Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Harper (2020), 368 pages
Description
Politics. Nonfiction. HTML: Washington insiders operate by a proven credo: when a Peter Schweizer book drops, duck and brace for impact. For over a decade, the work of five-time <I>New York Times</I> bestselling investigative reporter Peter Schweizer has sent shockwaves through the political universe. Clinton Cash revealed the Clintons' international money flow, exposed global corruption, and sparked an FBI investigation. Secret Empires exposed bipartisan corruption and launched congressional investigations. And Throw Them All Out and Extortion prompted passage of the STOCK Act. Indeed, Schweizer's "follow the money" bombshell revelations have been featured on the front pages of the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, and regularly appear on national news programs, including 60 Minutes. Now Schweizer and his team of seasoned investigators turn their focus to the nation's top progressives�??politicians who strive to acquire more government power to achieve their political ends. Can they be trusted with more power? In Profiles in Corruption, Schweizer offers a deep-dive investigation into the private finances, and secrets deals of some of America's top political leaders. And, as usual, he doesn't disappoint, with never-before-reported revelations that uncover corruption and abuse of power�??all backed up by a mountain of corporate documents and legal filings from around the globe. Learn about how they are making sweetheart deals, generating side income, bending the law to their own benefits, using legislation to advance their own interests, and much more. Profiles in Corruption contains tomorrow's headlines.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member thewanderingjew
Profiles in Corruption, Peter Schweizer, author; Charles Constant, narrator
Political corruption in the swamp is not concentrated in one political party. However, Peter Schweizer has chosen to write a book detailing and exposing the corrupt behavior of many of the Progressives who tout themselves as
These people featured in the book (Amy Klobuchar, Cory Booker, the Sanders and the Clintons, Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris, Sherrod Brown and Eric Garcetti), all believe they can save America from a man they, and the press, have consistently demonized, President Donald Trump. They have also defamed his family, pointing fingers in all directions, claiming corruption, tax evasion, criminal behavior, crony capitalism, a violation of the Emoluments Clause, incompetence and anything else they could think of to shame them. Yet, these people have ghosts in their own closets and have made deals that are the same as, or worse than, those that they are accusing others on the right of doing. Schweizer readily admits that there are those on the right who also use the political system to benefit themselves, but I, the reader am well aware that many on the right have already been showcased, trashed and splashed over all the headlines from the left leaning media world, without a corresponding effort to cover those on the left doing the exact same kind of thing, or worse, to financially help themselves and their families without leaving a discernible trail to follow.
In his book, he attempts to show that these very same individuals throwing rocks at the Republicans, claiming to be far more virtuous, actually live in glass houses and are perhaps only far better at hiding their shameful nepotism and incestuous dealings with relatives, corporations, criminals, and anyone or any business that can positively influence their career and future. Donations definitely help to put a politician in your corner, even if the politician rails against you and your business, in public. In private, politicians are schizophrenic! They have more than one side! Their relatives, business associates and/or opportunities, friends, girlfriends, etc., were all put in positions of power and influence once they were elected.
Schweizer’s powerful in depth research has connected the dots to show the hidden deceptive behavior. These politicians have used every trick in the book to benefit themselves while shielding the information that would prove it. The route is therefore circuitous and the reader has to draw their own conclusions as to their motives. Politicians accept money from groups they publicly disavow when it serves their purpose, and they make excuses to explain away the opposition’s questions about their somewhat secretive, dubious arrangements. It is hard, therefore, to trace the money with perfect accuracy, but all the people Schweizer has featured have quietly enriched themselves. Many have even dealt with unsavory characters to do so. They get away with it because of a complicit press which ignores their behavior, coupled with a school system that brainwashes the student body by pushing a curriculum drowning in Progressivism rather than in the teaching of critical thought!
This book will not please many liberals, but it should be read by all of them so that they can see that the crimes and behavior they constantly criticize Trump and his family for actually often pale when compared to some of what has been done and hidden by Progressives and Democrats in the spotlight now.
Political corruption in the swamp is not concentrated in one political party. However, Peter Schweizer has chosen to write a book detailing and exposing the corrupt behavior of many of the Progressives who tout themselves as
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America’s saviors, as the knights that can gallop in and save the world from the despots on the right, from the Republicans and Trump and anyone associated with them. His research has uncovered shady deals, nepotism and incestuous behavior in government transactions. The naked eye would never see these things, not only because of a complicit left leaning press which hides the faults of the left, but because the trail to the underhanded business deals and appointments that enrich themselves, their friends and their families is hidden in secret business deals which are often in the names of people associated with the politician, that do not have to disclose their business dealings in any but the most superficial manner.These people featured in the book (Amy Klobuchar, Cory Booker, the Sanders and the Clintons, Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris, Sherrod Brown and Eric Garcetti), all believe they can save America from a man they, and the press, have consistently demonized, President Donald Trump. They have also defamed his family, pointing fingers in all directions, claiming corruption, tax evasion, criminal behavior, crony capitalism, a violation of the Emoluments Clause, incompetence and anything else they could think of to shame them. Yet, these people have ghosts in their own closets and have made deals that are the same as, or worse than, those that they are accusing others on the right of doing. Schweizer readily admits that there are those on the right who also use the political system to benefit themselves, but I, the reader am well aware that many on the right have already been showcased, trashed and splashed over all the headlines from the left leaning media world, without a corresponding effort to cover those on the left doing the exact same kind of thing, or worse, to financially help themselves and their families without leaving a discernible trail to follow.
In his book, he attempts to show that these very same individuals throwing rocks at the Republicans, claiming to be far more virtuous, actually live in glass houses and are perhaps only far better at hiding their shameful nepotism and incestuous dealings with relatives, corporations, criminals, and anyone or any business that can positively influence their career and future. Donations definitely help to put a politician in your corner, even if the politician rails against you and your business, in public. In private, politicians are schizophrenic! They have more than one side! Their relatives, business associates and/or opportunities, friends, girlfriends, etc., were all put in positions of power and influence once they were elected.
Schweizer’s powerful in depth research has connected the dots to show the hidden deceptive behavior. These politicians have used every trick in the book to benefit themselves while shielding the information that would prove it. The route is therefore circuitous and the reader has to draw their own conclusions as to their motives. Politicians accept money from groups they publicly disavow when it serves their purpose, and they make excuses to explain away the opposition’s questions about their somewhat secretive, dubious arrangements. It is hard, therefore, to trace the money with perfect accuracy, but all the people Schweizer has featured have quietly enriched themselves. Many have even dealt with unsavory characters to do so. They get away with it because of a complicit press which ignores their behavior, coupled with a school system that brainwashes the student body by pushing a curriculum drowning in Progressivism rather than in the teaching of critical thought!
This book will not please many liberals, but it should be read by all of them so that they can see that the crimes and behavior they constantly criticize Trump and his family for actually often pale when compared to some of what has been done and hidden by Progressives and Democrats in the spotlight now.
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LibraryThing member SamSattler
Peter Schweizer’s Profiles in Corruption is not an easy book to read, especially in today’s political environment of constant fighting, name-calling, and finger-pointing. Maybe it’s always been this way, maybe not, but today’s political class, regardless of party affiliation, seems suddenly
Profiles in Corruption takes a long, hard look at eight of the worst offenders. I do wish that, for the sake of his own credibility, Schweizer had not concentrated his efforts exclusively on “progressives” who, with the exception of Bernie Sanders, are all card-carrying Democrats. (This is, however, a well-documented and cited book with hundreds of source references.) Political corruption is a problem for Democrats and Republicans alike – and whatever it is that Sanders calls himself in private. How else to explain all the newly-minted multi-millionaires who earn their fortunes never having held a single job outside of government during their entire adult lives?
Schweizer’s eight profiles are in this order: Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren, Sherrod Brown, Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar, and Eric Garcetti. None of what the author discloses about any of the eight is particularly surprising to anyone who’s been paying much attention to what goes on around them. None of what any of the eight have done to enrich themselves and their immediate families at the expense of the taxpayer is particularly creative, either. They are doing the kind of things that politicians like them were guilty of more than 100 years ago, and they are using pretty much the same old playbook to do it.
Every allegation and point that follows is documented in the book.
Perhaps most disconcerting of all the disclosures, is the selective justice wielded by some when they were still public prosecutors with the power to decide which cases would be prosecuted and which would be ignored. You guessed it: ignored most often were big-donor white collar criminals often also doing business with members of the prosecutors’ families. Making each other rich and/or keeping the prosecutor in a powerful position was more important than guilt or innocence. Particularly good at this little game, it seems, were Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, and Amy Klobuchar.
Two of the eight, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, stand out as much for their utter hypocrisy as for their unethical behavior. Both men brand themselves defenders of the common man and claim the working class as their base, but both have become wealthy elitists in the process of “working” for their constituency. Biden has made himself, his three children, and his siblings wealthy by so willingly selling his political influence through businesses and boards run by relatives. Sanders and family have become wealthy by funneling campaign contributions to companies headed by his daughter, and by allowing his wife to bankrupt a small private college even as she profited handily from her job as president of the school. Even as a young Vermont mayor, Sanders made a spot on the city payroll for his then-girlfriend, and then gave her a huge raise when she became his wife. And then there are the books that so many politicians, Sanders among them, write to huge advances so that their political committees can buy them up with donated funds for distribution to backers. According to Schweizer, Sanders has pulled off this particular trick three times. (This appears to be a common scam among “big name” politicians.)
With Sherrod Brown, it’s his unblinking pay-for-play game with America’s largest unions in which the Senator is always eager to back bills that are bad for consumers and taxpayers but good for unions. For Eric Garcetti, It’s shady real estate deals in and around Los Angeles that made him so rich and powerful. With Cory Booker, it’s a heavy duty pay-for-play scheme from his days in New Jersey that made him rich and powerful.
Bottom Line: Profiles in Corruption will make you as sad as it makes you angry. It’s hard to read that so many of America’s most prominent politicians are such petty, dishonest hypocrites. But now it’s time for a look at some prominent Republicans, because I suspect the result will be just as saddening and irritating as the disclosures in Profiles in Corruption.
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to have way more than its share of hypocrites, liars, cheaters, and sexual predators.Profiles in Corruption takes a long, hard look at eight of the worst offenders. I do wish that, for the sake of his own credibility, Schweizer had not concentrated his efforts exclusively on “progressives” who, with the exception of Bernie Sanders, are all card-carrying Democrats. (This is, however, a well-documented and cited book with hundreds of source references.) Political corruption is a problem for Democrats and Republicans alike – and whatever it is that Sanders calls himself in private. How else to explain all the newly-minted multi-millionaires who earn their fortunes never having held a single job outside of government during their entire adult lives?
Schweizer’s eight profiles are in this order: Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren, Sherrod Brown, Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar, and Eric Garcetti. None of what the author discloses about any of the eight is particularly surprising to anyone who’s been paying much attention to what goes on around them. None of what any of the eight have done to enrich themselves and their immediate families at the expense of the taxpayer is particularly creative, either. They are doing the kind of things that politicians like them were guilty of more than 100 years ago, and they are using pretty much the same old playbook to do it.
Every allegation and point that follows is documented in the book.
Perhaps most disconcerting of all the disclosures, is the selective justice wielded by some when they were still public prosecutors with the power to decide which cases would be prosecuted and which would be ignored. You guessed it: ignored most often were big-donor white collar criminals often also doing business with members of the prosecutors’ families. Making each other rich and/or keeping the prosecutor in a powerful position was more important than guilt or innocence. Particularly good at this little game, it seems, were Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, and Amy Klobuchar.
Two of the eight, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, stand out as much for their utter hypocrisy as for their unethical behavior. Both men brand themselves defenders of the common man and claim the working class as their base, but both have become wealthy elitists in the process of “working” for their constituency. Biden has made himself, his three children, and his siblings wealthy by so willingly selling his political influence through businesses and boards run by relatives. Sanders and family have become wealthy by funneling campaign contributions to companies headed by his daughter, and by allowing his wife to bankrupt a small private college even as she profited handily from her job as president of the school. Even as a young Vermont mayor, Sanders made a spot on the city payroll for his then-girlfriend, and then gave her a huge raise when she became his wife. And then there are the books that so many politicians, Sanders among them, write to huge advances so that their political committees can buy them up with donated funds for distribution to backers. According to Schweizer, Sanders has pulled off this particular trick three times. (This appears to be a common scam among “big name” politicians.)
With Sherrod Brown, it’s his unblinking pay-for-play game with America’s largest unions in which the Senator is always eager to back bills that are bad for consumers and taxpayers but good for unions. For Eric Garcetti, It’s shady real estate deals in and around Los Angeles that made him so rich and powerful. With Cory Booker, it’s a heavy duty pay-for-play scheme from his days in New Jersey that made him rich and powerful.
Bottom Line: Profiles in Corruption will make you as sad as it makes you angry. It’s hard to read that so many of America’s most prominent politicians are such petty, dishonest hypocrites. But now it’s time for a look at some prominent Republicans, because I suspect the result will be just as saddening and irritating as the disclosures in Profiles in Corruption.
Show Less
Original language
English
Physical description
9 inches
ISBN
006289790X / 9780062897909