Supreme Court wipes out anti-corruption law that bars officials from taking gifts for past favors
Supreme Court wipes out anti-corruption law that bars officials from taking gifts for past favors
The U.S. Supreme Court rules state and local officials may take gifts and payments for steering contracts to grateful patrons.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down part of a federal anti-corruption law that makes it a crime for state and local officials to take gifts valued at more than $5,000 from a donor who had previously been awarded lucrative contracts or other government benefits thanks to the efforts of the official.
By a 6-3 vote, the justices overturned the conviction of a former Indiana mayor who asked for and took a $13,000 payment from the owners of a local truck dealership after he helped them win $1.1 million in city contracts for the purchase of garbage trucks.
In ruling for the former mayor, the justices drew a distinction between bribery, which requires proof of an illegal deal, and a gratuity that can be a gift or a reward for a past favor. They said the officials may be charged and prosecuted for bribery, but not for taking money for past favors if there was no proof of an illicit deal.
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I'd say we had a nice run, but considering genocide, slavery, highly selective voting rights, Jim Crow, Union Busting, supply side economics, foreign government toppling for domestic economic goals, warring to open up markets for resource exploitation, citizens united, etc... No we didn't.
We weren't even some benevolent saviors in World War II despite the constant crowing, we had our pacific fleet destroyed so we fought back. The war came to us, we were practicing eugenics prior to WWII.
Yup, we entered the European theater because the ppl we loaned all that money were getting their asses kicked and knew if they lost we'd never see a cent back.
And prior to us getting attacked, there were a metric ton of powerful Americans who sincerely dug the Nazi's style, including Henry Ford, who manufactured war machines for both sides, and is still held up to children as a titan and pioneer of American entrepreneurship because he made a lot of money and facilitated more profit for other capitalists, all that matters here, so who cares what he supported ideologically amirite?
Let's be fair: Henry Ford was an antisemite way before Hitler.
In 1918, Henry Ford purchased his hometown newspaper, The Dearborn Independent. A year and a half later, he began publishing a series of articles that claimed a vast Jewish conspiracy was infecting America. The series ran in the following 91 issues. Ford bound the articles into four volumes titled "The International Jew," and distributed half a million copies to his vast network of dealerships and subscribers. The rhetoric was not unusual for its content, as much as its scope. As one of the most famous men in America, Henry Ford legitimized ideas that otherwise may have been given little authority.
Henry Ford, the modern progenitor of "The Jyoos" conspiracy. Thats a crazy factoid. But not really cause you have to be off your rocker to exploit that many people and be hateful enough to buy out a newspaper just to trash a peoples.
While yes, what about rock and roll, or hip hop or the ability to criticize politicians you disagree with? That was all cool. Shit, having trouble coming up with more. I'd put the new deal in there too. That shit was gold and created a strong working class. Just sucks how dumb we've always been because of the racism and greed (can't fund good schools for everyone or have public pools or whatever)
I'm sorry, but again, jim crow.
Our most revered eras of prosperity, except the 90s, were so prosperous on the backs of a massive, racially determined underclass supporting it and not benefitting from it with no other options. They never even had well funded schools worth the defunding that's happened to the rest since then.
And once a lot of people died getting rid of that, the owners decided fuck all the peasants, leading into today's more widespread economic despair.
Also rock and roll was derived from African American music of the times, and was just another thing white Americans stole from their racial underclass to benefit themselves.
I never said Jim Crow was cool or anything. lol
I consider Black Americans Americans so... America gets the credit
I don't think we're understanding each other here. Wasn't really trying to argue. Sometimes, two things can be true. No?
Two diametrically opposed things, you mean. And yes, they can.
We will thank you for inventing hip hop, but both the japanese and the british have better hip hop than your pop hop these days
What would you consider good modern hip hop?
British and Japanese
Okay, I walked into that one, but I was hoping you'd suggest a specific song or band :P
For reference my favourite band is Flobots; if it's not political hip hop, it's not good hip hop
Tbh i was just trying to bluff and sound like a hip hop connoisseur. Sorry for giving you false hope, but i will listen to your favourite to try and broaden my knowledge. I do like both british stret accent and the japanese are just cute. I listen mostly to pre2k hiphop from us when I do listen to hiphop
Not because its the best, but because im that old
In that case, my favourite song is Good Soldier, but my favourite album is Fight With Tools, the whole thing is fantastic. Both by Flobots; the only song you may have heard if you aren't already a fan is Handlebars
Nice addition to my regular “daily discoveries “ from tidal. I will check them out tomorrow (im in europe and should sleep now).
I listen through the discoveries every day on my commute to work, and Im quite sure AI is overrated as 70% is shit.
I was referring moreso to the cultural impact. (Though from your later replies I think you're just making a joke I'm not getting)
When I think of things I respect about the US and the positive impact its had, I tend to think of how most governments at the time (50s-70s and 70s-90s) seemed to be cracking down on personal free expression (granted that was happening in the US for nonwhite people) and yet Americans (specifically those in counter-culture movements) were able to resist and come out on top. Hell, I'd even throw in comic book creators as having made their mark on moving the needle towards free expression despite loud criticism from conservative mobs.
It's very depressing, also for those of us in the imperial sphere of countries. Because we're beholden to US foreign policy, and the worse the US gets, the more dangerous it is for us.
I mean, we (Australia) already we're doing war crimes for the US in Afghanistan (look up David McBride, the Australian military lawyer), already buying $300 subs as some kind of tributary payment, already followed you into dozens of wars we had no business being a part of, I truly worry for what's next under a more corrupt US regime.
Yikes.