Corruption Fatigue Has Got Me On the Run
With No End in Sight
I have corruption fatigue.
The latest involves the three trump children who were all arrested on charges that they extorted the Ukrainian president while also allegedly lying about their income during the years of their father’s presidency and also hoarding COVID-19 vaccine which they sold on the black market to Black countries. And trump, himself, is reeling from the latest revelations that he had group sex, including bondage, with a band of pigmies from Chad, at his Bedminister golf club.
Just kidding but I’m not going to be that shocked if my fantasy comes to pass.
Now, for reality, at least 19 people connected with trumpworld were arrested on charges from fraud to battery to child pornography. And get ready for more as the most corrupt administration in U.S. history promises to get even worse, although that should come as a surprise to no one.
The latest accusations related to trump include a White House cover up of allegations against then-Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh and the arrest of a billionaire and one of the top trump fundraisers for allegedly being a secret foreign agent for the United Arab Emirates.
So we have the historic shift of the Supreme Court to a majority of conservative justices, a shift that already has had stifling impacts on the nation and the worst is surely yet to come. And the justice who tipped the scales in favor of the conservative, right wing, was Kavanaugh, who was confirmed by the Senate to a lifetime post on the highest court in the land, despite multiple claims of sexual improprieties. And now Democratic senators want to know why the FBI forwarded additional allegations three years ago, as part of Kavanaugh’s background checks, that were quickly squelched by the trump white house.
The second blockbuster news was the arrest of billionaire Tom Barrack Jr., a former top fund-raiser for trump, on charges of illegally lobbying for a foreign government, namely the United Arab Emirates. Barrack is the latest trump ally charged with violating the Foreign Registration Act, following convictions of top fundraiser Elliott Broidy; Paul Manafort, a former trump campaign chair; and Rudy Giuliano, who is being investigated for not divulging that he was acting on behalf of a foreign government, specifically Ukraine.
The latest reports about trumpian crookedness should shock nobody but the reaction among trump followers is nothing less than outrageous, as they point to the anger of something they call the “deep state” for having smeared their beloved leader. Once again, it is fair to say, there is nothing that the ex-president could do to shake his bottom dwelling minions. And that is a tragedy because corruption is no longer shocking but is rather accepted as the norm by too many people.
Think about it. The FBI, the nation’s top law enforcement organization, acknowledged that it had received thousands of tips about Kavanaugh, as part of its background investigation, but relayed only a few to the office of White House Counsel Don McGahn. McGahn had personally recommended Trump nominate Kavanaugh to replace Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court. Can it be a surprise to anybody that McGahn did not follow up on the FBI tips?
Trump had these comments when Kavanaugh was sworn in on Oct. 8, 2018.
“I thank Counsel to the President Don McGahn, who was a warrior for fairness and performed his critical duties in the finest traditions of our Constitution. (Applause.) I thank all the outstanding people in the White House, the Department of Justice, and the Senate who worked day and night on this nomination.”
Trump, he who bragged about pussy-grabbing, later commented:
“I would like to begin tonight’s proceeding differently than perhaps any other event of such magnitude. On behalf of our nation, I want to apologize to Brett and the entire Kavanaugh family for the terrible pain and suffering you have been forced to endure.
“Those who step forward to serve our country deserve a fair and dignified evaluation, not a campaign of political and personal destruction based on lies and deception. What happened to the Kavanaugh family violates every notion of fairness, decency, and due process.”
Speechless, gobsmacked are a few of the words that come to mind to describe how I feel about trump’s corruption and the off-the-scale audacity he displayed while in office to follow no rules but his own. And you know there are many others serving under the former, would-be dictator, that were clearly aware of the corruption.
As far as the illegal foreign agent, Barrack, 74, was arrested on Tuesday along with two other men who also were charged in the alleged scheme. The three allegedly were paid a lot of money to try to unlawfully advance U.S. foreign policy to benefit the United Arab Emirates. Barrack, (not to be confused with trump’s favorite president, Barack Obama) who chaired Trump’s presidential inauguration committee, was described by the government as “an extremely wealthy and powerful individual with substantial ties to Lebanon, the UAE, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.” That translates into oodles and oodles of wealth, something trump is very fond of.
Barrack met trump in the 1980s while working for the billionaire Bass family and sold trump New York’s Plaza Hotel, which Trump renamed as Trump International.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a major player on the world oil scene and is home to the emirate of Dubai, one of the wealthiest spots in the world. A predominantly Muslim country of 9.89 million people, it is located at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula, bordering Oman and Saudi Arabia. The UAE’s oil and natural gas reserves are the sixth- and seventh-largest in the world, respectively.
The country is ruled by Sharia law and flogging and stoning are legal punishments for violating Sharia law. Apostasy is a crime punishable by death and blasphemy is illegal.
So a secret foreign agent to a country that supports flogging and stoning is leading the ex-president’s first election campaign and went on to be an important advisor to the president, after his election.
Can you catch your breath because I can’t.
FYI, Trump figures who have been arrested and many later pardoned by trump, include:
Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman; .
Rick Gates, a former Trump campaign official;
Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, former national security adviser;
Michael Cohen, the president’s former lawyer and fixer;
Ken Kurson, a close friend of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and the president’s former speechwriter;
Roger Stone, a longtime Trump confidant;
George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign aide;
Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s campaign manager during the 2016 election;
Steve Bannon, trump’s former chief strategist;
Brad Parscale, Trump’s former 2020 campaign manager;
Elliott Broidy, former high-powered Trump fundraiser;
George Nader, a Lebanese- American businessman who served as a key witness in Special Investigator Robert Mueller’s investigation;
Imaaz Zuberi, a Los Angeles financier who donated $900,000 to trump’s inaugural committee;
Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, Soviet-born businessmen with ties to former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani;
Chris Collins, a former New York Republican congressman who was the first lawmaker in Congress to endorse Trump in 2016;
Duncan Hunter, a former California congressman who endorsed trump in 2016;
Sam Patten, a Republican lobbyist and operative who previously worked with Trump campaign data firm Cambridge Analytica.
Stay tuned.