Sunday, May 6, 2018

Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money and how Russia Helped Donald Trump Win, Luke Harding


In his book Collusion, Guardian investigative reporter Luke Harding assures us that the Russian/Trump connection scandal is even more disturbing than we might have thought. Sordid details confirm the worst. We're accustomed to corporate disregard for life system and workers in their singular pursuit of profits... and we're accustomed to politicians manipulating and lying but the Trump administration has taken this to new lengths. I mean, Gary Hart was driven out of a presidential race for dating a woman while separated from his spouse. Ed Muskie for raising his voice to be heard in a crowd and getting a little emotional in a speech. We have an administration of pro-business fanatics, yes, not all that unusual – corporations do heavily fund the campaigns of most contenders and so influence their policies. But when have we had high government officials routinely dallying and scheming with official enemies? Top government employees take oaths to defend the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic so that would include also a lot of business interests, as well as the Nazi party and KKK... hell, even half the supreme court. But back to Russia.

Cutting to the chase, Russia is owned and run by and for oligarchs/gangsters. This seems a force more pernicious, and successful, than the former Soviet leaders, who supposedly were out to conqueor the world. These folks know how to do it. Maybe because they've harnassed the power of greed. Ironic for the nation that once proclaimed itself the champion of ordinary working people. Collusion makes it quite clear that not only is Russia interested in disrupting democracy everywhere but is also partnering, across national boundaries, with like-minded oligarchs. By hook or by crook, by bribery or blackmail, intimidation or partnership, they have captured the highest levels of U.S. government. The White House. and its power to appoint department heads and staff the judiciary, is taken. The congress is pretty much owned though there remains some feeble resistance. The Supreme Court is similar, corrupted but not fully in their hands, yet. State Houses across the country are also in the fold, states like Michigan and Wisconsin, former unioniszed strongholds of democracy. The fall elections may be the last opportunity for effective resistance to what is arguably a world-wide oligarchic coup.

That's the conclusion. Collusion provides plenty of disturbing evidence. Take the Russian oligarch, Dmitry Rybolovlev, purchasing a Trump Florida mansion for $95 million. Trump had paid $41 million four years early. This in a sagging Florida market. The Russian oligarch never even visited the building, before nor after purchase. He ended up having it demolished. Was this money laundering? A payoff, purchasing perhaps a U.S. president? At least 63 individuals with Russian passports purchased Trump-branded Tower properties in Florida totaling $98 million. Many of the other buyers were limited liability companies whose owners were not identifiable. More Russian mobsters than seems coincidental owned or own Trump Tower Manhattan condos or have offices there.

When Trump's casinos went bankrupt it was Deutsche Bank, a German bank with New York offices, that bailed him out. All previous lenders were refusing loan requests, having been once burned. Later Deutsche NY was suing him to recover $640 million he had personally guaranteed for more Trump Towers, an acrimonious situation of suits and counter-suits. Deutsch Bank in Germany did two very odd things. They loaned him, a guy who was refusing to repay loans, the money to pay off his loans and undertake new projects. The other odd thing, Deutsche was caught money-laundering, Russian money laundering, in the billions.

The Russian hacking is also broader than I was aware. They may have tilted the British Brexit vote and interfered in French and German elections as well, probably others. They like to fund both left and right factions, but seem to prefer zany rightwingers like Le Pen, in France. The object is to disrupt targeted democracies. The ideal of course would be to place “agents” or compromised candidates in powerful positions. This they seem to have done, to such a degree that we may not be allowed to find out, it being far from certain that the Mueller investigation will be allowed to continue. An informed, activist electorate is probably more critical today than at any other time in U.S. history.