Short and sweet.
February 17, 2022
[Audio version here]
I am short on time this evening, so I will limit my commentary and focus on highlighting important developments.
Putin lied about withdrawing troops. No surprise there.
Earlier in the week, Putin said Russia would withdraw troops from the Ukrainian border—by which he meant that Russia would send more troops to the Ukrainian border. See NYTimes, Ukraine Tensions Spike as West Accuses Russia of Lying About Troop Withdrawal. None of Putin’s buddies at Fox News mentioned this development—apparently because it is not news (at Fox) when a national leader is caught in a bald-faced lie.
The Russian news agency TASS reported that Putin has “put on hold” a plan to recognize two Ukrainian republics controlled by pro-Russian separatists. The article quoted Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council, Andrey Kortunov, as follows: “Recognition of the [Ukrainian] republics should logically be accompanied by the signing of treaties with them, which would likely envisage deploying troops in” those republics. In other words, if Putin decides to recognize the Ukrainian republics in the Donbas region, Russia intends to send in troops ASAP.
An excellent explanation of why Trump’s accounting firm withdrew, and what it means.
The fact that Trump’s accounting firm said that ten years of Trump’s financial statements “should not be relied upon” is big news. The underlying facts are nuanced because they turn on specialized rules that govern what accountants do. But those facts are worth understanding because they highlight just how much trouble Trump is in as a result of Mazar’s withdrawal of its opinions. For an excellent discussion of these issues, read Philip Rotner’s explanation in The Bulwark, Mazars Thumps Trump.
Rotner always knows what he is talking about, but that is especially true on this subject. Rotner served as the general counsel for one of the world’s largest accounting firms. Rotner also discusses the practical impact of Mazars’ decision to fire the Trump Organization as a client:
His main lender, Deutsche Bank, cut its ties with him after the Jan. 6th Capitol attack. Prospective new lenders would have to be convinced, contrary to all existing evidence, that they could rely on the accuracy of the financial information provided by the Trump Organization. Existing lenders, including Deutsche Bank, could see the Mazars letter as a basis to call for immediate repayment of loans that are otherwise not yet due, depending on the terms of their loan agreements.
Biden allows January 6th Committee to seek White House visitor logs.
President Biden waived any claim of executive privilege over visitor logs for the White House during the period surrounding January 6, 2021. See ABCNews, Biden orders Trump White House visitor logs turned over to Jan. 6 committee. Good, so far as it goes. Here’s my prediction about what the Select Committee will find: Trump failed to keep an accurate record of who entered the White House.
Republican Senators oppose “no-fly lists” that would ban unruly passengers.
The airline industry is asking the DOJ for permission to create a “no-fly” list to ban unruly passengers who disrupt flights. Seven Republican Senators oppose the “no-fly” lists because they want to protect the rights of anti-maskers to serially attack airline crews. The GOP Senators claim that adding unruly passengers to a “no-fly” list equates them with terrorists—to which I say, “You got that part right.” See WaPo, Eight Republican senators say they oppose ‘no-fly’ list for disruptive passengers because it would equate mask opponents to ‘terrorists’.
Republicans in Congress have risen to the defense of the violent insurrectionists who attacked the Capitol. Now those same Republicans want to defend drunk passengers who attack airline crews. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the political organization that used to describe itself as the “Law and Order” Party.
This weekend on Today’s Edition Podcast.
This weekend’s podcast will be interesting for everyone—but especially for readers who focus on healthcare policy and reform. I will be interviewing the leaders of Ask Nurses & Doctors. Ask Nurses and Doctors (AND) is a bipartisan venture whose mission is to help elect Congressional representatives who prioritize the solution of US health care problems. The group is currently focused on effectively dealing with the COVID pandemic and achieving universal coverage to help address this and future pandemics. The podcast will air live on Saturday, February 19th at 2:00 PM Eastern / 11 AM Pacific on the Callin app, which is now available for iPhone and Android cell phones. Join live to participate in the discussion. A link to the recorded podcast will be published in Monday’s newsletter.
Concluding Thoughts.
I hope you are sitting down when you read this. I agree with Tucker Carlson. Well, on one point, at least. While perusing the Fox News website (as I do every night), I saw a headline above a Tucker Carlson rant. The headline read, “Democrats believe giving up power would end democracy.” I did not read the underlying article because I had just finished dinner, but the headline raises an important point. Democrats must stop trying to raise money by saying that “democracy will end in 2022 (or 2024) if Republicans win.” No, democracy will not end if Republicans take back control of Congress or the presidency in the coming election cycles—and we should stop saying that it will.
Before you send an email saying that I don’t understand the threat posed by Republican control of Congress and the presidency, I do. I have gone to the bother of writing 2,280 daily newsletters to warn about the threat posed by the Trumpist Republican Party. If Republicans win in 2022 or 2024, that will be a horrendous outcome that will set back civil rights and the rule of law by decades. But it will not end democracy. If we lose, someone will have to carry on the hard work of defending democracy from the minority position in Congress and the trenches of state government. That would be us. But if we are preconditioned to “give up” because we believe losing means the “end of democracy,” it will be damned hard to recruit volunteers to mount new campaigns for control of Congress in 2026 and 2028.
Look, no one likes to talk about losing. But we must acknowledge that is one of the possible outcomes in 2022 and 2024. Let’s fight to win, but let’s remind ourselves that we are engaged in a generational struggle. Victory or defeat is not measured in one or two election cycles. It is measured by our progress over time. Yes, we are in a perilous moment in our nation’s history—but that is almost always so. Our ancestors did not shrink from the fight, and neither should we. So, let’s stop talking about the “end of democracy” and talk more about our long-term strategy for preserving democracy. That discussion should give us the confidence to accept both victory and defeat with equanimity and determination. We can do that. We did it in 2016—and our dedication paid off.
Talk to you tomorrow!
Thank you so much for the concluding paragraphs of today’s Newsletter reminding us that we face neither the end of the world nor the end of democracy should Republicans and even DJT return to control of Congress or the White House. Would it be bad? Certainly, but the sun will come up the next day and resistance to authoritarianism and poor governing philosophies will continue. I have been a progressive and social justice advocate and activist for over 55 years. I have seen both progress and setback, wins and losses, but as Robert reminds us often this has been and continues to be a multi-generational effort to form that “more perfect” Union to which we aspire. Whichever party seats a majority in Congress or takes the White House in 2022 and 2024 there are many challenges and much work yet to accomplish. I hope no one will give up the fight whether progressives win or lose in 2022 and 2024.
I keep this quote by Mahatma Gandhi on my home office wall and read it often to encourage myself, “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi
As Robert points out so clearly, Deutsche Bank has long been the primary lender to Donald Trump's businesses even though now claiming to have ended that relationship going forward. Mazars has also served for many years as his primary external accounting firm. You should note that I have not described them as his "audit" firm. I have seen several reports in the media about Mazars breaking its ties with Trump as his audit firm. This is incorrect. Mazars has never claimed to provide audited financial statements for Trump firms. Auditing financial statements require a much higher standard of testing accuracy of financial information and provide a much higher standard of assurance of accuracy than simply providing accounting services.
This is a very important distinction. Why? Deutsche Bank has provided literally hundreds of millions of dollars of loans on the strength of "unaudited" financial information. This is gross dereliction of their responsibilities as a commercial lender. It should be noted that Deutsche Bank has repeatedly been severely criticized by the U.S. Federal Reserve for a large number of egregious compliance violations. The most recent of these was in the spring of 2021.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-28/fed-admonishes-deutsche-bank-for-ongoing-compliance-failures
Before NY State Attorney General Letitia James is finished with her investigation and perhaps ultimately prosecution of Trump and his businesses, civilly or criminally, it is quite possible the Federal Reserve will be reviewing the compliance failures of Deutsche Bank with regard to its lending practices and controls. Should that be the case , it is not unlikely that the terms of current outstanding loans might be changed or even that such loans could be called due depending upon the terms of the governing loan agreements.
It is quite likely that Deutsche Banks apparently reckless lending standards of extending such large commercial loans on the basis of unaudited and now apparently grossly inaccurate financial statements will be highly criticized by both regulators and investors. This is likely to compound their existing compliance challenges and criticisms. Welcome Deutsche Bank to the circle of troubled Trump associated entities.