The 3 Faces of Uncle Scam by Ed Newmann copyright 2025
Inexplicably, for decades, incurious American voters refuse to remove elected bad actors, even though we are responsible for giving them power and access. The lawlessness and corruption has gotten so over the top and still we do nothing, ever-expecting the ones who are breaking our system to fix it. This inertia is beyond wishful thinking: It is lazy, cowardly, slothful civic conduct.
Just this week, it was revealed that the FBI Sentinel Case Database has a cloaking capability, called “Prohibited Access,” that makes invisible secret files deliberately hidden by former FBI Directors James Comey and Christopher Wray, and withheld from prior investigators' search queries.
This nondisclosure included the following high-profile investigations for which withholding exculpatory evidence would be an egregious crime(s).
(1) Department of Justice Inspector General (IG) Michael Horowitz's 2019 investigation of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's home server and her illegal erasure of 30,000 emails form her work phone after being served with a subpoena to retain such evidence.
DOJ IG Horowitz also investigated four separate questionable FISA applications by the FBI, the predicates and rationale for requesting surveillance of individuals associated with Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign before and after he was elected President. IG Horowitz also investigated Special Council Robert Mueller and Andrew Weissman for their activities relative to their investigation of Crossfire Hurricane and the confirmed unlawful surveillance based upon illegally obtained warrants from the FISA Court, of Carter Page and Donald Trump, among others.
This surveillance eventually lead to the DNC financing, with participation by Fusion GPS and Christopher Steele for their production of the infamous falsified Steele Dossier, the framing of candidate-then-President Donald Trump for alleged collusion with Russia to rig the 2016 Election. Horowitz also uncovered a pattern of multiple records maintenance violations by the Mueller Weismann team (deleting multiple records). This investigation also shed significant light on the FBI's Crossfire Razor operation to frame Trump's then-National Security Advisor General Michael Flynn as a Russian asset.
NPR.org/2019/12/09/785213175/read-doj-inspector-generals-report-on-the-russia-investigation
(2) John Durham's Special Counsel Investigation of the FBI's origin investigation of Donald Trump's links to Russian Interference in the 2016 Election; Democrat National Committee (DNC) employee Seth Rich's murder for smuggling DNC information to Wikileaks, after which the DNC was able to shift blame to Russia for hacking its computers. Durham included the recovery of Seth's laptop in his investigation once it was discovered the FBI had possession even though the Bureau denied having it from the jump.
Computer forensics expert Bill Binney concluded the information transferred from the DNC to Wikileaks had to be an inside job using a thumb-drive to transfer data directly versus remote hacking, due to the bandwidth and time it would have taken to transfer the data remotely, especially crossing the ocean. Conveniently, Wikileaks' Julian Assange was being held in solitary confinement in London's BelMarsh Prison, far from investigators ability to confirm Seth Rich gave Assange the DNC data.
Suppression of Hunter Biden's laptop revealing conflicts of interest involving Vice President Joe Biden, his brother Jim, and son Hunter's business dealings with Ukraine's Burisma, a large Ukrainian energy company, where Hunter was installed as a board member at $80,000 per month. The laptop also revealed unseemly behavior on Hunter's part, as well as business dealings with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) brokering purchases of US businesses, several with military related application.
CBSews.com/news/read-full-durham-report-here/
Last week, in an interview with Fox News' Bret Baier, current FBI Director Kash Patel announced that previously hidden files relative to all the above investigations and more are forthcoming: “ … you are about to see a wave of transparency...documentations have been flowing to Congress nonstop on a rolling basis …”, according to FBI Director Patel.
But what if Congress does nothing again? Then it falls to the public to step up and insist the DOJ prosecute to the fullest extent of the law. Otherwise we impeach, recall, or look to our own states' Attorneys General to investigate and/or our own county grand juries to review evidence for potential indictments of each of these bad actors.
It is important to acknowledge that none of this government lawless chicanery would have been accepted by the public but for the entire mainstream legacy media doing its part by dutifully reading carefully scripted narratives 24/7 as an integral part of convincing Americans the Crossfire Hurricane and Crossfire Razor lawfare operations were real. That was then.
Long Trump Derangement Syndrome (LTDS)
This is now. Mainstream media credibility and trust no longer exists. Media mutts and show dogs have been reduced to nothing more than over paid telemarketers. The ones who get the big bucks are the ones who can “sell it” the best.And even that skill is falling flat because mainstream media mutts and show dogs have advanced mental afflictions due to Long Trump Derangement Syndrome (LTDS).
The symptoms of LTDS were alarmingly apparent in MSNBC's recent joint segment with Rachel Maddcow and Nazgul Wallace, during which they were jubilant, lauding Ukraine's drone attack inside Russia that destroyed an estimated 40 of Russia's 140 strategic bombers as a David besting Goliath-ish achievement. Barely a word about the attack escalating things exponentially to an all-new threat level that includes nuclear weapons! But who cares about that existential danger if it makes Trump look bad, especially because the White House claims it knew nothing about this drone attack – it was not read in!
Nor was there any discussion of the New 2010 US-Russian Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), specifically protecting those 140 Russian Strategic Bombers as part of a deterrence agreement. Now, as a result of Ukraine's drone attack, the Russians are justifiably scrambling their remaining bombers, away from our ability to easily monitor. How Maddcow and Nazgul can construe any of this as a “creative massive victory” is just cuckoo-bird.
Racket News' Matt Taibbi summarized the segment best in his article Ending the World to Own Trump, “The Maddow segment was one of a pile of ebullient “Peace Averted!” responses to Ukraine’s “Operation Spiderweb,” which in any normal era would be covered first as an unprecedented escalation of nuclear tension. Officially, now, politicians and media have gone mad, so focused on Trump that they no longer see or acknowledge danger to you, me, and the rest of the world beyond.”
Racket.news/p/ending-the-world-to-own-trump?r=4div17
So afflicted with LTDS are the mainstream media mutts and show dogs that they are grossly oblivious to potential nuclear war when it cast shadows on Trump, never considering that Trump is perfectly capable of casting plenty of shadows on himself without risking nuclear war!
I blame LTDS for the collective abdication of basic humanity in world views these days. Instead of ideology informing our political thoughts, opinions, and choices, we've allowed ourselves to be reduced to worldviews of rigid binary-ism.
Since when did Americans support wars that inequitably slaughter people if, and only if, the president, a solitary elected and impermanent official, opposes it? And when did we begin justifying choosing the side who deserves to live, thereby choosing the side who deserves to die? Where does it say it it is pejorative to oppose violence and brutality by those on either side of a conflict? You can love Jews and Palestinians while despising their violence against one another. The same can be true for Russians and Ukrainians. You can advocate for peace and oppose war while simultaneously supporting all parties. These choices are not binary. These realities are not either/or. Truth is rarely black and white, it is more like shades of gray along the spectrum. For my part, I am tired of the mainstream media forcing all the news it covers into binary boxes of either/or. Its a manipulative trap, dishonest, unproductive, toxic, and tiresome.
Choosing a Political Side Is Not Engagement
It's bad enough that we choose political sides just to appear engaged. We stoop to the lowest possible qualifier for casting our votes – whether there is a D or an R after the candidates' names. Worse yet, we justify reelecting incumbents who have repeatedly betrayed us with laws that violate our rights (COVID and censorship protocols ring a bell?), but mostly because we have no idea how our representatives even voted on the bills, ordinances, and resolutions they impose upon us every year.
The 535 US legislators (434 House Congressmen and 100 Senators) are not representative of Main Street Americans (and entrenched administrative bureaucrats are no better). Yet we continue to reward blanket unresponsiveness by consistently reelecting them exclusively on whether they have a D or an R after their name,
The truth is most voters don't have a thimble's worth of knowledge or understanding of any of their candidates agendas, conflicts of interest, or even what ideology they actually support. Attaching a D or an R to one's candidacy no longer remotely suffices because legislators no longer advance traditional Democrat or Republican ideologies. So what ideology is being advanced? I submit some progressive oligarchical hybrid. Call it a form of fascism or socialism, no matter because they are essentially the same. If that's okay with you, you've got a rough road ahead of you. If it's not, then reacquaint yourself with what you already possess: powerful constitutionally protected rights and authorities to help preserve your individual self determination and pursuit of happiness.
The U.S. Constitution limits government's interference with the express rights and authorities enjoyed by individual Americans, I'll say it again, there isn't another governing document like it on Earth. So where on Earth is our respect, our reverence for the enormity and gravitas of this singularly extraordinary treasure? Just about everywhere else on Earth except here where it belongs!
It could be argued that the growing weakness in the three government branches is that all three are federal constructs, while the fourth branch – we the people – are original state constructs. In federal cases versus individuals, federal courts invariably rule in favor of their federal comrades a clear majority of the time. Federal legislators (because they are extremely DC-centric) favor their federal comrades by passing hyper generalized laws, allowing the executive branch agencies to specifically define said laws so as to bend them in favor of the federal constituency. And federal judges have a long history of showing deference to federal executive agencies and legislatures against the people's interests.
Fourth Branch of Government Is We the People
But the real existential threat to this Republic is the fourth branch's – we the people's – complete abdication of the most important checks and balance of all: the American people's underutilized influence and abysmal knowledge of their individual constitutionally protected rights and authorities.
When unwise legislatures pass bad bills and equally unwise state governors sign into law, the Supreme Court's number one mandate is to judge whether the state's actions comply with the Constitution. The Executive Branch has the primary responsibility for not enforcing bad laws under any circumstances as a means of nullification.
However, if lower courts, whose jurisdictions do not include ruling on such matters, judge this same law as appropriate, that court becomes part of the breach. It is up to the Supreme Court to rectify this breach by a lower court. If it does not, then it is up to Congress to swiftly legislate additional clarification and more importantly, consequences for such breaches, such as impeachment.
If the Supreme Court or Congress refuses to act, the Executive Branch Department of Justice (DOJ) can also seek lawful remedies, including impeaching lower court judges. These remedies are among the most important responsibilities of the three branches to maintain the critical separation of powers in this constitutional republican governance model.
But what if one or none of the three branches do their part to maintain said balance of powers? What is the remedy then? It passes to us, to we the people to put it right by holding our representatives to their oaths. Nonnegotiable. If our elected representatives do not respond to our influence (pressure campaign), instead disregard our interests, defy their oaths and fail to protect our rights, then we are duty bound to replace them as the law provides, whether by recall, impeachment, primary-to-election challenges, with no quarter.
You can see how representatives summarily ignore their constituency these days. We don't pay attention, so why should they? We don't manage our own representation until something gets so out of whack, we are forced to step up. Unless an event or issue directly impacts our daily lives, we tend to avoid getting involved until things become untenable, and even then its a crap shoot whether we will show up in the necessary numbers.
This has got to change if we ever hope to restore our civic and political self-determination. We must oversee our interests as a local community first, then as a state second, and finally as a country. If we can't hold our own local leadership to account, then there is no chance we will ever hold accountable our state officials or DC's federal forces. It's the natural political pecking order and we are the primary peckers in this game of thorns. Frankly, I like these odds!
First Mortgage Electronic Registration (MERS), Now Electronic Platting?
Some may recall that the Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS) contributed to the subprime accelerant that ignited the 2008-2009 financial crises. MERS, owned by a privately held corporation, replaced recording mortgages in the counties where the mortgaged properties are located and available to all who needed to access this information.
Investopedia.com/terms/m/mortgage-electronic-registration-system-mers.asp
By recording mortgages via a digital process that converted such records from a hard copy to a digital record, it made it easy to manipulate and transfer mortgage data for financial schemes, resulting in myriad manner of toxic investments, including mortgage bundling. This financial scheme divided subprime loans into varying percentages of their total value, then bundled them with varying percentages of other more stable mortgages to create entirely new investment vehicles for resale, until it all eventually crashed to the near-ruination of Main Street.
To rescue the world economy from these reckless perps (banks, investment and fund managers, et al), our legislators and bureaucrats, at unprecedented American taxpayers' expense, and with no meaningful relief for average Main Street investors, bailed out Wall Street and the world's largest banks to the tune of $1.5 trillion (that we know of), $700 billion from the George W. Bush Administration, immediately followed with $800 billion from Barack Obama's Administration.
MERS contributed mightily to the excessive number of owners who lost their homes and life savings by scrambling their mortgages' paperwork, especially with robo-signing, effectively making it impossible to track verifiable ownership using original notes and titles attesting to the various percentages of individual mortgages that were carved up and bundled with other carved up mortgages, then revalued and sold as separate investments. MERS records were forever compromised. With no legitimate chain of custody of original notes and titles proving ownership, questionable reconstitution of mortgage notes and titles prevailed in courts for the equivalent of sanctioned theft of properties nationwide by banks and investors.
When the musical chairs stopped on these banks and mortgage companies, those who claimed to own the individual mortgages on thousands of homes and properties, even though they had no original proof of such claims, were able to walk into district courts without hard evidence of legitimate ownership, and dazzle judges instead with new math and nomenclature relative to these deficient financial schemes.
Arguably, courts didn't give a damn how illegitimate banks' or investors' claims to the mortgage debts were. It was enough that the homeowners hadn't paid in full, therefore didn't have clear titles and apparently deserved their properties less than these interlopers in expensive gray suits.
The result was judges en masse ruled against homeowners, many of whom had no idea their homes were being foreclosed upon thanks to their state's unfair usurious, “no judicial review,” which doesn't permit notification of court sanctioned foreclosures, nor appeals of such arbitrary proceedings.
MERS (now MERSCORP) is still a potential scourge. It was established not with legislation of any kind, but quietly as a privately held corporation to facilitate mortgage identification and recording, including ownership transferring via sales, inheritance, etc, nationwide and now globally.
So it follows that now comes electronic platting/registration of individual properties in Iowa via Iowa HF 1031 Electronic Platting – County Recorder Fees and Land Record Information Systems (formerly HF 328), currently making its way through the Iowa Legislature. This new system has just as much potential for exposing platting, boundaries, and property details to all the confounding problems inherent with digital records, including data obfuscation, data breaches, data manipulation, data expulsion, misplatting and all manner of hijinks that always falls under the umbrella of unaccountable glitches.
Legiscan.com/IA/text/HF1031/id/3218472/Iowa-2025-HF1031-Amended.html
75th Anniversary of George Orwell's 1984
Reading George Orwell's classic 1984 again, I can't help reflecting that regardless whether the governance model is Socialism, Fascism, Marxism, Maoism, Communism, Oligarchical Democracy, or Monarchism, there isn't a hair's width of real difference between any of them because the outcome is always the same – a handful of Haves lording it over zillions of Have Nots.
In 1984, individual freedom to choose anything in one's life is eradicated. This unimaginable way of life brings into sharp relief the quintessential difference between a society that values the individual above all else versus one that values the group at the expense of individuals within the group. If every individual's rights are protected, then all the individuals' rights within a group are necessarily protected, too, safeguarding the group itself.
Orwell expresses conformity as necessarily nonnegotiable to maintain absolute control over populations. The social bargain almost always lies in authority's false promises of safety and security as a means of mollifying the public, who must sacrifice a great deal of their inherent humanity to comply.
But Orwell dives much deeper into the price paid for accepting lives of dominance and predictable order, where cultural shifts away for social interaction to sanctioned isolation is encouraged, as is sweeping history, with all its connections to self evolution, further away and forgotten with each new generation.
