Posts Tagged ‘ Corruption ’

They’re all dirty

Sep 23rd, 2019 11:13 am | By

On the other hand – it would be better if Joe Biden’s kid had never gone near any Ukrainian natural gas company (or any other kind of company).

It would, in fact, be better if this whole business of leveraging a political career into big cash flows from private companies and corporations had never been embraced. It would be nice if US politicians had always seen that as a profoundly wrong and bad and indefensible move, and stayed away. Instead we have the opposite – everybody does it, it’s normal, shrug shrug. That’s all Trump and Giuliani need. The fact that Trump is doing the same thing but more so is neither here nor there.

The BBC traces the pathRead the rest



In case there was any doubt

May 8th, 2019 10:26 am | By

Acolyte of Sagan has already quoted it but I want to go to the source.

“I’m a tax cheat, plus also the Times story reporting that I’m a tax cheat is fake news.”

This is the president of the United States.

Siva Vaidhyanathan comments:

The fact that Donald Trump stayed in business for more than 40 years despite spectacular graft and incompetence shows how

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What are you hiding, Justice Department?

Nov 18th, 2018 10:16 am | By

Here’s an issue to keep an eye on – Whitaker’s financial disclosure should have been made public long ago, and it hasn’t been.

Megan Keller at The Hill has more:

Watchdog group American Oversight is calling for Acting Attorney General Whitaker’s financial disclosures to be made

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Patently

Apr 3rd, 2018 10:33 am | By

It’s entirely completely and utterly coincidental that Scott Pruitt got a sweet deal on a condo from a lobbyist and it just so happened that at the very same time the lobbyists client got a sweet deal from the EPA. There is NO CONNECTION WHATEVER and it’s very rude to say otherwise. People have such awful corrupt minds, you know? Seeing a connection where there is none.

The Environmental Protection Agency signed off last March on a Canadian energy company’s pipeline-expansion plan at the same time that the E.P.A. chief, Scott Pruitt, was renting a condominium linked to the energy company’s powerful Washington lobbying firm.

Both the E.P.A. and the lobbying firm dispute that there was any connection between

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Republicans say: never mind

Jan 3rd, 2017 9:40 am | By

For now, that is.

The news broke 15 minutes ago that

House Republican leaders have pulled a proposal that would gut its independent ethics panel, amid widespread criticism of the plan, multiple lawmakers tell CNN.

Even Trump objected – except what he objected to was the timing, the prioritization, not the substance.

Trump called out his fellow Republicans Tuesday for proposing to curb the powers of the independent ethics panel as their first move of the year, although the President-elect suggested the ethics panel was “unfair.”

“With all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethics Watchdog, as unfair as it … may be, their number one act and priority.

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Self-cleaning swamp

Jan 3rd, 2017 9:10 am | By

It’s a useful symbol, if nothing else – the surprise vote by House Republicans to kill the independent ethics office that oversees…Congress. No stinkin’ ethics for them! It’s helpful of them to make it so very clear.

The surprising vote came on the eve of the start of a new session of Congress, where emboldened Republicans are ready to push an ambitious agenda on everything from health care to infrastructure, issues that will be the subject of intense lobbying from corporate interests. The House Republicans’ move would take away both power and independence from an investigative body, and give lawmakers more control over internal inquiries.

It also came on the eve of a historic shift in power in Washington,

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Guest post: Not just the COI, but the appearance of COI

Apr 8th, 2016 3:37 pm | By

Originally a comment by Samantha Vimes on 153 million.

I’m studying accounting ethics this semester.

Every time the possibility of conflict of interest comes up in the accounting code, it states that a person must avoid not only a conflict, but the appearance of conflict. For example, an accountant shouldn’t take a job auditing a company if they have a relative who works for the company, if they’ve gotten gifts from the company, if they have a significant investment in the company, or if they provide other services for the company– anything that might make them biased. Even if the accountant is as honest as can be: part of the responsibility of an accountant is to maintain the reputation … Read the rest



Does money make any difference?

Apr 8th, 2016 11:36 am | By

Naomi Klein also wrote about Clinton and corporate bribes, in the Nation the other day. I don’t read Naomi Klein much, because I think she tends to be simplistic, but she said some good things there.

The very suggestion that taking this money could impact Clinton’s actions is “baseless and should stop,” according to California Senator Barbara Boxer. It’s “flat-out false,” “inappropriate,” and doesn’t “hold water,” declared New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. New York Times columnist Paul Krugman went so far as to issue “guidelines for good and bad behavior” for the Sanders camp. The first guideline? Cut out the “innuendo suggesting, without evidence, that Clinton is corrupt.”

That’s one of the many harmful side-effects of the way … Read the rest



153 million

Apr 8th, 2016 9:43 am | By

I heard someone say on NPR the other day that the two Clintons have collected $150 million in speaking fees since he left office. My jaw dropped. I knew they’d both been pocketing huge fees, of course, but I didn’t know it added up to 150 MILLION.

CNN did the accounting a couple of months ago.

Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, combined to earn more than $153 million in paid speeches from 2001 until Hillary Clinton launched her presidential campaign last spring, a CNN analysis shows.

In total, the two gave 729 speeches from February 2001 until May, receiving an average payday of $210,795 for each address. The two also reported at least $7.7 million for

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