-by Dorothy ReikThere used to be only two categories of low lifes that stripped clean and destroyed everything they touched-- taking whatever was worth anything and leaving behind the skeletal remains-- the Mafia and venture capitalists. The Mafia would take over a business-- a bar for example. They would sell the liquor out the back door, water down enough to keep the drunks coming back for a while and when the lights finally went out they would burn it down and collect the insurance-- including the "lost" liquor! Venture capitalists were more sophisticated-- first they borrow against the company they are taking over and then they steal and sell what they have borrowed against leaving a hollowed out company that can be sold for parts leaving the workers with noting. In both cases running the business was just for show-- the real "business" plan was "take the money and run."Now we have a third category-- Government Goodfellas. See what happens when goodfellas take over our government. Godfather Trump first milks the public treasury for as much as he can-- over-charging for hotel rooms, golf carts, meals, whatever he could get the government to pay for. This would have continued but for the-- pandemic. When he had his own grift set up he invited the goodfellas to the trough, putting them in charge of regulating themselves so they could roll back rules which cut into their profits allowing themselves to pillage our public lands, pollute our waters, foul our air, further subsidize their industries with our tax dollars and lobby for tax cuts for themselves that would bankrupt any country without a printing press. Then they gutted the executive branch, including departments set up to prevent pandemics from taking hold, and put judges on the bench who would support their thefts and, for good measure, roll back the rights of others to sue them-- such as denying class action status, for one example.Then, to be sure no one could prosecute them, they supported their Godfather as he gutted the Justice Department, removing any investigators who might get in their way and installing an Attorney General who would do their bidding by discrediting investigations and insisting on reducing sentences and dismissing cases against their own.These Goodfellas and thief Godfather never planned to actually govern the country any more than the Mafia intended to run that bar or the venture capitalists even intended to run any of the companies they "bought" by borrowing against the very assets they were "buying." And so it is now in DC - the Goodfellas have taken charge of the assets of our country, they are milking them for all they are worth-- including profiting off this pandemic by causing bidding wars for the life-saving products they can produce-- and when they are done they will leave our broken country to fix itself and head back to their gated compounds to count their money.We ourselves will have become the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free.Strangling Democracy by Nancy Ohanian
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