The Atlantic Current, Ep. 42: Corruption In A PornHub World
On corruption, electoral errors, the Irish language, and a very strange description of the modern world
A Cabinet Secretary’s road trip — and his wife’s bizarre rationalization — highlights the space created for corruption in the U.S., though Tull and Vince debate what, precisely, is going on at the top of the Administration. Meanwhile, Sinn Féin makes yet another misstep, while Tull highlights the importance and reach of the rebounding Irish native language.
Episode Links:
Donald Trump’s Pardon Economy
Last week, the New Yorker covered what it called “Donald Trump’s Pardon Economy”. It’s a riveting (and often infuriating) piece that opens with an anecdote that reflects the arguments Tull and Vince each made on the pod.
The article opens with a scene from Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice in 2010. In the scene, Trump “fires” (we’ll use Vince’s favorite air quotes there) Rod Blagojevich, at the time the former governor of Illinois. Blagojevich was set to face trial for corruption himself; he was accused of trying to sell the Senate seat that Barack Obama vacated when he became president.
Blagojevich was convicted, and sentenced to fourteen years in prison. In February 2020, Trump commuted Blagojevich’s sentence (in other words, the former governor was allowed to leave prison). In February of last year, Trump gave Blagojevich a full pardon.
In one sense, this supports Vince’s argument that Trump’s motivations behind pardons often seem more personal than corrupt, or even political. Blagojevich was a Democrat. He was from a state that Trump has often criticized (and never come close to winning). But Trump knew him from television, and with the help of some celebrity supporters, that seemed to be enough.
On the other hand, as the article details, Blagojevich himself joined the circle of seeming corruption that permeates this administration. He, incredibly, has become a lobbyist for pardons, receiving $230,000 from one client alone. So many questions follow. Does Trump know about this? Does he care? And does his knowledge even matter — or is his own decision-making process so malleable that corruption has to follow him because the money can simply get so much done?
Update, Ep. 6: January 6 And The Aftermath
In the episode on January 6 (released on January 6, of course), Vince and Tull went through one of the darkest days in American history — and its aftermath. That aftermath, including the improbable return of Donald Trump to the Presidency, included a cowed group of Republican legislators. To highlight the point, Vince discussed the case of Bill Cassidy, a Republican senator from Louisiana.
Cassidy is a medical doctor who has been a lifelong advocate for vaccination programs. But when Trump nominated Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a noted vaccine skeptic, as Secretary of Health and Human Services, Cassidy became the deciding vote. As Vince noted in the episode, Cassidy was left with a choice: confirm someone whose entire career defied his own principles, or risk being primaried.
Cassidy voted to confirm — but got primaried anyway. And, as the New York Times noted in a long feature this week, he is at serious risk of losing. Two challengers, one of whom was indeed endorsed by Trump, lead him in the polling. As James Carville, a native son of Louisiana and an architect of Bill Clinton’s successful presidential campaigns, put it, “Bill Cassidy sold his soul to the Devil, and he didn’t get anything for it.”
The author, novelist (and Louisiana resident) Gary Sernovitz, seems to take Cassidy’s side. He writes:
The tragedy of Bill Cassidy is that he is as close as we have to the nation’s most powerful doctor and the point he was willing to compromise on — the point at which many looked to him to first, do no harm — gave him no political benefit at all. It may even help cost him his national role.
From here, however, the tragedy is that Bill Cassidy was willing to compromise at all. As Tull pointed out in the episode, the Hippocratic Oath exists in the United States as well.
Episode Links:
The Extermination of the Irish Language
On the pod, Vince wondered if the word “extermination” was too stringent for what happened to the Irish language under British rule. Tull did not — with good reason:
Here’s another map showing current use of Irish (or Gaelige) across the country (our apologies; we don’t have sources for either despite best efforts to find them):
For non-Irish listeners, Ireland does have government-recognized regions, known as Gaeltachts, where Irish "is, or was until recently, the primary spoken language of the majority of the community”. At the 2016 census, the total population of these regions was just over 96,000, or just over 2% of the country’s total population of 4.7 million.
Update, Ep. 31: Oh, Sh--, Tull Was Right
Tull and Vince have been beating the drum on higher-for-longer crude oil prices since essentially the start of the war in Iran. And they discussed the problems facing the industry at length in Episode 31:
Vince has pointed to the recent history of American oil producers in particular as a reason why drilling will not increase (and bring prices back down as a result). (A longer explanation is embedded in the episode notes for Episode 39.)
This week, we unfortunately got more confirmation of the bearish thesis. Per Reuters, the head of Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, believes normalcy in the oil market isn’t likely until 2027 at the earliest. The company’s chief executive officer, Amin Nasser, noted that “the longer the supply disruption continue, even for another few more weeks, it is going to take a much longer time for the oil market to rebalance and stabilize.”
And with the Iran/US/Israel conflict at an apparent stalemate, “another few more weeks” seems likely. As Tull keeps saying, we still have a long way to go here.
Vince’s Money Quotes
On Sean Duffy’s explanation for why the road trip didn’t interfere with work:
I thought it was very funny he said it was either on weekends or during the kids’ school breaks. I don’t think we’re real worried that your kids are missing school. I don’t think that’s really where the outrage is coming from. I’m pretty sure your kids’ school breaks don’t line up with cabinet secretary breaks.
On the case that Trump isn’t necessarily corrupt, but rather just believes what people tell him:
I think the reason [Trump gives out these pardons] is somebody got in his ear and told him that it was unfair and in particular told him that this person had been prosecuted by Biden. That to me seems much more the recurring theme of these pardons.
Tull’s Money Quotes
On the funding behind the Great American Road Trip:
I’m surprised to see the big names like Toyota and Google and other European-friendly countries there and they’re kind of like saying, “Yeah, this is okay. This is how we’re doing business in the United States. A wink and a nudge, a nod, a tip of the cap.”
On the epic corruption that seems to swirl around Donald Trump:
If this was in Europe — and granted, we’re communists and terrible liberals and all that jazz — he would have been impeached two months into his office. You know, he would have been hauled into court. If he was in Russia, would have been thrown out a window.