The news breaking about Paul Manafort got me interested in the subject of President Trump's past and former associates again this morning for sure. It seems like Manafort is not going to have the FBI plea deal honored he thought he had earned by cooperating with this investigation. The judge said this about it according to the WSJ.
I was initially feeling like this could be serious injustice but I wanted to research the man and the ruling before I said anything about this but the things I found changed my mind a bit. Please don't get me wrong, I hope if nothing else this proves my recurring assertion that we should never fully trust the FBI and I want to be clear that I do not support their thuggish tactics either. If we can agree on that then
I was wondering just how people like Manafort get into positions of power and remembered a recent video from History Buffs that was all about the movie Casino. The timing of these media pieces got me thinking indeed.
Please take a look at the video below at around the 7 minute to about 9 minute mark to see something interesting and compare for yourself what the mob's mentality about rules and what we see recently from our leaders. It shows how people can get around any effort to ensure due process and vetting gets done by the officials in charge of it. Criminals can slip through these loopholes with out a problem it seems.
Taking chances and abusing the laws may have indeed been the rule of the day when Manafort took control of the campaign a few years ago. I would like to believe it couldn't be true but after I took a look at Manafort it sure does seem to me that he is absolutely the type of person who could game the system and not lose much sleep over it. His connections to Jonas Savimbi and his decades of lobbying, alongside Roger Stone by the way, on the behalf of foreign government should have clued him in to the registration process in my opinion. Perhaps I am way off but it does seem to me the Manafort was running a Frank Rosenthal type scheme where he faked his registration and was counting on his powerful friends to either ensure he got a slap on the wrist for it or protected entirely from consequences. I'd like to hear your opinion on this as well if you can please comment.
At the heart of this story I see a shadowy figure who was trying to wield his power from behind the scenes being caught gaming the system, time will tell how things are going to turn out only after Manafort has faced all of his charges though.
I can't give Trump a pass in this whole embarrassing situation, not by a long shot. Trump has been famous for well over a generation and not for his cameos in family films like Home Alone 2. He was an infamous playboy and more importantly Casino Boss before any of that and for a much longer a period than the few years that made up his reality TV phase.
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Please watch this next quick clip of the raw footage of Frank Rosenthal giving some hell to the media and government officials and tell me you do not think of Donald Trump. There are a few moments that stick out and it reminds us that people have been calling out people like Harry Ried and fake news for a long while.
I certainly think that this video is an amazing piece of history along with a reenactment that shows exactly how a charismatic rouge can become a sympathetic figure despite being an obvious criminal as well.
I find the similarities between Frank and Donald as inescapable as I find it hilarious that Robert I'd punch him the face De'Niro would probably make a great Trump if he put his heart into playing the role.
One thing I can't comment on is whether or not this is a bad thing for the country, I wish I could see into the future on this but anyone's guess is as good as the next prediction in this case. One thing I do think we can say for certain is that what we hear in the MSM is smoke and mirrors created to distract us to what is really going on. I don't think this is a battle of good vs evil at all. If anything, I see a fight between the private sector mafia vs the public sector mafia with us caught in the middle.
If that isn't enough to show Trump has been taking notes from other casino bosses, check out what Frank did during his war with the establishment. I would say that the talk show was the closest thing to reality TV going around in the 1970s and it is really interesting to take a look at these similarities between Lefty and The Don to say the least.
I think the biggest difference between the two men, who made their fortune off of gambling and hotels, is that one was stopped cold during his rise to prominence and the other one was able to go all the way.
The big question is how did he pull it off and who among the deep-state is going to strike the next blow in the effort to reclaim power. I doubt that it was easy to get to the top and we are not even close to knowing all the details of the Trump campaign so be prepared for a long ride here. I hope we can agree that power is not usually given away but taken away by whatever means those who want it think they need to enact.
Just for fun, I can't help but mention that since more stories like that of Paul Manafort are coming down the road, you may be able to call up Vegas and place a bet on who is going down next ;).
