Here's a story about how pythons have established a home in the Everglades, disrupting the ecosystem by eating some of the native fauna, because idiots bought them as pets and just got bored and released them.

Here are three stories about how parasites have established homes in the national government, disrupting the institutions by using them as vehicles for greed, because some idiots just got bored and voted for the king grifter. First, from Bloomberg:

Kushner Cos., the real estate firm owned by the family of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, has received about $800 million in federally backed debt to buy apartments in Maryland and Virginia -- the company’s biggest purchase in a decade...The arrangement increases the government’s exposure to Kushner Cos. at the same time that its former chief executive officer is one of the most powerful people in the White House. Jared Kushner divested ownership in many of the company’s assets to close family members when he joined the government. Kushner Cos. had more than $500 million in loans from Fannie and Freddie at that time.

Bloomberg reported in February that Kushner was purchasing 6,030 apartments across 16 properties in the two states from private equity firm Lone Star Funds in a $1.15 billion deal. The Real Deal reported earlier Thursday on the closing of the transaction. Trump appointed Joseph Otting to oversee the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates Fannie and Freddie. Otting previously served as CEO of OneWest Bank, founded by now-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, an ally of Kushner’s in the West Wing.

Jared Kushner is the grift princeling. SAUL LOEB Getty Images

Cozy is as cozy does. Meanwhile, over at the Department of Labor, "divesting" doesn't mean what it used to mean. From the Wall Street Journal (via The Daily Beast):

Transport[ation] Secretary Elaine Chao could be in for a bumpy ride after The Wall Street Journal reported that she still owns stock in a road-paving company, more than a year after she promised to get rid of it. Chao’s holdings are in Vulcan Materials, which is the largest U.S. supplier of stone, sand, and gravel used in road-paving and building. The stock price has risen nearly 13 percent since April 2018, the month Chao said she would ditch the shares, meaning she’s gained more $40,000 since the promise was made.

Chao is married to the inexcusable Mitch McConnell, so I suspect the ride will not be as bumpy as it might have been. And, at any rate, clarifications are being made, and "clarification" doesn't mean what it used to mean, either.

A DOT spokesman said the language of the 2017 ethics agreement “is being clarified to avoid confusion.”

No prizes will be awarded for guessing whether Chao will face actual consequences. Alex Wong Getty Images

Yes, as is often the case, one's personal avarice can often be confused with obvious graft. Here's where we remind each other that poor Jimmy Carter had to sell the family peanut business. But the most basic explanation comes from a junior counselor at Camp Runamuck. From The Root:

“Just retweeted this amazing tweet from both of my Twitter accounts— professional and personal,” Patton wrote on Facebook last week, pointing to a message that championed her boss, HUD Secretary Ben Carson, but critical of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). “It may be a Hatch Act violation. It may not be. Either way...I honestly don’t care anymore.”

You could have fooled us. In fact, you all did. The invasive species are thriving.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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