corruption
A prime locale to talk bribery, suspect campaign funding, and all other instances of political corruption. The shadier, the better.
Why China's Belt and Road Initiative is not Exactly as it Seems.
In the last four decades, China has seen unprecedented growth in economics, education, and overall quality of life. This growth was a shock to most of the world because it contrasted with the isolated agrarian society China had been living under for centuries after its peak during the Qing period when Chinese territory reached its greatest extent and the political atmosphere of the nation was relatively stable.
By Ethan Cohen4 years ago in The Swamp
Letter to a local, corrupt pol
25JUN2022; 1818, SAT- Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA. Dear Representative Steny Hoyer, As a combat Vet that's a constituent of yours, I'm obligated to inform you that your four decade plus career exemplifies what's wrong with this seemingly Godforsaken nation. Take a seat and a headache reliever now; word to the wise.
By Nefarious Darrius4 years ago in The Swamp
Hypocrisies of The Party View
In a world of designated echo chambers, that decide your views based on left or right, sometimes an issue comes along that shows how flawed their thinking is. I used to try to make sense of what I would see in videos or on social media from these types, but I realized that there’s no point in trying to make sense of the senseless. The non-stop finger-pointing and blaming from both sides does amazing things for the leaders of the party. Knowing that at any moment, they can release a story that will spark debate, and the same ones on the same team will have the same views. Every once in a while a heated topic comes up and shows in reality their views hold no weight, and they don’t believe in what they’re saying.
By Kevin Viani4 years ago in The Swamp
The root of all compromise
The global economy a matrix of manufactured needs and wants. A system driven by the blind ambitions of men and used to control nations, governments, and militaries. This same force now probably more than any time in history has sabotaged our humanity and made us morally bankrupted without a real reason to exist, because if the extreme consumption of natural Resources is the foundation that supports pursuits of happiness. Then by the very nature of this position we have allowed those ambitious minds with new ideas to manipulate us all into global self-destruction...…the very fact that most of us have or are willing to compromise on any level for the sake of our own survival proves a critical point. Since money is a need and not a want calling it an evil does not make any logical sense, but if any one called it the root of all compromise , a light would shine on our vulnerabilities. A light would shine on a our diabolical codependences
By Deon Hudson4 years ago in The Swamp
Corruption and governance have an impact on delivery.
Corruption, according to the World Bank Group, is a major obstacle to achieving its dual goals of eradicating extreme poverty by 2030 and increasing shared prosperity for the poorest 40% of people in developing nations.
By Paramjeet kaur4 years ago in The Swamp
Reality Is An 18-Wheeler Barreling Towards The Russian People
Russian forces have been shooting each other over looting rights. Wartime infrastructure deep within Russia, such as a vital chemical plant, have gone up in suspicious fires. Russia's presumed ally China has put out a map of how Russian territory might be divided up.
By Buck Hardcastle4 years ago in The Swamp
British Government Found Guilty of Ignoring the Rules They Set
A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way. - John Maxwell During the height of the pandemic, the Government told the British people to isolate themselves in their homes. We weren't allowed to mix households or see anyone else. Rightly so, I had no problems following the rules. They saved lives.
By Sam H Arnold4 years ago in The Swamp
Freedom Means Responsibility
Widely traveled, I say with certainty there is no better place to live than the United States (in my humble opinion). Americans have freedom to travel across the country and outside of it, at will. The pandemic over the last two years has placed some restrictions on the American people we are not used to; however, we're not oppressed nor experiencing the destruction of homes, schools, hospitals, churches, and apartment complexes. We don't have soldiers rampaging towns, raping, murdering, and committing genocide, as the Ukrainians currently are at the hands of the Russians. We can't imagine explosive mines on our streets, yet the Russians have mined the cities of Ukraine as they exit. Obviously, Putin is committing war crimes, and just like the Nuremberg trials so many years ago, those guilty should be found and tried.
By Andrea Corwin 4 years ago in The Swamp
Sir Keir Starmer: Government Should Reveal Those Fined.
International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan said fines have been issued for those that had broken lockdown regulations. Fines were given to those who had attended garden parties at 10 Downing Street. Fines were also issued to party attendees in Whitehall. Ms. Trevelyan made her comments on Sky News. Dominic Raab Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary said the same thing as Ms Trevelyan.
By Nicholas Bishop4 years ago in The Swamp
Legislative corruption
“Corruption in Iraq is with intent not to show.” This phrase I have been repeating frequently in my writings since 2006. I have also talked a lot about what I call “legislative corruption”; It is the corruption that occurs within the framework of the law that the corrupt themselves legislate in order to establish the clientelist structure that governs the state, or in order to cover up their corruption, or at the very least, in order to provide an opportunity for this corruption! After the adoption of the 2005 constitution, the legislative and executive institutions colluded in passing laws that legitimize corruption through their authority, and perhaps the most prominent example of this is the so-called social benefits! The federal budget laws allowed to grant members of the Presidency Council/President of the Republic and his two deputies, the Prime Minister and his deputies, the Speaker and his deputies, the right to improvise an amount of one million dollars per month, without any controls or subjection to real oversight or scrutiny! And these “social benefits” were not canceled until 2012! The legislative and executive authorities continued to frame corruption legally, by “designing” the federal budget laws so that every article and paragraph in it would serve the political forces/parties that transformed state institutions into mere fiefdoms for the leaders of those forces and parties; By subjecting the budget of ministries, agencies, or entities not linked to a ministry or governorate, to bargaining, deals and extortion; From the parliamentary committees concerned with the budget, to the moment of approving this budget! The funny thing here is that the follower of the approval of the legal articles, can easily know the entity or the investor who is behind this article, or that paragraph, by analyzing the articles of the budget law! For example, a “person” put a paragraph of his own personally in the budget law for the year 2021, which is an article that provides a solution to a nation that one of his companies is going through, and it is certain that he could not have passed that article without agreement with the Legal Committee, and the Finance Committee (and he was its vice-chairman ), and an agreement with the Presidency of the House of Representatives, and finally with the deputies themselves who voted on that paragraph, complicity or ignorance! Another attempt is recently being made to pass the point of major corruption, through a law currently being discussed in the Iraqi parliament, which has been called the “Emergency Support for Food Security and Development” law, with allocations of more than $24.1 billion! In order to pass it, the atmosphere was prepared by electing a special temporary financial committee to pass this law, and the majority of the members of this committee have nothing to do with a specialty called economics or finance! is supposed to legislate laws, no one noticed that this law violates the internal system of the Council of Ministers No. 2 of 2019, which is determined in Article 42 / second, which stipulates that it is not within the authority of the government to manage daily affairs / Conducting business “proposing bills or contracting loans”!The Federal Financial Management Law No. 6 of 2019 stipulated in Article 13 that in the event of delay in approving the Federal Budget Law, the disbursement will be made at a rate of 1 to 12 or less of the total actual expenditures for the current expenditures of the previous fiscal year on a monthly basis, until the approval of the federal general budget , as well as the disbursement of the total annual allocations for the ongoing investment projects whose allocations are included during the previous and subsequent year according to the preparation and implementation accounts, which allows the government to conduct daily affairs to carry out its duties without any problem, and the evidence is that three months have passed without a federal budget for 2022 and there was no confusion! The argument that the law “made up” and promoted by its main investors, is that this law is necessary for food security, development and poverty alleviation, with an inevitable focus, of course, on the current crisis in global markets as a result of the Russian-Ukrainian war, especially with regard to wheat! Simply the political actors behind this law want to convince us that after the failure of 17 federal budgets, and hundreds of billions of dollars, a complete failure to provide services, or to alleviate poverty, they will succeed today in achieving food security, through a temporary law until the approval of the general budget for the year 2022! It is clear that the “urgency” in “tabbing” this flimsy law made them get involved in a real legal farce. Article 2/3 talked about financing the account designated for this law through “external and internal loans” with no more than 6.7 billion dollars. However, Article 3 / IV of the law talked about allocating 10% of the entire account, i.e., the amount of 2.41 billion dollars, to “pay off the external debt and the debts of importing gas and purchasing energy,” meaning that the law borrows an external debt to repay, with these loans, part of the external debt ! If there was a real need to secure food security for the Iraqi citizen because of the recent developments, and because of the delay in forming the Iraqi government, and thus the adoption of the Federal Budget Law for 2022, it would have been possible to go to the adoption of an exceptional law that would allow the Ministry of Finance to provide twice the amount that was allocated for importing basic materials that enter into The ration quota for the Iraqi citizen, and this amount would be more than enough not only to achieve food security, because international prices did not reach double their price, and will not reach it in any way, but to provide a strategic stockpile of these materials, and this amount will not exceed 2 billion dollars At most. The “emergency support” law has exposed the ploy of the influential in immoral investment in the funds that were achieved recently due to the rise in oil prices in global markets, especially that the current political impasse with regard to the election of the President of the Republic and thus the formation of the government, and then the approval of the federal budget, may delay this Investing for an indefinite time, so it was necessary to circumvent this by using propaganda expressions such as food security, development and poverty alleviation!
By Zernouh.abdo4 years ago in The Swamp
Legislative corruption
“Corruption in Iraq is with intent not to show.” This phrase I have been repeating frequently in my writings since 2006. I have also talked a lot about what I call “legislative corruption”; It is the corruption that occurs within the framework of the law that the corrupt themselves legislate in order to establish the clientelist structure that governs the state, or in order to cover up their corruption, or at the very least, in order to provide an opportunity for this corruption!
By Zernouh.abdo4 years ago in The Swamp
