Dave Emory’s entire lifetime of work is available on a flash drive that can be obtained HERE [1]. The new drive is a 32-gigabyte drive that is current as of the programs and articles posted by early winter of 2016. The new drive (available for a tax-deductible contribution of $65.00 or more.) (The previous flash drive was current through the end of May of 2012.)
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This broadcast was recorded in one, 60-minute segment [5].
[6]Introduction: In the aftermath of the ascension of Donald Trump to the Presidency, we are doing something unprecedented in the long history of For The Record. Earlier in 2016, award-winning journalist David Cay Johnston published a very well-written and researched, yet relatively short and compact biography of Donald Trump–The Making of Donald Trump [7] (Melville House [HC]; copyright 2016 by David Cay Johnston; ISBN 978–1‑61219–632‑9.)
For some weeks, we have been–and will be–reading most of the book into the record, to provide people with a measure against which to evaluate not just “The Donald,” as his first wife Ivana called him, but our society, its institutions and its citizens. We can’t recommend strongly enough that listeners buy this book, read it and use whatever means available to spread the word about it. (We note that neither Mr. Emory nor any of the stations that air this program get money from this book, its publisher or author.)
This second installment of the series commences with a review the substance of an article that embodies the enormous and fundamental flaw in our political and civic process: a poll shortly before the election found that most of the prospective voters polled felt that Trump was more honest and trustworthy [8] than Hillary Clinton. As our reading of Johnston’s excellent book unfolds, the grotesque, spectacularly fallacious character of this perception will become uncomfortably clear. “Donald Trump [9] is currently tracking as the more honest of the two presidential candidates in a poll, although fact-checking of his statements during the campaign have shown he’s lied several times. The latest ABC News/Washington Post tracking poll reports [10] that 46 percent of likely voters believe he is the more honest and trustworthy candidate, while 38 percent believed it was Hillary Clinton [11]. This marks the biggest gap between the two candidates in five ABC News/Washington Post polls that asked the question, beginning in May.”
In the first excerpt read into the record in this broadcast, we finish a chapter in which David Cay Johnston relates the genesis of Trump’s relationship with Senator Joe McCarthy’s right-hand man Roy Cohn. Having been sued by the Justice Department because of his discrimination against people of color when renting apartments in his properties, Trump turned to Cohn. It was the beginning of a long relationship between the long-time red-baiter and organized crime apologist and “The Donald.” Trump and Cohn lost the case. Note Trump’s placing of loyalty above all else, a prioritization that Johnston correctly characterizes in the italicize excerpt that follows: ” . . . Elyse Goldweber, the novice Justice Department lawyer, told the court that one employee who spoke to investigators was not being named because ‘he was afraid that the Trumps would have him ‘knocked off,’ or words to that effect’ for revealing the techniques used to deny blacks and other minorities. . . . In The Art of the Deal, Trump said he told Cohn, ‘I’d rather fight than fold, because a soon as you fold once you get the reputation’ of someone who settles case. But faced with a case in which neither facts nor the law were on his side, Trump folded and settled. . . .Trump handled the adverse settlement the way he had leaned from his father: by spinning the news and offering a simple and quotable narrative . . . Trump’s takeaway from this early loss was not that times had changed and civil rights laws would be enforced. . . . He also learned to place loyalty above all else. . . . That is, of course, the kind of perspective we expect from mobsters, dictators, and others whose primary regard is for unflinching support, not for allegiance to truth or facts. . . .” (The Making of Donald Trump; pp. 37–39.)
As noted in the program, on the day this was recorded, Trump University settled [12] in a massive lawsuit by students who had been defrauded by the “school.” Trump played it in the fashion he learned from his father and that he applied in the housing discrimination suit, highlighted above: “. . . In The Art of the Deal, Trump said he told Cohn, ‘I’d rather fight than fold, because a soon as you fold once you get the reputation’ of someone who settles case. But faced with a case in which neither facts nor the law were on his side, Trump folded and settled. . . .Trump handled the adverse settlement the way he had leaned from his father: by spinning the news and offering a simple and quotable narrative . . . .” (The Making of Donald Trump; p. 38.)
Johnston notes at the end of chapter 5 that Trump learned that having Cohn as his attorney also had other benefits: ” . . . . Hiring him [Cohn] could ensure that his Manhattan construction projects moved smoothly. Among Cohn’s other clients were two of America’s most powerful Mafia figures who controlled key unions attached to demolition and construction in New York City.. . . In The Art of the Deal, Trump boasts that when he applied for a casino owner’s license in 1981, he persuaded the New Jersey attorney general to limit the investigation of his background. It was perhaps the most lucrative negotiation of Trump’s life, one that would embarrass state officials a decade later when Trump’s involvement with mobsters, mob associates, and swindlers became clear. . . . ” (The Making of Donald Trump; p9. 39–41.)
Against the background of Cohn’s mob connections, Johnston sets forth Trump’s utilization of those assets to realize his New York City real estate undertakings. Remarkably, such associations did not interdict Trump’s Atlantic City [New Jersey] gaming projects, which normally would have been precluded by such links. (The Making of Donald Trump; pp. 42–49.)
Exemplifying Trump’s organized crime associates and the services they provided–courtesy of Roy Cohn–were Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno and Paul Castellano. ” . . . Trump bought his Manhattan ready-mix [concrete] from a company called S & A Concrete. Mafia chieftains Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno and Paul Castellano secretly owned the firm. S & A charged the inflated prices that the LeFrak and Resnik families complained about, LeFrak to both laws enforcement and The New York Times. As [reporter Wayne] Barrett noted, by choosing to build with ready-mix concrete rather than other materials, Trump put himself ‘at the mercy of a legion of concrete racketeers.’ But having an ally in Roy Cohn mitigated Trump’s concerns. With Cohn as his fixer, Trump had no worries that the Mafia bosses would have the unions stop work on Trump Tower; Salerno and Castellano were Cohn’s clients. Indeed, when the cement workers struck in summer 1982, the concrete continued to flow at Trump Tower. . . . Just as revealing was Trump’s association with John Cody, the corrupt head of Teamsters Local 282. Cody, under indictment when he ordered the citywide strike in 1982, directed that concrete deliveries continue to Trump Tower. Cody told Barrett, ‘Donald liked to deal with me through Roy Cohn. . . . ” (The Making of Donald Trump; pp.46–47.)
The excerpts read from Johnston’s remarkable tome conclude with examination of Trump’s relationship with Joey Weichselbaum, a convicted drug trafficker whose relationship with Trump is highly unusual and opaque, even by “The Donald’s” standards. “Among the assorted criminals with whom Trump did business over more than three decades, his most mysterious dealings involved a drug trafficker named Joseph Weichselbaum. Trump did unusual favors for the three-time felon, repeatedly putting his lucrative casino license at risk to help a major cocaine and marijuana trafficker for reasons that remain unfathomable. . . .” (The Making of Donald Trump; p. 59.)
Whereas Trump had many other places to turn to for the various aeronautical, automotive and supplemental services Weichelsbaum and his brother provided, Trump continued to use them and provided them and their associates with remarkable “perks.” (The Making of Donald Trump; pp. 59–65.)
With Trump poised to name a number of Supreme Court justices, we note that the venue of one of Weichelsbaum’s cases was changed in a highly suspicious, revealing and inauspicious manner. ” . . . When Weichelsbaum made a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to one of the eighteen counts in the Cincinnati case, something very suspicious happened. His case was transferred out of Ohio for the guilty plea and the sentencing. Logically, the case might have gone to South Florida, where Bradford Motors [one of the Weichselbaum drug-trafficking fronts] was located, or to New York, where Weichselbaum lived. Indeed, that is exactly what Weichselbaum’s Ohio lawyer, Arnold Morelli, sought in a January 30, 1986 motion requesting his case be transferred to either Manhattan or Miami for ‘the convenience of human beings such as the defendant and witnesses.’ Instead the Weichelsbaum case was moved to New Jersey. There it was assigned to Judge Maryanne Trump Barry–Donald Trump’s older sister.
Judge Barry recused herself three weeks later, as judicial ethics required, but the mere act of removing herself from the case came with a powerful message: a sitting federal judge, as well as her husband (lawyer John Barry) and family, repeatedly flew in helicopters connected to a major drug trafficker. . . .When Judge Harold A. Ackerman replaced Trump’s sister, Trump wrote him a letter seeking leniency for Weichselbaum on the drug trafficking charge. Trump characterize the defendant as ‘a credit to the community’ and described Weichselbaum as ‘conscientious, forthright and diligent’ in his dealings with the Trump Plaza and Trump’s Castle casinos. When asked about the letter under oath in a private 1990 meeting with New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement lawyers, Trump testified that he could not recall whether ‘he had written any letters of reference to the federal judge who sentenced Weichselbaum.’ Subsequently, the division obtained such a letter, and Trump acknowledged that it bore his signature. . . .” (The Making of Donald Trump; pp. 63–64.)
This program concludes with the reading of a poem by Robinson Jeffers, “Be Angry at the Sun,” which encompasses Mr. Emory’s feelings about the recent election, as well as the people and institutions that have precipitated this event–one that figures to be devastating in its manifestations.
Program Highlights Include:
- Rudy Giuliani ‘s prosecution of a case involving some of the mob-run unions associated with Trump’s enterprises. Giuliani is a close adviser to Trump and may be named to a cabinet post. (The Making of Donald Trump; p. 46.)
- Another key Trump adviser during the campaign was Michael Chertoff. He, too, was a prosecutor who directed a case against mobsters involved with Trump’s operations. (The Making of Donald Trump; p. 48.)
1. This second installment of the series commences with a review the substance of an article that embodies the enormous and fundamental flaw in our political and civic process: a poll shortly before the election found that most of the prospective voters polled felt that Trump was more honest and trustworthy [8] than Hillary Clinton. As our reading of Johnston’s excellent book unfolds, the grotesque, spectacularly fallacious character of this perception will become uncomfortably clear. “Donald Trump [9] is currently tracking as the more honest of the two presidential candidates in a poll, although fact-checking of his statements during the campaign have shown he’s lied several times. The latest ABC News/Washington Post tracking poll reports [10] that 46 percent of likely voters believe he is the more honest and trustworthy candidate, while 38 percent believed it was Hillary Clinton [11]. This marks the biggest gap between the two candidates in five ABC News/Washington Post polls that asked the question, beginning in May.”
2. In the first excerpt read into the record in this broadcast, we finish a chapter in which David Cay Johnston relates the genesis of Trump’s relationship with Senator Joe McCarthy’s right-hand man Roy Cohn. Having been sued by the Justice Department because of his discrimination against people of color when renting apartments in his properties, Trump turned to Cohn. It was the beginning of a long relationship between the long-time red-baiter and organized crime apologist and “The Donald.” Trump and Cohn lost the case. ” . . . Elyse Goldweber, the novice Justice Department lawyer, told the court that one employee who spoke to investigators was not being named because ‘he was afraid that the Trumps would have him ‘knocked off,’ or words to that effect’ for revealing the techniques used to deny blacks and other minorities. . . . In The Art of the Deal, Trump said he told Cohn, ‘I’d rather fight than fold, because a soon as you fold once you get the reputation’ of someone who settles case. But faced with a case in which neither facts nor the law were on his side, Trump folded and settled. . . .Trump handled the adverse settlement the way he had leaned from his father: by spinning the news and offering a simple and quotable narrative . . . Trump’s takeaway from this early loss was not that times had changed and civil rights laws would be enforced. . . . He also learned to place loyalty above all else. . . . That is, of course, the kind of perspective we expect from mobsters, dictators, and others whose primary regard is for unflinching support, not for allegiance to truth or facts. . . .” (The Making of Donald Trump; pp. 37–39.)
3. As noted in the program, on the day this was recorded, Trump University settled [12] in a massive lawsuit by students who had been defrauded by the “school.” Trump played it in the fashion he learned from his father and that he applied in the housing discrimination suit, highlighted above: “. . . In The Art of the Deal, Trump said he told Cohn, ‘I’d rather fight than fold, because a soon as you fold once you get the reputation’ of someone who settles case. But faced with a case in which neither facts nor the law were on his side, Trump folded and settled. . . .Trump handled the adverse settlement the way he had leaned from his father: by spinning the news and offering a simple and quotable narrative . . . .” (The Making of Donald Trump; p. 38.)
4. Johnston notes at the end of chapter 5 that Trump learned that having Cohn as his attorney also had other benefits: ” . . . . Hiring him [Cohn] could ensure that his Manhattan construction projects moved smoothly. Among Cohn’s other clients were two of America’s most powerful Mafia figures who controlled key unions attached to demolition and construction in New York City.” (The Making of Donald Trump; p. 39.)
5. Against the background of Cohn’s mob connections, Johnston sets forth Trump’s utilization of those assets to realize his New York City real estate undertakings. Remarkably, such associations did not interdict Trump’s Atlantic City [New Jersey] gaming projects, which normally would have been precluded by such links. (The Making of Donald Trump; pp. 41–49.)
6. About Trump, his business projects and the Mob: ” . . . In The Art of the Deal, Trump boasts that when he applied for a casino owner’s license in 1981, he persuaded the New Jersey attorney general to limit the investigation of his background. It was perhaps the most lucrative negotiation of Trump’s life, one that would embarrass state officials a decade later when Trump’s involvement with mobsters, mob associates, and swindlers became clear. . . .” (The Making of Donald Trump; p. 41.)
7. Exemplifying Trump’s organized crime associates and the services they provided–courtesy of Roy Cohn–were Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno and Paul Castellano. ” . . . Trump bought his Manhattan ready-mix [concrete] from a company called S & A Concrete. Mafia chieftains Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno and Paul Castellano secretly owned the firm. S & A charged the inflated prices that the LeFrak and Resnik families complained about, LeFrak to both laws enforcement and The New York Times.
As [reporter Wayne] Barrett noted, by choosing to build with ready-mix concrete rather than other materials, Trump put himself ‘at the mercy of a legion of concrete racketeers.’ But having an ally in Roy Cohn mitigated Trump’s concerns. With Cohn as his fixer, Trump had no worries that the Mafia bosses would have the unions stop work on Trump Tower; Salerno and Castellano were Cohn’s clients. Indeed, when the cement workers struck in summer 1982, the concrete continued to flow at Trump Tower. . . .
. . . Just as revealing was Trump’s association with John Cody, the corrupt head of Teamsters Local 282. Cody, under indictment when he ordered the citywide strike in 1982, directed that concrete deliveries continue to Trump Tower. Cody told Barrett, ‘Donald liked to deal with me through Roy Cohn. . . . ” (The Making of Donald Trump; pp.46–47.)
8. The excerpts read from Johnston’s remarkable tome conclude with examination of Trump’s relationship with Joey Weichselbaum, a convicted drug trafficker whose relationship with Trump is highly unusual and opaque, even by “The Donald’s” standards. “Among the assorted criminals with whom Trump did business over more than three decades, his most mysterious dealings involved a drug trafficker named Joseph Weichselbaum. Trump did unusual favors for the three-time felon, repeatedly putting his lucrative casino license at risk to help a major cocaine and marijuana trafficker for reasons that remain unfathomable. . . .” (The Making of Donald Trump; p. 59.)
9. Whereas Trump had many other places to turn to for the various aeronautical, automotive and supplemental services Weichelsbaum and his brother provided, Trump continued to use them and provided them and their associates with remarkable “perks.” (The Making of Donald Trump; pp. 59–65.)
10. With Trump poised to name a number of Supreme Court justices, we note that the venue of one of Weichelsbaum’s cases was changed in a highly suspicious, revealing and inauspicious manner. ” . . . When Weichelsbaum made a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to one of the eighteen counts in the Cincinnati case, something very suspicious happened. His case was transferred out of Ohio for the guilty plea and the sentencing. Logically, the case might have gone to South Florida, where Bradford Motors [one of the Weichselbaum drug-trafficking fronts] was located, or to New York, where Weichselbaum lived. Indeed, that is exactly what Weichselbaum’s Ohio lawyer, Arnold Morelli, sought in a January 30, 1986 motion requesting his case be transferred to either Manhattan or Miami for ‘the convenience of human beings such as the defendant and witnesses.’ Instead the Weichelsbaum case was moved to New Jersey. There it was assigned to Judge Maryanne Trump Barry–Donald Trump’s older sister.
Judge Barry recused herself three weeks later, as judicial ethics required, but the mere act of removing herself from the case came with a powerful message: a sitting federal judge, as well as her husband (lawyer John Barry) and family, repeatedly flew in helicopters connected to a major drug trafficker. . . .When Judge Harold A. Ackerman replaced Trump’s sister, Trump wrote him a letter seeking leniency for Weichselbaum on the drug trafficking charge. Trump characterize the defendant as ‘a credit to the community’ and described Weichselbaum as ‘conscientious, forthright and diligent’ in his dealings with the Trump Plaza and Trump’s Castle casinos. When asked about the letter under oath in a private 1990 meeting with New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement lawyers, Trump testified that he could not recall whether ‘he had written any letters of reference to the federal judge who sentenced Weichselbaum.’ Subsequently, the division obtained such a letter, and Trump acknowledged that it bore his signature. . . .” (The Making of Donald Trump; pp. 63–64.)
11. This program concludes with the reading of a poem by Robinson Jeffers, “Be Angry at the Sun,” which encompasses Mr. Emory’s feelings about the recent election, as well as the people and institutions that have precipitated this event–one that figures to be devastating in its manifestations.
“Be Angry at the Sun” by Robinson Jeffers
That public men publish falsehoods
Is nothing new. That America must accept
Like the historical republics corruption and empire
Has been known for years.Be angry at the sun for setting
If these things anger you. Watch the wheel slope and turn,
They are all bound on the wheel, these people, those warriors.
This republic, Europe, Asia.Observe them gesticulating,
Observe them going down. The gang serves lies, the passionate
Man plays his part; the cold passion for truth
Hunts in no pack.You are not Catullus, you know,
To lampoon these crude sketches of Caesar. You are far
From Dante’s feet, but even farther from his dirty
Political hatreds.Let boys want pleasure, and men
Struggle for power, and women perhaps for fame,
And the servile to serve a Leader and the dupes to be duped.
Yours is not theirs.