Is Institutional Corruption Only a Conspiracy Theory?

This article is intended as a map to hundreds of documented sources of government and corporate corruption and malfeasance. From now on, if you ever see anybody say, “It’s not that bad” or “that’s just a conspiracy theory,” now you can cure their delusions by pointing them to this article.

All credit for the following links goes to the great work performed by the Washington Post Blog Staff. It’s surprising to see any mainstream news organization publish such a detailed nonpartisan list of institutional corruption and malfeasance. Given the nonpartisan nature of the list and the fact that it’s simply a list of links and headlines to other credible sources, there is very little room for editorializing; so nobody can make the excuse that it’s a politically biased list.

Finally, the reason I’ve pasted the links below instead of only linking to the original article is because I expect the Washington Post to eventually be coerced by the federal government to take the original article down or try to conceal the article by changing its URL structure at some point in the future. This has happened many times in the past; so I encourage you to read and distribute this information to as many people as possible.

Before you dive into the ocean of links below, here’s an example of some other great investigative journalism revealing the games played by lobbyists. And when you’re done with the list below, here is another detailed nonpartisan list of federal government corruption and scandals, the Top-10 Abuses of Federal Government Power, and over 50 false flag attacks that have been admitted by G20 governments (those are only the officially admitted attacks) for your viewing pleasure.

Quality & Accuracy: After scanning the list and checking several dozen random links, overall, it appears to represent a reasonable, nonpartisan picture of the systemic and institutional cultural problems that are plaguing many federal government agencies and corporations in the United States today. The list spans the spectrum from relatively minor transgressions to major corruption. Each person’s moral compass will determine what represents a “significant” problem, but in all cases our taxpayer dollars are being abused, which is intolerable. In a relatively free society and quasi-free market economy, this information is important for citizens to know and understand.

DISCLAIMER: I have not modified or verified any of the information below so please don’t blame me if you see something you don’t like. Additionally, there may be some minor text formatting issues because I pasted it from the original article.

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Senior SEC employees spent up to 8 hours a day surfing porn sites instead of cracking down on financial crimes
Nuclear Regulatory Commission workers watch porn instead of cracking down on unsafe conditions at nuclear plants
An EPA employee who downloaded 7,000 porn files, then spent 2-6 hours each workdaywatching porn. He’s been doing it for years … but the EPA never fired him. Another EPA employeeharassed 16 women co-workers… and then was promoted to a higher-paying job with more responsibility, where he harassed more women
NSA spies pass aroundhomemade sexual videos and pictures they’ve collected from spying on the American people
NSA employees have also been caught using their mass surveillance powers to spy on love interests, such as girlfriends, obsessions or former wives … and to eavesdrop on American soldiers’ intimate conversations with their wives back home. And see this (“routinely shared salacious or tantalizing phone calls that had been intercepted” … “‘Hey, check this out … there’s good phone sex’”)
An employee of the Transportation Security Administration admitted that TSA agents share – and laugh at – nude scansof passengers. Another TSA employee says that screeners make excuses so they can grope and fondle travelers that they’re attracted to (maybe that’s why the TSA failed to find mock explosives or banned weapons going through checkpoints in 95% of trials)
Investigators from the Treasury’s Office of the Inspector Generalfound that some of the regulator’s employees surfed erotic websites, hired prostitutes and accepted gifts from bank executives … instead of actually working to help the economy
The Minerals Management Service– the regulator charged with overseeing BP and other oil companies to ensure that oil spills don’t occur – was riddled with “a culture of substance abuse and promiscuity”, which included “sex with industry contacts”
Agents for the Drug Enforcement Agencyhad dozens of sex parties with prostitutes hired by the drug cartels they were supposed to stop (they also received money, gifts and weapons from drug cartel members)
Drug Enforcement agents also RAN New Jersey’s sleaziest strip club – using illegal, undocumented girls – which included a prostitution ring
An FBI agent “used the FBI’s plane to fly at night to #Reno for the sole purpose of engaging prostitutes….”
Pentagon employees used government credit cards to pay for adult “escorts” (i.e. prostitutes) and to gamble
North Carolina passed a law LEGALIZING PROSTITUTES for state lawmakers.
Federal agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration and Secret Serviceinvestigating Bitcoin money laundering extorted and stole over $1 million in Bitcoin
The IRS gave promotions to employees who were themselves tax cheats
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has conspired with big banks to manipulate commodities prices for decades
The government-sponsored rating agencies committed massive fraud(and see this)
The Treasury department allowed banks to “cook their books”
Regulators knew of and allowed the use of debt-hiding accounting tricks by the big banks
The SEC has been shredding Wall Street documents for decades to help the big banks cover up their fraud
The Secretary of Treasury (Tim Geithner) was complicit in Lehman’s accounting fraud, (and see this)
The former chief accountant for the SEC saysthat Bernanke and Paulson broke the law and should be prosecuted
The governmentknew about mortgage fraud a long time ago. For example, the FBI warned of an “epidemic” of mortgage fraud in 2004. However, the FBI, DOJ and other government agencies then stood down and did nothing. See this and this. For example, the Federal Reserve turned its cheek and allowed massive fraud, and the SEC has repeatedly ignored accounting fraud (a whistleblower also “gift-wrapped and delivered” the Madoff scandal to the SEC, but they refused to take action). Indeed, Alan Greenspan took the position that fraud could never happen
Paulson and Bernanke falsely stated that the big banks receiving Tarp money were healthy when they were not. The Treasury Secretary also falsely told Congress that the bailouts would be used to dispose of toxic assets … but then used the money for something else entirely
The D.C. politicians said that the giant failed banks couldn’t be nationalized, because that would be socialism. Instead of temporarily nationalizing them and then spinning them off to the private sector – or breaking them up – the politicians have bailed them out to the tune of many tens of billions of dollars each year, and created a system where all of the profits are privatized, and all of the losses socialized
Obama and Congress promised help for struggling homeowners, and passed numerous bills that they claimed would rescue the little guy. But every single one of these bills actually bails out the banks … and doesn’treally help the homeowner
Many D.C. politicians pay lip service to helping the little guy … while pushing policies which havedriven inequality to levels surpassing slave-owning societies
A high-level Federal Reserve official says quantitative easing is “the greatest backdoor Wall Street bailout of all time”
The American government’s top official in charge of the bank bailouts wrote, “Americans should lose faith in their government. They should deplore the captured politicians and regulatorswho distributed tax dollars to the banks without insisting that they be accountable. The American people should be revolted by a financial system that rewards failure and protects those who drove it to the point of collapse and will undoubtedly do so again.”
Bailout funds were notused to help Main Street or the little guy. Instead, the government threw money at “several billionaires and tens of multi-millionaires”, as well as hedge funds, giant corporations like McDonald’s and Harley-Davidson, and numerous foreign banks, including Gaddafi’s Libyan bank, the Arab Banking Corp. of Bahrain, and the Banks of Bavaria, Korea and Mexico
The regulators pretend that they are being tough on the big banks. But – instead of doing the right thing– they’ve done everything they can to help COVER UP THEIR SINS
The non-partisan Government Accountability Office calls the Fedcorrupt and riddled with conflicts of interest
Nobel prize-winning economist Joe Stiglitz says the World Bank would view any country which had a banking structure like the Fed as being corrupt and untrustworthy. The former vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas said said he worried that the failure of the government to provide more information about its rescue spending could signal corruption. “Nontransparency in government programs is always associated with corruptionin other countries, so I don’t see why it wouldn’t be here,” he said
Arguably, both the Bush and Obama administrations broke the law by refusing to close insolvent banks
Congress may have covered up illegal tax breaksfor the big banks
Congress recently told the courts that Congress can’t be investigatedfor insider trading
Congress has exempted itselffrom the healthcare rules it insists everyone else follow
State lawmakers are routinely wined and dined by corporate lobbyists who literally TELL THEMwhat laws to pass
Police have been busted framing numerous innocent people
Systemic corruptionat the FBI lab led to the EXECUTION of innocent people
Police raise money by handing out tickets … and they’re given quotas by their bosses. And see this
Law enforcement also grabs massive amounts of people’s cash, cars and property … even when people aren’t CHARGED with – let alone convicted of – any crime
Private prisons are huge profit-making centers for giant companies, and private prison corporations obtain quotas from the government, where the government guarantees a certain number of prisoners at any given time
The government has gone to great lengths to cover up nuclear accidents, radiation dangers, and unsafe conditions at nuclear plants
The government made sure that false claimswere made about the amount of oil spilled by BP in the Gulf
The government covered up the health risks to New Orleans residents associated with polluted water from hurricane Katrina, and FEMA covered up the cancer risk from the toxic trailers which it provided to refugees of the hurricane. The Centers for Disease Control – the lead agency tasked with addressing disease in America – covered up lead poisoning in children in the Washington, D.C. area (the Centers for Disease Control has also been outed as receiving industry funding)
The government’s response to the outbreak of mad cow disease was simple: it STOPPED TESTING for mad cow, and PREVENTED cattle ranchers and meat processors from VOLUNTARILY testingtheir own cows (and see thisand this)
In response to new studies showing the substantial dangers of genetically modified foods, the government passed legislation more or less PUSHING IT onto our plates
Government scientists originally pushed fluoridation of water as “safe and effective” because fluoride is a major byproduct of making nuclear weapons… and the government ordered them to downplay the risks of fluoride exposure in order to prevent massive lawsuits by those suffering injury from poisoning
When one of the most respected radiologists in America – the former head of the radiology department at Yale University – attempted to blow the whistle on the fact that the FDA had approved a medical device manufactured by General Electric because it put out massive amounts of radiation, the FDA installed spyware to record his private emails and surfing activities (including installing cameras to snap pictures of his screen), and then used the information to smear himand other whistleblowers
The EPA colluded with Dow Chemical to toss asideDow’s own safety studies showing that the Agent Orange ingredient 2,4-D caused kidney damage in rats, so it could approve an increase of 4100% of 2,4-D in the American diet
In an effort to protect Bank of America from the threatened Wikileaks expose of wrongdoing – the Department of Justicetold Bank of America to a hire a specific hardball-playing law firm to assemble a team to take down WikiLeaks (and see this)
The Bush White House worked hard to smearCIA officers, bloggers and anyone else who criticized the Iraq war
The FBI smeared top scientistswho pointed out the numerous holes in its anthrax case. Indeed, the head of the FBI’s investigation agrees that corruption was rampant
After a top USDA scientist disclosed that commonly-used pesticides kill monarch butterflies and beneficial insects, the government punished him and tried to make his life miserable
Senior judges in Pennsylvania have pleaded guilty to falsely convicting and imprisoning hundreds of YOUTHS(they got kickbacks from the prisons). The Pennsylvania Supreme Court refused to hear a case regarding the corrupt judges. A month later – only after the judges confessed to criminal wrongdoing – did the Supreme Court change its mind and take any interest
The government has intentionally whipped up hysteria about terrorismfor cynical political purposes. For example, former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge admitted that he was pressured to raise terror alerts to help the president win reelection (and the biggest terrorism fearmongers themselves actually support terrorism. And see this)
Warmongers in the U.S. government knowingly and intentionally lied us into a war of aggression in Iraq. The former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff – the highest ranking military officer in the United States – said that the Iraq war was “based on a series of lies”. The same is true in Libya, Syria and other wars. Indeed, the U.S. has often launched or proposed launching wars based upon FALSE PREMISES
The U.S. has befriended themain backers of Islamic terrorism – and covered up their terrorist activities – because they have a lot of oil and do our government’s dirty work. In the name of fighting terrorism, the U.S. has been directly supporting Al Qaeda and other terrorists and providing them arms, money and logistical support in Syria, Libya, Mali, Bosnia, Chechnya, Iran, and many other countries … both before and after 9/11. And see this
Conservatives like the director of the National Security Agency under Ronald Reagan (Lt. General William Odom) and liberals like Noam Chomsky all say that the American government is the WORLD’S LARGEST purveyor of terrorism
On the other hand, the government has completely riggedthe trials of those accused of conducting terrorism. And the military judge and prosecutor of alleged surviving 9/11 co-conspirators secretly destroyed relevant evidence, without telling defense lawyers
When the American government got caught assassinating innocent civilians, it changed its definitionof “enemy combatants” to include all young men – between the ages of say 15 and 35 – who happen to be in battle zones. When it got busted killing kids with drones, it changed the definition again to include kids as “enemy combatants”
S. government officials say that the government has long PROTECTED drug cartels
$8.5 TRILLIONdollars in taxpayer money doled out by Congress to the Pentagon since 1996 has NEVER been accounted for. The military wastes and “loses” trillions of dollars. And Congress pushes expensive boondoggles that our generals say are unnecessary and unhelpful … because it’s pork for their district
The government liedwhen it said it doesn’t conduct mass surveillance on Americans, and then lied again when it said that spying was aimed at protecting America against terrorists. The highest-level NSA whistleblower in history says that a recently-passed bill authorizing mass surveillance is “just another example of corruption“
Why do the intelligence agencies spy on innocent Americans? Because they rake in the doughwhen they do. Why do so many in Congress support NSA spying? Because NSA contractors give them money
The same Congress members who backed mass surveillance against the American people have only become indignant only when theywere spied on by the government
The government also liedwhen it said America doesn’t torture (and see this), and then lied once againwhen it said torture was aimed at protecting Americans
The government protects criminalwrongdoing by prosecuting whistleblowers. The Obama administration has sentenced whistleblowers to dozens of times the jail time of all other presidents COMBINED). And the government has framed whistleblowers with false evidence
The government treats journalistswho report on government corruption as CRIMINALS OR TERRORISTS. And it goes to great lengths to smear For example, when USA Today reporters busted the Pentagon for illegally targeting Americans with propaganda, the Pentagon launched a SMEAR CAMPAIGN against the reporters
On the other hand, the government pumps out MASSIVE amounts of propagandato mislead and dis-empower people. And journalists who act as mere cheerleaders for the government who never criticize are protected and rewarded
The government has destroyedmost of the freedoms and liberties that officials are sworn to protect. The high-level NSA official who designed the NSA’s global surveillance program told Washington’s Blog: “Our government use to be more careful and secretive in their violations of the constitution; but, now, they are more blatant an arrogant in their violation as if to dare anyone to try and stop them“
The intelligence services BLACKMAIL people in both government and the private sector with evidence of homosexuality, nude picturesand other information that people want to stop from going public
Terror attacks such as 9/11, the Boston Marathon bombing and the Texas shootingall happened because of PERVASIVE CORRUPTION in our intelligence agencies

The biggest companies own the D.C. politicians. Indeed, the head of the economics department at George Mason University has pointed out that it is unfair to call politicians “prostitutes”. He says they are in fact pimps … selling out the American people for a price.

A former U.S. Senator writes:

Measured against the standards established for republics from ancient times, the American Republic is massively corrupt.

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Can anyone seriously doubt that our republic, our government, is corrupt? There have been Teapot Domes and financial scandals of one kind or another throughout our nation’s history. There has never been a time, however, when the government of the United States was so perversely and systematically dedicated to special interests, earmarks, side deals, log-rolling, vote-trading, and sweetheart deals of one kind or another.

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How can public service be promoted as an ideal to young people when this sewer corrupts our Republic? At this point in early twenty-first-century America, the greatest service our nation’s young people could provide is to lead an army of outraged young Americans armed with brooms on a crusade to sweep out the rascals and rid our capital of the money changers, rent seekers, revolving door dancers, and special interest deal makers and power brokers and send them back home to make an honest living, that is, if they still remember how to do so.

A U.S. Congressman says:

Washington is a “sinkhole of leeches”
Money “corrupts” and House members are “puppets” to lobbyists who bankroll their campaigns. “Business organizations and unions fork over more than $3 billion a year to those who lobby the federal government. Does that tell you something? We’re operating a f–king casino”
‘America’s on an irreversible decline and no one in Washington seems to care . . . God help us.’
“We spend money we don’t have and blithely mortgage the future with a wink and a nod. Screw the next generation. It’s about getting credit now, lookin’ good for the upcoming election.” “Like most of my colleagues, I promise my constituents a lot of stuff I can never deliver.” “But what the hell? It makes them happy hearing it . . . My main job is to keep my job”

He also says:

“Most of my colleagues are dishonest career politicians who revel in the power and special-interest money that’s lavished upon them”
“My main job is to keep my job, to get reelected. It takes precedence over everything”
“Fundraising is so time consuming I seldom read any bills I vote on. Like many of my colleagues, I don’t know how the legislation will be implemented, or what it’ll cost”

Government regulators have become so corrupted and “captured” by those they regulate that Americans know that the cop is on the take. Institutional corruption is killing people’s trust in our government and our institutions.

Neither the Democratic or Republican parties represent the interests of the American people. Elections have become nothing but scripted beauty contests, with both parties ignoring the desires of their own bases.

Indeed, America is no longer a democracy or republic … it’s officially an oligarchy. And the allowance of unlimited campaign spending allows the oligarchs to purchase politicians more directly than ever.

No wonder polls show that the American people say that the system is so thoroughly corrupt that government corruption is now Americans’ number one fear. And see this.

And politicians from both sides of the aisle say that corruption has destroyed America.

Moreover, there are two systems of justice in America … one for the big banks and other fatcats … and one for everyone else. Indeed, Americans have less access to justice than Botswanans … and are more abused by police than Kazakhstanis.

Big Corporations Are Also Thoroughly Corrupt

But the private sector is no better … for example, the big banks have literally turned into criminal syndicates engaged in systemic fraud.

Wall Street and giant corporations are literally manipulating every single market.

And the big corporations are cutting corners to make an extra penny … wreaking havoc with their carelessness. For example:

Fracking companies dumped 3 billion gallonsof highly-toxic waste into California’s drinking water supply. Fracking is polluting water all over the country. A study published in the journal Ground Water predicts that the highly-toxic fluids used in fracking can migrate to aquifers within a few short years. In addition, it is now official that fracking can cause earthquakes. Yet fracking companies are using military psychological operations techniques to discredit opponents (and see this)
S. military contractors have pocketed huge sums of money earmarked for humanitarian and reconstruction aid. And see this (whistleblowers alerted the government about the looting of Iraq reconstruction funds, but nothing was done)
General Electricand other nuclear companies KNEW their designs were faulty and unsafe … but hid that fact for decades
Monsanto has claimed for decades that Roundup is safe, but the World Health Organization just said that it probably causes cancer. Monsanto forbids independent scientistsfrom testing its GMO crops for safety, attacks the computers of people who oppose GMO foods and sue small farmerswhen Monsanto GMO crops drift onto their fields
Big farmers are drenching their crops with Roundup right before harvest… to save a buck
Big food companies work hand-in-glove with the government to dish up unhealthy food
BP’s criminal negligenceled to the giant Gulf oil spill
There is systemic corruptionamong drug companies, scientific journals, university medical departments, and medical groups which set the criteria for diagnosis and treatment

(Further examples here, here, here, here and here.)

We’ve Forgotten the Lessons of History

The real problem is that we need to learn a little history:

We’ve known for thousands of yearsthat – when criminals are not punished – crime spreads
We’ve known for hundreds of yearsthat the failure to punish financial fraud destroys economies, as it destroys all trust in the financial system
We’ve known for centuriesthat powerful people – unless held to account – will get together and steal from everyone else

Beyond Partisan Politics

Liberals and conservatives tend to blame our country’s problems on different factors … but they are all connected.

The real problem is the malignant, symbiotic relationship between big corporations and big government.

About Ferris Eanfar

Ferris Eanfar has over 20 years of experience in technical, financial, media, and government intelligence environments. He has written dozens of articles and several books in the fields of Economics, Crypto-Economics, and International Political Economy, including Broken Capitalism: This Is How We Fix It and GINI: Capitalism, Cryptocurrencies & the Battle for Human Rights and the Global Governance Scorecard. Ferris is a cofounder of the Gini Foundation, which builds unique cryptocurrency systems to protect human rights, among other benefits; and the CEO of the AngelPay Foundation, a nonprofit financial services company with a mission to “return wealth and power to the creators of value.” To learn more about Ferris, please visit the About Ferris page.

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