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strictlyfavorites · 1 year

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AUDIE MURPHY

Section 46, Grave 366-11

He wanted to join the Marines, but he was too short. The paratroopers wouldn't have him, either. Reluctantly, he settled on the infantry, and ultimately became one of the most decorated heroes of World War II. He was Audie Murphy, the baby-faced Texas farmboy who became an American legend. Murphy grew up on a sharecropper's farm in Hunt County, Texas. After his father deserted the family, he helped raise his 11 brothers and sisters, dropping out of school in the fifth grade to earn money picking cotton. He was 16 years old when his mother died, and he watched as his siblings were doled out to an orphanage or to relatives. Seeking an escape from this difficult life, Murphy enlisted in the Army in 1942 — falsifying his birth certificate so that he appeared to be 18, one year older than he actually was.

Following basic training, Murphy was assigned to the 15th Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division in North Africa. First entering combat in July 1943, during the invasion of Sicily, he proved himself to be a proficient marksman and a highly skilled soldier. He consistently demonstrated how well he understood the techniques of small-unit action. Murphy landed at Salerno, Italy to fight in the Voltuno River campaign, and then at Anzio to be part of the Allied force that fought its way to Rome. Throughout these campaigns, Murphy's skills earned him advancements in rank, because many of his superior officers were being transferred, wounded or killed. After the capture of Rome in June 1944, Murphy earned his first decoration for gallantry.

Shortly thereafter, his unit was withdrawn from Italy to train for Operation Anvil-Dragoon, the invasion of southern France that began on August 15, 1944. During seven weeks of fighting in that successful campaign, Murphy's division suffered 4,500 casualties, and he became one of the most decorated men in his company. But his biggest test was yet to come.

On January 26, 1945, near the village of Holtzwihr in eastern France, Lt. Murphy's forward positions came under fierce attack by the Germans. Against the onslaught of six Panzer tanks and 250 infantrymen, Murphy ordered his men to fall back to better their defenses. Alone, he mounted an abandoned, burning tank destroyer and, with a single machine gun, contested the enemy's advance. Wounded in the leg during the heavy fire, Murphy remained there for nearly an hour, repelling the attack of German soldiers on three sides and single-handedly killing 50 of them. His courageous performance stalled the German advance and allowed him to lead his men in the counterattack which ultimately drove the enemy from Holtzwihr. For this, Murphy was awarded the Medal of Honor, the United States' highest award for gallantry in action.

By the end of World War II, Murphy had become one of the nation's most-decorated soldiers, earning an unparalleled 28 medals (including three from France and one from Belgium). Murphy had been wounded three times during the war. In May 1945, when victory was declared in Europe, he had still not reached his 21st birthday.

Audie Murphy returned to a hero's welcome in the United States. His photograph appeared on the cover of Life magazine, and actor James Cagney persuaded him to embark on an acting career. Still shy and unassuming, Murphy arrived in Hollywood with only his good looks and — by his own account — "no talent." Nevertheless, he went on to make more than 40 films. His first part was just a small one in the 1948 film "Beyond Glory." The following year, he published his wartime memoir, "To Hell and Back," which received positive reviews. In 1955, he portrayed himself in the movie version of the book. Many film critics, however, believe that his best performance was "The Red Badge of Courage," director John Huston's 1951 Civil War epic based on the novel by Stephen Crane.

Murphy retired from acting after 21 years, and subsequently bred race horses and pursued various business ventures. But he struggled financially, due to gambling and unsuccessful investments, and he declared bankruptcy in 1968. Murphy suffered from what is now known as post-traumatic stress disorder, experiencing headaches, depression and nightmares; he once said that he could sleep only with a loaded pistol under his pillow. In 1971, at the age of 46, Murphy died in the crash of a private plane near Roanoke, Virginia.

Audie Murphy is buried in Section 46, just across from the Memorial Amphitheater. A special flagstone walkway has been constructed to accommodate the large number of people who stop to pay their respects to this hero.

Medal of Honor citation:

"2d Lt. Murphy commanded Company B, which was attacked by 6 tanks and waves of infantry. 2d Lt. Murphy ordered his men to withdraw to prepared positions in a woods, while he remained forward at his command post and continued to give fire directions to the artillery by telephone. Behind him, to his right, 1 of our tank destroyers received a direct hit and began to burn. Its crew withdrew to the woods. 2d Lt. Murphy continued to direct artillery fire which killed large numbers of the advancing enemy infantry. With the enemy tanks abreast of his position, 2d Lt. Murphy climbed on the burning tank destroyer, which was in danger of blowing up at any moment, and employed its .50 caliber machinegun against the enemy. He was alone and exposed to German fire from 3 sides, but his deadly fire killed dozens of Germans and caused their infantry attack to waver. The enemy tanks, losing infantry support, began to fall back. For an hour the Germans tried every available weapon to eliminate 2d Lt. Murphy, but he continued to hold his position and wiped out a squad which was trying to creep up unnoticed on his right flank. Germans reached as close as 10 yards, only to be mowed down by his fire. He received a leg wound, but ignored it and continued the single-handed fight until his ammunition was exhausted. He then made his way to his company, refused medical attention, and organized the company in a counterattack which forced the Germans to withdraw. His directing of artillery fire wiped out many of the enemy; he killed or wounded about 50. 2d Lt. Murphy's indomitable courage and his refusal to give an inch of ground saved his company from possible encirclement and destruction, and enabled it to hold the woods which had been the enemy's objective."

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j-r-macready · 3 years

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Baker Company of Task Force Gold Geronimo making their mark in Rahman Kheyl [Image 3 of 14] by DVIDSHUB Via Flickr: Paratroopers of 2nd Platoon “Gunslingers," Baker Company walk downrange to check their shot groups during a zero range at Combat Outpost Rahman Kheyl March 16. Baker Company is part of the 3rd Battalion (Airborne), 509th Infantry Regiment, Task Force Gold Geronimo. 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division Public Affairs Photo by Staff Sgt. Jason Epperson Date Taken:03.16.2012 Location:COP RAHMAN KHEYL, AF Read more: www.dvidshub.net/image/544240/baker-company-task-force-go...

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route22ny · 4 years

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This is a harrowing read, and in the end you may ask yourself, as I asked myself: how was the nation not protected from such criminality? Decades of organized crime involvement culminated in the most corrupt and dangerous president in American history, one who now presides over a reeling nation in the throes of a deadly pandemic.

We watch in horror and disbelief, daily, as he ineptly--or maliciously--mismanages the nation’s response to covid-19, contributing to a death toll expected to surpass that of the Vietnam War...twice. How did we get here?

This is must reading.

***

IN THE EARLY 1980s it was decided—by whom, and for what ultimate purpose, we can’t say for sure—that Donald John Trump would build a casino complex in Atlantic City, New Jersey—probably the most mobbed-up municipality in the state. Dealing with the mafia might have dissuaded some developers from pursuing a Boardwalk Empire, but not Trump. He was uniquely suited to forge ahead.

Donald’s father, the Queens real estate developer Fred Trump, had worked closely with Genovese-associated and -owned construction entities since building the Shore Haven development in 1947, when Donald was still in diapers (the first time around). Fred was an early mob adopter, the underworld equivalent of an investor who bought shares of Coca-Cola stock in 1919. The timelines is important to remember here. Organized crime did not exist in any meaningful way in the United States until Prohibition. Born in 1905, Fred Trump was just two years younger than Meyer Lansky, the gangster who more or less invented money laundering. Thus, Donald Trump is second generation mobbed-up.

When Donald first ventured from Queens to the pizzazzier borough of Manhattan in the seventies, he entered into a joint business deal with “Big” Paul Castellano, head of the Gambino syndicate, and Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno, of the Genovese family he knew well through his father and their mutual lawyer Roy Cohn. As part of this arrangement, Trump agreed to buy concrete from a company operated jointly by the two families—and pay a hefty premium for the privilege. Only then, with double mob approval, could he move forward with the Trump Tower and Trump Plaza projects. (Among Cohn’s other clients at the time was Rupert Murdoch, whom he introduced to Trump in the seventies; you would be hard pressed to find three more atrocious human beings).

Atlantic City is in South Jersey, closer to Philadelphia than New York, so to build “his” casino, Trump needed to play ball with the Philly mob. That meant dealing with Nicodemo “Little Nicky” Scarfo, head of the most powerful mob family in Philadelphia. Land that Trump needed for his casino was owned by Salvie Testa and Frank Narducci, Jr.—hit men for Scarfo, collectively known around town as the Young Executioners (the nickname was not ironic). To help negotiate the deal, Trump hired Patrick McGahn, a Philly-based attorney known to have truck with the Scarfo family.

(The last name should sound familiar; Don McGahn, the former White House Counsel, is Patrick McGahn’s nephew. And Don McGahn is not the only Trump Administration hire with ties to the Philly mob. Among Little Nicky’s associates was one Jimmy “The Brute” DiNatale, whose daughter, Denise Fitzpatrick, is the mother of none other than Kellyanne Conway. A number of wiseguys paid their respects at DiNatale’s 1983 funeral. I don’t want to make the mistake of condemning Conway or Don McGahn for the sins of their relations. But given Trump’s OC background, it’s fair to question why he chose two children of mobbed-up families for his inner White House circle.)

Trump acquired the needed Atlantic City property at twice the market value: $1.1 million for a lot that sold for $195k five years before. But there were legal pratfalls, shady dealings, chicanery with the documents. The New Jersey Gaming Commission was investigating the matter, because casino owners could not, by law, associate with criminals. And most of Trump’s friends were crooks. It looked like Trump was in trouble—not only of losing his gaming license, but of criminal indictment.

And then, something miraculous happened. On 4 November 1986, Scarfo and eleven of his associates were indicted on charges that included loan sharking, extortion and conducting an illegal gambling business in a racketeering conspiracy. Prosecutors had tried for years to take down Little Nicky. And now, after all that time, they finally had their evidence. Not only that, but the investigation into Trump? It went away. Poof—as if it never existed.

A confidential informant, or “CI,” is a mole run by law enforcement within a criminal enterprise. Not a “rat,” whose treachery is well known to his comrades, but a craftier, more duplicitous breed of rodent. Crimes committed by the CI are overlooked, or allowed to continue unabated, in exchange for good intelligence—“treasure,” as Control calls it in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

A fictional example of a CI is the Greek, a character on the show The Wire (spoiler ahead). Baltimore law enforcement piece together that the Greek is the head of a crime syndicate that deals in narcotics and human trafficking. But when they finally move to arrest him, the operation is kibboshed by the feds, for whom the Greek is a Confidential Informant. This is extremely frustrating for viewers of the show, who rightly regard the Greek as the cause of so much woe in West Baltimore.

In real life, there are two famous examples. The first is Whitey Bulger, the head of the so-called Winter Hill Gang, which operated for decades in Somerville, Massachusetts. In 1975, Bulger became a Confidential Informant for the FBI, handled by a corrupt agent named John Connolly. His intelligence helped take down a rival mob family in Providence, Rhode Island—a city notorious for the influence of organized crime. In exchange, Connolly allowed Bulger and his associates to operate with impunity. At least 19 people were killed by the Winter Hill Gang while the feds looked the other way. When the FBI finally realized its mistake, Connolly tipped off Bulger, who went on the lam for 16 years. He was finally arrested in 2011; by then he was in his eighties. He was killed in prison seven years later.

The second famous CI is Donald Trump’s former associate Felix Sater. Racketeering charges against him back in 1998 ended with a fine of just $25,000—a slap on the wrist. From then on, Sater become a top echelon confidential informant, feeding law enforcement intelligence of “a depth and breadth rarely seen,” as court filings show. “His cooperation has covered a stunning array of subject matter, ranging from sophisticated local and international criminal activity to matters involving the world’s most dangerous terrorists and rogue states.”

The winsome ex-con, still one of the more puzzling figures of Trump/Russia, “continuously worked with prosecutors and law enforcement agents to provide information crucial to the conviction of over 20 different individuals, including those responsible for committing massive financial fraud, members of La Cosa Nostra organized crime families and international cyber-criminals,” prosecutors claim. “Additionally, Sater provided the United States intelligence community with highly sensitive information in an effort to help the government combat terrorists and rogue states.”

His intelligence helped prosecutors break up the “Pump and Dump” and “Boiler Room” mob operations in the 1990s. He turned over useful information about the Genovese crime family (note: the same family Fred Trump fronted for), and provided ample dirt on international arms dealing (note: Jeffrey Epstein’s specialty). And his crowning achievement: he helped the United States track down Osama bin Laden (funny how the Russian mob knew where he was). Sater is proud of his CI work, and has talked it up the last few years, probably to counter his association with the mafiya, and with Trump.

We know about Bulger being a CI because his handler turned out to be crooked. We know about Sater being a CI because he outed himself prior to his sentencing in 2009—and because he keeps boasting about it. If Sater had not come forward, Loretta Lynch, the former Attorney General, would not have been legally permitted to reveal his status.

That’s the thing about Confidential Informants: they are confidential. The informant doesn’t want to be made as a mole, any more than law enforcement wants to burn a source. Both sides are bound to secrecy. It is the good guy version of omertà.

The only way to know for sure if Donald John Trump is a Confidential Informant is if he admits it himself (unlikely), or if law enforcement comes forward (illegal). But the circumstantial evidence is compelling. The pattern is: 1) Trump deals with mobsters as usual; 2) Law enforcement begins investigating Trump; 3) Mobsters suddenly get busted, while 4) investigation into Trump is scuttled. This happened three times that we know about. I’m not counting the first known instance of Trump providing information to prosecutors, concerning Cody and concrete, in the late 70s:

I can conceive of no scenario in which Trump was not a CI, and a top echelon one at that. He’s avoided indictment too many times. No one is that lucky.

Or, put another way: How can someone that lucky manage to run a fucking casino into the ground?

Salvatore Gravano, known as “Sammy the Bull,” was an underboss of the Gambino crime family. After the assassination of “Big” Paul Castellano in 1985—an audacious hit, done in broad daylight—John Gotti was installed as the figurehead capo. But in practice, the Bull was the one calling the shots. His territory? Manhattan. For as long as he was in power, any construction that took place in New York, New York had to be approved by Gravano. “I literally controlled Manhattan,” he told ABC News. He did a lot of business deals with Donald John Trump, and speaks of him fondly.

After his arrest on 11 December 1990, Gravano turned state’s evidence to help put away Gotti, his nominal boss. The lead prosecutor of the case? Robert Swan Mueller III. (This is why, when Trump found out Mueller was named Special Counsel, he collapsed into a chair and muttered, “I’m fucked.”)

We know that Gravano flipped on Gotti. But who flipped on Sammy the Bull?

On 19 July 1990, the Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) of the State of New Jersey opened an investigation into Donald John Trump, regarding the Trump Organization’s business dealings with Joseph Weichselbaum, a mob associate and embezzler who had been convicted not once, not twice, but three times. Trump hired Weichselbaum’s company to provide helicopter transportation to Atlantic City, conveying high rollers to and from New York. As a casino owner, Trump was prohibited by law to do any business with the serial felon. He not only continued to do so, but he went to bat for the guy, going so far as to write him a letter of recommendation. (There’s more bizarre stuff with Wiechselbaum, whose case wound up being initially tried by Trump’s sister, a federal judge, but I won’t get into it here).

Six months after the DGE opened its investigation, Gravano got pinched. And once again, as if by the wave of a magic wand, Trump’s legal troubles seemed to vanish.

It’s worth noting here that Sammy the Bull likes Trump personally, then and now, and seems not to blame him for ratting him out. There were likely others who informed on Gravano, too. But given the timing, the investigation against Trump, his disastrous finances at the time, and his long familiarity with federal prosecutors, it stands to reason that Trump, too, turned on his longtime business associate.

The Kurt & Courtney decade was unkind to Donald John Trump. The Bush I recession hit his businesses hard. Trump filed for bankruptcy protection for Trump Taj Mahal (1991) and Trump Plaza (1992). Again: our “lucky” guy had managed to go bust in the casino business. In between those bankruptcy filings, he lobbied Congress for tax relief for real estate developers, began phoning reporters claiming to be a publicist named John Barron, had an affair with a D-list actress named Marla Maples, and divorced his wife of 14 years, the mother of his kids Donald, Ivanka, and Eric: the former Ivana Zelníčková. (Sidenote: Ivana Trump’s father was a big wheel in Czechoslovakia’s Státní bezpečnost intelligence service; Miloš Zelníček helped raise his grandchildren, especially Don Jr., who speaks fluent Czech…but this is a subject for another dispatch).

Things were going south fast. Trump desperately needed a lifeline. He found one in Moscow.

The Soviet Union collapsed on Christmas Day 1991. What the West viewed as the triumph of capitalism over communism was really the subversion of a conventional superpower by the shadowy forces of transnational crime. The Cold War was not over; it just shifted modes of attack. In the early 90s, Russia invaded the United States—not with soldiers, but with mobsters.

The commander of this underworld incursion was a violent ex-con named Vyacheslav Ivankov, known as “Yaopnchik,” or “Little Japanese.” Hardened in the brutal Soviet prison system, Ivankov was a member of the vor y zakone, or thieves-in-law—the arm of the Russian mafiya that originated in the post-Second World War gulags. He was such a nasty, violent motherfucker that when it was necessary to rough someone up to extort them, he didn’t send in a subordinate—he did the job himself.

Ivankov arrived to the United States in 1992, ostensibly to work in the film industry. Even the new Russian government warned the FBI that he was up to no good. The feds lost sight of him almost immediately, even as he traveled from New York to Florida and everywhere in between, consolidating power, and displacing the Italian mob. (That brazen 1985 hit on “Big” Paul Castellano was instrumental in achieving this Vor hegemony, as the Gambino boss neither liked nor trusted the Russians). Per the testimony of Bob Levinson, the FBI’s foremost Russian mob expert:

Ivankov’s organization’s income was derived from a number of sources: his group was implicated by sources to have been involved in the “gasoline tax scam” whereby so-called “daisy-chains” of petroleum handling companies were established with the specific intention of defrauding governmental tax authorities using non-existent or ghost companies to pay the gasoline taxes due.

A primary source of the group’s funds was the collection of “krisha” or protection money from wealthy Russian and Eurasian businessmen operating between North America and the former Soviet republics. In addition, the Ivankov organization organized the collection of, in effect, a “street tax” from Russian-born and Eastern European criminals who were operating their illegal enterprises in North America. Ivankov organization members fanned out across the United States and Canada identifying and then approaching these criminals saying that each now had to contribute to an “obshak” (mutual benefit fund) being collected and organized by the Ivankov group.

In addition, Ivankov and other members of his organization settled business disputes for Russian and Eastern European businessmen operating between North America and the former Soviet Union, receiving in return a percentage of the amount in dispute, usually hundreds of thousands of dollars. Through his authority as a “thief-inlaw” and the head of a criminal organization, Ivankov was able to exercise a kind of informal power in the émigré business community tantamount to decisions made by formal, official courts of law. Those who went against the decisions made by Ivankov and his associates were usually met with violence, including beatings and/or murder.

As Little Japanese worked the States, Semion Mogilevich, the current head of the Russian mob, set up his base of operations in Budapest, Hungary, where he moved in 1992 with his Hungarian girlfriend. “The Brainy Don,” as he is called, soon acquired a bank in Russia, which allowed him access to the global financial system. Meyer Lanksy may have invented money laundering, but it was Mogilevich who took it to Hollywood, so to speak: Lansky wrote the book, and the Brainy Don made it into an international blockbuster. (Note: Levinson, the FBI agent, moved to Budapest around this time, to investigate Mogilevich more closely.)

For three fruitful years, Ivankov did his thing, laying the foundation for what would become the world’s pre-eminent organized crime operation—more S.P.E.C.T.R.E. than GoodFellas. He ran amok. Law enforcement had no idea where he was….until, one day in 1995, they found him living in a deluxe apartment at—you’re not gonna believe it—Trump Tower. And that was not the only Trump property he frequented: Ivankov was also a regular at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. He was arrested in June of 1995, convicted, imprisoned, and deported to Russia in 2004 to face murder changes. Once home, he was promptly acquitted. He was gunned down in Moscow in 2009.

This monster was living in Trump’s building, gambling in Trump’s casino.

What was Donald John Trump doing in 1995? Failing tremendously. That was the year when he declared a loss of an unfathomable $916 million on his tax returns. It was also at this time that Trump Tower became a sort of Moscow on Fifth Avenue, with any number of Russian mobsters scooping up apartments—an arrangement that began in 1984, when the Russian mobster David Bogatin purchased five condos for $6 million. Trump Tower was one of just two buildings in all of New York City that allowed units to be purchased by shell companies. Why did Trump, virtually alone among New Yorkers, allow these fishy deals?

As the indefatigable Craig Unger writes in the Washington Post,

the shady Bogatin deal began a 35-year relationship between Trump and Russian organized crime. Mind you, this was a period during which the disintegration of the Soviet Union had opened a fire-hose-like torrent of hundreds of billions of dollars in flight capital from oligarchs, wealthy apparatchiks and mobsters in Russia and its satellites. And who better to launder so much money for the Russians than Trump — selling them multimillion-dollar condos at top dollar, with little or no apparent scrutiny of who was buying them.

Over the next three decades, dozens of lawyers, accountants, real estate agents, mortgage brokers and other white-collar professionals came together to facilitate such transactions on a massive scale. According to a BuzzFeed investigation, more than 1,300 condos, one-fifth of all Trump-branded condos sold in the United States since the 1980s, were shifted “in secretive, all-cash transactions that enable buyers to avoid legal scrutiny by shielding their finances and identities.”

Unger continues:

The Trump Organization has dismissed money laundering charges as unsubstantiated, and because it is so difficult to penetrate the shell companies that purchased these condos, it is almost impossible for reporters — or, for that matter, anyone without subpoena power — to determine how much money laundering by Russians went through Trump-branded properties. But Anders Aslund, a Swedish economist, put it this way to me: “Early on, Trump came to the conclusion that it is better to do business with crooks than with honest people. Crooks have two big advantages. First, they’re prepared to pay more money than honest people. And second, they will always lose if you sue them because they are known to be crooks.”

It is simply inconceivable that a creature of the underworld, a man who had extensive dealings with mob figures for his entire career, would, in a moment of dire need, be unaware that mobsters were buying his properties, using shell companies to conceal the origin of the dirty rubles.

It is also inconceivable that a mobbed-up real estate developer—a crook whom the government of Australia would not grant a gaming license because of his obvious mob connections; the subject of a 41-page initial investigation by the Department of Gaming Enforcement in the State of New Jersey that, taken together, is positively damning—could have avoided indictment for all these years unless he was covertly helping out law enforcement. Trump is a criminal, yes, but his crimes are not as heinous as Ivankov’s, or Gravano’s, or Scarfo’s. Prosecutors would happily toss a minnow like Trump back into the sea if it helped them catch the big fish.

Nothing about Trump’s term as president suggests he’s turned his back on organized crime. He hasn’t “gone legit.” His Twitter antagonists comprise a “Who’s Who” of the FBI’s Russian mob experts: Robert Mueller, Andrew McCabe, Bruce Ohr, Lisa Page. He has attacked the credibility of those who know what he really is. That is what made Trump’s attacks on Mueller so ironic. He impugned the former FBI director as corrupt, while depending on his incorruptibility to not reveal his (alleged) CI status.

To reiterate: we cannot know for sure if Trump was a CI unless he admits to being one (maybe Yamiche Alcindor can goad him into admitting it?), or if the federal prosecutors in the know break protocol to expose him.

As it stands, prominent G-men have given us clues. When McCabe was fired, he began his statement thus: “I have been an FBI Special Agent for over 21 years. I spent half of that time investigating Russian Organized Crime as a street agent and Supervisor in New York City.” The subtext there is that McCabe knows who Trump is.

In the excerpt of his book Higher Loyalty sent to the press, James Comey compared Trump to Gravano. “The [loyalty] demand was like Sammy the Bull’s Cosa Nostra induction ceremony—with Trump in the role of the family boss asking me if I have what it takes to be a ‘made man.’ ” Of all the famous mafiosos, why did Comey choose Gravano, a relatively obscure figure, as the comp? He wants us to dig into Gravano.

(Gravano himself was asked about the Comey pull-quote by Jerry Capeci of Gangland News; he said, “The country doesn’t need a bookworm as president, it needs a mob boss. You don’t need a Harvard graduate to deal with these people…[Putin, Kim, Xi] are real gangsters. You need a fucking gangster to deal with these people.” This seems to indicate that Sammy the Bull thinks Trump is a “mob boss” and a “fucking gangster.” Takes one to know one?)

Unless he thought it would help him avoid prison, Trump will never cop to being a Confidential Informant. We can only infer that he served that function by presenting the circumstantial evidence to support the hypothesis. But plenty of people can confirm or deny (rather than refuse to confirm or deny) Trump’s involvement. Bob Mueller, certainly, but every prosecutor too that dealt with Scarfo, Gravano, and Ivankov, and plenty of smaller cases besides.

When a Confidential Informant is deliberately fucking up the federal government’s response to a pandemic—when his willful negligence will cost hundreds of thousands if not millions of American lives—protocol must be sacrificed for the greater good. Is not the purpose of that law, of all laws, to protect the people from enemies foreign and domestic? And has not the COVID-19 response, or lack thereof, proven Trump to be an active enemy of the United States?

We don’t need more careful legalese. We don’t need more cryptic phrasings along the lines of “If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.” We need to hear, loud and clear, what the FBI knows. We need to be told, unequivocally, that Trump is an inveterate crook—a real crook; an actual criminal; not just a cute Twitter assertion—and, even more surprising, and contrary to all recent evidence, that he is capable of telling the truth when it serves him.

Notes:

This piece was written under the expert guidance of Lincoln’s Bible. If you don’t already do so, please follow her on Twitter, and check out her own mafiya reporting at Citjourno.

I encourage everyone to read the State of New Jersey Department of Gaming Enforcement investigation report on the allegations against Donald John Trump in the Wayne Barrett book Trump: The Deals and the Downfall.

The late Bob Levinson was the FBI’s best Russian mob fighter. His Ivankov testimony is also essential reading.

The photo at the top is the Greek, from The Wire—the best show in the history of television.

https://gregolear.substack.com/p/tinker-tailor-mobster-trump

#organized crime #long reads #trump #america is broken #greg olear

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itswallstreetpr · 5 years

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Get Prepared for the Resurgence of the CBD Theme (CURLF, GWPH, HMPQ, CVSI)

Mainstream consumer adoption of CBD products represents a tailwind set to push overall CBD sector growth in the quarters ahead. This year alone is expected to show growth of over 900% in the space as mainstream big-brand retailers – such as Kroger’s, Walgreens, Walmart, Rite-Aid, and others – begin to carry CBD products in plain sight of browsing consumers. This dynamic has helped raise awareness of the health benefits now being attributed to CBD, which has become known for its ability to help treat minor issues such as headaches and inflammation as well as contributing in care for more serious ailments, such as cancer, epilepsy, and multiple sclerosis. Stocks in the space have been correcting in recent months, but these bargains won’t last forever. As we near the next major leg of this growth boom, investors need to be prepared with a shopping list. Here are some interesting suggestions to consider: Curaleaf Holdings Inc (OTCMKTS:CURLF), GW Pharmaceuticals PLC- ADR (NASDAQ:GWPH), HempAmericana Inc (OTCMKTS:HMPQ), and CV Sciences Inc (OTCMKTS:CVSI) Curaleaf Holdings Inc (OTCMKTS:CURLF) is a vertically integrated cannabis player that has started to move into the hemp-based CBD space in an aggressive fashion. The stock has been outperforming the broader hemp-cannabis-cbd complex in recent action, which is notable. The company just announced that it has opened its 27th dispensary in Florida at 3631 NW Federal Highway in Jensen Beach on Friday, November 15th. According to the release, “Curaleaf has the largest cannabis dispensary footprint in the US with 50 dispensaries across the country and continues to execute on its strategy of rapid expansion in Florida. The new 4,500 square foot location is accessible to patients from the Jensen Beach area, including the communities of Jupiter, Port St. Lucie, Stuart, Port Salerno and Palm City, and will offer a full range of premium quality medical cannabis products and private consultations by meticulously trained staff.” Curaleaf Holdings Inc (OTCMKTS:CURLF) operates a large number of dispensaries, 12 cultivation sites and 9 processing sites with a focus on highly populated, limited license states, including Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York. Curaleaf, Inc. leverages its extensive research and development capabilities to distribute cannabis products in multiple formats with the highest standard for safety, effectiveness, consistent quality and customer care. Curaleaf is committed to being the industry's leading resource in education and advancement through research and advocacy. Curaleaf Inc.'s Florida operations were the first in the cannabis industry to receive the Safe Quality Food certification under the Global Food Safety Initiative, setting a new standard of excellence. It cultivates, processes, markets, and/or dispenses a range of cannabis products in various operating markets, including flower, pre-rolls and flower pods, dry-herb vaporizer cartridges, concentrates for vaporizing, concentrates for dabbing, tinctures, lozenges, capsules, and edibles. And the stock has been acting well over recent days, up something like 11% in that time. "We have been hearing from patients about the need for a full-service medical cannabis center along the Martin County and St. Lucie County coast," said Joe Lusardi, Curaleaf CEO. "Curaleaf is proud to be the first dispensary in Jensen Beach, and we look forward to serving this community." Curaleaf Holdings Inc (OTCMKTS:CURLF) managed to rope in revenues totaling $64.9M in overall sales during the company's most recently reported quarterly financial data -- a figure that represents a rate of top line growth of 0%, as compared to year-ago data in comparable terms. In addition, the company has a strong balance sheet, with cash levels far exceeding current liabilities ($140.3M against $64.1M). GW Pharmaceuticals PLC- ADR (NASDAQ:GWPH) has predicated its overall model on prescription CBD-based products. The company recently announced that two of its medicines, EPIDYOLEX (cannabidiol) oral solution and Sativex (nabiximols), have been recommended by the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to receive routine reimbursement from NHS England. According to its release, “This represents the first-time any plant-derived cannabis-based medicine has been recommended by NICE for use on the NHS. Cannabidiol oral solution is recommended as an adjunctive therapy for seizures associated with Lennox Gastaut syndrome (LGS) or Dravet syndrome, in conjunction with clobazam, for patients two years of age and older. Nabiximols, reviewed as part of NICE’s evaluation of cannabis-based medicinal products (CBMPs), has been considered cost effective for the treatment of spasticity due to multiple sclerosis.” GW Pharmaceuticals PLC- ADR (NASDAQ:GWPH) bills itself as a biopharmaceutical company that engages in discovering, developing, and commercializing cannabinoid prescription medicines using botanical extracts derived from the Cannabis plant. The company operates through three segments: Commercial, Sativex Research and Development, and Pipeline Research and Development. Its lead product is Epidiolex, an oral medicine which is in Phase III clinical development for the treatment of refractory childhood epilepsies, as well as for the treatment of Dravet syndrome, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, tuberous sclerosis complex, and infantile spasms. The company also develops and markets Sativex, an oromucosal spray for the treatment of spasticity due to multiple sclerosis. In addition, it develops various product candidates, which are in Phase I and II clinical development for the treatment of glioma, neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, adult epilepsy, and schizophrenia. Further, the company has license and development agreements with Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.; Almirall S.A.; Bayer HealthCare AG; Ipsen Biopharm Ltd; and Neopharm Group. It primarily operates in Europe, the United States, Canada, and Asia. GW Pharmaceuticals plc was founded in 1998 and is based in Cambridge, the United Kingdom. We started off by noting that GWPH recently hit the wires with the announcement Even in light of this news, GWPH has had a rough past week of trading action, with shares sinking something like -5% in that time. That said, chart support is nearby and we may be in the process of constructing a nice setup for some movement back the other way. Over the past month, shares of the stock have suffered from clear selling pressure, dropping by roughly -17%. GW Pharmaceuticals PLC- ADR (NASDAQ:GWPH) generated sales of $71.7M, according to information released in the company's most recent quarterly financial report. That adds up to a sequential quarter-over-quarter growth rate of 80.7% on the top line. In addition, the company has a strong balance sheet, with cash levels far exceeding current liabilities ($583.7M against $83.9M). HempAmericana Inc (OTCMKTS:HMPQ) is more speculative, but could also be more promising given where the company is in its development path, and how cheap shares appear to be at present levels, with the transition from development stage to commercial stage operations just now underway. The first point to make here is how the company’s recent catalysts line up – the company just announced a big inventory build of $500K-plus in top quality hemp-based CBD products. Following that, the company released its ecommerce site and started to accumulate a sales force. Now, we see a number of interesting marketing and distribution steps being taken, including its recent signing of an LOI to with Smart Decision, Inc. to participate in a cutting edge algorithmic product recommendation system. This is important because the company has a strong manufacturing process with premium high-capacity supercritical CO2 CBD Oil extraction technology and a next-generation cultivation methodology. Once the inventory of the company’s high-grade product is assembled, all the remains is the distribution phase to monetize. HempAmericana Inc (OTCMKTS:HMPQ) is an emerging leader in the CBD products market. The Company owns and operates a high-capacity, state-of-the-art CBD extraction and processing facility located in Augusta, Maine. This facility is armed with a supersized supercritical CO2 extraction system, centrifugal partition chromatography refinement technology, and a mechanized fully-automated CBD bottling system. The Company’s CBD oil business uses the brand designation, “Weed Got Oil”. HempAmericana also researches, develops, and sells products made of industrial hemp, including a popular brand of hemp rolling papers marketed under the brand name, “Rolling Thunders”. The company’s leadership is well-regarded, as noted by Adam Green, CEO of Smart Decision, in its most recent release: “We’re excited to have the opportunity to work with HempAmericana. Their operations and CBD manufacturing processes are both unique and truly impressive. Hemp Americana’s CEO, Sal Rosillo, is a visionary in both the Cannabis and CBD space. CBDSmartDecision.com will be the first company that has HempAmericana’s permission to recommend their product range on the affiliate level.” This is a highly speculative name because we haven’t seen big sales growth kick in yet. But, based on all appearances, that shift is underway now and we may be hearing a lot more for this stock soon. CV Sciences Inc (OTCMKTS:CVSI) is, in many ways, the pure play spiritual leader of the CBD space due to its breakout parabolic move in 2018, catching the attention of the major financial media and really kicking off the CBD stock craze. But oh how the times have changed. The company just announced a new distribution partnership with Southeastern Grocers, Inc. (SEG) with an initial launch at 115 Winn-Dixie stores in Florida and 37 BI-LO stores in South Carolina. PlusCBD™ Oil products are available at these stores as of November 3, 2019. According to the release, “CV Sciences’ new distribution partnership with SEG’s Winn-Dixie and BI-LO banners increases distribution and availability of a broad assortment of the Company’s best-selling PlusCBD™ Oil products, including ingestible dietary supplements. New distribution at select Winn-Dixie stores in Florida and BI-LO stores in South Carolina includes both topical products, such as PlusCBD™ Oil Extra Strength and Original Balm and PlusCBD™ Oil Roll-On, as well as PlusCBD™ Oil full spectrum hemp extract dietary supplements, including Gold Formula Softgels, Gold Formula Drops and Gummies, and Total Plant Complex Sprays.” CV Sciences Inc (OTCMKTS:CVSI) bills itself as a company that operates two distinct business segments: a drug development division focused on developing and commercializing novel therapeutics utilizing synthetic CBD; and, a consumer product division focused on manufacturing, marketing and selling plant-based CBD products to a range of market sectors. It operates through two segments, Specialty Pharmaceuticals and Consumer Products. The company focuses on developing and commercializing prescription drugs utilizing synthetic cannabidiol (CBD) as the active pharmaceutical ingredient. Its initial drug candidate is CVSI-007 that combines CBD and nicotine for the treatment of smokeless tobacco use and addiction. The company also engages in the development, manufacture, marketing, and sale of consumer products containing plant-based CBD under the PlusCBD Oil name in various market sectors, including nutraceutical, beauty care, specialty foods, and vape. The stock has suffered a bit of late, with shares of CVSI taking a hit in recent action, down about -20% over the past week. CV Sciences Inc (OTCMKTS:CVSI) generated sales of $12.6M, according to information released in the company's most recent quarterly financial report. That adds up to a sequential quarter-over-quarter growth rate of -25.2% on the top line. In addition, the company has a strong balance sheet, with cash levels far exceeding current liabilities ($14.2M against $12.1M). Read the full article

#CBDstocks #$HMPQ #CBD #CURLF #CVSI #GWPH

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republicstandard · 6 years

Text

Lower Learning: The Collapse of Higher Education

The fundamental divide of our time is hereditary nationalism versus globalism. The defining struggle is the nation-state and the right for all people to have self-determination versus the supra-national corporatocratic Leviathans. A plethora of dystopian and totalitarian futures are presently on the table, but so is the return to the nation-state with real, enforceable borders and a people united in purpose, spirit, and common ancestry.

Nationalism itself is exclusively the province of the Right —borders (for Western nations at least) now being anathema to the Left— and is calibrated along the civic nationalist-to-ethno-nationalist axis. Civic nationalism is a very enticing siren song, but it is a lethal illusion. Most non-Whites do not share the same values as Whites, and a truly “Proposition Nation” is doomed to fail. In the Western context, the Left has inadvertently tipped its hand by attempting to de-construct “Whiteness,” with the implicit acknowledgment that Western civilization and the White race are inextricable. This does not mean it is exclusive to Whites, as we have “fellow travelers” of soul and spirit, but it does mean that, to quote Sam Francis:

In so far as White Americans still care about their culture — the Constitution, religion, science, art, language, literature, aesthetics, social institutions, and morals — they must care about the race that created them and sustains them and without which they cannot exist. [The new racial rhetoric of publications like American Renaissance] does not, as far as I can recall, argue that race by itself is sufficient to create and sustain our civilization, but it does insist, clearly and unequivocally, that race is necessary.

The spread of “liberalism” has proven to be little more than the intentional knocking down of the foundational pillars of Western civilization, and the “dismantling of Whiteness” necessarily takes on an increasingly genocidal character in such an environment. Witness the consequences of the “championing of democracy” in South Africa and Rhodesia. Does it look like reconciliation and national harmony, or does it look like ethnic cleansing under the guise of redress of past wrongs? Returning to Francis:

A concerted and long-term attack against the civilization of White, European and North American man has been launched, and the attack is not confined to the political, social, and cultural institutions that characterize the civilization but extends also to the race that created the civilization and continues to carry and transmit it today. The war against White civilization sometimes (indeed often) invokes liberal ideals as its justification and as its goal, but the likely reality is that the victory of the racial revolution will end merely in the domination or destruction of the White race and its civilization by non-White peoples.

In a country that has been utterly fractured demographically, the only tie that binds is a shared hatred for Whites—and reinforcements arrive daily. Our immigration policy is geared specifically to demographically swamp the Whites that built this country, and it also serves another ideological purpose: Victor Davis Hanson points out that the bulk of the immigrants—legal and illegal—that arrive in America are low-skill and have low educational attainment, and when they fail to immediately achieve parity, the Democrats can start screeching about inequities and systemic racism. The academy has become both a forward operating base for anti-White indoctrination and genocidal rhetoric, as well as but one arm of the multi-billion-dollar “diversity” and grievance-mongering racket, which has burrowed itself like a tick into every corporation, every law firm, every federal department of something-or-other, and every university, engorged with self-righteousness and others’ capital, buttressed by a multiplicity of bloated “non-profits” and advocacy groups.

In today’s colleges and universities, things are worse than ever; the race-baiting of the Obama administration exacerbated an already strained campus environment:

During the Obama administration, the Education Department…received 1,073 complaints about racial harassment in higher education. Generally, the number of complaints a year is up, compared to prior years. Since 2010, the smallest number of complaints in a fiscal year is 137 (in 2010). In the five years prior to the Obama administration, the number of complaints never exceeded 95 and was generally smaller than that (in the 50s).

As college becomes a veritable “rite of passage” for today’s youth, it means a growing number will be forced to endure at least four years of relentless pro-Cultural Marxist indoctrination. There is a very good chance they have been marinated in it from an early age as well, given the state of the teaching profession and its unions. Once on campus, Steve Salerno gives us a disturbingly far-from-comprehensive overview:

New York’s Hunter College promotes coursework for poli-sci majors in “the abolition of Whiteness.” Stanford examines “abolishing Whiteness as a cultural identity.” Elsewhere, to cite just a few examples, classes at Grinnell and UW-Madison confront “the problem of Whiteness.” New Mexico’s St. John’s College takes on the “depravity” of Whiteness. Moreover, academic theorists crusade to purge Whiteness from STEM courses, because critical thinking and research are regarded as tools of “White hegemony.” Engineering students at Purdue must contend with the school’s indictment of “racist and colonialist projects in science,” while a UC-Irvine professor condemns even “technical prowess” as a White male construct. A Linfield college Gender Studies professor even condemns her peers for putting “stellar” colleagues in leadership roles, because stellar individuals, she notes, tend to be White and thus have benefited unfairly from “a logic of meritocracy that is built on this racist assumption that everyone has had the same access and opportunities.” UCLA pays students a stipend to act as professional social justice activists who will diagnose, expose, and combat “Whiteness” and “the patriarchy” in all campus manifestations.

So it’s not just anti-White, anti-Western Marxism, but misandry as well—selectively applied, of course. If their protected classes of various colored peoples “act out,” the behaviors will be explained away as reflecting some iniquity of the White Male Patriarchy. The University of Texas just launched “MasculinUT: Healthy Masculinities Project by Voices against Violence in the Counseling and Mental Health Center,” yet another program dedicated to the feminization and excoriation of all things “male.” The Left wants men to basically be sea-horses. It is gestation in this milieu that produces creatures such as recent New York Times hire Sarah Jeong. As Heather Mac Donald informs us:

There is a multi-million dollar diversity bureaucracy on most college campuses today that is dedicated to the very propositions that Sarah Jeong embodies—things like “Whiteness” is a source of all evil in the world, lethal to people of color; a contempt for objectivity and truth-seeking; a belief that all females exist in a state of oppression by “rape culture.” This diversity bureaucracy hits students with this ideology from the moment they step foot on campus, putting them in the throes of a very terrible delusion. American college students are the most privileged human beings in history, simply by virtue of their access to vast educational opportunities and yet college presidents on down tell them that they are the subject of ubiquitous racism on the college campus itself.

Regarding the uniform defense of Sarah Jeong’s anti-White tweets by the Left and the “Muh Principles” Conservatism, Inc. drones, Rod Dreher addresses the former group:

What’s awesome is how progressives are defending Harvard Law graduate Sarah Jeong’s racism because she’s “punching up.” A graduate of Harvard Law School. Punching up. My God, the left today is a demented, privileged joke.

Not only that, but Sarah Jeong’s race—Asians—are the highest-earning race in America, with a median household income over $16,000 greater than that of the Whites she’s “punching.” The Left defines racism as power plus privilege. Jeong is the walking embodiment of privilege and yet somehow her defenders on the Left have arrived at the conclusion that she is a champion of the oppressed. Universities such as UCONN with their “Social Justice Organizing” minor are becoming more blatant in their commitment to churning out a steady supply of “professional activists” and agitators. As Heather MacDonald explains:

[Universities] are hatred machines. There is a conveyor belt from the academy into the world-at-large into corporations, into the media…Sarah Jeong was treated with a big yawn by mainstream media and by liberal institutions because her ideology is banal. It is simply the state of the art right now, whether it’s the New York Times, CNN, or the Washington Post.

When the students hit the job market, they can expect to be advantaged or disadvantaged based on race just as in the college admissions process. The cost of compliance is prohibitive; in 1991, what amounts to a whopping 4% of GDP ($225 billion) was spent on enforcing and complying with the various procedures and regulations of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a number that grew to $347 billion by 2005 and $540 billion by 2008, to say nothing of the opportunity cost of being forced to hire an under-qualified candidate based solely on race or ethnicity. The US government offers a certain percentage of its contracts to companies that are minority-owned—with no consideration given to price or quality. Despite the fact that both the 1964 and 1991 Civil Rights Acts explicitly ban racial quotas, and the fact that Affirmative Action is unconstitutional, the practice not only continues, and has not only become even more entrenched, but it has expanded as well. The EEOC is but one arm of the vast federal Leviathan that lavishes minorities with entitlements, advantages, special legal protections, and various programs and benefits over and beyond what the average White American can expect to receive. The average negative budgetary impact of a single black individual over the course of their lifetime is $750,000! For Hispanics, it is $500,000, but for Whites, it is a positive $220,000. The average White will, in the course of their lifetime transfer close to $400,000 in taxes to a single black individual. As of 2012, 54% of all native Hispanic households and 55% of all native black households used some form of welfare, as opposed to 23.1% of Whites and 21.8% of Asians.

As presented in Edwin S. Rubenstein’s “Affirmative Action and the Costs of Diversity,” Harvard economist Richard Freeman noted that young black male and young White male college graduates had achieved income parity by the 1970s. Black college-educated females out-earn White college-educated females by 125% and they are also awarded more college degrees as a percentage of the population. Women, in general, earn 60% of Bachelor’s degrees, 60% of Master’s degrees, and 52% of PhDs. Single women under thirty out-earn the men in their peer group in 147 of the 150 largest cities in America, and female CEOs of all age groups out-earn their male counterparts. Yet we incessantly hear about “racism,” discrimination, and pay gaps. For once, the Left is right, but the only thing is they got their races and sexes mixed up.

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