Sunday, October 09, 2016

There are various stories out there that some Very Special Agents

of the EffingBI are 'close to revolt' over Comey's crap.  Both giving Clinton & Co. the breaks he did, and then trying to blame the investigating agents for the problems.

Big whoop.

You might recall that there were stories that 'lot of agents are threatening to retire/resign if Clinton is not recommended for prosecution'.  You hear of any masses of agents retiring and speaking out, or resigning?  Me neither.  The only ones quoted as speaking out are retired agents; no currently-serving are openly saying anything.

And they won't.  It would threaten their jobs, and cause them to be labeled troublemakers and subject to being transferred to less-desirable assignments.  Even if their bosses agree with them, they would have committed the cardinal sin:
I can't find the exact quote, but in one of the Joe Leaphorn mysteries he's reflecting on working with the FBI and thinks that there are two things that will get a FBI agent in real trouble: bringing bad publicity, no matter how small, on the Bureau, and having an original thought.  And even, as noted, if their supervisor agrees with them on what Comey & Co. have done, to say anything in public would be the primary sin of Bad Publicity for the Sacred Bureau.  So they won't do it.  At least not yet.

We're looking at a national-level version of the standard problem in law enforcement: someone may be a corrupt, nasty bastard, but most officers won't want to report them or testify against them because "He may be a dirty bastard, but he's one of us."  Maybe the damage to the EffingBI in particular and law enforcement in general may get bad enough that some will say "Enough, I have to say something."  We'll see.

Am I being unfair?  I don't think so.  Comey's not stupid, he had to know the damage his dog & pony show on Clinton would do both to his agency and confidence in the Justice Department.  Especially that idiot "Just because we're no recommending prosecution of Clinton, don't think we won't prosecute anyone else who does the same things!" statement.  That's literally standing in a national forum and saying "The commoners will certainly be prosecuted for the same acts!"  Which goes over about as well as you'd expect.  It's like he actually believed he could say that without causing even more damage than had already been done.  Which would seem to rank him in the 'insane' or 'stupid' column.  Maybe he knew the damage he'd do, and somehow thought that this would limit it?

Couldn't be, not unless he actually IS stupid.  Or indulging in a destructive level if wishful thinking, because that statement made it worse.  Far worse.  Having the thought that there are official 'special rules for special people' is bad, and corrosive; having the special rules rubbed in your face is worse.  Far worse.  It's saying "Yeah, she's rich and connected so she gets special treatment.  Deal with it, peasants." right out in the open.  And that's on top of the crap with BATF(Fast & Furious and the other gunrunning operations and NOBODY except the whistleblowers getting in trouble), the IRS(breaking its own rules and federal law, and then telling Congress "Screw you, do something about it"), the garbage the Dept. of 'Justice' has been caught in, culminating in the AG 'accidentally' spending time with Bill Clinton just before Comey's announcement.  And now the insult of these bastards telling us "If YOU violate a law or regulation, even one you don't know about, YOU will be screwed to the wall, because YOU peasants aren't rich and connected."  Throw in the VA mess: openly violating federal laws, faking records, not giving a damn how many vets die just trying to get a damned appointment, and nobody fired, nobody prosecuted...

Added: throw in Obamacare.  Throw in the architect on tape laughing about lying to people and calling them stupid.  Throw in the "If you like your plan" lies, told over and over.  Throw in the collapsing exchanges, the skyrocketing prices, and every asshole involved and cheering them on insisting the real fix is "More Government Control!"

Sarah Hoyt is a sci-fi writer, and she's kind of upbeat: "Yes, things are bad, but they CAN be repaired."  After this, I'm really not sure; if some kind of serious cleaning-out of all these agencies within the next, say, 2-3 years, it may not be fixable.  The damage to the belief that it CAN be fixed, that the government CAN be returned to serving the people, may be too great to fix.

2 comments:

mark leigh said...

I'm hearing war is gonna happen from people who really don't want a war. It feels like the disconnect between reality and the .gov class is ready to ignite and when it does it will be ugly. Keep your powder dry and your friends close.
The frightening thing is the world banking systems are teetering on the edge of collapse, know it and don't seem to care.

Anonymous said...

They'll never leave. Same reasons as an abused spouse never leaves the abuser. They all have Stockholm Syndrome http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Stockholm+syndrome.

Steve