US POLITICS: AMERICANS, PLEASE WELCOME YOUR NEW PRESIDENT... SCOTT BROWN!

it blew me away when i read that top tennis players have to notify drug testing officials of a time each day that they will be available for random testing should the officials decide to pay a visit. for each day of the year! nadal was like "even my mom doesn't know where i am that much." true, but that's the kind of rigor we need.

yeah i guess i can get with that.

Pete's Sake.

A group of nearly 200 "extremely concerned citizens" in a small Montana county are demanding that local leaders fill out a "questionnaire" pledging to form a local militia, prohibit mandatory vaccinations, boot the EPA out of town, allow citizens to bear any type of gun, and require federal government employees to get written approval before approaching "any Citizen."

The Ravalli questionnaire, which you can read here, demands that local officials pledge:

To form and command a county militia of all citizens 18 or older. However, it adds: "Note: Women must serve, but not in a combat capacity unless the men are in danger of being overrun."

"To absolutely prohibit all efforts, Federal, State or city, that infringe upon the right to keep and bear arms including the requirement to have a permit to carry a concealed weapon and restrictions on the kinds of weapons one may possess and carry, eg., fully automatic, silenced, length of barrel, length of blade, opening mechanism of a knife, etc."

To require federal employees to obtain written permission from the sheriff before approaching local citizens.

"To prohibit mandatory vaccinations."

To prohibit federal employees from collecting census information beyond the number of adults in each home.

To block all Environmental Protection Agency employees from entering the country. (We should note here that the editor of the Republic tells us he knows of no EPA activity in the county.)

"To use the term 'peace officer' in lieu of the current law enforcement officer.'"

Uh, don't worry Ravalli County. I can't speak for the EPA due to the Hatch Act, but I can tell you that your broken brainstem revolution guarantees that I will not go within 500 miles of your county.

man I live within 500 miles of that county

Chief Justice Roberts last September, questioning Solicitor General Elena Kagan, during oral arguments in the Citizens United v Federal Election Commission corporate-funding case whose decision was announced yesterday (as reported by Stuart Taylor here):

" 'When corporations use other people's money to electioneer,' as Kagan explained, 'that is a harm not just to the shareholders themselves but a sort of a broader harm to the public,' because it distorts the political process to inject large sums of individuals' money in support of candidates whom they may well oppose.

"Roberts sharply challenged this line of argument. 'Isn't it extraordinarily paternalistic,' he asked, 'for the government to take the position that shareholders are too stupid to keep track of what their corporations are doing and can't sell their shares or object in the corporate context if they don't like it? ... ' "We the government have to protect you naive shareholders." '

"Kagan responded that 'in a world in which most people own stock through mutual funds (and) through retirement plans ... , they have no choice. I think it's very difficult for individual shareholders to be able to monitor what each company they own assets in is doing.' "

http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2010/01/john_roberts_the_difference_fo.php

ha, that was supposed to be "q" for block quote, not "b" for bold. sorry.

it merits the boldface imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LfhGNOlg90

yeah the fiction of shareholder influence on corporations, like lots of people have pointed out, is a really obnoxious thing for anyone to hang a legal opinion on. corporations are not their shareholders. they just use our money to make themselves filthy rich.

Also am wondering if corporations become full 'persons' under the law, how do they retain limited liability? People are liable.

That's not what limited liability means. Limited liability means that a corporation's (or partnership or whatever) liability is limited to the actual assets of that corporation and does not include the assets of the people who own or run that corporation.

For instance if you started a business selling lemonade or whatever, and accidentally poisoned someone and then that person sued you, they could sue you for everything you own and basically ruin you personally. So what you would want to do instead is organize a business entity such that if you get sued, the worst thing that's gonna happen is that your business goes bankrupt, but you won't have to personally go bankrupt.

the financial industry is transparent and simple to follow for any shareholder. can you imagine what would happen if it wasn't?

i was thinking about that, like, i have some money in a 401k -- not enough, or too much, depends how you look at it -- and i have no idea what companies i theoretically "own" some tiny part of. and even if i did, my ability to in any way influence the operation of those companies would be nil. but the whole system is rigged, because what else are you supposed to do? put it in banks? ok, what are they going to do with it? lend it out to god knows who. basically the individual citizen one way or another becomes vested in the system, but with next to no influence and very few protections when things go south. why do we put up with it? i don't know. i think because we don't really understand what's going on.

can i trade my freedom of speech for limited liability now?

you don't have to! win-win!

win-win inc.

(btw we own the copyright on "win-win." not all speech is free. pay up, buster.)

i was thinking about that, like, i have some money in a 401k -- not enough, or too much, depends how you look at it -- and i have no idea what companies i theoretically "own" some tiny part of. and even if i did, my ability to in any way influence the operation of those companies would be nil. but the whole system is rigged, because what else are you supposed to do? put it in banks? ok, what are they going to do with it? lend it out to god knows who. basically the individual citizen one way or another becomes vested in the system, but with next to no influence and very few protections when things go south. why do we put up with it? i don't know. i think because we don't really understand what's going on.

A nice irony here is that the fiduciary duty that the corporate management owes to you, the shareholder, is the very reason corporations are legally obliged to pursue maximum profit above any and all other considerations.

It is a crazy in a sense. But also we should expect business to pursue profits. That's their purpose after all. It is up to us, as a society, to put the necessary legal constraints on how they go about doing that. Of course, thanks to this new Supreme Court ruling, they can now spend money in elections to prevent us from doing just that.

On the bright side, can our politicians be any more bought than they already are? Look at the Senate HCR bill for example. It's like complaining about rain after you've already drowned.

A nice irony here is that the fiduciary duty that the corporate management owes to you, the shareholder, is the very reason corporations are legally obliged to pursue maximum profit above any and all other considerations.

yeah was thinking about this last week when stocks went up supposedly because of scott brown's election and its prospects for killing the health care bill. so wall street gets happy at the prospect of me continuing to get screwed by insurance companies, which in turn causes my 401k to go up. but in the long run does my stock appreciation actually compensate for the money i'm getting screwed out of? probably not. the house always wins, and we're supposed to be happy with what they leave us.

I'm more ambiguous about what you're saying, tipsy, because I think in the long run *I* will be more than compensated for the money I'm getting screwed out of. That could be illusory, but the perpetuation of the system depends in part on people like me thinking, ah fuck it, this is screwed but I'm gonna get mine so I won't raise a stink. The ambiguity is because it seems wrong for me to benefit personally from a screwed system, but is that silly? These are moral questions and I'm not sure what to think. Can't knock the hustle...

As a matter of fact there is jurisprudence that says shareholders have no right to be informed of certain political activities of corporations.

I think in the long run *I* will be more than compensated for the money I'm getting screwed out of.

it's hard to say. i mean, if you're a hedge fund operator or big-bank trader, then definitely. but if you're a working stiff, even a well compensated one, counting on gains in the market over time to offset all the lost wages to spiraling health costs, i mean, maybe. if you're lucky and cash out at the right time. but investment retirement funds are a lot riskier than i think americans appreciate, because we've grown up with this idea that the market always goes up. which isn't true. there are people in japan who've been plowing money into retirement funds for the last 20 years and a lot of them would have been better off burying it in a hole in the backyard. so there's all this risk in our theoretical future gains, but in the meantime we're getting nickeled and dimed (and dollared) by health insurance companies, bank fees, low interest rates, all these other ways that our system is set up to extract money from the working population and transfer it to short-term corporate profits.

I'm not really talking about wages, but rather the possibilities of employment that exist because of the way our system is financed. I get to do terrific things, and I am able to do them because universities are powerful engines of investment.

John Roberts may want to think about the fact many corporations have both executives and major shareholders who are not US citizens. IIRC, the major institutional shareholder in like 90% of the Fortune 500 is Barclays, based in the UK. So now, via a corporate vehicle, we're giving non-resident, non-US citizens a voice in US elections that they didn't previously have.

South Carolina Lt. Governor says of poor people, "Stop feeding them or they're just going to breed."

via a corporate vehicle, we're giving non-resident, non-US citizens a voice in US elections that they didn't previously have.

OTM. Multinational corporations with majority interests overseas will now be able to pump money into affecting domestic policy for their own gains.

SC Combat Veteran
I'm the "stray animal" thats has been fighting your wars, I'm the "stray animal" that voted absentee ballet, for you. I'm the "stray animal" that came home to no job, I'm the "stray animal" that swollowed his pride and filled out the unemployement forms for the first time in my life. I'm the "stray animal" that filled out the paper for help feeding my kids at school. I'm the "stray animal" that will fight on and on. I am the "stray animal" that will never vote for you again.

absentee ballet ♫

food is medicine, you fucking despicable savage. if a physician had said that children would have their medication discontinued if their parents didn't take a course in microbiology, he would be shamed, humiliated, and lose his job and/or license. that this can somehow be spun as a political view or "just one guy's opinion" is fucking monstrous.

cf drub rehab programs that withhold treatment (whether it is therapy or medication) when their patients (sorry, "clients") backslide. hey looks like your ailment isn't remitting or is getting worse. i know: let's STOP TREATING IT

http://www.gallup.com/poll/125327/Majority-Favors-Suspending-Work-Healthcare-Bill.aspx

"More Republican support."

How come other western capitalist countries function without the idea of a corporation being a person?

Pollsters' majorities led by the nose via media buzz, so important to democracy

xpost i dunno specifically but we have a constitution (unlike the uk iirc?), most of it is really old and was interpreted by jerks, and courts have a lot of power here unlike in most of western europe. so what judges say goes most of the time, even when it's bad for almost all citizens.

should say interpreted/written but imo most of the problem is in the interpretation

wonder if scalia honestly thinks the 'founders' would have been in support of unfettered campaign spending by corporations

UK has a constitution but it isn't written down anywhere. Go figure.

Kennedy wrote the decision; Scalia only filed a concurrence.

(xpost)

Gallup could have asked 'should congress put on the brakes until they come up with a bill that covers more people and drives down costs' - then you'd get 'nation demands public option' headlines

of which there have been many in 14-point type on page A14.

Kennedy wrote the decision; Scalia only filed a concurrence.

yeah, but i don't think kennedy is a hardcore 'originalist' like scalia.

also i wonder what clarence thomas thinks about anything, but i'm sure i don't want to know the answer

Actually, Thomas is a stronger originalist than Scalia.

Well what else do you expect from the guys that recounts were stupid and decided W was president?

On Meet the Press, David Gregory asks Mitch McConnell the right question: What could Dems propose in health care policy terms that Republicans would support? McConnell:

"Put the CSPAN cameras in the room as the President said. You start with junk lawsuits against doctors and hospitals. Interstate competition among insurance companies. And many of my members would be lookin’ — would — would be willing to look at equalizing the tax code. Right now, if you’re a corporation and you provide insurance — for your employees, you get to deduct it on your corporate tax return. But if you’re an individual on the individual market, you don’t. Step by step to work on the cost problem. That’s what Republicans are willing to do."

i think there are probably real reforms that could be made to the way malpractice is handled, but the way republicans fetishize "tort reform" makes me think they don't read articles like this one. (warning: includes the phrase "odor of her festering wound.")

i used to think that tort reform was a Major Issue in healthcare reform, but i dunno. we had a MD/JD guy come in and lay out the numbers for us and a vanishingly small number of cases ended up with any kind of punitive damages against the docs. wanna say that only 66% of cases brought passed muster to be put on the docket, only 10% of those resulted in any kind of settlement, and only [small number]% of those that went to trial found against the physician.

the problem isn't with the court, imo, it's with how the insurance companies (you again!!!) do their voodoo math and decide that docs need to pay five to six figures a year in malpractice insurance

which is the REAL reason docs circle the wagons on tort reform, btw. not because they are all living in actual fear of getting nailed with a huge payout, but because insurance alone can comprise 40% of their take home pay. obstetricians, for example, can expect to north of 100k/yr to insurance companies, surgeons close to that, ditto ER docs, internists and family docs considerably less, but still more than 30k i'd wager

in MN two of the four prongs of a malpractice suit (duty, breach, cause, damage) are assessed by a panel of third party experts before the case can even be filed (if that's the word), so frivolous lawsuits get filtered out pretty early on, like so many electrolytes thru a glomerulus

and the last two are usually pretty tough to prove, unless it's a horrible surgical gaffe or blown diagnosis. and even the latter gets hard because of comorbidities that ought to be managed by the patient (smoking, diet, EtOH, drug use, etc).

and, like, a neurosurgeon could do an operation on yr brain while he was off his tits and as long as nothing went wrong, it's not malpractice. fun!

Yeah, our malpractice talk last year said something to the effect of like, counting just the legal fees and settlements and all that (although I'm not sure if it also includes the costs of malpractice insurance), malpractice is responsible for about 1% of the total spending on medicine, and even if you approach the costs of defensive medicine using the most inclusive definition of services performed because of legal C'ingYA, it gets maybe up to about 8%. Which is still 8% of a lot of money, no doubt, but it is basically an adjunct issue instead of the solution to the healthcare crisis. I still would like to see the system become more like the Vaccine Fund, but with a loophole to provide for egregiously malicious conduct, though.