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Thursday, June 22nd, 2023

The Unlimited Campaign Spending by Corporations and Billionaires Has Destroyed Democracy

Author:     Thom Hartmann
Source:     Common Dreams
Publication Date:     Jun 21, 2023
 Link: The Unlimited Campaign Spending by Corporations and Billionaires Has Destroyed Democracy
Stephan:  

Thom Hartmann and I tend to agree on most things in politics and, once against he vouchsafes what I have been saying in for years. The Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision made bribery of public officials legal, and the oligarchs and the organizations they control immediately took advantage of this decision and as a result the United States is now one of the most corrupt nations in the developed world. From the Supreme Court to your local election officials, as well as almost of all of Republican Party, and a few notable Democrats, corruption has become the hallmark.

Back in 2022, I suggested that our federal government should spend about one-third of the cost of the Trump Tax Cuts to buy the three largest oil companies in this country. They could then be run for the public interest, prevented from continuing to fund climate change denial, and end their support of toxic Republican politicians.

So far, no members of Congress or the administration have picked up on my suggestion, but the people in Maine have a similar idea and they’re moving forward with it.

Ninety-seven percent of the electric power in Maine is provided by two for-profit corporations, Versant and Central Maine Power (CMP).

And the profits extracted from Mainers by running these companies doesn’t stay in the state or even in the US: Versant is owned by a Enmax, a company based in Calgary, Canada; CMP’s parent company is owned by Iberdrola SA, a Spanish corporation whose largest shareholder is the Qatar Investment Authority.

The simple reality is that as long as its legal for corporations to drop unlimited amounts of money into […]

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