The Fascist Origins of 'Corporate Personhood'

by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy

Many sources support my assertion and emerging thesis: the concept of 'corporate personhood' has Germanic, fascist roots. Herr Schlegel, for example, wrote an essay entitled “Signature of the Age” (Signatur des Zeitalters, 1820). Amid his attacks on British-American "parliamentary government" may be found his Mitt Romney/SCOTUS-like descriptions of a "machine-like", ideal state.

Schlegel describes his ideal with the term "organic" --though it is not! Schlegel also used the term 'Christian' to describe his 'fascist' state. His 'Christian corporations', he said, were 'living wholes' and he described them in terms not unlike that of the corporatist (fascist) philosophy that had been espoused/advocated by Hegel.

Some hard background: in England, ‘the Crown’ has been regarded as a 'legal entity' for centuries. But that is not to say that the 'Crown' IS 'a person'! It simply does not follow that because the 'Crown' may exert power and/or authority it is a 'person'.

Likewise, it simply does not follow that because 'corporations' may enter into contracts that the said 'corporation' is a person. In the case of the 'Crown', for example, it was said that it was both a source of law and the means by which it was enforced! This, it is said, put it above 'laws' --laws which people, real people, are expected to obey. Ergo: the 'state' is, likewise, not a person.

It is said that 'all modern societies' recognize the 'legal existence, as persons, of companies or corporations'! Again --many things may be asserted! It was often asserted that the world was flat; saying so did not make it true.

Corporations do not procreate sexually; corporations do not grow, fart, belch or have babies. Corporations do NONE of the things that define 'real people' either biologically or psychologically. A 'corporation' is nothing less than a paper contract outlining how and possibly when they may interact with 'real people' and with other corporations. NONE of these 'privileges' imply or bestow upon a 'corporation' either a sexual or asexual means by which they may procreate; NONE of these 'privileges' have either the evolutionary power or the 'God-like' power of bestowing upon a mere paper contract the status of 'personhood'.

SCOTUS was wrong and wrong-headed and so are those members of the GOP who bought the scam!

Some have said that a corporation is an 'artificial' person! But a 'real person' is ...uh...a 'real' person! A corporation is not by definition! Black's Law definition is disingenuous. Neither dictionaries nor ill-informed legal decisions can make people out of what are --in fact --mere contracts. Existence precedes 'essence' and it is 'essence' which defines! People are what they are upon birth. Corporations share none of characteristics which define what it means to be a person!

Contracts which, in effect, create a 'corporate entity, differ from other contracts only because they are normally on-file with a Secretary of State somewhere. But that hardly makes of them a 'real person'. They simply outline the legal scope of responsibilities of those party to the contract. See the quote by St. Thomas More who said of them that they were, in fact, '...conspiracies of rich men to procure their commodities in the name and title of the commonwealth'!

When the Sec of State in Delaware (for example) affixes his SEAL upon the articles of incorporation he has performed in a manner PRECISELY described by St Thomas More in his classic "Utopia". Ergo --corporations are better described as being 'legalized conspiracies' than as 'real people'.

“I can perceive nothing but a certain conspiracy of rich men procuring their own commodities under the name and title of the commonwealth.”

- Sir Thomas More (1478 – 1535), Utopia, Of the Religions in Utopia

Words fail to describe the depths of lies, propaganda and sophistry indulged by the likes of A. Scalia who --laughingly --believes himself to be 'too smart for the court'!

Most advocates of 'corporate personhood' indulge false analogies because 'false' analogies may be their last redoubt. Clearly --real persons are not so easily defined or summed up having attributes of consciousness and volition that may never be duplicated in unimaginably large super-computers let alone a mere scrap of papers with a seal on it. Simply, 'personhood' cannot be duplicated artificially and most certainly is not duplicated in mere 'legal abstractions' of any kind.

I deny many right-leaning assertions that "modern societies recognise the legal existence as persons of companies or corporations"! If what is said in defense of corporate personhood were true, TRADE UNIONS would, may and should claim 'personhood'. Should they do so, GOP hypocrites would scream bloody murder, foul, no fair!

By simply refusing to tolerate such an outcome, the GOP will have demonstrated its hypocrisy, its disingenuous assertion that corporations are people. Alas --the GOP has historically sought to have it several ways but right.

In the meantime, I urge those who make cars for a living --ORGANIZE AND INCORPORATE!

I urge those who make steel for a living --ORGANIZE AND INCORPORATE!

I urge those who work in any way with respect to the production of oil and/or petroleum related/derived products --ORGANIZE AND INCORPORATE!

In that way, you are guaranteed that you will be treated like REAL PERSONS while, previously, actually BEING a real person would have guaranteed your enslavement to MOLOCH.

ORGANIZE!!!

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How to Resist Illegal Police Searches and Violations of the Fourth Amendment!

by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy

Commit this to memory:

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

--Fourth Amendment, U.S. Constitution

Bottom line --unless the officer wanting to harass you, search your car, pester you or argue with you can PRODUCE a WARRANT issued by a judge that describes 'particularly' the article that you are suspected of possessing, you need not submit to any search whatsoever. You know that! The judge knows that! But 'hot dogs' cops either don't know it or don't care or both!

Most of the time, police must present their probable cause to a judge or majistrate, whom they ask for a search or arrest warrant. Information is reliable if it shows that it's more likely than not that a crime has occurred and the evidence sought exists at the place named in the search warrant, or that the suspect named in the arrest warrant has committed a crime.

The prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures effectively restricts actions that cops may wish to take but cannot unless they get a warrant. Producing the probable cause is the responsibility of the police and it follows from the 'presumption of innocence'. That's not your problem! The fact is "unreasonable searches and seizures" are illegal if not authorized by a warrant and NO warrant shall be issued but upon 'probable cause'! Therefore, you are not required or expected to do the cop's job for them. An example of what cops are capable of occurred in Houston some 20 years ago. Cops, responding to a disturbance, arrested an hispanic Viet Nam war hero who was accused of creating a row in a bar.

He was beaten so badly by the cops that the jailer refused to admit him; he ordered the cops to take him to a hospital. Instead, they took him to a dimly lit area on Buffalo Bayou between downtown and the city's River Oaks/Memorial area. There they beat the holy hell out of him while shackled. Then they leveraged him out over the bridge and DUMPED him into the inky dark waters of Buffalo Bayou some 20 ft (or more) below.

He drowned and the cops --to Houston's credit --were made to stand trial for murder! They were convicted! I covered the trial.

What can one do to protect him/herself from rogue cops? There is no panacea, no magic wand. I do have some suggestions:

• If you should get stopped by a cop who persists and despite not having a warrant FORCES a search upon you, get his badge number!
• SUE him!
• Demand that he be dismissed without pension!
• FILE charges against him!
• Sue either the city, the state, the district!
• Sue the bastards!

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What the GOP Did to Texas in a Nutshell

by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy

Prior to the arrival of the Bush crime family in Texas, the state had been progressive and liberal; it was still possible to get a good education. That is true in no small part because every Texas Governor had been Democratic since Richard Coke took office on January 15, 1874. It was not until Bill Clements was sworn in on January 16, 1979 that a Republican would live in the Governor's mansion. It was at that moment that the Texas star began to tarnish.

The GOP has accomplished a great deal since 1974:

• Briefly the GOP successfully subverted public education with notable results.
• The label 'murder capital' stuck on Dallas for the resulting 'rise in crime'.
• The corporate-owned prisons were filled-to the brims! Cause and effect?

Under Rick Perry, Texas executed 235 people in a period of just 11 years. That amounts to more than 21 people per year. Under Bush, 152 people were executed in Texas. That's 30 per year. It reads like a competition!

How did the GOP manage to get away with this scam? I submit the following explanation found on the blog: Blue Bloggin

Texas today is enduring losses of a personal and political kind that resemble the struggle against Santa Anna. Texas leadership has it’s hands in everyone’s pockets and takes what it wants, with a Texas sized smile. The concept of “No State Tax is the shiny object politicians dangle in front of our eyes to convince Texans that Texas ‘stays out of your biz’nez’. No they don’t. That is a Texas sized lie. Texas politicians want to divert all Texas funds to special interest at the expense of education and infrastructure. Texas State sponsored scams are the biggest ponzi schemes our politicians have pulled over our eyes.

Texas politicians want to control your personal freedoms, control your body, control your love life, pollute your land or just take your land away, for the pleasure of their campaign donors. Every decision made by the Texas Republican Congress has a big campaign donor behind it and the likes of Governor Rick Perry has his lies exposed on a regular basis. The ballot box is the greatest weapon Texans have, and even that is being manipulated by these crooks to make sure they have another shot at scramming Texans. Don’t fall for their lies. Vote them out!

Texas politicians have sold their soul so many times to so many special interest that Texans have no idea where their rent, grocery and car payment went. Makes you wonder how these crooks keep up with all the deception.

--Blue Bloggin 

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Atlas Crapped or Objectivist Obsessions with Hard Things that Stand Upright

by Len Hart, the Existentialist Cowboy

Ayn Rand is not a serious 'philosopher' and those who idolize her may not be taken seriously as responsible politicians. It is unknown how Ayn Rand's obsessive fixation with all things tall, hard and upright became confused with either philosophy or economics. Below are Rand quotes numbered and followed by my comments.

1. A government is the most dangerous threat to man’s rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims.

Our founders, by contrast, believed in a government in which 'sovereignty' resided in the people, that governments were freely elected for the sole purpose of defending and upholding those ideals. The use of 'physical force' against the population was verboten for anything short of violent crimes or insurrections and even then prohibited unless accompanied by 'probable cause' that a crime had been committed. Certainly --that principle had been abandoned by the time Govt thugs of the FBI et al attacked the Branch Davidian compound in Waco in which the leader, David Koresh, and 82 other Branch Davidians were murdered.

2. Ask yourself whether the dream of heaven and greatness should be waiting for us in our graves – or whether it should be ours here and now and on this earth.

That question begs a meaningless and utterly unknowable 'answer' aside from the fact that any answer provided by an 'objectivist' is, in fact, subjective and utterly un-verifiable! 'Objectivist' assertions are not objective at all, based as they are upon temperament and/or irrational inclination. The meaning of any assertion rests upon the outcome of the question: can this assertion be verified logically or empirically? If so, what is the process by which it is verified! Rand talks about being 'objective' but neglects 'verification' when, in fact, nothing is 'objective' without objective, public verfification.

3. Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.

Civilization has very little to do with privacy though most enlightened societies have defended the individual's right of privacy whenever it is threatened, even if that threat should issue from the government. It is for that reason that the 'right to privacy' is found to be a strong argument in favor of a) Due Process of Law b) the Constitutional guarantee that no warrants shall issue but upon 'probable cause' that a crime has been committed.

4. Do not ever say that the desire to “do good” by force is a good motive. Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives.

One wonders why people like Ron Paul seek power! One wonders why other devotees of Ayn Rand seek political power in particular. What do we know of their motives? And what of any substance has been put forward by them? Ron Paul, for example, is believed to be a laissez-faire capitalist because he is a self-avowed devotee of 'Randism'. One wonders if Paul --an otherwise intelligent person --understands how much richer the very, very, very rich would get were all restraints now limiting rapacious greed and blind ambition were relaxed!

5. From the smallest necessity to the highest religious abstraction, from the wheel to the skyscraper, everything we are and everything we have comes from one attribute of man – the function of his reasoning mind.

The building of skyscrapers is 'big' in Rand-land! It was in Atlas Shrugged, as I recall, that Rand revealed her fixation with hard things that stand upright ---skyscrapers, towers, Pisa, domes.

11. Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue.

Events have proven that the concentrated fortunes of America's people, concentrated as they have become in the very few hands of the ruling elites are INVERSELY proportional to the population as a whole. In other words, our fortunes, our decency as a people has deteriorated inversely as the very, very rich have gotten exponentially richer!

Ayn Rand Rambles for Mike Wallace

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How 'Indefinite Detention' Has Made of the U.S. a 'Police State'

by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy

It was in January, 2002 that the UN Committee Against Torture condemned the treatment of prisoners held at Abu Ghraib by noting that 'indefinite detention' was a violation of the UN Convention against torture! But even worse for U.S. Citizens is the threat that is likewise posed against citizens of the United States. In short, if the government or the President should merely 'deem' you to be a terrorist, you can be dropped into a hole and never seen or heard from again! This continues to be a threat to all Americans of every stripe and income bracket, of every political persuasion left or right should it run afoul of 'powers that be'! The word for this is: tyranny!

The detention sections of the NDAA affirm "...the authority of the President under the AUMF, a joint resolution passed in the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, includes the power to detain any person "...who was part of or substantially supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners". Anyone so targeted may be held indefinitely "without trial, until the end of the hostilities authorized by the [AUMF]". Of course, there is no 'end of hostilities' in an Orwellian perpetual war.

The Sixth Amendment is violated when U.S. Citizens are alllowed to be detained (locked up) indefinitely at any place in the U.S. or abroad if you are merely 'deemed' to be a terrorist! 'Probable cause' is no longer required; you may be locked up if you look funny or Arab! You may be locked up if you are merely 'deemed' to be a terrorist! There is no 'burden of proof' nor is there any requirement that the government produce 'probable cause' that you have committed a crime of any sort! American citizens may be stripped of all rights if he/she is but 'declared' or 'deemed' to be a 'terrorist', however baseless that declaration may be! Those unfortunate targets of this dictatorial, draconian, tyrannical, anti-democratic measure are subject to being snatched, dropped into an Abu Ghraib type hell-hole or --worse --a Texas gulag and never seen or heard from again!

This is a violation of the Fourth Amendment which reads:

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

These measures are all gross and egregious violations of the 14th amendment prohibiting the federal government, the various states and local governments from depriving persons of life, liberty, or property in violation of DUE PROCESS OF LAW, established previously in the 4th Amendment!

This clause makes 'protections' stated clearly and unambiguously in the Bill of Rights applicable to the states. In other words, even states are subject to the SUPREME LAW OF THE LAND --the Constitution! These draconian measures are not merely illegal but treasonous and those supporting them are traitors to the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights and to the people of these United States which are 'sovereign' whether the polticians and lobbyists in Washington recognize that fact or not!

Moreover --I DENY that either President nor Congress nor statutes signed by the President may NULLIFY the above principles of Constitutional law as articulated in the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments!

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