The TV ad blitz thus far in the U.S. Senate race has come down to two things: which candidate can suck up the most to Donald Trump. One, Rep. Julia Letlow, has Dementia Don’s endorsement while incumbent Bill Cassidy touts his “working with Trump” for the benefit of humanity—but failing to mention the inflation-feeding war with Iran.
The second thing is Cassidy’s political action committee keeps hitting challenger Letlow with all those negative ads about her insider trading, a charge that may or may not have some merit.
Insider trading. It’s an ugly term that implies exactly what one would think it does: Those in key positions, i.e. elected officials, get a heads-up on what the market is going to do and they react accordingly, amassing sudden wealth in the process.
Google any given year and one will find scores, if not hundreds of members of Congress who were confirmed as having used their positions to conduct insider trading. The practice is illegal under federal law and the STOCK Act, but because of loopholes, enforcement is practically non-existent. What Martha Stewart went to prison for is pretty much common practice and business as usual for members of Congress.
It’s an advantage the average person does not have nor will he ever have—and it’s blatantly unfair. These people are elected to represent us, not to smirk at us as they reap a fortune as a result of our putting our trust in them to do the right thing.
Bobby Jindal, for example, entered Congress as a U.S. representative in 2005 as something of an average Joe, financially speaking. Three years later he left Congress to become governor, but with substantially greater wealth, millions, in fact.
Columnist Heather Cox Richardson, a history professor at Boston College who writes a daily newsletter, today quoted economist Paul Krugman who has called evidence of insider trading by those close to Trump “treason.”
Another online news service, DAILY KOS, also quoted Krugman: “…When officers of a company or people close to them exploit confidential information for personal financial gain, that’s insider trading — which is illegal. But we have another word for situations in which people with access to confidential information regarding national security — such as plans to bomb or not to bomb another country — exploit that information for profit. That word is “treason.”
Apologists for Trump, including some of the LouisianaVoice readers, have been quick to point out that Cankle Ankles takes no salary as president.
But when a series of trades worth about $800 million are made literally minutes before a Truth Social POST from Trump in which he announced he was extending the deadline and was postponing military strikes against Iranian power plants as a result of ongoing talks with Iran, then, KRUGMAN SAY, “People close to Trump are trading based on national secrets.”
There is no nice way to put this, so I’ll let Cox-Richardson say it: “The evidence for such a claim is the sudden and isolated jump in trading volume in S&P 500 and oil futures about 15 minutes before Trump suddenly announced that the U.S. and Iran were in negotiations to end the war—an announcement that turned out to be false.”
“I’d very much like to know exactly who was making those trades yesterday morning,” Krugman wrote.
Yeah, so would we.
“Were they people directly in the know, or billionaires/traders who paid people in the know for tips?” he asked.
It’s pretty much a certainty one won’t find Trump’s name directly involved, but you can bet that being the grifter he is, if there’s a nickel to be made, he’s profiting from it–and it ain’t chump change he’s pocketing.
“When officers of a company or people close to them exploit confidential information for personal financial gain, that’s insider trading — which is illegal. But we have another word for situations in which people with access to confidential information regarding national security — such as plans to bomb or not to bomb another country — exploit that information for profit. That word is ‘treason,’” KRUGMAN WROTE.
All of which kinda makes Letlow look like an afterthought in the grand scheme of things with her alleged insider trading—not that it would excuse her for one nano-second.
And while the ad does its best to tie Letlow to Nancy Pelosi (which is one helluva stretch, by anyone’s measure, considering their respective political philosophies), insider trading is a common thread that runs through both parties with equal aplomb and shamelessness—and even more so with this administration.
Louisiana Voice 
According to Money Watch, POTUS earns $400,000 a year, as specified in Title 3 of the U.S. Code, paid monthly. The president also gets an additional $50,000 for expenses (non-taxable), a $100,000 travel account and a $19,000 entertainment budget.
That’s chicken feed when compared to what he’s made off his presidency and the people of the US. If you include all the taxpayer money he has used for his gold outings, sports outings, “entertainment” outings, it would appear he has far exceeded his “budget.” But no matter, neither Congress nor Trump’s supporters care. But Trump “giving up his salary” makes them all feel better.
I wonder what the taxpayers have shelled out for salary, travel, lodging and meals (at Mar-a-Lago and other Trump-owned venues) for his Secret Service detail when he goes for a weekend of golf? I would gue$$ million$ at a minimum.
I did a little research to try to find out how much Trump has spent. Disclaimer – research for yourself!! Golfing in his second term has been between $70 and $71 million. EACH trip to Mar-a-lago cost about $3.4 million. Nearly $800,000 has been spent on sporting events. This $800,000 is Secret Service cost alone. It does not include the use of flying Air Force One which is generally about $177,000 per hour. If his present spending habit continues, it is expected that the cost will exceed $300 million over the 4 years. As president he gets $50,000 for expenses (non-taxable), $100,000 in travel, and $19,000 in entertainment, plus his salary, per year. Over 4 years, this would be approximately 2 and a quarter million. Now I’m not a math whiz by any means, so check my math. It seems to me, either way you look at this, he’s made more money “off America” as president, as of today, with his crypto-currency, “gifts” from other countries, grifting America with his Bibles, shoes, watches, suing everyone who disagrees with him or who will not let his bullying influence them, taking Venezuela, now the Iran war, that his president’s salary is nothing to him. He can make his followers believe he is sacrificing for them by not taking the salary, and they can use that to support him and excuse his destruction and corruption, and say what a fine man he is. Not me. I doubt we’ll ever really know just how rich he and his family have become as a result of his deception and corruption. Americans are paying the price.