The 2016 US Election (Part IV)

[FireNexus]

Fucking Christ. How much you want to bet that nothing is found but Republicans use it to further destroy their party and obstruct governance by frothing up their idiot base?

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Fucking Christ. How much you want to bet that nothing is found but Republicans use it to further destroy their party and obstruct governance by frothing up their idiot base?

It wouldn't surprise me if they were at least partly behind the FBI's decision to do this, at this point they're desperate enough they'll try anything.

[SolarpunkFan]

Snip.

And just when I was getting hopeful... this shit happens.

There's probably nothing, but the average citizen of my country is flat out stupid, so now I'll have nightmares of Bush vs Gore 2: Hellectric WhatTheFuckaloo.

Time for me to start getting a bug-out bag methinks. Sharpening my rusty first aid skills probably wouldn't hurt either.

[cosmicalstorm]

If Trump wins he prosecutes HRC.

If HRC wins Comey drops the case again.

Schrodingers investigation can only be concluded after the election.

[The Romulan Republic]

The timing of this is either a very poor chance, or a deliberate attempt by the FBI to sabotage the Clinton campaign.

Not going to change my vote, in any case, and I doubt it'll be enough to make up the ground Trump lost for being exposed as rapist scum.

If, by some chance, this investigation actually amounts to anything, then my vote for Hillary Clinton just becomes a vote Tim Kaine, and I'm cool with that.

[FireNexus]

Frankly, this is priced in. Anybody who already decided to vote for Clinton did it in spite of any email shenanigans. The only way this effects the outcome is if a high number of undecideds (nearly all) swing away due to this. But even they are undecided despite the email shenanigans weighing against her.

If it affects the race at all, I'd bet on it counterintuitively helping Clinton. The big story earlier in the week was Clinton Complacency. A story with the potential to swing the election to Trump (limited though it be) could make those complacent voters scared enough to GOTV.

[FireNexus]

Here's a question I've been wondering. Say a few days before the election, Bill Clinton has a stroke that totally incapacitated him (like my grandpa who lost his ability to speak and walk) or just up and died. Would that positively affect Clinton's chances? Especially considering Trump. A lot of people would be really turned off by speaking the way he does about a woman whose husband of forty years kicked the bucket. By the same token, it would highlight the age and health questions.

I don't see any reason it should happen, except that he's old and has a history with cheeseburgers. But a wapo article about Clinton's role being "to disappear" got me thinking about it.

[The Romulan Republic]

The race does seem to have tightened slightly in the last few days, and so, while I doubt this'll hand Trump an easy win, it could make it closer. Which potentially means more contested races, chances for fraud/voter suppression to work, etc.

Hopefully it'll be much ado about nothing, but this should definitely be a wake-up call for Clinton supporters that its not over until its over.

[Dalton]

FACTS ABOUT THE NEW EMAILS:

• Unrelated to the Clinton server investigation
• Part of the Weiner investigation
• Emails found on a personal device belonging to Weiner and Huma Abedin
• There may only be three emails
• Comey is being way too vague

[Gaidin]

The race does seem to have tightened slightly in the last few days, and so, while I doubt this'll hand Trump an easy win, it could make it closer. Which potentially means more contested races, chances for fraud/voter suppression to work, etc.

Hopefully it'll be much ado about nothing, but this should definitely be a wake-up call for Clinton supporters that its not over until its over.

Unless you think all email fanwhores that were undecided live in Ohio and knew about this for a week it doesn't change much. Check the polling. It's closer because Trump is on a streak in Ohio, elsewhere is about like I've seen for the last three weeks.

[Gaidin]

FACTS ABOUT THE NEW EMAILS:

• Unrelated to the Clinton server investigation
• Part of the Weiner investigation
• Emails found on a personal device belonging to Weiner and Huma Abedin
• There may only be three emails
• Comey is being way too vague

*Comey is saving face.

[The Romulan Republic]

The race does seem to have tightened slightly in the last few days, and so, while I doubt this'll hand Trump an easy win, it could make it closer. Which potentially means more contested races, chances for fraud/voter suppression to work, etc.

Hopefully it'll be much ado about nothing, but this should definitely be a wake-up call for Clinton supporters that its not over until its over.

Unless you think all email fanwhores that were undecided live in Ohio and knew about this for a week it doesn't change much. Check the polling. It's closer because Trump is on a streak in Ohio, elsewhere is about like I've seen for the last three weeks.

This story is too recent for it to have had a significant effect on the polls.

What I am saying is that this story, in concert with the previous slight tightening in the race, could pose a problem.

But yeah, criticize me for daring to suggest that maybe we shouldn't get complacent until the election is actually won. That's all that I'm saying. Not that we'll lose. Not that it'll even necessarily be close. Just that we shouldn't get complacent.

I do agree, though, that Comey needs to clarify what is going on fast. The timing, plus the vagueness, gives the impression to some that he's electioneering on Trump's behalf (note that I don't actually believe this, but I do think Comey failed to handle it as well as he might have).

[Ace Pace]

FACTS ABOUT THE NEW EMAILS:

• Unrelated to the Clinton server investigation
• Part of the Weiner investigation
• Emails found on a personal device belonging to Weiner and Huma Abedin
• There may only be three emails
• Comey is being way too vague

*Comey is saving face.

Comey is required to report on any change on facts he delivered while under Oath. Nothing more, nothing less.

However thanks to one illadvised message using the word "reopened" which had no relation to Comey's statement, we now have a shitstorm.

[Gaidin]

Comey is required to report on any change on facts he delivered while under Oath. Nothing more, nothing less.

However thanks to one illadvised message using the word "reopened" which had no relation to Comey's statement, we now have a shitstorm.

He's smart enough to have avoided that if he wanted. What he gets is congress doing a public dance his agency doing its job and all in all too late to truly effect anything but people's egos who needed to be stroked.

[Flagg]

Also, classic Friday news dump. Come Monday (assuming Pence's pilot fails to crash another plane) it will be all about how Donnie Douchebag is a serial rapist. Because he can't stop talking about it.

[The Romulan Republic]

Posted by former Clinton Labour Secretary Robert Reich on Facebook today:

Yesterday I spoke with a former Republican member of Congress whom I’ve known for years.
Me: What do you think of your party’s nominee for president?
He: Trump is a maniac. He’s a clear and present danger to America.
Me: Have you said publicly that you won’t vote for him?
He (sheepishly): No.
Me: Why not?
He: I’m a coward.
Me: What do you mean?
He: I live in a state with a lot of Trump voters. Most Republican officials do.
Me: But you’re a former official. You're not running for Congress again. What are you afraid of?
He: I hate to admit it, but I’m afraid of them. Some of those Trumpistas are out of their fu*king minds.
Me: You mean you’re afraid for your own physical safety?
He: All it takes is one of them, you know.
Me: Wait a minute. Isn’t this how dictators and fascists have come to power in other nations? Respected leaders don’t dare take stand.
He: At least I’m no Giuliani or Gingrich or Pence. I’m not a Trump enabler.
Me: I’ll give you that.
He: Let me tell you something. Most current and former Republican members of Congress are exactly like me. I talk with them. They think Trump is deplorable. And they think Giuliani and Gingrich are almost as bad. But they’re not gonna speak out. Some don’t want to end their political careers. Most don’t want to risk their lives. The Trump crowd is just too dangerous. Trump has whipped them up into a g*ddamn frenzy.

Anonymous source, so take it with a grain of salt, but its certainly disturbing. I wonder how many are thinking this way.

[FireNexus]

Not an anonymous source. Robert Reich, so likely to be a steaming load of horseshit designed to further his ideological aims. Not to say it couldn't be true, but Reich is the kind of guy who would make it up because he believes it MUST be true.

[The Romulan Republic]

I mean, of course, that the source Reich is quoting is anonymous.

[FireNexus]

I know. I'm just saying, an anonymous quote referenced Reich is almost as useless as one referenced by Trump. Reich is often full of shit and directs it towards his agenda. So anything he says happened that supports his agenda, whether I'd prefer it to be true or not, should be treated as bullshit without documentation.

[SpottedKitty]

I really don't understand why his supporters don't understand that this isn't an answer to the question. It isn't even the answer to any other question posed at that time. Is he deaf? Did he not hear the question? Does he know that it was a question, and not just a brief intermission before he gets to talk again?

Well, to be fair (for about a nanosecond) isn't this the sort of "answer" coughed up by sane erm... somewhat saner no, wait... actual politicians all the time? Although, granted, the phrasing and (lack of) context is a bit further round the bend than most...

[Flagg]

Robert Reich is one of the biggest Bill Clinton (a rapist like Donnie Douchebag) dickriders out there so while the conversation he made up is perfectly plausible given how spineless politicians, especially Republican politicians, are, he made it up. Or he had a fever dream and imagined it.

[bilateralrope]

Someone Was Actually Arrested For In-Person Voter Fraud. She’s A Trump Supporter.

Oh, sweet irony.
10/28/2016 09:51 pm ET
Nico Pitney
Senior Editor, The Huffington Post

Donald Trump regularly claims that the presidential election is “rigged” against him, thanks in part to “all too common” instances of voter fraud. “Watch Philadelphia. Watch St. Louis. Watch Chicago, watch Chicago. Watch so many other places,” the GOP nominee urged his supporters at a recent rally.

Election experts typically respond by pointing out that instances of fraud by voters at the polls are actually remarkably rare.

But they do happen. Case in point: Police in Des Moines, Iowa, said Friday that they had arrested Terri Lynn Rote, 55, on suspicion of voting twice in the general election.

Rote, a registered Republican, allegedly submitted ballots at two different early-voting locations in Polk County, Iowa, according to local media reports. She has been charged with first-degree election misconduct, a felony.

“I wasn’t planning on doing it twice. It was a spur of the moment,” Rote told Iowa Public Radio. “The polls are rigged.” She said she feared her first vote for Trump would be changed to a vote for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

In February, a reporter for The Blaze, a conservative website run by Glenn Beck, interviewed and photographed Rote, who was then planning to support Trump in the Iowa caucuses.

The Polk County auditor said this was the first instance of alleged voter fraud he could remember in 12 years, while the county prosecutor called it one of the few examples he’d seen in his 25 years of work.

According to police, two other unnamed suspects are accused of casting mail-in ballots and also voting in person, but they have not been arrested.

Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.

So she was afraid that her first vote would be changed, but not worried about the same happening to her second vote

[SCRawl]

Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.

Don't you love it when the editor's note, which is pretty thoroughly inflammatory, is actually an even-handed and neutral stating of publicly-known facts (and reasonable inferences from said facts)?

[Q99]

In third party news, for those who pay attention to such things, Jill Stein has a bad night on reddit (twitter with images of the text)

You once said that "wi-fi" is a threat to the health of American children? Why do you hold that belief, if you still hold it?

[–]jillstein2016 -1854 points 8 hours ago

A number of scientific studies have raised red flags about possible health effects of WiFi radiation on young children. I do not have a personal opinion that WiFi is or isn't a health issue for children. There is not enough information to know. I do however believe in science. Scientific research should go forward and find out. Countries including Switzerland, Italy, France, Austria, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Israel, Russia and China, have banned or restricted these technologies in schools.

These concerns were ignited by a recent National Institutes of Health study that provided some of the strongest evidence to date that exposure to radiation from cell phones and wireless devices is associated with the formation of rare cancers. https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... questions/

If we believe in science, which i think most Redditors do, let's follow the science where it takes us.

So yea, still pandering to anti-science conspiracies.

Plus there's This gem:

The corporate media has blacked us out for fear of the voter revolt. But that revolt is happening.

Really, the primary thing stopping the current third parties from growing in relevance, in fairly ideal conditions, is the fact their platform and people are jokes.

[Flagg]

Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.

Don't you love it when the editor's note, which is pretty thoroughly inflammatory, is actually an even-handed and neutral stating of publicly-known facts (and reasonable inferences from said facts)?

It's hilariously understated. Anti-hyperbole.