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Post by the Scribe on Apr 9, 2020 10:45:48 GMT
If you think arguing with a Republican, a Conservative, a Libertarian, an alt Righter will do any good think again. At least not if your intention is to change minds. You are talking to a brick wall. If you are doing it for sport, fun or to hone your debating skills or increase your knowledge then go for it. Keep in mind the 1960's Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act sent all the racists aka conservatives and government haters running from the Democratic Party TO the Republican Party. While not all Conservatives are racists all racists who vote vote Republican.
And when the Libertarians took over the Republican Party in the 1980's the hatred for the Federal Government of the people, by the people, for the people began in earnest. Ironically that quote is from the first and last true Republican, Abraham Lincoln. His body wasn't even cold when his party was taken over by corporations. And most of the things they hate or were propagandized to hate about the government were put into place by their own party.
The few Liberals and Moderates in the Republican Party fled to the Democratic Party after a Democratic President signed the Civil Rights Act. That process is now complete. If you engage RepubliCons in any way expect a fight and expect a closed mind. Facts do not matter. Voting against your own best interests don't matter to them. Nothing matters to them except winning where the ends justify the means. That includes voter suppression, bribery, corporate personhood, election stealing and taking power any which way they can.
If you are a Liberal, a Democrat, a Progressive, a Moderate, a person of color or a non-Christian religious minority you had better understand that and you had better understand that quickly. The right wing understands the electoral and governmental system set up by our Founders to prevent the type of right wing Fascism we are seeing all around us and they are using those tools, our tools against us.
And understand this: the majority of white people who voted in this country voted for Trump.
Most people do not understand we are in a war. Not a war in the typical sense but it is a war of class. The wealthy, elite, corporations and their authoritarian loving minions populate and support the Republican Party. They use those minions to do their dirty work but above all convince them to vote against their best interests to keep them in power. These fear driven minions are easily led and propagandized by an authoritarian message and leader and count on the disorganized, confounded opposition to stay that way.
Here are the facts:
Republicans and Democrats are living in two different worlds
By Mark Moore
Divided we stand.
Americans are living in separate worlds, a new poll shows, with Republicans and Democrats holding radically different views of President Trump and his policies.
Not even three weeks into the new administration, the partisan divide covers everything from national security to ObamaCare to voters’ views of Trump himself.
Trump has a 91 percent favorability rating among Republicans but only 3 percent among Democrats, according to a Quinnipiac University poll.
Veteran political analyst Frank Luntz said the findings show voters on both sides are embedded in their positions as never before.
“It’s gotten much worse. There are no conservative Democrats or liberal Republicans anymore. We’ve chosen our camps. We don’t go back and forth,” Luntz said.
“We don’t listen to each other anymore. We don’t care what others think. We only want them to hear what we think.”
Among other stark differences revealed by the poll:
• The Keystone Pipeline — 80 percent of Republicans favor it and 81 percent of Democrats don’t.
• The Mexico-border wall — 81 percent of GOPers favor building it, 95 percent of Dems oppose it.
• ObamaCare — 87 percent of Republicans favor a replacement, 86 percent of Democrats do not.
• Travel ban — 88 percent of Republicans are for the temporary restrictions on travelers from seven countries while 88 percent of Democrats opposite it.
The striking gap extends to Trump’s personal attributes:
• 87 percent of Republicans say Trump is honest, as opposed to 5 percent of Democrats.
• In terms of making the country safer, 87 percent of GOPers said Trump’s policies would accomplish that goal. Only 4 percent of Democrats agreed.
• When voters were asked if Trump “cares about average Americans or notm,” the results were virtually a partisan mirror image — 93 percent of Republicans said he does and 91 percent of Democrats said he doesn’t.
There’s also a significant gender and racial gap when it comes to Trump, who was criticized on the campaign trail for his comments and treatment of women.
Fifty-one percent of men gave Trump thumbs up, compared with just 36 percent of women.
While 51 percent of white voters view him favorably, 73 percent of nonwhite voters don’t.
Trump has repeatedly questioned polls that cast him in a negative light. But on Wednesday, he touted three polls that offered support for his policies.
He crowed about an Emerson Poll that found 49 percent of registered voters see his administration as truthful, while only 39 percent say the media is truthful.
“Trump administration seen as more truthful than news media,” he tweeted.
He also noted a Politico/Morning Consult survey that showed 55 percent support his immigration ban, and cited a poll of 10 European countries that found that voters in eight of them supported a halt to immigration from ¬Muslim-majority countries.
Additional reporting by Carl Campanile
nypost.com/2017/02/08/polls-show-stark-difference-in-views-of-trump/
CNN - These Republicans didn't like Trump at first. They do now.
This is why we are not going to take back Congress in 2018 or beat Trump in 2020 without liberals being able to convince people on the ground that Republican policies are wrong. Otherwise, Republicans in Congress will continue to look the other way, because Trump reflects the views of the Republican base. The rich love him because he will cut taxes and environmental protections. The working class whites love him, because he gleefully scapegoats minorities and feminists. You need look no further than Nazi Germany to see just how powerful and popular a fascist message can be.
Trump's provocative comments about women and minorities -- including assertions that Mexican immigrants were "rapists," that he could grab women's genitals with impunity and that African Americans had never been worse off than they were last year -- along with his misrepresentation of facts and tendency to boast gave Democrats hope that significant numbers of Republicans, particularly women, would cross party lines and vote for Hillary Clinton. They did not.
When it came time to vote, Republicans were as loyal to their party as Democrats were to theirs. And now, they are standing solidly behind Trump, even as his approval rating is the lowest of any new president in modern times. Trump's 40% approval rating is 21 points below average for a president finishing his first month in office, while his 87% approval rating among Republicans is second only to that of George W. Bush among all GOP presidents elected in the last 65 years, Gallup reported Friday.
Put another way, a greater percentage of Republicans support Trump than backed Ronald Reagan after his first four weeks in the Oval Office.
I called a number of Republicans I met along the campaign trail to find out what they think of Trump now. Some bemoaned his blustery style. None disputed his policies. The reason is simple: They agree with him.
www.cnn.com/2017/02/21/politics/donald-trump-republican-support/
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 9, 2020 10:46:13 GMT
Corporations are the MASTERS of the right wing. One only need look at legislation proposed and passed by Republican politicians to see who benefits. Obstruction and destruction is the m.o. of these politicians that are little more than corporate whores.
From New York Times bestselling authors Richard Belzer and David Wayne comes a hard look at the wrongs done to us all by big business in America.
Here is an explosive account of wrongful acts perpetrated, and the ensuing cover-ups inflicted upon us, by American corporations. The bestselling author team of Richard Belzer and David Wayne exposes the ways that the capitalist regime has got us under their thumbs—from the mainstream media and its control over us, to the trillions stolen by big banks and mortgage companies during the mortgage crisis, to the scams perpetrated by Big Oil and Big Pharma. The one common victim of all that corruption is the American public, and Corporate Conspiracies wants to do something about it.
Corporate Conspiracies takes dead aim at those who take advantage of us little guys. Probably most disturbing is the book's examination of politics and capitalism teaming up against us—how politicians and lobbyists all have their hands in each other's pockets while stabbing us in the back, and how the well-established energy lobby—including petroleum, natural gas, and coal—has played a dominant role in the shaping of US foreign policy for decades.
Did you know that companies at times know that their products will kill people, but they do nothing, because it is actually cheaper to compensate the victims than it is to correct the problem? And did you know that the Pentagon is sending $1.5 trillion of our tax dollars to their corporate buddies for a new fighter jet that is already superfluous? This book is guaranteed to make us all think twice about being enslaved and cheated by corporate America.
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 9, 2020 10:46:38 GMT
These types of political discussions/arguments are generally a waste of time and energy regardless of the political viewpoints involved. Much heat, little light... |
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 9, 2020 10:47:04 GMT
This I agree with 100%. But, that said, I still think that there is hope. Here's why: The demographic that is paradoxically republican in sufficient numbers to make a difference is male, white, old and dying younger. I'm not talking about the 1% they are after all only 1% albeit with a disproportionate grip on the aforementioned group. The younger generation is more culturally diverse and egalitarian in their views. They are also not as conditioned to believe that the corporate structure has the answers or that "because he's rich he must be smart or competent" I think that younger people are absorbing the Trump experience and forming opinions of not only Trump but of those who blindly follow him. I don't think any of this bodes well for republicans or the present (perverse) republican philosophy. The question in my mind is when will the scales tip? I have a feeling that we'll gain a bit in 2018 (if Trump is impeached and removed from office before then things might be even better) but not as much as we would like. It is in 2020 when I think the tide will turn. Ironically Trumps possibly being impeached (or dying in office before 2020) would not be the optimal situation for progressives unless the gods smile on us and that Schmuck Pense runs. Oh, I think there may be hope. Us older folks remember the massive Nixon landslide of 1972 (a landslide that Trump could not even dream about). Less than 2 years later, Nixon resigned in disgrace. The Internet Age is a quantum leap faster, who can say what can happen... |
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 9, 2020 10:48:02 GMT
Quote by robertaxel: You never know. Personally, I think one mistake liberals tend to make with conservatives is to paint all of them with the same broad brush (torches; cross-burners; Rush Limbaugh; Ann Coulter, etc.). Back in 1964, Barry Goldwater was seen to be as dangerous and deranged as Trump (his advertising slogan was "In your heart, you know he's right", and liberals responded with "In your guts, you know he's nuts!"), but by today's standards he'd be, if not a liberal, then at the very least a conservative with a conscience (which was the title of a thought-provoking book he wrote). Even Nixon, when it came to stuff like the EPA and the Clean Water Act, was a fairly progressive president (something that even Gore Vidal alluded to). Trump and the people of his ilk, from "comedian" Limbaugh to "comedienne" Coulter to his own in-house deplorables like Steve Bannon and Steve Miller, are more in the Joe McCarthy/Roy Cohn mould of fanaticists and demagogues (no surprise, since Trump learned at Cohn's feet). Theirs is Fascism, and not Conservatism (IMHO). |
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 9, 2020 10:48:24 GMT
What isn't a waste of time is becoming educated and sharing facts as to what is really going on to help motivate like minded individuals to become active and among other things vote. Being armed with education has long lasting implications especially where politics are concerned. These elected leaders can affect long fought laws and policies in seconds because of their positions and we need to stay vigilant on who and what these people are before allowing them into power even if it is someone from your chosen political party. There are political big mouths out there (like me) on the other side that are spreading so much disinformation that uninformed non-political people believe it and take it to heart. They are well organized and our side is not. We are going to a gun fight with a knife. And of course the very wealthy can afford machine guns and psychologists to spread their viewpoint that ultimately benefits themselves especially financially.
For instance, this fight about healthcare is not so much about healthcare. Obamacare put a tax on the wealthy to pull it off and it is that tax that is behind this whole Republican effort to kill Obamacare. Their wealthy masters want that tax killed. It is that simple.
This is one of the best explanations of what is going on here. In this case Obamacare is explained:
www.nationofchange.org/2017/03/28/gop-crusade-health-care-class-warfare/
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 9, 2020 10:48:45 GMT
What isn't a waste of time is becoming educated and sharing facts as to what is really going on to help motivate like minded individuals to become active and among other things vote. I often disagree about this with other people who I otherwise almost completely agree with. They argue that all sides have been infected/taken over by corporatism. Therefore, so they say, voting is a pointless exercise and if you do you are actually giving your approval to rigged system. Although I agree with much of that I still think it makes sense to vote for "the lesser evil." If not, the system will just move on regardless, but without your input. |
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 9, 2020 10:49:01 GMT
That is a very wise assumption. I agree. Anarchy may be the other option but tearing a country apart that still has a lot of good going on will only be a disaster. It wouldn't even phase the 1% who already have their stash. Everyone else would suffer except them. Anarchy could only work when you have a fully conscious population. Unfortunately that's not what we have. |
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 9, 2020 10:50:04 GMT
Trump's actions are classic FASCISM and the Republican Party leadership couldn't be happier.April 24, 2017Trump’s First 100 Days: A Wholesale Corporate Takeover of GovernmentPublic Citizen Report Chronicles Daily Corporate Dealings, Enrichment of Trump Family Businesses
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A day-by-day review of President Donald Trump’s administration so far shows that virtually every day has been marked by a new, extraordinary grant of power to corporate interests and the enrichment of Trump’s private businesses, a Public Citizen report shows.
“We are nearly 100 days into the Trump administration, and it’s clear that there has been a wholesale corporate takeover of the government,” said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen. “Corporate interests are directly driving policy on everything from pesticides to China, regulation to for-profit college rip-offs. Meanwhile, Trump is degrading the office of the presidency to promote the Trump brand, and the ethical vacuum in the White House is ensuring that megascandals will ensnare this administration. America has never seen anything like this, and we have endured only the first three months.”
The report shows an administration that has granted extraordinary power to corporations and has used the office of the presidency to enrich Trump’s private businesses:
•Since taking office in January, Trump has met with nearly 200 corporate executives, inviting megacorporations to shape federal policy.
•Trump has signed 13 Congressional Review Act resolutions passed by a GOP-led Congress that were deemed gifts to big business because they would roll back regulatory protections established by the Obama administration and were opposed by industry. These have eradicated protections for broadband privacy, Alaskan wildlife, worker health and safety, women’s health and streams used to dump coal mining waste.
•Trump has stacked his Cabinet with corporate executives or people with strong ties to Corporate America or specific industries. Appointees include Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn (Goldman Sachs), Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (Exxon Mobil), Secretary of Defense James Matthis (General Dynamics) and Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao (Wells Fargo).
•With his frequent visits to Mar-a-Lago, Trump has turned himself into a walking advertisement for his global resort properties. The visits allow for more casual interactions between Trump and corporate leaders at Trump’s Palm Beach, Fla., resort, where the membership fee is now $200,000.
•Although Trump’s sons are running the day-to-day operations of his real estate empire, Trump still owns his family business, creating an extraordinary conflict of interest between Trump’s personal financial interests and the interests of the country.
•By executive order, Trump overturned President Barack Obama’s measures to block the Keystone and Dakota Access pipelines.
•Trump started his first full weekday in office with a breakfast meeting with CEOs of a dozen corporations including Arconic, Corning, Dell, Dow Chemical Company, Ford Motor Company, International Paper, Johnson & Johnson, Lockheed Martin, SpaceX, UnderArmour and U.S. Steel.
•Trump issued a reckless executive order that directs federal agencies to repeal two federal regulations for every new rule they issue. Public Citizen, along with the Natural Resources Defense Council and Communications Workers of America, has sued Trump and the administration to have this executive order overturned.
•Trump has signed executive orders aimed at unraveling the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law – thereby destabilizing the financial system and making it more prone to another 2008-style meltdown – and repealing an Obama administration Labor Department rule requiring financial advisers to give advice based on their customers’ best interests.
www.citizen.org/media/press-releases/trump%e2%80%99s-first-100-days-wholesale-corporate-takeover-government
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 9, 2020 10:50:32 GMT
They forgot to mention that first Muslim travel ban, which by the way was written up by that little White Nationalist mother***er Steven Miller, alias the American Joseph Goebbels. That is real Fascism (IMHO). |
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 9, 2020 10:50:50 GMT
Good news for racists and private prison corporations.May 12, 2017
Attorney General Sessions’ Classic Mistake – Bully The Little Guy, Disregard Corporate CrimeStatement of Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen
Note: U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is reversing a key element of the Obama administration’s criminal justice reform agenda. He announced that the department is withdrawing a 2013 directive from Attorney General Eric Holder that gave judges and prosecutors wider professional discretion when charging low-level and non-violent offenders.
Tough guy Attorney General Jeff Session has announced that federal prosecutors will charge low-level drug offenders and others with the most serious crimes possible, despite overwhelming evidence and a bipartisan agreement that this approach is racially discriminatory and counterproductive.
The Sessions approach will throw thousands of people – especially Americans from communities of color or with low-incomes – into prison needlessly, sabotaging their life chances and increasing post-release criminality. It is shameful and stupid. Shameful because there is overwhelming empirical evidence that this approach unfairly targets and damages young men of color. And stupid because there is, equally, overwhelming empirical evidence that it will create a cycle of crime.
At the same time that Sessions is announcing a clampdown on nonviolent, low-level offenders, Session’s Department of Justice is expected to announce resolution of a longstanding major corporate crime case: allegations of a massive Wal-Mart bribery scheme in Mexico and perhaps other countries. If news reports of the settlement are accurate, the settlement will involve a slap-on-the-wrist fine; no individual prosecutions; and a non-prosecution agreement with the Wal-Mart company, in which the parent company avoids prosecution in exchange for a promise not to break the law in the future – a meaningless commitment since the company is required to follow the law with or without an agreement with the Department of Justice.
So, it appears Tough Guy Attorney General Sessions is tough only on the poor and vulnerable. (That conclusion comports with Sessions’ performance as Alabama attorney general, as we explained in a January report on Sessions' tenure in that post.) When it comes to the rich, powerful and connected, it seems that Sessions is soft on crime.
This is a moral and policy disgrace. The moral element should be self-evident. From a policy point of view, corporate crime and wrongdoing inflicts far more harm on society than street crime, as horrific as the toll of street crime is. And the corporate criminal class is likely to be far more responsive to the deterrent effect of harsh penalties – as well as far more likely to break the law if violations are prosecuted lightly or not at all – than street criminals.
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 9, 2020 10:51:15 GMT
According to a recent poll by the Pew Research Center - "Conservative" was the second most positively viewed political term in America - right behind "Progressive." Heck - Republicans love the label so much - their biggest political conference of the year is CPAC - The CONSERVATIVE Political Action Conference. But - I'm trying to figure out why exactly that is. I'm trying to figure out why anyone - given our nation's history - would want to call themselves a Conservative today in America. They say that "Conservative" means someone who embraces traditional values, limited government, moderate change, and fiscal restraint. But those are just weasel words, the velvet glove over the brutal fist of an autocratic, authoritarian, and oligarchic form of governance. Here's the reality of what Conservatives have ACTUALLY done to this nation in it's 230-year plus history.
Thom Hartmann: Why Would Anyone Proudly Call Themselves a Conservative?
First off, it was Conservatives who opposed the American Revolution, and many of them joined the British in fighting against George Washington's army. Then, conservatives, at the birth of our nation, pushed to restrict voting rights at the federal level to only white men who owned property - although progressives like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison blocked those efforts - so conservatives at the state level picked up that cause.
It was Conservatives who wanted to keep the "traditional American value" of slavery and fought progressive Abraham Lincoln so fiercely it led to an incredibly bloody and horrific Civil War. In the aftermath of the Civil War - Conservatives supported Jim Crow laws to keep freed slaves as second-class citizens.
Conservatives opposed women's suffrage all the way up until the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920 - and some still to this day - oppose it.
Wealthy Conservative elites opposed every advancement made by average working people - from the forty-hour work week - to child labor laws - to workplace safety laws.
During the 1950's - Conservatives embraced McCarthyism and the witchhunts that ruined the lives of thousands of Americans.
In the 1960's - Conservatives opposed the Civil Rights Act - which finally ended legal discrimination in America.
Every single advancement our nation has made - came DESPITE Conservative efforts to block it. As famed Conservative think William F. Buckley said: "A conservative is someone who stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so." At each turning point to give more rights to more Americans, to give more economic opportunity to more Americans, to make the workplace safer for more Americans - you name it - Conservatives have tried to stop it - while Progressives have fought, bled, and died to make sure it happens. And today - nothing has changed. Today - Conservatives are yelling "stop" when it comes to marriage equality.
They're yelling "stop" when it comes to climate change legislation.
They're yelling "stop" when it comes to equal pay for equal work for women.
They're yelling "stop" when it comes to critical, life-saving stem-cell research.
They're yelling "stop" when it comes to providing health insurance at an affordable cost to all Americans.
They're yelling "stop" when it comes to immigration reform.
They're yelling "stop" when it comes to ending the failed drug war.
And not only are they yelling "stop" - but they're actively trying to undo most of the progressive victories over the last century that they opposed from the start.
That includes undoing a women's right to choose - or even have access to contraceptives.
It includes forcing women to submit to mandatory ultrasounds - like they're children or wards of the state.
It includes passing more and more right-to-work FOR LESS laws - further eroding the rights of working people in America.
It includes gutting food safety programs, unemployment benefits, and food stamps.
And it even includes sabotaging our economy recovery to achieve their ultimate political goal - kicking a black man out of the White House.
This is what Conservativism has been all about in America - and continues to be about: fear, discrimination, and corporate domination.
The Conservative principles of limited government and more freedom might sound good - but in practice it means less government to protect Americans from corporate abuses - and more freedom for people like the Koch brothers to pollute. It means less government to provide social services - and more freedom to die like a dog in the gutter without health insurance. That's been the message of the Conservative movement since the onset of the nation - always taking us backward when we should be moving forward.
So I'll ask the question again...why the hell would anyone proudly call themselves a Conservative?
The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann on RT TV & FSTV "live" 9pm and 11pm check www.thomhartmann.com/tv for local listings |
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 9, 2020 10:51:41 GMT
ALL AMERICANS NEED TO LOOK INTO A MIRROR AND REPEAT THESE WORDS: "I AM A CORPORATE WHORE"
America is owned by corporations that don’t care what happens in America domestically unless it looks like it may have a negative effect on their power. They have no loyalty to our country. They buy our Republican politicians, get them into office through activities funded by corporatists like the Koch Bros. and others via ALEC, Kris Kobach’s operation crosscheck and other voter suppression, purging voter rolls and election stealing operations. They fund or own our corporate mainstream media who leave out any corporate culpability in news stories or fund news outlets like FOX that outright lie and propagandize to a compliant audience turning them into minions for global capitalist corporations. And these right wing idiots don’t even know they are shilling for these criminals. And now the Democratic Party is showing signs of similar corruption fronting for Wall Street and banks.
The US military industrial complex could properly be called the US Corporate Military Industrial Complex as the pentagon is now an arm of these corporations who need the military to ravage countries, steal their natural resources, pollute our environment with all of this being paid for by the American people who don't seem to have a clue or are pitted against each other while our pockets are picked. The ultimate source of war are the beliefs of those in power and what they think is worthy of a war. If they are wholly owned by or in simpatico with their corporate masters they will go to war. It doesn’t matter what the people think.
Published on Oct 1, 2012
September 28, 2012: Moyers & Company presents "United States of ALEC," a report on the most influential corporate-funded political force most of America has never heard of -- ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council. A national consortium of state politicians and powerful corporations, ALEC presents itself as a "nonpartisan public-private partnership." But behind that mantra lies a vast network of corporate lobbying and political action aimed to increase corporate profits at public expense without public knowledge.
"United States of ALEC" is a collaboration between Okapi Productions, LLC and the Schumann Media Center, headed by Bill Moyers, which supports independent journalism and public watchdogs including the Center for Media and Democracy, whose investigators are featured in the report.
Using interviews, documents, and field reporting, the episode explores ALEC's self-serving machine at work, acting in a way one Wisconsin politician describes as "a corporate dating service for lonely legislators and corporate special interests."
In state houses around the country, hundreds of pieces of boilerplate ALEC legislation are proposed or enacted that would, among other things, dilute collective bargaining rights, make it harder for some Americans to vote, and limit corporate liability for harm caused to consumers -- each accomplished without the public ever knowing who's behind it.
"United States of ALEC" is a collaboration between Okapi Productions, LLC and the Schumann Media Center, headed by Bill Moyers, which supports independent journalism and public watchdogs including the Center for Media and Democracy, whose investigators are featured in the report.The United States of ALEC: Bill Moyers on the Secretive Corporate-Legislative Body Writing Our Laws
Democracy Now! premieres "The United States of ALEC," a special report by legendary journalist Bill Moyers on how the secretive American Legislative Exchange Council has helped corporate America propose and even draft legislation for states across the country. ALEC brings together major U.S. corporations and right-wing legislators to craft and vote on "model" bills behind closed doors. It has come under increasing scrutiny for its role in promoting "stand your ground" gun laws, voter suppression bills, union-busting policies and other controversial legislation. Although billing itself as a "nonpartisan public-private partnership," ALEC is actually a national network of state politicians and powerful corporations principally concerned with increasing corporate profits without public scrutiny. Moyers’ special will air this weekend on Moyers & Company, but first airs on Democracy Now! today. "The United States of ALEC" is a collaboration between Okapi Productions, LLC and the Schumann Media Center. [includes rush transcript]
www.democracynow.org/2012/9/27/the_united_states_of_alec_bill |
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 9, 2020 10:52:13 GMT
What just about every video and article on ALEC leaves out is that this organization is almost ALL Republican. One of the earliest supporters of ALEC was Ronald Reagan, the Libertarian Trojan Horse who stole his way into office via Iran Contra trading arms for hostages. In an elaborate transfer of power from the people to corporations this right wing conspiracy is unequaled in breadth and influence. Republicans wisely knew that to gain power you take over the US state by state until you get to where we are today.ALEC written laws have enabled private prison corporations. It is especially lucrative to lock illegal immigrants up making any real immigration laws based on civil and human rights, working programs, etc. almost impossible as it isn't in the best interest of corporations. |
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 9, 2020 10:52:39 GMT
The American Military Industrial Complex IS a corporation with a life of its own. We are NOT even allowed to AUDIT it.
Here is a speech from the last LEGITIMATE Republican president:
Dwight D. Eisenhower - Cross of Iron Speech 1953
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
This world in arms in not spending money alone.
It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.
The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities.
It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population.
It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals.
It is some 50 miles of concrete highway.
We pay for a single fighter with a half million bushels of wheat.
We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.
This, I repeat, is the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking.
This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron."
Absolutely poetic. Where have the Republicans like this gone? |
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