One Thing After Another....It Just Doesn't Stop!

     It seems like it is one thing after another....it just doesn't stop when it comes to our missteps and downward spiral in the world standing.  The most recent tidbit comes from Beijing where Obama arrived for a G20 meeting.  PRC has decided to snub Obama in a major way.  When Air Force One landed, there were no mobile stairs rolled out so Obama could exit the plane, waving from the top of the stairs to the adoring crowd waiting below.  Instead, Air Force One had to lower its tailgate and Obama exited that way.  In addition, there was no red carpet rolled out, a standard and customary practice whenever a head of state arrives in a country.  Obama was greeted with less pomp and ceremony than if he had been just a cabinet member of our government.  
     When asked about the shabby treatment by PRC, Obama laughingly waved it off, saying it wasn't the first time he was treated this way!  It wasn't the first time?  How many times has the President of the United States been treated like some Third World leader?  Actually, even the Third World leaders get the red carpet treatment! Isn't he even a little bit upset, or at the very least embarrassed?  Apparently he is accustomed to being treated like that!  The president of the world's most powerful country is treated like he is from some banana republic, and he just laughs it off!  What an embarrassment!  But that is what it seems to have happened to our standing in the world, a result of 8 years of wishy-washy, passive-reactive foreign policy and a messy domestic scene, which has revealed corruption in our system that has been hidden before!
     The corruption that I am referring to mainly has surfaced because of the on again and off again controversy surrounding Hillary Clinton and her abuse of email system and classified material.  I have stated before that anyone else in the government guilty of doing even half of what she has done would be in jail, but somehow she is untouchable and could very well be our next president!
     It seems that the State Department became her personal fife during her time in the Foggy Bottom.  There are people in the State Department who are still very much under her influence and are involved in hiding, denying, or even destroying incriminating documents.  Remember?  Initially the State Department said that there were no emails that involved the Benghazi Incident.  Of course, the same people also said that there were no classified emails in Hillary's personal server!  Then they changed their minds and said there were "some" classified emails....yeah, "some" like several thousand!  Now the latest change is that there are "30 or so" classified emails concerning the Benghazi Incident!  Also, remember how the government vehemently denied that the $40 million in cash paid out to Iran was not ransom for release of hostages?  Then suddenly the State Department announced that indeed the money was paid for the release of the hostages, but it was not ransom!  I don't quite follow that.  In my book if you pay money to have a hostage released, then it is ransom payment!  But I guess our government has a different definition.  That had nothing to do with Hillary, except that the same people who support Obama are behind Hillary!
     The latest bit from Hillary is that she was not "briefed for trained" on classified material. She also added that she had difficulty recognizing classified material, could not tell by the markings!  Well, all I can say is that if that is the case, then she has no business of even thinking of running for president!  The simple fact is that she is lying!  Hillary Clinton was in the White House for eight years as the First Lady.  During that time she was known to stick her nose into everything!  You mean to tell me that she was never exposed to classified material during that time?  She then spent eight years (2001 to 2009) in the U.S. Senate and served six years on the Armed Services Committee.  Surely she was exposed to classified material during that time!  What more "briefing or training" did she need?  Is she that slow?
     For those unfamiliar with US government marking of classified material, let me give you a brief run down.  Any message containing classified material will be classified at its highest level.  In other words, if the classified material contained is at Top Secret level, then the whole message is marked Top Secret at the top and bottom of page in bold letters.  Then, each paragraph is also marked according to its classification level.  A paragraph containing Top Secret information will be marked with (TS) before the content.  Each paragraph will be marked accordingly, (S) for Secret, (C) for Confidential, and (U) for Unclassified.  In the old days there was even an (LOU) Limited Official Use classification.  Conceivably a message could be marked Secret with only one paragraph that begins with (S) and the rest marked as (U).  But that message is still treated as a classified Secret message!  This is not rocket science or brain surgery!  Hard copies of classified messages always have a cover sheet that is boldly marked in red or blue letters according to the classification.  You don't need special briefing or training to recognize this, but apparently Hillary needed help.  If she is that slow on picking up things, how can she possibly be our next president?  But I guess for many in America, it is not important.  It is also apparently not important that there is so much other baggage, like the Clinton Foundation, not to mention going back to her time in the White House, remember the White Water and many other "incidents"?!
     I am very deeply concerned this election.  During my lifetime so far, I have followed our presidential elections with interest since the Kennedy-Nixon election campaign when I was still in high school!  Since then I have seen some good ones, some strange ones, and some bad ones.  But never have I witnessed anything like the election this year and the two candidates!  Neither one is my choice, but Hillary would be a major disaster.
     I used to make fun of some other countries with corrupt systems.  In fact, I made some derogatory remarks about Latin American politics in some of my earlier blogs.  There's a saying in Latin America that:  "Para ser un milionario, tiene que ser un president del pais." (To become a millionaire, you have to become the president of the country).  Obviously it refers to the fact that once you gain power, you start making money by taking bribes, etc.  Perhaps that is not exactly how things work out in our country because, like the two candidates now, they are both rich.  But, how did they earn all that money?  Was it all above board?  Besides, corruption does not only involve money, it involves misuse of power, manipulation of events and facts, something that our politicians seem to do quite well.