• UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    Didn’t Obama enjoy an enormous windfall both during and after his presidency, thanks to a series of book deals, speaking tours, and Netflix specials? My man’s got $70M to his name right now. He started 2005 as one of the brokest Senators in the country.

    I just don’t think this is the guy to critique Trump for getting rich off the back of public office.

    • Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world
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      53 minutes ago

      You do realize that former presidents do tend to get a little richer after the presidency right? Book deals, specials. Hell, Clinton was doing a lot of speaking engagements after office, raking in up to a million per gig.

      But let’s not discount Bush and cheney during that presidency…with all their oil interests and cheney giving his companies zero-bid contracts left and right

      • teyrnon@sh.itjust.works
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        3 hours ago

        He also handed the country off to the devil. He knew or should have known he was failing. Piss all the way off lionizing him, he’s a piece of shit.

        • AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world
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          3 hours ago

          What was he supposed to do? Like, Obama personally. Sign an executive order or something? Two of his Supreme Court picks were blocked cuz of bull shit I guess, maybe he should’ve fought harder?

          It’s the whole system tho. Stop thinking one side will save us they’re all on the same team and it’s not ours.

          • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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            1 hour ago

            Just playing Devil’s Advocate, but he could have blown everything up by releasing the Epstein files, and all of the other cases where the government is covering up crimes of the Epstein class.

            • AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world
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              19 minutes ago

              I mean, bullshit aside (I think they were “sealed” until a few years ago or whatever) what good would that have done? Snowden leaked the government spying on us, people don’t even know who he is anymore. Nobody cares.

              Kinda blackpilled perspective but even if Obama released the full, unredacted files, the most that would happen is a couple vigilantes trying to get justice. Our own government said they weren’t going to go after ANYONE in the files idgaf what reason they gave it’s not good enough.

              That shit blows my mind they actually just came out and said it instead of pretending to take a long time and hope people forgot. THAT’S how brazenly corrupt they are now.

          • teyrnon@sh.itjust.works
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            3 hours ago

            He was supposed to be popular, and hand off to someone popular. He made a deal to give it to Hillary in 2008 and somehow no one in the party challenged it, just as no one challenged Harris last time.

            The Party is broken. The leadership is the Enemy. Realize it and help us fix it!

    • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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      3 hours ago

      Trump has grifted over $3B in personal money. While still in office. And that’s just what we know.

      • teyrnon@sh.itjust.works
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        3 hours ago

        There is so much more grift, I know without knowing they are getting payoffs for everything. Literally everything is for sale. Idk what he thinks he is going to do with it, he’s on his last legs. Just wants to go out as a winner I suspect, he doesn’t give a shit about his kids other than as a reflection on him.

      • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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        1 hour ago

        Does that include the 10 Billion he is suing the IRS for? Or the Billions he has received for his Bored or Peace?

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        He didn’t do that stuff while president.

        He absolutely did.

        Clinton, the Democratic president who was in office for two terms between 1993 and 2001, started his presidency with a net worth of $1.3 million, and after leaving office, had accumulated a wealth of $120 million, according to celebritynetworth.com.

        Per the outlet, it is also thought that Clinton and his wife Hillary have earned more than $250 million to date from speaking engagements, book advances and royalties, and through investment and consulting fees.

        Barack Obama was the president who saw the second highest increase to his wealth coming out of office, at around 5,300 percent.

        After the Democrat was in office for two terms between 2009 to 2017, he accumulated a net worth of $70 million, up from $1.3 million.

        • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
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          1 hour ago

          Bill Clinton Increased His Wealth by the Most After Presidency, Barack Obama Was Second

          The header you omitted which clearly outlines the context was AFTER PRESIDENCY.

        • WesternInfidels@feddit.online
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          5 hours ago

          This seems to gleefully conflate wealth and income, in order to claim that the infamously-always-grifting trump lost a fortune during his first term. Using percent to decide who had the “biggest increase” to their wealth is a sneaky way of excusing the grifting of the richest among us. It points out “Democrat” or “Democratic” repeatedly but doesn’t use the word “Republican” even one time. Its supporting “according to Bloomberg” link doesn’t even go anywhere.

          • jaycifer@lemmy.world
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            1 hour ago

            Additionally, Donald Trump does not appear on the chart of before and after wealth, presumbaly because the “according to Bloomberg” numbers are 20 time higher than the highest number that is on the chart.

    • ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip
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      5 hours ago

      I’m not sure why you think releasing a book after you leave office is remotely comparable to using the office to funnel taxpayer money into your own businesses, your friends and family’s business, solicit blatant bribes from both corporations and foreign countries, manipulating the stock market to enable insider trading, and on top of all that making bets on your own actions…

      • teyrnon@sh.itjust.works
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        3 hours ago

        The corruption of previous presidents has begat the corruption of this one. Not comparable obviously, but here we are defending the presidency of Kodos while Kang robs us blind. Stop whatabouting the democrats being the controlled opposition in the control of the oligarchy.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        releasing a book after you leave office

        He released his books during his campaign for President and profited enormously of the residuals and subsequent compound return on investments.

        funnel taxpayer money into your own businesses, your friends and family’s business, solicit blatant bribes from both corporations and foreign countries, manipulating the stock market to enable insider trading, and on top of all that making bets on your own actions…

        The Untouchables: How the Obama administration protected Wall Street from prosecutions

        I’ll spot you that Obama didn’t pocket nearly as much as he could have. But it is crazy to suggest a man who has become a fixture of the Wall Street speaking circuit didn’t profit from the bank bailouts he oversaw.

    • Akasazh@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      I think he’s the one to critique him. Being an ex president creates interest and opportunities, that’s nothing new.

      What is new is the most blatantly and openly corrupt presidency in history. The man is grift incarnate. There is a difference between profiting from the windfalls and openly soliciting for bribes in every way possible.

    • Steve@communick.news
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      5 hours ago

      Yah. What’s the difference between $70M and $4B+?
      It’s only $3,930,000,000 more. There’s no real difference there.

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
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        17 minutes ago

        In office, vs after

        Quid pro quo, vs opinion and connections

        Abusing the office for personal enrichment, vs speaking as a citizen with unique experiences for personal enrichment

      • Maeve@kbin.earth
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        5 hours ago

        How tf are we going to root out corruption in the other side when we can’t root it from ourselves? Come on, we know each side has plenty of room for rightful accusations. If we root it out of our own, the other side has nothing within us to excuse it.

        • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
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          1 hour ago

          Rooting out the measly amount of corruption on our side makes absolutely no difference to the other side. They have proven time and time again they don’t need any excuses, they are proud of their grift! It’s smart business! If you made the Left 100% squeaky clean they’d say it showed how weak and useless we are.

        • Steve@communick.news
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          5 hours ago

          Go after the big fish first.
          Why tackle 2% of the problem before going after 98%

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        What’s the difference between $70M and $4B+?

        It is crazy that the defense of a corrupt liberal oligarch boils down to “he didn’t sell out hard enough”

        Reminds me of Joe Biden, shilling for Israel for pennies on the dollar compared to his Republican peers.

        • Steve@communick.news
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          4 hours ago

          Did I defend him?
          Or did I point out the orders of magnitude difference. Not even mentioning that one sold books and a Netflix series after leaving office, while the other has literally solicited bribes and scammed his supporters with meme-coins, as well as selling shitty sneakers, and phones that won’t ever be released, and more while still in office.

          • Soulphite@reddthat.com
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            4 hours ago

            Hey now… Obama sold a phone… err excuse me… gave away phones to people that really needed them and didn’t profit off it at all and it literally helped 20+ million Americans have access to cellphone who otherwise couldn’t afford it, even to this day.

            Thanks Obama.

    • Soulphite@reddthat.com
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      5 hours ago

      There’s a big difference between being the first black president of the US and the first pedophile president of the US… Obama earned his clout.