I’ve been watching that amoral Roger Stone damage American politics all my life. With his love of dirty tricks and hurting people, his prideful contempt for humanity and civility, ethics, dignity, honor, respect, empathy and then the self-worship and his own gluttony - he epitomizes the "Ugly American" as much as Trump does. Winning is all that mattered.
Future of humanity?
Stone's response, Who the fuk cares!? I got mine and fuk you and yours! Too much is never going to be enough for me and it doesn't matter how much carnage I leave in my wake.
He had a hell of run. Roger Stone was tough enough, bullying enough, that Democrats wilted time after time, time after time, and today in many ways our political mess is Roger Stone's legacy as much as anyone’s.
The Republican’s selective acceptance and their normalization of such criminality makes me more fearful for our short term future than ever before. I think Democrats in general simply have no conception of the 'war footing' going on in their god-fearing minds. But, I digress, here I wanted to share a selection of articles to introduce the uninitiated to why Roger Stone is a big deal.
Roger Stone found guilty on all 7 counts | ABC News
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Roger Stone’s New York intrigues
By Zach Williams November 15, 2019
The ‘malevolent Forrest Gump’ has never strayed far from his home state.
1960 – Fake news in school …
1972 – Nixon’s reelection campaign …
1980 – John Anderson campaign …
1999 – Trump’s aborted Reform Party campaign …
2000 – The Florida Recount …
2002 – Billionaire Tom Golisano gubernatorial run …
2004 – Al Sharpton campaign …
2007 – The New York state Senate …
2010 – The Kristin Davis for governor campaign …
2015 – Trump campaign …
Roger Stone guilty on all counts in federal trial of lying to Congress, witness tampering
By Spencer S. Hsu, Rachel Weiner and Matt Zapotosky November 15, 2019
A federal jury has convicted longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone of lying to Congress and tampering with a witness about his efforts to learn about the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks release of hacked Democratic emails in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
The panel of nine women and three men deliberated for less than two days before finding Stone, 67, guilty on all seven counts resulting from his September 2017 testimony to a House intelligence committee investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and the Kremlin’s efforts to damage Trump’s Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. …
Michael Caputo, a Stone friend, was kicked out of the courtroom for refusing to stand for the jury after the verdict and — when ordered to do so — turned his back to the panel. …
… Stone joins a long line of Trump advisers and confidants either convicted or who have pleaded guilty in connection with the special counsel probe, including former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, former Trump deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos. …
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Roger Stone: a master of the political dirty trick
Roger Stone: a master of the political dirty trick
Ed Pilkington in New York | January 26, 2019
Beginning with Richard Nixon in the early 1970s, the former adviser for Donald Trump has made a career of ruthless campaigning
… But for the man at the receiving end of the FBI swoop, the fireworks were entirely in keeping. Roger Stone, the political consultant indicted on seven counts on Friday in Mueller’s probe into Russia interference in the 2016 US election, is a connoisseur of political pyrotechnics.
The 66-year-old was one of the “ratfuckers” who engaged in dirty tricks on behalf of Richard Nixon in the early 1970s, when he was still a teenager. From there he carved out a career in the dark arts of ruthless campaigning, working for Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and latterly Donald Trump.
His attachment to Nixon is enduring, literally so in the form of the disgraced former president’s grinning face tattooed on his back. As Stone emerged from a Fort Lauderdale courthouse following his indictment later on Friday, he alluded to his hero by making the same “V for victory” pose that Nixon adopted in 1974 as he boarded Marine One for the last time.
An arch conspiracy theorist, Stone embraced “fake news” before the term existed. His blurring of the lines between real and make-believe goes so far that it is hard to tell where the real Roger Stone ends and the fictitious Roger Stone begins, replete with top hat and tails, chauffeur-driven Jaguars and martinis mixed to a recipe given to him by Nixon, who in turn inherited it, like the V-sign, from Winston Churchill. …
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Despicable History of Roger Stone
Michael Daly, January 26, 2019
After a half-century of dirty tricks, there’s finally the case of United States versus Roger Jason Stone, Jr.
The standard FBI booking form filled out after Roger Stone’s arrest included a notation of any “scars, marks, tattoos,” in his case a large portrait of a smiling Richard Nixon etched on his back.
The visage between 66-year-old Stone’s shoulder blades attests to his role nearly a half-century ago as a junior participant in the dirty tricks that eventually led to the Watergate scandal and Nixon’s resignation. …
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Column: After a lifetime of dirty tricks, Roger Stone finally takes a fall
By Virginia Heffernan, January 25, 2019
On Friday around noon, Roger Stone preened in vain for a crowd in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
President Trump’s close friend and advisor, freshly sprung from shackles on a $250,000 bond, had been indicted in the special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Trump’s Russia ties.
Stone tried to hide his panic with bravado, a boy whistling in the dark. But his shtick seemed moth-eaten and creepy. He struck the moribund Nixon two-V-hands victory/corruption pose. He smiled nervously. He broke out an old chestnut: “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about!”
Sure, bud. He sounded like private-sector cons Elizabeth Holmes (of Theranos) and Billy McFarland (of the Fyre Festival), who are sunny and delusional even as they’ve been revealed as stone-cold frauds.
“Lock him up!” chanted the crowd.
America, it seems, has had more than enough of Roger Stone.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Roger Stone and ‘Ratf—ing’: A Short History
By BEN ZIMMER January 25, 2019
The flamboyant political aide is often tagged with the term. But its origins—and Stone’s relationship with the word—are complicated.
… “Dirty trickster” is one thing. But Stone, who says he will plead not guilty to the charges against him, hasn’t been so eager to embrace another, more profane Nixon-era label with which he’s often tagged: “ratfucker,” or a political operator who engages in roguish behind-the-scenes behavior to undermine rivals. He’s inexorably linked to the term, even if he doesn’t like it. “Stone’s specialty is being a ‘ratfucker,’” wrote Will Greenberg of Mother Jones in 2017. Abigail Tracy of Vanity Fair called him a “professional ratfucker” last year—a description echoed by the Law & Crime website after Friday’s indictment. …
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Roger Stone’s Dirty Tricks Put Him Where He’s Always Wanted to Be: Center Stage
… “I have always said, the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about,” Mr. Stone said, announcing that he would plead not guilty and accusing the F.B.I. SWAT team that burst into his house of terrorizing his wife and two Yorkies. …
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Roger Stone arrest: Even Richard Nixon's foundation seems embarrassed by association with arrested Trump adviser
- Adam Lusher | January 26, 2019
Foundation for disgraced 37th US president feels compelled to stress that arrested ‘dirty trickster’ was only a very junior scheduler during ‘Tricky Dicky's’ 1972 re-election campaign
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Roger Stone’s ‘Time in the Barrel’: Campaign Dirty Tricks, Political Sabotage and the Law
By Bob Bauer, November 28, 2018
… Roger Stone is pleased to be known as a campaign “dirty trickster.” A former Trump campaign aide and Republican operative, he has embraced his past as practitioner of the political dark arts. “One man’s dirty tricks,” he has said, are “another man’s political, civic action.
He has warned that “Politics ain’t bean bag, and losers don’t legislate.” Going still further, he has articulated as one of his “rules” for success that “To win you must do everything.” Yet he has also insisted that, “Everything I do, everything I’ve ever done has been legal.”
This claim is now likely to be put to the test. News reports increasingly suggest that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is circling around Roger Stone and his associates in the Russia matter and that the legality of his “dirty tricks” is very much in question.
Stone’s argument that ”it’s all just politics” is close in kind to the First Amendment protection defenses that the Trump campaign has claimed it enjoys even if, as alleged, it had contacts with Russia and WikiLeaks. Like those defenses, Stone’s claims will be evaluated in the light of the still emerging but increasingly troubling facts of the campaign and its associates’ active connivance with the Russian cyber attack on the Democratic Party and the Clinton campaign.
As the Watergate prosecutions showed, dirty tricks pursued to sabotage an opposing campaign are very much a legal issue. They are not easily passed off as good old-fashioned hardball politics, the kind that “ain’t beanbag”—especially when, as in this case, the fellow tricksters are a foreign government and its agents.
Stone and one of his associates, Jerome Corsi, appear to have conducted communications with WikiLeaks and the “Guccifer 2.0” cutout, and Stone had contact with at least one Russian national offering dirt on Hillary Clinton. Most famously, Stone predicted in August of 2016 that something momentous involving Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta—his “time in the barrel”—was about to break, two months before Wikileaks distributed hacked emails of Podesta’s.
Now Corsi has provided to the press what appears to be a draft plea agreement and statement of offense produced by Mueller’s office and awaiting Corsi’s signature, which provide new detail about the extent of alleged collaboration between Corsi, Stone, and Wikileaks. The statement of offense reveals an email Stone sent to Corsi in July 2016 …
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Dirty Trickster
Campaign tips from the man who has done it all, Roger Stone.
By Jeffrey Toobin | May 23, 2008
Roger Stone has worked with Richard Nixon and Lee Atwater, and on the Florida recount.
… For nearly forty years, Stone has hovered around Republican and national politics, both near the center and at the periphery. At times, mostly during the Reagan years, he was a political consultant and lobbyist who, in conventional terms, was highly successful, working for such politicians as Bob Dole and Tom Kean. Even then, though, Stone regularly crossed the line between respectability and ignominy, and he has become better known for leading a colorful personal life than for landing big-time clients.
Still, it is no coincidence that Stone materialized in the midst of the Spitzer scandal—and that he had memorable cameos in the last two Presidential elections. While the Republican Party usually claims Ronald Reagan as its inspiration, Stone represents the less discussed but still vigorous legacy of Richard Nixon, whose politics reflected a curious admixture of anti-Communism, social moderation, and tactical thuggery. Stone believes that Nixonian hardball, more than sunny Reaganism, is John McCain’s only hope for the Presidency.
Over the years, Stone’s relationships with colleagues and clients have been so combustible that his value as a messenger has been compromised. Stone worked for Donald Trump as an occasional lobbyist and as an adviser when Trump considered running for President in 2000. “Roger is a stone-cold loser,” Trump told me. “He always tries taking credit for things he never did.” Like Nixon, Stone is also a great hater—of, among others, the Clintons, Karl Rove, and Spitzer. So what happened at Miami Velvet one night last September, he said, amounted to a gift. …
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Rise And Gall of Roger Stone
By Stephanie Mansfield | June 16, 1986
… Still, even those who say the Whiz Kid has everything -- money, access, political connections and the skills to put his man in the White House in 1989 -- agree that his abrasive style will do him damage over the long term.
"You can't play it like that for a long time without making an awful lot of enemies," says Stone's old friend David Keene, George Bush's former political director and now an adviser to Sen. Robert Dole. "After a while, you have built up a whole community of people who don't wish you well. And if they don't wish you well, you've got a problem.” …
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
UNSEALED FBI DOCUMENTS DETAIL ROGER STONE’S WATERGATE-ERA DIRTY TRICKS
By Drew Millard, September 08, 2018
The indispensable non-profit organization Property of the People has obtained FBI long-sealed documents fully explaining the role that longtime right-wing saboteur Roger Stone played in Richard Nixon’s 1972 re-election campaign (aka the one with all the Watergate stuff).
Given that Stone, a longtime Donald Trump associate who serves as an unofficial advisor to the President, is currently facing scrutiny for his potential role helping a bucketload of Hillary Clinton campaign emails wind up on Wikileaks, this seems, uh, relevant. …
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FBI Documents on Roger Stone Reveal Sabotage, Espionage, and the Life of a Serial Bagman
Longtime Trump associate Roger Stone took to social media last week appealing for donations to his legal defense, announcing he expects special counsel Robert Mueller will soon charge him with a federal crime. Time will tell whether Stone is sincere or if this too is just another one of his laundry list of publicity stunts.
However, FBI documents obtained by Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) researcher Emma Best and shared with Property of the People illustrate Stone has a long history of finding himself entangled in FBI investigations into election meddling, political sabotage, and espionage.
Today, Property of the People is making these 10 previously unreported FBI documents available to the public. …
The FBI restricted access to Stone’s file for decades, even denying a request for the file from Sen. Bob Dole, for whom Stone worked after his time with Nixon. When the documents were finally released in redacted form, they were buried amid 17,000 other pages of records on Watergate. …
According to the documents, in one of his earliest acts for Nixon’s Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP), Stone travelled to Massachusetts with a duffle bag containing a jarful of cash intended to fund acts of political sabotage. …
The FBI documents include a list “highlights” of acts of political sabotage in which Stone was either directly involved or served as the handler for the relevant operative. …
Among other highlights, the FBI documents establish that Stone:
- Committed and directed acts of political sabotage
- Was investigated for possible “violations of election laws”
- Made a cash donation to the Democrats while posing as part of the Young Socialist Alliance
- Acted as bagman for a mysterious $16,050 payment two weeks after the Watergate break-in
- Ran a political spy operation until a month after the Watergate break-in, with operatives infiltrating Democrat campaigns
- Answered a phone call from a Watergate burglar at his handler’s house
- Stone’s handler and source of funds also paid a Watergate burglar
- Had a handler in contact with at least two of the Watergate burglars
- Planted information in the newspaper to divide the Democrats
- Played “political pranks” aimed at “disrupting the election campaigns of political opponents” for CREEP
- Was a bagman for operations “infiltrating the campaigns of the Democrats”
- Came to the attention of the Watergate Special Prosecution Force, the FBI Director, and Members of Congress
- Had a file restricted enough that a Senator employing Stone was denied access
- Described political espionage and sabotage as a routine “way of life” for political campaigns – a sentiment Trump would later share
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How Roger Stone Connects Donald Trump to Richard Nixon
By Lily Rothman, Jan 25, 2019
When Roger Stone was arrested on Friday morning on charges connected to Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, the news came in the wake of long speculation. Reports emerged months ago that Stone’s finances and associates were the subject of investigation by the Special Counsel’s team. In May of last year, he even solicited funds for his legal defense.
But the story of how Roger Stone got to this point takes place over decades, not months.
Stone’s history with Trump is a long one, and his Trump boosterism was in keeping with a political career going back nearly half a century. …
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
UNSEALED FBI DOCUMENTS DETAIL ROGER STONE’S WATERGATE-ERA DIRTY TRICKS
By Drew Millard, September 08, 2018
The indispensable non-profit organization Property of the People has obtained FBI long-sealed documents fully explaining the role that longtime right-wing saboteur Roger Stone played in Richard Nixon’s 1972 re-election campaign (aka the one with all the Watergate stuff). Given that Stone, a longtime Donald Trump associate who serves as an unofficial advisor to the President, is currently facing scrutiny for his potential role helping a bucketload of Hillary Clinton campaign emails wind up on Wikileaks, this seems, uh, relevant. …
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FBI Documents on Roger Stone Reveal Sabotage, Espionage, and the Life of a Serial Bagman
Longtime Trump associate Roger Stone took to social media last week appealing for donations to his legal defense, announcing he expects special counsel Robert Mueller will soon charge him with a federal crime. Time will tell whether Stone is sincere or if this too is just another one of his laundry list of publicity stunts. However, FBI documents obtained by Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) researcher Emma Best and shared with Property of the People illustrate Stone has a long history of finding himself entangled in FBI investigations into election meddling, political sabotage, and espionage.
Today, Property of the People is making these 10 previously unreported FBI documents available to the public. …
The FBI restricted access to Stone’s file for decades, even denying a request for the file from Sen. Bob Dole, for whom Stone worked after his time with Nixon. When the documents were finally released in redacted form, they were buried amid 17,000 other pages of records on Watergate. …
According to the documents, in one of his earliest acts for Nixon’s Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP), Stone travelled to Massachusetts with a duffle bag containing a jarful of cash intended to fund acts of political sabotage. …
The FBI documents include a list “highlights” of acts of political sabotage in which Stone was either directly involved or served as the handler for the relevant operative. …
Among other highlights, the FBI documents establish that Stone:
- Committed and directed acts of political sabotage
- Was investigated for possible “violations of election laws”
- Made a cash donation to the Democrats while posing as part of the Young Socialist Alliance
- Acted as bagman for a mysterious $16,050 payment two weeks after the Watergate break-in
- Ran a political spy operation until a month after the Watergate break-in, with operatives infiltrating Democrat campaigns
- Answered a phone call from a Watergate burglar at his handler’s house
- Stone’s handler and source of funds also paid a Watergate burglar
- Had a handler in contact with at least two of the Watergate burglars
- Planted information in the newspaper to divide the Democrats
- Played “political pranks” aimed at “disrupting the election campaigns of political opponents” for CREEP
- Was a bagman for operations “infiltrating the campaigns of the Democrats”
- Came to the attention of the Watergate Special Prosecution Force, the FBI Director, and Members of Congress
- Had a file restricted enough that a Senator employing Stone was denied access
- Described political espionage and sabotage as a routine “way of life” for political campaigns – a sentiment Trump would later share
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No comments:
Post a Comment