USA under presidency of a know-nothing, neo-fascist, racist, sexist, mobbed-up narcissist!!

[Peter Lemkin]

May I suggest a very interesting new book by Craig Unger - House of Trump; House of Putin. It takes things back 30 and more years and shows how Trump has had almost 60 strong connections to the Russian Mafia dons - made his fortune through them and was saved by them when he was billions in debt. He is essentially in debt or owned by them. They, in turn, are connected to the Russian national security apparat. He makes a very convincing case. The only place where the book falls down, IMO, is that he is blind to the fact that the US National security state also has a wing which is and has been Mafia [in the true sense] or Mafia-like in the Valentine sense. With that caveat or blind spot, still, this is a book to read to understand Trump and where he came from and is trying to 'go'. Others have covered much of this material, but this is the most comprehensive and clearest telling of this long and sad history. Someday someone will retell this story with the other half - the USA half and then we'll have a more complete story. There are names and connections here you've not heard of before - documented - and they will be coming out somehow and sometime soon. Trump and his family at best are being used and at worst are totally compromised. This began more than 30 years ago. The US tries and does the same thing in the obverse and that that is not even mentioned is a fault of the book....but here is a look at one side of the fetid waters of international politics and monied power. I hope those familiar with this website know that the same can be easily said of the other half [the US and its Western allies], no less guilty of similar things........ Just read this with a copy of, say, one of Bill Blum's books nearby or Valentine's latest......what is inside this book I think is very accurate and damning, it make the 'West' look better than it is [understatement] and the 'East' look like the only bad hombres on the World stage. In different ways neither side of the old 'cold-war' divide are playing things straight nor for the common good.....

When I wrote the above, I was only part way through the book. Having finished it, I still recommend it - but want to note again it has flaws or blind-spots. For example, it [as far as I know and can tell] correctly tells the story of Manafort's 'doings' with shady characters in the Ukraine, it neglects to paint very similar 'doings' by other named persons in the exact same country. There are other similar lapses, but, still, if one is aware of this it fits many Trump and Co. puzzle pieces into the larger puzzle, even if it ignores some other puzzle pieces of other players Unger is blind to, likely due to political rose-colored glasses/blinders and bias of how similar the Western intelligence 'games' are to those he so vividly paints of Eastern [FSU/Russian] intelligence - and both 'sides' connections to, and actual being, 'Mafia/Mafiya'. Such things go far, far beyond Trump and Putin.....and are institutional. The value of the book perhaps is his connecting the dots of those he 'sees'....but the book looses some points for not see others who are in plain sight doing similar or the same things during the same periods of time. Unger is more than biased against Russia and Putin. While much of what he reports is true, it is slanted in its presentation. The same is true in the 'pass' he gives the Clintons and Democrats, in general. So - here is the dirt on Trump and Russian oligarchs, but has been scrubbed of much of the dirt [not all] on others....