Brazil Bans Corporate Donations in Elections, Meanwhile U.S. Elections Drown in Corporate Cash

By Jay Syrmopoulos

Taking an approach to the issue of corporate donations in election campaigns almost completely opposite that of the U.S. Supreme Court in Citizens United v FEC, the Brazilian Supreme Court has banned corporate donations in elections.

Last week, the court ruled 8 to 3 that campaign donations from corporations were unconstitutional.

The Brazilian ban on corporate donations comes amid an extensive corruption scandal that has reached all the way to the Brazilian presidency, with citizens calling for President Dilma Rousseff to be impeached.

During the Brazilian elections last year, close to 76% of the total $760 million donated to the campaigns for congress and the presidency, came directly from corporate sources, according to The Guardian.

Taking virtually the opposite position of the Brazilian Supreme Court, the U.S. Supreme Court in 2008, in the case of Citizens United v FEC, ruled to allow virtually unlimited giving to political campaigns by corporations in the United States

While in the U.S. corporations are technically limited in how much they may donate to a candidate or party, the use of 501 (c) 4 organizations, commonly referred to as a “super PAC” allow corporations to give limitlessly.

According to the Sunlight Foundation:

Traditional political action committees are bound by a $5,000 annual limit on the size of contributions they can accept from individuals and are prohibited from accepting contributions from corporations and labor unions.

A super PAC is freed from these restrictions under two conditions: The PAC must neither 1) give money directly to a candidate or other political committees that give directly to candidates, nor 2) coordinate how it spends its money with a federal candidate. As long as those two conditions are met, a super PAC may accept donations directly from corporate or union treasuries and in amounts that are limited only by the size of donors’ bank accounts.

Arguing that big money in politics had created a game that was rigged from the start, thus undermining the legitimacy of government as a whole, Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Rosa Weber said,

“The influence of economic power has ended up transforming the electoral process into a rigged political game, a despicable pantomime which makes the voter a puppet, simultaneously undermining citizenship, democracy and popular sovereignty.”

One potential loophole that could be exploited is a provision in the ruling, which allows for donations by individuals, of up to 10% of their annual income. One of the main concerns is that this allows for the potential exploitation of the rules by companies channeling their money through “bundles” of individual voters.

In America, super PACs currently operate as de facto campaigns, which although legally prohibited from coordinating with the legitimate campaign, often work in concert with the official campaign. Super PACs have already collected over $300 million in donations to be spent on the 2016 election cycle.

Although banning things, or creating legal prohibitions rarely result in the desired results, it seems common sense to keep corporations from bringing such undue influence to bear in a political arena that dictates nearly all aspects of the lives of individuals.

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http://thefreethoughtproject.com/brazil-bans-corporate-donations-elections-u-s-system-drowning-big-business-money/

This 17-year-old created a new app to expose sellout politicians

Needless to say it's about time someone did this!

A wise person once said, “if we know who buys our NASCAR drivers, shouldn’t we know who buys our politicians?”

Helping to fill that void is 17-year-old Nick Rubin, who created a browser plugin (aka a web-based app) last year to help citizens find out exactly who’s funding our members of the Congress, how much they made, and how that money influences the elections among other details.

From lobbyists to big corporations, politicians receive money from several different and often surprising sources, which in the end determines which issues they focus on, and which stances they end up taking. Healthcare, energy sources, funding for school and transportation, and tax laws are all in the hands of those who have the most money; the question is – who.

The plugin called Greenhouse works with Chrome, Firefox or Safari browsers, and it can be downloaded at www.allaregreen.us.

After installation, when a politician’s name comes up in article text, the app will break down their top ten monetary influences. The plugin is free and simple to use, as noted in this article by Vice.com.

“Greenhouse allows people to see the money story behind the news story,” said Rubin to Vice.

The name Greenhouse was created by combining three symbolic ideas: the color of money, the two houses of Congress, and the transparency of a greenhouse.

In an interview with Vice, Rubin said he wanted to “put the data at people’s fingertips” for people to be able to make the most informed decision when it comes to politics.

Originally Rubin used all data from the 2012 election, which was the most complete at that time. Later it was updated with the most current information; one of the sources of data is OpenSecrets.org

OpenSecrets.org is the official website for The Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan and nonprofit research group in Washington, D.C. who tracks where money used in politics is coming from.


The Center for Responsive Politics received the Society of Professional Journalists’ 2013 award for their investigative work.

“What concerns me is the sheer amount of money being pumped into the system…During the development of Greenhouse and looking over these numbers and seeing how much is being donated—it’s really scary,” said Rubin to Vice.

At the time this article was written, the biggest news story on CNN.com is U.S.-Iran nuclear deal. If you have the Greenhouse plugin installed, the extension will highlight two names in the article: “Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, a key Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee” and “Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate.”

When hovering over each name, a little window pops up that shows that both senators have received significantly more money from lawyers and law firms than other industries. The two other biggest funders for Sen. Coons are leadership PACs and securities & investment, with health professionals coming last.

And for Sen. Durbin it is securities & investment industry and those who have retired on the top of the list; with defense aerospace further down the list.

“The motto of Greenhouse is: ‘Some are red. Some are blue. All are green.’” What it signifies is “that the influence of money on our government isn’t a partisan issue. Whether Democrat or Republican, we should all want a political system that is independent of the influence of big money and not dependent on endless cycles of fundraising from special interests. The United States of America was founded to serve individuals, not big interests or big industries. Yet every year we seem to move further and further away from our Founders’ vision,” as Rubin wrote on the plugin’s website.

Greenhouse’s official Twitter page can also be useful to follow for little bits of information about money in politics. The account often re-tweets OpenSecrets.org and other organizations fighting against corruption and for transparent government.

As an example, on tax day, Greenhouse tweeted the following image:

 
The plugin has received positive reviews so far. Victoria Young from Los Angeles, CA looked up who funds Bernie Sanders, a Democratic candidate in the upcoming 2016 presidential election, tweeted “Love using @allaregreen as a way to understand context around politicians within a story. Context is the future.”

What do you think? Are you going to install the plugin and use it when you’re reading the news?

Thanks for taking the time to read this article. If you found this information helpful, please share it with your friends and family. Your support in our endeavor of sharing free information would be much appreciated. Follow us on Facebook to stay updated with what's going Viral in the Alternative News scene. https://www.facebook.com/ViralAlternativeNews