-by Dorothy ReikDemocrats don't understand why Republicans aren't worried about Russian interference in America and in other western democracies we used to call our allies-- so let me explain: Russia is no longer communist. It is a fascist kleptocracy the likes of which Lewis Powell envisioned back in 1971. A country where corporate oligarchs rule and elections are a foregone conclusion-- where opposing candidates are jailed or worse. He wrote his memorandum at a time when corporations were frightened by the upheaval of the sixties, and he envisioned a future of corporate control from the campuses to the media to the White House itself-- a vision which the Republican Party whores directed by their whoremeisters-- the Kochs, the Waltons, et al-- have been working towards ever since. In Russia the "government" has no power. The country is ruled by kleptocratic oligarchs who run the companies that control the government, such as it is, and who operate as a Mafia which is probably why Manafort is content to die in the relative safety of an American jail rather than be tortured to death like Serge Magnitsky. In Russia, the Mafia is the real government and that is what Republicans are trying to accomplish here.If Russia can help the Republican Party suppress the vote of Democrats, that is an outcome to be aided and applauded. The Republican Party is happy to approve judges who will help the process along. And while they are suppressing the vote - remember the Voting Rights Act was gutted BEFORE Trump was elected-- if they can install judges who will advance White Supremacy, weaken the rights of women and minorities, and close our borders to Black and Brown people, so much the better. They use ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) to write laws which are given to Republicans tools, "elected" in gerrymandered districts, to pass - laws which let these same corporations donate unlimited money to elect these puppet legislators and keep them in power. They use their Senators to approve judges who will advance their agenda while their entire Congress passes laws that deny rights to minorities, women and LBGTQI citizens, and both the judges and Congress dnable the atrocities taking place on our Southern border and in visa offices all over the world where desperate people are denied entry into the US because of their religion. If the Republicans get their way soon these refugees will look elsewhere and our country will suffer mightily.Russia is the model. Russia is white as white can be and to make it better the Russian Orthodox Church is the only accepted religion. Beating homosexuals is accepted practice-- except if they are American figure skaters! Our corporate masters would make Christianity (tolerating Judaism as needed to advance the apocalypse) the state religion. One of Trump's favorite pastors, Robert Jeffress, states that America was founded as a Christian nation:
The founding fathers, Pastor Robert Jeffress told listeners at First Baptist Church Dallas, were predominately Christians who wanted to found a Christian country and believed that "our future success depends on our country being faithful to those eternal truths of God’s will."
This is the America of Lewis Powell whose quote "The day is long past when the chief executive officer of a major corporation discharges his responsibility by maintaining a satisfactory growth of profits, with due regard to the corporation’s public and social responsibilities," is cited by Sheila Kennedy. He had a particular hatred for Ralph Nader, who wanted corporations to stop killing people:
The passion that rules in him-- and he is a passionate man-- is aimed at smashing utterly the target of his hatred, which is corporate power. He thinks, and says quite bluntly, that a great many corporate executives belong in prison-- for defrauding the consumer with shoddy merchandise, poisoning the food supply with chemical additives, and willfully manufacturing unsafe products that will maim or kill the buyer. He emphasizes that he is not talking just about ‘fly-by-night hucksters’ but the top management of blue chip business.
Tom Hayden wrote the Port Huron Statement at about the same time as Powell wrote his Powell Memorandum. Tom saw a democratic, pluralistic, fair and loving future. Powell had a very different view and, sadly, with the Republican whores in the Senate, the White House and the Courts, Powell's vision is prevailing. Greenpeace says Powell wanted corporations to "dominate democracy"-- I would say Powell wanted corporations to destroy it. Don't be fooled by the aroma of that pasta! Be careful where it leads you!
