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,
"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.": Masterful, Matt. Simply masterful.
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.
"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.
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.
"[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.
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.
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,
"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.": Masterful, Matt. Simply masterful.
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.
"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.
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.
"[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.
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.
"No one expects the [Secular] Inquisition!"
Re-posting Monty Python comment I made about a year ago.