I still don’t understand how lobbying is legal. Like, it’s straight up bribery.
this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2023
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Because the people who decide what is legal are the people who benefit from it.
Lobbying is supposed to be making your case to a politician, and hoping they vote/propose a bill/etc. With that interest in mind. You yourself are allowed to lobby your congress critters...technically.
We're allowed, but without a fruit basket stuffed with money they're not going to listen.
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The lobbying is not the problem. The donations that sway opinions are the problem. If it was entirely unrelated to donations and the congress person was just hearing out all sides of an issue, that's a good thing.
How often do companies fund biased or outright falsified studies that are then presented as fact by lobbyists?
I could maybe get more behind lobbying without donations if all data points were required to be peer reviewed. The lawmakers hearing these arguments are not experts (see any tech related legislation ever), it’s real easy to lie to them; basically removing the money then means that the most charismatic and/or best liar ends up winning.
If donations did not affect outcome, no company would donate.
Even when a legislator's decisions are unaffected by lobbying, companies still control legislation by ensuring legislators who earnestly believe in legislation that favors the corporations over the people get elected.
This is how Biden sided with banks and the prison-industrial complex for half a century yet didn't have enough money to fund his son's cancer treatment without selling his house until Obama paid off his medical debt.
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In theory, it's partially meant to educate politicians who cannot be experts on everything in a world where information exponentially grows, but this system has clearly been intentionally used to abuse power.
Met a dude in 2015 who was a lobbyist for Boeing in DC. I heard he made 750k a year back then. He must be a really good educator!
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Its extremely obvious. "Oh, these? These aren't bribes. They're uh, free speech! Yeah! And companies speak in money so this is their free-"
Shut the fuck up.
What are bribes? You mean lobbying? Totally different thing, look, the words have totally different letters!
Citizens United is one of the worst decisions in the history of the Supreme Court.
Its absolute evil. I can't believe us citizens haven't burned it to the ground in a fit of rage. Its blatant fucking bribery. I'm seein' red just typing this post.
"Why are there bribes coming out of your Congress and Supreme Court, Seymour?"
"Uh! ...Ohh, those aren't bribes! It's speech! Speech from the free speech we're having. Mmmm, free speech!"
door slams "Phew"...🏃♂️🎼🎵🎵🎵🎶
clearly he's old enough to run again.
Man. The guy can grow peanuts, build thousands of houses, kick cancer's ass, and is brilliantly insightful.
No wonder he lost reelection. He's competent. I'm kinda shocked he won in the first place. We didn't deserve him, and we still don't.
Well, between that and Reagan and Iran Hostage Crisis.
That and his own party turned against him when it became apparent he cared more about the country than their profits
The guy facilitated crimes against humanity in Indonesia and Afghanistan. I'd rather an incompetent war criminal than a cold blooded architect of genocide.
He can also fund and arm the Indonesian government while it commits genocide in East Timor
And he wasn't competent. He squandered a Democratic majority in both the House and Senate for two years by sitting to the right of both chambers of Congress, and ended up heralding the deregulation and deunionization that we blame Reagan for.
Like all US Presidents, Carter is a piece of shit
Thank you, Mr. Last Good American President very likely ever.
We never deserved to be led by this man. We'd rather be lied to by actors.
I agree with what is being said in the article. However, I have seen an uptick of articles older than 2 years being posted as "recent news" or "breaking news". This article is from 2015 and while it is pretty accurate, especially in these times, something from 8 years ago should be noted as such.
Seriously. This is political discussion, but not news (current events).
Carter put solar panels on the White House roof. Reagan took them off because he was beholden to the fossil fuel industry. And now look at the planet.
Pretty much everything Regan touched turned to shit
Yeah he helped create it. The first US president to begin to embrace neoliberal ideology and fictitious capital. Set the path for Ronald Reagan to bring in neoliberalism proper. And armed the Mujahideen, which lead to the crisis in Afghanistan. This is equivalent to Eisenhower warning everyone about the military industrial complex.
Had to scroll all the way down for this comment. The only response to this article should be : "Thanks for making this happen"
It's frustrating. They say good things when they are removed from power. He sounds like a good person, but he was not a good president. Obama will probably gradually come around to this kind of talk when he gets older too. He recently all but admitted middle class decline due to concentration of wealth was responsible for the rise of MAGA. Don't know if he will ever admit that drone "assassinations" he was in charge of were war crimes (assassinations in quotes because more than half the time the intelligence wasn't even correct).
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It’s insane to think this guy, who was a pastor, lost the Christian vote to the cheating twice divorced Reagan
It's very clear what the evangelical vote actually is for. They also largely voted for Trump over Biden, who's a Catholic.
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We know.
It's a feudal system of corporate lords with a priesthood of economists, politicians, and lawyers.
The initials, the carpentry, the advocations for peace and against extreme wealth. You'd think a certain group would like this guy.
Jimmy Carter is a fucking legend
Oligarchy is baked into the U.S. constitution. Only rich (land-owning) White Males had any say. The Senate (mostly wealthy) has a permanent veto over any real power sharing. Oligarchy is nothing new in the USA, they have just added window dressing to make people THINK it ever was a democracy.
It's an oligarchy? 
Always has been
And yet people will still get upset at you, if you express any viewpoint not in line with a party line. Guess the oligarchs are winning.
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