The DOJ Is a Snake Pit—and It’s Only Getting Worse

(Permanent Musical Accompaniment to the Last Post of the Week from the Blog's Favourite Living Canadian)

It is with a heavy heart that I learned that my old pal, Senator Joni Ernst, has decided to leave the U.S. Senate when her current term expires, probably because her political viability already did when she answered a question back in May at a town hall about the proposed Medicaid cuts with the immortal, "Well, we all are going to die." Oh, Joni, we hardly knew ye. From CNN:

She was first elected in 2014 on a pledge to cut government spending with her signature slogan: “Make ‘em squeal.” As the Republican Party has evolved under President Donald Trump, Ernst has often struggled to strike a balance between GOP voters identifying with Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement and those who don’t.

And failed. Miserably, I might add.

But how I treasure our first encounter, when our eyes met at a campaign stop she was making at the Newton Manufacturing Shop. I will let TPM take it from there because I am too overwhelmed by emotion to go on.

“We have an apathetic president,” Ernst said to a crowd, according to The Washington Post’s Ben Terris. After her speech she said Obama “is just standing back and letting things happen, he is reactive rather than proactive.” Ernst added “with Ebola, he’s been very hands off.” And that’s where the back-and-forth started with Pierce, a sports-writer-turned-commentator media personality and who is the author of four books, including Idiot America. With Ernst, he asked her what Obama should have done differently.

“What should he have done about Ebola?” Pierce said. “One person in America has Ebola.”

“OK, you’re the press and you’re giving me your opinion,” Ernst responded.

“It’s not an opinion, only one person in America has it,” Pierce interjected.

“Yes, but he is the leader, he is the leader of our nation,” Ernst said. “So what he can do is make sure that all of these agencies are coordinating together, to make sure he is sharing with the American people he cares about them, he cares about their safety.”

“You don’t think he does?” Pierce said.

“I don’t know that he does, he hasn’t demonstrated that,” Ernst said.

“You don’t think he’s demonstrated that he cares about the American people?” Pierce said.

“He hasn’t,” Ernst said. “I’m done. So anybody else?”

I'm telling you, it was a magical afternoon.

This doesn't look good at all. From The Independent:

The GOP activist attorney [Edward Martin], who simultaneously serves as the U.S. Pardon Attorney, head of Attorney General Pam Bondi’s “Weaponization Working Group,” and as a “Special Attorney for Mortgage Fraud,” has become the tip of the spear in the president’s campaign of retribution with the aid of fellow administration official Bill Pulte. Pulte, the 37-year-old ex-private equity executive and Trump campaign donor turned federal mortgage regulator, has been lobbing attacks against prominent Democrats, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, California senator Adam Schiff and Federal Reserve Board of Governors member Lisa Cook.

Pulte has referred all three to the department for investigation and prosecution, and Martin has picked up the baton with gusto while remaining in constant contact with Trump, speaking with him by phone multiple times a week.

Despite a marked lack of experience in the nuts and bolts of prosecuting criminals in the federal court system, Martin is actively preparing to ask for felony indictments against the Democratic officials — and is doing so without the normal support of the DOJ hierarchy His appointment as a “Special Attorney” by Bondi under a rarely-used portion of the U.S. Code gives him the authority “to conduct any kind of legal proceeding which United States Attorneys are authorized by law to conduct,” and, according to sources, Martin is taking advantage of that authority by operating outside the supervision of the department’s No. 2 official, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. Martin, whose status permits him to prosecute criminal cases in any of the 94 judicial districts that make up the federal court system, is leading investigations and presenting evidence to grand jurors with an eye towards bringing a case—any case—against his targets.

Martin defended January 6 rioters in court, as he had every right to do, and his clients had every right to his services. But he's also played a critical role in whitewashing the history of that event, and his own role in it, which he has no right to do, at least not without heavy pushback. And he certainly shouldn't be acting as the private vehicle of the president's vengeance.

Blanche is understood to have offered Martin access to staff and resources to aid him, because the failure to obtain indictments against James, Schiff or Cook would be a significant embarrassment for the department. At the same time, he has expressed fears that Martin, whose experience as a prosecutor is limited to a four-month stint as an interim U.S. Attorney. Yet despite going so far as to make his case in person at the White House while meeting with top brass last Friday, Blanche’s concerns have largely fallen on deaf ears, the official said, because Trump sees Martin as a “fighter” who will do what so many “respectable” DOJ appointees failed to do during his first term — prosecute Democrats. To that end, Trump has been bypassing Blanche — and occasionally reaching past Attorney General Pam Bondi — by regularly telephoning Martin for updates on his work, leaving Blanche “frustrated and annoyed,” according to one source familiar with the matter.

Nice that what really worries Blanche is not that Martin is a loose torpedo ranging around looking for the targets for the president's wrath, but that he's too much of a boob to get convictions. The DOJ is such a snakepit.

Weekly WWOZ Pick to Click

“Funky Liza” – (N.O. Nightcrawlers)

Yeah, I still pretty much love New Orleans.

Weekly Visit to the Pathé Archives:

Here, from 1960, Ethiopia's Haile Selasse visits Ghana. That year, people tried to overthrow him. It failed, but a coup finally got him 50 years ago. History is so cool.

Discovery Corner

Hey, look what we found! From LiveScience:

"The imagery, decorative techniques and exceptional state of preservation make this a truly unprecedented discovery in the region," Cecilia Mauricio The south face of the mural depicts a large bird with outstretched wings and a diamond motif on its head, Mauricio said, possibly representing an eagle or a falcon. On the north face, there are plants, stars and human-like figures that "seem to represent shamans," who were powerful people in that time period, Mauricio said.

"Current evidence suggests that the mural decorated interior spaces within the main atrium of a Formative Period temple," Mauricio said.

Thus do we learn that the Peruvians of 3000 years ago had better taste in interior decor than does the current president of the United States,

Hey, BBC, is it a good day for dinosaur news? It's always a good day for dinosaur news!

The species, called Spicomellus afer, lived 165 million years ago, and is the oldest example of a group of armoured dinosaurs called ankylosaurs.

The elaborateness and spikiness of the animal found in Morocco has come as a shock to experts, who now have to rethink how these armoured dinosaurs evolved.

Prof Richard Butler, from the University of Birmingham who co-led the research, told BBC News that it was the "punk rocker" of its time.

Here comes the Beeb to explain things to you youngsters.

Punk rock is a sub-culture and music style that first emerged in the 1970s. Its followers often have spiky hair and accessories.

Anyway...

"It is one of the strangest dinosaurs ever discovered," said Prof Butler. Prof Butler's project co-leader, Prof Susannah Maidment of the Natural History Museum, added that it was surprising that the spikes were fused directly on to the bone. "We don't see that in any other animal, living or extinct," she said. "It's absolutely covered in really weird spikes and protrusions all over the back of the animal, including a bony collar that wraps around its neck and some sort of weapon on the end of its tail, so a most unusual dinosaur," she said.

I'm sorry. But it looks like the original concept for the cover of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer's "Tarkus" LP to me. But it makes me happy now.

I’ll be back on Monday for whatever fresh hell awaits. Be well and play nice, ya bastids. Stay above the snake-line and wear the damn masks, and take the damn shots, especially the boosters and the New One. In your spare time, spare a thought for the victims of the unspeakable violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and for everyone touched by the mass shootings in Minneapolis, NYC and Reno, and everyone recovering from the flooding in Charleston, and in the Roanoke Valley, and in Wisconsin, and in Texas, and in North Carolina, and by earthquakes in Myanmar and Thailand, and in Turkey and Russia, and by the tornadoes throughout the Southeast, and for everyone touched by floods in Kentucky and in West Virginia, and Nigeria, and by the crash in Washington, and by the measles outbreak in the Southwest, and in the wildfire zone around Dallas, and in the fire zones in Napa, and in Las Vegas, Nashville, and Queens, who who were visited by the Crazy before the year had hardly begun, and the folks in Dallas and Tallahassee, who were visited by the Crazy this week. And the people in drought-stricken north Alabama. And the folks caught in floods and tornadoes in Nebraska, and in Missouri. And the folks caught in “historic floods” in Kentucky. And in Oklahoma. And the folks in L.A., now fighting floods and mudslides exacerbated by the recent wildfires. And the folks in the wildfire zones in Pennsylvania, and in Minnesota. And the folks in Lahaina, who are still rebuilding. And the victims of the nightclub collapse in the Dominican Republic. And especially for our fellow citizens in the LGBTQ+ community, who deserve so much better from their country than they’ve been getting. And for all of us, who will be getting exactly what we deserve. Thank you for your attention to this matter.