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BearyScary Since: Sep, 2010 Relationship Status: You spin me right round, baby
TacticalFox88 from USA Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Dating the Doctor
#147052: Oct 28th 2016 at 6:38:54 PM

To all:

This morning I sent a letter to Congress in connection with the Secretary Clinton email investigation. Yesterday, the investigative team briefed me on their recommendation with respect to seeking access to emails that have recently been found in an unrelated case. Because those emails appear to be pertinent to our investigation, I agreed that we should take appropriate steps to obtain and review them.

Of course, we don’t ordinarily tell Congress about ongoing investigations, but here I feel an obligation to do so given that I testified repeatedly in recent months that our investigation was completed. I also think it would be misleading to the American people were we not to supplement the record. At the same time, however, given that we don’t know the significance of this newly discovered collection of emails, I don’t want to create a misleading impression. In trying to strike that balance, in a brief letter and in the middle of an election season, there is significant risk of being misunderstood, but I wanted you to hear directly from me about it.

Jim Comey

Comey's letter to the FBI internally

He needs to go. Anyone with basic reading comprehension could see what his motives were

New Survey coming this weekend!
Elle Since: Jan, 2001
#147053: Oct 28th 2016 at 6:50:39 PM

The sentiment on Comey's motives seems to mostly depend on whose side they're hurting/helping at any given moment, both here and elsewhere. It was the Republicans that were calling for his head when he stood by his initial findings.

FFShinra Since: Jan, 2001
#147054: Oct 28th 2016 at 6:53:12 PM

[up][up]Comey is trying to dot his 'i's and cross his 't's. He isn't trying to be sinister, he just knows if he leaves it be, even if its irrelevant, the House (and maybe the Senate if the GOP keeps it) will have his head if they were to find it later.

Elle Since: Jan, 2001
#147056: Oct 28th 2016 at 7:09:26 PM

Trump saying so does not make it so. Sound and fury.

AlleyOop Since: Oct, 2010
#147057: Oct 28th 2016 at 7:09:54 PM

First half of the article is alarm-mongering, second half outright states it might be nothing after all. The media outrage is all self-induced. It's ridiculous.

edited 28th Oct '16 7:10:17 PM by AlleyOop

pwiegle Cape Malleum Majorem from Nowhere Special Since: Sep, 2015 Relationship Status: Singularity
Cape Malleum Majorem
#147058: Oct 28th 2016 at 7:11:06 PM

"Meanwhile, nothing noteworthy continues to be discussed at length and in painstaking detail, contributing to wild speculation and off-the wall conspiracy theories. Also in this late-breaking news story, nothing is happening and is continuing to not happen. We'll keep beating this dead horse 24/7, for as long as our ratings climb. This is Rants Freely, coming to you from Overhype News, where we never let facts get in the way of a good story — or a bad story, for that matter."

This Space Intentionally Left Blank.
LinkToTheFuture A real bad hombre from somewhere completely different Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: What's love got to do with it?
A real bad hombre
#147059: Oct 28th 2016 at 7:11:56 PM

I feel like a lot of reluctant voters will just fall away now though. Screw the facts, we have buzzwords

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." -Thomas Edison
speedyboris Since: Feb, 2010
#147060: Oct 28th 2016 at 7:12:14 PM

"Do yourself a favor and don't check how Fox News is spinning it. The damn network's on about 70% of the T Vs at my local gym, and the stable of pundits and their totally unbiased correspondents were practically drooling."

Ugh, I know. I was at my gym earlier today and I had the "pleasure" of seeing Preibus's smug smile.

edited 28th Oct '16 7:12:30 PM by speedyboris

NativeJovian Jupiterian Local from Orlando, FL Since: Mar, 2014 Relationship Status: Maxing my social links
Jupiterian Local
#147061: Oct 28th 2016 at 7:33:05 PM

Comey is trying to dot his 'i's and cross his 't's. He isn't trying to be sinister, he just knows if he leaves it be, even if its irrelevant, the House (and maybe the Senate if the GOP keeps it) will have his head if they were to find it later.
I call shenanigans on that. The internal memo Tactical posted literally says "we don't normally brief Congress on this sort of thing, but I wanted to make sure the public knew about it". He can't possibly be so ignorant as to not anticipate the reaction this would generate. He knew exactly what he was doing.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.
KarkatTheDalek Not as angry as the name would suggest. from Somwhere in Time/Space Since: Mar, 2012 Relationship Status: You're a beautiful woman, probably
Not as angry as the name would suggest.
#147062: Oct 28th 2016 at 7:37:56 PM

...Can the President fire the Director of the FBI?

I'm mostly asking because I'm wondering if maybe he feels like his job's at risk if Clinton becomes President.

Oh God! Natural light!
LeGarcon Blowout soon fellow Stalker from Skadovsk Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Gay for Big Boss
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
#147063: Oct 28th 2016 at 7:39:17 PM

God I hope so. The dude deserves it.

Oh really when?
pwiegle Cape Malleum Majorem from Nowhere Special Since: Sep, 2015 Relationship Status: Singularity
Cape Malleum Majorem
#147064: Oct 28th 2016 at 7:40:12 PM

[up][up]The Director of the FBI is appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.

...so, I'd say yes.

edited 28th Oct '16 7:40:26 PM by pwiegle

This Space Intentionally Left Blank.
BearyScary Since: Sep, 2010 Relationship Status: You spin me right round, baby
#147065: Oct 28th 2016 at 7:40:14 PM

Out of curiosity, I checked 538 and Clinton's chances are up to 81.5% now. It was updated an hour ago. This is an increase from the last time I heard of 538's predictions.

I find it interesting that Texas is not the reddest state on their map.

How accurate are their predictions?

edited 28th Oct '16 7:43:11 PM by BearyScary

Do not obey in advance.
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#147066: Oct 28th 2016 at 7:41:56 PM

It will take a few days for the polls reflect any impact.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
BonsaiForest Since: Jan, 2001
#147067: Oct 28th 2016 at 7:42:36 PM

My Former Republican Party

This goes into more detail than usual about how different the Republican party used to be.

To see how far it’s fallen, let’s remind ourselves of where it once was.

Immigration: At a 1980 Republican primary debate in Houston, candidates George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan were asked whether the children of illegal immigrants should be allowed to attend public schools for free. Mr. Bush said they should. “We’re creating a whole society of really honorable, decent, family-loving people that are in violation of the law,” he lamented.

Reagan agreed. Instead of “putting up a fence,” he asked, “why don’t we . . . make it possible for them to come here legally with a work permit, and then, while they’re working and earning here, they pay taxes here.” For good measure, Reagan suggested we should “open the border both ways.”

Where, in the populist fervor to build a wall with Mexico and deport millions of human beings, is that Republican Party today?

Trade: “It is the maxim of every prudent master of a family, never to attempt to make at home what it will cost him more to make than to buy,” wrote Adam Smith in 1776. “If a foreign country can supply us with a commodity cheaper than we ourselves can make it, better to buy it of them.” Two centuries later, Milton Friedman noted that trade protectionism “really means exploiting the consumer” by artificially limiting choice and raising prices for the benefit of domestic producers.

Adam Smith and Milton Friedman were once canonical conservative figures. Free trade was once a Republican conviction. In one of his final radio addresses as president, Reagan warned “we should beware of the demagogues who are ready to declare a trade war against our friends—weakening our economy, our national security, and the entire free world—all while cynically waving the American flag.”

Where, in the tide of Tea Party opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership and all those other “disastrous trade deals” that Donald Trump never fails to mention, is that Republican Party today?

Foreign policy: In 1947 Harry Truman asked Arthur Vandenberg, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to support his efforts to shore up the governments in Greece and Turkey against Soviet aggression. Vandenberg agreed, marking his—and the GOP’s—turn from isolationism to internationalism.

Since then, six Republican presidents have never wavered in their view that a robust system of treaty alliances such as NATO are critical for defending the international liberal order, or that the U.S. should dissuade faraway allies such as South Korea and Saudi Arabia from seeking nuclear weapons, or that states such as Russia should be kept out of regions such as the Middle East.

Where, amid Mr. Trump’s routine denunciations of our allegedly freeloading allies, or Newt Gingrich’s public doubts about defending NATO member Estonia against Russian aggression, or the alt-right’s attacks on “globalism,” or Sean Hannity’s newfound championship of Wiki Leaks and its founder, Julian Assange, is that Republican Party today?

Culture, civility and character: For decades, conservative publishers have issued a long succession of titles on the importance of personal character to the preservation of democratic institutions. Notable on the list is William J. Bennett’s “The Book of Virtues,” whose first chapter deals with the importance of self-discipline. The former secretary of education followed that one up with “The Death of Outrage: Bill Clinton and the Assault on American Ideals,” timed to the Lewinsky scandal.

These books were not wrong. Character counts. The example set by a leader colors the culture of the company, institution or country he leads. We long for presidents who might follow Washington’s “Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior.” Rule No. 1: “Every Action done in Company, ought to be with Some Sign of Respect, to those that are Present.”

Where, in the apparently limitless forgiveness GOP voters are willing to extend to Mr. Trump for his public affronts to “that face” Carly or that “nasty woman” Hillary Clinton, is that Republican Party today?

I’ve become accustomed to the invariable gusher of letters that will follow this column, pointing out Mrs. Clinton’s well-known character flaws, along with apocalyptic visions of what her presidency might bring. Such deflections are the usual way in which people seek to justify their own side’s moral lapses. I don’t see the point of belonging to a party on the increasingly dubious assumption that it’s slightly less bad than the opposition. If I can’t get my Grand Old Party back, I’d rather help build a new one.

KarkatTheDalek Not as angry as the name would suggest. from Somwhere in Time/Space Since: Mar, 2012 Relationship Status: You're a beautiful woman, probably
TacticalFox88 from USA Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Dating the Doctor
#147070: Oct 28th 2016 at 8:06:29 PM

Come should just resign after the election. There's no way on God's Green Earth Hillary is going to tolerate his presence and blatant fuckery throughout her term.

New Survey coming this weekend!
Mio Since: Jan, 2001
#147071: Oct 28th 2016 at 8:11:00 PM

Comey is in a position where he can't really be removed without the people who removed looking extremely shady. He's pretty safe in the short-term.

That being said I'm not really sure what his motivation for doing this at this time, assuming he does have an insidious motive and isn't just covering his ass at an inconvenient time.

Tacitus Since: Jan, 2001
#147072: Oct 28th 2016 at 8:19:11 PM

It's either bring up this potentially game-changing revelation (unless it isn't) now, and get roasted by the Democrats for trying to screw over their chances to win the election, or play things by the book and hope that nobody leaks that there might be some Clinton-related e-mails in this tangentially-connected investigation, in which case he'd get roasted by the Republicans again and feed into Trump's whining about the system being rigged against him.

It would appear he concluded that if he didn't raise this fuss himself it would get out eventually and cause a bigger ruckus, plus this now means that both sides of the aisle have accused the FBI of having a political agenda, so that's fair.

I can understand that, and I'm sympathetic. But as someone who is really, really ready to hear Trump's concession speech, I am not happy about it.

...Well, so long as we're speculating over something in an unreleased document that might disqualify a president in the eyes of the voters, can we start talking about Trump's tax returns and potential business ties to Russian oligarchs backing Vladimir Putin?

edited 28th Oct '16 8:20:13 PM by Tacitus

NativeJovian Jupiterian Local from Orlando, FL Since: Mar, 2014 Relationship Status: Maxing my social links
Jupiterian Local
#147073: Oct 28th 2016 at 8:23:20 PM

Given that both options will get someone pissed at him, he could take the actual reasonable option, and not go out of his way to report the chance for the possibility of something that may or may not be construed as relevant if you squint hard enough.

As the internal email said, the FBI doesn't usually give Congress reports on investigations in progress. Comey wasn't just following standard procedure, here. He went out of his way to make this happen.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.
FFShinra Since: Jan, 2001
#147074: Oct 28th 2016 at 8:31:46 PM

Yes. Because Congress is on his ass for not "getting" her a few months ago. By keeping it quiet, he feeds into the rigged narrative. What will be great is if this is nothing, so all the people "lauding" this move look like dunces. He gets off the hook because he can say he did his due dilligence.

NativeJovian Jupiterian Local from Orlando, FL Since: Mar, 2014 Relationship Status: Maxing my social links
Jupiterian Local
#147075: Oct 28th 2016 at 8:45:52 PM

[up]Doesn't matter if the investigation isn't finished until after the election.

Or at least the investigation results are announced. If it's really just a handful of emails, as has been suggested, the investigation could be over tomorrow. (Which would still serve the GOP's purposes, because more people are likely to hear of the "HILLARY UNDER INVESTIGATION AGAIN!!" story than the "nevermind, it was nothing" story.)

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

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