The “president” is back at “work” today after an extended golf outing / unconstitutional personal business enrichment exercise at his Disgraceland estate in Florida. Trump has resumed his arduous schedule of live-tweeting Fox & Friends and is busily disgorging a backlog of delusions, self-congratulations and undemocratic demands on Twitter. A sample:
Crooked Hillary Clinton’s top aid, Huma Abedin, has been accused of disregarding basic security protocols. She put Classified Passwords into the hands of foreign agents. Remember sailors pictures on submarine? Jail! Deep State Justice Dept must finally act? Also on Comey & others
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018
This “Classified Passwords into the hands of foreign agents” description makes it sound like Abedin personally handed over passwords to spies, but you’ll be unsurprised to learn it’s bullshit. Abedin used a Yahoo email account at home and sometimes forwarded work emails to herself at home, as we’ve known for years thanks to the most exhaustive inquiry into email usage ever conducted. Years after Abedin forwarded emails that were retroactively classified, Yahoo experienced an enormous data breach that compromised hundreds of millions of Yahoo email accounts.
There’s no evidence that “foreign agents” accessed Abedin’s emails or found anything sensitive there. Trump is calling for the DoJ to prosecute and jail a private citizen because of a Daily Caller hit piece mentioned by one of the sofa squatters on Fox & Friends. That’s it.
Benjamin Wittes published an interesting piece at Lawfare yesterday detailing the “deep state’s” surprising resilience in the face of Trump’s autocratic demands to turn the DoJ and federal law enforcement agencies into his personal protection instruments. May it continue to hold!
In other news, Trump took credit for the lack of commercial aviation disasters in 2017:
Since taking office I have been very strict on Commercial Aviation. Good news – it was just reported that there were Zero deaths in 2017, the best and safest year on record!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018
The Post’s Philip Bump debunked this nonsense barely an hour after Trump made the claim:
“I have been very strict on Commercial Aviation,” Trump says of his first year in office, a claim that is not only hard to back up but fairly easy to debunk. A check of Factba.se, a database of Trump’s comments, shows only a handful of mentions of air travel as president. One of the primary moments during which he did so was when he unveiled a short-lived effort to reform the air-traffic control system last June.
“If we adopt these changes, Americans can look forward to cheaper, faster, and safer travel,” Trump said, “a future where 20 percent of a ticket price doesn’t go to the government, and where you don’t have to sit on a tarmac or circle for hours and hours over an airport — which is very dangerous also — before you land.”
That’s Trump saying that the existing system is dangerous. That system didn’t change, but 2017 was indeed the safest year in history for commercial air travel. So how does Trump get credit for this again?
Especially given two complicating aspects to that statistic. The first is that this was a global statistic. One reason 2017 saw fewer fatalities among commercial flights is that 2016 saw a fatal accident in Colombia in November — the last time there had been a fatal passenger jet airliner accident. Did Trump spend his first year quietly bolstering the safety of airlines in Colombia, Lithuania, Tanzania and Indonesia?
The other complication is that the number of deaths on American commercial airlines didn’t change in 2017 relative to 2016 — because it’s hard to go lower than “zero.” The last time someone died in the crash of an American commercial flight was in February 2009 — less than a month after Barack Obama first took office. Yet apparently we are supposed to believe that Trump’s eventual election reached its grip back eight years in time to ensure that flights would be safer moving forward.
And then there’s this:
Democrats are doing nothing for DACA – just interested in politics. DACA activists and Hispanics will go hard against Dems, will start “falling in love” with Republicans and their President! We are about RESULTS.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018
Yeah, that’s totally gonna happen.
Fellow citizens, I think we can safely conclude that “lie less often,” and “develop a rudimentary understanding of constitutional boundaries” and “be more humble and realistic” did not make the cut on Trump’s list of New Year’s resolutions.
SFAW
If only there were some way to remove a demented liar from office.
SFAW
That’s because he didn’t tell his “aid” to include them. Of course, it’s difficult to tell someone to include something about which one has no fucking clue.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
During what I heard only a few weeks ago described as trump’s very successful first foreign trip, Israeli intel officials screamed at their US counterparts about the agent trump burned to the Russians, while Bibi posed for pictures with the Beast, guessing or already knowing that this was the path to killing off this “two state solution” nonsense
Mnemosyne
Ugh. Woke up with either a stomach bug or a really stubborn migraine. I guess it’s good that I didn’t have anything in my stomach to come up? I still had to cancel physical therapy, though. ?
Jerzy Russian
Christ, what an asshole!
randy khan
On the airplane safety point, it’s also worth noting that the current FAA Administrator was appointed by Obama and started his 5 year term in 2013. So there isn’t even a Trump appointee in the job.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
chopper
@Jerzy Russian:
that line never gets old.
Humdog
I am ashamed to say I still find all this so difficult in my mind. Growing up with a narcissistic parent I learned that powerful people will challenge your perception of reality if it doesn’t fit with the narcissist’s plans. It gave me a shaky hold on self perceived reality. The extent of normalization and the fact that soooooo many Americans apparently do not give a shit if our emperor wears clothes at all is very hard to wrap my mind around. It feels like a problem a mental health pro may be helpful with, but no one is available and I really do not know what help I am asking for. Each day goes by where I lack confidence in my own perception of reality makes me shakier than the last. Aargh!
Gin & Tonic
The head of the FAA throughout 2017 was an Obama holdover.
chopper
this guy really is the very definition of the rooster taking credit for the dawn. plus, he’s a total cock, so yeah.
Gin & Tonic
“Read the thread before posting a comment” didn’t make it on my list of 2018 resolutions.
The Simp in the Suit
Every single Trump voter I know is totally unrepentant. Total fucking assholes with no clue just how much they have fucked up.
schrodingers_cat
Don’t you get it, its Abedin that’s the foreign agent. Because you see, she is not a Christian and her parents are not from Europe, so she is suspect. That’s what this regime would have everyone believe.
Gin & Tonic
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Is that our very own Tim F? Makes me long for a picture of Max.
Gremcat
While I was scanning headlines this morning and came across the airline safety record,I thought to myself “How can that imbecile in the oval office take credit for this?”. But then thought, “No, even he couldn’t be that narcissistic”. Wrong again!
Suzanne
I feel rather churlish knowing that the rest of the country is freezing its tits off, while it is 54 degrees here and I had to put on a hoodie. My in-laws are visiting and they have been enjoying lounging on our patio.
cmorenc
True, Trump’s voluminous stream of lies can be debunked, often easily.
Unfortunately, two classic proverbs succinctly explain why he so often still gets away with them, without enough of the electorate being informed of the debunking(s):
– a fool can ask more questions than seven wise men can answer;
– a lie can travel halfway around the world before truth gets its shoes on.
There’s also the willful ignorance and misinformation of the portion of the electorate sealed inside the Faux News / RW bubble. But even for the majority outside or it, there’s only so much time and so much attention to give to debunking Trump’s malevolently delusional bullshit.
Jerzy Russian
@chopper: Lord knows I don’t have the skill to invent new insults the way Betty Cracker can, so I just stick to the classics.
Cacti
If only we’d had an opposing candidate to warn “there is no other Donald Trump” and that he wasn’t going to transform from ignorant manchild to thoughtful statesman after taking office.
Ian G.
I noticed that the “Hispanics will embrace the GOP” tweet got less than half the “likes” of the “lock her up!” tweet. Maybe it was published much later, or maybe Trump stepped in it given that his Nazi followers don’t want mud people joining their club.
justawriter
It was 35 below Sunday and is supposed to be 22 above today, so we’re having a heat wave, a tropical heat waves.
I really can, can-can.
cmorenc
@The Simp in the Suit:
All they care about is that Trump represents a huge “fuck you” to every type of person they resent. That is his core attraction to them in a nutshell, whether it’s racist resentment, resentment of presumed freeloaders, resentment of some regulations they find inconvenient, and so on.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
Actually, he’s just calling on them to jail citizens he doesn’t like. I see no mention of trials, etc.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Ian G.: trump thought the border wall was stupid, his staff convinced him to toss it out to the Mouth Breathers. They hooted and hollered and stomped their trotters in the way that feeds his damaged psyche, so now it’s a poison pill in any DACA debate
trollhattan
@Suzanne:
65 here yesterday, same predicted today. My Christmas break uniform has been shorts and flip-flops. OTOH we had the 4th driest December on record and are headed towards relaunching the drought after a one-year hiatus. Ugh.
Amir Khalid
@Jerzy Russian:
You can say that again.
sherparick1
Well, so much for “Happy New Year.”
cmorenc
Why are banner ads for Trumpster asshole Gavin McGuinness “Get off my Lawn” shtick so often displayed at Balloon Juice?
WaterGirl
@Mnemosyne: That’s no fun!
As for the blankie from Amazon, it was nice enough, and it kept me warm in my niece’s cold house. The color was beautiful, but I am not raving about it the blanket overall. I would give it a 4 out of 5.
MattF
So, I guess there’s a line between ‘delusional’ and ‘dishonest’. And there are other lines separating ‘delusional’ or ‘dishonest’ from ‘demented’. But… does drawing those lines actually help? I think not.
WaterGirl
I don’t know which of you guys shared your bug with me, but I am definitely not going to say thank you.
bemused
Oh goodie. Michele Bachmann is considering running for Franken’s seat. She’s just waiting for a call back from god.
LAO
@Gin & Tonic: FYI
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@randy khan: I think the FAA thing is an excellent thing to ask conservatives about “so explain to my libretard brain what Trump exactly did? What specific policy changes or appointees he did”, and of course they will change the subject to e-mails so the reply is “so you mean to say, he’s done nothing, besides harp on Hilary Clinton, right?”
p.a.
Who in the fed gvt should we email to advocate for a McDonald’s in the White House? Can’t get this guy into a CCU fast enough. Then we’ll deal w Dense: he doesn’t have the cachet with as many knuckle draggers.
MattF
@LAO: Cause and effect are such difficult concepts.
NotMax
Plenty more for Dolt 45 to go into Baron Munchausen mode about.
Champion of health care. No smallpox deaths during his first year!
Tough on borders. No invasion by extraterrestrials!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Hmm, Trump harps on Hillary a lot more than Obama, and as we’ve seen Obama’s been playing shadow president up to that royal wedding NOT invite. Trump thinks with his genitals, so did Trump make a pass at Hillary back in the day and she slapped him down?
Gin & Tonic
@LAO: “Might.” I’d say that leaves plenty of room for reasonable doubt, doesn’t it, counselor?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I guess that includes those of us who like hoppy IPAs. And sauerkraut.
BellyCat
@Humdog: Ditto on the narcissistic parental upbringing, and I had but one parent from the age of 6 onwards.
Distortion of everything was a believable “reality” for a long time. However, once the spell of narcissism is broken, the good news is that your bullshit meter is simply hyper acute. Relish and trust it!
Tom DeVries
Caller story sort of says Abedin sent her passwords to her personal Yahoo mail account. If it’s true while not maybe criminal, it would be really stupid.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@NotMax: Good points, we all haven’t been raped to death by Ebola infected illegal aliens with the calves the size of cantaloupes on a mission of destruction ordered by ISIS. Another Trump achievement.
Gator90
@cmorenc: My Trump-voting father-in-law thinks that as long as the stock market keeps going up, DJT belongs on Rushmore. Oddly, though, he didn’t react the same way to stock market gains during 2009-2016.
SteveNKY
Every last BernieBro – Never Killary should lemming them-self into the ocean and Bernie should apologize to the American people for this.
satby
@Tom DeVries: gee, I just don’t know what to think! Have you checked for the Infowars hot take on it yet?
Tazj
@Mnemosyne: Yuck, that stinks. I get nauseated from migraines at times so that’s what I thought I had at first, but no. The stomach bug has been going around here and has worked its way through my whole family. My husband and I had it over the Holidays, followed by colds with fever. Darn kids! Either way, here’s hoping you feel better soon.
Huma Abedin putting passwords into the hands of foreign agents? Dems will “start falling in love” with Reps and their president? What he says is both crazy and gross.
LAO
@Gin & Tonic: @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I personally love gin, dark chocolate and bitter foods. I must be a sociopath, and now, thanks to the New York Post, I’m relieved of any obligation to “do the right thing” in my daily life. Yay!
Is it really necessary for me to indicate sarcasm?
p.a.
@NotMax: also too, Franco still dead. Thanx Donnie!
NotMax
@Jim, Foolish Literalist
Support COBRA.
Committee of broccoli rabe appreciation.
rp
This is particularly offensive because 10 Americans died in a plane crash in Costa Rica on SUNDAY, including a family of five that I knew. F**K YOU, YOU MOTHERF**KING PIECE OF GARBAGE.
Tom DeVries
@satby: Yup. Only source so far is Caller. So, may not be a true story, but seriously, the Clinton folks were not real careful with email. I don’t have to be a Reep to notice.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Oh, no. Just playing along. I wear the accusations of the NY Post as a badge of honor. (They’r the right-leaning NYC tabloid, right? The Daily News leans more to the left?)
@NotMax: oh yeah, I’m a fan of that too
LAO
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: They’re both righty but also, both are in favor of gun control, so it can be confusing.
Don’t mind me, I’m super cranky. The bitter cold has broken my spirit.
martian
@Humdog: You aren’t alone. I feel really disoriented, like my family abuse has overtaken the whole country and my relationship to my country and fellow citizens is just the inescapable continuation of the poisonous, dysfunctional family patterns. Adulthood was supposed to be about escaping all that and grounding myself in concrete reality. Instead, tens of millions of people have ripped their masks off and revealed my father.
Are you in a region with decent mental health resources? I’m contemplating finding group therapy or discussion somehow – maybe even just like-minded people. I’m wondering if maybe joining my local Indivisible chapter would be grounding. You know, being surrounded by people who reject deplorable reality being substituted for their own might feel healthier, and at least it’s forward motion and not this paralysis I feel.
The Dangerman
@p.a.:
As far as I can tell, there’s only one downside to this desire; the State Funeral. I was far too young to recall JFK’s, but it looked regal and proper. Can you imagine a Trump Funeral procession? Tacky beyond words, no doubt (and Melania’s ear to ear smile might have to be surgically removed).
Elie
I can’t bring myself to comment about this monstrcity anymore. Until I can DO something or help someone or something do something to remove this man and his administration from power, I just feel sick inside. Each day he remains, the more fucked he is making our country — and us. Meanwhile, we are supposed to go about our business every day like nothing is happening and things are “normal” … they are far far from that and I am just struggling with how to keep myself going…
BellyCat
@rp: Very sad, the Costa Rica crash. And very sorry to hear the American family were friends. Tough stuff.
Trump is an insensitive POS.
FlipYrWhig
@Tom DeVries: Why, _imagine_ if a Trump crony had ever sent or received sketchy emails, or if the president were warned against using an unsecured phone in the White House but did it anyway! :/
MJS
@Tom DeVries: Do you have any proof that the “Clinton folks” were any less “careful” with their email than the Bush folks? Trump folks? If not, could it be that you’re falling for Republican talking points, and don’t realize it?
Schlemazel
@bemused:
I think she may not make it to the endorsement. Her brand of crazy has lost a lot of luster outside Sterns County.
But there are people as mentally ill as she is who have not gone as public with their illness. I am deeply concerned about that seat
clay
I know i’ll regret asking, but what’s this about submarine sailors?
Mary G
I can’t bear the random capitalization in those tweets. Even replying to them has lost its charms.
It is a relief that he didn’t fire Mueller or do something equally malevolent over the holidays. I really thought he would and had a dread in the background of my mind for the last two weeks that didn’t happen.
Also, too, all the stories of rats leaving the sinking ship that is this administration and their troubles in finding replacements cheer me up no end.
bobbo
Um, isn’t the Trump White House violating email protocols on a daily basis? Not to mention using unsecured personal cell phones?
Schlemazel
@SteveNKY:
It will never happen. Those folks only blame Democrats for the results.
Same thing will be true for losing Franken(and the seat should it come to that- Pasta forbid). It wasn’t that they couldn’t wait to have the highly suspect charges examined or the punishment fit the sin if true. No, they will blame Al and the DNC. Nothing is ever their fault
Ruckus
@bemused:
Tell her I said to go fuck herself. That’s as close to hearing from god as she’s going to get.
Tom DeVries
@MJS: @FlipYrWhig: A) ‘both sides do it’ is intellectually and politically unsound. What Trump has done/is doing stands on its own, and B.) Nonetheless, that Hillary Clinton and others in the circle were less than rigorous with email and Internet security is beyond dispute, altho without apparent criminality.
To emphasize: IF Ms. Abedin sent her State Department passwords to a Yahoo account, it was stupid. Actually, as I recall my own govt. security instructions, forwarding sensitive mail to her husband’s account was pretty silly too. Wouldn’t even pass the NDAs I’ve signed at bio and high tech firms.
different-church-lady
@cmorenc:
One of the go-to techniques of the troll is that the more nonsensical the statement, the greater resulting reaction. The more outrageous the claim, the better the troll. His electorate posse knows this, and they eat it up — it’s their sole reason for liking him. Thus, debunking is powerless — everyone already knows it’s a lie. It’s the very fact that he can lie this badly and get away with it that is the point.
The nut that needs to be cracked here is: how do we get a major portion of our voting population to understand that we cannot run a successful country based on the psychological rules of a public grade school playground?
Schlemazel
@LAO:
I know a former regular commenter here who will gladly inform you he is autistic very soon after meeting you. I guess this allows him to do and say things he knows are wrong or hurtful without guilt even when re recognizes they are.
Frankensteinbeck
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Hillary humiliated him in front of a national audience in the debates. I guarantee you that he still wakes up from nightmares about it. Then she got three million more votes than him. It is just possible this makes him hate her more than he does Obama.
@Humdog:
I grew up around a lot of narcissists, so this hasn’t been much of a surprise to me. I assumed nearly half this country were mean shits just waiting for a chance to fuck over everyone they could, especially minorities, if they were offered a way to do it and maintain their publicly respectable image. I also assumed they’d be willing to fuck themselves over if that’s what it took to hurt others.
We do outnumber them. Always remember that. But there are enough of them that we have to fight, and fight hard.
Yutsano
@Tom DeVries: I do not consider the Daily Caller a reputable source. Nor am I seeing this being reported anywhere else. You’re letting a right-wing rag determine your thinking here.
MJS
@Tom DeVries: If it’s “beyond dispute” then you should have no problem linking to the proof. As it stands now, you’re relying on The Daily Caller and Trump as your sources.
Barbara
@Frankensteinbeck: I can’t even remember where I read this, but Trump sees women as objects to be owned, not people to have relationships with. Thus, being bested by a girl is Trump’s ultimate humiliation. Girls are to be acquired and disposed of when they reach their expiration date (which you can tell because their breasts start sagging). It’s certain, not possible, that Trump hates Clinton more than Obama.
different-church-lady
@Yutsano:
A sadly common problem among people of all political stripes. (See: Times, New York)
Chyron HR
Look, you people are losing sight of the important thing: Tom DeVries had to save the country from The Clintons at any cost, up to and including voluntarily surrendering it to rapacious Nazi plutocrats. Don’t hate just because you lack his moral purity.
Schlemazel
@Yutsano:
Agreed. The only reliable data I have seen says someone fell for a phishing email and the rest was easy : install malware, have it monitor and report.
I have never read anyone involved sent a password via email. Given the way the emails were edited before release I am suspicious of any leaked discussion of how it happened.
rp
I think it’s fair to say Clinton and her staff showed poor judgment in their handling of their emails precisely because it was Hillary Clinton. They should have known they would be held to a much higher standard than anyone else. It’s totally unfair of course, but Clinton knows that better than anyone.
glory b
@Tom DeVries: Maybe my recollections are wrong, but I thought the result of the investigation was that her email account included her work emails, but there were none on his. In any event, since the outgoing emails were already obtained from other servers, there wasn’t anything new.
Also, I recall that the emails weren’t classified when she forwarded them, but classification was accomplished retroactively. Can anyone confirm this?
Also, besides the use of the servers, what emails contained “dirt on Hillary”, or showed a conspiracy against Wilmer? Those phrases are batted around constantly, but I’ve never heard r seen the content of any emails that prove these allegations.
mai naem mobile
I don’t think I’ve seen a Trump/Pence/MAGA bumpersticker since the beginning of Decembwr. Not saying I used to see a ton but at least one a week. I hope that’s a good sign.
SiubhanDuinne
For all of you suffering in unkind weather conditions, here is a little musical gift to get you through the entire year.
low-tech cyclist
To be fair, he’d have to have enough functioning brain cells to distinguish truth from lies, fact from fiction, and reality from bullshit.
November can’t come soon enough.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Tom DeVries: Hillary Clinton will never be a candidate again, outside of political junkies, FoxNews viewers and Wiener scandal aficionados, nobody knows who the fuck Huma Abedin is. The President of these United States is using a private citizen and demagoguery to politicize an already politicized Department of Justice.
SiubhanDuinne
@rp:
IIRC, the State Department servers were actually hacked, whereas Hillary’s “illegal” server never was. So if she had opted to use the DoS email system exclusively, and it had been hacked (as indeed it was), she would have been/would be to this day responsible for carelessness and security breaches — unlike her smart GOP predessors Colin Powell and Condi Rice, who knew the value of private servers.
If your last name is Clinton, you can’t win for losing. Period.
NotMax
Commercial helicopters don’t count as aviation?
Also too, Troy Gentry.
SFAW
@Tom DeVries:
Abso-fucking-lutely! About time some spoke “truth to power” here! It’s curious how all the commenters here ignore the hundreds — nay, thousands! — of times Hitlary’s e-mail server was hacked, broken into, and otherwise compromised.
But I forget … exactly HOW MANY times was her devil’s-spawn of a server hacked? Can you get back to me on that, toute de suite!
d58826
but look at what he HAS achieved:
1. no Zombie Apocalypse (yet)
2. the sun hasn’t gone super nova and
3. space aliens are still in hiding
Gelfling 545
@The Dangerman: Mourning veils were invented for this purpose. All those wives in the bad old arranged marriage/no divorce days happy to see the last of the old man.
different-church-lady
@d58826: You say Zombie Apocalypse like it was a bad thing.
rp
@SiubhanDuinne: That’s a fair point, although I still think setting up a private server was a mistake because it fed into the narrative that the Clintons are secretive, etc.
Don’t get me wrong — I have a ton of respect for HRC, think she ran a much better campaign than she’s given credit for, and would vote for her again in a heartbeat. But I think the server was dumb.
tobie
@Tom DeVries: Umm…nothing was ever hacked from HRC’s server. The DNC was hacked, and John Podesta’s gmail account was hacked when he responded to a phishing email but HRC’s server ended up being the most secure in DC…better even than the intelligence services which seemed to have picked up a bug from using Kaspersky’s software.
ETA: Oops. SFAW made this point and in a much sharper way than I ever could.
marcopolo
I made a New Year’s resolution to try to take each time Trump & the Trump administration pisses me off and channel it into some kind of positive action for change.
It’s Monday January 2 so I just finished my first 2018 calls to my MO Congress-critters. I asked the Dems to hold firm and fight back. I pretty much told the R to GODIAF. Don’t know about the efficacy of my messages but I feel better. There will be at the very least 51 more of these calls made this year. Everyone please join me.
On Sunday I’ll be going to my first 2018 Indivisible post card writing event in St Louis. This month our focus is on writing postcards for Democratic candidates in special elections to the Missouri House of Reps. For folks who would like to write postcards in 2018 but may not have a local group to join here is the link for Postcards to Voters, a group that can hook you up with post card writing opportunities for candidates we want in office.
Happy New Year everyone. Get active. Be active. Stay active.
SFAW
@marcopolo:
Thanks for the motivational reminder. Makes me wanna call up random Rs and tell them to GODIAF,
frosty
@Suzanne: It is 54 degrees in our back room addition where we a) put in too much glass, b) added a cast iron fireplace with a slate surround and c) didn’t put in enough baseboard heat. So, yeah, I can see a hoodie at 54.
martian
@marcopolo: Are you asking about DACA? All my reps are Dems, I want to push to protect the Dreamers, and I’m wondering if there is any specific thing to name as a goal in such a call – legislation, amendments, etc. Does anybody have a specific ask?
SFAW
@tobie:
Why, whatever do you mean? I was AGREEING with Tom “Piter” DeVries’s thesis, that “her E-MAILS” mumble mumble SERVER! mumble mumble BENGHAZIIII!!!!!!! (Well, he didn’t actually mention Benghazi, but you know that it was implied, because reasons.)
You Hillbots and your “facts” — get over it already.
Humdog
@martian: thanks for this, and BellyCat’s reply too. I’ve gotten so bad at trusting my own perceptions, not having a response to my post made me wonder if I really made it. The whole world has become my disfunctioning family! The root problem is I simply don’t trust myself to have perceived it correctly. I thought I had gotten better with time and age, but really, I had just gotten away from it’s influence. Now, I cannot read the news without feeling it. But ignoring news seems like giving up. I live in the boondocks but it is fairly blue so I really ought not to feel so isolated. Oddly, Jen Rubin has been helpful, as in “even someone who drank the Benghazi cool aid could figure this out, why not the rest of the nation”!?!?
SFAW
@different-church-lady:
The ironic thing is, Shitgibbon would probably have nothing to worry about, given what the zombies are (allegedly) seeking for their sustenance.
Gin & Tonic
@SFAW: ICWUDT.
tobie
@rp: I’m really sorry to hear that you knew five of the people who died in the plane crash in Costa Rica. The fact that Shitgibbon brags about airline safety on the heels of this accident is horrible, and immeasurably so for those who knew the victims.
My small contribution to the resistance in 2018 is to join my local Democratic club. I’ve been hesitant to do so as they are ineffectual and haven’t helped out in special elections in neighboring counties, but any Democratic presence in rural America is important, so I’m happy to play my part.
SFAW
@Gin & Tonic:
LSMFT?
glory b
@Tom DeVries: Ironic, then, that Clinton was the only one who wasn’t hacked, including the RNC (why have we never seen any of those emails?).
I can’t agree with this idea that they were sloppy with the emails though. Podesta asked the IT people about the suspicious email he got, he was told it was okay to open, the IT guy forgot the word “NOT” in his reply. Podesta’s expert said it was okay, he opened it, and now we are where we are.
SFAW
@glory b:
Pizzagate!!!
Damn, I knew I forgot one.
patrick II
Just a reminder to Fox and friends and their callowest fan that the GSA State Department non-classified email server was also breached during Hillary’s time at state. So, possibly, but not likely, everyone at state had already had their passwords compromised. Everyone but Hillary, who was safely on her private email server.
randy khan
@Schlemazel:
The real irony on the DNC hack was that Podesta asked the IT people if it was okay for him to click the link, and got an email back saying it was okay. (Apparently that wasn’t what the IT person meant to say, but that’s how the response read.)
d58826
@tobie: Also add my condolences on the loss of your friends. But the statistic in question referred to regularly scheduled commercial jet travel. It did not refer to all of aviation. And to be a bit snarky here if Der Fuhrer is going to take credit for the positive statistics then he has to take the blame for all of the planes that did crash.
James E. Powell
@The Simp in the Suit:
They don’t think they’ve fucked up because you’re pissed, you’re not happy. That’s their metric.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
So Orrin Hatch is retiring. Get ready for your new Sunday morning hero, Senator Willard, whose broad and manly brow will furrow with faith-based Concern while he does nothing meaningful to stand against trump
catclub
@trollhattan: climate versus weather. 2017 will be the third hottest year on record. and the hottest ever non-El Nino
year. even with a cold snap in one section of North America.
SiubhanDuinne
@The Dangerman:
Let’s keep the “fun” in “funeral.” I suggest we show up in our pussy hats, in numbers that put the 1/21/17 Women’s March to shame, poke the corpse to make sure he’s dead, and stay extremely well-hydrated so we can piss on his grave with both enthusiasm and authority.
d58826
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: If I lived in Utah I might actually vote for Mit just to get under the very thin skin of Der Fuhrer
Svensker
@Humdog:
It’s not you, it’s him. Make a sign and read it to yourself when you get shaky.
catclub
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: you might turn out wrong on that. Trump was desperate to keep Hatch instead of having Willard Romney as Senator. (Novice question: Can anyone who is Mormon claim Utah citizenship?) I thought Romney was Governor of Massachusetts in the past.
Romney apparently hates Trump a lot.
James E. Powell
@schrodingers_cat:
I’m pretty sure that’s what a good majority of white Americans already believe, and have believed for years.
Side note: If Hillary Clinton were the ruthless Machiavellian that nearly everyone says she is, it’s doubtful she would have ever hired Abedin and certain she would have defenestrated Abedin when the Weiner sexting story hit.
d58826
@MJS: Didn’t the Bushes ship several million gov’t/whitehouse e-mails off to the private RNC servers at one point?
Barbara
@catclub: Regarding Utah residency — Romney has never had it, having grown up in Michigan and moved to Massachusetts for most of his career, but it can’t be tough for someone of his means to move there in time for the next election. Liz Cheney made a big show of moving to Wyoming, although I think she spent some but not much of her youth there, and her father did represent the state in Congress. Residency would not seem to be Romney’s toughest sell in Utah.
Spanky
@frosty: And now we know where your nym originated. In the back room!
martian
@Humdog: I thought I’d gotten better with time and age, too. The feelings that the election and aftermath have brought on, that my escape from the dysfunction was illusory or at least far more tenuous than I thought, well, it’s been disheartening. But it’s always been our choices that really defined us, right? We chose the distance, we chose resistance, and we can continue to so choose to define ourselves in opposition to the chaos and unreality. Choice is real. I leaned into that consciousness as a kid to protect myself, to anchor my own reality, I can do that again.
catclub
@Gator90:
this is my shocked face.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’ll be very glad to be wrong, if that holds
as to residency, I’m sure he’s always owned property in UT– if I had his money I’d have two or three ski-in/out properties. Last I remember he and Ann were pretty much divining their time between La Jolla and the NE lake house, their official address being Tagg’s guest room in a posh Boston suburb
Barbara
@d58826: Yes, they did. They maintained “alternative” private email addresses for large blocks of correspondence on certain issues.
catclub
@d58826: No. At MANY points. Bush and Trump admins.
hitless
@rp: The server was fine. It boggles my mind that news stories are still written that suggest the Clintons were uniquely and dangerously mishandling classified information. Security failures happen all the time. FFS look at what Petraeus did. Trump has supposedly used an unsecured cell right? He also apparently outed an Israeli intelligence asset. I’m sure there are tons of instances of Republicans sloppily handling information, because people have a hard time keeping information secure in the digital age.
If the server hadn’t existed another issue would have been promoted to being a disqualifying legal breach. Uranium One or speeches to Wall Street. I’m done criticizing Clinton for this when the true fault is that the American people are stupid enough to eat these stories up.
trollhattan
@catclub:
California obliterated heat and precipitation records last year. 20th century extremes become 21st century norms.
The Lodger
@SiubhanDuinne: I wonder if a few people are pissed off at the existence of Hillary’s email server BECAUSE it was never hacked.
d58826
@glory b: Maybe it’s just me but the middle east is in it’s usual state of melt down, we may be going to war with N. Korea, Puerto Rico still is w/o power/water, opoids are killing more Americans than guns, mass shootings are still a daily occurrence so why are we still arguing over the e-mail habits of a private citizen who left the state department in 2012.
Cckids
@The Dangerman:
This is the main reason I have no desire to see him die in office. The press, the never-Trumpers; even some Dems, would pivot to “not speaking ill of the dead” etc. The immediate hagiography from the press would be unbearable. “He was flawed, yes, but so bold! So unconventional!” And we’d forever have to live with the bullshit.
I want him out of the White House in fucking disgrace. I want him, and his whole administration, afraid to show their faces in public because garbage will be thrown.
THEN he can die. Alone, hopefully impoverished, in pain. And we can all tramp the dirt down. (With thx to E.C.)
trollhattan
@hitless:
Wasn’t she following Colin Powell’s practices and advice in setting it up? Did accountability begin January 2009? (Think I know the second answer.)
SiubhanDuinne
@SFAW:
FUNEX?
SVFX.
FUNEM?
SVFM.
OKLFMNX.
d58826
@hitless: If all of the other ‘scandals’ did not exist she would have been criticized for using her maiden name as a middle name or then maybe she would have been criticized for not using it or criticized for both at the same time.
trollhattan
@Cckids:
I’m holding out for a Nixonian final wave as he enters the heli on the White House lawn. The classics are best.
d58826
@Cckids:
And we would spend weeks arguing about the size of the crowd. Did it take one small hand or two to count every one?
Ben Cisco
So I get back just in time to see yet another baked goods aficionado on the blog. OK then.
SFAW
@SiubhanDuinne:
AB,CDQTs?
L,MNOQTs
OSAR!
OK, that’s the limit of my something-or-other.
James E. Powell
@catclub:
Right after the election, Romney bent the knee. He thought he was being considered for Secretary of State, but Trump only wanted to humiliate him publicly.
Yutsano
@SFAW: I’ve been in government too long. I understood all of that way too well.
trollhattan
@James E. Powell:
Still can’t believe he took the bait. Willard’s ego took him to that table and departed in shreds.
SFAW
@trollhattan:
Whereupon he tell the pilot that HE is “the best pilot,” wrests the controls, and then accidentally takes out Dense, shortly before crashing into a wall and causing the heli to a-splode.
Shell
What am I missing? What the heck is he talking about?
SFAW
@Yutsano:
It’s not a government thing. I picked that up from my beloved Grossmutter, when I was a sprout back in Idaho.
Brachiator
@James E. Powell:
Hillary Clinton haters simply fill in whatever fantasy they find most appealing or most appalling. There is neither rhyme nor reason nor logic nor plausibility to any of their speculations or invented accusations.
Chet
I wish someone would point out that the record levels of airline safety probably has to do with proper REGULATION.
Gin & Tonic
@Shell: A machinist’s mate on board a sub took some pictures of its (classified) control systems when the sub was at its base in Groton. He pled guilty to some charge related to that and was sentenced to 12 months in Devens. I believe he asked Trump to pardon him. It was a cause celebre in the RW noise machine.
randy khan
@Shell:
I think some sailors (who, ahem, probably would call themselves submariners rather than sailors) have gotten in trouble for emailing photos of themselves at their duty stations on submarines, which showed classified equipment.
SFAW
@Gin & Tonic:
Yeah, they probably don’t go for that too much.
I once considered — for about 5 seconds — taking photos of the EB facility when I took the Orient Point ferry, then realized that doing so was probably right-the-fuck-OUT.
Suzanne
@trollhattan: We are up to 69 right now and should top out at 73 today.
SFAW
@Suzanne:
What a coincidence — that’s what it is in central Mass, too!
Wait — are you talking Kelvin? Or Rankine?
Cckids
@trollhattan: DT would just flip a double bird at the world; if he didn’t slink out under cover of darkness.
Gin & Tonic
@Suzanne: Fuck you.
SFAW
@Gin & Tonic:
Be nice. Does Suzanne say that to us when it’s 115-plus down there, and we’re at a balmy 80 up here?
catclub
@James E. Powell: So I figure Romney hates Trump even more.
Jamey
@Tom DeVries: Worse still, her passwords contained ARABIC numerals. Makes ya think, don’t it?
Dog Dawg Damn
You’re not going to believe what the PIzzaGate ppl think the meaning behind “Classified Passwords” is….
ugh.
SgrAstar
@d58826: no, you wouldn’t. Mitt is a spineless toady. And he will win.
sigaba
@LAO: I should send this to my friends who enjoy Fernet.
Marcopolo
@martian: Sorry, went away after posting. I told my Dem Senator & Congressman that they’d better force a DACA resolution, even if that meant shutting down the gov.
J R in WV
@clay:
I think some sailors took snapshots of themselves/each other for family, sent them off, not thinking of the super squirrel secret stuff on the panel behind them. End of world security breach, obviously planned by Killery.
But my memories are hazy from the Bombay Saphire G&T I have by my right hand.
Best guess, tho.
BC in Illinois
@The Dangerman:
@Cckids:
The state funeral will take care of itself. I was in the area for JFK’s, Truman’s, and Eisenhower’s, and only went downtown for JFK.
For Reagan, the only after-funeral discussion was along the lines of, “This was a funeral in the District of Columbia. Why were there no Black people in attendance?”
For Trump, you have a funeral in the District, NO ONE will show up. There will be pictures. It will be televised.
Then we will move on.
[A Truman anecdote: HST died on Dec 26, 1972. Wikipedia (from which all knowledge flows) informs me that there was no state funeral in Washington; just a ceremony in Kansas City. At the time, I was in the Navy, at Bethesda MD. And I remember someone telling me that they would have been drafted in ’72, but government offices were closed for a day or so, and they never got to his number. It was told to me as a true story.]
ruemara
@trollhattan: Powell was using gmail. So, no.
@martian: There doesn’t seem to be a clear bill on the table. So you can ask for that.
hilts
@Cckids:
I agree, Trump is a malignant cancer in our body politic and I don’t want him dying in the White House. I want him removed from office and publicly humiliated to the nth degree.
Captain C
@Barbara:
Does this include Ivanka?
Tom DeVries
@MJS: @tobie: Don’t think I said HRC’s server was hacked, only that it was careless for a senior minister to do official digital business on an email server in her home powder room. Turns out, if only politically, that’s true. So, lesson learned. And the DNC security was clearly lacking too. Per se, right? And, convenient as it may have been, Abedin should not have forwarded work email’s to her husband’s computers. I’ve worked in private firms where they were more circumspect. IMO these people were careless. One is simply not supposed to read top secret docs on the bus.
SFAW
@Tom DeVries:
Thanks for your valuable input on this matter. As before, it shall be given all the consideration it merits.
Betty Cracker
@Tom DeVries: Stipulated that emails were handled carelessly, with the priviso that alledged “top secret” memos were retroactively classified as such and that apparently everyone in the government before and since to the present day also handled / is handling communications carelessly. But that’s not the point. The point is, the POTUS is cynically using Daily Caller articles about email practices that occurred years ago and have been hashed to the nth degree to urge the DoJ to jail a political opponent. We’ve got bigger problems than email protocol violations.
Tom DeVries
@Betty Cracker: @Betty Cracker: Agree completely — cynicism and the rest is tiring, but to be expected. I got hit with this tiny BJ flame war because honestly IMO the Caller/Fox story is plausible: I find it conceivable that Abedin did send her work passwords to her Yahoo acct. She did, after all, have several thousand work emails on her husband’s laptop. I mean, jesus! Hillary/Dems were careless and/or naive about Internet security, to their sorrow I’m sure, but it seems beyond dispute.
SFAW
@Tom DeVries:
I asked you earlier, and unless I’ve overlooked it — certainly possible — you haven’t responded:
How many times was Hillary’s “private” server hacked, compromised, broken-into, or otherwise accessed by person(s) opposed to her?
Only if you’re a BernOrBust-er, or a concern troll, or someone less “benign.” The rational world, however, might “dispute” it.
SFAW
@Tom DeVries:
No, you got “hit” because you’re carrying water for Shitgibbon and his collaborators.
Don’t like it? Then don’t shill for them.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Tom DeVries: “plausible” “conceivable” “Daily Caller”
SFAW
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
As Jim Steinman wrote: two out of three ain’t bad.
jc
Of course Trump tweets utter bullshit. He knows his base are total suckers, he plays to them exclusively, and he relies on their bottomless gullibility. So he’s playing them for all its worth, and forcing the rest of us to go along.
This is why it’s a bad idea to let bad faith assholes run for high public office. To all the media and voters who pretended not to notice this crap: you own this fiasco.
Tom DeVries
@SFAW: @SFAW: Well, of course we don’t know if the Clinton server was hacked, only that it’s contents haven’t been leaked. Comey said in the July ’16 statement that ‘it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton’s personal e-mail account.’
I know we are unhappy that Comey said anything at that point, but in any case what he said was that the handling of email was ‘extremely careless.’ I don’t have to support Trump or be a Republican or even a BernieBro to believe that the Clinton/DNC people were sloppy about Internet security and that it has cost them, and all of us.
I do think it’s kinda weird that being critical of my own team means I’m ‘carrying water’ for the other side. My experience in politics is that you can lose elections that way.
No One You Know
@Humdog: This is exactly why I went into a STEM career, despite the ugliness…I spent my work life testing reality and proving or disproving things.
SFAW
Still giving cover to Shitgibbon and his collaborators, I see.
Had Hillary Clinton’s “private” server been hacked or otherwise compromised, there is no fucking doubt that some or all of the contents would have been leaked at “judicious” intervals during the campaign.
The preceding sentence contains far more truth than anything you’ve written tonight in defense of your trolling.
“It’s possible” is the weasel-wording of persons trying to cast doubt when there’s no information, evidence, what-have-you to show that what said slimeballs are speculating had actually occurred. “It’s possible” that you’re a child molester; is it irresponsible to speculate? See how that works, Reggie? Yeah, you may not be Reggie Mantle under a new nym/nom, but your MO (if I recall his correctly) is similar “Hey, I just brought up a reasonable point, why is everyone dragging me?”
Come back when you have some non-bullshit to contribute, toady.
SFAW
@Tom DeVries:
And stop with your fucking “Clinton/DNC” mashup, you intellectually-dishonest hack. I want that shit, I’ll watch Fox.
They were two separate entities — ONE GOT HACKED, THE OTHER DIDN’T. Can you POSSIBLY figure out which one got hacked?
No One You Know
@LAO: I can’t remember the difference between psychopath and sociopath, although the nasty parent liked G&Ts and the other wanted vodka tonics. Must’ve been a case of Lawful Evil and Chaotic Evil. The Kids are Lawful Chaotic to the second generation. I’m sure this proves something in Trump Science.
Tom DeVries
@SFAW: Gee, you seem upset. Here is why we got the Podesta emails: the Russians hacked the DNC servers and for reasons of their own gave at least some of the contents to WikiLeaks. Comey (July 5, ’16 again) says that Clinton used her private server heavily, including overseas ‘in the territory of sophisticated adversaries.’ Comey says it is possible her server was hacked by ‘hostile actors’ and that it is ‘unlikely’ there would be evidence left behind. Don’t know why you would think that there’s ‘no fucking doubt’ Russia would leak everything they know to newspapers. They won without needing to.
Anyway, toady, huh? I honestly can’t figure out why you are defending the Clinton/DNC management of their email security. I’m not speculating. It was sloppy. It’s a good part of why Trump’s in the White House.
Marcopolo
@Tom DeVries: Sorry, that is just plain wrong. The bulk of the Podesta emails came out because someone (assumed to be Russian hackers) sent Podesta an email that contained malware & he opened it thus exposing all of his correspondence which he was supposedly saving to use later in a book project.
SFAW
@Tom DeVries:
You seem to have an awful lot invested in your wagging of your finger at Hillary, and how impure Hillary is. Hmmm, I wonder if there’s a term for that?
Be that as it may:
Here’s an idea, about as intellectually honest as your “examples”: let’s compare the “Tom DeVries”/Ted Kaczynski writings to rational discourse, and see how they match up. On balance, they don’t appear to be tethered to reality, so I guess they BOTH should be locked up. And I think it was “careless” of “DeVries” to write stuff that could be (somehow) associated with Kaczynski, so he should have known better.
ETA: Oh, and keep bringing up Comey’s “well, there’s nothing there, but that Hitlary — well, I JUST DON’T KNOW!!” statements, because it makes your “argument” so much more “credible.” See ya, tovarishch.