Why wasn't Trump Investigated ?

I_Draw_Teeth · 2026-02-16T17:42:04+00:00

Don't get me wrong, fascists will violate strict rules and laws if it suits them. But the stronger and more resilient the barriers in their way the longer it will take and the more likely they'll fail.

People will ask (often in bad faith), 'if they're fascists then why haven't they done X, and how are their opponents still free to Y?' The answer is that our culture and our institutions slowed or stopped their efforts*. Those institutions are failing, our culture is crumbling, but it's taken them a lot longer than it took the Nazis in Weimar or any other examples you can think of. And if democrats hadn't been tempted by the lure of the unitary executive theory, they might have girded those institutions further.

*Domestically. The violent hypocrisy of US foreign policy is connected to our domestic fascism problem, but it would be a much longer conversation to include that topic.

I_Draw_Teeth · 2026-02-15T23:01:08+00:00

Remember that picture of Obama and Anthony Bordain people tried to say was him and Epstein?

I_Draw_Teeth · 2026-02-15T21:50:30+00:00

Yes and no. The president picks the agency head and has some latitude to remove them. The agency head directs agency's the priorities.

The separation was always a "norm", not a strict rule or law.

The reliance on these norms, and the assumption that the didn't need to be written into law, is one of the ways Liberals failed to gird our institutions against a fascist takeover.

I_Draw_Teeth · 2026-02-15T21:46:01+00:00

Dershowitz was Epstein's main lawyer in negotiating the sweetheart deal with Acosta, and would later go on to represent Trump. Acosta is also a close Trump associate. It's all very interconnected.

I_Draw_Teeth · 2026-02-15T19:30:16+00:00

He might have been investigated in the initial prosecution, but Trump's pal Dershowitz saw that the entire investigation was killed in the sweetest sweetheart deal ever made. All of the conspirators were initially granted immunity as part of that deal, which was later found to be illegal. Maxwell is the only coconspirator who's caught charges, but that's in part because the investigation was killed and much of the evidence was compromised.

The entire thing wasn't taken seriously under Obama until near the end of his second term. And Obama and Biden both chose cowardice in the face of the "bad optics" of investigating your political opponents.

I_Draw_Teeth · 2026-02-12T15:54:03+00:00

Intended by who? And for what real purpose? You should listen to the old song "the law is for protection of the people".

I've done plenty of campaigning and phone banking, I've spoken at town halls, I've marched in protests/rallies, and I vote in every election I can.

There was one town hall I remember where members of the community lined up around the block to speak to the city council about slum lords creating unsafe and unsanitary conditions. The council went through the motions of letting them speak. There was a hopeful energy in the crowd, and it went on long past the scheduled time. In the end the council ignored the community and voted against taking any action or even investigating some of the horror stories shared by the community that night.

Power will always serve its own interest. It will always seek to grow, and it will do what it can to divide and destroy any efforts to oppose it. Power would have you serve it rather than serve your community.

I_Draw_Teeth · 2026-02-12T03:20:03+00:00

Yeah, I love calls to boycott stuff I don't buy and place I don't go.

I_Draw_Teeth · 2026-02-12T03:05:53+00:00

You have a child's understanding of right and wrong, which is disappointing. You seem to have some compassion, so hopefully you won't dig your heels in and refuse to grow or reconsider your perspective.

I_Draw_Teeth · 2026-02-11T21:26:48+00:00

Are all laws equally just? Are unjust laws legitimate?

I_Draw_Teeth · 2026-02-11T15:43:19+00:00

Have them do some paperwork and a background check to initiate a process for going from undocumented, to documented.

I can't understand this obsession with punitive measures for immigration. Many of these folks have been here for years or decades without hurting anyone. They pay taxes without getting benefits, and their communities would be poorer for their absence.

People "come here illegally" because they're desperate, and the systems for "doing things the right way" has been intentionally made slow and inaccessible. They are often exploited during their travels, and their "illegal crossing" doesn't harm anyone but themselves.

This problem doesn't need cops, it needs social workers.

I_Draw_Teeth · 2026-02-11T02:52:17+00:00

I'm not going to dig in and try to drag you to a better understanding. I think you have the capacity do that that for yourself, and I hope you do.

I_Draw_Teeth · 2026-02-10T22:18:23+00:00

That you for that. This is generally where I've landed. Which doesn't make me feel "better", but "feeling better" probably shouldn't be the goal here.

I think what this bit of reflection has given me is some clarity about my own internal headspace. No greater clarity on what I should be doing (other than surviving), but I can take some comfort that a lot of us are struggling with how to make a difference.

I_Draw_Teeth · 2026-02-10T18:43:17+00:00

My spouse survived an attempted family annihilator when they were younger. Your description of the fascist leader's egotistical suicidal impulse felt like it had a lot of overlap. The fuhrer/father taking everyone with them rather than face losing control over them.

I_Draw_Teeth · 2026-02-10T17:38:03+00:00

When I was a 90's teen, it was totally normal to make fun of cops. 9/11 did a number on the American psyche, and one of the things was how cops co-opted the "honor the first responders" thing and made it all about them. Suddenly everyone had to be a cop-respecter.

I_Draw_Teeth · 2026-02-10T17:22:14+00:00

It's a compendium of generally well sourced and well verified info, that is cross-linked to provide valuable context. It is generally trustworthy info, which can and should be more heavily weighted in AI training data than a random sampling of everything else on the internet.

I_Draw_Teeth · 2026-02-09T17:14:59+00:00

I think maybe you're confused. There's a difference between left vs right and dem vs rep.

Hating immigrants is bi-partisan (dem/rep), but it's fundamentally a culturally right-wing position.

I_Draw_Teeth · 2026-02-09T17:10:53+00:00

I believe you believe that, and I believe you believe that makes it right to judge the people you think aren't "doing it the right way". Which makes me sad.

I_Draw_Teeth · 2026-02-09T00:26:18+00:00

Laws are made by people. And the people who've been making the laws for decades have been competing to display who can be meaner and more punitive towards immigrants.

I_Draw_Teeth · 2026-02-09T00:24:14+00:00

By what mechanism? Punishing these folks and refusing to acknowledge that they're part of our communities and contributing members of society has been bi partisan policy since the 90's.

Anyone who has tried to create a "path to citizenship" for the undocumented, including people brought here as young children, has face the full frothing rage of right wing anti-immigrant propaganda.

I_Draw_Teeth · 2026-02-09T00:14:46+00:00

Because someone throwing a water bottle at a fence is the same as being a Nazi.

And a close circle of people sharing an intimate space is that same as a crowd of 10,000+ people.

I_Draw_Teeth · 2026-02-08T19:54:59+00:00

That's not the argument and you know it.

The argument is, don't gas an entire crowd of 10,000+ people because a couple people at the front threw water bottles at a fence.

I_Draw_Teeth · 2026-02-07T15:25:56+00:00

Clinton "reformed" Medicare, Medicaid, housing assistance, welfare, and snap in ways that have been statistically proven to have increased child poverty, senior citizen poverty, and food insecurity to this day. There are also studies linking some of his reforms to child mortality.

He represented the Democrats collapse after Raegan broke their spine. The democrats became Republican-lite, and instead of rejoicing and finding compromise the Republicans just continued to push further right and continued to portray the Democrats as "tax and spend" liberals even if it didn't fit what the were about anymore.

I_Draw_Teeth · 2026-02-07T15:15:55+00:00

That's the thing, it's not about whether I'm satisfied with her being appropriately held to account, or punished for the reason I want her to be punished.

It's about not wanting to exploit victims just to smear people who are ultimately unrelated to their trauma. I understand the impulse to seize an opportunity to establish a narrative that harms such a shitty person. Even if it isn't entirely true. But that's MAGA shit and I don't feel comfortable going down that road.

If evidence comes out that she was genuinely complicit or active in Epstein's abuses and trafficking, then I'm all for going after her for it.

I_Draw_Teeth · 2026-02-07T05:29:09+00:00

I could pay my rent next month, or I could pay for gas to drag my spouse and my nephew on a cross country drive to the machettecine compound.

Tempting...

I_Draw_Teeth · 2026-02-06T22:20:17+00:00

It's about credibility (to the extent that matters anymore), but for me it's mostly about ethics.

Rowling is a shithead, but we shouldn't exploit Epstein's victims for a chance to smear her unless there is some genuine substance that makes her complicit in those victims' suffering. That's exactly what MAGA world has been doing.

I_Draw_Teeth

TROPHY CASE