Dear @SenJohnKennedy, @SenTedCruzand & other GOP Senators:
So you’re considering adopting this strategy: “Trump did it, but there was nothing wrong with it.”
You DO realize this strategy helps create an American Mafia state, right?
No? I'll explain.
Q: “What’s a Mafia state?
A criminal state in which the ruler basically owns the country (Term from Hungarian scholar Bálint Magyar)
So, you ask, how does this connect to Trump's defense?
Giuliani openly admits he was in Ukraine to dig up info to support the harebrained theories that the real election interference in 2016 came from Ukraine on behalf of the Democrats . . .
nytimes.com/2019/05/09/us/…
Heck it was widely reported at the time. nytimes.com/2019/05/09/us/…
Giuliani also explained why he was in Ukraine to support Trump’s harebrained theories.
He was just being a zealous advocate!
thehill.com/blogs/blog-bri…
“I was not operating on my own," Giuliani said. . .
After saying he worked with the State Department, he said he doesn’t care what Pompeo thinks of his job performance because, “I am the president’s lawyer.”
thehill.com/blogs/blog-bri…
Trump denied that he applied pressure—but he never denied that he asked Zelenskyy, or that he told Zelenskyy he was sending Giuliani to deal with these matters.
We’ve talk about Trump & Giuliani running a “shadow” foreign policy.
Hungarian scholar Bálint Magyar explains that we are “using the wrong language” to describe what Giuliani & Trump were doing.
What he can do, however, is destroy the institutions that traditionally conduct foreign policy.
newyorker.com/news/our-colum…
Mafia states—like Putin’s Russia—develop as the government takes over businesses.
The ruler consolidates power and wealth until the nation's wealth and power come to be concentrated in one person.
Eventually, the entire state comes under control of the head of the family and expands across the entire country.
In other words, the ruler ends up owning the country.
“Rule of Law” becomes “Rule of the Rulers.”
Trump has been open about his admiration for Putin, the head of a powerful mafia state.
nbcnews.com/think/opinion/…
Trump and Giuliani are operating as if Trump is—or owns—the United States.
Dear Republican Senators: Trump thinks this is just fine.
Do you?
washingtonpost.com/politics/growi…
Those halloween demons are still haunting my keyboard.
This is why impeachment and removal is appropriate when a president is beholden to a foreign power.
Being propped up financially by Putin isn't a crime: it is only dangerous when the President or other US officials do it.
Meanwhile, all my threads are blog posts. This one is here: terikanefield-blog.com/a-mafia-state/