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Posted on 07/21/2026 2:34:49 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Three days before his 2025 inauguration, Donald Trump launched a cryptocurrency called $TRUMP. That May, he dined with 220 of its largest holders, some of whom bought up the coin expressly to secure invitations. In October Mr. Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao, a Binance co-founder who had been convicted of violating money-laundering laws. Binance had assigned a team to develop the stablecoin for World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture tied to the Trump family. The undertaking netted Mr. Trump hundreds of millions, part of $1 billion in crypto gains, while most token buyers lost money. Last year Paramount agreed to pay Mr. Trump $16 million—with some payments made to his future presidential library—to settle a lawsuit it had called meritless, and within weeks the government approved its $8 billion merger with Skydance.
Each episode has been reported, with people raising questions about Mr. Trump’s behavior. But what makes such conduct possible in the first place? Democrats rightly blame the man.
But there is another culprit. The power of the federal government, which commands the fate of every major enterprise in America. A tariff waiver can mean billions for one company and bankruptcy for its rival. An antitrust filing can erase a decade of shareholder value in an afternoon. A procurement decision can build a company, and a regulatory finding can bury one. When the government holds that much influence, officials need not even demand tribute. Tribute arrives on its own.
The problem arose long before 2025. When government can make or break a business, businesses will invest in making friends with government, and the return on a lobbyist will exceed the return on an engineer. Corruption and discretionary power go hand in hand.
There is a remedy, though it comes from an unfashionable quarter. Libertarians have long argued for a wall...
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
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True. So why does the Wall Street Journal always support the DC deep-state, RINOs, statist Democrats, and globalists?
Headline is why at the tender age of 15 I knew I could never be a Democrat.
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”
—British historian and politician Lord Acton in 1887.
The rest:
“Great men are almost always bad men.”
I think small government invites corruption, too.
It should say “Government Invites Corruption “.
A phrase I coined myself: "Government is the greediest, most corrupt and murderous force on Earth."
“small government invites corruption, too.”
Chicago government was small government corruption. I fought it for many years. But its impact was mostly limited to IL. its impact on the nation was small.
Now Chicago style corruption is in MI, GA, AZ. and why?
Send Chris Dodd, CT wrote HAVA/EAC in the wake of hanging chad in 2000 FL. HAVA/EAC centralized Chicago style corruption nationwide. HAVA gave FREE MONEY to state and local election bodies. All the locals had to do was choose HAVA approved FOD Friends of Dodd. That is exactly the origin of Vote Fraud in AZ and GA... and other states.
Keep the fraud local. We can vote with our feet to leave Chicago for GA.
Actually... Money Inevitably Invites Corruption.
Where there is money there is corruption and the government has vast amounts of money just waiting for somebody to steal it and that happens in government and in private industry... Thievery is the easiest way to make a fortune.
Changpeng Zhao’s “crime” was that his company, Binance, allowed users to trade crypto in a way that wasn’t transparent to the government.
He failed to allow the required government surveillance.
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