Calling all scumbags and fiends . . .

The Republican clarion call has gone out. If you're a crook, schemer, or any brand of asshole you have a home. You have a place and work to do undermining democracy and fulfilling your gluttonous desires. You will be rewarded and protected. The consequences for criminality are being eliminated as long as you contribute to the cause.

The cause has shifted over time. Now it's a criminal conspiracy to debilitate and overthrow the government and the "rule of law," establish minority hegemony and guarantee impunity for insider transgressors. Government as organized crime. Not a new idea but always enriching for those that succeed. Fewer than ever of the conspirators are arrested.

Fewer are convicted and Trump has cracked the door on the possibility of a blanket of pardons, retro and proactively, that will invalidate most laws without altering them -- every criminal's dream, and the Republican dream of organized and bureaucratized injustice. They aren't against government and bureaucracy. Only the parts that promote justice.