Interviewer: Did he really [Robin Hood] steal from the rich and give to the poor?
2000 Year Old Man: No, he didn’t
Interviewer: He didn’t?
2000 Year old man: He stole from everyone and kept everything.
Interviewer: Well How did legend spring up that he was…
2000 Year Old Man: He had a fellow Marty, Marty the press agent, ran in all the papers he wrote in scrolls. ‘He took from the rich and gave to the poor’ who knew? He’d give you such a knock in a head when he robbed you you wouldn’t remember a thing.
Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks The 2000 Year old Man animated special 1975
One of the things I have argued for years is that nothing really changes because the things that drive humans haven’t changed, the only difference between a courtier of 1000 years ago and a deep state person of today is tactics and what the reward can bring.
A great example of this is USAID. The left is screaming that they are cutting live saving programs when what in fact is happening is the discovery of the giant Chicago style grift that’s been going on for decades but I suspect was accelerated greatly by the elevation of a corrupt Chicago pol to the highest office in the land.
The best way to understand how this grift works is compare what’s happening to something similar and I can’t think of anything that serves this purpose than one of Tip O’Neill’s stories concerning his relationship the legendary Boston mayor, Massachusetts Governor and US Congressman James Michael Curley.
O’Neill had been a protégé of Curley and knew him well. Ironically it was his decision to not expose Curley’s theft of a delegate election against his own group in 1948 that cemented his place within the Democrat party which aided his advancement. He tells many stories about Curley in his autobiography Man of the House (1987). This was the final one:
It happened in 1954 while I was in Congress. I came home for a few days to come home to campaign for reelection, and I ran into Curley on Beacon Street. He was, as people said in those days “on his uppers,” which meant that he didn’t even have enough money to fix the heels on his shoes.
Curley was a notorious thief but was also known for being a soft touch and giving money away particularly to the poor, so once he no longer had influence to sell things began to go hard for him. Tip continues:
Still he gave me a warm greeting. “How are you Tip? You’re going to win easy.”
“I hope so Governor, but I’m not taking any chances.”
“That’s smart of you, Tip and I’d like to give you a hand. Do I have your permission to raise a few dollars for your campaign?”
I assured him that would be fine.
Given that Tip O’Neill was an up and coming man in congress the idea that Curley was part of his fundraising crew would give the old man some clout in the area. Tip picks up the story…
The following Monday, he came to see me. “I raised five hundred dollars for you,” [a little over $5800 in 2024 dollars DTG] he said as he handed me an envelope. I thanks him and put it in my pocket. But when I counted the money I found that the envelope contained only $450. [$5250 in today’s dollars DTG]
The very same thing happened the following day, and the next, Curley didn’t show up on Thursday, but on Friday he cam in and said. “Here’s a thousand bucks for you.” By then I wasn’t surprised to she that his 10 percent commission had already been removed. I didn’t really mind because he obviously needed the money, Besides, I didn’t want to quarrel with my best fund-raiser.
So at that point we’re talking $2500 or in today’s dollars just under $30K with Curley presumably taking $3k for himself. Tip continues:
“By the way Governor.” I said to him the following week, “I’d like the names of these people so I can send them a thank-you note.”
“Oh you’re getting too smart. They’ve already been thanked.” And that was the last time I saw Jim Curley.
Now you might be thinking at this point: “Hey DaTechGuy. What’s the big deal. O’Neill got what he wanted, about $4500 bucks or $52 grand in today’s money and Curley got $5800 out of the deal? That’s doesn’t seem very significant, it certainly wasn’t to Tip who was happy to get that $4500 bucks.” And if the story ended here you might have a point but the story didn’t end here as Tip explains:
Several months later I was back home one weekend when a fellow came into my office to ask for help in straightening out a problem with one of the government agencies.
I’d never seen the man before so I asked if he lived in my district. “No.” he said. “I live in John McCormack’s district.” [House majority leader who would become speaker after Sam Rayburns death DTG]
“Then why don’t you go and see Mr. McCormack?” I asked.
“Well that’s a fine way to treat a friend.” he said, “after all I’ve done for you!”
“Excuse me,” I said “but what are you talking about?”
“Are you kidding? I gave you a big contribution during your last campaign.”
We had a list of every contributor, so I excused myself and asked my secretary to look up the fellow’s name. But there was no sign of him in our records. “You know,” I told him when I got back to my desk. “I don’t run my office on a quid pro quo basis. I do favors for people because they need my help, not because they contributed to my campaign. But the funny thing is I don’t even have your name in my book. Would you refresh my memory?“
“Sure.” he said “In your last election I paid for your television ads on the final two nights of the campaign.”
“You must be mistaken, ” I said. “You never paid for my television ads. I’ve never heard of you.”
“What do you mean?” he said. “Jim Curley came ot me and said he was raising money to put Tip O’Neill on television. And I’m the one who paid for your TV time the night you went on. Didn’t he give you my name?”
So THAT was it! I told him the story of how Curley had asked me for permission to raise money and how he had skimmed a little off the top. We both had a good laugh over that.
“Now I understand why you’ve never heard of me.” he said, “But I remember how much money I gave to Curley to pay for those ads, and let me tell you something. Jim Curley made out just fine. I’m afraid you were the one who was working for ten percent.”
In short Curley didn’t hit up this guy for $5000 and then give Tip O’Neill $4500. He hit up this guy for $50,000 ($583,000) in today’s money and kept $45,500. ($535,000) for himself. In other words 91% of that money was skimmed and only 9% actually went to Tip for his campaign
That’s pretty much what Elon Musk and his team is finding out. The Democrats and their press allies are screaming to the press and claiming with a straight face that useful items are at risk without acknowledging that they’re not worried about the 9% that might actually do good, they’re trying to protect the 91 cents out of every dollar that they are using as a slush fund. And believe me unlike Curley they aren’t given a portion of that 91% to the poor unless you count the portion given as tips given to waiters after an expensive meal or valets after parking the cars your tax dollars are paying for.
Closing thought. I highly recommend O’Neill’s autobiography if you have any interest in what of the leading figures of the Democrat party during they years when they actually gave a damn about regular people thought.
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