Posts Tagged ‘democracy’

🧾 The Lobby That Never Loses 💸

Posted: July 31, 2025 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional
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Elections change the faces—but never the outcome. Lobbyists always win.

“Now it’s just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or being elected president.”
— Jimmy Carter

Every election cycle, we’re told to pick a side.

Red or blue.
Hope or fear.
Change or more of the same.

But behind the curtains and campaign ads, the same winners always emerge: the corporations who bankroll both sides.

Their lobbyists don’t need to win elections.
They just need to outlast them.

“The most offensive aspect of the modern political system is how entirely legalized the corruption is.”
— Matt Taibbi

The Revolving Door Spins On

The people writing our laws?
They often come straight from the industries they’re supposed to regulate.

And when they’re done “serving the public”?
They go right back into the private sector—with a pay bump for playing ball.

This isn’t representation.
It’s a handshake deal between government and corporate power.

And it’s why regulations rarely hurt the companies they’re aimed at.
They’re often written by them.

“The reason why the U.S. government does not hold elites accountable is because they are part of the same system. It is not broken — it is designed that way.”
— Glenn Greenwald

Regulatory Capture Is Not a Flaw—It’s the Design

When Big Pharma influences the FDA,
when defense contractors sit on Pentagon advisory boards,
when fossil fuel execs shape environmental policy—
that’s not corruption by accident.
It’s the system working exactly as built.

Agencies meant to protect the public
are used to protect the profits of the powerful.

And once captured, those agencies become shields—
giving the illusion of oversight while doing the opposite.

“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum.”
— Noam Chomsky

Campaign Donors Aren’t Donating—They’re Investing

In 2024, over $17 billion was spent on political campaigns.

But none of that money was a gift.
It was an investment.

And like all investors, donors expect returns:
– favorable legislation
– deregulation
– subsidies
– tax loopholes

They buy access. They buy influence.
And when necessary, they buy silence.

No matter who wins the vote, the lobby wins the outcome.

It’s Not a Bug. It’s a Business Model.

We’re taught that voting is our voice.
But what happens when the choices are pre-approved by money?

What happens when both parties answer to the same donors?
When every regulation is pre-lobbied?
When the economy is run by the few and paid for by the many?

Then we aren’t living in a democracy.
We’re living in a managed marketplace.

And the customers don’t get to write the rules.

“Elections are supposed to be an expression of will — not a demand for submission to manufactured choices.”
— Edward Snowden

🩸 Truth Over Tribalism

This isn’t about red or blue.
It’s about the money that owns them both.

It’s about a system where billionaires write the laws,
corporations fund the campaigns,
and lobbyists run the show.

We don’t need new slogans.
We need new structures.
Because the lobby will keep winning—until we stop playing by their rules.

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Wealth #Inequality Means #Democracy is a Farce

Posted: February 13, 2024 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional, Excess and Algorithms
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A government of the people, by the people, for the people in a world where cash rules everything around me.

We’re getting closer to the traditional national gaslighting of people to vote for the lesser of two evils. Gaslighting and voter shaming being the only options left of a corporate captured media and government.

Keep the facade going, there’s motions to go through. There’s time slots to fill, content to create, and appearances to make.

If people can barely survive after a decade which saw both political parties have control of government at one point or another, what is the point of voting? Unless voting third party. That’s where the gaslighting and voter shaming come into play. I wonder what Jill Stein will be blamed for this election season.

What a better life? GET A JOB! So then what do I need to participate in the farce of the decaying corpse of democracy for? Don’t super delegates pick who runs in the general election anyway? Doesn’t the electoral college mean that only a few swing states decide the presidential election anyway?

If voting was so important why isn’t it a national holiday? Like it is in other countries…

Vote local? Well that’s where I can see one vote having some value. Probably why we never hear about local elections. Hard to make us hate our neighbors over referendums and country treasurer battles.

If the masses are doing worse than they were before, habitually, for generations…what good is government? What is the point of elections?

Political theater, divide and conquer, evoke emotions, distract, tribalism…

How else can the 1% get the 99% to hate each other?

Red hates Blue

Blue hates Red

Elephant hates Donkey

Donkey hates Elephant

Blue Collar hates White Collar

White Collar hates Blue Collar

North hates South

South hates North

Half the country hates the other half

What a shame, what a waste, what a farce…

In America, we don’t have a democracy, we have economic totalitarianism.

One must pay attention, and do just a baseline level of research to find this truth although it becomes more obvious every year. The economic elites find less and less need to hide it. It’s becoming more common to say the quiet part out loud, in the open, on live mics on livestreams.

Keep the masses running the rate race fueled by promises and propaganda. Coerce them to work for a living until they’re burned out, bankrupt, or dead.

Just go along to get along. Gotta make rent, gotta put the groceries on credit. Can’t attend the protest cause I’m out of PTO, can’t take my PTO cause my copay went up again, can’t afford my copay cause groceries got more expensive for the forth year in a row.

What a shame, what a waste, what a farce…

#Duopoly on the ballot in #Murica…again

Posted: January 28, 2024 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional
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Awareness is the way out.

Even the most propagandized, corporate captured, patriotic, colonizer friendly American voter has to know something is up, something is amiss to have the same two candidates in back to back presidential elections, with one candidate being the front runner for a third consecutive election.

No one ever went broke under estimating the intelligence of the American people.

America is the most propagandized country on Earth by such a wide margin. North Korea only gets it from the government. In America, our citizenry gets it from the Military Industrial Complex, Big Pharma, Big Oil, Wall Street, and Corporate America literally every time they look at a screen. And screens are everywhere now.

People who are pro Trump and pro Biden…know something is aloof here.

But to think about it, to question it, is the end of bliss. Because ignorance is bliss.

As the late great George Carlin (the original, not the AI remake) would say… “the owners of this country” …and… “it’s a big club, and you ain’t in it”…

The populace is so docile and scared in America that the money in control of the political duopoly that is American politics won’t be bothered to change the wrapper anymore. It’s all Ronald Regan anyway. If they could, they would put him as an AI on the ballot, and that’s probably not far off.

There is an counter force. Vote third party. Vote local. Organize to push ballot initiatives and referendums. Politics is bottom up. All politics is local is the old saying. That’s the long game. The long game is the only option. And the only thing we have less of than patience is attention.

If people are struggling to pay their rent and bills at historic levels, if income inequality is at historic levels, then why would the populace treat the presidential election like anything other than another reality tv show. A reality tv show host is a duopoly front runner for the third election in a row after all.

When the majority of people are completely identified with their ego and thinking mind, then they are reaction junkies. Unaware there is a space between stimulus and response. So they can be trained like animals. They can be taught to react when certain buttons are pushed regardless of repetition. They will salivate no matter how many times the bell rings.

So they’ll fall in line to vote against the lesser or two evils in the most important election in their lifetime for the third decade in a row. Then wonder why nothing changes, why they have more debt, less money, more work, less leisure, more rules, less rights, more fear, less love.

#Politics is Theater for the Oligarchy

Posted: January 14, 2024 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional
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I am regularly around people not from America. I enjoy it. I enjoy different perspectives and experiences and perceptions and opinions.

One of my favorite things about regularly being around foreigners is their reactions when they see American political advertising aka campaign commercials. Which is common because election season in America never ends now, since it’s a set it and forget it emotional trigger and decisiveness tool for the unwashed masses.

After they see one or two…dozen…political ads in an hour, they’ll inevitably start asking the people around them what they think of politics, what they think of democracy, what they are thinking about the upcoming election, etc.

If/when they ask me, my answer is a sloppy version of the following; American politics is theater for the capitalist oligarchy and the military industrial complex to give the masses the illusion of choice, control and influence.

If I’m talking to a European, they quickly understand what I’m talking about. If it’s an Australian or South American, there is usually an explanation of what an oligarchy is and that the MIC is and how they are the shadow authoritarian government and have been for a minimum of half a century.

Any doubt or skepticism towards that can be directed towards the 2008 bank bailouts, 2020 TARP bailouts, the volume of assassinations of anti-war organizers in the 1960s, and of course the never ending wars we have never ending money for while homelessness and wealth inequality reach all time highs in the richest country in the history of the planet.

I remember in the 90’s when Jessie Ventura became governor of Minnesota as an independent. When asked why he was an independent he said that the only difference between a democrat and a republican is the speed at which their knees hit the ground when their donors walk into the room.

Those who would say that America is a democracy and isn’t a corporate captured, authoritarian state; would also openly admit how corrupt Washington is. They would call me a conspiracy theorist, and then complain about how nothing ever seems to get done in Washington. Drain the swamp! But we live in a direct democracy. What does duopoly mean anyways?!

As long as we’re blaming the rank and file voters of the opposite party, obsessing over pronouns, or thinking an ex billionaire game show host is to blame for all of our problems, then we certainly won’t have the mental capacity to comprehend the people who control the currency, the land, the bombs and the resources are the ones controlling the government and that the combination of the two controls our lives.

Because then we would have to admit that we aren’t free, we own nothing, we have no rights. And I know from repeated experience, that ignorance…is…bliss.

#Election Judge Training Restored My Faith in #Democracy

Posted: February 11, 2014 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional
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ajclogo2

by @anarchyroll
2/10/2014

Much like the politicians who are running for the elections I will be a judge for, I’m doing it for the money.

I showed up the a suburban library to get a once over of the basic information that involves being an election judge. It was given in a combination Powerpoint fueled verbal presentation, a bound packet, and an interactive dry run of our duties. It started at 10 am, not an ungodly early time of day so I went in rested and somewhere between optimistic and pessimistic.

I was clearly the only person under the age of 50 in the room. I noticed this by both sight and smell. Old man stink for days. The first half hour could have easily been confused for the senior citizen throat clearing Olympics. The guy to my left took home the gold in that regard.

However, the two very nice, very proficient women in charge of the presentation stuffed my pessimism in a sack mister. They knew what they were talking about, were not dependent on the Powerpoint slides, answered every question asked without skipping a beat, and gave us a bathroom break at the exact right moment. Kudos to you ladies.

Besides the knowledge that the state of Illinois was hiring smart, savvy, experienced people to train those at the local election level, I was impressed by the infrastructure of fail safes, paper trails, and laws to attempt to prevent voting shennanigans.  I certainly can’t speak for states with electronic voting machines from the Diebold corporation, because Illinois uses paper ballets that are first verified by two sets of eyes, then a computer, then rechecked by multiple sets of eyes before being mailed in sealed containers, before they are electronically scanned, then checked by multiple sets of eyes again to verify authenticity of individual voter and election result.

The process of checking to make sure everything on the level at a polling place in Illinois is very much like the organizational structure of a casino. We were done by 1 pm. We have the option of taking additional online proficiency exams and training, for extra pay in return for that extra work. If only the government itself had competent people like the ones I encountered today, in office. If only the government operated with a little more time efficiency and a little less old man throat clearing.  If only the agencies and social safety nets had logical infrastructure in place like ones I learned about today. If those things were so, maybe voter turnout would equal or be higher than that of American Idol.

Now, which one of you assholes stole my tumbler while I was in bathroom after class ended?

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