Interesting video on "All the President's Men."

[CTyankee]

A nice look at how this film came to be!

Enjoy the revisit!

[underpants]

1. Marking for later watch

Thanks

[PoliticAverse]

2. Most important part of the film: "Follow the money". n/t

[Honeycombe8]

6. Yes, indeed. It's always about the money, and it leaves a trail.

Wish we had those tax returns.

The question is: will the Republicans even care about all that Trump has done, if evidence is found?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. I reread the book a couple of weeks ago.

Last edited Wed Mar 29, 2017, 06:06 PM - Edit history (1)

There are lessons to be learned that apply to the current situations: 1. Don't expect anybody to unravel all the mysteries quickly. There are many different players and subplots and wheels within wheels. 2. There may or may not be a "smoking gun" (in Trump's case, maybe it's a Kalashnikov), and if there is one, it might not appear for a long time. The very existence of the Watergate smoking gun - the tapes - didn't turn up for over a year, and it was almost another year before the Supreme Court ordered them to be disclosed, which revealed the smokingest gun. 3. Follow the money. The crimes underlying the Watergate burglary were acts of sabotage against the Democrats, financed illegally, which necessitated money laundering. Reporters figured out who the players were by following the money.

I think it will be backwards as to Trump. I think Trump's initial crimes were financial - tax evasion, money laundering and racketeering - committed by the Russians together with Trump and associates, in the '90s when Trump was losing money and needed bailing out. He couldn't get financing in the U.S. and turned to Russia, which is basically an enormous crime syndicate. Coming up to the last election, Putin wanted a "friend" in the White House to ensure favorable treatment by the US government re: sanctions and NATO. There was more to it, I think, than "Promise to lift the sanctions and screw NATO and we'll help you win the election"; it might have been "Promise to lift the sanctions if we get you elected, or else we'll leak info about your dirty money."

So, in other words, while Nixon's goons were covering up his campaign's electoral ratfucking by laundering money, Trump's goons are covering up his money laundering by means of electoral ratfucking.

The Watergate scandal should be carefully studied.

[CTyankee]

4. I agree. This is why a revisitit it helpful. Trump will screw up while in office

and we need to be on his ass the whole time and try to get him out of office asap...for the good of the country...

[Honeycombe8]

5. Watergate reporting was amazing. I hope the investigative committees...

I hope some on the investigative committees, and some journalists, are rereading that book and re-watching the movie. It's a handbook on what to look for and how to track down facts when the ones in power are covering up.

Thanks for the walk down memory lane! It's still relevant.

[George II]

7. Back in 1972-1974 I followed every gory minute of it all, and was amazed....

...when they started falling over each other to save their asses.

I remember the day that Alexander Butterworth almost accidentally revealed the existence of "the tapes". That was the beginning of the end of Richard Nixon.

By the way, if anyone's interested in that whole affair, Leon Jaworski wrote a great book about his involvement.

[CTyankee]

8. nothing is perfect. I think we need another one of these gory moments to

start the process of bringing Trump down.