This is how bullying works. You badger Comey and publicly impugn his motives enough, you get in his head, and he pulls a stunt like this.
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) October 29, 2016
Before she became an excellent reporter, Ioffe was a Russian refugee. Thus, her understanding of the malign power of bullying within bureaucracies…
Justice officials warned FBI that Comey’s decision to update Congress was not consistent with department policy https://t.co/oPJuBtMdnn
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) October 29, 2016
Joy Reid, at the Daily Beast, “Republicans Weaponize James Comey’s FBI To Kneecap Hillary Clinton“:
… Something got lost in the sturm und drang over the FBI’s “October surprise” that dropped Friday afternoon, when director James Comey inexplicably dropped the bomblet that his agency had obtained “new” emails (or maybe duplicate ones; apparently no one’s read them yet) from a laptop shared by Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her creeper husband, former congressman Anthony Weiner.
Behind Comey’s defiance of both precedent and the guidance of his boss, the attorney general, was the subtext of intense pressure being put on the FBI and the Justice Department by Republicans, some of whom rushed Comey’s vague letter to members of the press…
Congress, and some of the same committees pursuing email investigations, hold the purse strings over Comey’s agency. And one can only imagine the pressure being placed on the agency by Capitol Hill. The double standard of Comey’s talk about Clinton with his silence regarding whether or not his agency is probing the ties between current and former Trump aides and Russia suggests that whatever pressure the FBI is feeling, it’s coming from just one partisan direction…
Another reminder: Comey put out the letter because he knew he can’t control leaks from the agency he’s supposed to lead
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) October 29, 2016
It must have “something very remarkable” for Comey to send that letter 11 days before the 2016 election. Like Chaffetz pressuring him to. https://t.co/v61Btc0Tqr
— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) October 30, 2016
“Keep an eye on that Chaffetz kid, he’s a comer… “
Jason Chaffetz tells me he is NOT considering bringing Comey before the Oversight committee before the election.
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) October 29, 2016
Translation: Republicans now realize they've got nothing. https://t.co/1tOP4ErhRf
— Ian Millhiser (@imillhiser) October 29, 2016
FBI memo: Director feared the "significant risk of being misunderstood" https://t.co/MRYH3TgGZg pic.twitter.com/i8LRSFQbEJ
— The Hill (@thehill) October 29, 2016
His motives were so pure, his hands so tied, but not tied enough to issue a CYA memo first. https://t.co/3Y9gO8UtDN
— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) October 29, 2016
not so much a game changer for the next 11 days as it is a preview of the next 4 fucking years.
— 'He Zedd, Ominously' (@ZeddRebel) October 28, 2016
redshirt
That last tweet is the truth.
This will be our government unless we can secure Democratic majorities: A relentless effort of bullshit investigations and hearings. Why not? Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
Omnes Omnibus
@redshirt: Vote!
Mike in NC
Must crush these fuckers to prevent millions more of wasted taxpayer dollars on Benghazzzziiiii!
Ruckus
@Mike in NC:
Don’t worry, they’ll just take it out of the budget of the VA. Fucking slacker veterans, can’t they get by with one leg?
Omnes Omnibus
@Omnes Omnibus: Don’t ever fuck with me abut this.
redshirt
Just a 50-50 Senate split would do it, right, with Hills and Kaine as Prez and VP? Could Kaine just live in the Senate, voting down Repukes?
Though I suspect a Dem (cough Mankin) would turn first.
Joeff
GOP House will impeach Hillary before 2018 election. Could be their undoing.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@redshirt: my money would be on Heidkamp
jl
Why should Comey give a tiny rat pellet what a jackass like Chaffetz says or does? I don’t give Comey much credit or sympathy at all, I don’t care if some ruthless idiot like Chaffetz was leaning on him. Comey is supposed to be one of those stern, very serious daddy responsible, steely spined all growed up Republicans.
Comey, like Powell, is a crummy little chickenshit, which is what I said last night.
The serious and responsible Republican who can withstand pressure from reactionary operators in their own party, is extinct. Been extinct for going on two or three decades now. For the safety of the country, the Republican Party must be completely destroyed, obliterated, crushed and vaporized (politically, with legal votes in free and fair elections, of course).
John Weiss
@Omnes Omnibus: Already did!
gf120581
If the GOP had any goals with this farce (and really, it’s in Keystone Cops territory now), it was probably twofold:
1. Try to depress Democratic turnout and salvage some of the downticket races.
2. Ensure Hillary enters office under that “cloud” and give them an excuse to relive the 90s investigation frenzy (yeah, like they needed an excuse).
Instead, this has nicely blown up in their faces. If anything, this has royally pissed the Democratic base off.
gf120581
@Joeff: If they tried that, yeah, it would be. Remember what happened in 1998.
Also, why in the world would the GOP ever want to remove Hillary and put the squeaky clean, infinitely likable Tim Kaine in the WH?
varmintito
And the rat thought he was going to escape this election with his asshole intact. Maybe next time.
Adam L Silverman
@jl: The Congressional Committees he notified have either direct oversight of his/the FBI’s activities (Chaffetz) or they have control over his/the FBI’s budget. We’ve seen the public side of them piling on him and the FBI since July. We have no idea what has been communicated privately regarding potential budget cuts or oversight investigations into how the FBI operates. And we have no idea which, if any, FBI personnel various members of Congress have cultivated as sources.
Ruckus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I don’t give a shit about those emails because this has been a political witch hunt from the get go. And not just these last ones that they’ve had for months that they haven’t asked for a search warrant for but for all the rest of them as well. 30 yrs of wasting money chasing nothings because that’s all they have found, fucking nothing. They can’t govern in any intelligent way because they are asshole hacks who should never have been elected to the dog shit scoop patrol because they’d fuck that up.
I think that Clinton will be elected, I think we may take the senate, but I fear for our ability to actually govern ourselves because the representatives that half the country send to DC are batshit level insane. They take an oath to govern and they fail that daily. The republican party could not be more broken if they tried to. The citizens who vote for them and have decided that 150 yrs of government should be rolled back so they can get their hate on have no idea of the ideals of this country or the documents that guide them. People say we will live through this probably are right but what will life be like with nearly half of the country being insane?
Lizzy L
My link-fu sucks, otherwise I’d link to it, but Jamie Gorelick & Larry Thompson have an opinion piece at the Washington Post website titled: “How James Comey is Damaging our Democracy.” It’s pretty straightforward.
jl
@Adam L Silverman: OK, thanks for the info. But I am unmoved. So what? Wise serious daddy GOPer leaders like Comey and their ilk are not standard issue slobs like us (OK, sorry, I meant, like me). They are supposed to be able to play in the big leagues.
My opinion is unchanged: Comey, crummy little chickenshit.
If some of the stunts he has pulled on the HRC email BS non-scandal were due to political pressure from Congress, and he had any guts, he would have made a stink about it, and told them to eff off, he would handle this case like any other.
Comey: crummy little chickenshit.
PigDog
@gf120581: Pissed me off enough to donate for the first time.
amk
@gf120581:
the dem base is great at scoring own goals. take 2-3 hours out of your fucking life and go fucking vote like the other side does without all the gotv drama.
Steeplejack
@Lizzy L:
Gorelick and Thompson, “James C0mey Is Damaging Our Democracy.”
Adam L Silverman
@jl: In the current atmosphere of crisis budgeting, continuing resolutions, and the sequester, everyone responsible for running a Federal agency, department, office, bureau, what have you is driven first and foremost by budget concerns. Since 2013 it has been “what can I protect? what do I have to protect?” 24/7.
jl
@Ruckus: Funny, that after more than a year of total BS on the HRC email non-scandal, it comes out that, yes indeed, HRC was acting on Powell’s recommendation, and she was using precedent of previous Secretaries of State. So what if she decided to slow walk changes in regulations and standards. The federal IT people were useless and didn’t give a shit, from what I’ve read.
I saw a piece (I should have bookmarked it) about how many officials in the Bush administration used non-government email and servers, and how many thousands or millions of records went missing. Every other official looks over their documents and decides what is personal and what should be turned over, and it is SOP. HRC does it and it’s some huge scandal.
Outrageous scandal mongering, corruption of justice and subterfuge by GOP thugs in and out of Congress. And yet another instance of massive and serious malfeasance by our worthless excuse of corporate news media.
It’s moved from BS and witch hunt to political dirty tricks and character assassination. And I don’t even like HRC that much. I am a Berniebot! And erstwhile Bernie mega-donor. But this email crap is outrageous.
Adam L Silverman
@jl: 22 million. Part of the reason Comey couldn’t/wouldn’t recommend charges. He was a senior Bush 43 political appointee. He most likely had one of those email accounts and if he didn’t he was regularly corresponding with those who did – like the President when he was acting AG. President Bush (43) preferred to use his RNC email account.
Lizzy L
@Steeplejack: Thank you.
jl
@Adam L Silverman: At some point you have to stand up to them. At some point the corruption from the pressure is as bad and dangerous as the budget cutting. And olde tymey serious daddy GOPer from back in the day would understand that and take some risks to set it right. I don’t know how long ago we would have to find the real deal serious daddy GOPer. Teddy Roosevelt? LaFollettes?
SFBayAreaGal
A break from politics, the Decades channel has a Dark Shadows marathon showing the original episodes of Dark Shadows. In June 27, 1966, an original gothic soap opera appeared on ABC. It was a great under-budgeted American gothic melodrama about a spooky seaside town in Maine (wonder if Stephen King, Joss Wheadon, and Supernatural producers were influenced by Dark Shadows).
This soap opera includeded vampires, werewolves, witches, ghosts, warlocks, leviathans, zombies, Frankenstein like creature, time travel, and parallel universes.
My sisters and I would run from our school bus to our house to watch Dark Shadows at 4:00 pm every day. We love Dark Shadows.
SiubhanDuinne
Off topic, but this is pretty bizarre. (NYTimes link, possible paywall.)
For those who don’t want to click: someone in the Met audience tossed a white powdery substance into the orchestra pit during the second intermission of this afternoon’s performance of Rossini’s Guillaume Tell. The substance is thought to be human ashes. The remainder of the matinee was cancelled, as was tonight’s scheduled performance of L’Italiana in Algeri.
Matt McIrvin
@redshirt: Yes, 50-50 is good enough for a majority in the Senate if the VP is a Democrat. Though we’d have to keep every Democrat on board for actual votes, which might be tough in some cases.
Still, it would likely be enough that Clinton can actually get appointments through in the first year, which is really key. With a Republican majority, I’m not convinced the Republicans won’t try to effectively nullify the executive branch by totally blocking appointments, and letting the Cabinet and department leadership wither away through attrition. They’re already discussing doing this with judicial appointments.
jl
@Adam L Silverman: Well, there you go. 22 million is one fifth of A BILLION!
See, that CLS (you know what that stands for) Comey spoke chickenshitese during his little duncination (that is a denunciation performed by some CLS who comes off sounding like a prissy self-righteous hypocritical dunce) of that evil irresponsible HRC.
Comey should have spoken Trumanese: We couldn’t press charges because, in my opinion, this was the dumbest investigation forced on this department any normal person could ever imagine. Hell, that Clinton woman did the same damn thing everyone else ever has. Hell, when I was working for that sad excuse for a president, Bush, we lost millions of those stupid things. Most of them weren’t worth anything but to wipe your ass with in the first place. This whole thing has been nonsense and a waste of taxpayer dollars. And the deceitful lying little punk Chaffetz has been the one pushing this crap. People of Utah ought to have a word with him come election time.
Mnemosyne
@SiubhanDuinne:
I guess someone’s departed loved one was a major opera fan! California has very strict regulations about scattering human ashes, but they’re always catching people trying to smuggle some into Disneyland, usually on specific rides.
jl
@SiubhanDuinne: That is not bizarre for cultish stuff like opera or rock and roll.
Cliff
@SFBayAreaGal: I was another fan of Dark Shadows when I was a kid.
Adam L Silverman
@jl: Since 2013 the singular focus of everyone in senior positions in the Federal government has been trying to save their agencies, offices, and departments from the scourge of the sequester. Congress controls the purse strings. If you piss them off or make them think the US would be better off without you during a self created period of budgetary instability, you aren’t going to have an agency, office, and/or department.
GrandJury
As if they give a fuck what is in the emails which they are already 99% sure is a giant nothingburger. No no, just issue a bunch of press releases and go on all the sunday shows talking about nothing as if it’s something.
Btw, how many women have come forward over Trump sexual assault? Nobody knows because NOBODY is talking about that anymore. Lol. So ridiculous it’s funny.
Apparently some email on someones laptop, which doesn’t really say much of anything and isn’t even directly linked to Hillary, is a THOUSAND times worse than Trump talking about grabbing womens pu$$ies and making inappropriate advances.
Lol. The media reallly cracks me up.
NotMax
@jl
200 million is one-fifth of a billion.
@SFBayAreaGal
Produced on a shoestring budget and it showed even then, a time when ABC was the poor relation among commercial networks.. Even so, Barnabas was (is) quite a cult favorite.
redshirt
@Adam L Silverman: So that’s how you defeat and destroy America!
You get elected to Congress, and then alongside like minded members you defund everything until it all breaks and can’t be recovered.
Then you blame the other guy.
sdhays
@gf120581: Do you you really think they think that far in advance? Besides, they’re of the opinion they can destroy anybody. Once they’ve gotten rid of Hillary, they’ll make Kaine toast (at least in their own minds; they haven’t been so successful with President “57% Approval”…).
Mnemosyne
@Adam L Silverman:
We ended up with two people from the Smithsonian at our office in Los Angeles. One of them had been working as a manager at Trader Joe’s since she got laid off, and the other was nervous that she was going to be laid off.
TriassicSands
@redshirt:
A 50-50 split gives the Dems the ability to name the Majority Leader and have majorities on committees, but there will be Democratic senators — like Manchin and Evan Bayh (if he wins) — who are unreliable.
Sadly, there is no possibility of the Dems winning enough seats to give them a truly reliable majority in the Senate. With 51 or 50 senators, I’d expect some major defections on key bills over the next four years. That may not matter all that much since the House will be killing virtually everything worthwhile.
Adam L Silverman
@efgoldman: Technically yes. However, the continuing resolutions can be written to cut or increase funding. So that is the concern. It was part of the hold up with the current CR which runs out in December. CDC/NIH was seeking an increase in funding to deal with Zika. The GOP majorities couldn’t get their acts together. Eventually they had to pass a separate bill for it.
jl
@NotMax:” 200 million is one-fifth of a billion. ”
You eggheads, with your numbers. Whatever.
Edit: I don’t believe you. Show your math! with ALL the zeroes.
piratedan
so to sum up….
We had a “closed” investigation involving a former Secretary of State that was essentially an opportunity by the partisan political opponents attempting to apply rules to her behavior while as SOS. They found an instance where some lower level classified material could have possible been mishandled over a multi-year period. No hacks of her personal server found, no cause, for any prosecution. The GOP has been able to make hay out of her “lying” about the handling of her e-mails and in conjunction with the NYT and the remainder of the horse race aficionados have been able to ride this fucking pony until its spent.
Now, one off the highest ranking law enforcement officers in the land, who has already pushed the envelope previously in said same case, goes off the reservation, to hand off another vaguely worded missive, sure to allow speculation on the matter that he had himself “closed” the book on, with the most flimsy of related items. A phone that they do not even have a warrant on to read the alleged e-mails that are unrelated to the case that they had closed. Yet this merits kicking over the anthill yet again and magnifying glasses for everyone. Essentially a political gift basket wrapped in a bow, with all of the speculation that the media will allow and her political opponents will seize upon with glee. Yes, we know that this will not likely move any one in regards to how they will vote. As usual, that really isn’t the point. The point is that this will take all of the oxygen out of the room dealing with this media firestorm when we should be talking about other things that actually have fucking merit (at least how I see them, obviously I am not a fucking network news director).
I understand that we’re supposed to play by the rules and be above it all… but there sure would be nice to have a time, when the folks that use and abuse the rules are finally held accountable for their abuses. Not sure I will ever live that long, but I sure hope to see it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@TriassicSands: I think most of them, even Bayh and Heidkamp, will be on board for confirmations. By the time anything gets through the House, I imagine it would be acceptable to them and even “bipartisan”
Adam L Silverman
@redshirt: Pretty much. The biggest worry, and I’ve spoken with several senior leaders I’ve advised about this, is that we’ve got significant numbers of members of the House, and a slightly smaller percentage of Senators, elected since 2010 who have never done anything but crisis budgeting. They do not know how to actually do it the normal way. Eventually, should they decide to stay in long enough, they will have seniority and will be running the various committees responsible for producing appropriations bills. And they will have no experience in doing so. And the longer this goes on the greater number of members in both chambers that only know how to do crisis budgeting and the fewer who know how it is supposed to work. This is a serious strategic threat to America.
Smiling Mortician
@SFBayAreaGal: My mother forbade me to watch Dark Shadows. It gave me nightmares. So I sneaked over to the neighbors’ house to watch it, every day.
EllenH
@gf120581: So far that is what I have been seeing. I’m in Arizona and have been hosting canvassing out of my house as a staging location for the past couple of weekends. Today, we had more volunteers than ever and a couple of them mentioned that yesterday’s news had pissed them off so much that they had vowed to canvass today. To think just a few days ago people were worried about complacency. Not any more. We are fired up!
Adam L Silverman
@Mnemosyne: I’ve been doing contracting and consulting work for the better part of two years because of it. Every follow on position I had lined up for when my civilian mobilization ended in 2014 fell apart in the space of a few weeks because of the sequesters effects. Two different attempts to send me back to Iraq to assist there also met the same fate. As was the attempt to send me as the cultural advisor to a different Army Service Component Command not dealing with the Middle East. And because of the way the budgets have been cut, even the contracting has been hit hard. Positions that are written for experts – people with advanced degrees and 10+ years experience – are now being filled with people with BAs (or less) and far less experience because that’s all they can afford to pay for. And I work for a great small government contractor that looks out for me – so I’m one of the lucky ones!
redshirt
@Adam L Silverman: I think that’s the unspoken premise of Idiocracy.
NotMax
@redshirt
V.P. gets to cast a tiebreaker only if the floor vote is 50-50, which is kind of a rarity* and almost always a known outcome in advance, so the veep is then called in advance to be present. Otherwise, while the veep can be present, he/she plays no role and is not even granted permission to speak in the chamber while the Senate is in session (a rules change could alter that last).
*Not every senator is present every day, etc.
Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]
@Adam L Silverman: I understand what you are saying, the pressure from his political peers on the Republican side must have been massive, but this wasn’t a simple go along to get along. He broke at least 40 years of iron clad institutional bureaucratic custom of not using his position, at the end (and the last 2 weeks is definitely the end) of an election season.
Let’s not say that he didn’t know what he was doing politically. He must have learned that the release of information was “politically sensitive” with his official June remarks. If that was not the massive clue-by-four that should have sunk in, then I have a basic question. How in God’s name did he manage to come to his position in the administration? Somebody who is that politically naive can’t advance in a medium size company, never mind the Federal government. He is the Director of the FBI for crying out loud, this isn’t a backwater post! And today we found out that the Justice department officials warned him that this was not consistent with policy! Even if he had no political sense, and was purely a platonic bureaucrat, those warnings should have stopped him dead to double check his sources, unless he was completely incompetent!
And yet he released an official document to congress, when he didn’t even have the legal authority to actually LOOK at the e-mails (no warrant), in stead of actually seeing if this was something that was actually of interest. I guess that hearsay is outmoded in the current justice system.
Politically motivated through malice or cowardice doesn’t matter. It wouldn’t be the first time that Republicans burn one of their better people for short term gain (Colin Powell). But I will NOT accept that this was a ha-ha stupid mistake from some bureaucrat.
redshirt
At this point I’d love to see Obama give a prime time speech rebutting this FBI leak. Speaking in favor of then Secretary Clinton. Use that Bully Pulpit!
Adam L Silverman
@efgoldman: Chaffetz is on record, on CNN, from 10 OCT 2012 stating the following in regards to the Department of State’s funding increase request for additional diplomatic security for Libya:
https://thinkprogress.org/gop-rep-i-absolutely-voted-to-cut-funding-for-embassy-security-d66fbfac18ea#.yh1tbttut
Its been quoted in the newspapers. Hasn’t hampered his ability to do what he’s done. No one has called him on his hypocrisy. Hell, he’s on video in open session blurting out classified info while being briefed by officials from the Intel Community. Its been covered too. No one cares!
jl
@NotMax: I think John Adams as the first veep actually would go to the Senate and try to preside over the thing, but he got tired of being humiliated and insulted on a daily bases, and stopped. But that was like half a billion years ago or something.
seaboogie
@Omnes Omnibus: Hey! I voted, and also justed signed up to phone-bank for Hillary – first time I’ve ever done this. First time I ever voted was after returning to the US from Canada (where I moved as a yout’), and I also volunteered at a local polling station – only to return home and find out that Dubya got a second terrm. Trusting that this election goes much better, and volunteering again to do my wee part.
Steeplejack
@SiubhanDuinne:
Great-aunt Lucretia was always pretty specific about her
funeralfunerary arrangements.NotMax
@redshirt
Presidents (Nixon excepted) do not comment on ongoing investigations of DOJ or the F.B.I. There is a bright line of separation between the White House and those agencies (as there is between the White House and the IRS, to give another example).
Adam L Silverman
@efgoldman: That wasn’t the first time. Gingrich did the same thing when he became Speaker back in the 90s.
redshirt
@Adam L Silverman: It’s not that no one cares. You care. I care. Most of BJ cares. But rather, how is it one side (the R’s) can make the smallest matter into a huge political scandal, whereas actual scandal barely raises a blip on the media radar.
We all know the answer to this too, and yet, seemingly nothing we do or say makes any difference at all.
Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]
@efgoldman: I’ve thought that if by miracles of miracles we take the House, Senate, and the Executive, that there should be a new clause added to the Budget.
Essentially the clause consists of two things. 1) End the debt limit 2) Without a new budget, the current budget is passed along to the next year with an expansion of funds set to the GDP or some similar economic standard.
The beauty of this clause is that it eliminates the ability of republicans to hold the full faith and credit, along with the function of government, hostage. If the democratic party actually manages to take the whole legislature (probably not, but here’s dreaming), it’s almost certain that we will lose the house in 2018. At that point the Republicans can deal or pound sand. (I wouldn’t recommend it for more than 10 years, but we are down to least bad choices now).
Adam L Silverman
@Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]: I’m not defending him. I think he went well over the line in July. When he held his press conference my first thought was: he just violated the Privacy Act of 1974. I’m just trying to explain the budgetary pressure everyone is under right now and how that skews and warps everything right now.
redshirt
Heck, what if Obama spoke to the nation directly about the dangers of the Republican Party? Would that make a difference? For good?
seaboogie
@Adam L Silverman: Inorite? Media has largely abdicated whatever moral superiority of their profession that they proclaim, and a major contributor to the clusterfuck that is this election.
Even here in super-lib Sonoma, I talked to or observed four people yesterday saying “Hillary is the most corrupt politican ever!!!”, and I was so astonished that I actually started to think that maybe zombies are really a thing – and I ain’t into that Zombie jam at all. Cripes!
Adam L Silverman
@redshirt: The practical reality is that no one cares. Just as no one cares that the water in Flint and a bunch of other municipalities is dangerous. Just as no one cares about Syrian refugees. Just as no one cares about Zika. Just as no one cares about what just happened in Haiti. Just as no one cares about what is happening in Aleppo. Etc, etc, etc.
WarMunchkin
@gf120581:
The Democratic base is pissed off, but by definition, that means the people who were going to vote for us no matter what. For the rest, I think there’s a possibility of a bad misread of where the electorate could be regarding this whole thing. I’ve been trying very hard to think through the political dynamics here (along with whatever nonsense I see people post on FB/Reddit/Twitter). And basically, I start from the following:
People who aren’t already voting for us anyway always presuppose Hillary’s guilt:
This is the most goddamn infuriating part of this whole saga. In here are probably the indie voters with soft Dem/Clinton support, millennials who were inclined to go for Johnson/Stein and general BoBs. For them, the FBI’s “decision” to “reopen” the case represents justice, and in their interpretation, seeing the Clinton camp fight back directly against Comey comes off as her attacking what they think is a fair reopening of the case (because it confirms their point of view). For this camp, if Comey resigns, it looks like he was forced to do so by Democrats for political reasons, and I’m sure he’ll arrange a nice wingnut welfare package. If Democrats apply pressure to get him to resign, he comes off as The Last Honest Man In Washington. If the “review” finds nothing, it looks like Hillary got off yet again (Clinton rules). For them, it looks like Democrats were praising Comey when he didn’t indict and are now attacking him for changing his mind (the “partisan rancor” totebagger heuristic).
So basically, I’m trying to convince myself that Comey’s political position isn’t actually better than we think. Cause it kinda looks to me like he just insulated himself from Republican opposition and made it difficult for us to oust him without coming off as even more nakedly political than his Friday dump. I think it has to come from the intelligence community – the idea that he has lost the confidence of his subordinates is probably the best argument to use.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Remember Ryan’s pledge to pass a complete budget, on time, when he became Speaker?
Mnemosyne
@jl:
Angelica, tell my wife John Adams doesn’t have a real job, anyway.
Mary G
@Adam L Silverman: Didn’t they also gut their research division so all their “facts” are from lobbyists or partisan “think” tanks?
Death Panel Truck
@jl:
Oh, they will, in five words: “Keep up the good work.”
Matt McIrvin
@Adam L Silverman: I am really not sure that the United States under its current Constitutional order can survive as a political entity over the next 10 or 20 years. One of our political parties has basically decided to maintain supremacy by any means necessary, without regard for national well-being (perhaps because they’re convinced that partisan supremacy is national well-being) or what might happen when the tables are turned (perhaps because they’re assuming they won’t be), and the system we have is not really set up to withstand that.
There are too many constitutional ways to completely break democracy, by violating behavioral norms that aren’t laws. The first one that comes to mind would be the rotten-borough approach: divide, say, Wyoming into 1,000 new states. Of course, they’d need a Congressional majority with a willing President to do it.
GregB
@efgoldman:
Sounds like a band consisting of a bunch of political hacks like Ryan, Gohmert, Huckabee and Michelle Bachmann on the theremin.
Adam L Silverman
@Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]: It would make a lot of sense, but the simple truth is that no current Congress can limit a future Congress’s budgetary choices. They could do away with the sequester tomorrow. They won’t because it suits the majority’s, in both chambers, political purposes right now.
Adam L Silverman
@redshirt: You don’t use the Oval Office for political purposes. Doing it while out in a state campaigning? Fine. Doing it during a prime time Presidential address: not fine.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
But let Heidi cut off so much as one minute of a football game…
Pace Daria: Sick, sad world.
Adam L Silverman
@seaboogie: As I’ve written here before, in regard to other things, you can’t stop the signal, you can’t kill an idea. All you can do is try to combat it with a better idea. It doesn’t matter that 98 or 99% or so of everything Secretary Clinton has ever been accused of hasn’t been accurate. All that matters is she’s been accused of it, its been covered repeatedly.
Ruckus
@GrandJury:
You can’t see this but I’m not laughing. There really isn’t anything funny about this. Our experiment in government requires that we have a functioning congress and we don’t because right now over half of the reps are fucking insane. I can not use any other words to describe them.
I’m not trying to be a chicken little here, but we are seeing a democracy failing. Not because we want to hire people who are incompetent and therefore dangerous but because nearly half the country has.
redshirt
Nihilists and Sophists. If the economy grows 2.9 percent this quarter they’ll take credit for it, while in the next breath condemning the entire economy as ruined. Then propose plans which will kill it for sure.
Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]
@Adam L Silverman: @Adam L Silverman: I’m sorry I snapped at you, it’s this freaking election, what a year of hell.
Still, I think he should be removed from the directorship of the FBI after the election. Character is what you do when nobody is looking, and you think you can’t win.
redshirt
@Adam L Silverman: While we defer, they grow ever bolder.
Matt McIrvin
@WarMunchkin: Anything professionally that happens to Comey is not going to happen in the next 9 days.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: Yep. Even if the GOP maintains the House, I don’t expect he’ll be Speaker again. And if he is, it will only be after an ugly fight.
TriassicSands
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
That’s a fair point and you’re probably right. I don’t think anybody will be expecting a lot of (worthwhile) legislation to be making it out of the House.
WarMunchkin
@Mnemosyne: I wish I were an ocean away, I wish I were an ocean away~~~
@Matt McIrvin: You’re right, but I guess I’m trying to think of ways that the Clinton camp’s response targeting Comey could backfire.
Like this fucking headline right here: “Clinton campaign wages new war against James Comey”
Or this lede:
This one is particularly egregious because it casts Comey’s decision as an innocent act of “notification” and Hillary as the villain.
Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]
@Adam L Silverman: I think I see what you are saying. It COULD be done, but it would require the instant dismissal of 6-8 major budget laws on the books.
It’s possible TECHNICALLY, but dismissing the current laws would be too much to hold a strict party line with the Democratic party.
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: Gingrich cut a lot of the committee staffs way back. Officially, the research arm of Congress is the Congressional Research Service (CRS), which is part of the Library of Congress.
redshirt
@efgoldman: This is what I’m saying. If the President says it, they have to cover it, don’t they?
Thus it will appear in some places and then be repeated. And so spread. That’s how memes happen. And memes are everything.
Adam L Silverman
@Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]: No need to apologize, I didn’t think I’d been snapped at.
Adam L Silverman
@redshirt: Do you know the difference between a Soldier and a terrorist? And I’m not doing the keyword searching for you this time, so I suggest you spend some time looking into it and thinking about it. It should help you to understand my point.
redshirt
@Adam L Silverman: The difference is in who is giving the orders and the manner of their achievement.
NotMax
@redshirt
No. That was the case in another distant time, as an act of reportage but never by regulation. Even presidential addresses to the nation are no longer routinely given airtime live or in full by every broadcast outlet.
Adam L Silverman
@redshirt: That is only a portion of it.
redshirt
@NotMax: Surely even the liberal MSNBC would cover a President Barack Hussein Obama speech on a Friday afternoon, yes? Maybe?
redshirt
@Adam L Silverman: That seems to me to be the critical part.
JGabriel
Something’s going in mid-town Manhattan. Sirens and fire alarms for the past hour maybe, smoke in the air in my neighborhood for the past 45 minutes.
redshirt
@JGabriel: That’s ominous. Anyone got anything?
Adam L Silverman
@redshirt: Soldiers follow the Laws of War. They follow a set of norms and rules that govern what they can and cannot do. Who and what they can and cannot target and under what circumstances. Terrorists do not. Your complaint that the President should be allowed to politicize the Presidency because his political opponents are taking advantage of the fact that he follows the rules is like arguing that Soldiers should be more like terrorists. Instead of following the laws, rules, and norms for waging war, they should, instead, jettison them or destroy them for seeming, momentary gain. While the ethics of war, what we call Just War Theory, have a reciprocity component it exists as a deterrent – a shield, not as an offensive weapon – a sword. What you are proposing is to simply break the laws, rules, and norms of political conduct because the other side is or will. That is not a very good argument unless you want the US Presidency to become the same as Russia’s.
amk
@srv: Pity the cowardly ratfucker didn’t reciprocate the good faith.
Idiot.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@JGabriel: @redshirt: not seeing anything on twitter, the NYT or CNN
redshirt
@Adam L Silverman: Well, I think that might be an extreme take on my opinion. Heck, I never even talked about war!
T S
@Adam L Silverman:
I agree with your response…but if Hillary loses, the Presidency is about to become just that.
MisterForkbeard
@seaboogie: As a fellow Sonoman, this kind of idiotic “Hillary is the worst evar!” thinking pops up quite a bit. I also work down in Silicon Valley, and it’s the same thing.
The problem is that while people here are generally liberal, they don’t actually pay attention to politics. It’s received wisdom that Hillary has done something corrupt, even if they have a hard time knowing what that actually is. The people who actually pay attention to politics often know what’s up, but even then you get a large segment of people who just don’t care – they know that Hillary’s been attacked for 30 years with a bunch of scurrilous fake scandals, but ONE of those had to be real or they wouldn’t keep investigating her, right?
JGabriel
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yeah, I’ve been looking for info and not finding anything either. I’m hoping it’s an empty commercial building on fire, and not any place where there were people.
Anyway, the air seems to have improved slightly – which could mean that they got it under control, or that the wind changed.
EBT
Did my mail in ballot today, so did my roommate so +2 for Hillary +2 for legal weed +2 to abolish capital punishment.
Adam L Silverman
@JGabriel: Nothing on any of the NY City TV news websites. Nothing on NYPD, FDNY, or City of NY’s twitter feeds. Whatever is happening is not officially happening!
John Revolta
@WarMunchkin:
It’s particularly egregious because they aren’t her fucking emails!
Who wrote that shit?
JGabriel
@Adam L Silverman, @Jim, Foolish Literalist, @redshirt:
I think I found it:
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: What’s a Leppo?
redshirt
I read earlier about an App that alerted you to 911 calls and other police acts in progress. So you could go solve (or film) them – like a super hero App.
America 2017 is gonna be fantastic! And so much to look forward to!
JGabriel
@Adam L Silverman:
It’s on @FDNYAlerts now too:
So, local fire, probably nothing more than that – although a little bigger than average at three alarms.
seaboogie
@MisterForkbeard: I hear you. And I belive that many folks are intellectually lazy, or just plain lazy and not intellectual at all. Accept what is fed to them on media. And 30 years of drip, drip, drip seems to be a powerful thing.
One of the things that I respect about Hillary (in addition to her accomplishments) is that – like Obama – she has tremendous equanimity and forebearance in the face of resistance for its own sake. Because Obama is AA, because she is a woman, and because they are Dems – and therefore will never be recognized as legitimate. And still they soldier on towards a greater purpose.
amk
@seaboogie: Gotta admire them both, especially Hillary, for still standing there despite a 24×7 attacks from gopee, their media ass kissing minions and the rw radio and their own boneless party, who don’t always stand behind them
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne:
Just a note that TCM will be showing The Haunting (1963) at 6:00 p.m. EDT Monday. Synchronicity with your review!
Mnemosyne
Midnight is a bad time to discover that there seems to be a small drip under the bathroom sink.
I put a pan under it for tonight and we’ll call the manager in the morning. Kee-rist.
Mnemosyne
@Steeplejack:
And it should be on their streaming site and app for at least 2 weeks afterwards!
mike in dc
It’s sad that the stories about the Trump Foundation are largely being ignored by most of the 24 hour news stations. Seems like a big deal that his so-called charity is really a scam and a slush fund, and that he’s a cheap fucko who shows up at places for the good PR and then stiffs the charities in the process.
I hope there are thermonuclear MIRVed oppo dumps daily on Trump for the last week of this execrable shitshow.
PeakVT
If only seppuku was a Republican thing. But they have no fucking honor to begin with.
JR in WV
@jl:
Your arithmetic is completely incorrect.
22 million is a little more than one fifth of a 100-million NOT a billion. Off by an order of magnitude.
Keith G
Obama’s best chance at securing the improvements he has helped to bring about is the election of Hillary Clinton. Therefore is is a bit ironic that this last(?) fubar in the path of that election was caused by yet another Republican that Obama misjudged, trusted, and who turned around to bite the president. Some of the prominent names on that list are William Gates, Judd Gregg, and now James Comey.
Among the many lessons that I hope Hillary is learning to apply to her presidency is that there is no rational reason to invite members of the GOP into her administration (unless your hold one there their family members as a guest/hostage.
different-church-lady
@JR in WV: True, but the public doesn’t know that.
Sloane Ranger
So here’s what I don’t understand. Huma Abedin apparently told the FBI she emailed stuff to her home computer in order to print it off because State’s printers were useless. Why wasn’t that followed up at the time? I’m not a trained investigator but something like that would start me wondering if any were still there, especially after a number were accidentally deleted.
Was this incompetence or something more sinister? Someone in the FBI banking an October surprise?
Kay
His opining at the press conference was outrageous and a lot of people said it at the time (including me). Everything he has done since has been about covering his ass for problems he created by pontificating at that press conference:
It isn’t his decision to charge or not to charge. It was never his decision. It also isn’t his place to opine on state department management practices. It doesn’t matter what Comey thinks about Clinton’s email management- he just investigates whether she broke the law.
It’s too late- he can’t take any of this back. Behavior like this makes an actual investigation ludicrous and besides the point- facts don’t matter if the person being investigated will be publicly smeared by the FBI no matter what they find. Why bother conducting an investigation at all if the appearance of wrong-doing has the same weight as actual lawbreaking? Once he’s unmoored from the facts he’s by definition “rogue”. That happened in July.
He can’t fix this mess. He’s not credible and he’s lost credibility as a result of his own actions. You can’t just lose it and then regain it- it’s gone.
MuckJagger
@mike in dc: i’m not sure that matters. People seem to be willing to excuse anything and everything that man does. I’ve got friends on Facebook who claim to be both Trump supporters AND supporters of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. When I pointed out that Trump has some serious coinage invested in Energy Transfer Partners AND that company’s CEO has given $100,000 to Trump’s presidential campaign….dead silence.
Kay
What’s frustrating to me is it doesn’t matter. Any mea culpa by him or post-election investigation doesn’t matter. These decisions he made are irreversible. If we find out afterwards he buckled under pressure from House Republicans or sought to cover his own ass it won’t matter– it won’t undo the damage.
That’s the reason elections are unique and conduct around elections is regulated. Once it’s done you can’t undo it. They’re one-offs. There’s no do-overs.
Barbara
@Sloane Ranger: How do you know it wasn’t?
Kay
It’ll be amazing if she wins this. She’s now fighting interference in an election from the Russian government and the FBI.
The Wikileaks emails burdened only one side of the race – Trump had no comparable drag on his numbers- and the FBI isn’t publicly opining and strategically leaking on any investigations into Trump although they’re supposedly investigating the Wikileaks thing.
I sometimes hope these douchebags get Donald Trump as President. They’re the people who are wholly dependent on a functioning government and political system. If they pull this off and he wins he’s their boss. Working for Donald Trump never ends well for the employees.
Patricia Kayden
@gf120581: I hope your last sentence is correct and that this stunt doesn’t dampen Clinton’s prospective voters. No matter what we think of the Clintons, Trump is uniquely dangerous. He can not be President. Period.
Kay
@Patricia Kayden:
Trump is telling his fans in Colorado that postal workers are throwing out absentee ballots. They get worse every day here- they regularly go to the Dem headquarters and harass the organizer and the volunteers. He’s whipping these people up into a frenzy and the institutional GOP are fine with it. They either don’t know or don’t care how bad it is at the local level. I have never seen anything like this- these people think they’re overthrowing the government.
Joel
@Adam L Silverman: agreed completely.
second thing to note is that a shift towards authoritarian power is exactly what the Trumpkins want. I don’t want that.
Another Holocene Human
@amk: I guess you don’t do GOTV calls. They don’t know where their polling location is, when early voting starts/stops, or what they’re going to do on ballot initiatives–all four of them (oo, scary).
Look, what I’m saying is, stop judging and make a difference. We need people to do GOTV calls for Florida. Please help.
Kay
You wonder what the end game is for Republicans. After they completely discredit every governmental institution they believe they’ll be able to govern this angry mob they’ve created?
Fat fucking chance. The mob will turn on Trump the moment he breaks one of his promises, which will be 15 minutes after he’s in. They’re the next target.
Kay
The Clinton organizer here takes photos with his phone of the Trump supporters who go to the office to threaten him. So far that works- they scatter when he takes their picture.
Good going, GOP! Nice country you created. It’s already fucking 3rd world.
bemused
@Kay:
@Kay:
@Kay:
This. All of this.
Ella in New Mexico
I don’t know about anyone else here, but I’m about done with Democrats always playing fair. I think it’s time we use just a tad of the power we have and crushe these motherfuckers who cheat and abuse and take full advantage of every single opportunity they have to keep us from getting shit done.
I want Loretta Lynch and Barack Obama to grab little Jamey Comey by the scruff of the neck to a major press conference where he is forced to read prepared remarks walking this crap back and apologizing to the nation for his partisan conduct. Then I want them to accept his resignation that afternoon.
When we take the majority in the Senate, I want every day to be “Nuclear Option” day. No more bull shit foot-dragging from McConnel and his thugs. America needs to get shit done.
Then I want Clinton’s DOJ to start investigating not only Trump for his fraudulent use of his charity, and tax evasion.
Because if it’s good for the goose, it’s good for the gander.
amk
@Ella in New Mexico: +1.
Starfish
@Kay: The mail in ballots in Colorado are not absentee. I think that most voters receive their ballots in the mail. The voters can return them either by postal mail or by putting them in a designated ballot drop box. If you screw up your ballot or need help, the process is different.
Kay
@bemused:
Comey should maybe get off the campaign trail and do his job. This mob he’s inciting are getting really out of control. He might want to prepare for two possible scenarios- what the mob does if they lose and what the mob does if they win. They believe they are overthrowing the government and I got news for Republicans- that includes Republicans in government.
If law enforcement are unprepared we’ll know why- the boss was busy interfering in areas where he has no business being. They’re all going to look pretty fucking stupid if they spent 12 months on email management and this blows up.
Kay
@Starfish:
Trump knows nothing about election process. He’s trying to incite his angry mobs- and succeeding if they’re behaving everywhere like they’re behaving here. They don’t know he’s a carnival barker. They believe he is taking over government to make them the preeminent power. It’s like the fucking Sunnis and the Shia out here. They’re nuts. They don’t know enough to know that this is insane. They think this IS politics- the new regime operates to benefit the winners.
bemused
@Kay:
@Kay:
Righteous you are Kay. You speak for me. I’m absolutely frustrated.
Starfish
@Kay: Here, the Clinton people have been super organized, and the Trump people have not. The Clinton people have opened a third campaign office in town. They are begging more volunteers to participate in GOTV. And some of the people that I happened to talk to were like “Yes, I know, I have to get the ballot in the mail by Date X to get it in on time, someone has knocked on my door, and I have received this phone call before.”
Kay
@bemused:
After I started witnessing this behavior on the ground here, I realized that the reporters who are covering Trump rallies have been saying this for months- it’s really bad. It’s unprecedented. Then when you try to talk to them- Jesus Christ. They truly believe they are engaged in a revolution. You can’t even track the conspiracy theories- they have all these “false flags” and circular reasoning. In a very real way they don’t recognize the government as lawful authority which is a problem.
I have never seen anything like it. Bush v Kerry was ugly- it was hostile but this is not that. It’s no longer even “politics”. They’re a mob.
hueyplong
Trump has consistently acted so outrageously in comparison to prior norms that we don’t seem to notice when specific lines are being crossed. This latest stuff (telling rabid crowds that postal workers are throwing away ballots) exactly fits theories about what Putin is trying to accomplish– create chaos and a lack of faith in our democratic system of elections.
That’s a lot scarier than fucking emails, and it’s time there was some uniformity of message in our media making that very point.
No wonder people in other countries have been spooked for months about us.
debbie
.
debbie
Biden’s going to be on Face the Nation. Hopefully, he’ll go all Uncle Joe on Comey’s ass.
bemused
@Kay:
Just yesterday I wondered how many reporters covering Trump rallies will be suffering PTSD after election if they aren’t already.
Did you read the recent Robert Reich piece on FB with former Congressman he’s known for years? The guy won’t say publicly he won’t vote for Trump because he’s afraid of Trumpistas, afraid for his personal safety and that most current and former Republicans feel the same. They don’t want to end their political careers or risk their lives.
So how do they think they can control the mob when they are privately admitting they are terrified of the monsters they created.
liberal
@hueyplong: agreed, though more generally the Republican Party has been trashing norms since at least as far back as the 1990s.
Krugman’s description of them as a “revolutionary power” in his preface to his book _The Great Unraveling_ is still the best summary of this issue.
liberal
@Kay: yeah, it would be funny in a way if he won. It would be amusing to see their reaction when he starts running the country for the nominal benefit of rich people only.
Disagree about it being amazing if she wins. Trump is the kind of opponent one can only dream for.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Kay:
What do your “reasonable Republican” colleagues—other lawyers, people at the courthouse—say about what’s going on?
Patricia Kayden
@Kay: Reading through your comments this morning is eye opening in a sad way. What you’re describing is beyond what happens in some third world countries. We on the Democratic side really need to stop pussyfooting around with these fascists. They’re getting away with way too much already. They are dangerous and need to be treated accordingly.
amk
Patricia Kayden
Why is my comment in moderation? No links.
D58826
Just a few random thoughts
1. Comey remains silent
2. I saw an article that Rudy gave Comey his first job as a federal prosecutor and is the Trump link into the FBI
3. James Kallstrom, ex-NY FBI honcho (and of TWA 800 fame) claims the Clintons are a mafia crime family and the Clinton Foundation is a cesspool of corruption. That the DOJ is covering it all up. And yes he endorsed Trump
4. Given point 3, the stories that the FBI rank and file wanted to indict seem credible.
5. Chavettz released his tweet before he had the letter
6. In July he had Comey before his committee 2 days after the Comey presser but now has no plans to hold hearings.
So:
1. A Clinton presidency will be hounded by a GOP Congress for the next 4 years
2. A Clinton presidency will be confronted with a rouge FBI that will work hand in glove with the Congressional GOP, regardless of whither GOP is in the majority or not.
3. A GOP majority will find it impossible to resist a Clinton impeachment. Only question is how soon it happens after inauguration day.
4. ‘lock her up’ will be official policy if Trump is elected. The full power of a Rudy (maybe) lead DOJ and a rouge FBI will be turned on the ‘enemies’ of Trump and the rabid right wing of the GOP.
5. We already see some hints of that outcome in the news this week. Native Americans are attacked with tanks and police dogs in N. Dakota. A reporter is arrested and charged with crimes that could carry 60 years in jail (the judge threw them out but…). And in Oregon Bundies terrorist walk.
Patricia Kayden
@amk: Good news! Secretary Clinton may end up winning several red states and cruising to a landslide. But that won’t matter unless she has the Senate too.
Chris
@jl:
Colin Powell is exactly the analogy I’ve had in mind since this started. A man who’s supposedly nonpartisan and professional and independent and righteous, who’s really a partisan hack and ass covering weasel.
Beware the man with the Eagle Scout reputation.
Poopyman
@Kay:
No, they’re fascist. Full stop.
They’re a mob. This is not difficult to see, for you, me, or the Republican Party. They’re aiding and abetting a mob.
Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap
This was going to happen no matter what.
That’s why Obama should pardon before inauguration, he won’t do it, but he should.
D58826
doonsbery today
http://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/2016/10/30
Chris
@Ruckus:
And we’re back to my pet theory that within my lifetime (granted, that gives us a bit of leeway), the country is going to run afoul of a crisis on the same magnitude as the Civil War or the Great Depression.
I’m not predicting a second Civil War, or a second Great Depression; I don’t have the imagination to conceive what it’ll be. But as you say, half the country is batshit insane, and considers itself to be basically in a state of war with the other half. This used to be mitigated in Washington by apolitical civil servants and rules that everyone agreed to, but it’s fast becoming obvious that at the top, there are no apolitical Republicans anymore and the list of unbreakable rules is shrinking by the day. And they have no way out of this, because their voters will not allow them to back down.
Put all that together, and I can’t see how the system doesn’t break, for lack of a more scientific term, even if I don’t know where that break will occur.
D58826
@Tilda Swinton’s Bald Cap:
Not sure that impeachment would be covered by a pardon.
Also it is bigger than just Hillary and 2016. The GOP has been taken over by a rabid bunch of anti-government (except when the money goes to them) terrorists. One example is the talk of not voting for any of Prez. Clinton’s SCOTUS nominations. Does any one really think it will stop at SCOTUS. They have been slow walking to death most of Obama’s appointees, esp. since they took over the Senate. They will hold hearings, maybe, and drag out every bit of gossip they can find. The good name of nominees will be slandered with impunity.
PPCLI
@D58826: Another factor it’s crucial to remember in this connection. Among the millions of ways that the Bush administration went about its eight-year Gleichschaltung was that they targeted the career levels of the civil service, not just the political appointees, and made sure that they were salted with true believers. (Recall that appointments in the Bush admin. Justice department were vetted by the fanatical 30-something Messiah College and Regent University grad Monica Goodling) These were/are people who were perfectly OK with — indeed they were enthusiastically in favor of — law enforcement and US Attorneys-General interfering to assist Republican election prospects, and firing US Attorneys-General that wouldn’t go along with announcing politically motivated sham prosecutions just before elections). That policy has been bearing fruit for some time now, and this is just the latest manifestation of it.
Chris
@Kay:
The Russian government, the FBI and the mainstream media.
I know you’re not supposed to pick politicians based on whether you like them, but my respect for her has simply skyrocketed this entire year. All this bullshit, and she’s been putting up with it for twenty five years. It’s one thing to know that it’s happening intellectually, but another to see it plastered on every front page for all this time.
NotMax
@Tilda Swinton’s Bald Cap
Pardon for what? No charges have been filed or are imminent. Pre-emptive pardon cements presupposed culpable guilt, short circuits due process and would irreparably undercut any HRC administration before it begins.
Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap
There’s a good post up over at LGM on the Comey thing.
Here are a couple of links to some interesting comments:
Link 1
Link 2
D58826
@PPCLI: Yep and it has been flitered down to the state and local levels as well. Poisoned water in Flint, tanks against unarmed protesters in N. Dakota, state governments ignoring federal court orders to stop disenfranchising voters, HB2 in N. Carolina. etc, etc, etc.
Iowa Old Lady
@Kay:
The same people who claim Clinton thinks she’s above the law.
Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap
@NotMax: The investigation is tainted. It looks like elements of the FBI are working with Chaffetz to undermine the election and the DOJ. I wouldn’t put it past them to fabricate evidence. You cannot prove anything electronically transmitted has not been altered. They could easily put emails from anywhere on anyone’s device.
D58826
@Tilda Swinton’s Bald Cap: One news outlet is reporting that Abedid has no idea how her e-mails got on her hubby’s laptop.
And the FBI has a history of political blackmail. Just ask MLK
WaterGirl
@liberal:
Oh yeah, it would be funny. Only if by funny you mean that it would destroy the lives of millions and millions of people and make a joke out of our democracy.
Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap
@D58826: Exactly. It’s clear that Clinton Derangement Syndrome has infected elements of law enforcement. We know at the local level that many of them support Trump and their organizations have endorsed him. Why not the FBI as well ?
germy
This morning early I was channel surfing and came upon Jack Van Impe. Holy crap! He was talking about the “cast the first stone” parable and although I’ve never seen him I said to my wife “Watch, this is about defending Trump” and sure enough it was.
We watched him in horrified fascination for about five minutes before we couldn’t take it any more.
He said the women accusing Trump were basically liars, “looking for authority” and that no women who had ever appeared on his TV shows had ever accused him of anything. He said Hillary (actually spat the word out) couldn’t keep four people safe in Benghazi, how can she keep us safe? He said the Muslims are ready to drop an atom bomb on us and only Trump can save us. He then prayed that Muslims would come to Jesus.
D58826
Trump is right the system is rigged. Only its the GOP/Koch brothers, etc that are doing the rigging. The danger is that even if Hillary wins in 2016, there is 2018 and 2020 and …… It will take only one election in which the GOP controls both ends of Pa. Ave for the rightwing take over to be complete. The rightwing has been playing a long game. They have been opposed to the social safety net from the time of FDR. The Lewis Powell memo from 1972 and the Koch brothers have just put it on a more business like footing. Just look at N. Carolina. Art Pope owns the legislature and the governors mansion. If Pope told McCory to screw a dog at high noon in downtown Charlotte, McCory’s only question would be – what breed?
D58826
@Tilda Swinton’s Bald Cap: The Dallas or was it Houston cops with the Trump baseball caps on while on duty. The oath keepers are active/retired military and law enforcement types. Trump wins and he already has his Gestapo.
tobie
@D58826:
Yes, I saw the article in the Washington Post about this. It’s very strange and deeply troubling. Did she forget she used the computer or could it be that the emails were planted there? Who knows? And if the FBI doesn’t have a warrant, how can they check any of this? The mind boggles at Comey’s recklessness in going forward with his letter, when he has zero information/data to report or investigate.
NotMax
@Tilda Swinton’s Bald Cap
“It looks like” is a tremendously poor rationale for issuing a pardon, not to mention being a tacit admission at the close of Obama’s tenure of an administration at war against itself.
And both alteration and provenance can be proven, more than sufficiently for a ruling of either admissibility or inadmissibility.
Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap
@tobie: I guess there needs to be an investigation of the investigation. Does the FBI have an internal affairs group?
Peale
@D58826: I do have a question. Huma has been out of the state department for a number of years now. Emails after Clinton left State are outside the scope of their investgation. I mean, honestly, if huma and Hillary are emailing each other in 2014 it doesn’t matter. Now, we know that sometimes huma sent emails to her yahoo account because it was easier to connect to a printer from outside the state department system. If she didn’t clean her yahoo account they still might be stored by yahoo. I know. I mean I have thousands of emails some almost 20 years old at this point. So after she left state, if she ever logged into her yahoo account from Weiner’s computer, does anything in it back up onto a computer? Like even if she were using it to do something else in yahoo unrelated to email?
D58826
@NotMax:
And who pray tell would do that? The logical agency – the FBI- is already hopelessly compromised.
I imagine there are tinpot banana republic dictators who would be ashamed to appear on the same stage as these fascists.
Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap
@Tilda Swinton’s Bald Cap: Ok fine no pardon, but do explain:
how this is done, I’d like to know.
wormtown
@SFBayAreaGal: Lots of my friends did the same. I was not able to….old days of 1 tv in the house and my mom had to watch her ‘stories’ aka soap operas :)
D58826
@Peale: Take it one step further. Hillary and Huma are friends. The one constant in the story seems to be the FBI doesn’t really know what is in those e-mails. The two women could be exchanging recipes or baby photos.
But come Nov 9th and the dawn of President Trump, Comey will come out and say – wow cute baby photos, so sorry for misunderstanding. we all make a mistake now and then. Trump will try to have Comey’s image added to Mt Rushmore.
Kay
@Chris:
Half the country isn’t batshit insane.
Most of the Trump supporters don’t know what the most fervent Trump supporters believe. What the most fervent Trump supporters believe is that they are engaged in an actual revolution. It isn’t a joke to them. They think the country has been taken over by (variously) liberals, Jewish people, black people or international banks. The antisemitism is new here- they’ve always been racists but this is a new thing here- I have never heard so many comments about Jewish people in ANY election.
It’s why they don’t do any outreach or organizing. They think when they’re in power they’ll be in control of dissenters- they don’t need to bring along anyone politically- the only “politics” they think they need is to install this cretin and then start issuing orders. The very worst elements on the Right are our from under their rocks and feeling like they have a shot at taking over. The vast majority of Republicans won’t know that– it’s like 1% of voters who volunteer on the ground. That’s where this is taking place.
Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap
@D58826: I think she’ll win easily, but this is going to make the next four years even more of shit show than it was going to be.
NotMax
@Tilda Swinton’s Bald Cap
Not an expert on e-forensics (nor do I play one on TV), but the key word is metadata. Helluva lot more info encoded within an e-mail than just the body of the message, data that can be cross-matched with the sending source or any recipient’s source and also the relevant service providers, for example.
Brachiator
@Iowa Old Lady:
RE: In a very real way they don’t recognize the government as lawful authority which is a problem.
Good point. The weird thing is that you have a group, often white men with beards, Bibles and guns who insist that they are the sole custodians of natural law, and anyone who opposes them is a political apostate.
D58826
@NotMax: The problem remains that this has been so politicized and corrupted that there is no agency (maybe Scotland Yard?) that either side would trust to give an honest answer.
Mark B
@NotMax: If the alteration was done by a pro, as the Russian intelligence forces are, the metadata will also be modified to mask any other alterations in the data. Amateurs and script kiddies can get caught with metadata forensics, but it’s quite a bit harder with an expert operation with a lot of knowledge and resources.
Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap
@NotMax: Oh wait are you saying this part can’t be faked as well? Sorry, you can forge the entire thing including the metadata. You don’t think that agencies involved in spying and law enforcement wouldn’t have tools for this. It’s way harder to do this on a physical document because its physical. Emails are 0’s and 1’s residing on magnetic media. Very easy to forge all of it. There would have to be an independent verifiable source of the transmission of said email. That would be traffic logs of the IP providers. Have those from 5 or 6 years ago, doubtful? Guess what you can manipulate those too. I’m not saying that this all some tinfoil hat conspiracy, but I am saying that blindly trusting someone to tell you something on a computer is authentic when there are all kinds of ulterior motives involved, NO.
Doug R
@TriassicSands: Wang’s got you covered. He figures a 72% chance Democrats+Independents take at least 50 seats. Here’s his histogram.
WarMunchkin
@Kay: Do you see Kasich unseating Brown in 2018?
NotMax
@D58826
Should charges ever be recommended, an evidentiary and chain of custody bridge to be crossed.
Politicized, sure, but the assumption that an entire agency and process is ipso facto corrupt is quite a leap.
Brachiator
@Kay:
You just haven’t been paying attention. It’s always been there. Some of it has become more visible because of the Internet and various blogs.
But I agree with you that many Trump supporters don’t know about this stuff or are willfully blind to it. The racist element on the other hand, feel that they have been given new hope by Trump and are more open about their ideas than they have ever been before.
D58826
@NotMax:
A year ago I would agree but now really really have my doubts. But without a doubt the right will not accept any verdict except guilty and hang her from the nearest telephone pole.
Doug R
@Matt McIrvin: Demographics are squeezing them out. Their party identity is now ALL about race. I hope this Confederate party dies soon, I also hope whatever replaces them is a more moderate party as opposed to something like the national front.
Matt McIrvin
@Doug R: Yeah, but demographics can be changed, or worked around (Nazi Germany, apartheid South Africa, Jim Crow South Carolina, etc.). All it takes is for them to get one serious shot at it.
Taylor
@NotMax: You can verify the metadata, but the message content itself can easily be modified, unless it has been digitally signed (this is usually NOT done) or stored on a secure mail log. This is one of the problems with Hilz’ third party server: the FBI can modify personal emails that she may have deleted, to make them incriminating.
At this point, anyone that doesn’t consider this possible has not been paying attention.
debbie
@Brachiator:
You’re exactly right. Even more disturbing is that my nephew, who is extremely observant (living in a Brooklyn yeshiva after several years of living and studying in Israel) is very much pro-Trump. Talk about ignoring self interest!
NotMax
Last from me, as it is 5:30 a.m. and ought to be in beddy-bye.
@Tilda Swinton’s Bald Cap
Afraid it looks like we’re wandering off into the brambles here. Used the words cross-matched and provenance for a reason.
@Mark B
Russian intelligence stuff involved info released by a third party, always a warning flag and something to be given utmost scrutiny as to reliability.
Jorge P
The question – will Comey resign before HRC takes office? Clinton historically has been too shrewd to bear a grudge for the sake of bearing a grudge, but I’m not sure how this guy can work under her DOJ and AG.
Brachiator
@Doug R:
Unfortunately, they are going to fight back hard, precisely because demographics is squeezing them out.
JR in WV
Actually, President Obama could write a blanket pardon for Hillary Clinton as of January 19th, put it in an envelope, and let her decide when to deploy it to best effect. Have a private signing in the Oval Office, with photos and witnesses and all, but keep it secure, for use as needed, against trivial or significant Republican attacks.
D58826
I’ve said this before. All other things aside if Comey had kept his mouth shut until after a Clinton win and it turned out there was incriminating evidence on the e-mails there are ways to deal with that. Impeachment/indictment/political pressure to resign are the three I can think of. Nixon and Agnew both resigned after the evidence came out. If on the other hand the letter results in an unexpected Trump victory and the e-mails are innocuous then Trump is still President-elect. There is no rerunning the election based on the new information.
And I think all of the other commentary/legal issues/ etc aside it comes down to the simple medical dictum – first do no harm. Releasing the letter now can do real harm that can’t be fixed. There are ways to fix a mistake if the letter was released after the election.
Eric U.
@Brachiator: they also hate Catholics, which is pretty funny because the conservative Catholics consider themselves to be equals now.
Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap
GWB White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter says he’s filed a Hatch Act violation complaint against James Comey
DCrefugee
@Tilda Swinton’s Bald Cap:
GWB’s White House had an ethics lawyer? Who knew?
El Caganer
@Matt McIrvin:
Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap
@DCrefugee: Weird isn’t it ?
Chris
@D58826:
@Tilda Swinton’s Bald Cap:
Like I said the other day: the FBI’s origin story consists of forty years of being run by J. Edgar Hoover as America’s Section 31. While all government departments and certainly all intelligence and security agencies come with skeletons in the closet, even by that standard the FBI is in a category all of its own.
@Kay:
Half the voters (or close to it) may not be batshit insane in the sense that they agree with and understand everything Trump and his craziest supporters are saying, but half the voters (or close to it) will vote for him anyway. Whether out of racism, lifelong habit, Liberal Derangement Syndrome, or whatever, half the voters (or close to it) acquiesce to whatever it is Trump, or whoever the next loony will be, wants.
As far as not knowing what the crazier fringe of Trump supporters wants, I question to what extent it’s not knowing and to what extent it’s simply not wanting to know – rationalizing it as “they don’t really mean it” or “it’s just something they have to say for election season” or whatever, or worse, “well, yes, he’s bad, but at least he’s not a liberal.” Traditionally, “respectable” Republicans have done the whole plausible deniability thing when it comes to their crazier and more unhinged supporters, but one of the things about Trump’s crudity and the whole #NeverTrump backlash is that they can’t really claim that anymore – too many people even on their side have admitted out loud that Trump is racist, crazy, antidemocratic, etc, for Republicans to claim in any good faith that they don’t know what he’s about. Most of them will vote for him anyway.
Lastly, what “the craziest Trump supporters” believe isn’t the point. The problem here isn’t that a few gun-humpers in Appalachia think they’re on the verge of a revolution against the Zionist Occupation Government – that’s always been a thing. The problem is the extremism we’re seeing in our political institutions, which predates Trump and will outlast Trump – expressed in things like, say, the refusal to confirm or even consider any Supreme Court nominee put forward by a Democrat. The root of that extremism, as PK pointed out over a decade ago, is a refusal to recognize governance by Democrats (or, if we’re being honest, anyone else) as legitimate, and the attendant willingness to view all methods as acceptable in the war to keep them out of office. That’s a much broader problem than simply the rebranded Aryan Nations calling itself the Alt Right.
PPCLI
@D58826: There is one. Most of them – including Trump, Hannity, etc evidently trust Putin’s secret police to resolve things.
D58826
@PPCLI: Silly me I forgot the KGB or whatever they are calling themselves these days.
Even Inspector Clouseau would not have botched things this badly
hovercraft
@JR in WV:
The idea of a pardon bothers me. What is she being pardon for? It’s an admission of guilt, and would forever put a huge asterisk next to her presidency. Given the existence of “Clinton Rules”, the media would mention it every day in every story, that this is the first time in history that a president has had to issue a pardon to his successor even before he or she took office. She would be labelled as the most corrupt person ever in the history of the world to be “elected” president. No let them come forward with actual proof of an actual crime.
Brachiator
@Chris:
You underestimate the degree to which these people are part of mainstream conservative thinking.
D58826
@Chris:
Yep but had hoped that the post Hoover ‘reforms’ would have buried those skeletons. Apparently not, unless it a case of the old-timers who still remember and miss the Hoover days. A problem that might be solved as they retire/die out.
Brachiator
@D58826:
This would still leave a Democrat in the White House. The GOP doesn’t want that possible compromise.
fuckwit
@Kay: That is some brownshirt-level harassment. Scary as hell.
Chris
@Brachiator:
I don’t know the extent to which they’re part of mainstream thinking, though I suspect the answer is “a lot more than is considered admissible in polite company.” I’m just saying that mainstream conservative thinking is plenty batshit already and would be even without the crazier “we want a literal revolution” types. (It’s not like Trump invented all this craziness).
@D58826:
How much post-Hoover reforming was there really, other than the ten year limit?
And the retirement of old-timers is only partially a solution. If Hoover-era old-timers have recruited and trained newbies according to the same standards Hoover trained them with, the problem simply goes on.
D58826
@Brachiator: True but if Comey is playing it straight then that is not his problem.
And given the corruption in the GOP they would
1. block a replacement VP
2. impeach Kaine
3. and Paul Ryan (or whomever is speaker) being 3rd in line becomes POTUS by default.
4. we are getting into rabbit holes within rabbit holes.
Lizzy L
@hovercraft: Agree with this X10. Pardon implies guilt. HRC is not guilty of anything for which a pardon would be needed.
Good morning! Going to have late breakfast with a friend: see you all later.
D58826
@Chris: Probably true. (sigh) really need to upgrade what I have been drinking. Maybe industrial strengthen white lightening!
AnotherBruce
@Doug R: I do too, even a huge electoral beat down is not going to change their closed minds. It’s going to take a long time, or worse yet, a violent time to bring these cretins back to reality.
Elizabelle
Dear jackals: this is a really depressing thread. Doom and gloom and pessimistic theory-spouting. Very honestly, after reading the predawn hour contributions, I could not sleep.
Jackals: we still have a week and a few days to win this election. Step away from cable news. We are political junkies here, and might be giving it outsize influence. God knows, a lot of people have seen through it and cut the cord or just roll their eyes. I have heard not one mention of emails at the doors in North Carolina. Not one. They’re too busy living and out early voting.
Give cable and pessimism a rest, and make some calls on behalf of Democrats — no matter how red a state. Or volunteer to canvass or phone-bank. In a lot of areas, it’s still lovely weather and the exercise and connecting with Democrats is therapeutic.
Cook them up some food or baked goodies, and take it to a local campaign office for the volunteers. Making something is therapeutic and positive too.
If my only window to the world was this blog these days, I would have my head in an oven. Very fond of most of you, but some of you are pessimism personified. A few very fine and intelligent people are becoming pies to me.
How does that help, when we still have votes to find and have turn out? I think you guys are pretty demoralizing.
Your friend,
Elizabelle the Pollyanna
But I am serious — get off the blog and cable and work this election. I’d rather be in our shoes than Republicans’ any day of the week. Why do their work and demoralize voters?
You’re making Mrs. Greenspan smile. Her work is done.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@jl:
I know one, works for the FDA – spends his whole day playing games on his goverment computer. Whined a lot when Obama order the installation of a power saver, poor dear had to work. Needless to say this useless tub of shit who is only alive because of his lavish, government health care is a Libertarian. Oh and he owns a gun ’cause the Second Amendments Rights that we Liberals had to show him how to clean and fire.
Doug R
@D58826: It was San Antonio and the hat wearers are facing discipline.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@D58826:
And then what? The Circus Clown party will actually have to govern with people who are utterly corrupt like Christi or raving lunatics. Trump win, hell on earth comes to the GOP because their own voters will make them do impossible things like build the biggest civil engineering project in US history, attack the Middle East all while cutting the taxes to nothing. Meanwhile, Trump will be attacking Ryan, the only man in the GOP house who can get a budget threw, and the Republicans will be so deep in the derp as to try it. And there will be the endless accusations against Trump or rape, pedophilia, treason, fraud and pimping underaged whores all to a steady stream of Trump ranting nightly from the bully pulpit about who just made his enemies list.
Seriously, the only long term chance the GOP has it losing this election badly enough they can do some serious reforms in their party.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Kay:
Yes this, were did that come from? Jew bashing has never been a traditionally big thing in America like harassing blacks. It’s not like a Jew stands out in a crowd of people. Does racism have fads and this is the season for Jews?
Except the entire Constitution was written for that day in mind with all the checks and balances, states rights and so on.
Kay Eye
@Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]: Comey will be out of work soon. You can bet that he will be well taken care of when he leaves government. Remember when Ken Starr tried to close out his investigation(s) of the Clintons? His Republican handlers told him that no, he had to keep digging until he found something that would bring the Clintons down. He became dean of the law school at Pepperdine University (which had received generous donations from Richard Mellon Scaife); his sweetheart deal at Baylor University ended when sex scandals involving football players engulfed the school and his career there. Karma’s a bitch sometimes.
Comey will find lucrative work when his time as FBI director ends. He’s provided
what the Republicans needed from him.
Brachiator
@D58826: I don’t see how an elected VP Kaine gets prevented from becoming president in any scenario you can imagine in which Clinton is impeached by GOP jackals after being elected president. I don’t even see that the odds would favor her being convicted and removed from office by the Senate.
If the GOP goons want to get maximum use out of this phony email thing, it has to be as a hail Mary to try to win this election.
socraticsilence
@jl:
Eh… I think its a bit different with Powell- remember he had a lifetime of being tild to stay within the chain of command and that doing so saved lives.
D58826
@Brachiator: First of all since it takes 2/3rds to convict Hillary will not be removed any more than Bill was. The question was why would they impeach/convict Hillary since Kaine, a democrat would automatically become President. My point was the GOP would not allow the open VP slot to be filled like it was after Ford became president. You then impeach/convict Kaine and the next in line is the GOP Speaker. Not a likely scenario but given the fever swamp that is the GOP and it’s refusal to accept a democrat in the White House it would be a way to game the system
Brachiator
@D58826:
Again, your reverie is absent even any fantasy excuse for impeaching Kaine.
Brachiator
@Elizabelle:
It’s Halloween. Look at all this as fun, spooky stories. The more ghoulish the better.
Boo!
D58826
@Brachiator: they would invent one.
Brachiator
@D58826:
Or not. It’s your fantasy doomsday scenario. It falls apart when you consider the elevation of Kaine to the presidency. It is far more likely that he would safely assume the office.
This outcome might energize the Democrats. And irrational Hillary hatred might be replaced by outrage that the GOP had engineered the defeat of the first woman president before she even had an opportunity to govern. This, in turn might hasten the destruction of the Republican Party.
Cleos
It took longer for the excuses for Comey’s antics to float to the surface, like a dead body, than I expected.
What the same effing hill was Obama thinking, appointing a Republican to a position of authority in a law enforcement agency? Surely there are enough toilets in the White House needing regular cleaning to keep a GOP appointee busy.
Cleos
@Ella in New Mexico:
.
Agree 1000%. There are times when turning the other cheek is nothing more or less than an efficient way to get a very sore ass.
Cleos
@Chris: I remember when Powell came out against marriage equality. Have considered him a slimy, self-serving toad ever since.
Pest Bog Mummy, Frakensteinbeck
@Brachiator:
This is a fantasy doomsday scenario, because a successful impeachment of Hillary is so likely as to border on impossible, and the same with her resigning. However, if you can somehow get over that hurdle, you can presumably get over it for Kaine. You’re just not going to get over that hurdle to begin with.
Chris
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Well, it’s never been a big thing in the way it was in continental Europe, but it’s certainly been a thing. Is it actually any worse now than it’s historically been, when compared to other prejudices? My impression is that Muslims, Mexicans, and blacks are still firmly in the lead in the Trumpists’ pantheon of people they hate.
@Cleos:
The entire early nineties gays-in-the-military thing is what puts into context what a fucking weasel he is. The same guy who was happy to stay quiet and play along and not make any waves as far as My Lai, Iran-contra, and the Iraq War goes, suddenly discovered a spine and a conscience when it came to the exceptionally grave question of who his soldiers were fucking in their free time, and took on his commander-in-chief in a media fight. He’s a complete partisan hack.