Awesome trip to Akron and back to drop off Christion for his father’s service. Siri apparently sent me on the “I’m a drug mule” route with no highways through central rural Ohio, and on the way home I went the highway route and spent an hour of my life sitting in traffic because of this fucking guy:
A man who led police on a pursuit near Wells Township that turned into a standoff with multiple police agencies along U.S. 30 in Columbiana County on Tuesday afternoon, surrendered just after 5 p.m.
Witnesses say the driver was going in excess of 100 mph, and they finally caught up to him near the Calcutta exit.
We ALL CAUGHT UP TO HIM, even the fail parade of Ohio drivers doing 55 in the fucking passing lane. I was so proud of myself for not going insane and screaming profanities because I kept telling myself that if it were someone I knew in the accident I would want them to take their time and rescue them and do everything they could to help them, and then I find out it was probably some douchebag on meth being a dick.
At any rate, it gave me time to check my phone and scan the headlines to catch up on CROOKED HILLARY, and from what I gather from wingnuts, she basically did this AND GOT AWAY WITH IT:
Now that I am home and have read Comey’s statement, it’s basically exactly what I said would happen (and so did everyone with a fucking brain):
Here’s how I’m betting this will play out. The FBI is not going to recommend any charges for several reasons. First, I don’t think she did anything criminal. Second, the FBI is not going to charge a major political candidate in the middle of an election cycle, because to do so would forever taint the FBI as a partisan organization, and no Democrat would ever have any faith in them to be independent whatsoever. Also, their budget comes from elected office, and they aren’t going to stretch the rules or bend over backwards to find some bullshit reason to charge her. They just aren’t.
If the FBI does anything, it will issue some long report with a bunch of mealy mouthed bullshit, the investigative version of “mistakes were made,” and say that while she did not do anything illegal or criminal she did something improper. This will then give them defense against the right, who also fund their budget and do not want to be left with nothing. They will then recommend a bunch of changes to policy regarding this to all levels of government in regards to email protocols and security.
The Republicans, having just demanded that Loretta Lynch recuse herself for… reasons, will then have no way to demand that she do something additional to HRC, because, as we know, she has recused herself and has nothing to do with the process. And thus, E-Mail Benghazi: Electric Boogaloo, will come to an end with some short term yelling and fauxtrage on Fox, some hysterics among the Infowars sect, and some smug tweets coming from secure pockets of true progressive Bernistan. I’ll note for posterity that these are increasingly overlapped areas in a Venn diagram. Who knows, maybe Dan Burton will videotape himself shooting a server in his backyard.
You don’t prosecute someone for basically trying, in good faith, to do their job. What she did is basically the equivalent of someone at McDonalds, over a couple of years, accidentally putting two or four pickle slices on a couple dozen cheeseburgers out of the tens of thousands they made instead of the called for three slices. It was not, as certain gibbering idiots will claim, the same thing as Snowden or Manning or whoever they barf up.
So. The end. Except this is America and if you think this ended pretty much the way it should have, you are now ok WITH OFFICIALS BREAKING THE LAW AND YOU HATE THE COMMON MAN AND BLERGITY BLAH BLAH HAVE YOU NO MORAL COMPASS YOU SHILLARY LOVING NEOLIBERAL CRONY?
You want my attention? Work on properly funding the technological needs of our government and work your ass off to fix our totally fucked up classification system. And I still maintain it was stupid as fuck for her to do this because she had to know something like this would happen.
? Martin
Less than 120 seconds and not even a single comment on the other post. That’s got to be a bigfoot record.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Photo of the day (link)
Matt McIrvin
I still don’t believe the “come to an end” part.
tsquared2001
@? Martin:
But.
Damn.
Some righteous ranting was happening.
Can’t put a price on that
dedc79
Inanimate objects for which I feel pity: (1) the caps lock button on H.A. Goodman’s keyboard. That is all.
Cacti
Now that Hillary knows she won’t be indicted, can she go ahead and graciously concede to President Bernie?
(j/k)
Schlemazel Khan
Whats the over/under on the number of Congressional investigations into President Clinton’s email server?
gene108
Drove from the Philadelphia area to Chicago years ago. I have never seen more cops waiting to catch someone speeding than I saw on the Ohio Turnpike.
And this was around midnight, when we were driving through Ohio. There wasn’t a lot of traffic, though most of the folks on the road were from out-of-state.
? Martin
I would also point out that email is pretty much the root of all evil and that it’s functionally impossible to not fuck it up entirely. Remember when everyone thought that Apple and Google cloud services were insecure because JLaw and others private photos got out? Not a security flaw on Apple’s part, just hundreds of celebrities using email.
It is impossible to not fuck up email. You may succeed for some period of time, but eventually you will fuck it up.
nihil obstet
I agree that this case ended as it should have. I think the other 7 cases that the DOJ has prosecuted against whistleblowers should have ended the same way. The issue is always, if you believe something’s wrong, do you think it’s better that everybody suffer the wrong or that only the powerless should. Which is more important — the outcome on a single case or the principle of equal justice under the law? Clinton herself has condemned those who were convicted of doing what she has done. I wish she were more committed to equality.
? Martin
@tsquared2001: I don’t care about bigfooting, but it irritates Cole to call him on it, so we are duty bound to do so.
muddy
@? Martin: There will be no respite!
? Martin
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: You know, nobody is going to get a better photo than the press photos being taken at the event. The only reason to capture on your phone is to prove you were there. That’s the equivalent of a room full of people holding up today’s newspaper to prove they’re still alive.
/oldmanrant, thankyouforobliging
redshirt
@? Martin: I think Cole has done under a minute before. It’s all luck though as it’s not like he’s planning to bigfoot anyone.
But I appreciate a third go at the same topic!
? Martin
@efgoldman: Not just Rice and Powell but half the federal government. You don’t think Comey cuts security corners himself? Proper security is unbearably hostile to productivity.
FlipYrWhig
@nihil obstet:
I’d like to see where she did that. As even Comey said, they found no intention by HRC or her associates to misuse or redistribute the information in question. That’s not how it was for Petraeus, Manning, or Snowden. Am I missing something?
ETA: I just remembered the case of Sandy Berger. Those who know: is that a useful parallel?
Bobby Thomson
@? Martin: and yet millions manage not to fall for phishing schemes. Weird.
dr. bloor
@Schlemazel Khan: Is “All of them, Katie” a number?
Schlemazel Khan
@FlipYrWhig:
Yes you are! You are missing that it is Clinton that did it so it has to be WRONG and she MUST be punished.
I thought that would be obvious to all of us here, some (the deluded) because they believe it & the sane ones because we have come to expect it.
chopper
the second sentence is never gonna happen on account of that first word.
hovercraft
It’s over for rational people, but the republicans who were pinning their hopes of an indictment it will never end. And the media will press this as much as they can, they want a close race. If it’s a cake walk they will lose clicks and ratings. Plus the beltway hates the Clinton’s.
Schlemazel Khan
@dr. bloor:
In this case yes, but of course some number of them will turn up even greater crimes and we will all get to relive the 90s. I hope for the economic growth of the WJC era but we will probably just have to settle for the Congressional shit show.
chopper
@nihil obstet:
your ideas are intriguing and i would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
Chris
Damn, that post was prophetic.
Calouste
OT, but it looks like the Tory leadership contest is going to be between two women, Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom. Considering the shitshow over the last few weeks by men in UK politics (Cameron, Johnson, Farage, Gove, Corbyn), that seems like a natural reaction.
Trollhattan
@chopper:
Christ, the trolls keep recycling themselves like Mexican Coke ™ bottles. Can’t/don’t want to keep up.
philadelphialawyer
@nihil obstet: Completely wrong. Whistleblowing is an entirely different issue. Whistleblowers, by definition, act intentionally. They blow the whistle. They, on purpose and by design, release info that they know is classified. Right or wrong, when it comes to the classification, and the release, still, it is different. Hillary did not release anything classified. And certainly did not release anything classified intentionally. This false equivalence is a RW meme, and is the product of either bad faith or lazy thinking.
geg6
@nihil obstet:
Exactly what did she do that is exactly the same? And exactly what whistleblowers are you referring to so we can compare and contrast?
geg6
@Calouste:
Typical conservative men, always expecting women to clean up their messes.
SiubhanDuinne
@Calouste:
Interesting to realize that within a very few months three of the (still) (arguably) most important nations in the world are likely to be governed by women.
I am glad to see this day, even if at one level it is merely symbolic. Symbols are still important.
patroclus
@FlipYrWhig: No. Berger took classified documents from the National Archives, stuffed them down his pants and left the building. Granted, they were just for his memoirs (or to counter critics) and weren’t given to foreign spies or anything, but you can’t not prosecute that. Petreaus knowingly shared classified material with his mistress. Again, he didn’t do it for nefarious purposes but you can’t ignore that either. Like her predecessors, Hillary merely used an unsecure server to do real government business at variance from a presidential directive (and later law) – some classified material was apparently included in some of the messages. Unlike the other examples, there was clearly no intent to knowingly share classified material. No prosecution should have resulted and it didn’t. She can be justifiably criticized for it, but it wasn’t criminal, nor even close.
Hungry Joe
We visit southern Ohio (Oxford area) every year from SoCal, and every year I’m gobsmacked by the local driving behavior. If I’m doing 50 in the right lane of a four-lane highway (two lanes each direction), someone will invariably pull up behind me and tailgate for miles and miles … even as the left lane remains wide open. What am I supposed to do — speed up? (Why should I?) Pull over? (Where?) Do a passive-aggressive gradual slow-down? (My wife says “Oh, grow up.”) This rarely happens in our neck of the USA.
Also: No sensors at intersections. The lights run on a timer, and that’s that. No cars coming from any direction? Tough noogies; sit there and idle for an eternal minute or two.
I try not to be a smug regionalist, but (most) SoCal drivers are GOOD, and San Diego drivers in particular are (in general) courteous. Spoiled, I am.
LanceThruster
Yeah…’extremely careless’ is a nothingburger when it comes to pickles…but maybe less so when it comes to competence involving national security,
The Lodger
@nihil obstet: Clearly, you don’t make policy for the TSA. Everybody has to suffer the wrong, otherwise we’d still be able to pack shampoo bottles and carry water bottles or go through security checks without removing our shoes and belts or taking EVERY FUCKING KLEENEX out of our pockets because reasons.
Omnes Omnibus
@LanceThruster: Whatever, dude. We get it. You hates her forever.
hovercraft
@Calouste:
I know the men would be leaving the new PM with a shit sandwich, but it would be kinda cool to have Scotland and Britain run by women. And then come January there’d be another woman across the pond to help try to clean up the mess these men have wrought.
burnspbesq
@dedc79:
H.A. Goodman can just go suck Reggie Mantle’s dick (assuming such a thing actually exists). They deserve each other.
The Lodger
@Hungry Joe: (most) SoCal drivers are GOOD
The rest of them have moved up here to Oregon. Trust me on this.
hovercraft
@Omnes Omnibus:
The guy who prosecuted Saint Petreus, was on Chuck Toads show and he said there were huge differences in the two cases, Patreus lied he told the FBI he never gave her access to classified material, and then was dumb enough to actually e-mail her telling her that the black books he was giving her access to contained classified info. Whereas Hilllary did not lie and there was no evidence of any willful disclosures. As for the negligent release or endangering classified material statue, he said that it has never been used to prosecute anyone. So I guess they actually do want her to get special treatment making her a different type of first.
These two things are not the same, but trolls will keep coming here to tell us how unfair life is because their indictment fantasy.
Bitter Scribe
I used to be concerned when I sat in traffic jams caused by accidents, and hope that everyone was all right. Now I grouse about shitwits who can’t drive. I’m getting old and grumpy.
LanceThruster
@Omnes Omnibus:
I hate that there’s a better choice…that’s still in the running, that people pretend is not in contention.
#StillSanders
Origuy
@gene108:
Back in the 60’s, my family took a road trip to DC. The only time I recall my father ever getting a speeding ticket was outside Chilicothe. That was before there were freeways everywhere. We went through some winding two-lane roads in WV on that trip.
Omnes Omnibus
@LanceThruster: How the fuck is he still in contention?
sacrablue
@Origuy: The only speeding ticket my husband has ever gotten was just outside of Chillicothe!
Origuy
@sacrablue: Mom?
sacrablue
@Origuy: I think I would have remembered giving birth to another child.
EBT
@efgoldman: I thought Rice used no email at all.
philadelphialawyer
@Hungry Joe: People who do that might be dangerous. They might be DUI or on the phone or texting, or emotionally upset, or just sleepy. They tailgate someone in the right lane because then they can just follow that person, and not have to decide on a speed themselves, or change lanes. It is kinda like an autopilot.
I would change lanes and speed up and try to dust them. Or, consider this a good time to make a pit stop. Or just find a convenient shoulder area or roadside business to pull into. I would not slow down, as they might rear end you, or just keep slowing down themselves to match you.
Calouste
@LanceThruster: Sanders? Isn’t that that guy who runs on being “honest and transparent”, but refuses to release his tax returns?
philadelphialawyer
@LanceThruster: Yawn.
Last time I checked, the FBI conducts investigations, and then makes recommendations viz a viz prosecution to the US attorney. Despite his play acting, and pontificating, the head of the FBI is not actually a headmaster at a boarding school. He has no extra legal, extra prosecutorial recommendation, demerits to hand out. So, he, in his asshole Republican opinion, thinks that Hillary doing what she was advised to do by the experts at State, and what her GOP predecessors had done, was “extremely careless.” Good for him. That and three bucks will get you a coffee at Starbucks.
scav
@Calouste: Or, is he the bicyclist that’s still en route between Mont-Saint-Michel and Utah Beach?
redshirt
@philadelphialawyer: One lane wonders. It’s almost always because they can’t pay attention to driving for whatever reason. They’ll go 90 and then 55 because the car in front of them is doing 55. They’re usually safe in a “not going to shoot you and kill you” kind of way.
LanceThruster
@Calouste:
Well..,he *did* release all his paid Wall Street speeches, He has no scam charitable foundation (i.e. crazy high overhead) either, that I know of.
LanceThruster
@Omnes Omnibus:
The comventipn has not happened yet, and SD’s haven’t voted.
Andy
“To be clear, this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances, a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences. To the contrary, those individuals are often subject to security or administrative sanctions. But that is not what we are deciding now.”
In other words, there is plenty of scope for prosecution, but since the culprit is such a powerful person, we can’t suggest that in this case?
They are going to work overtime spinning this one. Because that’s the objective: spin.
The embarrassing facts are not important.
Andy
@LanceThruster: ..Forget it dude..it’s their “Benghazi” for Sanders.
Frankensteinbeck
I’m sure this thread is dead, but I just wanted to congratulate you, John. You called this one with oracular clarity.
wuzzat
@LanceThruster: I suppose the 12% of Clinton Foundation money that doesn’t go back into charitable services and programs would be considered crazy high by some people. Probably not to Bernie Sanders, who donates slightly less 4% of his 6 figure income to charity and scored a vacation to Europe off his mostly underemployed college student supporters, but some people.
LanceThruster
@wuzzat:
I know who paid for *my* candidate.
LanceThruster
@wuzzat:
I stand corrected. The non-right wing sites show reasonsble expenditures…
However –
http://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/what-the-clinton-foundation-is-costing-hillary
philadelphialawyer
@Andy: Um, no. Since Hillary is not currently employed by the Federal government, there is no context in which security or administrative sanctions could be recommended. Criminal prosecution, on the other hand, which, in theory, could be called for, is not appropriate, for the reasons stated. Being “powerful” (which, by the way, Hillary is actually not….as of right now, she is a private citizen), has nothing to do with it. But you keep spinning, dead ender, and accuse of others of doing what you are doing. Right out of the Rove playbook, as are you bullshit slanders.
tybee
@Bobby Thomson:
yet millions do hence the continuation of phishing schemes.
WarMunchkin
I just realized, there is going to be eight fucking years of this shit. Might as well just do the impeachment now and get it over with.
redshirt
@LanceThruster: Mostly the taxpayers of Vermont; lately, a bunch of misogynistic gamerate redpill bros.
Juju
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: I wanted to go to the rally today, but it would have been a five hour drive there and back, and I was dealing with migraine vision issues. Wah.
J R in WV
To Akron, hmmm. I-70 west from where you are to Cambridge, then I-77 north a bit to around Canton, right? I’ve been to Akron once, to see Tom Petty and Bob Dylan, and the G. Dead, in the Rubber Bowl.
I have been up I-77 to Cleveland, and seem to recall some signs –> Akron up there somewhere.
Siri, WTF?
And what you say about Federal IT infrastructure and Security Classifications.
As long as the federal government counts on contractor firms and their employees to maintain the national government’s data infrastructure, we are screwed. A company loses a contract, all the knowledge goes out the door. People do their job according to strange definitions in contracts, instead of getting the job done.
Once I tried to get a grant in worker time instead of money, because there was serious talk that state government would no longer be able to hire contractors for specified periods of time based upon federal grants for those time periods. We were offered a guy who wasn’t really good at what we needed to do, at $155/hour, working in DC instead of where the user community was.
When he came to town, instead of a meeting with 3 people, it was a three ring circus with 3 guys from EPA, 2 extra guys from the contractor firm, plus the 4 people who needed to be in the meeting. Plus we got charged against the grant for the travel for the 8 people from DC who needed to attend the meeting. The meeting where nothing concrete got accomplished.
So sad.
And, anytime anyone makes a mistake, classify it, and go on doing whatever it was that caused the Fuq-up. Doesn’t really work for me. But we never had to deal with that, most all our data was public by law. Thank FSM!!!
LanceThruster
@redshirt:
Fv<k that characterization of his supporters. Could be her highness's rat-fvckers,
She had/has a million dollar internet response team,
J R in WV
@FlipYrWhig:
Come on, he stuffed secret papers down his pants!! To steal them!!
That’s totally different from what SecState Clinton and her related staff did. No relationship at all.
And he got off with a slap on the wrist, too.
planetjanet
@Calouste: O have seen this show before. There is a particular pattern of women being selected for leadership in corporations just after the previous CEO destroyed the company. I have been wanting to research the examples but have not had time.
redshirt
@LanceThruster: Are you a BernieBro? Your user name suggests so. And so far nearly all the manic Bernie Dead Enders have fit the profile.
Mnemosyne
@LanceThruster:
Bernie got fewer votes. Period. The fact that you want the superdelegates to override the votes of millions of your fellow Democrats says something really scary about you.
Splitting Image
@planetjanet:
For when you do have time, be sure to research Kim Campbell, who became Canada’s first female Prime Minister when all the other rats jumped out of Brian Mulroney’s sinking ship.
Also, in the interest of basic fairness, don’t forget to mention that Carly Fiorina was unusual in that HP made her the CEO before the company was destroyed.
Tim Wayne
That reminds me – in 2007, my company produced a commercial where we blew up servers:
youtu.be/wReAAzumnbI
We also did one where we shot them: youtu.be/FhlZ7wAAc74
And I “starred” in the third one, where we set them on fire with blowtorches: youtu.be/NLdLSPlf39o