Bragging About Corruption in Broad Daylight

 

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The "Arkansas Economic Development Commission" hands out taxpayer money to favored business interests. The overall philosophy of the commission can be taken from their own about page where they describe Arkansas as a place where we have "a streamlined state government designed to act on corporate interests quickly and decisively." I haven't noticed the same amount of responsiveness towards us everyday flesh and blood citizens. 

So it appears that this state commission which hands out taxpayer dollars has an executive director who gets a big bonus every year from a private group. Hey, what do you call it when a state official gets money from private interests for doing their job a certain way? Everywhere else on this planet, it is called a bribe. Usually, it is done in secret. In Arkansas, it is called a "performance bonus" and it is done in broad daylight. They brag about it like it is something good for the state. 

Would there be, after maybe one or two degrees of separation, a connection between the people who fund this "Economic Development Foundation" and those who benefit from the taxpayer funded largess of the Commission? You can bet on it. If we had an actual media in this state with real investigative journalists instead of frauds who are only there to parrot and defend the establishment's looting, you would already know about these connections, because the media would be talking about it. 

Instead, they, including Michael Wickline who wrote this bit, are hip-deep in this effort to con the public into accepting this open bribery of public officials as normal behavior. Then, to add insult to injury, Wickline attacks independent forces that are trying to clean up state government, like Conduit for Action and Bryan King. Not only will pseudo-journalists like Wickline refuse to do their job, they actually attack others who try to do what they are supposed to be doing.

Remember Moore's Media Maxim: The establishment media does not exist to inform the public. The establishment media exists to protect the establishment.