American Monster — Roger Stone

The second in a series about convicted US criminals accelerating global fascism

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The first time I watched the documentary Get Me Roger Stone I quote-tweeted two very important statements from Paul Manafort — who I profiled in the American Monster series…

Paul Manafort was interviewed for the film about his longtime partner in the so-called ‘Torturer’s Lobby’ and he said:

“Roger’s relationship with Trump has been so interconnected that it’s hard to define what’s Roger & what’s Donald. While it’ll be clearly a Trump presidency, I think it’s influenced by a Stone philosophy…

“If Trump is elected president, I think Roger will see one more very significant impact he’s had on world history.”

JFC.

This is a series about American monsters — both Paul Manafort and Roger Stone played key roles in accelerating global fascism by reaping millions in lobbying fees representing brutal dictators and then grooming a Russian asset, with ties to multiple foreign dictatorships, for president*….

In a 1992 report from the Center for Public Integrity, their lobbying firm was listed as ‘one of the firms profiting the most by doing business with foreign governments that violate their people’s human rights’. To take this out of the abstract, one client — Angola’s Jonas Savimbi — burned his opponents alive.

When people think of Washington corruption, they think of organizations like Black, Manafort, & Stone that shook down dictators, took all their money, and then tried to take America’s government and make them serve the dictators’ interest. It IS the swamp.—Jane Mayer, New Yorker

In 2020, Roger Stone was sentenced to 40 months in prison — convicted of multiple felony counts for obstruction of a congressional investigation, five counts of making false statements to Congress, and tampering with a witness. In what constitutional lawyers deemed ‘pardon fraud’, Trump commuted his sentence just days before Stone, his former campaign advisor, was to report to a federal prison to serve his term.

A probe of Trump’s pardons reflect a who’s who of American monsters — Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, Steven Bannon, Charles Kushner, Mike Flynn, four guards who worked for Erik Prince’s Blackwater, convicted of mass murdering Iraqi civilians.

‘Let’s Get Right to the Violence’

Stone was captured by a Danish film crew who shared their findings with the January 6 Committee saying, ‘F**k the voting, let’s get straight to the violence.’ It was one day before the 2020 presidential election.

Stone was an early adopter of the Big Lie, a reboot from 2016. He had already been prepared to claim voter fraud in 2016.

According to a CNN report, in 2016, a political action committee led by “Stone launched a Stop the Steal website to fundraise ahead of the presidential election, asking donors for $10,000 in donations by saying, ‘If this election is close, THEY WILL STEAL IT.’”

“While Stop the Steal may sound like a new 2020 political slogan to many, it did not emerge organically over widespread concerns about voting fraud in President Donald Trump's race against Joe Biden. It has been in the works for years.

Its origin traces to Roger Stone, a veteran Republican operative and self-described "dirty trickster" whose 40-month prison sentence for seven felonies was cut short by Trump's commutation in July.”

So who is Roger Stone, and what impact did he have on world history?

The zoom out is the world is hotter, more fascist, and less empathetic.

Stone, who appeared shirtless more often than Vladimir Putin, turns 71 in August, and has worked on Republican campaigns since Nixon — whose image he has tattooed on his back.

He pioneered negative campaign advertising, which has eroded our country’s civility and the integrity of our body politic. Due in part to access journalism, corporate media has painted him as a charming ‘ratf**ker’ in well-tailored suits.

But in a 2020 deposition, a creepier image emerges, one that is dangerous and unhinged, revealing an anti-social personality:

Even for someone who had profiled the sociopathy of those in Trump’s orbit, the video was shocking. Baring his teeth like a vicious animal, he accused conservative lawyer Larry Klayman of being a child molester and repeatedly spit vulgarities.

The video conjured up memories of messages Stone sent to a Russia probe witness, which stated: “Prepare to die, c***.” He also threatened the witness with these words: “Rip you to shreds” and “take that dog away from you”.

His gangster behaviors modeled after a mentor Roy Cohn, who investigative reporter Wayne Barrett called the single most evil person he ever covered.

“If Cohn’s a magnet for you as a young man, it says you’re soulless before you start,” said Barrett, in ‘Get Me Roger Stone’’.

‘Attack Attack Attack’ — ‘Never Defend’ — ‘Deny Everything’

Among his catchphrases is ‘deny everything’ and before he was indicted as part of the Special Counsel Robert Mueller probe into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, Stone denied his involvement to a Washington Post reporter, saying he was guilty of “bluffing and posturing, and punking the Democrats — unless they passed some law against bullshitting… I’m engaging in tradecraft.”

Stone’s ‘tradecraft’ consisted of famously predicting it was Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s time in the barrel — he admitted on video he was communicating with Julian Assange, whose Wikileaks was the passthrough for the GRU hack of Hillary Clinton’s campaign. He led ‘Lock Her Up’ cheers — as did Mike Flynn — and search warrants revealed he had communicated with Guccifer 2.0, the cover name used by the Russian military intelligence hacking division.

These cyber attacks come from the highest levels of the Kremlin and they are designed to influence our election. I find that deeply disturbing.—Hillary Clinton, 2016

Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.—Donald Trump, 2016

Young Republican

Stone tells a story about a mock election in his Connecticut grade school, where he lied and it swayed the results. He said he learned about the value of disinformation, and by age 12, he knew he was going to be a political animal after reading Barry Goldwater’s book, The Conscience of a Conservative. By 19, he was a footnote in the Watergate scandal.

Later, he said the Nixon tattoo on his back is a statement of resilience.

Stone, who became the leader of the Young Republicans at 25, ended the era of the Eisenhower Republican and initiated the era of nasty, dirty pool, fear-based campaigning.

In the Get Me Roger Stone film, Stone takes credit for pioneering PAC funding to produce ‘negative campaign ads in massive doses’. The ugliness of modern politics can be traced back to Stone — specifically, the Super PACs.

Environmental Losses

Stone was part of the campaign team that promoted actor Ronald Reagan, who defeated President Jimmy Carter, America’s environmentally forward thinking leader. We lost an environmentalist, and Stone is credited for identifying Reagan democrats.

By 1996, a swinger sex scandal involving him and his second wife Nydia, that he denied on news shows in an elaborate cover story fingering an ex-employee and a made up drug story, got him booted from the Bob Dole campaign. Dole, as I noted in the first American Monster series, initiated sleazeball lobbying and earned more than a quarter million dollars reputation washing Oleg Deripaska, who was initially denied a visa due to mob ties.

During the Bush v. Gore recount, Stone claimed masterminding the Brooks Brothers Riot — where ballot counters were so intimidated by a mob they stopped counting — losing Al Gore the election. The riot foreshadowed the January 6 Insurrection.

I don’t believe George W. Bush would have ever been president of the United States if it wasn’t for Roger Stone.—Wayne Barrett, investigative reporter/author

With Gore’s loss, we took another environmental hit — instead, we got a Texas fossil fueled administration — the oil-war based economy still in place. The world’s on fire.

We are close to the tipping point where global warming becomes irreversible. Trump’s action could push the Earth over the brink, to become like Venus, with a temperature of two hundred and fifty degrees, and raining sulphuric acid.—Stephen Hawking

All the while, Trump, who Stone had met through Roy Cohn, was encouraged to run for president by Stone — who positioned Trump as an outsider candidate in ‘92.

In writing this reflection of Stone’s impact on the fascist creep, it’s clear that he spent a career remaking America in his dark and cruel image. Accused of faking up documents to taint Dan Rather’s reporting, earning Bush a second term, and taking down New York Governor Eliot Spitzer in a sex scandal, Stone became a full-blown conspiracy spreader — from the birther lie, a racist trope that groomed Trump a racist base, to pre-spreading the Stop the Steal lie before the 2016 election.

Employing the Southern Strategy he co-opted from Nixon, Stone groomed Trump’s base to hate — immigrants, elites, government itself.

Trump was his second presidential actor — and yes, he had another significant impact on world history — the destruction of liberal democracy.

I’m sure he’d take that as a compliment.

So where is Stone now… likely, waiting to be indicted by Jack Smith.

And while he waits, he goes on QAnon media channels, spreading conspiracies — he says there’s a satanic portal above the White House. He travels with disgraced retired lt. general Mike Flynn’s radicalization tour — which is protested by Christian groups. A catalog of his pro-Russian propaganda can be found here — at vatniksoup.com, where Stone is listed as #161.

Stone’s friends in militia groups — the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers — have been convicted of seditious conspiracy against the United States of America and given stiff sentences — not stiff enough for the DOJ.

I have no doubt Stone is charming to interview — like a viper in tasseled penny loafers. And in my opinion, he’s a good dancer.

But Roger Stone should be in prison — where he can’t hurt our country anymore.

It’s better to be infamous, than to never be famous at all.—Roger Stone

He’s about to find out.

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(Thumbnail of FBI arrest footage, February 2019)

(Screenshot from unhinged February 2020 deposition)