Headline of the Day

The U.S. Press Loves To Pretend Widespread Corruption Doesn't Exist

—Karl Bode, describing how our mainstream media studiously ignores rampant corruption in the United States

Even before Donald Trump and his minions turned up corruption to 11, the United States was remarkably corrupt by the standards of "First World" nations.

I just want you to pause and notice something.

The next time you're reading a news story about a particular area of U.S. dysfunction – whether it's gun control, health care, or air travel – notice if the reporter mentions, at literally any point, if corruption and unchecked corporate power sits squarely and undeniably at the heart of the problem.

Here's an example. Earlier this month the New York Times, considered by some to be the pinnacle of U.S. journalism, wrote this story about how the Trump-stocked Supreme Court was preparing to neuter the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to battle climate change (spoiler: they succeeded). 

………

But when the article proceeds toward what we're supposed to do next, you hit this gargantuan turd in the road:

A more definitive way to address the issue would be for Congress to weigh in. Democrats could pass legislation that defined greenhouse gases as air pollutants under the Clean Air Act, giving the E.P.A. the explicit authority to regulate them. Conversely, Republicans could enact legislation that said the opposite.

But in the half-century since Congress passed the Clean Air Act, it has never mustered the political will to decide this question. And it seems exceedingly unlikely to happen at a time when climate change has become such a polarizing topic.

Why this Congressional gridlock persists is left as an open question for the reader to puzzle through.

The reason we don't have effective protections for climate change (or functional gun control, or universal health care, or cheap broadband) is because the U.S. Congress is often too corrupt to function. Monied interests have polluted state and federal legislatures to the point they no longer serve the public interest.

(emphasis original)

It's all about the Benjamins.