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To metaphorically do in America, what Mussolini had done in Agro Pontino, would be a big task. To do it in an unfair manner is trivial, and there exist sufficient precedent, but doing it justly requires institutions uncaptured by partisans.
Trump was indicted in what many considered, in the absense of prosecution of Bidens or Clintons, selective enforcement. That a thorough investigation of Donald would probably discover he violated some statue would be admitted by many of his supporters, but they would add that so did other polticians of his rank but who didn't
But now news has come in Biden's son has been indicted for a second time (first was for gun possesion) for evading 1.4M USD (14.6M SEK) of federal taxes. Despite being filed in today the stronghold of Democrats, the inditement pulls no punches in describing Hunter's lifestyle, claiming that he spent money on "drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature, in short, everything but his taxes".
With this step family members of important politicians of both American political parties are facing justice. Perhaps Hunter knows more than he lets on and it will be both candidates for US president in 2020 who are suspects. In such a case the US could said to be a tragic country if criminality is so common in the ruling classes, a democratic one if no one is above the law, or an oligarchic one if there exist factions divorced from democratic oversight able and willing to besmirch beyond repair the reputation of any politician.
But if the middle option is true, and this the few unrighteous in high places made low due to their unrighteousness (and not for coming into conflict with the deep state), the metaphorical Wermacht is always a danger. A former ally of amelioration and reclamation now undoing the hard work for short-term gains. This role could be played by judges finding guilty politicians innocent due to having political opinions similar to those accused, temporarily strengthening their party but in the long term promote rot in the republic.
I really do feel bad for Joe regarding Hunter. He doesn’t appear to have been a particularly awful father. Reminds me of a conversation we were having with @raggedy_anthem last week, sometimes you just get an asshole failson, but then what do you do? You can’t not love them, not provide for them. Good parents hide bad children from the law, sacrifice their careers, even their lives, for them. I can’t be too mad at the participants in the college admissions scandal, who did after all only want the same advantage for their kids that the super rich get by being on the college’s board of trustees.
Regarding Trump, it’s both trivially true that the Democrats are out to get him and obvious that he doesn’t help himself and has engaged in shady conduct throughout his career without much care for the consequences. So what do you do? Moldbug suggests that rightists essentially ignore some corruption and venality in (reactionary) elites because, in the grand scheme of things, a king who skims off the top but who does what you want is always better than an incorruptible bureaucrat who doesn’t, let alone a corrupt one who doesn’t.
Others would say it matters. There are two main reasons why the Swiss have largely abandoned their vaunted neutrality over the last 25 years. The first is, of course, that the SEC, IRS and wider US government effectively threatened to destroy the Swiss banking sector if they didn’t kowtow to them. But the second, perhaps as significant, is that the Swiss started paying the price for their participation in various shadiness abroad. Huge corruption in politics (beyond what was previously considered standard), in public sector contracting, in banking, the growing influence of the Moroccan, Italian and Albanian mafias in Swiss politics and public life, things that ordinary Swiss had to pay for. The idea that one could deal with and bribe anyone abroad without concern for morality while maintaining a high-trust, low-corruption society at home was suddenly no longer as obvious as it had once been.
The money paid to Hunter by foreign oligarchs ended up in Joe's bank accounts. He used a psuedonym in emails to avoid subpoena requests. Joe is basically in on the whole thing, and he's the one who failed Hunter.
I sure hope we can get some forensic accountants on the case to track the money flows.
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