In RE: "Citizens United v. FEC"

The proximal complaint which resulted in that most recent bit of Opus Dei Ass-wholery from the Roberts Court, the above-mentioned CU v. FEC excrescence, was a film about a candidate in the highest profile races run in the USofA, a presidential primary. The ruling effectively removes all limits upon the ability of deep pockets "interests" to reach out in support of (or to defeat) selected candidates for public, usually representative 'office.' The only thing apparently expressly forbidden is the direct donation of envelopes full of cash from corporate officers to candidates.

Pretty much everything else is "on the table" as they say.

Not just at the highest levels, where the machineries of such intervention are already plenty subtle and devious enough to withstand most scrutiny. No, it opens the vein of Murkin representative corruption all the way down to even the local, civic level. What if the Mormons or the Moonies had enough money and interst in your community to buy your city council, for example? Who ELSE in the local economy would have the resources (and the will) to oppose such a well-funded effort?

"They" always point out that the decision liberates both the Owners and the Unions, but c'mon. Unions represent fewer than 20% of workers, and the majority are in ill- and/or under-paid jobs. To paraphrase the Brit "lord" of a previous age, by this ruling the SCROTUS has merely affirmed the right of BOTH the Rich and the poor to buy off politicians and corrupt their influence.

Greg Palast raises one potential spectre: the influx of extra-national money fro9m States whose interests are antagonistic to our own: "Manchurian" candidates paid for and owing the PRC (or the Kuomintang, e.g.). And elsewhere (I forget now where), it was pointed out that the level of elections at which this new corpoRat largess might be expected would be at the level of State Supreme Courts, which typically rule on intra-State environmental challenges. "CU v. FEC" just delivered the entire anti-pollution edifice/climate change/clean environment movement into the hands of the ass-licking, rat-bastard motherfuckers of Exxon and Massey Coal...

I have long been of the opinion that 'democracy,' as anything other than a rhetorical device, is a dead issue in the USofA. The out-right theft of the vote in the 2004 Presidential contest was ample evidence, if any more had been needed, to convince me it was effectively over. Still, one of the greatest advantages of buying elections at local/state level is that they are so MUCH cheaper. You could buy a Supreme Court justice in New Mexico for about $250k, which is chickenfeed. You could buy the whole NM Court for less than the price of a single US Rep. This is GOOD news for the corpoRat rapists...

This decision merely cements the coup in place. We reside, officially, now, in the CorpoRat States of Murka.