The Official US Government Corruption Grievance Thread

Here is the place to discuss all of your grievances with our corrupt government. While it lasts.

Streetwiseguy said:

Hahaha haha....

I bet this has something to do with an orange criminal.

If you want.

I see no way this can go wrong. 

I've always wanted to make anybody running for political office to have to take an IQ test with the results placed next to their names on the ballot.

I also think that in order to talk with a microphone to anyone, politicians should have to use hand held press-to-talk microphones hooked up to a lie detector which energizes a 50,000 volt Accel coil powered by a Diehard battery wired back to the microphone.

Just to keep them honest. But I have also noticed that most politicians seem to actually believe the lies that spew out of their mouths so that they probably would pass the lie detector.

I don't think I'm brave enough. But, ibtl. 

I believe term limits should be a thing so you can do the job you're elected to vs worrying about running again. I also think if you run for a higher office, you gotta resign from the current one first. No more getting paid as a Senator for a year while on the campaign trail, if you don't have enough faith in yourself to put it all on the line, why should I vote for you?

This might get interesting, but I doubt it.  I sincerely believe most people are afraid to discuss the realities of the world we live in.  I also view turning a blind eye to it all as a weak way of condoning it all.  
 

Start with something simple.  Why are bills often named the exact opposite of what they actually do?  Why do people allow this?  Are the people for the most part just that oblivious or in fact just stupid?  

VolvoHeretic said:

I've always wanted to make anybody running for political office to have to take an IQ test with the results placed next to their names on the ballot.

How about testing candidates tested for personality disorders. HOA candidates included.

For all that is holy, please, please adopt the European standard (somewhere in Europe at least) of only allowing campaign adds and campaigning TWO WEEKS before an election.

Locally, we recently went through SIX MONTHS of continuous commercials for some stupid Indian gaming (no, that's not betting on some guys from Mumbai) proposition!

People act like political corruption, mud-slinging and partisanship are new. They are not. I just think the modern press makes it seem worse.

Falling on the political spectrum as Libertarian, I view both parties with equal disdain. 

Parties love to focus on 'the base' but elections are decided by moderates. Their inability to grasp this constantly baffles me.

No matter how much you may like Orange Man, he has no chance of getting elected again. The middle can't stomach him anymore.

aircooled said:

For all that is holy, please, please adopt the European standard (somewhere in Europe at least) of only allowing campaign adds and campaigning TWO WEEKS before an election.

I'd be willing to stretch this to 4 weeks, but I agree with the principle.

Many argue term limits, I think those tend to create more problems than they solve, and don't address the core issue of having to pick which of two bad choices you hate less.

I think a much better plan would be to switch to a system of ranked-choice voting (pick your top 4-5 candidates in order) and/or proportional representation (e.g. if Dems get 40% of votes, Reps get 40%, Libertarians get 10%, and Greens get 10%, that is what percentage of seats they get in congress).

And get rid of the electoral college system giving all the votes from each state to the leading candidate there. I want conservative votes in CA and NY to count and liberal one in TX and TN.

Look north folks. Canada limits election campaigns to 90 days I think, and they limit campaign spending. It's not perfect, but I like it better than here. You still get politicos on the TV whining about the other guy constantly, but not much you can do about it besides changing channels.

The government does no wrong and we should always support our elected officials.  I'm too afraid to say otherwise.

Any law that applies to the governed but not the governing should be stricken.

RCV seems to be the best solution to two party partisan politics.

The little plastic signs on wire frames should be redeemable one week after election day from the issuing party office at some reasonable value each.

If the will of the people has been identified by some formal method, and the elected officials still vote against it, should trigger a recall election.

Citizens who are negligently behind on their taxes should be prohibited from running for office.

Electing judges is stupid. What are they supposed to campaign on? They are not to have n affiliation and are all supposed to interpret  the law fairly.

How deep into corruption do you really want to get? Politicians who earn $200k/ year watching their net worth increase by over a million every year in office? Politicians that NEVER leave office? The press, that is supposed to be a barrier between politicians and people instead just pushing whatever political narrative they're told?

How about staging coups in other countries and disposing of democratically elected leaders for pro America dictators to later come back and overthrow when they're no longer useful? Preaching about the dangers of drugs on our society while moving literal tons of cocaine across the border to fund wars off the books? Remember what the middle east looked like before we started installing dictators back in the 50s-70s? Damn near peaceful, not a full body covering in sight, women on almost equal grounds as men?

HHow about lifetime bureaucrats who push through their personal missions over 20,30,40 years in office regardless of who or what the politicians who are supposedly in charge want to do?

Fberkeleying lobbying. It's just legalized corruption that puts corporations in charge instead of people. Goddamn citizens United turning corporations into citizens? Just because we "legalized" corruption by calling it lobbying doesn't change the fact it's pay to play. Pay to play is another big issue that always seems to get swept under the rug when it's brought up.

Easy ways to fix a lot of it though. Get rid of the vote for politicians. Pick every political office holder at random by SSN. Then at the END of the term put the vote up to choose what happens to them, retirement, prison, or death. No leaving the public sector for lobbying gigs. 

I challenge ANYONE to find a federal politician, high ranking military officer, or lifetime bureaucrat who isn't guilty of treason for violating their oath of office to "protect this land and the constitution from all threats FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC". I challenge EVERY court in the country to actually try these people for it. It'll never happen, but a fantasy of justice is at least nice to have. 

Speaking of courts, just who exactly were Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey "I didn't hang myself" Epstein guilty of trafficking children too? Only sex traffickers in the world with no clients? Really? Made themselves billionaires trafficking children to nobody?

Then we have our rogue terrorist state, the CIA, who are, by law, forbidden from operating on American soil, yet somehow their hand is always caught in the cookie jar whenever pretty much anything happens. From direct violation of the constitution, to direct violation of international law and the Geneva convention, to hacking our own politicians to delete evidence against them?

Corruption runs hard and deep here. Those that look into it are labeled crackpots and conspiracy theorists because the "news" won't touch the stories for more than a few seconds. So not only does it seem to be allowed, it seems to be encouraged. 

Still on page 1 without lock?   Amazing!

RevRico said:

How deep into corruption do you really want to get? Politicians who earn $200k/ year watching their net worth increase by over a million every year in office? Politicians that NEVER leave office? The press, that is supposed to be a barrier between politicians and people instead just pushing whatever political narrative they're told?

How about staging coups in other countries and disposing of democratically elected leaders for pro America dictators to later come back and overthrow when they're no longer useful? Preaching about the dangers of drugs on our society while moving literal tons of cocaine across the border to fund wars off the books? Remember what the middle east looked like before we started installing dictators back in the 50s-70s? Damn near peaceful, not a full body covering in sight, women on almost equal grounds as men?

HHow about lifetime bureaucrats who push through their personal missions over 20,30,40 years in office regardless of who or what the politicians who are supposedly in charge want to do?

Fberkeleying lobbying. It's just legalized corruption that puts corporations in charge instead of people. Goddamn citizens United turning corporations into citizens? Just because we "legalized" corruption by calling it lobbying doesn't change the fact it's pay to play. Pay to play is another big issue that always seems to get swept under the rug when it's brought up.

 

Easy ways to fix a lot of it though. Get rid of the vote for politicians. Pick every political office holder at random by SSN. Then at the END of the term put the vote up to choose what happens to them, retirement, prison, or death. No leaving the public sector for lobbying gigs. 

I challenge ANYONE to find a federal politician, high ranking military officer, or lifetime bureaucrat who isn't guilty of treason for violating their oath of office to "protect this land and the constitution from all threats FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC". I challenge EVERY court in the country to actually try these people for it. It'll never happen, but a fantasy of justice is at least nice to have. 

Speaking of courts, just who exactly were Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey "I didn't hang myself" Epstein guilty of trafficking children too? Only sex traffickers in the world with no clients? Really? Made themselves billionaires trafficking children to nobody?

Then we have our rogue terrorist state, the CIA, who are, by law, forbidden from operating on American soil, yet somehow their hand is always caught in the cookie jar whenever pretty much anything happens. From direct violation of the constitution, to direct violation of international law and the Geneva convention, to hacking our own politicians to delete evidence against them?

 

Corruption runs hard and deep here. Those that look into it are labeled crackpots and conspiracy theorists because the "news" won't touch the stories for more than a few seconds. So not only does it seem to be allowed, it seems to be encouraged. 

I don't believe I even need to add to any of this. 

Public service was supposed to be a sacrifice someone did "for the greater good" like jury duty. Somehow it became a well paying career. That's the biggest issue. 

Good lord, why even start this thread?