Trump made more than $1B on crypto deals, part of 2025 windfall
wsj.com
wsj.com
https://theonion.com/you-people-made-me-give-up-my-peanut-fa...
Our inability to stop this is a very bad sign about our future.
The US has been security by obscurity in so many ways, this latest abuse is just further evidence that counting on it would only ever delay abuse for [checks calendar] about 250 years.
And really is has been in free fall for decades, the fact that so many recent examples are so flagrant (along with this) is what is upsetting (mainly because no one with any power is moving to stop it in any meaningful way).
Corruption isn’t eliminated entirely but is drastically reduced. Taxes then get spent on society instead of corrupt politicians. The result is more bureaucracy but it also placed the country lower than the US on the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI)[0]. CPI has its own measurement issues but is the best we’ve got.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index
Especially poignant in my home where leaders make corruption===outwitting laws===smart. Perception can lead to widespread adoption.
But I guess if our laws actually held up corruption wouldn’t outwit the laws in the first place.
I have to agree with this in whole.
It's like looking at the EU now and wondering, how did they not see this glaring dependency before now? Both the petro energy source and the US military support were never as secure as it seems they were assumed to be.
Here in the US, we're still sitting on a constitution from 250 years ago. Apparently no one though an incoming presidential administration would rape and pillage the place like we've seen in the last year and a half.
European countries did largely overhaul their constitutional documents after WWII. The EU in general has much more modern legislative bodies, and electoral systems.
Here in the US, we're still stuck with founding documents that expect Pony Express to deliver the ballots 8-/
EU might have more modern legislation but even there the far right is starting to realize when they are in power they can generally ignore the legislation or work quickly to dismantle it. Trump showed and emboldened them, tech bros are providing funding and oligarchs are steadily gaining power. It's quickly coming from the east and only reason EU might be a bit more ready than US is that it's many decentralized countries with always shifting powers.
But I would also say, the only impediment to executive overreach has been the constitution, as little as that impediment has been.
Albeit the current supreme court has also stretched the interpretation beyond all previous bounds.
The US certainly needs a modern revised constitution, but I don't see the DNC as having the vision or the balls to accomplish such a thing.
We're pretty much fucked here...
How can an executive that steals millions of $ not go to prison, while somebody stealing food in a store can?
Why can police kill people and maybe not even be investigated for it, while somebody else is tried for being a terrorist when doing the same?
The american system is corrupt to the core, but only for the rich and powerful.
SV billionaires, including YC related folks, paid lots of money to buy the presidency for Trump.
I think the zeitgeist today is different. Because Trump has dialed the crazy up to eleven in his second term and a lot of Dems are now pissed. That’s why democratic socialism/leftism is having a resurgence. And, based on what I’m seeing on the ground, there’s now a strong appetite for justice and retribution.
And the president who repeatedly says he doesn't care.
The dems need to run on fixing the economy and not retribution. They can go after him once they're in power, but don't run on it.
Focusing on real results will eventually sap away the power of the distractions.
None are likely to occur.
Anyone without the appetite for such a clean-up process is OK with it starting all over again, and unfortunately, you're probably right that the majority of people will ultimately fall under this category.
This isn’t going to work. Not this time. Because it’s basically classic Democratic centrism and Dem voters are fed up with it. We are already seeing evidence of this in all the special elections and primaries. By the time this November’s election is over, it will be undeniable.
Does it really matter how much the minority party is pissed though? The American public knew how corrupt this guy was, shrugged, and voted him back into office.
If Democrats do win back the house and senate it will only be by the thinnest of margins. There seems to be little appetite to fix any of these structural problems outside of the "Democratic base."
Politics is not foremost about money, but about power. You can make a lot of money, obviously, but the driver is power.
Assuming the house impeaches him he won't have to wait 2 years.
Given that many of these members of congress of both parties were stock trading ahead of key legislation being announced they won’t do anything to change that.
See, discussions like this go nowhere productive, but it's not because the people are incapable of productive discussion, or because the subject matter is incapable of being discussed productively. It's just that there's literally nothing productive to say about this complete and utter fuck show. We live in a world where the most accurate prediction of the world 10 years from now is current-day satire. There is nothing sensible to be said about the state of affairs of politics.
It is – to my knowledge – an unsettled question, technically speaking, whether a president can pardon themselves. I would be unsurprised if he tried anyway, though.
Of course, states could still pursue actions against them, but I wonder in which cases they'd have standing / clear cases to pursue.
As we have learned, we can ignore all of that, or they can find ways around this. The Supreme Court has made it clear the President has amazing powers.
I realize HN is very anti-crypto, but we should agree that specific laws are needed to "pursue justice" wrt crypto.
what a bummer
a) too corrupt or
b) not corrupt enough
The answer seems obvious. To me, at least, apparently not to quite many US citizen.
You also have to add the numerous kickbacks Trump's family has received through deals done by the federal government.
All this is hardly reported because the administration has successfully cowed the media.
Also, you're right about the media being cowardly but there's also just too much to report and keep people updated on. Even the more independent outlets who try ... can't.
This is the biggest indictment of the media, they can't summarize or aggregate? It's not giving the public a true picture. Crooks can get away with corruption in plain sight merely by doing lots of it? It beggars belief.
Remember how they were talking about Biden's son being on the Burisma board for or something? That was literally a corner of a peanut compared to the corruption we have now. MAGA? Is this great?