After about forty minutes last night, I felt too physically ill to watch any more of the Republican debate. Those people have that effect on me. So, I turned on Netflix and started watching episodes of Inside the American Mob. I already know this history backwards and forwards, but it’s always interesting to see new interviews and first-hand accounts. One of the episodes was devoted to the opening of casino gambling in Atlantic City in 1976 and how that played out with the Philadelphia and New York City mafias. I won’t get into the details here, but it reminded me of the fact the Republican frontrunner has been doing massive construction in Atlantic City for decades now, and all of it has always been completely dependent on working with La Cosa Nostra.
Here’s just a taste of how that worked.
After gambling was legalized in Atlantic City in 1976, Philadelphia mobster Nicky Scarfo formed Scarf Inc., a concrete subcontractor. Scarf Inc. did work on five of the first nine casinos that were built. The companies that employed Scarf Inc. had to pay non-existent employees but were assured of labor peace at their construction sites, police investigators said.
Scarfo is serving a 55-year federal prison sentence following his conviction in 1988 of being involved in a racketeering conspiracy that included nine slayings.
John McCullough, Philadelphia Roofers Union boss, tried to organize bartenders, waiters, waitresses, bellhops, maids and others in Atlantic City’s service industries, who up to then belonged to Local 54 of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees and Bartenders Union. Local 54 was controlled by a longtime Scarfo friend and associate.
In December 1980, McCullough was murdered in his home by a contract killer.
Scarfo’s influence even extended to the mayor’s office. Atlantic City Mayor Michael Matthews met often with Scarfo family mobsters after his election in 1982 and was later convicted of receiving $10,000 from an undercover FBI agent he thought was an associate of Scarfo in return for arranging the sale of a city-owned plot of land zoned for casino development.
Back in October, the Washington Post did a piece on Trump’s history with the mob both in Atlantic City and in New York City. I don’t suppose it was possible or even his responsibility to figure out how to do construction on a big scale in those two cities without finding accommodation with Sicilian gangsters, but it’s a highly unusual history for a presidential candidate.
On the other hand, Marco Rubio’s brother-in-law was one of the biggest drug dealers this country has ever seen and when he went to prison he left $15 million unaccounted for.
And some people see Goldman Sachs, which employs Ted Cruz’s wife and loaned him the money he needed to run for Senate, as a legalized syndicate that makes the Five Families of New York and the Colombian drug traffickers look like pikers by comparison.
Rick Perry is dealing with a felony indictment and Chris Christie is, of course, implicated in the criminal closing of the George Washington Bridge. Then there is Mike Huckabee, who I mentioned just yesterday is a con man extraordinaire, and Ben Carson is just as much of a huckster.
By comparison, Bill O’Reilly stand-in John Kasich and failed-CEO Carly Fiorina look positively clean and upstanding.
We’ve been told often that the Republicans are providing us with a historically strong list of candidates, but this field reminds me of something else. It reminds me of when Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi explained to a young Luke Skywalker what they were walking into when they went in search of a spacecraft to take them to the planet Alderaan:
“Mos Eisley spaceport. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious.”
This is the kind of stuff that will bring down Trump & Co!!! What we need to do is to pound on the media until they cover the real story. How to pound on them? Damned if I know…my original “MediaStrike!!!” idea sank like a stone years ago…but if this isn’t thoroughly publicized people like Scarfa will be controlling larger parts of this country through their proxies than ever before.
AG
P.S .I’d rather deal with …shudder…Cheney types than with those motherfuckers. I speak from years of experience working (indirectly) for them as a jazz and latin musician in NYC.
I’ve seen their game.
Up close and personal.
For real!!!
Reminds me of the Museum of Trucking And Science.
Sadly the only thing that Mos Eisley GOP Voters will grasp from the Nicky Scarfo story is “See: Unions Bad!”
Surely all of this pales beside the Clinton foundation, and Mrs. Clinton’s foray into the commodity markets.
Well, no, but nonetheless the 2-decade old stainless steel skillet should still be cautious about calling the kettle black.
Remember how back last summer we angsted about not being able to tie Jeb Bush to the Iraq War if we ran HRC? Not because he was a bigger warmonger than her, but because the argument to excuse her from hypocrisy would’ve been too convoluted to use on the campaign trail?
Same deal, here.
“We’ve been told often that the Republicans are providing us with a historically strong list of candidates, but this field reminds me of something else.”
Yes the GOP are showing their best in deception,Lies, incompetence,and various other abilities that the Mob would look upon fondly. These people represent the worst that America has to offer the world. If the Founding Fathers were here they would be cleaning their firearms getting ready to clean out the outhouse called the current GOP.
No, they wouldn’t have. I doubt that they would even see anything wrong with the arrangement. … well, most of them would be horrified by the populism, but the corruption? Ha! Tell me some more lies; they’re hilarious.
>>the opening of casino gambling in Atlantic City in 1976 and how that played out with the Philadelphia and New York City mafias
you forgot the soundtrack:
“they blew up the Chicken Man in Philly last night…”
These are not the candidates you’re looking for. Move along. Move along.
Obviously Hillary is one of them as well. OTOH in that hive of scum and villainy they will find Bernie /Han Solo – and I think his hair helps his characterization
And the GOP front runner is being openly supported by white supremacists. And none of this will matter because the media can’t get past their reflexive appeasement of the right.
If he has been involved with mob-backed companies, surely someone in the NY DA’s office may be interested. If in NJ, the NJ DA might be pulling for Christie if an R.
What…you think they don’t know!!!??? Your innocence is
charming…err, ahhhh…I mean alarming!!! NYC is just as corrupt as any other city in the U.S.; it’s just so much richer that its corruption has a layer of expensive ,media-produced cologne covering up its stench.It smells like dis.
Bet on it.
If someone in the NY DA’s office actually started seriously trying to dig into Trump’s own part in that corruption they would hit so many public, immensely powerful people that they would one way or another be forced to back off.
Or get fired.
Or…worse.
Bet on that as well.
Hercules himself couldn’t clean that Augean stable.
AG
You are, of course, referring to Goldman-Sachs.
The tip of the iceberg. Compared to The Federal
Preserve…errr, ahhh, I mean Federal Reserve, of course (Or do I?), Goldman-Sachs is small potatoes.AG
Trump is oh so New York. The media people who populate the city deal with Trump clones everyday and enjoy it. He’s kind of their man. I find him physically and mentally repulsive but that’s just me because the money boys in NY seem to find him one of theirs. The name TRUMP screams out above the monumental doorway of the Trump tower on 5th Ave in NY and tourists smile and take pictures of it (I can say that from firsthand experience). A US brand name that gives the world the opportunity to brush elbows with the exceptional rulers of the universe. When Obama began to go on about how exceptional the US is I could finally turn him off for good. Albright called the US the indispensable nation: ask the 500,000 Iraqi children or so who died due to US sanctions—my love to Mr. and Mrs. Clinton and their lying offspring.
How much does a good Maoist summer camp cost?
Asking for a friend.
It costs your life.
If of course you can find one.
AG
While agreeing that Trump is a regular celebrity, indeed an archetype, of New York media I think the real ‘money boys’ see him as a vulgar and peripheral figure who has converted earned media into a minor brand representing what lower-middle class people think is classy. I’m guessing there’s no love lost between Donald and the sleek masters of Wall Street.
If a NYC project needs a substantial amount of cement and concrete, it’s best to ignore the mafia ties of the contractors and the workers’ union.
Carly ain’t looking so clean, either.
This is so on topic.
I am happy that the AFL-CIO and Change to Win unions are not nearly as mobbed up as they were in previous decades. However, the linked news story shows one of the negatives of New Labor’s breaks with the Mob. Perhaps if Trump felt that he and/or his friends/family/mistresses would be in physical danger if he broke a casino contract this way, he would reverse his decision.