This is Viewpoints for Thursday, June 2, 2016

Inaccurate hearing

Regarding Carl Pirkle’s letter in Sunday’s paper: I think this is a good example of how all of us can listen to a news report, or a friend telling us about a news report, not realizing that we may not be hearing all of it, and then running with it. We all hear somewhat inaccurately but most of us don’t realize it. Remember the game of telling one person a short sentence, and asking them to pass it on to the next person until it goes all around the room? I have come to believe the stories we hear on news broadcasts themselves are flawed in this same manner.

To wit: Yes, Secretaries Condeleezza Rice and Colin Powell and John Kerry, now, for that matter, used unsecured email servers during their tenure as secretary of state, but only for personal email. As I understand it, they all stuck to the official State Department system for affairs of office and only used their unsecured servers for personal accounts, like most every man and woman in the country who has both a business and personal email address. The difference with Hillary Clinton, as I understand it, is that she used her personal server for everything including stuff that was deemed classified.

Reason enough

No. 1 reason to vote for Donald Trump: Can you picture that sleazebag Bill Clinton back in the White House again and being referred to as “First Gentleman” ?

Not the White House

Sunday’s Viewpoints contained a couple of posts attempting to absolve Crooked Hillary of wrongdoing concerning her unauthorized use of a private email server to send and receive classified data while secretary of state. I’m afraid even overwhelming evidence will not change the mindset of her apologists. Although when “Guccifer” the Romanian hacker delivers all her deleted emails to the Department of Justice, even her defenders may realize her system was compromised.

All foreign intelligence agencies (at least those who wanted them) have her classified and super-secret emails. That means CIA agents and ongoing intelligence programs worldwide were endangered by Clinton’s deliberate attempts to avoid public disclosure of her activities. Smart money says many emails will show “pay for play” contributions to the Clinton Crime Family Foundation in return for favors from the State Department to foreign agents/investors. Other compromised documents will likely show similar quid pro quos for William Jefferson Clinton himself. Either case validates the fact that Hillary, in a criminal fashion, put her need for secrecy ahead of the security of this country. Indictment or not, Hillary should be in prison for 2016, not the White House.

Comments about comments

Tracy McCollister’s long-earned absence from the Tuesday Opinion Page was greeted by this longtime sufferer from Crohn’s disease and multiple daily restroom visits. Tracy’s call for “one restroom for all” was his only common sense statement in a lengthy litany of moaning and groaning about the realities of modern life. His stressful complaints are likely to send many of us to a public restroom.

John Ricketson needs to realize that most of us know what needs to be done to prevent airplanes from disappearing. And that he is not Christopher Columbus, Thomas Edison or Albert Einstein.

Sam Marshall needs to know that 98 percent of all scientists believe in climate change. And Bobby George needs to know that most public school teachers don’t recommend their profession to others. And that one in five quit after five years.

Not the same

Donald Trump has said, “I always felt like I was in the military.” I got “more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military.” No, Donald, going to an expensive prep school, wearing a uniform and marching is not like being in the military. You would know that if you had actually served. But instead you got five draft deferments.

Endless possibilities

Hillary Clinton has long maintained that she deleted about half of her emails while secretary of state because they were personal, non-work related and presumably of no interest to anyone. She cited as examples of such personal subjects: plans for Chelsea’s wedding, recipes and yoga classes. Frankly, few observers believed that hogwash. The only idea that makes sense is that the emails contained information that would have proved embarrassing to Clinton or to the Obama administration and might possibly have sabotaged her chances of becoming president.

What email topics could be so damning? How about illegal or corrupt acts involving the Clinton Foundation? Or maybe emails between her and Ambassador Chris Stevens that would have revealed a lack of support for security enhancement in Libya? (One of the most unbelievable facts about Hillary’s emails so far is that not one of them was to or from Ambassador Stevens. Stevens was a personal friend, serving American interests in a dangerous country, and he never sent Hillary an email or received one from her? That defies belief!) With Hillary the possibilities are endless!

She obviously thought (hoped) that her emails were gone forever. Maybe they were, or maybe the FBI has been able to recover them. The scariest, and maybe the most likely scenario, is that the emails are now unrecoverable, but were stolen by any of several foreign governments before they were deleted.

There have been several reports that Hillary’s personal server was relatively unsophisticated and susceptible to being hacked. Guccifer says he easily hacked it. There have been reports that Russia is in possession of 20,000 of her emails. If Hillary loses the election, the harm that the exposure of her emails would cause is somewhat diminished. But think of the damage that could ensue if Hillary becomes president and serves at the blackmail pleasure of Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, the Iranian mullahs, China or any other America-hating entity. She must not be allowed to win in November.

This story was originally published June 1, 2016 at 9:00 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Thursday, June 2, 2016."