Why anyone has sympathy for Paul Manafort is beyond me.
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BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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Yes, cry for the criminal martyr.
In all the endlessly appalling aspects of the rancid Conservative Era (1980-present), the almost complete non-enforcement of all these federal white collar laws on income tax, wire fraud and transfer, foreign lobbying, campaign finance, etc, etc, is quite striking. It was seemingly decided that our patriotic plutocrats are largely exempt from investigation and prosecution for any of them, under both Repub and Dem admins, be they law-abiding (Obama) or corrupt (Bushco).
The Manaforts and Trumps operate unimpeded for decades.
A thoroughly criminal upper class, and a failed DOJ.
Yes, I find it shocking the extent to which the rich and powerful can get away with most anything in today’s America. You or I would not get away with a fraction of what they do.
It took the judge 40 minutes to read through a list of all the crimes Manafort was admitting to. Here’s a guy who’s been involved in political skulduggery, r*tf*cking and criminal financial fraud for literally decades. If he gets 10 years he’s really getting off easy, given all he’s done. Sure, the idea that a 69 year old man getting 10 years in a federal prison is not something to cheer about, but just like Ebenezer Scrooge’s dead partner Marley, he’s built up a long list of transgressions over the years, and now its time to pay the piper. Manafort only has himself to blame for his predicament.
It would be ok with me if we just threw his ass in prison for the next twenty years or so. Why don’t we just do that and let him take his shit to the grave with him? He is a worthless piece of shit.
Maybe because it is more pragmatic and useful to pump him for information?
The Russians, the Saudis, the Israelis will be fucking around in our politics and elections for years to come, maybe we should try to frustrate that?
To paraphrase Churchill, if Paulie delivers the goods on the conspiracy, I think a kind word for him and his family is in order in the Well of the Senate (and the House, too). We may not like it, but we’re adults, and this is what’s necessary.
Guess you can tell. I don’t have a lot of sympathy for this asshole. Let him rot.
If he does not go to jail, where will he live? Remember they are taking all his stuff.
I think they left him with one bank account. I have no idea what he has. I suspect his biggest fear is the Russians who might come after him and his family. But I understand the government is protecting them. I am not sure it is witsec.
I don’t want him dead but he has been one ugly bastard spreading conspiracy stories around and he tried doing it here. That is not something I want for this country, but it appears we already have it, like alternative facts.
I’m sure he’ll become a hero to the Hashtag Resistance idiots. I can almost see the Harry Potter analogies on my Twitter timeline now.
It seems a very safe bet that there are idiots — or at least people proposing/espousing idiotic stuff — among them (us!). Just as there are among self-declared “true progressives” (one need look no further than this very site for ample evidence of that!), “leftists”, etc. And, of course (rejecting “both sides” stupidity) though those exist, they are dwarfed (except that’s too weak) by the orders-of-magnitude greater and nearly universal idiocy (including pervasive Reality-Denial, the enabler of all the rest) among “conservatives”-Banana Republicans.
It is essential right now that Dems/libs/”progs”/lefties function as a unified coalition in the face of the existential threat of the current crisis. This sort of broad-brush stereotyping and trashing of actual/potential allies we should be welcoming (some will refuse! can’t be helped) to work alongside on shared goals (there are many!) is . . . not helpful.
Manafort spent decades helping justify some of the world’s most notorious dictators and klepocrats, from Marcos to a who’s who of sub-Saharan thiees, all backed by the US, of course. This, as much as his Russian connections, was his major selling point to Trump in 2016. It certainly wasn’t his paltry experience in US politics. For anyone paying attention, the fact that Trump was surrounding himself with anti-democratic figures like Manafort and Roger Stone should have told people, well before the election, exactly how Trump wanted to govern…and it’s a say fact that for all of our country’s fetishizagion of its founders, especially on the right, there are plenty of Americans who are just fine dispensing with even the pretense of caring about democracy.
It doesn’t matter to Pauli if innocent folks get caught up in his schemes. Yeah, fuck him.
Maybe because while Manafort is scummiest of the scum influence peddlers, fundamentally they’re all scum, and if we want to change our system, they’re gonna have to be targeted, too. At least that’s the only defense I can think of — sink or swim together.
It’s shocking beyond belief to think that the only reason Manafort was caught is because he signed on with Team Trump. But for that single mistake, he would have gone to his grave a respected and admired man with millions in the bank, numerous posh homes and all the trappings (ostrich skin suit, blue lizard jacket, etc.).
It’s a funny thing though that money, beyond a certain point, doesn’t seem to do anyone any good. The one time I flew first class I didn’t like it. People coming on the airplane after I was seated looked so envious and it felt distancing. I’d rather be back with my people in steerage class.
My wife and I have a lovely home, beautiful as far as I’m concerned. But it’s worth about what the median home goes for in our town. I’ve looked at super fancy homes because we could afford one. I’ve not found one that I like more than our home, at least not enough more to be willing to pay the taxes. Besides which, I’m scared about the kids that our 4-year old son would grow up around. The high school on that side of town has enormous drug problems.
It’s definitely no fun being poor but wealth isn’t all it’s cracked up to be either. I mean, it’s fine to have money in the bank. For whatever security money can provide. But living like a rich person seems mostly silly. Would be fun to give away a whole bunch of money though to those who truly need it. Unfortunately most of the SOBs like Manafort who have that kind of wealth would never consider sharing it.
But it was Manafort’s attachment to that lifestyle which led him to Team trump in the first place. He was broke and owed millions to some of the worst people on the planet.
I agree with everything you wrote, but: the Feds knew about him the whole time. He was on their radar for years and years. So really, instead of “caught” you ought to write “prosecuted”. Which is even worse. Even. Worse. He could have committed all those crimes, with impunity, gotten away completely, even though the Feds knew everything, if he just hadn’t signed on with Trump.
And I have a theory as to why. B/c all those crimes were basically not really about attacking America. Sure, they sometimes got in the way of America foreign policy. But it was all penny-ante stuff: who cares of Yulia Tymoshenko rots in a jail and dies? Hell, everybody does that: Mossadegh, Allende, Sandino, and on and on. Biiig deal. But then he decided to come at America. That was a different matter entirely.
So yeah, it’s shocking, that such blatant and well-documented criminal sprees evoked no action from our government. And it’s a repudiation of the basic understanding that a people has with their government. ugh.
Yes, and penalty free tax evasion. It wasn’t always like that. I recall the IRS coming after folks BIG TIME when I was a kid. Not just rich folks either. The guy who lived across the street in our Levitt-style neighborhood, for instance. He owned what used to be called the local “candy store.” Sold not just candy but newspapers and stationery. Kind of a cross between a mini-mart and a micro-Staples. Every town had one.
The guy pocketed a bunch of cash and the IRS figured it out because he bought assets (like a nice car) without having adequate income on his tax return. And, like I said, the guy lived in the across-the-street shitbox house.
That sort of oversight was scary to everyone but at least there was a sense that everyone was subject to the same law. If rich guys dodged taxes, their stories were written up in the newspaper. Of course they had legal dodges, plenty of ’em. Paid their attorneys good money to find ways to avoid taxes. But they didn’t just send it off shore into sham accounts, at least not without risk of prosecution.
I was just a kid and got caught up in this, I didn’t have the money to pay my taxes one year, since it was my own business and it was a cash basis. When time came to pay, I was short. The local agent from Gloversville, Ny summoned me and when I still couldn’t pay up he levied my wages where I worked after closing my business. He took every fucking nickel I had three weeks in a row. He never told me. I found out when I opened my pay envelope, no money. Fortunately I had a good friend who took me in.
I’m sure law-and-order Trump would love to crack down on all paperboys everywhere.
Mine was a job hauling milk to the creamery and sometime hay. Had an old Diamond Reo truck.
Sounds like a rich experience. Perhaps not always fun but certainly memorable.
Yes it was exciting. I have plenty of stories from that time.
. . . starving the IRS of enforcement resources for decades.
Which obviously works at odds with their sham “fiscal responsibility” (enforcement brings in far more revenue than it costs).
Leaving one wondering what could possibly be their motivation for this (just kidding!).
A free man, maybe, but “respected and admired”? Manafort was already pretty infamous as a pro-Putin stooge, involved in the pillaging of Ukraine under Yanukovych. That’s why it was so shocking when Trump first hired him.
03/05/2014
https://www.politico.com/story/2014/03/paul-manafort-ukraine-104263
Sure, there are great crocodile tears shed for the poor martyred lamb, while on the right the Trumpists thunder with rage at the traitor. Inevitable.
But, what is more important is to figure out what the endgame is. And I don’t mean impeachment. At this point impeachment is a done deal. All the chickens are coming home to roost and the Republicans are hemorrhaging support so badly they are in danger of losing the House despite their vicious gerrymandering efforts.
What will Trump do when they come for him like they came for Nixon in 1974 and tell him that his support in the Senate has dropped to the point where he will be convicted at a Senate trial, which will begin as soon as the House votes Articles of Impeachment, which they will do the next week.
Nixon’s own advisors then told him that he had no choice but to go and he went the next day. Bitter, angry, defiant, but he did go without a struggle to the end.
But, Trump never listens to his advisors, especially if he thinks they are plotting against him.
And of course he’s right, they ARE all plotting against him. Even Omarosa who Trump whined in real distress “used to say such great things about me.” She said outrageously flattering things to stroke his enormous ego so he never thought she would turn on him.
Omorosa, who on his own show became infamous as “the ‘woman America loved to hate'” and “Voted America’s #1 reality show villain – she’d never do something so calculated and cold as to make tens of millions of $ because she played him like a fiddle and recorded all his insane and imbecilic rants and is now releasing all the audio to the world. To publicize her new book tour.
Cashing in on your celebrity is just for Trump, never his minions apparently, so he’s terribly surprised when one of them uses his own methods against him.
By now the paranoia level between Trump and his advisors is at Def Con 1 and they’re all in the Bunkers, hunkered down and trading blows at each other.
It’s an old, old story.
So, what is Trump going to do when these hated advisors all come to him and tell him “it’s time to go!” Is he going peacefully? Or will he make them drag him out with a rope? Or will he just grab the Nuclear football and order a massive nuclear strike on Congress? Hard to tell how he’d respond at this point, but signs are not good that he’d handle it with any dignity like Nixon.
Because of his monumental narcissism and lifelong corruption, Trump has no real friends nor does he trust anyone, fundamentally. Which is why he is always demanding loyalty.
But loyalty has to be earned not demanded. It’s a two-way street. His plutocrat Cabinet of pseudo-ideologues are all just grifters using Trump to game the system. They have loyalty only to themselves. Same for the GOP Congress. When he becomes a net negative, he’s gone.
ETTD. Everything Trump Touches Dies.
In addition to Yanukovych, Paul Manafort worked for a long list of dictators to help them put a pretty face on their sordid kleptocracy and tyranny. He is the epitome of how we have allowed money to corrupt and pervert our democratic system. That he could be the downfall of Trump might be the cause of some irony, but definitely not sympathy.
I’m not a Christian but I think of that biblical passage, which Google advises is Mathew 16:26. Here’s the King James version:
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
These people have no God. They worship money and power. Their selfish and venal minds have no room for empathy or caring what happens beyond their lifetimes. What use do they have for a soul?
Or caring for the planet, or for helping the poor, or for feeding the hungry or healing the sick or for doing anything that guy from Nazareth spoke of.
U pluribus unum – is just some foreign mumbo jumbo to them.
They care for neither God nor country – though they claim both. I expect their reckless self-centered foolishness to lead us to extinction. They could not have picked a more perfect physical manifestation of their deplorable mindset than Donald Trump. His support remains high from these people because he is them and he has surrounded himself with fellow swamp creatures.
If they don’t drive us to extinction they must be educated or stopped – and I don’t think they can be educated.
If the Dems take over they should extend Mueller to investigate the lot of them: Pence, Pruitt, Ross, Shulkin, Zinke, Mnuchin, DeVos, Price, Hunter, Collins, Nunes, Mulvaney, Kavanaugh – put them all behind bars and make examples of them.
I agree. There are a heck of a lot of people who hide behind religion who have not the slightest interest in religion itself. The Qu’ran actually warns of this. It says the devil loves to quote scripture.
. . . advertising statute would have required Trump to revise his slogan from “Drain the Swamp” to “Infest the Swamp“.
John Cole from Ballon Juice makes a great point on this topic:
https:/www.balloon-juice.com/2018/09/16/one-positive-side-effect-of-decades-of-republican-fuckery
. . . affair has shone on the degree to which “white-collar” and corporate crime — plus lots of evil/immoral/unethical behavior that should be criminal, but technically isn’t — is routinely done with impunity . . . has been remarkable.
Note how very absent our right wing asshole commmunity member Arthur Gilroy becomes on the threads which document the horrors of this Administration.
I’m sure he’ll be posting soon to attack the Democratic Party and Booman Tribune community members though.
I am not “absent” centristfield. I have been doing something real…something with the flesh in it (practicing my instruments for the coming week) ..while trying to avoid the nasty, self-congratulatory, mutual masturbation that normally goes on here amongst the DNC plebes as the mass media run yet another “Hottest thing ever!!!” game on the RussiaGate hustle.
I rated two comments a “4”…you could look it up if you really cared…on this thread alone.
I also posted a standalone regarding the Trump text message boondoggle coming up this Thursday.
I await your eventual downfall with bated breath.
You will go down with the Pelosis and Schumers.
Any day now.
Aaaaany day now…
Meanwhile:
ZZZZzzzz.
Have a nice day…
AG
LOL