The rabbit trail goes on and on.

The rabbit trail goes on and on.

     One tidbit that caught my eye was the assertion in Abramson's book that "In 2007, the parents of a longtime Elliott Broidy associate, Lisa Korbatov, purchase[d] a Rodeo Drive mansion for $10.5 million, taking a $200,000 loss" For decades, the property had been owned by the family of an African dictator. In March 2007, it sold for $10.5 million to a trust controlled by Leonard and Selma Fisch.
     The Fisches never lived in the home, Selma Fisch would say, but "they threw some big parties there". A year after buying it, records show they sold the mansion to a company called Global Management Alliance, (on a property that they had only recently purchased and that for which, as holders of the purchasing family trust, they had a fiduciary responsibility).

     Okay, a bad deal in a shaky market. Far enough. So far.

     While all of that is just a side note to the story he's telling, it seems Abramson could have fleshed out more details. There were reports earlier last year about investigations into the Trump inaugural committee's money raising activities and the potential for foreign interference via money contributions. Elliott Broidy, the man mentioned in his book features heavily in those investigations as does his one-time partner Lisa Korbatov.

      It gets better. Mokless Girgis, an Angelino of Egyptian decent, a man with little means and a history of financial scams, was the purchaser of the Fisches' property, paying $10.3 million - in cash. And, shortly thereafter, Girgis (who would later disclaim knowledge about any of this but would abscond) "transfer[ed] the property to Donald Trump - for free". A short time later the property was sold for $9.5 million.

     Now, that's quite a mouthful of facts and profits to digest and Abramson doesn't really do much with something that struck me as a red card infraction and well past the giggle test. The lawyer brokering the deal was their son-on-law Igor Korbatov (See? We're getting closer!) Selma Fisch would ultimately say that Trump had bought the house and she knew nothing about an Egyptian man being involved. The deal on the Rodeo Drive home, with its six bedrooms/six bathroom and half-acre lot with a pool, spa and tennis court, stands as a perfect metaphor for and is emblematic of the fascade that is Trump's world. All that glitters isn't gold. It's time we pierce that corporate corruption veil.

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AT THE GREAT DIVIDE

AT THE GREAT DIVIDE

    One of my conservative friends posted a video a few weeks ago by an internet pundit who was railing about a news snippet concerning the indictment of some political figures. According to the "Jimmy Dore Show" video, George Nader was among the "Clinton Donors Charged in a Massive Campaign Finance Scheme"

     The video was typical Falangist umbrage. He raged at the political corruption of the Clintons, the obvious bias of the media ("If this was the Trump campaign it would be front page news.") and the disgusting idea that Mueller's investigation had cut some sort of deal with him for his testimony.
Curious about the allegation, I googled Nader's name. It was obvious that he was an equal opportunity shithead having had connections to all sorts of politicians, reaching all the way back to George Bush. I told my friend what I found and that pretty much ended the discussion.

     Until this weekend. 

    My book, Seth Abramson's "Proof of Conspiracy", arrived just in time for this rainy weekend. There Nader was - in Chapter 1, "The Pedophile, The Mercenary, and The Flack". Nader - along with mercenary Erik Prince (Betsy DeVos' brother, BTW) and Elliott Broidy - the book claims, established deep Israeli and Arab ties and, along with "Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, [who] engage[d] in a series of suspicious business transactions with foreign nationals." Paul Manafort, it goes on to say (and at this point we're not even two pages into this tome - more later) began years of work for pro-Kremlin interests. "The Kremlin's intense focus on connecting with Trump advisers during the 2016 election underscores foreign nationals' ongoing interest in pursuing relationships with Trump and those close to him..."

I read through as much of the book as my mind could take and, given the gotcha nature of the book (even though its laboriously footnoted), I gave it a rest and watched television. But if I wanted a rest from troubling things, it was not to be.

      In a stunning two-part series called "America's Great Divide", PBS' Frontline sets out how we have gotten at the place in the road where we are.

[Watch it here:]

[and here:]

     It's tremendously well done and features numerous interviews with politicos of all stripes. One quote from a former GOP strategist (now a never-Trumper) brought me full-circle to Abramson's book and the earlier Jimmy Dore video rant that I had discounted as just more stupid shit said by stupid people. "What is real and what is fake is not discernible," he complained. And it's true. Reality is rightly questioned and the answer - be it that something is false or "yes, that's true", are much too often equally disappointing. How can that be true? Say it isn't so.

     And in this, everyone is complicit. We pass along crap that on its face is dubious. Dore's information was obviously third hand. In fact it was fourth hand. The original source was a Department of Justice press release, Power-Pointed in his video to give his report credibility. What Dore never mentioned, however, is that he was extrapolating from the press release; It never mentioned any politician. And, apparently, it does - at least partially - involve the Trump machine. Dore made a lot of guesses that were wrong. He and the rest of the right-wing etherworld had run with the press release, proving to the rest of their cohorts just how horrible and real the Deep States was - all to make a point about the corrupt politics. In the process he brutalized the truth.

     The DOJ press release was in December. Did he intentionally obfuscate? He's at the very least guilty of journalistic sloth. There were plenty of articles on the internet about Nader, his legal problems, and associations - many of them from as far back as March, 2018. Dore could have educated himself about the man and his politics.

 
     And that's the difference between a pundit and a journalist. Journalists have standards. Dore and others like him are click whores. Journalists have an investment in the truth. They fact check. They perform due diligence and if a news organization makes a mistake, they pay, they own up to it. Drive-by shooters like Dore, Gateway Pundit, etc. they have no shame, just an agenda and why folks, knowing that, buy into it, is a mystery.

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