Killing The FBI

So the GOP, and more particularly, that part of the GOP which is behind Trump, has more or less openly declared “war” against the FBI. It is has even employed the term war, or at least that’s the word Lou Dobbs used on Fox news a while back. He said, it seems, that the FBI is part of the “Deep State,” and that Real Americans should grab their flintlocks and head off to Concord …

In defense of the Orange One.

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It isn’t just Dobbs, of course. From one end of the Republican Party to the other, you hear the hue and cry. The FBI, the Justice Department, they need to be shut down. Now. Before they go any further. Before they can find out more. Before they prove beyond doubt that Trump and his minions really are in the pockets of the Russians, really do have unsettling links to Chinese secret agents, really are beholden to Saudi princes, really are…well, a criminal enterprise.

There are already casualties in the war. FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe has been suddenly and mysteriously forced out of office. An FBI agent, Peter Strzok, has been accused of treason by the White House. Plus, now, of course, we have the Nunes memo, which can only be called slander (well, technically, libel), and to which the FBI itself has responded appropriately, i.e., with dignified revulsion.

And you sort of wonder where it will stop. You can’t use the word “war” without implying violence. You can’t call on your followers, some of whom are already far too eager to reach for guns, and not expect them to take you seriously. You have to remember that there is such a thing as “Stochastic terrorism,” which is the use of repeated calls for violence to, eventually, actually cause that violence.

In end, someone, somewhere…some unbalanced fanatic…picks up an automatic rifle, or packs his truck with explosive.

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In short, we find ourselves in an interesting situation. We are a nation in which the highest official of the land, the President, is blatantly calling for the repression of its own police forces…or, at least, those forces that do not favor his diseased view of the universe. (Have you noticed the way he and the other plutocrats adore ICE and a few select police officials, like Joe Arpaio? How he showers them with favors? How he seems to be attempting to build a national police that is loyal to him, and not to the Department of Justice?)

I, for one, find it impossible not to believe that there is something very significant in all this…in the war against the FBI and Justice. I believe that it would not be happening if Trump and his billionaire buddies did not have much to gain from the destruction of the FBI…just as they will gain from the death of the EPA and, most of all, the SEC.

And I don’t just mean that Trump would thus derail Mueller. I mean far more. I mean that he, and the people who surround and enable him…the Kleptoparasites of his cabinet, plus the Dark Money Lords who fund the Right…want the death of Justice for the same reason that Pablo Escobar would have celebrated the demise of the DEA, or that Machine Gun Kelly would have cheered the disbandment of the G-Men.

To wit, they would be criminals then in a nation without law enforcement.

A dream come true…

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But there’s the rub. At that point, we stop talking about mere criminality. And we start talking about…

Treason.

When you steal from me…I am hurt. I may be seriously wounded. I may, indeed, face want and poverty.

But I, alone, am the victim.

However…when you steal from an entire nation…when you crush its police force, when you loot its savings, when you take pensions from the old, when you take food from children…

That’s different. That is more than theft. That is treachery most foul. That is the injury of millions…that is murder by neglect…that is the torture of the innocent…

That is, in short, an act of war…not just against the FBI, not just against the Department of Justice…but targeting us all. Every man, woman, and child among us.

And the law on that is very, very clear. It reads:

8 U.S. Code § 2381 – Treason

Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.

(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 807; Pub. L. 103–322, title XXXIII, § 330016(2)(J), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2148.)

Let us consider this carefully, and keep it in mind…

As Justice draws near, with her blindfold, her balance…

And her sword.