Get Me Roger Stone!

Or how I discovered that we’ve been flam-flammed!

I avoided Roger Stone for awhile. It’s hard to do with all the Trump coverage. His name comes up again and again, especially when he is associated with Paul Manafort (they were business partners) and presently because of his connections with wikileaks and the leak of Hillary Clinton’s emails and the John Podesta DNC emails. 

He Used Watergate to Get Famous

Netflix has a fascinating documentary, featuring Stone as the main character. Roger Stone got his start during the Nixon administration. He honed his skills in opposition research and by creating a scandal of his own making. He made a donation to an early Nixon opponent in the name of the Young Socialist Alliance and then got media attention on the subject. Roger Stone described his work as the black arts. He has remarked that the Nixon administration was obsessed with intelligence. Roger Stone is the kind of man that always lands on his feet. He used the Watergate scandal to get famous and subsequently became Nixon’s man in the Washington after he resigned in 1974. Roger Stone became president of the Young Republicans in 1977 after Reagans failed presidential campaign in 1976. In 1980, Stone was back working on the Reagan campaign and this time they won. 

The Lobbying Begins

By the end, he owned a K street lobbying firm to leverage the influence and connections they had in the Reagan White House. Reagan pulled many young, conservatives out of their states and home towns and towards Washington. Many of the conservative political figures you see today got their start in the Reagan Administration. Roger Stone was no different. What surprised me the most was the revelation that Roger Stone has been connected to Donald Trump since about 1988. Not only that, but he had begged Donald Trump to run for President since that time because he just knew he could win. 

Get me Roger Stone taught me one thing: Roger Stone is responsible for Trump and that should scare us all.

It’s not often that we get an inside look into the world of Roger Stone. Guys like him aren’t in the news very often. They usually stay behind the scenes. Roger Stone is unique that way. He loves the camera. He enjoys appearing on talk shows. 

Rather than stay behind the scenes, Roger Stone gets out in public talking to anyone who will point a camera at him. I can see how a documentary about him would be easy. However, despite his desire to be seen and heard, he is surprisingly defensive about his family and his child. I thought that was interesting. 

We’ve Been Flim Flammed

One of the biggest things you’ll learn if you decide to watch “Get Me Roger Stone” is that he is chiefly in the business of influence peddling. He tries to show himself as some sort of down and out political wonk who was trying to get back into politics. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. His business partner, now a convicted felon, was the Trump campaign manager until Kellyanne Conway took over. He and his associates are soon to be under indictment from Robert Mueller (see videos above). Stone is the swamp.

Trump didn’t decide to be a benevolent businessman and run for President to save the country, bring back to the jobs or “lock her up.” In fact, in 2000 he served as a helpful candidate for Stone to elevate or sabotage Pat Buchanan in the reform party and split the vote there to help George W. Bush. Stone is a political operator in the same vain and the TV show Scandal. He comes in, changes the narrative and gets what he wants for whoever is paying him. He operates seemingly without principle. He recently changed to the Libertarian party saying that there would be a Libertarian moment after the 2016 election. 

He is well-known to peddle in conspiracy too. He tried to promote the idea that Huma Abedin, advisor to Hillary Clinton, was connected to the muslim brotherhood. He has also been associated with the nationalist group The Proud Boys and he founded an anti-Hillary 527 with an obscene acronym. Roger Stone is the kind of person you just don’t want in politics. He is what is broken with the current political system and the sooner he fades in the background the better. 

The public and this writer will be very interested to see what his connections are to the Trump campaign in regards to wikileaks and the financial end of the campaign. Trump promised to drain the swamp and it looks like he unintentionally may draining the swamp right into federal prison.