How did we get here? Fake news and paid speech

I found something in my writing archives. This was written in 2009 and it speaks volumes about where we are today. and reminding us that Citizens United was created to attack Hillary using corporate money with a movie called Hillary: The Movie. a biased attack ad that was framed as a documentary , they went on to make Obama 2016 which predicted that America would be a post apocalyptic nightmare zone after 8 years of Obama — and was released to try stopping him from getting a second term … and now we see the results… TRUMP I worried in this piece corporate elite could take over, install one of their own Romney’s name was already being whispered .—-

1911 Industrial Worker newspaper cover beautifully illustrating how capitalism works

1911 cover of the Industrial Worker beautifully depicts capitalism in its true form.

By Richard Trombly
Sept 12, 2009 — Capitalism corrupts, unregulated capitalism corrupts absolutely. If we are not careful in exercising our vote, we will have one of the very capitalist elite cronies themselves as a leader perhaps even by 2012 some businessman will be installed by these cronies. George Bush was their puppet who beat Al Gore with sympathy votes because he does not understand his own budget [look where that lead us in 2008] and that he was the one more Americans “would rather have a beer with” well, for 8 years I kept asking for that beer with Bush and even sent naked photos on a regular basis and never had a beer with him. My point being it is dangerous when marketing and popularity replace issues in the elections. We do not want elections decided by mudslinging where the biggest corporate whore will win the day. There may be someone worse that Bush, like a CEO of Fortune 500 that will be even worse at disassembling our government, our protections, our rights. The hate equality, so they divide us. We have seen renewed racism in this year. Fox has been advertising something called the teaparty, evoking the name of our founders but is exactly opposite what the intent of those Bostonians were doing. Taxes today are for the people, [we do need to cut military spending] and go to our government to represent us. They are unwittingly supporting the very elite that our forefathers fought against in the Revolutionary War. They claim the BLACK president does not represent them so suddenly all tax is taxation without representation. No Obama is representing all America whether you voted for him or not. They claim they are Constitutionalists, but I see a disturbing thing that paid media is destroying real media and that paid media is appealing to the rightwing gun nuts who claim they are defenders of the constitution even though they only care about half of the second amendment. through a FALSE syllogism they think in binary : We love the Constitution [we blindly do because we do not understand it] , Dems and liberals are not us, [false] therefore Dems and liberals hate the constitution. This is dangerous thinking leading to dangerous times.
In truth the teaparty movement is a corporate paid trick on the unwitting aimed at personal greed [anti-taxes] but the 50 bankers behind it and the Koch brothers are against Obama saving homeowners from bankruptcy because of bank malfeasance which lead to the 2008 crash. They bankers want the people to fight the government on the policies that help them most. And corporate money is behind this “popular grass roots spontaneous movement” that is not from the people [from, corporate elite] , not grass roots [paid for by corporate elite] , not spontaneous [Fox ‘news” is marketing in advance where these “spontaneous” gatherings will be claiming it is a popular uprising. If people believe Fox and these websites springing up everywhere , we are in deep trouble.]
A sign of that is the disturbing bill lead by Mitch McConnell and Theodore Olsen who leads something called Citizens United, a typical right-wing trick is in this name. It is an organization using corporate money as an NGO tax exempt company to make corporate paid speech equal to free speech that they can use to divide people if it is allowed to pass. We block corporate money to campaigns because if money equals speech, more money = more speech, then less money = less speech , no money = no speech and speech, media is power. if you allow those with more money to also have more speech , we will be ruled by the wealthy.
The rise of new media is heralded as many as a great opportunity for the citizens with little money to have great voice. but I see the monied power gaining more voice. I see hate groups that attack obama or claim the Holocaust never happened with their paid sites getting attention and being marketed while those of us using our free speech have the POTENTIAL of reaching a vast audience but in reality, we have no channel and so our writing and thoughts reach maybe only a few hundred people. Meanwhile these paid sites gain wide traction. Those without money will have no ability to speak over the white noise of corporate marketing bombarding us. So this bill was specifically about whether a corporate funded group can use that money to make a politically fueled propaganda piece that will affect the elections. This specifically being Citizens United’s “Hillary: The Movie”. The Movie is nothing but a Hillary attack piece and Citizens United sought an injunction against the Federal Election Commission in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to prevent the application of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA). The implications though is that Citizens United means that money is free speech. their challenge is based on the First Amendment with that wormish McConnell interpreting stopping rich people from using their wealth to talk over and shut down the voice of poorer people is limiting their free speech. the OPPOSITE is true.. If they USE their money , they are taking away the free speech of EVERYONE else…. But the so-called constitutionalist Right wingers? They are cheering this. So they only care about their guns and claim they are going to fight the “tyrant” Obama, but I do fear that one day this will lead to the corporate’s own getting in and being a true tyrant. I can see no more important issue on the horizon than fighting Citizens United.

Whatever else , whatever issue you are concerned about and fight for, your efforts will come undone if you do not fight this terrible thing giving an unlimited voice to corporate issues and corporate elite.

Richard Trombly is a college lecturer and screenwriter living in Shanghai, China