The Trump administration and many of his “acting” cabinet appointees are systematically flaunting ethical and conflict-of-interest issues and fleecing the American taxpayer. It goes on and on daily.
One example is Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. (You may have caught the details of this scandal in the news.)
Chao is the wife of Mitch McConnell, the speaker of the U.S. Senate, the body that confirmed his wife’s appointment. Chao was instructed by an oversight board upon her confirmation to divest from a company, Vulcan Materials Co., which holds a lucrative contract to deliver asphalt to America’s roads, a function of the transportation department.
After promising that she would divest, still she has not. Why should she? Her husband is a powerful member of the Senate. Together they are in a position to shovel millions of federal dollars to their home state of Kentucky, making him a beloved son of Kentucky’s constituency. This financial boon, amounting to tens of millions of dollars spilling into his coffers, is McConnell’s reward for his unwavering loyalty in the face of all of Donald Trump’s outrages.
The Trump administration, as we all now know, is a criminal enterprise. His behavior as the president perfectly mirrors his behavior as a building magnet in the Big Apple — scamming every which way he can for personal enrichment and oblivious of the human costs.
Every day he remains in office he is ripping off the public. Yet we, the public, allow him to go on and on ripping us off. For, indeed, the wheels of justice grind on laboriously. We give him a jet, a helicopter, security details and elegant cuisine. We allow a bubble to be created around him so that he can persist in the all-consuming delusion of his own greatness when, in fact, he is nothing but a snake-oil salesman.
We, the American people, are his saps and will remain his saps until we come to our senses and throw the bum out of office and make it impossible for him to ever run his scams again.
Why do we hesitate? Oh yes! We must honor the office of the presidency, since he was duly appointed by the Electoral College, regardless of the buffoonery of the holder of that office.
Therein lies the quintessence of our sappiness.
Ralph J Dolan
Haydenville