• dudinax@programming.dev
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    58
    arrow-down
    7
    ·
    1 month ago

    How corrupt is Joe Biden? The guy’s famous for being in the Senate for 30 years and never getting rich. Is he squeaky clean? I don’t know, but characterizing the situation as “both sides are corrupt” is close to disinformation.

    • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
      cake
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      39
      ·
      1 month ago

      You’re saying that the bullshit artist formerly known as The Senator From MBNA isn’t corrupt?

      The guy who’s received more in bribes from AIPAC throughput his career than his current net worth and has to be dragged kicking and screaming to not participate in Israel’s genocide even as over 60% of the people who voted for him are against it?

      The guy who, after decades of promoting Amtrak (the company, never its workers) and railway companies in general took away the constitutional right to strike from rail workers, forcing them to accept a deal almost identical to the one from corporate that they had already overwhelmingly rejected?

      The guy whose infrastructure deal, which the party preposterously touts as the best bill against climate change ever, makes any new renewable energy generation contingent on expanding federal fossil fuel leases manyfold and gives away public infrastructure to for-profit companies?

      The guy whose solution to police brutality is to throw more money at cops?

      The guy who, as a successful and ambitious politician moved from Pennsylvania to Delaware, a tiny state that just so happens to be the most corporate friendly one in the entire country, the one where most major corporations are registered in spite of being physically based elsewhere?

      THAT’S the one you’re saying isn’t and never has been corrupt? Fucking REALLY?

      That he doesn’t officially have a lot of money for a successful politician isn’t proof that he’s not corrupt.

      He could be stashing most of his money in Switzerland, the Cayman Islands or one of the growing number of US tax shelter states.

      He could be bribable with relatively small amounts of money.

      He could just simply be bad at saving.

      Either way, there’s NO way that Biden isn’t corrupt as fuck. That’s just not possible given his words and actions of the past 50+ years and today.

      Oh and before you hit me with the usual Trump whataboutism: YES the Mango Mussolini is much worse in just about every way, including the amount and blatancy of corruption.

      That Trump is indisputably worse is irrelevant to how corrupt Biden is.

        • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
          cake
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          7
          arrow-down
          19
          ·
          1 month ago

          Don’t play dumb. For most intents and purposes, the campaign IS the candidate.

          The candidate might not officially be allowed to personally benefit from campaign money, but the rules are lax and enforcement moreso.

          Add to that the fact that the success or the campaign is the success of the candidate and also that it’s a pay for play political system and it’s downright silly to pretend that a sizeable donation doesn’t amount to a bribe and/or that the corporations, lobby groups and (as in the case of AIPAC) foreign government propaganda arms don’t both expect and get more than their money’s worth in return.

          • aubeynarf@lemmynsfw.com
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            12
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            1 month ago

            Is there another explanation for Biden’s typical-for-a-professional-80yo net worth that may be more likely than webs of deceit, bribes, international money laundering, and influence peddling?

            Like, what if he just wasn’t that corrupt? And he has mostly worked as a public servant with a working-class background?

            • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
              cake
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              17
              ·
              1 month ago

              what if he just wasn’t that corrupt?

              Then he probably wouldn’t keep doing so many favors for the ones who keep giving him money.

              he has mostly worked as a public servant with a working-class background

              You’re naïveté is adorable 🤭

              • aubeynarf@lemmynsfw.com
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                10
                arrow-down
                2
                ·
                1 month ago

                adorable

                and you seem like you’re at about a 14 to 16-year-old level of maturity regarding politics; railing-against-the-world, “my eyes are open, don’t you see what I see??”, polarized opinion and discourse untempered by personal experience of compromise or impossible situations, lack of empathy, and insistence on unrealistic all-or-nothing outcomes delivered immediately versus consistent, incremental improvement that takes hard work and nuanced understanding.

                • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
                  cake
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  arrow-down
                  13
                  ·
                  1 month ago

                  Typical “Enlightened Centrist” equating healthy skepticism towards and independently acquired factual knowledge about corrupt authority figures with immaturity and distemper 🙄

                  Also fucking rich that you’re accusing me of a lack of empathy while defending one of the most powerful humans in the world siding with executives against workers and war criminals against innocent civilians and international courts 🤦

                  That you can’t distinguish between the factual and reasonable criticism of a well-informed elder millennial and the sulking of an impatient teenager says a lot about you and little to nothing about me.

      • masquenox@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        14
        ·
        1 month ago

        You forgot the part where Biden helped Bush sell the lie that invading Iraq was a good idea.