Politics
Yesterday, the Tennessee state senate passed a bill which some supporters consider the strongest pro-hemp legislation in the country. House Bill 2445 (HB2445), introduced by Rep. Jeremy Faison (R-Cosby), would mandate that the state authorize the growing and production of industrial hemp within Tennessee, effectively nullifying the unconstitutional federal ban on the same.
Last week, continuing the intraparty feud between Republican hawks and GOPers skeptical of foreign intervention, former Vice President Dick Cheney took a shot at Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). But Paul is not likely to be fazed by criticism from Cheney, for several years ago the Kentucky senator was pushing the conspiratorial notion that the former VP exploited the horrific 9/11 attacks to lead the nation into war in Iraq in order to benefit Halliburton, the enormous military contractor where Cheney had once been CEO.
Abby Martin goes over five instances of misleading legislation, including bills like the Patriot Act, Clean Air Act, No Child Left Behind, and the Healthy Forest Initiative which do almost the opposite of what their ‘catchy titles’ imply.
If wealth and income weren’t already so concentrated in the hands of a few, the shameful “McCutcheon” decision by the five Republican appointees to the Supreme Court wouldn’t be as dangerous. But by taking “Citizen’s United” one step further and effectively eviscerating campaign finance laws, the Court has issued an invitation to oligarchy.
A Reason-Rupe poll found that Americans believe that seven out of ten politicians use their power to help friends and hurt enemies. Furthermore, respondents believed that 75 percent of politicians are corrupted by lobbyists and campaign donations.
The Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision Wednesday in McCutcheon v. FEC overturned a law that allowed the federal government to cap how much an individual could give to multiple federal candidates and committees in a single campaign cycle. The $123,200 overall limit for total contributions to campaigns, parties, and PACs will no longer be in effect, although contributions to individual candidates remain limited to $2,600. Potentially opening the door to a flood of cash from wealthy individuals, Justice Stephen Breyer wrote the dissenting opinion, stating that this ruling “perhaps devastates, what remains of campaign finance reform.” Sen. Bernie Sanders discusses the Supreme Court’s ruling with MSNBC’s Ronan Farrow. In the 2nd video (see below), RT’s Lindsay France looks into this historic ruling.
Bernie Sanders: The disastrous 2010 Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United threw out campaign funding laws that limited what wealthy individuals and corporations could spend on elections. Since that ruling, campaign spending by Adelson, the Koch brothers and a handful of other billionaire families has fundamentally undermined American democracy. If present trends continue, elections will not be decided by one-person, one-vote, but by a small number of very wealthy families who spend huge amounts of money supporting right-wing candidates who protect their interests. This process – a handful of the wealthiest people in our country controlling the political process – is called “oligarchy.” The great political struggle we now face is whether the United States retains its democratic heritage or whether we move toward an oligarchic form of society where the real political power rests with a handful of billionaires, not ordinary Americans.
The Obama administration is set to release a new proposal that would change the way the National Security Agency accesses consumers’ phone data. Changes would include no longer allowing the NSA to store phone call “metadata,” and would require the agency to access the data from phone company servers instead. Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern joins RT’s Lindsay France to discuss whether the proposal offers real reform or is merely window dressing.
South Carolina has an Equal Access election law which is now being violated. The state is attempting to deny the Libertarian Party a convention in order to prevent having their candidates on the General Election ballot in 2014. The reason.. the state claims it does not have enough money to comply with equal access law.
“Occupy Mayor” Bill de Blasio rode the wave of 99% momentum into office, but will he maintain his promises? Worldwide Wave of Action aims to keep him honest.
The New York Times yet again ignoring history and reducing the terrifying complexity of international politics – and the great global longing for peace – to a lethally simplistic game of winning and losing. It’s the kind of coverage we get in every political crisis, inevitably shutting down whatever collective intelligence we’re capable of manifesting and reducing the public to spectators at a geopolitical wrestling match.
The slogan suggesting the Obama administration is the “most transparent” ever has been nothing but a marketing ploy, the product of an administration that Advertising Age recognized as “marketer of the year” in 2008. Not only is the Obama administration not the “most transparent administration ever,” it has become the inverse of the “most transparent administration ever.” It is now one of the most secretive administrations ever, outpacing Bush in his commitment to keep government actions concealed from the public.
It was a truly historic moment Tuesday when Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein took to the Senate floor to warn that the CIA’s continuing cover-up of its torture program is threatening our constitutional division of power. By blatantly concealing what Feinstein condemned as “the horrible details of a CIA program that never, never, never should have existed,” the spy agency now acts as a power unto itself, and the agency’s outrages have finally aroused the senator’s umbrage.
Tesla’s direct sales model undermined by new regulation in New Jersey: all new cars must now go through a franchised dealership. Arizona and Texas passed similar regulation.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s bombshell accusation about the Central Intelligence Agency spying on the Senate set off a scramble on Capitol Hill — with Democrats and Republicans ignoring the usual party lines in response to her claim that the agency improperly interfered in a congressional investigation.
