Sunday, May 17, 2020

Quickies: Vocabulary Matters

     First, enjoy the following brief clip from a recent White House press briefing:

     While it’s refreshing to see the president’s press secretary backhand a reporter who persists in asking “gotcha” questions, there’s a word missing from Miss McEnany’s riposte:

Malfeasance

     Malfeasance is the term for the abuse of powers of office for wrongful ends. It’s a crime – in this case, a federal crime – that applies to officials whether elected, appointed, or Civil Service. It carries both a fine and a prison sentence.

     Malfeasance is what the FBI did to acquire FISA warrants targeting the Trump for President campaign, using the “Steele dossier” as “evidence.”
     Malfeasance is what Peter Strzok did when he “rewrote” the FBI 302 document about the interview of Michael Flynn.
     Malfeasance is what James Clapper, John Brennan, James Comey, and Andrew McCabe did in their several components of the “Russian collusion” hoax.
     Malfeasance is also what James Comey did in immunizing various of Hillary Clinton’s aides and staffers after it had been revealed that they had destroyed material evidence related to Clinton’s private email server and her use of it to disclose classified information.
     Finally, malfeasance is what Comey did in rewriting, de facto, the National Security Act and the Espionage Act to require proof of deliberate intent for the violation of those laws.

     Yes, several persons named above also lied to Congress under oath. That’s perjury. But charges of malfeasance apply to all of them as well.

     President Trump is right. They do belong in prison. But the odds are long against any of them landing there.

3 comments:

Differ said...

Nothing good can occur once the public begins to understand that the rule of law no longer applies.

NITZAKHON said...

@Differ:

This is one reason Rome fell. When the "average Roman" grasped that the rules they worked under, and were constrained by, were not even speed bumps to the culture of corruption and self-serving graft at the top, in Rome Central and the provincial capitals... they gave up. They were no longer willing to fight for what Rome had stood for.

Even now, for decades, where to most of the military enlistments come from? The hinterlands. "Flyover country". Salt of the earth people that I - even with my and my parents' educational backgrounds (both doctorates) - I'd rather spend an evening with than all the faculty of name-a-university.

When THEY give up faith in the country, there is no country, because The Elites sure aren't going to do the gritty, hard, uncomfortable work of putting on a uniform.

John said...

At this point I'd be happy if a few of them lost their pensions.