United States elections, plutocracy or democracy?

This video from the USA says about itself:

Corporations Fund Both Party Conventions, Reap Huge Rewards

14 May 2016

The money used to fund both Democratic and Republican conventions is provided by the billionaire class, but this wasn’t always the case. Cenk Uygur and John Iadarola (ThinkTank), hosts of The Young Turks, break it down. Tell us what you think in the comment section below.

“This year the Republican and Democratic nominating conventions in Cleveland and Philadelphia will be bankrolled entirely with money from corporations and wealthy individuals. Not since the Watergate era, when a $400,000 pledge to the 1972 Republican convention from ITT Corporation was linked to a favorable outcome for the company in a federal antitrust decision, has this happened.

Industries with business before the federal government have long found opening their checkbooks for the conventions to be one of the most efficient means for influencing an incoming administration and Congress in one quick action.

Come July, some of America’s best-known companies will pay to celebrate the nomination of Donald Trump, whose racist rants have in the past caused NBC, Macy’s and Nascar to distance themselves from him. Progressive political groups like ColorOfChange.org and Credo Action are pressuring Coca-Cola, Walmart, Microsoft, Facebook and Google to cut off money for the Republican gathering. But the protest against Mr. Trump doesn’t address the deeper problem of corporate influence over both parties.”

Read more here.

Sunday, July 29, 2018, marked the start of the final 100 days of the US midterm election campaign, with the Democrats and Republicans, the two parties of the capitalist class, having already spent more than $2 billion. It is predicted that the final total will far surpass the record $3.8 billion for a midterm election spent in 2014 and likely approach $5 billion: here.

With nearly three weeks still remaining before the November 6 vote, the 2018 US midterm elections have already become the most expensive non-presidential elections in American history. More than $5 billion has already been raised by and for federal, state and local campaigns: here.

A new study reveals how America’s billionaires engage in “stealth politics” to quietly advance unpopular, inequality-exacerbating and highly conservative policies.

TOO MANY MILLIONAIRES IN CONGRESS Most lawmakers in Congress are financially better off than the constituents they represent. Millionaires comprise nearly 40 percent of Congress, compared to being just 4 percent of the U.S. population. This lopsided representation is not just a coincidence. [HuffPost]

A closer look at American “democracy”: here.

FAT CAT ‘CUTS CURB TO GET PARKING’ A billionaire hedge fund manager shaved down a public sidewalk in Manhattan to create his own parking space and his employees are shooing away anyone else who tries to park there. Noam Gottesman had the curb cut away during renovations to his West Village compound. [HuffPost]

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