JJ, my two cents: I think it is a "multi-tasking" shell game spun by Dems with aid and abet by a number of allied friendships, coworkers, perhaps even spanning a few countries.
Makes sense to me. Looking at the behaviours of former friends and allies, they all seem to be firmly wrapped in something like the OilForFood scam, with the intent of taking down our form of government, and installing who know who. Shadow Party stuff.