Tom Rinaldo
Tom Rinaldo's JournalTrump tried to decapitate the leadership of the DOJ, and we know why. Trump DID decapitate the DOD
Unlike his failed attempt to replace the top team at the Department of Justice (after he caused Barr to resign that is) Trump succeeded in replacing several layers of leadership at the Department of Defense, after he lost the November's election. Why did Trump clean house at DOD? What did he gain by doing so? What was his plan?
The January 6 Committee pulled back the curtain and revealed the extent of Trump's plot involving the Department of Justice, but very little has been said or revealed about Trump's plotting at the Department of Defense. We know that the National Guard did not defend the capital for the first four hours that it was under attack. I've heard some lame excuses given about "appearances" that, to be charitable, can't begin to explain a delay of longer than 30 minutes. Clearly Trump didn't call out the Guard. No he didn't "fail to", or "choose not to." He refused to do so. Trump withheld security aid to a co-equal branch of government. That is a deliberate act, but while the Jan 6 Committee remains focused on that, what was up with Trump's extensive housecleaning at the DOD during the final months of his presidency? There was noting passive about that.
Full scale coup attempts almost always involve the compromise of key elements of national security forces, and the leadership thereof. Questions are beginning to bubble up about some in the Secret Service, but what is known, or more to the point not known, about the acts and non acts of the new leadership Trump installed at the Department of Defense? Again, why did Trump put them in place? Does anyone seriously believe that it had nothing to do with the pending coup attempt?
The most powerful office in America can't be a "Get out of jail free card."
The fact that this should be insanely obvious yet is still being debated is truly frightening. There is no more powerful position in America than the presidency. The potential for calamitous misuse of presidential power is off the charts once fear of prosecution for the misuse of presidential power is taken off the table. The American president will always be a political figure, any prosecution of an ex-President will always come at a political cost with some associated political risk and even the possibility of significant social unrest, but the American judicial system is not designed to show either favor or malice toward individuals based on the extent of their political importance. A retreat from that standard would make the current underlying principles of our democracy henceforth unrecognizable.
The presidency is a repository of power in America in the same sense as Fort Knox is a repository of American wealth. To disable fundamental legal checks on presidential criminal misconduct, regardless of the rational for doing so, is the equivalent to leaving the vaults unlocked at Fort Knox with all security systems deactivated. The potential for criminal behavior shoots off the charts once it becomes known that there are no checks in place against criminality. Unlike any other person in America, an American president wields the unfettered power to grant full pardons for any and all crimes. That completes the circle. If our judicial system de facto holds the president to be above the law, the president can do the same for any individual whose cooperation in his or her criminal misconduct is required. No danger from criminal prosecutions. Get out of jail cards all the way around.
Through whatever combination of threats and rewards a president can muster, and both of course are substantial, a criminal president can assemble a team willing to assist him or her to circumvent and undermine American laws and the U.S. Constitution. Those, starting with the president him or herself, who partake in a scheme to undermine American democracy have much to potentially gain if they succeed, and virtually nothing to lose should they fail, if prosecutors deem them untouchable when it's time to consider criminal charges against them. If that isn't a recipe for disaster, what is?
No point in disarming passengers attempting to board flights
Tens of millions of law abiding Americans are having their freedoms restricted by TSA agents forbidding weapons,on planes. The real problem is that a small fraction of Americans have severe mental illness that causes them to act violently. The practical constitutional solution to gun violence is to increase state and federal support for mental health programs by a few per cent annually while removing all of the arbitrary government restraints constraining the Second Amendment rights of healthy red blooded Americans to carry weapons of war everywhere.
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