In my political fantasy life (no resemblance to persons living or dead), I like to play with the idea of deep conspiracies wondering, “What if?” from different directions, a variation of umpteeump dimensional chess. I don’t believe any of it but just like to consider the possibilities.
What if Ivana Zelníčková Trmp was the original Russian/Soviet/espionage honeypot?
What if the Trmp’s are actually “The Americans,” deep cover sleeper agents like the ones in that show?
What if Ivanka and her siblings are the second generation of the operation? (Hello, Jared.)
That’s one thread.
What if Fred Kch, father of the Kch Bros, who made his first millions with Stalin back in the 1930s, cooked up a long-term Fifth Column operation from the Right at some desk in the Kremlin back in those bad old days?
What if the Jhn Brch Socity was funded to destabilize American democracy (such as it is) as much as the Communist Party USA, a Rightwing/Leftwing combination?
Fact of the matter is, with the 2016 Rpblcn Party, the “Eisenhower is a Commie” and “Impeach Earl Warren” Jhn Brch Socity of the 1950s won. It is the Rpblcn Party today, with a healthy helping of Christianist Dominionism added, all those preaching theocrats who are happy to ignore President Trmp’s public behavior. This religious strain (take that any way you want) hearkens back and forward to Sinclair Lewis' It Can’t Happen Here and Robert Heinlein’s Revolt in 2100 as well as Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale.
And that’s a whole nother group of conspiracies to play. Lotsa conspiracies and dystopias to go around.
Here’s another:
The Trmp organization has a $950 million deal with the state-owned Bank of China, brokered by Goldman Sachs, another possible violation of the Constitution's emolument clause.
What about the Chinese influence on Trmp? I haven’t seen that mentioned nearly as often as the Russian trail.
Wendy Dng, Rupert Mrdch’s former wife, and Ivanka Trmp are old friends. Wendy Dng has been linked to Vladimir Putin, somewhat romantically, if you can imagine such people ever to be romantic. What if there’s a Chinese/Russian/American/global kleptocrat conspiracy? I mean, besides all the other financialized economic and social violence the kleptocrats already conspire around.
And then there’s the Mob, which David Cay Johnston and Wayne Barrett report has always had a special relationship with the Trmp family. What if the Mob is running the whole thing, up to and including the Russian connection?
I don’t know enough to speculate on the Tongs, Triads, and the Chinese government but I do know the Japanese Yakuza firmly line up with the Rightwing in that country and that the Abe government is trying to change the post-WWII Constitution to build an offensive military force. In fact, I consider the American Trmp phenomenon in line with a global rise in nationalist authoritarianism that I first noticed with Órban and Hungary, scapegoating Romany people, and persistently hollowing out democratic institutions wherever possible (hat tip to Paul Krugman who would pass on reports by a Princeton colleague a few years ago). Another example is Duterte in the Philippines who has added his own twist of the garrote and the situation in Brazil with President Temer (“fear” in Spanish but Brazilians speak Portuguese) bears more than a passing resemblance to what’s happening with the Federal government in the USA. And there’s a whole history of possible USA subversion, back and forth, with Turkey and Erdoğan for at least the last decade. I wonder if Sibel Edmonds is working on that.
Who knows if any of these speculations approach anything that actually happened? I certainly don’t, as I disavow any and all direct knowledge of these people and events. However, I’ve known two confirmed spies in my life. One was an Italian-American CIA man who did advance work for many of the coups in Latin America from WWII on under the cover of working with the AFL-CIO and the other was a Czech who worked for both the Czechs and the Russians before defecting from his country and was teaching at Boston University when I met him. The distinguishing characteristic for both gentlemen was that they were utterly charming. Since meeting them, I’ve always been suspicious of utterly charming people.
Not to say that any of the individuals, bearing no relation to any real persons living or dead, mentioned above are utterly charming or spies. I haven’t met any of those names in the news, to my recollection.
This is my political fantasy life. It’s something I do instead of chewing gum.