Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

After roe, women are no longer free.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

The words do not have to be perfect.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Let’s finish the job.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Because of wow. / Something Very Strange is Happening In Cyberspace: FBI Twitter Edition – Updated

Something Very Strange is Happening In Cyberspace: FBI Twitter Edition – Updated

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Apparently the FBI’s long dormant twitter account for its electronic records vault and Freedom of Information Act records depository has suddenly gone hot after a one year and 22 day hiatus. Here’s its last tweet before going dormant on 8 October 2015:

This account suddenly went active again on Sunday with the following tweet:

Since then its tweeted out links to 15 FBI policies or guidelines or programs, but has also put out three or four other bizarre tweets like the one about Fred Trump. For instance, if you’re looking for information on Nikola Tesla, here you go:

The Tesla tweet was only the second substantive one about a person or event. The others are:

 

Josh Marshall has indicated that he and his crew are investigating and should be reporting out something soon.

As I’ve stated before I’m not a computer scientist, nor a cyber domain/cyber warfare specialist. But I do know weird when I see it and this certainly qualifies. When I first saw mention of this my first thought was that someone had hacked this account and was using it to direct folks to information it wanted to highlight, but once I actually checked out the timeline, I’m really not sure its that coordinated. Sure tweets to the FBI’s files on Fred Trump and the Marc Rich pardon are strange, but the majority of the tweets since the account has gone active are things like this:

and

This one certainly qualifies as an X File!

(I’ll be busy this afternoon, but will update if 1) anyone figures out what is happening here and 2) when I get a chance)

Updated at 3:10 PM EDT

Over at TPM, Allegra Kirkland has provided some initial reporting on what is going on. She’s reported out that NBC’s Pete Williams has reported that the Rich documents were posted to the FBI’s online archive as the result of a FOIA request and that this happened on October 7.

The FBI has not responded to a request for comment, but Wikileaks is on the case!

 

Reader Interactions

178Comments

  1. 1.

    Trentrunner

    The reality of this election is lapping my imaginative satire.

    And I have a roiling, teeming imagination.

  2. 2.

    BGinCHI

    I just built a tall, flat-topped “mountain” out of mashed potatoes on our dining room table.

    Not sure whether it’s related.

  5. 5.

    Another Scott

    Why do all the weird FBI tweets have the same date and time? Not too many people are doing office work for the Feds at 4 AM, I don’t think…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  8. 8.

    Enhanced Voting Techinques

    Since it’s so random it’s hard to belive it’s hack, my bet is the agent in charge of this remembered his password and trying to catch up with the backlog.

  9. 9.

    The Moar You Know

    Hacked and disseminating infected .pdf files would be my first guess. Not going to click on the .pdfs to find out the hard way.

  11. 11.

    James E Powell

    Looks like there are people who work at the FBI who are trying to influence the election against Hillary Clinton.

    Why bring up the Marc Rich pardon now?

  12. 12.

    trollhattan

    It’s all fun and games until Suckerman pops up from a 3rd floor loo in the J. Edgar Hoover Building.

  19. 19.

    BGinCHI

    @James E Powell: Even better is “Fred Trump, Real Estate and Philanthropist.”

    Oh, is enforcing the color line by redlining African-Americans a public service?

    Good to know.

    ETA: Has anyone called Donald a Philanthrapist yet?

  20. 20.

    Served

    It’s also possible they had some test tweets scheduled for these dates and forgot to cancel them when the account went dark.

  22. 22.

    Keith P.

    @BGinCHI: It’s a typo…supposed to be “Fred Trump, Real Estate Developer and Full-on Rapist”*

    * Credit to “Always Sunny in Philadelphia”

  23. 23.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Reporting on the Comey letter indicates some sort of war within the FBI over influencing the election results. This is probably one more move in that war, but we don’t really know enough about the factions to figure it out.

  24. 24.

    BGinCHI

    Adam, when are we going to find out that WikiLeaks is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Russian government?

    I bet the CIA is really jealous.

  25. 25.

    James E Powell

    @Geoduck:

    I figured I’d go with the one most likely to inflame cable shows and get a Nixon Resigns headline from the NYT.

  27. 27.

    rp

    NBC News: The release of WJC FBI files was sent by the FOIA office under normal guidelines. A proper requested was made -Pete Williams rpts.

    Even if that’s true, there’s nothing in FOIA that requires them to tweet about it AFAIK.

  28. 28.

    T S

    @srv:

    I can’t tell democrats from truthers now.

    Not surprised. Also, too: that old saying about confusion regarding a bodily orifice and a hole in ground is probably also relevant.

  30. 30.

    Feathers

    @Another Scott: It would make sense if it were automated. Database queries of this sort often run in the middle of the night so they don’t interfere with the daytime office workload. However, you’d probably want to check on things first to make sure everything went OK, rather than blasting a tweet to the world.

    I once had a request to run a particularly system intensive query. IT and I agreed that it would be OK to run in the middle of the night. I did correct my boss when I got praised for staying that late to get the work done. Sigh.

  32. 32.

    Anoniminous

    Since human error is certain, the number of people with access to a computer system increases the probability of one of them blowing security approaches certainty.

  38. 38.

    Another Scott

    @Feathers: Agreed. That makes sense that they were posted by a script at 4 AM, rather than it being a hack.

    The main question remains though: Why are so many things which can’t help but feed the CDS suddenly being posted now? It’s probably nothing nefarious, but there seems to be little thought about how these things are going to be treated by the press. After all: 1) the press loves Twitter, and b) it involves the Clintons…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  47. 47.

    catclub

    I had just looked at the Tesla one. died in 1943. Declassified in 1980.
    Some informant told the FBI he had plans for a death ray in 1940.

    Also interesting, some of Tesla’s equipment is locked in the safe of a hotel, and held here for non-payment of Tesla’s bill.

    The hotel would like its bill paid.

  48. 48.

    Miss Bianca

    @Cheryl Rofer: So, if it can be proven that the FBI – or certain elements within the FBI -are attempting to interfere with the election, what does that mean? Is that grounds for prosecution of FBI personnel,starting with oh…say…the FBI chief? Or massive restructuring of the Bureau itself?

  49. 49.

    T S

    @Srv: You are certainly a misery-MAKING troll for some, but I will admit…you could probably being enjoying the heck out of it yourself for I know. I can face these uncomfortable truths.

  51. 51.

    Gin & Tonic

    @T S: Note that Srv is a performance-art troll of srv, who is a real troll. UID’s are case-sensitive here.

  52. 52.

    Couldn't Stand the Weather

    If Justice/FBI is not hacked right now, Obama and Loretta Lynch need to get on the phone in a hurry to Comey, and tell his sorry ass to regain control of his agency.

    What a fucked up situation.

  57. 57.

    Kay

    Someone tell the FBI they’re making everyone uncomfortable and we don’t want to hear from them anymore.

    Best Wishes,

    The Public

  58. 58.

    Anoniminous

    @catclub:

    Tesla’s (supposed) Death Ray has been A Thing since the 1930s among the painfully and woefully ignorant who cannot grasp the engineering implications of the Inverse Square Law. These nutters overlap the painfully and woefully ignorant nutters who have all sorts of crazed notions for building a faster than light drive.

    On the good side, they provide ammunition to me for tormenting various physicists of my acquaintance.

  59. 59.

    waysel

    @Adam L Silverman: Would you be willing to add a link here or at the bottom of your FP article linking to some of your “Gray Zone’- or whatever it was- posts you made a few months ago? Something about muddling the foundations of civilization in a given culture? Sorry to be so foggy. Chronic lousy memory.

  61. 61.

    hovercraft

    @Botsplainer:
    Donald J Trump? His philanthropy was second only to that of Donald J Trump. He whose given millions and millions to charity, but will not give away his billions upon his death because he wants his kids to have them. Or is he afraid that in death we would finally see what he is really worth? Inquiring minds want to know.

  62. 62.

    kindness

    How does one petition the government of Ecuador so as to boot Julian Assage from it’s London Embassy? I for one want to kill Julian (with votes as Wonkette gently reminds us, with votes).

  63. 63.

    Enhanced Voting Techinques

    @Trentrunner:

    The reality of this election is lapping my imaginative satire.

    This election feels more like some kind of summer block buster movie. Predicable plot, no real character arch, completely ludicrous villain played by a scenery chewing hack, no one understand what’s going on and it fells like a third of it could be cut out.

  66. 66.

    JGabriel

    @BGinCHI:

    Has anyone called Donald a Philanthrapist yet?

    Just Donald, as far as I know.

    Trump always calls himself an “ardent philanthropist” in the bios he submits for speaking engagements, online about pages, book jackets, etc. It’s part of his standard bio.

  68. 68.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @JGabriel: Check the spelling carefully… I don’t think that’s how the tangerine headed shitgibbon would describe himself. Except accidentally – and they let ya!

  69. 69.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    Scott Dworkin
    ‏@funder
    Russian Dmitry Rybolovlev bought Trump’s FL home for $95 mill-the company he owns is run by fmr HR head at Alfa Bank

  71. 71.

    The Moar You Know

    How does one petition the government of Ecuador so as to boot Julian Assage from it’s London Embassy? I for one want to kill Julian (with votes as Wonkette gently reminds us, with votes).

    @kindness: Won’t happen. Ecuador has a vested interest in keeping him there, as they see it, to be a thumb in the eye of the US. I think they’d throw him out if they understood how little we give a shit about the guy.

    The embassy staff surely would, they are sick to death of his shit, but they don’t get a say.

  73. 73.

    JGabriel

    Enhanced Voting Techinques:

    This election feels more like some kind of summer block buster movie. Predicable plot, no real character arch, completely ludicrous villain played by a scenery chewing hack, no one understand what’s going on and it fells like a third of it could be cut out.

    That reminds me of a line I saw the other day: American elections are getting to be just like Russian elections – one candidate is supported by liberals, and the other candidate is a billionaire supported by the Kremlin.

    To whomever came up with it, I apologize for not remembering where I saw it and not crediting you.

  75. 75.

    JGabriel

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):

    @JGabriel: Check the spelling carefully… I don’t think that’s how the tangerine headed shitgibbon would describe himself. Except accidentally – and they let ya!

    Oops, missed that. Although I suppose Trump could also call himself a philanthrapist as a subconsciously non-accidental Freudian slip.

  76. 76.

    Jeffro

    I think the random Tesla/fitness stuff is just window dressing. This is clearly designed to get Bill Clinton’s pardon of Marc Rich (a tax evader, like Trump) and the treatment of Petraeus (for putting classified info into emails) out as yet another whammy on HRC.

  77. 77.

    jl

    @Jeffro: Looks like some white dudes in federal agencies trying to influence election. From poll aggregates I see today, looks like they are out of ammo. Only obsessed wingnut loons give a rats ass about Big Dawg’s pardons. Sane people realize he is not on the ticket. I guess maybe the Weener-mails are nothing after all, so they go to this nonsense?

    I want to see a lot of real, serious, investigations into what is going on in the FBI after the election, and people in charge on administrative leave. Comey should just be removed, of course.

    Some ruthless white men gone rogue, and they will need to explain themselves after the election, if (God willing) HRC wins.
    Edit: if Trump wins, the worst of them will be in charge :(

  78. 78.

    blackcatsrule

    @waysel: you can go to the Quick Links at top right and click on Silverman on Security…I think what you are looking for was from this past July. Or just Google “balloon juice adam silverman gray zone”

  80. 80.

    FlipYrWhig

    I’m willing to accept that this is something of a coincidence and that the “FBI Records Vault” is supposed to be a Twitter clearinghouse for satisfying FOIA requests — most of which are submitted by Dale Gribble types, thus skewing towards conspiracy theory and stuff that makes Democrats look bad. But the “be careful what you release within 60 days of an election” standard is obviously all kinds of broken.

  81. 81.

    hueyplong

    If the idea was to leak harmful stuff, it’s probably encouraging that the Rich pardon has been picked. I would not have recognized the name had it appeared in a sentence without the word “pardon.” Hardly a bombshell.

    In fact, it seems like all that has been done so far today is that the FBI has identified itself as partisan to those who were inventing “honorable” rationales for last week’s antics.

    This news, combined with word that Florida absentee ballots are now being returned in bulk, would constitute a net positive (the second hasn’t actually happened yet).

  82. 82.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    Final installment from Moodys Analytics (which has accurately predicted the election since 1980) projects Hillary winning with 332

  83. 83.

    Jeffro

    @jl:

    From poll aggregates I see today, looks like they are out of ammo. Only obsessed wingnut loons give a rats ass about Big Dawg’s pardons. Sane people realize he is not on the ticket. I guess maybe the Weener-mails are nothing after all, so they go to this nonsense?

    I want to see a lot of real, serious, investigations into what is going on in the FBI after the election, and people in charge on administrative leave. Comey should just be removed, of course.

    I agree with this take on it all, but it’s beyond irritating that we’ve got rogue folks in the FBI trying to kneecap Hillz, in concert with foreign intelligence services trying to do the same thing. Once she wins this thing, there is going to be a full dose of sunlight and hopefully payback as well.

  84. 84.

    different-church-lady

    I agree with this take on it all, but it’s beyond irritating that we’ve got rogue folks in running the FBI trying to kneecap Hillz

  85. 85.

    WarMunchkin

    It’s probably a cron job that they pushed yesterday, and the people running the software likely had no idea what was queued to be tweeted.

    @Jeffro: There’s going to be no payback – remember that these folks are politically insulated as long as they have Congress. And frankly, public opinion agrees with the presupposition of guilt on Hillary, so that’s another roadblock. What’s likely to happen is that Hill does what Hill always does, which is work hard with people who are trying to stab her in the throat.

    I’ve never had more respect for Hillary Clinton than I do right now.

  86. 86.

    Iowa Old Lady

    If someone had hatched a plot to wreck the FBI’s and Comey’s reputation for impartiality (such as it was), they could not have done a more effective job than the Bureau and Comey have done for themselves over the last few days. I have no idea how you ever fix that.

    ETA: I want Comey to stay long enough that he has to announce that Abedin’s emails were duplicates or cat pictures. Then I want him gone.

  87. 87.

    Chip Daniels

    @Iowa Old Lady:
    As sad as it is to feel and witness so much cynicism about a branch of government, there is schadenfreude in seeing a Republican subjected to the “questions-troubling-questions” line of suspicion and innuendo that the Clintons have been dealing with for 30 years.

  91. 91.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @hueyplong: The only reason I knew of Marc Rich prior to Clinton’s pardon was that I was in Satan’s employ. Old Marc did bidness with Satan.

  92. 92.

    albertZ

    Here’s a full-on conspiracy thought. The FBI has the goods on Trump and the Russian connection – impeachable if not criminal. But what’s the point going after an also-ran loser. So tilt the election towards Trump, let him take the oath then hit him with an indictment and – boom – President Pence. Evangelicals rejoice.

  96. 96.

    JPL

    @albertZ: This. Last night on the blog, there was a lot of speculation about that.
    Unfortunately, women and men who depend on Planned Parenthood for healthcare, will have to look for a new provider or just die. HIV has increased in Indiana because of Pence.

  97. 97.

    gorram

    @albertZ: I suppose my quibble with that is motive. Yeah, the FBI wants to get one in the bag and yeah the evangelicals want Trump in and then out, but how do these two align together? If this was the air force, I’d get it, but it’s the FBI. Are they know for evangelical influences?

  99. 99.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @gorram: I was just thinking the same thing, and I remembered Robert Hanssen was a bible thumper. Checked wiki to confirm and he was a member of Opus Dei, a ver conservative catholic group that has been very aggressive about recruiting in DC. I think in either the book or the movie The Da Vinci Code, the bad guys were Opus Dei, or based on them.

  100. 100.

    Peale

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne: Yeah. I don’t know how exactly that would work without looking like a complete Coup. Does the FBI just swoop into the White House and arrest the president and take him downtown and book him?

  111. 111.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Why would any Clinton voters keep quiet about their support for a candidate? This happened in Manhattan:

    I was wearing my Clinton/Kaine shirt I’d purchased a few weeks prior. While waiting at an intersection to cross the street, a man approached me from behind, placed his hand on my waist, and leaned in to whisper in my right ear.

    “Hillary Clinton’s a fucking c#nt and so are you,” he said, his voice seething with disgust.

  113. 113.

    Corner Stone

    We have at least three R Senators who have flat out stated they will block “any” nominee sent forward by HRC. But emails, I guess. Right?

  116. 116.

    gene108

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne:

    A connection yes. But criminal connection?

    I really do not want to go the Clinton Rules route on Trump, where accusations get people to think “where there is smoke, there must be fire”.

    I want something definitive to nail him with, but barring that I’m being conservative in assessing his ties to Putin.

  117. 117.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Corner Stone: Does it sound to you like Mitchell is about to propose bipartisan outreach by President Clinton to heal the breach?

    BOOM, there it is: A bipartisan cabinet. Chuck Todd says we’ve never seen an “A level” opposition appointment. So Chuck Hagel, Bob Gates, Bill Cohen never happened.

  119. 119.

    Ella in New Mexico

    NBC’s Pete Williams has reported that the Rich documents were posted to the FBI’s online archive as the result of a FOIA request and that this happened on October 7.

    So wait–now when someone submits a FOIA request it doesn’t just go back to them it get’s Tweeted for the entire public to see?

    LInks to the the FOIA’s regarding US Government’s knowledge about alien contacts coming in 3..2..1

  122. 122.

    Gin & Tonic

    IANAL, but isn’t a normal response to a FOIA request, to send the info to the requester, as opposed to Tweeting it to the world?

  123. 123.

    waysel

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I have wondered if Comey is an evangelicalist. They can get to be foaming at the mouth for anti abortion stuff. In his mind, he may be doing Gods work. Saving all the innocent babies from Hitlerys murder squad at PP.

  124. 124.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    The progressive wing of the Democratic party will never allow compromise on budgets, quoth Chuck Todd.

  125. 125.

    FlipYrWhig

    @NR: No one in your life cares about you. If by some fit of absence of mind they do, they are definitely incredibly despondent about what you are.

  126. 126.

    Betty Cracker

    @NR: You might benefit from some couch time yourself, chief. I don’t know what motivates you to play pissing black cloud, but I don’t think it comes from a healthy place.

  127. 127.

    Emma

    @NR: Bullfeathers. You have cheered it on under your cover of being oh-so-concerned about “facts” and “appearances.”

  131. 131.

    gene108

    @NR:

    Other recent surveys in North Carolina have indicated the race is much tighter, with Clinton holding onto a 2-point lead over Trump in the state, 47-45 percent, according to the RealClearPolitics polling index.
    Clinton led Trump 42-41.2 percent in an Elon University poll this week. A Remington Research poll gave Trump a 2-point lead, 47-45 percent, while a CBS News/YouGov poll conducted last week gave Clinton a 3-point lead, 48-45 percent.

    From your link.

    Your 7-point Trump lead, in NC, seems to be an outlier.

  132. 132.

    WarMunchkin

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I used to walk around with a Hillary sticker on my bag – I’d get nasty looks and some people trying to furtively take pictures of me. I no longer do that. And this is in deep blue NYC.

  133. 133.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Betty Cracker: there’s no such thing as negative attention to a man who remembers his sixth birthday : his mom brought home a pack of hostess cupcakes she picked up from the 7/11 on her way home from the bar, which he ate while watching Love Boat while Mom, “Uncle” Dudge, and Crazy Jeannie from down the street played Strip Crazy 8s in the kitchen.

    That was the year she remembered!

  134. 134.

    FlipYrWhig

    @NR: The soul-shaped hollow filled with disease and decay that you call a self, that’s pretty evident even from here.

  135. 135.

    FlipYrWhig

    @gene108: No! You mean he picked the worst possible number and dragged his contemptible ass before the world to celebrate inflicting it on people who care? That doesn’t sound like what he’s been doing every motherfucking day for a year and a half.

  136. 136.

    gene108

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Chuck has a point. If Democrats had caved into every Republican demand, there would be no budget impasse.

    Democratic opposition to the Republican agenda is driving all this gridlock in the country.

    If we just did everything the Republicans wanted, there would be no more gridlock.

  138. 138.

    Corner Stone

    @NR: There is no such scandal that exists in this reality. The FBI declined to indict or bring any charges after an exhaustive investigation. The recent Comey Effect speaking to emails from a laptop of an estranged husband of an HRC aide, where none have been displayed to be from HRC or Classified or in any way instructive for a “scandal”. Those are what you mean by “all this” ?

  139. 139.

    Ella in New Mexico

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Why would any Clinton voters keep quiet about their support for a candidate? This happened in Manhattan:

    I was wearing my Clinton/Kaine shirt I’d purchased a few weeks prior. While waiting at an intersection to cross the street, a man approached me from behind, placed his hand on my waist, and leaned in to whisper in my right ear.

    “Hillary Clinton’s a fucking c#nt and so are you,” he said, his voice seething with disgust.

    Ya know, at this point, after all the crap that’s been going on this past few days, I’d welcome the opportunity to flatten some fucker who dared to do that to me.

    Come on, Crazy Trumper. Try it. Just touch me once…you’ll never know what freaking fury hit you.

  141. 141.

    Enhanced Voting Techinques

    @NR: Seriously dude, you hang arround here and you don’t have a clue how polling works?

  143. 143.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Enhanced Voting Techinques: Intellectually, he knows how polling works. But he gets an orgasmic satisfaction from spreading disease and despair, so, like a rat in a Skinner Box, he’ll keep on doing it as long as it’s possible.

  145. 145.

    NR

    @gene108: Hey, you’re the first one to actually talk about the poll I linked instead of flinging insults like a grade schooler. Good for you.

    Yes, it’s an outlier. But it’s also the first poll that was taken entirely after the FBI letter on Friday, which makes it significant.

  146. 146.

    Enhanced Voting Techinques

    Jim, Foolish Literalist: Figures a Trump supporter would use it to cop a fell.

  148. 148.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Your update is showing up for me (mobile site, Chrome, Android).

    I suspect the issue we discussed last night is related to Balloon Juice’s authoring module, as the problem occurred when you updated posts originated by other front-pagers.

  149. 149.

    Corner Stone

    @NR: That was entirely predictable, and predicted. He had been at about 75% to 78% R voters until the last two weeks of the election. Everyone who has ever seen a national election knew what was going to happen. HRC was already hovering around 90% of LV D voters. Trump is seeing R voters come home to closer to 90%. That is what was always going to happen.
    This has been a very stable election, smoothed out for day to day ball shrinking pearl clutching outliers.
    The Comey Effect may, or may not, tighten a few Senate races that ordinarily should not have been smoothed quite so much if he had kept stum. But HRC is still going to win NV, NC and PA. Trump has to run all 7 battleground states to have even a shot at winning. He’s in trouble in AK, UT and within MoE in TX and AZ for God’s sake. He is not going to win MI, WI, NM, CO, VA and probably not NH.
    There is nothing about the map at this point that shows HRC getting anything under 300 EV. If you know something different, let’s talk about it.

  150. 150.

    NR

    @Corner Stone: You can’t say Trump is in trouble in states like TX and AZ based on polls from a week or two ago. There has been significant movement toward Trump since then. The NC poll I just linked is one example. Monmouth also came out with a MO poll today that had Trump up by 14. Now the point there isn’t that Hillary was ever going to win MO, it’s that Trump has gone up by a lot since their last poll (which had the race in single digits).

    Right now, the race is at best a tie, and all the momentum is with Trump. Also, black turnout is down from 2012. Unless there’s another big bombshell that drops on Trump in the next week (and it needs to be BIG), Trump will probably win.

  153. 153.

    Betty Cracker

    @NR: It’s true that you don’t show up to wave pom-pons and scream, “Yay, Trump!” You consider yourself a liberal, so you can’t outright root for a monster like Trump.

    But you have this is common with Kellyanne Conway, Steve Bannon and the Trump clan with all the Deplorables: you get a little thrill every time Trump rises in the polls and HRC falls. It’s blindingly obvious to everyone here, even if you can’t admit it to yourself.

    You almost never comment here except to foretell doom. Strange hobby. I guess you just hope to rub it in our faces that we should have voted for Bernie, as if the GOP wouldn’t have torn him and JS apart had he been the nominee?

    Whatever. It’s just a weird fucking thing to do.

  154. 154.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Betty Cracker: This has gone on for YEARS. Before it was Hillary Clinton poll results, it was “Obamacare is total shit and the Democrats are a coordinated cabal intent on spiting me personally. Rue, alack, alas, for shame. And I will be back to remind you of it tomorrow!” *vanishes into sulfurous mist*

  156. 156.

    T S

    @Betty Cracker:

    I know you don’t like Team Pantswetter, which I am on, but as I said in another post, some of us deal with this horror with pessimistic realism, while others are in complete denial about the 50/50 “heads, the world blows up, tails, we get 4 years of impeachment and obstruction until the GOP finally wins and the world still blows up” situation we are in. Things are dire, and we are just looking for commiseration cohorts to feel better.

    Also, I’d rather count myself among the pessimists who GTFO before the windows get broken than who laugh off the possibility that things are really that dire.

    Of course, none of you are really laughing at us; you all who criticize us sound fairly bitter. The reality we are addressing is pretty uncomfortable, admittedly, so I can’t really blame anyone for their coping mechanism of choice though. I have my own.

  157. 157.

    Corner Stone

    @NR:

    You can’t say Trump is in trouble in states like TX and AZ based on polls from a week or two ago.

    Then it is a good thing I did not say that. If you want to talk shit you may consider reading what is posted.
    There has not been “significant” movement toward Trump. The change in LV that has brought Trump forward is a completely understandable phenomenon. R voters are coming home. There is no significant pool of “undecided” voters that have started to hump Trump’s leg and is now going to vote for him instead of HRC.

  158. 158.

    burnspbesq

    @kindness:

    How does one petition the government of Ecuador so as to boot Julian Assage from it’s London Embassy?

    You might start by reminding them that the United States is Ecuador’s biggest trading partner, and zealous enforcement by Customs and Agriculture could leave an awful lot of bananas and cut flowers rotting in the Port of Long Beach.

  159. 159.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    Red states are getting redder, and blue states are getting bluer as we approach election day. That’s all we’re seeing.

  160. 160.

    burnspbesq

    I’ve done enough FOIA requests with other government agencies to be profoundly skeptical that it was just random chance that cuased the request for records related to the Marc Rich pardon to be processed in barely more than the time specified in the statute.

  162. 162.

    Corner Stone

    @T S:

    Not every blue state is getting bluer. In fact, a lot of the states are closer to 50/50 than they were a few days ago. Red states are getting redder though, you are right. Sucks.

    Link to back up any of that?

  163. 163.

    T S

    @Corner Stone: If you haven’t heard of 538 or you just refuse to browse to it yourself, I’m not holding your hand.

    Also, if you just claim those states aren’t really blue then, well, where all the True Scotsmen at?

  165. 165.

    Betty Cracker

    @T S: I was addressing a particular person who only shows up to piss and moan and castigate others for voting for the most horrible, terrible, heinous, awful, etc., candidate in the entire universe. If that shoe doesn’t fit, don’t wear it. I got no beef with ordinary worryworts. I’m one myself sometimes.

  166. 166.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    Hillary Clinton will win every swing state except Ohio and Arizona. In Ohio, the GOP state-level GOTV effort will be much stronger than in other states because of the Portman re-election campaign.

    In the other swing states, with all other things equal (and they won’t be), a superior Democratic turnout operation will lead Clinton to victory in Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Iowa, Colorado, Nevada, and Michigan.

    today’s release from Democracy Fund.

    Shorter: Hillary Clinton wins and the Democrats take the Senate, 52-48

    Presidential – Clinton: 329
    Trump: 203
    McMullin: 6

  167. 167.

    Corner Stone

    @T S:

    If you haven’t heard of 538 or you just refuse to browse to it yourself, I’m not holding your hand.

    Also, if you just claim those states aren’t really blue then, well, where all the True Scotsmen at?

    You did not mention any poll results from 538 or any other site in your comment. You also did not specify what “blue” states you were referring to that were getting less blue.
    Hold my hand a little bit, will ya?

  168. 168.

    T S

    @Betty Cracker: Sorry. But as I’ve also said, I’m more than happy to be the recipient of “I told you so’s” and gloatings. Would love to be utterly and embarrassingly wrong. Never will public humiliation feel so wonderful again.

  169. 169.

    T S

    @Corner Stone: Neither did the person I was responding to. But if you must, WI, NH, MI, to name a few. With the exception of a few strongholds…All of them, Katie.

    Also, keep in mind, when you said that’s not how this works…it works inasmuch as the poster cares that it works. The necessity of evidence is in proportion to how necessary one feels it is to convince someone of an argument. I felt it a little, so I capitulated.

  170. 170.

    Corner Stone

    @T S: No, what doesn’t work here is someone making a fact based statement and leaving out any links to the actual facts.
    WI and MI are going for HRC. NH most likely will as well. If you had an issue with Conster then ask her for facts.

  171. 171.

    jl

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    ” Well, it did give Andrea Greenspan a 5 day long orgasm, so there’s that. ”

    But, I think I read on the intertubes that Andrea Greenspan got herself yelled at on the TV machine by some GOP hack for being an HRC shill. You would think that these corporate hack news celebs would realize sooner or later that, as far as the reactionaries and GOPers are concerned, there is not place to hide. You either humiliate yourself by gong with whatever BS gets pumped out, or they attack you mercilessly.

  173. 173.

    T S

    @Corner Stone: I said CLOSER to 50/50, didn’t I? I responded to a person saying blue states were getting bluer, and have now spoon-fed you (who wasn’t even involved originally) evidence that indeed I am 100% correct that many are doing the opposite. If you would bother to think about what you are reading…jeez.

    Man, I can see why John Cole goes off sometimes. Bless his soul.

  176. 176.

    Corner Stone

    @T S: Or…you could put up a link to data. Saying you “spoon fed” me something and saying you are “100% correct” is not going to get this done.
    The sexual terminology is great. I’m happy to see any data or facts you may have to share.

  177. 177.

    T S

    @Corner Stone: I was having a conversation with someone else, and I’ve entertained your petulance, but I’m under no obligation to converse on your terms. If it’s not enough for you, that’s fine. I’ve told you where I got my info, because you asked, and you are empowered to go look, if you really want to.

  178. 178.

    Corner Stone

    @T S: So you have nothing then to back up anything you said during your other conversation. Ok, thanks.

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