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The Kush -- Jared Kushner's Rise to Failure

Patrick Bateman

By Patrick Bateman
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Bullneck

Bullneck 18987

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9 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

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I guess after Barron the world will end, as it will be 150 degrees in Toronto in the winter.  

Any idea who beats Ivanka's re-election bid?  Hunter?  

Imagine actually wanting a dynasty.  It seems like every other country that has one doesn't like it. 

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tx 3 putt

tx 3 putt 76414

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3 minutes ago, Bullneck said:

 

I guess after Barron the world will end, as it will be 150 degrees in Toronto in the winter.  

Any idea who beats Ivanka's re-election bid?  Hunter?  

Imagine actually wanting a dynasty.  It seems like every other country that has one doesn't like it. 


God Save the Queen, bro !

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Dutchrudder

Dutchrudder 11115

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7 hours ago, WhatTheBuck said:

It’s probably based on this opinion piece saying MBS’s $2 Billion in Kushner’s business sure looks like payback. It doesn’t provide any actual evidence, but come on, we know criminal syndicates operate.

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/jared-kushner-s-deal-saudi-arabia-sure-looks-corrupt-n1294342

It was long suspected that Mushner shared intelligence with MBS before he rounded up a lot of other Saudi Royals as he consolidated his power. It’s also been extensively reported that the CIA objected to Kushner getting top security clearance because of his conflicts of interest and concern that he’d be a security risk but Trump just overrode their veto and gave it to him anyway.

I see the smoke, but I want more evidence of the fire. I doubt any material would exist that shows Kushner giving what amounts to a "kill/torture list" to MBS. I'm sure the 2 billion investment his company received was much less than the amount of wealth extracted from those who did not support the new leader.  That would be quite a story if some more evidence existed. I just don't think Kushner is dumb enough to email or text any of it. 

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WhatTheBuck

WhatTheBuck 28716

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4 minutes ago, Dutchrudder said:

I see the smoke, but I want more evidence of the fire. I doubt any material would exist that shows Kushner giving what amounts to a "kill/torture list" to MBS. I'm sure the 2 billion investment his company received was much less than the amount of wealth extracted from those who did not support the new leader.  That would be quite a story if some more evidence existed. I just don't think Kushner is dumb enough to email or text any of it. 

I think Kushner is too dumb to know what he was handing over or how it would be used. And that he’s careless and naive enough to just hand it over in person, trying to make friends with a rich Saudi while he was arranging for Trump’s first overseas trip. I doubt we’d ever be able to get smoking (smocking?) gun evidence. The best we could do is consult our intelligence agencies and find out what intelligence they provided to him. Maybe interview former DNI Dan Coats and get his thoughts, or Gina Haspel, but whatever he got probably came from beneath the Director level. Kushner wouldn’t talk, neither would MSB, so for whatever federal crimes Kushner might have been engaged in, he'll never pay for them.

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WhatTheBuck

WhatTheBuck 28716

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42 minutes ago, GW Hayduke said:

Congress was trying to hault weapons deals with SA as punishment for the Khashoggi assassination. Kushner was the main proponent who kept the deals alive.   The $2 billion equity deal is likely a reward for all of that

That was all Trump. Trump bragged to Bob Woodward about MBS that he “saved his ass” after the murder of Khashoggi, said he believed MBS when he said he didn’t do it (of course). He was always boasting about all the arms he was selling them, overstating the truth and taking credit for some deals made before he took office. He vetoed Congressional efforts to stop the sales.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-woodward-khashoggi-murder-saving-ass-1057940/

The Saudis also rented a lot of space in Trump properties. “They pay cash.” Trump has said. Plus Khashoggi was critical of Trump so it’s not like Trump really cared what happened to him.

 

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956 Worldwide

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Posted
Posted (edited)
9 hours ago, WhatTheBuck said:

It’s probably based on this opinion piece saying MBS’s $2 Billion in Kushner’s business sure looks like payback. It doesn’t provide any actual evidence, but come on, we know criminal syndicates operate.

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/jared-kushner-s-deal-saudi-arabia-sure-looks-corrupt-n1294342

It was long suspected that Mushner shared intelligence with MBS before he rounded up a lot of other Saudi Royals as he consolidated his power. It’s also been extensively reported that the CIA objected to Kushner getting top security clearance because of his conflicts of interest and concern that he’d be a security risk but Trump just overrode their veto and gave it to him anyway.

Yeah, I don’t buy that explanation.  I mean, yes it’s enormously fucking corrupt. That said— if Kushner was doing solids for you when Trump was in office, why would you give him two billion that he’s not qualified to handle once he’s gone and can’t do you any more favors? And in the process raise some serious hackles with the new admin, who you need to deal with now.  He already did the favor and what’s he gonna do, sue you for breach of contract? This makes sense only if Kushner might be useful again in the future. 
 

No, this isn’t payback or a reward, although it may be framed that way to Jared. This is an investment in a future Trump administration, and we should expect the Kingdom to try and facilitate one. This is trying to facilitate one. 

Edited by 956 Worldwide
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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 104636

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Posted
Yeah, I don’t buy that explanation.  I mean, yes it’s enormously fucking corrupt. That said— if Kushner was doing solids for you when Trump was in office, why would you give him two billion that he’s not qualified to handle once he’s gone and can’t do you any more favors? And in the process raise some serious hackles with the new admin, who you need to deal with now.  
 
No, this isn’t payback or a reward, although it may be framed that way to Jared. This is an investment in a future Trump administration, and we should expect the Kingdom to try and facilitate one. This is trying to facilitate one. 

Correct. It’s a deposit, expected to yield a future reward. They are openly buying a future US president.
Oh, and he IS a future US president. Between the support he actually has, and the way GOP legislatures and state officials are going to make sure that dem voters and polling places have a hard time voting….for fuck’s sake, they have fucking TOLD US THEIR PLAN OUT LOUD MULTIPLE TIMES.
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WhatTheBuck

WhatTheBuck 28716

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27 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

Yeah, I don’t buy that explanation.  I mean, yes it’s enormously fucking corrupt. That said— if Kushner was doing solids for you when Trump was in office, why would you give him two billion that he’s not qualified to handle once he’s gone and can’t do you any more favors? And in the process raise some serious hackles with the new admin, who you need to deal with now.  He already did the favor and what’s he gonna do, sue you for breach of contract? This makes sense only if Kushner might be useful again in the future. 

I think it’s a little of both. Yeah, he definitely is thinking ahead and that Jared will be useful again in the future. But it’s also true that in Arabian culture you remember your friends. 

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9 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

I think it’s a little of both. Yeah, he definitely is thinking ahead and that Jared will be useful again in the future. But it’s also true that in Arabian culture you remember your friends. 

Kushner is not their friend and they almost certainly view him with deep contempt. 

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WhatTheBuck

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6 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

Kushner is not their friend and they almost certainly view him with deep contempt. 

You don’t think Kushner has been very friendly to MBS? I disagree. I mean, all the dictators know they’re playing these simpletons, but Arab culture is different than ours. And these simpletons were instrumental in helping MBS usurp the position of crown prince from the start. He owes them a lot even if he feels contempt for them as useful idiots. 

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3 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

You don’t think Kushner has been very friendly to MBS? I disagree. I mean, all the dictators know they’re playing these simpletons, but Arab culture is different than ours. And these simpletons were instrumental in helping MBS usurp the position of crown prince from the start. He owes them a lot even if he feels contempt for them as useful idiots. 

Kush had been very friendly to him, yes.  And I am sure he made friendly noises right back.
 

Arab culture is very different than ours.  Gulf Arab royalty do not view the people that do them favors in exchange for money as friends.  Just like all the executives and engineers that run their businesses and countries for them are not friends.  You have to be nicer to them than the Pakistani who totes bricks but that doesn’t mean the relationship isn’t fundamentally the same. 

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Fletch

Fletch 5799

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5 hours ago, Bullneck said:

 

I guess after Barron the world will end, as it will be 150 degrees in Toronto in the winter.  

Any idea who beats Ivanka's re-election bid?  Hunter?  

Imagine actually wanting a dynasty.  It seems like every other country that has one doesn't like it. 

We’re totally going to have a Chelsea Clinton-Ivanka Trump presidential election in 2032 aren’t we?

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WhatTheBuck

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36 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

The fascinating thing about Kushner is not simply his complete mediocrity. It’s that his every accomplishment was facilitated by grift, nepotism, and criminal activity. It’s absolutely impossible to separate him from it. 

It’s so weird. You know the dream where you haven’t been to class all session and it’s the day of the final and you’re in panic mode because you haven’t studied and aren’t even sure where they’re holding the exam? Jared was basically in that situation every day in the White House. And he came out convincing himself that he’d aced the test. His utter lack of education, experience, and competence to perform a weighty job never bothered him at all.

But I guess it doesn’t matter when you really have no values or a desire to succeed other than looking for ways to personally enrich yourself.  And when there really isn’t much of a job description beyond that. Serve the mob boss, pay tribute, and get whatever you can for yourself.

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Posted (edited)
22 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

It’s so weird. You know the dream where you haven’t been to class all session and it’s the day of the final and you’re in panic mode because you haven’t studied and aren’t even sure where they’re holding the exam? Jared was basically in that situation every day in the White House. And he came out convincing himself that he’d aced the test. His utter lack of education, experience, and competence to perform a weighty job never bothered him at all.

But I guess it doesn’t matter when you really have no values or a desire to succeed other than looking for ways to personally enrich yourself.  And when there really isn’t much of a job description beyond that. Serve the mob boss, pay tribute, and get whatever you can for yourself.

But it’s deeper than that. His dad is a convicted felon, fraudster and tax cheat who bought his son a spot in Harvard.  He gave him money to do “business” and “publishing.” Then he married into the Trumps and . . . Yeah, see above. 
 

It’s just an entire life of benefiting from the crimes, nepotism, and grift of your family. He gives off the vibe of never having completed a Lego set on his own and also his dad stole it for him. 

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WhatTheBuck

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2 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

But it’s deeper than that. His dad is a convicted felon, fraudster and tax cheat who bought his son a spot in Harvard.  He gave him money to do “business” and “publishing.” Then he married into the Trumps and . . . Yeah, see above. 
 

It’s just an entire life of benefiting from the crimes, nepotism, and grift of your family. 

And when he took over the family business after his dad went to jail, he bought a newspaper when print media was dying and overpaid for 666 5th Ave. right before the real estate crisis. I don’t know how badly he would’ve been screwed if his father-in-law hadn’t won the presidency and given him an undeserved position of power and influence.

Probably not screwed enough.

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F250

F250 28694

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1 hour ago, WhatTheBuck said:

You know the dream where you haven’t been to class all session and it’s the day of the final and you’re in panic mode because you haven’t studied and aren’t even sure where they’re holding the exam?

That is a fucking terrible dream and I have it once every few months.

 

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RomaVicta

RomaVicta 29798

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23 hours ago, GW Hayduke said:

Congress was trying to hault weapons deals with SA as punishment for the Khashoggi assassination. Kushner was the main proponent who kept the deals alive.   The $2 billion equity deal is likely a reward for all of that

It's seems like we're not allowed to connect the dots laid out by Bullneck and Vicky Ward (whom I've never heard of, but still). The other side can propagate and stand by lies like Hillary killed everybody in Benghazi or there wasn't really an invasion of the capitol by insurrectionists on Jan. 6. 

The notion that we shouldn't conclude from what we see with our own eyes while FOX would have us believe shit they make up is the stuff of hysterical laughter. 

A criminal organization is taking over the country while discuss if the proper doilies are out for tea time. 

The son in law of the POTUS was gifted the highest security clearance by that POTUS. He tried to set up a secret back channel to Russia. A refresher from the Washington Post.

Quote

Jared Kushner and Russia’s ambassador to Washington discussed the possibility of setting up a secret and secure communications channel between Trump’s transition team and the Kremlin, using Russian diplomatic facilities in an apparent move to shield their pre-inauguration discussions from monitoring, according to U.S. officials briefed on intelligence reports.

Ambassador Sergey Kislyak reported to his superiors in Moscow that Kushner, son-in-law and confidant to then-President-elect Trump, made the proposal during a meeting on Dec. 1 or 2 at Trump Tower, according to intercepts of Russian communications that were reviewed by U.S. officials. Kislyak said Kushner suggested using Russian diplomatic facilities in the United States for the communications.

The meeting also was attended by Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser.

...

Trump’s advisers were similarly secretive about meetings with leaders from the United Arab Emirates. The Obama White House only learned that the crown prince of Abu Dhabi was flying to New York in December to see Kushner, Flynn and Stephen K. Bannon, another top Trump adviser, because U.S. border agents in the UAE spotted the Emirate leader’s name on a flight manifest.

Yea, let's set up some coms using Russian communications to conduct business for the good of America!

It's a criminal conspiracy involving obvious espionage right in front of our eyes. Annnnnd, it's supported by a sizable plurality of Americans.

Here's the happy fate of the LIncoln assassination conspirators. 

spacer.png

 

Edited by RomaVicta
I really need to proof these things.
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Biff Tannen

Biff Tannen 45500

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2 hours ago, F250 said:

That is a fucking terrible dream and I have it once every few months.

 

Same.  It's so annoying.  At least I've gotten to the point where I wake up and realize I never have to go to school ever again.  And then I start thinking about going back to school for another degree.  Dammit.

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Grade of D as in David

Grade of D as in David 13253

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3 hours ago, WhatTheBuck said:

It’s so weird. You know the dream where you haven’t been to class all session and it’s the day of the final and you’re in panic mode because you haven’t studied and aren’t even sure where they’re holding the exam? 

Lol, both of those things happened to me my first year on the 40. Wrong room for the public speaking final first semester, and skipped class for 6 weeks and the first class back walked into the midterm second semester calculus.

9 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

Same.  It's so annoying.  At least I've gotten to the point where I wake up and realize I never have to go to school ever again.  And then I start thinking about going back to school for another degree.  Dammit.

I haven't had this dream in years, but after getting through both of the above, it didn't really bother me.

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Sawbonz

Sawbonz 27441

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3 hours ago, Grade of D as in David said:

Lol, both of those things happened to me my first year on the 40. Wrong room for the public speaking final first semester, and skipped class for 6 weeks and the first class back walked into the midterm second semester calculus.

Username checks out 

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Hookah Horns

Hookah Horns 3082

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18 hours ago, WhatTheBuck said:

It’s so weird. You know the dream where you haven’t been to class all session and it’s the day of the final and you’re in panic mode because you haven’t studied and aren’t even sure where they’re holding the exam? Jared was basically in that situation every day in the White House. And he came out convincing himself that he’d aced the test. His utter lack of education, experience, and competence to perform a weighty job never bothered him at all.

But I guess it doesn’t matter when you really have no values or a desire to succeed other than looking for ways to personally enrich yourself.  And when there really isn’t much of a job description beyond that. Serve the mob boss, pay tribute, and get whatever you can for yourself.

That's the only recurring nightmare I have. Weird how common it is. 

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RomaVicta

RomaVicta 29798

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31 minutes ago, Hookah Horns said:

That's the only recurring nightmare I have. Weird how common it is. 

Very. In my dream, sometimes there's a high school course I failed to take, so it invalidates my college degree. It's a math course, and I haven't attended all year. In my dreams, there are maybe four dreamscapes where that version and a few university versions take place every time. I no longer often get them. 

I'm sad that Jared wasn't wearing body armor over his suit and visiting the Moscow last week. How sad if he' survived the blast and then been drawn to the depths of the Black Sea by his bullet proof vest. He'd likely drown looking smug.

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39 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

Very. In my dream, sometimes there's a high school course I failed to take, so it invalidates my college degree. It's a math course, and I haven't attended all year. In my dreams, there are maybe four dreamscapes where that version and a few university versions take place every time. I no longer often get them. 

I'm sad that Jared wasn't wearing body armor over his suit and visiting the Moscow last week. How sad if he' survived the blast and then been drawn to the depths of the Black Sea by his bullet proof vest. He'd likely drown looking smug.

Yep, I have this one often.  It’s a math class I forgot was on my schedule all year as well, and required for my degree. 

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WhatTheBuck

WhatTheBuck 28716

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19 hours ago, RomaVicta said:

It's seems like we're not allowed to connect the dots laid out by Bullneck and Vicky Ward (whom I've never heard of, but still). The other side can propagate and stand by lies like Hillary killed everybody in Benghazi or there wasn't really an invasion of the capitol by insurrectionists on Jan. 6. 

The notion that we shouldn't conclude from what we see with our own eyes while FOX would have us believe shit they make up is the stuff of hysterical laughter. 

A criminal organization is taking over the country while discuss if the proper doilies are out for tea time. 

The son in law of the POTUS was gifted the highest security clearance by that POTUS. He tried to set up a secret back channel to Russia. A refresher from the Washington Post.

Yea, let's set up some coms using Russian communications to conduct business for the good of America!

It's a criminal conspiracy involving obvious espionage right in front of our eyes. Annnnnd, it's supported by a sizable plurality of Americans.

Here's the happy fate of the LIncoln assassination conspirators. 

spacer.png

 

We’re going to need a bigger gallows. 

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Fudge Nuggets

Fudge Nuggets 19151

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1 hour ago, WhatTheBuck said:

We’re going to need a bigger gallows. 

Nah, one noose only.  Line them all up facing the gallows and pull a name out of the hat.  That person gets frog marched up the steps and hanged while his or her fellow traitors watch.  Repeat until the line is empty.

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ChuckNorrisActionJeans

ChuckNorrisActionJeans 2659

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3 hours ago, 956 Worldwide said:

Yep, I have this one often.  It’s a math class I forgot was on my schedule all year as well, and required for my degree. 

I feel like I lived the nightmare, basically. 

Freshman year, final exam in classic civilizations (Prof. Gareth Morgan for the win). Had partied all night for some stupid reason and finally fell into bed at an ungodly hour. Woke up to daylight streaming in and was like wtf? Saw that my alarm didn't go off because I set it for 8 PM instead of AM. The exam had already started. 

I sprinted across campus in my pajamas and some kind of shower shoes, looking like a freak. Got to Hogg Auditorium and flung open a side door. Well, that door opened up onto the frigging stage. So I burst in on stage in front of everyone, dragging ass and feeling like shit but also confused, not least because I was probably still drunk and hadn't fully hit the hangover stage yet. Got a good amount of applause, at least. Prof. just silently hands me the exam. Got a B!!

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WhatTheBuck

WhatTheBuck 28716

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Jared published a memoir. From the NYT review, it’s about what you’d expect.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/17/books/review-breaking-history-jared-kushner.html

Jared Kushner’s ‘Breaking History’ Is a Soulless and Very Selective Memoir

In this lengthy book, Kushner recounts the time he spent in the White House during his father-in-law’s term.

By Dwight Garner
Published Aug. 17, 2022
Updated Aug. 18, 2022, 9:59 a.m. ET

D41064AC-E2BB-4941-BA34-C8245B482C10.thumb.jpeg.ccdefdcae48e61311188b762227f80b4.jpeg

BREAKING HISTORY
A White House Memoir
By Jared Kushner
492 pages. Broadside Books. $35.

The United States Secret Service isn’t known for its sense of humor, but when it gave Jared Kushner the code name “mechanic,” was someone betting that he’d call his memoir “Breaking History”?

It’s a title that, in its thoroughgoing lack of self-awareness, matches this book’s contents. Kushner writes as if he believes foreign dignitaries (and less-than dignitaries) prized him in the White House because he was the fresh ideas guy, the starting point guard, the dimpled go-getter.

He betrays little cognizance that he was in demand because, as a landslide of other reporting has demonstrated, he was in over his head, unable to curb his avarice, a cocky young real estate heir who happened to unwrap a lot of Big Macs beside his father-in-law, the erratic and misinformed and similarly mercenary leader of the free world. Jared was a soft touch.

“Breaking History” is an earnest and soulless — Kushner looks like a mannequin, and he writes like one — and peculiarly selective appraisal of Donald J. Trump’s term in office. Kushner almost entirely ignores the chaos, the alienation of allies, the breaking of laws and norms, the flirtations with dictators, the comprehensive loss of America’s moral leadership, and so on, ad infinitum, to speak about his boyish tinkering (the “mechanic”) with issues he was interested in.

This book is like a tour of a once majestic 18th-century wooden house, now burned to its foundations, that focuses solely on, and rejoices in, what’s left amid the ashes: the two singed bathtubs, the gravel driveway and the mailbox. Kushner’s fealty to Trump remains absolute. Reading this book reminded me of watching a cat lick a dog’s eye goo.

The tone is college admissions essay. Typical sentence: “In an environment of maximum pressure, I learned to ignore the noise and distractions and instead to push for results that would improve lives.”

Every political cliché gets a fresh shampooing. “Even in a starkly divided country, there are always opportunities to build bridges,” Kushner writes. And, quoting the former White House deputy chief of staff Chris Liddell: “Every day here is sand through an hourglass, and we have to make it count.” So true, for these are the days of our lives.

Kushner, poignantly, repeatedly beats his own drum. He recalls every drop of praise he’s ever received; he brings these home and he leaves them on the doorstep. You turn the pages and find, almost at random, colleagues, some of them famous, trying to be kind, uttering things like:

“It’s really not fair how the press is beating you up. You made a very positive contribution.”

“I don’t know how you do this every day on so many topics. That was really hard! You deserve an award for all you’ve done.”

“I’ve said before, and I’ll say again. This agreement would not have happened if it wasn’t for Jared.”

“Jared did an amazing job working with Bob Lighthizer on the incredible USMCA trade deal we signed yesterday.”

“Jared’s a genius. People complain about nepotism — I’m the one who got the steal here.”

“I’ve been in Washington a long time, and I must say, Jared is one of the best lobbyists I’ve ever seen.”

A therapist might call these cries for help.

“Breaking History” opens with the story of Kushner’s father, the real estate tycoon Charles Kushner, who was imprisoned after hiring a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, having the encounter filmed and sending the tape to his sister. He was a good man who did a bad thing, Jared says, and Chris Christie, while serving as the United States attorney for New Jersey, was cruel to prosecute him so mercilessly.

There is a flashback to Kushner’s grandparents, Holocaust survivors who settled in New Jersey and did well. There’s a page or two about Kushner’s time at Harvard. He omits the fact that he was admitted after his father pledged $2.5 million to the college.

If Kushner can recall a professor or a book that influenced him while in Cambridge, he doesn’t say. Instead, he recalls doing his first real estate deals while there. He moved to New York, and bought and ruined a great newspaper (The New York Observer) by dumbing it down and feting his friends in its pages.

His wooing of Ivanka Trump included a good deal of jet-setting. Kushner briefly broke up with her, he writes, because she wasn’t Jewish. (She would later convert.) Wendi Murdoch, Rupert’s wife, reunited them on Rupert’s yacht. Kushner describes the power scene:

“On that Sunday, we were having lunch at Bono’s house in the town of Eze on the French Riviera, when Rupert stepped out to take a call. He came back and whispered in my ear, ‘They blinked, they agreed to our terms, we have The Wall Street Journal.’ After lunch, Billy Joel, who had also been with us on the boat, played the piano while Bono sang with the Irish singer-songwriter Bob Geldof.”

With or without you, Bono.

Once in the White House, Kushner became Little Jack Horner, placing a thumb in everyone else’s pie, and he wonders why he was disliked. He read Sun Tzu and imagined he was becoming a warrior. It was because he had Trump’s ear, however, that he won nearly every time he locked antlers with a rival. Corey Lewandowski — out. Steve Bannon — out.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who begged Kushner to stop meddling internationally  — out. (Kushner cites Tillerson’s “reclusive approach” to foreign policy.) By the end, Tillerson was like a dead animal someone needed to pull a tarpaulin over.

Kushner was pleased that the other adults in the room, including the White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, the White House counsel Don McGahn and the later chief of staff John Kelly, left or were ejected because they tried, patriotically, to exclude him from meetings he shouldn’t have been in. The fact that he was initially denied security clearance, he writes, was much ado about nothing.

The bulk of “Breaking History” — at nearly 500 pages, it’s a slog — goes deeply into the weeds (Kushner, in his acknowledgments, credits a ghostwriter, the speechwriter Brittany Baldwin) on the issues he cared most about, including prison reform, the Covid response and the Middle East, where he had a win with the Abraham Accords.

This book ends with Kushner suggesting he was unaware of the events of Jan. 6 until late in the day. He mostly sidesteps talking about spurious claims of election fraud. He seems to have no beliefs beyond carefully managed appearances and the art of the deal. He wants to stay on top of things, this manager, but doesn’t want to get to the bottom of anything.

You finish “Breaking History” wondering: Who is this book for? There’s not enough red meat for the MAGA crowd, and Kushner has never appealed to them anyway. Political wonks will be interested — maybe, to a limited degree — but this material is more thoroughly and reliably covered elsewhere. He’s a pair of dimples without a demographic.

What a queasy-making book to have in your hands. Once someone has happily worked alongside one of the most flagrant and systematic and powerful liars in this country’s history, how can anyone be expected to believe a word they say?

It makes a kind of sense that Kushner is likely to remain exiled in Florida. “The whole peninsula of Florida was weighted down with regret,” as Cynthia Ozick put it in “The Shawl.” “Everyone had left behind a real life.”

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Biff Tannen

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18 hours ago, WhatTheBuck said:

Jared published a memoir. From the NYT review, it’s about what you’d expect.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/17/books/review-breaking-history-jared-kushner.html

Jared Kushner’s ‘Breaking History’ Is a Soulless and Very Selective Memoir

In this lengthy book, Kushner recounts the time he spent in the White House during his father-in-law’s term.

By Dwight Garner
Published Aug. 17, 2022
Updated Aug. 18, 2022, 9:59 a.m. ET

D41064AC-E2BB-4941-BA34-C8245B482C10.thumb.jpeg.ccdefdcae48e61311188b762227f80b4.jpeg

BREAKING HISTORY
A White House Memoir
By Jared Kushner
492 pages. Broadside Books. $35.

The United States Secret Service isn’t known for its sense of humor, but when it gave Jared Kushner the code name “mechanic,” was someone betting that he’d call his memoir “Breaking History”?

It’s a title that, in its thoroughgoing lack of self-awareness, matches this book’s contents. Kushner writes as if he believes foreign dignitaries (and less-than dignitaries) prized him in the White House because he was the fresh ideas guy, the starting point guard, the dimpled go-getter.

He betrays little cognizance that he was in demand because, as a landslide of other reporting has demonstrated, he was in over his head, unable to curb his avarice, a cocky young real estate heir who happened to unwrap a lot of Big Macs beside his father-in-law, the erratic and misinformed and similarly mercenary leader of the free world. Jared was a soft touch.

“Breaking History” is an earnest and soulless — Kushner looks like a mannequin, and he writes like one — and peculiarly selective appraisal of Donald J. Trump’s term in office. Kushner almost entirely ignores the chaos, the alienation of allies, the breaking of laws and norms, the flirtations with dictators, the comprehensive loss of America’s moral leadership, and so on, ad infinitum, to speak about his boyish tinkering (the “mechanic”) with issues he was interested in.

This book is like a tour of a once majestic 18th-century wooden house, now burned to its foundations, that focuses solely on, and rejoices in, what’s left amid the ashes: the two singed bathtubs, the gravel driveway and the mailbox. Kushner’s fealty to Trump remains absolute. Reading this book reminded me of watching a cat lick a dog’s eye goo.

The tone is college admissions essay. Typical sentence: “In an environment of maximum pressure, I learned to ignore the noise and distractions and instead to push for results that would improve lives.”

Every political cliché gets a fresh shampooing. “Even in a starkly divided country, there are always opportunities to build bridges,” Kushner writes. And, quoting the former White House deputy chief of staff Chris Liddell: “Every day here is sand through an hourglass, and we have to make it count.” So true, for these are the days of our lives.

Kushner, poignantly, repeatedly beats his own drum. He recalls every drop of praise he’s ever received; he brings these home and he leaves them on the doorstep. You turn the pages and find, almost at random, colleagues, some of them famous, trying to be kind, uttering things like:

“It’s really not fair how the press is beating you up. You made a very positive contribution.”

“I don’t know how you do this every day on so many topics. That was really hard! You deserve an award for all you’ve done.”

“I’ve said before, and I’ll say again. This agreement would not have happened if it wasn’t for Jared.”

“Jared did an amazing job working with Bob Lighthizer on the incredible USMCA trade deal we signed yesterday.”

“Jared’s a genius. People complain about nepotism — I’m the one who got the steal here.”

“I’ve been in Washington a long time, and I must say, Jared is one of the best lobbyists I’ve ever seen.”

A therapist might call these cries for help.

“Breaking History” opens with the story of Kushner’s father, the real estate tycoon Charles Kushner, who was imprisoned after hiring a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, having the encounter filmed and sending the tape to his sister. He was a good man who did a bad thing, Jared says, and Chris Christie, while serving as the United States attorney for New Jersey, was cruel to prosecute him so mercilessly.

There is a flashback to Kushner’s grandparents, Holocaust survivors who settled in New Jersey and did well. There’s a page or two about Kushner’s time at Harvard. He omits the fact that he was admitted after his father pledged $2.5 million to the college.

If Kushner can recall a professor or a book that influenced him while in Cambridge, he doesn’t say. Instead, he recalls doing his first real estate deals while there. He moved to New York, and bought and ruined a great newspaper (The New York Observer) by dumbing it down and feting his friends in its pages.

His wooing of Ivanka Trump included a good deal of jet-setting. Kushner briefly broke up with her, he writes, because she wasn’t Jewish. (She would later convert.) Wendi Murdoch, Rupert’s wife, reunited them on Rupert’s yacht. Kushner describes the power scene:

“On that Sunday, we were having lunch at Bono’s house in the town of Eze on the French Riviera, when Rupert stepped out to take a call. He came back and whispered in my ear, ‘They blinked, they agreed to our terms, we have The Wall Street Journal.’ After lunch, Billy Joel, who had also been with us on the boat, played the piano while Bono sang with the Irish singer-songwriter Bob Geldof.”

With or without you, Bono.

Once in the White House, Kushner became Little Jack Horner, placing a thumb in everyone else’s pie, and he wonders why he was disliked. He read Sun Tzu and imagined he was becoming a warrior. It was because he had Trump’s ear, however, that he won nearly every time he locked antlers with a rival. Corey Lewandowski — out. Steve Bannon — out.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who begged Kushner to stop meddling internationally  — out. (Kushner cites Tillerson’s “reclusive approach” to foreign policy.) By the end, Tillerson was like a dead animal someone needed to pull a tarpaulin over.

Kushner was pleased that the other adults in the room, including the White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, the White House counsel Don McGahn and the later chief of staff John Kelly, left or were ejected because they tried, patriotically, to exclude him from meetings he shouldn’t have been in. The fact that he was initially denied security clearance, he writes, was much ado about nothing.

The bulk of “Breaking History” — at nearly 500 pages, it’s a slog — goes deeply into the weeds (Kushner, in his acknowledgments, credits a ghostwriter, the speechwriter Brittany Baldwin) on the issues he cared most about, including prison reform, the Covid response and the Middle East, where he had a win with the Abraham Accords.

This book ends with Kushner suggesting he was unaware of the events of Jan. 6 until late in the day. He mostly sidesteps talking about spurious claims of election fraud. He seems to have no beliefs beyond carefully managed appearances and the art of the deal. He wants to stay on top of things, this manager, but doesn’t want to get to the bottom of anything.

You finish “Breaking History” wondering: Who is this book for? There’s not enough red meat for the MAGA crowd, and Kushner has never appealed to them anyway. Political wonks will be interested — maybe, to a limited degree — but this material is more thoroughly and reliably covered elsewhere. He’s a pair of dimples without a demographic.

What a queasy-making book to have in your hands. Once someone has happily worked alongside one of the most flagrant and systematic and powerful liars in this country’s history, how can anyone be expected to believe a word they say?

It makes a kind of sense that Kushner is likely to remain exiled in Florida. “The whole peninsula of Florida was weighted down with regret,” as Cynthia Ozick put it in “The Shawl.” “Everyone had left behind a real life.”

On the latest Pod Save America they interview the guy that did the documentary with the dotard and his family at the end of the term, Unprecedented.  He said Kushner REALLY believed he DESERVED the position he had.  I'm not at all surprised.  I'm going to watch the full documentary, as much as I don't want to, because it's really fascinating on a psychological level to see how these people are divorced from reality.

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