Further thoughts on the “unprecedented” Mar-A-Lago FBI raid
William Jacobson thinks the goal is to provoke:
This is a provocation. They are trying to get a reaction that allows a further crackdown. See, In Re J6.
It’s also a provocation to get Trump to declare his candidacy for President before the midterms. Democrats would love to turn 2022 into a referendum on Trump rather than the deliberate destruction of the national borders and inflation.
All of that may indeed be so. I have a somewhat different take – or rather, because it doesn’t contradict what Professor Jacobson said, it’s more of an additional take.
I believe they did it because they can. Right now they hold all the reins of power except SCOTUS: both legislative branches, the presidency, social media, and the press. Their deepest desire is to keep hold of those reins. They sense the possibility of losing some of that control in November, and even the possibility of relinquishing any of it is unconscionable to them.
They’ve been attempting to frame Trump for some sort of awful offense since even before he was elected in 2016. They’ve tried a myriad of ways to drive a stake into his still-beating heart – including two impeachments, one at the last minute – and it hasn’t worked. Like the undead, he keeps surviving, and the threat of his running again in 2024 and even possibly winning again is very real. They have PTSD for a certain November night in 2016 when they realized that the Deplorables of America had spoken and elected a person the left considers unconscionable, as well as dangerous – to them.
Over the years, I have called the Democrats Captain Ahab chasing the Great Orange Whale of Donald Trump. The intensity of the chase has been rising, not falling:
Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee. Sink all coffins and all hearses to one common pool! and since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces, while still chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned whale! Thus, I give up the spear!
The Mar-A-Lago raid also energizes their base.
Another thing – I strongly believe that yesterdays’ Mar-A-Lago action, or something very much like it, was decided on by the left quite some time ago. The January 6th arrests (and if there was entrapment, the FBI entrapment that led up to the January 6th arrests) – and then the more recent January 6th hearings – were the buildups, with the aim of the entire thing to arrest Trump afterwards or build a case for his arrest. The hearing was supposed to set the stage by convincing the public of his guilt – which it didn’t accomplish – but some sort of legal action of this sort was always contemplated as the next step in a carefully composed and escalating series of events.
How far they will go with this depends on how far they believe they need to go to stop him.
The left is gleefully gloating right now, and calling the action “unprecedented.” By that they mean the same thing they meant when they said that Trump being impeached twice was “unprecedented” – in other words, the fact that it had never been done before to any previous president was supposed to indicate how especially horrible Trump is, rather than how ruthless and driven they are in trying to destroy him. Now, with the same glee, they are saying that this raid is “unprecedented,” and by that they mean to convey the same idea: that Trump’s crimes are so awful that they had no recourse but to do this to stop him and bring him to justice.
Funny thing, though – the right is also saying it’s “unprecedented.” But what the right means by that is that the Democrats have become wholly dominated by a Stasi-like mentality.
It is certainly a provocation, as well as, without question, a blatant attempt to maintain power and control “by hook or by crook”, truly “by any means necessary”. It is noteworthy indeed that, over the last (sadly and outrageously “unprecedented”) day, so many intelligent conservatives have used such phrases as “crossing the Rubicon” in order to convey the desperation of such an act (point of no return) and “Praetorian Guard” to refer to the enforcers for and the protectors of the Deep State/managerial class/permanent bureaucracy. We may well, unfortunately, be living through the Decline and Fall of the American Republic.
j e:
We are absolutely living through the decline, and have for quite some time.
The question remains as to whether we are living through the fall.
I’m not sure there really is a “goal” in the sense that this is a well-thought-out and considered action. It’s more just another element of the non-stop tantrum our political establishment has been throwing since Trump got elected in 2016.
Mike
MBunge:
I will not disagree with your assessment except on one point: the starting point for the non-stop tantrum was not Trump’s election. The left keeps trotting that lie out: “this president is beyond the pale: other Republican presidents were not, but this one is.”
But if you stop to think about it, they have been saying the same thing since Nixon. They even said the same thing about Bush Père and fils. After each leaves office, they act as if they never treated him that way, but this new Republican president — well he really IS going to be the end of the American republic.
Same old same old. And if DeSantis runs, you can bet we’ll be told “well we got along with Trump, but DeSantis really IS the end of the Republic.”
It doesn’t appear the FBI learned anything from their Whitmer kidnapping stunt. They no longer have any credibility.
The only answer is jury nullification on any and all federal trials.
F, I’m not sure it’s Nixon.
I think this latest outrage first took off with Obama’s (and his media helots’) OTT—and utterly fearful—response to the Tea Party.
– – – – – –
In the following absurdly upbeat analysis…
“Deep State Burns Its Bridges to Get Trump—and Now It’s Fighting for Its Life”—
https://pjmedia.com/columns/gregbyrnes/2022/08/09/deep-state-burns-its-bridges-to-get-trump-and-now-its-fighting-for-its-life-n1619449
H/T Instapundit.
…we find the following:
“…Attorney General Merrick Garland is making a big gamble that will bankrupt him if no “smoking gun” emerges…”
If this assessment is correct, I guess Garland will “just have to find” that smoking
gun, won’t he?
Note, though, that if Garland is true to form, he has several “smoking guns” already manufactured and handy…just waiting to be deployed. All he has to do is choose the one (or ones) he thinks he needs.
The FBI and the media will help him do the rest….
“The question remains as to whether we are living through the fall.”
I don’t think it remains a question. The fall is happening, slowly but steadily. When close to one half of the electorate will support, indeed cheer on, destruction of the close to another half, by any means necessary…we really don’t have a country in anything but formality.
But that’s where we are at.
I cannot say how long the fall will take much less what comes after it, but it certainly has already started.
Right now they hold all the reins of power except SCOTUS: both legislative branches, the presidency, social media, and the press.
About the presidency: Biden doesn’t seem to be holding on to anything any longer:
“In the course of 5 seconds Biden forgets that he already shook hands with Chuck Schumer. . . . Schumer shakes Biden’s hand. Turns and shakes other hands, then Biden just sticks his hand out again as if he didn’t just shake hands with Chuck. Or maybe he’s shaking hands with the invisible man again. What is going on in this man’s brain? He is not well.”
Video at the link: https://notthebee.com/article/in-the-course-of-5-seconds-biden-forgets-that-he-already-shook-hands-with-chuck-schumer
The Right has resolutely NOT fought back so far. So I agree this is not a hopeful provocation that expects a violent response.
I like the idea of a timeline: J6, hearings, whip public into a frenzy, bring hammer down on Trump. “They” are living in a bubble; it may be puzzling that things aren’t falling into place.
If you are going to kill the King, kill the King.
DOJ has an airtight case. Trump will be convicted by a DC jury. But if it really is about documents, that’s a nothing burger.
Instead of Hillary, Trump will be locked up. Until, of course, DeSantis pardons him.
The Dems have blown it. By getting rid of Trump, we get the better nominee in DeSantis.
Talking point/mantra today on the left: “Trump has a copy of the warrant. Why won’t he produce it? He must produce it, today!”
Thoughts, Neo? Anyone?
I would wager good money that the DC DOJ has been doing mock trials with Trump as the Defendant and the facts as DOJ knows them.
The DOJ won’t take a chance on getting rid of Trump.
China tried to kill Trump (and us) with the Wuhan virus. Didn’t work. DOJ won’t make the same mistake.
All I can say is Garland must really be pissed about not getting that SCOTUS job.
Jim — the Right has not fought back yet. Excuse me while you hold my beer…!
Ackler — BINGO!
Barry — Yup. Fed bureaucratic Weaponization began with that Other Barry.
But back to Jim, and adding to Neo’s list of consequences, I was just reading reaction to Sarah Hoyt’s latest musings, where she avers YeS, they are this dumb!
But later, among commenters, the following expectation about the Rubicon Crossed Right emerges….Lone Wolves will soon be targeting (hopefully obnoxious and insufferable, if not also guilty) Leftists.
AND, sure, the Hysterical Left will get all McVey-Ed over it, should it start. But get ready for theses alone Wolves to just be Lonely Obsessed Wolves that have indeed been triggered. Nothing more, other than loving guns, say.
So. IF YOUVE EVER THOUGHT YOU MIGHT NEED A GUN FOR DEFENSE (or, for that matter, offensive use) — for the time is ticking faster and closer), DON’T WAIT! Do it now.
I think those new IRS agents can just as easily be Presidentially ordered to serve as ATF agents and mustered into compiling illegal lists of arms owners, and slated for unconstitutional gun confiscation.
THAT TIME IS NEARING, too. COUNT ON IT.
https://accordingtohoyt.com/2022/08/09/speaking-of-bad-plots/
HERE’s the segment of reader discussion that I found insightful:
bgnad says:
August 9, 2022 at 1:51 pm
“One fellow I listen to was saying last night about the most likely outcomes from the raid (other than the crazy backlash that will come) is that “Many of those who are not yet awake will be woken up by this and many of the ones who are awake will become radicalized by it.”
Which is something of a paraphrase.
But I’m sure that he hit the nail on the head with the “radicalized” part.
Reply
Mike Houst says:
August 9, 2022 at 2:34 pm
“I mentioned two words above: Lone Wolves. I really think we’re going to start seeing some of that from the Right very soon. And they’ll probably be targeting specific people on the Left. And what was the name of that comedy? “A Thousand Ways to Die in the Old West?” All I can say is I’m glad I don’t work for the government right now.
Reply
accordingtohoyt says:
August 9, 2022 at 3:01 pm
“And they’ll be people who have NOTHING to lose. And there will be a lot of them. A growing multitude“
kamas716 says:
August 9, 2022 at 1:51 pm
“I hadn’t heard about the Mar-a-Lago thing until late this morning. The first thing I thought of was, “I guess the Democrats really do want to start a civil war.” I haven’t looked into what it was they’re supposedly looking for, but it seems like a fishing expedition rather than a serious investigation….”
Molly G:
If anyone needs to produce it, it’s the DOJ.
neo @ 3:31,
Sadly, true. When that fact depresses me I think about history and the fact the vast majority of humans lived in declining times, or, the status quo was simply “declined.”
We are fortunate to have lived through some of our nation’s aspirational periods and, must always try to remember that we each have the ability to make our own lives and the lives of others positive and aspirational.
Illegitimi non carborundum!
As Americans we are taught that all humans are free and sovereign. We may have idiots holding the reins of government (and we do), but they can never own our minds or our souls.
PA Cat:
Whether or not Biden himself holds the reins of his presidency at this point is irrelevant. The Democrats hold them.
I’m doubtful that the goal of this is to provoke a violent reaction, though the left would certainly welcome a controllable one. As it would provide the media with a field day.
Even enough, if widespread enough to declare martial law. Which at some point is a certainty if the democrats retain control.
Rather, it’s part of their envisioned path to preventing Trump from being able to run again.
neo states, “How far they will go with this depends on how far they believe they need to go to stop him.”
Making the case for… if needed… assassination.
The irony here is that their hate filled paranoia of Trump blinds them to what might be an even greater disaster for them; the election of De Santis to the Presidency in 2024.
As it’s a certainty that if Trump is prevented from running again in 2024, whether through imprisonment or assassination, it will present De Santis with an unmistakable lesson. Namely, just how far the left is willing to go in preventing their loss of power. Not that he isn’t already aware of it.
De Santis is a former Green Beret and his actions have demonstrated that he won’t hesitate to act decisively. Undoubtedly he knows that when dealing with a rabid animal, only killing it will stop it.
“This is a provocation. They are trying to get a reaction . . . ” [Wm Jacobson]
I sometimes wonder if Trump is not intentionally doing the same thing.
Why would he publicize his desire to fire 50,000 government employees prior to even announcing the he is running for president in 2024; one would think that stategically, this would be kept under wraps until after such an announcement.
He’s not a stupid man; he must know that he’s living in the left’s head rent-free and it’s as if his actions are designed to intentionally exacerbate their extreme behavior and rhetoric as a prelude to his running again and perhaps as a prelude to the midterms.
Remember the quote attributed to Napoleon: “Never interrupt your enemy when he’s making a mistake.” Now, if you can incite, encourage, and inflame that mistake, all the better. This could be a jiu-jitsu move using the left’s own tactics against them. After all, the Trump safe was apparently empty, and Mark Elias now admits that the point behind all of this is to make Trump ineligible to run again; the masks drop away yet again.
I would expect no less from a fighter.
Sorry for the delay everyone. Have been dealing with some surgeries in the family.
@j e To be honest I fear that we have already passed that point. I am a student of history, and have done some studying and wargaming in Rome, and I feel that we entered into the Principate on Jan 6th. If not earlier when the “election” happened. When an authoritarian leadership consolidated power but lacked the legitimacy or credibility to transition too openly, and so wore the Republic’s outward structures and guises like a skinsuit until eventually they stopped pretending even to the degree they did.
It also doesn’t escape my notice that this was accompanied by riots, civil war, and the horrors of the Proscriptions
One possible benefit is that nobody would mistake Biden for Octavius/Augustus. Indeed his own camp seem interested in jettisoning him for someone better. But that is cold comfort.
Turtler:
Hope your family members are on the mend.
Rufus,
“try to remember that we each have the ability to make our own lives and the lives of others positive and aspirational.”
I suspect that the political prisoners in our D.C. Gulag might disagree. There are few Solzenitchens in the gulag. Few Viktor Frankls in the concentration camps. How many will come out of the left’s planned ‘reeducation’ camps with a “positive and aspirational” attitude, knowing they face ongoing social credit scores, digital tracking through implanted chips and “owning nothing”?
This is what they have planned for us, as they’ve repeatedly stated. Only fight remains because there’s nowhere to flee to…
“they can never own our minds or our souls.”
It’s our bodies, assets and livelihoods, along with our speech they seek to control i.e. own. And it’s the minds and souls of the young and future generations that they seek to own.
“Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted. Give me a child for the first 5 years of his life and he will be mine forever. Give us the child for eight years and it will be a Bolshevik forever. Vladimir Lenin
[my emphasis]
“.Indeed his own camp seem interested in jettisoning him for someone better. But that is cold comfort.” Turtler
Of a certainty and the current, far ahead of the pack front runner is Gavin Newsome. Only what they plan to do with Kamala is unknown.
The slow, or is it fairly rapid, degradation of actual “rule of law” to limit the ability of gov’t to oppress political rivals is so sad.
As so many Germans believed the racist Nazis in their lies against Jews, so many of today’s college educated Democrats believe the TDS liars in their lies against Trump.
largely so,https://twitter.com/theblaze/status/1557084925253373952?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1557084925253373952%7Ctwgr%5E0101c931924ca91e387f7f54aaa6c0eaabd9b71e%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Face.mu.nu%2F
While the Left thinks it holds all the reins of power, up to 75 million people are willing to die on this hill.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/08/incoherent-liberal-fever-dream-lies-michigan-attorney-general-candidate-matt-deperno-responds-ag-nessels-threats-political-lawsuit/
T comments “ Why would he publicize his desire to fire 50,000 government employees prior to even announcing the he is running for president in 2024; one would think that stategically, this would be kept under wraps until after such an announcement.”
It was already in the news. Axios did a two part LONG story to warn the Deep State and DC traitors that Team Trump is gunning for them through “Schedule F” which will make it much easier to fire both insubordination and incompetent federal bureaucrats — can’t have THAT!
https://www.axios.com/2022/07/22/trump-2025-radical-plan-second-term
NOTE — very long; part 2 linked in borrow byline.
But what the right means by that is that the Democrats have become wholly dominated by a Stasi-like mentality.
Not so much Stasi, or Gestapo, or KGB … IMO Iran’s IRGC might be the better comparison.
This action is driven by the BELIEF of fundamentalist zealots that they are the only ones who can be right, and therefore all who dissent are evil and can be dealt with by any expedient means … life, liberty and due process be damned.
Xi, Vlad, and Brandon. Brandon, owned by Xi and Vlad, proves to be the immediate existential threat to the USA. And the left is all in with this fundamental trans, or transformation.
I believe DOJ and the FBI are capable of PLANTING some damning evidence in all those boxes they took out, that reportedly had not been opened.
T J Olson.
That Axios article is exactly what I was referring to.
I am a student of history, and have done some studying and wargaming in Rome, and I feel that we entered into the Principate on Jan 6th. If not earlier when the “election” happened. When an authoritarian leadership consolidated power but lacked the legitimacy or credibility to transition too openly, and so wore the Republic’s outward structures and guises like a skinsuit until eventually they stopped pretending even to the degree they did.
It also doesn’t escape my notice that this was accompanied by riots, civil war, and the horrors of the Proscriptions
Turtler:
A few days ago I posted this excerpt from a recent Victor Davis Hanson interview. I don’t know whether it addresses your concern, but VDH is saying Rome went through some very bad patches yet rebounded.
__________________________
So is this, “The last days of Rome”? I don’t know. Everybody says.
When they say that, I ask myself, “Well, which Rome are you talking about? The sterile inert last days of the Republic, when people were satisfying their appetites?”
People of the time said that you would never recover from Nero and Caligula and Tiberius and the year of the four Emperors.
Then suddenly you get Vespasian, Titus and that ushers in Nerva, Marcus Aurelius, Trajan, Hadrian Antonius Pius, and Gibbon says this is the greatest period of human prosperity in history …
Then it starts to decline and that cyclical process went on for 700 years continued for another thousand in the the Byzantine so we have an enormous ability to self-correct the problem that we’re facing now.
https://www.thenewneo.com/2022/08/05/open-thread-8-5-22/#comment-2636085
__________________________
History is not a straight line.
If Biden and the Deep State are as corrupt and criminal as we believe, what choice do they have, but to Stop Trump By Any Means Necessary?
Not that they are justified to do so, but as Michael explains to Tom Hagen, after the failed attempt on Michael’s life:
__________________________________
You see — all our people are business men, their loyalty is based on that. Now, one thing that I learned from Pop was to try to think as people around you think. Now on that basis, anything’s possible.
–“Godfather II”, “Michael and Tom”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU0mLjGzdBU
I hope your family members heal swiftly, Turtler!
I used to be very dubious about the likely hood of a Second Civil War. Now I am not so sure. The Left becomes more and more oppressive, and unhinged every day. We may have a Civil War before the end of the Biden Fraudulency.
The Democrats started the last one, and they may very well welcome the second one, thinking it an opportunity to cull the heard of the unwoke.
@ Cornhead > “The Dems have blown it. By getting rid of Trump, we get the better nominee in DeSantis.”
Bingo.
IF somehow the FBI-DOJ cabal succeeds in indicting Trump, or even convicting him, and manages to get him jailed before the 2024 elections, they will then be dealing with an amalgam of Martin Luther (the original), Martin Luther King in Birmingham Jail, Sir Thomas More, and possibly others.
So, the Trump supporters will rally to support DeSantis as Trump’s surrogate, the Trump haters will get DeSantis as a New Improved Candidate, and the Democrats will get trounced in the elections, because the surge of furious Republicans, outraged Independents, and even possibly some disgusted Democrats will overcome the mega-massive fraud that would be necessary to carry the Democrat-candidate-who-isn’t-yet-named.
IF Trump continues to run from jail and wins (it’s happened in lesser offices, usually Democrats), they have no guarantee that SCOTUS will uphold their precious statute, because a mere law cannot over-ride the Constitutional qualifications for president (numerous pundits have made that point).
Trying to ensure a Democrat win would require martyrdoms of either Trump, DeSantis, some conservative Justices, or all of the above.
I really don’t think they ought to go there.
In re Trump running in 2024:
(1) Some people have said Trump shouldn’t announce what his decision is about running for 2024 until after the election, and I agree that maximum leverage is retained the longer he stays “unofficially” running, but it may be too late for that.
https://notthebee.com/article/trump-posted-this-video-to-truth-social-last-night-after-the-fbi-raid
The video is brilliant (somehow, the NeverTrumpers and Democrats forget that The Donald is a top-ranked media personality, and has professional crews already under contract), and must have been in the works for some time prior to the raid, which made an excellent excuse to launch it now.
(2) The gloating by the Democrats, especially Marc Elias, that putting Trump in jail would automatically prevent him from serving as President again, makes it impossible for Trump NOT to run in 2024, just to prove them wrong.
https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2022/08/09/marc-elias-lets-the-cat-out-of-the-bag-with-what-he-tweets-about-trump-raid-n609426
Those of you pushing someone other than Trump in 2024:
Unless your alternative to Trump has the resolve he had/has, at a minimum, to confront the Progressives and establish substantial policies that respect our rights … even if that means being as abrasive as Trump was/is … supporting someone else besides Trump will likely be counterproductive.
It is that simple. It is not enough to elect a placeholder that the Progressives can wrap around their axle because “incivility is not who we are”. And we also need to elect a Congress that will back EOs up with laws that lock sound policies into place.
DeSantis comes close. But so did Scott Walker until the campaign conslutants got hold of him.
Supporting Trump – or More Than Trump – is a test of how much we value our own liberty, and the liberty of our neighbors, over being thought of as Nice People™.
J. E. Dyer, as usual, takes an outside-the-box look at the Mar-a-lago Raid.
https://theoptimisticconservative.wordpress.com/2022/08/09/world-crisis-raiders-of-the-lost-files/
Indeed
Which is why he had to run off to his vacation refuge so quickly. *
*https://redstate.com/bonchie/2022/08/08/that-flight-christopher-wray-told-senators-he-had-to-catch-turns-into-a-scandal-n608780
DeSantis comes close. But so did Scott Walker until the campaign conslutants got hold of him.
Jester Naybor:
Walker is an interesting case. He was My Guy in 2016. He looked good — strong, smart, young, handsome with a record as a successful fighter against progressives. What’s not to like?
So he ran for the Republican nomination in 2016 … and, when he got onto the national stage, froze like a deer in the headlights.
I never figured what happened there. Suddenly it was just the Donald and the Dwarves and that was the story.
I really don’t think they ought to go there.
AesopFan:
However, as I asked earlier, what else are they going to do?
If they play things conventionally, they’ve got a losing hand, so they are doubling down and gambling.
Trump is an existential threat. Not only can he rally the Deplorables and win, but at this point Democrats have an obvious backlog of heinous corruption and crime, which they can’t allow to be investigated and prosecuted.
Democrats don’t have good options. J6, then the J6 committee, now the J6 show trials haven’t worked. So they are doubling-down again with this fishing expedition, hoping to catch a break — either with evidence or incitement.
I’ve played tournament chess. When you are losing, you do your best to create complications and make unexpected scary moves, in hope of tricking your opponent into making mistakes. Chess slang for this is playing for the swindle. It works more than you might think.
We are not seeing a brilliant Bond villain plan here. Democrats are playing for the swindle.
Huxley, what happened is that the man who didn’t listen to the conventional wisdom of politics while being an EFFECTIVE governor of WI, started listening to it and went squishy on immigration in particular … IMO, because he heeded the words of campaign conslutants (misspelling intentional) who were fighting the last political war they “won”.
Conslutants get paid for winning campaigns – not for the quality of governance between them. And the people wanted more than just a “win”.
Walker was my FIRST choice as a Presidential candidate in 2016, because of his effectiveness as governor. Trump was my third choice, after Walker and Cruz … because I figured he’d govern as just another paragon of expedience … but when in office, Trump delivered more on sound conservative policy than any other POTUS in my lifetime except for Reagan.
One thing I believe that should be considered is how far ahead a typical Democrat politician thinks, and sometimes I really question their ability to see much beyond their noses. This raid may be a prime example of that. Let’s raid his home and see what we can find, never thinking that the raid itself may cause consequences we haven’t considered. I’m reminded of how Biden withdrew from Afghanistan, pulling the troops out first without even contemplating the disastrous consequences of that action.
At Power Line, Scott Johnson has been outraged by the FBI’s search of Trump’s house. While that’s not surprising, I’m shocked to read that he’s called for the dissolution of the FBI, as a remedy.
Scott Johnson is far from reckless. I don’t think it’s unfair to call him a mainstream conservative. It makes me wonder whether the abolition of the FBI and the IRS should become part of the GOP platform for the next round of elections. I think the dissolution of both agencies is both necessary and feasible, but if Scott Johnson is also making that assertion, then maybe it’s become politically realistic.
For those who missed Johnson’s Power Line post, here’s what I’m talking about:
“We saw the FBI agents holding the fort down outside Mar-a-Lago with big weapons. It was sickening. Christopher Wray should be sent packing and the FBI should be dissolved and reconstituted. It has become an unaccountable and politically corrupt organization.” (https://tinyurl.com/yyk7pjr8)
It makes me wonder whether the abolition of the FBI and the IRS should become part of the GOP platform for the next round of elections. I think the dissolution of both agencies is both necessary and feasible, but if Scott Johnson is also making that assertion, then maybe it’s become politically realistic.
Cornflour:
Even if the abolition fails, it might do wonders for concentrating the minds of those organizations on their charters instead of being enforcers for the Democrats.
_______________________________
Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.
–Samuel Johnson
Dan Bongino’s recommendation on Tuesday’s podcast: terminate everyone, top to bottom, who participated in the raid. “Just following orders” is the ticket to a new job in the private sector. And/or a ticket to some time in the slammer.
The interesting question, to me at least, is if the FBI turned off the security cameras at Mar a Lago, why did they do that ? Plant some evidence? We have already seen them do it with the “dossier.” I expect another shoe to drop soon. The election in November is the obvious target. Michigan seems to be the laboratory for testing. The fake kidnapping plot, the disqualification of leading GOP candidates for Governor, now the Democrat AG trying to indict the Republican candidate for her job.
NPR this morning repeatedly emphasized that this action was only the latest in a long litany of investigations, many still ongoing or even just threatened. And to make the message simple enough for the average dullard they cater to, NPR left out the salient fact that none of these fishing expeditions have caught any fish!
You see, the fact that dozens of lures have been thrown into the lake simply proves that the fishing there must be great!!
Huxley, you said “Even if the abolition fails, it might do wonders for concentrating the minds of those organizations on their charters instead of being enforcers for the Democrats.”
I think that these agencies have committed many crimes, and know they must continue to hide them, or failing that pay dearly for them. Playing nicer from now on is not on the table.
Ray Van Dune:
I hope you are not under the impression I’m arguing for “playing nicer.”
The interesting question, to me at least, is if the FBI turned off the security cameras at Mar a Lago, why did they do that ? Plant some evidence? We have already seen them do it with the “dossier.” I expect another shoe to drop soon. The election in November is the obvious target. Michigan seems to be the laboratory for testing. The fake kidnapping plot, the disqualification of leading GOP candidates for Governor, now the Democrat AG trying to indict the Republican candidate for her job.
At this time, Eric Trump and the lawyer present have said no copy of the warrant was left and it was merely flashed at the lawyer from ten feet away. The latest contention is that the FBI agents told the staff to turn off the security cameras and the staff refused.
It makes me wonder whether the abolition of the FBI and the IRS should become part of the GOP platform for the next round of elections.
Sorting their functions into several successor agencies and firing abusive employees should be on the agenda. Not sure how you suppose the government is to function without a tax collection service. One problem with both agencies is the excessive complexity of the codes they enforce and the resultant opportunity for nefarious exercises in discretion. You want to fix the IRS, step one is to fix the tax code.
Huxley, can you please tell me what specifically DOJ or IRS might do instead of maintaining the current course or doubling down? No disrespect – I just want to know what they might do in your estimation…
Suppose the fog cleared in Joe’s head and he realized he just stepped in a cow pie – what could he do?
He could do many things. If Jill doesn’t stop him, Brandon will lick his shoe.
Ray Van Dune:
Not sure of your question.
The DOJ and IRS could catch bad guys and collect taxes, fairly and objectively, according to laws and protocols. Somebody has to do those things.
I doubt we can abolish either, but IMO both organizations could use a near-death experience to clarify their missions.
Art Deco on August 10, 2022 at 1:17 pm said:
“Not sure how you suppose the government is to function without a tax collection service.”
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Art Deco:
I’m certain there are many economists and lawyers more expert than I am in taxation, but my first thought is that the income tax would be replaced by a national sales tax or VAT. This would so simplify tax collection that the service(?) could be transferred directly to the Treasury Department. The IRS would then be abolished. Its replacement would be much smaller, more focused, and less prone to politicization and social engineering.
As always, the devil’s in the details, but that’s my first thought.
@GB at 5:28.
“De Santis is a former Green Beret and his actions have demonstrated that he won’t hesitate to act decisively.”
Untrue.
“During the surge, DeSantis served as a senior legal advisor to the SEAL who commanded Special Operations Task Force-West in Fallujah, Navy Capt. Dane Thorleifson.
DeSantis was responsible for helping ensure the missions of Navy SEALs and Army Green Berets in that wide swath of the Western Euphrates River Valley were planned according to the rule of law and that captured detainees were humanely treated, said his commander at the time.”
source https://www.tampabay.com/main/2018/09/21/what-did-ron-desantis-do-during-his-tour-in-iraq/
We didnt have a irs until 1913, before we relied on tariffs