Having left off at #1— Former Illinois Governor (D) Rod Blagojevich in the previous blog-post, I will pickup at the next section now. Thank you all for your patience and understanding with my deceased mother who suffered from Early Alzheimer’s Disease and her daily care during those last weeks. Meanwhile, her affairs have limited my free-time to blog, but are now receding as my wife and I return to a more normal life together. Without further adieu I pick up where I left off in October 2025…
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Just how pervasive is corrupt money in our 21st-century U.S. politics? It is much worse than you might imagine. Let’s take a close look at Ohio’s political corruption between 2017–2020.
#2 – Borges, Householder, Clark, Cespedes, Longstreth, & FirstEnergy Corp.
U.S. Federal Marshals cuffed up conservative politician Matt Borges, the former chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, soon after being arrested for the largest corruption scandal in Ohio’s history. A day earlier a U.S. District Judge dealt out to Ohio House Speaker, Larry Householder, a 20-year sentence for organizing the scheme known as the FirstEnergy Corp. and Ohio utilities scandal or HB-6 scandal. Using FirstEnergy Corp. they funneled $38-million into dark money groups, i.e. anonymous, secret Super PAC’s, that funded Republican election campaigns and legislation. In other words, bribes. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Singer who prosecuted the racketeering conspiracy further said, “It’s interesting that some people are piling on (Householder) after the fact,” he said. “So many knew what was happening in real time and did nothing about it. Not only did they do nothing about it, they helped facilitate it.”
It is worthy to note that this one scandal in Ohio’s Congress and the dark money corporations funding legislatures while company CEOs, CFOs, etc., take kickbacks from “favorable” state laws, is a nationwide problem reaching an epidemic far worse than it was in the Gilded Age of the 1800’s.
Neil Clark was an Ohio political lobbyist and a mule, for lack of a better word, a broker for hyper-wealthy donors, corporations, and executives, and their state legislative counter-parts. Clark was more than willing to commit illegal bribes, payoffs, buy legislation, or give kickbacks if it meant “everyone” wins and everyone gets filthy rich (see above image of Chuck Jones and Michael Dowling). But Clark was facing charges of major federal crimes and briberies investigated by the FBI. Days later Clark was found dead by suicide March 15, 2021, by the Collier County Sheriff’s department wearing a “DeWine for Governor” t-shirt.
Ohio Governor, Mike DeWine, was never indicted of illegal activity in the scandal, however, he was heavily associated with FirstEnergy’s scandal through shady relationships and secret backroom deals. The Ohio Capitol Journal writes about DeWine’s political-corporate relationships as “Big Money, Big Favors” in an April 2024 article found here. He and Neil Clark met frequently during election campaigns and specific legislative bills. Clark apparently had lost control and saw no way out (see image below).
Why does someone take their own life? To escape punishment and shame? What did Neil Clark leave behind after his suicide? Well, as a matter of fact Clark’s memoir, “What Do I Know? I’m Just A Lobbyist,” sheds light on Ohio corruption and the events leading to his suicide. Consider another similar situation with no way out that ended the same for another rich, powerful man. It’s the question equally valid being asked today, Why did the two guards on duty fall asleep that night and did not check on Jeffrey Epstein at regular intervals? Why did Jeffrey Epstein kill himself in jail and why were the two surveillance cameras in his cell the night of August 9th, 2019, malfunctioning? Lots of “coincidences” and similarities between Clark and Epstein falling perfectly in line on one single night.
In his memoirs Neil Clark writes that he had a slew of ugly nicknames like “Prince of Darkness” and “Prick” to name just two. Is it a coincidence that Clark was proud of his deep Sicilian background? He goes on to write:
“I was willing to push the envelope, bend the rules, play unfair and make sure anyone who got in my way received disproportionate punishment.”
— Neil Clark, Conservative Ohio Lobbyist Memoirs
The FBI had many phone taps and body wires/mics recording Clark and his lobbying tactics that he arrogantly, brazenly boasted about freely in wealthy Columbus, Ohio restaurant meetings with government clients or potential slush-fund clients:
“Every politician’s got to have somebody that is the “hitman.” Everybody’s got to have that person that will go out there and do the dirty shit.”
— Neil Clark, Conservative Ohio Lobbyist Memoirs
Neil Clark was swept up into unlimited money-waves where he could no longer recognize what was Constitutional (right) and what was Un-Constitutional (wrong and very illegal) nor how egregiously he was breaking the laws. But like a gambling addict, he didn’t care. Clark power-brokered Super PACs that soon made the highly controversial Pro-choice or Anti-abortion acts in Ohio by unprecedented, small wealthy minority groups—i.e. abortions were now illegal in Ohio even if the mother’s life was at serious risk of death—get passed into law. As a result, the untempered colossal amounts of slush money bought off those Ohio legislators ushering in the state laws whether the majority of Ohioans wanted them or not. How did this happen against the Ohio majority that didn’t want abortions banned?
Simple. It was the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United vs. FEC landmark decision to allow mega-wealthy American corporations to spend unlimited amounts of political money in anonymous donations to special interest campaigns and government officials, most often through a power-broker like Neil Clark. That SCOTUS decision January 21, 2010, threw open the flood-gates for rampant, massive, unfettered, indirect government and corporate corruption schemes and they did not care about The People’s democracy, voice, or votes. Worse still SCOTUS suggested to Americans that these limitless amounts of money donations would be transparent for public viewing. Unfortunately for the ordinary American voter, that did not happen. Enter stage Right the IRC 501(c)(4) organizations.
Unlike 501(c)(3)’s, 501(c)(4)’s have no limits on how much money is donated for “social welfare organizations and the organization’s purposes” of massive political money bags and “must be intended to benefit a community or the public at large, not a private group.” Yet again, this did not happen. It happened only for very small interest groups and mega-wealthy individuals, all of whom in the minority of public opinion. Worse still is that these millions and billions of donated dollars are totally anonymous, or dark. Untraceable for the most part. And this secrecy is deliberately intentional, to cover up corrupt motives and/or ideologies and their backroom activities. Neil Clark was so swept up into the power-funding that when he was being caught red-handed, it cost him his mental health and life.
Juan Cespedes, a Columbus-area lobbyist like Neil Clark, was part of the HB-6 bribery scandal with Borges, Householder, Jeffrey Longstreth, another corrupt Ohio lobbyist, and Neil Clark. They all used dark money briberies and “anonymous” donations to build up Householder’s political power in Ohio’s Congress while also enriching their own private lives. National Public Radio (NPR) reported in July 2021:
Longstreth and Cespedes pleaded guilty to racketeering in October 2020. Generation Now pleaded guilty in February to one count of participating in a more than $60 million racketeering conspiracy.
Before his death in March, Clark pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing. Borges also pleaded not guilty to charges and continues to dispute the allegations against him.
Following revelations that alleged House Bill 6 passed using bribery and other illegal means, lawmakers worked to repeal two major pieces of the legislation. A separate bill removed the more than $1 billion financial bailout.
In June of [2021], the Ohio House expelled Householder from the state legislature.
Jeffrey Longstreth was the other power-broker in the Ohio FirstEnergy Corp. and HB-6 scandal. Along with Cespedes they pleaded guilty to participating in a racketeering conspiracy involving more than $60-million paid to again, a 501(c)(4) entity (that Citizens United and SCOTUS allowed) to pass and uphold a billion-dollar nuclear plant bailout. Indicted by a federal grand jury in July 2020 they were all charged with confiscated documents alleging Larry Householder, of Glenford, Ohio, Matthew Borges, of Bexley, Ohio, Neil Clark, of Columbus, Jeffrey Longstreth and Juan Cespesdes of whom conspired to violate the racketeering statute through honest services wire fraud, receipt of millions of dollars in bribes and money laundering. The 501(c)(4) entity Generation Now was also charged. According to the U.S. Attorneys Office of the Southern District of Ohio’s website:
“The defendants [Cespedes and Longstreth] then also allegedly worked to corruptly ensure that HB 6 went into effect by defeating a ballot initiative to overturn the legislation. The Enterprise received nearly $61 million into Generation Now from an energy company and its affiliates during the relevant period.
In his plea, Longstreth admits to organizing Generation Now for Householder, knowing the entity would be used to receive bribe money to further Householder’s bid for Speaker of the House. Longstreth managed Generation Now bank accounts and engaged in financial transactions designed to conceal that the energy company was a source of funding to Generation Now.”
Cespedes and Longstreth both made plea deals to avoid prison in return for cooperation with prosecutors and federal government investigators.
Tragically for 20th and 21st-century U.S. state and federal lobbyists, the politics and government puppets controlled or bought by mega-wealthy corporations and their executives, no thanks to Citizens United, and the rampant immorality, dark money, and depraved ethics… doesn’t stop in Ohio. This cancer, if you will, has reached even the highest court in the land: the U.S. Supreme Court bench.
#3 – Clarence Thomas and Brett Cavanaugh
It is an often employed legal-political defense tactic by attorneys and their wealthy, powerful male clients caught in, or accused of degrees of sexual misconduct, to assault, or to raping a woman. The tactic? It is to humiliate, to marginalize, to demean, or to verbally assault the character of a female victim or victims. The current Jeffrey Epstein files, Epstein and Maxwell’s illicit illegal sex-trafficking and pedophile crime-ring, and the cover-up and/or divert facts and events that allow very powerful men (such as President Trump) to repeatedly escape prison sentences and convictions. Blame the victim and rip up the (absent? indifferent? mentally-ill?) parents because big-money buys unaccountability and avoids real justice, especially for the victim(s), family, and close friends. There are two prime examples of this defense tactic: Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh.
The date is October 6, 1991 and soon after conservative lawyer Clarence Thomas’ nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court by then President George H.W. Bush – (R), debate proceedings were to take a sordid, ugly turn.
Anita Hill, of Oklahoma and a graduate of Oklahoma State University (Bachelor’s Science) and Yale University (Doctorate of Law) and later admitted to the District of Columbia Bar in 1980, Hill had a successful law career to look forward to and the opportunities to go far in the U.S. Justice courts. She had everything ahead of her and as a result had no ulterior motives to risk that bright future. None at all. Why do that?
But Hill was subpoenaed by Congress to testify publicly in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing regarding her FBI interview about sexual harassment done to her by Clarence Thomas, also of Yale University, and her supervisor at the Department of Education and the EEOC.
Hill endured over 8-hours of grueling questions by an all white-male judiciary committee, some of which were ridiculous and not relevant to the accusations at hand on Clarence Thomas’ misconduct. The October 1991 Thomas scandal turned out not to be about the details of his behavior, but the real scandal was all the evidence that America did not get to hear and witness. Why not? The Senate judiciary committee—again all white males—worked to change and to redirect the conversation away from the character and background of Clarence Thomas, a potential justice in our land’s highest court. Instead, the committee made it about the victim. The hearing devolved into a he-said-she-said spat or squabble. Americans watching didn’t know what was true and what was fabricated. And keep in mind, Senator Joe Biden (D) was the chairman of that hearing.
For the sake of argument, if it were only one woman bringing the accusations against Clarence Thomas, then perhaps it was a bad misunderstanding, a squabble between coworkers. That is the oversimplified view that can overlook human errors, as is often done with powerful men and the American public soon loses interest and forgives and forgets any wrong-doing. After all, Americans have a long, long history of romancing our famous or infamous bad boys and/or girls, almost a weird love-hate affair for deviant bad boys and girls like Bonny and Clyde, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, or Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid to name three duos. But that was not the case with Clarence Thomas.
When at least two other women (and perhaps more) corroborate and support Anita Hill’s testimony of Clarence Thomas, that is different than one woman; very different. And after the televised treatment of Anita Hill by the Senate Judiciary Committee to the nation, any other corroborating women with similar stories of Thomas’ sexual misconduct at work in 1991 would understandably think twice and fear for their public image and careers. Furthermore, it begs the question again, Why would Anita Hill risk all in doing this alone publicly and also damaging her reputation in the field of law as a successful lawyer? What did she have to gain other than her conscience, that felt it her duty to the American people to testify about Clarence Thomas’ integrity, character, and inappropriate sexism against women in the workplace?
Notably the other women were Angela Wright, Sukari Hardnett, Rose Jourdain, and Moira Smith, perhaps others who were too afraid to risk all from a pro-misogynist Senate Judiciary Committee in front of the world. This alleged behavior of Thomas indicates or suggests a trend of sexual misconduct that goes unreported, and maybe unpunished, repeatedly, but also not examined or investigated by authorities. If anything, this clearly shows very questionable patterns in Thomas’ views or beliefs about women, particularly a certain type of woman (not all women) that tempt or drive Clarence Thomas to inappropriate, unprofessional words, innuendos, and actions in secret without possible witnesses. Otherwise, Clarence Thomas wouldn’t have multiple women in his past accusing him of rude, vile, sexual misconduct in the workplace. If he were beyond reproach, there would be no women coming forward risking their public image, careers, and dignity in front of the nation.
What has America learned from the Anita Hill vs. Clarence Thomas hearings? As Cornell University grad, Harvard Law School grad, and University of Wisconsin Law School, Kimberlé W. Crenshaw states, “Very little,” and we certainly haven’t progressed enough in stopping the abuse of women and holding abusers accountable as she writes in her report on Civil Rights and Discriminations against women entitled, “We Still Have Not Learned from Anita Hill’s Testimony.”
Why haven’t we learned something? Continue reading.
Brett Kavanaugh was nominated to the Supreme Court bench on July 9, 2018, by then first-term President Donald Trump. Almost as if the American people were reliving the interrogation and spectacle that was the 1991 Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearings from Anita Hill vs. Clarence Thomas, once again another associate justice nominee seemed to have a checkered past with women, Brett Kavanaugh.
The question once again, as it was 27-years ago with Clarence Thomas, was about Cavanaugh’s past behavior, ‘is there more than one woman accusing Cavanaugh of sexual assault or misconduct unbecoming of a Supreme Court justice?‘ And once again there was more than just one woman; there was at least three other women, perhaps more.
Christine Blasey Ford stated to the Senate Judiciary Committee during Kavanaugh’s nomination hearings in September 2018 that a very drunk Brett Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her in the summer of 1982, along with Brett’s friend Mark Judge watching, at a party in Bethesda, Maryland, and had “corralled” her in a closed bedroom at the house pinning her on the bed, groped her, and tried to remove her clothes. But both Kavanaugh and Judge were too drunk to rape her and she escaped. It is interesting to note that Judge, today a journalist and author, suffered from alcoholism growing up in the D.C. suburbs, recovered from alcohol abuse and later wrote about that rehab and recovery in his book, Wasted: Tales of a GenX Drunk. The Washington Post did a 7-minute fact-checking video that determined Brett Kavanaugh’s veracity about the questions the Senate Judiciary Committee asked him under oath and his rebuttals of Ford’s testimony with regard to the other three accusers named. The video fact-check paints a very bad picture of Kavanaugh’s ability to be a real justice on the U.S. Supreme Court bench. Watch below…
Ironically, or not, on September 29, 2018, other individuals who spoke to the FBI who knew Brett Kavanaugh at Yale University and Mark Judge in his teens and young adult years, detailed claims of violent drunken behavior by Kavanaugh at Georgetown Preparatory School and in college, and that he lied about the full extent of his heavy drinking at the Senate hearings. This was reported by Charles Ludington, a Yale classmate, to the FBI. For some unknown reason the Judiciary Committee never had Ludington testify or pursue the investigation of his claim.
The details of the other women accusing Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault or witnessing the drunken assaults by Kavanaugh were soon muddled up, redirected to defending Kavanaugh, and shut out by the Judiciary Committee members. They are well documented and easy to research today. The FBI investigations into the allegations against Kavanaugh were ignored or blocked by White House Counsel and never given the go-ahead authority “to unilaterally investigate the 4,500 tips it received without first receiving further approval from the White House Counsel” and the President. Five years later after Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the bench, “the FBI confirmed that it didn’t investigate many of those tips. When it actually followed up on some relating to Kavanaugh, the White House curtailed the scope of the investigations and let them fizzle out and fade into history.”
In my mind, whether or not these allegations against Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh—from multiple women ready to talk to authorities at the FBI about these two men’s behavior toward them and other untold numbers of women—isn’t so much the the real issue. What it does represent is a still pervasive abuse or harassment culture on women in this nation by wealthy, powerful men and likewise their male and female accomplices, partners, or protectors in their “Good Ole Boys Club” circles. Felony crimes or not, many rich, powerful men get away with it time and time again because of said American patriarchal culture. Furthermore, it is actually more telling, more damning of the men and those perverted patterns they are still insulated from that are the crushing realities in this country. Women in the U.S. are still vulnerable and unprotected by our law-enforcement, justice system and investigators from (male dominated) local areas to the (male dominated) top federal or corporate sectors by these free-range sexual male predators. Trends tell a story, patterns and track-records tell a more whole story, and where there is smoke or multiple smoke plums over time, there is almost always fire and more fires.
This abuse has to be stopped. It has to be punished appropriately with thorough investigation, due process, and the current “Boys Club mentality” in this country must be exposed for what it is and how they get away with it over and over with repeated cover-ups and victim shaming by their power, authority, and money. Is that what America stands for, discriminating justice for some, and less so for others?
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Has America increasingly become a safe-haven for wealthy, powerful white men and their unspoken backroom “Good Ole Boys Club” shelters? If so, then we are no better than those evil, undemocratic, lawless, drug-cartel countries of authoritarian rule and male domination at the expense of the unprotected and victims of misogyny, or racism, or religious persecutions by men who take and do whatever they want.
By the way, is this honestly the United States of America today?:
“I pledge allegiance to the Flag
of the United States of America,
and to the Republic for which it stands,
one Nation under God, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all.“
Live Well – Love Much – Laugh Often – Learn Always
The Professor’s Convatorium © 2025 by Professor Taboo is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
The Professor's Convatorium 