Quid Pro Quo?
I’d be grinning, too.
Poetrooper sends us a link to the American Thinker blog, where Monica Showalter details how, on $400,000 a year plus expenses, it is possible for Barry to plunk down nearly $12M USD on a mansion in Martha’s Vineyard. Oceanfront mansion, that is.
Obama gave Common Core contract to publisher, got $65-million book deal in return?
Monica Showalter-
As far-left Democrats yell about bribery and high crimes and misdemeanors, let’s turn to their own side of the aisle, starting with the once penniless President Obama, who left public office a very, very rich man.
He just bought a Martha’s Vineyard mansion for a cool $11.75 million, which is in addition to his Kalorama lookout post, his Chicago home, and possibly a Hawaii spread. At some point, you’ve made enough…but not him.
Ostensibly, it’s mainly the work of his book deals. No bribery there, right?
Well, ahem…
According to Investment Watch (IWB), something doesn’t quite look right.
Obama gave Pearson Publishing $350 million to create Commoncore text and Pearson gave Obama a $65 million dollar book deal in return.
And…
Pearson Publishing was paid for Commoncore but Penguin Random House Publishing did the Obama book deal. But there is commonality with the two:
From Wiki:
Penguin Random House was formed on July 1, 2013, upon the completion of a £2.4 billion transaction between Bertelsmann and Pearson to merge their respective trade publishing companies, Random House and Penguin Group. Bertelsmann and Pearson, the parent companies, owning 53% and 47%, respectively.
In July 2017, Pearson agreed to sell a 22% stake in the business to Bertelsmann, thereby retaining a 25% holding.
That sounds like a classic bribe. You give me this big contract, and I’ll kick back some to you at a later date. Chicago Way. The book cash flowed to Obama in 2017. Pearson, incidentally, seemed to lose money anyway, given the public distaste for Obama’s federal takeover of education via Common Core, which extended to states cutting the program.
President Trump complained about the apparent quid pro quo last summer.
It’s not the first time Obama has done things like this, either. IWB notes that Obama’s net neutrality stance benefited Netflix, and surprise, surprise, he got a lucrative deal with Netflix, too.
Thanks, Poe. Read the rest of the article here: The American Thinker
Category: Guest Link, Politics
Corruption, it’s okay when Democrats do it.
Bingo.
To be fair, it is their trademark. Corruptus in Extremis.
It’s (D)ifferent when they do it.
Mainstream media: “No, no, nothing to see here, now move along, peasants!!!”
It’s quite apparent that anyone who questions the actions of President Trump’s Predecessor in Office is quite waaaaayyyciiiisss! I hope that we hear more alleged words of wisdom from our Commissar Seagull, but I’m sure that he’s still eating crow and nothingburger!
Yup– it’s only bad to complain about Joe doing it or something.
Son.of.a.Bitch!
Sadly, just the tiniest tip of deep rooted corruption, graft, kickbacks, and royal screwing of the American Taxpayer.
“The Chicago Way”, goes back at least to the elections of 1860.
No surprise at all.
Kickbacks are a way of life in American politics.
Our politicians cannot steal directly from our tax contributions as the political elite does in every 3rd world country, so they ask for kickbacks from private contractors. For the private sector, it is the cost of doing business.
How else can they become millionaires on 200k job?
Don’t discount their insider trading, ala Pelosi, or just giving family tax money, ala Waters.
I could go on for years about this shit, I just suffice to posit this little gem…
Of all the millionaires in DC, Trump is the only one that earned his money.
The rest of them got it through outright theft, obfuscation and pay for play schemes…
Who in all creation would pay any of those people for doing something that would be considered work ???
I mean, Paul Ryan as a carpenter, truck driver, anything requiring manual labor and a brain cell that works and works honestly ????
If you suck at any other job?
Become a politician, you’ll become a millionaire post haste.
Bernie Sanders. Alexandria the Occasionally-Conscious. There’s a long list of never-did-nuffin’s in The Swamp.
Ain’t it interesting that those who espouse socialism the most are those who haven’t ever contributed jack shit to start with?
So we can’t trust a poor community organizer and we can’t trust a billionaire.
That situation begs a question: what kinda beer’s in the frigid?
The JEF doing business “the Chicago Way”? Say it ain’t so!?!?!?
Another practitioner of “Socialism for the. But not for me.”
Time to warm the tar and feathers
So the Dems have hitched their wagon to bribery.
Question for you liberal friends: if in fact Trump is guilty of bribery, what was he getting out of the deal? Don’t say reelection cause that dog won’t hunt(er).
I’m not liberal but I’ll take a shot: It wasn’t what HE was getting but what WE THE PEOPLE were getting which is exposed corruption at the highest level. But we can’t have that now can we?
Which is why this entire impeachment business is so distasteful, if one sits back and actually considers the actions of the “real” politicians in previous administrations and now their actions when the current occupant of 1600 doesn’t fit their narrative it becomes clear that this is nothing about “justice” it’s all about who is sitting there.
In case it wasn’t blatantly obvious to everyone previously I am not a fan of President Trump. I think I’ve been fairly clear about that for some time now.
However I am far less a fan of liars in the DOJ, FBI, CIA, and our “secret” court process and I have always been suspicious of those organizations due to their overwhelming power and ability to destroy a life. If those organizations can fabricate emails, lie about the veracity of a document, and the judge accepts their words at face value so they can spy on a Presidential candidate imagine what they can do to you and your family should you dare cross a certain line.
For my liberal friends I remind them the best part about their hatred for Trump is that they are suddenly concerned about what a president does when they previously could not care less about the Executive or its actions.
None of us should trust in the benevolent nature of government because there is no government that possesses a benevolent nature without having that nature forced upon it by its citizens.
Quid Pro Quo indeed, but worse the unelected arbiters of our “security” are actual liars fabricating evidence of wrongdoing from whole cloth in order to sabotage a candidate and now a president. If that level of abuse from unelected bureaucrats who are supposed to be impartial arbiters of what is true and factual versus what is a lie becomes the norm the Republic is indeed in for far more dark days than bright ones in the days and years to come.
The crap the FBI has pulled is downright Orwellian, and that’s just the crap we know about. I have a hard time even comprehending how so many people could be so deeply involved in such blatant corruption. Are they not oathsworn to uphold the Constitution? Am I just quaint in my expectation that people who swear an oath are supposed to honor it? Are these people evil or just seriously misguided, and at this point, does that distinction even matter?
At this point, I feel like there’s a valid case for the FBI to be disbanded, its personnel terminated permanently from federal service, and the entire DOJ massively overhauled. What other options are there when a branch of the Department of Justice violates the law at will?
“What other options are there….”
Not very many I am afraid, at this point I am no longer certain we can put the genie back in the bottle.
These current political hacks have damaged the reputation of several organizations far beyond repair to those of us who value the supposed impartiality of investigators. I realize that impartiality is often a myth, but when it comes to our politics one would think these agents and investigators have at least a limited ability to push past their bias and consider their integrity and the honor of their word as important components of their job.
The film ‘Richard Jewell’ by Clint Eastwood opens on 13 Dec. Y’know the Atlanta Olympic Park bombing, and the FBI’s ‘sterling’ conduct during the investigation. The film is getting highly positive reviews from what I read.
What’s sad is this is really nothing new for the FBI. This is how they’ve operated since their earliest days. Hoover had them running all kinds of surveillance ops on American citizens for decades.
Hoover shows up in season 3 of “The Man In the High Castle” as a high-profile nazi collaborator, with the alt-universe FBI working for the SS. I found that to be disturbingly plausible.
So a few quick thoughts:
I trust a billionaire who became a politician more than a politician who became a millionaire.
If you can’t investigate someone for corruption because they are running for office, when can you investigate them?
Why is it that the people don’t get to vote on Congress’ pay raises? It should be a national referendum for pay raises of Congress. In no other business do the employees decide their own pay raise!
We need a petition to set term limits for all of Congress!
“Politicians and diapers both need to be changed often and for the same reason.” – Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)