Clinton Presidency Doomed?

Discussion in 'Politics' started by Yard Dart, Oct 28, 2016.


Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Yard Dart

    Yard Dart Vigilant Monkey Moderator

    If past is prologue, and it usually is, then a Hillary Clinton presidency may be engulfed and disabled by scandal.

    Make that plural --scandals. As a consequence, she is likely to accomplish little on behalf of the American people. In other words, her presidency could be dead on arrival the moment she is sworn into office.

    How do we know this? First, the FBI announced Friday that it is reopening its criminal investigation of Clinton’s personal email server.

    FBI Director James Comey did not give details except to convey that, in connection with an unrelated case, new evidence had been uncovered. The Director said his agency would “review these new emails to determine whether they contain classified information.”

    This is a stunning new development. It will surely do enormous damage to Clinton’s chances of winning the office she has long coveted. But if she is elected notwithstanding, the FBI investigation itself will hobble her presidency from the outset. The cloud of distrust and scandal that already hovers over Clinton could grow exponentially.

    Second, the powerful chairman of a congressional committee and many others on Capitol Hill are vowing to pursue their investigations of wrongdoing by Clinton. These are the very people with whom the new president must work to accomplish anything meaningful on behalf of Americans who are yearning for something other than gridlock in Washington.

    But the WikiLeaks emails are like gasoline on a fire. Clinton doesn’t deny their authenticity. And every day begets yet another damning revelation of misdeeds and concomitant cover-ups. Even Clinton’s own aides and allies express bewilderment over her chronic mistakes. Some are appalled.

    Why would Clinton behave with such reckless abandon when so much is at stake? Because Clinton seems addicted to misbehavior, yet never recognizing it as such.

    As pointed out in my last column, she routinely breaches the bounds of propriety. She steps right up to the line of illegality and dangles her foot over it, unconscious or uncaring of the repercussions.

    If her activities are not illegal, they are surely unethical. By her own actions, she has transformed herself into the poster child for moral turpitude. And there is no reason to believe she will suddenly stop upon assuming the nation’s highest office, should she win the election. Indeed, sitting in the Oval Office may only serve to embolden her to push the envelope of opprobrium even further.

    Let’s review. She stands accused of deliberately evading public disclosure laws by hiding emails on a private server, then lying about it. She is suspected of using her position as Secretary of State to confer benefits in exchange for money from foreign donors (notoriously called “pay-for-play”). It looks like she and her husband leveraged their charity foundation to enriched themselves personally to the tune of tens of millions of dollars.

    And those are just her recent shenanigans. Illegality? Graft? Corruption? Malfeasance? Pick your favorite noun.

    Investigations Into What?

    Clinton did not tell the truth in several of her statements, according to FBI Director James Comey. The Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, has sent an official referral to the FBI to open an investigation into whether Clinton perjured herself in her sworn testimony before Congress when she insisted she did not send or receive anything marked classified via her private emails. That’s just one of her alleged deceptions.

    Under Title 18, Section 162 of the federal code, a perjury conviction carries up to 5 years in prison. So the matter of lying to Congress is not just a pesky issue that will vanish after November 8th. Rep. Chaffetz is determined to pursue it and so are many of his colleagues. But that’s not all.

    Chaffetz is now curious about whether the FBI’s decision not to recommend criminal prosecution of Clinton for mishandling classified documents was swayed by the $ 675,000 given by a close Clinton ally to the wife of the FBI official overseeing the investigation. It smacks of illegal influence-peddling.

    And what about the claim of an FBI agent that Clinton aide Patrick Kennedy tried to declassify and bury one of Clinton’s legally toxic documents… in a quid pro quo favor for the Bureau? That smacks of obstruction of justice. Again, Chaffetz wants to know. And so does Speaker of the House Paul Ryan who is promising to dig into the suspicious offer.

    There is also the matter of whether Clinton’s wholesale deletion of thousands of emails after Congress had issued a subpoena for them constitutes “destruction of evidence” which is also a crime. How did that happen? The people who seem to know are invoking the 5th Amendment against self-incrimination. More immunity deals might loosen lips.

    Numerous reports indicate that wealthy donors to Clinton’s foundation secured special access to her as Secretary of State. This, too, may be part of the upcoming congressional investigation. It is against the law for a public official to use his or her position to confer benefits in exchange for money. Sen. John Cornyn, the second-ranking GOP senator, is demanding answers.

    The Big-Bucks Gravy Train

    There are multiple reports that the FBI has opened a criminal investigation into potential corruption within the Clinton Foundation. Newly leaked emails show that charity official Doug Band, while raising money for the foundation, also steered millions of dollars to Bill Clinton. Quite the cozy relationship. However, if the foundation was not operating strictly as a charity under the laws governing non-profit groups, it could be deemed an illegal enterprise. In other words, criminal fraud.

    How much money did the former president pocket? One Band email is especially revealing : “President Clinton’s business arrangements have yielded more than $ 30 million for him personally, with $ 66 million to be paid out over the next nine years should he chose to continue with the current engagements.”

    The boat-loads of cash came from Clinton foundation donors --the same donors who had business before Clinton's State Department and some of whom appear to have received benefits therefrom. For example, Hillary helped UBS avoid the IRS, and then Bill got paid $ 1.5 million dollars. Thereafter, their foundation received a ten-fold increase in donations. If that was a reward for Hillary’s machinations, then it constitutes bribery under federal law, 18 U.S.C., section 201.

    When asked recently to explain what appears to be blatant double dealing and the stench of pay-for-play, the Clinton campaign did not really deny it, but simply said the charity did wonderful work. It certainly did --it did wonderful work enriching the Clintons’ bank account.

    If you ever wondered how Bill and Hillary got so outrageously rich, Band's emails make explicit the compelling and incriminating evidence the Clintons used their foundation for personal profit. It's a prosecutor's dream. A "smoking gun" document if ever there was one.

    While Bill has stayed mum on the subject, Chelsea Clinton expressed some dismay that Band was using the foundation to “hustle business”, but I doubt she was objecting to her future inheritance. After all, why derail the “gravy train” when it’s running on a slick track at high speed?

    More than 50 House Republicans have urged the Department of Justice to appoint a “special prosecutor” to investigate the Clinton Foundation. Yeah, fat chance. The objectivity of Attorney General Loretta Lynch was shattered when she hung out with Bill on her plane for a half hour just before she decided there would be no criminal prosecution of Hillary. And if she becomes president, there is zero Clinton’s newly appointed A-G will decide to investigate the new boss. No one wants to become the next Archibald Cox. (See “Saturday Night Massacre”.)

    Watergate Redux

    Speaking of Watergate, after Richard Nixon fired Cox, Congress began to toy with the notion of creating a special prosecutor who was not controlled by the executive branch which he or she was investigating. You know, conflict of interest and all that. Thus, the Independent Counsel Act was enacted. This is a nifty legal device which could be employed to investigate Clinton by circumventing DOJ.

    Yes, the law has expired. But it could be reauthorized immediately by Congress since the full language of the statute still exists. It was resurrected once before, so it can be done again. Coincidentally, the most famous Independent Counsel, Kenneth Starr, composed a report that led to the impeachment of… yes… Bill Clinton. (See “blue dress”.)

    Of course, the President must sign the bill into law. But would Obama now, or Clinton later, dare to veto legislation meant to curb the abuses of power? How could that be justified? Think of the political backlash.

    Much can be learned from Nixon’s demise. He aided and abetted crimes, lied and obstructed justice. In the end, it caught up with him and he resigned in disgrace. The only American president to do so.

    At the time, a young Hillary Rodham was serving as a junior member of the House Judiciary Committee’s impeachment inquiry staff which was investigating Nixon and Watergate. Given all that has happened and all she has done, one wonders if she learned anything from that experience.

    She might have learned how power corrupts. And yet, here we are.

    She might also have learned that scandals tend to disable presidents. Since it is likely that Clinton has been thinking (or dreaming) of becoming president for a very long time, why would she engage in such risky and aberrant behavior? It is truly confounding.

    Hillary Clinton may well end up assuming the presidency. But winning an election is different than the hard business of governing. That’s what Nixon learned after his landslide victory over Sen. George McGovern in 1972.

    Nixon viewed his re-election as an overwhelming mandate. Yet, the scandal of Watergate soon engulfed him. It so consumed his presidency and the public’s perception of him, that a weakened Nixon lost the ability to work with Congress. Very little legislation was accomplished for the benefit of the American people.

    Nixon squandered the public’s trust and good will…by his own inexplicable actions. Maybe it was the intoxicating influence of high office. Or maybe it was simply his own inner demons.

    But Americans have reason to worry that a President Hillary Clinton could suffer a similar and tragic fate.

    Gregg Jarrett: FBI reopens email investigation. Is a Clinton presidency doomed?
     
    marlas1too, Ura-Ki and Oltymer like this.
  2. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    She knows damn well she's "misbehaving", just refused to acknowledge it. "Misbehaving" could be an understatement, but by itself implies a misdemeanor at least. This continuance of playing the ignorance card is at best obfuscatory. (And all those cohorts playing the 5th amendment card should be shot out of hand. Or they will be if they don't play that card.)
     
  3. 3M-TA3

    3M-TA3 Cold Wet Monkey

    She will be pardoned by Obama shortly following the election "for the good of the country" regardless of who is declared the winner.
     
    3cyl, Yard Dart and Ura-Ki like this.
  4. azrancher

    azrancher Monkey +++

    To pardon you must be found guilty of something, so even if elected, if the investigation goes beyond Jan20th Obummer cannot pardon.

    Rancher
     
  5. Dunerunner

    Dunerunner Brewery Monkey Moderator

    Are you trying to make us feel better in the event she is elected????

    My dream is that the house of cards comes crashing down on the Clintons and that they take the DNC and it's cancerous affiliations with them.
     
  6. 3M-TA3

    3M-TA3 Cold Wet Monkey

    Incorrect - It's called a preemptive pardon and has been used by Presidents of both parties. President Ford gave a preemptive pardon to Richard Nixon as one example of this type of pardon.

    Edit: More information: Pre-emptive Presidential Pardons - Democratic Underground

    Can you be pardoned for a crime before you're ever charged?
    By Jacob Leibenluft

    Yep. In 1866, the Supreme Court ruled in Ex parte Garland that the pardon power "extends to every offence known to the law, and may be exercised at any time after its commission, either before legal proceedings are taken, or during their pendency, or after conviction and judgment." (In that case, a former Confederate senator successfully petitioned the court to uphold a pardon that prevented him from being disbarred.) Generally speaking, once an act has been committed, the president can issue a pardon at any time—regardless of whether charges have even been filed.

    http://www.slate.com/id/2195689 /​
     
  7. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    Ahhh, but the related case is...... Wait for it....... Anthony "The exposed Weiner" Weiner Case.... who WAS married to Hitlery's NUMBER ONE AID, the Arab, Huma Abiden....
     
    Ura-Ki, 3M-TA3 and Dunerunner like this.
  8. Pax Mentis

    Pax Mentis Philosopher King |RIP 11-4-2017

    Hmmmm...could be a "smoking gun", and the only question being whether it is legal evidence or if it comes under marital communication exclusion rules. In the latter case it could be a quick restatement that there is no new evidence to change the decision not to charge the witch.
     
    Ura-Ki likes this.
  9. DKR

    DKR Raconteur of the first stripe

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Sorry - thought that this poster was all about the lives and times of Bill and HIll...

    There is doom

    and then, there is DOOOOOOOM. With Hill we all get DOOOOOOOOOOM
     
  10. SB21

    SB21 Monkey+++

    Hers a question for ya , If something happens and the hildabeast is found unfit to finish with the elections , what happens to all of her votes up to that point . They couldn't just transfer them to the new demorat could they ? Or would they wipe the slate clean and make everybody vote again , Repubs and demorats ? Just wondering .
     
    Motomom34, Gator 45/70 and Ura-Ki like this.
  11. Cruisin Sloth

    Cruisin Sloth Special & Slow

  12. 3M-TA3

    3M-TA3 Cold Wet Monkey

    It's up to the DNC to decide their ticket. Everybody else is set and we don't need start everybody else over. My guess is the leadership would pass an emergency rule and appoint Biden and Warren.
     
    Ura-Ki likes this.
  13. Dunerunner

    Dunerunner Brewery Monkey Moderator

    Weiner/Holder??

    [​IMG]
     
  14. azrancher

    azrancher Monkey +++

    I stand corrected, I just assumed that to pardon someone they must have already been found guilty.

    I guess in this case... she is guilty.

    Rancher
     
  15. 3M-TA3

    3M-TA3 Cold Wet Monkey

    It was a surprise to me when I found out as well. I don't think you could find twelve people "accident" proof enough to convict her anyway.
     
    Gator 45/70, GOG and Ura-Ki like this.
  16. VHestin

    VHestin Farm Chick

    Futurama!!!! Trying to remember what that alien reporter's name is.
     
  17. DKR

    DKR Raconteur of the first stripe

    Morbo the Annihilator (born November 13, 2971) better known as Morbo, is a recurring character on Futurama . He is a green, reptilian alien with a big, pulsating brain, who bides his time on Earth in the city of Los Angeles, anchoring "Entertainment and Earth Invasion Tonite" side by side with puny human co-host Linda and awaiting the day on which the time would be ripe to destroy the inferior humans. He tends to call humans "puny" and "inferior" and blurts out "I will destroy you all!" He also has his own show called Tea with Titans, where he meets with many famous people, including Zapp Brannigan, Space Pope, Billionairebot, and Mom, as well as hosts the game show Who Dares to Be a Millionaire.


    Doom at 11

     
    Gator 45/70 and Dunerunner like this.
  18. GOG

    GOG Free American Monkey

    Clinton will be president. It's a fait accompli. The big question is what happens next.
     
    Motomom34 likes this.
  19. Dunerunner

    Dunerunner Brewery Monkey Moderator

    Maybe not..... We'll see how far the DNC will go to save face.
     
    GOG likes this.
  20. VHestin

    VHestin Farm Chick

    That reminds me, at least Zap Brannigan won't be President...Nixon was however ;)
     
  1. Brokor
  2. Altoidfishfins
  3. Yard Dart
  4. chelloveck
  5. Thunder5Ranch
  6. Yard Dart
  7. Bandit99
  8. Yard Dart
  9. Yard Dart
  10. UncleMorgan
  11. Legion489
  12. Yard Dart
  13. ghrit
    [IMG] Note the date.
    Thread by: ghrit, Jun 14, 2016, 2 replies, in forum: Politics
  14. 3M-TA3
  15. Tempstar
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
survivalmonkey SSL seal        survivalmonkey.com warrant canary
17282WuJHksJ9798f34razfKbPATqTq9E7