February 4, 2019: Trump Inaugural Committed Under Investigation - Artic Region Heating Up

 

2/4/19: No one has seen Rudy Giuliani in public for days. This leads to wild rumors. Trump has fired him after a series of “misquotations” that make it sound like Trump is a liar. (Because he is.) Rudy has quit, having told friends that working for Trump is impossible because the president is a pathological liar. (True.) Old Horndog has run off with another mistress, having tired of his current mistress. That would be the mistress for whom he left his third wife. And his third wife just so happened to be his mistress when he was cheating on his second. (True, save the first sentence.) 

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Federal prosecutors subpoena documents from Trump Inaugural Committee.

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Anyway, no one has seen Rudy, just when the president is going to need every lawyer he can find. 

We learn today that federal prosecutors have subpoenaed documents from Trump’s inaugural committee. 

The reason given in court is an interest in possible money-laundering and illegal gifts from foreign powers. Only one individual is named specifically in the subpoena: Imaad Zuberi. He’s described by The New York Times as “a former fund-raiser for President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.” 

You know if Fox News covers the story, they’re going to highlight that phrase and milk it for fifty shows.

Mr. Zuberi headed to court.

 

The Times adds that Zuberi “was seeking inroads with Trump” and his company donated $900,000 to the inaugural committee. 

Another entity that the subpoena seeks documents on is Stripe, which created technology to help process credit card transactions. According to published reports, the company counts Josh Kushner, the brother of Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, among its investors. Josh Kushner is not named in the subpoena, and a spokesman for him declined to comment. 

 

Follow the money. Again. 

We know Josh and Jared’s dad has spent time in prison for financial misdeeds. We know Jared has had shady backdoor meetings with Russian bankers. We know leaked records show that Jared managed to avoid paying federal income taxes in at least five years during a stretch of eight, from 2009 to 2017, despite being worth an estimated $324 million. So, you can see why a liberal blogger might smell a number of rotting fish in Team Trump’s wastebasket. 

Once again, in the story of the Trump presidency, we need to follow the money and see where we end. (For the fate of Mr. Zuberi, see: 1/7/20.)

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Among other questions authorities are trying to answer: Was the list of donors the committee submitted to the Federal Election Committee accurate and complete? Thomas Barrack, who chaired the committee, is a longtime pal of President Trump. And if you follow the legal threads obsessively, you know Barrack is “famous” for having been named in an investigation by Italian authorities. It was thought Barrack might have been involved in a criminal conspiracy, after he was accused of orchestrating a scheme to evade $190 million in taxes. 

This evasion involved Barrack’s real estate company – selling a seaside resort in Sardinia – to interests in Qatar – for $670 million. According to The Guardian, the investigation included “wiretaps,” never a good sign for those suspected of wrongdoing. Investigators were trying to follow a money trail which wended its way north, through Luxembourg, a notorious tax haven. Then the money traveled east, to the State of Delaware, where you can charter any shell company you like, and no one will look too carefully into what your company actually does. Finally, the money turned around and headed back to Europe. Having arrived at its destination at last: Deutsche Bank, favorite bank of money-launderers, it was ready to be deposited and spent. 

Among other interesting aspects of the story, we learn that Paul Manafort is “a longtime friend” of Mr. Barrack. The two enjoyed yachting in the Mediterranean after Manafort was booted from the Trump campaign.

 

Barrack was also the first major business figure to endorse Trump in his run for president. He called the candidate “intrinsically and academically first class.” He described his friend as “kind, compassionate” and “empathetic.” “Donald’s natural alliance is with the little guy,” Barrack added – accurately, if we assume the “little guy” has the clout to purchase a seaside resort in Sardinia. Barrack has also worked closely with the Saudi royal family and has argued that the only way to solve the crisis in Syria is to work “with Russia and not against them.” 

We know Rick Gates, who has already admitted to a number of felonies, is cooperating with investigators. We know he worked for the inaugural committee. We know he worked after that for Barrack, up until the day he was indicted. We can assume that Mr. Barrack is sweating a bit. (See: 7/28/19.)

 

BLOGGER’S NOTE (7/26/21): Barrack will be indicted, after Trump leaves office. He’s charged with serving as an agent of foreign governments, without registering as such, or, in a nutshell, selling U.S. foreign policy when he can.

 

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The warmest century in the Artic in the last 115,000 years. 

IN OTHER BUSINESS PERSONS-turned-government-leaders news, Trump nominates David Bernhardt to be next Secretary of Interior. Bernhardt’s main qualification is that he has strong ties to the oil and gas industry and never saw a spot of land he didn’t think would look much better with an oil rig pumping crude to the surface and maybe spilling a few barrels now and again. 

As for the Endangered Species Act, f**ck those stupid animals! Bernhardt considers the act an “unnecessary regulatory burden.” 

In related news, which you absolutely know President Trump and his new pick for Interior missed, scientist studying ancient plant samples on Baffin Island issue stark warning. Melting ice in the Arctic has revealed plants frozen and continuously hidden from view for the last 40,000 years. 

Simon Pendleton, lead author of a study of the melting and the recently revealed plants, estimates that the past century in the Arctic has been the warmest of the last 1,150 centuries, or the warmest period in 115,000 years. 

For extra fun, scientists warn that melting ice could revive ancient diseases. In one study, from 2015, experts found that a 30,000 year old virus Mollivirus sibericum could infect modern amoeba. You might not care about infected amoeba; but that’s not where the danger stops. “If we are not careful,” says Jean-Michel Claverie, one of the study’s authors, “we run the risk of one day waking up viruses such as smallpox that we thought were eradicated.”

January 7, 2020: Republican "Family Values"

 

1/7/20: Tuesday night, the Iranians fire twenty missiles at U.S. military bases in Iraq. It is thought that some carried 1,500 pound warheads. 

Any miscalculation in the next few hours or days could lead to war between the two nations. 

Fortunately, there are no reported U.S. casualties, which leads to another tone-deaf tweet from President Twitter Thumbs: 

All is well! Missiles launched from Iran at two military bases located in Iraq. Assessment of casualties & damages taking place now. So far, so good! We have the most powerful and well equipped military anywhere in the world, by far! I will be making a statement tomorrow morning.

 

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WITH MISSILES FLYING, another news story gets buried. Imaad Zuberi, who claimed he donated $900,000 to Trump’s inauguration, admits to a series of felonies. 

To be fair, Zuberi raised money for Democrat candidates and causes in the past. But this time may be different. Zuberi funneled foreign money to Trump and his minions. Among other questionable actions, which led to a charge of obstruction of justice, Mr. Zuberi covered up the fact that at least $50,000 “he” donated came from a foreign individual. 

According to CNN, Zuberi deleted emails related to a number of transactions. Those included “a $5.8 million transfer from a foreign national that came in around the time of his [$900,000] political donation.” 

That would be Big Money. 

Big Foreign Money. Big Foreign Money likely intended to enrich individuals associated with Team Trump 2016. 

Often called: bribery. 

Zuberi had already pled guilty to other charges, including income tax evasion, and on those charges alone faces fifteen years in jail. In his latest plea, prosecutors note that Zuberi was desperate enough to offer to pay six witnesses a total of $6,150,000 for false testimony or silence.

 

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WE MIGHT expect Zuberi to start cooperating with investigators. We know that Elliott Broidy, vice president of the Trump Inaugural Committee, is under investigation. On the topic of felons, we know Broidy pled guilty to bribery years ago, in a scheme to game the New York State pension system. 

He was a felon, too, till he agreed to cooperate with the investigation. For that, his conviction was later reduced. 

And for the sheer fun of it, let’s remember that Broidy is famous for paying a Playboy Bunny he says he impregnated a cool $1.6 million to keep her mouth shut about the affair. Even more amusing: That payment was handled through the good offices of Michael Cohen, Donald J. Trump’s personal attorney at the time and a man currently residing in federal prison.

Broidy.

 

Finally, we know the Bunny had an abortion. 

(There were rumors that Broidy took the fall for none other than our current president and the real father, Donald J. Trump.)  

In any case, the Bunny, Shera Bechard, claimed in court that Broidy had unprotected sex with her, despite the fact he had herpes. 

She said Broidy insisted she have the abortion because – you know – Republicans – family values – and abortion should be illegal.

 

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WE ALSO HAVE a Sebastian Gorka sighting and are reminded what a no-class fellow he is. 

On his inaptly-named radio show America First with Sebastian Gorka, the host decides it would be funny to refer to 17-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg as, “Thunder thighs.” 

Yes. A conservative stalwart mocking the physique of a teenage girl. 

Family values.

February 18, 2021: "Doctor Death:" or Donald J. Trump

 

2/18/21: There was a time, not so long ago, that now-Rejected-President Trump liked to claim credit for every positive development that occurred in this country, if not around the world. 

For example, on January 13, last year, he was crowing because deaths from cancer had fallen 2.2% from 2016 to 2017. 

Dr. Don immediately took credit. “U.S. Cancer Death Rate Lowest In Recorded History!” he tweeted. “A lot of good news coming out of this Administration.”

 

Now we should note, if we are to give Trump credit for every advance in U.S. healthcare outcomes – since he always hogged credit for everything good – that he was actually killing Americans at an alarming rate. Can’t claim the good, and ignore the bad, right? In the first six months of 2020, life expectancy in the U.S. dropped by more than a year, to 77.8 years for all Americans. That was the lowest mark since 2006. 

Using Dr. Don’s own standard, to claim credit for how the U.S. health care system does, he now becomes “Doctor Death.”

 

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THE DECLINE is likely to accelerate once the full numbers for 2020 and the early months of 2021 are compiled. As of February 16, the CDC reports that 486,466 Americans have succumbed after being infected with the coronavirus. 

(CDC keeps adjusting the numbers, and I started adjusting them, as well. From here on, I will keep the numbers I posted originally, and catch any adjustments as we give totals and go along.) 

2/9:    2,806

2/10:  3,645

2/11:  3,589

2/12:  5,520

2/13:  3,317

2/14:  1,317

2/15:  1,217

2/16:  1,396 

That brings the February total, so far, to 46,511. 

Too bad Trump can’t still tweet about how COVID-19 is going away, and not to sweat. It’s just another flu.

POSTSCRIPT: The Department of Justice announces that Imaad Zuberi, accused of a multiplicity of crimes, including funneling foreign money to the Trump Inaugural Committee, and then having plead guilty, has been sentenced. 

He will spend a maximum of twelve years in jail, pay a fine of $1.75 million, and pay $15.7 million in restitution. 

Playing off connections with members of Team Trump, Zuberi turned selling influence to foreigners and foreign nations into a lucrative, albeit illegal business. 

(See also: Thomas Barrack, 7/21/21.)