The fact that it seems nothing is going to happen is actually quite a big deal for America's status as a moral authority around the world.
It used to be that when there was a high profile crime, like Bernie Madoff's swindle, or Enron, there was a consensus that *somebody* had to go to prison. And there used to be a lot of talk about whether the person being blamed was really the one who did it, or if they're a scapegoat or fall-guy, and the real criminals got away...
But the fact that someone would have to be publicly punished was taken for granted - because (it was considered) if there's no punishment then there's no law.
This started to change during the 2008 global financial crisis. Nobody (in the US) went to jail for that - though it was kind of argued that it was nobody's fault and it just "happened". This argument didn't really hold water, and Occupy Wall Street emerged as a result.
Now we have this, and the DOJ and the president have gone on record saying there's nothing, so at the very least they have perjured themselves and made themselves accomplices to the crime.
And there's good enough reason to imagine nothing comes from this at all, nothing came from the GFC or COVID. But the effect of that is America becomes less and less of a moral authority - and that for example: America wants Iran, Russia wants Ukraine, China wants Taiwan. There are no heroes in this story, just power and desire.
For everyone else, this means the winning move is to do whatever you can get away with, and if you are caught - that's just a matter of bad luck. No different than the bad luck if you're robbed by someone else who has no morals.
It's impossible to overstate how damaging that situation is. When this becomes the rule then everyone in military or government soon begins siphoning off whatever resources they can, and soon the entire state becomes paralyzed by thievery. The leaky bucket that made California unable to build a simple high speed rail system becomes universal to everything.
The quote in the picture is relative to an event in 416 BC when Athens demanded that the small island of Melos submit to becoming an Athenian territory. Despite just a few thousand population, Melos insisted on maintaining neutrality vis à vis Athens and Sparta who were at war. To Athens's demand, they responded by appealing to international law and norms, to which Athens replied with the infamous quote. Melos was destroyed, all men executed, women and children enslaved. But only 1 year later, Athens would embark on an expedition to Sicily, and here they were not so successful. They went to Sicily in search of gold to plunder so they could plug the hole in the budget left by the war with Sparta. It took only two years before Athens suffered a crushing defeat in 413. They never recovered from this, and their empire finally totally collapsed 9 years later. In all, it was 12 years from the time of the quote, until Spartan soldiers were marching through the city of Athens.
12 years ago the Deepwater Horizon oil spill was finally plugged, and rioting in Ferguson, Missouri kicked off the start of what became BLM.
12 years is all that stands between loss of moral authority and total imperial collapse.
