ASTOUNDING

[merrily]

how little I am hearing this morning about the letter of the Inspector General.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/hillary-clinton-emails-contained-info-above-top-secret-ig-n499886

Instead, the talking heads have been babbling about polls!! Can you spell "corrupt media?"

[draa]

1. And here's their award.

[merrily]

2. That would be a good award if the omission were unintentional. I don't think it is.

[draa]

3. Then I believe it still holds true.

They certainly have their head up their ass if they're intentionally protecting her.

That would be worse that being willfully ignorant. But... it's what we've come to expect concerning the press.

[merrily]

4. They've definitely been treating her better than they've been treating Sanders.

[draa]

6. You get no arguments there.

Just think though, it will make winning that much better if we can get it done.

[PATRICK]

54. It seems to me

she is getting protection from the Justice Department, maybe not ion GOP style but close. But whatever the merits of the case no one is going to fully take her down politically anymore than past scandals barely investigated affected GOP candidates like Romney in the past. Some goddawful criminals have been given the media pass before. Inherently useless as a social news forum for any country. Those who run the institutions escape scrutiny routinely. Brouhahas over falsehoods or non issues are insulting sideshows to fill the gaps.

It's almost moot what is going on. Accountability is whimsical, cynical or zero.

[FlatBaroque]

5. They cannot discuss this until she is anointed the nominee

then the ratings game will be on in full force.

[zeemike]

7. Was going to make the same point.

Get her the nomination first, then drop the hammer on her.

[sinkingfeeling]

10. +1000

[SammyWinstonJack]

16. And then it will be nothing but this 24/7. Not good.

[merrily]

21. If she's the nominee, this will definitely be heard a lot.

[malthaussen]

8. Maybe this is an indication of just how unimportant "classified" information is.

I recollect reading somewhere-or-other that there is an increasing tendency to overclassify stuff to obfuscate things for the general public. You and I are not "allowed" to know what our government is doing, but for those at the top of the food chain, it is all one big game. Thus an offense that would mean ruin and imprisonment for a lesser being is disregarded when a "major player" commits it. This is seen time and again. Just yesterday, there was a thread that the Pentagon was thinking of taking away one whole star from General Petraeus for his little peccadillo of blabbing soi-disant "secrets." That is the extent of the punishment proposed for someone who committed a flagrant breach of security. Boo-hoo, he'll lose a few thousand in retirement pay every year.

You just don't understand that laws are for peasants, not aristocrats.

-- Mal

[d_legendary1]

13. Thanks for explaining why Chelsea Manning is in jail

and HRH can become POTUS.

[malthaussen]

14. Precisely. n/t

[raouldukelives]

18. +1 to that. Some of the animals are more equal than others. nt

[merrily]

22. But voting booths are mostly for peons.

[malthaussen]

25. Yep

Too bad more of them don't take advantage of them. (We'll say nothing of conjectural interference with the results)

-- Mal

[gordyfl]

9. All This Could Have Been Avoided

if she didn't try to side-step the Freedom Of Information Act. I think in the end, she may be accused of avoiding FOIA procedures, and some sort of obstruction.
That's my take.

[dorkzilla]

24. Golly I can’t think of a single reason why she’d want to sidestep FOIA requests!

*cough cough* pay for play *cough cough* Clinton Foundation

If that is indeed the case then she doesn’t only deserve NOT to ever hold a public office again, but she should see criminal charges.

I wonder when they’re going to give the public access to the evidence? Honestly this could be just more trumped up GOP bullshit but it seems like with the involvement of the IG it’s probably more than that. But her campaign is saying its much ado about nothing.

Lastly I watched the clip of Tapper asking her about whether the FBI has questioned her yet...Jesus if looks could kill!

[merrily]

30. Do you know the date of that video? The date of the IG's letter was January 14. Apparently, the

news was held up until well after Sunday's debate!

[dorkzilla]

32. Sunday I think...

He says “good luck at the debate tonight” at the end.

[merrily]

44. Thanks. And nothing about the IG's letter from Thursday. What a stench!

[dorkzilla]

45. stinks to high heaven.

In fact, the fix is in. Sorry Merrily, I’m not not on their payroll...i just love these guys..

[merrily]

46. Nice! Thanks.

[gordyfl]

33. Good Observation.

Since this campaign has begun, I'm trusting CNN less and less.

[merrily]

41. Thanks! Don't trust any network, especially when it comes to politics. Remember the run up to

the Iraq War? Remember how many times media re-ran the video of the "Dean scream," often with an intro that implied, every so slightly, that he just might be mentally unstable?

[senz]

34. Wow. Just, wow.

Thanks for this thread, merrily. I can't even put my thoughts/feelings into words at the moment. Something is SO rotten in the state of America. Somebody should turn on the garbage disposal and give the sink, and then the whole house, a good cleaning.

This is what power concentrations do: they rot.

[merrily]

40. Absolutely, senz!

Power corrupts.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dalberg-Acton,_1st_Baron_Acton

Bill Clinton seems to have had a significant amount of power within the Democratic Party since he met Senator Fulbright while he (Clinton) was in high school, if not before. And, when he became the first Democratic President since FDR to be elected President more than once, the ballgame was pretty much over. (JMO, except for meeting Fulbright.)

As you know, when one of the national co-chairs of your 2008 Presidential campaign is head of the DNC when you run again, that ain't nutthin. Especially when said Chair was able to retain the position after doing a historically bad job at it.

[senz]

51. I voted for Bill Clinton and spent the next eight years defending him

though at times I had my doubts about things he was doing. But now, having watched Hillary in 2008 and the present, I've been running a series of useless "what ifs" through my mind, like what if Gary Hart hadn't blown it in the 1980s? And what if California's Jerry Brown had run a better campaign in 1992? I've even wondered what would have happened if Ross Perot had won, b/c at least he was against NAFTA. It seems the Clintons were massively destructive to the Democratic Party. I have a feeling the country would be a better place if Bill hadn't captured the presidency to begin with.

[merrily]

52. Many people put it at the deaths of the Kennedy brothers, but we can drive ourselves to distraction

with that.

IMO, it was not so much that he captured it, but that he was re-elected. His re-election marked the first time that a Democrat had been elected twice since FDR. Ergo, Democrats would win more, especially at the Presidential level, if they triangulated more. Politicians make a lot of such bare facts for the populace, but they don't stand up to examination. The devil and the angel of the truth is always in the details.

But the triangulators had money behind them, including Koch money. Liberals, bless them, seldom have the bucks on their side. In Lincoln's world, a liberal could win. In a world where 5 to 7 corporations control most news, it's ever so much harder.

[senz]

53. So Clinton's reelection was chalked up to triangulation?

But then doesn't Obama, at least to some extent, disprove that theory? I realize he sometimes cooperated with tptb, but he's not chummy with the wealthy, as the Clintons are, and he keeps trying to do progressive things. I don't think he's as sold-out as the Clintons.

Good lord but I'm sleepy... hasta manana.

[merrily]

55. Shortly after his first election, Obama self-identified as a New Democrat.

Shortly after his second election, Obama said that, in the 1980s, he would have been seen as a moderate Republican.

Clinton was the first Democratic President to run on ending welfare as we know it. Obama was the first Democratic President to pledge to "reform" entitlements, to talk about cutting Social Security and to put Social Security and Medicare on the table. He tried to extend the Iraq War past the date of the SOFA. He "surged" in Afghanistan. He implemented a no fly zone in Iraq, and so on.

[senz]

35. Yes! This time she couldn't even muster up the phony laugh.

So glad you're here and on top of this, dorkzilla!

[dorkzilla]

37. Merrily, the lede on the top of the hour on NPR was this story

Check in at 3pm - maybe it will get more than 30 seconds but I bet it will be the lede at 4 or whenever your local station airs ATC.

[hootinholler]

11. They can't talk about it until

They get her talking points, and that won't happen until the focus group is back.

I figure it will be lightly covered next week.

[SoapBox]

12. It's just corrupt...

[mountain grammy]

15. oh wait, they're talking about Flint.. 10 seconds!

oh wait, they're talking about climate change, noooo, oh wait they're talking about government corruption, noooo. Oh yeah, there's Trump and Palin, 5 minutes.
I'm astounded every single day.

[appalachiablue]

17. *On MSNBC now, IG, emails

[Duval]

19. K&R! Thanks, merrily.

[merrily]

23. You're very welcome!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

20. She makes the party look bad.

[senz]

36. She does! Good point.

She's an embarrassment.

[merrily]

42. The Party doesn't seem to care how it looks, or DWS would have been toast after the midterms.

Or a decent number of debates prior to Super Tuesday would have been scheduled. And so on.

[guillaumeb]

26. I spell it Corporate Media.

Given that 6 corporations control 90% of the US media, is there any wonder that the narrative ignores so much of what is happening?

[merrily]

27. Teddy Roosevelt had the right idea: outlaw monopolies.

Government should never have allowed news media to get into so few hands.

[guillaumeb]

28. And Roosevelt was a Republican.

How things have changed. The change in the GOP makes me question my belief in evolutionary adaptation.

[merrily]

29. So was Lincoln. We forget that Republicans used to be the liberals, which is why liberal states lik

Massachusetts and Vermont used to be Republican. The remnant of conservatives never entirely left the Democratic Party. Now, they own it.

[guillaumeb]

31. Very well put. The hidden history of the Democratic Party.

The reason that the US south went from solidly democratic to solidly Republican in a generation, with some politicians switching sides.

[merrily]

43. Not hidden, so much as forgotten. I read an article recently that kept

referring to the FDR and the New Deal as the roots of the Party, as if the Democratic Party had first come into being circa 1930.

I think it's adorable that we claim to be the political heirs of Jefferson and Madison, but I think that's a political fairy tale. Andrew Jackson, however.....

[HereSince1628]

38. Another unknown employee will likely be hung on a pole, and HRC will escape

She's smart and protects herself, always has a plausible denial ready...

Not so true for those who serve her, who on a good day only acquire an attorney's fee.

[merrily]

39. The guy who pled the Fifth is still out there somewhere.

Last edited Wed Jan 20, 2016, 09:41 PM - Edit history (1)

Also, as someone else pointed out, prosecution is very different for the peons than it is for the oligarchs, and the Clintons are oligarchs among oligarchs.

[malokvale77]

47. Posting to get back to.

Heading to bed.

[merrily]

48. Rest well, malokvale77

[Duckfan]

49. Don't know name of radio news network

But heard this at dinner time while listening to Norman Goldman. Twice as a matter of fact. At 5 PM broadcast and 6.

At least someone is putting it out there.

[merrily]

50. ASTOUNDING, right?

The Inspector General of the United States tells Congress that, in effect, a Democratic primary candidate for POTUS lied repeatedly to Americans about classified info not being on her server, Then, media holds the news until after the Democratic primary debate, breaks it and then pretty much ignores it. I recently "transitioned" from New Deal Democrat to Democratic Socialist, but bull puckey like this could zoom me into anarchist.

[Autumn]

56. The time is not yet ripe to cover it.

[merrily]

57. .

http://jackpineradicals.org/showthread.php?2765-A-Few-Things-fron-Morning-Joe-Today-re-Democratic-Primary

[Autumn]

58. Interesting that they discussed it. Has any of the MSM discussed it yet?

[merrily]

59. I don't know. I haven't been checking.