Friday, July 8, 2016

Welcome to the American Banana Republic

The result was never in question. Especially after the President endorsed her a week earlier and the Attorney General had a private meeting with her husband on the tarmac in Phoenix. Of course the laws don't apply to the privileged class. They only apply to us serfs. We knew this when there were no prosecutions of Wall Street Bankers for violations of black letter laws during the financial crisis. Direct SEC rules were violated, Sarbanes-Oxley was ignored, GAAP rules violated, and yet our Justice Department had the nerve to tell us there were no grounds for prosecutions....of anyone for anything.

Now we see it most recently with Hillary Clinton. 

The FBI's announcement that it won't recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton is yet another repudiation of the rule of law. What's so noteworthy is how far the FBI went out of its way to make it clear that while Hillary Clinton is above the law, the rest of us remain very much at its mercy (like serfs in a kingdom or a Banana Republic).

The American implementation of the rule of law has several principles, including:

1. because the law is supreme, no one is above the law;
2. there isn't one set of rules for some people and a different set of rules for other people; and
3. because the same laws must be applied equally in all cases, factually identical cases from the past determine how the law applies in future cases.


The FBI's announcement openly mocks all three rule of law principles, as FBI Director James Comey made clear. In each and every instance, Comey bends the law around Hillary Clinton, exactly as a dutiful civil servant of the king, due to receive their full government pension benefits in 2017, would do.

Destroying the principles one at a time:

1. No one but, in this case, Hillary Clinton is above the law

FBI Director James Comey made out a clear case that Hillary Clinton violated 18 U.S.C. 793(f):
Untitled
For those who want to review the full law themselves
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/793

2. Gross negligence is the Legal Standard for Ordinary People; for Hillary Clinton, the Legal Standard is "Intent to Violate Laws."

By the express terms of 18 U.S.C. 793(f), criminal culpability exists where there is a finding of "gross negligence." However, James Comey informed us that the legal standard is different for Hillary Clinton and her coterie. "we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information".

(sarcasm on) Gee wiz officer, I didn't know the speed limit was 35 mph when I was driving 45 mph. Gee wiz ATF official, I didn't know the barrel on my shotgun was 1/8" shorter than allowed by law.  Hey guys, how about giving me a waiver based on the Clinton Rule? (sarcasm off)

3. Precedent be dammed, Hillary Clinton is free to break national security laws because she's special, you aren't.

James Comey: "To be clear, this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances, a person who is engaged in this activity would face no consequences. To the contrary, those individuals are often subject to security or administrative sanctions. But that is not what we are deciding now."

Maybe this is what we get and deserve as a nation for failing to teach civics in our schools. Anyone who votes for Hillary Clinton is shameless partisan (i.e., a moron). Anyone who votes in a national election, period, is a moron. Your vote does not matter. Not voting is a legitimate choice. It is a form of civil disobedience and a vote of no confidence in a system that has failed.