There is a reason why the dozen-and-a-half Republican candidates for President last year folded up when they realized that Don the Con was such a formidable adversary: they found out he has a plan, a radical conservative plan, to bankrupt the federal government in order to be able to destroy all federal employee unions and take radical steps to impose “austerity” on Social Security.
The bankruptcies of state governments like that of Kansas under a radical Republican governor, and the impasse in the Illinois legislature, are small examples of what Don the Con wants to do to America.
This plan is perfect for Don’s expertise: corporate bankruptcies. It is common knowledge that he has ruled over six corporate bankruptcies and has come up richer every time. He started with the erection of a second casino in competition with a first marginal casino in Atlantic City, and the inevitable bankruptcies that occurred (the only way to lose money on a casino is to lose customers while paying out cash in laundered money to assorted anonymous partners) left him better off financially than before, when he only had his father’s hundred-million dollar inheritance to work with.
His most spectacular project in the free world, the third tallest building in Canada, was erected in Toronto with his encouragement a few years ago. It has suffered from poor sales of office space, low occupancy of the hotel rooms, and poor maintenance, although the staff is uniformly cheerful. Don has just sold off the naming rights and the management contract to another company. The original owner of the building, Talon, had defaulted on its three hundred million dollar loan; JCF Capital acquired the defaulted loan, but could find no bidders when it put the building up for sale. Bloomberg reported a few days ago that JCF Capital paid the Trump Organization at least six million dollars to exit its management contract and remove the Trump brand name from the building. Marriott has purchased the building and will renovate it under a different name.
The web of ownership of the Toronto hotel is complex: Talon International Development is a Markham, Canada-based “real estate management” organization which has no listed officers of any kind, according to Bloomberg, but it is apparently owned by the Midland Group, an “international trading and investment holding” company founded by two people, a Russian-born Canadian national, Alex Shnaider, and a Ukrainian-born resident of London. The Midland Group has extensive trading relationships with companies and banks owned or controlled by the Russian government.
There is no logical explanation for the bankruptcy of a company wholly owned or controlled by a much larger company which is in turn owned by a still larger company. Why is the larger company not held financially responsible for the deficits of the smaller company? Issues such as this make it possible for such companies to be secretly corrupt and to corruptly influence or control politicians. Don the Con is a willing colluder with the corrupt, Russian-government infiltrated Midland Group, the brainchild of Alex Shnaider.
There is a reason why the dozen-and-a-half Republican candidates for President last year folded up when they realized that Don the Con was such a formidable adversary: they found out he has a plan, a radical conservative plan, to bankrupt the federal government in order to be able to destroy all federal employee unions and take radical steps to impose “austerity” on Social Security.
The bankruptcies of state governments like that of Kansas under a radical Republican governor, and the impasse in the Illinois legislature, are small examples of what Don the Con wants to do to America.
This plan is perfect for Don’s expertise: corporate bankruptcies. It is common knowledge that he has ruled over six corporate bankruptcies and has come up richer every time. He started with the erection of a second casino in competition with a first marginal casino in Atlantic City, and the inevitable bankruptcies that occurred (the only way to lose money on a casino is to lose customers while paying out cash in laundered money to assorted anonymous partners) left him better off financially than before, when he only had his father’s hundred-million dollar inheritance to work with.
His most spectacular project in the free world, the third tallest building in Canada, was erected in Toronto with his encouragement a few years ago. It has suffered from poor sales of office space, low occupancy of the hotel rooms, and poor maintenance, although the staff is uniformly cheerful. Don has just sold off the naming rights and the management contract to another company. The original owner of the building, Talon, had defaulted on its three hundred million dollar loan; JCF Capital acquired the defaulted loan, but could find no bidders when it put the building up for sale. Bloomberg reported a few days ago that JCF Capital paid the Trump Organization at least six million dollars to exit its management contract and remove the Trump brand name from the building. Marriott has purchased the building and will renovate it under a different name.
The web of ownership of the Toronto hotel is complex: Talon International Development is a Markham, Canada-based “real estate management” organization which has no listed officers of any kind, according to Bloomberg, but it is apparently owned by the Midland Group, an “international trading and investment holding” company founded by two people, a Russian-born Canadian national, Alex Shnaider, and a Ukrainian-born resident of London. The Midland Group has extensive trading relationships with companies and banks owned or controlled by the Russian government.
There is no logical explanation for the bankruptcy of a company wholly owned or controlled by a much larger company which is in turn owned by a still larger company. Why is the larger company not held financially responsible for the deficits of the smaller company? Issues such as this make it possible for such companies to be secretly corrupt and to corruptly influence or control politicians. Don the Con is a willing colluder with the corrupt, Russian-government infiltrated Midland Group, the brainchild of Alex Shnaider.
Check out this website: https://www.healthcare-now.org/… they are trying to organize to advocate single-payer and it looks like organized “pressure groups” like this are the only way to get the attention of politicians and get the approval of the opinion polls so that some action will be taken.
A Word About Don the Con and Collusion
What collusion really means, in the context of the Russians and Don the Con, is that Don has provided the Russians with something they value in exchange for their help in trying to win the Presidency. The thing the Russians most value (other than money) is information, and that is the first object of their intelligence work (the second object is “active measures.”) If Don has been providing information to the Russians, that constitutes collusion. I guarantee you that Don has been informing the Russians on a regular basis, and that there exist tapes of him or people working for him providing the information.
Thus, it follows that the FBI investigation at least centers around the issue of how much information was provided to the Russians and who provided it. The fact that key members of Don’s inner circle have been talking to the Russians means that the FBI must attempt to learn the contents of as many of these conversations as possible. This will take time.
In addition, investigators must probe Don’s business dealings to determine if Don received significant financial help from the Russians. It is fairly obvious that many of Don’s deals are structured to hide potential payoffs– deals such as the sale of luxury properties to Russia-connected individuals. The fact that Don has been highly complimentary to Putin since at least 2007 strongly suggests the conclusion that Putin has been helping Don with money in the form of sweet business deals. These deals have been disguised through intermediaries who are either Russian nationals or have strong business connections to Putin.
If Don did receive help, and I’m pretty sure he did, then the FBI will conclude that Don was a witting or unwitting agent of Russia, because he gave them information freely. Whether he gave them classified information is an open question, but it is unlikely that he was privy to any such information before he became President, and it is easy for him to claim that it is perfectly legal for the President to unilaterally declassify such matters and reveal them to the Russians. However, if he did it in return for their help in attaining that office, that constitutes collusion.
The FBI will also inevitably conclude that Don attempted to impede the investigation of these issues. As to Michael Flynn, there exists a strong possibility that he provided the Russians with some of the vast quantities of classified information that he was privy to as a military man– and he is already subject to considerable suspicion because of the cash payments he received from Russian sources that he didn’t report to his former employers in the US government. If that is the case, the fact that Don tried to impede the investigation of Michael Flynn fits in perfectly.
Whether collusion with a foreign power is against the law or not, trying to impede a federal investigation is probably illegal, as Richard Nixon found out.
As a famous Washington person has been saying for a while: Tick, tick, tick.
Almond Trees on June 30, 2017
Dear Don:
When you lashed out at Ms. Brzezinski, you used some trite, childish insults and rude personal observations about a minor medical issue that she supposedly had while at a party at your residence. These are simply insults, irrelevant to the important issues which she confronted you with, and demeaning of her as a woman. These insults leave you appearing to be simply childish, with a limited vocabulary, and wide open to a charge of sexism.
The “important issues” with which she confronted you, on the other hand, represented criticisms of your performance as a President, harsh criticisms to be sure, but none the less substantially true. For example, you are a known certified liar– reference the New York Times article a few days ago which cataloged all the lies and misrepresentations which you indulged in so far in your term. Second, you are the world’s most fascinating undiagnosed mentally ill person. I hope that makes you feel good that you at least came out Number One in something.
With reference to the accusations of mental illness, there are two factors at work here. The first is the Goldwater Rule, with which you may be familiar. The second is that, in order to determine whether your behavior represents mental illness as opposed to mere ignorance and churlishness, it would be necessary for a qualified physician to examine you. We both know that is never going to happen because you would never voluntarily answer a psychiatrist’s questions. So the issue of what type of mental illness your behavior represents is wide open; however, it is possible to be confident that the diagnoses of pathological narcissism, sociopathy, and potentially intellectual deficits will be entertained.
Let me repeat, for emphasis: you are responding to legitimate and arguably true criticisms from your “enemies” with childish insults. This behavior is pathetic.
Sincerely, Conrad.
Mom
US
This man was born on the third base of illness– he developed polio as a child and yet survived ( with his mother receiving help from the March of Dimes in Warm Springs– the ultimate Democrat’s, Franklin Roosevelt’s, medical charity) to be able to stand at his podium in the Senate and deny the American people a chance to live with their own medical misfortunes.
I cannot express how disgusted and repulsed I am that this man took all the kindness from caregivers and hard earned dimes from donors of 1944 and has paid it forward this way. If we could go back to 1945 and if could talk to the little children in iron lungs and the parents of children who died and the young people whose lives were completely changed by paralysis, they would say– well, if we have been struck down, we are happy that at least someone survived.
Would you want to tell them what Mitch McConnell did with his life’s work, his gift of a second chance? As a nurse, I can almost always find the good in someone to connect to. But I will never look at this person in the same way ever again. His life’s work has been contemptible.
The Politics of Compassion, Part One
The Democrats have a lot of problems. One of them is their inability to unify. Unification depends partly upon the leadership presenting a platform, that is a short document that indicates their preferences for an ideal society. The platform should include concrete policies, such as the establishment, modification, or destruction of specific executive departments that would be implemented by the president, if elected, or presented to the Congress, if members should be elected.
The second component needed for victory is voter turnout. Ideally, all eligible voters should be turned out, by providing transportation and an escort, if necessary. Again, specific implementation of this vital component should involve such measures as chartering buses to drive through neighborhoods picking up voters of all stripes. It is much harder for Republicans to object to this measure if the bus picks up Republican voters as readily as it does Democratic voters and preference-blind pickup policy will still favor Democrats ten to one.
The third component needed for victory is propaganda. There is much to say about propaganda but suffice it to say here that the truth is the best propaganda.
Those three components, if implemented with vigor, will ensure victory if our cause is just. There is no need to stoop to infiltration of the enemy camp or consulting Sun Tzu or anything like that. Leave that to the military– they are above politics.
First, to the platform. The slogan might be, “The Politics of Compassion.” Our subject is politics, specifically political power, and there is a need in the consolidation of political power to define an US vs. THEM. This is, unfortunately, not an optional plank in our platform. I say unfortunately because fascism and other undesirable forms of government define US very narrowly and this limits compassion severely. Therefore, the US should be everyone on the planet as well as everyone FROM our planet who might reside, say, on Mars. This would maximize compassion.
Since I have brought it up, the reason I use the word “Compassion” is because it comes from the Buddhist term. And one can immediately divide US from THEM by saying that those who have compassion are with us and those who do not are with the Republicans. Everything else on the platform follows from that.
The purposes of government can be readily divided by the Preamble to the the Constitution. Most of it is readily acceptable to the Republicans but the part about “Provide for the General Welfare” is controversial. Those who have compassion are apt to interpret this clause broadly, and the Democratic platform should include the following aspects of the “General Welfare”: free schooling to the point where a person is qualified to do work according to his innate abilities and serve the general welfare by performing useful work for pay; free health care; food sufficient to hold body and mind together; and housing adequate to protect people from their environment so that they have a safe place to eat, sleep, and recreate. To address the point most at controversy right now in Congress, we will say that the government should set up a two-tier health care system: a basic one that is free, and an optional form that depends on one’s ability to pay. The system in the UK resembles the specific system we should adopt: a National Health and private institutions that are accessed by optional private insurance.
This is not the ideal system, but it most closely resembles one– single payer– which will give the best health care to the greatest number and allow for continuation of the for-profit system which already exists in the United States.
The problem with the current system is that, simply, it is unfair. It is unfair because only an immensely wealthy person would be able to pay for potentially needed care in the worst possible case– that of an inborn genetic illness that is extremely rare and requires cutting-edge research to develop a remedy. Even a person who is relatively well-off would be bankrupted by attempting to research and produce a remedy for a unique illness like that. Most people would agree, however, that a person with a unique genetic disease still deserves care– although cutting-edge research may be rationed.
The only way to have a fair system is to provide for a tax– which has already been shown to be Constitutional– which is progressive, like income tax, and pays for “insurance” for everyone, sick and healthy.
To change the subject– the more important planks of the platform address economic issues. The first is one which is dear to Don the Con’s heart: GDP growth. Current growth is inadequate to address the deficit and our $20 trillion debt. Growth must be increased from 2% to 3%, and specific measures must be taken by the government to achieve at least 3% growth. The reason we need 3% GDP growth is the very reason that Don the Con’s budget assumes that we will have it: to create his fantasy of paying off the national debt in his proposed budget and other documents. He says that only rapid growth can make payments on or pay off our national debt and keep deficits down. The only way Don the Con’s numbers work is if there is sustained 3% growth, but he has not supplied any concrete proposals to achieve that goal. He simply assumes that his tax cuts and deregulation will provide that number. This is absurd. Specific measures must be taken, and they do not involve tax cuts or significant deregulation.
To increase GDP growth, it is necessary to have both full employment and continually increasing productivity. We are nearing full employment, although it is still necessary to get government organized to provide work for those who are unable for whatever reason to find work of their own. This need not be particularly pleasant but must create the minimum needed, again, to keep body and soul together.
The advent of automation and artificial intelligence in manufacturing and providing services will vastly increase productivity and this is essential to create the 3% growth. The problem is that people will have to adjust to the changing job market that will be a result of improving AI– again, government is the only entity capable of moving people to other jobs when their jobs are replaced by AI. The reason is that private interests cannot provide the breadth of programs needed to retrain everyone affected– in fact, private interests will be responsible mainly for throwing people out of work by replacing them with machines.
Another thing needed for growth is investment in research. This aspect is completely ignored in Don the Con’s budget. It is essential for government to organize and pay for a significant amount of research in all fields. The reason for this is that research done by private interests is biased to serve those interests and the best research only comes from completely disinterested investment. The products of pure and applied research will benefit everyone and stimulate growth, but only if research is financed and regulated.
The final thing that can be affected to increase growth is to make the population of workers younger. This can only be done by recruiting new workers from immigrants, who are by nature much younger than the average citizen. This is because Social Security pensions are a reverse Ponzi scheme: the pension takes from the active workers to pay off retired workers. In a normal Ponzi scheme, the benefits mostly flow to the one person who is running the scam; in a reverse Ponzi scheme, the benefits flow to everyone who contributes to the system. If the mix of workers is too old on average, then the pension payments become onerous.
This post is intended for further expansion in the near future.
You probably haven’t been following the crisis in the Middle East because US newspapers and TV haven’t been covering the incidents closely, but you should be aware that Saudi Arabia (KSA–the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) has made a large step towards war with its neighbor Qatar. KSA and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) issued an ultimatum to Qatar containing some thirteen points, many of which are impossible to meet, and setting a ten-day deadline which expires on July 3. KSA claims that Qatar is supporting terrorism by financing groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and the country of Iran. Qatar claims that it is taking precautions to prevent money flowing to terrorist groups, and that it is trying to maintain an independent foreign policy.
The demands include shutting down Al Jazeera, a news network carried on US cable channels. The network is relatively independent although it is financed by the emirs of Qatar, and it produces high quality programs. The problem is that KSA thinks its coverage is slanted to the advantage of Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Islamists in general. Whether or not this is the case, KSA has no right to suppress the free speech of a separate country.
Another demand is that all Turkish troops leave Qatar– within ten days– a physically impossible and psychologically outrageous demand that amounts to interference with the foreign policy of a sovereign nation.
Most of the other demands amount to the same type of interference that are impossible to meet and arrogant in the extreme. Notably absent is any demand that Qatar shut down its huge American airbase and center of operations for the drone war in the region. It is bizarre that KSA would take actions that are essentially a prelude to a declaration of war against a country which hosts a very large American military presence.
What is worse, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are taking an equally hard line on the issue. According to the Guardian, “The UAE has also banned its citizens from using social media to express views sympathetic to Qatar.” This is an action that would be contrary to the US Constitution if it were to be attempted by our government, and it is intolerable to American thinking.
The Guardian story tells of a frightening and confusing sequence of events: Russian hackers, probably not government but free-lance, planted fake news stories claiming that the emir of Qatar made statements supportive of Iran and critical of Don the Con (the US President, unfortunately)– stories which were immediately picked up by media in KSA and have still not been discredited there. At the same time, Don the Con visited KSA and made friends with its aged king, participating in a traditional sword dance and offering up to $100 billion in arms sales ( actual sales are likely to be less than half that. ) After returning to the US, Don tweeted his support for KSA and accused Qatar of supporting terrorism. KSA and the GCC declared a blockade of Qatar, disrupting travel and economic ties. The blockade is entirely ineffective because Qatar can be readily resupplied by air or sea even though its entire land border is with KSA. Nonetheless, the blockade has had a profound psychological effect.
Despite the blockade and harsh words from the Saudi king, it took his government two weeks to come up with the ultimatum. Even more confusing, the American State Department seems to be supporting Qatar in this dispute and undermining Don the Con’s position.
To an ordinary American, there is little reason to support either KSA or Qatar in this dispute. Both countries are essentially wealthy monarchies with retrogressive social policies, oppressive of women and exploitative of Palestinians ( who make up most of both countries lower-class migrant labor forces and receive token support in their struggles with Israel ); both countries export vast quantities of oil (KSA) and natural gas (Qatar). Both countries are Arabic societies, although KSA originates in the radical conservative Wahhabi sect of Sunni Islam, while Qatar, though Sunni, is more liberal and tolerates interactions with Shia Iran. Neither country tolerates much freedom of speech, although Qatar is more tolerant in this regard and supports Al Jazeera ( which claims to be objective although it presents the Arab side of most issues. )
The problem here is that the blockade and ultimatum are a prelude to war, not a logical step in the direction of cutting off funding for terrorism. Don the Con may have gotten the impression from his Saudi hosts that Qatar is a hotbed of Muslim Brotherhood and Iranian terrorists, but the truth is that Qatar tries not to take sides and allows Arabs of most persuasions to live and operate on its territory.
War in the Middle East between Qatar and KSA/UAE is hard to imagine, but there is a lot to be fearful of. The US would inevitably be caught up in such a war and forced, most likely, to defend Qatar from Saudi attacks– even though there are American military assets in both countries. There is nothing for the US to gain, and a great deal to be lost, in military conflict here. This is typical behavior for Don the Con– provocation by fake news from hackers ( possibly even paid for by allies of Don’s ) abetted by promises made in private to the king and who knows what kind of lies. It is even unclear whether Don knew that there was an American airbase in Qatar when he claimed that they were supporting terrorism.
There have been very few terror attacks inside Qatar– the last civilian killed was in a bombing in 2005– and some claim that this is because Qatar has paid off al Qaeda and other groups to leave it alone. An article in Doha News says, “You don’t bite the hand that feeds you.” The American airbase is a high value target because it controls drones which strike at terrorists all over the Mideast, but it is also well secured. Qatar has a very effective internal security apparatus and it is a small, wealthy, and technologically sophisticated country, so even if such an attack were contemplated, it would be hard to carry off.
Bottom line: this is bad and Don the Con has had a hand in making it worse.
This comment comes from an article in the NYT about the Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke’s proposal to take the Yellowstone grizzly bear off the endangered species list:
Joseph
O’Malley
This administration seems to wake up every morning asking how they can in some new comically villainous way, destroy all that is good in this world. So far, so good. I have grown over the past 6 months to hate this country I call home.
Conrad Theodore Seitz 