Show Summary: Economics is always a strange business. But like so much else of American life, the Left is corrupting the economy and using it for their own means. Especially by involving the government. And now, with the Ukraine situation, we’re seeing private businesses waging a private war against Russia — when we’re not even at war with them. Combined with what happened in Canada, is this a foreshadowing of what will happen to our economic freedoms and liberties?
Current I Spy Radio broadcast areas. Click for full-size map.
The I Spy Radio Show airs weekends, six different times, on seven different stations. Listen anywhere through the stations’ live streams! Check out when, where, and how to listen to the I Spy Radio Show. Podcast available Mondays after the show airs on out network of stations.
Original Air Dates: March 5th & 6th, 2022 | Guest: Jonathan Williams
This Week
To quote Bill Clinton, “it’s all about the economy, stupid.”
We take a look at the state of the union speech, the competency of those in charge and their agendas, the economy, and also the economic policies that politicians can win on this year. Even here in Oregon. Plus, with the war in Ukraine, we’re seeing an entire new kind of warfare being waged. Economic warfare on a scale we haven’t seen in ages and in ways we’ve never seen. Private companies waging a private war against a country we’re not actually at war with. Combined with what we saw in Canada, what does this mean for our economic freedoms and liberties?
We talk with Chief Economist, Jonathan Williams, from ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) about what is going on. We talk about the SOTU speech, the competency of those in charge, and private companies blocking you when they don’t agree with your politics. And we’ll look at true economic policies to win on in 2022. Even right here in Oregon.
And don’t miss the discussion about what is happening, on economic terms, in the war between Russia and Ukraine. And what it means for our future economic liberties and freedom.
The I Spy Radio Show Podcast Version
Trapped under a heavy object? Missed the show? Don’t worry—catch the podcast version. I Spy Radio is now available on your favorite platform, or you can grab it right here. See the full list of podcast options.
Links Mentioned Research, & Additional Info
Jonathan Williams is the Chief Economist and Exec VP at American Legislative Exchange Council. Visit ALEC.org to find out more about what they do and how you can get their policies to your politicians.
Show Summary: The wild stock market ride continues. Is The Fed playing politics? Or is this covert financial warfare happening all over again? Plus new A.I. innovations may make things worse with the rise of 5G. Is Terminator Day coming? Plus, the war for the technology the future will be built on.
I Spy Radio Show broadcast areas, as of Nov 2018. Click for full-size map.
Five Different Times, Six Different Stations. Listen anywhere! All stations stream live!
This Week: If there’s one thing in life that’s consistent, it’s that government is consistently wrong.
In the late 1700s, you had Thomas Malthus predicting overpopulation, which would exceed the means of agricultural production and lead to starvation. They were wrong. Because Malthus—a preacher and mathematician and not a farmer—didn’t take into account advances in farming technology. Or advances in science and improved understanding of plant biology. And yet Malthus’s opinion has dominated Western government thinking for two centuries.
And yet the Left wholeheartedly believes it. The Left believes in depopulation, and to solve it some 6 billion humans just need to go away.
And there’s the Industrial Revolution. Once again, government “experts” believed people were going to be put out of work as machines did what people used to do. More people went to work than ever before. And at higher wages than ever before. Which meant they had more money to spend, which meant more businesses could open. And on and on and on.
These are just two examples of why government is so often wrong about so many things. It’s why they’re slow to react to advances in technology because—like Malthus who was no farmer—government bureaucrats are making decisions and recommendations about things they don’t fully understand. It’s why the market, which makes millions of buying and selling decisions every day is more efficient than any government bureaucrat could ever be.
This is precisely why socialism always fails. Markets are always better than bureaucrats.
Government and the Market
But that doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be some sort of control. Because a market running amok can cause damage within any market, there are potentially some bad actors who will, can, and do exploit things to their own advantage.
But what about The Fed? They’ve been raising interest rates since Trump got elected. Is this politics? Are they trying to sabotage Trump? You’ll have to tune in to hear what’s really going on.
Artificial Intelligence: New Tool in Covert Financial Warfare?
Take, for example, a relatively new phenomenon, computerized, algorithm-controlled stock trades. Basically, computer programs that watch the market to buy or sell based on a set of criteria. But here’s the thing. They can make millions of trades in seconds, before you can even refresh the Dow Jones web page.
And they don’t care whether the market goes up or down. Because if their predictive program guesses correctly, they can make money whether the market goes up or down.
Think George Soros—who made billions by betting against the Bank of England and that the British Pound would go down. Now think George Soros with a super computer. See the potential problem?
While these “trader bots” have a lot of potential, they also represent the potential for tremendous problems. And the potential for problems are only going to get worse due to the rise of new technologies that will make things even faster and more connected than ever before.
5G Dangers? Not Quite what you think…
The potential for good or ill includes 5G technology that will have your head spinning. Your cell phone used to have 3G technology, which essentially used to have dialup speeds. But then they went to 4G, which meant your cell phone could handle video downloads. 5G? It’s 100 times faster than 4G.
And it will be everywhere. Toasters connected to cell phones? Yes. It’s being called the Internet of Things.
China’s War for 5G
So why is China so interested in this new technology? Why are they pushing to dominate the world with their version of 5G? And what dan
Because who controls that new technology will control the new future that is coming. And right now there is a war between China and the U.S. for the future.
Tune in to hear the dangers, and potential, for what is happening in the market and where this is headed.
Podcast Version
Trapped under a heavy object? Missed the show? Don’t worry—the podcast version will be right here after the show airs.
Show Summary: Oregon’s Democrat Governor Kate Brown is unleashing hell on small businesses. Find out what small businesses are up against and how candidate Greg Wooldridge says he’ll stop it. Plus: can it be? How one of those “it will start a trade war with China” tariffs actually paid off big for Oregon and Oregon workers. If they can survive Kate Brown.
To download the show, right-click the mic, and then “Save Link As…” or use our handy player
Never miss a show! All stations stream live!
11:00AM Saturday: KBKR (Baker City) | KLBM (La Grande) | Live Feed
8:00AM Sunday: KWVR (Enterprise) | KWVR’s Tune In Live Feed
7:00PM Sunday: KAJO (Grants Pass) | KAJO’s Live Feed
Original Air Dates: Apr. 28 & 29, 2018 | Capt. Greg Wooldridge & Jeff Ferry
This Week: It’s politics and trade deals—and how good leadership can lead to good deals and prosperity.
Pundits on the Left and Right spewed economic doom and disaster after Trump announced tariffs on China. Once again, Trump proves the critics wrong as China largely gave in and there was no trade war. But there’s more to the story than just tariffs.
In fact, the tariffs are the least scary aspect of trade with China.
Candidate Greg Wooldridge for Oregon Governor
Greg Wooldridge, Republican candidate for Oregon Governor
Before we get to those scarier aspects of the trade war, there’s a war being waged in Oregon. Against Oregon businesses and especially small business owners.
We start our show with Captain Greg Wooldridge, a Republican running for Oregon governor. We ask him many of the same questions we asked last week of his primary opponent, businessman Sam Carpenter. Our goal is to bring you as much information about these two conservatives that we possibly can so that when you fill out your ballot you feel confident of your decision about whom you think can win in November.
We talk with Greg about Oregon’s economics thanks to the Democrats:
Kate Brown’s decision to punish small businesses in Oregon by eliminating the Trump tax break (kept by all the other states);
The possible Internet Sales Tax that was just heard before the Supreme Court (and how Oregon’s Democrat Attorney General quietly signed the Amicus Brief in favor of it), which will force businesses in Oregon, which has no sales tax, to collect sales taxes — for other states
And the suicide-vest of State funding, PERS — which all of us are about to spend a lot more on just to bail out years of Democrat overspending on it
And it’s Governor Kate Brown who’s led us to this financial cliff.
Mentioned on the show: See Knute Buehler’s flyer sent not to Republicans but to Independents
Tariffs are the Least Scary Part of a China Trade War
As the saying goes, love him or hate him, President Trump is delivering. And it has to drive his detractors crazy to see him succeed time and again. And it’s both sides of the aisle.
When Trump proposed huge tariffs on China, many on the Right screamed foul. Tariffs are always bad, or so goes the meme. Except the supposed trade war that was supposedly about to be unleashed… never happened. In fact, it’s about to benefit a company right here in Oregon. All thanks to one of those evil, “trade-war” tariffs.
How One of those “Trade War” Tariffs is a Win for Oregon
Recently, a solar company in California — which had been making panels in Asia and which was adamantly against Trump’s tariffs — suddenly realized the tariffs meant it was cheaper to make them in the good ol’ U.S.A. They just announced the purchase of a solar manufacturing company right here in Hillsboro, Oregon.
So, yes elections matter. Whether you personally love him or hate any politician, you need to determine your vote on what you think they’ll deliver for the state or country.
Podcast Version
Links & More Info
Greg Wooldridge (Segments 1–3)
Knute Buehler flyer sent to members of the Independent Party. Why not Republicans.
Knute Buehler’s flyer sent to members of the Independent Party. “Compassionate, pro-choice, pro-marriage equality medical doctor.” Why not send this to Republicans?
Show Summary: Hollywood liberal hypocrisy. Celebrities wouldn’t have any standards if they didn’t have double standards, whether it’s about guns or Facebook. Another law Obama broke. Plus, Trump’s real strategy in China. We talk with two bestselling authors, James Hirsen (Tales from the Left Coast) and Scott McEwen (co-author of American Sniper).
To download the show, right-click the mic, and then “Save Link As…” or use our handy player
All Stations Stream Live!
11:00AM Saturday: KBKR (Baker City) | KLBM (La Grande)
7:00PM Sunday: KAJO (Grants Pass)
Air Dates: April 7 & 8, 2018 | James Hirsen & Scott McEwen
What do all slaves, since the beginning of human history have in common?
Well, you’ll have to tune in to find out the answer to that one.
But what do all Liberals have in common? Hypocrisy of course. Liberal hypocrisy is rooted in their subjective reasoning. It’s not “murder” if it’s the unborn. It’s not “breaking the law” if it’s illegal immigrants coming here to take advantage of America’s generosity.
Liberal hypocrisy is always apparent (except to them) but no more so than in the recent Facebook scandal and the anti-gun “March for our lives” protest. Why?
There is no why. It’s just the bottomless barrel of liberal hypocrisy of course.
Simple. They can’t win with facts and logic. They’re advocating failed systems and they’re incapable of reasonable debate https://t.co/b18SBO1E9x
Liberals and Hollywood celebrities are fleeing Facebook. And shrieking at Mark Zuckerburg as they slam the door behind them.Why? Because Facebook sold data on 87 million users to Cambridge Analytica who bought it for the Trump campaign. Gasp!
You’ve probably heard elsewhere that Liberals were perfectly okay with Facebook giving Obama access to data—and the Liberals even praised Obama for being oh-so-clever. But not just 87 million users. Facebook gave away data on 190 million users.
Did you know Obama and Facebook may have actually broken a law by doing this? (Don’t hold your breath about the DOJ going after either of them.)
And then there’s guns. The Hollywood liberals—who make their millions selling movies about guns, using guns, shooting guns, and making it all look cool—took to the streets to march for gun confiscation — while surrounded by armed guards.
Up next, it’s bestselling author, Scott McEwen (co-author of American Sniper) on some international issues. We’ll talk over some strategic war games being played out on the world stage — not so much militarily but economically as well.
Remember: economics IS warfare. Scott has some surprising insights into what Trump is doing with China and why.
Scott lives on the border in San Diego. What’s he think of the horde of illegal immigrants marching their way through Mexico?
Scott’s fans will also want to hear the updates on his upcoming movie. And some updates on two new books that will be released this year which have already been optioned for movies.
Podcast Version
Links Mentioned
James Hirsen’s website, which has the two articles we talked about, is JamesHirsen.com
Show Summary: After months of steady gains, the markets took a dive last week. Something about it all didn’t seem quite right. Right in the middle of the FBI memos exposing the Deep State? How convenient. Pundits blamed “robo-traders” and “market corrections.” But was it all just normal market volatility? Or could it have been manipulated? And if so, by whom? Because here’s the thing: economic warfare and market sabotage has happened before.
To download the show, right-click the mic, and then “Save Link As…” or use the handy player below
This Week: Just imagine if you had the ability to create panic in the stock market like a precision bomb. You could make a lot of money when the sheep begin to stampede. Last week we had a bumpy ride with the Dow Jones and other markets showing incredible volatility and the timing of it was rather suspicious.
Think about it. President Trump’s approval numbers start to climb. Trump’s new fed chair was officially appointed. CNN points to the stock downcast and that it was all Trump’s fault as they ducked out of Trump’s speech. And, of course, it sure took a lot of heat off the highly revealing Democrat-Russian collusion memos.
Was it just normal market volatility? Or could it have been manipulation? And, if so, by whom? Yes. Because here’s the thing: economic warfare, market manipulation, and even market sabotage have all happened before.
Economic Warfare and Market Sabotage
Remember 2008? It was proven that Russia had manipulated the big sell off on the stock market at that time—which actually had to be forcibly shut down by the government to stop a collapse. The panic that ensued. Then Presidential candidate, John McCain rushing back to Washington.
Long-time listeners of I Spy know that, yes, there was indeed manipulation in our markets in 2008—by Russia. (It might very well have been brought down if the Chinese hadn’t backed out at the last moments.) This was outright economic warfare. And it helped to usher in Obama’s presidency, who just happened to seem rather calm about the whole thing. So was last week’s market volatility was normal or staged?
To figure this out we bring in Kevin Freeman, a world renowned expert on economic warfare and author of, Secret Weapon: How Economic Terrorism brought down the US Stock Market. You’ll hear just how open these systems are to manipulation. We also discuss automatic trading algorithms, “robo-brokers,” that go in and buy and sell when triggers and market conditions are met. And if those are at work behind the scenes, how easily can those be manipulated to cause crashes?
Let’s not forget: George Soros has made an awful lot of money—not when the market goes up, but when it goes down. You don’t think he’d be happy to unleash a little economic warfare and financial terrorism?
Don’t miss our conversation on the dangers, the signs of war, and what you can do to protect yourself and your family’s financial health.
Definition of short selling via Investopedia – “Short selling is the sale of a security that is not owned by the seller or that the seller has borrowed. Short selling is motivated by the belief that a security’s price will decline, enabling it to be bought back at a lower price to make a profit.”
Apple Responds to Hack Threats, Says There Were No iCloud or Apple ID Breaches (Macrumors, March 22, 2017)
China is using its students and professors at US colleges to SPY on America, FBI Director warns, as it bids to become the world’s dominant superpower (Daily Mail, Feb 14, 2018)
Obama’s Last Minute Damage | The Russians are Coming
Show 7-01 Summary: Russian hacking or Obama trying to do as much damage as he can on the way out the door? Obama grabbed another 1.8 million acres in Utah and Nevada — can this be undone or is it another victory for the U.N. enviro-nazis? Plus, the Russians are coming! Did the Russians actually do any hacking or didn’t they?
To download the show, right-click the mic, then “Save Link As…” or use the handy player below
Air Dates: Jan 7 & 8, 2017 | Rep. Ken Ivory (R-UT) & Kevin Freeman
Welcome to our 2017 kickoff show as we watch President Obama packing up and getting ready to leave White House while President Trump prepares to take control.
As if to cause whatever trouble he can on the way out, in true community-organizer fashion, two big things have happened during the remaining days of Obama’s presidency. First was his most recent land grab of over 1.3 million acres in Utah, adding to the half a billion acres he’s already taken out of state control. And second is the last gasps of politicization of intelligence agencies as they muddle through whether Russia hacked files that may or may not have impacted on the elections.
Obama’s Land Grab
We start with Rep. Ken Ivory (R-UT) who discusses what it means to have Obama seize yet more land for the federal government, the difference of national forest status to national monument, and all the rights removed from people being able to access the land for any use. In Oregon we know firsthand the painful reality of having so much land removed from tax rolls with some counties having no resources to pay for school funding. Over the next two weeks remaining to Obama’s powers of pen and phone, will Malheur Forest and Siskiyou Crest National forest be added to the list of national monument designations?
Russians Hacking or Not?
We’ll also be talking about the alleged Russian “hacking” and whether it did, in fact, influence the elections. Agencies are alleging that they have proof the Russians did hand off hacked material to WikiLeaks. We talk to Kevin Freeman about the truth of all this, as well as the politicization of our intelligence agencies and how it’s gone wild under President Obama. This is the president whose intelligence agencies told the American public that ISIS wasn’t to be worried about and in the weeks before the “Arab Spring” that the Muslim Brotherhood was essentially a civic organization and nothing to worry about.
We’ve watched as Obama used our spy agencies to push political agendas rather than giving us, the people, the straight scoop—or do what they were designed to do: defend the U.S. from outside attacks. Are their solutions to “de-politicizing” our intel agencies? Don’t miss the steps we need to take.
Via Slate – Sept 2016, “the Russian hack, if it is that, is not an act of war, at least not by traditional standards. It is closer to an intelligence operation with the twist of a damaging publication of the stolen information.”
Show Summary: With cybersecurity increasingly important, America dodged a bullet when we did not elect Hillary Clinton, the FBI-certified techno-nincompoop. This week, we take a look ahead at cybersecurity in the Trump administration, the challenges and opportunities.
To download the show, right-click the mic, then “Save Link As…” or use the handy player below
Air Dates: Nov. 25 & 26, 2016 | Kevin Freeman
Did you catch that article on the Drudge Report earlier this week about how Donald Trump’s son in law, Jared Kushner, used a tremendous amount of data mining and social media analysis and lean-startup business principles to win the election—throwing out the old model of campaigning, which Hillary used. So much for that whole not having a ground game bit.
We are in a new era. So many of the NeverTrump people I spoke to thought he’d lose because the Never Trumpers looked at things through the old way of thinking. Didn’t have a ground game. Wasn’t spending on ads. Trust the polls.
It’s like when the telephone started taking off . People’s mindset still existed around the telegraph and land stations and a host of messenger boys to relay messages. But why do that, when you can directly speak to people? And before that, why rely on the post office and the pony express that takes days for a message to get there when you can get a message there in minutes over the telegraph? Each era brings a disruptive force that makes the previous obsolete. As we go forward in the Trump administration, keep that in mind — we are in the dawn of a new era. We stand at the edge of new era, a new way how the govt operates and business – and gets out of the way to unleash the power of business. And that’s exciting
And that brings me around to today’s topic. Technology and security is the new field of business — and the new battlefield.
Two hundred years ago, whoever controlled the waterways controlled the world. In today, some hacker 19-year-old in Brazil can without ever leaving his bedroom. ISIS. Russia. China. You name it. They can all wipe out the equivalent of the Erie Canal. They can steal customer information, take over bank accounts. They can shut down websites or millions of lanes of traffic, steal corporate secrets, or worse, steal our national security secrets.
Now, just a few weeks ago, Obama has handed over the controls of internet—the 21st century waterways—to foreign countries.
Fortunately, the adults have taken over. We talk with Kevin Freeman, a world-renowned expert in cybersecurity and financial terrorism. What will cybersecurity look like in the Trump Administration? Kevin should know, since he’s been advising the Trump transition team.
Tune in to get an inside look at what’s happening behind the scenes with the Trump transition team—and to hear some rather frightening capabilities of our enemies and their targets. Hint: it’s not just computers.
Be sure to check out our previous shows with Kevin Freeman on the archives page
Resources to Protect Yourself and Family
Be sure to have a supply of food on hand, a minimum of two weeks would be best but you can buy a month’s worth or more of dehydrated food. See Wise Food Storage or My Patriot Supply for food options.
Water is hard to store so look to buy a water purification system (consider that you may not be able to boil water). You can find many options out there but a $16 LifeStraw could literally be a lifesaver
EMP Protection: one of the best things you can do to protect yourself against an EMP is to store drinking water, food, and other survival items (e.g., heating/cooking sources, and home-protection). Consider that it could take weeks at a minimum for vital systems to recover and probably years to fully recover.
Protecting your electronic devices… If you have no other options, or need something quick while you build a better option, an old microwave apparently can be used as a makeshift Faraday cage but it not as reliable as a true Faraday cage
To download the show, right-click the mic, then “Save Link As…” or use the handy player below Show Summary: Kamal Saleem, a former cultural jihadist, explains how events like the Orlando shooting and Dallas bear the fingerprints of jihad and the radical elements of Islam. (Cultural jihad is, just as it sounds, a jihad against American culture, Western ideology, liberty and freedom, and of course Christianity.) Foreign nations are funding fundamental Islamic schools; Obama’s signals to jihadists, and much more. Note: This is Part I of a two-part show.
Air Dates: July 9 & 10, 2016 | Kamal Saleem
We welcome back Kamal Saleem, a former Muslim and cultural jihadist for a two-part show on the continuing spread of Islamic terrorism. Recruited by the Muslim Brotherhood he was sent to training camps starting at the young age of 7, to learn to kill “infidels” and cultural infiltration techniques. Commissioned by a member of the Saudi royal family in the 1980’s he came to America to destroy our western civilization, but instead due to a chance car accident, where he was helped through recovery by the very people he’d been sent to destroy, he converted to Christianity. Kamal is now president of Koome Ministries, the mission of which is to “see Ishmael redeemed.”
On this week’s show, you’ll learn how cultural jihadists and their techniques are inciting anger and divisiveness, terrorizing Americans, and subverting our culture and unique heritage, through the acts of violence and far more subtle techniques.
Kamal picks apart the Orlando shooter and how his murder-spree was a prime example of how the Islamic holy month of Ramadan played an important role in his decision to unleash horror in Orlando, in a fulfillment of Islamic beliefs. We also discuss the horrendous Dallas killings of so many police officers. How does this tie into the jihadists’ desires to incite anger and divisiveness? Is this the type of fear and dissent being spread by cultural jihad? Is Obama actually fanning the flames of cultural jihadists’ goals?
And don’t miss how one foreign country is setting up schools for Islamists right here in America – and how much U.S. taxpayers are paying for them!
Next week Part II: How moderate Muslims are converted to become radical Islamic terrorists.
Article from 2012, The New Black Militant Groups: Willing to Kill — the FBI knew back then that militant black groups had and have been infiltrated by radical Islamists, including the Muslim Brotherhood
To download the show, right-click the mic, then “Save Link As…” or use the handy player below
On the morning of Sept 11, 2008, John McCain and Sarah Palin were leading Obama and Biden in the polls by quite a bit. But by the end of the day, it saw the largest spike in short-selling in market history, ushering in the financial meltdown of 2008. Was it just some rogue day-traders? Or, as McCain thought at the time, was it an outright attack on our markets, perhaps by Russia and China? The end result was that not only did it set back the American financial markets, cause trillions of dollars of paper value to disappear in a matter of days, plunge thousands of Americans home-owners into bankruptcy, and hamstring our economy—it dramatically affected our 2008 presidential election.
What’s especially concerning is how similar the economic conditions of 2008 are to now—in 2016. Is history about to repeat itself? Have any of the vulnerabilities that ushered Obama into office been fixed?
Economic Warfare and Financial Terrorism
Over the last two weeks, there have been some very troubling headlines, including one that has nearly escaped notice: the sale of the Chicago Stock Exchange to a Chinese-owned company. But this week on Drudge and other sources, there have been headline after headline of trouble in the stock markets — not just here in the U.S. but all across Europe. US and EU stock markets are off to their worst starts since the 1930s. Is history going to repeat itself? And can capitalism survive? Could all of this be a coordinated attack? And why?
Join us this week for a fascinating story of another type of warfare between modern governments: economic warfare and financial terrorism. Get a look at the weapons used and techniques used to deploy them.
On this week’s show, you’ll learn:
Was there an attack in 2008 on the U.S. stock markets?
What’s been done to prevent another one?
Why did the Chinese buy the Chicago exchange — and does it create any vulnerabilities?
The latest economic tool is “negative interest rates,” what impact can and will this have on the markets?
Are the same conditions from 2008 collapse happening now in 2016?
What about all those foreign donations to Hillary Clinton?
Read Kevin’s white paper, submitted to the Department of Defense – Economic Warfare: Risks and Responses; an analysis of twenty-first century risks in light of the recent market collapse
This past weekend on I Spy Radio (Show # 5-32), we had the pleasure of interviewing James Hirsen of Headline Hollywood and Kevin Freeman, one of the world’s leading experts on economic warfare and financial terrorism. (See his site, secretweapon.org and his blog, Global Economic Warfare.) Plenty to choose from on what to write about for this Monday Morning wrap-up, no doubt the new insights on Hillary’s private email server (1) practically leaped out at both me and my ever-astute producer. So what did we learn?
Hillary’s Deleted Emails
There’s been a lot of talk—a lot of talk—about Hillary’s private email server, especially her 30,000+ deleted emails. And, sadly, all that talk has led to pretty much more talk and more discussions but almost no actions. And by that, I mean no jail time. (Kevin’s thoughts on that very issue are ’round about the 43:50 mark).
But all that talk and suspicion focuses almost entirely on the content of Hillary’s emails—especially the deleted ones. Or on what she has or has not turned over. Yet. Or on topics like Benghazi. Or whether she was giving political favors to big Clinton Foundation donors. And while all of that is important, it turns out that the contents of Hillary’s emails may not be the most damning part of this story.
Hillary’s Private Server
At this point, pretty much everyone except Hillary condemns her use of a private email server for her official State Department business—with the possible exception of Bill. (Maybe it’s just me, but do you ever get the sense that if there was even a slim chance that throwing Hillary under the bus would make him popular, Bill would it in a heartbeat? And if there was a gorgeous young intern on the bus, he’d back it up and hit her again—”Watch me get some air, honey.” But I digress.)
Anyway. Here too, the discussion on Hillary’s private server has been missing an important point. To date, the discussion has largely focused on the fact it allowed her to circumvent the law, lack of transparency, and to some extent the lack of security. Perhaps the reason the important point is skipped over is that it gets a little technical. So let me expand on an analogy I used on the show to help illustrate this.
Before we go any further, use the player here to enjoy some Medieval mood music. You’ll see why in a moment.
Behind the Castle Walls
Windsor Castle, showing the towers and inner keep
Imagine you’re the Queen of the State Department and you want to get a message to King Obama. Okay, I admit; so far this still sounds a lot like real-life Washington but hang in here.
There you are, holed up are in the Chancellor’s Tower at Windsor and you need to get a message to the King over in Keep (that’s the inner most part of the castle). No problem. Rather than walking all that way and up and down all those, literally, stone-cold stairs, you scratch out your message, hand it to a courier who, forthwith, runs it to the King over in the Keep. The advantage here is the courier remains safely behind the castle walls at all times. There’s that moat and the towers, the armed guards and so even if someone did get behind the walls, it’s a safe bet they’d find their rears at the business end of a pike real soon.
This is what Hillary email should have looked like had she used the government server. Everything stays, as it were, behind the castle walls. But that’s not what she did.
Hillary’s Private Server: The Drunken Messenger
Hillary’s email messenger stopping along the way
Back again to our analogy. Let’s say you’re Queen Hillary, safely behind the castle walls up in the Chancellor’s Tower and you need to dispatch a message to Sir William of Chappaqua in another castle a few states over. You once again scratch out your message and hand it to your messenger. Except this is where it gets very different.
The way email works is this: when you send your email, it goes out into the world but before it gets to its final destination, it’s more like the old Pony Express than something out of Star Trek. Your email doesn’t get sent through some subspace channel directly from your computer to the recipient’s computer. Instead, just like the Pony Express, the mail is handed from one server to another all along the route. Your email is handed to your local server (your ISP—Internet Server Provider) and from there to a number of other servers as it wends its way to its final destination, your recipient’s ISP and, from there, to your recipient’s computer.
To return to the analogy, Queen Hillary’s email left the safety of the castle walls and went out into the countryside—and stopped at every tavern along the way for a pint or two before staggering out the door on to the next one. This is how Hillary sent official, confidential, and classified State Department emails.
But Wait, it Gets Worse
That tavern picture above isn’t too far from the truth. The “secret message” is just sitting, there on the table and potentially anyone can sneak a peek. Or, as the servant toddles off to the next tavern, he could get waylaid and robbed or worse. Worse you say? Worse, say I.
What’s worse is that while the messenger is either sleeping it off under the bar or staggering off to the next village, someone could not only read the message but potentially slip a bit of malicious code in message pouch. Not so much as change the message (“P.S. Bill, I want a divorce”) but code that could make it easier to get into the castles. This would be like a note to the guards that, at 12:01 a.m. on Michaelmas, open the gate.
This is malware. It gets into a computer, behind the castle walls, and makes it easier for the barbarian hackers to gain entry. As revealed on the show, as of the last year of the Bush presidency, the Chinese government had hired 100,000 full-time hackers to do nothing but try to hack into the U.S. government, major companies, financial systems, and internet infrastructure. So what do you figure are the chances one or more of those 100,000 hackers managed to hack into a “tavern” and lie in wait for a government messenger to stagger in?
But Wait, it Gets Worse Yet
Hillary’s Chappaqua residence. Sort of looks like a castle, doesn’t it?
At long last, the dutiful messenger finally staggers up to Castle Chappaqua. He salutes the guard and presents his credentials at the same time and wobbles a bit as the guard yanks them from his hand. The two blush a little as the sounds of feminine giggles waft down from one of the towers — oh, sorry. Got lost there in the moment.
What’s worse than an unguarded messenger carrying classified information going from one castle to another, stopping at every tavern along the way? What’s worse is precisely what Hillary has done. Brace yourself.
Remember that messenger carrying the message? That he kept leaving on the bar? On the bar of every tavern and dive between Windsor and Chappaqua? The message in the courier bag into which anyone who knew how could slip other messages? If all that weren’t already horrible enough, given the sensitivity of the messages, think about this: every time Hillary emailed—er, messaged—King Obama or any other government official—even people in State Department offices just down the hall—the messenger was dispatched all went to Chappaqua. And back.
That’s right. Instead of a messenger going from Tower A to Tower B safely behind the castle walls, Hillary sent that drunken messenger all the way to Chappaqua and back, stopping again at every tavern along the way. Just to get an email to King Obama.
Yes, the contents of those emails matter. Destroying emails is criminal enough. But what Hillary has exposed the entire government to —and all of us— is far, far worse. And she wants to be president? She ought to be in jail.
Footnotes
The discussion with Kevin about Hillary’s private email server and her deleted emails takes place in segment six but to really get the full brunt of it, you need to listen to the whole show. It puts what she’s done in context.
You’ve probably heard elsewhere that Liberals were perfectly okay with Facebook giving Obama access to data—and the Liberals even praised Obama for being oh-so-clever. But not just 87 million users. Facebook gave away data on 190 million users.
