Showing posts with label FBI email investigations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FBI email investigations. Show all posts

Sunday, October 30, 2016

Closing arguments: Beware the Ides of October and what is at stake

Ancient Romans had a superstition that on a certain  date, something bad would happen and they expressed it with  “beware the Ides of March”.  We should rephrase that as the “beware the Ides (or near Ides) of October”, since that is when political dirty tricks and surprises seem to come out of the blue.  The FBI dropped a potential game changer eleven days before Nov 8 when they wrote  a letter to Congressional leadership saying they found more emails that pertained to Hillary Clinton’s email server.

Timing is everything .  The surprises coming so late in the game give the targets no time to defend themselves, especially when reports are the FBI investigators sat on this information for weeks, waiting until October 27 to tell Director Comey, putting him in an untenable situation , danged if he did and did if he did not.  



 It is even more of a surprise when the surprise is unprecedented, with its director violating his own FBI department and Department of Justice rules not to spring findings related to a candidate within the 60 day pre election day period or that they  violated their  own FBI  rules not to discuss if and what was being investigated until the investigation was completed.  How did it happen that the FBI  announced they were undertaking more investigations of Hillary Clinton’s emails without having even reviewed the material that appeared to be “pertinent” and were not sent by her?   



Another surprise was sudden attention on the long predicted increase in Obamacare premiums. If you get your insurance from an exchange and you get a subsidy  or you get your insurance from your employer, or military related provider,  or   are on Medicare and Medicaid, you will not see an increase due to Obamacare.premiums because they do not get insurance through the Obamacare system,. That is due to a general increase in health care costs which would have risen anyway and will be worse even if Obamacare goes away.Those who earn too much money to be qualified  for subsidies.who do  get insurance from the state Obamacare exchanges will see the hike. Congress can fix that if it wants to.



Who occupies  the  White House will have the power to influence our lives by  interpreting legislation broadly, appointing  agreeing cabinet officials, and nominating candidates to fill Supreme Court and lower court vacancies.Whether you still have to vote, know that whatever your motivation, love, hate, protest, your vote for a candidate or non vote or a third party vote is then all that really counts to determine who will occupy the White House and run the Senate. Recent Colorado polls: Clinton and Tump are tied in the state.



Here is what at stake : If Donald Trump and the GOP continue to be the majority in both houses of Congress and control the White House and Supreme Court appointee process, women’s control of their reproductive lives is in danger as Roe v Wade could be overturned. Obamacare will be repealed with no effective and comparable replacement for the 20 million losing insurance. The GOP still beats its drums for repeal of Obamacare, but after years of trying, they have found no replacement to cover similar numbers with similar consumer protections. Donald Trump proposes enormous tax cuts for the rich depending on old failed trickle down theories, and will increase the gap between the rich and the middle class. Fossil fuels will get preferential treatment .  



What is even more critical are the issues of war and peace:  Donald Trump’s stream of conscious  uncontrolled  demagogic mouth vs. skilled diplomatic experience of Hillary Clinton is the choice we must make  in a dangerous world where one word or phrase could harm American national security,  and provoke  a needless war  or a frightening incident that leads us to the brink.

http://money.cnn.com/2012/07/12/news/economy/health-care-costs/index.htm





Friday, October 28, 2016

The fat lady has not yet sung. The FBI just lobbed an IED into the campaign, a true October surprise. This is tasty fodder for the GOP opposition anxious to jump to their conclusions.. The House email investigation is now reopened eleven days before the election, with the FBI reporting they found more emails that need to be investigated. Whether these new emails provide proof Clinton intentionally sent classified material and lied about, unlike the previous findings, is not known since the investigation has just started. If it is like the FBI’s previous meticulous investigation, we will not know until well after the election. Until then, expect GOP political operatives to act as jury, judge, and hangman.  Donald Trump’s rally audiences will raise their chant of ‘lock her up’ with even greater lynch mob fervor now. In the meantime, FBI director Comey indicated in his announcement “the FBI does not yet know if the new material in question is "significant."  The results could be or could not be the same as with the  earlier investigated emails.

Whether this will influence voters who have not voted already or have made up their minds because of other issues, is yet to be seen.  Both candidates have legal clouds hanging over them, now, though Clinton’s cloud is more threatening because the accusations could concern a crime. Donald Trump’s suit against him that he committed civil fraud regarding Trump University goes to trial after the election.

What is also yet unknown is voter turnout.  Both major party campaigns believe that unless their supporters actually vote instead of just answering polls, they could lose. According to Bloomberg News, insiders in the Trump campaign are trying to “suppress” the Clinton vote by last minute reminders of her negatives so that voters just leave that line on the ballot blank. This FBI action can help the voter suppression effort. The Clinton camp is also concerned that the media reports that she has the race already won, some will not make the effort to get their ballots in. Many a race has been lost or won by a vote or two in each precinct. Colorado is still considered a swing state.  The only poll that counts on election-day is the actual vote.

 Pollsters tell us the most important factor that determines voter choice is “does he/she care about me “.Polls show more women have seen enough of Trump’s behavior to answer that with a  “no”.  For many women Trump is a reminder of their worst nightmare, of past unpleasant experiences with men of his personality traits...an intimidating bully and/or a groper who judges women as objects to be scored one to ten.

 Only 4% of African Americans polled also supported Donald Trump. Many expressed they were insulted by Trump’s negative broad brush painting of their lives. A majority of Hispanics believe Trump is even hostile to themselves and their concerns. In Colorado Hispanics make up 14.5% of eligible voters, enough to swing the outcome if they turn out to vote.


The FBI's reopened investigation will probably eclipse stories concerning Wikileaks and Obamacare .. Wikileaks’ release of hacked emails  so far  only reinforced existing negative opinions about Clinton.  The Obamacare premium hikes had become a hot topic deceptively spun.Trump supporters made it sound like everyone’s premiums were going up 20%. Wrong.  Only a small percentage of consumers will be affected. Get your insurance from your employer, a subsidy (tax credit; premium assistance) from Connect for Health Colorado exchange with over 85,000 customers, Medicare, or Medicaid, or military related providers?  Obamacare premium increases will not cause your rates to increase. Those impacted with be those who make too much money to qualify for subsidies and who buy insurance through Connect for Health Colorado or other state exchanges.  Congress than fix that problem if they want.