I Fear for the Future of the USA if We Do Not Vote in Favor of the Rule of Law this Year

The USA has enjoyed a long run of economic success. That is due to many factors, but a very large factor is that the rule of law in the USA was more trustworthy in the USA than elsewhere. That is at risk given how systemically the Republican Party has packed the courts with those from carefully crafted lists of judges supporting extreme judicial activism.

That process has been underway for several decades and those actions have reached a point where the rule of law as we have know it is in great danger. If we allow the even more extreme Republicans that have taken control of the party in the last 6 years to gain the presidency and retain their positions in the USA house and senate I fear the USA will not resemble what we have known in the last 100 years in the next 10 years.

I cannot fathom how anyone seeking political office in the USA that doesn't strongly speak out against someone with the horrendous track record Donald Trump has amassed during his life and the last 8 years can get even 5% of the USA population to consider voting for them. However, the USA public has shown that my beliefs are very different than many, at least it seems about 40% or maybe even more, voters.  I fear we could not only elect him but also those that have not strongly spoken out against his hundreds of violations of criminal, ethical and other abuses against our society.

Details on some of the many abuses (frankly even 5% of which should disqualify anyone from supporting such an individual for any political office and most certainly from the most powerful political office in the USA):

• Read the full Trump indictment on mishandling of classified documents - Evidence of Trump’s Knowledge and Involvement in Retaining Mar-a-Lago Documents 
• Jan. 6 committee’s summary of its final report - Jan. 6 panel sheds light on the 187 minutes Trump went dark during Capitol siege - Jan. 6 committee's final report finds Trump was 'central cause' of attack on U.S. Capitol
• ‘High crimes and misdemeanors': Dems unveil impeachment charges against Trump - The Trump-Ukraine impeachment inquiry report, annotated
• Republican Liz Cheney calls Trump 'clearly unfit for future office' - Democracy is at stake if Trump is reelected, Liz Cheney warns
• President Trump’s staggering record of uncharged crimes
• A Guide to the Criminal Cases Against Donald Trump
• These are the 10 episodes Mueller investigated for obstruction of justice
• Among 160 years of presidential scandals, Trump stands alone
• New Trump scandal shows the depth of his assault on America’s democratic foundations 
• Trump’s administration can’t clean house because its leader is too soaked in scandal
• 13 Trump Scandals You Forgot About.  Any other year, one of these could have derailed a presidency.
• Lest We Forget the Horrors: A Catalog of Trump’s Worst Cruelties, Collusions, Corruptions, and Crimes
• New York jury finds Donald Trump sexually abused E Jean Carroll in civil suit
• ‘The Daily Show’ List of Trump’s Top 100 Scandals Continues
  
• Chris Christie Drops Long List of Misdeeds When Asked If The Trump Family Is Corrupt
• The Shockingly Long List of Corrupt Officials and Political Allies Pardoned by Trump
• A lengthy list of Trump's disastrous business deals
• Trump Organization charged Secret Service as much as $1,185 per night to stay at Trump properties 
• Trump received at least $7.8 million in payments from foreign governments as president
• Trump paid $2 million judgment for misusing his charity
• Trump University: A Look at an Enduring Education Scandal
• At least 60 lawsuits, along with hundreds of liens, judgments, and other government filings document people who have accused Trump and his businesses of failing to pay them for their work. Among them: a dishwasher in Florida. A glass company in New Jersey. A carpet company. A plumber. Painters. Forty-eight waiters. Dozens of bartenders and other hourly workers at his resorts and clubs, coast to coast. Real estate brokers who sold his properties. And, ironically, several law firms that once represented him in these suits and others.
• Texas town continues to demand $500,000 from Trump four years after hosting rally
• Ten city governments from Arizona to Pennsylvania say the president’s political committee has failed to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars that the Trump campaign owes.
• Trump paid little to no federal income taxes over many years as he piled up losses and debt
  

These links added to the original post as new evidence on the depth of the corruption, undermining of democracy, and unfitness for duty are learned:

• 11 damning details in Jack Smith’s new (Oct 2024) brief in the Trump election case
  
• No person has ever posed more of a danger to the United States than the man who served as the 45th President of the United States according to General Mark Milley, the US Army general who Donald Trump appointed as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
• The U.S. Army said an employee at Arlington National Cemetery who tried to "ensure adherence" to rules that prohibit political activities at the cemetery "was abruptly pushed aside" by Trump staffers
  
• "Depressed, disgusted and horrified": These lifelong Republicans say they're finally done with Trump
  
• Over 100 Republican National Security Leaders Endorse Vice President Harris
  
• ‘Vengeful’ Trump withheld disaster aid and will do so again, ex-officials warn
  
• Network of Georgia election officials strategizing to undermine 2024 result
  
• The former president spent the weekend spewing dangerous nonsense at a rally. The press spent its weekend polishing it into palatability.

There are an unprecedented number of officials President Trump appointed that have withheld their endorsement of him based on the his abuses.  This is yet another sign of how unfit he is for office and yet some people continue to ignore the incredibly dangerous warning signs. If we don't wake up and take action to support those that will protect the USA from those supporting such an unfit person from taking office we will suffer greatly for our failure.

• List of Former Donald Trump Officials Refusing to Endorse Him

We need everyone that cares about the future of the USA to vote this year for the Democrats that have shown they care about protecting the USA from the dangers we face from political extremists.  We need to make clear with an overwhelming showing at the ballot box that such extremists are not going to be tolerated in the USA.  Only if we do that can we return to the debate about what policies our country should pursue. 

This year the only thing that matters is saving the future of our country.  Then we can have the Republican Party decide to promote those that will first concern themselves with our country, rule of law, democracy and the constitution and then after those things we all agree on they can provide alternative policy options that we can chose from.  Or we can have a new party take over the position the Republican Party used to hold.

If we as a society fail to provide a clear victory to those promoting democracy the rule of law and our constitution the dangers to the USA are enormous.  Those that think just because the USA has survived challenges before we can just not worry that much about the terrifying behavior of those leading the Republican Party the last 10 years are taking a much larger risk than I think they understand.

Unmasking the Anti-Democracy Agenda of Project 2025

Many people just want to hope they can avoid thinking about the dangers we face since in the past we have survived dangerous situations. I think we did survive because enough people cared to confront the difficult challenges they faced and take a stand for what they knew was right, even if that meant going against what was easiest for them in that moment.

From This Life-Long Republican to Another (a post on Reddit)

This isn't about Republicans vs. Democrats. This is about corruption, religious extremism (nationalism), the reputation of the United States on the global stage, and the legitimacy of the Presidential Office and democracy. It's about upholding the Constitution, Woman's Rights, my Daughter's rights, and future Granddaughter's rights. It's about our national security and maintaining our position as the country "you do not fck with." For me, this is about not letting a sick minded narcissist unravel the wisdom of our founding fathers so he can squander the American Empire and our economy... just like he squandered his own father's real estate empire he inherited and drove himself into bankruptcy repeatedly... then defrauded banks along the way with lies about the portfolios value, hiding his tax returns from us all and committing fraud while he slept with a porn star while his pregnant wife sat at home alone, preparing to give birth thinking she was "the only one for him."  ...

The USA Should be Ashamed of Who We have Elected

The bill passed by the House of Representatives in the USA today to cut taxes for the very rich and eliminate heath care coverage for tens of millions of people was a disgrace.

Every Republican who voted for this abomination must be held accountable

I won’t mince words. The health-care bill that the House of Representatives passed this afternoon, in an incredibly narrow 217-to-213 vote, is not just wrong, or misguided, or problematic or foolish. It is an abomination. If there has been a piece of legislation in our lifetimes that boiled over with as much malice and indifference to human suffering, I can’t recall what it might have been. And every member of the House who voted for it must be held accountable.

He is right. We have to stop voting in such reprehensible individuals.

The last 2 administrations have been very disappointing. The actions of the administration and the Republicans in the House and Senate now though are taking things to a level not seen since at least Watergate and maybe back to McCarthism.

It is shocking to see the country so let down by those we vote in and day after day see that disgrace trumped by even greater failures of basic decency, honesty or competence.

The Continued Fall of the USA's Political Leaders that We Give Power To

A few days into the new President's administration and it is as bad as anyone paying attention would have expected. It is very sad the USA elected Trump and the Senators and Representatives standing with him. The consequences of electing Trump and the others that support his actions and that are choosing not to protect the USA constitution will be very damaging.

Photo of the White House by John Hunter. This house should be a place worthy of respect (even for those with political differences) but the current occupants are straining that hope.

As a kid in high school I couldn't understand how the USA could fail as badly as McCarthyism; Japanese internment; Nixon's enemies list, watergate etc.. Other failures I would witness later, while a shockingly abhorrent, such as the Iran-Contra scandal flaunting of the rule of law and the failure to do anything about it I saw as sad but not surprising.

The USA we created isn't a binary no-Trump = good v. yes-Trump = bad. The current situation was created by us voting for who we did for decades. The actions of the people we put in power, created the system where Trump could be elected and have huge support from the others we elected.

There were many warning signs of how bad it was during the last 2 administrations. True, it is much worse now, but we were on the path here. But we have created a toxic system that was intentionally shaped by those we granted political power. They shaped a system that ignore facts, devolve discussion into 1984 News Speak, ignore the rule of law when it was convenient for whoever was on your side in the battle for power, pretend complex realities have simple solutions, badly distorted democracy with unconscionable gerrymandering, etc..

The current president and his leadership team certainly are taking the toxic situation created by those we elected for the last few decades and are taking it extremes even more damaging than those that designed it wished for it to be. But when you create and promote a dumpster fire in order to get whatever your short term desires are you can't disown responsibility for the damage that dumpster fire continues to do after you.

Photo of the USA capital by John Hunter. If those elected officials voting in this building the next few years continue as they have done in the few decades we are going to suffer greatly for the mistake of electing them.

The kids of kids today are going to be wondering the same thing about us that I did about our McCarthyism, Japanese internment... supporting ancestors. It is devastating that for decades we allowed our political parties to destroy the fundamental aspects of what the USA should stand for.

The challenges we face as a society are great enough without continuing to put in power the people that have lead the USA to the extremely sad state of affairs we see today with the actions of the current president and his supporters in the White House, on Capital Hill and in the State houses and legislatures around the country.

Sure the current president is a huge mistake we will suffer greatly for voting into office. But the problem is much deeper than just him. The political leadership has been allowed to rot to the core. He is merely a symptom of how bad we have allowed things to get.

We need to fundamentally change who we give power to if we want change. We need to provide power to those that seek to fix problems. We need to give power to those that acknowledge scientific and economic reality. We need to elect people that appose hate. We need to elect people that care more for the country than for personal aggrandizement and reward. We need to elect people that care more for the country than following the orders of their party.

Things are much worse today than a year ago but if we believe the problem is the current president we will fail to address the real problem. He is just a symptom of how messed up our country is. Replace him with his Vice President or most of the other leadership of his party and maybe a few of the most extreme embarrassments to the country would go away but the core of what they stand for doesn't change. The president is not a King or Dictator. The Courts, House and Senate can (and the Constitution depends on them doing so) block actions that damage the country. But the House and Senate are not doing so.

As the current system has evolved the politicians state a few words about they believe in such and such and don't support this other thing and then they go ahead and vote for this other thing while undermining such and such. They have created a system in order to promote the belief that what they actually do isn't what matters but what they say. That way they can fully support actions that they claim to not support. Sure the current president is even less concerned with the truth but he is just extending the policy of News Speak that became the standard practice for both parties over the last few decades.

If we are lucky a few Republicans will stand with the USA and the Constitution and join Democrats that mainly will appose just because the current president isn't from their party and we will avoid some of the worst of what we can expect. But we may very well not be lucky for a several years. Being stuck in a position where we have to hope for a few politicians to be courageous is not a good position to be in given the poor performance of our politicians the last few decades.


Related: Living Through Your Society Becoming a Police State (2013) - Security Theatre Thinking is Damaging the USA (2013) - Freedom Increasingly at Risk (2008) - The Aim of Modern Day Political Parties is To Scare Donors Into Giving Cash (2014) - Selling Out the Country: We are Electing the Wrong People to Control Our Government (2015) - SWAT Raids – Systemic Failures? (2007) - Anti-Market Policies from Our Talking Head and Political Class (2011) - We Need to be More Capitalist and Less Cronyist (2011) - Preaching False Ideas to Men Known to be Idiots (2010) - Adding More Banker and Politician Bailouts is not the Answer (2012) - Failure to Regulate Financial Markets Leads to Predictable Consequences (2009) - Don't Excuse Immoral Looters (2009) - Lobbyists Keep Tax Off Billion Dollar Private Equities Deals and On For Our Grandchildren (2007)

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Experimentation and Evidence Based Decision Making is Missing in Washington DC

Comments on: Solution-Jumping in the 21st Century

I found in Piketty’s book Capital in the Twenty-first Century... a lack of a clear problem statement, a lack of thorough problem breakdown, no clear target, at best tenuous links between root cause analysis and proposed solutions, and a lack of consensus-building effort around the preferred countermeasure. To be fair, Piketty never intended this book to be a practical problem solving primer. The topic he is addressing, of building a more fair and stable society through greater wealth for a larger number of people, is vitally important for our future. It deserves the best minds and the best approaches to problem solving. However, I am grateful both for the information and ideas presented in the book and for its problem solving flaws, as these flaws serve as a teaching tool for lean learners on how not to do practical problem solving.

I agree with much of what Jon said. One of the big problems with our current government and leadership of our governments is the lack of policies based on evidence. Policies should be experimented with and effective ones expanded and ineffective ones changed or abandoned.

There is a possibility for more of that within essentially our current political and government system. But there are big limits without some serious changes in that system. My guess is they would not have to be legal, but they would have to be huge. Fundamentally politicians and the political parties would have to put the well being of the country ahead of their own pursuit of power and cash.

It is hard to see that as likely given the current parties. And we don't seem to have any desire to vote out those people and put in people that put the well being of the country first. There are lots of ways the system encourages that behavior, still honorable people could stand up to pressures to be corrupted (however relying on that honorable nature of leaders has not proven very effective in human history).

In order to start moving to a more evidence based decision making system fairly fundamental changes are required in who is given power within the system. The current system gives power to those who can gain and wield influence and power. Those who can effectively improve the well being of the country don't gain much say in the current system. Until that dynamic is changed I am skeptical practical improvement methods will gain much sway.

There is a huge amount of room for improvement that has nearly no political ideology behind it. Granted in the current system everything has the political ideology angle emphasized to the hilt. There may well be political disagreements about the methods used but doing things like

- educating our kids
- paving our roads
- we can get medical care that is safe and effective (drug are reliable, experts are knowledgeable, hospitals are operated safely...)
- policing our streets
- providing health care to veterans
- operating our national parks
- ensuring the food we eat is safe (from things like e-coli)
- etc.

are things 90+% of the population agree we should do well. If we could use evidence based methods to have our government help be sure our society was having our needs met we would be better off. The political decisions about methods are going to get messy in some contentious areas. But we would be much better off if primarily we operated to produce the best results and only allowed politics to take the primary focus when it was really a contentious debate. Now we default to crony capitalism style political maneuvering and only rarely let evidence based methods seek to provide the best results for us.

Related: The estate tax is the tax most aligned with capitalism - The Aim of Modern Day Political Parties is To Scare Donors Into Giving Cash - USA Congress Further Aids Those Giving Them Cash – Risks Economic Calamity Again - "Bring Me Solutions Not Problems (“Having no problems is the biggest problem of all.” – Taiichi Ohno)

Selling Out the Country - We are Electing the Wrong People to Control Our Government

Sadly the corruption of the USA political parties has been growing dramatically the last few decades. It is true they have always had a fair amount of corruption and a bit longer ago they were even more corrupt. But the ethics that had been growing that corruption was bad and should be reduced has been decimated by the leadership of both parties the last few decades.

Warren Buffet provided more comments about the damage being done to the country by this corruption.

With Citizens United and other decisions that enable the rich to contribute really unlimited amounts, that actually tilts the balance even more toward the ultra-rich…The unlimited giving to parties, to candidates, really pushes us more toward a plutocracy. They say it’s free speech, but somebody can speak 20 or 30 million times and my cleaning lady can’t speak at all.

I am very frustrated by us continuing to elect people that sell out the country for their person gains (both as politicians and even more importantly staff). The politicians couldn't sell out the country if their staff were not also bought and paid for (normally most completely by the revolving door of huge salaries on completion of selling out the country for the benefit of those paying you huge salaries). The advertising cash for politicians is important but less so than the ability to corrupt the staff.

The corruption, corrupts the entire process. If the parties and staff cared about the country they would not go along with much of the selling out of the country. The differences on tactics to benefit the country would still be in conflict. But if we had patriots in positions of power they couldn't be paid to sell out the country in this instance and then we will let you sell out the country in this other instance to earn your pay (from those corrupting them).

There really is little to do about it until the political scene is much different. As long as the parties are lead by people happy to sell out the country and we continue to elect them things won't change. The process of changing that is difficult. There is a system that re-inforces this corrupt systems continuation. With so much of the power structure so corrupt you can't do much with the few crumbs around the edges that are not interested in selling out the country for personal gain.

And when the public accepts absolutely pitiful journalism and doesn't pay attention to the few worthwhile efforts to look at what is going on it is hard to have people learn about the deeply embedded corruption. The parties play a game of distraction between themselves which when the journalists and public allow to set the conditions for discussion puts the issue of embedded corruption across the board of the political establishment off the table.

To some extent the embarrassing details of the extent of some corruption can be used pressure to reduce the level (not change the system) of corruption. I have a pipe dream that the continued evidence of such wide spread and thorough corruption finally seeping into the understanding of the public, but I really don't believe this will happen - I just hope it does. For now the only real hope is limited the scale of corruption by publicizing the worst and easiest to understand corruption.

To some extent I look to help shine the light on the corruption of the political process (mostly in the USA) on the cash for votes subreddit. I would have thought things like the absolutely horrid practices of Comcast, At&T, Verizon... would at least stop the political parties from acting in the same corrupt way they do with everything for those organization that have actively caused so much pain to so many in the USA. It is a sign of how bad the corruption is that even those companies easily buy majorities of both parties who happily profess that those companies are deserving of favors. When such obvious sell out are so widespread you can be certain the level of other corruption is beyond comprehension.

The damage this does to the USA is enormous.

The current political parties are selling out the country, it isn't quite as noticeable as if they attempted to auction off the Louisiana Purchase for the benefit of themselves, their staffs and their friends but it is doing as much damage as that would do.

Related: The Aim of Modern Day Political Parties is To Scare Donors Into Giving Cash - Reducing Corruption - Research by Princeton and Northwestern Professors Shows USA Political System Very Focused on Doing What Rich Want Done - Lobbyists Keep Tax Off Billion Dollar Private Equities Deals and On For Our Grandchildren - Monopolies and Oligopolies do not a Free Market Make - Anti-Market Policies from Our Talking Head and Political Class

HP Leaders Once Again Caught in Corruption Scandal

Hewlett-Packard seems destine to continue to have extremely bad behavior by those chosen to lead the company. At some point they need to appoint a board with the ethics and moral compass to take the proper actions and the competence to take effective action.

Hewlett-Packard Admits to International Bribery and Money Laundering Schemes

Hewlett-Packard has admitted to creating and using slush funds for bribes, money laundering, and clandestine “bag of cash” handoffs in order to profiteer off of lucrative government contracts in Russia, Poland, and Mexico, according to court documents.

HP’s guilty plea carries with it a $108 million penalty — a combination of SEC penalties, as well as criminal fines and forfeitures paid out to the Department of Justice. Thus far no criminal charges have been brought against American HP executives. The multi-agency investigation, which was conducted by multi-national law enforcement partners, the FBI, IRS, and SEC, has revealed kleptocracies in the three foreign governments and corruption and dishonesty among HP corporate fat cats.

I have written before about the corruption on the HP board and other bad behavior. Such a shame for a company that once was ethical and produced value for society.

Related: Geo-obsolense from anti-global HP (in addition to planned [coded-in] obsolescence HP breaks customers products based on geography - HP Poor Service – Industry Standard? (2006) - $8,000 Per Gallon Ink from HP (2007) - Another Year of CEO’s Taking Hugely Excessive Pay (in 2008 HP CEO took 7.4% of corporate profits personally before being tossed due to ethical failings). - Bad Behavior at HP (2006)

The People We Elect Recently Are Dramatically Falling Us

Bill Moyers is a great journalist. He has done a great job, for decades, doing what great journalists do to help a country - shining the light on our society and what our politicians are doing. We desperately need more people like him and more institutions that promote real journalism.

Sadly we elect politicians that then let special interest and crazy extremists in their party dictate everything that is done. And sadly we watch special interest produced pabulum like Fox. As Bill Moyers states this stuff is consistently so full of lies and falsehoods no sensible person could consider it even up to the standard worthy of contempt. It isn't good enough to even be contemptible. It is a very sad commentary on how foolish many of our are that Fox is actually tolerated. The other mainstream news is bad but Fox isn't even in the same galaxy. That a country has a news source with more than 1% market share (having crazy extremists is normal and isn't a bad commentary on a country) even remotely as bad as Fox is an extremely bad commentary on that country.

I find both parties very disappointing. But the Republicans have become so bad so apposed to debate, discourse, thought, solutions, science, liberty, society, working together... that I am close to losing faith in the entire party.

None of them seem willing to stand up for the country. They are all either the fools pumping what some lobbyist tells them or the cynical politician unwilling to stand up for their country because they care more about pleasing their most extreme elements in their party than the country. I understand that standing up to extremists can be challenging. It is one of those traits that is necessary for political leaders though. They need to be willing to stand up for the country even if that means making their friends and colleagues unhappy. Even if those people threaten to make their lives difficult if they stand up for what they believe.

I understand most politicians will just take the easy way out. We don't elect many thoughtful, courageous, leaders. We can't expect thoughtful, courage, actions from most of them. But for a party to be completely missing any of them who have any clout is a serious problem, as I see it. The Republicans have let extremists dictate so much for so long that they created a much more difficult climate. To stand up to the crazy extremist actions now requires much more than would be required if you hadn't let them run wild for more than a decade.

I think the extreme elements can play a vital role when the sensible center is called out for just implementing what the lobbyists pay both parties for. But the extreme on the Republican side for about the last 15 years has been dictating policy and implementing whatever the lobbyists tell them to.

A few years of cowardly behavior by an entire party is frustrating but, given the low quality of leaders we elect, isn't surprising. Over a decade of such behavior though is very close to an unforgivable sin.

The Democrats are not doing well, in fact they are doing horribly. But compared to the Republicans for the last 15 years the Democrats look almost tolerable. The overriding problem, as I have seen it, has been that both parties together have been doing an extremely lousy job for the last 30 years. But the Republicans have become so unhinged from reality and unwilling to govern that it is getting close to the point where the main problem is going to be them, if that hasn't already happened.

It is a very sad state of affairs.

Related: We Continue to Vote for Those that Sell Out the Country for Cash Gifts - Living Through Your Society Becoming a Police State - Security Theatre Thinking is Damaging the USA - Real Journalism Exposes Bail Bond Corruption - Lobbyists Keep Tax Off Billion Dollar Private Equities Deals and On For Our Grandchildren - Money Is Corrupting Our Political Process - Anti Liberty Sentiment in Congress

Universities Again Abandon Fans/Mission to Increase Pay to Administrative Staff/Coaches

If a business wants to limit access in order to increase revenue that is their choice.  When a university wants to limit access to their sports teams to increase revenue that is their choice.  But what really happens with all the millions of increased revenue schools get from football and basketball?  Essentially it goes to pay coaches and staff more money.  And they can spend more on fancy weight rooms and the like.  That is it.  

The schools don't use the millions to lower the ever increasing costs students must pay.  They don't tell donors to stop giving money because they have gotten so much by selling rights to athletics.  They don't lower the price of tickets to the games - in fact they mainly have raised them.

So the tradeoff for schools in deciding to remove March Madness games (including in the NCAA final four) and bowl games from broadcast television to massively overpriced cable TV is the tradeoff between fans and paying coaches and administrators even more than the extremely large salaries they get now (many university football programs have many assistant coaches paid more than any professors at the school).

Blocking alumni and fans from watching on broadcast TV by limiting those who can watch to those paying massively inflated cable TV bill makes perfect sense for a business trying to maximize the income they can take from fans.  I have enjoyed college basketball and put up with the greedy behavior by the administrators and coaches of these programs but I think it is time to give up and focus on other sources of recreation.

I have given up on others who seek to maximize their income to such an extent it destroys the experience.  I think the level of greed from the coaches and staff that have gotten the schools to put huge payments to those people above alumni and fans has risen to such a level as to make even college basketball (which I really liked) not worth the time.  It is a sad state of affairs.

TBS will now air national semifinals in 2014, ’15

CBS and Turner announced Tuesday that the 2014 and 2015 national semifinals would be aired on TBS rather than CBS.
...
Cable subscription fees, which over-the-air networks don’t collect, are a driving factor in who can afford these rights and why prices for them keep climbing. As long as all cable viewers, regardless of interest in sports, continue to subsidize sports watchers, this is how things are going to work.

Related: Penn State Scandal is Horrendous and Points to the Very Deep Corruption of Our Leaders - Many schools continue on the ego driven spiraling costs - Harvard Steps Up Defense Against Abusive Journal Publishers

Reducing Corruption

Corruption is a significant problem.  It directly reduces the lifestyle people deserve and it greatly impacts economic progress.  Poor countries often are hampered by a large amount of petty corruption and large political corruption.

It seems to me corruption normally reduce as more wealth is created in the society.  As more people have power it is harder to enforce petty corruption against them.  And the effort taken to extract corrupt gains can be productively deployed more effectively to get higher gains doing less corrupt things.  So if you are competent you go earn money by providing value.  Leaving bozos and super lazy people to be corrupt who are not very good at anything they try so they are lame at being corrupt too.

Obviously this doesn't work perfectly but it seems to me that the correlation between wealth (especially with good wealth distribution) and reduced corruption is high.  It is true this is a dynamic process and what leads to what is not as clear - as one gets better normally the other does.

I do believe one good strategy is just to pursue economic growth and good things will happen.  It can be pretty ugly at first - it might not seem to be working.  One thing that happens is there is so much more wealth that at first corruption can seem to be growing because the corrupt are richer than ever.  But I think, even then, the level of corruption is really going down.  It is a lower proportion of the economy even though it grows in absolute terms at first.  Over time 10-20 (or more) years significant declines are made as those with power are not willing to tolerate systems burdened by huge levels of corruption.

A free press is a huge help.  Strong support for entrepreneurs is a huge help (versus big established businesses that can actually use corruption to suppress competition - this happens still in the USA all the time, using the congress to create and allow monopolistic markets for your industry).

Petty corruption is the type that is most easily reduced by wealth. The corruption that is more easily hidden with back-room deals are tougher to reduce. In my view this type of systemic corruption has increased in the USA in the last 30 years. There is more and more very economically damaging practices that are only possible with the cooperation of "leaders" and the situation doesn't even seem to be a serious consideration for most people.

Petty corruption (paying cash to a police officer to get out of a ticket [or to get out of a false ticket], demanding cash to process your passport, demanding cash to approve your building permit) is not very high in the USA I don't think (or Northern Europe, Singapore, Japan...). But corrupt practices at the core of how our financial system is run, how legislation is written... are extremely damaging. So we have largely eliminated corruption from most people, but leaders seem have taken to corrupt practices with a new zeal lately - unfortunately. In the USA we can stop this whenever we want. Just vote out the corruption. But it is so institutionalized in the political parties it doesn't seem likely anytime soon.

The leaders have figured out the way to make corrupt practices palatable is to impose the burden of the corruption on society and pay the benefits to a small group that then pays the politicians for the benefit they were provided at the expense of society. For those interested in corruption in a wealthy society this is the smart model to use. So at least our leaders are smart at figuring out the best way to be corrupt given the system they are operating in. This likely means they would react sensibly if we were to vote against those politicians providing benefits to those giving them cash, at the expense of society. But until then they seem to be interested in how to maximize their gain, not in ethics or helping society.

My comment on Reddit discussion on reduction of corruption throughout history.

Related: Taking What You Don’t Deserve, CEO Style - Why Congress Won’t Investigate Wall Street - Systems Design Can Create Perverse Incentives - Society is being shaped for us while we are busy making other plans

Penn State Scandal is Horrendous and Points to the Very Deep Corruption of Our Leaders

The truth is if you stand up for principles against the power structure you will most often be made to pay for trying to get in their way.  And most often you won't succeed.

In Penn State the few who tried to stand up against injustice are now seen in a positive light.  But the full Penn State power structure was able to undermine decency, even when that extended all the way to what is the most indecent act possible.  Only that most intolerable abuse finally brought enough weight (thought it took more than a decade) for the immoral actions of those in power to stop being accepted.

All the lessor abuses by those in power were not enough.  They were not remotely close to enough.  Those protesting those abuses are seen as pariahs.  Winning football (or basketball) games is much more important to those in leadership positions than behaving honorably.  Even today the Board of Penn State sees retaining the statue of Joe Paterno as the right thing to do (my guess is they will realize the big mistake this is soon and reverse course - but I figured the abuses of the TSA couldn't stand for long and I was completely wrong about that).  They are more fearful of powerful alumni that might still object then they are concerned about doing the incredibly too little too late of at least stopping honoring a man that disgraced their University.

Even once the scope of wrongdoing was obviously far far worse than should ever be tolerated and the board fired Joe Patero, there were riots protesting this action.  How shameful that behavior was.  How completely had the leaders of those that engaged in that behavior failed to create honorable people.

The complete failure of leadership evidenced by decades of utter failure at Penn State is the example.  But the system that allowed it is pervasive at nearly all our Universities.  They are lead by people that subvert integrity to pleasing the powerful.

I think they need to have these "leaders" sit in the undergraduate seminars where ethics and morality are discussed and talk about the real issues.  University leaders seem to think that morality and ethics are meant for the ancient greeks only, not them.  They obviously believe (as shown in their actions) that might makes right is the primary moral measuring stick.  I think that it would help to take that message into the educational system so we can address the real issues to where the boundaries are for that style of leadership.  Because pretending that what is taught about right and wrong in their schools relates to the real world when in practice political expediency takes such a huge precedence over what is right for the "leaders" in our society is not helping.

That we finally have people saying what the facts show, is a good sign: Joe Paterno was a coward. Rick Reilly admits that he was fooled by Joe Paterno

What a stooge I was.
I talked about Paterno's "true legacy" in all of this. Here's his true legacy: Paterno let a child molester go when he could've stopped him. He let him go and then lied to cover his sinister tracks. He let a rapist go to save his own recruiting successes and fundraising pitches and big-fish-small-pond hide.
Here's a legacy for you. Paterno's cowardice and ego and fears allowed Sandusky to molest at least eight more boys in the years after that 1998 incident

Penn State leaders can't hide their guilt after damning Freeh Report

"Our most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky's child victims by the most senior leaders at Penn State," Freeh wrote in his summary of his report. "The most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who Sandusky victimized. Messrs. Spanier, Schultz, Paterno and Curley never demonstrated, through actions or words, any concern for the safety and well-being of Sandusky's victims until after Sandusky's arrest."

My guess on what impact this will have on other University leaders acting ethically and morally instead of caving into power: very minimal. They will continue to cave into power to make their lives as easy as possible. Decades of behavior just doesn't change overnight. As long as the "leaders" are put in those positions mainly because they make things easy for those with power that is the main thing that will drive their actions.

If we want that to change we have to change the character of those placed in leadership positions. And we need to change what influences carry the most weight. As long as it is the football coach, boosters, large donors... then we will have the situation we have had. The worst abuses at Penn State with covering up child abuse would not have been tolerated at many other places. But the system that results in such cover ups being possible is firmly in place at most and is used to continue much more mundane abuse of power.

Penn State should be congratulated for hiring Louis Freeh. They finally stopped trying to protect those doing the abuse and those covering up for those doing so. Good for them.

I am sure Joe Paterno did plenty of good things. As a leader, critical failures that persist for over a decade can, and should, overshadow the good when it comes to our opinion of their character. They can still have done plenty of good things. But leaders failing to protect the innocent and powerless and allowing them to be abused deserve to have their reputations destroyed.

Related: The Moral Consequences of Your Actions - Don't Excuse Immoral Looters - Action Is More Important Than Sympathy - They Will Know We are Christians By Our Love