Gorsuch’s Gory Expansion of Corporate Personhood by Greg Coleridge Supreme Court Justice nominee Neil Gorsuch didn’t invent “corporate personhood,” the shorthand term used to describe the ludicrous decisions by U.S. Supreme Courts to sanctify corporate entities with inalienable constitutional rights intended exclusively for human beings. As a federal judge, however, Gorsuch contributed to its expansion by applying it in creatively delusional ways in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby1. That 2014 case established that a “closely ...Continue Reading

The Role of State Preemption in Denying Local Self-Governance by Virginia Rasmussen Cleveland, Ohio was poised for a May 2017 vote by its residents on raising the minimum wage to $12 in 2018 and then $15 in 2021. But in late December, *Ohio’s Governor John Kasich signed legislation that quashed local government’s right to lift minimum wages above the state level of $8.10 an hour.*1 In May of 2016 the Ohio legislature prohibited any local government or public official from requiring contractors on public projects to ...Continue Reading

Below is our January email. It was meant to be sent much earlier, but our website, poclad.org, was hacked at the end of 2016 with content of the entire website erased. We were hoping to have the site restored before sending out this article. Apologies for the delay. We hope in the next week/month or two to be back online. Thank you for your understanding. We feel POCLAD’s archives and occasional articles examining core democracy/self-governance issues are more relevant now than ever. Onward! ************************** ...Continue Reading

Trumped Up Democracy 10 Reflections on the 2016 Elections and the Future by Greg Coleridge Trump up: “to devise deceitfully or dishonestly, as an accusation; fabricate.” -dictionary.com The 2016 election was one massive and long trumped up affair – full of deceit, dishonesty and fabrications. The perpetrators were both major Presidential candidates and their campaigns, although it more often than not seemed the very phrase was coined upon hearing and seeing Donald Trump on the campaign trail over the last 18 months. ...Continue Reading

His Name was Richard Grossman by Mary Zepernick My co-host Betty Burkes on our radio call-in show told me she had met an interesting man at a party and would like to invite him to be a guest. He lived near the Provincetown studio at the eastern end of Cape Cod, and his name was Richard Grossman. Intrigued by his on air claim that the accumulated legal power of the modern business corporation allowed it to virtually govern, I took to stopping by his house on show evenings to chew on ideas. I even had the temerity to ...Continue Reading

Perspectives on Move to Amend National Leadership Summit The first ever Move to Amend “Leadership Summit” took place in early May. Among the nearly 100 MTA leaders from across the country were several POCLAD “principals.” Below are their reflections of the event. *Jim Price* (also Co-Chair, Move to Amend in Tuscaloosa, AL) My foremost impression of the Move to Amend Inaugural Leadership Summit was the seamless way the staff and volunteer leadership worked together. I have been part of many such events and realize th ...Continue Reading

Loyal to their Class, Unhinged from Democracy by Mike Ferner "Commerce defies every wind, overrides every tempest, invades every zone." - chiseled above the entrance to the U.S. Dept. of Commerce As stunning as it may sound, an argument can be made that neither the Nazi Party’s rise to power nor even WWII itself could have happened without the backing of U.S. industry and finance. Cash contributions through the 1920’s and ’30’s helped elevate Hitler’s brownshirts from mere street thugs to a political party ...Continue Reading

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a Brand New, Same Old Story by the POCLAD Many citizens were stunned and outraged when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the now infamous 2010 Citizens United v Federal Communication (FEC) case that corporate entities could donate (more like invest) unlimited sums of cash to electoral causes. This was based on corporate entities possessing First Amendment free speech “rights” combined with money spent in elections being constitutionally protected “free speech.” Many people learni ...Continue Reading

REAL Democracy History Calendar – sign up! We are pleased to announce the creation of a new resource: the *REAL Democracy History Calendar*. You are invited to sign up to this new free weekly email resource – to be sent out beginning January 1, 2016. To sign up, click here. Corporate entities and individuals of extreme wealth have to a major extent captured our government and economic institutions. Basic political, economic and human rights are in decline. The result is a lack of real democracy — defined as the abili ...Continue Reading

My Race for Toledo Mayor By Mike Ferner Our campaign’s unofficial slogan, emblazoned on 4x4-foot black and orange signs, was “Fix the DAMN Streets!”. As expected, it caused a bit of a stir at first but within a few days it was common currency, even among reporters who began asking: “Where are you going to get the money to fix the damn streets?” By definition, local elections are about local issues. But with a little extra effort and drawing on the wisdom of POCLAD colleagues and democracy activists over the years, ...Continue Reading