Tag Archives: Donald Trump

Trump, Corruption, Narcotics, Russia-A Glance

10 Monday Oct 2022

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Epistemology, Extreme Brown vs Red-Green, Political Psychology, United States of America

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

Either Donald Trump’s associates and followers aren’t readers, or at least not discerning ones, or they’re as greedy and lusting for power as he has been, or, rather like him, they’re equally damaged narcissists with Narcissistic Personality Disorder’s (NPD’s) standard “messianic delusions of grandeur”. Also, I suppose one might suggest that some have been compromised (and blackmailed) or leveraged for want of some aspiration or dream that the Don might make come true through his legion of intimidating and obfuscating lawyers.

Approach the followers (carefully) in any manner that suits, but “missing data” upstairs–alternatively brazen disinformation, innuendo, and rumor–would seem a part of that now benighted bought or weakening, small, and violent constellation of Americans too easily led astray.

America’s moderate Democrats and Republicans have turned against Donald Trump as a candidate for the 2024 elections and beyond as they have perceived his character issues as deep and lifelong, which they are, but what remains with avaricious associates, lesser politicians perhaps hooked on his indulgence with “endorsements” (kiss of death from the inside out for those with integrity) and funding, would seem a profound denial as regards not only the common wisdom but also wisdom questioned and repeatedly corroborated. What follows in addition to telling quotations is a short list of reference associated with the former American president’s autocratic, vicious, and unscrupulous character.

More than 18 months into his presidency, Donald Trump’s modus operandi – and the danger it represents – is clear. His working method is that of the mafia boss and gangland chieftain, daily wielding his power to settle scores, teach lessons and crush dissent. Anyone who’s seen The Sopranos will know the routine: the casual intimidation, the obsession with loyalty, the brutal ostracism meted out to those who dare defy the man at the top.

Freedland, Jonathan. “This mafia style of government makes Trump a role model for all autocrats.” The Guardian, August 18, 2018.

“My name is Carmine. I don’t know why you’re fucking with Mr. Trump but if you keep fucking with Mr. Trump, we know where you live and we’re going to your house for your wife and kids,” the caller said, according to the account that the attorney, Kristopher Hansen, gave to the Holmdel police department in New Jersey. Hansen speculated that the caller was Trump’s bodyguard.

Leopold, Jason. “‘If You Keep Fucking With Mr. Trump, We Know Where You Live. ‘”. BuzzFeed News, August 5, 2017.

Many of those who bought the condos, it turns out, did so not to live there but allegedly to launder illicit money – Russian gangster money, drug cartel money, people-smuggling money.

A joint Reuters-NBC News investigation published on Friday alongside a report by the non-profit Global Witness said the skyscraper with Trump’s name had ties to international organised crime.

The reports detailed how the future president gave the project to his daughter Ivanka as a “baby” effort to gain real estate experience, and said it ended up drawing a cast of characters accused of fraud, corruption and kidnapping.

Carroll, Rory. “Trump’s Panama tower used for money laundering by condo owners, reports say.” The Guardian, November 18, 2017.

The meeting came just days after Kilimnik met in Moscow with Oleg Deripaska, a powerful oligarch and close ally of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Deripaska had been a major client of Manafort but had sued him over a failed business deal in Ukraine and was seeking to recoup almost $25m.

The Trump administration announced late last year it intended to lift sanctions on Deripaska’s companies, despite strong opposition from Democrats and some Republicans in Congress. The treasury department had imposed the sanctions on Deripaska and several of his companies in tandem with seven Russian oligarchs, 12 companies they owned or controlled, and 17 Russian government officials, for “malign activity” which included “attempting to subvert western democracies, and malicious cyber-activities”.

Stone, Peter. “Is Oleg Deripaska the missing link in the Trump-Russia investigation?” The Guardian, January 29, 2019.

Related Online

Baker, Peter, J. David Goodman, Michael Rothfeld, Elizabeth Williamson. “The 11 Criminals Granted Clemency by Trump Had One Thing in Common: Connections.” The New York Times, February 19, 2020.

Barber, C. Ryan. “Paul Manafort just put a very favorable gloss over his work for a pro-Russia leader of Ukraine in a rare radio interview.” Business Insider, March 18, 2022. For a look at Yanukovych’s Ukrainian kleptocracy, see Yanukovych Leaks. (For a look at how little Donald Trump cared about democracy in post-revolutionary Ukraine, see Smith, Jeffrey R. “Timeline: How Trump withheld Ukraine aid.” The Center for Public Integrity, December 13, 2019).

Burleigh, Nina. “Donald Trump Is a ‘Russian Asset’ Owned by the Mafia, Author Claims in New Book.” Newsweek, August 17, 2018.

Carroll, Rory. “Trump’s Panama tower used for money laundering by condo owners, reports say.” The Guardian, November 18, 2017.

Chappell, Bill. “Trump Hosts Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and Ambassador Kislyak at White House.” NPR, May 10, 2017.

Crowley, Michael. “All of Trump’s Russia Ties, in 7 Charts.” Politico, March/April 2017.

CNN. “Rauch: Trump has mastered the ‘firehose of falsehood’.”

Entous, Adam, Ellen Nakashima, Greg Miller. “Secret CIA assessment says Russia was trying to help Trump win White House.” The Washington Post, December 9, 2016.

Freedland, Jonathan. “This mafia style of government makes Trump a role model for all autocrats.” The Guardian, August 18, 2018.

Gessen, Masha. “The Trump-Russia Investigation and the Mafia State.” The New Yorker, January 31, 2019.

Glaser, April. “Investors in the Panama Trump Tower Included a Notorious Criminal Who Laundered Drug Money: The close ties between Colombian cartels and the Trump Ocean Club.” November 17, 2017.

Global Witness. “How Trump made millions licensing his name to a development used to launder drug money.” YouTube Video with associated link to a report. November 17, 2017.

Hirsh, Michael. “How Russian Money Helped Save Trump’s Business.” Foreign Policy, December 21, 2018.

Illing, Sean. “Trump’s ties to the Russian mafia go back 3 decades.” Vox, January 12, 2019.

Johnson, Kevin. “FBI surges on DC home of Oleg Deripaska, Russian oligarch from Paul Manafort trial.” USA Today, October 19, 2021.

Leopold, Jason. “‘If You Keep Fucking With Mr. Trump, We Know Where You Live. ‘”. BuzzFeed News, August 5, 2017.

Lind, Dara. “Stormy Daniels’s story of intimidation from a Trump associate fits a 20-year pattern.” Vox, March 26, 2018.

Onion, Rebecca. “‘Just Remember: Roy Cohn Taught Him His ABCs'”. Slate, September 27, 2019.

Oppenheim, James S. “Trump and the Question of Insurrection.” BackChannels, January 9, 2021.

Oppenheim, James S. “Trump’s America in Retrospect: Russian Real Estate Entanglements.” BackChannels, October 9, 2021.

Parker, Ned, Stephen Grey, Stefanie Eschenbacher, Roman Anin, Brad Brooks, and Christine Murray. “Ivanka and the fugitive from Panama.” Reuters Investigates, November 17, 2017. Teaser: “Exclusive: How an alleged fraudster in Panama, working with Donald Trump’s daughter, helped make Trump’s first international hotel venture a success. The broker was in business with a money-launderer and two criminals from the former Soviet Union. Then he fled.”

Rauch, Jonathan. The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth. Washington, D.C.: Brookings, 2021.

Rauch, Jonathan. “The Real Hoax.” Persuasion. December 13, 2021.

Smith, David. “‘The perfect target’: Russia cultivated Trump as asset for 40 years – ex-KGB spy.” The Guardian, January 29, 2021.

Stedman, Scott. “Decorated Russian Naval Veteran Funneled Thousands to Trump, RNC.” Forensic News, September 21, 2021.

Stone, Peter. “Is Oleg Deripaska the missing link in the Trump-Russia investigation?” The Guardian, January 29, 2019.

Unger, Craig. “Donald Trump Was Everything Vladimir Putin Could Have Wished For: From the days when the KGB sought to cultivate him 40 years ago to his term as president, Trump was a useful stooge. And if he gets another term, he still can be.” The New Republic, March 2, 2022.

Unger, Craig. House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia. New York: Dutton, 2018.

Unger, Craig. American Kompromat: How the KGB Cultivated Donald Trump, and Related Tales of Sex, Greed, Power, and Treachery. New York: Dutton, 2021.

Unger, Craig. “Trump’s businesses are full of dirty Russian money. The scandal is that it’s legal.” The Washington Post, March 29, 2019.

Unger, Craig. “Trump’s Russian Laundromat.” The New Republic. July 13, 2017.

Weiss, Michael and Casey Michel. “The Alleged Russian Mobsters in Trump World’s Orbit: A Dirty Dozen.” The Daily Beast, November 16, 2019; updated December 6, 2019.

Bloomberg Quicktake, June 28, 2022.

Addendum, from November 11, 2022 Forward

I’ve added to the above reference section articles published before the publication date of this post, Oct. 10, 2022, but thought here to add #DJT pieces bearing down on about the same themes involving the former American President, foremost treason abetted by questionable character and an altogether malign narcissistic psychology.

Olear, Greg. “Trump vs. the CIA (with Kristin Wood): The USIC warned us. We didn’t listen.” PREVAIL by Greg Olear, November 18, 2022.

Weiner, Rachel. “GOP operative found guilty of funneling Russian money to Donald Trump.” The Washington Post, November 17, 2022.

###

The Teflon Don’s Company

08 Saturday Oct 2022

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Political Spychology, United States of America

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

I know this blog seldom presents first-hand (primary) reporting and that the reference lists I create (drudgery!) hardly represent “writing”, but having gone to the very minor bother of looking up and thinking up names as well as coming up with related articles, what’s an old blogger to do?

Chris Zillizza’s piece for The Point (July 21, 2021) provided some helpful reminders, but I didn’t simply copy and list for not recognizing the names Tom Barrack or Elliott Broidy. I’ve added reference for each. I was also sorry about having to list Michael Cohen in the gallery of rogues although as Trump’s fixer I’m sure he was no picnic either. Nonetheless, as an instantly transformed witness and apparently recovered Trump goon, mention feels like throwing a perfectly good carrot back into a festering stew of rotten vegetables.

If the “festering stew” of Don’s rogues were to take hold and one were to ask about the gelatinous substance holding all of them in the same pot, there might be just the two ingredients: greed and a most American vainglory that would bring all back to the here familiar “Malignant Narcissism“.

Related Online

I’ve remained loose with BackChannels as regards discipline and style . . . perhaps it’s been an old hippy’s blog…. Nonetheless, the entries are alpha but from time tot time I present one or two (or more) as a quotation with reference. Among the enduring themes to be associated with Donald John Trump in history will be those pertaining to character, criminality, errant political psychology, integrity, loyalty, and trust both in relation to himself and in relation to his country and America’s national character.

Cillizza, Chris. “11 Trump associates have now been charged with crimes. 11!” The Point, CNN Politics, July 21, 2021.

Clark, Dartunorro, Michael Kosnar, Dareh Gregorian, and Tom Winter. “All four Roger Stone prosecutors resign from case after DOJ backpedals on sentencing recommendation.” NBC News, February 11, 2020.

Hoffman, David. “Paul Manafort: Handmaiden to dictators.” Op-ed. The Hill, December 24, 2020.

Millhiser, Ian. “The 4 major criminal probes into Donald Trump, explained.” Vox, September 21, 2022.

O’Brien Rebecca Davis. “Trump Adviser’s Trial May Shed Light on Foreign Influence Campaigns.” The New York Times, September 19, 2022.

Oppenheim, James S. “Trump Lawyer Christopher M. Kise, Registered Foreign Agent.” BackChannels, September 19, 2022.

Shamsian, Jacob. “Rober Stone and his wife are trying to settle the Justice Department’s lawsuit over $2 million in unpaid taxes.” Business Insider, July 12, 2022.

Schmidt, Michael S., Maggie Haberman, and Katie Benner. “Justice Dept Is Said to Believe Trump Has More Documents.” The New York Times, October 6, 2022.

Smith, David. “‘The perfect target’: Russia cultivated Trump as asset for 40 years’ – ex-KGB spy.” The Guardian, January 29, 2021.

Shaw, Conor. “President Trump’s staggering record of uncharged crimes.” Crew, September 27, 2022.

U. S. Department of Justice. “Elliott Broidy Pleads Guilty for Back-Channel Lobbying Campaign to Drop 1MDB Investigation and Remove a Chinese Foreign National.” October 20, 2020.

Defendants PAUL J. MANAFORT, JR., (MANAFORT) and RICHARD W. GATES Ill
(GA TES) served for years as political consultants and lobbyist’i. Between at least 2006 and 2015,MANAFORT and GATES acted as unregistered agents of the Government of Ukraine, the Party of Regions (a Ukrainian political party whose leader Victor Yanukovych was President from 2010 to 2014), Yanukovych, and the Opposition Bloc (a successor to the Party of Regions that formed in 2014 when Yanukovych fled to Russia). MANAFORT and GATES generated tens of millions of dollars in income as a result of their Ukraine work. 111 order to hide Ukraine payments from United States authorities, from approximately 2006 through at least 2016, MANAFORT and GATES laundered the money through scores of United States and foreign corporations, partnerships, and bank accounts.

U.S. Department of Justice. PDF. “United State of America v. Paul J. Manafort, Jr. and Richard W. Gates III.” Case 1:17-cr-00201-ABJ Document 13, October 30, 2017.

Nader has had several run-ins with the law over the years related to sexual abuse of children. He was convicted in the 1990s of transporting child pornography publications, and imprisoned in 2003 for sexually abusing ten boys in the Czech Republic.[6] He pleaded guilty in early 2020 to flying a 14-year-old boy from Europe to the US for sex, and transporting pornography depicting child sexual abuse and bestiality.

Wikipedia. “George Nader”.

Wikipedia. “George Papadopoulos”.

Wikipedia. “Michael Flynn”.

Wikipedia. “Paul Manafort”.

###

Trump Lawyer Christopher M. Kise, Registered Foreign Agent

19 Monday Sep 2022

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Political Psychology, Political Spychology, United States of America, Venezuela

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , ,

On January 24, 2020, the Foreign Agents Registration Act unit of the National Security Division of the Department of Justice received from Christopher M. Kise, now the lawyer representing Donald John Trump in his defense in relation to the FBI’s investigation of Trump’s holding documents stamped as Top Secret/Secure Compartmented Information (TS/SCI), FARA registration #6787. In the form, Kise had listed as his principle Reinaldo Munoz Pedroza, the Attorney General of Venezuela appointed by the dictator Nicolas Maduro. At that time, Pedrozo had been sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury for undermining democracy in Venezuela and related election interference.

News of Kise’s registration as a foreign agent broke two days ago, and as interesting as that may be, the development of public and official interest in both the Conflict of Interest implied and the breathtaking scope of potential national security compromises–all those boxes of TS/SCI data!–appears slow. However, this by Ben Meiselas showed up on YouTube this morning:

Posted by MeidasTouch to YouTube, September 19, 2022.

For Trump’s base, the idea of achieving patriotic honor in association with his support appears belied and eroded by not only the former president’s authoritarian, belligerent, and obstreperous character but his connections–and one step removed is not far enough–to the tools, literally, so it would seem in the case of Mr. Kise, of at least one dictatorship. While it would seem fair for President (for Life) Maduro to have representation in the United States, the same would seem more than heinous for Trump to share with him the same lawyer.

Should the Kise-Trump story take down almost-candidate-(again) Trump, it would make a nice bookend for Trump’s first big yellow caution flag: Paul Manafort.

To make sense of the president’s pardon of Paul Manafort, it helps to understand the man Trump selected to run his 2016 campaign. On one hand, it seems inconceivable that an American presidential candidate would choose as his campaign manager someone whose last job was political strategist to a dictator in Ukraine who had recently been overthrown in a popular revolution. On the other hand, it makes perfect sense. Paul Manafort made a fortune helping tyrants and would-be tyrants appear legitimate. He was the ultimate symbol of the corruption of democratic political systems. His evolution from establishment wonderkid to handmaiden to dictators is a story of how corruption perverts democracies.

Hoffman, David. “Paul Manafort: Handmaiden to dictators.” The Hill, December 24, 2020.

With his latest hire in lawyers, Trump has only confirmed what all Americans, much including his base, must now see, i.e., the darkest of fallen real princes by contemporary business and class standards, a man who cannot keep himself separate from America’s enemies, Russian criminals, and assorted (other) dictators.

Note: since publishing this post, Trump has been reported as removing Christopher M. Kise from the leading role in Trump’s defense before related Federal investigation:

Kise is expected to remain on Trump’s legal team but is not leading the work related to the federal government’s investigation into how the former President handled 11,000 documents seized from his Florida home in August following a lengthy effort by the government to retrieve them. The reason for the shift in Kise’s role remains unclear and he may instead focus his efforts on the other investigations Trump is facing, which range from his business practices to the January 6 insurrection.

Collins, Kaitlan. “Newest addition to Trump’s legal team sidelined in Mar-a-Lago search case.” CNN Politics, September 27, 2022.

Related Online

Cohen, Marshall, Oliver Carcy, and Zachary Cohen. “How Team Trump used Fox News as a laundromat for unverified Russian information about top Democrats.” CNN Politics, October 12, 2020.

Davis, Wynne. “TS/SCI: What an abbreviation reveals about the files seized from Mar-a-Lago.” NPR, August 16, 2022.

Gans, Jared. “Save America PAC advances $3M to Trump lawyer to cover legal fees.” The Hill, September 16, 2022.

Hoffman, David. “Paul Manafort: Handmaiden to dictators.” The Hill, December 24, 2020.

Myers, Steven Lee and Andrew E. Kramer. “How Paul Manafort Wielded Power in Ukraine Before Advising Donald Trump.” The New York Times, July 31, 2016.

Nicol, Ryan. “Attorney Christ Kise to help Nicolas Maduro administration fight U.S. sanctions.” Florida Politics, January 28, 2020.

Oppenheim, James S. “Trump’s America in Retrospect: Russian Real Estate Entanglements.” BackChannels, October 9, 2021.

Smith, David. “‘The perfect target’: Russia cultivated Trump as asset for 40 years – ex-KGB spy.” The Guardian, January 29, 2021.

Unger, Craig. “Trump’s businesses are full of dirty Russian money. The scandal is that it’s legal.” The Washington Post, March 29, 2019.

Unger, Craig. “Trump’s Russian Laundromat”. The New Republic. July 13, 2017.

U.S. Department of the Treasury. “Treasury Sanctions Maduro Regime Officials for Undermining Democratic Order in Venezuela.” September 4, 2020.

Wikipedia. “Reinaldo Munoz Pedroza”.

–33–

Trump’s America in Retrospect: Russian Real Estate Entanglements

09 Saturday Oct 2021

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Extreme Brown vs Red-Green

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

, ,

From Correspondence

Of course, everyone enjoys the money! So better here in America — or with an American, albeit not a very good one as stood beside American ideals and rule of law — than elsewhere and someone else. I’ve been shrugging away these themes for a while for being too large for any one person to address and seek to ameliorate. Those involved are the wealthy of the world, and no matter how they made their money, they’re powerful. 😦

Narcissistic leaders want to create, sustain, and leave for prosperity their own great image; they also want to remain in power without price, and for that, some, as dictators do, become as if forces of nature, heartless, unstoppable, ruthless.

Associated with the Conversation

We had been chatyping about DJT, the inferential references to corruption, money laundering, and Russian connections came to mind, so one look-see on the web and a five minutes later I had a starting overview on that subject, which is here listed below (with additions).

True take: free-wheeling American real estate business rides on ambition, caveat emptor, and wealth with the freedom of the seller’s not having to look too closely at The Money, which is in the end and for everyone involved and beyond . . . just money — but oh such a lot of money!

Call corruption the “Cancer of States” and consider that behind “dirty money”, however laundered, lays not only the wreckage of families, government, and lives but an intense leveraging of business and political power. The term “too big to fail” comes to mind, for the measurement of occult wealth, i.e., the contribution of illegal (at worst) and questionable (at best) “fund raising” seems to me an issue avoided by power itself, not that the subject has gone unnoticed.

The informal economy, also known as the underground economy or the black market, makes up a significant portion of the overall economy. It is estimated to be as much as 36 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) of developing nations and 13 percent of developed countries’ GDP.1 However, as an article by Economist Paulina Restrepo-Echavarria in The Regional Economist points out, measuring the informal economy is quite difficult.

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. “How to Measure the Black Market.” May 18, 2015.

For probably all the right ambitious, emotional, and practical reasons, most may shrug off the little bit of grease and leaning — the gifts, the open arms, the warm handshakes; the aggressive marketing or “salesmanship” that nudges with a little bit of caution — that gets business done while facilitating access to new opportunities and relationships — but with too much of the same, the bodies, destroyed businesses and careers, and ruined lives show up visibly everywhere, and that little bit of smarmy activity becomes a tangled and suffocating web.

The matter of observing and measuring atrocious, ruthless, and vicious business behavior and its behavioral, economic, and social effects on societies not accustomed to their own dumb and hapless enslavement through malicious handling would seem another matter, and most certainly a matter of keen interest to economists, ethicists, and the public at large. With that in mind, one might suggest that Moscow’s “Mafia State” and Trump’s egregious approach to those apparently not fit to shine his shoes has set off for general rule the presence of some global and criminal or near-criminal nobility far above the constitutions, interests, and laws of states and their constituencies.

Davidson, Adam. “Where Did Donald Trump Get Two Hundred Million Dollars to Buy His Money-Losing Scottish Golf Club?” The New Yorker, July 13, 2018.

Frank, Thomas. “Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos to Unknown Buyers.” Buzzfeed, January 12, 2018.

Henry, James S. “The Curious World of Donald Trump’s Private Russian Connections.” The American Interest, December 19, 2016.

Kumar, Anita. “Real estate mogul Trump sold condos to regime-connected Venezuelans.” Politico, August 4-8, 2019.

Landay, Jonathan. “Sales of Trump properties suggestive of money-laundering: researcher.” Reuters, January 18, 2018.

Layne, Nathan, Ned Parker, Svetlana Retter, Stephen Grey, Ryan McNeill. “Russian elite invested nearly $100 million in Trump buildings.” Reuters Investigates, March 17, 2017.

Unger, Craig. “Trump’s businesses are full of dirty Russian money. The scandal is that it’s legal.” The Washington Post, March 29, 2019.

Unger, Craig. “Trump’s Russian Laundromat”. The New Republic, July 13, 2017.

Craig, Susanne, Jo Becker, Jesse Drucker. “Jared Kushner, a Trump In-Law and Adviser, Chases a Chinese Deal.” The New York Times, January 7, 2017.

Goodman, Ryan, Julia Brooks. “Timeline on Jared Kushner, Qatar, 666 Fifth Avenue, and White House Policy.” Just Security, March 17, 2020.

Helmore, Edward. “Jared Kushner’s company under renewed scrutiny over Chinese and Israeli deals.” The Guardian, January 8, 2018.

IMDB. Netflix: “Dirty Money: Slumlord Millionaire”, Season 2; Episode 3.

Kwong, Jessica. “Jared Kushner-Linked Chinese Executive Sentenced to Prison for Massive Fundraising Fraud.” Newsweek, May 10, 2018.

Lash, Herbert. “Kushner, Anbang end Manhattan tower talks, other talks emerge.” Reuters, March 29, 2017.

Luhn, Alec. “Who is Sergei Gorkov, the powerful Russian banker who met Jared Kushner?” The Guardian, June 3, 2017.

Wikipedia. “Dirty Money (2018 TV series).

On Russia’s Mafia State and Donald Trump’s Business History

Galeotti, Mark. “Gangster’s paradise: how organised crime took over Russia.” The Guardian, March 23, 2018.

Johnston, David Cay. “Just What Were Donald Trump’s Ties to the Mob?” Politico, May 22, 2016. As a companion to Cay’s piece: Kruse, Michael. “The Muckraker Who Tormented Trump.” Politico, January 20, 2017.

Nevzlin, Leonid. “The Result of 20 Years of Putin: Russia as a Mafia State.” IMR: Institute of Modern Russia, January 24, 2020.

While the Russian mafia is a favorite antagonist of Hollywood screenwriters, it is thought to be all-but-defunct in reality. After all, when was the last time anybody in the U.S. heard about major Russian mafia activity?

The criminal underworld is thriving like never before in Europe. The individuals and groups are not random; they are highly organized, well-funded and responsible for rising levels of cyberterrorism, money laundering and murder. Fortune Magazine lists the Solntsevskaya Bratva, alternately known as the Russian mafia, as the largest organized crime group in the world and it ranks above both the Japanese Yakuza and the Mexican Sinaloa cartel in terms of overall revenue. More interesting than its current standing is how it achieved its status. From a culture that encouraged crime to a government that aided and abetted it, the Russian Federation has become a hotbed for a growing criminal underworld.

McIlvenna-Davis, Dylan. “Gangs and Gulags: How Vladimir Putin Utilizes Organized Crime to Power his Mafia State.” Berkeley Political Review, October 9, 2021.
Posted by CNBC to YouTube July 30, 2021.

Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency. “Election Security VS. Reality.” Last updated September 23, 2021.

July 16, 2018.

–33–

Rep. Schiff: “You Might Think It’s Okay” – Excerpt from Address to Congress on the Issue of Collusion

01 Monday Apr 2019

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Also in Media, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Russia, United States of America

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

Screen capture April 1, 2019.
Related on BackChannels: https://conflict-backchannels.com/2018/09/07/mafia-don-laundering-the-authoritarian-presidents-image/ – 9/7/2018.

Related: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/08/16/craig_unger_untold_story_of_trump_russia_partnership_laundered_money_via_his_real_estate.html – 8/16/2018. Craig Unger: “Trump says he has no contacts with Russia. I found 59 people who were intermediaries between Trump and Russia, and I traced them over the years and found not just hundreds of millions, perhaps, but billions of dollars in money laundering from the Russian mafia using Trump properties. But you had criminals living in Trump Towers, and the FBI was chasing mobsters and found they weren’t living in Brooklyn. They were living in Trump Tower.”

Also related: https://newrepublic.com/article/143586/trumps-russian-laundromat-trump-tower-luxury-high-rises-dirty-money-international-crime-syndicate – Craig Unger, 7/13/2017.

Take one big step back to get the larger picture.

According to Karen Dawisha, recently deceased, the Soviet as administered by the Party Nomenklatura had in place in the mid-1980s a contingency plan for its own dissolution (just in case) — source: Putin’s Kleptocracy — so when the state dissolved (Dec. 25, 1991), the assets it had controlled were released to the “privileged of the The Party”. While the state transitioned into its federated form, the state was essentially lawless and without power to impose order on the chaos that ensued. (Aside: the power of the sovereign to police Russia has been always weak in terms of recognized police assets x area x population — the space has been historically underserved in that regard). The “Vory” coming out of the Gulag would present an especially egregious challenge to the new state and, so BackChannels believes, would be incorporated into the “mafia state“, effectively centralizing organized crime in the shadows beneath Vladimir Putin’s full sweep of power.

Now take in Craig Unger’s observations and blend with Russia’s Soviet / post-Soviet obligations and relationships involving all but support for Communism, which ideology was effectively neutralized by the official disempowerment of “The Party” at the end of the Cold War: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria | PLFP, PLO, Hezbollah, et al. | other former Communist Party alignments and former Loyalist (White Russian) extensions from the Imperial Period.

Add, perhaps, al Qaeda: http://www.businessinsider.com/exploring-al-qaedas-murky-connection-to-russian-intelligence-2014-6 | John Schinder – “Exploring Al Qaeda’s Murky Connection To Russian Intelligence” – 6-10/2014

Russia’s mafia state, narcoterrorism, integration with big “transnational crime organizations (TCOs)” . . . — Oh! Add a few other states with their active criminal and terrorist funding portions and then imagine the money sloshing about in the pockets of the middlemen — the facilitators, the smugglers — who can’t spend all that dirty loot without cleaning it up some.

NOW, good civic minded citizen (who knows not to ask too many questions), imagine receiving it clean.

What would you do with it?

What if it stopped arriving?

In recent years and now weeks, money laundering scandals have surfaced in various ways: “Panama Papers”; HSBC; Danske Bank; Norde Bank.

The gum shoes and journos do their investigative things; we get the information and the infotainment; and we cluck: “How awful!

Wait a minute — that cash, indecipherable from other cash — is in someone’s economy serving as capital or reserves or as loose dough attractive to business, charity, labor . . . everyone for everything.

Is there a price? A benefit?

One generation does the crime — and behold: Las Vegas.

And the next: good educations; good businesses; good jobs; decent enough rule of law.

Good people.

Delivered every which way: America’s Addicted: 2.5 million souls.

In the pipeline and driven by corporeal and financial insecurity associated with corruption, crime, and related impoverishment and violence: Central and South American mass migration.

Reference for Adam Schiff’s (D-CA) diatribe: https://www.c-span.org/video/?459258-1/house-intelligence-committee-examines-russian-election-interference-tactics (13:07)

# # #

FTAC: After the Mueller Report, The Tarring Will Stick

25 Monday Mar 2019

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Also in Media, American Domestic Affairs, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

,

While the Democrats have some post-Soviet issues on the Far Left — and the Republicans seem to draw the White Far Right — I believe Americans are perceiving a deeply paranoid, aggressive, and vindictive Administration freighted with shady figures (like Manafort) on the ride in and packed with sycophants (like Stephan Moore, the latest nomination for the Fed), today.

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2018/09/07/mafia-don-laundering-the-authoritarian-presidents-image/

It was just one book (by a liberal) and may be let go, but since its publication, there have been many others, each researched and defended by its author, most with impeccable credentials. Now even the Mueller Report is being redacted — whatever the “eyes only”, the public isn’t getting the whole story, so there has to be something of value in the volume worth keeping from the public.

Whatever this report says, here’s what I know: when I was at Cambridge Analytica, the company hired known Russian agents, had data researchers in St Petersburg, tested US voter opinion on Putin’s leadership, and hired hackers from Russia – all while Bannon was in charge.

Christopher Wylie in the below displayed tweet.

In the way of communists and fascists alike, Bannon, the “populist”, has decamped himself into an Italian monastery befitting his own self-concept.

It’s a nice place.

https://www.dw.com/en/italian-monastery-turns-into-hotbed-of-bannon-fueled-nationalism/a-47930804

Such impressions add up, albeit among those who follow the news and query the Internet. The image of the President and his helper has not been authentically “populist”.

With Donald Trump, his once-trusted lawyer, his once-esteemed campaign manager, his brag, “I just you all a lot richer”, his Miami real estate, one of the world’s dirtiest / most glamorous markets, the story’s just not going to wash away, not matter how loud he may be about vindication.

https://www.businessinsider.com/steve-bannon-ties-to-cambridge-analytica-facebook-data-run-deep-2018-3

Bannon has said he doesn’t remember buying the data . . . .

Also Related Online

https://newrepublic.com/article/143586/trumps-russian-laundromat-trump-tower-luxury-high-rises-dirty-money-international-crime-syndicate – 7/13/2017.

I own it, haven’t read it, but it’s the kind of thing that pops up on Amazon with the search string, “Trump, Collusion” — there are also Trump collusion dismissals, but in that category, Roger Stone places high — I’d rather read (and trust) Guardian veteran Luke Harding.

BackChannels cited a BackChannels post on Craig Unger’s book. Here’s the direct link to the book on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/House-Trump-Putin-Untold-Russian/dp/152474350X/ – 8/14/2018

# # #

Immoderate Bern and Don and Narcissistic Supply

03 Sunday Mar 2019

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, North America, Politics, United States of America

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

The Donald goes off script and holds forth like Castro, delivering two hours of rambling, crowd loving, rambunctious showmanship; and the Bern, ever more to the point, tells his lovers of his intent to turn the American enterprise system — our realpolitik mix of public functions and private incentives x specific U.S. geopolitical area — upside-down.

What compassionate, moderate, and reasoning American constituency wants to have to choose between the demagogue on the Far (Out) Left and the reactionary on the Far (Mostly White) Right?

While it may be too soon to fix the 2020 contest as “Sanders v Trump”, it’s not too soon to question the off-the-wall egotism and narcissistic motivation of leaders to whom applause from their respective mobs — the “narcissistic supply”; the love that heals all wrongs; the love that affirms their manhood or sense of personal and political efficacy and messianic self-concept and value; the love that is for each politician like no other drug on earth — may be more important than the practical adjusting of policies to create or obtain nationwide improvements in bottom-to-top American qualities of living.

After writing off the several preceding elected Administrations as “an old ruling class”, making the claims that “America is winning again; America is respected again”; moseying around the “Great Tariff Debate of 1938”; making fun of the Democrat’s “New Green Deal”; mocking the press, “Please Russia get the e-mail” he whines sarcastically while the crowd chants “Lock her up! Lock her up!”; viciously firing at “Shifty Schiff” and “The Collusion Delusion”, reliably turning his targets into cartoon caricatures and episodes; and slinging a few more arrows along the lines of, “You leave people in certain positions, and suddenly they’re all trying to take you out with bullshit” (big applause for that nasty note), Trump gets around to what it’s really all about:

We’re in the swamp of Washington, D.C., but you know what? We’re winning and they’re not . . . .

You know what I like about this?

Number one, I’m in love, and you’re in love, we’re all in love together.

We’ve done something nobody has ever done, right? It’s easy . . . .

There’s so much love in this room, it’s easy to talk. You can talk your heart out. You really can. There’s love in this room.

27:20 -> 19:48 “President Trump takes the state at CPAC”. Breitbart YouTube video displayed below.

Here’s Bernie:

. . . thank you all for being part of a political revolution that is going to transform America

(Chanting: “Bernie! Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!) –

No, no, no — it is not Bernie, it you. It’s us together.

We are going to transform this country and finally create an economy and a government which works for all of us, not just the one percent.

3:30 –> 4:47 – “Bernie Sanders’ FULL Brooklyn speech”, Rebel HQ YouTube video as displayed.

Bernie’s crowd loves the way he panders to them, and it’s not too bad, for who would not be for economic, social, racial, and environmental justice?

Bernie and his followers have perhaps been seeing America’s regulated capitalist system become unbridled: “We will no longer tolerate the greed of corporate America and the billionaire class . . . greed which has resulted in this country having more income and wealth inequality than any other major country on earth” (6:35 -> 6:55).

However, who is going to pay for that guaranteed health care?

What anti-social steps may Big Pharma take to reduce the cost of prescription drugs (hint: offer less tested — and cheap — generics?); how will that heightened minimum wage avoid becoming simply inflationary? The eternal “crumbling infrastructure” issue (that’s been on BC’s plate since Lester Brown’s heyday) — Trump offered it too: any progress?

Tuition free public college and university educations: whose pockets, how, and how soon?

Of the two Big Dreamers, BC believes one far more social and concerned with the general American experience, but wonders as well whether applause has been more the motivation for heightened American messianism on the campaign trail than perception of the much needed nuts-and-bolts adjustments that would treat the nation’s land base and people with the care and respect required for better-than-functional politically coherent national survival.

Related: “Castro Speech Database”, Latin American Network Information Center. One page on that site features the Department of State Foreign Service dispatch for “Speeches Made at October 26, 1959 Mass Demenstration” and carries the following remark: “Castro spoke for over three hours. When he made his appearance on the speakers platform, he received an eight minute ovation. As is no [STET] frequently the case, the speech was rambling, disjointed, and repetitive, with Castro getting quite frantic and incoherent towards the end.”

Generally related to this post: https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/02/politics/fact-checking-cpac/index.html ; https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/12/you-all-just-got-a-lot-richer-trump-tells-friends-at-mar-a-lago-after-signing-tax-overhaul\ ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot%E2%80%93Hawley_Tariff_Act ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariff_in_United_States_history – a brief glance online turns up nothing special about American tariff police in 1938, so the President’s mention of the “Great Tariff Debate of 1938” rhymes nicely but with questionable substance).

–33–


Saturday’s Ambush – U.S. Elections 2020 – NOW . . . .

02 Saturday Mar 2019

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Events and Other PSA's

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

Had I kept the Sabbath, not booted the computer, not glanced at Facebook, I’d have been spared this episode of Saturday Afternoon Gladiators:

https://www.facebook.com/BackChannels/ – March 2, 2019 at about 12:55 p.m.

Both speakers, two ears, center channel, both together — and equally surreal.

Sigh.

B: ” . . . comprehensive immigration reform . . . .”

D: “. . . we have people in Congress who hate our country . . . . “

1 p.m. — they’re both talking about immigration reform at the same time!

How is that happening?

# # #