We're really all gonna fucking pretend that something shocking happened because donors to the Clinton Foundation were able to get "access" to Hillary Clinton when she was Secretary of State? 'Cause, you know, right now, not only will Donald Trump not release his tax returns so we can see just how much he's the butt boy of Russian oligarchs, but he is quite obviously using his campaign to enrich the companies owned by or associated with Donald Trump.
But, no, really, go on, please about how Bono wanted to talk to Clinton about forcing astronauts on the space station to watch a U2 concert, something that quite reasonably didn't happen.
I have heard from probably a couple hundred people who insist that the Clinton Foundation "scandal" is going to blow up. How the fuck is that going to work? Are we gonna ACORN the organization that is doing the fucking hard work of going into nations in Africa and getting HIV/AIDS drugs to people there? Are we gonna tar and feather the group that got prices slashed for malaria tests and drugs, leading to hundreds of thousands of children staying malaria free? For fuck's sake, are we gonna just say, "Fuck it" to all the health and economic initiatives because the crown prince of Bahrain gave a bunch of money to the foundation and later asked to meet with the Secretary of State? As if that is some kind of evil in action? As if that isn't actually a perfectly reasonable thing for a head of state to want to do? Yeah, evil nations and people donated money to the Foundation. Shit, it might have even dangled access as an implied prize. But where's the quid pro quo, huh? What radically changed because of it? Not a goddamn thing other than "access."
Motherfuckers, you want evil in action? Members of Congress are under constant threat from the National Rifle Association. The NRA shovels shit tons of money into the campaigns of primarily Republicans, and you can fucking well bet that when Wayne LaPierre wants one of them on the phone, they will stop everything they're doing - filibustering a bill to help poor people, getting blown by a page, shooting up heroin into their thighs - to take the call. That's called access and its only purpose is to enrich the gun corporations with the blood of Americans. That shit's evil.
Money gets you access. It's that fucking simple. When George W. Bush was running for president and then for reelection, he promised people who donated $100,000 to his campaign or more access. This wasn't a secret. And, even though it should have been, it wasn't a scandal. Here's the Washington Post on what these donors, called "Pioneers," wanted: "More than half the Pioneers are heads of companies -- chief executive officers, company founders or managing partners -- whose bottom lines are directly affected by a variety of government regulatory and tax decisions." You think they donated because they just loved W? They knew what they were paying for. Shit, 40% of the Pioneers ended up with appointments in the Bush administration.
And, yeah, it fucking sucks all around. It sucked with Bush. It sucked with the Lincoln Bedroom kerfuffle during Bill Clinton's term. It's a stupid fucking way to run a political system.
But it's the one we have. So, frankly, unless you got something like an outright bribe, like Hillary Clinton was promised piles of gold and more dick than she could ever want to make some kind of deal for Saudi Arabia or Monsanto that she wouldn't have made otherwise, who the fuck cares? Oh, shit, you mean that repressive nations and polluting corporations get shit done for them by our government? Where is the fainting couch? It ain't right, but making Clinton into the target when it's a systemic failure is just weak.
There's a fucking serial killer running on the Republican side. And some of you on the left and even more of you on the right want us to get angry that the Democrats have a jaywalker? Fuck you, you children. Grow the fuck up and elect people to change our campaign finance laws.
(And, yeah, yeah, the Clinton Foundation donations weren't to a political campaign, but, really, weren't they? Besides, unless you want to make the rest of the system pure, your focus on this "corruption" is tainted.)
