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A Vote Against Corporate Takeovers
Jun. 8th, 2010 11:12 amLet's face it. Right now, it certainly looks like the corporations are well on their way to takeover of this country. Most politicians are so in their pockets that they put their good above our own, and because they're hanging on the corporate teat, those same corrupted politicians--from both parties, I should note--get elected again and again.
This year, the similarly corrupt Supreme Court (c.f., Bush v. Gore, 2000) made an absolutely horrendous decision that again pushed the dangerous idea that corporations are people, deserving of all inalienable rights, by saying that the law could not restrict their spending in elections. (And I'd complain about the idea that "money = free speech", and it's surely stupid too, but nothing compared to the belief that corporations are deserving of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, so help us god.)
And year by year Congress has been increasing copyrights to keep Mickey Mouse protected, which is simultaneously ensuring that corporations can extend their creative monopolies for many, many decades, giving them the power and clout they need to corrupt the next generation of law makers and Supreme Court justices.
Nowhere is this creation of a corporatocracy as evident as in California, where our severely broken proposition system is this year being turned against the people of the United States of America by the companies. We have not one, but two propositions on the ballot that were created for corporations, paid for by corporations, and are solely intended to benefit those same corporations.
Prop 16 makes it very difficult for communities to create civic power utilities that would compete with PG&E.
Prop 17 is some insurance bullshit funded by an insurance company, which really says it all.
In some ways it's a replay of 2008 when we had the Mormon Corporation, Inc., come into California and flood millions of dollars into passing prop 8. I think other companies saw that terrible precedent and realized that they could have their way with the state too.
Meanwhile, we have the flipside in California. Little prop 15 is intended to start pushing our elections back to public funding. It's probably too little, too late, given the $41+M that PG&E has spent on prop 16 (99% of the total funding) and the $15+M that Mercury Insurance has spent on prop 17 (98% of the total funding). But it's still worth voting for.
Are Californians really stupid enough to fall for this type of crap? The final polls before the election say yes: props 16 + 17 were up by a hair while prop 15 was barely failing.
Unless we're very lucky today, from 20 years in the future SkyNet may mark today as the day that the Rise of the Coporations truly took hold.
So, y'know, if you're in California, get out and vote. We really need to send a big "FUCK YOU" to PG&E and MERCURY INSURANCE, else next time there will be four corporate propositions, the year after that eight, and a bit after that we'll just give up and let them do the governing ... officially.
This year, the similarly corrupt Supreme Court (c.f., Bush v. Gore, 2000) made an absolutely horrendous decision that again pushed the dangerous idea that corporations are people, deserving of all inalienable rights, by saying that the law could not restrict their spending in elections. (And I'd complain about the idea that "money = free speech", and it's surely stupid too, but nothing compared to the belief that corporations are deserving of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, so help us god.)
And year by year Congress has been increasing copyrights to keep Mickey Mouse protected, which is simultaneously ensuring that corporations can extend their creative monopolies for many, many decades, giving them the power and clout they need to corrupt the next generation of law makers and Supreme Court justices.
Nowhere is this creation of a corporatocracy as evident as in California, where our severely broken proposition system is this year being turned against the people of the United States of America by the companies. We have not one, but two propositions on the ballot that were created for corporations, paid for by corporations, and are solely intended to benefit those same corporations.
Prop 16 makes it very difficult for communities to create civic power utilities that would compete with PG&E.
Prop 17 is some insurance bullshit funded by an insurance company, which really says it all.
In some ways it's a replay of 2008 when we had the Mormon Corporation, Inc., come into California and flood millions of dollars into passing prop 8. I think other companies saw that terrible precedent and realized that they could have their way with the state too.
Meanwhile, we have the flipside in California. Little prop 15 is intended to start pushing our elections back to public funding. It's probably too little, too late, given the $41+M that PG&E has spent on prop 16 (99% of the total funding) and the $15+M that Mercury Insurance has spent on prop 17 (98% of the total funding). But it's still worth voting for.
Are Californians really stupid enough to fall for this type of crap? The final polls before the election say yes: props 16 + 17 were up by a hair while prop 15 was barely failing.
Unless we're very lucky today, from 20 years in the future SkyNet may mark today as the day that the Rise of the Coporations truly took hold.
So, y'know, if you're in California, get out and vote. We really need to send a big "FUCK YOU" to PG&E and MERCURY INSURANCE, else next time there will be four corporate propositions, the year after that eight, and a bit after that we'll just give up and let them do the governing ... officially.