Podcast 521

Stormy Weather. In a surprise only to ‘conservatives’ who listen only to ‘conservative’ talk show hosts, watch ‘conservative’ TV shows and go to conservative websites, the FBI decided not to recommend criminal prosecution of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over her use of a personal email server while she was in the Obama Administration. Why? The short answer is, intent is a key consideration in cases like these. The long answer is, Mrs. Clinton played her ‘Benghazi Card’ better known as ‘If I go down, you go down’ and she got action from the administration. At least that’s one possible explanation. In the past few days President Obama suddenly closed ranks with the Clintons (despite all the rumors of the rancor between the Obamas and the Clintons). Attorney General Loretta Lynch had a now famous ‘tarmac meeting’ with former president Bill Clinton and President Obama allowed Hillary Clinton to ride Air Force One with him to a campaign event, where they walked, hand in hand, down the steps. “If I go down, YOU go down”. Now it’s a matter of politics. He said, she said. He said she’s a crook. She said he’s an anti semite. Congress releases a damning report on the administration’s conduct regarding ‘Benghazi’…Democrats say it is a partisan document. Republicans say it’s the ‘truth’ about Mrs Clinton and her boss, President Obama. “If I go down, YOU go down.” More fodder for the campaign trail. They were asleep and the switch, says one side. They’re partisan dividers, says the other side. Meanwhile the world’s leading economies are drowning in a sea of paper money and deficit spending, and economies are faltering. Do you really think this election is going to fix anything? We live in interesting times, with the great potential of a new technical industrial revolution and all that portends, and a personal challenge to change the way we think and how we work, and what we demand of our political institutions. Too bad our sclerotic politics delivers a statist who wants to spend and tax more, and a statist who wants to wall the country off from the rest of the world. We could have this technology revolution now, or we can languish for another thirty years while these idiots we call presidential candidates stumble around in economic darkness. Yeah sure, go ahead and talk until you’re blue in the face about Hillary’s email server, or about the Star of David on Trump’s twitter account, while the printing presses debase the currency, governments spend themselves into the poor house, the media puts on cartoons and calls them news, and we hurtle toward our destiny, whatever that may be. The US is now a country that’s happy about revised economic growth from .5 percent to 1.1 percent, with 95 million people out of the work force, a media that writes gossip and calls it news, and a population that believes Russian Propaganda and You Tube conspiracy theories because…what’s the difference? The Earth is hollow, you know and there’s a whole civilization down there, right? And you wonder about moral hazard? Sponsored by Karow Contracting and Brush Studio in the West End, Saint Louis Park. (Editor’s Note: In this podcast I refer to former CIA Director David Petraeus’ offenses regarding passing classified information with intent, and engaging in a coverup after as occurring while Petraeus was on active military duty. I wondered whether he would be under the Military Code of Justice in this case. This is incorrect. Petraeus was director of the CIA when the offenses occurred and not on active duty. For comparison to the Clinton question, one should refer to the FBI director’s congressional testimony regarding the differences between the Clinton question and the Petraeus case.)

Podcast 519

Off The Rails. As we head into the long fourth of July weekend, world events aren’t taking the weekend off. On the heels of the British Exit vote, comes the Istanbul attack. Apparently we now live in an upside down world where speech is considered so dangerous, Nigel Farage’s speech to the European Union Parliament – an unelected body – can be considered hate speech, while an actor accepting an award in the United States — where free speech is a constitutional right —  considers opinions opposite to his own on race to be so dangerous those who speak them should ‘sit down and shut up’. Then, inexplicably, in the wake of obvious ISIS style terror attacks in Istanbul, Secretary of State Kerry warns people not to rush to judgement on whether ISIS is involved or not. So let me get this straight. Speech is more dangerous than men with AK-47’s wearing suicide vests? Moreover, the Republican standard bearer – so far – is a trade protectionist who wants to double down on the Bush Steel Tariff debacle, republicans including a former president, are endorsing the ‘presumptive’ democratic nominee while Bernie Sanders of all people came off as the most reasonable person in Washington this week when he warned democrats to heed the results of the British Vote for what it might mean to ‘establishment’ politicians like Hillary Clinton. Off The Rails you say? Hell yes. There is a palpable feeling that all this is leading up to a major event; something that cannot be foreseen that changes everything: The stock market crash of 1929, Pearl Harbor, the JFK assassination, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and 9-11. World changing events after which you say, “Remember what things were like back in…? It’s so different now.” Have you ever been lost hiking? At some point you look up and say, “Where the Hell am I?”. Its feels like that kind of a moment in the world right now. How did we get here? What happens now? A late night podcast from the deck, examining these issues, but not too deeply. It is after all the 4th of July weekend, let’s party like it’s 2016. Sponsored by Brush Studio in the West End, and X Government Cars.