Don't Kid Yourself- New York Legal Cases Will Not Solve Our Trump Problem
In the spirit of busting bubbles and ruining a few fantasies--
Donald Trump will not be jailed, or seriously inconvenienced by investigations at any level, State, or Federal, for financial crimes. Not on taxes, money laundering, loan fraud, charity fraud, rape or sexual harassment, ad infinitum.
He is soon to be an ex-President of the United States, with 70 million plus voters, billionaire backers, huge legal and Media resources, hundreds of Judges in his pocket, and 50 years of experience in evading prosecution. There are far too many people high up in the power structure whose existence is tied up with the "crazy train" of his disgusting career to simply allow him to meet his downfall that way. If you believe that he will go down in the same manner as Al Capone, you are kidding yourselves.
What is the source of this kind of self-delusion which you hear from pundits and others? Well, some of it is just wishful thinking, mixed with rage and anger, a bit of victimization, resentment of the super rich who seem to get away with everything, while the rest of us have had to struggle and scratch for everything we have, and can't get away with anything. It's the anger at a society which pretends to have rules for behavior and business, in which a privileged few can flagrantly disregard or bend those rules depending on their political or financial ranking. In short, the tendency for victimization, rage, anger, despair, the desire for revenge and retribution at the unfairness of it all, not only distorts our ability for clear thinking, but it takes a political form. Its called "populism".
Because the majority of people have endured financial worries for themselves and their families, the very idea of financial corruption has always been a "hot button" for those of us not in the top 20% or so of the income brackets. It has always been the kind of issue that populist politicians have used to play the voters and ride into office, usually using corruption, budget debates, Taxation, to play one constituency against another. And for the most part, the political establishment has successfully "gamed" the American people into political impotence using the method of populist knee jerk single-issuism, with Media punditry playing a huge role. The desire of most people to avoid politics, and have simple solutions has made us vulnerable to slick Carnival barkers who know how to play an audience by whipping them up about a single issue, playing upon a deep reservoir of victimization, anger, or sense of powerlessness.
That said, I will refer back for a minute to the Presidency of Franklin Roosevelt, especially during Wartime. As you are likely aware, Wall Street and its associated conglomeration of incestuous self anointed aristocratic families did everything possible to sabotage FDR's recovery measures, obstructing legislation in Congress with the help of the right wing SCOTUS. They bashed Labor, stirred up Veterans who marched for bonuses, and funded candidates in elections who opposed Banking and Utility Regulation, Federal spending, and infrastructure, labeling it all as "pork".
FDR fought these interests politically in every way available to him, but after the Nazi Invasion of Poland, and two years later, Pearl Harbor, FDR knew that he had to change tactics and play some serious hardball. He now had the "whip" of a National Security crisis to force Wall Street into line, to force them to comply with his wartime economic measures to allow for the military and economic buildup. (see Martha's article on FDR's Miracle, Part 2)
For good measure, FDR sent a loud and clear message to Wall Street that he was "not fucking around" by initiating in the US Senate a committee to investigate "Trading with the Enemy", under authority of an Act he had passed bearing that name, chaired by then US Senator Harry S Truman. ("S", no period, no middle name)
FDR knew very well that the most powerful banking and financial interests of the "Eastern Establishment" had been over the Moon with enthusiasm about Hitler's and Mussolini's experiments with Fascism, and worked on a similar model for the US. They covertly funded Hitler's Nazi Party, arranged business loans, financed their heavy industry, and backed their War effort even after Pearl Harbor. For example, Prescott Bush, (Bush 41's Father) then CEO of Union Charter Bank, then later Brown Brothers Harriman had arranged loans to Fritz Thyssen of Germany's Thyssen Steel which were laundered into the Nazi campaign war chest in 1932. Bush financed travel, as did partner Averill Harriman, of Nazi Eugenics leader Dr. Ernst Rudin to come to New York and deliver a speech to the American Eugenics Society on the success of Hitler's Nuremberg Race Laws in Germany. In 1942, Prescott Bush's stock in Brown Brothers Harriman was seized by the US Government under the Trading With The Enemy Act, when it was discovered he was financing the Nazi Steel Industry during the war! Also of interest was that the Dulles Brothers (John Foster, later Secretary of State for Eisenhower, and Allen, Director of the CIA) were the lead attorneys for the Sullivan and Cromwell Law firm, in which capacity they served as the registered agents for managing the US investments of the government of Nazi Germany! The Dulles Brothers were the primary organizers of efforts to prevent an economic boycott of Nazi Germany that was led by the American Jewish Committee. It was Allen Dulles detailed knowledge of the Nazi Economy that motivated FDR to get some use out of him by deploying him to neutral Banking center Switzerland (the financial hub for Nazi confiscated assets) to be the chief Spymaster for the OSS there. And many other examples which include the role of IBM, and Standard Oil have been documented.
So we had an enemy "Fifth Column" in WWII, whose command center was not primarily the radio station of the populist Jew baiting Catholic Priest Father Coughlin, leader of America First. It included those who resided in the wood paneled Clubs and Halls of Ivy League Schools with their Freemasonic Frat Boy Secret Societies, the brokerage houses and Banks of Lower Manhattan, and their political protection in Wall Street's GOP. FDR knew all of their secrets because he had been one of them!
Therefore to effectively fight them, he knew he needed a Hammer, and he found it in the Trading With The Enemy Act, and its implication for Treasonous activity during Wartime. This was hardball, and it worked. FDR knew that all pre-existing political backroom deals, corrupt arrangements, blackmail, protection operations and payoffs would not hold up under scrutiny of an investigation involving literal Treason, and could therefore be obliterated. And he knew that on this, Americans of all backgrounds and Parties were sufficiently united that they would have his back.
Where I am leading with this is to say that to merely investigate Trump on financial corruption is a loser. Unless that investigation leads to the certain mountain of evidence of High Crimes, involving betrayal of our National Security, Crimes Against Humanity, and Obstruction of Justice, such investigations will not have the effect which we want, which is to immediately neutralize him politically, as opposed to a long, drawn out legal fandangle, which only serves the purpose of making him a political martyr for his base, and increases his visibility and power.
Make him instead a traitor in the eyes of his own base, and his network of powerful backers. Open up everything on Russia, and especially the Trump/Putin arrangements to deploy an Army of White Supremacists to plunge the US into civil conflict. Open. The. Secret. Server.
I know that Joe Biden knows a lot more about this than I do. That is why he is so angry at the Trump team's obstruction of the transition by blocking Pentagon access, because that is Trump's weak flank.
I urge everyone not to agree with everything I say, but to investigate this for yourselves, and ask "what really is the weakest spot, not just for Trump himself, but for the monstrosity of the movement he has created, and what direction investigations should go in moving forward"? See if we wind up in the same place.
