Been feelin' a bit cagey lately.

I’ve spent almost a year thinking about what my next post would be. I’ve started and stopped at least 20 times. Most of the time, I stopped because it seemed too politically slanted or too conspiratorial. Other times, I stopped because I would read an article somewhere that would seem identical to what I was working on and think “why bother.” So goes the ADHD mind, wandering about, not really doing anything, but thinking about everything.

It occurred to me, during this past Thanksgiving holiday that not everyone is as obsessed with our current politics as I am – shocking, I know! I would start conversations with family and friends by saying, “Have you heard about…” and “Have you been following…”, but would often switch to a different topic when it became clear that I was alone in my near constant lust for more and more details on the saga of Donald J. Trump and his relationship with Vladimir Putin.

Conspiracy theories are like that, I suppose. At some point, you go from thinking something is a possibility, to believing it to be fact and then, finally, to ignoring any and all contrary evidence that disproves your assertion. I'll be honest, I’m completely hooked on the stuff. I’ve literally spent hours reading articles and tweets, comfortably housed within my own personal echo chamber of beliefs prejudices.

It wasn’t until I was forced to communicate with actually human beings, celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday, that realized how woefully unprepared I was to talk about anything else. That’s when I realized what I should write about.

I don’t want to just peddle meaningless conspiracy theories to my friends and family. At the end of the day, that’s nothing but a string of conclusions born out of bias all belief. It’s not fact… at least not yet anyway. I’m not going to lead you down a rabbit hole of unsubstantiated ‘what if’s and unconfirmed ‘rumor has it’s. You can find that stuff on your own without too much trouble. And I don’t want to make my Republican friends feel like they’re reading some crackpot, leftwing propaganda.

This series of posts is not really about politics. Sure, there’s some stuff about elections and campaigns, communism and capitalism, and democrats and republicans, but the goal is to figure out what’s really driving the key players in the most fascinating news story of our lifetime.

I’m not sure how many posts there will be. I’m not sure where I’ll end up. Most of the people and events you will have heard of, some perhaps not. But they are all connected in one very meaningful way. Whether they be hedge fund managers, mobsters or pop singers, these characters are all part of what may be one of the greatest true-crime stories of all time.

Without further ado, I offer you Raccoon News Network’s Currently Untitled Series on The Who’s Who of the Donald Trump, 2016 Presidential Election, Russia, Mafia, Vladimir Putin Extravaganza!

Episode 1: Bill Browder (12/7/2017)