I don’t mean to alarm you, fellow citizens, but this FBI business is starting to feel like a coup. Right-wing agents, either with the willing participation of Mr. Comey or emboldened and enabled by his inept leadership, are attempting to swing the election to Donald J. Trump. Consider the evidence that has emerged just in the last 10 days:
1. Comey’s extraordinary statement that reanimated the dead emails story
2. The dormant @FBIRecordsVault Twitter account that burped to life this week and spewed forth investigative reports on Bill Clinton’s pardon of Marc Rich
3. FBI leaks to The Hill about an investigation into an alleged straw donor scheme to benefit FL senate candidate Patrick Murphy
4. Leaks to the WSJ (link to TPM because paywall) by FBI agents who are furious that they weren’t given the green light to investigate the Clinton Foundation based on allegations contained in book published by a Breitbart editor
It’s almost as if our taxpayer-supported public servants were waiting to see if Russia’s interference in the U.S. election would bear fruit, and, in the absence of that, decided to hurl produce of their own into the gears of our democracy. This cannot — must not — stand.
Obviously, our first order of business is to win this election. Y’all know what to do on that score. You’re doing it, and I believe we will win. But after that, there must be a reckoning. I’m not sure how that can be accomplished, but this rot must be exposed and rooted out. It’s a bigger threat to our democracy than Donald Trump.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
The KGB, the FBI and the KKK all support one of the major party candidates, with caping from our mainstream media. This is what the fight against white supremacist patriarchal authoritarianism looks like.
Tim Smith
Concur. This also has to be something Obama sorts out – it’s his FBI, and if he leaves it to the next President it will be a political football for the next 4 years.
cervantes
It’s nothing new, of course. Ever hear of J. Edgar Hoover, whose name is still on the FBI building?
Cermet
Typical of these paranoid right-wing nuts cases; these types of agency’s – especially the CIA – tend to attract these nutcases. Worse, like a tick deeply embedded into the skin, once these ass wipes get into a food source, they are extremely difficult to remove.
Grung_e_Gene
Conservatives have been engaged in a slow-moving Coup for a while. Government shut downs, refusing to appoint judical nominees (besides just the SCOTUS), voting purges and suppression. The Republicans don’t need to use the military to conduct a lightning strike to seize government facilities and officials. But, watch out after HRC overcomes their treason and wins because that’s when shooting and military action look like the only option.
Jeffro
Well, at least we know what Obama will be doing between Nov 9th and Jan 19th…more non-violent drug offender pardons, a few speeches on the sorry state of the racist GOP, axing Comey, and appointing whomever/whatever is appropriate to clean house at the FBI.
Go for it, POTUS! That little Halloween Superman is counting on you!
eric
I am not going to defend Comey for what he did, but i see why he did it. (1) He does not like Hillary Clinton; and (2) he knew that the rogue FBI agents — that he could not control — were going to leak and he would look bad to the GOP. We know they would leak because they are doing it now on other matters. So, we have two stories: (1) Comey acting in a way to influence the election and (2) renegade FBI agents with enough power to force the Director into doing (1).
chopper
the question is, how the hell do you clean out the stables at that place?
Couldn't Stand the Weather
IANAL…
Shouldn’t Loretta Lynch fire his sorry ass, for starters?
And if she won’t do it (for whatever reason), then BHO should.
D58826
I;m just starting to read Malcolm Nance’s ‘The Plot to Hack America’ and it is scary, here is one of the things he says ‘To Putin, the best of all possible worlds would be an economically crippled America, withdrawal from military adventures and Nato, with leadership friendly to Russia’. He also said that in Russian intelligence circles – once KGB always KGB. and for those who don’t remember Putin was/is KGB.
Given all of the hacking that has happened, I just wonder if the actual vote totals will be hacked. They don’t have to hack every voting machine in the country, just a few key locations. Hack the Philly board of election computers to reduce Hillary’s vote total coming out of Philly just enough to tip Pa into the Trump column. I’ll bet other states like NY, VA, MI could be tipped the same way. The ‘adjustments’ won’t be by a huge amount but just enough w/o looking suspicious. The trump campaign would say see the polls were rigged and all of the uncounted mystery voters showed up. Whither you win Pa by one vote or a million you get all of the EC votes. By the time it was sorted out Trump would be POTUS and the lead agencies in an investigation would be under his control.
Snarki, child of Loki
“the question is, how the hell do you clean out the stables at that place?”
Fire.
Chris
Soft coup, I guess – it’s your basic dirty tricks that you’d get in any election, not the equivalent of removing a president from office. But it’s being done by an office that’s required to be apolitical. (Even if in the FBI’s case, that’s always been a polite fiction a.k.a. a steaming heap of bovine excrement).
Like I said yesterday, though, this is over the top even by Hoover’s standards – for all the many people he fucked with, I don’t think even he ever meddled this brazenly in a presidential election. They’re getting worse.
Daulnay
@Cermet:
That’s close to eliminationist rhetoric, and not a right-wing habit we want to adopt.
D58826
@eric: I agree he caved to the GOP to protect his butt. A patriot would not have released the letter and when the rogues leaked he would have come out and condemned what the were doing. It’s been almost a week and silence from Comey. So he isn’t in the least bit unhappy about what is going on.
FlipYrWhig
To hit a note Kay has been sounding in the past few days: don’t these FBI agents have actual jobs they should be working on, rather than just idly leafing through the ol’ bookshelf looking for ways to keep busy? This can’t be what they’re being paid to do all day.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
What is the protocol for firing agents, and the head of the FBI? Why is this allowed? Are they in a union?
chopper
@Jeffro:
until the senate shifts there is no goddamn way Obama is appointing anybody to anything these last few months. a dem senate next year is gonna be great cause hilz will be able to fill all sorts of positions that the turtle has been blocking for the last few years.
Chris
@eric:
Whether the idea originated with Comey or with “rogue” agents, the basic conclusion is the same – the FBI is out of control.
Daulnay
@D58826:
There’s an interesting article over at Washington Monthly about fake news stories. Seems a lot of the fake news reports are coming from a Russian propaganda outlet/troll farm, with the goal of making people untrusting of all media.
Humdog
President Obama has been almost too harsh against leakers and whistle blowers in his tenure. I cannot imagine he will be willing to ignore this FBI sieve. Getting rid of leakers should not be political and he has cover from the large number of both Rs and nat’l security types who are already voicing outrage.
eric
@D58826: Exactly. He does not like Hillary Clinton so this was not a “hard” choice for him. He should be saying that I, and I alone, speak for the FBII, and these leaks are against FBI policy and I will fire the guilty parties. But he cant, because they frighten him with his GOP overlords. So much tough talk from the Right, so little balls. Unlike someone such as John Lewis.
Cermet
@Daulnay: No and as for the second point – we don’t nor do I support that either.
But exactly how is my use of the word “remove” in any sense of the meaning drifting towards the idea you just indicated? A bit out there, you are, say’s Yoda.
Yet a congress creature in the thug party openly told people to put Hillary in their cross-hairs. So, save your worry about such language for the thugs and post on their sites where such a post needs to be posted.
WarMunchkin
@chopper: Why do we think that the Turtle won’t just filibuster or use a hold, anonymous or otherwise? We may have 50, not 60 votes.
Daulnay
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
Can’t just up and fire Federal employees. In the bad old days they didn’t have any protections, and every new President would replace the former President’s supporters with their own. It was a very bad system. So it’s now very hard to replace career employees, as it should be.
Amir Khalid
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
FBI agents are part of your civil service. I imagine the process for firing them, unless they’ve committed some blatantly egregious breach of the rules or been convicted of some serious crime, is as long and convoluted as for any other civil servant.
dmsilev
@eric: He could have cut them off at the knees by being more informative in his original letter to Congress. Or he could have taken refuge in the long-standing Justice policy of not saying anything on the eve of an election and publicly refusing to comment on leaked reports. He chose neither of those options.
Either he’s complicit in an attack using law enforcement resources for partisan political purposes or he has so little control over his own agency that he allowed such an attack to occur. Either way, doesn’t look good.
Fair Economist
@Chris:
Absolutely not normal. Nixon trying stuff less significant than this was the reason he had to resign. Dirty tricks by private sources is normal. Dirty tricks by a government agency is a coup.
Daulnay
@Cermet:
The tick comment. Comparing your opponents to vermin isn’t a good thing to do.
Trentrunner
Obama is speaking now in Miami.
Melania will be speaking soon in Pennsylvania.
I rest my fucking case.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Daulnay:
So, what about sidelining them for egregious behavior? There must be ways to sanction them.
Barbara
@Couldn’t Stand the Weather: Lynch can’t fire Comey. Only the president can, and I am assuming that something of this nature is in the works but sotto voce until after the election.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
this happened at… wait for it…
Robert E Lee High
dmsilev
@Daulnay: Hard to fire such people, but you certainly can reassign them to less attractive posts than the New York office.
kindness
So Obama firing Comey 11/9 will be a good start but then how do you sweep the NY FBI office clean? Seems as if getting rid of the ‘rogues’ won’t be an easy task.
Jeffro
@chopper: Ok, good point. He can still ax Comey and do the rest. (Wouldn’t surprise me to see a couple thousand pardons). And lord how I hope his Farewell Address is one for the ages, GOP burn-wise.
jake the antisoshul soshulist
I would go with the Feebs being out of control.
Otherwise we are falling down the Alex Jones conspiracy
rabbit hole.
Barbara
@D58826: I don’t know whether he is happy or not but he has lost credibility and integrity with at least half of the nation’s voters. If he was planning (as rumored) to be running for statewide office in New Jersey, that’s off the table.
The Other Bob
Betty- I have been thinking the same thing. I think my friends think I am nuts because I use the world Coup.
Considering the impact of gerrymandering and the fact that Senate is forcing a Supreme Court appointment to the next President, it sure feels that way. They are trying to control all facets of the government. There will be no checks on a Trump Presidency.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@Chris: Hoover didn’t have to meddle with elections; he had dirt on everyone, so he just blackmailed “both sides” to get what he wanted. Hoover’s ambition never really extended beyond the FBI—He was happy to be the President’s Himmler. Didn’t matter who the President was. Comey is different.
JPL
@kindness: They could be transferred to other positions,
Barbara
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: There is a school named after Robert E. Lee in nearly every county in Virginia, even in true blue Arlington. These evidently very stupid public employees didn’t even realize that in the CITY of Staunton, where this school is located, people are Democrats. Nearly every CITY in Virginia votes Democratic even if the much larger county votes Republican. Regardless of the name of the school, these two are not representative of Staunton — which is a neat and historic place with a great Shakespeare company (yes, really).
daryljfontaine
@kindness: “We are handing out mandatory plum assignments to exotic locales such as Couer d’Alene, Idaho, Butte, Montana, and Wasilla, Alaska. You can transfer, or you can quit.”
D
Comrade Scrutinizer
@WarMunchkin: These are all Senate rules that can be changed. That only takes a simple majority, so that if we can control the Manchins and have a 50-50 split, Kaine would give us a deciding vote.
The Moar You Know
It is a coup attempt and I am quite alarmed.
Daulnay
@dmsilev:
Agreed, those rogue agents are going to be sent out to the northern Idaho, Alaska, or Death Valley field offices, to open one up if they don’t already exist.
Albert Z.
@Fair Economist: Let’s not forget that as Mr. Pierce reminds us, the FBI was a “deeply entangled” in the Watergate Scandal.
Elizabelle
@kindness: Could they put a whole lot of them on paid leave, and put together a special team of good agents to investigate them, and quickly?
We need to get these rightwing hacks out of the FBI, and other sensitive government posts.
They don’t deserve the civil service protections of a government they are trying to bring down.
Further, I hope Jason Chaffetz gets burned but good by all of this. The Salem witch trials have to stop.
Waldo
@chopper:
If all goes well on Tue., I think Comey bails before the Dem-controlled Senate hauls him in for his inquisition. PBO appoints an interim chief. Hillary then picks someone who will drain the swamp.
Tim C.
I don’t think coup is the right word. Wildly inappropriate, illegal, immoral, a total abuse of power and a betrayal of the ideals the FBI says it’s for, yes. But coup means military or paramilitary forces removing and replacing a legally elected government.
Dave C
There will be no reckoning, even if Hillary wins. We will get 4-8 more years of constant investigations and obstruction.
Cacti
What I’m wondering is when did Dems decide that the FBI was a generally honest and upstanding organization?
They work in a building named after J. Edgar Hoover, FFS.
eric
@dmsilev: I am not defending him. My point is that there is more systemic right that has some considerable power by virtue of its ideological allies in the House of Representatives.
Barbara
@kindness: Well, I think a lot of this leaking was triggered by the efforts of Loretta Lynch to weaken the New York branch by reassigning control of the Eric Garner federal investigation to non-NY FBI personnel. That’s the way to do it. To selectively step in when you see things going off the rails. But she couldn’t do that with the e-mail stuff for obvious reasons. A lot of people think Comey was trying to get back at Lynch by refusing to go along with her advice on the release of the letter. Comey isn’t necessarily that swift on fighting internal political battles. Which is basically the point that Nancy Pelosi made about him — that he was too weak to be director.
Elizabelle
Mostly, this would not happen if we had a functioning media, and less cable news that frames bits of the stories inaccurately — whahah! Bill Clinton said hello to Loretta Lynch on a plane.
Meanwhile, you have agents allegedly reading Clinton Cash like it’s a credible source, and using government employees and resources to pursue a vendetta.
Get them OUT. And rapidly.
It would be great to find out what ties they have to the GOP leadership. Maybe this would bring a lot of bad people down.
The Moar You Know
@FlipYrWhig: I’ve had some digital forensics work with them in the past. They’re not exactly stressed from an unmanageable workload, let’s just put it that way.
MomSense
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
OH FFS! I hope the parents sue.
narya
@D58826: I have long feared exactly this. All those “oh, don’t be silly, it can’t be done” people aren’t thinking clearly because they’re assuming it would be a big hack. But, as you correctly point out, it doesn’t have to be very big at all.
Matt McIrvin
@WarMunchkin: The filibuster is already gone for all appointments other than Supreme Court (the “nuclear option” that popped a few years back). It’s not a feature of the Constitution but a Senate rule, subject to the majority party. If there’s a D majority it will likely be gone for the Supreme Court as well. On the other hand, a bare Republican majority under Clinton might well bring it back, just to give them a buffer against defections.
Elizabelle
Mostly though, peeps:
Get on the phones, or hit the sidewalks, in your state or call another — get our voters out to vote! Reassure them that they have a voice to act against all those Trump signs and the casual cruelties of their political opponents.
This is an important topic, but don’t get subsumed by nerves or negative framing.
We can win this. And we will. Do something positive to make it happen!
Daulnay
Coup? We’re not there, but it’s getting closer. Bitter partisan divisions are the death of republics and democracies. Since the problem isn’t much on our side, we need to figure out how to redeem the right-wingers. How do we pop the epistemic closure bubble?
japa21
I spent a year in Missouri last week, attending my son’s promotion to Lieutenant Colonel. Didn’t have TV or internet access except for extremely limited amount. But saw a lot of wonderful billboards. It was a mix of pro-Trump and anti-Clinton. My favorites were “Trump…He won’t leave your sons to die in Benghazi”, “Vote Trump…Sponsored by America’s Deplorables” and “Wouldn’t It Be Nice If We All Could Lie to The FBI And Still Run For Office”. There were others but those led the hit parade.
SFBayAreaGal
From a tweet:
This will always be remembered as the presidential election in which the KKK, the KGB and the FBI all supported the same candidate.
FlipYrWhig
@Elizabelle:
Yup, this is the alarming part.
Barbara
@Comrade Scrutinizer: I am sorry, you are wrong about this. I began reading a book called the Subversives and Hoover and the FBI affected many things outside the FBI, including probably the election of Reagan as governor of California and the destruction of the reputation of other people in California who might have given the Democratic party a deeper bench in the 70s and 80s. Do you think it’s a coincidence that until recently California has had a relatively shallow bench of statewide Democratic pols? The book is focused on California — written by someone at UCB who eventually demanded and got to see his own “subversive” file amassed by the FBI. Hoover undermined the entire Civil Rights movement by successfully tying in public perception MLK and others with the communist party. Hoover was a cancer on our democracy.
Raven Onthill
This is a problem we’ve had since the Hoover days. Whatever good the FBI did, it was also a political force from the very beginning.
We need policing reform. Anyone know historical examples other than Sir Robert Peel?
Kay
It’s outrageous. They deserve Trump. They’ll all be making 10 bucks an hour as contract employees- Trump says every fucking day how stupid and/or corrupt everyone in government is- if they’re on a mission to prove that, so be it.
I love the arrogance of conservative belief. The “I’m a special snowflake” delusion. I got news for them- the moment they get the far Right government they’re longing for all the anti-government Right will turn on them.
They should be courting liberals. We’re the only people who think their work has any value at all.
NickM
@Chris: The FBI is auditioning to be the STASI.
Eric U.
@Amir Khalid: reassign and closely monitor their activities. Civil servants can be fired, it just takes a lot of work. A motivated boss can get rid of people like this, no problem
Cain
This election has gone off the rails. The worst part is that Republicans have convinced a large part of this country that everything is bad when pretty much things are going pretty good in terms of economy and what not. I don’t know if it is just extreme incompetence on Democrats or media people giving a huge assist to Republican rhetoric or what? I just can’t seem to wrap my head around anybody voting for someone like Trump. It seems a new standard has been set going forward and we are going to have more bombastic candidates with nonsense economic polices. I don’t know how to get rid this strain of assholes.
I suppose we’re just going to have to hit rock bottom ala Kansas.
What is true is that there are people who are being left behind and they seem to believe they have no choice but put a lying bomb thrower in charge because their situation is that dire.
Larkspur
I remember Hillary’s first day on the job as Secretary of State. State Department employees were lined up, cheering. At the time I imagined their feeling was, “OMG, finally, we got us a smart grown-up!”
I have to think there are plenty of FBI employees, whether agents or support staff, who are uncomfortable with what’s going on and who hate participating in something that must feel so unpatriotic. I assume the penalties for breaking ranks are harsh, but I wish some of them would. I remember a ex-CIA employee, Frank Snepp, wrote an unauthorized book about the fall of Saigon, Decent Interval. He was sued by the CIA for breach of contract, and after lengthy court proceedings, the CIA won, and took all the royalties he’d earned from the book. (He later became an investigative journalist.) But he wrote and published the damn book. I wish some FBI people would step up.
Frank Snepp
Major Major Major Major
Bring back the Church Committee!
Matt McIrvin
@D58826: I think that to do it that way you’d need clandestine physical access to the voting machines, which would probably require active cooperation from the state government. So states with a Democratic administration like PA and VA are probably out. I wouldn’t put it past Ohio, but they seem like not the decisive state this year anyway. Maybe Florida. Maybe MI, but that state doesn’t seem close enough for it to be a likely candidate.
cat
Comey helped convict Mark Rich who fled and then was pardoned by Bill Clinton.
Comey helped with the Ken Star investigation into the Clintons while Bill Clinton was president.
I suppose it’s a coincidence when he had the chance to editorialize about Hillary’s behavior he didn’t let all that history color his decision to editorialize in public but I doubt it.
D58826
@Comrade Scrutinizer: And the people running for POTUS from each party were sane political types within the rather broad center-right to center-left political environment of the time. None of them would have tried to push the nation to default like the current GOP, for example .
waysel
This was a thought I put up on my FB page, 9 pm, Nov 1: Thinking fondly of the good old days, when a coup was something that happened in far off, exotic places. Oh, for the days. C’est la vie.
The Other Bob
@Kay:
No they wont. Comey can run Trumps SS and the FBI can be in charge of sending the Muslims and Mexicans to the camps.
Elizabelle
@Larkspur:
Yes! Find those better angels, and fast. You don’t think President Obama and Loretta Lynch are not severely concerned about this? They can multitask.
They should purge the FBI, ensure a lot of reassignments take place, and do some actual firings.
Better these wingnuts be on the grift machine, or in court, than in a sensitive government agency.
Clean out the rot. Make it better for President Hillary, who has a lot to do already.
And fuck the MSM enabling wankers who will whine. Make note of who is whining loudest.
Daulnay
If you actually want to worry about a coup, look at how the Air Force was taken over by the Religious Right. Much more serious than a few FBI agents.
D58826
@Matt McIrvin: I’m not talking about the voting machines at the individual polling locations. I’m talking about the computers at the board of elections that tabulate/report the votes. By the time the votes, as reported could be validated against the physical machines the election would be over. Trying to sort out who won would be worse than 2000. THE EC might not settle the issue and the GOP House would elect Trump. And with an 8 person SCOTUS even that option is foreclosed. Once the details were finally sorted out POTUS Trump would simply say ‘sue me ha ha’.
Maybe farfetched but given all that has happened…………………………
FlipYrWhig
@The Moar You Know: Mulder and Scully definitely had plenty of time.
Woodrowfan
@Barbara: at least he was from Arlington, so there’s that excuse. There’s no excuse for Jeff Davis highway in Virginia though…
Phylllis
@Barbara: Yes, that book and the The Burglary by Betty Medsger were both distressing eye-openers regarding how much Hoover and the FBI interfered in local/state politics and how remarkably inept its employees and the agency as a whole is regarding its actual responsibilities vis a vis law enforcement.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@Barbara: Not sure that what I said is different from what you said. Hoover was mainly interested in building up the FBI, just as Himmler was with the RSHA, which included both the Gestapo and the SS. Both choose to emphasize the use of police power on dissidents and minorities. Both men did not hesitate to employ extra-legal methods in the application of police power, although Himmler really didn’t have to worry about the extra-legal part, because he could always claim Fuhrerprinzip. Both men were influential with the chief executive, but especially in Hoover’s case, he didn’t much care who the chief executive was, as long as that man was an ardent anti-Communist (not a problem during Hoover’s lifetime) and that Hoover could protect both himself and the Bureau with the use of his files.
Hildebrand
Bit OT, but where in the hell are all the usual ‘Blue Lives Matter’ suspects? Why isn’t the press doing wall to wall coverage of the guy they caught? Actually, I know, and its pretty damned depressing.
Thunderbird
@Hildebrand: Because he’s a white guy. SATSQ.
Blueskies
@Tim Smith: Is there a whistleblower involved? No? Then Obama ain’t gonna come down hard on anyone.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@Daulnay: This a thousand times.
Villago Delenda Est
@chopper: Nukes.
Cogitari Safari
Paywall Backdoor:
1. – Go to original link and copy the headline in full.
2. – Perform a search for the headline in Google.
3. – Click the Google link to the original story and you will get the full article.
This works 9 out of 10 times.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@D58826: The election is over only when the vote has been verified. Tuesday’s results aren’t final on Tuesday.
Amy Wolf
And may I say one thing? I am sick and tired of folks insisting that Democratic administrations must be bi-partisan and include Republicans in the highest ranks for some reason that Republicans insist on their ounce of flesh. I do believe had the FBI director been a Democrat, maybe we would not be in this situation. Just sayin.
Josie
@Kay: This is so true, Kay. I feel the same way about the myriad journalists who are enabling Trump. They would be among the first to be lined up against the wall and they would deserve it.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@Villago Delenda Est: That works too.
Bobby D
@Daulnay: Oh, good lord. Go clutch your pearls elsewhere. The post was nowhere in the same galaxy as “eliminationist rhetoric”. We got enough drama queens, maybe audition for another role.
Elizabelle
@D58826: Please stop.
JMG
Under a President Trump, all government intelligence/security agencies, and there are a lot of them, will be used for political and media persecution. Full stop. And there’s still about a 1 in 3 chance that could happen. Nothing is more frightening and depressing to me than to see Americans reject democracy for the illusion of white dominance, as if Trump will give a damn about his voters once in office. Four years later they’ll still be in the same place they are now, worse economically, wondering why the persecution of minorities didn’t make them any better off or even happier.
Kay
@The Other Bob:
Oh, well. Nothing can be done. A faction in the FBI are blatantly and repeatedly inserting themselves to skew a US election and no one seems to be able to stop them. I want it stopped. Now. Elections are one and done. The bullshit “review” after isn’t good enough.
They’re now conducting an investigation into their own Twitter account. They look like fools or hacks- pick one.
We have a right to know whether a faction in the national police force are promoting Donald Trump. That’s information we need right now. “When they get around to it” will be too late.
Barbara
@Comrade Scrutinizer: You said he didn’t care much about who was president and that is not correct. That’s the part I disagree with. He cared very much and he was absolutely determined to affect political outcomes, especially those that might have advanced civil rights. Honestly, we don’t know how much we owe to LBJ, who was basically stronger than anyone else in the area of understanding and implementing political skulduggery. He was an example of someone who did the right thing even though he understood the political costs. And I know many people hate him on many different bases, but I doubt if civil rights legislation would have passed without him.
Comrade Scrutinizer
Someone needs to open up a BJ Depends outlet. The profit would be Youuuuuge!
D58826
@Hildebrand: Given the shooter’s history thought there might be a racial angle but the two cops were white. But since the shooter is white he just the usual ‘deranged loner’! sigh
cat
@Matt McIrvin: Some of the electronic voting machines send their results back to a 3rd party server before being sent to the election boards. The election boards email the results to the Sec of State in many places. County and Town IT systems are the most insecure second only to your Parents/Grandparents computers.
I would never have made electronic voting a thing a determined adversary can easily corrupt them remotely. You don’t even have to be subtle. The US could easily be destabilized by several swing states votes being corrupted.
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
This is a good deal for Putin – the guy whose personal net worth has been estimated at $40 billion, but has never worked outside public service. At the cost of leveraging a few hundred million toward a corrupt and venal businessman, he gets essential control over a first class, well trained multi trillion dollar military that has been paid for by the American people.
Focus on the prize – Andropov never dreamed of an opportunity so great as this.
Wonder what Georgi Arbatov would have thought of all this during the glory days of the USSR USA/Canada Institute? And if you could ask Dulles or JJ Angleton, what they would recommend?
Cain
@Daulnay: er what?
Couldn't Stand the Weather
@Barbara:
Thanks for the reply.
If BHO is gonna fire this weasel Comey, then I hope next week isn’t too late.
Kay (not the front-pager)
@WarMunchkin: The filibuster has already been eliminated for most appointments, excluding Supreme Court nominations. If repubs try to block all SCOTUS nominations for 4 years, as they have threatened, they will blow up the filibuster for them also. All assuming that we win control of the Senate.
I think the best way to clean house at the FBI is to eliminate the agency, firing all agents, and create a new agency that fills its role. Former FBI agents who are loyal Americans, rather than power-hungry traitors to our constitutional form of government with its checks and balances, could then be rehired to the new agency. I don’t know how practical this is, or how it would be achieved, but it seems like the cleanest way. The alternative, I guess, is to assign all the rogue agents to the North Dakota prairie or Nome, Alaska or somewhere like that.
SiubhanDuinne
@chopper:
Be like Herakles. Re-route the Potomac.
Duncan Watson
After the election there needs to be a clean sweep. It will be ugly but we have already descended into a banana republic and denial can’t erase that fact. The sweep needs to happen to move us forward. Everything will be more partisan since the gloves are off on both sides. But once we can get something like a media fairness bill back in place we can try to restore comity.
Elizabelle
@Duncan Watson: I agree. Pull the rot out by the roots, surgical strike, and fast.
Kay
Here’s how Donald Trump treats a free press:
He’s a cowardly thug who hires thugs. They better get used to cheerleading “Mr. Trump”.
waysel
@Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class: So the lesson is: Dream big.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@Barbara: He wanted to affect political outcomes to the extent that he feared those groups would undermine or attack the Bureau, or to the extent that attacking those groups would result in favorable publicity/more power to the Bureau. Anything that made the Bureau more powerful or more popular, he was all for. On the other hand, he denied the existence of organized crime until the Appalachian Conference rubbed his nose in it.
And LBJ? You’re right about him, and more. But if you invoke LBJ here on BJ without the requisite “Fuck LBJ” comment, Raven will descend in wroth to smite you.
D58826
@Comrade Scrutinizer: As I said maybe far fetched but somebody is spending a lot of time/effort to influence the outcome of the election and trying to corrupt the vote totals would be an attractive target if they could pull it off.
Elizabelle
@Comrade Scrutinizer: agreed there, too.
Peeps: get a hold of yourselves. Do something in real life to help elect Hillary and a Democratic Senate. This is disaster porn.
Kathleen
@The Other Bob: Kury Eichenwald tweeted comment from former Justice Department official who said this felt like a coup to him. Neither you nor Betty are off the rails with your comments in my opinion.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class:
Not sure what they would have said, but I can tell you what Lemay’s response would have been.
trnc
@Couldn’t Stand the Weather: Yes, on Nov 9. At this point, it won’t help to do it before the election and it could hurt.
D58826
@Kay (not the front-pager):
What about senatorial holds? The nuclear option doesn’t affect them and I think it takes unanimous consent to force a hold to be lifted. Checked on wikipedia but they don’t have a clear answer on that.
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
@Kay:
As I describe Trump’s lawyers, they’re shrieking stereotype assholes. When faced with someone who is tenacious in litigation, they back off, and when they pull this shit with somebody who acts unafraid to beat them down personally and physically, they back off (I have a client with a funny story about subbing a Trump project – needless to say, despite the shrieking stereotype asshole lawyers, he got paid).
cmorenc
@Couldn’t Stand the Weather:
Unfortunately, Bill Clinton’s recklessly ill-timed schmoozing with Lynch aboard her plane for 20 minutes damaged her ability to exercise control over Comey and the FBI, at least until the election is over.
Kay (not the front-pager)
@D58826: Again, it’s a rule. Rules can be changed if and when they are used to completely obstruct a functional government.
D58826
@Kay (not the front-pager): True but every one has been talking about the nuclear option/filibuster. The hold process seems to have gotten a lot less coverage so that’s why I was wondering.
Barbara
@Comrade Scrutinizer: Look, it is well-known that J. Edgar Hoover hated African Americans and hated anything that relaxed white supremacy. It went beyond the power of the FBI and reflected Hoover’s wishes for America much more generally. He maintained files on anyone associated with civil rights regardless of whether they had any bearing on the FBI’s power. I don’t even think this is a controversial statement.
PsiFighter37
On a travel forum I post on, most folks are convinced the polls are intentionally tightening and that Clinton will win easily. Interesting perspective from a less politically-attuned group of people…
Feebog
OK, disclosure first. For many years I worked for a federal agency in labor relations. And yes, you can fire civil service employees. However, it takes a couple things to do it right; someone to come forward with the allegations of misconduct and; an internal investigative unit that is absolutely independent. Of course you also have to have high level managers who are willing to take the disciplinary action necessary once an investigation is concluded and I fear that is the problem with the FBI right now. Comey needs to go for starters. Then an independent investigative team(s) from the justice department should be assigned to investigate these leaks and get rid of the leakers, either through reassignment to Nome Alaska or discharge.
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
Thinking aloud, today’s multipolar world shifts in a Trump Presidency, and becomes a unipolar world, directed from Moscow (at least, until China decides on a more assertive role and opts for a more North-South axis in a bipolar world).
piratedan
well I’m really not enjoying the blatant politification of a law enforcement agency that is supposed to be apolitical. Its not as if these guys haven’t had Clinton under a microscope for the last two years. So we’re down to three options, perhaps combinations may be applicable:
a) Hillary is a super-villianess who knows all of the ins and outs of the system while she subverts the nation to her evil desires
b) the FBI is filled with a bunch of investigators who are really bad at their jobs
c) she is actually an honest pol.
After two years of Benghazi and Clinton foundation and private server cha-chas, they have nothing, granted they’ve managed to assassinate her character and she may never be able to recover that.
Is there something that can be done? Yes.. Fire Comey… two, the folks who have been leaking to the press, fire them too. They’ve betrayed the public trust, no reason to keep them on the public payroll. Let them take their aggrieved selves over to Breitbart and Faux. but in short. Fuck those people.
glory b
OT, but a Fed judge in Philadelphia threw out the TRA request from the republicans to allow state wide poll watching this a.m.He said the plaintiffs “do not cite any authority for the proposition that ‘poll watching’ is a fundamental right under the First Amendment.”
He also said that said the poll-watching suit “seeks an extraordinary remedy” and “unreasonably delayed in doing so.”
I think that was the plan.
The repubs had the nerve to say they did it to ensure a fair election.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@glory b:
DOJ is also sending election monitors to 4 counties in North Carolina.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@Barbara: That doesn’t change anything I said. Hoover was a lot of things, and the FBI was a reflection of the man. The point is that Hoover used the FBI as his instrument of power, and he was content with that fiefdom. He didn’t want to trade it for higher office, and he didn’t need to take the coup route, because he was quite capable of protecting his position through the use of intimidation and blackmail practiced against other agencies, including the President. That’s fundamentally different from what Comey is doing. Comey isn’t trying to build a power base in the FBI and use it to empower the FBI; Comey is using the FBI (or dissident elements in the FBI are using Comey, it’s all the same in the end) to ensure that a certain person wins the election. Hoover would not have done that, certainly not in the blatant way that Comey has.
Amir Khalid
@Feebog:
Would an investigation into Comey’s actions be run by the DoJ’s Inspector-General or the FBI’s? (Assuming that the latter has an IG’s office of its own, which I’m not sure about.)
Elizabelle
@Kay: And this could not be happening without a lapdog, compliant, sensationalist media. Especially the cable and broadcast news variety. But the NY Times apparently learned nothing from their Judith Miller experience. Nothing.
The FBI can see that as easily as we can. Are they feeding their scoops to David Fahrenthold? And why not?
Botsplainer
@piratedan:
It makes me almost wish that their reeking, fetid religion was actually real and that they wind up being called to account in the afterlife for their lies.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: Good. Cumberland County where I’m working is a cesspool.
Elizabelle
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: Linky, please.
That is wonderful, and fascinating.
Stan
@cervantes: Agreed.
Look, let’s just abolish the FBI. They’ve been corrupt pretty much forever. It’s really hard to change an organization that has this kind of baked-in culture for so long. Killing it would be merciful.
We can launch a brand-new domestic gestapo if we really think we need one, but with a very different leadership and set of values.
Stan
@eric: But the correct response for a leader in that situation is to discipline and control his own staff – not pre-emptively do the wrong things they were going to do.
SiubhanDuinne
@Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class:
Similarly, this guest column from today’s WaPo shows yet again that Trump and his legal minions are snivelling, blustering poltroons.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@Stan: Let me introduce you to my little friend: inertia.
glory b
@narya: Interestingly, in the television show “Scandal,” Shonda Rimes had an election for president stolen by interfering with a few voting machines in one county In Ohio (in Defiance, Ohio, she was intrigued by the idea of a municipality with that name).
Iowa Old Lady
@Amir Khalid: The FBI has an Inspectors Office which today was charged with investigating the twitter account that suddenly came to life and spewed out anti-Clinton info. I can’t imagine they could investigate Comey though. Routinely, they periodically inspect all the FBI offices in the country. They also carry out the investigations of shootings in which the FBI is involved or any charge of things like discrimination or malfeasance. I’ve heard they’re short staffed at the moment.
glory b
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: Great!
I read that some county officials there are openly defying court orders already in place.
Botsplainer
@Amir Khalid:
I like to think that the investigation would take place as a short Q and A in the Oval Office, in a meeting that goes like this:
Barbara
@Stan: This, exactly. Indeed, you might say that by having the information go out under his own signature Comey gave the leakers cover and legitimacy and made it impossible for the FBI to discipline them for leaking. He protected them. There is no way for him to live this down and no excuse for his behavior.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Comrade Scrutinizer: @Elizabelle:
DOJ to monitor 4 counties in NC
Cumberland is indeed one of them.
TriassicSands
@Tim Smith:
We have two possibilities for the next president — obviously, Trump will not sort anything out, and Clinton would be the wrong person to even try, since she will be accused of (fill in an endless list of crimes and wrong doings).
What Trump has done is exposed just how rotten things are in this country. Begin with the electorate — even many Democratic voters are dangerously misinformed, ignorant, or just plain stupid. This may be partly due to our educational system and the dominance of entertainment as the focus of life.
I’m old now, and even though I’ve never told any kids to get off my lawn, I am aware that older generations routinely look at younger generations and question their fitness to inhabit the planet. However, as someone who taught in the public school system at one time (many of my students are now old enough to be parents of very young voters), I’ve seen how dysfunctional a truly dysfunctional school can be (in NM, where we joked “Thank goodness for Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Arkansas — if it weren’t for them NM would have been last in everything good and first in everything bad). I went to NM from out of state and was horrified by what I found, but it was pretty clear that very few of the students going through that school (and many more like it) would ever be informed, responsible voters.
This year we’re seeing just how bad things have gotten. Unfortunately, there is no simple way to fix things. If the problem is stupidity or ignorance caused by laziness (or failure to understand the importance of politics and elections) then no magic bullet will turn things around Worse, the problem is likely to be passed down from parents to children with no end in sight. I’ve long felt that I would die before the real problems came to a head, but if Trump wins next Tuesday, that future is now.
Matt McIrvin
@D58826: The House election as specified by the 12th Amendment doesn’t enter into it unless there is a definite count on January 6th where nobody has a 270-vote majority (either an electoral tie or a three-way situation). At this point I think this is really unlikely.
A disputed election is more likely to play out like 2000, with a lot of recount drama and jockeying in the courts. The possibility of a hung Supreme Court could make it interesting, though I think everyone there is going to be thinking about 2000 and their legacy as well.
Ruckus
@Raven Onthill:
Any organization made up of people, IOW any organization, will be political. How political and how that affects what the organization does is the real issue. With our current politics there will always be two sides to any issue. One side wants to make progress because we are never finished and life can always be fairer and the other always will want to restrict change because they like it how life is or how they think it was. We also have the the issue of how the media has an almost total disregard for anything but profit and so will bullshit and lie if they think it will make them more money. At some point they will convince themselves that whatever comes out of their mouths is the truth. Which is also human nature. Maybe more so in our culture than in some others.
The trick is to convince people that they are actually better off with equality. Because otherwise they will choose self in place of the greater good. It’s survival 101.
Matt McIrvin
@TriassicSands: The politically stupidest people in this country are often highly educated and highly informed; they’ve just convinced themselves of things that aren’t so. I don’t know if public education per se is the answer. I had a civics class in the eighth grade that covered how the United States government functions in great detail, and I don’t think it made the kids who came out of it any smarter voters.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
Federal election monitors will be watching poll sites in Cumberland, Robeson and two other North Carolina counties for reasons that have not been announced.
Elizabelle
@TriassicSands:
Calling bullshit on this part:
She’s exactly the best person and administration to tackle this. She’s going to be accused no matter what she does, and she does not back down.
Cannot let this fester another four years.
Hillary works inside organizations, and she has seen how well a good organization can do — not perfect, mind you, just well and adequate — and her claims about a “vast rightwing conspiracy” no longer sound so outlandish.
Please calm yourself about a “Trump win.” Wednesday will be here soon enough.
There is still time to inspire some more votes for Democrats.
Don’t fall prey to all the negative energy and demoralization.
They’re going whacky because they sense it slipping away. We have to make sure we win and they lose.
And then clean house.
Elizabelle
@Matt McIrvin: Sandra Day O’Connor trashed her legacy.
I see her out and about in DC frequently, and she seems like a lovely person; I know she volunteers her time to meet with foreign visitors etc.
But she’s got the stink of Bush v Gore all over her, and it will never wash off. At least IMHO. It’s a shame.
Weaselone
@TriassicSands: Too bad it’s you older, smarter generations that are disproportionately pulling the lever for Trump while the poor, dumb clods who recently graduated from our failing education system are overwhelmingly voting for Clinton.
Cain
@TriassicSands:
Education has been on the downspiral the past 20 years. Nobody wants to pay for education. Nobody. Yet, you need at least a college degree to get a job now. I am having difficulty figuring out how things are going to change if you can’t even set up your children to be educated so they can go to college. In fact, in the future I see even more blue collar and white collar jobs going away, victims of automation and robotics.
For instance, if robotics takes over fast food, we lose even that entry level position. We have challenges going forward.
Elizabelle
@Matt McIrvin:
They have too much help. We need to clean out the fever swamp of rightwing propaganda broadcasting. It’s gone from “first amendment freedom” to a genuine threat to our democracy.
These folks are often purposely misinformed.
It seems we could improve this situation, although I do not know how exactly. But saying “nothing can be done” is out.
Amir Khalid
@Iowa Old Lady:
The FBI Inspector’s office wouldn’t be assigned to investigate Comey, because it normally reports to him, I guess. (That consideration didn’t stop our PM from having the goings-on at 1MDB investigated by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, which reports to him. Which is how come we wound up hearing about all that juicy stuff about the movie and the Manhattan real estate and the wild parties from your AG and not our own.) So I guess it would indeed have to be the DoJ’s IG office.
Miss Bianca
And I’m yelling at dear friends on FB because they’re approvingly quoting Susan Sarandon endorsing Jill Stein because CROOKED HILLARY. It’s like we’re getting it from all sides. I basically told them that anyone who could have been for Bernie Sanders and not go for Hillary even when Bernie has ENDORSED her is just exposing their white privilege for everyone to see, and that Susan Sarandon can afford to go hang out on the Riviera if shit goes sideways here, but I can’t. I doubt my “arguments”, such as they are, wil move them, but I can no longer let idiocy stand in my immediate circle.
Cain
@Weaselone:
Oh boy, I’m staying out of this one. As a Gen Xer, I’m just interested in weed now. :D
D58826
totally OT and normally in the I don’t give …… category but how many rabbit holes are left to go down this year:
mr_gravity
@Daulnay: One of the late night comedy/news shows did a piece on this. Russian hackers who admit they are just trying to stir up shit. And they see themselves as a force for good.
D58826
@Cain: well one old boomer voter for Hillary. Just embarrassed about the rest
WereBear
Exactly.
And they have tried to insulate themselves from the results of their actions by screaming “Persecution” and “Politically Motivated” when they are the ones doing it.
But good luck with far too many people going, “I still have cell phone service. There isn’t any emergency…”
Ruckus
@Amir Khalid:
And besides that, how do you know which agents are out of control and therefore unable to do any reasonable investigating? It’s pretty obvious that it’s more than one or two wayward folks and that the structure is broken. That can’t be fixed from the inside.
D58826
and Dick Polman providing some perspective ;’
The fightin’ Founders took the low road, too ‘
http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/national-interest/item/98559-the-fightin-founders-took-the-low-road-too-
maryQ
i said something like this the other day and people looked at me like I was crazy.
Ben Vernia
The media has grossly underreported the Marc Rich document dump issue. Several points (all pretty much unreported or marginalized):
1. The FBIRecordsVault twitter account was dormant for > 1 year
2. It came alive with the Fred Trump documents (descibing him as a “real estate developer and philanthropist”). What was significant about these documents? It’s that they did not contain any reference to his 1927 arrest at a KKK rally. Small point, to be sure, but a plus for the Trump campaign.
3. Eric Holder’s WaPo op-ed criticizing (albeit respectfully) Comey’s judgment went live on the website on Halloween evening. That gave Comey and his FBI partisans time to:
4. Release the Marc Rich documents at 9:00 the next morning, i.e., about the time folks in Washington were opening their morning papers and reading Eric’s op-ed.
Now, bear in mind the following additional points:
5. Eric was Deputy Attorney General at the end of Bill’s second term, and so became acting AG when Janet Reno resigned.
6. As such, Eric made the decision (which he has said he regrets) to fast-track the Rich pardon process at the White House’s request.
7. Comey was the lead prosecutor on the Rich case at the time of the pardon. (And had worked on the Whitewater witch hunt.)
8. After W came to power, Comey was appointed US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and was given the job of investigating the pardon. (These last two facts establishes Comey’s partisanship in the GOP’s Clintonkampf – though his refusal to sign off on extending warrantless wiretaps while he was the DAG makes everyone think of him as a man of principle. Ask yourself: why didn’t Comey recuse himself from investigating a pardon of a fugitive who he had been responsible for prosecuting?)
But the FBI says that it’s all a coincidence. If you go to https://vault.fbi.gov, and poke around, you’ll notice something: it’s not a chronological dump of releases to all FOIA requests. It’s a curated site, consisting of FOIA releases that the Bureau thinks the public will be interested in seeing online. (And why would they think that Fred Trump documents would be interesting?) It’s also curious that the Bureau is now (but did not use to) scrub creation metadata from the PDF files it releases on the Vault site.
So, when you put this all together, it creates a compelling case that the FBI created the file (perhaps in response to a FOIA request, perhaps not) and sat on it until it believed that its release would serve the political or personal reputational interests of Comey. The Bureau would not have released the nonsensical cover story regarding “coincidental” releases of information unless it knew of, and was attempting to mitigate its exposure for misusing the Vault site.
Botsplainer
It occurs to me that it would be awesome to have a fully functional five eyes metadata collection and retention program so that connections between Assange/Wikileaks, Putin, Greenwald, Alfa, Trump, the alt-right and militias could be explored with proper warrants and safeguards.
It is, however, far more important to ensure that heavyset white guys with stained “Han Shot First” tshirts get to feel inviolate in their hentai and pr0n preferences could never be knowable, and that old white wingnuts might never face the possibility that anyone could ever discover their true feelings about minorities and women.
Peale
@Cain:
Yeah. Like that’s a change. Well I guess its more focused than sex and weed.
Matt McIrvin
@Cain: Collectively, GenXers who grew up during Reagan are more right-wing than boomers.
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
@D58826:
Clearly, a Duggar divorce is a reflection on a debased culture where true Christians are persecuted on a constant basis.
Enhanced Voting Techinques
@Daulnay: Considering the way our MSM keeps on posting stuff from websites like The Onion as serious news stories sounds like the Russians are wasting their money.
sunny raines
not really for several reasons:
1) a trump presidency would not route out the FBI rot, it would enhance it
2) trump would do even worse with other government agencies, like the military
3) trump doesn’t even pretend to care about the Constitution
4) as POTUS, there would be no counterbalance to trump. There are presumably some non-traitorous, honest and loyal personnel in the FBI, even some that are republican.
Chris
@Tim C.:
Basically. It’s why I waffle on calling it a coup. A coup would be the FBI removing a president or candidate directly, which isn’t what Comey’s doing; Comey certainly wants Hillary gone, but he’s doing it be trying to influence people’s votes, not by substituting the FBI’s authority for an election.
None of which makes it any less inexcusable.
Matt McIrvin
I think the much more likely disputed election scenario is that Hillary wins with a margin that could be wiped by flipping one or two states, and Trump’s team goes apeshit with challenges because they can. Together with sporadic rioting. Roger Stone works for him!
WereBear
At this point, it’s an infection, and we have to eliminate its influence or it will kill the host.
Chris
@Cacti:
The FBI usually polls quite well among American voters as a whole – much better than either political party, I suspect. It is and always has been a ludicrously PR-conscious agency, which has done a pretty good job of promoting the image of its personnel as a bunch of professional, apolitical, dedicated, highly qualified and patriotic Rough Men Who Stand Ready To Do Violence On Our Behalf. Even now that enough revelations about J. Edgar Hoover have circulated, I think many people generally dismiss that (like many right wing corruptions of our society) as something that’s long in the past, since after all the man has been dead for forty-five years, and clearly not relevant to what’s going on now.
(As with the military, just look at Hollywood portrayals. Even stories that are about shady government spooks are much more likely to involve the CIA or the NSA – i.e. the FBI’s competitors – with the FBI portrayed as clean-cut supercops. Not always, but most of the time).
This is the problem with trying to clear out the FBI. Firing Comey would probably pass (especially if Obama does it right after the election and if we win the Senate and therefore get to nominate a new person). But there’s no way to actually clean out the Bureau without it looking like a witch hunt, in which I suspect the public would side with the bad guys, not the ones trying to clean it.
Chris
@Kay:
Speaking as a resident of the DC area, a large chunk of these people are federal employees sucking at the government teat themselves. (Even more are contractors who wouldn’t have jobs without the feds). All of them assume that all the crap that’s said about “Washington” and “useless bureaucrats” doesn’t apply to them. (It’s these other co-workers, like that asshole two cubicles over who never lets me have any of his candy, and who’s probably only there as an affirmative action pick… etc).
John Cherry
Betty Cracker, you say “this cannot stand.” But it will stand. Because there won’t be a damned thing anyone can do about it. Once Trump is “elected,” the GOP will have a free hand to do whatever they want for many decades. They will have 4 new Supreme Court appointments, adding to Roberts and Alito, who are both still in their 50s. The conservative lock on the court will last until 2050 at least. And that is just when we will start having an opportunity to start appointing replacements. We are on the brink of total loss of power for the rest of any of our lives.
Betty Cracker
@sunny raines: You’re right that the situation with the FBI would get worse if Trump wins, but arguably the problem of the FBI being captured by the worst elements of a single political party is a more serious threat even than a Trump presidency because the FBI is a permanent institution. We’ve had a Democrat in the White House for eight years, and the agency is pretty openly trying to subvert democracy. If it succeeds, it will be emboldened to continue and even amplify its meddling, and we can kiss democracy goodbye. As for the “non-traitorous, honest and loyal personnel,” it is past time for them to speak up.
Couldn't Stand the Weather
@TriassicSands:
Your comment resonates, for many reasons.
I went to DC public schools 30 years ago. Low funding and resources and large classes of kids that some teachers could not quite control. Among other issues.
I attended a top 25 college. Large endowment and high tuition and all. What I saw there in some ways was no better; the lazy and sometimes stupid kids were there just as you describe … many like G. Bush Jr. and Trump.
And here comes Arne Duncan and company to make the situation worse.
End rant.
Citizen Alan
@Daulnay:
Republicans are vermin. There, I said it.Any questions?
FormerSwingVoter
Now can we talk about breaking up police unions so that officers can be fired at will?
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
That mile wide black suit/sunglass line shall not be crossed, any more than the mile wide blue police line. I mean what would happen if you were shooting an unarmed black person and that line disappeared? Or investigating someone with evidence that you found in a right wing hit piece that has no ties to any reality. Why, you could be tried in court for murder or not be able to frame someone you don’t like! And not judged by your peers but by the people who hired you and paid you not to shoot them randomly or smear them with bullshit. Can’t have any of that.
dimmsdale
@Daulnay: True, it’s hard to fire Federal civil service employees, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be transferred to the “stolen weed-whacker investigation unit” in the Deer Trail, Ohio office.
One of my pet peeves about the Obama administration from day one has been the lack of action replacing appointed cabinet positions (and the cadres of chums cabinet officials bring with them) that has been part of every election changeover since forever. Republicans get in, they fire all the Dems they can, and flood the agencies with right-wing loyalists. Democrats get into office, and continue with these same thugs in place, to sabotage or slow-walk changes in policy. When Nixon came into office, my dad got kicked out of his Washington position at a major federal agency, and shunted off to a regional position in West Bumblef8ck. This damn well had better start happening when Democrats take over; it’s part of the game, and it’s also part of how you get work done for the American people (and remedy policy stink left over from RWNJs in federal agencies).
Chris
@dimmsdale:
Running in Washington is like running for city government in NYC at the height of the Tammany Hall era. It’s not that reformers aren’t allowed to run, or that they don’t sometimes win, but there’s a political machine there that has no equivalent among its opponents, and that makes it extremely difficult to make meaningful long-term progress.
D58826
for those who think some of us have been over reacting to the election news
Plumline in WaPO https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/11/03/republicans-are-now-vowing-total-war-and-the-consequences-could-be-immense/?postshare=5271478194734402&tid=ss_tw
Feebog
@Amir Khalid:
You may have read Iowa Old Lady’s reply already. I concur with her. Any independent investigation would have to come from the Justice Dept. Rachel Maddow has done several segments in the past regarding investigations into FBI shootings. The FBI performs the investigations, and has never found an unjustified shooting by one of it’s agents. That should give you some idea of their “impartiality”.
Ruckus
@FormerSwingVoter:
And who would do this firing? And why wouldn’t they fire the people who broke ranks and turned on their fellow officers?
You want police accountability you need civilian oversight boards, that have actual power. And those boards have to have accountability, not to the police but to the citizens that they are supposed to represent.
I comes back around to us not just handing over responsibility one day every 2 yrs or 4 yrs but to far more of us having a piece of it on a regular basis.
burnspbesq
And as if that weren’t bad enough, the fucking Berniacs are coming out of the fucking woodwork singing a rousing chorus of “we told you so.”
Matt McIrvin
Josh Marshall picks up on a crucial distinction I had missed in Fox News’s much more sensational version of the FBI/Clinton Foundation story (their sources are probably not in the FBI at all, but secondhand rephrasings are acting as if they are).
Matt McIrvin
@burnspbesq: As if it would be impossible to make up bullshit stories about Bernie. Come on. (Most of the Bernie supporters I know are actually reacting to all this entirely appropriately; we’re talking about a deranged remnant here.)
Barbara
@Comrade Scrutinizer: I think your idea of what counts as a coup is narrower than mine.
Pogonip
@D58826: I was concerned about hacked voting too until Adam or Richard, I forget which (sorry, gentlemen) wrote an excellent article explaining why it would be next to impossible. So we don’t have to worry about that.
cervantes
@Pogonip: Light bite from a talking possum?
Amir Khalid
Just a quick example of, um, how much less than optimally informed your national news media can be about agencies like the FBI.
Waynski
@Chris: But there’s no way to actually clean out the Bureau without it looking like a witch hunt,
bartkid
This so reminds me of what I learned reading a magazine by Le Monde (France), comprising the texts of several hundred U.S. diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks in November 2010. It was page after page of the U.S. State Department conspiring with other nations’ diplomatic corps against that nation’s citizens or U.S. citizens. It was unreal. Too bad I’ve never seen a such comprehensive, single document in the English language. Long story short, the conflict between any nation’s state apparatus and another nation’s state apparatus is more like play fighting. They view their own citizens as their greater enemy. Any other nation’s state officials are more like _the enemy of my enemy is my friend, at least for today_.
1,000 Flouncing Lurkers (was fidelioscabinet)
@Raven Onthill: Well, the Canadians had to take the RCMP apart a while back. Seeing what went wrong there, and taking it as an exemplar might not be a bad place to start, even if the FBI doesn’t have spiffy red dress uniform coats and Stetsons.
Davis X. Machina
TBF, you have to consider the sheer magnitude, and the unique nature, of the threat, to the American way of life posed by Mrs. Clinton. In Hoover’s day, all the FBI had to protect us from was just Hitler & Stalin.
So this is clearly a proportionate response.
Salus populi suprema lex, and all that.
Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap
Anyone else seen this one:
The Guardian has more.
Chris
@Davis X. Machina:
Oh boy, do I wish this weren’t an accurate snapshot of the inside of the head of most of the right wingers in the nation, including a bunch of FBIers.
Feathers
@FormerSwingVoter: The real problem is that police tend to have both union and civil service protections, which is why people give up on firing them. Barney Frank, back in his Boston City Hall days, said that what needed to happen was for government workforces to choose whether they wanted to work under union rules or civil service rules – but not both.
Chris
@Waynski:
We’re going to need some new FBI guys, I guess.
louc
@mr_gravity: That was Samantha Bee. It was awesome. The two hackers (one female) wore baclavas.
evodevo
@Cain: To people who keep saying that – the Automat in NYC didn’t do away with restaurants ….just sayin’ And that was around from the early 1900’s to after WWII….
evodevo
@1,000 Flouncing Lurkers (was fidelioscabinet): AND horses!! Don’t forget the horses!
Latino J
Random thought….
So, I know he really is a genius, but I’m mystified by all the extra math Nate Silver has added to his model this year.
Right now, he’s adding 1.8 points to all Trumps averages for an adjustment for trendline. Now, I’m sure this is something that has helped Hillary in the past. Right now, he’s got Hill up 45.7% to 44% in the polling average in Florida, but after he bakes in the trendline adjustment, he’s got Trump with a 52.2% chance of winning the state. Which has turned it pink which has a lot of people really freaked out.
Nate can think otherwise, but he’s become an important person as far as the morale and mood of partisans on both sides go. And maybe I haven’t paid close enough attention in the past, but this model makes a ton of adjustments of individual polls and to the aggregates that oftentimes seem to create a self fulfilling narrative. I mean yeah, if you add 1.8% to every poll one candidate has because of a trendline, that trend is sure as sugar going to accelerate a ton.
Who knows? He’s the genius.
1,000 Flouncing Lurkers (was fidelioscabinet)
@evodevo: Horses not as much a feature these days, really.
Barbara
@Latino J: I haven’t looked at 538 in months. Sam Wang is more neutral and certainly not Pollyanna. DK is more or less the same as Sam Wang. If you want to read a non-Dem leaning report for balance, I think Charlie Cook is the best because he is a straight shooter.
Theodore Wirth
Y’all know that at this point in time the con ground game is nearing fruition. Hence this. It also exacerbates that the progressive ground game has been asleep at the wheel forever. Think like SUPER BOWL. The passing game doesn’t cut it in itself.
Applejinx
Been busy all day but: hell yes, Betty. Well spotted, and I think there’s Russian fingerprints all over it.
It’s what intelligence agencies DO. The spooks gotta spook, and they love their sekrit business. If a bunch of spook wingnuts hate the Dems enough, it’s natural for them to become full-on Russian agents and act as such.
It’s like any fanatic: easier for them to swap apparent sides than it is to move to the boring old middle.
It’s VERY plausible that the FBI is partly run by Putin, because the spooks WANT to be run by someone of their ideology, and that’s represented better by the Russian strongman than by a bunch of supposedly-American liberals. It’s not a cognitive dissonance to them.
Latino J
@Barbara: thanks!
tones
Funny, the coup was years ago, did nobody notice?
J R in WV
@Elizabelle:
Really, O’Conner isn’t a shame. She confessed to being biased at an election party, and then participated in the worst Supreme Court decision since Dred Scott. If the stink of that could wear off, it would be less of an object lesson to the current justices, who may well have several cases arising from wrong doing in the election next week. Five days away now.
Wife has had total knee replacement surgery, and so my participation in GOTV work is limited. I did several days of phone banking before the surgery, and she’s doing very well in rehab and recovery given that the work was Tuesday a week ago, so 9 days into it.
Glad DOJ is going to be watching in North Carolina. I wish they were going to be in Ohio, and MO, and all the other swing states. Florida, especially.
This FBI stuff is horrible. One of my friends in HS, his dad was with the FBI and seemed like a real serious person. Of course, he was assigned in a small town. Really hoping this comes out the right way, meaning the Hillary way. Three emails, all that roaring over 3 emails. Amaziballs.
Pete Moss
@Daulnay: Concern troll is concerned!