Nothing offends people more than unequal justice -- disparate treatment of protected persons and classes. This week, the FBI and Department of Justice’s hash of equal justice became even clearer and the media’s fat thumb on the scales as well.

If you read nothing else this week, read this essay by Lord Conrad Black in the New York Sun, who links the Special Counsel fiasco and the Jussie Smollett hoax and concludes that we just avoided the “biggest constitutional crisis since the Civil War”:

The authors, accomplices, and dupes of this attempted overthrow of constitutional government are now well along in reciting their misconduct without embarrassment or remorse because -- in fired FBI Director James Comey’s formulation -- a “higher duty” than the oath they swore to uphold the Constitution compelled them. Or -- in fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s words -- “the threat” was too great. Never mind that the nature of “the threat” was that the people might elect someone he and Mr. Comey disapproved of as president, and that that person might actually serve his term, as elected.

The extent of the criminal misconduct of the former law enforcement and intelligence chiefs is now notorious, but to make the right point here, it has to be summarized. The fact that the officially preferred candidate lied to federal officials about her emails and acted in outright contempt of Congress and the legal process in the destruction of evidence, was simply ignored by the FBI director, who announced that she would not be prosecuted, though he had no authority to make that determination.

The dossier of salacious gossip and defamatory falsehoods amassed by a retired British spy from the lowest grade of intelligence sources in Russia, commissioned and paid for by the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee, was circulated to the media by high public officials and cited in illegal and dishonest applications to authorize surveillance of the campaign of the other presidential candidate. A special counsel was empowered on the false pretext of the necessity to get to the bottom of Trump-Russian collusion in the election...

The special counsel then packed his staff with militant Clinton partisans, and acted very late and only when his hand was forced by the press to remove two officials who referred in texts to each other to the Bureau’s ability to smear and provoke the impeachment of the winning candidate as “an insurance policy” against his filling the office to which he was elected.

He asserts, and I agree, that the defamation campaign against the president continues with the now-debunked tale of racism by the Covington students and the thoroughly debunked tale of assault on Jussie Smollett.

I believe the concept of “hate crimes” is an oxymoron. If you assault or murder someone it’s fair to assume it was out of improper animus. Adding a kicker for “hate” in which attacks on certain classes of people result in enhanced sentences strikes me as an improper “thought crime” punishment, inconsistent with constitutional law.

In any event, the laws on hate crimes seem to be as selectively enforced as the crimes of mishandling and leaking classified material and attempting to overthrow the president. Here too the press plays an important part, demonizing the President’s supporters, and downplaying or not reporting hate crimes against them while regularly magnifying defamatory and false accusations against them. 

The criminal misconduct in the federal executive continues, inspired doubtless by the failure to prosecute people like Hillary and Lois Lerner. This week we learned that IRS intelligence officer John C. Fry made an unauthorized excursion into Michael Cohen’s financial records and passed them on to porn lawyer Michael Avenetti and the New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow. And he’s not the only U.S. Treasury employee using access to invade the privacy of the Special Counsel’s targets. Last October Natalie Mayflower Sours-Edwards was arrested and charged with leaking to the press ”financial transactions related to Paul Manafort, Richard Gates , Maria Butina, and others.” 

Certain I am that they were motivated by total unconcern for any criminal consequences for their acts.

Media misconduct matches official misconduct.

When not calling Trump supporters “Nazis” as a means to dehumanize us, the establishment media like to whine about the lack of civility in American politics, even as they cover up, ignore, downplay, or straight-up approve of the wave of violence and public harassment we are seeing against supporters of President Trump.

It is open season on Trump supporters, and the media is only fomenting, encouraging, excusing, and hoping for more… The media are now openly calling Trump supporters “Nazis” and are blaming Trump for a mass murder he had nothing to do with. This, of course, is a form of harassment because it incites and justifies mob violence.

Here is the list so far and remember that if any one of these things happened to a Democrat, the media would use the story to blot out the sun for weeks. Remember how crazy the media went over a nobody rodeo clown who wore an Obama mask, a GOP staffer who criticized Obama’s daughters? And yet, hundreds of Trump supporters are harassed and brutalized and the media only dutifully report them, if at all. That is because the media are desperate to normalize and justify violence and harassment against Trump and his supporters.

Along with selective enforcement and media coverage of hate crimes, comes a plethora of hoax hate crimes. Here’s a list of 342 of them. In fact, hoax claims of hate crimes are now so common, I must admit my first response is to doubt the claim. 

My online friend, “The Infamous Ignatz” expresses my view.

It's funny how the sanctimony of the left works. Time after time these fake stories are created that allege hateful actions by horrible right-wingers with implications for all conservatives and lectures about how we need to disown these phantom miscreants.

When the stories are revealed to be hoaxes motivated by a particularly loathsome political animus, the best that ever occurs is "oops". Why don't progs as a class have to denounce the stereotyped hatefulness their crazy ass prog pals display and that they capitalize on?

People who don't even exist who say "MAGA country, faggot" are still a teachable moment for the deplorable half of the country.

A bunch of hateful liars who defame the deplorable half of the country by making up "MAGA country, faggot" and who actually exist, well, they're just a little misguided... because of Trump and his horrible deplorable supporters!!

But they're the sensible tolerant ones.

Just ask them. Then go read a prog comments section. It's like listening to schizophrenics describing their hallucinations like everyone must see or hear them.

The case of Jussie Smollett was particularly egregious. Only a moron would believe his claim that at 2 a.m. in freezing weather during the polar vortex in a neighborhood where I doubt there is a single Trump supporter. Trump supporters attacked B actor for being a gay black man. And yet the media fell for it. Had it been true, in any event, it hardly warranted the degree of attention it got. Consider just some of the other events which barely got any coverage while this hoax was trumpeted. The deadlock on the export of 1.2 million tons of LNG was broken -- a blow to Putin’s shaky economy. We moved closer to a deal for denuclearization of Korea through first steps like helping North Korea improve its rail infrastructure and encouraging family visits between North and South Korea. The Caliphate in Syria has fallen. And the Dow posted nine weeks of advances in a row -- the longest weekly streak of gains in almost 24 years as we move closer to a U.S.-China trade deal. In Warsaw, Arab and Israeli leaders broke bread together and worked side by side to discuss real threats to peace in the Middle East. And yet, the media focused public attention on Smollett’s certainly fake hate crime, and like cats following a laser beam all else was ignored.

Worse, there’s some reason to believe this was not the work of an actor dissatisfied with his pay scale, as he said when finally nabbed. There’s some good reason -- not proven but plausible -- to believe he was working with his close friend Kamala Harris, whose effort to enact a base-pleasing anti-lynching bill was stalled. Cory Booker, in fact, tweeted he hoped this incident would induce Congress to pass the bill.

Cory Booker

✔

@CoryBooker

The vicious attack on actor Jussie Smollett was an attempted modern-day lynching. I'm glad he's safe.

To those in Congress who don't feel the urgency to pass our Anti-Lynching bill designating lynching as a federal hate crime -- I urge you to pay attention.

Former Milwaukee Sheriff David Clark is in that camp of those who think there was a political angle to the hoax.

“I’m not buying that @JussieSmollett staged his hoax due to a salary dispute with FOX studios. I’m not that gullible. AND DON’T YOU FALL FOR IT EITHER! Smollett was on a POLITICAL MISSION for the left. He’s part of the slimy Hollywood elite. #MAGA2020” Clarke tweeted.

Clarke also said he “can’t wait” for the FBI to announce federal charges against Smollett for mailing a “hoax letter” to the television studio, noting that it’s a crime punishable by five to 10 years in federal prison.

“Can’t wait for the FBI to hold their news conference to announce FEDERAL CHARGES against @JussieSmollett for mailing that hoax letter to the studio. That is MAIL FRAUD punishable by 5-10 years in federal prison. Don’t turn away from this folks or it will go away. #MAGA2020,” Clarke tweeted.

In any event, Smollett also has close ties with Democrat politicians, among them the Obamas, Kamala Harris, and Cory Booker. Booker and Harris vouched for his credibility and promoted the hoax. 

He also has ties to numerous Hollywood characters who like Democratic politicians. My favorite meathead, Rob Reiner, who never misses a chance to miss, immediately blamed his hallucinatory vision of Trump and Trump supporters. He also has ties to numerous Hollywood  characters who like Democratic politicians supported Smollett's false claim.He tweeted:

The horrific attack on Jussie Smollett has no place in a decent human loving society. Homophobia existed before Trump, but there is no question that since he has injected his hatred into the American bloodstream, we are less decent, less human, & less loving. No intolerance! No DT!

--Rob Reiner (@robreiner) January 30, 2019 

Tonight is Oscars night, with an expected lower than ever viewing audience. Smollett says he’s checking into rehab and now blames drug addiction for the hoax. So many Hollywood miscreants are in rehab these days; I expect that’s where the best Oscar parties will take place. Like most of us, I’m still waiting to see what happens to the jerks that fomented the hoax Russian collusion story.