Last night, in a post about Mississippi Congressman Steve Palazzo, we saw how corruption and greed and bribery are part of the nature of political conservatism. As if to prove my point, the NRA finally admitted what they're all about as well. Carol Leonnig at the Washington Post reported, that "After years of denying allegations of lax financial oversight, the National Rifle Association has made a stunning declaration in a new tax filing: Current and former executives used the nonprofit group’s money for personal benefit and enrichment. The NRA said in the filing that it continues to review the alleged abuse of funds, as the tax-exempt organization curtails services and runs up multimillion-dollar legal bills. The assertion of impropriety comes four months after the attorney general of New York state filed a lawsuit accusing NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre and other top officials of using NRA funds for decades to provide inflated salaries and expense accounts."
And then came Brain Slodysko's AP report about how Georgia Republican Senator David Perdue was illegally enriching himself with insider information rate duo the pandemic. "As the ravages of the novel coronavirus forced millions of people out of work shuttered businesses and shrank the value of retirement accounts," wrote Slodysko, "the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged to a three-year low. But for Sen. David Perdue, a Georgia Republican, the crisis last March signaled something else: a stock buying opportunity. And for the second time in less than two months, Perdue’s timing was impeccable. He avoided a sharp loss and reaped a stunning gain by selling and then buying the same stock: Cardlytics, an Atlanta-based financial technology company on whose board of directors he once served. On Jan. 23, as word spread through Congress that the coronavirus posed a major economic and public health threat, Perdue sold off $1 million to $5 million in Cardlytics stock at $86 a share before it plunged, according to congressional disclosures. Weeks later, in March, after the company’s stock plunged further following an unexpected leadership shakeup and lower-than-forecast earnings, Perdue bought the stock back for $30 a share, investing between $200,000 and $500,000. Those shares have now quadrupled in value, closing at $121 a share on Tuesday. The Cardlytics transactions were just a slice of a large number of investment decisions made in the early days of the pandemic by Perdue and other senators. They stirred public outrage after it became clear that some members of Congress had been briefed on the economic and health threat the virus posed."
And Trump's pardons of his accomplices and cronies... what message does that send. Same message as Biden's de facto pardon of Trump. Matthew Brown's headline for USA Today: "Biden says he won't order an investigation of Trump, president's legal troubles remain." He wrote that Biden "downplayed the prospect of pursuing investigations" of the arch criminal, Donald J. Trump. On NBC, Biden, an inveterate liar for his entire career, already lying and twisting the truth just like Trump-- and he hasn't even taken the oath of office yet: "I will not do what this president does and use the Justice Department as my vehicle to insist that something happened."
Biden vowed to not grant pardon a pardon while he was campaigning but he seems to be hedging. In August he said "I think it is a very, very unusual thing and probably not very-- how can I say it?-- good for democracy to be talking about prosecuting former presidents." Wrong, you damn scumbag...it's VERY good for democracy to hold criminals accountable, including-- in fact, especially-- criminals in high public office.
And, believe me, I'm not the only one who disagrees with Biden's bullshit response
Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., called on Biden to investigate Trump on the first day of his administration, arguing "he has engaged in treachery, in treason."
"Failure to hold financial and political wrongdoing accountable in the past has invited greater malfeasance by bad actors. A repeat of those failures in 2021 further emboldens criminality by our national leaders and continues America down the path of lawlessness and authoritarianism. There must be accountability," Pascrell said.
While running for the Democratic nomination for president, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris expressed a similar sentiment, arguing "there has to be accountability." Harris has since deferred to Biden's position on the matter.