Jared and Roger and a "major announcement" from Stormy

The flagrantly crooked Kushner family has come up with a plan to save their white elephant at the Devil's address. Despite being cash-strapped and over-extended, despite having no obvious way of making the payment that is coming due, the Kushners are buying out their partner in the enterprise.

Where is the money to come from? No one will say so officially, but the answer is obvious: Saudi Arabia.

The important thing to understand is that Saudi Arabia is having a major tiff with Qatar, a country where we have an important base. At first, Kushner asked the Qataris for the money, offering favorable treatment from the Trump administration in exchange for a billion bucks. (With that kind of money, the Kushners can fulfill their dream of knocking down the existing structure and build anew.)

The Qataris said no deal.

So Kushner went to his brand-new friend, the young leader of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman. Suddenly, the Trump administration decided to favor Saudi Arabia in its regional tiff, and even signaled that the United States would look the other way if the Kingdom took military action against Qatar.

Dexter Filkins explains everything quite nicely in this Trumpcast episode, which I strongly urge you to hear. (If you listen to one podcast this week, that's the one.) Filkins discusses the very real possibility -- indeed, the likelihood -- that Jared and Trump did not know that the U.S. has a base in Qatar.

David Cay Johnston adds to our knowledge in the video clip embedded above. Johnston connects the Kushner scandal to the Scott Pruitt scandal. Pruitt is tied in with a liquid natural gas concern which directly competes with Qatar, the leading player in that industry.

So far, we've had no on-the-record confirmation that MBS decided to pay Jared the billion bucks he covets. But it's just a matter of time, isn't it? No sensible person would deny that Kushner must have used his position with the administration to cut a dirty deal. Where else did the money come from to buy out the Kushner family's partner? Anyone who thought that the "radical" Trump administration might reveal Saudi Arabia's links to 9/11 has just experienced a "pie in the face" moment.

If you are now tempted to make an argument weighing the sins of Qatar against the sins of the Saudis, you have missed the point. The point is corruption -- American corruption. American foreign policy should not be determined by bribes paid to our ruling family.

World's Greatest Polonium Survivor! When Roger Stone went on CNN and did his "Julian who?" routine, the CNN crew -- to their credit -- spent the rest of the day gleefully recounting Roger Stone's claimed battle with polonium poisoning, allegedly administered by those ratfinks at the Deep State. As you will recall, Roger said that he survived thanks to one of Alex Jones' miracle cures.

In the real world, of course, victims of polonium poisoning end up in the hospital looking skeletal and ghastly. And then they die. Inevitably. Stone's unprecedented tale of survival would receive coverage by the Journal of the American Medical Association -- if his story were true.

If you believe that story, then you must be the sort of primeval rube who thinks wrestling is on the level and who forks over money to buy miracle pills from Alex Jones. Stone has given us no evidence whatsoever that he has ever been near polonium.

Keep that fact in mind as you ponder the veracity of statements made by Roger "Polonium" Stone.

Stormy times. This just in from the lawyer of Stormy Daniels...

Expect a major announcement in the coming days regarding our efforts to identify the thug who threatened Ms. Clifford in Las Vegas in 2011 to “leave Trump alone” while making reference to her little girl. You can run but you can’t hide...

My prediction: She will finger Keith Schiller. Hell, I'd bet money on it. In this post, I suggested that Schiller (Trump's ultra-loyal former bodyguard) not only could have been the guy who threatened Stormy Daniels but may also have delivered a phone threat to attorney Kristopher Hansen back in 2009. In both cases, Schiller was in the right place at the right time.

Stone update: Roger says that he hears from his unnamed congressional sources that A.G. Jeff Sessions in "senile." (Republican propagandists may use anonymous sources; the Washington Post may not.) It's a strikingly vicious attack which may presage a wider coordinated barrage from multiple Trumpist sources.

My guess is that Stone, sensing the approach of severe legal trouble, has placed his hopes in a shutdown of the investigation. I'm not sure that Trump would consider Stone worthy of a pardon, so getting rid of Mueller altogether would serve Stone's purposes better.

Perhaps the same Alex Jones miracle pills that cured polonium poisoning can also cure senility? I