American plutocracy corrupting government; Public consequences of plutocracy; Weak Democrats

As we all know, American politics operates as a pay-to-play system. Playing means favorably influencing policy in return for the donor’s free speech in the form of cash contributions. The WaPo reports about the current wave of corruption of congress by the crypto industry:

As crypto cash floods Washington, 

Congress eyes gentler regulations

Major crypto firms are fighting to remake federal law with an expensive lobbying campaign that has left no part of American politics untouched

Cryptocurrency companies and investors have spent at least $149 million over the past four years to thwart tough regulation, elect new allies to Congress and defeat lawmakers seen as potential threats, a campaign that culminated this week with a House vote to soften federal oversight of the embattled industry.

The wide array of financial backers include Coinbase and Ripple, which the U.S. government recently sued for allegedly violating federal rules meant to protect investors from harm. Even as they have come under withering scrutiny, these and other major crypto firms have fought not only to rebuff the charges but to remake the laws entirely, mounting an expensive lobbying effort that has left no part of Washington untouched.

On Capitol Hill, the industry has shelled out more than $60 million to shape federal policy since the start of 2021, according to filings analyzed by The Washington Post and data from OpenSecrets and Public Citizen, two money-in-politics watchdogs. The lobbying campaign helped spur the House on Wednesday to advance the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act, the first major piece of legislation on cryptocurrency to clear either chamber of Congress.

As usual for Washington, money always talks and everything else usually walks.

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The Hill reports about social effects arising from the only moral value, profit, that brass knuckles capitalism values and lives by: 

Water systems warn Americans could soon see major rate hikes to 

filter out toxic ‘forever chemicals’

In exchange for cleaner [less toxic] water, Americans around the nation may soon have to pay hefty prices.

Water systems are starting to warn residents of massive rate hikes as they prepare to install technology to filter out toxic chemicals in a family known as PFAS.

Utilities from South Florida to upstate New York have warned customers that they could see significant price increases after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mandated that they remove the substances, which have been linked to a number of cancers and other diseases, from their systems.

Last month, the EPA said it will require utilities whose water systems contain high levels of six types of PFAS to remove them from the water.

PFAS, which stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of thousands of chemicals that have been used to make a variety of nonstick and waterproof products and firefighting foam.

The substances have also become ubiquitous in the environment, due in part to the fact that they tend to persist for a long time instead of breaking down.

Exposure to these so-called forever chemicals has been linked to increased risks of prostate, kidney and testicular cancers, weakened immune systems, high cholesterol, and developmental issues in children.

Now, for the first time, utilities around the nation will be required to get them out of their drinking water to prevent customers’ exposure. But that will come at a price.

Last month, officials with Broward County, a populous South Florida locale, warned residents that those on county water could see “double or triple water rates for users.”

Obviously, not all businesses are brass knuckles capitalist. But nearly all the big ones are and most of the medium sized ones are. The profit moral value can be described pretty accurately like this:

Make as much profit as possible as fast as possible, privatize it, and trickle it up to elite wealthy investors and owners, while limiting risk, accountability and cost by denying and socializing social, human and environmental damage and harms.

 

In the unregulated capitalist US, PFAS were found to be useful and immediately put on the market to sell for profit. Adverse human and environmental effects were either not researched, or they were found but denied and/or hidden from public knowledge. 

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Politico reports about the abject weakness in Biden and the balance of power in the Democratic Party:

Biden has no plan to touch the Alito controversy, 

even with a 10-foot pole

The president and his team have decided not to engage on a story that progressives say demands their engagement

Top Democrats have no plans to investigate reports that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito flew an upside-down American flag outside his home after the 2020 election. And Joe Biden has no desire to even talk about it.

Amid growing demands from the base of the party to call out the actions of several conservative justices and embrace reforms of the court, both the president and the White House have stayed mum.

Biden has publicly warned that Republicans are undermining democratic norms and threatening its institutions. But he is reluctant to extend that argument to the judicial branch, aides say, fearful it could be cast as politically motivated and undermine his broader effort to portray himself as a champion for strengthening democratic institutions. They believe it’s crucial to maintain a clear contrast with Donald Trump, who has readily attacked an independent judiciary for political gain.

That exemplifies why I see Biden and his brand of Democratic Party politics as center right, politically weak. In my opinion, those people are not seriously committed to defending democracy or civil liberties such as voting rights and abortion rights. If a Democratic Party USSC justice did what Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas have done, the authoritarian radical right Republican Party would be screaming bloody murder in self-righteous moral outrage. But when Republicans are corrupt and hyper-partisan like all six of the Republican rotters on the bench are now, there is not a squeak of protest from high level center-right politicians like Biden. 

In my opinion, if Trump wins in November and we lose our democracy, liberties and rule of law, it will be because corrupt, center right Democrats in power were unwilling to even try to mount an effective defense. In their minds they are valiant defenders of democracy, liberty and the law. In my mind, they are weak, wussified and self-deluded or naive at best, but sympathetic to corruption and authoritarianism at worst.