Bloomberg Discovers Clemency Has a Price, Not When It's Trump's
The story focuses on Eli Weinstein, a man who, after a Trump-granted commutation, reportedly went on to defraud investors again. Bloomberg's piece frames this as a significant cost of presidential clemency (Source: Bloomberg). What the mainstream doesn't often highlight with equal vigor are the literal high price tags on policy decisions made daily in Washington. For instance, the US provided over
$3.8 billion in military aid to Israel in 2023 alone, a figure traceable through public records and State Department reports. This aid, often pushed by lobbying groups like AIPAC, which spent $3.5 million on lobbying in 2023 (OpenSecrets.org), facilitates ongoing military actions yet rarely generates the same 'high price' outrage from corporate media. One might wonder why the financial
consequences of a single fraudster are deemed newsworthy enough for a dedicated piece, while the annual trillions allocated to defense, or the billions in aid to foreign nations—often under the direct influence of powerful lobbying forces—are treated as mere footnotes. Perhaps the 'high price' only becomes truly concerning when it doesn't align with a pre-approved narrative, or when the money
isn't flowing into the military-industrial complex that keeps the media's corporate parents happy. It appears some costs are just more palatable than others.