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Did you hear the one about the five Supreme Court Justices who sold the nation to the highest bidders? Did ya? Did ya, huh?

Sadly, that ain't no joke. The High Court today ruled that corporations can fill the campaign coffers to the rim... and then some. Sure, union groups and so on can do the same, if only they had the deep pockets that Big Oil and Pharma and other industries enjoy.

If we thought our so-called democracy didn't work before, hang on to your britches, girls, because we're running off the rails on this one. A truly representative government would have clean money, publicly funded elections, not pay-to-play.

Proponents of the ruling call it the ultimate free speech, this being able to buy votes business. I call it a dick move by the Court. Does anyone truly think the Founding Fathers meant the First Amendment to protect corporations' rights to influence the lawmakers who make the laws that affect their businesses? Really? And, even if those old white men did mean it that way, that doesn't make it right, and we should know better.

All of the 'smaller government, fewer taxes' people are going to have a rude awakening when everything is truly privatized, when highways and other key infrastructure services are fully fee-based. Clean water is already a major global issue that is being ignored despite its privatization in other parts of the world. This decision has set us on that path.

I'm so tempted to flee the country, now more than ever. And yet, I know that as goes the good ol' U.S. of A., so goes the world. Is there no place on the planet that has common sense and decency, maybe a wee bit of humanity, too? Anyone? Anywhere? Bueller?