Massachusetts protesters carrying signs that mirror the new stamping Occupy slogans in January. (Steven Senne)
Posted on 06/04/2012 4:35:51 PM PDT by Brandonmark
Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry's ice cream and one of the deep pockets behind the Occupy movement, says he is helping launch a campaign this summer to highlight the influence of corporate money in American politics.
Cohen and the Move to Amend advocacy group will distribute rubber stamps with anti-corporate election spending messages so that the politically minded can mark their dollar bills. The end goal: To secure a constitutional amendment saying corporations do not enjoy the same protected rights as individuals and that money is not a form of speech.
Cohen plans to put a giant stamping machine on a national tour in August to encourage "thousands of people to buy rubber stamps and stamp any currency that comes into their possession," he tells Yahoo News. According to his attorney, this is legal, as long as the bills are still legible after the stamping. The Occupy movement tried the stamp tactic last October, defacing dollar bills with infographics that showed the income distribution in American society.
This round of stamps will include "Corporations are not people," "Money is not speech" and "Not to be used for bribing politicians," among other slogans.
The amendment for which Cohen is advocating would reverse decades of Supreme Court decisions, which have extended free speech and other rights to corporations and have ruled that spending money is a form of protected speech. The Citizens United Supreme Court decision in 2010 held that corporations and unions can spend unlimited amounts of money during elections as long as they are not directly funding individual candidates. (This led to the rise of independent super PACs, which have poured millions of dollars into this election cycle alone.) The decision overturned existing campaign finance laws.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Massachusetts protesters carrying signs that mirror the new stamping Occupy slogans in January. (Steven Senne)
In Mexico, we stopped this sort of thing real quick by people NOT accepting bills that had been defaced. They had to go to the bank, and do some explaining. Sometimes even the bank did NOT redemn them.
Isn’t Ben & Jerrys a corporation? Or do they give away their ice cream for free like government cheese?
Well if you yahoos think money is so bad, please feel free to send yours to ME!;)
Hahahah, Money is not speech, as they use money as
speech.
Of course others can play that game too.
...oh
"Ben and Jerry’s co-founder wants to rubber-stamp dollar bills F.R.A.U.Ds (FEDERAL RESERVE ACCOUNTING UNIT DENOMINATORS) with Occupy messages"
There -- fixed it!
We haven't used "DOLLARS" for decades. The FIAT CURRENCY is why we're in this mess.
all I know is ....that Ben & Jerry take their blood money as their product kills so many people (liberal mode off)
USC 18-333
Whoever mutilates, cuts, defaces, disfigures, or perforates, or
unites or cements together, or does any other thing to any bank
bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt issued by any national
banking association, or Federal Reserve bank, or the Federal
Reserve System, with intent to render such bank bill, draft, note,
or other evidence of debt unfit to be reissued, shall be fined
under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.
I get any stamped bills, I’m going straight to my bank and demanding a replacement.
I am a fan of ARMY sports. Ben and Jerry for several years now has been one of their radio sponsors.
I have written to West Point twice, once when Ben and Jerry, to support same-sex marriage, had a flavor called ‘hubby, hubby’ and more recently when I found out they were big supporters of Occupy Wall Street.
I urged Army that Ben and Jerry should not be one of their sponsors. Army has a proud, patriotic tradition, and such a left wing company should not be associated with the long gray line. A pencil pusher answered my e-mail and said she would send it to someone higher up. No one ever got back to me.
I will be doing that. I will not accept any money that has been defaced by the communists like the filthy rich Bennie Cohen and his freeloading occupiers. It is not MY JOB to determine if the currency is still “legible” so why take the risk. We had a discussion here a few months ago. If you are given counterfeit money, YOU OWN IT.
Hardly. You will pay about $4 a pint for Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Affordable by those with trust funds who never had to work for a living so thus they have plenty of time to sit around eating premium ice cream, feeling good about themselves.
Those who work for a living might have to settle for Hood or some supermarket brand of ice cream.
I will not be accepting any marked bills.
Perhaps conservatives across the nation could affix conservative message labels to the containers they put their over priced ice cream in.
I went to the local Walgreens, and right on the refrigerator case holding Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, is a large sign saying the accept EBT cards (food stamps).
Same thing happened here when an attempt at local "gay pride" day at the beach ended up with the entire beach being littered with thumb tacks. The GLBT idiots stamped their money with something stupid, and nobody would accept it. They ended up taking to a bank, which eventually shipped it out to be destroyed because it was defaced. Geez, that happened more than 10 years ago. You'd have thought these idiot liberal/socialist/democrats would have learned by now.
Oh real smart. They are devaluing their money because many or most will simply not accept these defaced notes.
Not spending money on Ben & Jerry’s ice cream has been a part of my speech pattern for quite some time.
I stopped going to BJ when I got a bunch of hair in my ice cream.
They have a real quality control problem.
Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream Co. was sold to Unilever over 10 years ago and as far as I know the founders retained zero residual interest. So while it may feel good, going after the ice cream containers wouldn’t leave a mark (pun intended.) Kind of like trying to punish the French by not eating fries.
What would keep a small business from stamping their ad and/or website address on every bill they get their hands on, as advertising? Wouldn’t that be the same thing?
Not sure I agree with you as evidenced by their recent advertising in support of the Occupy movement:
Not sure I agree with you as evidenced by their recent advertising in support of the Occupy movement:
Not sure I agree with you as evidenced by their recent advertising in support of the Occupy movement:
sorry for the duplicate post
Ben, Jerry, and Barry want to make it “The Long Gay Line”.
Maybe the bills should be stamped...
Tear this bill in half, now you have TWO Obama bills!
Work at Walmart on the weekends and got an Anti-Walker “Recall Walker” Dollar Bill once, I just took it put in the drawer. When I had gotten down to paying back Dollar Bills for change I just skipped over that one and put it in the bottom of the pile for corporate to turn over to the banks (and the would likely promptly destroy it b/c of the defaced nature). No way in H*ll was I going to give this to another customer (embarrassment’s sake alone) I won’t support the Union-libs!
I DEMAND FREE ICE CREAM! IT’S FOR THE PEOPLE!
Isn’t this outfit still a subsidiary of Unilever?
Geez, that happened more than 10 years ago. You'd have thought these idiot liberal/socialist/democrats would have learned by now.
One definition of insanity is . . . :-)
How about practicing some anti-corpratism for B&J by NOT buying their products. That is what I do.
America is different from Mexico.
In America you accept the money. Period.
I don't agree with these putzes' message but seriously.
If the money is legible then it is legal tender. Politics has nothing to do with it.
For some reason people have been writing or stamping the words "TAX CHEAT" over Timothy Geithner's signature on newer bills.
http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/140003/
As far as I know, Ben and/or Jerry no longer own “Ben and Jerry’s”. They sold it for a gazillion dollars.
But irony is lost on ol’ Ben.
At least, by lobbying for an amendment, they seem to be admitting that the goals of the Occupiers are currently unconstitutional.
Proof that the left NEVER have an original idea!
Then of course, there has been this story, floating around lately, about the NAVY naming a ship after HARVEY MILK.
Everyone on board could then sing,
” On the good ship,WOLLIPOP. “
LOL, Unilever which owns Ben and Jerry’s is the largest ice cream maker in the world and only behind P&G and Nestle in size for manufacturers of consumer goods. IOW the very same devil they are protesting.
That's a good photo... it truly sums up the impudent, narcissistic mindset of these morons.
They are children by choice.
What do you figure that every one of 'em is a materialist of the highest order. And if corporations are not people, how much less human(e) is the biggest corporate behemoth of them all, Fed.gov? Starve that beast!
Work at Walmart on the weekends and got an Anti-Walker “Recall Walker” Dollar Bill once, I just took it put in the drawer. When I had gotten down to paying back Dollar Bills for change I just skipped over that one and put it in the bottom of the pile for corporate to turn over to the banks (and the would likely promptly destroy it b/c of the defaced nature). No way in H*ll was I going to give this to another customer (embarrassment’s sake alone) I won’t support the Union-libs!
Nicely done! With the least energy you are having the most possible effect in the real world.
I thought it was illegal to deface money. That’s why these dimwits are handing out the stamps and not stamping the money themselves. They are perfectly willing to let someone else take the fall for them - typical socialist.
The level of ignorance displayed in the signs I can read is cataclysmic. If I were that big a fool, maybe I would also think government employees could make better decisions for me than I can for myself.
OOPs! Good catch and my apologies. Did some homework and it looks like Unilever has adopted a ‘brand equity’ board of directors at Ben & Jerry’s ‘to protect the brand’ so I fully agree and support a message that maybe the parent board at UL Unilever will hear big time, loud and clear. Unilever, makers of Lipton’s Tea and Skippy Peanut Butter etc. cannot have it both ways.
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