politics
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- 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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
Man they got fucking robbed. Amazon has it for only $944 The Amazon review though...
If you are concerned about wasteful spending I highly recommend going with this price from Amazon
EDIT: Yes, I'm pretty sure they paid $1,000 for it and then reported $19,000 pocketing the difference. As someone who has lived their whole life in Tennessee (and has worked for a period of time in State Government), that's Southern politics 101. Days where they aren't fleecing the taxpayer are few and far between here in the Southeastern US.
Brent ☆☆☆☆☆
Perfect at home in Arkansas or with my friends in Paris
Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2023
Don't let your husband or state know that this thing is under $1,000 because it could go for $19,000-$20,000 EASILY! It's the perfect accessory for "governing", photoshopping, and fraud. Me and the gal pals really enjoyed this from afar while we were in Paris, France. 10/10
The fact that this is on Amazon for under a grand is hilarious. These people are absolute morons. I hope they get nailed and the truth comes out.
Wow... fucking blatant corruption. Just gross.
Yeah straight up corruption, lying and stealing. And will she ever be punished for her blatant abuse of power? Nope. Obviously this should ban her from ever being anywhere near public office but that won't ever happen and they'll continue to do it until there are consequences. I feel like I repeat that a lot nowadays but people get away with too much ridiculous shit these days and are never punished for it. George Santos anybody? How the fuck is he still in office? We need some fucking standards otherwise the country will continue to go to shit.
They didn't pocket the difference. Gov Sanders used state money to go on vacation and this is the cover.
That's what "pocketing the difference" is. She took the state money she said was used for the lectern and used it for personal purposes.
I'll be honest.. I only clicked on this article because I was curious as to what a $19,000 lectern looks like. 🤷
Same. Thought maybe some local woodworker produced a beautiful lectern.
No, turns out it's from amazon with some spray paint and Arkansas is just being Arkansas.
The Arkansas Republican Party reimbursed the state last month for the wood-paneled and blue lectern, which the state received in August.
Is this typical for the party to reimburse the state for an elected official? If it was reimbursed from campaign funds, wouldn't that be covered by campaign finance laws? Sounds like either the Republican Party is trying to cover it up by reimbursing for it, or they're doing weird accounting to get through a loophole of campaign finance laws.
It's a coverup. There only defense is "we made an oopsy. This was supposed to be bought with private funds and now it is after it became a clear case of grift. Nothing to see here, tee hee."
Sanders' entire job at the White House involved lying to the public on a regular basis. Is it any wonder she leveraged the same skill set at her next job?
So is this how Republicans are supposedly such responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars?
Sheesh, she's even giving the Pentagon a run for their money (no pun intended):
These Toilet Seat Lids Aren’t Gold-Plated but They Cost $14,000
Working as intended. Having the government overpay tenfold for goods and services is neoliberals favourite method of converting public funds into private profit.
Why on earth would that cost 20 grand? That thing is ugly as fuck
You sound like someone that doesn't know shit about fancy lecterns.
I know a thing or two about fancy lecterns and that one couldn't cost more than 2 grand on a good day except if it was being used to cover up corruption and graft in the Humunculoid Huckabee Arkansas state government
I don't know anything about fancy lecterns, but looking at the Amazon link someone posted, I can certainly recognize particleboard with a wood-grain veneer on it... Honestly, $2k feels expensive for that, I'd say it should be about $500 at Ikea.
Of course it costs 20 grand, look at all that embellishment!
Sorry, I meant embezzlement.
The made in china version is $1000. Make it custom in the US with real hardwood and we are more like $5000. We can see that has a mic installed, which is $500 for a good mic (A $10 mic would work okay, but the $500 does sound better and isn't unreasonable), which we will pair with electronics to turn the audio into digital for another $500. While we are at it we will build in a computer with a presenters display all connected to the building video system - another $5000.
I'm trying to be generous by using the highest reasonable costs and the most complex feature set. I still can only come up with $11k.
It’s called money laundering.
Some say money laundering??
Money laundering is taking dirty money and making it clean, this is taking clean money and making it dirty, in someones dirty corrupt pocket
“This is nothing more than a manufactured controversy by left-wing activists to distract from the bold conservative reforms the governor has signed into law and is effectively implementing in Arkansas,” Henning said in a statement.
Haha so I guess "bold conservative reforms" is their new code phrase for hatred and intolerance.
I can’t believe someone paid $19,000 for that ugly piece of junk.
They didn't. This is graft in action
Someone paid $20.28 for that and $6.99 for a rattlecan of metallic blue, and then charged the other $19,000.00 for "labor". (I'm optimistically assuming they paid tax on the store bought items)
Oh it's even more blatant. She bought it from a friend, who then used the money to go on vacation. It's a blatant kick back.
That's the state that just wrecked child labor laws, right?
It should be removed one day and replaced with four empty boxes and a big lots desktop microphone.
Republicunts. The original welfare queens.
lol literally nothing will happen because literally nothing ever does. Everything is farce now.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The lectern’s purchase was first uncovered by Matthew Campbell, an attorney and blogger who has sued State Police for withholding records he had requested about Sanders’ travel and security.
Days after Campbell filed his initial suit, Sanders called a special legislative session and proposed broad exemptions to the state’s open records law.
Sanders signed into law a measure restricting the public’s access to her travel and security records after she and lawmakers backed off more widespread exemptions that faced backlash from media groups, transparency advocates and some conservatives.
According to Mars’ letter, the interference includes the governor’s office altering an invoice from Beckett Events LLC, the Virginia firm listed as the seller of the lectern.
“This is nothing more than a manufactured controversy by left-wing activists to distract from the bold conservative reforms the governor has signed into law and is effectively implementing in Arkansas,” Henning said in a statement.
Hickey’s request also asks for an audit of all matters regarding security and travel records for the governor or her office that were retroactively made confidential by the law she signed last month.
The original article contains 745 words, the summary contains 183 words. Saved 75%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!