Curb Your Authoritarianism? The 2016 Conventional Wisdom Thread (Elections, Part 6)

Maybe that Mars colony will really come to fruition now

mars, bitches

our moonbase is going to be the most luxurious moonbase, a really terrific moonbase

isn't gingrich even somehow less popular than trump?

yup. Sad!

"A CNN/Opinion Research poll on Monday [2012] showed 63 percent of All Americans viewed Gingrich unfavorably, compared to just 25 percent who saw him in a positive light."

according to this huffpo link trump currently 59.2% unfavorable and 35.6% popular so big lolz good choice, donald.

a combined total of four ex-wives, solid family values ticket

are WP types cool with papists now, I can't remember

wait is this confirmed somewhere? gingrich? you're fucking kidding

no it's all speculation

but Gingrich and Christie have been rumored to be at the top of the list for a couple months now

what's jesse ventura up to nowadays

Ventura remains politically active and currently hosts a show on Ora TV and on RT called Off the Grid.

Sad!

The Straight Talk Express pulling in on a monorail near you.

rt as in russia today??

Was thinking how a Trump/Geffen ticket would be perfect.

Trump / Ghost of Eddie Guerrero '16

I don't know if there's anyone Trump can pick, positive or negative, who will make the election not 100% about Trump. McCain managed to do it in 2008--make an election that was 100% about Obama and Bush about someone else--for a few weeks.

can we persuade peter thiel to bankroll a trump/hogan ticket?

Trump's going to have his pick of the best, simply the best, sad losers on the planet.

that fool from The Fix wrote a little while ago that Comey's remarks are "very bad" for the Clinton campaign, but maybe I still don't get Beltway jabber.

i feel like the more i know about the actual workings of the federal government, the less seriously i take jabber from dc political reporters. beat reporters are different, those who have been covering topics for years & know what they are talking about. but the ones who just cover politics.. nah. i doubt the talking heads going on about this on cable know anything at all about systems of classification & how they vary among agencies, or how state's IT worked, etc.

i thought this article was illuminating: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/hillary-clinton-prosecution-past-cases-221744

i am picturing a circular loop of problems at state re: IT security --> at high levels they just expect things to work so they can get their actual jobs done which are v demanding. clinton doesn't know what an email server is! she just wants to be able to send/receive emails in a way that works for her.. so.. the IT people didn't follow best practices setting it up. but they have been doing similar things for agency managers for many years because they are probably chronically underfunded and powerless to implement better practices due to.. lack of support and funds because there has never been a major problem before, and they have so much to deal with.

td; dr: email server thing was bad practice but everyone involved at state was probably overworked and under-funded. problems like this in government stay bad practice unless/until there's some huge outcry or incident, then everyone freaks out and finally leadership forces something to be done about it.

also noticed clinton supporters on twitteronia today speculating that since trump had a rally tonight, he'd prob have some kind of meltdown after the no-indictment, and do something to embarrass himself

open twitter tonight & see 'saddam hussein' is trending because trump praised him (again)

someone planning to run for president probably should have had made sure it was all done by the book, but yeah the book is useless

reminded of The Google Search That Made the CIA Spy on the US Senate where the fuckin cia couldn't even manage its own fileserver in its own building

imo federal government IT is a clusterf*** and, this is important, there isn't always a book for all circumstances - writing policies/governance also takes time/support - technology/demands move faster than the writing of the book, so to speak

obvs state had rules for handling classified material but were they appropriately updated (& systems implemented to match) for the way the agency does business in 2016? highly doubtful

hey can I get in on this? also ISSOs and CISOs and CIOs work for the appointed leadership - they aren't independent like the OIG or primarily accountable to OMB like certain agency CFOs.
So if the Secretary or the Administrator or the Commissioner or whatever variety of HMFIC you've got tells the IT people to burn their NIST pubs and fudge the hell out of their risk assessments, well, you pick your battles in these things and unless you want to find yourself "promoted" to "special advisor" with 0 reports and a budget to match, you "find a way to get to yes" what the HMFIC asks.

LESS THAN TWO WEEKS UNTIL THE CONVENTION YOU GUYS

SATURDAY SATURDAY SATURDAY

lol does anyone remember "binders full of women". oh how far we've come.

a "gaffe" on that scale wouldn't even register this year

a little lol at the idea that comey's remarks will damage clinton's credibility. the right have already convinced themselves, in complete opposition to the facts of the case, that clinton is a criminal, and comey's decision not to recommend indictment has made him nothing more than a stooge of the left in their eyes. a rational party might take comey's harsh (and imo accurate) criticisms of clinton's professional judgment as cause for significant doubt as to clinton's fitness for office, but nope, not the right these days. if somebody's not directly accusing her of being a criminal, they're obviously on her side!

Come was accurate, and he spoke well and with precision, but his reputation for probity and rectitude, groomed by both parties and in which he's participated since his Brave Stand against the Bush administration, is starting to grate on me.

*Comey

Has Trump called for Comey's resignation yet?

Oh, man:

"Saddam Hussein was a bad guy. Right? He was a bad guy, really bad guy,” Trump offered as a disclaimer. “But you know what he did well? He killed terrorists. He did that so good. They didn't read them the rights—they didn't talk, they were a terrorist, it was over.”

the audio from this one is so repulsive

http://img0.joyreactor.cc/pics/comment/Саддам-Хусейн-1604278.gif

a rational party might take comey's harsh (and imo accurate) criticisms of clinton's professional judgment as cause for significant doubt as to clinton's fitness for office

yeah kind of an interesting strategy from Team Trump here, instead of claiming that Clinton's judgment is bad or that she thinks she's above the rules, he's going full-on conspiracy theory and shouting YOU SEE EVERYBODY IS CORRUPT BUT ME!!! at the top of his lungs, not surprising from a man who still thinks Obama is perhaps not a citizen (and in fact may have ties to ISIS) and regularly appeals to 9/11 truthers and flat earthers

i don't think this can be specifically called out as a trump thing. this is completely universal on the right, whether you support trump or no. if you support the republican part, you're _required_ to believe that clinton is a criminal as a core conviction.

Granted Johnson is running as a libertarian so I don't know if he qualifies as on the 'right' completely, but he declined to criticize her over the server issue.

xpost And also that she successfully bribed both the attorney general and FBI director. She's just so good at being bad. Maybe not as good at being bad as Saddam, but close enough! Still, not *so* good at being bad that she should be president, because that would be really bad, which would be no good.

she is rather good at being mediocre though

Eh, I think she's just OK at it.

i don't think this can be specifically called out as a trump thing. this is completely universal on the right, whether you support trump or no. if you support the republican part, you're _required_ to believe that clinton is a criminal as a core conviction.

I'm also seeing this as perhaps a 'last stand' maneuver from my remaining hardcore BernieBros on FB. It's like they were banking on her getting charged so he'd flip delegates at the 11th hour.

banking
Oh, another dog whistle, huh?

Granted Johnson is running as a libertarian so I don't know if he qualifies as on the 'right' completely, but he declined to criticize her over the server issue.

― akm, Wednesday, July 6, 2016 9:51 AM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that's more of a tactical choice, isn't it? i mean my libertarian friends like to justify him by talking about how his ads aren't negative unlike trump's and clinton's, so clearly johnson is trying to use "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all" as a selling point.

and yeah, clinton getting charged is the only shot bernie had left, though it's worth noting that bernie doesn't seem to have thought much of it- if the only way you can win is with superdelegate support, it's not a very smart idea to call for the total elimination of superdelegates.

waiting for the calls for investigation of Comey for taking bribes.

BTW I should apologize to Andrew Farrell. I thought AF was equating Comey's statements with "anyone else and we'd prosecute." AF noted that wasn't his opinion but rather the spin being spun on the right.

I looked into some fetid corners of the 'netz yesterday and he's exactly right: that is precisely how the dextrosphere is reading "this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances, a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences." OMG one law for the Clinton Crime syndicate and a different law for the rest of us, blah blah blah.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) announced that FBI Director James Comey will testify before his panel on Thursday regarding the bureau's investigation of Hillary Clinton's email practices.

oh lol

Then we can investigate the investigation of the investigators. Wheels within wheels, man. The conspiracy goes to the top! The top I say!

have to wonder how much taxpayer money has been spent in the last two decades investigating the Clintons