As one well-oiled window onto the corruption of the Clintons seems to close, another well-greased door opens to display some more. It’s like 1972, except this time we have advance notice of serial Presidential crookery.
By noon CET yesterday (Friday) I was having déjà-vu feelings about Fox’s story on the FBI being close to a Clinton Foundation indictment. It had the growing aura of Deutsche Bank ‘close to Justice Department deal’ about it.
So during late afternoon CET (mid morning ESDT) I replied as follows to a chap on Twitter:
The FBI shut up, and thus far there is no sign of any likely putting up. I went to bed early and woke up late: memo to self re shifting stone and raking clay – you are 68 not 38, pillock.
Surfing around Google search words earlier today, – I prefer doing that these days to reading the output of hack-whores – I came upon a relevant Google result linking me back to the Atlantic magazine.
The Atlantic Magazine has taken over from The Spectator (UK version) in recent years as the place I go to for excellent writing and at least some semblance of reasonable balance. Writing last night about the dud outcome of the Fox News FBI indictment story, David A. Graham – towards the end of an outstanding piece – offered this masterly summing up:
Mr Graham is clearly a bloke devoid of sore thumbs. But looking at the broader malaise spectrumof contemporary Man, I would also add three further ‘point’s –
that huge media combines with an agenda are worse than no media at all
that whether the indictment leaks prove to have been true or false, the charge of self-imposed pro-Establishment censorship still stands: the fact is that – for the first 18 hours – the major networks and pro-Hillary titles blanked it
that one leak proven to be vindictive does not change the fact that Director Comey is actively exploring new leads on the Weiner laptop….and with the Election three days away, nobody knows – constitutionally – what to do if Comey is vindicated by the outcome of the investigation.
Already today, Clinton herself has confirmed a $1 million gift from Qatar while she was working at the State Department. That strikes me as unethical – especially as it went undeclared. And as I continue to bang on, Deutsche is to change its emphasis towards the Middle East (under pressure from the DoJ) where former huge Clinton contributor Rupert Murdoch has massive, model-changing media interests. Genuine political philosophy is not just colliding with unaccountable media power, Arab duplicity and self-interest here: it is being erased by it.
We still do not really know whether an indictment is close in relation to the Clinton Foundation (I now accept it’s unlikely) but we certainly do know how and why we got to here:
Pro-Clinton influence in the Department of Justice got the emails investigation diluted and its findings neutered. As one long retired DoJ official told a mutual friend last weekend, “Clinton [using a personal server] was not ‘a minor misdemeanour’….it was a gross and deeply suspicious decision that opened up the US to silent corruption by her, and wholesale hacking by foreign powers”.
Attorney General Lynch made a huge error of judgement in accepting Bill Clinton’s ‘social visit’ to her private jet on an airport runway. The speed with which her DoJ then leaned on the FBI to do nothing was bound to raise eyebrows and hackles.
Trump’s hackles stood up on end within hours, allegedly. So did those of FBI field officers who felt let down by Comey’s meek response to Loretta Lynch’s pressure.
Murdoch switched sides – another event the media have dismally failed to interpret – and, in the light of Comey’s ‘new leads’ letter to Congress, he very probably put pressure on his journalists to get the FBI fired up.
Respected Fox News journalist Bret Baier then spoke to three angry FBI officers, who bigged up what (if anything) is going on regarding the Clintons inside the Bureau.
Baier himself now admits he was ‘used’ by the sources, which if nothing else will save money on his Christmas card budget….but does show him to be an honourable professional.
To use the appropriate slang, the Sun headline here is the Clintons used their clout to cover up something, Murdoch jumped on board, and now nobody knows what the final truth is.
Four elements pushed the saga towards where we are: corrupt use of power, mindless tribalism, biased media and perversion of the Rule of Law. The three big things missing for much of the time were ethics, objectivity, and – for we the citizens – certainty.
As always in 2016, ‘news’ is a symptom: be it Trump’s narcissism, the seediness of the Clinton family, the megalomania of Murdoch, or the tribalism that breeds naive voters, far too much time is spent obsessing about events and then indulging in groupthink kneejerks.
Brecht’s Good Lie is alive and well. Orwell’s fears are being realised. To paraphrase good ol’ Boy Bill hisself, “It’s the species, stupid”.
Last night at The Slog: democracy as a danger to business
Filed under: Hillary Clinton candidacy, Uncategorized Tagged: Clinton Qatari bribe, Fox FBI story withers on vine, Species wiring