Deep Throat: Follow the money.
Bob Woodward: What do you mean? Where?
Deep Throat: Oh, I can’t tell you that.
Follow the Money
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Tag Archives: Deep State
The Supreme Court Term
Given the Dobbs, Bruen, and West Virginia v. EPA decisions and orders in multiple cases such as Box v. Planned Parenthood and Bianchi v. Frosh, the Supreme Court appears to have decided that government by experts, including “expert” judges, must yield to democratic processes spelled out in the Constitution and that those experts should keep their noses out of the people’s personal business the Constitution shields from government intrusion.
I’ve heard it said that Conan best summarized the results thus far—
To crush your enemies. See them driven before you. And to hear the lamentations of their women—
although the Barbarian probably wasn’t a biologist.
The Fat Lady and the Next Couple of Years
The fat lady ain’t singin’ yet, but I can hear her warming up backstage. The odds now highly favor a successful theft of the election by the Democrats. Their candidate will probably be taking the oath of office on 20 January.
However, Democrats have overreached. His Fraudulency Joe Xiden’s “victory” has been, and will continue to be, extremely costly. First, the blatant theft of the election was so throughly bungled that almost a third of all Democrat voter’s believe the count was crooked. There’s simply no way enough of the public will believe in the integrity of future elections without stringent reforms in counting procedures. The coming fight in blue states over electoral reform has the potential to consume much of their political bandwidth.
BTW, the Left’s increasing use of street violence over the past four years was unwise for many reasons, not the least of which is the way it has tried the patience of many in the Center and on the Right. Bluntly, if public order breaks down, there are more veterans in the political Center and on the Right, and history favors the assumption that they wouldn’t allow corrupt thuggery to destroy public order if push comes to shove. However, even the mayor of Portland is trying to put an end to the street thugs, so problem may fade.
In 2020, the Left has also overreached into the day-to-day lives of the American people through unscientific, control-freak regulations allegedly aimed at controlling the Wuhan virus pandemic. Today is the 307th day of the 15-to-45 days that I was told I would not be working on-site in order to deal with the pandemic. I’ve been working remotely, sometimes overtime, and haven’t missed a paycheck. But too many people have been crushed financially for no good reason. Too many have had non-pandemic medical issues complicated by incompetently designed and managed lockdowns. Too many were killed in nursing homes by wrongheaded regulations. Too many people have been kept out of their houses of worship. But now, people are fighting back, and there are too many instance of non-compliance and too many court cases before honest judges for the blue states to maintain their control much longer, especially since law enforcement agencies are now beginning to side with the people rather than the politicians.
Meanwhile, the Republicans have increased their levels of control in state legislatures. They will have the upper hand in redistricting for the House of Representatives, and that will weaken the Democrats’ position going into the 2022 elections.
All is not lost.
That’s not to say that the next couple of years will be easy.
First, The Empire Deep State Strikes Back would be a fitting title for next two years. Much of the Deep State is intact, and it would be foolish to believe that it won’t try to regain as much power and influence as it can. But most of its power can from how deeply it could hide its activity. The last five years have removed much of its cover. People will be watch, and they know many of place to be looking. The smarter members of the Deep State will burrow deeper or move on to other sinecures, but most of them will actively participate in the Xiden/Harris attempt to revitalize the Left’s control of the bureaucracy. I expect there will be lots of clumsy attempts at restoring “order.”
Second, there will be plenty of work required to keep exposing what happens to public view—and to keep people laughing at the Xiden/Harris failures. The Main Stream Media and Main Stream Social Media are now essentially fully integrated with the Left. I believe that it’s time to revitalize the Blogosphere as it existed a decade ago. That will restore a platform for opposition voices, and those opposition voices should be merciless in holding a Xiden/Harris administration to account. And we should do it with humor. Remember Alinsky’s Rule 5: Humor is man’s most potent weapon. The people we’re dealing with take themselves too seriously. They are too self important. They can’t stand to be laughed at, but most the American people still have a sense of humor.
2021 may out-wierd 2020.
Fasten your seat belts and stay tuned.
Exposing Rot
There’s a post by Ben Weingarten over at American Greatness about what he sees as Trump’s Greatest Achievement: Trump has exposed the rot and corruption that pervades the American system.
For four years, President Trump has achieved major victories in the face of this opposition, making the country richer and stronger than it was when he assumed office.
But his greatest achievement has been boldly and courageously standing up to this wounded bear of a ruling class, which has now shown America its true face. Americans’ eyes are now irrevocably open to what has become of their country, and what must be overcome to take it back.
President Trump’s predecessors—Truman on the bureaucracy, or Eisenhower on the military-industrial complex, or Nixon on the corrupted media—scratched the surface of the challenges we face. But none exposed it so openly, and in such breadth and depth.
If the history is written by the ultimate victors—and the house almost always wins—it may well be that this entire story is missed. Certainly, it will be misrepresented, warped, and glossed over in the most outrageous of ways. It will probably be censored too.
Nevertheless, we must write it: For posterity, and for our fellow countrymen, in the here and now, more motivated than ever before to reclaim this land we love.
As Andrew Breitbart noted, politics is downstream from culture, and over the last six or so decades, the credentialed middle class has become more disconnected from the bulk of American society and began to view themselves as superior to the deplorables whose lives they rule by virtue of their positions in the bureaucracy, the media, and certain privileged professions.
Charles Murray pointed out in his book Coming Apart that as Our Betters led American society away from such virtues as marriage, industriousness, religiosity, and honesty, they still held on to some of those virtues themselves. College educated folks are now significantly more likely to marry and stay married, raising children in intact families, than are the population as whole. They work hard, often administrating or enabling the welfare state. They tend to have a religious focus for their lives—if not a traditional religion, then some marxist replacement. But they have given up on the epistemological underpinnings of Western logic, so they often view Truth as malleable, making consistently honest behavior unlikely if not impossible.
Trump pulled the bandage off the scab. Will we properly treat the wound?
BTW, the link above will take you to Amazon’s listing for Coming Apart. As an Amazon Associate, I can earn from qualifying purchases.
The Bidens and the Deep State
J. E. Dyer has a post over at Liberty Unyielding about the timeline of the FBI’s investigation of Hunter Biden’s laptop and how it interleaves with other events of the past couple of years. She points out that the Deep State and it’s allies have known about the Biden’s all along, whereas Trump and his supporters have been learning about the Biden’s and Ukraine and other hidden stories as various rocks have been turned over and tings have slithered out.
Since William Barr became Attorney General, the Trump administration has slowly been gaining on the Deep State’s knowledge advantage. Ponder the point that the Bidens aren’t the only game in town – Clintons, Russiagate, Spygate; the Bidens are just one of many interlinked tragedies – and you begin to realize how very big and pervasive this thing is. It’s a war nobody knew in advance how to fight, but that’s what it is: a war.
In a war, you pick your battles, you pick your terrain, and you shape the battlespace to drive toward your end-state.
Indictments and convictions will be a useful tool for some aspects of taking down the Deep State, as the ultimate and necessary goal. But indictments and convictions affect individuals, not the Deep State infrastructure or its corporate will. Breaking the Deep State’s will is what will be necessary to win the Republic back for the people.
Read the whole thing.
I was disappointed that only one DoJ lawyer involved in the warrant application fraud on the FISA court was taken down before the election, but rushed, half-baked cases that can’t result in guilty pleas or convictions aren’t what the public needs. Patient investigation followed by a well-aimed strike at the right moment is what I hope has been happening and will happen.
No Need to Lie
I’ve been sued for defamation by people who didn’t like what I wrote about them here at Hogewash!, and I’ve won all eight such lawsuits. Some were won on technical issues, but I won the ones that were decided on their merits because I had told the truth in my reporting.
Because there are enough wrong/evil/stupid things that the bad guys do, there is no need to make up lies about them. Because there are enough real conspiracies in the world to be investigated and reported on, there is no need to invent fake conspiracy theories. Indeed, outrage over shoddy or outright fake reporting can wind up being used by the bad guys as a smoke screen to keep the public from seeing truthful adverse reporting.
Kevin Clinesmith’s guilty plea to making a false statement related to an application for a FISA warrant renewal against Carter Page reveals some of the truth behind the Russia Collusion Hoax and a part of the Deep State’s involvement therein. Reporting about the actual facts supported by actual hard evidence in the Clinesmith case helps the public understand some of what it needs to know about the Deep State.
OTOH, the recently released Shawdowgate video appears to be poorly sourced. It presents allegations from a couple of individuals with murky backgrounds that are unsupported by hard evidence. In theory, the allegations, or some at least, might be true, but the lack of journalistic rigor leaves the story it reports open to attack. From what I have seen so far, such attacks are probably justified.
I believe that the Deep State is real, that it contains some bad actors, that they interfered in the 2016 election, and that some of them will be caught and held to account. Truthful, fact-based reports about that situation will help the public hold politicians and bureaucrats accountable. Spinning tales of fanciful conspiracy theories or knowingly false narratives plays into the Deep State’s hands.
The Truth is out there.
There is no need to lie.
And In Other News …
… there are things happening that aren’t related to the Wuhan virus pandemic.
Perhaps the most significant political development over the past few days has been the release of FBI and DoJ paperwork, including handwritten notes, about the Flynn case and how that investigation was handled. At first blush, the documents seem to paint a picture of official corruption, suggesting not only that General Flynn should be exonerated, but that some government officials may deserve disbarment, jail time, and other sanctions.
The optics of the story aren’t good for the Deep State, but they could be even worse for the Democrats who are on the verge of nominating a key figure of the administration that corruptly used the Deep State for its political ends. The opposing sides campaign ads almost write themselves.
On The Other Podcast last Saturday I suggested that the smarter members the Democrat/Media/Deep State complex will use Tara Reade’s accusations against Joe Biden as the way to prevent his nomination (“See. We believe this woman.”) now that he’s served the purpose of stopping the Bernie Bros from seizing the party. The process has started; WaPo has published an opinion piece calling for Biden to address Ms. Reade’s claims. The coming fight for control of a brokered convention should be interesting to watch. I have no idea who will crawl out from under which rock and grab the nomination.
I’m So Old …
… I remember my leftwing friends back in the ’60s and ’70s being worried about being spied on by the FBI.
It’s interesting to note the generational differences between the pre-1990 Deep State and today’s, but certain similarities remain.
Bernie Bros and Bernie Bots
The Washington Post reports that Senator Bernie Sanders has received a briefing from intelligence officials claiming that the Russians are acting to interfere in the Democrats’ primaries in support of Sanders. My podcasting partner Stacy McCain has posted his thoughts on the matter, and they’re worth reading.
Yesterday, I pointed out that the 2016 Russian Collusion Hoax never make sense. Why would the FSB or GRU or other Russian organization work to support an American presidential candidate who was promising to take effective actions against Russia’s interests? Russia supporting Trump over Clinton made no sense.
Recycling Russian collusion, this time supporting Sanders, may be a act of desperation by the Democrat establishment, but at least it makes sense.
Sanders claims to be a socialist, but based on his record, it’s probably more accurate to view him as a communist. If one of America’s adversaries were looking to support a politician who would weaken our economy, our military, and our standing in the world, who in the 2020 field of candidates fits the bill better than Sanders? While many Russians are too young to remember the USSR, the country’s leadership does. They saw (and many participated in) they way communism ruined Russia. They are no longer communists because they’ve seen communism fail, but they still think as Marxists, so they view the world in terms of a zero-sum power struggle. The logic of that worldview would lead them to favor candidates such as Corbyn in the UK and Sanders here.
And it is all about power.
The Russian nomenklatura have maintained power by allowing a quasi-Fascist alliance between government and oligarchs to evolve. Similarly, the Deep State has developed alliances throughout the West which are threatened from the Right by Trump and the Left by Sanders. In 2016, the Democrat establishment was successful in suppressing Sanders’ candidacy, but they failed to defeat Trump. Four years later, they’ve failed in their efforts to nullify that election. As one prominent Democrat observed, elections have consequences, and one of the consequences of 2016 is that the Deplorables learned they can push back against the elites and win. The ongoing struggle for command of the Democratic Party will be interesting to watch.
I’m ready for my second cup of coffee this morning. I think I’ll put a bag of popcorn in the microwave as a mid morning snack.
Swamp Draining
President Trump has withdrawn the nomination of Jessie Liu to position at the Treasury Department. According to a post by J. Christian Adams over at PJ Media, the reason for the withdrawal is the President’s disapproval of Liu’s work as the U. S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, and the straw that broke the camel’s back in this case was her office’s sentencing memo for Roger Stone. For lying to the FBI, Democrat senate intelligence staffer James Wolfe who leaked secret data to his girlfriend got 2 months. Liu’s “career prosecutors” recommended 9 years for the same behavior by Stone.
Adams goes through a long list of biased prosecutions by the “career prosecutors” in Liu’s U. S. Attorney’s office, and concludes—
This was the week that Trump got his sea-legs. He campaigned on draining the swamp, and he has learned how subtle and how sophisticated the swamp is.
Meanwhile, institutionalists, including some Republicans too cowardly to be quoted by name, have gone on record as clutching their pearls at Trump’s actions. They want the bureaucrats to be unmoored to the executive branch.
The “career lawyers” at the Justice Department did not stand for election and win. The entire Department should take note. There is a unitary executive. Elections matter. The President ran against the elites who are dispensing biased, sanctimonious unequal justice in Washington D.C.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that he is keeping his promises.
Read the whole thing.
Given the house cleaning at the National Security Council and the withdrawal of the Liu nomination, I won’t be surprised if there are more vacancies in certain government positions in the near future.
BREAKING: WaPo Discovers the Government Lies
WaPo has published a long piece on one of the Lessons Learned reports of the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (aka SIGAR). The article is based on documents received after a three-year long legal battle over a Freedom of Information Act request that is still ongoing.
A confidential trove of government documents obtained by The Washington Post reveals that senior U.S. officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan throughout the 18-year campaign, making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hiding unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable.
The documents were generated by a federal project examining the root failures of the longest armed conflict in U.S. history. They include more than 2,000 pages of previously unpublished notes of interviews with people who played a direct role in the war, from generals and diplomats to aid workers and Afghan officials.
The government initially refused to release the unclassified report, claiming the the persons interviewed were whistleblowers. That was patently false because those interviewed did not come forward voluntarily but were approached by SIGAR. Also, some agencies, including the State Department, the DoD, and DEA, have classified parts of the report after the fact.
Read the whole thing and check out the linked documents.
Meanwhile, over at Instapundit, Mark Tapscott suggest that
Trump will say it proves him right about getting out of Afghanistan, and, more importantly, about why the Washington Establishment cannot be trusted. That this gift comes to Trump from the Post is the icing on the political cake.
Perhaps. Stay tuned.
The Praetorians
During the years of the Roman Republic, the Praetorian Guard was an elite unit of the Roman army responsible for the protection of important public officials. Augustus converted the Guard into a personal protective detail for the emperor, and the unit served in that capacity for about three hundred years. After years of being close to the center of power, the Guard became notable for its intrigue and interference in Roman politics, to the point of overthrowing emperors and proclaiming their successors. In 312, the Guard was disbanded by Constantine.
Mackubin Owens has a post over at American Greatness which draws some interesting comparisons between the Deep State, especially the Intelligence Community, and the Praetorian Guard.
The fact is that the deep state is praetorianism on steroids. It is based on the claim that unelected bureaucrats have a duty to undermine the policy of a duly elected president, simply because they disagree with it. Vindman is a perfect example of this mindset. He complained that “he was deeply troubled by what he interpreted as an attempt by the president to subvert U.S. foreign policy . . . .” Read that again. The problem here is that Article II of the Constitution gives the president sweeping powers to conduct foreign affairs and negotiate with leaders of other nations. It does not grant any such power to unelected bureaucrats to act in ways that demonstrate they approve or disapprove of foreign policy—even when they are “deeply troubled” by it.
No matter what one thinks about Trump, we must ask ourselves: is it a good idea for military officers, members of the Intelligence Community, and even run-of-the-mill bureaucrats to form a phalanx around the duly elected president “for the good of the country”? Do we really want to normalize the view that unelected bureaucrats are the protectors of republican government? If so, we enable the denizens of the deep state, a concept at war with the very idea of republican government.
No, I think not.
Read the whole thing.
About That IG Report
Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen.
But What Are They Trying To Cover Up?
My podcasting partner Stacy McCain has a post up at The American Spectator about the Democrats’ use of their double secret impeachment process as a coverup. Yes, it’s fairly obvious that they have plenty to hide, but what is the real secret they want to keep hidden?
There are plenty of individual crimes that are coming to light as a result of investigations by Attorney General Barr, U. S. Attorney Durham, and Inspector General Horowitz. At least one grand jury has been empaneled, and various members of the Deep State are lawyering up in expectation of being indicted. If those cases proceed as I expect, various connections between individuals and organizations will come to light, and we may see a significant level of cooperation and coordination among them.
It may be that it’s that coordination which is being covered up. The Gentle Reader shouldn’t be surprised to discover that people with similar views take actions consistent with those views. They might be expect to do so acting independently, each acting in his own personal interest. However, the possibility exists that some would organize their actions together. If those acts were illegal, it’s also reasonable that they would band together to obstruct any investigation. Such organized obstruction is one of the definitions of a racketeering enterprise.
The corrupt entanglement of bureaucrats and politicians was given a boost during the 8 years the country was run by a Chicago politician, but corrupt organizations are parasites. They weaken their host, and they fail when the host takes steps to throw them off or when the host dies. They don’t want us to see enough to effective clean up the infection.
They’re Not Gonna Like the New Rules …
… when what goes ’round comes ’round.
Meanwhile, everything is proceeding as I have foreseen.
Nothingburger or Schiff Sandwich?
My podcasting partner Stacy McCain has a post over at The Other McCain asking, “Why the Ukrainian ‘Nothingburger’?”
This has “Deep State” fingerprints all over — partisan bureaucrats acting to undermine the administration’s policy goals. If such activity is permitted, then no matter who is elected president, the same policies (i.e., those preferred by the bureaucracy) will continue. Elections become meaningless, Americans who want a change in policy are left with no effective recourse, and it becomes impossible to enact real reform.
If we can assume, then, that this CIA whistleblower was acting in concert with Schiff and/or other House Democrat, what was their purpose? Was this nothingburger of a “scandal” just another wild episode partisanship run amok? Or was there a strategic purpose to this Ukraine episode?
Oh, I think that the real initial purpose for the complaint may turn out to be that members of the Deep State were attempting to deflect public attention ahead of the report from DoJ IG Horowitz on the FISA warrants associated with the Russian collusion hoax. William A. Jacobson explores a likely provenance for that scenario here. However, there are other reasons for certain folks to find the made-up scandal useful.
The marxist wing of the House Democrats were casting about for a fresh excuse for impeachment hearings.
The Never Biden wing of the the Democrats were looking for a way to end Joe Biden’s candidacy.
The Orange Man Bad contingent of the Main Stream Media always needs fresh material to attract their declining audience.
And though it may seem counterintuitive, President Trump appears to be using the situation to his advantage. His quick declassification and release of documents gives the appearance that he has nothing to hide. I suspect that we will eventually see that it is the Democrats and their Deep State allies that are engaged in a coverup.
It’s become a tired cliché that all the Democrats should have to do to win is not be crazy—and they can’t manage to act sane. Whoever drafted the whistleblower complaint thought he was being clever, but he didn’t understand his adversary. Donald Trump does not play under the Old Rules. He fights back.
One Can Hope
This seems consistent with AG Barr’s behavior to date. We shall see.
Another One Bites the Dust
Theresa May has tendered her resignation as Prime Minister effective 7 June. Her announcement came after the Conservative Party was thoroughly trounced in elections for British local councils. The UK also held its election for the European Union Parliament yesterday, and it’s believed that the Conservative took less than 10 percent of the that vote. (Different EU countries are voting on different days through Sunday. Results are not released in any country until the polls have closed in all.)
The Brits started the current worldwide rebellion of the Deplorables against their Betters with the Brexit vote in 2016. We Americans piled on by electing Donald Trump. The response of the Deep State here in America was the failed coup d’etat against the democratic choice of the voters centered on the Russian Collusion myth. In the UK the coup against the voters’ choice of Brexit has taken the form of negotiating a non-exit Brexit and pushing for a re-do referendum. May’s failure to deliver what the voters chose has destroyed her party’s effectiveness and is bringing an end to her career.
Polling suggests that Nigel Farage has led the Brexit Party to first place in the EU parliamentary election. We’ll know if that’s true by Monday morning. Might he do the same for that party in the UK parliamentary elections expected to occur later this year?
* * * * *
President Trump has published a memorandum directing the intelligence agency to fully cooperate with Attorney General Barr’s investigation of possible interference with our electoral process and giving the Attorney General to declassify whatever secrets need to be made public.
Who’s next?
The Unravelling
Victor Davis Hanson has a post over at American Greatness that takes a look at how the tables have turned on at least some of the perpetrators of the Russian Collusion Hoax.
It will be difficult to unravel all of the above lying, distortion, and unethical and illegal conduct.
The motives of these bad actors are diverse, but they share a common denominator. As Washington politicos and administrative state careerists, all of them believed that Donald Trump was so abhorrent that he should be prevented from winning the 2016 election. After his stunning and shocking victory, they assumed further that either he should not be inaugurated or he should be removed from office as soon as they could arrange it.
They further reasoned that as high and esteemed unelected officials their efforts were above and beyond the law, and rightly so, given their assumed superior wisdom and morality.
Finally, if their initial efforts were predicated on winning not just exemption from the law, but even promotions and kudos from a grateful President Hillary Clinton, their subsequent energies at removing Trump and investing in the collusion hoax were preemptive and defensive. Seeding the collusion hoax was a way either of removing Trump who had the presidential power to call them all to account for their illegality, or at least causing so much media chaos and political havoc that their own crimes and misdemeanors would be forgotten by becoming submerged amid years of scandal, conspiracies, and media sensationalism.
And they were almost—but so far not quite—correct in all their assumptions.
The Truth is out there.
And so are Karma and Nemesis.
The Collusion Wasn’t With The Russians
And it didn’t involve the Trump campaign. It’s now becoming clear that the Russian Collusion story is failing because there are no facts to support it. Indeed, it appears to have been based on nothing more than shoddy opposition research from the 2016 campaign by members of the press, politicians, and elite bureaucrats to effect a coup against an elected president. Now that the coup is failing, Julie Kelly offers some questions in a post at American Greatness—
So, what now? Who will pay the price for unleashing this ordeal on the American public? Which lawmaker will be rebuked and censured for pretending to have evidence of malfeasance that never happened? Which former high level official will be charged for abuse of power?
What journalist will be fired and permanently jettisoned from the industry for intentionally misleading readers and viewers? What editor or media owner will be held accountable for publishing illegally leaked information that exacted real harm on innocent people? When will NeverTrumperers who accused more astute observers of this scheme of being “conspiracy theorists” going to apologize?
How will people harassed by the media and investigators restore their professional standing, squandered savings and mental wellbeing? How can the president regain the time in his term that has been lost to this craven insurgency?
These are only a handful of the questions now arising from the wreckage of the failed Trump-Russia collusion gambit; the answers might be just as infuriating as the questions themselves.
My exit question for now is: How do you shame someone with no sense of shame?
Jackson, the Bank of the United States, Trump, and the Deep State
There’s an interesting post over at Da Tech Guy Blog about the similarities between how Andrew Jackson handled his opponents and how Donald Trump deals with his.
I suspect the dirty little secret is folks in DC in general and the FBI and in justice in particular know about dozens if not hundreds of Manaforts and Cohens who have been operating in DC and NY for years doing the very same things that these two men have been convicted of or pleaded out to, however as they were in the service of folks like the Clintons or the Obamas or any of the establishment bigwigs in either party they have and will continue to be allowed to function secure in the knowledge that as long as they serve the right masters rather than the wrong one they will be allowed to thrive.
If they succeed in “getting Trump” then the deep state will be able to function without fear. After all VP Mike Pence’s association with President Trump was almost incidental. Prior to being picked as VP he not only functioned within the deep state but showed a willingness to back down when confronted by the left (remember the religious protection law in Indiana cave?)
However they have forgotten one important thing, that Trump is not a regular pol so the normal standards that might drive others out of office don’t apply …
Read the whole thing.
UPDATE—Roger Kimball has some related thoughts over at American Greatness.
The crime at the center of this deep-state initiative is the election of Donald Trump. The tort? He was elected without the permission of the ruling class, its jesters and its scribes and moralists. Pete Wehner does not approve of Donald Trump. Bill Kristol thinks he is infra-dig. Psychiatrists are still trying to figure out what Mad Max Boot and Jabbering John Brennan think.
But this, Ladies and Gentlemen (and unlike the MTA and the London Tube, we still use the phrase “Ladies and Gentlemen” here), this is the crime: Donald Trump was elected. That’s it. That’s the crime. It’s not in the statute books, but a little thing like that never stopped a diligent bureaucrat, especially one armed with a phalanx of partisan prosecutors and an unlimited budget.
Read all of this one too.
Democracy Dies in Derpness
WaPo has published an oped titled God bless the ‘deep state’.
I’m From The Government, And I’m Here To …
Ronald Reagan used to end that sentence with “help” in the context of the sentence being one of the scariest things someone could hear. David French has a post over at NRO that explains why trust in government by conservatives and libertarians has slipped even lower.
I’m no “deep state” or “soft coup” conspiracy theorist. I know there are progressives who do excellent work in the bureaucracy, and I know there are also incompetent conservatives. As we’ve learned, incompetence, bias, and sleaziness know no ideological bounds. But unless our nation can diversify its civil service (and unless civil servants themselves stop acting recklessly and foolishly) public trust will continue to erode, and everything will be viewed through a partisan lens, all the time.
Read the whole thing.
Elections Have Consequences
Gateway Pundit reports that the court has ruled against Leandra English in her bid to usurp the position of acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.