Trump has since made radical, nonsensical statements regarding the crimes of today's Kremlin, i.e. there is 'no evidence' the Russians downed MH17,
nor that Putin had any opposition figures killed.
Even Bernie Sanders -a guy who honeymooned in the Soviet Union- doesn't come-across as sympathetic to today's (fascist) Russia as Trump has-
but I doubt it's philosophical: Trump's only guiding principle is 'deals',
and he seems to see a bit of himself in the Russian leader
-both being corrupt megalomaniacs with bad taste- so Trump's likely thinking is they'll just sit down like Yalta and divide the world up- then take their shirts off and go bear-hunting.
When The Donald lately suggested that NATO had outlived it's usefulness -in addition to prior statements re. abandoning European security commitments- it is difficult to not think Trump's acting precisely like a Russian agent would:
if you consider Obama to be stupid for giving away the Czech-Polish ABM sites to Putin for nothing, Trump has already ticked of every box on the Kremlin's entire wish list -and made them part of his platform- before even securing the GOP nomination!
Why is alignment with Moscow -an ally/arms supplier to every enemy we have on the planet- suddenly an imperative? I see no apparent reason whatsoever... we're not involved any kind of taxing conflict that we can't handle right now. And how can Trump be 'tough' on Iran while palling-up with their primary sponsor?
The only way you avoid ongoing conflict with the zero-sum-mentality Russians is to always cave and give them ALL they want: if you allow 80% in some 'deal' they'll spend every living minute from that point onward trying to screw the residual 20% out of you anyway. And once they smell the stench of weakness, they'll be back for more- believe me.
Some kinds of people are best kept at arm's length- and back on their heels. Today, Vladimir Putin runs the kind of treacherous mafia state that only a fool
-or a criminal- would anxiously anticipate 'doing business' with.
If Trump is truly determined to foist this on us as President, perhaps he should have kept quiet about it- even Obama knew enough not to tell voters he intended to surrender to the Muslim Brotherhood, Iran, and Cuba.
It's hard not to suspect Trump's actually in-contact with the Kremlin... and doubtful he could just cook-up so perfect a pro-Russia platform without at least being handed a Moscow-generated list. His idiot staff wouldn't be capable of producing it through policy research, certainly.
Perhaps he's planning to put some casinos over there- that sure could be part of it, and Trump just three years ago was talking about building a skyscraper in the Russian capital.
goes back to Soviet times, and he's been involved with some of the shadiest characters Mother Russia can produce- just like his Italian mob acquaintances.
Russian/various mafia deals connected to Trump are as unsettling as they are complex/opaque... and it's been going on for 30+ years:
- Trump’s Russia adviser Carter Page has been described as a 'globalist entrepreneur w/ ties to Russian intelligence'
- SENIOR Trump aide Paul Manafort 'funneled a mob-linked Ukrainian oligarch's (illegal) fortune' -that being fugitive scumbag
Dmitry Firtash, very close to Putin/overthrown Yanukovych regime- into U.S. real estate
- Trump's NY/NJ projects often involved La Cosa Nostra, doing business with Nicky Scarfo/Phil Leonetti of the Philly mob, which ran Atlantic City as a sort of colony at the time. Trump bought his concrete from mob-owned Scarf Inc and reportedly paid 2x market value for a pub their Sal Testa owned, an obvious payoff.
- Trump also enjoyed a close association 'for decades' with
Kenny Shapiro, a dubious character and investment banker for mob boss Nicky Scarfo - Philadelphia Enquirer: 'throughout his adult life, Donald Trump has done business with major organized-crime figures and performed favors for their associates.'
- The author of 1992 unauthorized biography
Trump: The Deals and the Downfall wrote that
Trump's life 'intertwines with the underworld'
- several Trump buildings in Manhattan were built by S&A Concrete Co., a concern partly owned by Anthony 'Fat Tony' Salerno, the boss of the Genovese crime family
- You can say he had no choice but to do business with the mafia in NYC/AC in those days, but consider that Trump always seems to be crossing paths with wiseguys -acts like one himself- and was for some reason was friends/represented by Tony Salerno's
high-powered mob lawyer, Ray Cohn - Trump's also been connected through the concrete business to (wacked by Gotti) Gambino family boss Paul Castellano
- In one of his most notorious episodes, Trump boldly paid-off mob-controlled labor unions in Manhattan in order to utilize undocumented Polish immigrants in clearing the site for Trump Tower, saving tons of $ but screwing taxpayers, legal immigrants, NY's unemployed, union laborers -and of course the slave-like Polish workers- in the process. He was convicted of conspiring with the union and breaking other laws, and Trump was fined $1M... a slap on the wrist (somehow Gotti got off easy
all the time too, hmmm)
- Trump SoHo was developed with undisclosed involvement of convicted felons and financing from questionable sources in Russia and Kazakhstan.... Felix H. Sater, a Russian immigrant, and Teyfik Arif, a former Soviet-era commerce official born in Kazakhstan. .... Trump said he and Arif had pondered “numerous deals all over the world” (through their company Bayrock) and that Arif had introduced him to prospective Russian investors.
Trump sure can pick ’em: Sater was convicted for stabbing a man in the face with a broken margarita glass in 1993 and subsequently imprisoned.
Later, the Times story continues, he was implicated in a huge stock manipulation scheme involving Mafia figures and Russian criminals — and that he became a confidential F.B.I. informant. Recently unsealed federal court records show that Mr. Sater helped the government disrupt an organized crime ring on Wall Street and deal with an unexplained national security matter involving his foreign connections.
Bayrock also hosted a second F.B.I. informant, Salvatore Lauria, 'who sometimes showed up to work wearing a court-ordered ankle monitor'- Lauria brokered a $50 million investment in Trump SoHo.
It seems the more you look, the more you find-
but isn't this enough, really?
