A lot of effort and thought clearly went into this story. It really is excellent. Truly good stuff.
The great demonic possession of our time is on display here too. “I am virtue itself and everything i do is only for the sake of justice.” OK, well, that’s what they’ve said in every pogrom, genocide, persecution, pillage, sack and subjugation throughout history. So is it different this time by these people? Haha ahahaha ahahahah. It’s not funny but it’s almost funny.
Many generations of the best this nation has produced would not have done this, thought this way, acted this way or rationalized it. We are lost. Lost,
You’re crazy like a fox. We are lost, aimless, distracted, divided, incurious and frighteningly dumbed down.
The marginalization of using unspeakable events to create feral frenzy is horrifying. Fifty migrants bused to Martha’s Vineyard being compared to the Holocaust is indecent. A senile man with balled fists in full. blown Fuhrer mode naming half the American populous “ fascists”. The irony is staggering. Accusing people of “ White Supremacy”, the Klan, domestic terrorists, ISIS, Al Qaeda, Jim Crow, voter suppression, violent extremists… by an immutable lack of pigmentation . That qualifies as racism, White Fragility, inequity, wanting to “put y’all. back in chains”… Uh, that would be Biden. We’re supposed to bow down, flagellate and apologize to people who hate us that we owe only civility, but it isn’t reciprocal.Fuck it! My family suffered Nazism , Stalinism and Ceacescu’. Half my husband’s and my family perished in ways too gruesome to ruminate. Our family is multi-racial, comprised of 4 separate religious factions, different sexualities throughout and we love each other. We have political ideological differences, but none are extreme.I’m sick of the whole damn cabal and the created divide. I don’t owe anything to a political party. The political class owe us. We put them in powerful. Wrongfully, in most cases.
Our vaunted leaders aren’t working for us.They put on a show of histrionics, but behind the curtains, wink and shake hands, grease each other’s palms and laugh as they sell us down the river. A combination of corrosive, out of touch and in too many cases, stupid.
How many are in bed w/ the WEF, Bilderberg Group, DAVOS,UN,World Bank, China, the war machine, MB, BlackRock/Vanguard/StateStreet / Pharma and the Great Reset NWO? More than we can imagine. And only DeSantis, Gabbard, Tulsi,Gaetz,Ron Johnson and the “conspiracy theorist fringe”. You know,” We The Red-Pilled”
WEF is not conducive of Freedom or Rights. The Constitution separates powers and wisely defines a restricted government but promises of something for nothing by the Left lull people into going along, with the result totalitarianism.
The 'left?' There is no Left in the USA. In Europe, the Democrats would be considered a Right-wing party. Sanders, The Squad, et al would be smack-dab in the middle. You wouldn't know a true 'leftist' if you tripped over one.
Agreed. Early 30s. It took 100 years for the Spanish flu to reintroduce itself as covid. 100 years for invasion of Poland to reintroduce itself as invasion of Taiwan.
Yep. Hope so. But we’ll see. Ignoring this abuse and selective law enforcement seems ok? And Biden sounded tolerant and grandfatherly to you? IRS needs to be armed like a swat team? Old men rousted out of bed in the dark of night?
Supreme Court justices and families intimidated? Rioting winked at if by Antifa, but zero tolerance by MAGA’S?
Gee, seeing as how you and your family have all this horrible experience with Fascism, it’s too bad you don’t even recognize it when it’s right under your nose, happening right in your own country. Let’s just say it like it is: Today the Trump Republican Party is FASCISM clear as day. You know, the Proud Boys are mighty fine people and “we love you!” We are in the early innings of The Long Now, and things are gonna get way worse before they get better. Let’s hope the MAGA fringe nut cases in Congress don’t ever become the majority or you just might join your family being subject to treatment too gruesome to mention. The Republican Party enthusiastically welcomes anti-Semites and worse. Ya, most of the politicians on both sides are corrupt, but the Trump nuts cases are seriously dangerous. But you just keep worrying about old Sleepy Joe.
Taibbi makes a good case that it has been a tool used to harass opponents of Presidential administrations since 2001. TDS brought about by their total humiliation and exposure as partisan whores has led the press to cheerlead the DOJ's depredations:
"In Trump-related cases, the DOJ has pushed the tactical envelope in all the same ways it has with other types of unpopular defendants over the years, only it’s done so with a disturbing (and perhaps correct) presumption that the public wants them to color outside the lines more than ever, and deal even more cruelly with targets. The DOJ has political winds at its back it lacked even in the early War on Terror days as it campaigns openly to replace an adversarial system with Judge Dredd style, guilty-when-charged, one-stop-shopping justice.
Not just the Justice Department but multiple federal enforcement agencies have cheated and bullied in countless cases involving the Orange One, without inspiring a whit of outrage from traditional civil liberties defenders."
It's beginning to look like Trump is merely the excuse and "traditional civil liberties defenders" are now showing their true colors. They "defend the liberties" of their preferred faction. Either that or their irrational hatred for Trump is so great they're willing to abandon their ethical standards altogether to see him railroaded into prison, since his reputation is apparently unassailable.
What else are we to think, given the excessive, monomaniacal zeal that infects Trump-haters?
America has been Fascist since the Citizen's United SC ruling.
Either he didn’t read it or selectively applied dyslexia. Matt put personal ideology aside because people of integrity are more interested in truth.
There’s also a failure across the spectrum to realize the targeting, persecution and censorship encompasses ANYBODY who dares challenge the narrative!
When Democrat Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar spoke out about the border insurgence… Cuellar, a Mexican- American, was raided by the FBI.For some bullshit collusion with Azerbaijan. Cuellar does not support the Azarbaign corrupt, despotic government, he supports those who are calling it out. Who has been profiting from illicit deals with Azerbaijan? Hunter Biden, Joe Biden James Biden, John Podesta and a host of others. But they’re immune.
As per Ukraine, Trump’s mistake was solely calling out Hunter.
Ukraine is a cesspool of US corruption. Trump would have done a tremendous service by taken on EVERYBODY involved. Both parties. Pelosi, Hillary, Kerry, Bush, Cofer-Black, Romney, Soros, Loefgren,Fiona Hill, Bolton, Vindman , Epstein, Schiff, Mueller, Lindsey Graham, MCCain, Rick Davis, Doug Schoen, Brennan, Chalupa, Klobuchar, Leahy, Chris Murphy,Epstein,Lanyard Davis , Sid Blumenthal,Ted DeVine, Bernie, Atlantic Council( Burissma Lobby), Kent, Atkisson, Brookings Inst, Military Industrial Complex, DodPentagon,Bulger, Treasury, State Dept, Jake Sullivan, CIA, Nuland, Faustus,BleachBit, Crowd Strike, Yvonovich, Issakoff, Comey, GlennSimpson. And this is the tip of the iceberg.
Ya, I read it. Matt has gone down the rabbit hole with the rest of the QAnon nut jobs. I suppose all you Trump heads think it’s just fine that an ex-government employee has top-secret documents spread all over his freaking house? If anybody else did that they’d be in prison right now. But I guess you don’t see any problem with the cleaning lady picking up top-secret documents. Actually, Trump probably already sold em. Trump is the biggest idiot to ever inhabit the White House. He’s an autocrat in the making. If he somehow gets back in the White House, he’ll never leave. Just like his buddies Erdogan, Xi, Putin, Orbán and Jong-un. Oh, I forgot THE ELECTION WAS STOLEN! Whah, whah, whah, whah! That’s what happens when you dumb down education and you have an ignorant electorate.
I think the problem is that a lot of people use terms like fascism without actually knowing the signs. What this article describes almost exactly, is fascism. Are Republicans in power guilty of shifting there? Absolutely, but my 2 times voting for Obama's happy change beautiful world led us further towards that than about anything in my 5 decades in this blue world we are about to decimate.
The Dems are exhibiting a GREAT deal of Totalitarianism, and Fascism. Trump Republicans are probably a bit too nationalistic which I guess could lean more Nazi. Both are bad, but sadly, as a life long Democrat who's voted Green for the last 7 years, I may be willing to let the Repugs have a go at it for a while to balance out the woke insanity we are living under now.
Let me just say fergy, the Trump umbrella is a massive one. Yes it does , I admit have q people, some white nationalists, but it's in the under 5 % range. I'm a small business owner so I hang with others who engage in similar stuff. All we Care about is being left alone really. Don't tax us to death, force a jab down our throat, threaten to or force our business to close, leave our guns alone, apply the law fairly to everyone including corrupt politicians, don't put us in unnecessary wars 10,000 miles away for absolutely no good reason, let us eat meat if we choose, basically try to stay out of our lives as much as possible.
I dont consider that nationalistic ferg, just maybe following what the founders envisioned. Please vote the democrats out. Txs.
I can agree, and empathize with much of what you said here. But when Repugs put forth someone like Trump, and people like MTGreen…do you really expect anything Matt’s talking about to change? Or should I say, to do you really expect reform? He felt DOJ ought be his personal attnys. Trump is just another wealthy grifter, out for himself and his ego, like so many others. He’s no populist that’s for sure.
The most dangerous thing in this country are biden and deep state apologists like you. You will make a wonderful nazi someday. May a 1,000 Marjorie Taylor greenes, descend upon your house and raid your underwear drawer, you stupid fuck.
“Deep State” “Nazi” “Marjorie Taylor Greene” Hey, why don’t you go consult your nut job friend Q? Whatever happened to Q? Where is Q when we need him to reveal the ultimate truth of the Nazis in the deep state who are all giving poor Donald such a hard time? Hey, I bet Marjorie could find Q for us! Let’s ask her. Delusional is the best word to describe “stupid fucks” like you maggots.
Did I say I loved Trump? No, I didn’t. Matter of fact, if both parties imploded and a “ We The People” party of sanity , minus the ideological purity requisite loyalties formed, I’d be ecstatic. The requirements would be putting Americans first, loyalty to country and each other, the Constitution, and abolishing several agencencies, auditing and purging the rest,term limits, no perqs or qualified immunity for politicians, bureaucrats , forced retirement, no lobbying, NGOs,no more insane interventions, the ability to fire federal employees, no unions within the federal government, a flat tax, abolishing the UN or at the very least, withdrawing from it altogether. We need a representative government, not an “ Us vs Them”.
Trump is not the answer. Biden is not the answer. And Trump has been sabotaged, but it has been from every facet and he stoked much of it with his lousy judgment in appointments, rhetoric, ad hominem attacks and lack of impulse control. The stupid tweets, nicknames and instead of draining the Swamp, expanding it.
Regardless, his personality isn’t a criminal offense. He hasn’t committed any crimes, but he has been the victim of crimes committed by an increasingly corrupt, weaponized , terrifying entity that is a leviathan of authoritarian terror. It’s long been toxic and corrupt, but now there is no way to fight back
Hi Gail...Again, I agree with most of your views and assessment...BOTH PARTIES are corrupt to varying degrees, IMO...Putting ALL AMERICANS FIRST, agreed...Helping the most in difficulties while having a PROGRESSIVE TAX CODE (Richer people can afford to pay more & no more Tax Breaks for Stadiums, Oil Companies, etc) BUT again...One question...HOW DO YOU KNOW that Trump hasn't committed any crimes ? Were you present at the WH for his presidency ? Were you the meetings ? Who do you believe ? And Why ? Why believe one newspaper/website/podcast over another ? What are your sources ? Would love to know so I can understand your thought process...Best !
I have vivid memories of what Ceasccescu wrought and it was ugly. My family is from Hungary and I lived there before the wall came down. It was not pretty. I suppose that is all ypu nred to not even need a "Red Pill".
Where was yours fried at. You talk out of both sides of your mouth. One post you're a Trump voting Republican. Another post you're a true blue Democrat. Which means you're just a troll, and a lousy one at that.
Yeah, he kept Putin-Puppet Trump's ambassador to Moscow, John J. Sullivan (who just resigned recently).
And he's finishing Trump's wall, continuing the recognition of Juan Guaidó as the coronated president of Venezuela and still hasn't re-joined the treaty Obama made with Iran. The kids are still in cages.
So are these right-wing policies the good things that Biden's continuing?
Not to this degree. We’ve had terrible episodes that deserve recognition and assurance they cannot and will not ever happen again in the US. 2022 and we’re living in fear of questioning elections, “ pandemics”, criticizing the government and supporting an opposition party? We’ve been corrupt as hell for 75 years, but this is 1984,Brave New World, Fahrenheit, I Robot, Animal Farm, The Island Of Doctor Moreau, Minority Report, Stepford Wives,and Soylent Green rolled into one big lethal injection.
You are overstating the case. There is no plan to exterminate anyone. It’s the same old game. The plan is to create clear separation between the Ruled and the Rulers. With the clear beneficiary being the Rulers
Sorry, I must be too subtle. No, I don't think this is a good thing, but only that it has been going on for the history of our nation, and is something to constantly challenge and overcome.
We were lost 3 decades ago. I've been saying for a long time that this just gets exponentially worse with every new administration. The simple fact that it continues over and over and over, and nobody seems to care is testament to how well the people that ACTUALLY run this nation, and likely the Western World cover their tracks.
Everything that is happening now is controlled demolition. It's the only way this all makes sense. If you actually apply Occam's Razor to everything that has happened since Bretton Woods in 1971, and assume a higher order of things globally, it's the only way to make sense of all of the events and responses. I mean seriously. Davos Man isn't even hiding anymore. They are spewing their disdain for humanity on YouTube and nobody even bats an eyelid.
I agree - the work that must have gone into this is staggering. It's excellent and infuriating. I'll read both parts again. I wish this had a larger audience. Unfortunately, people are more likely to watch a dopey 30-second dance trend on IG than make the time to read important information like this.
I mean, I think I agree with the sentiment of your comment generally, but I don't think "we" are lost and I personally am not willing to give up. If we were all "lost" we wouldn't be here having this discussion. Small shit, sure, but it's still shit.
What would the political media situation be today if not the pandemic and mass mail-in ballots?
It is a simple question and of course the complete answer is impossible to know. However, the likelihood is that the Democrat machine would have gone to war internally over the loss and thus fractured and weakened and the Republicans, always more constrained in how far they are willing to bend their moral filters for politics, would have at least given us a less radical and less politicized Justice.
History of the US is rife with crucible events that both weakened, but ultimately strengthened, the national ethos. We have been terrible at critical-thinking-proactive-accuracy in policy making, but massively effective of righting the ship in reaction to the previous mess made that if not corrected would have sunk us.
However, today it seems different. It seems that the media, the once reliable 4th branch of government, has become so hopelessly corrupt in supporting the weakening mess, that we will sink. I don't think the people are so much different in their fundamental underpinnings for waking up to getting it right after getting it wrong... I think the forces that have taken over the media are simply influencing the people to chronically and tragically delay that awakening.
If you were an enemy of the US and you had decades to consider how to defeat the US, you would know that direct conflict would never prevail... so you would consider that weakening the US from within would be your only option. Weakening the US would require that you cause chaos and conflict within... pitting neighbor against neighbor by inflaming the emotions of group resentment. You would need to get to the education system and media where the people can be propagandized and manipulated. Then you would need a lot of cash to offer up to political and business leaders to accept and promote your plan.
This is where we find ourselves today. The education system, media and much of our elite ruling class has been bought and paid for, and corrupted to promote anti-American attitudes. The Democrats are feeling empowered to give the finger to Americans and American principles of morality and even the law itself.
We have two choices to save the republic. Elect leaders that will directly combat and defeat this enemy, or else fight in the coming violent civil war. Or, we might need both.
Couldn’t agree more and we’re hardly alone. Ideally, I’d prefer a third party of pragmatic , patriotic Americans, regardless of race, creed, religion, lack thereof, sexual identity minus hatred and extreme ideology, left or right.
However, it’s not an option due to the entrenched bureaucracy, establishment, donor owners, puppeteers, globalists and police state. The Democrats have way too much power, but the Republicans have no spine and no energy.
Perhaps a Unity ticket of two straightforward, savvy candidates who can merge from left of center to center to right of center, minus wedge issues. Experienced, but not corrupt , no warmongering , foreign lobbying, NGOs, Military industrialist funding, corporate multinationals, hedge funds unless without ties to WEF,China,BlackRock/Vanguard/StateStreet/ Carlyle/McKinsey/Bloomberg/Goldman Sachs/ JP Morgan/Rockefeller/Carnegie/Ford/Tides Foundations/Atlantic Council/Brookings/Aspen/Getty/Soros anything /Religious orgs/PP/Pharma/Tech ( unless start ups with government entanglement.
Maybe DeSantis/Gabbard, Miami’s Mayor Suarez and a female with the same energy, charisma and smarts. And continue running candidates as R, but not the old, stodgy, clueless Rs we’ve suffered. Modern, Independent , diverse, And a PURGE.
As of late, I’ve enjoyed engaging with people who I believed would never reciprocate. Prime example, Matt. But also Kim Iversen, Russell Brand, Bret Weinstein, Naomi Wolf, Glenn Greenwald AND Glenn Beck, Rogan , Jordan Petersen,Raheem Kassam ,Asra Nomani,Jamal Attamini, Trevor Loudin, Neal Oliver,all the fabulous medical professionals, Zuni,Tyrus,Walter Kirn, Steve Kirsch, Jimmy Dore… we’re all in this together, period. And with these new coalitions, there’s an irony in how much we have in common and are willing to put aside ideological grievances.
Russell Brand really nailed it with representative community government, not one size fits all. We need to build communities, we need each other and we need to expand , put up a united front and take them all down! Expose the bastards! We have advantage of curiosity and delving. We have the advantage of joining together and destroying the bullshit mantra. We have the advantage of knowledge. And with knowledge, power!
I disagree there is a two-party state. I think there is only one, the "Deep State" for lack of a better term. The political appointees come and go, but the Deep State remains.
OK. But come election day this life-long Dem is going to attempt to stop the bleeding by voting Repub. Is it a cure? Hell, no. But our vote is supposed to still matter and the Dems would be quite happy to federalize elections. The Shadow really wants to federalize voting. Don't let that happen.
Absolutely. We don’t have an elected representative government. We have a duopoulous UniParty doing the bidding of a permanent kleptobureautechnocracy doing the bidding of an elite group of globalist sociopaths ruling from DAVOS. The UN is the hub of hell and the Establishment makes sure they prevent a change agent from toppling their kleptocracy.
"Ideally, I’d prefer a third party of pragmatic, patriotic Americans, regardless of race, creed, religion, lack thereof, sexual identity minus hatred and extreme ideology, left or right." Totally agree but I don't see any inclination of that happening. An alternative is to try to build a movement in one of the two major parties: stand up candidates in the primaries and be ready for the expected ruling class shenanigans to put it down by any means necessary.
Yup. Easier to do in the GOP. They don’t have the savvy , creativity , backbone or energy to fight back if enough of us hone in. Purge and rename the party.” We The People”
It won’t happen unless we organize and grow a movement too big to be beaten down. This is no longer a system where unique standouts , i.e Pat Moynihan and Barry Goldwater , regardless of differences can find a central common ground bigger than their personal differences. That would be protecting America with honor. They forged quite a friendship. Both despised corruption and political opportunism . They were my favorites. Both hated the CIA, UN, party politics, NATO expansionism, authoritarianism,coverups , bad judgment, bureaucracy and globalism
"The Justice Department’s Espionage Act case against Trump is based on the notion that improper possession of “national defense information” by an ex-president — a walking biological repository of state secrets — can only be stopped by the FBI, the soul of organizational rectitude and the only body we can trust to secure classified material.
Now, Trump’s behavior is eccentric at best and even some sympathetic defense lawyers I talked to suggested this case involving classified material raised “interesting” questions about the difficulty of dealing with such issues in an ordinary criminal court. But the argument that the ex-president needs to be jailed posthaste is a little hard to take seriously when FBI sources are, once again, illegally leaking secrets about their investigative targets as they pursue Trump for… mishandling secrets."
These two paragraphs make a pretty good summary of this whole outrageous and stupid situation.
It’s disgusting. Trump didn’t help his own cause. He made lousy appointments, took lousy advice, eschewed good advice and created so many self inflicted injuries.Yes, he was sabotaged from every angle, but his impetuousness, compulsiveness and churlish name calling and ad hominem attacks for perceived insults only fueled the fire and he has himself to blame.If he was as smart as he claims to tout, he’d have attempted to make friends instead of creating more animus.
The stupid nicknames and tweets, boorish insults, and unnecessary public airing of dirty laundry combined with bullying and lack of restraint or taking responsibility for his own poor judgement while demanding loyalty didn’t fare well.
I liked most of his policies and objectives, but he finally wore me out.I was disgusted by his attacks on Elon Musk, DeSantis,Nancy Mace, Murkowski, his constant self aggrandizement without giving credit where credit was do or standing up for those unfairly targeted, persecuted and imprisoned while they remained loyal.
Id rather a more measured, straightforward messenger.
I was a prosecutor in a small county. I would have never dreamed of leaking case info. The prosecutor would have prosecuted me. The irony is rich that the press hyperventilates over Trump possibly having secret information...all the while the press benefits from leaks of secret information.
Likewise a rural county prosecutor. A prosecutor's signature on a search warrant application is his/her bond. If a judge thought I had misrepresented or stretched the truth to get a warrant, there would be payback --- loss of reputation, possibly loss of evidence.
In Illinois there are (or at least, used to be) ethical rules prohibiting prosecutors from releasing any but certain basic info to the press. Shouldn't the Bar Association care about the DOJ and FBI leaking? Not holding my breath.
What I got most out of this article is how tremendously important the separation of the 3 branches of government is.
The DOJ is an executive agency, and from what I gather, has been shitting on established legal (i.e. in the realm of the judiciary) rights for years now.
I really hope that this goes to SCOTUS and a ruling comes down to stop all this.
40 years ago as a new cop in the NYPD I completely despised defense attorneys and the limitations on us in making collars.
But at least I knew, while grousing left and right, that w/o those SOB's, the USA would be, and I actually used the expression, a 'Banana Republic'. I was not the brightest light, but I instinctively knew from the fact that I carried a the power of life and death on my hip at work that my own authority needed to be reined in.
Masterful piece. Privately Taibbi must fear being raided for daring to put these truths on paper. 9/11 brought us the Patriot Act, written LONG before 9/11 and then passed by congress just 5 weeks later. Not suspicious at all. Shakespeare was right…and America is fucked.
"Americans need to ask themselves what’s more dangerous: Donald Trump, or a federal law enforcement bureaucracy prosecutes people for the same rules it breaks, regularly argues that national security is harmed by allowing you to see the case against you, and appears ready to start using its vast power to punish political offenses? Is getting Donald Trump worth tossing out constitutional protections? Because that’s where this is all headed."
Yep, when you strip away all the media spin - all the government BS - all the hype and lies and screaming on both sides of the aisle ... it's really a simple question, isn't it? Do we have a constitution, and constitutional protections, that apply equally to all Americans, or don't we?
In their lust to 'get Trump', so many people and institutions have plunged into insanity. Groups like the ACLU, who one moment not all that long ago courageously stood up against everyone to fight for the right of the Nazi's to freaking march in Skokie because it was damn well their right even though everyone hated them ... alas, they've sold out in ways I never would have imagined.
Matt I read this article with open mouthed astonishment. I have to compliment u and tell u that your article was worth the entire years subscription. Now you have to start looking over your shoulder because you've just made a lot of powerful enemies. They are out to punish Trump and they don't care how they do it. The fix is in and they will get their man but also rip this country apart at the same time.
While I consider myself "socialist adjacent" and found tRump to be an idiotic buffoon and failed game show host I was horrified to see the reactions to a sitting Federal judge appointing a Special Master coming from ostensibly left or liberal attorneys.
I didn't even bother to mention the unconstitutional behaviors I've seen grow in frequency and scope since 9/11 as they were so blinded by their disdain they might as well have never gone to law school. My own success in law school, despite working 60+ hours per week while also trying to help my wife raise four children, was largely based on having the learned ability to honestly view the other side of legal matters. To see so many attorneys I once respected abandon reason and their own legal training in favor of a twisted, self-serving view of the world was beyond disappointing.
That said, at some point I think it's time to talk about what the corporate lackeys in our government are trying to distract us from while they continue to give away our blood, sweat and tears to the highest bidder. While I saw only truth in your article the ultimate big picture involves the question -"WHY?" Why are they so busy distracting us? Why are they so busy spinning an insane narrative that far too many accept as true? Why aren't the American people able to come up for air long enough to see the dystopian future storming towards? Is any of it even worth fixing?
In a sea of faux-journalists mindlessly reading their teleprompters you remain a true journalist and, as is often true, yours is one of few voices in the wilderness of hope.
I’m a retired journalist, and I have to say I feel pretty much the same way about seeing so many colleagues abandon objectivism for team play. I used to think it was just the Washington crowd who were so enamored with the federal government that they participated fully in its rites. I remember a colleague and I who sat across from each other sharing a distressed stare during the Iraq invasion build-up, when the latest unnamed government sources were trotted out to impugn yet another critic. “Hey, when we let folks use anonymity, isn’t it usually to protect regular people from the people in power, and not the other way around?” he said. We both just shook our heads and felt thankful we’d both decided to stay at a good major market paper outside D.C. or NYC.
I will never forget a college bar conversation with a social work major who informed me that “behind every great fortune is a great crime.” I’d never heard the expression before. This mild-mannered fellow delivered it with the hard gaze of the true believer, and I don’t recall my reply if I had one. But I think such certainty is common and is a detriment to any journalist who cares about disinterested reporting. And BTW, here is the translation of Balzac’s original expression, according to Quote Investigator: “The secret of a great success for which you are at a loss to account is a crime that has never been found out, because it was properly executed.” See why it’s been truncated to its more familiar form? I think it’s called “moral clarity.”
"[T]he whole concept of attorney-client privilege, as well as the 1st, 4th, 5th, and 6th Amendments — guaranteeing rights to free speech, against unreasonable searches, and to due process and legal counsel, respectively — were created to bar exactly this kind of behavior..."
You realize that every one of us leaving a comment here in support of Taibbi's report may end up on the receiving end of some DOJ attention. They may just go to the web server/backbone to gather the info - without bothering to notify us that our info is being sought - so we can never use judicial process to block this abuse.
“They” gotcha when fear & paranoia take over your thoughts. Suggest freedom of speech like we do on TK news is of utmost importance! Now more than ever.
Fuck them if they do. Clear violation of every notion of American government prior to 911. Not to mention our tattered constitution. The fourth amendment has been dead letter for some time now. An entire generation has grown up under the national security state and doesn’t understand they are supposed to work for us.
Excellent! Many thanks. The notion of a permanent state of war against the citizens, all of whom are guilty until proven innocent, under-pins the entire debacle. My "liberal" friends have no idea that the paranoid fascist they fear is staring at them from the mirror every day. Civil liberties can and must be defended to protect us all.
Excellent article except it's only half the story. If the Biden and Clinton families were investigated at least half as much as the Trump family they'd all be sitting in jail now. If you haven't watched DOPESICK yet, do so to get a taste of how our government agencies are politisized and operate quid pro quo without regard to the destruction they cause.
The scariest thing has got to be knowing your former "friends" on the left would cheer should the state go after you. Just know you bring hope to many by your fearless truth seeking. I know you have helped open my eyes and I am grateful for it.
A lot of effort and thought clearly went into this story. It really is excellent. Truly good stuff.
The great demonic possession of our time is on display here too. “I am virtue itself and everything i do is only for the sake of justice.” OK, well, that’s what they’ve said in every pogrom, genocide, persecution, pillage, sack and subjugation throughout history. So is it different this time by these people? Haha ahahaha ahahahah. It’s not funny but it’s almost funny.
Many generations of the best this nation has produced would not have done this, thought this way, acted this way or rationalized it. We are lost. Lost,
You’re crazy like a fox. We are lost, aimless, distracted, divided, incurious and frighteningly dumbed down.
The marginalization of using unspeakable events to create feral frenzy is horrifying. Fifty migrants bused to Martha’s Vineyard being compared to the Holocaust is indecent. A senile man with balled fists in full. blown Fuhrer mode naming half the American populous “ fascists”. The irony is staggering. Accusing people of “ White Supremacy”, the Klan, domestic terrorists, ISIS, Al Qaeda, Jim Crow, voter suppression, violent extremists… by an immutable lack of pigmentation . That qualifies as racism, White Fragility, inequity, wanting to “put y’all. back in chains”… Uh, that would be Biden. We’re supposed to bow down, flagellate and apologize to people who hate us that we owe only civility, but it isn’t reciprocal.Fuck it! My family suffered Nazism , Stalinism and Ceacescu’. Half my husband’s and my family perished in ways too gruesome to ruminate. Our family is multi-racial, comprised of 4 separate religious factions, different sexualities throughout and we love each other. We have political ideological differences, but none are extreme.I’m sick of the whole damn cabal and the created divide. I don’t owe anything to a political party. The political class owe us. We put them in powerful. Wrongfully, in most cases.
Our vaunted leaders aren’t working for us.They put on a show of histrionics, but behind the curtains, wink and shake hands, grease each other’s palms and laugh as they sell us down the river. A combination of corrosive, out of touch and in too many cases, stupid.
How many are in bed w/ the WEF, Bilderberg Group, DAVOS,UN,World Bank, China, the war machine, MB, BlackRock/Vanguard/StateStreet / Pharma and the Great Reset NWO? More than we can imagine. And only DeSantis, Gabbard, Tulsi,Gaetz,Ron Johnson and the “conspiracy theorist fringe”. You know,” We The Red-Pilled”
We are 1930’s Germany…or pre-Cuba Castro.
WEF is not conducive of Freedom or Rights. The Constitution separates powers and wisely defines a restricted government but promises of something for nothing by the Left lull people into going along, with the result totalitarianism.
The 'left?' There is no Left in the USA. In Europe, the Democrats would be considered a Right-wing party. Sanders, The Squad, et al would be smack-dab in the middle. You wouldn't know a true 'leftist' if you tripped over one.
Agreed. Early 30s. It took 100 years for the Spanish flu to reintroduce itself as covid. 100 years for invasion of Poland to reintroduce itself as invasion of Taiwan.
Yep. Hope so. But we’ll see. Ignoring this abuse and selective law enforcement seems ok? And Biden sounded tolerant and grandfatherly to you? IRS needs to be armed like a swat team? Old men rousted out of bed in the dark of night?
Supreme Court justices and families intimidated? Rioting winked at if by Antifa, but zero tolerance by MAGA’S?
NYT and WaPo has you anaesthetized?
Gee, seeing as how you and your family have all this horrible experience with Fascism, it’s too bad you don’t even recognize it when it’s right under your nose, happening right in your own country. Let’s just say it like it is: Today the Trump Republican Party is FASCISM clear as day. You know, the Proud Boys are mighty fine people and “we love you!” We are in the early innings of The Long Now, and things are gonna get way worse before they get better. Let’s hope the MAGA fringe nut cases in Congress don’t ever become the majority or you just might join your family being subject to treatment too gruesome to mention. The Republican Party enthusiastically welcomes anti-Semites and worse. Ya, most of the politicians on both sides are corrupt, but the Trump nuts cases are seriously dangerous. But you just keep worrying about old Sleepy Joe.
Didn't read it, did you? He just accused BIDEN'S DOJ of full-on fascism - without using the word.
Taibbi makes a good case that it has been a tool used to harass opponents of Presidential administrations since 2001. TDS brought about by their total humiliation and exposure as partisan whores has led the press to cheerlead the DOJ's depredations:
"In Trump-related cases, the DOJ has pushed the tactical envelope in all the same ways it has with other types of unpopular defendants over the years, only it’s done so with a disturbing (and perhaps correct) presumption that the public wants them to color outside the lines more than ever, and deal even more cruelly with targets. The DOJ has political winds at its back it lacked even in the early War on Terror days as it campaigns openly to replace an adversarial system with Judge Dredd style, guilty-when-charged, one-stop-shopping justice.
Not just the Justice Department but multiple federal enforcement agencies have cheated and bullied in countless cases involving the Orange One, without inspiring a whit of outrage from traditional civil liberties defenders."
It's beginning to look like Trump is merely the excuse and "traditional civil liberties defenders" are now showing their true colors. They "defend the liberties" of their preferred faction. Either that or their irrational hatred for Trump is so great they're willing to abandon their ethical standards altogether to see him railroaded into prison, since his reputation is apparently unassailable.
What else are we to think, given the excessive, monomaniacal zeal that infects Trump-haters?
America has been Fascist since the Citizen's United SC ruling.
Either he didn’t read it or selectively applied dyslexia. Matt put personal ideology aside because people of integrity are more interested in truth.
There’s also a failure across the spectrum to realize the targeting, persecution and censorship encompasses ANYBODY who dares challenge the narrative!
When Democrat Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar spoke out about the border insurgence… Cuellar, a Mexican- American, was raided by the FBI.For some bullshit collusion with Azerbaijan. Cuellar does not support the Azarbaign corrupt, despotic government, he supports those who are calling it out. Who has been profiting from illicit deals with Azerbaijan? Hunter Biden, Joe Biden James Biden, John Podesta and a host of others. But they’re immune.
As per Ukraine, Trump’s mistake was solely calling out Hunter.
Ukraine is a cesspool of US corruption. Trump would have done a tremendous service by taken on EVERYBODY involved. Both parties. Pelosi, Hillary, Kerry, Bush, Cofer-Black, Romney, Soros, Loefgren,Fiona Hill, Bolton, Vindman , Epstein, Schiff, Mueller, Lindsey Graham, MCCain, Rick Davis, Doug Schoen, Brennan, Chalupa, Klobuchar, Leahy, Chris Murphy,Epstein,Lanyard Davis , Sid Blumenthal,Ted DeVine, Bernie, Atlantic Council( Burissma Lobby), Kent, Atkisson, Brookings Inst, Military Industrial Complex, DodPentagon,Bulger, Treasury, State Dept, Jake Sullivan, CIA, Nuland, Faustus,BleachBit, Crowd Strike, Yvonovich, Issakoff, Comey, GlennSimpson. And this is the tip of the iceberg.
Ya, I read it. Matt has gone down the rabbit hole with the rest of the QAnon nut jobs. I suppose all you Trump heads think it’s just fine that an ex-government employee has top-secret documents spread all over his freaking house? If anybody else did that they’d be in prison right now. But I guess you don’t see any problem with the cleaning lady picking up top-secret documents. Actually, Trump probably already sold em. Trump is the biggest idiot to ever inhabit the White House. He’s an autocrat in the making. If he somehow gets back in the White House, he’ll never leave. Just like his buddies Erdogan, Xi, Putin, Orbán and Jong-un. Oh, I forgot THE ELECTION WAS STOLEN! Whah, whah, whah, whah! That’s what happens when you dumb down education and you have an ignorant electorate.
I think the problem is that a lot of people use terms like fascism without actually knowing the signs. What this article describes almost exactly, is fascism. Are Republicans in power guilty of shifting there? Absolutely, but my 2 times voting for Obama's happy change beautiful world led us further towards that than about anything in my 5 decades in this blue world we are about to decimate.
The Dems are exhibiting a GREAT deal of Totalitarianism, and Fascism. Trump Republicans are probably a bit too nationalistic which I guess could lean more Nazi. Both are bad, but sadly, as a life long Democrat who's voted Green for the last 7 years, I may be willing to let the Repugs have a go at it for a while to balance out the woke insanity we are living under now.
Let me just say fergy, the Trump umbrella is a massive one. Yes it does , I admit have q people, some white nationalists, but it's in the under 5 % range. I'm a small business owner so I hang with others who engage in similar stuff. All we Care about is being left alone really. Don't tax us to death, force a jab down our throat, threaten to or force our business to close, leave our guns alone, apply the law fairly to everyone including corrupt politicians, don't put us in unnecessary wars 10,000 miles away for absolutely no good reason, let us eat meat if we choose, basically try to stay out of our lives as much as possible.
I dont consider that nationalistic ferg, just maybe following what the founders envisioned. Please vote the democrats out. Txs.
I can agree, and empathize with much of what you said here. But when Repugs put forth someone like Trump, and people like MTGreen…do you really expect anything Matt’s talking about to change? Or should I say, to do you really expect reform? He felt DOJ ought be his personal attnys. Trump is just another wealthy grifter, out for himself and his ego, like so many others. He’s no populist that’s for sure.
The most dangerous thing in this country are biden and deep state apologists like you. You will make a wonderful nazi someday. May a 1,000 Marjorie Taylor greenes, descend upon your house and raid your underwear drawer, you stupid fuck.
“Deep State” “Nazi” “Marjorie Taylor Greene” Hey, why don’t you go consult your nut job friend Q? Whatever happened to Q? Where is Q when we need him to reveal the ultimate truth of the Nazis in the deep state who are all giving poor Donald such a hard time? Hey, I bet Marjorie could find Q for us! Let’s ask her. Delusional is the best word to describe “stupid fucks” like you maggots.
Oh puhleeze! The Proud Boys leader is an FBI informant.
Go stand in the corner with the QAnon nut jobs!
Did I say I loved Trump? No, I didn’t. Matter of fact, if both parties imploded and a “ We The People” party of sanity , minus the ideological purity requisite loyalties formed, I’d be ecstatic. The requirements would be putting Americans first, loyalty to country and each other, the Constitution, and abolishing several agencencies, auditing and purging the rest,term limits, no perqs or qualified immunity for politicians, bureaucrats , forced retirement, no lobbying, NGOs,no more insane interventions, the ability to fire federal employees, no unions within the federal government, a flat tax, abolishing the UN or at the very least, withdrawing from it altogether. We need a representative government, not an “ Us vs Them”.
Trump is not the answer. Biden is not the answer. And Trump has been sabotaged, but it has been from every facet and he stoked much of it with his lousy judgment in appointments, rhetoric, ad hominem attacks and lack of impulse control. The stupid tweets, nicknames and instead of draining the Swamp, expanding it.
Regardless, his personality isn’t a criminal offense. He hasn’t committed any crimes, but he has been the victim of crimes committed by an increasingly corrupt, weaponized , terrifying entity that is a leviathan of authoritarian terror. It’s long been toxic and corrupt, but now there is no way to fight back
Well said
Hi Gail...Again, I agree with most of your views and assessment...BOTH PARTIES are corrupt to varying degrees, IMO...Putting ALL AMERICANS FIRST, agreed...Helping the most in difficulties while having a PROGRESSIVE TAX CODE (Richer people can afford to pay more & no more Tax Breaks for Stadiums, Oil Companies, etc) BUT again...One question...HOW DO YOU KNOW that Trump hasn't committed any crimes ? Were you present at the WH for his presidency ? Were you the meetings ? Who do you believe ? And Why ? Why believe one newspaper/website/podcast over another ? What are your sources ? Would love to know so I can understand your thought process...Best !
The programming worked well on you I see
I have vivid memories of what Ceasccescu wrought and it was ugly. My family is from Hungary and I lived there before the wall came down. It was not pretty. I suppose that is all ypu nred to not even need a "Red Pill".
Tulsi Gabbard is well-disguised WEF.
Excellent
Where was yours fried at. You talk out of both sides of your mouth. One post you're a Trump voting Republican. Another post you're a true blue Democrat. Which means you're just a troll, and a lousy one at that.
Amen!
Biden's not doing shit. He couldn't optimize his own diapers carrying capacity.
Yeah, he kept Putin-Puppet Trump's ambassador to Moscow, John J. Sullivan (who just resigned recently).
And he's finishing Trump's wall, continuing the recognition of Juan Guaidó as the coronated president of Venezuela and still hasn't re-joined the treaty Obama made with Iran. The kids are still in cages.
So are these right-wing policies the good things that Biden's continuing?
Yes excellent effort by Matt! Such as…”because these people are fucking crazy. They’re capable of anything.”
I disagree.
Every generation of Americans has done this. Salem witch trials, Alien and Sedition act, Japanese interment camps, Red Scare, the list goes on.
I disagree with your comment. These examples were all before NSA, metaverse, social media, spy satellites in sky worldwide. The list goes on.
Not to this degree. We’ve had terrible episodes that deserve recognition and assurance they cannot and will not ever happen again in the US. 2022 and we’re living in fear of questioning elections, “ pandemics”, criticizing the government and supporting an opposition party? We’ve been corrupt as hell for 75 years, but this is 1984,Brave New World, Fahrenheit, I Robot, Animal Farm, The Island Of Doctor Moreau, Minority Report, Stepford Wives,and Soylent Green rolled into one big lethal injection.
True, but there were others who opposed, and the opposition eventually became the consensus and then the norm. That norm is now under assault.
The new norm is The Final Solution and this time, we’re all Jews.
You are overstating the case. There is no plan to exterminate anyone. It’s the same old game. The plan is to create clear separation between the Ruled and the Rulers. With the clear beneficiary being the Rulers
Well, I hope you are wrong, but hope isn't much to pin the future on.
OH, so that makes it all right? I see.
Sorry, I must be too subtle. No, I don't think this is a good thing, but only that it has been going on for the history of our nation, and is something to constantly challenge and overcome.
Human nature is not easy to defeat though.
We were lost 3 decades ago. I've been saying for a long time that this just gets exponentially worse with every new administration. The simple fact that it continues over and over and over, and nobody seems to care is testament to how well the people that ACTUALLY run this nation, and likely the Western World cover their tracks.
Everything that is happening now is controlled demolition. It's the only way this all makes sense. If you actually apply Occam's Razor to everything that has happened since Bretton Woods in 1971, and assume a higher order of things globally, it's the only way to make sense of all of the events and responses. I mean seriously. Davos Man isn't even hiding anymore. They are spewing their disdain for humanity on YouTube and nobody even bats an eyelid.
I agree - the work that must have gone into this is staggering. It's excellent and infuriating. I'll read both parts again. I wish this had a larger audience. Unfortunately, people are more likely to watch a dopey 30-second dance trend on IG than make the time to read important information like this.
I mean, I think I agree with the sentiment of your comment generally, but I don't think "we" are lost and I personally am not willing to give up. If we were all "lost" we wouldn't be here having this discussion. Small shit, sure, but it's still shit.
What would the political media situation be today if not the pandemic and mass mail-in ballots?
It is a simple question and of course the complete answer is impossible to know. However, the likelihood is that the Democrat machine would have gone to war internally over the loss and thus fractured and weakened and the Republicans, always more constrained in how far they are willing to bend their moral filters for politics, would have at least given us a less radical and less politicized Justice.
History of the US is rife with crucible events that both weakened, but ultimately strengthened, the national ethos. We have been terrible at critical-thinking-proactive-accuracy in policy making, but massively effective of righting the ship in reaction to the previous mess made that if not corrected would have sunk us.
However, today it seems different. It seems that the media, the once reliable 4th branch of government, has become so hopelessly corrupt in supporting the weakening mess, that we will sink. I don't think the people are so much different in their fundamental underpinnings for waking up to getting it right after getting it wrong... I think the forces that have taken over the media are simply influencing the people to chronically and tragically delay that awakening.
If you were an enemy of the US and you had decades to consider how to defeat the US, you would know that direct conflict would never prevail... so you would consider that weakening the US from within would be your only option. Weakening the US would require that you cause chaos and conflict within... pitting neighbor against neighbor by inflaming the emotions of group resentment. You would need to get to the education system and media where the people can be propagandized and manipulated. Then you would need a lot of cash to offer up to political and business leaders to accept and promote your plan.
This is where we find ourselves today. The education system, media and much of our elite ruling class has been bought and paid for, and corrupted to promote anti-American attitudes. The Democrats are feeling empowered to give the finger to Americans and American principles of morality and even the law itself.
We have two choices to save the republic. Elect leaders that will directly combat and defeat this enemy, or else fight in the coming violent civil war. Or, we might need both.
As long as we continue to support the two-party oligarchy, nothing is going to change.
Couldn’t agree more and we’re hardly alone. Ideally, I’d prefer a third party of pragmatic , patriotic Americans, regardless of race, creed, religion, lack thereof, sexual identity minus hatred and extreme ideology, left or right.
However, it’s not an option due to the entrenched bureaucracy, establishment, donor owners, puppeteers, globalists and police state. The Democrats have way too much power, but the Republicans have no spine and no energy.
Perhaps a Unity ticket of two straightforward, savvy candidates who can merge from left of center to center to right of center, minus wedge issues. Experienced, but not corrupt , no warmongering , foreign lobbying, NGOs, Military industrialist funding, corporate multinationals, hedge funds unless without ties to WEF,China,BlackRock/Vanguard/StateStreet/ Carlyle/McKinsey/Bloomberg/Goldman Sachs/ JP Morgan/Rockefeller/Carnegie/Ford/Tides Foundations/Atlantic Council/Brookings/Aspen/Getty/Soros anything /Religious orgs/PP/Pharma/Tech ( unless start ups with government entanglement.
Maybe DeSantis/Gabbard, Miami’s Mayor Suarez and a female with the same energy, charisma and smarts. And continue running candidates as R, but not the old, stodgy, clueless Rs we’ve suffered. Modern, Independent , diverse, And a PURGE.
As of late, I’ve enjoyed engaging with people who I believed would never reciprocate. Prime example, Matt. But also Kim Iversen, Russell Brand, Bret Weinstein, Naomi Wolf, Glenn Greenwald AND Glenn Beck, Rogan , Jordan Petersen,Raheem Kassam ,Asra Nomani,Jamal Attamini, Trevor Loudin, Neal Oliver,all the fabulous medical professionals, Zuni,Tyrus,Walter Kirn, Steve Kirsch, Jimmy Dore… we’re all in this together, period. And with these new coalitions, there’s an irony in how much we have in common and are willing to put aside ideological grievances.
Russell Brand really nailed it with representative community government, not one size fits all. We need to build communities, we need each other and we need to expand , put up a united front and take them all down! Expose the bastards! We have advantage of curiosity and delving. We have the advantage of joining together and destroying the bullshit mantra. We have the advantage of knowledge. And with knowledge, power!
I disagree there is a two-party state. I think there is only one, the "Deep State" for lack of a better term. The political appointees come and go, but the Deep State remains.
OK. But come election day this life-long Dem is going to attempt to stop the bleeding by voting Repub. Is it a cure? Hell, no. But our vote is supposed to still matter and the Dems would be quite happy to federalize elections. The Shadow really wants to federalize voting. Don't let that happen.
Absolutely. We don’t have an elected representative government. We have a duopoulous UniParty doing the bidding of a permanent kleptobureautechnocracy doing the bidding of an elite group of globalist sociopaths ruling from DAVOS. The UN is the hub of hell and the Establishment makes sure they prevent a change agent from toppling their kleptocracy.
"Ideally, I’d prefer a third party of pragmatic, patriotic Americans, regardless of race, creed, religion, lack thereof, sexual identity minus hatred and extreme ideology, left or right." Totally agree but I don't see any inclination of that happening. An alternative is to try to build a movement in one of the two major parties: stand up candidates in the primaries and be ready for the expected ruling class shenanigans to put it down by any means necessary.
Yup. Easier to do in the GOP. They don’t have the savvy , creativity , backbone or energy to fight back if enough of us hone in. Purge and rename the party.” We The People”
It won’t happen unless we organize and grow a movement too big to be beaten down. This is no longer a system where unique standouts , i.e Pat Moynihan and Barry Goldwater , regardless of differences can find a central common ground bigger than their personal differences. That would be protecting America with honor. They forged quite a friendship. Both despised corruption and political opportunism . They were my favorites. Both hated the CIA, UN, party politics, NATO expansionism, authoritarianism,coverups , bad judgment, bureaucracy and globalism
"The Justice Department’s Espionage Act case against Trump is based on the notion that improper possession of “national defense information” by an ex-president — a walking biological repository of state secrets — can only be stopped by the FBI, the soul of organizational rectitude and the only body we can trust to secure classified material.
Now, Trump’s behavior is eccentric at best and even some sympathetic defense lawyers I talked to suggested this case involving classified material raised “interesting” questions about the difficulty of dealing with such issues in an ordinary criminal court. But the argument that the ex-president needs to be jailed posthaste is a little hard to take seriously when FBI sources are, once again, illegally leaking secrets about their investigative targets as they pursue Trump for… mishandling secrets."
These two paragraphs make a pretty good summary of this whole outrageous and stupid situation.
It’s disgusting. Trump didn’t help his own cause. He made lousy appointments, took lousy advice, eschewed good advice and created so many self inflicted injuries.Yes, he was sabotaged from every angle, but his impetuousness, compulsiveness and churlish name calling and ad hominem attacks for perceived insults only fueled the fire and he has himself to blame.If he was as smart as he claims to tout, he’d have attempted to make friends instead of creating more animus.
The stupid nicknames and tweets, boorish insults, and unnecessary public airing of dirty laundry combined with bullying and lack of restraint or taking responsibility for his own poor judgement while demanding loyalty didn’t fare well.
I liked most of his policies and objectives, but he finally wore me out.I was disgusted by his attacks on Elon Musk, DeSantis,Nancy Mace, Murkowski, his constant self aggrandizement without giving credit where credit was do or standing up for those unfairly targeted, persecuted and imprisoned while they remained loyal.
Id rather a more measured, straightforward messenger.
As Matt said, this goes before and beyond Trump.
You're not alone.
I was a prosecutor in a small county. I would have never dreamed of leaking case info. The prosecutor would have prosecuted me. The irony is rich that the press hyperventilates over Trump possibly having secret information...all the while the press benefits from leaks of secret information.
Likewise a rural county prosecutor. A prosecutor's signature on a search warrant application is his/her bond. If a judge thought I had misrepresented or stretched the truth to get a warrant, there would be payback --- loss of reputation, possibly loss of evidence.
In Illinois there are (or at least, used to be) ethical rules prohibiting prosecutors from releasing any but certain basic info to the press. Shouldn't the Bar Association care about the DOJ and FBI leaking? Not holding my breath.
The DC bar just ignored a felony conviction (for literally lying to the court) of one of its members. What do you think?
What I got most out of this article is how tremendously important the separation of the 3 branches of government is.
The DOJ is an executive agency, and from what I gather, has been shitting on established legal (i.e. in the realm of the judiciary) rights for years now.
I really hope that this goes to SCOTUS and a ruling comes down to stop all this.
40 years ago as a new cop in the NYPD I completely despised defense attorneys and the limitations on us in making collars.
But at least I knew, while grousing left and right, that w/o those SOB's, the USA would be, and I actually used the expression, a 'Banana Republic'. I was not the brightest light, but I instinctively knew from the fact that I carried a the power of life and death on my hip at work that my own authority needed to be reined in.
That's gone, man. Gone.
Masterful piece. Privately Taibbi must fear being raided for daring to put these truths on paper. 9/11 brought us the Patriot Act, written LONG before 9/11 and then passed by congress just 5 weeks later. Not suspicious at all. Shakespeare was right…and America is fucked.
"Americans need to ask themselves what’s more dangerous: Donald Trump, or a federal law enforcement bureaucracy prosecutes people for the same rules it breaks, regularly argues that national security is harmed by allowing you to see the case against you, and appears ready to start using its vast power to punish political offenses? Is getting Donald Trump worth tossing out constitutional protections? Because that’s where this is all headed."
Yep, when you strip away all the media spin - all the government BS - all the hype and lies and screaming on both sides of the aisle ... it's really a simple question, isn't it? Do we have a constitution, and constitutional protections, that apply equally to all Americans, or don't we?
In their lust to 'get Trump', so many people and institutions have plunged into insanity. Groups like the ACLU, who one moment not all that long ago courageously stood up against everyone to fight for the right of the Nazi's to freaking march in Skokie because it was damn well their right even though everyone hated them ... alas, they've sold out in ways I never would have imagined.
Very sad times.
And a truly GREAT article by you Matt. Thank you.
Matt I read this article with open mouthed astonishment. I have to compliment u and tell u that your article was worth the entire years subscription. Now you have to start looking over your shoulder because you've just made a lot of powerful enemies. They are out to punish Trump and they don't care how they do it. The fix is in and they will get their man but also rip this country apart at the same time.
While I consider myself "socialist adjacent" and found tRump to be an idiotic buffoon and failed game show host I was horrified to see the reactions to a sitting Federal judge appointing a Special Master coming from ostensibly left or liberal attorneys.
I didn't even bother to mention the unconstitutional behaviors I've seen grow in frequency and scope since 9/11 as they were so blinded by their disdain they might as well have never gone to law school. My own success in law school, despite working 60+ hours per week while also trying to help my wife raise four children, was largely based on having the learned ability to honestly view the other side of legal matters. To see so many attorneys I once respected abandon reason and their own legal training in favor of a twisted, self-serving view of the world was beyond disappointing.
That said, at some point I think it's time to talk about what the corporate lackeys in our government are trying to distract us from while they continue to give away our blood, sweat and tears to the highest bidder. While I saw only truth in your article the ultimate big picture involves the question -"WHY?" Why are they so busy distracting us? Why are they so busy spinning an insane narrative that far too many accept as true? Why aren't the American people able to come up for air long enough to see the dystopian future storming towards? Is any of it even worth fixing?
In a sea of faux-journalists mindlessly reading their teleprompters you remain a true journalist and, as is often true, yours is one of few voices in the wilderness of hope.
I’m a retired journalist, and I have to say I feel pretty much the same way about seeing so many colleagues abandon objectivism for team play. I used to think it was just the Washington crowd who were so enamored with the federal government that they participated fully in its rites. I remember a colleague and I who sat across from each other sharing a distressed stare during the Iraq invasion build-up, when the latest unnamed government sources were trotted out to impugn yet another critic. “Hey, when we let folks use anonymity, isn’t it usually to protect regular people from the people in power, and not the other way around?” he said. We both just shook our heads and felt thankful we’d both decided to stay at a good major market paper outside D.C. or NYC.
I will never forget a college bar conversation with a social work major who informed me that “behind every great fortune is a great crime.” I’d never heard the expression before. This mild-mannered fellow delivered it with the hard gaze of the true believer, and I don’t recall my reply if I had one. But I think such certainty is common and is a detriment to any journalist who cares about disinterested reporting. And BTW, here is the translation of Balzac’s original expression, according to Quote Investigator: “The secret of a great success for which you are at a loss to account is a crime that has never been found out, because it was properly executed.” See why it’s been truncated to its more familiar form? I think it’s called “moral clarity.”
"[T]he whole concept of attorney-client privilege, as well as the 1st, 4th, 5th, and 6th Amendments — guaranteeing rights to free speech, against unreasonable searches, and to due process and legal counsel, respectively — were created to bar exactly this kind of behavior..."
Quaint notion.
You realize that every one of us leaving a comment here in support of Taibbi's report may end up on the receiving end of some DOJ attention. They may just go to the web server/backbone to gather the info - without bothering to notify us that our info is being sought - so we can never use judicial process to block this abuse.
“They” gotcha when fear & paranoia take over your thoughts. Suggest freedom of speech like we do on TK news is of utmost importance! Now more than ever.
Fuck them if they do. Clear violation of every notion of American government prior to 911. Not to mention our tattered constitution. The fourth amendment has been dead letter for some time now. An entire generation has grown up under the national security state and doesn’t understand they are supposed to work for us.
That thought has occurred to me many times.
Yes and add to it that our payment info will or has been swept up
Excellent! Many thanks. The notion of a permanent state of war against the citizens, all of whom are guilty until proven innocent, under-pins the entire debacle. My "liberal" friends have no idea that the paranoid fascist they fear is staring at them from the mirror every day. Civil liberties can and must be defended to protect us all.
Things are spinning out of control so fast that, without you and others, Matt, I'd think they were standing still. It's a crazy, crazy time.
The "Justice" Department...that's a good one.
Excellent article except it's only half the story. If the Biden and Clinton families were investigated at least half as much as the Trump family they'd all be sitting in jail now. If you haven't watched DOPESICK yet, do so to get a taste of how our government agencies are politisized and operate quid pro quo without regard to the destruction they cause.
Yes, DOPESICK is an excellent film and exemplifies much about what MT wrote, especially intimidation.
Also, Matt has said from the beginning of this maralogo debacle to be(a)ware of the danger to us all.
"No one expects the [Secular] Inquisition!"
Re-posting Monty Python comment I made about a year ago.
aren't you a little afraid Matt?
I sure am.
The scariest thing has got to be knowing your former "friends" on the left would cheer should the state go after you. Just know you bring hope to many by your fearless truth seeking. I know you have helped open my eyes and I am grateful for it.
You and Glenn Greenwald are the bravest journalists in America today.
You are my favorite journalist. Thank you for showing us the truth.
Matt, I understand. Be care-full. You have my unwavering admiration. Your sense of humor helps you & me & countless others
Wow. I don't know what else to say to that.
Thank you for your courage.