Just when you thought the US election couldn’t get any crazier…
Now, I don’t want to go on too much about the US election, but with the Aussie dollar jumping all over the place on any political news, you’ve got to stay on top of things.
Or maybe I’m just kidding myself. Maybe the truth of it is this is the most bizarre election in my life time, and I just can’t stop watching.
And I think it’s making us question the whole concept of Western Democracy. (And maybe that’s a good thing?)
So in case you missed it over the weekend, the FBI came out and dropped a bombshell on the Clinton campaign.
Just 11 days out from the election, with pre-polling already open, it said that it’s reopening its investigation of the Clinton email scandal.
Why? What do they know now? What’s she done?
That’s the thing, we’ve got no idea. The FBI are being pretty tight-lipped about it. All it said is that something has come to light from another investigation that warrants reopening the Clinton investigation.
If your new to the scene folks, the server scandal involved HRC using a private email server, [email protected], to do all of her official duties as Secretary of State. As one of the most powerful positions in the US government, it was certainly odd to be using the equivalent of a gmail account to run the country, but there hasn’t been any confirmed scandals so far…
… or yet.
And three months ago the FBI looked into the matter, decided it was irregular and that Clinton was “highly careless” with her handling of classified material, but that it wasn’t worth pursuing.
At the time, FBI director James Comey took a huge hit to his reputation. People accused him of being a stooge for Clinton and being part of a cover up. But he held his ground.
Now of course, everyone is accusing him of being a stooge for Trump. Resparking the server scandal just 11 days out from the election is a huge blow to the Clinton campaign.
Because it plays right in to one of the key campaign themes Trump’s been running – that HRC is crooked old-world politics, where money and connections run ram-shod over democracy.
And it is almost worse that Comey’s announcement is tantalisingly light on details – effectively, “we found some stuff and we need to look into it.”
But what stuff? Imaginations run wild.
And to top it all off, it comes after the FBI found something on Anthony Weiner’s computer. He’s a disgraced congressmen caught “sexting” (sending saucy pictures) to thousands of women, some of them, allegedly, underage. He was also, until recently, married to Huma Abedin – Clinton’s top aide.
Camp Clinton was probably hoping the server story was so boring it would die of natural causes. But add in a politician who can’t help sending pictures of his ding-dong all over the place, and it’s a total BBQ stopper.
But the interesting thing for me is the way that the FBI seems to have broken with protocol in making the announcement. The FBI have a policy of not announcing anything 60 days prior to an election.
In fact, the Hatch Act makes it illegal for public officials to influence elections, even unintentionally.
So James Comey seems to have thrown himself under a bus.
There seem to be only two possible explanations. One, he’s a stooge for Trump and wants to hand the election to him.
Or, there’s something so sinister that’s turned up, that he felt a moral or patriotic obligation to do something.
Which is it? Who knows? We’ll probably have to wait until next year to find out.
But we will find out eventually. So we’ll either be looking back at this as a piece of political sabotage (tainting the Trump presidency if he does win), or as a serious scandal (tainting the HRC Presidency is she wins).
Think about it. Either the system was rigged to derail Clinton. Or the system was rigged to help cover Clinton’s corruption… for who knows how many years.
They’re the only two options. Either way we’ll get to see how corrupt the system is.
Democracy as we know it is the loser on the day.
(Or perhaps, democracy the dream will be the winner on the day?)
It’s pretty wild either way.
Very interesting times to be alive.
Sabotage or scandal? What do you reckon?
justin says
both
Mikey says
Very good article. Why haven’t you got a column in a leading newspaper?
Jon Giaan says
… because I don’t like being told what to write.
But thanks. Appreciate the sentiment. 🙂
ron goddard says
jonno.. john comley has had massive resignations from his top f.b.i. men and a threat of divorce proceedings from his wife patricia together with all his friends telling him to piss off. why? because he didn’t truthfully indict h.r.c. when he should have. the clinton criminal foundation has ties with every criminal organisation on the planet including the russian mafia…which incidentally pres.putin is destroying asap. comley cannot handle the personal side of his life anymore so he had to ‘blab’ to save his marriage and friendships. if you cannot understand this man you are living under a rock which is disappointing. i thought that you had some investigative intelligence.
moreover almost 95% of americans are now aware of the situation with the f.b.i. and h.r.c. through social media and other informative sources. i guess that given the moronic nature of our media in oz we don’t stand much chance of knowing anything here. but even some of my friends who just a few weeks ago thought everything was ok with hillary are now very upset about this ‘woman’. she has been directly responsible for the invasion of libya and ukraine resulting in the deaths of thousands of innocent people.
if you want to know more have a good read of ‘what does it mean’ website. you might find it bazaare., you will find it interesting. you will certainly have some thinking to do. most if not all of the stuff on there has proven to be correct..even though some people deride it. as always the truth is at first
ridiculed, then violently objected to and finally accepted as fact. trump is absolutely right when he says the election will be rigged. but more strangely even some of the ‘elite’ are abandoning hrc., as is obama. he is rapidly distancing himself from her. that is a big story.
it seems that most australians have no idea of world affairs or history or care less about it all. we are so safe here they say..too far from the action..we are gonna invest in real estate and make a comfortable life with digital currency. lol and buy houses in america.
cheers.
xlighter says
Nice article – interesting times indeed. I do feel your ‘only two options conclusion’ is a little off.
Firstly the Hatch Act; “illegal for public officials to influence elections”. That’s a red herring, consider the amount of campaigning conducted by Obama this cycle and no one bats an eye.
Secondly the timing; it is a consequence of the natural flow of events, not a conspiracy to throw the election. No one could have predicted that new evidence would have come to light so close to the election date as it turned up from an unrelated investigation, yet for Comey to hide the fact the investigation had been reopened after declaring it closed, would have been extremely negligent. Remember he has an obligation to the voting public, not the candidate.
Undenieably the FBI investigation will influence the election and it should, afterall HRC is being investigated for serious criminal charges of her own making and by all historical norms no one with even a hint of systemic corruption should be running for POTUS.
Steve Pieczenik; one of the most powerful CIA agents shows his face for the first time in 25 years and explains the political coup and counter-coup currently playing out in the US. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov5kvWSz5LM
peter says
Very good post by ron goddard. Google ‘Clinton Cash’ and watch the doco that runs for over an hour and twenty minutes. Shocking! And it was made by New York journalists, not the Trump camp. The Clintons left the White House ‘dead broke’ – their words – and have amassed a fortune of millions since, much of it while Hilary was Sec. of State. They certainly didn’t make it from Jon’s advice on property. The Clinton Foundation parading as a charity operates more like a slush fund for the Clintons. Only 5.7% of the fund is spent on charity work and even much of that goes to questionable outcomes. Shane Warne got into trouble recently for being associated with a charity that only spent 16% on actual charity so what are we to think of a fund that only spends 5.7% of its money on charitable work?
Trump might appear crude and rude but he may well be just what America needs to clean the parasites out of Washington.
Peter Cutforth says
Nice commentary Jon! Clearly HRC is not “careless” – she is far more intelligent, conniving and a compulsive liar than that. There is a raft of documented evidence of her controlling (at arms length) what would amount to a high level Mafia style operation, that strategically silences anyone who raises their heads against her. “Big Media” is so biased towards Hilary – always has been. But the rise of the underground internet like the Drudge Report and NewsMax and of course Wikileaks has hopefully put enough info in the public domain to bring her to account. Time will tell. What a crazy dilemma the US faces.
Rick says
Democracy! All brutal dictatorships claim to be one because no one has ever succeeded in defining it. Lincoln’s “government of the people by the people for the people” sounds good, but is not capable of implementation. The people have NEVER “governed”. Most can’t govern their own life, let alone a whole nation. People need – and have always needed – leaders.
One of the blessings of living in Australia is that we do NOT pretend that the people “govern.” We are arguably the most democratic nation in the world, but we are a constitutional monarchy with representative government. A Cabinet (consisting of Ministers, or servants, of the Crown) advise our “government”, which is the Governor General in Council. That Cabinet is drawn from the representatives that gain a majority in the lower house of parliament. The only “governing” the people do is that once every three years they get to kick out representatives who don’t perform to the peoples expectations.
It is as democratic as the world has ever seen, but it is clearly not even close to Lincoln’s attempted definition. And frankly, I am thrilled that ignorant, uninterested, self-consumed “people” do NOT get to pass judgement on every single action of “government.”
xlighter says
Be careful what you wish for. Consider this; You are not forced by law to vote in America, which results in less of the ‘ignorant, uninterested, self-consumed’ voting. Not so in Australia where everyone is forced to vote.
Additionally the US is a Republic not a 51% rule Democracy which is why they were seen as the bastion of individual’s rights – before they let themselves become corrupted.
So rather than hating on arguably the most successful system of government in the history of the world. Why don’t you try and raise the awareness and education of your fellow man.
Jess Young says
Found this article online:
The Real Reason the FBI Moved on Hillary…
Just when you thought the soap opera couldn’t get any more bizarre…
On Friday, FBI director James Comey informed Congress he was reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails.
In a shocking twist in the case, agents investigating former congressman and resident pervert Anthony Weiner for “sexting” with a minor recovered one of his laptops containing thousands of emails…
Among them were State Department-related emails from Weiner’s estranged wife, Huma Abedin, a close aide to Clinton and a subject of the original investigation.
This startling discovery jolted Comey into action just days before the election, turning the presidential race on its head.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a Republican or Democrat, this move is important because it could lead to a lot of market volatility in the next couple of weeks.
I’ll show you the best way to deal with that volatility in just a moment.
But first, let me show you how the media missed the real story…
Why Comey Did It…
Predictably, Comey’s move made Clinton and her comrades in arms in the mainstream media go nuts.
They had called Comey, who was nominated by President Obama, a paragon of integrity and virtue when he let Clinton off the hook just a few months ago.
But now he was instantly relabeled a partisan hack trying to singlehandedly decide the election in Trump’s favor.
What the mainstream media has purposefully missed in their attacks on Comey is that he really had no choice…
You see, The New York Times reports that these new emails were discovered by New York-based FBI agents weeks ago.
So why the delay in announcing it? Well, that’s where things get really interesting…
According to The Wall Street Journal, the New York agents notified FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe of their blockbuster findings on October 3.
But they couldn’t access the emails they found because searching through them wasn’t covered under their existing warrant for Weiner.
They needed a new warrant. So what did McCabe do?
Nothing. He sat on his hands. He never requested one. And nothing happened for weeks.
Why is this so important?
Well, McCabe is the FBI official who oversaw the initial Clinton email investigation.
He’s come under fire recently because his wife received $500,000 while running for the Virginia state senate from the political action committee (PAC) of longtime Clinton ally and current Virginia governor Terry McAullife.
Clinton herself headlined a major fundraiser for that same PAC shortly before the group steered the cash to McCabe’s wife.
So Mrs. McCabe received a huge sum of money from a close Clinton ally around the same time Mrs. Clinton was under an investigation led by Mr. McCabe.
The whole episode smells awful.
It’s therefore no shock to anyone who hasn’t had a full-frontal lobotomy why McCabe was in no rush to request a warrant for access to emails that may derail Clinton’s ambitions before Election Day.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the only reason why a warrant to was eventually requested in recent days was because “a member of the [Justice] department’s senior national-security staff asked for an update on the Weiner laptop. At that point, officials realized that no one had acted to obtain a warrant.”
Look, Comey’s not stupid. The Washington Post reported that he was only notified of the discovery of these new emails last Thursday.
He knew the guy running the Clinton investigation was likely dragging his feet until after election.
He also knew that if he did nothing given this new discovery and it turned up damning evidence against Clinton, Republicans would rake him over the coals for taking part in a conspiracy.
So he did what any bureaucrat would do in that situation: He covered his you know what. He notified Congress of the new discovery, which let the cat out of the bag.
Buckle Up!
The stock market in the short term didn’t like Comey’s move. Stocks dipped when the news hit Friday afternoon.
Polls had strongly indicated a Clinton victory over Trump. Those ever-so-bright analysts that keep Wall Street rolling said markets had already priced in that outcome.
But with this bombshell, all bets are off. Markets don’t like uncertainty.
One thing that is very clear to me: There will be more surprises before Election Day. Who knows what Julian Assange or hacker Kim Dotcom have up their sleeves.
There are only 8 days left. That means the most scandalous opposition research dumps are likely still to come for both candidates.
I have already seen trolls on my Facebook page floating truly sick accusations with zero evidence. People will say anything right now to win. It’s as if morals and ethics just permanently exited.
And that means we’ll see more market volatility like we saw on Friday.
Trying to predict the next shoe to drop and the market’s reaction to it is a fool’s errand. You’d be crazy to try.
The only reliable way to maintain your sanity right now while making money in the markets is to ride the trends with your stop losses set.
Things are about to get nuts.
Please send your comments to me at [email protected]. Let me know what you think of today’s issue.
koko says
He has been forced to reopen the case otherwise hundreds of FBI will resign… Hillary and bill Clinton are very corrupted. US government is very corrupted. FBI VS Justice department for Clinton Foundation. Trump (new hope)VS Globalism(New World Order). There will be cheating in election using Voting machine -Fraction algorithm(used in us since George W Bush) for Hillary to win. There will be civil war because many people in government will get scared to be in jail and people will not be happy if election is rigged. Trump is the man to rescue not only US but also the world.