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How many shell companies registered in Delaware do you need to throw an electric?
Delaware? That's shell company paradise.
“A judge in Delaware, where many big U.S. companies are incorporated, ruled on Tuesday that a small town that allows corporations to vote in municipal elections was not violating the state’s constitution. ”Delaware Superior Court Judge Craig Karsnitz said the beach town of Fenwick Island was not diluting human votes by allowing companies and other legal entities that own property to cast votes in municipal elections.“
Someone please look into this judge's financials.
So I open a bunch of Delaware corporations and I can run an entire town?
That's terrible. But also stupid. There's nothing to stop each citizen from creating hundreds of corporations.
They'll need to give Delaware more votes in the electoral college as well to account for its massive dollar-weighted population of corporations.
oh, just finished reading the "article". It's kinda just an ad for Hartman's new book, this has been going on for 140 years. There was just a recent ruling upholding it is all, Reuters has the actual article. Used to listen to Hartman a lot back in the day, sad to see him using a clickbait-inaccurate title.
Delaware court upholds voting by companies in small town's election (actual correct article title)
The American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware sued the town, arguing it violated the elections clause of the state constitution. The group sought a court order blocking Fenwick Island from counting votes by "non-human artificial entities" in future elections. Nonresident voting in local elections has been permitted in Fenwick Island since it was incorporated in 1953, according to the court ruling. In 2008, Delaware's General Assembly amended the charter to allow non-resident voting by artificial entities, including corporations, partnerships, trusts and limited liability companies, which must be chartered in Delaware.
Definitely shitty situation, but wtf Thom? From his opinion article:
Seriously. Not dystopian science fiction or a new novel by an AI version of George Orwell. Actual corporations
From the reuters article:
Karsnitz said he appreciated that the ACLU of Delaware might disagree with corporate voting. "Visions of faceless large corporations or even HAL controlling a small town are frightening and the stuff of science fiction," he wrote
Is this just AI eating itself or like blatant lazy-plagiarism style writing to make an ad?
How? What is the physical process by which they mark the ballot? Are voting booths going to have to be made to accommodate large buildings?
Let me get that for you: YES you ARE insane
Citizens United was the death of what little democracy the USA had left.
Yes, insane and wrong.
Well, I have at least one corp registered there...time to look into how this works.
How very Shadowrun of you Delaware!
this is so absurd and will cause such a ridiculous result it will have to lead to reform. of course its going to be a real shitshow in the meantime. grab your popcorn, shits about to get weird.
We’ve been insane for so long, everyone should read The Paranoid Style in American Politics for more on this
Nope been this way for quite awhile.
You should only be able to vote if you pay taxes. I'm pretty sure that would exclude most of the "On paper only" corporations that were formed for some sort of underhanded purpose (like to not pay taxes).
Yes, Delaware. You’re insane.
Also fuck Citizens United, which this is a logical consequence of.
Wait… does that mean if I spin up 5 million LLCs in Delaware, I get 5,000,001 votes?
I like Thom Hartmann, but there's a difference between a court for one tiny town saying corporations can vote in municipal elections in that one town and "ZOMG! Corporations can vote in Delaware!"
Some significant problems:
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You have to be 18 to vote, if "corporations are people", wouldn't that eliminate any corporation founded in the last 17 years?
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How would "a corporation" register to vote in the first place?
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How would "a corporation" cast a vote?
If it falls to the CEO to register and vote for the company, how is that not double voting?
If the CEO is not a resident of that town, how is that a legal vote?
Too many flaws in this story that Hartmann fails to address...
"The Galactic Senate now recognizes the representative of the Trade Federation..."
And given that it is Delaware, there will be a lot of businesses. Most of them the size of a letterbox, but usually with amazing profits or owning lots of stuff for some reason...
Are actual humans allowed to post or comment on Politics?
Edit: Thank you for giving me back my right to free speech..
Leeja will explain how this is always been this way for long time.
In a few weeks, my next book will be coming out, “Who Killed the American Dream: The Greatest Political Crime Ever Told,” and the timing couldn’t be more synchronous.
Not for nothing, but this whole article reads like an ad for their book.
Not that this isn't a problem, obviously, but it's also a new ruling that seems pretty likely to get thrown out on appeal. I don't think this is worth getting hysterical over.
It's also not all elections. It's limited to municipal votes where businesses own brick and mortar. The actual case is a town that's basically all businesses with few residents, as far as I can tell, and the ruling allows businesses to vote on town business only, as it effects them as well.
That said, I agree it's a bad ruling. And I agree that it should be overturned (as I think it will.) But to imply that this allows someone to spin up 100k LLCs and rig the vote for Donal Trump or something is a willful misreading of the ruling.
Yes, yes we are.
Who decides what the corporation votes for?
Yes but we're just now noticing it.
At least a couple people are.
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