The majority held that the prohibition of all independent expenditures by corporations and unions in the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act violated the First Amendment.[2] The ruling barred restrictions on corporations, unions, and nonprofit organizations from independent expenditures, allowing groups to independently support political candidates with financial resources. In a dissenting opinion, Justice John Paul Stevens argued that the court’s ruling represented “a rejection of the common sense of the American people, who have recognized a need to prevent corporations from undermining self government”.[3]
Stevens argued that the court had long recognized that to deny Congress the power to safeguard against “the improper use of money to influence the result [of an election] is to deny to the nation in a vital particular the power of self protection”.[37]
With corporations able to spend far more to influence elections that any ordinary citizen, Stevens was concerned that the majority opinion would cause the citizenry to “lose faith in our democracy”.[27]
There’s so much contained in this one paragraph:
According to a 2020 report from OpenSecrets, between 2010 and 2020, the ten largest donors and their spouses spent a total of $1.2 billion on federal elections. In the 2018 elections, this group accounted for around 7% of all election-related giving, up from less than 1% a decade prior. Over the decade, election-related spending by non-partisan independent groups jumped to $4.5 billion, whereas from 1990 to 2010 the total spending under that category was just $750 million. Outside spending surpassed candidate spending in 126 races since the ruling compared to only 15 in the five election cycles prior. Groups that did not disclose their donors spent $963 million in the decade following the ruling, compared to $129 million in the decade prior. Non-partisan outside spending as a percentage of total election spending increased from 6% in 2008 to nearly 20% in 2018. During the 2016 election cycle, Super PACs spent more than $1 billion, nearly twice that of every other category of contributors combined. In 2018, over 95% of super PAC money came from the top 1% of donors.[104]
My employer has a PAC, and I get an email from the CEO reminding me that I should return some of the capital they have given me in exchange for labor so that they can spend it in aggregate for their political goals. I do not.
Get those corrupt fucks out and pack the court. Haven’t we had enough of this shit? They made their intention known then and it’s ending with the dumbest numbnut justifications for regressive monarchist theocratic horseshit from these Catholic traitors on the court now. Fuck these people, and fuck their friends, and fuck their families, and fuck their positions. Fuck ‘em. Get ‘em out, neutralize them, and tell the churches to fuck off. Make THEM shut the fuck up for one goddamned time, the traitorous thieving bigot scumbag sons of bitches.
I’m not sure exactly how I started seeing these videos, but he seems pretty solid. I liked the interlude for connections and found myself aghast that he didn’t know purple prose was a thing, but then again neither did I until I did. The last part about Musk having an allegiance to something else was some good shade.
Hank and John Green have been Youtube mainstays for ages, and seem to be all over the place lately… most recently, John has been advocating for Tuberculosis causes, including speaking to the United Nations, and Hank has been sharing details about his fight with cancer. I haven’t really followed them at all but still kind of knew about them from their projects popping up in various science-focused channels and such.
Both seem to be careful, thoughtful guys who really care about not sharing misinformation… unlike Musk.
I get an email roughly every month from work reminding me that I have not yet contributed to the company’s PAC. I think that PACs are an affront to democracy and as such will never donate to one.
Apparently I’m missing out on a quarterly beer bash (fundraiser) too. I think I’ll be okay.
At a previous job, the CEO sent out an email to the company telling us how important it was for us to vote for the Republican candidate (I think it was Bush at the time, though it could have been McCain) because of how good it would be for the company. I recall thinking how horribly out of line it was, but kept my mouth shut because, well, the other option would probably have been to quit. Absolutely disgusting for a company to exploit their own employees and put pressure on them to support their politics.
Once again, he’s got it completely backwards. FIRST you proclaim yourself a prophet, THEN you move your followers to a new city or compound, THEN you introduce them to your sexual fantasies.
Fun fact: for paywalled stuff, you can quite often find it by searching “archive today” (note: the site does for reasons have many mirrors and will send you to one with a different top level domain). and then putting in the URL Sometimes it fails, but mostly it works. If the latest archived version doesn’t work you can try another.
Fast forward to 2:01 for a blink and you miss it Elon Musk joke. Well, the setup is at 2:01. The joke is a few second later, but it is blink and you miss it.
