Wednesday, June 14, 2023

The Indictment

I debated whether to chime in with my paltry two cents on the Trump indictment. Don't know if my comments provide any value, and doubt the chirps coming from this little blog will break through the roar we hear re that indictment. That said, and with all humility, this, after all, is why I blog. 

Here goes . . . 

While at State, I spent some 34 years handling classified info all the way to the top of the classification chain. Ninety percent of it rubbish of no real consequence when written and classified, and certainly not after two or three years have passed. 

The prosecutors in Biden's DOJ have leaked photos of bankers' boxes piled up in various rooms of Trump's residence, implying that those boxes brim with classified material. We have no idea if that's true. I suspect most of that stuff consists of newspaper clippings, inconsequential memos, and, oh, newspaper clippings, and letters to and from Trump, and--did I mention?--newspaper clippings. The sort of stuff former government officials keep to write barely readable memoirs.

Actually, friends, and this point bears repeating and repeating, the content of those boxes is irrelevant. 

We might not like it, and our allies might and should get nervous about it, but under our system the President has absolute authority to declassify material AND to take it home as personal records. Beaten into us at the State Department was the knowledge that our ability to classify material, and I shamefully admit that I classified a lot, comes FROM and ONLY from the President. He can override any classification. The President can grab a binder of the most "sensitive" material, and read it out at a press conference; perhaps politically not wise, but legal. The famous Bill Clinton "sock drawer" case emphasized that: an Obama-appointed judge ruled that Clinton had the authority to declassify AND take home as his personal records ANY material produced by the Executive branch. No exceptions. Full stop. The President, in our structure, DOES NOT COME UNDER the authority of some faceless bureaucrat in a government archives office.

I find tiring to hear that the Trump case differs from those of Pence and Biden because they "immediately" returned to the archives the classified material once that material was found in their possession. First, we don't know if that's true in the Pence case, and it's certainly not true in the Biden case; second, most important, neither man had the authority to take classified to his home or his office. The cases, in other words, are different because neither Biden nor Pence was President at the time they took the classified material! Biden had been taking material for decades. Neither had the authority to declassify and remove classified documents. In Biden's case, it seems about 100 percent certain that he shared still-classified material with his crack-addled son who used it to "write" papers about Ukraine and European politics for clients. 

Has Trump handled this in the best way possible? You decide. I think, maybe, he could have handled the request from the archives office to return documents in a better, less confrontational way, while still saying, "Sorry. No. Those are my papers." Maybe. Maybe.

Now, you will rightly note, that what I just wrote naively assumes the request as well-intentioned; it, of course, was not. It was a trap to persecute Biden's main political rival, and along with the bogus charges filed by local Democrat DAs, to tie up Trump in an endless legal siege, cripple him politically and financially, and--very important--distract from the growing evidence of the criminality of the Biden family. 

The attack on Trump also has sucked the air out of the Republican primary process. How can, say, DeSantis get a word in when all we talk about is Trump, Trump, Trump? How can we get anybody to focus on the blatant criminality of the Bidens, when we all focus on the irrelevant debate over what is or is not classified?  

We have become a banana republic with nuclear weapons. My apology to banana republics; they, at least, provide bananas.

23 comments:

  1. Cuba is just about 90 miles south from Miami. Bananas galore their.

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    1. ..."90 miles south from Miami. Bananas"...
      W/ the invited Chinese as a main course~~~
      Bon Apetite~~~
      On Watch~~~

      "Let's Roll"

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    2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  2. I posted this yesterday on my favorite website: “Donald Trump arrested: Special counsel Jack Smith confronts former president in courtroom”
    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/courts/donald-trump-arrested-jack-smith-confronts-former-president-miami-courtroom
    We are now a banana republic. I weep for the old republic.

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  3. Classified material? Didn't a director of the CIA once classify a Christmas card?

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  4. I say that whether they put Trump in prison or not, vote for him as a write-in candidate. If enough people do that, the ruler-elites in the UniParty might just have a stroke or heart attack, it being shoved back in their faces that a lot of the people don't care what they say.

    Look how astonished they are that people are just still supporting Trump during the arraignment.
    The propagandists at the news channels are having conniptions.

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  5. I entertain myself with the thought that Trump will be jailed and win election from jail. Then he'll pardon himself.

    But of course THEY would have him suicided first.

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  6. Honest question. If Trump goes to prison does he forfeit SS protection?

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  7. The court should dismiss all charges with prejudice.

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  8. yeah... at the very least, there should've been clear rulings prior to charging him as to there potus even could be charged for this... potus declassification seems to be a byproduct of potus action, rather than an explicit process. Even if these goons have managed to convince themselves that they're not taking part in a political prosecution, that's the truth of the matter.
    It's pretty much everything Trump needs for his candidacy.

    - reader #1482

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  9. I still have feeling it's a Kangaroo Court set up, judge and prosecution are working together to get this big feather in their cap they took down DJT.
    Keep saying everywhere, no one has mentioned Barky and the last I read some months ago now a warehouse filled and unsecured of documents for his future if ever built library.
    Many rules of the President has I documents has been forgotten purposely in this case.

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    1. All fun and games until the declare that trial-by-jury is impossible due to the classified nature of the evidence and require a trial by judge of their choice. If they go that route, it'll be large scale fighting in the streets.... civil war.

      - reader #1482

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  10. Author and retired officer Tom Kratman has made that point repeatedly, that if a president acts like it isn't classified, it isn't classified. He also says this extends to Biden as VP and Hillary as SecState. That President Obama certainly knew what they were doing, and since he didn't make a move to stop them, he was treating it as unclassified.

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  11. "I doubt the little chirps coming from this little blog will break through the roar we hear" ... I don't know I'd say that - as is said: "From tiny acorns come mighty oaks". Your musings plant plenty of acorns.

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  12. I just don't believe that this country's military and defense research agencies are really up to the task of competing today. There's obviously no fear of the USA in China, Russia, Iran, or even the so-called non-aligned countries who are siding with China, Russia and Iran at every opportunity.
    The US has just spent so many decades navel gazing instead of naval building. What's the biggest fear of a pentagon staffer? Is it being unprepared for a war with another major power? No, it's surviving the next round of layoffs.
    Pajama Boy runs the DoD and the White House. How are we going to win a major conflict with outsourcing to our enemies instead of develping new weapons?
    The US should be *so* far ahead, that hardware 3 generations old should be making swiss cheese of the russian military at the hands of the ukrainians. We've really lost it, we stopped trying, we put the 'peace dividend' into our waistline.

    - reader #1482

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  13. Reveille Reveille~~~
    https://rumble.com/v2ua31s-col.-john-mills-details-chinese-spy-base-in-cuba-and-more-ccp-targetsactivi.html
    On Watch~~~

    "Let's Roll"

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  14. As an outsider watching the internal machinations of the politics of our largest ally I may miss the nuances of the internal political scene. However it strikes me that the prosecution of President Trump is not only a corruption of the legal system but politically naive. If anything it is likely to increase the support for him no matter what the end result of any trial.

    The current administration does not inspire confidence in the integrity of their actions. Quite the contrary and it can only hearten the enemies of the US and worry its allies.

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    1. Also from Oz:

      This entire rock-show REEKS of contrived and controlled PROVOCATION.

      The Jan 6 caper was a quiet "dry run" by comparison, The "official response" to the growing unrest about current and forthcoming "capers", will be heavy on "executive action", pour encourager les autres.

      The simple idea is to push one or more "people "over the edge" and claim is as a serious "insurrection". That it will have been carefully stage managed and scripted will not exactly be advertised, probably.

      Does any observant person really believe the "official" backgrounder to the rash of "mass killings over the last few years.

      Contemplate the term: "Wind-up toys".

      There is also a barely subtle "warning" implicit in the actions of these psychotics:

      "We can do what we like to whomever we choose, and there is NOTHING anyone can do about it".

      Hubris on stilts. Subtle as a train smash.

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    2. This 'president' his administration and his political party have more in common with the CCP than with the Founders and Constitution. What they won't do outright they secretly covet.
      Donald Trump is the lynch pin of things present and future. He must continue speaking out firmly in the knowledge that he can't win in the end. That ultimately may be the price for the future fit to be called American.

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    3. Hmmm~~~
      "Donald Trump...must continue speaking out
      firmly in the knowledge that he can't win..."
      'Ya Gotta Believe' Tug & count on it!~~~
      On Watch~~~
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpVgSj3TI3g

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    4. There is a book by Irving Peikoff called, "The Ominous Parallels" published in 1973. The situation has only gotten worse in the intervening fifty years.

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