C. Michael Byrne

In The Return Trip, newsman Ray James goes on the road to examine the election of Donald Trump, styling his columns like New Journalists Tom Wolfe and Hunter Thompson. In this chapter, he pushes his luck to expose the “Masters of the Universe,” and their global power game. This report didn’t go down well, and Ray hit the road hard. Read all about it!

The Vibe: Is This Game Poker?

By Raymond James, San Francisco Chronicle, April 18, 2017

LAS VEGAS – It’s Tax Day, and millions of Americans are scrambling to meet tonight’s midnight deadline to file their returns. More people put off filing until the last minute this year, hanging on promises of tax reductions by President Trump and the Republican Congress. Nothing has come of these promises to date, but rich and well-connected individuals and corporations are already taking their tax breaks to the bank – stashed or laundered offshore.

That’s a nugget I pocketed during a high-stakes poker game with some of the richest men in the world – me as the interloping poor journalist willing to accept a handout to buy into the game and them as the self-described misunderstood and much-maligned benefactors of the global economic engine, who just want me to set the record straight. How they came to place such faith in your humble scribe, I cannot say, although I did agree to disguise their identities and to allow a review of the column. I’ve always been guided by the facts, as I see them, in writing The Vibe. It’s the truth as best I know it.

My fellow poker players may be anonymous, but symbolically they represented a select few in a global class. In fact, they only half-jokingly referred to themselves as “Masters of the Universe,” the superheroes winning in the global marketplace. That moniker came from the player we shall call Message Master, a U.S.-based communications guru who guided political and public relations campaigns in the United States and abroad. Message Master directed the table chatter in his disarming drawl, trying to assure that The Vibe was in tune with the narrative he was spinning.

We will come back to the omnipresent Message, but let’s go around the table, and get a sense of the players and their games. With this group, it’s appropriate to start with Money Master, a European of no national identity or loyalty. As a corporate lawyer, he has studied how to manipulate laws in most First and Third World nations, delivering tax havens for his clients, including the players in this game. In tending to the sheltering of the fortunes of the world, Money contributed to losses to national coffers estimated by the International Monetary Fund at hundreds of billions of dollars each year. But governments get plenty, Money argued as he played a bit more haphazardly than others, staying in with a pair of 10s in one hand, bluffing in his self-assured style, seeming intent to stay in every hand, for the conversation if nothing else. Money is talking:

“Everybody wants to be rich, and they can. You just have to be smart, keep your head up, and look for opportunities. Invest, that’s the secret; it’s not hard work. Just learn the law, play the angles, and be smart. Remember what Trump said when Hillary said he didn’t pay taxes? ‘That makes me smart,’ he said. And he’s right.” What about the needs of nations, or the cities and states where corporations make their profit, then hide it in tax shelters? I want to know. Aren’t the rich starving the governments that provide the services that keep communities running? Not so, Money said. “Business pumps up the economies, creates jobs. Employees pay a portion of their wages in taxes, but owners make it happen by donating time and money. They need incentives to invest, or it doesn’t work. All society benefits from entrepreneurs.”

Entrepreneurship is a relatively new phenomenon in Russia, but with several small and well-placed bets in Boris Yeltsin’s wild and woolly Moscow in the early 1990s, Chess Master made a fortune, rising to the informal rank of oligarch in league with other rich friends, including those in the Kremlin. He may be the richest man at the table, with investments all over the world, but he played his cards more cautiously than most, tossing in his hands with regularity when a gamble presented itself. I asked Chess if caution is the key to his success, and he agreed, to a point. He was actually responding to the faces and body language of the other players.

“I play by feel, you know, with my gut, like Trump,” Chess said. “He seems stupid, right? Stupid like a fox. I know him; I met him in Moscow when he was running Miss Universe. He likes to impress people, always Mr. Cool. I know that game. You don’t play the cards; you play the players,” he gestured around the table. “I watch, I listen, I look for the end game, not just one hand. That is the benefit of an old country with a long history, not like the U.S. It is ebb and flow, not go-go-go. Be patient, and bide your time. Not everything is win-win.”

Chess was interrupted by the boisterous Master Whiz, an American high-tech innovator who made a small fortune with social media tools and is working to expand it by gambling in Las Vegas and on Wall Street. “What’s wrong with go-go-go, win-win-win?” he asked. “Nothing ventured, nothing gained, I say. Especially now, with Trump priming the pump, you got to move. You talk about timing. The time is now!”

Around the table, wary chuckles and raised eyebrows at the interjection by the brash American Whiz, who had been raking in chips since the game began. Whiz was the guy who organized the games, arranged the hosting and entertainment, as well as security – the poker ringleader, although these players were unlikely to follow him anywhere. They responded to his braggadocio by wondering aloud what happens when the luck runs out. Will Whiz continue to double-down? “You will have to watch and see,” Whiz said, “but why not? You have to play to win. Every time you miss, the odds are better for you. You win if you manage your risk with smarts.”

“But you must also manage your attitude; you can be too smart,” said Master Dharma, sharing his ancient wisdom. “Karma is real. The greedy lose.” His remarks drew hearty laughter from the other players, seemingly pleased that the taciturn Chinese businessman, the group’s newest member, upbraided Whiz. Money helped him broker lucrative real estate deals in Las Vegas and elsewhere. Dharma was a natural for a regular seat at Whiz’s poker table and provided a unique Chinese perspective, not so inscrutable as is claimed. Specifically, he offered a different take on Trump, elaborated in a conversation before our game.

“Your president likes to play games, make his own rules, Tweets whatever he wants,” Dharma said. “No filter, no thought, just talk. So we learn there is no meaning in his words. Why rise to empty insults? Just smile, nod, and wait until time to act. Then, he will act in his own interests, which is good relations with China. More money for him and Trump family. And for his friends. We learn over many years from American businessmen. Trump is like all these.”

In other words, Trump is just fine with the Chinese, is what I hear. He is a devil they know. In fact, he is the America they know. They are learning a lot from us, at least in the crass art of business profiteering, which is precisely the game the Masters engage in at the table and around the world. Message rushed to assure me, in a phone conversation after our game, that these players are all dedicated to peace and prosperity in the world.

“What you’ve witnessed, playing in our game, is a microcosm of a big moment in history when people of all backgrounds and nationalities are able to play well together to create prosperity for humankind. You hear so much criticism in the media of the so-called ‘one percent,’ but these are the ‘makers,’ the creators,” Message hammers on his talking points. “These are the people making history and building the future. Some people may criticize the game we play, but entrepreneurs are feeding the kitty, pumping livelihood into the neighborhoods. So we’re not just feeding the kitty at our poker table here; we’re putting food on kitchen tables around the world.”

Among the “makers” at this poker table, Chinese real estate mogul Dharma proved to be an especially astute player, smiling, nodding, and waiting patiently before striking like a cobra, winning nearly $3 million in the end. Whiz never broke a sweat in winning $1.5 million, minus the $15,000 your reporter lost for him. Chess cautiously walked away with about $500,000, and Message broke even. Money Master contributed to everyone’s bottom line, happily. “I never really lose,” he said with a dismissive wave of his hand and a laugh. “It always comes back to me, you know, in spades.”