The Mad Hatter

Jabberwocky:  Yesterday  NYS Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that the Former Guy, Junior and Ivanka had to abide by NYS Attorney General Tish James’ subpoenas and show up to answer questions about their company’s practice of inflating asset values to lenders while minimizing them for tax purposes.  He gave the trio two weeks to provide the documents that James’ office has requested and three weeks to show up for their “interviews.”  Among other things, the FGs lawyers argued that since the Mazars accounting firm had severed tied with the FG Organization and declared 10 years of their financial documents unreliable Tish James’ investigation was now moot.  The judge found that argument “preposterous” and “audacious,” calling its twisted logic reminiscent of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, George Orwell’s 1984 and my favorite, Kellyanne Conway’s Alternative Facts.  Junior and Ivanka’s lawyers have already said that Tweedle Dee and the Duchess plan to appeal and in all likelihood so will their kingpin dad. In case you’re wondering, son Eric wasn’t affected by yesterday’s decision only because he’s already sat for an interview where he repeatedly plead the Fifth. To the extent that they ever show up, it’s highly likely that the FG, Junior and Ivanka will do the same even though the FG has been known to say that only the guilty take the Fifth. Obviously the optics of a one time president and likely presidential candidate hiding behind the Fifth Amendment is bad not that optics have ever been a problem for the FG, however, taking the Fifth in the Tish James civil case could impact the outcome of the criminal case being pursued in NYC.

Curiouser and Curiouser:  Also citing the Mazars situation, Congresswoman Carol Maloney, Chair of the House Oversight Committee,  and Congressman Gerald Connolly, Chair of the Subcommittee on Government Operations, are now urging the General Services Administration to terminate the lease covering the Old Post Office Building, the space occupied by the FG’s Washington DC Hotel. Maloney and Connolly’s position is that the financial information provided to the GSA during the competition for the lease was inaccurate and thus the lease should never have been awarded to them. The FG Organization has reached a deal with an outside investment group to sell the lease for $375 million so any action by the GSA to revoke it could seriously crimp their plans to raise the cash needed to pay off a lot of the debt that the business has coming due, debt that will be difficult to refinance especially given the Mazars resignation.  

Off With Their Heads: Despite his assertions that he was pulling back his forces, yesterday it became clearer than ever that Vladimir Putin has not withdrawn any troops from the Ukraine border.  In fact, as anticipated by the Biden administration he instead staged what is widely seen as a false flag operation, bombing a kindergarten in eastern Ukraine and blaming it on Ukrainian forces. He also has been screwing around with Ukraine’s technology infrastructure, knocking out banking and government related internet access. The US strategy continues to be to shed as much light on Putin’s insanity while also sending soldiers to neighboring NATO countries and providing equipment to Ukraine. To that end Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke at the UN yesterday, making it clear that unlike during the run up to the Iraq war when one of his predecessors, Colin Powell, was there to drum up support for a war, this time the US wants help maintaining the peace.  Unfortunately, Putin doesn’t appear to be all that into peace, and expectations remain that his plans to invade Ukraine haven’t changed.  In other international news of far less import, Russian skater Kamila Valieva failed to medal yesterday.  Though it’s still not clear what the Olympic Committee will do about the Team competition medals where the Russians, largely due to Valieva’s performance, came in first they won’t have to worry about how to handle the medal ceremony for the women’s competition. As it turns out, Valieva tested positive for three different drugs and though two of them are not banned, in all likelihood the intent of the cocktail was to improve her stamina, making it easier for her to perform the quad jumps that so few of her competitors can pull off. Given her age it’s fair to assume that she didn’t know that she was being drugged, but her positive test results and the fact that Russia consistently produces and then tosses aside very young wunderkind skaters says a lot about their philosophy and competitive figure skating in general none of it good. Figure skater Gracie Gold who for a brief moment in time before her body started to mature was supposed to be America’s next Olympic gold medal winner, has a piece in New York magazine that addresses the pressures put on too young female skaters, Russia’s practice of tossing them aside like old broken dolls when their bodies start to mature, and the impact that has on all the competitors.  Very sad.   

Viral Musings:  Though still above 100,000, virus levels are way down in the US.  Of course there was a time when we thought that 100,000 was a huge number.  Unfortunately, deaths remain stubbornly high, more than 3000 Americans died yesterday from COVID.  Though the official total US death count is 930k, excess deaths through the pandemic is higher, at 1 million. The CDC is expected to release new masking recommendations shortly as much a response to political winds as to science.  As to that science, we probably need to keep an eye on the Omicron BA 2 subvariant as reports are that it spreads even faster than original Omicron and is more virulent.  That’s the last thing that I wanted to write, but it is what it is.