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US Senator Menendez charged with bribery, says he will not resign
(www.reuters.com)
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this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2023
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A D acting like an R.
In general I agree, but this kind of corruption has become pretty normalized in Congress, I think.
Look at how many Senators and other congresspeople have become millionaires (or much, much wealthier) while in office. It's not all insider trading - there's so many special favors being done, "consulting fees" being paid to family members. Campaign "contributions" that find their way into pockets via thinly veiled (or deeply hidden) laundering, special payments/contracts for existing business interests, etc. I don't usually go for "both sides" arguments but the kind of corruption is widespread. Even if the GOP seems to be doing it more.
I'm just really happy to see someone actually investigated and charged for a change. No matter which party. This kind of corruption needs aggressively stamped out everywhere, it should be in the top 3 priorities for our government.
But I'll be amazed if it isn't shut down like the last charges against this piece of garbage.
Book deals are, imo, one of the main vehicles of money transfer. Get a ghost writer, publish a book, your friendly superPAC orders 100000, clean cash in your pocket.
Bribery is perfectly legal as long as it goes though the right systems and they call it lobbying. Some one missed some paperwork.
New Jersey. Whadya gonna do.
Fucking dump him as fast as we're allowed to. We don't circle the wagons the way the GOP does.
Right. If he's guilty, he's gotta go.
The only way to make this more New Jersey is to add a jughandle
Senators and Congress acting like Senators and Congress
Yes, he's a centrist. It's what they do.
If you think this has to do with party you're delusional.
They're all doing it. Yes, even your favorite one. Every time they do this budget shutdown thing, what do you think they're doing? Trying to get smaller government? Trying to reduce greenhouse gasses? No. They're holding each other's money makers over each other's heads to get more of what they want.
Every time the president signs a 100k page omnibus bill into law, what do you think all those pages have in them? The omnibus bill is a free for all, where everyone crams some special interest of theirs in, complete with kickbacks, and holds the possibility of a government shutdown over everyone's heads. Every single congressperson works for at least one special interest group. Some of those special interest groups are foreign nations. All of them, every single one, is selling the US down the river to line their own pockets. They'd sell you into slavery for a buck. They take their peanuts, live a decadent life, make their kids rich and hollow out this country for a living. Every single fucking one of them.
It doesn't have anything to do with party. That's the point I was making.
Criminals are criminals and will join any political leaning that serves their personal goals best. Usually, the choice is 'conservative' simply because authoritarian parties tend to protect their own more readily than liberal leaning parties do.
Money is really the engine of the political system and so many safeguards have been removed, then Citizens United just put a nail in it. It's always been like this but the money involved is so much more significant then when the country was founded. It also corrupts the whole system including "good" actors. Look at someone like Fetterman and how he quieted up about Israel once he was in, he knows it will harm his political goals to make it an issue, so he is forced to comply to the Israel lobby. When things are so partisan even campaign dollar counts.
Well, this leads me to conclude that the only reason to get into politics is the money.
How are the two equivalent?
The two what?