Author Topic: Corruption in Government (Read 8768 times)

AGelbert · « **Reply #630 on:** March 20, 2018, 10:23:24 pm »

Harvard Professors Levitsky & Ziblatt - How Democracies Die

Washington Watch
Published on Feb 25, 2018

Harvard professors Steve Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt examined the causes that lead to breakdowns in democracies around the world.

January 31st, 2018

Daniel Ziblatt is Professor of Government at Harvard University, a faculty associate in residence at Harvard University's Minda De Gunzburg Center for European Studies, and a nonresident associate of Harvard's Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.

Steven Levitsky is a political scientist and Professor of Government at Harvard University. A comparative political scientist, his research interests focus on Latin America and include political parties and party systems, and democratization, and weak and informal institutions.

AGelbert · « **Reply #631 on:** March 22, 2018, 06:28:53 pm »

Agelbert NOTE: Eddie, check this out. Frum says Trump 🦀 is the "Gum disease" of American Democracy!

DAVID FRUM: THE CORRUPTION 💵 🎩 🍌 OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

https://youtu.be/yP6rCBkVpr4

Commonwealth Club

Streamed live on Feb 5, 2018

While much of the country has been focused on the Trump–Russia investigation, conservative author David Frum has been monitoring the strain the new president is placing on the traditional limits of the Oval Office. During his own White House tenure as George W. Bush’s speechwriter, Frum witnessed the ways the presidency is limited not by law but by tradition, propriety and public outcry.

Frum argues the traditional limits of the Oval Office have been weakened. In his new book, Trumpocracy, Frum outlines how he thinks President Trump could push America toward illiberalism, what the consequences could be for our nation and our everyday lives, and what we can do to prevent it. Join one of America’s leading conservative pundits for a conversation about our changing democracy and where the country is heading.

AGelbert · « **Reply #632 on:** March 30, 2018, 02:53:23 pm »

March 29, 2018

Cambridge Analytica Is Not Alone: i360 and Data Trust Disastrous for Democracy

https://youtu.be/ao0uFIuF_HQ

Cambridge Analytica, owned by Robert Mercer, is in the news, but other companies -- like the Koch Brothers' i360 and Karl Rove's Data Trust -- are far more dangerous, says investigative reporter Greg Palast

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=21461%27%20style=%27color:#000;

AGelbert · « **Reply #633 on:** April 02, 2018, 09:45:30 pm »

The American Prospect magazine

Puerto Rican Refugees and the Elusive Blue Wave

MANUEL MADRID MARCH 20, 2018

Emigres from the island could be recruited to the Democratic camp, but will progressive organizing defeat right-wing money that ties relief to recruiting?

SNIPPET:

Recent registration numbers in heavily Puerto Rican areas have also been ambiguous. Between September and January, more than 60 percent of new Hispanic voters in central Florida had registered as independents, with less than 30 percent registering as Democrats but only 8 percent as Republicans. Total registrations did see a slight bump in the last few months of 2017 compared with earlier months, but far short of the deluge that was once predicted.

Puerto Rican voter turnout rates, which historically have been far higher than those of electoral contests in the 50 states, tend to plummet upon reaching the mainland. This phenomenon is often attributed to the stark differences between island and mainland politics. Puerto Ricans typically only vote once every four years; there is no Republican and Democrat dichotomy, rather a split among pro-independence, pro-statehood, and pro-commonwealth parties. A new political environment can be difficult to process, particularly for evacuees struggling to find schools for their children, to keep a roof over their heads, and put food on the table.

IN THIS RELATIVE political vacuum, corporate money is contending with on-the-ground progressive organizing. The LIBRE Initiative is the Hispanic outreach component of the Koch brothers’ vast political network. Technically a nonpartisan group, LIBRE 😈 —whose name means “free” in Spanish—stops short of registering people to vote, but proudly disseminates messages of “economic freedom,” school choice, and deregulation among Hispanics in battleground states like Florida, North Carolina, and Ohio. Last year at a donor summit, the Koch network revealed plans to spend as much as $400 million during the 2018 election cycle, spreading the funds among a web of grassroots groups, including LIBRE. LIBRE groups funded by the Koch network operated with a combined budget of $13.5 million in 2016, according to The Boston Globe.

Over the years, LIBRE 😈 and its sister organization, the LIBRE Institute , have built goodwill 😇😉 in the Hispanic community in Florida, particularly among the poor, offering help with tax preparation, English and résumé-writing classes, food donations, back-to-school events, scholarships, and health checkups. The group has set down roots quickly within these communities, building ties with local hospitals, churches, Spanish-language radio stations, and even the state Chamber of Commerce. Florida state officials welcoming Puerto Rican evacuees arriving at airports have been forwarding them to LIBRE’s offices for further assistance, according to the group’s deputy state director, David Velazquez.

In January, LIBRE’s Puerto Rican Outreach Project launched a series of “Welcome to Florida” classes at its offices in the Orlando area aimed at helping Puerto Rican new arrivals with job training, finding housing, and navigating school enrollment. Instructors used worksheets for attendees to calculate their savings from the recently enacted tax cut, and other lessons in free-market economics. Even before the hurricane, the group had been actively pursuing the Puerto Rican vote, sending a team to the island in 2016 to connect with islanders considering relocating to Florida.

Puerto Rican voters have diverse views, particularly on religious issues, but they have been overwhelmingly opposed to President Trump. In 2016, LIBRE itself decided to focus its get-out-the-vote efforts, consisting of staff- and volunteer-run phone banks and door-to-door outreach efforts using state voter files, on Senate races as a way to distance itself from the Republican presidential nominee.

Attempts by progressives to match LIBRE’s clout have been hobbled by a lack of comparable funding, according to groups on the ground. Betsy Franceschini, senior state director of the Hispanic Federation, says that LIBRE’s model of providing relief services as a way to connect with Hispanic communities was co-opted from groups like Hispanic Federation that offer English lessons, case-management services, and legal aid for Hispanics. “They’ve adopted a model 😇

that we’ve been using for decades and turned it around to their 😈 benefit,” Franceschini says.

Full article:

http://prospect.org/article/puerto-rican-refugees-and-elusive-blue-wave

AGelbert · « **Reply #634 on:** April 03, 2018, 01:27:08 pm »

Quote

Casino Mussolini

1. enjoying the fruits of his business while running the country

2. a predatory billionaire unable to control his predations

3. emoluments, money laundering, obstruction and fraud

4. a perverse love of self

5. Americans must atone for his behavior

AGelbert · « **Reply #635 on:** April 04, 2018, 09:56:26 pm »

Make Nexus Hot News part of your morning: click here to subscribe.

April 4, 2018

Scott Pruitt 🦀 and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Yesterday, we covered Scott Pruitt’s recent, questionable housing decisions at length, but new scandals keep emerging faster than we can type them. Here’s a quick roundup or some of the latest Pruitt news--somehow, we’ve got even more to unpack today.

First, another detail has emerged about Pruitt’s very accomodating DC landlords: Steven and Vicki Hart donated to Pruitt’s campaign for attorney general in Oklahoma and hosted a fundraiser for his reelection, the Daily Beast reported Tuesday. This likely explains how Pruitt became a temporary tenant of the Harts, but not his steal of a deal rent.

The Atlantic also reported early Tuesday morning that Pruitt used an obscure provision of the Safe Drinking Water Act to give big pay bumps to two of his favorite aides after the White House told him not to . (Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think?)

Just a few hours later, the Washington Post reported that one of these aides, Millan Hupp, served as the point person for Pruitt’s housing search last year. Hupp, who received a 33 percent raise, apparently spent several months talking to real estate companies on Pruitt’s behalf and viewing properties. An EPA spokesperson dismissed the story, but “federal officials are barred from enlisting one of their subordinates to do personal tasks for them,” according to a former Office of Government Ethics employee quoted by the Post.

According to one anonymous administration official, Trump called Pruitt yesterday morning to show his support for the embattled EPA administrator. Trump reportedly told Pruitt “keep your head up" and "keep fighting," and “we have your back." However, given the White House’s history of having people’s backs publicly and then sending them packing, speculation has started about who would replace Pruitt.

More than 20 members of Congress have called on Pruitt to resign, and yesterday two Republicans joined the chorus. At this point it’s hard to imagine someone who could be worse in the job, but we’re keeping a watchful eye on Andrew Wheeler, currently in line to be confirmed as deputy administrator. Emily Atkin at the New Republic calls Wheeler “a more extreme choice to lead the agency than Pruitt.” Wheeler, a coal lobbyist and former Inhofe aide, has a history of denying climate science and has been accused of abusing his power to go after opponents. He was confirmed by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works in February, but has yet to have a full confirmation hearing.

Any talk of Pruitt’s firing or replacement is total speculation. But it makes us wonder: better the Pruitt that you know than the Wheeler you don’t?

AGelbert · « **Reply #636 on:** April 07, 2018, 02:10:13 pm »

Quote from: Surly1 on April 07, 2018, 11:36:21 am

I'm sure we're safe.We can't even influence one another.

Homeland Security to Compile Database of Journalists, Bloggers

Hmmmm. I am sure that the Doomstead diner and my teeny tiny Renewable Revolution forum will earn some "honorable mentions" in this new fascist fun venture. Doesn't it make ya feel warm and fuzzy inside to be a source of jobs for all those loyal Trumpers out there?

No? I didn't think so. Me neither, but I am trying to add a bit of levity to our dystopian situation.

As a person trained by the USAF as an Intelligence Operations specialist/Photo Interpreter {dual AFSC (air force specialty code)

}, I imagine that certain words and phrases will be looked at it with interest.

Here is a very small list of some of them:

Revolution
Fascist
Trump, Trumper, Trumpista, Trumplethinskin, etc.
Socialist
Livable wages
Capitalist cruelty
Orwellian mindfork
Government Corruption
Oil and Gas corruption, pollution, murder and skullduggery of various sorts
pejorative comments about fossil fuels
Kochroach
Injustice
Racist Bigots
Cooperative(s)
Elite bastards
Oligarch, Oligarchy, Oligarchs, etc.
One percent (i.e when depicted as crooks, parasites, liars, cheats, welfare queens, etc.)
Greed is Bad

Considering what I have posted about here for five years and on disqus for over ten, I am certain that I have gotten somebody's attention.

Quote

Proverbs 29:27 An unjust man is an abomination to the righteous,
And he who is upright in the way is an abomination to the wicked.

AGelbert · « **Reply #637 on:** April 07, 2018, 02:36:09 pm »

Quote

Quote from: Surly1 on Today at 11:36:21 am
I'm sure we're safe.We can't even influence one another.

Homeland Security to Compile Database of Journalists, Bloggers

Quote from: AGelbert on April 07, 2018, 02:10:13 pm

Hmmmm. I am sure that the Doomstead diner and my teeny tiny Renewable Revolution forum will earn some "honorable mentions" in this new fascist fun venture. Doesn't it make ya feel warm and fuzzy inside to be a source of jobs for all those loyal Trumpers out there?

No? I didn't think so. Me neither, but I am trying to add a bit of levity to our dystopian situation.

As a person trained by the USAF as an Intelligence Operations specialist/Photo Interpreter {dual AFSC (air force specialty code) }, I imagine that certain words and phrases will be looked at it with interest.

Here is a very small list of some of them:

Revolution
Fascist
Trump, Trumper, Trumpista, Trumplethinskin, etc.
Socialist
Livable wages
Capitalist cruelty
Orwellian mindfork
Government Corruption
Oil and Gas corruption, pollution, murder and skullduggery of various sorts
pejorative comments about fossil fuels
Kochroach
Injustice
Racist Bigots
Cooperative(s)
Elite bastards
Oligarch, Oligarchy, Oligarchs, etc.
One percent (i.e when depicted as crooks, parasites, liars, cheats, welfare queens, etc.)
Greed is Bad

Considering what I have posted about here for five years and on disqus for over ten, I am certain that I have gotten somebody's attention.

Quote from: Eddie on April 07, 2018, 02:22:26 pm

You're toast, AG. Public enemy number one. I'm very proud of you, fwiw.

Glad to be among your readers. When all the truth tellers are silenced, I no longer see the point in hanging around. It'll be time to vote with my feet.

🌞 Thanks bro. I wish I had the patience of Job. It gets old walkng into a box canyon with a blow torch facing you at the end. I don't mind leaving this valley of tears; I just hope that God gives me the strength to handle what I know is coming as long as I am here.

AGelbert · « **Reply #638 on:** April 07, 2018, 05:28:06 pm »

Quote

April 7, 2018

Paul Ryan supported Donald Trump’s EPA chair Scott Pruitt while he gutted environmental protections and blocked essential work to combat climate change.

And now that Scott Pruitt is facing numerous charges of corruption -- including using taxpayer money for lavious travel, and $43,000 to soundproof his office -- Paul Ryan is remaining silent, terrified of upsetting his oil and gas company campaign contributors.

We need elected officials willing to stand up to Trump’s corrupt EPA and the fossil fuel industry. That means we need to get rid of Paul Ryan.

As a Congressman, DFA-endorsed progressive Randy Bryce would lobby to end corporate welfare for this billion dollar industry and work to create thousands of Green Jobs. Will you stand with Randy and DFA and call for an end to fossil fuel subsidies?

Each year, Congress hands billions of dollars in subsidies to oil and gas CEOs. These taxpayer handouts to one of the richest industries on earth are part of a “dirty energy money cycle” that must end. In return for their subsidies, the fossil fuel industry spends hundreds of millions per year in campaign contributions and lobbying expenses -- which Paul Ryan gladly accepts.

Over his career, Paul Ryan has received nearly $2 million in contributions from the fossil fuel industry. In exchange, he looks the other way as oil and gas companies contribute to the dangerous polluting of our country.

Randy Bryce has pledged not to accept any contributions from fossil fuel companies -- which is one of the many reasons he has earned DFA’s endorsement. Please stand with DFA and Randy Bryce by signing our petition to end fossil fuel subsidies today.

Thank you,

- Karli

Karli Wallace Thompson, Senior Digital Manager and Wisconsin resident
Democracy for America

Sign Randy Bryce's petition: End fossil fuel subsidies

By taking this action you agree to receive important updates from Democracy for America and the Randy Bryce for Congress campaign. (You can unsubscribe at any time.)

SIGN THE PETITION

Over his career, Paul Ryan 😈 has received nearly $2 million in contributions from the fossil fuel industry. Randy Bryce has pledged not to accept any contributions from fossil fuel companies and, as a Congressman, he would lobby to end corporate welfare 🦖 for this billion dollar industry.

It makes little sense to prop up oil companies and create a competitive disadvantage for clean energy companies. In Wisconsin alone, we’ve seen WE Energies do everything in its power to disincentivize community efforts to transition to clean and renewable energy sources. This utility company, like many fossil fuel companies, has not been a good actor in Wisconsin and we must not let them continue to stand in the way of progress.

Sign the petition and stand with Randy Bryce's pledge to not accept fossil fuel money and end fossil fuel subsidies.

AGelbert · « **Reply #639 on:** April 07, 2018, 07:29:23 pm »

Quote from: Surly1 on April 07, 2018, 07:23:03 pm

Quote from: agelbert on April 07, 2018, 02:06:14 pm

Considering what I have posted about here for five years and on disqus for over ten, I am certain that I have gotten somebody's attention.

Quote
Proverbs 29:27 An unjust man is an abomination to the righteous,
And he who is upright in the way is an abomination to the wicked.

Mark of pride and badge of honor when conferred.

AGelbert · « **Reply #640 on:** April 07, 2018, 07:31:04 pm »

Quote

Quote from: Surly1 on Today at 11:36:21 am
I'm sure we're safe.We can't even influence one another.

Homeland Security to Compile Database of Journalists, Bloggers

Quote from: K-Dog on April 07, 2018, 07:10:36 pm

I've been barking about this for years.

Purveyors of 'Doom' have a special place on the radar of Homeland Security. There is a belief that notions of doom attract unstable people who could become threats. We are all monitored, however discretely. The irony is, even here in the Diner complaints have been made that the Nature Bats Last crowd attracts depressed people with dangerous depressed thoughts and negative energies. That is from the perspective of another flavor of doomer. Think of how total outsiders of doom, or as I know they do, think of us!

290,000 global news sources. Ten percent of that could be 29,000 names. That leave room for us.

That's rather depressing.

But, being labelled as "unstable" has its rewards.

AGelbert · « **Reply #641 on:** April 07, 2018, 08:08:31 pm »

Quote from: K-Dog on April 07, 2018, 07:38:00 pm

In the greater scheme of things having us on their lists is not going to be good for anything.

Cataloging crazies can't stop this.

If the graph follows the third order polynomial over the next year it will be very bad news.

Count on it.

Waking the Climate Giant 🔥 screenshots

NOTE: After three years of flat emissions noted in the graphic above, they INCREASED in 2017.

https://youtu.be/DNWGlzHC2ss

Expect Palloy to take some Ad Hom, and totally unjustified, pot shots at Sam Carana.

AGelbert · « **Reply #642 on:** April 11, 2018, 05:21:52 pm »

Quote from: Surly1 on April 11, 2018, 01:12:40 pm

Paul Ryan Will Retire as the Biggest Fake in American Politics

If he hadn't done so much damage, we could laugh him off the national stage—like Joe Biden did.

By Charles P. Pierce

Aprill 11, 2018

Quote from: Eddie on April 11, 2018, 01:43:42 pm

This would include, of course, “reforming,” probably out of existence, the Social Security survivor’s benefits that got him through high school and college before he could line up at the federal trough for the rest of his adult life.

This has always been particularly disturbing to me. I'm really glad Charlie remembered to mention this. It reminds me of another conservative stuffed shirt millionaire named Rick Perry, who also never held a job outside politics until after he left the Texas governorship. He immediately did GET a job though, afterward, lobbying for MCNA, the same Medicaid Big Insurance Corp for whom he'd just abandoned single payer, to "reform" Medicaid dental services in Texas.

Let's play a game:

"Which conduit scheme will hire Paul Ryan to be their lobbyist".

Get your entries in soon. I expect the competition will be over before the 2018 calendar is out-of-date.

Even in his press conference on Wednesday, Ryan expressed disappointment that, in his two decades in Congress, he didn’t get to fully gut Medicaid and Social Security

As a lobbyist, he'll have much more time to write the language of bills going before Congress, once all that pesky, constant Republican fund-raising doesn't consume so much of his valuable time.

Well said.

I think Ryan took the road out because he knew that the Progressive challenging (Iron worker Bryce) would destroy him, thereby eliminating any chance Ryan would ever have to get into the White house.

That said, the lobbyist gig is certainly what he will be jump into with all his corrupt and corrupting government connections.

Ryan is an example of people. like the Ayn Rand witch, who hypocritically use social services even though they try to destroy them.

There are too many people in the USA with exactly that type of destructive attitude. My millionaire greed ball sister Jeanette, the one who was married to John Adair, the dentist that drowned in Puerto Rico (I almost drowned trying to fish him out of the rip tide and monstrous surf) fits that bill exactly.

John had a thriving dental practice in Ft. Lauderdale. Jeanette got $250,000 in life insurance and went to work as a registered nurse (she had been studying that as a mother of three boys). She gladly took ALL the care for child survivers money Social Security gave her for her children while she used the big bucks from the life insurance to invest in the stock market in 1982.

By 1989 she was rich. Her son Brian became a stock broker in 1990. By the year 2000 he too was a millionaire (He has a nice condo in San Francisco near his yacht). They are ALL right wing crazies now. They ALL want to destroy Social Security and Medicare. They have ALL conveniently forgotten that they would be NOWHERE if these programs hadn't been there when they were middle class.

This is why I carry on so much about Capitalist cruelty, Eddie. The hypocrisy is so thick you can cut it with a knife! And yeah, my sister was front and center in all the successful efforts to legally steal my inheritance. These bastards that get rich NEVER HAVE ENOUGH!

Ryan is an enemy of every decent human being on this planet. Some, if not all, of my siblings and their offspring are in exactly the same category. 😟

AGelbert · « **Reply #643 on:** April 11, 2018, 06:01:38 pm »

Teachers in Puerto Rico Demand an End to School Closures and Privatization

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

By Sarah Jaffe, Truthout | Interview

SNIPPET:

What has it been like here, connecting with some of the other teachers and their other struggles around the US?

Martinez: Well, when we come here, we know that is the same struggle that we are given in Puerto Rico -- not only in the States, but throughout the globe with teachers. Teachers in the entire continent are fighting against this capitalist 😈 agenda, this neoliberal 🦀 agenda that wants to destroy not only public education, but all the public services in our country.

The attack is not only on education. They want to privatize schools, to implement those charters, they want to give the voucher programs, they want to shut down the schools, they want to fire public employees. We are talking about 100,000 employees that will be fired from different agencies.

They want to destroy the University of Puerto Rico, which is a state university, by eliminating campuses. They want to increase the admission fee, they want to increase the cost per credit, per course. They want to cut the pensions from 10 percent to 25 percent [for] people that do not have enough to live. It is not only an attack on public education....

We have heard [of] the same attack against all public sectors; this is a generalized attack. I don't even think it is the "shock doctrine" anymore. It is the terror doctrine that they have implemented here in Puerto Rico.... Being here and talking to teachers and listening to the stories -- West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona. We have a great alliance with MORE from New York, and just listening to them, it just renews our energy and it lets us know that this is one struggle of the working class, and that we will have small victories until we triumph entirely. We are not hopeless. We have much hope to go back to our country and give the fight that we have to give.

Article with audio interview and transcript:

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/44127-teachers-in-puerto-rico-demand-an-end-to-school-closures-and-privatization

AGelbert · « **Reply #644 on:** April 11, 2018, 09:25:11 pm »

Agelbert NOTE: Some very brave people are making life real hard for the Kinder Morgan polluting liars and crooks 🦕 that have Trudeau 🐒 in their pocket. As usual when democracy gets in the way the polluters, the front ment like Trudeau try to sabotage it on behalf of more profit over people and planet 😠. Let us hope Kinder Morgan and Trudeau continue to have their polluting asses handed to them by the brave Canadian defenders of the environment.

April 11, 2018

Trudeau 🦖 Panics After Trans Mountain Tar Sands Pipeline Suspended

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau convenes an emergency cabinet meeting to save Trans Mountain while Alberta Premier Rachel Notley warns of a "constitutional crisis." Dimitri Lascaris reports

https://youtu.be/GgR5dFmPuJA

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=21556

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Author Topic: Corruption in Government (Read 8768 times)

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