This shouldn't be difficult. What is happening is wrong - whether you want to call it corruption or put a different badge on it I don't care. And it should not matter whether both sides do it. It shouldn't matter if both sides do it a lot or a little in plain sight or behind closed doors. See something like this - and regardless of other issues that might be tangential to the issue, just call it out as wrong. Period.
I might think the 2 party system is broken and essentially ensures the status quo one way or the other (I do). I might think many or even most politicians on both sides of the aisle no longer put country foremost as their priority but instead look to self promotion, self wealth or party loyalty/fealty (I do). But it doesn't or shouldn't stop anyone saying this is wrong - and wrong on a pretty monumental scale that sets a precedent.
To immediately deflect the conversation away from the specifics and to focus on the generalization of both parties (all of which is subjective and based on opinion) seems to me to essentially normalize a wrongful action by shifting the focus from the factual wrongdoing to the frequency of a behavior that 'probably' happens often. Even if acknowledging it is all wrong: If they're all doing it why bother talking about this one (significant) example?
If I've oversimplified it - the intent isn't to misrepresent anything. Just that I think the first part of any discussion on this is simple.
You can never tell from year to year how well a team is going to play.
Counterpoint:
The Browns are more like likely to finish with less than 6 wins than any other team in the NFL. Since 1999, the Cleveland Browns have finished with 6 wins or less 19 our of 27 seasons and we have had losing seasons 23 out of 27 years.
Our record since 199 has been: 146-290-1
Meanwhile: Patriots: 292-145-0 (they have less losses than we have wins) Green Bay: 270-160-3 Steelers: 268-161-3 Ravens: 262-169-1
The Braves have not yet played their starting lineup. Three starting pitchers who have just begun to throw will return by July. Right now two catchers who both DH and catch are out.
See what happens in July if they are really healthy.
Your team has scored the second most runs in ALL of MLB…
My opinion: the Braves are the equivalent of somebody coming on here and talking about the Denver Broncos and gosh dang how tough they have it.
Also: With Blake Snell going under the knife — er, arthroscopic needle — the Dodgers now have 12 pitchers on the injured list.
I do want to point out Bone. (It’s taken years) but I am warming up to the Braves. Mainly because ATL is my next assignment.
I’ve went to 4 games this year. First game they beat the hell out of Guards. The next three was fun as hell rooting for them. I did get to see Mike Yastrzemski hit a walk off. On a personal note is cool as hell. When I was a little kid, my grandpa, and family dad took me to my first Tribe game against the Red Sox. I got to see Carl’s last HR before his retirement.
The Truist Park is one of my favorites. Easy to get to a game, parking is super easy and so is the whole game scene. Great environment. That offense is just fire. I went last week because they were giving out Hawaiian Braves shirts. I’ll go to another the first or second week of June.
I’m hooked. The last four years in Hawai’i, I forgot how much I missed going to the ballpark.However, I would trade it to be back at my home in Ala Moana/Waikiki. This is a good secondary reason to be happy.
The Braves have not yet played their starting lineup. Three starting pitchers who have just begun to throw will return by July. Right now two catchers who both DH and catch are out.
See what happens in July if they are really healthy.
I will be the first to say I don't watch much nba. At all. But the last 4 or 5 games of the Cav's, I have watched. What a, in my opinion, a farce. It's not basketball. Grump old man, I know.
Rebounding? I noticed that when the Cav's made an effort to do it, they won. Odd, isn't it?
Last night, up 22 with 7:30 to go, and hitting that dead zone..............it was. Well, my wife kept on yelling, and I simply said "Wife, it's Cleveland sports. We're going to lose. You should be used to it by now."
But, my over all point is: What has the nba become? Travels galore. Nasty ass pushing and no foul. Barely a touch and a foul. Sprinting up and down the court, no offense, just chuck a 3 pointer, etc.
I have no desire to watch again, but for this series.
The nba has done fine without me, and they'll be fine in the future, without me. It's not basketball, it's street ball.
Hopefully this is a darkest before the dawn situation and this results in the whole political gravy train system toppling, but probably not.
Democrats (and privately Republicans, too) just upset he's doing blatantly what they do discretely, putting their"democracy" at risk.
I did read the end of that first sentence I quoted, but I don't see anything in this story that even remotely points to this type of corruption trending anywhere but up. 'Hopefully' is doing ALL (not even most) of the work in your sentence.
... and as for the second sentence... I never understood that line. So loud-and-proud corruption is somehow better because they're not trying to hide it? That makes zero sense by itself, and even less when you see how it seems to be normalizing the corruption as the population loses sensitivity to it.
The probably not was the closest representation of my expectations. Sometimes false/slim hope is the only hope you have to work with. Honestly, I think we've been pretty screwed for awhile. Too much power already concentrated in certain spheres.
To me, It has nothing to do with better. The whole system is filled with corruption. Corruption has been normalized already. I'm "hoping" the brazen outrageousness of Trump finally causes people to do something about all the corruption in spite of their already having been desensitized.
But, again, probably not. If this doesn't do it, it appears, to me, that there is nothing that will. So I "hope" it does prompt change.
At the same time, I don't want people to buy into the political theater that other politicians are against corruption itself and Trump is the only thing that needs to go to get rid of the corruption. It seems to me the quoted politicians are more against their own corruption being put at risk than corruption itself. We have decades of their actions to support that idea regardless of what the words they say are. Too many politicians treat "our democracy" as their route to riches and excess.
888 keeps insisting tax payers don't pay anything for National Parks. Lies are lies even when one doesn't realize one is doing it.
I made an error which I am happy to accept and acknowledge - something most won't do on here. And if anyone was to keep a score of the lies and the misinformation that is spammed on these boards, then one group of posters win by a land slide and it isn't the guys who don't like Trump.
I am on topic. Not using some whatabout making absurd suggestions about something that isn't relative to the topic. Don't blame me for your shortcomings. And now back to the topic at hand............
Police officers who defended US Capitol on January 6 sue to stop Trump’s ‘anti-weaponization’ fund
(CNN) — Law enforcement officers who protected the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, sued the Trump administration on Wednesday to block implementation of a newly created $1.8 billion fund for allies of President Donald Trump who say they were unfairly investigated by previous administrations.
The lawsuit brought in federal court by Harry Dunn, a former member of the US Capitol Police, and Daniel Hodges, a current member of the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department, claims that the new fund runs afoul of the US Constitution and federal law.
The men say the fund will potentially be used to pay individuals who participated in the attack and finance various paramilitary organizations in the country.
“If allowed to begin making payments, the fund will directly finance the violent operations of rioters, paramilitaries, and their supporters who threatened plaintiffs’ lives that day, and continue to do so,” lawyers for Dunn and Hodges wrote in the 29-page suit.
“Militias like the Proud Boys will use money from the fund to arm and equip themselves. The fund will grant their pasts acts of violence legal imprimatur,” the lawsuit claims.
“And, most chillingly, the fund will signal to past and potential future perpetrators of violence against Dunn and Hodges that they need not fear prosecution; to the contrary, they should expect to be rewarded,” the lawsuit reads. “Dunn and Hodges did not back down on January 6. Instead, they held the line to defend democracy and the rule of law. They bring this case to do so once again.”
The lawsuit asks a federal judge in DC to declare the administration’s decision to set up the fund is unlawful and for an order blocking officials from taking steps to implement it and requiring any payments already made from it to be reversed.
The new fund, the men allege, violates a provision of the 14th Amendment that bars the government from paying debts “incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States.” They also say that officials violated federal rulemaking laws by creating the fund, which stemmed from a $10 billion lawsuit Trump, in his individual capacity, brought against the Internal Revenue Service earlier this year.
That law, the Administrative Procedure Act, allows individuals to challenge some government decision-making. Lawyers for Dunn and Hodges say that officials violated it by not following a different provision of federal law that says the government can only settle lawsuits after the attorney general agrees that such payment “is in the interest of the United States.”
“The payment of $1.776 billion into the Anti-Weaponization Fund to settle Trump v. IRS was patently not ‘in the interest of the United States,’” they wrote in the lawsuit. “Rather, it was a misappropriation of taxpayer funds orchestrated by the President to reward his allies and the rioters who committed violence in his name.”
The case comes a day after acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who was once Trump’s personal attorney, in testimony to a Senate appropriations panel, declined to rule out the possibility whether those who assaulted law enforcement officers on January 6 would be eligible for a payout.
“I will definitely encourage the commissioners to take everything into account when determining who should get compensation,” Blanche said, referring to a five-member commission that will review claims submitted by people looking to be paid out of the fund.
While the attorney general’s office would appoint the five members, Trump would have the ultimate power, being allowed to fire them at any time.
“But why not this specific issue of (being) convicted of violent acts against police officers?” Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley asked. “You feel they should get compensation after being convicted of violent acts?”
Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday also declined to rule out the idea that those who assaulted police officers could get money from the fund.
“We do have people who were accused of attacking law enforcement officers,” Vance told reporters at the White House. “That doesn’t mean that we’re going to completely ignore some of the claims that they’re going to make.”
Hopefully this is a darkest before the dawn situation and this results in the whole political gravy train system toppling, but probably not.
Democrats (and privately Republicans, too) just upset he's doing blatantly what they do discretely, putting their"democracy" at risk.
I did read the end of that first sentence I quoted, but I don't see anything in this story that even remotely points to this type of corruption trending anywhere but up. 'Hopefully' is doing ALL (not even most) of the work in your sentence.
... and as for the second sentence... I never understood that line. So loud-and-proud corruption is somehow better because they're not trying to hide it? That makes zero sense by itself, and even less when you see how it seems to be normalizing the corruption as the population loses sensitivity to it.
We've reached the inevitable part in our interactions where your only defense is rolling on the floor. Enjoy the carpet burns. ...or are you more a pads and tile guy?
Anyways, I've got better things to do. It's been fun, but not that fun. Kind of annoying actually.
Not an inability to focus, I just like variety over saying the same wrong thing over and over as some seem to prefer.
It seems you have an inability to add something productive to a discussion or even respond to what's written instead of living in the voice in your head's distorted echo chamber.
It'd be nice if you could stay on topic instead of resorting to your usual personal attack chicanery while pretending your feelings didn't get hurt in another thread, where you tried to change both your and my side of the argument, and still ended up being wrong.
Tennessee Man Jailed Over Charlie Kirk Post Wins $835,000 Settlement
“I am pleased my First Amendment rights have been vindicated,” Larry Bushart said in a statement announcing the settlement Wednesday.
Tennessee officials will pay $835,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a man who was jailed for more than a month over a Facebook post he made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
While many people across the U.S. lost their jobs over social media comments about Kirk’s death, Larry Bushart’s case stood out as a rare instance in which such online speech led to criminal prosecution. The 61-year-old retired police officer spent 37 days behind bars before authorities dropped the felony charge against him in October.
During his time in jail, Bushart lost his postretirement job and missed his wedding anniversary and the birth of his granddaughter, according to a federal lawsuit Bushart filed in December against Perry County, its sheriff and the investigator who obtained the arrest warrant.
“I am pleased my First Amendment rights have been vindicated,” Bushart said in a statement announcing the settlement Wednesday. “The people’s freedom to participate in civil discourse is crucial to a healthy democracy. I am looking forward to moving on and spending time with my family.”
Bushart was arrested in September after he refused to take down Facebook memes that joked about Kirk’s killing, which had prompted an outpouring of grief among conservatives, including in Perry County, which is near Bushart’s home and which held a candlelight vigil.
The meme Bushart posted that prompted his arrest read: “This seems relevant today...” and featured President Donald Trump and the words, “We have to get over it.” That quote, the meme explained, was said by Trump in 2024 after a school shooting at Iowa’s Perry High School.
Perry County Sheriff Nick Weems told news outlets that most of Bushart’s “hate memes” were lawful free speech, but residents were alarmed by the school shooting post, fearing Bushart was threatening a local school, also called Perry County High School, even though Weems said he knew the meme referred to a school in Iowa.
“Investigators believe Bushart was fully aware of the fear his post would cause and intentionally sought to create hysteria within the community,” Weems said in a statement to The Tennessean last year.
Bushart’s bail was set at $2 million before he was released as the case drew national attention.
“It’s in times of turmoil and heightened tensions that our national commitment to free speech is tested the most,” said Cary Davis, an attorney for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which helped represent Bushart. “When government officials fail that test, the Constitution exists to hold them accountable. Our hope is that Larry’s settlement sends a message to law enforcement across the country: Respect the First Amendment today, or be prepared to pay the price tomorrow.”
No disclosure who gets any money or how much they get. Rumor has it to qualify for any of these funds you will need to join the CFTC, Criminals For Trump Club first. Did you assault a police officer on Jan. 6th and get convicted for it? No problem. We already pardoned you for it and now we will gave you a cash reward for it! Are you a friend, business person or former member of the trump administration who has committed crimes? No worries! Now you will be paid for it! Just remember if you do crimes that trump would too or in support of him, all of your sins will be forgiven and we'll even put cash in your pockets!
Kenny made some puzzling moves, and it was too aggravating watching them blow a lead that size. Hardin was a liability on defense, missed shots, turnovers, despite keeping us in it. Raw game; fatigue was obvious. We win with better foul shooting.
"...leaked tax returns, as well as claims involving the 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago, his Florida home, and the Russian collusion scandal..."
What is an appropriate reconciliation for such blatant lawfare?
There was no "blatant lawfare". If you want to see what that looks like just watch the current administration. At what point will you ever hold them responsible for anything?
“This settlement is corruption in the plainest sight: forcing IRS to abandon every audit, past and present, into Trump, his family, and their businesses while steering $1.8 billion in taxpayer dollars toward his friends, cronies, and Trump-affiliated companies is self-dealing at its most grotesque,” the statement said.
“It’s a dark, dark day for our democracy.”
Hopefully this is a darkest before the dawn situation and this results in the whole political gravy train system toppling, but probably not.
Democrats (and privately Republicans, too) just upset he's doing blatantly what they do discretely, putting their"democracy" at risk.
