There are three stories in the news today that seem to me to add up to a larger picture. First is the story of money laundering, which seems suddenly to be all over the news. Today we learned that federal prosecutors in Detroit have broken into a massive money-laundering operation between the United States and the United Arab Emirates called “The Shadow Exchange.” They confiscated $12 million and suggest this is the tip of the iceberg.
Heather, thank goodness for you and your perspective. You bring scope to isolated stories and make me glad to read you every day, even when we're both worried by events. Thank you, and know that thousands of us feel the same gratitude.
This letter rang some of my memory bells. A few years ago I read "The Bully Pulpit" by Doris Kearns Goodwin. All about Teddy Roosevelt and the McClure crew. Highly recommend it.
If there is to be another true progressive era, it will take much more muck raking - and it will need to come from someone with a "Tarbell" reputation. Someone like Rachel Maddow has the intellect and drive but she is tainted or labeled as "too far left".
In reality, the closest thing we have to such a person is our Professor HCR. But while her following is growing, these stories of corruption need to be all over NBC, ABC and CBS. And propelled through every social media platform. The theme could be "Wake Up America, you are being had."
"The United States is one of the money-laundering capitals of the world." I didn't know this and I suspect many other Americans don't know it either. The ramifications of that statement are stunning. No wonder corruption and greed are rampant in our country.
Thank you, HCR. I know this is slightly tangential, but last night here in the UK I saw the extraordinary documentary assemblage of material "Four Hours at the Capitol" showing what was happening on January 6th. The visceral hatred shown by the mob, their crazed rationale, the violence, all truly frightening. I was further appalled by an article in Vice News of the torrent of vile e mail death threats to professional, experienced election officials and their families (!) causing many to leave their jobs.We can guess who will take their places. Do not be complacent, dear American friends. Bannon's strategy of getting "patriots" into official positions at every level, from school boards to local councils and upwards could well succeed. As we know, the judiciary is already tainted.
One of the things I've noticed about American corruption is that we are rather good at corrupting systems that turn otherwise honest individuals into abettors or dupes. Our tax system is a good example. Systems became the target precisely because it was easier to change rules than to try and corrupt individuals, who tend to do things like blow whistles (thank-you Frances Haugen!). More lately, however, it seems like we are moving to simply putting corrupt individuals into positions of leadership/power. The Trump administration and its rogues gallery illustrate this nicely.
What gives me hope is that American institutions are still made up of basically honest individuals who would rather do the right thing when given a chance. I'm not talking about heroes such as those who came forward during both impeachment trials, the Capitol Police, or various secretaries of state who said "no" to Republican attempts at vote fixing. I'm talking about regular people caught up in corrupt systems who need their paychecks to survive. They WILL do the right thing if shown a way they can understand. I've seen it time and again. This is where the leadership of Joe Biden and other Democrats is vital. The oligarchs of the Gilded Age discovered this. The kleptocrats of this age are about to discover it too.
Thank you for writing about McClure Magazine's 1903 addition and the progressive era these journalists helped usher in (hopefully I can find this magazine in my library's archives).
To me, your knowledge and research of American history is unparalleled and I treasure your newsletters.
You've covered quite a bit today,
so I'll focus just on Facebook and John Eastman.
Facebook must be made into a public utility (and all the rules that apply to such) before it undertakes its dangerous global currency scheme, its Instagram for children scheme and the Metaverse.
As an article in Alantic magazine argued, Facebook has become a hostile country within a country and only action designed to severely defang this hostile entity will do because, as articles in the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere illustrate, Facebook executives cannot be trusted to police themselves because they don't want to.
Weasley insurrectionist John Eastman needs to disbarred.
I've written for years about money laundering and corruption and this latest spat of stories isn't anything new: In 2013, the “Offshore Leaks” data dump revealed the extent of international tax fraud perpetrated by banks. The “Panama Papers” in 2016 exposed offshore money laundering through shell companies created by now-defunct law firm Mossack Fonseca. In 2017, the “Paradise Papers” unearthed thousands of unknown offshore corporations owned by prominent corporations and individuals such as Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth II, and former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. Now the “Pandora Papers” generates tons of news stories that will peter out, subsumed by the unrelenting news cycle that is managed by a media that has the attention span of a flea.
And yet this is the single biggest problem in the world — a wholesale redistribution of the world’s wealth into the hands of a few.
Please also note the Chevron-backed prosecution of human rights lawyer Steven Donziger. Donziger won a massive settlement against Chevron for dumping oil in the Amazonian rain forest in Ecuador, but rather than pay out settlement (of billions of dollars), Chevron instead targeted the lawyer in the case with false accusations. Donziger is currently under house arrest in NYC in a truly Orwellian case. We also have systematic corruption in the judicial branch. For details see: https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/steven-donziger-chevron-sentencing/
I hope we can reassert the rule of law but has it also been compromised with all the extremely conservative and I might add unqualified judges Majority Leader McConnell confirmed or will the judicial branch hold to the rule of law. In the next week or so, I'm having lunch with a friend, who is the presiding judge over one of the state district court regions here in Texas to ask him that question. He told me a couple of years ago that our democracy would be OK if the Rule of Law held. Now he has to convince me that the rule of law is holding. Recent shenanigans on the Texas anti-abortion law and the U.S. 5th court of appeals and SCOTUS would indicate otherwise so I hope he has some good arguments to make. I do want him to win this case!
Your beacon through the daily fog continues to inspire. I recently visited the Museum in Munich built on the site of the Nazi HQ (Brown House) that houses the archival record of the Nazi rise and fall. (Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism) It was profound especially to spend time reviewing the ten year lead up to how the Nazis took power and THE EXTRAORDINARY SIMILARITIES to what happened and CONTINUES to happen in the USA Today. At the very end of the exhibit was this:
“The Nazi Party’s path to power was not an inevitable, triumphant march. The defensive measures of the state and civilian resistance never came together to form an effective counter-force. The Weimar Republic failed because people didn’t oppose extremism vigorously enough.”
I am bemused by all of the carping when President Biden is on the cusp of enacting the broadest social legislation to benefit a large majority of Americans since LBJ’s Great Society (when he had an overwhelming majority in Congress). President Biden started with a broad wish list that addressed a vast number of pressing needs. With a whisker majority in the House and a 50/50 Senate, he was obliged to negotiate compromises that could get his bills approved without any Republican votes.
His compromises were an essential part of accomplishing something imperative for the majority of the American people. I applaud him for fulfilling his “promises made, results delivered” campaign promise. Of course some Democrats will be disappointed and Republicans will be in total opposition. Meanwhile President Biden has well served the American people.
Heather, I am feeling dismayed. Writing postcards to get out the vote in NJ while feeling numb. Thank you for perspective and reasonableness. I have always had faith in political action for social and civil rights- but it feels like the republicans have castrated our democracy. Voter-repression, Covid, people supporting Trump, inflation, still not ok to travel- overwhelming. Glad for your voice. Enormously sad for the American dream.
Are you keeping printed copies of these important Letters and storing them in a safe place for future historians, especially with the very real risk of a near future under authoritarian rule?
“Experts say that because of the lack of transparency required in our financial transactions, hundreds of billions of dollars are laundered in the U.S. every year.”
This is why experts and whistle blowers are discredited and journalists are called “enemies of the people”. Transparency and oligarchy are like oil and water.
Heather, thank goodness for you and your perspective. You bring scope to isolated stories and make me glad to read you every day, even when we're both worried by events. Thank you, and know that thousands of us feel the same gratitude.
This letter rang some of my memory bells. A few years ago I read "The Bully Pulpit" by Doris Kearns Goodwin. All about Teddy Roosevelt and the McClure crew. Highly recommend it.
If there is to be another true progressive era, it will take much more muck raking - and it will need to come from someone with a "Tarbell" reputation. Someone like Rachel Maddow has the intellect and drive but she is tainted or labeled as "too far left".
In reality, the closest thing we have to such a person is our Professor HCR. But while her following is growing, these stories of corruption need to be all over NBC, ABC and CBS. And propelled through every social media platform. The theme could be "Wake Up America, you are being had."
"The United States is one of the money-laundering capitals of the world." I didn't know this and I suspect many other Americans don't know it either. The ramifications of that statement are stunning. No wonder corruption and greed are rampant in our country.
Thank you, HCR. I know this is slightly tangential, but last night here in the UK I saw the extraordinary documentary assemblage of material "Four Hours at the Capitol" showing what was happening on January 6th. The visceral hatred shown by the mob, their crazed rationale, the violence, all truly frightening. I was further appalled by an article in Vice News of the torrent of vile e mail death threats to professional, experienced election officials and their families (!) causing many to leave their jobs.We can guess who will take their places. Do not be complacent, dear American friends. Bannon's strategy of getting "patriots" into official positions at every level, from school boards to local councils and upwards could well succeed. As we know, the judiciary is already tainted.
One of the things I've noticed about American corruption is that we are rather good at corrupting systems that turn otherwise honest individuals into abettors or dupes. Our tax system is a good example. Systems became the target precisely because it was easier to change rules than to try and corrupt individuals, who tend to do things like blow whistles (thank-you Frances Haugen!). More lately, however, it seems like we are moving to simply putting corrupt individuals into positions of leadership/power. The Trump administration and its rogues gallery illustrate this nicely.
What gives me hope is that American institutions are still made up of basically honest individuals who would rather do the right thing when given a chance. I'm not talking about heroes such as those who came forward during both impeachment trials, the Capitol Police, or various secretaries of state who said "no" to Republican attempts at vote fixing. I'm talking about regular people caught up in corrupt systems who need their paychecks to survive. They WILL do the right thing if shown a way they can understand. I've seen it time and again. This is where the leadership of Joe Biden and other Democrats is vital. The oligarchs of the Gilded Age discovered this. The kleptocrats of this age are about to discover it too.
Thank you for writing about McClure Magazine's 1903 addition and the progressive era these journalists helped usher in (hopefully I can find this magazine in my library's archives).
To me, your knowledge and research of American history is unparalleled and I treasure your newsletters.
You've covered quite a bit today,
so I'll focus just on Facebook and John Eastman.
Facebook must be made into a public utility (and all the rules that apply to such) before it undertakes its dangerous global currency scheme, its Instagram for children scheme and the Metaverse.
As an article in Alantic magazine argued, Facebook has become a hostile country within a country and only action designed to severely defang this hostile entity will do because, as articles in the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere illustrate, Facebook executives cannot be trusted to police themselves because they don't want to.
Weasley insurrectionist John Eastman needs to disbarred.
Enjoy a peaceful and restful weekend.
I've written for years about money laundering and corruption and this latest spat of stories isn't anything new: In 2013, the “Offshore Leaks” data dump revealed the extent of international tax fraud perpetrated by banks. The “Panama Papers” in 2016 exposed offshore money laundering through shell companies created by now-defunct law firm Mossack Fonseca. In 2017, the “Paradise Papers” unearthed thousands of unknown offshore corporations owned by prominent corporations and individuals such as Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth II, and former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. Now the “Pandora Papers” generates tons of news stories that will peter out, subsumed by the unrelenting news cycle that is managed by a media that has the attention span of a flea.
And yet this is the single biggest problem in the world — a wholesale redistribution of the world’s wealth into the hands of a few.
Please also note the Chevron-backed prosecution of human rights lawyer Steven Donziger. Donziger won a massive settlement against Chevron for dumping oil in the Amazonian rain forest in Ecuador, but rather than pay out settlement (of billions of dollars), Chevron instead targeted the lawyer in the case with false accusations. Donziger is currently under house arrest in NYC in a truly Orwellian case. We also have systematic corruption in the judicial branch. For details see: https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/steven-donziger-chevron-sentencing/
I hope we can reassert the rule of law but has it also been compromised with all the extremely conservative and I might add unqualified judges Majority Leader McConnell confirmed or will the judicial branch hold to the rule of law. In the next week or so, I'm having lunch with a friend, who is the presiding judge over one of the state district court regions here in Texas to ask him that question. He told me a couple of years ago that our democracy would be OK if the Rule of Law held. Now he has to convince me that the rule of law is holding. Recent shenanigans on the Texas anti-abortion law and the U.S. 5th court of appeals and SCOTUS would indicate otherwise so I hope he has some good arguments to make. I do want him to win this case!
May the citizens of today have the strength and moral will to come together to save our democracy
Hello Heather,
Your beacon through the daily fog continues to inspire. I recently visited the Museum in Munich built on the site of the Nazi HQ (Brown House) that houses the archival record of the Nazi rise and fall. (Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism) It was profound especially to spend time reviewing the ten year lead up to how the Nazis took power and THE EXTRAORDINARY SIMILARITIES to what happened and CONTINUES to happen in the USA Today. At the very end of the exhibit was this:
“The Nazi Party’s path to power was not an inevitable, triumphant march. The defensive measures of the state and civilian resistance never came together to form an effective counter-force. The Weimar Republic failed because people didn’t oppose extremism vigorously enough.”
I am bemused by all of the carping when President Biden is on the cusp of enacting the broadest social legislation to benefit a large majority of Americans since LBJ’s Great Society (when he had an overwhelming majority in Congress). President Biden started with a broad wish list that addressed a vast number of pressing needs. With a whisker majority in the House and a 50/50 Senate, he was obliged to negotiate compromises that could get his bills approved without any Republican votes.
His compromises were an essential part of accomplishing something imperative for the majority of the American people. I applaud him for fulfilling his “promises made, results delivered” campaign promise. Of course some Democrats will be disappointed and Republicans will be in total opposition. Meanwhile President Biden has well served the American people.
This was a fascinating read. Thank you!
Heather, I am feeling dismayed. Writing postcards to get out the vote in NJ while feeling numb. Thank you for perspective and reasonableness. I have always had faith in political action for social and civil rights- but it feels like the republicans have castrated our democracy. Voter-repression, Covid, people supporting Trump, inflation, still not ok to travel- overwhelming. Glad for your voice. Enormously sad for the American dream.
Jacqueline Schwarz, PhD
Are you keeping printed copies of these important Letters and storing them in a safe place for future historians, especially with the very real risk of a near future under authoritarian rule?
“Experts say that because of the lack of transparency required in our financial transactions, hundreds of billions of dollars are laundered in the U.S. every year.”
This is why experts and whistle blowers are discredited and journalists are called “enemies of the people”. Transparency and oligarchy are like oil and water.