The 4th of July

[T]he U.S. has shifted from prioritizing allies to prioritizing its own interests.

Israel’s spying activities have always been brushed under the carpet by compliant American politicians.

[T]he international community is waiting with bated breath to see what next the [U.S.] authorities will do to inadvertently expose FIFA's blatant hypocrisy.

[T]he great powers court rising generations when they sense shifting power.

So, to succeed in the trough of graft, a politician must have a profusion of scandals, so many of them all at once such that they would eventually overwhelm the system’s capacity to cope.