Arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement of people with no criminal record are surging. Federal immigration agents have shot at nearly two dozen people – most of them Latino – since last year, according to The New York Times. Those include the fatal shootings of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas and Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine.
Drooling Putin can't believe brain-dead Jared Kushner's breathtaking gift
I heard once, not sure where, but it sticks in my head, that a junior writer asked legendary Chicago-based columnist Mike Royko how he was able to write a column every single day. He replied something to the effect of, “Write about what makes you angry.”
I think about that anecdote often — actually, all the time. It is damn hard sometimes to figure out not just what makes you mad, but what makes you the maddest, since there are so many things coming from the Trump administration that boil the blood.
He floods the zone with news, but he also floods the zone with a deluge of despair.
Lost in all the recent flooding and deluge was something that was particularly anger-inducing. While everyone was fixated on the horror of a Russian oligarch paying for the wedding party of Donald Trump Jr., The New Yorker’s Dexter Filkins wrote about another Trump family member, the loathsome Jared Kushner.
And it should make every American furious.
According to Filkins’ reporting, which was brilliant, extensive and jaw-dropping, Kushner and fellow envoy Steve Witkoff showed up to February talks with Iran in Geneva without a technical adviser in the room, despite the Department of Energy having assigned one to Witkoff specifically.
In the story, a former White House official who had handled Iran’s nuclear file called the preparation “total malpractice.” Another Kushner associate, more bluntly, told Filkins Trump's son-in-law was “way out of his depth.”
These are not partisan hacks trashing Kushner. These are people who worked alongside him.
Gotta stop here. One must feel like they rolled around in tar, mud and excrement after working alongside Kushner.
While Kushner and Witkoff were reportedly negotiating with Iran in the mornings and discussing Russia’s war on Ukraine in the afternoons, Filkins wrote that Kushner was also quietly working Middle Eastern investors for a fresh $5 billion for his private equity firm, Affinity Partners.
Within hours of the two men returning to Washington and reporting that Iran wouldn’t budge, American and Israeli forces struck Iran and killed much of its senior leadership, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Questions immediately surfaced about whether the fundraising and the diplomacy were connected.
Um, do you think? Like his crooked and corrupt father-in-law, Kushner does nothing that doesn’t include the sound of ching, ching, ching.
Kushner’s Affinity Partners has grown into a multibillion-dollar operation whose largest backer is Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, with additional money from the UAE and Qatar — the very region Kushner is supposedly representing American interests in, not the wealth of his shady firm, which has also poured hundreds of millions into Israeli companies.
So when Kushner jets off to Pakistan or the Gulf in his capacity as a “special envoy,” is he there for the United States, or for Affinity?
That is probably the silliest question I have ever asked.
Filkins’ reporting on Kushner’s involvement with Russia is even more horrifying. If anything, it’s worse and more anger-inducing. Kushner reportedly talked about ending the war in Ukraine in the language of a “win-win” business arrangement. And this is the part that made my head pop off.
How obtuse can you be to think that stopping Russia’s devastating war on Ukraine would be solved via a business deal? Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine because he wants to rebuild the Russian empire. Further, Putin is perhaps the richest man on Earth, so Kushner’s puny little $5 billion deals are child’s play to him.
And it gets worse. According to Filkins’ story, Kushner and Witkoff reportedly traveled to Moscow to meet Putin, riding in a Russian limousine instead of a U.S. Embassy vehicle.
Let’s stop here again. How stupid, ignorant and careless can you be to ride in a Russian limousine when you are ostensibly representing the United States of America? Did these morons not even consider that the car was bugged? And that’s just the beginning. What in God’s name were they thinking?
Can you imagine what Vladimir Putin was saying about these bozos while he was listening in on their conversation?
Here’s how much respect Putin has for Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Filkins writes that the day after that meeting, Russia launched one of its largest assaults of the war on Ukraine. I can imagine Putin saying, “OK, boys, time to run off. I have bombs to drop and more people to kill.”
Kushner is not some “special envoy.” He’s an avaricious money-grubber. He has zero understanding of Iran’s revolutionary theocracy or the motivations of Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer who has spent a career outmaneuvering people far, far, far more experienced than the dim-witted Kushner.
And what in the hell does Kushner know about nuclear diplomacy, the history of European land wars, Russian conquest, Middle Eastern religions, regional faiths, or sectarian and minority groups?
He’s just a silver-spooned real estate dealmaker and a wolf in sheep’s clothing when it comes to hoarding cash.
Career diplomats and national security professionals who spent their lives learning how these regimes actually think have been sidelined. And in their place: Kushner. OMFG!
Honestly, what have we come to when Filkins’ story barely registers in the national media and on cable shows? There should be tremendous outrage. Well, there is from me, for sure.
He and his carnival sidekick Witkoff haven’t even come close to producing peace in Ukraine or Iran. If anything, both situations are worse because of their absurd involvement.
Unfortunately, voters don’t get to fire Jared Kushner. But they take a big whack at him this November by electing a Congress willing to hold him to account and demand that America’s foreign policy be run by experienced, learned, knowledgeable professionals.
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A Trojan horse threatens to turn America into a puppet nation — and it's inside the gates
As a veteran, the oath I took to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, did not come with an expiration date. National security is not solely the responsibility of the military or even law enforcement. It begins with ensuring a government of, by, and for the people cannot be bought by the ultra-wealthy or left vulnerable to foreign influence.
A nation whose elected officials are propped up by foreign countries and shadow entities is not a sovereign nation, but a puppet. It is time to cut the strings.
As we mark Constitution Day this Sept. 17, I ask my fellow veterans to put that oath into practice through active civic participation. Take action to stand up for a country that is not run by the highest bidder.
Our nation’s Founders anticipated this exact vulnerability. George Washington called foreign influence “one of the most baneful foes of republican government,” while Thomas Jefferson warned that preserving liberty required constant vigilance against corruption and outside interference.
Unchecked dark money and foreign-backed interests are pouring into our elections, bending public policy toward priorities that do not serve the American public. Veterans, working families, and everyday citizens are being drowned out by massive financial influence from masked donors we cannot match.
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Here in Maryland, State Board of Elections filings reflect the same reality we see nationwide: Out-of-state funding and deep-pocketed donors dominate campaign finance, sidelining Marylanders. But this is not just a Maryland problem, and it is not one that we can solve alone. We need a national response.
According to an Ipsos Poll, Americans across the political spectrum agree that campaign spending is not speech that should be unregulated. Voters overwhelmingly agree that citizens and their elected representatives should be the ones setting the limits, without the Supreme Court sweeping away those protections. In 1976, in Buckley v. Valeo, the Supreme Court determined that spending unlimited money on political campaigns is protected as free speech. In 2010, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission extended that “right” to corporations.
If money in politics is free speech, then most everyday Americans have no voice at all. Billionaires and corporate entities can spend sums in a single cycle that the vast majority of us will never see in a lifetime.
Americans of all political persuasions are uniting behind a clear objective: passing a constitutional amendment that restores the power to regulate election money to Congress and the states. The movement is real, and the moment has arrived.
The For Our Freedom Amendment, championed by American Promise, achieves exactly that by authorizing state and federal oversight of “contributions and spending in campaigns, elections, or ballot measures.” It has been introduced in Congress and needs active support to reach the floor for a vote.
Why is an amendment necessary? There are only two ways to overturn the Supreme Court: Wait for the court to reverse its own precedent, which is not happening here, or use the mechanism we learned about in high school civics, a constitutional amendment. The ultimate check and balance.
This Constitution Day cannot pass without notice. Having pledged our lives to defend this Republic, veterans hold both the standing and the moral obligation to demand a higher standard. We did not serve this country only to watch foreign wealth and billionaire mega-donors choose our leaders for us.
Fellow veterans, we no longer wear the uniform, but our duty is not finished. Our time standing in formations may be over, but our oath to the Constitution never expires. While we served, many of us were unable to be engaged in politics. That time has passed; we are home, and we are still serving, and we cannot do this alone.
Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: info@marylandmatters.org.