Hey Donny, You’re Grown Now
I heard Michael Cohen interview Roy Cohn’s cousin the other day. Roy’s cousin knew the story of how Roy and Donny T got together and how Donny learned to play the system. It’s a fascinating story. It explains where Donny learned the behaviors we are all frustrated about still today.
Once upon a time, when Donny T and his daddy Fred were up to their ears in Federal trouble because they were discriminating against non-white people who wanted to buy or rent in the T’s’ buildings. The Feds had them dead to rights. But Fred knew people who knew people. And soon Roy Cohn was representing the T’s. His advice to young Donny was to go on offense and push back against the Feds. It worked.
Donny was hooked.
Roy Cohn was known in New York as a fixer. He had been at the side of Senator Joe McCarthy during Joe’s quest to ruin lives and blame everyone he didn’t like for being a communist back in the 50s. Joe was good at that blaming thing. If he blamed you for being a communist, you were blackballed for life. Joe blamed with a wide brush. Because Roy was seen at his side constantly, Roy soon developed a reputation of his own as a fixer. He was well known and respected like rattlesnakes are respected.
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