The ignorant sap in the White House has been getting played for years, possibly decades, by Putin and Pals. From using him to launder money — they make billions, overpay him millions on properties, leave him a margin after he cycles the bulk of profits back to them — to offering, then withdrawing, then offering, then withdrawing help on his campaign, to his Moby Dick Tower in Moscow. Travis Gettys at RawStory has a bit today on Michael Cohen getting chapped over the run-around in Moscow as he chased the white whale one more time.
Why do they play him? Because they profit from it, because they can, because they get leverage over him, and (face it) because of the entertainment value. Between buildings and cash, Putin and Pals have been twitching the bait and then laughing their asses off when the sap himself or one of the clan bites at it. The whole bunch are so on the hook, it would be funny if not so sad and dangerous.
Let’s say that slowly:
The President (for now) of the United States and his mob are on the hook to Putin and Pals.
Wow.
The sap keeps denying collusion, I think, partly because his perspective of constantly seeing the bait twitched then pulled doesn’t fit his idea of collusion. He knows he’s on the hook, doesn’t dare offend the guy holding the line because he really, really wants the bait. He has put what passes for his dignity on the line to get the money and the tower, has committed a long line of criminal acts, and cannot face either the consequences or the truth. He doesn’t love those guys, but he sure needs their money. To the sap, getting played is the opposite of collusion.
The part that will ultimately come out is that the sap really is only a reflection of the Republican Party. For all the money the sap has taken, Republicans have will be found to have taken more. When money is the bait, Republicans ALWAYS go for the big worm. The Russians have had the biggest, baddest wallets on the planet for a decade or more — what they dangled, Republicans bit. We will see Russian money turn up at the RNC (see Manafort’s note, Cohen, Broidy, Wynn), as it has at the NRA. It will turn up in the R Senate and House election funds, it will turn up in PACs as the SDNY investigation proceeds.
Wherever there are Republicans, there will be gobs of money, much of it dirty and foreign — it’s the story of Willie Loman and why he robbed banks. “Because that’s where they keep the money”, said the crook putatively.
We are still developing bets on the Perp Walk out of the White House, but the bet is expanding to perp walks out of the Senate and House office buildings and down Capitol Hill.