ABSOLUTELY DEAD SERIOUS TERRIFYING POST

I will be the first to point out that most of my posts are sophomoric and shallow....my attempts to amuse myself with low brow humor. However this post is both serious and terrifying.

Today the supreme court (in a 5 to 4 decision) decided that corporations could financially participate in the electoral process without limitation or restriction. Out and out bribery of politicians would still be illegal, but direct bribes are not necessary, when, with enough money, you can virtually guarantee the election of your hand picked legislator. There have always been limitations on the way corporations could spend money in the pursuit of a political cause or in support of a politician's future for a very good reason. But the gloves are off now.

Quite simply, corporations can now directly and without limit pay for political advertisements in support of (or in opposition to) any candidate or political cause it likes. Period. The corporation's new "right" allows them to inject as much money as they wish into the political process. Their new 'right' to finance and participate in the political process goes beyond this simple explanation, but the rest is just icing on their political cake.

This is the most horrifying thing that I have ever heard. Unlike most political issues....where the "issue is the issue" (no matter how distorted it gets), this is quite simply the whole ball game. All elections and political issues are effectively being put up for sale to the corporation with the deepest purse and the most to gain or lose by the outcome. Anyone who thinks that the amount of money spent either for or against a candidate or an issue doesn't make a difference is quite simply naive. This transcends any single issue or family of issues. This now becomes the ONLY ISSUE. It raises the spectre of all elections and issues now being resolved in the manner that is in the best interest of the corporations.

Many (most? all?) of us have long believed that the government (via our elected representatives) has long been for sale or rent. But there has always been some semblance or pretense of control or restriction. There has always been an attempt to mitigate the wholesale corruption of the political process by the special interests of big money. NO MORE.

To my knowledge, no legitimate government on earth allows this level of participation by corporations in the selection of its representatives and the formulation of it's national policies. Indeed, up until today, had we heard of such a government we certainly would have deemed it corrupt. We would have held it up as a government that does not even pretend to act in the best interests of it's citizens. Prior to today, if we had discovered one of our enemies trying to do this to us, we would carpet bomb their country border to border, collateral damage be damned.

I can see how some people might see some positive aspect of this if they are focused on a specific side of a specific issue. (Actually, I can't. But I believe that some people may feel that way.) But truly, how can this possibly be anything but in the worst possible long term interest of all of us (humans and citizens). Our government, with all of it's failings and weaknesses is at least supposed to serve, protect, and act in the best interest of it's citizens....not it's corporations. Can we even pretend this is the case if corporations are allowed to participate in the political process to such an extreme case as has now been made possible.

OK now ....here comes the amusing or not so amusing part of it. Where I live, I have only one source for electrical and gas services for my home. These two corporations make profits on me and they can now spend as much of these profits as they like to influence legislation that is not in my best interest.

And now for a final fun thought. A large % of US corporations are now owned or controlled by foreigners or foreign entities. Consider how much of our national wealth we have given away every year via purchase of foreign oil and our massive federal deficit that is owned in large part by the Chinese. Now we are surrendering much more than our treasure.

The "Welcome to Washington, DC" sign can now be replaced. The only question is, do we replace it with a "For Sale" sign or a "Paying Customers Only" sign.

I am outraged and terrified.....for my children.