Draining the swamp! I have written before that we will never be able to drain the swamp that is Washington DC, until we get all the money out of Washington. Too many people go to Washington to make money and not enough go there to actually serve our nation, in my opinion. Money now runs our government too often. The National Rifle Association spends millions to influence legislation on guns and the 2^nd Amendment. I would be very naive to think that all that money is coming from the gun owners in this country or even just the members of the NRA. Some of this money has been documented comes from Russia. If you look at the money that Saudi Arabia throws around Washington it is mind boggling. You don’t throw that type of money around without expecting a return for your investment. Just the money they spent in Trump Tower alone is mind boggling. Too many foreign countries are spending way too much money to influence our political system, not to benefit the people of this country. Much of the time it is to the detriment of the people of this country.

Global Climate Change is real. You wouldn’t know it in this country by how much of our Government acts. There are 139 climate deniers in the Congress right now. Those 139 climate deniers, I have read, have accepted 61 million dollars from the oil, gas, and coal industries. Do you know that we even import coal? Not a lot right now but it has varied from year to year from 36 million short tons in 2007 to about 5 million short tons in 2021. If you want to know why, after all the science that says that the climate is changing and we are playing a major role in that change, we have climate deniers all you have to do is follow the money. In the first decade I have read that Saudi Arabia has spent 100 million dollars for lobbying in Washington. Between 1998 and 2017 Koch Industries spent over 115 million dollars in lobbying.  When you look at the money you will know why it is so hard to drain the swamp. Now these two are just part of the energy lobby which is probably just the tip of the iceberg. There had to be millions and millions more just from the other Energy corporations and nations. Now, just think of all the other industries like defense contractors to environmental corporations and you have even more. There has to be thousands of industries and organizations that are throwing all kinds of money around Washington. It is the money that makes it so hard to drain the swamp but it is the money that has to go if we ever expect to drain the swamp. Now you throw the 4 billion dollars of foreign money around Washington from China to Ireland and everyone in-between and then you begin to realize the scope of the problem.

Now if Congress and other Politicians are getting all of this money you have to wonder who else? I guess you now have to put into that group Supreme Court Justices. It has been discovered that a Supreme Court Justice has been taking “Gifts” worth millions from Texas Billionaire Harlan Crow. None of these gifts were reported. There are ethics rules in almost every business about not accepting gifts. Gifts given to a President are the property of the nation. When I worked IT for a hospital system there were strict rules about accepting gifts. I think there are strict rules about Federal Judges accepting gifts. How can a man that sits on the highest court in the land not think that it is wrong to accept millions of dollars in vacations and gifts? I don’t care that they say they are only friends. If a person spends millions on you and your wife you are going to try and repay that generosity some way. If you constantly made decisions that hurt your friends I really don’t think that they would be your friends for very long.

There have been a few decisions that really benefited wealthy people and corporations with one being Citizens United. Harlan Crow was one of a wealthy group of Texans that helped finance the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group that was formed to attack Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry’s war record which is one of the saddest and lowest things I have seen a campaign do. For those that don’t know John Kerry received three purple hearts while serving in Vietnam. Crow was one of the backers of American Crossroads that was one of the biggest Conservative super PACs that was co founded by Karl Rowe. On the surface, no matter what is said it looks like Harlan Crow made a very good investment in striking up a friendship with Clarence Thomas and his wife. Thomas should have known better than to put himself in a situation like that. If he is smart enough to be a Supreme Court Justice he should be smart enough to figure this is not a good look. It looks like every decision that Justice Thomas has made seemed a little suspect. To me it looks like the Supreme Court is trying to help make the swamp bigger and our Government more corrupt.

Do you think that Supreme Court Justice Thomas in the only one that should be called into question? I am just a guy at home with a computer and I can see another Supreme Court Justice that should have been questioned before he passed away and that is Supreme Court Justice Scalia. His death is very suspicious. Scalia was found dead at a Ranch in West Texas with an elite hunting fraternity that goes back to the 1600s. There were 35 guests at the Cibolo Creek Ranch and some of them confirmed members of a secretive Austrian society call the International Order of St. Hubertus who members consist of some very powerful international people according to a review by the Washington Post. I am not going to start with some conspiracy that he was murdered, I am going to state that he was a guest that was flown there on a private jet with the Ranch owner John Poindexter and C. Allen Foster, a prominent Washington attorney. They both are leaders in that Society.  It sure looks like one very expensive gift to me.  He was able to hobnob with some very influential, international people and those people were able to hobnob with a Supreme Court Justice. Most of the guests were there are unknown to this day. We wouldn’t have even known about the trip if he hadn’t died. We have no idea what role he played with the group or if any but the man was the face of guns rights in this country.  Maybe, his decision making should also be called into question. I have read that during 11 year period Scalia took over 250 trips to various parts of the United States and they would have been paid for by private sources.

How many more Justices have stories like Thomas and Scalia? The average person has no way of knowing but if there is smoke than there is almost certainly fire. Our Supreme Court should be irreproachable. As I have seen I think this is not the case. Yes, they have to have a life outside of the court but we are not talking about college drinking buddies here or neighborhood block parties. We are talking about gifts from very influential people that have a lot to gain. I bet this is only the tip of the iceberg.