The Coppers are closing in

I’ll skip past the temptation for April Fool jokes. For now.

There’s too much going on too fast, almost too fast to process. So let’s get to it.

A lot of people complain about government being too slow with remedies. It’s unwieldy, slow, full of bickering and dickering and a lot of partisan refusal to do anything at all. And yeah, sometimes that’s exactly right. Stupid games that supposed grown ups play.

But among the things the pandemic taught us is how quick it is capable of acting in an international emergency. Nations and states shut down, reopened, shut down again while epidemiologists and doctors and geneticists raced around hunting cures and treatments or created and tested vaccines faster than ever seen before in human history. And trillions of dollars appeared out of thin air to aid families and businesses at an equally fast pace. Multiple political parties took part. Hundreds of millions of lives were saved by that. Sadly more than 6 million have died - some of it unnecessarily because some idiot politicians could never get past playing politics. But 423 million global citizens have recovered. And daily death rates have dropped to levels not seen since March of 2020, the first month the shutdowns began.

No, the pandemic isn’t over and extra measures may be required still, but it’s amazing what got done in such a short time. And while many fear or refuse the covid vaccines, spending some time researching how any previous vaccine reached the public, with scanty tests, tests researchers tried on themselves, tests done on unsuspecting parties, etc, the covid tests were probably the most thoroughly tested of all. Sure, most always had the freedom to refuse it, but refusing it was only rarely a logical choice.

Now, second booster shots are available to the groups most at risk and the transmissibility of the new Omnicron variant suggests it’s a good time to pull into a vaccine station and fill ‘er up again. Just to be a little safer. People in the medical field know too well, it’s not a pleasant way to die.

Elsewhere, government plods along much slower. Ever since ex-President Trump illegally suspended aid to Ukraine, the majority of the country has been baffled by his party’s sell-out in applying accountability measures. Since he was voted out of office and started claiming the election was stolen - which he was claiming months before the election even happened - and provoked and possibly helped coordinate the insurrection effort, I’ve heard many folks complain about the lack of justice, the lack of indictments, with lots of derision directed at the Justice Department led by Attorney General Merrick Garland.

My historical research indicates it’s exceedingly rare in our country and others that billionaires go to prison. They can afford to buy multiple appeals, or perhaps buy off witnesses or worse - DAs and judges. They might be able to buy plea deals that pay hefty fines to avoid doing time. If crooked enough, they can buy mook loyalists who might threaten someone coming after them in the justice system. So while I hope for a just outcome, I’m mindful of multiple speculative hindrances.

I’m also aware the corrupt leaders often flee into exile to avoid prosecution, so my concept of a just conclusion doesn’t insist that Numero Uno end up in prison. That might be perfect justice but there’s a whole lot of healthy remedies that can come without that level of perfection.

Patience is advisable.

Having arrested more than 800 people involved in the insurrection, signs are appearing that the DOJ is starting to aim higher in the food chain, up to and including Trump’s inner circle. The Congressional January 6th Committee is already there, as is a grand jury with a fresh round of subpoenas forcing people to appear.

It has to be a slow process, with every T crossed and I dotted to limit possible appeals from deep pocket crooks.

And what I’m also seeing emerge is the January 6th debacle is not one big overarching ring of conspirators. It was a siege, of multiple conspiracies. Some small bands may have linked to other small bands, but some likely operated independently. It appears White House insiders, violent hate groups, and a Supreme Court justice or his wife were doing things. Plus funders we’ve heard little about so far. Who else? Sifting through each is just gonna take time, and no, this might not all get sorted out and prosecuted before the midterm elections, but that’s not as important as getting all the facts exactly right.

I can’t even get the limited picture we have condensed to one newsletter so reading the links I provide is important to grasp all that’s coming to light.

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• Consider a former Lifespring member who left the cult: One prominent critic of Lifespring is Virginia Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. A congressional aide when she took the course, Mrs. Thomas said in an interview with the Post that she was troubled by exercises that involved stripping, sexual questions, and body shaming. After talking with a cult deprogrammer, she decided she needed to stop participating, but it took several months of work to overcome the "high-pressure tactics" to fully break with Lifespring. Afterwards, she received "constant phone calls" to pressure her to stay with the group, and ended up relocating to another part of the country to escape the calls. (via Wikipedia)
  
  Some old footage of her discussing Lifespring has just come to light.
  
  It’s starting to look like she’s found a fresh cult or two, as she pushes easily debunked Q-Anon theories and with regular access to Trump and his inner circle, her role in funding, organizing and pushing the stolen election lie clearly requires thorough judicial scrutiny.
  

• There is no way to compel Justice Thomas to recuse himself from all insurrection matters now, as he should. Otherwise, he can be considered a coup co-conspirator too. It offers a good rationale to close that recusal loophole and to finally set term limits on all federal judges. Lifetime appointments for unaccountable judges are now obviously a threat to an ongoing democracy. I mean, no judge is infallible.
  

• The author of the stolen election strategy utilized by Trump is lawyer John Eastman. He previously was a law clerk for Clarence Thomas. So far it looks like he’s pleaded the Fifth about elebenty billion times.
  
  You really need to understand how deeply involved Eastman is and the extra effort that’s been done to uncover his bullshit.
  

• You’ve probably heard of the Trump phone gap on January 6th, but have you also heard that Eastman is close to Senator Ted Cruz too? This is why Navarro and Scavino are facing arrest warrants, but the biggest reveal here is Heather’s closing:
  
  A budget proposal from the Department of Justice yesterday revealed that it wants 131 more lawyers to handle January 6 cases. In the request, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said, "Regardless of whatever resources we see or get, let's be very, very clear: we are going to hold those perpetrators accountable, no matter where the facts lead us,... no matter what level.”
  
  Which indicates Merrick Garland’s getting closer to the top. And:
  

  Today, on a right-wing news show, Trump appeared to try to change the subject and regain control over the political trends when he called for Russian president Vladimir Putin to release dirt on the Biden family, since “he’s not exactly a fan of our country.” Russian state TV featured a Russian government official calling for “regime change” in the United States, asking the people of the U.S. to replace President Biden with Trump “to again help our partner Trump to become President.”
  
  In the middle of a war where Putin has made verbal threats against the US, our former president is seeking aid from that enemy. Are you shocked? Neither am I.
  
  Also, it appears the phone gap wasn’t just burner phones. It includes deliberate efforts to cover up known phone calls. It sure seems like the crimes are ongoing. And remember, it wasn’t the burglary at Watergate that took Nixon down. It was the coverup.
  

• There’s another sign that Garland’s getting uncomfortably close to Trump now. The old Hunter Biden story. It was pretty clear that there never was anything outside the law in his work for Burisma in Ukraine. Just before the 2020 election came the standard October surprise that the GOP is notorious for. It was hard to make sense of it since the laptop disappeared for a bit and GOP members kept refusing to let Democrats access it before it disappeared.
  
  Now it’s back in the news. His work for a sketchy guy from China implies that something looks fishy. Maybe, just maybe, Hunter handled money wrong. Unpaid taxes? Money laundering? Maybe something he and his uncle did was sketchy. Or maybe he was viewed as valuable by the Chinese guy because he was related to the former VP (Hunter’s Dad). There’s room for lots of speculation. Dealing with a drug addiction, a divorce, a newly pregnant girlfriend, having a good cash flow helped.
  
  But Hunter is a lawyer. Maybe he was using his connection to his Dad to drum up business in the same way that some Congress members get defeated and go into lobbying, all legal and aboveboard. What also seems clear is that these activities occurred while Joe Biden wasn’t holding any government office. And no evidence has emerged that he was involved in the business his brother and son were involved in.
  
  I suspect the GOP is playing LOOK A SQUIRREL! here. With the January 6th committee, a grand jury and Merrick Garland breathing down Trump’s neck and Ginni Thomas’ neck, they’re desperate to distract the public and make the case that Joe is just as corrupt as Trump.
  
  He isn’t. They can’t make that case. But it’s all they’ve got: insinuation. There’s not even proof that Hunter broke a law so far. But using conspiracy theories instead of facts has become the GOP modus operandi since Trump appeared on the scene.
  
  I think it indicates, after a week of shocking news, there’s still more to come about the insurrectionists. Soon.
  
  

LOOK A SQUIRREL!