Corporations * GOP * Super PACs * Citizens United * Supreme Court * Trump * Kavanaugh * Dark Money

What do all these entities mean? Together they signify the end of any pretense of democracy — big money rules, especially corporate money. The last nail in the coffin of democracy was when the bought and paid for US Supreme Court majority ruled in the Citizens United case that money equals free speech as if corporations were people.

The bottom line is that large sums of money may be donated to the so-called Super PACs that are then free to do with it politically as they see fit, as long as unlimited amount are not given directly to individual candidates. But even this latter limitation is toothless, as the powers to be have captured half the folks that sit on the six-person Federal Elections Commission. Thus there is always a tie vote on any charge of wrongdoing brought before the commission, and a tie means that no action will be taken.

Here is a sample of how the cycle of influence works. Say Corporation X wants to save some bucks by not having to install an expensive antipollution system. It merely donates, say, a half million dollars to a super PAC (political action committee), which of course was created in the first place for doing the bidding of corporate interests. And since the PAC is not required by law to publish the names of donors, such a contribution is referred to as dark money, a sort of legal money laundering mechanism to hide the identity of the contributor. Now of course the PACs have made it known to its recipient, vetted under the table, what is expected of him or her for the support.

Then, about a month before the election, the PAC (that goes by some heroic name like Americans for a Free Societ) dumps a ton of vicious literature on the electorate about the recipient’s opponent, often outright lies, created via very sophisticated algorithms designed to push individual voters psychological hot buttons.

The innocent victim of an often quite malicious barrage of charges has no way to fight back. There is no one to debate. Then too, it is usually too late to mount an effective campaign to counter the wild accusations anyway — sunk. It is what it often meant by conscientious Republicans to have been primaried. Thus when someone like Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona refuses to get in line with big money, he knows he has no chance for re-nomination, so he retires.

Of course big money somewhat influences the Democrats, but it absolutely rules the GOP. It has now become impossible for an independently minded Republican to be nominated except in the most abnormal situations, as, say, someone like George Romney in the Mormon State of Utah, but then again George is personally big money.

Having captured the GOP, moneyed interests have either already squeezed out incorruptible Republican politicians, or as stated with Jeff Flake they are in the process of retiring. The fate of moderate Republican Susan Collins and her female political sister Senator is pending, but their political futures don’t look good.

Is it possible to reverse this big money takeover? For someone of great intellect and charisma to try would be for them to put their life on the line. It is that bad. Bernie Sanders has been trying for years, but the Hillary machine got in the way of his last big try. Besides Bernie was quite a bit too far left for many. So he was not likely in any danger of being taken out by the real powers of the land.

Then there is the element of Trump. The corporate class would have much preferred that the international mob infused Donald Trump had not invaded its domain, but it was forced to choke down his crude, loose cannon ways. Still, when it became apparent after Trump’s election that the GOP establishment’s corruption and Trump’s was pretty much in sync, it all blended into one very suspicious family of gold diggers, an ilk that found themselves up against the institutions of domestic and foreign order, primarily the FBI, CIA, military and the State Department.

While Trump and the GOP establishment are currently allies, the Donald’s troubles are mounting by the minute beyond potential party conflicts. The Russian investigation is just the tip of the iceberg of impending Trump disasters. In addition to being entangled with the Russians, a new blockbuster report in the New York Times asserts to have unraveled millions and million of dollars worth of tax fraud that allowed for Trump and his father to accumulate much of their wealth. Moreover, the article in great detail contradicts Trumps claim that he alone built up a billion dollar empire. Trump says his father gave him not more than a million dollars in seed money. But the truth is that Trump in his idiotic business dealings and casino bankruptcies burn though 400 million of his father dough, in fact all of it.

Thus his so-called great comeback was a result of him going to the Russians hat in hand for his rescue. In return he offered the Putin boys his branded properties for money laundering. This Russian item, as far as I currently know, was not part of the Times piece, but in the world of international real estate, Trump’s Russian bailout is common knowledge.

At last we come to the GOP super stooge, mean Judge Kavanagh, a female’s worst nightmare. If confirmed by the Senate this political hack/operative will put a corporate padlock on the US Supreme Court for many years to come. But that my friends is simply over kill insurance for the monied class. Because as long as corporate Super PACs roam free, big money interests will continue to rule the day at the expense of average Americans. In fact K Street may be about to go out of business. I mean, why would business bother lobbing Congress when it already owns it? And perhaps even more importantly it owns a majority of state governments as well.

Of course none of this has anything to do with the nation as far as its average citizen’s welfare is concerned. But if the nation’s middling Jane and Joe should get antsy, the Republican corporate shills are sure to employ their standard xenophobic gambits, causing the common folk to quickly go back to shooting themselves in the foot — MAGA.

Even with an overwhelming victory in the midterms, it is unlikely that Democrats will be able to chip away at the corporate lock that Republican shills have installed on the judiciary, especially the supreme Court, which obviously has become key to all things political and financial.