Are we a Corporatocracy yet?

[maxx]

We like to talk about leveling the playing field when discussing social issues, but this election will show the power of corporate money to influence gov. for their own profit.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know...lections/4020/

Rove's American Crossroads has already collected $32M.

[maxx]

http://www.amazon.com/Third-World-Am...6216617&sr=1-1
"... What became clear while writing this book is that the decline of the middle class was no accident. It was the result of tricks and traps. Tricks in the ways we financed our homes. Traps in the ways credit card companies used hidden fees and fine print and skyrocketing interest rates to get their hands on our money, driving more and more people into debt. So, yes, the game is rigged. Our financial system has become a bad carnival game where the rich always get the grand prize and the average American walks away empty-handed. We've gone from an economy where we make things to an economy where we make things up: default credit swaps, derivatives, CDOs and the like have turned Wall Street into a casino. Actually, a casino is fairer: at least you know the odds going in. And for me, the answer to the question of how we got here has to start in Washington, where special interests run the show--and where lobbyists outnumber elected officials 26 to 1..."

[maxx]

http://www.slate.com/id/2242208/
"...Stevens hammers, more than once this morning from the bench on the principle that corporations "are not human beings" and "corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires." He insists that "they are not themselves members of 'We the People' by whom and for whom our Constitution was established.'...
Even former Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist once warned that treating corporate spending as the First Amendment equivalent of individual free speech is 'to confuse metaphor with reality.'

[oladub]

I don't agree with his every historical point but at least this man understands that there are powers in control of both the mainstream Republican AND Democratic Parties. Otherwise, this speech makes your point about corporatism.

You will be surprised at who is delivering this speech. He must have been listening to Ron Paul or maybe the truth is just self-evident . Turn the volume up after seven minutes. This speech turns into a barn burner. You gotta watch it all the way through though. [[10min27sec) I had no idea this speaker is so good at moving a crowd. Hats off!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZkR1nMw1E0

[Danny]

The United States are already in a early plutomony stages. Corporations are running our broken government like a A.I. machines running the lives of humanities.

Neal Stevenson, the author of the best selling book "SNOW CRASH" warns about how corporations running government and now its almost a reality.

[rb336]

I don't agree with his every historical point but at least this man understands that there are powers in control of both the mainstream Republican AND Democratic Parties. Otherwise, this speech makes your point about corporatism.

You will be surprised at who is delivering this speech. He must have been listening to Ron Paul or maybe the truth is just self-evident . Turn the volume up after seven minutes. This speech turns into a barn burner. You gotta watch it all the way through though. [[10min27sec) I had no idea this speaker is so good at moving a crowd. Hats off!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZkR1nMw1E0

The thing is, LF is a man created by the corporatocracy to divide working black people from working white people. The Ron Pauls of the world are also pawns - they somehow don't realize that the exact policies they advocate create a vacuum that will only be filled by- guess who?
the corporations.

[Gyro]

If anyone seriously doubts that the Koch Brothers http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2...0fa_fact_mayer and their ilk are secretively trying to manipulate the teabaggers, the middle-class and are trying to buy the election, I invite you to see what Nobel Prize winning economist, Paul Krugman, has to say about it:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/04/op...ef=paulkrugman

[ejames01]

This is nothing new. The same things were done to divide poor whites, slaves and indians.

The thing is, LF is a man created by the corporatocracy to divide working black people from working white people. The Ron Pauls of the world are also pawns - they somehow don't realize that the exact policies they advocate create a vacuum that will only be filled by- guess who?
the corporations.

[oladub]

This is too rich! Louis Farrakhan is a man created by the corporatocracy, according to rb, to promote racism. I guess I wasn't wearing my tin foil hat and didn't pick up on that.

If you want to taste the essence of corporatism, I suggest instead reviewing the Christmas Eve present President Obama gave the bankers with his executive order or the Wall Street bailout which Obama, Bush, and McCain all supported. Or the push from the Obama White House to throttle S.603 which would have given some transparancy to the Federal Reserve. Farrakhan was spot on in his attack on the wars and Federal Reserve in that video - if you bothered to watch it all. You instead are a defender of the bankers and wars and claim that Farrakhan is a plant. Hmmm.... maybe he works for the Koch brothers . It's almost Halloween, why not?

Louis Farrakhan exposes the Federal Reserve and International bankers

Gyro, Paul Krugman...funny. Have any of his suggestions ever worked? Last I heard, he was trying to cause trouble with China; imagining that the US can dictate Chinese economic policy. China must think he's another worm like Timmy Geithner whom they publicly laughed at.

[Gyro]

Gyro, Paul Krugman...funny. Have any of his suggestions ever worked?

Absolutely! What has never worked is the Republican claim that lower taxes produce jobs and economic prosperity.

http://www.alternet.org/story/144145...obref=obinsite

This has never been more evident than in the past two years, yet the Republicans keep peddling the same old snake oil, claiming it's the solution for every problem.

[EastSider]

Well, there was that one suggestion he had, to create a housing bubble to resurrect the economy post-2001. That worked really well for us.

Until that bubble popped, too.

Damn bubbles!

[oladub]

Gyro, Paul Krugman...funny. Have any of his suggestions ever worked?

Absolutely! What has never worked is the Republican claim that lower taxes produce jobs and economic prosperity.

This has never been more evident than in the past two years, yet the Republicans keep peddling the same old snake oil, claiming it's the solution for every problem.

The Republicans blew it. The wealthy were given some breaks but there was a huge failure in not reducing government spending. Lowering taxes while spending more money is a recipe for disaster whether under Bush or more recently under Obama. Hope you are happy with the continued wars, breaks for bankers, 9.6% unemployment, continued export of US jobs, and record high forclosures under Obama. It's a testament to Krugman and the rest of the Obama economic clown team. Keep on hoping for change.

[tvaspen]

What do you mean yet...

[maxx]

http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/09/news...jobs_december/
Jobs lost in 2008: 2.6 million

http://www.usatoday.com/money/econom...jobs-aug_N.htm
Companies add 67,000 jobs

That is change. The Republican game is to deny any credit at all to the Dems while spouting the same old crap and running hucksters and idiots for candidates.

[Papasito]

This is too rich! Louis Farrakhan is a man created by the corporatocracy, according to rb, to promote racism. I guess I wasn't wearing my tin foil hat and didn't pick up on that.

If racism becomes a dead issue,. guys like Farrakhan, Sharpton and Jackson will lose thier ca$h cow.
If you leave it up to men like them, racism will be eternal.
From listening to thier rhetoric, you would believe that modern America treats minorities worse than slavery itself did.

[Papasito]

What has never worked is the Republican claim that lower taxes produce jobs and economic prosperity.

Bush II was doing Ok until a couple of buildings fell.
He was working pretty hard to bounce the country back from the busted Clinton .com bubble and the housing bust that was fueled by irresponsible compassionates who thought everyone deserved a house whether they could pay for it or not.
That stupid Iraq war didn't help much either.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032553/ns/politics

And what does work? The rationing of energy as if it was going to run out at any moment? The implimentation of a taxation system that drives businesses out of the country? The kind that makes governement cut special deals with companies so they can turn a profit or otherwise be doomed before they start? Carter caused gas shortages and told everyone to freeze in thier homes... destroyed our economy and made America a pretty miserable place. Clinton had success because he basically left everything alone, but we paid for it later because business ran amuck in the process.. now Obama is here and he's telling us to ration ration ration as the Government does anything but ration....

Freedom and low taxes motivates prosperity.
Rationing, overtaxation, and opression of the people creates decline.

[rb336]

This is too rich! Louis Farrakhan is a man created by the corporatocracy, according to rb, to promote racism..

no tin foil hat needed. just a broader understanding of the term "created" that includes someone developing beliefs as a result of poicies instituted by X

[rb336]

Bush II was doing Ok until a couple of buildings fell.
He was working pretty hard to bounce the country back from the busted Clinton .com bubble and the housing bust that was fueled by irresponsible compassionates who thought everyone deserved a house whether they could pay for it or not.

That may be the stupidest, most un-informed comment I have ever heard regarding the Dubya early years

[oladub]

http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/09/news...jobs_december/
Jobs lost in 2008: 2.6 million

http://www.usatoday.com/money/econom...jobs-aug_N.htm
Companies add 67,000 jobs

That is change. The Republican game is to deny any credit at all to the Dems while spouting the same old crap and running hucksters and idiots for candidates.

Add the Reuters article of Oct.6 claiming that 39,000 private sector jobs were lost in September. Either way, about 150,000 new jobs have to be added monthly to keep up with population growth so we are still losing jobs despite printing and borrowing trillions of dollars to put a smiley face on the otherwise still declining economy. You forgot to mention that your article also noted the increase in the underemployment rate from 16.5% to 16.7% and the total unemployment rate from 9.5% to 9.6% from August to September. Eventually, these extra trillions will have to be paid back and then we will be at a disadvantage to the Chinese economy investing money in new growth while we will be burdoned with paying down the Obama debt. I can have change too if I borrowed a bunch of money for new things. The problem is eventually I will have changed things for the worse as Obama and Bush have.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Privat....html?x=0&.v=2

[maxx]

Papasito: ... the housing bust that was fueled by irresponsible compassionates who thought everyone deserved a house whether they could pay for it or not.

Compassion had nothing to do with it.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...d=aA6YC1xKUoek
"...
The new standardized contracts they created would allow firms to protect themselves from the risks of subprime mortgages, enable speculators to bet against the U.S. housing market, and help meet demand from institutional investors for the high yields of loans to homeowners with poor credit.
Boom Turns Bust
The tools also magnified losses so much that a small number of defaulting subprime borrowers could devastate securities held by banks and pension funds globally, freeze corporate lending, and bring the world's credit markets to a standstill.."

[maxx]

The C of C is definitely working at making the U.S. a corporatocracy, of , by , and for businesses.

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/10/05/...mber-commerce/
"...A ThinkProgress investigation has found that the Chamber funds its political attack campaign out of its general account, which solicits foreign funding. And while the Chamber will likely assert it has internal controls, foreign money is fungible, permitting the Chamber to run its unprecedented attack campaign. According to legal experts consulted by ThinkProgress, the Chamber is likely skirting longstanding campaign finance law that bans the involvement of foreign corporations in American elections..."

[oladub]

Maxx, What's up? You haven't mentioned the Koch brothers in this whole thread and now we know that David Koch and his wife gave Andrew Cuomo [[D) $87,000 toward his effort to become the next Democratic Governor of New York. Speculation?

http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/20...uomo_camp.html

[gibran]

so we all agree that both sides are bought off ...to a degree...so now the questions arise to what extent; and how would you also like the "other agenda" also to be a factor...you know the hidden agenda of the tea party or the majority of those who support this insanity,,., Palin, O'Donnell, Bachman, et al... at least with the devil we know is that they at least give us the illusion of sanity...lol... I would vote for Nader over any of the tea baggers any day.... maybe the tea party should get behind him..if they so love our country...or denounce prejudice and racism...or stick to a strickly humanitarian agenda...

I would rather see a social jsutice party that truly represents all Americans or at least the 95% of us.

[Relayer76]

so we all agree that both sides are bought off ...to a degree...so now the questions arise to what extent; and how would you also like the "other agenda" also to be a factor...you know the hidden agenda of the tea party or the majority of those who support this insanity,,., Palin, O'Donnell, Bachman, et al... at least with the devil we know is that they at least give us the illusion of sanity...lol... I would vote for Nader over any of the tea baggers any day.... maybe the tea party should get behind him..if they so love our country...or denounce prejudice and racism...or stick to a strickly humanitarian agenda...

I would rather see a social jsutice party that truly represents all Americans or at least the 95% of us.

Is there a difference between Republicans and Democrats? Sort of - the GOP attracts people who wants to turn the world into a Corporatocracy, the Dems attract people who would like to reverse the trend towards corporatocracization but are unable to do so because of corporate lobbies and teabagger movements promoted by Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.

"We the People" have to wake up and get involved at the grass roots. I would also edge my bets and learn skills that might help me live off the grid.

[ejames01]

The world is already a Corporatocracy. Unfortunately for us, our country is pretty much controlled by it.

Is there a difference between Republicans and Democrats? Sort of - the GOP attracts people who wants to turn the world into a Corporatocracy, the Dems attract people who would like to reverse the trend towards corporatocracization but are unable to do so because of corporate lobbies and teabagger movements promoted by Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.

"We the People" have to wake up and get involved at the grass roots. I would also edge my bets and learn skills that might help me live off the grid.