So now corporations now have the same rights as people. Insulated, of course, from the pesky liabilities to which we mere mortals are exposed.

Welcome to the United States of Exxon Mobile. The United States of Merck. The United States of Haliburton, Bechtel, and Blackwater. The United States of Goldman Sachs.  Where your government is brought to you be these fine sponsors.

Olbermann sums it up with customary eloquence:

Although he is assuming here that the Obama administration wasn’t already, to a large extent, purchased. We’ll see just how far the President’s strong words carry.

In Capitalism: A Love Story, Michael Moore exposes the American plutonomy.  Leaked Citigroup documents outlined in the film reveal that investment institutions are trending away from the “mass” market and focusing, instead, on the American plutonomy: That top 1% who control an increasingly larger portion of the wealth. Under “Risks — What Could Go Wrong”, the authors argue:

Our whole plutonomy thesis is based on the idea that the rich will keep getting richer. This thesis is not without its risks… [T]he rising wealth gap between the rich and poor will probably at some point lead to a political backlash. Whilst the rich are getting a greater share of the wealth, and the poor a lesser share, political enfrachisement remains as was – one person, one vote (in the plutonomies). At some point it is likely that labor will fight back against the rising profit share of the rich and there will be a political backlash against the rising wealth of the rich.

In other words, the greatest risk to the plutonomy, as pointed out by the authors, is democracy. What better way to eliminate this risk than by replacing the democracy with a plutacracy?

Which, over time, last week’s ruling will virtually guarantee.

In Hoodwinked, John Perkins explains this as reverse fascism. Rather than the government nationalizing industry, we are seeing instead the privatization of government. Far more subtle. Far more difficult to fight. Where, in the long term, elections are decided both from the voting booth as well as at the checkout counter.

In the short term, however, there is already a movement to ensure that the freedom of speech is reserved for people; not corporations.

In the very short term, I’d like to find out who owns the five Chief Justices who have sold us out.