The US Supreme Court has just slain American Democracy

[MrScorpio]

The Oligarchs are our rulers now.

Long live our billionaire elite.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

1. Jesus Christ! I have to stifle what I'd really like to say. I HAVE TO STIFLE.... nt

[Glitterati]

2. Link? Explanation?

Did they just announce some decision?

[pinboy3niner]

3. BREAKING: Caps on Total Campaign Giving Struck Down by U.S. Supreme Court

Posted in LBN by Hissyspit:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014770566

[ChisolmTrailDem]

4. SCOTUS: NO CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION LIMITS. We're toast. nt

[rhett o rick]

5. Maybe it's a blessing. We can stop the struggling and just go with it. nm

[CJCRANE]

6. It's like 2010 with Citizen's United. They were losing the argument

so instead they just open the spigots to billionaire cash.

[ananda]

8. Devastating.

Just devastating.

[handmade34]

30. they are losing so....

they change the law to "open the spigots to billionaire cash"

they make voting more difficult for those of us more apt to vote Democratic

they lie and distort facts about things that matter most to people

they do everything they can to tear down democracy

[Helen Borg]

87. As Cenk at TYT says: WOLFPAC.COM

...

[malaise]

7. Link

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-02/caps-on-total-campaign-giving-struck-down-by-u-s-supreme-court.html

[ProSense]

12. Yet

A divided U.S. Supreme Court struck down decades-old limits on the total money donors can give to federal candidates and parties, ruling in its biggest campaign-finance case since the 2010 Citizens United decision.

Voting 5-4 along ideological lines, the court today said the caps violated the speech rights of Shaun McCutcheon, an Alabama Republican official seeking to give candidates, parties and political committees more than the $123,200 maximum. The court stopped short of undercutting a 1976 ruling that allows caps on contributions to individual candidates.

...if you point out that certain people and groups support Citizens United and opposed the DISCLOSE Act, the excuses start flying.

[Ichingcarpenter]

64. Yet once again

your point makes no sense.

[ProSense]

76. Saying anything is not a rebuttal

and the excuses will fly.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024769330

[BlueCaliDem]

104. Yet some on this Democratic Party supporting site

who claim to be Democrats would defend Greenwald as "a true LIBERAL" against the "Republican-lite" Obama.

Right. Greenwald is a Liberal who wholly supports the gutting of democracy for "the little guy", supports Republican candidates, supported the Iraq war (until it got too unpopular), and has continuously supported Republicans in Libertarian-clothing for president.

When will these people wake up? Or are they already awake and pretend not to be for political gain for their true Party?

[truebrit71]

9. Holy. Fuck. The US just became, literally, The best democracy money can buy...

So long and thanks for all the fish....

[Raine1967]

10. To say this is terrible is an understatement.

I don't know where we go from here. I'm actually shocked.

[el_bryanto]

11. It's the aggregrate donations, not individual donations

So they can give the $2,600 to as many senators as they wish without worrying about spending more in total than they are allowed to. So it's bad, but not as bad as I initially thought (which was they could give candidates however much money they wanted).

According to ABC News.

Bryant

[woo me with science]

14. And the corporate apologism parade begins...

[el_bryanto]

16. What did I say that was untrue?

If I said something that was false, please let me know, and I'll correct it.

Otherwise you are just talking shit.

Bryant

[woo me with science]

17. Everything's okay...

in Third Way blase.

Predictable as the sunrise.

[el_bryanto]

21. "So it's bad, but not as bad as I initially thought"

So I take it that by pointing out what the decision actually said I'm some how some sort of third-way corporate apologist? If I were a good DUer like you I'd trade on lies and exaggerations?

I'm sorry, I believe in being scrupulous and honest. If that isn't something you support, well to each their own.

Bryant

[joshcryer]

42. character smear? you called them "third way"!

Christ...

[hobbit709]

50. I wonder who had the cow?

[11 Bravo]

60. You are, of course, correct, Bryant. It's bad but it could have been much worse. However ...

it is impossible to engage in reasoned discourse with some posters because ... science ... or something.
In any case, my greatest fear is that is simply a trial balloon with their eye on eventually abolishing giving limits to individual candidates. That would open a door to the plain and simple quid pro quo purchase of a legislator in return for favorable (to the donor) legislation.
I realize that by making this distinction I have exposed myself as a third-way, corporate whore, but so it goes.

[dionysus]

95. are you capable of making a post without insulting DUers and calling them paid trolls?

[arcane1]

100. That's becoming more and more often all I see on DU. Name-calling and dismissals.

It has the convenient effect of making people hesitant to post opinions or ask questions.

[dionysus]

102. i'm no angel but i won't use the weak ass argument that everyone who disagrees with me is secretly

paid by the govt to post on DU!

[CJCRANE]

23. Thanks for the clarification.

They'll probably strike down that part of the law in time for the 2018 mid-terms!

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

73. Shoot me once in the head then

Instead of five to the chest.

[Bettie]

13. Disgusting

The pretense that 'the people' matter is now gone.

[RKP5637]

57. The majority of us are in the way in the US. Only $$$$$ counts in the

US. The rest of us are dispensable and in the way. It is so evidently clear what the message is.

[Bettie]

89. Yep

I wonder if, once they take the pretense away, they'll just do away with voting altogether.

Maybe that guy who said if he pays a million in taxes he should get a million votes isn't too far off from our future.

Or maybe people will wake up. There are a lot more of us than there are of them.

[RKP5637]

97. To me, the only hope is in your last sentence! n/t

[woo me with science]

15. They are taking it all.

[polichick]

53. Yep - they appointed Bush and the people did nothing...

They deemed a corporation a person, and the people did nothing.

They are going for broke.

(And they are ready for anything - most of the loot stored safely offshore.)

[Octafish]

56. They need it to survive.

Ask Frank Carlucci. He's in the luxury lifeboat castle business...

The Really Creepy People Behind the Libertarian-Inspired Billionaire Sea Castles

The stinking rich are planning billion-dollar luxury liners that keep the land-based Americans they've plundered at a safe distance.

AlterNet / By Mark Ames
June 1, 2010

What happens when Americans plunder America and leave it broken, destitute and seething mad? Where do these fabulously wealthy Americans go with their loot, if America isn't a safe, sinecure, or even desirable place to spend their riches? What if they lose faith in their gated communities, because those plush gated communities are surrounded by millions of pissed-off Americans stripped of their entitlements, and who now want in?

The first such floating castle has been christened the " Utopia"--the South Korean firm Samsung has been contracted to build the $1.1 billion ship, due to be launched in 2013. Already orders are coming in to buy one of the Utopia's 200 or so mansions for sale- -which range in price from about $4 million for the smallest condos to over $26 million for 6,600 square-foot "estates." The largest mansion is a whopping 40,000 square feet, and sells for $160 million.

SNIP...

Both Thiel and Milton Friedman's grandson see democracy as the enemy--last year, Thiel wrote "I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible" at about the same time that Milton Friedman's grandson proclaimed, "Democracy is not the answer." Both published their anti-democracy proclamations in the same billionaire-Koch-family-funded outlet, Cato Unbound, one of the oldest billionaire-fed libertarian welfare dispensaries. Friedman's answer for Thiel's democracy problem is to build offshore libertarian pod-fortresses where the libertarian way rules. It's probably better for everyone if Milton Friedman's grandson and Peter Thiel leave us forever for their libertarian ocean lair--Thiel believes that America went down the tubes ever since it gave women the right to vote, and he was outed as the sponsor of accused felon James O'Keefe's smear videos that brought ACORN to ruin.

SNIP...

While neither Bush nor the Bin Ladens are principals in the Frontier Group, its founding director, Frank Carlucci, is a name they know well, and you should too. Carlucci ran the Carlyle Group as its chairman from 1989 through 2005, right around the time that the wars started going undeniably bad, and floating castles started to look like a viable plan. But Carlucci's past is much weirder and scarier than most of us care to know: whether it's his strangely timed appearances in some of the ugliest assassinations and coups in modern history, or serving as Carter's number two man in the CIA, and Ronald Reagan's Secretary of Defense, if Frank Carlucci (nicknamed "Creepy Carlucci" and "Spooky Frank&quot is the founding director of a firm that's building floating castles, it's a bad sign for those of us left behind.

I'll get into Carlucci's partners in the Frontier Group in a moment, but first, let's reacquaint ourselves with Frank Carlucci. From an early age, Carlucci learned the importance of getting to know the right people in the right places. He studied at Princeton in the mid-1950s, where as luck should have it, Carlucci roomed with Donald Rumsfeld. Both Carlucci and Rumsfeld shared a passion for Greco-Roman wrestling at Princeton, and both went on to serve in the Navy after Princeton. Their paths would split and merge several times over the next few decades, even as they remained close personal friends throughout their lives. In the late 1950s, Carlucci briefly served as an executive at a lingerie manufacturer, Jantzen (the Victoria's Secret of its day), but quickly left to join the State Department.

CONTINUED...

http://www.alternet.org/story/147058/the_really_creepy_people_behind_the_libertarian-inspired_billionaire_sea_castles

[RKP5637]

67. Basically, it's akin to warlords at sea. We have created a nation of

warlords holding much of the $$$$$. Now, they will fight among themselves for even more power and control. Any notion of a democracy in the US is a cruel joke, fodder for fools and guppies to rally around.

We have no nation for the people, we have a nation for the oligarchs. Of course, people now = corporations. What blithering bullshit we have in the "new" US. This, is not going to be a pleasant place for the majority of people. And a fair number of the citizenry are DUH!

And the oligarchy warlords will have their collection of serfs that rally around them hoping a few scraps off their plates fall in their direction. I am so disgusted. And just so disgusted with hope.

[Enthusiast]

101. PLUS A BRAZILLION!

[Puglover]

18. Yes they are.

Terribly sad.

[jwirr]

19. IF and that is as of now a big IF we can take the House and Senate back in 2014 the only alternative

this leaves us is to do what FDR did. Expand the court. If we cannot do that there is little we can do.

[dsc]

48. FDR tried to expand the court

He didn't succeed in expanding the court but the threat alone likely got a justice to switch his vote to save nine. That is the actual saying a switch in time saves nine not a stich in time saves nine.

[jwirr]

54. The courts got bigger (more justices) during FDRs reign, or at least that is what I remember.

[dsc]

58. No it didn't

it was 9 when he arrived and 9 when he passed.

[jwirr]

62. So what was all the bull about how he stold the court? I remember seeing stories on this for years

after he was dead.

Okay, I googled and you are right but how did he get them to agree with his plans? We seem to have won the argument for his social agenda. How did he accomplish that with 9 conservative judges?

[Goblinmonger]

66. It was a work of genius

Constitutional Revolution of 1937

[Goblinmonger]

65. He would have been able to expand it if he wanted to.

All he wanted was the switch on Commerce Clause and he got it. I guess what I'm saying is that "likely got a justice to switch" is underselling it. He did force a vote switch with his plan which even FDR know was a crappy plan that would hurt the SCOTUS.

[BumRushDaShow]

20. .

[PowerToThePeople]

22. Time to stock up on pitchforks and torches.. n/t

[ballyhoo]

24. No, that won't happen here

anymore. However, if you have the money, or can get it, it would be prudent to start looking for another country to move to, as my wife and I are now doing. Make sure to DD it thoroughly for Koch clones.

[PowerToThePeople]

26. Is this

"America, love it or leave it" ?

Sounds like Republican BS to me.

Enjoy your stay.

[ballyhoo]

78. What? I've been a Democrat for 47 years. I'm

telling you the jaws are closing. Enjoy my stay? WTF?

[PowerToThePeople]

80. Jaws have been closing for decades

Everyone on DU is very aware of this fact.

[MindMover]

82. takes two years to get a passport ... gl

[ballyhoo]

84. We have passports, but thanks for

the info. Has that timetable changed? When we first started getting passports, it seem like it took 3 months. Two years? Why is this?

[FreeJoe]

109. Where? In the US?

I've never heard of such a thing. I've never heard of anyone's passport taking more than a few months in the worst case and you can get expedited ones faster.

[MindMover]

110. Got an application at a post office in Arkansas and the clerk said

it would take 18-24 months ...

[Puzzledtraveller]

68. DU=Activism

[RKP5637]

77. The smashing of OWS, the enormous buildup of surveillance, the enormous

power of DHS and the militarization of local police were not by chance.

[Enthusiast]

103. You are correct. No coincidence.

Long term plan.

[Prophet 451]

25. So much for the "American Experiment"

Government of, by and for the people. It was nice while it lasted.

[get the red out]

59. Yes, I agree

It's done. I can only hope that it isn't good for business to promote a theocracy any further than they already have. All we can do now is worry about what our rulers might have in store for us.

[VanillaRhapsody]

63. Of the Rich People, by the Rich People, for the Rich people...

When they have drained this country dry and turned us all into serfs....they will just buy another one....

Now we need SCOTUS term limits....

[RKP5637]

74. That, is a root cause of all of this, no term limits on SCOTUS. It's

ridiculous they go on and on serving.

[RKP5637]

71. It has clearly failed, just like the others that fail. The greed at the

top and the lust for power brings it all down, much as with many civilizations over eons. And, for years, too many Americans have been DUH and asleep at the wheel. Also, all of the surveillance, the massive power of DHS and the militarization of the local police were all part of the plan, IMO, to keep the serfs in line. I'm just disgusted with it all. Fuck it all.

[lostincalifornia]

27. unfortunately it looks that way

[MattP]

29. They only left the individual canindate cap in to screw Hillary

[woo me with science]

32. Why would they want to screw Hillary?

She's as corporate as they come.

[MoonRiver]

35. No she is not. n/t

[woo me with science]

41. She's a loyal corporate servant,

as her history and affiliations clearly show.

[MoonRiver]

81. In your opinion.

I've seen her take on many progressive causes that no right wing corporate shill would ever agree to. Why do you think the Rethug crazies hate her so much?

[Enthusiast]

107. It's more than an opinion if you are willing to look at the facts.

[Liberal_Dog]

31. Crap Crap Crap

[Xyzse]

33. Perhaps I should try my hand in marketing.

Have them waste their money on me.

[PowerToThePeople]

37. I was thinking

Get 10s of thousands of Democrats to run as Republicans and drain the Koch brother's coffers....

[Xyzse]

75. Actually sounds pretty good to me.

But, no, I don't really think that should be done.

That is something they did.

[RainDog]

34. rip

[TRoN33]

36. We just got fucking shafted by our own Supreme Court.

[L0oniX]

38. The only thing we can do about this that will fix it is.........

[PowerToThePeople]

47. Public campaign financing? n/t

[snooper2]

52. Choice 4 Start fucking like rabbits

Only taking breaks to watch episodes of Fast & Loud

[Jefferson23]

40. speechless. n/t

[IDemo]

43. If money equals speech, the unmistakeable message is:

STFU, 99 Percenters.

[JimDandy]

91. Yes. n/t

[AngryAmish]

44. Which billionaire do you want to toady to?

I hope my master is kind.

[polichick]

45. Didn't they do that in 2000?

[Rider3]

46. Yep...

We're done. Lost to the all-mighty dollar.

[Puzzledtraveller]

49. Has lots and lots of money not helped our pary as well?

Not saying it's right, I'd like to see "money" out of politics too but is this really going to hurt Democrats?

[JimDandy]

93. It hurts the very underpinnings of Democracy. n/t

[RKP5637]

51. Sometimes one reaches a point in life where the train

is going over the cliff. Might as well rewrite the constitution to replace people with oligarchs. And the majority of us, most of us are now shit. Democracy, LOL, it's a cruel joke, lies to be fed to school children. Name of this place? United Corporations, Inc.
All lies, all lies fed to us in our youth.

[NuttyFluffers]

55. but think of all our beautifully dry powder!...

i mean, it was only a few justices during bush the lesser's term. think of the shineys we can get now with all our beautifully dry powder!

[hunter]

61. Disconnect your cable and broadcast television, throw away your junk mail unread...

... and quit buying stuff.

Don't trade your freedom for a few shiny trinkets and a false sense of security.

Convince others to do the same.

The only television commercials I've seen for years now are those I see posted here on DU.

Rather than feeling disconnected from the world, I feel like I've got a much clearer view of it.

As a nation we seem to be willing hosts to the oligarch parasites. But it's only because they've gotten inside our heads.

[shebornik]

79. Thank you hunter

it's nice to see someone here who hasn't given up. Most of the previous pathetic woe is me posts were just what republicans like to see from dems.

[DocMac]

111. Republicans will suffer as well.

Maybe we need to hit rock bottom for the people to understand what is going on?

[Marr]

69. This sort of thing is to be expected when you have ridiculous wealth disparities.

The tiny, wealthy class buy the government, buy the gates to government, then close the gates.

[sorefeet]

70. Frogs in a frying pan

for my entire life 62 years, they have been simmering America in propaganda and religion. I think Americans are mostly a bunch of blowhards. Talk tough shit, but toss them a $250 appeasement check and they buy a Chinese trinket and calm right down. Rather than tell them to shove the fucking bribe up their ass, we settle for more fucking lies. Just learn how to live in poverty and misery. It is becoming the norm? Get used to it, because no one in this country is going to do a fucking thing except snivel. Unless you are blind, the country has been taken over by the rich. With out solidarity it's over. And guess what the richest country on earth doesn't have.
This country reeks of brilliant propaganda and massive ignorance to absorb it thoroughly.
SCOTUS, FUCK YOU! 5 Of you are lying bribe taking criminals and the other 4 should expose that from the inside. Too much turn a blind eye bull shit. Every body plays like a cop and just ignores what their fellow pig is doing. Fuck, I just better shut up. Blood pressure ya know.

[ballyhoo]

83. I'm 68 and feel the same way. I made a

post too and some DU person told me to "Enjoy my stay." I believe it is now too late to reverse the takeover and it is time to find another country. I would like to tell you other things but it is too dangerous to do it on open board. The Supreme Court is now just another group of sock puppets. Like...never mind. Good luck to you. Have you considered other places to go? Some sound good but when you go there fore a visit, it's different. Have you been to New Zealand? Five of my close friends have gone there. They say it's nice. I've had three other friends go to Mexico. Condos. About 25 per cent of my 1964 graduating class has left the States. Our 50th reunion is this year and that was one of the statistics our annual team sent us. Well, it sounds like you know what's going on, too. It's all very sad. I didn't creep around the jungles of Viet Nam for this.

[sorefeet]

92. I know ballyhoo

I did my time in the military also and I THOUGHT it was to help the country, or so they told me, but in reality I was just an employee for the Military Industrial Complex. Making money for the corporates.
I have been a bad boy here also. But no body here knows me so it's only a prejudice on their behalf, no big deal.
When you have such a huge, surreal media who abuse the first amendment and a supreme court who are free to make laws, this ain't going to be easy. I am in the process of buying my first home, so I can't leave. The VA want it painted before closing and I can't get them to understand it's still winter in Montana.

[ballyhoo]

96. Well, good luck, sorefeet. Montana actually may be one of the few

safe places.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

72. 200 and some years was a good run n/t

[caseymoz]

85. We have the worst Congress and SCOTUS ever

Following the worst POTUS ever. This country is going end in flames very soon.

[Helen Borg]

86. Again???

[clg311]

90. It's been dead a long time. NT

[FlyByNight]

94. Not exactly land of the "free" is it?

Freedom, as it turns out to be, is rather expensive.

There are 5, out-and-out fascists currently sitting on the SCOTUS. The republic is pretty much dead.

[clg311]

98. Maybe the National Endowment for Democracy should promote democracy here.

Instead of subverting it in other countries.

[Ed Suspicious]

99. Can I say Fuck Kennedy in here? That's how I feel.

[yeoman6987]

105. We need to look on the bright side

I read an article in USA Today saying that Hollywood is thrilled with this verdict. They will be able to spend millions on candidates all over the country now. Guess what? This is for democrats as a huge majority of Hollywood is democratic. We have to fight the Republicans who have a bottomless amount of money. So please look at how we can work with this law and not just cry about it.

[fredamae]

106. HR 20 "Government By The People Act of 2014"

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d113:HR00020:

There are two companion bills--HR 268 and S 375

Has anyone heard of these? Intro'd in early Feb 2014...

[mzmolly]

108. More sad proof that the difference between a Gore appointed

Supreme Court nominee, and a Bush appointed nominee, mattered.

Ugh.

[Corruption Inc]

112. Next thing ya know we'll open torture camps and give criminals banks billions a month

Oops, already do that. Maybe we could spy on every citizen and keep files on them; oops, already do that too.

Oh well, let's just look at kitty cat pictures and pretend that everyone who cares about humans is some fringe radical leftist.

[pacalo]

113. Five disgraceful men have ideologies that do not belong on the Supreme Court.

Horrendous decision. Unbelievable.