I expose the criminal background of Trump supporter Don King, who appeared yesterday with Trump, as he has in the past and ask: why now outrage at embracing a convicted murderer?

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Shoot first! King killed two men over gambling debts.

Today, on TV, the image is of Donald Trump cajoling with a flag-waving Don King, a man convicted of murder and guilty of numerous rip-offs of famous boxers like Ali and Foreman and Tyson.

What does it mean when a future President embraces a convicted murderer? What does it signify when the President-Select parades his support by a man guilty of numerous frauds?

I think that we cannot dismiss this as mere spectacle since Trump clearly enjoys (Kanya West) being supported by the same people he trashed ("You cannot walk down the street without getting shot.") even if 92% of African Americans reject him.

Why would Trump allow himself to be embraced by a convicted murderer? For the same reason he boasted that "My supporters would vote for me even if I shot someone on 5th Avenue in broad daylight." He knows that his propaganda techniques (venting and redirecting anger and hatred to defenseless populations, as Goebbels recommended as #18 of Principles of Propaganda) worked and that he had created a flock of blind sheep. If he could murder someone and not lose the loyalty of his followers, then surely having a mass media photo op with a convicted murderer and cheat posed no risk, while flipping the bird to those (the majority) who reject his corrupt ways.

King drops the n-word with Trump in attendance: audience erupts in laughter.

Don King, with a huge Trump sign hanging around his neck and waving a flurry of flags, US, Israeli, etc) appeared with Trump (who in truth looked troubled, casting his eyes down) at a TV appearance yesterday.

We all know the corruption of Trump, but I will here reprise the crimes of Don King.

Let's start with a speech he made in September in support of Trump, who was present.

Famous boxing promoter Don King casually dropped the n-word when introducing Donald Trump before his Wednesday speech at a black revival center in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

"I told Michael Jackson, I said if you're poor, you're a poor Negro-- I won't use the n-word," he recounted. "But if you're rich, you're a rich Negro. If you're intelligent and intellectual, you're an intelligent and intellectual Negro."

"If you're a dancing and sliding and gliding n*gger-- I mean negro," he corrected, as Trump and the rest of the room erupted in laughter, "you're a dancing and sliding and gliding Negro."

"So they're not alienatin', because you can not assimilate," he said. "You're going to be a Negro until you die."

Trump thanked King as he took the stage. "Ah, there's only one Don King, only one Don," he said whimsically."

When you are so desperate to support the lie that "The blacks love me." while getting only 8% of black votes, why not have a convicted murderer who plays the clown, which your racist audience loves?

Here are some of the crimes of the man.

"After one year of classes at Case Western Reserve University, King abandoned dreams of getting a college degree and became involved in gambling, controlling a numbers racket in Cleveland's ghetto.

In 1954 he killed a man who tried to rob one of his gambling houses. The shooting was ruled a justifiable homicide, sparing King a prison sentence. He wasn't so fortunate 13 years later, when he was found guilty of second-degree murder for killing a gambling associate who owed him $600. The charge was later reduced to manslaughter and King served 3 years and 11 months in Marion Correctional Institution in Ohio. He was released in September 1971. (espn.com)

Here is how he treated Ali, a man who made him very rich:

"King has been involved in many litigation cases with boxers that were focused on fraud. In 1982 he was sued by Muhammad Alifor underpaying him $1.1 million for a fight with Larry Holmes. King called in an old friend of Ali, Jeremiah Shabazz, and handed him a suitcase containing $50,000 in cash and a letter ending Ali's lawsuit against King. He asked Shabazz to visit Ali (who was in hospital due to his failing health) and get him to sign the letter and then give Ali the $50,000. Ali signed. The letter even gave King the right to promote any future Ali fights. According to Shabazz, "Ali was ailing by then and mumbling a lot. I guess he needed the money." Wikipedia

"Larry Holmes has alleged that over the course of his career King cheated him out of $10 million in fight purses, including claiming 25% of his purses as a hidden manager. Holmes says he received only $150,000 of a contracted $500,000 for his fight with Ken Norton, and $50,000 of $200,000 for facing Earnie Shavers, and claims King cut his purses for bouts with Muhammad Ali, Randall "Tex" Cobb, and Leon Spinks, underpaying him $2 million, $700,000, and $250,000, respectively. Holmes sued King over the accounting and auditing for the Gerry Cooney fight, charging that he was underpaid by $2 to $3 million.^[21] Holmes sued King after King deducted a $300,000 'finder's fee' from his fight purse against Mike Tyson; Holmes settled for $150,000 and also signed a legal agreement pledging not to give any more negative information about King to reporters."

Trump testifies in Jupiter court case: "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the American flag.." Sinclair Lewis/It Can't Happen here.

This kind of dealing is similar to the way Trump handled his conviction for refusing to rent to blacks, paying a fine but not admitting guilt. In the recent Trump University fraud conviction, again Trump paid the fine without admitting guilt. The rich can buy off those whom they have impoverished with their rip offs. In King, Trump sees a soul mate in how to defraud those you represent. I expect those who now support Trump will sadly learn this too late.

"Witherspoon being promised $150,000 for his fight with Larry Holmes, but receiving only $52,750. King's son Carl took 50% of Witherspoon's purse, illegal under Nevada rules, and the WBC sanctioning fee was also deducted from his purse.^[24] He was forced to train at King's own training camp at Orwell, Ohio, instead of Ali's Deer Lake camp which Ali allowed Witherspoon to use for free. For his fight with Greg Page he received a net amount of $44,460 from his guaranteed purse of $250,000. King had deducted money for training expenses, sparring partners, fight and airplane tickets for his friends and family. Witherspoon was never paid a stipulated $100,000 for his training expenses and instead was billed $150 a day for using King's training camp. Carl King again received 50% of his purse, despite Don King Promotions falsely claiming he had only been paid 33%.^[25] HBO paid King $1,700,000 for Witherspoon to fight Frank Bruno. Witherspoon got a purse of $500,000, but received only $90,000 after King's deductions. Carl King received $275,000.^[26] In 1987 Witherspoon sued King for $25 million in damages. He eventually settled for $1 million out of court.^{[27]" wikipedia}

^{"When fascism comes to America, it will be called Americanism" Sinclair Lewis}

"Mike Tyson sued King for $100 million, alleging the boxing promoter cheated him out of millions over more than a decade.^[28] It was settled out in court for $14 million.^[29]

In 1996 Terry Norris sued King, alleging that King had stolen money from him and conspired with his manager to underpay him for fights. The case went to trial, but King settled out of court for $7.5 million in 2003. " wikpedia

"In 2005 King launched a $2.5 billion defamation suit against ESPN, the makers of SportsCentury, after a documentary alleged that King had "killed, not once, but twice", threatened to break Larry Holmes' legs, cheated Meldrick Taylor out of $1 million, and then threatened to have Taylor killed. Though the documentary repeated many claims already made, King said he had now had enough. King's attorney said "It was slanted to show Don in the worst way. It was one-sided from day one, Don is a strong man, but he has been hurt by this."^[32]

The case was dismissed on summary judgment with a finding that King could not show "actual malice" from the defendants. Judge Dorian Damoorgian ruled, "Nothing in the record shows that ESPN purposefully made false statements about King in order to bolster the theme of the program or to inflict harm on King." wikipedia

King settled most lawsuits for six- to eight-digit pay-offs while managing to avoid a conviction of felony fraud. This mirrors the way that Trump settled lawsuits without admitting guilt.

Finally, another excerpt from Wikipedia (all documented with primary sources):

"King has been investigated for possible connections with organized crime. During a 1992 Senate investigation, King invoked the Fifth Amendment when questioned about his connection to mobster John Gotti.^[18] In public, however, King has strongly denied any connections to organized crime and has responded to mob allegations by calling them "racist".^{[citation needed]}

Donald Trump and the Mob

His real-estate developments in Atlantic City and New York brought the GOP nominee into regular contact with people who had ties to organized crime; he says he's 'the cleanest guy there is' Referring to a concrete contracting firm that law enforcement said was affiliated with one of New York's Mafia families, Mr. Trump said: "That was a major contractor. You hear stories that they may have been [mob-controlled]. " WSJ

How Donald Trump Bankrupted His Atlantic City Casinos, but Still Earned Millions "Atlantic City fueled a lot of growth for me," Mr. Trump said in an interview in May, summing up his 25-year history here. "The money I took out of there was incredible."

His audacious personality and opulent properties brought attention -- and countless players -- to Atlantic City as it sought to overtake Las Vegas as the country's gambling capital. But a close examination of regulatory reviews, court records and security filings by The New York Times leaves little doubt that Mr. Trump's casino business was a protracted failure. Though he now says his casinos were overtaken by the same tidal wave that eventually slammed this seaside city's gambling industry, in reality he was failing in Atlantic City long before Atlantic City itself was failing.

But even as his companies did poorly, Mr. Trump did well. He put up little of his own money, shifted personal debts to the casinos and collected millions of dollars in salary, bonuses and other payments. The burden of his failures fell on investors and others who had bet on his business acumen." NYTimes

Mike Tyson, the former undisputed World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, says of his former manager, "(King is) a wretched, slimy, reptilian motherf*cker. This is supposed to be my 'black brother', right? He's just a bad man, a real bad man. He would kill his own mother for a dollar. He's ruthless, he's deplorable, he's greedy ... and he doesn't know how to love anybody."[19]

I think the same could be said of Trump by those who have been ripped off by him, by the slave labor he uses to build his 6 billion golf/villa in Dubai (and whose passports have been seized so they cannot return home until they pay off their travel expenses from Pakistan, which they cannot because they are paid only half of what promised and just barely survive...see Vice Documentary), and by many of the 60% of Americans who disapprove of him.

Birds of a feather flock together. Trump sees in King not only a black brother who will show that "The blacks love me," but a kindred criminal, able through his ruthlessness and wealth, to buy off those he defrauds, able to live above the law while committing crime after crime,.

We are so used to this that even when Trump appears with a convicted murderer, with a history of organized crime and fraud, there is no mention of the obscenity of such a photo op, where both men defended Israel and blasted critics, only more publlicity by a master of propaganda.

Where is the liberal media? Where is the religious right? Where are the good people of America outraged at this embrace by a convicted murderer? I understand why the blind sheep Trump bragged about take this with a grain of salt, but what about the 60% who disapprove? When welcoming the support of murders has been normalized, how far are we from accepting mass murder as normal?

To America, I say: Have you no shame? When we do not challenge lies and outrages, we are complicit. That big sign that King wore around his neck at the photo-op should have had instead of the bloated face of Trump the letter M for murderer.

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(Article changed on December 30, 2016 at 18:20)

Authors Bio:

retired, working radical egalitarian/libertarian socialist old school independent, vegan, survivor