Fiendish Thingy

Fiendish Thingy's Journal

February 10, 2022

Trudeau govt. brought to its knees by gang of ex-RCMP and military

Looks like Canada has its own version of the Oathkeepers/III%er’s:

https://apple.news/AoDUPxBDzSY20P0C-r70bEQ

The group Police on Guard, formed during the pandemic, has endorsed the truck convoy. On its website it publicly identifies more than 150 mostly retired police officers who are against government imposed emergency measures such as vaccine mandates. More than 50 former Canadian Forces soldiers are also named on its site.

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Furthermore, the leadership team for the protesters calling themselves the Freedom Convoy includes:
Daniel Bulford, a former RCMP officer who was on the prime minister's security detail. He quit last year after refusing to get the vaccine and is the convoy's head of security.
Tom Quiggin, a former military intelligence officer who also worked with the RCMP and was considered one the country's top counter-terrorism experts.
Tom Marazzo, an ex-military officer who, according to his LinkedIn profile, served in the Canadian Forces for 25 years and now works as a freelance software developer.

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"I would say the opposition at this point doesn't actually have a strategy. They have a sort of weak goal and that they want the streets cleared, but they have no real idea how they want to get there," he said.

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"I think what we're going to see is people start going to the government and saying 'Get this fixed.' And if you don't, we're realizing that we have the power to shut things down," said Quiggin

Much, much more at link, including details about how the this insurrection is being run like a military operation, with supply lines providing fuel, food and other necessities, including saunas.

This report raises numerous questions:

Why has it taken two weeks for this information to be reported?

Was this insurrection an actual failure of Canada’s intelligence agencies, or did they deliberately turn a blind eye?

Are the police truly “under resourced” to handle this crisis, or are they unwilling to enforce the law against their former colleagues?

If Trudeau ends up calling in the military to resolve this crisis, will they obey his orders?

Has this insurrection been funded by anyone connected to the January 6 insurrection?

Is this insurrection by former police and military actually a slow motion coup?

February 9, 2022

Is Canada's democracy on the brink of collapse?

Hyperbole? Perhaps, perhaps not.

When a small (a few hundred) well organized, well funded (*cough* ElonMusk *cough*) mob of anti-democracy thugs with heavy trucks can occupy and terrorize Canada’s capital for two weeks, and cripple cross-border commerce, without consequences (oh sure, there’s an injunction against horn honking, and a lawsuit, yet, the chaos continues), what does that say about the strength and stability of Canada’s democracy?

Local officials state they cannot direct the police response (who does control law enforcement?)

The police say they don’t have the resources to handle the crisis.

Doug Ford twiddles his thumbs.

Justin Trudeau expresses Susan-Collins-level of concern in a speech scolding the “protestors”.

Canadian media give polite bothsiderism coverage to the occupation (“residents can’t sleep, shop, or work, but the small minority of unvaccinated truckers do have a valid point to make”).

Maxim Bernier’s ultra-right People’s Party of Canada (PPC) got around 5% of the vote nationwide in last fall’s election, and didn’t win a single seat in Parliament, yet they are the loudest voice in this debate right now. The tyranny of the minority is alive and well in Canada.

What would the response be if ISIS, the Proud Boys, or Putin decided they wanted to cripple Canada’s economy and block law abiding truckers from cross border commerce? This disruptive chaos is Steve Brannon’s wet dream, and I’m sure he and his gang are learning well how to astroturf the next insurrection.

This was a complete failure on the part of Canada’s intelligence agencies to anticipate the potential impact of this convoy, which was planned for months.

Two provinces have already acquiesced to the terrorists’ demands and lifted all COVID restrictions; more are sure to follow. Will Trudeau cave and lift the vaccine requirements for cross border truckers?

Supposedly, Parliament is set to “debate” proposed responses to the crisis…too little, too late.

If Trudeau won’t take immediate steps to end this tyranny of the minority, including calling up the military through the Emergencies Act, then IMO NDP leader Jagmeet Singh should call a vote of No Confidence and force a new election.

February 7, 2022

Emptywheel: Why to delay Meadows indictment: Bannon using indictment to monitor J6 investigation

https://www.emptywheel.net/2022/02/07/why-to-delay-a-mark-meadows-indictment-bannon-is-using-his-contempt-prosecution-to-monitor-the-ongoing-january-6-investigation/

Marcy makes a great case why DOJ isn’t indicting Meadows now, brings the receipts, and some cases, the receipts for those receipts.

In this post, I described that DOJ would be smarter to charge Mark Meadows with obstruction for his destruction of records relevant to an ongoing investigation than to charge him for misdemeanor criminal contempt of Congress. That’s because obstruction, a felony, would pose the risk of real jail time, which would be more likely to convince Meadows to cooperate with investigators and explain what he did as part of an attempt to steal the election.

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When I’ve pointed this explanation out to those wondering why DOJ has yet to (visibly) act on the Meadows contempt referral the January 6 Select Committee the House sent over on December 14, they ask why DOJ can’t just charge Meadows with contempt now and then follow up with obstruction charges later.

The answer is clear. Doing so will make any ongoing investigation far more difficult.

We can see why that’s true from the Bannon case. Bannon has already used his contempt prosecution as a means to obtain evidence about an ongoing obstruction investigation implicating Trump.

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Given what Meadows has already done, DOJ surely views the potential of Meadows’ cooperation as more useful than a time-consuming and restrictive contempt prosecution.

And that’s true, first and foremost, because charging Meadows with contempt now would further limit their ability to shield parts of their investigation from the suspected co-conspirators.

Much, much more at link.

February 2, 2022

Emptywheel: While TV lawyers wailed, DOJ obtained communications from Rudy, Powell, Meadows

https://www.emptywheel.net/2022/02/02/while-tv-lawyers-wailed-impotently-doj-was-acquiring-sidney-powell-and-rudy-giuliani-and-probably-mark-meadowss-communications/

Because TV lawyers continue to wail that DOJ isn’t doing enough to investigate Donald Trump, I want to dumb down this post.

While TV lawyers have been wailing impotently that DOJ has been doing nothing to investigate Donald Trump, DOJ and the National Archives have been acquiring the communications behind some of the most damning events leading up to January 6. DOJ has been doing so even as the TV lawyers guaranteed us they would know if DOJ were doing such things, yet insisting that DOJ was not.

Consider just the events leading up to the December 18, 2020 series of meetings at the White House, involving Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani, and Mark Meadows, which some of the same reporters that reported it in real time are reporting as if it were new news.

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So whether or not DOJ has these documents in their possession right now, they have the means to get them very easily.

In other words, while TV lawyers have been wailing that DOJ has been doing nothing, DOJ has been acquiring the communications from at least two of the key participants in that December 18 meeting, and the Archives have been acquiring the communications of a third.

Much, much more at link, including breakdowns on each of Powell, Rudy and Meadows legal issues and the evidence that has, or will be obtained.

February 2, 2022

Does anyone believe Meadows, Flynn, Powell, and Waldron will all take the fall for Trump?

Because if all the reporting on the WH meetings re: seizing voting machines is true (and it appears there are multiple documents and testimony corroborating the reports), they are all going to prison.

https://www.emptywheel.net/2022/02/01/i-do-share-information-rudy-you-never-read-your-emails-you-never-read-your-texts-sidney-powell-purportedly-said-while-plotting-a-coup/

Meadows, Flynn, Powell and Waldron (who authored the draft EO) can stonewall the committee, yet it appears there is enough documentary evidence and testimony from other witnesses to put them all away.

Some have been screaming for over a year that Trump and the coup architects should have been locked up immediately, but it’s just been a little over a week since SCOTUS forced the release of Trump’s records. In addition, high ranking Pence staffers have just testified today and in recent days.

Trump’s unhinged rally meltdown over the weekend should serve as proof that things are on the right track.

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