Young girls were just the bait, extortion the payoff

In the comments of a pundit roundup for Daily Kos there is a discussion of the arrest of Andrew Mountbattan-Windsor (disgraced brother of King Charles of Britain). Commenter rugbymom wrote:

The charges against Andrew, from what I understand, don't have to do with having sex with underage girls -- but rather with giving Epstein access to highly classified information when Andrew served as a Trade Envoy for the UK government. The UK authorities and media have been far more attentive to what to me is the scariest (but also promising) aspect of the files: the possibility that the young girls were just the bait, and the money-laundering, political influence, insider information, espionage for Putin and others? was the real payoff. Oh, plus the blackmail and extortion opportunities. To me “Did Trump rape underage girls?” is the least important question. More pressing (and frankly more likely to result in charges?) is who else in the Administration, in Congress, possibly on the Court, was and remains part of a highly compromised circle that included foreign oligarchs, blackmail and extortion, etc. etc. And the UK authorities are looking hard at that, while our social media and even members of Congress are all focussed on “Did he Do It?” (even though he’s likely immune from being prosecuted while he's in office, is probably already incompetent to stand trial, and certainly will be by Jan. 2029).

Jen Fifield of ProPublica and Zach Despart of ProPublica and The Texas Tribune, in an article posted on Kos, wrote that the Department of Homeland Security released a tool called the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE. It originally checked immigrants’ eligibility for public benefits but has been expanded under the nasty guy. It now collects confidential data from across the federal government and is promoted to give states a way to look for noncitizens in their voter rolls. The claim is that “millions” of noncitizens are voting. The first finding is that the people flagged as ineligible are actually quite eligible. The error rate is high and verifying their true status causes county election officials extra work. There is no guidance from DHS on procedures to deal with matches. One reason for the false positives is SAVE doesn’t know about immigrants who become citizens. The other finding is that across seven states with a combined 35 million registered voters, the system “identified roughly 4,200 people — about 0.01% of registered voters — as noncitizens.” That’s definitely not “millions.” Which means this is a great deal of effort expended to fix a non-problem, and that means the real goal is something else, such as casting doubt in the security of elections to give a reason to stop actual citizens from voting. Carrie Johnson and Tamara Keith of NPR discuss a particular case of the nasty guy abusing executive power.

The president wants the government he leads to pay him billions of dollars. Trump has filed multiple claims arguing he's been hurt by Justice Department investigations and the leak of his tax returns years ago. Now it's up to his own political appointees to determine whether to settle with their boss — and for how much taxpayer money. "There is a glaring conflict of interest with Trump being on both sides of the claim," said Edward Whelan, a former lawyer at the Justice Department and a political conservative who once clerked for the late Justice Antonin Scalia. "It is outrageous that he and those answering to him would be deciding how the government responds to these extravagant claims."

Even the nasty guy has said he “will negotiate with myself.” One of the cases for which he is seeking damages comes from when federal agents seized classified documents from his Mar-a-Lago estate. Even in the worst cases the Justice Department rarely pays out more than $10 million. So the nasty guy is asking for at least 100, maybe 1000, times the rare highest payouts. The nasty guy thinks accepting all this taxpayer money is just fine because he’ll give the money to charity. And I’ll believe that only if the charities publish acceptance letters.

But at a time when Americans say their top concern is the cost of living and making ends meet, the idea of the president receiving a massive windfall from the government he leads may not sit well with voters — even if it is donated to charity.

The nasty guy’s Board of Peace met for the first time. The primary topic was Gaza. Leila Fadel of NPR didn’t talk about what happened at the meeting (it was likely secret). However, she did talk to Aaron David Miller, who served more than 20 years at the State Department, advising on Arab-Israel peace negotiations. He’s now with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. One good thing about the Board of Peace is that it is trying to internationalize this problem. Gaza cannot be resolved by Israel and the Palestinians. There are three main issues. Who will govern Gaza? The Palestinian movement is a mess. Who will provide security in Gaza? There’s little hope there. Who will pay for humanitarian assistance, current shelter, and reconstruction? Maybe the Board of Peace can help with that last one. Internationalize means being able to bring in the huge required resources. But if Israel and Hamas can’t align their visions of the future no outside pressure or assistance will help. The Board of Peace does have a huge problem in that there is no Palestinian representation. One reason why that is a problem is that Israel has stated their policy is annexation. Miller said:

In the end, you need leaders who are masters of their politics in Israel and Palestine and leaders who are willing to overlook those politics to a degree to try to address not only their own constituencies' needs but the needs of others. And we do not have those kinds of leaders in the region. And frankly, we don't have them in Washington either.

As for a stabilization force, as long as Hamas and Israel are still shooting at each other, in spite of a cease-fire, no party is going to put boots on the ground.

They are neighbors, whether born in Minneapolis or Mogadishu

I finished the book American Scholar by Patrick E. Horrigan. The story is about James in 2016 reflecting back on his life when he started his PhD program in 1987, when he was known as Jimmy. That PhD dissertation starts out being about author F. O. Matthiessen and how his writing was affected by falling in love with Russel Cheney in 1924. Also at the time Jimmy is dating Gregory, though Jimmy can seem to annoy Gregory easily. In 2016 James has published a novel, also called American Scholar, a fictionalized telling of the lives and love of Matthiessen and Cheney, who were real people. He gives a public reading from the book, has dinner with friends, then stalls going home to his husband Fran. Yeah, not a lot happens. This is a low-key book. The relationship with Gregory is interesting, but to me it gets bogged down with comparisons to Matthiessen and Cheney. The relationship with Fran, of which little is said until the last chapter, sounds like it would have been much more interesting. Another annoyance is there are characters named Jimmy, Jerry, and Jay. I had to work to keep them separate. In the author notes at the end Horrigan reveals this novel is a fictional version of his own life, same sort of love when working on his PhD, same sort of long-term relationship afterward. In the chapters on life in 1987 he describes Gregory living with friends in a “farmhouse” with a courtyard on Manhattan. From the location and description I think I found it here. Turn the image towards the northeast. A brief addition to my love of the opera The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay discussed yesterday. At the bottom of the Met Opera webpage for this opera are several videos of scenes from the opera. One is for the duet “Imagine” in which Joe and Rosa sing about America being the place where the oppressed of the world can come. It’s a strong contrast to how the administration is treating those not born here. Another video is “Top of the Empire State Building” where Sam realizes he’s in love with Tracy. In the comments of Tuesday’s pundit roundup for Daily Kos is a 13 minute video by Caolan Robertson. He says at the recent Davos meeting Europe changed forever, there is no going back. He explains a bit of what Davos is – countries and big corporations come in and essentially take over the main shops for the week, rebranding them with names such as Russia House or Ukraine House. The big events that week were the official speeches by Canadian PM Mark Carney, the nasty guy (big on complaints and threats but everyone wanted to witness it), then Zelenskyy of Ukraine. In between those the Ukraine House held a breakfast session that was interrupted so that Steve Witkoff, the lead US negotiator on Ukraine, could say a few words, and those words were pro Russia, an insult to the Ukrainians whose microphone he co-opted. Robertson was the only reporter to follow Witkoff out of the room to ask about his investments in Russia. Witkoff did not respond, which is an answer. Yes, the chief US negotiator in Ukraine does better when Russia does better – a direct conflict of interest. Robertson says that too many reporters at Davos want to keep coming back to hobnob with the rich and get the free canapes and champagne, so don’t want to upset the rich with embarrassing questions. This is also a conflict of interest. Robertson was told he won’t be invited back. The way Europe was changed forever was that its leaders had to actually confront its problems. I hadn’t heard about Robertson before. Wikipedia says his name is Irish (pronounced “KAY-lan”), he’s 29, works and a journalist and influencer, and has been based in Ukraine since after the war started. He also recounts that for about 3 years starting about age 20 he was involved in far-right politics. He has said recovering from that is like leaving a cult. He’s also gay and knew that from “a very young age.” On Instagram he announced he has found love. The nasty guy’s Board of Peace was created a week ago, but I haven’t had time to write about it until now. NPR host A Martínez talked to diplomatic correspondent Michele Kelemen. The Board was supposed to be an international body overseeing the rebuilding of Gaza. But the founding document doesn’t mention Gaza at all and sounds like a substitute to the United Nations or at least its Security Council. Back when the Board was explicitly about Gaza the UN endorsed its creation. The nasty guy invited many countries to join (and didn’t invite others). Those invited include the leaders of Turkey, Qatar, Argentina, Hungary, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Belarus, Russia, and Israel. Some have already accepted. Do you see the common element of those countries? All of them have an authoritarian leader. Carney of Canada has reservations about joining. He will write checks directly to Palestinians. When Macron of France declined to join the nasty guy threatened a 200% tariff on French wine. The Board has two levels of membership. A country can join for free for a three-year term. Or they can pay $1 billion for a permanent seat – with the nasty guy as chair for as long as he wants, even after he leaves the Oval Office. That was followed with Leila Fadel talking to Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and a founding member of The Elders, a group of world leaders who advocate for peace and first convened by Nelson Mandela. Robinson said:

I don't call it the Board of Peace. I call it the board of the power of one person. It is totally bizarre. And countries should not support it at all. It is not a peacemaking organization.

Her complaints: The nasty guy controls all. He’s the chairman and chooses his successor. He invites countries and bullies those that refuse. Only rich countries can be permanent members. He is the only one who can create, modify, or dissolve subsidiary bodies. It’s an outrageous way to replace the UM Security Council. It’s only purpose is to empower the nasty guy. Countries should not join. Carney was right when at Davos he described a rupture of the international system. The nasty guy is largely responsible for that. But a rupture isn’t the end of a rules-based order, which now must be reaffirmed and supported by other countries. Yes, there are problems with the UN Security Council. It is based on world power as of 1945 and the world has changed a lot since then. The UN can be reformed and should be. It needs to engage and protect the smaller countries and the multipolar power of today. Maybe the veto should be eliminated.

It's hard to see [the Board of Peace] getting legitimacy when the power is the power of President Trump alone. That is not legitimacy for any global order. And we see that he - you know, he loses interest after a while. I think he's lost interest in Gaza.

In a pundit roundup for Kos for Thursday a week ago Chitown Kev quoted Iker Seisdedos of El País in English who reported invitations went to 60 countries. The world has about 200 countries.

A dozen capitals, in a list that grows by the hour, have already announced their participation. These include countries ranging from Albania to Israel — despite the latter’s discomfort with the participation of Egypt and Qatar — and Morocco, Argentina, and Hungary. Some are long-standing allies of the United States. Others depend too heavily on U.S. support to defy Washington. The rest have leaders close to Trump. While the motivations of its initial partners seem clear, the merits required for an invitation beyond Washington’s discretion, its final composition, and the extent of its mission beyond its primary objective — advancing the peace plan imposed by the United States on Israel and Hamas to end the Gaza war — are less so. Its founding document doesn’t even mention the Gaza Strip. It is also a mystery which of its members will be willing to pay the $1 billion that a permanent seat will cost. Washington maintains that this money will be used for the reconstruction of Gaza, although its plans have not yet been made public.

We’ve seen the nasty guy’s plans for Gaza and the Pandemic Prince recently touted them again to turn Gaza into a resort. So we know what he means by “reconstruction” – he means without Palestinians. And are there any procedures and watchdogs to keep those billions from falling into the nasty guy’s own pockets? In the comments Michael Harriot tweeted:

BlackCheck: Trump says Civil Rights Act led to whites being “very badly treated.” Did the Civil Rights Act oppress the people who are overrepresented in homeownership, legislatures, the judicial branch, wealth, income, school funding, college admission, executive leadership & white tears distribution?

There is a link to Harriot’s Contraband Camp for a full explanation. A tweet from Rep. Thomas Massie discussing oil from seized Venezuelan ships.

Selling stolen oil and putting billions of dollars in a bank in Qatar to be spent without Congressional approval is not Constitutional. Only Congress can appropriate money. The President can’t legally create a second Treasury overseas for his own piggy bank. Wake up Congress.

A tweet from The Atlantic with a link to the full article (behind a paywall). After the tweet is the article heading and subheading.

The Christian fundamentalists and evangelicals aligning with ICE are "prying Christianity further and further away from the ethic and teachings of Jesus," @Peter_Wehner argues. MAGA Jesus is Not the Real Jesus. Trump is causing incalculable damage to the Christian faith, yet most evangelicals will never break with him.

The reason is simple. They’ve redefined Christianity to be about power and not about the love Jesus taught. In today’s pundit roundup Kov quoted Adam Serwer of The Atlantic:

If the Minnesota resistance has an overarching ideology, you could call it “neighborism”—a commitment to protecting the people around you, no matter who they are or where they came from. The contrast with the philosophy guiding the Trump administration couldn’t be more extreme. Vice President Vance has said that “it is totally reasonable and acceptable for American citizens to look at their next-door neighbors and say, ‘I want to live next to people who I have something in common with. I don’t want to live next to four families of strangers.’” Minnesotans are insisting that their neighbors are their neighbors whether they were born in Minneapolis or Mogadishu. That is, arguably, a deeply Christian philosophy, one apparently loathed by some of the most powerful Christians in America.

Paul Krugman, writing for his own Substack:

We’re fortunate that Trump is too impatient, too addicted to violence, to pursue the salami tactics Viktor Orban used in Hungary — slicing the institutions of democracy away gradually and insidiously until there was nothing left. Trump, instead, is trying to speedrun the process, shocking and aweing the nation into submission. The siege of Minneapolis was clearly meant as a show of force that would intimidate not just undocumented immigrants, but blue states as a whole and opponents in general. It was entirely predictable that innocent people would be dragged from their cars, beaten, pepper-sprayed in the eyes, and killed... However, MAGA has clearly been shocked by the way the people of Minnesota responded. Rather than rolling over in submission, ordinary citizens quickly organized highly effective resistance. Although they haven’t stopped ICE’s reign of terror, they have thrown a lot of sand in its gears.

Jennifer Rubin of The Contrarian Substack discussing the ICE murder in Minneapolis:

The notion that only some victims are truly deserving, or can be relatable to many Americans, is the unsettling but undeniable conclusion after years of ignoring Black victims of police abuse or of disregarding the cruel, violent deportation of Hispanics. Enumerable studies have provided evidence that a victim’s race significantly affects the level of coverage and public reaction to the tragedy...Even white killers receive more public sympathy than do non-white killers. Then along comes Alex Pretti: white, a VA ICU nurse, a young man of unassailable character — and a responsible gun owner to boot! His unprovoked death and his baseless smearing jarred a great many people not previously disturbed by violence against Hispanics, Blacks, Asians, or women. For seemingly the first time, many Americans could not look away and say, “Well, that would never happen to me.”

In the comments Fiona Webster posted a cartoon by Dr. MacLeod. It shows a clergyman kneeling and praying while approached by police with handcuffs. The caption says:

My administration will not tolerate anti-Christian weaponization of government or unlawful conduct targeting Christians. -- Donald Trump, Feb 2025

Will Stancil tweeted a photo of a Minnesota protest and the crowd is huge. The photo is from the New York Times. Joni Askola tweeted:

American tech billionaires are making a calculated bet on fascism. They believe they can control a dictator in exchange for deregulation and total market dominance. They don’t care about your right or the constitution. They only care about securing their own power.

They’re also wrong in their bet: They can’t control a dictator. He will do things they don’t like. Their praise of him must be constantly renewed and one misstep and he’ll turn on them.