Perks

First of Many?  Neither the Former Guy nor his kids were charged with anything yesterday but that doesn’t mean that they should be resting easily as their company was charged with running a 15 year scheme to help its executives, note the plural, evade income taxes by compensating them with valuable fringe benefits that were hidden from authorities. The same shenanigans also facilitated the company’s avoidance of payroll taxes. As part of the scheme, one of those executives, CFO Allen Weisselberg, is accused of avoiding taxes on $1.7 million in perks that should have been reported as income.  He now faces grand larceny, tax fraud and a bunch of other charges. It wasn’t just that Weisselberg received and didn’t pay any taxes on several Mercedes, apartments and private school tuition, and got company help in claiming that he was no longer a NYS resident, he also kept and then “edited” a ledger documenting the value of those perks so that they could be used to offset his taxable pay. The FG and sons Junior and Eric don’t deny that Weisselberg received all those unreported benefits which would be hard to do since we know that the FG signed the rather substantial tuition checks, rather their defense is that all rich guys do the same or would do the same if they could get away with it. Granted a lot of rich people who own large private companies probably do engage in questionable financial practices, but most of them would know better than to risk exposing their financial finagling to the public eye by running for office.  At first blush the charges against Weisselberg and the FG’s company appeared someone disappointing because who among us weren’t hoping to hear that a full library of legal tomes had been thrown at the FG and his spawn, but by the end of the day officials including NY Attorney General Tish James said that yesterday’s indictments were just the beginning, that there’s more to come, for fraud and the like, and that more executives including possibly those like Ivanka who received questionable consulting fees and who seems to understand that staying away from the nightly Fox shows is a good idea, might be next. That’s Ivanka who allegedly lied about her involvement in a case focused on Inauguration spending.   As to the FG, we know he’s concerned because he’s now saying that though he won’t tell us, he's made a decision on whether or not to run again in 2024.  Whether he’s made that decision may be irrelevant, at least for now, he’s just calculating that implying that he’s a candidate adds credence to his claims that he’s done nothing anyone else in his position wouldn’t have done and that he’s only being targeted because he’s running again. Of course if, as he also claims, he’s still president and will be back in the Oval office by August, that would be his third term.

The Supremes:  As usual the Supreme Court saved its worst for last.  Yesterday before heading out for a summer of fun in the sun, SCOTUS released two more decisions proving that while they might not care a whole lot about the bathroom preferences of transgender youth the conservative majority is all in on allowing states to make it more difficult for people to vote and feel that it remains essential for the super rich, especially those politically active right wingers to have their privacy protected when making donations to charities and by extension to political organizations because more dark money is what we all need?  With regard to voting rights, the Court further chipped away at the Voting Rights Act by saying that it was okay for Arizona to have laws that effectively discriminate against minorities because if those folks really wanted to vote they’d figure out a way to do so even if all drop boxes are removed and there are few if any voting locations on Native American reservations.  That decision will make it a lot harder for the Merrick Garland led Justice Department to unwind all those voter suppression laws being passed around the country and put more pressure on those Democratic Senators who continue to defend the filibuster. One other thing, despite hopes of many who want to make sure that Biden gets to seat his replacement,  Justice Stephen Breyer did not announce his retirement.

Political Gamesmanship:  Speaker Pelosi announced her appointments to the new select committee on the events of January 6.  The committee will be chaired by Democratic Congressman Bennie Thompson and will include Democrats Zoe Lofgren, Adam Schiff, Pete Aguilar, Stephanie Murphy, Jamie Raskin, Elaine Luria and ….. Republican Liz Cheney.  Liz Cheney’s inclusion was a surprise to GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy who reportedly had warned his crowd that accepting a Pelosi appointment to the committee would result in the loss of their committee assignments, that’s McCarthy who still hasn’t punished Paul Gosar for fundraising with Nazi sympathizers.  Cheney’s acceptance of the appointment is a win for Pelosi, and an indication that Liz is doubling down on her principles.  Cheney is still as conservative as they come, but she is all in on the fight against Trumpism.  McCarthy still won’t say if he plans to appoint any Republicans to the committee.

Viral Musings:  The Delta variant is causing a 10% uptick in cases particularly affecting those parts of the country, mostly red states and counties, where vaccination rates are low.  Overall, 66% of adults have received at least one shot, short of the 70% that Biden hoped to see at least partially vaccinated by July 4^th.  As of Monday, 20 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico had or were projected to have reached the 70% target.  No surprise that most of those states are coastal and in the Northeast. The states with the lowest percentage jabbed are Mississippi, Louisiana and Idaho. The good news for those who received the J & J shot is that based on as yet unpublished study the company reports that its shot is holding its own against Delta, it’s not clear if that means that it is preventing disease altogether or if it is preventing severe disease so it may still be too early to say whether or not J & J recipients would benefit from another jab.

Happy Fourth!