only one of these is not a real Ponzi scheme

(2 minute read + links to three articles, a book, a blog and a video)

Trump fatigue is a common aliment in infirmaries across America, hell around the world, and yet our addiction to Trump’s stranger-than-fiction, news keeps seducing our curiosity, despite the raging headache. Trump’s reality-TV series, “The US Presidency Apprenticeship,” is a bigger house of cards than Netflix’s blockbuster, House of Cards, and, perhaps, like the fictional drama, headed for an ignominious ending.

For the addicted

My recent blog about Trump (Is Trump a Russian Asset) had thousands of hits, which tells me a lot of people are still very interested in the deepening threat that Trump is to democracy. And it’s worth mentioning again, Trump is not the cause, he is the effect, the result, of an invidious trend playing out in more and more nations around the world, under the guise of “populism.” “Identity politics,” “tribal protectionism” and “nativism” are just other names for the same divisive battles fracturing “majority rule” – the foundation of democracy – by pitting minority interests against one and other.

For those of us who don’t want to miss the lead up to the final episodes of this unfolding, real-life drama, I’ve provided below links to three articles, plus another book, a video and a blog I wrote over a year ago, all of which are part of “the writing on the wall.”

• Collusion, Luke Harding’s November 2017 bestseller does a masterful job of collating all the known facts, players and events of the still unfolding scandal and traces Trump’s history with Russia back to the 1980s. Harding is a British journalist who has spent years covering Russia.
• Portrait of the President As A Con Man, by Andrew Sullivan, a conservative commentator and writer, succinctly sets out a compelling story in the Daily Intelligencer. It’s so good, it might even convince Trump himself, if he could pay attention long enough to read the 1,500 word article.
• The President Is a Ponzi Scheme, was written in September 2017 by John Feffer, a foreign policy expert. It’s a scathing article outlining Trump’s endless connections “designed to take the money out of your pocket and put it into the pockets of others.”
• Trump’s Dirty Money, is another excellent article by Jeffers, penned July 25, 2018. It details how Trump has “built inscrutable ties to worldwide criminal sources who wash ill-gotten sums through his real estate ventures.” Examples like Trump’s continuing credit with Deutsche Bank despite having defaulted on a $330 million loan are fascinating insights into money-laundering.
• President Donald Trump will quit because the kid in him is overwhelmed …, is a blog I wrote in May 2017, which cited many sources that demonstrate Trump’s flaws are inborn, genetic and familial induced. “In addition to his lack of impulse control, Donald has long exhibited a child’s inability to accept responsibility. This trait is familiar to those have seen Trump in action over the years.”
• The Moscow Project is an initiative of the Center for American Progress Action Fund dedicated to analyzing the facts behind Trump’s collusion with Russia and communicating the findings to the public. This 7:30 minute video, Trump and Russia: From Corruption to Collusion, is a quick study in some of what we already know, but with added detail that we maybe didn’t know, all of which is the tip of the iceberg.

The combination of the articles cited, Harding’s book and the video are a good summary that exposes much more of the iceberg for which the “US Titanic” could be headed – if the passengers don’t wake up.