McCutcheon vs FEC - Citizens United Part 2

Have any of you heard about this?

Next Citizens United? McCutcheon Supreme Court Case Targets Campaign Contribution Limits

http://www.fec.gov/law/litigation/McCutcheon.shtml

Basically, this Alabama guy named Shaun McCutcheon is mad that he can't donate more than the current campaign caps to the candidates he likes. The Republican National Convention (RNC) agrees that it's ludicrous that they should be limited by how much money they can take in by good folks like Shaun. Together they have been arguing to the Supreme Court that they are being denied their First Amendment rights to express themselves, and they want to see the current campaign finance limits ($117,000 aggregate biennial limit) removed. They want to be able to accept unlimited campaign contributions. I hope we can all understand why that's a fucking terrible idea and will corrupt the US government even further. The Supreme Court, from what I understand, told them to fuck off last year and that their contested right was one of association, not expression, and that the first amendment isn't being violated by the the current campaign donation limits. It's explained more clearly in the fec.gov link above. Please read it and slam your head on the desk.

If this passes, it really is going to be Citizens United Round 2, and US citizens will be further fucked and lose our representation in the government for those who represent monied interests. It's frustrating as all hell and I hope some of you tell your friends about this. Somehow the Supreme Court needs to hear American citizens' voices loud enough... again, frustrating as all hell.

Or, welcome to the land of "one dollar, one vote." :/

Well, I'm a little bummed that not a single person cared enough to respond to this, but whatever. Maybe we really do deserve to be fucked by this.

This shit drives me fucking bernanners.

It won't stop until this country is an actual, explicit corporate plutocracy.

(unless we take the money out of politics...go occupy!)

we need to take action. Lob cruise missiles at McCutcheon.

  On 9/6/2013 at 2:55 AM, luke viia said:

Well, I'm a little bummed that not a single person cared enough to respond to this, but whatever. Maybe we really do deserve to be fucked by this.

A couple of months ago I sent a mass email to all of my friends/fam living in my state - ostensibly educated, rational people (many with kids) - asking them to sign the move to amend petition in my state (RI) after reading about it in our local freepaper (see below). You'd think something like this would be a no-brainer, but of the dozens of people I sent it to maybe 5 or 6 signed. Apathy and complacency are some serious motherfuckers I guess. Anyway if their are similar MTA efforts underway in your respective states I encourage you to support them.

  Quote

According to Collins, "The bill that I wrote would put a constitutional referendum on the 2014 ballot that would ask voters if they approve two changes. One would say that a corporation is not a person, and the second would say that political spending isn't protected free speech under the RI Constitution. These changes would be largely symbolic until the US Constitution is similarly changed due to the supremacy clause of the federal constitution. The bill would also send an official Article V petition to the federal government asking for a constitutional convention to make these changes to the US Constitution. If 2/3 of the states pass such petitions, the amendment process is triggered automatically. In short, this is the strongest action the state can take to overturn corporate personhood"

Read more: http://providence.thephoenix.com/news/154195-corporations-as-unconscionable-people/#ixzz2e91SH7ka

  On 9/6/2013 at 10:20 PM, Bob Dobalina said:

 

  On 9/6/2013 at 2:55 AM, luke viia said:

Well, I'm a little bummed that not a single person cared enough to respond to this, but whatever. Maybe we really do deserve to be fucked by this.

 

A couple of months ago I sent a mass email to all of my friends/fam living in my state - ostensibly educated, rational people (many with kids) - asking them to sign the move to amend petition in my state (RI) after reading about it in our local freepaper (see below). You'd think something like this would be a no-brainer, but of the dozens of people I sent it to maybe 5 or 6 signed. Apathy and complacency are some serious motherfuckers I guess. Anyway if their are similar MTA efforts underway in your respective states I encourage you to support them.

 

  Quote

According to Collins, "The bill that I wrote would put a constitutional referendum on the 2014 ballot that would ask voters if they approve two changes. One would say that a corporation is not a person, and the second would say that political spending isn't protected free speech under the RI Constitution. These changes would be largely symbolic until the US Constitution is similarly changed due to the supremacy clause of the federal constitution. The bill would also send an official Article V petition to the federal government asking for a constitutional convention to make these changes to the US Constitution. If 2/3 of the states pass such petitions, the amendment process is triggered automatically. In short, this is the strongest action the state can take to overturn corporate personhood"

Read more: http://providence.thephoenix.com/news/154195-corporations-as-unconscionable-people/#ixzz2e91SH7ka

 

Apathy is the game changer this day and age. Keep hounding everyone.

Smetty, your replies, they confuse me. Your cryptic political posts ever since your aggravating run-ins with a few select posters here ... i need more from you, smetty. You're insightful. I was actually hoping to get a big wall of text out of you when I posted this, lol.

@mr. bob dobalina - glad to hear you're spreading the word, that's awesome. I got into an awesome conversation with a cabby about this after I posted here; he said our conversation made him realize that not all Americans are vapid idiots, and he thanked me, which was a nice comment in its own way, haha.

This Move to Amend site is awesome by the way, thank you for that. https://movetoamend.org/ The Washington section is pretty happening.

  On 9/7/2013 at 12:26 AM, luke viia said:

Smetty, your replies, they confuse me. Your cryptic political posts ever since your aggravating run-ins with a few select posters here ... i need more from you, smetty. You're insightful. I was actually hoping to get a big wall of text out of you when I posted this, lol.

 

@mr. bob dobalina - glad to hear you're spreading the word, that's awesome. I got into an awesome conversation with a cabby about this after I posted here; he said our conversation made him realize that not all Americans are vapid idiots, and he thanked me, which was a nice comment in its own way, haha.

 

This Move to Amend site is awesome by the way, thank you for that. https://movetoamend.org/ The Washington section is pretty happening.

I should honestly apologize to you, luke. I find a lot of arguments here to be contrived for the sake of obscurantism and intellectual masturbation versus an ethical and moral problem that all of us, if made more aware of would want solved or at the very least ameliorated.

My response about apathy was not in sarcasm. Apathy is by far the greatest enemy any meaningful reform movement faces. Apathy also allows us to be further manipulated into non-action. I am increasingly convinced that those that profess statist and quasi-fascist defenses of breaches in the democratic process here and abroad hold to pseudo-scientific "apathy" as equatable to "objectivity". I am probably guilty of "throwing my hands up" towards many arguments. It is frustrating to be pigeonholed, strawmanned, and most times ignored. And after all, it is the temptress of "teh internets" that pulls me towards online apathy. And that's no better to those who read and are interested than those that genuinely profess apathy. It's frustrating for restraining of force in the face of past obvious abuses of foreign powers and sovereign interests to be perceived as "doing nothing". It's frustrating for any criticism against statism to be inevitably seen as either unnecessary criticisms against a President to who represents interests out of his control and is thus should not be a legitimate target of said anger, or weak "liberal" critiques of a President we are somehow drawn to by Cult of Personality.

I can go on and on, but this is enough. I'm a communist. I'm a liberal. I'm a libertarian. I'm an anarchist. I don't understand how politics works. I don't understand how the real world works. I don't understand how the economy works. I don't understand being "pragmatic". I don't understand anything. Why participate.

It's just frustrating. I would just say to PM me if you want my real opinion on things.

An understandable stance, given the way most political conversations around here go. I appreciate the response though, and I'm glad to know you're still thinking hard about these things. I often just get in a raeg in my mind when I start to contemplate the future of this country (and world) and I'm kind of at a loss about what to do, but I can't help but care and want to discuss it with people. Your comment about a weird implicit connection between 'objectivity' and 'apathy' in many people's minds is exactly the kind of insight I was talking about before; that's something I've noticed as well and it's frustrating to deal with.

Move to Amend really does have some good info. I recommend anyone that finds Citizens United or this new McCutcheon case alarming have a look. And go to one of these if it's in your area (they're all over): https://movetoamend.org/barnstorming#1 ... I'll be at the Seattle event at Town Hall on the 28th, come see me, we can high five for great justice.