Dr. Jekyll & Robert Hyde
Definition of mobster: a member of a criminal gang.
Definition of mafia: (a) a secret criminal society of Sicily or Italy; (b) a similarly conceived criminal organization in the U.S. Or elsewhere.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
I do not think any forum members here were surprised by the news about former ambassador Marie Yovanovitch. I could be wrong, of course, though I doubt it. But I do think that lots of Americans are shocked.
Before I talk about this, I'd like to share a short story. A number of my father's thirteen siblings had careers in law enforcement and intelligence. One, a senior investigator in the NYS BCI, was experienced in investigating the mafia. Being a first-generation Irish-American, his specialty was not the Italian mafia, but the Irish mob that infected numerous large cities in the US. I remember listening, from my bedroom door, as he told my father one episode in particular.
He attended a meeting at the top floor of a high-rise. When everyone had arrived, the top man became very serious, and said that they knew for certain that one man there was a cop, and he thought he knew who. The room became very quiet for a moment, before they grabbed some poor bastard, tied rope around his ankles, and let him hang outside from a window to get him to admit his dishonorable role.
I remember my father saying, “Jesus! You must have been scared to death!” “No,” my uncle said, “I was too busy saying 'drop the son-of-a-bitch' to be nervous.” The immoral of this story is that membership in organized crime is a high-risk life style.
I also remember my uncle saying that organized crime depended upon two things: loyalty and keeping your mouth shut. The most successful mobsters in the days of old knew to keep a low profile. The flamboyant John Gotti was the exception to the rule, at a time when organized crime was undergoing significant changes in America.
Now, you can imagine how frustrating it was for my brothers and I – poor, dumb kids from a small farm in the sticks – when almost every time an urban boxing promoter showed serious interest in us, my father had his brothers come and speak to us. We'd say how nice these guys treated us great. Another uncle who was a BCI senior investigator said, “Off course they are. But that changes once you are indebted to them.” This uncle sent one promoter my brother and I hung out ringside at Madison Square Garden for the second Ali vs Frazier bout, to the federal prison. He told us that once you are in debt to these guys, you rarely get out. That's not how they grow their business.
One of Trump's business relationships that stands out to me was when he partnered with Don King to promote top boxing matches in his Atlantic City Casino. In the early 1950s, he began running a bookmaking operation in Cleveland. King had killed two men, one in 1954 and one in 1967. He shot his first victim in the back, and stomped the second to death over a $600 debt. He went to prison.
Upon Don's release in the early 1970s, he began working to promote boxing in Cleveland. In a really short time, he promoted the “Rumble in the Jungle” fight between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali in Zaire. Within years, he was so powerful a promoter that he was able to get a 1983 pardon from Ohio's republican governor James Rhodes. It's not good to have a murder conviction on one's record, if one seeks a license to manage boxers.
In time, King connected with Trump. Lots of King's champions fought in top fights in Trump's casino. Millions of dollars were made, although in at least seven cases, King would later be sued for hia failure to pay his fighters. You can see why Don and Donald got along so well.
This wasn't a one-time relationship to organized crime. We know that Trump dealt with the mob when he hired construction companies for building projects. They were the only group that he paid in full. That was when Michael Cohen was representing Trump. Cohen was introduced to those representing Russian interests in the US. In his post-bankruptcy days, these interests helped Trump access the only bank loans available to him.
It's also known that the Russians actively interfered in the 2016 presidential election. Trump is the only person who denies this. Those Russian interests supporting Trump is the unholy trinity of government, military intelligence, and the mob. They have, through Putin, exercised power over Trump as needed since he took office. There is a significant amount of evidence about this that isn't made public, largely due to its classification. But another stumbling block has been an unwillingness of republicans to look into Trump's corruption.
And how could they? Take, for example, Devin Nunes. Again, forum members knew Nunes was involved in the Ukraine scandal. We didn't need to see Lev Parnas being interviewed by Rachal Maddow to know – as important as that interview was. But the public needs to see it, and the related information being made public. And we all need to know about Robert Hyde.
Trump has been attempting to create an administration based upon the Putin model. In doing so, he has severely damaged the US government domestically and internationally. By using the mob organizational structure, he was able to avoid responsibility for the Trump-Russian scandal. He became emboldened to try the same gig with Ukraine. Trump did his best impression of a tough guy, an act he literally only drops when he interacts with Putin. For Trump is a loud-mouthed, disloyal, petty mobster, who quivers in fear when he encounters Putin. There is a reason.
Now that the true nature of the administration is being exposed, we are witnessing the biggest mafia melt-down of our times. It involves the impeachment trial of the president, and other things being pulled in by Trump's gravitational pull – such as Parnas's criminal case. We will not see the players remaining silent out of loyalty, for that silence can only come from fear of the Russian mob, not the president's operation. Members of that group of fools will be hung out to dry.
Peace,
H2O Man
= new reply since forum marked as read
I haven't got past it yet but always enjoy your stuff and it's always very thoughtful and well written, so ... I'm looking forward to it 
It just seems ... out of place to me in YOUR posts, when there's minor mistakes ... cause they're always like 99.9% perfect grammar and spelling and all that. So, I made some assumptions about your intent and concluded you'd probably care enough to make them 100% correct.
But of course, your call, mate!
Again, I look forward to your posts when I see 'em, for real. Thanks again 
Also, you're still a much more than 'fair' writer my friend.
...and those who do his dirty deeds. With one exception; Rudy, who himself lacks that very skill of cushioning himself from his button men.
Trump trusting Rudy with this Ukraine task will prove to be the biggest blunder of his life (and will make his AC Taj Mahal project look brilliant, by comparison ).
