I think you are fantasizing because of the part where you said dare you say treason as if anyone in power is at all hesitant to do something like that.
The rumors of how Donald trump financed much of his Real Estate empire is based on innuendo of Money Laundering for Russian Mobsters, income inflation to acquire loans and money laundering.
Hence the reluctance and out right refusal to show his tax returns. Except those years when they were in his favor maybe 2 out of 20 years. (Kind of like that broken clock being right at least twice a day in 24 hours.) The treason part comes in with his pre-emptive negotiations with Russia prior to the election and during his President Elect phase where he was negotiating ignoring President Obama era sanctions when Trump was not yet president.
The longer the Manafort trial goes on the more it mirrors what Trump could be looking at (and which the Special Counsel actually sees) in relationships with handshake deals with bankers (Deutsche Bank being just one) and how his entire familial empire is structured with these odd and not at all Arms-Length Distance between Russians, Russian Banks, Oligarchs, Real Estate deals to Russian owned Shell companies, etc. The total denial of any and all Russian connections is stunningly odd and not at all just coincidental.
It is fascinating to me to see the odd parallels between Trump and Manafort.
Just my every day citizen's view.
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eYeDEF (5050)
7 years ago
If you're interested in Manafort's background and how he got to this point I highly recommend this Foer exposé on him from a few months back. It's a long read, but thoroughly fascinating. I'm struck by how much he cuts the figure of the doomed anti-hero out of classic noir film. It traces his rise as a brilliant behind the scenes political operator who cut his teeth partnering with Roger Stone during the Reagan era to turn DC into a swamp cesspool flush with lobbying cash. He could have stopped there and had quite a nice life for himself. But he was a pioneer in his willingness to take on clients no one else would touch. He had the ability to transform the shadiest warlords and arms dealers and make them presentable for Washington to provide funding.
But as is the case for his type, his lack of ethical mooring and desire for more got him intoxicated on the excessive wealth of Saudi princes and post-Soviet state oligarchs which he'd partnered and worked for. It got to the point he wanted to be an oligarch himself and it spelled his doom.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/03/paul-manafort-american-hustler/550925/
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NorrinRad (5470)
7 years ago
I'm struck by how much he cuts the figure of the doomed anti-hero out of classic noir film.
Thanks for sharing and I truly appreciate the information but I am totally uninterested in Paul Manafort based on what little I know of him from the periphery. I am also totally uninterested in the Machiavellian antics of one Roger Stone. There is nothing to understand and I also resist any and all attempts to normalize these men and or their actions.
Greed. It boils down to Greed and a lust for power. I over generalize of course but these two and many more just aren't worth my time finding out more about them.
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