I & I Editorial BoardQ: What is the difference between what Sen. Bob Menendez is charged with, what President Joe Biden is being investigated for, and the speech Michelle Obama gave in Germany on Monday?
A: Only the dollar amounts.
Just as Democrats were ramping up calls for Menendez to step down over bribery charges filed against him, and as House Republicans started their impeachment inquiry into whether Joe Biden used son Hunter to bribe foreign officials, Obama was reportedly getting paid an obscenely large amount of money for a one-hour talk on “diversity.”
These are all variations on a theme. Call it bribery, or extortion, or abuse of power, or whatever you want. This is how Democrats get rich these days. They expand the size and power of the federal government, then sell access and favors to the highest bidders.
Think about Michelle’s speech for a minute. According to the Daily Mail, she was paid $741,000, which means that by the time she was six minutes into her speech, she’d made more money than 50% of households in the United States make in a year.
This reported fee is also more than three times the already criminally large amount she normally gets paid to read words someone else wrote for her.
So, what makes Michelle suddenly three times more valuable? Did she discover a cure for cancer? A limitless, free, source of clean energy? An end to world hunger? Did she unlock the secrets of faster-than-light space travel? Or announce a plan to bring world peace?
Hardly. She is a talentless woman who happens to be married to a former president. The organizers of the event and 5,000 people in attendance most likely have already forgotten whatever it was she said.
The one and only reason she commanded that price is because of the current buzz that she might run for president next year, given that Biden seems unlikely to last until November 2024, let alone January 2029. The organizers of the event were buying political influence, not insights.
How is this different from what Biden was doing when he was selling access through his drug-addled son?
How is it any different from what the money-grubbing Clintons were doing with their bogus “Clinton Foundation,” which saw donations skyrocket when people thought she might be the next president. As we reported when we were with Investor’s Business Daily, donations to the Clinton Foundation cratered as soon as Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump in 2016.
How is it any different from Hunter Biden selling paint splotches – some priced at half a million dollars? He was selling political influence, not art.
This is why so many Democrats leave office as multi-millionaires after decades of “public service.”
It’s how Democrats make their friends rich, too, by the way. When Biden pours billions upon billions into subsidies for “green” energy and electric cars, who do you think benefits? It’s well-connected crony capitalists.
When Democrats dump massive sums into public works projects – claiming it will create jobs – it’s not Joe Lunchbox who benefits, but fat-cat union bosses who then spend fabulous amounts to get Democrats elected, who then return the favor with more government spending.
The form of bribery and extortion has become so commonplace that nobody bats an eye at it anymore. And the only reason Democrats are scapegoating Menendez today is because his ineptitude threatens to throw sand into this well-oiled machine.
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
Using these vague “policy violations,” Google is now threatening to demonetize us. It’s part of Big Tech’s effort to silence conservative voices.