Draining the Swamp

Rightguide said:

Trouble is these are standard white collar crimes that are the specialty of your standard DOJ federal prosecutor, not a Special Prosecutor with unlimited Budget and all-encompassing authority. Mueller's investigation is a sham designed to damage the Trump Presidency.

Click to expand...

jaF0 said:

I suppose it matters how you define pollutant. CO2 is natural, necessary in proper quantities and deadly in excess quantities. Just like water.

Click to expand...

Wats_butthole said:

Trump damaged the Trump presidency, vetteman.

Click to expand...

DrDelirium said:

Mueller has charged Manafort and Gates with violating FARA, the Foreign Agents Registration Act, for their activities on behalf of Viktor Yanukovych when he was president of the Ukraine during the Obama administration (and while HRC was Sec State, before she overthrew him). It would seem the theory is that since Putin was trying to prop up Yanukovych, Manafort and Gates were really working for Putin, and after Yanukovych bit the dust they were then working for Putin while Manafort was working for Trump. I don't know if there is any meat on those bones, but the idea that people might go to jail for violating FARA has to be making a lot of people in DC nervous, on both sides of the aisle. It would be interesting to know just how many of the former politicians in K Street lobbying firms are registered as foreign agents, and if they have provided details of their work on behalf of, say, Saudi Arabia, Israel or the Poroshenko regime in the Ukraine.
It also raises the question of whether a sitting government official, say a Secretary of State, who receives any quid pro quo, such as a donation to their foundation, might be required to register as a foreign agent...

In any case, if prosecutions for FARA violations are going to be a thing, the swam might just get drained a bit after all.

Click to expand...

dontbackdown said:

I can only hope that this is but a first step in "Draining the Swamp." I don't care if Manafort goes to prison, and if found guilty I hope he does. But I want to see a great many more go with him, be they democrat or republican.

DC has become an incestuous swamp with hoards of 'K' street attorneys representing foreign powers bleeding the taxpayer dry. These 'beltway bandits' are associated with people like Manafort, Podesta, and others pedaling influence anywhere, and to anyone, that can write a big enough check. There is a reason that the greater DC area is growing at a phenomenal rate, that the property prices are off the charts, and the mean income is what so many can only dream of. Each and everyone of those sons a bitches have as their priority to either dip into the taxpayers wallet, or to represent some firm or foreign power that has the same goal.

The Clinton's were the first to so audaciously tap into that 'influence pedaling' gravy train. And as much as they have prospered, it's chump change compared to what has been going on since the 1960's. They weren't the first, just the most visible.

The problem is that expecting congress to do anything about it is a pipe dream. They are NOT going to shut down their ability to profit from any influence they might have accrued while in office. One of the reason that the same names keep showing up in the news with the only difference being which party hold congress and/or the white house at the time.

In the late 1960's I lived and worked in DC. When attending ANY social function it wasn't a party, it was a name dropping event. Of course the names were dropped over a period of time. I always thought that if would have cut through the bull shit a lot faster if they had just made up a list and handed it out. Then the group that had the most names in common could huddle together and blow their smoke up each others ass. I never did, and to this day still don't, figure out whether it was a 'top down' or 'bottom up' event.

I think that a term limiting constitutional amendment is long over due. Figuring out the strategy required for the general public to initiate such an action is problematic.

Click to expand...

DrDelirium said:

There are problems with term limits- like no accountability, and no track record. So it becomes a contest of name recognition and image spinning, which tends to boil down to money.
If you could limit the income of politicians when they left office, you might make some headway, but I think we're past the point where the system can fix itself.
I think that whatever swamp draining gets done here won't be by congress, but by prosecutors, and it won't really be much about the public weal, it will about blowing holes in other people's dams. Some deserving folks will go to jail, and some clique or another will tighten their grip on power and the money spigot. But I still like the part where some of the bastards go to jail, and with luck we'll have some kind of Yojimbo scenario.

Click to expand...

adrina said:

The buck stops at everyone else's desk but Trump's. Amazing that.

Click to expand...

Hypoxia said:

The 'swamp' Tromp is draining contains policy professionals, scientists, analysts, anyone who know anything about gov't operations and programs. EPA is a prime example. Who the fuck needs clean air? Don't inhale!

Click to expand...

doowdniw said:

And oxygen.

Click to expand...