​Capitol Capital Corruption

By Ed Raymond

fargogadfly@gmail.com

Why did Trump run for the White House? That’s where the money is!

Remember the story about the robber who, when asked why he robbed banks, responded: “That’s where the money is!?” Well, now we have the story of the 45th president of the United States who, when running for another term in 2024 after being convicted of 34 felonies associated with property and income taxes and illegal business practices, became the world’s champion grifter and crime boss as the 47th president...because the White House is where the money is. And it gives him the right to play “smash and grab” at an international level.

The fact is, Trump never grew up. He lived in a household dominated by a sociopathic father and grew to adulthood where he cheated, lied, and stiffed contractors and workers while filing six bankruptcies because of his business disabilities. Now he has turned the Oval Office into a combined Tower of Babble and Carnival Zoo. By pardoning 1,500 January 6 rioters, “Law and Order” Trump wiped out 700 years of prison time ordered by juries and courts, with 600 years assigned to those beating and wounding cops. A Washington Post reporter inquired if Republicans would ever ask Trump to take a cognitive test as they did Biden. As a veteran observer, I say he cannot suffer cognitive decline. There’s no room to decline.

There is a Presidential Reserve sparkling wine from the Trump Winery in Charlottesville, Virginia he sells for $245.47 a bottle. If you wish to join his Florida resort Mar-a-Lago for access, the fee is a cool $1 million. Want to join his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey? That’ll run $125,000. His Mar-a-Lago golf course costs “slightly” above $300,000 a year to play. Fifty wealthy investors put $2.5 billion into his new business, the Trump Media & Technology Group, which will buy Bitcoin. He recently had a black-tie party for 220 investors who paid $148 million for his $TRUMP tokens. He promised each one a private meeting. Gee! What else is he selling? Pardons? Access? Business regulations? Ambassadorships? And the list goes on. The Republican Party is no longer the Trumusklican Party. Poor Elon. It’s now the Pay-To-Play Party.

Charged with fraud? Justin Sun bought $40 million of $Trump coins, but he was in fraud trouble to the tune of $75 million with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Somehow the SEC forgot about Sun’s case. 

A New York Times editorial put it bluntly: “The message seemed obvious enough. People who make Mr. Trump richer regularly receive favorable treatment from the government he runs. He is presiding over a culture of corruption.” 

This is a guy who claims the American people gave him a mandate, when he got only 32% of votes from eligible voters.

A few more examples of Capitol corruptions

Vietnam officials put pressure on real estate firms to fast track a $1.5 billion golf complex near Hanoi and a new skyscraper near Ho Chi Minh City because it was “receiving special attention from the Trump administration and President Trump personally.” The question is: “Will the ‘quid’ be as big as the 'quo’”? Anyone want to bet the Trump Organization’s name will not be on the deed?

President Trump and his Trump Organization have been very busy in his first 140 days. The old Air Force One took him to Arab countries to do government and personal business. His sons have at least six major real estate deals — golf courses and clubs, resorts, beach clubs, and hotels — planned in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. And he is getting “a palace-in-the-sky” Air Force One from the Qatar government because he is such a nice guy. Any country that bribes Trump sufficiently gets this response: “We are going to protect this country. It’s a very special place, with a special royal family.” In other words, to hell with Ukraine, Taipan, and Canada unless they come through…

The Trump Organization is building a Trump International Hotel in Belgrade, Serbia. Serbian protesters claim the government forged documents in order to get approval of the deal. Zuckerberg, Bezos, other billionaires too numerous to mention, and many large corporations, wrote $1 million checks to Trump’s inaugural committee which raised $250 million for his celebration. No one seems to know how much he spent opening a huge store in the White House mall —and how much ended up in his pockets.

Will Pope Leo XIV Lead the Vatican to the 21st or the 14th Century?

I thought of Yogi Berra’s famous line: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it!” when Pope Leo XIV uttered statements at a Sunday mass in St. Peter’s Square. The one that caught me was, “The church must open the borders between peoples and break down the barriers between class and race.” Gotcha! What are you going to do about the Vatican’s position on the LBGTQUIA+ community, that these people who were checked in the womb by God are supposedly “intrinsically disordered?” Will the “American” pope take the road to the 14th or the 21st Century?

In that I was a Catholic until 1959 when we joined the ex-Catholics, I depend upon Irish Catholic Finton O’Toole to keep me current on the Vatican. In the latest issue of The New York Review of Books, O’Toole has written a very important article called “Can the Church Evolve?” First, he says American Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected pope because 132 other cardinals from around the world thought perhaps an American pope would know how to control President Trump who doesn’t know what the hell he is doing. That makes the most sense out of the Vatican in many years. The world was shocked when the white smoke came quick. Now we know why.

In 2023, Cardinal Prevost said: “We (bishops) must not hide behind an idea of authority that makes no sense today. The bishop is not supposed to be a little prince sitting in his kingdom.” The Catholic Church had ruled Ireland and Irish people for centuries, operating the Magdalene Laundries for pregnant Irish bad girls, filling up septic tanks with dead babies (782 in one), priests chasing and capturing young girls in dark Magda hallways, forcing married women with too many children to travel to England for abortions and other crimes against humanity. Finally, in the 20th Century, the Irish people sent the Vatican ambassador packing, accepted the LBGT community, elected a gay prime minister who then married a gay doctor, closed some Catholic schools, and approved abortions.

Pope Prick I calls Leo XIV and family “vermin” and “criminals.”

Pope Leo XIV could make life more interesting for the entire world if he follows through with his St. Peter’s sermon. He criticized “The Chosen One” without naming him: “There are nationalist political movements with exclusionary mindsets." (He has to be thinking of Trump, Putin, Orban, and Erdogan.) "There is no room for prejudice, for ‘security zones’ separating us from our neighbor’s mindset that unfortunately, we now see emerging also in political nationalism. God opens borders, breaks down walls and dispels hatred. People must move beyond our fear of those who are different, break down barriers and tear down the walls of indifference and hatred. A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian.”

Is he saying what Pope Francis said, “Who am I to judge?” Or is he saying, "It is way beyond time to recognize all members of the LBGTQUIA+ community—even if there are more than 74 genders?”

Our new pope has positive characteristics. His maternal grandparents were Black Americans living in New Orleans. His blood is a solid mixture of Afro-Creole, French, Italian and Spanish. Trump would call him “vermin.” He is also a citizen of Peru, having lived there for over 20 years ministering to the poor.

Trump lies so much he can’t tell a joke and has no sense of humor unless he’s watching a bus run over critics. On April 29, he said he was the number one choice to replace Pope Francis. On May 2 he posted an AI-generated picture of himself in a gold gilded chair wearing a white miter hat and white cassock with a large pectoral cross on his chest. Perhaps people who don’t know him thought it was a joke.

Will the Pride flag ever fly above the dome built by Leonardo DaVinci?

Maybe I’m assuming too much if I think Leo XIV knows that Leonardo DaVinci designed the dome on St. Peter’s where he gave his first sermon, that Michaelangelo painted the marvelous ceiling and some of the walls in the Sistine Chapel where white smoke announced his election. Among the most famous members of the Rome LBGTQUIA+ community, both were gay. (But, according to strong rumors, they did not like each other.) Millions visit Rome each year just to see their beautiful work. Among the visitors are homosexuals who are members represented by flags identifying their gender.

Those flags symbolize joy, pride and persistence. Each flag — whether the rainbow progress flag, the transgender flag, pansexual flag, asexual flag, or the intersex flag — has its own meaning and history. As an example, the asexual flag, representing people who are not interested in physical sex, utilizes four colors: black stands for asexuality, gray for asexuality and demisexuality, white for non-sexual partners and allies and purple for community. This flag was created in 2010 by the Asexual Visibility and Education Network based at the University of Northern Colorado.

The term asexuality is an umbrella term covering three specific orientations. They include demisexual people, who form sexual attraction for one another only when they have a strong emotional bond with that person. Gray ace or graysexual individuals who identify between being asexual and sexual and queerplatonic people who experience non-romantic relationships where there is an intense emotional connection going beyond a traditional relationship. 

Demisexuals have their own flag with four colors: black for asexuality, grey for demi-sexuality, white for sexuality and purple for community. There are several more Pride flags, including lesbian, bisexual and other gender identities. Many of these flags can be seen in parades during Pride month.

Confused by terms concerning gender? Check new dictionaries

Dictionaries add new words each year when they are being used more in publications, interviews, and conversations. Many words associated with gender and identity have been added this year. John Kelly, vice president of Dictionary.com says that “gender and identity have been particularly dynamic, and productive areas of language change in the past 15 years or so. Whether it be socially or medically, there is a vocabulary component that is emerging. breaking through into the mainstream that people need to know that they’re going to encounter.”

Kelly says they add the words if they are widely used, have meaning, demonstrate staying power and are going to be useful for a general audience. Words such as "amalgagender," "polyromantic" and "polysexual" are among those added this year.

As I read articles and columns about the decline and disappearance of religion, I have noticed three new words have been used quite often. They are “dechurched,” “deCatholiced,” and “deChristianed.” Pope Leo, if you are going to save the Vatican, take the 21st Century fork in the road.