If the Administration Is So Concerned about Corruption…

shouldn’t it be doing something about the Russian Federation as well?

Figure 1: Corruptions Perception Index for 2016. Darker denotes higher perceived corruption. Source: Transparency International.

The indices for Ukraine as well as Russia are at 29, tied ranking 131/176 countries. US index at 74, ranked 18th.

Addendum:

The Inter Country Risk Guide (ICRG) says Russia is worse than Ukraine…

Source: Goel, Saunoris, Public Choice (1984).

77 thoughts on “If the Administration Is So Concerned about Corruption…”

    1. Menzie Chinn Post author

      Richard A.: Hard to say. We don’t know what was said in the Oval Office between Trump and the Russians. Nor do we know what was said between Trump and Putin, in the various venues. Do you?

      In any case, I’d say they owe us…after hacking into US electoral systems.

        1. Menzie Chinn Post author

          ilsm: Shock therapy is “plundering”? Maybe ill-advised one could argue — although not sure of what the alternatives were given the implosion of the command economy.

    2. joseph

      “I’d say they owe us…after hacking into US electoral systems.”

      You might have it backwards. From Trump’s point of view he owes the Russians big time for his election, which goes a lot to explain his bizarre behavior with regard to helping Putin in Ukraine.

    3. 2slugbaits

      One thing the Obama Administration worried about was giving the Russians operational Javelin missiles. The previous Ukrainian government was so corrupt that the DoD feared if we provided Ukraine with Javelin missiles, some of those missiles would find their way to a Moscow laboratory. That’s why Obama’s DoD withheld sending Javelins until DoD was satisfied that the Ukrainian government could be trusted. Of course, Trump has lied about that as well.

      1. ilsm

        “Precious Ukraine government”, do you mean the one before the 2014 coup or the one most corrupt one before Zelenskiy (May 19)? The outcome of the 2014 coup had Russia repudiate several post Soviet Union “accords” because the new government was foundationally different after 2014.

        It remains to be seen if Zelenskiy can deal with t=corruption.

        On Javellin, it has been around a long time and I suspect there are ‘export versions’ that do not contain the “latest and greatest”.

  3. Bruce Hall

    Judging from the map, we also should take any actions you might suggest against China [IP theft and military espionage] and Mexico [drugs and aiding people from many countries to pass through and sneak into the U.S.] because certainly those countries have caused more harm than most in undermining the U.S. with their corruption. But, hey, we know that’s not how politics work.

    1. Menzie Chinn Post author

      Bruce Hall: But Trump has said it’s all corruption that motivates his actions on Ukraine. All I’m saying is a consistent application of his criterion would suggest Russia should be targeted, as well as the countries you mention (although both Mexico and China do not rank as corrupt as Russia, so your point doesn’t make sense… just sayin’)

        1. pgl

          Bruce Hall has to be either the dumbest person ever or the most dishonest. Did Brucie even read the heading of this fluff piece?

          BY JEN KERNS, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL

          An opinion not The Hill reporting? Come on Bruce – did you even bother to check out who Jen Kerns even is?

          https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Jennifer_Kerns

          “Jennifer Kerns is a Taxpayer Advocate and Republican Strategist in California. The Director of two of the largest Tea Parties in the U.S., her events have been featured on national, state, and local news, including FOX News and CNN.”
          f course this intellectual garbage is all that Brucie seems to ever put forth here? Which is why NO ONE should trust anything this dishonest troll say.

        2. 2slugbaits

          Bruce Hall Seriously? That’s the best you can do? That article was written by a Trump apparatchik who mangled the actual facts. The actions that Trump took against the Russians were actions that he opposed but was forced to accept. Obama’s comment about having more flexibility after the election was made to Medvedev, not Putin. And he was talking about having more flexibility in missile defense. The usual GOP nut jobs on the right were playing hysterical politics with the proposed missile shield, which limited Obama’s ability to responsibly address Russia’s concerns. To refresh your memory:
          https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nuclear-summit-obama-medvedev/obama-tells-russias-medvedev-more-flexibility-after-election-idUSBRE82P0JI20120326

          And the Russian pipeline story is a real howler. If Trump was really all that concerned about NATO security, then why was he reluctant to accept Article 5? Why did he follow Moscow’s request to slow walk the build-up of forward support bases in Poland and Romania? And since Trump took office the 173rd Airborne Brigade has been mostly cooling its heels instead of training with its usual Baltic NATO partners? And then there’s Trump’s recent gift to Moscow with his shameful betrayal of the Kurds. Trump is a national security risk. Three years ago some of us joked about Trump being the Siberian candidate. Today I’m not sure there wasn’t more truth to the joke than we believed at the time.

          The Kremlin literally opened champagne bottles when Trump won the election. Now we know why.

          1. Bruce Hall

            2slug, yes the article was written from the Trump administration perspective. That doesn’t mean that Trump was opposed to the sanctions which were beyond what Obama proposed or did.

            As for the missile defense and the Kurds, Obama was completely derelict on both counts. Where was your outrage?
            • https://www.aei.org/foreign-and-defense-policy/middle-east/obama-abandons-syrian-kurds-to-slaughter/
            • https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/obama-scraps-bush-missile-defense-plan/story?id=8604357

            Trump could have nixed the sanctions if he was so pro-Putin/Russia. Here’s a pro/con article:
            https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/16/heres-where-trump-has-been-tough-on-russia–and-where-hes-backed-do.html

            But, of course, you know that no administration has a black-white relationship with Russia, China, or any other adversary. Of course, I know that this forum is pretty black-white in its comments, so I take them all with a grain … block … of salt.

          2. pgl

            ‘That’s the best you can do?’

            Alas it is. Brucie has a habit of giving us intellectual garbage from suspect sources (as you note). I seriously doubt this fool even knows how to check on the reliability of his sources.

          3. pgl

            Gee Brucie FINALLY admitted it was an opinion piece written by a Trump toadie. Of course when he first posted this link he wanted us to believe it was reporting from The Hill. As usual we need to keep a close watch on Brucie – as he is not exactly the most honest fellow.

          4. Barkley Rosser

            Wow, Bruce, you realy are out of it. Your link on Obama and the Syrian Kurds is massively wrong. Obama supported the YPG to take and hold Kobane, which has now fallen to the Turks, thanks to Trump. That idiotic piece was written in a moment before he decided to do it. Another sign of Rubin being completely out of it is that he identified the YPG with the “Syrian peshmerga” and then called them the latter through most of the artlicle. They are not the same, the peshmerga being the main Kurdish military in Iraq, not in Syria.

            Sorry, Bruce, you really fell into a toilet on this one. You could not be more wrong.

          5. 2slugbaits

            Bruce Hall I see that Barkley Rosser has already corrected you WRT the Kurds. As to Obama scuttling Bush’s missile defense system, it was the right thing to do. It’s a very technical and very mathy topic, but most game theorists and operations research types thought Bush’s missile system was not only a waste of money and ineffective, but also highly destabilizing. There’s a reason why we separate the strategic triad from the theater triad and Bush’s missile defense system tended to blur that important distinction. The political problem is that your typical Sen. Blowhard or John Q. Voter are not qualified to understand the nitty gritty technical aspects, so they tend to rely upon intuition they learned on the playground.

            Thank God Obama did kill Bush’s missile defense system and chose to establish theater triad forward support bases instead. Can you imagine a Donald J. Trump with that kind of toy?

      4. Moses Herzog

        Menzie, you know, believe it or not, I’ve always kind of battled inside myself how much to discuss these things, because I do feel I have more “right” to talk about them than other Americans because my time there. And I know you must have some affection to China (as I have some affection to Germany even with the shame of the behavior during WW2 etc). and I now you have some very justified anger (vexation, exasperation, whatever) that many Americans put China as a bigger enemy than Russia, because they feel Russia is “more white” or feel more connection to them, and then give Russia a “pass” on corruption and direct attacks on America. And I think you are correct to feel this way (if I am indeed correct in these assumptions)

        But I have to say it Menzie—I think if we include IP attacks (either hacked or “leveraged” through joint ventures) and many other crimes the Chinese government commits (Xinjiang, Tibet, Taiwan, Hong Kong, thousands of unknown/undiscussed crimes on the mainland) etc., neither country is better than the other on corruption. They are BOTH very bad faith actors in this sense. I think the broad Chinese populace (Who I have certainly interacted with in an extensive way in the northeast region of China) are mostly very good people, moralistic people who have a good inner sense of “right and wrong”. Just as I also strongly suspect, but do not “know” the Russian populace is largely very good and have a solid inner sense of “right and wrong”. So I think neither should be blamed or seen as “bad people” because both of their governments are EQUALLY rotten and corrupt and equally a thorn in America’s side (at least periodically thorns, anyway).

        1. Menzie Chinn Post author

          Moses Herzog: I think it useful to make a distinction between corruption and straight out evil. There’s an overlap, but they are distinct phenomenon. If you want to say China is conducting a campaign of repression against the Uighers that could be characterized as crimes against humanity, justifying diplomatic and commercial sanctions, I’m with you (I suspect I was worried about the “Develop the West” initiative long before most Americans). Whether you have to pay bigger bribes in China than Russia, well the TI and ICRG indices suggest on average no.

          I also think it is useful to distinguish between the CCP and the people, as I am sure you will agree.

          1. Moses Herzog

            I had some Uigher students when I was teaching at one of the Minorities Universities in China (I believe though I am not certain, there were only 3 of those type Universities in China when I was teaching there, all of whom directly reported to Beijing, which is relatively rare for a University from other provinces). At that time it was more a subtle “assimilation” type con game Chinese officials were playing with Uighers, of which that school was “playing a role” in that assimilation con game. I am sure there were already bad things happening in XinJiang, but not as aggressive as recently. I also had Muslim students going to other schools I taught at, and assume had some connection, and I often ate at Xinjiang owned restaurants. They were amazingly kind to me (in one case running out into the street to chase me down to return money on a restaurant bill I had overpaid a minuscule amount). They had every reason to hate me, as I never hid I was American, and everything they saw on how Americans viewed Muslims on their local media would have been quite negative. They are “looked down on” by the Han majority, for reasons I won’t detail (I think you can fill in the blanks), but I often found them to be more broad-minded and mature than many of their “compatriots”.

          2. Barkley Rosser

            Thank you for your well-informed and useful oobservations here, Moses. Sometimes you actually deliver the goods.

    2. 2slugbaits

      Bruce Hall Judging from the map, we also should take any actions you might suggest against China…

      Or Israel??? Judging by the top map Israel appears to be about as corrupt as China. Funny how Trump hasn’t demanded an investigation of BiBi Nut-and-Yahoo, who is about as corrupt as it gets for someone whose last name isn’t Trump.

      1. Bruce Hall

        2slug, Well, we might as well include all of Africa, the entire Middle East, all of Asia, all of South America, Indonesia and the Philippines, and all of eastern Europe. We could stick with Canada and northern Europe, but we’re more corrupt than them, so I guess we will have to go it alone.

        I did notice that Transparency International is based in Berlin and they have given Germany a pass (chortle).

        This has been fun, but of no value whatsoever.

        1. Menzie Chinn Post author

          Bruce Hall: Since you are apparently unable to pass a cursor over the interactive map at the TI site, I will just clarify that most of South America and Central America (save Venezuela) has a higher ranking than Russia. Philippines and Eastern Europe have higher scores too. So truly, I do not understand what map you are looking at.

  4. pgl

    Now if we had a time series on this, I bet Russian corruption has fallen relative to where it was 20 years ago (the age of Yeltsin).

  5. CoRev

    I just wonder why Menzie blames Trump for data from Obama’s administration? Corruption Perceptions Index 2016

      1. pgl

        I suspect CoRev will not get your point so permit me to be more explicit. Yes – your post was all about Russia and not the U.S. But read the chart about the U.S. in 2016 – “very clean”.

        Hey CoRev – the U.S. government under President Obama was a clean outfit. Of course less than 3 years later Trump has made us as dirty as it gets.

      2. CoRev

        Menzie, actually I read very well. The source was your: “Figure 1: Corruptions Perception Index for 2016. Darker denotes higher perceived corruption. Source: Transparency International.”, and the link therein provided. Which, BTW, reinforced my original question:
        “ERRATA…
        Due to errors in the 2014 and 2015 CPIs some content has been amended in the 2016 CPI web section. This has not changed the results. …”

        You might explain to us how this article is not just more TDS driven foolishness.

        1. Menzie Chinn Post author

          CoRev: If you don’t believe the TI calculations (doubtless they are measured with error), then take a look at the ICRG estimates. Does the story change a lot?

          1. CoRev

            Menzie, next reference to Trump and time related data please double check if your source data, in this case 2016, has any relationship to Trump’s administration., which commenced in 2017.

            Your TDS is showing.

          2. Menzie Chinn Post author

            CoRev: The TI ratings are highly autoregressive.

            In any case, the point is that Russia in 2017 is likely as corrupt as Ukraine in 2017, so there is no reason to force Ukraine to “investigate” while not forcing Russia. In other words: You are an idiot. And willfully ignorant. Signed – a guy who’s used both the TI and ICRG corruption series in peer reviewed published papers.

          3. Barkley Rosser

            CoRev,

            TDS is something sufffered by Trump followers who believe his 13,000 plus lies. As usual, Trump and his followers are guiltier of what they accuse his opponents of being than the opponents are. See all the things he called Hillary Clinton that he was way guiltier of, starting with lying.

          4. CoRev

            This is truly an example of the maturity, tolerance and of today’s academic: “You are an idiot. And willfully ignorant. Signed – a guy who’s used both the TI and ICRG corruption series in peer reviewed published papers.” Someone who thinks a like minded PEER REVIEW is objective and makes more than a coincidental difference outside academic community is surely misguided.

          5. Barkley Rosser

            CoRev,

            Me me me me too! I have also used those corruption indices in some papers! Will you denounce me also, please? I want to be in the same doghouse as Menzie!

          6. baffling

            “This is truly an example of the maturity, tolerance and of today’s academic:…”
            corev, a mature and respected academic is only required to deal with your idiocy for so long before they are entitled to call a spade a spade. you do not get to intentionally lie, mislead, or be simply stooopid and expect your target to continue to treat you with kid gloves. ok boomer snowflake.

        2. pgl

          WTF are you babbling about? Give us a break CoRev – you blame Russia on Obama? Seriously? Putin was the leader than as he is know. Now if you could read the map – you would see the US in 2016 had a clean rating.

      1. pgl

        We’ll see? Why wait – you have lied to us over and over again. Either that – you are just too stupid to realize the fluff you put up here is dishonest as it gets.

  7. Ed Hanson

    Bruce, CoRev;

    For his irrationality, you will have to go easy on Menzie, he is under the terrible strain with the realization that the last dem real issue for 2020, a recession, is not going to appear. All that is left for them and him is mudslinging. Just remember one thing though, socialist never go away, even after the drubbing they are about to receive. Be vigilant.

    Ed

    3. pgl

      Last real issue for the Democrats?

      Yea UkraineGate is not an issue. After all – treason by a Republican is a grand thing. I think we have found someone more pathetic than Lindsey Graham!

      1. Willie

        Who is now saying the Trump administration is too incompetent to play foreign policy games for fun and profit. He went from saying Trump didn’t do anything wrong to now saying Trump is too much of a bumbling idiot to do it on purpose. Gosh.

        1. noneconomist

          When I did stupid stuff as a kid, my mother knew I was a dunce. Unfortunately, that never prevented punishment, including—but not limited to—a head smack. And worse.
          I too was too incompetent, but there was no presidential “he didn’t know” excuse to use as a bailout.

      2. ilsm

        Trump is not the first modern US president to be called a traitor, nor the first to be considered impeachment bait for foreign policy differences with powerful factions.

        In 1951 Truman “dismissed” MacArthur because MacArthur advocated invading Manchuria, after Chinese “volunteers” mauled hos 8th Army up by the Yalu border with China. Truman told MacArthur to clear all statements through State Dept, he went through several route outside state and including sympathetic members of congress. He was fired!

        “In 1951, after President Truman dismissed General Douglas MacArthur for insubordination, Jenner gave a speech on the floor of the Senate in which he said: “I charge that this country today is in the hands of a secret inner coterie, which is directed by agents of the Soviet Government. Our only choice is to impeach President Truman and find out who is the secret invisible government.”[1] ”

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_E._Jenner

        Truman had to deal with the China Lobby and Sen Joe McCarthy……….

        We are headed to a cold war, I had hoped for better in my old age.

        1. Menzie Chinn Post author

          ilsm: Don’t think any one would say Truman fired MacArthur for purposes of self-enrichment. Signed – a guy who knew a bunch of people who said Truman “lost” China…

    4. Barkley Rosser

      Ed,

      There is a long list of foreign policy disasters Trump has engaged in that are issues, starting with his idiot trade wars, which may yet tilt us into recession, his removal of US from Iran nuclear deal that has led to Iran intensifying its nuclear program, his abandonment of our allies the Kurds in Sytria,that has led to thousands of them being ethnically cleansed, his excesssive support for MbS that led to him ordering the bone-sawing of Jamal Khashoggi, and mure, quite aside fro a lot on the domestic front.

    1. Moses Herzog

      @ 2slugbaits
      This terrific (and not coincidentally, accurate) comment by you streams right into a train of thought I had just now had. Menzie rightfully mentioned the distinction between corruption and straight out evil. Which is a very fine line, but a distinction worthy to point out and Menzie does well to point that distinction out. And nearly right as I was reading Menzie’s comment I had this thought/question in my head “If there was a ‘straight out evil index’ ranking for leaders, is donald trump any better than Putin??” I mean, at least Putin cares about national security, correct??

      1. Barkley Rosser

        Ed,

        There is a long list of foreign policy disasters Trump has engaged in that are issues, starting with his idiot trade wars, which may yet tilt us into recession, his removal of US from Iran nuclear deal that has led to Iran intensifying its nuclear program, his abandonment of our allies the Kurds in Sytria,that has led to thousands of them being ethnically cleansed, his excesssive support for MbS that led to him ordering the bone-sawing of Jamal Khashoggi, and mure, quite aside fro a lot on the domestic front.

      2. Barkley Rosser

        Weel, so far, near as I can tell, ‘trump has not yet ordered actual assassinations of his critics as Putin has done, although he praised Putin as “strong” when asked about this propensity of Putin’s. It may be that Trump is too dumb to be as evil as Putin is.

    2. pgl

      Alex Baldwin was right – Trump is BUILDING the swamp!

      “I wonder where the US will rank on the corruption index after four miserable years of Trump.”

      CoRev wanted us to know the map’s clean rating for the US was for 2016 – Obama! Yep – the 2020 update with have the US near Russia on this index!

      1. Barkley Rosser

        Probably not. The US remains far less corrupt at the local level than Russia, even though Trump has sharply increased corruption at the national level.

  9. Moses Hoses

    Speaking of corrupt government leaders:
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-ordered-to-pay-2-million-to-charities-over-misuse-of-foundation-court-documents-say/2019/11/07/b8f804e2-018e-11ea-9518-1e76abc088b6_story.html

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-wanted-barr-to-hold-news-conference-saying-the-president-broke-no-laws-in-call-with-ukrainian-leader/2019/11/06/16d541ec-ff55-11e9-8bab-0fc209e065a8_story.html

    Two things here. First is, there were MULTIPLE sources on the Barr press conference demand from donald trump. Let’s say it again: MULTIPLE sources on the Barr story, working INSIDE the White House—his owned damned staff probably. Secondly, how many times in your life have you heard a “conservative” Republican tell those assembled nearby “what he would do to” the type person who would steal money from children?? Well, I think we know now, many of them were LYING when they puffed out their chest like “the big macho man” to tell us “all the ways they would blablabla” a man who steals money from children. That is to say, whatever white male shooting off at the mouth how he couldn’t tolerate someone hurting children was full of bullcrap. Because they’ve shown with their worship of donald trump—a man who literally steals from children—that they obviously couldn’t care less.

    1. Moses Herzog

      *”owned damned” Wow….. that was a good one, that tops my usual. See, when you live in one of the bottom five states in terms of literacy some of it is bound to rub off eventually. That’s actually a shabby excuse by me. How about that trump’s staff is actually “owned” by corporate America?? So can I say that was what I was thinking when I typed “owned damned”?? Come on people I’m desperate, I’m afraid one of you will think I’m a second cousin of Ed Hanson’s, throw me a bone here.

      1. Barkley Rosser

        I see no problem here, Moses Herzog. After all, the post in question iis by somebody named “Moses Hoses,” clearly not you.

        1. Moses Herzog

          @ Barkley Junior
          Anonymity has been a tradition on blogs since their origin, as anonymity has been a part of mainstream and respected journalism going back to before the 1900s. Thankfully we see that tradition carried on with the likes of Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning, the White House whistleblower and others (no I am not comparing myself to these great men, only making the broader point). If that bothers you a lot Junior I suggest you quit embarrassing yourself by calling data “skewed” that is in fact uniformly distributed, making spelling errors continually (forgivable yes, but not when done every other comment), learn how to do a link correctly at other times when it doesn’t go back to your own writing (funny how that one always works out for you). And making errors in fact and then only admitting to those errors in fact after you have been loudly loudly called out on those errors for the umpteenth time. By the way, we’re still going to be celebrating your big Copmala Harris–Biden nose-to-nose finish when that South Carolina primary roles around, so don’t think I have forgotten, and don’t think I won’t put the link up to your own words when that primary roles around. Kind of a pain having a job where you’re already under public scrutiny to begin with isn’t it Barkley Junior?? Especially when you think you are entitled to the rewards of such a job but none of the drawbacks of such a job.

          Beats being you Junior. Did I give Baby Junior enough attention for today?? I know you’re hard up for it. Go tell a banker that minimum capital requirements are a horrendous strain on society and the banker will pat you on the head, maybe give you a caramel apple or something geared to your tastes, and then ask you to run a long to your playpen if you wag your tail enough after his head patting completes.

          1. Barkley Rosser

            What is the matter with you today, Moses? I make a basically friendly wisecrack, and you completely lose it and say a bunch of rdiculous nonsense, including things that have been shown to be total crap numerous times.

            On that front, of course, is you again claiming that somehow I called a uniform distribution skewed. This had always been total crap on your part, with others agreeing with me that you were totally wrong and just making yourself look incredibly stupid pushing this falsehood. And here you are doing it again. Are you trying to imitate Donald Trump?

            On the matter of Harris and Biden, I have said basically nothing about Harris for a long time because obviously she has fallen way down in the polls and is now extremely unlikely to be prez nominee, although she is a strong candidate for being a VP nominee if anybody other than Warren gets the nomination, but Warren will simply not be able to have a woman. I still think Harris would make a good candidate and a good president, but very unlikely.

            However, you have repeatedly misinterpreted what I said about Harris and Biden and SC, so I shall clear this up here, although I imagine it will not stop you from spouting off about it again, given that you are so stupid as to bring up his uniform distribution nonsense again. So my point was that Biden and Harris were competing for the African American vote, and the SC primar;y would show which of them had succeeded in obtaining it. That remains absolutely true, although as of now it looks like Biden has beaten Harris for it, and indeed SC is the state among the early primary states where he has his largest lead. My analysis of this remains accurate in spite of whether one or the other is way ahead of the other, which is indeed the case now with Biden way ahead of Harris, although it looks like Warren has the lead over both of them and all the rest as well as of now.

            Indeed, I am careless about proofreading what I write before I post, although i think generally people are able to figure out what I mean anyway. I also confess that I have blunderrd with links sometimes, which is why I do not put many of them up here..

            But then, Moses, I rarely really need to since I am usually right about my facts, far more often than you are in an y case, although when I am shown to be wrong about something I readily admit it and move on, with an apology when that seems necessary. This is not something you do very often, with your idiotically bringing up this fallacious claim again that I somehow called a uniform distribution skewed. I did not. You are stupidly lying.

            BTW, you never did apologize for falsely calling me a liar. You could still do it, and given what a complete lying jerk you have again demonstrated yourself to be, this would be an appropriate time and place to do so.

          2. Barkley Rosser

            BTW, Moses, again I really am wondering what the heck is going on with you. Did you think I was being sarcastic when I praised your comments on China? There was maybe a slight dig at the end, but I have previously praised comments by you on China. I recognize you have substantial knowledge of China, and while I have occasionally disagreed a bit with you on China, mostly I agree, and I was serious in my favorable comments. And I was here as well. And I am someone who knows a lot about China, maybe not as much as Menzie or you, but more than most.

            And my comment on your bungling in the comment by you under the name “Moses Hoses” I thought was friendly and at least vaguely witty. But somehow it set you off on a binge of complete nonsense, ranting lies and drivel. I am not going to speculate here why you were so completely out of it here, but that is what you were, just completely out of it, embarrassingly so.

            Do please get it together. Hey, I am still prepared to be your ally or at least at peace, but you keep coming up with this sort of insanity.

  10. Moses Herzog

    Bloomberg is the answer for the DNC, when they finally look like they might walk A$$-backwards into an election victory. Who thinks you match one rich bastard with another rich bastard?? Who does the DNC think that motivates to run to the polls in November??
    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/19/nyregion/taxi-medallions.html

    Hey Michael, nobody wants you. If your mother was still alive, she would tell you not to run because your’e going to RUIN the country that has given you a great life, and cause people to hate you. Buy some penthouse in Florida and leave the presidency to those who have the courage to run in the prime of life, not when they sadly feel in need of personal attention.

    1. pgl

      Bloomberg used to be the Mayor of Manhattan. He was supposed to be the mayor of all 5 boroughs but then he could care less about the middle class in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, or Staten Island.

      1. Moses Herzog

        I have mixed feelings about the man. As I said, I would have voted for him as a national candidate 20 years ago. The medallion thing stinks and shows he’s no different than the rest of them. I actually don’t think his sanitizing of Times Square was all good either (though I will concede that whether what he did to Times Square was “good” or “bad” is debatable). Pragmatically, my main issue is the timing of the run. Which could literally be catastrophic for this nation. Think Ralph Nader here. I like Ralph Nader—but at some point he should have made the decision which was better for the nation as a whole, instead of grandstanding for attention.

  11. noneconomist

    Speaking of corruption, any word on when those tens of thousands of traitors will be rousted from their beds in the middle of the night and shipped to Guantanamo where they will be tried by military tribunals?
    After, of course, tens of thousands of indictments that have been piling up are issued by federal district courts?
    Since the demise on this blog of the insights of J. Blowhard Hambone, those who want to know have been completely in the dark.
    Enquiring minds demand answers.

    1. Moses Herzog

      I honestly forgot which commenter was pushing that now. It would be easy enough with a back search. A lot of them repeat am talk radio fodder. That sounds like the type stuff Alex Jones trots out. Then you have your weird websites. I remember I found one that matched those claims close enough I’m pretty sure that’s where he got it from, or 4–5 of those sites were spreading that. I listen to Alex Jones maybe once very 3 weeks for fun. The funny part is I listen to it on radio mostly when I can get the RSS downloads quite easily. It’s kind of like reading those advertisements in the back of heavy metal magazines or some of the old fashioned catalogues. Or maybe UFO conspiracy magazines. Even thought you know it’s 98% bullcrap you just can’t stop yourself from flipping through it as a ruse. Back in the day Jones used to have some mainstream and semi-respectable guests on. I think Nomi Prins was on the show at least once. Some others. But then he stopped that, maybe he wanted to dumb down the audience so he could sell them more “nutrition” supplements and conspiracy booklets. It’s seriously hard to figure these guys out. He used to have some Eye-candy co-hosts too, but that may have gone out the window with Sandy Hook. I think those girls found they couldn’t even sink that low to peddle children’s deaths for a paycheck. They finally found something they wouldn’t/couldn’t sink themselves to. Who knows but the timing of their exit was about that time,

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