tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5008369571387174802024-02-14T12:54:53.747-08:00Four OwlsWisdom and ineluctable truths about the future of our Nation and our planet, named after the four baby owls we observed in 2012 next to our home in St. Augustine, Florida. We SHALL overcome, as LBJ said to a joint session of Congress in 1965 after Selma. © Copyright 2015 Ed Slavin All Rights ReservedEd Slavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00298486886820876739noreply@blogger.comBlogger56125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500836957138717480.post-87562909548647078472017-07-20T07:47:00.002-07:002017-07-20T07:47:26.244-07:00Six Months Into TRUMP Presidency, Russian Mafia Links Dog Fake "President"Excellent article in The New Republic:<br />
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Trump’s Russian Laundromat</h1>
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How to use Trump Tower and other luxury high-rises to clean dirty money, run an international crime syndicate, and propel a failed real estate developer into the White House.</h2>
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In 1984, a Russian émigré named David Bogatin went shopping for apartments in New York City. The 38-year-old had arrived in America seven years before, with just $3 in his pocket. But for a former pilot in the Soviet Army—his specialty had been shooting down Americans over North Vietnam—he had clearly done quite well for himself. Bogatin wasn’t hunting for a place in Brighton Beach, the Brooklyn enclave known as “Little Odessa” for its large population of immigrants from the Soviet Union. Instead, he was fixated on the glitziest apartment building on Fifth Avenue, a gaudy, 58-story edifice with gold-plated fixtures and a pink-marble atrium: Trump Tower.</div>
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A monument to celebrity and conspicuous consumption, the tower was home to the likes of Johnny Carson, Steven Spielberg, and Sophia Loren. Its brash, 38-year-old developer was something of a tabloid celebrity himself. Donald Trump was just coming into his own as a serious player in Manhattan real estate, and Trump Tower was the crown jewel of his growing empire. From the day it opened, the building was a hit—all but a few dozen of its 263 units had <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1984/01/01/sports/trump-building-the-generals-in-his-own-style.html" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">sold</a> in the first few months. But Bogatin wasn’t deterred by the limited availability or the sky-high prices. The Russian plunked down $6 million to buy not one or two, but five luxury condos. The big check apparently caught the attention of the owner. According to Wayne Barrett, who<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=ZQ_9CwAAQBAJ&pg=PT262&lpg=PT262&dq=wayne+barrett+david+bogatin&source=bl&ots=3lJSjqqJqv&sig=KbeeubmObDNupn4_iWDDb3HDj0Y&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiR_drszf_UAhUCCT4KHQkACsgQ6AEINDAC#v=onepage&q=wayne%20barrett%20david%20bogatin&f=false" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"> investigated</a> the deal for the<i style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Village Voice</i>, Trump personally attended the closing, along with Bogatin.</div>
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If the transaction seemed suspicious—multiple apartments for a single buyer who appeared to have no legitimate way to put his hands on that much money—there may have been a reason. At the time, Russian mobsters were beginning to invest in high-end real estate, which offered an ideal vehicle to launder money from their criminal enterprises. “During the ’80s and ’90s, we in the U.S. government repeatedly saw a pattern by which criminals would use condos and high-rises to launder money,” says Jonathan Winer, a deputy assistant secretary of state for international law enforcement in the Clinton administration. “It didn’t matter that you paid too much, because the real estate values would rise, and it was a way of turning dirty money into clean money. It was done very systematically, and it explained why there are so many high-rises where the units were sold but no one is living in them.” When Trump Tower was built, as David Cay Johnston<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><a href="https://www.mhpbooks.com/books/the-making-of-donald-trump/" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">reports</a> in <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Making of Donald Trump</em>, it was only the second high-rise in New York that accepted anonymous buyers.</div>
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In 1987, just three years after he attended the closing with Trump, Bogatin <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/12/nyregion/brooklyn-fuel-distributor-pleads-guilty-in-tax-plot.html" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">pleaded</a>guilty to taking part in a massive gasoline-bootlegging scheme with Russian mobsters. After he fled the country, the government <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/30/nyregion/entrepreneur-who-left-us-is-back-awaiting-sentence.html" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">seized</a> his five condos at Trump Tower, saying that he had purchased them to “launder money, to shelter and hide assets.” A Senate investigation into organized crime later <a href="https://archive.org/stream/russianorganized00unit/russianorganized00unit_djvu.txt" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">revealed</a> that Bogatin was a leading figure in the Russian mob in New York. His family ties, in fact, led straight to the top: His brother <a href="http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/ruslobby-mogilevich-04172007.pdf" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">ran</a> a $150 million stock scam with none other than Semion Mogilevich, whom the FBI <a href="https://www.villagevoice.com/1998/05/26/the-most-dangerous-mobster-in-the-world/" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">considers</a> the “boss of bosses” of the Russian mafia. At the time, Mogilevich—feared even by his fellow gangsters as “the most powerful mobster in the world”—was expanding his multibillion-dollar international criminal syndicate into America.</div>
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<img class="img-responsive-img img-jpg" data-reactid=".2.0.0" src="https://images.newrepublic.com/8c0a65df0393f8d02418ac9476adb5c29e2b982c.jpeg?w=800&q=65&dpi=1&fm=pjpg&h=1220" style="background-color: #eeeeee; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 1159.3px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; position: absolute; vertical-align: baseline; width: 759.984px;" /></div>
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<figcaption style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: 1.45; margin: 1em 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="caption-text" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0.5em 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In 1987, on his first trip to Russia, Trump visited the Winter Palace with Ivana. The Soviets flew him to Moscow—all expenses paid—to discuss building a luxury hotel across from the Kremlin.</span><span class="credit" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #a7a9ab; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12.8px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Maxim Blokhin/TASS</span></figcaption></figure><div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; flex-direction: column; flex: 0 0 83.3333%; font-size: 2rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.005em; line-height: 1.55; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 79.9844px; margin-top: 1.5em; max-width: 83.3333%; padding: 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; vertical-align: baseline; width: 799.984px;">
Since Trump’s election as president, his ties to Russia have become the focus of intense scrutiny, most of which has centered on whether his inner circle colluded with Russia to subvert the U.S. election. A growing chorus in Congress is also asking pointed questions about how the president built his business empire. Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, has <a href="http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-trump-property/" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">called for</a> a deeper inquiry into “Russian investment in Trump’s businesses and properties.”</div>
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The very nature of Trump’s businesses—all of which are privately held, with few reporting requirements—makes it difficult to root out the truth about his financial deals. And the world of Russian oligarchs and organized crime, by design, is shadowy and labyrinthine. For the past three decades, state and federal investigators, as well as some of America’s best investigative journalists, have sifted through mountains of real estate records, tax filings, civil lawsuits, criminal cases, and FBI and Interpol reports, unearthing ties between Trump and Russian mobsters like Mogilevich. To date, no one has documented that Trump was even aware of any suspicious entanglements in his far-flung businesses, let alone that he was directly compromised by the Russian mafia or the corrupt oligarchs who are closely allied with the Kremlin. So far, when it comes to Trump’s ties to Russia, there is no smoking gun.<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
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But even without an investigation by Congress or a special prosecutor, there is much we already know about the president’s debt to Russia. A review of the public record reveals a clear and disturbing pattern: Trump owes much of his business success, and by extension his presidency, to a flow of highly suspicious money from Russia. Over the past three decades, at least 13 people with known or alleged links to Russian mobsters or oligarchs have owned, lived in, and even run criminal activities out of Trump Tower and other Trump properties. Many used his apartments and casinos to launder untold millions in dirty money. Some ran a worldwide high-stakes gambling ring out of Trump Tower—in a unit directly below one owned by Trump. Others provided Trump with lucrative branding deals that required no investment on his part. Taken together, the flow of money from Russia provided Trump with a crucial infusion of financing that helped rescue his empire from ruin, burnish his image, and launch his career in television and politics. “They saved his bacon,” says Kenneth McCallion, a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Reagan administration who investigated ties between organized crime and Trump’s developments in the 1980s.</div>
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It’s entirely possible that Trump was never more than a convenient patsy for Russian oligarchs and mobsters, with his casinos and condos providing easy pass-throughs for their illicit riches. At the very least, with his constant need for new infusions of cash and his well-documented troubles with creditors, Trump made an easy “mark” for anyone looking to launder money. But whatever his knowledge about the source of his wealth, the public record makes clear that Trump built his business empire in no small part with a lot of dirty money from a lot of dirty Russians—including the dirtiest and most feared of them all.</div>
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Trump made his first trip to Russia in 1987, only a few years before the collapse of the Soviet Union. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/from-the-archives-when-trump-hoped-to-meet-gorbachev-in-manhattan/2017/07/10/3f570b42-658c-11e7-a1d7-9a32c91c6f40_story.html?utm_term=.f5fc62223401" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Invited</a> by Soviet Ambassador Yuri Dubinin, Trump was flown to Moscow and Leningrad—all expenses paid—to talk business with high-ups in the Soviet command. In <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Art of the Deal,</em> Trump recounted the lunch meeting with Dubinin that led to the trip. “One thing led to another,” he <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2017/2/17/14622504/trump-russia-business-ties-fact-check" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">wrote</a>, “and now I’m talking about building a large luxury hotel, across the street from the Kremlin, in partnership with the Soviet government.”</div>
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Over the years, Trump and his sons would <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/russia-may-not-have-leverage-over-trump-russians-are-another-matter" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">try and fail</a><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span>five times to build a new Trump Tower in Moscow. But for Trump, what mattered most were the lucrative connections he had begun to make with the Kremlin—and with the wealthy Russians who would buy so many of his properties in the years to come. “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross section of a lot of our assets,” Donald Trump Jr. <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/02/15/donald-trumps-ties-russia-go-back-30-years/97949746/" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">boasted</a><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span>at a real estate conference in 2008. “We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”</div>
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The money, illicit and otherwise, began to rain in earnest after the Soviet Union fell in 1991. President Boris Yeltsin’s shift to a market economy was so abrupt that cash-rich gangsters and corrupt government officials were able to privatize and loot state-held assets in oil, coal, minerals, and banking. Yeltsin himself, in fact, would later describe Russia as “the biggest mafia state in the world.” After Vladimir Putin succeeded Yeltsin as president, Russian intelligence effectively joined forces with the country’s mobsters and oligarchs, allowing them to operate freely as long as they strengthen Putin’s power and serve his personal financial interests. According to James Henry, a former chief economist at McKinsey & Company who consulted on the Panama Papers, some $1.3 trillion in illicit capital has <a href="https://www.the-american-interest.com/2016/12/19/the-curious-world-of-donald-trumps-private-russian-connections/" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">poured out</a> of Russia since the 1990s.</div>
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<figcaption style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: 1.45; margin: 1em 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="caption-text" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0.5em 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Semion Mogilevich.</span></figcaption></figure><div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; flex-direction: column; flex: 0 0 83.3333%; font-size: 2rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.005em; line-height: 1.55; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 79.9844px; margin-top: 1.5em; max-width: 83.3333%; padding: 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; vertical-align: baseline; width: 799.984px;">
At the top of the sprawling criminal enterprise was Semion Mogilevich. Beginning in the early 1980s, according to the FBI, the short, squat Ukrainian was the key money-laundering contact for the Solntsevskaya Bratva, or Brotherhood, one of the richest criminal syndicates in the world. Before long, he was running a multibillion-dollar worldwide racket of his own. Mogilevich wasn’t feared because he was the most violent gangster, but because he was reputedly the smartest. The FBI has <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/crime/2013/08/05/semion_mogilevich_fbi_ten_most_wanted_list_this_obese_mob_boss_is_twice.html" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">credited</a><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span>the “brainy don,” who holds a degree in economics from Lviv University, with a staggering range of crimes. He ran drug trafficking and prostitution rings on an international scale; in one characteristic deal, he bought a bankrupt airline to ship heroin from Southeast Asia into Europe. He used a jewelry business in Moscow and Budapest as a front for art that Russian gangsters stole from museums, churches, and synagogues all over Europe. He has also been accused of selling some $20 million in stolen weapons, including ground-to-air missiles and armored troop carriers, to Iran. “He uses this wealth and power to not only further his criminal enterprises,” the FBI <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/crime/2013/08/05/semion_mogilevich_fbi_ten_most_wanted_list_this_obese_mob_boss_is_twice.html" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">says</a>, “but to influence governments and their economies.”</div>
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In Russia, Mogilevich’s influence reportedly reaches all the way to the top. In 2005, Alexander Litvinenko, a Russian intelligence agent who defected to London,<a href="http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-418652/Why-I-believe-Putin-wanted-dead-.html" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">recorded</a> an interview with investigators detailing his inside knowledge of the Kremlin’s ties to organized crime.<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></em> “Mogilevich,” he said in broken English, “have good relationship with Putin since 1994 or 1993.” A year later Litvinenko was dead, apparently poisoned by agents of the Kremlin.</div>
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<figcaption style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: 1.45; margin: 1em 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="caption-text" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0.5em 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Vyachelsav Ivankov.</span><span class="credit" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #a7a9ab; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12.8px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sergey Ponomarev/AP</span></figcaption></figure><div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; flex-direction: column; flex: 0 0 83.3333%; font-size: 2rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.005em; line-height: 1.55; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 79.9844px; margin-top: 1.5em; max-width: 83.3333%; padding: 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; vertical-align: baseline; width: 799.984px;">
Mogilevich’s greatest talent, the one that places him at the top of the Russian mob, is finding creative ways to cleanse dirty cash. According to the FBI, he has<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/semion-mogilevich-2014-11" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">laundered</a> money through more than 100 front companies around the world, and held bank accounts in at least 27 countries. And in 1991, he made a move that led directly to Trump Tower. That year, the FBI <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=F1IqGCc7P8cC&pg=PT84&lpg=PT84&dq=mogilevich+bribed+judge+ivankov&source=bl&ots=OHacdxngxQ&sig=5PpRKdp2bGjneYVA__klDMIQesw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwii7s7M4f_UAhUI8z4KHYhsB44Q6AEIMDAC#v=onepage&q=mogilevich%20bribed%20judge%20ivankov&f=false" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">says</a>, Mogilevich paid a Russian judge to spring a fellow mob boss, Vyachelsav Kirillovich Ivankov, from a Siberian gulag. If Mogilevich was the brains, Ivankov was the enforcer—a<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">vor v zakone</em>, or “made man,” infamous for torturing his victims and boasting about the murders he had arranged. Sprung by Mogilevich, Ivankov made the most of his freedom. In 1992, a year after he was released from prison, he headed to New York on an illegal business visa and proceeded to set up shop in Brighton Beach.</div>
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In <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Red Mafiya,</em> his book about the rise of the Russian mob in America,<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></em> investigative reporter Robert I. Friedman <a href="https://archive.org/stream/RedMafiyaHowTheRussianMobByRobertI.Friedman2000/Red%20Mafiya-%20How%20the%20Russian%20Mob%20by%20Robert%20I.%20Friedman%20(2000)_djvu.txt" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">documented</a> how Ivankov organized a lurid and violent underworld of tattooed gangsters. When Ivankov touched down at JFK, Friedman reported, he was met by a fellow <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">vor</em>, who handed him a suitcase with $1.5 million in cash. Over the next three years, Ivankov oversaw the mob’s growth from a local extortion racket to a multibillion-dollar criminal enterprise. According to the FBI, he recruited two “combat brigades” of Special Forces veterans from the Soviet war in Afghanistan to run the mafia’s protection racket and kill his enemies.</div>
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Like Mogilevich, Ivankov had a lot of dirty money he needed to clean up. He bought a Rolls-Royce dealership that was <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/29/nyregion/businessman-of-mystery-arts-patron-dogged-by-fbi-claim-of-russian-mob-ties.html" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">used</a>, according to <i style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The New York Times</i>, “as a front to launder criminal proceeds.” The FBI concluded that one of Ivankov’s partners in the operation was Felix Komarov, an upscale art dealer who lived in Trump Plaza on Third Avenue. Komarov, who was not charged in the case, called the allegations baseless. He acknowledged that he had frequent phone conversations with Ivankov, but insisted the exchanges were innocent. “I had no reason not to call him,” Komarov told a reporter.</div>
<aside class="pullquote pull-right" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: right; flex-direction: column; flex: 0 0 50%; float: right; font-size: 3.8rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: -0.005em; line-height: 1.35; margin: 0.3em 0px 40px 20px; max-width: 50%; padding: 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; vertical-align: baseline; width: 480px; z-index: 2;"><div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 3.8rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.005em; line-height: 1.35; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Trump Taj Mahal paid the largest fine ever levied against a casino for having “willfully violated” anti-money-laundering rules.</span></div>
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The feds wanted to arrest Ivankov, but he kept vanishing. “He was like a ghost to the FBI,” one agent recalls. Agents spotted him meeting with other Russian crime figures in Miami, Los Angeles, Boston, and Toronto. They also found he made frequent visits to Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, which mobsters routinely used to launder huge sums of money. In 2015, the Taj Mahal was <a href="https://www.fincen.gov/news/news-releases/fincen-fines-trump-taj-mahal-casino-resort-10-million-significant-and-long" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">fined</a>$10 million—the highest penalty ever levied by the feds against a casino—and admitted to having “willfully violated” anti-money-laundering regulations for years.</div>
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The FBI also struggled to figure out where Ivankov lived. “We were looking around, looking around, looking around,” James Moody, chief of the bureau’s organized crime section, told Friedman. “We had to go out and really beat the bushes. And then we found out that he was living in a luxury condo in Trump Tower.”</div>
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There is no evidence that Trump knew Ivankov personally, even if they were neighbors. But the fact that a top Russian mafia boss lived and worked in Trump’s own building indicates just how much high-level Russian mobsters came to view the future president’s properties as a home away from home. In 2009, after being extradited to Russia to face murder charges, Ivankov was <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/world/europe/14mobster.html" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">gunned down</a> in a sniper attack on the streets of Moscow. According to <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The</em> <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Moscow Times,</em> his funeral was a media spectacle in Russia, <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=moscow+times+ivankov+funeral&oq=moscow+times+ivankov+funeral&aqs=chrome..69i57.5028j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">attracting</a> “1,000 people wearing black leather jackets, sunglasses, and gold chains,” along with dozens of giant wreaths from the various brotherhoods.</div>
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Throughout the 1990s, untold millions from the former Soviet Union flowed into Trump’s luxury developments and Atlantic City casinos. But all the money wasn’t enough to save Trump from his own failings as a businessman. He<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-trump-bankruptcies-insig-idUSKCN0ZX0GP" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">owed</a> $4 billion to more than 70 banks, with a mind-boggling $800 million of it personally guaranteed. He spent much of the decade mired in litigation, filing for multiple bankruptcies and scrambling to survive. For most developers, the situation would have spelled financial ruin. But fortunately for Trump, his own economic crisis coincided with one in Russia.</div>
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In 1998, Russia defaulted on $40 billion in debt, causing the ruble to plummet and Russian banks to close. The ensuing financial panic sent the country’s oligarchs and mobsters scrambling to find a safe place to put their money. That October, just two months after the Russian economy went into a tailspin, Trump <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/16/nyregion/trump-starts-a-new-tower-near-the-un.html" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">broke ground</a> on his biggest project yet. Rising to 72 stories in midtown Manhattan, Trump World Tower would be the tallest residential building on the planet. Construction got underway in 1999—just as Trump was <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=donald+trump+reform+party+1999&oq=trump+reform+party+&aqs=chrome.5.69i57j0l5.6700j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">preparing</a> his first run for the presidency on the Reform Party ticket— and concluded in 2001. As <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Bloomberg Businessweek</em> <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-16/behind-trump-s-russia-romance-there-s-a-tower-full-of-oligarchs" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">reported</a> earlier this year, it wasn’t long before one-third of the units on the tower’s priciest floors had been snatched up—either by individual buyers from the former Soviet Union, or by limited liability companies connected to Russia. “We had big buyers from Russia and Ukraine and Kazakhstan,” sales agent Debra Stotts told <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Bloomberg.</em></div>
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<figcaption style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: 1.45; margin: 1em 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="caption-text" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0.5em 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sunny Isles, Florida, became known as “Little Moscow,” thanks to Trump’s high-rises.</span><span class="credit" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #a7a9ab; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12.8px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Rhona Wise/AFP/Getty</span></figcaption></figure><div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; flex-direction: column; flex: 0 0 83.3333%; font-size: 2rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.005em; line-height: 1.55; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 79.9844px; margin-top: 1.5em; max-width: 83.3333%; padding: 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; vertical-align: baseline; width: 799.984px;">
Among the new tenants was Eduard Nektalov, a diamond dealer from Uzbekistan. Nektalov, who was being investigated by a Treasury Department task force for mob-connected money laundering, bought a condo on the seventy-ninth floor, directly below Trump’s future campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway. A month later he sold his unit for a $500,000 profit. The following year, after rumors circulated that Nektalov was cooperating with federal investigators, he was <a href="http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/features/10490/" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">shot down</a>on Sixth Avenue.</div>
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Trump had found his market. After Trump World Tower opened, Sotheby’s International Realty teamed up with a Russian real estate company to make a big sales push for the property in Russia. The “tower full of oligarchs,” as<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Bloomberg</em> called it, became a model for Trump’s projects going forward. All he needed to do, it seemed, was slap the Trump name on a big building, and high-dollar customers from Russia and the former Soviet republics were guaranteed to come rushing in. Dolly Lenz, a New York real estate broker, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/03/28/trump-business-past-ties-russian-mobsters-organized-crime/98321252/" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">told</a> <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">USA Today</em> that she sold some 65 units in Trump World Tower to Russians. “I had contacts in Moscow looking to invest in the United States,” Lenz said. “They all wanted to meet Donald.”</div>
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To capitalize on his new business model, Trump struck a deal with a Florida developer to attach his name to six high-rises in Sunny Isles, just outside Miami. Without having to put up a dime of his own money, Trump would receive a cut of the profits. “Russians love the Trump brand,” Gil Dezer, the Sunny Isles developer, told<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Bloomberg</em>. A local broker <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/at-trumps-properties-his-name-face-and-tastes-are-ever-present/2017/01/17/7c88d6ae-d84b-11e6-9a36-1d296534b31e_story.html" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">told</a> <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Washington Post</em> that one-third of the 500 apartments he’d sold went to “Russian-speakers.” So many bought the Trump-branded apartments, in fact, that the area became known as “Little Moscow.”</div>
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<figcaption style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: 1.45; margin: 1em 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="caption-text" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0.5em 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“Russians love the Trump brand,” said developer Gil Dezer, (left, with Trump). One Florida tenant, Anatoly Golubchik (right) was busted in a major money-laundering ring run out of Trump Tower. </span><span class="credit" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #a7a9ab; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12.8px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Billy Farrell/Patrick McMullan/Getty; John Marshall Mantel/ New York Times/Redux</span></figcaption></figure><div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; flex-direction: column; flex: 0 0 83.3333%; font-size: 2rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.005em; line-height: 1.55; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 79.9844px; margin-top: 1.5em; max-width: 83.3333%; padding: 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; vertical-align: baseline; width: 799.984px;">
Many of the units were sold by a native of Uzbekistan who had immigrated from the Soviet Union in the 1980s; her business was so brisk that she soon began bringing Russian tour groups to Sunny Isles to view the properties. According to a Reuters investigation in March, at least 63 buyers with Russian addresses or passports <a href="http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-trump-property/" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">spent</a> $98 million on Trump’s properties in south Florida. What’s more, another one-third of the units—more than 700 in all—were bought by shadowy shell companies that concealed the true owners.</div>
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Trump <a href="http://www.trump.com/real-estate-portfolio/florida/trump-towers/" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">promoted</a> and celebrated the properties. His organization continues to advertise the units; in 2011, when they first turned a profit, he <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/wealthy-russians-invested-nearly-100-million-in-trump-buildings-2017-3" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">attended</a> a ceremonial mortgage-burning in Sunny Isles to toast their success. Last October, an investigation by the <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Miami Herald</em> <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article108150442.html" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">found</a> that at least 13 buyers in the Florida complex have been the target of government investigations, either personally or through their companies, including “members of a Russian-American organized crime group.” Two buyers in Sunny Isles, Anatoly Golubchik and Michael Sall, were convicted for taking part in a massive international gambling and money-laundering syndicate that was <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/03/28/trump-business-past-ties-russian-mobsters-organized-crime/98321252/" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">run</a> out of Trump Tower in New York. The ring, according to the FBI, was operating under the protection of the Russian mafia.</div>
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The influx of Russian money did more than save Trump’s business from ruin—it set the stage for the next phase of his career. By 2004, to the outside world, it appeared that Trump was back on top after his failures in Atlantic City. That January, flush with the appearance of success, Trump launched his newly burnished brand into another medium.</div>
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“My name’s Donald Trump,” he <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgiWk4zWnJo" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">declared</a> in his opening narration for <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Apprentice,</em>“the largest real estate developer in New York. I own buildings all over the place. Model agencies. The Miss Universe pageant. Jetliners, golf courses, casinos, and private resorts like Mar-a-Lago, one of the most spectacular estates anywhere in the world.”</div>
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But it wouldn’t be Trump without a better story than that. “It wasn’t always so easy,” he confessed, over images of him cruising around New York in a stretch limo. “About 13 years ago, I was seriously in trouble. I was billions of dollars in debt. But I fought back, and I won. Big league. I used my brain. I used my negotiating skills. And I worked it all out. Now my company’s bigger than it ever was and stronger than it ever was.… I’ve mastered the art of the deal.”</div>
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The show, which reportedly <a href="http://moneynation.com/how-much-money-does-trump-make-in-a-year/" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">paid</a> Trump up to $3 million per episode, instantly revived his career. “<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Apprentice</em> turned Trump from a blowhard Richie Rich who had just gone through his most difficult decade into an unlikely symbol of straight talk, an evangelist for the American gospel of success, a decider who insisted on standards in a country that had somehow slipped into handing out trophies for just showing up,” journalists<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></em> Michael Kranish and Marc Fisher <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/trumprevealed/" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">observe</a> in their book<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Trump Revealed</em>. “Above all, <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Apprentice</em> sold an image of the host-boss as supremely competent and confident, dispensing his authority and getting immediate results. The analogy to politics was palpable.”</div>
<aside class="pullquote pull-right figure-active" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: right; flex-direction: column; flex: 0 0 50%; float: right; font-size: 3.8rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: -0.005em; line-height: 1.35; margin: 0.3em 0px 40px 20px; max-width: 50%; padding: 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; vertical-align: baseline; width: 480px; z-index: 2;"><div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 3.8rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.005em; line-height: 1.35; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Russians spent at least $98 million </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">on Trump’s properties in Florida—and another third of the units were bought by shadowy shell companies.</span></div>
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But the story of Donald Trump, self-made business genius, left out any mention of the shady Russian investors who had done so much to make his comeback narrative possible. And Trump’s business, despite the hype, was hardly “stronger than it ever was”—his credit was still lousy, and two more of his prized properties in Atlantic City would soon fall into bankruptcy, even as his ratings soared.</div>
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To further enhance his brand, Trump used his prime-time perch to unveil another big project. On the 2006 season finale of <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Apprentice</em>, as 11 million viewers waited to learn which of the two finalists was going to be fired, Trump prolonged the suspense by cutting to a promotional video for his latest venture. “Located in the center of Manhattan’s chic artist enclave, the Trump International Hotel and Tower in SoHo is the site of my latest development,” he <a href="http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20160526/BLOGS02/160529884/yet-another-reason-why-donald-trump-doesnt-want-to-release-his-tax-returns" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">narrated</a> over swooping helicopter footage of lower Manhattan. The new building, he added, would be nothing less than a “$370 million work of art … an awe-inspiring masterpiece.”</div>
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Trump SoHo was the brainchild of two development companies—Bayrock Group LLC and the Sapir Organization—run by a pair of wealthy émigrés from the former Soviet Union who had done business with some of Russia’s richest and most notorious oligarchs. Together, their firms made Trump an offer he couldn’t refuse: The developers would finance and build Trump SoHo themselves. In return for lending his name to the project, Trump would <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-06-21/trump-russia-and-those-shadowy-sater-deals-at-bayrock" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">get</a> 18 percent of the profits—without putting up any of his own money.</div>
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One of the developers, Tamir Sapir, had <a href="http://washingtonmonthly.com/2017/02/20/trumps-soho-project-the-mob-and-russian-intelligence/" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">followed</a> an unlikely path to riches. After emigrating from the Soviet Union in the 1970s, he had started out driving a cab in New York City and ended up a billionaire living in Trump Tower. His big break came when he co-founded a company that sold high-tech electronics. According to the FBI, Sapir’s partner in the firm was a “member or associate” of Ivankov’s mob in Brighton Beach. No charges were ever filed, and Sapir denied having any mob ties. “It didn’t happen,” he <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/09/nyregion/brass-knuckles-over-2-broadway-mta-landlord-are-fighting-it-over-rent.html" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">told</a> <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The New York Times.</em> “Everything was done in the most legitimate way.”</div>
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Trump, who <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=trump+sapir+great+friend&oq=trump+sapir+great+friend&aqs=chrome..69i57.7771j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#q=trump+sapir+great+friend+new+york+magazine" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">described</a> Sapir as a “great friend,” bought 200 televisions from his electronics company. In 2007, he <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/04/the-happy-go-lucky-jewish-group-that-connects-trump-and-putin-215007" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">hosted</a> the wedding of Sapir’s daughter at Mar-a-Lago, and later<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span>attended her infant son’s bris.</div>
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<img class="img-responsive-img img-jpg" data-reactid=".7.0.0" src="https://images.newrepublic.com/31628ee313bf39a133d6b2a9ee029c1dd51bf04a.jpeg?w=800" style="background-color: #eeeeee; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 507.078px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; position: absolute; vertical-align: baseline; width: 759.984px;" /></div>
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<figcaption style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: 1.45; margin: 1em 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="caption-text" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0.5em 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In 2007, Trump celebrated the launch of Trump SoHo with partners Tevfik Arif (center) and Felix Sater (right). Arif was later acquitted on charges of running a prostitution ring.</span><span class="credit" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #a7a9ab; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12.8px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mark Von Holden/WireImage/Getty</span></figcaption></figure><div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; flex-direction: column; flex: 0 0 83.3333%; font-size: 2rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.005em; line-height: 1.55; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 79.9844px; margin-top: 1.5em; max-width: 83.3333%; padding: 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; vertical-align: baseline; width: 799.984px;">
Sapir also <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-donald-trumps-empire-why-he-didnt-run-for-president-in-2012" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">introduced</a> Trump to Tevfik Arif, his partner in the Trump SoHo deal. On paper, at least, Arif was another heartwarming immigrant success story. He had graduated from the Moscow Institute of Trade and Economics and worked as a Soviet trade and commerce official for 17 years before moving to New York and founding Bayrock. Practically overnight, Arif became a wildly successful developer in Brooklyn. In 2002, after meeting Trump, he moved Bayrock’s offices to Trump Tower, where he and his staff of Russian émigrés set up shop on the twenty-fourth floor.</div>
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Trump worked closely with Bayrock on real estate ventures in Russia, Ukraine, and Poland. “Bayrock knew the investors,” he later <a href="http://fortune.com/2017/05/17/donald-trump-russia-2/" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">testified</a>. Arif “brought the people up from Moscow to meet with me.” He boasted about the deal he was getting: Arif was offering him a 20 to 25 percent cut on his overseas projects, he said, not to mention management fees. “It was almost like mass production of a car,” Trump testified.</div>
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But Bayrock and its deals quickly became mired in controversy. <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Forbes</em> and other publications <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=forbes+trump+the+trio&oq=forbes+trump+the+trio&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60j69i64.3565j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">reported</a> that the company was financed by a notoriously corrupt group of oligarchs known as The Trio. In 2010, Arif was <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1316831/NY-real-estate-mogul-Tevfik-Arif-arrested-suspicion-running-prostitute-ring.html" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">arrested</a> by Turkish prosecutors and charged with setting up a prostitution ring after he was found aboard a boat—chartered by one of The Trio—with nine young women, two of whom were 16 years old. The women reportedly refused to talk, and Arif was acquitted. According to a lawsuit filed that same year by two former Bayrock executives, Arif <a href="https://casetext.com/case/kriss-v-bayrock-grp-llc-4" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">started</a> the firm “backed by oligarchs and money they stole from the Russian people.” In addition, the suit alleges, Bayrock “was substantially and covertly mob-owned and operated.” The company’s real purpose, the executives claim, was to develop hugely expensive properties bearing the Trump brand—and then use the projects to launder money and evade taxes.</div>
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The lawsuit, which is ongoing, does not claim that Trump was complicit in the alleged scam. Bayrock dismissed the allegations as “legal conclusions to which no response is required.” But last year, after examining title deeds, bank records, and court documents, the <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Financial Times</em> <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/33285dfa-9231-11e6-8df8-d3778b55a923?mhq5j=e1" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">concluded</a> that Trump SoHo had “multiple ties to an alleged international money-laundering network.” In one case, the paper reported, a former Kazakh energy minister is being sued in federal court for conspiring to “systematically loot hundreds of millions of dollars of public assets” and then purchasing three condos in Trump SoHo to launder his “ill-gotten funds.”</div>
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<img class="img-responsive-img img-jpg" data-reactid=".8.0.0" src="https://images.newrepublic.com/9105c62808233c9265b5b2a9a87b3adde819fde7.jpeg?w=800" style="background-color: #eeeeee; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 250.422px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; position: absolute; vertical-align: baseline; width: 440px;" /></div>
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<figcaption style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: 1.45; margin: 1em 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="caption-text" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0.5em 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Felix Sater had a Trump business card long after his criminal past came to light.</span></figcaption></figure><div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; flex-direction: column; flex: 0 0 83.3333%; font-size: 2rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.005em; line-height: 1.55; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 79.9844px; margin-top: 1.5em; max-width: 83.3333%; padding: 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; vertical-align: baseline; width: 799.984px;">
During his collaboration with Bayrock, Trump also became close to the man who ran the firm’s daily operations—a twice-convicted felon with family ties to Semion Mogilevich. In 1974, when he was eight years old, Felix Sater and his family emigrated from Moscow to Brighton Beach. According to the FBI, his father—who was convicted for extorting local restaurants, grocery stores, and a medical clinic—<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-trump-tower/" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">was</a> a Mogilevich boss. Sater tried making it as a stockbroker, but his career came to an abrupt end in 1991, after he <a href="http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-sater-trump-20170223-story.html" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">stabbed</a> a Wall Street foe in the face with a broken margarita glass during a bar fight, opening wounds that required 110 stitches. (Years later, in a deposition, Trump <a href="http://www.npr.org/2017/03/01/517988044/trump-denies-links-to-russian-american-businessman" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">downplayed</a>the incident, insisting that Sater “got into a barroom fight, which a lot of people do.”) Sater lost his trading license over the attack, and served a year in prison.</div>
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In 1998, Sater pleaded guilty to racketeering—operating a “pump and dump” stock fraud in partnership with alleged Russian mobsters that bilked investors of at least $40 million. To avoid prison time, Sater turned informer. But according to the lawsuit against Bayrock, he also resumed “his old tricks.” By 2003, the suit alleges, Sater controlled the majority of Bayrock’s shares—and proceeded to use the firm to launder hundreds of millions of dollars, while skimming and extorting millions more. The suit also claims that Sater committed fraud by concealing his racketeering conviction from banks that invested hundreds of millions in Bayrock, and that he threatened “to kill anyone at the firm he thought knew of the crimes committed there and might report it.” In court, Bayrock has denied the allegations, which Sater’s attorney characterizes as “false, fabricated, and pure garbage.”</div>
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By Sater’s account, in sworn testimony, he <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/former-mafia-linked-figure-describes-association-with-trump/2016/05/17/cec6c2c6-16d3-11e6-aa55-670cabef46e0_story.html" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">was</a> very tight with Trump. He flew to Colorado with him, accompanied Donald Jr. and Ivanka on a trip to Moscow at Trump’s invitation, and met with Trump’s inner circle “constantly.” In Trump Tower, he often dropped by Trump’s office to pitch business ideas—“just me and him.”</div>
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Trump seems unable to recall any of this. “Felix Sater, boy, I have to even think about it,” he <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/memory-lapse-trump-seeks-distance-advisor-past-ties/story?id=34600826" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">told</a> the Associated Press in 2015. Two years earlier, testifying in a video deposition, Trump took the same line. If Sater “were sitting in the room right now,” he swore under oath, “I really wouldn’t know what he looked like.” He added: “I don’t know him very well, but I don’t think he was connected to the mafia.”</div>
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Trump and his lawyers say that he was unaware of Sater’s criminal past when he signed on to do business with Bayrock. That’s plausible, since Sater’s plea deal in the stock fraud was kept secret because of his role as an informant. But even after <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The New York Times</em> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/17/nyregion/17trump.html" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">revealed </a>Sater’s criminal record in 2007, he continued to use office space provided by the Trump Organization. In 2010, he was even <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/felix-sater-the-crook-behind-the-trump-russia-peace-plan" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">given</a> an official Trump Organization business card that read: FELIX H. SATER, SENIOR ADVISOR TO DONALD TRUMP.<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div>
<aside class="pullquote pull-left" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: left; flex-direction: column; flex: 0 0 50%; float: left; font-size: 3.8rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: -0.005em; line-height: 1.35; margin: 0.3em 20px 40px 0px; max-width: 50%; padding: 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; vertical-align: baseline; width: 480px; z-index: 2;"><div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 3.8rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.005em; line-height: 1.35; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In 2013, police burst into Unit 63A of Trump Tower and rounded up 29 suspects in a $100 million money-laundering scheme.</span></div>
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Sater apparently remains close to Trump’s inner circle. Earlier this year, one week before National Security Advisor Michael Flynn was fired for failing to report meetings with Russian officials, Trump’s personal attorney reportedly hand-delivered to Flynn’s office a “back-channel plan” for lifting sanctions on Russia. The co-author of the plan, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/19/us/politics/donald-trump-ukraine-russia.html?_r=0" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">according to</a> the <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Times</em>: Felix Sater.</div>
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In the end, Trump’s deals with Bayrock, like so much of his business empire, proved to be more glitter than gold. The international projects in Russia and Poland never materialized. A Trump tower being built in Fort Lauderdale ran out of money before it was completed, leaving behind a massive concrete shell. Trump SoHo ultimately had to be <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=trump+ivanka+managers+trump+soho&oq=trump+ivanka+managers+trump+soho&aqs=chrome..69i57.5285j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#q=trump+ivanka+managers+trump+soho&start=10" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">foreclosed and resold</a>. But his Russian investors had left Trump with a high-profile property he could leverage. The new owners contracted with Trump to run the tower; as of April, the president and his daughter Ivanka were still <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-resigning-from-businesses-finally-almost-done" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">listed</a> as managers of the property. In 2015, according to the federal financial disclosure reports, Trump made $3 million from Trump SoHo.</div>
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In April 2013, a little more than two years before Trump rode the escalator to the ground floor of Trump Tower to kick off his presidential campaign, police <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/09/trump-russian-mobster-tokhtakhounov-miss-universe-moscow/" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">burst </a>into Unit 63A of the high-rise and rounded up 29 suspects in two gambling rings. The operation, which prosecutors called “the world’s largest sports book,” was run out of condos in Trump Tower—including the entire fifty-first floor of the building. In addition, unit 63A—a condo directly below one owned by Trump—served as the headquarters for a “sophisticated money-laundering scheme” that moved an estimated $100 million out of the former Soviet Union, through shell companies in Cyprus, and into investments in the United States. The entire operation, prosecutors say, was working under the protection of Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov, whom the FBI identified as a top Russian vor closely allied with Semion Mogilevich. In a single two-month stretch, according to the federal indictment, the money launderers paid Tokhtakhounov $10 million.</div>
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Tokhtakhounov, who had been <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/09/trump-russian-mobster-tokhtakhounov-miss-universe-moscow/" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">indicted</a> a decade earlier for conspiring to fix the ice-skating competition at the 2002 Winter Olympics, was the only suspect to elude arrest. For the next seven months, the Russian crime boss fell off the radar of Interpol, which had issued a red alert. Then, in November 2013, he suddenly appeared live on international television—sitting in the audience at the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. Tokhtakhounov was in the VIP section, just a few seats away from the pageant owner, Donald Trump.</div>
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<figcaption style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: 1.45; margin: 1em 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="caption-text" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0.5em 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov. </span><span class="credit" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #a7a9ab; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12.8px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Dmitry Korotayev/Epsilon/Getty</span></figcaption></figure><div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; flex-direction: column; flex: 0 0 83.3333%; font-size: 2rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.005em; line-height: 1.55; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 79.9844px; margin-top: 1.5em; max-width: 83.3333%; padding: 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; vertical-align: baseline; width: 799.984px;">
After the pageant, Trump bragged about all the powerful Russians who had turned out that night, just to see him. “Almost all of the oligarchs were in the room,” he <a href="http://rew-online.com/2013/11/12/hotel-trio-aims-to-bring-manhattan-to-moscow/" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">told </a><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Real Estate Weekly.</em>Contacted by <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mother Jones,</em>Tokhtakhounov <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/09/trump-russian-mobster-tokhtakhounov-miss-universe-moscow/" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">insisted</a> that he had bought his own ticket and was not a VIP. He also denied being a mobster,<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/world/europe/tokhtakhounov-says-criminal-charges-are-just-a-misunderstanding.html" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">telling</a> <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The New York Times</em> that he had been indicted in the gambling ring because FBI agents “misinterpreted his Russian slang” on their Trump Tower wiretaps, when he was merely placing $20,000 bets on soccer games.</div>
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Both the White House and the Trump Organization declined to respond to questions for this story. On the few occasions he has been questioned about his business entanglements with Russians, however, Trump has offered broad denials. “I tweeted out that I have no dealings with Russia,” he <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/russia-may-not-have-leverage-over-trump-russians-are-another-matter" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">said </a>at a press conference in January, when asked if Russia has any “leverage” over him, financial or otherwise. “I have no deals that could happen in Russia, because we’ve stayed away. And I have no loans with Russia. I have no loans with Russia at all.” In May, when he was<a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/pres-trump-s-extended-exclusive-interview-with-lester-holt-at-the-white-house-941854787582" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">interviewed </a>by NBC’s Lester Holt, Trump seemed hard-pressed to think of a single connection he had with Russia. “I have had dealings over the years where I sold a house to a very wealthy Russian many years ago,” he said. “I had the Miss Universe pageant—which I owned for quite a while—I had it in Moscow a long time ago. But other than that, I have nothing to do with Russia.”</div>
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But even if Trump has no memory of the many deals that he and his business made with Russian investors, he certainly did not “stay away” from Russia. For decades, he and his organization have aggressively promoted his business there, seeking to entice investors and buyers for some of his most high-profile developments. Whether Trump knew it or not, Russian mobsters and corrupt oligarchs used his properties not only to launder vast sums of money from extortion, drugs, gambling, and racketeering, but even as a base of operations for their criminal activities. In the process, they propped up Trump’s business and enabled him to reinvent his image. Without the Russian mafia, it is fair to say, Donald Trump would not be president of the United States.</div>
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Semion Mogilevich, the Russian mob’s “boss of bosses,” also declined to respond to questions from the <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">New Republic</em>. “My ideas are not important to anybody,” Mogilevich said in a statement provided by his attorney. “Whatever I know, I am a private person.” Mogilevich, the attorney added, “has nothing to do with President Trump. He doesn’t believe that anybody associated with him lives in Trump Tower. He has no ties to America or American citizens.”</div>
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Back in 1999, the year before Trump staged his first run for president, Mogilevich<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqfgpLP9fm8" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0%, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%); background-position: 0px 97.5%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">gave</a> a rare interview to the BBC. Living up to his reputation for cleverness, the mafia boss mostly joked and double-spoke his way around his criminal activities. (Q: “Why did you set up companies in the Channel Islands?” A: “The problem was that I didn’t know any other islands. When they taught us geography at school, I was sick that day.”) But when the exasperated interviewer asked, “Do you believe there is any Russian organized crime?” the “brainy don” turned half-serious.</div>
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“How can you say that there is a Russian mafia in America?” he demanded. “The word <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">mafia</em>, as far as I understand the word, means a criminal group that is connected with the political organs, the police and the administration. I don’t know of a single Russian in the U.S. Senate, a single Russian in the U.S. Congress, a single Russian in the U.S. government. Where are the connections with the Russians? How can there be a Russian mafia in America? Where are their connections?”</div>
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Two decades later, we finally have an answer to Mogilevich’s question.</div>
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Craig Unger is a contributing editor at <i style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Vanity Fair</i> and the author of several books, including <i style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">House of Bush</i>,<i style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">House of Saud</i>.</div>
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Ed Slavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00298486886820876739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500836957138717480.post-27037830085681274462016-12-24T18:12:00.000-08:002016-12-24T18:12:02.986-08:00SUPPORT CIVIL RIGHTS AND ENVIRONMENT, PLEDGE TO RESIST TRUMP: Sunday, January 15th 1-4 PM at St. Augustine Amphitheater: <br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #4b4f56; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #4b4f56; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #4b4f56; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">The #Earth2Trump Roadshow of Resistance is coming to St. Augustine on Jan. 15.</span><br />
<br style="color: #4b4f56; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #4b4f56; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">The roadshow is rallying and empowering defenders of civil rights and the environment to resist Trump's dangerous agenda. Stopping in 16 cities on its way to Washington, D.C., it will bring thousands of people to protest at the presidential inauguration.</span><br />
<br style="color: #4b4f56; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #4b4f56; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">We need you there. And we need your friends, family and activist networks. Please take a moment to RSVP: </span><a href="http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fow.ly%2FvtOq3078f0j&h=0AQHNdM4e&enc=AZOjXYHlVicU1_2lnO7ochivJR9Fssoozdm4VBi0NOqri8kik49ek8grqJ8TSawx06o&s=1" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://ow.ly/vtOq3078f0j</a><br />
<br style="color: #4b4f56; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #4b4f56; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">The shows will feature national and local speakers, great musicians, and an opportunity to join a growing movement of resistance to all forms of oppression and all attacks on our environment. We must stand and oppose every Trump policy that hurts wildli</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="color: #4b4f56; display: inline; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">fe, poisons our air and water, destroys our climate, promotes racism, misogyny or homophobia, and marginalizes entire segments of our society.<br /><br />At each show, you can:<br /><br />• Sign the national Pledge of Resistance to Trump's dangerous agenda.<br />• Write a personalized #Earth2Trump message that will be carried to D.C. in a massive globe and delivered to Trump.<br />• Create a huge, viral social media #Earth2Trump messaging campaign.<br />• Connect with people in your community resisting oppression and find out how to join the million people who will protest in Washington, D.C. on Inauguration Day.<br /><br />Join us in your community to send a powerful, unwavering Earth2Trump message that oppression and environmental destruction will not be tolerated.<br /><br />Please RSVP to let us know you'll be at the event in St. Augustine and share this page with your family, friends and social networks. We'll see you on Jan. 15: <a href="http://ow.ly/vtOq3078f0j" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://ow.ly/vtOq3078f0j</a><br /><br />Thanks to our partners <a data-hovercard-prefer-more-content-show="1" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/page.php?id=273009159386320&extragetparams=%7B%22directed_target_id%22%3A113347082493705%7D" href="https://www.facebook.com/eycstaugustine/" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Environmental Youth Council St. Augustine</a> and <a aria-controls="js_1pu" aria-haspopup="true" data-hovercard-prefer-more-content-show="1" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/page.php?id=674447719244248&extragetparams=%7B%22directed_target_id%22%3A113347082493705%7D" href="https://www.facebook.com/MatanzasRiverkeeper/" id="js_1pv" role="null" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Matanzas Riverkeeper</a>!</span>Ed Slavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00298486886820876739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500836957138717480.post-67563814826192044032016-12-02T08:58:00.001-08:002016-12-02T10:54:13.976-08:00Bill McKibben: "How the Active Many Can Overcome the Ruthless Few" (The Nation magazine)We're all in this together. Read Bill McKibben's stirring call ton action,"How the Active Many Can Overcome the Ruthless Few Nonviolent direct action was the 20th century’s greatest invention—and it is the key to saving the earth in the 21st century." <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/how-the-active-many-can-overcome-the-ruthless-few/">https://www.thenation.com/article/how-the-active-many-can-overcome-the-ruthless-few/</a><br />
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<li class="issue" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.thenation.com/issue/december-19-26-2016-issue/" style="-webkit-transition: none !important; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #ccc6be; font-family: 'Knockout 49 A', 'Knockout 49 B'; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; opacity: 1; outline: 0px !important; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: none !important; vertical-align: baseline;">DECEMBER 19-26, 2016, ISSUE</a></li>
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<h1 class="title" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-size: 57.985px; line-height: 61.036px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto !important; vertical-align: baseline;">
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Nonviolent direct action was the 20th century’s greatest invention—and it is the key to saving the earth in the 21st century.</h2>
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By <a class="author" href="https://www.thenation.com/authors/bill-mckibben/" style="-webkit-transition: none !important; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #a39e98; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; opacity: 1; outline: 0px !important; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: none !important; vertical-align: baseline;">Bill McKibben</a><a class="author-twitter" href="https://twitter.com/@billmckibben" style="-webkit-transition: none !important; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #a39e98; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; opacity: 1; outline: 0px !important; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: none !important; vertical-align: baseline;" target="blank"><span style="background-image: url("https://www.thenation.com/wp-content/themes/thenation/images/sprites.svg"); background-position: -82px -290px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 5px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-indent: 100%; top: 3px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: nowrap; width: 20px; zoom: 1;">Twitter</span></a></h2>
<h4 class="time is_date article_pub_time" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(163, 159, 152) !important; float: left; font-family: 'Knockout 49 A', 'Knockout 49 B'; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 25px !important; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto !important; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline; width: 880px;">
NOVEMBER 30, 2016</h4>
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</header><section class="article-body abody-231900" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: 'Mercury Display A', 'Mercury Display B'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: auto; max-width: 1170px; padding: 0px 370px 0px 160px; position: relative; width: 1170px;"><aside class="left full-width-mobile image wide indent" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left !important; left: -256px; margin: 20px 0px; max-width: calc(100% + 256px); padding: 0px; position: relative; width: calc(100% + 256px);"><a class="gallery imgHover" href="https://www.thenation.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/McKibben-20161219Opener_img.jpg" style="-webkit-transition: none !important; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #008cba; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; opacity: 1; outline: 0px !important; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: none !important; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="Illustration by Curt Merlo. "><img alt="McKibben-20161219Opener_img" src="https://www.thenation.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/McKibben-20161219Opener_img.jpg?scale=896&compress=80" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" /></a><div class="caption" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #a39f98; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.25em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 1440px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px calc(256px - 5%); text-rendering: auto !important; vertical-align: baseline; width: 806.390625px; word-wrap: break-word;">
Illustration by Curt Merlo. </div>
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<span class="dropcap" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; font-family: "knockout 49 a" , "knockout 49 b"; font-size: 60px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 60px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 8px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I</span>know what you want from me—what we all want—which is some small solace after the events of Election Day. My wife Sue Halpern and I have been talking nonstop for days, trying to cope with the emotions. I fear I may not be able to provide that balm, but I do offer these remarks in the spirit of resistance to that which we know is coming. We need to figure out how to keep the lights on, literally and figuratively, and all kinds of darkness at bay.</div>
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Adapted from the inaugural Jonathan Schell Memorial Lecture on the Fate of the Earth, created by The Nation Institute and the Gould Family Foundation and presented by The New School.</div>
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I am grateful to all those who asked me to deliver this inaugural Jonathan Schell Lecture—grateful most of all because it gave me an excuse for extended and happy recollection of one of the most generous friendships of my early adulthood. I arrived at <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The New Yorker</em> at the age of 21, two weeks out of college, alone in New York City for the first time. <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The New Yorker</em> was wonderfully quirky, of course, but one of its less wonderful quirks was that most people didn’t talk to each other very much, and especially to newcomers 50 years their junior. There were exceptions, of course, and the foremost exception was Jonathan. He loved to talk, and we had long colloquies nearly every day, mostly about politics. </div>
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Ideas—not abstract ideas, but ideas drawn from the world as it wound around him—fascinated him. He always wanted to dig a layer or two deeper; there was never anything superficial or trendy about his analysis. I understood better what he was up to when I came, at the age of 27, to write <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/111998/the-end-of-nature-by-bill-mckibben/9780812976083/" style="-webkit-transition: none !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(232, 225, 216); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; display: inline; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; opacity: 1; outline: 0px !important; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none !important; transition: none !important; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">The End of Nature</a></em>. It owes more than a small debt to <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=418" style="-webkit-transition: none !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(232, 225, 216); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; display: inline; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; opacity: 1; outline: 0px !important; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none !important; transition: none !important; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">The Fate of the Earth</a></em>, which let me feel it was possible and permitted to write about the largest questions in the largest ways. </div>
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Jonathan Schell </div>
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In the years that followed, having helped push action on his greatest cause—the danger of nuclear weapons—that issue began to seem a little less urgent. That perception, of course, is mistaken: Nuclear weapons remain a constant peril, perhaps more than ever in an increasingly multipolar world. But with the end of the Cold War and the build-down of US and Russian weapon stocks, the question compelled people less feverishly. New perils—climate change perhaps chief among them—emerged. Post-9/11, smaller-bore terrors informed our nightmares. We would have been wise, as the rise of a sinister Vladimir Putin and a sinister and clueless Donald Trump remind us, to pay much sharper attention to this existential issue, but the peace dividend turned out mostly to be a relaxing of emotional vigilance. </div>
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However, for the moment, we have not exploded nuclear weapons, notwithstanding Trump’s recent query about what good they are if we don’t use them. Our minds can compass the specter of a few mushroom clouds obliterating all that we know and love; those images have fueled a fitful but real effort to contain the problem, resulting most recently in the agreement with Iran. We have not been able to imagine that the billion tiny explosions of a billion pistons in a billion cylinders every second of every day could wreak the same damage, and hence we’ve done very little to ward off climate change.</div>
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We are destroying the earth every bit as thoroughly as Jonathan imagined in the famous first chapter of <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The</em> <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Fate of the Earth</em>, just a little more slowly. By burning coal and oil and gas and hence injecting carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere, we have materially changed its heat-trapping properties; indeed, those man-made greenhouse gases trap the daily heat equivalent of 400,000 Hiroshima-size explosions. That’s enough extra heat that, in the space of a few decades, we have melted most of the summer sea ice in the Arctic—millennia old, meters thick, across a continent-size stretch of ocean that now, in summer, is blue water. (Blue water that absorbs the sun’s incoming rays instead of bouncing them back to space like the white ice it replaced, thus exacerbating the problem even further.) That’s enough heat to warm the tropical oceans to the point where Sue and I watched with our colleagues in the South Pacific as a wave of record-breaking warm water swept across the region this past spring, killing in a matter of weeks vast swaths of coral that had been there since before the beginning of the human experiment. That’s enough heat to seriously disrupt the planet’s hydrological cycles: Since warm air holds more water vapor than cold, we’ve seen steady increases in drought in arid areas (and with it calamities like wildfire) and steady, even shocking, increases in downpour and flood in wet areas. It’s been enough to raise the levels of the ocean—and the extra carbon in the atmosphere has also changed the chemistry of that seawater, making it more acidic and beginning to threaten the base of the marine food chain. We are, it bears remembering, an ocean planet, and the world’s oceanographers warn that we are very rapidly turning the seven seas “hot, sour, and breathless.” To the “republic of insects and grass” that Jonathan imagined in the opening of <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Fate of the Earth</em>, we can add a new vision: a hypoxic undersea kingdom of jellyfish. </div>
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We are destroying the earth every bit as thoroughly as Jonathan imagined in ‘The Fate of the Earth.’<a class="tw span_article_tweet" href="http://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=We+are+destroying+the+earth+every+bit+as+thoroughly+as+Jonathan+imagined+in+%E2%80%98The+Fate+of+the+Earth.%E2%80%99%20http://bit.ly/2gD7rei" style="-webkit-transition: none !important; border-bottom-left-radius: 100%; border-bottom-right-radius: 100%; border-bottom-style: none; border-top-left-radius: 100%; border-top-right-radius: 100%; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 20px; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; opacity: 1; outline: 0px !important; padding: 0px 5px; text-decoration: none !important; transition: none !important; vertical-align: baseline; width: 50px;" target="_blank"><span style="background-image: url("https://www.thenation.com/wp-content/themes/thenation/images/sprites.svg"); background-position: -41px -290px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; text-indent: 100%; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: nowrap; width: 20px; word-break: normal; zoom: 1;"></span></a></div>
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This is not what will happen if something goes wrong, if some maniac pushes the nuclear button, if some officer turns a key in a silo. This is what has already happened, because all of us normal people have turned the keys to our cars and the thermostat dials on our walls. And we’re still in the relatively early days of climate change, having increased the planet’s temperature not much more than 1 degree Celsius. We’re on a trajectory, even after the conclusion of the Paris climate talks last year, to raise Earth’s temperature by 3.5 degrees Celsius—or more, if the feedback loops we are triggering take full hold. If we do that, then we will not be able to maintain a civilization anything like the one we’ve inherited. Our great cities will be underwater; our fields will not produce the food our bodies require; those bodies will not be able to venture outside in many places to do the work of the world. Already, the World Health Organization estimates, increased heat and humidity have cut the labor a human can perform by 10 percent, a number that will approach 30 percent by midcentury. This July and August were the hottest months in the history of human civilization measured globally; in southern Iraq, very near where scholars situate the Garden of Eden, the mercury in cities like Basra hit 129 degrees—among the highest reliably recorded temperatures in history, temperatures so high that human survival becomes difficult. </div>
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Against this crisis, we see sporadic action at best. We know that we could be making huge strides. For instance, engineers have managed to cut the cost of solar panels by 80 percent in the last decade, to the point where they are now among the cheapest methods of generating electricity. A Stanford team headed by Mark Jacobson has shown precisely how all 50 states and virtually every foreign nation could make the switch to renewable energy at an affordable cost in the course of a couple of decades. A few nations have shown that he’s correct: Denmark, for instance, now generates almost half of its power from the wind. </div>
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In most places, however, the progress has been slow and fitful at best. In the United States, the Obama administration did more than its predecessors, but far less than physics requires. By reducing our use of coal-fired power, it cut carbon-dioxide emissions by perhaps 10 percent. But because it wouldn’t buck the rest of the fossil-fuel industry, the Obama administration basically substituted fracked natural gas for that coal. This was a mistake: The leakage of methane into the atmosphere means that America’s total greenhouse-gas emissions held relatively steady or perhaps even increased. This willingness to cater to the industry is bipartisan, though in the horror of this past election that was easy to overlook. Here’s President Obama four years ago, speaking to an industry group in Oklahoma: “Now, under my administration, America is producing more oil today than at any time in the last eight years. That’s important to know. Over the last three years, I’ve directed my administration to open up millions of acres for gas and oil exploration across 23 different states. We’re opening up more than 75 percent of our potential oil resources offshore. We’ve quadrupled the number of operating rigs to a record high. We’ve added enough new oil and gas pipeline to encircle the Earth and then some.” Hillary Clinton opened an entire new wing at the State Department charged with promoting fracking around the world. So much for the establishment, now repudiated. </div>
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Trump, of course, has famously insisted that global warming is a hoax invented by the Chinese and has promised to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency. His election win is more than just a speed bump in the road to the future—it’s a ditch, and quite likely a crevasse. Even as we gather tonight, international negotiators in Marrakech, stunned by our elections, are doing their best to salvage something of the Paris Agreement, signed just 11 months ago with much fanfare. </div>
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But the real contest here is not between Democrats and Republicans; it’s between human beings and physics. That’s a difficult negotiation, as physics is not prone to compromise. It also imposes a hard time limit on the bargaining; if we don’t move very, very quickly, then any progress will be pointless. And so the question for this lecture, and really the question for the geological future of the planet, becomes: How do we spur much faster and more decisive action from institutions that wish to go slowly, or perhaps don’t wish to act at all? One understands that politicians prize incremental action—but in this case, winning slowly is the same as losing. The planet is clearly outside its comfort zone; how do we get our political institutions out of theirs? </div>
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The planet is clearly outside its comfort zone. How do we get our political institutions out of theirs? <a class="tw span_article_tweet" href="http://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=The+planet+is+clearly+outside+its+comfort+zone.+How+do+we+get+our+political+institutions+out+of+theirs%3F%20http://bit.ly/2gD7rei" style="-webkit-transition: none !important; border-bottom-left-radius: 100%; border-bottom-right-radius: 100%; border-bottom-style: none; border-top-left-radius: 100%; border-top-right-radius: 100%; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 20px; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; opacity: 1; outline: 0px !important; padding: 0px 5px; text-decoration: none !important; transition: none !important; vertical-align: baseline; width: 50px;" target="_blank"><span style="background-image: url("https://www.thenation.com/wp-content/themes/thenation/images/sprites.svg"); background-position: -41px -290px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; text-indent: 100%; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: nowrap; width: 20px; word-break: normal; zoom: 1;"></span></a></div>
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And it is here that I’d like to turn to one of Jonathan’s later books, one that got less attention than it deserved. <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://us.macmillan.com/theunconquerableworld/jonathanschell/9780805044577" style="-webkit-transition: none !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(232, 225, 216); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; display: inline; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; opacity: 1; outline: 0px !important; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none !important; transition: none !important; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">The Unconquerable World</a></em> was published in 2003. In it<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">,</em> Jonathan writes, in his distinctive aphoristic style: “Violence is the method by which the ruthless few can subdue the passive many. Nonviolence is a means by which the active many can overcome the ruthless few.” This brings us, I think, to the crux of our moment. Across a wide variety of topics, we see the power of the ruthless few. This is nowhere more evident than in the field of energy, where the ruthless few who lead the fossil-fuel industry have more money at their disposal than any humans in the past. They’ve been willing to deploy this advantage to maintain the status quo, even in the face of clear scientific warnings and now clear scientific proof. They are, for lack of a better word, radicals: If you continue to alter the chemistry of the atmosphere past the point where you’re melting the polar ice caps, then you are engaging in a radicalism unparalleled in human history. </div>
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And they’re not doing this unknowingly or out of confusion. Exxon has known all there is to know about climate change for four decades. Its product was carbon, and it had some of the best scientists on earth on its staff; they warned management, in clear and explicit terms, how much and how fast the earth would warm, and management believed them: That’s why, for instance, Exxon’s drilling rigs were built to accommodate the sea-level rise it knew was coming. But Exxon didn’t warn any of the rest of us. Just the opposite: It invested huge sums of money in helping to build an architecture of deceit, denial, and disinformation, which meant humankind wasted a quarter of a century in a ludicrous argument about whether global warming was “real,” a debate that Exxon’s leaders knew was already settled. The company continues to fund politicians who deny climate change and to fight any efforts to hold it accountable. At times, as Steve Coll makes clear in his remarkable book <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://thepenguinpress.com/book/private-empire/" style="-webkit-transition: none !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(232, 225, 216); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; display: inline; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; opacity: 1; outline: 0px !important; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none !important; transition: none !important; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Private Empire</a></em>, the oil industry has been willing to use explicit violence—those attack dogs in North Dakota have their even more brutal counterparts in distant parts of the planet. More often, the industry has been willing to use the concentrated force of its money. Our largest oil and gas barons, the Koch brothers—two of the richest men on earth, and among the largest leaseholders on Canada’s tar sands—have promised to deploy three-quarters of a billion dollars in this year’s contest. As Jane Mayer put it in a telling phrase, they’ve been able to “weaponize” their money to achieve their ends. So the “ruthless few” are using violence—power in its many forms. </div>
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But the other half of that aphorism is hopeful: “Nonviolence is the means by which the active many can overcome the ruthless few.” When the history of the 20th century is written, I’m hopeful that historians will conclude that the most important technology developed during those bloody hundred years wasn’t the atom bomb, or the ability to manipulate genes, or even the Internet, but instead the technology of nonviolence. (I use the word “technology” advisedly here.) We had intimations of its power long before: In a sense, the most resounding moment in Western history, Jesus’s crucifixion, is a prototype of nonviolent action, one that launched the most successful movement in history. Nineteenth-century America saw Thoreau begin to think more systematically about civil disobedience as a technique. But it really fell to the 20th century, and Gandhi, to develop it as a coherent strategy, a process greatly furthered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his associates in this country, and by adherents around the world: Otpor in Eastern Europe, various participants in the Arab Spring, Buddhist monks in Burma, Wangari Maathai’s tree-planters, and so on. </div>
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We have done very little systematic study of these techniques. We have no West Point or Sandhurst for the teaching of nonviolence; indeed, it’s fair to say that the governments of the world have spent far more time figuring out how to stamp out such efforts than to promote them. (And given the level of threat they represent to governments, that is perhaps appropriate.) What we know is what we’ve learned by experience, by trial and error. </div>
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In my own case over the last decade, that’s meant helping to organize several large-scale campaigns or social movements. Some have used civil disobedience in particular—I circulated the call for arrestees at the start of the Keystone XL pipeline demonstrations in 2011, and observers said the resulting two weeks of nonviolent direct action resulted in more arrests than any such demonstration on any issue in many years. Others have focused on large-scale rallies—some in this audience attended the massive climate march in New York in the autumn of 2014, organized in part by 350.org, which was apparently the largest demonstration about anything in this country in a long time. Others have been scattered: The fossil-fuel divestment campaign we launched in 2012 has been active on every continent, incorporated a wide variety of tactics, and has become the largest anticorporate campaign of its kind in history, triggering the full or partial divestment of endowments and portfolios with nearly $5 trillion in assets. These actions have helped spur many more such actions: Keystone represented a heretofore very rare big loss for Big Oil, and its success helped prompt many others to follow suit; now every pipeline, fracking well, coal mine, liquid-natural-gas terminal, and oil train is being fought. As an executive at the American Petroleum Institute said recently—and ruefully—to his industry colleagues, they now face the “Keystone-ization” of all their efforts. </div>
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“Nonviolence is a means by which the active many can overcome the ruthless few.” —Jonathan Schell <a class="tw span_article_tweet" href="http://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=%E2%80%9CNonviolence+is+a+means+by+which+the+active+many+can+overcome+the+ruthless+few.%E2%80%9D+%E2%80%94Jonathan+Schell%20http://bit.ly/2gD7rei" style="-webkit-transition: none !important; border-bottom-left-radius: 100%; border-bottom-right-radius: 100%; border-bottom-style: none; border-top-left-radius: 100%; border-top-right-radius: 100%; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 20px; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; opacity: 1; outline: 0px !important; padding: 0px 5px; text-decoration: none !important; transition: none !important; vertical-align: baseline; width: 50px;" target="_blank"><span style="background-image: url("https://www.thenation.com/wp-content/themes/thenation/images/sprites.svg"); background-position: -41px -290px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; text-indent: 100%; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: nowrap; width: 20px; word-break: normal; zoom: 1;"></span></a></div>
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And we have by no means been the only, or even the main, actor in these efforts. For instance, indigenous activists have been at the forefront of the climate fight since its inception, here and around the world, and the current fight over the Dakota Access pipeline is no exception. They and the residents of what are often called “frontline” communities, where the effects of climate change and pollution are most intense, have punched far above their weight in these struggles; they have been the real leaders. These fights will go on. They’ll be much harder in the wake of Trump’s election, but they weren’t easy to begin with, and I confess I see little alternative—even under Obama, the chance of meaningful legislation was thin. So, using Jonathan’s template, I’ll try to offer a few lessons from my own experience over the last decade. </div>
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Lesson one: Unearned suffering is a potent tool. Volunteering for pain is an unlikely event in a pleasure-based society, and hence it gets noticed. Nonviolent direct action is just one tool in the activist tool kit, and it should be used sparingly—like any tool, it can easily get dull, both literally and figuratively. But when it is necessary to underline the moral urgency of a case, the willingness to go to jail can be very powerful, precisely because it goes against the bent of normal life. </div>
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It is also difficult for most participants. If you’ve been raised to be law-abiding, it’s hard to stay seated in front of, say, the White House when a cop tells you to move. Onlookers understand that difficulty. I remember Gus Speth being arrested at those initial Keystone demonstrations. He’d done everything possible within the system: co-founded the Natural Resources Defense Council, chaired the president’s Council on Environmental Quality, ran the entire UN Development Program, been a dean at Yale. But then he concluded that the systems he’d placed such faith in were not coming close to meeting the climate challenge—so, in his 70s, he joined that small initial demonstration. Because his son was a high-powered lawyer, Gus was the only one of us able to get a message out during our stay in jail. What he told the press stuck with me: “I’ve held many important positions in this town,” he said. “But none seem as important as the one I’m in today.” Indeed, his witness pulled many of the nation’s environmental groups off the sidelines; when we got out, he and I wrote a letter to the CEOs of all those powerful green groups, and in return they wrote a letter to the president saying, “There is not an inch of daylight between our position and those of the people protesting on your lawn.” Without Gus’s willingness to suffer the indignity and discomfort of jail, that wouldn’t have happened, and the subsequent history would have been different. </div>
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Volunteering for pain is an unlikely event in a pleasure-based society, and hence it gets noticed. <a class="tw span_article_tweet" href="http://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Volunteering+for+pain+is+an+unlikely+event+in+a+pleasure-based+society%2C+and+hence+it+gets+noticed.%20http://bit.ly/2gD7rei" style="-webkit-transition: none !important; border-bottom-left-radius: 100%; border-bottom-right-radius: 100%; border-bottom-style: none; border-top-left-radius: 100%; border-top-right-radius: 100%; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 20px; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; opacity: 1; outline: 0px !important; padding: 0px 5px; text-decoration: none !important; transition: none !important; vertical-align: baseline; width: 50px;" target="_blank"><span style="background-image: url("https://www.thenation.com/wp-content/themes/thenation/images/sprites.svg"); background-position: -41px -290px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; text-indent: 100%; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: nowrap; width: 20px; word-break: normal; zoom: 1;"></span></a></div>
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Because it falls so outside our normal search for comfort, security, and advancement, unearned suffering can be a powerful tool. Whether this will be useful against a crueler White House and a nastier and more empowered right wing remains to be seen, but it <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">will</em> be seen. I imagine that the first place it will see really widespread use is not on the environment, but in regard to immigration. If Trump is serious about his plans for mass deportation, he’ll be met with passive resistance of all kinds—or at least he should be. All of us have grown up with that Nazi-era bromide about “First they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew…” In this case, there’s no mystery: First they’re coming for the undocumented. It will be a real fight for the soul of our nation, as the people who abstractly backed the idea of a wall with Mexico are forced to look at the faces of the neighbors they intend to toss over it. </div>
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Lesson two: These tactics are useful to the degree that they attract large numbers of people to the fight. Those large numbers don’t need to engage in civil disobedience; they just need to engage in the broader battle. If you think about it, numbers are the currency of movements, just as actual cash is the currency of the status quo—at least until such time as the status quo needs to employ the currency of violence. The point of civil disobedience is rarely that it stops some evil by itself; instead, it attracts enough people and hence attention to reach the public at large. </div>
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When the Keystone demonstrations began, for instance, no one knew what the pipeline was, and it hadn’t occurred to people to think about climate change in terms of infrastructure. Instead, we thought about it in the terms preferred by politicians, i.e., by thinking about “emissions reductions” far in the future from policies like increased automobile efficiency, which are useful but obviously insufficient. In the early autumn of 2011, as we were beginning the Keystone protests, the <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">National Journal </em>polled its DC “energy insiders,” and 93 percent of them said TransCanada would soon have its permit for the pipeline. But those initial arrests attracted enough people to make it into a national issue. Soon, 15,000 people were surrounding the White House, and then 50,000 were rallying outside its gates, and before long it was on the front pages of newspapers. The information spread, and more importantly the analysis did too: Infrastructure became a recognized point of conflict in the climate fight, because enough people said it was. Politicians were forced to engage on a ground they would rather have avoided. </div>
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In much the same way, the divestment movement managed to go from its infancy in 2012 to the stage where, by 2015, the governor of the Bank of England was repeating its main bullet points to the world’s insurance industry in a conference at Lloyd’s of London: The fossil-fuel industry had more carbon in its reserves than we could ever hope to burn, and those reserves posed the financial risk of becoming “stranded assets.” Note that it doesn’t take a majority of people, or anywhere close, to have a significant—even decisive—impact: In an apathetic world, the active involvement of only a few percentage points of the citizenry is sufficient to make a difference. No more than 1 percent of Americans, for instance, ever participated in a civil-rights protest. But it does take a sufficient number to make an impression, whether in the climate movement or the Tea Party. </div>
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Lesson three: The real point of civil disobedience and the subsequent movements is less to pass specific legislation than it is to change the zeitgeist. The Occupy movement, for instance, is often faulted for not having produced a long list of actionable demands, but its great achievement was to make, by dint of recognition and repetition, the existing order illegitimate. Once the 99 percent and the 1 percent were seen as categories, our politics began to shift. Bernie Sanders, and to a lesser extent Donald Trump, fed on that energy. That Hillary Clinton was forced to say that she too opposed the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal was testimony to the power of the shift in the zeitgeist around inequality. Or take LGBTQ rights: It’s worth remembering that only four years ago, both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton still opposed same-sex marriage. That’s difficult to recall now, since at this point you’d think they had jointly invented the concept. But it was skillful organizing for many years that changed less the laws of the land than the zeitgeist of the culture. Yes, some of those battles were fought over particular statutes; but the battles in Hollywood, and at high-school proms, and in a dozen other such venues were as important. Once movements shift the zeitgeist, then legislative victory becomes the mopping-up phase; this one Trump won’t even attempt to turn back. </div>
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This is not how political scientists tend to see it—or politicians, for that matter. Speaking to Black Lives Matter activists backstage in the course of the primary campaign, Hillary Clinton laid out her essential philosophy: “I don’t believe you change hearts. I believe you change laws, you change allocation of resources, you change the way systems operate.” This is, I think, utterly backward, and it explains much of the intuitive sense among activists of all stripes that Clinton wouldn’t have been a leader. As Monica Reyes, one of the young immigration activists in the Dreamer movement—great organizers who did much to shift public opinion—put it: “You need to change the culture before you can change laws.” Or as that guy Abraham Lincoln once put it: “Public sentiment is everything.” </div>
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“You need to change the culture before you can change laws.” —Monica Reyes <a class="tw span_article_tweet" href="http://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=%E2%80%9CYou+need+to+change+the+culture+before+you+can+change+laws.%E2%80%9D+%E2%80%94Monica+Reyes%20http://bit.ly/2gD7rei" style="-webkit-transition: none !important; border-bottom-left-radius: 100%; border-bottom-right-radius: 100%; border-bottom-style: none; border-top-left-radius: 100%; border-top-right-radius: 100%; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 20px; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; opacity: 1; outline: 0px !important; padding: 0px 5px; text-decoration: none !important; transition: none !important; vertical-align: baseline; width: 50px;" target="_blank"><span style="background-image: url("https://www.thenation.com/wp-content/themes/thenation/images/sprites.svg"); background-position: -41px -290px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; text-indent: 100%; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: nowrap; width: 20px; word-break: normal; zoom: 1;"></span></a></div>
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By forever straddling the middle, centrist politicians delay changes in public sentiment. The viewpoint of the establishment—an appellation that in this case includes everyone from oil companies to presidents—is always the same: We need to be “realistic”; change will come slowly if it comes at all; and so forth. In normal political debates, this is reasonable. Compromise on issues is the way we progress: You want less money in the budget for X, and I want more, and so we meet in the middle and live to fight another day. That’s politics, as distinct from movement politics, which is about changing basic feelings over the great issues of the day. And it’s particularly true in the case of climate change, where political reality, important as it is, comes in a distinct second to reality reality. Chemistry and physics, I repeat, do what they do regardless of our wishes. That’s the difference between political science and science science. </div>
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There are many other points that Jonathan gets at in his book, but there’s one more that bears directly on the current efforts to build a movement around climate change. It comes in his discussion of Hannah Arendt and Mohandas Gandhi. Despite widespread agreement on the sources of power and the possibilities for mobilization, he finds one large difference between the two: Whereas Gandhi saw “spiritual love as the source and inspiration of nonviolent action, Arendt was among those who argued strenuously against introducing such love into the political sphere.” Hers was not an argument against spiritual love, but rather a contention that it mostly belonged in the private sphere, and that “publicity, which is necessary for politics, will coarsen and corrupt it by turning it into a public display, a show.” I will not attempt to flesh out the illuminating arguments on both sides, but I will say that I have changed my mind somewhat over the years on this question, at least as it relates to climate change. </div>
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Gandhi, like Thoreau before him, was an ascetic, and people have tended to lump their political and spiritual force together—and, in certain ways, they <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">were</em> very closely linked. Gandhi’s spinning wheel was a powerful symbol, and a powerful reality, in a very poor nation. He emphasized individual action alongside political mobilization, because he believed that Indians needed to awaken a sense of their own agency and strength. This was a necessary step in that movement—but perhaps a trap in our current dilemma. By this I mean that many of the early efforts to fight climate change focused on a kind of personal piety or individual action, reducing one’s impact via lightbulbs or food choices or you name it. And these are useful steps. The house that Sue and I inhabit is covered with solar panels. I turn off lights so assiduously that our daughter, in her <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Harry Potter</em> days, referred to me as “the Dark Lord.” Often in my early writing, I fixed on such solutions. But in fact, given the pace with which we now know climate change is advancing, they seem not irrelevant but utterly ill-equipped for the task at hand. </div>
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Let’s imagine that truly inspired organizing might somehow get 10 percent of the population to become really engaged in this fight. That would be a monumental number: We think 10 percent of Americans participated in some fashion in the first Earth Day in 1970, and that was doubtless the high point of organizing on any topic in my lifetime. If the main contribution of this 10 percent was to reduce its own carbon footprint to zero— itself an impossible task—the total impact on America’s contribution to atmospheric carbon levels would be a 10 percent reduction. Which is helpful, but not very. But that same 10 percent—or even 2 or 3 percent—actually engaged in the work of politics might well be sufficient to produce structural change of the size that would set us on a new course: a price on carbon, a commitment to massive subsidies for renewable energy, a legislative commitment to keep carbon in the ground. </div>
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Some people are paralyzed by the piety they think is necessary for involvement. You cannot imagine the anguished and Talmudic discussions I’ve been asked to adjudicate on whether it’s permissible to burn gasoline to attend a climate rally. (In my estimation, it’s not just permissible, it’s very nearly mandatory—the best gas you will burn in the course of a year.) It has also become—and this is much more dangerous—the pet argument of every climate denier that, unless you’re willing to live life in a dark cave, you’re a hypocrite to stand for action on climate change. This attempt to short-circuit people’s desire to act must be rejected. We live in the world we wish to change; some hypocrisy is the price of admission to the fight. In this sense, and this sense only, Gandhi is an unhelpful example, and a bludgeon used to prevent good-hearted people from acting. </div>
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In fact, as we confront the blunt reality of a Trump presidency and a GOP Congress, it’s clearer than ever that asceticism is insufficient, and maybe even counterproductive. The only argument that might actually discover a receptive audience in the new Washington is one that says, “We need a rapid build-out of solar and wind power, as much for economic as environmental reasons.” If one wanted to find the mother lode of industrial jobs that Trump has promised, virtually the only possible source is the energy transformation of our society. </div>
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<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">THE STAKES ARE HIGHER NOW THAN EVER. GET THE NATION IN YOUR INBOX. </span></div>
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I will end by saying that movement-building—the mobilization of large numbers of people, and of deep passion, through the employment of all the tools at a nonviolent activist’s disposal—will continue, though it moves onto very uncertain ground with our new political reality. This work of nonviolent resistance is never easy, and it’s becoming harder. Jonathan’s optimism in <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Unconquerable World</em> notwithstanding, more and more countries are moving to prevent real opposition. China and Russia are brutally hard to operate in, and India is reconfiguring its laws to go in the same direction. Environmentalists are now routinely assassinated in Honduras, Brazil, the Philippines. Australia, where mining barons control the government, has passed draconian laws against protest; clearly Trump and his colleagues would like to do the same here, and will doubtless succeed to one extent or another. The savagery of the police response to Native Americans in North Dakota reminds us how close to a full-bore petro-state we are. </div>
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And yet the movement builds. I don’t know whether it builds fast enough. Unlike every other challenge we’ve faced, this one comes with a time limit. Martin Luther King would always say, quoting the great Massachusetts abolitionist Theodore Parker, that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice”—meaning that it may take a while, but we are going to win. By contrast, the arc of the physical universe is short and it bends toward heat. I will not venture to predict if we can, at this point, catch up with physics. Clearly, it has a lot of momentum. It’s a bad sign when your major physical features begin to disappear—that we no longer have the giant ice cap in the Arctic is disconcerting, to say the least. So there’s no guarantee of victory. But I can guarantee that we will fight, in every corner of the earth and with all the nonviolent tools at our disposal. And in so doing, we will discover if these tools are powerful enough to tackle the most disturbing crisis humans have ever faced. We will see if that new technology of the 20th century will serve to solve the greatest dilemma of our new millennium. </div>
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Illustration by Curt Merlo.
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BILL MCKIBBEN is the author of 15 books, most recently Oil and Honey: The Education of an Unlikely Activist. A scholar in residence at Middlebury College, he is the co-founder of 350.org, the largest global grassroots organizing campaign on climate change.
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Ed Slavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00298486886820876739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500836957138717480.post-78190837291200039692016-12-02T08:57:00.001-08:002016-12-02T10:34:47.981-08:00REAGAN'S MALADROIT RESPONSE TO AIDS EPIDEMIC<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Flashback: The Reagan White House Thought AIDS Was Pretty Hilarious In 1982</h1>
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Today is World AIDS Day. <em>Mother Jones' </em>Gabrielle Canon has a <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/media/2014/11/portraits-living-with-aids-at-the-bailey-boushay-house" style="background-image: url(http://www.motherjones.com/sites/all/assets/orange-border.png); background-position: 0% 90%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; color: black; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: white -1px 0px 0px, white 0px 1px 0px, white 1px 0px 0px, white 0px -1px 0px, white -1px -1px 0px, white 1px 1px 0px, white 1px -1px 0px, white -1px 1px 0px;" target="_blank">heartbreaking story about the first AIDS hospice center.</a> (Get tissues ready.) Reading it reminded me of another first: The first time a reporter asked the White House about AIDS.</div>
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Via Jon Cohen's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0393322254" style="background-image: url(http://www.motherjones.com/sites/all/assets/orange-border.png); background-position: 0% 90%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; color: black; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: white -1px 0px 0px, white 0px 1px 0px, white 1px 0px 0px, white 0px -1px 0px, white -1px -1px 0px, white 1px 1px 0px, white 1px -1px 0px, white -1px 1px 0px;" target="_blank"><em>Shots in the Dark: The Wayward Search for an AIDS Vaccine</em></a>, here is the<a href="http://www.worldcat.org/wcpa/servlet/DCARead?standardNo=0393050270&standardNoType=1&excerpt=true" style="background-image: url(http://www.motherjones.com/sites/all/assets/orange-border.png); background-position: 0% 90%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; color: black; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: white -1px 0px 0px, white 0px 1px 0px, white 1px 0px 0px, white 0px -1px 0px, white -1px -1px 0px, white 1px 1px 0px, white 1px -1px 0px, white -1px 1px 0px;" target="_blank"> transcript</a> from the White House press briefing on October 15, 1982, the first time Reagan press secretary Larry Speakes fielded a question about AIDS.</div>
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<a href="http://www.worldcat.org/wcpa/servlet/DCARead?standardNo=0393050270&standardNoType=1&excerpt=true" style="background-image: url(http://www.motherjones.com/sites/all/assets/orange-border.png); background-position: 0% 90%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; color: black; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: white -1px 0px 0px, white 0px 1px 0px, white 1px 0px 0px, white 0px -1px 0px, white -1px -1px 0px, white 1px 1px 0px, white 1px -1px 0px, white -1px 1px 0px;" target="_blank"><strong>October 15, 1982:</strong></a></div>
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Q: Larry, does the President have any reaction to the announcement—the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, that AIDS is now an epidemic and have over 600 cases?<br />
MR. SPEAKES: What’s AIDS?<br />
Q: Over a third of them have died. It’s known as “gay plague.” (Laughter.) No, it is. I mean it’s a pretty serious thing that one in every three people that get this have died. And I wondered if the President is aware of it?<br />
MR. SPEAKES: I don’t have it. Do you? (Laughter.)<br />
Q: No, I don’t.<br />
MR. SPEAKES: You didn’t answer my question.<br />
Q: Well, I just wondered, does the President—<br />
MR. SPEAKES: How do you know? (Laughter.)<br />
Q: In other words, the White House looks on this as a great joke?<br />
MR. SPEAKES: No, I don’t know anything about it, Lester.<br />
Q: Does the President, does anybody in the White House know about this epidemic, Larry?<br />
MR. SPEAKES: I don’t think so. I don’t think there’s been any—<br />
Q: Nobody knows?<br />
MR. SPEAKES: There has been no personal experience here, Lester.<br />
Q: No, I mean, I thought you were keeping—<br />
MR. SPEAKES: I checked thoroughly with Dr. Ruge this morning and he’s had no—(laughter)—no patients suffering from AIDS or whatever it is.<br />
Q: The President doesn’t have gay plague, is that what you’re saying or what?<br />
MR. SPEAKES: No, I didn’t say that.<br />
Q: Didn’t say that?<br />
MR. SPEAKES: I thought I heard you on the State Department over there. Why didn’t you stay there? (Laughter.)<br />
Q: Because I love you, Larry, that’s why. (Laughter.)<br />
MR. SPEAKES: Oh, I see. Just don’t put it in those terms, Lester. (Laughter.)<br />
Q: Oh, I retract that.<br />
MR. SPEAKES: I hope so.<br />
Q: It’s too late.</div>
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They still thought it was pretty funny a year later:<a href="http://www.worldcat.org/wcpa/servlet/DCARead?standardNo=0393050270&standardNoType=1&excerpt=true" style="background-image: url(http://www.motherjones.com/sites/all/assets/orange-border.png); background-position: 0% 90%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; color: black; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: white -1px 0px 0px, white 0px 1px 0px, white 1px 0px 0px, white 0px -1px 0px, white -1px -1px 0px, white 1px 1px 0px, white 1px -1px 0px, white -1px 1px 0px;" target="_blank"> <strong>June 13, 1983:</strong></a></div>
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Q: Larry, does the President think that it might help if he suggested that the gays cut down on their "cruising"? (Laughter.) What? I didn't hear your answer, Larry.<br />
MR. SPEAKES: I just was acknowledging your interest—<br />
Q: You were acknowledging but—<br />
MR. SPEAKES: —interest in this subject.<br />
Q: —you don't think that it would help if the gays cut down on their cruising—it would help AIDS?<br />
MR. SPEAKES: We are researching it. If we come up with any research that sheds some light on whether gays should cruise or not cruise, we'll make it available to you. (Laughter.)<br />
Q: Back to fairy tales.</div>
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The laughs just kept on coming: <strong><a href="http://www.worldcat.org/wcpa/servlet/DCARead?standardNo=0393050270&standardNoType=1&excerpt=true" style="background-image: url(http://www.motherjones.com/sites/all/assets/orange-border.png); background-position: 0% 90%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; color: black; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: white -1px 0px 0px, white 0px 1px 0px, white 1px 0px 0px, white 0px -1px 0px, white -1px -1px 0px, white 1px 1px 0px, white 1px -1px 0px, white -1px 1px 0px;" target="_blank">December 11, 1984:</a></strong></div>
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MR. SPEAKES: Lester's beginning to circle now. He's moving in front. (Laughter.) Go ahead.<br />
Q: Since the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta—(laughter)—reports—<br />
MR. SPEAKES: This is going to be an AIDS question.<br />
Q: —that an estimated—<br />
MR. SPEAKES: You were close.<br />
Q: Well, look, could I ask the question, Larry?<br />
MR. SPEAKES: You were close.<br />
Q: An estimated 300,000 people have been exposed to AIDS, which can be transmitted through saliva. Will the President, as Commander-in-Chief, take steps to protect Armed Forces food and medical services from AIDS patients or those who run the risk of spreading AIDS in the same manner that they forbid typhoid fever people from being involved in the health or food services?<br />
MR. SPEAKES: I don't know.<br />
Q: Could you—Is the President concerned about this subject, Larry—<br />
MR. SPEAKES: I haven't heard him express—<br />
Q: —that seems to have evoked so much jocular—<br />
MR. SPEAKES:—concern.<br />
Q: —reaction here? I—you know—<br />
Q: It isn't only the jocks, Lester.<br />
Q: Has he sworn off water faucets—<br />
Q: No, but, I mean, is he going to do anything, Larry?<br />
MR. SPEAKES: Lester, I have not heard him express anything on it. Sorry.<br />
Q: You mean he has no—expressed no opinion about this epidemic?<br />
MR. SPEAKES: No, but I must confess I haven't asked him about it. (Laughter.)<br />
Q: Would you ask him Larry?<br />
MR. SPEAKES: Have you been checked? (Laughter.)</div>
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Now go read <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/media/2014/11/portraits-living-with-aids-at-the-bailey-boushay-house" style="background-image: url(http://www.motherjones.com/sites/all/assets/orange-border.png); background-position: 0% 90%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; color: black; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: white -1px 0px 0px, white 0px 1px 0px, white 1px 0px 0px, white 0px -1px 0px, white -1px -1px 0px, white 1px 1px 0px, white 1px -1px 0px, white -1px 1px 0px;" target="_blank">Gabrielle's story about what it was they all found so funny</a>.</div>
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Ed Slavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00298486886820876739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500836957138717480.post-87485388498744105532016-11-25T07:16:00.001-08:002016-11-25T07:16:05.699-08:00Nightmare cartoon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/12/6e/b7/126eb7e7340687b331e1db5c2c52aad0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="456" src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/12/6e/b7/126eb7e7340687b331e1db5c2c52aad0.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />Ed Slavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00298486886820876739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500836957138717480.post-84919926910785692242016-05-29T03:09:00.000-07:002016-05-29T11:07:32.730-07:00"The man who seduced the 7th Fleet and the sting that exposed the corruption of the U.S. Navy in Asia" -- Craig Whitlock, The Washington PostWhores, cash, cigars, electronic devices, hotel rooms, travel, torch cigar lighters, whiskey and entertainment were a few of the favors for which Naval officers in the Seventh fleet betrayed their country to a foreign national, who got them to betray national security secrets used to obtain government contracts.
<br />
<br />
This could be construed as treason and might have been prosecuted as such.<br />
<br />
There are some thirty Navy Admirals under federal criminal investigation, including the intelligence chief who has been forbidden to to see any classified information since 2013.<br />
<br />
"Do you know who I am?" said federal government contractor LEONARD GLENN FRANCIS, a/k/a "FAT LEONARD" to a Naval officer who dared question one of his bills. (Those were the same words ex-City Commissioner ERROL JONES used in speaking to arresting officers in 2011. How interesting that big-shot crooks use the same trite tropes, from Malaysia to St. Augustine.)<br />
<br />
Thanks to <i>The Washington Post</i> and reporter Glenn Whitlock for their investigation, and to the U.S. Department of Justice and Inspectors General for their investigation.
No thanks to local St. Johns County officials, including our Sheriff, State's Attorney, City and County Commissions and School Board, which turn a blind eye toward the process of detecting, deterring and uncovering potential contractor corruption, refusing to appoint Inspectors General or Ombuds.<br />
<br />
No thanks to <i>The St. Augustine Record, </i>which has ignored the story of Navy corruption while never calling for an Inspector General or Ombuds and has either ignored concerns of local activists or actually mocked us in recent years.
When local officials and local newspapers ignore wrongdoing, what do you call that?<br />
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The man who seduced the 7th Fleet</h2>
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He tempted his targets with the high life: whiskey, cigars, prostitutes and cash.</h6>
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His moles fed him bundles of military secrets and law enforcement files.</h6>
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All so he could rip off the Navy on an industrial scale for years and years.</h6>
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<span style="color: #ff4d4d;">Now, the depth of the corruption is being exposed as the investigation reaches into the highest ranks of the Navy.</span></h6>
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<span class="byline-title">Story by</span> <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/people/craig-whitlock" style="color: #2e6d9d; font-family: FranklinITCProBold, 'Franklin Gothic', 'ITC Franklin Gothic', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; text-decoration: none;">Craig Whitlock</a> <a href="mailto:craig.whitlock@washpost.com" style="color: #2e6d9d; font-family: FranklinITCProBold, 'Franklin Gothic', 'ITC Franklin Gothic', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="fa fa-envelope" style="display: inline-block; font-family: "fontawesome"; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1;"></span></a></div>
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<span class="byline-title">Graphics by</span> <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/people/kevin-uhrmacher" style="color: #2e6d9d; font-family: FranklinITCProBold, 'Franklin Gothic', 'ITC Franklin Gothic', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; text-decoration: none;">Kevin Uhrmacher</a></div>
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Published on May 27, 2016</div>
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for months, a small team of U.S. Navy investigators and federal prosecutors secretly devised options for a high-stakes international manhunt. Could the target be snatched from his home base in Asia and rendered to the United States? Or held captive aboard an American warship?</div>
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Making the challenge even tougher was the fact that the man was a master of espionage. His moles had burrowed deep into the Navy hierarchy to leak him a stream of military secrets, thwarting previous efforts to bring him to justice.</div>
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The target was not a terrorist, nor a spy for a foreign power, nor the kingpin of a drug cartel. But rather a 350-pound defense contractor nicknamed Fat Leonard, who had befriended a generation of Navy leaders with cigars and liquor whenever they made port calls in Asia.</div>
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Leonard Glenn Francis was legendary on the high seas for his charm and his appetite for excess. For years, the Singapore-based businessman had showered Navy officers with gifts, epicurean dinners, prostitutes and, if necessary, cash bribes so they would look the other way while he swindled the Navy to refuel and resupply its ships.</div>
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<i>[<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/01/21/sentencing-in-epic-navy-bribery-scandal-shows-how-easy-it-was-to-steal-military-secrets/" style="color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none;">Epic Navy bribery scandal shows how easy it can be to steal military secrets</a>]</i></div>
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In the end, federal agents settled on a risky sting operation to try to nab Fat Leonard. They would lure him to California, dangling a meeting with admirals who hinted they had lucrative contracts to offer.</div>
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He took the bait. On Sept. 16, 2013, Francis was arrested in his hotel suite overlooking San Diego’s harbor. It was the opening strike in a sweep covering three states and seven countries, as hundreds of law enforcement agents arrested other suspects and seized incriminating files from Francis’s business empire.</div>
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A 51-year-old Malaysian citizen, Francis has since <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/navy-captain-enters-guilty-plea-in-massive-bribery-case/2015/01/15/b09688ba-9ced-11e4-a7ee-526210d665b4_story.html?tid=a_inl" style="color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none;">pleaded guilty</a> to fraud and bribery charges. His firm, Glenn Defense Marine Asia, is financially ruined.</div>
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But his arrest exposed something else that is still emerging three years later: a staggering degree of corruption within the Navy itself.</div>
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Much more than a contracting scandal, the investigation has revealed how Francis seduced the Navy’s storied 7th Fleet, long a proving ground for admirals given its strategic role in patrolling the Pacific and Indian oceans.</div>
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In perhaps the worst national-security breach of its kind to hit the Navy since the end of the Cold War, Francis doled out sex and money to a shocking number of people in uniform who fed him classified material about U.S. warship and submarine movements. Some also leaked him confidential contracting information and even files about active law enforcement investigations into his company.</div>
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He exploited the intelligence for illicit profit, brazenly ordering his moles to redirect aircraft carriers to ports he controlled in Southeast Asia so he could more easily bilk the Navy for fuel, tugboats, barges, food, water and sewage removal.</div>
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Over at least a decade, according to documents filed by prosecutors, Glenn Defense ripped off the Navy with little fear of getting caught because Francis had so thoroughly infiltrated the ranks.</div>
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The company forged invoices, falsified quotes and ran kickback schemes. It created ghost subcontractors and fake port authorities to fool the Navy into paying for services it never received.</div>
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Francis and his firm have admitted to defrauding the Navy of $35 million, though investigators believe the real amount could be much greater.</div>
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“I ask, when has something like this, bribery of this magnitude, ever happened in this district or in our country’s history?” Robert Huie, an assistant U.S. attorney in San Diego, said during a court hearing last year. “Mr. Francis’s conduct has passed from being merely exceptional to being the stuff of history and legend.”</div>
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The scope of the investigation</div>
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Authorities in the United States and Singapore have filed criminal charges against 14 people so far. Prosecutors say 200 people are under scrutiny, but only a few have been named publicly.</div>
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Known</div>
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Unknown</div>
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PLEADED</div>
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GUILTY</div>
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UNDER</div>
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INVESTIGATION</div>
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CHARGED</div>
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About 30 admirals are under investigation. </div>
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Today, the Navy remains in the grip of overlapping civilian and military investigations that are slowly unraveling long skeins of misconduct.</div>
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So far, four Navy officers, an enlisted sailor and a senior agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) have pleaded guilty to federal crimes and are already behind bars or are facing prison time. So have Francis and two other Glenn Defense executives.</div>
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On Friday, three more current and former Navy officers were charged in federal court with corruption-related offenses. Charges are also pending against two former Navy contracting officials who were arrested last year. Many others remain under investigation.</div>
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Exactly how many is a mystery. When he pleaded guilty, Francis admitted to bribing “scores” of Navy officials with cash, sex and gifts worth millions of dollars — all so he could win more defense contracts and overcharge with impunity.</div>
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A federal prosecutor hinted at the extent of the case last year when he said in court that more than 200 “subjects” were under investigation.</div>
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A striking portion of the Navy’s senior brass could be tarnished. In December, Adm. John Richardson, the chief of naval operations, summoned about 200 admirals to a special gathering in Washington.</div>
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Without naming names, he revealed that about 30 of them were under criminal investigation by the Justice Department or ethical scrutiny by the Navy for their connections to Francis, according to two senior Navy officials with direct knowledge of the meeting.</div>
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The damage to the Navy could match the toll from the Tailhook scandal of the early 1990s, when 14 admirals were reprimanded or forced to resign over an epic outbreak of sexual assault at a naval aviators’ convention.</div>
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Because all but five of the 14 defendants charged in the Fat Leonard case have pleaded guilty, and no trials have taken place, only a small fraction of the evidence has been made public so far.</div>
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<img class="mug guilty" src="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-stat/graphics/investigations/seducing-the-seventh-fleet/francis.jpg" style="border-bottom-left-radius: 50%; border-bottom-right-radius: 50%; border-top-left-radius: 50%; border-top-right-radius: 50%; border: 0px; float: right; height: auto; margin: 0px 0px 0px 20px; max-width: 120px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: middle; width: 120px;" /><br />
<h4 style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: inherit; float: none; font-family: FranklinITCProBold, HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue Light', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 4px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; width: 315px;">
Leonard Francis</h4>
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President and chief executive officer, Glenn Defense Marine Asia</div>
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<span style="font-family: "franklinitcprobold" , "helveticaneue" , "helvetica neue light" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-transform: uppercase;">STATUS</span> Pleaded guilty in January 2015 to bribery, conspiracy to commit bribery, and conspiracy to defraud the United States.</div>
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Has admitted to bribing ‘scores’ of Navy officials with millions of dollars so they would leak him classified and confidential information about Navy operations, which he used in turn to gouge the Navy for port services.</div>
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/seducing-the-seventh-fleet/index.html" style="color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none;">Read more <span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-arrow-circle-right" style="display: inline-block; font-family: "fontawesome"; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1;"></span></a></div>
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This account of how Francis corrupted the Navy is based on interviews with more than two dozen current and former Navy officials, as well as hundreds of pages of court filings, contracting records and military documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).</div>
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Ethan Posner, an attorney for Francis, declined to comment. The Navy declined interview requests and referred questions to the Justice Department.</div>
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Laura Duffy, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California whose office is leading the investigation, declined to answer questions. “The investigation continues apace, uncovering substantial wrongdoing,” she said in a brief statement.</div>
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The investigation has mushroomed partly because Glenn Defense was a pillar of U.S. maritime operations for a quarter-century.The 7th Fleet depended on the firm more than any other to refuel and resupply its vessels.</div>
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Over time, Francis became so skilled at cultivating Navy informants that it was a challenge to juggle them all. On a near-daily basis, they pelted him with demands for money, prostitutes, hotel rooms and plane tickets.</div>
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“The Soviets couldn’t have penetrated us better than Leonard Francis,” said a retired Navy officer who worked closely with Francis and spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid reprisal. “He’s got people skills that are off the scale. He can hook you so fast that you don’t see it coming. . . . At one time he had infiltrated the entire leadership line. The KGB could not have done what he did.”</div>
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SOME OF THE BRIBES NAVY PERSONNEL HAVE BEEN CONVICTED OF TAKING</div>
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<span class="bodyCopy item travel" style="background-color: #d1d2cd; border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; border-top-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; display: inline-block; font-family: "franklinitcprothin" , "helvetica" , "arial"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 24px; margin: 3px 1px; padding: 4px 10px;">Meals, alcohol, gifts and stays at luxury hotels, including one night with his family at the Marriott Waikiki in Hawaii</span> <span class="bodyCopy item prostitution" style="background-color: #bca242; border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; border-top-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; color: white; display: inline-block; font-family: "franklinitcprothin" , "helvetica" , "arial"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 24px; margin: 3px 1px; padding: 4px 10px; text-shadow: none;">One night with a prostitute at the Shangri-La hotel in Makati, Philippines</span> <span class="bodyCopy item travel" style="background-color: #d1d2cd; border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; border-top-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; display: inline-block; font-family: "franklinitcprothin" , "helvetica" , "arial"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 24px; margin: 3px 1px; padding: 4px 10px;">One night at a Tokyo hotel</span> <span class="bodyCopy item prostitution" style="background-color: #bca242; border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; border-top-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; color: white; display: inline-block; font-family: "franklinitcprothin" , "helvetica" , "arial"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 24px; margin: 3px 1px; padding: 4px 10px; text-shadow: none;">Four nights at a Manila hotel, along with a prostitute</span> <span class="bodyCopy item prostitution" style="background-color: #bca242; border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; border-top-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; color: white; display: inline-block; font-family: "franklinitcprothin" , "helvetica" , "arial"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 24px; margin: 3px 1px; padding: 4px 10px; text-shadow: none;">Four nights at a Hong Kong hotel, along with a prostitute</span> <span class="bodyCopy item travel" style="background-color: #d1d2cd; border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; border-top-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; display: inline-block; font-family: "franklinitcprothin" , "helvetica" , "arial"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 24px; margin: 3px 1px; padding: 4px 10px;">Free vacations for him and his extended family in Cambodia, Malaysia and Singapore</span> <span class="bodyCopy item prostitution" style="background-color: #bca242; border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; border-top-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; color: white; display: inline-block; font-family: "franklinitcprothin" , "helvetica" , "arial"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 24px; margin: 3px 1px; padding: 4px 10px; text-shadow: none;">The services of prostitutes in Manila and Japan</span> <span class="bodyCopy item travel" style="background-color: #d1d2cd; border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; border-top-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; display: inline-block; font-family: "franklinitcprothin" , "helvetica" , "arial"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 24px; margin: 3px 1px; padding: 4px 10px;">Tickets to a Lady Gaga concert in Thailand</span> <span class="bodyCopy item travel" style="background-color: #d1d2cd; border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; border-top-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; display: inline-block; font-family: "franklinitcprothin" , "helvetica" , "arial"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 24px; margin: 3px 1px; padding: 4px 10px;">Tickets to the “Lion King” musical in Japan</span> <span class="bodyCopy item travel" style="background-color: #d1d2cd; border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; border-top-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; display: inline-block; font-family: "franklinitcprothin" , "helvetica" , "arial"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 24px; margin: 3px 1px; padding: 4px 10px;">A designer handbag for his wife</span> <span class="bodyCopy item money" style="background-color: #839ca9; border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; border-top-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; color: white; display: inline-block; font-family: "franklinitcprothin" , "helvetica" , "arial"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 24px; margin: 3px 1px; padding: 4px 10px; text-shadow: none;">Cash and other gifts worth up to $140,000</span> <span class="bodyCopy item travel" style="background-color: #d1d2cd; border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; border-top-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; display: inline-block; font-family: "franklinitcprothin" , "helvetica" , "arial"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 24px; margin: 3px 1px; padding: 4px 10px;">Travel expenses, including hotel stays in Singapore, Tokyo and Manila</span> <span class="bodyCopy item prostitution" style="background-color: #bca242; border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; border-top-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; color: white; display: inline-block; font-family: "franklinitcprothin" , "helvetica" , "arial"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 24px; margin: 3px 1px; padding: 4px 10px; text-shadow: none;">Prostitutes</span> <span class="bodyCopy item travel" style="background-color: #d1d2cd; border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; border-top-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; display: inline-block; font-family: "franklinitcprothin" , "helvetica" , "arial"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 24px; margin: 3px 1px; padding: 4px 10px;">Roundtrip airfare from Japan to the United States</span> <span class="bodyCopy item money" style="background-color: #839ca9; border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; border-top-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; color: white; display: inline-block; font-family: "franklinitcprothin" , "helvetica" , "arial"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 24px; margin: 3px 1px; padding: 4px 10px; text-shadow: none;">$3,000 in cash</span> <span class="bodyCopy item prostitution" style="background-color: #bca242; border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; border-top-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; color: white; display: inline-block; font-family: "franklinitcprothin" , "helvetica" , "arial"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 24px; margin: 3px 1px; padding: 4px 10px; text-shadow: none;">Night with a prostitute at a karaoke club in Malaysia</span> <span class="bodyCopy item travel" style="background-color: #d1d2cd; border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; border-top-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; display: inline-block; font-family: "franklinitcprothin" , "helvetica" , "arial"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 24px; margin: 3px 1px; padding: 4px 10px;">Three nights at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Singapore</span> <span class="bodyCopy item travel" style="background-color: #d1d2cd; border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; border-top-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; display: inline-block; font-family: "franklinitcprothin" , "helvetica" , "arial"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 24px; margin: 3px 1px; padding: 4px 10px;">Three nights at the Grand Hyatt in Hong Kong</span> <span class="bodyCopy item travel" style="background-color: #d1d2cd; border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; border-top-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; display: inline-block; font-family: "franklinitcprothin" , "helvetica" , "arial"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 24px; margin: 3px 1px; padding: 4px 10px;">Two nights at the Empire Hotel in Hong Kong</span> <span class="bodyCopy item travel" style="background-color: #d1d2cd; border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; border-top-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; display: inline-block; font-family: "franklinitcprothin" , "helvetica" , "arial"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 24px; margin: 3px 1px; padding: 4px 10px;">Nine days lodging in Tonga</span> <span class="bodyCopy item money" style="background-color: #839ca9; border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; border-top-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; color: white; display: inline-block; font-family: "franklinitcprothin" , "helvetica" , "arial"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 24px; margin: 3px 1px; padding: 4px 10px; text-shadow: none;">Monthly $1,000 cash allowance</span> <span class="bodyCopy item travel" style="background-color: #d1d2cd; border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; border-top-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; display: inline-block; font-family: "franklinitcprothin" , "helvetica" , "arial"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 24px; margin: 3px 1px; padding: 4px 10px;">Electronic gadgets, including a cellphone, iPad, digital camera and Wii and PSP video-gaming consoles</span> <span class="bodyCopy item travel" style="background-color: #d1d2cd; border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; border-top-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; display: inline-block; font-family: "franklinitcprothin" , "helvetica" , "arial"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 24px; margin: 3px 1px; padding: 4px 10px;">Hotel rooms for him and his Navy friends in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong</span> <span class="bodyCopy item money" style="background-color: #839ca9; border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; border-top-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; color: white; display: inline-block; font-family: "franklinitcprothin" , "helvetica" , "arial"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 24px; margin: 3px 1px; padding: 4px 10px; text-shadow: none;">Cash</span> <span class="bodyCopy item travel" style="background-color: #d1d2cd; border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; border-top-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; display: inline-block; font-family: "franklinitcprothin" , "helvetica" , "arial"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 24px; margin: 3px 1px; padding: 4px 10px;">Laptop computer</span> <span class="bodyCopy item travel" style="background-color: #d1d2cd; border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; border-top-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; display: inline-block; font-family: "franklinitcprothin" , "helvetica" , "arial"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 24px; margin: 3px 1px; padding: 4px 10px;">Travel expenses, including airfare to Bangkok and two nights there in a hotel</span> <span class="bodyCopy item prostitution" style="background-color: #bca242; border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; border-top-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; color: white; display: inline-block; font-family: "franklinitcprothin" , "helvetica" , "arial"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 24px; margin: 3px 1px; padding: 4px 10px; text-shadow: none;">A prostitute from the Philippines</span> <span class="bodyCopy item travel" style="background-color: #d1d2cd; border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; border-top-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; display: inline-block; font-family: "franklinitcprothin" , "helvetica" , "arial"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 24px; margin: 3px 1px; padding: 4px 10px;">Three-week, five-country vacation in Southeast Asia</span></div>
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<a class="pg-button pg-button--emphasize" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/seducing-the-seventh-fleet/index.html" style="-webkit-transition: background-color 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; background-color: black; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; border: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); color: white; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-family: FranklinITCProBold, HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue Light', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; padding: 13px 16px; text-decoration: none; transition: background-color 0.15s ease-in-out 0s;">Prostitutes, vacations and cash: The Navy officials ‘Fat Leonard’ took down <span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-arrow-circle-right" style="display: inline-block; font-family: "fontawesome"; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1;"></span></a></div>
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Living large</h3>
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Leonard Francis grew up in a prosperous family in Penang, Malaysia, enriched by the maritime logistics firm his maternal grandfather had started in 1946 along the Strait of Malacca, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.</div>
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Although Francis came from wealth and was tutored in private schools, he bore scars from a dysfunctional childhood.</div>
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His mother had split from his philandering father. She took her daughter and another son with her, leaving Leonard behind “with the bizarre task of keeping an eye on his father to ensure that he did not bring other women home,” according to a summary of Malaysian court records published in a national law journal.</div>
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In 1986, a 21-year-old Francis got into serious legal trouble. He opened a pub that was “frequented by undesirable characters” in Penang and was arrested after police found two Smith & Wesson revolvers, 14 rounds of ammunition and a bulletproof vest in his bedroom, according to the court records. He pleaded guilty.</div>
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Under Malaysia’s strict gun laws, he was supposed to receive a mandatory whipping and a prison sentence. The trial judge imposed a $5,800 fine but spared him the whipping and incarceration, citing a psychiatrist’s testimony that he was obese, emotionally fragile and suffering from a blood disorder. His estranged parents jointly paid the fine.</div>
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Apparently angry at the light sentence, however, police rearrested Francis as he was leaving the courthouse and charged him with committing a string of robberies, a Malaysian newspaper reported at the time.</div>
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The robbery charges were dropped. But after an appeal by prosecutors, a court stiffened Francis’s sentence for the gun crimes, ordering him to spend 18 months behind bars and submit to six strokes of the lash.</div>
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After absorbing his punishment, Francis devoted himself to the family business. There was money to be made working for the U.S. military, especially after the Navy was forced to shutter its giant Subic Bay base in the Philippines in 1992 and stepped up port visits elsewhere.</div>
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Lacking knowledge to navigate the byzantine world of U.S. defense contracts, Francis hired people who did: several former Navy officers, as well as retired brass from the Malaysian, Thai and Philippine navies.</div>
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Francis soaked up military culture from the veterans on his payroll. He learned Navy lingo and wore neckties emblazoned with the American flag. His cellphone played country singer Lee Greenwood’s rendition of “God Bless the U.S.A.”</div>
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He moved his headquarters to Singapore and opened branches all over Asia. By the early 2000s, he had secured contracts to service U.S. Navy ships in ports from Vladivostok, Russia, to Papua New Guinea. He also won business from the navies of Britain, France, Mexico, India and the Netherlands.</div>
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At its height, Glenn Defense and its subsidiaries boasted a fleet of more than 50 vessels. Most were tugs and barges, but the firm also advertised the services of a patrol ship with armed guards — British-trained Gurkha soldiers from Nepal — to fend off pirates.</div>
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After he moved to Singapore, Francis projected the image of a wildly successful tycoon. As he rode around the city, bystanders would gawk at his black, armored SUV with the puncture-resistant tires.</div>
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In the weeks leading up to Christmas, hundreds of people would pass by his 70,000-square-foot estate, marveling at the spectacular holiday-light extravaganza his staff erected each year.</div>
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A Singapore newspaper estimated that he spent $75,000 on the light show, with its life-size reindeer, giant snowmen, 35-foot-tall Christmas tree and a Nativity scene. A Roman Catholic, Francis encouraged the publicity but politely declined to say how much the decorations cost.</div>
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“You can’t put a value on happiness,” he told the Straits Times of Singapore.</div>
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The Glenn Braveheart seen in Singapore in 2006. When in port, Francis would sometimes turn the Braveheart into a giant party boat, with prostitutes in the wardroom to entertain U.S. officers, according to court records and interviews. (Courtesy of rfanostalgia.org) </div>
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‘Top-notch hospitality’</h3>
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In his dealings with the Americans, Francis went to great lengths to ingratiate himself with senior officers, recognizing that they often cared more about high-quality service than how the bill would be paid.</div>
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Whenever a Navy vessel arrived in port, the odds were high that Francis would be waiting at the pier. Like a five-star concierge, he would arrange for shopping trips, sightseeing tours and concert tickets. A limousine and driver would be reserved for the ship’s commander.</div>
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Select sailors would be invited to an extravagant banquet, featuring cognac and whiskey, Cohiba cigars from Cuba, and platters of Spanish suckling pig and Kobe beef. Francis would sometimes fly in a band of pole dancers, which he called his Elite Thai SEAL Team, for X-rated shows, court records show.</div>
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In another display of panache, he purchased an aging, decommissioned British warship, the RFA Sir Lancelot. He refurbished and renamed it the Glenn Braveheart.</div>
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The vessel became the flagship of his fleet, and it would often deploy alongside the USS Blue Ridge, the 7th Fleet’s flagship. When in port, Francis would sometimes turn the Braveheart into a giant party boat, with prostitutes in the wardroom to entertain U.S. officers, according to court records and interviews.</div>
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Even when he didn’t offer anything illicit, Francis earned a reputation as a reliable and responsive businessman who was eager to help the Navy in unfamiliar locales.</div>
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Soon enough, senior officers were dashing off ebullient thank-you notes known as Bravo Zulus, a Navy term meaning “well done.”</div>
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A 2006 laudatory ''Bravo Zulu'' note from then-Vice Adm. Jonathan Greenert. </div>
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●“Many of crew are still talking about the great adventures they experienced,” then-Capt. John J. Donnelly, then 7th Fleet chief of staff, said in a March 10, 2000, letter. He lauded Francis’s “warm hospitality,” calling it “truly remarkable” and that it “will long be remembered by all of us.” Donnelly would become a three-star admiral and commander of all U.S. submarine forces.</div>
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Now retired, Donnelly said he had no memory of ever meeting Francis and that the letter was “a pro forma thank you note” generated by his staff. “I probably signed hundreds of similar letters during my two years in that job,” he added.</div>
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●“Dear Leonard,” wrote then-Vice Adm. Robert F. Willard, then the 7th Fleet commander, on June 3, 2003. “Thank you for the top-notch hospitality. Your timely efforts and service will remain unparalleled.” Willard would become a four-star admiral and commander of all U.S. military forces in the Pacific. Now retired, he declined to comment.</div>
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●“Thank you for the superb services,” gushed then-Vice Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the next commander of the 7th Fleet, on March 9, 2006. “Over the years, the reputation of Glenn Marine remains exceptional. . . . Keep up the great work. I wish you and your staff the very best and continued success!” Greenert would become chief of naval operations, the top job in the Navy. He retired last year and declined to comment.</div>
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Francis treated the Bravo Zulu notes as celebrity endorsements, highlighting them in company brochures.</div>
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To further advertise his access to the highest levels of command, he published an array of grip-and-grin photographs featuring him alongside the Navy’s top admirals in their dress-white uniforms.</div>
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One brochure, published in 2008, shows Francis, smiling, in a collage of photos with Greenert and Willard and Adm. Sam Locklear, who later became commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific.</div>
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And with Adm. Mike Mullen, a chief of naval operations who became chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And with Adm. Gary Roughead, another chief of naval operations.</div>
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All have since retired. Locklear and Roughead declined to comment.</div>
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Sally Donnelly, an adviser to Mullen, issued a statement on his behalf saying that he appeared in thousands of informal photographs a year with people, many of whom he did not know.</div>
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“Admiral Mullen had no — and has no — personal or professional connection to the individual in this photograph, nor has anyone even suggested that he is in any way party to the activities for which this individual is being investigated,” she said.</div>
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Another retired admiral, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigations, recalled how he once attended an officers’ dinner with Francis. He said he complimented the contractor on his fashionable, bespoke suit and his “blowtorch of a cigar lighter.”</div>
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The next morning, as the admiral’s ship was preparing to leave port, Francis arrived at the pier bearing gifts: a $700 cigar lighter like the one he showed off the night before; two pewter platters worth about $500 apiece; a pack of 25 Cuban Cohiba cigars; and a business card for his bespoke tailor.</div>
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The admiral said he declined the presents. “There’s no question in my mind that he tried to influence me,” he said. “It’s like fishing. He’s got the hook. If he got an inch, he’d go for a foot. If he’d get a foot, he’d go for a yard.”</div>
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Glenn Defense also would dispense its largesse under the guise of charity. The firm became a leading sponsor of the Navy League of the United States, a civilian nonprofit group that advocates on behalf of the Navy.</div>
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At one military ball organized by the league’s Singapore chapter, Glenn Defense donated the top door prize: a pair of his and hers gold Rolex watches, valued at $30,000, according to two individuals who were present.</div>
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1.) An undated photograph shows then-Vice Adm. Jonathan Greenert with Leonard Glenn Francis. He later became a four-star admiral and chief of naval operations.<br />
2.) A 2007 photograph shows Adm. Mike Mullen with Francis.<br />
3.) An undated photograph shows Francis with Adm. Robert Willard.<br />
4.) An undated photograph shows Francis with Adm. Samuel Locklear. (Photos obtained by The Washington Post) </div>
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‘Everyone knew’</h3>
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Francis didn’t hesitate to exploit his connections, especially when lower-ranking officers challenged his exorbitant bills, according to several current and former Navy officers and court documents.</div>
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David Schaus, a junior officer assigned to the Navy’s Ship Support Office in Hong Kong, became livid after receiving a huge invoice from Glenn Defense in 2004. Schaus said it charged the Navy for pumping 100,000 gallons of sewage from a destroyer that spent four days in port — an impossible amount, because the ship’s tanks held just 12,000 gallons and were serviced only once a day.</div>
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Schaus told The Post that he summoned Francis for an explanation. “He became furious, accusing me of calling him a liar. And I told him, ‘I am calling you a liar.’ He said, ‘Lieutenants don’t tell me what to do. Do you know who I am?’ He was being profane and banging on the table.”</div>
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Afterward, Schaus said he was told by other Navy officials to back off, something that he said invariably happened when he raised questions about Glenn Defense.</div>
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The company “was rotten from the first day I worked with them in 2004, and everyone knew they were rotten,” Schaus said. “Everyone knew what was going on, and it was just accepted as the way it was. If you tried to rock the boat, you got squashed.”</div>
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Later that year, on Christmas Eve, the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and three other warships arrived in Hong Kong.</div>
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Francis threw a Christmas party for the visiting officers at the Island Shangri-La, a five-star hotel. They were treated to filet mignon, lobster and Dom Pérignon champagne, and they mingled with female escorts dressed as Santa’s little helpers, according to Schaus and a second officer who was present in port.</div>
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A handful of senior officers were invited to an after-party with the escorts, whom Francis had dubbed the “Santa Niñas,” or Santa’s girls, according to a third individual who was present.</div>
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The next day, Francis boarded one of the warships and delivered a $600,000 sewage bill, according to the second officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he remains on active duty and wasn’t authorized to speak to a reporter.</div>
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“He came into my office with a big grin wanting to be paid,” the officer said. The officer protested and brought up the lavish party from the night before. “I came right out and told Francis that we were paying for it with this bill.”</div>
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The officer said he lost the argument, and Francis got what he wanted.</div>
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In Hong Kong harbor, the guided-missile destroyer USS Decatur rests at anchor during a three-day port call in December 2004. When a Navy official in Singapore flagged questionable bills from Glenn Defense stemming from the port visit, one of Francis's alleged moles nipped the inquiry in the bud, according to prosecutors. (Petty Officer 2nd Class Aaron Burden/U.S. Navy) </div>
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‘Endemic corruption’</h3>
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Eighteen months later, the cycle repeated itself when another aircraft carrier visited Hong Kong.</div>
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Rear Adm. Michael H. Miller, commander of the USS Ronald Reagan carrier strike group, knew Francis well. In early 2006, he emailed the contractor to say he’d be coming to Asia soon, that he looked forward to renewing their friendship and could use some shopping advice, according to Navy documents obtained under FOIA.</div>
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<i>[<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/three-us-admirals-censured-in-fat-leonard-corruption-probe/2015/07/17/7f29ca1a-2b1f-11e5-a5ea-cf74396e59ec_story.html" style="color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none;">Here are the three U.S. naval officers censured in the corruption probe</a>]</i></div>
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The Reagan and three other ships in the strike group docked in Hong Kong on June 10. The next day, at Miller’s request, Francis arranged a splendid banquet for officers at the Island Shangri-La, this time at Petrus, a swanky French restaurant with views of Victoria Harbor.</div>
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Miller and his officers were accustomed to eating well with Francis. One week earlier, when the strike group had visited Malaysia, Francis took them to the Chalet Suisse restaurant in Kuala Lumpur. Before that, in Singapore, he arranged for dinner at Jaan, ranked as one of Asia’s 50 best restaurants.</div>
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To comply with ethics rules, Miller and two other senior officers wrote personal checks to reimburse Francis. They estimated the fair market value at between $50 and $70 per meal.</div>
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In fact, the dinners actually cost more than 10 times that much: about $750 per person, according to the findings of a Navy disciplinary investigation that was completed last year.</div>
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After the meals, Miller and other officers showered Francis with Bravo Zulu messages.</div>
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“Words cannot adequately express my appreciation for the service you have provided in all our ports of call,” Miller wrote to Francis two days after he left Hong Kong. “You are as much a member of the U.S. Navy team as any of us, and we are all proud to call you ‘Shipmate.’ ”</div>
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The Navy investigation found Miller’s note amounted to an official endorsement of Glenn Defense, a violation of ethics rules. He was formally censured by the Navy last year and retired soon after. He declined to comment.</div>
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Other officers colluded with Francis “to conceal the true nature” of the Hong Kong officers’ banquet from the Navy’s Ship Support Office, which was still tangling with Francis over his invoices, the investigation found.</div>
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Schaus, the ship support officer, said he suspected at the time that Glenn Defense was overcharging the Navy for the Reagan’s visit. He alerted NCIS and asked for a criminal inquiry.</div>
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An NCIS agent assigned to the Reagan interviewed him, he said. But the case went nowhere and only provoked a backlash. “Everybody on the ship hated me,” Schaus said. Navy officials declined to comment.</div>
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He resigned his Navy commission a few months later. He said he left for many reasons but that “the endemic corruption I observed during my short tenure of working within the supply world was certainly a major factor.”</div>
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On Francis’s payroll</h3>
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Around the same time, Francis planted a couple of moles in the Navy’s regional contracting office in Singapore.</div>
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Starting in 2006, Sharon Gursharan Kaur, a Singapore national who worked for the Navy, leaked confidential contract information to Francis for about $100,000 in cash and luxury vacations in Bali and Dubai, according to the Singapore Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau.</div>
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Kaur has been charged with corruption and money-laundering offenses in Singapore. Her case is pending. Her attorney did not respond to emails seeking comment.</div>
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Also in 2006, Francis began a relationship with Paul Simpkins, an American civilian who worked in Singapore as a Navy contract supervisor.</div>
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Over the course of several surreptitious meetings in a Singapore hotel bar, Francis offered Simpkins $50,000 to rig the bidding for Navy contracts in Thailand and the Philippines, according to a federal indictment of Simpkins.</div>
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Prosecutors allege Simpkins demanded more and ultimately received $450,000 in cash and payments wired to foreign bank accounts controlled by his wife.</div>
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In addition to allegedly rigging the Navy contracts for Francis, Simpkins served as a secret fixer in other matters for Glenn Defense, according to the indictment.</div>
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For example, when a Navy official in Singapore flagged questionable bills from the company related to a port visit by the USS Decatur, a guided-missile destroyer, Simpkins nipped the inquiry in the bud, prosecutors said.</div>
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“Do not request any invoices from this ship,” Simpkins ordered his colleague in an email, according to court records. “Do not violate this instruction. Contact the ship and rescind your request.”</div>
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Prosecutors also allege that in 2007, Simpkins ordered the Navy’s Hong Kong office to stop using flow meters to measure the amount of sewage that Glenn Defense pumped from ships, making it easier for the firm to gouge the Navy for the service.</div>
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Simpkins left the Singapore office that year to become a senior contracting executive for the Justice Department and later for the Defense Department. Prosecutors have accused him of maintaining a relationship with Francis while he worked in Washington.</div>
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During a return trip to Singapore for vacation, Simpkins asked Francis to arrange for some prostitutes, court records show.</div>
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“Can u set up some clean, disease free wome[n]when I am there?” Simpkins emailed. A few days later, he added: “Whats the plan to meet up and maybe do some honeys?”</div>
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“Honeys and bunnys,” Francis replied, confirming the date.</div>
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Simpkins has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial. His attorney did not respond to requests for comment.</div>
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U.S. Navy Capt. Daniel Dusek, center, walks through chief sideboys during a chief petty officer pinning ceremony aboard amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard in 2012. Dusek handed over classified ship schedules and steered aircraft carriers to “fat revenue ports” controlled by Glenn Defense in return for prostitutes, alcohol and stays at luxury hotels. (Petty Officer 2nd Class Adam M. Bennett/Released) (U.S. Navy)</div>
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‘A snake charmer’</h3>
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Francis’s most audacious achievement was his penetration of 7th Fleet headquarters in Japan. Four officers and an enlisted sailor who worked there have pleaded guilty to taking bribes.</div>
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In each case, court records show, Francis or his executives carefully groomed their targets, befriending them while searching for weak points: money or marital problems, alcohol, loneliness, lust, low self-esteem.</div>
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<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/another-navy-officer-pleads-guilty-in-fat-leonard-bribery-scandal/2015/04/15/59a93542-e39d-11e4-81ea-0649268f729e_story.html" style="color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none;">Lt. Cmdr. Todd Malaki</a>, a logistics planner for the 7th Fleet, said he was introduced by his commander to Francis in 2004 at one of the contractor’s famous parties.</div>
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“He was charming, personable and incredibly influential,” Malaki recalled in a confessional letter to a federal judge. “As we drank together, he convinced me into believing that we were friends and he was a mentor. I’m ashamed to admit that I wanted to believe we were equals.”</div>
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Before long, Malaki was handing over classified ship schedules and proprietary information about Glenn Defense’s competitors. In turn, Francis gave him about $3,000 in cash, paid for him to stay in hotels around Asia and provided him with a prostitute after a night at a Malaysian karaoke club.</div>
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“There is no excuse for what I did, but I fell under the charm of Mr. Francis,” Malaki wrote. “I suspect that he sensed the weakness of my character. He was like a snake charmer, preying on my flaws and manipulating me to serve or advance his interests.”</div>
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Malaki was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/01/29/navy-officer-sentenced-to-3-years-in-prison-in-sex-for-secrets-scandal/" style="color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none;">sentenced in January</a> to a 40-month prison term.</div>
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In 2010, Glenn Defense executives hooked Dan Layug, a petty officer who worked in logistics for 7th Fleet, initially by bribing him with a free cellphone, court records show.</div>
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Petty Officer 1st Class Dan Layug</h4>
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Logistics specialist, USS Blue Ridge and 7th Fleet</div>
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<span style="font-family: "franklinitcprobold" , "helveticaneue" , "helvetica neue light" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-transform: uppercase;">PUNISHMENT</span> Sentenced in January to 27 months in federal prison, plus a $15,000 fine.</div>
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<span class="bribeTypes" style="display: block;"><span style="font-family: "franklinitcprobold" , "helveticaneue" , "helvetica neue light" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-transform: uppercase;">TYPES OF BRIBES TAKEN</span></span><span class="small-item money" style="background-color: #839ca9; border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; color: white; display: inline-block; line-height: 24px; margin: 2px 0px; padding: 0px 4px; text-shadow: none;">Money</span> <span class="small-item travel" style="background-color: #d1d2cd; border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; display: inline-block; line-height: 24px; margin: 2px 0px; padding: 0px 4px;">Travel</span></div>
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Over the next three years, as Layug leaked competitors’ secrets and classified ship schedules to the firm, it rewarded him with more electronic gadgets, including video-game consoles, cameras and tablet computers. The company also provided free hotel rooms in ports across Asia to him and his friends.</div>
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Eventually, Layug worked his way up to an allowance of $1,000 a month. According to prosecutors, he’d drive to the Glenn Defense offices in Japan, roll down his window in the parking lot and exchange classified material for a cash-filled envelope.</div>
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“I let my ego and my greed take over me and ended up betraying my country,” Layug said at a January court hearing in San Diego. He <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/01/21/sentencing-in-epic-navy-bribery-scandal-shows-how-easy-it-was-to-steal-military-secrets/" style="color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none;">was sentenced</a> to 27 months in prison.</div>
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Capt. Daniel Dusek, who served as deputy director of operations for the 7th Fleet, said in court papers that a mentor introduced Francis to him in 2010 as “a great friend of the Navy.”</div>
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Capt. Daniel Dusek</h4>
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Deputy director of operations for the 7th Fleet; commander of USS Bonhomme Richard</div>
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<span style="font-family: "franklinitcprobold" , "helveticaneue" , "helvetica neue light" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-transform: uppercase;">STATUS</span> Pleaded guilty in January 2015 to conspiracy to commit bribery.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "franklinitcprobold" , "helveticaneue" , "helvetica neue light" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-transform: uppercase;">PUNISHMENT</span> Sentenced in March to 46 months in federal prison, plus $100,000 in fines and restitution.</div>
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<span class="bribeTypes" style="display: block;"><span style="font-family: "franklinitcprobold" , "helveticaneue" , "helvetica neue light" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-transform: uppercase;">TYPES OF BRIBES TAKEN</span></span><span class="small-item travel" style="background-color: #d1d2cd; border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; display: inline-block; line-height: 24px; margin: 2px 0px; padding: 0px 4px;">Travel</span> <span class="small-item prostitution" style="background-color: #bca242; border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; color: white; display: inline-block; line-height: 24px; margin: 2px 0px; padding: 0px 4px; text-shadow: none;">Prostitution</span></div>
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At the time, Dusek said he was feeling vulnerable because he was overworked, prone to heavy drinking and depressed by “the tortuous ending of my second marriage.”</div>
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Within months, Glenn Defense began supplying him with prostitutes, alcohol and stays at luxury hotels. In turn, Dusek handed over classified ship schedules and steered aircraft carriers to “fat revenue ports” controlled by Glenn Defense. He became such a valuable agent that Francis labeled him “a golden asset.”</div>
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In a court memo, Dusek confessed to his crimes but suggested that the corruption was widespread. He blamed an “endemic culture within the Navy in Asia” and charged that Francis “was able to leverage his way to the top in plain view of generations of senior Naval Officers and Admirals.”</div>
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Dusek <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/03/25/highest-ranking-navy-officer-yet-facing-prison-time-in-sex-for-secrets-scandal/" style="color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none;">was sentenced in March</a> to 46 months in prison. He declined to comment for this article.</div>
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Navy Cmdr. Michael Misiewicz, center, lies flat on his back in a boxing ring during “Fight Night” at a Manila nightclub in a photograph introduced as part of a federal court exhibit. In a letter to the judge in his case, Misiewicz blamed his behavior on marital troubles and personal insecurities. He said Francis mentored him and acted like a big brother. (U.S. District Court, Southern District of California)</div>
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The sex factor</h3>
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Perhaps the most effective bribe Francis offered was sex.</div>
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He was choosy about his prostitutes and worked with trusted escort agencies in several countries. He kept meticulous notes about the physical desires of Navy officials, such as who liked Thai girls, or group sex.</div>
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Sometimes, he would debrief the hookers afterward, looking for scraps of information he could exploit, according to court records and an individual familiar with his methods.</div>
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Once, he personally videotaped a Navy officer having sex with twin Vietnamese prostitutes in a hotel room in Singapore, according to two people familiar with the incident.</div>
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In another case, Francis went to unusual lengths to cater to Cmdr. Jose L. Sanchez, a married logistics officer at 7th Fleet headquarters who became one of his most valuable moles starting in 2009.</div>
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Cmdr. Michael Misiewicz</h4>
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Deputy director of operations, 7th Fleet; commander of USS Mustin</div>
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<span style="font-family: "franklinitcprobold" , "helveticaneue" , "helvetica neue light" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-transform: uppercase;">PUNISHMENT</span> Sentenced in April to 78 months in prison, as well as $195,000 in fines and restitution.</div>
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<span class="bribeTypes" style="display: block;"><span style="font-family: "franklinitcprobold" , "helveticaneue" , "helvetica neue light" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-transform: uppercase;">TYPES OF BRIBES TAKEN</span></span><span class="small-item travel" style="background-color: #d1d2cd; border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; display: inline-block; line-height: 24px; margin: 2px 0px; padding: 0px 4px;">Travel</span> <span class="small-item prostitution" style="background-color: #bca242; border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; color: white; display: inline-block; line-height: 24px; margin: 2px 0px; padding: 0px 4px; text-shadow: none;">Prostitution</span></div>
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/seducing-the-seventh-fleet/index.html" style="color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none;">Read more <span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-arrow-circle-right" style="display: inline-block; font-family: "fontawesome"; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1;"></span></a></div>
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According to an affidavit filed by federal agents, Francis once asked an Indonesian madam to send four prostitutes to Singapore to spend four days with Sanchez and three other Navy officers.</div>
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Although that port visit was canceled at the last minute, on other occasions Francis hired prostitutes to spend time with Sanchez and friends in his “wolf pack” in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, a second affidavit shows.</div>
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Another time, Francis messaged a prostitute with a last-minute request to see Sanchez in the Philippines. “Hey Love Jose is in Manila at the Diamond Hotel go and see him he needs some love asap.”</div>
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“Papi, I’m here,” the prostitute replied. “Jose’s fone is not answering. I’m here having drinks at the lobby. Call him:( maybe his sleeping?” Later, she emailed Francis with an update. “I’m with him already heehehe.”</div>
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Sanchez <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/01/07/navy-commander-pleads-guilty-to-taking-cash-luxury-hotel-rooms-and-prostitutes-as-bribes-from-fat-leonard/" style="color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none;">has pleaded guilty</a> to accepting as much as $120,000 in cash, travel and sex with prostitutes. Prosecutors say he regularly leaked classified ship and submarine schedules to Francis and tipped him off whenever Glenn Defense came under suspicion for defrauding the Navy.</div>
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He is awaiting sentencing. His attorney, Vincent Ward, declined to comment.</div>
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In 2010, Glenn Defense executives began targeting Cmdr. Michael Misiewicz, another married officer who was moving to 7th Fleet headquarters.</div>
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Cmdr. Jose Luis Sanchez</h4>
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Logistics officer, 7th Fleet</div>
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<span style="font-family: "franklinitcprobold" , "helveticaneue" , "helvetica neue light" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-transform: uppercase;">PUNISHMENT</span> Sentence pending.</div>
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Edmond Aruffo, a retired Navy officer who headed Glenn Defense’s operations in Japan, took Misiewicz out to dinner. Then he paid for the commander and his family to attend a production of “The Lion King” in Tokyo.</div>
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<i>[<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/04/29/fat-leonard-bribery-scandal-claims-navy-officer-who-escaped-cambodias-killing-fields-as-a-child/" style="color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none;">‘Fat Leonard’ scandal claims Navy officer who escaped Cambodia’s killing fields</a>]</i></div>
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“We gotta get him hooked on something,” Francis told Aruffo in an email entered into court records.</div>
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Within weeks, Aruffo discovered that Misiewicz had a fondness for Japanese prostitutes, liked fancy hotels and needed to pay for international travel for his extended family. The contractor obliged repeatedly on all counts, and soon Misiewicz was funneling classified material to the company.</div>
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“We got him!!:)” Aruffo emailed Francis.</div>
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“You bet the Godfather,” Fat Leonard replied.</div>
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Edmond Aruffo</h4>
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Japan country manager for Glenn Defense; retired Navy officer</div>
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<span style="font-family: "franklinitcprobold" , "helveticaneue" , "helvetica neue light" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-transform: uppercase;">PUNISHMENT</span> Sentence pending.</div>
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Recruited active-duty Navy officers to work as moles for Glenn Defense. Devised kickback scheme with Japanese contractors to defraud the Navy of more than $1 million. Used the kickback proceeds to pay for items that Glenn Defense did not want to record on its books, such as meals, drinks and gifts it gave to Navy officers.</div>
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/seducing-the-seventh-fleet/index.html" style="color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none;">Read more <span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-arrow-circle-right" style="display: inline-block; font-family: "fontawesome"; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1;"></span></a></div>
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“All hail!!!” cheered Aruffo, who has since pleaded guilty to bribery and is awaiting sentencing. His attorneys did not respond to requests for comment.</div>
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Misiewicz and Francis emailed, phoned and texted each other thousands of times, according to prosecutors. In a court filing, they said the officer became Francis’s “trained bulldog” in 7th Fleet headquarters and fed him highly sensitive military secrets, including information about ballistic missile defense operations in the Pacific.</div>
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In a letter to the judge in his case, Misiewicz blamed his behavior on marital troubles and personal insecurities. He said Francis mentored him and acted like a big brother.</div>
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“He made me feel special,” Misiewicz wrote. “I needed that given the personal isolation I was experiencing in my marriage.</div>
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Misiewicz <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/04/29/fat-leonard-bribery-scandal-claims-navy-officer-who-escaped-cambodias-killing-fields-as-a-child/" style="color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none;">was sentenced in April</a> to 6<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">1</span>/<span style="bottom: -0.25em; font-size: 14px; line-height: 0; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">2 </span>years in prison.</div>
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John Beliveau II, accompanied by attorney Gretchen von Helms, arrives at the federal courthouse in 2013. In exchange for prostitutes, cash and other favors, Beliveau tapped into an NCIS database as the cases unfolded and fed Francis raw material from investigators’ notes and interviews. (Lenny Ignelzi/Associated Press) (Lenny Ignelzi/Associated Press)</div>
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Francis the untouchable</h3>
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In 2010, Glenn Defense’s fraudulent tactics finally began to draw serious attention from the Navy. NCIS opened two separate criminal investigations into the company for its billing practices in Thailand and Japan.</div>
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But Francis had another ace in the hole: a turncoat law enforcement agent.</div>
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John Beliveau II, an NCIS agent based in Singapore and later at Quantico, Va., had known Francis for at least two years. In exchange for prostitutes, cash and other favors, he tapped into an NCIS database as the cases unfolded and fed Francis raw material from investigators’ notes and interviews.</div>
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<i>[<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/ncis-agent-implicated-in-fat-leonard-scandal-to-plead-guilty/2013/12/12/c9aa0954-6336-11e3-91b3-f2bb96304e34_story.html" style="color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none;">NCIS agent implicated in Navy’s ‘Fat Leonard’ scandal to plead guilty</a>]</i></div>
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According to prosecutors, the information enabled Francis to cover his tracks and intimidate witnesses. His NCIS spy proved so reliable and so valuable that Francis became giddy.</div>
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“I have inside Intel from NCIS and read all the reports,” Francis boasted in a 2011 email to another one of his moles. “I will show you a copy of a Classified Command File on me from NCIS ha ha.”</div>
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Francis’s intelligence machine worked so well that Navy personnel in Singapore suspected their offices had been bugged; some even thought they were under surveillance by private detectives.</div>
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John Beliveau II</h4>
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Special agent, Naval Criminal Investigative Service</div>
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<span style="font-family: "franklinitcprobold" , "helveticaneue" , "helvetica neue light" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-transform: uppercase;">PUNISHMENT</span> Sentence pending.</div>
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<span class="bribeTypes" style="display: block;"><span style="font-family: "franklinitcprobold" , "helveticaneue" , "helvetica neue light" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-transform: uppercase;">TYPES OF BRIBES TAKEN</span></span><span class="small-item money" style="background-color: #839ca9; border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; color: white; display: inline-block; line-height: 24px; margin: 2px 0px; padding: 0px 4px; text-shadow: none;">Money</span> <span class="small-item travel" style="background-color: #d1d2cd; border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; display: inline-block; line-height: 24px; margin: 2px 0px; padding: 0px 4px;">Travel</span> <span class="small-item prostitution" style="background-color: #bca242; border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; color: white; display: inline-block; line-height: 24px; margin: 2px 0px; padding: 0px 4px; text-shadow: none;">Prostitution</span></div>
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/seducing-the-seventh-fleet/index.html" style="color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none;">Read more <span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-arrow-circle-right" style="display: inline-block; font-family: "fontawesome"; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1;"></span></a></div>
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There were other reasons for Francis to feel untouchable.</div>
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Despite the ongoing NCIS investigations, in June 2011 the Navy awarded Glenn Defense three major contracts, worth up to $200 million, to service ships in Southeast Asia, East Asia, Australia and the Pacific Isles.</div>
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Top Navy brass seemed as pleased as ever with Francis. They extended invitations for him to attend military change-of-command ceremonies alongside Navy VIPs, diplomats, and relatives and close friends of the commanders.</div>
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In September 2011, he boarded the USS Blue Ridge, the 7th Fleet flagship, to watch Vice Adm. Scott Swift take charge from Vice Adm. Scott Van Buskirk, according to documents obtained by The Post under FOIA.</div>
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Six months later, he traveled to Hawaii for another ceremony in which Adm. Locklear took command of all U.S. military forces in the Pacific from Adm. Willard, the documents show. A seat was reserved for Francis near the front.</div>
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Even when his luck turned bad, Francis always seemed to navigate back out of trouble.</div>
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In October 2012, Philippine authorities caught one of his ships, the Glenn Guardian, illegally dumping about 200,000 liters of wastewater near Subic Bay. The wastewater had been collected from the USS Emory S. Land, a submarine tender, during a port visit.</div>
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An investigation by the Philippine Senate found that Glenn Defense had been dumping millions of liters of wastewater from U.S. Navy ships for years without proper permits.</div>
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Company executives argued that as a U.S. defense contractor the firm was protected from liability under terms of a U.S.-Philippines defense treaty. Despite a public outcry, the company was not penalized or fined in the end.</div>
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Prosecutors say Navy Cmdr. Jose L. Sanchez, right, regularly leaked classified ship and submarine schedules to Francis and tipped him off whenever Glenn Defense came under suspicion for defrauding the Navy. He pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing. (John Gastaldo/San Diego Union-Tribune via Associated Press)</div>
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The trap is sprung</h3>
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In the end, Francis’s overconfidence led to his downfall.</div>
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Navy officials eventually realized that Francis had infiltrated NCIS. Cybersecurity teams discovered that Beliveau had been downloading hundreds of files about Francis from the law enforcement database, even though the NCIS agent wasn’t assigned to the case.</div>
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In July 2013, they planted false information in the database, stating that all investigations against Glenn Defense had been closed and no charges would be filed.</div>
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Two months later, thinking he was in the clear, Francis flew to San Diego to attend another change-of-command ceremony and to drum up business from the Navy’s Global Logistics Support Command.</div>
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Instead, he fell into the Navy’s trap. After giving a PowerPoint briefing to two admirals about ways that he said Glenn Defense could save the Navy money, he returned to his hotel and was arrested.</div>
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Beliveau was arrested the same day in Washington. He has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/ncis-agent-implicated-in-fat-leonard-scandal-to-plead-guilty/2013/12/12/c9aa0954-6336-11e3-91b3-f2bb96304e34_story.html" style="color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none;">pleaded guilty</a> to bribery charges and is awaiting sentencing.</div>
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Beliveau’s attorney, Jessica Carmichael of Alexandria, said he “fell under Francis’s spell” and “will forever regret his conduct.”</div>
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“The range and number of high-level officials involved shows the influential and manipulative nature of Leonard Francis,” she added. “He was clearly a dynamic personality who could con so many senior officials into his far-reaching scheme.”</div>
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Francis has been locked up in San Diego since his 2013 arrest. He is awaiting sentencing and faces a maximum of 20 years in prison. When he <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/navy-captain-enters-guilty-plea-in-massive-bribery-case/2015/01/15/b09688ba-9ced-11e4-a7ee-526210d665b4_story.html" style="color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none;">pleaded guilty</a> last year, court papers show he promised to cooperate in a bid for leniency.</div>
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Authorities have identified only a few of the 30 admirals under investigation.</div>
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The Navy announced in November 2013 that two admirals in charge of the service’s secrets — Vice Adm. Ted “Twig” Branch, the director of naval intelligence, and a deputy, Rear Adm. Bruce Loveless — were under criminal investigation by the Justice Department.</div>
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<i>[<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/01/27/the-admiral-in-charge-of-navy-intelligence-has-not-been-allowed-to-see-military-secrets-for-years/" style="color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none;">The admiral in charge of Navy intelligence has not been allowed to see military secrets for years</a>]</i></div>
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Since then, the two officers have been mired in limbo, neither charged nor cleared. Navy and Justice officials have disclosed no other details. Branch and Loveless declined to comment.</div>
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Navy Secretary Ray Mabus issued letters of censure to three admirals – Vice Adm. Michael H. Miller (left), Rear Adm. Terry Kraft and Rear Adm. David Pimpo – for accepting lavish dinners and gifts from Francis in 2006 and 2007 without proper reimbursement. All three officers have since retired. (U.S. Navy)</div>
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In a previously undisclosed case, NCIS agents are also investigating Rear Adm. Robert Gilbeau, a supply and logistics officer, according to a senior Navy official and two people who have been questioned.</div>
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Gilbeau came to know Francis during several deployments to Asia and is also under scrutiny for his relationships with contractors when he served in Afghanistan in 2012 and 2013, according to the people questioned in the case.</div>
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Reached by phone, Gilbeau confirmed he was under investigation but declined to comment further.</div>
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The open-ended nature of the investigation, with so many officers under scrutiny, has hampered the Navy’s ability to fill command jobs and move forward with promotions.</div>
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It has also led to grumbling that many officers have been forced to work under a cloud of suspicion for years, without facing charges, unable to clear their names.</div>
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“I’m not the guy to sweep this under the rug. In my view, there was a problem,” said Peter H. Daly, a retired vice admiral who serves as chief executive of the U.S. Naval Institute, a nonprofit military association in Annapolis. “But to let this thing drag out is wrong. It’s just bad, bad, bad. It shouldn’t be this way. It’s not fair.”</div>
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Prosecutors have said it has taken so long to get to the bottom of the scandal because there is a mountain of evidence to mine.</div>
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Investigators said they have amassed 18 terabytes of data from more than 100 email and Facebook accounts, as well as dozens of computer hard drives, tablets and smartphones. Nine federal agents were assigned just to organize and upload the materials.</div>
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The evidence remains under a protective order to prevent it from being made public. But, occasionally, new details emerge that illustrate the scope of Francis’s penetration of the Navy.</div>
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Last month, for instance, lawyers for Misiewicz, one of the officers who has pleaded guilty, filed a court document stating that Francis had gone so far as to bribe Navy public-affairs specialists “to advise and train him on the Navy’s strategic talking points.”</div>
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The document gave no other details. But a person close to the investigation said the public-affairs officers worked for the Hawaii-based U.S. Pacific Fleet and that Francis bribed them with a combination of cash, dinners and prostitutes.</div>
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Editor's picks</h4>
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For the foreign defense contractor, stealing U.S. Navy secrets turned out to be a breeze. All it took was a little cash, a few cheap gifts—and a willing sailor. <a class="light-black" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/01/21/sentencing-in-epic-navy-bribery-scandal-shows-how-easy-it-was-to-steal-military-secrets/" style="color: #2a2a2a; text-decoration: none;"><span class="fa fa-circle-arrow-right" style="display: inline-block; font-family: "fontawesome"; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1;"></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/01/27/the-admiral-in-charge-of-navy-intelligence-has-not-been-allowed-to-see-military-secrets-for-years/" style="color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none;">
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Vice Adm. Ted “Twig” Branch has been barred from reading, seeing or hearing classified information since November 2013.<br />
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Ed Slavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00298486886820876739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500836957138717480.post-44269250627645146552016-01-02T14:49:00.001-08:002016-01-02T14:50:28.491-08:00Senator Dale Bumpers (D-Ark.), R.I.P.<a href="https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/Wires/Online/2016-01-02/AP/Images/ObitBumpers-08d9d.jpg?uuid=1PIw_LGGEeWygUPAtW9h-g" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/Wires/Online/2016-01-02/AP/Images/ObitBumpers-08d9d.jpg?uuid=1PIw_LGGEeWygUPAtW9h-g" /></a>
<b>"Funny as all get out and could talk an owl out of a tree," Bill Clinton said.
</b>
Former United States Senator Dale Leon Bumpers of Arkansas has died at age 90.
Senate Dale Bumpers was one of my Senate heroes as an undergraduate, and I always enjoyed watching him in U.S. Senate floor debates, in the era before C-SPAN, in the 1970s.
Senator Bumpers worked for historic preservation and environmental protection and enjoyed defiantly defeating special interests who wanted to clear-cut forests and destroy our public lands. He was an influential member of the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee, 1975-1999.
In 1988, Senator Bumpers' Floor amendment saved Stuart's Hill -- 542 acres near the Second Battle of Manassas (Bull Run) battlefield -- from commercial development. Senator Bumpers' Floor amendment provided for a legislative taking, and it passed on October 7, 1988, by vote of 50-25.
With support from Virginia preservationists, the National Park Service, National Trust for Historic Preservation, former White House press secretary Jody Powell and Civil War historians, U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee National Parks and Forests Subcommittee Chair Dale Bumpers dumbfounded, bedazzled and defeated Virginia's Republican Senator John Warner (one of actress Elizabeth Taylor's husbands) in what was sometimes called "the<i> third</i> Battle of Manassas."
Showing his Senate colleagues maps of General Longstreet and General Lee's positions during the Second Battle of Manassas, talking about bulldozers scraping the red earth and destroying antebellum homes, noting that there were thousands of Confederate dead -- men and boys -- on land wanted for a shopping center, Senator Bumpers concluded with passion that it would be wrong to let a shopping center obliterate this history. "If you really cherish our heritage as I do, and you believe that history is really important for our children, you will vote for my amendment. I yield the floor."
Senator Bumpers' awesome, populist, well-reserached Floor amendments and knowledge of Senate procedural rules and folkways was legendary.
One of his modest quiet, erudite and scholarly staffers ended up as federal judges -- the late Richard Arnold, who served on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals with his brother, Morris Arnold, a Republican former law professor.
One of the best debaters in the history of the United States Senate, Senator Bumpers was a former condemnation lawyer with a tart tongue and quick wit, who often dressed informally (jacket and non-matching pants) in a body then consisting of mostly men (only one woman) in pinstriped three piece suits (he could have been mistaken for a member of the sartorially more Plebeian House of Representatives in 1975). Senator Bumpers delighted in using Arkansas rural colloquialisms and numbered his points. He was not ashamed to say, <i>"I reckon,"</i> I reckon. He never took himself or politics too seriously, and was always quick with a laugh or a quip.
Senator Bumpers often stood like "Horatio at the Bridge" with another liberal firebrand, the late Senator Howard M. Metzenbaum (D-Ohio), calling attention to some evil depredation of our natural resources or tax code. He targeted giveaway mineral leasing practices and helped cut wasteful defense and other pork barrel projects, ending both the Clinch River Breeder Reactor in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and the Super Conducting Super Collider in Texas. Other successful causes were global polio eradication (a project of his beloved wife, Betty) and a 1975 amendment allowing right turns on red, saving gasoline and time in the midst of an energy crisis.
While Senator Bumpers sometimes voted anti-labor and was forever hated by unions for halting labor law reform in 1978, I reckon that he was a true liberal progressive populist in nearly all other respects.
Senator Bumpers was always a progressive on racial issues. His father was a gregarious hardware store and funeral home owner, a one-term state legislator.. Dale Bumpers' father wanted Dale to be president, so Dale went to Northwestern Law school in Illinois to broaden his rural perspective. While in law school, both of Dale Bumpers' parents were killed by a drunk drive who slammed into them on the way back to Fort Smith from a small farm they'd purchased.
Only two years out of Northwestern law school in Illinois, as a young lawyer, Dale Bumpers advised his local school board to desegregate after <i>Brown v. Board of Education</i> in 1954 -- Charleston, Arkansas was the first school district to desegregate after <i>Brown</i>. Bumpers was then elected to his local school board and prevented re-segregation. When Arkansas Governor Orville Faubus appealed to racism, requiring President Eisenhower to send federal troops to desegregate Little Rock Central High School, Bumpers helped his local school janitor and otter school personnel remove racist graffiti from a school before it reopened. The <i>Arkansas Times</i> reported Bumpers said:
"I drove down to the school the next morning because I knew who the culprits were just as well as I knew my name, and I wanted to see the look on their faces when they realized that artwork of theirs on the side of the school building was gone," he said. "Sure enough, they came and you could just see the look of disappointment all over their faces."
The Arkansas times disclosed, "When a truckload of hooligans terrorized a black family on a road outside town one night, Bumpers drove his '54 Pontiac into the family's yard and sat with the father on the porch far into the night. When the hooligans saw Bumpers's car they stopped shouting and cursing, stopped at a distance and finally drove away."
Bumpers ran for office once, lost and proceeded to practice law and "make money."
Then, in 1970, with 1% name recognition, Dale Bumpers delighted in defeating the rebarbative racist, segregationist ex-Governor Orville Faubus and was elected Governor, defeating Winthrop Rockefeller, despite Vice President Spiro Agnew campaigning against Bumpers and saying all he had was "a smile a and a shoeshine."
Four years later, in 1974, the year I graduated high school and went to work for Senator Ted Kennedy's mailroom, Arkansas Governor Dale Bumpers defeated anti-war icon J. William Fulbright (Senate Foreign Relations Chair) in the 1974 Democratic primary and was elected to the U.S. Senate.
From my own days as a freshman in college, interning for Senator Ted Kennedy, and watched Senator Bumpers from his days as a freshman Senator. I was (and still am) duly impressed.
Despite bigotry and prejudice in his rural state, Senator Dale Bumpers supported progressive issues, working with Republicans and Democrats. His causes included both free speech and civil rights. In 1977 he voted for the Panama Canal treaty. He strongly opposed demagogic efforts to amend the U.S. Constitution over school prayer, abortion, school busing, flag-desecration and other hot button issues -- Dale Bumpers never supported any constitutional amendment. Senator Bumpers said his legacy included "fighting like a saber-tooth tiger" against such "trivial" constitutional amendments. There was no stronger defender of the Constitution.
The <i>Arkansas Times</i> reported, "When Republicans ran against him in 1980, 1986 and 1992 they cited GOP roll-call analyses that Bumpers had voted with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, the liberal icon, 98 (or similar numbers) percent of the time. They have it exactly backwards, Bumpers would say. 'Ted Kennedy voted with me 98 percent of the time.'"
Senator Bumpers did not seek re-election in 1998 because politics had become so nasty, remembering that Mike Huckabee (now a candidate for president), called him a "pornographer" in 1992 by supporting federal grants for artists.
"Funny as all get out and could talk an owl out of a tree," Bill Clinton once said of his Arkansas colleague. I was sitting in the office of another junior Senator once as he and Bumpers discussed an issue of interest only to their states. Bumpers out-argued his colleague, who was left to say only, "Well hell, Dale!"
Senator Bumpers prophetically wrote in his diary of Bill Clinton in 1982, "I doubt that I've ever known anyone as manicly ambitious for political office, but who simply doesn't have the judgement or character to deal with it once he gets it."
Dale Bumpers' closing argument in 1999 in the Bill Clinton impeachment case, pro bono, after leaving the Senate, was an epic argument. He said Clinton's affair was immoral and shameful but that lying about it was not cause for removal from office. Bumpers said said "if anybody tells you it's not about sex, it's about sex."
Bill Clinton said, "I loved him. I loved learning from him and laughing with him. I will miss him very much."
In 2014, the White River National Wildlife Refuge was renamed in his honor, the "Dale Bumpers White River National Wildlife Refuge."
Dale Bumpers is the kind of honest politician we need more of in America today -- he said what he thought and meant what he said.
What do y'all reckon?
Ed Slavin
<a href="http://www.edslavin.com">www.edslavin.com</a>
EASlavin.com
easlavin@aol.com
904-377-4998
<a href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ry5TMKnmL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ry5TMKnmL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" /></a>Ed Slavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00298486886820876739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500836957138717480.post-69531047810995789622015-12-18T05:51:00.001-08:002015-12-18T05:51:22.590-08:00AMAZON Sells "Fake ID Generator" -- Review by "Jeffrey A. Goldberg" -- Is this Amazon's New Assistant General Counsel, former Deputy Chief of USDOJ Criminal Fraud Unit?<div class="a-row glimpse-card glimpse-processed" data-story-id="Glimpse:REVIEW:R26UTCIQGN1E5Y" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; border: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 12px; min-width: 250px; width: 760px;">
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<span class="glimpse-raw-timestamp a-size-base a-color-base" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(17, 17, 17) !important; display: inline; font-size: 13px !important; line-height: 19px !important; white-space: nowrap;">September 7, 2014</span></div>
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<span class="a-size-medium a-color-base glimpse-product-title glimpse-flex-item" style="-webkit-flex: 1 1 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(17, 17, 17) !important; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px !important; line-height: 1.255 !important; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; white-space: nowrap; word-wrap: break-word;">Fake ID Generator</span></div>
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<span class="a-color-base glimpse-review-summary glimpse-flex-item" style="-webkit-flex: 1 1 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(17, 17, 17) !important; word-wrap: break-word;">Cool looks pretty real. Lots of ids to use. Great fantastic awesome. I made one it actually looked like a real one</span></div>
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<span class="a-size-medium a-color-base glimpse-product-title glimpse-flex-item" style="-webkit-flex: 1 1 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(17, 17, 17) !important; font-size: 17px !important; line-height: 1.255 !important; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; white-space: nowrap; word-wrap: break-word;">The Magician: John Mulholland's Secret Life</span></div>
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<i class="a-icon a-icon-star a-star-5" style="-webkit-background-size: 400px 650px; background-image: url(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/AUIClients/AmazonUIBaseCSS-sprite_1x-8fe8c701c7a6f38368f97a8a3f04d5f25875be4d._V2_.png); background-position: -5px -368px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: 400px 650px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: 18px; position: relative; vertical-align: text-top; width: 80px;"></i><span class="a-letter-space" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; width: 0.385em;"></span><span class="a-color-base glimpse-review-title glimpse-flex-item a-text-bold" style="-webkit-flex: 1 1 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(17, 17, 17) !important; font-weight: 700 !important; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-wrap: break-word;">A Magical History Tour</span></div>
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<span class="a-color-base glimpse-review-summary glimpse-flex-item" style="-webkit-flex: 1 1 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(17, 17, 17) !important; word-wrap: break-word;">Author Robinson presents an erudite and illuminating read, filled with the wonder of magic and the hard facts of history. He brings to life a fascinating character in John Mulholland, and little kn...</span></div>
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Ed Slavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00298486886820876739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500836957138717480.post-57256075164956425752015-11-01T17:33:00.000-08:002015-11-01T17:59:45.439-08:00Fred Thompson, R.I.P.<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">RIP, Fred Dalton Thompson. Fred Thompson was noted for his Watergate committee lawyer, his courageous trial lawyer worker on behalf of Tennessee pardon and parole board whistleblower plaintiff Marie Ragghianti and for his marvelous acting career. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Less well known was Senator Thompson's March 22, 2000 hearing and subsequent shoddy coverup of the U.S. Department of Energy, predecessors and contractors like Union Carbide and Lockheed Martin poisoning and sickening some 600,000 nuclear weapons plant workers, leading to enactment of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA), which I called the $150,000 bribe bill. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The DOE-drafted EEOICPA, pushed by Thompson, is deeply flawed. While EEOICPA has disbursed billions of dollars in "CONpensation" payments, it is still denying workers fair hearings, discovery, appeals and due process.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thompson died of lymphoma, one of those radiogenic cancers that so many downwinders and many nuclear weapons plant workers die from, poisoned by our own government.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I informed a House subcommittee's <a href="http://www.doesickworker.org/Documents/9-21-00%20Slavin%20Draft%20House%20Hearing.htm" target="_blank">September 2000 hearing</a>:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Senate Amendment 3250 to S. 2549, the Thompson-DOE amendment does <b>not</b> require:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Coverage of all sick workers and residents hurt by DOE toxicants.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Full funding of lifetime compensation and medical benefits by making the polluters pay.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Open public hearings with testimony under oath before independent DOL administrative law judges, as provided for black lung claims (instead, the Thompson amendment uses government doctors to decide claims).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. Subpoena power and easy access to documents and answers from DOE and contractor managers (incredibly, Thompson amendment requires a separate federal court lawsuit to force discovery, after first waiting 180 days!).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. Appeals to the DOL Benefits Review Board and judicial review by the Court of Appeals, as provided for black lung and longshore workers' compensation claims.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6. Strict action-forcing deadlines for government action, with claims being granted if the government waits too long.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7. Payment of full reasonable attorney fees, expert witness fees and other litigation expenses at market rates and a ban on attorney solicitation and percentage contingency fees, as in black lung (instead, attorneys would be free to charge contingency fees, reducing the $200,000 lump sum to as little as $100,000 after expenses).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8. An end to the Federal Tort Claims Act discretionary function exemption for ultrahazardous activities, preserving worker rights to sue.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">9. Coverage for genetic injuries to spouses, families, children and grandchildren of workers and for injuries caused by dangerous chemicals and heavy metals like cyanide, mercury and hydrogen fluoride.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">10. Independence of the Department of Energy in deciding compensation and independent lifetime medical care and research, free of influence by DOE and its contractors.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rather than a fitting memorial to sick workers and residents whose suffering made the Cold War victory possible, Sen. Thompson's bill is guaranteed to result in denials and delays. What is this weak DOE-drafted Senate Floor amendment going to accomplish?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do DOE and Sen. Thompson think that U.S. government doctors lacking in independence could fairly decide cases? He must not remember the Reagan administration's efforts to pressure independent Social Security Administration administrative law judges to deny benefits, sending SSA judges those who found too many workers disabled to what Rep. Frank called "remedial judging school."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In one of my favorite movies, "The Hunt for Red October," a U.S. Navy admiral (portrayed by none other than veteran character actor Fred Dalton Thompson) said (I must paraphrase): "The Russians don't (go to the bathroom) without a plan." What is DOE's plan? DOE wants to prevent workers from using subpoena power to prove their injuries in open public hearings. DOE wants to conceal wrongdoing while throwing crumbs to its victims. If the devil is in the details, then the Thompson-DOE Amendment is an energumen: it will not silence the victims or meet their needs.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.doesickworker.org/Documents/9-21-00%20Slavin%20Draft%20House%20Hearing.htm"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://www.doesickworker.org/Documents/9-21-00%20Slavin%20Draft%20House%20Hearing.htm</span></a></div>
Ed Slavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00298486886820876739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500836957138717480.post-16676564485700233412015-07-27T10:33:00.003-07:002015-07-27T10:35:44.841-07:00Baby owl communication<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Watch Boulder County, Colorado Sheriff's Deputy communicate with a baby owl in July 2015. This blog was named after four baby owls on a vine in trees next to our home in St. Augustine, Florida, whom I encountered in 2012 -- we hung out, regarding each other, for some 20 minutes from a short distance away. Precious creatures. Give a hoot -- don't pollute!<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J3lPssz1Ms">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J3lPssz1Ms</a>Ed Slavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00298486886820876739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500836957138717480.post-24507172598058789702015-07-11T06:06:00.000-07:002015-12-18T05:59:14.303-08:00July 11, 1983: Al Gore's Mercury Pollution Hearing in Oak Ridge, Tennessee -- Largest Mercury Pollution Event in World History (4.2 Million Pounds)<a href="http://cdn.knoxblogs.com/atomiccity/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2014/02/mercurysign.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://cdn.knoxblogs.com/atomiccity/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2014/02/mercurysign.jpg" /></a>
July 11, 1983 was a fun day in American history. If Hollywood made a film and asked about music, I would suggest, "The times they are a-changin," and "the world stood upside down" (played when Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington).
32 years ago this afternoon, shortly after lunch, I was in the Oak Ridge Museum of Atomic Energy auditorium, on stage. I was testifying in the heart of East Tennessee's Oak Ridge Oligarchy of Atomic Blunderers: I was testifying before then-Reps. Al Gore, Jr. and Marilyn Lloyd about the recently-declassified Oak Ridge Y-12 Nuclear Weapon Plant mercury pollution. Workers were forbidden to talk about health problems, mercury was promiscuously consumed and recklessly emitted, a scientist was fired for taking "unauthorized soil samples" and asking questions, and the 1977 Elwood inventory report was stamped "Business confidential" by Union Carbide (later perpetuator thousands of poisoning deaths and injuries in Bhopal, India).
That's the way it was, until our tiny Appalachian Observer weekly newspaper's FOIA and declassification request was granted by DOE on May 17, 1983. Gore swore in all the witnesses, conducting an investigative hearing. Yet no one ever went to prison or jail for even a day for putting 4.2 million pounds of mercury into local creeks and groundwater, and into workers’ lungs and brains, without signs, fences, respirators, warnings or basic protections. Half the free world’s mercury was in Oak Ridge: Union Carbide and the Atomic Energy Commission and successor agencies “LOST” 10% OF IT.
Years after the hearings and billions were spent on cleanup, mercury levels are rising.
Read all about it, <a href="http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/07/july-11-1983-al-gores-mercury-pollution.html">here</a>.Ed Slavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00298486886820876739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500836957138717480.post-25404030028723400622015-07-01T21:39:00.000-07:002015-07-01T21:39:00.839-07:00Words to Live By: Sir Thomas Winton (who helped save and free 669 Czech Jewish children from certain death in 1939 and told no one for 50 years, until his wife found his scrapbooks)"I work on the motto that if something's not impossible, there must be a way to do it."<br />
<br />Ed Slavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00298486886820876739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500836957138717480.post-81393876587923566052015-07-01T12:36:00.001-07:002017-06-11T22:29:45.332-07:00Ed on Gays and the Supreme Court, interviewed by Derek Hankerson for FirstCoast.TV<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Ed Slavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00298486886820876739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500836957138717480.post-91643799493748528712015-06-26T10:53:00.009-07:002023-06-17T06:56:43.357-07:00RAINBOW NATION: SUPREME COURT RECOGNIZES GAY MARRIAGE<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img alt="Gay Pride rainbow flags fly from the Bridge of Lions in St. Augustine in 2005. [PETER WILLOTT/THE RECORD]" class="gnt_em_img_i" decoding="async" elementtiming="ar-lead-image" fetchpriority="high" src="https://www.staugustine.com/gcdn/authoring/2019/08/07/NSAR/ghows-LK-8f8a63ca-7866-74ba-e053-0100007f3b69-7f8d8d7d.jpeg?width=660&height=464&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp" srcset="https://www.staugustine.com/gcdn/authoring/2019/08/07/NSAR/ghows-LK-8f8a63ca-7866-74ba-e053-0100007f3b69-7f8d8d7d.jpeg?width=1320&height=928&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp 2x" style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "Georgia Pro", Georgia, "Droid Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; height: 464px; object-fit: contain; text-align: start; width: 660px;" /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OGaqhJ8hxic" width="320" youtube-src-id="OGaqhJ8hxic"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGaqhJ8hxic">Ed interviewed by Derek Boyd Hankerson on FirstCoast.tv re: Gay marriage decision</a><br />
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EDWARD A SLAVIN</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;">(Photo credit: Historic City News)</span></div>
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By Ed Slavin<br />
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(c) Copyright Ed Slavin 2015, All Rights Reserved</div>
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“Joy cometh in the morning,” the scripture says. The morning of June 26 is now triply historic, as exemplified by the Supreme Court's <i>Obergefell v. Hodges</i> decision this morning, and two Supreme Court decisions the same morning in June 2013, and recognizing marriage equality and equal justice under law, and another Supreme Court decision on the same morning in 2003, overturning Texas' anti-Gay "sodomy" law.<br />
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It's morning in America.<br />
<br />
Thanks to Justices Anthony Kennedy, Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, the United States Supreme Court today recognized the Constitutional right to Gay Marriage. Their majority opinion stated, "<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">"</span><span style="font-family: "centuryschoolbook"; font-size: 11pt;">the challenged laws burden the liberty of same-sex couples, and it must be further acknowledged that they abridge central precepts of equality. Here the marriage laws enforced by the respondents are in essence unequal: same-sex couples are denied all the benefits afforded to opposite-sex couples and are barred from exercising a fundamental right. Especially against a long history of disapproval of their relationships, this denial to same-sex couples of the right to marry works a grave and continuing harm. The imposition of this disability on gays and lesbians serves to disrespect and subordinate them. And the Equal Protection Clause, like the Due Process Clause, prohibits this </span><span style="font-family: "centuryschoolbook";"><span style="font-size: 15px;">unjustified infringement of the fundamental right to marry." The Court held, "No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right."</span></span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia attacks the majority's "mummeries," "hubris," "pretentious," "egotistic" "judicial Putsch," and "straining-to-be-memorable passages," indulging in fulsome Freudian slips when he scorns the "naked judicial claim to legislative—indeed,
</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: italic;">super-</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">legislative—power." Scalia attacks our American Bar Association, stating, "the predominant attitude of tall-building lawyers with respect to
the questions presented in these cases is suggested by the fact that the
American Bar Association deemed it in accord with the wishes of its
members to file a brief in support of" Gay marriage. </span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Scalia mocks the opening line of the majority opinion by concluding that if asked to include such language in an opinion as the price of a fifth vote": "I would hide my head in a bag," opining that "The Supreme Court of the
United States has descended from the disciplined legal reasoning of
John Marshall and Joseph Story to the mystical aphorisms of the
fortune cookie."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "centuryschoolbook"; font-size: 9pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">In dissent, Chief Justice John Roberts ululates, quotes dictionaries and caterwauls</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">, "the Court invalidates the marriage laws of more than half the States and
orders the transformation of a social institution that has
formed the basis of human society for millennia, for the
Kalahari Bushmen and the Han Chinese, the Carthaginians and the Aztecs. <b>Just who do we think we are?"</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>We are the United States of America, now joining some 23 other countries recognizing a right to Gay marriage, rejecting homophobia as belonging in the dustbins of history. </b>We are not "Bushmen, Chinese, Carthaginians or Aztecs," Chief Justice Roberts, and this is no "fortune cookie," Justice Scalia.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
I've been waiting for this day since 1974, when I was a freshman at Georgetown University.
My improbable Gay American life begins anew today.
I did not “come out” until I was 31, had graduated law school and completed a judicial clerkship at the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C.<br />
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I was “afraid, very afraid.”<br />
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It was a time when Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer/Questioning (GLBTQ) people were routinely killed, expelled, fired, evicted and even arrested, with the living enduring depression, suicide and addictions as a result of society's group hatred.
I did not hear any school or church or government authority figure of any kind say one positive supportive word about Gays, either individually or as a group, until my freshman year at Georgetown, when, about five or ten days after we moved in, one of my two resident assistants on New North Hall, P. Michael Nugent, rebutted what another freshman said about "queers" -- a senior at the time, Mike Nugent earnestly and effortlessly pointed out that a prominent investigative reporter was Gay, and that being Gay was okay and nothing to disrespect or disdain. <br />
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But generally, in those decades: Hate ruled our world.<br />
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Gays lived in fear, in the closet, afraid of “detection, rejection and infection” (and that was before AIDS).<br />
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After all, thousands of Gays and Lesbians were fired on President Eisenhower's orders.<br />
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Those of us GLBT people under 40 years of age may have difficulty appreciating what a sea change this decision is in our country. Why? Because they're much more tolerant than earlier generations, and more accepting of diversity.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> “Queers don't have constitutional rights!” That's emphatically what our courts said until 2003, only ten years ago when our United States Supreme Court voted 6-3 to invalidate Texas' sodomy law in <i>Lawrence v. Texas</i>. But as Justice Anthony Kennedy said in today's 5-4 decision, Obergefell v. Hodges, "Outlaw to outcast may be a step
forward, but it does not achieve the full promise of liberty."</span><br />
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“Queers don't have constitutional rights!”: That's an exact quote from Anderson County, Tennessee Chancery Court Clerk and Master Forrest M. Bridges in 1983, referring to me, and Knoxville attorney Herbert Moncier's filing of my federal civil rights lawsuit against the City of Oak Ridge Tennessee for retaliatory false arrest. (Named for KKK founder Nathan Bedford Forrest, the late racist homophobe Forrest Bridges was once indicted for receiving payments for a no-show job from John Marshall Purdy, Anderson County Clerk, who committed suicide in 1979. He bore malice to my publisher, the DA and me.)<br />
<br />
Forgive him.
The Supreme Court in June 1986 held that states could criminalize Gay sex, with Chief Justice Warren Burger writing the majority ruling, holding anti-Gay prejudice “has ancient roots” (so does every other prejudice).<br />
<br />
Justice Byron White rubbed it in when he actually wrote that to assert Gay rights under our Constitution was “at best facetious.”<br />
<br />
When <i>Hardwick v. Bowers</i> was decided, I was in Memphis, studying for the Tennessee Bar Exam, and was deeply depressed at those harsh words in that erroneous holding (the sequela of vote-switching conservative Justice Lewis F. Powell falsely believing he had “never met a homosexual,” when he already had several Gay law clerks at the time).<br />
<br />
Two 2013 landmark Supreme Court Gay marriage decisions roundly reject bigotry.
The Supreme Court decisions rightly agree with Justice Antonin Scalia, who in 2003, in dissent in <i>Lawrence v. Texas</i>, the Supreme Court decision decriminalizing consensual sodomy, declared that it would lead to Gay marriage. Thank you for pointing out what indeed had to happen, and it happened yet again today. <br />
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And yes, Mr. Justice Scalia, our Constitution IS a “living document” and the reason I know that is my Memphis State University Constitutional and Civil Rights professors (Claude Coffman, former USDA Assistant General Counsel and Mississippi Law Review Editor and Barbara Kritchevsky, an “out” lesbian who taught me legal writing), both told me so, and they knew more than straight-laced ninny Nino Scalia ever will about the Constitution and the conscience of our country).<br />
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In much the same way that slavery, Apartheid, Jim Crow segregation, Antisemitism and sexism have been or are being kicked into history's dustbins, anti-Gay hatred is becoming a remnant of the past. Young people don't hate as much as their great-grandparents. What a joy.<br />
<br />
I was the scion of working-class Democratic Roman Catholic parents – an outspoken, heroic WWII 82nd Airborne Divn. paratrooper and a brilliant well-read secretary -- I struggled with my homosexuality for three decades.<br />
<br />
I figure I would have made a good spy, because I kept my secret.
I struggled through Boy Scout sexual harassment by older Boy Scouts demanding that the younger Scouts provide sexual favors (I rejected them and was guilt-ridden and afraid to tell my parents, staying in the Scouts and resenting the older Scouts' abuse of authority); to childhood diseases, one or both of which one learned doctor thought “psychosomatic” (arthritis and rheumatic fever); through college (where my college roommate and I were prematurely labeled as Gay and once “pennied” in our room by a couple of loudmouth drunks using pennies to keep us from opening our dorm room door; to Appalachia, where at the Appalachian Observer, I was possibly the world's most closeted newspaper editor, winning declassification of the world's largest mercury pollution event at the Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Plant, operated by Union Carbide, helping prod DOE to an environmental cleanup that will continue nationwide until at least 2043, when I will be 86 years old, and possibly 2057, when I will be 100. I was working 80 hour weeks, also helping citizens to eject a corrupt school superintendent and prosecute a corrupt Sheriff.<br />
<br />
Then I went to law school at Memphis State University,still closeted (winning election as American Bar Association Law Student Division representative, then winning in 1985 ABA Law Student Division Assembly passage of eleven resolutions on law school reform, including nondiscrimination on the basis of sexual orientation)(batting average of .733).<br />
<br />
Then I left Tennessee and accepted an administrative-judicial clerkship, in Washington, D.C., for the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Administrative Law Judges.
In 1986, Federal employees could still be fired for being Gay – and were-- during the Administration of Ronald Wilson Reagan – who, until he learned Rock Hudson was Gay, let hundreds of thousands of people die of AIDS without adequate efforts to solve and halt the plague – reckless, feckless intolerance and indifference to the value of Gay peoples' lives.<br />
<br />
In 1988, at the end of my judicial clerkship, I “came out” to my parents, who were lovely and accepting. My mother said Brian was “the kind of boy you want to invite home and bake cookies for (she always liked him the best).<br />
<br />
A couple of my relatives were wonderfully accepting but I was quite cruelly rejected by almost all of my other living relatives, not one of whom has invited me to a single family gathering since 1988 -- 25 years. Several relatives' late arrivals, hate stares and coldness at my father's funeral are burned in my memory forever. How disappointing.<br />
<br />
But as Wayne Dyer says, “Your friends are God's way of apologizing for your relatives.”<br />
<br />
I “came out” to my parents at the conclusion of my judicial clerkships, at first for a marvelously outspoken openly Gay judge (the late Department of Labor Administrative Law Judge Charles P. Rippey, who died in 2014), then also for Nahum Litt, then the Chief Administrative Law Judge of the U.S. Department of Labor, whom I served as a policy adviser.
I “came out” to Chief Judge Litt, who helped us pass a sexual orientation nondiscrimination resolution in the American Bar Association House of Delegates, of which he was then a member.<br />
<br />
What a swell victory, and achieved so quickly – and one that had twice before eluded Gay activist-ideologues until I suggested the winning compromise. Future ABA President Jack Curtin of the Litigation section followed our suggestion, taking the definition from the District of Columbia Human Rights Act: “Sexual orientation means heterosexuality, bisexuality and homosexuality” – hence, no bogus arguments about pederasty or bestiality. (A St. Louis delegate was heard to quip, “When it comes to bestiality, just say, WHOA!”)<br />
<br />
During 1989-1990, I represented the prevailing plaintiff Duane David Rinde in the <i>Rinde v. Woodward & Lothrop</i> Gay case. Duane's courage -- and the collective <i>chutzpa</i> of 24-year old Duane, his spouse, Steptoe & Johnson lawyer Robert I. Teir, the D.C. GlBTQ community (and my legal advocacy) and a threat of a boycott -- resulted in equal discount benefits for the partners of GLBTQ employees at thirty department stores in six states and D.C. (Woodward & Lothrop and John Wanamaker). Then I was asked to write the first article on Gay marriage for an ABA publication (“What Makes A Marriage Legal,” <i>Human Rights</i>, 1991), one of eight articles I published in American Bar Association publications (three in the Judges' Journal). A Gay marriage bibliography shows that this was the first article on Gay marriage in an American Bar Association publication.<br />
<br />
It's probably one of the reasons I was targeted for disciplinary actions as an attorney for courageous environmental and nuclear whistleblowers in nine states, including nine federal administrative law judges. I'm glad I wrote the article, no matter what the consequences.<br />
<br />
In 2004, my law license was taken away in the wake of the homophobic Chief Administrative Law Judge of the U.S. Department of Labor, John Michael Vittone, who was active in ABA circles and opposed the 1989 Gay rights resolution Judge Litt helped us pass in the House of Delegates.<br />
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On March 15, 2005, I attended former Reagan UNESCO Ambassador Alan Keyes' Nuremberg-style anti-Gay marriage hate rally, which County Commissioners allowed him to hold rent-free in our St. Johns County Convention Center at the World Golf Village. Sheriff David Bernard Shoar's lieutenants threatened to women who called for picketing, falsely claiming they could be prosecuted, falsely claiming it was "private property." (Sheriff Shoar is now under FBI criminal investigation as a result of coverups, including the September 2, 2010 shooting of a Sheriff's deputy's girlfriend, Michelle O'Connell, exposed to the world thanks to the <i>New York Times, PBS Frontline, et al</i>., <i>Dateline NBC, Dr. Phil, The Guardian, et al</i>)<br />
<br />
Inspired by the Alan Keyes hate rally and Sheriff Shoar's harassment of activists, I did the historical research and lawyer recruitment that helped St. Augustine's Gay Pride committee leaders to win a federal court order by United States District Judge Henry Lee Adams, Jr. in <i>Jensen v. City of St. Augustine</i> under the First Amendment requiring flying of Rainbow flags in honor of Gay Pride on our historic St. Augustine, Florida Bridge of Lions in 2005 (a First Amendment victory that was achieved by showing GLBTQ history, including the 1566 order of a Gay French interpreter of the Guale Indian language on orders of our City's founder, because the translator was a “Sodomite and a Lutheran” in an intimate relationship with the son of the cacique (chief).
<br />
<br />
Listening to the tapes of the Supreme Court oral arguments on the Gay marriage cases in March 2013 and again this year, I am proud of our local governments, including our Sheriff, State's Attorney, Mosquito Control District and Cities of St. Augustine and St. Augustine Beach -- all have adopted sexual orientation nondiscrimination rules, commencing with the Mosquito Control District in 2009. That's eighteen local public officials.<br />
<br />
Every single vote has been unanimous and bipartisan – St. Augustine amended its Fair Housing ordinance in 2012, St. Augustine Beach added one in 2013, also adding an employment nondiscrimination ordinance. This is in sharp and marked contrast with Jacksonville, Florida (formerly known as “Cowford”), where months of bigotry halted efforts to add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to that City's human rights ordinances. <br />
<br />
As <i>Folio Weekly</i> quoted me in 2012, decisive St. Augustine commissioners decided to protect Gay rights in less time than it took people in Jacksonville to “clear their throats.” In 2014, St. Augustine also adopted nondiscriminatory pension rules for Gay and Lesbian employees' surviving spouses. The motion was made by Commissioner Donald Crichlow, who once made pejorative remarks to <i>Folio Weekly</i> after our 2005 Rainbow flags victory: he said "it's the right thing to do" and I responded, in the words of Pope Francis, "who am I to judge?"<br />
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Our new St. Augustine Mayor, Nancy Shaver, recently met with the Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) group about expanding protections for employing, housing and public accommodations nondiscrimination here in our Nation's Oldest European-founded City, an island of progressivism in Northeast Florida.<br />
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Reading the 2013 and 2015 SCOTUS and other Gay marriage decisions, I remember all of the pain that being Gay brings.
The night Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered, Senator Robert Kennedy said, “My favorite poet was Aeschylus, who said, “In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop on the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.”<br />
<br />
Here are 24 images of that “pain” carved in my brain – whatever “brain boogers” I may have I owe to these experiences:<br />
<br />
1.Seeing (and almost walking into) a bloody crime scene sidewalk in DuPont Circle, on P Street in Washington, D.C., after the knifing hate crime murder of a Gay man. There but for the grace of God, go you or me.<br />
<br />
2. Learning that GLBTQ teens have thrice the suicide rate of straight teens and watching unenlightened legislators try to bar teachers from helping (with “don't say Gay” laws).<br />
<br />
3.Watching Georgetown University, my alma mater, fight for years recognizing a Gay student group, spending $1.2 million fighting to the highest court the case of <i>Gay People of Georgetown University v. Georgtown University</i> just to deny an office, mailbox and student activity fees; it then almost destroy our alma mater's future by appealing to the Supreme Court (Williams and Connolly partner Edward Bennett Williams wanted to ague the case personally, which would have placed us on a level with Bob Jones University and other institutional bigots in Supreme Court case law. (We won; Georgetown did not seek certiorari, thanks to the timely intervention of our Gay and Lesbian Alumni/ae of Georgetown University)<br />
<br />
4.Watching President Bill Clinton sign the hateful compromise 1993 “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” law. (He has since apologized; the law has been repealed under President Obama). I later wrote an cover story for <i>Out in the City</i> (former Jacksonville GLBTQ publication) about a Navy nuclear submarine chief who successfully challenged his removal, which retired U.S. District Judge Stanley K. Sporkin told me was one of the ten judicial decisions of which he was most proud).<br />
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5.Watching President Billl Clinton sign the 1995 Defense of Marriage Act, which was declared unconstitutional. (He has since apologized and DOMA was held unconstitutional).<br />
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6.Watching an unapologetic, smirking President George W. Bush win re-election in 2004 on a wave of anti-Gay marriage sentiment, allied with organized bigots in states passing constitutional anti-Gay amendments, carving their bigotry into state constitutions.<br />
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7. Watching Governor Charles Crist support a state law constitutional amendment banning Gay marriage (he has since apologized).<br />
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8.Being brushed off condescendingly by then <i>St. Augustine Record</i> Editor Peter Ellis on the subject of Gay marriage, as if his (or advertisers) subjective value preferences should dictate what 200,000 St. Johns Countians are allowed to read and think and feel.<br />
<br />
9. Reading the 32 very looong pages of anti-Gay hatred in the <i>St. Augustine Record</i>'s “Talk of the Town” website in 2005 directed against Gays in response to the Bridge of Lions Rainbow flags cases, some of them written by public officials under NICs – then watching City Commissioners vote 3-1 to ban all but government flags from our Bridge of Lions (Commissioner Boles, later our Mayor, was the only “no” vote, and I salute him).<br />
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10.Listening to a Florida court-appointed mediator refer to a male litigant as “she,” and not correcting himself.<br />
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11.Complaining about an unruly child in a Houston restaurant and being told by the putative parent that we only complained because we “can't have children.”<br />
<br />
12.Hearing a heterosexual fellow law student at Memphis State University in 1985 trash-talk about another student's assumed sexual orientation – doing so behind closed doors, in our Moot Court Board's chambers, in judging a Moot Court round -- trying to persuade two other Moot Court Board members to flunk his appellate argument because he was Gay. In response, my fellow Moot Court Board member and I both scored the Gay student somewhat higher than he deserved, thereby resulting in a mathematically correct score, the two of us correcting for the other student's bigotry <i>sub silentio</i>.<br />
<br />
13.Hearing other law students on a faculty recruitment panel discuss the assumed sexual orientation of an applicant (and correcting for the bigotry by reporting it to my mentor on the faculty)<br />
<br />
14. Learning our Black Muslim office manager quit her job in 1990 over me because I was hired at the Government Accountability Project (after a year of my working there, she quit in protest of my permanent hiring, without having another job).<br />
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15.Seeing my Washington, D.C. public interest group employer (Government Accountability Project) colleagues unkindly refuse to press the George Washington University HMO over equal health care benefits for Brian, even after I won the Woodies' case and Brian lost his job at AAAS, and never treat me as an equal, never inviting us to heterosexuals-only dinners and parties for four years.<br />
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16.Hearing anti-Gay jokes and taunts from schoolyard bullies and numerous and respected relatives, employers, and friends.<br />
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17.Reading the transcript of security clearance interviews where Gay people were quizzed for hours about their intimate affairs. (Thanks to Gay rights leader Dr. Franklin Kameny, fired as an government astronomer for being Gay in the 1950s --- and five days of House of Representatives investigative hearings in 1989-90 where whistleblowers, Gays and I testified, Presidents Clinton and Obama have banned such odious practices forever).<br />
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18. Seeing an illegal sign in the Oak Ridge Federal Building demanding that people report “criminal, homosexual or immoral conduct.” (Having it reported and removed – priceless).<br />
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19. Hearing a heterosexual friend say he was afraid to be seen swimming with me.<br />
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20. Hearing my respected high school teacher mentor talk about queers.<br />
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21. Learning my best high school friend never wanted to see or talk with me again after learning I was Gay during my clerkship.<br />
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22. Hearing some of my otherwise intelligent pre-law school employers emphatically ask, “Who would hire a queer lawyer? (And not saying a word).<br />
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23. Hearing that a rich and powerful Gay bank lawyer in 1982 told the local DA that he was afraid to drive into his East Tennessee hometown before dusk after neighbors learned he was Gay.<br />
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24. Reading news articles about heterosexual weddings, as my fellow Floridians, and residents of other American states, pass Nuremberg-style laws banning Gay marriage, enshrining hatred and discrimination into our state constitutions, using hatred and oodles of corporate cash, from sea to shining sea, to divide rather than unite us, in much the same manner as Adolf Hitler manipulated the laws for years to offend, hurt, insult, discriminate against and then kill millions of Jews.<br />
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Father, forgive them.
Every single one of them (well, except Hitler).<br />
<br />
All people are created equal – our Founders in 1776 were the first people to write t down, in our Declaration of Independence, the 237th anniversary of which we shall celebrate on July 4th.
Today is a time for healing, across America, and Florida.<br />
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Today, we are blessed to live in the UNITED States of America, with an independent judiciary.<br />
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Today it is no longer so bossed by bigots, bullies and braggarts (“Christian conservatives” who are neither) – the Supreme Court has rejected sputtering extralegal arguments by arrogant authoritarians who purport to love “freedom.”<br />
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In anger and depression at invidious discrimination and a world of hurtful people, I would often ask myself, for years, “Why does it have to hurt so much?”<br />
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Well, the United States Supreme Court (and numerous other courts) have told the world, it was a violation of the Fifth Amendment for Congress to enact DOMA, for the express purpose of hurting Gays and Lesbians allowed to marry by their states, expressing “moral disapproval of homosexuality” in the wake of a Hawaiian court decision that promised that Gay marriage would become reality. DOMA writes inequality into the entire United States Code.”<br />
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Passing laws to hurt GLBTQ people is unconstitutional, the Court reaffirmed.
Meanwhile, the Court held that organized California bigots do not have legal standing to appeal the lower courts' ruling that California voters' Amendment 8 is unconstitutional. California's Attorney General and Governor did not appeal – carping harpies don't have Article III standing to contest the lower courts rulings: California Gay marriages will now resume.
Two wonderful 2013 victories for human rights from our United States Supreme Court, and many more since: we won.<br />
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Today, it doesn't hurt so much any longer.
Former U.S. Department of Labor Chief Administrative Law Judge Nahum Litt, my mentor (now retired to New Smyrna Beach) said after SCOTUS ruled in 2013, “You won.”<br />
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He said the same thing earlier this year after I told him about Judge Hinkle's order on Florida's law he asked when I was going to get married (a question my late mother would sometimes ask until I came out to her).<br />
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I just called Judge Litt again. He expressed hope that I might marry and might get a notary license to perform the ceremony. From his lips to God's ears.<br />
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How sweet it is.
Our Supreme Court has again said that GLBGT people are not to be treated as persona non grata.<br />
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We are now "a Rainbow Nation."Thanks to mentors like the late Dr. Franklin Kameny, Ph.D. and a cast of thousands, from Duane David Rinde and his partner, Rob Teir, to hundreds of prevailing plaintiffs and lawyers, from to David Boies and Ted Olsen and Evan Wolfson, to President Obama and Vice President Biden to Mary L. Bonauto and Shannon Minter and Abby Rubenfeld and Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr., who argued for the United States of America before our Supreme Court<span style="font-family: inherit;">, <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"><b>“Gay and lesbian people are equal. They deserve equal protection of the laws, and they deserve it now.”</b></span> </span><br />
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Queers DO have constitutional rights.
As former South African Nelson Mandela declared after Apartheid fell in South Africa; “courageous people do not fear forgiving, for the sake of peace."<br />
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In 1978, Moral Majority” leader Rev. Jerry Falwell announced a "Thirty Years War against homosexuality."
In 1988, Republican Presidential candidate and former Nixon White House aide Patrick J. Buchanan declared a “culture war” at the Republican National Convention in Houston.<br />
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In 1996, dissenting in <i>Romer v. Evans</i> (invalidating Colorado voters' anti-Gay Nuremberg law, Amendment 2), Justice Scalia used the phrase “Kulturkampf,” German for “culture struggle.”.
Well, today the “Kulturkampf” is over. The “Thirty Years War” is over.
All thinking people now know the “Christian Right” was neither – it was asinine “AstroTurf” designed by bullies , using it in 1978 in election after election, using Gays as objects of fear and loathing to mobilize voters. Why?<br />
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To defeat progressives at the polls, dividing our country.<br />
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Gays won the “culture war,” because hundreds of Fortune 500 corporations (after the Woodies case) supported us, including signing on to Supreme Court amicus curiae briefs.
We did it.<br />
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Gays have beat the Ku Klux Klan and its allies (once again), just as we did here in St. Augustine in 2005 with our Rainbow flag case in Federal Court.<br />
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Kudos to Judge Robert Louis Hinkle for his January 1, 2015 Order and earlier orders, Florida became on Twelfth Night (January 6, 2015) the 36th state to recognize gay Marriage. Kudos to our St. Johns County Circuit Court Clerk and her lawyer, Geoffrey Dobson, for not taking the low road (as nine other Florida Court Clerks did in refusing any more Courthouse weddings, and the multi-million dollar Florida Court Clerks' Association, which tried to delay matters by publishing an incendiary threat emitted by Greenberg Traurig, an unethical corporate law firm, that court clerks could be prosecuted).<br />
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As I predicted in 2013, "We will soon be seeing Gay marriage everywhere."
This is both equality and “Democracy on the March,” in the words of David Lillienthal's book about TVA.<br />
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“Let America be America again,” wrote the poet Langston Hughes (a Gay African-American).
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“America, I'm putting my queer shoulder to the wheel,” wrote the poet Alan Ginsburg, in “Howl.”
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Someday, we'll elect a President – I predict: she (or he) will be “fabulous.”
What do you reckon?<br />
<br />
Ed Slavin<br />
<a href="http://www.fourowls.com/">www.fourowls.blogspot.com</a><br />
<a href="http://www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/">www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com</a><br />
<a href="http://www.staugustgreen.com/">www.staugustgreen.com</a><br />
Box 3084<br />
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084<br />
904-377-4998<br />
(c) Copyright Ed Slavin 2013, All Rights Reserved<br />
<br />
(This article is revised from what I wrote in June 2013 after the Supreme Court's decision in two Gay marriage cases and in January of this year after Florida Gay marriages were recognized by Judge Hinkle).Ed Slavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00298486886820876739noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500836957138717480.post-42743007655064268622015-06-26T07:43:00.001-07:002015-06-26T07:43:58.269-07:00OBERGEFELL ET AL. v. HODGES<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: xx-small; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; white-space: pre; widows: 2;">I<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">'m reading yet another beautiful, landmark decision by Justice Anthony Kennedy joined by four justices, once again vindicating GLBT equality. We've come a long way -- 24 years ago, I was honored to be invited to write the first article on Gay marriage for an American Bar Association publication (<i>Human Rights</i>, 1991), after we brought, litigated and settled the pioneering </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="font-family: monospace; font-size: 15px; line-height: 15px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; white-space: pre; widows: 2;">Duane Rinde v. Woodward & Lothrop</i><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: xx-small; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; white-space: pre; widows: 2;"> Gay domestic partnership equal benefits case (1989-90)(equal discount benefits for employees at 30 department stores in six states and Washington, D.C.)</span></span><br />
<div style="font-family: monospace; font-size: 15px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; white-space: pre; widows: 2;">
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/27/us/supreme-court-same-sex-marriage.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/27/us/supreme-court-same-sex-marriage.html</span></a></div>
Ed Slavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00298486886820876739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500836957138717480.post-58193441273987732422015-06-13T09:45:00.000-07:002015-06-13T09:45:27.869-07:00Snowball's Chance<img border="0" src="http://aattp.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/snowball-1024x535.jpg" />
Republican Oklahoma United States Senator JAMES MOUNTAIN INHOFE, a Presbyterian, has issued a fatwa, tells Pope Francis to butt out of discussing climate change. Pope Francis is a former Jesuit university chemistry professor. Lugubrious legislator INHOFE chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and brought a snowball to the Senate floor to "prove" that global climate change does not exist. INHOFE does not have a snowball's chance of stopping worldwide action against promiscuous proliferation of fossil fuels. All good Presbyterians should tell INHOFE to stop deceiving the public about climate change and carbon emissions. I look forward to reading the Pope's encyclical this week, and ask, "Why do the heathen rage? <a a="" about="" action="" against="" all="" and="" ask="" carbon="" chance="" change="" climate="" deceiving="" do="" does="" emissions.="" encyclical="" environment="" exist.="" forward="" fossil="" fuels.="" global="" good="" have="" heathen="" href="https://www.blogger.com/Republican%20Oklahoma%20United%20States%20Senator%20JAMES%20MOUNTAIN%20INHOFE,%20a%20Presbyterian,%20has%20issued%20a%20fatwa,%20tells%20Pope%20Francis%20to%20butt%20out%20of%20discussing%20climate%20change.%20%20Pope%20Francis%20is%20a%20former%20Jesuit%20university%20chemistry%20professor.%20%20Lugubrious%20legislator%20INHOFE%20chairs%20the%20Senate%20Environment%20and%20Public%20Works%20Committee%20and%20brought%20a%20snowball%20to%20the%20Senate%20floor%20to" http:="" hy="" i="" inhofe="" james-inhofe-republican-climate-denier-pope-francis="" jun="" look="" not="" of="" pope="" presbyterians="" proliferation="" promiscuous="" prove="" public="" rage="" reading="" s="" should="" snowball="" stop="" stopping="" tell="" that="" the="" this="" to="" week="" worldwide="" www.theguardian.com="">http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jun/11/james-inhofe-republican-climate-denier-pope-francis</a><a href="http://aattp.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/snowball-1024x535.jpg" imageanchor="1"></a>Ed Slavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00298486886820876739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500836957138717480.post-59918010445342421182015-05-29T17:48:00.001-07:002015-05-29T17:48:04.544-07:00 Did Houston's No-Zoning, No-Planning Anarchy Help Cause Floods?In 2015, Houston, Texas still lacks zoning and has poor planning. The result is the hideous floods we saw recently. We lived in Houston for two years and it is the most hideous City in America -- tacky, ugly and mosquito-ridden, with sulfurous refinery emissions, and condos next to auto repair joints next to honky tonks next to churches next to fried chick joints next to scrapyards next to vacant lots. Some 25% of the land is unoccupied, leading to sprawl. In H.L. Mencken's phrase, Houston looks like it was designed by someone "with a libido for the ugly."
Worse, there is poor drainage (see photo).
In contrast, Memphis, Tennessee (where I lived during law school) learned its lesson from 1880s Yellow Fever epidemics, when Memphis ceased to exist and lost its corporate charter from Tennessee.
There is exquisitely good drainage in Memphis, almost none in Houston.
LESSON: we need more zoning and planning, not less.
<a href="http://www.texasfreeway.com/houston/photos/june2001_flood/images/i45_i10_flooded_chron.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://www.texasfreeway.com/houston/photos/june2001_flood/images/i45_i10_flooded_chron.jpg" /></a>
Ed Slavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00298486886820876739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500836957138717480.post-15152466309032716712015-05-26T06:00:00.002-07:002015-05-26T06:00:20.756-07:00Washington Post on Capitol Hill Workers Working The Night ShiftLovely long article in May 20, 2015 Washington Post about all of the thousands of workers who work through the night cleaning, disposing of trash, polishing, waxing, painting, maintaining and protecting our U.S. Capitol and Congressional office buildings. It speaks of workers as people, talks about the importance of their work, and treats them as heroic.
Steve Hendrix, "The Capitol’s Shadow Army -- Hundreds on the night shift tidy the corridors of power after democracy’s workday is done (Washington Post, May 20, 2015).
Why can't other U.S. publications ever write about workers as anything other than objects, if at all?
Why are the only people treated as important people with money and power? The 1% are dumbing down debate, destroying the middle class, destroying lives, while debates on tax, living wage and other policies treat people as expendable digits. Enough.
Look at the "profiles" in any newspaper (including the better ones).
The Post article may be read <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/local/2015/05/20/the-capitols-shadow-army/">here</a>
Ed Slavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00298486886820876739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500836957138717480.post-19837069615092786322015-05-23T05:25:00.001-07:002015-05-23T05:33:08.474-07:0070% of Irish People Vote for Gay Marriage -- Overwhelming Vote -- When Irish Eyes Are Smiling -- Éirinn go Brách (Ireland Forever!)<a href="http://sd.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/i/keep-calm-and-erin-go-bragh-6.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://sd.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/i/keep-calm-and-erin-go-bragh-6.png" /></a>
<br />
<br />
I awoke this morning with a song in my heart to the news from NPR on my cellular telephone: we won!<br />
<br />
The ancestral home of my first American ancestor just voted by some 70% to recognize Gay marriage, the first nation in the world to do so by popular vote, and now the 20th in the world.<br />
<br />
Irish people returned to vote from as far away as Australia. Éirinn go Brách! (Ireland forever!)<br />
<br />
In 1991, I wrote the first article on Gay marriage for an American Bar Association publication ("What makes a marriage legal") after our landmark case of <i>Rinde v. Woodward & Lothrop</i> (equal discount benefits for Gay and Lesbian employee partners for department store employees at 30 Woodward & Lothrop and John Wanamaker stores in six states and D.C.).<br />
<br />
Here's a song dedication -- sing it loudly and proudly -- it's our time, our planet and our equal rights will be respected and not neglected.<br />
<br />
<b>WHEN IRISH EYES ARE SMILING </b><br />
Chorus:
When Irish Eyes Are Smiling, sure 'tis like a morn in spring.
In the lilt of Irish laughter, you can hear the angels sing.
When Irish hearts are happy, all the world seems bright and gay,
And When Irish Eyes Are Smiling, sure, they steal your heart away.<br />
Verse 1:
There's a tear in your eye and I'm wondering why,
For it never should be there at all.
With such power in your smile, sure a stone you'd beguile,
So there's never a teardrop should fall,
When your sweet lilting laughter's like some fairy song
And your eyes twinkle bright as can be.
You should laugh all the while and all other times smile,
And now smile a smile for me.<br />
(Chorus)<br />
Verse 2:
For your smile is a part of the love in your heart,
And it makes even sunshine more bright.
Like the linnet's sweet song, crooning all the day long.
Comes your laughter so tender and light.
For the springtime of life is the sweetest of all,
There is ne'er a real care or regret.
And while springtime is ours, throughout all of youth's hours,
Let us smile each chance we get.Ed Slavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00298486886820876739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500836957138717480.post-3729452877926170912015-04-30T05:50:00.000-07:002015-04-30T05:50:04.174-07:00ALL-WHITE "SISTER CITIES" EXCHANGE, ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA AND AVILES, SPAIN: CIVIL RIGHTS COMPLAINT FILED WITH ATTORNEY GENERAL LORETTA LYNCH<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://sar-cdn.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/superphoto/14343906.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://sar-cdn.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/superphoto/14343906.jpg" height="197" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Exhibit A -- All-white City of St. Augustine, Florida and St. Augustine Sister Cities Association, Inc. Delegation to Aviles, Spain, April 2015</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
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The St. Augustine Sister Cities Association, Inc., City of St. Augustine, Florida and CLAUDE LEONARD WEEKS, JR. --- Civil Rights Complaint re: Race Discrimination</div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;">Dear Attorney General Lynch:</span></span><br />
<div style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Congratulations on your appointment and confirmation. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Please direct the Civil Rights Division to investigate possible civil rights violations by Respondents, The </span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">St. Augustine</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Sister Cities Association, Inc., </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">the </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">City of St. Augustine, Florida and CLAUDE LEONARD WEEKS, JR.</span>; Respondent Association's<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"> registered address </span>for twenty years has been ℅ City of St. Augustine, St. Augustine City Hall, 75 King Street (Box 210), St. Augustine, Florida 32084. See www.sunbiz.org </div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">1. A recipient of </span>millions<span style="font-size: x-small;"> of dollars of federal funds, our City of St. Augustine, Florida (municipal government and recipient of millions of dollars in federal funds) and its </span><i style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;">alter ego</i><span style="font-size: x-small;">, the St. Augustine, Florida Sister CIties Association, Inc. (non-profit "cultural exchange" group), and its longtime leader, ex-Mayor CLAUDE LEONARD WEEKS, JR. (LEN WEEKS) for:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>A. Repeatedly sending all-white citizen delegations to Aviles, Spain;</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>B. Not sending African-American high school students to Aviles, Spain (while sending the wealthy, including at least one of Respondent WEEKS' own children).</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial; font-size: x-small;">2. Other than one former Commissioner, Errol Jones, I have found no documentary evidence of any African-American participation in this putative "cultural exchange." Respondent City </span><span style="font-family: arial;">respond</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial;">ed</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial;"> to my Request No. 2015-98 </span>that<span style="font-family: helvetica, arial;"> it has no documents on civil rights compliance or any Mayor, Commissioner or staffer ever expressing any concerns about the all-white "cultural exchange."</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial; font-size: x-small;">3. Our City of St. Augustine provides </span>the<span style="font-family: helvetica, arial; font-size: x-small;"> mailing address and funding and gives significant encouragement to this all-white group, with City funds subsidizing City Commissioners and former Mayors and Commissioners, receiving tens of thousands of dollars in travel, lodging, meals and entertainment for an all-white "cultural exchange."</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: arial;">4. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote from jail on June 11, 1964 that St. Augustine was "the most lawless" city in America. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: arial;">5. As a result of five decades of citizen efforts, our City is now finally but diffidently attempting to remedy environmental injustice and employment, housing, utilities, services and public accommodations discrimination.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: arial;">6. This is too little, too late, however. We have waited long enough. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: arial;">7. This is the 450th anniversary of the founding of St. Augustine, our Nation's Oldest European-founded City. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: arial;">8. There may be further complaints and our city, St. Johns County and nearby City of St. Augustine Beach will be reformed, in Dr. King's words, "if it takes all summer.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: arial;">9. Exhibit A, above, was provided by Respondents to the St. Augustine Record and shows the all-white City of St. Augustine and St. Augustine, Florida Sister Cities Delegation to Aviles Spain "last week" (story below) on the occasion of dedication of a replica of teh 1812 Spanish Constitution Monument from our Slave Market Square to the City of Aviles, Spain.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;">10. Even in celebrating constitutionalism, on its 450th birthday, our Nation's Oldest European-founded City has resorted to apparently unconstitutional means -- a racially discriminatory delegation to our sister city in Spain. Enough invidious discrimination. Please bring an </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;">action for injunctive relief under the 1964 Civil Rights Act, made possible by the courage of local residents and other civil rights activists, including Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Ambassador Andrew Young, Dr. Robert S. Hayling, D.D.S., et al. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">11. The City Manager of the Respondent City of St. Augustine, Florida is John Patrick Regan, P.E.. The address for both Respondent City of St. Augustine and th</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: arial;">e </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">St. Augustine</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Sister Cities Association, Inc.</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> is St. Augustine City Hall, 75 King Street, St. Augustine, Florida 32084. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">12. The St. Augustine Sister Cities Association, Inc. registered agent for service of process, officers and directors are as follows </span></div>
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<div class="detailSection" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">
<span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; text-decoration: underline;">Registered Agent Name & Address</span>KIRKER, LYNDA<div>
3732 HARBOR DRIVE<br />SAINT AUGUSTINE, FL 32084</div>
<br />Name Changed: 04/18/2012<br /><br />Address Changed: 01/16/2014 </div>
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<span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; text-decoration: underline;">Officer/Director Detail</span><b>Name & Address</b><br /><br />Title P<br /><br />WEEKS, LEN <div>
62 HYPOLITA ST.<br />SAINT AUGUSTINE, FL 32084</div>
<br />Title VP<br /><br />MCCORMICK, PENNY <div>
9224 JULY LANE<br />SAINT AUGUSTINE, FL 32080</div>
<br />Title RS<br /><br />DONIE, DOWIE <div>
217 LYONS GATE<br />ST AUGUSTINE, FL 32080</div>
<br />Title T<br /><br />KIRKER, LYNDA <div>
3732 HARBOR DRIVE<br />SAINT AUGUSTINE, FL 32084</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Please investigate and file an action for declaratory and injunctive relief under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Thank you.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: arial;">With kindest regards, I am,</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Sincerely yours,</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Ed Slavin</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: arial;">www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: arial;">www.fourowls.blogspot.com</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Box 3084</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: arial;">St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084</span></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: helvetica, arial; font-size: x-small;"></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: arial;">904-377-4998</span></span></div>
Ed Slavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00298486886820876739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500836957138717480.post-11151229855279423502015-04-11T07:40:00.001-07:002015-04-11T07:43:45.048-07:00Happy tenth anniversary, St. Augustine!April 11, 2005 was the first time I spoke to the St. Augustine, Florida City Commission. I've been doing it for ten years, despite threats, including the one ab initio by the then City Manager that "I could have you arrested for disorderly conduct." April 11, 2015 marks the tenth anniversary: I have been reporting on St. Augustine now for 1/45th of its existence (2.2%), or 1/15th of its existence since the Civil War ended (6.6%). How should St. Augustine commemorate this event? What have we accomplished here? What's next? You tell me.
<a href="http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2014/12/its-been-wonderful-decade-thank-you-for.html">http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2014/12/its-been-wonderful-decade-thank-you-for.html</a>Ed Slavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00298486886820876739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500836957138717480.post-28841301111805610142015-04-10T13:42:00.001-07:002015-04-10T13:42:02.270-07:00President Obama Gives Rainbow Salute Upon Leaving Jamaica<a href="http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--e5di_I3l--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/a1sbznnqgvyulzjotcjc.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--e5di_I3l--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/a1sbznnqgvyulzjotcjc.png" /></a>
Photo credit: The White HouseEd Slavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00298486886820876739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500836957138717480.post-26904911691531647662015-04-09T03:26:00.001-07:002015-04-09T03:26:36.385-07:00TWIN PEAKS CAST DEMANDS FULL WRITER BUDGET: I AGREE WITH DAVID LYNCH AND CAST<a href="http://eyebama.onehumanbeing.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/The-Owls-are-Not-What-They-Seem-800px.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://eyebama.onehumanbeing.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/The-Owls-are-Not-What-They-Seem-800px.jpg" /></a>Ed Slavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00298486886820876739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500836957138717480.post-6615621508852986062015-04-05T08:14:00.000-07:002015-04-05T08:14:19.144-07:00LIBERAL BLAME FOR INDIANA HATE-GAYS "RELIGIOUS FREEDOM" LAW?
Let's share the blame: Congressional liberals introduced a weak bill, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, that left out housing, education, public accommodations, and health care, as if GLBT people did not need those things. Typically, "liberal" legislators make their deals and sell out ab initio, leaving nothing to negotiate over later. The bill fizzled. Yet it sent a message like no one has done since President George H.W Bush's Ambassador April Glaspie signaled Saddam Hussein an invasion of Kuwait was okay. <a href=" http://foreignpolicy.com/2011/01/09/wikileaks-april-glaspie-and-saddam-hussein/"> http://foreignpolicy.com/2011/01/09/wikileaks-april-glaspie-and-saddam-hussein/</a>
Ed Slavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00298486886820876739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500836957138717480.post-77099269899550786702015-04-05T08:12:00.001-07:002015-04-05T08:17:20.243-07:00INDIANA HATE GAYS LAW: Conscientious objectors or lugubrious goobers?As if taking a law school exam question and finding real-life people to act out the roles, the government of Indiana and religious conservatives flopped, then flipped.<br />
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The notion that someone's conscientious objections should keep them from pulling a trigger is enshrined in American military law. During Vietnam, thousands of Americans were spared combat on their good-faith religious beliefs, which were rigorously examined by draft boards and courts. Roman Catholics had particular tough times, because rather than opposing all wars, the COs invoked the "just war" theory. My father was a World War II paratrooper whose priests understood the need to stop Hitler. But if I had become a CO in Vietnam, he would have supported me, as evidenced by his telling NBC News Today Show host Joe Garragiola, proudly, "My son is anti-war" (during a segment with 82nd vets in which Garragiola tried to bait the paratroopers about Vietnam protesters).<br />
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The notion that someone's conscientious objections should keep them from arranging flowers, baking a cake or making a pizza is absurd.
There is no assertive conduct in arranging flowers, baking a cake or making a pizza.
If anyone is so frail as to worry to what use their flowers, pizza or cake will be used, he needs to be in a velvet room, like Proust.
These hick hacks are pretenders. They're going for KKK and fundamentalist votes.<br />
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I've studied the religions of the world, from the Baltimore Catechism on. None preach flower, pizza or cake withholding.
So a few pouty pretentious pompous bluenosers want exemptions from cake-baking?<br />
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The Devil-food with their supercilious, excuse-making maladroit "complaints."
Let the cake corporations bake cakes or go out of business.
Business owners are not permitted to use religion as a basis for race discrimination or other invidious acts:
<a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2349546/newman-v-piggie-park-enterprises-inc/">https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2349546/newman-v-piggie-park-enterprises-inc/</a>
<i>"Neither is the court impressed by defendant Bessinger's contention that the judicial enforcement of the public accommodations provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 upon which this suit is predicated violates the free exercise of his religious beliefs in contravention of the First Amendment to the Constitution. It is unquestioned that the First Amendment prohibits compulsion by law of any creed or the practice of any form of religion, but it also safeguards the free exercise of one's chosen religion. Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421, 82 S.Ct. 1261, 8 L.Ed.2d 601 (1962). The free exercise of one's beliefs, however, as distinguished from the absolute right to a belief, is subject to regulation when religious acts require accommodation to society. United States v. Ballard, 322 U.S. 78, 64 S.Ct. 882, 88 L.Ed. 1148 (1944) (Mails to defraud); Reynolds v. United States, 98 U.S. 145, 25 L.Ed. 244 (1878) (polygamy conviction); Prince v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 321 U.S. 158, 64 S.Ct. 438, 88 L.Ed. 645 (1943) (minor in company of ward distributing religious literature in violation of statute). Undoubtedly defendant Bessinger has a constitutional right to espouse the religious beliefs of his own choosing, however, he does not have the absolute right to exercise and practice such beliefs in utter disregard of the clear constitutional rights of other citizens. This court refuses to lend credence or support to his position that he has a constitutional right to refuse to serve members of the Negro race in his business establishments upon the ground that to do so would violate his sacred religious beliefs.
The sole question for determination under the circumstances of instant case is whether any or all of defendants' eating establishments are places of public accommodation within the meaning and purview of Section 201 of Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Section 2000a).[2] In arriving at this determination the court is primarily concerned with the following factual and legal questions, which will be considered in inverse order hereinafter: (1) Is corporate defendant's establishments, or any of them, "principally engaged in selling food for consumption on the premises;" (2) Does said defendant at its establishments serve or offer "to serve interstate travelers;" and (3) has "a substantial portion of the food which it serves, * * * or other *946 products which it sells * * * moved in commerce"?</i><br />
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<i></i>Lawyers/firms contracting, combining and conspiring to boycott the D.C. Superior Court were not treated with kid gloves as having exercised First Amendment rights.
In Superior Court Trial Lawyers Association, a unanimous Supreme Court held that the First Amendment does not extend to a boycott of private lawyers.
FTC v. Superior Court Trial Lawyers Association, 493 U.S. 411 (1990)
Ed Slavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00298486886820876739noreply@blogger.com0