Section: Salon (USA)
Trump’s Organized Crime Ties Bring Blackmail to the White House
Trump Tower in New York (Credit: AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File) The words were positively polite, at least for a man convicted of assault and racketeering. It was the implied target of his blackmail threat that was unusual: the president of the United States. The threat came from Felix Sater, a Russian-American businessman who partnered with...
Putin on the move: Russia is moving back into Ukraine, as the Trump administration does nothing
(Credit: AP Photo/Mykhailo Andriiv) Although President Donald Trump has not followed through on a reported plan that would have allowed Russia to shed its sanctions and win Ukrainian land through rigged elections, his administration’s unclear policies toward Russia have encouraged that nation to become more aggressive in its occupation of...
France’s elections are just the latest in Russia’s shadow war in a wary Europe
(Credit: AP Photo/Claude Paris, File) As the French prepare to vote Sunday in a presidential election marked by acrimonious debate about Russian influence in Europe, there’s little doubt about which candidate Moscow backs. Last month, the combative populist Marine Le Pen of the right-wing National Front flew to Moscow to meet with President...
There’s some irony here: The waters of Trump’s Washington are dark and deep
(Credit: AP) Years ago, I worked for a wealthy television executive in Washington, DC, who had a posh Georgetown townhouse with a courtyard. In the center of his courtyard was a small fountain, and he became obsessed with getting hold of a certain dye for it that the National Park Service used in fountains and pools at various historic sites...
Trump’s deep links to organized crime: Federal investigators know and the public is catching on
Donald Trump (Credit: AP/Kevin Hagen) As President Donald Trump discovers the prerogative of unilaterally making war, the media gaze has turned away from the ongoing FBI, House and Senate investigation of his Russia ties to the simpler dramas of cruise missiles, big bombs and tough but loose talk on North Korea. Yet even the “mother of all bombs”...
Paul Manafort is consulting a Chinese billionaire about U.S. infrastructure projects: report
Paul Manafort (Credit: Reuters/Carlo Allegri) Paul Manafort, who served as Donald Trump’s campaign manager during a crucial stretch of the 2016 presidential election, has had a very unflattering month. First it was revealed that Manafort is going to register as a foreign agent due to his past work for a pro-Vladimir Putin government in...
Making nukes mandatory: a lesson for dictators
Donald Trump; Kim Jong-un (Credit: Reuters/Lucas Jackson/Getty/KCNA/Salon) You know how far it is from Damascus to Pyongyang? It’s 4,600 miles. If they had air service between the two outlaw capitals, it would be about an eight-and-a-half-hour flight, about as long as it takes you to fly from Dallas to London. But the two cities may as well...
Smart cities can be vulnerable: That Dallas emergency siren hack is a warning of things to come
San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency light rail vehicle (Credit: AP/Alison Yin) By infrastructure-hacking standards, the overnight triggering of the Dallas storm-warning system on April 7 was relatively benign. Starting at about 20 minutes before midnight more than 150 sirens across the city of 1.3 million people blared periodically,...
If Marine Le Pen is France’s Donald Trump, then this dark horse with momentum could be their Bernie Sanders
(Credit: AP Photo/Bob Edme) Far right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen may proudly crow that she is “Made in France,” but it looks like a name mostly unknown outside of the country — France’s own answer to Bernie Sanders — is on the verge of pulling off a major political upset. Jean-Luc Mélenchon was found by a “Paris Match” survey to...
Paul Manafort’s exit strategy: Trump’s campaign chairman set up shell company to get loans from Trump-tied businesses
(Credit: AP Photo/Matt Rourke) In the aftermath of reports that Paul Manafort, the former campaign manager to President Donald Trump, received payments that can be traced back to an infamous Ukrainian “black ledger,” it also emerged on Wednesday that Manafort will register with the Department of Justice as a foreign agent. Manafort created a...