Once again, my blind, naïve nature may play into my perception of historical presentations. But current events rip that blindfold off in a very harsh action. And I’m fairly sure I’ve identified the beginning of the new trend line. Let’s dig.
In prior political activities in decades past, opposing sides and ideologies at least attempted to retain a mask of civility. Outside of election cycles, the impression was one of friendly adversaries, desiring the resolution of problems, but with major differences of what methods used to attempt to solve those problems. Sure, there were times when personal animosities arose—some of those folks REALLY didn’t like each other! Perhaps more importantly, our INSTITUTIONS gave great effort to appear above the fray, not taking direct sides, but trying to consider all facets of a given problem. Those same institutions also tried to maintain strict ‘above board’ actions—avoiding even the perception of bias. Those institutions include our education system, law enforcement, judicial system, and, to a very limited extent, news media.
Typing that last sentence reveals how far we have strayed from even the appearance of impartiality. Our education system leans so far Liberal, it is likely to tip over. The current view: parents have no real say in their children’s education or curriculum—that is for the experts (them) to determine. Which results in Drag Queen reading days, children convinced they are either natural victims or oppressors, education ‘professionals’ can counsel youth on ‘gender ambiguity’, even giving puberty blocking drugs to students without parental consent (note the lack of psychiatry, psychology, or medical backgrounds).
Law enforcement is now quite suspect, as evidenced by the actions of the FBI: they know nearly EVERY school shooter beforehand, yet they apprehend or detain no one; they have no resources to investigate the rumors of election fraud in 2020, yet they can send 12 agents to a NASCAR garage, because a black driver mistook a common garage door pull for a noose (aside: is that the priority of the FBI?); they investigated parents for disagreeing with a school board meeting; they have Hunter Biden’s laptop for nearly two years, with nearly obvious proof of criminal activity therein, but zero charges are leveled; and recently, they have staged near-SWAT level raids on Roger Stone’s home and that of former President Donald Trump. They have a new image: the KGB for the Democrats.
The judicial system has lost all logic regarding sentencing. Recently, the largest Fentanyl bust in history was obscured by the fact that the two illegal aliens arrested were released without bail—surprise, they disappeared! Folks involved in the January 6th ‘riot’ have been held in jail for over a year and a half, yet known rioters and arsonists from the Summer of 2020 were immediately released, without charges.
Our news media is only lacking pom-poms and uniforms in their steadfast efforts to couch every discussion in the favor of Democrats. Impartiality, if it ever existed, is quite dead.
When did this change? Well, the argument can be made that our entire society has been leaning Left for at least the last 100 years, maybe more. But our institutions? That is quite the recent occurrence. Unless, of course, my aforementioned naivety simply prevented me from seeing what was there all along. Maybe J. Edgar Hoover was just a better front man than others, which kept the apolitical face of the FBI out front, while the steamy underbelly always was a political strong-arm unit, depending upon whom was the favored political ideology. And the education system seemed to swing away from traditional learning models from the mid-1960s on—but the pandemic-induced remote learning systems just tore the façade from the whole process. The judicial system has tried to be ‘kinder and gentler’ lately, but the current extremes are unprecedented. Some would put the turning point in 1974, with the Watergate hearings. But even then, our institutions put up an apolitical front (at least, that’s how I saw it).
No, I place the beginnings of the new trend at the feet of none other than Hillary Clinton. Not as First Lady, and not as the junior Senator from New York, but as the US Secretary of State, from 2009 thru 2013. As SOS, Clinton did something dramatic: she either directed or was directed to set up PRIVATE email servers, separate from the State Department, to conduct her business. This was not an oversight, or a misunderstanding, or a misstep. This was an intentional action, either by Clinton or by whomever oversaw this (news flash: while not expensive, email servers and the software to run them are not over-the-counter purchases—this was NOT an accident). Either Clinton thought herself above any silly Federal documentation laws, or she knew she had political cover to break those laws. In either case, she was correct: she faced ZERO consequences for her actions. We can speculate on who knew what, who directed whom, and for what purpose. My theory is a direct tie-in to the administration of the Clinton Foundation, but that is pure conjecture (as of this writing, the Clinton Foundation has still somehow escaped audit). Remember the avoidance of even the appearance of wrongdoing? The Clinton Foundation can take in cash (donations) from anyone, anywhere, under the guise of ‘charity’—regardless of how those funds were actually used. It’s a miracle! The important points here: the State Department information is not personal—it is the property of the United States government. That is why destruction of such documents is a felony. Freedom of Information Acts (FOIA) laws also require chain-of-custody of all documents, as possible evidence in legal proceedings. And the Clinton Foundation either tiptoes or trips over the legal/illegal line. But Clinton got away with this.
So, fearing no consequences, Clinton did something else unprecedented in the run-up to the 2016 Presidential Elections. She and the DNC decided they needed to know what GOP Presidential Candidate Donald Trump was up to. So, they paid for a complete work of fiction known as the ‘Steele Dossier’, a concoction of fables out of thin air by Christopher Steele. Remember this document. Not only was it the basis for a FISA warrant for wiretapping Trump Tower (!), it comes into play later. Yes, Clinton brazenly put into operation the process to wiretap a Presidential opponent! The list of ‘unprecedented’ things grows.
Unexpectedly, Trump wins the 2016 Presidential Election. Now the Clinton and DNC machines swing into full gear. FBI Director James Comey takes notes of a personal meeting with President Trump (!). He then leaks those notes to his media friends at the Washington Post. That article, along with the aforementioned ‘Steele Dossier’, is used for the basis for the Special Prosecutor, the Mueller Investigation—just as Comey intended. Again, Comey commits a felony, no charges are brought. Comey ‘investigates’ Clinton, regarding the private email server. ‘Investigate’ requires quotes, as the entire meeting was not under oath, without a court reporter, without a recording of questions asked and their associated answers, even Clinton’s attorney, a potential future witness against Clinton, is allowed to attend the proceedings. Comey and the DOJ issue immunity agreements for everyone and their dogs, yet no higher up person is indicted (the normal reason for immunity agreements). Again, Comey commits a felony, no charges are brought. In fact, when Trump fires Comey (who serves at the will of the President), the media frames this as an actionable affront! If this reads like a one-directional buddy system of the FBI/DOJ/DNC/Clinton machine, it’s only because it is. The important thing to remember: NO ONE GETS PUNNISHED, REGARDLESS OF CRIME COMMITTED.
During the Trump presidency, he is under constant investigation. When he calls the President of The Ukraine to inquire about the Biden possible political pressure on a prosecutor there, Trump supposedly commits an Impeachable offense. Articles of Impeachment are drawn up, but none of the articles mention ANY crime committed. Impeachment for a phone call overheard third- or fourth-hand passes the House of Representatives, along party lines. So, Trump is technically impeached (as was Hillary’s husband, Bill), but faces zero punishment via the Senate (another vote along Party lines). The Mueller Report finds absolutely no actionable wrongdoing by Trump, even after 3 years and $40M of investigating. But the new bar has been set: you can Impeach a President without a crime being committed, and you can investigate a person, looking for ANY potential crime. That neither brought the downfall of Trump is almost irrelevant—the White House spent more than 4 years defending itself over one invisible crime or another. Again, the mask of civility disappears.
On Monday, August 8, 2022, the FBI raided ex-President Trump’s personal residence in Mar A Lago, Florida. Trump was in New York at the time. The FBI removed several boxes of documents from that building. Note that the top law official of the State of Florida was not informed of this raid. In fact, it is entirely unclear if ANY judge signed a warrant for this raid (see: US Constitution, 4th Amendment). For the first time ever, a sitting administration oversaw the search and seizure of documents from an ex-President (there’s that ‘unprecedented’ thing again). Note that Presidents are the arbiters of what is classified and what is not. Any documents Trump may have had, HE had the ability to assign their security status. And Presidents have something called ‘executive privilege’, where meetings and personal documents from their presidency are protected from subpoena. If this smells like an intimidation raid, you’re getting the gist of it. Another proof will be if ZERO criminal charges are brought against Trump, based upon whatever the FBI pulled out of Mar A Lago. And no, I do not put it past the wonderful folks at the FBI to plant illegal evidence—that would be right up their current alley. Civility is completely gone.
My conclusion: ALL of the political shenanigans over the last decade or so are being performed because there is no reason NOT to do them. Those escapades can be legal or not—no one is ever getting punished for doing them—they will not even get indicted (see the inside of a courtroom). There is zero incentive to obey the law, or to even obey custom. When you get away with crimes and poor behavior, the next step is to ESCALATE said behavior, not improve it. As of Monday’s raid, the current administration is quite clear: if you are an enemy, political or otherwise, we will weaponize all federal apparatus to fight you. And if the latest boondoggle of a ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ (see: Orwell), that adds 87,000 new IRS agents to the rolls, doesn’t scare you down to the soles of your feet, you’re not paying attention. By more than doubling the agents available to audit citizens, don’t be surprised if the criteria for audit is ‘you don’t agree with us.’ Again, maybe it was always like this, and the mask of civility was one I CHOSE to see. But those days are over. The only questions in my mind now are: 1. What is next? 2. At what point does the civility of the citizens end? The governmental gloves are off, we shall see if the citizens react accordingly.
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[…] The Civility Masks are OFF! […]