At Its Core, Hillary's Emails Revolve Around One Question

Is the government of the United States "theirs" or "ours" ?

That's it. Pretty simple really. If the government is to truly be "of" the people, "for" the people, and "by" the people, i.e OUR government, run on our behalf and with our consent, then some safeguards have to be put in place to ensure that outcome. Principle among those safeguards are two major guidelines - Transparency and Accountability.

Accountability, as we all know, was built into the foundation of the country with the concept of checks and balances and Congressional oversight over the Executive branch in order to thwart would be monarchists or oligarchs who would seize power and control on their own behalf.

In order to have Accountability, you have to be able to see the things people are doing or there's nothing to be accountable for. So Transparency is the handmaiden that serves Accountability and makes it possible. That's why we have hearings and commissions and why most of them are held in public. That's why your town puts the Town Council meetings on TV and why we have so-called "sunshine laws" and the FOIA.

What Hillary did from the very inception of her time as Secretary of State was to determine that her actions and communications as SOS were literally hers. She put her missives in a dark, unknown and shadowy place, a privately owned server located in the basement of her privately owned home. It is physically impossible to convey her need for proprietorship over her words, historically valuable as predictors or reflectors of her actions, more than that.

Hillary's response to sunshine laws is that of a vampire. She acts as though it will literally kill her to allow the great unwashed to see her interactions with the privileged classes of those who are allowed to electronically speak with The Secretariat, Herself. She fusses continually about her "privacy" being exposed as if those who are interested and concerned about her official actions are rummaging around in her lingerie chest and taking indecent liberties with their inquiries about pipelines, fracking and family foundations and what-not.

She simply doesn't get it. It is not her government. It is OURS. We shouldn't have to beg or negotiate with our officials for what is by statute our property already- their communications while in office done on our behalf while serving as a government proxy. Hillary is the vandal and the misappropriator, not the public. The mixing and confluence and co-mingling of the public vs the private, the official vs. the personal has been the through line of Hillary's entire life in the public eye. There is the mote in her vision which prevents her from distinguishing the difference.

Those who dismiss her actions or call it a "nothing burger" could not be further from the truth. By her actions, Hillary Clinton ridiculed the concepts of Transparency and Accountability as being beneath her dignity to comply with. Like the Maya Angelou adage she likes to quote about others, she has shown us who she is. If we accept her well-known stealth and furtiveness by rewarding her with the highest office in the country, then we will have no one but ourselves to blame when a dark fog settles over the land.

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Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

But there are two other names on most ballots and always the ability to write in.

I think we might have passed the Lesser Evil debate and moved along to the Different but Equivalent Evil debate.

The road to chaos will be better paved under Hillary than Trump, but I think the 99% ends up at the same terminus.

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" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

elenacarlena's picture

are destroying lives because the corporations don't care, they are the same: Money in politics, income inequality, climate change, prisons and police, taking healthcare away from the insurance companies, wars. Hill will talk a better game, but either improve incrementally or not at all and blame it on an obstructionist Congress. I have been shocked at the DOJ's lack of effectiveness against the out-of-control police (not any more, but at first, with a black Pres and black AG). But folks are making money on these issues, so nothing much changes, they'd piss off their donors if they tried.

On a few social issues, Hill may be significantly better. But how much does it matter that people don't call you names, if they're not going to let you vote or pay you enough to live and are going to imprison you if you walk "wrong" and not going to give you access to abortion and other healthcare services? Not to mention that it gets increasingly difficult to survive the summers, and there is more and more pressure to take in refugees from around the world and more and more anger at the U.S. for our arrogant meddling overseas.

Supreme Court? Meh. Obama killed that argument with Merrick Garland.

In short, the differences are tiny, the similarities vast, and Jill is significantly better than any of the rest. Trump scares me only slightly more than Hillary. I don't want either of them and intend to vote for the person I want.

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Raggedy Ann's picture

The people have been lulled to sleep so that a complete takeover by the oligarchs would not be noticed. Go shopping. Watch sports. Watch the latest and greatest new series on teevee. Play with your gadgets. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

BTW Phoebe, did you mean Maya Angelou?

edited for typos.

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

It's up to us to let them know differently.

(I made the Angelou correction, thanks. Can't believe I missed that in my scan before "publish".)

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" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

riverlover's picture

But we pay dues!!!

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Raggedy Ann's picture

they put a brick wall up at every turn. I'm hoping these House committees stay the course, like they did during Watergate, and get to the bottom of the Queen of Corruption's con over we, the people. We and they must not relent.

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

meets with House Judiciary. That will be some real bread and circuses.

I've pretty much come to the conclusion that the goal from the getgo was exoneration. The attorney for a bunch of the inner circle, Beth Wilkerson was quoted in one article I read saying something along the lines of "they (the FBI) told us from the beginning that they knew no one did anything wrong" (paraphrase) which is somewhat incongruous given all the immunity being slung around.

From what I understand, the scope of the investigation was supposed to be about the classified stuff and yet Comey said they never investigated how who and why the classified stuff got into the email. Hard to call that an investigation.

The public and media is focused on what's being revealed in the emails and missing the entire point. It doesn't matter if anything of import is ever revealed. The server itself is the criminal act - the storing away of government property (communications) and the destruction and obstruction and misleading of Congress and FOIA requests at every turn. The fact that classified info turned up on it and that it had been exposed to dozens of people with no clearances is the whipped cream on the sundae.

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" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

GWB and his cronies gave the serfs $600 and told us to go shopping. Now that same club has demanded that all Americans play nice with private, for profit insurance companies, or we are penalized for not spending $10,000 a year toward their bottom line. Even the Dems in the club are forcing us to gamble in the Wall St Casinos with any retirement money we might have saved along the way, and also want to give the Social Security trust fund to their buddies on Wall St. The Club came out of the closet at the same time SS, Medicare, unemployment insurance started being called "entitlements".

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riverlover's picture

today I like incandescence. Something not available via our government since forever? Shows poorly for a country connected by internet, government seems to advertise but is rarely at home.

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has already settled over the world and its name is American Hegemony and the only thing I can compare it to is the creepy face suckers in Alien!
We have covered the world with our military to suck up resources and smother and otherwise distract attention from the plutocrats stealing us blind. And what this will birth is unknown at this time, but I'm Pretty Sure it WILL be f@cking ugly!
The other day I outed myself to my wife- I will NOT vote for $hill! And she says? 'So you're voting for dRumpf.' Talk about wacking the hornets nest! It all came out, regulations on abortions,pushing fracking, the TPP/TTIP/TISA, the pay to play while SoS, the regime changes, the embracing of Henry FUCKING Kissinger ffs, Billyboy Krystol says he has reservations about her, but he'll vote for her anyway?!?!?
Hard fucking turn to the right? NO! Unequivocally NO! It's where she has been her entire life.
Goldwater Girl is what she was, is and will always be.

Yeah, I know I left a lot off the list, most of you know most of it anyway.
peace

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Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march

riverlover's picture

Wait, widowed here for over 6 years. I can only comment from experience.

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to make it to November. My wife's an educated, professional, feminist woman, $hills demo.
Had the conversation with neighbors and they went Bernie on me with she's worlds above or better than dRumpf, no, she's not. I ran down the list and Begged them to think about their vote and to not blindly give it to her. Or dRumpf.
I had a discussion with a libertarian that kept blaming it on the corrupt gov't and I kept pointing out it was the corporations running Both parties.
His Hatred(yes, actual Hatred) of $hill is so overwhelming he is going for dRumpf over GJ. Tried to convince otherwise, but no go.
What can ya do?

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Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march

Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

This is one of my biggest gripes and has been from the beginning. Until now, private servers utilized by public office holders got the disdain it deserves and was associated with Karl Rove, Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, etc. and was a coalescing point for Dems who supposedly were for transparency.

Know we know the word "supposedly" is accurate. They only pretended to be for transparency when it suited them. Hillary goes private server and now we're in our Brave New World where transparency is for naifs and the FOIA is toilet paper where the Clintons are concerned. And that will be our new standard since the Dems officially consider it a non-issue being deployed by political hacks and Dem malcontents. Except that it is and was almost the length of Hillary's term as Secretary, not legal. As much as she deploys "Colin did it too!" like a nine year old, the regulations were tightened after his term.

This is just one more instance of the Democrats denigrating and insulting their own voters and making them feel like foolish rubes for believing that their Party was the one with better and higher standards. That is a huge part of the fallout from this election that the Dems just aren't getting.

There is another basket just as big as the one holding Trumps "Deplorables" and that's the one holding the Dems "Demoralized". That's an apt word since we are unenthused because we literally had our former ethos stripped from us by our party - they took our moral high ground and flooded it with sewage.

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" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

gulfgal98's picture

your entire essay are both outstanding, Phoebe! You have an excellent way of cutting through the clutter and distilling things down to the core issue.

IMHO, this one issue of Clinton avoiding accountability is the microcosm of the Obama administration in which the once unthinkable has become normalized. And we are not a better people, nor a better country for that.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

I'm still enjoying the freedom here to write what I think without the Democratic dogma dogs being unleashed upon me.

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" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

snoopydawg's picture

she did this.

This is just one more instance of the Democrats denigrating and insulting their own voters and making them feel like foolish rubes for believing that their Party was the one with better and higher standards.

After Bernie took the blinders off and showed us what the Democratic Party stood for, many of her supporters only yawned and are still supporting her anyway.
They have an excuse for everything that she has done.
She apologized for her Iraq vote and said it was a mistake.
She pushed for more troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and they were silent.
She pushed to overthrow the governments of Libya, Ukraine and Syria and again they were silent.
The pay to play with her state department and foundation is more right wing talking points.
Her using the private email server was just another mistake.
And even with all the evidence showing that she is a warmonger, they refuse to see it.
And she derided Bernie's supporters and said that she would worry about getting them back after she won the nomination.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

We finally have the schism that's been apparent to all of us for so long - the DLC, New Democrat, Republican Lites vs the FDR, Labor, Old School Liberals have split, possibly for good and possibly for the long term

I am completely comfortable in not voting for Hillary since she and the Party have made it clear that those in the second group are more annoying than their votes are worth and can easily be made up by appealing to Republicans who are horrified by Trump. I have no desire to ride on the bumper of the bandwagon carrying the Hillarycrats and the crossover Republicans. Fine with me.

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" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

Ad failed to make the point that she was said by FBI to have been "extremely careless" about YOUR national security, but of course, Republicans don't want to admit the point about it being YOUR national security any more than the Dems do, since you're just supposed to be useful idiots rather than citizens to whom the country and government belong. But they just said 'extremely careless' without specifying national security, which to some could probably mean anything. Damn, I hate to be actually watching a Republican ad without snickering, never mind wishing it'd been more effective...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Just read a book on "leadership" (don't ask), but it cited studies over 30 years showing that across the world, people value four traits in leaders above all others:

Honesty
Forward-looking
Competent
Inspiring

Exactly which one of these applies to Clinton? Her "accomplishments" are mostly holding offices that were handed to her, or small-bore crap that she blows way out of proportion. Mostly her record is something she hides from.

Ms. "No We Can't" is anything but inspiring or forward-looking.

And polls show that in the honest and trustworthy department, she runs neck and neck with a notorious pathological liar and blowhard. Her own pathological need for secrecy and deception certain compare with Adolf the Tribble's, if not exceeding his.

Jill Stein for me. My sole hope in this election is to see her percentage of the vote rise.

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expatjourno's picture

Sure, I'd be sad that he won. And a bit worried. But I'd be DELIGHTED that the most corrupt, warmongering, entitled, arrogant Democrat in history lost and delighted that all of her obnoxious supporters would lose their minds.

If Hillary won, on the other hand, I'd just be bummed out. There's no upside.

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Hillary: Making sure women get a bigger piece of the middle-class pie that her neoliberal, DLC, pro-Wall Street, pro-Pentagon, pro-TPP, Republican-lite economic policies are designed to shrink.

Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

took longer than 3 weeks to be organized by a bi-partisan coalition. Remember, he has almost no support within the Republican Party itself and I can't see them marshaling around him

I really feel like he will attempt to do something so far beyond the pale, maybe like trying to re-institute "stop and frisk" on a national level by executive order or something else just as harebrained , that the brakes will be put on hard and fast. Not to mention he could lose his fraud case, or his foundation donations case and have to step down on those accounts.

I think the dumbest thing he ever did was run for office and it's too bad he didn't have the foresight to recognize ultimately what a bad thing it would be for him to win.

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" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

WindDancer13's picture

First, in not electing HRC the establishment is told loud and clear that this is not the path we care to tread...that they have gone too far. Second, Trump will be hamstrung from the start.

Trump is nothing more than a mirror of what the establishment, and particularly the Democrats, has been perpetrating on US citizens for quite some time now. Stop-and-frisk was instituted by Bloomberg (a once Democrat turned Republican for an election turned Independent) and initiated in very blue New York with little to no blow back from liberals. Bloomberg (who Jimmy Dore refers to as "a billionaire Nazi") was prominently featured at the Democrat Convention. Trump may say things, but Democrats honor those who implement such things.

Stop-and-frisk has already been ruled unconstitutional, so what does Trump gain by suggesting it? Maybe publicity. Maybe a solidification of the base Republican voters. Maybe appealing to some of the 31% of HRC supporters who also have racists beliefs. Meanwhile, the policy has moved on nationwide from stop-and-frisk to stop-and-kill and maybe, just maybe, Trump is shining a light on just how racist this country really is. One must recognize the problem before one can solve it.

Most often what Trump suggests has in fact been the policy of Democrats.

Trump says that climate change is a hoax. The Democrats say it is real but their policies are in line with those who consider it a hoax. Trump says he will bomb the families of terrorists. The Democrats have not only been bombing the families of terrorists but anyone within a 100 miles of them. Trump says we are going to build a wall. HRC (and other Democrats) voted for a "barrier" on the US-Mexico border three times. Trump says he will export illegals. More people have been exported by Obama than any other president in the past. HRC says she will send children back to send a "message." A message, by the way, to a country whose problems can be laid at the feet of US and HRC's policies.

Is Trump a racist? I do not know. I am not inside his head. But for 30 years, no one called him a racist...until he started this current run for the presidency. If he is a racist now, he was a racist back when the establishment approved of him and his policies. I have not seen that David Duke was invited to his wedding. The Clintons were, and they accepted so they were apparently okay with whatever he was.

This is not to excuse Trump. However, it would be good to stop and think when he says things and see if the Democrats are not already doing or have done or will do what he is suggesting.

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass

TheOtherMaven's picture

But Lots Of Money means even assholes are acceptable in Society With Money.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

Oldest Son Of A Sailor's picture

It always seemed to fit Trump...

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"Do you realize the responsibility I carry?
I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House."

~John F. Kennedy~
Economic: -9.13, Social: -7.28,

Just to mention, (as always,) love your writing and viewpoint, Phoebe!

I do, however, feel that I must point out that Trump or Hillary both already have and therefore will, in future, go far beyond the pale, which is rather ironic in Trump's case, since he likes fences so much. But they're both not only pathological liars but textbook socio/psychopathic personalities, neither of which should ever be in any position of power over others or in any position to cheat or use them.

Of the two, society would be far safer if Hillary were safely locked up where she could never harm anyone or any country again.

Without political power, Trump seems more of a con-man type, never having been gifted with the sort of immunity and isolation which allows the growth of tyrannical monsters such as Hillary's become. With that, FSM knows the same effects might be very likely but, as is pointed out below by another commenter, Trump would at least be more likely not be enabled in his abuses every step of the way by just about every public official in America, (edit: as Hillary would be,) if only through terror of her notorious vindictiveness.

But this seems rather moot since either Hillary or Trump - or the Libertarian - would pass the Trojan Horse TPP and the Fast-Tracked other corporate coups to turn the world into a corporate-run hell-hole suppurating industrial toxins in a dying and China-level universally polluted world rapidly running short of not only potable and remotely affordable water but oxygen production and breathable smog.

The global ecology forming our world's life support system is already crashing at an appalling and increasing speed and unlimited corporate/military pollution and destruction will rapidly destroy what remains.

If there's no Bernie miracle or a Jill Stein victory, those of us who first perish will be the most fortunate, and likely much envied by those alive in a decade or so.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

riverlover's picture

but naif is also damned good. One syllable and in another language, like 'merde'.

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was the first word spoken in Alfred Jarry's radical play Ubu Roi.

The USA did not have political transparency so Sunshine Laws and the FOIA law were passed as remedies. Immediately, those in power - including the courts - began to chip away at the straightforward laws until we get to where we are today: The spirit and letter of the law can be ignored if you are rich and powerful enough.

Another area similar, is allowing the frackers to classify their poisons as a patent, veiled from public view. I think public health should over ride any claim of patent protection when the ground water is fouled.

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

It's corporate mass poisoning veiled as patent protection. Who are these lawmakers who enable shit like this?

Victorians were killed by commerce when their favorite color was green and they didn't realize the green dye in their dresses and wallpaper had a heavy component of arsenic. Stuff like that is why we have labeling laws and product testing now in our modern era.

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" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

example of capitalism deeming the part of the planet they aren't profiting from at the moment as a free dump ground. When it's discovered how toxic the waste is and the extent of damage being done, it's up to the citizens to pay for the cleanup, not the profiteers.

"Mad as a hatter" refers back to the hat making trade when mercury was used in the process. Mercury attacked the workers' brains and hence the familiar saying.

During the late 18th century, in Europe, is was fashionable among wealthy woman to wear makeup to make their faces as white as possible. Lead was in the makeup and many were disabled or died from lead poisoning.

Clockmakers who were making dials that glowed in the dark used radium for the glow. Many died from radiation poisoning.

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

TheOtherMaven's picture

Better have a strong stomach, though.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

riverlover's picture

My Township, Dryden in NY, was the first to find a legal remedy (= language) to ban it. Eventually Cuomo caved in weasel language. My Town Board was Democratic, still is, in the proper small-d sense. Power back to the people.

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am a neighbor who is also a lawyer, so was aware of and delighted when the town board's decision to ban fracking was upheld, including by the highest authority, the New York State Court of Appeals

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GreatLakeSailor's picture

Patents are not only public record, but if stuff is left out of them, they can be overturned. Full disclosure is a requirement.

Trade secrets - like the recipe for Coke...or frack juice - can be kept secret.

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Compensated Spokes Model for Big Poor.

A Very Good Place To Start.

The last election where the Voice of the People had real sway was 1860. Corporate political power existed, and was exercised, but wasn't yet powerful enough to dominate. A little fracas we know as The War Between The States provided the opening for corporate political dominance via land grants to railroads, which expanded greatly due to the needs of the Union Army. Related industries, such as steel and the necessary manufacturing to make tracks for the trains, also grew into economic power. That power was "invited" to "invest" in the government bonds floated to pay for the costs of conducting the war. And the loser was the American People regardless of which side they were on.

It was corporate interests which stood to gain the most from the conquest of Native tribes. It was corporate power which pushed for a global empire until one was taken from Spain at gunpoint. It was corporate power which was losing ships sending profitable goods to the Triple Entente which got the people of the United States sent to the stalemated bloodbath in France to recover.

Corporate hubris drove the incredibly brutal War Reparations against Germany. The US received in particular all of the aniline dye patents of the German chemical industry in trade for the lives of some 118,000 American lives. The veterans got empty promises (ever heard about the Bonus Army?) while the bosses made enough money to begin The Jazz Age.

With the Tsar gone, Russia was ripe for exploitation. Some investment was possible despite the Russian Civil War, but most was lost once the Third Comintern abrogated all foreign debts. Burned investors sought a champion to fight Russia and restore that nation as an economic colony, and found one lurking in an obscure German political party whose initials were NSDAP. He might have achieved this had he not bitten the hand which created him by declaring war on the US on December 11, 1941.

But that worked out well for the investors, who again took German patents for private gain. You Fanta drinkers should be especially grateful that your favorites were granted to Coca-Cola instead of having to import them. The Greatest Generation was given the GI Bill as repayment for almost 420,000 Americans not being eligible through combat deaths to participate.

Never again have those described by Marine General Smedley Butler as "racketeers for capitalism" benefited from the wars for profit they were sent to win. Corporatism has swallowed what benefits there were, and expended them on additional efforts to take something valuable from somebody. How did those adventures in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria work our for us? Just don't expect a job or a college degree when you get back. You are no good to Uncle Scam unless you are toting a gun.

We the People of the United States of America are merely an exploitable resource for the acquisition of profit by a select few who managed to gain control of the most powerful economic engine on Earth and ran it over a cliff.

I believe this demonstrates adequately that this nation doesn't belong to We the People, and hasn't for 160 years. We the People managed once to collect the crumbs which fell off the table, but increasingly we are denied access to them. Increasingly, we ARE the crumbs, swallowed to fill in those little gaps the feast didn't sate.

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Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.

riverlover's picture

from chemical exposure at DuPont, in Wilmington DE. Lucky me and sister were born after his decade with TB after that exposure in Indiana. Lucky me was not conceived at Hanford, he settled for another degree and we lived in Louisville, KY.
Zinn did a good job with real history; many of us here lived through later stages and could add.

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We the People of the United States of America are merely an exploitable resource for the acquisition of profit by a select few who managed to gain control of the most powerful economic engine on Earth and ran it over a cliff.

I hope you will look more closely at the history of the short list of companies you refer to as the select few. You will find they were the military industrial complex of the United States, of Nazi Germany, and of the Soviet Union simultaneously for the duration of WWII.

Their difficulty as core industrial developers of the Soviet Union was not that it was a dictatorship, which they wholeheartedly supported, but that it was a Labor Dictatorship, which they had serious problems with. Therefore I believe they built Hitler in order to replace the Soviet system with Fascism, to end the labor movement throughout Europe, and to put an end to democracy wherever it had begun to appear.

I believe these industrial giants assumed the United States would come into the war on the side of Germany. Some had supported Franklin Roosevelt's campaign for presidency. FDR abandoned them. However, he licensed them to be exempt from the Trading With the Enemys Act for the duration of the war. None were prosecuted before, during, or after the war for arming, financing, and fueling Germany for the entire length of WWII, even though hearings were held in Congress establishing their guilt.

As a result, we have a legacy of control by this cartel to this day, plundering, murdering, and nailing us in every conceivable way, as they are untouchable.

I hope you will read Charles Higham's, Trading With the Enemy, and David Talbot's, The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government, in furtherance of your interest in this subject.

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Redstella's picture

The same history we were taught, seen through clearer eyes, tells a different story. And that is the value of 'historical perspective' because now we can more clearly see how we have been manipulated and used/abused all along. Thank you so much for this perspective.

I once had a series of discussions with a work mate to explain to her that her right wing racist husband could join the middle and upper class from his immigrant background primarily due to the veteran benefits, specifically the college tuition, allowing him to go to law school, after the war(II), which was a rare gift to us plebs from the government (not to be repeated for further vets). She could not accept that a socialist program would be the cause of their middleclassdom and not the sole efforts of his talents. I have often wondered if she ever reflected on that or whether she thought I was just a malcontent. Who knows. But that was a correct evaluation of the leap of the middle class after the war(II).

Now, we have had a 15 year war with no end in sight, certainly none if Hillary gets in. Now it is conducted with mercenaries; they don't have to deal with the unrest that the draft would cause, which makes it harder to stop, no?

A complete dismantlement of the corporate state will do it.

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Redstella's picture

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Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

of the United States. I give it as gifts.

It is a GREAT book and tells the subtext of our official history. In a nutshell it makes clear that most if not all of our internal struggles have an economic basis and that it's always been the Haves beating back the Have Nots. The Have Nots gain an occasional inch and then the Haves will take back two.

The best companion volume is The Shock Doctrine to put some modern case studies into the mix with Zinn.

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" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

Redstella's picture

About Shock Doctrine - it is so good that it made me sick at heart. But I will look for Zinn's. I expect to be sick at heart some more, no? Strange that we are really all Marxists now. I think of him writing away in the British Library, spelling it out for us. Everything is economics afterall.

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Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

When I read it I think about how brave the movements written about are and that while we may get depressed and cynical and apathetic at times, we have a responsibility to ourselves and the next generations to retain enough optimism to believe that change is possible and then to act on that belief.

That book, more than any other, makes me feel that "the arc of justice" is a real and tangible thing, made up of millions of human atoms in different places and times, all emitting a positive energy towards a common goal that the human condition can be improved.

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" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

riverlover's picture

It is all atoms, at the beginning and end. Life is lovely, being swirly.

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Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

an unimaginable vastness where the past, present and future were occurring simultaneously and he told her that our vision of the present is an elaborate hoax. Sounds about right to me.

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" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

... and the truth shall make you free. Also sick to your stomach.

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Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

You're always a guest on my imaginary dinner party list.

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" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

When do we eat?

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Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

and put the roast in the freezer and the ice cream cake in the oven. Then we send for Chinese take-out.

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" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

"Martha, rubbing alcohol for you?"
"Sure. Never mix, never worry."

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Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

Fortunately our dinner parties are not usually as fraught as that one.

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" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

Good on you for the quick call!

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Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

TOP is a Madame Tussauds now, a bunch of waxy tableaus and historical re-enactments of political enthusiasm. It's so insanely boring that I can't believe that I used to spend any time there or think it was of any account.

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" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

riverlover's picture

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Daily Kos Anonymous. It is hard to believe we spent so much time fighting with partisan idiots, isn't it?

If you're a theater buff, maybe you can tell me which Oscar Wilde character said "I can resist anything but temptation"? I can't seem to remember, but love the line.

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Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

The Importance of Being Ernest. Most likely the one who left the baby in the carpet bag?

On edit - Nope, just looked it up and I was wrong. It's from Lady Windermere's Fan but can't say which character.

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" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

gulfgal98's picture

Can I come? I promise to remain quiet, but I want to drink in the great discussions that the two of you would have. Smile

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

Do you mind stopping to pick up the Chinese food on your way over?

All kidding aside, over the years of reading and commenting here and elsewhere, I feel like I have come to know you, and a number of others, at least a little bit. Virtual open house!

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" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

gulfgal98's picture

From the beginning of this place (which took a while to take off), I had wanted you to join us and hopefully write for us. I really admire and enjoy your writing. You cut through the clutter and get right to the heart of the matter. You were the first person I personally invited and I am so glad you came.

Chinese takeout? Yikes! I love it, but am clueless as to ordering, so I will need to know what everyone wants first. Wink

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Mark from Queens's picture

untold story of radicals, uprisings and solidarity among the 99% - the forgotten stories of the dispossessed and marginalized and all who stood up to fight back against oligarchy and monopoly interests and corrupt government and racism, those which it's hardly any surprise are distinctly omitted from our sanctioned school history textbooks, is one of the most important contributions to our world.

When our baby was born last December it took us two days to come up with his first name, partly because we were surprised it was boy and had mostly been collecting suitable names for a girl. There was little deliberation, however, about his middle name. Four letters, beginning with Z and ending in N.

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

Granma's picture

The fun is just beginning.

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riverlover's picture

I think that many, not just us at c99p are feeling uncomfortable with revelations. Relevant? Revalent? Now I am discombobulated.

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Howard Zinn was my professor in college - a brilliant and funny man. Loved him.
Adding to the list of "must reads" - an old one, Bill Greider Who Will Tell the People, 1993, and still relevant.

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Big Al's picture

transparency. The oligarchy's mass media lacks accountability and transparency. The mass media lies to the people systematically every second of the day as does our national government. We have so much larger problems with transparency and accountability than Clinton's emails it's hard to describe. They all lie about the war OF terror, the Afghanistan war, the Iraq war, the Syria war, the Libya war, and the Yemen war. There is zero accountability for their crimes against humanity.
No, the government isn't ours, the politicians don't represent us, they represent the rich and powerful, the corporations and banks and the military/security/intelligence industrial complex. Ya, Clinton is a criminal but so is Obama, Biden, Powers, Rice, and the many in the past administrations. We're dealing with a completely unaccountable national government at the highest levels.

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thanatokephaloides's picture

No, the government isn't ours, the politicians don't represent us, they represent the rich and powerful, the corporations and banks and the military/security/intelligence industrial complex. Ya, Clinton is a criminal but so is Obama, Biden, Powers, Rice, and the many in the past administrations. We're dealing with a completely unaccountable national government at the highest levels.

Unaccountable and uncontrollable. Anyone telling me that old line of crapola "We are the government" ends up getting a piece of my mind that they really don't want! The rich and powerful, the corporations and banks and the military/security/intelligence/prison industrial complex select our "choices" for us before we ever get the slightest say about them. What chances do you have if you aren't in their little club and won't play ball with them? About a snowball's chance in the Hell of the Christians!

Sad

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Thing is, according to your Constitution, it's supposed to be your government; in order to be legitimate, it must be government of, by and for the people. Not to mention with all people having equal rights, treatment and opportunity. Government parties may have been 'jacked by thieves, corporate/billionaire candidates may be cheated in - but right of ownership and the right to delegate authority to governing officials and bodies rests in perpetuity with the people to whom the country belongs.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

k9disc's picture

linked "War and the Intellectuals" by Randolph Bourne - http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4941/ .

The corporate veil is the opaque shroud that covers our government. I think that fits quite well as an expression of this essay and comment thread.

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“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

it would be all about public service. Even among the oligarchs there was once a thread of public service, a need to use their ill gotten gains for the public good.

Not anymore. Hillary is the poster-child for two generations of leaders motivated only by personal ambition and to serve the corporations and the MIC. The reason she had a cavalier attitude about secure emails is that the State Department was her State Department, not the People's. Same reason Bill could justify a blow job from an intern in our Oval Office. Their attitude is that they won the election and therefore it is their office. It's pervasive across both parties.

That's why people, especially young people, responded to Bernie. There was a strong sense that it was all about public service for Bernie. Same reason people responded to JFK and even FDR. Our political elite have really gone to hell and that's one reason that we want a president who will drain the swamp.

I am an extreme lifelong progressive and I cannot support Mrs. Clinton. My Democrat friends ask if this is another Nader situation? My response is that this election is voting for the lesser of two evils and Clinton is evil incarnate, so my vote for Jill might be helping Trump, but I am helping the lesser of two evils. That shuts them up, because otherwise they whine and whine.

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Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.

Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

But even so, I don't like to see our inadequate transparency laws and the minimal accountabilities we do have in place thrown out as a sacrifice to Hillary's need for convenience, secrecy and control.

The other day I read somewhere the simple sentence "The Congress passes the laws and the Executive branch executes them" and I thought, really?My reaction was mostly in regards to the DOJ and what is going on with civil rights and Black Lives Matter and voter suppression and election fraud and the Get Out of Jail Free cards the finance and securities industries got in the meltdown, and the current dog and pony show about HRC's emails. If you ain't got justice, you ain't got nothin'. And the sad thing is , after eight years of the Obama administration, my inevitable conclusion has to be that we ain't got justice.

Speaking of Justice, how about that Supreme Court, hey? We have a Supreme Court that has enabled complete and total violations of the Fourth Amendment in regards to civil seizures and eminent domain and they are so GD stupid they don't understand (or pretend to not understand) that money is a corruptive influence in politics.

We currently live in a country which, due to our courts, has opened the doors to unlimited corporate dollars buying elections (including the dollars of American subsidiaries of foreign governments and companies!) so we don't have any kind of national autonomy to speak of. In addition to that, the groundwork has been laid so that every American citizen has the potential to have all their possessions stripped from them on the basis of an accusation that may never be proved, or of having their property given to another private citizen or company under the guise of eminent domain if jobs result or if the tax base is added to. This is our world and this is no exaggeration.

How does a citizenry undo the damages done by this or any other Supreme Court? I don't see the check or balance on Justice by either of the other two branches. Historically, I think what has happened is that newer courts have to undo the damage of earlier courts by reversing decisions, but that can take decades if not centuries. Does anyone have an answer to this question?

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" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

constitutional amendments, written neither in the vague principles of the original nor the absurd and inevitably inadequate convolutions of legal "language", but rather a combination of the original forms and explicit examples using incidents the court has previously permitted, but that are now to be proscribed.

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

WindDancer13's picture

Congress can pass legislation that overrules a Supreme Court decision. Here is a list of some of those that have been overturned in this fashion or by amendments: List of abrogated United States Supreme Court decisions

A lot of Congress critters would need to be replaced to get anything done.

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass

Granted, I no doubt have a simplistic notion of the whole thing, but it seems to me that all of this is protected against in your Constitution and Bill of Rights - however badly misinterpreted it may have been in the past or present (such as a clause requiring states to supply muskets for their local militia when necessary for their defense, having no standing army - and with guns then also necessary to the food supply for a higher population percentage than now - misinterpreted into corporate 'GUNZ [SALEZ] RIGHTZ for the [White] people to buy and carry all over the place'!!! to terrorize the general population) by such as various generations of (for a more recent example,) Bush Supreme Court appointees evidently for that purpose of misinterpretation for corporate/billionaire benefit, Bush 1 being big on a 'New World Order' and Bush 2, representing the fossil fuel industry, being the one to initiate the TPP corporate coup series. They're very obviously either incompetent judges, with such decisions as 'Citizens United' invalid on those grounds, or corrupt, with such decisions invalid on those grounds, take your pick. I know what mine would be.

The best of the US Founders harboured deep concerns about corporations becoming too big or existing for more than a short period for specific purposes only, getting out of control, gaining control of public policy or over government itself and would never have allowed them to buy government policy, never mind install their own reps or purchase whole political parties. Are Supreme Court Judges really such ignoramuses that they can't work that out in purportedly 'following the intentions of the Founders'? Or in actually serving the public good, which was the actual purpose behind 'The Great Experiment of Democracy'?

"Conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,"

Not 'some more equal than others', based upon wealth, even if they did have the ignorance issues of their time, which should have been long since sorted out, if not for corporate media hate/fear/division propaganda, and which needs to be dealt with now. (Gee, thanks to Bill Clinton for the media concentration/monopolies he legislated to allow, now in turn lying for Hillary to become the Liar-In-Chief...)

But it seems baldly evident to me that the problem is and has been that your built-in checks and balances aren't functioning with every level of government so corrupt, and not with your Constitution.

And I'm very much afraid that opening your Constitution for amendments will result it being rewritten as a corporate bill of rights over the people...

(Bolding mine)

United States Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights is the collective name for the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. Proposed following the oftentimes bitter 1787–88 battle over ratification of the U.S. Constitution, and crafted to address the objections raised by Anti-Federalists, the Bill of Rights amendments add to the Constitution specific guarantees of personal freedoms and rights, clear limitations on the government's power in judicial and other proceedings, and explicit declarations that all powers not specifically delegated to Congress by the Constitution are reserved for the states or the people. The concepts codified in these amendments are built upon those found in several earlier documents, including the Virginia Declaration of Rights and the English Bill of Rights 1689, along with earlier documents such as Magna Carta.

And I believe that they had to be pretty much snuck in during a disagreement over them at the time, didn't they? Now, they're essentially being ignored - but they still stand, as does the Constitution which incorporates (sorry, lol) them.

The Constitutional rights of all Americans are guaranteed to be protected throughout the United States - and they haven't been. This is not the fault of the US Constitution, but of governments both Federal and local failing in their duties to the public they exist to serve.

The Constitution is forever, as are your inalienable rights, while individual judges - and politicians holding office - come and go. That document alone, the oath to uphold which TPP-supporting officials betray by passing it, renders the traitorous corporate coups legally and Constitutionally void, whatever any corrupt official may claim. Don't let anyone mess with it, for FSM's sake and that of the rest of us.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

It may be simplistic, but exactly how do these politicians and judges vote for or adjudicate for international entities that are given the right to ignore and override American legislation and regulation with international tribunals?

I'm not one to sling around the word "treason", because it is so often simply inflammatory hyperbole, but ceding control of a nation's sovereignty in order to empower global profiteers seems pretty damn treasonous to me.

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" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

riverlover's picture

taught are now fully-captured. Good thing many know that sense of the word. There are no checks (other than SS for me) other than a Republican-led committee now flailing, but with several former prosecuting attorneys on board. Hanging by a spider thread we are.

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Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

who seem to really have a handle on how much crap is really being unloaded here. I thought Trey Gowdy actually looked a bit ashy during the hearing this last week like he actually realized he was looking into a bottomless abyss.

I've gone from ridiculing Gowdy and Chaffetz to admiring them. The Democrats on the other hand do not deviate one iota from the party line that this is political overreach and there is nothing to see here. What there is to see here is a government official who very consciously put systems into place before she was even sworn in that provided a cloak of secrecy and stealth. She created a pre-emptive cover-up!

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" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

gulfgal98's picture

but suddenly I agree.

I've gone from ridiculing Gowdy and Chaffetz to admiring them.

We are, indeed, looking down into a bottomless rabbit hole

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

Why did Feds grant immunity to Hillary's "highly improper" aide?

It's from the NY Post, so I don't can't vouch for the veracity, but if accurate, that is a hell of a back story about Clinton, Mills and Comey.

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" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

riverlover's picture

So... I will take anew. Second pawpaw in the ground here.

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gulfgal98's picture

I have always thought Mills was the director of this entire operation even though I did not know her past history. This confirms it. The attorney client privilege is a crock because Mills could or should not have been employed at the State Dept as a chief of staff while simultaneously acting as Hillary Clinton's personal attorney. When you think about who they gave immunity to, it undermines the ability of anyone to prosecute this entire case.

The question is (which you have asked previously) is why give out a bunch of immunity when they decide there is no case? Could it be that the granting of immunity created the situation in which there could be no case? I have lost count of how many people we know got immunity, but guessing, there are at least six now. And of those, what is particularly odious is granting immunity to Mills and Bentel.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy