How Big Money Contributions Cripple our Politics

1. Small core group? Is that what you call the 99% of the population. Capitalism has failed due to greed. Capitalism is not in the Constitution. Your democracy is an oligarchy. Votes do not count. Politicians are bought and the return on investment for the billionaire's is hundreds of times what they pay for bribes.

2. Or join Wolfpack, to get money out of politics

3. The government has abandoned the people,it's working for big pharma and co.It's time we defend our corner,wake my fellow people.

4. Vote for PETE!

5. This fellow gives me hope!

6. @The Real News Network : Marc, at some point in this interview, far into it, you refer to corporations not being persons, which is how the USA has much become accustomed to referring to these entities. It's unquestionably true, fact, that they're not persons and I've found it both odd and somewhat hilarious over many years now that many people in the US have protested, and probably continue to protest, against the govt treating corporations as if these're persons, but, at the same time, these plaintiffs regularly refer to corporations using "who", f.e., instead of "that" and "it", when "who" should only be used to mean persons. And these very same people have also referred to persons as "that" and surely "it". Their language and thinking is like contradictory. It's like these so-called Americans never learned basic English. Is a corporation a "who" or an "it"? Of course it's an "it" and never a "who". A little real education might be beneficial for Americans in this regard alone, and there's a lot more than this that they need to hone their educational knowledge or skills about. " The pronoun who, in English, is an interrogative pronoun and a relative pronoun, used chiefly to refer to humans. Its derived forms include whom, an objective form the use of which is now generally confined to formal English; the possessive form whose; and the indefinite form whoever (also whosoever, whom(so)ever, and whos(eso)ever; see also -ever). … ", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_(pronoun).

7. The average voter is ignorant of the policies and issues. The typical college graduate reads 1/2 of a book a year. The typical U.S. citizen wastes the resources invested in education. Being governed by the ultra-wealthy is preferable to rule by a mass of ignoramuses! The general intelligence of the typical American is falling: exponential decay. Low intelligence women have three times the children of high intelligence women. The post industrial countries are collapsing because of unregulated consumption. We will not have the cognitive abilities to maintain the existing infrastructure. The inane notion of infinite growth on a finite planet? Shortages of water, arable land, minerals, metals and fossil fuels. It is to late to adapt the ensemble crises pollution, deforestation, soil degradation and human population over shoot. An 85% die off of human beings is a best case scenario— human extinction is plausible.

8. Absolute power corrupts absolutely!

9. At around 1:15, Wendell comes (1:40) to say that he realized that the corporate influence in US politics was causing the US to move away from its roots as a republic. I think he means democratic republic, for there're two other kinds and maybe one is fitting, enough, when speaking of the US is a republic or is supposed to be one. " A republic (Latin: res publica) is a form of government in which the country is considered a “public matter”, not the private concern or property of the rulers. The primary positions of power within a republic are not inherited, but are attained through democracy, oligarchy or autocracy . … ", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic. Obviously, the one that'd be presently fitting and which has now long been fitting for describing the US, politically, is that it's rulers form an oligarchy. As it currently operates and has for far too long now, it's clear enough that the US is neither a democratic nor an autocratic republic, and plenty of people have justifiably complained that it's oligarchic, instead. Meanwhile, some people have plaintively written, such as in comments at YouTube, that the US constitutionally is a republic and not a democracy, without saying which of the three kinds of republic that they're talking about; and, we know from some other countries that their republics officially are "democratic", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_republic. According to that page, DR's considerably vary and some are or have sometimes been known to be false or flawed democracies, which of course we should know can be justifiably said of the USA.

10. If you want to end corruption in politics…. see AndrewYang2020

11. Just because private sector has been awful as the entire economy and the money supply it doesn't mean we need to revert to a state operated Monopoly, there is no difference and it is likely that many more will die understatement opoly of everything as opposed to corporate monopolized everything LMAO 666 at least there's a little bit more trickle-down and besides the statistics on communist killings innocent civilians oh, there's just not enough of zeros available to make that calculation LMAO this world is sick it's dying it's game over

12. AND THAT IS WHAT = EXACTLY & PRECISELY = IS & DOES HAPPENS = & GOING ON EVERY WHERE = IN EACH SOCIETY=&=COUNTRY WITH & OF & FOR ITS REGIME WHERE & THERE IN IS ESTABLISHED = & IS AT WORK = HERE IN THE WEST FAMOUS = & OF TO THE MOST IF NOT ALL WESTERN=PEOPLE’S HERE & IN = YOUR MOST FAVORITE =& YOUR BELOVED = BUT ALL OF THESE = & SUCH THINGS = THAT HE IS TALKING & TELLING YOU ALL ABOUT HERE IN = THEY ALL & ONLY HAPPEN=&=GOING ON & IN & DURING = YOURS TRULY=REAL CAPITALISM.
    CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU EACH & ALL OF YOU = THE ENGLISH SPEAKING PEOPLES & YOUR WORLD = FOR CHOOSING = & STILL STICKING TO & WITH THIS = & ALL OF YOURS = “THE GREATEST” OF CHOICES = FOR OF & TO = SELF-CONDUCT = TO LIVE & TO DO ALL OF YOURS POLITICS=&=ECONOMICS=&=SELF-GOVERNING=MODEL=&=REGIME.

13. Yes I remember this guy years ago warning us of the war between insurance companies and the people of this country.

14. AAA+++

15. These folk continue spinning us to death. This is one of the most important issues impacting citizens' lives – continuing wars and new wars, all types of poorly regulated pollution creators, continuing reliance on fossil-fuel based energy, excessive medical/pharmaceutical costs, a society that cannot run without excessive lawyer fees, anemic mass transit and infrastructure, high-powered weapons (guns/ammo) freely owned and available in society, low wages and eroded unions coupled with amazing executive pay and rewards, etc. etc. – all are perpetuated by minority moneyed interests who have bought government. There is hope; this guy has been at it now for over a decade. we need more people like him.

16. See and join. No time to give up on We the People. http://www.movetoamend.org

17. a lot easier to be an optimist when you got your stack o millions

18. Anyway, the majority is not well paid and not belong to high society!

19. going along to get along is beating your head against the wall. worker drones actively choose and are as guilty as the ceo, board members, shareholders, etc….

20. The mania of hope. Hopeium. Like Chris Hedges,I don't share some people's optimism that this can be turned around. The US oligarchy will NEVER allow the working class to use the system in place to take back ANY of the power that's been lost. Reform is no longer possible through this system that has been reforged to protect the plutocracy against the will of the broader population. Every indicator points to a no stop,one-way ticket,to complete corporate rule.

21. ⁉️ Will somebody please help take out the TRAASH ⁉️
    Stop Trumps Republican Almost Affordable Sanctions on Healthcare!
    Support a single payer universal healthcare system 👈🏾
    With Medicare for all ‼️

22. Our political system reminds me of the film "Serpico." Our government takes money from the criminals, to further allow and empower the criminal class. Meanwhile, those who don't take money are pushed to the margins, distrusted, attacked, demonized, smeared, discredited and are largely under suspicion. A clear example of this is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She doesn't take money, and has been the target of relentless attacks and smears ever since taking office. Serpico, on his crusade for justice, lost friends, loved ones, eventually the career that he loved and was set up by his coworkers and shot in the face.

23. Wow…glad somebody remembers the impact Ida Tarbell had on American corporate structure

24. Most Americans do not understand the US Constitution, which allows for the rampant artificial persons of any form (corporation, LLC, trust, etc.) under Admiralty/Maritime, UCC and the 14th Amendment reconstructed civil law system, which allows Artificial PERSONS (like corporations) to have civil law rights under the 14th Amend and US civil law. In addition to that problem, Congress has ABSOLUTE and PLENARY POWER to regulate and make all rules/statutes to regulate inter-state and foreign COMMERCE (Art.1, Sec 8) and to do so, Congress has absolute and plenary power over the jurisdiction of Admiralty/Maritime [Art 3., Sec 2] (commerce, insurance), which includes UCC (banking, taxation, commercial paper, negotiable instruments), the jurisdiction Artificial Persons operate under.

    Also: "We the People" was NOT originally all the people in America according to Common Law precepts AND 2 US court cases:

    Blackstone's Commentaries on the English common law 438: People. The popular leaders, who in all ages have called themselves, “The People".

    The Supreme Court of Georgia in the case, Padelford, Fay ∓mp; Company v. Mayor and Alderman, City of Savannah, 14 Ga. 438, 520 (1854), which was prior to the fourteenth amendment, "No private person [Pre-14th Amendment state National/State Citizen] has a right to complain, by suit in court, on the ground of a breach of [federal]Constitution. The constitution it is true, is a compact, but he is not a party to it. The states [ State gov’ts] are party to it."

    "The Constitution was ordained and established by the people of the United States [originally just the signers of the Constitution, the popular leaders of the United States, the members of a corporate body politic, corporation, a juristic/moral person] for themselves, for their own government, and not for the government of the individual states . Each state [nation/country] established a constitution for itself, and in that constitution provided such limitations and restrictions on the powers of its particular government as its judgment dictated. The people of the United States, [see Blackstone's definition above] framed such a government for the United States as they supposed best adapted to their situation, and best calculated to promote their interests [commerce: civil law admiralty & equity]. The powers they conferred on this government were to be exercised by itself, and the limitations on power, if expressed in general terms, are naturally and necessarily applicable to the government created by the instrument. They are limitations of power granted in the instrument itself, not of distinct governments framed by different persons and for different purposes." – Chief Justice, John Marshall, Barron v. Mayor & City Council of Baltimore, 32 U.S. 243 (1833)

    ____________________________________

    Quotes on Congress' Absolute authority over Admiralty/Maritime: Inter-state and foreign Commerce:

    American Jurisprudence 2d. Volume 2, p. 720
    ADMIRALTY

    Section 1 – Origin & Nature of Admiralty Jurisdiction & Practice

    The historical development of admiralty jurisdiction and procedure is of practical as well as theoretical interests since opinions in admiralty cases frequently refer to the historical background in reaching conclusions on the questions at issue. The special jurisdiction of admiralty has a maritime purpose and is different from Common Law. It [admiralty] is not exclusively rooted in the civil law system although it includes substantial derivations there from. It has a strong international aspect, but it may under go independent changes in the several countries that an admiralty law and such international features are given serious consideration by admiralty courts.

    By the end of the 17th century the admiralty jurisdiction in England had been restricted until it was not as extensive as in other European maritime countries due to a long controversy in which the Common Law courts with the aid of Parliament had succeeded in limiting the jurisdiction of admiralty to the high seas and excluding its jurisdiction from transactions arising on waters within the body of a country.

    The Development of Admiralty in the United States.

    The admiralty jurisprudence system was brought to America by British settlers along with the Common Law and Equity. The courts for the administration of the maritime law were commissioned in many, if not all, of the colonies. These tribunals continued to exercise of the power conferred upon them until the organization of the federal government in 1787.

    Now before the adoption of the Constitution jurisdiction in admiralty and maritime cases was distributed between the confederation of the individual states, but when the Constitution of the United States was framed a system of exclusive federal admiralty jurisdiction was incorporated placing the entire subject, substantive as well as procedural, under national control because of its intimate relation to navigation and to interstate and foreign commerce. Now the provision in the Constitution did not abrogate the maritime law theretofore in force; the maritime law became law of the United States subject to the paramount power of Congress to alter, qualify or supplement it as experience and changing conditions might require, subject only to constitutional and treaty limitations.

    The power of Congress is paramount in matters of maritime law and it was exercised at an early date when Congress enacted the Judiciary Act of 1789 conferring on the federal district courts exclusive jurisdiction of seizures under the law of impost, navigation or trade of the United States and made on navigable waters within the respective districts. This jurisdiction [of Admiralty] has since been modified and enlarged by numerous enactments.”
    ______________

    “This power [Congress’ power over Commerce] is as extensive upon land as upon water. The Constitution makes no distinction in that respect. And if the admiralty jurisdiction, in matters of contract and tort which the courts of the United States may lawfully exercise on the high seas, can be extended to the lakes under the power to regulate commerce, it can with the same propriety and upon the same construction be extended to contracts and torts on land when the commerce is between different states. And it may embrace also the vehicles and persons engaged in carrying it on. It would be in the power of Congress to confer admiralty jurisdiction upon its courts, over the cars engaged in transporting passengers or merchandise from one state to another, and over the persons engaged in conducting them, and deny to the parties the trial by jury. Now the judicial power in cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction has never been supposed to extend to contracts made on land and to be executed on land. But if the power of regulating commerce can be made the foundation of jurisdiction in its courts, and a new and extended admiralty jurisdiction beyond its heretofore known and admitted limits may be created on water under that authority, the same reason would justify the same exercise of power on land… Courts of admiralty have been found necessary in all commercial countries, not only for the safety and convenience of commerce and the speedy decision of controversies, where delay would often be ruin, but also to administer the laws of nations in a season of war and to determine the validity of captures and questions of prize or no prize in a judicial proceeding.”
    Chief Justice Taney, The Propeller Genesee Chief v. Fitzhue, 53 U.S. 12 How. 443 443 (1851)
    _____________
    “But there is no middle ground on which to place such jurisdiction; when we once break over the line which restrained it by acts of parliament and prohibitions, we are necessarily thrown back on the civil law and the royal prerogative, for the rules and principles on which the right of trial by jury depends. It is in vain to contend that the seventh amendment will be any efficient guarantee for this right, in suits at common law, if an admiralty jurisdiction exists in the United States, commensurate with what is claimed by the claimant in this case. Its assertion is, in my opinion, a renewal of the contest between legislative power and royal prerogative, the common and the civil
    law, striving for mastery; the one to secure, the other to take away the trial by jury; and
    until the authoritative judgment of a higher court shall make it my duty to surrender my
    judgment to their decree, it will never be sanctioned by me.”

    Judge Baldwin in the case, Bains v. The Schooner James & Catherine, 2 Fed Cas. 27, case #756 (1832)
    ______________

    Ramsay v. Allegree, 25 U.S. 611 (1827) Justice Johnson, “I concur with my brethren in sustaining the decree below, but cannot consent to place my decision upon the ground on which they have placed theirs. I think it high time to check this silent and stealing progress of the admiralty in acquiring jurisdiction to which it has no pretensions. Unfounded doctrines ought at once to be met and put down, and dicta, as well as decisions that cannot bear examination ought not to be evaded and permitted to remain on the books to be commented upon and acquiesced in by courts of justice, or to be read and respected by those whose opinions are to be formed upon books. It affords facilities for giving an undue bias to public opinion, and, I will add, of interpolating doctrines which belong not to the law.
    _____________

    The answer for the NATURAL PERSON, is to try to stop operating and being so dependent upon the civil law: admiralty/maritime and UCC, which is how the natural man, before the 14th Amendment, and the total onslaught of inter-state and foreign commerce (admiralty/maritime) took over the American land mass. As long as natural men CHOOSE the civil law system of Commerce under Admiralty/Maritime and UCC the ARTIFICIAL PERSONS under the 14th Amendment WILL REIGN SUPREME.

25. If corperation's have more money than the government.Then the corperation's have more power. And your government is $23 trillion in dept America😒

26. When America sits back and does nothing to control their government individuals disguised as politicians will corrupt a government and try to tear down the Constitution. Impeachment is legit and it would be great if we had support for impeachment from other countries that want Trump and his administration gone. America is really in distress!

27. A vote for Biden is a vote to perpetuate this system that crushes most of us.

28. Ban individual stock option remuneration;
    Ban all political donations & lobbying;
    Ban closed door meetings;
    Ban revolving doors;
    And watch the nation (and humanity) soar …

29. Most of us regular people have had our raises turned into small one time bonuses. It's just another way the corporations are screwing us.

30. Anyone who hasn't looked at #theActof1871 must do so! America, you have 2 constitutions. One for you…and one for them. KNOW YOUR PLACE IN THE UNITED CORPORATION OF AMERICA!!

31. People who are very interested in this issue might also be interested in how it impacts both are military and international politics. Not just our health insurance and other aspects of the purely commercial sector.

    I highly recommend, General Smedley Butler speech, war is a racket.

    I also recommend the book, confessions of an economic Hitman. It's a book that has been smeared a lot and accused of being all fabrication. I've fact check did as well as I could and it holds up pretty well. I can't vouch for all of its content oh, but it's got a lot of true statements at a minimum. The attempt to smear it it's just inevitable given its subject matter

32. That is great but we are far beyond these steps. They would have been effective 10, maybe even 5 years ago. Not now.
    Now it is going to take a much stronger lurch leftward to save this country.
    What we need is all elections funded by taxes, bottom to top. Equal funding for the top 4 parties, not two. Eliminate PACs completely. Make corporate/industry lobbying a criminal offense. Restore the Fairness Doctrine.
    That would be a beginning.

Comments are closed.