6 ms·

"Wet your beaks!!!!" ... stinks of corruption. But I guess the USA is happy with that.

ReptileMan 10mo ago
Trump admin is a godsend. He just does what everyone before him did, just openly. Which is better in a way - before him the upper classes in the west were quite adept at hiding corruption. The presidential libraries, the foundations, the speaking fees, the books, the revolving door between companies and regulators - was it any different in essence?
- fuzzygroup 10mo ago
  No. While there has always been corruption, this is a different order of magnitude.
  - ReptileMan 10mo ago
    As the old joke said - We already figured out what kind of woman you are madam, we just haggle about the price. If someone is going to sell out the commons - isn't it better if they sell them out for a high price not a pittance.
    - LunaSea 10mo ago
      It is absolutely. A murderer is not the same as a person that committed genocide. A very silly argument you tried to pull there.
      - ReptileMan 10mo ago
        The crime is the same, Trump just wants higher payment.
        LunaSea 10mo ago
        Crimes have degrees of severity. Also Trump is already a convicted criminal.
    - retsibsi 10mo ago
      The important difference is not the price, but the extent of the corruption. A politician whose public persona is clean, law-abiding, respectful of norms and institutions, and generally benevolent will be limited in how far they will go to abuse their power and sell out their country -- even if they are secretly very cynical and amoral. A politician who is openly corrupt, above the law, norm breaking, and vindictive will be free to do much more damage.
  - cjbgkagh 10mo ago
    The Netflix deal with Obama for $50M and book deals for $65M are a bit blatant. Certainly a $8B crypto rug pull is far worse by a few orders of magnitude. I think it’s weird that these are the new standards, I really hate presidential politics. Perhaps Jimmy Carter was the least damaging and he was forced to give up his family farm. One difference is that the few on the right that I know (I’m sure a biased sampling) think that what Trump did is wrong but those on the left seem to have forgotten all about Obama’s deals or worse they think that its kosher.
    - encomiast 10mo ago
      Maybe you can explain why the Netflix deal is corruption? The deal was signed after he was out of office (2018). Did he or people in his administration create policy that benefited Netflix in exchange for this deal? Was there any sort of quid pro quo? Where is the abuse of office?
      - cjbgkagh 10mo ago
        The ability for Netflix to operate as it does is entirely dependent on banks lending it vast sums of money, the same banks that staffed the Obama admin who continued the bailouts. Corruption doesn’t have to be a direct quid pro quo, that’s the standard needed for bribery, I did not suggest Obama was bribed. Because it’s in the interest of the corrupt to hide their practices the general way of avoiding it is to avoid the appearance of impropriety, and on that standard I believe Obama has failed.
        jaybrendansmith 10mo ago
        There's a difference between favors and corruption, there has always been. It's something called regulations. We the people must tolerate a certain amount of favors, but there's a line: You cannot accept these favors while in office, particularly so when the exchange involves a public good or decision. You must sell your peanut farm before you hold office. You can't accept a plane from a foreign government in exchange for use of an airbase while in office. The things you do in office must be for the people. The things you do after may be immoral but they don't impact your decisions while in public service.
  - brazukadev 10mo ago
    It is not, the west corporations history of corruption in Latin America, Africa and Asia is at this same level but was heavily under-reported/persecuted, for obvious reasons.
- encomiast 10mo ago
  You must see the difference between making money from books/speaking fees and using the full power of the US government to create policy that directly benefits your investments (possibly at the detriment to your competitor).
- deleted 10mo ago
  [deleted]
fuzzygroup 10mo ago
No. Large numbers of Americans aren't. Corruption and abuse of power is why we we have millions of people protesting. It may not be covered on the mainstream news but I was on the ground in Chicago where I easily saw a quarter of a million protestors. New York, Los Angeles and other big cities had similar numbers.
- jfengel 10mo ago
  Large numbers are not. But if you reran the 2024 election today you'd likely get the same result. Nothing has happened to change anyone's mind. They were very clear about their priorities, and those who voted for it accepted that. And would again.
  - reactordev 10mo ago
    I know a lot of people who would change their votes due to what has happened to their businesses and farms.
    - metalman 10mo ago
      it's telling that travelling "first class" means more leg room , a wet towlett, and microwaved slop, but all in all is just bieng pushed through a big metal tube, like everybody else, and the important people are gone, as they travel private, bank private, go to private clubs, etc Hard working generational busineses and farm familys are now explisetly, second class, and even having millions will only get you an airplane with propellors and not the required jet, with the rapidly changing and irrational policys making those smaller, hard won fortunes, precarious. It's a situation where the "base" is waking up under threat from all sides and will start to make exceptionaly, pragmatic decsions.
      - reactordev 10mo ago
        Exactly. An Etsy shop and a CNC will only get you so far. The tariffs are killing businesses bottom lines and either they raise prices or close up shop. If they raise prices, they anger their customers. If they close shop, they anger their customers. My friends are furious that they are in this position. Then there’s a few local farmers who basically sold their land to housing and gone are 150 year old heritage sites. Replaced with a Ryan Homes banner for townhomes starting in the low $400k’s. It’s back to the point where only generational wealth will survive and the American dream of working hard to achieve it is gone unless you scam people with AI slop or fake accounting. The back and forth over what’s “true”. As if truth itself has no solid underlying footing in reasoning and science. No. It all doesn’t make sense because ReasonGPT is down…

Trump admin is a godsend. He just does what everyone before him did, just openly. Which is better in a way - before him the upper classes in the west were quite adept at hiding corruption. The presidential libraries, the foundations, the speaking fees, the books, the revolving door between companies and regulators - was it any different in essence?

fuzzygroup 10mo ago
No. While there has always been corruption, this is a different order of magnitude.
- ReptileMan 10mo ago
  As the old joke said - We already figured out what kind of woman you are madam, we just haggle about the price. If someone is going to sell out the commons - isn't it better if they sell them out for a high price not a pittance.
  - LunaSea 10mo ago
    It is absolutely. A murderer is not the same as a person that committed genocide. A very silly argument you tried to pull there.
    - ReptileMan 10mo ago
      The crime is the same, Trump just wants higher payment.
      - LunaSea 10mo ago
        Crimes have degrees of severity. Also Trump is already a convicted criminal.
  - retsibsi 10mo ago
    The important difference is not the price, but the extent of the corruption. A politician whose public persona is clean, law-abiding, respectful of norms and institutions, and generally benevolent will be limited in how far they will go to abuse their power and sell out their country -- even if they are secretly very cynical and amoral. A politician who is openly corrupt, above the law, norm breaking, and vindictive will be free to do much more damage.
- cjbgkagh 10mo ago
  The Netflix deal with Obama for $50M and book deals for $65M are a bit blatant. Certainly a $8B crypto rug pull is far worse by a few orders of magnitude. I think it’s weird that these are the new standards, I really hate presidential politics. Perhaps Jimmy Carter was the least damaging and he was forced to give up his family farm. One difference is that the few on the right that I know (I’m sure a biased sampling) think that what Trump did is wrong but those on the left seem to have forgotten all about Obama’s deals or worse they think that its kosher.
  - encomiast 10mo ago
    Maybe you can explain why the Netflix deal is corruption? The deal was signed after he was out of office (2018). Did he or people in his administration create policy that benefited Netflix in exchange for this deal? Was there any sort of quid pro quo? Where is the abuse of office?
    - cjbgkagh 10mo ago
      The ability for Netflix to operate as it does is entirely dependent on banks lending it vast sums of money, the same banks that staffed the Obama admin who continued the bailouts. Corruption doesn’t have to be a direct quid pro quo, that’s the standard needed for bribery, I did not suggest Obama was bribed. Because it’s in the interest of the corrupt to hide their practices the general way of avoiding it is to avoid the appearance of impropriety, and on that standard I believe Obama has failed.
      - jaybrendansmith 10mo ago
        There's a difference between favors and corruption, there has always been. It's something called regulations. We the people must tolerate a certain amount of favors, but there's a line: You cannot accept these favors while in office, particularly so when the exchange involves a public good or decision. You must sell your peanut farm before you hold office. You can't accept a plane from a foreign government in exchange for use of an airbase while in office. The things you do in office must be for the people. The things you do after may be immoral but they don't impact your decisions while in public service.
- brazukadev 10mo ago
  It is not, the west corporations history of corruption in Latin America, Africa and Asia is at this same level but was heavily under-reported/persecuted, for obvious reasons.
encomiast 10mo ago
You must see the difference between making money from books/speaking fees and using the full power of the US government to create policy that directly benefits your investments (possibly at the detriment to your competitor).
deleted 10mo ago
[deleted]

fuzzygroup 10mo ago

No. Large numbers of Americans aren't. Corruption and abuse of power is why we we have millions of people protesting. It may not be covered on the mainstream news but I was on the ground in Chicago where I easily saw a quarter of a million protestors. New York, Los Angeles and other big cities had similar numbers.

jfengel 10mo ago
Large numbers are not. But if you reran the 2024 election today you'd likely get the same result. Nothing has happened to change anyone's mind. They were very clear about their priorities, and those who voted for it accepted that. And would again.
- reactordev 10mo ago
  I know a lot of people who would change their votes due to what has happened to their businesses and farms.
  - metalman 10mo ago
    it's telling that travelling "first class" means more leg room , a wet towlett, and microwaved slop, but all in all is just bieng pushed through a big metal tube, like everybody else, and the important people are gone, as they travel private, bank private, go to private clubs, etc Hard working generational busineses and farm familys are now explisetly, second class, and even having millions will only get you an airplane with propellors and not the required jet, with the rapidly changing and irrational policys making those smaller, hard won fortunes, precarious. It's a situation where the "base" is waking up under threat from all sides and will start to make exceptionaly, pragmatic decsions.
    - reactordev 10mo ago
      Exactly. An Etsy shop and a CNC will only get you so far. The tariffs are killing businesses bottom lines and either they raise prices or close up shop. If they raise prices, they anger their customers. If they close shop, they anger their customers. My friends are furious that they are in this position. Then there’s a few local farmers who basically sold their land to housing and gone are 150 year old heritage sites. Replaced with a Ryan Homes banner for townhomes starting in the low $400k’s. It’s back to the point where only generational wealth will survive and the American dream of working hard to achieve it is gone unless you scam people with AI slop or fake accounting. The back and forth over what’s “true”. As if truth itself has no solid underlying footing in reasoning and science. No. It all doesn’t make sense because ReasonGPT is down…