There are growing problems with what we call our democratic republic. They go far beyond the concerns of a majority of voters over the mental and physical “fitness” of the aging Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

                     
Photo-illustration by Alex Cochran. Source: Getty.

We've never had an authentic democracy or democratic republic since the founding of our nation. However, our institutional democracy has become increasingly deaf, blind, forgetful, confused and immobile.  

By Deb Hogshead
Guest Columnist

June 22, 2024

“It cannot be right to manufacture billions of objects that are used for a matter of minutes, and then are with us for centuries.” – Roz Savage, environmental advocate

At a Troy City Council meeting this past spring, Rumpke representatives announced a collaboration with Hefty. The new alliance encourages us to buy more plastic so we can recycle more plastic when what we need in our environment is less plastic.

The ReNew program sounds like a good thing. For your convenience, you can spend $8 for a pack of 20, 13-gallon orange plastic bags. Fill a bag with hard-to-recycle items, then toss the bag into your regular recycling bin. At the recycling plant, Rumpke staff will pull the bag from the recycling stream and direct the contents to facilities that can recycle them. It’s better than sending that stuff to a landfill, but not much.

Greg --

The enthusiasm of the political science professor was legitimate. She’d never heard of Move to Amend, but after learning that we were educating and organizing to increase people power by abolishing “corporate personhood” and “money as free speech,” said loudly at the end of a session where she presented: “We need to work together!” 

This pronouncement was a recurring takeaway experienced by Move to Amend Board Member Daniel Lee and Co-Director Greg Coleridge who attended the annual conference of  the Law & Society Association in Denver in early June. 

The “we need to work together” theme arose in numerous contexts during the 4-day conference.

May 29, 2024 - Ohio State House

Greg Coleridge - FirstEnergy Accountability Coalition

Good morning. My name is Greg Coleridge. I’m Co-Director of the national Move to Amend Campaign. This event is sponsored by the FirstEnergy Accountability Coalition, representatives of environmental and democracy, good government organizations and consumers. We are calling today to metaphorically “unplug”, more specifically, dissolve, FirstEnergy Company. 

We believe it’s time to hold FirstEnergy corporation accountable in proportion to the scale of its historic admitted crime of a $61 million payment in 2021 to a nonprofit secretly operated by former GOP Speaker of the Ohio House Larry Householder (now in prison) and another $4.3 million payment to the state’s top utility regulator, Sam Randazzo, who was recently indicted and is now deceased. The bribes were intended to pass House Bill 6 (HB6), a $1.3 billion bailout of two FirstEnergy antiquated, failing nuclear power plants, which would have cost ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars. Today is  the fifth anniversary of passage of HB6 by the Ohio House of Representatives.=

Numerous individuals connected to FirstEnergy have been and are appropriately being prosecuted. But the admitted corporate criminal, FirstEnergy, has yet to be held legitimately accountable. Simply paying a fine to the federal government is nowhere near the equivalency in magnitude to FirstEnergy corporation’s admission of guilt in what’s been called the largest bribery scheme in the 221year old history of the State of Ohio. It’s time for the State to take action. Attorney General David Yost has the power and authority to call for the dissolution of the company. Yost has filed a civil suit that includes that possibility. FirstEnergy’s corporate charter or license should be revoked.

Corporations are legal creations of the state. Corporate charters or licenses were originally meant to define corporate actions to ensure that the state’s corporate creations obeyed all laws, served the common good and provided useful goods or services. When corporations failed to follow the provisions of their charter, including upholding the law, their charters were often revoked – less as a punishment to the company than to protect Ohioans and our direct and representative democracy.

There is a long and proud history of both the Ohio State Legislature and Ohio Supreme Court revoking corporate charters. 

In one instance, the Supreme Court in 1900 stated in revoking a corporate charter 

The time has not yet arrived when the created is greater than the creator, and it still remains the duty of the courts to perform their office in the enforcement of the laws, no matter how ingenious the pretexts for their violation may be, nor the power of the violators in the commercial world.

In the present case the acts of the defendant have been persistent, defiant and flagrant, and no other course is left to the court than to enter a judgment of ouster and to appoint trustees to wind up the business of the concern.

In 1892, the Ohio AG, David Watson, filed suit to revoke the charter of the Standard Oil Company, the most powerful U.S. corporation of the time, for forming a trust. Watson stated:

Where a corporation, either directly or indirectly, submits to the domination of an agency unknown to the statute, or identifies itself with and unites in carrying out an agreement whose performance is injurious to the public, it thereby offends against the law of its creation and forfeits all right to its franchises, and judgment of ouster should be entered against it.

It should be noted that David Watson was a Republican. 

Following the brief statements from several members of the FirstEnergy Accountability Coalition, we will march across the street to the office of Attorney General Yost. We have sent him a letter seeking a meeting to urge him to do his job to protect all Ohioans, as well as the environment and whatever amount of democracy we have in Ohio, by dissolving FirstEnergy Company. 

Renee Fox / WOSU News

Coalition that wants the state to dissolve FirstEnergy to gather at Statehouse to apply pressure
WOSU 89.7 NPR News | By Renee Fox
Published May 28, 2024 at 5:00 AM EDT
https://www.wosu.org/politics-government/2024-05-24/coalition-that-wants-the-state-to-dissolve-firstenergy-to-gather-at-statehouse-to-apply-pressure

Coalition urges Ohio AG to dissolve FirstEnergy for bribery scandal
WOSU 89.7 NPR News | By Renee Fox
Published May 29, 2024 at 7:46 PM EDT
https://www.ideastream.org/2024-05-29/coalition-calling-for-an-end-to-firstenergy-left-in-the-cold-by-ohio-ag-yost

Calling on Attorney General Yost to dissolve FirstEnergy
https://columbusfreepress.com/article/calling-attorney-general-yost-dissolve-firstenergy

Group calls on Ohio attorney general to ‘unplug’ FirstEnergy
By Jenna Jordan Ohio
PUBLISHED 5:00 AM ET May 30, 2024
https://spectrumnews1.com/oh/columbus/news/2024/05/29/ohio-firstenergy-bribery-scandal-

Activists ask Ohio's attorney general to scrap FirstEnergy's business license over HB 6 scandal
The Statehouse News Bureau | By Karen Kasler
Published May 31, 2024 at 2:00 PM EDT
https://www.statenews.org/government-politics/2024-05-31/activists-ask-ohios-attorney-general-to-scrap-firstenergys-business-license-over-hb-6-scandal

Activists ask Ohio’s attorney general to scrap FirstEnergy’s business license over HB 6 scandal
By: Karen Kasler | Statehouse News Bureau
Posted on: Saturday, June 1, 2024
https://woub.org/2024/06/01/activists-ask-ohios-attorney-general-to-scrap-firstenergys-business-license-over-hb-6-scandal/

FirstEnergy Accountability Coalition
c/o [email protected]

NEWS RELEASE 
For immediate release, May 20, 2024

Contacts: 
Greg Coleridge, [email protected] | Sandy Bolzenius, [email protected] 

Coalition Calls for Dissolving FirstEnergy Corporation for Its Admitted Bribes to Pass House Bill 6 

A group of environmental and democracy good government organizations and consumers will hold a press conference on Wednesday, May 29 to call for the dissolution of FirstEnergy Corporation. The conference, sponsored by the FirstEnergy Accountability Coalition, will take place at the Governor Thomas Worthington Center, ground level at the Ohio Statehouse, corner of Broad and High streets in Columbus, beginning at 11:30 am.

FirstEnergy Accountability Coalition members believe it’s time to hold FirstEnergy accountable in proportion to the scale of its historic admitted crime of a $61 million payment in 2021 to a nonprofit secretly operated by former GOP Speaker of the Ohio House Larry Householder (now in prison) and another $4.3 million payment to the state’s top utility regulator, Sam Randazzo, who was recently indicted and is now deceased. The bribes were intended to pass House Bill 6 (HB6), a $1.3 billion bailout of two FirstEnergy antiquated, failing nuclear power plants, which would have cost ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars. 

Dissolving the corporation is the proportionate action to respond to the scale of its historic bribery scheme, according to the Coalition.

Press conference speakers will address the harms FirstEnergy has caused to the environment, consumers and to democracy in Ohio. Speakers will also address the historical frequency of corporate charter/license dissolution when companies have violated the terms of their charters/licenses, which have been done to protect the health, safety and welfare of the public and to preserve democratic self-governance over the corporate creations of the state.

Following the press conference, attendees will march across the street to the office of Attorney General David Yost. The march will feature banners, signs and handouts calling for Yost to “Unplug FirstEnergy.”

Yost has filed a civil suit against FirstEnergy Corporation, calling for it to be dissolved or reorganized pursuant to the Ohio Revised Code 2923.34(B)(3). 

A request has been sent to Yost asking for a meeting with Coalition members urging him to proceed with corporate dissolution of the single contributor to the single largest bribery scheme in Ohio history.

May 29 marks the fifth anniversary of passage of HB6

WATCH ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkYkqg11qoE 

EXPLANATION

CHAPTER 183
Political Influence by Corporate Entities
https://clevelandheightsoh.portal.civicclerk.com/event/250/files/attachment/1311

TESTIMONY

Greg Coleridge

It’s been 11 years since Cleveland Heights voters passed Issue 32, calling for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution declaring:

1. Only human beings, not corporations, are legal persons with Constitutional rights, and
2. Money is not equivalent to speech, and therefore, regulating political contributions and spending does not equate to limiting political speech.

In many respects, little has changed.

Political money spent in elections - much of it donated or invested by the super rich and corporate entities, continue to increase, with more of it being “dark money” from sources and places that are unknown. The problem is not only federally, but increasingly at the state and even local levels. Legalized bribery has never been more legal and corrupting – with the voices of people who can’t invest in politicians less heard and responded to. 

Additionally, Cash spent on lobbying from special interest groups continues to rise

In both cases, the super rich and corporations have hijacked First Amendment Free speech rights

Communities and states continue to be unable to mandate corporations to include information on food products or renewable energy since it violates corporate First Amendment right “not to speak”

Communities continue to be unable for the most part to conduct surprise inspections on corporate property to protect workers, consumers and the environment since it violates corporate “Fourth Amendment “search and seizure” rights

Efforts to seriously call for keeping fossil fuels in the ground and not burned to prevent further climate destruction is deterred by the prospect that fossil fuel corporations will claim that unmined, drilled or fracked fossil fuels are lost future profits and violate their Fifth Amendment “takings” rights.

And communities continue to be unable to provide preferential treatment of local business over chain stores or to prevent cell phone towers in their communities since such actions are discriminatory, violating corporations Fourteenth Amendment “equal protection” rights

Yet, at the same time, much has changed in 11 years. 

The explosion of money in politics and abuses and harms of corporations to people, places and the planet are becoming ever more blatant, hideous, systemic and unacceptable. Greater realization that simply electing better people, passing better laws, enacting better regulations or declaring better executive decisions are not proportionate in scale to the magnitude of the breadth and depth of corporate rule and money in politics. Merely putting out fires while ignoring the arsonists are just reactive, responsive and defensive. They will never, ever help us create a more just, peaceful, sustainable and democratic community, nation and beyond. 

Discussion about constitutional renewal is becoming more mainstream on many fronts. That includes ending the constitutional doctrines that  a corporation is a person and money is free speech.

The We the People Amendment, HJR 54, have never had more support. Over 518,000 individuals have signed our Motion to Amend. 706 communities have passed resolutions and/or citizens driven ballot initiatives – of which CH has done both. 8 states have done the same. 770 organizations – local, regional and national – have endorsed. And 85 Congresspersons have endorsed, including in April, Shontel Brown. 

We’re under no illusions. Amending the Constitution is a virtual impossibility – the most difficult of any on the planet. In fact, t’s been done 27 times before, often when several were enacted in a relatively short period of time when external conditions warranted them.

Yet, we’re under no illusions. External conditions warrant constitutional change. Our political crisis has reduced the trust in government. Without trust, you can’t have a viable government. And our political economy is based on exploiting people and the planet by promoting perpetual economic growth on a finite planet without severe political, economic or environmental consequences. Talk about fantasy. 

Changing the law is always preceded by changing the culture. “Nothing else in the world…not all the armies…is so powerful as an idea whose time has come.” said Victor Hugo.

The time is rapidly coming to have a just, peace sustainable and democratic community, nation and beyond. The We the People Amendment is one part of what will inevitably become constitutional renewal.

What follows are testimonies on the impact of money in politics and corporate rule on our community and beyond – along with sharing a few notable historical events in June that related to corporate power, money in elections, democracy and the power to define corporate entities.

"The actual “birth” of corporate constitutional rights, often referred to as “corporate personhood,” wasn’t Citizens United; it dates to May 10, 1886 in the Santa Clara v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company ruling."

A Call to Take Public Action on May 10 in your Community

May 10th is the anniversary of the Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company Supreme Court decision of 1886. The case first established under the 14th Amendment that corporations are considered “persons.” The 14th Amendment granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the U.S, included former enslaved human beings, and provided all citizens with “equal protection” and other rights under the law. It was not intended to apply to corporations.

The Supreme Court granted corporations other constitutional rights since then, including the 4th Amendment search and seizure rights, 5th Amendment takings rights and 1st Amendment free speech rights to spend money corrupting politics. The 2010 Citizens United decision expanded corporate 1st Amendment free speech rights.

It’s a common belief that the corporations first acquired corporate constitutional rights (“corporate personhood”) in the Citizen United decision. They did not. Corporate power to hijack democracy precedes Citizens United and corporate spending money in elections by nearly a century. 

Armed with constitutional rights, corporations have “railroaded” people, communities and elected officials  – overturning democratically-passed laws ensuring safe food and products, protecting workers and workplaces, and ensuring a livable world – in ways that have nothing to do with Citizens United or corporate “free speech” rights. 

Ending ALL corporate constitutional rights – not just overturning Citizens United and corporate “free speech” rights – is what makes Move to Amend unique. It is why we call for enactment of the We the People Amendment. And it is why May 10 is such a very important date.

You are invited to organize a public action in your community on Friday, May 10  –  a vigil, rally, press conference, picket, or march – at a Congressional office, court building, corporate headquarters or other symbolic location

• To educate the community on why ending corporate rule is so much more than simply reversing Citizens United and corporate money spent in elections
• To advocate for passage of the We the People Amendment, HJR54
• To organize people and allied organizations to make the direct link between furthering the issues and solutions they care about and abolishing “corporate personhood.”

Contact us HERE to indicate your interest. We will contact you to offer assistance, including materials.

Thanks for considering.

We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.
       - Leona Helmsley, billionaire real estate tax dodger

                                                        Source: Ralph Nader images

Happy Tax Day! Only kidding.

The very rich and corporations try harder and are more effective in general in avoiding paying taxes than the rest of us. Here are a few numbers reflecting current tax priorities, legislative responses to promote tax fairness and economic and political equality, and how we, "the little people," can become more active in promoting tax fairness and beyond.

link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D___uoeIa2w

People are drowning in debt and suffering from inadequate health care, rising inflation, and endless wars. We must degrow the destructive economic system that enriches a financial elite at the expense of people, planet and peace. The privatized money system is unstable and wreaks havoc as it grows exponentially. The Green Party's "Greening the Dollar" initiative outlines how to scrap the Fed for a Constitutional system that circulates permanent, stable, and debt-free sovereign public money. This will allow us to grow a caring economy that nurtures what we hold dear. Hear from:

As millions of people across the country gaze skyward today at the rare astronomical event, let us compare it to a growing human condition. 

Just as the moon blocks out the sun during a total eclipse, oppression blocks out authentic democracy.

Democracy Day 2024 in Toledo was held Wednesday March 20 in the Council Chambers, One Government Center. Forty-four people were in the audience. 

Last year there were 4 council members present, this year 7 members attended. There were 19 presenters including music and messages from labor, health care, climate, redistricting to correct for gerrymandering, constitutional conventions, highway expansion through a community and Gaza crisis.

This quote appears at the very beginning of our documentary Legalize Democracy.

Economic and political inequality are directly connected. The science of “political economy,” pioneered by Adam Smith, addresses the relationship between power and wealth. For more than a century, however, it's been intentionally separated in academia and culture to prevent widespread understanding of the links. 

https://www.scriptype.com/2023/04/19/city-fulfilled-democracy-day-obligations-in-2021-law-director-says/

April 19, 2023

by Melissa Martin

March 7 city council meeting

Brecksville City Council and the city’s legal department said there will not be a city-sponsored Democracy Day in 2023, even though the ballot issue, approved by voters in 2012, specified a 10-year term.

The determination was made March 7 after city resident Bob Belovich questioned council and the administration about city ordinance 129.03. The ordinance stipulates the “biennial public hearings will continue for a period of 10 years through February 2023, or until a constitutional amendment reflecting the principles set forth in section 129.02 is ratified by three quarters of the state legislators.”

Democracy Day is a biannual public hearing before city council and the mayor. It examines the impact of political contributions of corporations, unions, PACS and super-PACS on the city.

The proliferation of Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly feared as a growing threat to our elections through the creation of “deepfake” texts, photos and videos that look and sound real that further diminishing truth and accountability. AI-generated political ads have already appeared, resulting in calls for regulation and prohibition of what is estimated to be $12 billion in political ad spending this year. Not knowing what public information is real or fake not only threatens elections, but the ability of us all to be informed to hold elected officials accountable and to organize independent movements for change.

But another “AI” is already a threat to the 2024 elections, which will deepen during the current primary election season. The lobby organization, AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and its affiliated political groups are expected to spend $100 million this election cycle opposing candidates they feel insufficiently support Israel, which has intensified since the start of the war in Gaza. AIPAC’s related groups include AIPAC PAC; the United Democracy Project, its Super PAC; the Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI); and others.

Please consider spending an hour or so at a polling location on primary election day in your state to hand out leaflets and collect signatures on the Move to Amend petition.

Go HERE to find out when your primary election day takes place.

The leaflet states, “We need to elect better representatives. But we also need to expand the growing peoples’ movement to end corporate constitutional rights by enacting HJR54, the We the People Amendment.”

Our petition declares, “We the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizen United ruling and other related cases, and move to amend our Constitution to firmly establish that money is not speech and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.”

You live in one of 16 places that will vote on March 5, “Super Tuesday, the day when the greatest number of states and territories hold their political election primaries or caucuses.

Please consider spending an hour or so at a polling location to hand out leaflets and collect signatures on the Move to Amend petition.

10 January 2024 | Greg Coleridge

posted at https://www.monetaryalliance.org/banks-bank-on-war-profits-2024/ 

There are many reasons why nation-states start or join wars. Controlling natural resources is certainly one of them.

Whatever the reasons, banking corporations and other financial institutions in the U.S., among many corporate sectors, profit enormously from wars – causing massive harm to people, communities, the planet, and self-described “democratic” political systems.

This equation may best describe the reality: Dollars = Debt + Destruction + Defense

The Supreme Court heard arguments last week whether Donald Trump should be disqualified under the 14th Amendment to be President.

At issue is whether Trump’s (in)actions on January 6, 2021, should prohibit him from becoming President again based on the text in Article 3 asserting that any officer of the United States who has previously taken an oath to uphold the Constitution should be disqualified if they “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”

While legal scholars disagree whether the 14th Amendment applies to Trump, can the same be said about whether any part of the 14th Amendment should disqualify a corporation from being a constitutional person?