It seems like Trump bribed the Florida attorney general

Isn’t Donald about due for a new wife?

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After the American one,
and the Czech one,
and the Slovenian one…

I figure he’s working his way toward either Greece or maybe Turkey.

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Why not Syria? Those refugees are desperate enough to do anything, even to the point of marrying the Cheeto Bandito.

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I think they call that a “tip”, don’t they?

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Well, only to kiss his ass, honestly. (That is his ass, right? The thing he’s always taking out of?)

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I have no citation, but I certainly heard about it in Chicago in the '70s, only with pens not pencils. Somebody told me if you were being really dense about picking up the clue, the cop would tell you “Now I have a $20 pen you could buy or a $50 ticket…” I never experienced it, since I was never even close to being able to afford a car back then.

Just decided? “We should have bribed them last year when it was legal”–said by one of my wife’s colleagues something well over a decade ago. (Last year having been an election year, the year in which he said this wasn’t.)

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[quote=“JamesBean, post:16, topic:85031, full:true”]
There are two kinds of bribes
(1) To get someone to do their job (like process your paperwork quickly)
(2) To get someone to not do their job (like Trump paying Bondi not to prosecute).

(1) Is very common in the 3rd world and is more the result of people being underpaid, but we still see it in the US, its just a little more subtle like restaurants that give free meals to cops because they want cops hanging around. Its corruption, but we often let it pass if its not egregious.[/quote]

I don’t consider the free meals to cops to be a bribe. They’re not trying to get the cops to do their jobs, they’re trying to increase the odds that there is a cop in their establishment at any given instant, making them a less desirable target for an armed robber. The place my wife worked for a bit almost 30 years ago had printed right on the menu that cops in uniform got free drinks.

I can’t remember the country but there’s one that did the opposite of this–it’s legal to accept a bribe but not legal to give one. This makes it perfectly legal for the recipient to simply pocket the bribe and do nothing for it–they have no need to keep it secret, the briber does so he can’t complain about getting ripped off.

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Y’all were well on the way already, sure. Even before Citizen’s United, US electoral funding laws were an international joke.

But McDonnell v United States was another huge leap backwards for American democracy, and I find it shocking how little coverage the decision recieved (a bit from Rachel Maddow, a bit from from Dahlia Lithwick, virtually nothing anywhere else). This decision made it functionally impossible to prosecute any US politician for corruption, even when the crime is blatantly obvious.

I also find it horrifying that this prima facie atrocious decision recieved the unanimous support of the court. It appears that the USSC does not have liberal and conservative factions; instead, it’s split 4/4 between the racist/misogynist plutocratic faction and the just-plain-plutocratic faction.

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Bribery, blackmail and extortion are perfectly acceptable under the sacred Non-Aggression Principle.

Gary Johnson 2016

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Well, yeah. Money is the only form of communication allowed in Libertarian societies. Well, money and lawsuits, but those are in regards to money anyway.

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And while they are in that establishment they aren’t anywhere else. It is an attempt to take an unfairly large share of tax-payer funded resources. It is definitely corruption, its just too small and too squishy to prosecute.

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Cheeto Bandito is far too cool a name for the Donald.

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The basis of Libertarianism tends to be the contract - which need not have anything to do with money or lawsuits. In fact, most systems of money and law operate upon the assumption that all parties concerned are not social equals. Libertarian socialism facilitates contracts being made between equals without the power imbalances which lead to exploitation.

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If it wasn’t obvious from context, I was sarcastically referring to Libertarian Capitalism, as they’re the ones that have the money fetish in the general umbrella of “Libertarianism”.

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Yes, but I encounter many who don’t know that there is such a distinction, so I decided to say something for their benefit. Hopefully I did not cramp the style of your sarcasm.

I nearly fell off my seat when colbert said the florida seal was of
a body being dumped…

Ugh, Elston. I still have nightmares about that place. The day I realized I could go to Deerfield instead was a great day indeed.

Did you ever notice that Trump, himself, never says, “Democrat Party?” He pronounces it correctly, “Democrat_ic_ Party.” It’s just about the only thing he does that doesn’t make me want to put my fist through my radio or TV.

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At some point, we ought to sort out Egglish adjectives, and appropriate definite and indefinite forms…

the definite forms are n-stems, while the indefinite forms can be a-stem, i-stem, or u-stem. -ic is the equivalent of -ish, so it should take n-stem or a-stem forms.

P.S. substantives should come from the definite forms, so is deplorable the definite or the indefinite form?

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