Tag: Corruption

What’s That Sucking Sound?

It is the sound of life being sucked out of a once vibrant nation.

In 7 months Donny and his band of thugs has done more damage to this country that anyone before him….economically, socially, and any other topic one would like to explore….all to improve Donny’s fortune….

According to one analyst, President Donald Trump is using the presidency as a vehicle to rapidly enrich both himself and his family at the expense of both tax dollars and the efficacy of federal agencies in five particular ways.

In a Friday op-ed for the Daily Beast, columnist Michael Rothkopf likened Trump to a “vampire.” He argued that world leaders like Trump are in office not to serve the public but to “suck that strength out of the institutions, economies and resources they have been entrusted with protecting and cultivating — and take the wealth, status and influence for themselves.”

“They are parasites. And Donald Trump is our parasite-in-chief,” Rothkopf wrote. “… He is sucking the blood out of our country. If he continues as he has been, when he is done there will be nothing left but the pale, lifeless husk of the America that was.”

…

“It’s not supposed to work that way. But it is where we are,” Rothkopf continued. “… The only comfort we can take is from the knowledge that in the end, sunlight kills vampires … We live in an era in which new social media and mass communication platforms are enabling and empowering all of us to contribute to that process. And that in turn is the only way to truly put a stake through the heart of this blood-sucking regime — that the we, the people, rise up and reject him and those close to him in every election that takes place from now until they are gone.”

https://www.alternet.org/trump-parasite/

Enrichment by billions since taking office….

Donald Trump has leveraged both terms of his presidency to pocket billions of dollars, according to a bombshell report.

A lengthy investigation fromThe New Yorker estimates Trump and his family will have enriched themselves by more than $3.4 billion by the end of his second term, much of it from deals, transactions, and investments that almost certainly wouldn’t have happened if he’d never been president.

…

“The way he pursues every possible avenue for money gives people who provide that money a clear sense that they are going to get something in return,” Wertheimer told the New Yorker. “Almost anyone who sees what’s going on has to assume that this money is buying the President’s favor.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-staggering-amount-donald-trump-is-profiting-from-the-presidency-revealed/

The damage done to this country is extensive and it only took 7 months…..we still have almost 3 and half years for even more damage to be wrought on the nation and its people.

I sincerely hope that all those that voted for this clown get hit the hardest.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Thieves In Business suits

A change of pace….we will be bombarded with stats and reports for the next few days so let’s try and change the tone.

I know I do go on about the War Department and it’s inflated budget that grows yearly….and I rail about the sycophants with buckets on money that buy off Congress and the White House….the corruption is just getting worse with every admin that comes to power.

For instance one of the preeminent defense industry has just bee caught gouging.

Indictments of arms contractors for corruption and malfeasance are not uncommon, but recently revealed cases of illegal conduct by RTX (formerly Raytheon) are extraordinary even by the relatively lax standards of the defense industry.

The company has agreed to pay nearly $1 billion in fines, which is one of the highest figures ever for corruption in the arms sector. To incur these fines, RTX participated in price gouging on Pentagon contracts, bribing officials in Qatar, and sharing sensitive information with China.

Engaging in illegal conduct on this scale suggests that, far from being an aberration, this behavior may be business as usual for the company. Given the scale of RTX’s malfeasance, the Justice Department should take a close look at the practices of other arms contractors to determine whether these infractions are industry standard.

The company’s approach is reminiscent of the way arms companies did business in the 1960s, when, for example, massive cost overruns on Lockheed Martin’s C-5 transport plane drew fire from internal critics like Ernest Fitzgerald and congressional gadflies, like the-Democratic Sen. William Proxmire of Wisconsin.

Resorting to bribery has been less prevalent since Sen. Proxmire pushed through the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, which was a response to a massive scandal involving the bribery of officials in Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia. The exposure brought about by the scandal – which covered events going back to the 1950s that were not known to the general public until a set of 1975 Senate hearings on the activities of multinational corporations showed the world how bribery was used to sway the decisions of foreign policy makers. This resulted in major consequences, including the conviction of former Japanese Premier Kakuei Tanaka, along with 10 other business people and government officials.

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/raytheon-corruption/

This is disgraceful….if these thieves are caught red handed then they should be fined and sent to the bottom of any future contracts.

I wish I could say this was a one off incident….but it is all too common.

Then there is Boeing, you know the plane maker that has been doing shoddy work, it was also caught gouging….

A new report from a Department of Defense watchdog claims Boeing managed to slip a few pricey items through, reports Reuters, inflating the cost of a dozen spare parts for C-17 transport planes used by the Air Force to the tune of almost $1 million. According to the DOD’s Office of Inspector General report released Tuesday, included in those spare parts were bathroom soap dispensers that ran the military arm nearly $150,000 in unnecessary costs. The markup on the soap dispensers was 7,943%, the report noted—or more than 80 times what similar commercially available dispensers cost, per CBS News.

“The Air Force needs to establish and implement more effective internal controls to help prevent overpaying for spare parts for the remainder of this contract, which continues through 2031,” says Defense Department Inspector General Robert Storch in a statement. He makes the point that “significant overpayments for spare parts may reduce the number of spare parts that Boeing can purchase on the contract, potentially reducing C-17 readiness worldwide.”

Under that contract, Boeing is the entity that buys the spare parts for the C-17 planes, then is reimbursed by the Air Force. The inspector general’s review was spurred by an anonymous tip about the soap dispensers. Boeing, meanwhile, says the spare parts had to be significantly modified to meet military specs, and that it plans to dive into the details in its own written response “in the coming days,” per Reuters. The Air Force says it concurs with the “intent” of the watchdog’s recommendation to “determine whether spare parts prices are allowable and reasonable before payment,” adding that it would seek to recoup more than $902,000, reports USA Today.

These are not solo incidents this practice is all too common and there is little oversight anyone thanks to the GOP and stupidity.

This is taxpayer money and should be reported whenever abuse has been rooted out….but rooting it out seems to be a huge obstacle.

But that is just my wish for this government.

Taxpayer cash side note: 

A new report by the Israeli outlet Calcalist reviewed Israeli military spending on wars since October 7, finding that Washington is funding 70% of Tel Aviv’s military costs. In a little over a year, the US has provided Israel with more than $20 billion in military aid. 

“The scope of American aid since the beginning of the war is about 85 billion shekels… According to official estimates by the Bank of Israel, the total cost of the war is…approximately NIS 118 billion.” It continues, “Therefore, according to a simple calculation, The Americans financed about 70% of the war effort.”

According to the Cost of War Project, the US has given Israel $22.57 billion in military aid since the Hamas attack. Calcalist concludes without US support, Tel Aviv’s war would simply be unaffordable.

https://libertarianinstitute.org/news/washington-is-funding-70-of-israels-wars/

And no one seems to care how much money is being pissed away on these endless wars.

Why is that?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Resign Now!

This is for that political hack that hides behind legal garments….Clarence Thomas.

We know of this past gifts and bribes but apparently that was only the tip of the iceberg….

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas took three trips on private jets bankrolled by Harlan Crow that were not disclosed, according to information released Thursday by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The information was contained in documents the billionaire Republican donor had turned over to the committee under subpoena over seven years, the Hill reports. Chairman Dick Durbin, a Democrat, said the committee is still investigating. The latest finding, he said, “makes it crystal clear that the highest court needs an enforceable code of conduct, because its members continue to choose not to meet the moment.”

Elliot Berke, an attorney for Thomas, said the three trips came under the “hospitality exemption,” meaning disclosure wasn’t required. The exemption applies as long as the hospitality is extended by “friends who did not have business before the court,” Berke told CNN. The free travel, all on private jets, per the Washington Post:

  • St. Louis to Kalispell, Montana, and a return flight to Dallas in May 2017.
  • Washington, DC, to Savannah, Georgia, and back in March 2019.
  • Washington, DC, to San Jose and back in June 2021.

On Wednesday, Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic bill to require Supreme Court justices to adopt a binding code of conduct, per NBC News

Oh there is so much more to this crook……and the gifts that pay…..

New details of Thomas’ luxury travel emerged from negotiations between the Senate committee—which authorized a subpoena for Crow last year—and the billionaire’s attorneys.

Documents the committee obtained from Crow “revealed travel and gifts that Justice Thomas has failed to disclose to date,” including a May 2017 private jet trip from St. Louis to Kalispell, Montana and a return flight to Dallas; a March 2019 private jet trip from Washington, D.C. to Savannah, Georgia and back; and a June 2021 private jet trip from Washington, D.C. to San Jose, California and back.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement that “nearly $4.2 million in gifts and even that wasn’t enough for Justice Thomas, with at least three additional trips the committee found that he has failed to disclose to date.”

“The Senate Judiciary Committee’s ongoing investigation into the Supreme Court’s ethical crisis is producing new information—like what we’ve revealed today—and makes it crystal clear that the highest court needs an enforceable code of conduct, because its members continue to choose not to meet the moment,” said Durbin. “As a result of our investigation and subpoena authorization, we are providing the American public greater clarity on the extent of ethical lapses by Supreme Court justices and the need for ethics reform.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/clarence-thomas-resignation

There so many rotten apples in the SCOTUS basket that it will take a major effort to clean the garbage out.

It is time for Thomas and Alito to resign and make way for some fresh blood….no telling what we would get but anything is better than these two corrupt d/bags.

Alito?

In case you were jerking off and missed the story…..

The fallout continues for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito over the flying of a symbolic upside-down flag outside his house, a debate possibly complicated by a report of another flag carried by Jan. 6 rioters having been displayed at Alito’s beach house. More:

  • Censure: House Democrat Steve Cohen of Tennessee introduced a motion on Tuesday to censure Alito “for knowingly violating the federal recusal statute and binding ethics standards and calling the impartiality of the Supreme Court of the United States into question,” per the Hill.
  • The symbol: The upside-down flag is widely associated with the “Stop the Steal” movement asserting election fraud on behalf of Donald Trump. Alito says it was his wife, not him, who put the flag up in January 2021, as part of a dispute with a neighbor over political yard signs.
  • From GOP: CNN collects quotes from key Republican senators critical of Alito over the controversy. “Bad decision,” said John Thune. “I don’t know how you explain that.” Lindsey Graham told the outlet “it creates a bad image” and “was a mistake.” However, neither called for Alito to recuse himself from Trump- or election-related cases. Mitt Romey said the flag was “unfortunate and we ought to take a look at it,” but another GOP senator, John Cornyn, said “there are more important things to worry about.” Cornyn is in the mix to be the new GOP Senate leader.
  • Democrats: About 50 House Democrats, meanwhile, called on Alito to recuse himself from two upcoming rulings, one on Trump’s immunity from prosecution and the other on Capitol rioters. “Reasonable people will doubt that you can be impartial in deciding whether Mr. Trump should face criminal prosecution for his actions arising from the ‘Stop the Steal’ movement,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter, per the Washington Post. “This indisputable appearance of a conflict of interest requires that you recuse yourself.”
  • Symbol No. 2: Another flag carried to the Capitol by rioters was spotted at Alito’s vacation house in New Jersey last summer, reports the New York Times, which has photos. The “Appeal to Heaven” flag is a symbol of the “Stop the Steal” movement as well as a plea to make the nation more Christian. It’s also called the Pine Tree flag. Ethics experts again were troubled by a justice taking a public political stance, with one calling it deeply disturbing “when a judge celebrates his predispositions by hoisting them on a flag.” The flag at Alito’s beach house shows up on Google street view.

In case you are not sure4 the judges are suppose to be impartial and these asses fly in the face of justice.

Time for both Alito and Thomas to pack their bags and get the f*ck out of DC…..could we bring back tar and feather as a punishment?

The atmosphere in DC will prevent any change or reform from making the cut….does that not say something about the GOP that fights to keep these slugs on the court

Enough is enough!

Resign Now!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Foreign Bribery Of Congress

I have been writing about the bribery that goes on in our Congress. Congresspeople get cash from a wealth of sources even foreign countries have been known to bribe our Congress.

Countries like Saudi Arabia, Israel just to mention a few….but it is a lot deeper than those I listed.

But just how deep is this crime?

Democratic Texas congressman Henry Cuellar was indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice on charges of “bribery, unlawful foreign influence, and money laundering.” The accusations revolve around a set of deals in which Cuellar allegedly accepted money from a state-owned Azerbaijani oil company and a Mexican bank in exchange for an agreement to push U.S. foreign policy in their favor.

As concerning as this may be, it’s not even the first such indictment against a sitting member of Congress this year. In March, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) received a superseding indictment which expands further upon earlier accusations that the former Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman took bribes to advocate on behalf of the Egyptian and Qatari governments.

These cases make it clear that foreign bribery, in which representatives of one country pay money to manipulate the representatives of another, is still a serious problem in the United States. As the world’s most powerful and interventionist nation, no other government has more influence over the rest of the world’s affairs — influence which can be bought. The recent charges against Rep. Cuellar and Sen. Mendendez show how significant of a problem bribery and undue influence has been for the U.S. congress, while also drawing attention to the ongoing efforts to prevent this corruption from continuing.

Bribes offered in exchange for political favors are nothing new in Congress. The first congressional bribery investigation on record took place in 1854, when a lobbyist attempted to bribe members of Congress into extending the patent for the Colt revolver handgun. The question of bribery across borders, however, did not receive much attention in Congress until fairly recently.

Concerns about foreign bribery emerged most forcefully in the mid-1970s as a result of the Watergate investigation and the Church Committee, which investigated abuses by U.S. intelligence agencies. These investigations identified slush funds run by large companies that could be used for illegal political donations and undisclosed foreign payments, including several U.S.-based corporations with overseas operations.

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/congress-bribery/

The bribes are hidden behind those damn PACs, political action committees.

It is time to clean up the den of corruption….there is no place for it in our system.

Sadly money makes the wheels of government less squeaky and running ‘smoothly’…..as they say ‘follow the money’.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Court System is ‘Corrupt’

That is the statement made by the Speaker of the House Johnson….

Johnson, who is second in line for the presidency, called the court system “corrupt.”

While I seldom agree with much any Repub has to say these I will admit that I agree with his statement in general terms but do not agree with the substance of his statement.

You can see what I mean….

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson assailed the hush money case against Donald Trump Tuesday as an illegitimate “sham,” becoming the highest-ranking Republican to show up at court, embrace the former president’s claims of political persecution and attack the U.S. system of justice.

It was a remarkable moment in modern American politics: The House speaker amplifying Trump’s defense and turning the Republican Party against the federal and state legal systems that are foundational to the U.S. government and a cornerstone of democracy.

Johnson, who is second in line for the presidency, called the court system “corrupt.”

Outside the New York courthouse, he decried “this ridiculous prosecution that is not about justice.” He said, “It’s all about politics.”

In portraying the case against Trump as politically motivated, the Republicans are also laying the groundwork to dismiss its significance should the jury convict, and for potential challenges to the fall election, a rematch with President Joe Biden, a Democrat

Johnson was a chief architect of Trump’s efforts to challenge the 2020 presidential results ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, mob assault on the U.S. Capitol, and last week he called the hush money trial and the other election-year cases against Trump a “borderline criminal conspiracy.”

(apnews.com)
Recent news from the courts points to rampant corruption with favors showered on the judges….so I agree with Johnson that he court system is corrupt and can be bought.
 
But that is what we get when we allow groups like the Federalists to give us political hacks as judges.
 
Personally Donald the Orange needs to be held accountable for everything he has done as he works against the very democratic foundations of this country.
 
But sadly the court system will remain just as corrupt as it is today or possibly become even more so in the future….time for a change in the system to make it a reliable referee of the federal system…..that is missing in today’s court.
 
I have spoken, It is written, so be it.
 
I Read, I Write, You Know
 
“lego ergo scribo”

Just Another Corrupt Dem

Go figure!

Nothing new here.

Since few seem to be interested in the whole 2024 thing……I will change gears for awhile.

Americans are beginning (finally) to see that there is very little different between Dems and Repubs in our Congress…..both can be bought.

A senior Dem in the Senate, Menendez, was caught red handed and now a prominent Dem in the House is accused of bribery…..

Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas and his wife were indicted on conspiracy and bribery charges and taken into custody Friday in connection with a federal probe into ties between American business leaders and the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, per the AP. From 2014 to 2021, Cuellar and his wife accepted nearly $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijan-controlled energy company and a bank in Mexico, and in exchange, Cuellar agreed to advance the interests of the country and the bank in the US, according to the indictment. The Department of Justice said the couple surrendered to authorities on Friday.

  • Example: Among other things, Cuellar agreed to influence legislation favorable to Azerbaijan and deliver a pro-Azerbaijan speech on the floor of the House, the indictment states.
  • Denial: Cuellar released a statement Friday declaring innocence. “Everything I have done in Congress has been to serve the people of South Texas,” he said. “Before I took action, I proactively sought legal advice from the House Ethics Committee, who gave me more than one written opinion, along with an additional opinion from a national law firm. Furthermore, we requested a meeting with the … prosecutors to explain the facts and they refused to discuss the case with us or hear our side.”
  • Money: The payments to the couple went through a Texas-based shell company owned by Imelda Cuellar and two of the couple’s children, according to the indictment. That company received payments from the Azerbaijan energy company of $25,000 per month under a “sham contract,” purportedly in exchange for unspecified strategic consulting and advising services. “In reality, the contract was a sham used to disguise and legitimate the corrupt agreement between Henry Cuellar and the government of Azerbaijan,” the indictment states.
  • A search: The FBI searched the congressman’s house in the border city of Laredo in 2022, and Cuellar’s attorney at that time said Cuellar was not the target of that investigation. That search was part of a broader investigation related to Azerbaijan that saw FBI agents serve a raft of subpoenas and conduct interviews in DC and Texas.

There is not a big difference in the people in Congress….both are corruptible and greedy….and yet we keep voting for these parties time and time again and expect a different outcome….what was it Einstein said about that?

This criminal activity runs deep….from the White House to state and local officials….greed is a prime motivator.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Dems Are Just As Corrupt

I have read many articles telling us all about the corruption within the GOP…..the stocks thing, the bribes, the under the table payments…..all maybe true but to leave the Dems out of the equation is a disservice to the readers.

I have said a few times that I had no faith in the Dems basically because they are deep down no better than those slugs in the GOP….and here is just another example of how deep it goes.

A second superseding indictment against Sen. Bob Menendez was unsealed Tuesday, accusing the New Jersey Democrat of using his political power to aid the Qatari government in return for tens of thousands of dollars in bribes. Federal prosecutors say Menendez helped to arrange a deal between a Jersey developer, Fred Daibes, and a Qatari sheikh investor, the New York Times reports. In return, prosecutors say, Menendez was paid off with cash, gold bars, Formula 1 tickets, and more. The Washington Post explains that the indictment does not add charges, but makes public for the first time new allegations of corruption against Menendez. Daibes is also charged in the case, NBC News reports.

Menendez, who is scheduled to go on trial in May and has also been accused of aiding Egypt, has so far pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him and may still run for reelection (he did, however, step down from leading the Senate Foreign Relations Committee). A spokesperson calls the latest allegations “a string of baseless assumptions and bizarre conjectures based on routine, lawful contacts between a Senator and his constituents.” Menendez is accused of making public statements praising Qatar and of giving them to Daibes so that Daibes could share them with the Qatari investor (a member of the royal family) as well as a Qatari government official during the time Daibes’ deal was in talks. Menendez also allegedly talked to the investor directly, using an encrypted messaging app, to express his support for the deal.

In case you are unaware of his other legal problems…..

More trouble for Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey: Federal prosecutors have rewritten their indictment against the senator to accuse him of acting as a foreign agent on behalf of Egypt. The superseding indictment, filed in Manhattan federal court on Thursday, accuses Menendez of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires people to register with the US government if they are acting as “an agent of a foreign principal.” His wife, Nadine Menendez, is similarly charged, as is a third defendant, Wael Hana, per the New York Times. As a member of Congress, Menendez would have been prohibited from being an agent of a foreign government, even if he did register as one. The indictment says the conspiracy occurred from January 2018 to June 2022.

The Guardian previously detailed some of the allegations specific to Egypt: Menendez allegedly obtained details from the State Department about people working at the US embassy in Cairo, then turned over the information to Egyptian officials. The original indictment stated that “although this information was not classified, it was deemed highly sensitive because it could pose significant operational security concerns if disclosed to a foreign government or if made public.” The allegations also accuse Menendez of using his clout to try to increase military sales to Egypt in exchange for bribes, per the Times.

Let’s not forget all the cash stashed in his home……

Sen. Bob Menendez says he’s not stepping down from the Senate after being indicted on bribery charges—and he’s got an explanation for the cash investigators say they found stashed around his home. The New Jersey Democrat said Monday that the money found in clothes and closets was his from his own savings accounts, the Guardian reports. He said that over the last 30 years, he has withdrawn thousands of dollars of legitimately earned income from his accounts, “which I have kept for emergencies and because of the history of my family facing confiscation in Cuba.”

Menendez, who was born in the US a few months after his parents left Cuba, didn’t comment on the gold bars also mentioned in the indictment. Investigators say they found $480,000 in cash in Menendez’s home and another $70,000 in his wife’s safety deposit box. Menendez and his wife are accused of taking bribes in exchange for political favors to the government of Egypt and business associates in New Jersey, the New York Times reports. The senator said Monday that he is facing his “biggest fight yet,” but predicted that “not only will I be exonerated, I will still be New Jersey’s senior senator.”

There you go….I am not picking on one person just trying to point out that our 2 party system is so corrupt that it is destroying itself from the inside.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–22Dec23

Our lay-about Congress needs to shape up or ship out. Neither party can claim any moral high ground these days they bot are corrupt and lazy….they spend more time running to the nearest camera and/or mic to make their ramblings and then retreat into the inner sanctum of Congress and do little that would actually benefit this country or its citizens in any way.

They trade stocks using insider information with impunity….that needs to stop and stop now.

There is a bi-partisan bill in Congress that could end such practices…..

Congress took an important step toward cleaning up its act: for only the third time since the Civil War, it voted to expel one of its members. But the ethical rot in Congress extends beyond former Rep. George Santos’ outrageous lies and campaign and financial abuses. The institution is in a crisis of public confidence that we must address.

Routine reports of members of Congress making suspicious stock trades and owning stock in companies they regulate have severely harmed the public’s confidence that members of Congress act in the best interest of our country—rather than their own wallets.

It’s past time that we rise to the occasion and pass comprehensive legislation to ban members of Congress, their spouses and their dependent children from owning or trading stock, and that’s precisely what the bipartisan Ending Trading and Holding In Congressional Stocks (ETHICS) Act would do.

This critical bipartisan legislation, which was introduced by two of this column’s co-authors—Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) in the House and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) in the Senate—as well as by Rep. Michael Cloud (R-TX) in the House, addresses the threat posed by members of Congress owning and trading individual securities, which undermines the critical work of the federal government.

At the beginning of the pandemic, a moment when public confidence in our institutions of government was critical, Congress was rocked by reports of members trading individual stocks in pharmaceutical companies after receiving non-public information about the threat of COVID-19. Since then, we’ve seen a steady drip of scandals, each day seemingly bringing another story of members trading stocks in industries their committees regulate, or holding investments in fossil fuel companies while sitting on committees in charge of climate change policies. And each new incident drives public faith in our government lower and lower.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/one-simple-way-to-get-the-public-to-trust-congress-again

Sorry but this idea made me chuckle.

To be honest I do not think this has a snowball’s chance of passing for members of Congress get millions from insider info and from lobbyists buying their support for further screwing of the people they represent.

But anyway I think it is a stellar idea.

That may be the kiss of death.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Menendez Saga

The Democratic senator for New Jersey has never been likeable to me…..he is a big business Dem that came to the Congress on the Clinton coattails.

Over the years he has had his problems with corruption and once again he has been caught with his fingers in the cookie jar.

Rep. Andy Kim of New Jersey announced on Saturday that he will run against Sen. Robert Menendez in the state’s Democratic primary for Senate next year, saying he feels compelled to run against the three-term senator after he and his wife were indicted on sweeping corruption charges. Kim’s surprise announcement comes as a growing number of Democrats are calling for Menendez to step down. Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman became the first Democratic senator to do so, and several members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation, along with the state’s Democratic governor, have said he should resign, per the AP.

This is not something I expected to do, but I believe New Jersey deserves better,” Kim said. Fetterman, meanwhile, said his Senate colleague is “entitled to the presumption of innocence under our system, but he is not entitled to continue to wield influence over national policy.” Menendez and wife Nadine were indicted on Friday for using his position to aid the authoritarian government of Egypt and also to pressure federal prosecutors to drop a case against a friend. The three-count indictment lists a series of bribes they were paid by three New Jersey businessmen in exchange for the corrupt acts—gold bars, a luxury car, and cash.

It is the second indictment on bribery charges for Menendez—and the second time he has had to relinquish his post as the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations panel. He regained the leadership spot in 2018 after the case ended with a deadlocked jury. Menendez was defiant after Friday’s indictment, saying in a statement Friday evening that “I am not going anywhere.” Authorities who searched Menendez’s home last year found more than $100,000 worth of gold bars, as well as over $480,000 in cash—much of it hidden in closets, clothing, and a safe, prosecutors say. The indictment includes photos of cash stuffed in envelopes in jackets bearing Menendez’s name and of a luxury car that prosecutors say was given to the couple as a bribe from the businessmen.

There calls for Menendez to resign….but mostly from younger Congress people….some of the older and entrenched members think he should stay put.

Add Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to the list of politicians who think Sen. Bob Menendez needs to resign due to his indictment on corruption charges. The Democratic representative said the charges against Menendez, including allegations that he accepted bribes including a Mercedes-Benz, are “very serious,” the Guardian reports. “Consistency matters. It shouldn’t matter if it’s a Republican or a Democrat,” she said, adding that the allegations “involve the nature of not just his but all of our seats in Congress.” Meanwhile, while Sen. John Fetterman and several Democrats in Menendez’s home state of New Jersey say their fellow Dem should step down, NBC News reports other Democrat senators have not been so quick to join that chorus:

  • Chris Murphy: “No senators should be trading on their position in order to enrich themselves,” he said Sunday on MSNBC. “It is hard for me to believe that Sen. Menendez can be effective in his job given these allegations, but I think I want to get back and talk to my colleagues on the Foreign Relations Committee before I recommend a path forward for Sen. Menendez.”
  • Mark Kelly: “I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said on CBS Sunday, noting that Menendez stepping down as chair of the Foreign Relations Committee is “a serious step.” Kelly continued, “I think Sen. Menendez is going to have to think long and hard about the cloud that’s going to hang over his service in the United State Senate. He’s got to figure out whether he can adequately serve the people of New Jersey.”
  • Dick Durbin: “In terms of resignation, that’s a decision to be made by Sen. Menendez and the people of New Jersey,” he said on CNN Sunday. “The person who is accused is entitled to the presumption of innocence, and it’s the responsibility of the government to prove that case. I have said that about Donald Trump. I will say the same thing about Bob Menendez.”

Personally he should resign with a hint of corruption and let the Congress get on with business it really does not need another diversion at this time.

I say if guilty get the slug out of government and tighten the noose around other forms of corruption as well….a good place to start would be SCOTUS.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

SCOTUS, The Corrupt

I recent months word has been leaking out about all the shady deals the SCOTUS judges have been making to their benefit…..like Clarence Thomas….

An in-depth New York Timesstory examining Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas‘ membership in an exclusive club of wealthy Americans—and the benefits he has reaped from the association—sparked fresh calls for his resignation on Sunday, with watchdogs and lawmakers decrying the new report as further evidence of deep-seated corruption at the nation’s most powerful judicial body.

Months after his confirmation to the Supreme Court in 1991, according to the Times, Thomas was accepted into the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, a group named after the Gilded Age American author Horatio Alger.

“At Horatio Alger, he moved into the inner circle, a cluster of extraordinarily wealthy, largely conservative members who lionized him and all that he had achieved,” the newspaper reported. “While he has never held an official leadership position, in some ways he has become the association’s leading light. He has granted it unusual access to the Supreme Court, where every year he presides over the group’s signature event: a ceremony in the courtroom at which he places Horatio Alger medals around the necks of new lifetime members.”

The new reporting comes on the heels of a series of revelations from the investigative outlet ProPublica, which uncovered decades of trips Thomas took on the dime of billionaire Harlan Crow, who is deeply enmeshed in right-wing politics.

ProPublica also found a previously undisclosed real estate deal between Crow and Thomas, who just recently joined his fellow conservative justices in ruling against affirmative action and student debt relief for more than 40 million Americans.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/clarence-thomas-gifts

Thomas and his wife are not alone….Alito has been caught as well as others….

All this corruption leads one to ask….if this is the case do we really need the Supreme Court?

I mean these judges are proving that they do not think democracy is a good thing….why keep it around?

Vested interests create “checks and balances” primarily to make political systems non-responsive to demands for social reform. Historically, therefore, the checks are politically unbalanced in practice. Instead of producing a happy medium, their effect often has been to check the power of the people to assert their interests at the expense of the more powerful. Real reform requires a revolution – often repeated attempts. The Roman Republic suffered five centuries of fighting to redistribute land and cancel debts, all of which failed as the oligarchy’s “checks” imposed deepening economic dependency and imbalance.

The Supreme Court is America’s most distinctive check. Its deepening bias since its takeover by “conservatives” claiming to be “originalist” interpreters of the constitution, has led to the most widespread protests since Franklin Roosevelt threatened to pack the court in the 1930s by expanding its membership to create a more democratic majority. Although appointed by presidents and consented to by Congress, the judges’ lifetime tenure imposes the ideology of past elections on the present.

So why are they needed at all? Why not permit Congress to make laws that reflect the needs of the time? The Court’s judges themselves have pointed out that if Congress doesn’t like their rulings, it should pass its own laws, or even a constitutional amendment, to provide a new point of reference.

Should There be a Supreme Court? Its Role Has Always Been Anti-Democratic

Then I agree get rid of it….if greed and personal gain is all they are there for why do we need them…..let them go to Wall Street and steal America’s future .

What say you?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”