ACORN Versus Serious Criminals: Defund Lockheed »
Posted By jovial 1 month, 3 weeks ago in Political Opinion
Among recipients of government money already convicted of serious misconduct, ACORN (had it been so convicted) wouldn't make it onto the list of the top 100. In fact, ACORN could receive 100 times the funding it does and still not make it onto the list.
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jovial
Grew up In Brooklyn. Joined the Navy in 1976 stayed in 10 years. Aircraft Electronics tech. Worked for Major Govt. contractor then settled in California ...
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jovial1 month, 3 weeks ago
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The link in the story is as follows.
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http://afterdowningstreet.org/sites/afterdowningst...-
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jovial1 month, 3 weeks ago
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Conservative bloggers and pundits steered clear of fraud, murder, selling weapons to our enemies, etc. Their main reason when i confronted them in the past was, "Well these companies do more good than bad" Now another domestic program comes under fire by those same conservatives that looked the other way during the Halliburton, and KBR scandals. The difference is striking. The scandal by the war profiteer companies was worse a hundred fold! The only distinction that i can see is ACORN helped people get registered to vote. Many of those voters are minorities and vote more times than not liberal. This has caused the right-wing to lash out at this agency, whilst ignoring the big-time scandals coming form those corporations that work in Iraq and other places. Another blatant example of hypocrisy and the Republican credo of "Win at all costs, even if it hurts American citizens in the process!"
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jovial1 month, 3 weeks ago
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http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/08/07/blackwater-...
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"Perhaps the most shocking of those charges — quoted by MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann on Thursday from the employees’ sworn declarations — is that Blackwater was guilty of using child prostitutes at its compound in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone and that owner Erik Prince knew of this activity and did nothing to stop it.
The declarations describe Blackwater as “having young girls provide ******** to Enterprise members in the ‘Blackwater Man Camp’ in exchange for one American dollar.” They add even though Prince frequently visited this camp, he “failed to stop the ongoing use of prostitutes, including child prostitutes, by his men.”
One of the statements also charges that “Prince’s North Carolina operations had an ongoing wife-swapping and sex ring, which was participated in by many of Mr. Prince’s top executives.” -
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jovial1 month, 3 weeks ago
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In spite of the scandal above guess what happened? Did you say defunding? Well if you did you are wrong here's what really happened. Their contract was extended.
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http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Blackwater/story?id=...
Did conservative bloggers and Congressman show any objections.....NO!
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hyperbola1 month, 3 weeks ago
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FTA:
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"""And you'll notice something else about the top 10 criminal companies receiving government contracts: they're all recipients of military contracts. They've sold weapons to national enemies, leaked radiation, poisoned the environment, defrauded the government, bribed officials, recklessly endangered soldiers, and dozens of other offenses. But they've also all been part of our largest illegal enterprise: wars of aggression, during which various contractors have engaged in rendition, torture, murder, assassination, prostitution, the production and use of illegal weapons, and a variety of other serious crimes.""
Lockheed is a prime example of the corrupt military/industrial companies that are bloodsucking leeches on America.-
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hyperbola1 month, 3 weeks ago
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And we shouldn't forget their corrupt involvement in sucking the US into the disastrous Iraq war.
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Lockheed Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
... Bruce Jackson is a perfect example of this. While vice president for strategy and planning for Lockheed from 1999 to 2002, Jackson, by his own account, was also "responsible for the foreign policy platform at the 2000 Republican National Convention," to which he was a delegate. (The platform involved a dramatic increase in defense spending.) His title at the convention was chair of the platform subcommittee on foreign policy. He also served as co-chairman of the finance commission of Bob Dole's 1996 campaign. Prior to joining Lockheed, Jackson had served as executive director of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), the think tank whose principles included Dick Cheney. PNAC served as the Bush administration's blueprint for preemptive war and authored a 1998 open letter to President Bill Clinton calling for military force to oust Saddam Hussein.
But forget Jackson. In 2002, he was on the outside. Stephen Hadley, looking out of the windows from his West Wing office, was on the inside. Sure, Hadley had the requisite government experience for a deputy national security advisor. He had been an assistant secretary of defense under Bush's dad. But he had been through the revolving door, too: Stephen Hadley, the point man for justifying the invasion of Iraq, had also lawyered at Shea & Gardner, whose clients included Lockheed.
Of course, all the frothing at the mouth about lobbyists, money and special interests can seem from outside the Beltway as much ado about nothing. The government hands out contracts. The beneficiaries or those who want to be beneficiaries buy steak dinners for the officials who hold the purse strings. Big deal. The problem, though, is that, upon closer scrutiny, this is not how the system works. It's actually much more sinister than that, allowing the interests of America to be subverted by the interests of corporate America. As you'll see here, your elected officials did not deliberate on how best to protect their constituents, decide bombing Iraq was the best way and then order some provisions and weapons. On the contrary, this is the story of how Lockheed's interests, as opposed to those of the American citizenry, set the course of U.S. policy after 9/11.....
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14307
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alanocu1 month, 3 weeks ago
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And this is how the left is (retarded, but true): “The problem isn’t what we did, it’s that you found out what we did.”
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Maybe that’s the way to handle things. That’s how they are handling the ACORN scandal: officials looking into charges over videotaping of illegal ACORN activity instead of the illegal ACORN activity.
I wonder how far this attitude could go. Or how well it would have worked in the past…
* Ted Kennedy: The problem isn’t that Mary Jo Kopechne died, it’s that you found out about it.
* Jeffrey Dahmer: The problem isn’t that I murdered 17 people and ate parts of some of them, it’s that you found out about it.
* That guy getting the ticket on the Interstate last week: The problem isn’t that I was traveling 25 miles an hour over the posted limit, it’s that you found out about it.
* The guy that spit in your food at the Waffle House: The problem isn’t that I spit in your food, it’s that you found out about it.
I wonder how many other ways this attitude could be used to excuse things?
Seriously, this shouldn't surprise anyone though. Liberalism is the ideology that "anything goes" when it comes to morality, especially if it involves astroglide.-
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jovial1 month, 3 weeks ago
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You Lie! Anything goes for conservatives is what you really mean. They did nothing whilst the big defense companies defrauded the U.S. government out of billions of dollars. They did nothing when Blackwater was going on shooting sprees and transporting underage teenage girls into Iraq for prostitution. They did nothing when these companies were buying and selling weapons with our enemies. Yet conservatives found the balls to scream all over the place, when ACORN got caught giving out bad advice to a fake "pimp and prostitute" and called for defunding of the organization.
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hyperbola1 month, 3 weeks ago
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More dumb winger slogans is the best you have?
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ACORN: The Most Cost-Effective Investment the Government (and Foundations) Have Ever Made
http://www.propeller.com/story/2009/09/28/acorn-th...
The real purpose of the right's attacks on ACORN is to destroy a remarkably successful 50-year-old grassroots model for defending the poor and workers.
ACORN is one of the few grassroots neighborhood organizations capable of wielding power on a national scale.
It is unique in the combination of strategies it uses: organizing, direct action, lawsuits, lobbying and the provision of direct services.
That ACORN is a federation of self-governing locals with a national board comprised largely of poor people seems to both amaze and gall the right.
ACORN has been a target of the right virtually since its founding. During the l980s and early 1990s, President George H.W. Bush's Department of Labor convened a grand jury to investigate ACORN's relationship to the progressive labor union SEIU......
....ACORN has reportedly received about $53 million since 1994 from the federal government, about $3.5 million a year. If so, it must be the most cost-effective investment the federal government has ever made, assuming the investment was made to help the poor.
...The recent video of an ACORN employee giving tax advice to a make-believe prostitute and her "pimp" to engage in a make-believe crime is certainly damning.
But we should compare the swift punitive reaction by Congress and the media to that video with their reactions to real-world tax advice given by huge accounting firms to the richest of us that resulted in real-world millions of foreclosures and millions more plunging into poverty.
We don't have the tape of executives at the giant accounting firm KPMG dreaming up a new intangible asset that would save its client WorldCom millions in state taxes.
The new asset was called "foresight of top management." Shortly thereafter, the foresight of WorldCom's top management resulted in a 25-year prison sentence for WorldCom's CEO and five years for its CFO.
On the anniversary of the September 2008 financial meltdown, a plaintive CNN headline asks, "Will any Wall Streeters go to jail for this? … Why vengeance over the financial crisis is so elusive."
Or consider the reaction by Congress and the media to cases where the misdeeds of profit-making businesses actually kill people.....
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Endoscopy1 month, 3 weeks ago
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Silly story Brought to us by the one and only jovial. Have to do the red herring issues to not talk about what ACORN has done. Lets just point our fingers elsewhere instead of dealing with the corruption in ACORN. Liberals always love this method of debate along with the ad hominem attack. Why is that? They have to point to massive companies that make ACORN look a mole hill. Then the attempt to paint the companies as evil is the way liberals love attack big companies. Have to draw attention away from their favorite organization ACORN. The real chart would to be to get a percent of these companies of the people who did wrong to the percent of people in ACORN who did wrong. Wanna bet who loses that one?
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jovial1 month, 3 weeks ago
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Let's talk about what Lockheed has done. You claim to be a conservative, so how is it alright to defraud the government out of billions of dollars. It seems you guys always seem to overlook those fraud cases, because deep down inside you know for a fact that the pointing out those fraud cases would have hurt your pro-war position.
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hyperbola1 month, 3 weeks ago
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Yep I'll bet. Corruption is systematic and endemic in far too many of our corporations, especially financial ones.
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How corporate P.R. works to kill healthcare reform
One of the reasons I left my job at CIGNA, where I headed corporate communications and was part of the Legal & Public Affairs division, was because I did not want to be involved in yet another P.R. and lobbying campaign to kill or gut reform. I finally came to question the ethics of what I had done and been a part of for nearly two decades to influence decision making and bill writing on Capitol Hill.
When I testified before the Senate Commerce Committee in late June, I told the senators how the industry has conducted duplicitous and well-financed P.R. and lobbying campaigns every time Congress has tried to reform our healthcare system, and how its current behind-the-scenes efforts may well shape reform in a way that benefits Wall Street far more than average Americans. I noted that, just as they did 15 years ago when the insurance industry led the effort to kill the Clinton reform plan, it is using shills and front groups to spread lies and disinformation to scare Americans away from the very reform that would benefit them most. The industry, despite its public assurances to be good-faith partners with the president and Congress, has been at work for years laying the groundwork for devious and often sinister campaigns....
http://www.propeller.com/story/2009/09/17/how-corp... -
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fiftynine1 month, 3 weeks ago
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Here's your chance endo...What has acorn done ? Did people break the law ? If they did and are convicted then i say jail them..period.Now will you say the same thing about the people and organizations of your party ? Are you a moral enough person to do that ? Then show us ..
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Another point...Some people in acorn that break the law doesn't make the entire organization bad does it ? If it does then you must agree that applies across the board..
When dub u said he knows people and fish can peacefully coexist does that mean that you and all repugs share in his stupidity ? Lets hear an answer endo ???????
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jordan111 month, 3 weeks ago
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Absolutely right. I've already said that no one in Congress raised an eyebrow to contractors employees murdering Iraqi's, shoddy workmanship electrocuting several of our troops, and those BS contractors are still on the payroll! This ACORN thing is BS.
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smithichie1 month, 3 weeks ago
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Military outsourcing to groups like Blackwater and Triple Canopy is literally leading to the deaths of our soldiers. A soldier coming in from patrol shouldn't face a greater danger to their lives by taking a shower.
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http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090928/scahill -
Global-WarmerComment removed: Hard Banned5 Replies
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tchef1 month, 3 weeks ago
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You know what? Let's just wait for the investigations to be over and see what is found. So far all investigations into Acorn have turned up little or no wrong doing by the organization. Can the same be said for the defense contractors?
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Global-WarmerComment removed: Hard Banned12 Replies
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CHAM1 month, 3 weeks ago
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Global-Warmer. I want to respond to Jovial.
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Thanks Jovial for this excellent post. Thanks for your comments. Thanks to Hyper for some very insightful information in his links. No thanks to the Party First Republicons who by their blather showed why the GOP is sinking fast.
Acorn was guilty of having some unethical employees who were immediately fired when exposed. The Neo-Con War Machine has murdered millions since WWII, stolen resources from Nations whenever they could, fleeced the public at will, but the one thing they can never be convicted of is helping people in a moral and ethical way. Acorn can be accused of helping people, big time, a thousand times more than any of the War Machines.
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saneman1 month, 3 weeks ago
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Not only do these companies receive government contracts, but these companies and every single major company has a sister nonprofit company which receives loads of money from the government each and every year. These sister nonprofit companies staff grant writers for the sole purpose of getting free money from us taxpayers. Its a racket and the ordinary Joe on the street doesn't even have a clue that this is going on right under their own noses.
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TonyByron1 month, 3 weeks ago
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Funny to see all the liberals scrambling to cover for or divert attention from the rot at Acorn.
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From the Rathke brothers to the board members to the lowest foot-soldiers, the organization is corrupt. That is why you saw the Senate and House OVERWHELMINGLY vote to defund them and the IRS and Census cutting ties. Local and state governments are suspending funds and/or investigating Acorn. Banks and other companies are also beginning to cut funding and ties. Everyone is running.
It's also funny that two college kids brought about the beginning of Acorn's downfall. Hopefully, the SEIU ties will also be brought to light. And maybe even the ties to some in the current administration.
Good times ;) -
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vader821 month, 3 weeks ago
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"David Swanson was communications coordinator for ACORN from 2000 to 2003"
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This article was written by an official from ACORN, could anyone truly expect it not to be biased. The article does make some good points however, I checked the link provided to show various infractions by government contractors, and it is undeniable that some have been involved in criminal activity. That being said, in all of the activities shown in the link legal action was taken. Lockheed Martin, Halliburton, etc. are all private companies who offer services to the United States government, and when they break the law they are held accountable. This is distinct from ACORN, which for all practical purposes is a Democrat PAC, receiving government funding. I believe this is the real issue regarding ACORN. Tax dollars should not go to "non-profits" with a characteristic political affiliation. It truly is apples and oranges to compare private companies to ACORN.-
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BB641 month, 3 weeks ago
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When do the feds open a RICO investigation into this organization? When to the Feds move in and subpoena everything. They've received Federal moneys for years, when does the IRS go in and invest Acorn? It's pretty clear from the last few weeks of hidden tapes and recordings Acorn is little more than organized crime. It's time to take them down, the produce nothing useful that other charities could do better if they received their funding.
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BB641 month, 3 weeks ago
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I am troubled by both sides here. There is no excuse screwing the taxpayers. Most of the companies listed are DoD suppliers. What did they do and how can we correct them. Was it overcharges, late deliveries, failed products? Show what they did. Especially Lockheed. Of those listed, they're one of the most honest firms to work with. They compete with one of our divisions and they are very honest.
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On Acorn, like most here, I've seen the dozen or so videos showing their approval and support of someone coming to their offices and asking how to set up child prostitution brothels. We're talking kiddie porn brothels! Add to that, Acorn was told the kids would be illegal aliens. How did Acorn respond? Asking the Acorn "tax expert" recommend how to falsify tax returns, licenses, bank loan forms, and just about anything else to avoid laws that restrict that form of business. Child prostitution is supported by Acorn. In one they even had the Acorn official ask about pricing and offer to help smuggle the kids into the USA. The other thing that was priceless, Acorn workers suggested the kids apply for welfare and any number of hand outs you and I would pay for.
So tell me, I think both are bad but I think having a nonprofit organization funded by taxpayers teaching people how to break almost every law out there including child prostitution is far worse than the what the others have done. The author likes to lump firms convicted of misconduct to Acorn's support of child prostitution. This article is a joke and not worthy of Propeller. -
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joeblowe1 month, 3 weeks ago
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Lockheed, Boeing, other defense contractors didn't apply for government funds on the premise that they were non-partisan community organizations. Further, it certainly APPEARS that the entire ACORN organization is corrupt, coast to coast. Pretty much qualifying as organized crime in fact. Government money should NOT be used to support organized crime. (except for the actual government, of course - no getting around that, I'm afraid...) Which is NOT to say that ANY person or company receiving public funds shouldn't be held to account for misuse of those funds. INCLUDING the entire federal bureaucracy.
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jovial1 month, 3 weeks ago
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The same could be said about KBR. Where on the hearings by Congress they disavowed any wrongdoing. So why can't we broadbrush KBR as a criminal organization and defund them as well? Acorn has done more good in communities than you could possibly imagine. This is a political vendetta to destroy this organization and the author is asking why there is such a double standard that others are committing crimes and getting off the hook. No one died as a result of someone giving advice to a pimp or prostitute. People have died on the corporate (military) side and not one conservative ever showed any concern. Hypocrites!
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jovial1 month, 3 weeks ago
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Conservatives looked the other way about this recent event in the news as well.
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http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/09/18/iraq-contra... -
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vader821 month, 3 weeks ago
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Jovial, According to the link in the article, legal action has is taken against these entities when they break the law. I'm all for upholding the law, but you fail to see the distinction between the nature of a private company selling its product or services in contrast to a non-profit asking for a handout. As I stated previously, ACORN acts as a PAC for the democratic party as a whole, and it is unfair for tax payer dollars to fund this, even aside from their questionable actions. Yes, it is true that lobbyists from various government contractors may contribute to political campaigns, but these are private companies.
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jovial1 month, 3 weeks ago
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I don't see such a big distinction. They both get government bucks. It seems that since one organization is affiliated with Democrats, it has been defunded. Yet the corporations can claim corporation status and do horrible things a hundredfold worse and say it's just a company so let them be. Thanks for admitting that this was politically motivated, however.
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CHAM1 month, 3 weeks ago
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Corporations are held accountable. No kidding? Corporations pay Billions of dollars in fines, then go back to killing, stealing, and swindling the average Joe.
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Which do you choose:
People who give advice to pimps on how to swindle
or
People ( Corporations ) who actually do swindle to the tune of Trillions of dollars and you poor saps ( Republicans ) just kiss the ground that your corrupt, immoral, unethical organization walks on.
And they're walking on your backs too - Repubs
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