In front of our eyes

An old vice rears its head over and over in history: Railroad tycoons made millions by getting government subsidies; oil magnates with monopolies made more.

Spreading like a plague, greed sows corruption but in the past, sooner or later, the ship righted itself.

But the story doesn’t end there: As time passed, history repeated itself, greed reared its head again.

So where do we stand these days?

Open the morning newspaper, you read about Corey Lewandowski telling businessmen he’ll give them government contracts – if they’ll pay him; or about Kristi Noem spending $220 million in taxpayers’ money, paying people who worked in her last campaign, to run TV ads with her in them.

Here’s another story: Trump told the mullahs they had 48 hours to re-open the Strait of Hormuz – then, before the deadline, gave them 5 more days. Just before Trump made the second announcement investors piled into the oil future market – made millions. Did they know what Trump was going to say? Was that insider trading? Or a coincidence?

Back in 2016 Trump made Michael Flynn head of the National Security Council; a month passed, Flynn had to resign – pled guilty to misleading FBI agents. But the story doesn’t end there: When Biden was in the White House Flynn sued the Justice Department for $50 million, saying he’d been the victim of ‘political targeting’ – a judge threw out his case.

Flynn waited until Trump was back in the White House, sued again. Trump’s Justice Department paid him $1.25 million. Politics at work? Or justice?

When Biden was president Jack Smith indicted Trump, said he’d kept top secret records at Mar-a-Lago. That sounded like a hoax. Like Biden railroading Trump.

After Trump was reelected the charges were dropped but the case took another twist – investigating Smith, Republicans made the Justice Department give Congress records from his investigation.

After reading those records a congressman, a Democrat, told a reporter they showed Smith indicted Trump because the top-secret documents he kept were tied to his business dealings. Another hoax? Or more corruption?

Greed’s on the loose again, sowing havoc. Will the ship right itself again?

For that to happen we need a blessing: The virtue to stop an old vice – greed.

Do we still have that gift?

No one knows yet…but the answer’s going to play out in front of our eyes.