Antony Blinken, Alissa Heinerscheid, and The Great Gatsby

I've already said, speaking of Alissa Heinerscheid, the former Bud Light marketing VP who hitched her wagon to  Dylan Mulvaney's star, that something about her reminded me of The Great Gatsby. This may have to do with the peculiar intersection of upper-crust society, the presumptive locus of stability and social confidence, with ambitious upward mobility, insecurity, and phoniness. We saw it with Ms Heinerscheid, the product of generational family wealth, Groton, Harvard, and The Episcopal Church, who nevertheless felt the need to hire a coach to tell her how to think:

As it turns out, the Bud VP has herself a “professional coach.”. . . when speaking of her professional coach, she becomes animated, shifting her posture to a straighter, higher position, indicating she holds her “handler’s” ideas in higher esteem than her own. When shifting back into expressing her own thoughts or personal experience, Heinerscheid’s body language shrinks and retreats.

Just recently, I've begun to see parallels with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, whose background I covered in this post from last September. If anything, Antony Blinken's background, although like Ms Heinerscheid's "Epsicopalian Jewish", is even more elevated:

Blinken was born on April 16, 1962, in Yonkers, New York, to Jewish parents, Judith (Frehm) and Donald M. Blinken, who later served as the U.S. ambassador to Hungary. . . . Blinken's uncle, Alan Blinken, served as the U.S. ambassador to Belgium. His paternal grandfather, Maurice Henry Blinken, was an early backer of Israel who studied its economic viability, and his great-grandfather was Meir Blinken, a Yiddish writer.

Blinken attended Dalton School in New York City until 1971. He then moved to Paris with his mother Judith and Samuel Pisar, whom she married following her divorce from Blinken. . . . In Paris, Blinken attended École Jeannine Manuel.

Blinken attended Harvard University from 1980 to 1984, where he majored in social studies. He co-edited Harvard's daily student newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, and wrote a number of articles on current affairs. After graduating from Harvard, Blinken worked as an intern for The New Republic for about a year. He earned a J.D. from Columbia Law School in 1988 and practiced law in New York City and Paris. Blinken worked with his father to raise funds for Michael Dukakis, the Democratic nominee in the 1988 United States presidential election.

This guy should not be beholden to anyone, right? Maybe Alissa Heinerscheid needed to hire a life coach, but Blinken, from a family of diplomats, a product of the Dalton School, a French finishing school, Harvard, and Columbia Law, should not need coaching by anyone.

But what on earth is he doing mucking about with the Bidens, a decidedly downscale bunch with mob connections? It turns out that his wife, Evan Ryan, whom he married in 2002, is a Biden retainer:

Ryan served under Secretary of State John Kerry as assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs and worked in the Obama-Biden White House as assistant to the vice president and special assistant to the president for intergovernmental affairs and public engagement from September 2013 to January 2017.

Prior to joining the Obama administration, Ryan served as deputy campaign manager for then-Senator Biden's 2008 presidential campaign and also served on the Kerry 2004 presidential campaign and Hillary Clinton's 2000 senatorial campaign. Ryan served in the Clinton White House, as deputy director of scheduling for First Lady Hillary Clinton and as special assistant to the first lady's chief of staff.

Just yesterday we learned,

Emails from the infamous abandoned laptop that Blinken sought to discredit show that Hunter has ties to Blinken and his wife, Evan Ryan, dating back over a decade, having scheduled meetings with him while he was on the board of Burisma and Blinken was deputy secretary of state.

Initially scheduled for late May 2015, a first meeting was rescheduled due to Beau's death from cancer that month. On July 22, 2015:

"12:00-1:30pm- Lunch with Tony Blinken (State Department)," Hunter's schedule read. "Enter at main entrance ('Diplomatic Entrance'), 22nd & C St, NW. Proceed to receptionist area where Kenny Matthews will be waiting to escort you to Tony's office."

. . . Later that day, Blinken told Hunter in an email it was "great to see" him and "catch up."

. . . It appears that Hunter first tried to connect with Blinken on June 16, 2010, when he asked Blinken's wife, current White House cabinet secretary Evan Ryan, for his non-government email address.

"Can I get Toni's non-govt email?" Hunter asked. "I want to send him something. Thanks."

Ryan, who worked at the White House at the time and later went to work at the State Department, according to her LinkedIn, then provided Blinken's personal email address to Hunter. She previously worked for Biden as his deputy campaign manager during his unsuccessful presidential run between 2007 and 2008.

So what's emerging is that the Blinkens have not only been longtime Democrat operatfves, but they seem to have had a long-standing connection with Hunter's business operations as well -- and Hunter has never quite been on the up-and-up. Matching the July 2015 date of his State Department meeting with Blinken, Hunter at the time had just been kicked out of the house by his then-wife for an episode that appears to have involved cocaine and an overnight stay with Hallie, although at this time, Hunter was also maintaining an affair with Hallie's sister and numerous escorts. That he was coked up throughout this period goes without saying.

That November, Hunter was the recipient of the notorious three-way payment to him and other Bidens for a million and a half dollars that's still under investigation. Not only was Blinken happy to meet with this guy in his office, but he appears to have had some awareness of his foreign business dealings -- and beyond that, Blinken gives every impression that he's kissing Hunter's ass.

Dalton, French finishing school, Harvard, and Columbia Law indeed. I can't stop thinking about The Great Gatsby and how maybe as a book, it's underrated.