The Email Flap About Nothing May Give Us Our First Fascist President

The emails in question, a mere handful, are not to or from Clinton.

Reported in the LATimes

"Comey wrote in a letter to Congress that the newly discovered messages could be relevant to questions of whether Clinton and her aides mishandled classified information while she was secretary of State. The emails were not to or from Clinton, and contained information that appeared to be more of what agents had already uncovered, the official said, but in an abundance of caution, they felt they needed to further scrutinize them.”

An abundance of caution designed to be quickly misinterpreted by the voting public is not cautious, it is cynical and manipulative, it is a corruption of the electoral process by a Republican in a key position to do so. It ranks with Nixon’s sabotage of the Vietnam peace process in 1968 which won him the presidency.

Kurt Eichenwald in Newsweek

This article at SLATE explains why this latest flap is a nothing about nothing.

At this point will it matter what the truth is?

At the end of his term as a Republican appointed to a post of trust in a Democratic administration, Comey appears to have seized this crucial moment to score for his team. Partisan politics has no place in law enforcement. When it’s wrapped in pious phrases about principle and “abundance of caution” it’s especially sickening.

Jane Mayer reports on how Comey decided to violate all FBI and DOJ procedure to win one for the GOP team.

Comey gives every appearance of wanting to steer this election from his post at the FBI.

He seems to be signaling that he’d very much like to be the top policeman in President Trump’s new police state.

In case anyone has forgotten what a real email scandal looks like, there's the case of the 22 million emails the Bush/Cheney White House destroyed while under investigation for firing US Attorneys across the country.

Reported in Newsweek

That was not prosecuted or investigated by the Obama White House because that is against American tradition to prosecute political opponents.

Of course Trump has been promising for months that he will immediately imprison Hillary Clinton if he is elected. It’s what dictators do. And a lot of Americans like the idea.

If Americans are rational and intelligent this will backfire on Comey and the witch hunters in Congress.

Are Americans rational?

I’ve been hearing from Americans who are willing to accept a fascist president because Hillary Clinton is a moderate and not lefty enough.

I’ve been hearing from Americans who are willing to elect a president who denies climate science because Hillary Clinton didn’t lie down in front of the pipeline bulldozers in North Dakota.

I hope we regain our reason.

The Fear Card

Freedom of speech now protects the sacred right to yell fire in a crowded theatre as long as it is for political purposes. We’re that crowded theatre.

This is what Republicans and the Republican news network are doing these last few weeks before the election. Ginning up irrational fears that Islamic extremists and ebola are on the verge of killing thousands of Americans. These fears are irrational. The danger is remote. Of course we only have scientists and national security professionals to trust on that. Why believe experts when there are attractive blondes on Fox telling us ebola is just outside the door and Islamic terrorists hiding under the bed? Pretending these threats are imminent here in America is shrewd politics. Never mind the ethics or the dishonesty problem.

“Be afraid. Vote Republican!"

Fear is persuasive and the FoxNews strategy is making us into a nation of cowards. Working towards that goal would once have been called unpatriotic, unAmerican, but we mustn’t speak ill of a major network, particularly one that is so obviously losing its mind. It would be impolite.

Neither problem is made any easier to handle when Republicans slash CDC budgets and the budgets of other key government agencies.

Isis is emboldened by Republicans’ persistent and dangerous efforts to undermine and handicap the president and our federal government at home and abroad.

Fear is the GOP’s stock in trade. They have an entire network devoted to creating fear and suspicion and hatred and anger in American viewers.

News media are so intimidated by Republicans they are afraid to call a lie a lie or an extremist and extremist lest they appear “partisan.” Genuine science is diminished when our public conversation has to give equal respect to irrational, unscientific garbage. Honesty used to be considered the best measure of fairness. But money now does our talking for us.

Money is now speech, as surely as corporations are now people. Which has the effect of diminishing the freedoms of the rest of us who are not corporations and are strapped for money. Love money? Want money? Help sell the right wing agenda; money will pour in. Money is the ultimate validation in the new Republican value system. If you own for a living, you are holy. But if you work for a living, be prepared to show your papers. Be prepared to prove you’re a legitimate member of society.

The Real VA Scandal

The Republican half of Congress wants government to fail.

So they do everything they can to make it fail. To make the systems break down, to make Americans angry at their government, the government Republicans hate, the government Republicans now control through filibuster and obstruction.

In February Republicans did everything they could to block a major funding bill to help the VA deal with the aftermath of the Iraq and Afghan wars. And block it they did.

Call it a hostage situation. Republicans want to remove democratic government and replace it with a corporate structure run by their clients for making money.

Republicans are delighted with the VA scandal, because they set it in motion.

They started a war eleven years ago. Wars create veterans. Wars cause many thousands of amputations and other traumatic injuries which need to be treated. But Republicans in Congress didn’t want to pay for that part of the war, the aftermath.

They like veterans for parades but don’t like to pay for their healthcare.

When you defund veterans programs just when they’re needed most you are either cynical, unpatriotic or stupid. Take your pick.