Ever since the dawn of time humanity has been held back by corruption. It’s penetrated every aspect of life. Originally it was called tribute. The dominant male received a part of each person’s kill from everyone in his cave. The ruler was paid off to leave his vassals alone. He, or she, shared in the profits but didn’t pay any of the losses. The basic premise was that the king was the government and ruled with the authority of God. The divine right of kings. It goes all the way down to the clerk who processes your application for a building permit. He represents “authority.” You hire an “expediter” who pays off the clerk and your application goes to the top of the pile. Pay extra and get a V.I.P. pass.
The United States Supreme Court itself is deeply involved. They are sending the country a message. One Associate Justice received over four million dollars in entertainment benefits from an admirer. The Court said that it was just fine. The Chief Justice’s untrained wife received over ten million dollars in commissions for placing attorneys in jobs in prestigious law firms. The Chief Justice and his wife kept the money. The Court reversed a bribery conviction of what clearly appeared to be a pay-off of thirteen thousand dollars cash in an envelope to a small-town mayor, from a garbage company from whom the town bought five trucks for one million dollars. The Supreme Court gave us a lecture, that it was simply a gratuity or non-taxable gift and not a bribe. Just a “thank you.” The Court itself encourages corruption because it has no enforceable ethics code.
Tom Homan, the now chief of ICE, accepted a brown paper bag with fifty thousand dollars in it from a person who was paying him off for agreeing to use Homan’s political contacts to help the client. Homan was allowed to keep the money by the Department of Justice which even dropped the investigation of their fellow MAGA friend.
High ranking politicians have historically accepted what appears to be overpayments or bribes. Vice President Spiro Agnew was caught red handed taking a five-thousand-dollar bribe right in the White House. He resigned. He never served a day in jail. Sherman Adams accepted a vicuna fur coat during the Eisenhower administration. No charges were filed. He was merely fired as Chief of Staff. Politicians, including Past Presidents, have been very active in accepting cash payments far in excess of the value of the services they rendered. President Reagan made two speeches in Tokyo after reducing tariffs on Toyota trucks. Each speech went for one million dollars plus expenses. I knew that he had a golden tongue. President Bush senior, made a speech in Kuwait after liberating them from Iraq and reinstalling the gold fixtures in the royal toilets. He was paid one million dollars. These were all Republicans. Please note that there are a few Democrats who show little concern for ethics. Secretary Hillary Clinton may have made some powerful speeches for Wall Street interests during her campaign to the tune of about six hundred thousand dollars. They both were investigated for their participation in a questionable real estate venture called “Whitewater.” Her husband Bill was investigated for making some expensive speeches to foreign governments and for his use of the pardoning power with the guidance of Hillary’s brother Hugh Rodman who it is reported, received a four-hundred-thousand-dollar fee for assisting in obtaining the pardon of Glenn Braswell and drug trafficker, Carlos Vignali from his brother-in-law, Bill. Did he share the money with his sister, Hillary? Billy Carter, President Jimmy Carter’s brother, was a lobbyist for Libya. What were his qualifications? Was President Biden’s son, Hunter, who had drug addiction problems, qualified to be on the Board of the Ukrainian company, Burisma Holdings, while his father was Vice President and then President? His father pardoned him for an unrelated minor offense.
The pardoning power of the President and of all State Governors was created to allow for correcting and undoing miscarriages of justice. Weldon Angelos justly received his after he served a portion of a fifty-year jail sentence for possessing a relatively small amount of marijuana. While we’re talking about questionable presidential pardons, let’s not miss the recent pardon issued by the all-time leader in the field of questionable ethics, President Donald Trump. After invading Venezuela and kidnapping its president for being a drug dealer, he pardoned drug dealer Juan Hernandez, the former President of Honduras who was convicted and about to start serving a forty-five-year prison term for bringing in over four hundred tons of cocaine into the United States. This pardon deal was brokered by former Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz and by convicted Republican trickster, Roger Stone, who has a huge tattoo of Nixon on his back. President Trump had pardoned each of them for other crimes. The list of abuses is so long that it would take a book to adequately tell the whole story. But find out about Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, Jonathon Braun, Dinesh D’Souza, Matt Gaetz, Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, Rudy Guiliani, Cydney Powell, Rod Blagojevich, Michele Fiore, Glen Casada, CHARLES KUSHNER, Albert Pirro, Gregory Reyes, Susan McDougle, Trevor Milton, Duncan Hunter and many other Republican politicians who were convicted of stealing campaign funds. Take out your phone and Google those deals. The financial cost to America was quite significant. Not one pardon was granted on merit, to reverse a miscarriage of justice.
What about payments made to corrupt politicians for getting favored treatment? Teapot Dome was a 1920 major scandal involving the payment of four hundred thousand dollars in bribes, today worth over six million dollars, for the illegal leasing of federal oil reserve land in the West to private oil companies by the Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall, who went to jail. The oil industry, which is as bad as ever, still persists in abusing the American people. They donated about one billion dollars to Trump’s Republican Presidential campaign and came away with over one trillion dollars in benefits. Who obtained control of the oil production in Guyana? What about the oil in Nigeria? Who is in control of the oil production in Iraq? What is going on with the oil production in Venezuela? Who is trying to get control of the Iranian oil? The President, Donald Trump appears to be using American foreign policy and American military dominance in order to further the interests of the oil industry.
What about the United Arab Emirates getting to use those sensitive artificial intelligence computer chips by Trump, access to which they had been denied for national security reasons, only after making a deal with the Trump interests involving an investment in Trump crypto currency, World Liberty Financial, of about four hundred million dollars.
What about all of the corporate merger deals which involved corporations who contributed to the Republican Party and suddenly received a most favorable treatment from the Trump Administration such as: Microsoft- Activision Blizzard; Amazon- One Medical; Boeing – Spirit; Nexstar-Tegna, and there are many more.
Then there’s the “net worth” test. Years ago, when the Federal Crime Commission asked the Florida, Dade County Sheriff to explain how his bank account was over one million dollars and his salary was five thousand dollars his answer was: “I’m thrifty.” He was not charged with a crime. It still works. Nancy Pelosi, that liberal Democratic standard bearer, highly revered former Speaker of the House, went from an initial net worth of between six and eight hundred thousand dollars to over two hundred and seventy million when she retired. Her salary, over the years was between one hundred and seventy-four and two hundred and twenty-three dollars per year. Surely, she would not dream of doing insider trading with all of that confidential information she knew about. President Obama has risen from being a poor social worker in the slums of Chicago, dedicating his life to serving society, to now being the owner of an estate on Martha’s Vinyard and another property in Hawaii worth a total of about thirty-seven million dollars. That is just the value of his homes. How did he get all that money, pay taxes on it and have enough to own and maintain thirty-seven million dollars in homes? Well, he and Michelle made a book deal with Penguin Random House for about sixty-five million dollars. Note: a significant portion of the proceeds from these books goes to charity, including their own foundation. What about the Clintons? They started off like many Americans, with a net worth of four hundred and twenty thousand dollars, but retired with a lovely home in a New York suburb and another in Washington, D.C. The homes alone are worth over eight million dollars. He also, seems to have a golden voice, earning over one hundred million dollars for making speeches. We don’t have the time to tell you about the Bush families- so look it up for yourself. Oh yes, you should know about Tom Homan, the “brown bag” man. “Only in America.” He started as a plain “cop.” His jobs in the government were politically driven particularly since 2017 and he earned up to one hundred and ninety thousand dollars a year. How is it that he now has assets of between three and nine million dollars? He must be very thrifty.
We haven’t even started to review the lifestyle of the rich and famous Donald Trump. He received a personal gift of an airplane from Qatar worth over four hundred and thirty-nine million dollars which he put in the name of his tax-exempt Library for them to refurbish with donations, but which he will use personally. His family net worth jumped shortly after his inauguration by over one billion three hundred million dollars! This includes the airplane, about four hundred million dollars in cryptocurrency commissions, many real estate and hotel deals with Saudi Arabian interests, U.A.E. investors, who also invested about four hundred million dollars in his crypto currency company, World Liberty Financial, and his friends in Oman and goodness knows how many others that do business with the United States and are effected by our tariffs which he alone has been controlling. Then there are the Trump hats, photographs, posters, ties, shirts, jewelry, coins, watches, paddleball racquets, musical instruments, wine decanters, golf balls, tumblers, scented candles, room spray, chocolates and blankets. It’s overwhelming! We’re running out of space.
There is no question. The Trump administration outdistances them all for everything bad you can think of and his followers love him, not in spite of it, but because of it.