Well folks, I was willing to give President Trump a chance but he continues to do things that are what the swamp dwellers want and not what will help the American people.
Last week he signed two executive orders rolling back banking regulations. Apparently his cabinet buddies from Goldman Sachs whispered in his ear. Unfortunately, given all the drama over some of his other executive orders, these orders did not receive much press. And like he says, the corporate owned press probably does not want to cover these orders since these orders benefit them and their advertisers.
Now I understand reducing some of the onerous regulation on corporations but such a reduction must be implemented with a commensurate increase in holding corporate executives personally accountable for their actions. We need either corporate regulation or executive accountability. By his executive actions we are setting our economy up for another Great Recession.
We witnessed what happened when Wall Street executives were allowed to run our nation’s economy into the ground and then expect to be bailed out by the taxpayer. Not a one of them went to jail or were held accountable for their frauds upon the American people. Instead they received big bonuses and have resumed their irresponsible operation of screwing the American people. Just look at Wells Fargo and their fraudulent methods to pump up their profits by fraud.
If we truly believe that less regulation is what we want, then we must demand a commensurate amount of personal accountability by corporate officers and board members. By this I mean real jail time in real jails.
Thanks to the recent Supreme Court ruling called Citizens United (which should be called Corporations United Against US) which gives personhood to corporations and equates money to free speech we now have given corporations the ability to fill the swamp with dwellers of their choice.
So I say if corporations are indeed people, then their executives need to be treated with the same consequences that a real person faces when they break the law. A real person goes to jail when they injure another person. A real person faces the death penalty when they are found guilty of grievous crimes. Even in civil cases, when a real person is negligent, they may face ruinous judgments that may bankrupt them and even their future earnings.
But under our current laws, corporations can literally get away with murder and theft and face a mere slap on the wrist by paying a few dollars in fines or penalties. Even worse, many corporations have purchased laws that limit their liabilities and make the taxpayers the backstop. For example, BP’s liability for the Horizon oil platform catastrophe was limited to $70 million with the taxpayers backstopping their liability above this amount. Twelve workers were killed and the Gulf area residents and environment was severely damaged. For this, BP executives should have faced criminal charges and the corporation driven to pay for all the damage and claims with no limits on liability.
It is time to call on our Legislators to stop being owned by the corporations and their lobbyists and to call for the overturn of the Supreme Court Citizens United ruling by holding corporations accountable when they choose to hurt the American people. It is either accountability or regulation and the Republican demand for smaller government must call for increased corporate accountability and responsibility.
And for the strict Constitutionalists, our Founding Fathers were clear in their thinking about the dangers of unbridled corporations. Indeed, they took action against one of the largest corporations of their time in the Boston Tea Party. I suggest you read some of the following:
From the Harvard Business Review: https://hbr.org/2010/04/what-the-founding-fathers-real.html
From Forbes Magazines: http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2014/06/30/founding-fathers-spinning-in-their-graves-as-scotus-rules-that-corporations-are-people-too/2/#5ecf868367cf
And for some writings by our Founding Fathers and Presidents on corporations:
http://addictinginfo.org/2013/06/09/founding-fathers/
Yes, it is from a liberal source but has collected in one place their writings for a quick review.
Roger That! 