Hunter Biden painting sale update

One thing that very definitely happens in political cultures is that norms about corruption can erode to the point where just the most flagrant imaginable influence-peddling in the most dire possible circumstances is met with little more than a collective shrug:

Jared Kushner, one of the U.S. government’s chief negotiators in the Middle East, is trying to raise more money for his private equity firm from governments in the region.

Mr. Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, has spoken with potential investors in recent weeks about raising $5 billion or more for Affinity Partners, his investment firm, according to five people with knowledge of the talks who were not permitted to speak publicly about the discussions.

As part of the fund-raising effort, Affinity’s representatives have already met with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which invests the proceeds of the kingdom’s vast oil reserves, two of the people briefed on the discussions said. PIF is led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has formed close ties with Mr. Kushner and the Trump administration.

PIF, which is already the largest and earliest investor in Affinity, invested $2 billion soon after the first Trump administration ended.

Mr. Kushner’s fund-raising is expected to stretch on for the better part of this year.

As part of that deal, the Saudis must be given the first chance to invest during any subsequent attempts by Affinity to raise funds, the two people said. Other Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds that invested earlier in Affinity, including those in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, are also expected to be asked for more, the people said.

The efforts show the blurring of the lines between public service and private profit-seeking during Mr. Trump’s second term. Only a few weeks ago, in his role as Mr. Trump’s “peace envoy,” Mr. Kushner met in Geneva with Iran’s foreign minister. The U.S. and Israeli bombing campaign in Iran began shortly after those meetings concluded without a deal on Iran’s nuclear program.

Mr. Kushner, 45, also spearheaded the Trump administration’s successful efforts to extract hostages from Gaza and negotiated between Russia and Ukraine in an attempt to end their war.

In January, Mr. Kushner traveled to Davos, Switzerland, as part of the official U.S. delegation at the World Economic Forum, where he unveiled the Trump administration’s plan for a “New Gaza.”

While at Davos, Kushner also discussed his plans to raise billions in new investments for Affinity in private meetings with international business leaders, two people with knowledge of the conversations said.

I have no doubt whatsoever that Kushner sees all this as completely normal and in no way problematic, because he typifies the peculiar combination of venality, stupidity, and unearned self-regard that is the hallmark of all those most enthusiastically wetting their beaks in various “public-private” alliances, during this period of unparalleled decadence.

Another piquant aspect of all this is that as soon as a Democrat is once again in the White House, assuming that particular can opener, the entire right wing media ecosystem will go back to screaming about both comparatively trivial and completely fabricated scandals without missing a beat, in a sudden shift that would have taken aback Orwell and Kafka.