What set this off on the *unexpected* side of bells was Soph0571's thread https://www.democraticunderground.com/10181403983 , wherein she touched on it. But best vibes to her SO and her, and admiration for both and for her stalwart humor under the circumstances.

******** So nostalgia grows fonder ever the further back in time it reaches, and a decade after my 4 yrs stint in the Navy I started to get misty about it forgetting how I counted the days while in it. Details here and there looking better. One was about the Ship's Bell, especially on my smaller first ship where it was more prominent, and then at a flea market or second hand “antique” store, there was a small brass bell with a figure or animal of some kind as a handle, and that started the collection mania going. And going and going. And a few people would bring me one from their tours. I like only brass or other metal ones, and I graciously accepted glass and China ones until the benefactors departed when I would re-gift those.

Anyway, I don’t even have a count of how many there are, at least fifty, and several years ago reached the point of NO MORE BELLS, but Collectors out there know that there’s always ONE MORE MUST HAVE.

First up here is the *actual* ship’s bell that inspired my craze. The Popeye shows how I used a bell I didn’t like to put a Popeye PIN on it. Then there’s the clapper-LESS bell, for use in *striking* it with a mallet or soft drum stick. And as for the outside big ranch bell, I haven’t rung it since SHITLER took power and expect to ring it starting, hopefully, on November 3 or thereabouts.

**********BUT the theme is the *UNEXPECTED* side of bells, as Soph0571 broached. As can be seen from the dust on them in the pics, my bells basically just sit on the shelf. But when the collecting was new, I was focused on the WELCOME side of bell ringing, thinking everybody felt that way, until these three episodes taught me something.

EPISODE 1: For a short period I took one or another of the bells with me to Happy Hour and when the bartender was at the other end of the bar or otherwise slow to come around, I would ring my bell and for a few times at different places, everybody laughed and had a cheery old time. Until at this one place, where the bartender was originally from another country, after the first couple of times came to me politely yet deadly earnestly to ask me not to ring it. She said that in her country of origin, a bell was used at school, that she hated school and bells, so please stop. I didn’t take it seriously, and a bit later an elderly customer took up the place next to me and waited overly long for the bartender to come, and I took out my bell and said to him, “Here, ring this!1” He did. And boy did the bartender respond!1 She rushed over directly to me and I thought she was going to jump over the bar to strangle me, saying “If you ring that damned thing ONE MORE TIME…!1”

EPISODE 2: So when I first acquired the big ranch bell and hung it in the tree, a friend visited and I was showing her around and when we got to the bell, I rang it smartly, the way it should be rung, smartly with disciplined vigor. Then suddenly the neighbor fellow next door came *TEARING* from around the corner of his house like with his hair on fire!1 When he saw us just standing there, he pulled himself up short, let his hair fire go out and walked back, head down pondering.

EPISODE 3: In one of those browsing stores full of miscellaneous goods and knickknacks and whatever, there were only the sales clerk busy in a back corner and me in the place. I browsed and browsed and finally found something and went to the front station to pay. The clerk didn’t notice me standing waiting. There was a DESK BELL on the station. But I had learned my lesson about bells, so just kept waiting for the clerk, who finally saw me and came rushing up, saying, “Sir, why didn’t you ring the bell?!1” I said, ruefully, “No, no… no problem!1”

Funny how the local crazed wingnut gets at least weekly space, sometimes a couple of times. (Yea, I realize he writes that many.) Here 'tis:

*************

It was said of JFK, “Johnny, we hardly knew ye.” Today’s difference is that we have known way too much about Donald J. Trump from Day 1, more than we ever wanted to know or invited into our lives, and he will be the most surprised of anybody when he realizes how soon and fast the country will completely wipe out all memory of him.

Since that escalator descent and initial shock of his racism, it has been a daily barrage of jaw-dropping incredulity for us. We’ve been through all stages of: Let’s understand him; let’s see him grow and change; let’s see the wider world open his awareness and his heart. And we who knew who and what he was from Day 1 launched into the daily game of Ain’t-It-Awful, trading his latest verbal atrocity and diagnoses, and just attacking.

What kind of person would insult Gold Star parents, veterans in general, and any people of integrity, honor, accomplishments, dragging down anybody whom he looks bad next to? Nothing worked against him because there was no need to be complicated — just no norms, all publicity stunts, and cutthroat tactics. But we are pulling out of this morass and he will be gone. Even his diehard supporters will eventually be rid of him and will be as happy as everybody else.

Both parties used to sort of believe what each said it stood for and what the other one was about. Well, the Republican Party has forfeited absolutely all pretense it has ever claimed to patriotism, veterans support, family values, pro-life, small government, character-matters, and all moral equities.

I don’t care about polls, strategies to fight him or what character assassinations he will unleash. But most of all, I won’t count on his losing in November.

I don't even want to talk to them.

&t=190s

**********QUOTE**********

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Tyrnauer

is an American film director. He directed the documentary feature Valentino: The Last Emperor (2009), which was short listed for an Oscar nomination in 2010,[1] Citizen Jane: Battle for the City (2016), Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood (2017), the 2018 documentary Studio 54 detailing New York's famed Studio 54 nightclub, and the 2019 documentary Where's My Roy Cohn?[2] Tyrnauer also developed, and executive produced, with producing partner Corey Reeser, the docuseries Home, directing its Hong Kong episode, about the Gary Chang’s Domestic Transformer home. The nine-part series premiered on Apple TV Plus in April 2020[3]. In May 2020, Showtime announced it had picked up the Matt Tyrnauer-directed four-part docuseries, The Reagans, to premiere later in the year [4]. Tyrnauer has been Editor-At-Large and Special Correspondent for Vanity Fair, where he has contributed many feature articles. ....

... Tyrnauer's feature story, "Once Upon a Time in Beverly Hills," which appeared in the March 2011 issue of Vanity Fair, won the best magazine feature of 2011 from the Deadline Club. It is currently being adapted into a feature film for HBO.[5][6][7] Additionally, he has written stories on Martha Stewart, Siegfried & Roy, Frank Gehry, Merv Griffin, and Gore Vidal.[8] In 2007, art book publisher Taschen released a commemorative, signed book on fashion designer Valentino Garavani featuring interviews conducted by and archival material assembled by Tyrnauer.[9]

In addition to Valentino: An Extraordinary Story, Tyrnauer also wrote the foreword or contributed to the books Bottega Veneta by Tomas Maier,[10] Theater of Shopping by Alastair Gordon,[11] and the anthology Commune: Designed In California.[12] In 2016, Rizzoli published the monograph Francesco Vezzoli, on the work and career of the Italian artist. Tyrnauer contributed an essay to the book, analyzing Vezzoli's exhibition and short film, Trailer for the Remake of Gore Vidal's Caligula.[13] Tyrnauer also appears in the film Best of Enemies (2015 film),[14] about the Vidal-Buckley debates on ABC News in 1968. He was interviewed as a friend of Vidal's, as well as editor of a half dozen of Vidal's essays, which appeared in Vanity Fair, and Vidal's celebrated anthologies, Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace and Imperial America: Reflections on the United States of Amnesia, and The Selected Essays of Gore Vidal.

Tyrnauer's first feature Valentino: The Last Emperor premiered at the Venice Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival, and won the Gold Hugo Award for Best Documentary at the 2008 Chicago International Film Festival and the Capri Documentary Award at the 2009 Capri Hollywood International Film Festival.[15] His Citizen Jane: Battle for the City premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival; Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. Studio 54 premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, as did Where's My Roy Cohn?[16][17] He is the co-founder, with his producing partner, Corey Reeser, of Altimeter Films. ....

**********QUOTE*****

Ever since SHITLER decided to inflict himself on us, it has been inexplicable that he has cozied up to the Russians at every turn, down to a few days ago when he’s sending ventilators to Russia. I’ve been calling him a cartel mobster for a couple of years just based on his behaviors – the LOYALTY thing, the demands for total authority.

So there have been bits here or there about Russians laundering money via condos in his properties, high prices and empty buildings. The mysteries have nagged – the attacks on MUELLER and COMEY, the weird alliances (GUILIANI).

So this lays it out: Not PUTIN, but a Russian mobster/banker, Semion Mogilevich. And GUILIANI + TRUMP is that they have the worst dirt on each other and hate each other but can’t throw each other under the bus. And SHITLER trashes the FBI guys because they know him as an FBI “Confidential Informant” (CI) and can’t expose him, hence why MUELLER hinted at everything but left it all hanging. And why SHITLER took a free hand at smearing MUELLER as "corrupt", because he knew, on the contrary, that MUELLER knew his CI status and could NOT expose SHITLER.

**********QUOTE********

.... But the “modern-day Eliot Ness,” as he was called, hid a deep family secret that a Giuliani confidant says goes a long way to explain why his self-worth has wavered throughout his life. Rudy’s father, Harold, was a neighborhood tough who did time in New York’s Sing Sing prison for armed robbery. This underworld background, revealed in muckraking journalist Wayne Barrett’s biography Rudy!, might help explain the chip Giuliani has carried on his shoulder throughout his career.

... Giuliani joined 10,000 off-duty police officers in a protest that boiled over with bursts of racism aimed at the city’s first black mayor. But harnessing outer-borough anger at Manhattan liberals was a key to victory that, in retrospect, was an ominous preview of the resentments that Trump would later stoke on a national scale. ....

https://gregolear.substack.com/p/bloody-mob-sht-an-interview-with
Bloody Mob Sh*t: An Interview with Lincoln's Bible
We talk Trump, Mogilevich, Epstein, Giuliani, Fred Trump, Roy Cohn, and more.
(by) Greg Olear

.... LB (Lincoln's Bible) : ... Fred (Trump), ... all (his construction projects) were done with known mafia partners, in Genovese-controlled territory, and eventually with a fully Genovese-owned construction company (HRH Construction). ....

... Remember donald’s quote, “Even my father, he said, you don’t want to go to Manhattan. That’s not our territory?” That’s because Manhattan, for construction, was Gambino territory. They controlled the concrete and unions. And Fred was a very loyal, shrewd front for the Genovese. To get his idiot, greedy kid into Manhattan, Fred and Roy Cohn had to get those two mob bosses to agree on a joint venture. ....

GO (Greg OLEAR) : Rudy Giuliani, whose father was a lesser mobster, built his reputation prosecuting Italian mobsters. In the process, he made it easier for the Russians to move in. ... ....

LB: Here’s the thing…and it’s NYC mob gossip, but I trust the source. Rudy and donald hate each other. Capital “H” hate. They both have dirt on one another. And, for both, it’s as bad as it gets. Cocaine, corruption, and bloody mob shit. So they’re stuck together. Don’t look for one to turn on the other. Unless drugs/alcohol/dementia takes over, and they burn each other down as they internally crumble. ....

GO: ... We know he (Jeffrey EPSTEIN) was associated with the Russian mafiya, through his relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell, whose father, Robert, was business partners with Semion Mogilevich, head of the Vor. ...

LB: Epstein laundered money for global arms dealers. ... ....

*****************

http://www.citjourno.org/mission
Citizen Journalists Consortium
POKE THE BEAR
(by) Lincoln's Bible

.... ... There is a man who controls our President. And his name is not Vladimir Putin. ....

... the most brilliant, dangerous, powerful, criminal mastermind the world has ever seen. This is not hyperbole. This is SEMION MOGILEVICH. ....

... Mogilevich, the "Boss of Bosses," is also known in Russia and to international intelligence agencies as Don Semyon, “The Brainy Don.” ....

... The Soviet Union collapsed. In the vacuum of leadership – of policy – of governmental order, a few hungry souls made a mad grab for state resources. They were the original seven oligarchs, called “The Magnificient Seven.” And they were all bankers. One of these first seven bankers, Mikhail Fridman – the founder of ALFABANK, is Semion Mogilevich’s partner. ... ....

... Putin was used to help execute Semion’s strategy for turning Russia into a Mafiya State. ... ....

... SEMION TRADES IN NUCLEAR MATERIAL AND ARMS WITH IRAN ... ....

... This aspect of Semion’s criminal enterprise is one thing (of many) the Iran Deal sought to eliminate. ... ....

... the Russian Mafiya’s infiltration of America. ... the Russian take-over of America’s mafia crime families, the “Five Families,” ... ....

... the mobster Vyacheslov Ivankov set him off on Semion’s trail. Ivankov was Semion’s lieutenant, sent to America to set up operations. If you recognize his name, it’s because Ivankov is the mobster who landed in a condo in Trump Tower, hid out regularly at Trump Taj Mahal, and was eventually caught by the FBI’s organized crime unit. ... ....

... Mogilevich’s crime syndicate is also THE case that puts the history of Donald Trump’s business “partnerships” into context. It explains why the #TrumpRussia investigation ... shifted from counter-intelligence to CRIMINAL. ...

It also answers what lurks beneath Trump’s flailing tweets, firing of Comey, and strategic undermining of the integrity of our independent press. ... ....

... The equation for finding the perfect mark is simple: 1) identify a businessman who has what you need – like a vehicle to wash your blood money, + 2) find their weak spot, and + 3) squeeze. ....

In the United States, there was one businessman at the top of Don Semyon’s list. One who was the easiest mark and could reap the greatest return. One who was sheltering Mogilevich's Men. One who was already in business with the American mafia, when "the" RUSSIAN MOB rolled over them all. ....

And thanks to Fred Trump, Roy Cohn, and the “Five Families” of American mafia, the United States already had a perfect front for Mogilevich to take. A man – a brand, that could wash the devil’s blood money clean. ....

... Semion Mogilevich took over American mafia’s territory, he took Donald Trump with it. ....

... Semion Mogilevich took over his second brand: TRUMP ENTERPRISES. ....

*************


https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1150239448649866&id=100009914652603
(by) Greg OLEAR Facebook page

.... A confidential informant, or “CI,” is a mole run by law enforcement within a criminal enterprise. Not a “rat,” whose treachery is well known to his comrades, but a craftier, more duplicitous breed of rodent. Crimes committed by the CI are overlooked, or allowed to continue unabated, in exchange for good intelligence—“treasure,” as Control calls it in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. ....

The only way to know for sure if Donald John Trump is a Confidential Informant is if he admits it himself (unlikely), or if law enforcement comes forward (illegal). But the circumstantial evidence is compelling. The pattern is: 1) Trump deals with mobsters as usual; 2) Law enforcement begins investigating Trump; 3) Mobsters suddenly get busted, while 4) investigation into Trump is scuttled. This happened three times that we know about. I’m not counting the first known instance of Trump providing information to prosecutors, concerning Cody and concrete, in the late 70s: ... ....

... (Trump in) 1995? Failing tremendously. That was the year when he declared a loss of an unfathomable $916 million on his tax returns. It was also at this time that Trump Tower became a sort of Moscow on Fifth Avenue, with any number of Russian mobsters scooping up apartments—an arrangement that began in 1984, when the Russian mobster David Bogatin purchased five condos for $6 million. Trump Tower was one of just two buildings in all of New York City that allowed units to be purchased by shell companies. Why did Trump, virtually alone among New Yorkers, allow these fishy deals?

As the indefatigable Craig Unger writes in the Washington Post, the shady Bogatin deal began a 35-year relationship between Trump and Russian organized crime. Mind you, this was a period during which the disintegration of the Soviet Union had opened a fire-hose-like torrent of hundreds of billions of dollars in flight capital from oligarchs, wealthy apparatchiks and mobsters in Russia and its satellites. And who better to launder so much money for the Russians than Trump — selling them multimillion-dollar condos at top dollar, with little or no apparent scrutiny of who was buying them. ....

... what made Trump’s attacks on Mueller so ironic. He impugned the former FBI director as corrupt, while depending on his incorruptibility to not reveal his (alleged) CI status. ....

Notes
This piece was written under the expert guidance of Lincoln’s Bible. If you don’t already do so, please follow her on Twitter, and check out her own mafiya reporting at Citjourno.

I encourage everyone to read the State of New Jersey Department of Gaming Enforcement investigation report on the allegations against Donald John Trump in the Wayne Barrett book Trump: The Deals and the Downfall.
The late Bob Levinson was the FBI’s best Russian mob fighter. His Ivankov testimony is also essential reading.

— Greg Olear, Substack

********UNQUOTE*******

Donald Trump wants to be called a “wartime president,” entirely appropriately since he has been waging war against this country from Day One. He’s always picking marketing bits from history, as whispered to him by his flunkies, that succeeded in glorifying genuinely great people — slogans like “America first” or honorifics like “Great Emancipator.”

His war has run the gamut from the personal to the national: Degrading the level of discourse into the gutter, denigrating anybody of accomplishments and integrity, and elevating amorality. And nationally, having no concept of acting for the public good, only for what he thinks is good for him, trying to literally demolish the principles and structure of this country’s democracy, transforming government into his own mob cartel.

In a recent poll, 55% of those polled were negative about the response to COVID-19, but blamed “the federal government” for the trouble. Somebody asked why Trump is not named instead, and the answer was, “Because his supporters think the government is their enemy and that he is fighting it for them.”

It would be laughable, if not so dangerous, that he really believes he is “great” and that anything he says and does can have no relation to truth or value and will never be questioned.

Ever since SHITLER decided to inflict himself on us, it has been inexplicable that he has cozied up to the Russians at every turn, down to a few days ago when he’s sending ventilators to Russia. I’ve been calling him a cartel mobster for a couple of years just based on his behaviors – the LOYALTY thing, the demands for total authority.

So there have been bits here or there about Russians laundering money via condos in his properties, high prices and empty buildings. The mysteries have nagged – the attacks on MUELLER and COMEY, the weird alliances (GUILIANI).

So this lays it out: Not PUTIN, but a Russian mobster/banker/SEMION MOGILEVICH. And GUILIANI + TRUMP is that they have the worst dirt on each other and hate each other but can’t throw each other under the bus. And SHITLER trashes the FBI guys because they know him as an FBI “Confidential Informant” (CI) and can’t expose him, hence why MUELLER hinted at everything but left it all hanging. I did the long reading of the links to outline it easy for you.

**********QUOTE********

https://gregolear.substack.com/p/bloody-mob-sht-an-interview-with

Greg Olear

.... LB (Lincoln's Bible) : ... Fred (Trump), ... all (his construction projects) were done with known mafia partners, in Genovese-controlled territory, and eventually with a fully Genovese-owned construction company (HRH Construction). ....
... Remember donald’s quote, “Even my father, he said, you don’t want to go to Manhattan. That’s not our territory?” That’s because Manhattan, for construction, was Gambino territory. They controlled the concrete and unions. And Fred was a very loyal, shrewd front for the Genovese. To get his idiot, greedy kid into Manhattan, Fred and Roy Cohn had to get those two mob bosses to agree on a joint venture. ....

GO (Greg OLEAR) : Rudy Giuliani, whose father was a lesser mobster, built his reputation prosecuting Italian mobsters. In the process, he made it easier for the Russians to move in. ... ....

LB: Here’s the thing…and it’s NYC mob gossip, but I trust the source. Rudy and donald hate each other. Capital “H” hate. They both have dirt on one another. And, for both, it’s as bad as it gets. Cocaine, corruption, and bloody mob shit. So they’re stuck together. Don’t look for one to turn on the other. Unless drugs/alcohol/dementia takes over, and they burn each other down as they internally crumble. ....

GO: ... We know he (Jeffrey EPSTEIN) was associated with the Russian mafiya, through his relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell, whose father, Robert, was business partners with Semion Mogilevich, head of the Vor. ...

LB: Epstein laundered money for global arms dealers. ... ....

*****************

http://www.citjourno.org/mission

.... ... There is a man who controls our President. And his name is not Vladimir Putin. ....

... the most brilliant, dangerous, powerful, criminal mastermind the world has ever seen. This is not hyperbole. This is SEMION MOGILEVICH. ....

... Mogilevich, the "Boss of Bosses," is also known in Russia and to international intelligence agencies as Don Semyon, “The Brainy Don.” ....

... The Soviet Union collapsed. In the vacuum of leadership – of policy – of governmental order, a few hungry souls made a mad grab for state resources. They were the original seven oligarchs, called “The Magnificient Seven.” And they were all bankers. One of these first seven bankers, Mikhail Fridman – the founder of ALFABANK, is Semion Mogilevich’s partner. ... ....

... Putin was used to help execute Semion’s strategy for turning Russia into a Mafiya State. ... ....

... SEMION TRADES IN NUCLEAR MATERIAL AND ARMS WITH IRAN ... ....
... This aspect of Semion’s criminal enterprise is one thing (of many) the Iran Deal sought to eliminate. ... ....

... the Russian Mafiya’s infiltration of America. ... the Russian take-over of America’s mafia crime families, the “Five Families,” ... ....

... the mobster Vyacheslov Ivankov set him off on Semion’s trail. Ivankov was Semion’s lieutenant, sent to America to set up operations. If you recognize his name, it’s because Ivankov is the mobster who landed in a condo in Trump Tower, hid out regularly at Trump Taj Mahal, and was eventually caught by the FBI’s organized crime unit. ... ....

... Mogilevich’s crime syndicate is also THE case that puts the history of Donald Trump’s business “partnerships” into context. It explains why the #TrumpRussia investigation ... shifted from counter-intelligence to CRIMINAL. ...

It also answers what lurks beneath Trump’s flailing tweets, firing of Comey, and strategic undermining of the integrity of our independent press. ... ....

... The equation for finding the perfect mark is simple: 1) identify a businessman who has what you need – like a vehicle to wash your blood money, + 2) find their weak spot, and + 3) squeeze. ....

In the United States, there was one businessman at the top of Don Semyon’s list. One who was the easiest mark and could reap the greatest return. One who was sheltering Mogilevich's Men. One who was already in business with the American mafia, when "the" RUSSIAN MOB rolled over them all. ....

And thanks to Fred Trump, Roy Cohn, and the “Five Families” of American mafia, the United States already had a perfect front for Mogilevich to take. A man – a brand, that could wash the devil’s blood money clean. ....

... Semion Mogilevich took over American mafia’s territory, he took Donald Trump with it. ....

... Semion Mogilevich took over his second brand: TRUMP ENTERPRISES. ....

*************


https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1150239448649866&id=100009914652603

.... A confidential informant, or “CI,” is a mole run by law enforcement within a criminal enterprise. Not a “rat,” whose treachery is well known to his comrades, but a craftier, more duplicitous breed of rodent. Crimes committed by the CI are overlooked, or allowed to continue unabated, in exchange for good intelligence—“treasure,” as Control calls it in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. ....

The only way to know for sure if Donald John Trump is a Confidential Informant is if he admits it himself (unlikely), or if law enforcement comes forward (illegal). But the circumstantial evidence is compelling. The pattern is: 1) Trump deals with mobsters as usual; 2) Law enforcement begins investigating Trump; 3) Mobsters suddenly get busted, while 4) investigation into Trump is scuttled. This happened three times that we know about. I’m not counting the first known instance of Trump providing information to prosecutors, concerning Cody and concrete, in the late 70s: ... ....

... (Trump in) 1995? Failing tremendously. That was the year when he declared a loss of an unfathomable $916 million on his tax returns. It was also at this time that Trump Tower became a sort of Moscow on Fifth Avenue, with any number of Russian mobsters scooping up apartments—an arrangement that began in 1984, when the Russian mobster David Bogatin purchased five condos for $6 million. Trump Tower was one of just two buildings in all of New York City that allowed units to be purchased by shell companies. Why did Trump, virtually alone among New Yorkers, allow these fishy deals?

As the indefatigable Craig Unger writes in the Washington Post, the shady Bogatin deal began a 35-year relationship between Trump and Russian organized crime. Mind you, this was a period during which the disintegration of the Soviet Union had opened a fire-hose-like torrent of hundreds of billions of dollars in flight capital from oligarchs, wealthy apparatchiks and mobsters in Russia and its satellites. And who better to launder so much money for the Russians than Trump — selling them multimillion-dollar condos at top dollar, with little or no apparent scrutiny of who was buying them. ....

... what made Trump’s attacks on Mueller so ironic. He impugned the former FBI director as corrupt, while depending on his incorruptibility to not reveal his (alleged) CI status. ....

Notes
This piece was written under the expert guidance of Lincoln’s Bible. If you don’t already do so, please follow her on Twitter, and check out her own mafiya reporting at Citjourno.

I encourage everyone to read the State of New Jersey Department of Gaming Enforcement investigation report on the allegations against Donald John Trump in the Wayne Barrett book Trump: The Deals and the Downfall.
The late Bob Levinson was the FBI’s best Russian mob fighter. His Ivankov testimony is also essential reading.

— Greg Olear, Substack

********UNQUOTE*******

When I was young, Tricky Dick was the biggest bogeyman I knew of. Not a HITLER or a STALEEN, just dirty and embarrassing, and I didn’t imagine there could be worse. But then came Ronnie and Nancy who had a different edge on them, greedy and cruel. Somehow Poppy BUSH with his goofiness was almost convincing that he was out of the loop, while now we know he was just as dirty and cruel. And then came Shrub W., who just made us eat shit and laughed in our faces. And yet all of these a-holes had a shred of restraint and limits, like a fear of going too far that could pass for respect. And that shred made me believe there couldn’t be somebody worse. And now we have The Great Fluke, this SHITLER thing who is *so* bad that he makes me nostalgic for some of those others. Tricky Dick had a sense of history and fear of what History would say about him, pride the way he would march-in-step when Hail to the Chief played and not burning the tapes for History's sake. RAYGUN knew he was No-FDR, just a trained actor. Poppy had the secret handshakes of the real power brokers to keep him. Shrub just needed to claim his birthright from Poppy and JEB. But SHITLER respects nothing. LBJ and Tricky Dick could take a hint and a clue and leave the building.