An actual insurrection

Employees at the Institute of Peace went to war.

The Daily Caller reported that the Department of Justice may prosecute the mutineers at the U.S. Institute of Peace, foolishly founded by President Reagan. In 41 years, the institute has not stopped the Gulf War, the Afghanistan War, the Iraqi War and various combat deployments around the world.

Wikipedia describes the institute as a nonpartisan independent agency but “receiving funding only through a congressional appropriation to prevent outside influence.” Ah, the purity of government funding. I suppose Wikipedia could describe the Gestapo as a nonpartisan independent agency that was funded solely by the Reichstag to prevent outside influence.

The Institute of Peace has—or had—300 employees and cost taxpayers $55 million a year. That works out to $183,333.33 per employee. Compensation (wage and benefits) for federal employees average $143,643 a year, so basically this is—or was—a bureaucracy that existed only to employ its employees. Its mission was to promote peace.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono used that as an excuse to spend a week in bed. The Institute Ono Band should cut a record, All We Are Saying, Is Give Me A Job.

The agency is not useful and not independent. It is part of the executive branch. The president is chief of the executive branch. The Constitution says so. Trump is euthanizing it to save taxpayers $55 million a year. Instead of obeying his orders to disperse, employees at the Institute of Peace did not go away peacefully.

The New York Times called it the “Showdown at the Institute of Peace.” It took place on St. Patrick’s Day.

NYT said, “The dispute at the Institute of Peace began on a Friday, March 14, when Trent Morse, the deputy director of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, fired all 10 voting members of the organization’s board—five Democrats and five Republicans—laying the ground work for a takeover. DOGE tried to enter the building twice that day, bringing what they called a formal resolution removing George Moose, the institute’s acting president, and installing Kenneth Jackson, a State Department employee, in his place.”

The story also said, “Over that weekend, Colin O’Brien, the institute’s head of security, posted No Trespassing signs on the building’s front entrance—an ominous precursor to the events that would soon unfold.”

On Monday, St, Patrick’s Day, “Mr. O’Brien arrived at the office early, followed by other top staff, including Mr. Moose, who had refused to accept his removal.”

They shut out the institute’s private security and contacted NYT to document the mutiny. The new crew appointed by Trump brought in staff from the private security firm, Inter-Con. I almost heard the Theme from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly as I read the report.

NYT reported, “The Inter-Con employees tried to use their institute badges to enter the building via tap access. The badges didn’t work. When the Inter-Con contract was suspended the night before, Mr. O’Brien said, institute staff had ended the private security workers’ badge access and collected all keys—except for one.

“Unable to enter through the front doors, the Inter-Con employees approached a side entrance. Mr. O’Brien said that Inter-Con’s Kevin Simpson, who managed the company’s contract with the institute, had held onto a master key, which he used to enter the building and bring the others with him.

“Mr. O’Brien and two lawyers for the institute ran downstairs to confront them. ‘We informed them that they are not authorized to be in the building,’ Mr. O’Brien said.”

O’Brien, who is suing the Trump administration, said, “DOGE threatened to cancel every federal contract Inter-Con held if they did not come to the USIP building and let Kenneth Jackson inside.”

Jackson is the new head of the institute. Why should he not be allowed in the institute’s building? Taxpayers have paid Inter-Con more than $2 billion over the years. Of course it had to let Jackson in. He’s the institution’s boss now. Inter-Con should have kicked the fired employees out.

NYT said, “The Inter-Con employees tried to use their institute badges to enter the building via tap access. The badges didn’t work. When the Inter-Con contract was suspended the night before, Mr. O’Brien said, institute staff had ended the private security workers’ badge access and collected all keys—except for one.

“Unable to enter through the front doors, the Inter-Con employees approached a side entrance. Mr. O’Brien said that Inter-Con’s Kevin Simpson, who managed the company’s contract with the institute, had held onto a master key, which he used to enter the building and bring the others with him.”

Congress and the courts established in 2021 that interfering with an official act is an insurrection. O’Brien and his band of mutineers (no other word describes them better) won’t face such charges but AG Pam Bondi is floating the balloon of prosecution, using the Daily Caller as its balloon pilot. The Daily Caller story cited an unnamed official.

The Daily Caller said, “The official, who requested anonymity, told the DCNF the DOJ is examining whether certain USIP actions—such as the removal and destruction of internal and external door locks—created illegal fire hazards. The official also flagged the widespread distribution of internal flyers instructing USIP staff not to cooperate with incoming Trump administration officials as potentially obstructive conduct. The DCNF was the first to report on USIP’s internal flyer campaign and destruction of door locks.”

The Institute of Peace began planning its battle a month before Trump decided to kill it.

The Daily Caller reported, “USIP leadership began preparing for a confrontation weeks before the executive order was issued. A Feb. 6 internal document exclusively obtained by the DCNF outlined plans to deny building access to outside officials and reasserted the institute’s discretion over security systems and facilities. Flyers with the names and photos of Department of Government Efficiency officials were posted throughout the building, instructing staff to report their presence and avoid conversation.”

Warriors at the Institute of Peace learned from the January 30 Battle of US AID in which employees at that bureaucracy acted like racketeers trying to prevent a raid by the feds.

The Jeff Bezos Post reported, “A career official tried to undo Trump’s purge at US AID. He was then purged, too.”

As well he should be.

Nicholas Gottlieb, the purged director of employee and labor relations at US AID, wrote, “DOGE instructed me to violate the due process of our employees by issuing immediate termination notices to a group of employees without due process. I was notified moments ago that I will be placed on administrative leave, effective immediately. It has been an honor working with you all.”

What due process? The president eliminated their agency as a waste and a detriment to Trump’s foreign policy. He put the agency under Secretary of State Marco Rubio. We elected him, not some person whose main accomplishment in life was passing a Civil Service test.

The strategy is to delay Trump as long as possible in an attempt to shorten his four-year reign by tying his time up in frivolous lawsuits that enable out-of-control judges to issue Red Queen orders of off with their department heads. One judge even tried to order government planes to turn around in midair.

These are district judges whose orders are based neither on the law nor the Constitution. In fact, the orders fly in the face of both the law and the Constitution.

Some are showing restraint. The Daily Caller noted, “While a federal judge declined to issue a restraining order halting the leadership transition Wednesday, she sharply criticized DOGE’s cooperation with law enforcement, despite the circumstances surrounding USIP’s refusal to comply.”

The arsonists who attack Tesla wish to terrorize us. The administration has vowed to prosecute them as the terrorists they are. Tesla stock is up 61% in the last year as the terrorists fail to intimidate investors.

But the real damage to the nation is the refusal of federal employees to obey the Constitution which vests executive power in the president and not them. They are the election deniers.

Prosecute the mutineers and get the Supreme Court to require any restraining order on a president to be issued by the Supreme Court and not by power-mad, little Boasbergs. The peaceful transition of power once was a hallmark of our country. Thanks to Obama and Biden, it is a distant memory.

NOTE: Comments are open to all, today only.