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Celebrate the fucking wins.

Everybody saw this coming.

No one could have predicted…

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So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

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Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

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One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

When I was faster i was always behind.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Late-Night Oddity Open Thread: Elaine Chao “Finally Gets Her Own Ethics Scandal,” Kinda

Late-Night Oddity Open Thread: Elaine Chao “Finally Gets Her Own Ethics Scandal,” Kinda

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As NYMag describes it:

While other Trump Cabinet officials have been in the news constantly for all sorts of ethical violations, we’ve barely heard anything about Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao. She drew attention most recently for two issues that involved no wrongdoing on her part: her revelation that the president personally asked House Speaker Paul Ryan to block funding for a New York infrastructure project, and being subjected to racist attacks from a Republican candidate in West Virginia who doesn’t care for her husband, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

So is Chao the rare Trump official who’s doing her job and not abusing her office in any way? Apparently not. Politico reported on Sunday that since her nomination, she’s appeared in at least a dozen interviews with her father James Chao, the founder and chairman of the Foremost Group shipping company, which carries goods between Asia and the U.S. All of the interviews are with Chinese and Chinese-American media outlets, and the secretary is otherwise press shy; she’s never held a press conference for beat reporters and usually refuses to answer reporters’ questions after public events.

Federal employees are prohibited from using their office for their “own private gain, for the endorsement of any product, service or enterprise, or for the private gain of friends, relatives, or persons with whom the employee is affiliated in a nongovernmental capacity.” But Chao makes no apparent effort to show she’s promoting her family’s business only as a daughter, not as U.S. Transportation secretary, and in fact, it appears several of the videos were filmed in her government office. DOT flags are shown in several of the spots… and one video features the state flag of Kentucky, highlighting her tie to the majority leader…

Thing is, there’ve been ‘questions raised’ about Chao’s family’s Taiwanese / PRC connections going back at least to Mitch McConnell’s last Senate race (the Foremost Group has, IIRC, always provided a big chunk of his campaign funding), so why are these comparatively anodyne videos suddenly news?…

Oh. Well, Tuesday night’s WV primary results are gonna be interesting.

But, apart from that, where’s that famous “Senatorial collegiality” that the Media Village Idiots love to laud? Why aren’t his fellow Republicans standing up to defend their Majority Leader?

It’s almost as though Mitch doesn’t have any friends — just co-conspirators.

Gosh, imagine how hard it will be for him, should the upcoming Blue Wave reduce him to a mere Minority ‘leader’…

Reader Interactions

29Comments

  1. 1.

    JAFD

    Dumb question.

    Sometime last week, was a comment to BJ that quoted several paragraphs by the writer from the Root (?) who reports on ‘wipipl’. Meant to note the location down, and save the entire comment, but was away from desk, and by time I got back to perusing the Juice, couldn’t find it.

    If any of my fellow jackals could point it out, would send a $25.00 check to the Lily Victory Fund.

    thanks very much

  2. 2.

    Amir Khalid

    Does this business with Elaine Chao rise to the level of an ethics scandal? Hard to say there is fire when it’s less than certain that there is any smoke. Is it clear whether James Chao is appearing with Elaine as an official of a national shipping industry group, or as head of his shipping business? Is he flaunting his relationship with her?

    Also: is Ashley Judd up for challenging Mitch again?

  5. 5.

    SectionH

    @Amir Khalid: It all stinks, but sadly neither Mitch nor Elaine/her family are completely stupid, so it gets buried. Sample of how bad srs assholes can be.

    I know from Mitch. And the marriage(s) of convenience. Whatever happened to those adopted kids? Everything Msr Dantes has ever said about Mitch is not only almost surely true, but I can top or at least equal some of his stories. The ones I know generally involved underage boys too. Oh, and the ones about why he really was kicked out of the military.

    Or the worst story to me: the parents whose kids were tapped for pages in the Senate when they still did that* – if you’re gonna let you son do this – DON’T EVER LET HIM BE ALONE IN A ROOM WITH MITCH. No, and forewarned I guess mostly worked, but fuck, I am so not joking, nor making this up. It was known.

    And never mind the actual reason the Army kicked him out. Kentucky’s a small state – people said things then. And still do. And the coverup has been forever, and I don’t live there anymore, thank FSM.

    Kentucky is a state with ~ 3 million ppl. If you’re a Dangerous Intellectual, trust me, it’s hard not to be sort of related to many ppl.

    *the adoptions are documented. I’m gonna follow up on those.

  6. 6.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    A cargo ship connected to Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell was recently stopped and searched before departing from Colombia. During the search, Colombian Coast Guard agents seized roughly 90 pounds of cocaine.

    The drugs were found on the Ping May, which is a vessel operated by the Foremost Maritime Corporation, a company owned by Mitch McConnell’s in-laws, the Chao family. This connection is not only relevant because of the family connection, but also because the Chao family has often made large donations to McConnell’s campaigns.

    (link)

    IOKIYAR is a hellva drug

  7. 7.

    EveryDayIHaveTheBlues

    Primary in OH (and other states) today. As several jackals exhorted last week, don’t forget to vote!

  10. 10.

    OzarkHillbilly

    It took just three hours for Cuomo to call on Schneiderman to resign.
    Meanwhile, Eric Greitens faces two felony charges and accusations of rape yet remains the Governor of Missouri. Republicans refuse to call for his resignation.
    No, both parties are not the same.

    — Matt McDermott (@mattmfm)

    Apparently, you have to be either governor of Missouri or president of the United States to survive one of these things.

    — Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce)

    Head? Meest Desk.

    Generally I am not particularly fond of Republicans and one can find some particularly loathsome creatures among Missouri Republicans but if either of these 2 idiots were doing anything more than reading the head lines they would know 2 things:

    #1. Quite a few prominent MO GOPers have called for Greitens resignation
    #2 The asshole is facing a special session of the very Republican MO lege in 2 weeks assembling for the sole purpose of considering articles of impeachment.

  11. 11.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly: they’re both probably aware of Greiten’s potential impeachment; I think the point they are trying to make us that he isn’t gone already via his own resignation. Not sure it’s a strength that we do “shame” better than Republicans, though it is a plus that we have fewer instances to be shamed over.

  13. 13.

    satby

    But to the point @SectionH: made, I have to wonder why it happens that the dirt always is exposed on Democrats doing important opposition work, but we never seem to be able to verify the horrendous rumors about Republicans. McConnell’s long speculated pedophilia for instance. That should be discoverable if it’s true. Wonder if we can interest Roman Farrow in investigating.

  15. 15.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby:

    Republicans refuse to call for his resignation.

    Is just plain factually wrong, The AG Josh Hawley has called for his resignation. So has the (R) House Majority leader and IIRC the (R) Senate majority leader. There are many many many more.

    Apparently, you have to be either governor of Missouri or president of the United States to survive one of these things.

    I doubt very much that Greitens is going to “survive one of these things.” So would Charlie if he had anything more than a 3rd grader’s understanding of MO politics. Implying that he is surviving is just plain stupid. The Missouri GOP hates him with the white hot heat of a thousand dying suns. They want blood. Not because they are so much more moral than the national GOP, but because Greitens is an unapologetic corrupt asshole who thrives on pissing people off and an ego to match even trump’s. As such he will never resign. But in this state, one needs friends. Especially if you are going to get involved in politics and even more so if one is corrupt. Greitens has none. And what is more, he doesn’t have the power to inflict pain on his enemies.

    I can’t excuse ignorance in service of incompetence. It is stupid, just plain stupid to say these things. They are letting their “mouths” get ahead of their brains.

  16. 16.

    Gvg

    WaPo article points out several reasons this particular attack on McConnel is basically lies. First the supposed “gifts” from father in law of lots of money are not. Elaine inherited about 25 million from her mother who died in 2007. That is the money, not a gift, not from her father.
    The cocaine was found in 2014, not recently, on a ship going to Europe, no charges were ever filed so Columbia didn’t figure out who was doing it. Not likely to be McC or father in law. Value given for Cocaine was pretty much made up.
    The shipping company is American not Chinese. Etc.
    They gave it 4 pinocchios.
    MCConnel is evil for the laws he gets passed hurting people, for the way he acted about Obama, the Supreme Court Justice he blocked and being a racist anti poor, non compassionate
    Ass. Junk attacks like this diffuse focus on what is actually wrong with him. IMO.

  18. 18.

    sdhays

    @Gvg: Blankenship’s attack may be bogus (imagine that!), but like condorcet runner-up said up at #4, Chao’s interviews with her father (already rather unusual without the improper use of her office) would have triggered the resignation of an Obama cabinet member.

  19. 19.

    Amir Khalid

    @Viva BrisVegas:
    This is the first general election since Najib was found with a few billion ringgit in his bank account that he didn’t remember depositing and the 1MDB scandal (which may or may not be the same thing). I expect the opposition coalition to do pretty well against Barisan Nasional, but I will be surprised if Barisan loses power. I find it weird that the current opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan is led by, of all people, my dad’s old medical-school buddy Dr Mahathir, who led Barisan and was PM for two decades. For many Malaysians Dr M represents Barisan rule at its most autocratic. I don’t know yet if that helps or hurts The Coalition of Hope.

  21. 21.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Amir Khalid:

    This is the first general election since Najib was found with a few billion ringgit in his bank account that he didn’t remember depositing

    Amir, I can’t tell you how often this happens to me. You look at your bank statement and …where did that come from?

  22. 22.

    Calouste

    @satby: There were a few, like Roy Moore, but mostly they just hang in there like David Vitter and Mark Sanford.

  27. 27.

    CynthiaK

    I wanted to add this to the discussion.

    Elaine Chao is a Mount Holyoke graduate (1975) who became the second woman to hold the office of Secretary of Labor.

    Nary a mention of her having attended. However,

    The first, for whom the college is especially proud of, is Frances Perkins (1902) naming the non-tradition student program after her, of which I am a graduate of.

    Excited to learn that the MHC commencement speaker this May is Nancy Pelosi.

  29. 29.

    JAFD

    @rikyrah: Greetings from Newark, New Jersey. There were the ‘nonpartisan municipal elections’ here today. Was wunofdozedaze for me. Set out for polling place at 4:45 AM, walked halfway there, realized my ‘commission’ from the Board of Elections, bestowing upon me what legal authority I had today, was still sitting on my desk. Went back, found it, got to firehouse right before polls officially opened… But was nice day, very good turnout (couple of local residents in contest for councilman from East Ward), significant contributions of donuts and the Portugese custard mini-tarts .. . Results _from my precinct_ seem to indicate Mayor Baraka and his city council slate were reelected, but too tired to check full results

    Thanks very much for the info on Mr. Harriot’s works.
    https://www.theroot.com/top-10-ways-black-people-keep-racism-alive-according-t-1825682001#_ga=2.117095489.633555625.1525832477-559957665.1525832477
    was the article I was thinking about.

    Check to mR. Cole will be in mail, when I get back from weekend trip, if not gottenroundto tomorrow morn. Right now must take nightly pills and get to sleep.

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