Astounding success of the Oligarchs...stand back, it is STUNNING

[randys1]

1. Voter ID is unconstitutional, it is a poll tax (forget that it is completely unnecessary), and yet we are NOT debating whether to have ID laws but what constitutes a proper ID. So we allowed the owners to go right past the legality of it, amazing.

2. It is now OK, per the SC, to have prayer in government, specific prayer for specific religions, no less.

3. It is now OK, per the SC, to let corps act as people with all the advantages of people and NONE of the disadvantages (remember, they arent people, this is unconstitutional whether talking about Citizens United or Hobby Lobby)

4. It is now acceptable behavior to pretend you are a Christian while banging on a bus screaming at children to go away.

There are more, anybody want to add some?

[Octafish]

1. It's OK to spend as much money as you want on a politician, apart from bribing.

Other than that, money even trumps peace.

[Kelvin Mace]

2. A famous painter was once asked

to ascertain whether a painting by a rival was authentic or a forgery. The painter demurred and said, "That is a very fine distinction."

To me "political contribution" and "bribery" are pretty much the same thing.

[Octafish]

4. To me too, Kelvin Mace. To Gov. Donald Siegelman, tragically.

The guy and an Alabama hospital exec are still in prison for nothing that wasn't done by Siegelman's GOP predecessors.

[truedelphi]

8. That is a great story about the painter.

And your political comment stings like fire and hurts like hell, but is the Truth.

[Kelvin Mace]

16. I believe it was James Whistler

referring to Grant Wood (or vice versa), but it was a long time ago, in an art class far, far away.

[unblock]

6. "apart from bribing" is a fine distinction.

our esteemed lawmakers have set up wonderful rules to safeguard our democracy from bribery.

for instance, making certain kinds of fundraising called from a government office is obviously corrupt and thank goodness that's illegal. instead, officeholders set outside and make the same call on a private cell phone, thereby ensuring that absolutely no corruption could possibly happen.

similarly, politicians often meet and greet and make speeches on the campaign trail, often making promises or at least suggesting certain future action after winning the election. fundraising at such events looks quite like bribery, so actual fundraising happens immediately after the speech, across the street. different venue, different time, different even. ergo, they couldn't possibly be related.

once again our democracy is pure and squeaky clean!


the fact of the matter is that small donations made by people not in a position to influence anyone could arguably be free speech, but at the very least, once it gets to a size where it clearly sways politicians, it's bribery, and the bribe-takers carving themselves out s safe harbor in law doesn't change the stinking ethics.

[madokie]

9. You said it

Spot on too

[truedelphi]

10. Also, sometimes no money at all changes hands.

But often, anyone following a very successful local politician finds out that everyone from their cousin to their daughter-in-law has a plush job at whatever company or agency wherein the politician has helped the Corporate One Percent get the needed favors.

[unblock]

12. if you call that no money changing hands.

yes, bribery laws tend to get enforced (to the extent that happens at all) only when the politician is the direct beneficiary. family members or campaign contributions, allowing for certain window dressing, are considered fair game.

[Kelvin Mace]

17. I have a pretty simple test:

If it is greater than three figures, it's a bribe.

The average working man is hard pressed to part with a $1,000.

[unblock]

19. not only that, but who gives a meaningful amount without expecting a return?

*especially* a corporation!

[Kelvin Mace]

21. In the general course of human relations

if you are not a loved one or CLOSE friend, we don't hand over amounts 4 digits and larger unless we expect something in return. If I fork over $5,000 to my alma mater, I expect to see my name in print. If it's $50,000 I expect to see my name on a plaque on a wall. At six digits I expect a plaque at a dinner, and when I get to seven digits and higher, it will be my name on a room, a wing, or an entire building.

[unblock]

22. and in politics, they call it "access".

[DirkGently]

7. Abortion is still ostensibly the right of all women

Last edited Wed Jul 9, 2014, 02:02 PM - Edit history (1)

... but can be de facto denied by designing laws specifically tailored to run care providers out of business, legality can be limited to barely enough time for a woman to realize she is pregnant, women and doctors can be FORCED to engage in medically unnecessary ultrasounds for the implied purpose of making the woman reconsider, and buffer zones already proven necessary to prevent extreme harassment, violent threats, and murder of patients and care providers have been declared unconstitutional.

[truedelphi]

11. When you consider that ultra sounds up the risk of miscarriage,

You start to understand how hinky the reasoning is behind so much of this.

[DirkGently]

13. Did not know that. But it's clearly intimidation.

The demand for transvaginal exams just made it made more grotesque.

There is a lot of that in conservative / Republican American policy-making: trying to humiliate / denigrate / blame people by implication. Drug-testing the poor to imply it's only "sinful habits" that lead to anyone needing assistance. Forbidding doctors to talk to depressed patients about gun ownership to deny the connection between suicide and firearms.

Forcing women to walk gauntlets of crazy people and submit to invasive, medically unneeded exams before making a decision that belongs solely to them, to imply they need to "think about it."

It is all obscene and ludicrous, and underlines just how much fear, hate, and contempt of others underlies the conservative "philosophy" in this country.

[truedelphi]

15. Meanwhile many of the families that own Pesticide and

Other companies wherein the workplaces are very toxic to pregnant women, and miscarriage is the norm if you work there, those families are greeted warmly by the Catholic pastors and the RW Baptist ministers, as the families make substantial donations to these churches.

In Silicon Valley Calif., many women working in semi conductor clean rooms were visiting fetrrtility clinics trying to get pregnant. Finally doctors realized these women were getting pregnant. But the air they breathed in at work was so deadly they miscarried, often before they even knew they had been pregnant.

For some reason, in RW religious thinking, if an individual decides for whatever reason to not carry the pregnancy she has to full term, she is guilty of the most heinous of sins. But let a Corporate Patriarch be responsible for dozens or hundreds or thousands of miscarriages, and that is all A-okay.

[DirkGently]

20. That's a point worthy of an OP.

There are many ways the conservative "sanctity of life" argument vis a vis abortion or contraception is belied by the eagerness of the same political groups to kill the "post-unborn" outright, or allow them to die by abuse or negligence.

Deadly environmental conditions, especially in the workplace, is one I had not thought about.

[CrispyQ]

14. Electronic voting.

My county has paper ballots that are scanned & digitized. The networks are in a race to be the first to call an election. Our entire electoral process is corrupt & compromised. It's total madness meant to squash any challenge to the status quo.

[marions ghost]

23. If only more people faced this fact--that electronic voting is wide open to corruption

maybe we could get something done about it...

[UTUSN]

18. R#14 & K n/t