Kleptopia review: power, theft and Trump as leader in Putin’s own image theguardian.com/us-news/2020/o… In the early 2000s, Western intelligence agencies saw transnational organized crime and corruption as a major threat to Western institutions and democracy. What was obvious then and
2/ now is that this criminal threat was tied tightly to the Big Capitalist System of International Finance. You look at the staggering amounts of money laundering and you realize that is not possible to do without the collaboration or cooperation of major Western banks, coupled
3/ with legal tax havens. Big Capitalism is amoral, if not immoral. Big Capitalism hides the money of legitimate corporations and billionaires. It uses lawyers, accountants, & financial wizards. It is a massive legal con game--to hide money and punish commoners. The same legal
4/ con game is used by organized crime, or the kleptocrats. And here we are. In a second Trump term the FBI and Treasury Department's FINCEN will be gutted. The proposed new civil service reductions in job protection will effectively neuter law enforcement. It will be over. Which
5/ is why if Biden adopts Obama's idiotic "look forward, not backward" stance towards this kleptocracy, his election would have been almost pointless. Trump has shown that normative guardrails are useless. Only strong federal laws, strong law enforcement, and stronger oversight
6/ of the presidency and administration can protect the country. And, cable news and elite media should have been covering Trump's gutting of the administrative state instead of obsessing over his tweets.

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More from @4GWDOTDOTDOT

25 Oct
The end of democracy? To many Americans, the future looks dark if the other side wins. washingtonpost.com/politics/end-o… This article is a prime reason why academicians, primarily historians, are a poor guide to understanding what is happening. The fault is their methodology. There are
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5 Oct
Levels of trust in America—in our institutions, in our politics, and in one another—are in precipitous decline. And when social trust collapses, nations fail. Can we get it back before it’s too late? @nytdavidbrooks on America’s moral convulsion: theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/… // This
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20 Sep
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10 Sep
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