The Bottomless Corruption Of The Trump Crime Family

 

Convicted felon Malignant Loser's amoral son- in- law Jared "Mr. Ivanka Trump" Kushner has been a busy deal- maker ever since leaving the White House, where his incompetence was only surpassed by his greed.  It has come as no surprise that this has involved the same access- peddling and self-dealing that has characterized the slumlord's entire "career" thus far. 

His corrupt dealings with the regime of murderous Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed "Bone Saw" bin Salman resulted in a $2 billion windfall for Kushner's Affinity Partners, apparently the going pay- to- play price for an insider in a future Malignant Loser regime.  (Bone Saw once bragged that he had Kushner "in his pocket.") Well, now Kushner's firm is also involved with another unsavory regime, this time in Serbia, a Russian client state:

After weathering criticism over its reliance on a gusher of Saudi cash, Jared Kushner’s investment fund made its first big splash last month when it announced it had signed a $500 million deal with the Serbian government to develop a high end real estate project in downtown Belgrade on the site of a bombed down army building destroyed during the 1999 Kosovo war.

But the fine print of the deal includes a commitment that seems destined to stir up even more international controversy: a pledge by Kushner’s firm, Affinity Partners, to construct a “memorial dedicated to all the victims of NATO aggression”— an allusion to the U.S.-backed bombing campaign that brought the Serbian government of Slobodan Milosevic to its knees a quarter century ago in response to its relentless campaign of repression and savage massacres of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. 

Among those exercised over the Kushner deal is retired Gen. Wesley Clark, who served as NATO Supreme Allied Commander during the war.

While he has no objection to a U.S. firm investing in Serbia, the planned revisionist memorial—officially proclaiming America’s adversary in the war to have been a victim of  “aggression”— “is worse than a reversal” of U.S. policies in the region, said Clark in an interview with SpyTalk. “It’s a betrayal of the United States, its policies and the brave diplomats and airmen who did what they could to stop Serb ethnic cleansing.” 

Just as concerning as the whitewashing of Serbian war crimes, Clark said, is the just announced deal between Kushner’s firm and the Serbian government of Aleksander Vučić, a pro-Russian hardliner who once served as minister of information in Milosevic’s government. The memorial project needs to be viewed in a wider geopolitical context: It serves the Kremlin’s core interests in undermining NATO at a time the alliance is engaged in resisting Russian aggression in Ukraine.  (our emphasis) [snip]

Kushner's not the only member of the extended Trump Crime Family involved in the Serbia deal. If there's money to be made selling off access to the White House to our adversaries, you can find this p.o.s.:

Those questions have intensified in recent weeks in light of the reported role in the Belgrade deal of Richard Grenell, Trump’s former U.S. ambassador to Germany and acting director of national intelligence, who has forged close ties to Serbian officials and made no secret of his hopes of becoming secretary of state in a second Trump administration.

The New York Times recently reported that Grenell is a partner of Kushner’s in the proposed $500 million project, which includes plans to build a luxury hotel, retail space and 1,500 residential units on the bombed out site of the former Serbian Army headquarters pulverized by NATO forces under Clark’s command in 1999. 

He was quoted by the Times as saying he saw the project—an earlier version of which he pushed during a period he also served as Trump’s special envoy to the region—as promoting “healing” between the U.S. and Serbia. (Efforts to reach Grenell for comment for this story were unsuccessful.)...  (our emphasis)

Just the thought of Grenell as a potential Secretary of State should curl your toes almost as much as a second term for the Malignant Loser.  He was and is an utter toady and courter of authoritarians worldwide (the Malignant Loser has called him "my envoy").  If the convicted felon Malignant Loser is the "chaos candidate," Grenell would be his "chaos Secretary of State," ready and willing to undercut America's alliances and interests.

The White House and State Department would be open for business in a second Malignant Loser regime, and deals like those made with the Saudis and Serbs would be the template for wholesale corruption, putting America up for grabs to the highest bidder.

(h/t MockPaperScissors)

(Image:  Kushner and Grenell / Getty)

Fools, Gougers And Pirates

The disordered, sociopathic, criminal mind of Donald "Moron Vector" Trump is now fully reflected in his regime's response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Exhibit A is the tasking of failson- in- law Jared Kushner as overseer of the response, who quickly made it clear he knew nothing about how strategic stockpiles are supposed to work (but plenty about how gaslighting does):

The website of the Strategic National Stockpile was edited on Friday to soften language about how the stockpile is supposed to be used by states -- a day after media outlets reported that the original version contradicted a claim by senior White House official Jared Kushner.

Kushner, President Donald Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law, said at Thursday's coronavirus briefing that states themselves have medical equipment stockpiled -- and argued that "the notion of the federal stockpile was it's supposed to be our stockpile; it's not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use."

Journalists and others quickly pointed out that the federal stockpile's own website made clear Kushner was wrong. (our emphasis)

The language in the website was scrubbed to reshape the stockpile as "a short-term stopgap buffer" for states, presumably after they've exhausted their resources and precious time bidding against each other for critical supplies, and for governors still willing to kiss Moron Vector's ass. After successfully bringing peace to the Middle East, Kushner will doubtless play the same inept, counterproductive role as a coordinator of federal disaster relief in this pandemic.  But at least he's on the same page as Moron Vector:

"By the way, the states should have been building their stockpile. We have almost 10,000 (ventilators) in our stockpile. And we've been building it, and we've been supplying it. But the states should be building. We're a backup. We're not an ordering clerk. We're a backup," Trump said Thursday.

"Our stockpile," my ass. These aren't Kushner's or Moron Vector's stockpiles to divvy up among favored Republican governors or states, or for some other, even more grotesque backroom dealing.

Exhibit B is the "Lord of the Flies" competition Moron Vector's bizarre policy is creating:

The effects of this situation have found states in bidding wars amongst each other and the federal government to get critical medical supplies. New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, has been an outspoken critic of the situation saying, “This is not the way to do it, this is ad hoc, I'm competing with other states, I'm bidding up other states on the prices.” [snip]

Similarly, Kentucky Governor, Andy Beshear, admitted that his state lost out to the Federal Emergency Management Agency when bidding to get protective equipment saying, “It is a challenge. The federal government says ‘states, you need to go find your supply chain’ and then the federal government ends up buying from that supply chain.” [snip]

The effects of these bidding wars are damaging to all parties involve, but they leave poorer rural states without options when they are forced to compete with the federal government and states that have more financial resources... 

So, what's happening is that the Moron Vector regime is using our tax dollars to bid against states to procure medical supplies, then turning over the supplies it's purchased to private distribution companies, who then sell those supplies at inflated prices to the highest state bidders.  That's a slow, inefficient system that's also perfect for kickbacks quid pro quo. Sounds Trumpian, all right.

But, as they say, that's not all.

Exhibit C brings us another example of Moron Vector's contempt for our allies and international law. In his panic to make up for months of criminal indifference to the pandemic, Moron Vector is making our country a pirate nation:

German officials on Friday were stinging in their criticism of the Trump administration after a consignment of face masks that they said was ordered and paid for by the Berlin police was diverted en route from China.  Andreas Geisel, Berlin’s interior minister, said the delivery made it as far as Bangkok before being “confiscated.”

In a statement, he said he couldn’t provide further details of what happened at the airport but “we are currently assuming that this is related to the U.S. government’s ban on mask exports.”

“We consider this an act of modern piracy,” he said, calling on the United States to “comply with international rules.” “This is not how you deal with transatlantic partners. Even in times of global crisis, wild west methods shouldn’t rule.

It's not just Germany.  Officials in France and Brazil have complained about purchases they thought they'd made, only to be told the deals "fell through" due to U.S. outbidding them.

So, instead of international cooperation to save lives and fight a pandemic that knows no borders, Moron Vector's out there doing his best to exacerbate the problem and make us even more of a villain in the world's eyes than he's already done.  And those supplies he's "pirated"?  They're sure to go to the stockpile he thinks is his and Jared's, only to have them enter into the bidding process noted in Exhibit B, above.

If the stakes weren't so high, this could be shrugged off as just more shady dealing by the most corrupt, criminal administration in American history.  But lives are at stake, and evil things are being done in our name.

BONUS:  On a lighter note, satirist Andy Borowitz informs us that the National Incompetence Stockpile is at full capacity.

Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full article/ op ed.

The National Rifle Rampage Association is led by shameless grifters vacuuming money out of the pockets of ammosexual loons/suckers. Discuss:

A former pro football player who serves on the National Rifle Association board was paid $400,000 by the group in recent years for public outreach and firearms training. Another board member, a writer in New Mexico, collected more than $28,000 for articles in NRA publications. Yet another board member sold ammunition from his private company to the NRA for an undisclosed sum.

The NRA, which has been rocked by allegations of exorbitant spending by top executives, also directed money in recent years that went to board members — the very people tasked with overseeing the organization’s finances.

In all, 18 members of the NRA’s 76-member board, who are not paid as directors, collected money from the group during the past three years, according to tax filings, state charitable reports and NRA correspondence reviewed by The Washington Post.[snip]

Among the revelations that have burst into public view: CEO Wayne LaPierre racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in charges at a Beverly Hills clothing boutique and on foreign travel, invoices show. Oliver North, forced out as president after trying to oust LaPierre, was set to collect millions of dollars in a deal with the NRA’s now-estranged public relations agency, Ackerman McQueen, according to LaPierre. And the NRA’s outside attorney reaped “extraordinary” legal fees that totaled millions of dollars in the past year, according to North.

Be it the Extremely Stable Genius, his Fox "news" boosters, Bible- banging hypocrites, the NRA, or any collection of right- wingers, the common denominator is selling fear to the suckers. 

Another common denominator is corruption:

A real estate company part-owned by Jared Kushner has received $90m in foreign funding from an opaque offshore vehicle since he entered the White House as a senior adviser to his father-in-law Donald Trump.

Investment has flowed from overseas to the company, Cadre, while Kushner works as an international envoy for the US, according to corporate filings and interviews. The money came through a vehicle run by Goldman Sachs in the Cayman Islands, a tax haven that guarantees corporate secrecy.

Kushner, who is married to Trump’s elder daughter Ivanka, kept a stake in Cadre after joining the administration, while selling other assets. His holding is now valued at up to $50m, according to his financial disclosure documents.

Who's the incompetent little sleazeball doing government favors for now in exchange for the $90 million, you ask?

Virginia Heffernan identifies and expands on one of many bad character traits of the Extremely Stable Genius:

The Mueller report amply chronicles President Trump’s staggering, decades-long crime spree. Like an iron skillet to the head, the extent of Trump’s corruption seems to have stupefied voters, legal scholars and, of course, Congress, all of whom are currently at a loss for a remedy.

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, in her run for the Democratic nomination for president, put it best: “If he were any other person in the United States, based on what’s documented in that report, he would be carried off in handcuffs.”

But because our norms appear to be inadequate to the current catastrophe in the White House, Trump is not yet in handcuffs. So while Congress equivocates about the Mueller report and its implications for impeachment, voters ought to recognize a more homespun truth that it doesn’t take a degree in con law to understand.

The president is a cheater.

Brian Cranston won a Tony award for Best Leading Actor in a Play for his portrayal of Howard Beale in "Network." After the requisite thank- yous, he had this to say:

“Howard Beale is a fictitious TV newsman who found his way into the line of fire because of his pursuit of the truth, and I would like to dedicate this to all the real journalists around the world, both in the press and the print media and also broadcast media, who actually are in the line of fire with their pursuit of the truth.  The media is not the enemy of the people. Demagoguery is the enemy of the people. Thank you very much, good night.”

You can see Cranston's full remarks at the link.

Joshua Zeitz looks back at the early 20th century Progressive era for lessons progressives today should take to heart:

... Being a progressive in the opening years of the 20th century didn’t require strict adherence to a party line or blanket support for a set of specific legislative proposals. Because there was no progressive “movement,” in the singular and definitive meaning of the word, progressivism could draw freely from all sectors of society without demanding even broad consensus on basic questions like the morality of economic concentration or the right of women to vote. It was a malleable and shifting coalition of people who recognized common problems, believed in a rational and fact-based approach to resolving the challenges of modern society and animated public life with an innovative and optimistic spirit.

That's just one of many "finds" in Infidel 753's latest link round- up.  Many links, many topics, so little time.  Go!

Jared Kushner, Security Risk

The New York Times' bombshell report from Thursday on the security concerns that led the FBI and CIA to oppose giving princeling Jared "Mr. Ivanka Trump" Kushner a top secret clearance is still reverberating.  What did those agencies know about Kushner that caused enough alarm that they would risk going up against Kushner's father- in- law and Russian asset Donald "Rump" Trump? What did then- Chief of Staff John Kelly and White House counsel Don McGahn see in the intelligence agencies' analysis that caused them to oppose Kushner's clearance and, when overruled by Rump, take the unusual step of writing memos to the file memorializing their opposition?  Even though he lies as easily and often as he breathes, why did Rump lie about over- ruling his own intelligence agencies (again) in order to have Kushner be able to receive the most sensitive information our government has?  Here's a salient piece of the Times' reporting:

The full scope of intelligence officials’ concerns about Mr. Kushner is not known. But the clearance had been held up in part over questions from the F.B.I. and the C.I.A. about his foreign and business contacts, including those related to Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Russia, according to multiple people familiar with the events. 

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Mr. Kushner was part of a group that met with a Russian lawyer who went to Trump Tower claiming to have political “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. And during the presidential transition, Mr. Kushner had a meeting with the Russian ambassador at the time, Sergey I. Kislyak, and the head of a Russian state-owned bank. When he applied for a security clearance, he did not reveal those meetings. 

He later made several amendments to that section of his application, known as an SF86. His aides at the time insisted he had omitted those meetings inadvertently.

So, Kushner is yet another member of the Rump crime family who's demonstrating the Peter Principle in spades,  as well as sharing the crime family's inherent urge to lie, deceive and use public office to line his pockets (see Saudi Arabia,  the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and of course Russia).  Apparently, the intelligence agencies have been tracking Kushner's extracurricular business dealings for some time, including Robert Mueller's team, and know full well the "full scope" of concerns about Kushner.  Kushner's at the heart of so much of the corrupt pay- to- play modus operandi of the Rump regime, with so many foreign governments likely having kompromat on him, that it would be hard to imagine that's not what Rump and his princeling are so afraid of having come to light that they would lie repeatedly to cover it up. That's why the House Oversight and Reform Committee will be looking into the mess, something that would never have happened had the Republicans maintained control of the House in last year's mid- term elections.

It would also be hard to imagine a greater security risk than this shallow grifter (except for his father- in- law, of course).

BONUS:  See more takes here and here.  Steve M. doesn't think the public will care.