Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Their shamelessness is their super power.

If you’re gonna whine, it’s time to resign!

They spent the last eight months firing professionals and replacing them with ideologues.

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

“In this country American means white. everybody else has to hyphenate.”

Let there be snark.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Human rights are not a matter of opinion!

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

He really is that stupid.

Too little, too late, ftfnyt. fuck all the way off.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Interesting Read: “The Original Russia Connection”

Interesting Read: “The Original Russia Connection”

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(Put this post together last weekend, but… stuff happened.)

Andrew Rice, at NYMag — “Felix Sater has cut deals with the FBI, Russian oligarchs, and Donald Trump. He’s also quite a talker”:

On June 19 in a courtroom in Downtown Brooklyn, a federal judge took up the enigmatic case of an individual known as John Doe. According to the heavily redacted court record, Doe was an expert money launderer, convicted in connection with a stock swindle almost 20 years ago. But many other facts about his strange and sordid case remained obscured. The courtroom was filled with investigative journalists from numerous outlets along with lawyers petitioning to unseal documents related to the prosecution. “This case,” argued John Langford, a First Amendment specialist from Yale Law School who represented a Forbes editor, implicates an “integrity interest of the highest order.” The public had a right to know more about Doe’s history, Langford argued, especially in light of “the relationship between the defendant in this case and the president of the United States.”

John Doe’s real name, everyone in the courtroom knew, was Felix Sater. Born in Moscow and raised in Brooklyn, Sater was Donald Trump’s original conduit to Russia. As a real-estate deal-maker, he was the moving force behind the Trump Soho tower, which was built by developers from the former Soviet Union a decade ago. Long before Donald Trump Jr. sat down to talk about kompromat with a group of Kremlin-connected Russians, Sater squired him and Ivanka around on their first business trip to Moscow. And long before their father struck up a bizarrely chummy relationship with Vladimir Putin, Sater was the one who introduced the future president to a byzantine world of oligarchs and mysterious money.

Sater was a canny operator and a colorful bullshitter, and there were always many rumors about his background: that he was a spy, that he was an FBI informant, that he was tied to organized crime. Like a lot of aspects of the stranger-than-fiction era of President Trump, these stories were both conspiratorial on their face and, it turns out, verifiably true. Langford read aloud from the transcript of a 2011 court hearing, only recently disclosed, in which the Justice Department acknowledged Sater’s assistance in investigations of the Mafia, the Russian mob, Al Qaeda, and unspecified “foreign governments.” A prosecutor once called Sater, in another secret proceeding, “the key to open a hundred different doors.” Many were wondering now whether he could unlock the truth about Trump and Russia.

In the universe of what the president has called, with telling self-centrism, his “satellite” associates, Sater spins in an unmapped orbit. The president has said under oath that he “really wouldn’t know what he looked like” if they were in the same room. (For the record, Sater is 51 years old and olive-complexioned, with heavy-lidded eyes.) Yet their paths have intersected frequently over the years. Most recently, in February, the Times reported that Sater had attempted to broker a pro-Russian peace deal in Ukraine, handing a proposal to Michael Cohen, the president’s personal attorney, to pass to Michael Flynn, who was then still the national-security adviser. Both Cohen and Flynn are now reported to be under scrutiny by the FBI, in connection with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russia’s election interference and Trump’s campaign.

If there really is a sinister explanation for the mutual affinity between Trump and Putin, it almost certainly traces back to money…

And if there is any kind of a logical explanation for Trump’s successful-so-far maneuvers to avoid actual pauperism / serious legal consequences, I’m guessing it rides along the murky confluences where the lures of big money intersect with the desire of “Great Powers” to influence and undermine each other. Like pilot fish and sharksuckers, crime lords and talented grifters are naturally attracted — and attractive — to the “intelligence” services, to a degree where sorting individual actors between legal and illicit becomes more of a timeline than a definition. The biggest barrier to getting honest answers may end up being that no one agency trusts any other (even, especially, its ‘partners’) to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Sure, they don’t want the criminals to escape… but even more important, they don’t want the other teams in the home league to get more credit and/or information. (She says, as someone living in Whitey Bulger’s and the Tsarnaev brothers’ stomping grounds.)

Reader Interactions

115Comments

  2. 2.

    lollipopguild

    What is this “stuff happened” that you speak of? Things have been so calm and quiet lately except for some place in Virginia.

  3. 3.

    Another Scott

    Relatedly, TheHill:

    A co-author of President Trump’s 1987 best-selling memoir “Art of the Deal” is predicting the president will resign from office before the end of the year.

    “The circle is closing at blinding speed. Trump is going to resign and declare victory before Mueller and Congress leave him no choice,” Tony Schwartz said Thursday.

    “Trump must be isolated. Resistance every day. The end is near but must keep pressure high,” he added.

    Schwartz made a similar prediction in May when he said that Trump would resign because he was in “pure terror” over the ongoing investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into possible collusion between his presidential campaign and Russia.

    “There is no right and wrong for Trump. There’s winning and losing. And that’s very different from right and wrong. Right now he’s in pure terror that he is going to lose,” Schwartz said in May.

    “And by the way, he is going to lose.”

    Emphasis added.

    He knows him pretty well, so maybe there’s something to it. It kinda fits my picture of him, but he’s so brain damaged now that he may be too stupid to quit before dragging the whole government down around him.

    :-(

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  5. 5.

    JPL

    What the hell is going on? I hate to quote Trump but it is appropriate. The NYTimes is going to print a story about James Murdoch slamming Trump, and if he lost Fox, he’s done.

  6. 6.

    efgoldman

    She says, as someone living in Whitey Bulger’s and the Tsarnaev brothers’ stomping grounds

    That would suggest that any of us, living inside I-495 during the last 30 years or so, bears some responsibility for those two sociopaths. I don’t believe that and neither do you.

  8. 8.

    JPL

    @Patricia Kayden: The repubs can convince him to leave for health reasons, and then close down the FBI investigation. The problem is if the Attorney General of NY Schneiderman, is investigating him, they cannot shut that down.
    I have no idea what will happen, but I hope it is before the end of August. I bet a son on inauguration day, that he’d be gone before September. Trump will spite me and wait until September.

  10. 10.

    rikyrah

    Update on my sister.
    She’s out of ICU.
    She’s in a regular room.
    Yes, she has issues that they have to get under control, but they’re working on it..and she’s out of ICU!
    Thanks for all the prayers. Please keep them coming.

  11. 11.

    Yarrow

    @Another Scott: He’ll only resign if he can figure out how to get out of going to prison. If he can’t get a deal he’s not going to go willingly. I don’t think he’ll get a deal.

  14. 14.

    Yarrow

    @rikyrah: Fantastic news! I hope all goes well with her health issues and they are able to get everything under control. Sending good thoughts.

  16. 16.

    germy

    @JPL:

    The NYTimes is going to print a story about James Murdoch slamming Trump

    Rupert had dinner with Trump and told him to fire Bannon. That didn’t happen, and so… now this.

    Also, a Murdoch paper ran a story about a Trump project being turned down in Australia because of ties to mobsters.

    If you refuse a direct Murdoch order, expect bad press from that family.

  17. 17.

    rikyrah

    Felix has been rotten for a long time. It’s said that the reason he’s avoided jail this long is because he had friends in high places who valued the information that he gave them on international targets. That protection came from the IC.
    I have believed that the IC has decided that they can’t afford Felix, because they have bigger fish to fry, so no more protection…
    Thus, he’s squealing.

  22. 22.

    Yarrow

    @Major Major Major Major: Mueller’s job was to investigate Russian influence in the election. The investigation has widened because so much of Trump’s team and the GOP are involved. It has become follow-the-money as well and has gone into money-laundering. Trump resigning would not impact the investigation into all that. However, a new President could appoint a new Attorney General and that person could fire Mueller. At this point I don’t think that would go over well.

  23. 23.

    NonyNony

    @Another Scott: Trump quitting is wishful thinking. Obama is in his head and anything less than 2 terms where he dismantles everything Obama did would be losing. He’s not going to do that.

    He’s more likely to be removed by the 25th amendment than resign, and the 25A solution is incredibly unlikely.

  27. 27.

    Mike J

    @rikyrah: Out of ICU is always good news. She might be able to get a good night’s sleep, something that’s hard enough to do in a hospital, but impossible in ICU.

  29. 29.

    Ohio Mom

    @rikyrah: Great news!

    Obviously, when someone needs it, the ICU is the place to be. But I’ve found it too weird for comfort to see a loved one in there, surrounded by all those tubes and monitors. Has made me weak in the knees.

    Big sigh of relief and big wishes for recovery to continue to proceed apace.

  30. 30.

    Mnemosyne

    I just saw some idiot friend of a distant relative claim on Facebook that the Trumps are being treated worse than the Obamas were.

    I.
    Can’t.
    Even.

    I’m done for the day. My level of Fucking Moron has gotten too high, and I need to eat some dinner, read some books, and prep some vegetables before I pop a blood vessel. I’ll see all y’all tomorrow.

  31. 31.

    Mike in NC

    I see Trump going out like the James Cagney villain in White Heat. “Made it, Melania! Top of the world!” as he pushes the nuclear button.

  33. 33.

    JPL

    @Davebo: The repubs could close down the investigation, and Pence could pardon him. The catch though is if he is charged by NY state.

  37. 37.

    JPL

    @TenguPhule: haha. I bet my son that the asshole in chief would be gone. Hopefully my son is here long after I’m gone. Hopefully, the asshole in chief is behind bars.

  39. 39.

    Mnemosyne

    @Yarrow:

    Before I go, I finally got my recipes today, but it also looks like short-term freezing of vegetables before cooking them is no big deal, so I should be able to chop and prep my green beans, fennel bulb, zucchini, etc, freeze them, and use them throughout the week without losing too much flavor. Phew!

  40. 40.

    germy

    Steve Bannon Detonates His Trump Survival Plan, Worrying Allies

    “He’s saying, ‘I’m going to force you to fire me in a public way or we’re going to follow the agenda we were elected for,'” an ally said.

    Allies who spend too long in Donald Trump’s doghouse usually get sent away for good. Chief strategist Steve Bannon is trying to forestall that fate.

    Bannon — the polarizing and enigmatic hero of the alt-right, who has become a flashpoint in the aftermath of the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia — has for months drawn the president’s ire, with Trump feeling his strategist seeks too much credit for his election win.

    “That fucking Steve Bannon taking credit for my election,” Trump recently told a confidant, referring to a new book focused on Bannon’s influence, Devil’s Bargain by Joshua Green, according to a source with knowledge of the conversation.

  45. 45.

    efgoldman

    @rikyrah:

    Update on my sister

    I don’t want to intrude where I’m not welcome, but having just gone thru kidney failure, hospitalization, and starting dialysis myself over the last month, I might have some useful insight.
    Feel free to ignore me. Also feel free to get my email from Anne Laurie.

  47. 47.

    Anne Laurie

    @efgoldman:

    That would suggest that any of us, living inside I-495 during the last 30 years or so, bears some responsibility for those two sociopaths. I don’t believe that and neither do you.

    Nope — just pointing out that we’ve got a little more up-close-and-personal reason to believe that Our Gubmint may be unnecessarily conflicted when it comes to prosecuting this topic.

    Lots of Bostonians consoled each other for years with the lie that At least Whitey kept the drug dealers out of the neighborhood… or with the later lie that If a couple of immigrant thugs in Waltham murder each other over drugs, it’s practically a public service. Turning a collective blind eye to law enforcers who ‘bend the rules a little’ isn’t just immoral and corrosive, it’s dangerous.

  48. 48.

    different-church-lady

    @JPL:

    I bet a son on inauguration day, that he’d be gone before September.

    It would be terrible to lose a child in a bet. Why didn’t you just say fifty bucks?

  49. 49.

    efgoldman

    @Ruckus: I thought of you this evening when CBS ran a detailed story of how the sailors in the flooded compartment of the Fitzgerald reacted.
    I turned to mrs efg and said: the training worked.

  50. 50.

    JPL

    @Adam L Silverman: He’s on my list of magical thinking, and by that I mean he states things that I want to be true. He’s better then Claude and Mensch, but it is still magical thinking.

  51. 51.

    germy

    @JPL:

    He’s better then Claude and Mensch, but it is still magical thinking.

    I’d add the Palmer Report to that list.

  52. 52.

    efgoldman

    @Anne Laurie:

    Turning a collective blind eye to law enforcers who ‘bend the rules a little’ isn’t just immoral and corrosive

    Which in the end, wasn’t done. Conelly went in the slam, and I don’t think he was the only LOE who did.

    ETA: I don’t know what could have been done in advance with the Tsarnaevs. Pre-emptive law enforcement is still not allowed.

  54. 54.

    MomSense

    @rikyrah:

    That’s feet news! We will keep the prayers going her way.

    I fell asleep at 7 and just woke up. Not sure if I want to go back to bed or not. Weird

  57. 57.

    Shana

    @debbie: Hey! We’ll be in Cincy for a family wedding tomorrow to Sunday. Although I’m lactose intollerant, the rest of the family will insist on visits every day, at least once, while we’re there.

  59. 59.

    Anne Laurie

    @Yarrow:

    He’ll only resign if he can figure out how to get out of going to prison.

    He may pull a larger variant on the “You’re not quitting, I’m FIRING you!” stunt he just pulled with those business councils that were disbanded.

    Or it may be forced upon him, by Team Javanka or Team Putin, that it’s better to be in exile somewhere with no extradiction treaty than in jail.

    I figure part of Mike Pence’s current South American tour, apart from being out of the national media spotlight, is to scout out foreign officials who might be brought or bought around to offering asylum to some nice Christian gentlemen who might’ve been mislead by false ‘friends’…

  60. 60.

    mozzerb

    @Adam L Silverman: The Spectator is a long established conservative magazine here in the UK, maybe roughly parallel to the National Review in the USA? So if they’re publishing an anti-Trump article, I wouldn’t say they’re guaranteed to get it right but at least it won’t be leftish wishful thinking.

  62. 62.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @rikyrah:

    That all sounds promising, rikyrah. I don’t pray, but have been keeping your sister and you in my heart and thoughts. (And Peanut!)

  67. 67.

    efgoldman

    @germy:

    GOP Rep. Rohrabacher Poses With Holocaust Denier Chuck C. Johnson

    What’s lower than slime mold? Because whatever it is, Dana Rohrbacher is lower.

  70. 70.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Rick Wilson last winter

    Verified account TheRickWilson
    Remember, remember,
    The 8th of November,
    ‘Twas Putin, and treason and plot;
    I see no reason
    Why pro-Russian treason
    Should ever be forgot.
    2:55 PM – 10 Dec 2016

    Rick Wilson tonight

    Rick Wilson‏Verified account @ TheRickWilson 2h2 hours ag
    Just wanted to re-up this. You’ll know why in about two weeks.

    not holding my breath, or waiting for frog walks or perp-walks, but Wilson might have a source

  74. 74.

    Ruckus

    @efgoldman:
    I told an ensign that I worked for that his denigrating the sailors as being unprepared was bullshit. We got called to general quarters 2 days later at 3am. Entire ship up and at um in less than 2 minutes and most of us were asleep. Turned out to be a fire, and the ninny officer on deck either didn’t know we had a fire alarm or panicked. I’m going with #2. Also you have to understand that up and at um means everyone gets up, dressed, runs to their station and report ready, and it seems like everyone sleeping in the front of the ship has to go aft and everyone in the rear has to go to the front, and there is one passage way for everyone to run in. Ensign never said another word.
    BTW I was stationed on the previous generation of DDG, the Charles Adams class.

  76. 76.

    Yarrow

    @Felonius Monk: Jeni’s is stupidly expensive. It’s delicious but I’m not sure it’s $10-12 a pint delicious.

    @Anne Laurie: Yes, there have to be things happening behind the scenes that we won’t know about until they just happen. I thought I read that Pence will be back in town and he and Trump will be at Camp David this weekend. Saw speculation that it could be some discussion of how to get Trump out of there.

  77. 77.

    Bupalos

    @rikyrah: Wow, I can’t say I agree with this. Kevin durant is a basketball player, and he needs to show some respect. Donald Trump may have some issues, but he’s the president of the united states, and was elected by Citizens, he’s the representative of the majority, and if we’re going to let basketball players tell respectable citizens HAHA I YANKED YOUR CHAIN DJT ISN’T FIT TO WIPE DURANTS BUTT!!! Despite the fact that I don’t like durant one bit, he’s a rather-switch-than-fight guy, but DJT still can’t trim durant toenails!

  78. 78.

    efgoldman

    @Ruckus:

    I told an ensign that I worked for that his denigrating the sailors as being unprepared was bullshit.

    Everybody knows that ensigns, or second lieutenants in the other services, don’t know shit. The smart ones shut their yaps, and listen and learn. The rest not so much.
    When I was on active duty, and the officers in our unit were all MDs, nurses, or dentists, we spent an awful lot of time with “with all due respect sir…”

  83. 83.

    Steve in the ATL

    @efgoldman:

    That would suggest that any of us, living inside I-495 during the last 30 years or so, bears some responsibility for those two sociopaths. I don’t believe that and neither do you.

    In related news, I turned on the TV in my hotel room and “Boondock Saints” is playing

  85. 85.

    efgoldman

    @lamh36:

    what happens if Trump incites racial violence in Phoenix? What if neo-Nazis/white supremacists show up?

    In an open carry state, too, right?

  87. 87.

    Felonius Monk

    @Yarrow:

    Jeni’s is stupidly expensive.

    I agree, but it was only about $8 a pint here in upstate NY. I’m sticking with Ben & Jerry.

  89. 89.

    efgoldman

    @Quinerly:

    Mayor asked him not to come.

    Boston issued a permit for Saturday, but the list of things the police will confiscate (and probably arrest holders) for is very long.
    The Boston and state police aren’t going to like being told to work on Saturday.

  90. 90.

    lamh36

    @lamh36: My advice to activist who I am sure will show up…DO NOT ENGAGE…let them engage first…then when you retaliate it can be considered just defending yourself.

  91. 91.

    Yarrow

    @Felonius Monk: I’ve seen it on sale for $6, but I think that was after they had their listeria issues and needed to get back in the market. Usually $10 a pint but I’ve seen special flavors as high as $12. Honestly I’ve quit looking at the price because I never buy it. Even Ben & Jerry’s is approaching $4 a pint without some kind of sale or deal so I only buy that when it’s on sale. I love ice cream and know way too much about what it costs. LOL.

  92. 92.

    Ruckus

    @efgoldman:
    I didn’t bother with all due respect. I was in charge of the entire navigation system for the ship and the only one on board who knew how to maintain and fix it and only one authorized to do so. This ensign was not one of the smart ones. At least in everyone’s mind but his. Thing was he wasn’t an idiot, he just had a rather inflated view of himself. Not all that unheard of with butterbars.

  100. 100.

    Anne Laurie

    @efgoldman:

    I don’t know what could have been done in advance with the Tsarnaevs. Pre-emptive law enforcement is still not allowed.

    Of course not, but there was that ‘drug related’ triple murder in Waltham. I’m not the only person who thinks that, whether or not Tamerlan was the actual murderer, if the Responsible Authorities had taken those deaths seriously rather than saying “They were just low-level dealers, and the national three-letter-agency guys wanna protect their possible sources”, the elder Tsarnaev would have been too busy to keep messing with pressure-cooker bombs. Bad drug policy compounded lousy “intelligence” policy.

  101. 101.

    efgoldman

    @Quinerly:

    I’m very worried about Boston

    Unless they’ve been lying to the media, which I doubt, the mayor and police are not going to put up with even a smidgen of shit. March, yell, don’t bring a flag or a stick or a back pack….

  102. 102.

    Ruckus

    @Yarrow:
    As well they should be. A black (or jew) man throwing his lot in with white supremacists and actual nazis? What the ever loving fuck? There can’t possibly be enough money in the world for that.

  105. 105.

    ThresherK

    @Yarrow: “Way too much knowledgd” is me looking at a 1-qt Cuisinart ice cream maker at a Sally Army store for $10, wondering if this is it.

  106. 106.

    different-church-lady

    Ahh… Universal Hub!

    Make Way for Nazis?
    By Will LaTulippe on Thu, 08/17/2017 – 10:22pm
    I read that when I was a kid. The characters were named Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack, and Quack.

  108. 108.

    Anne Laurie

    @efgoldman:

    Boston issued a permit for Saturday, but the list of things the police will confiscate (and probably arrest holders) for is very long.

    It was the lead news on all three local stations today, and from what I’ve heard I’m in favor. The permits have time limits — noon to two — and arrangements, including jersey barriers, are being put in place to keep ‘both sides’ apart. No food vendors permitted (cuts down on the looky-loos) or ‘clothing’ vendors (no big displays of treason tees and Nazi memorabilia). Swan boats will be taken out of the water, and the Frog Pond toddler splashing pool shut (tourists & innocent bystanders will be told that Nazis have ruined their afternoon fun). The Freeze Peach “idealists” will no doubt whine so hard that dogs will be in pain, but treating it as a potential public safety hazard sounds about right to me.

    (Also, I fully expect yet another teenage idiot to attempt to throw a rock through the Holocaust Memorial panes… assuming the enhanced security patrols don’t discourage them.)

  110. 110.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Adam L Silverman: Paul Wood and John Schindler are two of the people whose news about Trump I take with a grain of salt. They get some stuff right, but not always. Both seem to have too much of an agenda of their own for me to feel confident of their information.

  111. 111.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @rikyrah:
    Semi-seriously, I have been grateful for all minorities, especially blacks, since despite my vote my demographic as a whole has decided to burn the country down rather than share it with you. Jesus fuckity fuck.

  114. 114.

    Suffragette City

    @rikyrah Sorry to see your sister is ill and glad for all of you that she is out of ICU.

    As far as Wood, Schindler and the rest, I think Fitzmas taught me to believe it when it happens and not before no matter how much I want it to. That and the first Bundy trial verdict in Oregon. Oh yeah, and the election. The list grows ever longer.

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