Money talks

 

In the infamous Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010) the Supreme Court ruled that corporations and other groups could pour as much money as they liked into elections regardless of the likelihood of corruption and influence peddling.  They based this on a novel interpretation of the First Amendment:  money is speech and cannot be regulated by the government.  Unsurprisingly, money has spoken loudest from the political right.

So why is Trump's campaign drying up like the Great Salt Lake?  His campaign, his legal defense fund(s) and his organization are now more or less synonymous since the coup that installed Lara Trump as co-chair of the Republican Party.  No one believes the appointment was based on her political savvy or experience -- he covets the party's bank account to pay his compounding judgments and legal fees.  Problem is, neither big bankrolls nor grassroots donors want to throw still more cash into the black hole Trump has created.  As of January his campaign entities had less than $40 million on hand, compared to $155 million for Joe Biden -- and that was before his State of the Union grand slam.  Donors who want to elect down-ballot candidates suspect that money they give the GOP will never trickle down to them, so they give directly to the would-be senators, etc.    

If Trump can't find $464 million by Monday Letitia James can start throwing his stuff into the street.  Literally.  According to one expert on luxury real estate, the most salable asset he owns that isn't mortgaged to the back teeth is Mar a Lago, worth between $1.5 billion (according to Trump) and $325 million (according to Forbes).  Of course he's whining about the unfairness of it all and demanding more time so he doesn't have to "mortgage or sell Great Assets, perhaps at Fire Sale prices."  Isn't there presidential immunity to the laws of New York state?  Is he hinting that fire may break out at some of his (heavily insured) properties?  Has Darrell Issa been in touch lately?

It's not just the money.  Trump won all five of yesterday's primaries unopposed, but Republicans still cast protest votes for Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis and our friend None of the Above.  More to the point, money talks to money.  Jeffrey Katzenberg, co-chair of Biden's campaign, recruited former MGM chair Harry Sloan, an ex-Haley supporter.  I guess Sloan is "permanently barred" from the magical land of MAGA for making "a 'Contribution' to Haley" (that's how he "writes").  Expect more rage directed at the "disloyal Jews" of "Hollyweird."  

Even before Trump renewed his attacks on Jews who vote for Democrats, the blood libel was being retailed on social media.  Candace Owens's virulent statements about Israel since the war began brought her into conflict with Ben Shapiro, one of the founders of her employer the Daily Wire.  Her seeming endorsement of a post about "drinking the blood" of Christians caught the attention of Rabbi Shmuley Boteach and his daughter, who owns a "kosher sex shop" in Jerusalem, at which point I lost the plot.  Suffice to say it's the same crap that surfaced ever year for centuries in the run-up to Easter.  I'd like to ignore it like the flat-earthers, but their tosh never gets people killed.

Owens could better use her platform on behalf of the Palestinians, about whom money is also talking.  Back in February at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, if you please, Jared Kushner was talking up the exciting possibilities of Gaza real estate.  "Gaza's waterfront property could be very valuable...if people would focus on building up livelihoods."  To the sound of jaws dropping, he went on:  "I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up."  He suggested "moving" them into the Negev desert -- not at all like the Ottoman Turks driving Armenians out of Anatolia in 1915, completely different -- or re-settling them somewhere in Egypt.  And then, I guess, hotels and convention centers.  On his tour of North Korea, Kushner's father-in-law sized up its undeveloped beaches in much the same terms, only without the genocide.  

Another day, another slapstick impeachment hearing.  Today the House Oversight and Whoopee Cushion Committee was scheduled to hear from whistleblower Jason Galanis, testifying from jail where the judge sent him for feeding Russian disinformation to the FBI, and Tony Bobulinski, described as a jamoke who wanted to partner up with Hunter Biden.  They won't have Hunter Biden because he said no to their latest subpoena, he has to get the oil changed in his truck or something.  They do have Giuliani henchman Lev Parnas, who admitted he found "precisely zero evidence of the Bidens' corruption in Ukraine."  Of course, he was only on the job for a year.  As an amused Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) remarked, "You've actually provided more evidence to impeach Donald Trump for a third time than you have in so much as laying a glove on Joe Biden."  Someone -- possibly James Comer -- was heard to say on a hot mic, "You can't make this stuff up.  This is Jurassic Park."  

I think he's got the wrong movie.