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Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread

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Re: Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread

#481

Post by mrtesthah »

imthatsteve wrote: post #436
garte wrote: post #397

What I'm wondering these last few years is whether American "politics" has anything actually political to discuss like ensuring the pension system is still intact in 30 years, improving access to a solid education (and even more so: what does that mean?), drug prevention, transparent election processes, tax and debt management... Over here in Europe you only hear about "US politics" like guns and cars or DEI ... stuf…

There arent any real politics by design. Most people in this country agree on most issues, those issues are the things that you will never hear or see mentioned by any party politician. The parties only maintain their power by making you vote against your own interests they do this by playing parties off each other. They pick the most divisive topics they can and they run on that. They will run polls to learn what pe…

>So the democratic candidate says you get abortion up until the week after birth

I see you're trying to illustrate your point with an example, but in this case, no politician in history has ever proposed something like that, which makes it hard to take the rest of your comment seriously.

Re: Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread

#482

Post by muwtyhg »

0ckpuppet wrote: post #131
giantg2 wrote: post #78

Lots of people here are focused on one guy. But the the article says "widespread". In my experience, much of the corruption is at a local or state level. At the federal level it seems the corruption is mostly related to agencies (GAO reports) and lobbying.

usaid gec ngo all federal all exist to facilitate corruption

What do you think NGO stands for?

Re: Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread

#483

Post by hakunin »

DANmode wrote: post #455
hakunin wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saying “US corruption isn’t new” is a truism. There are probably isolated incidents, and many unproven theories, but everyone is quick to agree with this statement because it’s a common feeling everyone has now for some reason. The reality of corruption is likely much smaller and more boring than people think. What we’re witnessing now is what should be called corruption. That corruption that everyone has been scream…

> But finally real. The word you’re looking for is blatant . It has been there over 50 years, with the ratchet tightening toward where we are now not each year - but mostly in the shadows, not in your face laughing. Two things change each year: - how much the populace has been proven to “take” - how much further the empire’s attention is spread out, leading to it not serving its own interests and citizens, aside from…

No, the word is _real_.

What we had before is a normal amount of corruption. There's no such thing as having zero crime. Just like we can say that air travel is safe, despite there being incidents, we can say there is no corruption, despite there being incidents.

The talk of shadowy cabals and conspiracies are fashionable, but never proven.

Corruption that actually meaningfully hurts the country and the world at scale (in recent history) only started with this administration.

You're going down a populist rabbit hole, I've been there, it's not a good one.

Re: Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread

#484

Post by aprilthird2021 »

Arodex wrote: post #318
aprilthird2021 wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They got it when the PATRIOT ACT was passed. That was the proof that all our rights and liberties are conditional, and Trump uses the revelation of that back then to pull off everything he is doing now

I would think the bailouts after the 2007 financial crisis destroyed more trust and lives than 9/11 and the Patriot Act.

If so, another terrible decision by our voting populace

Re: Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread

#485

Post by aprilthird2021 »

grebc wrote: post #254
aprilthird2021 wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prove him wrong. Show us documented cases of corruption from, say Obama, or Biden, or Bush Jr. And then we'll compare it to the documented cases of Trump corruption, starting with his 2 crypto pump-and-dump schemes and his family's fake crypto company (3 already very brazenly open ones and there are more!) and let's see if you can pull similar for any of the previous presidents of the 21st century

Dick Cheney. Edit: I don’t really care though, I’m not a US citizen. Trump is terrible still. Shouldn’t have voted him in. :shrug:

Cheney didn't increase his profit one dime from his connection to Halliburton while or after his stint as VP.

Re: Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread

#486

Post by aprilthird2021 »

potamic wrote: post #274
scott_w wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they’re not examples of corruption. Did Bush or Biden seek to profit from their actions financially? Not that I know of, unless you have proof showing what and how.

Corruption is not limited to financial profit. There are many ways to engage in acts of self interest like grant personal agenda, favours to friends/donors, quid-pro-quo etc.

But none of those were involved in 08 bailout or WMD scandal

Re: Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread

#487

Post by esalman »

budman1 wrote: post #406
grebc wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dick Cheney. Edit: I don’t really care though, I’m not a US citizen. Trump is terrible still. Shouldn’t have voted him in. :shrug:

You can dislike Cheney's actions while in office, but I don't remember any scandals where he put money in his pocket.

He just bombed civilians in the middle east. Current administration is both bombing civilians in the middle east and stealing from civilians in the US.

Re: Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread

#488

Post by the_gastropod »

swed420 wrote: post #352
Arodex wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>but a rapidly increasing number of "independents" in America are strongly left leaning but feel that the Democratic party has abandoned them. Then they are listening to the Right. Biden did what he could to help unions and eliminate student debt. The truth is those "left" leaning want socialism, but only for them, and not brown people. Socialism but only for their in-group. (That's also what you see with recent immi…

> Biden did what he could to help unions and eliminate student debt. LMAO, etc

Behold! A both-sides guy who’s completely unaware of actual real world events!

Student loan forgiveness: blocked by the Supreme Court along partisan lines: Biden v. Nebraska (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biden_v._Nebraska)

Union support is so absurdly widespread, I don’t even know what to reference. E.g., on his 3rd day in office, Biden signed an executive order to empower government employees to join unions. This resulted in about a 20% increase in unionized federal employees. He was also the first sitting president to ever attend a picket line on the side of the workers. His Department of Labor and NLRB appointees were longtime unionized labor advocates, who through regulations lowered barriers to joining unions and hammered anti-union behaviors by companies like Starbucks.

Re: Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread

#489

Post by aprilthird2021 »

nephihaha wrote: post #332
aprilthird2021 wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prove him wrong. Show us documented cases of corruption from, say Obama, or Biden, or Bush Jr. And then we'll compare it to the documented cases of Trump corruption, starting with his 2 crypto pump-and-dump schemes and his family's fake crypto company (3 already very brazenly open ones and there are more!) and let's see if you can pull similar for any of the previous presidents of the 21st century

Halliburton got a lot of work from Bush's wars if I remember correctly.

But Cheney never profited from any of that increased work. He donated every single investment profit from Halliburton stock (since he was paid in it and held it as VP) to charity. That's like 1000x less corrupt than even one of the 3 situations of Trump corruption from only his most recent term that I outlined

Re: Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread

#490

Post by hakunin »

selfhoster1312 wrote: post #314
hakunin wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saying “US corruption isn’t new” is a truism. There are probably isolated incidents, and many unproven theories, but everyone is quick to agree with this statement because it’s a common feeling everyone has now for some reason. The reality of corruption is likely much smaller and more boring than people think. What we’re witnessing now is what should be called corruption. That corruption that everyone has been scream…

Wow, i really dislike your argument. So instead of cleaning their acts on corruption, war crimes, and other abuses, the Democrats should just be held accountable to nothing because Trump is worse? I'm sorry but your mindset is precisely what got Trump elected. The democrats abandoned the working people, propped up the military industrial complex even more, and enriched CEOs and bankers. Trump propaganda is not the re…

No, what got Trump elected is both the republicans falling in line en masse, and the lefty populists backstabbing democrats the entire time it was happening. This is why republicans support DSA — it helps democrats lose.

Mainstream democrats who actually know how to govern unfortunately don't have great rhetorical skills, easy slogans and sound bites, or the social media skills required to fight back against populist pundits. The mainstream media at one point also started going insanely harsh on normal democrats, while giving lay up interviews to trumpers, to avoid being accused of TDS.

Democrats fail to fight on both fronts because they often suck at being influencers, and are actually good at governing. They're boring government officials, nerds that try to actually tackle difficult problems in good faith, by taking all stakeholders into account, and finding feasible solutions.

Things are not simple. You're in a populist rabbit hole. It's easy to hate these suit wearing "corporate" dems if you don't actually appreciate the complexity of modern problems we're solving.

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