Big Trump Problem Hiding in Plain Sight

[wiggs]

Josh Marshall reminds us not to miss the forest for the trees...that the election hacking Russia problem with Manafort, Flynn, and Cage is big...but not to be forgotten are the underlying dark, myriad connections with Russian oligarchs, mobsters, and government officials (hard to tell the difference) that allowed for election collusion but which also may compromise the current CIC and POTUS in his everyday decisions. A big deal.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/hiding-in-plain-sight--2

"

But this assumption has tended to hide an extremely relevant story in plain site: namely, Donald Trump had and continues to have extensive and deep ties and business dependence on organized crime figures in the US, Russia, Ukraine and a host of other countries. If we'd never heard about Russian intelligence hacking of the 2016 election or Carter Page or Paul Manafort or Sergei Kislyak this would seem like an extraordinarily big deal. And indeed it is an extraordinarily big deal.

What that means is that we - as reporters and as a concerned public - should probe these relationships on their own terms just as much as the most logical place to hunt looking for the evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow. Perhaps another way to put it is, let's find that needle. But don't forget the haystack is a huge story in itself. It may end up being the bigger one. That story goes not only to Donald Trump but what US law enforcement and intelligence knew about Donald Trump, his connections to the world of oligarchs and organized crime long before the DNC's and John Podesta's emails started appearing out of thin air to help saw the 2016 election. There is a whole lot there.

"

[Leghorn21]

1. Here's some extensive and deep ties, wigg - found this via buzzfeed a month or so ago (who

can keep up?!)

http://freedomdawning.org/docs/TrumpWorldDataPublic.xls

[wiggs]

5. So many trees...and the media loves the drama of the day, hardly ever talks

about the big picture of the possibility of a POTUS controlled by a foreign adversary.

Even when they talk about the players involved in election hacking, it's always just the conflicts between the accusers and the accused...and between the Trump pundit and the sane pundit. They don't actually discuss in depth the underlying issue of Russia complicity and Russia control...a dem might bring it up but the conversation devolves into an Obama or Clinton mess somehow.

Great for ratings...bad for the country. Again.

[Leghorn21]

7. Oui, wiggs. This trump mobster was bought and paid for ages ago by Putin and his oligarch

buddies, period. He owes them everything...to me, it's just that simple.

I'm trying hard to keep the faith that this basic truth WILL be revealed one day (soon, please), and all the time-filling blah blah and "but what about" yammering will stop dead in its tracks...

[L. Coyote]

2. Follow his Twitter feed for lots of great posts.

https://twitter.com/joshtpm

Really great illustrations too.

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

What is behind the Trump tax story. Russian mob money loaned to Trump.

[DK504]

10. Xi explains 5,000 years worth of history and hatred between China and Korea

and it only took 10 minutes. Wow history is big!!!

I hope he knows we had a revolution for our freedoms and when.

[tblue37]

3. K&R for visibility! nt

[kentuck]

4. Someone once said..

Behind every great fortune lies a great crime.

[yurbud]

6. even Trump's domestic business conflicts are low hanging fruit...

But Republicans and even many Democrats don't want to whack that pinata because they or their donors are only one or two degrees less conflicted.

[niyad]

9. that whole ridiculous "airstrike" was distraction.

[calimary]

11. MMM-HMMMMM. Gee, how convenient. Suddenly nobody's talking about Carter Page anymore.

News breaks mere minutes before Sean Spicer has his scheduled news conference (so guess what reporters will all be clamoring to ask about!).

Gee whiz. Problem solved (or diverted for awhile). As if by magic. Or something...

SHINY-OBJECT ALERT!

[DK504]

12. Thanks Comey.

"...that allowed for election collusion..."

Hilary didn't lose, America did. (Thanks for the steal of phrase). it will take a generation to fix the clusterfuck, if we can at all.