this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2025
180 points (99.5% liked)

politics

21724 readers
4019 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 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

President Donald Trump on Monday pardoned Rod Blagojevich, the former Illinois governor who was convicted and sentenced to prison on corruption charges surrounding his time in office.

“It was a sort of a terrible injustice,” Trump said. “They just were after him. They go after a lot of people. These are bad people, the other side.”

Of note, those corruption charges stemmed from Blagojevich very openly trying to sell Obama's vacant US Senate seat in Illinois after the 2008 election.

top 17 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] thallamabond@lemmy.world 80 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

To those who don't remember, this guy was trying to SELL A SEAT IN THE US SENATE!

"I've got this thing and it's fucking golden"

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/listen-blago-says-i-ve-got-this-thing-and-it-s-f-cking-golden-audio

Edit: corrected quote

[–] dudinax@programming.dev 7 points 1 month ago

Someone reported that he asked Obama what he'd give to name somebody, and Obama said Blago would "have his appreciation".

Blago said "Fuck that I want money". Reporter pointed out that he probably undervalued a president's appreciation (plus he wouldn't have gone to jail).

[–] SinningStromgald@lemmy.world 30 points 1 month ago (1 children)

We all know where most of the "bad people" are, in the GOP.

[–] Bob_Robertson_IX@discuss.tchncs.de 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Just want to point out that Blagojevich is\was a democrat, and was taken down by a democrat administration.

[–] vividspecter@lemm.ee 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Kind of makes it worse almost. Trump isn't acting out of partisanship, but a desire to protect corrupt people like himself.

[–] thallamabond@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago

Rod Blagojevich, the former Democratic governor of Illinois, has also endorsed Trump. Blagojevich tried to sell Barack Obama's senate seat in 2008 after he was elected president, and he was incarcerated for eight years afterward. His sentence was commuted by Donald Trump during his time in office.

From Aug 2024

https://www.distractify.com/p/democrats-endorsing-trump-list

[–] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 27 points 1 month ago (1 children)

And all the morons on reddit are trying to convince me that Trump is just a purehearted hero trying to save us from corruption and that's why he has to break the law and ignore court orders and all of the other tyrannical things he's doing.

[–] Ghyste@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago

Goalposts moving so fast they defy the laws of physics...

It's incredible how consistent Trump is at doing the wrong thing.

[–] gibmiser@lemmy.world 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What possible message is there except corruption is good?

This is America's role model.

[–] Ghyste@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago

The message doesn't matter. The only question to ask is "what does Donnie get out of this?" Everything he does is for him in some way.

[–] Lasherz12@lemmy.world 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's wild how the same people who plant "Pritzker sucks" signs in their yard gladly gets behind Trump, who puts a big rubber stamp on the worst governor in recent memory. The running joke among them is Illinois is the most corrupt state and it's almost entirely because of Rod... The cognitive dissonance is astounding.

[–] Nougat@fedia.io 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Corruption in Illinois has a long history.

https://abc7chicago.com/illinois-governors-in-jail-jailed-who-did-time-served/5944787/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_in_Illinois

And it's kind of common knowledge that the Democratic machine in Illinois did plenty of dirty work in order to give the state to Kennedy. Like old school ballot stuffing election fraud shit.

Edit: Replaced link with more neutral sources.

[–] Lasherz12@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

While it's undoubtedly true the corruption goes further than Rod, it has never been worse than selling a senate seat vacated by a sitting president. Also, a conservative thinktank isn't where I prefer to read about history.

[–] Nougat@fedia.io 3 points 1 month ago

Oh I didn't even realize, I just clicked the first thing that looked okay and reviewed the facts - seems factual to me?

[–] AmidFuror@fedia.io 6 points 1 month ago

The former governor served eight years of a 14-year prison sentence before Trump commuted his sentence during his first term in early 2020. Trump’s decision faced opposition from some conservative members of Congress and White House advisers who warned the president that it would undercut his promise to “drain the swamp.”

[–] barkingspiders@infosec.pub 2 points 1 month ago