While fuming Democrats ulcerate over the Dotard in Chief's latest tweet, they are distracted from the real evidence of the kleptocracy Paul Krugman has been warning us about for some time.
Oh, Heel Spurs can get us fulminating about the fine people he saw carrying torches for White Supremacy at Charlottesville, or we can cling to the idea the Russian connection to Trump's campaign will actually someday look like Watergate, but the real essence of what he is doing is in the fine print of contracts; that's where he has found his career and where he actually finds his rewards today.
Despite all that, The Washington Post reports that the territory’s state-owned electrical utility awarded a two-year-old company from Montana, which at the time of the hurricane had only two full-time employees, a $300 million contract to restore its electrical grid. Even more curiously, the company, Whitefish Energy, is based in the hometown of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who knows the owner, Andy Techmanski, and whose son worked a summer job at one of Techmanski’s construction site.
--Bess Levin, Vanity Fair
Several articles in the NYT and elsewhere report how Whitefish Energy, a sort of phantom company, in existence only two years, officially located in Montana, but actually employing only two people at the time it won a contract for restoring power to Puerto Rico won the contract in the first place--it went to a Trump contributor a name not a household word, but which should be--Andy Techmanski--and another Trump friend, and they went about their business of bilking the government for fun and profit.
They also appear to be friends and neighbors of Trump's Interior Secretary. This is a story to make Warren Harding blush and the Teapot Dome Scandal only a prelude.
The headline was they paid their linemen $42 an hour and billed the government $331 an hour. That's fair in the business world of Trump and corporate board rooms. Marx called it the "exploitation of labor," but in the Dotard's government, it has become the operating mode.
If this instance is carefully investigated and clearly reported, with lots of diagrams and charts and graphs, it might finally have the effect all the pink puffer fish's enemies have sought--the undoing of the Con Man.
But it won't be easy. Like most business crimes, the structure is Byzantine, difficult to unpack and it requires some attention span. Gretchen Morganson has been exposing dirty dealings of corporate America for years, but she is ignored because the stories involve numbers, arithmetic and sleazy things which are not technically crimes so they cannot be prosecuted, but you know they should be, like rating a mortgaged back security AAA when you know the mortgages are worthless.
So, the "crimes" of Whitefish may turn out to be outrageous, revolting but not illegal.
But if that dishonest, failing media does its job (for once) Whitefish might just make Whitewater look like a bake sale by the women's auxillary.
We'll see.
Oh, Heel Spurs can get us fulminating about the fine people he saw carrying torches for White Supremacy at Charlottesville, or we can cling to the idea the Russian connection to Trump's campaign will actually someday look like Watergate, but the real essence of what he is doing is in the fine print of contracts; that's where he has found his career and where he actually finds his rewards today.
Despite all that, The Washington Post reports that the territory’s state-owned electrical utility awarded a two-year-old company from Montana, which at the time of the hurricane had only two full-time employees, a $300 million contract to restore its electrical grid. Even more curiously, the company, Whitefish Energy, is based in the hometown of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who knows the owner, Andy Techmanski, and whose son worked a summer job at one of Techmanski’s construction site.
--Bess Levin, Vanity Fair
Several articles in the NYT and elsewhere report how Whitefish Energy, a sort of phantom company, in existence only two years, officially located in Montana, but actually employing only two people at the time it won a contract for restoring power to Puerto Rico won the contract in the first place--it went to a Trump contributor a name not a household word, but which should be--Andy Techmanski--and another Trump friend, and they went about their business of bilking the government for fun and profit.
They also appear to be friends and neighbors of Trump's Interior Secretary. This is a story to make Warren Harding blush and the Teapot Dome Scandal only a prelude.
The headline was they paid their linemen $42 an hour and billed the government $331 an hour. That's fair in the business world of Trump and corporate board rooms. Marx called it the "exploitation of labor," but in the Dotard's government, it has become the operating mode.
If this instance is carefully investigated and clearly reported, with lots of diagrams and charts and graphs, it might finally have the effect all the pink puffer fish's enemies have sought--the undoing of the Con Man.
But it won't be easy. Like most business crimes, the structure is Byzantine, difficult to unpack and it requires some attention span. Gretchen Morganson has been exposing dirty dealings of corporate America for years, but she is ignored because the stories involve numbers, arithmetic and sleazy things which are not technically crimes so they cannot be prosecuted, but you know they should be, like rating a mortgaged back security AAA when you know the mortgages are worthless.
So, the "crimes" of Whitefish may turn out to be outrageous, revolting but not illegal.
But if that dishonest, failing media does its job (for once) Whitefish might just make Whitewater look like a bake sale by the women's auxillary.
We'll see.
Mad Dog,
ReplyDeleteAgreed-an outrageous story-the sheer chutzpah it took to even attempt this swindle is breathtaking. THIS is what Sessions should be having the Justice Department investigate...Uh, won't hold my breath...Which is why the press really needs to be all over this one- to keep it in people's minds. It's not as racy and clear cut as dating 14 year olds-you're right, it requires attention and thought in order to connect the dots. Many Americans don't have the energy for that, which allows these travesties to continue. I understand, having been preoccupied these last few months, I would read a story like this, become momentarily outraged and then move on to matters closer to home.. What the thieving varmints are counting on..Of course a complication in this story is that it pertains to Puerto Rico-a place that apparently a lot of people don't give a damn about...
Maud
Maud,
ReplyDeleteWell, of course all we are talking about is Spanish speaking, brown skinned AMERICAN CITIZENS who fight in our wars, pay our taxes, etc.
True, it's not as sexy as a dirty old man pursuing 14 year old girls. What's with that? I mean, I can see if you are a 14 year old boy, but what 40 year old guy...? I'm confused.
This story will be buried, dying of a thousand tweets.
Mad Dog