FBI on the emails: There’s No “There” There
It’s been a pretty good week for Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, although you might not know it by the coverage, because stories that have been dogging her this whole election have lost their ability to fatally damage her campaign.
The Benghazi story died a long-overdue death. The Congressional Republicans kept it on life support just long enough for it to infect the careers of folks like Trey Gowdy, another GOP up-and-comer whose hopes of future glory have been dashed by being, well, a Congressional Republican.
This did not stop the NRA from running a Benghazi-themed commercial where a mercenary involved in the firefight stands – illegally – in front of the graves of actual soldiers not actually from Benghazi, and hints darkly that Hillary killed them all.
Now the email story is reaching its creaking, wheezing end, with no criminal charges recommended by the FBI. Although much of the coming days, weeks and months will be filled with bleats from the sheeple choir on the right about “rigged” processes and Special Prosecutors (Ken Starr is available, we hear) it will, as always, be a lot of sound and fury, signifying nothing is beneath those “Make America Something-or-Other” hair-holders except bald spots and other empty spaces.
So, the fact-challenged on the Right will pour another fifth of Trump Super Premium Mouth Gas into their cognitive dissonance engines and fart out 160-character jeremiads averring that nothing being found proves that there’s something to find, because the First Amendment guarantees them Freedom from Information in the topsy-turvy world of confirmation-bias grifting that is GOP fund-raising politics today.
Meanwhile, back in Realityville:
Like everything else in the Imaginarium of Donald the Crassest, Benghazi and the emails have become just two more nothing-burgers. And the last desperate hope for some sort of game-changer in the Trump campaign (as well in the last dark corners of the “Bernie hasn’t suspended his campaign because emails” die-hards) has come to nothing.
In this, the long-awaited “end” to these never-ending tales, all sides politically will claim victory in the “Nontroversies” and the outcome will serve as “vindication” of narratives that are already hardened and in place, some for years. Vast fields of minds will not be changed. Scads of undecided voters will not now flock to one or the other. Nothing major will come of these, and for Hillary, that in and of itself is a victory.
Deus has left the Machina.
Primo Encarnación, Hilz will forge onward despite the press and the GOPig slander machinations. And, as you so elegantly stated months back, despite whatever shoe leather Bill decides to chew. Maybe Hilz should send Bill out barefoot on the campaign trail to prevent him from traipsing across hot tarmac, too.
Welcome to the 21st century, when smart women keep their man barefoot.
1Meanwhile, everyone waiting for Trump to turn “presidential” now the primaries are over is still waiting….
2Love the new word, Primo: Nontroversy. It’s what the GOP lives by.
3The extreme opposition–both Repub and Sanders–will continue to have hope and to make outrageous claims.
This is a good thing. The email controversy is officially dead. Continuing to obsess about it will help keep the mischief makers out of mischief. If Benghazi!!! and emails are the best they can come up with then the Clinton campaign is doing well.
4It does occur to me that Trump is now getting classified briefings as the presumptive GOP candidate. I have faith that he will twitter something that makes the Clinton emails look like the nothing they are.
5Listening to trump gag is a pleasant sound.
620+years and God only knows how many $$$. To find out someone was not as careful as we would like. With E-mail] But a free pass to a con-man that wants to take money to make America great and you rich, tall, thin, and blond. [Again] such a deal.
7I predict we will continue to hear BENGHAZILLION because it has been drummed into the contained in the conservative cranium and it is a word that oozes from their pieholes.
8Primo –
What a deft elocutioner you’ve become.
I stand in awe. Let’s face it — my best, ” … standing ankle deep in de mud of denial. … “, pales in comparison.
You win, after November we may join you in the winners’ circle.
9Anomalous
Well, yeah, Hillary should not have used that server, but … she learns from her mistakes! Donnie thinks he never makes mistakes.
10Well now, who knew? Only anyone who did any fact checking. The State Department server isn’t the most secure of servers. Remember wiki leaks? Hillary’s server wasn’t ever hacked. The rest of the government can’t say that. Of course that won’t stop GOP ers from still trying. I think they should be charged for every penny of tax payer money they squandered on their evil witch hunts.
11Considering all of the Rethuglicans who not only used private servers but destroyed official emails despite the law, HRC is the real champ.
Go, Hillary!
12Wot we know and don’t know. General Betrayus must be a member of the snacilbupeR. The snacilbupeR sure didn’t show this level of excitement, when he shared top secret pillow talk with his ‘autobiographer’. Fugetaboutit when it comes to $Rmoney staff stealing laptops and destroying hard-drives or Jebra erasing however many thousands of e-mails.
IOKIYAR That we know for certain.
Hilz crime? Not having an “R” as her party affiliation.
FWIW The snacilbupeR, if they had any sense would embrace Hilz. She and Bill are the most sane Republicans in modern history.
13Nice try, but a server in her residence processing mainline State Department traffic is not justifiable. Let’s just say that if the FBI cleared Hillary of the Vince Foster death in the same damning language used to pass on charges in this case, I would harbor suspicions. Your pitch is perfect for the choir, but it ain’t gonna resonate much with the fence sitters who don’t trust Clinton.
14Rats. Clumsy fingers. HRC is definitely smarter and more qualified than trump. What I keep hoping is that she, and her campaign, will start behaving smart. What others did (like Betrayus) is not relevant. Secretary of State- private, unsecured server? Easy call, no? Dog catchers and P & Z commissioners are cautioned to avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety. How did Bill and his ever present staff forget what it would look like to have a tarmac chat with the official deciding if HRC”s stupidity warranted charges? I’m on board for Hillary, but can we stop using Republicans as the bar by which she is measured? As Democrats, let’s demand that our candidate meet our standards. Follow the rules. If you mess up, fess up. And make it right. Pretty much the same stuff we expect of any 10 year old. She”s a brilliant, accomplished leader. The expectations are therefore higher, not lowered on account of what an amazing person she is.
15Very good points Wally. I want a president who is very good, not just better than Scumpf. Hillary is very good, and we should expect that.
Gen. Betrayus. That’s really good PKM. I like it.
16Thomas Drake
John Kiriakou
Chelsea Manning
Edward Snowden
Hillary Clinton
Which one of these is not like the others? Feel free to throw Panetta and Petraeus in there with Hillary if you like.
17Been listening to Joe & Mika on Morning Joe and they BOTH would love to see Hillary hanging from the nearest and highest yardarm!!
18The pitbulls have their jaws locked on that chew toy so tightly, they ain’t gonna let it go!! Not now! Not ever!
SMH
Marcia in CO
19Think they are in lock-step because of her recent divorce and snuggling?
One thing I haven’t seen mentioned is what would have happened if a life-long Republican had recommended indicting the opposition party’s nominee a few months before the election. It seems clear there was no criminal intent in the email mess-up and that seems to control whether something like this is indictable. There would have been major protests across the country.
The Repubs are lucky they avoided this and instead got themselves a few nasty quotes they can use in their ads.
20Did anyone see the AP story this morning about the British report coming out regarding Tony Blair’s actions in cahoots with W. to sell his people on the invasion of Iraq? Evidently some “lads” are thinking its gonna be pretty damming. I understand the rationale behind some folks here avoiding dredging up something that could cause so much pain, but I don’t agree with it. 4770 Americans killed including contractors. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians killed. Destabilizing the entire region to the tune of the rise of ISIS. Oh, and how many Americans injured? That’s pretty painful too. And as much as I do hate the thought of of using it as a political football, repugnicans have no qualms about doing it to Hillary for making a lapse in judgment, rather than misleading if not lying to us. I guess if they scream loud enough, they figure we’ll look at her instead. But as long as we stay on defense, they’ll stay on offense. They don’t care whose lives they destroy. Politicians, soldiers, truck drivers, not matter.
21Certainly it’s a victory, of sorts, for Hillary. But it’s not the end. Not by a long shot.
I’m betting her presidency will make Obama’s look like a walk in the park. After all, since the early 1990’s — in other words, for 25 years/a quarter century/a generation — Republicans have brought one charge after another after another against first Bill Clinton and then [when nothing stuck because there was nothing there] Hillary Clinton.
They’ve accused them of everything from the crime of being rich to murder. They’ve threatened indictments at every turn. Then, when unbiased investigations turned up no crimes whatsoever, they just started digging in a new patch of ground. After all, there’s got to be SOMETHING there, right? Right? RIGHT? There’s GOT to be!
They haven’t given up nor do I expect them to — not ever. They will just keep trying. No matter how many times they fail, no matter how much egg they get on their faces. Because going after the Clinton’s has now become their life’s purpose. Besides — it’s so much fun! And what else have they got to do with their time? It’s not as if they want or need to govern the country or anything. They hate government and they love baiting the Clinton’s. We will hear more from them. Of that we can be certain. Her presidency will be a living hell.
Oh how I wish there were a way to charge these people [and I use the term loosely] with a crime such as Bearing False Witness. Or Wasting Tax Dollars.
22Help make HRC’s next eight years a success: Don’t Vote for ANY Republican, no matter what he says.
Remember, if their mouths are moving, they are lying.
They LIE.
23WA Skeptic –
Their mouths don’t always move when they lie. They also tweet and text. Presumably, some of them can do it without moving their lips.
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