Dustlawyer
Dustlawyer's JournalK&R!!! This is why we need Publicly Funded Federal, State, and Local Elections (PFE's)!!!
Think Congress is on vacation again, think again, they are fundraising! Year round, every year, not just election years they go to fundraisers where someone gives them their regular payment (installment) as long as the politician's message is what they want. If the message changes the payments stop. It's a big, crooked joke! How can we have an effective Congress doing the will of the people and protecting us and our environment when our legislatures can be bought? You know the answer, just look around.
The only way out of this mess is a massive uprising of Americans saying enough is enough! We need PFE's at all levels of government to put a stop to this. I read DU everyday and see stories and policies that would not happen if we had true Representative Democracy in America. Our politicians represent these corporations and the wealthy, the rest of us without much speech (money) don't get sh*t except the bill!
Climate Change is the fight of our generation that we cannot afford to lose! We will NEVER get the legislation and the change we need in time if we don't get rid of campaign contributions! Without PFE's we will lose the Climate Change war. While in New York this weekend for the Climate Change protests, spread the word about the way to win this fight!
+1! We need to remain focused this time on the root problem, campaign money!
We must demand Publicly Funded Federal, State, and Local Elections (PFE's) and outlaw campaign contributions. All other issues need to be put aside for the time being as success of PFE's will allow us to resolve many other issues that have been stymied by the PTB.
Climate Change will never be seriously addressed by the PTB. This is an example of the issues that can better be taken care of after PFE's are passed as well as one reason why we cannot wait to start taking action. I keep saying that these midterms are the perfect opportunity to show America how much each candidate has raised and ask the question, "What do you have to do for all this money?" If there is no Quid Pro Quo as Justice Roberts said, why do they do it? They get rid of regulations, have their taxes cut and cut, and syphon money from us, through the government, and into their pockets. These corporations move to other countries to avoid our taxes so it cannot be that they donate this money to candidates out of patriotism.
This is not a Republican or Democrat issue, it's an American issue! As citizens in a Democracy, it is up to us to protect and fight for our rights. We need to spread this far and wide and organize protests outside of TV stations. We need to stay peaceful to show the rest of our countrymen and women that even the right to peaceably assemble has been taken away (see Ferguson). It will not be easy, but it can and must be done to save this country, and this world from ruin.
Johnny Winter, one of the best all time blues guitar players and brother of rock legend Edgar Winter
died yesterday at age 70. He and his brother both suffered from Albinism and as young kids growing up in my hometown of Beaumont, Texas, were stuck inside the house all day out of the sun. Their mother bought them musical instruments which they took to like ducks to water. Both could play dozens of instruments, but it was the guitar that really sang while in his hands. He struggled with heroin addiction for much of his life, and his parties at my sister and brother-in-law's house were downright crazy, but the jam sessions were unreal! He was always polite and reserved the times that I met him. For a good article on his life and a sample of his genius see David Marchese's story at Rollingstone "A Lion in Winter: A Tribute to the Guitar Icon
I don't know how Wall Street maintains their hold on a lame duck President they bought in 08 &
10, but they still OWN HIM like they do almost all D.C. Politicians. Don't get me wrong, Obama did a lot of good, especially with what was opposed to him. I still want to believe that he would do all of the great things he promised, but for whatever pressure they still exert. He put their people in charge of our Financial system from the start despite what he said on the road in 08! They got the money they wanted with no strings attached while the people got nothing. We paid for the Housing crash despite being the victims. I guess they could threaten to ruin his great accomplishments or some such. There is some unspoken deal here we will never know in our lifetimes because of the raw power of all of that money and influence!
I am under no such compunction and neither are you! I say we fight to fix the mistakes of our generation! The oil companies are driving us to mass extinction. Our Freedoms are being spun backwards in time until we have no safety net, minimum wage, public education, child labor protections, or for that matter, any Labor protections. Look at what Hobby Lobby has done to women's reproductive rights! Men, those are in effect, your rights too that are evaporating without the pill, IUD's, abortion...
Fight to get the money out of our elections which will wrest control of our Representatives from their greedy, heartless paws. We can do it by fighting for Publicly Funded Federal, State, and Local Elections. Make the media, complicit in all of this as they too are owned by these same bastards, provide the campaign ads as a public service for using OUR AIRWAVES!
September 13th - November 4th (or as long as it takes) let's organize and hit the streets.
Everyone who cares about Women's and LGBTV equality, the environment, public educations, jobs, infrastructure, Social Security, Medicaid/Medicare, Veterans, all of the things we are fighting to keep can only be solved by doing this first. They will not roll over, in fact, they will fight much harder and nastier than OWS because this takes away their control! I am tired of the nay sayers and the ones who say that we will play into the hands of the Right who will out vote us in the Constitutional Conventions. There are more of us than them, we must have to motivate and mobilize. Aren't you tired of bitching about the same problems here, only to watch them get worse?
I missed the 1st one, so I thank you for the dupe! I too have seen the things described in this
story, and it forever changed me. I think the biggest problem today is that too many have not walked in the shoes of the people who are not like themselves. If they would they would know Truth! Sadly, they only know what they are told, usually by equally ignorant fools who spread lies and disinformation.
In the vein of Robert Kennedy, though without his stature and elegant words, I hope to fight the fight that he has begun to help fix the problems that we as a nation suffer. The root problem that is the cause of our current mess is the overwhelming influence in our political system caused by campaign contributions and fat cat Lobbyists, paid for by the obscenely wealthy and greedy corporations. It is compounded by the media which is now only the means of propaganda to keep us fighting "that other party" and displacing the blame for our current sad state on those least able to refute the lies!
Please join with me in the fight to get the money out of our election system by demanding and protesting for Publicly Funded National, State, and Local Elections. We will use the media who helped to place us in this precarious situation by requiring them to air the political ads as a public service since they use The Peoples airwaves under license.
Only then will we see a return of a Representative Democracy. I am calling for these protest to start
SEPTEMBER 13th - NOVEMBER 4th
The campaign money will be insanely large this election and I urge the protestors to call out the candidates and tell everyone how much they are receiving, how much the shadow Super Pacs are spending. This is not a Democrat or Republican issue, this is an American problem that both parties suffer from. I am not foolish enough to believe this can be done with ease, it will take a huge number of Americans, but it can be done, it MUST BE DONE!!'
Spread the word to everyone, every group fighting for their rights, be they reproductive rights of women trampled on by SCOTUS and Hobby Lobby, LGBTV, Education, Environment.... They will not get what they want from our government as long as the politicians listen to the 1% because of their money. No one wants their Representative controlled by the Koch brothers, Unions, corporations, or billionaires. Organize your city/town, meet with both local political parties and find like minded folks who have had enough! Robert Kennedy would be leading us, but since he cannot, we will do it together. (Apologize for length)
There was also a time when we would have picked our asses off of the couch and protested and
made things change, now not so sure. For me, I am fed up and doing something about it!
September 13th - November 4th (Election Day) let's get out and fight to get the money completely out of our electoral system! I propose fighting for Publicly Funded Federal, State, and Local Elections!
Our former Representatives now only Represent their Big Donors, not us! They manipulate us and the MSM is complicit because it too is owned by the same Interests as the politicians. This is reality, not what the leading candidates of either party say they are doing for us, that is the fairy tale. They don't get the Big Money, they don't get elected and re-elected unless they do what the Big Donors want, PERIOD, I don't understand why so many have difficulty understanding this. I guess they choose to ignore it because reality is so bad. Only candidates with national identities like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders who get lots of small donations have the freedom to represent us, the 99%! That is why we have so few Democrats and no Republicans who will fight for us!
Join me in spreading the word and organizing this mass demonstration! It is the fight of our time! It is the fight to do something to stop Climate Change, to get equal rights for women, LGBTV rights, Education, infrastructure, jobs, minimum wage, busting up the oligarchs like the media and Wall Street with truth required in the news.... all rolled into one because it is the Root Cause of why these things, which have a majority of Americans supporting them, still don't get done!
Brought tears to my eyes because Humming birds always remind me of my dad.
He had congestive heart failure for years and used to sit on the porch of my parents country home an hour North of Houston and watch them at his multiple feeders.
He was really bummed when he was too sick to go to the public library. We were sitting on the porch one day watching about 200 Humming birds filling up in preparation of crossing the Gulf of Mexico when he stated that he wished he knew whether to keep the feeders out for the old and sick birds who couldn't make the journey, or would it cause healthy birds to stay around the food source and not migrate, possibly freezing to death in the Winter. I walked inside and got on his computer and came back out about 20 minutes later. I answered his question and told him he could leave them out because the healthy birds would still go, but he would have to keep fresh food out all winter as the other birds would have nothing else. Additionally, I registered him with the Texas Department of Wildlife as a volunteer to report the numbers of birds and different types of Humming birds he saw along with print outs of several articles about the birds.
He had always resisted learning how to use the computer and internets, but was surprised that I was able to get all of that info so fast. He said, "You got all of that from the computer that fast? He got up and said, "Come show me how to use that thing!" About a week later I start getting emails from him. Shortly after that he starts sending me jokes from a group that called themselves the "Loopers." They were old classmates from his college days in engineering school. One had been an engineer with NASA that designed the link up tube when the Americans and Soviets hook their crafts' together. Another, he said was the smartest man he ever met who was the great grandson of Henry Lucas who first discovered oil in Texas at Spindletop in 1901, (my dad was no slouch in the brain department himself)! That oil discovery founded what eventually became Mobil Oil and Texaco. He had the best time and was no longer bored. When he finally passed I received a call from a very proper, elegant sounding British woman who said that Mr. Lucas wanted to know if it was ok to make a donation in my father's name to the American Heart Association (I had sent an email to the Loopers telling them of my dad's passing and in leu of flowers they could make a donation to the Association instead). I replied "absolutely!, may I ask how much" knowing immediately who he was. She replied, "ONE-HUNDRED THOUSAND U.S."
Now I always by Lucas oil products and cheer every race team sponsored by Lucas Oil and always thank every Humming bird I see for giving my dad something he could do to be entertained while he was alone at home everyday until my mom returned home from work! Time to buy a new feeder!
Thanks Mira and best of luck!
Am I in the wrong place? Are We at DU not ready to do something about the Money in our Politics?
Is it that we are content to Bitch about the symptoms to the corruption that causes the Congress to represent their Donors and not us?
I sense a growing frustration and acknowledgment that the corruption has gone too far, but I see many more people willing to comment about Cliven Bundy posts than the few who comment that they agree that it is time to actually do something about the money in politics, which is the reason we have to fight tooth and nail to get to get even watered-down legislation on our issues, usually we get nothing but denied!
I am proposing we start planning to march/protest in cities and towns across America to get the money (campaign contributions) out of our elections and start actually protesting on Saturday, September 13th through the mid-term election. While I thank the few who wrote to support and agree with me, mainly what I got was, "That is the day of the ERA march on Washington." I would welcome ERA protesters into the mix because that is a perfect example of what I am talking about. Most Americans support ERA, but it hasn't passed in almost 4 DECADES because Big Business doesn't want to have to pay the same to women as men, give them their earned promotions... Besides, their march is planned for just D.C., to the best of my knowledge.
I am not experienced with this sort of thing, but I am fed up to the point that I want to do something about it, and I know here at DU there are a whole lot of caring, talented people, that can help pull this off. I am pretty sure it is in my approach and lack of technical skills to set up a website, FB page etc., that this hasn't received even a lukewarm response.
My thinking is that the time is right due to the fact that:
The campaign money will be flying all around in record amounts;
I have been seeing more and more stories and interviews on the subject (watch Bill Moyers (on his website www.Billmoyers.com) interview with Jim Hightower (former longtime Democratic politician in Texas, back when there used to be such a thing);
Most Democrats (not all) and all Republicans are owned and controlled by their donors, not "We the People";
Time is quickly running out on our environment, and despite growth in Solar and Wind power, it will be delayed until it is too late by the power of the oil and coal companies, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Wall Street; and lastly
Polling shows that 87% of Americans believe that they have no say in their government due to the corruption of the campaign donations!
I believe we that if we can focus on ONLY getting the money out of politics by demanding/building support for Publicly Funded National, State, and Local Elections, money is NOT speech, and corporations are NOT people, we can accomplish our goals. After that we should have Representatives responsive to our other issues that have been ignored such as ERA. I would like also to have them bust up the Big Banks on Wall Street and the media and cable oligarchies and make them donate the time for the political ads for a two month campaign season as part of their keeping their license to use the public airwaves. Stop the revolving doors between private enterprise and government regulatory agencies. But the first and only thing, until achieved, is getting the money out, cutting off the power that allows the corporations and 1% to hijack our government and judiciary!
I am not trying to be "Flame Bait," but neither am I afraid of it. Good people of DU, let's do this! Help me do it much better and help spread the word. I am committed and attending my county Democratic meeting on the 14th, meeting with local union leaders, and even holding my nose and going to a county Republican meeting to speak to them. I plan on telling them that they don't want George Soros, unions, or those ambulance chasing trial lawyers buying their politicians, lol!
9/13/2014 - 11/4/2014 We have time to plan and spread the word, then let's get out and do this. The politicians that raise the most money (outside of small donors) are the ones we can attack the most to prove our point! As Jim Hightower told Bill Moyers, "There will be blood!" He, Bill and I advocate peaceable demonstrations, but they will come with guns, billy clubs, and spray! Talk to cops you know between now and then to let them know what and why we are doing it. Let's not leave this just up to the young, get your asses in gear!
House Ethics Committee quietly deletes requirements for members to disclose who pays for trips!
The National Journal reports that the House ETHICS COMMITTEE changed a 30 year requirement that came about after the Watergate scandal that Congressional House Members disclose how much and who pays for their lavish trips abroad on their yearly financial disclosure forms.
The Ethics Committee did this without public announcement, behind closed doors! Ethics? Does someone need to read them the definition of ethics?
This is why we need to start our protests on September 13, in cities around the country to get the money out of politics and have Publicly Funded National/State/Local Elections. It is a Saturday and a good time to start beating this drum through the mid-terms. Let's make these candidates squirm as all of their money starts really flowing!
SPREAD THE WORD AND HIT THE PHONES, INTERNET, AND THE STREETS!!!!
Http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/congress-quietly-deletes-a-key-disclosure-of-free-trips-lawmakers-take-20140630
Too bad it doesn't work that way. I have been watching people and businesses struggling and
going under waiting for Justice in the BP a Deepwater case. They have to sit and watch the phony BP propaganda commercials everyday for over 4 years telling everyone everything is just GREAT down on the Gulf Coast! They now watch as BP claims to be a victim of the Agreement they drafted because a few phony claims get by with the system they set up. The media will not report that this ABUSIVE Agreement denies 10's of thousands of valid claims because they did not financially recover in 2011 to fit the arbitrary formula for recovery. They also fail to mention the $600,000,000 reasons they gave the Judge's friends that were appointed on the Plaintiff's Steering Committee if the Class Settlement goes through to completion. Now most of the claims are locked in the Class Settlement and approximately 75% are being denied. Oh and by the way, the few that were paid under the old formula, BP is coming after them for their money back! The victims that opted out of the Class Settlement have to wait until it is over before they are allowed to even BEGIN their litigation because..., well because of no particular reason given by the Judge at all.
It is not your fault that you didn't know what we go through to seek justice for our clients. The media always portray us as the bad guys, Ambulance Chasers and what not. I am not putting us all up for sainthood for sure, we have our fair share of greedy assholes, like the PSC in the Deepwater case. But there are hundreds of Erin Brockovich's and attorneys such as the ones you see in the movies like "Class Action." Do they want to make money, sure, but they also want to make a difference. Look up Barry Scheck and The Innocence Project for another example. Want to help, next time they come screaming for more tort reform tell them to shove it up their corporate ass! Thanks!
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