this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2026
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That guy sold his soul for just $7K? My fucking god are our elected officials cheap...

[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 21 points 1 day ago (1 children)

More people need to be called out in public like this. Air that laundry. Make them show their true self to the people looking to trust someone. AIPAC is a disease that's destabilizing the world to sustain a country that can't exist without this level of manipulation. All those complicit need to be highlighted to the voters with the express messaging that these people will steal your future to ensure theirs.

[–] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Stanford did that decades ago. Americans are illiterate. So illiterate they do not connect Congress’s constitutional right to mint money with constitutional power to influence politics:
your government is working exactly as your forefathers intended.

[–] BradleyUffner@lemmy.world 46 points 1 day ago (2 children)

This style of captioning is horrible and should never be used for anything except as an example of how not to do captioning.

[–] daychilde@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

By far not the worst I've seen. I can actually read these. The worse ones are the ones that flash up one word at a time. The highlighting sucks on these, but at least there's 2-3 words at a time and they stay up long enough to read.

That said, the best subs are full phrases/sentences that stay up long enough to read.

[–] AzuranAurora@piefed.ca 3 points 1 day ago

Yeah, this isn't karaoke. We don't need the words highlighted as they're said.

[–] mrdown@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If you can't beat them shame them

[–] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Good thing shame elected Donald Trump!🙃

[–] mrdown@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social 1 points 1 day ago

shame elections and Trump? Only if we demolish them.

[–] exaybachae@startrek.website -1 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

If I ran for any office I would literally accept all donations, and not concern myself at all with where any of it came from. I'd have no private meetings or dinners with donors, spend no time talking to lobbyists.

I'd just treat every dollar the same and focus on what it's being used for.

It doesn't seem logical not to take your oppositions money if they are going to give it freely. That's their mistake to make.

[–] IndustryStandard@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

The money is a reward. Unless you sell out you will not receive their money.

[–] FreddiesLantern@leminal.space 22 points 1 day ago

Here for it.

[–] lettruthout@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] adhd_traco@piefed.social 20 points 1 day ago
[–] BedSharkPal@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 day ago

Just a little bit of hope to start my day!

[–] IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (3 children)

was talking politics with someone and the were talking about how their progressive candidate doesn't take corporate money.

how the fuck is that something that needs to be brought up!!! how is bringing the expected norm?

[–] BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It’s because “Corporations are people” and “Money is speech” are foundational parts of the SCOTUS SuperConstitution.

[–] IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

now that they are legally people, can they be tried in court like people and send all their executives to jail when the company breaks the law?

All people are equal, but some people (in this case, the corporate entries that are objectively not people) are more equal than others

[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This isn't some uniquely American thing.

Corporate lobbying is a thing across the world at various levels. Business leaders are friends with political leaders in just about any country you look at and that close relationship gives much more wiggle room for oversight. Meals and deals are integral to the process and that's where corporate money can be spent without explicitly going to the politician. Gifts and services are a nightmare for democracy.

it isn't a unique American problem, but the way the US legalized and formalized the bribing process is something so dystopian it would only fit in a comedy. lobbying is an industry in itself.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

US politics is different than what you have.

[–] IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm in the US. it's just insane how the bar is that low.

that's like putting in my CV that I proudly did not have sex with the office coffeemaker.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

You can run for office without doing it - many have, and do! They just don’t win that office. Except once in awhile like . . when, uh . . the . . well, I’m sure there’s an example out there somewhere.

[–] daychilde@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (2 children)

PAC money is a little bit complicated to discuss just because we think of PACs being corporate, but other orgs create them like unions. Also, there are times politicians have extra and so send money to those they want to support, and so it can mean the target gets indirectly funded by money, some of which came from PACs.

That said, as far as I can tell, there are around 20-25 members of Congress (a couple in the Senate, the rest in the House) that have pledged to take no corporate PAC money - but the good news is that list is slowly growing.

We need to continue to pressure them not to take PAC money and support them ourselves since the simple fact is that it takes money to get elected (among other things).

I think this is incredibly important and basically the only non-violent way out of this fascist mess - if we can get enough in Congress who won't take money from our oligarchs, since they (the oligarchs) are the root cause of our fascism.

[–] ToTheGraveMyLove@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Nobody should be able to use money to influence politics for any reason.

[–] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social -2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

then form another government ╮(︶▽︶)╭

[–] Evil_Shrubbery@thelemmy.club 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

PAC money is just a bad, anti-democratic concept overall. That is why it exists.

[–] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social -3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The funnier joke is that they kept their seats.
Lobbying still works in FashUS.
Hopefully Anabel Mendoza finds herself suicided from the top of a hotel building. /s