Pandora Papers A secret report has come out detailing how many of the politicians and powerful people in the world were keeping the fact secret they were incredibly rich and making all sorts of deals. Is that really a surprise to anyone? Many of them use offshore companies to hide their dealings. While others in their countries are saddled with heavy taxes, they have to pay many of their leaders, their leaders are telling everyone they have to pay their fair share, while they avoid much if not all of the taxation on their dealings. That seems to be the common dominator no matter where they are from. This seems to me to prove the fact a lot of these people are all sort of in the same club. In other words, they probably all know what the others are doing and might even cooperate with some of the others. Take the king of Jordan for example. The leaked report states his advisors helped him set up something like 36 shell companies. It goes on to say he purchased 106 million dollars’ worth of homes, fourteen in number. One was a property in California worth 23 million dollars. His own brother had accused him, according to CNBC, of a ruling system of corruption and incompetence. Wow I bet they don’t go out to ball games together. It’s just one person after another. The documents have gained the name the Pandora Documents. The leaked documents claimed there were hundreds of the elite, politicians and powerful. Putin is said to have become very rich with his dealings. It was said 330 former and present politicians were identified after a review of the giant leak of 12 million documents were reviewed. While you and I try and do the right thing, these people are skirting the law of their lands. Do not think the same thing isn’t going on with our elite, powerful people and politicians. Just look at the congress and try and figure out how many of our senators and representatives got to be so rich from their salaries? It doesn’t make sense. There is a group of stock traders who only invest in whatever stocks Nancy Pelosi buys and they are doing quite well. You might ask how could they know what she buys? Thirty days after the purchase it becomes a public record according to a news report. The family has become so successful in their stock picks some are saying they are now in the investing spotlight. Before 2012 insider trader laws didn’t apply to congress. Wouldn’t it be interesting if the congress was investigated for insider trading, I wonder if the investigation was on the level how many they would catch breaking the law? Moving over to the senate, Mitch McConnell. His wealth is said to be about 35 million dollars. He has been in government for 35 years. He is the 7th richest man in the senate. When the senators are required to fill out a questionnaire about their wealth, they check off boxes which have ranges of money on them. For example, McConnell checked off 13.42 million dollars to 54.56 million dollars. It is said most of his money comes from his wife’s side who has shipping deals with China. This is interesting because Pelosi’s husband was said by Forbes to have been able to make 5.3 million dollars from Alphabet Options a week before a House panel considered antitrust bills. Alphabet is a Chinese company. Forbes said they didn’t think there was anything improper about the trade. While some of the senators are very rich, it is also true some of them made their money before being elected. The richest in order are: Mitt Romney, Mark Warner, Rick Scott, Dianne Feinstein, Richard Blumenthal, James E. Risch, John Hoeven, Ron Johnson, Mitch McConnell and Rob Portman. Notice Mitch McConnell is number 9 on this list from Investopedia. I believe one of the problems we have is our representatives are too rich to represent the common folk. What I mean by this is they don’t know how it feels to try and scrape along. How could a congress where the majority are millionaires have personal knowledge of our problems? Sure, we might get lip service, but who cares about that? Socialist countries are thought to be the ideal for many in this country but how would they feel if they knew the truth? CNBC came out with an article which had the headline, China’s parliament has about 100 billionaires, according to data from the Hurun Report. Knowing this, would any really think they are in the government to help the common people? Of course not, they are there to help themselves. Not only that, how can a communist country which is predicated on the policy of distributing wealth have billionaires in the first place? People should realize no matter what politicians say, many are really just out for themselves no matter what type of government there is. The Guardian reported Putin has become rich through shell companies also, as did his cronies and an alleged mistress who is said to now be worth 100 million dollars. Monaco is the spot where these Russians like to go and is now being called Moscow-on-the-Sea. We have to remember things in Russia are not great for the average person, but this doesn’t stop their leaders from becoming super rich. If we ask the question how much is super rich, we just have to look at an associate of Putin’s who is said to be worth 22 billion dollars. As far as Putin himself goes, Alexei Navainy, the Russian opposition leader has referred to him as the world’s richest man. Some of the other names in the report were the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Andrej Babis, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso and about 325 more. The more than 330 current and former politicians identified as beneficiaries of the secret accounts include Jordan’s King Abdullah II, former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, Czech Republic Prime Minister Andrej Babis, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso, and former associates of both Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Some popular places for offshore accounts are said to be the British Virgin Islands, Seychelles, Hong Kong, and Belize, among others. What does all this indicate to me? I know it is wishful thinking but a close eye should be kept on our law makers and if they do anything against the law, they should be punished just like anyone else would be for the same crime. We need a watchdog organization to watch our legislators. It is a sad fact of life, but a true one. The point being no one should be allowed to enrich him or her self at the expense of the people by breaking laws. It is high time we put a stop to it. Corruption is killing the world and killing our country. When the country was founded, it was all for the people, today it is said the countries of the world are for the rich and powerful. While there are some politicians trying to do the right thing, far too many only think of themselves.
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