“Why sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” — Alice in Wonderland.
“The words mean what you want them to mean.” — Alice in Wonderland
Man, if I get gaslighted anymore this year, I am going to start glowing in the dark and stinking of propane. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, would you look at this headline, “Against All Odds: Jared Kushner Reflects On His Years In the White House.” What topsy turvy hellscape of an alternate reality was this story written to reflect?
I have always been mightily impressed by Jared and his achievements. I mean, I had to get into college on my own merits, nobody took that SAT for me, and I drove a series of junkers in college. One of them had a tailpipe that was literally held together with baling wire (and I would have used spit, too, if it would have helped.) I worked part time jobs to get by. Jared, by contrast, had to struggle to get Daddy to shell out over a million bucks in an endowment check, and then he drove up to Harvard in his Range Rover and never worked a day in his life.
I mean, what are the odds that somebody from that background would marry somebody equally useless from the same background and then the two rich a$$holes would end up playing government when one of their fathers improbably became president of the United States?
And actually, I will agree that the odds of somebody like Kushner finding himself in a position to bill himself as the savior of both world peace and the Middle East, after “reading 25 books on the subject” were a bit fantastic. On that point I will concur. But rather than crowing about how fate has a way of elevating the most improbable losers into positions of power, if they happen to be well heeled and well connected, I think he would do far better to just STFU about anything he did in his father-in-law’s misadministration and fade quietly into the shadows. Obviously that’s not going to happen.
What affects me like fingernails dragged down a chalkboard is this smug, world weary manner that Kushner affects, when he explains, one more time, how this all just comes naturally to him. He simply knows intuitively how to break away from those silly cliched ideas about experience and hard work and do it his way. Kushner cuts straight to the chase — using world class psychobabble to describe how an imaginary victory was achieved, and inferring that it was possible, because the truth is that he was really so much smarter than all the others who had ever attempted the same task and failed. He failed too, but that part gets underplayed and whitewashed. As a matter of fact, Kushner has failed at everything he ever put his hand to, but you’re not going to hear the sad tale of the 666 building or the New York Observer unless you ask somebody else who saw it all go down.
But Kushner only sees success. Ask him and he’ll tell you he saw a “fresh” way to look at things, wasn’t “restricted” by “tradition” or “preconceived notions” — or by facts or reality either, we might add.
He did jack shit in the Middle East to affect any kind of a “lasting peace.” Do you see a lasting peace in the Middle East? No, and you won’t. Israel promised only temporary restraint of its plan of de facto annexation of parts of the West Bank. Less than a year after the vaunted Abraham Accords were signed Israel and Hamas were bombing each other like before, 260 Palestinians died. Tens of thousands of Palestinians were displaced from their Gaza homes. It’s the same thing, different day. Zero miraculous, lasing peace. Hype and horseshit like everything else in the Trump administration.
Yet we are supposed to genuflect, I guess, before the Boy Wonder, Secretary of Everything, “My Star” as Trump calls his son-in-law.
Good for him that he was born on third base and the strangeness of fate ended up being his personal golf cart and caddy from third base to home plate. That this improbable, foppish wimp in the skinny suit is even a footnote in the history of our government is remarkable. i guess even Jared is surprised.
The only thing I wonder is, does Jared believe his own publicity? Is he that far out to lunch? That I would love to know. That’s the only thing about him I would love to know.
As your article progressed you raised a point that’s important – Israel and the middle east in general is still all fucked up. NOT getting better and in fact getting worse. Sadly, our President has had NATO to rebuild and a free world to cajole into supporting Ukraine. Oh, and Israel hasn’t exactly been a staunch supporter of Ukraine!
Jared didn’t accomplish jack-shit. If Israel took a bit of a pause in taking over the West Bank with more illegal “settlements” it was only to take some heat off their buddy Trump.
I too believe it’s fascinating to contemplate whether Jared actually believes his own bullshit or is just a lazy-assed rich boy who has some con-man abilities either inherited or learned from his p.o.s. convicted felon father. I have this awful feeling that he actually believes he is truly special, so much so that his shit doesn’t stink and all that.
I’ve sometimes compared Jared and Ivanka to Juan and Evita Peron, but at least in Peron’s case he kind of wanted to escape to a quiet, comfortable life in Paraguay or somewhere similar where if he kept a low profile he could live out a life of luxury. But his wife wasn’t having any of that! In the case of Jarvanka I suspect the roles are reversed. Ivanka would love nothing more than to simply live out what should be many more years in luxury from ill-gotten gains stashed away. That she realizes the more the spotlight shines on daddums the more likely it will expand to HER and she too might wind up wearing orange in some federal prison cell.
It’s weird when you think about it because I’ve felt from the beginning, as in back when he was only candidate Trump Jared has prepared for the possibility of trading all manner of dirt on the Trumps (including Ivanka if it came down to it) to keep his own ass out of prison. Unlike the Trumps, he’s actually been to a federal prison – visiting his dad. I’m quite certain that was more than enough to convince him to prepare contingencies to horse-trade not going to prison because he saw more than enough to never, ever EVER want to be on his dad’s side of the glass.
So, the best thing he could do for himself and his wife is to STFU unless it’s to sell out one or more Trumps to the feds. He’s rich enough to imitate his father-in-law and get a new trophy wife after all. But Jared and Ivanka have had decent legal representation for years and know damn well what might or might not happen. However, if as I said Jared really does have delusions of grandeur and wants to be a “player” again in a post Trump GOP he’s going to have to throw every Trump including Wannabe Princess Ivanka under the bus! You have to wonder about their relationship these days.
“I’ve sometimes compared Jared and Ivanka to Juan and Evita Peron, but at least in Peron’s case he kind of wanted to escape to a quiet, comfortable life in Paraguay or somewhere similar where if he kept a low profile he could live out a life of luxury. But his wife wasn’t having any of that!”
Huh? When did Perón ever want to “escape” Argentina to “live out a life of luxury” that Eva opposed? Eva was a VERY strong supporter of Argentina’s “common folks” (she started out as one herself) and she only met Juan in January of 1944 and the two were married in October of 1945 (in a quiet ceremony; a formal church wedding took place in December). Juan would become President of the country in June of 1946 and there is NO suggestion that he ever considered any “escape” as he ran for re-election at the end of 1951, winning handily. Eva would die a little over a month after Juan began his second term as President. Juan Perón would be overthrown in a coup in September of 1955 (he would first flee to Paraguay, then Venezuela before finally going to Spain where he would remain until 1973).
But, frankly, to compare Ivanka Trump with Eva Perón is nothing less than blasphemy against Sra Perón’s memory. Again, Eva came from humble, common-folk roots and NEVER forgot that. She worked for women’s rights and to better the lives of not only working adults but also children. When the fuck did Ivanka Trump ever do anything that benefited someone other than Ivanka Trump?
Mmmmm…sort of. To wonder about it would imply that I actually give a shit.
lol!
So sorry, Pedant Patrol here. The quotes you start with aren’t quite right. They’re both from Alice Through the Looking Glass, not Wonderland. And yeah, they’re different books, in spite of Prisney and other movie makers fucking them up for years. Wonderland is cards, Looking Glass is a chess game.
You’ve got the first quote right, it’s the White Queen. The second is by Humpty Dumpty, and is, “When I use a word, it means just what I chose it to mean – neither more nor less.”
I have that by memory cuz I probably read the Alice books and Hunting of the Snark around 40 times in grade school, jr. high and high school. Late 60’s, early 70’s. In the day, in addition to Jabberwocky, I had You Are Old Father William, most of The Walrus & Carpenter and Lobster Quadrille, first stanzas of Hunting of the Snark. And of course, How Doth the Little Crocodile. Dork alert.
BTW, I started calling him Jared Failed Everything He Tried Kushner back in 2020. 😉
Kushner is just another example of a rich trailer trash grifter…fits right in with the Traitor Tot crime cult! He is extremely luck that nobody ever took him out behind the barn and taught him that not keeping your mouth shut can land you in a hospital bed!
😀
Of course he believes his own hype. He’s not tfg’s star for nothing. They were both born to wealth, with crooked and despicable fathers, who taught them well. “Kushner has failed at everything he ever put his hand to”. Just like his father-in-law, cut from the same grimy, stench ridden cloth.
The rich marry the rich. Period. He’s a traitor & grifter. He should be in jail. When I went into the military, I aced some tests & they wanted to teach me Russian or Chinese. In MY security clearance interview i was asked if i ever used ‘drugs’. I was in Chapel Hill as an undergraduate in the early seventies with nixon in charge & rioting in the steets. I was honest with them & of course that avenue closed due to their stupidity & complicity in nixon’s illegal war on ‘drugs’, except the most dangerous drugs, alcohol & cigarettes. This pissant lied hundreds of times in his security clearance process & gets access to God knows what, probably selling then to our enemies. America. Land of hypocrisy. Land of venal worship of money & fame. Land of ignorance. Now a land heading toward fascism inch by inch by inch. I am never shocked when these fuckers play the victim. America. Where 75 million people, who aren’t starving, without clean water or safe shelter, and have access to free education, feel they are victims. America. Land of red, white, & blue horseshit. Want an example? How many of you have read I Buried My Heart at Wounded Knee? It is a comprehensive history of our land grab, murder, rape, and destruction of all the various American Indian cultures. Should be REQUIRED reading. Our government made something like 354 treaties with the Native Americans & broke EVERY ONE. We gave medals of honor to soliders that ambushed Indian camps, mostly women, children, & old people, who were slaughtered. I won’t waste space bringing up slavery, although I find people don’t know much about that either. In fact, this country is now full of people who don’t even believe their own eyes & ears. Cue up the rationalizations & the belief that merrick garland will save us. Nope. A culture isn’t that easily changed, just as religious hypocrites refuse to see their hypocrisy. As a religion major and anthropology minor, with a degree from a public ivy & the oldest state university in the land, where I took courses in calculus, chemistry, & eventually in many disciplines, I don’t find many citizens who are educated. I find many opinions with no underpinnings but a lot of passion. Blind passion can easily be seen in the Nuremberg rallies in the 30s & 40s. We know how that ended. Oh, wait…my mistake. Most people don’t know shit & don’t want to know shit. If they did, then large, pulitzer prize winning books would be popular. Instead, you can find them at the thrift store for a buck. The only true way out is to vote but know what you’re voting for. Of course, that’s why the fascist love to ban & burn books. That’s why they gut the public schools to allow people to be taught their agenda without argument. That’s why they allow a national propaganda station market themselves as Fox ‘News’. Hitler would have loved America as we are today. He never had 75 million supporters.
Wow, Scott. You’ve summed up everything I’ve been thinking and saying for a couple decades. The basic education I received in elementary school in the 50’s was far superior to what education is today, even at the high school level. The systematic starving of public school funding, the transfer of funds from public education to charter and religious schools that started in the 80’s were just the start. The advent and predominance of abbreviated spelling on social media, has given us a whole generation of people who don’t and can’t read more than a few sentences, can’t spell, don’t know basic grammar and are incapable of critical thinking. It’s all about what “I feel”, not “what I’ve learned”. Can’t help thinking it was all part of a greater plan to keep them dumb, compliant and easily manipulated. It’s working.
I’m sorry – 3rd base???!!! No, he was born halfway between 3rd and home while the ball was being booted around in the outfield by incompetent outfielders.
3rd base my ass!
And seriously, “against all odds”?
Not only was he born with a platinum spoon in his mouth and another up his butt, but he’s seriously delusional about all of it.
My GOD is everyone in the Trump orbit just STOOOOOPID!!!!!!
“The only thing I wonder is, does Jared believe his own publicity? Is that he far out to lunch? That I would love to know. That’s the only thing about him I would love to know.”
Yes, Ms.Faw—indeed he does.