‘The String that Unravels Everything’

Sunday thoughts on McGonigal, Deripaska, and America’s blindspots

“We have a long history of ignoring ugly and inconvenient truths in America.”-Craig Unger, bestselling author of American Kompromat, to the Bette Dangerous ‘Speakeasy’ audience, February 12, 2023

When Craig Unger spoke those words at our latest ‘Speakeasy’ in response to me noting that we memory hole so much in America that it puts us in grave danger, I began reflecting on the many lessons I have learned from him over the past few years.

Among them, that the things that infect American are often legal. And how that which is legal often endangers our national security. When former directors of the FBI take money from members of the Russian mob, there’s no walking that back. When a real estate developer takes money from the Russian mob, they own him. These transactions have put our country in grave danger.

But it was when Unger shared just one small detail about the Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, who appears repeatedly in the the various plots of the Trump-Russia scandal, that a bigger picture came into play…