“Since a new FBI probe was announced by FBI Director James Comey a week ago, concerning the discovery of possible additional emails connected to Hillary Clinton, she has stepped back in her campaigning. Instead, in some measure, she has been relying on others, including the president, to campaign for her.
At this point, Barack Obama is pleased to assist. At one campaign stop late last week, he declared that the fate of American democracy depended on this election.
Credit: rawstory
I happen to agree with him (perhaps a first). Except that I am convinced that he has the wrong end of the stick.
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This will be my last posting about American politics prior to the election. I am writing here as an American citizen, concerned with the future of America. I implore you to think carefully about what I say, and to share it as broadly as you can – especially in Florida and other swing states such as N. Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Colorado, and Virginia.
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Donald Trump also made a statement about American democracy the other day.
Credit: playbuzz
He said the nation might face a constitutional crisis if Clinton were elected while facing a probe on her emails. This is not fear-mongering. This touches the heart of the matter. I am aghast that in spite of the multiple shadows cast on the Clinton campaign by credible charges of her wrong doing, despite the overwhelming evidence of her lying, many Americans are still willing to put her in the White House.
A look at some basic facts is in order here.
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[] The original FBI investigation involved the fact that Clinton, while secretary of state, used a private email server system located in her home for government business. Issues were raised regarding the legality of her action and whether she compromised national security. She had received no clearance for this from government security, and broke government rules with this practice.
[] One of the issues here is the way in which Clinton consistently lied about the situation. This short video, juxtaposing statements by FBI head James Comey and Clinton, illustrates this vividly.
What this means: Either the American electorate has not been paying attention to the evidence of Clinton lying, or knows and is ready to consider putting a chronic liar into the White House.
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[] Recently an anonymous individual at the center of the Clinton email investigation charged that Comey’s announcement that he would not recommend to the Attorney General’s office that the former secretary of state be charged “left members of the investigative team dismayed and disgusted. More then 100 FBI agents and analysts worked around the clock with six attorneys from the DOJ’s National Security Division…
“No trial level attorney agreed, no agent working the case agreed, with the decision not to prosecute – it was a top-down decision,’ said the source, whose identity and role in the case has been verified by FoxNews.com.
“A high-ranking FBI official told Fox News that while it might not have been a unanimous decision, ‘It was unanimous that we all wanted her [Clinton’s] security clearance yanked.
“’It is safe to say that the vast majority felt she should be prosecuted,’ the senior FBI official told Fox News. ‘We were floored while listening to the FBI briefing because Comey laid it out, and then said, “But we are doing nothing,” which made no sense to us.’”
What this means: The American people are willing to consider electing as president someone whom more than 100 FBI agents, analysts and attorneys believe should not even have security clearance.
An incredible situation that raises exceedingly serious issues about Clinton’s core qualifications to be president.
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The case has been re-opened because Clinton-related emails were found on the computer of Anthony Weiner in the course of a separate investigation. Weiner, a former NY congressman, is the estranged husband of Huma Abadein, Clinton’s closest aide.
It has been confirmed that an analysis of the metadata on Weiner’s email has turned up “positive hits for state.gov and HRC emails.” (“HCR” = Hillary Rodham Clinton.)
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[] It has also been confirmed at this point that the emails in question are not simply duplicates of emails that had been examined earlier from Clinton’s private server.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fbi-finds-emails-related-to-hillary-clintons-state-department-tenure/
[] The FBI has obtained a warrant to search the Weiner emails, which total a mind-boggling 650,00. All of these, of course, are not relevant to the Clinton case, but apparently some tens of thousands “could have been sent to or from the private server that Mrs. Clinton used while she was secretary of state.”
http://www.wsj.com/articles/laptop-may-include-thousands-of-emails-linked-to-hillary-clintons-private-server-1477854957
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The new and intensive investigation now underway by the FBI – which will determine such matters as whether any of those emails directly linked to Clinton contain classified information – will set the stage for a decision on whether criminal charges should be brought against Clinton.
This obviously is NOT going to happen before election day. It will take weeks at a minimum.
This leads to the possibility of a mind-blowing and horrifying scenario in which the president-elect, if it is Clinton, is charged with criminal behavior that is directly related to security issues for the US.
THIS, my friends, is what Trump was speaking of. It is a genuine concern, as it would generate a crisis such as has never happened in the US before.
But I would carry this one step further. Even if there is no decision to level charges in the end (perhaps because an indictment would be too loaded politically), is the American electorate really convinced – given all of the evidence that is publicly available even now – that Clinton demonstrates the integrity and the concern for US security that would qualify her to be president of the US? Is there any reason to believe that Hillary is motivated to do what is in America’s – rather than her own – best interests?
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Before moving on to Trump, I want to touch upon a couple of other issues involving Hillary Clinton:
The news has just broken that the Clinton Foundation received a gift of $1 million dollars from Qatar while she was serving as Secretary of State, and that she failed to notify the State Department of this, as she had committed to doing:
“The Clinton Foundation has confirmed it accepted a $1 million gift from Qatar while Hillary Clinton was U.S. secretary of state without informing the State Department, even though she had promised to let the agency review new or significantly increased support from foreign governments…
“Clinton signed an ethics agreement governing her family’s globe-straddling foundation in order to become secretary of state in 2009. The agreement was designed to increase transparency to avoid appearances that U.S. foreign policy could be swayed by wealthy donors.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-foundation-idUSKBN12Z2SL
This, too, speaks to Clinton’s integrity, her honesty, and whether she is concerned with doing what’s best for America.
It also speaks to Clinton’s connection to Arab states. Qatar is not a “moderate” Arab state, it supports the Muslim Brotherhood, and is a major patron of Hamas.
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In point of fact, this story about Qatar is only the tip of a very dirty iceberg. It’s called “pay for play,” and Clinton, while secretary of state, is believed to have indulged in this practice numerous times:
“The shady Lebanese-Nigerian businessman who got Hillary Clinton’s State Department to arrange a high-level meeting was only one of a dizzying number of big donors to the Clinton Foundation to score government favors…
“The list includes high rollers whose relationships with the Clintons made them even richer; countries with dubious human rights records; and companies looking to grease the skids to get an edge on the competition…
“In one case, State approved a huge increase in arms shipments to Algeria, even though the department’s own 2011 human rights report blasted the country for ‘arbitrary killing,’ ‘widespread corruption’ and a ‘lack of judicial independence.’
“The Algerian government that same year donated $500,000 to the Clinton Foundation.
“A year later, State approved a 70 percent jump in military exports to the country, including ‘chemical agents, biological agents and associated equipment.’”
http://nypost.com/2016/08/11/hillary-played-favorites-with-huge-number-of-clinton-foundation-donors/
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An FBI White Collar Crime Division probe of the alleged “pay for play” activities engaged in by Clinton, which has been in process for a year, is still being “actively and aggressively pursued,” with an “avalanche of new information coming every day.”
An indictment is considered likely.
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Think very very carefully about whether it is prudent to put Hillary in the White House.
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I wanted to focus on Clinton here because the prospect of her winning is so distressing. But I will not end this post without consideration of Donald Trump.
The charges against him have been ones of indiscretion – of his shooting off his mouth inappropriately. I would be less than candid if I denied this, although I would argue that he has improved enormously in this regard. He displays a temperate public persona now.
But the point is, I think, that even when he was indiscreet, he was not being devious. Quite the contrary: he was saying what he thought.
I believe that he loves America, even as the case might be made that his judgment has sometimes been flawed.
I am impressed with his key advisors, and with policies that he has proposed. This is with regard to a tougher position on Iran, caution in bringing in refugees, a stronger law and order stance, shoring up the military that Obama has weakened, and more.
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In closing, I want to describe one policy initiative he has advanced. It’s out-of-the-box, not politically correct, and offers the possibility of a truly positive change. I picked this to share because it’s something many of you may not even have heard about and it provides a window into the positive potential of a Trump presidency:
Some weeks ago, Obama, addressing the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, declared that he would take it as a “personal insult” if the American black community didn’t vote for Hillary.
The American black community does not owe him a thing. Despite his original promises, he has done absolutely nothing to genuinely further the wellbeing of that community, which is in deep trouble and struggling even more than it was eight years ago. Obama’s policy has been one of increased entitlements, which weakens inner city blacks by deepening their dependency and robbing them of a sense of self-sufficiency and competency. While, by playing the race card whenever he can (including here), he has set back race relations in America by a couple of generations.
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What I note here as counter-point is a plan that Donald Trump advanced in Cleveland on September 8th that would revolutionize education for inner-city kids, blacks and others:
“The Democratic Party has trapped millions of African-American and Hispanic youth in failing government schools that deny them the opportunity to join the ladder of American success. It is time to break up that monopoly. I want every single inner city child in America who is today trapped in a failing school to have the freedom – the civil right – to attend the school of their choice. This includes private schools, traditional public schools, magnet schools and charter schools which must be included in any definition of school choice…
“Too many Americans living in our inner cities have not been included in the American Dream. We are one nation, and when any part of our country hurts – our whole country hurts. My goal as president will be to ensure that every child in this nation – African-American, Hispanic-American, all Americans – will be placed on the ladder of success: a great education, and a great job…”
http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/264225/trumps-marshall-plan-inner-city-kids-matthew-vadum
Including security in the package of what is needed for success, Trump calls this plan “the new civil rights agenda of our time.”
He says this can be financed by putting students first, not the education bureaucracy: $20 billion of existing federal dollars to establish a block grant for the 11 million school age kids living in poverty.
If he were able to accomplish this, he would be doing more for black Americans than Obama has ever done, with all his heated rhetoric. By a lot. An island of lucidity, in a crazy world.
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Be sure, all her corruption and lying aside, that Hillary Clinton would for the most part continue Obama policies. She is certainly a fan of entitlements. Do not see her as an agent of change in a positive sense.
It is Donald Trump who promises to make America great again, via badly needed new policies.
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Next post I hope to return to news about Israel, and the world about us. Much to report.
Now I ask that you pray for America. And think carefully before casting your votes.
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I wasn’t going to include a song here, but then I thought, Why not? When Kate Smith introduced Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America,” it was well before I was even born. And yet, it was still very much around as I was growing up. While its sound here is a bit dated, and the America of that time is no more, its sentiment is perhaps one we need badly today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1rKQReqJZg
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© Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by Arlene Kushner, functioning as an independent journalist. Permission is granted for it to be reproduced only with proper attribution.
If it is reproduced and emphasis is added, the fact that it has been added must be noted.
