Remember when the GOP claimed to be the Law and Order Party? Among the many other U-turns taken by what used to be a conventional political party, those staunch defenders of law and police now avert their gaze from the Trump administration’s widespread corruption and pretend not to notice the middle finger it is giving to that quaint notion, the rule of law.
Trump’s toadies have fired the ethical, career prosecutors who used to work for the Department of Justice, turning that agency into a tool for Trump. (Not, it should be noted, into a particularly competent tool…media reports suggest that, like most of the clowns Trump has installed, the lawyers who now represent the DOJ are anything but skilled…) The offenses of the DOJ go well beyond its obvious efforts to delay and obstruct disclosure of the Epstein files–as Pro Publica has reported,
In the first days after Pam Bondi was appointed attorney general last year, the Department of Justice began shutting down pending criminal cases at a record pace.
The cases included an investigation into a Virginia nursing home with a recent record of patient abuse; probes of fraud involving several New Jersey labor unions, including one opened after a top official of a national union was accused of embezzlement; and an investigation into a cryptocurrency company suspected of cheating investors.
In total, the DOJ quietly closed more than 23,000 criminal cases in the first six months of President Donald Trump’s administration, abandoning hundreds of investigations into terrorism, white-collar crime, drugs and other offenses as it shifted resources to pursue immigration cases, according to an analysis by ProPublica.
A number of the cases shut down had been brought after yearslong investigations by the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration, among others. (When cases are complex, it can take years before charges are brought.) Pro Publica reports on the “extraordinary overhaul” at the DOJ under the Trump administration: entire units have been shuttered, lawyers have been ordered to abandon the pursuit of certain crimes and thousands of lawyers have quit or been forced out.
The loss of institutional memory and expertise has been staggering, and in the process, the DOJ has retreated from its mission to impartially uphold the rule of law. Nearly 300 former DOJ employees recently wrote an open letter, charging that, under Trump, the DOJ is “taking a sledgehammer” to long-standing work to “protect communities and the rule of law.”
Rather than pursuing white collar crime and other traditional targets, the DOJ has been told to focus on immigration.
The department prosecuted 32,000 new immigration cases in the first six months of the administration, which was nearly triple the number under the Biden administration and a 15% increase from the first Trump term. It has pursued fewer prosecutions of nearly every other type of crime — from drug offenses to corruption — than new administrations in their first six months dating back to 2009.
The linked article tells us that the DOJ declined three times as many cases of major fraud against the U.S. compared with the average of similar time periods under prior administrations. Even more concerning, it has declined more than 1,000 terrorism cases, far more than prior administrations.
The corruption goes far beyond the decimation of the Department of Justice. Trump’s pardon of the January 6th insurrectionists would have been incomprehensible in any other administration–it was a public acknowledgement that criminality in support of Trump will not be punished. (Meanwhile, his fact-free, vindictive prosecutions of people he considers enemies sends the.opposite message…)
Trump’s personal grifts–meme coins and the like– are estimated to have generated a billion and a half dollars for the family. A portion of that amount has come from his utterly corrupt abuse of the pardon power. As the linked report notes, Trump has spent the last 14 months “perverting the presidential pardon in every way imaginable to line his pockets, reward and protect those who commit or might commit crimes on his behalf, and assuage his fragile ego.” Those pardons have been assigned to three categories: “Reward pardons” bestowed upon donors and supporters who break the law on Trump’s behalf; “Corrupt pardons,” that excuse public officials who have abused their offices but who have pledged loyalty to Trump; and so-called “Brokered pardons” obtained by lobbyists for deep-pocketed individuals.
America has become a banana republic, and MAGA has turned the GOP into a criminal enterprise. That would be bad enough if the administration was even minimally competent, but we’re governed by a wildly inept, totally corrupt gang that can’t shoot straight.
And we’ve become an international laughingstock.
A Banana Republic with no bananas.
“And we’ve become an international laughingstock.”
And depending on what does or does not happen beginning at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time tonight; will they begin doing more than laugh at this nation’s internal evil based crimes against Americans? The Trump claim his war is to save Iran’s population from their inhumane leaders as he has installed his choice inhumane administration to remove American’s Constitutional civic and humane rights with the blessings of America’s Congress and the Supreme Court poses the question will someone come to our rescue from Trump? Our own military troops are on city streets to uphold ICE and the Border Patrol actions and protect them from police action upholding Law and Order to protect the public.
I can’t remember the last time I have seen local police cars patrolling my neighborhood or the surrounding areas.
The USA is _not_ a laughingstock. You are not funny–in any sense. You are terrifying; an angry toddler with a loaded shotgun wandering through a children’s party. We are appalled and scared.
And we are angry. You are not trustworthy. I am at the point where if my government decides to pretend yours is normal and work with it, then my government will need to go. I do not want my country working with the USA at all. You tear it all down, and you take us all with you.
The Trumpified Republican Party is nothing but a terrorist crime syndicate built around a lunatic cult of personality and a billionaire-funded propaganda network.
I hope the remaining democratic and legal institutions, supported by the sane majority coming to their senses, can prevail when the Trumpists abandon the pretenses of “law and order”, “Christian morality” and fake “populism” to use raw military force and partisan legalism to impose their rule on the domestic population as well as abroad.
Will we meekly accept the principle that the President rightfully has authority over the structures of the government if he openly ignores the social contract that formed those structures, and rightfully governs them?
Please read Michael Beschloss’s article today that almost begs the Congress and cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment … before it’s too late. I don’t know where John Hawthorne lives, but I’m sure he speaks for many other nations as well as his own.
As myself and many others on this blog have stated, Trump clinically presents as a psychopath. And as his days grow fewer and his frustrations mount, he will become even more dangerous. Psychopaths, when put into untenable positions lash out with all they have to destroy the causes of their frustrations. Unless our military commanders step up and refuse to commit those war crimes in Iran, we may be looking at more than just “laughing stock” status.
I think Republicans are way too far down the road of corruption and blind fealty to invoke even a discussion about the 25th Amendment, and would J.D. Vance be much better? So, once again, our slothful voters who stayed home or didn’t look behind the curtain at what they were voting for when they chose Trump are going to rue their “choices” when they look out their windows and see their towns and cities on fire – either figuratively or literally.
Law and Order is almost always a Republican stalwart. When I helped manage a small community swimming pool, most of the racist remarks came from the wives of our local police officers. They would complain that the “oil in the niggers hair was clogging up the pumps.” Yet, these same white wives would apply ounce after ounce of Tropicana before they jumped in the same pools.
It’s just like that all the way up the chain. Missing marijuana and cocaine cases were always cases that never went anywhere. Too hard to pursue. The union lawyers would work with each PD and FD union members to ensure the “competitive salaries” would guarantee community officers’ raises.
The further up the chain you went, the worse it got. Who do you think peddles most of the drugs in the community?
It’s all about the mighty dollars now. The two idiot Trump offspring figured they could accept millions of bribes through the Trump meme coins versus wasting it on legal fees. It was never about law and order except for blacks.
If you don’t play the game, law and order would drag out your cases, costing the “guilty” more and more money, so the lawyers take it.
Do you really see large drug busts in your neighborhoods? Who do you think distributes drugs in the streets? LOL
In the Epstein Cases, Jeffrey goes back to the Reagan days of the DEA when the big hitters like the CIA, DEA, and Defense Dept determined they could make money selling the illegal smack rather than arresting the drug dealers. Who do you think was dealing all the heroin brought out of Afghanistan? Fortunes were made. Once Biden withdrew and let the Taliban run the country again, the poppy fields were eliminated overnight.
Who do you think works with the Mexican or Colombian drug exporters? When was the last time you saw a picture of our planes or helicopters burning millions of acres of drugs?
Our JD is a joke, and so are the lawyers that represent the “guilty.” Trump’s buddy, who took all those illegals into high-security prisons, was using his banana plants to shuffle cocaine to Europe.
The government is all about capitalism these days. From top to bottom, if you have money or power to produce others’ money, you get justice. If you don’t, enjoy your jail time. Our country has become a cartel/regime.
The Billionaire Zionists behind the Club America programs in each state have lots of power – Braun and all the other Zionist Red toadies folded like a dollar bill. I’m still waiting for APRA responses from AG Todd Rokita and Lt. Gov. Loafer Beckwith. What kind of propaganda are these kids getting from our DoE?
It’s time to vote like our lives depend on it, because they do.
Todd, I can go with most of your rant, but the Zionist piece is over the top.
John, I can only agree with your perspective…if it’s funny in any way it’s black humor.
The biggest looser ever, that Orange Fool, has really backed himself into a corner, if Iran does not heed his criminal warnings! He’ll have to blow stuff up at a thoroughly crazy level, or… do a Putin, and defenestrate himself from the bilgiest building he can find?
I’m glad I’m old, but there are all these younger folks.
Mitch D
What “Zionist piece is over the top?”
The largest Red State Zionists flipped their states, but some are still interested in going through the educational protocol. IN was out in front of ordering programs while leaving the entire Education Department out of it. Gov. Braun was promoting the TPUSA program at each high school, but admitted he had no documents to support it. Todd Rokita said they were top-notch, but never read the docs. Lt. Gov. Beckwith, IT IS ON YOU!! Certainly, he knew the documents were legitimate; they were neutral. LOL
Corrupting from the top-down is putting enormous pressure on the law-abiding Americans that still hold jobs in those departments. Things would be a lot worse if these people weren’t standing their ground. My daughter who works diligently in the immigration field hasn’t given up. My nephew who works conservation for US hasn’t given up.
I told my daughter that my parents who both served in US army in WWll (Mom as a nurse in a war zone) answered their call at that time, like she is answering her call at this time. This is her WWll!
I wish I could do more to help, but I do support the Americans on the front lines standing up to the corrupt, evilness that has descended from the trump regime. The resistance is strong and is maintaining our free speech. Many are exposing the corruption and pointing to the real causes of the chaos.
I would suggest that The Lincoln Group and all former Republicans make sure that US has free and fair elections for the midterms. Democrats will join in and bring the votes, just keep it fair!
I’m waiting to see if the field commanders will execute the war crimes they’re ordered to carry out. This might be the inflection point we’ve all been waiting for.
Todd, I believe that your whole focus on the “Zionists” is off the mark. Does big money automatically become “Zionist” in your view? Is “Thune a “Zionist/”
Thank you Pakistan for giving TACO Man, AKA the Orange Obscenity, an off ramp. Armageddon has been postponed. Now it’s up to U.S. to bring him down.
It took an amazingly short period of time.
I am Canadian.
You can best understand me through this great, old beer commercial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiUmEehRcGQ