Anti-democratic Scalia

At Democracy Now, Amy Goodman discussed McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, which has been referred to as "the next Citizens United."

Republican leaders and wealthy GOP donor Shaun McCutcheon wants the Supreme Court to throw out aggregate limits on individual contributions in a single two-year cycle, saying they violate free speech. "If these advocate limitations go down, 500 people will control American democracy. It would be 'government for the 500 people,' not for anybody else — and that’s the risk," says Burt Neuborne, law professor and founding legal director of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School. . . "AMY GOODMAN: During the oral arguments, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, quote, "By having these limits you are promoting democratic participation, then the little people will count some, and you won’t have the super-affluent as the speakers that will control the elections." Justice Antonin Scalia responded somewhat sarcastically by saying, quote, "I assume that a law that only—only prohibits the speech of 2 percent of the country is okay." That was Scalia. BURT NEUBORNE: And that’s the—that’s the gulf that divides the court on these cases. Justice Ginsburg thinks that we should use campaign finance reform to advance equality, so that everybody has a roughly equal political influence. Scalia says, "Look, if you’re rich, you’re entitled to have as much influence as you can buy." And that’s now been the collision, and the Scalia side has won five-to-four consistently in recent years."

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Make that call to your elected representative – Make some noise.

Here's what's on my mind. Many of us care deeply about social and political issues, and it does feel good to clarify each other's thoughts here on FB, but it doesn't change politicians views. I've ranted about U.S. warmongering online for almost a decade, and it hasn't changed America's obsession with war as the first tool of choice for attempting to "fix" social conflict. Last week, I got a robocall from a voice that told me that Obamacare is going to destroy the United States. I don't believe that. I also believe that Obamacare is full of flaws (I think the U.S. should guarantee ALL citizens a reasonable minimum level of health care doing an end-around private insurers, based on what is sustainable in terms of the overall budget--I would much rather prefer Medicare for all to Obamacare). This robocall said to "Hit 1, to be transferred to Senator Blunt." I hit 1. A man from Roy Blunt's office answered the call and proceeded to horribly misrepresent several aspects of Obamacare. He proceed to tell me that his poll of choice showed that people from Missouri are heavily against the things offered by Obamacare. I told him that I didn't trust the methodology and that I know 1,000 people who are not against the things offered by Obamacare. He tried to get off the phone. I challenged him to stay on the phone. I asked him whether there weren't SOME decent aspects of Obamacare, such as eliminating exclusions for pre-existing conditions. He hemmed and hawed. He told me that costs will go up under Obamacare. I responded, "Costs for health insurance rose throughout the 8 years of George W. Bush. They go up regardless of who is the President." I kept this twerp on the phone for 5 painful minutes (painful for both of us), and challenged Senator Blunt to do SOMETHING so that in a nation that has more resources than most, we don't have people dying for lack of medical treatment. He actually seemed to be agreeing with me a bit at the end. [More . . . ]

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Einstein proves fraud

Huge securities trading spike occurs before it would be possible to even receive the information electronically, much less react to it after reading it.

"[T]he Fed news was certainly present in trading centers in Chicago and New York before 2pm. The evidence is overwhelming. It is unknown how many people had access to this information - for a timed news release, it would have been at least an administrator, probably Q.A. and others. What we do know is the resulting explosion of trading just 1 thousandth of a second after 2pm, was unprecedented in the history of Fed news announcements, and much of that trading was based on information obtained before the set Federal Reserve Board release time."
I'm betting that there won't be any prosecutions.

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Following the money to understand political corruption

Shocking story by "This is American Life." Nancy Pelosi attends 400 political fundraisers per year. Politicians of both parties spend untold amount of town raising money, planning to raise money or thinking about raising money. How much money do members of the house of representatives need. At 7:41 of this recording, you'll hear a Federal Representative from Ohio admitting that he needed to raise $10,000-15,000 PER DAY. This amounts to $2.5 M over two years. The story goes on and on, and amounts to a total corruption of our supposed democracy.

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Nixon more Liberal than Obama?

Fascinating article in Daily Kos. Here's some of Nixon's accomplishments (granted, that he had a different Congress):

1969 - Nixon enters peace negotiations with North Viet Nam 1970 - Nixon negotiates permanent deal with USSR not to use Cienfuegos (Cuba) for ballistic missile Submarines 1971 - Nixon increases arms sales and loans to Israel 1972 - Nixon enters into successful SALT talks with USSR 1973 - Nixon withdraws thousands of troops from VietNam, ends draft. 1973 - Nixon agrees to support Israel, begins airlift that allows Israel to counterattack. Nixon and the USSR negotiate a peace protecting Israel and ending the war.
Big sections on domestic policies too. Well worth a read.

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