COMITY IS KILLING THE REPUBLIC!

Merriam-Webster defines “Comity” as a friendly social atmosphere : social harmony; a loose widespread community based on common social institutions.

Sounds benign, doesn't it? Based on recent events in Washington, DC., IT IS ANYTHING BUT BENIGN! IT SIGNALS THE END OF AMERICA.

With some, mainly partisan, exceptions, comity describes the pleasant, non-confrontational & collegial relationships between 100 senators and 435 representatives as they conduct OUR business. I guess we should be pleased that we no longer have those folks dueling over their disagreements. One such cost Alexander Hamilton his life at the hands of Aaron Burr in 1804. On second thought...

That said, if the concept of the rule of law and justice are to be restored, these people WE the people send to the levers of power here need to take off the gloves and operate somewhere between dueling and what we frequently see during the congressional hearings where, with exceptions (Trey Gowdy comes to mind), these folks take turns smacking one another around --WITH GOOSE DOWN PILLOWS!

Much of what goes on up there can probably be explained by the recent revelation that lobbyists for drug companies regularly haul van loads of FREE drugs up the Hill. The drug company “Payola” aspect of that aside, the word is that the bulk of those pharmaceuticals are – ready – DEMENTIA & ALZHEIMERS related! I guess 30 and 40 years in Washington can take a terrible toll – but that's an important problem only voters can – and BETTER – solve.

AG Jeff Sessions just appeared at a Senate hearing this morning. When Sessions was appointed, many of us had high hopes that he would move on the Obama era criminal Democrats (but I repeat myself!) and clean out the deep staters still infesting the DOJ. Almost a year in and THAT has not happened.

But what concerns many of us as much – OR MORE – is the recent description by former Rep. Jason Chaffetz of a meeting with Sessions during which Chaffetz asked if Sessions was going to pursue the serious and well documented allegations – SOME SELF-CONFESSED – of criminal conduct by Hillary Clinton and a veritable cavalcade of Obama lackeys. Sessions is reported to have responded to the effect that “that was all in the past, etc.”

LET THAT “...ALL IN THE PAST” COMMENT SINK IN! Then ask yourself THIS question:

If you or I robbed a bank, kidnapped or killed someone, could we reasonably believe that a prosecutor might say “Gee, that took place in the past so let's just forgive and forget!”

Because EVERY CRIME OCCURS at some PREVIOUS TIME to have occurred at all, does Sessions' remark

indicate some level of mental impairment and Mr. Sessions is off his free meds?;

prove a point I've brought up in the past that, in the deep swamp of Washington, EVERYBODY has SOMETHING on EVERYBODY ELSE?

Serious – TERMINAL – nonsense like this is why I'm now convinced that America is in even deeper trouble than any of us thought and, sans MASSIVE electoral turnover, America '' the PHILOSOPHICAL, IDEOLOGICAL IDEA left us by the Founders is over.

PS: Judge Jeanine Pirro did an EXCELLENT rant on this very topic. Copy and paste this link into your browser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3HHHHiinOc&t=535s

I don't believe Chaffetz. Sessions did recuse himself from the Clinton email investigation, as he testified today, which he said was closed. Sessions seemed to indicate without saying so that the Clinton Foundation investigation exists and is ongoing.

Sessions is not the enemy. He is trying to drain the swamp.

Here are what some of the enemies of Jeff Sessions are saying (go to the articles for the specific accomplishments):

Jeff Sessions has done more damage in his first 100 days than his boss

US attorney general Jeff Sessions may not be part of the biggest investigation in the Department of Justice, but as he reaches 100 days in office, there’s little doubt that he’s had an important impact on the American criminal-justice system—potentially for years to come.

Despite the political turmoil of the Trump administration, Sessions has moved to reverse a tide of progressive reform and to fulfill his boss’s law-and-order agenda, a collection of concepts loosely articulated during the 2016 presidential campaign. Sessions’ biggest actions, from undermining federal oversight of police departments to cracking down on undocumented immigrants, have worried a wide array of lawmakers, law-enforcement leaders, advocates and scientists.

“Of all the cabinet members, maybe even the president, he has to this point had the most significant impact as to policy changes,” said Jesselyn McCurdy, the deputy director at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Washington Legislative Office told Quartz.

Unlike his boss, Sessions is delivering on what he has promised—sometimes on causes he has championed for decades.

“There’s been a great bipartisan movement by organizations on the ground and members of Congress to reform the federal criminal-justice system, based on successes that have happened in the states, but the leader of opposition to that reform was Jeff Sessions, as a senator from Alabama,” McCurdy said. “These are all things that [Sessions], as a criminal justice reform opponent, had on his radar already.

McCurdy said Sessions was “definitely” living up to the ACLU’s concerns, and in some areas, fulfilling the worst-case scenarios.

Jeff Sessions ushers in 'Trump era' at the Justice Department

In just over two months, Sessions has proved to be a central figure in effectuating Trump's vision for America in tangible ways on immigration, crime, police reform and civil rights.

And while the White House searches for new messaging to frame what Trump has accomplished in the first 100 days in office, Sessions has single-handedly managed to make several significant domestic policy changes -- from pressing pause on implementing police reforms to withdrawing Obama-era protections for transgender students in public schools.

His radical transformation of the Justice Department's role is no accident.

Many of the changes Sessions has made thus far track a familiar principle of federalism: the notion that the federal government's powers are limited and it can't coerce states into action. In other words, the federal government should get out of the states' way.

Sessions' critics worry that he is well on his way to undoing many of the major progressive achievements of his predecessors, often by withdrawing from court cases or previous directives that fail to align with his views. Yet Trump supporters cheered Sessions on during the presidential campaign when he said, "the American people are not happy with their government."

Now that Sessions is the nation's top law enforcement officer, his defenders and critics universally agree: he's been busy fulfilling the President's campaign promises and he's just getting started.

Two things really annoy me lately. The first is about judgementalism.

I was in a southern gospel band that played at a lot of these small southern gospel churches with pastors that typically had no formal bible training and made little or no money off being a pastor. Neither one of those are bad things, except what it meant was that some of these guys were preaching baloney and most of what they said was “can I get an amen”, and YELLING.

When I mentioned it to our band leader she said I shouldn’t judge people. I shouldn’t be so “judgemental.”

Popycock. I’m not judging the people. I’m judging what they are preaching. I’m judging what they are doing. AND I SHOULD!

The other is when people say, I disagree with you but I respect your opinion. Again, poppycock!

There is nothing wrong with not respecting a person’s opinion. How much I respect a person’s opinion is directly proportionate to how much I respect the source of their opinion. However, what I DO support is their “right to their own opinion.” But if it’s a stupid opinion, I’m going to call it out as such, with proof.

I do not respect the opinion of a guy who gets all his news off MSNBC and then tells me that he believes Trump is a racist. But I’m also not going to respect the opinion of a person who agrees with my opinion when his basis for that opinion is strictly what he gets from something like InfoWars.

And these two issues are kind of related to me. In the first case, it is not the person I’m judging. It is their actions and teaching - the exact thing the bible TELLS ME TO JUDGE. How else can you help someone that needs your help.

And the same thing goes for opinions. There is a difference between respecting someone’s opinion and respecting their right to have one. And it is dead wrong to “respect” an opinion based on virtually nothing that can easily be refuted with a minimal of factual information.

So no, I’m not judging someone when I say they are wrong to preach that Jesus lives in Chicago. and I’m not disrespecting them when I tell them they are full of baloney when they argue that the earth is flat. In both cases I may respect the person, but they both need to be educated. And the beginning of THAT education is showing how their opinon/words/action is WRONG.

Pretty simple really.

kabar, I rarely post in online discussions anymore due to certain health problems. Typing on a keyboard has become painful, so I usually just lurk quietly.

I have always enjoyed reading your commentary, however, and believe you have been a tremendous asset to Free Republic. Your career experience and the knowledge you’ve gained through it has elevated the conversations in which you’ve participated. Your arguments are backed up by facts and logic, and I almost always find myself in agreement with you.

In the case of Jeff Sessions, however, I have to disagree. I respect your dogged defense of him, and the fact that you’ve been thorough, detailed and meticulous in explaining your reasoning. You’ve listed the many things has has done, and continues to do, which are good, and I fully credit him with those as well.

The problem, however, is that those good accomplishments of his don’t negate a couple of serious, fundamental flaws which render him unfit for his position. As RitaOK put it, Sessions has “placed his azz on a shelf, to play small ball”. The Republic is crumbling around him and he has chosen to focus on important, but lesser issues while he’s cleverly/conveniently!?!? removed/positioned himself away from facing and dealing with certain existential issues that are destroying the Republic.

Busting drug dealers and enforcing immigration laws are important and laudable, as are the many other actions of his which you’ve so determinedly pointed out in many FR discussions.

However, there are certain issues he’s refusing to face which, if not corrected, pose an existential threat to the nation. First, while he is pursuing a “law and order” agenda, as you’ve noted, while doing so, he’s ignoring the collapse of the Rule of Law, which is leading inexorably to the dissolution of what is called the Social Compact, or as the Chinese put it, the loss of the Mandate of Heaven.

By this I mean the glaringly obvious fact that we now have a thoroughly corrupt dual system of justice, in which our so-called elites are no longer accountable to the law the way “we the people” are. Sessions continuing refusal to confront this, and in a public, visible manner just further confirms that “we the people” no longer have control of our government.

At some point, and it’s not that far away, a sufficient segment of the populace is going to conclude that our government and our putative leaders, are no longer legitimate, and the Social Compact will dissolve completely. When that happens, all bets are off, and things will turn kinetic.

Sessions abject refusal to deal with this by publicly and forcefully going after people like the Clinton’s, Comey, etc. who have so blatantly committed crimes, is accelerating the corrosion of the Rule of Law. Your belief that he’s doing something “behind the scenes” is, I think unsupportable by the observable evidence, and in any account, we’re at a point where “behind the scenes” is no longer acceptable. Unless something is done, and quickly, to restore people’s faith that there can be some measure of equal justice before that law, the collapse of their consent to be governed will coninue.

A second issue which illustrate Sessions’ unfitness to be Attorney General is his wholehearted and aggressive embrace of the doctrine of Civil Asset Forfeiture. Just this morning he has reaffirmed his intention to increase the aggressive use of this policy.

Let me be clear: the legal doctrine of Civil Asset Forfeiture is a moral, ethical, legal and constitutional obscenity. Almost immediately upon its adoption by our law enforcement agencies years ago, it metastasized into an out of control mechanism of legalized theft, and has result in the destruction of the lives of thousands of innocent people. The fact that some drug dealers and other assorted criminal were “punished” by it in no way compensates for the evil done to the innocent.

Jeff Sessions enthusiastic advocacy of this legal atrocity is a clear indication that he has a serious lack of understanding, on a fundamental level, of the principles upon which this country was founded. All of the other “good” things he does, which you point out, here and in other threads, cannot negate this serious flaw in his character.

It illustrates a propensity to authoritarianism and tyranny, a statist, absolutist mindset that is irreconcilable with the principles of freedom and the inalienable rights of individuals.

I apologize for getting carried away and the lengthiness of this post. As I have read your defenses of Sessions in other threads, I’ve thought of responding, but today I just felt it was time. I too was somewhat a fan of his, based on what I knew of his time in the Senate, and I had high hopes when he was nominated and confirmed as AG.

It gives me no pleasure to have to conclude that it was a mistake for Trump to pick him, but his embrace of Asset Forfeiture is a deal breaker, and his focus on lesser threats to the exclusion of existential ones shows that his priorities are wrong.

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