No one trusts American institutions

Likely because they are not trustworthy

I saw an interest Tweet recently which commented on the state of high profile investigations, repeated below

It is provocative. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) employs 35,000 people, many of them investigative agents. The Washington Capital Police force numbers over 2,000. There is no shortage of investigative resources.

Yet society hasn’t learned anything material about the January 6 pipe bomber or why and on whose behalf was Ray Epps inciting people to riot and what (if any) was his relationship to either Donald Trump or to the FBI? It is hard to imagine an incident of civil disobedience that has been subject to more investigation than the so-called “insurrection”. The FBI did release a video of the person who placed the pipe bombs sitting on a bench wearing a hoodie it could just as easily have been Mark Zuckerberg or Kanye West as a MAGA Trump fan based on that evidence alone (just kidding, of course).

The video was released in September, nine months after the event. Good luck finding a witness who can remember someone they saw nine months previously. Why the delay? Nope, this investigation had one purpose only and that was to tar Donald Trump and the rest of the investigation was irrelevant to the January 6 committee or to Liz Cheney (who suffers from Trump derangement syndrome and needs therapy).

The politicization of the January 6 events should surprise no one, given the protest or “insurrection” or whatever it was concerned nothing but American politics and people have a legitimate interest in Trump’s role in it, if any.

The Supreme Court leak of the Dobb’s decision overturning Roe v Wade is another matter. Americans have every right to distrust the FBI when after months and months of investigation that information has not been surfaced and disclosed, and it is important to know whether the person who leaked the draft decision was a junior member of staff or a Supreme Court justice, to choose two of the possibilities.

The Jeffrey Epstein investigation similarly casts suspicion on American law enforcement. The list of luminaries alleged to have visited “Lolita Island” is mind boggling (including Barack Obama, Jimmy Kimmel and Steven Colbert) but we have little evidence of who paid Epstein for his professional services, whatever they were. Epstein certainly cultivated the A-List.

The Paul Pelosi assault is now subject of “conspiracy theories” (no surprise to me, given the state of American politics) but there are questions that deserve answers and the FBI affidavit in support of “probable cause” to detain and charge the attacker raises as many questions as it answers. Here is a clip from that affidavit.

The flat language of the affidavit does not capture the trauma of this incident and the serious injuries inflicted on Paul Pelosi when struck by the hammer. It was the San Francisco Police Department who responded to the 9-1-1 call and it took them only 8 minutes to respond, a terrific response since the SFPD is located at 1251 3rd. St. about 5.2 miles from Presidio Terrace where Pelosi lives. That quick action likely saved Mr. Peloisi’s life.

But you would think the affidavit would be sworn by someone who actually witnessed the events in person? If the emergency call was high priority, why did the responding officers “knock on the door” and not enter the home guns drawn? Given the crime wave in San Francisco in the past year or so, it seems the name “Pelosi” was a factor in the fast response rather than the police responding to what they thought was a life threatening emergency (which it turned out to be, sadly enough).

Having had my skull fractured twice in the past twenty years (one car accident, one cycling accident) I know what a skull fracture is like. I hope Mr. Pelosi enjoys a full and fast physical recovery and is not overly traumatized about the risks inherent in his wife’s high office in the highly charged political divide in United States today. Neither members of Congress, members of the Administration, Supreme Court justices nor their families should be the subject of violence and all deserve protection.

The lack of complete transparency on the incident in media coverage just fuela more conspiracy theories and it is only a matter of time (in my opinion) before there are allegations the whole thing was staged. Americans distrust mainstream media even more than political officials and the QAnon cult will have a field day making crap up about this alarming attack on a person in his own home by (believe it or not) a Canadian.

For American voters to regain trust in their institutions, a lot needs to be done. First, the President and members of Congress need to be truthful at all times. Second, the Supreme Court needs to continue to uphold the Constitution and the electorate needs to look to legislators to change laws, not elected judges. And finally, mainstream media needs to get back to reporting news and eschew “fake news” and political bias in their reporting.

I am not optimistic.