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When money is speech, bribery is just eloquence
04-25-2018, 07:08 AM
Mulvaney, Watchdog Bureau’s Leader, Advises Bankers on Ways to Curtail Agency
Quote:“For the reasons explained above, we now conclude that independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.” — Justice Anthony Kennedy, Citizens United v. FEC.
How he could say that with a straight face eludes me.
“We can never undo what we have done. We can never go back in time. We write history with our decisions and our actions. But we also write history with our responses to those actions. We can leave the pain and the damage in our wake, unattended, or we can do the work of acknowledging and fixing, to whatever extent possible, the harm that we have caused.”
— On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World by Danya Ruttenberg
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RE: When money is speech, bribery is just eloquence
04-25-2018, 03:44 PM
Oh, hey - something I can understand about US politics!
Wrap your head around this bit of Canadiana: In 2013, Nigel Wright (at the time, Chief of Staff in the Prime Minister's Office) wrote a personal check to pay ~$90k of expenses claimed by Mike Duffy (at the time, a Senator). Duffy was charged with taking a bribe and was later acquitted. Wright was
not charged with offering a bribe.
Wikipedia has details.
Given that, what you've got going here is eminently understandable.
--
Rob Kelk
Sticks and stones can break your bones,
But words can break your heart.
- unknown
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RE: When money is speech, bribery is just eloquence
04-26-2018, 02:35 AM
Said it once and I'll say it again. If corporations keep pushing their agenda, they're eventually gonna find themselves in the same shoes as the French Aristocracy during the French Revolution.
Some people think this is a good thing. I don't. Know why? Because immediately after the Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte happened. Bets that the same thing won't happen here?
