Paradise Lost

Russia, Russia, Russia:  This may be former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn’s week on center stage.  NBC News reports that Special Counsel Mueller has enough evidence to bring charges against him and his son, Mike Jr.  In addition to focusing on the senior Flynn’s lobbying efforts, money laundering and lies about his overseas contacts, federal authorities are also looking into allegations that in exchange for millions of dollars he attempted to orchestrate the removal of Fethulah Gulen, the Turkish cleric who Turkish President Erdogan wants extradited from the US to Turkey. Mueller is offering to go easy on Flynn Jr in exchange for Flynn Sr’s cooperation.  A clueless Flynn Jr remains unconcerned about his and his dad’s troubles, yesterday he tweeted out a series of Islamophobic, Mueller bashing missives.  Another Trump official may now have some explaining to do about his Russian involvements.  The anonymous source who leaked last year’s “Panama Papers,” a document trove that included embarassing information about tax haven investments by celebrities and political figures, has followed up with another large leak of financial documents, this time called the “Paradise Papers.” In addition to revealing some embarassing information about Queen Elizabeth’s investments, the Paradise Papers include documents detailing financial ties between Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Navigator, a Russian shipping company with ties to Putin’s family and one of his oligarchs.  During his confirmation hearing Ross had mentioned that he would retain his interest in Navigator but failed to disclose the company’s ongoing relationship with the Kremlin.  This isn’t going over well with Democratic Senator Blumenthal who is now accusing Ross of misleading the Senate Commerce Committee and the public, he characterizes Ross’ earlier disclosures as a “Russian nesting doll, with blatant conflicts of interest carefully hidden within seemingly innocuous companies.”  This isn’t Ross’ first time hanging with questionable Russians, previously he was a major investor in one of those Cyprus banks that the Russian’s like to use for money laundering.  The Paradise Papers also reveal that Yuri Milner, a Russian technology entrepreneur invested $850,000 in Cadre, a real estate technology startup co-founded by Jared Kushner. During his testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee Kushner said that he “never relied on Russian funds to finance my business activites in the private sector,” an assertion he may now regret.  Yuri Milner, who also previously had large investments in Facebook and Twitter, was never considered Kremlin connected, however, now with the Paradise Papers revealing that Kremlin owned firms invested $191 million with him and that those funds were then invested in Twitter, Milner’s independence is being called into question.

Wealth Transfer Plan:  Neither Senate Majority Leader McConnell nor House Speaker Ryan believe that Mueller needs any legislative protection to insure that he isn’t fired, with Ryan going so far as to say that Mueller should be allowed to finish his important mission. However, Ryan is also confident that the House will pass its tax reform plan by Thanksgiving.  His spin is that the Senate will start working on their version shortly, the two plans will fly through conference committee and, alakazam, billionaires and large corporations will be able to pay for their new Gulfstreams by Christmas.  Republicans are desperate to pass tax legislation to prove that they can pass legislation but the longer the current House bill, which was written in secret by a small group of Ryan acolytes, is exposed to light, the harder passage becomes.  Representatives from high property value, high tax states are still hung up on the elimination of the state and local tax deduction and don’t believe that limiting mortgage interest deductibility to $500,000 for new loans adequately meets the needs of their constituents.  There are also concerns that provisions intended to benefit small businesses don’t work properly. The McConnell led Senate plans to substantially rewrite the House bill and as usual, McConnell will need to balance the divergent demands of his moderate Republicans like Collins and Murkowski against outspoken budget hawks like Flake and Corker.  In addition to the issues being hotly debated in the House, the Senate crowd is expected to push for a phase-in of Trump’s promised corporate tax cut and an increase in the tax rate applicable to hedge fund carried interest, something that Trump promised countless times during the campaign but a commitment that has fallen away now that tax policy has been delegated to Goldman Sachs.  Lastly, budget hawks in both houses are trying to cut away at dramatic deficit increases by killing the Obamacare individual mandate, a neat way to steal money from health care but a strategy that will alienate moderate Republicans.  Although Trump insists that he will be getting votes from a few Democrats, none have been invited to the table.  Adding a wrinkle to the whole process, Senator Rand Paul’s Kentucky neighbor, an anesthesiologist and registered Democrat, beat the crap out of him over the weekend while he was mowing his lawn, breaking five of his ribs.  At the moment it’s not clear when Paul will be well enough to travel back to Washington, it’s also not clear whether they were fighting over politics or whether the neighbor was tripping on his home stash of midazolam .                        

Global Warming:  Last week a joint report produced by thirteen federal agencies said it’s extremely likely that global warming is man-made, mostly from carbon dioxide through the burning of coal, oil and natural gas.  There had been some concerns in the scientific community that the release of the report, which was produced as part of a congressionally mandated review, would be squelched by the Trump administration because as recently as last week Energy Secretary Perry said that “the science is out on whether humans cause climate change” and EPA Head Pruitt has said that carbon monoxide is not a primary contributor to warming.  Pruitt has also called for a government chosen group of scientists to conduct a “red team, blue team” debate on climate science, by red team he means a team of fringe scientists beholden to chemical companies and the fossil fuel industry. Sam Clovis, the non-scientist whose nomination to serve as Chief Scientist for the Department of Agriculture was recently scuttled due to his involvement in Mueller’s Russia collusion investigation is available and waiting for the call, he loves playing science nerd.  

Yearning to be Free:  In keeping with the Trump administration’s view of immigrants, Secretary of State Tillerson has advised the Department of Homeland Security that 300,000 Central American and Haitian refugees who have been living in the US under Temporary Protection Status no longer need to be safeguarded.  These beneficiairies of the “TPS” program have been allowed to live, work and build families in the US for twenty years.  Now Trump’s Homeland Security officials are gearing up to deport them back to their countries.  For the moment, Homeland Security has released the ten year old girl with cerebral palsy who they had stalked on her way to the hospital and then taken into custody following her critical surgery.  They may still deport her too, but for now have released her to her family, not because of any attack of conscience but due to press reports that the girl’s health was deteriorating because of the family separation.

Another Senseless Tragedy:  Twenty six people died yesterday after a semi-automatic toting Air Force vet entered a Baptist church in Sutherland Springs, Texas and shot up congregants attending Sunday services.  A number of politicians, including Texas Governor Abbott and Tokyo Trump, fresh from a day of golf and a dinner of wagyu steak with Prime Minister Abe, responded with the usual mix of “heartfelt”condolences and calls for prayer.  Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy, whose constituents include the parents who lost their children in the Newtown elementary school massacre, dispensed with the usual pablum instead asking his colleagues “to think about whether the political support of the gun industry is worth the blood that flows endlessly onto the floors of American churches, elementary schools, movie theaters, and city streets.  Ask yourself-how can you claim that you respect human life while choosing fealty to weapons-makers over support for measures favored by the vast majority of your constituents.”  Murphy’s words are eloquent but his intended audience remains tone deaf. Last night, from Tokyo, Trump refused to acknowledge the shooter’s semi-automatic weapon, instead laying sole blame for the tragedy on mental illness, adding that all countries have people with mental illness.  Apparently, he hasn’t noticed that only in America do those people have easy access to semi-automatic weapons.  No surprise then that weeks after Las Vegas bump stocks remain legal.

A Few Other Things:  Exaggerated to enhance book sales or not, former DNC head Donna Brazile’s excerpts continue to feed into the narrative that the Democratic primary was “rigged.”  To the extent that the governor contest in Virginia doesn’t go blue on Tuesday, Brazile may find her future prospects in the Democratic party limited.  While everyone remains focused on the scarily increasing threat of war on the Korean Peninsula, Saudi Arabia is going through its own upheaval.  Thirty-two year old Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Trump and son-in-law Kushner’s new BFF spent his weekend purging old guard princes as part of a modernization and anti-corruption plan and probably also in an effort to consolidate his own control.  One shocker, was the inclusion of billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, whose holdings include large stakes in Citibank, Apple and the Plaza Hotel, among the purged.  At least for now, the disgraced princes are being detained at the Ritz Carlton Riyadh.  Not paradise, but not so bad.