Road To Sedition

It looks like Merrick Garland's slow, low-keyed approach to prosecuting instigators of the January 6 insurrection, long assailed by folks on the left as well as other commentators (including yours truly), may actually be the way to go.  Because it just paid off big time in a major sedition charge in the Justice Department's ongoing investigation.

Stewart Rhodes (above), founder of the so-called Oath Keepers, a right-wing paramilitary group loyal to Trump, was arrested and charged in Texas on plotting to overthrow the federal government.  He was not at the insurrection but is believed to have helped plan and execute what appeared on live television to have been an attack that happened on the spur of the moment, emanating from an initially peaceful but raucous pro-Trump demonstration.  Rhodes is also said to have been planning a reconnaissance mission for the days after the insurrection to probe the line of defenses against the Capitol in an ongoing effort to derail the inauguration of President Biden.

Ten other militants were also indicted, including Edward Vallejo, was was part of a "Quick Reaction Force" lying in wait at a hotel on the Virginia side of the Potomac River that was ready to send in reinforcements.  This should put to rest ant idea that the insurrectionists were "tourists" in Washington and were more on a tour of duty . . . to Trump.

Sedition is a rarely issued charge, so the Justice Department wouldn't make such an accusation if it didn't have evidence ready to back it up.  Now I'm willing to gave Garland the benefit of the doubt as far as his modus operandi in pursuing this case is concerned.  The January 6 select committee in the House may have only one year left, but Garland has three years left, and he'll have plenty of time to pursue any other recommendations for investigation that the committee sends to him later this year.  It seems that the fable of the tortoise and the hare was right - slow and steady wins the race.

Except in combatting a pandemic - we still have to move fast on that one.

DeJoy's Money Game

The controversy created by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy just gets bigger and bigger.  During his tenure at the Postal Service, he has diminished mail service all over the country, but it's his past as the CEO of a logistics company in his home state of North Carolina that has raised eyebrows.  The Washington Post recently reported that DeJoy forced employees to contribute money to Republican candidates for office, including Thom Tillis, North Carolina's junior U.S. Senator.  DeJoy would compensate for his strong-arming by reimbursing those employees with large bonuses. 

So what, you ask?  Well, even though the employees got their money back, the GOP candidates in North Carolina still got money they wouldn't have gotten otherwise, and the use of company funds to compensate the employees meant that it didn't cost DeJoy himself a cent.   

That's against the law. 

Plain and simple. 

Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) has already called for action in response to the charges against DeJoy, which are not only highly credible but also highly unbecoming pf a Postmaster General.  "It demands a full and independent investigation, Schiff recently wrote.  "And [it] adds another compelling reason that Louis DeJoy should resign. Immediately."

And DeJoy might have to do just that.  North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, reacting to formal complaints regarding DeJoy's actions, may be  going ahead with an investigation very soon.

It's unclear whether DeJoy has perpetrated, or has attempted to perpetrate, a similar scheme in the Postal Service.  But this revelation should prove once and for all that the only place DeJoy belongs inside a post office is as a mug shot on the bulletin board.  

Stonefaced Shutdown

On the same day that Trump confidante and Nixon apologist Roger Stone was arrested and charged by Robert Mueller's investigation with lying about the nature of his involvement in the 2016 Trump presidential campaign, Trump himself was forced to end the government shutdown after five weeks and agree to the same deal he rejected at the last minute back in December to keep the government open.  This happened as FBI Director Christopher Wray was expressing outright anger over the shutdown and the impact it was having on his agency even as FBI agents were . . . arresting Roger Stone in Florida.

Stone apparently was more active than he has been willing to admit in exposing e-mails from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) regarding Hillary Clinton's campaign after WikiLeaks found that the DNC had a cut-rate firewall and hacked some very damaging attitudes from Hillary and her campaign toward Catholic voters, Wall Street, her wimp-out on single-payer health care,  and just about everything else.  Stone was apparently vigorous in pursuing of Russian-hacked emails damaging to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 election bid.  He was allegedly very active in talking with Julian Assange, the director of WikiLeaks - which may or may not be a Russian front - in getting the material released in a timely  matter so it could be leveraged against the Clinton campaign.  Then he tried to tamper with a witness, a talk-radio host, to keep him from telling the truth to Mueller about the nature of the conversations that had over WikiLeaks.

Does your head hurt yet?

While there is no accusation toward Trump of colluding with the Russians, it's clear that Stone was deeply involved in manipulating sensitive information to ensure a Trump victory (although the Democrats helped by nominating Hillary).  It won't be long before Trump is implicated. 

Oh yeah, the 2020 presidential election.  Bernie Sanders is running, and Beto O'Rourke won't decide for several months.  Never mind, Beto.  I'm taking a serious look at Colorado senator and rumored presidential candidate Michael Bennet . . .    

This Just Got Interesting

The title is ironic.

The Justice Department has just appointed former FBI director Robert Mueller as a special counsel to investigate Russian meddling into the U.S. presidential election and helping Trump.  This is a positive step, but it's a baby step at best.  A independent prosecutor needs to take the reins of this investigation, and the White House seems unfazed by this latest development.  Trump maintains his innocence.

"As I have stated many times, a thorough investigation will confirm what we already know - there was no collusion between my campaign and any foreign entity," Trump said in a statement reacting to the Mueller appointment. "I look forward to this matter concluding quickly. In the meantime, I will never stop fighting for the people and the issues that matter most to the future of our country."

Gag me with a spoon.  Well, we'll see about that.

Meanwhile, things on Wall Street got really interesting yesterday - the Dow Jones average dropped over 300 points over more news about Trump's possible meddling into the FBI's Russia investigation.  And did I mention that he's beginning his first foreign trip as President?  

A Colorful Scandal

President Obama tried to promote "green energy" with a federal loan to a solar panel manufacturer in California to show that jobs in companies like this one were the wave of the future. The failure of Solyndra, Inc., the company in question, turned colors in Washington from green to red as if they were traffic signals or autumn leaves; Obama and his staffers are red-faced with embarrassment, and congressional Republicans are red-faced with anger.

Republicans in the House of Representatives are investigating to see if maybe the $528 million loan to Solyndra was rushed and approved before it was given a chance for a thorough review. The White House had touted the program as a model for kickstatting the renewable energy industry, but Solyndra went bankrupt and laid off over a thousand workers. The FBI then found that Solyndra spent over two million dollars lobbying in Washington regarding many of the provisions in the loan program just before White House officials sought the approval of said loan.

The GOP is trying to see if the Obama administration at least tried to protect taxpayers from getting shafted, and even if they don't find anything to suggest that taxpayers weren't adequately shielded, this is going to be a real black eye for "green jobs." The mainstream media are most likely going to tout this as a failure of Obama's renewable energy policy and crookedness in the solar panel business while forever downplaying the crimes of the oil and gas industries.

With pundits laughing at the idea of "green jobs" and the American renewable energy industry in disarray, it's time Obama gave up on his promotion of "green" energy. Selling such an idea to Americans is like trying to get them to eat muesli for breakfast or bike to work.