Just One Thing
Yesterday, Attorney General Merrick Garland came out and said a bunch of mostly-nothing. The only thing that clarified any part of the story was when he said that he personally authorized the search at Donald Trump's Mar a Lago estate. He also said he's asked a judge to permit the public dissemination of the search warrant and the property receipt for whatever was removed. Nothing he said explained why he thought the search/raid was necessary at this time, especially given that recent reporting had suggested something like a working relationship between the Trump team and the DOJ as far as the safekeeping of whatever Trump had in his possession.
For the record, I think it's exceedingly likely that Trump broke federal law regarding the handling of presidential papers/records. I also think other presidents have and other high-ranking officials have broken more important laws without getting more than a slap on the wrist, and usually not even that. There are prudential questions in this situation that go far beyond what a prosecutor might consider when looking at a possible crime by most "ordinary" Americans. Recognizing that does not mean that Trump is "above the law" though it sure seemed like Hillary Clinton, James Comey, Hunter Biden, and many other Trump opponents are.
Great note by Andy McCarthy on all this: FBI Trump Raid: Merrick Garland Remarks Left Many Unanswered Questions | National Review
Here are Garland's comments. The bad news is they're fairly meaningless. The good news is they're fairly short.
Another Thing:
This article from 1939 by Albert Jay Nock is dated yet still mostly on-point. In particular I recommend the two paragraphs below as "evergreen" (except for the mention of two specific writers who are long-since off the scene.)
The Criminality of the State | Mises Institute
Two able and sensible American publicists—Isabel Paterson, of the New York Herald Tribune, and W.J. Cameron, of the Ford Motor Company—have lately called our public's attention to the great truth that if you give the State power to do something for you, you give it an exact equivalent of power to do something to you. I wish every editor, publicist, teacher, preacher, and lecturer would keep hammering that truth into American heads until they get it nailed fast there, never to come loose. The State was organized in this country with power to do all kinds of things for the people, and the people in their short-sighted stupidity, have been adding to that power ever since. After 1789, John Adams said that, so far from being a democracy of a democratic republic, the political organization of the country was that of "a monarchical republic, or, if you will, a limited monarchy"; the powers of its President were far greater than those of "an avoyer, a consul, a podesta, a doge, a stadtholder; nay, than a king of Poland; nay, than a king of Sparta." If all that was true in 1789—and it was true—what is to be said of the American State at the present time, after a century and a half of steady centralization and continuous increments of power?
Power, for instance, to "help business" by auctioning off concessions, subsidies, tariffs, land grants, franchises; power to help business by ever encroaching regulations, supervisions, various forms of control. All this power was freely given; it carried with it the equivalent power to do things to business; and see what a banditti of sharking political careerists are doing to business now! Power to afford "relief" to proletarians; and see what the State has done to those proletarians now in the way of systematic debauchery of whatever self-respect and self-reliance they may have had! Power this way, power that way; and all ultimately used against the interests of the people who surrendered that power on the pretext that it was to be used for those interests.
Today's Guests
Command Master Sergeant Bradley P Jones is the author of "Treading the Deep: Inspirational Lessons on Life and Leadership". From Amazon's "blurb": While serving in Kuwait on September 11, 2001, his life and career, along with those of everyone in uniform, changed along with the rest of the country. From there, his career trajectory seemed to him to be predetermined, finally culminating in his appointment to serve his beloved fellow soldiers as the top enlisted member in the battalion. In Treading the Deep, Bradley’s humor and faith promoting experiences, restores readers beliefs in the tenacity of the human spirit and its ability to ultimately overcome, no matter the trials or circumstances.
I thought it would be a great conversation for a Friday.
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My pal Willie B, morning host on iHeart's KBPI "active rock" station, is one of the most charitable guys you'll ever meet. He also knows more about cars, especially classic American "muscle" cars than anyone you'll ever meet. His always fabulous KBPI Car Show is this Sunday at Bandimere Speedway. Bring the kids and have some fun!
KBPI Car Show | Aug 14th, 2022 | Bandimere Speedway | 107.9 KBPI (iheart.com)
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Dr. John Constable is a UK-based energy analyst who writes for the London climate policy think tank Global Warming Policy Foundation, and also directs a UK charity, Renewable Energy Foundation, that publishes superb datasets on the real-world performance of UK wind and solar amongst others.
He is also the author of the recent major study of the European Union’s energy and climate policies, Europe’s Green Experiment: A costly failure in unilateral climate policy, freely available from the GWPF website.
Home - The Global Warming Policy Foundation (thegwpf.org)
Link to the EU study: https://www.thegwpf.org/publications/europes-green-experiment/
A sense of what's happening in Europe: Live news updates from August 11: European electricity prices hit record high, Argentina lifts rates to 69.5% | Financial Times
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Scott Burns is a disabled Marine who owns a DJ company and for 16 years, Scott has camped out for 7 days, 24/7, in locations across America raising over $200K for disabled veterans.
He's doing this very thing this week in Littleton, on the property of the awesome Reinke Brothers store (which you should absolutely visit while you also stop by to support Scott!)
Here's the link to Warrior Bonfire which I talked about on Monday after such a remarkable and powerful experience when I hosted an event for them last Saturday evening. Please consider donating: http://warriorbonfireprogram.org
Other Stuff
A listener asked whether the city or state would collect any tax (other than income tax) on the purchase/sale of the Denver Broncos. I said that I didn't think so (based on the fact that there's not usually a sales tax sort of thing applied to the sale of a business) but I was wrong because there was a specific provision in the public funding of part of the cost of the Broncos stadium that gave taxpayers a 2% participation in the net profit of a sale of the team by the Bowlen family. So several jurisdictions will share $41 million. The Broncos' stadium was publicly funded, now millions will go back to taxpayers (denverpost.com)
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Useful stuff for Coloradans to know: New Colorado laws rein in towing, make menstrual products and diapers state sales tax-free (denverpost.com)
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This: FBI search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago related to nuclear documents, sources say - The Washington Post
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Do not feed the MAGA animals with overheated rhetoric about how the FBI deserves (you fill in the blank here.) Remember, MAGA includes lots of morons like Marjorie Taylor Greene and the guy who showed up at Comet Ping Pong to save the children. Cincinnati FBI Shooting and Ricky Shiffer: What We Know (nymag.com)
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Today's Videos
For cat people only
No idea why I'm posting this. Maybe because I particularly like ridiculous stuff on Fridays