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When the Mafia State Came to America [1]

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Date: 2024-07-28  

Expat journalist Masha Gessen once laughed when an interviewer referred to the Russian government. She explained that there is no real government in a mafia state. The things that can make money for someone in the oligarchy are very run. The things that don’t have profit potential don’t work at all.

That’s a pretty good explanation of Trumpworld, and by now the entire Republican Party. The criminality is virtually everywhere you look. No wonder. Mango Mussolini was born mobbed up. Fred Trump was tied to the Mafia. Donald’s only business success may be exchanging a vendor relationship with the Sicilian Mafia for a vendor relationship with the Bratva. He’s not a real estate mogul, he’s a money laundry.

Which explains why you can’t shake a tree near Trump without a Russian falling out, and it also explains why Trump is totally comfortable being surrounded by criminals of every description. So OF COURSE one of Trump’s campaign finance bundlers is tied to a massive scandal.

FirstEnergy was the company behind the largest political bailout and bribery scandal in Ohio history, which funneled $61 million in dark money bribes to Ohio lawmakers in order to pass a $1.3 billion nuclear and coal bailout at the expense of every Ohio family that pays utility bills. This week, Sludge reported that Donald Trump’s top known campaign money bundler advised FirstEnergy on its contributions to a dark money group that pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in Ohio’s House Bill 6 bailout scandal. FirstEnergy pleaded guilty in a deferred prosecution agreement. So did the aforementioned dark money group used to funnel the bribes, Generation Now. Former Republican Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder is serving 20 years in federal prison on racketeering charges, and former Ohio Republican Party chair and FirstEnergy lobbyist Matt Borges is serving five years for his role. One former Ohio lobbyist charged in the scandal died by suicide, as did Ohio’s former top utility regulator while he was under state and federal indictments. FirstEnergy admitted bribing him $4.3 million. Two other former FirstEnergy lobbyists cooperated and are awaiting sentencing. Two former FirstEnergy executives have been charged by the state of Ohio on charges alleging the spearheaded the bribery scheme. They’ve pleaded not guilty. Trump’s top money bundler is named Geoff Verhoff. As Sludge reported, Verhoff is a “senior adviser at public affairs firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, has bundled more than $3.6 million this year for Trump 47 Committee, according to a new filing with the Federal Election Commission.” Verhoff also pleaded the Fifth when called to testify at Householder’s trial last March on his role in FirstEnergy’s Ohio bribery scheme.

Back at the Masha Gessen interview, you may already be asking yourself the obvious follow up question. Why would the Russian people tolerate such a thing? Because Russia has never had a working government, Gessen said. Not under Putin, nor Yeltsin, nor the Communists, not even under the Tsars. The people don’t miss what they’ve never had.

In America we are accustomed to government which mostly works. That’s our advantage. We can insist on argument that works, because we know what it’s like. We know what we had. We know what we deserve.

Let’s go get it.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/7/28/2258916/-When-the-Mafia-State-Came-to-America?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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