On
January 21, 2010, the US Supreme Court handed over what
little was left of this nation's pretensions to democracy
on a silver platter to the Big Banks and the US Chamber
of Commerce. The case was titled Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission
and the Court's decision removed all limits on
corporate campaign contributions. Elections are now
a sham proceeding at every level US government. The vast
majority of the American people who no longer
participate in the electoral charade are the smartest among
us. The willfully ignorant and delusional still cling desperately
to their faux-alternative Democratic politician or their
Tea Party Republican politician with the tin-foil hat.
The
Big Banks are running the show. Not all the banks, there
are 956 of those operating in the US and 950 of them lost
money last year. Its the Big Banks headed by Goldman Sachs
and JP Morgan Chase and the six of those made so much money
last year that the banking industry as a whole turned a
handsome profit. Goldman Sachs, the top campaign contributor
to Barack Obama, decided that he rather than John McCain would
take over for George W. Bush in January 2009 and also dictated
that there would be essentially no changes in the direction
of the United States. And the transformation has been seamless.
The
Big Banks count on their partners in the US Chamber of Commerce
to share the load of governance. The Chamber's far-right
wing embodied by the Koch brothers has generated
the Tea Party, the working class shock troops that are necessary
if fascism, a term that describes the corporate-state, is
to actually function in the US. And the Chamber
launders the money of the Chinese, German, Japanese, Indian,
Saudi and other foreign corporate entities seeking to advance
their interests in the US political arena. After demonstrating
the extent of their control in the elections of 2010,
Chamber President Thomas Donohue assured a nervous and shellacked-feeling Barack
Obama that he would be allowed a second term in the role
he enjoys so, President of the United States. “The chamber
has not, does not and will not participate in presidential
politics,” Donohue told reporters. “And it is not our
intention to participate in any activity to weaken the president
for his re-election. We are not seeking any activity that
would limit the president’s ability to advance his own re-election.”
Obama then genuflected to the bosses, bringing JP Morgan
Chase's William J. Daley and General Electric's Jeff Immelt
into his Administration.
Just
who are the corporate "people" whose free speech
rights the US Supreme Court established in the Citizens
United Decision and who are now unleashed to do as they
please? Let's look at some snapshots from the Chamber's
Annual Picnic last year.
Over
there in pavilion eight, why it's the murders of Nataline
Sarkisyan and thousands of other Americans who must go without
basic life-saving medical care for the sake of CIGNA HealthCare profits. And look in the next pavilion
over the murders of 29 mineworkers at the Upper Big
Branch Mine in southern West Virginia, Massey Energy Co., when basic safety concerns
were set aside for profits sake. There in three pavilions
in close proximity, the criminal corporate syndicate of BP, Halliburton
and Transocean that executed the crime of the century beginning
with the murders of 11 oil workers on the Deepwater Horizon
and ending with the poisoning death of the Gulf of Mexico.
Not far away, the five corporate media giants, Newscorp
(Fox), Time Warner (CNN), General Electric and Comcast (NBC,
MSNBC), Disney (ABC) and Viacom (CBS and MTV), that helped
the Obama Administration bury the crime in a massive
PR blitz.
And
there were the Chambers foreign guests in happier times,
like the fellows from Tokyo
Electric Power Company (TEPCO), who
were happily operating their General Electric designed nuclear
reactors at Fukushima Daiichi despite warnings, according
to Wikileaks, from the International Atomic Energy
Commission and even US diplomats that the flaunting
of safety concerns invited catastrophe. But ignoring the
warnings was good for business so the catastrophe is upon
us all multiplied to the tenth power. The world's third
largest economy is mortally wounded and it is not out of
the question that Japan is now destroyed and will have to
be evacuated. The only hope for Japan rests on the shoulders
of TEPCO workers who are volunteering for suicide missions
against the ongoing nuclear reactor meltdowns to give their
working class brothers and sisters the chance to survive
into a civilized future, the chance to deal with those corporate
ghouls who profited from cutting corners and falsifying
reports.
Then
Saudi Aramco was there too. The state owned national oil
company of Saudi Arabia stands watch over the heart of global
capitalism. Who knew then that in a few months they would send their troops in the guise of the Gulf Cooperation
Council into neighboring Bahrain in a vain
attempt to hold back the revolutionary human tsunami sweeping
across the Middle East. Soon Saudi oil will be as difficult
to extract as Libyan oil is now and then?
Well
then the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission will be placed where it belongs in history--on the compost
heap of American's backyard food gardens.
BlackCommentator.com Guest
Commentator Paul A. Moore is a public school teacher. He
has taught Social Studies (American Government/Economics)
at Miami Carol City High School for 27 years.
He coached the girls’ basketball team for 17 years (winning
the State Championship in 1990 and State Runners-up in 1999).
He is an elected member of the Executive Board of the United
Teachers of Dade and currently holds the position of Vice
President for High Schools in the UTD. Click here
to contact Mr. Moore.
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