When Pathological Liars Speak

Hold them to account.

I've been complaining for four years about interviewers not fact-checking Trump to his face.

In the past few weeks, we've gotten some good evidence that this is not only necessary in principle, it actually works. My video this week: https://t.co/VJdortztoR pic.twitter.com/SFMDWdiPyZ

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) August 8, 2020

Words Mean Little Anymore

While I realize it is not healthy to obsess over things over which I have no control, I find myself consistently astounded and dispirited by the dystopian reality we now inhabit. While the world has been deteriorating for many years, I find it hard to deal with the fact that we now live in a world which, were it a movie script, would be rejected by all major studios as so preposterous that it would have no chance of box-office success. A script that showed such complete contempt for the audience's intelligence would be a very tough sell.

And yet that is precisely the world that Donald Trump and his ilk inhabit and cultivate, a world where the president and his enablers utter the most outrageous falsehoods shamelessly and fearlessly. We have descended into a world where words have lost their meaning.

The Star's Daniel Dale keeps a running tally of Trump's mendacity which you can filter by topic. I urge you to visit the site. As well, today's Star explores this phenomenon,

the most comprehensive picture yet available of what historians say is an unprecedented avalanche of serial lying.

The following news story features Trump in his full mendacious 'glory,' his absolute contempt for truth and, by extension, people, made manifest:



Although it is likely apocryphal, the Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times," has never seemed more relevant or more biting.

Truth In Advertising

I don't know why, but I find something extraordinarily appealing about this campaign. The cynicism it has engendered, however, is sad.

A Damning Documentary

Active Measures is the name of a new documentary about Donald Trump and his ties to the Russian mob. It is also a term used to describe a series of covert measures (Twitter examples of which you can find here) Russia uses to influence global policies. According to documentary-film maker Jack Bryan, Trump was the perfect vehicle for the latter.

Active Measures shows how foreign investments made by Russian oligarchs bolster the Kremlin's ambitions to exert influence in the west. The key is money laundering — the export of Russian wealth with the knowledge and approval of Putin.

In an interview with Day 6's Brent Bambury, which includes a podcast, Jack Bryan says that Russian money-laundering efforts with Trump go back to at least 1985:

"He sells three condos to a man named David Bogatin, who's a Russian mobster," Bryan says. "This is in Trump Tower. And the reason they did Trump Tower is that it was the second building in New York where a shell company could purchase a condominium. And so it makes it much more easy to launder dirty money."

When the fortunes of the self-described real-estate genius begin to falter, the Russians go for the kill:

"Once he loses out in Atlantic City, once he can't get a loan from a bank, that's when the Russian mafia says: 'We have an opportunity here,'" says Bryan.

That's when Trump becomes less of a partner for Russian mobsters and more of a mark.

Bryan's film alleges that Trump needed Russian mob money to reinvent himself after his disastrous string of bankruptcies. Without it, the film alleges, he would never have won the presidency.

"The Russians saved him. They rescued him. He would not have gotten back in business without them," journalist Craig Unger says in the film.

Essentially, as revealed in the following, the Russian mob is an arm of the Russian government:


Trump's bankruptcies multiplied; the Russians were presented with an unparalleled opportunity, and Bayrock Group moved into Trump Tower:

"Bayrock Group is a Russian real estate firm. The manager was this guy Felix Sater, and he is very connected to the Russian mafia," Bryan says.

Sater, a convicted felon, also has ties to Trump's recently fired attorney, Michael Cohen. Bryan says Cohen entered the Trump organization at the same time as Bayrock.

"Cohen is childhood friends with Felix Sater. They went on their first date together," Bryan says. "They did a lot of business together."

Bayrock operated from offices two floors below Trump's and partnered with him on a wide variety of real estate deals from 2002 to 2011. Bryan says Bayrock likely didn't see Trump as a political player or a potential president. They saw him as a shield.

"I think, at that point, they're seeing him as: he's a really famous guy and it's great cover because nobody's going to question a lot of money going into the Trump organization. And they knew that he needed the money. And also they knew he's really litigious. And so it would be really hard to go after him. And I think that he just became this sort of perfect place to stash money."

Through this period, Sater remained in contact with his old friend Michael Cohen. A series of emails between the two, written during the campaign, appeared last year in the New York Times.

The FBI raided Michael Cohen's office and home on April 9th. Bryan says it could mark turning point in the investigation of the president.

Al Capone was ultimately imprisoned due to tax evasion.The noose around Trump is tightening, and he may well go down, not for campaign collusion with the Russians, but for the more prosaic crime of money laundering.

And given what he knows, Michael Cohen should be very, very careful of what he eats and drinks well into the future.

Aerial Porcine Presence Reported

Must be true, since Fox is now criticizing Trump:

Catch Neil's latest Common Sense pic.twitter.com/JdGCX4WmjF

— Neil Cavuto (@TeamCavuto) May 3, 2018

My Head Is Starting To Spin

CNN’s Jake Tapper on Wednesday humiliated Donald Trump’s claim that the barrage of negative news stories related to his administration are “conspiracy theories,” taking moment to explain to the president what differentiates a conspiracy theory from actual, real news.