Corruption in the USA

Al Hanners is a retired geologist who worked worldwide for a major U.S. oil company for nearly five decades. Al retired in Bellingham a quarter century ago. Since then he’s been a naturalist, legal campaigner, wildlife photographer, and a writer.

by Al Hanners

Editor’s Note: The opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Whatcom Watch.

We accuse other countries of corruption, and rightfully so, but we tend to overlook corruption in the United States because of pride in our country, and because corruption is more blatant in some countries that pay low wages and let employees make a living through corruption.

Venezuela is a good example. When I was working there and returned to Venezuela after a vacation in the states, my suitcase would be broken open and something stolen. I learned to leave my suitcase unlocked and leave something of value on top, and the rest of my baggage would not be touched.

For a recent example, the Afghanistan government is said to be corrupt. Funds we sent to help Afghanistan are said to be sent out of the country to terrorists. Of course those funds lead to death of many innocent people and should be stopped.

The worst corruption in the United States in my memory was by the Bush Administration. To begin, perhaps Bush was not legally elected. There is evidence that some African Americans were not allowed in the polls and that some of their votes were not counted when the Supreme Court stopped counting.

Most importantly, the Bush Administration started the war in Iraq to get control of the oil. It still goes on and on, killing thousands of people. Some of the worst corruption in the United States in my memory was when oil and coal companies gave huge funds to political campaigns supporting Bush and other Republicans. In return those companies were allowed to seriously damage the environment. The Bush Administration was said to have modified data on global warming by an outstanding scientist before publication by the United States government.

A close second is Medicare plus Medicaid where doctors and nurses charge for care that did not occur and cost the public millions of dollars. A recent report stated that 80 doctors and nurses were charged but more recently that number was increased to 1,091.

Because Supreme Court members are appointed for life, the party that appointed the majority of them has a political advantage for them. Thus right now the Republicans have a huge advantage. In theory, the Supreme Court is supposed to enforce the Constitution and the law but the Supreme Court is well known to make other decisions by stretching the laws. Let’s take a recent example. Amazingly, the Supreme Court ruled that a company could make political contributions as a single person. That is a huge advantage for the Republican Party. The Democrats cannot secure anything near that amount of funds for their political campaigns.

Most corruption involves money. Politics is corrupt when it affects justice and priests are allowed to be above the law and are not punished, as lay people are when they sexually abuse young men. Some time ago a media article said that 200 such cases were in Wisconsin alone. Do politicians want innocent men to be abused? Of course not, but they they lack compassion for them. Catholics tend to vote as a block. How do I know? Because I regularly get letters from organizations pertaining to how members of the church think so that political campaigns can be well planned. We can only speculate why the United States Government allows those priests to be above the law. However, the information available indicates that some church groups vote as a block and politicians don’t want to lose their votes.

If anyone knows of better reasons for the fact that priests can get away with malesting young boys while others cannot, they can write an article and publish it in Whatcom Watch. §