The “In-Justice” Department
When I was a kid, I believed there was a “boogeyman.” It was a scary creature – particularly when it was dark outside – ready to carry off naughty kids to the great unknown.
This piece could talk about some of the boogeymen this administration has created the last year, including out-of-control inflation, immigration chaos, COVID mandates and racial “equity” – meaning skin color and gender vs. merit. But this piece will focus on the Dept. of Justice (DOJ).
The DOJ and its FBI have become weapons, a scary boogeyman bent on carrying off to the great unknown those who would oppose any action, by any means, it deems appropriate to advance an agenda vs. the law.
The DOJ’s handling of the Mueller investigation allowed the FBI and others in the department to abuse their authority. We will likely never know the extent of that, including false statements made to the FISA court. FISA, standing for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, is a highly secretive court of 11 judges whose primary responsibility is to decide whether the U.S. government has enough evidence against foreign powers or individuals believed to be foreign agents to allow for their surveillance, including wiretapping, by the intelligence community.
Perhaps it happened before Trump was president but abuse certainly has become clearer since.
Enter Merrick Garland. His and others before him have a defined role as Secretary of DOJ to enforce federal laws, seek just punishment for the guilty, and ensure the fair and impartial administration of justice.
On taking office a year ago, Garland stated his top priority was bringing to justice those who were involved in last year’s January 6, 2021, Capitol Hill riots. It took almost a year before anyone was charged with anything serious. Meanwhile, 750 rioters were arrested, 71 have received prison sentences averaging 45 days. Most arrested received sentences of either home detention, fines, community service and/or probation – for low-level charges like trespassing, illegally parading or demonstrating in the Capitol – which are misdemeanors.
On January 13, 2022, the DOJ charged 11 members of a group called Oath Keepers, including its leader, with rarely used charges of seditious conspiracy – a federal crime of conspiring to overthrow or obstruct the authority of the federal government. We’ll have to wait for the trials or plea bargains to know how strong the DOJ case is, but we’ve all seen numerous videos where there was no military style, armed insurrection as it’s been called. Understand, I’m not defending anyone. But citizens are innocent until proven guilty, regardless of anything else.
And why did it take so long?
Our President has made it clear the country faces a grave threat from within by domestic terrorists. He thinks that includes the unvaccinated. While it’s unclear as to who these supposed hordes of people are, we are to believe there are major forces at work out there whose aim is to destroy the country.
If anyone thinks that an ID should be presented before voting opposes ‘democracy’ and is an enemy – a domestic terrorist.
The DOJ turned the FBI loose to “investigate” parents who make themselves heard at local school board meetings in opposition to actions by those boards. The FBI is to investigate whether these parents are, and can be charged as, domestic terrorists.
The objective, of course, is/was to scare parents who are opposed to CRT as part of the curriculum, and other actions of local school boards, with the boogeyman of fear. A Virginia county school board and its superintendent recently tried to hide two alleged rapes of girls by a proclaimed transgender girl. The father was incensed at the action and said so publicly – and was removed from the setting by deputies. The objective of the DOJ, at the supposed behest of the National School Board Association, obviously is/was to silence parents.
Does this sound like tyranny? The answer is a resounding “YES.”
I’ll say it again. The role of the United States government, including the DOJ, is to protect the rights granted its citizens by our Constitution – not to take those rights away.
It is not the role of the DOJ to put the fear of the boogeyman into those who exercise their right to disagree with any local, state, or national politician, any governmental action, or agenda. If behavior becomes illegal, we have law enforcement to arrest those committing any crime.
It shouldn’t have to be said that we don’t have a DOJ to force people or to scare people into giving up their legal rights.
We have a better sense now of what it feels to live in places like N. Korea, China, Russia, Cuba, and Venezuela.
Because we are (still) free adults, we must rid ourselves of the boogeyman the Dept. of In-Justice has become.
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Have a great and prosperous week.
Hug somebody.
References:
https://news.yahoo.com/ag-merrick-garland-says-justice-210453621.html
https://time.com/6133336/jan-6-capitol-riot-arrests-sentences/
https://www.lawfareblog.com/seditious-conspiracy-what-make-latest-oath-keepers-indictment
SPIDER Bites
Ocala doesn’t get snow and ice and doesn’t have an ice rink, but three Ocala speed skaters won medals at the Winter Olympics. Erin Jackson took the Gold in the 500-meters, Brittany Bowe won the Bronze in the 1,000-meter race, and Joey Mantia won a Bronze in Men’s Team Pursuit. All are former in-line skaters.
‘O Canada.’ In imposing what amounts to Martial Law, Prime Minister Trudeau implemented “Emergency Powers” to arrest truckers, tow away trucks, freeze truckers’ personal and corporate bank accounts, and suspend the insurance on their rigs. Trudeau may find his tyranny gives truth to the expression: ” Cutting off your nose to spite your face” as he takes truckers off the road. To my knowledge he has not talked to or negotiated with any of them.
President Biden proposed 72 ‘initiatives’ to curtail inflation last week. None of them rescind his first day in office ‘initiatives’ (EO’s) to increase the price of oil and natural gas. Again, he misses the mark. The price increases in fuel and electricity are at the core of current inflation. And a needless, unpopular war with Russia would only make fuel inflation worse. Where does he live?
Speaking of war, I refuse to get caught up in the hysteria about Ukraine. That’s so far down the list of priorities it’s off my chart. Yet, we’re supposed to be ‘united’ around our reaction to a Russian takeover there. But we weren’t supposed to be concerned when Russia usurped Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
Certain state legislatures, mayors and DA’s, in their quest to defund the police and empty the jails – and not send any criminals to them – apparently don’t care about the real victims of runaway crime in various cities. There’s more ‘justice reform,’ AOC types in leadership positions than we could have imagined. We have to feel outrage for the unjustifiably scared people in many big city settings. 3 San Francisco school board members were recalled last week. More recall elections can’t come fast enough. It’s time to put ‘woke-ness’ in the trash.
I’m guessing we’ll get a big dose of Washington corruption and misdeeds as Special Counsel Durham brings charges against those involved in the Trump-Russia hoax of collusion. Wouldn’t it be nice if somebody up there had to ‘pay’ for major wrongdoings fueled by politics, money, and power?
The Education Dept. approved another $415M in forgiveness of student loans last week, bringing the total forgiven thus far under this administration to nearly $2B for 107,000 borrowers. What should be done, namely limit the amount of loans the government makes to individual college students, is not on the agenda so, the colleges continue to get paid their exorbitant tuitions brought on by the government loan program in the first place. So far in the last year you and I have paid the crazy excessive college costs for over 100,000 former students. Did we save up for this? Do we have anything to say about loan forgiveness? How can the Executive branch just do this – and lots of other things, like go to war – without Congress?
According to the U. of Virginia’s Demographics Research Group, Florida’s population will grow another 30% by 2040. I guess people don’t believe the predictions of climate change ‘experts’ that much of this state – with a mean elevation of 100 feet – could be under the sea by that time, especially southern Florida. BTW, only Delaware has a mean elevation lower than Florida at 60 feet. Colorado’s mean elevation is 6,800 feet.
