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Deutschmeister's avatar

The people who say that prosecuting Trump becomes a political consideration conveniently ignore the fact that choosing not to prosecute him if the evidence warrants it also would be a political consideration. You can't have it both ways. The DOJ should simply do what is right by the letter of the law and let the facts guide the process. That is the only justifiable outcome if truly nobody is above the law.

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Craig Butcher's avatar

The statement that "really we're just talking about the DOJ" is the most sickening and terrifying statement in your interview because of course we're NOT just talking about the DOJ. We are talking about the entire Federal judiciary. And worse, all the law enforcement agencies -- Homeland security, the FBI, the CIA, NSA... And it gets even worse, we're talking about the entire gigantic US Military-- all branches. No person in the US military will have a career unless he or she is a vetted loyalist. And we are talking about every contractor and company in America that does business with first the Federal government and little by little with every captured state government. Ultimately we are talking about every public employee in the country-- every janitor, schoolteacher, secretary, city engineer, county clerk.

We are talking about the Trump DOJ and IRS initiating a campaign of persecuting enemies and disloyalists. No person who has ever filed a tax return will be safe.

And we are talking about shutting down the press through the court system. Of all the promises Trump ever made, this one is assuredly most dear to his heart:

"One of the things I'm going to do if I win, ... I'm going to open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them."

And he goes on, even more clearly:

"You see, with me, they're not protected, because I'm not like other people but I'm not taking money. I'm not taking their money," Trump said on Friday. "We're going to open up libel laws, and we're going to have people sue you like you've never got sued before."

"We're going to have people sue you like you've never got sued before." A wrinkle I did not see coming was the innovation in Texas, of circumventing the constitution by legislating that any person can sue anyone else to recover "damages" where hitherto complainants would have had no standing, the defendants can be sued in multiple locations and must defend themselves in each, must prevail in order to not pay, and can't recover damages for being sued frivolously. And the current Supreme Court through its silence on this has given it tacit approval. All they have to do to uphold this wherever it occurs is not accept any case that comes to them.

This I think will be one of the avenues for shutting down the press and it will allow the Supreme Court to ignore the first amendment, because it won't be Congress making a law to restrict the freedom of the press.

I think you should expect at least a 1/3 chance, maybe more than 50/50, that during the first term, if the Republicans seize the Senate, the filibuster will disappear (it's a mirage now anyway) and this last thing will be on the agenda. There is a certainty they will start on the civil service and an absolute certainty that no DOJ appointee will not be an apparatchik. And the military will fall like a row of dominos even without any official change in law because the top brass will disappear -- look for a huge wave of retirements in the first year -- and everyone else down the chain will get the message.

And don't think any other Republican won't do exactly the same thing. They have started their revolution, they are all at war. They can't turn back.

It is appropriate to contemplate this historical fact. The unimaginable and unthinkable can happen very, very fast. Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in January of 1933. The oath of allegiance sworn by members of the military prior to his accession was loyalty to the Constitution and its lawful institutions.

When Hitler became Chancellor it was changed: loyalty to people and country ("Volk und Vaterland.")

Hindenberg died August 3, 1933. On that day the oath changed again, this time loyalty to Adolf Hitler himself. This mutation lasted one year. On August 20 1934 this was superseded by the Law On the Allegiance of Civil Servants and Soldiers of the Armed Forces, which decreed loyalty not only of armed forces but all civil servants.

Article One:

Civilian officials and soldiers of the Armed Forces must take an oath of service on entering the service.

Article Two:

1. The oath of service of civilian officials will be:

ā€œI swear: I shall be loyal and obedient to Adolf Hitler, the Führer of the German Reich and people; respect the laws; and fulfil my official duties conscientiously, so help me God.ā€

2 The oath of service of the soldiers of the Armed Forces will be:

ā€œI swear by God this sacred oath, that I will render unconditional obedience to Adolf Hitler, the Fuhrer of the German Reich and people, supreme commander of the Armed Forces, and will be ready as a brave soldier to risk my life at any time for this oath.ā€

(translation is from https://alphahistory.com/nazigermany/a-new-reichswehr-oath-1934/)

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