The Ooze of Corruption and Vanity is Exhausting

by Pa Rock

Taxpayer

Alas, I am not rich enough to evade paying taxes, which means that my coerced contributions to the government are helping fund the never-ending river of corruption and vanity currently oozing from the White House.  American citizens of modest incomes are funding a war with Iran that few of us want, and a clandestine national police force which seems to have the authority to harass and detain people (and sometimes worse than that) without fear of oversight or consequences.

Trump's most recent financial disclosure, the one for the first three months of this year, reveals that his organization, over which he supposedly has no direct control, made more than 3,700 stock trades during that period, covering hundreds of millions of dollars, and involving companies in direct dealings with the United States government or companies that Trump has publicly praised.

Trump also secured a phony "settlement" to a lawsuit that he brought against his own government that sought $10 billion in damages for the illegal release of his tax records, something which occurred while he was President and in control of both the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service, the targets of his ire and his lawsuit.    When it became obvious, even to Trump, that his case would be thrown out of court, he quickly got his Justice Department to settle the case out of court - and that settlement set $1.776 billion aside for his "weaponization"slush fund that would reimburse people supposedly hurt by the actions of the Biden administration - and it barred the Treasury Department and the IRS from being able to audit the tax records - past, present, or future - of Trump, his family, or. his businesses.  

It's hard to even imagine anything more corrupt than that very, very, very. sweet deal.  Trump's slush fund would be overseen by a committee under the control of Donald Trump.  The Trump administration wants that committee to basically be operated in secret, without oversight or accountability.  Likely candidates for these secretive payouts will include the January 6th rioters, many of whom were convicted of their crimes in courts of law before being pardoned by Trump, and some of whom physically assaulted police officers during the Capitol riots.   

Trump got that "settlement" by using the US Department of Justice as his own personal law firm. Not only is it helping to line his pockets, he is also using it to exact retribution on his enemies, people like James Comey, John Bolton, and now E. Jean Carroll, the woman who got two court judgments against him, one for sexual assault and the other for Defamation, that total almost $90 million.  The Justice Depatment is supposed to represent the people of the United States, and not to serve as the Presidents personal law firm and avenger.

That's OUR money he would be slathering on his contemptible private army of rioters.  That's OUR money going to no-bid contracts with inflated billing like the one for the slipshod painting of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool.  That's OUR money that Trump wants to build his vanity ballroom, and he's going to build it on the spot where he tore down part of OUR house without warning or official approval.  That's OUR money being used to investigate and proescute Trump's personal enemies.

Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg do not have to sit by and watch their money swirl down the toilet bowl of Donald Trump's ego.  All of that is funded by the "little" people, you and me, and the excess amounts that even we can't cover are put on a tab that will have to be paid by our children and their children.    While the little people pay the bills, the nation's cohort of oligarchs squeeze tax breaks from a well paid and highly compliant Congress for things like tax deductions for the purchase of private jets and personal yachts the size of cruise ships.

We don't need endless oil wars, secret armies, government handouts to domestic terrorists and anarchists, ballrooms, Trump's name and image on money, passports, entertainment venues, and public buildings, or UFC fights and car shows on the White House lawn.   It's one embarrassing news story after another, and it's all so exhausting.

We need competent leadership, young enough and healthy enough to sit through a cabinet meeting without falling asleep, honest and bright enough to manage the country, its laws and institutions, and the economy, and stable enough to represent us on the world stage in a dignified manner that would garner actual respect.

Trump looks out for Trump, and the rest of us must look out for ourselves.

The only thing OUR money is procuring for us under Trump is the shaft.