They caught the \u201cshadow\u201d person who left improvised explosive devices in Washington, DC, in the pre-dawn hours before the January 6th<\/sup>\u00a0Insurrection.\u00a0\u00a0Nothing pleases me more.\u00a0\u00a0It was a unique \u201cunsolved mystery\u201d; left hanging, overshadowed in the midst of the later chaos of the that day.\u00a0\u00a0Was it someone aligned with the Insurrectionists? Or part of the weapons cache in nearby Virginia hotels, or the \u201cassault columns\u201d up the Capitol steps?\u00a0\u00a0Or was it, as current FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said over and over again as a commentator, an \u201cinside job\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Did someone in the American intelligence world, plant devices as some nefarious means of protecting a Biden victory?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Justice Department and FBI were unable to identify a suspect during the Biden Administration; one more piece of evidence for the \u201cBiden conspiracy\u201d crowd.\u00a0\u00a0It took Trump stalwarts: Attorney General Bondi, FBI Director Patel, and Bongino, to bring this case to a head.\u00a0\u00a0And now, they have a suspect not only in custody, but apparently confessing to the crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The fact that the IED\u2019s were inoperable, unable to explode, doesn\u2019t really matter.\u00a0\u00a0Placing them outside the two major party\u2019s headquarters was a clear attempt to induce public panic.\u00a0\u00a0And it worked.\u00a0\u00a0It 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.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n But, to be truthful, I don\u2019t trust the Trump Justice Department.\u00a0\u00a0They\u2019ve spent the last eleven months doing the political bidding of the President.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s currently indictment by Presidential tweet.\u00a0\u00a0Their standing as the acolytes of \u201cBlind Justice\u201d is non-existent.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0(My more right-wing friends will claim\u00a0\u00a0that before them there was \u201cBiden lawfare\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Even if you were right about that, which you are not, it doesn\u2019t excuse a continuation with \u201cTrump retribution\u201d).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have written lots of essays extolling the virtue of the FBI in the past almost nine years.\u00a0\u00a0And I suspect that the core of the agency, the professionals, are still struggling to uphold their motto:\u00a0\u00a0Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity.\u00a0\u00a0But the leadership was purged of those unwilling to pay personal fealty to Donald Trump.\u00a0\u00a0If the Patel\/Bongino regime demanded an arrest of a bomber, valid or not \u2013 that arrest would be made.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m waiting for the indictments.\u00a0\u00a0Maybe they\u2019ve \u201ccaught their man\u201d, or maybe, like former Director James Comey or New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Federal Grand Jury won\u2019t swallow this \u201cham sandwich\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0(In case you miss the reference, the legal joke is;\u00a0\u00a0\u201cA good prosecutor could get a grand jury to indict even a ham sandwich\u201d).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s kind of amazing though, how far we have come in the last year.\u00a0\u00a0My right-wing friends would say that turn-about is fair play, that now I know how they felt for the last nine years.\u00a0\u00a0The rock foundation of America used to be the legal system; law enforcement, prosecution, and the Courts.\u00a0\u00a0How quickly the veneer of truth, the blindfold around the eyes of Justice, were ripped away.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is little left in my faith in our Federal legal system.\u00a0\u00a0The leadership of the investigators are true-believers in MAGA.\u00a0\u00a0So is the Justice Department.\u00a0\u00a0And while the lower Federal Courts are doing yeoman\u2019s work to stand for Justice, the Supreme Court is completely — I hesitate to use the word corrupted, but \u201cthat shoe fits\u201d, except for the three.\u00a0\u00a0Precedence means nothing:\u00a0\u00a0look at the 1965 Voting Rights Act now decimated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So maybe they caught the bomber. I\u2019m sure he\u2019s going to turn out to be a crazed anarchist, someone they can label as the \u201cdreaded ANTIFA\u201d. And, maybe it really was just a nutcase who coincidentally picked the day that American Democracy was imperiled. Or maybe not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What I can tell friends on \u201cmy side\u201d of the political chasm:\u00a0\u00a0don\u2019t depend on the Courts.\u00a0\u00a0Don\u2019t depend on the institutions of American justice.\u00a0\u00a0The majority at the top of the Federal Courts is as biased as the Trump Justice Department.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The ultimate authority in the United States is enshrined in the Constitution itself. It’s the first three words:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWe the People\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0And it takes \u201cwe the people\u201d to undue all of the damage done, not just in the past year, but in the next three years.\u00a0\u00a0The mission will take decades, beyond my lifetime, I\u2019m sad to say.\u00a0\u00a0But it\u2019s the only \u201cinstitution\u201d we can still depend on.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s me, It\u2019s you, It\u2019s US (in both forms).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s get to work. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ham Sandwich<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Shoe Fits<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
It’s US<\/h2>\n\n\n\n