#graft and corruption

[socialjusticeinamerica]

The phones are made in China and sell on Amazon for $170 bucks.

[jangillman]

[jangillman]

It is unbelievable to think that ANY patriotic American would ever consider voting Democrat when the truth and depth of their corruption is being revealed to the World! Leftist brainrot personified

[sawbuckplus]

[jangillman]

[tomorrowusa]

As usual, lickspittle Capitol Hill Republicans are making excuses for Trump. They are defending his greed and blatant violation of the US Constitution.

Qatar is an especially dubious place for a US president to accept gifts.

Qatar was a major financial backer of Hamas. In 2017 Trump himself publicly called on Qatar to stop funding terrorism.

Trump: Qatar must stop funding terrorism

But Trump may have developed a bond with the oil sheikh who rules Qatar: Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

Al Thani has 3 wives and 13 children. That may have reminded Trump of his DOGE buddy Elon Musk.

[gwydionmisha]

How? How is it illegal not to buy something you don't want? Show me the law require the purchase of a vehicle from a specific company? How will they enforce it? Most people can't afford a car.

How will they impose this imaginary requirement to buy Teslas on Germany? France? How?

Rep. Larson BLASTS The GOP For Blocking Elon Musk From Testifying

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Luckovich

* * * *

A self-limiting virus

December 7, 2024

Robert B. Hubbell

We are stuck in a news cycle in which Trump is making mind-numbing nominations, and his henchmen are making ludicrous proposals to eliminate $2 trillion from the budget. This state of affairs will stretch into early January. It is not a good place to be because we are in a partial state of suspended animation, experiencing unrelenting bad news with little room for resistance and action. That will change after the 119th Congress begins on January 6, 2025, and confirmation hearings begin.

As painful as the nomination process has been and will continue to be, it provides a clear view of how Democrats will reclaim Congress and the presidency over the next four years. In short, Trump's nominations and budget proclamations are so outrageously bad that they will act as self-limiting viruses on the future electoral prospects of the GOP.

To be clear, I am not saying that we can sit back and wait for the GOP to implode. I am saying that we should be ready for the implosion and should do everything in our power to accelerate it.

Trump ran on a populist agenda that was filled with lies from start to finish. But many supported Trump because they were fooled by claims he would magically reduce inflation, protect Social Security and Medicare, cut taxes for the middle class, and deport 10 million immigrants in his first year in office—all while reducing federal expenditures by 30%.

Trump supporters who are paying attention to his post-election actions should be experiencing the sinking feeling that they were the “mark” in Trump's con game. They are suddenly hearing proposals to cut Social Security and Medicare, cut veterans’ healthcare, eliminate tax credits for childcare and dependents, allow pharma companies to raise the prices of prescription drugs, and extend tax cuts for the rich while imposing tariffs on tens of thousands of everyday consumer items.

Even if Trump's supporters haven’t started to get that sinking feeling yet, they will—and soon. The painful epiphany that they have been duped is inevitable. Trump's delusional belief that he has a “mandate” is encouraging him to swing for the fences in the ballpark of depravity.

As I wrote yesterday, we must distinguish between what Trump says he will do and what he can actually accomplish. While the damage inflicted will be bad, it won’t be as bad as his outlandish promises. Our job is to make Trump and the GOP choke on every ridiculous, mean-spirited, half-baked, greedy, out-of-touch, oligarchical proposal designed to enrich Trump and his already-rich pals—regardless of whether he is able to deliver on them.

One post-mortem criticism about the 2024 campaign with which I agree is that Democrats were “too nice.” While we should always honor the truth, the truth about Trump is much uglier than portrayed in Democratic campaign ads. We can’t repeat that mistake.

The good and bad news is that Trump will make it nearly impossible for us to repeat that mistake in 2026 and 2028. Yesterday, I discussed his obscene proposals to decimate the social safety net and agencies critical to the protection of the health, safety, financial security, and national security of all Americans. Today, the media is highlighting the fact that Trump is intent on creating an oligarchy financed, populated, and run by billionaire donors.

Reporting by the NYTimes this week disclosed that Elon Musk donated a quarter billion dollars to help Trump win. See MSNBC, Here’s how much money Elon Musk spent to help Trump win the election. That staggering amount does not include the combined heft of Musk’s Trump-friendly algorithms and bots that boosted pro-Trump posts and suppressed posts for and by Democrats.

Having his campaign financed by a handful of billionaires has resulted in a cabinet that can only be described as a haven for billionaires (actual and aspiring). See Axios, Trump's billionaires set to take government by storm.

Other nominees of substantial wealth are omitted from the above list because they have effectively concealed their net worth.

One downside of having a government of oligarchs is that they have no conception of the daily struggle faced by most Americans. For example, eliminating Head Start may seem trivial—even virtuous—to a billionaire who will never know food insecurity. However, for hundreds of thousands of children, Head Start provides 50% of their daily intake of calories. Kids can’t learn while they are hungry and undernourished. Musk and Ramaswamy have proposed entirely eliminating Head Start, apparently oblivious to the fact that they are denying a vital source of daily sustenance to hundreds of thousands of children.

The twin aims of the second Trump term seem to be revenge and greed. His nominees have been selected to advance those aims on the backs of the working-class that Trump duped into voting for him. They will eventually figure out that Trump has lied to them—especially if we remind them of that fact in words of one syllable every chance we get.

Concluding Thoughts

We are enduring the painful part of the cycle as Trump announces nominations designed to destroy the federal government while enriching his wealthy friends. We must remember that Trump is sowing the seeds of the GOP’s defeat with every outrageous nomination and ludicrous pronouncement. If we can hold that thought, we can make it through the next few months. Don’t cringe and cower; remember and prepare. The 2026 midterms have already started—and Trump is undermining his party every day. Let’s do everything in our power to leverage Trump’s depravity to our advantage.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[sawbuckplus]

[jangillman]

Don't forget the Biden and Pelosi Crime Syndicates!!

[1968bullittmustang]

... Work to address disparities in health, once considered so critical to medical advancement that it was mandated by Congress, is now being cut if the administration determines it has any connection to “diversity,” “equity” or “gender ideology.” Caught in this culling were projects to curb stillbirths, child suicides and infant brain damage. ...

[jangillman]

[star-pound-star]

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[withswords]

disco elysium fans will be like yeah i'm a serious communist because i know the slumlord is better than the cop

[thoughtlessarse]

Bangladesh money laundering investigators have ordered the country's big banks to hand over details of transactions relating to British anti-corruption minister Tulip Siddiq in an ongoing graft probe, officers told AFP. Siddiq is the niece of former Bangladeshi premier Sheikh Hasina, who fled abroad last August after a student-led uprising against her iron-fisted tenure. Last month the national anti-corruption commission launched a probe into the alleged embezzlement by Hasina's family of $5 billion connected to a Russian-funded nuclear power plant. Two officials from the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU), speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Bangladeshi banks had been instructed to furnish any financial records relating to Siddiq. A BFIU document issued Tuesday and seen by AFP showed that banks had also been told to provide transaction records for Hasina, her son and daughter, Siddiq's two siblings and her mother Sheikh Rehana. The kickback allegations relate to the $12.65 billion Rooppur nuclear plant, which was bankrolled by Moscow with a 90 percent loan. "The claims of kickbacks, mismanagement, money laundering, and potential abuse of power raise significant concerns about the integrity of the project and the use of public funds", the anti-corruption commission said last month when announcing the probe.

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[sawbuckplus]