This Is Why Lobbying and Ethics Reform Is Important

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An unbelievable $8 billion in financial fraud was enabled by the fact that Washington politicians, in exchange for feeding at Robert Allen Stanford’s campaign money trough, acceded to the money manager’s wishes and didn’t pass a 2002 bill that would have made preventing and discovering fraud of exactly his kind much, much easier. Hey, here’s a thought! Maybe when a guy spends millions of dollars urging you and your colleagues not to pass stricter controls on fraud, you should pause and consider his motivations! He’s probably into something he’s not supposed to be into!

This is infuriating. The lawmakers who took money from Allen should have to write personal checks to the people he defrauded. They bear responsibility for this.

(Serious kudos to OpenSecrets for uncovering this connection.)

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

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And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

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