Russian Mafia

A little over a week ago, Taylor White penned an article for MarketWatch that alarmed me, This is why Americans are losing confidence in the housing market.

Trump's Mafia connections have been dogging him for his whole life. Somehow they didn't impress his supporters-- except maybe in Staten Island where Mon connections are considered a plus. Yesterday David Von Drehle gave it another try in the Washington Post: All The President's Wiseguys. Trump, he wrote, "spent plenty of time in mobbed-up milieus.

Who's the richest person on earth? It's not a spoiler to say it's a ruthless crook, right? How's this for a spoiler-- the runner-ups, according to Forbes?

I have to admit... it's fun to beat up on a puffed up bully like Michael Cohen-- Trump's bargain basement Roy Cohn wannabe. Since childhood, Cohen has been a Mob-connected asshole and his Mob connection helped acquire a once valuable collection of New York and Chicago taxi medallions-- once but no longer.

Staten Island is the most Mafia-friendly place in America. And the other portion of NY-11, south Brooklyn-- just happens to be the most Russian Mafia-friendly place in America.

There was lots of bitching and kvetching that the FBI treated Michael Cohen like a Mafia lawyer when they raided hhis home, his hotel room and his office-- kicking down the door in the case of the office.

Remember, just over a year ago, when Señor Trumpanzee told the media that he "could actually run my business and run government at the same time" [but that he doesn't] "like the way that looks...?What I'm going to be doing is-- my 2 sons... are going to be running the company. They are going to be running it in a very professional manner. They're not going to discuss it with me." Did anyone believe a word of that? Even for a minute? About a month ago Trumpanzee Jr. was in India as a businessman and as his crooked father's emissary.

Yesterday, Skip went over how Carnival revelers the world over are poking fun at Señor Trumpanzee.

Thursday, McClatchy ran a pretty eye-popping piece by Peter Stone and Greg Gordon, FBI investigating whether Russian money went to NRA to help Trump. The jist of it was that Alexander Torshin, the deputy governor of Russia’s central bank-- a Putin crony-- was illegally funneling cash to the Trump campaign via the NRA.

Back in July, we looked into Trump's ties to the Russian Mafia in general and Semyon Mogilevich-- Russia organized crime's boss of bosses-- in particular. Mogilevich is back in the news... this time tied to former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Betsy Woodruff broke the story at the Daily Beast.