Politics as Usual..Again
Sometimes I wake up on Wednesdays and dread it. It means I have to sit down at my now balky Mac computer and right something about the dirty world of politics.
From the get go I will tell you almost all politicians disgust me. Yes, they start out with the belief that they are doing something bigger than themselves but they always revert back to that core basic instinct, survival. No matter what party they represent, they all pretty much represent themselves first. What will this move do for the advancement of my career? The advancement of my next career? How much money will this eventually put in my pocket?
We talk about corruption in the Third World but our politicians are just as corrupt, better dressed for sure. They hide it under the guise of the laws that they create for themselves. Insider trading? Not a problem. SuperPac money funding that new kitchen, not a problem.
Normally, I bring up situations and admit that I don’t have the solution but I recognize the problem. However, I do have a couple of solutions for this.
First: Every politician in this country has to abide by the same laws as everyone else. There are no exceptions.
Second: Get rid of every PAC, Super Pac or anything that remotely resembles a PAC. Do not allow any private money to fund political campaigns. Let the Federal government fund the campaigns with a formula that makes sense. I know, every Right Wing Conservative will have a fit because the last thing any of them wants is the Federal government involved in one more thing, especially an election campaign. However, I would rather have the US Treasury write a five million dollar check to Joe Biden’s reelection committee than have George Soros or the Dweebs in Silicon Valley writing one hundred million dollar checks. I have seen a couple of different studies on this and the numbers they came up with were in the 1.5 to 2 billion dollar range. I am a fiscal conservative and I am ok with that.
We all know neither of these will ever happen. They just can’t help themselves and that is a damn shame.
Going back to politics as usual, I find it amazing that these never to be convicted criminals can shape this narrative.
How do you negotiate some sort of budget compromise with an impeachment inquiry? I mean, what mastermind is responsible for that one? It seems that the pressure was on Speaker McCarthy to start this inquiry as soon as possible and the tactic these geniuses used was threatening to stall passage of any sort of spending bill, compromise or not.
The far right wants the inquiry, they won’t help pass a “continuing resolution” to keep the government funded while they work it out. Hmm. Interesting. Shut the government down so you can launch an inquiry that no matter what they actually find, they won’t be able to impeach President Joe Biden. Seems like another stupid example of our government in action.
I do think President Biden is guilty of something. Not sure what because I do not trust any media source so I really have no clue but his son is a lowlife criminal deviant who I am pretty sure used his Father’s name to hook up some under the table stuff. Is President Biden guilty by association? Who knows. An impeachment inquiry does have broad powers but they may have to rely on the DOJ and the FBI for substantiation and I do think that those two agencies are biased so where this goes is anyones guess.
However it goes it won’t be pretty and that is why I do think the rules need to be cleaned up. Too many opportunities for malfeasance from a group of men and women who take energy from corrupting things. Like The Hulk, the angrier he gets, the more powerful he becomes, our Congress get greedier and greedier when more and more money is available for the taking.
Just look at the list of rich congressmen. Some you can understand. Mitt Romney for example. He is worth probably close to 100 million dollars. He also was a principle at Bain Capital in Boston and still has some accounts with them. They have over 170 billion dollars in assets. What I don’t understand is how a Bill Haggarty from Tennessee is worth over 20 million dollars. He has been accused several different times of selling stocks he held right before bad news came out and buying stocks right before the committees he sat on agreed on new appropriations that those companies would benefit from. Accused. Thats it.
You make 175,000 a year. Lots of benefits and housing stipends in DC. Travel is pretty much covered. Sure, they probably deserve to be paid more but that does not give them carte blanche to violate every securities law on the books. Enough is enough.
I know power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely but there has to be an end to this at some point.
Again, the lack of scruples in Washington is a bi partisan phenomena.
Which lastly brings me to the curious case of my beloved Congressman from the 3rd District of New York, George Santos. In the long list of miscreants in DC he has to be right up there, yet, he is still there. This situation shows an absolute fundamental flaw in how Congress governs themselves. His misdeeds aren’t hearsay and arguable in court. He lied, lied again and to top off that lie lied even more. Oh wait, he had to lie about the lie to cover up his first set of lies. Get it? He is mentally deranged and should have been thrown out of Congress before he got off of that Greyhound bus he rode in on. Yet, they have rules. This guy will spend his full two year term ignoring, defending, lying and just making the 3rd Congressional District look stupid for electing this schmuck. That is Congress in all it’s glory.
With that being said I was very glad to read on Linkedin that a guy I knew years ago will be running to take over Santos’ seat. Jim Toes was the President and CEO of the Securities Traders Association for years and did an incredible job in that role. His experience dealing with the various political forces on behalf of the securities industry will give him a great foundation to deal with those factions as a representative.