By: David A. Franklin, Jr.
The assault on the middle class will escalate. Congratulations especially to those 36% of union members who voted for the assault (Walker) they have indeed formed their own suicide pact.
I will not say much, but to ask, “Are these people incapable of formulating a decision based on the facts – what they see, what they experience and what they and others are feeling? Why are they still locked in their pre-pubescent mental
state, the period where human beings are at their most impressionable?” It is apparent they are cooked in that state of mind.
I will adopt from an article, and especially the statistics collated by Gavin Aronsen in his June 5th, 2012 article entitled: The Dark Money Behind the Wisconsin Recall
70 percent: How much more expensive the governor's recall election is than the state's second-most expensive race (the 2010 gubernatorial campaign) $30.5 million: Amount raised by Walker to fight off the recall effort
$3.9 million: Amount raised by his challenger, Tom Barrett, the Democratic mayor of Milwaukee
About 2/3: Proportion of Walker's donations that have come from donors outside Wisconsin
About 1/4: Proportion of Barrett's donations that have come from donors outside Wisconsin
Unlimited: Maximum individual donation Walker may accept under state law $10,000: Maximum individual donation Barrett may accept under state law
$16.3 million: A mount spent by pro-Walker independent expenditure groups, which have invested $22 million in the Wisconsin recall
Some of the biggest contributions and expenditures in support of Walker:
• $510,000 to Walker from Diane Hendricks, Wisconsin's richest businesswoman and a member of Charles and David Koch's million-dollar donor club
• $490,000 to Walker from Bob Perry, a Houston homebuilder who with his wife has spent more than $8 million on the
2012 elections
• $260,000 to Walker from David Humphreys, a member of the Kochs' million-dollar donor club
• $250,000 to Walker from Amway founder Dick DeVos of Michigan, a member of the Kochs' million-dollar donor club
• $250,000 to Walker from Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who with his wife has spent
more than $25 million on the 2012elections
• $100,000 to Walker from Wyoming investor Foster Friess, a member of the Kochs' million-dollar donor club
• $100,000 to Walker from New York billionaire Louis Bacon, a media-shy hedge-fund trader
• $100,000 to Walker from Dallas oil and gas billionaire Trevor Rees-Jones
• $6.5 million on ads spent by Americans for Prosperity, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, and the anti-labor
Center for Union Facts
• $4 million on ads spent by the Republican Governors Association's Right Direction Wisconsin PAC; only about $7,000
was raised in-state. The RGA got $1 million from David Koch in February. It's also received $500,000from the
US Chamber of Commerce
Dark Money is just another tool in the Republican’s arsenal which is plunging America back into the dark days before
universal suffrage where citizens of countries were first allowed to vote regardless of ethnicity, or importantly regardless of property requirements or other measures of wealth. It is also worthy of note that although the concept of universal suffrage was born in the early 1800’s and that countries like the Pitcairn Island , Iceland, Franceville, New Zealand and
Australia started to implement universal suffrage. Some of these countries virtually unknown and would be classified as ‘backward’ by their “first world” giants. Further, US’s tiny neighbors in the Caribbean beginning in 1944 implemented
FULL suffrage where all adults vote. US only jumped on board in 1965 in any meaningful way although –
“.. in 1870 the 15th Amendment granted suffrage to African Americans, and in 1920 the 19th Amendment
extended the franchise to women many Southern States pro-actively disenfranchised black voters through
poll taxation, literacy tests and bureaucratic loopholes. The Further enfranchisement was realized in 1965 with
the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the ratification of the
24th Amendment in 1964.[18][19] The 26th Amendment set the voting age to 18.”
~Wikipedia.
Still, after 127 years of other countries in the civilized world have implemented, Universal adult suffrage is still not established in the United States of America. Currently in 2012 some categories of felons in 48 of 50 states are still excluded from voting although they have fully paid their debts as dictated by society. And the tug-o-war of the 1870’s, the 1920’s and the 1960’s is fresh today as it was way back then:
- The poor of all ethnic groups targeted by virtue of social and economic inequalities which render some incapable of "coughing up" the small amounts of money to apply for birth certificates to get their voter ID
- Bureaucratic road blocks being implemented in many states with equivalent ramifications of the
poll taxation,literacy tests of the 1920’s
- Dis-enfranchisement of the Michigan electorate by the appointment of a State Manager whose terms of reference render duly elected commissioners, (representatives elected by the people to manage their affairs) powerless and useless. Those elected by the people in a democratic process hold no authority to make decisions to the smallest
detail even to fix potholes in the State’s roads and highways.
The final nail in the coffin of democracy and citizens rights is the infusion of DARK MONEY into the electoral system
where ONE MAN ONE VOTE is substituted for ONE DOLLAR ONE VOTE.
Americans will have to regain their consciousness and stop this before the Republicans plunge the country fully into the dark abyss of the 1700’s and erode and erase all the gains that civilization has defined as DEMOCRACY.
The assault on the middle class will escalate. Congratulations especially to those 36% of union members who voted for the assault (Walker) they have indeed formed their own suicide pact.
I will not say much, but to ask, “Are these people incapable of formulating a decision based on the facts – what they see, what they experience and what they and others are feeling? Why are they still locked in their pre-pubescent mental
state, the period where human beings are at their most impressionable?” It is apparent they are cooked in that state of mind.
I will adopt from an article, and especially the statistics collated by Gavin Aronsen in his June 5th, 2012 article entitled: The Dark Money Behind the Wisconsin Recall
70 percent: How much more expensive the governor's recall election is than the state's second-most expensive race (the 2010 gubernatorial campaign) $30.5 million: Amount raised by Walker to fight off the recall effort
$3.9 million: Amount raised by his challenger, Tom Barrett, the Democratic mayor of Milwaukee
About 2/3: Proportion of Walker's donations that have come from donors outside Wisconsin
About 1/4: Proportion of Barrett's donations that have come from donors outside Wisconsin
Unlimited: Maximum individual donation Walker may accept under state law $10,000: Maximum individual donation Barrett may accept under state law
$16.3 million: A mount spent by pro-Walker independent expenditure groups, which have invested $22 million in the Wisconsin recall
Some of the biggest contributions and expenditures in support of Walker:
• $510,000 to Walker from Diane Hendricks, Wisconsin's richest businesswoman and a member of Charles and David Koch's million-dollar donor club
• $490,000 to Walker from Bob Perry, a Houston homebuilder who with his wife has spent more than $8 million on the
2012 elections
• $260,000 to Walker from David Humphreys, a member of the Kochs' million-dollar donor club
• $250,000 to Walker from Amway founder Dick DeVos of Michigan, a member of the Kochs' million-dollar donor club
• $250,000 to Walker from Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who with his wife has spent
more than $25 million on the 2012elections
• $100,000 to Walker from Wyoming investor Foster Friess, a member of the Kochs' million-dollar donor club
• $100,000 to Walker from New York billionaire Louis Bacon, a media-shy hedge-fund trader
• $100,000 to Walker from Dallas oil and gas billionaire Trevor Rees-Jones
• $6.5 million on ads spent by Americans for Prosperity, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, and the anti-labor
Center for Union Facts
• $4 million on ads spent by the Republican Governors Association's Right Direction Wisconsin PAC; only about $7,000
was raised in-state. The RGA got $1 million from David Koch in February. It's also received $500,000from the
US Chamber of Commerce
Dark Money is just another tool in the Republican’s arsenal which is plunging America back into the dark days before
universal suffrage where citizens of countries were first allowed to vote regardless of ethnicity, or importantly regardless of property requirements or other measures of wealth. It is also worthy of note that although the concept of universal suffrage was born in the early 1800’s and that countries like the Pitcairn Island , Iceland, Franceville, New Zealand and
Australia started to implement universal suffrage. Some of these countries virtually unknown and would be classified as ‘backward’ by their “first world” giants. Further, US’s tiny neighbors in the Caribbean beginning in 1944 implemented
FULL suffrage where all adults vote. US only jumped on board in 1965 in any meaningful way although –
“.. in 1870 the 15th Amendment granted suffrage to African Americans, and in 1920 the 19th Amendment
extended the franchise to women many Southern States pro-actively disenfranchised black voters through
poll taxation, literacy tests and bureaucratic loopholes. The Further enfranchisement was realized in 1965 with
the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the ratification of the
24th Amendment in 1964.[18][19] The 26th Amendment set the voting age to 18.”
~Wikipedia.
Still, after 127 years of other countries in the civilized world have implemented, Universal adult suffrage is still not established in the United States of America. Currently in 2012 some categories of felons in 48 of 50 states are still excluded from voting although they have fully paid their debts as dictated by society. And the tug-o-war of the 1870’s, the 1920’s and the 1960’s is fresh today as it was way back then:
- The poor of all ethnic groups targeted by virtue of social and economic inequalities which render some incapable of "coughing up" the small amounts of money to apply for birth certificates to get their voter ID
- Bureaucratic road blocks being implemented in many states with equivalent ramifications of the
poll taxation,literacy tests of the 1920’s
- Dis-enfranchisement of the Michigan electorate by the appointment of a State Manager whose terms of reference render duly elected commissioners, (representatives elected by the people to manage their affairs) powerless and useless. Those elected by the people in a democratic process hold no authority to make decisions to the smallest
detail even to fix potholes in the State’s roads and highways.
The final nail in the coffin of democracy and citizens rights is the infusion of DARK MONEY into the electoral system
where ONE MAN ONE VOTE is substituted for ONE DOLLAR ONE VOTE.
Americans will have to regain their consciousness and stop this before the Republicans plunge the country fully into the dark abyss of the 1700’s and erode and erase all the gains that civilization has defined as DEMOCRACY.
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