The "Panama Papers" has potential to be much bigger than Snowden and Manning

[Renew Deal]

Why? Because it has to do with greed. People are willing to accept most of the security state or that bad things happen in war. But outright greed by their leaders upsets them. Leaders that compel you to pay your taxes while they dodge their own have a dim political future.

And that's before you get into the crime issues. I heard Maddow say last night that money gained from a British gold heist was laundered by MF and MF knew it.

Some people are focusing on the presidential race, but I think they should open their minds. This will likely touch governors, congress people, celebrities, and big business.

[blm]

1. So glad Kerry is Sec of State right now.

This is HIS wheelhouse.

[2naSalit]

2. Let's just hope he's

not involved and some of his millions aren't hiding in offshore accounts. Don't get me wrong, I admire the man as a politician but he's still obscenely wealthy... I don't think there will be all that many monied individuals in this country to emerge unscathed in this scandal.

[closeupready]

4. He helped bring down BCCI, so I imagine he's very careful to avoid

even the appearance of impropriety.

[2naSalit]

6. I hope you're right.

That's a term I rarely hear anymore but when I was in my graduate classes, we examined that term and most of its implications at length... "the appearance of impropriety".

[closeupready]

9. Oh I know - it's a joke now, given the legions of crooks who allegedly

'serve the public', but actually serve themselves.

[blm]

5. Then I would say you don't know Kerry and his efforts to expose international financiers

and government powerplayers involved in drug running, arms trading, and money laundering.

Kerry's investigations uncovered IranContra, S&Ls, BCCI, and CIA drugrunning. You can't name one lawmaker in modern history who has exposed more government corruption than Kerry has.

I would say that 99% of DU members are clueless when it comes to what Kerry has accomplished and what his focus has always been over the years.

It is why Wellstone admired him so much. It is why establishment power players have always targeted him behind the scenes.

[2naSalit]

7. Be that as it may

I am not willing to put too much trust in anyone regardless of how they appear to us, look at the PM of Iceland...

[blm]

8. The PM of Iceland didn't risk his life and career to expose international players involved in

the activities connected to IranContra, BCCI and CIA drug running, did he?

And PS: Kerry inherited wealth only in the years after the death of his mother in late 2002. Teresa and he designed their marriage to keep their finances completely separate. Heinz money would stay intact for the Heinz children and the charitable foundation.

[2naSalit]

10. Not the comparison I was making

but whatever. It's not my daily routine to check on all our Cabinet members' financial dealings at any given time. With Sec. Kerry. I know he's wealthy, no matter how it came to be, and as with any other wealthy individual at this point in our culture, I don't trust the vast majority of them when it comes to obscuring their $$ from the public... I don't trust any religious figures for this very reason.

It's great that you think highly of the SOS... I have my own views, they seem to differ from yours, and that's okay too.

[closeupready]

3. I'm thinking the same thing, but in these terms - that

if foreign leaders end up getting ensnared in this scandal, and voters throw them out, it will cast a harsh light on the joke that has become our political pay-to-play system.