Countdown to Extinction: The 2016 Presidential Election

[zamyrabyrd]

I feel like I'm on a coke high just waiting for Obama to be implicated.

Just remember if we get President Kaine in the next four years, you heard it from me first.
Then again, Obummer could declare Martial Law in the next two months...

[Karl Henning]

But anyone experienced in politics, as Comey obviously is, would have known for dead certain that his intrusion would change the process in a way that cannot be undone. This is apparently what other officials in the FBI and Justice Department were telling Comey before he took this step. Two former deputy attorneys general—Jamie Gorelick, who served under Bill Clinton, and Larry Thompson, who served under George W. Bush—made that point in a new Washington Post essay that lambastes Comey for his self-indulgent decision ....

[drogulus]

     
     The George W. Bush White House 'Lost' 22 Million Emails

This correspondence included millions of emails written during the darkest period in America's recent history, when the Bush administration was ginning up support for what turned out to be a disastrous war in Iraq with false claims that the country possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and, later, when it was firing U.S. attorneys for political reasons.

Like Clinton, the Bush White House used a private email server—its was owned by the Republican National Committee. And the Bush administration failed to store its emails, as required by law, and then refused to comply with a congressional subpoena seeking some of those emails.

     

[zamyrabyrd]

     The George W. Bush White House 'Lost' 22 Million Emails

Drain the swamp, they are all in collusion!

[drogulus]

Drain the swamp, they are all in collusion!

     How true.....but not important to me. I want a well governed swamp. Bush and Clinton will be judged on what they accomplished in domestic and foreign policy during their terms in office. I favor HRC because she leads the Dems and will govern more or less like a Dem is expected to, with expansionary economic policy, and on the foreign policy side she is well positioned to steer the country based on both what Obama did right and what he did wrong.

     Trump will bring his own swamp all by his horrible self.

[drogulus]

     Immigrants Are Keeping America Young — And The Economy Growing

[San Antone]

Don't Blame Comey

James Comey is not primarily responsible for the political mess caused by the recent discovery of more emails that may be relevant to the investigation of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. These newly uncovered emails were not written, sent or received by Comey. He didn't store them on his computer, and it wasn't his fault that they were not reviewed many months ago during the initial investigation. In fact, Comey never even knew these emails existed until now.

July: Comey has exonerated me! October: Comey is undermining our republic!

How rich of Hillary Clinton to complain now that FBI director James Comey is threatening the democratic process by commenting publicly about a criminal investigation on the eve of an election. Put aside that Comey did not say a single thing last week that implicates Clinton in a crime. The biggest coup for Clinton in the waning months of the campaign has been Comey's decision not to prosecute her — a decision outside the responsibilities of the FBI director and publicly announced in a manner that contradicts law-enforcement protocols. There has been nothing more irregular, nothing that put law enforcement more in the service of politics, than that announcement. Yet, far from condemning it, Mrs. Clinton has worn it like a badge of honor since July. Indeed, she has contorted it into a wholesale exoneration, which it most certainly was not.

[Brian]

Drain the swamp, they are all in collusion!

And of course...

Donald Trump's Companies Destroyed Emails in Defiance of Court Orders

Over the course of decades, Donald Trump's companies have systematically destroyed or hidden thousands of emails, digital records and paper documents demanded in official proceedings, often in defiance of court orders.

[skipping ahead in the article to a recent case]
Despite knowing back in 2001 that Trump might want to file a lawsuit, his companies had deleted emails and other records without checking if they might be evidence in his case. Beginning around 2003, the company wiped clear the data from everyone's computers every year. Lawyers for Trump Hotels had never sent out the usual communication issued during litigation instructing employees to stop destroying records that might be related to this case. The deletions continued, and backup tapes were reused—thus erasing the data they held. Power Plant lawyers also discovered that after the lawsuit was filed, Trump Hotels disposed of a key witness's computer without preserving the data on it.

In subsequent filings, Power Plant maintained that Trump Hotels had intentionally deceived the court in its March 2006 filing when it claimed it had located no emails relevant to the case because, at that point, it had not yet conducted any searches of its computer system. Trump Hotels executives did not instruct their IT department to examine backup computer tapes until 2007, and even then the job wasn't done, depositions show. And when computer specialists finally attempted to electronically locate any relevant documents that had survived the flurry of deletions, the procedures were absurdly inadequate. While looking for relevant documents, the technology team was told to use only two search terms—the name of the tribe and the last name of the former Trump associate. So even if there was an email that stated, "Donald Trump learned the full details of the Hard Rock casino deal in Florida in 1999," it would not have been found by this search.

With all this proof that Trump Hotels had ignored every court order and filed false documents, Power Plant asked the judge either to impose sanctions or allow its own expert to search for relevant digital records. Trump Hotels argued it had done nothing improper, although its lawyers acknowledged having made some mistakes.  Still, Streitfeld ordered Trump Hotels to make its servers and computer systems available for inspection by a computer forensics consulting firm. That review showed there was no digital data in the computers, servers or backup tapes prior to January 2001—the very month Trump claimed to have learned of the Florida casino deal.

[zamyrabyrd]

Pay and play - ka-ching!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3876506/Hillary-Clinton-headlined-fundraiser-campaign-group-gave-500-000-wife-FBI-boss-investigated-emails-s-closely-linked-bid-power.html

Hillary Clinton headlined a major fundraiser for a political action committee shortly before the group steered nearly $500,000 to the wife of the FBI official who oversaw the Clinton email investigation...
Clinton's ties to the Common Good VA - a Virginia state PAC run by Clinton's long-time friend and advisor Terry McAuliffe, its governor - came under scrutiny this week after the Wall Street Journal reported that the group donated heavily to the state senate campaign of Jill McCabe. Her husband Andrew McCabe led the FBI investigation into Clinton's emails.

[Gurn Blanston]

James Comey is not primarily responsible for the political mess caused by the recent discovery of more emails that may be relevant to the investigation of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. These newly uncovered emails were not written, sent or received by Comey. He didn't store them on his computer, and it wasn't his fault that they were not reviewed many months ago during the initial investigation. In fact, Comey never even knew these emails existed until now.

Hillary Clinton is not primarily responsible for the political mess caused by the recent discovery of more emails that may be relevant to the investigation of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. These newly uncovered emails were not written, sent or received by Clinton. She didn't store them on her computer, and it wasn't her fault that they were not reviewed many months ago during the initial investigation. In fact, Clinton never even knew these emails existed until now.

Just to set the record straight...

[drogulus]

     HRC is the top of the ticket, trying to support Dems, including those with FBI husbands. As a Clinton adviser I would tell her to help raise money for state level Dems everywhere. It's Trump who hates the party that nominated him, and who is hated by that party in turn.

     Is McCabe also corrupt? Did he want HRC prosecuted? Are we entitled to know? Is the FBI required to have an opinion on what's done with the results of their investigation, or just entitled to have one?

     Probably not, probably not, no, no, and yes......

[mahler10th]

I have followed all this election stuff, sitting up into the wee hours to watch the debates and face offs over the past few months. I always do with UK and US elections.  Damned interesting.  I knew Trump was an asshole after he came to Scotland looking to open a Golf Course, and his treatment of Aberdeenshire residents who were 'in the way' of said bloody golf course.  However, I was also horrified to discover Hillary had got rid of all the emails I sent her...even Dukakas was eminently more electable than what you've now got to choose from.  Good Luck America, whatever happens.  And God have mercy on your souls after Novemebr 8, etc...   

[San Antone]

Hillary Clinton is not primarily responsible for the political mess caused by the recent discovery of more emails that may be relevant to the investigation of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. These newly uncovered emails were not written, sent or received by Clinton. She didn't store them on her computer, and it wasn't her fault that they were not reviewed many months ago during the initial investigation. In fact, Clinton never even knew these emails existed until now.

Just to set the record straight...

You are assuming a lot.  There is a good chance that Clinton did know of these emails since the laptop was used by both Weiner and Abeidin.  Apparently there are thousands of emails sent to and from Abeidin, and possibly some sent to her by Hillary Clinton.  The FBI was not told by anyone from Clinton's team about the existence of this laptop and accidently discovered the emails related to Clinton when examining the laptop in their investigation into Weiner's sexting to a minor.

Comey pledged to Congress to inform them of any new developments during his testimony in the aftermath of his decision not to indict her.  He was caught between a rock and a hard place since had he not told them, he would have been accused of hiding them until after the election, and now that he did inform Congress in a timely manner he is being accused (unfairly, imo) of bad faith, or worse.

Why you would assume to know the contents of the emails is a mystery since the FBI just got a warrent to inspect the emails and only have right now a general idea of what is there.

[Brian]

Comey pledged to Congress to inform them of any new developments during his testimony in the aftermath of his decision not to indict her.  He was caught between a rock and a hard place since had he not told them, he would have been accused of hiding them until after the election, and now that he did inform Congress in a timely manner he is being accused (unfairly, imo) of bad faith, or worse.

I agree with you in general - I think that his letter could have been much more clearly worded, but no matter what he wrote or did, a lot of the news media would be misrepresenting it, attacking it, confusing it, misunderstanding it, or thinking it means things it doesn't.

[Karl Henning]

I have followed all this election stuff, sitting up into the wee hours to watch the debates and face offs over the past few months. I always do with UK and US elections.  Damned interesting.  I knew Trump was an asshole after he came to Scotland looking to open a Golf Course, and his treatment of Aberdeenshire residents who were 'in the way' of said bloody golf course.  However, I was also horrified to discover Hillary had got rid of all the emails I sent her...even Dukakas was eminently more electable than what you've now got to choose from.  Good Luck America, whatever happens.  And God have mercy on your souls after Novemebr 8, etc...   

Hoy, there, Johnny!  Good to see you!  And thank you for your prayers for mercy . . . .

[Karl Henning]

. . . according to news reports, [Comey's] been smarting under brutal fire from Republicans since deciding not to recommend a prosecution back in July. Well, to that we say: Tough. It's not his job to try to silence outrage. It's certainly not his job to do a "make good" for one side by overcompensating in its direction when a new issue comes up. That's politics, not justice.

(Again: note that the author is a Conservative.)

[Karl Henning]

... Trump's whining boiled down to: "McMullin is going from voter to voter listening to their problems!" Vice Presidential candidate Mike Pence stupidly insisted that "nobody's heard of him." Well, Trump and Pence lashing out gave him more valuable free media to make his case.

McMullin seized the chance to blast Trump-Pence on Twitter: "Yes you've never heard of me because while you were harassing women at beauty pageants, I was fighting terrorists abroad." He went on to tell Trump that he's an "authoritarian, life-long liberal who disrespects life, liberty, & equality." He added, "We can't trust you on justices."

On Meet the Press on Sunday, McMullin used his time to boost his name recognition, give out his website and tell voters: "We're on the ballot . . . in 11 states. We're registered as a write-in in a number of others, bringing the total number of states that we have ballot access to 43."

He was candid that he's interested in helping lead a major shakeup on the right. "I'm not sure I want to remake the Republican Party. I think we need a new conservative movement in this country that rededicates itself to the cause of liberty and to equality, the, the truth that all men and women are created equal," he said. "That's what this country needs. That's the kind of leadership it needs. The Republican Party has drifted away both from the cause of individual liberty and equality. And so we need something new."

(Wonder if he's registered as a write-in in Massachusetts?...)

[(poco) Sforzando]

And God have mercy on your souls after Novemebr 8, etc...   

That is the most credible statement on this entire thread.

[drogulus]

    ALERT! Corrupt Hillary prayed for Weiner, Abedin!

    Supreme Being inundates Scottish golf course with "hoax" sea level rise.

    S. Being on Trump: "Not a fan"

[Brian]

Independent candidate Evan McMullin, who might win Utah, says that his mother is married to another woman.