Brendan Buschi: Whistle Blower (The Seminar)

We've been treated to a master class in whistle blowing. It's been a while.

Many of us may be too young to know what a real whistle blower is. We've had a lot of traitors foisted on us as whistle blowers by a, at times, sophomoric press.

Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning and Reality Winner were not whistle blowers. Of course there were imbeciles within our government who wanted to elevate them to that status.

Julian Assange was mislabeled by many as a "journalist". It seems we aren't much better when it comes to identifying journalists than we are at identifying whistle blowers.

When politicians become ideological extremists and no longer know how to work together for the common good, chaos happens. Politically polarized politicians go hand in hand with a politically polarized population, which is fertile ground for fascism.

So what is a whistle blower? Who qualifies? First and foremost, a whistle blower is an employee of some agency or entity. As such whistle blowers are afforded some protection, particularly if they are "tenured" employees or no longer considered "probationary".

When it comes to civil servants, particularly federal employees, there are lots of protections that come with the job and there are lots of agencies with oversight responsibilities. In it's simplest sense, anybody whose work is paid for with tax dollars is a civil servant, that includes members of the military and law enforcement.

I would argue that when employees break the law, they are criminals regardless of why they do so. I would also argue that real whistle blowers do not engage in criminal behavior. That's the second criteria for being a whistle blower.

I have little empathy for criminals. If you can't do the time, don't do the crime.

There is one final criteria for being a bonafide whistle blower. You must always tell the truth. You must be impeccable when it comes to the truth, no matter what. You must stand and be ready to face the music.

There's one other thing worth mentioning here. Employees generally do not want to be fired. In fact, being fired is often referred to as being terminated. Everyone fears the Terminator.

Of course termination is not death, but for an employee, particularly one with responsibilities (family, home, debt), being fired is like being killed. You fear losing everything.

Employees are rarely terminated for obeying orders and doing exactly what they are told - regardless of what they are being told to do. Nope, employees are almost always terminated for saying "no".

Which brings us to the moment when someone crosses the threshold and becomes an actual whistle blower. It's that moment of truth. It's a personal rite of passage that each whistle blower must go through. It's a moment of conscience. Do I put it all on the line to do the right thing?

It matters how you cross the threshold. To put it simply, fools get terminated pretty much right away. Intelligent, thoughtful action may lead to you keeping your job or at least holding onto it and getting your employer to cross the line when it comes to terminating you.

So effective whistle blowing is a game of chicken. It's a matter of who blinks first.

One final thing of note, an effective whistle blower can bring the whole house of cards down. Yep, all it takes is one intelligent, disciplined person who is telling the truth and playing by all the rules.

Huh? Yep!

So lets get on with it. An anonymous whistle blower who is intelligent, disciplined, truthful and rule/law abiding has single-handedly cut through all the bs and changed the national discourse - all within a matter of days.

Let's put this in context. Donald Trump has been breaking rules and betraying our government since before day one. We are in the midst of a coup. A Russian asset, a Putin puppet is POTUS.

Trump's Impeachable offenses were there on day one. He's constantly broken the rules and a Republican controlled House and Senate let him get away with it.

He gutted the leadership of the Department of Justice. Sally Yates was the first to fall.

Next was James Comey.

He got rid of Preet Bharara in New York.

Then we had a series of changes that led to William Barr's appointment as Attorney General. Barr is totally corrupt and functions more like Trump's personal attorney than he does as Attorney General. He's covering up for Trump.

Andrew McCabe was fired hours before his pension kicked in. Now Barr is trying to charge McCabe with a crime. They want to make an example of Andrew. They want frightened employees.

Barr is also conducting a bogus investigation of Hillary Clinton and others in Obama's administration. The DOJ has become politicized and weaponized under Barr.

The elections of 2018 changed things. We elected a majority of Democrats to the House. Trump was no longer immune from Impeachment. The House, and only the House, can file Articles of Impeachment against the president, but they didn't. They didn't because Nancy Pelosi refused to let it happen.

At first we were waiting for Robert Mueller to finish his investigation. It seemed reasonable.

When "The Mueller Report" was finished and turned in to Barr, Barr tried to bury it and, when that failed, he was forced to release it. It was a bombshell. It was a neat and tidy Impeachment package, meticulously done and documented.

The Democrats did all they could to delay taking action on it. Apparently/ironically/sadly the only person in the House who read it and called for Impeachment was a Republican member of the House's Freedom Caucus, Justin Amash.

Yeah, the Democrats turned a blind eye to everything that happened and was continuing to happen. They ignored Trump destroying relationships with our longtime allies, jeopardizing NATO, pulling out of the Paris Agreement on Climate and the agreement with Iran. They ignored Trump taking children from their families and setting up concentration camps on our border. They ignored Trump moving us close to war with Syria and his endless shakedowns of other Middle East countries carried out by his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. They ignored Trump's destructive tariffs. They ignored Brett Kavanaugh's perjury during his Senate confirmation hearing. They ignored the murder and butchering of Jamal Khashoggi, they ignored the suicide/murder of Jeffrey Epstein, they ignored Trump's endless, ongoing Emoluments violations. They ignored Barr's ongoing obstruction of justice and abuse of office. They ignored it all.

Pelosi defended her position by saying:

1. The votes aren't there for Impeachment.
2. The Senate won't convict, so why bother?
3. The American people don't support Impeachment.
4. He's not worth it.
5.The way to get rid of him is to vote him out in 2020.
6. Impeachment jeopardizes the seats of the 7 Democrats who were elected from red districts.

So what changed on 9/24 that caused Pelosi to come out publicly in favor of a formal Impeachment Inquiry? Let's see:

1. Prior to her call for an Impeachment Inquiry the votes still weren't there in the House.
2. Nothing changed in the Senate.
3. The majority of the American people were still not in favor of Impeachment.
4. He's was still a useless criminal who has betrayed his country.
5. The 2020 elections were still planned.
6. The 7 House Democrats she was allegedly protecting all came out calling for Impeachment before 9/24. She could no longer use them as an excuse for not Impeaching.*

Hmmm. What caused Pelosi to change her position on Impeachment? A whistle blower complaint was filed on 8/12. On 8/26, the Inspector General for the Intelligence Community, Michael Atkinson, writes to the Acting Director of National Intelligence, Joseph Maguire saying that he has reviewed the complaint and it "appears credible" and he regards it as an "urgent concern". Under law, Maguire has 7 days to forward this to the Chairmen of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees "together with any comments the Director deems appropriate".

Joseph doesn't do that. Instead he sends it to the White House for review and then asks Barr for an opinion. Not surprisingly, Barr tries to bury it. On 9/13, House Intelligence Committee Chairman, Adam Schiff, subpoenas Maguire and demands the whistle blower complaint.

There's way more to this, but it's not important to this essay. It turns out the whistle blower first tried to file a different kind of anonymous complaint that went no where.

In the foreground, the press was picking up on what Trump and his minions were doing in Ukraine. Rudy and Barr were in the hot seats.

The withholding of bi-partisan approved lethal aid to the Ukraine to the tune of $400,000,000 started making sense. Trump was putting our national security and jeopardizing world peace while he pressured Ukraine President, Volodymyr Zelensky to start a bogus investigation of Joe Biden, whom he regarded as his main rival in 2020.

The press kept rolling on. New details emerged. We learned about Trump having records of his misdeeds buried on the most secret and secure server within our Intelligence Community. This includes records of other conversations with other world leaders.

The White House began caving in. First they released the damning transcript of one of Trump's conversations with Zelensky. Then they declassified and released the whistle blower complaint to the Chairmen of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees.

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6430388/20190812-Whistleblower-Complaint-Unclass.pdf

This story just keeps going. It has dominated the news from the moment Pelosi said there was an official Impeachment Inquiry in progress.

Yep, the minute Pelosi relented, the story exploded and Trump's Impeachment is all but guaranteed. Suddenly there were 218 votes for Impeachment in the House. Within a week, national support for Impeachment grew by over 12 points. Even members of the Senate are openly criticizing Trump.

It's fair to attribute all of this to the anonymous whistle blower who is now in negotiations with the House about testifying before its Intelligence Committee.

A single civil servant, following the rules, while the legitimate press engaged in top quality investigative journalism is proving to be too much for Washington's political establishment. The Democrats and the Republicans are learning to turn on a dime.

I don't care if the Democrats suddenly get their shit together and do the right thing. I don't care if some Republicans find their voices and start speaking truth to power. I care about the welfare of our nation and the restoration of the rule of law.