The Comey "grand conspiracy" subpoena is not isolated. It is part of a sprawling investigation that has already issued more than 130 subpoenas in the last few months.
I’m happy to see this and I was tempted to send this out to my various chat groups who don’t read your Substack or some of the other ones that I read. However, until we start seeing actual prosecutions trials and convictions, then to me, this is just background and what we like to call hopium.
I disagree. 130 subpoenas, and why? Because building a "grand conspiracy" case requires scale, a tremendous amount of evidence gathering, and time. However, if it can be established to the satisfaction of a grand jury, this approach to the case (1) eliminates the statute of limitations problem that would otherwise let most of these guys walk (which may have been the main reason for the election theft in 2020: to run out the SOL), and (2) moves venue out of D.C. (where we cannot get fair trials) to South Florida (where we at least have a shot).
This is a major development, and let me circle back to those 130 subpoenas: you tend to call the major targets after you've already built your case against them with the little fish.
Thank you for the response. I agree that it’s significant news and I love the Grand Conspiracy approach. I just feel that skeptics aren’t going to get on board until we get actual convictions, and sharing this good news doesn’t help as much as I’d like to think it would.
People have ceased hoping that anything can get better. But we must resist the black pill. Nothing good comes apart from consistent action. And the left is far better at consistent action than our team ever was.
Indeed it does, and especially the way they're going at it. The plan is brilliant: solves the statute of limitations issue AND the venue issue. Almost everyone would get off if those two problems aren't solved. But that takes some pretty serious digging, plus an ironclad case. The miracle is that so much has happened in just one year.
Oh my, great article by Mr. Stone. Thank you for sharing this. It is so good to read updates like this. It makes one feel that maybe, just maybe, those that did wrong and grossly abused their power may pay for that misconduct. Understanding it may not lead to substantial accountability, it might, and I greatly appreciate the hurculean efforts to untangle this massive web of conspiracy, what did Strzok, call it? "A backup plan" or something to that effect?
If you want to garner trust and confidence in average Americans, you'd better start hanging these greedy // traitorous // narcissistic jokers ... And(!), get on with it quickly! I'm purdy sure we can find a minimum of a 1,000 of them.
As much as I would enjoy seeing a bunch of deep-state bad actors suspended by their fuzz, I'm afraid it would not address the root problem, to which this piece alluded in paragraph ten: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. To the extent that high Federal office, elected or appointed, grants extreme power, jockeying for those offices will inevitably lead to corruption.
Our government must be restructured so that office-holders serve the people rather than wield power over them. This requires relinquishing almost all of the "government services" that we have become accustomed, over the past century, to thinking we must have. That includes entitlements, and *that* absolutely includes Social Security and Medicare. (If you don't think these programs entail "wielding power", ask yourself how they get paid for. I'm on Social Security and Medicare now, and it'll require more than a little belt-tightening for me to give them up, but needs must when the devil drives -- I want my republic to outlive me and not to devolve into despotism.)
There is a reason why the original Constitution did not delegate responsibility for these things to the Federal government: The founders knew quite well that they would eventually, inevitably, lead to tyranny. Returning to their visionary design will require revolutionary change, but it need not be violent. It *does* require that we open our eyes and accept the stark truth that the acts of Comey et al. were merely symptoms of a more fundamental problem.
First, you're absolutely right about the bloated size (not just in personnel but responsibility) of the federal government, far beyond the scope the Constitution permits.
Second, I am reminded that "eternal vigilance is the price of freedom" precisely because the root problem -- the quest for unaccountable power -- is ever present.
But third, the most significant way this has metastasized is in the shielding of huge swaths of the federal government from any accountability to the voters whatsoever. You may elect a President, but he only gets to appoint about 5,000 out of 2.5 million of his employees. He won't get a large percentage of those because the Senate won't get around to confirming them. And neither he nor those 5,000 get to fire anyone under most circumstances. Reductions in force? Yes. Relocation of agencies out of D.C.? Yes. But direct accountability to anyone actually elected? Very, very little.
This has been a major focus of RodMartin.org for a long time. Elections have to matter. There are some key court cases coming up that will have a huge impact on this, and Trump has made a bigger difference than all of his predecessors in the era since FDR created this monster (not least in pursuing those cases, appointing judges willing to hear them, the aforementioned RIFs, but also the elimination of over 100 regulations for every one new one).
But there's a long way to go, and every election opens the door anew.
I’m happy to see this and I was tempted to send this out to my various chat groups who don’t read your Substack or some of the other ones that I read. However, until we start seeing actual prosecutions trials and convictions, then to me, this is just background and what we like to call hopium.
I disagree. 130 subpoenas, and why? Because building a "grand conspiracy" case requires scale, a tremendous amount of evidence gathering, and time. However, if it can be established to the satisfaction of a grand jury, this approach to the case (1) eliminates the statute of limitations problem that would otherwise let most of these guys walk (which may have been the main reason for the election theft in 2020: to run out the SOL), and (2) moves venue out of D.C. (where we cannot get fair trials) to South Florida (where we at least have a shot).
This is a major development, and let me circle back to those 130 subpoenas: you tend to call the major targets after you've already built your case against them with the little fish.
Thank you for the response. I agree that it’s significant news and I love the Grand Conspiracy approach. I just feel that skeptics aren’t going to get on board until we get actual convictions, and sharing this good news doesn’t help as much as I’d like to think it would.
People have ceased hoping that anything can get better. But we must resist the black pill. Nothing good comes apart from consistent action. And the left is far better at consistent action than our team ever was.
I get so tired of people complaining, “Why haven’t they arrested anyone???” It takes time to build a case!
Indeed it does, and especially the way they're going at it. The plan is brilliant: solves the statute of limitations issue AND the venue issue. Almost everyone would get off if those two problems aren't solved. But that takes some pretty serious digging, plus an ironclad case. The miracle is that so much has happened in just one year.
Oh my, great article by Mr. Stone. Thank you for sharing this. It is so good to read updates like this. It makes one feel that maybe, just maybe, those that did wrong and grossly abused their power may pay for that misconduct. Understanding it may not lead to substantial accountability, it might, and I greatly appreciate the hurculean efforts to untangle this massive web of conspiracy, what did Strzok, call it? "A backup plan" or something to that effect?
If you want to garner trust and confidence in average Americans, you'd better start hanging these greedy // traitorous // narcissistic jokers ... And(!), get on with it quickly! I'm purdy sure we can find a minimum of a 1,000 of them.
As much as I would enjoy seeing a bunch of deep-state bad actors suspended by their fuzz, I'm afraid it would not address the root problem, to which this piece alluded in paragraph ten: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. To the extent that high Federal office, elected or appointed, grants extreme power, jockeying for those offices will inevitably lead to corruption.
Our government must be restructured so that office-holders serve the people rather than wield power over them. This requires relinquishing almost all of the "government services" that we have become accustomed, over the past century, to thinking we must have. That includes entitlements, and *that* absolutely includes Social Security and Medicare. (If you don't think these programs entail "wielding power", ask yourself how they get paid for. I'm on Social Security and Medicare now, and it'll require more than a little belt-tightening for me to give them up, but needs must when the devil drives -- I want my republic to outlive me and not to devolve into despotism.)
There is a reason why the original Constitution did not delegate responsibility for these things to the Federal government: The founders knew quite well that they would eventually, inevitably, lead to tyranny. Returning to their visionary design will require revolutionary change, but it need not be violent. It *does* require that we open our eyes and accept the stark truth that the acts of Comey et al. were merely symptoms of a more fundamental problem.
First, you're absolutely right about the bloated size (not just in personnel but responsibility) of the federal government, far beyond the scope the Constitution permits.
Second, I am reminded that "eternal vigilance is the price of freedom" precisely because the root problem -- the quest for unaccountable power -- is ever present.
But third, the most significant way this has metastasized is in the shielding of huge swaths of the federal government from any accountability to the voters whatsoever. You may elect a President, but he only gets to appoint about 5,000 out of 2.5 million of his employees. He won't get a large percentage of those because the Senate won't get around to confirming them. And neither he nor those 5,000 get to fire anyone under most circumstances. Reductions in force? Yes. Relocation of agencies out of D.C.? Yes. But direct accountability to anyone actually elected? Very, very little.
This has been a major focus of RodMartin.org for a long time. Elections have to matter. There are some key court cases coming up that will have a huge impact on this, and Trump has made a bigger difference than all of his predecessors in the era since FDR created this monster (not least in pursuing those cases, appointing judges willing to hear them, the aforementioned RIFs, but also the elimination of over 100 regulations for every one new one).
But there's a long way to go, and every election opens the door anew.
No elected official, not even the President, has much incentive to address this problem and lots of incentives not to.