Kleptocracy Now!

Feckless and his lackey Blanche

In keeping with my desire to keep it short and simple, (HA!) not commenting on President Grifter Felon's newest scam of We, the People would be a dereliction of duty.  

There are actually two parts to this story. In exchange for dropping the ridiculous $10billion lawsuit against the IRS, the IRS agreed to the following: complete immunity for the entire Felon's family and associated enterprises. As per the PBS report, this runs the risk of undermining the fairness of the tax structure by letting these people play by a completely different set of rules.

"This is an unprecedented remedy," said former IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel, noting that Trump should be treated like every other American. "People expect the same tax rules and enforcement framework to apply to everybody."

The Grifter-in-Chief, at the same time, provided himself with a slush fund to pay off the January 6th rioters, as well as anyone he wants to give money to. This fund, as established by the rule the DoJ spelled out, has no oversight, no transparency, and prevents any agency whatsoever from going after President Felon and his cronies for accountability for almost 2 BILLION dollars of OUR money. The money We, the People, paid in income taxes. PBS News Hour explains it this way:

President Donald Trump's administration has created a nearly $1.8 billion fund to pay people who say they were victims of government "weaponization," raising questions about whom among his allies and supporters – including those who rioted at the Capitol on Jan. 6 – might get payouts from taxpayers, as well as what kind of influence Trump will wield over the fund. 

The Justice Department's $1.776 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund," a nod to the country's founding year, is part of a settlement with Trump to end a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leaking of his tax returns, which occurred during his own presidency.     

The New York Times exposed this in an article with the headline “With Trump’s Deal, a Possible $100 Million I.R.S. Penalty Melts Away.” Back in 2010, the IRS busted him for allegedly claiming a deduction against the losses from his failing Chicago tower twice, a crime called felony tax fraud, and has been trying to collect around $100 million (plus interest) from him ever since. 

But this new Thug Fund will eliminate all claims against him, his kids, and his “affiliated entities” and businesses, for all past, present, and future times. So he gets to keep the $100 million (plus interest). And the media — other than that one reference in the Times — seems to have completely ignored it.  

The Anti-Weaponization Fund is set to be administered by five commissioners. Four commissioners will be appointed by the attorney general and the fifth will be appointed in consultation with congressional leadership.  

According to the Department of Justice, the president can remove any of the commissioners.  

The commissioners will create guidelines, take in information and assess whether claimants were victims of weaponization. 

"The commission can do anything according to what was set up yesterday, from issuing an apology to the claimant to awarding monetary compensation," Blanche said. 

Anyone, regardless of their political affiliation, is eligible to apply for the fund, Blanche said. 

"It's not limited to the Biden weaponization. It's not limited to, in any way, scope or form, to Jan. 6 or to Jack Smith," Blanche said, referencing the Justice Department's former special counsel who conducted investigations into Trump. "There's no limitation on the claims."

This is supposed to pay people who feel they've been victims of governmental weaponization...whatever that means. In other words, he can pay off whoever he wants with however much he wants to give them.

This is the kind of stuff Noriega did. Or Putin. Or Kim Jong-Whatever did. This is the stuff of a kleptocracy, and that's what we officially have now. 

How does it feel to be the patsy for the bully who is paying off other bullies to torment you?

If you haven't had nearly enough weird for one day, try Wackadoodle Hegseth's speech to the graduating class at West Point. Scroll down a bit and you'll get to the transcript. Even I had trouble reading the whole thing. It's a doozy. My favorite part? The blanket pardon:

For all those cadets who’ve committed minor infractions or violations of the regulations of the United States Military Academy, before which ordinary and special punishment has been imposed or is being considered to the Corps of Cadets, as President Trump might say, a complete and total pardon.

Is that standard at the military academies? To wipe out any and all disciplinary infractions? I don't know.  Maybe that's just part of this new armed forces they're building to defend the third reich...I mean term. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Did you know they're building a bunker with a high tech hospital wing under the ballroom? Just a thought, but did you ever see the movie DAVE?  Maybe you should. 

We can only hope Melania would be as fabulous a First Lady as Sigourney Weaver.

In our dreams. (Sigh)

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Only leaders who are afraid of their citizens 

are obsessed with secret bunkers.

Putin, Hitler, Mussolini, Khamenei, Gaddafi...

BONUS TIP:

Friday marks the 573rd year since Constantinople fell to the Turks, and 

the 73rd year since Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay 

reached the summit of Mount Everest. 

These events are traditionally celebrated with 

angel food cake with chocolate frosting. 

They've Got To Be Carefully Taught

Nicholas Kristof has a hate/hate relationship with the truth. This week's pack'o'lies about Israel training dogs to rape Palestinian men is just one more piece of spewed bullshit that The New York Times as published as "opinion."

Federal Judge Roy K. Altman, a Venezuelan-American lawyer and jurist who currently serves as a United States district judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, published a terrific analysis of Kristof's latest in Substack's The Free Press. A Miscarriage of Journalism at ‘The New York Times’. I would strongly urge everyone to read his analysis of Kristof's lack of journalistic integrity. In it, Altman writes:

But we entrust our fellow Americans with the power to make these choices because we believe that a virtuous people will be equipped to make the right choices—principally because we assume that our citizens will be prepared to discern truth from fiction. And we feel comfortable in that assumption because we’ve devised a system of laws—based on evidence, burdens of proof, and a time-tested set of rules—to help us assess the veracity of contested claims. In this way, the jury system isn’t simply a means of ensuring fair trials. Rather, it’s a way of training free citizens to make difficult decisions for themselves.

Today, this whole system is being undermined by the proliferation of false information—especially on the internet. But it’s one thing to have our geopolitical and ideological enemies—whether China, Russia, or the Muslim Brotherhood—pushing unverified claims about our closest allies into our cell phones. It’s another thing entirely for The New York Times, a supposed “paper of record,” and one of its Pulitzer Prize–winning journalists to offer a story that—in its disregard of basic evidence-gathering norms, its unwillingness to investigate the opposing side’s position, and its inversion of common sense—violates the fundamental rules of fairness and due process that have, for centuries, served as the bulwark of our democracy.

In digging into Kristof's background, I discovered something that is overlooked, even though he actually wrote about it in his first memoir. His father, after immigrating to the US, became a respected academic. His name, Wladyslaw Krzysztofowicz, was changed to Ladis Kristof, and while he has written about his father as a refugee and mentions his father served in the Romanian army during the war, he glosses over what his dad actually did.

Larry Tauber writes about that period in an article on Substack: What Did You Do In The War, Daddy?

According to Kristof’s 2024 memoir, Chasing Hope, “when I was growing up and other kids talked about their dads heroically battling the Nazis, I kept quiet. I did not want to admit that my father had actually for a year been on the same side as the Nazis.”

That may sound like Kristof is making a heartfelt confession. But that’s only if you believe his father, who was of conscription age, served in the Romanian military for one year.

The historical record strongly suggests otherwise.

The facts surrounding Ladis Kristof — born Ladislas Kristofovici — are murky, contradictory, and seem to be shaped by deliberate obfuscation. Even the most basic details of his identity shift from document to document. In his naturalization petition, he listed his birth year as 1918. Yet immigration records from 1952 indicate he claimed to be thirty-two years old, suggesting a birth year of 1919 or perhaps 1920. His birthplace likewise fluctuates across records: “USSR” in one document; “Cernauti, Northern Bucovina, Russia” in another.

These inconsistencies, standing alone, might be dismissed as common immigration-era confusion. But they become more significant in light of Kristof’s conspicuous unwillingness to examine his father’s wartime role with any seriousness or precision, despite repeatedly writing about him and even featuring him prominently in a 2017 New York Times video.

Romanian conscription practices during World War II make Kristof’s sanitized version of events highly implausible. Military service was generally mandatory at the beginning of the year a man turned twenty-one. Depending on which birth year Ladis Kristof actually used, he would likely have been conscripted in 1939, 1940, or at the latest 1941 — not 1942, as Nicholas Kristof suggests in his memoir. If born in 1918, he almost certainly would have served at least four years in the Romanian military. Even under the most charitable reading of the documents, he would have entered service no later than early 1941.

In June 1941, the Romanian army under Marshal Ion Antonescu participated in some of the most savage massacres of Jews during the Holocaust. Romanian forces, often working alongside German Einsatzgruppen and aided by local collaborators, slaughtered between 100,000 and 120,000 Jews in Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. Romanian soldiers and civilians also carried out the Iași pogrom, murdering approximately 15,000 Jews, while further atrocities followed in Odessa and throughout occupied territories.

If Ladis Kristof was indeed serving in the Romanian military throughout 1941 — as the documentary evidence strongly suggests — then it becomes nearly impossible to believe he was untouched by, unaware of, or wholly disconnected from these events.

Apple. Tree. Children have got to be carefully taught and it looks like Papa Kristof did a good job.

Maybe if this was Kristof's first foray into opinionated fantasy land, I might feel less inclined to mention it. But it is not. Nor is it the first time The NYT has been caught with their editorial pants around their ankles, especially when it comes to Kristof. Just google 

how many times has kristof posted false information?

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Heard Douglas Murray speak on Sunday,

so the tip really come from him:

"One truth can puncture a thousand lies."

One can only hope.

Monument Man ~ Part Trois

If Ziggy was running this show, this would be the intro. Or, it might be the joke. Hard to say. But on May 7th, a 22' gold leafed President Felon was unveiled at his Doral golf course and blessed with a dedication by "Pastor" Mark Burns, a guy of dubious origins. From Wikipedia:

Burns claimed to have held a Bachelor of Science degree from North Greenville University and claimed to have served six years in the U.S. Army Reserve. In August 2016, those claims were disproved by CNN. Burns attended North Greenville University for one semester and did not receive a degree. Burns served from 2001 to 2005 in the South Carolina Army National Guard, rather than the Army Reserve. Burns said the false claims about his life on his website were the result of the website being hacked. Later, he admitted that he had lied about his education, but said he was attacked because he is "a black man supporting Donald Trump for president."

Sure, it was. 

But this is so עגל זהב...golden calf straight outta the the Book of Exodus....with a twist. The statue isn't real gold, it's cheesy gold leaf, just like all the gold leaf decorations in the Gold House. Apparently, gold plating was too expensive and this was a cheap (and cheesy) work around. Interestingly, so far there is no transcript or video of the dedication ceremony or "Pastor" Burns' dedication/blessing speech. President Felon wasn't there...but he did phone in a few comments praising "Pastor" Burns, who held his phone to the mic so his taskmaster could be heard by the devotees. I wonder why that was. Of course, we all know what happened when Moshe Rabbeinu (our man Moses)  came down the mountain with the tablets and saw the golden calf: a BIG gaping hole. We can only hope.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch,  I said I was stepping back a bit. I listened to Andy Borowitz interview Heather Cox Richardson (my hero) who described her daily letter writing process and I was delighted to learn she functions much like I do. But she said something that really got to me:

Honestly, if I were really getting to do whatever I wanted to do, I would stop reading about this administration and just do history. Right. Because that's really my happy place. But I'm happy to be able to share my world with other people. And I would urge everybody to share their world with other people.

 

Look at what you do. That really contributes to the world. And I couldn't begin to do that. So I'm tired. There's no doubt about it. But I feel extraordinarily privileged to have been given the skills of to help other people through this moment and help them find ways to contribute as well.

 

There's nothing actually I'm prouder of that I've done. So that's all I got.

I don't have her skills, but I do know from the email I get that people do read my stuff. They don't always agree, but that's okay. And she echoed exactly how I feel right now: that's all I've got. For now. I just need to regroup a bit. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Feel free to revisit 

Monument Man ~ Part Deux

May Is Not My Best Month

May is not my best month. 

All these years later, I'm still missing a big, giant part of me; it's just this a gaping sinkhole that never really shrinks. There are days I wonder how I got left behind, but then Little Miss and Young Sir somehow manage to remind me I have a function. They seem to want me around, so I guess it's a good thing I'm here. 

But I'm tired. I'm tired of pissing into the wind and getting it back in my face. I'm getting screechy again and I cannot stand that. 

I cannot keep writing about open-season on Jews worldwide without wanting to stand on my mirpeset and scream. I am tired of talking to non-Jewish friends who think I'm over-reacting when I point out London, Paris, and most of Spain are not safe for Jews. And New York City is moving in that direction. That we are walking targets.  And, when it was suggested we should "stand down," in Israel, I can't keep trying to explain that this is an existential threat, and then ask why we, the indigenous people of that strip of land, have not the right to live there peacefully. And why 78 years of non-stop rocket launches at our civilian population requires a response. 

We may be only 0.2% of the world's population, but we seem to get 90% of the hate. (I made that hate percentage up, but it's probably close enough for government work.) You'd think they'd go pick on someone else for a while.

from Truth Social

I cannot make sense of this administration and its leadership. We have a president who posts shit like this on his social media and then thinks we buy into his delusions of whatever. That gilding of the White House into the Gold House is obscene. So is this cockamamie ballroom and the Arc de' Felon. Oh, did I mention the Golf Garden of Heroes? I'm sure Charlie Kirk's statue will be lovely.

I am tired of WRITING IN CAPITAL LETTERS TO TELL PEOPLE TO REMOVE BULLSHIT FAKE NEWS POSTS. I am tired of being the vetting police amongst people who cannot be bothered to check the veracity of their own posts. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch....it's almost 10 p.m. and I've tossed out seven blog episodes so far tonight. 

The truth is, I need a break. 

So here's what I'm gonna do: I'm gonna do a few weeks of The Best Of The WP. I'll put something out on Mondays as usual, and if something radical happens, it's back to work.  Ziggy would approve. Deal with it.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Whatever

This week's tip comes from Albert Einstein. 

The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake,

an almost fanatical love of justice

and the desire for personal independence—

these are the features of the Jewish tradition

which make me thank my stars that I belong to it.