“Justice” comes for Comey, soybeans and more crony capitalism

“Justice” comes for Comey, soybeans and more crony capitalism

To no one’s surprise Trump’s “Justice” Department filed charges against former FBI director James Comey that he lied to the congress when he asserted that he did not authorize leaking information regarding the FBI’s investigations into then-President Donald Trump or former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The indictment came only two days after Trump castigated his attorney general Pam (Blondie) Bondi to prosecute Comey along with Adam Schiff and Letitia James. Comey’s indictment was first largely because the statute of limitations expired in only a few days. Comey, of course, claims he is innocent. Now the question is whether Trump’s insurance attorney, the new DA for the Eastern District of Virginia, Lindsey Halligan can persuade a jury in democrat dominated eastern Virginia and a Biden appointed judge, Michael Nachmanoff, to convict Comey.

Also to no one’s surprise the president went on his social media machine and trumpeted “JUSTICE IN AMERICA! One of the worst human beings this Country has ever been exposed to is James Comey.” It also only took a millisecond to hear the thread worn phase “No one is above the law.” And right on cue came Pam (Blondie) Bondi saying “No one is above the law. Today’s indictment reflects this Department of Justice’s commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American people. We will follow the facts in this case.” 

For his part Comey said “My heart is broken for the Department of Justice, but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system. I’m innocent, so let’s have a trial and keep the faith” He then added “My family and I have known for years that there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump, but we couldn’t imagine ourselves living any other way. We will not live on our knees, and you shouldn’t either.” Wow! We will not live on our knees – a phase to be remembered regardless of who is in the White House. Lest we forget that Comey is no Trump fan having stupidly arranged “8647” in sea shells on a beach. What does “8647” mean, well Homeland Security Secretary Kristi (of the false eyelashes and hair extensions) Noem claimed that it called for the assassination of Trump. “86” means “to kill” while Trump is the 47^th president of the United States. Comey claimed that he saw the shells as he was strolling down the beach. Sure.

Trump has already attacked the judge who was selected randomly to hear the case.  “Whether you like Corrupt James Comey or not, and I can’t imagine too many people liking him, HE LIED! It is not a complex lie, it’s a very simple, but IMPORTANT one. There is no way he can explain his way out of it. He is a Dirty Cop, and always has been, but he was just assigned a Crooked Joe Biden-appointed Judge, so he’s off to a very good start.” Stay tuned.

Argentine vs Iowa soybeans

What’s with Trump bailing out Argentina to the tune of $20 billion? Treasury Secretary Bessant had hinted of the possibility that the aid would be given to help out Trump’s buddy Javier Milei who is in trouble at the polls. Farm state politicians especially Iowa’s Chuck Grassley (great name for someone from a farm state) are having a cow. Grassley posted on X “Why would USA help bail out Argentina while they take American soybean producers’ biggest market??? We should use leverage at every turn to help hurting farm economy Family farmers should be top of mind in negotiations by representatives of USA.” Grassley is upset because after the bail out the Argentines eliminated their excise tax on soybeans and sold 20 boatload of beans to the Chinese. Wow (again). Grassley said that American soybean growers cut off from the Chinese markets are “upset”. Do tell. Trump told the farmers to cool it because he was going to throw them a bone – their own bailout using money from tariffs. Ok but what are we going to do with the 3 billion bushels of soybeans sitting at the farms? Make a lot of tofu, soy milk and hummus I guess. Maybe Chuck should tell Trump to cool it on those Chinese tariffs. Oh and Trump put a 50% tariff on Brazil, guess where they are selling their soybeans? Sorry Chuck but it looks like China doesn’t need to buy US soybeans – and won’t until Trump’s tariffs go away. Bully versus bully.

The Pending Sale of Tik Tok

In an overt display of crony capitalism, the president has declared Tik Tok ready for sale to American investors with a laughable value of only $14 billion. Mind you, Tik Tok has 170 million US subscribers with the president having 15 million subscribers on his own personal account. Tik Tok’s valuation is estimated to be between $30 to $40 billion without its famous algorithm. But the $14 billion, conjured out of thin air by the president, means that his buddies who are going to be the buyers of American Tik Tok get cut a deal. Those buyers include Michael Dell, Rupert Murdoch (I guess they patched over their differences), Oracle and private-equity firm Silver Lake which is closely associated with the president. Some people have called this another presidential shakedown but let’s just call it crony capitalism.

This has not gone unnoticed by Trump’s adversaries, Susan Rice (remember her?) called the deal “a model of corruption” accusing Trump of negotiating a deal that “lines the pockets of his cronies.” I think Ms Rice forgot that the forced sale of Tik Tok came during the Biden Administration and that Trump’s sin was that he’s got to hand out the goodies rather than Joe Biden. The democrats were leading the way wanting to either ban or restrict Tik Tok. The republicans were worrying about its use for espionage purposes while the democrats were concerned about its content using its famous algorithm. Virginia’s Mark Warner whined “The Chinese Communist Party can twist that algorithm to make it the news that they see reflective of their views.” So while it would be unseemly for the US to actually ban Tik Tok (like the Chinese would have done were it not their own) it was decided to force its sale to US interests (rather to the interests of the current administration). Don’t be shocked if somehow Trump gets a cut of the deal. I do know for certain that the government will exact a multibillion dollar “finders” fee. When Tik Tok is sold, Oracle will control its algorithm and manage user data. The sale prohibits “any cooperation with respect to the operation of a content recommendation algorithm” between ByteDance (Tik Tok’s parent) and the American ownership group. Hey, we can trust Larry Ellison – can’t we?