#embezzlement

Historically Significant Things That Happened on November 5th, 2024

- The 2024 election

France's Marine Le Pen barred from running for public office for 5 years after embezzlement conviction: Media

The leader of France's far-right National Assembly Marine Le Pen has been barred from running for public office for five years after being found guilty of misappropriating EU funds, according to Reuters and French media.

Le Pen, who is widely expected to appeal the conviction, was also given a four-year prison sentence, of which two years will be suspended and two spent wearing an electronic tag.

The decision is set to halt Le Pen's 2027 presidential election hopes and throws her party into disarray after a meteoric rise in popularity in recent years.

So, the Wallstreet Journal reported something rather funny. The Pentagon apparently plans to "redirect" 750 million dollars from the PURL to finance a refill of its own inventories. (Article from Euronews, because the WSJ is a paywalled bitch) Ok, but why do you call it embezzlement, is this another case of basic French anti-americanism ? Well my lovely little hellsiter, you have it backwards.

This shit is what's setting alight my anti-americanism.

For those not in the know : PURL is a program whereby European NATO states put money aside and make it available to Ukraine so they can buy US equipment they need. You're starting to get it already. This money is made available to Ukraine by European states. It is European money. It belongs to the European states. And it's there so that Ukraine can buy what it needs. From the US military industry. The US military is not present in this picture. At all. Not even tangentially.

And now the Pentagon wants to grab 750 millions from that fund, to buy shit for themselves. 750 millions they have no right to.

If you still have trouble visualising, let me paint you a picture. You have a friend, a dear friend, and they're in a really, really shitty situation. You set up something with a supplier you trust, you give the supplier a bunch of money that they can use to cover life-saving purchases your dear friend makes at their store. Fast forward a bit, the supplier has a new boss, and you learn that almost a quarter of the money you set aside for your dear friend is going to be used to refurbish the new boss' office, and your friend will have absolutely fuck all in return.

Do you get it now ? That's what's been proposed.

Now, I know a bunch of you are screaming at your screams that, holy shit, this is theft, and to this I say ! Nuance, my dear, nuance. It's also embezzlement.

And also, it won't happen. Why ? Because US MIC.

Let me paint you another, perhaps even more vivid picture. You are in the room with the congress' committee that liases with the DoD (I'm not calling it the Department of War, get fucked Hegseth). The room is stuffed with a non-negligeable amount of the US MIC's richly sponsored legislative chipendales. Some guy from the Pentagon, most likely one of Hegseth's new hires, which means they are of dubious competence at best, submit this hypothetical : what if Uncle Sam embezzled 750 million dollars from the European NATO allies to refill his ammo reserves ?

And from the back of the room, a well dressed but very disgruntled representative of one armament firm or another, submits a counter-proposal : "Or, get this, what if you and your entire family disappeared without a trace under mysterious circumstances and was never, EVER heard from again, STEVE ?"

I hope you'll forget the slight dramatisation, it was entirely necessary because funny.

Said more seriously, if that happened it would create a precedent. It would allow, by virtue of precedent, the government of the USA to just ... make off with the cash supplied by a foreign state to buy US military equipment. With no compensation. Just ... yoink, get fucked. Do you think many people would buy US weapons ?

Do you think the export dependant US MIC would survive THAT backlash ?

Do you really, honestly think that, for instance, Lockheed Martin, would let that fly ?

(Pun entirely intended, and yes, it had to be Lockheed, it wouldn't land with Boeing)

Something about a BLM Founder (Clyde McLemore) beating a black woman because she accused him of embezzlement only to have her slam him onto the ground with a Black Lives Matter flag draped on the wall.

Every single stereotype encapsulated in one short video.