“”I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message. I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down,” Comey said on May 15.”
The idea that you could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Comey meant sharing a number as a true threat of violence is far-fetched. This is lawfare and is another step toward the end of the Republic.
Ironically, right-wing nationalists that claim to focus on the priorities of their own country, are heavily funded and aided by foreign oligarchs and dictators. CPAC and the Heritage Foundation receive such foreign funding. Before Trump’s rise, Russia scouted Trump as a talent that could help them.
Trump and Patel have moved the FBI relatively more toward politics and optics and away from the criminal justice mission.
FBI agents were pulled away from their work to focus on immigration, despite that ICE got massive funding and a mass of new ICE agents.
FBI agents determined that people were peacefully protesting and that there was nothing to investigate. The Trump administration ordered them to investigate anyways.
Some FBI agents were pushed out or forced to quit on principle. These were trained agents doing their jobs well, now out of the agency.
The way Trump runs the bureaucracy is similar to how many dictators run their bureaucracies. He hires, promotes, and fires based on loyalty, not competency. Overtime, this makes agencies less effective, less principled, less competent, more corrupt, and more loyal to the dictator. This is how many dictators have ineffective governments, and their people suffer as a result.
When the Justice Department is used to seek Trump’s revenge rather than justice, the US is not a strong democracy.
“The Justice Department has removed the career Miami federal prosecutor leading the investigation into John Brennan, after she resisted pressure to quickly bring charges against the former CIA director and prominent critic of President Donald Trump, according to people briefed on the matter.
…
The investigation into Brennan is focused on one of the president’s longest standing political grievances — the 2017 intelligence assessment that found Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to help him.
Trump’s demands have taken on more urgency for the Justice Department after Trump fired former Attorney General Pam Bondi, in part because of dissatisfaction at the slow pace of cases he wants brought. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has redoubled efforts to satisfy the president’s demands as he seeks to keep the job after Bondi’s ouster.”
“NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration this week acknowledged it made a significant error in figures it used to help justify a fraud probe into New York’s Medicaid program, a glaring mistake that undercuts a federal campaign to tackle waste, mostly in Democratic-led states.
The error, which the administration admitted first to The Associated Press, prompted health analysts to question how many of the Republican administration’s sweeping anti-fraud efforts around the country were based on faulty findings. One of a few mischaracterizations it made about New York’s Medicaid program, it also reflected a common criticism that’s been made of Trump’s second administration — that it tends to attack first and confirm the facts later.
“These numbers could have been cleared up in a phone call, so it’s really slapdash,” said Fiscal Policy Institute senior health policy adviser Michael Kinnucan, whose recent analysis called attention to the Trump administration’s inaccurate claim.”
The Vice President of the United States is actively campaigning for the authoritarian-leaning president of Hungary. Rather than spreading democracy, the US is actively trying to spread authoritarianism.
Orban has given himself the ability to rule by decree, restricted the media, manipulated the electoral and district system, taken over and abused with police NGOs and universities, redistributed wealth to loyalists rather than based on sound policy, and supported Russia invading its neighbor. He has bent a former democracy toward authoritarianism. The European Parliament has declared that Hungary is no longer a full democracy in a 433 to 123 vote.
The death of the West will be the end of Western values like free speech, free association, free press, and free and fair elections. Vice President Vance supports Orban’s authoritarian actions in Hungary just like he supports Trump’s, often illegal, authoritarian actions at home.
“Donald Trump’s signature will soon appear on US paper currency, the treasury department announced Thursday.
The move marks the first time a sitting US president’s signature will appear on legal tender. To accommodate this change, the treasurer’s signature will be removed for the first time since 1861.”
Germany, Japan, and Iran are great societies. But, after Germany and Japan were taken over by barbaric regimes, bringing them back into the civilized world required burning those countries to the ground. The same might be required for Iran.
Much of America is enthralled by a demagogue who never had policy competency or decent character, and who has staffed his administration with many unqualified people and some who previously pretended like they stood for something but are now sycophantic enablers.