Quote of the Year, Last Year: “catastrophic losses, colossal mismanagement, gross negligence, and stupendous incompetence of TRUMP”… complicity or “a gigantic fool.”

Taken together, these examples amount to a clear pattern of catastrophic losses, colossal mismanagement, gross negligence, and stupendous incompetence of 1.)TRUMP and his partners at best; he might have been aware of some of what was going on and turned a willful blind eye or he might have been in on it, and though there is no evidence to support this other than his considerable and risky efforts to obstruct investigations into these dealings, the sheer number of them is enough to suggest some level of complicity on TRUMP’s part personally, the only other reasonable explanation being that he is a gigantic fool.

This quote comes from an article under the imprint “LinkedIn” titled “Think you know how deep Trump-Russia goes?  Think again– this chart/info will blow your mind” by Brian Frydenborg published July 17, 2017.  The attached chart shows photos of over sixty individuals, sequentially numbered starting with 1)TRUMP.  The article goes into mind-numbing detail and describes an astounding number of “complete failures” of deals to build hotels, all subverted by colossal “mistakes” or fraud– take your pick.

In each case, Mr. Trump was backed by figures associated with organized crime, starting with Simion Mogilevich, the “boss of bosses” of the Russian underworld.  In each case, large amounts of money were simply thrown away, usually in Mr. Trump’s direction, in failed attempts to buy, lease, and develop properties all over the world.  In most cases, innocent parties were duped and swindled; in most cases, finished hotels were never delivered; in other cases, hotels opened for business and closed within a year, collapsing in bankruptcy.

In the first case, “MOGILEVICH starts up a fake company called YBM Magnex International in Pennsylvania in 1995 that would be used to perpetrate a massive stock fraud worth $150 million on the Toronto Stock Exchange.”  In the 1980’s, Mr. Trump had personally sold five apartment units in Trump Tower to David Bogatin, the brother of the CEO of what would become YBM Magnex.  In the second case, “FELIX SATER [ the son of Mikhael Sheferovsky (aka Michael SATER)]was involved in an at least $41 million (and up to $60 million) stock fraud and money laundering scheme and ran it in the mid-1990s from an office in II.) 40 Wall St., another TRUMP-owned property.  We know this scheme involved the Russian mafia, but the details of that case remain sealed because SATER later cooperated with the U.S. government on national security issues…”

The article goes on and on with case after case of Russian mafia-connected individuals using Trump properties to launder money, in amounts denominated in millions of dollars.  There is simply no reasonable possibility that Trump can have been unaware of the character and business dealings of individuals who bought his properties or leased his name to use on properties.

So when someone tells you there is no evidence connecting Donald J. Trump with the Russian government, point them to this article showing a dense web of connections between Trump, the Russian mafia, and the actual Russian government.  Only a willing blindness to Trump’s corruption born from a desire to see his most basic and inhumane policies implemented can account for the denial of his indebtedness to Russian mobsters as an explanation for slavish devotion to Vladimir Putin.  This country cannot afford to have a malignantly narcissistic and dangerously psychopathic inveterate liar who is clearly hopelessly in debt to Russian organized crime as a chief executive… but we knew that already.  What comes next, the slow unravelling of a corrupt administration, will have a negative effect on national morale.  Continued support from Republican authority figures will only make matters worse.  Persistent, die-hard support from the 30-40% of people who are fully susceptible to Fox “News” propaganda will cause a further deterioration of public trust.  Trump’s desperate attempts to obstruct the Mueller investigation and New York State Attorney’s Office investigations will have additional negative effects.  Trying to fire Mueller or other figures in the FBI, using national security crises to distract attention, or other unanticipated diversionary tactics, could cause national crises of unimaginable proportions.

I am reminded of the atmosphere surrounding the House impeachment hearings of Richard Nixon in the summer of 1974– and the maneuvering by Mr. Nixon and his “enemies” that led up to the beginning of those hearings.  Following the Arab oil embargo of 1973, the United States was in a vulnerable position and many feared that additional disruptions could occur.  We can ill afford this sort of commotion, but that is what is going to happen.

(photo courtesy of pixabay.com)