The Tool of Tyrants 🤯😱🌻✡️😱🤯

The Rapid Slide to Autocracy:  Former FBI Director James Comey is a bit of a sanctimonious prig; however, being obnoxiously self-righteous is not a crime, but apparently crossing Trump is.  Last night Lindsey Halligan, Trump’s newly appointed US Attorney for Virginia, the insurance lawyer who was plucked from her job erasing references to slavery from the Smithsonian Museums so that she could redirect her energies to going after Trump’s “enemies” convinced a Virginia Grand Jury to indict Comey despite being advised by the experienced prosecutors in her new office that the evidence against him was insufficient for a conviction.  In theory, Comey was indicted for lying to the Senate in response to a question posed by Texas Senator Ted Cruz as well as for obstructing justice for that same response but in reality, he was indicted because Trump hates him and wants to see him suffer, the same fate he wishes for Adam Schiff, Tish James, and John Bolton to name a few on his target list.  We know that Trump wanted Comey indicted because Trump, who ran on retribution and has long had Comey at the top of his enemies list, tweet ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi, who according to press reports was not supportive of the indictment, to get Comey indicted ASAP, the ASAP part because the window for indicting Comey was due to expire in five days. 

The Crime? The crimes that Comey is accused of committing relate to his testimony about whether or not he authorized his one-time deputy Andrew McCabe to leak some info about the Russia investigation to the Wall Street Journal. One of the problems with the case against Comey is that an Inspector General report concluded that McCabe “lacked candor” on the subject of the leak, while saying that Comey’s recollection of the events surrounding the leak were accurate.  That said, although former and probably future Fox commentator Jeanine Pirro has been unable to get more skeptical Washington DC grand juries to issue felony indictments for tossing hero sandwiches, the “rule” that a prosecutor could indict even a ham sandwich, largely because grand juries, unlike trial (petit) juries generally hear only from prosecutors, proved true here.  The Virginia grand jury wasn’t told about the Inspector General’s report or anything else that should make getting a guilty verdict near impossible.  Speaking as someone who once served as the foreperson of a NYS grand jury, where every case presented resulted in an indictment, the ham sandwich “rule” is almost always true.  Comey responded last night by saying “fear is the tool of the tyrant,” that he’s not afraid because he’s not guilty.  He added “I’m innocent, so let’s have a trial” and “keep the faith.”   Comey is expected to push for a speedy trial.  Not that it should matter but since it often does, the judge assigned to his case is a Biden appointee named Michael Nachmanoff. It’s fair to assume that Trump is now scouring the judge’s files for any evidence that he or any member of his family ever contributed to or said something nice about a Democrat especially George Soros, because last night Trump said that he wants Soros’ foundation to be indicted next, on RICO charges. Soros’ foundation has been pushed out of doing business in Viktor Orban’s Hungary, and we know how much Trump admires and emulates Orban.  Following the James Comey indictment, his son-in-law, Troy Edwards, Jr., resigned from his position as a senior national security prosecutor with a one sentence letter to Pam Bondi saying: “To uphold my oath to the Constitution and country, I hereby resign as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia in the Department of Justice effective immediately.” In case anyone is counting Edwards is now the third member of the Comey family affected by Trump’s campaign of retribution. More US Attorneys should follow, it’s not clear that they will.

More 💩:  Something’s rotten at the Pentagon too.  Yesterday, Defense Secretary Hegseth who has spent the last week putting the squeeze on reporters in an effort to restrict what they can and cannot report, summoned around 800 of the military’s generals and admirals to show up for a mandatory all hands meeting in Virginia next week.  As the Washington Post put it the order is “sowing confusion and alarm” because the military leaders haven’t been told the purpose of the meeting, and because of the Trump administration’s firing of numerous senior leaders this year as well as Hegseth’s statement that the firings aren’t over yet, since he wants to give 20% of them the boot.  Last night, Trump said that the importance of the meeting is being overstated, that it’s not unusual for all the military leaders to be called into one location where they’ll all be sitting ducks at once.  He’s lying, the in-person meeting is both unprecedented and a security risk. In other Pentagon news, somehow or other, use your imagination, Democratic Congresswoman/Military veteran Mikie Sherill’s complete personnel files, including even her social security number were leaked to the press this week. Sherill is currently locked in a tight battle for NJ Governor, running against the Trump supported MAGA candidate Jack Ciatarelli.  Just about everyone not named Trump or RFK, including Mehmet Oz and Trump’s favorite pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson, have dissed Trump’s command that pregnant women never, ever take Tylenol.  The collective view of the medical establishment is that since high fevers present a danger to pregnant women and their fetuses, taking Tylenol in moderation is okay.  However, since I am most definitely not a doctor, my advice is to talk to your doctor before taking anything 😊.  Together with OMB head Russel Vought, a key architect of Project 2025, Trump who cancelled his meeting with Democratic leaders Jeffries and Schumer is threatening to fire “mass numbers” of government workers if the Democratic leaders don’t throw their support behind the Republican’s continuing budget resolution. Democrats don’t appear ready to do so because at the very least they want the soon to expire subsidies for Affordable Care Act insurance premiums reinstated.  As financier/business commentator  Steve Rattner, the king of concise power point charts, explained very clearly on MSNBC’s Morning Joe yesterday, the elimination of those subsidies will put health insurance beyond the reach of millions of Americans, essentially eviscerating Obamacare and returning the percentage of the population without insurance back to pre-Obamacare levels, something that Trump and many Republican politicians have been trying to do for years.  Combine a lack of insurance with all the expected closures of hospitals, the places that the uninsured will need even more as they put off seeking routine care, lose access to primary care, and stop getting those “dangerous” vaccines and you get the picture, Munch’s The Scream rather than Van Gogh’s bucolic fields of sunflowers.  MAHA Not.

#BringThemAllHomeNow