A Real Loose Bannon | Not Our Cup of Tea | Return of the Tax Returns
August 21, 2020
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“Man is not what he thinks he is, he is what he hides.”
A Real Loose Bannon
(Stephanie Keith via Getty Images)
66-year-old Steve Bannon is perhaps best known as co-founder of the far-right Breitbart News, CEO of Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign, and President Trump’s chief White House strategist for the first seven months of the administration. The outspoken adviser was a genius at craftily smearing any opposition, while helping to forge the administration’s immigration hard-line and encouraging favoritism toward White nationalists and Russians. Bannon’s bullying tactics made enemies, and he was eventually forced out in August of 2017.
Trump had promised throughout his campaign and afterward that he would build a wall between the US and Mexico across the entire southern border, and that Mexico would pay for it. When that didn’t happen, Bannon knew the president’s supporters would be highly frustrated. One of those frustrated supporters was Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage, who started a massive GoFundMe campaign in late 2018 to gather private money for the wall’s construction. Donations flooded in.
In January 2019, Kolfage formally incorporated We Build The Wall, Inc. as a 501(c) (4) non-profit, with Bannon as a collaborator. Both promised donors the organization was voluntary, no one involved would take a salary, and all donations would go towards the construction of the wall. Eventually, $25 million was raised from hundreds of thousands of donors. At an event for the We Build The Wall initiative in July 2019, Donald Trump, Jr. praised the group saying: “This is private enterprise at its finest. Doing it better, faster, cheaper than anything else. What you guys are doing is amazing.”
Not everyone agreed. On Thursday, Kolfage, Andrew Badolato, Timothy Shea, and Bannon were arrested, the latter on a luxury yacht off the coast of Connecticut. Federal prosecutors have charged the men with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering. They are alleged to have lied when they said they would take no compensation as part of the campaign; when in reality they routed more than a million dollars from the crowdfunding effort through a nonprofit controlled by Bannon and another shell company, disguising the payments with fake invoices to help keep their personal pay secret.
We Build The Wall completed two small wall projects on private land in New Mexico and Texas; those involved in the project had close ties to the administration, and campaign memorabilia was often pictured on the privately built section of the border wall. Trump has tried distancing himself, saying the private fundraising effort was “inappropriate to be doing.” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the president had “no involvement in this project,” and he does not know the people involved. Last month, Trump tweeted he “disagreed with doing this very small (tiny) section of the wall….” He added he thought it was “only done to make me look bad.”
What Are You Putin In My Tea?
(Evgeny Feldman via Getty Images)
- Prominent opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, who has often described Russian President Vladimir Putin as the leader of a “party of crooks and thieves,” was apparently poisoned before boarding an early morning flight on Thursday back to Moscow from Siberia, where he had gone to help organize opposition candidates ahead of next month’s local elections. Navalny had a rushed breakfast at the Tomsk airport before boarding — just a cup of tea in a plastic cup.
- Soon after the flight took off he became violently ill; the pilot was forced to make an emergency landing in Omsk. Navalny was rushed to a hospital and later said to be in serious but stable condition. His personal physician traveled to the Omsk hospital but was denied access to Navalny’s medical records and the intensive care ward where he was being treated. Navalny’s wife was finally allowed into his ward Thursday evening, but the documents needed to fly him out of Omsk weren’t provided.
- Jaka Bizilj, the Berlin-based movie producer who picked up a member of the Russian group Pussy Riot after he was poisoned in 2018, said he was flying an air ambulance to Omsk in hopes of assisting Navalny. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron both offered assistance with medical help and possible asylum. Navalny now joins a long list of Putin’s opponents suddenly afflicted with bizarre and sometimes fatal medical emergencies, often after drinking tea. (NYT)
Failed Brexit Strategy
- EU member states have rejected a British migration plan that would allow the UK to return “all third-country nationals and stateless persons,” who enter its territory without proper paperwork, back to the EU country from which they traveled through to reach British shores.
- The ability to transfer refugees and migrants to the EU country in which they arrived is a cornerstone of the European asylum system known as the Dublin regulation. Britain had hoped to be allowed to continue the Dublin regulation after the Brexit transition period expires on December 31. The rejection of the plan means Britain will lose that right at the end of the year.
- A European diplomat said the assessment was that the British proposal wasn’t adding much value, and that Britain was actually trying to cherry-pick aspects of the current EU system. Talks on a post-Brexit plan will continue, although tensions are rising between the UK and France following the death of a Sudanese teenager who was attempting to cross the Channel in an inflatable dinghy. (Guardian)
Additional World News
- Pessimism Returns to Brexit Talks as Hopes for Deal Slip Away (Bloomberg)
- Yang Wolfgang: Germany begins 3-year universal-basic-income trial (Business Insider).
- U.S. will trigger ‘snapback’ mechanism to reimpose Iran sanctions (Politico)
- Oil-rich unrest: Libya’s war becomes a global scramble for power and prestige (WaPo, $)
- Jihadists take hundreds hostage during raid in north-east Nigeria (Guardian)
- Does China want Trump or Biden in the White House? It’s complicated. (WaPo, $). A look into Beijing’s preference going into November.
- In U.S.-China tech war, investors bet on China’s localisation push (Reuters)
- Japan Opposition Parties Set to Merge to Challenge Weakened Abe (Bloomberg)
- North Korean leader’s sister is ‘de facto second-in-command’, South Korean lawmaker says (Reuters). Kim Yo Jong could one day be the new face of the North Korean regime.
COVID-19
- I’m partially deaf. When mask-wearing came along, I had to rebuild my world (Guardian)
- Contact tracing apps have been a bust. States bet college kids can change that. (Politico)
- Scam Alert: A Real COVID Contact Tracer Won’t Ask You For Money (NPR)
- As Wildfires Rage, Californians Fear the Virus at Shelters (NYT, $)
- Lawsuit accuses nation’s largest hospital firm of not protecting workers from COVID-19 (WaPo, $)
- Why it’s unlikely we’ll have a Covid-19 vaccine before Election Day (Vox)
- Top FDA official says would resign if agency rubber-stamps an unproven COVID-19 vaccine
Episode NY: Return of the Tax Returns
- In July, the US Supreme Court ruled that President Trump’s tax records can be turned over to Manhattan’s district attorney, who had subpoenaed them from Trump’s accounting firm. However, the case was sent back to the district court to allow the president’s lawyers to make an alternate argument as to why the records should remain private.
- On Thursday the district court judge again denied the president’s latest attempt to quash the probe by New York prosecutors, ruling the tax records and other financial documents sought by prosecutors must be turned over. It is the second loss in the president’s high-stakes court battle with Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance.
- After Thursday’s decision was announced, Trump’s legal team filed an emergency motion asking the judge for a delay in enforcing the subpoena so Trump could appeal. The team also asked a federal appeals court and the Supreme Court to intervene and stay the judge’s ruling while the case is appealed again.
- Prosecutors say Trump’s team is trying every delay possible in an effort to run out the clock on the statute of limitations, preventing potential prosecution. Even if Vance’s subpoena is enforced and the district attorney’s office receives Trump’s tax returns, there is no guarantee the public will see them. (WaPo)
It All Lead To This
- An agreement has been reached — after 18 months of negotiations between state officials and lawyers representing thousands of complainants — in which the state of Michigan will pay $600 million to Flint residents suffering health issues after their water supply was poisoned with lead. It is intended to resolve all legal actions against the state for its role in a disaster that made the impoverished, majority-black city a nationwide symbol of governmental mismanagement and environmental racism.
- In 2014, while under control of a state-appointed emergency manager, Flint switched its water source from the city of Detroit to the Flint River to save money. State environmental regulators advised Flint, located about 70 miles north of Detroit, not to apply corrosion controls to the water, which was contaminated by lead from aging pipes.
- Residents of the city with a population of nearly 100,000 people quickly began complaining that the water was discolored and had a bad taste and smell. They blamed it for rashes, hair loss, and other health concerns, but local and state officials insisted it was safe. A cascade of lawsuits ensued, a criminal investigation was undertaken, and a number of state employees were charged for their involvement in contaminating the water supply.
- Both state and local officials were found to be complicit in a cover-up. Under the agreement, the state would establish a $600 million fund and Flint residents could file claims for compensation; the amount awarded per applicant would be based on how badly they were harmed.
- 80 percent of the money is earmarked for people who were under age 18 during the period when Flint was using river water. If approved, the settlement would push state spending on the Flint water crisis over $1billion. Other suits are pending against Flint, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and private consultants that advised the city on water issues. (Guardian)
Additional USA News
- In D.N.C. Speech, Biden Previews a Fall Campaign Strategy Against Trump (NYT, $). The biggest speech in Biden’s career.
- ‘Imagine the mayhem coming to your town’: Trump offers his Biden prebuttal with dark predictions (Politico)
- Watch Obama’s full DNC speech (Axios)
- More than 70 Republican former national security officials come out in support of Biden (ABC)
- More on the mail: Can the Post Office Handle Election Mail? Why the Recession Could Actually Help (NYT, $)
- Republicans quietly push mail-in voting despite Trump claims (Politico)
- A force of change: Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. navigates expectations of being the first Black service branch chief (WaPo, $)
- Why the dollar matters (Axios)
- Trump cabinet officials voted in 2018 meeting to separate migrant kids (NBC)
- Raging lightning fires: California firefighters `taxed to the limit’ seeking help (AP)
Farming For Disease
- It’s easy to point the finger at “foreign” places like Wuhan’s market and blame them for generating pandemics. But the way people eat all around the world is a major risk factor for pandemics as well. Michael Greger, author of Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching, says, “If you actually want to create global pandemics, then build factory farms.”
- Greger says the world eats a ton of meat and the vast majority comes from factory farms. In these huge industrialized facilities that supply more than 90 percent of meat globally — and around 99 percent of America’s meat — animals are tightly packed together, living under harsh and unsanitary conditions.
- For the thousands of animals in cramped football-field-sized sheds, there’s stress crippling their immune systems, there’s ammonia from decomposing waste burning their lungs, and a lack of fresh air and sunlight. Moreover, selection for specific genes in farmed animals — for desirable traits like large breasts in chickens — has made these animals almost genetically identical.
- That means a virus can easily spread from animal to animal without encountering any genetic variants that might stop it in its tracks. As it rips through a flock or a herd, the virus can grow even more virulent. “Put all these factors together and you have a perfect storm environment for the emergence and spread of disease.” (Vox)
Weekend Reads
- Cut it out: An Influencer House Wouldn’t Stop Partying, So L.A. Cut Its Power (NYT, $)
- How the Aedes aegypti Mosquito Took Over the World (Atlantic, $)
- Filmmakers told to ditch sex scenes to protect actors from coronavirus (Guardian). All films now go from PG-13 to COVID-19.
- California resident tests positive for the plague, first case in the state in 5 years (ABC). 2020 continues to run the gambit.
- Surreal, audacious, unfinished – the Sagrada Família remains a divine work in progress (Aeon)
- More potty talk from the Pnut: Transparent Public Toilets Unveiled In Tokyo Parks — But They Also Offer Privacy (NPR)