Good Morning. I hope you enjoy this weekend with family and friends.
We finish the 1970’s in 1975. We will return back to it.
1975
1. Born to Run – Bruce Springsteen
2. Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen
3. Walk This Way – Aerosmith
4. Kashmir – Led Zeppelin
5. Tangled Up in Blue – Bob Dylan
6. Wish You Were Here – Pink Floyd
7. Thunder Road – Bruce Springsteen
8. One of These Nights – Eagles
9. Low Rider – War
10. I’m Not in Love – 10cc
I can’t sleep. We found out about Beau Biden just a few hours ago on our way home from dinner with friends. I hate death, and always have such a hard time dealing with it. Doesn’t matter if I never really knew the person. My heart hurts for Beau and the young family he left behind. I can only imagine how hard he fought to live, if only to see his kids grow up and graduate and marry and do all the things we all hope for our kids. My heart hurts for his dad Joe, who’s known loss. A parent should never have to bury their child. The only comfort is that he is reunited with his mother and sister in heaven. May he rest in peace and may God comfort his entire family at this very difficult time.
Powerful sign with a James Baldwin quote:
https://scontent-lga1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/10336756_739855262758885_1327855727945314725_n.jpg?oh=fdfe20b1c372a1e5ec7ab52c4ac3259e&oe=560626CF
Beau Biden has passed away. Brain cancer.
Prayers to the family.
My deepest condolences and prayers to Vice President Biden and his family. I am so sorry for your loss. RIP Beau Biden.
Heartbreaking…May Beau rest in peace and may God give his loved ones comfort in this time of loss and grieving.
To the entire Biden family: Shelo ted’u od tza’ar.
I am lifting the Biden family up in prayer.
May Beau rest in peace in God’s loving arms.
Twitter is tore up. You should see the photos over the years. It’s so sad. Poor Joe!
So heartbreaking.
I mourn with his family. May God enfold them with is loving comfort.
So sad…
VP & Dr. Jill Biden must be heartbroken. Sending heartfelt condolences to the family.
Sat., May. 30, 2015 9:11 p.m.
Police kill at least 385 people nationwide in first five months of 2015
More than two people a day have died from police gunfire since January, according to a Washington Post analysis. That is more than twice the rate of fatal police shootings tallied by the federal government over the past decade.
http://link.washingtonpost.com/548289943b35d072688b4aaa2nwpp.7r1q/VWpf4kmODmAOPWJ6Adc50
ummmmmm
ummmmmm
It is World News Daily….
………………..
YOKO ONO: “I HAD AN AFFAIR WITH HILLARY CLINTON IN THE ’70S”
May 8th, 2015 | by Bob Flanagan
Los Angeles | Yoko Ono shocked reporters yesterday when she responded to a question concerning the presidential run of Hillary Clinton and the possibility that she could become the first woman President of the United States in American history.
The artist and widow of John Lennon, who is in Los Angeles to present a collection of cups and saucers she is exhibiting at the Museum of Modern Art, totally took reporters by surprise by admitting she had not only met the former First Lady at various times during a series of protests against the Vietnam War in New York in the 1970s but also knew her “intimately”.
The celebrity admitted laughingly to having “a fling” with her at the time and acknowledged her election “would be a great advancement for LGBT and Women rights in America” she added.
http://worldnewsdailyreport.com/yoko-ono-i-had-an-affair-with-hillary-clinton-in-the-70s/
AlterNet @AlterNet
Black Women in San Francisco Are Nearly 50% of City’s Female Arrests, and Only 6% of the Female Population http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/black-women-san-francisco-are-nearly-50-citys-female-arrests-only-6-female …
https://twitter.com/keithboykin/status/604802806353145856/photo/1
Ms. Mosby and her family.
Oregon Organic Farmers Beat Monsanto As Federal Judge Upholds GMO Seed Ban
Posted: 05/29/2015, 07:00pm | Alternet
A coalition of Oregon organic farmers has beaten Monsanto—the corporate agriculture giant—in a landmark federal lawsuit that will make national waves by the way that their rural county banned the use of genetically modified seeds. On Friday, Mark D. Clarke, a federal magistrate judge, dismissed a legal challenge brought by commercial farmers who use Monsanto’s genetically modified alfalfa seeds.
http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/93669623/0/alternet~Oregon-Organic-Farmers-Beat-Monsanto-As-Federal-Judge-Upholds-GMO-Seed-Ban
Mark Brown: Formerly homeless Preckwinkle aide Kim Foxx has the makings of a formidable candidate
Posted: 05/30/2015, 09:00am | Mark Brown
Kim Foxx, chief of staff to Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, spent her childhood in the Cabrini-Green housing development as the daughter of an unwed teenage mother.
While living there, she was the victim of child sexual abuse.
Later, as a high school student, she endured six months of homelessness, during which her mother attempted suicide.
As the 43-year-old former prosecutor contemplates whether to challenge Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez in the 2016 election, Foxx bristles at those who’d pigeonhole her as Preckwinkle’s pawn in a high-stakes power play.
She sees it as an insult to how hard she’s worked and to the sacrifices she and others have made to overcome the circumstances of her early life.
“It diminishes everything that my mother or grandmother or my community poured into me to sum me up as someone’s lackey or puppet,” Foxx said in an interview.
“I tell people all the time [who say], ‘Oh, you’re Toni’s person,’ and I say, ‘No, I’m Gennell’s daughter,’ because that’s who I am.”
Foxx told me she expects to decide whether to run within the next few weeks.
http://chicago.suntimes.com/mark-brown/7/71/647326/formerly-homeless-preckwinkle-aide-has-makings-of-a-candidate-mark-brown-column
Korecki: Bruce Rauner, the reformer, could start with his own office
Posted: 05/30/2015, 08:00am | Natasha Korecki
SPRINGFIELD — Members of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration sat before the Senate Judiciary Committee as they sought to advance legislation this past week to change the law on workers compensation claims.
It was one in a series of reform proposals that Rauner has said is sorely needed if the state is to change the way it does business.
One of the representatives sitting at the testimony table was Jennifer Hammer, who was described by her colleague as ”the governor’s senior policy adviser.”
It’s an interesting title given that Hammer isn’t being paid by the governor’s office.
Instead, records show, her $115,000 salary is being drawn from the cash-strapped Illinois Department of Human Services, which provides funding for some of the neediest populations in Illinois.
……………………..
In that case, Rauner’s office penned a $250,000 yearly contract with the governor’s hand-picked education secretary, Beth Purvis — to be paid out of the Department of Human Services budget. What’s significant there is that the contract was signed three weeks before the governor’s office authorized $26 million in cuts to services that aided those with autism and epilepsy, among others. After a public furor, that money was later restored, but the agency faces more cuts.
State Rep. Greg Harris, D-Chicago, who chairs the House Appropriations-Human Services Committee, said he was unaware that DHS was paying Purvis’ salary, calling that “financial trickery” lacking transparency. He then asked Rauner to testify before the panel to explain what happened.
http://chicago.suntimes.com/natasha-korecki-2/7/71/647239/rauner-wants-reforms-squirms-asked-practices
https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/604727774130139136/photo/1
Sending up prayers for Devon’s daughter.
https://twitter.com/vintageblkglam/status/604772300295172096
Love this pic! Prince had some SWAG back in the day.
Charles had a reputation for craving his fair share of black women, but always and only on the DL. He liked his black women dark, spicy and edgy – and willing to sneak around and never shown in public. As does Albert of Monaco. So, not only do their racist set-ups frown upon such interactions, the royal a-holes themselves are quite comfortable with, and thoroughly embrace said racist mindset.
Tahera Ahmad
20 hrs · Edited ·
I am sitting on a United airlines flight in the air 30,000ft above and I am in tears of humiliation from discrimination. The flight attendant asked me what I would like to drink and I requested a can of diet coke. She brought me a can that was open so I requested an unopened can due to hygienic reasons. She said no one has consumed from the drink, but I requested an unopened can. She responded, “Well I’m sorry I just can’t give you an unopened can so no diet coke for you.” She then brought the man sitting next to me a can of UNOPENED beer. So I asked her again why she refused to give me an UNOPENED can of diet coke. She said, “We are unauthorized to give unopened cans to people because they may use it as a WEAPON on the plane.” So I told her that she was clearly discriminating against me because she gave the man next to me an unopened can of beer. She looked at his can, quickly grabbed it and opened it and said, “it’s so you don’t use it as a weapon.” Apphauled at her behavior I asked people around me if they witnessed this discriminatory and disgusting behavior and the man sitting in an aisle across from me yelled out to me, “you Moslem, you need to shut the F** up.” I said, “what?!” He then leaned over from his seat, looked me straight in the eyes and said, “yes you know you would use it as a WEAPON so shut the f**k up.” I felt the hate in his voice and his raging eyes. I can’t help but cry on this plane because I thought people would defend me and say something. Some people just shook their heads in dismay. #IslamophobiaISREAL
unreal
The LEVEL of ignorance & sheer HATE, it’s REAL.
https://twitter.com/WTA/status/604733478081544192/photo/1
BOO-YAH!
OF COURSE, there is more than one.
who is stupid enough to believe there was ONLY ONE victim of this predator?
ABC News Politics ✔ @ABCPolitics
Sources say there is a 2nd individual allegedly victimized by Dennis Hastert: http://abcn.ws/1K1dOlt
https://twitter.com/Telegraph/status/604752417922519040/photo/1
https://twitter.com/John_Horhn/status/604701102903205888/photo/1
Wish You Were Here Tangled Up in Blue in Kasmir so we can Walk This Way. You were Born to Run One of These Nights on Thunder Road, or take the Low Rider & sing Bohemian Rhapsody and I’m Not in Love
And after that you could do the Wall Street Shuffle…..
I dunno, Joe created the best bumper sticker for 2012:
Osama Bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive…
then again, he might be right, because how many Democrats actually used it
https://twitter.com/PJMedia_com/status/604371311213719552
https://twitter.com/bbctennis/status/604723181841182720/photo/1
Go Serena!
https://instagram.com/p/3UDmUvp5ri/
This is true for some, but not all. That’s what I know to be true.
https://twitter.com/itsRileyCurry/status/604492726919413762/photo/1
Damn, that’s cold! LOL
https://twitter.com/itsRileyCurry/status/604382731749969922/photo/1
LOL Riley tokk lessons from Kanye.
https://twitter.com/parisreview/status/604299958443995136/photo/1
CLASSY
https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/604732706862321664/photo/1
Strange place, America. There’s more than enough to go around, so why this?
I guess the moral of this story is that it’s hard out there for a Libertarian Ho
………………………..
… While his rivals cultivate wealthy backers who will pump millions of dollars into their candidacies, Paul has struggled to find a similar lifeline. It’s led to considerable frustration in his campaign, which, amid rising concerns that it will not be able to compete financially, finds itself leaning heavily on the network of small donors who powered his father’s insurgent White House bids.
It hasn’t been for lack of trying. In recent months, Paul has sought to woo a string of powerful Republican megadonors — from Silicon Valley executives to a Kentucky coal mogul to the billionaire Koch brothers — who, it was believed, would be philosophically aligned with his free-market views. In each case, he met disappointment.
At the top of the list was Peter Thiel, the eccentric Northern California venture capitalist who funneled $2.6 million to Ron Paul’s presidential campaign. But Thiel is being far less generous this time around, leaving Paul’s crestfallen advisers with the distinct impression that he won’t give them a dime. They’ve been left guessing as to why. One speculated that Thiel, who didn’t respond to requests for comment, was unhappy with the rollout of Paul’s policy platform. Another surmised he was skeptical of Paul’s 2016 prospects or that he’d become tired of political giving and would sit out 2016 entirely.
There was Sean Parker, the flashy Napster co-founder who was portrayed by Justin Timberlake in the hit 2010 movie “The Social Network.” But Parker, who has known Paul for several years and has met with him to discuss 2016, isn’t expected to endorse Paul — or any Republican candidate, for that matter. Those familiar with Parker’s thinking say he’s most likely to provide financial support to Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.
There was Larry Ellison, the former Oracle CEO known for his penchant for megayachts. In October, Ellison hosted a Silicon Valley fundraiser for Senate Republicans that Paul attended — an event that led to speculation that Ellison, whose net worth is said to hover around $54 billion, would get behind the Kentucky Republican. But he’s instead thrown his support to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and will host a fundraiser for him on June 9.
“It was love at first sight,” one person close to Ellison said of his feelings toward Rubio.
Not even two months into his presidential campaign, Paul is scrambling to compete with opponents who have established fundraising vehicles underwritten by well-heeled contributors. Jeb Bush has tapped his family’s formidable network of donors, a wide-ranging list of names that includes real estate developer Mel Sembler and Anheuser-Busch distributor John Nau, to fund a super PAC that’s expected to raise an historic $100 million by the end of this month. Rubio has won the backing of Norman Braman, a Miami auto dealer who’s expected to pour anywhere from $10 million to $25 million into his bid. Ted Cruz is expected to receive around $30 million of support from Robert Mercer, a New York hedge fund manager.
Even Rick Santorum, who barely registers in polls, is expected to have a deep-pocketed benefactor: Foster Friess, a businessman who helped keep Santorum’s 2012 presidential bid alive, has said he will donate again…
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/rand-pauls-money-problem-118397.html#ixzz3bXNBDlF2
Marilyn Mosby Announces Baltimore Program for First-Time Offenders
Baltimore’s state attorney Marilyn Mosby has announced a program to help reduce recidivism rates and unemployment in the city. Aim to B’More will help nonviolent, first-time felony drug offenders get their records expunged upon completion of the program.
Mosby has been working with Deborah Spector, deputy director of crime control and prevention, to launch the program, which began on May 4.
“Baltimore needs this program. By offering nonviolent, first-time felony offenders the opportunity to get an education and establish a career, we are affording them the opportunity to be more,” Mosby said.
The program is modeled after a similar one launched in California by State Attorney General Kamala Harris.
“I think (Aim to B’more) is going to change my life,” Shyheim Holly, 19, said at a conference announcing the program. “I’m not doing too well right now, and this program is going to help me get a job and stay out of trouble.”
http://www.bet.com/news/national/2015/05/15/marilyn-mosby-announces-baltimore-program-for-first-time-offenders.html
The program in question is supported by an initiative Prop 47 that was voted for overwhelmingly by Californians in 2014. Kamala Harris did not initiate or launch this initiative. She actually was ‘neutral’ on it, but now wants to take credit for it:
”..The most visible advocates for Prop 47 were San Francisco district attorney George Gascón, Santa Clara district attorney Jeff Rosen and former San Diego Police Chief William Landsdowne. These respected law enforcement officials viewed California’s mass incarceration policies as fiscally unsustainable and harmful to low income communities.
Even prominent national conservative figures like Newt Gingrich and Rand Paul announced their support for Proposition 47, arguing that current sentencing laws waste taxpayers’ dollars and do not curtail drug use. They prefer a focus on locking up violent offenders.
While Senator Dianne Feinstein spoke out against Prop 47, many other state leaders such as Gov. Jerry Brown and Attorney General Kamala Harris remained neutral. One traditionally powerful lobby group, the Corrections Peace Officers Association took no position on Prop 47..”
http://newamericamedia.org/2014/11/prop-47-as-california-goes-so-goes-the-nation.php
Months after the rehoming of their adopted daughters was made public, Justin and Marsha Harris have yet to face consequences
Despite public outrage, Justin Harris’ status as legislator remains unchanged.
May 28, 2015
On March 24, three weeks after the news first broke that state Rep. Justin Harris (R-West Fork) and his wife, Marsha, gave their two adopted daughters in 2013 to a family where one of them was later sexually assaulted, Rep. Harris returned to Twitter. Normally an active presence on social media, Harris had shuttered his feed the first week of March in response to an onslaught of unwanted attention as theArkansas Times report revealing the “rehoming” of the girls, ages 3 and 5 at the time, was picked up by national and international media outlets. But by the last week of the month, the media spotlight was already beginning to dim, and Harris resumed tweeting, albeit with his account now visible only to his followers. He broadcast two verses from Psalms (37:12-13) that seemed intended to signal defiance rather than contrition:
The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes his teeth at him
But the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees that his day is coming
Justin Harris’ unshaken sense of righteousness was striking given the revelations of the previous weeks, outlined in this timeline. Three young sisters — the Times calls them “Annie”, “Mary” and “Jeanette,” from youngest to oldest — were taken into state Department of Human Services custody in Fayetteville in 2011 and placed in foster care. The Harrises sought to adopt all three children. According to Cheryl and Craig Hart, a foster family who cared for Mary and Annie for over a year, local DHS workers and therapists advised against the adoption out of concern that the Harrises were poorly equipped to adopt the three sisters, who had suffered past abuse. The Harts claim that Justin Harris then flexed his influence as a legislator: They say Cecile Blucker, the director of the DHS Division of Children and Family Services, pressured local caseworkers to recommend the adoption proceed.
http://www.arktimes.com/arkansas/months-after-the-rehoming-of-their-adopted-daughters-was-made-public-justin-and-marsha-harris-have-yet-to-face-consequences/Content?oid=3871740
https://twitter.com/Sav_Wihongi/status/604361594395443200
https://twitter.com/thereaIbanksy/status/604404782032244738/photo/1
FIFA Charges Instantly Earn Loretta Lynch Global Recognition
WASHINGTON — Thabiso Sithole, a sports reporter with the South African Broadcasting Corporation, had just finished his Wednesday evening segment on the American indictments that had rocked international soccer when his cousin called.
“Who is this Loretta Lynch person?” she said.
Ms. Lynch, only one month into her job as attorney general, captured the world’s attention this week when she vowed to rid FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, of corruption. Her news conference on Wednesday was watched around the world and made her the face of the United States government’s crackdown on some of the world’s most influential soccer officials.
“She’s been Googled more than a couple times here,” Mr. Sithole said by telephone from South Africa. “It was interesting, from this side, that there’s a woman calling the shots for the U.S., and a black woman at that. In particular, going up against football, which is such a boys’ club.”
The Argentine newspaper La Nación introduced Ms. Lynch as “the relentless attorney.” In Paris, Le Figaro called her “the woman who is rocking FIFA.” In Germany, she was simply called FIFA-Jägerin — the FIFA hunter…
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/30/sports/soccer/loretta-lynch-with-assist-from-soccer-makes-strong-global-impression.html
Very interesting.
https://twitter.com/nicoleperlroth/status/604416584648646657
LiberalPhenom @LiberalPhenom
O’Malley and Sanders refuse to acknowledge POTUS’ success but they hire his team.
BWA HA HA AH HA HA HA HA
You better believe you open your mouth to apologize real quick if you slammed the door…..
OR THAT DOOR WOULD BE OFF THE HINGES FOR AN UNDETERMINED AMOUNT OF TIME.
every morning, Mama would stroll by as you come out of the bathroom, because you can’t dress in your room anymore BECAUSE YOU HAVE NO DOOR.
‘ I bet you wish you could take that slam back, don’t ya?”
and don’t even THINK about asking when the door would return.
https://twitter.com/TheRealMikeEpps/status/604689806736683008
Girrrrrrrrrrl, you know Mama & Daddy don’t play THAT.
LMBAO NO.WAY.IN.HELL. Would this ever happen in our house. NEVER
this went through an entire food chain of executives and nobody said..
THIS IS A BAD PHUCKING IDEA.
……………………………………….
The Hunger Games: New CBS reality show exploits poor families by making them grovel for $101,000
30 MAY 2015 AT 09:59 ET
As if to prove there are new depths to be plumbed in the world of reality television (because who knew?), CBS just debuted The Briefcase, a show which takes poverty porn, class anxiety, emotional manipulation and exploitation and packages them all neatly into a pretty despicable hour of primetime television. Kicking off each episode with the question, “What would you do with $101,000?” the show then deep-dives into a competition that asks two unwitting, financially strapped families to choose between two no-win options: being financially solvent yet appearing heartless and greedy, or drowning in debt yet having audiences recognize them as selfless and giving.
It’s hard to imagine a network executive didn’t get the idea for this show from the “Button, Button” episode of the Twilight Zone. The Briefcase focuses on two “middle-class” families—a questionable but highly American take on the phrase, since both are debt saddled, with one primary breadwinner, and essentially living on the edge of financial ruin. Both are told they’ll be participating in a documentary about money. Instead, a producer from the show unexpectedly comes to their house with a suitcase full of cold, hard cash: $101,000 to be exact. That could be a life-changing – and in the case of families so near the financial cliff, nearly life-saving – sum of money. But this being reality TV, instead of just giving them the cash, there’s a major catch.
Both families are informed that somewhere out there, there’s another family “who’s also in need,” and are given a choice: “You can keep all of the money, you can keep some of the money, or you can give it all away.” Neither family knows that the other family also has a suitcase full of cash and is debating how much, if any, they’ll share. And since both families were originally told they were merely going to be the subjects of a documentary, neither of them really signed up for this exercise in televised torture.
What follows, predictably, is a gut-wrenching look at the two families being guilted this way and that over whether to choose charity or financial survival. In the first episode, the Bergins of North Carolina, a family of five—mom, Kim; dad, Drew; and three teenage daughters—are trying to make do on Kim’s salary of $15.50 an hour, since Drew’s ice cream truck business is failing. And in New Hampshire, the Bronsons—featuring dad Dave, an Iraq war vet who lost his leg in combat—are scraping by on the earnings of mom Cara, who works the night shift as a nurse and is pregnant with their second child.
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/the-hunger-games-new-cbs-reality-show-exploits-poor-families-by-making-them-grovel-for-101000/
he doesn’t get it.
she is NOT THE ONE
https://twitter.com/AP/status/604570347875254273
I don’t give a shyt about the parents.
How about ask JOSH the questions about his molesting children?
https://twitter.com/cnnbrk/status/604701815075172352
and on Faux Noise of all channels! And they waill ask the sugar-coated questions to appeal to the feeble-minded ignorant white trash audience.
NAW SON, You’re a STRAIGHT UP CHILD MOLESTER.
PUT THESE EVIL MUTHAPHUCKAS UNDER THE JAIL
……………………………..
A Choice for Recovering Addicts: Relapse or Homelessness
By KIM BARKER MAY 30, 2015
After a lifetime of abusing drugs, Horace Bush decided at age 62 that getting clean had become a matter of life or death. So Mr. Bush, a homeless man who still tucked in his T-shirts and ironed his jeans, moved to a flophouse in Brooklyn that was supposed to help people like him, cramming into a bedroom the size of a parking space with three other men.
Mr. Bush signed up for a drug-treatment program and emerged nine months later determined to stay sober. But the man who ran the house, Yury Baumblit, a longtime hustler and two-time felon, had other ideas.
Mr. Baumblit got kickbacks on the Medicaid fees paid to the outpatient treatment programs that he forced all his tenants to attend, residents and former employees said. So he gave Mr. Bush a choice: If he wanted to stay, he would have to relapse and enroll in another program. Otherwise, his bed would be given away.
“‘Do what you do’ — that’s what he told me,” Mr. Bush recalled.
Mr. Bush, rail-thin with sad eyes, wanted to avoid the streets and homeless shelters at all costs. He turned to his self-medication of choice: beer, with a chaser of heroin and crack cocaine. Then he enrolled in a new program chosen by Mr. Baumblit.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/31/nyregion/three-quarter-housing-a-choice-for-recovering-addicts-or-homelessness.html?smid=tw-nytimes&_r=1
Have a great weekend ladies.
Hey, y’all. We’re saved. The whole country can be Maryland, every city can be Baltimore. Seriously, what has this fool been smoking? Or is this a trial run for a later time? I think it’s a trial run that, hopefully, will convince him he shouldn’t pursue this.
Why do folks like Hillary Clinton and this clown from Maryland think they can be populist candidates? It’s like they expect people to overlook their previous lives and the fact that they have never been populists and blindly accept their self re-inventions for the purpose of getting them elected. Then they go back to whatever they were.
O’ Malley can claim he’s ‘RUNNING for YOU’ all he wants, but as long as he and Hillary are RUNNING FROM PRESIDENT OBAMA….
GOT.NO.USE.FOR.THEM.
One of these nights
One of these crazy old nights
We’re gonna find out
Pretty mama
What turns on your lights ….
Big Eagels fan too, huh?
From a columnist at the Chicago Suntimes:
http://chicago.suntimes.com/politics/7/71/644567/brown-column-18
How ‘Public Servant’ Hastert Got His Riches
Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert was paying hush money to protect his reputation. The question, however, is what reputation?Not-so-frequently Asked Questions About the Hastert Indictment
May 30, 2015
It’s clear that the indictment of Dennis Hastert has raised more questions than it’s provided answers. But I suspect a lot of people are asking the wrong ones. Hastert’s “misconduct” may turn out to be of sexually predatory nature, in which case talk of how much his reputation is worth is picayune compared the nature of crime. But there are questions about what he did that are applicable to the entire industry he represents.
The most obvious question, that’s also the least relevant for most Americans: What is the “misconduct” that Hastert is alleged to have been trying to cover up?
This is an important question, to be sure, but indicting Hastert on the financial charges and lying to investigators rather than on whatever misconduct occurred seems to indicate that those charges were the best investigators could come up with. Presumably, if the misconduct was illegal, they’d have mentioned that—and indicted him for it. If the conduct was sexual abuse, as sources are saying, then the statute of limitations has run out. It follows that Hastert wasn’t paying hush money to stay out of jail, he was protecting his reputation.
A better question, and one that many Washington watchdogs leapt on quickly: How did Hastert happen to have enough money lying around that paying out $3.5 million was even within the realm of possibility?
Hastert’s ability to participate in the blackmail is, after all, itself a general indictment of D.C.’s “revolving door” money culture, in which former lawmakers move easily from government into lobbying. In Hastert’s case, the ability to profit off of one’s legislative position is especially galling: While in office, Hastert used the earmarkingprocess to turn his investment in some Illinois farmland into a profit of 140 percent when a federal highway project just happened to make its way through those very fields. Indeed, it was this instance of a completely legal form of insider trading that helped prompt Congress to end earmarks.
And, of course, Hastert made even more money once he was out of office. One study found that, on average—and when the information is publicly available—former lawmakers get a 1,425 percent raise when they make the jump from Capitol Hill to K Street. Hastert, who was worth between $4 million and $17 million when he left Congress, was making $175,000 as a representative. His K Street bump would be to almost $2.5 million a year.
Okay, he made his money as a lobbyist, doing presumably sneaky lobbyist things. That raises the next question: How can Hastert’s reputation even be worth $3.5 million?
Hastert is a former member of Congress known to have profited off of a shady land deal and he’s a registered lobbyist—these are already the two professions that Americans regard as the most disreputable careers available. They are literally last (lobbyist) and second-to-last (congressman) on Gallup’s list of what jobs Americans regard as “honest” and “ethical.” What would one have to do to be thought even less of?
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/05/30/how-public-servant-hastert-got-his-riches.html
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Off to swim and run errands.
Good Morning, Everyone! :-)