Wasserman writes: "The Mueller Wave of crony convictions and confessions has barely begun."
Special Council and former FBI director Robert S. Mueller III. (photo: AP)
Trumputin's Mob Masters Own the White House, but for How Long?
26 August 18
he Mueller Wave of crony convictions and confessions has barely begun.
But one thing is clear: the term “collusion” vastly understates Trump’s oneness with Vladimir Putin and the Russian Mob.
Collusion implies two independent parties working together.
Trump is not separate from Putin. Trump is Putin’s employee. His debtor. His servant. His baby mama. Or, in CIA terms, Putin’s asset. Since the 1980s.
The tsunami of proof ranges from Craig Unger’s remarkable new House of Trump, House of Putin to David Cay Johnston’s It’s Even Worse Than You Think and much more. (For a full hour of Unger’s narrative, hear this week’s “Green Power & Wellness Show.”)
Here is some of it:
Trump inherited a huge fortune from his mob-connected father (Trump’s mob-connected grandfather ran a brothel in the California gold country).
Donald was apparently born void of business ability. According to Unger, Trump’s massive over-expansion into Atlantic City in the 1990s left him $4 billion in debt, replete with six bankruptcies.
As no legitimate sources would fund him, Trump turned to the Russian mob, then looting the natural resources of a massive landmass. That epic cash flow enhanced its regular lines of extortion, prostitution, gambling, etc.
Hundreds of billions of dollars in flight capital sought access to the Western banking system. But to get it, the Russian mobsters and oligarchs needed to launder their money. They turned to Trump and his real estate-based cash washing machine. They also began cultivating him as a political asset.
Unger says more than 1300 real estate transactions ensued that, according to BuzzFeed, averaged $1.2 million per unit and “had the characteristics of money-laundering deals.” Buyers with hard money used shell corporations that were barely scrutinized, if at all. In a single legendary deal, one oligarch allegedly plunked down $6 million in cash for five condos.
Trump Tower, at 721 Fifth Avenue, became a dormitory/nerve center for the Russian underworld. Trump’s “comeback” was fueled with rubles they wanted hidden. Having stiffed a legion of creditors, Trump himself went from being dead broke to doing big business with scads of cash.
With the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of Vladimir Putin, the Russian mob became a de facto agency of the Russian government, and vice versa. With Putin at the top, Russia was (and is now) “a mafia state.” Says Unger: “In Moscow there’s no Wall Street, no Goldman Sachs. If you have any financial inclination, you go to work for the mob. That’s where the money is.”
With his roots in the old KGB, Putin transferred the new FSB secret police into a wing of the mafia. Its minions soon filled as many as a third of the roughly 300 units at Trump Tower (calculations are difficult because Trump regularly lies about how big his buildings really are). In the 1990s, when the FBI went looking for a renegade Russian mobster, that’s where they found him. “If anybody should not have a security clearance,” says Unger, “it’s Donald Trump.”
“We’ve been attacked three times,” Unger adds. “Pearl Harbor, 9/11, and now this. After Pearl Harbor and 9/11 they didn’t take over the White House.”
Much of the mob’s cash flow comes from Ukraine, which depends on Russia’s gas, which is sold at below-market prices to insider oligarchs. There, Paul Manafort installed a pro-Putin regime (since overthrown). Unger estimates the annual skim at about $750 million. During one of the earlier, very deadly coups, a Manafort daughter famously tweeted that “Dad has blood on his hands.”
Other Trump associates share similar roots. According to the NY Daily News, the grandfather of White House flunky Kellyanne Conway allegedly was Jimmy “The Brute” DiNatale, described by law enforcement authorities as a “significant criminal associate” of Philadelphia mobster Nicodemo “Little Nicky” Scarfo.
To keep Donald in line, Vlady may or may not have incriminating sex tapes to hold over Donald’s private parts. But they would pale before a real accounting of the Trumputin money trail.
Trump’s entire economic being depends on Putin’s rubles. He could bankrupt Trump with just one nyet.
The Russian people are not our enemy. Nor, technically, is the Russian government. We are grateful for not being in a shooting or nuclear war with them.
But with Trump in the White House kissing Putin’s ring in the Kremlin, we’re being colonized by Russia’s mobster oligarchs working in sync with our own corporate oligarchs.
It’s mostly about oil and gas, with coal and nukes as critical diversions away from what the Russo-American oligarchy fears most: renewable energy.
But the Russians did not steal America’s elections in Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004. That was the Bush Family, with deep CIA roots, guided by Karl Rove, linked to the House of Saud.
The Russians did not flip the US Congress and 1000 public offices from the Democrats to the GOP from 2008-2016. That was the Koch Brothers’ hugely funded GOP attack team. They stripped the voter rolls, flipped electronic voting machines, bought judges, stole the government … and are poised to do it again in 2018.
The Corporate Democrats continue to say and do nothing about a totally corrupted electoral system. Even this week, in a highly dubious Congressional race “won” by the GOP in central Ohio, the Dems have failed to even speak with election protection expert Bob Fitrakis and the seasoned team of local activists all too familiar with how these critical seats are stolen.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton bought the Democratic Party by paying its $20 million debt. She put it on an allowance and took the nomination. She trashed Bernie Sanders and the young social democrats who could have put her in the White House. She’s still said nothing about the utter theft of a presidential race she won by three million votes. Unless the party is radically changed, it will be deja vu in 2018 and 2020.
The Corporate Democrats’ contempt for Trump’s “deplorables” is exceeded only by its fear of the grassroots left. Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, and their ilk have opposed social and regulatory policies that date to the New Deal. They’re clearly more comfortable with Trump in the White House than Bernie Sanders.
But the Russians came at 2016 from another angle. Backing their Manchurian Mobster, they toyed with social media, faked the news. With the GOP regulars, they hacked voter registration rolls, databases, electronic tabulators and more in at least 21 states. They laundered money through the National Rifle Association and Mitch McConnell. They rebooted Dick Nixon’s “Dirty Trickster” playbook (previously perfected by Rove and Dick Cheney) and put their own made man in the White House.
His mission:
- Boost oil and gas prices to hand-funnel cash to the Russo-American fossil fuel kleptocracy;
- Shred environmental regulations to monetize the destruction of human and planetary health;
- Destroy Western trade and state relationships for Russian benefit;
- Gut military alliances to exalt Putin’s global standing;
- Flood the internet with trolls, bots, phishers, hackers, liars, manipulators, Foxists, etc. to trash grassroots democracy worldwide;
- Enthrone a deranged criminal psycho/sociopath to distract the media and public from all of the above.
None of this rises to the level of a “philosophy.” It’s all about the venal theft of public resources for the private profit of a power/greed-crazed few.
For American corporatists like the Kochs and so many others, Trump’s insane tweet-storms hide the further looting of our air, water, food supply, tax code, educational system, public housing, natural resources, pipeline proliferation, etc. Our Social Security and Medicare funds are next in line to feed ever-more military madness. Likewise obscene handouts to coal and nuke burners (while assaulting renewables with taxes, tariffs and more). In short: Trump has escalated Robber Baron rape from Reagan to the ridiculous.
For Trump’s mobster masters, the bonanza extends to pipelines through Ukraine (like the ones through the Dakotas), mass slaughter in Syria and Yemen, Europe flooded with refugees, an enhanced drug trade, global destabilization, Putinic enshrinement, and more.
The common denominator is always private profit at public expense.
And the ultimate enablers are always the Corporate Democrats. These Weimar Wimps are astute at just one thing: caving to the far right.
Next up is that fifth Supreme Court seat for the corporate thugs. Are you ready for the Dems to crumble yet again?
Team Schumer/Pelosi is always ready to assault social democracy and those who bring it. Their endless fundraising emails howl at Trump’s antics but never push a humanist vision that might impinge on corporate profits. They’re still unwilling to speak the truth of Trump’s mafia roots to the power of the corporatocracy.
But we are not them. And the supremely arrogant Donald may have crossed too many lines.
As long as Trump serves his don Putin while the Corporate Democrats wallow in fake opposition, there’ll be plenty of cover for the Russo-American kleptocracy to rape and pillage our dying planet.
But Nature does bat last. Let’s make sure She swings real soon.
Harvey “Sluggo” Wasserman’s Life & Death Spiral of US History: From Deganawidah to the Trumpocalypse will soon be published via Solartopia.org. His “California Solartopia” show airs at KPFK-Pacifica in Los Angeles. “Green Power & Wellness” is at prn.fm.
THE NEW STREAMLINED RSN LOGIN PROCESS: Register once, then login and you are ready to comment. All you need is a Username and a Password of your choosing and you are free to comment whenever you like! Welcome to the Reader Supported News community. |
Comments
A note of caution regarding our comment sections:
For months a stream of media reports have warned of coordinated propaganda efforts targeting political websites based in the U.S., particularly in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.
We too were alarmed at the patterns we were, and still are, seeing. It is clear that the provocateurs are far more savvy, disciplined, and purposeful than anything we have ever experienced before.
It is also clear that we still have elements of the same activity in our article discussion forums at this time.
We have hosted and encouraged reader expression since the turn of the century. The comments of our readers are the most vibrant, best-used interactive feature at Reader Supported News. Accordingly, we are strongly resistant to interrupting those services.
It is, however, important to note that in all likelihood hardened operatives are attempting to shape the dialog our community seeks to engage in.
Adapt and overcome.
Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhTMy9ma2mQ.
It is more than likely that Trump sold upscale condos to people and corporations flush with money stolen from Russia. Everyone in upscale real estate development did.
Cities like NY, Atlantic City, Miami, Las Vegas, and cities in Israel like Tel Aviv were built on the looting of the wealth of the Soviet Union. It is little rich to start crying "foul" now. The US government and Bill Clinton especially endorsed and abetted this theft openly. Yelstin would have been defeated in the 1996 election had it not been for a massive infusion of Clinton cash and advisors. Clinton rigged the election that kept the theft going.
The Unger/Wasserman reading of Putin is flat wrong: "With the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of Vladimir Putin, the Russian mob became a de facto agency of the Russian government, and vice versa. With Putin at the top, Russia was (and is now) “a mafia state.” Says Unger: “In Moscow there’s no Wall Street, no Goldman Sachs. If you have any financial inclination, you go to work for the mob. "
Once Yeltsin was gone, the mobsters began to flee to the US, UK, and Israel where they were protected. And where their stolen money was stashed. Putin's government has been indicting them and sentencing them to prison when they can be caught. Putin wants the money returned to Russia.
Every time one of these robbers is sentenced to prison, the US media and government sets up a howl about Putin's fascism. Browder and Khodorovsky are the very worst. Both wanted in Russia and both protected by the UK and UK regimes.
This is the real reason the US CIA and media hate Putin and are trying to make him appear like the bad guy. He's actually cracking down on the mobsters that the US loves. The US wants this infusion of illegal cash because that how the US grows. Stolen wealth from almost every nation on earth is how the US economy survives. Take a look at Greg Palast's great work on the American mobster and looter Paul Singer. (a backer of Trump, by the way).
If one looks dispassionately at the facts, it is clear that Trump is no friend to Putin. Trump is no doubt a corrupt real estate developer but he is no different from all the rest of that gang. Cities like NY or Miami love these people because they build. They overlook their crimes. Putin and Russia have nothing to do with any of this.
Yes, Putin did run out of town the first generation wild west oligarchs, like Khodorkovsky and Berezovsky, who looted the country under Yeltsin. And good riddance. But he did it because they challenged him politically, not for any aversion to oligarchy or love of rule of law. Consolidating power and getting rid of them created niches for his own brand of tamer plutocrat, dependent on his government for their graft and position. The Kremlin line that “there are no more oligarchs” is only semantically true, as these people indeed do not co-rule, but are co-dependent on the Putin regime and engage in mutual back-scratching with it. Collectively, they are even richer than 20 years ago, but much lower-profile than their flamboyant predecessors.
The present crop still tends to move its money and assets overseas, where it is more protected by laws. In Russia, Putin IS the law, and falling afoul of him and his inner political circle of cronies can imperil your fortune.
It’s just the old story: new mobsters drive out the old ones
It is very likely Trump made money be dealing with these people. I think Unger's research is correct. But it was probably legal given lax US laws. That does not mean Mueller won't indict him for something perfectly legal, however.
- "pravda? comrade?"; or
- "she ma shev ya tro!" (hang onto the wind)
It’s mostly about oil and gas, with coal and nukes as critical diversions away from what the Russo-American oligarchy fears most: renewable energy."
This is a really big claim. If true then Trump is guilty of the worst treason ever committed. Trump would be the exact equivalent of Boris Yeltsin, who was a puppet of the CIA and right wing groups in the US.
But the author presents no proof of this at all. Unger offers it only as an inference following a long chain of six-degrees of Kevin Bacon type associations. That is, because some Russian bought a condo in a Trump building . . . . all Russians are puppets of Putin, so Trump is a puppet of Putin.
Now Lanny Davis (Cohen's attorney) has backed off his claim that Cohen knows about collusion with Russia. Thousands of people say they have proof but back off when pushed. I suspect Wasserman and Unger are the same.
This is really just lame. It is as bad as the Birthergate bullshit that republicans (inc. Trump) used to refuse to accept Obama's election. I wish someone would wake up and see the real damage that this lame journalism does to the nation and world. Russia is moving on with its oil deals. It really does not give a fuck about the US. Germany and China are good customers.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLczQfuymMc
hillary won by 3m votes and had not the courage or integrity to fight. just like gore & kerry.
this is the usual left bashing. we need candidates who actually stand for social justice & are willing to work for it.
For a good quick overview of Russian oligarchs, see this documentary -- "The Rise of Putin and the Fall of the Russian-Jewish Oligarchs."
https://youtu.be/Q2Cl8lSv9Is
It is important to understand that the looting of Russian wealth in the 1990s was an organized project directed by mostly by Rothchild connected investors (inc. Soros) in the UK, US, and Israel, where most of these oligarchs now live as their financial empires are dismantled by the Russian government. The biggest of all the oligarchs, Mikhail Khodorkovsky who owned among other things Yukos, Russia's oil giant, gave all of stock in Yukos to Jacob Rothschild just before he went on trial. In this way, the Russian government could not seize Yukos and Khodorkovsky's assets.
Many of the oligarchs are Jewish, like Khodorkovsky and Browder. They are now organizing a media crusade against Putin by American and British Jewish journalists and scholars like Masha Gessen and Timothy Snyder. This is causing a backlash in Russia against Jews.
It is important to understand that Russian oligarchs are an American, British, and Israeli mob, a proxy army in an economic war.
If you know the story of these oligarch, you also know that they and their supporters in the US are against Trump.
There is a great and telling joke (told me by an ethnic Russian) on the theme. Too long for here, but the gist is that in Dante's Hell, the Jews require extra demon guards, as they will help each other out of the boiling pitch pits.
Russians, on the other hand, need hardly any guards. As soon as one gets over the lip, the others will drag him back in, out of sheer envy.
between Trump and Putin and the Russian mafia. Who rushes in right away to protect his great heroes on both sides of the Atlantic? Why it is our own indefatigable RR posting frequently and with great intensity that this article has many inconsistencies . misinterpretati ons, and errors of fact that make Putin look to be a bad guy when it is really CIA that is the culprit, and Trump isn't so bad either.
Look at the red thumbs, RR, You see how you are going over with the readership here at RSN! They aren't buying your message which is a continuing defense of some very scary people; Trump and Putin both of whom are probably the greatest danger our planet has ever faced. Fossil fuels and coal have had their day regardless of how much atttention the pollution twins give to them. Global warming threatens everyone, rich or poor, Russian or American, It is about time we all noticed the elephant of planetary ruin in the living room. We ignore it at our collective peril.
You just don't get it. The anti-Putin force in the world is run by the very Russian oligarchs Wasserman is claiming control Putin and Trump. But for people like you, it is not about understanding or truth. It is all about politics, you side against others. You are part of the knee-jerk generation. Someone says something bad about Trump or Putin and your knees start jerking up and down like a marathon runner.
See my comment below with reference to the Diana Johnstone article. You should try reading more broadly. Trump and Putin are not the greatest danger the planet has ever faces. That's is just political hype.
As to coal and oil, Russia is farther ahead in the development and use of renewable energy than the US. Russia is less controlled by its oil and gas giants than the US is. Oil companies controlled the Washington government before Trump and they will control if after Trump. Nothing has changed.
"The Real Russian Interference in US Politics"
August 27, 2018
https://consortiumnews.com/2018/08/27/the-real-russian-interference-in-us-politics/
She shows how Russian oligarchs -- most especially Browder and Khodorkovsky -- have acquired enormous influence over congress, the state department, and many US foundations, inc. the Clinton Foundation.
Their real opposition is to Putin who drove them out of Russia, where they worked on behalf of the CIA to break up Russia. They are the same kind of capitalists that rule in Wall Street and the City of London. Here's Khodorkovsky's manifesto:
"The defeat of communism was brutally announced in a certain “capitalist manifesto” dating from the early 1990s that actually proclaimed: “Our guiding light is Profit, acquired in a strictly legal way. Our Lord is His Majesty, Money, for it is only He who can lead us to wealth as the norm in life.” The authors of this bold tract were Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who went on to become the richest man in Russia (before spending ten years in a Russian jail) and his business partner at the time, Leonid Nevzlin, who has since retired comfortably to Israel. "
Khodorkovsky is also behind the virulent anti-Putin journalists in the US like Masha Gessen. These people are the drivers of the new cold war.
It is tragic to see Democrats jumping into bed with them.
unless we shed this mafia sickness and go 100% solar, our species will fail.
RSS feed for comments to this post