Mindful
Diamond Member
- Banned
- #41
Some salient points:
^ But America is still largely in the dark as to exactly why the Biden administration took the unprecedented step of raiding the residence of a former President, with dozens of agents scouring the property, including Melania Trump's bedroom, while others armed to the teeth stood guard outside.
(It wasn't clear who they thought might threaten them since Palm Beach, a billionaires' enclave, is not exactly renowned for even peaceful street demonstrations, never mind armed uprisings.)
A dozen boxes were returned almost immediately and negotiations continued about those that remained at Mar-a-Lago. Two months ago, the FBI asked if they could be put under lock and key while the issue was resolved. Trump's people complied. The lock was smashed in Monday's raid.
Just why talks were abandoned is not clear. If the emphasis is now being put on the top secret nature of the documents it's not obvious why the FBI waited so long to retrieve them. The Washington Post floated the idea that Trump was harbouring documents about America's nuclear weapons. Its story was unsourced and contained no verifiable facts, much less a motive to explain why the former President would want to hoard such material.
But its report was so dark and full of foreboding that you could be forgiven for thinking Trump had absconded with the presidential briefcase (or 'football' as it's known) containing the U.S. nuclear missile launch codes. Last night's revelations made no mention of nuclear secrets.
After all, if the FBI can be high-handed with a former President and sitting Congress-man, what defences do ordinary Americans have?
But it is also deeply depressing.
It means American politics will remain dominated by the sound of adversaries ripping each other apart, using arms of the state whenever they can for added leverage, while the huge international issues to which the free world still looks to America for leadership — a revanchist Russia, a totalitarian China, an ailing global economy — will remain neglected and unresolved.
^ But America is still largely in the dark as to exactly why the Biden administration took the unprecedented step of raiding the residence of a former President, with dozens of agents scouring the property, including Melania Trump's bedroom, while others armed to the teeth stood guard outside.
(It wasn't clear who they thought might threaten them since Palm Beach, a billionaires' enclave, is not exactly renowned for even peaceful street demonstrations, never mind armed uprisings.)
A dozen boxes were returned almost immediately and negotiations continued about those that remained at Mar-a-Lago. Two months ago, the FBI asked if they could be put under lock and key while the issue was resolved. Trump's people complied. The lock was smashed in Monday's raid.
Just why talks were abandoned is not clear. If the emphasis is now being put on the top secret nature of the documents it's not obvious why the FBI waited so long to retrieve them. The Washington Post floated the idea that Trump was harbouring documents about America's nuclear weapons. Its story was unsourced and contained no verifiable facts, much less a motive to explain why the former President would want to hoard such material.
But its report was so dark and full of foreboding that you could be forgiven for thinking Trump had absconded with the presidential briefcase (or 'football' as it's known) containing the U.S. nuclear missile launch codes. Last night's revelations made no mention of nuclear secrets.
After all, if the FBI can be high-handed with a former President and sitting Congress-man, what defences do ordinary Americans have?
But it is also deeply depressing.
It means American politics will remain dominated by the sound of adversaries ripping each other apart, using arms of the state whenever they can for added leverage, while the huge international issues to which the free world still looks to America for leadership — a revanchist Russia, a totalitarian China, an ailing global economy — will remain neglected and unresolved.
