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.
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.
No one who lights a lamp conceals it with a vessel or sets it under a bed; rather, he places it on a lampstand so that those who enter may see the light. For there is nothing hidden that will not become visible, and nothing secret that will not be known and come to light.
One of the hardest things about writing occasionally instead of writing daily is that the Trump Administration moves at the speed of the Flash remembering that he forgot to buy his wife a anniversary gift 3 seconds before she opens the door to the house.
There has just been so many things going on so quickly and so decisively that you simply can’t keep up. If this was still a daily blog with multiple writers it would be a task, but now, what do you cover, what do you talk about?
Do you talk about the trade deals with Japan where Trump has apparently landed a trillion dollar deal for the US after one meeting?
Do you talk about the various Middle East states suddenly doing an about face on Gaza rebuilding etc after Trump talks about clearing out the Palestinians and the US taking over.
Do you talk about the 1000’s of federal workers who suddenly find them having to justify their jobs?
Do you talk about the Kennedy Center suddenly run directly by Trump and no longer hosting Drag shows?
Do you talk about Delaware once the state of choice for incorporation now having business’ flee and viola 15% of their base revenue goes up in smoke thanks to a liberal judge going after Musk?
Do you talk about dog and pony shows where people like Maxine Waters try to stage a news story and end up being revealed as the joke that they are?
Do you talk the Coast Guard cracking down o the beaches at San Diego and Pam Bondi cutting federal funds to sanctuary cities?
Do you talk the billions of federal dollars being releveled as a giant slush fund for the left going to everything from Black Lives Matter to the press whitewashing it?
Do you cover the NCAA dumping Transgenderism while places like Minnesota and California double down?
Well if I had to pick one thing I guess I’d pick something like this:
Great coordination across 35 agencies over the last two days to terminate 199 wasteful contracts saving ~$250mm, including:
-Contract for “Asia Pacific – Sri Lanka climate change mitigation adaption and resilience coordinator services for forest service” -Workshop for…
All of this has been going on for a very long time and a lot of people knew this was going on but pretended it didn’t in the same way that people in David’s court knew what was going on with Bathsheba the wife of Uriah the Hittite when Nathan told David.
Why have you spurned the LORD and done evil in his sight? You have cut down Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you took his wife as your own, and him you killed with the sword of the Ammonites.
Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah to be your wife.’
Thus says the LORD: ‘I will bring evil upon you out of your own house. I will take your wives while you live to see it, and will give them to your neighbor. He shall lie with your wives in broad daylight.
You have done this deed in secret, but I will bring it about in the presence of all Israel, and with the sun looking down.'”
2 Samuel 12:9-12
For a long time these things were kept secret but now the graft that has been going on is revealed to the entire world and no amount of ignoring it by the MSM can stand when podcasters are discussing it openly with millions.
Put simply we are seeing our government in the light of truth and there are those who can’t stand it.
It’s going to be an amazing four years and my advice to the Trump administration is to stay on offense or as General Colt in Kelly’s Heroes said: attack Attack ATTACK!
Of course from what I’ve seen they don’t need my advice, expect that sooner or later they have to get to voter ID because until the elections are clean any budget that is clean up is only temporary.
Malone:If you walk through this door now, you’re walking into a world of trouble. And there’s no turning back. You understand?
Ness:Yes I do.
The Untouchables 1987
If I have to think about what this administration reminds me of the most I have to say it’s the movie The Untouchables (1987) Starring Kevin Costner as Elliot Ness, Sean Connery as officer Jim Malone and Robert Di Niro as Al Capone.
I think this is a good analogy because what’s basically happened to the US is that the Chicago way came in with Obama with Chicago corruption and Trump came in the first time and did what he could but was stymied by the deep state which benefited from the corruption. This is reminiscent of the first failed liquor raid when Elliot Ness is made a fool of.
Ness is defeated and lost until he teams up with the Malone (Connery) the street smart detective who tells him that you can’t take prisoners if you’re going to fight Capone.
This is the Trump that has Elon Musk on his side the great technology and business guru who has teamed up with him.
Now the latest news is that Musk has gone after USAID and that he’s brought in a bunch of teenage computer genius’. Why? Because these kids are not dependent on the deep state or reached a point where they would be tempted to leach off the government. Or as Connery said just before this clip: “If you’re afraid of getting a rotten apple, don’t go to the barrel. Get it off the tree.”
” “”Hunt them down” Leftists on @bluesky and other social media sites are mobilizing threats of violence against the @DOGE team staff and their families as revenge against @elonmusk and the Trump administration.” “
And the discovery of Billions in waste is pretty much the liqueur raid:
Apparently everybody knew that USAID was a slush fund for pols and lefty NGO’s but nobody was willing to take on the Deep State.
The Collision of a flight with a military helicopter over the Potomac is the first real big test for the Trump administration.
This is something that has to be handled wisely, Trump needs to be presidential while at the same time highlighting the importance of competence vs DEI when dealing with important life and death jobs.
Of course the press spin has helped him as it again seems to be titled toward amplifying the loudest and most hysterical “Blame Trump” declarations.
I suspect Trump’s instincts will prove wiser than the press’ but time will tell if I’m right or not.
While Trump executive actions have been swift and decisive and dizzying there is one thing that needs to be remembered.
All of these actions that Donald Trump has taken and he has taken many rather popular acts are completely reversible because they are by executive order.
If he wants them to stand beyond his presidency Trump needs to get these thing codified into law and the fact that the GOP house has not taken any action along those lines yet disturbs me.
Of course they might be waiting for an opportune time or might be waiting for a spending bill that can’t be filibustered to attach his EO’s to, but whatever the tact they need to keep this in mind otherwise the next Democrat president can and likely will put all of this nonsense that Trump has removed back in play with a single signature.
One of the things that never ceases to amaze me concerning the media and Donald Trump is their complete inability to learn from their mistakes.
President Trump after a term in office and four years to think about how to achieve his goals has pivoted in terms of tactics to adapt them to current conditions and has used this to achieve the highest approval ratings he has ever scored.
Meanwhile the media continues to try to spin and play “gotcha” in an age where the net allows us to debunk them to a public that doesn’t trust them.
Perhaps never having been taught how to think but only how to react they may not know how to deal with the onslaught of action that this administration has become and serving a niche market means they don’t dare go out of the zone.
They’ll have to wait for a mistake, one will eventually come but will they be ready when it does?
I’ve been surprised by the lack of focus on Abortion in the hearings for RFK JR.
The reality is that it’s going to take republican votes to sink any Trump nomination and the place where Kennedy should have been most vulnerable was abortion being a lifelong Democrat. Of course his description of abortion as a tragedy rather than something to be celebrated shows his age.
That they didn’t press it more suggests it’s all about show and fundraising from true believers than anything else.
Of course the unwillingness to celebrate killing kids rather than simply tolerating it at alone might be enough to cost him Collins and Murkowski. But will it cost him more?
As Trump’s press secretary welcomes new media to the press conferences in DC allow me to take a slight bow.
While I was unable to secure Trump as an interview in the closing days of the blog as a business I can take a bow for another matter.
I’m welcome to allow someone to correct me but unless I’m very much mistaken the very first question asked of Donald Trump either on the campaign trail or as President by a member of the new media in an official setting was asked by me in Derry NH in September of 2015
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