Family Ties

The Lincoln Project is a political action committee formed in late 2019 by prominent Never Trump Republicans George Conway, Reed Galen, Steve Schmidt, John Weaver, and Rick Wilson. It has been dedicated to defeating Donald Trump's re-election bid and has released a few videos in the last few months.

Now that Joe Biden is the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee, the group has penned an op-ed in The Washington Post in which it argues

Unlike Trump, Biden is not an international embarrassment, nor does he demonstrate malignant narcissism. A President Biden will steady the ship of state and begin binding up the wounds of a fractured country. We have faith that Biden will surround himself by advisers of competence, expertise and wisdom, not an endless parade of disposable lackeys.

That's entirely accurate other than the "binding up the wounds of a fractured country" bit.  If Trump is defeated, the burn it down ethos will prevail in a Republican Party which is in no mood now, and would be in no mood then, to give a Democratic President any help in creating "a truly united America."

As long as there is a GOP bearing any resemblance to the one of at least the past dozen years, there will not be the "epiphany" Joe Biden dreams of. The members of the Lincoln Project continue to belong to that same party whose divide and conquer strategy has been directed not only to the opposing party but to Americans unfortunate not to belong to Society of Super Rich Individuals.

But it is an advantage that they remain part of the Republican Party. While the chance they will convince voters that "the nation cannot afford another four years of chaos, duplicity and Trump’s reality distortion" is limited, it is greater than it would be if they had switched parties.

Moreover, because The Lincoln Project is not part of the Biden campaign, it can produce videos which might be risky emanating from the candidate's own people. And it now has done so with the following:

Traditionally, criticizing a member of a rival candidate's family has been dangerous. But Donald Trump has erased this norm and he has so many others. There is a reason Republicans have tried to turn Hunter Biden into a scandal, to blow out of proportion his questionable behavior in joining the Board of Directors of Burisma Holdings.

Moreover, Mainland China's culpability in SARS-CoV-2 cannot be wished away or ignored.  Trump supporters already have been playing the China card, and they're going to play it for all its worth.

Playing defense will not work for Democrats, whether in the matter of corrupt family activities- infinitely greater with the Trumps than with the Bidens- nor with China. Supporters of the Biden candidacy cannot be squeamish about attacking Donald Trump on both scores and "Making China Great Again" is a great first step.

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Turn The Tables

And the winner of the Democratic debate on Tuesday night will be..... the candidate who (almost) follows Jennifer Rubin's advice. The pro-Biden, pro-Buttigieg neo-conservative columnist writes

Biden’s campaign has yet to call for the Trump children to take the same pledge as Hunter Biden, but it really should consider going on offense. Ivanka, Jared, Eric and Donald Trump Jr. are the poster children for familial corruption.

Tuesday’s debate is the perfect forum for Democrats to end the double standard that serves to shelter the Trump clan from scrutiny for continuing to perpetrate massive conflicts and self-dealing while targeting Joe Biden and his son, who have done the right thing in promising to raise the bar on ethics if Biden wins. It would be a good idea for all the Democratic candidates to promise that their own adult children will follow Hunter Biden’s example. Most important, it is time to shame the media and Congress into investigating the corruption going on as we speak. Ivanka, Jared, Eric and Donald Trump Jr. have been given the kid glove treatment by the media and Congress (the latter for fear of generating sympathy for the Trump offspring!). That needs to end.

Rubin is responding to the report from Bloomberg that "Hunter Biden is stepping down from the board of a Chinese-backed private equity company and promising to forgo all foreign work if his father, former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, is elected president in 2020.”

Before we lionize Hunter (or Joe) Biden, we must acknowledge that Hunter, a lawyer and hedge fund manager, had no experience pertaining to Ukraine when he took the $50,000 per month position as a member of the Board of Directors of a fossil fuel company.   He was tapped for one reason and one reason only and thereby jammed up his father, who had not foreclosed the possibility of running for President of the United States of America... against a guy who rails about "the swamp."

Nonetheless, GOP charges against Joe Biden pertaining to Burisma are false and reprehensible, and demonstrably so. Thus, it is time for the Democratic candidates, and the debate an ideal time for one Democratic candidate, to support the Bidens. That would not be Hunter Biden,  who was no juvenile, and while children are not responsible for the sins of their fathers, a father is not responsible for the sin of his adult son.

The candidate would benefit by promptly, at the earliest possible moment, making it clear that he (or she, of whom there are fewer) differs on several matters with the former vice-president but not on this. It would be done- as Rubin seems to understand- not by playing defense but by going on offense. Hunter Biden may be a bad seed- but Donald Jr. and Ivanka are definitively stinking, rotten seeds.

As Rubin implies, the Trump family has set records for greed, self-dealing, and endangering national security by pursuing business ahead of the national interest. Additionally,  she argues, the Trumps "have been given the kid glove treatment by the media and Congress (the latter for fear of generating sympathy for the Trump offspring!). That needs to end."

Go ahead, Democrats: criticize the media.  It's a classic of the GOP playbook, a tried-and-true strategy. Observing this, Democrats have been conned into thinking that journalists and media personalities are their own friends.  Perhaps in part for this reason, the Democratic National Committee, stung by criticism that it put its thumb on the scale for its leading candidate in the 2016 primary season, has been largely,unforgivably, silent.  

But when thrown a hanging curve, swing. Criticizing the media simply is not done by Democratic politicians or interests groups. There is a hungry constituency, one waiting for Democrats to stand up for themselves as a party, a unit, and in this case, a family.

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The Daughter As Reprobate

President Donald Trump has announced that he's going to open a federal investigation into Ivanka Trump.

There is no chance of  the President doing that, of course, unless it's a probe into why Ivanka prefers Jared to himself. However, last week he did argue "China should start an investigation into the Bidens, because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine" and on Sunday morning....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 6, 2019

(Actually, that was $50.000 per month, he didn't get $1.5 billion from China- and what is "plus, plus?" A takeoff on covfefe?)

So if Donald Trump weren't a flaming hypocrite, he'd be asking China to take on Ivanka Trump Kushner, whom we learned in January had been granted by Communist China five trademarks, six months after she announced that she was closing her fashion brand.

Ivanka has learned to diversify, however, and her income does not come only from expanding manufacturing opportunities for Chinese workers. A few months ago we learned that she had

made nearly $4 million from her father's Washington DC hotel in 2018, NBC news reported, citing new financial disclosures released by the White House on Friday.

In total, the historic post office turned hotel brought in $40.8 million for President Trump and his family in 2018, up about half a million from 2017.

But the hotel is also a source of headaches for the Trump administration, the Associated Press reported. It's top spot as a haunt for foreign diplomats and lobbyists has resulted in two federal lawsuits which claim the President is violating a constitutional ban on foreign government payments to the commander in chief.

Ivanka, while not an official White House staff member, also saw family income in 2018 from her husband and Senior White House advisor, Jared Kushner's real estate holdings.

The AP reported that the Kushner Co's slate of apartment buildings and commercial properties in New York generated $1.5 million, while another holding for commercial buildings brought in $6 million.

The sun rises in the east, sets in the west, July is hot in Miami Beach, and members of the Trump family are using the White House, and Americans, to increase their personal fortunes. We've known it for years, but it's always useful to remember that Donald Trump is not the only Trump setting records for conflicts of interest, greed and corruption.

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The Newest Fans Of Donald Trump

The title of the video from The Guardian is "Trump surprised by response from women in white during State of the Union address."

The odds of that are slim and none, and slim is headed out of town on Amtrak headed south.

Donald Trump is a showman and master manipulator, whose political career was launched when he successfully pulled off the con of the century on "The Apprentice" as the billionaire, self- made businessman. In peak form, the President boasted "No one has benefited more from a thriving economy than women, who have filled 58% of the newly-created jobs last year."

Evidently unaware that the President had just trumpeted his stewardship of the economy, the women jumped up, cheered, and enthusiastically demonstrated their approval.  With perfect timing, Trump went with one of his most successful lies yet: "you weren't supposed to do that."

Of course they were. Donald Trump is the penultimate egotist, the man who is the best at everything, or so he tells us. Deeply egocentric, he understands that the female class of 2018 is not self-absorbed, but nonetheless absorbed in their identity as a group of women who fought the odds and won, usually beating a man, to become members of the United States House of Representatives.

Trump masterfully played to that group identity and in so doing, played the ladies. However, he wasn't done, crowing

Thank you, thank you very much. Don't sit yet- you're going to like this. And exactly one century after Congress passed the constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote, we also have more women serving in Congress than at any time before.  

Smiling and pointing, he was like the snake-oil salesmen of old, who also knew their audience. The women in white responded enthusiastically, roaring their approval with high-fives all around, at least among themselves. The camera panned to Ivanka and other the other women in the Trump entourage, standing, smiling, and applauding, with the implicit message: they're all-in.

As the attendees chanted "USA! USA! USA!", President Trump was understandably gratified that with the assistance of mostly male, Republican members of Congress, he had manipulated numerous and  presumably leftist Democrats to repeat a mantra associated with the GOP.  He graciously responded with a smile and "that's great. Very great. And congratulations, that's great."

No, congratulations to you, Mr. President. These women are arguably your most fervent political enemies and in a matter of moments, you turned them in front of a national audience into an exuberant (albeit temporary) addition to your base.They were played, happily so. And better yet: they probably don't even realize they were exposed and abused for your political advantage.








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Who Is Your Father, Again?

There probably is no special place in hell for her or for her father. But there is a huge "H" waiting to be claimed, as it should be, by the individual closer to Donald Trump than anyone else- including Vladimir Putin, Rodrigo Duterte, and Xi Jinping- in the world.

Special Assistant to the President Ivanka Trump 

had harsh words for the alleged behavior of Roy Moore, the Republican candidate for Senate in Alabama.

Trump weighed in on the scandal to the AP, saying: "There's a special place in hell for people who prey on children. I've yet to see a valid explanation and I have no reason to doubt the victims' accounts."

She did not call for Moore to exit the race.

"There's a special place in hell for people who prey on children;" this from Ivanka Trump, who seems blithely, happily unaware of her hypocrisy.

Her father never has been accused of "preying on children," notwithstanding the fifteen (15) adult women who have accused him of sexual harassment or assault. Still, speaking on air in 2005to Howard Stern

“Before a show, I’ll go backstage and everyone’s getting dressed, and everything else, and you know, no men are anywhere, and I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant and therefore I’m inspecting it,” he said. “You know, I’m inspecting because I want to make sure that everything is good.”

“You know, they’re standing there with no clothes. ‘Is everybody okay?’” he continued. “And you see these incredible looking women, and so, I sort of get away with things like that.”

Trump always has had his standards. He told Stern "I have age limit. I don't want to be like Congressman Foley, with, you know, 12-year-olds."

We're relieved- no seventh graders for Donald Trump.  However, tenth graders were evidently fine inasmuch as

Four women who competed in the 1997 Miss Teen USA beauty pageant said Donald Trump walked into the dressing room while contestants — some as young as 15 — were changing.

“I remember putting on my dress really quick because I was like, ‘Oh my god, there’s a man in here,’” said Mariah Billado, the former Miss Vermont Teen USA.

Trump, she recalled, said something like, “Don’t worry, ladies, I’ve seen it all before.”

Three other women, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of getting engulfed in a media firestorm, also remembered Trump entering the dressing room while girls were changing. Two of them said the girls rushed to cover their bodies, with one calling it “shocking” and “creepy.” The third said she was clothed and introduced herself to Trump.

Then there was the time that

Eight former “Apprentice” crew members told the AP Trump once compared a camerawoman’s beauty to his daughter’s, making repeated comments about the camerawoman’s behind.

A former contestant on the show, Poppy Carlig, said Trump once asked her to twirl in front of him so he could look at her figure.

“I don’t immediately jump to the conclusion that people are having bad intentions with what they are saying,” Carlig told the AP. “He said I reminded him of his daughter and I thought that was really touching because I know how much he values his family.”

Yes, Donald Trump values his family, including his daughter, just not in the way that you, the reader, does, unless you're on lifetime supervision for a sex offense.  And who can forget the time that Trump on ABC's The View stated "if Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps, I would be dating her.”





It's unlikely Donald was talking about taking her for an afternoon of fishing, to the neigborhood malt shop, or for square dancing at the local Presbyterian Church. Nonetheless, Ivanka sat next to him, smiling all through it, not thinking "There's a special place in hell for people who prey on children" or openly lust for their daughters. 

It would be presumptuous to supplant God's prerogative and suggest there is a special place in hell for Ivanka Trump or even her lascivious father.  But maybe a special place in heaven could be reserved for her if she would do us all the favor of going away, now and permanently.





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Defending The Whole Package

It wasn't pre-meditated, so they can't be charged with murder in the first degree. But Ali Velshi and Stephanie Ruhle should be charged with manslaughter following their interview on MSNBC with Representative Lee Zeldin, a Republican from New York.  A Crooks and Liar diarist notes

"I've had an opportunity to spend some quality time with Ivanka and a little bit of time with Jared [Kushner] as well," Zeldin explained. "I am super impressed with Ivanka Trump. She brings a tremendous amount of intellect and class. She cares about certain issues -- child care tax credits, paid family leave."

MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle interrupted: "Can I just say one thing? As much as I appreciate you talking about fine manners and class. As a professional woman and a mother, it's tough for me to stomach someone looking at me and talking about the great class, when you have the most senior woman in the White House saying nothing when her father says vicious things about a news anchor."

"That statement is just tough to swallow," Ruhle said.

"Well, yeah" Zeldin stuttered. "Ivanka obviously loves her father."

"I love mine too," Ruhle shot back.

"Ivanka Trump, she is super smart," Zeldin insisted. "She is highly capable in her own right. She could be a great United States senator."

"What are her credentials?" Ruhle wondered.

"She's got the full package," the congressman declared.

Given that Donald Trump is famous (not infamous, if we can be honest) for once saying of Ivanka "if she weren't my daughter, perhaps I'd be dating her," it's not surprising Trump surrogate Zeldin would describe the President's daugher as having "the full package." Still, Ruhle persisted:

"What are her credentials to be a United States senator?" Ruhle repeated.

Zeldin pinned Ivanka Trump's Senate qualifications to the fact that she is a businesswoman who wants lower taxes.

"She makes all of her products overseas," Ruhle observed.

Co-host Ali Velshi agreed: "She does not make a single product in America. Does that not move you at all?"

Zeldin then argued that the interview was unfair.

"All of the sudden, it's one question after another, trying to get me to beat up on Ivanka Trump," he griped. "How is she qualified for United States senator? Making our tax code more competitive."





Zeldin stated "first off, there are six million different ways to becoming a United States senator," though to be fair to him, were Jared's wife not Jewish, Zeldin probably would have said "five million," "four million," or "many." But he was rattled, so we move on to Zeldin contending

But so you can start with someone's experience in business, someone's ability to understand our tax code, and you know what is preventing a business from expanding and creating more jobs.. We're upset when jobs leave our country.

Of course, Ivanka Trump, shipping jobs overseas, is among the reasons jobs are leaving our country. In October, 2016 there was an inspection, conducted by of the factory at which her clothing line is manufactured, by "an industry self-monitoring collective, the Fair Labor Association, which includes companies like Nike" and

Workers at the G-III factory in China were required to work 57 hours a week “on a regular basis” to hit production targets, inspectors found. Though Chinese law sets the limit for overtime at 36 hours per month, workers in all of the factory’s departments exceeded that limit, working up to 82 hours of overtime a month between September 2015 and August 2016. The factory’s workers made between 1,879 and 2,088 yuan a month, or roughly $255 to $283, which would be below minimum wage in some parts of China. The average manufacturing employee in urban China made twice as much money as the factory’s workers, or roughly 4,280 yuan a month, according to national data from 2014.

Fewer than a third of the factory’s workers were offered legally mandated coverage under China’s “social insurance” benefits, including a pension and medical, maternity, unemployment and work-related injury insurance, inspectors found. The factory also did not contribute, as legally required, to a fund designed to help workers afford housing, inspectors said. Workers earned five days of leave a year, though a small fraction of experienced employees were eligible for more …
Inspectors also cited the factory for a number of workplace safety concerns.

Quite the model capitalist, the President's daughter is. But Zeldin argued that Ms. Trump has other important characteristics because "as a great mom, as a great wife, she has great education, she has great ideas on important isues that help families." Zeldin told us neither why this particular "great" mom and wife is any more qualfied to be a trusted adviser to the President of the United States than your next-door neighbor, nor how he knows she is a "great" mom and wife. (Funny, isn't it, how the more prestigious and allegedly demanding professional job an individual has, the more he or she is venerated as a great spouse and parent?)  Further, while Ivanka Trump was allegedly utilizing all her great qualifications

the Trump White House signed an executive order revoking another Obama order, this one requiring that companies with federal contracts comply with labor and civil rights laws. Two gender-protective rules were gutted: paycheck transparency and a ban on forced arbitration clauses in sexual harassment, assault, and discrimination cases. As she was taking a strong public stand for feminism, Ivanka’s dad was taking a strong public stand defending an alleged sexual predator (Bill O'Reilly).





It's not surprising that Ivanka Trump has devoted supporters among conservatives. Her recently-published book "Women Who Work: Rewriting Rules for Success" is both a paean to corporate capitalism and while entitled "Women Who Work," promotes the virtue of women on the fast-track to financial succcess and rests on the assumption that homemakers do not work.  Criticizing the tome, Michelle Goldberg observed

Ivanka contrasts “proactive” people, who are “passionate and productive,” with “negative people,” those who are “swayed by the external and are frequently the victim of circumstance.” Her worldview, it turns out, is not so different from her father’s. Both see society through the lens of quasi-mystical corporate self-help, the sort pioneered by Norman Vincent Peale, author of The Power of Positive Thinking and a major influence on Donald Trump. In their schema, success is proof of virtue and people are to blame for their own misfortune. If Ivanka Trump hasn’t expressed any outrage at the cruelties her father is inflicting on the poor and vulnerable, it may well be because she doesn't feel any.





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She Called It

Are you looking to bet on the NBA championship? Perhaps gambling on the eventual winner of the World Series is more your interest. Or perhaps you're looking to get an edge on the stock market.

If so, you should contact Arwa Mahdawi, who penned (typed?) in the Guardian an opinion piece which was posted at 12:53 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Tuesday. She noted Ivanka Trump

was loudly jeered at the W20 summit on women’s economic empowerment in Berlin. Speaking on a high-profile panel which included Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany, and Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Ivanka Trump drew groans and laughter when she defended her father’s attitudes toward women and described him as “a tremendous champion” of working families.

Mahdawi pointed out that the President's favorite daughter

has been accused of sexual assault and sexual harassment by at least 15 women (accusations that he denies). It’s worth remembering that he paid men on his campaign staff one-third more than women, while Hillary Clinton paid equal wages, according to an analysis of payroll data last year.

Those are mere (not "alternative") facts, and with moderate insight Mahdaw argues

If she wants to be taken seriously as an advocate of women, she needs to stop listening and start speaking. Her silence since her father has cut funding for women’s reproductive rights, for example, has been deafening. If she wants to be taken seriously as an advocate for women, then she needs to stop her meaningless platitudes about “empowering women” and actually start using her position to empower women.

 But then Ms. Mahdawi exhibited  impressive psychic powers. She remarked that it was not only appropriate that Ms. Trump/Mrs. Kushner was booed at the summit but should be "booed off the world stage."  She contended

There is no doubt that Trump is influential and that she has her father’s ear. But there also seems to be no doubt by now that she doesn’t plan to use this influence to help empower any women whose last name isn’t Trump. She is still, as she told Gayle King in an interview earlier this month, “her father’s daughter”.

She certainly is.  Mike Allen, formerly of Politico and now of Axios, wrote this morning- approximately nineteen hours after Mahdaw-


Ivanka Trump told me yesterday from Berlin that she has begun building a massive fund that will benefit female entrepreneurs around the globe. Both countries and companies will contribute to create a pool of capital to economically empower women.

"The statistics and results prove that when you invest in women and girls, it benefits both developed and developing economies," she said. "Women are an enormous untapped resource, critical to the growth of all countries."

Under the radar: Canadians, Germans and a few Middle Eastern countries have already made  quiet commitments, as have several corporations, a source said.

How it'll work: The fund will provide working and growth capital to small- and medium-sized  enterprises.

Who's involved: President Trump is a huge supporter of his daughter's idea, and she has consulted     with World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim about how to pull it off in a huge way.


Josh Marshall asks

Is this even envisioned as a foundation and non-profit? Or is Ivanka setting up something like a venture capital or private equity fund? i.e., one designed to make a profit?

As is the case on many other fronts, Trump and his family ran the 2016 campaign not so much against Hillary Clinton but a looking glass Hillary Clinton which was actually what they aspired to be and do if they won.

The conflict-of-interest is obvious. The likelihood that the Trump family will somehow financially benefit, directly or indirectly, by this "pool of capital" is less certain- no more assured than that sometime this July, the temperature will top 80 degrees in Miami Beach. Ivanka truly is "her father's daughter" (video below from early this month).

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Family Interests Over National Interests? No Problem.

In a rural county in western New York State which voted heavily for Donald Trump

"He's about action," said Clark, who didn't vote for Trump but said he would do so if he could vote again now. "I believe he's doing pretty much everything he promised to do."

That's what Keith and Bobbi Muhlenbeck think, too.

"We love him," said Keith Muhlenbeck, 46. "We support him in everything he's doing. He's a businessman who knows how to get things done, and you can tell he has America's best interests at heart."

Muhlenbeck is right, you know. He's right as long as "America's" is replaced with "the extended Trump family's."

After Turkish strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan  pushed through a referendum likely to tighten substantially his grip on power, Mother Jones' Ashley Dejean noted

..... Trump's business ties to Turkey create a conflict of interest. That's according to Trump himself. As Mother Jones reported in November, Trump mentioned his Turkey-related conflicts in 2015 during a conversation with Steve Bannon, who was then the executive chairman of Breitbart News. (Bannon would go on to become Trump's chief strategist.)

On Bannon's radio show, Breitbart News Daily, Trump said on December 1, 2015, "I have a little conflict of interest 'cause I have a major, major building in Istanbul. It's a tremendously successful job. It's called Trump Towers—two towers, instead of one, not the usual one, it's two."

Trump was speaking truthfully. He had a vested interest in smooth relations with Ankara. And he owed Erdogan a solid. In 2012, Erdogan presided over the opening ceremony for the Trump Towers. (At the time, Erdogan was prime minister—a role the recently passed referendum would eliminate).

After President Trump issued travel ban 1.0, Snopes explained

The order suspends entry into the U.S. from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen for 90 days. But critics have argued that Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates were not included, even though a report from the Cato Institute showed that the three countries were the point of origin for people responsible for 94.1 percent of American deaths due to terrorist attacks in the U.S. Eighteen of the 19 people responsible for the 11 September 2001 attacks also hailed from those three countries.

Not only is he subjecting foreign policy to a test of how it affects his business interests, the fellow who accused mainland China of currency manipulation and of a "rape" of  the USA now is singing a different tune about the behemoth.   After the President acknowledged the USA's "one China" policy, the Trump Organization was granted preliminary approval for 38 new trademarks.







While Xi Jingping pong ball was dining with Ivanka Trump and her husband at Mar-a-Lago, Mrs. Trump/Kushner was given preliminary approval for three new trademarks in China, allowing her to hawk her line of handbags, wallets and blouses there.

As John Oliver would say, "and now this:"

U.S. President Donald Trump's comments about the Korean peninsula and its historical relationship to China has sparked a diplomatic storm in Seoul.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal last week, Trump said, "Korea actually used to be a part of China."

The president was referring to the peninsula as a whole and what he had learned about Northeast Asia from Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to Quartz.

"[Xi] then went into the history of China and Korea. Not North Korea, Korea. And you know, you're talking about thousands of years...and many wars. And Korea actually used to be a part of China," Trump said.

A Seoul foreign ministry official who spoke anonymously to local newspaper JoongAng Ilbo said the remark was "not even worth considering."

"It is a clear historical fact Korea was not a part of China for thousands of years," the official said. "Nobody can deny that."






"He's doing everything he promised to do," says one fan and "he has America's best interests at heart" says another, both no doubt channeling the thoughts of many Trump supporters.   Naive though the remarks are, they do go a long way to confirm one of Trump's few accurate statements of the past 22 months: "I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters."












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Mrs. Kushner Is A Trump

Several years ago, when right-win talk radio was in its infancy, there was in New York City a conservative show host named Bob Grant, born Robert Ciro Gigante. Lacking a Ph.D. in English grammar but possessing a keen nose for controversy, he often would refer to an individual he disagreed with as "a fake, a phony, and a fraud."

There is no indication whether Grant ever knew Ivanka Trump, but he might as well have. Annie Karni of Politico reports that Ms. Trump recently was interviewed by CBS' Gayle King, wherein she
"defended her role both as a champion of women and as someone who is choosing to stay away from the public fight to defund Planned Parenthood." She

defended her position, arguing that she is playing a long game, and that speaking out on issues where she doesn’t see a win won’t help her be effective in the White House.

“I’ll take hits from some critics who say that I should take to the street,” she said. “And then other people will in the long-term respect where I get to. But I think most of the impact I have, over time most people will not actually know about.” She has also noted that the line item for women’s health increased in the Trump administration’s proposed budget.

The latter smacks as an accounting trick because funding for women's health is cut in Trump's budget.

Most of the impact I have, over time most people will not actually know about. The future may not be ours to see, but the present is in plain view.

The president's daughter and trusted advisor was not able to stop her father from pushing the GOP's healthcare bill by playing on his opposition to reproductive freedom. "The irony is" Trump tweeted on March 24,"that the Freedom Caucus, which is very pro-life and against Planned Parenthood, allows P.P. to continue if they stop this plan!"

Ms. Trump's alleged influence did not extend to Vice President Pence, who on March 30 cast the deciding vote in the Senate to advance a bill which would allow states to deny funding to Planned Parenthood. Nor did it stop daddy from encouraging the legislation when twenty-four days earlier he told The New York Times

As I said throughout the campaign, I am pro-life and I am deeply committed to investing in women’s health and plan to significantly increase federal funding in support of nonabortion services such as cancer screenings.   Polling shows the majority of Americans oppose public funding for abortion, even those who identify as pro-choice. There is an opportunity for organizations to continue the important work they do in support of women’s health, while not providing abortion services.

"Polling shows the majority of Americans oppose public funding for abortion." The wife of Jared Kushner was unable even to prevent the President from implying the existence of public funding for abortion, illegal (except in the rarest, most dire circumstances) under terms of the annually re-authorized Hyde Amendment.

Posting on Slate, Matthew Dessem notes President Trump's

policies couldn’t possibly be any worse, which means it’s impossible that Ivanka made them any better. That shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who’s followed empowerment feminism, a philosophy whose alliance with capitalism means its support of women stops the second rich people start getting uncomfortable. Or as (Samantha) Bee puts it, Ivanka “pushes #WomenWhoWork, but not in, like, a pushy, cunty way that would alienate social conservatives.” It seems like pretty good preparation for her current job, which, as Bee ably documents, is pushing Donald Trump’s punishingly racist, sexist, and anti-poor policies, but not in, like, a badly-dressed, southern accent way that would alienate social liberals. Nice work, if you can get it.











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