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includeMeOut's avatar

Failing old imperial hood ornaments for a failing overextended empire.

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Ort's avatar

The optimistic take is that a circumspect and conscientious judge pulled the plug on the prospective plea deal because it was just too dodgy and lame to pass muster-- and, more importantly, that this might force the political and judicial fixers to subject Hunter to a more rigorous and disinterested prosecution regardless of their desire to protect and shield the Biden Crime Family from disgrace.

But, as Glenn Greenwald mentioned in passing during a commentary on the plea-deal breakdown, this may turn out to be a feint of sorts to allow the parties to revise the deal just enough so that everyone can sign off on it without arousing significant public blowback or losing face. For instance, they may modify Hunter's immunity terms so that he theoretically could be indicted and tried for other crimes-- but give private assurances that such future prosecutions will never be attempted.

The Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) institutional "Resistance" in the DOJ and law enforcement agencies (e.g. the FBI) transmogrified the always-dubious DOJ into a reprehensible Department of Lawfare. So it's nominally a Democratic Party project, as evidenced by the ongoing Stalinesque show trials and draconian sentences meted out to the January 6th Capitol "insurrectionists".

But I think that even if the Democrats in high office are ousted, a (presumably) Republican administration would let scumbags like Hunter skate too. I was never a Trump fan, but I admit that I enjoyed hearing him thunder "Lock her up!" when he was running against the odious Empress-in-Waiting Clinton; even for this inveterate cynic, hope sprang eternal.

That proved to be pure demagoguery-- Trump flinging red meat to his MAGA base. Once a politician successfully fools enough voters to be elected (or is chosen by the fixers), they revert to the expansive pseudo-charitable principle of "letting bygones be bygones"-- or, as Obama put it, "Look forwards, not backwards." Bah! Humbug! 🤨

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