Steve Bannon Arrested for Money Laundering and Fraud

This is the text of an e-mail I was going to send to a close friend. Not wanting to hurt feelings or ignite a feud, I wisely (???) decided to turn it into a blog post.

I’m sorry if my comment about Steve Bannon’s arrest offended you. I was just reacting to this story in The Economist and BBC News. 

Bannon was once Donald Trump’s chief strategist. In that role, he was quite vocal about wanting to dismantle the "deep state" and "drain the swamp." Before that, he was the executive chairman of Breitbart News. 

But now, Bannon has been indicted by a federal grand jury for money laundering and fraud in connection with the President’s promise to Build The Wall. 

Please do not try to turn this aside by reminding me that a former FBI lawyer has pleaded guilty to making false statements in an effort to put surveillance on one of Trump's campaign staffers. That doesn't advance the discussion, nor does it do nothing to mitigate my concern, which is simply this: Trump has too many associates (Stone, Manafort, Flynn, Cohen, Papadopolous and now Bannon) who have been accused, and some convicted, of wrongdoing. There must be a reason for that. It can’t all be a tissue of lies in a diabolical plot designed to bring down Trump. It is plain to see that this must stem from a failure of judgment, or character, in the President himself.

 References

The Economist. August 20, 2020. Steve Bannon is Arrested for Fraud. Yet Another of the President's Cronies Is In Trouble.  

Dunleavy, Jerry. The Washington Examiner. August 19, 2020.  Ex-FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith pleads guilty in Durham investigation.

Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers

Published in 1923, this British detective novel has an ingenious story line and well-drawn characters. For me, however, it was spoiled by unkind references to Jews that some would call offensive at the least. 

The murdered man, Sir Reuben Levy, is Jewish. Nobody else in the book is described as Anglican, Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist, or of any religion at all. Only Levy is singled out for his faith, and almost always in negative terms. Levy is described as "a little Jewish nobody, " a "sheeny" and one of those "self-made men of low origin" who don't take care of their teeth and are terrified of dentists. When discussing an investment, Levy "shrugged up his shoulders and looked like a pawnbroker." Other examples:

"I don't hold with Hebrews as a rule."

"I remember so well the dreadful trouble about her marrying a Jew."

"I'm sure some Jews are very good people, and personally I'd much rather they believed something."

Given the context in which these things are said, perhaps the author is merely pointing out the casual anti-Semitism of the British upper class. It's hard to tell. But for me, there's too much of this distasteful material in "Whose Body?" I understand the same sentiments crop up in her other books. I'm not sure I want to read any of them for that reason alone.