I didn't think it would be long before the High Shade Grifter, The Fartful Fraudster, The Don of Con, The Abortion of Extortion, (I think you know who I'm talking about) made it back into my blog. What's it been three whole posts without him? Last time I was talking about how he needs to be impeached. Well, that didn't happen. He is embroiled in about 3500 lawsuits, here is a list of just a few of the latest (14 actually, but that's just a few for 45). And like Teflon, these charges likely won't stick to his oily hide either. But he remains relevant in the news, at least to me, while I cheer for the prosecution.
Occasionally, aside from his horse that he's flogged way past the point of decomposition, the "Somebody cheated ME" gambit he constantly brings up about the election that he says was fixed, he says or does something else so the world doesn't forget about him. Like complaining about "cancel culture" then throwing shade on all kinds of companies and telling his groupies to boycott them. MLB, Delta Airlines, JP Morgan Chase, Viacom (CBS), City Group, Cisco, UPS, and Merck, which is the company that makes it so he still has a few remaining strands of hair to arrange on his bald noggin. The best, of course, was when he was drinking a Diet Coke while condemning Coca Cola like the High Shade Grifter he is.
But none of that was what brought him to my attention most recently. Read this article and watch the video. Go ahead. I'll wait. I recently talked with a Trump supporter about how money should be kept out of politics. He agreed and said that the best thing about Trump was that he was rich and therefore incorruptible, at least by money. A LOT of Trump supporters felt that way and have repeated this as at least part of their reason for voting for the Fartful Fraudster in 2016. Inconceivably, more than four years of cheap chicanery later, many STILL believed he was not completely corrupt and voted for him again! The corruption was so obvious, they didn't see it!
The person I was talking to, the Trump fan, used the Clintons as an example of why money shouldn't be in politics. "Where did they make all their money?" he asked me. He gave the figure of 120 million. That's Hillary and Bill and that's, as he said, "all their money." Now let's remember Bill was prez 8 years, governor of Arkansas 11; Hillary was First Lady 8 years, Secretary of State 4 years, and a senator for 8 years. That's 39 years in office between them, not to mention the fact that they are both lawyers and successful authors. With the average senator's salary at 174,000 and president's salary at about half a million including travel and other expense allowances, plus whatever money they made when they were not in government, you total that up and it's not gonna be 120 million. Not unless they got in on Apple stock on the ground floor.
I don't doubt the Clintons made it killing during their time in office. Everybody does. That's the root of all political evil. But in comparison, let's look at Jared and Ivanka, shall we? They profited from working in the Whitehouse to the tune of between 172 and 640 million. Dollars. American. In 4 years. Hello? Kettle, this is Pot. Come in Kettle! But wait! There's more! Here's an article that says Trump made 1.9 BBBBillion while he was in office. Uh, and oh yeah, that was just the first 3 years. So that's not including the scam for contributions allegedly to aid in his fight to, (irony cough) STOP THE STEAL.
But this is what it's like trying to reason with Trumpsters, isn't it? They'll point out Biden poking you with a needle (and I use this metaphor purposely) while Trump is impaling you with a jousting lance. You talk to them and they don't believe you. You give them news stories and it's fake news. I showed the Trumpster I was talking with the article from the NY Times and he immediately said that publication was on his "do not trust" list. EVERY publication should be on EVERY person's "do not trust" list, but there's something in legal jargon that has been used to constitute legally binding proof that the Trumpsters as a whole seem to be missing: it's called preponderance of evidence. It is, admittedly, the lowest standard of proof, but it is of common usage particularly in the courts Trump is the king of: (or at least head jester) the civil courts. To sum it up, if there is a pile of evidence so high that it becomes obvious that something is better than 50% likely to be the case, preponderance of evidence meets the burden of proof. Here's a more thorough explanation if you're interested.
Don't trust anything, question everything, but while reading with sufficient skepticism, keep track of the piles on both sides of the issues you're particularly interested in. Chances are good that if you try to remain as objective as possible, weeding out the obviously biased articles, the bigger the pile, the closer to the truth it should be. That's what I've found and as long as our world remains on the good side of 50%, which I still maintain it is, this method should work. Just don't let somebody else do your thinking for you. This is why, toward the end of our conversation on money in politics, I told my Trumpy buddy to check some of his preferred publications for the absolutely hilarious Bitch BlockConnell doing his best "I know you are but what am I" argument in support (need I say blind?) of the Abortion of Extortion saying, "Corporations need to stay out of politics." He was referring, no doubt, to the afore-listed corporations that have spoken out against the new legislation (361 bills in 47 States) that make voting more difficult. One of the ways voting is limited is by requiring ID. Passports and to a lesser extent, driver's licenses require proof that you are who you are and you need to fill out application forms. Questions on applications are about your background. Essentially, the new legislation is requiring background checks for voters.
Now, let's examine some different legislation, shall we? Soon, Joe Biden will be trying, again, to pass some restrictions on guns in response to recent, and let's face it, NOT so recent, mass shootings in the US. One of the main issues will be the HIGHLY popular universal background checks. About 90% of Americans support this idea. Slam dunk, right? Not so fast Kimosabe. Any gun legislation is a tough sell for the Republican party because - you guessed it - money. Financial backers of the Republican party, like the NRA, have gotten any legislation to do with guns blocked in the past 20 years. This same legislation was passed in the House before, but senate majority leader, Bitch BlockConnell just buried it. It was never voted on. McConnell, the top recipient of corporate funding in the 2020 election cycle, and 4.3 million in the last 5 years, is not the senate majority leader any more. So he's worried his benefactors may be disappointed, particularly in the state of Georgia, which is virtually neck and neck between the two parties. So he momentarily bit the hand that has been feeding him for years by telling the corporations who don't support voter suppressing legislation and are taking action and speaking out against it, to stop acting and shut up. But that was on Monday. On Tuesday, he went back to licking the hands (and other body parts) of the money-grubbing, soulless corporations that have pulled his strings for a price his whole career by saying something to the effect of it is fine for rich big shots to purchase politicians to gain unfair power and influence in America, just not to try to influence things when average Americans would be helped.
The above is a GREAT depiction of Mitch the streetwalking whore McConnell taken from an article in Rolling Stone magazine entitled, "Mitch McConnell, The Man Who Sold America." It's a long article, but if you want to read how politicians "earn" so much money, there's no better example than Moscow Mitch. His campaign funds of 4.3 mil were a mere drop in the bucket. I encourage you to not get pissed off while reading this article. If you read the article, you'll find that as far back as '73 this jagoff was railing against corporate interference in politics even writing an article about it in the Kentucky newspaper, the Courier-Journal. Then in '87 he actually proposed a bill to end the ability of wealthy Americans to spend limitless cash on their own campaigns. McConnell didn't become one of the richest politicians by sticking to his guns on issues (and again, I choose the metaphor carefully) or having any discernable principles or allegiances. He went where the money was. Just read about it. It goes without saying that if you're a Trumpy, don't bother reading it - fake news!
They're scam artists. Crooks. Grifters. Guys like Mitch and Don ARE the proverbial swamp Trump claimed he would drain. Just like the mobster is the criminal element in your neighbourhood he says he will protect you from. And the reason they're so powerful and they've clambered their ways to the top of politics is money.
You may be thinking, "Yeah, this may ALL be right, but it really doesn't affect me." You couldn't be more wrong. Remember the days when politicians were honoured and revered and you didn't sound like a schmuck if you told your kid that some day he or she could grow up to be President (or Prime Minister)? Those days aren't gone. They've just changed. Presidents and Prime Ministers are still revered and honoured. Just not for virtues like honesty and ethics. They're now honoured and revered for modern virtues like acquisitive business "savvy" (greed) and moral relativism (spinelessly fluid principles). Money changed those virtues. And now those are the virtues that are imitated by regular folks.
Just the other day I was at Costco and I was at the checkout counter. I had a 6-pack of onion bagels. I was already going to store it in the freezer because I can only eat a bagel once in a while for a treat. Six would last me half a year. But the cashier said they were on special, one-plus-one. Well I wasn't going to walk back and get 6 more. I certainly couldn't use a dozen for myself, but I was there with a friend so I said to her that I could just give her six if she wanted. We asked and they don't have anyone who can run to get you something. You know, like every grocery store USED to have. So I said, "Whatever, just ring them up. I'll take six for the price of twelve." A nice deal for Costlyco! But even THAT was not possible! Two bags of bagels or none were my only two options. I find it hard to believe that there was no way I could have been accommodated there. It probably wasn't a scam but because of the ubiquity of the scam in this day and age in which scam artists are the heroes, I was SURE I was being ripped off in some way!
I've also been the victim of a similar scam to the Trump fleecing of his contributors. I don't know what I bought or when I bought it, but I'm being billed 29 American dollars every month for something I either wanted to pay for once or never wanted to pay for at all. Only thing I pay monthly is storage in Canada and my phone. It's probably one of the places I did my Christmas shopping at. But I've talked to my bank and they can't put a stop payment on things like this. The fucking banks are IN on these scams! Why could you not put a stop payment on something like this? All I could get was the company name and it means nothing to me. That's by design so I can't return to whatever website scammed me and uncheck the monthly payment box. I've looked up the company name on Google and it is listed as a scam site. It's attached to many websites evidently. But I couldn't find a list. The only thing I can do is cancel the credit card. Which I've already done twice in the past 6 months. For the same reason. I'm sure that's what I'll end up doing but then I'll have to give my new credit card info to everybody plus I'll have to go into Seoul and the bank isn't open after my working hours and even if it were, I'm farther away and there are fewer buses, I wouldn't make it on time, also I might have to be quarantined if I go to Seoul since there is now mandatory testing in the area for foreigners, I think...
I can't avoid bringing up my pet peeve scam perpetrated without legal recourse on every one of us every day and that is the widely accepted charges banks hang on us regular people to access our money. Bank machines, transfers, paying bills, writing checks, these are charges over and above the charges charged for us to GIVE the banks our hard-earned money so that they can make money with it. You just knew it wouldn't be long before THAT bullshit scam caught on didn't you? And in an area that directly or indirectly affects us all: school books. You can't blame McGraw Hill. If the banks don't get charged or fined or even frowned upon for this scam, why can't we do it?
The legal fraud is endless! Non-refundable plane tickets should never be a thing. Your flight gets cancelled and you're fucked. People collecting your signature for purchases or refunds. Should be illegal but it's not. In fact, most of us don't know how often we give our signatures when it's totally unnecessary. Email, phone numbers, any contact information is valuable to scumbag advertisers and the collection and sale of it is only just starting to be punished. Here in Korea there are all kinds of scams perpetrated upon foreigners who are depended upon to just avoid the inconvenience of challenging them, in Korean, and pay. Housing surcharges, utility bills, removal of price tags, frivolous immigration documents and processes, hell, my landlord knows I get a housing stipend and used that as an excuse to overcharge me on my rent. My current apartment is worse in every way but I pay the same rent only because the landlord has rented to teachers before and is aware of the Gongju University contracts.
Actual exchange rates on the Korean won are easy to find out but impossible to get. Try using your Korean bank card in another country and see if you don't pay charges that amount to more than the allowable 23% in Canada. Having said that, there's always a loophole for the bad guy. Sometimes up to 60% is allowable. SIXTY PERCENT! What kind of screwjob capitalist wiseguy loan shark law is that? Here's a list of the most common scams nowadays, but not appearing on this list are a lot of overcharges we collectively just sigh and pay without complaint. Well this IS a complaint. I think the main reason we are so thoroughly scammed is because we're perfect chumps. We're the marks every con man dreams about. Socialized to believe all complaining is negativity. As I pointed out to a friend recently who had posted on Facebook one of those toxically positive "avoid negative people" posts, avoiding negative people is awfully negative behaviour! So we're mindfucked. And we're overworked. Too exhausted to bother. Surrounded on all sides by fraud so that it's become commonplace.
I gotta believe all this wouldn't be the case if we lived in a world in which the con-man mentality was punished, not rewarded. I feel like the US, being by FAR the most represented country in all media, will have to be the country where this change is initiated. I see good signs from the Biden/Harris administration so far, but this is a monumental task I don't know if they're up to.
At this point, I guess all a guy can do is hope...
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