May 30, 2019: Trials of Disgustus, Sordid Financial Dealings, Suspicious Financial Transactions

The trials of Disgustus continues unabated. As our intrepid Caesar attempts to stymie congressional probes into the morass of his sordid financial dealings, the State of New York had opened yet another front in the war for truth. The New York legislature has just passed a measure, about to be signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo, that “would authorize state tax officials to release the president's state returns to any one of three congressional committees.” (1)

In an article appearing in The New York Times, the legal maneuvering over the release of Trump's Tax and bank records is updated, noting at length the two cases decided this week that Disgustus must comply with Congressional requests for information. But buried deep in the article, on page 21, the authors note that:

“The legal setbacks for the president and his family came days after the New York Times reported that Deutsche Bank anti-money laundering specialists had flagged potentially suspicious transaction involving legal entities controlled by Mr. Trump and his son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner. Bank managers overruled those employees and chose not to report the transactions to a federal agency that polices financial crimes...

“Representative Adam Schiff, a California Democrat and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Wednesday that congressional investigators were seeking to interview a former Deutche Bank employee, Tammy McFadden, who told The Times that she had seen Mr. Kushner's family company moving money to Russian individuals in the summer of 2016.” (2)

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has promised an investigation, directing the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, under his purview, to look into the matter. But Mnuchin is currently stonewalling the Congress on the release of tRUMP's tax returns to the relevant committees in clear violation of a 1924 Teapot Dome-era law requiring the Secretary and the IRS to hand over such information.

Questions abound? How much money? To whom were these funds transferred? To what purpose? Were they election-related and part of a conspiracy to subvert the electoral process of this republic? Was this simple money-laundering? And, why were these flagged transactions not reported?

Mueller and his team stood mute in their report on tRUMP's financial dealings as well as those of the Kushner clan; for Mueller had decided to circumscribe his probe to such an extent that the questions of intent were not fully explored. Had they been the financial web of the tRUMP and Kushner enterprises would have been gone over with a fine-tooth comb. There are reasons Disgustus has gone to such lengths to hide his dealings, lengths that have put his tenuous claim to this bastard presidency at serious risk. This latest series of revelations only further underscores the need for a full-fledged impeachment probe.

An Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh

Impeach and Imprison.

_________________

1. Flitter, Emily; McKinley, Jesse; Enrich, David and Fandos, Nicholas. “Trump Records Move 2 Steps Toward Light, Judge Backs Subpoena and Albany Closes In” The New York Times. Thursday, May 23, 2019: Pages A1 & A21. See page A21
2. Ibid.

May 29, 2019: No Intention of Governing, Politics of Vandalism, Public Be Damned.

“Our Caesar Disgustus had no intention of governing”

                 ----from The Quotations of Chairman Joe”

Obamacare would be repealed and replaced with something bigger, better and cheaper “on day one” of his administration. There would be billions spent to rebuild our infrastructure, offering high paying good jobs. Mexico would pay for that great wall....all lies. He had no intention of doing any of it.

Disgustus is a parasite, living off the wealth of the greater society. What he has, he has stolen: from contractors and laborers, from banks and insurance companies, from evading his tax liabilities and passing the cost of government unto others, from laundering the ill-gotten gains of organized crime. He is also no “builder”. His great 'enterprises' have gone bust, and his landmark achievement “tRUMP Tower and other properties are propped up by the sale and lease to shell companies of dubious origin—translated, through money-laundering. And so it should come as no surprise that our infant-in-chief would have no intention, much less no idea, how to do infrastructure.

Disgustus had previously upped the ante by declaring, unprompted, that his campaign promise to spend a trillion dollars on infrastructure would be increased to two trillion. The Democrats called his bluff and, accordingly, a meeting was scheduled last week with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to conclude the deal. The subject of the meeting was funding. Where would the funds come from?

Schumer and Pelosi came prepared with a plan to repeal the worst parts of tRUMP's recent tax bill to raise the money and, confronted with having to chose between the national interest and the national greed, Disgustus had a temper tantrum. As Gail Collins wrote in The New York Times:

“The president walked into the room, declined to take a seat, failed to shake hands with anyone, and announced he was not going to talk about infrastructure while he was under investigation by Democrats.

“Trump then stalked into the Rose Garden, where reporters had been assembled, and announced that everything was ruined because he heard Nancy Pelosi say 'cover-up'.”

Having heard that the Speaker had suggested Disgustus has conducted a 'cover-up', Disgustus stormed into the room and announced that until the Congress stops investigating him, no further business will be conducted—the public interest be damned—and stormed out of the room.

Disgustus had come to the meeting empty-handed. He had no plan, no idea, for this man cannot construct anything. He is a vandal, not a builder. He knows only how to dismantle regulations, re-introduce lead and asbestos into the environment, cancel funding for environmental and scientific research, appoint troglodytes to the federal courts and comfort the comfortable while afflicting the afflicted. Now, confronted with those who know how to get things done in Washington, he lights upon the lamest excuse to quail before the responsibility. And that is the rub, for in the chaos he has finally come out in the open: he has no intention of governing, and will not rise to meet the responsibility of his office. Another impeachable offense.

An Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh

Impeach and Imprison

_______________

1. Collins, Gail. “Trump's Bridges To Nowhere” The New York Times. Thursday, May 23, 2019. Page A29

May 28, 2019: The 'Shitting' President, Town Hall Meeting, Standing Ovation

If our Caesar Disgustus isn't shitting himself, he should be. As noted in a previous post, (1) Republican Justin Amash, representing greater Grand Rapids, Michigan emerged last week as the first elected member of his party to call for impeachment proceedings against our erstwhile authoritarian. Amash joins a rump group of about 40 or so House and Senate Democrats to call for the impeachment of our bastard president as well as over a thousand and counting present and former federal prosecutors who have signed a statement saying that, given the evidence, tRUMP—if he were not the sitting 'president'--would have been indicted, arraigned and put on trial.

The conventional wisdom was that Amash was inviting the wrath of tRUMP's knuckle-dragging constituency who would show up at his next town hall meeting and demand his hide. Amash, unlike representative Huizenga, who misrepresents the lake shore areas of Holland, Grand Haven, Muskegon and outlying areas, is not afraid to meet his constituents. Huizenga, has even canceled town-hall meetings while running for re-election, so out of step has the modern reSCUMlickan party become. Nevertheless the congressman from Grand Rapids convened with his constituents at the DeVos hall and was greeted with a standing ovation. The first question from the audience was introduced by a gentleman who first commended Amash for his courage. The response was another standing ovation.

Oh yes, there were the few tRUMPsters who, predictably incoherent, tried to smear the congressman and protest the innocence of the most corrupt man ever to sit in the presidential chair, but the audience overall was nearly universally supportive.

Amash represents the district formerly held by Gerald Ford and, unlike Ford, readily recognizes criminality and malfeasance and has taken a stand in opposition to it. On may recall, that Gerry was late to the bonfire roasting Richard Nixon and, in the end, pardoned Nixon for his crimes against the people. In any case this district has elected a Democrat only once in living memory, Richard VanderVeen in the wake of Watergate. It took Nixon's crimes and the disgust with Ford's pardon to catapult a Democrat into this seat, so solidly Republican has been the district. That Amash, now the first Republican member of Congress to call for impeachment proceedings against a 'rescumlickan' president be greeted back home with standing ovations should make Disgustus shit himself. The sitting president has become the shitting president.

An Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh”

Impeach and Imprison

________________________

1. See: May 21, 2019: Profile In Courage, Juvenile tRUMPspeak, Mitt

Found Wanting

May 22, 2019: Unintended Consequence, Tragedy Of The Commons, Bane of Civilization

“Artificial intelligence is the bane of civilization, a threat to the republic; tearing at our social fabric it threatens to materially damage our capacity to govern.”

“Beneath the sheen of the new and novel always lurks unintended consequence.”

          ---from The Quotations of Chairman Joe

As noted in previous comments in these columns, technology is never what it pretends to be. Beneath the sheen of the new and novel always lurks unintended consequence. I have previously cited the automobile as an example. Beyond the enticement of travel and freedom, of individual space as opposed to mass transit, there were unintended consequences. Air pollution, urban sprawl, resource depletion, and drive-in theaters—known as 'passion pits'--greatly adding to the number of illegitimate births. In this vein an article on technology, written by Nicholas Christakis, appearing in The Atlantic, warns us that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will rewire us. “For better and for worse, robots will alter humans' capacity for altruism, love, and friendship”. (1) They may also materially damage our capacity to govern ourselves.

The essay examines how our interactions with technology, in this case artificial intelligence, not only changes the way we react to the emerging technologies but the way we interact with each other. While technology can make us more productive it can likewise produce very different outcomes. For instance if robots are made fallible, Christakis tells us, then a sense of camaraderie emerges when the machines are introduced into a group setting. If, however, the robots do not make mistakes the groups working with them under perform because the technology does not get as well integrated into the overall effort.

Indeed, Christakis contends that “adding AI to our social environment can also make us behave less productively and less ethically. In yet another experiment, this one designed to explore how AI might affect the 'tragedy of the commons'--the notion that an individuals' self-centered actions may collectively damage their common interests—we gave several thousand subjects money to use over multiple rounds of an online game. In each round, subjects were told that they could either keep their money or donate some of it or all of it to their neighbors. If they made a donation, we would match it, doubling the money their neighbors received. Early in the game, two-thirds of players acted altruistically. After all, they realized that being generous to their neighbors in one round might prompt their neighbors to be generous to them in the next one, establishing a norm of reciprocity. From a selfish and short-term point of view, however, the best outcome would be to keep your own money and receive money from your neighbors. In this experiment, we found that by adding just a few bots (posing as human players) that behaved in a selfish, free-riding way, we could drive the group to behave similarly. Eventually, the human players ceased cooperating altogether. The bots had converted a group of generous people into selfish jerks.” (2)

Reading this, I immediately realized that this is what the Rooskies have done, through weaponizing our emerging technologies, to our elections. Christakis continues:

“Let's pause to contemplate the implications of this finding. Cooperation is a key feature of our species, essential for social life. And trust and generosity are crucial in differentiating successful groups from unsuccessful ones. If everyone pitches in and sacrifices in order to help the group, everyone should benefit. When this behavior breaks down, however, the very notion of a public good disappears, and everyone suffers. The fact that AI might meaningfully reduce our ability to work together is extremely concerning. ” (3)

Like the “killer bees” and plastics, another experiment that 'jumped the shark' and hemorrhaged from the laboratory into the environment, AI has also escaped the laboratory. The Russians, it is now apparent, are far ahead of the curve. “A study examining 5.7 million Twitter users in the run-up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election found that trolling and malicious Russian accounts—including ones operated by bots—were regularly retweeted in a similar manner to other unmalicious accounts, influencing conservative users particularly strongly. By taking advantage of humans' cooperative nature and our interest in teaching one another—both features of the social suite—the bots affected even humans with whom they did not interact directly, helping to polarize the country's electorate.” (4)

AI may, in the end, be the bane of civilization joining a host of forces—overcrowding, conservatism, anti-social media—that serve to further isolate and atomize society, tearing asunder the social fabric. Under these circumstances a constitutional crisis emerges as it becomes more and more difficult to form a more perfect union. The union disintegrates because it's prime purpose—the prime directive, so to speak, laid out in the preamble to the Constitution—no longer holds.

“An Br'er Putin, he jus laugh and laugh”

Impeach and Imprison

___________

1. Christakis, Nicholas A. “How AI Will Rewire Us” The Atlantic Magazine Vol. 323-No. 3 April 2019. Pp 10-13.
2. Ibid. page 11
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid. page 12

May 21, 2019: Profile In Courage, Juvenile tRUMPspeak, Mitt Found Wanting

I am not a supporter of Justin Amash. Amash is a Teabagger, one of the founding members of that unholy lot, who has voted to strip millions of their health coverage and otherwise savage the “safety-net”. He has also supported Paul Ryan over the years in obstructing everything former President Obama tried to accomplish. He has been misrepresenting his district for nearly a decade now.

Amash sits in the seat once occupied by former President Gerald Ford who rose to party leadership misrepresenting, in turn, the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan and its environs. Ford, however, knew compromise, Ford could reach across the isle. Ford could work to get things done. Not so, the troglodytes that now control the Republican caucus.

But there comes a time when even the dullest knife in the drawer cuts deeply and last weekend was one of those times. Amash, taking to 'twitter' announced that the time had come to begin impeachment proceedings against Caesar Disgustus. Since he is the first Republican member of either house of Congress, to reach these crossroads his act must be seen for what it is: a profile in courage.

He knows that he has now earned the wrath of the Don-Almighty, who promptly took to 'tweeting' that Amash is a 'loser', --juvenile tRUMPspeak meaning disapproval—adding that he was only doing it for the publicity. I'm not convinced.

Indeed, immediately a challenger came forth swearing obeisance to Disgustus in hopes of upending Amash in the coming primaries. Amash can count on Disgustus coming to his home city and raising the roof at the VanSCANDAL arena as he whips up opposition into a fevered frenzy. But outside, in the streets, city, and villages I'm not so sure that the assault on Amash will resonate. One has only to recall that Disgustus opposed Roy Moore in the Alabama Senate primary and Moore won. Then he endorsed Moore in the general election and Moore lost. There are other examples, the Virginia governor's race among them. The shadow that Disgustus casts over the political landscape appears at times to be only as long as his fingers, which no amount of photo-shopping will rectify.

But rumor has it that Amash may seek the Libertarian nomination for President, in which case a primary challenger is pointless. Amash is positioned, therefore, to strip support from Disgustus in a must-win state and has the gravitas to do much better than previous Libertarians nationwide. The Libertarian Party will be, as in 2016, on the ballot in all 50 states.

This is what scares the shit out of Disgustus. Amash could well play the roll of Ross Perot and reduce the support of our erstwhile 'Caesar' will down into the high '30's, territory that could well mean a 50 state Democratic sweep. And so, the character assassination—the only thing Disgustus knows how to do—begins in earnest.

Although I oppose everything Amash stands for, I respect Amash for his courage and his principled stand. It will cost him politically and make him a pariah in his caucus. But it is the right thing to do. For months now rumors have been swirling that behind closed doors many—the extent is never certain—Republicans privately loathe tRUMP seeing him as the death-knell of the Party. How many of Justin's colleagues will likewise come out of the closet remains to be seen. Mitt Romney, who's father would be flailing tRUMP, equivocated, issuing a nonsensical response to Amash and, by comparison, is now found wanting. Mitt is such a disappointment.

But Amash did have some effect for, however narrowly, the calls to begin impeachment proceedings are now bipartisan and pressure is mounting on Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic House leadership to move. Only time will tell if this is the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end for Caesar Disgustus.

An Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh

Impeach and Imprison.

May 20, 2019: Desperate Don, Tsunami of Untruths, Dread and Trepidation

The Washington Post has, since 2016, been keeping a running tab on the number of verifiable lies told by our Caesar Disgustus. Last month, the Post announced that our fibber-in-chief has let out over 10,000 stinkers a trend that is on the rise.

You see, writes Charles Blow in The New York Times, “(T)rump lies about everything and for every reason. He lies to brag. He lies to deflect. He lies to inflate. He lies to defame. He lies to praise. He sometimes lies just for the sport of it.”

“He is being trained, right before our eyes, to see that there is no cost for this deceit among the people who support him.

“He can lie at a rally, right to their faces, and they will still cheer. He can lie in public proclamations, and the Republican cowards in Congress will find a way to defend, rationalize or forgive it.

“When a dyed-in-the-wool thief realizes that there are no consequences for theft, everything not nailed down will go missing. The same is true of the liar: When there is no consequence the deceiver is unbound and unashamed.” (1)

That he has never suffered consequence, in some measure, explains the utter shamelessness of the man. His daddy's millions have always been there to protect him. Until recently....

But there are times, Blow contends, that the lies of our Caesar Disgustus betrays vulnerability, and that is “when he lies out of desperation, out of the fear of being found out, blamed, reprimanded, possibly even abandoned.” These, say Blow, are the moments we can relish.

“In those moments, at least when he makes a public appearance in conjunction, his eyes are stretched wide and his face flush. He looks defensive and nervous. The above-it-all posture of imperviousness vanishes, and he is reduced to the most mortal of beings, on for whom, like the rest of us, the truth still has purchase and power...It is in those moments, that Trump is most human and our ire toward this liar is most vindicated and validated.” (2)

Blow points to the news conference at tRUMP Tower in the wake of Charlottesville, and his “his deer-in-the-headlights response to a question put to him on Air Force One about hush payment to a porn star.

“It is in the police-interrogation-room-like correction that he didn't mean to side with Russia—and deny our intelligence community—while standing next to Vladimir Putin in Helsinki.

“In all those moments he simply reeks of dread and trepidation. In those moments, we are reminded that Trump knows what other thinking people know: In a world not blinded and numbed by racial tribalism, demographic fears and cultural panic, these issues that barely nick him would cut him smooth and deep.

“It is in those moments that we are reminded of what normal felt like, when an apology or explanation was compelled, and politicians confront their foibles with some degree of contrition.

“Trump knows nothing of contrition, but take his moments of desperation as proof that the world has not completely gone mad, that sin still has the ability to convict.” (3)

The tragedy that is Donald J. tRUMP has roots that span his lifetime. Perhaps it was the approbation of his parents who abandoned him by sending him into exile to a military academy. In any case he has, deep in his psyche, a controlling distrust of authority joined with an overweening need to gain its approval. This is a toxic mix leading, by degrees, to the creation of an obscenely grotesque facade. A facade made of whole cloth; a facade born of deceit and maintained by lies. The question is, will the “people” hold him to account and convict?

The problem is that while sin may still have the ability to convict we have on our hands a sociopath that does not recognize sin and is surrounding himself with sycophants who parrot the mantra. It isn't enough for right-thinking people to know in their hearts that he is guilty. Disgustus must face consequence with the appropriate constitutional and legal retributions. The republic hangs in the balance.

An Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh

Impeach and Imprison.

_________________

1. Blow, Charles M. “An Ode to Desperate Don” The New York Times. Monday, May 20, 2019. Page A27
2. Ibid
3. Ibid

May 19, 2019: Devotion to Untrue, Credulity and Delusion, Down the Rabbit-hole

“How widespread is this promiscuous devotion to the untrue?”, asked Kurt Andersen, writing in The Atlantic Magazine. “How many Americans now inhabit alternate realities? Any given survey of beliefs is only a ketch of what people in general really think. But reams of survey research from the past 20 years reveal a rough, useful census of American credulity and delusion. By my reckoning, the solidly reality-based are a minority, maybe a third of us but almost certainly fewer than half. Only a third of us, for instance, don't believe that the tale of creation in Genesis is the word of God. Only a third strongly disbelieve in telepathy and ghosts. Two-thirds of Americans believe that 'angels and demons are active in the world.' More than half say they're absolutely certain heaven exists, and just as many are sure of the existence of a personal God—not a vague force or universal spirit or higher power, but some guy. A third of us believe not only that global warming is no big deal but that it's a hoax perpetrated by scientists, the government, and journalists. A third believe that our earliest ancestors were humans just like us; that the government has, in league with the pharmaceutical industry, hidden evidence of natural cancer cures; that extraterrestrials have visited or are visiting Earth. Almost a quarter believe that vaccines cause autism, and that Donald Trump won the popular vote in 2016. A quarter believe that our previous president maybe or definitely was (or is?) the anti-Christ. According to a survey by Public Policy Polling, 15 percent believe that the 'media or the government adds secret mind-controlling technology to television broadcast signals,' and another 15 percent think that's possible. Remarkably, the same fraction, or maybe less, believes that the Bible consists mainly of legends and fables—the same proportion that believes U.S. officials were complicit in the 9/11 attacks.” (1)

How did we get here? How did it come to this? How did America fall down this rabbit-hole into “fantasyland”.

Andersen traces the origins of our national madness to several sources, but generally to the 1960's and specifically to the Esalen Institute. Esalen, founded by two Stanford University psychology graduates, at Big Sur overlooking the Pacific Ocean became the epicenter of the “youth rebellion”.

“Esalen is a mother church of a new American religion for people who think they don't like churches or religions but who still want to believe in the supernatural. The institute wholly reinvented psychology, medicine, and philosophy, driven by a suspicion of science and reason and an embrace of magical thinking (also: massage, hot baths, sex, and sex in hot baths). It was the headquarters for a new religion of no religion, and for 'science' containing next to no science.” (2)

The institute put emphasis on shamanistic traditions, mostly Asian but with a smattering of American Indian mixed with the flotsam and jetsam of other cultures. “Invisible energies, past lives, astral projections, whatever—the more exotic and wondrous and unfalsifiable, the better.” (3)

Like Mormonism, whose founder received his revelations quickly on the heels of having spent time in the slammer for fraud, one of the co-founders of Esalen had only recently emerged from a private psychiatric hospital having suffered a nervous breakdown. (4) Accordingly, “(H)is new institute embraced the radical notion that psychosis and other mental illnesses were labels imposed by the straight world on eccentrics and visionaries, that they were primary tools of coercion and control”, a tenet given currency in a novel and then by Hollywood in the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Soon, 'authorities' arose within the psychiatric profession publishing books like Thomas Szasz declaring that mental illness is a myth, “a theory not a fact”, “now the universal bottom-line argument for anyone—from creationists to climate-change deniers to anti-vaccine hysterics—who prefers to disregard science in favor of his own beliefs” (5)

America has always been a haven for cooks and crack-pots, a catch-basin for the flotsam and jetsam, a sanctuary for the insane and the criminally insane of those put to sea by other cultures. One has only to re-read Governor Oglethorpe's complaints to the crown about the mother country emptying its “jakes”, a colonial term for privy or outhouse, upon our shores. Accordingly, America has always been vulnerable to fits of madness. The “Great Awakening”, the first of the great religious revivals (and there would be many more), the “Palmer Raids” the McCarthy Era and other “red' scares. The rise and then fall of the KKK. This, however, is of a magnitude on an entirely different scale. Yes Esalen had it's awful impact whose influence is still reverberating through the universities, newsrooms and corridors of power, but it had some help along the way.

As Andersen points out, the assassination of JFK and it's aftermath contributed mightily to the paranoia of the country spawning whole industries of conspiracy, further feeding paranoia. The Vietnam war further eroded confidence in governance and 'expertise' a trend. By the end of the decade millions were reading a book or attending a film in which it was earnestly held that the great monolithic cultures hadn't built those monuments—Stone Henge, the Pyramids, but they were instead the handiwork of ancient aliens from outer space. It would be laughable if it weren't so serious. This nonsense reververates down the decades, for today one can tune to YouTube and view “documentaries” telling us that the pyramids were some kind of ancient battery or power station. No evidence has yet been unearthed, no power lines, no electric motor casings, no drawings showing static or any other form of electricity emerging from these structures. No matter, the thesis is pressed earnestly with no argument attempting to render readily apparent the obvious. The height of the madness, perhaps, was reached when thousands gathered in D.C. To protest the war during which they gathered all around and attempted to 'levitate' the Pentagon in order to cast out the demons. That the building didn't move matters not, for the need to believe...believe anything....is the prime directive, reason and universal observation be damned.

The sixties didn't invent this of course. We have a long tradition, in human experience, of embracing fantasy, believing falsehoods. For every public school there is a smaller private one in which the exact opposite is being taught. This means that there has always been a significant minority in la-la land. But the rough balance between the sane and the insane, between reason and madness, has been upended in recent decades, now to the point where we have actors playing roles as leaders and where facts are challenged by alternate facts, the universe by an alternate counterfeit. In such a cosmos the citizen alone is left to decide what is true. Truth not as objective reality but subjective opinion. If truth is subjective than opinion replaces judgment.

The conservative philosopher Edmund Burke was also a member of Parliament. After an energetic exchange with one of his constituents he replied that “If I were to sacrifice my judgment for your opinion, sir, I would not be serving this constituency well.” This is a basic principle of representative governance, judgment must trump opinion. Facts do matter.

This country was founded by disciples of the Enlightenment, ardent adherents of Voltaire and Diderot, men who believed in the primacy of reason over emotion; of fact over fiction; of discernible, objective, measurable reality over myth; of the natural over the supernatural. Our republic was founded upon these principles and depend upon them for its survival.

An Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh

Impeach and Imprison

_____________

1. Andersen, Kurt. “How America Lost Its Mind” The Atlantic Magazine Vol. 320. No.2. September 2017. Pages 76-91. See pages 78-79.
2. Ibid page 80
3. Ibid
4. Ibid

May 18, 2019: American Hubris, End of History, Manifest Destiny.

The myopia of the hedgehog underscores the hubris that permeates American society. Nowhere is that more obvious than the drivel daily spouted by the elites that “we will be greeted as liberators” whenever we wage war. The sentiment is probably best expressed in “ the famous thesis of Francis Fukuyama that there was only one historical road to follow.” That of aping the West in general and the United States in particular, naturally.

“What we may be witnessing is not just the passing of a particular period of postwar history,” he opined, “but the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human development”. (1)

We learned from the failed prognostications of Karl Marx, another hedgehog who extrapolated his one obsession upon the universe, that history does not end. In any case, as James Baldwin once noted, “If Eden ever existed, it certainly never existed here.” (2) So there is no reason on earth to demand that the rest of the world replicate our experience; nor should it.

Indeed, hubris runs rampant, finding representation in both political parties. From Dick Cheney ignorantly claiming that we will be welcome as liberators in Baghdad, to Bill Clinton explaining why China's admission into the World Trade Organization would translate into “political liberalization. This hubris is shared by George W. Bush with Hillary Clinton going a step further. “According to her, by persisting with Communist Party rule, the Chinese 'are trying to stop history, which is a fool's errand. They cannot do it. But they're going to hold it off as long as possible”.

“It is worth considering the conviction of American policymakers that they could so confidently dispense political prescriptions to China”, writes Kishore Mahbubani in Harper's Magazine. “No other empire, of course, has accumulated as much economic, political, and military power as the United States has. Yet, it has still been less than 250 years since the Declaration of Independence was signed, in 1776. China, by contrast, is considerably older, and the Chinese people have learned from several thousand years of history that they suffer most when the central government is weak and divided, as it was for almost a century after the Opium War of 1842, when the country was ravaged by foreign invasions, civil wars, famines, and much else besides. Since, 1978, China has lifted 800 million people out of poverty and created the largest middle class in the world.” (3)

Indeed, the Chinese remember the West insisting on free trade as a justification for the Opium War as well as the later Boxer Rebellion. Much of the world, Asia, India, Africa, Latin America have entirely different experiences with Western ideologies, being on the receiving end of Western imperialism. That we would sanitize the historical record of the slave and drug trades, the genocide in the Congo and Australia and North America betrays the fraud and dims the luster of our shining light; our City Upon The Hill.

Political leaders, and the chattering class that molds public opinion, would view the world as a choice between the enlightened path of our liberal democratic tradition and authoritarian failure. But, observes Mahbubani, “To neutral observers, however, it could just as easily be seen as a choice between a plutocracy in the United States, where major public policy decisions end up favoring the rich over the masses, and a meritocracy in China, where major pubic policy decisions made by officials chosen by Party elites on the basis of ability and performance have resulted in such a striking alleviation of poverty.” (4)

I'm not suggesting that change in the regime is not possible, nor is it undesirable. What I am criticizing is the hubris that the economic and political systems should be ours to determine in the first place. China isn't the only case in point. With the fall of the old Soviet Union the West, prodded by idiotology instead of careful consideration of Russia's political, social and economic traditions, demanded that Moscow adopt a stark model of capitalism that even most of the West finds repugnant. The result was wholly predictable. Skyrocketing inflation, unemployment, the savaging of the working class, leading to the present kleptocracy. And, because they failed to closely hew to their assigned tasks, retribution followed further alienating what could have been a serious rapprochement with Moscow and the integration of the Russian Federation into the Western community. American hubris has its costs, the blow-back from which echoes down to Brexit, the 2016 American elections and beyond.

John Bolton, the current National Security adviser to our present Caesar is, perhaps, the quintessential example of American Hubris, scouring the planet for places wherein he can wage war in order to shape the world in our image. As in Iraq, where the government had the temerity to nationalize the oil fields, Bolton is now rumbling about possible military action in Venezuela in order to topple the government and put an end to Hugo Chavez' revolution. Bolton is also leading the charge against Iran whose violations of the multilateral nuclear agreement are not to be found. Nevertheless, the United States withdrew from the agreement, as the ReSCUMlickan senators promised we would—and this was before tRUMP. One expects to hear Bolton, any day now, telling the country that we will be welcome as liberators when we enter Tehran.

This is what happens when you are taught in school that we are simply realizing our manifest destiny; that the hand of providence guides our every move; that American Exceptionalism justifies our every atrocity. This is Hubris.

An Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh

Impeach and Imprison.

______________

1. Op. Cit, see previous post, May 15, 2017. Reference to an article by Kishore Mahbubani. “What China Threat/” in Harper's Magazine Page 40
2. Op. Cit. See previous posts.
3. Mahbubani, Page 40
4. Ibid. Page 40

May 17, 2019: Expert Textpert, Impervious to Argument, Hedgehogs and Foxes

“Expert, textpert choking smokers

don't you think the joker

laughs at you?

See how they smile

like pigs in a sty

see how they snide

I'm crying

Semolina Pilchard climbing up the Eiffel Tower

elementary penguin singing Hare Krishna

man, you should have seen them

kicking Edgar Allen Poe.”

                 ----John Lennon “I Am The Walrus”

David Epstein, in a recent article published in The Atlantic Magazine, reports on “The peculiar blindness of experts.” (1) The article is about why generalists triumph in a specialized world and is adapted from a book written by Epstein on the subject. In it he convincingly demonstrates that “credentialed authorities are comically bad a predicting the future. But reliable forecasting is still possible.

Epstein begins his essay highlighting the much publicized feud between Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich, he of The Population Bomb fame and economist Julian Simon in the 1980's. After reviewing Ehrlich's atrocious record of prognostications, he turns to Simon who countered that more people meant more ideas and that the world is much more complex than Ehrlich would have us believe, meaning that the possibilities of avoiding ecological disaster are much greater than simply calculating the consequence of exponential population growth against a rather fixed food supply. In fact, Epstein, points out, both men were wildly wrong but, in their error, both men—like Donald J. tRUMP—doubled down on the error.

The men agreed on a bet on predicting five commodity prices over a ten year period as a substitute for population growth. Ehrlich famously lost the bet but “When economists later examined metal prices for every 10 year window from 1900 to 2008, during which time the world population had quadrupled, they saw that Ehrlich would have won the bet 62 per cent of the time. The catch: Commodity prices are a poor gauge of population effects, particularly over a single decade. The variable that both men were certain would vindicate their worldviews actually had little to do with those views... Yet both men dug in.” (2)

For instance, “Ehrlich's starvation predictions were almost comically bad. And yet, the very same year he conceded the bet, Ehrlich doubled down in another book, with another prediction that would prove untrue: Sure, his timeline had been a little off, he wrote, but 'now the population bomb has detonated.'

Despite one erroneous prediction after another, Ehrlich amassed an enormous following and received prestigious awards. Simon, meanwhile became a standard-bearer for scholars who felt that Ehrlich had ignored economic principles. The kind of excessive regulations Ehrlich advocated, the Simon camp argued, would quell the very innovation that had delivered humanity from catastrophe. Both men became luminaries in their respective domains. Both were mistaken.” (3)

Simon was right, Epstein writes, in that human ingenuity had increased food production to unexpected levels but “wrong in claiming that improvements in air and water quality validated his theories. Ironically, those improvements were bolstered through regulations pressed by Ehrlich and others.” (4)

Epstein tells us that in 1984 a study was commissioned by the National Research Council under the direction of Philip E. Tetlock then, at age 30, the youngest member of the Council's committee on American-Soviet relations. Tetlock had noticed that the experts on the committee not only engaged in animated arguments that wildly contradicted one another but, their views having long since become ossified, they became “impervious to counterarguments” (5) Sound familiar?

“Tetlock decided to put expert political and economic predictions to the test. With the Cold War in full swing, he collected forecasts from 284 highly educated experts who averaged more than 12 years of experience in their specialties. To ensure that the predictions were concrete, experts had to give specific probabilities of future events. Tetlock had to collect enough predictions that he could separate lucking and unlucky streaks from true skill. The project lasted 20 years, and comprised 82,361 probability estimates about the future.

The result: The experts were, by and large, horrific forecasters. Their areas of specialty, years of experience, and (for some) access to classified information made no difference. They were bad at short-term forecasting and bad at long-term forecasting. They were bad at forecasting in every domain. When experts declared that future events were impossible or nearly impossible, 15 percent of them occurred nonetheless. When they declared events to be a sure thing, more than one-quarter of them failed to transpire.” (6)

The failure of the nation's intelligence community to predict the fall of the Soviet Union, or former CIA Director George Tenet's famous Slam-Dunk proclamation regarding WMD's in Iraq leap immediately to mind. There have been many, many others.

But a subgroup of scholars did much better on the tests. “Unlike Ehrlich and Simon, they were not vested in a single discipline. They took from each argument and integrated apparently contradictory world-views...The integrators outperformed their colleagues in pretty much every way, but especially trounced them on long-term predictions. Eventually, Tetlock bestowed nicknames (borrowed from the philosopher Isaiah Berlin) on the experts he'd observed: The highly specialized hedgehogs knew 'one big thing,' while the integrator foxes knew 'many little things'. (7)

Hedgehogs, like Ehrlich and Simon, keep their noses close to the ground. They know a lot about few things and are prone to extrapolating this knowledge unto the world, if not the universe. Looking through the lens of specialty, they lose peripheral vision. Foxes, in contrast, struggle to maintain their peripheral vision by “accepting ambiguity and contradiction” and by listening to the arguments from many points of view and modifying their conclusions accordingly. Confronted with unforeseen outcomes foxes tend to adjust, hedgehogs dig in, doubling down on error.

The elites that run any large enterprise suffers from Hedgehog syndrome, a malady that permeates all too many institutions. Experts are drawn from the same schools, from the same 'stink-tanks', from the supporting industries. They gather together, form committees and a certain group-think takes command, severely limiting viable options. It is a malady any manager of any enterprise worth its salt confronts.

The antidote is, of course, to seek generalists, liberal arts graduates and curmudgeons of assorted stripes and introduce them into the mix, perhaps make them dominant—since hedgehogs will simply dismiss and retrench.

But it is one thing to understand the limits of expertise. It is quite another to replace them with an ethic of ignorance. The disdain of Caesar Disgustus for the advice of 'experts' is well known and, in a measure, justified. From 'Ole Two-Cows' famous reliance on his gut reaction, to the breathtaking ignorance that permeates the present ReSCUMlickan incarnations conservatives have elevated those who hold expertise in contempt. But it is one thing to supplant or replace the hedgehog with the fox, it is another to replace the hedgehog with a king-hell rat.

Man, you should have seen them kicking Edgar Allen Poe.

“An Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh

Impeach and Imprison.

_______________

1. Epstein, David. “The Peculiar Blindness of Experts” The Atlantic Vol. 323 No. 5, June 2019
   Pages 20-22.
2. Ibid pp 20-21
3. Ibid page 21
4. Ibid
5. Ibid
6. Ibid
7. Ibid. page 22

May 16, 2019: Beaten Cur, Sound and Fury, Under Every Bed

Disgustus slinks off into a corner, tail between his legs, whimpering the whelp of a beaten cur. After imposing, with great braggadocio, tariffs against products—in this case aluminum and steel—from our closest allies Mexico and Canada, Disgustus announced our withdrawal from the North America Free Trade Agreements (NAFTA), pending renegotiation. This week, after concluding a new agreement that critics have dubbed NAFTA 1.1, he announced that the two countries no longer posed a threat to national security and lifted the tariffs.

As usual our Disgustus, returning from Ottawa with little to show, is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. It is more than likely that pressure from American farmers who are suffering most from the trade wars, as well as what is left of our heavy industries—not to mention the stock-jobbers on Wall Street—are bringing pressure to bear upon the collective ignorance presently in residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

It would be laughable if it weren't so serious, for Disgustus has surrounded himself with advisers that have, arguably, only a marginally better understanding of the issues than he. Narcissism is a severely limiting disorder for it prevents those suffering from the mental disease from seeking those with greater knowledge or ability. If one must be Mr. Know-It-All, then one must surround oneself with those who know it less. Enter Lawrence Kudlow, late of Fox News as his newly appointed economics adviser; and top trade adviser Peter Navarro discovered on Amazon as Jared Kushner, tasked with finding a suitable authority on the subject went surfing the internet to find someone who agrees with Disgustus on the subject.

You see, “Virtually no well-known mainstream economist agrees with Trump, or his top trade adviser Peter Navarro and trade representative Robert Lighthizer, that America's trade deficits are the result of unfair practices by other countries. Martin Feldstein, the former chairman of Ronald Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers, has pointed out that America's global trade deficit is due to the fact that its consumption outweighs its domestic production. Imposing tariffs on low-cost Chinese goods [for example] will not rectify this structural feature, but will serve only to make many essential goods less affordable to ordinary Americans.” (1)

That's right, as many economists have been quick to point out, tariffs are a tax upon the citizens of the United States, not upon the producing countries and only work if there are domestic industries standing idle waiting to meet the demand. The fact that these industries—machine tool, textiles and garments, toys, auto parts, electronics...ad nauseum—have been packed up and shipped out of the country is lost on these fools. And so while China, for instance, finds new suppliers for soybeans and other American products. American retailers must now scour the globe to find new foreign producers not subject to punitive tariffs.

This, by degrees, leads to reports this week that two Brazilian nationals, the Batista Brothers, who are convicted felons and cannot leave their own country, have received $62 million in U.S. farm subsides. They run a multi-national agricultural enterprise and evidently qualify for part of tRUMP's bail-out campaign as he struggles to shore up support in places like Iowa and Wisconsin, so crucial to any hope of re-election.

You see, none of this means anything to our Caesar Disgustus and his knuckle-dragging minions who while seizing upon bumper-sticker slogans and simplistic solutions, appeal to the xenophobic paranoid narcissism that has long lurked just beneath the veneer of American exceptionalism.

Such is the madness coursing through the corridors of power, for tRUMP and those who surround him understand none of this, understand nothing and find themselves searching for demons lurking behind every door, under every bed. This is what happens when simplicity is imposed upon complexity; when willful ignorance is substituted for determined understanding.

An' Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh

Impeach and Imprison

__________________

1. Mahbubani, Kishore. “What China Threat? How the United States and China can avoid war”. Harper's Magazine. Vol. 338 No. 2025. February 2019. Page 42

May 15, 2019: Scion of Greed, Kleptocracy At Work, The Jolly Roger

When it comes to naming the scion of greed the countenance of one snot-nosed little son-of-a-bitch named Martin Shkreli leaps immediately to mind. One may recall that in 2015 as head of Turing Pharmaceuticals he acquired Daraprim. “The drug's most prominent use as of late 2015 was as an anti-malarial and antiparasitic, in conjunction with leucovorin and sulfadiazine to treat patients with AIDS-related and AIDS-unrelated toxoplasmosis...The price of a dose of the drug in the U.S. market increased from US $13.50 to US $750. per pill, overnight, a factor of 56” (1)

This outraged followed previous behaviors.

“In May 2014, Shkreli had difficulty accessing public markets for capital, but received a $4 million series A funding round and a PIPE deal valued at $10 million underwritten by Roth Capital Partners. After obtaining the financing, Shkreli was able to acquire rights to market tiopronin (brand name, Thiola) a drug used to treat the rare disease cystinuria and Chenodal and subsequently raise the price of each drug substantially, with Thiola subsequently being marked up about 20 fold, from $1.50 to $30 per pill (patients must take 10 to 15 pills a day), and Chenodal about five fold. Retrophin did not lower the price of these drugs after Shkreli's departure.” (2)

There are other examples. He was hauled before Congress but refused to answer any questions other than confirm his name.  After receiving a tongue-lashing from outraged Democrats (the ReSCUMlickans were in control of the body), Shkreli was released to quickly return to rapine and plunder.

The real outrage is that he was finally sent off to prison...but for securities fraud! Yes, you can pluner the public but by god the capitalist is sacrosanct. Shkreli had finally gone too far—committed the capital sin—ripping off the stockholders.  In America, you can put the health of millions at risk but by god you don't mess with shareholders.

This is the state of the American health care system. I bring this up because this week yet another outrage was brought to our attention the editors of The New York Times.

“At first blush,” wrote the editors, “the news that Gilead—the company that makes Truvada, the medication that prevents H.I.V. infection—will donate enough of the drug to treat 200,000 patients a year through 2030 seems like unequivocally good news. Some 40,000 Americans are newly infected with H.I.V. Every year. Reducing that transmission rate is the key to eradicating the virus in the United States...

“But, as drug policy experts regularly note, such donations have a long history of doing more for drug makers than for patients.” (3)

Indeed as the Times points out, the tax breaks for the donation will amount to an estimated $1 billion on a product that costs around $10 million to produce. (4) So much for enlightened self-interest or disinterested benevolence.

“A month's supply of Truvada costs roughly $6 to make and sells for more than $1,600 in the United States, according to the PrEP for All Collaboration, an advocacy group...Owing partly to those prices, only about 18 percent of the million or so at-risk Americans who need the drug have access to it, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation...

“...As the Washington Post has reported, Truvada was developed largely with taxpayer dollars. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention holds a patent on the medication, and the Justice Department is investigating whether the company owes the federal government back royalties on the patent, which experts say could amount to as much as $1 billion...

“Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services have resisted calls to sue the company for those royalties, saying that such a lawsuit would be expensive and time-consuming and would ultimately not make much of a dent in the drug's price. They're probably right. But the prospect of such a lawsuit should have given the government considerable leverage in its negotiations with Gilead.

“Mr. Trump appears to have used that leverage poorly. Regardless of how much access to the drug is increased by the new donation, most Americans who need Truvada will still be charged thousands of dollars a year for the drug, which citizens of most other countries get for a small fraction of that price. Those other countries made no investment in the development of Truvada, but most have access to generic versions of it. Gilead has managed to keep its rivals from introducing generics to the American market through a combination of lawsuits and private deals with would-be competitors.” (5)

It is evidently lost on the Department of Justice that making deals with would-be competitors in order to restrict access is price-fixing and a violation of anti-trust laws.

Clearly Disgustus, who had pledged to eradicate H.I.V., is no negotiator. Not only did the administration fail to bring legal action on the patent rights, but the government has failed to prosecute Gilead on charges of price-fixing. Disgustus didn't even employ the threat of such action in order to bring compliance.

The whole system is outrageous. This is what happens when profit governs the nation's health care system.  This is what happens when the government fails to protect the people by not enforcing laws long on the books against price-fixing.  This is what happens when Capital is allowed to form cartels controlling the marketplaces in the pharmaceutical, insurance and medical industries.   Here is yet another example of a product developed at public universities, at public expense, the patent for which is somehow found under the control of Corporate America. Why the people, who paid for the creation of this product, are not reaping the rewards is a national outrage. Here is yet another example of how we allow corporate greed not only plunder the marketplace but the public domain as well. The Kleptocracy at work, with the great kleptocrat sitting on the throne, overseeing his den of thieves. The ship of state has taken down the Grand 'Ole Flag and has run up the Jolly Roger.

An Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh

Impeach and Imprison.

_________________

1. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Shkreli
2. Ibid
3. Editors. “Gilead's Gift Horse” The New York Times. Tuesday, May 14, 2019. Page A22
4. Ibid
5. Ibid

May 14, 2019: Lots of Piggies, Dirty Little Secret, Enter The tRUMPs

“Everywhere there's lots of piggies

living piggy lives

you can see them out for dinner

with their piggy wives

clutching forks and knives

to eat their bacon”

              ----George Harrison “Piggies”

When one thinks of tax havens one conjures images of the Cayman Islands, Switzerland or, perhaps, Ireland. But the biggest tax haven in the world is the United States, where “there is 'little appetite' for helping foreign governments retrieve money laundered within its borders”. Indeed, bowing to pressure from the banking industry, the United States stands alone in refusing to join an agreement forged by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development requiring banks to “report foreign accounts to the tax authorities in the account holders' home country”. (1) As a result, Franklin Foer, writes in The Atlantic:

“This obstinacy stood to subvert everything the country had done to lead the fight against dirty money: while the U.S. can ask almost any other nation's banks for financial information about American citizens, it has no obligation to provide other countries with the same. 'The United States had bullied the rest of the world into scrapping financial secrecy...but hadn't applied the same standards to itself.' (2) A Zurich-based lawyer vividly spelled out the consequences to “Bloomberg” 'How ironic—no, how perverse—that the USA, which has been so sanctimonious in its condemnation of Swiss banks, has become the banking secrecy jurisdiction du jour...That 'giant sucking sound' you hear? It is the sound of money rushing to the USA.” (3)

In 2010 when “USB admitted to hiding 20 billion in American money” the problem became to big to ignore, almost, anyway. Congress moved to pass the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), wherein foreign banks cannot hold American cash without notifying the IRS—failure to comply risks hefty fines. Congress did nothing, however to close the loophole in the Patriot Act dealing with foreign money finding a haven here.

“Here was anti-corruption leadership at work—and U.S. waffling on display”, writes Foer. “According to one powerful strain of American exceptionalism, the nation boasts superior financial hygiene and a bedrock culture of good government. Indeed, the U.S. government has devoted more attention to money laundering than perhaps any other nation on the planet. But the bar isn't very high, and the vigilance has its limits. In 2011, the Obama administration sought to collect more information about foreigners' bank accounts and to share it with the relevant home countries. But banks—along with their lobbyists and intellectual mouthpieces—worked furiously to prevent the expansion .“ (4)

The closest the nation has come to real regulation was embodied in The Patriot Act, legislation following the attacks on 9/11. Banks are now required to report suspicious activity, suspicious money transferred from abroad. And Banks face serious criminal charges for ”failing to establish sufficient safeguards against the flow of corrupt cash”. (5)

But there is a catch, there is always a catch. “Every House district in the country has real estate, and lobbyists for that business had pleaded for relief from the PATRIOT Act's monitoring of dubious foreign transactions. They all but conjured up images of suburban moms staking FOR SALE signs on lawns, ill-equipped to vet every buyer. And they persuaded Congress to grant the industry a temporary exemption from having to enforce the new law.

“The exemption was a gaping loophole—and an extraordinary growth opportunity for high-end real estate. For all the new fastidiousness of the financial system, foreigners could still buy penthouse apartments or mansions anonymously and with ease, by hiding behind shell companies set up in states such as Delaware and Nevada. Those states, along with a few others, had turned the registration of shell companies into a hugely lucrative racket—and it was stunningly simple to arrange such a Potemkin front on behalf of a dictator, a drug dealer, or an oligarch. According to Global Witness, a London-based anti-corruption NGO founded in 1993, procuring a library card requires more identification in many states than does creating an anonymous shell company”. (6)

The dirty little secret is that the United States has long been a haven for money-laundering and recent developments in the explosion of organized crime—particularly foreign organized crime has made New York, along with Los Angeles and Miami cesspools for money laundering. This is because, like London and elsewhere, high-end properties purchased by shell companies are the preferred avenues for skirting the reporting requirements and not only keeping the source of the money hidden from view but legitimizing future transactions—thus 'cleaning or laundering the money' by future sale of the properties.

All of this is known. What is telling about Foer's report is the link between these real estate transactions and the wholesale plundering of the Russian Federation by the Russian oligarchy. What happened in Russia after the fall of Communism was plunder on an unprecedented scale. “When Berkeley economist Gabriel Zucman studied the problem in 2015, he found that 52 percent of Russia's wealth resided outside the country.

“The collapse of communism in the other post-Soviet states, along with China's turn toward capitalism, only added to the kleptocratic fortunes that were hustled abroad for secret safekeeping. Officials around the world have always looted their countries' coffers and accumulated bribes. But the globalization of banking made the export of their ill-gotten money far more convenient than it had been—which, of course, inspired more theft. By one estimate, more than $1 trillion now exits the world's developing countries each year in the forms of laundered money and evaded taxes.” (7)

Enter the tRUMPs.

“In 2017,” Floer tells us, “Reuters examined the sale of Trump Organization properties in Florida. It found that 77 of 2,044 units in developments were owned by Russians. But that was likely an incomplete portrait. More than one-third of the units had been sold to corporate vehicles, which can readily hide the identity of the true owner. As Oliver Bullough remarks, 'They might have belonged to Vladimir Putin, for all anyone else could know.' Around the time that Trump took up occupancy in the White House, the PATRIOT Act's 'temporary' exemption for real estate entered its 15^th year.” (8)

And it isn't just in Florida where tRUMP engages in highly suspect business operations. Statistics for Trump Tower show similar behavior even after he was elevated to the Oval Office. Then there were properties in Panama and Azerbaijan. It is a violation of the RICO statutes, governing the prosecution of organized crime, to deal with known criminals in any business transaction. And ignorance of the law, or the nature of persons with whom one is doing business is no excuse. One is expected to know one's business partners. Disgustus and his organization have violated this law in several jurisdictions. But that isn't the end of it.

The deal usually goes like this. Disgustus and his family put up no money but the name goes on the building. He gets a cut for that. But his real value is that his organization manages the place and it is in the management, the purchase agreements, that one finds the real meat of the matter. For in exchange for the prestige and the money, Disgustus and his family receive the money from the crime syndicates and make their theft whole.

One must ask, in view of the revelations of The New York Times that Disgustus lost over a billion dollars in the 10 years leading up to the fall of the old Soviet Union, just where he is getting his money? How is it that in the wake of such a colossal failure we find him paying cash for his acquisitions? Where is he getting his money, and to whom is he beholden? Is it mere coincidence that the plundering of the Russian Federation began in earnest just about the time that the Russians came to the rescue of America's biggest loser? I'm sure the Russians were desperate to find someone, anyone, to help stash half the country's wealth. And so, the search began for a pliable “useful idiot.”

This, too, is the legacy of the Generation of Swine.

An Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh

Impeach and Imprison

_______________

1. Foer, Franklin. “How Kleptocracy Came To America” The Atlantic Magazine. Vol. 323. No. 2. March, 2019. Pp. 86-95. See page 91
2. Foer is here quoting Oliver Bullough Moneyland:Why Thieves and Crooks Now Rule the World and How to Take It Back.
3. Op. Cit. Page 91.
4. Ibid. Page 90
5. Ibid. Page 88
6. Ibid. Page 88-89.