Properly Exposing Corruption is the Start of Rooting Out Corruption

This article will be about corruption, which comes in many forms. Let's start with a fresh item. I've just read the complaint of an individual who emailed me at MHProNews and copied a state attorney general's email address. It is about 4:30 AM ET as this writer is beginning this article. Minutes before my response to that lady (the email had a woman's name), I don't recall seeing anything from her previously. But after responding (I'm was a bit sleepy, to be polite, less than a perfect night's rest), a email search revealed that she had reached out months before on one occasion in February, but nothing in my inbox since then until now. I missed it in my sea of email. That said, there are times that local, state, or federal prosecutors do a good job. An evidence-packed article linked here shows that the system can work, but there are sadly times that it works belatedly. There are also times that the system has failed to work as designed, as the recent post on the Patch on "3 Felonies a Day" illustrated. As a believer, there are times that I think that a coincidence is better described as a God-incidence. That message from that lady is an example of what I mean.

I had already decided to do a post on corruption this morning. I will try to stick to my original plan while referencing the seemingly sincere plea from this woman who claims to have been wronged. As a tip, I encouraged her to send evidence along with a detailed step-by-step description of what the evidence means in her view, and what she thinks the accused would say in their own defense. Then, email that to me and that state AG's office again, because honest prosecutors need what an honest reporter needs. The illustration that follows are what every good investigator wants - backed by evidence and a fair description of what the evidence means.

There are authentic and phony claims of all kinds in every area of life.

Further, some may sincerely believe that they have been wronged, but the wrong that was done to them may not be criminal in nature in the eyes of the law.

While we don't make it impossible for someone to contact us at MHProNews, we might never get anything published if people who are reaching out for help with a problem could contact us at will. Sad, but true. But for someone in our professional arena of focus is motivated they'll find contact info and we get periodic messages or calls, like that woman's. Souls asking for help on often troubling issues that often (not always) are apparently grounded in reality. With that personal/local touch, lets pivot to the national picture originally planned on corruption and this will also give a few real examples of big city and statewide corrupion cases in the U.S.

Many if people reading this have had little or no serious contact with law enforcement or public officials beyond such routine items as a traffic ticket, tax collection, and voting. For those who haven't had much dealing with government beyond those basics it is useful to keep in mind that some Americans have had less than ideal - sometimes terrible - interactions with public officials.

Some history in the U.S. is tilted too far in one direction or another. The truth is that there has been corruption in our nation since before the rebellion against England that was formally declared on July 4, 1776. There is a case to be made that the reason for the revolutionary war was precisely to fight against a corrupt, rigged, and at times oppressive system.

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What is often overlooked or left out in American Revolution history is that the rebellion against the British crown and their agents in the U.S. was also a rebellion against corporate power too.

Specifically, the famous Boston Tea Party was a protest not just against the unpopular tax on tea, but it was also a protest against the corporation that had a crown monopoly. Corporate power and governmental power often go hand in hand. There is more that can be said about this (see rigged system). The screen grab below is to spotlight the fact that my statement about the Boston Tea Party is grounded in reality.

Depending on the article that I am writing on the subject of corruption, I may begin by using an example from President Woodrow Wilson (D), but I could also begin with an article using George W. Bush (R). There can be 'soft' corruption and 'hard' corruption. Congress, for example, cleverly exempts themselves from many of the laws that apply to the rest of the population on matters such as stock market insider trading laws. When you wonder why people may enter Congress with relatively modest wealth and exit richer people, it may be as simple as what has been described as 'legal' (soft) corruption in the form of insider information that members of Congress are aware of that if certain others acted on the same information that may be deemed illegal.

Millions now believe that the U.S. entry into the war with Iraq pressed by the Bush-Cheney (R) administration was based on false claims. Iraq was attacked due in part to so called "weapons of mass destruction" (WMDs) that were never found, but which public officials - including Bush and Cheney - asserted existed. The multiple award winning docu-drama Shadows of Liberty has a segment that deals with the origins of the WMDs claim and how that fabrication was 'sold' to the mainstream media on both the left and the right. Shadows of Liberty also dealt with corporate corruption and how that can work hand-in-glove with big mainstream media. I plan to do a post here on the Patch on Shadows of Liberty, but if you are ready now for a deep dive sooner, the harder-to-find free full length video with annotated transcript is found here or via the linked image below.

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Highly praised Shadows of Liberty ought to be required viewing for school kids starting at about middle school and maybe once every other year after that until a teen graduates. Why? Because we as a people can't be truly free if we are given false information to base our decisions on. As a relevant reminder to newcomers to this periodic series on the Patch, this writer is a political independent and has been since we moved to Florida over a dozen years ago. I'm not paid to plug that video or others. No one has asked me to write these articles. Someone in media needs to better explain how the world actually works to the general public. While many know or suspect, there aren't nearly enough exposes that detail the realities of our society in a way that may benefit millions.

So, Shadows of Liberty exposes apparent corruption by the Bush-Cheney (R) administration. But it also points the finger at Obama-Biden (D), and others, in other segments of that documentary. Marine Corps veteran and former history professor Colin Heaton and his colleagues do a good job of presenting roughly 15 minute videos on various topics including U.S. presidents who they classify as "most corrupt" or "least corrupt." As a disclaimer, I've not seen all of their videos, but I've seen the one below twice. They aren't necessarily world class entertainment, but they are informative, and in my view as a history buff, they are reasonably reliable sources for accurate historic information.

Much of what has gone wrong in modern America in the 21st century can be traced back to actions and legislation around the time of Woodrow Wilson (D). That doesn't mean that there wasn't corruption before Wilson's time, there was. But that corruption arguably grew following Wilson's term in the White House.

I mentioned a big city example of corruption, which follows. Tammany Hall, as History.com said, was linked to Democratic Party politics. This illustration was first used for an article on MHProNews some years ago.

This Q&A this morning with left-leaning Bing's AI powered Copilot sheds more light on Tammany Hall.

So, corruption can be local, state, or national. Corruption often involves some "special interest group." Much of that corruption in places like New York City, Chicago, or Los Angelas (to name but a few cases) are linked to Democratic politics. But to be fair, in Oklahoma where I spent many years, there was a county commissioner scandal that was often linked to Republican politics. There have been arguably corrupt Democratic and Republican presidents.

To illustrate, consider this next Q&A with Copilot. Keep in mind that Bing's Copilot, Google's Gemini, and other AI systems are capable of error and they themselves say that results should be doubled-checked. That noted, it is my goal to only share items that are accurate or pretty darn close.

The good news is that in the U.S.A. we have a written federal Constitution. We have written state constitutions. Local governments have their own forms of charters. We have ways of lawfully addressing corruption when it is found.

But corruption often boils down to first understanding the nature and origins of the problematic practice and then having a willingness to truly act in a manner that will root out the corruption.

The Tammany Hall era in NYC went on for generations, while OKScam went on for years too.

Media can play a role in exposing corruption. But what if media and other sources of information are also corrupted? That's part of what Shadows exposed.

But that's also why, in my view, what Heaton is doing with his Forgotten History series of videos are potentially quite important. While Heaton and his colleague(s) began with military history, he has since delved into other topics that are often more political and economic in nature. I have no relationship with Heaton beyond an brief message exchange. I've watch perhaps 2 dozen or so of his videos, and each one is reasonably accurate in this writer's view, and I earned several academic awards in history.

The public should not blindly trust any politician. The public should not blindly trust all media. Some media are more reliable than others. In our work on MHProNews/MHLivingNews, we strive to document items in a manner so that anyone who wants to can double-check to see if the claims are true. We get typos, but we aim to be factually accurate and based on evidence. My analysis is clearly disclosed as such.

It can take longer to research and write stories and news items in this manner, but that is how we have built trust with our readers, including those here in this series on the Patch. Let me disclose that I share lighter items, such as music and movie related, for good reasons. Among those motives is so that people don't get the idea that all I do is eat, sleep, and drink is political, economic or modern affordable housing related issues.

In our era, you can always find someone who will say something that is similar enough to what you were led to believe that will allow someone to claim that they are basing their views on a reliable source. Well, sorry. That's called confirmation bias. Left-leaning Wikipedia says: "Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one's prior beliefs or values." Because I strive to take my own advice, there are things that I see differently than I did a decade ago, and I was already a political independent back then. Why? Because I try to routinely look at what multiple sources have said on an issue, and begin to distill what appears to be reality through a discernment process.

Obviously, I don't have time to expose every corruption that occurred in days gone by or is taking place now. But I aim to share enough information to help sincere seekers of the truth to better understand how a corrupted system works and what is necessary to dismantle it.

Divide and Conquer or Divide and Rule

Much of what occurs is subtle, but some is pretty brazen and out in the open once you learn to spot the methods of manipulation. Divide and conquer and divide and rule will be explained shortly, but let's establish some of the reasons and methods of manipulation first.

People lie, manipulate or deceive in order to get something and/or to protect something.

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Some of those lies and manipulations have amounted to tens of billions of dollars. The economic impact of the mortgage/housing crisis is measured in the trillions of dollars.

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Doublespeak and double-think should also be understood.

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Part of how a corrupt system works is that information provided is often somewhat true, a half-truth. Another part of how our society is kept in turmoil is through a dark 'divide and conquer' or 'divide and rule' process. Copilot explained it like this.

Millions already distrust media. Some media stories - perhaps a sport event is a good example - can be factually accurate through and through. If everything was a lie or everything was a half-truth, we might grasp that more quickly.

We publish fact checks or "fisking" of certain reports on MHProNews/MHLivingNews and now on the Patch. These are useful because you can see if the party that was fact checked bothered to do any corrections, or at minimum, to reference the fact check for their readers. One example is linked below. To that publication's credit, after multiple efforts, they finally showed a 'one star' rating at the base of the article we fact checked. But as of this post, they have yet made any apparent actual corrections. Nor would they post my remarks or links in their comments section to information that contradicts theirs. Yet, they claim to care about transparency and accuracy? Do they know how to spell hypocrisy?

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That experience is rather common. Media are supposed to make and report corrections, if they adhere to the rules of professional journalism. The screen grab below is only a partial example of what the Society for Professional Journalism (SPJ) says in their Code of Ethics. The more complete listing is found at this link here.

Those are noble standards. The problem is, in my years of doing fact-checks and contacting the sources that published them, it is not too common that people will actually make a correction. Or at a minimum, they could acknowledge that there are other evidence-based positions that differ from their account.

But in fairness, it has happened that major changes were made by apparently accuracy-focused sources. An example I like to give is linked below because it is well documented and involves the National Association of Realtors (NAR). They published an article on manufactured housing that in my expert view had numerous errors in it. I contacted the author, pointed out the errors, provided evidence and sources. She apparently checked that out. She made every requested correction. Then, the digitil issue those errors were published in was pulled and substituted with a corrected version. In the corrected version the author gave me and a colleague credit in the first footnote (I didn't ask for that, but she thoughtfully just did it). You don't get much better than that, in my experience. For the details see Part II #34 in the report linked here and below.

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To do justice to the item fact checked above, and to give other examples, a lengthy article was needed. Time will tell if the person and organization that fact check was exposing will do as the NAR report writer did or not.

Let's start to land this plane.

• When a system or information are corrupted, some will tend to just throw up their hands and kind of walk away or ignore it. That may be the motivation of millions who don't vote. But that approach benefits the corrupt.
• At election time, we the people can vote the wrongdoers out of office. But often, the corrupt have lined up media that are favorable to their interests. They generate stories that help their story and make them look better than they are.
• So, readers have to be pretty detail-minded to spot the corruption and must be willing to question sources that they trusted for a long time. Sharyl Attkisson, an award-winning journalist who left CBS News, talks and writes about her experiences. A Ted Talk of hers that is useful is posted below.

• In my experience people with a reasonably deep faith have an advantage of those with no faith. Why? Because religions have been teaching for thousands of years what is right, what is wrong, and how serious deception and lying can be.

The point of quoting more than just Christian or Jewish sources in the above isn't to say that all religions are the same. They are not. But rather, a common feature of many religions is a moral component. Truth telling is important. Deception is harmful. Deception can lead to avoidable conflicts and can be costly as the the Lesson Learned from Bernie Madoff, the ongoing affordable housing scandal and others.

Let's share another piece of good news. A few years ago, we did an article on MHProNews that exposed a problematic business practice of a billion-dollar plus corporation. The person who reported the problem provided me with the kinds of details needed for a useful and accurate report. Once published, per the source that made the complaint to MHProNews, the corporation involved stopped the practice, and gave the corporation that wronged that party provided a refund to the tune of thousands of dollars in 'overcharges.' So, exposing corruption can work. Does that happen all the time? Sadly, no. But it does happen.

Ignorance isn't bliss. Ignorance is ignorance. We are all ignorant about many things. Ignorance isn't a four letter word.

We don't have to know everything in order to know that something has gone wrong in America. In this last election a majority voted for change. Time will tell how much those changes will be fought by the powers that be. Sometimes things have to get bad enough before enough people get together and fed up enough to organize and make them better.

Tens of thousands of journalists have lost their jobs in the 21st century due to a confluence of events. Among them is the consolidation of media to the point that there are only a few viewpoints being reported. Social media can help some. But media needs a revival. Our political institutions need a revival. Our churches do too. One of the changes that ought to be made by the incoming Trump-Vance (R) administration is that churches and houses of worship should be freed from the chains of the loss of their tax exempt status if they happen to deal directly with political topics. Without the mobilizing power of people who practice their faith, would slaves have been freed? Would women and minorities have earned the right to vote? Stating the obvious, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X, to name but two, were motivated by their faith. MLK Jr. especially used churches to organize his efforts.

We as a society are living in an information age, yet that information has often been twisted and weaponized. Until the majority of the population grasps what has happend in our times, it will be difficult to make the needed changes that will root out corrupt practices.

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As hopefully some of our regular readers of this series are seeing, the articles fit together like pieces of a puzzle. There is more coming on rooting out corruption. But in the meantime, see the prior posts linked below to learn more now.

Rick Manning–Make America Great Again Is More Than A Slogan—Necessary

‘MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN’ RFK Jr. for Health and Human Services

Dr. Marty Makary Gives Reasons to Support RFK Jr for HHS Secretary

“There is a Hero in All of Us”-Bobby Charles ex-Ast Secretary of State

Trump Transition Team Asked to Prioritize Affordable Housing Issues

For those not doing their jobs properly... Terminate Federal Employees Through Push to End Remote Work, Says CNN

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• Editor Josh Hammer's 2024 Election Insights and Two Major Party Impact
• Thanking God and Promising a Golden Age for USA and National Healing
• Investopedia on Housing plus Manufactured Housing Assoc US Production
• Jamel Holley-Top 5 Pharma CEOs Emergency Call-Panic Over RFK Jr+Trump
• ‘Politics Isn’t Everything’ But When Its Bad It Hurts Millions in USA

https://patch.com/florida/lake...--

• You & Your FAFs Can Help Change the World, Take a Drink+Food Bar=VOTE!
• Joe Biden in PA - ‘These Are the Kind of Guys You'd Like to Smack’
• End Personal Income Tax-Tariffs Link v István Dobozi’s Tariff War Woes
• That’s Garbage! Who Gets Last Laugh? Facts-No Excuses Voter Next Steps
• Life Boils Down to Time, Risks, Rewards, Opportunities and Choices

--> Deception & Misdirection-3 Tricks-Paltering, Posturing and Projecting

• > Hawkins-Kamala VP Hopeful Gov Tim Walz (MN-D) Says Harris Gun Agenda
• > Why do Liars Lie? Why do those Engaged in Paltering and Spin Palter?
• > Gulf Between Ruling Elites Average Americans is Wide+Deep, per Survey
• > Herland: ‘Aldous Huxley Interview-Tech, Big Gov, Big Biz=Grave Danger’

--

• > Knight-‘Govt Exists to Promote and Protect Ordinary Happiness in Life’
• > Doublespeak Doublethink and Insightful Orwellian Lessons from the Left
• > Lessons of Bernie Madoff-Enron-WorldCom-2008 Housing-Financial Crisis
• > “TANSTAAFL”–What Does It Mean and Why Does It Matter to You and Yours?

--Affordable housing, mobile homes and manufactured homes related topics:

• > Investopedia on Housing plus Manufactured Housing Assoc US Production
• > Top 10 States for Homelessness & Top Cities for Crime=Shocking Lessons
• > WashPost-American Dream Fades But Assoc CEO Mark Weiss Shows Solution
• > Controversy-Manufactured Housing Institute-Lesli Gooch-Mark Bowersox
• > ‘Mobile Home Values Rising Faster Than Single-Family’ House-Wow Fact$

--> Realtor-What Is a Manufactured Home? The Next Step Beyond Mobile Homes

• > Orlando RE Agent Smith-Younger Adults Will Need $8500 Monthly for Rent
• > Blankley-Goodbye American Dream? Only 10% Polled Can Buy a House; But
• > Frank Rolfe-Special Interests ‘Don’t Want to Solve Affordable Housing'
• > TARK-‘I’m a Teen and Know the Solution to Affordable Housing Crisis’
• ---> Renting? Rent too High? Odds Are DOJ Suit vs RealPage Matters to You
• > New-Certified “Half Price Homes” - Affordable Housing Solution Redux
• > Solution: “Would-Be Homebuyers Need 80% More Income Than 4 Years Ago”

---L. A. “Tony” Kovach is a publisher who has earned multiple awards in history. He and his family live in a manufactured home on private property in Winter Haven, FL. He is the co-founder of ManufacturedHomeLivingNews.com (MHLivingNews.com) andManufacturedHomeProNews.com (MHProNews.com), trade publications serving segments of the manufactured home industry. Having worked in several segments of the manufactured home industry for over 3 decades, Kovach is a widely acknowledged and often praised expert on manufactured housing. ###