With his singular style, Tom Toles tackles the complex issues of the day. This Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist skillfully targets political, economic and social concerns — in particular complicated environmental issues — with a clear-eyed precision that hits the mark every time.
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dtroutma
said, 12 months ago
A yup cup and yes, a no on a lid, which may have been what SCOTUS smoked before writing the decision??
Radish
said, 12 months ago
Corporations are not people and money is not speech. Perhaps a new amendment should be written to the constitution.
josefw
said, 12 months ago
@Radish
WRONG: Without people, there would not be a corporation.
greenbrd said, 12 months ago
@josefw
Without people, there would not be notepads. Are notepads people?
Without people, there would not be computers. Are computer people?
Without people, there would not be tape measures. Are tape measures people?
There are many more things on my desk that I could ask you if they are people, but I hope that won’t be necessary.
lontooni said, 12 months ago
@josefw
Without corporations there would still be people.
Doughfoot said, 12 months ago
@josefw
I have no objection to rich people spending their own money; I do object to them spending my money. If you have any investments in mutual funds, like say an employer-sponsored retirement program, then some of your money is invested in stocks, and you don’t even know which corporations in which you are a partial owner. But the leadership of those corporations can use your (the stockholder’s) money to promote their causes, and the perceived interests of their corporations, without your consent. Any they can do it anonymously: hiding behind the facade of a front organization: “Americans United for Justice” or some such.
Furthermore, a corporation may be a person, but it is not an American or a citizen. It is controlled literally by the highest bidder. The law does not say that a corporation has to demonstrate that it is most owned or controlled by American stockholders in order to enter the political arena.
Furthermore, corporations exist to make a profit, and even honest corporate heads are bound by their fiduciary responsibility to maximize profit, because profit is the reason for the corporation: that should, and does, trump all other considerations, such as citizenship. I may take a lower-paying job if I want to live in a new place or need a change. A CEO has no right to make a decision like that, cutting company profits because he is tired of the same old business and would like to do something else. I may sacrifice my personal financial welfare for a higher cause if I choose. You may choose not to take a tax deduction because you don’t think it fair to take it. But the accounting firm that does your taxes has no right to make that kind of decision for you.
The corporation may be a necessary and useful invention when it comes to business and investment, etc. But it is essentially a machine that must make its decisions based on a strictly limited number of criteria. Patriotic self-sacrifice isn’t one of them.
Would you want a corporate spokesmen to see on a jury, bound to arrive at verdicts only that further the stockholders’ financial interests? How about appointing a corporation to a judgeship? Or electing one to congress? Since corporation can survive much longer than human beings, if you elected General Motors to the senate, why there is no limit to the number of terms the good General could serve. If GM is a person, with the rights of a person, why not? I like the joke: “I’ll believe that a Corporation is a person when Texas executes one.”
Ambrose Bierce had it right a century ago when he called a corporation “an ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.”
masterskrain said, 12 months ago
“Corporations have been enthroned in high places, and an era of corruption will follow.”
Abraham Lincoln.
Sad, but the more things change, the more they stay the same!
walruscarver2000 said, 12 months ago
@masterskrain
But…but…but..He was a Republican!!!!
masterskrain said, 12 months ago
@walruscarver2000
Yes, and if Abe was alive today, he’d be singing; “It’s my party, and I’ll cry if I want to!”
Besides, with the insanity that the Rethuglican party has degenerated into, Lincoln couldn’t get anywhere near being on a ballot, much less actually getting on the ticket!motivemagus said, 12 months ago
A few words from that great Republican Teddy Roosevelt:
“The great corporations which we have grown to speak of rather loosely as trusts are the creatures of the State, and the State not only has the right to control them, but it is duty bound to control them wherever the need of such control is shown.” – 1903
“Our aim is not to do away with corporations; on the contrary, these big aggregations are an inevitable development of modern industrialism, and the effort to destroy them would be futile unless accomplished in ways that would work the utmost mischief to the entire body politic. We can do nothing of good in the way of regulating and supervising these corporations until we fix clearly in our minds that we are not attacking the corporations, but endeavoring to do away with any evil in them. We are not hostile to them ; we are merely determined that they shall be so handled as to subserve the public good. We draw the line against misconduct, not against wealth.
- State of the Union Address, 1902
“There are not a few public men who, though they would repel with indignation an offer of a bribe, will give certain corporations special legislative and executive privileges because they have contributed heavily to campaign funds; will permit loose and extravagant work because a contractor has political influence; or, at any rate, will permit a public servant to take public money without rendering an adequate return, by conniving at inefficient service on the part of men who are protected by prominent party leaders.”
—1900
avarner said, 12 months ago
These cartoon comments are a a hoot. Where is Soro’s (much, much bigger) cup??
Not a word when Obama was outspending McCain 4 to one.
As far as Wisconsin goes – you wanted a recall election & you got it.
Then you lost. Now the tears…
ROTFL…..
cdward said, 12 months ago
@josefw
That’s a ridiculous argument. Without people, there wouldn’t be prisons either. Or churches or schools or sports teams. But they are NOT people. If they were people, they could be arrested and sent to prison for their crimes – not individual members of the corporation but the entire corporation, because it’s the entire corporation being defined as a person. Until they do that, they’re not people. Oh, and their crimes harm a lot more people a lot more badly than petty thieves who get 10-15 years.
cdward said, 12 months ago
@avarner
There was always complaint against the corporation as people argument. I can’t help it if you’re not paying attention.
Ms. Ima said, 12 months ago
Obama drinks from the Soros big gulp.
Rx71Wm29 said, 12 months ago
So, without corporations would there be any jobs? And, without jobs? Well, you figure it out….