Fuck Sheldon Adelson

The casino mogul makes $3.3 million EVERY FUCKING HOUR.  EVERY HOUR.  and he's spending millions backing newtbag gingrich for the election.  our electoral system is so beyond fucked.  the wealthiest people in this country completely control our political system, and their grip on power is only going to get worse with the coming barrage of campaign money.  Citizens' United will prove to be the absolute worst court decision, in our country or any other, ever.  There is simply no justification for unlimited corporate spending on elections, other than the fact that republicans know they'll be able to cling to power by allowing it.

Hijacking Democracy

We've already begun to see the fallout of the disastrous Citizens' United decision in the form of Super PACs that are deluging residents of primary states with nasty political ads.  And as I've mentioned the other day, Republicans don't think there's enough corporate money in elections..  But I was pretty disturbed this morning to see these two articles;

First, a piece examining the top 20 donors of the political season thus far, combining to give tens of millions of dollars to these Super-PACs.  It should come as no surprise that a whopping 3 of them contribute to liberal groups, and the other 17 support republican causes.  Conservatives are literally purchasing the 2012 election.

Then there's an opinion piece in the NYT that discusses how these Super-PACs, like the ones run by Newt, Rove, and other conservative dickwads, are skirting regulations designed to increase transparency about who exactly funds these organizations.  In fact, they're doing it deliberately in order to prevent people in places like Iowa, NH, and South Carolina from knowing who is bankrolling the majority of the nasty political ads they see.

We need public financing of elections.  Yesterday.

UnFrigginBelievable

The Republican National Committee wants to increase the amount of corporate money in elections.  I wish this was some kind of joke, but it's not.  They just filed an amicus brief in the 4th Circuit arguing that Citizens' United created an unfair, 2-tiered system of campaign financing.  Which it did.  But their genius/dick solution to this is to try to allow for corporations to just give unlimited amounts of money directly to candidates and parties.  Because they haven't yet completely drowned out the voices of US citizens.

Launch/Rant

I'm just fucking fed up.  I'm fed up with the bullshit we're spoonfed incessantly about the wonders of the free market, and how deregulation and lower taxes will lead to job creation and economic recovery.  I'm fed up with having only two political parties that both serve the same interests and insulate themselves from outside attacks.  I'm fed up with people buying the notion that corporations deserve the same rights as people without having any accountability or responsibility.  For that matter, I'm fed up with corporations wreaking havoc on the environment, society, and the economy, and our stupid fucking elected leaders helping them to do it.  I'm fed up with the fact that wages haven't increased AT ALL for anyone other than the top 10% of people in this country over the past four-five decades, while those at the very top live in luxury completely unimaginable to the majority of us.

I'm fed up with people believing that capitalism is a beneficial economic structure for anything other than those who already wield hugely disproportionate amounts of power, money, and influence.  I'm tired of our tragic joke of a media that does more to support this raping of American than to stop it.  I'm tired of all the bullshit.

Fuck Capitalism.  It doesn't work for me, it probably doesn't work for you, and it sure as hell doesn't work for the majority of us.