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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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.

***

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:

(Further examples herehereherehere 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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