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.

Will We Ignore The Evidence Until The End?

Yesterday, Southern Ontario saw some pretty wild weather, with winds reaching 110 km per hour. Power outages were widespread, trees were felled at an alarming rate, Pearson Airport had to shut down, and at least two people lost their lives. I have not yet checked my roof for damage.

Meanwhile, in New Brunswick, flooding continues.

I do wonder, as these events become increasingly frequent, and it dawns on even the dimmest among us that we are screwed, how people will react. Will some continue to party like there is no tomorrow? (In that, their predictive capacity will likely be proven right.) Will others fall on their knees, seeking a deus ex machina deliverance from their tribulations? Will some get angry and ask why no one did anything to prevent this? Or will some look in the mirror and see a rueful but knowing image staring back at them?

I fear that far too soon, we will know the answers.

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

For All Those Who Consume Their News Online (And Free)

Here is the price journalists pay.

Can A Giant Ferris Wheel (Or Something Even More Grand) Be Far Behind?

These must be heady times indeed for those visionaries amongst us who, when they look at hectares upon hectares of greenspace, farmland, etc. see massive value-added opportunities for another kind of green, the kind salivated over by developers. One man, the putative next premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, is leading the charge:



As revealed in the above, Dougie is taking his direction from some of the country's biggest developers, the ones who see little value in preserving farmland, despite its necessity given the wild gyrations climate change is already imposing on food production everywhere. Cash in the hand, it would seem, trumps stewardship of the land.

As reported in The Star, Ford

said the 800,000-hectare swath of environmentally sensitive and agricultural land known as the Greenbelt is “just farmer fields.”

“It’s right beside a community. We need to open that up and create a larger supply,” he said, noting that will lead to “price drops” in housing in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.

Note how the demagogic leader of the Progressive Conservative Party is couching his plan in the usual cant of his ilk: it is for the people and will lower housing costs.

“I support the Greenbelt in a big way. Anything we may look at to reduce housing costs — because everyone knows housing costs (are) through the roof and there’s no more property available to build housing in Toronto or the GTA — it will be replaced,” he said.

“Anything that we will look at on the Greenbelt will be replaced, so there will still be an equal amount of Greenbelt.”

It was unclear how Ford could expand the Greenbelt if the preserved land is paved over for development.

Details, mere details.

Ford's logic doesn't fly upon closer scrutiny:

Tim Gray, executive director of Environmental Defence, said “the Greenbelt does not constrain housing supply or cause high house prices.”

“Municipal data shows that there is enough land available to provide for housing development within existing Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area urban boundaries until 2031,” said Gray.

“There are also abundant lands outside of towns and cities that are not within the Greenbelt that could be available for expansion after that date.”

Ontario Housing Minister recalls his time on Toronto city council when Ford had another 'grand idea':

as a city councillor when his late brother Rob Ford was mayor, the Tory leader wanted to redevelop Toronto’s port lands and build a massive Ferris wheel.

Now that he is poised to become the next premier, perhaps Mr. Ford will dare to dream even bigger:



All of which serves to remind me of something else: democracy is a fine system of government, as long as the people are paying attention to something more than the rambling, disingenuous rhetoric of hucksters.

Blood On Our Hands

As Canadians, we like to walk around feeling good about ourselves, convinced both of our good intentions and our innate rectitude. Ours is a generally peaceful society, the rule of law largely respected. We look to the violent domestic madness that is an undeniable part of the U.S., and we cannot help but feel smug. We fancy ourselves exemplars for the world, and nod knowingly when someone like Obama or Bono says that the world needs more Canada.

Sadly, there is a another, much darker truth about Canada that few acknowledge. We are merchants of death.



Our hypocrisy is not escaping notice:

When Global Affairs Canada announced another aid package to war-torn Yemen in January, it boasted that Ottawa had given a total of $65 million to help ease what the United Nations has called “the worst man-made humanitarian crisis of our time.”

What Justin Trudeau’s government did not mention in its news release is that since 2015, Canada has also approved more than $284 million in exports of Canadian weapons and military goods to the countries bombing Yemen.

“It’s a bit like helping pay for somebody’s crutches after you’ve helped break their legs,” said Cesar Jaramillo, executive director of Project Ploughshares, a research and advocacy organization that studies Canada’s arms trade.

To whom is Canada selling these weapons? There is, of course, the much-publicized deal with Saudi Arabia, the leader in the coalition against Yemani insurgents.

The Star calculated Canada’s arms exports since 2015 to all of the countries in the Saudi coalition involved in Yemen’s war, as disclosed in Global Affairs’ annual report on Canadian exports of military goods. The bulk of the trade is with Saudi Arabia, to which Canada sold more than $240 million worth of weapons and other military goods in 2015 and 2016 — mostly combat vehicles, but also guns, training gear, bombs, rockets or missiles, drones and unspecified chemical or biological agents, which could include riot control agents.

The original deal with the Saudis, brokered by the Harper government and endorsed by Justin Trudeau's Liberals, is all about jobs, which the government clearly believes trumps the loss of innocent lives:

A $14.8-billion sale of Canadian-made armoured combat vehicles to Saudi Arabia — negotiated by the Conservative government in 2014 but given final approval by the Liberals — will reportedly provide work for about 3,000 people for 14 years in southern Ontario, where manufacturer General Dynamics Land Systems–Canada is a major employer.

While our government continues to express concerns about weapons misuse, they give no indication of how they are monitoring things, which of course suggests they aren't.

The United States and United Kingdom are also arming Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners, but they, and Canada, are increasingly isolated in their position. The European Parliament passed a non-binding resolution in 2016 calling on all member states to enforce an arms embargo against Saudi Arabia for its role in Yemen. The Netherlands was first to take up the call. Finland and Norway have since stopped selling weapons to the United Arab Emirates. Earlier this year, Germany declared an end to arms sales to all parties involved in Yemen’s war.

Trudeau’s government has suggested no such ban, despite expressing “deep concern” over reports of Saudi abuses. Ottawa’s official position is that it will stop the export of military goods if there is a “reasonable risk” of human rights abuses. What that has meant, in practice, is that even when a country has a demonstrably poor record on human rights, unless there is definitive evidence Canadian weapons were used to commit human rights abuses, Canada is open to their business.

There is a great deal more to this story, which I encourage you to read at The Star.

Canada is in the killing business. Unless and until Canadians come to understand that fact, expect much, much more blood to flow.

Full Of Sound And Fury

... signifying nothing.

So says Macbeth about life in Act V Scene 5 of Shakespeare's eponymous tragedy. He might also have been talking about the 'policies' of the Justin Trudeau government.

Watching Global News last night, I was struck by the sheer lack of substance so apparent in the Liberals' almost three years in office. Here is the story that prompted my ruminations:



To listen to Catherine McKenna and the mainstream media, one might infer that the federal government is "acting in the national interest" and with boldness in its carbon-pricing scheme, and that all is well with the world. Of course, if one is refuses to embrace such willful ignorance, one understands how dire climate change has become, and that no piddling carbon tax, which affects no one's fossil-fuel-consumption habits, is going to change the destructive trajectory we are on.

And of the Liberals' contradictory, hypocritical push for pipeline expansion and greater bitumen production, I will not even speak.

Human beings need direction and leadership if we are to mitigate the worst effects of climate change; otherwise, they will allow themselves to continue in the self-indulgent behaviours that are destroying the planet as we know it. Consider the recent decision by Ford Motor Cmpany to concentrate almost exclusively on the production of truck and SUVs:



The two key takeaways from the above are that by 2022, 73% of sales in the U.S. will be utility vehicles. The second is that low fuel prices are a large factor in the purchase of the gas-guzzlers.

So tell me that the world doesn't need strong and decisive leadership. The path of least resistance and the web of illusions spun by governments such as ours are no match for the unforgiving cascade of events currently being meted out by nature.