How to steal a country

1. Begin with repeal of the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act.

“The Banking Act of 1933 (Pub.L. 73-66, 48 Stat. 162, enacted June 16, 1933) was a law that established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in the United States and imposed banking reforms, several of which were intended to control speculation.[1] It is often referred to as the Glass–Steagall Act, after its Congressional sponsors, Senator Carter Glass (D) of Virginia, and Representative Henry B. Steagall (D) of Alabama.
“The term Glass–Steagall Act, however, is most often used to refer to four provisions of the Banking Act of 1933 that limited commercial bank securities activities and affiliations between commercial banks and securities firms.[2] Starting in the early 1960s federal banking regulators interpreted these provisions to permit commercial banks and especially commercial bank affiliates to engage in an expanding list and volume of securities activities.[3] By the time the affiliation restrictions in the Glass–Steagall Act were repealed through the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in 1999 by President Bill Clinton, many commentators argued Glass-Steagall was already “dead.”[4] Most notably, Citibank’s 1998 affiliation with Salomon Smith Barney, one of the largest US securities firms, was permitted under the Federal Reserve Board’s then existing interpretation of the Glass-Steagall Act.[5] Clinton publicly declared, "The Glass-Steagall Act is no longer relevant."[6]”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass%E2%80%93Steagall_Act

2.  Co-opt a pair of Supreme Court Justices.

“Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas failed to report his wife's income from a conservative think tank on financial disclosure forms for at least five years, the watchdog group Common Cause said Friday.
“Between 2003 and 2007, Virginia Thomas, a longtime conservative activist, earned $686,589 from the Heritage Foundation, according to a Common Cause review of the foundation's IRS records. Thomas failed to note the income in his Supreme Court financial disclosure forms for those years, instead checking a box labeled "none" where "spousal noninvestment income" would be disclosed.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/23/supreme-court-justice-clarence-thomas-wifes-income_n_812697.html
“Reports that two Supreme Court Justices have attended seminars sponsored by the energy giant and conservative bankroller Koch Industries has sparked a mild debate over judicial ethics.

“On Tuesday evening, the New York Times reported that an upcoming meeting in Palm Springs of "a secretive network of Republican donors" that was being organized by Koch Industries, "the longtime underwriter of libertarian causes." Buried in the third to last graph was a note that previous guests at such meetings included Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, two of the more conservative members of the bench.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/20/scalia-thomas-koch-industries_n_769843.html

3.  Give corporations the unrestricted right to donate money to political candidates.

“Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 50 (2010), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that the First Amendment prohibited the government from restricting independent political expenditures by corporations and unions. The nonprofit corporation Citizens United wanted to air a film critical of Hillary Clinton and to advertise the film during television broadcasts in apparent violation of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (commonly known as the McCain–Feingold Act or "BCRA").[2] In a 5–4 decision, the Court held that portions of BCRA §203 violated the First Amendment.
“The decision reached the Supreme Court on appeal from a July 2008 decision by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Section 203 of BCRA defined an "electioneering communication" as a broadcast, cable, or satellite communication that mentioned a candidate within 60 days of a general election or 30 days of a primary, and prohibited such expenditures by corporations and unions. The lower court held that §203 of BCRA applied and prohibited Citizens United from advertising the film Hillary: The Movie in broadcasts or paying to have it shown on television within 30 days of the 2008 Democratic primaries.[1][3] The Supreme Court reversed, striking down those provisions of BCRA that prohibited corporations (including nonprofit corporations) and unions from spending on "electioneering communications".[2]
“The decision overruled Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce (1990) and partially overruled McConnell v. Federal Election Commission (2003).[4] The Court, however, upheld requirements for public disclosure by sponsors of advertisements (BCRA §201 and §311). The case did not involve the federal ban on direct contributions from corporations or unions to candidate campaigns or political parties, which remain illegal in races for federal office.[5]”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._Federal_Election_Commission

4. Since the Citizens United decision also allows organized labor to make unlimited contributions, destroy the unions.

“As the nation focuses on the efforts of Governor Scott Walker to take away collective bargaining rights from public employees in Wisconsin, new information is coming to light that reveals what is truly going on here.

“Mother Jones is reporting that much of the funding behind the Walker for Governor campaign came from none other than uber-conservatives, the infamous Koch Brothers.
“What’s more, the plan to kill the unions is right out of the Koch Brothers play book.
“Koch-backed groups like Americans for Prosperity, the Cato Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the Reason Foundation have long taken a very antagonistic view toward public-sector unions. Several of these groups have urged the eradication of these unions. The Kochs also invited Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, an anti-union outfit, to a June 2010 confab in Aspen, Colorado;
“Via Mother Jones
“If you are reluctant to believe that this is a coordinated attack, consider this-
“This afternoon, Marty Beil, executive director of the Wisconsin Public Workers Union, sent a message to the Governor’s office agreeing to the cuts to pension & welfare benefits sought by Walker in his bill.  The governor’s response was “nothing doing.”  He wants the whole kit and kaboodle – the end of the collective bargaining rights of the public unions.”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2011/02/18/koch-brothers-behind-wisconsin-effort-to-kill-public-unions/
See also:
http://proamlib.blogspot.com/2011/02/cato-kochs-and-public-sector-unions.html
http://nashvillecitypaper.com/content/city-news/bill-repeal-teachers-collective-bargaining-rights-becomes-law
http://today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/a-lesson-on-survival-for-unions-236354.aspx
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57408917/wisconsin-gov.-unions-an-entitlement-not-a-right/

5.  Outspend your opponents and drown their voices in a sea of Agitprop.

“The term originated in Soviet Russia (the future USSR), as a shortened form of отдел агитации и пропаганды (otdel agitatsii i propagandy), i.e., Department for Agitation and Propaganda, which was part of the Central and regional committees of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The department was later renamed Ideological Department.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agitprop
An example:
“Critics of President Obama’s are abuzz with the charge that the American government will spend $200 million a day, or a total of $2 billion, to send the president on the 10-day mission to four countries that began today.
“Except there is no evidence that it’s true.
“Government officials said Friday that the rumored costs — which began from unnamed sources on a TV station Web site in India, the first stop on the president’s trip — are false.
“In a posting on the White House blog, Dan Pfeiffer, the communications director, called it “a long trip from reality” and said the rumor so far overstates the amount actually to be spent that “it’s not even close to being true.”
“That has not stopped some of Mr. Obama’s critics from repeating the rumor as fact. Rush Limbaugh, the conservative radio host, announced simply: “Two hundred million dollars a day this nation will spend on Obama’s trip to India.”
“Fox News host Glenn Beck calculated the total 10-day cost as just “$2 billion,” adding, “We have 34 warships — have you seen this?””
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/05/india-on-200-million-a-day-no/

6.  Keep the money pouring in.

“The big bucks being raised by Mitt Romney and the pro-Republican independent groups aiding his bid for the White House are a major concern, say top members of President Barack Obama's re-election team.
“And one of the officials says he expects Romney's GOP presidential campaign to bring in $100 million in June, out-raising the Obama campaign for a second straight month.
"I think he's going to have a $100 million month this month, between him and the [Republican National Committee]," said the official, who, along with other top members of the re-election team, spoke to reporters on background Wednesday. "I think Romney's going to continue to have big months. Combine that with the super PAC stuff and we're going to be the first incumbent outspent. That's clear."
“Romney and the RNC out-raised the president and the Democratic National Committee by more than $16 million last month. And independent pro-Republican groups such as Crossroads (co-founded by Karl Rove), Americans for Prosperity (funded by the Koch brothers), and Restore Our Future (the super PAC dedicated to electing Romney president), have outraised and outspent the pro-Democratic groups that support the president's re-election.”
http://www.wmur.com/news/politics/Obama-campaign-says-it-will-be-out-raised-in-June/-/9857748/15179598/-/64vd9o/-/index.html

AND THAT, FOLKS, IS HOW YOU STEAL A COUNTRY.