Thursday 8th of October 2026
Home » Blogs » Gus Leonisky's blog

the grey zone of political arm twisting.....

Australia's former ambassador to the United States, Joe Hockey, has issued a damning indictment of the US political system on 7.30.

Asked if corruption had been allowed to "flourish" in Washington DC, he said: "Yeah, there's no doubt."

"It's a very grey line here in Washington DC between proper government processes and corruption," Mr Hockey said.

"From my own experience of 20 years in Australian politics … Australia has essentially a corruption-free government … [but] here in the United States, there is a high degree of greyness between government and personal enrichment.

"That applies as much in the Congress, with the share trading of senators and congressmen, as it does within parts of the administration."

Mr Hockey said corruption had become worse and "more apparent" over the past two years, during which time Mr Trump has been in office.

"I can't point to a single act of corrupt behaviour, but various parts of the US government are very forward-leaning in their partnerships with the private sector," he said.

"As long as that's transparent, it's fine, but there seems to be a lot of activity that goes beyond that."

Mr Trump's own financial disclosure, released in June, revealed the president made $US1.4 billion ($2 billion) from several cryptocurrency ventures in the past year.

Mr Trump has recently denied any corrupt dealings while in office and said he donated his salary from his first term as president.

His administration has repeatedly denied corruption allegations.

Mr Hockey, who is president of advisory and investment firm Bondi Partners, said other US actions abroad — including in Venezuela, where US forces captured then-president Nicolás Maduro and jailed him in New York — seemed to be "too close to the everyday administration".

In August, Mr Trump said the US had struck a deal with the South American nation to "control" more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil.

"There's interesting behaviour more generally when it comes to promoting America's interests in other countries," Mr Hockey said.

"There's just too much of a blurred line between the financial interests of various administrators, including the Congress and the private sector."

Mr Hockey said one solution to any issues related to corruption could be the greater scrutiny that would come if the Democrats retook control of the House of Represenatives at the upcoming midterm elections.

That scenario appears to be becoming more likely based on Mr Trump's flagging approval rating.

The latest six-day Reuters/Ipsos poll put his approval rating at 32 per cent, as Americans struggled with high cost of living and spiking petrol prices, as a result of the Iran War.

There's no doubt there will be certain issues where it will be very uncomfortable for Donald Trump over the next two years, including a higher level of scrutiny and accountability around behaviours by members of the administration and also, members of the wider family and friend group of key people in the administration," Mr Hockey said.

"There needs to be that level of scrutiny here in Washington DC.

"I think it's good for America to have that proper accountability, which has been lacking over the last two years."

Has Trump 'diminished' America?

While Mr Hockey attacked what he termed the "grey line" he said he believed that "overall, American politics is transparent and accountable" and that Mr Trump has frequently been subjected to "extraordinary scrutiny".

That scrutiny has extended more recently to America's decision to be involved with Israel in taking military action against Iran.

That war has caused global shipping lanes to halt and oil prices to rise as Iran has restricted passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

Mr Hockey said he believed someone had to eventually take action on Iran, that it was Mr Trump surprised him.

"Sooner or later, someone had to make some hard decisions about Iran," he said.

"The least likely president to do so was, was the one that did it.

"Donald Trump doesn't like war and I think one thing that is holding him back on Iran is that he just does not want to see young American soldiers in body bags."

Halfway through his second term, it seems obvious to Mr Hockey that the US president is focused on cementing his own legacy but he said what that legacy would be remained up for debate.

"There's no doubt Donald Trump is the most powerful and influential figure in American politics over the last hundred years," Mr Hockey said.

"Some of the initiatives that he has put in place are game changers that have strengthened America, but history will also judge that there have been some initiatives that have diminished America.

"One of them is tariffs and quotas, and the weaponisation of tariffs against not just enemies but … against allies."

The 'crazy' world of government debt

Having acknowledged cost of living is a problem in the US, the former Abbott government treasurer also spoke about economic conditions and called for governments worldwide to curb their spending.

"There is no doubt that governments around the world are running out of money. They continue to borrow and spend. There is no handbrake whether it be in Australia, the United States or Europe," Mr Hockey said.

"Sooner or later, it is going to end in tears.

"We are going to see a fall in our quality of life and our standard of living because governments everywhere haven't been able to pull back on their populist spending."

In August, US government debt surged past the $US40 trillion threshold for the first time — more than doubling in the past 10 years, reflecting heavy spending under the Trump and Biden administrations.

Asked how that might impact Australia, Mr Hockey said it would present "significant challenges" for the nation when it came to debt.

"No governments pay off the principal," he said.

"They just keep accruing more and more debt and more and more interest.

"This year, you know, the interest bill on Australian government debt is going to be $30 billion. That's about the same the government spends on school education.

"In the United States, the interest bill on their debt is nearly the same as what they spend on defence.

"It's crazy and it's unsustainable."

Watch 7.30, Mondays to Thursdays 7:30pm on ABC iview and ABC TV

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-07/hockey-calls-out-us-corruption-during-trump-second-presidency/107237782

 

PLEASE VISIT:

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

         RABID ATHEIST.

         WELCOME TO THIS INSANE WORLD….

swinging fists....

 

It's neither a joke nor fake news but a real report from earlier this week: Donald Trump has backed down. On Monday, the US president announced that a series of advertisements aired in September promoting him and his administration would no longer be funded with taxpayer money. 

"The radical Left is upset with the fact that I am taking ads, which I consider to be a positive promotion for our great USA, and paying for them with USA money," Trump wrote on his platform Truth Social. 

He went on to claim that funding partisan ads with public money was a "rather standard thing to do," before adding that future ads would be paid with money raised from donations.

The ads themselves have caused some controversy in the United States. They ran in September between popular shows such as Saturday Night Live and football games, marked with the line: "paid for by the US government" — that is, paid with tax dollars.

The commercials showed scenes such as when US troops captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro earlier this year but they mostly consisted of images and videos of Trump himself, along with combative messages that he would "expel the warmongers" or "throw off the sick political class," and ensure that the US did not become a communist state. 

Why Europe's far right is turning away from Trump Public funds for personal praise

Political opponents and a series of NGOs responded to the campaign with sharp criticism. Not only does US law prohibit the use of taypayer funds for political advertisements, but the ads also appeared shortly before the midterms — elections held near the midpoint of a president's four-year term. 

On Tuesday, the US broadcasting network CBS reported that, according to contracting records, the US Department of Homeland Security had paid an agency $20 million (€17.9 million) for a "national media campaign."

The "rather standard" practice that Trump referred to actually applies to public service announcements, but this is not what the campaign ads are, argued the US non-profit consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.

"Federal law explicitly prohibits using appropriated public funds for government propaganda, self-aggrandizement, or partisan political advertising," the organization wrote in a public complaint to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ."Yet, that is exactly the nature of Trump's recent campaign ads."

Independent experts have also voiced concerns. Patrick Malone, a professor in the department of Public Administration and Policy at American University in Washington DC, said the timing of the videos was problematic. 

"You're not supposed to use taxpayer dollars to pay for anything that's campaign-related," he told DW. "Technically, [Trump] is not campaigning. He's not saying 'Vote for me!' The thing that's created the challenge here is the timing. Weeks before the midterms, this is a real big issue."

Will the Republicans keep their majority after midterms? 

Voters do not choose presidents in the midterm elections but members of Congres, which comprises the Senate and the House of Representatives and is the legislative branch of the federal government. On November 3, those eligible to vote will cast their ballots for all the seats in the House of Representatives, and roughly a third of the seats in the Senate. Some states will also be choosing governors. 

Republicans have not been faring well in recent polls, which may be why Trump has been trying to promote his party's achievements. The Republicans currently hold a majority in both houses, with 53 of 100 seats in the Senate, and 219 of 435 seats in the House of Representatives. This has enabled Trump to pass a large number of his proposals fairly easily. 

But a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Monday indicates that this could soon change. "Voters age 50 or older preferred Trump's party over the Democratic Party by just 2 percentage points — 44% to 42% — compared to an 8-point Republican advantage in December," it found. This age bracket "is particularly important for midterm elections, when older Americans historically have made up large shares of the electorate."

Meanwhile, among voters under the age of 50, "Democrats led by 18 points," the survey showed.  

The poll also found that opinions on Trump himself were low, with "32% of Americans giving a thumbs up to Trump's presidency." This level of approval, the study highlighted, was unchanged from an earlier poll "that saw the leader's rating at the lowest of his political career."

 Republicans shy away from Trump's support

This could also be one of the reasons why Republican candidates do not seem so keen on making public appearances with the president, usually a highlight of a campaign trail. 

Many US citizens associate Trump with high living costs, or the war with Iran, which has dragged on for over half a year now.

One Republican operative told the news website Politico on condition of anonymity that if the the president were to visit a battleground state — where Democratic and Republican support is fairly equal among voters — to campaign for his party, they suspected their "candidates would come down with COVID" to avoid having to attend. 

In September, a number of Republicans skipped Trump's big party convention — typically reserved for presidential, not midterm elections — even though the event could have offered them a platform for their campaign.

Susan Collins from Maine and Dan Sullivan from Alaska, are just two examples of Republican senators whose seats are on the line and who did not attend. Neither did candidates for the House of Representatives from the swing states Arizona, Iowa and Michigan.

Trump promises $5,000 payout if Republicans win

Those who skipped the event missed the president repeating an unusual campaign message: To encourage more people to vote, Trump urged supporters to "pretend" he was on the ballot. 

And if that wasn't enough, he also promised each US citizen eligible to vote a $5,000 payout if Republicans maintained their majority in both houses of Congress.

Keeping that pledge could cost the federal government over $1.2 trillion, but observers doubt it would ever come to that.

"He has no money to do that with. It would have to be authorized and appropriated by Congress," Mallone explained. "I think the likelihood is very slim," he added. "It's one of those things like 'Mexico is going to pay for the wall.'"

Whether Trump's commercials or promised payouts will be enough to rally majority Republican support remains to be seen.

This article was originally published in German.

 

https://www.dw.com/en/as-us-midterm-elections-loom-trumps-campaign-tactics-are-becoming-increasingly-unusual-and-expensive/a-79585673

 

a house.....

SEARCHIN' AI GOOGLE....

The phrase "yourdemocracy" joe hockey house likely refers to historical discussions or archived blog posts hosted on the old Australian political forum YourDemocracy.net.au, centered around former Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey's controversial travel allowance claims on his Canberra home. [1, 2]

 

  • The Ownership: The heritage-listed property, located at 25 Furneaux Street, Forrest in Canberra, was purchased by Joe Hockey’s wife, Melissa Babbage, in 1997 for $320,000. [1, 2]
  • The Allowance Claim: Because the house was legally registered in his wife's name, Hockey claimed a taxpayer-funded, away-from-home travel allowance of roughly $270 per night whenever he stayed there during parliamentary sitting weeks. This allowed him to legally claim over $100,000 in taxpayer funds to effectively "rent" the property from his spouse. [1, 2]
  • The "Frat House" Reputation: The home became famous in political circles as a makeshift bachelor pad shared by other prominent Liberal MPs over the years, including Brendan Nelson, Jamie Briggs, and Bob Baldwin. It was also famously featured on an episode of the ABC's Kitchen Cabinet program. [1]
 The house was eventually sold at auction in April 2016 for $1.515 million, netting the couple a profit of more than $1 million. The controversy was a frequent point of online criticism on alternative political commentary sites like YourDemocracy, particularly following Hockey's public remarks advising aspiring homeowners that they just needed to "get a good job that pays good money" to afford a home in Sydney.  

READ FROM TOP.

PLEASE VISIT:

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

         RABID ATHEIST.

         WELCOME TO THIS INSANE WORLD….