions in the hands of a few – both because of their belief in limitless economic production and because their decisions are made at a distance from the communities experiencing the impact of those decisions. Therefore, we believe that to attain sustainability, a right to local self-government must be asserted that places decisions affecting communities in the hands of those closest to the impacts. That right to local self-government must enable communities to reject unsustainable economic and environmental policies set by state and federal governments, and must enable communities to construct legal frameworks for charting a future towards sustainable energy production, sustainable land development, and sustainable water use, among others. In doing so, communities must challenge and overturn legal doctrines that have been concocted to eliminate their right to self-government, including the doctrines of corporate constitutional rights, preemption, and limitations on local legislative authority. Inseparable from the right to local self government - and its sole limitation - are the rights of human and natural communities; they are the implicit and enumerated  premises on which local self government must be built.

[Triana]

2. Corps are people; money is speech. They don't care about you, because...

....you didn't come with a big fat check. (remember George Carlin: "they don't care about you!&quot

Yes. It's true. We the People have NO VOICE in our own government anymore. It's all owned and controlled by corprats.

DO NOT MISS this Exposé about this - please bookmark it, save it, share it, print it:

Exposé - 80 Years of Planning: The Kochs + The Family + Birchers = TEA PARTY Disinformation Machine

. . .

Below are some snippets that connect the threads of an 80 year plan that haven't been completely connected by others. The Kochs + The Family + The John Birch Society. A very clever plan to grasp the world for the few, while squeezing dignity and even life from the many.

A specific faux Christian Plan has been spread and taught to politicians, dictators, corporate leaders, pastors, mullahs, power players. Special attention and lots of financing are poured into youth training worldwide to create vessels of power. David Bahati was chosen by the Family to be a Ugandan vessel of power, for example.

Secret Five (5) Key Men cells are in place. For a chilling wake-up, reality check, Google: Stalin "five man cells" Forming "Five man cells" is a very old and effective organizing technique.

The same message is taught to all religious persuasions forming this worldwide Web of Power and Influence called The Family, a seemingly cynical reference to the Mafia.

What is the core message? Jesus Plus Nothing.

In a process called Reconciliation, US Senators open the eyes of Muslim Dictators and Mullahs. Senators have helped them see the power of recognizing this truth. After all, Jesus is mentioned in the Koran over 100 times. This all done in secret, of course. On the surface, the media portrays the dramatic discourse of divisions.

. . .

THE REST:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/05/25/1211613/-EXPOSED-80-Years-of-Planning-The-Kochs-The-Family-Birchers-TEA-PARTY-Disinformation-Machine

[russspeakeasy]

12. Thanks for the post.

[Old Codger]

3. Yep

Power corrupts, Absolute power corrupts absolutely .

[kentuck]

21. Well said...

Old Codger.

That is the bottom line.

[Old Codger]

24. The other

Deal here is that the people that have the ability to make the necessary changes are the ones that benefit the most by leaving it as is.

[kelliekat44]

4. I could not agree with you more...except to add

there is virtually no where to turn to expose this corruption and receive true justice from either the media, the Congress, o After the Courts. Or the President I might add. In many cases the President is being controlled and manipulated by the shadow government run by our intelligence agencies and he is unaware. In some cases he is even complicit but basically unaware and powerless. It is a system far more treacherous than any that Saddam or Qaddafi ran...at least you knew openly who the oppressors were. After reading Sibel Edmonds's book, I am even more fearful for our nation.

[ReRe]

8. Metaphorically, of course. ;-) n/t

[midnight]

6. They have turned the people on each other via if you see something say something....

[retired rooster]

7. Multiple Police Agencies

Let's add all those police agencies that govern our every movement, every moment of every day. They video us on streets, stores, offices, even from drones in the sky, and, if they want, in our very homes and then store it forever. "Every breath you take" Sting and the Police sang. It's mind blowing if you think about it.

[retired rooster]

10. I neglected to mention....

every email you send, every telephone call you make, Sting added, "I'll be watching you".

[raouldukelives]

9. Be sure to thank an investor. We have the best government Wall St money can buy.

And they couldn't do it without them and their insatiable desire for wealth. Even at the detriment of our once sacred democracy and the future of every living and soon to be extinct thing they can't get enough.
The best we can hope for is to reach those who still feel a faint glimmer of empathy towards wildlife and our natural world. Those who would take more inspiration from a spring fed creek than a foie grais fed CEO.

[ReRe]

11. Yeah, but they really effed up...

K&R

...with the IRS thing. The scandal is not quite what it seems to be. And no one but Lawrence O'Donnell will tell the people. (At least, he's the only one that I have heard tell the truth.)

But yes, I wake up everyday and wonder what kind of corrupt warp this country has become via our groveling, prostituted elected officials and what's going to come of us all.

[trof]

13. And water is wet. K&R anyway.

[Fuddnik]

14. Kick and Rec!

The whole system is corrupt and obsolete. It's time for a new one.

[90-percent]

15. My custom made bumper sticker

OUR INSTITUTIONS ARE INFESTED WITH CORRUPT SOCIOPATHS.

All of our institutions that were put in place in large part to insure a fair shot for us all; "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" have been captured by stupid and aggressively selfish sub-humans.

Posted it here repeatedly; JUST HOW MANY YACHTS AND AUTO ELEVATORS AND PRIVATE JETS AND VACATION HOMES AND PENTHOUSES AND SERVANTS DO THESE excessively entitled CEO's need? (Steve Hemsley's HARD EARNED $80,000 A DAY COMPENSATION at United Health Group as one example) is certainly NOT NEARLY ENOUGH to satiate their psychotic NEED FOR GREED!

-90% Jimmy

Interesting how Steve is emulating namesake Leona's management practices

[lunatica]

16. Acceptance of the facts as they are is the last stage of grief

I think we've pretty much arrived there as a country. Ever since Bush was selected we've been going through the 5 steps of grief. This is the last step.

http://grief.com/the-five-stages-of-grief/

The more people arrive at this stage, the sooner things will be changed by the people.

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. And this is news?

What is news is that people are finally figuring this out.

When people point to Mexico as a corrupt state I Laugh. You know why? We know it. People admit it, it's the culture of la mordida that starts at lower levels. But the US government makes the Mexican state look like rank beginners, and the best part...most Americans don't even realize it.

So now that the wool is off...it's what you do with it. And realize most of your physical neighbors will gladly point and laugh at you.

[Octafish]

18. Lying the USA into war demonstrates corrupt practices...

"Money trumps peace." - George Walker Bush, Feb. 15, 2007

People who opposed the war machine were thrown under the bus or off a high building or got suicided for their trouble.

[Savannahmann]

19. Yes our Government is Corrupt.

Worse, it is both parties that participate in that corruption. We lie to the people, they lie to the people. We do it to achieve a goal, a goal we think is best, but we get there by lies and disinformation nearly as badly as the Repugnicks.

An example. Fine. First, everyone knows that the ACA is a stepping stone for Single Payer. So in order to achieve that admirable goal, we had to create a system that is flawed, perhaps even fatally flawed. We had to design something that would fail. Only when it failed would Single Payer become the solution to the problem. Reform having been tried, and failed, single payer would be left.

So we take a page from ancient history, from one of the first people who lied to the citizens for their own good. Themistocles found that nobody believed him when he said that the Persians would return. So he lied to the people to get their support to defend against a much closer enemy, while really preparing for the return of the Persians. He lied to the people, to get their support, to save the people from a threat they did not believe in.

So this begs the question. How much of what we support is merely propaganda that our elected officials use to get our donations, and votes, so they can work on problems we don't see or care about? In the end, it comes down to trust. Republican voters trust the liars from their party more than the liars from our party. We trust the liars from the Democratic Party more than the liars from the Republican party. That they are both lying is understood at an instinctive level, or often a more cognizant level.

Yet even our liars are cheats too. Our Politicians voted with the Rethugs to eliminate the rules governing insider trading prohibitions for Politicians. In other words, if you were a congressman, and you knew that you and your fellows were going to vote to give money to the Military to buy Boeing Jets. You could buy stock in Boeing, knowing that the announcement of that contract would boost their stock price. You get rich, Boeing gets the contract, the military gets planes they want, probably want, Everybody wins, except the people who had invested in Lockheed Martin thinking their product was better and that they would get the contract.

In the end, your support for a party comes down to a question. Which liars will you support? It's a shame that we can't have a logical and honest debate about anything in this nation. We've been lying so long, that to admit the truth now, is virtually impossible.

[bigwillq]

20. Yes, sir. The people in charge are ruining this country.

K and R

[bvar22]

22. These People in Washington??!!!

Care more for Wall Street and their own pocket books than Americans who have to Work for a Living?

Well THAT explains a lot of things!



You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their promises or excuses.
[font size=5 color=green]Solidarity99![/font][font size=2 color=green]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/center]

[spanone]

23. the blatant disregard for the 92% in favor of background checks is a glaring example.

[ProSense]

25. "They have manipulated our election processes with their gerrymandering tactics."

That is a state and local government function, and it's one of the more preventable manipulations in terms of voters. It's also a process primarily used by Republicans to hold onto power so they can corrupt the federal government even more.

Republicans used it effectively to secure control in 2010. If people don't wise up to the fact that Republicans don't give a rats ass about them, government corruption will increase and this country will truly become a democracy in name only.

[indepat]

26. Government is corrupt imo whenever it acts to the detriment of the general welfare, when it

spends untold trillions of dollars supposedly to keep us safe from the ubiquitous terra while ignoring public health issues, the number of uninsured, a deteriorating infrastructure, a falling standard of living, wellness of the population, national longevity and nutrition, infant and maternity mortality, needless mortality from treatable illnesses and conditions, inordinate deaths and injuries from firearms, just to name a few. Government too often acts as if it's only responsibilities are the well-being of the military industrial complex, a hands-off approach to corporate greed, malfeasance, misfeasance, and tax avoidance, and the welfare of the uber-wealthy.

[Eddie Haskell]

27. It's worse than that ...

Last edited Sun May 26, 2013, 06:21 PM - Edit history (1)

Our government is not going to allow "the people" to fix things without bloodshed. That's why they've allowed the free press to be bought out and neutralized. That's why our rights have been restricted. That's why we have Citizen's United. That's why, after 50 years, the JFK files are still classified.

And, that's why we must act sooner rather than later ... Because soon it will be too late!

Edit: To be clear, I'm not advocating bloodshed. But I do not think change will occur absent sacrifice.

[MotherPetrie]

28. k&r

[ReasonableToo]

29. How do we "un-gerrymander" local elections?

How do we rally behind the likes of Warren, Franken, Sanders, Grayson etc. so that THEY become the gold standard of the Dems? (Instead of all the Rs in Ds clothing)

How do we take back the media? (Support Pacifica Radio and specifically Democracy Now.)

How do we establish instant run-off elections? (Which HAS to happen before any third party can be of use to dems.)

How do we get to single payer?

I can't decide if all is list or if there is till a glimmer of hope...

[kentuck]

30. You can lead a horse to water but you cant make him drink.

Likewise, you can lead a voter to the polls but you can't make him vote.