Evil is as Evil Does:
Revenge is a never-healing wound inflicted upon oneself.
I recently did a podcast on the GreyMatter channel with Leighton Grey. In it, we discuss the intelligence community's power and ability to push propaganda, making it hard for anyone to know what is true and what is false.
Here are two shorter clips from the podcast, with the full-length interview linked below.
Evil comes in many forms and has many origins.
I have written extensively on evil, particularly as it relates to the administrative state and public health.
In the case of nations, the longevity and durability of a nation is self-limited by the accumulated weight on increased taxation, regulatory burden, regulatory capture, and the inefficiency of their own bureaucracies. The United States is dying under the weight of inverse totalitarianism, abetted by a lazy and corrupt two party political system which cares more for the preservation of its own privilege than for the Constitution and Nation-state that it ostensibly serves.
Disaster cronyism refers to the phenomenon where corporations, governments, and financial institutions exploit crises, such as natural disasters, wars, or economic downturns, to further their own interests and profits. As the public has witnessed the government indulging in disaster capitalism again and again, the lies have crashed into reality. They have primarily acted to create a population that is much more skeptical of the State, the Pharmaceutical Industry, Physicians, disaster response efforts, and the medical-industrial complex. Disaster cronyism has driven growing skepticism of the safety and effectiveness of our government in general.
Abusive use of disaster cronyism to facilitate change and enable political and economic objectives is intrinsically evil. Any objective observer can clearly see that. But setting aside the dark triad nature of the personality profile that characterizes those willing to deploy such tactics on their fellow man in a quest for ever more power and wealth, on a pragmatic basis, Disaster Cronyism just does not work over the long term.
But there is another kind of evil lurking and that is what happens when revenge becomes motive.
“When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time."
-MayaAngelou
On February 7, 2024, Rep. Jamie Raskin suggested that if President Trump is re-elected, it will be up to Congress to invalidate his presidency.
To quote:
Last night, I was most worried. About the Supreme Court's perspective, imminent abdication of its very clear duty to disqualify Donald Trump from the ballot, under Section three of the 14th amendment.
And what that might mean, if their decision says that it's really up to Congress, on January 5th or January 6th. 2025…
To disqualify him at the counting of the electoral college votes…”
“So it’s going to be up to us (Congress) on January 6, 2025, to tell the rampaging Trump mobs that he’s disqualified. And then we need bodyguards for everybody, and civil war conditions”
-Rep. Jamie Raskin
The History of Rep. Raskin Persecution of President Trump.
During President Trump’s first term, it was as if Rep. Raskin’s had taken a sworn oath to take vengeance on President Trump for winning the presidency in 2016. For instance, he consistently portrayed Trump as having colluded with the Russians to interfere with the 2016 election and that this was as a serious threat to American democracy. He worked tirelessly to portray Trump’s presidency as a cesspit of corruption.
Even after the Mueller report of 2019 vindicated Trump and documented that Russian interference was minimal and had little impact on the election, Raskin persisted.
In terms of the 2016 Russian disinformation, the Durham report of May 2023 further exonerated Trump and criticized the FBI for displaying a "serious lack of analytical rigor" towards the information they received, especially as it was from politically affiliated sources.
In contrast to Durham's findings, Jamie Raskin continues to assert that there was substantial evidence justifying the FBI's investigation into potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
The Durham and Mueller reports embarrassed and exposed the democrats, particularly Raskin. This is a hurt that they won’t easily forget. But understand that on January 6th, 2021, Raskin’s vengeance turned into a deeply personal vendetta against Trump.
The backstory: Emotional Trauma.
On January 6th, Jamie Raskin’s vengeance against Trump became his life’s work. A Newsweek articles lays out the details.
Just a day before the (January 6th) riot, the Raskins had held a funeral for his son, Tommy, who died by suicide at age 25 after suffering from depression—in his speech, the Maryland congressman called it "the saddest day of our lives."
On January 6th, Raskin was in the capital with his daughter.
"The reason they came with me was because they wanted to be together with me in the middle of a devastating week for our family," he said of bringing his daughter and son-in-law to the Capitol on January 6.
They gathered together to receive condolences in House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's office in the Capitol. Raskin began drafting a speech on unity that he planned to give later that evening and then he left to head to the House floor before family members went to the gallery to watch.
"By the time we learned about what was going on, it was too late. I couldn't get out there to be with them in that office," Raskin said.
For over an hour Raskin and his son-in-law and daughter were separated. They barricaded in Hoyer's office, and he was on the House floor.
"She said, 'Dad, I don't want to come back to the Capitol,'" Raskin recalled. "Of all the terrible, brutal things I saw and heard that day, that one hit me the hardest."
In reading this account, the deep pain of the loss of a gifted son a few days before J-6, combined with the fear of not knowing if his daughter and family were safe during the events of January 6th must have been truly horrifying.
It is easy to imagine that as J-6 literally happened while his family were at the capital with him to accept condolences from members of Congress, Raskin might have linked that death and his hatred of Donald Trump forever in his mind. This was further enhanced by his personal cancer diagnosis just shortly thereafter.
I hypothesize that the these traumatic events, so closely linked in time, have become as one in Raskin’s mind. Rep. Raskin is no longer seeking vengeance against Trump for winning in 2016, he is seeking retribution and absolution for the death of his son.
Since January 6th, Raskin has spent countless resources, time, and energy in investigating, impeaching, and strategizing how to take down Trump permanently. It appears to have become a life passion.
Revenge is a never-healing wound inflicted upon oneself.
These images are just some of the 100s of Headlines in mainstream media documenting Rep. Raskin’s vendetta over the past 3.5 years:
As the Raskin video above documents, Rep. Raskin has made it quite clear that the next step in his revenge strategy will be to get Trump’s election invalidated - if he is elected.
That would happen on January 6th, 2025 - and given the current make-up of the House of Representatives, that would be a long shot at best. Raskin has circulated the idea ad-nauseum in main-stream media and with this colleagues. But the idea is pretty much dead upon arrival. Not that this will stop him from trying, he will make as much political hay as possible from the idea.
But remember:
The Supreme court invalidated Colorado’s attempt to remove Trump from the primary ballot.
Congress has not voted to invalidate Trump from the ballot during this election.
To validate the election, a joint session is held between Congress and the Senate. As there are currently more republicans in the combined chambers, they are unlikely to invalidate Trump after the electoral college has determined the winner of the election.
As an aside…
Electors representing the electoral college are chosen in advance of the general election by political parties. They pledge to vote for their party's candidate if that candidate wins the most votes in their state in the general election.
Could some electors chose to go rogue and not certify Trump as a valid candidate, if he should win the electoral college? It is possible. It happened in 2016.
That said, both parties have worked hard since 2016 to ensure that their electors are faithful to the process and it is unlikely to happen during this presidential election.
Beyond these scenarios, Rep. Raskin has run out of options to invalidate Trump presidency, if President Trump is re-elected. But Raskin isn’t stopping his vendetta anytime soon.
Congressman Raskin has laid out his plans to continue prosecuting Trump through Congress, the courts, and public opinion.
An Axios article dated Sept 15, 2024, titled “Scoop: Raskin plots House Dems’ 2025 probes”, documents how Raskin’s obsession with Donald J. Trump will continue after the election. From the article:
“Raskin said he also would likely pursue Trump-focused investigations, including the business dealings of former President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and Trump's own business operations when he was president, to help craft anti-corruption legislation.
A former member of the Jan. 6 select committee, Raskin said he wants to use that probe as a "role model" and get his panel out of the business of chaotic hearings and aimless, scattershot investigations.
"One of the things I loved about my experience on the Jan. 6 committee was that we elevated the mission generally above just the little soap boxes that each member gets," he said.
Other cues Raskin said he wants to take from the Jan. 6 panel is delegating to rank-and-file Democrats to lead certain hearings and incorporating video and expert testimony to "educate the public in a deeper way about a social problem."“
A favorite expression of mine could be used to describe the Congressional probes, MSM wrap-up smears, and lawfare by the democrat party against Trump is
“Have you stopped beating your wife yet”
In the case of Rep. Jamie Raskin, it goes beyond tribalism, it is deeply personal. His actions persecuting President Trump for years on end are both not rational and fundamentally evil.
"He who fights with monsters must be careful not to become one, and if you look at an abyss, the abyss will conclude by looking inside you."
-Friedrich Nietzsche