How corrupt is the FBI?
This corrupt. And judges/magistrates seem to have little trouble rubber-stamping the FBI’s excesses.
Neither of the stories of FBI malfeasance described in the linked post at Ace’s have anything to do with searching Donald Trump, by the way. The first one involves the confiscation of the property of 1400 safety deposit boxes in Beverly Hills, based on a misrepresentation by the FBI. But even without the misrepresentation, this sort of mass search and seizure of the property of people not suspected of a specific crime – just a general possibility that some of them might be drug dealers – should never have been approved.
The privacy invasion was vast when FBI agents drilled and pried their way into 1,400 safe-deposit boxes at the U.S. Private Vaults store in Beverly Hills…
Eighteen months later, newly unsealed court documents show that the FBI and U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles got their warrant for that raid by misleading the judge who approved it.
They omitted from their warrant request a central part of the FBI’s plan: Permanent confiscation of everything inside every box containing at least $5,000 in cash or goods, a senior FBI agent recently testified.
The FBI’s justification for the dragnet forfeiture was its presumption that hundreds of unknown box holders were all storing assets somehow tied to unknown crimes, court records show.
It took five days for scores of agents to fill their evidence bags with the bounty: More than $86 million in cash and a bonanza of gold, silver, rare coins, gem-studded jewelry and enough Rolex and Cartier watches to stock a boutique.
The U.S. attorney’s office has tried to block public disclosure of court papers that laid bare the government’s deception, but a judge rejected its request to keep them under seal.
The box holders have mounted a class action lawsuit against the government, and that’s the only reason the deception has come out.
The FBI had reason to suspect that there was some criminal activity going on with certain unknown safe deposit box holders as well as the business itself, due to the fact that they observed drug suspects walking in and out.
So get a warrant to search the boxes of the actual suspects, if you must. That’s not all that happened, though. What happened was described above – an FBI out of control.
This is a good analogy:
Box holders would liken the raid to police barging into a building’s 700 apartments and taking every tenant’s possessions when they have evidence of wrongdoing by nobody but the landlord.
Please read the whole thing. It’s long but fascinating and horrifying. And it actually doesn’t matter if a lot of these boxholders were drug dealers. It doesn’t even matter if all of them were, although of course that’s not the case. I especially like this bit:
When the FBI vacated U.S. Private Vaults, it posted a notice in the store window inviting customers to claim their property. The FBI went on to investigate anyone who stepped forward, checking their bank records, state tax returns, DMV files and criminal histories, agents testified.
Sounds like a mass sting operation to me.
Do a Google search or a DuckDuckGo search for “fbi misled judge in beverly hills safe deposit box search” or something of the sort. Usually when you search Google for a big story, the entire first page of results consists of MSM sources such as the NY Times, the WaPo, and the like. Ordinarily, sources on the right are way down on the list. The exceptions are when the story is something the MSM would like to bury and the right is covering. In the case of this story, it’s mostly on the right except for the local angle of the LA Times covering it quite heavily. Also, as you could see from my Yahoo link above, Yahoo picked up the story from the LA Times; the text in Yahoo and the Times appear to be the same. Other coverage is from the right, such as the NY Post and Reason. Even doing a search like “New York Times Beverly Hills safety deposit box FBI search” yields nothing in the Times. Same with the WaPo.
This may seem tangential, but it’s not. It’s the way stories are buried and at least half the population doesn’t even know about them.
The second part of the story at the link to Ace that began this post is about the FBI SWAT-type raid on Catholic pro-life activist Mark Houck. A link to the story can be found here. Once again, when I do a Google search I can only find coverage from the right, plus a Rolling Stone piece that follows the “Republicans pounce” angle.
Here’s an excerpt from the latter:
The Catholic father of seven is Mark Houck, and the Department of Justice on Friday charged him with two counts of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. The DOJ has accused Houck of twice assaulting a 72-year-old volunteer patient escort at the Planned Parenthood Elizabeth Blackwell Health Center in Philadelphia. According to the DOJ indictment obtained by The Daily Beast, the 47-year-old Houck “forcefully shoved B.L. to the ground” and then, in a second altercation the same day, “verbally confronted B.L. and forcefully shoved B.L. to the ground.” Houck did this “because B.L. was a volunteer escort at the reproductive health care clinic,” the indictment said. The second assault caused “injuries to B.L. that required medical attention.”
Houck’s wife, Ryan-Marie Houck, said in an interview with Catholic anti-abortion website LifeSiteNews that police and federal agents surrounded their family home to arrest her husband. After she opened the door to the authorities, she said, “they had big, huge rifles pointed at Mark and pointed at me and kind of pointed throughout the house” while their seven children were home. Houck’s wife also claimed that the clinic escort was saying “crude” things to her then 12-year-old son before the alleged incidents and “kind of came into [the son’s] personal space.” She said her husband drives to Philadelphia one day each week to spend 6-8 hours protesting reproductive health clinics…
The alleged assault [by Houck] has not stopped MAGA media from attempting to make the case an exhibit of conservative persecution.
The article conveniently leaves out the following:
The altercation was captured on a video the Houcks are in the process of locating, Middleton added. As of Sunday the family had not yet hired a lawyer but they expect to do so on Monday, he said.
When both the city police and the district attorney declined to file charges against Houck, the escort filed a private criminal complaint in Philadelphia municipal court, Middleton said. The case was dismissed in July when the man repeatedly didn’t show up in court, Middleton said.
Just days later, Houck received a “target letter” from the U.S. Attorney’s Office informing him that he was the focus of a federal criminal probe into the same incident, Middleton said.
Through his attorney at the time, Houck tried to contact the U.S. Attorney’s Office to discuss the case but never received a response, Middleton said.
“The next time they heard anything was Friday morning,” he said.
That’s when the raid occurred.
More:
“[The agents during the raid] said they were going to break in if he didn’t open it. And then they had about five guns pointed at my husband, myself, and basically at my kids,” [Houck’s wife] added.
“They were pointing their weapons,” Middleton said. “They came in as if they were expecting some kind of confrontation.”
The FBI told CNA that Houck was arrested outside his residence Friday morning “without incident.” In a press release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania said that Houck is being charged with a violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, more commonly referred to as the FACE Act.
The federal indictment says that Houck twice assaulted a 72-year-old man who was a patient escort at a Planned Parenthood clinic at 1144 Locust St. in Philadelphia on Oct. 13, 2021. Houck first shoved the escort, identified by the initials B.L., to the ground as B.L was attempting to escort two patients, the indictment says. Houck also “verbally confronted” and “forcefully shoved” B.L. to the ground in front of the clinic on the same day, the indictment says.
The indictment says that B.L. was injured and needed medical attention. Middleton, the Houck family spokesman, maintains the injury was minor, only requiring “a Band-Aid on his finger.”
If convicted, Houck could face up to 11 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $350,000, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The local charges didn’t stick, so the feds got involved. Now, where have we heard that before?
The attack on Houck (involved in an altercation perhaps best described as a scuffle with an older man who was shouting obscenities at his young son) may well be the single most disgraceful of all the recent Stasi-like actions from our thoroughly corrupt FBI/DOJ. That he could possibly be sentenced to years in prison and be fined an outrageously large sum is an indictment of our system of (in)justice which no-one could have imagined several years ago. Our “alphabet agencies” have gone fully rogue and would appear to be not only completely indefensible but also utterly irreparable.
Given the recent SCOTUS decision that there is no federal Constitutional guarantee of a right to abortion, on what is the authority of the FACE act based?
I haven’t read the text of the law, but it was passed in 1994, so I’d assume it was based on protecting the right as stated in Roe, much like the basis for the federal Voting Rights acts. But with Roe overturned, that authority goes away.
It might be interesting to see a challenge based on that.
Half the population doesn’t know about the stories? More like two-thirds. One would be amazed by how little the general population pays attention. My brother legitimately thinks, in his tiny town of less than 100,000, that it is still 1992, nothing has changed since then. He thinks the dems are still Clinton or even JFK. Never underestimate a person’s ability to be insular in their environment. The rejection of *legitimate* community (not the leftist version), as in ‘love thy neighbor’, partly got us where we are.
The FBI, like the MSM, are a 21st century Democrat agency, and that’s about all there is to it. Heaven help you if you oppose the party.
‘we are fighting not only men (and women) but principalities and powers of the air’
the bureau looks like the secret police from whence the deep state notion arises,
egypt turkey et al,
https://thefederalist.com/2022/09/26/the-fbis-matt-gaetz-operation-sidelined-an-effective-republican-voice-at-a-crucial-time-that-was-the-point/
It’s worth pointing out that the warrant for the Beverly Hills operation was signed by another ‘judge magistrate.’ That is, someone who isn’t actually a judge, which raises constitutional issues that are probably going to be ignored.
Not least because the issues surrounding the warrant are likely to end up on his docket, and starting off with ‘You didn’t have the authority to sign any warrant, much less this one’ is unlikely to get you a winning argument, however correct it is.
These true reports of the politicization of our nation’s justice system, especially at the federal level, and our Congress’ decades long fiscal mismanagement, are the two most dangerous threats to our nation’s continued success.
If something is not done to halt both soon a future Gibbons will be referencing these news stories in “The History of the Rise and Fall of the American Empire.”
Reversing course is actually rather simple in practice, but it does not seem our nation’s citizens nor leaders have the maturity nor courage to change course.
Pan et circensis.
Dan Bongino has done a two-part interview with an FBI whistleblower. It’s a real eyeopener. Apparently, since the Patriot Act was passed, the agency’s become a huge intelligence, counter-intelligence operation and less of a law enforcement operation. Guess what they’re doing with the intelligence gathering? Yep, targeting citizens who aren’t on board with the Democrat program.
The whistleblower says there are many agents who don’t like what’s going on but have what he called “golden handcuffs.” They are over ten years toward their retirement at twenty years, have families, mortgages, etc., and don’t want to blow their chance for retirement. So, they keep their heads down and do what they’re told. Those who lean Democrat get promoted faster. (Like Strzok and Page.) It’s a sad situation. Takes guts to step up and refuse to do illegal/unethical things. The whistleblower is suspended and apparently unable to get a new job unless the FBI approves it.
Two hours for the whole thing, but well worth it.
Part one is here:
https://rumble.com/v1l37oz-interview-with-fbi-whistleblower-kyle-seraphin-part-1-ep.-1857-the-dan-bong.html
Part two
https://rumble.com/v1l5x1t-interview-with-fbi-whistleblower-kyle-seraphin-part.-2-ep.-1858-the-dan-bon.html:
Thanks for highlighting the FBI seizure of safety deposit boxes Neo. That’s just appalling. To quibble though, I think it is much worse that a “mass sting operation.” Sting operations usually have a certainty, or a very high probability, that the those being stung are guilty.
I’d call it a massive theft in violation of the 4th A., combined with a fishing expedition. We need mandatory minimum sentencing for basic constitutional violations such as this.
I fear the cancerous rot is too deep and widespread for political and legal reform. The 2024 election and its aftermath will reveal whether any hope remains and then only if the new President applies a degree of radical surgery never before seen. And without unwavering support from the military any surgery attempted will fail. So the first thing a new President must do is purge the upper ranks in every branch of the military.
One can only hope that there are more FBI agents like Steve Friend. I also hope that when the Dems are out of the executive branch every one of the agents involved in these raids are fired without any benefits. Didn’t we say after WWII that just following orders is no excuse?
Geoffrey Britain,
“The 2024 election and its aftermath will reveal whether any hope remains…”
For at least two decades every election cycle has been the cycle that will “determine the fate of the Republic.” It helps Sean Hannity and Rachel Maddow get viewership, resulting in higher salaries for them, but nothing ever seems to change.
Trump was a bull in a china shop (for good and bad), but even he could do nothing to alter the course. It would take a massive, concerted effort of thousands of people (tens of thousands?) in key positions acting in concert at all levels; local, state and federal.
Not impossible. I pray it happens. But even if we eventually elect enough fair minded individuals willing to suffer the immense backlash to get the job done it will take years of work to right our ship of state. The fact that political ads and pundits are emphasizing “the next election cycle” is one of many indicators that we will not, as a nation, do what is necessary to right our course.
It requires a mass, organized movement. Neither the Republicans nor Democrats have any interest in changing the status quo. Yes, there are a few Republicans and a few Democrats, but their parties shut them down the minute they make any headway towards change. It’s Oceania vs. Eastasia. Or, as George Carlin said, “It’s a big club and you ain’t in it.”
This goes hand in hand with what the FBI did to their ultimate boss, a United States President, Trump.
Currently, the FBI, along with the DoJ, do not care about things as constitutionality and do not hide it.
All of this ties into a not long ago post here where someone replied that Trump is guilty of espionage, mishandling of classified documents, and causing climate change. OK, I jest, climate change is due to Republicans.
A president cannot legislate away an inherent power of the office. Things just don’t work that way. That person’s replies show without a doubt that the constitution is dead to them and the one and only power is the administrative state of the government in which they, and only them, determine what is legal or not.
That is totalitarianism. The fact they work hand in glove with private businesses in many ways means they are Fascist.
Rufus T Firefly,
“It would take a massive, concerted effort of thousands of people (tens of thousands?) in key positions acting in concert at all levels; local, state and federal.”
It is a certainty that there would be as many people opposing such an effort as supporting it. We are a House Divided.
Given the entrenched and widespread forces arrayed against meaningfull reform, you’ve just made two assertions; a realistic prospect for it to happen doesn’t exist and only a civil war, where at a minimum tens of thousands are killed might the Constitution be reinstated.
Tyranny knows only force, which is why once tyranny is imposed, only force can remove it.
The CommieCrats wanted to never have to campaign again because HR1 was supposed to pass through Congress, signed into law by the DementiaDent..
Looks like they’ve got another way to a one-party State.
Haste la Vista, America.
Geoffrey Britain,
I absolutely do not agree that war is the only positive way forward. I remember how I felt when Carter was President and how quickly this country turned positive under Reagan. And it was similar in Donald Trump’s first two years.
There are tens of millions of Americans who believe in freedom, personal responsibility, charity, hard work… All we need is a Federal government that is not punishing success, that is not rewarding political sycophants and America will shine as bright as it has in the past.
When Reagan turned the economy from Carter’s malaise look how quickly the majority of the communist baby boomers turned capitalist. Nothing succeeds like success.
Geoffrey Britain,
It’s so tangential as to possibly not even be related, but regarding, “Tyranny knows only force, which is why once tyranny is imposed, only force can remove it.”
How do you explain something like “Operation Paperclip?” Military scientists engaged one year in designing weapons of mass destruction for the totalitarian Nazi’s, then shifting on a dime to use their talents to promote capitalism and liberty? A lot of people are apolitical. They just want to do what they want to do and if a system that works better comes along they’ll gladly pick up and wave a different flag.
Reading my comments at 8:23 and 11:22 it sounds like I’m refuting my own statement. I do believe things can change for the good quickly, but I also believe the Federal and media structure fighting that changed is very entrenched, pervasive and well organized.
Trump’s populism was turning attitudes in this country but the “swamp” swamped him, his message and his administration. We need a lot of Congressmen and women, a lot of State Governors and AGs and a lot of voices in media to turn things now.
Some good things are happening in some States. We’ve got a lot of good voices on-line and on streaming services, and a handful in the MSM. The Supreme Court shows signs of hope. I don’t hold out a lot of hope at the congressional level. But change can happen. It will take a decade of good people in key positions to clean out all the rot, and that’s a lot to hope for.
Rufus T. Firefly:
“Don’t say that’s he’s hypocritical,
Say rather that he’s apolitical.
‘Once rockets are up, who cares where zey come down?
Zat’s not my department,’ says Werner Von Braun.”
Rufus, neo:
Thank for a good laugh and a reminder of Werner von Braun!
Not so many recall that the whole lunar orbiter strategy, which on Apollo 11 put Neil Armstrong on the Moon, was von Braun’s.
I don’t have a good moral for that story. Like “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”:
_________________
[Werner’s] just this guy, you know?
New developments in the Houck Caper – as with President Trump, he was already talking to the DOJ before the raid.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/rebeccadowns/2022/09/26/sen-josh-hawley-wants-to-know-why-prolifers-are-held-to-an-unequal-standard-by-bidens-doj-n2613625
“Despite having no legal foundation to charge him under the FACE Act, his lawyers said three months ago he would voluntarily turn himself into the DOJ.
The FBI sent 30 armed agents to his house anyway.”
The story under this headline cites the same cases Neo discussed here.
https://townhall.com/columnists/mattvespa/2022/09/27/the-justice-department-is-making-a-great-case-for-its-total-dissolution-n2613630
This FBI agent attempts to disparage his (un-named) collegues who are blowing the whistle on this corruption, and some of his defenses may be heart-felt, but in light of the things we actually KNOW the FBI has done, he fails to convince me of his charges.
https://townhall.com/columnists/johnnantz/2022/09/27/fbi-whistleblower-huckster-or-opportunist-n2613640?utm_campaign=inarticle
As is often the case these days, I stand with Mollie Hemingway and Margot Cleveland.
https://thefederalist.com/2022/09/26/the-fbis-matt-gaetz-operation-sidelined-an-effective-republican-voice-at-a-crucial-time-that-was-the-point/
The attacks on Roy Moore some years ago were just the out-of-town tryouts.
They had a bit more “evidence” (read: gossip) to work with there, but once the Democrats knew they could successfully intimidate the Republicans, they refined their techniques to where they needed no evidence at all.
https://thefederalist.com/2022/09/26/special-counsel-durhams-protect-the-establishment-approach-is-destroying-the-country/
Cleveland first defends, then corrects, the establishment lawyers.
It’s not The Babylon Bee, but it’s a close second.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/09/how_to_prepare_for_a_predawn_visit_from_the_fbi.html
And speaking of the Bee, the new Paper of Record, it’s not just the official government agencies that are corrupt and partisan to their core.
https://redstate.com/bobhoge/2022/09/26/not-a-joke-email-company-cancels-the-babylon-bee-n633148
I presume the Bee found another provider (no word on if they were able to retrieve their now-embezzled past emails), but it’s not a good advertisement for Front’s other clients among the 71 million domestic violent extremists the DOJ is planning to round up, eventually.
They’re going to need a bigger gulag.
I think that Not the Bee gets to the main point:
https://notthebee.com/article/the-fbi-arrested-a-pro-life-advocate-at-home-guns-drawn-in-front-of-his-frightened-children-all-over-a-bogus-charge-that-a-court-had-already-dismissed
1. The case in Beverly Hills provides another example of how the courts meddle a great deal but do not protect us very much. (The treatment of the J6 defendants is a gross example of this).
2. The Houck case is another argument for scraping barnacles off the federal penal code, which Congress won’t do because there isn’t any candy in it for their donors.
3. Both cases provide another argument for breaking up the FBI and firing most of its personnel, starting with the crew involved in both these capers. Mike Pence may have some congenial impulses, but he has proven in this circumstance as in others that he does not belong in the President’s chair.
I’m dubious about Gaetz for miscellaneous reasons, but the FBI’s activities do have a stench to them in his case. Republican politicians and Republican flacks have to start with the assumption that attacks on their own are psyops by the media, the sorosphere, and corrupted public agencies, because that’s the world in which we live now.
The anti-abortion guy took his child to an abortion clinic to protest? What kind of father does that? I blame him. @me.
Apparently, since the Patriot Act was passed, the agency’s become a huge intelligence, counter-intelligence operation and less of a law enforcement operation.
Well, repeal the Patriot Act.
Was their an initiative of George W. Bush’s administration that hasn’t blown up in our faces?
The anti-abortion guy took his child to an abortion clinic to protest? What kind of father does that?
Someone who wants his son to see how his father approaches his sidewalk ministry, that’s who.
I simply don’t understand how a judge signs off or remains quiet later about the Beverley Hills theft of safety deposit boxes by the FBI. It is a theft. The individuals who own that property were deprived of it until immediately and might only get it back if they could prove innocence. Meanwhile, the FBI went in not even knowing a crime was committed.
As for Houck, as noted he was willing to face trial. The raid is simply absurd. The FBI has been raiding homes like this across the country against civilians that pose zero threat. In contrast, anybody involved in the assault on the Portland Federal courthouse or firebombing pregnancy centers are not even investigated. It isn’t fair to compare the FBI to local blue city DA’s who let violent criminals back on the streets with minor, if any, bail. However, they’re all politicized by Democrats, so we see disregard for violent crimes and absurd levels of force to subdue citizens that are already talking to the police. It is not just a two tiered justice system, but one turned upside down.
Jahaziel+Maqqebet:
You are just the kind of person they used to need for a jury. No longer, he and his son had the wrong thoughts. My only surprise is that Houk didn’t die resisting arrest.
Clearly Houk is unfit to have those children to raise. Child endangerment? (sarc)
Art Deco said:
“I’m dubious about Gaetz for miscellaneous reasons, but the FBI’s activities do have a stench to them in his case. Republican politicians and Republican flacks have to start with the assumption that attacks on their own are psyops by the media, the sorosphere, and corrupted public agencies, because that’s the world in which we live now.”
I think Art Deco is absolutely right, but we need to appreciate that a lot of wingnuttery from the right can fly under the radar in this environment, perhaps by design. Take Gaetz, of whom I am also not a fan. “She was 18 at the time!” is a perfect defense to a criminal charge, but isn’t exactly a mark of integrity or an indication that Gaetz is fit for any kind of leadership on the right.
The same goes for Trump. I believe that the DOJ, FBI, NY AG, etc., are abusing their power in going after him, but that doesn’t mean that he’s pure as the driven snow or that he is an effective or appropriate leader for the right.
Frankly, I think the leftist apparatchiks pick their targets strategically as a way to select their own opponents. Goading the right to rally around politically toxic politicians like Trump or Gaetz is all part of the plan. (Watch for raids/charges against Lauren Bobert and/or MTG before 2024.)
As much as it pains me to write it, I suspect that Houck was part of the same plan. They want to goad the right to rally around a man who brought his 12-year-old son to an abortion clinic protest. I find myself agreeing with Art Deco for a third time in the same post. It is clearly Houck’s right to pray/counsel/protest and clearly his right to bring his kid. It really doesn’t matter whether any of us would have made the same decisions. That’s his business, not ours.
But – the narrative is exactly what the left wants – “Look at those crazy pro-lifers. They are defending a violent radical who brought his kid to try to block an abortion clinic.”
They’re giving us two choices: (1) keep quiet about leftist abuses; or (2) swallow the poison pill and defend/raise up the unpopular targets.
We need to find option (3).
Plenty
“She was 18 at the time!” is a perfect defense to a criminal charge, but isn’t exactly a mark of integrity or an indication that Gaetz is fit for any kind of leadership on the right.
The former Prime Minister of Canada began dating his wife when she was 19 and he was 33. Come to think of it, I’ve got a great-grandfather who met his wife when she was 16 and he was 32.
Goading the right to rally around politically toxic politicians like Trump or Gaetz is all part of the plan. (Watch for raids/charges against Lauren Bobert and/or MTG before 2024.)
There’s nothing wrong with Boebert or Greene.
They want to goad the right to rally around a man who brought his 12-year-old son to an abortion clinic protest.
If you want to persuade the world you’re a cringing poseur, you’re most effective.
Bauxite:
But OMB! And papers in Mar a Lago! Not that you would protest at an abortion clinic? Wouldn’t be prudent? That would be right wing fringery behaviour now would it not?
Notice that Rep. Margorie Taylor Green has already been SWATed three times? She may not be “pure as the driven snow” either. If only we agreed with the left, they wouldn’t be so mean?
This is at the same time when enlightened opinion allows shoplifting and assault to go unpunished, excuses arson and looting when done in violent protests on behalf of a cause considered good, and refuses to enforce immigration laws. This is the other side of politicized justice.
In Germany, during the Weimar Republic, judges and juries were soft on criminals who they thought were on the right (nationalist and anti-Versailles treaty) side. In prerevolutionary Russia, juries could be soft on criminals who were violent revolutionaries, because they sympathized with their goals.
The current combination of law enforcement that ignores street crime and prosecutes political opponents has been called anarcho-tyranny. I don’t think even 10 or 20 years back people thought it would come to America. Still, if J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI really did ignore the Mafia when it was focused on subversive Communists, some people will see that as a precedent.
The Gaetz thing sounds like political persecution, but I do wish we stopped elected people who make us cringe.
If we did, though, who’d be left in Congress? I hate the lunatics, scene stealers, and flame throwers on both sides, but without them Congress would be a very timid, cowed, conformist place.
“His allegiance is ruled by expedience.”
Great line, by Tom Lehrer and a much more succinct (and humorous) way to state the same notion I was trying to convey.
— Corrupt DOJ deliberately interfering with election outcomes? — see also Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska.
— Lying, stealing and cheating is standard operating procedure for Democrats and news media and has been for many decades. It all comes down to Lenin’s definition of morality. Democrats believe Republicans are evil. Everything that Democrats do to acquire and keep power is therefore moral. Everything. Even murder.
Yes, murder. Not hyperbole. How many examples do you want? Ask the families of the two women murdered by Capitol police on Jan 6. Ask the family of the teen who was murdered this week. Or the family of the witness to Dem corruption in Tenn who was silenced when the Dem party put out a contract hit on him in the 70s. How many people have the Clintons silenced? Did Ron Brown get a bullet hole in the back of the head because the plane crashed? Epstein didn’t hang himself. Vince Foster didn’t shoot himself, wrap himself in a carpet, drive to the park, and lie down as if to sleep. No one in the party or news media has any interest or care about any of these people. The victims are simply collateral damage on the path to power. Sacrifices that Democrat voters and journalists are happy to make. Broken eggs in the making of the omelet. A statistic and one unworthy of a second thought.
This is a party of people who endorse riots, killing, arson, attacks on cops, and federal buildings as long as they think it helps them politically. They endorse and support Antifa attacks on peaceful demonstrators. They demand that babies be killed after birth. They insist that the premature death of millions every year is an appropriate policy choice. Their notion of morality isn’t even remotely like ours. They demand the power to play God with other people’s lives because they are convinced that they are better than other people — more moral, more intelligent, more deserving of power, more discerning about who should live or die and who should prosper.
Lying, stealing, cheating, abusing power, convicting the innocent, imprisoning political prisoners, censorship, persecution, and harassment don’t even move the needle for them morally. They don’t care. All that matters is their lust for power driven by their certainty that they are morally better and more deserving. And that’s as good a definition of evil as any.
I am completely dumbfounded by the claim some are making here that there is something risky about bringing a 12 year old to stand outside an abortion clinic. I know some people who have participated in such activities and it is commonly a group of people, praying.
Many church youth groups hire buses to travel to the right to life march in D.C. I personally know many teens who have been active in peaceful, prayerful right to life demonstrations.
His son was attacked by a loon and the father had to step in to protect his son from harm. I guess his son was “asking to be attacked?” Maybe it was the way he was dressed?
Rufus T. Firefly – I don’t have any problem with bringing the 12 year old to the abortion clinic, but I suspect a lot of people will have a jaded view of that. (You can already see it here.) The narrative is suboptimal. Houck’s team says they have video of the incident. I hope for their sake that they do.
Also, FWIW, I’m much more inclined to endure the bad narrative in that situation than I am for Gaetz or Trump. I must be consumed by OMB.
Art Deco –
There’s no indication that Gaetz was looking for a spouse. If he marries the girl, I’ll gladly stand corrected.
Boebert and Greene (especially Greene) say crazy things. If you’re defending space lasers, you’re losing. Full stop. Add a whiff of criminality from a trumped up indictment, and you have the perfect narrative for the left. “Look at those crazy Republicans, they’re defending the criminal extremist who blamed California wildfires on PG&E space lasers.” I’m not saying its right, but you know its going to happen.
That’s my frustration. If a critical mass of Republicans decide to take the Trump Train over a cliff, the rest of the country is along for the ride whether we want to be or not.
Hes married thet went after his spouse, in ways they never go after jane shakowsky margaret mezhvinski et al
The same goes for Trump. I believe that the DOJ, FBI, NY AG, etc., are abusing their power in going after him, but that doesn’t mean that he’s pure as the driven snow or that he is an effective or appropriate leader for the right.
It’s interesting to see an example of Michael Anton’s point about conservatives today.
What is conservatism’s response to all this? What is the response of “the weasels, compromisers, mediocrities, and losers of the Republican-conservative-libertarian establishment”? Those are not my words, but I like them. They sum things up concisely, accurately, and vividly.
Conservatism’s response is to get angry. But not at any of these abuses or the people who commit them. No, rather it gets angry at people like Mollie Hemingway, Julie Kelly, and Heather Mac Donald (and others) who point out these outrageous abuses.
Conservatives have long believed that the noblest thing they can do is “police” their own side.
Police their own side. Of course ! Trump was to crude to be president. He had to be stopped by his party lest they be embarrassed by his lower class fans.
The Matt Taibbi article really got me rethinking my conclusions on Lynn Stewart, and also, going back well before the Patriot Act, Leonard Peltier. (Though I started rethinking what I had concluded about him when I learned more about Ruby Ridge and Waco, which were before the Patriot Act, but which both show an overzealous FBI that shows no control in the field.)
I don’t think I trust ANY thing the FBI has EVER done in its entire history.
Leland … I’ve been following a severe case of corruption in Minnesota via PowerLineBlog.com involving funding groups that provided food to kids who had gotten free school meals while schools were closed during COVID. One of the defenses that the Minnesota government used for why they continued to funnel money to the fraudsters was that a judge ordered them to do so after the fraudsters used lawfare to keep the money flowing.
It took the judge *8 months*, and charges finally being brought in federal court against the fraudsters, to finally issue a press release correcting the record that the Minnesota government voluntarily restarted payments and were not under any order to do so.
Look up the Feeding Our Future fraud at PowerLine for details.
I suppose that these judges could be worried about their cocktail party invitations if they say the wrong thing, or they could be worried about worse fates. Either way, definitely not profiles in courage.
stan at 12:20 pm …
Bingo.
“If a critical mass of Republicans decide to take the Trump Train over a cliff, the rest of the country is along for the ride whether we want to be or not.” Bauxite
Take the Trump-De Santis train or take the Biden train, either way we’re going over the cliff. Because the Left has already sabotaged the brakes.
Boebert and Greene (especially Greene) say crazy things. If you’re defending space lasers, you’re losing. Full stop.
If you care about off the cuff remarks cropped, shorn of context, and made use of as talking points by an opposition who have nothing but lies in their rhetorical toolkit, you aren’t devoting what little gray matter you have to anything worthwhile.
Related (to the most corrupt administration in American history…with its “trickle down” effect to government agencies and the insanely corrupt media)…
Some fascinating things at Powerline blog.
“Don’t Take the Bait;
“Some friendly liberal advice to Republicans.”—
https://americanmind.org/salvo/dont-take-the-bait/
“Deadly Democrats: The Crime Wave No One’s Talking About
The left-wing killing spree is out of control”—
“https://freebeacon.com/democrats/crime-spree-murder-scandal/
+ Bonus (from Fox):
“Nadler feuded with Schiff, Pelosi over ‘unconstitutional’ impeachment of Donald Trump;
“Nadler’s concern arose after he found out Judiciary Committee would not have ability to cross-examine impeachment witnesses”—
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/nadler-feuded-schiff-pelosi-unconstitutional-impeachment-donald-trump
Opening graf:
‘A new book reveals that House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., was at odds with how House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi handled impeachment proceedings against former President Trump, insisting that the methods used by the prominent Democrats were “unconstitutional” and could be used to attack the party….’
Notice that Nadler’s main point was not that it was WRONG because it was unconstitutional, but that it was wrong because it might ultimately backfire on the Democrats.
File under: Man of Myth!…and of (Occasional) Principle…
Lee Also:
The Taibbi article left out some of the Lynn Stewart facts that implicated her.
My personal opinion is that she probably was guilty as charged, but that the authorities used slimy methods to get some of the goods on her. If probably should have been considered “fruit of the poisonous tree.”
I read the Taibbi article quickly, but I believe he left out this sort of thing:
She was under an agreement not to do what she apparently did, and that formed the basis of the prosecution. However, the government overstepped in some of its actions against her, in my opinion. Read that whole article I quoted from in this comment if you’re interested in a deeper dive into some of the issues presented.
Yep
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/taibbi-washington-post-dabbles-orwell
Art Deco – Greene’s full post blaming California wildfires on Rothschild-owned space lasers is available. This isn’t an off-the-cuff statement shorn of context. Her musings are certifiably crazy. Ignore the lefty “journalism” and just read what Greene wrote:
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/marjorie-taylor-greene-qanon-wildfires-space-laser-rothschild-execute.html
Defend this and we lose.
“…is available…”
Of course it is…
https://www.newsweek.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-claims-jewish-space-lasers-conspiracy-theory-was-fake-news-1574928
Key graf:
“…She then claimed that the fires occurred in an area where Brown had planned the construction of a $77 billion high-speed rail project. She suggested that the fires financially benefited [Jerry] Brown, PG&E, Solaren and Rothschild Incorporated. Rothschild Incorporated is an international investment banking firm that bears the name of a wealthy Jewish family….”
Jerry Brown Jewish? Gosh, who knew?
PG&E a Jewish-owned corporation? Gosh, who knew?
Solaren, Inc. a Jewish establishment? Gosh…
Ah, but ROTHSCHILD!!!
IOW, her theory may be wrong, may even be outrageous…but get a grip.
the same publication, that slobbers over every word, ocasio cortez says, the hamas and so called antifa fan girl, yes they are legit,
https://twitter.com/CJBdingo25
this fellow apprised me of the global scope of the intel network that joseph mifsud was a part of,
Thanks very much for that fascinating Blackburn-Mifsud link….
you’re welcome, barry,
it’s rather striking to the extent they have made him dissapear, then they got a lefty reporter, who was in the yellow cake follies and a novelist in his own right, to admit he was still alive and retract his earlier statements,
https://justhuman.substack.com/p/recap-of-last-weeks-filings-in-the
Halper’s another slippery one…even if he’s nowhere near the level of Mifsud…
It seems rather amazing to me how many agents the Dems/Feds were willing to burn to get Trump….
(Not that Trump was supposed to be elected; and not that anyone was supposed to find out about any of it even if he was—Nunes deserves a lot of credit here—and even if the word did get out, not that anyone was going to be pursued or punished for it. Still, one has got to wonder how nervous the Feds may have gotten about the possible exposure of this “intricate conspiracy of breathtaking beauty”…. For a while I was expecting bodies to turn up in odd places left, right and center…. Still sorta harbor such fantasies…also WRT the 2020 elections FWIW…)
Barry Meislin – How dare they accuse our conspiracy nut of being anti-semetic! She’s just a regular old conspiracy nut, thank you very much.
Well, as long as you’re asking, yes, I happen to believe that “Biden” (along with all “his” for-whatever-reason Jewish supporters) happens to present a greater threat to the Jewish community (not only in the US…and for that matter not only to the Jewish community) than anything that MTG might be able to conjure up….
(To be sure, we’re SUPPOSED TO BELIEVE that “Biden” is a great friend of the Jews—and all other minorities—a firm, unwavering friend of the State of Israel and a steadfast protector of the USA and everything it stands for….)
Question. Since the US Supreme Court struck down Roe vs Wade, how can the FACE Act be considered valid? Since abortion is now a state issue and Pennsylvania declined to prosecute. If Pa decided to make abortion illegal, how can the Feds even use the Face act?
Halper maybe a double agent (even ted bell who was his student at cambridge hinted as much) he was hefty like dan akroyd but not as technically skilled
Paid out by dia contractor worked with a british firm haklyut
Not so many recall that the whole lunar orbiter strategy, which on Apollo 11 put Neil Armstrong on the Moon, was von Braun’s
Actually, von Braun was originally skeptical of the lunar-orbit rendezvous approach … he was originally an advocate of the “direct ascent” approach using a lander like today’s Starship, but didn’t have the technology then to pull that off.
It took an engineer within the Space Task Group, John Houbolt, to risk his career and go around von Braun to upper NASA management to get a fair hearing for lunar-orbit rendezvous. As Houbolt put it, that was not a way to get to the moon, not the best way to get to the moon, but the ONLY way to get to the moon.
Eventually von Braun came to realize that.
True but before von braun there was a russian engineer who came up with the method of plotting orbital trajectories
What the hell are these judges doing that grant these search warrants? Apparently, so long as the FBI says it needs one, it’s done. Why didn’t the judge ask, ‘how many boxes are we talking about’? and, ‘what is your proof that the person in question is engaging in criminal activity’? before granting the search warrant? If the FBI, DoJ, and Judiciary are in cahoots (as it well appears), what’s left to right the ship?
FBI hits Bevvy Hills, hardcore lefty enclave. Free popcorn for everyone.
The attack on Houck is essentially government SWATing a citizen on purpose.
Those kinds of situations occasionally get completely innocent people killed. They need to be justified – a minor scuffle does not EVER justify a SWAT-like raid of a home.
Most recently, the FBI hit team stole President Trump’s passports….which clearly are not national secrets, or specified in their search warrant. And no rational person could assume that somehow, maybe, they would be.
YET, the FBI stole them. And nobody will be punished.
That’s assuming that a magistrate judge (who are not Article III judges) can even issue a legitimate, Constitutional warrant.
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The FBI was created from the BOI and DOI with J Edgar as head, and was his personal blackmail and extortion feifdom until he left. There have been sporadic attempts at reform, but it always seems to revert to form: Anything is justified as “protecting the institution”.
Part of the problem is the courts, who have deferred to LE and allowed lying in undercover investigations and during suspect interrogations. LE has taken this as carte blanche to lie about anything, and are rarely reined in by the courts. The Beverly Hills case is a perfect example; they lied to the magstrate and… crickets.