"You'd be in Jail" -or- Welcome to the Banana Republic

Fred Zarguna | 2016-10-10 | Fred Zarguna

[FredZarguna]

"You'd be in Jail" -or- Welcome to the Banana Republic

With apologies to Jeff Foxworthy, and all of the Founders. This morning, the liberal press is up in arms at the suggestion that Trump might appoint a special prosecutor to "look into Hillary's situation."

That's a good one.

• If your government has an avowed policy of not making payments to terrorists but pays $100 million per hostage to the largest terrorist organization in the world
  ... you may be living in a banana republic.
• If your Treasury Department and Central Bank are simply printing money in order to prop up the regime
  ... you may be living in a banana republic.
• If your balance sheet has more debt than all of the rest of the world combined
  ... you may be living in a banana republic.
• If your courts are telling you that the plain wording of your own Constitution means exactly the opposite of its English and historical meaning
  ... you may be living in a banana republic.
• If your law enforcement officers and election officials permit widespread vote fraud, voting by non-citizens and dead people, and oppose every means of enforcing fair elections
  ... you may be living in a banana republic.
• If your military's flag officers are more interested in putting fancy ribbons on their chests than they are about its capacity to fight being destroyed
  ... you may be living in a banana republic.
• If your country's space agency is more concerned with "Muslim Outreach" and climatic interpretation than they are with actually exploring space
  ... you may be living in a banana republic.
• If your major media ignore all the scandals and illegal activities of the ruling party
  ... you may be living in a banana republic.
• If your president is more interested in inciting racial violence than he is in enforcing the law
  ... you may be living in a banana republic.
• If half of your citizens believe that a lifetime history of sexual assault is less serious than vulgar talk
  ... you may be living in a banana republic.
• If one of your major political parties can't bring itself to remove a leader who has suborned perjury, lied under oath, and tried to fix a federal judge
  ... you may be living in a banana republic.
• If all of the major political parties are more interested in satisfying the demands of their wealthy contributors than they are in the people who actually vote
  ... you may be living in a banana republic.
• If your Secretary of State can plunder her office to the tune of nearly a quarter of a billion dollars (!) to advance her personal fortune while standing in front of the entire nation, bragging straight-faced about her "life of service"
  ... you may be living in a banana republic.
• If the head of your Department of Justice secretly meets with the man who started her career while her employees are supposedly investigating his wife, and she is not -- at the very least -- disbarred for this outrageous ethical violation
  ... you may be living in a banana republic.
• If the head of your Secret Police and his family have past and present financial connections with the subject of his investigation, and grants immunity to all of her co-conspirators without any evidentiary result, and then whines about being called the dirty cop that he is
  ... you may be living in a banana republic.

So the liberal outrage over Trump's plans to appoint a special prosecutor is -- like most liberal outrage -- very amusing to rational thinkers because our cruise ship to Banana Republic sailed a long time ago.

The real reason for the shock in the progressive media today reflects two things: the desire to blunt the absolute destruction of Hillary Clinton in last evening's debacle.

Liberals were giddy with the thought that Trump would slither off the stage as so many Republicans before him have done, and instead had to watch in horror as their hypocrite rapist-enabler candidate got the thorough whipping she's deserved her entire "public life."

And second, and far more importantly, they know full well that an investigation conducted by an impartial law enforcement agency and concluded by a legitimate trier-of-fact, rather than by a corrupt administration and its snivelling "Justice Department," would be the end of the Clinton Global Crime Family.

Everyone knows this, even the liberals. Hence their sanctimonious posturing this morning.

[FredZarguna]

Please feel to add your own bullet points.

[FredZarguna]

For the bird cage...

[DesertRhino]

How dare a president enforce the law against fellow politicians?

[ETL]

"So I deleted tens of thousands of e-mails after they
were subpoenaed. At this point what difference does
it make?"

[DJ Taylor]

When the head of your nation’s main law enforcement agency, FBI Director John Comey, reveals himself to be nothing more than a common criminal, you know you live in a Banana Republic.

[volunbeer]

Good list -

I would add:

If one candidate has a charitable foundation that takes in hundreds of millions to help poor Haitians after a disaster and keeps the money “in the family” you live in a Banana Republic.

They funneled peoples money - given with a charitable heart to help the poorest people on Earth - to their own donors and family. It is outrageous and dare I say, by their own math, it is racist. Probably illegal too, but I am sure nothing will happen. Meanwhile the island is reeling again from Hurricane Matthew yet the organization we were told was uniquely suited to provide aid to the nation is absolutely silent. Wouldn’t a reasonable person assume that the charity that had the infrastructure to deliver aid only years ago would be uniquely positioned to help again? Crickets.

What dominates the airwaves here in the U.S.? A tape of crass comments made 11 years ago by a businessman.

[Brilliant]

“Banana Republic” is when the national leader is a criminal and no one cares. In other words, Hillary.

[ETL]

From CNN, July 2016...

This was not his first time investigating the Clintons [Comey]

Nor his second. The email server probe marked the third time Comey has investigated Bill or Hillary Clinton.

His first run-in came in the mid-1990s, when he joined the Senate Whitewater Committee as a deputy special counsel. There he dug into allegations that the Clintons took part in a fraud connected to a Arkansas real estate venture gone bust. No charges were ever brought against either Clinton..."

"In 2002, Comey, then a federal prosecutor, took over an investigation into President Bill Clinton's 2001 pardon of financier Marc Rich, who had been indicted on a laundry list of charges before fleeing the country . ..."

http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/07/politics/who-is-james-comey-fbi-director-things-to-know/index.html
__________________________________

"The Whitewater controversy (also known as the Whitewater scandal, or simply Whitewater) began with investigations into the real estate investments of Bill and Hillary Clinton and their associates, Jim and Susan McDougal, in the Whitewater Development Corporation, a failed business venture in the 1970s and 1980s."

Whitewater Convictions

Jim Guy Tucker: Governor of Arkansas at the time, removed from office (fraud, 3 counts)

John Haley: attorney for Jim Guy Tucker (tax evasion)

William J. Marks, Sr.: Jim Guy Tucker's business partner (conspiracy)

Stephen Smith: former Governor Clinton aide (conspiracy to misapply funds). Bill Clinton pardoned.

Webster Hubbell: Clinton political supporter; Rose Law Firm partner (embezzlement, fraud)

Jim McDougal: banker, Clinton political supporter: (18 felonies, varied)

Susan McDougal: Clinton political supporter (multiple fraud). Bill Clinton pardoned.

David Hale: banker, self-proclaimed Clinton political supporter: (conspiracy, fraud)

Neal Ainley: Perry County Bank president (embezzled bank funds for Clinton campaign)

Chris Wade: Whitewater real estate broker (multiple loan fraud). Bill Clinton pardoned.

Larry Kuca: Madison real estate agent (multiple loan fraud)

Robert W. Palmer: Madison appraiser (conspiracy). Bill Clinton pardoned.

John Latham: Madison Bank CEO (bank fraud)

Eugene Fitzhugh: Whitewater defendant (multiple bribery)

Charles Matthews: Whitewater defendant (bribery)

Ultimately the Clintons were never charged, but 15 other persons were convicted of more than 40 crimes, including Bill Clinton's successor as Governor, who was removed from office.[40]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitewater_%28controversy%29#Convictions

or,

https://web.archive.org/web/20090326122112/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitewater_%28controversy%29

[ETL]

White House FBI files controversy

The revelations provoked a strong political and press reaction because many of the files covered White House employees from previous Republican administrations, including top presidential advisors.

Under criticism, Livingstone resigned from his position.

Allegations were made that senior White House figures, including First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, may have requested and read the files for political purposes, and that the First Lady had authorized the hiring of the underqualified Livingstone.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House_FBI_files_controversy

[FredZarguna]

Just 16 hours old, and already Amazon® has SIXTEEN PAGES of T-shirts with last night's most memorable line:

Is capitalism great, or what?

[Peter ODonnell]

The liberal media are nervous about this concept of accountability for liberal politicians, I mean, where would that end? Surely Hillary is not the only one who is worthy of investigation?

How would their bias look during and after these trials?

It would look like what it is — aiding and abetting a criminal conspiracy.

[Army Air Corps]

Is capitalism great, or what?

Yes, it is! Capitalism provides a way for the average Joe and Joanne to create wealth, which is why "Our Betters" HATE it with a passion. Oh, they have no problem reaping the benefits of capitalism, but they still hate it and try to crush it.

[FredZarguna]

Hypocrisy on parade: Yes, they're all wee-wee'd up over the possibility that Hillary might face justice for her crimes. But they were not so concerned when 0bama vowed exactly the same outcome for members of the Bush administration if its Justice Department determined that torture had been administered to terrorists by the CIA.

To his (rare) credit, 0bama did not pursue the matter very far, and eventually granted immunity to those potentially involved. Nevertheless, in 2008, today's thoroughly outraged press thought it was a great idea.

And as recently as December of last year, the tiresomely predictable Guardian was in high dudgeon that he'd abandoned his promise to prosecute Bush. Oddly, The Guardian may have been the first to accuse Trump of "Banana Republic"anism. They were on the journalistic ramparts guarding "the political process" as early as late last night.

[FredZarguna]

If by "crush" you mean "milk it for all it's worth" and "twist it into something it's not" then we are in agreement.

One of the "public positions" that Hillary®! takes in diametric opposition to her "private positions" is that capitalists are evil, wicked, mean and nasty. That hasn't stopped her from taking the dollars of billionaire pals and advancing their interests. And despite her concern with having the rich "pay their fair share" her husband somehow found the forgiveness in his heart to pardon notorious tax cheat Mark Rich.

[DannyTN]

• If your secretary of state rakes in millions while in office by selling state favors....
• If your cabinet members delete emails and hide evidence after receiving a congressional supoena...
• If your FBI offers immunity to everyone who might be guilty....
• If there is no process to verify that the candidates for the highest office are even eligible...

[p. henry]

A banana republic is not defined by the investigation and possible jailing of defeated political opponents as much as it is by the inability to prosecute and convict those guilty of political corruption. From Whitewater, to cattle futures, to the Travel Office firings and persecution, to the disappeareance and reappearance of the Rose Law Firm records, to the transfer of missile technology to the Chinese, to the Marc Rich pardon, to favoritism shown by Hillary as Secretary of State to donors to the Clinton Foundation, to the approval of the sale of US uranium assets to a clandestine donor to the Clinton foundation, to outrageous payments to Bill for speeches by folks with business before the Department of State, to Haitian contracts being let to friends and relatives, to the bleach bitting of records under subpoena by Congress and of obvious interest to the FBI, to the amassing of a quarter of a billion dollar fortune while Hillary was a Senator and the Secretary of State, the Clintons exemplify political corruption. How could there NOT be a special prosecutor to examine possible obstruction of justice, records act violations and influenc peddling? And to all of this we must add: What did Hillary know and when did she know it?

[kiltie65]

“Banana Republic” is when the national leaer is a criminal and no one cares. In other words, Hillary.”

And Obummer before Hillary’s try for the top slot.

[kiltie65]

OOOOOPS. Leader. However “leaer” is very close to liar, so its almost right.

[Washi]

Absolutely spot on.