Payola

Back in the 1960's there was a national scandal when it was discovered that music production companies were giving cash and other consideration to radio disc jockeys to play their records on the air. This bribery scandal was nicknamed "payola" and it caused a general wringing of hands and a few slaps on the wrists. But one record spinner, Alan Freed, lost his jobs and was ruined  ... see: Payola. As a result, such blatant bribery in the sleazy music industry is looked on unfavorably even today. This, of course, doesn't say that it has disappeared ... it is now just further underground.

But there is another sleazy industry where different kinds of payola is rampant ... politics ... making the old form seem like penny-ante poker. Politicians have invented numerous ways of lining their pockets with mucho cabbage ... huge book advances that are never earned back, astronomical speaking fees for pedestrian comments to assembled employees, campaign contributions which are never spent and revert to the politicians, cattle futures trading where only winning trades are recorded, taxpayer purchased items misappropriated when leaving office, etc., etc. Have you noticed how very few politicians depart their jobs as paupers? The vast majority, no matter how poor they were when they were elected, retire into abject luxury.

Enter the Clintons who have used every one of these scams (and more) to go from rags to riches. Hellery Clinton on her own, since leaving the State Department, has received $21.7 million in speaking fees from fawning corporations  ... see: New York Post Article. Have you heard her speak? She utters platitudes in an arm-waving screech that can't be worth her airfare, yet she was in high demand. She also got a $14 million book advance from Simon & Schuster for that ghost-written book, "Hard Choices", that was almost unreadable. This publisher was lucky if it made back half of its payola advance.

These speaking fees and book advances are obviously bribes to curry favor were she to be elected President. Ask Donald Trump ... he was often on the dispersing side of such payola. And how has Bernie Sanders become so popular? I contend that one chief reason is that he has positioned himself outside of this payola swamp ... possibly the main reason that Bernie is ahead of Trump in current polls. (Trump would do well, if he thinks that Sanders has a shot at the nomination, to attack this impression.)  So, of the three candidates still standing, we have one payola receiver, one payola payer, and one who seems not to be either. One can almost handicap this November's election just based upon these profiles.