Jonathan Pelto, Connecticut’s Watchdog, reports on an excellent column by Sarah Darrerr Littman. She explains the corrupting influence of big money on politics.
Corruption, she says, is bipartisan. The Republican governor of Connecticut went to jail a decade ago. They pass laws to restrict pay-to-play, but engage in dubious behavior when the take office.
She writes:
“Doris Kearns Goodwin, a historian and writer whom I admire greatly, was a recent guest of the Connecticut Forum for a discussion called, “Debating Our Broken Political System.” She observed: “If I had to name one reason why it’s broken, it is power of money in the system today. It is the poison in the system . . . it is the amount of time that it takes our politicians to raise the funds, it’s the special interests that they are then beholden to, it’s the fact that they’re not doing the business of the country, and I blame everybody for it.”
“If we want to restore faith in government, we need a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizen’s United and McCutcheon decisions.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Lessig a Harvard Law professor hits the nail on the head in his TED talk.
It is not just the fact that some of our citizens have more influence than others, or even in places where they have no business meddling in other people’s lives,
It is the fact that malign foreign interests — which is what transnational corporations and the global finance industry amount to — are attacking the very foundations on which our country is built, not to mention the planet on which we all must live.
This is a new complaint filed by the state of Wisconsin against a for-profit, rip-off college.
Click to access complaint-corinthian-colleges-20141027.pdf
Hopefully the Wisconsin AG isn’t corrupt, too, and something comes from it, but I’m not real optimistic.
“I blame everybody for it.”
Bullshit, I and many others have had nothing to do with the corrupting influence of money in politics. Many of us have voted our conscience for years which usually meant voting neither for a Dim nor Rethug.
Voting in America today is beyond ridiculous, and a complete waste of time! Dr. Ravitch has done her best, as has Bill Moyers and a few others. It is over, and has been before we even started. The only option left is to move to more sensible country. Think about it.
People in Canada don’t live like this. My grandparents left Germany when they saw what was happening in the early 1930s. Americans have this naive notion that everything will work out well. Sorry, history doesn’t work that way. We have to start being realistic here.
I’m not sure if you’ve seen this article yet, but I believe it’s worthy of a link: http://www.thenation.com/article/186481/what-happens-when-you-criticize-teach-america
Keep up the good work.
Richard Wilkof rwilkof0@gmail.com
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Richard, already posted that article.
From “How Billionaire Oligarchs Are Becoming Their Own Political Parties”
By Jim Rutenberg, New York Times Magazine, 10/17/14.
“In 2010, the Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court effectively blew apart the McCain-Feingold restrictions on outside groups and their use of corporate and labor money in elections. That same year, a related ruling from a lower court made it easier for wealthy individuals to finance those groups to the bottom of their bank accounts if they so chose. What followed has been the most unbridled spending in elections since before Watergate. In 2000, outside groups spent $52 million on campaigns, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. By 2012, that number had increased to $1 billion.”
“With the advent of Citizens United, any players with the wherewithal, and there are surprisingly many of them, can start what are in essence their own political parties, built around pet causes or industries and backing politicians uniquely answerable to them. No longer do they have to buy into the system. Instead, they buy their own pieces of it outright, to use as they see fit. Suddenly, we privatized politics,” says Trevor Potter, an election lawyer who helped draft the McCain-Feingold law.”
Privatized politics. Someone commented on an earlier post that we have the best democracy money can buy . . .
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/magazine/how-billionaire-oligarchs-are-becoming-their-own-political-parties.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0
There’s a good article about how Michelle Rhee and her dark money are trying to usurp elections. http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/03/michelle_rhee_s_studentsfirst_education_policy_is_becoming_a_new_source.html
“Mark Twain wrote: “If voting made any difference, they wouldn’t let us do it.” This quote from the gilded age has never been more accurate than it is today. A vote implies real choice, and we have none. From France to Brazil, the United Kingdom, Germany, India and of course the United States — all of which pass for great democracies — political choices have become largely reduced to two electable political parties with different names to accommodate the local cultural flavors. This comforting idea of an option between left and right that spices up democracies’ voting menus is a farce….”
The Illusion of Democracy, counterpunch
Credibility 101
Erosion of Trust – Nietzshe – “I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from
now on, I can’t believe you.”
Credibility or credulity, is diminished when “lessons” are in conflict with reality.
Are imprinting ideas (comforting) or opinions (farce), in the strict sense of the word, Prejudices, on the mind of a child, education?
Is the “technology” of culture production designed to open the eyes?
If pattern recognition, or connecting the dots, requires the ability to SEE (analytical ability),
is the effectiveness of marketing or propaganda, clear evidence of blindness?
If people want to get really cynical and paranoid about politics, read this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/us/politics/pr-executives-western-energy-alliance-speech-taped.html?ref=politics