Moves to Amend The US Constitution Re: Corporate Corruption
This is very interesting.
The goal is to end the influence of corporations and special interests in government. It is essentially about reclaiming democracy. I just felt … Awaken the Fool.
I am sure there will be arguments about the rights of philanthropy as a freedom to help who they want. They will argue limits to freedom of speech if this is curtailed. The issue is not about that in truth, it is about some voices heard over others and shape changing a democratic system that all have agreed represents their will. So the lie is the issue.
The reality on the ground has for a long time been out of step with the rhetoric at the highest levels given the significant disconnect and world views of those considered elite and those characterised as mainstream, both are concepts. Of course right wing views (certain ideological predisposition agreed upon) can be peppered throughout a community as well and pop up in single issues or as a person seeking identity.
The issue is concentration of wealth used to distort outcomes by paying for political influence rather than the vote at the ballot box – one vote one value. The underlying issue is that some are valued higher than others and their opinions listened to whilst others are not heard, standard letters are a case in point. So generally speaking if any attempt to curtail this influence is framed as limiting freedom of speech, and money gives access as freedom, the issue is not freedom of speech but funding specific opinions as propaganda.
The real desire is for fairness in my feeling and the promise of democracy. Without this as a lived reality, people lose trust, interest and become increasingly alienated from the system of governance in a range of forums. They actually lose the allegiance of citizens. The mainstream props up both systems of political government and economy, without their energy it all collapses.
This website below was mentioned in the previous blog, it is a counter movement to capitalism’s influence in government.
What I love about democracy is the offering of a range of perspectives. Having been a business owner myself and homeless I find myself in a twilight position of seeing how those in business get addicted and lost in their glee clubs (supporting their views) and feeling like masters of the universe and those in the lower echelon who experience on every level barriers to entry (access) to mainstream services and activities. They take it personally as they feel rejected, they blame themselves for their failure (self esteem) and isolate from others as they feel a deep shame. This does not require a further kick in the guts as they are losers (in the eyes of the high and mighty) they require empowerment to remember they too are equal and learn that it is the system that disempowers by holding up images impossible for everyone to reach and unrelated to their purpose in life.
Also the outlier here is not everyone is here to work in the sense of doing what you don’t want, life is about experiencing who you really are. Life is breathing, laughing, collaborating, experiencing, interacting, learning and growing. A life experience might be: living on the street to become grateful for materialism, it might be having no money to see where real wealth comes from in the kindness of a word or smile, it might be living as a philanthropist seeing the joy others feel as you use your money to equalise the family. it could be living as a media mogul or wealthy industrialist to experience life from that perspective. Neither more important or less than the other experience, life in truth is experience. Life is here not in the image of human beings but we are in the image of life when we let go of concepts that frame worth to discover all are worthwhile, every life precious and every act golden when it is done with love. Life is the good and the bad, the up and the down, the left and the right, it is all colours. As Gump said ‘life is a box of chocolates’. I have to post that here. I am with Forest.
I send love to the most impoverished, that would be the wealthy industrialists. I see their poverty clearly in their lack of generosity to brothers and sisters (not with money) but to share their love and wisdom as that is the real wealth of any nation. I recall Mother Theresa coming to Australia and regarding our country as poorer than India, she was referring to the lack of love (emotional connectedness). I have noted when homeless not one person has asked if there is anything they can do to help or what I need. Even those in the welfare sector never saw themselves as having the power to help, rather fear silenced them as I may be a burden on them, yet I would never be as I am independent just unable to access work or money given my consciousness objection to the corruption in the job provider system here. So a friend let’s me stay. I asked her why? She said “I can’t bare to see anyone on the street“. the best thing she said to me is “we help each other“, as my presence serves her – I cook, I talk to her, keep her company, offer her assistance and share with her what I am learning. Most of all, I am a true friend. The service and co-collaboration goes both ways, that is the real secret when you stop thinking of money as value. You can never be drained, you can only fail to learn from others, that is the real poverty. My gift is my life.
We, the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling and other related cases, and move to amend our Constitution to firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.
We the People, Not We the Corporations
On January 21, 2010, with its ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are persons, entitled by the U.S. Constitution to buy elections and run our government. Human beings are people; corporations are legal fictions.
We, the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United and other related cases, and move to amend our Constitution to firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.
The Supreme Court is misguided in principle, and wrong on the law. In a democracy, the people rule.
We Move to Amend.
“. . . corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires. Corporations help structure and facilitate the activities of human beings, to be sure, and their ‘personhood’ often serves as a useful legal fiction. But they are not themselves members of “We the People” by whom and for whom our Constitution was established.”
~Supreme Court Justice Stevens, January 2010
Announcements
Eleven donors have plowed $1 billion into super PACs since they were created
October 26, 2018
Just 11 donors have injected $1 billion into U.S. political races in the past eight years through super PACs, the big-money entities that have given wealthy contributors a powerful way to influence elections.
How Billionaires Bought Kavanaugh’s Seat on the Supreme Court
October 22, 2018
In the 1970s, a revolution began. It was a deliberately hidden revolution, concealed so well that it is unknown to most Americans, even though it has profoundly and forever changed the nation. This ongoing revolution has brought us a Grand Canyon of inequality, Donald Trump — and now, Brett Kavanaugh.
The majority of the world’s richest entities are corporations, not governments
October 18, 2018
More than two-thirds of economic entities on the planet are corporations, not governments, according to new research.
Let’s talk about Kavanaugh and SCOTUS and what the hell we are gonna do
October 18, 2018
Where do we go from here?
I don’t have all the answers, but we need to talk about it.
Please join me Thursday evening to begin that discussion — on Facebook Live at 5pm Pacific/8pm Eastern.
Nearly every member of the congressional progressive caucus still takes corporate pac money
October 14, 2018
“If we are going to end the influence of corporations and special interests in government, we have to start by not relying on their support,” said caucus co-chair Mark Pocan, D-Wis. “Only by being fully independent of their financial influence can we prioritize people over corporations.”
The development was largely ignored by the press, but for those who heard about it, the move raised an immediate question: Wait, the Congressional Progressive Caucus was taking corporate money?
October Barnstorming Tour in Minnesota with Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap
October 3, 2018
Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap National Director of Move to Amend is barnstorming through Minnesota in an effort to build connections, inspire activism, and reveal the origins of corporate power in America.
California enacts strongest net neutrality protections in the nation — and the Trump administration sues
September 30, 2018
Gov. Jerry Brown on Sunday restored net neutrality rules in California that were repealed under the Trump administration, setting up a legal battle with the federal government over whether states can prevent companies from blocking access to the internet.
Fall Barnstorming Tour Through Central & Southern Illinois, Missouri, and Indiana with Greg Coleridge
September 24, 2018
Move to Amend is barnstorming through Central & Southern Illinois, Missouri and Indiana. Catch a talk in your area, and learn how you can get involved in the campaign to end corporate personhood and demand real democracy!