Newly released emails from Wikileaks show that aides became alarmed when President Barack Obama assured the public that he had learned about Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state “the same time everybody else learned it, through news reports.” Cheryl D. Mills, a top aide who featured prominently in the email scandal and insisted on immunity before turning over a laptop with classified information, flagged the issue to say that Obama sent emails to Clinton’s private email. There is also an exchange of campaign officials complaining that close Clinton aides withheld the information of the email scandal because “they wanted to get away with it.” As I discussed in a recent column, these Wikileaks memos have confirmed the worst assumptions of voters about the dishonesty and evasion of their government. It has turned this into America’s Game of Thrones election.
The White House quickly corrected the President’s comments and said that, while he used the private email, he really did not realize it was not a .gov email. I am willing to accept that account for a man who is incredibly busy. However, I remain amazed that security staff did not raise any alarm over the president corresponding with the Secretary of State over a private email system.
The more interesting exchange came between Neera Tanden, another adviser, and campaign manager John Podesta on March 2, 2015. Tanden complained about the impact of the undisclosed problem and blamed Ms. Mills for another “Cheryl special.” The complaint is a familiar one: that close Clinton aides reflect the same self-defeating secrecy and evasion as their candidate, a subject of a prior column. Tanden asked “Why didn’t they get this stuff out like 18 months ago? So crazy,” Podesta responded simply with “Unbelievable.” Tanden then responded “i guess I know the answer. they wanted to get away with it.”
In a direct slam of Clinton’s judgment (a major campaign theme), Podesta says “We’ve taken on a lot of water that won’t be easy to pump out of the boat. Most of that has to do with terrible decisions made pre-campaign, but a lot has to do with her instincts.” Tanden responds “Almost no one knows better [than] me that her instincts can be terrible.”
Podesta also shows the coordination between the Administration and the campaign in withholding embarrassing emails. Obviously, emails with the president would be treated as presumptively classified. Podesta tells Mills “Think we should hold emails to and from POTUS. We could get them to ask for that.”
We still do not know what how much Nixon knew about the Watergate operation. We do know that he apologized. Almost a half-century later, in similar crimes by Clinton, including, but in no way limited, to the email scandal, repentance has been replaced by indignant lack of apology. Clinton is an exemplar of the liberal establishment’s entitlement to unquestioned fealty and unchecked power.
Trump, despite his flaws, will be the first Presidential candidate to have been victimized, in what is clearly a well-funded media mobbing campaign. Clinton is a woman who shamed her sex addict husband’s female victims. In pointing the finger at Trump, for Trump’s alleged sexual misbehavior, without addressing her husband’s philandering and alleged sexual assaults, Clinton shows contempt in her hypocrisy. After the release of the Billy Bush tape, the media brought forward an onslaught of Trump’s alleged victims while minimizing coverage of numerous alleged victims of Mr. Clinton over the last 40 years. The media even peddled an adult porn star as a victim of Trump’s sexual solicitation. The media bias and hypocrisy could not be more clear vis-a-vis the one-sided coverage of the numerous allegations against Trump while all but ignoring Clinton’s misbehavior- he did, after all, have sexual relations with a young and impressionable White House intern. There are already allegations of vote rigging in Texas. Trump will likely face a robbery, in one or more swing states, meeting the same fate as Gore. Perhaps it will be Florida again, it would make a great inside joke for the Clinton campaign. After all, they feel entitled to get away with high crimes and misdemeanors.
Yes Mitch. We would prefer a peaceful resolution with Russia, with China, fill in the blanks. We are tired of spending money and sacrificing our military personnel so the MIC can make more money.
To be more exact F**k the Left wing fascists of the Regressive Movement. As a soldier I support the Constitution using whatever means necessary. As an individual I would love to see the eat S**t. As it happens the two go together and if not this year then we go into full counter revolution mode.
I had to borrow a bit of Radical Reasoning. My apologies to the ‘decent’ people of the country.
No one cares about Michael Moore. He’s just trying to get press coverage since his last movie bombed in the box office. Must ingratiate oneself with the Hollywood powerful!
Just keep your daughters away from the White House!
Clintonitis return to the Oval Office? A not so rare form of the disease of sexism? Got that right.
Of course, if a real investigation into the email scandal took place, Clinton would be prosecuted and blocked from running for president. That is precisely why there has been no real investigation, and why there won’t ever be one — unless, of course, Trump is elected president. The Elite Establishment, and the political operatives, including the Presstitute Media, are 100% behind Clinton; so they are doing everything in their power to shut down any investigations into Clinton and even to silence any criticism of her whatsoever. They are succeeding in this objective.
The choice for Americans is not a difficult. You can vote for corruption, higher crime rates, more terrorism, more wars, a greater deterioration of the economy, higher inflation, further erosion of civil liberties, and nonstop waste, fraud, mismanagement, and a continued fleecing of the American middle class. If you want to vote for those things, just vote for Clinton. That’s simple enough.
If you want to try something different, with a chance to vote against those things, you can vote Trump. Here’s Pat Condell’s informed take on the US presidential election:
Then why aren’t all Republicans campaigning for Trump? Prove no one is above the law by electing Trump so this country gets Justice. Baffles me.
Are you really that stupid? The majority of establishment GOP are all about corporate control and endless warfare. Naturally they won’t support Trump. They fear him. HRC shares their same agenda. Same coin, different sides. Pathetic.
Sandra,
What this election should be making very clear is that the US is run by an oligarchy. The oligarchy consists of people from any party, color, sexual orientation, gender, etc. Republican or Democratic makes no difference.
If you look at the people lined up to support Clinton you will see very high powered Republicans, all the banking industry, all the deep state, most of the war machiners and silicon valley. That’s the oligarchy and she is their candidate.
I wish people would pay attention to her backers. They are screaming a message to the American people about who she really is and who she will serve. She will not serve the people or the planet.
Most Republicans are RINOs and/or are in cahoots with the Democrats. Listen to Pat Condell’s clear and on point commentary.
Hillary, Hillary, Hillary. A song for Queen Hillary. Another Lonesome Day.
This is a very important article: “The Hillary Clinton administration, Slick Willie part II, will bring catastrophe unless there is constant agitation waged against it. The same woman who bragged that her party platform was progressive now brags that Republicans endorse her. The situation is urgent but there is no need to despair or to reinvent the wheel. There are groups across the country engaging in protest and they show a clear path for a liberation movement.
http://blackagendareport.com/organizing_in_age_of_hillary
@Jill, October 26, 2016 at 1:32 pm
“Here is an interesting reflection from Camus. ‘It demands only that we reflect and then decide, clearly, whether humanity’s lot must be made still more miserable [now] in order to achieve far-off and
shadowy ends,…’ ”
Or, more pointedly, “Our means__ are they not our ends?”
Judge Judy is ahead of JT on the Clinton list of potential SCOTUS appointments.
LOL. That would make sense. It’s the sincerest compliment she can give him.
She would never ever pick someone who would remain independent.
Nick, I think the Professor is a solid liberal, which makes his defense of Hillary somewhat tainted. I hope she puts him on the Court. Our Constitution might survive if she did. But she’s working for Socialism so he won’t be on the Court. I hope the decline and fall of this country is slow. I’m 75 and might not have to watch.
No transparency, no openness, no democracy, NO strength, no justice.
No transparency, no openness, no democracy, so strength, no justice. Pericles advertized that argument 25 centuries ago. It originally came from his wife, a philosopher, and her colleagues.
Colin Powell and Conde Rice deleted their emails too. For good reason! Secretary’s of State spend all day dealing with foreign intrigues. That’s essentially their job. One imagines that a high ratio of their correspondence concerns Presidents, Kings, Ambassadors and Revolutionaries. No wonder Hillary wouldn’t want these coming out through Freedom Of Information requests. Especially when Judicial Watch has been stalking her for 22 years. At least half the people mentioned in her emails are probably still in power. I don’t blame her in the least for deleting them.
The Clinton campaign has sent out trolls, paid and otherwise, to try and defend her indefensible actions. There’s always a clue about a troll, when they mention previous Secretary’s of State..TROLL. I doubt Peter Hill is a paid one.
Good grief!
They work for us. They are not authorized to delete them.
Well Peter,
You have joined the many Hillary supporters who could care less about the rule of law. Those aren’t “her” e-mails. They belong to the public. That is what US law says.
I realize the govt.inc. feels it is completely above the law. In addition they have rigged our system to make themselves above the law. Still, that isn’t the way things should happen. As you cheer the destruction of the rule of law, in the end, even citizens such as yourself will end up ruing the day that you let the powerful be unleashed upon society with nothing to stop them from committing all the harm they wish, even on the most obedient totalitarians.
I suspect that second paragraph of your reply is a stock rebuttal you’ve using for years. With the slightest change of wording that could be a response to gun restrictions, marijuana legalization, tax hikes, etc.
The communications of the secretary of state are public property and deleting them arbitrarily is a violation of state department regulations and doing so while they were subject of a subpoena was a violation of federal law. Full stop.
Stop apologizing for corruption and criminality in the corridors of power with specious and inane arguments.
Powell and Rice were not selling “pay to play”. Was it OK for her to break another law? Those e-mails were under supoena by Congress. Congress can review Classified material. But, brace yourself, she’s on her way to butchering the Constitution and your freedoms. Please don’t complain when that happens.
Tim Black discusses Obama’s lies, the crumbling of HRC’s firewalls in the black and hispanic communities, etc.
Starts at 10:38…
@Autumn, October 26, 2016 at 11:20 am
“Gov. Terry McAuliffe ‘Coincidentally’ Helps His Good Friend, Hillary Clinton”
Here’s additional recent evidence supporting the notion that Hillary received “somewhat” preferential treatment by the FBI:
Hillary’s 33,000 Emails Might Not be ‘Missing’ After All
”It turns out that investigators also know the whereabouts of the original Apple server Clinton used in her first two months in office. Recovering that equipment is critical because it contains a mass of unseen emails from Jan. 21, 2009, to March 18, 2009 — a critical period in Clinton’s tenure at State. Witnesses say the equipment was not discarded, as first believed, but ‘repurposed’ as a ‘work station’ used by staff in Clinton’s Chappaqua residence.
“Yet the FBI says it ‘was unable to obtain the original Apple server for a forensic review.’ Instead of seizing it, the agency has taken Clinton’s aides’ and lawyers’ word that the server’s bereft of relevant emails. In fact, the agency confesses on Page 27 of its 47-page investigative case summary that it failed to recover other equipment and data as well: ‘The FBI’s inability to recover all server equipment and the lack of complete server log data for the relevant time period limited the FBI’s forensic analysis of the server systems.
“As a result, FBI cyber analysis relied, in large part, on witness statements.’ “Congressional investigators say FBI Director James Comey in his year-long ‘investigation’ didn’t even bother to send agents to search Clinton’s homes in Chappaqua or Washington, DC. Nor did he dispatch them to the offices of the Clinton Foundation or Clinton Executive Services Corp. in New York City.
“ ‘The Clinton residences and other locations should have been treated like any other criminal investigation — with federal grand jury subpoenas or search warrants issued by judges and served in the middle of the night,’ said veteran FBI special agent Michael M. Biasello, who worked criminal cases out of New York and other field offices for 27 years.
“ ‘Never — I repeat, never — in my career have I or any FBI agent known to me investigated a criminal case without the use of a federal grand jury, grand jury subpoenas or search warrants,’ he said. ‘It’s disgraceful they weren’t used in this case.’ [Emphasis added]
“The most damning evidence against Clinton may never have been actually destroyed. It was simply left untouched by the FBI.”
https://nypost.com/2016/10/25/hillarys-33000-emails-might-not-be-missing-after-all/
Ken, thanx for posting that. It gets worse and worse yet I am unable to pull myself away from this train wreck….
It’s such a helpless feeling, watching the country you love descend into lawlessness, corruption, and the rise of a ruling government class.
I’ve been reading Clinton Cash and am just gobsmacked at the shenanigans. Like a guy letting Bill Clinton use his private jet (again) to fly to Kazakstan. Bill introduces his buddy to the resident human rights abusing dictator, the buddy gets a lucrative uranium mining deal, with absolutely zero experience in uranium and ahead of all the companies that actually do have experience. And then Bill publicly supports said dictator to run a human rights organization. Because I guess all his experience at torture renders him qualified? And his stated reason for the trip in the first place was to discuss getting HIV victims access to low cost treatment…only Kazakstan has only 1500 HIV patients in the entire country, and has one of the lowest rates of infection in the world.
Just unbelievable. Actually proving pay to play is quite difficult. It could all be a series of happy coincidences…like winning the lottery 35 times in a row. But with Wikileaks, perhaps we finally will get more evidence of corruption. Like the “Friends of Bill” donors who won lucrative contracts to get aid money to Haiti.
KarenS spot on re: “It’s such a helpless feeling, watching the country you love descend into lawlessness, corruption, and the rise of a ruling government class.” This state of affairs affects all thinking people of integrity from all walks of life and across the political spectrum.
Karen and Autumn,
Here is an interesting reflection from Camus. I think it fits our time period as well. “NEITHER VICTIMS NOR EXECUTIONERS by Albert Camus
Yes, we must raise our voices. Up to this point, I have refrained from
appealing to emotion. We are being torn apart by a logic of history which
we have elaborated in every detail–a net which threatens to strangle us…
To save what can be saved so as to open up some kind of future–that is
the prime mover, the passion and the sacrifice that is required. It
demands only that we reflect and then decide, clearly, whether humanity’s
lot must be made still more miserable in order to achieve far-off and
shadowy ends, whether we should accept a world bristling with arms where
brother kills brother; or whether, on the contrary, we should avoid
bloodshed and misery as much as possible so that we give a chance for
survival to later generations better equipped than we are…
We are asked to love or to hate such and such a country and such and
such a people. But some of us feel too strongly our common humanity to
make such a choice…”
Jill, excellent post.
I have always considered myself to be a citizen of the world – probably because I am an American but grew up in Germany. And I still think there is no “best nation” that each state has its own unique pros and cons,
However, since this election stuff began I find myself actually feeling a sense of patriotism – no, I am not blind to our national ills and overseas misadventures – but I’ve met so many amazing people during this saga it makes me realize what a remarkable nation this is in terms of a true melting pot and our potential.
Both Trump and Stein want to stop senseless regime change that only benefits the MIC. They want to invest in the US. We, the people, must wrest our country back from the corporados.
@ Jill and Autumn, I’m a 100% disabled vet can you imagine how the men and woman who have served our nation feel if you feel helpless? I see Clinton and the dems more concerned about the welfare of the illegal alien then they do for the American men and woman of the military.
I visit the blog periodically using different names only for the humor I find in the names I use, but I admire you ladies and the “Squeeker” for saying what needs to be said. I wish more Americans would feel your patriotism and support it. Small things I see happening tells me American patriotism at this moment in time is dying. From my eyes I see an insurgency from Socialist, Marxist and Communists but my eyes are from a different era.
Keep the fight up for our children and grandchildren.
@ J Pismo Clam Jill and Autumn, I am a female who will be voting in my 7th presidential election. The pace and depth of the deterioration of my belief in this great experiment called the United States of America over the last number of years is astonishing and leaves me with a feeling of despair.
Hearing my highly educated colleagues blindly promote their allegiance to Hillary simply because she espouses faux support of one group of people or another leaves me in despair. I challenge us all to understand the truth that history teaches us — sophisticated civilizations that were older and larger than ours have fallen from within.
All of us should read or watch the four following sources: “Clinton Cash” by Peter Schweizer, “The Intimidation Game” by Kimberley Strassel, “A Wolf’s in Sheep’s Clothing,” a film about Saul Alinsky, and “Occupy Unmasked,” Brietbart’s final film. One may resist to this suggestion because they feel that these sources have a slanted point of view. I challenge you to rise above this perception. The four disparate sources taken as a whole weave a story. J Pismo Clam, I fear you are right! Thank you for your service!
And I admire you, sir!
Well said.
@J Pismo Clam
Thanks for your kind words. I am sorry to hear that your service resulted in permanent disabilities. Unfortunately, the US has never taken care of its military vets – nice welcome home parades, write ups about honor and service and then they kick our warriors to the curb. But it seems worse now than it has been in several decades. I’m sure you are familiar with Marine General Smedley Butler’s most excellent book “War is A Racket” written back in 1934.
I watched Obama’s Town Hall at Ft. Lee a few weeks ago and it made me so angry. He could care less about the people’s concerns – the woman who lost her husband because the VA missed his colon cancer and the doctor is still employed there, the service women who has served in combat married to another service member who has served multiple combat tours–her concern was that mixed gender combat groups perform poorly (because it is a man’s natural instinct to protect a female) and cited a valid study. She was concerned as her husband will be deployed to Afghanistan and will be in a mixed unit. Obama mumbled something inane about giving women the opportunity blah blah.
How can a person be a Commander in Chief if he/she knows nothing about the military? Bernie was a CO, however, he worked on various committees at least to improve the benefits for service members.
I think Tusli Gabbard would make an excellent candidate in 2020. She served in combat with the National Guard although she could have received an exemption. So she understands fully the ramifications of war. Also, she is very bright and had the “balls” to stand up against the Demoncrat establishment.
I am more Left (Progressive) than you as I grew up in post Cold War Germany – people pay a lot of taxes there but they also get free education/vocational training, no one goes bankrupt from medical bills, infrastructure is maintained and until recently there was not such a huge economic disparity. Over here it’s the corporations that receive the subsidies with the exception of the very poor on welfare.
I like this blog very much – learning so much from various people and different perspectives. Overall (except for the odd troll) I think most commenters are all people who care deeply about the fate of this nation — and the world at large. I like the women here too – nice change from my Hilbot friends =) And Squeek is a creative genius.
If I have it right you abandoned one country then came to a new one apparently took the oath of office again as a citizen and as a member of the military?
Then you should know this is not a democracy it is a republic that uses Democratic Principles at it’s grass roots base. You won’t find the word Democracy in the Constitution but you will find a guarantee of a Republic form of government.
If we have one fault it’s not asking our young people at age 18 if they accept the social contract and if not assist them in moving elsewhere. We do them no favors by assuming they wish to live in and as a part of a Constitutional Republic that uses Representative Democracy as it’s grass roots base. I am anti military conscription unlike the Democrat party but if we have to have it – it should be equal. Nothing in the Constitution exempts women from the draft. They should pay the same price as do the men to get their school funding and government jobs.
For the record my oath of office for 24 years as a soldier says support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic. I do not support the Party and I don’t support national nor international socialism nor it’s in country leaders like Comrade Bernie and Comrade Clinton.
And I am old enough and experienced enough and educated enough to know the difference and to know what voluntarily taking an oath of office means.
My oath of office for 24 years as a soldier says support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic. I am also half foreign born one US Parent, in Europe and during WWII. I note you background and inconsistencies.
The URL below offers courses paid for by the tuition of students at Hillsdale, the staff volunteering their time, and donations. No government funding. But nothing is free.
It only takes some time but I offer this since your background indicates some confusion. We are not a democracy. Our roots are representative democracy only at the grass roots level. We are a Constitutional Republic and Democracy is nowhere mentioned. A republic form of government is however guaranteed.
https://online.hillsdale.edu/courses/
At first I was a bit ‘hot’ rewrote this several times know that my time in the combat arms asl primary an infantry soldier I was fully cognizant of that oath of office. I do not support socialist fascism as presented in this current election cycle. I do NOT support the party nor Comrade Bernie much less Comrade Clinton.
in any case never mention a perceived problem without offering a solution. Education is usually the answer and it is free to you but others pay for it.
Germany by the way is a Capitalist based government with a social conscience. So are Sweden, NZ etc.
I also do not support the draft or military conscription. That dubious distinction belongs to our left wing here in the USA.
You won’t find real education in many places anymore. But you should know enough to give your citizenship and military oath of office some meaning. this is one of the few that is for independent thinkers who can use reason and do not need programming.
Two words come to mind here: Plausible Deniability
You would have to be totally stupid not to know what was going on follow the money$$$$$$
Incredible how people just don’t get it. Impeachment will happen if and when Wall St. wants it to happen.
The colors the pols wear when they carry the ball is a throw back to another
eraerror.One candidate is still more likely to have that happen. The other would get a finger-wagging and a tsk tsk.
Absolutely, but to make blanket statements about one party or the other simply doesn’t hew to the facts. They are both as corrupt as hell which is exactly the way Wall Street wants it.
Trump would get the ire of Wall St. largely to the degree that he didn’t play ball with them, which unfortunately doesn’t mean he is not susceptible to corruption; merely that he doesn’t want to carry the ball for Wall St. or the MIC for the time being (though notice that he is surrounding himself with people who do). Hillary, on the other hand has two missions in life that can be boiled down to one. 1) She wants her coronation and her throne and 2) Has made a career of carrying the ball, the water, what ever is wanted, for Wall St. The two are essentially the same thing. The American throne Hillary wants is more ceremonial than people realize, but it still carries immense power by comparison with say, England.
This is a case of the one you know is definitely a liar versus the one you don’t know but doesn’t seem to be. It’s about the Supreme Court. Totally. If you want the Constitution trashed and your rights taken, vote for her. But if you want the Constitution respected by the Court with nominees from a list of conservative-approved candidates, vote for Trump. That is the single most important thing about this election!