Honestly, I predict Citizen’s United will go down as one of the worst SCOTUS decisions in our history, on par with ones like Plessy vs Ferguson.
Its a decision that has caused so many additional problems, that no one should talk about the Robert’s court without pointing it out.
Toss gutting section 4 of the Voting Rights Act onto the pile.
TPM, please stop referring to Fruman and Parnas as “Soviet born”. I know it’s literally true, but I keeps getting used to make them sound suspicious. Most Soviet born people aren’t crooks, and judging people by where they were born is Republicans’ thing. We don’t do that. Being “Soviet born” only helps explain their connections in the former Soviet Union, but it doesn’t explain why they’re criminals.
Rep. AOC is a fearless, rare and beautiful communicator. No wonder they are afraid of her.
True as far as history goes. Honestly, IMO we have precious little time left as a going species, let alone for history. We have rotted out from the inside ever more quickly, to the point where the worst human impulses dating back hundreds of thousands of years are weaponized. It’s more of a feeling, but when you use logic on what’s going on, you reach the same conclusion. Add science, obvious overpopulation, constant changing the subject by intense bursts over milliseconds via electronics, open finagling by despotic crooks and their fucked up attorneys, and the destruction of sanity is inevitable.
This “scandal” that Russia is now the shining city on the Hill proves a lot. JFC.
This is a good article but in my opinion it leaves out an additional important factor.
Fox News, as well as other Conservtive media like Talk radio and later, web sites, was started with the idea that there would be “no more Watergates”. In other words, they would would make up a Conservative Media to counteract supposed Liberal news sources which were critical in changing public opinion on Nixon. In effect, they would function as a Conservative firewall to protect any Republican President from the fallout of scandals.
Fox News and the others did just that. The unexpected result however, was that each time a new Republican Administration took power, it built on the malfeasance and criminality of it’s Republican predecessor. Because of the Conservative Firewall, no one in a position of real power was ever held to account. Bush 43 was far worse than Bush 41, and Trump has now proven to be far worse than Bush 43.
God help us the next time a new Republican Administration takes office.
I love that pic, but I think the date is wrong.
Should be 2016. That was when rich cheaters first stole the presidency under the protection of CU.
That is a fascinating theory. Is it yours, or is there more along those lines elsewhere?
Remember, when the U.S. Supreme Court paved the way for corporate-funded super PACs in its Citizens United decision, it did so under the assumption that they’d be “independent” of candidates, and promised that such independence guarded against any risk of actual or perceived corruption. But when President Trump affords direct access to those six-figure donors who give to his “approved” super PAC, that super PAC is anything but independent.
Classic sophistry. Robbing Peter to pay Paul – but as SOP. A Ponzi scheme built out of lies instead of cash.
The “conservatism” pushed by the GOP is just a grab-bag of debunked theories and urban legends. It’s all they have, and it’s not like Sheldon Adelson is gonna do their jobs for them and write the PR BS himself.
That is a fascinating theory. Is it yours, or is there more along those lines elsewhere?
My own.
I began noticing the progression of awfulness from Reagan/Bush41 to Bush43 well before Trump became President. And in a sense, the Iran Contra Scandal was worse than Watergate because it involved the Administration purposefully flouting the will of Congress, as opposed a burglary by a secret group of campaign Tricksters. Either Reagan or Bush 41 (or maybe both of them) probably knew about what North was doing while it was happening. There’s not so much evidence that Nixon actually knew about the Watergate break-in until afterward.
And of course, the Bush 43 Administration was definitely more corrupt than Reagan/Bush 41. So in my mind this progression of criminality was established before Trump came along. I didn’t think Trump would go this far; I thought he would simply repeat the malfeasance of his predecessor.
As for the cause, it’s no secret that right-wing media was established to counter a supposed “Liberal” (i.e. fact-based) bias in the media. And as I’ve wondered “They keep getting worse, how on earth can they get away with that??” I think the answer finally hit me.
Has everyone on this post seen Meryl Streep’s “laundromat?”
It has some shortcomings as pure entertainment, but not on the pure horror in which we find ourselves. It’s free on Netflix at:
https://www.google.com/search?q=meryl+streep+laundromat&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari
A must see for those of us demanding reform to make illegal the huge amounts of Money laundered off-shore which are then routed to the Super-Pacs under Citizens United.
And here’s the brass tacks on how to do it:
An Amendment is fine, but a more immediate action is available with an effective result in the interim.
My position is that legislation need be passed to prohibit political advertising in broadcast and print from the super PACs unless and until they publish their list of donors.
Fine, follow the Supreme Court. Money is speech. But we have a right to know Who is paying for it. There is nothing in the Constitution that guarantees anonymity when you exercise your right of free speech.
This is so critical to the future of the republic. It needs to be taken up immediately instead of waiting around for the constitutional amendment which others are advocating.
(The amendment process requires two sessions of Congress, 2/3 of the state legislatures to approve, yada yada yada and we wouldn’t have an outcome for probably six years. Check out the history of the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment).
[Please copy a version of this argument into a convenient text file on your devices and feel free to use/post whenever you see someone advocating a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United!]
Maybe hers is the first door to pound on when visiting Washington to INITIATE THE REFORM LEGISLATION OUTLINED IN MY POST ABOVE!!
Yes.
Reform of anything is quite a challenge when the Congress is peopled by those who have long benefitting from the current system. This will take time.
We need to elect more people who are adamantly opposed to these shenanigans. Money from PACs and corporations don’t want things to change.
Repealing the Citizens United ruling would be a great start.
I like the way the placement of individuals in that photo makes it appear that Giuliani is wearing the hair from someone else’s head.
I wonder if Justice Alito will ever apologize to Obama for pointing this out in his SoU when Alito sat there shaking his head no.
No, buying influence didn’t start with Citizens United. But having wealthy foreign actors buy influence with our highest officials really is new.
Nope. That’s just not true. And a problem is that people who adopt this kind of cynical attitude make reform impossible.
Just another racist white man disrespecting a black President.
(And yes, I think it’s racism when the first President to be called a liar during the State of the Union address happens to be black, and his accusers (plural, mind you) happen to be white.)
Thank you!!! Citizen’s United was a terrible idea and it has done a huge amount of harm to our electoral system. It started as a PAC funded by such as the Koch Bros. (what does that tell you?) and supported every Republican’s wet dream of eliminating restrictions on corporate donations in elections. What we have in the White House and much of Congress today is an illustration of the results: unabated corruption all the way to the Oval Office.