So, while everyone’s eyes were on an empty road in Singapore, how was the ol’ grift going back here?

Damn fine grift, y’all. From The Philadelphia Inquirer:

A single tariff benefiting one paper factory in Washington state could prompt the loss of thousands of U.S. newspaper jobs, industry executives say. The ripple effect started with One Rock Capital Partners, a New York private equity firm that bought a paper mill in Longview, Wash., and then petitioned the Trump commerce department for tariffs against Canadian paper. That one mill employs about 250 people. The result? The equity firm won punishing newsprint tariffs that have pushed up newsprint prices by about 30 percent. Already newspapers around the U.S. have begun making thousands of layoffs, according to the News Media Alliance, a trade group.

Ruinous public policy at the service of a single private equity firm? Check.

And then there are the spalpeens, and the chief spalpeen-in-law. They’re sitting in the tall cotton, too. From the WaPo:

Ivanka Trump earned $3.9 million from her stake in the Trump International Hotel in Washington, while Kushner reported over $5 million in income from Quail Ridge, a Kushner Cos. apartment complex acquired last year in Plainsboro, N.J. The filings show how the couple are collecting immense sums from other enterprises while serving in the White House, an extraordinary income flow that ethics experts have warned could create potential conflicts of interests. While both Kushner and Ivanka Trump were required to file financial forms last year, it is difficult to compare their past to present wealth because there are several months of overlap in the reporting period and the Office of Government Ethics uses broad ranges to calculate assets and liabilities.

Who else is doing well enough to take on government work?

National security adviser John Bolton reported making $2.2 million in income last year, including $569,000 from Fox News, where he was a paid contributor. Bolton also received a $240,000 salary from the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, and $155,000 from the Gatestone Institute — a group that has raised fears about Muslims in Europe, sometimes through claims that have been debunked. Bolton served as that group’s chairman…The largest speaking fees came from a foundation run by Ukrainian steel magnate Viktor Pinchuk, which paid Bolton $115,000 for speeches in September 2017 and February 2018. Pinchuk, who generally advocates for closer ties between Ukraine and the West, also donated $150,000 to President Trump’s charitable foundation in exchange for a short speech Trump made to one of Pinchuk’s conferences by video in 2015.

There are no conflicts of interest here because there are no interests in conflict. This is a crew of career profiteers whose only interest is in making themselves as wealthy as possible. The grift rots from the head down.

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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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