November 13, 2014
Another coup for the oligarchy -- why am I not surprised.
The Securities and Exchange Commission, as a regulatory agency, was once obliged by law to disclose political spending. This rule had to do with the public interest and not with the corporation's. Ah, but I see that that has changed.
The oligarch-engineered ruling laid down by a Supreme Court packed with anti-citizen jurists ruled in the Citizens United case that a living, breathing human being was not required to stand as one, but that an artificial entity was.
That ruling resulted in 2012’s tsunami of election spending, pouring corporate “dark money” almost exactly as Mussolini's playbook once predicted. Yet what about the interests of investors like me -- the lone citizen.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has nothing to do with this country as a geographical home for billions of people. Its name merely borrows from the site of the home office. In fact, it is an international consortium that owes no allegiance to America, merely to its stockholders, most of whom reside outside the U.S. Giving CEOs the green light to use other people's retirement savings and investments as a political war chest for partisan is taxation without representation -- anathema to the United States of America.
A small business owner knows exactly if his or her company’s money is being spent to help elect politicians. The same ought to be true true for shareholders. Both shareholders and the public must be fully informed as to how much corporations spend on politics and which candidates are being promoted or attacked. Disclosures should be posted promptly on the SEC’s web site.
Thank you for considering my comment.
Taylor Teegarden
Alameda, CA