The lure of the closet
Ann Althouse writes:
“We have full access to everything. We can go everywhere.” That was the repeated statement of the 3 DOJ lawyers — who were described as displaying an “arrogant” demeanor — who were present during the Mar-a-Lago raid, according to an eyewitness quoted in “FBI searched Melania’s wardrobe, spent hours in Trump’s private office during Mar-a-Lago raid” (NY Post).
I’m not surprised that a search extends into a woman’s most intimate space — how could searches be effective if the woman’s closet were off limits? — but I recognize that this is something that hits onlookers hard. It makes the government seem more brutal if you picture its agents rooting around in the lady’s underwear drawer.
This is the kind of image that can have a powerfully persuasive effect that transcends reason. I will never forget how — back in the 1980s — Joe Biden conquered the pridefully intellectual Robert Bork by talking about police in the bedroom. Bork pedantically explained his view of the nonexistence of the right to privacy, and Biden just kept making us think about Those cops! In the bedroom!
Earlier today I had read that article in the NY Post about the agents going through Melania’s garments, and the quote by the agents about having “full access” and being able to “go anywhere.” It immediately struck me as a creepy power move, and that the entire episode conveyed, among other things, a sense of violation and was meant to do so. It also made me think of two things, which I was reminded of when I read Althouse’s post.
The first is that many people whose homes have been burglarized have mentioned a sense of invasion and almost sexual intrusion as having been worse than the loss of whatever was stolen. Seeing the ransacked drawers and the possessions strewn around, and knowing that strangers have had access to everything without your being able to do a thing about it, can be almost literally sickening.
The second is this scene from one of my favorite movies:
And on the lighter side:
FBI searched Melania's wardrobe pic.twitter.com/ihriFzCk1F
— Edward (@edwardrussl) August 10, 2022
I saw that FBI agent meme. Hilarious!
And the sense of violation is a good point. They can send agents to go through ladies’ underwear, and the teenager’s room, at will, because they want to, and not because they’ve got any valid law enforcement reason.
Feds are after Tom Arnolds Russian pee tapes, and Omarosa’s n-word recordings.
A criminal regime, acts criminally,
Regarding Rebecca’s room, I suspect that those drawers were designed that way so the camera could easily view the contents for the voyeur audience. However, I would really like to have drawers like those. That was nice.
I see that the White House wants to pretend they didn’t know. Ok, then; what does the White House and the DOJ plan to do about the outrageous behavior of the FBI? Wray signed off on this, and he showed a different sort of contempt of Congress. The Magistrate broke all sorts of ethics as well it seems the agents conducting the raid. The White House knows this now and has authority to discipline this unethical behavior. Failure to do so makes the pretense absolutely unnecessary, because you subsequently condoned their actions. Parents are responsible for their children’s immoral, unethical, and sometimes illegal actions, whether they knew of those actions in advance or not. Is Biden even qualified to be a parent? The answer seems a solid, no!
Neo says, The first is that many people whose homes have been burglarized have mentioned a sense of invasion and almost sexual intrusion as having been worse than the loss of whatever was stolen.
Reminds me of the case of Russell Williams, the Canadian serial rapist and murderer, who began by breaking into homes in order to steal girls’ and women’s underwear, which he kept as trophies. He then escalated into crimes against women’s bodies.
From Wikipedia:
“Williams . . . had pedophiliac tendencies, stealing underwear of girls as young as nine years old. He made 82 fetish-related home invasions and attempted break-ins between September 2007 and November 2009. Williams had progressed from break-ins, to sexual assaults with no penetration, to finally rape and murder. He had kept detailed track of police reports of the crimes he was committing, logged his crimes, kept photos and videos, and had even left notes and messages for his victims. In a break-in into the bedroom of a 12-year-old girl, he left a message on her computer saying: ‘Merci’ (‘Thank you’ in French). He had taken thousands of pictures of his crimes, and had kept the photos on his computer. Crown Attorney Robert Morrison presented numerous pictures of Williams dressed in the various pieces of underwear and bras he had stolen, frequently masturbating while lying on the beds of his victims.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Williams_(criminal)
I remember that Dateline interviewed the parents of one of Williams’ young victims as well as older survivors of his break-ins and assaults, and the sense of violation that all of them expressed was visceral.
Totally agree about the sense of violation that results from unauthorized access or burglary of one’s home. I experienced that and have never forgotten the stomach-turning revulsion and anger; the desire to purge and punish.
I imagine the emotion is less savage if the burglary or trespass is of an office or garage etc: but maybe not much. It turns out we humans are intensely territorial.
How could FBI —fons et origo of knowledge of all matters criminal and all forms of suffering from matters criminal— not anticipate and provide for this most repellent aspect of their invasion?
Perhaps this is a psy-ops moment?? Do something that makes the family feel violated and then perhaps make them react so that they can talk about conspiracy theories and being unbalanced…
I sure hope that Trump’s security go over the house to find any bugs or cameras. I would think that the secret service guys who protect the Trumps feel just as violated and react in support of the Trumps.
Brandon is the Sniffer in Cheif after all.
Spot the Fed. Is cross dressing and gender fluidity a requirement for Senior Executive Service now?Special Undercover Agents indeed.
Watch out for Mrs. Danvers!
Another point – the disclosure that there was a Trump insider that was a mole could also be an attempt to drive Trump crazy and make him mistrust his staff.
Since the FBI had already started reviewing the boxes, perhaps that was the source since they easily could have left some items to be found at a later date.
And the beat(down) goes on: “The FBI reportedly delivered subpoenas related to the controversy surrounding alternate electors in the 2020 election to several Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania on Wednesday. The action comes after the FBI served a search warrant at the Mar-a-Lago residence of former President Donald Trump in Palm Beach, Florida, prompting his supporters to accuse the Bureau of being politically motivated. . . . On Tuesday, Republican Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania said that the FBI had confiscated his cell phone as part of the same investigation. ‘They made no attempt to contact my lawyer, who would have made arrangements for them to have my phone if that was their wish. I’m outraged — though not surprised — that the FBI under the direction of Merrick Garland’s DOJ, would seize the phone of a sitting Member of Congress,’ Perry said in a statement.”
https://www.theblaze.com/news/fbi-pennsylvania-gop-subpoenas-electors
If there were 30 FBI agents at this raid, surely a few of them were female, and could/should have been the personnel assigned to search the former first lady’s areas? The FBI is diverse enough by now, is it not?
The Patriot Front now has completely new uniforms, augmented with Melania’s underwear, in which to parade around.
They will continue to wear the dark glasses — looks SO OFFICIAL AND BUTCH.
Well this cadre of bureau agents which division were they supposed to be from no telling trump already gave them a tour months ago. But as with manafort (he testifed one morning, the next nighr they rousted him out of bed)
liz: “Perhaps this is a psy-ops moment?? Do something that makes the family feel violated and then perhaps make them react so that they can talk about conspiracy theories and being unbalanced…”
I haven’t read all the comments on previous posts on this topic, so sorry if this has already been discussed, but I do find myself wondering if this was meant to provoke a violent reaction from Trump fans. I mean physically violent. That would generate a lot of bad publicity and also serve to justify further crackdowns.
I too find it hard to believe the inevitable feelings of violation were not a good part of the motive for the method of the raid. Even if we assume the anonymous source is not completely fictitious, everyone involved surely knew what the reaction would be, and anyone who would go along at all probably thought to himself, “Well, serves him and his awful family right.” But at worst, the source was manufactured out of thin air as the pretext for the violation.
The idea of getting a violent reaction to the raid has probably got some legs. Just as they fomented the Whitmer kidnap plot, egged on the Jan 6th demonstrators, and now this. I have no doubt they have people encouraging violence on social media. It’s their chance to frame the GOP as violent and dangerous before the mid-terms. Jan 6th isn’t exactly working for them. So, this may be a desperate try for an issue.
Well what did Schumer promise about the Intelligence Community having 6 ways from Sunday to get back at Trump?
Who’s really surprised here?
Especially with Schumer encouraging them on, from behind the scenes.
“…How could FBI…not anticipate and provide for this most repellent aspect of their invasion?…”
This should remind one of Dr. Theodore Dalrymple’s oft-quoted remark about one of the key aspects of Communism perversion of language:
“In my studies of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, not to inform but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is …in some small way to become evil oneself. One’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A variety of emasculated liars is easy to control….”
https://m.imdb.com/name/nm6962119/quotes
This entire performance was a giant FU to Trump, to his family, to his supporters, to his very being and essence.
They are saying, “WE CONTROL YOU; YOU MUST FEAR US…OR ELSE; YOU MUST KNOW YOUR PLACE…OR ELSE…”
The Democrats, who have brought us a myriad of obscene scandals—which they and their perverse minions have been ZEALOUSLY—RELIGIOUSLY—covering up have been perfecting their talent for INTIMIDATION, HUMILIATION, PERVERSION and DESTRUCTION for a long, long time. Hillary Clinton let the cat out of the bag with her “Deplorables” comment, which may well have cost her the election. She apologized for saying it out loud—but certainly not for thinking it.
Because this is who THEY are.
And Obama/”Biden”/Clinton and the whole rotten-to-the-core, perverse club spend their time GLEEFULLY and MASOCHISTICALLY—because, once again, this is WHO THEY ARE—turning the screw in even tighter, twisting the knife, IN DEEPER AND DEEPER.
Orwell’s boot stamping on a human face FOREVER is the GOAL of the “Party of the People”.
Trump is a most uncomfortable speed bump along the way to total power…
The President probably gets to see “everything”, so they terrified of what he may have about the Swamp Creatures in Congress, in the White House, and in the Agencies. “National Security” don’t mean nuffin.
Oops. “MASOCHISTICALLY” should be, obviously, “SADISTICALLY”…
(I really have to get my S-M straightened out. Not that I’m hunting around for excuses…but, but I must have missed that class—in Psych. 101 (Human Depravity workshop)…
Mike-SMO wrote :
“The President probably gets to see “everything”, so they terrified of what he may have about the Swamp Creatures in Congress, in the White House, and in the Agencies”
Yes indeed! Desperately worried, plus furious!!
And so they release their thugs.
“Just doing our jobs … protecting America” — as tyrants do.
FBI boss Wray’s arrogant contempt of Americans is appalling.
And he can use the vapid excuse “I can’t say anything about to an ongoing investigation” has a protection racket, which he does not deserve.
He does NOT believe he works for us!
Leland–regarding the absurd position that the White House didn’t know about it:
If true (snort!) then the White House should make a clear and unequivocal statement as to whether they support or condemn it.
A quarter of the country is very, very upset, angry and worried about this–about the very future of the republic. A quarter of the country eagerly awaits the final exposure of the Trump criminal conspiracy. (Half the country asks–whats a Mar a Lago?)
And the White House just shrugs and does a Sgt. Schultz.
What a farce! A very scary farce.
And Boltin’ John Bolton is clueless in D.C.
(He apparently thinks that HE’s more important than “WORLD PEACE”(TM). Actually, the fact that he thinks he’s important at all is rather chuckle-worthy…)
“Bolton blasts Biden for negotiating with Iran after assassination plot”—
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/bolton-blasts-biden-negotiating-iran-after-assassination-plot
Barry,
Agree. I commented to that effect yesterday. The outrageousness and blatant illegality of so many of the Democrats’ abuses is a big part of what delights their voters so much. I can remember so many Dems on social media crowing and taunting about Obama’s Benghazi lies. They didn’t care about war waged against the US or our people being killed or Obama’s refusal to send help or the pathetic lies and excuses. All they cared about was the fact that the GOP efforts to get answers were frustrated. Just as they laughed about Hillary and her accomplices skating on her crimes.
— The Dalrymple observation about the humiliation of being forced to parrot blatant lies was echoed by Angelo Cordevilla in writing about the Kavanaugh hearings.
“The anti-Kavanaugh campaign’s power and significance lies precisely in the ruling class’s perpetration of an in-your-face hoax. Making someone pretend that your patent lie is true may be the most humiliating of assertions of power. ”
https://americanmind.org/salvo/our-revolutions-logic/
BTW — anyone who hasn’t read this article should read it now. It speaks directly to what the swamp is doing. Codevilla calls it the resistance.
“The ruling class’s “resistance” to the 2016 election’s outcome was the second turn. Its vehemence, unanimity, coordination, endurance,and non-consideration of fallback options—the rapidity with which our revolution’s logic has unfolded—have surprised and dismayed even those of us who realized that America had abandoned its republican past.”
“Partisan “dirty tricks” are unremarkable. But when networks within government and those who occupy society’s commanding heights play them against persons trying to unseat them, they constitute cold civil war against the voters, even coups d’etat. What can possibly answer such acts? And then what?”
Codevilla wrote three of these articles over the last decade. He nailed it years ago.
The bad guys wuz heist by their own petard. You’d think that the number one spy catching branch of the Gubment would be aware of double agents. Their “mole” inside Mar a Lago (sea to the lake) served up a delicious brew that had them searching through Melania’s unmentionables and cracking an empty safe. In a sane world these guys would be promoted to Keystone Kops.
you can catch the fastball by the stitching
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1557421057392480257.html
VDH is right. https://jewishworldreview.com/0822/hanson081122.php
“The FBI is dissolving before our eyes into a rogue security service akin to those in Eastern Europe during the Cold War.”
https://nypost.com/2022/08/10/so-fbi-why-no-raid-of-hunter-bidens-house/
“They may as well have given the middle finger to half the country. Many people are wondering how the Biden’s got away with their scandal, as Trump faces consequences. Democrats and allied media have been high-fiving and backslapping ….”
“They don’t care that half the country, polls show, believes the FBI has become the Democrats’ personal Gestapo.
They don’t care about the political firestorm they have ignited, because they think they control the corrupted institutions that have all the power.
“They don’t even hide it anymore,” says Professor Nicholas Giordano, ex-catastrophic-planning official in New York state’s Office of Emergency Management and host of “The P.A.S. Report” podcast, which offers deep insights into the security state.
“But at this point why do they have to hide it because no one’s held accountable? It’s indisputable that when Democrats do wrong there are no arrests or charges and they are handled with kid gloves .?.?. Yet everyone in Trump’s orbit gets charged.”
remember fahrenheit 451, where the ‘firemen’ set books ablaze, this is the bizarro universe, we find ourselves in, where those who commit so many offenses are unaccountable, yet those who jaywalk, are subject to the ‘spanish inquisition’
remember fahrenheit 451, where the ‘firemen’ set books ablaze, this is the bizarro universe, we find ourselves in, where those who commit so many offenses are unaccountable, yet those who jaywalk, are subject to the ‘spanish inquisition’
What’s worse is that Democratic voters are fine with this and make excuses for it. So does the word merchant element in the Democratic Party and so do the har-de-har ‘public interest’ lobbies.
Well, the question is will Republicans have every federal election stolen from them from now on, and, if that’s not so, will they have the gumption to pass any reform legislation. Presumably, the Democrats will try to filibuster to stop attempts at repair (and the public interest is not something which interests Bitc* McConnell in any case). ‘Reform’ means (1) restricting the remit of federal law enforcement, (2) amendments to federal criminal procedure, (3) amendments to federal sentencing rules, (4) breaking up DoJ and DHS into a set of successor departments, (5) breaking up the FBI and sorting the retained employees to agencies within the successor departments, (6) inspectors-general with teeth, (7) easy dismissal of federal employees, (8) a restoration of federal civil service examinations, and (9) a mass purge of the staff of the Department of Justice and its agencies. You can start with the participants in this raid.
charles mccarry considered this sort of world, in his paul christopher series, writing from the perspective of the 70s, he saw a world where some scandal had dismantled the Outfit, but Hydra like it regenerated into something called the Foreign Intelligence Service, which was pretty deep state, there was a two minute hate against center right figures, like a businessman named mallory, who’s name was a killing word to the progs, the collective has metastazized in ways even mccarry could not envisage a few years ago
They claim that Joe Biden and his attorney general, Merrick Garland, knew nothing about the raid. A raid of this kind is unprecedented, and would require the approval of the highest offices in the land.
Thanks, Stan, for the link to that extraordinary Cordevilla article.
He nails it. Soberly, courageously. Unflinchingly. Historically and hence prophetically.
Every fascinating jeremiad-like progression of paragraphs and sections rings true…unfortunately; though I’m not entirely persuaded by the equivalence he believes exists—if I understand him correctly—between the Democrats and the Republicans: the age-old shoals of political action and reaction. (Though perhaps his point was that such an equivalence on the part of the GOP POTENTIALLY exists…)
Nonetheless, the article in its extraordinary sweep and pinpoint analysis should be required reading for those who wish to make sense of what has happened since 2016… and of the potential destructive rancor of all-consuming, “progressive” politics since ancient Athens…and including the American Civil War.
Actually, the rather bizarre, if amusing, “Who? Me?” non-comments from Biden and Garland were extremely suggestive…
But “something”—finally—seems to have caught Wray’s attention…
“FBI Director Wray pushes back on threats following unprecedented raid on Trump: ‘Deplorable and dangerous’;
“Authorities have seen a significant increase in death threats aimed toward Garland, Wray and FBI agents”—
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fbi-director-wray-pushes-back-threats-following-unprecedented-raid-trump-deplorable-dangerous
Someone wrote about a week ago that game theory teaches us that the GOP should use the same tactics against the Democrats if/when they return to power in DC. Today, the Federalist has this https://thefederalist.com/2022/08/10/democrats-have-arrested-prosecuted-and-raided-their-enemies-theres-only-one-way-to-make-them-stop/
I’m afraid that this is a serious discussion that needs to happen. And I agree that adherence to Queensberry rules will not only hurt the people who rely on the GOP for protection and support, but also do serious long term harm to the republic.
Democrats need to have their noses rubbed in their nasty messes. Given their extreme immaturity it’s the only way they understand.
If they do, GOP leaders need to stress how much they’d prefer not to. But that the gross abuse of power must be addressed and subjecting the left to the same treatment is necessary to teach them why rule of law matters.
“The raid on Mar-a-Lago was based on information from an FBI source, one who was able to identify what classified documents former President Trump was still hiding and even the location of those documents.”
Now, somebody is obviously lying. If they knew where the documents were, why was the fbi there for 9 Hours?
@Ray – Garland, through a spokesperson, claimed not to know anything about the date and time of this specific raid. Hardly a denial that he didn’t know a raid was in the planning.
On account it ain’t a snap of the fingers to plant dozens of sophisticated listening devices and hidden cameras where they won’t be easily found, natch.
A writer more clever than I characterized all the different federal agencies and law enforcement organizations as crime families, akin to mafia. The different families have agreements not to poach on each others’ turf, and they will cooperate when necessary to protect the larger interests of the mob. From time to time violence will break out when one family violates an unwritten agreement and needs to be put back in their place.
Since we really don’t know what happened on Monday, it’s reasonable to entertain at least two possibilities: that the raid was conducted with the full knowledge and endorsement of the White House and the DOJ, or that the FBI acted on their own for reasons that have yet to become apparent. But even if the FBI acted on their own, the DOJ and White House are not going to be calling for Wray to fired, because they’re going to act to protect the crime families’ collective interests.
How could a discussion about the FBI rifling through a woman’s closet go on so long without anyone mentioning J Edgar Hoover’s proclivities?
Even if the GOP gains a majority in both the House and Senate, it won’t be a large enough majority to override Presidential vetoes.
So 2023 and 2024 will be years in which the statis quo rules.
Given the dem’s arrogant fanaticism and their default of doubling down in their actions, their federal agencies will continue to act increasingly lawlessly. 87,000 new IRS agents prepared to act with deadly force…
Which of course would result in either Trump or De Santis being elected to the Presidency in 2024. Along with a then even stronger majority, enough of a majority in Congress to pass any legislation desired.
It doesn’t take a political genius to figure out the above, so we can be sure that Schumer, Obama and Newsome are well aware of this, along with the more astute on the left.
The above scenario is simply an intolerable prospect for the left. So something will have to be done. Presenting Trump supporters with increasingly provocative and lawless actions will be designed to create widespread violent resistance.
Creating the perfect pretext for a President Newsome to declare Martial Law in 2024 for “the duration of the National Emergency”.
“many people whose homes have been burglarized have mentioned a sense of invasion and almost sexual intrusion as having been worse than the loss of whatever was stolen.”
Yes, this is so true – my car was broken into and stolen many years ago. It was recovered and it was most likely take by “kids” out for a joy ride. It was found because the car thieves left it in a tow-away zone with a flat tire. (and yes, the cops ticketed it! Boy, was that fun trying to get that ticket removed)
One of my first reactions when I couldn’t find it where I parked it was, somewhat silly of me, to call the car loan company to see if they repossessed it by mistake. No, of course they didn’t. But, I was maybe hoping that was the problem.
Then when it was recovered and the cops took me to the car the feeling was overwhelmingly one of a so-hard-a-kick-in-the-gut that someone WITHOUT my permission took my car and rifled through MY belongings was a feeling that cannot be described. It is a very serious sense of outrage at being violated – not in a sexual sense for me; but, a how dare they sense!
And this was only a car. I cannot even begin to imagine the feeling of law enforcement going through my underwear, etc., messing around where I eat, sleep, and basically live. That is plain too creepy to think about. And I do think it is a power play on their part. This will make every politician who thinks of running against the establishment think twice before taking them on – bad mouthing me would be bad; but, mess with my wife or daughter’s underwear is unimaginable; and unforgivable.
@Geoffrey Britain,
Congress’ real power lies not in passing laws. The power of the purse trumps all. (see what I did there?). Cut a nickel from an agency budget and the right wing fanatics are no longer Hitler, they are Moloch. The new House of Representatives will have the power to drain the swamp and bugger all the alligators. The question is will they have the cojones?