Yesterday the DOJ announced the arrest and charging of 3 insurrectionist leaders who planned and led the attack on the Capitol.  In an extensive 23 page indictment, 3 individuals were named, Thomas Caldwell, Donovan Crowl, and Jessica Watkins, associated with extremist groups including Oathkeepers, Proud Boys, and the Three Percenters.  The charges detailed how they forcibly entered the Capitol, assaulted officers, destroyed property, interfered with Congress, and pursued members of Congress.  One particular chilling part of the indictment describes FB messages Caldwell was receiving from co-conspirators that were actually guiding him down flights of stairs and through tunnels as he pursued fleeing members of Congress.  In messages between other co-conspirators, they even talked about “Paul” who has “the goodies in case things go bad and we need to get heavy.”  And stupidly, they put a lot of this communication and evidence of their lawbreaking up on social media for all to see.  Unbelievable.

It’s becoming very clear that the attack on the Capitol wasn’t just a demonstration that got out of hand.  The attack was planned among conspirators in multiple states in multiple extremist groups.  Their military training, radical rhetoric, and threats made it clear they intended to capture, and even kill members of Congress whom they had decided had somehow committed “treason”.  The evidence is also becoming clear that they had help from the inside of the Capitol.  Who that is, we don’t know yet, but I predict we will.

The feds must continue investigating, arresting, trying and convicting as many of these conspirators.  These extremists are gun nuts who advocate unlicensed and unregulated ownership of all firearms.  Many are convicted felons who are excluded from owning guns, by law.  Even though many of these radicals are not allowed to own guns, they can still get them through private sales and black markets, but the feds must continue pursuing these criminals and enforcing the law.  The Congress in collusion with George W, let the genie out of the bottle in 2004 when they let the Assault Weapons ban expire.  Millions of weapons of war have flooded into the market feeding the violent tendencies of extremists groups that have proliferated all over the country.  The only tool we have remaining is charging, convicting, and jailing thousands of these gun nuts who threaten our democratic republic.

This is at least a start.

Yes, you read that correctly.  Last year, Barr’s DOJ granted over $1 million to Hookers for Jesus and the Lincoln Tubman Foundation while denying established organizations Catholic Charities of Miami and Chicanos Por La Causa in Phoenix. Why?  Hookers for Jesus was founded by a conservative christian and anti-gay activist, Annie Lobert.  She is a former prostitute who supposedly ministers to sex workers in Las Vegas.  Oh, and she’s anti-gay.  The Lincoln Tubman Foundation was started in 2018 by the daughter of a Trumpist who was actually a Trump delegate at the 2016 Republican convention.

Why were the more established charities denied?  Both organizations are active with Democrats and oppose cruel Trump immigration policy.  So Trump has even corrupted US charitable grants, damaging those who oppose him and helping friends.  He doesn’t care what it looks like.

As if that meant anything.

In the “I told you so” department, Trump tweeted out his displeasure yesterday that US attorneys in charge of Roger Stone’s felony convictions recommended a 7 to 9 year sentence.  As a reminder, Stone was convicted of lying to Congress about his involvement with the hacking by Russians of the DNC server and coordinating with WikiLeaks, lying to the FBI, and federal witness tampering, not trivial convictions.  Not long after his tweet, Bouncing Bill Barr’s DOJ backpedaled the sentence saying it was reconsidering.  In response and protest, two federal prosecutors resigned.

It’s not like we didn’t know that this was going to happen.  Now the we have Trump Unchained, I’m shocked he hasn’t just given Stone an outright pardon, the Medal of Freedom, and an appointment as head of, say, the Bureau of Land Management.

The corruption of this administration is wide, deep, and getting wider by the moment.

Today, Adam Schiff had a mic drop moment when he was addressing Trump’s lawyers’ assertion that the House should have gone to court to enforce subpoenas to get Trump’s people to testify.  At the very same time they were making that argument on the floor of the Senate, Barr’s DOJ lawyers were in court arguing the House didn’t have the ability to use the courts to enforce their subpoenas.  When the judge asked the DOJ lawyers what alternative the House had, the answer was…wait for it…impeachment.  Schiff was masterful.  Watch it here:

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/01/senate-stunned-as-schiff-reveals-doj-just-argued-in-court-that-defying-subpoenas-is-an-impeachable-offense/

To get your Monday off to a roaring start, the NYTimes is reporting that the DOJ has replaced the entire legal team defending Trump’s outrageous attempt to circumvent the SCOTUS by insisting that the citizenship question go on to the census form in defiance of their ruling.  According to reporting, lawyers in the federal programs branch of the DOJ were defending the case and are known for being particularly non-political.  Anonymous sources in the DOJ are confirming that this team of lawyers was refusing to sign the arguments that Trump, through Barr were insisting on, because those arguments are obvious and provable lies.  Trump’s solution?  Fire the entire team and bring in other more compliant lawyers.

Your president at work.

In a shocking shift that is now appearing complete, the DOJ has morphed from law enforcement to protect the United States to DOP (Defense of the President) against the United States.  Starting under Jeff Sessions, and driven home under Bill Barr, the DOP has turned over 150 years of Constitutional law on its head.  Up until 2 years ago, the DOJ strictly interpreted the emoluments clause, even extending it beyond the president to others in the federal government from receiving ANY funds or gifts from a foreign government.  No more.  After several lawsuits were filed asserting that Trump receiving funds from foreign governments through his hotels and golf courses, his lawyers said that this is perfectly OK since those funds are received by his company in a “commercial” transaction.  They interpreted the emoluments clause as meaning direct payments to the president for actual action from the president; in other words, directly paid bribes.

The DOP has now adopted that very same position, turning 150 years of precedent on its head.  Now that the DOP is 100% Trumpland, along with the Senate, the courts are our only hope, but even that is now corrupted with the radical judges that Trump has succeeded in getting seated on the SCOTUS after McConnell stole a seat in 2016.  The result is that We the People are now completely exposed to Trump’s corruption.  The executive branch is broken; the DOP is corrupted and now representing Trump personally; the legislative branch is broken with the Senate in Trump’s pocket; the SCOTUS is corrupt with grossly unqualified judges political operatives sitting on the court.

What’s needed is nothing short of a complete overhaul of the laws, traditions, and statutes surrounding governance of all three branches of the federal government from campaign finance to ethics rules to term limits for EVERYONE.  Beto has just presented a plan for a constitutional amendment that limits house and senate members to 12 years, and SCOTUS judges to 18.  I would say that’s a good start.