Caught
They caught the “shadow” person who left improvised explosive devices in Washington, DC, in the pre-dawn hours before the January 6th Insurrection. Nothing pleases me more. It was a unique “unsolved mystery”; left hanging, overshadowed in the midst of the later chaos of the that day. Was it someone aligned with the Insurrectionists? Or part of the weapons cache in nearby Virginia hotels, or the “assault columns” up the Capitol steps? Or was it, as current FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said over and over again as a commentator, an “inside job”. Did someone in the American intelligence world, plant devices as some nefarious means of protecting a Biden victory?
The Justice Department and FBI were unable to identify a suspect during the Biden Administration; one more piece of evidence for the “Biden conspiracy” crowd. It took Trump stalwarts: Attorney General Bondi, FBI Director Patel, and Bongino, to bring this case to a head. And now, they have a suspect not only in custody, but apparently confessing to the crime.
The fact that the IED’s were inoperable, unable to explode, doesn’t really matter. Placing them outside the two major party’s headquarters was a clear attempt to induce public panic. And it worked. It was an important and concerning story even that day, and remained an ongoing concern after the tear gas cleared, the gallows were removed, and the halls of the Capitol restored.
Ham Sandwich
But, to be truthful, I don’t trust the Trump Justice Department. They’ve spent the last eleven months doing the political bidding of the President. It’s currently indictment by Presidential tweet. Their standing as the acolytes of “Blind Justice” is non-existent. (My more right-wing friends will claim that before them there was “Biden lawfare”. Even if you were right about that, which you are not, it doesn’t excuse a continuation with “Trump retribution”).
I have written lots of essays extolling the virtue of the FBI in the past almost nine years. And I suspect that the core of the agency, the professionals, are still struggling to uphold their motto: Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity. But the leadership was purged of those unwilling to pay personal fealty to Donald Trump. If the Patel/Bongino regime demanded an arrest of a bomber, valid or not – that arrest would be made.
I’m waiting for the indictments. Maybe they’ve “caught their man”, or maybe, like former Director James Comey or New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Federal Grand Jury won’t swallow this “ham sandwich”. (In case you miss the reference, the legal joke is; “A good prosecutor could get a grand jury to indict even a ham sandwich”).
The Shoe Fits
It’s kind of amazing though, how far we have come in the last year. My right-wing friends would say that turn-about is fair play, that now I know how they felt for the last nine years. The rock foundation of America used to be the legal system; law enforcement, prosecution, and the Courts. How quickly the veneer of truth, the blindfold around the eyes of Justice, were ripped away.
There is little left in my faith in our Federal legal system. The leadership of the investigators are true-believers in MAGA. So is the Justice Department. And while the lower Federal Courts are doing yeoman’s work to stand for Justice, the Supreme Court is completely — I hesitate to use the word corrupted, but “that shoe fits”, except for the three. Precedence means nothing: look at the 1965 Voting Rights Act now decimated.
So maybe they caught the bomber. I’m sure he’s going to turn out to be a crazed anarchist, someone they can label as the “dreaded ANTIFA”. And, maybe it really was just a nutcase who coincidentally picked the day that American Democracy was imperiled. Or maybe not.
It’s US
What I can tell friends on “my side” of the political chasm: don’t depend on the Courts. Don’t depend on the institutions of American justice. The majority at the top of the Federal Courts is as biased as the Trump Justice Department.
The ultimate authority in the United States is enshrined in the Constitution itself. It’s the first three words: “We the People”. And it takes “we the people” to undue all of the damage done, not just in the past year, but in the next three years. The mission will take decades, beyond my lifetime, I’m sad to say. But it’s the only “institution” we can still depend on. It’s me, It’s you, It’s US (in both forms).
Let’s get to work.
