this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2023
352 points (94.9% liked)

politics

19120 readers
3672 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
top 23 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 106 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

The core of the article is this exchange between AOC and former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen at his hearing before the oversight committee, which started off the fraud investigation:

Ocasio-Cortez: To your knowledge, did the president ever provide inflated assets to an insurance company?

Cohen: Yes.

Ocasio-Cortez: Who else knows that the president did this?

Cohen: Allen Weisselberg, Ron Lieberman and Matthew Calamari.

Ocasio-Cortez: And where would the committee find more information on this? Do you think we need to review his financial statements and his tax returns in order to compare them?

Cohen: Yes, and you would find it at the Trump Org.

Definitely give the whole thing a read, though.

[–] agent_flounder@lemmy.one 46 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I watched that live and she was sharp as fuck during the whole thing. Really impressed the hell out of me. We need more like her.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm not American, but AOC is absolutely one of my most favorite politicians. She is such a powerful and smart politician IMO, and consistently on the right side of the issues.

Trump on the other hand, is the absolute bottom, funny how USA has such extremes.

[–] antidote101@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

...and she's a supporter of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT).

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I must admit I don't know if that's a good theory, as in describing reality reliably. Most models are as much ideology as they are factual.

The important thing is to weigh humanitarian values and the reality of economic effect sensibly.

I think most democracies are trying to do that, but in USA the Republicans have obviously lost sight of humanitarian values completely. And that's especially dangerous for a two party system.

[–] MaxVoltage@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago

lucky lucky 🍀

[–] Dkarma@lemmy.world 28 points 1 year ago

I watched this live and it was masterful. Obviously Cohen was a willing participant but she asked exactly the questions that would lead to criminal investigations. Everyone in the room knew it.

[–] SwampYankee@mander.xyz 12 points 1 year ago (3 children)
[–] thefartographer@lemm.ee 14 points 1 year ago (4 children)

SHE SAID MATTHEW CALAMARI

Fucking Slim-Fats SwampYankee over here has worse hearing than my ridiculously Italian grandmother. MA! SET OUT A PLATE FOR SLIM-FATS SWAMPYANKEE! THEY'RE STAYING FOR DINNER AND WANNA TRY YOUR BRECCA PATOOCHI!

[–] SwampYankee@mander.xyz 5 points 1 year ago

My wife has 2 uncles named Tony and I still don't know what you're saying.

[–] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago

Don't forget about Chesebro!

[–] Shikadi@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago
[–] logi@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

I live in Italy and I still don't know what you're saying. Any chance you can get the proper spelling for your grandmother's concoction? I'm genuinely interested.

[–] jscummy@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 year ago

Matty Calamari, he works for Franky Lasagna and Giulio Gnocci. Notorious mob family, those Calamaris

[–] killeronthecorner@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

And a side of seafood sauce. And can we get another round of drinks too?

[–] Zombiepirate@lemmy.world 89 points 1 year ago (2 children)

In fact, there's substantial evidence that progressives may put an even higher value on opposing corruption than their more moderate colleagues. For instance, progressives like Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania were among the first to call for the resignation of Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., after his recent indictment on bribery and corruption charges. This isn't just about political progressives also being people of conscience. I think they understand how intertwined corruption and authoritarian politics are, and understand you can't fight one without fighting the other.

Authoritarians like Trump gain power by exploiting public cynicism. The more that voters believe that all politicians cheat the system, the more decent citizens will give up engaging meaningfully in politics at all. Eventually, the only people left in politics are the ones with no vision of a better world beyond a bitter desire to stick it to racial minorities, LGBTQ people and women. Getting people to believe in equal justice and functional government is a necessary prerequisite if folks like Fetterman and Ocasio-Cortez are to make any progress on the social and economic issues that matter most to them. It makes sense that AOC opened the door for the massive lawsuit that may bring Donald Trump's business empire crashing down. Maybe the main reason she's not taking more credit for that is that in the here and now she's busy trying to expose the corruption of House Republicans.

A well-written article and a fantastic response to the "wHaT hAvE pRoGrEsSiVeS aCcOmPlIShEd" concern trolling from centrists.

[–] JoBo@feddit.uk 36 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's well-written but it misses the obvious point. Centrists get platforms to speak about corruption because there's absolutely zero danger they will do anything fundamental to upset the gravy train. They'll wag their fingers at the too-blatant-about-it grifters while leaving the system fundamentally intact.

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 12 points 1 year ago

Yup. Give the mic to the person who will condemn but not take action. They need to be heard!

Let’s hope for more like this.

[–] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago

"wHaT hAvE pRoGrEsSiVeS aCcOmPlIShEd" concern trolling from centrists.

That's not concern trolling. They are proud that they block progress. It's gloating.

[–] cybersandwich@lemmy.world 54 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is a good article but this:

So there's this unspoken assumption that progressives don't much care about corruption and accountability.

Is an absolutely asinine take. It's like they made this part up so they could talk about it for another paragraph. No one assumed progressives didn't care about corrupt. No one. That's just dumb.

[–] machines_for_more@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I had the same reaction but to give the benefit of the doubt it feels like maybe they meant comparatively to policy issues progressives seem less concerned with individual corruptions as opposed to the overall corruption of the system.

[–] Taako_Tuesday@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago

That's a very generous reading to be fair

[–] YoBuckStopsHere@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago

Just another reason Conservatives hate her, she actually does the job.