“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.”- Frédéric Bastiat
I’m voting tomorrow when early voting begins! At this point, I would crawl over broken glass to cast my vote. Let’s pray we never have to do that. Let the games begin. We can save our neighbors and our country with our vote. We are ALL Spartacus!
He and his cohort have - in two years - turned the US into a 1960s-style Third World country that converts its considerable resources into booty for the few without abating the misery of the many.
VOTE NOW - do NOT wait till election day. Vote now before the felon can dispatch his goons to polling places. And, to all election/polling places - plan ahead, assure security of cast ballots.
Democrats have bills (the Drain the Swamp Act, emoluments enforcement, a stock-trading ban), but almost none of it reaches voters. Corruption gets named; the fix doesn’t. Without simple solutions, people never believe the problem can be fixed. So here’s one: CAUGHT.
Criminalize accepting gifts from anyone who lobbies or does business with the government
Accountability, with real penalties
Universal: every candidate and elected official, President included
Gifts banned outright
Healthy democracy
Transparency, with public disclosure
I worked on Iowa’s gift law (chapter 68B) as a state senator, also on conflict-of-interest laws, running state and nonprofit groups, and bright-line rules help. So does raising corruption at campaign events. Steven’s readers likely show up at candidate events. Ask candidates about these specifics after asking if they think Trump and his family are stealing from this country.
Thanks, Mimi. Catchy acronyms can work, with MAGA being the most painful example. Three years ago, several of us on Substack held a contest to come up with a progressive alternative. It never caught on.
Setting acronyms aside, I attend events and watch debates involving our federal candidates. I’m disappointed by how little focused attention some issues receive—notably the extent of corruption and our global compromise with Putin. When I ask questions, the answers more closely resemble platitudes than thoughtful policies.
We can only hope Senator Ossoff is right regarding legal retribution against these scoundrels.
We are on the precipice, right now, on whether we hold on to this democracy. The time has arrived as I drop off my ballot today at my early voting site. Do not waste time, folks! Bring your ballots in person or vote early. Please do not wait until Election Day!!
It's a matter of scale. All politics is permeated with corruption - show me some example where that is not so. But Uncle Donnie wants everything bigger and that's what he's gotten.
Righteous indignation leads to the justification and installation of temporary remedies and long-term problems. "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Enhanced executive power descends to the following administrations, so be careful what you wish for.
The nakedness and shamelessness of the Felon and his family is outrageous. My wife and I already voted and deposited our ballots at a voting location where early ballots are accepted because we don’t trust the USPostalService after the attempt to rewrite the election law as outlined in the Constitution. We both believe also that a vote for any Republican is a vote for Orange Caligula; he and his cohorts have ruined the concept of bipartisanship and the fewer Republicans there are in either house of Congress the better off our country will be.
I continue to be surprised that anyone is surprised about anything Trump does. While he does fit the air with distortions and lies at a rate previously unknown among American politicians, he is the most transparent of men. His agenda of self enrichment, self-promotion, self-aggrandizement, revenge, disdain for the law, and evasion of responsibility has been an all-to-evident part of his career almost since its beginnings. Putting a man like that in the most powerful office in the world guarantees that he will use it for his own purposes regardless of the effects on anyone else.
As I watched Trump take the oath of office for the first time, I could feel his fingers crossed behind his back. He must have been carried away with both delight and disbelief at the success of his con job on half the American electorate, and gleefully anticipating using the office as both a milch cow and a platform upon which to portray himself as a colossus bestriding the earth.
At the same time it is a grim commentary on the state of the United States that so many of its citizens could have felt that he was the solution to any of the problems they may have felt they had.
When I was born, exactly nine months after DDay, the US stood as the Arsenal of Democracy which, together with our allies was completing the defeat of the greatest evil in human history. Now, as I contemplate the political, social, financial, and religious morass into which we have managed to sink ourselves, a man who would not have been at all out of place in the Nazi hierarchy occupies the Oval Office for the second time.
More than anything else, I find this deeply saddening.
Thanks, Steven: It looks like the Trump dynasty has done quite well. Seventy-seven million folks voted for the Swine and the Swinettes to hand over the key to the largest granary and walla; the grain is sifting away into offshore granaries. Mr. Trump and his ilk are not politicians; they are corrupt cons. Whose only desire in life is to weaken the strength and respect of the USA around the globe.
“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.”- Frédéric Bastiat
I’m voting tomorrow when early voting begins! At this point, I would crawl over broken glass to cast my vote. Let’s pray we never have to do that. Let the games begin. We can save our neighbors and our country with our vote. We are ALL Spartacus!
He and his cohort have - in two years - turned the US into a 1960s-style Third World country that converts its considerable resources into booty for the few without abating the misery of the many.
Yes, I believe you are astutely accurate that we are only seeing the tip of an enormous iceberg.
-I reviewed and appreciate the embedded links you provided in particular “The Centers for American Progress Report” and signed up for their updates.
-I’ve looked into the profits or investments related to the wars of the Trump family, drones, robotics, and more and it’s also startling.
As always, thank you for your diligence
VOTE NOW - do NOT wait till election day. Vote now before the felon can dispatch his goons to polling places. And, to all election/polling places - plan ahead, assure security of cast ballots.
Democrats have bills (the Drain the Swamp Act, emoluments enforcement, a stock-trading ban), but almost none of it reaches voters. Corruption gets named; the fix doesn’t. Without simple solutions, people never believe the problem can be fixed. So here’s one: CAUGHT.
Criminalize accepting gifts from anyone who lobbies or does business with the government
Accountability, with real penalties
Universal: every candidate and elected official, President included
Gifts banned outright
Healthy democracy
Transparency, with public disclosure
I worked on Iowa’s gift law (chapter 68B) as a state senator, also on conflict-of-interest laws, running state and nonprofit groups, and bright-line rules help. So does raising corruption at campaign events. Steven’s readers likely show up at candidate events. Ask candidates about these specifics after asking if they think Trump and his family are stealing from this country.
THIS IS EXCELLENT!
Thanks, Mimi. Catchy acronyms can work, with MAGA being the most painful example. Three years ago, several of us on Substack held a contest to come up with a progressive alternative. It never caught on.
Setting acronyms aside, I attend events and watch debates involving our federal candidates. I’m disappointed by how little focused attention some issues receive—notably the extent of corruption and our global compromise with Putin. When I ask questions, the answers more closely resemble platitudes than thoughtful policies.
We can only hope Senator Ossoff is right regarding legal retribution against these scoundrels.
We are on the precipice, right now, on whether we hold on to this democracy. The time has arrived as I drop off my ballot today at my early voting site. Do not waste time, folks! Bring your ballots in person or vote early. Please do not wait until Election Day!!
It's a matter of scale. All politics is permeated with corruption - show me some example where that is not so. But Uncle Donnie wants everything bigger and that's what he's gotten.
Righteous indignation leads to the justification and installation of temporary remedies and long-term problems. "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Enhanced executive power descends to the following administrations, so be careful what you wish for.
The nakedness and shamelessness of the Felon and his family is outrageous. My wife and I already voted and deposited our ballots at a voting location where early ballots are accepted because we don’t trust the USPostalService after the attempt to rewrite the election law as outlined in the Constitution. We both believe also that a vote for any Republican is a vote for Orange Caligula; he and his cohorts have ruined the concept of bipartisanship and the fewer Republicans there are in either house of Congress the better off our country will be.
I continue to be surprised that anyone is surprised about anything Trump does. While he does fit the air with distortions and lies at a rate previously unknown among American politicians, he is the most transparent of men. His agenda of self enrichment, self-promotion, self-aggrandizement, revenge, disdain for the law, and evasion of responsibility has been an all-to-evident part of his career almost since its beginnings. Putting a man like that in the most powerful office in the world guarantees that he will use it for his own purposes regardless of the effects on anyone else.
As I watched Trump take the oath of office for the first time, I could feel his fingers crossed behind his back. He must have been carried away with both delight and disbelief at the success of his con job on half the American electorate, and gleefully anticipating using the office as both a milch cow and a platform upon which to portray himself as a colossus bestriding the earth.
At the same time it is a grim commentary on the state of the United States that so many of its citizens could have felt that he was the solution to any of the problems they may have felt they had.
When I was born, exactly nine months after DDay, the US stood as the Arsenal of Democracy which, together with our allies was completing the defeat of the greatest evil in human history. Now, as I contemplate the political, social, financial, and religious morass into which we have managed to sink ourselves, a man who would not have been at all out of place in the Nazi hierarchy occupies the Oval Office for the second time.
More than anything else, I find this deeply saddening.
Thanks, Steven: It looks like the Trump dynasty has done quite well. Seventy-seven million folks voted for the Swine and the Swinettes to hand over the key to the largest granary and walla; the grain is sifting away into offshore granaries. Mr. Trump and his ilk are not politicians; they are corrupt cons. Whose only desire in life is to weaken the strength and respect of the USA around the globe.