The cycles of natural, sustainable corruption are as ancient as a silver coin rubbed smooth by the thumbs of the millennia.

Unwavering and predictable as the seasons, they have returned, year after year, century after century, perpetuating the eternal process of extraction and patronage; evaporating the sweat of the poor, drawing it up into the clouds of political hypocrisy that drift above us all, compressing it into cold, hard cash and, finally, raining it down into the already-overflowing reservoirs of the rich...