Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

In my day, never was longer.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Late Night Open Thread: Paul Manafort Wanted to Go to Dubai

Late Night Open Thread: Paul Manafort Wanted to Go to Dubai

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Since Manafort has a long history of lucrative involvement lobbying for the nastiest authoritarians on the planet, people were dubious that the man just wanted a little overseas vacation. Especially given stories about Manafort’s relationship with former Ukrainian strongman Viktor Yanukovych…

… He’d been the chief political strategist to the man who became the president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, with whom he’d developed a highly personal relationship. Manafort would swim naked with his boss outside his banya, play tennis with him at his palace (“Of course, I let him win,” Manafort made it known), and generally serve as an arbiter of power in a vast country. One of his deputies, Rick Gates, once boasted to a group of Washington lobbyists, “You have to understand, we’ve been working in Ukraine a long time, and Paul has a whole separate shadow government structure … In every ministry, he has a guy.” Only a small handful of Americans—oil executives, Cold War spymasters—could claim to have ever amassed such influence in a foreign regime. The power had helped fill Manafort’s bank accounts; according to his recent indictment, he had tens of millions of dollars stashed in havens like Cyprus and the Grenadines.

Manafort had profited from the sort of excesses that make a country ripe for revolution. And in the early months of 2014, protesters gathered on the Maidan, Kiev’s Independence Square, and swept his patron from power. Fearing for his life, Yanukovych sought protective shelter in Russia. Manafort avoided any harm by keeping a careful distance from the enflamed city. But in his Kiev office, he’d left behind a safe filled with papers that he would not have wanted to fall into public view or the wrong hands…

From the president of Ukraine to some perennially-busted ‘businessman’ with Russian mob ties: not an upgrade!

People are only too willing to assume the worst, these days.

More likely, IMO, is that Manafort just would’ve preferred to be elsewhere when the latest TFG news dropped…

Reader Interactions

34Comments

  1. 1.

    Tony Jay

    Dubai, where Sasha Flobalobalov visited last week, only a day before P&O Ferries – which is majority owned by a Dubai based investment firm which is in turn owned by the Royal family of Dubai – illegally sacked its entire British workforce of 800 people without prior warning, by video message, after preemptively hiring security to expel them from the ships.

    Lot of shit happening in Dubai.

  2. 2.

    eclare

    @Tony Jay:   Wow.  I saw the news about firing 800 people all at once.  I did not know about all the company ties.  Thank you.

    Your comment has been furthered on.

     

  3. 3.

    AJ

    Anne this is such a great post! Josh Marshall should hire you for a side gig! Ty for this great info.

    Love you all*

    (*hey I’m only human)

  5. 5.

    Frederick Stibbert

    From a 1st-order google search of “why is my passport revoked”, the most common answer is “you’ve owed serious money to the IRS for entirely too long.” But perhaps it was cancelled after his felony conviction, they wouldn’t automagically restore it after a pardon.

  7. 7.

    Tony Jay

    @eclare:

    @montanareddog:

    ‘Bitch Slap Theory’ in practice. Showing exactly who has the power in this relationship and who just has to slavishly take it.

    This occurred, mind you, just after Flobby also visited Saudi Arabia, where they pre-greased the runways with the blood of either 81 or 87 beheaded ‘criminals’ (who can keep track of all those rolling heads?) and then executed another 3 while he was there begging (unsuccessfully) for energy deals and (possibly successfully) for under-the-table funding for his shitstain of a Party.

    Can you even imagine the Saudi’s doing that the day before the visit of a national leader they vaguely respected? I can’t. It was as clear and direct a show of contempt as those things get and Flobby just had to swallow it down, because that’s who he is and who he’s made us. A stuffed and mounted trophy for rich autocrats that occasionally makes animatronic gestures like a real country.

    The British Media are all over it, of course. Oh, wait, no they’re not. The average man and woman catching a few minutes of the News wouldn’t know there was anything odd about it. Just like the BBC report on Flobby’s humiliation at the NATO meeting yesterday, where they showed a very brief clip of the graceless slab standing lonely and unloved amongst the assembled world leaders under the commentary “Boris Johnson seemed a little bit isolated today… BUT HE REMAINS FIRMLY IN STEP WITH HIS ALLIES!” (yes, the volume did go up) Followed by a longer segment of Flobby telling us in his own words how leaderlike and vital he is to the defence of Ukraine.

    Thank God we’ve got a highly professional Opposition with a message of hopeful change that’s carrying all befo…. oh, shit, no, we’re just fucked.

  10. 10.

    NotMax

    “Sir, it seems your documents are not in order. Step this way, please.”

    “I beg your pardon?”

    “Nope. Not this time, bub.”

    //

  12. 12.

    Tony Jay

    It seems like ‘Do’ and ‘Buy’ should be easy enough to put next to each other lyrically but, no, you’re right.

  14. 14.

    Elizabelle

    Who will break it to Roger Stone that most people do not give a fig about him or Manafort, except to wonder when their privileged asses might next land in jail?  They are like the substances one avoids when out on sidewalks and hiking trails.

    Otherwise:  much like TFG:  don’t even like to look at their mugs, and have no interest in what comes out of either their pieholes or tweeting fingers.

    One kind comment:  Manafort looks so much better with naturally gray/white hair.  Dyed dark hair does not work well for the aging.  I guess Roy Orbison kind of made it his look, and Elvis, but ….

    Prison seems to have worked out well for Manafort. Send him back.

    Last:  I hope TFG’s latest bid of suing Hillary and the DNC blows up badly on him.  Gets investigators interested in precisely how much/what kind of help TFG had in the 2016 election.  Perhaps there are some who will spill more, now that TFG and Putin are (please, please) on the ropes.

  15. 15.

    Eolirin

    @Elizabelle: It’s mind boggling to me that he’s doing that. Hillary’s public statements are fairly well supported by things that have already been revealed to be true, and he opens himself up to discovery if it actually moves forward. Never mind that he’s a public figure and we have incredibly weak protections on false speech when directed at public figures. Not that anything she or the DNC said about him is false, but making a case there feels pretty much impossible.

  16. 16.

    bjacques

    I remember very well when Yanukovych (allegedly) poisoned Yushchenko’s soup with dioxin, and knew that visible symptom had to be chloracne, which I recognized from Neal Stephenson’s eco-thriller/comedy novel “Zodiac”.

  17. 17.

    Geminid

    @montanareddog: It is thought that Mohammed bin Zayan, the Crown Prince, is now defacto head of the UAE. He at least conducts the Emirates’ public diplomacy. Last Monday bin Zayan met with Egyptian President Sissi and Israeli Prime Minister Bennett at Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt. Early next week he is scheduled to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Blinken when both are visiting Morocco. They’ll have lots to talk about, including the expected revival of the JCPOA limiting Iran’s nuclear program.

  18. 18.

    artem1s

    I imagine TFG’s lawsuit is mostly for grifting purposes as far as he’s concerned. But I’m curious about the ramification for people like Manafort who would get outed during discovery. Is there some legal angle to filing this? Could it put the whole issue of releasing TFG’s documents back in the courts so they can be sealed again? Reversing the recent losses? This whole period running up to the 2016 election is where the whole scheme (and the GOP’s part in it) is most vulnerable to exposure. In any case I hope f*cking Comey is sweating buckets this morning.
    Also, on the revoked passport…I find it hard to believe this is the first time Paulie has tried to leave the country since his release. Why is the passport flag only now coming up? Could the pardon have conditions such as being on a travel watchlist and restrictions about associating with known criminals?
    Or is it just a paperwork thing and he will be free to go on his merry way once the passport has been renewed? No real info in any of the reports.
    I’m also wondering this morning how many other 45 operatives is the DOJ/AG keeping tabs on and how is it tied to the Mueller/insurrection/IRS investigations?

  19. 19.

    Gin & Tonic

    I’m confused about part of the timeline. “He could not take the flight and his passport was revoked.” When was it revoked? Before he got to the airport, like a while ago? Or was it revoked when CBP found out he was on the plane?

  20. 20.

    Gin & Tonic

    Besides, I seem to recall when Manafort was first arrested, in a no-knock 6:00 am visit, he was taken into custody along with more than one US passport. Too lazy to look that up right now.

  22. 22.

    Anne Laurie

    @Gin & Tonic: I’m confused about part of the timeline. “He could not take the flight and his passport was revoked.” When was it revoked? Before he got to the airport, like a while ago? Or was it revoked when CBP found out he was on the plane?

    Well, back when Manafort was on trial, it was reported that he owed a *ton* of money to the IRS for non-reporting income & gifts.  I hear that’s a red flag, right there.

    Also, there’s a war on, and Dubai doesn’t have an extradition agreement with the U.S.  Even if Manafort’s been pardoned, does his ‘former felon’ status get him extra attention when he tries to leave the country?

    Finally, TFG’s ‘lawsuit’ is 90% grift & 10% press release, but is it possible Manafort’s status as a deeply compromised part of that whole 2016 Russiagate situation might have drawn attention from unfriendly bureaucrats?

  23. 23.

    Geminid

    @germy: The UAE has a population of a little under 10 million people, but less than 2 million are Emirati citizens. The rest are expat workers, largely from south Asian countries.

  25. 25.

    Geminid

    @Anne Laurie: It could be that there is an impending indictment of Manafort that caused the revocation of Manafort’s passport. But as the commenter said, the timeline is ambiguous. The police report does not say how and why Manafort’s passport was revoked.

  26. 26.

    Rusty

    @Eolirin: This is why rolling back Sullivan by the Supreme Court is suddenly hot with the right wing.  They want to be able to sue and intimidate critics and the press into not reporting on their behavior.  Libel laws sound great, but they really only benefit the wealthy that can afford to sue.  They are useless to the rest of us.  That’s why they need to go, freedom from accountability and criticism for the wealthy and powerful, screw the rest of us.

  27. 27.

    Another Scott

    @Gin & Tonic: GlobalNews.CA: (from 2017)

    WASHINGTON – Paul Manafort, former campaign manager for U.S. President Donald Trump, had three U.S. passports, millions in assets and ties to Russian oligarchs, according to federal court documents after his indictment on tax fraud and money laundering charges.

    As one does…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  29. 29.

    SFAW

    I was going to ask if it makes me a bad person when I hope that, in that picture of The Two Traitors, someone would come up and give them the Richard Spencer treatment.

    But then I remembered I already am, so no worries.

  31. 31.

    Kattails

    Dead thread, I haven’t been sleeping well but…

    So Trump’s lawsuit is really a way to a) grift b) performative whine and c) smear Hillary just because. I wonder if there’s something in it that would open TFG to a counter suit from Hillary (and possibly others) that would force discovery after he does his little back-down dance or gets slapped down by the courts. It just has kind of a nice plot twist aspect.

  32. 32.

    Yutsano

    I was wondering if it was an IRS revocation. Looks like it was indeed. Although I wonder how he got as far as the plane. Some sort of red flag should have come up before then I would have thought.

  34. 34.

    Gravenstone

    @Tony Jay: Woulda been a terrible shame if a few seacocks were accidentally opened on some of those ferries just before security tossed the crew ashore…

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