The gangsters at the FBI

Twenty-nine agents went to arrest 66-year-old Roger Stone, a longtime Trump-supporter. The agents went in full battle dress in the early morning hours, as if mounting an attack on an enemy position during a full-blown war. Stone stands accused of lying to the FBI. He poses no threat of resistance. At his age and given his peaceful, good-citizen background, there was no reason to expect trouble arresting him. Yet 29 agents showed up, armed to the teeth, as if Stone were Pablo Escobar, ready to fight to the death.

We had hoped FBI insanity would lessen with Trump in the White House. This re-enactment of Elián González, of overkill on steroids replete with tip-offs to CNN so the network was there with cameras, shows that nothing has changed at the FBI of Christopher Wray from the days of James Comey. The place was an out-of-control rogue then; it's an out-of-control rogue now. More broadly, we see that Trump has only Establishment rogues to select from as paladins to rid us of the Deep State and its all-encompassing corruption. Whomever he chooses will be as bad, or close to it, as his predecessor. These people will not do an honest job but will always put politics, friends, and personal advantage ahead of country and American ideals. They are not patriots, but caste gangsters. Their gang is the political Brahmin caste. We are not Marxian with class distinctions so much as subcontinental Indian with sociopolitical castes. Life is sweet inside, but don't try crashing the party. You don't belong, and insiders know it. For all his wealth, fame, and power, Donald Trump doesn't belong, either. He has the top job, but all the intermediate jobs below him where it's decided how this will be done or that will not be done – those belong to the Establishment. Christopher Wray has such a job at the FBI. That the Stone arrest would happen as it did, this far along in a Trump administration, shows that we're unlikely ever to be rid of these cockroaches. They do as they please, and even the president can't rein them in.