In the saga of Donald Trump, Stormy Daniels might no longer be ‘just’ a titillating sideshow

benfell

Gilead

Donald Trump

Stormy Daniels


Fig. 1. Stormy Daniels at Ron Jeremy’s birthday party. Photograph by Luke Ford (Lukeisback.com), March 10, 2007, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.5.

I’ve been treating the Stormy Daniels saga mostly as a titillating sideshow. It’s just possible I was wrong.

Of all the potential prosecutions of Donald Trump himself, it’s just possible the campaign finance violation accusation against him, involving yes, his alleged encounter with Stormy Daniels and a subsequently alleged “hush money” payment, may form the basis of the first actual indictment.[1]

The precise charges that the prosecutors are considering aren’t known, but the office has looked at charging Mr. Trump with a felony version of a state offense for falsifying business records. The offense is a low-level felony that carries no requirement of prison time. Charging that offense as a felony requires connecting it to another crime, which could bring a host of legal challenges for prosecutors.[2]

Sometimes, one should indeed “follow the money,”[3] and with Trump, there’s certainly that. But sometimes, I guess, it just might also pay to follow the sex.

Jonathan Dienst, “Law enforcement agencies are prepping for a possible Trump indictment as early as next week,” NBC News, March 17, 2023, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/law-enforcement-agencies-are-prepping-possible-trump-indictment-early-rcna75493

Joe Palazzolo and Corinne Ramey, “Donald Trump Braces for Potential Charges in N.Y. Hush-Money Case, Calls for Protests,” Wall Street Journal, March 18, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-braces-for-potential-charges-calls-for-protests-dd879b1f

Academic repression

Student loans


Fig. 1. Unattributed and undated image via James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal,[4] fair use.

Ann Carrns reprises[5] what was previously reported in the Wall Street Journal, over two months ago.[6] Headline notwithstanding, I’m not seeing much that’s new here other than that an expected adverse U.S. Supreme Court decision on Joe Biden’s debt forgiveness program[7] would not affect this separate program to ensure that “payments” under income-based repayment programs count toward the term for forgiveness no matter how low—even zero—those scheduled payments are and that balances will not increase as long as those payments are made.[8]

The program that will likely live, at least for now, is the one that’s personally more important to me: I don’t care much about $10,000 or $20,000 of relief when my student loan debt approaches $400,000. But if I can survive for fourteen more years, that debt will be “forgiven,” and I’ll have a huge tax bill the following year. Yay.

Ann Carrns, “A New Federal Student Loan Program Will Move Millions Toward Forgiveness,” New York Times, March 17, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/17/business/student-loan-program.html

Imperialism

Russia

Ukraine


Fig. 1. “Destroyed Russian military vehicles located on the main street Khreshchatyk are seen as part of the celebration of the Independence Day of Ukraine in Kyiv, August 24.” Photograph by Gleb Garanich for Reuters, August 24, 2022,[9] fair use.

Now the trick is getting someone to actually arrest Vladimir Putin.[10] Kinda doubt it will be Chinese President Xi Jinping:

Chinese companies, including one connected to the government in Beijing, have sent Russian entities 1,000 assault rifles and other equipment that could be used for military purposes, including drone parts and body armor, according to trade and customs data obtained by POLITICO.[11]

Now the curious thing about this is that white Christian nationalists, notably Ron DeSantis, have been turning increasingly against Ukraine in part because, in binary terms, they want to emphasize the conflict with China, because China has taken working class jobs (in the global neoliberal “race to the bottom” on wages, working conditions, and regulation), over the one with Russia. Putin in turn plays up white Christian nationalist “culture war” talking points in a bid to divide U.S. opinion.[12] But this white Christian nationalist argument loses coherence when the Chinese, too, are supporting Russia.[13]

Julia Ioffe, “Putin’s Boy from Tallahassee,” Puck, March 14, 2023, https://puck.news/putins-boy-from-tallahassee/

Erin Banco and Sarah Anne Aarup, “‘Hunting rifles’ — really? China ships assault weapons and body armor to Russia,” Politico, March 16, 2023, https://www.politico.eu/article/chinese-companies-are-shipping-rifles-body-armor-to-russia/

Dan Ladden-Hall, “Prigozhin Says Jealous Kremlin Deliberately Stopped Wagner Taking Bakhmut,” March 16, 2023, https://www.thedailybeast.com/prigozhin-says-jealous-kremlin-deliberately-stopped-wagner-taking-bakhmut

Nicolas Camut, “China’s Xi to visit Putin in Russia next week,” Politico, March 17, 2023, https://www.politico.eu/article/china-xi-jinping-visit-vladimir-putin-in-russia-next-week/

Mike Corder and Raf Casert, “International court issues war crimes warrant for Putin,” Associated Press, March 17, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/icc-putin-war-crimes-ukraine-9857eb68d827340394960eccf0589253

Ishaan Tharoor, “20 years later, U.S. invasion of Iraq hangs over war in Ukraine,” Washington Post, March 17, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2023/03/17/iraq-invasion-ukraine-history-shadow/

Banking

Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and Credit Suisse, 2023


Fig. 1. “The monument sign in front of the parking lot of the Silicon Valley Bank headquarters at 3003 West Tasman Drive, Santa Clara, California.” Photograph by Minh Nguyen, March 13, 2023, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

When institutions are “too big to fail,” it appears that the only solution is to make institutions that are even bigger.

Justin Baer, Margot Patrick, and Ben Dummett, “UBS in Talks to Take Over Credit Suisse,” Wall Street Journal, March 18, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/ubs-in-talks-to-take-over-credit-suisse-ed932b01

  1. [1]Jonathan Dienst, “Law enforcement agencies are prepping for a possible Trump indictment as early as next week,” NBC News, March 17, 2023, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/law-enforcement-agencies-are-prepping-possible-trump-indictment-early-rcna75493; Joe Palazzolo and Corinne Ramey, “Donald Trump Braces for Potential Charges in N.Y. Hush-Money Case, Calls for Protests,” Wall Street Journal, March 18, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-braces-for-potential-charges-calls-for-protests-dd879b1f↩
  2. [2]Joe Palazzolo and Corinne Ramey, “Donald Trump Braces for Potential Charges in N.Y. Hush-Money Case, Calls for Protests,” Wall Street Journal, March 18, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-braces-for-potential-charges-calls-for-protests-dd879b1f↩
  3. [3]This quotation was used in a movie that incorrectly attributed it to “Deep Throat” (Mark Felt), an important source in Bob Woodward’s and Carl Bernstein’s investigative reporting on the Watergate scandal. The actual origin is uncertain but it could have been taken from testimony by Henry J. Peterson in 1974 Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the nomination of Earl J. Silbert to be United States Attorney. Kellar Ellsworth, “‘Follow the Money’ Quote From ‘All The President’s Men’ Explained, With Context,” Groovy History, May 7, 2020, https://groovyhistory.com/follow-the-money-quote-all-the-presidents-men/4↩
  4. [4]Richard K. Vedder, “Eliminate or Radically Restructure Federal Student Loans,” James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, September 16, 2020, https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2020/09/eliminate-or-radically-restructure-federal-student-loans/↩
  5. [5]Ann Carrns, “A New Federal Student Loan Program Will Move Millions Toward Forgiveness,” New York Times, March 17, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/17/business/student-loan-program.html↩
  6. [6]Gabriel T. Rubin, “Biden Administration Plans to Ease Rules for Income-Based Student-Loan Forgiveness,” Wall Street Journal, January 10, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-administration-eases-rules-for-income-based-student-loan-forgiveness-11673322971↩
  7. [7]Robert Barnes and Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, “Biden’s student loan forgiveness program comes before Supreme Court,” Washington Post, February 26, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/02/26/biden-student-debt-supreme-court/; Jimmy Hoover,“Up Next At High Court: Biden’s Debt Plan In Crosshairs,” Law360, February 24, 2023, https://www.law360.com/employment/articles/1579803; David G. Savage, “Supreme Court casts more doubt on Biden’s plan to forgive student loans,” Los Angeles Times, February 28, 2023, https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2023-02-28/supreme-court-cast-more-doubt-on-bidens-plan-to-forgive-student-loans; Jennifer Taub, “Friday Fiascos: Supreme Court (In)Justices,” Follow the Money with Jen Taub, March 3, 2023, https://jentaub.substack.com/p/friday-fiascos-supreme-court-injustices↩
  8. [8]Ann Carrns, “A New Federal Student Loan Program Will Move Millions Toward Forgiveness,” New York Times, March 17, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/17/business/student-loan-program.html; Gabriel T. Rubin, “Biden Administration Plans to Ease Rules for Income-Based Student-Loan Forgiveness,” Wall Street Journal, January 10, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-administration-eases-rules-for-income-based-student-loan-forgiveness-11673322971↩
  9. [9]Reuters, “Ukraine puts destroyed Russian tanks on display in Kyiv,” August 25, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/ukraine-puts-destroyed-russian-tanks-on-idUSRTSALV9Q↩
  10. [10]Mike Corder and Raf Casert, “International court issues war crimes warrant for Putin,” Associated Press, March 17, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/icc-putin-war-crimes-ukraine-9857eb68d827340394960eccf0589253↩
  11. [11]Erin Banco and Sarah Anne Aarup, “‘Hunting rifles’ — really? China ships assault weapons and body armor to Russia,” Politico, March 16, 2023, https://www.politico.eu/article/chinese-companies-are-shipping-rifles-body-armor-to-russia/↩
  12. [12]Julia Ioffe, “Putin’s Boy from Tallahassee,” Puck, March 14, 2023, https://puck.news/putins-boy-from-tallahassee/↩
  13. [13]Erin Banco and Sarah Anne Aarup, “‘Hunting rifles’ — really? China ships assault weapons and body armor to Russia,” Politico, March 16, 2023, https://www.politico.eu/article/chinese-companies-are-shipping-rifles-body-armor-to-russia/; Nicolas Camut, “China’s Xi to visit Putin in Russia next week,” Politico, March 17, 2023, https://www.politico.eu/article/china-xi-jinping-visit-vladimir-putin-in-russia-next-week/↩

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