Monday August 8, 2022. It looked to be a normal day in the race towards the midterm elections this November. The Mad Fuhrer of Mar-A-Lago had given a headlining speech a CPAC that appeared to be embracing the leanings towards something at least fascism adjacent (if not outright fascist) and, while taking some hits as the January 6 House Select Committee that proved he likely helped plan the 2021 attempt to overturn the 2020 Presidential election, still didn’t appear to be in a situation facing anything near accountability. On the other side The Biden administration was about to announce the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, a wide ranging (though far from perfect) bill that would finally give the Democrats a win on passing some of their agenda before the midterms. For the rest of us it’s going to work or families getting kids ready for school or college while maybe taking in some last summer vacation plans. Then the news broke……
By the time the day ended we all learned that Mar-A-Lago (the current home of former electoral vote winner The Mad Fuhrer of Mar-A-Lago) had been raided by the FBI. It came out of nowhere and took people across the political spectrum by surprise. Almost instantly supporters of the Mad Fuhrer claimed that this was sheer Federal government overreach with some even claiming it was political in nature targeting the person many consider the be the Coupublican nominee for President in the 2024 election. On the other side there were some random people who may have delighted in this but most people were in shock since, even as some Democrats in Congress as well as various online petitions were urging the DOJ to charge the Mad Fuhrer, nobody expected this to go down when they got up on this early August Monday morning.
What was even more up in the air was the debate for the reason the DOJ had the FBI search Mar-A-Lago that day. The early official story had to do with the former electoral vote winner’s refusal to still hand over to NARA (National Archive and Records Administration) every box of documents related to his time in office. These documents were supposed to be archived before he left office and yet ended up missing with some reports of him possibly flushing documents he didn’t like down the toilet of the White House while in power.
There were people across the political spectrum that weren’t entirely sold on the documents as a rationale for the search and seizure of documents at Mar-A-Lago. On the right wing there was the usual excuses for the Mad Fuhrer claiming it’s a political attack and that Merrick Garland acting on Biden’s orders that we’ll briefly go over later. Sources on the left were skeptical mainly because we didn’t know what documents were seized with some speculating that it might have been tied in to what happened on January 6, 2001 and the Mad Fuhrer’s role in it. While, in retrospect, it seems slightly misguided, the fact that nobody knew what documents the FBI took back from Mar-A-Lago (or what they were about) it’s understandable that people might think that.
What we didn’t expect was news breaking around the mid to late evening hours on August 11 (three days after the raid) that there were reports of nuclear documents may have been among the files taken from Mar-A-Lago. It was especially telling given that one commentator on CNN stated that “unless nuclear codes” were found in the documents the raid was sure to “backfire” on the Biden administration. While we still aren’t certain that there were the infamous nuclear codes (something no former President should have once they leave office) in his possession at Mar-A-Lago, there were documents at least as sensitive as the codes that could launch a nuclear weapon were in the residence of someone who had no business having them anywhere near him since Biden was inaugurated in late January 2021.
Then on Friday came a new level of shock for a week that had already taken a lot of people by surprise when it comes to current events. After a request was filed by Attorney General Garland to unseal documents related to the raid (calling the Mad Fuhrer’s bluff), it was released to the public. In it was then learned that not only was the Mad Fuhrer (Now Currently in Exile @) Mar-A-Lago under investigation for keeping classified documents but also for possible obstruction of justice. This seemed within what people were expecting. What wasn’t expected was learning that the Mad Fuhrer (Now Current in Exile @) Mar-A-Lago was being investigated for reported violations of the Espionage Act.
Yes, you read that right. The former leader of the U.S. is being investigated for violating the Espionage Act. Since things are still ongoing there’s a lot we don’t know. What we are aware of from the subpoena and from what we’ve learned about the raid is telling indeed.
Shortly after the raid it was revealed that the FBI seized 11 sets of comments in various stages of classification. Several of them were labeled “top Secret” with one labeled “Top Secret/SCI” The latter means it should only be seen in a secure classified location – something Mar-A-Lago doesn’t qualify as by a long shot. In fact one former reality show contestant who was invited to Mar-A-Lago bragged on social media that he basically was allowed almost everywhere and that Secret Service didn't seem too concerned about it. If true, does that sound like a place where one would feel comfortable about storing top secret documents?
The Mad Fuhrer almost immediately went on a varying degree of crying about his so-called persecution and that he['s being targeted because the Democrats fear running against him in 2024, using some variation of this over the past two weeks. He's also appeared on news sources sympathetic to him and claimed that the anger is the worst he's ever seen in this country (while ignoring the fact he helped intensity a good shitload of it) and that something bad will happen in this country if the Department Of Justice et al go after him. His minions have taken his talking points and spun them with the two main ones being that the Mad Fuhrer is being targeted as a political hit by the Biden Administration and that "if the FBI can target him than they can target any of us and that all Americans should be alarmed.:" Both sound semi rational on the surface but they're both bullshit.,
First, the Mad Fuhrer lost the election and shouldn't have those documents in the first place. They were supposed to be archived by NARA as part of the leaving process. but, since he sulked off to Florida when the coup attempt didn't go his way, a lot of what should've happened in those last few weeks didn't happen. Also, one of his lawyers said a while back after 15 boxes of documents were returned to the government that there were no more Top Secret documents at Mar-A-Lago - they fucking lied. It also makes the reports that the Mad Fuhrer had a standing order that declassified any document he took home to be bullshit (his administration actually made mishandling some documents a felony).
As for the Biden administration I agree with E.J.Dionne (whom I normally think is way too moderate) that Biden et al wanted to focus to be on the Inflation Reduction Act which finally got passed by both Houses of Congress and was about to be signed into law. Being somewhere close to getting some issues on Biden's agenda somewhere close to realized would be the thing they want to focus on. The FBI raid knocked that down a bit on the media focus, which means a lot of people hear about the raid but maybe not so much about the IR Act,. Reports are a lot of Democrats in Congress were shocked by the raid as well, meaning it's unlikely that they all got together to make this raid happen right after the Mad Fuhrer came off of CPAC full of adoration over him seeming to even lean further towards fascist like thoughts and policies.
As for the "if the Mad Fuhrer can be raided by the FBI then they can go after any American" talking point, those pushing this overlook the FBI's COINTELPRO program of the 1960s which targeted civil rights, feminist, and anti war groups with disinformation, spying,misinformation to destroy people's lives, and even some allegations of them engaging in assassinations. The right wing overlooks this either because they are totally unaware of this or, more likely, because those the FBI went after were those people and groups they disagreed with and opposed. By exploiting the poor teaching of history in American schools and how many people don't know history, they can ignite fear amongst those who drunk the Mad Fuhrer (Now Currently in Exile @) Mar-A-Lago's non carbonated drink mix who see what they want to see and fail to see what obviously has happened with January 6, 2021, The Mad Fuhrer keeping documents he shouldn't have had, and the like.
This leaves us to now. The Mad Fuhrer is still occasionally spouting off how he's being persecuted and some are suggesting he held those papers as leverage to possibly threaten to sell to other countries if he gets charged. While that is conjecture what we do know is that this story is far from over and that, unless the Mad Fuhrer is held to some accountability, he will only be emboldened and keep taking things farther until him or his fans try another coup attempt.
As those of us who remember the January 6 2021 coup attempt can attest to - This needs to be stopped before that even becomes an option again.
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