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.
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.
Stacy McCain still being banned from Twitter reminds me of Molly Norris still in hiding for her life. Both outraged me at the time and I’m still pissed off by the pair.
Seriously? If it wasn't for england the slave trade would still exist. They practically bankrupted themselves to stop ithttps://t.co/Vx4hzXqXVF
The only reason why the slave trade died was the British government put their navy on stopping it and actually paid cash to captains per slave freed. African nations at the time hated that. Rather than needing a civil war they paid compensation to slaveowners to make things work and those loans they took to do so were only recently retired.
I’m old enough when people actually knew history.
yup that's why the Wash Post and LA times didn't endorse, because Kamala is doing so well she didn't need them.
boy it's a long time since the black book of communism isn't it?
I always find it sad with I see Anne Applebaum drinking the koolaid. Her Black book of Communism was an important work and recorded things that history might have lost from the Soviet archives and a service to humanity.
But that’s not a guarantee against Trump derangement syndrome.
This picture give me hope that some people can figure out when something is beyond the pale.
Although in fairness I almost feel sorry for this young girl who has OD's on the cool aid and did something REALLY stupid.
You actually have to watch the video this is clipped from for full context but the good news is the black woman recognized that the white girl has gone over the line and scolds her for it. Given they’re Kamala fans that’s signifies hope. The bad news is that the girl who is apparently an organizer for Kamala is now going to have to carry this stupid act for as long as there is an internet which is forever.
It’s really a bad thing when your politics becomes your religion because fanatics are dangerous.
Also a lot of people seeing this remember being young and stupid and thank God that cell phone camera and the internet weren’t around when they were young.
I’m going to include two tweets in this last section first from the Lincoln Project
If Trump was the Nazi you claim you would actually be broadcasting his speech from the guardian and then saying: "See we told you"
I don’t get all that upset about these guys. You know left PACS are paying their bills and they aren’t going to make a dime from GOP candidates anymore so they’re just earning the bucks for being the paid actors that they are. This is the script or at least the outline and they’re just saying lines.
There are two types of people who don’t see the writing on the wall. The people who have made politics their religion like the niche market who still watch CNN that Jake Tapper was pandering to here:
In fairness to Mr. Tapper when your team is down by two touchdowns in the 4th you have to throw the Hail Mary
and the people who are paid to pretend not to see it. They will be talking about a Democrat wave sweeping the country right until the day that High Brazil sinks under the waves and beyond if the cash keeps coming.
Just because you have the right to do something doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do, to wit: While you might have the right to buy your son an AR-15 as a gift even after he has been investigated by the FBI as a potential school shooter but as a father I submit it’s the wrong thing to do.
I simply don’t understand why Elon Musk’s twitter/X/whatever stubbornly refuses to re-instate Robert Stacy McCain. He was one of the first conservatives banned by twitter for the monstrous crime of quoting Radical feminists in their very own words and while there have been many others whose have been re-platformed on twitter Stacy is not one of them.
The number of lonely liberal men in the world must be high because between James O’Keefe OMG, Project Veritas and now Stephen Crowder there seems to be a limitless supply of such men willing to spill their guts to a honey pot who shows interest in them. Hey somebody has to be paying the money to those only fans models.
I think it’s no coincidence that the rise in antisemitism and the attempts to re-write the history of World War 2 (particularly the holocaust) are taking place when the youngest world war 2 vets alive are 97 years old. You don’t have a Dick Winters to come on TV to call them out anymore.
The best move that Dwight D Eisenhower ever did was making every US soldier who was able to see the camps so they couldn’t be denied. I distinctly remember Andy Rooney talking about seeing the camps one day but I (unexpectedly) can’t find the video anywhere.
The Red Sox broke their losing streak by beating the worst team in baseball history The 2024 Chicago White Sox whose current winning Percentage (.225) is a full .025 points behind the legendary 1962 Mets (.250). With 20 games to go The White Sox will have to go 9-11 to avoid the new “Worst Team EVAH!” title (.450). I just don’t see that happening.
Speaking of the NY Mets winning percentage from 2017 – 2023 the Indiana Heat of the WNBA have a combined winning percentage equal to those 62 Mets (58-74) with no playoff appearances, no winning records. In 2022 their winning percentage was .139 (5-31). This season they have clinched one of the 8 playoff spots currently holding 6th but mathematically could still finish as high as 4th or as low as 7th. That’s how much of an impact has Caitlyn Clark has on her Indiana Fever team. That’s a Babe Ruth class impact.
To put that last phrase in context in the 12 season years before Babe Ruth joined the NY Yankees (Highlanders till 1913) they had managed only two winning seasons. Not only would they would not have a losing record with Ruth on the roster (1918-1934) but the Babe would not live to see them have a losing season. He would die in 1948 and they would not have a losing season until 1965
In my 1972 online baseball league by all rights the Cleveland Indians season should be finished. They sit at 68 – 80 with 14 to play 7 1/2 games behind the Minnesota Twins who currently hold the final wild card spot in the AL. However not only have the Twins been collapsing spectacularly (2-8 in last 10) but they get three head to head games vs them next with a chance to get themselves back in it and have a fairly easy schedule the rest of the way. Alas for them the only team with an easier schedule, are those same Twins.
Finally the NFL season has started and will have their first full set of games this Sunday. They opened with the Kansas City Chiefs beating the Baltimore Ravens setting Patrick Mahomes on the path to another playoff season. How Dominant is Mahomes he has only lost 3 playoff games in his career and only one to a quarterback not named Tom Brady. How dominant are the pair of them? More than half of the Superbowls played in the 21st Century have had at least one of them playing in it (Brady 10, Mahomes 4) and the soonest that can no longer be true is 2027.
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