Meet Paul Manafort, Trump's -- and world dictators' -- global political technologist.

[ancianita]

Paul Manafort gives a whole different meaning to the phrase, "The Real Deal."

While we on DU navigate our way toward our party's nominee, this article reminds me that it behooves us to move our sights ahead -- or at least keep in our awareness -- toward how Trump is really going to become electable in the General Election sense of the word.

This guy has caused the GOP elites to fold. This guy runs/consults Trump's campaign.

So. Whoever is Trump's Democratic opponent will be up against a machine that keeps dictators in power worldwide.


Excerpts:

Strangely, the HUD scandal proved a marketing boon for the firm. An aide to Mobutu Sese Seko told the journalist Art Levine, “That only shows how important they are!” Indeed, Manafort enticed the African dictator to hire the firm. Many of the world’s dictators eventually became his clients. “Name a dictator and Black, Manafort will name the account,” Levine wrote. (Levine’s piece, published in Spy, featured a sidebar ranking the ethical behavior of Washington lobbyists: It found Black, Manafort the worst of the bunch.) The client list included Philippine strongman Ferdinand Marcos (with a $900,000 yearly contract) and the despots of the Dominican Republic, Nigeria, Kenya, Equatorial Guinea, and Somalia. When the Center for Public Integrity detailed the firm’s work, it titled the report “The Torturers’ Lobby.”

His lobbying helped convince Congress to send Savimbi hundreds of millions in covert aid. Indeed, every time Angola stood on the precipice of peace talks, Manafort, Black worked to generate a fresh round of arms—shipments that many experts believe extended the conflict. Sen. Bill Bradley was blunt in assigning blame. “When Gorbachev pulled the plug on Soviet aid to the Angolan government, we had absolutely no reason to persist in aiding Savimbi. But by then he had hired an effective Washington lobbying firm, which successfully obtained further funding.” Or as Art Levine concluded, “So the war lasted another two more years and claimed a few thousand more lives! So what? What counts to a Washington lobbyist is the ability to deliver a tangible victory and spruce up his client’s image.”

Hillary's David Brock runs fraternity boy politics compared to the political dictator/businessman world that Paul Manafort runs.

Manafort may have been around awhile, and while Salon can go for edgy reporting these days, there's something here. He appears as oligarchic ammunition that even a clever Priebus will defer to. Bill Clinton's talent bench could be tested and bested in facing him.

Polls still show that, to beat Trump, it may take the socialist Jew who draws everyone from the pope to disengaged youth to birds. Now, I'm hoping these polls will hold in the general.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/04/paul_manafort_isn_t_a_gop_retread_he_s_made_a_career_of_reinventing_tyrants.html


Here, Manafort is profiled on Trump's left, our right.

[pampango]

1. Great article. However, dictators are often the 'lesser of two evils' in the eyes of many liberals

as well as the eyes of Mr. Manafort.

The support for dictators (terrorists all of them) - predictable coming from the right with its "American First" mentality, more surprising from the left - is disgusting. Often we can't and shouldn't do anything about their existence but praise or support should never be offered.

[ancianita]

2. Agreed. It's one thing to do it abroad; to do it to the people of this country is horrid to

contemplate.

In the ocean of shallow media waves, this seems to show a real tide coming in. Trump will not be easy because of this man.

[femmocrat]

3. The Daily Show did a feature on Manafort and his ties to African dictators last night.

I tried to find a clip, but was unsuccessful.

That is an excellent article in your link, BTW!

[ancianita]

4. Thanks. This is important stuff for Sanders/Clinton know about who Trump turns to for his 'wins.'