Scene: Somewhere on Wall Street a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Global Squeezola Holding Company has ended. With a very fine single malt the members have drunk a toast to the Supreme Court’s decision re Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission, which decided that corporations can spend all they need to buy legislators or presidents. We manage to catch a bit of dialog between Board Members Quisling Peterson of Octopus Unlimited and Armor Teight of Monopolica Corp.
Peterson: Free at last! Free at last, my friend!
Teight: Here a mil. There a mil. Pretty soon we’ve bought a bill.
They clink glasses, again, and gaze down at the street below.
Peterson: Awful lot of noise and agitation down there tonight.
Teight: Poor deluded idiots. They’re protesting the decision.
Peterson: As if anyone who matters is paying any attention.
Teight: Take a look at those signs. Hand lettered. All but illegible. I guess they can’t pay for proper printing, poor things.
Peterson: Hopeless. Can you make anything out?
Teight: Get this! Clean Air. Clean government.
Peterson: Oxymorons both. Such morons! What else?
Teight: They’re chanting now. Peace and jobs.
Peterson: I can barely hear it.
Teight: You’d think they’d amp it up. Rent some power megaphones.
Peterson: Let ‘em shout. Let 'em spout. They can’t outspend us on TV now.
Teight: Peace! Ha! We’ll give them a piece, all right. A piece of the war—and a place up front, fighting, for us.
Peterson: Yee-hoo! The orders are rolling in. Afghanistan. Iraq. Pakistan. Yemen. There’s no end to
it. By the time the system crashes, again, we’ll have trillions safely socked away.
Teight: Oh baby! And Switzerland has seen the light. No more ratting on depositors.
Peterson: Talk about safety nets! I love the Swiss. Can you say Zu-rich?
Teight: There is this little PR problem. It's dictators, drug Barons and us.
Peterson: Dough is dough, my friend. The rich get richer. The poor get—
Teight: Children!
Peterson: Thank god for that. Someone's got to do the work, and employees are cheap as dirt now. Let's buy us a Secretary of Labor. Let's keep it that way.
Teight: Brilliant Insight! You should get a disgustingly fat bonus for that.
Peterson: I do.