Putin, Trump, and the Pac-Man Ploy
Read Time:6 Minute, 26 Second
by Burr Deming
J. Edgar Hoover was still two decades away from admitting that organized crime even existed on a national scale.
Oh, sure, it was a problem, a local problem: a serious local problem, but a local problem nonetheless. The FBI was helpless to intervene. Local people were on their own. What was needed was local willpower.
…an aroused public opinion, which will act on a local level through local law enforcement authorities.
J. Edgar Hoover, January 1951
The FBI was largely devoted to tracking down stolen automobiles.
The Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago, along with the killing of a reporter, had mobilized public opinion across the country. And a New York lawyer, Thomas Dewey, was appointed by the Governor.
For twenty years, the underworld has preyed on our people, and robbed them, and then frightened them into silence. But now, the day of the fear of the gangster is coming to an end.
Thomas Dewey, 1935
He went after crime figures with a ferocity that surprised pretty much everyone, especially gangster Dutch Schultz.
The degree and immediacy of the personal danger experienced by Dewey have been largely unrecognized. But Schultz made it recognizable to Dewey and his family. Research by the History Channel documented one incident.
One day Mrs. Dewey got a call instructing her to come to the morgue and identify her husband’s body. It was a false alarm intended to intimidate the entire Dewey family.
Years later, Dewey’s son recalled his father’s reaction.
…thereafter as long as I can remember he always sat with his back to the wall, whatever restaurant or any other public place he was in.
Dutch Schultz famously went way past intimidation and targeted Dewey for actual assassination.
The prospective killing of a law enforcement figure by any criminal was considered a lethal danger to all criminals. Crime bosses liked being unrecognized by federal law enforcers. The federal government was a lot bigger than the national crime enterprise. Criminal life was easier if that huge sleeping dog stayed asleep. Let Hoover and his FBI keep chasing cars.
So other gangsters put an end to the assassination plot by putting an end to Dutch Schultz. He was killed in a bar in Newark, NJ.
But crime eventually went international. And it got big. Size and power brought another change:
Drug cartels began targeting opponents, assassinating police, political figures, journalists, and ordinary citizens who got in the way. Russian crime figures defied the entire government, eventually took it over, then used government agents to assassinate political figures, journalists, and ordinary citizens who got in the way.
It was a Pac‑Man crime. Get the investigators before investigators could get you. Even better, take over the government and use it to get them before they could get you.
When Gonzalo Curiel became head of US Narcotics Enforcement, he decided to go after the Felix Cartel. His parents had come from Mexico. That had been 30 years before he was born, but it still gave him an edge. He knew the language and customs.
The cartel went to the Pac‑Man strategy. They marked him for murder. For years, he dodged assassination squads, going in and out of hiding. He appeared suddenly at legal proceedings, then disappeared again, always just out of the cartel’s reach.
He was able to direct what became a huge joint operation between Mexico and the United States. He would not give up. He survived, but the cartel did not. When he and those he led were finished, the entire cartel leadership was dead or in prison for life. The lower levels scattered in panic.
This hero deserved much more than two grateful nations could give. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed him a county judge, and he later became a United States District Court judge.
Here is how Donald Trump described him:
So what happens is the judge who happens to be, we believe, Mexican…
Donald Trump, May 27, 2016
I’ve been treated very unfairly by this judge. Now, this judge is of Mexican heritage.
Donald Trump, June 3, 2016
Why, why did you refer to his ethnicity, Donald?
Well, because his heritage is Mexican.
Donald Trump, June 5, 2016
Heroes are not universally admired.
A more genteel form of Pac‑Man can be seen within the highest levels of the United States government today. More genteel in the sense that none of the principals have been murdered.
Investigators close in.
George Papadopoulos, Trump’s former campaign policy adviser, who is now cooperating with the special counsel…
Serena Marshall, ABC News
Robert Mueller’s team capture a major criminal target.
Former high-ranking Trump administration official, Michael Flynn, has pled guilty to lying to the FBI.
Serena Marshall, ABC News
President Trump targets an FBI figure.
According to CBS News, Comey was speaking with staff at the FBI’s LA offices when he learned of his ouster.
Tom Wait, CBS News
The Special Prosecutor exposes another member of the Trump team.
Rick Gates pleaded guilty to charges in the Special Counsel’s investigation.
Evan Perez, CNN
President Trump goes public.
Regardless of recommendation, I was going to fire Comey, knowing there was no good time to do it. And in fact when I decided to just do it I said to myself I said you know this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story.
President Trump, May 11, 2017
Robert Mueller targets the former head of the Trump campaign.
It’s possible that Russia actually sent and dispatched Paul Manafort to the Trump campaign
Jeremy B. Bash, MSNBC
President Trump targets the FBI.
McCabe was fired with just 26 hours to go.
Paula Reid, CBS This Morning
Details are included in court documents.
…or at least that once Paul Manafort attached himself to the Trump campaign the Russians said, “Okay, our agent is now on the inside.”
Jeremy B. Bash, MSNBC
President Trump attacks.
The entire thing has been a witch hunt.
President Donald Trump May 18, 2017
Mueller continues a quiet, penetrating investigation.
What’s right in front of our eyes the collusion is now established between the Trump campaign and the Russians.
Nicolle Wallace, MSNBC
While the President goes public.
And there is no collusion.
President Donald Trump May 18, 2017
The first jail time is imposed.
30 days in jail is what the judge just sentenced Alexander van der Zwaan.
Evan Perez, CNN
The President attacks the investigation, mocking the very idea that any Russians had anything to do with his campaign.
Are there any Russians here tonight? Any Russians?
President Trump, in West Virginia
The list grows of those that Robert Mueller is going after for lying about Russian contacts.
Kushner, Manafort, Gates, Stone, Papadopoulos, Don Junior, Flynn, Erik Prince, Paige.
Nick Confessore, New York Times, March 29, 2018
The Pac‑Man strategy: Devour them before they expose you.
With the feints and parries, the legal maneuvers, there is still a focus on the scheme Robert Mueller and his team of maybe-Untouchables-maybe-touchables are after.
If what seems to have happened is shown to be true …
I had a call with President Putin and congratulated him on the victory…
… a Russian criminal first took over his own government …
…his electoral victory…
…then, by proxy, took over the government of the most powerful country in the history of mankind.
I think probably we’ll be seeing President Putin in the not-too-distant future.
We may have witnessed the greatest Pac‑Man ploy since the beginning of the game.
Hat tip to our good friend at FairandUnbalanced.com
In case you missed this brilliant piece from Burr Deming: The Fading Humor of Presidential Pathos
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Thoughtful piece, and well researched. Thanks Mr. Deming, for this.
I don’t see his stupid wall happening anytime soon.
It could be argued Trumps doing fine…from Trumps perspective.
He’s still Prez and likely to remain so.
Much more of this and he’ll even get a wall built!