We here tend to read and pass on political news (duh). A lot of political news. We are (speaking for myself, at least) suffering from addiction. To knowing and sharing information about the people and institutions which govern our lives.
In our rush to push out new information, we can sometimes miss the real story behind the stories we post. Context. Forest-for-the-trees business. I fear that is happening today.
Two of the really big stories this day involve the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. I have yet to hear anyone note the possibility that they are actually one story. A very disturbing story.
First is the bombshell that Mr. Kushner, like Mssrs. Flynn and Sessions, failed to disclose multiple meetings with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, an omission the Senate Intelligence Committee is eager to discuss with him. Another meeting that slipped Mr. Kushner’s mind was his tete-a-tete with Sergey Gorkov, the head of Russia’s state-owned Vnesheconombank, essentially Vladimir Putin’s private piggy bank from which to fund destabilization efforts around the world. If you missed Rachel Maddow’s piece on Gorkov and Vnesheconombank tonight, pause now and check it out. I’ll wander over to the samovar and get some tea…
Watch it? Good. Now you have a good idea who Sergey Gorkov is and the nature of the bank he heads. And maybe a burning curiosity why Jared Kushner found it so important to meet with him and conceal that meeting.
The other big story involving Mr. Kushner today is the announcement that he has been appointed to the newly-minted “SWAT team” in charge of “streamlining” government, making it run (stop me if you’ve heard this one) “more like a business.”
Among the many, ill-defined duties of this new office,
The innovation office has a particular focus on technology and data . . .
modernizing the technology and data infrastructure of every federal department and agency . . .
(emphasis mine)
Kind of odd that the new administration sees this as a priority, as the guys who just moved out spent years and billions doing just that. Barack Obama was so intent on modernizing how the government uses and coordinates IT that he was dubbed by nerds in the field the first “Data President.” His appointment of people like DJ Patil showed just how serious the former president was about making the government a data-based, fact-based operation. The US government is more interlinked and efficient than it has ever been.
But now, we’re told, it’s not. Our government IT is one of the “messes” that the new president “inherited” and must be completely revamped, top to bottom, by his son-in-law.
Who meets secretly with the banker who funds espionage and destabilization efforts for Vladimir Putin.
Whose most famous hobby in recent times was the corruption of the 2016 presidential election by means including hacking of information systems.
I’m generally not the most CT-minded person, but I can’t help wonder if there is more than a coincidental connection between the two big stories regarding Jared Kushner today.
Jared Kushner, who secretly met with Russia’s principal spy paymaster, an alumnus of SpyOnU, and who will also be in charge of “modernizing” every computer in the executive branch.
Maybe I worry to much. What’s the worst that could happen?
Addendum: For more on Maddow’s profile of Gorkov and his bank, see rflctammt’s diary a few slots up.