Steve MacDonald

What is it about Citizens United and Corporate Personhood that crumples, bunches, and tucks deep the underwear of so many progressives? Why the foot stomping screaming spasms? It’s difficult to get a solid understanding of what exactly vexes them so because very often merely uttering the inquiry unleashes a torrential response of vacuous slogans wrapped in anger.  “Corporations aren’t people!!!”, “The rich are buying the government!!!”, “Too much money in campaigns!!!”, “It’s ruining our Democracy!!!”. None of that is helpful. So I thought I’d look into Citizens United and try to figure it all out.

Now I understand the state of the person in which I notice this behavior isn’t conducive to reading or edification—it’s more conducive to a dyspepsia fueled aneurysm. But one would think if a person finds something so discomfiting they’d learn more about it before completely flipping out. Sadly, I don’t believe most progressives know much about either Citizens United or Corporate Personhood, at least the ones who sound off about it with snide drive-bys and sneering eye-rolling. I am sure, however, there are progressives who do know the truth about Citizens United and Corporate Personhood, but the distortion is too luscious a propaganda tool to waste. Those are the progressive rousers who prefer firing up a cauldron of civilizational discontent and ladling out dishonesty to the indoctrinated and others who thirst to justify their resentments.

Citizens United

But here’s the deal.

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In a Press Release dated April 2, 2016, Planned Parenthood New Hampshire Action Fund (PPNHAF), remarking on the recent decision in Reddy v. Foster, lied.

1. “The decision establishes that it does not violate any constitutional rights to keep this option available…”
2.  “…today I am pleased that this ruling reaffirms the constitutionality of this law which strikes a balance…”

The decision does no such thing. It makes clear that there can be no constitutional test, no case at all, until a buffer zone is actually instituted under that law (which has not yet happened) and free speech rights are challenged as a result.

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Michelle Fields has a beef with Corey Lewandowski over some contact to which she did not consent. I’ve stayed out of this, mostly, except for some remarks on GrokTALK!, all of which center on my only concern–the lying, obfuscation, and immediate move by the campaign and its advocates to destroy the reporter. 

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The Supreme Court decision in Luis v. United States addresses the governments ability to seize assets from a suspect that cannot be connected to the case and specifically, that the pretrial restraint of a criminal defendant’s legitimate, untainted assets needed to retain her counsel of choice violates the Sixth Amendment.

Justice Breyer, in a 5-3 decision, wrote that,

The government can seize, …, “a robber’s loot, a drug seller’s cocaine, a burglar’s tools, or other property associated with the planning, implementing, or concealing of a crime.”

But it cannot, he said, freeze money or other assets unconnected to the crime.

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The impending doom of the Marshall Islands, which alarmists predicted were destined to drown in short-order thanks to uncontrolled anthropogenic sea-level rise, has been called off. You may have missed that update. You can blame the lack of mainstream media reporting on the rapid decline in sea level around the no longer doomed poster-child atoll of Kwajalein. That’s not news you can use.

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Did the governor of New Hampshire just suggest that our current firearm carry laws help make New Hampshire one of the safest states in the nation?

“Governor Hassan does not believe we need to change New Hampshire’s current concealed carry permitting law, which Republican Mel Thomson called a ‘sensible handgun law’ and has worked well for nearly a century, safeguarding the Second Amendment rights of our citizens while helping to keep the Granite State one of the safest states in the nation,” Hinkle said in an email.

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