Librarians are the ones who finally hold him accountable

Before getting to today’s news about what the FBI did at the nasty guy’s for profit residence, a quick look at a couple posts on Ukraine. Hunter of Daily Kos started a post about the latest round of armaments from the US to Ukraine. The US and NATO used to fear that the first time a Russian soldier was hit with NATO equipment Putin would attack NATO. That fear is long gone. We know Russia doesn’t have the capacity to attack. Biden can announce another billion dollars in aid and nobody blinks. The important news of Hunter’s post is that there were a couple big explosions at the airport near Novofedorivka, Crimea. This is of great interest because it is over 200km from the nearest Ukrainian held territory. A strike that deep into Russian held territory is a really big deal. Ukraine supposedly doesn’t have missiles that reach that far. And Ukraine isn’t saying what the weapon was. In a second post Hunter examines that Crimea attack in more detail. First, the explosions were big enough to cause damage over a radius of several kilometers. That implies a munitions depot was hit. Second, there was damage to maybe up to nine Russian warplanes. A good result. Ukraine still hasn’t said how they did it. Some sort of long range missile? A drone dropping bombs? If so, why didn’t any Russian spot it? A Ukrainian saboteur? How did they get much explosive material to the airport and detonate it without being seen? And if a saboteur why isn’t Ukraine crowing about special forces swarming Russia’s conquered crown jewel? Hunter is convinced there is one story that can’t be true – the story Russia is saying. They claim their soldiers are incompetent (true) and set off the explosion by accident. The problem with that story is they’ve made that claim after every single munitions depot to go boom over the last couple months. That implies a lot of incompetence happening regularly. Sheesh, is no one learning from mistakes? So back to the big thing occupying much of the recent news – that FBI raid and it’s consequences. One of those consequences, as reported by Aysha Qamar of Kos, is that Rep. Eric Swalwell, a strong progressive and a strong critic of the nasty guy, has been getting death threats against himself and his family. Swalwell posted the worst of these threats to Twitter and Qamar included that tweet – with a warning of extremely violent content and saying she will not share a transcript. US Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Chris Wray are also getting an increase in death threats. Meteor Blades of Kos reported many on the far right are saying they have crossed the Rubicon – they will not turn back. Blades said: Believe them. Of reporters who accurately tell this story don’t accuse them of stirring the pot. Don’t listen to reporters who downplay the threat. Yeah, we have police and the US military to protect us – in direct confrontations. But much of the violence will be through asymmetric warfare. If you want to help there are organizations, such as SeditionHunters, who pore over online documents to track down those who want to do (or have done) violence. Also, you can help candidates, causes, and general get out the vote campaigns in purple states. Dartagnan of the Kos community tells Republicans to stop squealing their outrage over the FBI search of the nasty guy’s for profit residence. They knew the nasty guy was a criminal long before he got into politics. Garland, who seems to be inert on many of the nasty guy’s crimes, must have really strong evidence to take action in this case.

Please, though, Republicans: Don’t give us the theatrical “surprised” or “shocked” routine. You’re not surprised or shocked. You knew what this guy was about when you signed on. Spare us the haughty, holier-than-thou crap about how it’s a “dark day for the rule of law.” You’ve shown us all, through your behavior and slavish sycophancy, that you really don’t give a damn about “law.” That ship sailed a long, long time ago. Yes, Republicans are making an awful noise right now. But when you get right down to it, it’s all just the same hot air they’ve been breathing for the last seven years.

Joan McCarter of Kos explained what is required for the FBI to get a search warrant. It spells out what the FBI is looking for and what laws were likely broken. The FBI also left behind receipts for what they took. So if the nasty guy felt he was being wronged he could show the warrant. He isn’t showing it because it details some of his crimes. In a second post McCarter wrote that the nasty guy is accusing the FBI of planting evidence. Various Republicans and Fox News are running with that idea. McCarter quoted a tweet from Ron Filipkowski who wrote that such a claim confirms the nasty guy’s guilt. He got caught and knows it. In a third post McCarter noted Republicans hate vendettas – except the vendettas they have planned against Democrats. The contradictions are evidence that Republicans have killed irony. One example of a vendetta they want to pursue accuses Joe and Hunter Biden of having illegal ties to criminals and having connections with foreign adversaries. Substitute in the nasty guy and nasty junior and reality and evidence based people would recognize the story. It’s called projection. We could all revel in this bit of irony if Republicans hadn’t killed off irony long ago. Hunter expanded on a report from Politico that says the nasty guy was so completely annoyed with Hillary Clinton, his 2016 rival, that in 2018 he expanded on all the phony claims about her emails and signed a law that expanded the penalty for unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents. Such action is now a felony offense. Now check this week’s news for stories about “unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents.” Anything come to mind? Hmm? So what happens next? Hunter wrote:

One theory is that this is likely the end of it; the urgent government need was to get classified national security information out of Donald Trump's golf resort and back into government hands, and that's a whole different thing from coming back and putting Donald Trump in handcuffs for taking the documents in the first place. That's depressingly likely, because if the federal government had the spine to put Donald Trump in handcuffs for any of his previous crimes, we wouldn't be here to begin with.

Even if it is unlikely to happen, it is time to (I’m sure you can chant with me) Lock Him Up. Greg Dworkin, in a pundit roundup for Kos, has a couple interesting quotes. The first is a tweet by Filipkowski, referring to the workers at the National Archives:

After prosecutors and law enforcement allowed Trump to get away with one crime after another for decades, librarians are the ones who finally step up to hold him accountable.

To which Dworkin added:

In addition to potential felonies, the 50¢ a day fine is not waived. And I hear the FBI were asked to keep their voices down.

Dworkin quoted a tweet from Sean Illing, who in turn quoted a tweet threatening civil war. Illing wrote:

The effects of media fragmentation are so much worse than people think and there’s no version of liberal democracy that works in a full-blown crisis of authority.