Reprinted from hartmannreport.com
When judges or legislators break the law to enrich themselves in ways that would land you or me in jail, it damages democracy
Republicans - and a few Democrats - have done a pretty good job of putting the grift in grifter. Most recently, the notoriously corrupt Senator Tommy Tuberville told a reporter for the UK Independent newspaper that efforts to ban his ability to make millions off insider information in the stock market would discourage other grifters from going into politics and, somehow, that would be a bad thing.
"I think it's ridiculous," Tuberville told the newspaper. "They might as well start sending robots up here... I think it would really cut back on the amount [sic] of people that would want to come up here and serve."
This is beyond disgusting: Tuberville and every other legislator or judge who wants to make money by exploiting insider information on the stock market should find a different occupation. America already has too many crooks in the vital bloodstream of our politics and governance.
When government officials or legislators break the law or do things to enrich themselves that would land you or me in jail, it damages democracy.
It encourages cynicism among voters, a loss of faith in our government, and when it's routine it draws grifters and hustlers into politics to get in on the scam. Most recently and famously, grifters like Trump and the people he surrounded himself with.
Consider how Trump and his buddies in the Cabinet and Senate made out like bandits on the inside information of a coming government shutdown from Covid in early 2020.
Before the Trump administration publicly announced the coronavirus was in America and they were planning to shut down the government, they held a private briefing exclusively for senators.
If you could get your hands on that juicy bit of insider information, you could make or save a fortune, although, if you were an average person, you'd also go to prison for years for trying it. That would be a con on the scale they make movies about.
Yet here we are.
Within minutes of walking out of that briefing, North Carolina Republican Senator Richard Burr called his broker and dumped $1.6 million in stocks he held"just before the market tanked.
Burr then committed another insider trading and conspiracy felony by calling his brother-in-law, who then called his broker and dumped another quarter-million dollars of stock within in hour of Burr's call.
It was so obvious and egregious that even the ethically challenged Fox "News" commentator Tucker Carlson called on Burr to resign.
Unlike George W. Bush's Justice Department, which enthusiastically sent Democratic mega-supporter Martha Stewart to prison for making $45,673 off an insider stock tip, Attorney General Bill Barr's Department of Justice decided not to bother prosecuting Senator Burr.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
