And I hate calling this a ‘massacre’ when only one guy was fired.

I was going to write about regulatory capture today.  That’s where an agency that’s tasked with regulating an industry is then taken over by that industry.

Notice how the Patent and Trade Office grants patents to any corporation for any issues they submit, not matter how trivial it really is, so long as they include the words “on a computer” somewhere in the application?  Big corporations immediately began using these predatory patents to crush any competition and any new developments that might disturb their revenue streams.  What a surprise.

Copyrights were supposed to be granted for 15 years, in return for the Copyright office getting a copy so we wouldn’t lose that creative work.
Notice how Congress extends that every time Disney worries that their Mickey Mouse copyright get close to expiring?  And how the last extension pushed copyrights to the artist’s full life plus 70 years?  Yeah, it’s like that.

Or how the EPA fires their scientists and considers replacing them with industry representatives?  That’s an easy example, too.

Unfortunately, I have a brand-new example.  President Trump fired FBI Director James Comey in the middle of his counterintelligence investigation of the Trump organization, and just before he was scheduled to testify in front of Congress in an open session about the investigation into the President and his campaign?  His avowed reason was how Comey acted in June 2016, which is why he was relieved of his office effective immediately.   They did all this while Comey was conveniently out-of-town.  They didn’t even try to contact him first.  Comey found out he’d been fired when the TV behind him played the news as he was talking to a crowd.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions recommended that Comey be fired immediately because of Comey’s actions almost a year ago.  This is the same Jeff Sessions who said during his sworn confirmation testimony that he’d recuse himself from any involvement in about Hillary Clinton investigations, and who also announced he’d recuse himself from any involvement in the Trump investigation.  Yeah, it was that AG Sessions who recommended Trump fire Comey for his actions about Hillary.

This is the Trump campaign that made “Lock her up!” as their chant at every campaign rally.  I remember both now-Vice President Mike Pence and now AG Sessions leading that chant, over and over.

So now Deputy Andrew G. McCabe is the acting Director.  He has a strong professional reputation.  I don’t know the guy myself, but my problem is that McCabe is already compromised.  Remember when Trump was asking the FBI to campaign for his administration by calling the press and swearing that the Russian investigation was only small beer.  McCabe was the FBI guy who called around.

Presumably Trump will either nominate someone more sympathetic, or simply not replace the Director at all, and leave things in McCabe’s hands.

The FBI is supposed to be a critical check against lawbreaking inside the US, both inside and outside the government.  Unless they’re captured by the industry they’re tasked with overseeing.

Remember with the US Attorneys looked like they might investigate some Trump industries?  And President Trump fired all of them on the spot, effective immediately, even though there were no replacements?  And that there still aren’t any nominees put forward?

I’m not defending Comey in general.  Trump’s excuse for firing Comey was Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s damning letter excoriating Comey’s actions to tilt the last presidential election.

I agree with most of the particulars that Rosenstein wrote.  It was mind-boggling how Comey revealed an active FBI investigation, he did it during an election, and when the investigation found no laws broken, Comey held a press conference when he commented on the actions that he’d already admitted were legal.  Then he did it again a few days before the election.  It was a terrible violation of FBI and Justice policy and procedures.

But in the end, Rosenstein recommended Comey to be fired.  That makes no sense.  Comey is under investigation by the DOJ Inspector General for his actions.  That investigation was still open, and none of these people even reference that investigation.

Those actions — many of which I find deplorable and unethical — nonetheless happened before Trump’s election.  Trump has complimented Comey for just those actions.  And yet now it’s so imperative, they can’t even take time to let Comey know before they announce it to the press.

Interestingly, Rod Rosenstein’s letter was dated today.  There was no obvious professional review.  The letter uses press quotes, not legal reasoning.  Jeff Sessions’ response to the Rosenstein was also dated today.  Again, no review or separate verification.  Comey was then fired shortly afterwards.

Government doesn’t move that quickly.  That’s just not how it works.  It took Trump 18 days to fire Michael Flynn, someone who appeared to be actively betraying the government he was supposed to be serving.

This kind of speed means that someone was greasing the skids.  Someone had to ask for that letter, then hand-carry it to Sessions, who hand-carried it to Trump, so that Comey could be fired instantly.

There’s nothing new about Comey.  His actions were widely known, and he’s been pretty open.  I disagree with him violently, but Comey was open.  And Trump wasn’t bothered about Comey’s actions until now.  Candidate Trump’s only interest was to compliment Comey’s actions and leading ‘Lock her up’ chants about Hillary.  President Trump’s only interest has been glad-handing Comey, and claiming his election margin was really so much bigger than it looks.

The only urgent issue I see is Comey’s upcoming testimony in front of Congress in open session.