Ruth Marcus writes that Paul Manafort is, indeed, a man of mystery:
The mystery — a mystery to me at least — is comprehending the magnitude of Manafort’s greed. Assuming the allegations are true — and even if Manafort’s former partner, Rick Gates, is an admitted liar, bank accounts don’t lie — why would someone who vacuumed up so many millions of dollars take the risk of not paying the taxes due on that income?
The Manafort indictments detail a gusher of cash flowing to the lobbyist, $60 million from the Russian-backed political party in the Ukraine alone, according to a filing by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Even if you paid half of that in tax, which would mean you had a pretty bad set of tax accountants, you would have enough left for all the ostrich jackets a man might want. In this case, greed isn’t good — it’s stupid. The temptation to do the dirty work of autocrats and oligarchs and rake in millions in return is understandable, if not laudable; it is a bipartisan failing of human nature.
With all that cash flowing in, why risk tax fraud? And why the desperation to keep himself financially afloat?
My colleague Catherine Rampell has noted the dwindling number of prosecutions for white-collar crime, and maybe, absent Manafort’s seemingly reckless decision to go to work for the Trump campaign, he might have gotten away with it. Criminal prosecutions referred by the IRS to the Justice Department have fallen by half since 2013. Still, Manafort should not have been sleeping soundly, in any of his many multimillion-dollar homes — he was being interviewed by FBI agents about his “offshore consulting activities” even as he was allegedly failing to report his income.
The New Yorker’s Adam Davidson summarized Manafort’s precarious situation and frantic behavior: “By early 2016, the man who previously had been sending hundreds of thousands of dollars to the U.S. each month seemed to be in a self-destructive frenzy, making the desperate moves of a man who needed some cash, right away, and had run out of options.”
This man was Donald Trump's campaign manager? The stink is becoming overpowering.
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12 comments:
Manifort "borrowed" $60 million from Russian Mobsters and when Yanukovich was kicked out and fled to Russia, the Ukraine Corruption Cash Flow taps were turned off for Gates and Paulie.
So he turned to wilder and wilder schemes of fraud to try to keep up payments on the vig.
The recent claims against Fed.Sec. Ross, aside from the fact that he stole $120 million from his partners and companies, doesn't pay his staff or contractors, is that he steals Sweet and Low packets from restaurants, because he's too cheap to buy it.
Sure, normal people might think that properly reporting offshore income and paying taxes, not only pays for services and will save them grief down the road,
but the Ogliarch class ain't normal people.
No, they ain't normal people, Jay -- like Trump himself.
Or his Deplorables, the only difference is the Deplorables only have the opportunities to steal meth, their Elderly Parents Oxy, or wages from their employee's, they are never gonna get a shot at the "big money",
But Trump still seems to convince them that their numbers will come up, Jay, and that they're sure to win the lottery.
I don't Trumpistas expect to win the lottery, Owen. Conservatism is all about kissing up and kicking down. As long as they keep getting to kick women, children and people darker than them, they're happy to let "their betters" steal their money.
Cap
You have a point, Cap. Modern conservatism is all about punishing those who you perceive as your "lessers."
None of the Gullibillies, Deplorables or alt-Reich voted for The Insane Clown POStus out of "economic anxiety". As the US MSM's Cletus Safari's and Normalize a Nazi News have shown time and time again, the voted for Trump because he hates all the same people they do.
The ReThug Party was built on a quiet, 60 year platform of racism, anger, hate and resentment. Then they got Faux News to stoke it. Newt's infamous 1998 memo showed ReThug politicians how to use pejoritives and dogwhistles against everybody "not them" and spread the hateoraide around, but quietly.
Then, a decade of grifters. Inghram's "Not My America" Trainwreck is a good case in point. She's never been married, ( lesbian), has 3 adopted children, 2 Russian boys and a Guatemalan girl, Catholic, and yet for 30 years, made a good living stoking hate against immigrants, latinos, People of Colour, LBGTQ, Catholics, the Popes and women.
The Insane Clown POSus simply stopped saying the quiet parts quietly. They love him for that.
All the Never-Trumpers, hate, first, that he's overt in the Racism, Hate, Anger and Resentment and not using dogwhistles like Reagan did, or Bush, or Newt,
second, that he used their own weapon, and turned it against the ReThug Party Establishment,
and are shocked, shocked I say, at what the ReThug Party base is. Sikes is a great example. His radio show tried to out Rush, Rush, complete with daily callers uncensored, blackface skits, immigrants and muslims are coming to rape your daughters, fake Sharia no go zones,
And now, he's shocked that the ReThug Party is what he personally spent 30 years making it.
Study after study after study have shown that the conservative mind is authotarian, reactive, illogical and doesn't respond to facts, reason, logic. It reacts emotionally, to stories. It's also situational. It also believes in a zero sum world.
Tell the conservative mind a story that tax cuts for the rich will trickle down, they'll believe you, despite 40 years of empirical proof, it doesn't. Tell them a story of how they won't, and they will lose their jobs, and they won't believe you. They still have their jobs and they've been told that the potholes are there because "those people"'s welfare sucks money away from fixing potholes.
With the "Browning of America" and LBGTQ rights, the fact that some POC was promoted, or a Cake was baked for a Wedding, must of course mean White Genocide.
There is no reaching them. The conservative mind only changes sometimes, as a response to great personal trauma that shakes their entire world view. And still, only sometimes. It's much more common to double down.
The fact is, Jay, that the modern conseervative mind isn't really conservaive -- at least not as Edmund Burke defined the term. Modern conservatism owes more to Ayn Rand and mental illness than it does to any consistent political philosophy.
Burke was an apologist.
Through out history, "conservatives" and Consecrative Parties have always been reactionary. They are the one step back, two steps back, for every positive step forward in liberal democracies evolution.
While their have been times when there has been a Progressive Conservative alliance, as the center has moved right on economics and militarism since the '70's, and the center has moved left on the other social justice issues, "conservatives" have had to go full wingnut to try to stay relevant, politically.
Now, all that's left in "conservatism" globally, is aouthotarianism, racism, fear, hate, resentment and big big bags of QAnon level cray cray on every level.
Modern conservatism owes more to Ayn Rand and mental illness than it does to any consistent political philosophy.
That's good, Owen! I'm stealing it!
Cap
I agree, Jay. There used to be admirable progressive conservatives. While I didn't vote for Robert Stanfield, I admired him. I also admired Bill Davis -- although just as I got to Ontario he was leaving. But I have found little to admire in conservative politicians since then.
Be my guest, Cap.
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