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Passages

(698 posts)
Sun Aug 4, 2024, 07:11 PM Aug 4

Democracy dies if we drop the case of Trump, Egypt and $10 million in cash

A credible allegation of a $10 million Trump bribe from Egypt is swept under the rug as bribery is increasingly legal in America.[/

by Will Bunch | Columnist
Published Aug. 4, 2024, 12:13 p.m. ET
America’s Founders were a little unclear about a lot of stuff — we’re still arguing after 233 years about just what the heck they were saying about guns in the Second Amendment — but they seemed very adamant about one idea.

Bribery is bad for democracy.

In fact, the impeachment clause of the U.S. Constitution spells out bribery as first on its list of things for which a corrupt president or other federal official can be removed from office, ahead of treason and other high crimes and misdemeanors. In case that was too ambiguous, the framers also wrote up the Emoluments Clause, using an anachronistic term to essentially bar the president and other officeholders from accepting gifts or payments from foreign countries or their rulers.

It seems pretty clear, yet over the course of the 21st century something has gone awry. A corrupt Supreme Court, aided by a flawed system of criminal justice that gives every possible break to white-collar crooks while cracking down on the underprivileged, hasn’t quite legalized bribery, but made it a lot easier to get away with. James Madison and Alexander Hamilton must be spinning in their graves over some of the recent developments.
https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/trump-sisi-egypt-10-million-bribe-20240804.html?utm_source=social&utm_campaign=gift_link&utm_medium=referral

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Botany

(71,801 posts)
2. Trump to Egyptian President el-Sisi, "My favorite dictator."
Sun Aug 4, 2024, 07:25 PM
Aug 4

Who among us hasn’t gotten $10 million in 100 dollar bills in 2 duffel bags and then
had the U.S. A.G. cover it up?

But at the end of the day what about Hillary’s emails?

rso

(2,370 posts)
3. RSO
Sun Aug 4, 2024, 07:26 PM
Aug 4

Unfortunately, there’s nothing that can be done now as far as a criminal prosecution because the statute of limitations has run out.

Think. Again.

(15,659 posts)
6. There's no confusion over what the 2nd amendment was "saying about guns"...
Sun Aug 4, 2024, 07:40 PM
Aug 4

...the 2nd amendment, passed by Congress in 1791,clearly states that the need for state "militia" necessitated the right for the people to bear arms.

In 1792, the "militia" was further organized into the "Uniform Militia" and then again re-organized into the the National Guard and the Reserve in 1904.

The intention of the 1791 2nd amendment is clearly to allow people to arm themsleves for the purpose of national service, and not to give people free-reign to own arms for their own personal purposes.

Any "confusion" is just gaslighting promoted by the arms industry to sell guns and bullets to the modern general public.

(Sorry to get off the intended track of the OP which I strongly agree with, but I couldn't let the 2nd amendment remark slide.)

no_hypocrisy

(48,061 posts)
7. Talking about "favorite dictators" . . . . .
Sun Aug 4, 2024, 07:41 PM
Aug 4

Last edited Sun Aug 4, 2024, 08:29 PM - Edit history (1)

Ferdinand Marcos dropped at least $10 million to Ronald Reagan's campaign in 1980.

And you know what Reagan did? He didn't keep Marcos in office despite the "donation".

This has been done before. And you know who helped with the financing? Roger Stone and Paul Manafort, who were in a lobbying/finance business at the time, BMSK. The business took millions of dollars from RW dictators all over the world, to have easy access to Reagan.

(Found this out in Joe Conason's new book The Longest Con.)

FakeNoose

(34,756 posts)
8. 5 days before the election in 2016, let's go back to that peculiar time
Sun Aug 4, 2024, 07:51 PM
Aug 4

The world had already been told about the "grab 'em by the pussy" video and many of us had seen it and shared it. Hillary's emails had been leaked, and James Comey was in the process of announcing that the investigation was about to reopen. Meanwhile the polls had all been saying that Chump would probably lose, and even Chump believed he was going to lose.

Why would he willingly blow another $10 million of his own private cash reserves for a last-minute media blitz, with just 5 days to go before the election? If we know anything about Chump, we know he's the cheapest tightwad on the planet. He'll never spend his own money for anything, especially when he thinks he's gonna lose anyway. Why bother? And yet, he DID exactly that. He spent $10 million of his "own" cash for the final media blitz. Well ... he said it was his own money, but we never really knew.

Now we know where that money came from - and it wasn't from Chump but from someone who stood to gain if Chump won the election. Was el-Sisi the only Arab ruler who would benefit if Chump won? Of course not - all the Middle Eastern countries were ready to jump in and they probably did. We just need to dig a little deeper and find their carefully-hidden emoluments.

Here's an example, once Chump was installed in the White House, all of a sudden his Washington DC hotel was making money hand over fist. Oddly almost all of the customers who booked the high-priced hotel suites were Middle-Easterners. What a coincidence! I'm not a federal investigator but it took me 2 seconds to figure that one out.

All those chants of "Lock her up" the ChumpHumpers hurled at Hillary, and there was only one person who deserved to be locked up. Then and now!

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