Earlier BettyC asked who was going to keep attention on the reported Russian interference in US politics? We are! Among others.
A couple of interesting things regarding Russia’s influence operations against America have flown close to or under the radar over the past several days for obvious reasons. The first is that Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister announced yesterday that, indeed, Russia had been in touch with the Trump Campaign.
Specifically,
The statement came from Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who said in an interview with the state-run Interfax news agency that “there were contacts” with the Trump team.
“Obviously, we know most of the people from his entourage,” Ryabkov said.
And:
Speaking to Bloomberg News, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said staffers at the Russian Embassy in Washington met with members of Trump’s campaign — meetings she described as “normal practice.” Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign refused similar requests for meetings, Zakharova told the agency.
Asked later for clarification, a Foreign Ministry official declined to elaborate on Ryabkov’s remarks but said standard diplomacy called for “contact with the leaders in the campaign” on matters such as clarifying statements by the candidate or conveying interview requests from Russian journalists. The ministry official spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
A Clinton campaign official who was asked to comment on Zakharova’s statement answered with a one-word email: “false.”
The Trump Campaign, of course, denied it:
Ryabkov provided no further details, and his remarks drew a swift denial from Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks, who said the campaign had “no contact with Russian officials” before Tuesday’s election.
This comes on the heels of reporting over the weekend that got almost no coverage (other than the actual reporting and a few tweets) that US counterintelligence (CI) officials have, indeed, opened a counterintelligence investigation into the activities of now President Elect Trump’s campaign in regard to potential illegal ties to Russia and Russian officials.
Two separate sources with links to the counter-intelligence community have confirmed to Heat Street that the FBI sought, and was granted, a FISA court warrant in October, giving counter-intelligence permission to examine the activities of ‘U.S. persons’ in Donald Trump’s campaign with ties to Russia.
The FBI agents who talked to the New York Times, and rubbished the ground-breaking stories of Slate ( Franklin Foer) and Mother Jones (David Corn) may not have known about the FISA warrant, sources say, because the counter-intelligence and criminal sides of the FBI often work independently of each other employing the principle of ‘compartmentalization’.
As former FBI Special Agent for Counterintelligence Naveed Jamali states in reply to MSNBC anchor, Daily Beast contributor, and national treasure for actually knowing how to conduct and actually conducting real, investigative journalistic interviews Joy Ann Reid:
@JoyAnnReid @MalcolmNance @amjoyshow intel ops are hard to see from the outside. How the #fbi handled the emails hurts it's credibility
— Naveed Jamali (@CatchaRUSSpy) November 8, 2016
Special Agent Jamali’s point is well taken: these investigations are conducted partially by a compartmentalized group of FBI special agents and analysts to cover the domestic, US side of evidence collection working in concert with a group of counterintelligence officers from the US Intelligence Community that focus on the international/foreign component of counterintelligence. They run silent and they run deep. And they have a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act(FISA) warrant from the FISA Court for the Trump campaign. This is not going to go away easily.
In other Russian maskirovka and kompromat developments it appears that buyer’s remorse has already set in at the Kremlin. The Guardian reports that:
Alexei Venediktov, the editor-in-chief of Russia’s liberal Echo of Moscow radio, said that while some in the Kremlin were probably celebrating, other “more serious” people realised there were unpredictable times ahead.
“Putin doesn’t like unpredictability and Trump is the definition of unpredictability,” he said. “They celebrated Brexit and then Boris Johnson became foreign secretary and they thought, ‘Oh God, what is this?’”
The Moscow Times also reports (h/t: Josh Marshall) that:
Across Russia, Donald Trump’s election as United States president has been hailed as a victory for Moscow. Given the country’s affinity for the American president-elect, the celebration should be going strong only a day later.
But it appears the honeymoon is coming to a swift end.
“We are not experiencing any euphoria,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Nov. 10. “[We’ve had] very diverse experiences doing business with U.S. administrations, both Republican and Democrat.”
The Kremlin anticipated squaring off against Hillary Clinton, says Stanislav Belkovsky, director of the National Strategy Institute.
“Putin is, of course, a winner here,” he says. “Not because Trump won, but because it proved the U.S. establishment does not control its own country.” But the “defeat of Obama’s platform” is a fleeting victory for Putin: “No one knows what Trump’s real policies toward Russia will be.”
Others are less sure Russia can cooperate with the United States.
“The U.S. is in a bit of a stupor, a crisis. There’s a great deal of uncertainty,” says Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of the Russia in Global Affairs journal. “It’s better to see what’s going to happen and not take initiative first.”
Pavel Sharikov, a scholar in the Russian Academy of Science’s Institute of American and Canadian Studies, believes setting reasonable expectations will be important. He emphasizes that, even if Trump’s policy preferences are amenable to Moscow, the new president will still face opposition from Russia hawks within his party.
But Belkovsky insists the ball is in Kremlin’s court. In the next four years, relations will depend on Russia’s actions.
“Russia, not America, inspired the conflict in Ukraine, regardless of what Putin says about that,” he says. And, if faced with challenge from the Kremlin, “any American president will protect America’s interests – even Trump.”
As someone wrote the other night, quoting Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock in The Amok Time:
After a time, you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing after all as wanting.
Putin may be learning this now given how amok these times seem.
Finally, former Obama Administration Department of Justice Communications Director Matthew Miller reminds us that everyone that the Trump transition team tries to bring into the new administration will have to complete a Security Form (SF) 86. Its 127 pages of fun, fun, fun, but if the reporting from Heat Street is correct, it may be fraught with danger for potential members of the new administration.
If you're curious about this, sections 19 & 20 of this form show the q's asked. Answered under penalty of perjury. https://t.co/aauudxWWzD
— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) November 10, 2016
Section 19 – Foreign Contacts:
A foreign national is defined as any person who is not a citizen or national of the U.S.
Do you have, or have you had, close and/or continuing contact with a foreign national within the last seven (7) years with whom you, or your spouse, or cohabitant are bound by affection, influence, common interests, and/or obligation? Include associates as well as relatives, not previously listed in Section 18.
Section 20A – Foreign Activities Have you, your spouse, cohabitant, or dependent children EVER had any foreign financial interests (such as stocks, property, investments, bank accounts, ownership of corporate entities, corporate interests or businesses) in which you or they have direct control or direct ownership? (Exclude financial interests in companies or diversified mutual funds that are publicly traded on a U.S. exchange.)
It gets better from there, so click across and take a look. I can tell you from personal experience with the periodic review for my clearances that there is no give in the system in the post Snowden and post Martin security breach era. It also doesn’t help that Congress has shorted the funding for the clearance investigators, so they’re short staffed. The background investigators, adjudicators, and special security officers are not known for having much of a sense of humor, especially that last group! They all take the penalty of perjury thing very, very seriously!
Stay Frosty!
Baud
All hail the bureaucrat!
Baud
BTW, I’m sympathetic to Putin’s predicament. We don’t know what Trump will do either.
Omnes Omnibus
FWIW Nixon looked pretty unstoppable in 1972.
Adam L Silverman
@Baud: And no one knows what pitfalls, traps, and landmines President Obama may have laid for his successor within his EOs and other executive actions in case Secretary Clinton did not win and the Democrats wound up in complete opposition status as they have. Whenever he could he has at least maneuvered his opponents to a draw.
Mary G
Thank you for this, Adam, although I haven’t read it all yet. Does anyone think Director Comey will allow or shut down the FBI investigation? I am sure the usual suspects are already screaming bloody murder about former Special Agent Jamali’s credibility. SEEKRET ISIS TERRORIST!!!
Major Major Major Major
One of those times to be happy about the permanent government, I suppose.
Adam, any further thoughts on what we talked about last night? Alain seems interested too.
Miss Bianca
So, this is interesting…what happens if the FBI has to make a report on President-elect Trump’s ties to the Kremlin before Congress?
Also, too, emails! Benghazi! Both sides do it!!
ETA: If nothing else, I wonder if this will teach the Kremlin not to fuck with US elections anymore? Wait, who am i kidding?
kindness
It will be fun to watch the Trump people blame Obama for this one.
sukabi
There’s probably not one of drumpfs curent slate of transition or potential cabinet picks that can pass a basic security clearance.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus: One day at a time. What else can we do?
Dexter
I always thought that there is an outside chance that Trump will end up with a “bigly” scandal involving some foreign questionable entity (or govt.) and either resigns or gets impeached. He or the some of his closest advisers are not what intelligence agencies would call of “impeccable character.” There must be something out there but the question is how much can be discovered, how soon and how much damage he causes in the meantime.
Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap
It turns out there is a President elect under investigation after all.
Major Major Major Major
@sukabi: That’s an interesting proposition. I know that the president themselves, by definition, always passes a security clearance check, but I imagine that the normal rules apply for cabinet level stuff and everybody else. Adam?
Baud
@Tilda Swinton’s Bald Cap: It was always a lie people told themselves to excuse their decision.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tilda Swinton’s Bald Cap: Yea for the black humor!
gratuitous
I’d like to think this is true, but a lot of conventional wisdom and immutable laws have been overturned in the last nine months. Sure, there’s this detailed clearance form in effect, and a history of scrutiny from the folks tasked with reviewing those clearances, but I remember the days of Gannon/Guckert and Talon News Service. A juicy little story featuring a gay prostitute posing in White House press conferences as a credentialed reporter for a fake news service, and unexplained overnights revealed through the White House visitor logs. Happened literally right under the noses of the popular media, and nobody could be bothered to look into it at all.
What makes anyone think that the media are going to get very exercised about joined-at-the-wallet relations between Trump administration figures and our good friends in Russia?
Steppan
Thank dog at least part of the FBI can still do its job.
But if they find something actionable on Trump – then what? Can he be basically forced out of position before taking office or once in it? Would it revert to Pence either way?
Elizabeth
I would like to believe that failure to pass the background checks matter. What happens if Trump ignores it?
debbie
@Omnes Omnibus:
Not like this. Not with the same kind of repression planned for the many who have been classified as Other.
Waldo
Now Putin has buyer’s remorse? WTF?! Did no one game this sh*t out?
geg6
Think we could get them to look into these trolls fomenting division among liberals? I am thinking more and more that they are more concerned with keeping any resistance to Trump from forming by creating schisms and despair among us. ISIS and Russia could certainly think of this if I can.
Am I sounding paranoid? Damn right. And I plan to stay that way.
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: Comey won’t. He’s not going to pick a fight with the Director of National Intelligence and/or the Director of Central Intelligence.
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major: Sorry, got busy. I’ll email tomorrow and we can start the discussion.
JMG
@Elizabeth: Then the FBI to Senators if post requires confirmation, to Post, Times or broadcast network news operation if it doesn’t.
Adam L Silverman
@Miss Bianca: Other things will teach the Russians no to.
Peale
Well, I for one am hoping that it is Bolton for State. And anyone who thinks that the US has a special interest in breakaway parts of Georgia for deputy positions. Elections have consequences and like Kay I really would like the Russians to have to “work” in a room with Bolton yelling at them as much as possible.
matryoshka
I’m pretty sure Trump is not going to waste his time filling out all those forms. No doubt he lacks the attention span.
Shell
To the surprise of nobody, looks like Christie got kicked under the bus. Pence to do the transition thingy. Christie for…what? More cheeseburger runs?
Dog Dawg Damn
By all early indicators, Liberals are going to descend into a circular firing squad squabbling about “intersectionality” and “patriarchy” instead of mobilizing strong opposition.
cosima
I’m very discouraged that this is encouraging news — but happy to read it. The randomness of FB showed me a post from an unknown person that my (very liberal) uncle had commented on. His comment was ‘all of them are garbage.’ It was a photo spread of potential T/P cabinet, and if someone posted it on my FB I’d have thought it was satire. Trey Gowdy was AG. It was absolutely horrifying, and the poster was praising God for Trump & the possibility of this cadre, so I finally twigged that it was real stuff for that idiotic person.
Anyway, now that I’ve read this I do have my doubts as to whether or not any/many of them would make it. Which makes me feel a bit better.
jl
I just hope Putin is smart enough to, after he rips Trump off on one those Great Dealz Trump thinks he can make, leave some exit where Trump can save face in public. Otherwise we will have a foreign policy crisis run by spite and tantrum from the US side.
I guess last glimmer of hope is how many’faithless’ electors does the GOP side have. Dems have two in WA I think. Maybe they can save us (that is a bitter joke, BTW. No need for rebuttals.) If it were true that there were enough to make a difference, would be a hoot to see the reactionaries whine about betrayal of original intent, though. I spent more than a little money and time on the campaign and am a two-time loser. And I realize that being a LOSER is, categorically, essentially, in and of itself, a great shame these days. So I need some downtime and just can’t bring myself to pay attention for awhile. But I would tune in for a faithless elector fight. Guess I need to rest my psyche until the new administration and the 4 year fight to stave off disaster begins.
I see in TPM that Trump met with Obama and was persuaded to keep parts of a Obamacare.
One of the reasons the president elect did so well is that he emitted a remarkable set of relatively (for a GOP campaign) progressive social insurance and macroeconcomic policy proposals. It will be extremely (EXTREMELY) distasteful, but we need to make incessant good faith and respectful reminders and demands that he honor those promises. And try to persuade him to reconsider the long list of loony things he said.
One hope is that Trump likes to be popular in any room he walks into, and now the room is the whole country. Keeping that popularity might persuade him to avoid policies that lead to frank economic disaster. People like Ryan and McConnell don’t give a rats ass if everyone including their loyal ordinary citizen supporters, are crushed, as long as they can figure out a way to stay in office by any means necessary.
skerry
The only way Trump qualifies for a security clearance, at any level, is because he was elected president. No way in hell he’d get one following the usual path.
Same for most, if not all, of the people he’s named to his transition team.
Jesus wept.
Adam L Silverman
@Shell: Nobody puts Baby in a corner… If he doesn’t get a good consolation this could look like man in rubber suit Godzilla eating Tokyo.
debbie
The secret FB group is talking about boycotting businesses who supported Trump. I Googled for a list, but it’s so overwhelming. Fucking Jack Nicklaus, even.
Adria McDowell (formerly LurkerExtraordinaire)
Fuck yeah! This is gonna get interesting. Can’t wait till the book about this whole rigamarole comes out. Assuming I’m alive to read it, anyway.
Like comedienne Monique Marvez says, evil always overplays its hand.
PIGL
I greatly appreciate the effort you are taking to bring these things to light. I hope I am not guilty of cheap cynicism when I claim…none of this will matter.
there are no longer mechanisms for political accountability within the US federal government.., The Republican base will not care don’t matter what the truth may turn out to be. There are no longer any mechanisms for broad dissemination of such facts as may be determined, or any way for having them accepted as such.
There are some terrible lessons to be learned about the true limits of liberal democracy and the perils of universal suffrage. You can’t have both those things and unnaccoubtable wealth as well. Pick any two.
jl
Public disgust with the election results has been on display in NorCal. After a day of shock, everyone started talking about it.
Both in SF Bay area and Central Valley, much of which went for HRC.
On night of election I saw a crowd of half a dozen white frat boy types on a corner, and heard them yell, in unison ‘TRRRUUUUMMMP!!!’
And I thought, ‘Oh God, have the white nationalist Trump gangs started prowling already?’
then then yelled, in unison “SUCKS!!’ So they wandered down the street shouting obscenities against our new president elect.
Hope they can think of some constructive action to take in the coming years.
Peale
@Shell: God, and the Kids are back in charge of the team too. Yay! It’s a whole family of togetherness. The kids must really hate Christie for some reason.
jl
@PIGL: John Adams, that you? Where you been hiding all these years? Can you run in the next GOP primary? No, never mind, you would get slaughtered. Money boys won’t back you. And you like commie public education.
Dog Dawg Damn
@geg6: This this this.
Trolls are sowing division among liberals on purpose. This started with the Bernie campaign. Not doubt about it.
Cheryl Rofer
Hey Adam! I found this report of a wave of Russian hacking just after the election, but I haven’t seen any other mention of it. Have you?
jl
@Peale: Good chance Christie will be in court facing criminal charges in the future.
gogol's wife
@geg6:
Yeah, I think you’re absolutely right. Who ever heard of “D. Mason” before the election?
Schlemazel
I find that the black dog is sitting pretty hard on me at the moment and I am unable to read all this & make sense of it. Can I get someone to give me a TL;DR version please
Alain the site fixer
@Major Major Major Major: I am and have lots of relevant knowledge. I think I’d be a good resource.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Some people may be in deep shit. big trouble for Little Rudi, maybe? (I’m kind of obsessed with him, I think he’s worse than Trump and makes Trump worse. Gingrich, too). I guess it may depend on how much GOP Senators want to send a warning shot across the bow of the new administration, which I imagine more than one wanting to do.
Chat Noir
How is any of this stuff not considered treason?
Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap
@Cheryl Rofer: Brian Krebs has more on Russian hacking here.
Mnemosyne
To repeat myself from the thread below:
Luck favors the prepared, so we have to start getting ready NOW for 2018, especially in the firewall states. Identify potential candidates, get voter ID for people, etc.
Who here thinks that this administration and this Congress is not going to fuck up and overreach well before 2018? Anyone?
Alain the site fixer
@Chat Noir: it is. Which is why it’s important to get details correct before moving forward with accusations or charges. This would be unprecedented.
Mnemosyne
@Chat Noir:
We’re not at war with Russia. IIRC, that’s necessary for a treason charge.
Felonius Monk
We will find out within the next few years whether the Founding Fathers really were the geniuses that many people over the years have claimed they were. Our nation has weathered some pretty bad storms from within in the past. The U.S. Constitution and our entire concept of democracy is about to be proof tested like never before.
Davis X. Machina
@Mnemosyne: “Treason”, along with “neoliberal”, ‘unconstitutional’ and, regrettably, “fascist”, is just one of the words rendered meaningless by the last few years.
debbie
@Mnemosyne:
There will be overreach by Christmas 2016.
sukabi
@Shell: Christie for orange jumpsuit?
Alain the site fixer
@Davis X. Machina: true dat
jl
@Chat Noir: We are not at war with Russia. If they violated any laws forbidding foreign assistance in a domestic election, then they violated those laws, and that is not the same as treason.
Anyway, co-operating with, or conspiring with foreign governments to attempt to influence presidential elections has become a regular habit with the supposedly very patriotic America First serious daddy GOP. So I guess there is a problem with interfering with established precedent.
AMinNC
So I wouldn’t be surprised if the Republican Establishment gives a big encouragement to these allegations just to get Trump off the stage and Pence installed. Pence gives the Religious Right what they want and the Big Money Boyz what they want. Plus, the white working class men the establishment caters to rhetorically (but shafts utterly when it comes to policy) can’t be upset if Trump goes because he was colluding with the Commies. Yes, I have become just that cynical and paranoid.
Mnemosyne
@PIGL:
Hang on, let me get back up on my hobbyhorse for a minute …
We don’t have universal suffrage. Minority voters in the “firewall” states were blocked from voting using discriminatory voter ID laws.
Maybe we should have accepted Russia’s offer of election monitors after all …
Major Major Major Major
@Alain the site fixer: I am also a web developer! Yayy.
Felonius Monk
@sukabi:
Do they make them that big?
MomSense
@Major Major Major Major:
And if it turns out that Trump was colliding with the Russians what happens? The Clinton HQ was bugged. It seems incredibly unsafe to allow him to become President.
MomSense
@geg6:
I’ve been thinking the same thing.
Hoodie
Maybe Putin made the mistake of believing the polls, too. His preferred scenario may have been a Clinton presidency besieged from the start by investigations and gridlock by the GOP congress, a predictable international actor that would be divided and distracted by domestic issues. Instead, they get a collection of crooks and nutcases with unified control of all three branches of government, which will be the Cali to their Medellin and thus, inadvertently, a much bigger threat.
me
Bit OT: Holy shit, from the Daily Caller of all places.
trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Suspect Rudi has Trump’s ear and may influence policy in a meaningful way. Newt is such a clown I have to wonder whether there’s a role, which means I’m watching Rudi first.
Hoodie
@jl: Isn’t he facing possible impeachment in NJ? That wouldn’t look good. That’s exactly the kind of thing dems in strong blue states need to be doing.
Omnes Omnibus
@Dog Dawg Damn: They’re still doing it in the thread below.
evap
Adam, thanks for all of your interesting stuff on this blog. I never thought about security clearance for all of those clowns. I worked at the National Science Foundation a few years ago and had to fill out a long background check form and then I was interviewed by someone (a contractor working for the feds). It was a pain, especially the part about foreign trips I had taken in the past few years and contact I had had with foreigners while traveling. Since I am married to a filthy foreigner (spouse is Irish) and take 2-4 trips abroad each year, it took forever to fill out the form and answer questions about it. The thought of all of those folks having to go through this, and I assume in much more detail (you don’t need security clearance to work at NSF) has actually cheered me up just a little. Thanks!
JMG
The people who work in counterintelligence are ferociously patriotic. They have to be to deal with their sordid job and its moral quandaries. If they find something they feel disqualifies a nominee or other appointee, they find a way to make that person go away by fair means or foul, and they know a lot of the latter.
jl
@AMinNC: Impossible to be too cynical when it comes to the Republican Establishment.
Next Democratic administration, should there be one, should countenance not one Republican Establishment serious sound man (edit: or woman), for any show of bipartisan unity. And should state publicly why: they are three types: ruthless cynical con people, nuts , or crummy little chickenshits who go along to get along with ruthless cynical con men and nuts (e.g., Comey).
Maybe could put Arnold in charge of renewable energy policy, since the GOP hates his guts. But law enforcement, foreign policy, civil rights, economic policy, no evidence any of them are fit to perform competent duty in good faith.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus: They’ve been doing it since at least 2009.
Enhanced Voting Techinques
@Peale: My god would that both fitting and hilerious “well you did want the worst out of America Mr Putin…”
And I can see the prelude to any American demands “Mr Putin, please consider that the American citizens voluntarily placed a ranting lunatic whose hobby is groping women as their leader. Do you really want to gamble America will do the sane thing after that in the Ukraine and not just say, set of nuke because it would be awesome?”
Mnemosyne
@Hoodie:
Since I’m still on my hobbyhorse: it is my decided conviction that the voter suppression that happened on Tuesday was actually meant to happen in 2012, but Obama managed to get a high enough turnout that the plan didn’t work.
IOW, the Republican Party pre-greased the skids for whichever Republican came next, and they didn’t really care who it was. So, yes, Putin was probably as surprised as anyone that the old boobytrap was still operational.
andy
As I see it, chaos is what Putin was after- I think he would be perfectly content with using whatever he has on Trump (assuming he does) to force him to do what he wants him to do or simply let the whole Trump/Russia relationship come to light prior or just after the Inauguration, and sit back and watch the US tear itself to pieces. In the chaos he’d have a pretty free hand to do whatever he wants in Eastern Europe. There is no reason in the world he would be unhappy if Wikileaks released what they have on Trump and his people right now, like they did with Clinton during the campaign. It’s all on the upside from his POV. We would eventually sort ourselves out, but whatever gains Putin makes would pretty much be set in stone by then, and we would be too exhausted to do anything anyway. Win-win.
D58826
And for the ‘Hillary was a terrible candidate’ crowd:
From the NYT. Cold comfort I know. Her margins were in all of the wrong places, which unfortunately will continue to bedevil the democrats for years to come. They also out polled the GOP in the senate races. I haven’t seen anything about the House.
All of which reinforces my contention that she lost because a bunch of random independent event all broke in Trumps favor. Now it’s important to find out what they were and go about trying to fix them. The civil war that seems to be shaping up at in the party will not achieve that. And by the time that civil war ends, there might not be enough of a party left to make any difference.
Being a pessimist we could be in for one party rule until at least 2030, baring another great depression like event:
1. The democrats will probably lose between 10 -15 seats in the Senate in 2018.
2. While the map is better in 2020 it is unlikely that they can dig out of that hole in one cycle.
3. It is equally unlikely that they can make enough headway at the state and local levels to be able to reverse the gerrymandering and voter suppression.
4. the koch machine continue to buy up state and local officials.
5. By 2020 SCOTUS will probably be 7-2 to return to the Lockner era of judicial interpretation.
6. Any state level progressive legislation will be quickly challenged and overturned by the federal courts as happened in the early part of the 20th century. The GOP only believes in that states rights when the democrats control Washington.
7. The GOP at all levels will continue to impose restrictions to suppress the vote for democratic leaning demographics. SCOTUS will rubber stamp approval.
As to the argument that voter-id didnot tip the scales, well maybe it did and maybe it didn’t. I think more detailed studies of the vote will have to answer that question. But gerrymandering is just as much a tool of voter suppression as voter id laws. It effectsd the state legislatures and the US House. Even if thew democrats had flipped the Senate and Hillary had won, nothing was going to get passed by the House. So the best you can hope for is a gridlock that prevents the unraveling of the social safety net, which took over 100 years to build. As Tue. showed it only takes one election to return to the 1890’s
Waldo
I figured Christie’s support for Trump was really about getting the attorney general post and then declining to prosecute himself for his role in Bridge-gate. It would be great if he got kicked to the curb.
Major Major Major Major
@Omnes Omnibus: My troll filter is getting a hell of a workout right now.
opiejeanne
@jl: The two faithless Electors in WA are pledged to Hillary and have threatened not to vote for her. Bernie bros. You need pledged Republicans to switch their votes.
Mnemosyne
@andy:
The only thing I’ll say to that is that the US was very, very worried about the breakup of the Soviet Union because chaos in an entity that big can quickly become unmanageable. The same would apply to the US. Putin wants just enough chaos to distract us, but not so much that it starts destabilizing the entire world economy. If he can’t export his oil because the US caused another Great Depression, he’s fucked.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: The Voter ID law was not in effect in WI in 2012 because it was being litigated.
Cacti
Just read in the NYT that Clinton beat Trump by over 2 million votes nationally and 1.5% in the popular vote margin.
Damned if that doesn’t make all of this extra difficult to swallow. We have single party control of all 3 branches of government despite the will of the people.
Mike in NC
@sukabi: Yup, a size 2XL. There is also talk of impeachment in the NJ legislature.
Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap
@Cacti: I believe over the last eight years that we’ve been told that there is an Amendment that specifically deals with just this situation.
Mnemosyne
@D58826:
Regarding my voter suppression hobbyhorse, I’m starting to think it’s something that the Republicans themselves half forgot they had set up, which is why they were just as convinced that Trump was going to lose until Florida flipped.
Which is why I’ve been referring to it as a boobytrap. It’s like a land mine from a previous war that someone runs over with their car.
Van Buren
@gratuitous: I find this fascinating. It’s a Battle Royale between the forces of IOKIYAR and The Deep State. One side can excuse anything and the other side overlooks nothing. I’m going to pour a beverage-I hate popcorn- sit back and watch.
mai naem mobile
Jared Kushners daddy did hard time in some Southern State. Christie was the prosecutor. I am sure Kushner will be happy to see Christie in an orange jumpsuit. Apparently Kushner used to fly down to see his daddy every week or two.
jk
Adam,
Thanks for staying on the case with this detailed, informative post. Keep up the great work!
Miss Bianca
@me: Oh, yeah, so *now* all this shit is coing out?
Omnes Omnibus
@Major Major Major Major: I don’t use it, but I have decided that there are a couple of commenters whose comments will no longer get responses from me.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
That may help explain why Karl Rove was publicly surprised on live TV in 2012 when he was all ready to declare victory. Not all of the parts were as settled as he’d thought they would be.
geg6
@Mnemosyne:
Yes, this. Putin may be evil but he’s not stupid.
Major Major Major Major
@Alain the site fixer: Email me! You have it.
Mary G
@mai naem mobile: I said in the prior thread that Christie’s demotion was Jared Kushner’s revenge. He was named most prominent Trump whisperer in the articles I read before the election.
Completely OT: My absentee ballot was finally marked as received by Orange County. I sent it in six days before the election and they kept saying that it hadn’t been received yet. Now it’s marked as received 11/8/2016. I was irrationally upset at the thought of not being included, as California voters pretty much aligned with me, except for the death penalty.
JMG
@D58826: Predictions of a 2018 wipeout are premature to say the least. It’s equally possible the half of the country that hates Trump will turn out as they didn’t in the Obama midterms, and/or that those “working class” whites who voted for him will feel betrayed by broken promises. Since he’s promised everything to everyone, he’s gonna have to break a few.
Baud
@Miss Bianca: How interesting can EMAILS remain now that Hillary is gone?
D58826
@Mnemosyne: It’s not a hobbyhorse. I think voter suppression had an effect this year and it is a legitimate issue going forward. You don’t need out and out Jim Crow to achieve the same result. . The question is how much and did it out weight some of the other effects.
jl
@D58826: It will take time to see the all the data to see what went wrong with the election, and HRC campaign. but your evidence is weak. President is not elected by popular vote, but by electors from state by state elections. Democrats got creamed in Midwest, where many states went for Obama in the past. Why? The campaigns should understand the importance of regional state elections, and make sure that those state by state elections are in good shape. That did not happen.
I think should be clear now that this was a year where many voters were angry and dissatisfied with the status quo, HRC started out running a campaign to continue the Obama legacy. For example, her initial tax and health policy proposals were most status quo of all candidates. Now, her perception of the Obama legacy might not have been that it would merely be maintaining status quo, but perhaps many voters perceived it that way. Sanders pushed her to the left, but she was never able to articulate a message that was compelling to many voters in the Midwest region that went with Dems, and Obama, in the past. Bad campaigning? Wrong person for the mood of the time? I don’t claim to know.
Cheryl Rofer
@Tilda Swinton’s Bald Cap: Thanks!
jk
@Cacti:
That’s truly disgusting. I made the mistake of catching a few minutes of MTP Daily and saw those scumbags Chris Cillizza and Chuck Todd mocking voters who are upset about Hillary being declared the loser despite the fact that she actually won more votes. I wish these assholes could be blasted out into deep space.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@JMG: Mitch McConell looked quite nervous yesterday when he was warning Trump about ‘overplaying his mandate’. His whole game has been to monkey wrench the process and count on bothsidesism and the cult of the presidency to shield him and his party. Now he knows it’s all on them. Not that it will be easy, but I think everybody’s expectations are gonna be scrambled.
also relevant to 2018, Obama’s approval rating went up another to points in Gallup to 58%, and Trump hasn’t even offended an entire government, or continent, yet.
Events, dear friends, events!
Karen Andrews
Ok so my so is a genius- lets convince older liberal Californians and New Yorkers to move to Montana and Wyoming in significant numbers like 100k plus to swamp the electoral college map- we could include Idaho etc too… imagine most of the west in blue… and it won’t be hard…
opiejeanne
@Felonius Monk: Christie can pay to have the orange jumpsuits tailored to his physique.
D58826
@JMG: Folks were predicting a bad year in 2018 before Tuesday. The assumption was the democrats would flip the Senate in 2016 and it would flip back to republican in 2018. The D’s have to defend 24 seats, 10 of which are in states that went for Trump, mostly by double digits. Now it’s possible your
will come to pass but its a long shot and that is assuming the democrats get their act together and can field a slate of competitive candidates. If the Bernie/progressive wing wins the civil war and puts up progressive purists then it aint going to happen. Since the Bernie wing hates the bluedogs almost as much as they hate the GOP I can’t see them putting up a blue dog candidate in ND who might have a fighting chance. It will be a Liz clone who will get her family to vote for her and not much else
sukabi
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: there is no mandate. Lost any reasonable argument for a mandate by at least 1.5 million votes.
Omnes Omnibus
Okay folks, I know that I am as guilty of it as everyone else, but must we turn every thread into the same subject? Adam’s post raises real concerns.
John S.
@jl:
Some folks seem damn certain to learn absolutely nothing.
Baud
@D58826: Well, they are all incumbents so they’ve won there before.
Poopyman
@geg6: Stay paranoid, my friend.
(/Most interesting man itw)
And glad you’re still here, although this place has been a pit of despair the past couple of days. Glad we’re moving on to “anger”, although when we finally get to “acceptance”, that may not look like what it usually does at the final stage of mourning.
jl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Mitch McConell is quite aware that Trump did well in the primaries because he told the GOP Establishment that it could go to hell with its plan to impoverish elderly with cuts to Social Security and Medicaid.
Trump doesn’t know shit about policy or substance, but he knows what is popular.
So, big question is whether Trump will listen to the last person in the room on pushing unpopular policies when Trump’s demagogue spidey sense tells him it will get him booed and declines in approval ratings. We don’t know that. Looks like McConnell doesn’t know that either.
McConnell is true slime. Totally cynical power hungry operator who shifted his whole political stance back in the Reagan days when he say going dog whistle racist and reactionary was the easiest way to stay in power. And he is smart and self-aware, focused and disciplined. In other words, a goof ball like Trump has some excuses, McConnell has none. The guy is 10000 percent total slimeball.
Cacti
@Omnes Omnibus:
Unclean hands, counselor.
D58826
@jl: Yes I know POTUS is elected by the EC at the state level. But enough 1 pop. vote victories in enough red states will offset huge pop vote wins in Calif. and NY.
Mike in NC
@JMG: Channel surfing the other night, I caught a bit of Andrew Sullivan (remember him?) telling Tweety that shit-gibbon was going to be forced to start to build The Wall and round up several million Latinos for deportation simply in order to placate the GOP base. Not so sure about that, since he’s a pathological liar who’d quickly shift the blame onto one of his minions and just change the subject as always.
Another Scott
@D58826: We also should keep in mind that it’s generally really, really hard to defeat an incumbent. 6 GOP House members lost to Democrats in November, 1 Democrat lost to a GOP, and 1 Democrat lost to a Democrat (in California). Out of 435. Democrats picked up 2 in the Senate.
It will be tough in 2018 based on what we know now, but it won’t be a GOP rout.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@Cacti: Estopped!
D58826
@Baud: True but so were all the blue dogs that got wiped out in 2010 and 2014. and for that matter all of the GOP incumbents that lost in 2006 to give the house and senate to the democrats
Shalimar
@Mnemosyne: More likely, Republicans knew her 4 point projected margin from polling was too high to be overcome by vote suppression. Look at 2012. Obama was ahead by a point in polling and Republicans were confident they had won. He ended up winning by 3.9 and they were screwed.
sukabi
Adam, what’s the process for clearing the folks a president elect wants on his team… wouldn’t chief of staff and other close, but lower level positions also have to be cleared at a level higher than top secret as they’d coMe into contact with classified information of various degrees? Also cabinet level positions, president elect has to submit a list of potential candidates for each position? How does this work?
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Sorry, but my hobbyhorse was right there just waiting to be ridden.
I’ll stop now.
notoriousJRT
@Elizabeth:
“If the President does it, it’s not illegal.” Can’t you just see it coming?
Baud
@D58826: Right, but the traditional rule is that the president’s party loses. Who knows if that still holds, but it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that Trump turns out to be a bad president.
D58826
@Another Scott: One of which was in blue Ill. and the other in NH was a bit of a surprise.
Another Scott
@Omnes Omnibus: Are you new around here? ;-) I thought part of the “charm” of unthreaded comments was that when things go off-topic (as they always do) then there was humor in trying to follow the stream of consciousness.
Adam’s post is a great service, and we certainly need to keep an eye on these things. But it’s outside my area so all I can do is say, “Interesting and troubling. Thanks!”
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: I am just suggesting that we only hijack every second post or so.
D58826
@Baud: didn’t W pick up seats in 2002? Maybe a post-911 effect. But your right given how Trump has scrambled all the rules, except water still does run downhill (it does doesn’t it?), anything might happen. But then I’m a realistic pessimist – look on the dark side and when something good happens you can feel good. which is better than being an optimist so when things go bad you feel depressed.
jl
@D58826: Either I don’t understand your point, or it fails to address my response. Those Midwestern states were a problem, known to be a problem, and necessary for victory. Democrats didn’t know how to ID or address the problem. I’m not sure I know for sure either, so that is why I am not going to sit here and kibbitz on this or that aspect of HRC campaign or Democratic response at this time.
My hunch is that both Sanders’ and Trump’s unexpected success in the primaries is evidence of massive unrest with status quo, and campaigns had to adjust to that. HRC was not able to adjust to that. Neither were any of the sad sack GOP ‘deep bench’, though some were grifters trying to make money off a niche slice of the electorate and they didn’t care as long as they could work their gimmick.
Omnes Omnibus
@Another Scott:
It is. Now go get your shine box.
Mnemosyne
So here’s my paranoia of the day: can FBI Director Comey cancel the background checks on his own authority?
Adam L Silverman
@Peale: He put Jared Kushner’s dad in Federal prison for a very long time. Given that this immediately put Jared in charge of all the family’s money, you’d think he’d be more grateful.
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/207559/jared-kushner-shanda
Gvg
@Karen Andrews: climate change may force a lot of moving. As I understand it we have been sorting ourselves the last few decades equaling polarization and reinforcement bubbles. Massive movements could mix all that up. The west has water problems getting worse. If it does get worse, where would they transfer too?
Mnemosyne
@D58826:
Hope for the best, expect the worst. Let’s start recruiting candidates on Monday so we’re ready for 2018. Better than trying to scramble to do it after the inevitable disastrous overreach.
Adam L Silverman
@Cheryl Rofer: First I’ve seen, but I’ve been a bit busy and not looking. I’ll poke around over the weekend and get back to you.
Another Scott
@Omnes Omnibus: I can’t, until Captain Mnemo is done with the hobby horse.
hehe.
Cheers,
Scott.
Adam L Silverman
@Alain the site fixer: I just finished fighting the weekly war against dog hair and steam vacing too! I’ll email you both tomorrow and we can start figuring out how to proceed.
sukabi
Drumpfkins to run daddies businesses and be part of his transition team.
Adam L Silverman
@Mnemosyne: They didn’t make it past Thursday on the overreaching.
Omnes Omnibus
@Another Scott: Seriously though, the same conversation is taking place on every thread to the exclusion of other subjects. Your precious threaded comments would not help.
Tim F.
Adam, your observations make it clear that Putin never intended for Trump to win; he wanted to wound Hillary and leave her with an energized internal opposition and hopefully a Republican Congress. It is possible that Russia never imagined America would vote for someone that crazy.
The thing that will amuse me to the grave is fracking. Russia hates fracking. The American gas boom has absolutely destroyed Russia’s economy and its ability to intimidate Europe. I would venture to say that no American domestic policy impacts Russia more directly. Hillary also hates fracking. Well, ‘hate’ is a strong word. She certainly does not want to expand it. Republicans, though. Whoo. They love fracking. They want to frack mom’s vegetable garden. They would crack Mount Rushmore in half if an oil millionaire could make some cash from it. Assuming that his Secretary of the Interior follows through, the global gas glut will get even more severe and Russian gas will be practically worthless.
Ha ha. Fuck you, Putin.
D58826
@jl: My points were
1. if Hillary was such a bad candidate why will she win the popular vote.
2. She ran up large margins in places like Calif. but lost by narrow margins in places like Pa.
3. Her loss is due to a number of factors so should not zero in one just one
4. I have no idea why they didn’t focus on these states. But the team that ran her campaign were largely the same folks who took an unknown senator from Ill with a funny name and made him in POTUS in 2008. And in 2012, according to the Romney camp turned out voters where the Romney team didn’t even know existed. I find it very hard to believe that these same people suddenly become dumb as a bag of rocks and ignored flashing red lights in the blue wall.
Tim F.
@Mnemosyne: No. Agents and admins would go apeshit. Plus that is not how he rolls. Comey leans Republican and he makes dumb decisions, but he is not Alberto Gonzales.
D58826
@Mnemosyne: True but first things first. The two wings of the party have to come up with a DNC they can all live with and find a narrative (hate that word but can’t think of any other) that will sell in both blue and red states and recruit candidates that can run on it
Dog Dawg Damn
Are we going to keep squabbling or start organizing?
If all we are going to see is clashes in the streets, then you can count me out.
I want a plan of resistance modeled after the tea party.
1) No Compromise EVER
2) Full Obstruction
3) Town Hall ANGER
4) Primary from Left
5) Make our Representatives FEAR US more than they Fear Republicans
**This is the only thing that will possibly work.*** Does anyone have the will to make this happen? And if so, where do I sign up and help out.
Kathleen
@gratuitous: The media and public didn’t give a flying fig about Watergate either in 1972. when Nixon was re-elected in a landslide and it seemed the whole world rallied around him. This reminds me to go back and re-read some of the alternative accounts of the Watergate story. After all these years I’ve not heard a definitive explanation of what Rethuglicans were trying to steal from the DNC. Also, too, isn’t it interesting how it’s always the DNC that’s being burgled, wiretapped and hacked. Are we witnessing some kind of continuum here? But I digress.I guess my point here is things are not what they seem and I would love to develop Obama’s laser like patience for “armor chinking”.
Miss Bianca
@Adam L Silverman: you actually fight the war against dog hair? I’ve pretty much given up on it until there’s at least another two dogs’ worth on the floor.
Gin & Tonic
I am expecting that the spiritual heirs of James Jesus Angleton are working overtime this next month or so. I am also expecting that there will be some folks that Trump wants who will take a long look at SF86 and decide that they’d really spend more time with their family than in DC.
In contrast with the no-drama Obama administration, I hope for (and think we will get) a veritable flood of leaking and backstabbing, with some people facing indictment before this time next year. While I am angry and depressed, I do plan to indulge in some popcorn fairly soon. Trump has no friends; he has only retainers.
D58826
@Kathleen:
I don’t think they were trying to steal anything. That would have been to obvious. Photograph documents maybe. Bug the place definitely.
Miss Bianca
@Tim F.: So, in other words, exactly like Brexit. As Adam pointed out in that instance when the dog caught the car – they have no plan for success. Or was it “hope is not a strategy”?
Adam L Silverman
@evap: The idiots in Congress converted all the investigators to contract positions. So they’re in this bizarre limbo where they are simultaneously badged Federal investigators who are contractors. When they did this they also underfunded the program, so they are short staffed and don’t have the resources they need. And then everyone bitches and moans and screams “terrible contractors” when someone with a clearance does something wrong. The real corruption in DC is just how badly Congress is at its primary job: funding and overseeing the government!
mdblanche
@D58826: Is the Democratic Party really having a civil war or are people yelling at each other on the internet?
Adam L Silverman
@Mike in NC: I wear a 2XL. For him, keep going!
Adam L Silverman
@Van Buren: My money is on the deep state.
Gin & Tonic
@Tim F.:
If he has lost the ability to influence events in Europe, explain the invasion of Ukraine, the ultra-right gov’t in Hungary, the authoritarian PiS in Poland, the collapse this week of the Estonian gov’t, Brexit and Farage, the rise (again) of LePen? NATO is a fig leaf at this point. Do you sincerely believe that the NATO chiefs will *militarily* invoke Article 5 when Russian tanks roll into Estonia to “protect” the ethnic-Russians there?
Gas is cheap, and it’s bad for the Russian economy, but they’ve chosen guns over butter and starved their people before. They can do it again.
Adam L Silverman
@sukabi: I don’t know. I’ve never done that work and I don’t have the certification/training for Special Security Officer.
Mnemosyne
@Tim F.:
He just gamed an entire election by sending a letter to Congress and then sending a “never mind” after early voting ended.
I am not sanguine that he will refuse to meddle like that again.
Adam L Silverman
@Tim F.: Its a be careful what you wish for.
Mnemosyne
@Another Scott:
;-p
sukabi
@Adam L Silverman: or maybe it’s a feature of how well versed they are in how to avoid prosecution.
mdblanche
@D58826:
Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer are supporting the same candidate to lead the DNC. I doubt the differences are unbridgeable.
D58826
@mdblanche: Looks like a rehash of the primary – the establishment wing vs the Bernie wing. At the moment the battle ground is who will be the next DNC chair. Keith Ellison is the candidate for the Bernie side. Not sure id anyone has stepped up for the establishment side. There have been a couple of articles in the political press it’s not just a bunch of bloggers yelling at each other
Adria McDowell (formerly LurkerExtraordinaire)
@Adam L Silverman: of course they can’t fund and run the government, Adam! They want to prove that government doesn’t work so they can drown it in a bathtub, ‘member?
jl
@D58826: I think we have to agree to disagree on your points 1, 2 and 3.
I think HRC could not address mood of anger and dissatisfaction, that was concentrated in certain regions of the country that has gotten repeatedly hammered since the Asian financial crisis in late 1990s, and has never recovered. If you look at graphs of regional employment, household income and other indicators, the indicators look like suddenly dropping down a series of steps on a steep staircase and showing little signs of recovering. Just because commie Northern California is doing great, doesn’t mean that I can’t have some understanding of how angry people there might be, angry enough to ride along with an angry bigot who yells meaningless slogans about cleaning out the swamp (while showing no plan at all on how to do it).
I think no one but Sanders and Trump knew how to take advantage of that mood. But I admit that is just my take on it.
And, simply trying to understand why a campaign failed to win, is not the same thing as saying it is was a bad campaign. I am very glad the majority of the voters rejected Trump, that is a ray of hope we have to keep in mind at all times. The majority of the country is on the right side, and it will grow over time, and will make a difference if allowed to vote.
MomSense
@Mnemosyne:
I think PA and WI were being litigated. Can’t remember about the rest of the states.
D58826
@mdblanche: Hope so. But we are in the words of Will Rodgers – I don’t belong to a political party I’m a democrat’. So there are boundless opportunities to screw it up. Will just have to wait and see how it shakes out.
Personally I would rather see a non-office holder get the job. Ellison would have to run the DNC and still hold down his day job in Congress. A non-office holder could devote 24/7 to the job. It could be a former office holder but just want their undivided attention on rebuilding the party
Another Scott
@Kathleen: The book “Citizen Hughes” argues that the Watergate break-in was intended to steal evidence that Hughes was bribing Nixon’s people (Bebe Rebozo):
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Mnemosyne
@Gin & Tonic:
I have to admit, I was not paying any attention to Russia in 2007-2008. Did they get hurt by the global recession?
D58826
@Another Scott: Hmmm. never heard that one before
sukabi
@Adam L Silverman: just wondering if you had a handle on it…a lifetime ago in the army I needed a top secret security clearance for my mos… got stories from my hometown that fbi was poking around seeing if I was of good character… that was for enlisted army…I’d imagine clearances for presidents details, appointments, ect would be very involved, thorough. Everything from who you’re sleeping with to financial ties and anything inbetween.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@mdblanche: that was a stunner from Schumer, makes me speculate what kind of NY politics he’s got an eye on, or if he really just hates Howard Dean and wants to shut that shit down
Repatriated
@Miss Bianca:
Maybe the sources for it were hoping it wouldn’t be necessary to “go there”…
Dperl99
Here we call that “democracy.”
Omnes Omnibus
@sukabi: Yeah, neighbors told my parents that federal agents were asking questions about me during my TS/BI process. I’ve also seen the disclosure form that candidates for the federal judiciary have to fill out – they cover everything and not just you: spouse, kids, parents, siblings, friends.
Gin & Tonic
@Mnemosyne: Read. And read.
frosty
@Mnemosyne:
Sure looked like it based on Rove’s meltdown with Megyn Kelly. He acted like the fix was in and didn’t work..
Chris
@Waldo:
Why does that surprise you? America has been supporting coups, revolutions, and invasions all over the world for all our lives, frequently gives no thought at all to what comes next, and as often as not is experiencing severe buyer’s remorse a few years later when Argentina invades the Falklands, Iraq invades Kuwait, or jihadis fly airplanes into downtown New York.
Did you expect Russian foreign policy to be any different?
Roger Moore
@AMinNC:
They’ll need help from the Democrats to do it, since conviction in the Senate requires a 2/3 majority. If it ever gets close, the Democrats had better have a list of demands for their cooperation.
Skepticat
Do we really think that “penalty of perjury” carries any weight at all with these people? It’s obvious that they consider anything they say truth no matter how tenuous its connection with fact, and they have no shame.
Kathleen
@<a href="#[email protected]debbie: Nixon’s war on drugs was his dog whistle way of persecuting African Americans. The difference is Nixon was at least somewhat competent at governance and understood how to navigate his exploitation of fear and hatred. But the intent was there. That being said, I haven’t been this terrified since 1968.
Taylor
@Kathleen:
Stanley Kushner in The Wars of Watergate posited the theory that Liddy was still working for the CIA when he was “caught.”
Kathleen
@Adam L Silverman: Do you think Comey’s thumb on the scales move was part of a more explosive inter/intra agency struggle for power?
Kathleen
@MomSense: Me too.
Kathleen
@jl: If they were so anxious for change why did they re-elect senators and reps? The only bright spot for Dems in Ohio was my county at the local level. Which went for Hillary (vote count was higher than Obama’s). Rethugs took everything else in Ohio.
Kathleen
@@Another Scott: Thank you! I had forgotten about the Hughes connection. I’ve also heard some alternate theories but not sure if there is evidence to support.
Kathleen
@Taylor: Yes. That’s what prompted my question to Adam in comment 179.
Karen Andrews
@Gvg: may? It’s baked in as in by 2040 Florida will be an underwater diving park
Adam L Silverman
@sukabi: I have a basic understanding of the process, how it works, the 13 categories that one is considered under during adjudication, things like that. And I’ve been through the initial process and the renewal process. But I’m not SSO certified. Sorry.
Adam L Silverman
@Dperl99: The Russians have had consistent, year in year out, decade in decade out problem with understanding that.
Adam L Silverman
@Kathleen: No. I think Comey set his own traps for himself by how he handled this going back to the press conference in July. That, combined with him buying into his own rep as the last honest/honorable prosecutor, created the pitfalls that produced this. Unfortunately it also impacted the election.
Gretchen
Nate Silver thinks Comey cost Clinton about 2%. She lost by 1%.
Bill_D
@Gretchen: No, she won by at least 1%. A 2% swing in her favor beyond that, if it were uniform in all states (unlikely), would have given her Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
LongHairedWeirdo
Quick note: *EVERY* time there’s any foreign policy issue that’s important, demand that President Trump acknowledge reality, resign, and let someone *competent* handle the crisis.
Forget the fact that he’s kissing Putin (ref: the Saturday Night Live skit) – just say “come on, enough’s enough, we need a steady hand at the wheel now.”
dianne
I always comfort myself that we may not turn out in the mid-terms, but we’ll get our base out as usual for the presidential, no problem. When the base sits home against a candidate as horrible as Trump, even as disaffected as they may be, I don’t see much hope in 2018.
As far as the FISA warrent goes, the Rep. FBI needs to make the Russian connection go away. A pretend investigation will find no wrong doing. Presto! Trump and his cohorts are cleared before he takes office and he and his co-president Mr Putin will have clear sailing.
Barry
@Adam L Silverman: “Comey won’t. He’s not going to pick a fight with the Director of National Intelligence and/or the Director of Central Intelligence.”
He just publicly flipped an election – he’s got massive political protection, and the media won’t touch a GOP administration.
Barry
@Tim F.: “No. Agents and admins would go apeshit. Plus that is not how he rolls. Comey leans Republican and he makes dumb decisions, but he is not Alberto Gonzales.”
Please note what Comey just did, got away with and profited handsomely from. Comey will make the Bush administration look clean.
Ed
Red herring = Russia being our enemy.
J R in WV
@Adam L Silverman:
I wear a 2XL also, so Christy will definitely need a much bigger orange jumpsuit than that.
@Barry: Also, who exactly will tell Comey what to do? He runs the FBI and can probably prove most people have violated some federal crime that no one has ever heard of before. So I’m agreeing with Barry, this time.
@Ed: Where did you get the idea that Russia is NOT our enemy? Because they sure act like one. Every chance they get.