An explosive article leads The Guardian:
A key figure at the Republican national convention where Donald Trump was nominated for president has strong business ties with Ukraine, the Guardian has learned.
The party platform, written at the convention in Cleveland last week, removed references to arming Ukraine in its fight against pro-Russia rebels, who have received material support from the Kremlin. Trump’s links to Russia are under scrutiny after a hack of Democratic national committee emails, allegedly by Russian agents.
The coordinator of the Washington diplomatic corps for the Republicans in Cleveland was Frank Mermoud, a former state department official involved in business ventures in Ukraine via Cub Energy, a Black Sea-focused oil and gas company of which he is a director. He is also on the board of the US Ukraine Business Council.
Mermoud has longstanding ties to Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, who in 2010 helped pro-Russia Viktor Yanukovych refashion his image and win a presidential election in Ukraine. Manafort was brought in earlier this year to oversee the convention operations and its staffing.
And what about those hidden tax returns of Trump’s?
Like Trump, his advisors have no understanding of the concept of “conflict of interest.”
I like the GOP platform plank attempting to arm Ukraine.
But, as a subplot for this campaign, it’s hard to top “GOP Nominee Goes on Defensive Over Ties to Russia.”
I thought the racist butler was the weirdest episode. This might be the topper.
It’s not a conspiracy, so much as it is a whole lot of flies hovering over the same pile of manure.
It’s as if there’s a red, white and blue tarp spread out, looking for all the world like a traditional, if somewhat tacky, patriotic display. It serves to obscure the pile of manure from sight (but not smell, of course).
The swarm of flies is a dead giveaway, as is the stench, to the reality of what is actually happening here. The question is why so many Americans seem to be oblivious to the obvious.
…Paul Manafort’s past employment with Viktor Yanukovych isn’t raised every time he is mentioned, quoted, or given airtime (like on Face the Nation, right now). Even my Republican parents find him skeevy as they come.
Might Trump’s unreleased tax returns indict the demagogue of unlawfully inciting disorder or worse yet; the crime of aid or comfort to the enemies of our country ?
His taxes may prove to be a clear violation of the Logan Act defining treason and sedition : ” Private correspondence with foreign governments. Any citizen of the United States, whoever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.”
Verrrrrrry interesting. No ?
Fred Rich LaRiccia