Some Pigs are More Equal than Others

From my primary "I Protest" Substack (July 2022) at donaldjeffries.substack.com

With the second administration of Trumpenstein, and his seeming willingness to target his own enemies, perhaps we’ll see the “bipartisan” nature of this lawfare. Trump and co. have shown a willingness to infringe on the liberties of pro-Palestinian college students, Hispanics with tattoos who may well not be members of MS-13, etc. There are no good guys. Just degrees of evil. If anyone is denied due process, no one has due process.

The recent conviction of Steve Bannon brought home once again how unfair, unequal and arbitrary our “justice” system is. The fact that Bannon did nothing different than scores of others had done, including notable examples like Lois Lerner and Eric Holder, is meaningless to those who run this frighteningly rigged system.

It doesn’t matter what I think of Steve Bannon. Or Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, and Michael Flynn. All of them were targeted politically, and victims of kangaroo courts. Civil libertarians believe in due process. And the right to a competent defense. In the past, many naively took for granted the impartiality of judges and juries. Few believed that ambitious prosecutors would purposefully withhold exculpatory evidence. Or actively forge evidence. Fewer still imagined that juries would shamefully discard any notion of reasonable doubt and convict people on the flimsiest of evidence.

The reality is that even before the warp speed politicization of our courts in response to the giant actor Trump, cops had been caught planting evidence, and browbeating innocent people into coerced “confessions,” prosecutors were using selective evidence in order to obtain convictions of often innocent defendants, judges were ruling over the proceedings with their own bias against justice, and juries were sending people to life in prison on the frequently recanted testimony of other convicts.

But with the emergence of the apparently incurable Trump Derangement Syndrome, this already terrifying system has become something even previous incarnations of tyrants would have cringed at. Not that long ago, no one wondered about the political affiliation of a particular judge. You might hear that a judge was “no nonsense,” while perhaps another might be considered “lenient,” but no one feared appearing before a judge simply because of the president that appointed him.

Now, anyone with the least bit of belief in liberty and constitutional rights, understandably trembles at the prospect of appearing before a Judge Amy Berman Jackson for instance. Or really anyone appointed by Barack Obama, and most appointed by Bill Clinton or George W. Bush. These judges who rose to the bench courtesy of recent Democratic presidents are more more overtly biased than the worst stage mother on her worst day.

During Roger Stone’s show trial, the lead juror was publicly posting on social media, blasting Donald Trump and in fact Stone himself. During the trial. This kind of egregious behavior would have resulted in a mistrial for a serial killer in years past. But not now. Nothing happened to the lead juror. Jackson refused to acknowledge that publicly posting negative comments about the defendant you’re sitting in judgment of was inappropriate in the least. Many people hate Roger Stone, because of his connection to Donald Trump. So their attitude was “good- send him up the river!”

I’m hearing much the same response about Bannon’s predictable conviction. Do any of these Trump associates have a chance of not being convicted, when the jury pool in Washington, D.C. is stocked with 95 percent Democratic Party voters? And the courts are presided over by Amy Berman Jackson types? The Left I gravitated to as a youngster used to think that was a big deal. They were concerned about fair trials, and jurisdictional prejudice. Now they simply want all their political enemies convicted. Period.

I was once a card-carrying member of the ACLU. They used to care about civil liberties, as their name suggests. They were silent on the pre-dawn SWAT raid on Roger Stone’s home, and the troubling irregularities of his show trial. They have been silent in the face of Bannon’s conviction for an offense that has been a regular occurrence in Washington, D.C. over the years. The Constitution forbids selective prosecution. If Bannon wasn’t selectively prosecuted, what else would you call it?

Not that I expect anyone in Washington, D.C. to care about obeying the Constitution. After all, few of our “representatives” have paid the least heed to the document they are sworn to uphold, for a very long time. I would love to know, for instance, what parts, if any, of our Constitution that someone like Ilhan Omar supports. We know they don’t like the Bill of Rights. How many of them have ignorantly hissed, “the First Amendment doesn’t protect hate speech?” “Hate,” like “abortion,” is not mentioned in the Constitution. An Orwellian concept like “Hate Speech” negates free speech.

The culmination of all the hatred built up inside millions of Americans for Donald Trump, was the Hollywoodish reaction to the “Stop the Steal” political rally on January 6, 2021. A year and a half later, an untold number of those who exercised their constitutional right of assembly, and protest, remain behind bars. They’ve been denied all due process, and allegations are that they’ve been beaten and placed in solitary confinement. For nonviolent opposition to transparent electoral fraud. And now, they are being tried in the court of public opinion.

Our horrendous “representatives” are in the midst of a lengthy show trial that rivals any of the worst Soviet transgressions. Every television network- all those “competing” American Pravda and Tass outlets- except Fox News has faithfully aired every minute of these embarrassing spectacles. There is no one there representing the defendants who remain imprisoned without their right to a speedy trial. No cross examination. Not a single member of the January 6 Commission is anything other than foaming at the mouth for the severe punishment of the dreaded “insurrectionists.”

Even the military tribunal that railroaded the alleged Lincoln assassination conspirators permitted defense attorneys. They were extremely limited in what they could do, of course, but the January 6 Commission isn’t allowing anyone there to cast a single discouraging word on this authoritarian spectacle. Instead, there is nonstop pontification and virtue signaling. The worst social justice warriors in the entertainment world couldn’t have devised anything more antithetical to freedom.

The worst part of all is that the Liz Cheneys of the world continue to babble on about how this figurative throwing of Christians to the lions represents the height of “democracy.” Which the “insurrectionists” tried to overturn with their questioning of our long corrupt electoral process. “Democracy” is being redefined; the “new normal” is to claim that the likes of the former comedian turned Ukrainian president is fighting for “democracy.” By shutting down all opposing political parties. And demanding huge sums of American taxpayer funds. #Stand With Ukraine!

You can’t have a “justice” system that revolves around the political beliefs of those administering it. We’re all human, and at times probably fantasize about locking up some of those who really anger us. But we don’t have the power to do that, and ultimately few of us would really act so dangerously or irresponsibly, if we had it. However, many if not most of those with the power to do so now are wielding it with impunity. They are gleefully seeing to it that fairness and objectivity have no place in American jurisprudence.

I continue to be astounded and disappointed at the way most of this country now applauds political persecution and supports censorship and the denial of rights to those they disagree with. Why I am surprised and disappointed is another question. Again, I’ve clearly watched too many Frank Capra movies. Read too many fairy tales as a child. Spent too much time brooding over the works of the great romantic poets. You’d think I’d be a crass realist by this point.

Even before the COVID psyop shut down society and revealed our masters in all their stupendous criminality, I was doing research on our criminal justice system. Just watching some of those shows on the Investigation Discovery Network is very eye- opening. I took notes on the most incredible miscarriages of justice, thanks to all those corrupt cops, lawyers, judges and juries. It’s hard to estimate just how many innocent souls have been convicted and imprisoned under this odious system, but every time DNA clears one (after years or decades), it certainly doesn’t surprise me.

So even without Identity Politics empowering tyrants in robes, who have clear axes to grind, the system was monstrously corrupt. Now, it is something that the civilized world has never seen before. When celebrated officials conspire to railroad someone, and suppress any evidence, we have lost as a society. They do this routinely. There is no more chance at finding justice in an American courtroom as there is of finding health in a hospital, or true education in our maniacal school systems.

While so many are offered up as sacrifices on the altar of injustice, many who actually should be punished go free. Anyone with a great deal of money. Any high profile athlete or entertainer. And even some without notoriety; I’ve found an alarming number of cases where defendants whose guilt was far more apparent than many who have been given life sentences, somehow find a rare empathetic jury. Juries seem to have a remarkable record of almost never getting it right.

America has already incarcerated more people than any other country in the history of the world. Thanks to the ridiculous “war” on drugs, “three strikes you’re out” and mandatory sentencing laws, our public and even worse private prisons are overflowing. And yet the Left now, is outdoing the old Right in terms of “law and order.” “Woke” activists, or really just anyone with Trump Derangement Syndrome, appears perfectly fine with locking up anyone who triggers them. And “Woke” politics is dependent upon being triggered. A whole lot.

Steve Bannon and Donald Trump are supposed to enjoy the same rights as anyone else. So do Hillary Clinton, or Hunter Biden. The problem is that those who support the “Woke” madness are untouchable under the law. Absolutely, unequivocally above it. Even if they were to somehow be indicted, and appear in a courtroom as defendants, the judge would be very likely to favor them, and the jury would almost certainly acquit them. And the state controlled media would be just as sympathetic to them as they are antagonistic towards any of Trump’s cronies.

No sane American should ever want to have any contact whatsoever with our legal system. Never call the police, the conspiracy folks wisely tell us. Always demand a lawyer. You don’t have to say anything under the Fifth Amendment. At least for now. But there really isn’t much at all you can do if you find yourself in the defendant’s seat now. There aren’t many real life Perry Masons to defend you. And what’s the likelihood of getting that judge that dismissed the case against the only lucky January 6 defendant? That’s the judge I’d want.

Laws mean nothing if they aren’t applied uniformly. Our laws are not applied uniformly. The system is broken if police, judges, and prosecutors are corrupt. Police, judges, and prosecutors are corrupt. Conservatives hoping to find restitution via jurisprudence should understand that’s not any answer. The legal system should be there to rectify wrongs, not engage in wrongdoing. But they engage in wrongdoing every day. They have decided that some Americans are more equal than others.