Good post. As you probably know, contracts are a favorite vehicle used by politicians for political and personal purposes. It amazes me how few people are aware of that basic fact of political life.
Re your #17; I grew up inside the Loop before there was a Loop everybody’s Dad or Mom or both worked for the government one way or another. The corruption was well known to everybody as just another part of daily life.
Used to be if you saw a limousine it was some really important person, like a foreign leader or ambassador. But then came LBJ and suddenly there were limos everywhere.