The Manchurian Candidate: Does SCOTUS Still Think It Can't Happen Here?
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
And here you thought that The Manchurian Candidate was just a taut thriller with the odd casting of Angela Lansbury as Laurence Harvey's mother. Not so, says Greg Palast. It's looking very much like our political future:
I'm losing sleep over the millions — or billions — of dollars that could flood into our elections from ARAMCO, the Saudi Oil corporation's U.S. unit; or from the maker of "New Order" fashions, the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Or from Bin Laden Construction corporation. Or Bin Laden Destruction Corporation.
Right now, corporations can give loads of loot through PACs. While this money stinks (Barack Obama took none of it), anyone can go through a PAC's federal disclosure filing and see the name of every individual who put money into it. And every contributor must be a citizen of the USA.
But under today's Supreme Court ruling that corporations can support candidates without limit, there is nothing that stops, say, a Delaware-incorporated handmaiden of the Burmese junta from picking a Congressman or two with a cache of loot masked by a corporate alias.
Candidate Barack Obama was one sharp speaker, but he would not have been heard, and certainly would not have won, without the astonishing outpouring of donations from two million Americans. It was an unprecedented uprising-by-PayPal, overwhelming the old fat-cat sources of funding.
Well, kiss that small-donor revolution goodbye. Under the Court's new rules, progressive list serves won't stand a chance against the resources of new "citizens" such as CNOOC, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation. Maybe UBS (United Bank of Switzerland), which faces U.S. criminal prosecution and a billion-dollar fine for fraud, might be tempted to invest in a few Senate seats. As would XYZ Corporation, whose owners remain hidden by "street names."[..]
And once the Taliban incorporates in Delaware, they could ante up for the best democracy money can buy.
In July, the Chinese government, in preparation for President Obama's visit, held diplomatic discussions in which they skirted issues of human rights and Tibet. Notably, the Chinese, who hold a $2 trillion mortgage on our Treasury, raised concerns about the cost of Obama's health care reform bill. Would our nervous Chinese landlords have an interest in buying the White House for an opponent of government spending such as Gov. Palin? Ya betcha!
The potential for foreign infiltration of what remains of our democracy is an adjunct of the fact that the source and control money from corporate treasuries (unlike registered PACs), is necessarily hidden. Who the heck are the real stockholders? Or as Butch asked Sundance, "Who are these guys?"
We'll never know.
Scary thought. Richard Power evokes the great Sinclair Lewis cautionary tale of fascism disguised as "freedom", It Can't Happen Here and suggests that the satirical has become too close to the truth:
As craven as much of the leadership of the Democratic Party has become, there is a difference [between the Republican and Democratic Parties], even today, and those who deny that difference are culpable in all that has happened to us. Of course, in the weeks, months and years ahead, there will likely be no difference at all -- because of Citizens United v. [FEC]
As Larisa Alexandrovna points out, in SCOTUS ruling = Powell Memo goal = Fall of democracy..., the decision is not only an abomination in its own right, it is also the achievement of a goal set forth in the Powell Memo.
Now it is not a question of what we must do, but who we are. And the preliminary results on who we are do not bode well.
played Laurence Harvey's mother.
When I first saw this movie, I'd watched her in the teevee show she had for some time. I forgot it was her in a scene where she's talking to her son (played by Lawrence Harvey, a guy 2 years younger than her)...she was just an evil villain.
But what you said Nicole. It IS scary.
me-oww!
I misspelled his name
me-oww!
way to old for Marshall Dillon.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
easily checked...
me-oww!
or Chester, myself.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
I understand the actresses who played Cary Grant's mother and Eva Marie Saint's were only a couple of years older than he was.
And Yvonne de Carlo was actually a couple years older than Al Lewis, who played her father in the Munsters.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
wasn't Frank Sinatra's mother, she was the other actor's mother. Minor point.
Only when the last tree has died
and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught
will we realize we cannot eat money.
Hey, I got news for you we are almost there, Fox news owned by W. R Hearst, sorry I mean R. Murdoch and the rest of the MSM falling into line, never correcting anyone who is on, no matter how much they lie or manipulate said media. Basically it is all theater, all the time.
...that the Supremes are completely dismissive of any kind of influence international law ought to have on U.S. law, and yet they've just handed the financial keys to our representative government to foreign countries?
Who says there are no Illuminati? So basically they gave the keys to the country to the Bilderberg Group and China to carve up as they agree upon?
The people that brought this suit intend to go after disclosure next... that is, that absolute secrecy in who would donate to these candidates... so the public might never find out that the Senator that was just elected was in the pocket of Big Oil or Big Pharma or Saudi Arabia...
Only when the last tree has died
and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught
will we realize we cannot eat money.
"The people that brought this suit intend to go after disclosure next... that is, that absolute secrecy in who would donate to these candidates... so the public might never find out that the Senator that was just elected was in the pocket of Big Oil or Big Pharma or Saudi Arabia..." - LibertyLover
What has just happened is insulting enough.
If they try to ramp it up another notch by stopping the disclosure of who is giving what to whom I think that will be the straw that breaks the camel's back.
The question for me is, how can we legally reverse this decision???
Has anyone read any opinions from Greenwald, The Center for Constitutional Rights? Has Jonathan Turley weighed in on the REMEDY here???
BTW, I wonder if, considering that the Supreme Court has suggested that corporations are "persons", if perhaps that means that a corporation can then be limited to what any other "person" can give a candidate for president etc. ($2300)??
I'm just thinking that there has to be a way to turn this thing on it's head and cause it to go back and bite Citizens United in the ass.
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
Ab....They can certainly produce a high-priced message, but we don't have to listen to it, do we? But, then again, there's those students of "Fox U." So never mind.....
"If they try to ramp it up another notch by stopping the disclosure of who is giving what to whom I think that will be the straw that breaks the camel's back."
I doubt it seriously. The American public will just roll right over and go back to sleep.
.
Only when the last tree has died
and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught
will we realize we cannot eat money.
Angela Lansbury was one hot mamma back in the 40's and 50's when she appeared in the Portrait of Dorian Gray with Hurd Hatfield, and my favorite, George Sanders, and then I saw her in the Court Jester.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
.
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
but my two favorites are Barbara Stanwyck and Veronica Lake. Interestingly, I just saw where Tarantino said those were his favorites too.
is the domestic corporation which decides, rather than kick out
an incompetent executive at a cost of umpteen millions, simply decides to elect him or her to the highest offices in the land.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
should be tried for treason.
but they won't.
America, RIP.
I think at the very least the entire court, and the justices individually should be audited, if only for a chance they were bribed.
Afterall, the House controls the purse strings for all three branches, and would be the ones to draw up any impeachment charges.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." -- Sinclair Lewis
"financed by the Chinese."
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAoArleLZEk
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
My take on it, perhaps a tad too wordy for this small comment section....
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blo...
"The abilities and applications of this "technology" is a closely guarded secret, naturally."
really now, you have veered into the land of the silly.
given your premise, that such "mind control" devices work... laughable though that may be,
Why
would it stop there?
You brainwash one, he brainwashes two, who brainwashes four...
it doesn't take long.
Did you take "Eternal Sunshine" as fact, rather than fiction?
The truth is much more banal.
Perhaps. Perhaps not. It's become an undeniably strange world.
there is a fair amount of evidence that just such a mind control technique was used on Sirhan Sirhan.
Just saying.
I now think of the radical right's domination of the the highest court in America as the "Supreme Court Republicans Of The United States" or SCROTUS.
"To me, truth is not some vague, foggy notion. Truth is real. And,
at the same time, unreal. Fiction and fact and everything in between,
plus some things I can't remember, all rolled into one big "thing."
This is truth, to me. "
-Jack Handy
It has already happened , it's as good as done .99% of Americans are completely oblivious but many of us have seen this coming for a long time . The Radical right wing fascists who have hijacked the Repug party have been chipping away at our pseudo democracy for a long time and make no mistake it is a conspiracy , a plot , and they have been very clever and patient , making continual progress ever since Saint Reagan . Now they have their plants , saboteurs and traitors , on the Supreme court and with the outrageous "decision" granting corporations "person-hood" and now this , the coup de grace , it looks like our fate is sealed and they've just about accomplished their mission . With such an incredibly inept Democratic party who itself is corrupted and such an unsophisticated ( ignorant and stupid ) population it was only a matter of time before they pulled it off . Once Bush got his appointees on the Supreme court the mission was accomplished really . You think this economic collapse on the Bush / Repug " watch " was an accident and actually caught them by surprise ? Right . I'm not so certain that 9 11 wasn't an inside job to help set the stage . Regardless , it's all but a done deal now and the worst is yet to come .
means 0.0099.
less than one percent.
I realize it's a typo...
but I wish it was true what you typed,
if it were, we wouldn't be here now.
I think I see a pattern here, with you, Mr. Pete
is one of the finest movies ever made. Chilling and prophetic. Angela Lansbury is incredible.
How I wish this SC ruling was just a movie. Sadly, it's not.
Fasten your seatbelts. Bumpy ride ahead :(
calgarylady,,,you managed to throw in a little saucy "Bette Davis" as well, teehee.
I always love me some Bette Davis!
She was the best babe evah :)
It's not enough that they can spread their propaganda. They're going to have to shut down opposing opinion. They know that democracy can only function in an environment where there are "an uninhibited marketplace of ideas in which truth will prevail" - a marketplace where there is a "wide diversity of viewpoints from a multiplicity of sources". Right now, single payer is taken off the table at the corporate media. But, it's still alive on the internet. If I wanted to hear what Kucinich was saying about the Senate bill, I had to go to RTTV. They need for you to hear what they're saying and not hear any conflicting positions.
Corporations depends on democracy malfunctioning. In the era preceding the internet era, there was a restraint in the supply of over-the-air television stations, which drove up the price of mass communications that only corporations could afford. They're going to try to duplicate the broadcast model with the internet, because that's the only way they can stuff the genie back into the bottle.
The latest sellout on net neutrality: The NAACP.
http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/n...
Check your timestamps people! This little blog run by grad students scooped the greatness that is Crooks and Liars! http://demagoguesanddictators.blogspot.com
Amazing analysis, and it all fits! Looks like I found the cutting edge!
From Monday, January 25, 2010 New York Times, Page A11:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/25/us/politics...
Some exerpts from the interview with Richard Hasen of Loyola Law School about James Bopp,attorney for Citizens United.
James Bopp, attorney for Citizens United- “We had a 10-year plan to take all this {campaign finance regulation} down,” he said in an interview. “And if we do it right, I think we can pretty well dismantle the entire regulatory regime that is called campaign finance law. We have been awfully successful,” he added, “and we are not done yet.”
The Citizens United case “was really Jim’s brainchild,” said Richard L. Hasen, an expert on election law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
“He has manufactured these cases to present certain questions to the Supreme Court in a certain order and achieve a certain result.”
"As craven as much of the leadership of the Democratic Party has become, there is a difference [between the Republican and Democratic Parties], even today, and those who deny that difference are culpable in all that has happened to us". I agree .
Pretty damned ingenious, isn't it ?
It's all very scary. Wasn't it Ben Franklin who stated something to the effect of, "here's there democracy, let's see if they can keep it". Well, it appears we have the answer. The Democrats are our only hope at this point, but unfortunately haven't figured out how to be tougher and smarter, which is what's it's going to take. Add to that, our incredibly pathetic mainstream news media, our corporate owned media. We are so screwed.
I can't believe that the wingnuts who shit themselves over the fact that the guy who set his balls on fire gets a lawyer, and that scary terrorists might take over the inside of some supermax prison cells, and that we've stopped openly torturing captives, but they are absolutely delighted that foreign corporations now have more say over their government and their minds than they do.
ooooooh, those nasty forieners. Listen guys, domestic interests are just as dangerous... you think that because a corporation has a flag on its logo or that it is based in NY that it is American?... no, that is just the result of effective public relations. Corporations are not people - people are people.
America is the sum of its populace and as far as I can see they are unrepresented by that thing that you call democracy :/
You can't do it by saying that Obama would not have been heard.
We would all be better off if Bush III had been silenced before his campaign even got off the ground.
And the Democratic Party did a damn fine job of silencing progressives - right, Dennis Kucinich? - without the aid of this truly abominable decision.
As much as I admire and respect both of these gentlemen, I believe they are wrong in their assessments. Mr. Greenwald also spends far too much time chiding the knee-jerk, emotionally charged reactions of others instead of recognizing those reactions as knee-jerk and emotionally charged.
Here is how I see the 1st Amnedment and how I believe it has been interpreted so far:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion - nope, this section does not cover the free speech of institutions.
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech - this section does not cover institutions, they are not specified, our constitution was written with the INTENT of persons/citizens unless otherwise stated (INTENT is the cornerstone of constitutional law)
or of the press - oh look! otherwise stated than persons! how about that! and not institutions, they mean press. Mr. Greenwald argues and follows up with further argument against The Press having free speech with his point being that its unfair for the NYTimes or Fox to have free speech but not other corps - he is wrong because, fair or not, the press is implicitly stated here. BTW, it is the NYTimes newspaper and Fox tv which have free speech NOT their corp parents (well, until now).
or the right of the people peaceably to assemble - no mention of freedom of speech given to these assemblages, why, because INDIVIDUALS DO NOT LOOSE THEIR INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM OF SPEECH because they assemble.
and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances - a group of like minded individuals can pool their grievances for redress however a corporation's purpose is to conduct business and make money, it is not a vehicle for addressing citizens grievances - don't like that? its how merchants and the law define a corporation, its sole function is commerce - period.
I would like to see the SCOTUS SKRAT Pack (stevens kenney roberts alito thomas) tossed. But that ain't happening. We must organize like never before or we will lose everything - right and left.
Also, Angela Lansbury and Betty White were pretty hot in their day. Of course, if I were 80 White would be hot now.
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