We’ve just been through a week of Profiles in Cowardice in the nation’s capital.
The United States Senate has finished a thoroughly fake impeachment trial against the white-collar gangster who lives in the White House. The acquittal happened as expected, even though 75 % of the nation wanted the Senate to conduct a real trial with witnesses and evidence.
There are many Senators who are worthy of our contempt and scorn. But I want to focus on one: Susan Collins the senior Senator of Maine.
She has a carefully cultivated image as a “moderate” Republican.
But there’s mounting evidence that her moderate image is window dressing. That evidence suggests we need to find out if she’s been bought off by Dark Money.
Senator Collins has been widely mocked and derided in print and on TV in recent days for her statement on CBS News that she believed the President had learned a lesson from being impeached.
From video of Stephen Colbert on the Late Show:
“The Senator who has most successfully talked herself in to believing that she believes in something is Maine Republican Susan Collins who last night said this:
“He was impeached and there has been criticism by both Republican and Democratic Senators of his call. I believe that he will be much more cautious in the future.”
“In the future he will be more cautious and not get caught. By the way, Mr. President, if you need help getting rid of a body, I’m your girl. The secret is removing the hands and teeth, then killing the guy who sold you the shovel.
“There’s a reason that the master of horror, Stephen King, lives in Maine. I seem really folksy but if you listen closely to what I’m justifying, suddenly I seem like a skin bag filled with writhing tentacles.
“But that was yesterday’s Susan Collins. Today’s Susan Collins sees things a little more clearly. She now says she probably shouldn’t have said that she “believes” Pres. Trump has learned his lessons from the fallout from his dealings with Ukraine and #Impeachment. She now says a better word would have been “hopes” he learned his lesson.
“And a better word for Senator Susan Collins would be former Senator Susan Collins.”
There’s more happening with Senator Collins than making herself look like a fool before the entire nation.
Let’s look at a fraction of her latest “dark money” campaign contributions.
A few days ago, the non-partisan Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission about a previously unknown and seemingly out-of-nowhere Hawaiian Political Action Committee calling itself the Society of Young Women Scientists and Engineers.
This political action committee has given 150-thousand dollars to 1820, a Susan Collins Super Pac. 1820 was the year Maine became a state.
The Society of Young Women Scientists and Engineers is a blank page, so to speak. It has no visibility, no website, no social media presence and no previous media coverage or paper trail as a real entity.
It appears to be nothing more than a post office box in Hawaii and a conduit for high rollers to shovel money to Senator Collins.
The 1820 SuperPac is controlled by super-wealthy One-Percenters. The biggest Collins donor is one of the highest rollers on Wall Street and biggest fat cats in the Republican Party.
Stephen Schwarzman is the CEO of Blackstone, a private equity and investment firm. He’s one of the President’s biggest money donors. He bankrolls Sen. Mitch McConnell, too.
These are guys in a very exclusive power club. They epitomize the old line about the golden rule: he who has all the gold makes all the rules.
A venture capitalist named James Breyer is on the Blackstone Board of Directors.
He just happens to be the brother-in-law of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
The rich cover every angle to ensure super-wealth remains in their hands.
Schwarzman has given Sen. Collins half-a-million dollars through the 1820 PAC.
Schwarzman and Blackstone have been criticized for enabling the burning and destruction of the Amazon Rain Forest,…
a critical environmental region for Planet Earth.
The Amazon is being deforested to clear land for cattle herds and soybean fields.
Blackstone has invested in U.S. Corporate Food giant Archer, Daniels, Midland, which has been accused by KLP, Norway’s largest pension fund, of being a key player in the deforestation of the Amazon to aid soybean production.
A Blackstone Brazilian subsidiary, Hidrovias, built a grain terminal deep in the Amazon. Blackstone has another Brazilian subsidiary called Pátria Investimentos.
Blackstone denies building a highway that cuts through miles of former rainforest land to get the grain to a seaport terminal. They say the Brazilian government operates the highway.
But their statement doesn’t say if they’ve ever put any money in to the road in the past through any business deal or public/private partnership.
The Intercept, an investigative reporting website, reporting on Blackstone’s Brazilian subsidiaries said:
“The companies have wrested control of land, deforested it, and helped build a controversial highway to their new terminal in the one-time jungle, all to facilitate the cultivation and export of grain and soybeans.”
On her website, Senator Collins states she “remains committed to advancing reasonable and effective policies in the U.S. Senate to protect the environment.”
Another big shooter contributing to Collins’ 1820 SuperPac is Robert Burt, the former chairman of the FMC Corporation, a diversified manufacturer. Among their products are farm-grade insecticides.
The Maine Beacon, which has been tracking the Collins money trail, notes Burt has homes in Chicago and South Carolina, but not Maine. Burt contributed 100-thousand dollars to the Collins 1820 SuperPac
Why? Why would a guy like Burt, with no known business interests in Maine throw a hundred grand at Senator Susan Collins?
That can be answered in one word: judges.
The ten percent are thrilled that the President and Sen. McConnell are working feverishly to pack the federal courts with hardcore conservative judges.
Corporate Fat Cats like Burt hate federal environmental regulations against pesticides, insecticides and industrial chemical pollution of our planet.
Judgments are costly.
Ultra-conservative judges are likely to rule in favor of Big Business rather than the environment.
Those rulings are worth billions of dollars. That makes Susan Collins an important political ally.
Insecticides and pesticides sprayed on farm fields run off in to streams and rivers.
These poisons are choking aquatic wildlife. The salmon population of the Pacific Northwest is being decimated.
Wildlife and environmental groups are filing lawsuits, which will wind up before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which often takes a liberal view of cases.
The President has complained about the 9th Circuit: “Well you go to the Ninth Circuit and it’s a disgrace, and I’m going to put in a major complaint.”
The President and Senator McConnell have worked hard to get conservative judges appointed to the Ninth Circuit. And it’s working, with the help of Senator Susan Collins.
As the Maine Beacon reported last month, the President has confirmed nearly 200 hardcore conservative judges to the federal courts and Senator Collins has voted in favor of more than 100 of them.
Most famously, she voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. Her campaign money pipeline has become a gusher since then.
Senator McConnell told Fox News Senator Collins will not have to worry about money in her re-election fight: “Senator Collins will be well-funded. I can assure you.”
If you agree Senator Collins should be forced to retire, I’d ask you to tell others to check out this commentary. Especially anyone you know in Maine. Voters there need to take a hard look at the dark money flowing to Senator Susan Collins and decide what to do about it.
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