Saturday, October 29, 2016

Comey, the Clintons, and the Painful Road Ahead

Way back when the Clintons were invited out of Arkansas onto the national stage many voices from their home state warned the nation that they would be the source of endless pain and corruption.

Bill was most oft the focus then -- he was the candidate -- but others spoke of how Hillary had tainted both the personal and the professional lives of everyone she had come in contact with.

Such word came from lawyers who had worked with both Bill and Hillary, members of their staff, fellow politicians and even from the Arkansas State Troopers who had been charged with their protection.

The words were always the same: That these people -- the Clintons --were self-serving and destructive like few others even in the rather less than saintly field of southern politics.

FBI Director James Comey, on the other hand, was once a man almost universally respected. Even with the political stakes so very high people on both sides felt comfortable with him at the helm of the investigations into both the growing email scandal and the other possible wrongs connected  with what has come to be called "Clinton Inc." -- the Clinton Foundation.

But then somehow, be it though the sweet syrup of enticement or the raising of acid threats, Director Comey for a time fell -- clearly entrapped -- his name and reputation ruined. And his agency -- the vaunted FBI -- likewise.

Then, just this past week, something unexpected happened: New evidence appeared that would allow for the re-opening of at least one of those investigations - thus possible undoing of the taint of corruption that had enveloped both Comey and his agency.

Comey, we learned yesterday, grabbed that opportunity.

Taking such an investigation public is somewhat unusual.  But in an initially private memo -- now made public -- Comey explained why he felt compelled to do so...

“We don’t ordinarily tell Congress about ongoing investigations," he wrote, "but here I feel an obligation to do so given that I testified repeatedly in recent months that our investigation was completed. I also think it would be misleading to the American people were we not to supplement the record."

How much Comey's own personal need to clear his name and reputation entered into the picture, along with the his desire to undo what so many see as a great miscarriage of justice, we simply cannot know. Possible Comey himself does not know. But whatever his motivations -- be they for personal redemption or the good of the republic -- good this most certainly is.

This event and all that will follow will not be "clean." Extracting one's self from the snare of sin never is. And no matter how pure Comey's and his fellow FBI investigators' motives are in reopening this investigation (or investigations), there will also be an ugly political side to everything that transpires.

Looking back we can now say -- just as we'd been warned -- that it would have been better for all concerned had the Clintons had never been invited out of Arkansas onto the national scene.  But at least FBI Director Comey is now trying to undo some of the hurt and damage they have done -- both to him and to our nation.

And for that at least we should be thankful.


Monday, October 24, 2016

Is The Election Actually "Rigged"?

Is this election "rigged" as Donald Trump is saying?

Read articles addressing this question in the mainstream media and you likely will think that it is not. That such is a gross exaggeration, if not a total falsehood.  Such articles consistently point to the relatively small number of fraudulent votes in comparison to the enormous total number, and thus conclude that such "rigging" has no real meaning.

Even framed that way, however, such an explanation and conclusion is seriously flawed.

A hypodermic needle may puncture just one ten millionth of a person's skin, leaving hardly any visual trace, but when carefully placed into just the right vein, and if carrying the right poison, such can none-the-less kill the victim dead.

However the election being "rigged" doesn't just mean phony vote tallies and votes cast by illegitimate voters. It also means all the many myriad things the establishment does to control the outcome of the election. This includes the creating of false, but endlessly repeated, stories about one candidate, while hiding possibly far more damaging stories about the other. It includes the burying of stories of worth while filling the media's 'pages' with distracting stories of no real consequence. It includes the giving of microphones as it were to some voices, while putting gags over the mouths of others.

"Rigging" the election includes allowing some money to speak -- that of pro-power structure unions for example -- while at the same time, by carefully framed law, cutting off the voices of "money" that speaks for others. -That because their voices speak against the establishment's approved outcome.

Also of note is that what Donald Trump is saying about the election being "rigged" ties right in with his equally forceful declarations that in a real sense such is equally true for many, many other things. -Things that impact our entire lives, not just the election.

The tax laws, for instance. Where wealthy people such as he can write off  many of their daily expenses, but we -- those of more average means -- cannot.

The setting up of a system where massive failures such as that of investment banker Goldman Sachs are bailed out by the public treasury, but where the consequences of such failures on the 'little people' continue to rest on those people's own shoulders. They pay the taxes, but 'the bennies' go to others.

-A system where the powerful - or those who speak in favor of the outcome such prefer -- is given a loud microphone, while the voices of those seen as insignificant -- or even the rich and powerful (such as Trump) -- who speak against the 'preferred' outcome are muffled or, when that cannot be done, silenced with public ridicule.

If all that be true, what do the rest of us have that can possibly counter it?  The vote.

Yes the vote. That little and seemingly insignificant "voice" that when placed in union with like-minded others can amplify a message so loud that it drowns out that of those who have placed themselves, and their interests, above us.

In conclusion, then, yes, the election is "rigged." It has been rigged. And it has been rigged against us.

No, we are not supposed to know it.  In fact no one is supposed to even say it. (Least of all a wealthy powerful man such as is Donald Trump!)

Is there anything we can do about it?

Yes.  We can vote.

We can vote against the interests of those who lord it over us.

We can ignore the "noise" and false stories, and dig in deep and find the truth. -How things actually are.

We can put our voices together and make a noise so loud that it cannot be drowned out.

And this election that means ignoring the smears, ignoring the lies, and voting for Donald Trump




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Saturday, October 8, 2016

Some Thoughts on Trump's "Indiscreet" Words

Odd. Maybe I am odd. But while I loath this type of talk -- and I, like I suppose every man on God's good green earth has heard lots of it -- I think that it is in reality a bunch of trumped-up nonsense.

Maybe the pundits are correct. -That the world of make-believe is that real and the power of the media to feed and control people's brains that strong.

I listened to Trump's response and thought it perfect. He is what he is and we right now desperately need that strength. That "alpha male" thing.

Such used to be called simply manliness. Guys spoke this way at pubs and then put their life on the line for their wife, mothers and sisters. That while keeping picture of Betty Grable in their tent, undressing her further in their mind's eye than the times then allowed in a picture.

Now its all namby pamby. Pajama boy. Obama on his bicycle with his little helmet.

Are there enough of the above to sway this election so totally? Perhaps.

Seeing frightened Republicans turn and run -- "OMG! OMG!" -- is sad. It is pathetic. It is they that got us here. They, IMO, more than anyone else.

I don't care for that kind of speech. And in the office I avoided it as best I could. But I'd rather have a Trump than these others.

Yes, even now.

Can we get 51% to agree?
Are we willing to try. Really, really try?
On this the Republic stands or falls.


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