M D Nalapat | Geopolitical Notes From India
PRESIDENT Donald John Trump is correct in his view that there seems
no appetite within the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) or the US
Department of Justice to pursue an investigation into the Clinton
Foundation, including the actual sources of the copious streams of cash
that flowed into its coffers during the period when Hillary Clinton was
Secretary of State. The grease of politics is money, lots of it, and
neither the Democratic nor the Republican Party is immune to the effects
and the influence of those who invest large sums of cash to individual
politicians. They do this the way they make any other investment, which
is to ensure that a handsome profit ensues in the future from the moneys
spent in the present. The more influential a politician, the more
likely it is that money will flow in a continuous stream to his or her
direct and indirect bank accounts. Was it entirely a coincidence, for example, that Foxconn announced
the building of a $ 10 billion facility in the very location that is
the bailiwick of House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan? there would
have been some moves between the two sides before the decision was
tken. The Speaker has made no secret of his dislike of Donald Trump, and
is clearly among those in the Republican Party that are working in
private to ensure that Trump resigns in favour of Vice-President Mike
Pence. The Veep has been steadfast in his loyalty to his boss thus far,
knowing full well that if he gets the top job in the world (that of the
US President), it will not be because of any moves made by him, but by
factors outside his control having to do with the McCain-Clinton-led
campaign to get Trump to quit. It has therefore been a wise move on the
part of Vice President Pence to behave
with complete propriety towards President Trump, even while all around
him, his party leaders are synchronising their activities with the
Democratic Party, which still remains in the control of the Clinton
family. Indeed, in Chelsea Clinton, the family has an attractive future
candidate for Senator and perhaps even the Presidency. This columnist
way back wrote of the possibility of Chelsea Clinton and Ivanka Trump
becoming political rivals, and this is a scenario that no longer seems
as improbable as it was then. Barack
Obama is clearly unwilling or unable to establish his leadership over
the Democratic Party, something that would have been a matter of course,
had Bernie Sanders prevailed
over Hillary Clinton in getting nominated as the Democratic Party
candidate for the US Presidency. The hubbub over Russia is a diversion
meant to obscure the real story, that of how the nomination was stolen
from Senator Sanders by the Clinton machine. Of course, Sanders went
into Stockholm syndrome mode after he was cheated of the prize through
the machinations of the Clinton backers, and stumped across the country as a fervent admirer
of Hillary Clinton, despite knowing her Wall Street and external
connections. From that time onwards, the Sanders faction has been
steadily marginalised within the Democratic Party leadership. The party
itself morphed from being friendly to the working and middle classes to
being a vehicle for the rich under Bill Clinton,
who removed the constraints on Wall Street placed during the 1930s.
Because of that wilful error of judgment, the 2008 financial disaster
became an inevitability, as will another shock, once the Republican
administration now in power dilutes the brakes on Wall Street greed
placed by President Obama. How has Hillary Rodham Clinton continued to
enjoy immunity from prosecution despite the fact that Donald Trump –
who publicly proposes to send her to jail – was elected on November
8,2016? Why is there near-zero appetite within the investigative
agencies of the US government to hold her to account
the way it has done in the case of so many other politicians,and which
it is seeking to do even where President Trump is concerned? The answer
vests in the fact that over the eight years that they were in power,
Bill and Hillary Clinton coopted a large number of officials into being
their agents. Those responsive to requests from the Clintons saw their careers enhanced, while those who were recalcitrant suffered professionally. During the George W Bush years, Bill Clinton
in particular ensured a close personal relationship with the new
president, thereby ensuring that his favourites could be inducted and
promoted because of the goodwill of the 43rd President. Of course, when
Barack Obama was elected, the Clintons were back in full play, as the
44th President made his peace with the Clinton machine by allowing his
administration to be dominated by Bill and Hillary loyalists. Hundreds
of officials have therefore become part of the Clinton machine,
including several who are nominally independent or Republican. Any
investigation into the Clintons would expose them as well. Hence the
closing of ranks against any genuine investigation of the doings of Bill
and Hillary Clinton. The former First Lady is too well networked to
seriously probe, as any such enquiry would place at risk the immense
support network of the Clinton machine within the bureaucracy. Hillary
in 2017,quite simply, is too big to jail, just as certain banks were too
big to fail in 2008.
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