In the spectacle playing out in Palm Beach, Florida, where armed thugs wearing FBI jackets stormed the residence of former President Trump and his family, ostensibly in search of classified materials stored there, ordinary people see clearly how far a once great nation has already sunk down into the gutter—republic meet banana and forget about rule of law.

Leaving aside valid questions about whether the materials in question were classified or declassified, the raid on Mar-a-Lago is certainly not justified, as Donald Trump and his legal advisors seem to have been cooperating with the National Archives to ensure that Presidential Records remained under federal government control, starkly in contrast with how the Clinton family has handled such records over decades.

So, political insiders who enrich the donor class and use family members to collect spoils from foreign governments are protected in modern America, but outsiders who actually win elections and then try to keep promises and clean up corruption are pounded into oblivion, as influence-shapers cheer?

This raid is a step too far, and it has already backfired spectacularly.

Image: Donald Trump by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.

A New Day that will Live in Infamy: August 8, 2022

In this moment, a nation of laws is apparently ruled by a collection of craven, political con artists working hardest to protect Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Days following the release of poll results from CPAC showing that Donald Trump is the clear frontrunner among possible Republican presidential candidates for 2024, persons unknown authorized another outsized assault, apparently busted open a safe, and carted away materials, spending hours inside the former President’s private property.

Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray had to understand these jackboot tactics would inflame the passions of Trump supporters, as they certainly have done. When did they sign off on this unprecedented hitjob and, if they did not, who did?

There are evidently no impartial grownups exercising discretion over the decisions to investigate or prosecute crimes in America. Instead, political impulses rule, and political loyalties protect wrongdoers. After all, scant days ago, even CNN finally admitted that concerns about the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop were reasonable. Instead of questioning who tamped down these concerns before the 2020 election, likely influencing the results then, mainstream media now piles on Donald Trump yet again.

An odious and contemptible double standard is clearly seen in the contrast between how the Obama Administration protected and promoted Hillary Clinton, and how it and holdovers in the Trump and Biden administrations ceaselessly and baselessly attacked Donald Trump and his family. This latest made-for-bad-tv stunt seems to be a coordinated attempt to kneecap President Biden’s most potent political opponent by setting up the canard that Trump’s mishandling of classified information will render him unfit for elective office evermore.

Instead, the Mar-a-Lago raid has galvanized support for Donald Trump’s return to the White House, but this time with his eyes wide open and including an experienced team dedicated to draining the swamp—an effort that should especially include many in the Republican Party who pretend they are against corruption but flourish with Democrats playing monkey-business as usual.

A Study in Bold Contrasts

Does anyone in the punditry or the FBI care to explain what truly happened from January 21, 2009, through and after February 1, 2013, when Hillary Clinton certainly mishandled classified information as Bill Clinton and Chelsea Clinton directed the affairs of a purported “foundation,” all the while reaping millions of dollars for themselves and even more for Democrat political campaigns?

Here, the main unanswered questions include: (1) who authorized Hillary Clinton and her team to use unvetted electronic devices to transmit classified materials and store them off government servers; (2) why did it take so long to attempt to retrieve these materials; (3) why are we certain that all government records were returned; (4) how many foreign powers gained access to these materials; (5) and how far back in time has the Clinton family financed personal lifestyles and political campaigns harvesting government resources?

Before Hillary Clinton formally announced her second presidential campaign, valid questions swirled around the organization and operation of the “Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation” and the evolution of the Clinton family wealth from January 2001 forward. The FBI “missed” the purported charity’s obvious and continuing failures to comply with a raft of laws and regulations from 2001 through 2005 when they “investigated” and they “missed” bold and escalated wrongdoing starting in January 2016, when they “investigated” yet again.

American voters understand that the FBI seems more like a concierge service protecting politicians who grease wheels for the donor class than an organization dedicated to bringing criminals of all political stripes to justice. When we swarm out to vote, we certainly will remember what happened at Mar-a-Lago and what may happen to those responsible for such an outrageous and unwarranted episode of bullying as Hillary Clinton and her lawyer Marc Elias, who prematurely and unwisely celebrated Donald Trump’s demise on Twitter.

Justice is coming.