Supreme Court - stimulating the economy in Montana

I would like to congratulate the U.S. Supreme Court for doing more for the economy than all of the executive and legislative branches of our government combined. So don't be hatin' them.

The president, the Senate, the House, all those economic advisors, department heads and think tank intellectuals, they're all a bunch of second rank amateurs for creating economic stimulus compared to the nine member of the highest court in the land of the free.

Pam Burke

When the Supreme Court upheld its decision to allow corporations to spend as much as they wanted, without accountability to the public (or use of basic tenets of truth), to influence elections, the people of Montana — the human people, not the legal corporate entity "people" — were dealt a blow to their 100-year-old law limiting corporate campaign spending.

There was a collective gasp heard 'round the Big Sky Country. But never fear, my fellow Montanans of the human DNA sort, we could come out ahead yet.

Just think of all the money corporations will be spending in the state.

Corporation-funded super PACs will be spending great golden wads of greenbacks on advertising in the newspaper, radio, television and outdoor advertising media. They will be pumping up the paychecks and creating new employment opportunities for graphics designers, writers and actors who are a reasonable facsimile of the common man.

The people who provide direct support for these industries will also benefit in these trickle-down economic times: the construction guys who put up the billboards, the newspaper carriers, those crazy folks who maintain transmission towers and the caterers bringing food to the set where actors are learning lines to make them sound exactly, almost, like us.

But the economic trickle doesn't stop there. No sir-eee.

The workers at mills creating newsprint and poster papers are receiving paycheck stimulation, as are the loggers who cut the trees to feed the mill.

So are the farmers who supply the caterer and the mechanics who maintain the construction guys' equipment. The factory workers who make all the tools, parts and supplies needed to do the job that does the advertising.

And, too, the technical support people who are needed to save the day every time someone on deadline half-screams half-groans at their computer: "Oh no! No, no, nooo!" at their computer. Even the woman in shipping who helps support her parents, but still finds time to sing karaoke Wednesday nights with her friends at the neighborhood bar-slash-convenience store, benefits.

Next thing we know all these businesses will be putting little stickers — reminiscent of the highway signs touting stimulus money use — in their windows: "This business partially funded through the generous support of corporate super PAC funding (as approved by the U.S. Supreme Court)"

If you're still offended by the Supreme Court usurping our state's right to determine fair elections within our state, just remember two things:

1) Essentially Big Business just fought, all the way to the Supreme Court, to impose a tax on themselves. If they want to keep conducting business as usual, they have to pay for it somehow. We shall henceforth call it the "big loud mouth business keeping the little guy down" tax. And we shall benefit, without troubles if we remember ...

2) The golden rule on political advertisements now is: If the advertisement does NOT say it was endorsed and paid for by a candidate, the information is from a corporation-funded super PAC and is a deceptive, misleading lie. And if it IS endorsed or paid for by a candidate, there's only a 50-50 chance it's a deceptive, misleading lie.

It's kind of comforting to know that someone, even a non-corporeal legal entity someone, could make politicians look so ethical. See what money can buy?