After some recent cognitively and emotionally heavy-duty posts 👎 ☹️, a few light-hearted MAGA updates seem to be in order to lighten the mood up around here . 👍 👏 🌟
The corruption is blatant and gigantic: A NYT article reports that not only is djt a fracking extortionist and thief, MAGA government either likes it or could not care less: “As Trumps Monetize Presidency, Profits Outstrip Protests -- When Hillary Clinton was first lady, a furor erupted over reports that she had once made $100,000 from a $1,000 investment in cattle futures. Even though it had happened a dozen years before her husband became president, it became a scandal that lasted weeks and forced the White House to initiate a review. .... By conventional Washington standards, according to students of official graft, the still-young Trump administration is a candidate for the most brazen use of government office in American history, perhaps eclipsing even Teapot Dome, Watergate and other famous scandals.” (emphasis added)
The article goes on to point out that thirty-one years later, after dinner at Mar-a-Lago, Jeff Bezos agreed to finance a disgusting propaganda film about Melania Trump. That sleazy deal puts about $28 million directly in Melania's pocket. That is about 280 times the size of Clinton’s cash haul. And in this case Melania is a person with a vested interest in policies set by her husband’s government. In this case, no scandal, no furor, no nothing. Washington basically ignored it.
Other reporting comments on the $400 million-sized violation of the emoluments clause when djt took the airplane from Qatar. That is a fine a country best described as an authoritarian monarchy with systemic corruption and concentrated wealth.
Q: Has kleptocracy in government been normalized and made acceptable to most MAGAlanders, especially the elites, or are they deceived into believing that what's going on isn’t large-scale corruption?
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The NYT reports (not paywalled) about damage that djt can cause when he extorts a foreign government: “Why Vietnam Ignored Its Own Laws to Fast-Track a Trump Family Golf Complex
-- Planning documents promised a “new benchmark in luxury, recreation and business.” [Vietnam's top leader] Le Van Truong, [who did not want to agree], pictured something else: the uprooting of a cemetery with five generations of his ancestors and the loss of rich farmland that has sustained local families for centuries. Yet he signed anyway, because, as he put it, “there’s nothing I can do.” “Trump says it’s separate — the presidency and his business,” Mr. Truong said. “But he has the power to do whatever he wants.” This $1.5 billion golf complex outside the capital, Hanoi, as well as plans for a Trump skyscraper in Ho Chi Minh City, are the Trump family’s first projects in Vietnam — part of a global moneymaking enterprise that no family of a sitting American president has ever attempted on this scale. And as that blitz makes the Trumps richer, it is distorting how countries interact with the United States.” (emphases added)
That level of corruption speaks for itself. ‘Nuf said.
Some of the land to be taken for
djt's sleaze & corruption resort
They will be kicked out
for djt’s fun and profit
Le Van Truong next to graves that will be
cleared to make way for djt’s fun and profit
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The Independent reports about djt cashing in bigly on his cryptocurrency scams. GD Culture Group, a small Chinese-linked tech company, plans to buy $300 million worth of Bitcoin and $TRUMP, a djt cryptocurrency, shows blatant conflicts of interest and bribery galore. The Nasdaq-listed firm reported no revenue in 2023 and has just eight employees, will finance the purchase through a secretive stock sale to an undisclosed buyer in the British Virgin Islands, a tax haven that tax cheats like to use to hide their financial crimes. Aspects of the deal’s secrecy include the unidentified funding source and GD Culture Group’s vague regulatory disclosures with implied links to Chinese government control.
About 80% of $TRUMP is owned by Trump’s business entities. djt recently hosted crypto-themed dinners (with bad food and crappy service) for entry fees up to $1.5 million. djt advocates for lighter crypto regulations, i.e., almost no regulations. That fine MAGA policy increases the value of djt’s holdings. All of this enables secret bribery of djt and his family on a gigantic scale. All of this corrupt sleaze coincides with djt’s efforts to broker a corrupt deal that allows TikTok to continue U.S. operations. GD Culture Group creates content for TikTok, which is owned by China-based ByteDance. In essence, the Chinese government is buying the US government by paying djt.
Based on common sense, I presume that GD Culture Group is controlled by the Chinese Government, but asked Pxy.
Q: Can one reasonably surmise that GD Culture Group is controlled by the Chinese government?A: While GD Culture Group isn't proven to be state-controlled, its financial dependencies, regulatory environment, and opaque transactions create plausible deniability for indirect influence. The company maintains its U.S.-based leadership (e.g., CEO Xiao Jian Wang in New York) and describes itself as independent, but this directly conflicts with its own risk disclosures.
There we have it. When it comes to the Chinese Government hiding behind plausible deniability, that constitutes persuasive evidence of culpability. There is no empirical basis for trust or the benefit of any doubt. Heck, that situation is no different than when djt or MAGA elites hide behind plausibility, i.e., there is no basis for one shred of trust.
America First!!
(or not)