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Roy Cohn: US Political Nexus
In the 1980‘s Ron Lauder (1), Rupert Murdoch (2), and Donald Trump (3) shared the same mob-connected lawyer, Roy Cohn. As a matter of fact Roy Cohn even introduced Roger Stone to Trump in 1979 (3).

Stone appeared on East 68th Street to find Cohn, just awakened, in his robe, sitting with one of his clients, Mob boss “Fat Tony” Salerno, of the Genovese crime family. “In front of [Roy] was a slab of cream cheese and three burnt slices of bacon,” Stone remembered. “He ate the cream cheese with his pointing finger. He listened to my pitch and said, ‘You need to see Donald Trump. I will get you in, but then you are on your own.’ ”

Shortly after, Stone founded Black Manafort & Stone with Paul Manafort and Charlie Black and took on Donald Trump as their first client (3). Stone later introduced Trump to Manafort in 1988 at the Republican National Committee (4).

Enter Russia
In 1986, Russia’s ambassador to the US, Yuri Dubinin, and Donald Trump dined at a luncheon hosted by the Lauders. The following year Dubinin invited Trump to what would become Trump’s first of many trips to Russia. There Trump toured possible locations for a potential Trump Tower in Moscow (1). By 1989 the Lauders made their own ventures into Russia, opening up their first Estee Lauder boutique in Moscow, just blocks from the Red Square (2).
That same year Ron Lauder joined forces with Arthur Finkelstein and Roger Ailes to run for New York mayor against Rudy Giuliani. When Lauder lost the primary to Giuliani, Ailes jumped shipped and joined Giuliani’s team. Ultimately, however, Giuliani lost the election (3), though he'd go on to attain the mayorship in 1993.

The Fall of Boris Berezovsky and Rise of Roman Abramovich
Mob-connected Boris Berezovsky benefitted handsomely from the Soviet Union’s march away from communism, becoming one of Russia’s first billionaires through his car dealership company, Logovaz, founded in 1989 (1). In 1995 the Russian presidency, helmed by Boris Yeltsin, was at risk of falling back into the hands of the Communists, so Yeltsin sought assistance from those who benefited most from his policies.

[Yelstin] was desperately in need of funds, and turned to men such as [Roman] Abramovich and Berezovsky, whom he invited to participate in the so-called "loans for shares" scheme in return for financial backing. (2)

For Berezovsky and his protege, Abramovich, that was with Sibneft, which they acquired in 1995. In exchanged for being brought into the loans for shares program, Abramovich was forced to pay Berezovsky $1 billion across 6 years for “kryshna”, or mafia protection (3).
In January 1996, during the Davos World Economic Forum, Berezovsky returned the favor and formed the Davos Pact with other newly minted Russia oligarchs, including Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven of Alfabank, to bankroll Yeltsin's campaign (4). In the end, though legally capped at $3 million, estimates range that Yeltsin’s campaign spent between $100-$500 million (5). They also brought in many America politicos to assist as well, including George Gorton, Richard Dresner, Joe Shumate (6), and Roger Stone-protege Michael Caputo (7).
Soon after Yeltsin’s victory, Ron Lauder traveled to Moscow to celebrate the opening of another boutique on Red Square. A lavish party was thrown in Lauder’s honor, even attended by Yeltsin himself. And the oligarch who threw the party - Boris Berezovsky (1). At some point Berezovsky would also team up with Rupert Murdoch to form Logovaz News Corporation that invested in Russia media, including Nashe Radio (8).
During Putin’s ascension toward power he found critics in a number of oligarchs that previously supported Yeltsin, including Berezovsky, who criticized Putin’s lean toward authoritarianism. In 2000 Putin succeeded Yeltsin and by the end of the year Berezovsky sought political asylum in London. In 2013 he died a mysterious death (4). Abramovich, however, stayed loyal to Putin and on February 17, 2000 made a deal with Russian oligarch and head of RusAl, Oleg Deripaska, to end the aluminum wars and turn Abramovich from merely rich to a full blown oligarch himself (9).

Ron Lauder
In 1995 Ron Lauder pushed Bibi Netanyahu to hire past political operative Arthur Finkelstein for Netanyahu’s first run for Prime Minister of Israel (1). Finkelstein also did work for the Trump Organization (2) and, according to Glenn Simpson’s congressional testimony, worked with Roger Stone and Paul Manafort in Ukraine (3).

...Finkelstein worked with Stone and Manafort in Ukraine in or around 2005, 2006, for the same cast of bad guys.

Finkelstein's longtime business associate and adviser to Netanyahu, George Birnbaum, would later reach out to Paul Manafort's deputy, Rick Gates, when Gates joined Trump's campaign, and presented a plan for a campaign of social media manipulation run by Israeli intelligence officers through Psy-Group, owned by Joel Zamel (25). Later Erik Prince would arrange for Joel Zamel to meet with George Nader and Don Jr. to discuss Zamel's proposal. Nader ultimately paid $2 million dollars for the work (26).
Ron Lauder and Netanyahu would become close and in 1998, Lauder, Netanyahu, and George Nader joined forces in ultimately failed negotiations between Israel and Syria (4). In the 2000's, after spending a year a Prague prison for pedophilia, Nader moved to the UAE and quickly rebuilt his political connections, becoming trusted emissary to the crown princes of both Saudi Arabia (MBS) and the UAE (MBZ). Soon after, Erik Prince of Blackwater hired Nader as a "business development consultant" from March 2004 - Nov 2008 (33) to acquire security contracts with Iraq (30). In 2010, as Blackwater struggled under scandal, Prince moved to the UAE himself and founded another private security firm, r2, directly financed my MBZ. R2 was tasked with securing a number of Middle East power plants yet to be built (31).
In Dec 2016 after a secret meeting with MBZ at Trump Tower that included Steve Bannon, Jared Kushner, and Michael Flynn (which was at the center of the unmasking controversy), Prince discussed with Nader and MBZ a back-channel to Russia. At the time Nader was promoting a plan to destabilize Iran using private security contractors (26). A month later Nader and MBZ introduced Prince to the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund in Seychelles (32), a meeting currently under investigation by the FBI special counsel. Nader is cooperating with Mueller.
In 2000, Allen Roth, Lauder’s longtime aide who helped in his 1989 mayoral run, founded One Jerusalem and later its offshoot, Secure America Now. Ron Lauder and Robert Mercer are top donors to Secure America Now and Devon Gaffney Cross, on the board of One Jerusalem (6), is sister to Michael Flynn associate Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy (7). One Jerusalem is currently under investigation for a corruption scheme involving a Netanyahu aide (5).
In an email to George Nader, Elliott Broidy claims Secure America Now was one of the companies he worked with (8). In 2003, Elliott Broidy bribed the New York State pension into investing in a private equity firm he founded to invest in Israel (9). In 2005 Broidy started a private security contractor business, Circinus, that recently acquired a $200 million contract with the UAE (28), arranged by George Nader a(29). Broidy is currently the subject of a criminal probe in Ukraine for working with a US sanctioned Russian bank, VTB, in 2014 (27).
In 1997 Ron Lauder teamed up with a Vadim Rabinovich on a media venture into Ukraine (10).

American Government officials acknowledged that embassy officials had told Mr. Lauder and other company officials about Mr. Rabinovich's conviction and his links to Grigory Loutchansky, a Russian whose company, Nordex, is suspected of having ties to criminal organizations.

In 2003 the Lauder Institute teamed up with Russia Oligarch Michael Fridman and German Khan’s Alfabank to form the “Excellence in Foreign Investement in Russia” award, with Leonard Lauder and Richard Burt on the board (11). Richard Burt, working for Diligence, had previously worked as a lobbyist for Oleg Deripaska, Deripaska’s RusAl, and Gazprom, and was once implicated in a scam to steal information from an Alfabank competitor (12)(13). Diligence also happens to be owned by Deripaska's London-based business partner, Nathanial Rothschild (23). Burt, along with Paul Manfort and George Papadopoulos, edited Trump’s first speech on foreign policy, where Trump promised Russia a great deal (14).
In 2004 Ron Lauder sold shares of Channel-9 and Channel-10 to Russian Oligarch Lev Leviev, a close associate of Roman Abramovich (19). Lev Leviev would later do business with Jared Kushner (22). In 2013 Lauder negotiated selling a major stake in Channel-10 to Len Blavatnik (18), a Russia oligarch currently under investigation by Mueller (20). And here is Lauder hanging out with Roman Abramovich in 2018 (21).
In November 2014 Ron Lauder met with Alfa-bank founders Mikhail Fridman and German Khan in London (15). German Khan’s son-in-law pled guilty for lying to Mueller about his work with Paul Manafort.
On March 31st, Papdopoulos told Trump he can “arrange a meeting between Trump and Putin” (16). On April 19 2016, Ron Lauder personally met with Putin (17).
More recently, in October 2018 Trump dispatched Ron Lauder to met with the president of Palenstine behind Jared Kushner's back to reinstate peace talks (24).

Lauder had proposed running a back channel between the PA leader and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but the initiative ultimately fizzled.

Rupert Murdoch and wife Wendi Deng
In the 90‘s Murdoch ventured into Russia media with mob-linked Boris Berezovsky of Logovaz. The two formed a joint venture, Logovaz News Corp, that invested in a number of Russian media properties, including Nashe Radio (1). Then in 2002 Murdoch entered into the Russian billboard industry (2):

By all accounts, the unexpected break for Murdoch in the Russian ad market came in 2002 after the assassination of Vladimir Kanevsky, then the billboard king of Moscow. In February of that year, at an intersection near the Kremlin, a man in a black ski cap walked up to Kanevsky's car and pumped five rounds into his head and chest.

Murdoch's Russia ventures have been investigated for bribery. This was all in the background when, in 1999, Rupert Murdoch married Wendi Deng whom he and the FBI suspect of being a spy (3).

Since their divorce, Murdoch has been telling anybody who would listen that Wendi is a Chinese spy--and had been throughout the marriage.

In 2006, when Jared Kushner bought the Observer, Murdoch became his close mentor (4).

When Jared Kushner took over the New York Observer in mid-2006 (around the time he met Ivanka Trump, whom he would marry in 2009) he turned to Murdoch for counsel.
Jared and Ivanka were known to double-date with Murdoch and his ex-wife Wendi Deng, and even after Murdoch’s split with Deng, the two women and the two men remained close.

Kushner then directed the Observer erase such stories, and more (4).

The erasures first occurred under the leadership of then-editor-in-chief Elizabeth Spiers, who told The Post she was unaware of the erasure but said Kushner previously requested over the phone she couch stories about media mogul Rupert Murdoch, his mentor.

In 2007 Wendi Deng, introduced Ivanka Trump to the wife of Roman Abramovich, Dasha Zhukova (5). In 2010, Jared Kushner's brother, Joshua, invested in a joint venture founded by Zhukova and Deng, Arsty.net (6). Then in 2014 Zhukova invited Deng, Ivanka, and Kushner to Moscow where they partied with Abramovich, Viktor Vekselberg, Len Blavatnik, and Alfa-bank execs, including the son-in-law of Sergei Lavrov (7).
A week before inauguartion Ivanka Trump hosted a secret dinner at the home of Wendi Deng where she collected advice from a series of powerful business women (8). The two then hung out during Trump's inauguaration (9).
In 2010, Israel granted oil rights in Syria to Rupert Murdoch and Lord Jacob Rothschild, both of Genie Energy (10). Jacob also sits on the international advisory board to Blackstone Group (13), who's founder, Steve Schwarzman, sat on the board of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (14). Jacob's brother, Nathaniel, is also business partners with Oleg Deripaska, and owns Diligence, which employed Richard Burt to lobby on behalf of Deripska, RusAl, and Gazprom (11).
Richard Burt was John McCains top policy adviser in 2000 and an adviser to McCain during McCain's 2008 run for the presidency. Nathanial, Burt's employer, ended up hosting a dinner for John McCain that gained much criticism at the time (11):

...one conservative watchdog group in the US went after McCain half a year ago for facilitating a fundraiser at the home of Nat Rothschild, the Deripaska associate at the center of the Osborne-Mandelson row. Foreign donations, even "in-kind" contributions such as assistance raising money, are prohibited under American election law.

In 2018 Ron Lauder awarded the entire Rothschild family the Herzl Award (12).

Rudy Giuliani
From 1977-1981 Giuliani worked at law firm Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler. One of the partners was Richard Nixon's son-in-law, Ed Cox (22). Ed Cox would later introduce Carter Page to the Trump campaign in Dec 2015 (23).
In 1993 Rudy Giuliani attained the mayorship of New York with the help of Sam Kislin, a major donor with links to the Russian mafia, whom Giuliani later appointed to the New York City Mayor's Council of Economic Advisors (18)(19)(21). Sam Kislin ran an electronics store with Tamir Sapir. Tamir Sapir's Sapir Organization later teamed up with the Trump Organization and Felix Sater's Bayrock Group for Trump SoHo in 2006 (20).
During Giuliani's 1993 campaign, he developed a close bond with Bernard Kerik, a police detective for the NYPD who once helped arrange security for the Saudi royal family and assisted Giuliani through his campaign. When airplanes struck the World Tower in 2001, it was Kerik standing by Giuliani’s side (1).
During the 90‘s, however, Kerik developed mob-ties, details which spilled out in 2004 nomination process to become head of Homeland Security. One of those ties, whom the mob hired on Kerik’s request, was Lawrence Ray (2). In 2009 Kerik pled guilty to corruption, tax evasion, and making false statements.
In 1996 Ray was indicted for a pump-and-dump stock scheme run by several New York crime families, including the Gambinos, and the Russian mob, including none other than Felix Sater (3) who later arranged for Ivanka Trump to sit in Putin’s chair in Moscow and worked with the Trump Organization on the fraud-laden Trump SoHo project (5).
Interstate Industrial was also tied to former Gambino captain, Dominic Borghese (13). Another member of the Gambino crime family, Julius Nasso, ran his own mob-linked concrete company that worked jointly with S&A on Trump Tower . S&A was part owned by Roy Cohn's other client, "Fat Tony" of the Genovese crime family (12).
Julius Nasso's nephew of the same name partnered with Paul Manaofort to found Manhattan Pictures and produced Steven Seagal film. Ultimately Nasso spent a year in prison for extorting Steven Seagal (14) business partner in Manhattan Pictures, but not before the two made shadowy dealings with a company that sold Russian nuclear tech to US companies (15).
Also in 1996, just months after Yeltsin’s victory, Rupert Murdoch debuted Fox News Channel and appointed Roger Ailes founding CEO. Immediately Fox News Channel enlisted New York mayor Rudy Giuliani to pressure Time Warner to transmit Fox News (6). Giuliani also developed a close relationship with Donald Trump during his mayorship, including appearing with Trump in a comedy video in 2000 (7) and borrowing Trump’s private plane for a trip to Israel in 2001 (8).
In August 2001 Kerik traveled to Israel and for the first time met Israeli billionaire Eitan Wertheimer, who ran a company that did business with US defense contractors (16). The following December Giuliani borrowed Trump's plane to visit Israel himself (17). In 2002 Giuliani founded Giuliani Partners with Bernard Kerik and in 2003, while Kerik traveled to Iraq as part of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, he met up with Wertheimer again and received a "loan" a failed to document it (16).
In 2004 Giuliani Partners obtained Triglobal as a client. Triglobal, a company that connects Western businesses to the former Soviet Union, quickly shuttled Giuliani to Moscow to meet with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, amongst other prominent politicians and business men of Russia (9).
In February 2013 Giulani met with Emin Agalarov, who’s publicist arranged the Trump Tower meeting with Russian agent Natalia Veselnitskaya (10). Over the years Giulani’s clients have included Alfabank, Rosneft, and Ukrainian politician Vitali Klitschko, all connected to Triglobal (11).

CELEBRATING the 50th ANNIVERSARY OF LET IT BLEED AND ALTAMONT

Would you have avoided calling in this river ?

Part 2: A Timeline of Epstein, Trump, Sex Trafficking, and the Intelligence Community

I don't think John DeCamp gets everything right, especially his claims about satanic groups, but in 1988 we learn about the Franklin Coverup, which Wikipedia describes as:

"The Franklin child prostitution ring allegations began in June 1988 in Omaha, Nebraska and attracted significant public and political interest until late 1990, when separate state and federal grand juries concluded that the allegations were unfounded and the ring was a "carefully crafted hoax."[1][2].

From the NYT:
(12/18/88) A Lurid, Mysterious Scandal Begins Taking Shape in Omaha

In the Executive Board's public session Monday, Mr. Chambers said the activities of Lawrence E. King Jr., the credit union's manager for the last 18 years and the central figure in its collapse, were ''just the tip of an iceberg, and he's not in it by himself.'' But Mr. Chambers added nothing that would shed light on his cryptic assertion....Mr. King is a 44-year-old Omaha resident who wholly or partly owns several small businesses here and lives with his wife and school-age son in a large house in one of the city's better neighborhoods. He is a tall, expansive figure well known for his costly style of dressing, lavish celebrations and extensive travel, sometimes in chartered jets and often with an entourage of young men.In 1972 he headed a national political organization, Black Democrats for George McGovern. But he gained greater prominence after he had switched parties a while later, serving for a time as vice chairman of the National Black Republican Council, an official affiliate of the Republican Party, and becoming a familiar figure on the Republican social scene.Mr. King has maintained a $5,000-a-month residence off Embassy Row in Washington and has also entertained generously at Republican National Conventions. At the 1984 gathering, in Dallas, where he sang the national anthem on the convention floor, he rented the ranch where the television series ''Dallas'' is filmed and organized a party there for black Republicans....Mr. King's trouble with the authorities came to the surface early last month when officials of the Government's National Credit Union Administration, acting on information from the F.B.I. and the Internal Revenue Service, arrived at the offices of the Franklin Community Federal Credit Union and shut it down. Then, on Nov. 14, the agency, which oversees the nation's federally chartered credit unions and insures their deposits, filed the Government suit against Mr. King, whose salary as Franklin Community's manager had been less than $17,000 a year.

(1989) Washington Call Boy Scandal

Craig J. Spence (1941 – November 10, 1989) was a Republican) lobbyist who was found dead in a Ritz-Carlton hotel room in 1989.[1][2] ...Spence was implicated in a gay call-boy ring scandal, that arranged after-hours visits to the White House, the Washington Times and other papers reported in June 1989. Afterward, Spence committed suicide in a Boston hotel....Spence's name came to national prominence in the aftermath of a June 28, 1989 article in the Washington Timesidentifying Spence as a customer of a homosexual escort service being investigated by the Secret Service, the District of Columbia Police and the United States Attorney's Office for suspected credit card fraud. The newspaper said he spent as much as $20,000 a month on the service. He had also been linked to a White House guard who has said he accepted an expensive watch from Mr. Spence and allowed him and friends to take late-night White House tours.[4]Spence entered a downward spiral in the wake of the Washington Times exposé, increasingly involving himself with call boys and crack,[5] and culminating in his July 31, 1989 arrest at the Barbizon Hotel on East 63rd St in Manhattan for criminal possession of a firearm and criminal possession of cocaine.[6]Months after the scandal had died down, and a few weeks before Spence was found in a room of the Boston Ritz-Carlton Hotel, he was asked who had given him the "key" to the White House. Michael Hedges and Jerry Seper of The Washington Times reported that "Mr. Spence hinted the tours were arranged by 'top level' persons", including Donald Gregg, national security adviser to Vice President George H. W. Bush at the time the tours were given.[5]When pressed to identify who it was who got him inside the White House, Spence asked "Who was it who got [long-term CIA operative] Félix Rodríguez) in to see Bush?", agreeing that he was alluding to Mr. Gregg.[5]Gregg himself dismissed the allegation as "absolute bull", according to Hedges and Seper. "It disturbs me that he can reach a slimy hand out of the sewer to grab me by the ankle like this," he told the reporters. "The allegations are totally false."[5]

I'll let you decide how credible you find any of this so far. It should be noted that many of the people implicated in these affairs -- Wilson, Singlaub, Moon, Casey, Rodriguez, Bush, Stone, and Gregg -- were also involved to varying degrees in the Iran Contra Affair, which illegally raised money for anti-communist terrorists in Central America through the use of death squads, rape, and drug sales. One does not necessarily equal the other, but sexual blackmail and human trafficking don't seem like much of a stretch.
An article by The Guardian notes:
Czechoslovakia ramped up spying on Trump in late 1980s, seeking US intel:

In summer 1987, Donald and Ivana Trump visited Moscow and Leningrad, following a personal invitation from the Soviet ambassador in Washington, Yuri Dubinin. The trip was arranged by Intourist, a travel agency that was also an undercover KGB outfit. Soon after returning from Moscow, Trump announced he was thinking of running for president. That presidential bid failed to materialise.In October 1988, on the eve of the US election, Ivana Trump visited her parents in Zlín, known at the time as Gottwaldov. According to the files she “confidently” predicted Bush’s victory to her father, who in turn passed the tip to local StB officers.“The outcome of the election confirmed the veracity of this information,” StB field agent Lt Peter Surý wrote, in a document dated 23 January 1989 and marked “secret”.The prediction came “from the highest echelons of power in the US”. Ivana was “not only a well-heeled US citizen” but moved in “very top political circles”, Surý stated....It is unclear when the KGB began a file on the future president. In Prague a bout 60,000 StB documents were declassified in the mid-1990s, after the collapse of communism. The StB destroyed most records.However, secret memos written by the KGB chief, Vladimir Kryuchkov, in the mid-1980s reveal that he berated his officers for their failure to cultivate top-level Americans. Kryuchkov circulated a confidential personality questionnaire to KGB heads of station abroad, setting out the qualities wanted from a potential asset.According to instructions leaked to British intelligence by the KGB defector Oleg Gordievsky, they included corruption, vanity, narcissism, marital infidelity and poor analytical skills. The KGB should focus on personalities who were upwardly mobile in business and politics, especially Americans, the document said.

Another article in the Chicago Tribune notes:
Czechoslovakia secret police file: Trump sure of presidential win — in 1996:

A year before the 1989 collapse of communism in many parts of Europe, details about Ivana Trump's 1988 visit back to her homeland were recorded in a classified police report. The Oct. 22, 1988 report claimed that Trump refused to run for president in 1988 — despite alleged pressure to do so — because he felt, at 42, he was too young. But the secret report said he intended to run in the 1996 U.S. presidential race as an independent, when he would be 50."Even though it looks like a utopia, D. TRUMP is confident he will succeed," the police report said, based on information from an unspecified source who talked to Ivana Trump's father, Milos Zelnicek, about her visit.It was unclear where the alleged "pressure" was coming from. [Note: In "Get Me Roger Stone", Stone claims he was the one who convinced Trump to run.]...Trump's first wife was born Ivana Zelnickova in 1949 in the Czechoslovak city of Gottwaldov, the former city of Zlin that just had been renamed by the Communists, who took over the country in 1948. She married Trump, her second husband, in 1977. As she kept traveling home across the Iron Curtain on a regular basis, Ivana became a tempting target for the powerful, deeply feared Czechoslovak secret police agency known as the StB.

And by at least 1989, Trump himself was in the social circle of both Iran Contra figures and the father of Epstein's alleged "madame", Ghislaine Maxwell:
(This is from a previous post I made, seen here. Some of the links are subscription only, but are provided for accuracy)
NY Daily News - May 5, 1989:

“Everybody, but everybody at the party aboard British media mogul Robert Maxwell’s yacht Wednesday night had to doff their shoes before boarding the plush-carpeted “Lady Ghislaine.” Maxwell insisted, and his guests cooperated, including Donald Trump (minus Ivana), who has a much bigger yacht and was happy to compare notes with Maxwell. [Note: This is in reference to the Kingdom 5KR, originally owned by Adnan Khashoggi, international arms dealer and uncle of slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi.] There were John Tower [Republican Senator in charge of the Tower Commission, which investigated Iran Contra]; ex-Navy secretary John Lehman [Reagan appointee 1981-1987], now with Paine Webber; lawyer Tom Bolan [law partner of Roy Cohn]; literary agent Mort Janklow [clients include both Nancy and Ronald Reagan for their memoirs]; UN envoy Thomas Pickering [currently a board member at the world’s biggest pipe company, OAO TMK, in Moscow and Chairman of the Rostropovich-Vishnevskaya Foundation, “a non-profit organization based in Washington, DC that supports programs to improve the health of children worldwide”]; and Peter Kalikow, owner of the New York Post [awarded the Israel Peace Medal in 1982; created a super PAC for Herman Cain that was later revealed to be entirely financed by his donations]; Maxwell’s daughter, Ghislaine, and his niece, Helene Atkin of Macmillan, the publishing house Maxwell recently took over."[Note: This sentence wasn't in the Daily News article but shows up in a St Louis Dispatch piece a week later]: “Maxwell, who weighs about 300 pounds, went over the guest list personally.""No one could tell who didn’t make the final list, but we do know that Martha Smilgis of Time was disinvited by David Adler, public relations chief at Macmillan. She wrote the profile of Maxwell which he apparently did not like.”

Who was Ghislaine’s father?

Ian Robert Maxwell "MC (10 June 1923 – 5 November 1991), born Ján Ludvík Hyman Binyamin Hoch, was a British media proprietor and Member of Parliament (MP). Originally from Czechoslovakia, Maxwell rose from poverty to build an extensive publishing empire….Maxwell had a flamboyant lifestyle, living in Headington Hill Hall in Oxford, from which he often flew in his helicopter, and sailing in his luxury yacht, the Lady Ghislaine. He was notably litigious and often embroiled in controversy, including about his support for Israel at the time of the 1948 Palestine war. In 1989, he had to sell successful businesses, including Pergamon Press, to cover some of his debts. In 1991, his body was discovered floating in the Atlantic Ocean, having fallen overboard from his yacht. He was buried in Jerusalem. Maxwell's death triggered the collapse of his publishing empire as banks called in loans. His sons briefly attempted to keep the business together, but failed as the news emerged that the elder Maxwell had stolen hundreds of millions of pounds from his own companies' pension funds. The Maxwell companies applied for bankruptcy protection in 1992....Shortly before Maxwell's death, a former employee of Israel's Military Intelligence Directorate, Ari Ben-Menashe, approached a number of news organisations in Britain and the U.S. with the allegation that Maxwell and the Daily Mirror's foreign editor, Nicholas Davies, were both long-time agents for Mossad. Ben-Menashe also claimed that in 1986, Maxwell had told the Israeli Embassy in London that Mordechai Vanunu had given information about Israel's nuclear capability to The Sunday Times, then to the Daily Mirror. Vanunu was subsequently kidnapped by Mossad and smuggled to Israel, convicted of treason and imprisoned for eighteen years.Ben-Menashe's story was ignored at first, but eventually The New Yorker journalist Seymour Hersh repeated some of the allegations during a press conference in London held to publicise The Samson Option, Hersh's book about Israel's nuclear weapons. On 21 October 1991, two MPs, Labour's George Galloway and the Conservative's Rupert Allason (also known as espionage author Nigel West), agreed to raise the issue in the House of Commons under Parliamentary Privilege protection, which in turn allowed British newspapers to report events without fear of libel suits. Maxwell called the claims "ludicrous, a total invention" and sacked Davies.[44] A year later, in Galloway's libel settlement against Mirror Group Newspapers (in which he received "substantial" damages), Galloway's counsel announced that the MP accepted that the group's staff had not been involved in Vanunu's abduction. Galloway himself, however, referred to Maxwell as "one of the worst criminals of the century....The Maxwell companies filed for bankruptcy protection in 1992. Kevin Maxwell was declared bankrupt with debts of £400 million. In 1995, Kevin and Ian and two other former directors went on trial for conspiracy to defraud, but were unanimously acquitted by a twelve-man jury in 1996.”

Epstein's own weird history has been spoken of to some degree, and I'm not sure I have much to add at this point, but perhaps it's important in context.
Financier in sex abuse case went from math whiz to titan

He taught calculus and physics at the prestigious Dalton School, a prep school in Manhattan, from 1973 to 1975, despite not having a college degree. Attorney General William Barr's father, Donald Barr, was headmaster at the time...Epstein left Dalton in the mid-1970s for a job at Bear Stearns at the urging of a student's father who arranged a meeting with the chairman of the investment bank, according to published reports. He later began his own money-management business, J. Epstein & Co....Epstein has long obscured the source of his wealth. Even after his arrest, he refused to provide authorities with even basic information about his income and assets. His attorney said Epstein's lawyers intend to provide the information but want to make sure it is correct first.This much is clear: "He is a man of nearly infinite means," federal prosecutor Alex Rossmiller said in court....Epstein also forged a relationship with Leslie Wexner, the retail titan behind Victoria's Secret, The Limited and other store chains. He started managing Wexner's money in the late 1980s and helped straighten out the finances for a real estate development Wexner was backing in a wealthy Columbus, Ohio, suburb.It was through Wexner that [in1996] Epstein acquired his Manhattan mansion, a seven-story, 21,000-square-foot former prep school less than a block from Central Park. It has been valued at about $77 million.

Around the same time, Trump started dating Marla Maples, who was working at his Atlantic City Taj Mahal Casino:
(1988) The Untold Story of Trump Model Management (Part 1):

Donald Trump, for his part, was becoming increasingly restless, and reckless. Despite fathering 3 children and having a devoted wife, by all accounts he didn’t spend much time with any of them, preferring work and play to the routines of domestic life. In the 80’s he made at least two life changing decisions-to step out on his wife publicly, and to expand his negligible empire into Atlantic City casinos. He built Harrah’s at Trump Plaza in 1984, and a partially completed building that became Trump Castle in 1985-a property that would be managed by his first wife, Ivana. He also scooped up the Taj Mahal in 1988, which at a cost of $1.1 billion made it the most expensive casino ever built at the time.

Some weirdness starts to pop up here, at least allegedly. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer:
(10/27/83) GROUND BROKEN FOR RESORTS' 2D N.J. CASINO-HOTEL

Resorts International, which opened the city's first gambling hall 5 1/2 years ago, broke ground yesterday for a second casino-hotel that will cost $250 million to build and will contain 1,000 hotel rooms and the world's second-largest casino.

According to Wikipedia:

Resorts International was a hotel and casino company. From its origins as a paint company, it moved into the resort business in the 1960s with the development of Paradise Island in the Bahamas, and then expanded to Atlantic City, New Jersey with the opening of Resorts Casino Hotel in 1978.

So how did a paint company morph into a multimillion dollar casino company? We're going to have to go to conspiracy theorists again. Make of it what you will:
Goodfellas: The Hidden History of Resorts International:

Resorts International was largely a family affair that grew out of a company called the Mary Carter Paint Company."Mary Carter (she never existed) was pretty much a family affair controlled by Jim Crosby, two of his brothers, and his in-laws. Based in Tampa, Florida, the firm included in its directorate James Crosby, John Crosby (a plastic surgeon in Mobile, Alabama), William Crosby (a Tampa realtor), and the Murphy brothers, Henry and Tom, who'd married the Crosby daughters. Henry owned a funeral home in Trenton, New Jersey, while Tom was board chairman of Capital Cities Communications, a successful broadcasting business founded by explorer Lowell Thomas. The explorer too was an early shareholder in Mary Carter Paint, as was Republican Thomas Dewey." (Spooks, Jim Hougan, pg. 381)Acclaimed researchers Sally Denton and Roger Morris note: "... the Mary Carter Paint Company, which was widely considered to be a CIA front that laundered payments to the Cuban exile army in the early sixties..." (The Money and the Power, pg. 284).This is certainly quite plausible considering Mary Carter was then based out of Tampa, a hub for joint CIA-Syndicate efforts to assassinate Castro. As was noted before here, Tampa don Santo Trafficante, Jr. was one of the gangsters initially tapped by the CIA's notorious Office of Security to arrange for Castro's untimely demise. Trafficante, a close associate of Meyer Lansky (whom we shall return to again), had been deeply involved in Cuba's gambling operations prior to the revolution and would later become even more deeply immersed in the world heroin trade. As was noted before here, he was very close to the emerging Cuban Mafia, which provided ample recruits to the CIA during the early 1960s despite much suspicion that Trafficante was a double agent for Castro.Certainly the Mary Carter Paint Company would have been well positioned to assist Trafficante in these endeavors in Tampa. And such a connection would also explain why the corporation, in the mid-1960s (as CIA Cuban operations were winding down), abruptly sold off its paint business and boldly delved into gambling. By the end of the decade it was managing one of the most profitable casinos in the world on the Bahama's Paradise Island.What it amounts to is that by the late period James Crosby emerged as not only the CEO of Mary CarteResorts International, but as an extremely well connected figure within the GOP and beyond."... Crosby was himself uniquely situated in Republican circles: a sometime guest at the White House, he'd donated $100,000 to Nixon's 1968 campaign. He was also a friend of, and frequent host two, Bebe Rebozo (with whom he banked). Moreover, Crosby's private intelligence agency, Intertel, was even then working with White House aides and ITT executives to discredit Jack Anderson's revelations anent ITT and Chile. At the same time, Intertel was the de factocustodian of the demented billionaire Howard Hughes (his own $100,000 donation would later result in two volumes of Senate testimony in the Watergate affair). Indeed, the ties between Paradise Island and Richard Nixon's administration were of the sort that bind: Allan Butler, owner of the failing bank that was his namesake, claims the Nixon was a silent partner of Crosby's in his Bahamian ventures, sharing a healthy chunk of Paradise Island bridge revenues with yet another secret partner, Bebe Rebozo. And by by no means finally, James O. Golden, Resorts' vice-president and one of Intertel's founding spooks, had formerly served as Nixon's Secret Service shield, later taking charge of security for the Nixon forces at the GOP's 1968 convention in Miami Beach. That Paradise Island is a special place, and had a special place in the heart (or what passed for a heart) of the Nixon regime, is abundantly clear... (Spooks, Jim Hougan, pg. 180) ...And that brings us to possibly the most curious aspects of Resorts, namely its ownership of its own vast private intelligence network.It was known as Intertel, short for International Intelligence, Inc. Intertel was incorporated in 1970 as an almost wholly-owned subsidiary of Resorts International and hit the ground running. During its heyday, Intertel had an impressive roster and an international reach. It would turn up in host of intrigues throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Curiously, it had its origins with Robert Kennedy's "Get Hoffa" squad."... Intertel, known especially and remarkably for its composition of former organized crime strike force attorneys from Robert Kennedy's Justice Department... The IRS considered Intertel... 'an organized crime enterprise of some type aimed at the Bahamas,' as one account summed up the agency's view. Roberts Peloquin and William Hundley, Kennedy's top crime fighters, had joined the firm and recruited operatives from the CIA, FBI, IRS, Secret Service, and other intelligence agencies. Staffed exclusively by what one author called 'Get Hoffa agents,' it was likened into a corporate CIA.' (The Money and the Power, Sally Denton & Roger Morris, pg. 284)...Intertel's other ventures include spying of muckraker Jack Anderson) for ITT, investigating the Chicago Tylenol murders and the Bhopal disaster. Even more ominous, however, were its dealings with a shady Belgium-based private detective agency known as Agence de Recherche et d'Information (ARI). As was noted before here, ARI was linked to members of the neo-fascist terror organization known as the Westland New Post, a few of whom had also been implicated in drug trafficking and pedophile rings. Intertel reportedly hired ARI to do some work for them during the 1980s....What is of great interest to us here is Trump's third Atlantic City casino: the Taj Mahal. While now widely associated with Trump, thanks in no small part to it leading to his first bankruptcy, it was not in fact Trump who started the casino. That dubious distinction lies with Resorts International.The company had begun construction on the Taj Mahal in 1983, but had run into persistent difficulties in finishing construction in the following years. Then, in April 1986, James Crosby died suddenly. This left Resorts in turmoil (allegedly) and Trump stepped in. Trump bought a controlling stake in the company in 1987 and was promptly named its chairman of the board.Let that sink in for a moment: Donald J. Trump, the current President of the United States, was briefly the chairman of a corporation long suspected of being a CIA front, that had decades-spanning involvement with the Syndicate, numerous "rogue" financiers, various drug and arms traffickers and which owned a vast private intelligence network...."

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer:
(07/22/87) TRUMP COMPLETES THE DEAL FOR RESORTS INTERNATIONAL

Developer Donald Trump took control of Resorts International Inc. yesterday in a $79 million deal that gives him his third Atlantic City casino, including what will be the largest gaming hall in the city.Trump sealed the deal in New York with those connected to the estate of the late founder of Resorts International, James M. Crosby.Trump paid a cash price of $135 a share for 585,068 shares of Class B stock, which has 100 times the voting power of Class A stock.He is expected to make a formal tender offer for the remaining 167,230 shares of Class B stock within the next several weeks at the same $135-a-share price. Owning all the Class B stock would give him 93 percent of the company's voting power.At a board meeting immediately after the transaction with the Crosby estate, Trump was elected chairman of the board of Resorts International, replacing Henry B. Murphy, Crosby's brother-in-law, who resigned.

And his relationship with Ivana was falling apart:
(1989) Ex-Wife: Donald Trump Made Me Feel ‘Violated’ During Sex

After a painful scalp reduction surgery to remove a bald spot, Donald Trump confronted his then-wife, who had previously used the same plastic surgeon.“Your fucking doctor has ruined me!” Trump cried.What followed was a “violent assault,” according to Lost Tycoon. Donald held back Ivana’s arms and began to pull out fistfuls of hair from her scalp, as if to mirror the pain he felt from his own operation. He tore off her clothes and unzipped his pants.“Then he jams his penis inside her for the first time in more than sixteen months. Ivana is terrified… It is a violent assault,” Hurt writes. “According to versions she repeats to some of her closest confidantes, ‘he raped me.’”Following the incident, Ivana ran upstairs, hid behind a locked door, and remained there “crying for the rest of night.” When she returned to the master bedroom in the morning, he was there.“As she looks in horror at the ripped-out hair scattered all over the bed, he glares at her and asks with menacing casualness: ‘Does it hurt?’” Hurt writes.

In 1992, Trump would divorce Ivana. It's this same year that we find him arranging a party of 30 for himself, Jeffrey Epstein, and 28 young aspiring calendar girls:
(1992) Trump Was Alone at a 1992 Party with 28 Girls and Accused Sex Trafficker Jeffrey Epstein

Part of a “calendar girl” competition organized at Trump’s request, the party was put together by a businessman named George Houraney, who spoke with the New York Times for a story published Tuesday.Houraney was also one of many to accuse Trump of sexual harassment, this time toward his former girlfriend and business partner, Jill Harth, who described an incident in 1997 as an attempted rape by Trump.“I arranged to have some contestants fly in,” Houraney told the Times. “At the very first party, I said, ‘Who’s coming tonight? I have 28 girls coming.’ It was him and Epstein.”...Before the “calendar girl” event, Houraney warned Trump about Epstein once again.“Look, Donald, I know Jeff really well, I can’t have him going after younger girls,” Houraney recalled telling Trump in the Times interview. “He said: ‘Look I’m putting my name on this. I wouldn’t put my name on it and have a scandal.’”

[EDIT: MSNBC reports on 07/17/2019 on newly discovered footage of Trump and Epstein discussing women at a party in November of 1992.]
The Boston Globe reported:
(1992) The pageant of Donald Trump’s dreams

It was a snowy night in Manhattan, December 1992, and the festive group was embarking on a circuit of exclusive clubs after a sumptuous dinner at the Plaza Hotel’s Oak Room.As the limo wove through the city, Trump discussed his views on dating, according to one of the women riding along. The billionaire casino mogul declared that “all women are bimbos” and said most were “gold diggers” who would be smart to go after men with money. Like him.Rhonda Noggle, the model who relayed the story to the Globe in an interview, said that, at that point, she had had enough. Speaking sharply to Trump, she said, she asked him to stop the limo. The car grew silent.

(1989-1995) The Untold Story of Trump Model Management (Part 1):

1989-1995 just so happens to be the same time period in which Donald Trumps world and empire was falling apart at the seams. In the beginning of the decade he was facing the end of his first marriage and a looming court battle. Despite his purportedly active dating life, by many accounts Trump was being rejected by many, if not most, of the women he pursued-including Carla Bruni and Jill Hearth. Marla Maples, after years of being the secret mistress and repeated rounds of being dumped and publicly humiliated by Trump, was starting to lose her patience. And the big gamble he took in Atlantic City was, by all accounts, failing miserably-a direct result of his jaw droppingly awful business practices and general incompetence. In 1991, his Taj Mahal Casino filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. In 1992, he again filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy again, this time on his Trump Plaza Hotel (also in Atlantic City), at the time owing $550 million dollars. Recall that he would report an almost 1 billion dollar loss on his 1995 tax returns, according to the copies obtained by the New York Times. Indeed, the early 90’s were not a very good era for Donald Trump. In light of this fact, it’s worth noting that the sexual assault allegations against him are all clustered within this very time frame. [Note: This article was written in 2016, prior to more allegations]...By the time “New York Magazine” did a front page profile of him in 1988, Casablancas reputation for bedding young models was established and begrudgingly accepted (a price to pay in exchange for his “genius”) within the New York social scene, but the expose came as a shock to many outside the bubble. John Casablancas would soon find out that he was not as untouchable as he thought he was. In the article-which ran under the title “Girl Crazy”-Casablancas was portrayed as a champagne guzzling pervert, singularly dedicated to the “new look” department of Elite where he spent his days ogling the scantily clad, sometimes naked bodies of teenage girls. In light of Donald Trump’s more alarming comments and decisions around his daughter Ivanka, this quote stands out:"Casablancas talked about his seventeen year old daughter, Cecile. He said Cecile had been solicited by a photographer last summer on a beach in Ibiza. The photographer asked her to pose in a bikini, and Casablancas raced over to try to get a $2,000 fee for the shot. “She’s got a great little body” he told his models."Another quote that brings a chuckle and a nod of recognition in this story is Casablancas’s bizarre pride over never having changed a diaper. Donald Trump would make similar boasts in a Howard Stern interview a few years later. Compelling proof this is not, but I do believe it’s a hint at the kind of Don Juan persona that Don, far from a Juan, actually a dejected, balding husband with a crumbling empire....But the scandal did not end there, nor did it begin. Less than a month earlier 60 minutes aired a prime-time special on the abuses of underage girls in the modeling industry. Investigative reporter Craig Pyes portrayed the modeling industry as infested with agents who were notorious hustlers and playboys. His report revealed that both Claude Haddad- the head of European scouting for Ford- and Ford’s Paris-based agent Jean-Luc Brunel had been accused of horrific sexual misconduct by many models. [Note: Brunel's name appears multiple times on Epstein's flight manifests.] The special aired the interviews of dozens of women who accused both Brunel and Haddad of a litany of crimes, ranging from racist invective towards black models to violent rape. And in fact the hidden camera footage captured in filming the special caught it all- from Xavier lamenting about n**er models, to Haddad chuckling about drugging and raping 13 year old girls. According to Model At a retreat soon after the one-two punch delivered by the coverage, Haddad, Jean Luc Brunel and Casablancas were once again overheard (albeit not taped this time around) laughing about their crimes. Alternatively they were angry when confronted by interim scouting manager Trudi Tapscott - ”I’m a man and I have needs, I will not apologize for that!” Casablancas is said to have declared....Over time Donald Trump would emerge from the ruins of his empire with a new approach to business, and a new source of income-in 1996 he bought the rights to the Miss Universe franchise, and became the central figure in the running of these pageants. And in 1999 he started a modeling agency - T models, later changed to Trump Model Management. The correlation of interests is quite clear-for a man awkward around women but dependent on his public image saying otherwise, a stable of women under his employ was a way to boost his image-and even better, he was able to lock all of these women into non disclosure agreements, ensuring that his behavior with them had little chance of becoming public knowledge. It also appeared to have served as a useful tool regarding his business transactions-which, in the aftermath of his bankruptcy, were increasingly dependent on some less than savory characters. How he did this, and the breadth of this activity, will be explored in the next installment. But for the time being, there is one final aspect of this story that is breathtaking, and speaks more to the character of Donald Trump than anything else.

Vienna

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As the former seat of the Hapsburg Empire Vienna is awash with impressive imperial buildings and palaces which so comprehensively convey the wealth and power of its previous monarchs. Now the capital of Austria the city is a delight to get lost in. Nicknamed “the City of Music” the names of its famous residents roll off the tongue with Mozart Beethoven and Schubert among those who once graced its streets.

Stonehenge

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You have to marvel at the determination of prehistoric man when you look at Stonehenge. Construction started about 3000 BC on what was initially burial grounds. Huge monoliths weighing 25 tons dragged One hundred fifty miles to the site a few hundred years later. It’s not known precisely how many humungous rocks were moved to a field near Amesbury, but there are 13 standing today. It’s also not known why Stonehenge was built, but many believe this significant English landmark is associated with ancient astrology.

Matterhorn

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Egypt may have its pyramids, but Italy and Switzerland have a nature-made pyramid of their own Matterhorn. At 14,692 feet high, this famous mountain is one of the highest in Europe. The mountain has four faces, each equally rugged. The legendary mountain has been popular with climbers since the first ascent in 1865 during the summer 150 people a day try to climb it. Couch potatoes may be just as happy to stay below and gaze in awe at the summit playing hide and seek with the clouds.

Plitvice Lakes

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The Plitvice Lakes are so pretty officials turned them into a national park. Located in central Croatia Plitvice Lakes consists of 16 lakes that attract more than a million visitors a year. Lush forests surround the lakes and connected by waterfalls cascading down from one lake to another. The lakes are dividing into two sections lower and upper because of the difference in elevation. The best way to see the lakes is walking on the route you might even see some wildlife.

Budapest

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Budapest was already an established city when the Hungarians took over in the ninth century. Today Budapest is the country’s capital and largest city. In between these two events, Budapest was ruled by the Mongols and Ottomans among others. Considered one of the most beautiful cities in Europe Budapest is home to the Museum of Fine Arts with its collection of more than 100,000 works. Be sure to visit the centrally located Old Town with its many museum’s churches palaces and Parliament building.

Lisbon

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The Portuguese capital of Lisbon lies on the Tagus River along the Atlantic coast. It is this location that encouraged explorers to sail far and wide around the world in the15th 16th and 17th centuries. One of the things you’ll want to see is Belem Tower a 16th-century fortress on the Tagus’ north bank if you’re looking for excellent views of old Lisbon head to Saint George Castle that was built on a hilltop by the Moors.

Gullfoss

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You probably don’t know too many people who’ve been to Iceland. But it may be worth a trip there to visit the spectacular Gullfoss waterfalls. Located in southern Iceland Gullfoss is one of Iceland’s top tourist attractions. At times it almost appears glacier-like appropriate perhaps since a glacier feeds it. The waterfalls begin just after the Ölfusá River makes a perpendicular turn and then cascades down a three-step staircase into a canyon that is 115 feet deep.

Athens

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Athens, a city that’s been inhabited since the fifth century BC, gave the world the concept of democracy and is the birthplace of Western civilisation. Many of the city’s significant landmarks can found in the old town particularly around the Acropolis. The list includes the temple of Zeus the Theatre of Dionysus where Sophocles works were performed and the Parthenon which sits atop the Acropolis.

Bay of Kotor

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When you’re hungry for breathtaking scenery feast your eyes on Kotor Bay in southwestern Montenegro. This bay off the Adriatic is just downright picturesque hemmed in by mountains with quaint villages sandwiched between the cliffs and the beautiful blue water. Several well-preserved medieval towns ring the bay. People make pilgrimages here not only to take in the scenery but also to visit the many Orthodox, and Christian churches spread among the villages.

Moscow

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For nearly 900 years Moscow has been the capital of Russia. As such, this old city has plenty to offer visitors. Let’s start with the 15th century Red Square since many of the city’s key attractions surround it. A top landmark is the Kremlin a former fortress that houses museums and the president of the Russian federation. Lenin’s Tomb sits in the middle of the square while the iconic onion-domed St.Basil’s Cathedral now a museum is on one side.

Venice

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Venice is for romantics who love gliding through the Grand Canal with a gondolier singing Italian love songs. This is, after all the city that sent Marco Polo off on his journey to China. Start your exploration of Venice at San Marco Square, the city’s most famous square. Here you’ll find the Doge’s Palace the seat of Venetian government and St. Mark’s Basilica the main church in Venice with stunning views from the tower. Venice also is famous for its bridges across the canals.

Monte Carlo

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If you’re into glitz and glamour, look no further than Monte Carlo the major city in the tiny principality of Monaco. Monaco has always for these qualities, which reached new heights when its prince made Grace Kelly his princess. Sitting on the shores of the Mediterranean Monte Carlo is known for fast car races and its elite casino. Take a walk along the harbour to see yachts that belong to the rich and famous.

Alhambra

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The Alhambra is one of the great wonders of Spain. It’s a gorgeous palace-fortress complex that can found in Granada in southern Spain’s Andalusia province. This imposing complex started as a small fortress in the late ninth century though it was built on the ruins of a former Roman fort. Taken over by Christian rulers, it is the site where Columbus got the go-ahead to discover the New World. The blending of architectural styles over the centuries is stunning. You’ll find great art and grand gardens throughout.

Florence

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If it weren’t for Florence, the Renaissance might not have happened. Florence is generally credit with bringing Europe out of the dark ages with great artists like Michelangelo. You can see their works at the Uffizi gallery or the Academia that displays the original David. Eat a gelato while strolling the Ponte Vecchio that bridges the Arno River. Ogle the over-the-top riches of the Medici family at the Pitti Palace.Marvel at the new engineering that created the magnificent Duomo.

London

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English history buffs will have a field day in London. This city on the Thames is chock full of palaces from Buckingham Palace to Hampton Court Palace. More a prison than a castle the Tower of London is home to the crowns jewels. And from Knightsbridge – don’t forget to visit the magnificent food halls at Harrods to Carnaby Street the shopping is fantastic. You can get around London quickly and efficiently by riding the famous Tube.

Neuschwanstein Castle

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“Fairy tale castle” is a phrase that aptly describes Neuschwanstein Castle in the Bavarian Alps. These 19th century Romanesque Revival castles look like it just stepped out of a fairy tale some say Neuschwanstein inspired the castle in Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. The castle was built as a retreat for King Ludwig II of Bavaria. Who viewed it as a romanticisation of the Middle Ages The castle was built of brick then covered in rock including the white limestone that is visible from afar.

Amsterdam

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Amsterdam is a pleasant city marked with meandering canals lined with tall narrow row houses. It is the city where Anne Frank kept her famous diary, so visiting the house where she wrote that. Also is a city of great art beginning with the Rijksmuseum home to great European masterpieces Rembrandt’s house and the more modern van Gogh museum. Take a break from sightseeing to tour and sample Holland’s beer at the Heineken Brewery.

Prague

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Prague, with a long history of war and destruction, is considered one of the best places to visit in Europe. Despite the devastation caused by World War II Prague has a charming Old Town that is worth more than a few hours of your time. Prague has many pedestrian zones which making walking a delight as you wander by Prague Castle through the Jewish Quarter and over the Charles Bridge. Wenceslas Square situated in the New Town hums with a vibrant nightlife and entertainment air.

Istanbul

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Istanbul may be on the outer fringes of Europe but well worth a visit when you’re travelling abroad. Turkey’s biggest city is a fascinating place filled with a rich history, colourful markets and mosques. Top attractions include the Bosporus that separates Europe and Asia. The ecumenical Hagia Sophia that’s been a Greek Orthodox Christian basilica then an imperial mosque and now a museum and the 15th century Topkapi Palace also a museum today. Get in a little shopping at the Grand Bazaar that’s been in operation since 1461.

Geirangerfjord

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When the summer heat of Europe gets you down head to Norway with its pretty cool scenery. Geirangerfjord is a 9.3-mile long fjord with crystal blue waters fed by picturesque cascading waterfalls. Take a sightseeing trip on a car ferry through the fjord passing villages on the shores. Look out for the Seven Sisters and Suitor waterfalls so named because legend says he’s trying to court the sisters. Also, look for Bridal Veil – when the light is right, it seems like a thin veil covering the rocks.

Barcelona

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Founded by the Romans Barcelona today is a bustling city on the Mediterranean Sea. As the capital of Catalonia, it is a powerhouse in the region. It is perhaps best known for the unusual buildings designed by the architect Antoni Gaudi. These landmark structures include La Sagrada Familia a church that’s been under construction since 1892. You could build your entire visit around his buildings. But then you’d miss out on other Barcelona delights such as La Rambla a famous pedestrian street in the central part of the city.

Dubrovnik

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As European cities go Dubrovnik isn’t huge but don’t let its size deter you. This little jewel with less than 43,000 people is one of the most visited cities in the Mediterranean. Dubrovnik transports visitors back to a time when the fortified town was a significant maritime power commanding the third-largest navy in the Mediterranean. As you wander the streets, you’ll likely come across sculptures of St. Viaho the city’s patron saint whose life is celebrating every February.

Santorini

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When it’s time to sit back and relax take yourself to Santorini an island in the Aegean. Top travel magazines consider this a prime destination once there you can’t help but agree. The island has picture-postcard villages an active volcano and stunning sunsets. Be sure to visit Fira, a town perched atop a cliff. You’ll also want to sample wines such as the dessert wine Vincent as well as the product that is made sweeter and tastier because of the volcanic ash soil it grows in.

Paris

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Songs laud Paris in the springtime but any time of year is an excellent time to visit this riveting city on the River Seine. It’s a city loaded to the brim with history culture great food and high fashion. The iconic Eiffel Tower is one landmark you won’t want to miss. The Louvre houses one of the most significant art collections in the world. Its great churches include Sacred Heart and Notre Dame. When it comes to opulence, there’s Versailles with its famed Hall of Mirrors.

Rome

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The ancient Romans established outposts as far away as Great Britain. They didn’t ignore their home city; however when it came to building great monuments. One must-see landmark is the Colosseum an arena that could hold up to 80,000 people for gladiator contests. One of the biggest draws is a tiny country inside the city The Vatican City, with its impressive St. Peter’s Basilica with art provided by Michelangelo. Maybe you’ll get a glimpse of the pope at his Wednesday audiences.
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Italian food Prague

Just another tinfoil conspiracy theory. Nothing to see here citizen, move along.

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Dear Mr. Putin, Let’s Play Chess
JANUARY 17, 2017 ~ PATRIBOTICS
PART ONE: PAWN TAKES QUEEN
I have an overarching theory of Russia’s attack on America and the West. Here it is.
There have not been a series of attacks on America and Europe by Vladimir Putin. There has been one single operation; it is the same operation.
By 2008, possibly even earlier, according to John Schindler, a National Security expert formerly at the NSA, Russia had placed moles in the highest levels of US counter-intelligence. I take this as my starting-point, because all the subsequent facts bear it out.
Mr. Putin always wanted to use the strength of the West as a lever to attack it, because Russia is weak and poor. So he did, and he used a very old-fashioned and effective method. Spies inside the IC. He also believes in propaganda and mind-games. He uses them on the West, he uses them on Russians, in Russia.
Hillary Clinton correctly noted that Putin rigged his own election in 2011. This, apparently, is when he started to hate her.
By the 2012 election, Russia’s desire to interfere with American democracy was already there, but it as yet didn’t have the tools to succeed in that aim. I deliberately omit some of the timeline here in order to get to the bigger points in the story, but I will return to it later.
Russian moles placed inside the NSA recruited Edward Snowden. A letter between the FSB in Cuba and SENAIN in Quito held in a file marked ‘Assange’ in London, dated 4th April 2013, the day before Snowden sent his only email on legalities, April 5th 2013, and before Snowden took his uppermost level documents during the rest of the month of April, proves conclusively that Mr. Snowden is a Russian agent who acted on instructions from Moscow. After Snowden fled to Hong Kong, he escaped from there by an Ecuadorean travel document arranged by Julian Assange, and tried to get to Cuba.
Snowden is a low-level IT idiot. He had help taking what he took from the NSA. I recommend the NSA review their case files and pick up the Russian moles within their agency. Snowden used stolen credentials, but it is almost certain that he received a piece of removable media like a memory card from his Russian handlers. He took military secrets. And by “he” I mean the FSB.
In 2013, after the Russians received all of the Snowden files, and China some of them, most press coverage concentrated on the traps that terrorists and Russian spies were able to avoid. They missed that Russian hackers would now proceed to use the NSA’s tech offensively.
In 2013, the Russians briefed their army of hackers.
In 2012/13, a young Russian hacker called Yvegeny Nikulin, then 26, was using Snowden’s NSA techniques – stolen credentials – to hack LinkedIn, Dropbox and Formspring.
Formspring, which shut down late 2013, was the app that Anthony Wiener used for his sexting.
According to John Schindler, “a hacker”(Nikulin) was picked up in Prague, October 5th, on suspicion of interfering with the DNC and the Democrats in America’s election. He had been sought on an FBI red warrant.
He is being extradited to the United States (if Jeff Sessions, a Russia partisan who recruited the spy Carter Page into Team Trump, does not try to stop it) over strong protests from Russia. The DoJ announcement on his indictment mentioned not only Formspring, but ‘a count of conspiracy’ and ‘sending a code to a computer’.
It was three years later. Nikulin was now 29.
On Oct 26, Rudy Giuliani joked on television about a big surprise coming in the election that would turn things around for Trump.
On Oct 28, Director James Comey of the FBI announced that more as yet unexamined emails had been found on an old laptop of Mr. Wiener’s.
Mr. Putin, it is my surmise that some of the Russian moles inside US counter-intelligence work within the FBI’s criminal division, and particularly, within the New York field office.
It is my surmise that your hacker, Nikulin, sent a command buried in a virus earlier transmitted by Formspring to ‘wake up’ that old computer and either find, or place, emails from Huma Abedin on to it, and that you then contacted your moles inside the NYPD/ FBI NY and told them to “suddenly find” emails that, the expectation was, could not possibly be combed through in time before the election.
Your agents within the FBI Field Office then did a number of additional things.
Firstly, they illegally spoke to any friendly press and the Trump campaign about putative ongoing criminal investigations into the Clinton Foundation and the matter of her email server.
They told Fox News’s Brett Baier that Hillary Clinton “Would soon be indicted” and this was reported on TV, and then retracted after the damage was done.
They told your agents of influence, Rudy Giuliani and X Kallstrom, that ‘a group of active FBI agents’ had demanded Comey release his letter. Both of them stated as much, Mr. Giuliani specifying ‘active’ FBI agents.
They used your agent General Flynn – I scorn to use ‘of influence’ in this case, Flynn knew what he was doing – to say on live television that active FBI agents were talking to him about an going ‘criminal investigation’
And they told the New York Times that the FBI ’Saw No Clear Ties to Russia’ in the matter of the Russian bank servers. And the New York Times printed it, even though they, the Times, knew it was false.
Before the election, only I reported, correctly, that the FBI’s Counter-Intelligence division in Connecticut had obtained a FISA warrant for ‘any US persons’ relating to the two banks involved in the Trump Tower server; Alfa Bank and SVB Bank.
So your moles in the NSA recruited Ed Snowden in 2012/2013.
You got to work using NSA hacking techniques. Stealing legit credentials features often. You hacked Wiener in 2013 via Formspring. You waited.
You used your moles in the FBI Field Office and, in 2016 at the right moment, you woke up Wiener’s laptop via the ’Snowden Virus’, found or planted old emails on it, and suddenly had the FBI Field Office “find it” and then lean, hard, on Comey to produce the letter he did.
Your RIS moles in the FBI then engaged in some agitprop with Giuliani, Flynn, an innocent Fox News, a not-innocent New York Times who deliberately used its prior authority to rubbish Franklin Foer and David Corn’s Alfa Bank server reporting, to make absolutely certain that “Trump-Russia” was suppressed and Clinton was defeated.
Your agents in the FBI Field Office in New York did, however, make one incredibly stupid mistake. A coder named Dustin Giebel caught it and he flagged it up to me.
The trouble with hiring young and foolish men to flood twitter and Facebook, to act as your hackers and so forth, is that they are young and foolish. Trolls gonna troll.
In this case, the Twitter account @FBIRecordsVault ceased being dormant for the first time in two years. It went on a little tweet storm. The last tweets were attacks on Hillary Clinton with a chaser of an attack on Eric Holder, the former AG. The first tweet, however, was a tweet praising Fred C. Trump. (Donald Trump has often said that his father is his only hero). It used language about Mr. Trump senior that was not only unlike any FBI descriptors ever used before, but had been lifted from Donald Trump’s commercial, company website.
When I saw that, I was overwhelmed with joy. It was not the severity of the offense, it was its traceability. Somebody sat at a keyboard and typed those tweets. Identifiable people. An FBI statement wrongly said that these were automated responses to three FOIA requests. Not true. Some identifiable person ordered and gave that statement. When I filed a private FOIA lawsuit with Mark S Zaid and Bradley Moss, we wrote the questions in ways that would be difficult to avoid answering. Who wrote those tweets? How many agents knew of them? What records exist of FBI agents or staff visiting the Trump commercial website to lift the descriptor of Fred Trump? What internal investigations exist into FBI agents leaking criminal investigations to Flynn and Giuliani? Do they feature any of the same agents who composed, knew of or authorized the FBI Records Vault tweets?
Days after our FOIA requests landed, Mr. Giuliani abruptly withdrew from his application to be Secretary of State. A week after our lawsuit was announced over non-response, the Department of Justice announced an investigation into more or less every matter named in our lawsuit, including the FBI Records Vault’s beautifully traceable tweets.
Even little pawns, like Twitter accounts, can become Queens, if you let them reach the 8th square, Mr. Putin.
So there you have it. Part One:
Russia has moles inside the IC, several of whom are not yet caught.
The NSA moles recruit Snowden.
Assange Ecuador and Russia give Snowden orders, and removable media to scrape intel and military secrets.
Ecuador exfiltrates Snowden to Moscow.
2012-2013, Russian hackers are given all of the NSA techniques. Nikulin hacks Formspring and Wiener. He plants a virus in his laptop. He waits and wakes it up in October.
Russia’s FBI Field Office moles “suddenly find” the emails, perhaps even placed on that computer, at a crucial juncture.
Russia’s FBI Field Office moles pressure Comey into releasing his letter, and thereby spin the election to Trump.
How am doing so far, Mr. Putin? You know, for a woman. And an amateur.
PART TWO – FBI: WHITE KNIGHT VS BLACK KNIGHT
Or, James Comey’s Counterintelligence FBI vs Rudy Giuliani’s NY Criminal FBI
There are three parts to this theory, like a good play, and narratively, the next section ought to be about your spy ring in the University of Cambridge, your hacking of Facebook and Twitter and your propaganda wars across Europe, but as I have learned from you one must play to the audience, and I think American readers are mostly terrified that Director Comey will throw America under the bus and cover up your coup.
I don’t agree. Here is my take.
Before the BBC and the Guardian confirmed my HeatStreet exclusive on the FISA warrant issued in October, I was a lone voice in the wilderness on its existence.(And may history record that our conservative-leaning website had that scoop). When the writer Jason Leopold of Vice asked if Trump had been under investigation in September he got a GLOMAR response: ‘We can neither confirm nor deny the existence of any such records’.
GLOMAR responses are named for a submarine and can only be given if a matter of national security is at stake. Mr. Leopold announced he would sue, for why should a concluded investigation be a matter of national security? I told him, with little credibility then and tons now, that the GLOMAR response made sense because there is an ongoing investigation into Mr. Trump and his associates on a matter of national security.
Democrats, including Democrats in Obama’s government who ought to know better, have asked if James Comey had ‘a double standard’ over the investigations into Clinton and Trump. Yes; he did, and he does. He may talk about a criminal investigation. He may not talk about a current, ongoing investigation into espionage, bribery, money laundering and so forth that affects US national security.
Over the summer and early autumn Democrats wrongly stated that the FBI / Comey had said they were not looking into Roger Stone and had declined to investigate Roger Stone, who announced his links to Wikileaks. This came from a Senate hearing and Mr. Comey’s testimony to Democrat Rep. Nadler. Rep. Nadler asked if Stone’s boasts constituted special circumstances, Comey said “I don’t think so.” It must have been frustrating for Comey. He was GLOMAR-ing Congress right to their face and they did not understand what was going on.
Subsequently, the heads of NSA, CIA and FBI “Glomar”ed, in no particular order, two Congressional open Russian hack hearings, one closed briefing to the House of Representatives, and in the case of the CIA’s Director Brennan, Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday.
Furthermore, although Comey is a natural Republican he appeared to have played it straight. In the summer he cleared Clinton of a criminal standard of negligence. In the fall, he had been sandbagged by Russian moles inside the FBI Field Office in New York. But I do not believe Mr. Comey surrendered wrongly to ‘pressure’. He knew the moles had effective kompromat – the emails your hacker Nikulin planted or woke – and that were he not to revise his testimony in the light of new evidence, his far more important natsec investigation into the traitor, Donald Trump, would be discredited. He then worked around the clock to clear Mrs. Clinton.
All evidence shows that James Comey is pursuing your assault on America, Mr. Putin, with the fearless I expect from a counter-intelligence patriot. In June, he named Donald Trump to a FISA court as an agent of Russian influence. In July, he did the same. Both times, the court turned him down. In April, Mr. Comey received audio of Russian money financing Trump – that’s the same time that Paul Manafort joined the campaign to run it. He formed a joint CIA/FBI /Treasury task force to look at the money.
Over the summer, US counter-intelligence met with Chris Steele because they had already got their own independent information that he was correct. On October 5th, your hacker Nikulin was picked up on an FBI ‘Red Warrant’ in Prague which means Director Comey had put a top priority on getting him some time before. Armed with whatever Nikulin spilled – and, Mr. Putin, he fainted when they caught him – Director Comey went back again, to a new FISA judge, on October 15, and he got his warrant.
Every indication is that Director Comey is not only independent but plays better chess than both you or I, Mr. Putin. (Can I call you VVP? I feel like I know you). For in September, the FBI did not join the ODNI statement about Russia’s intent being to aid Trump. Why not? Because while the NSA and CIA had heard the tapes of Americans in Trump’s camp working with your officials, taking your bribes, disseminating your information, Director Comey had not yet received his warrant. In order not to give Trump’s defense and the defense of his camps anything to go on, the FBI was Caesar’s wife. It did not act on surveillance of US persons abroad offered by the UK, Estonia, BIS, and Lithuania until it got the warrant. Director Comey does not want any ‘fruit of the poisoned tree’ defenses (no pun intended, Mr. Putin, and may I remind you sir that it is bad form to kill one’s opponents in chess. It’s cheating).
The FBI ‘changed’ its stance on the final Russian hacking report because they had, by then, listened to the tapes. Legally. Under a warrant.
The FBI has, fortunately, always employed the principle of compartmentalization. The FBI Counter-Intelligence division in New York kept their dealings secret from the criminal field office in New York.
But, some readers will say, Russian moles in the NSA – OK, it’s a worthy target. Why would the Russians have sleeper moles in a mere FBI criminal field office, even if it is New York?
And the answer to that is simple; a corrupt FBI NY Field Office guards the interest of Russian mobsters, allows them to launder their money through Trump’s “failing” casinos and building projects, makes sure that Trump being paid double for a Florida house doesn’t get investigated, allows paedophile Jeffrey Epstein to keep a mansion in New York City, ensures that Trump’s criminal taxes don’t get investigated, and sits hard enough on the NYPD that Trump can commit crime after crime in plain sight, socializing with the FBI’s most wanted mobsters, and never get charged with a damn thing. It ensures that Manafort and Stone can live in Trump tower, that Cohen’s trips on Russian-Registered private jets get washed. It allows the “FBI” to be next to the media, including the New York Times and Fox news, and act as un-named law enforcement sources. The FBI Field Office in New York wasn’t just infiltrated by your agents to scupper Hillary Clinton, Mr. Putin. It was there to guard the money of your billionaires and to cover the tracks of your handlers in the Russian embassy and consulates. That’s why the dead security guard at the Russian consulate never got investigated. You have a lot of people in New York, and they are very affable, pleasant folks, too. I’ve met a couple.
But let’s get back to the game. Your trouble is that Mr. Comey is not for sale. You have nothing on him. Let’s remember your hacker Nikulin, whom Comey was chasing since who knows when. A few days ago Comey picked up another of your hackers in Spain as he was about to board a plane to France with his wife. You yourself, through your propaganda sites, connected this to the DNC hack. You had the identical reaction that you did to Nikulin being picked up. You threw a rather beta male hissy fit. Stanislav Lisov had coded a bank virus. But there’s rather more to it than that. Lisov fits the hacker narrative in the Steele dossier. He needed paying. He has Gazprom connections, and he has a scary interest in satellites, which you, Mr. Putin, would like to weaponize against the United States.
But you know, the FBI caught him, none the less. Comey caught him. They know about the US company he formed, how it transferred to Oregon from Florida, and how money was funneled through a failed ‘secretive startup’.
The white knight is outplaying the black knight and all his moves indicate that.
PART THREE: ENDGAME – THE ‘IAGO GAMBIT’
Is it really worth chronicling the rest of the match? You, Mr. Putin, have relied on big data and on propaganda, including an army of trolls. It is plain to UK intelligence that you have a Russian spy ring at Cambridge University; that you may have combed through and stolen, illegally in the EU, the Facebook data of hundreds of millions of Americans; that you use propagandists SCR and combined GSR and SCR to form Cambridge Analytica; and that you used Twitter’s database to create a bot army.
It’s plain from both money and propaganda that Steve Bannon is your tool, your agent of influence; that you work through Nigel Farage and so on; that RT and Sputnik are not merely spy centers, but money-laundering tools; and that you have used ‘Big data’ of Cambridge Analytica (personality types plus propaganda from SCR) to poison the minds of Americans and indeed voters across the West. You have your hackers sitting on 4 Chan, where the ‘prank’ on the Brexit petition involved Russian server addresses.
But you are a careless player, Mr. Putin. Scrubbing archive.is of tweets wherein @GenFlynn pushes your hideous propaganda is pretty dumb. Scrubbing Michael Cohen’s phone data is also dumb, when we have him and his daughter waltzing around Europe and the Caribbean in Russian-owned private jets. You live by the troll, sir, then you die by the troll. Your propaganda and how you pay for it is all traceable. America has its hackers, too.
The DoJ inquiry has fired the first shots. It’s named Erik Prince. It knows you have the Mercers, it knows about Bannon, it knows about your moles in the NYPD. You see sir it all goes back to Nikulin. The NYPD ‘found’ that laptop on October 3rd. And on October 5th, Nikulin comes to Prague for payment.
But Mr. Putin, James Comey’s friends were waiting there to turn your black pawn into our white queen. And whenever Flynn tweeted Russian agitprop, the FBI and the NSA had a URL.
You sir, are like a chess player in possession of all his many, many pieces, but boxed in, in the back row, and despite having them all arrayed on the board – Jeff Sessions as Attorney General even though he recruited the spy Carter Page into your team – despite all of that, none of it will matter. White has you trapped. You and your ally Iran. Checkmate came from the Persian phrase, “Shah Mat”.
The King is dead. And I didn’t even have to bother with Sessions, Page, Manafort, Stone, Flynn, and all the SIGINT that we have on them, the deals they made with Wikileaks to receive intel that you hacked and phished and planted with your viruses.
Impeachment of Mr. Trump is on the way.
What you should ask yourself is if it is in Russia’s and your own best interest for you to keep deceiving an angry America? For when the trials do start, the back-covering, the rage, the scrambling, the desperate need to seem harder on your oligarch friends than the next politician – this could harm not only you and your allies but the next generation of Russian kleptocrats too.
It would surely be better to give it up now, release some of that kompromat now, push Trump out, and face the anger of a relieved United States after Trump resigns.
But perhaps you cannot.
Perhaps Mr. Putin, you have played yourself right into a corner. After all, those who know what komprat you hold on them also know that you hold it. And they can collaborate with the FBI.
Chess is a good game, sir.
But the reason Russians are so poor is that you can’t stop playing it.

[Table] IAmA: I'm GM Hikaru Nakamura, #1 US chess player and top 10 in the world - AMA

Verified? (This bot cannot verify AMAs just yet)
Date: 2014-02-26
Link to submission (Has self-text)

Questions	Answers
Hey Naka, I'm a huge fan. Thank you so much for doing this. How much does it actually matter which opening a player chooses?	Openings matter only in so much as you are not worse or losing out of the opening!
I've always wondered, does a gm have to have a bajillion games mostly memorized? How big a part of your study is analyzing the games of others? Do you spend time analyzing the games of people worse than you or only of other super gms? In a game of high level chess, does aesthetic count more than a computer-good position sometimes? Like, would you rather have a slightly worse position but one that more suits your style than your opponent's? Various databases that I've seen show that d4 is a more successful opening than e4 but e4 is more popular. Why is this? Why do master players online play so much blitz? Why not lengthy games? Who are your favorite players throughout history and who do you think are the best players? Thanks again. Good luck in chess!	I for one do not have a quadrillion games memorized. Mainly, it is more a matter of ideas/concepts combined with an understand of piece play and then of course tactics. But, because all professionals have studied and played chess for so many years, it is just inherently a part of our understanding. In this day and age, everyone is so good that being even slightly worse is too much! I will always take equality! I think in general, when you play chess on the internet its not serious competition, so the goal is to have a good time. Secondly, if I tried playing long games on the internet, I'd have trouble being motivated or keeping up the intensity.
Are there still aspects of chess that humans do better at than computers? How incredible does a computer have to be to beat the best humans? Could my Macbook or cell phone do it? If a computer disagrees with you, do you always think that the computer must be right? How do you think Fischer would do against top players like yourself, Carlsen, or Kasparov? How would Morphy do? What's your top goal in chess? Do you think you'll achieve it?	1.e4 is certainly NOT more popular at the top levels of chess today! I think in general because many of the great champions (Fischer and Kasparov specifically) opened with 1.e4, it remains very popular at the amateur level. The only two aspects of chess which humans are better at are: blocked positions where only one side has a break due to the long term concept and ideas which are beyond a computer horizon and secondly, pure attacks like in the Kings Indian. I am not sure if a computer on a cell phone could beat the top humans, but any laptop would be more than sufficient to trounce us pitiful humans into oblivion! Fischer would almost certainly lose to all of us, but this is due to the fact that the game has so fundamentally changed. If Fischer had a few years to use computers, I think he would probably be on the same level. I certainly hope to become World Champion, but it is a long process and I simply need to play good chess for now!
	My favourite players are Kasparov, Fischer and Tal. Mainly because they were more tactical and aggressive which is how I tend to play.
When you visualize a chess position, such as during a blindfold game, or when going over a score without a board present, what do you see? Do you see a full board and pieces, just like you were actually looking at a real board, or do you have some kind of abstract representation in your mind (such as a list of pieces and key squares and their attack/defense relationships)?	When I play 1 blindfold game or any amount, (I have done 15 on two separate occasions) I essentially see the whole board, but I very rarely calculate deep lines beyond 2-3 moves. In tournaments such as the Amber Blindfold and Rapid where it is 1 game against another top level play, I very often will calculate 2-3 lines of about 5-6 moves. I wish I could say that I am some sort of mathematical genius and I see a bunch of right triangles or some picasso style art lines, but that would be going too far! When I see the board, it is usually the blue board from the chess program chessbase with the white and black pieces. I suspect that for most modern day players, blindfold chess is a lot easier because of the endless hours we have all spent studying chess on computer screens.
On chess.com, there is a mysterious GM Phoenix who has a very high rating, with much speculation as to his identity. The main guess was that it was you. When you officially showed up on chess.com, Phoenix stopped showing up, furthering that speculation. Were you GM Phoenix?	I will take the 5th on your question about GMPhoenix! :)
We played in Round 3 of the 1997 Super Nationals chess tournament in Knoxville. We were both 2-0 and played on the podium while your dad took pictures from below-you were white and played the scotch. You had this intimidating strategy of standing behind me while I was pondering my next move. I still wonder, were you just trying to see the board from a different perspective, or intentionally trying to psych me out?! :)	I highly doubt that I could have come up with such a strategy at 9! :) I wish I could remember, but asking me to remember a game from 17?? years ago is too much!
Do you think there will ever be a time in the future when Chess960 is a serious competitive chess format? Do you feel it does a good job of shaking up the theory-heavy metagame for more "casual" observers?	Great question, apetresc!
	I think chess960 is great as it is simply pure intuition and understanding without theory or computers. In my opinion, a lot depends on the trends. For example, at the moment everyone is playing the Berlin Defense which has severely reduced the number of games with 1.e4 If this trend of attempting to "kill" the excitement continues, it is hard to believe 960 won't take over at some point. However, if we start seeing a lot of deep preparation and exciting games in in the Najdorf or Dragon, then I think the scope of normal chess will continue for a very long time.
Hey, I was wondering how big of a role computers play in your chess life.	Hello Jack, your question is very pertinent not only to my chess career but the very future of chess as well. I would say that nowadays, when I study, computers comprise 90% overall.
Do you ever play against them as practice?	I do not play against computers anymore because it is severely depressing to lose every game without ever even having a chance!
What do you think we can learn from computer chess and what can't we?	I think mainly what can be learned from computers is a deeper understanding that almost all positions are ok with accurate play. In the past, many people assumed certain positions were automatically bad, but computers have shown that the rules and thought processes aren't always accurate!
So when do you decide a position is gone as in unplayable? A full minor down or just a lack of counterplay and a pawn or something? Thanks.	In general, one gives up when either they are down too much material, mate is imminent or if there is little to no counterplay. If there is a chance of a swindle or a hope, then there is no reason to resign. Play till there are no chances left!
How often does the average top-ten chess player get laid?	We aren't rock stars! :-D.
Is chess still fun, or does it just feel like a job now?	Chess is certainly still enjoyable but it has taken on a more serious role as it is my full time career. It will always be fun, but it will never be the same as when I was 12-13-14 years old and just playing the game without any worries in the world.
Why do you play chess?	I play chess because it pays the bills! ;) However, more importantly, I play because I enjoy the game! It is also really special having the opportunity to see lots of new and different cities and countries around the world!
How much does being a professional chess player pay?	Being a professional chessplayer is not an easy profession, as you need to be in the top 30 to make a good living. Fortunately, I am amongst the top 30!
Who do you support for FIDE president?	I do not particularly support one side over the other as both candidates have serious flaws. However, one must look at what the incumbent has done over the past 20 years. It does not seem as though chess has fundamentally moved forward in a new direction. At the same time, it remains to be seen whether the opposition leader will be able to bring in money and sponsors which he speaks of in his campaign.
Hello there, very nice to see you doing an AMA. I've been wondering if there are times or any major time in your life that you've found chess to be boring? Also if that has happened what have you done to change this, or have you changed yourself so that you understand it's work and do it despite it being boring to you? Thanks again :)	I have tried to avoid being too philosophical, but I think in general, everything becomes boring after a while. Nothing is as fun as it was when you first started playing. The key is to stay motivated and just continue trying to learn more.
You are considered one of the best blitz players in the world, if not the best. You should comment some of your games and post them to YouTube, a la KingcrusheChessexplained/curtains. I would pay to see that! What do you think?	To start, I have actually seen a few of Kingcrusher's videos on youtube and they are pretty good! At the moment, I am the #1 rated blitz player in the world, so I am certainly competitive. However, I do believe that because of my focus on becoming a better classical player over the last few years, I have gotten worse at blitz.
Do you think that, with perfect play, chess is a win for white, win for black, or draw? Will we ever be able to mathematically prove this, or find the hypothetical "perfect game of chess"?	With perfect play, chess is and always will be a draw! Perhaps we will one day be able to prove the result of chess, but there will need to be a quantum leap in computing technology as well as storage capacity in order for this to be possible. I sincerely hope that this does not happen in my lifetime.
It seems that you are more in control of your emotions currently than has been the case in the past. Is this something you agree with and if so, is it something you consciously work on or do you feel it's something that has come with age?	Hello Veritas, and thank you very much for your question which I will try to answer very truthfully! ;)
	I'm not sure that I am ever really in control! I would never really say that I worked consciously to become calmer and more mellow, but I think that lifestyle plays a big roll. In my late teens and early 20s, I spent a lot of time out on the west coast (Vancouver in particular) and this really helped a lot. Although, I do think that with every passing year, I become more mellow!
Thank you so much for your response. I'm so happy that you answered. I lived in Vancouver for a couple of years myself. I am looking forward to watching you play your next tournament. Thanks again.	You are very welcome! My next tournament will be in Azerbaijan from April 20-30.
I have been wondering about your Japanese heritage. How often do you visit and can you speak Japanese?	I was born in Osaka, Japan to a Japanese father and am American mother. However, my parents separated and I moved back to the US when I was 2 years old. After that, I grew up with only English. I did take some Japanese lessons when I was about 10, and also took Japanese 101 during my 1 semester at Dickinson College.
	However, at this point my Japanese is pretty mediocre and I wouldn't say I know more than 20 words. Sadly, it's probably my 4th best language :(
	I went back to Japan about once every 3 years growing up until I was 18. While I saw my Japan dad, I never had the opportunity to meet my half-siblings.
EDIT: How do you view your fellow Top Ten players in the world relative to the greats of other time periods?	I find that it is almost impossible to compare different generations of players. All of us are only as good as we are because of the greats who came before us.
II: When you're watching a super-tournament that you're not participating in (such as the Candidates this year) do you watch it as a fan or do you use it to size up the competition, examine others opening preparation and search for new ideas?	As I mentioned above, the cycle for getting to a Candidates tournament, let alone winning it is a very long one and my next chance is 2 years away! Therefore, I can only focus on playing top level tournaments and trying to improve my overall results and game! When I am not competing, I watch the top level tournaments mainly to see what openings are popular and who is coming up with the best ideas.
What is a typical day like for you when you're not playing in a tournament?	A typical day for me when I am not playing chess varies, but I will always study a few hours a day, (2-3) watch some of the BBC series, whether it is Frozen Planet, Planet Earth or one of the others, I will read some (I recently finished reading Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller by Chernow) and study about 1 hour of Italian! However, when tournaments are happening within the next week or two, I will be studying a lot more chess!
Favorite unorthodox opening?	I would have to say that my favourite unorthodox opening has to be 1.b3! If it was good enough for Bent Larsen, then surely it is good enough for me!
I sometimes (just because) play 1.e3 and then follow that up with b3. Is there any particular reason to play b3,Bb2 first?	It is chess! Be creative, and have fun! Your question is too deep and nuanced even for me! :)
Are you good at other strategy games, such as RISK or strategy computer games? Does chess translate to other types of strategy like that?	The only other board game which I am pretty decent at besides chess is backgammon. As for computer games, I cannot really comment as I was pretty terrible at StarCraft!
What is the most common mistake new chess players make when trying to learn the game? What's a better way to get started on the path to improvement?	I think the most common mistake new chess players make it that they are too impatient and want to know everything right away. Everything is a process and you need to not rush! Beyond that, I think just playing as much as you can, studying tactics and essentially trying to take in as much chess as you can, ESPECIALLY if you are young!
Hello Hikaru! Big fan here! In a time where the majority of elite players choose safe and dry positions I really appreciate your aggressive and entertaining style, constantly going for complications.	Thanks for the compliment weasl! My general approach/philosophy is that we are all going to die, so might as well try to create some interesting games which will be remember 50-100 years from now!
Is it easy for you to switch off from chess completely, or do you pretty much think about or calculate positions in your head all the time?	Unless I am thinking about chess, I find it quite easy to not think about it. For example, after my recent tournament in Zurich, I did not have a single though about chess during my 2 weeks of vacation!
You have been known to play non-mainstream openings at times. Is this mostly a tactic to throw off booked opponents, a trick to force a certain type of position, general curiosity, trolling, or something else?	Thank you for the question LastChance!
	For the most part, I tend to consider myself a creative person in almost any endeavour I am actively involved in whether its games like chess or tennis, I like to be creative. Therefore, when I play offbeat openings its more because I prefer the pure aspect of just playing moves and seeing fresh new positions. There is certainly a psychological aspect as well since most people tend to frown upon offbeat openings. However, I will always take creativity, new positions and playing the game over studying the Berlin Defense for 6 hours every day! :-D
What's going on in your head when you realize during the game that you are winning?	Thank you for the question, ColoradoSheriff!
	In general, I try not to think too much about outside factors during the game except for the position on the board. However, it does get difficult not to start wandering off and thinking about the future during especially critical games. Nevertheless, as with any other game or sport, focus focus FOCUS is the key!
– for you personally, what was the most fun tournament you ever participated in, and why?	The first question has been asked many times, and there isn't one particular moment which stands out. It is more due to a special significant event. For example, winning the US Championship in 2005 will always be very special as it was my first US Championship! Just as, for example, the Turin Olympiad in 2006 was special since it was both my first Olympiad, and the first time I got a team medal (bronze)!
– do you still play poker? What was the 2011 WSOP experience like and do you plan to enter again someday?	I do still play poker occasionally, but due to the ban on internet poker here in the US, it is rather inconvenient to have to drive a few hours to a casino. Therefore, while I still play occasionally, it isn't something which I spend much time.
Thanks so much! Looking forward to watching you shaking up Candidate’s this year!	I did not qualify for the Candidate's tournament this year, but thank you for the compliment!
I am sad neither yourself nor Fabiano will be playing in it this year.	In general, it seems to me that the entire system needs to be overhauled as you have 4 out of the top 10 players in the world not playing in the Candidates.
Do you often hang out with other professional Chess player's in non-chess contexts? Is there down-time at tournaments where you just socialize with one another?	Most of my life has been spent around chess tournaments and chessplayers so it is only natural that many of my friends come from the chess world. However, I do not hang out with other "professional" players. We all are amiable, but at the end of the day it is a competition!
Thank you for the AMA! As a fellow Japanese American, you are one of my biggest inspirations in chess. Here are my questions: - who was the player that you looked up the most when you were a child? - what do you think are the major differences between chess in Japan and in the states? - what are some characteristics (both in and out of the games) that made some legendary chess players in the past (Kasparov, Fischer, etc)that you think made them so difficult to beat at the time?	When I was a child, I looked up to Kasparov. He was both the best and most charismatic player as well as having an aggressive and exciting style. I think the main difference between chess in Japan and the US is that in Japan there is the Japanese version of chess (Shogi) which really limits the number of kids who are exposed to chess. This is why there are so few Japanese players, let alone masters.
	I think with Kasparov and Fischer it was everything from their personality to their play which was very intimidating.
Will the sunglasses strategy ever return?	I would love to wear sunglasses more often, but unfortunately due to concerns (unfortunately justified in this day and age) about cheating, I doubt I will be doing it very often.
I really like your aggressive style and that you play for wins.	Elmobob, thanks for the question!
What do you do up in your hotel room after a particularly awful defeat?	I usually watch some Breaking Bad!
What is your favorite part about being a Grandmaster? Travelling? Not having a '9 to 5' job? Thanks.	My favorite part about being a professional chessplayer (not a Grandmaster as plenty of them do work normal 9-5 jobs) is that I am my own boss and make my own schedule.
What kind of board and pieces do you prefer playing with? Does the degree of simplicity/luxury have any impact on your level of enjoyment?	For the most part, I just like a nice wooden board with weighted pieces. However, I have some antique sets which I thoroughly enjoy as well.
Which is the mountain peak you are the most proud of?	I have done many day climbs, but I would have to say my two favorites are Sawtooth in the Sierra Nevadas and Black Tusk in Vancouver, British Columbia! Sometime in the future, I will go to Colorado and do a few 14ers! :-D.
Can you give an example of something new you have learned about chess within the last one or two years?	Almost every day, I learn something new about chess from looking at old games or studying tactics!
Have you ever thought about producing any content for the community, perhaps live commentating some games on the ICC?	I have considered doing content, and I will be doing some commentary on chess.com shortly!
Are you still technically the chess960 champion? What is the future of chess960 do you think? Would you be happy if all tournaments switched to 960?	I am still currently the 960 champion, but as to the future who knows! I attempted to answer this question earlier response.
Are you playing in the US Championship this year, since it doesn't overlap with Norway?	I have not decided on the US Championship, but I have chosen to play a tournament in Prague instead of Norway.
How high is your level on ChessTempo?	Hello Dance,
	I have never played chess on ChessTempo, but I will check it out. At the moment, I am playing on chess.com!
Are you familiar with Go at all? Any interest?	Yes, see the link below! However, I am a terrible player!
	Link to scontent-b-ord.xx.fbcdn.net
Who has been the most challenging opponent you've faced? And also who has surprised you the most in a match (someone you predicted wouldn't have a chance but came close/won)?	Without a doubt, I am having the most problems with Aronian! I have lost something like 6 games in a row!
@GM Hikaru Nakamura are there any books that you feel after reading helped you improve?	Recently, I have really taken a liking to the My Great Predecessors series by Kasparov.
I love Chess and hate it at the same time. What is the fastest game you have ever played? The longest?	The fastest game I have ever played is maybe 20 minutes (I can't recall the shortest offhand). My longest game would have to be an 8 1/2 hour game I played with GM Meier in Dortmund back in 2011.
As a world class, how many hours do you focus on chess per week? Describe what the study plan for a GM is like. Like percentage do you work on opening prep, what percentage on going over past games, etc. What books/study plan would you recommend for a class A-B level player?	I already gave a general response to a schedule during a week. As for specifics, I think it's probably 80% openings 10% endgames, 10% reviewing your games.
I was thinking that when Deep Blue beat Kasparov the problem was that the board is too small. A supercomputer can numbercrunch an 8 by 8 board. But a human could adapt to a board 100 times bigger more easily. What do you think? (For you it might be too late too change ;) )	There have been many proposed changes to the chess rules, but none of them have worked so far! I think the problem is that its hard to remain pure to the game without changing a major rule. Perhaps you are the person to introduce the new groundbreaking idea!
You're known to get quite emotionally invested in your games. Why is this? Do you feel it helps or hinders your game overall?	When one plays a game or has a job, it seems natural to take pride and want to do your absolute best. This is probably why I give everything for the game of chess.
On chess improvement: what would you say is the best advice for amateurs to follow to help them get better?	Best advice for amateurs is to try and play as much as you can, but also study your games and try to understand the mistakes and why you made them.
Can you comment on the psychological aspect of the game, and how much mental strength plays a role? It seems as if some players almost use a sort of sorcery to psych out their opponent. Does that aspect exist at the top levels?	In terms of the psychological aspect, mental strength is crucial. If you do not have absolute confidence and belief in yourself or are feeling insecure in any way, there tend to be dire consequences on the chess board. This will tend to affect both your calculation and evaluation assessments.
Also, was this factor partially at play in your recent near defeat of Carlsen? Thanks.	My recent game against Carlsen had nothing to do with the psychological aspect. I just had a 1 in 100 hallucination.
In most of your interviews I see you wearing a Barca jersey, what do you think their Chances are of winning the champions league this year?	I think there chances are reasonable, and it will certainly be exciting. As long as Real Madrid doesn't ever win, I am happy! :)
Hello Hikaru. Thank you for doing this AMA.	No problem, any time!
Do you ever get "tired" of chess and what do you do when/if it happens?	I certainly have moments where I get sick of chess. Usually when this happens, I take a long break and look or do anything except chess.
Your games and playing styles have always been marked by a reckless, aggressive, attacking style which is usually decisive one way or another. How were you been able to reconcile your attacking instincts with the positional play that is necessary to succeed at a high level? What advice would you give to somebody who is enjoys dynamic, tactical games, but struggles in positional planning?	I think the main way to learn is by playing those types of positions. So essentially, I think it is necessary to make a conscious effort to force yourself into those less tactical positions where you need to find different ways of playing instead of just tactics.
Hello, Hikaru. Thanks for the AMA. At the top levels of grandmaster play, how many moves are made that are either prepared, memorized, or from book before you are into unknown territories and playing strictly from the OTB position?	I would say on average, someone will introduce a novelty or play a lesser known variation by about move 15. There will almost never be any surprises before move 10.
Howdy, thanks for doing this- I'm a huge fan that tries to follow all of your tournaments.	Sheer-Luck, amusing question!
It seems like someone can't play chess for long without observing some unusual people and/or situations. What do you think is the most amusing chess anecdote you've picked up over the years that you'd be willing to share?	There are way too many stories which I will save for my book of chess stories in 20 years! Nevertheless, I remember a game from a tournament quite a few years back, where someone got up went to the restroom then came back only to see someone else sitting in their spot having played 3-4 moves. Suffice to say it was a very confusing situation!
Mr. Nakamura, Nice to meet you, thank you for your contributions to the chess world and for doing this AMA. My question: How do you like your olives? Small and black and fleshy or are you the large green juicy type? Have a great day!	I love olives! They are especially good with a nice vodka martini!
Here's a tough one. In the past, sometimes your tweets have rubbed some people the wrong way, e.g. after the Olympiad, "A sad fact of team competitions, you're only as strong as your teammates." (I'm paraphrasing.) How do those statements affect your relationship with colleagues and other players?	My teammates understood perfectly well that it was not intended at them. It was a simple statement, but sometimes people choose to see extra hidden meaning.
	Gata and I will always be the bruisers for Team USA.
You also follow Napoli FC, a football club in the city of Naples, whose manager ideologically believes that the game is similar to chess in the aspect of exerting control from the center. How did you actually end up following the club though, which I believe is not an automatic choice for mainstream followers of the game?	Buona sera, aravindreds!
	My fiancée is Italian and lives in Naples. Therefore, I have been spending quite a lot of time there in the past year and a half. One day, I hope to meet Rafael Benitez!
What other "board games" do you play? Baccarat?	Primarily backgammon. I have never learned enough about games like craps or baccarat.
I've always wondered how the top players treat each other outside of the playing rooms. Do you guys ever grab a beer together or something? From tournament streams it just seems like the relationships between players are purely respectful and professional.	I would say that in the past 60s 70s 80s even the 90s, chess was a lot more fun and enjoyable with everyone being good friends. Nowadays, there is quite a bit of separation and we all do our own thing.

Last updated: 2014-03-02 14:21 UTC
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