The rule of law, failing or not?

In recent years, the rule of law has seemed weak when it comes to dealing with white collar crime. The problem seems to be especially acute for politicians and crimes related to politics. Although the DoJ now states that there is an ongoing criminal investigation(s) of the ex-president, that is no guarantee of any indictment, much less any conviction for anything. From the looks of things, practiced white collar criminals have figured effective ways to commit many or most crimes and evade laws.

The New York Times describes an example of the near impossibility of convicting criminals who know how to play the system. The NYT writes:

Trump Executive Nears Plea Deal With Manhattan Prosecutors

Allen H. Weisselberg, who was charged with participating in a tax scheme, will not cooperate with the district attorney’s investigation into Donald J. Trump.

If it becomes final, a plea deal for the executive, Allen H. Weisselberg, would bring prosecutors no closer to indicting the former president but would nonetheless brand one of his most trusted lieutenants a felon.

While Mr. Weisselberg, 75, is facing financial penalties as well as up to 15 years in prison if convicted by a jury, a plea deal would avoid a high-profile trial and spare him a lengthy sentence. Two people with knowledge of the matter said that Mr. Weisselberg was expected to receive a five-month jail term. With time credited for good behavior, he is likely to serve about 100 days.

Prosecutors have long hoped that they could persuade Mr. Weisselberg to testify against Mr. Trump, given his decades in the employ of the Trump family and his vast knowledge of the company and its business practices.

Mr. Trump and his company have long maintained that Mr. Weisselberg would have had to lie to implicate Mr. Trump. Still, his decision to plead guilty — and accept prison time — underscores the extent of his loyalty to a family that has employed him for nearly a

half-century. 

Even without Mr. Weisselberg’s cooperation, the prosecutors continued to build a case against Mr. Trump, focusing on whether he falsely inflated the value of his hotels, golf clubs and other assets.

But Mr. Vance had decided not to run for re-election, and after weeks of meetings about the case, Mr. Bragg developed concerns about the challenge of showing that Mr. Trump intended to break the law, a requirement for proving the charge under consideration.

Weisselberg faces up to 15 years in jail, but is going to serve maybe 1-2 years. That is a farce. It is nothing. Weisselberg appears to be on the verge of getting off with a scolding accompanied by some finger wagging. 

Naughty boy, naughty, naughty boy. 

Weisselberg's response: 

Blow it out your tailpipe, you wuss

I'm not gonna rat him out

There, the punishment fit his crime. Justice has been served for the criminal Weisselberg. For the rest of us? Arguably not so much, or not at all.

If that is how this turns out for Weisselberg, big effing deal. 

I argue that this is yet more evidence the rule of law is usually a farce for people like Weisselberg and his criminal, traitor boss. T**** is laughing in our faces and the law cannot do a damned thing about it. Well, at least the law has yet to do a damned thing about it, and it has had years and years to act.

Q: Is the rule of law failing or not?

About those declassified documents

The New York Times writes:

Presidential Power to Declassify Information, Explained

While it is legally irrelevant, former President Donald J. Trump claims he had declassified the top secret files the F.B.I. seized at his Florida residence.

On Friday, Mr. Trump’s office claimed that when he was president, he had a “standing order” that materials “removed from the Oval Office and taken to the residence were deemed to be declassified the moment he removed them,” according to a statement read on Fox News by a right-wing writer Mr. Trump has designated as one of his representatives to the National Archives.

Apart from whether there is any evidence that such an order actually existed, the notion has been greeted with disdain by national security legal specialists. Glenn S. Gerstell, the top lawyer for the National Security Agency from 2015 to 2020, pronounced the idea that whatever Mr. Trump happened to take upstairs each evening automatically became declassified — without logging what it was and notifying the agencies that used that information — “preposterous.”

The claim is also irrelevant to Mr. Trump’s potential troubles over the document matter, because none of the three criminal laws cited in a search warrant as the basis of the investigation depend on whether documents contain classified information.

Is the classification system enforced by criminal law?

Largely not.

For the most part, the classification system is about bureaucratic controls. The main punishment for disobedience is administrative: Officials can be admonished, lose their security clearances and be fired.

Can presidents declassify matters directly?

Yes, because it is ultimately their constitutional authority. 

Do presidents have to obey the usual procedures?

There is no Supreme Court precedent definitively answering that question.

Can a president secretly declassify information without leaving a written record or telling anyone?

That question, according to specialists in the law of government secrecy, is borderline incoherent. 

If there is no directive memorializing a decision to declassify information and conveying it to the rest of the government, the action would essentially have no consequence, as departments and agencies would continue to consider that information classified and so would continue to restrict access to documents containing it.  

“Hypothetical questions like ‘What if a president thinks to himself that something is declassified? Does that change its status?’ are so speculative that their practical meaning is negligible,” said Steven Aftergood, a secrecy specialist with the Federation of American Scientists.

He added: “It’s a logical mess. The system is not meant to be deployed in such an arbitrary fashion.”

Huh??

Despite the NYT article assertion that declassification is irrelevant, in my opinion it does not provide comfort that T**** is going to be indicted, convicted and jailed for anything. Maybe a sharply worded rebuke from someone might be forthcoming. Or maybe not. 

Borderline incoherence is not illegal. In fascist Republican politics, it is as common as actual incoherence. It’s also not rare in Democratic Party politics. Speculation that is preposterous or that has negligible practical meaning is also not illegal. Aiding in T****’s defense is the expert’s assertion that the system “is a logical mess” and a statement that “the system is not meant to be deployed in such an arbitrary fashion.” Who gives a hoot about how a system is meant to be deployed, unless that intent is backed by meaningful criminal law? Fascist Republicans could not care less about the “spirit of the law.” They do care about winning, power and wealth. 

Heck, they usually don’t even care much or at all about “the letter of the law,” since it is so rarely applied to politics. 

All-in-all, it sounds a lot like we have a mostly toothless secrecy system that is easily and legally subverted by (i) a treasonous or corrupt president, and (ii) a bureaucrat, treasonous or corrupt or not. 

Preposterous speculation

Maybe the law about retaining government documents that T**** and the Republicans in congress passed (in 2018?) will come back to bite the traitor. T**** and the Republicans passed that law to nail Hillary Clinton with a felony if it turned out that she had illegally kept government documents. She didn't break the Republican anti-Hillary law, but maybe T**** did. 

Unfortunately, whacking T**** with his own law requires the DoJ to have the guts to vindicate the rule of law. In view of its track record so far, that assumption is preposterous speculation. It is deployed in such an arbitrary fashion that it carries negligible practical meaning, if you catch my drift. 

America’s descent into hate, chaos and violence

NBC News writes:

A Louisiana school librarian is suing two men for defamation after they accused her of advocating to keep "pornographic" materials in the parish library's kids' section. It's a rare example of an educator taking legal action against conservatives who use extreme rhetoric in their battle against LGBTQ-themed books.

Amanda Jones, a librarian at a middle school in Denham Springs, Louisiana, filed a defamation lawsuit Wednesday, arguing that Facebook pages run by Michael Lunsford and Ryan Thames falsely labeled her a pedophile who wants to teach 11-year-olds about anal sex.

Jones, the president of the Louisiana Association of School Librarians, was alarmed and outraged by the verbal attacks, which came after she spoke against censorship at a Livingston Parish Library Board of Control meeting. She said she’s suing the two men because she’s exhausted with the insults hurled at educators and librarians over LGBTQ materials.

“I’ve had enough for everybody,” Jones said in an interview. “Nobody stands up to these people. They just say what they want and there are no repercussions and they ruin people’s reputations and there’s no consequences.”

Lunsford did not respond to requests for comment. Thames declined to comment.

Nationwide, school districts have been bombarded by conservative activists and parents over the past year demanding that books with sexual references or that discuss racial conflict, often by authors of color or those who are LGBTQ, be purged from campuses. Those demands have slowly moved toward public libraries in recent months.

Many conservative activists have referred to people who defend the books as “groomers,” comparing them to child molesters. The Proud Boys, an extremist hate group, has barged into LGBTQ-themed reading events in several libraries, insisting they need to protect children. Some librarians have said they no longer feel safe serving in their roles.

More than 600 people donated a combined $20,000 for Jones on GoFundMe so she could respond with legal action.

The defamation suit seeks damages and asks a judge to issue a restraining order to prevent the two activists from speaking about Jones publicly. She also filed criminal complaints with the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office against the men. The sheriff’s office said the case is under investigation.

CNN writes:

The FBI is investigating an "unprecedented" number of threats against bureau personnel and property in the wake of the search of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, including some against agents listed in court records as being involved in the recent search, a law enforcement source tells CNN.

In the days following the search [at Mar-a-Lago], violent threats surfaced online, with posters writing, "Garland needs to be assassinated" -- referencing Attorney General Merrick Garland, who "personally approved" the decision to seek a warrant -- and "kill all feds." Additionally, the biography and contact information of the federal magistrate judge who signed the search warrant was wiped from a Florida court's website after he too became the target of violent threats.

The New York Times writes:

As Right-Wing Rhetoric Escalates, So Do Threats and Violence

Both threats of political violence and actual attacks have become a steady reality of American life. Experts blame dehumanizing and apocalyptic language.

In the year and a half since a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, threats of political violence and actual attacks have become a steady reality of American life, affecting school board officials, election workers, flight attendants, librarians and even members of Congress, often with few headlines and little reaction from politicians.

In late June, a former Marine stepped down as the grand marshal of a July 4 parade in Houston after a deluge of threats that focused on her support of transgender rights. A few weeks later, the gay mayor of an Oklahoma city quit his job after what he described as a series of “threats and attacks bordering on violence.”

While this welter of events may feel disparate, occurring at different times and places and to different types of people, scholars who study political violence point to a common thread: the heightened use of bellicose, dehumanizing and apocalyptic language, particularly by prominent figures in right-wing politics and media.

Several right-wing or Republican figures reacted to the search of Mar-a-Lago not only with demands to dismantle the F.B.I., but also with warnings that the action had triggered “war.”

“This just shows everyone what many of us have been saying for a very long time,” Joe Kent, a Trump-endorsed House candidate in Washington State, said on a podcast run by Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s former chief political strategist. “We’re at war.”  

On Thursday, a 42-year-old Ohio man, identified as Ricky W. Shiffer, showed up at the Cincinnati field office of the F.B.I. with an AR-15-style rifle and was subsequently shot to death after firing multiple times at the police during a standoff. There is no evidence of what prompted Mr. Shiffer to act. But Mr. Shiffer’s social media posts later revealed that he was full of rage about, among other things, the search at Mar-a-Lago — and that he wanted revenge.  

“Violence is not (all) terrorism,” he wrote — on Mr. Trump’s own social media app, Truth Social. “Kill the F.B.I. on sight.”

Violence is not terrorism? That is blithering nonsense. Violence can be terrorism when it is illegal and unwarranted.   

This childish, mindless hate and violence is what decades of poisonous Republican Party lies, slanders, irrational emotional manipulation and crackpot conspiracy bullshit has encouraged and unleashed. Millions of Americans are morphing into domestic terrorists based on nothing but lies, slanders and irrational drivel. Fascist Republican elites, donors and their propagandists incite the hate, chaos and violence. This is Republican Party’s way of attacking and destroying democracy, the rule of law, civil liberties and respect for truth, especially inconvenient truth.

Being focused purely on winning power and based on lies and deceit, these fascist lies, slanders and attacks are unprincipled and incoherent. The Republican Party incites and condones it all, making it a fascist domestic terrorist organization.

Q: It is time for law enforcement to classify the Republican Party as a domestic terrorist organization?

Rank and file fascists?

If not, then what?

Election Integrity!!

 With all the concerns about election integrity in the U.S., what needs to happen to make sure voting IS done fairly?

Some ideas:

Do away with ALL mail-in voting
Do away with ALL early voting, only same day voting allowed
Have armed guards at all voting stations to ensure no undesirables are voting
Restrict voting rights for Blacks
Hire Cyber Ninjas to audit every district that does not go to Republicans
Pass laws forbidding media from posting polling data, Fox exempted

If anyone else can suggest ways to secure election integrity, suggestions are welcome.

MAGA!

Blame Snowy for this presentation!

Social violence is near as Republican elites attack law enforcement and the FBI

Freeze Peach mentioned this little news item from yesterday. Mediaite writes:

Breitbart Publishes Names of FBI Agents Involved in Mar-a-Lago Raid 

That DOJ Sought to Keep Hidden

A handful of media outlets reported on Friday the contents of the search warrant executed at former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate, but Breitbart also published information about the FBI agents involved that the Department of Justice had sought to protect.

Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, Politico, and Breitbart all reported on the contents of the warrant, which indicate the DOJ is investigating the former president for a possible violation of the Espionage Act, as well as obstruction of justice.

Breitbart, the far-right publication once helmed by former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon, published the names of FBI employees involved in Monday’s search. Breitbart reported the FBI gave two receipts listing the seized items to Trump’s attorney.

“The longer receipt was signed by FBI Special Agent [REDACTED] and the shorter receipt was signed by the name: [REDACTED] and includes [REDACTED],” Breitbart’s article stated, while not redacting the names as Mediaite has done here. “It is unclear who that person is, and the handwriting is not the clearest.”

My initial reaction to the reaction of the Republican Party leadership and its propaganda Leviathan was that the GOP was now openly attacking the rule of law. It is the case that the GOP has been undermining the rule of law for years. However, the GOP reaction to the search warrant of the traitor's Mar-a-Lago residence felt different. It felt a lot more direct and more immediately deadly. But that was just an initial personal reaction. I've been accused of over-reacting and being wildly alarmist multiple times.

Events in recent days have reinforced my initial reaction that we're approaching violence. In my opinion, American conservative politics and the Republican Party, including its rank and file, have passed a point of not only reason and reality. It is now in the process of passing a point of restraint against violence. Is that an over-reaction? Maybe. I hope so. But I now doubt it.

In my opinion, Republican Party fascism is starting to make its final move to normalize and foment violence. Its got God on its side, so the ends justify all means, including civil war based on lies.

Sad history

Sadly, Americans wars are usually based on lies to a non-trivial extent. Some historians see the Declaration of Independence as a gigantic propaganda piece that seriously distorted reality to whip up pro-war sentiment among Americans. That historical argument seems reasonable. There was a major propaganda by land owning elites in the South before and during the Civil War to con poor White people into supporting the mass slaughter. The government's gigantic propaganda effort, the Committee on Public Information, to con Americans into a pro-war sentiment before entry into World War 1 is well known. We all know about Vietnam, as moral philosopher Sissela Bok wrote:

“[Johnson repeatedly told the American people] ‘the first responsibility, the only real issue in this campaign, the only thing you ought to be concerned about at all, is: Who can best keep the peace?’ The stratagem succeeded; the election was won; the war escalated. .... President Johnson thus denied the electorate of any chance to give or refuse consent to the escalation of the war in Vietnam. Believing they had voted for the candidate of peace, American citizens were, within months, deeply embroiled in one of the cruelest wars in their history. Deception of this kind strikes at the very essence of democratic government.”

And now, we have an openly fascist, radical right Republican Party riding on the vicious, cruel winged dragon called Demagoguery. The dragon has been flying and sowing its poison for decades, e.g., Faux News, Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones, Steve Bannon, etc. 

In accord with solidly established American tradition, Demagoguery is lying, deceiving, slandering, emotionally manipulating, and normalizing and fomenting pro-war sentiment among as many American minds as the beast can deceive and poison. 

No one can say that what is happening now has not happened here before. Looks like it is going to happen again, if the poll data below is a reasonable indicator of where American sentiment is going.

Qs: Is it reasonable or unreasonable to see the doxxing of the FBI agents as Breitbart has done as a Republican Party attack on law enforcement? Does it matter that there has already been an attack on the FBI in recent days**? Can bad words lead to bad behavior**?

** NPR: An attack on an FBI office raises concerns about violent far-right rhetoric

MAGA reaction to FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago. pic.twitter.com/6DO9BF05pi

— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) August 8, 2022

The crumbling rule of law

Fascist Republican Joe Cuffari, 

happily squelching investigations and

stonewalling for the Republican Party 

Personally, both Biden and Garland have been failures so far in terms of vindicating the rule of law. They do not take the rule of law seriously when it comes to rich or powerful people. The latest inaction outrage comes from a T**** appointee, Joe Cuffari, who is stonewalling an investigation into what happened to Secret Service texts related to the Republican's 1/6 coup attempt. Biden says he won't get involved. Not surprisingly, some congressional Republicans oppose any investigations into the Republican Party's 1/6 coup attempt, in part because they supported the coup attempt, making them complicit. 

As usual, the rule of law is a farce when it comes to political elites and partisans. 

The Washington Post writes:

The White House has faced mounting questions about a decision by the Department of Homeland Security inspector general’s office to abandon attempts to recover missing Secret Service texts from Jan. 6, 2021. President Biden, in response, has signaled his intention to stay out of the process as an independent watchdog investigates the inspector general.

But Joseph V. Cuffari and his staff have refused to release certain documents and tried to block interviews, effectively delaying that probe, which has now stretched for more than 15 months and evolved into a wide-ranging inquiry into more than a dozen allegations of misconduct raised by whistleblowers and other sources, according to three people familiar with the case who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an open investigation.

Some Republican senators have also raised stiff resistance to the investigation — which is being overseen by a panel of federal watchdogs from the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) — questioning the need for a full probe into the Trump administration appointee.

Led by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) the senators have demanded that investigators scale back records requests from Cuffari’s office and pressed them on their motives, according to congressional aides and documents.

Cuffari and his staff have complained to the senators of a politically motivated fishing expedition designed to undermine him, according to sources familiar with the investigation and congressional aides. In a written response to questions from House lawmakers last summer, Cuffari said the probe “will destroy” his office. He accused investigators of “undermining my attempts to clean up DHS OIG.”

There is no doubt that what Cuffari means by saying he is trying to “clean up DHS OIG” is that he is actively trying to poison and subvert it. Cuffari is a T**** appointee. He previously stifled an investigation embarrassing to T**** and Republican elites. Cuffari rejected his staff's recommendation to investigate what role the United States Secret Service played in the forcible clearing of protesters from Lafayette Square during T****'s photo shoot at St. John's Church in 2020.

People like Cuffari, i.e., essentially all Republicans, want no investigations into any crimes that any Republicans commit. They are enthusiastic about endless investigations going after Hunter Biden and his laptop or Hillary and her emails. But by God, there will be no investigations of crimes of Republicans, especially Republican elites. That is American fascism in action. 

And that Republican fascism is aided and abetted by clueless Biden and his worse than worthless AG, Merrick Garland. The FBI does not look very good here either. The FBI was fine with starting an investigation of Hillary a week or two before the 2016 election, causing her campaign grievous damage, but they walk on eggshells when it comes to Republicans.