Thursday, July 07, 2016
Scattershooting conventions and vice-presidential nominees
But not black men. Alton Sterling and Philando Castile are the names of the latest victims in a continuing national tragedy. The police aren't reforming themselves, so someone is going to have assist them. When order is more important than justice, then disorder is compelled. And I sure hope nobody is stupid enough to put me on a terrorist watchlist for making a simple observation.
Because that would indicate that the police state is farther along than even I suspected. It would suggest that we are moving closer to the Israeli model, in fact.
In lighter fare ...
-- The corporations want to do the two major party conventions on the down-low.
-- And let's update here instead of there that Mike Pence has moved into the lead in the GOP veepstakes. Marc Belisle at Reverb Press is searingly on point.
The most difficult thing for Drumpf to do is take advice -- aka cautions, warnings, etc. -- from other people, those who know more about something than he does. He's never lived his life that way. Pence as VP would be a master stroke because the Indiana governor is the same kind of Teabagging extremist that Cheeto Jesus is without the bombast. A formidable ticket it would be.
-- And to that end, it's always useful to take stock of what the conservative teevee talking heads are saying. Mark Halperin, my go-to guy when I want a shitty-ass politico's insights that I never would have considered.
As Trevor Noah said, "the week Hillary Clinton narrowly avoided indictment was a bad week to praise Saddam Hussein". (As if there was ever a good one.)
I got nothing, except a little gnawing feeling he might be right.
-- I won't belabor the Clinton email matter much after today, but this needs to be documented. The intent or mens rea determination that prosecutors make when faced with a close call on a target's crimes -- or lack thereof -- isn't based on probable guilt but the odds of conviction. Prosecutorial discretion is essentially an 'is this worth my time and effort' query. This turns out to be one of the core pillars of our criminal justice system. If it looks like it's crumbling to you, as it does to me, we might both be accurate in our assessment.
The Clintons -- both of them -- repeatedly exercise unethical judgment because they calculate their odds of getting away with it as very good because of who they are. This is also part of the same sense of entitlement or whatever you'd like to call it. That they do get away with it most clearly shows that there is one justice system for some people -- call them 1% -- and one for the rest of us. It shouldn't escape you that it's mostly wealthy white people at the top and poor black people at the bottom.
What it is not, as everyone knows, is justice. It is -- or should be -- sufficient grounds for revolution, peaceful and political. Or otherwise if it is necessary. How necessary you deem revolution to be is also a question of how much do you have to lose or gain by it.
Keep in mind that a President Trump represents revolution to some, no matter how flawed, bigoted, or ignorant their logic may be in arriving at that conclusion.
-- More Trevor Noah: if the choices are "Grandma Nixon or a traffic cone soaked in raw sewage… maybe you shouldn’t have an election."
You have other choices, Trevor. It's not either/or, more evil/less evil. You don't have to choose between eating shit or drinking piss. Stop thinking in binary.
Because that would indicate that the police state is farther along than even I suspected. It would suggest that we are moving closer to the Israeli model, in fact.
In lighter fare ...
-- The corporations want to do the two major party conventions on the down-low.
(M)any special interests, from Comcast Corp. to financial giant JPMorgan Chase to insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield, will participate in convention-related activities, but they’ve become more creative in how they influence conventioneers — or are altogether refusing to discuss their convention plans.
“They want to show up, they want to rub elbows with everyone at the conventions, they just don’t want the corporate name out there,” said Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist for advocacy group Public Citizen, who has long tracked influence efforts at the conventions. “They’ll be looking for lower-key ways of doing the same thing they’ve always done.”
-- And let's update here instead of there that Mike Pence has moved into the lead in the GOP veepstakes. Marc Belisle at Reverb Press is searingly on point.
Newt Gingrich and Chris Christie have egos and ambitions at least as great as Trump’s. The businessman may appreciate their input on the campaign trail, but the possibility of a right hand man who could eclipse him politically would be too much for the insecure narcissist. Besides, both Gingrich and Christie are too savvy to want to be sidelined in the VP spot. Gingrich is probably angling for something like Chief of Staff. And for the sake of irony, let’s say Christie is gunning for Secretary of Transportation. If Trump loses in November, they can say they were just advisers and Trump didn’t follow their advice. If nothing else, they glide into a 7-figure lobbyist gig.
Pence, on the other hand, has little to lose, since he’s in trouble in his reelection bid in his home state. He’s the kind of man Trump could have in his pocket, since he would owe his political life to the New York businessman. Pence could help Trump in the Upper Midwest, which is where the Republican candidate needs to win to have any chance in the Electoral College. Pence would also help Trump woo evangelical voters, a key Republican voting bloc that Trump has had difficulty connecting with. Finally, if they get to the White House, Pence can work his contacts in Congress, especially the House, since he served there for 12 years, including a 2-year stint as Chairman of the House Republican Conference.
A Pence nomination would open Trump up to attacks on the governor’s record of forcing far right religious legislation on his state while ignoring its serious problems. But that itself could bring the evangelicals on board. This is the kind of match that Christie, Gingrich and adviser Paul Manafort would likely push Trump to make. If the Republican presidential candidate were a wiser, less petty politician, he might choose a running mate like New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez, who would address a lot of his electoral problems. But he aggressively alienated her. His options are narrowing. Trump and Pence are drawn to each other for complex reasons. With time running short before the convention, and a bruising general ahead, Pence might be the best Trump can do now, if he’s acting rationally enough to make that decision.
The most difficult thing for Drumpf to do is take advice -- aka cautions, warnings, etc. -- from other people, those who know more about something than he does. He's never lived his life that way. Pence as VP would be a master stroke because the Indiana governor is the same kind of Teabagging extremist that Cheeto Jesus is without the bombast. A formidable ticket it would be.
-- And to that end, it's always useful to take stock of what the conservative teevee talking heads are saying. Mark Halperin, my go-to guy when I want a shitty-ass politico's insights that I never would have considered.
Among other things, Trump doubled down on his praise for former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, expressed regret for deleting an anti-Semitic meme circulated by white supremacists, and announced that he wants convicted murderer Don King to speak at this month’s Republican convention.
Any normal person who watched the speech thought it was a train full of flaming dumpsters crashing into a dumping ground for nuclear waste.
As Trevor Noah said, "the week Hillary Clinton narrowly avoided indictment was a bad week to praise Saddam Hussein". (As if there was ever a good one.)
“Morning Joe,” however, wondered if it was an indication that Trump was “getting his groove back.” Frequent guest Mark Halperin seemed to think the answer was, “Yes!”
“There’s no conventional political consultant in either party who would have approved that speech,” Halperin acknowledged before gearing up to praise Trump. “But… if he’s going to win, it’s going to be with that, with vintage Trump, where he not just energizes people, but also confident, also entertaining, and also with an ability to convey to people that he’s different. That he’s not going to be politically correct or business as usual.”
Halperin also predicted that if Trump kept making speeches like this — along with picking a good running mate, having a good convention and winning the first debate against Hillary Clinton — he’d “go ahead in the polls.”
I got nothing, except a little gnawing feeling he might be right.
-- I won't belabor the Clinton email matter much after today, but this needs to be documented. The intent or mens rea determination that prosecutors make when faced with a close call on a target's crimes -- or lack thereof -- isn't based on probable guilt but the odds of conviction. Prosecutorial discretion is essentially an 'is this worth my time and effort' query. This turns out to be one of the core pillars of our criminal justice system. If it looks like it's crumbling to you, as it does to me, we might both be accurate in our assessment.
The Clintons -- both of them -- repeatedly exercise unethical judgment because they calculate their odds of getting away with it as very good because of who they are. This is also part of the same sense of entitlement or whatever you'd like to call it. That they do get away with it most clearly shows that there is one justice system for some people -- call them 1% -- and one for the rest of us. It shouldn't escape you that it's mostly wealthy white people at the top and poor black people at the bottom.
What it is not, as everyone knows, is justice. It is -- or should be -- sufficient grounds for revolution, peaceful and political. Or otherwise if it is necessary. How necessary you deem revolution to be is also a question of how much do you have to lose or gain by it.
Keep in mind that a President Trump represents revolution to some, no matter how flawed, bigoted, or ignorant their logic may be in arriving at that conclusion.
-- More Trevor Noah: if the choices are "Grandma Nixon or a traffic cone soaked in raw sewage… maybe you shouldn’t have an election."
You have other choices, Trevor. It's not either/or, more evil/less evil. You don't have to choose between eating shit or drinking piss. Stop thinking in binary.
Wednesday, July 06, 2016
Presidential nominating conventions month (#SeeYouInHouston)
It's that time of the quadrennial, with the GOP up first in two weeks -- the most interesting things will, as usual, be happening outside the Cleveland convention hall -- the Democrats following suit the week after in Philly, where the Berners will stage their last stand, and the GPUS right here in H-Town ("Houston, We Have a Solution!") the first weekend of August. The Libertarians went first, in late May and in Orlando, nominating Johnson-Weld as their standard bearers, which earned them a CNN-televised town hall.
-- Trump is expected to tap a running mate as soon as next week, Clinton is finishing up the vetting process for her finalists, and Jill Stein is holding the door open for Bernie Sanders. My suggestions (not quite predictions) are Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa for the Orange-utan, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia for Hillary, and former Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich for Stein. Note that each of these brings gender balance to their respective tickets along with some swing state influence, making them the most, err, pragmatic selections for their parties.
Update: Ernst really doesn't want the job and neither does Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, though the latter suggested Drumpf tap his daughter, Ivanka. (Seriously, he did.) So I suppose that leaves Newt Gingrich and Chris Christie.
-- I'll be assisting the GPUS team with social media during their convention. You still have time to register to attend, secure lodging, and purchase meals in advance. Here's the current list of workshops, with more on the way.
-- Charles has a good and even-handed post up about the latest in the Texas presidential developments and polling. The remaining news to break that may move things one way or the other, besides the running mate picks, include:
-- It's never too late to call for opening the presidential debates to third party candidates.
-- Trump is expected to tap a running mate as soon as next week, Clinton is finishing up the vetting process for her finalists, and Jill Stein is holding the door open for Bernie Sanders. My suggestions (not quite predictions) are Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa for the Orange-utan, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia for Hillary, and former Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich for Stein. Note that each of these brings gender balance to their respective tickets along with some swing state influence, making them the most, err, pragmatic selections for their parties.
Update: Ernst really doesn't want the job and neither does Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, though the latter suggested Drumpf tap his daughter, Ivanka. (Seriously, he did.) So I suppose that leaves Newt Gingrich and Chris Christie.
-- I'll be assisting the GPUS team with social media during their convention. You still have time to register to attend, secure lodging, and purchase meals in advance. Here's the current list of workshops, with more on the way.
-- Charles has a good and even-handed post up about the latest in the Texas presidential developments and polling. The remaining news to break that may move things one way or the other, besides the running mate picks, include:
- How FBI director James Comey's scalding condemnation/non-recommendation of prosecution of Hillary Clinton for mishandling classified email is being received by the electorate at large;
- Whether Drumpf can correct course with regard to Republican establishment acceptance, raise some money, or otherwise act like a serious presidential candidate;
- What Bernie Sanders is going to do; join the parade, stand and watch but not cheer, or get out and go Green. This one seems easy to predict for me: he wants to be a Senate committee chairman in a Democratically-controlled upper chamber, so he's going to play along with the Dems but to some watered-down degree, managing to infuriate Clinton's base and his own at the same time.
-- It's never too late to call for opening the presidential debates to third party candidates.
Tuesday, July 05, 2016
James Comey saves Hillary's bacon
Takes the heat off Loretta Lynch and any federal grand jurors in the process. It was a pretty harsh scolding the FBI director gave the former Secretary of State in his public statement moments ago, but that's all it was.
I don't think the fire has been extinguished, but the bad weather is blowing over.
In chronological order:
So it was necessary, as referenced here, for there to be malfeasant intent, not just sloppiness or incompetence. That's the part I got wrong; she didn't mean to, and that's okay.
I suppose there would have had to have been evidence that somebody died as a result of her mishandling of classified information. But perhaps not even then. Killing your own credibility and trustworthiness is no crime, after all.
Especially when it was already dead.
Update: It seems the law is quite clear about intent.
I don't think the fire has been extinguished, but the bad weather is blowing over.
In chronological order:
#BREAKING: FBI Director Comey says after tremendous amount of work, the FBI has completed investigation and handing off to DOJ for decision— NBC Charlotte (@wcnc) July 5, 2016
FBI Director Comey: 110 emails in 52 email chains determined to contain classified info, 8 were top secret #7News— 7News Boston WHDH (@7News) July 5, 2016
FBI Director Comey: Among emails not turned over by Clinton, 3 were classified at the time they were sent or received— Dave Boucher (@Dave_Boucher1) July 5, 2016
FBI Director Comey says they believe "there was no intentional misconduct," in sorting of emails. https://t.co/RSoxnC72t5— DJ Judd (@juddzeez) July 5, 2016
FBI director Comey calls Clinton and staff "extremely careless" in handling classified emails.— Lou Raguse (@LouRaguse) July 5, 2016
FBI Director Comey: No "intentional misconduct" in connection with sorting of Clinton's emails. https://t.co/z9hQnKbdJg— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) July 5, 2016
FBI director Comey: Clinton "extremely careless" with classified information. "Reasonable person" should have known better.— Mike Dorning (@MikeDorning) July 5, 2016
FBI Director Comey: It is possible hostile actors gained access to Clinton's email account.— Mikaela Bufano (@MikaelaBufano) July 5, 2016
BREAKING: FBI Director Comey says "no reasonable prosecutor would bring" a criminal case against Clinton.— Steven Portnoy (@stevenportnoy) July 5, 2016
FBI director Comey: We are expressing to Justice our view that no charges are appropriate in this case— Felicia Schwartz (@felschwartz) July 5, 2016
So it was necessary, as referenced here, for there to be malfeasant intent, not just sloppiness or incompetence. That's the part I got wrong; she didn't mean to, and that's okay.
I suppose there would have had to have been evidence that somebody died as a result of her mishandling of classified information. But perhaps not even then. Killing your own credibility and trustworthiness is no crime, after all.
Especially when it was already dead.
Update: It seems the law is quite clear about intent.
Scattershooting President Clinton's first hundred days
-- This, via here, only succeeds in making me nauseous. They left out 'start a war on Iran' for openers. At least she might accomplish what Obama has failed to do on Guantanamo. But she'd negotiate away an unfettered right for a woman to choose if she is left to drink alone with the GOP at White House happy hours. (Yes, her call to abolish Hyde is a very good move.)
-- No, she won't. Because she understands what would happen if she did.
Stay out of Texas, #HRod. Democrats here have it bad enough as it is, and they might make up a little bit of ground (scroll down to Mark Jones' assessment at the end) if you could just, you know, keep using the state as an ATM like always.
-- Some people are really mad about white privilege, brute-force capitalism, and Independence Day.
I certainly think that any of the morons advocating for #Texit -- even Greg Abbott knows better, for fuck's sake -- should have been compelled to go into the office or the plant for the entire three-day weekend, but this is simply too much hyperbolic exaggeration (two "trillions" is two too many) and way too angry. Right message but absolutely the wrong messenger.
Dude: drink more America this Labor Day, mkay?
-- None of the above, thanks, but absolutely not Ron Green.
-- No, she won't. Because she understands what would happen if she did.
Texas Republicans, of all groups, are perhaps the most enthused over the idea that the state could be in play in the fall.
Republicans say they would love to see Democrats drawn into what they view as a hopeless money pit. But also, within a state GOP torn over its own nominee, a Clinton offensive could be just what it takes to rally an otherwise morose group.
“The quickest way to activate disenfranchised GOP donors who won’t give to Trump would be an aggressive effort by Democrats to win the state,” said Brian Haley, a Texan who was a top fundraiser in two previous GOP presidential campaigns.
Abbott is one of multiple Republicans who have already sent fundraising emails on the notion.
“She has already made it known that winning Texas will be a focus of her campaign,” Abbott campaign director John Jackson wrote in a recent missive, referring to Clinton. “It’s clear that Hillary will not only continue Obama’s liberal leadership—she will be even worse!”
Stay out of Texas, #HRod. Democrats here have it bad enough as it is, and they might make up a little bit of ground (scroll down to Mark Jones' assessment at the end) if you could just, you know, keep using the state as an ATM like always.
-- Some people are really mad about white privilege, brute-force capitalism, and Independence Day.
Call it the land you love, but make sure the drones are loaded, the poisons shipped off in container ships potent, the pestilence of capitalism fully armed with the parasitic power of one global power, my country tis of thee.
I could hammer and hammer the prison industrial complex eating the American Black Male. I could rattle on and on about the United States of Debts, all the trillions homeowners “owe” the financial loan sharks, thugs, or the trillion plus students owe for virtually worthless degrees in this precarious, at-will, dead-end job America.
I could rattle on how insipid and violent forgetting is, and knowing just enough of the foundations of the lies of history to get a young and old person steaming. Imagine, the state of the world with Hollywood, Big Sports, Bubble-head Big Media, Vapid Mainstream Academia weighing in on the vast sucking sound that is America’s presidential-congressional-gubernatorial set of mistakes called elections (sic).
Bombs bursting in air, as I cruised down from a pretty cool spot in the mountains, supposedly away from the ghastly 7-11-Walmart-Texaco-McDonald’s dervish of hyper-stupidity, also called mainstreaming, mainlining consumerism.
I certainly think that any of the morons advocating for #Texit -- even Greg Abbott knows better, for fuck's sake -- should have been compelled to go into the office or the plant for the entire three-day weekend, but this is simply too much hyperbolic exaggeration (two "trillions" is two too many) and way too angry. Right message but absolutely the wrong messenger.
Dude: drink more America this Labor Day, mkay?
-- None of the above, thanks, but absolutely not Ron Green.
Monday, July 04, 2016
"Battleground bloodbath"
Put down that hotdog and take a look at this. Via Politico, Ballotpedia's most recent state polling shows Hillary beating Trump ...
Landslide territory -- which is to say that she has no place to go but down from here. Look at all the states in which she registers 50% or nearly; that tells you they surveyed just two horses in the race. Hilariously, Ballotpedia also polled John Kasich and Paul Ryan against Clinton, and did include Gary Johnson in a separate three-way (but not Jill Stein). Here's how that more realistic view of the landscape appears:
Update: If you feel like sanity-checking one state, look at RCP for the Tarheels. Two late-June polls gave Hillary just a two-point lead there ... and one had Trump ahead by 2.
I've been reading some things that say Johnson pulls votes from Clinton in similar numbers as he does Trump, but Ballotpedia's results here suggest that's not enough to keep her from a very large Electoral College victory in November. If you're one of those people who likes to parrot that "polls this early don't mean anything", then you might be a junior political consultant or a Trump voter.
As for surveying Kasich and Ryan as the GOP nominee, maybe Ballotpedia should just go ahead and do a Mitt Romney versus Joe Biden head-to-head, no third party candidates. Because we wouldn't want reality to intrude in any way.
Update II: NPR's magic tool lets you manipulate data like voter demographics and turnout to predict the winner. Nutgraf:
Here's your takeaway:
If Clinton somehow loses this election, it would qualify as the most stunning collapse in political history. And that shame would be all on her. No more Green excuses, Hillbots. Look above at how the party and its nominee are still being ignored, after all.
- in Florida by 14 percentage points, 51-37
- in Iowa by 4, 45-41
- in Michigan by 17, 50-33
- in North Carolina by 10, 48-38
- in Ohio by 9, 46-37
- in Pennsylvania by 14, 49-35
- and in Virginia by 7, 45-38
Landslide territory -- which is to say that she has no place to go but down from here. Look at all the states in which she registers 50% or nearly; that tells you they surveyed just two horses in the race. Hilariously, Ballotpedia also polled John Kasich and Paul Ryan against Clinton, and did include Gary Johnson in a separate three-way (but not Jill Stein). Here's how that more realistic view of the landscape appears:
- Clinton 47, Trump 34, Johnson 12, neither/refused 7, MOE +/- 4% in Florida
- Clinton 38, Trump 36, Johnson 16, neither/refused 9 in Iowa
- Clinton 47, Trump 30, Johnson 14, neither/refused 9 in Michigan
- Clinton 44, Trump 37, Johnson 10, neither/refused 10 in North Carolina
- Clinton 41, Trump 34, Johnson 15, neither/refused 10, MOE 3.9% in Ohio
- Clinton 46, Trump 32, Johnson 13, neither refused 9, MOE 4% in Pennsylvania
- Clinton 43, Trump 35, Johnson 11, neither/refused 11, MOE 3.9 in Virginia
Update: If you feel like sanity-checking one state, look at RCP for the Tarheels. Two late-June polls gave Hillary just a two-point lead there ... and one had Trump ahead by 2.
I've been reading some things that say Johnson pulls votes from Clinton in similar numbers as he does Trump, but Ballotpedia's results here suggest that's not enough to keep her from a very large Electoral College victory in November. If you're one of those people who likes to parrot that "polls this early don't mean anything", then you might be a junior political consultant or a Trump voter.
As for surveying Kasich and Ryan as the GOP nominee, maybe Ballotpedia should just go ahead and do a Mitt Romney versus Joe Biden head-to-head, no third party candidates. Because we wouldn't want reality to intrude in any way.
Update II: NPR's magic tool lets you manipulate data like voter demographics and turnout to predict the winner. Nutgraf:
"I will win New York against Hillary Clinton," Trump promised at a campaign stop this spring. It's a claim he's fond of reiterating, and since he has articulated a specific desire to win New York, we wanted to see what it would take for him to turn his home state red. Assuming all other demographic groups vote exactly as they did in 2012, and assuming turnout also remains constant, Trump would need to win 97 percent of white men in New York. 97 percent.
Here's your takeaway:
If Clinton somehow loses this election, it would qualify as the most stunning collapse in political history. And that shame would be all on her. No more Green excuses, Hillbots. Look above at how the party and its nominee are still being ignored, after all.
The Weekly Fourth Wrangle
As the Texas Progressive Alliance brings you the Independence Day blog post roundup, we ask you to be cautious about your planned explosions today.
Off the Kuff credits Wendy Davis for getting it right on HB2.
Libby Shaw at Daily Kos is hardly shocked to learn that our state is run by a group of misogynist swine. Will the Texas GOP Apologize for its Unconstitutional Anti-Abortion Bill and its Sexist Piggery?
Socratic Gadfly notes how chunks of the mainstream media tried to create Scalia-connected false drama on the Supreme Court's abortion ruling.
CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme warns Texans that a far right group wants to purge Starr County voter rolls so that you don't get a vote.
Neil at All People Have Value supports Ann Harris Bennett for Harris County Tax Assessor/Voter Registrar. She will do a very good job in that important office. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.
The Lewisville Texan Journal reports on a community loan center as an alternative to the predatory auto title/payday lenders.
John Coby at Bay Area Houston translates Trump's Social Security plan.
Dos Centavos reviews the first Intocable album in three years.
Upon suggesting that Hillary Clinton modify some of her positions to attract Bernie Sanders supporters, Egberto Willies got the predictable response.
And Cheeto Jesus (Donald Trump) begged Saul Relative (PDiddie at Brains and Eggs) for a campaign donation.
Off the Kuff credits Wendy Davis for getting it right on HB2.
Libby Shaw at Daily Kos is hardly shocked to learn that our state is run by a group of misogynist swine. Will the Texas GOP Apologize for its Unconstitutional Anti-Abortion Bill and its Sexist Piggery?
Socratic Gadfly notes how chunks of the mainstream media tried to create Scalia-connected false drama on the Supreme Court's abortion ruling.
CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme warns Texans that a far right group wants to purge Starr County voter rolls so that you don't get a vote.
Neil at All People Have Value supports Ann Harris Bennett for Harris County Tax Assessor/Voter Registrar. She will do a very good job in that important office. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.
The Lewisville Texan Journal reports on a community loan center as an alternative to the predatory auto title/payday lenders.
John Coby at Bay Area Houston translates Trump's Social Security plan.
Dos Centavos reviews the first Intocable album in three years.
Upon suggesting that Hillary Clinton modify some of her positions to attract Bernie Sanders supporters, Egberto Willies got the predictable response.
And Cheeto Jesus (Donald Trump) begged Saul Relative (PDiddie at Brains and Eggs) for a campaign donation.
==========================
More posts from other great Texas progressive blogs!
Better Texas Blog reminds us that the Zika virus is fast approaching and outlines some preventative measures.
Lawflog takes note of the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement's investigation into the head of the TABC and her husband.
Prairie Weather reads the NYT's review of George W. Bush's forthcoming biography as a scathing indictment.
Steve Bates at Yellow Doggerel Democrat marks today's holiday with a song from the soon-to-be-retired Paul Simon.
The Houston Press peeks behind the scenes at Houston's thirty-year-old Freedom Over Texas, the city's fireworks on the Fourth celebration.
Carol Morgan has a point of view regarding the rendezvous on the Phoenix airport tarmac.
Ashton Woods at Safety in Numbers says, "Pride Houston, we have a problem".
Andrea Ferrigno celebrates the SCOTUS decision striking down HB2.
Keep Austin Wonky criticizes that city's road bond proposal.
The TSTA Blog takes exception to Texas exceptionalism.
The Makeshift Academic explains why Medicaid expansion was such a key component of the Affordable Care Act.
Drew Blackburn wonders why Austin is having such a hard time with regulations on sharing economy companies.
Paradise in Hell looks at the sinkholes of West Texas.
idiotprogrammer tells a tall tale about zombies.
Sunday, July 03, 2016
Saturday, July 02, 2016
Clinton email investigation in its last throes
After 3.5 hours answering questions posed by FBI investigators, Hillary Clinton has just about finished skating over the thin ice.
This would contradict my 'murder/manslaughter' post, and doesn't really explain exactly why she'd be in the clear if some of those emails were "born classified". But hey, they're probably lawyers and know more than I do.
Others are saying the same thing. With the Loretta Lynch/Bill Clinton chat on the Phoenix tarmac earlier this past week, the matter got unnecessarily murkier. One person has the power to clear it all up.
She's almost out of the briar patch.
Given what we know now, an indictment doesn’t seem likely. As Vox’s Dylan Matthews noted, prosecutors would need evidence not just that Clinton sent classified information outside secure government networks, but that she did so knowing that it was supposed to be classified.
Clinton has denied this, insisting any classified material in the emails was either classified after the fact or she did not realize it had been classified — a position she likely reiterated today to the FBI.
This would contradict my 'murder/manslaughter' post, and doesn't really explain exactly why she'd be in the clear if some of those emails were "born classified". But hey, they're probably lawyers and know more than I do.
Despite the right wing media's obsession with false accounts regarding the Clinton email server, most credible accounts state the chances of the former Secretary of State facing any legal action or an indictment are miniscule.
Others are saying the same thing. With the Loretta Lynch/Bill Clinton chat on the Phoenix tarmac earlier this past week, the matter got unnecessarily murkier. One person has the power to clear it all up.
FBI Director James Comey is now firmly in the driver’s seat of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, after Attorney General Loretta Lynch pledged she would accept whatever course of action his bureau and career prosecutors recommend.
[...]
“Comey is the center of gravity on this thing,” said Ron Hosko, a former FBI assistant director and president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund.
“There is a growing expectation that we the public need to hear the FBI, Jim Comey version of whether or not charges will be brought,” he added. “There has probably been increasing recognition by her that that’s true, that she is viewed as — regardless of her prior reputation as an effective prosecutor — she’s now the head of Obama’s DOJ, a political position in a Democratic administration that is deciding on the prosecution or not of the leading Democratic candidate.”
[...]
The decision (by Lynch to accept the recommendations of investigators) puts the spotlight squarely on Comey, a Republican who is widely respected by GOP lawmakers and known for a streak of independence.
“He is a pro’s pro,” said Matthew Whitaker, a former U.S. attorney and head of the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, a watchdog group. “And I think this takes the pressure off of him that whatever the FBI recommends will be followed, where before I am certain he would be concerned that there will be political interference from the attorney general.”
There’s still a chance that FBI investigators and Justice Department lawyers, who are working on the case together, arrive at different conclusions on how to proceed.
The FBI has a tendency to be more aggressive with cases, whereas prosecutors might be more reluctant to push a charge they are not absolutely certain will stick — especially if the next presidency might be at stake.
“I could easily envision a scenario in which the FBI concludes there is enough evidence to make a case, but the DOJ prosecutors decide that the case is too weak to risk the legal precedent,” Bradley Moss, a lawyer who handles national security and secrecy issues, wrote in an email to The Hill.
“The DOJ career prosecutors are truly the ones who are under the microscope at this point.”
In the federal case against former CIA Director David Petraeus last year, FBI officials reportedly pushed for him to be indicted on felony charges, but then-Attorney General Eric Holder downgraded them to misdemeanors.
Yet Comey is no shrinking violet. If he is ultimately overruled by officials within the Justice Department, that is unlikely to remain a secret.
Potentially incriminating news has “a way of getting out,” said Whitaker.
“I would imagine ultimately we will know how the investigation was conducted or whether there was interference from the political folks at the Department of Justice,” he added.
“But I don’t know whether it will be in time to have an impact in an election year.”
She's almost out of the briar patch.
Green is the New Blue Funnies
The old Blue is just too Red for me. (And don't call it purple, please.)
This one's for my pal, Erik Vidor...
Friday, July 01, 2016
Starring Loretta Lynch as Pontius Pilate
So she and Bill Clinton talked about more than just grandchildren the other day at the airport.
Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch plans to announce on Friday that she will accept whatever recommendation career prosecutors and the F.B.I. director make about whether to bring charges related to Hillary Clinton’s personal email server, a Justice Department official said. Her decision removes the possibility that a political appointee will overrule investigators in the case.
The Justice Department had been moving toward such an arrangement for months — officials said in April that it was being considered — but a private meeting between Ms. Lynch and former President Bill Clinton this week set off a political furor and made the decision all but inevitable.
Republicans said the meeting, which took place at the Phoenix airport, had compromised the independence of the investigation as the F.B.I. was winding it down. Some called for Ms. Lynch to recuse herself, but she did not take herself off the case — one that could influence a presidential election.
Ms. Lynch plans to discuss the matter at a conference in Aspen, Colo., on Friday. The Justice Department declined to comment. The official who confirmed the discussion did so on the condition of anonymity because the internal decision-making process is normally kept confidential.
Washing her hands of the matter is... well, maaybe it's telling. We'll see how the presser later today goes. Back here I posted and linked to the fact that investigators on the cases of Sandy Berger and David Petreaus were something akin to pissed over the slaps on the wrist both of those men got for mishandling classified information.
Maybe the water just got hotter. Hard to tell. Clinton's fate ultimately rests in the hands of a federal grand jury whose names, political affiliations, etc. we'll never know. She's still got some bumpy roads to travel over, which is undoubtedly the reason why Bernie Sanders has not suspended his campaign. If I were a Hillbot, I suppose I'd be nervous and irritable too.
Astrodome parking
I hate to say I told you so (not really) but I told you so.
I missed it by about 150 parking spaces, so there's that. Start the annual revenue estimate with 1400 spaces x $75 per x 10 home NFL games, 20 or so Rodeo concert/barbecue cookoff nights, and whatever number you like for NCAA March Madness weekends, soccer games such as the Copa America tournament going on this month, the OTC, and single-day events (Beyonce' concerts, Free Press Summer Fest, and so on like that) that are capable of consuming most of the parking capacity. People are already complaining about no air conditioning in the garage, but the selling point is having your car in the shade instead of in the sun. My calculator grinds out a conservative -- using '10' as the third multiplier -- $4.2 million. If you think $75 is too much to park -- that's how much Jerry Jones gets for close-in spaces at AT&T Stadium on Cowboys game days -- then cut it by a third to $50 and it's still a tidy $2.8 mil a year.
The fate of the above-ground part of the Dome is still to be determined. Judge Emmett is stuck on a convention hall, but a park really seems like its most likely fate to me. It's all about who pays, as always, and the taxpayer isn't going to be paying anything no matter what.
The takeaway here is that I might know what I'm blogging about. Most of the time.
Harris County commissioners on Tuesday were presented with a $105 million plan to add two levels of parking to the Astrodome to prepare it for future use.
The plan would raise the ground level of the dome two floors and convert those two floors into 1,400 parking spaces, paving the way for the new ground level to be used for events or for an indoor park.
I missed it by about 150 parking spaces, so there's that. Start the annual revenue estimate with 1400 spaces x $75 per x 10 home NFL games, 20 or so Rodeo concert/barbecue cookoff nights, and whatever number you like for NCAA March Madness weekends, soccer games such as the Copa America tournament going on this month, the OTC, and single-day events (Beyonce' concerts, Free Press Summer Fest, and so on like that) that are capable of consuming most of the parking capacity. People are already complaining about no air conditioning in the garage, but the selling point is having your car in the shade instead of in the sun. My calculator grinds out a conservative -- using '10' as the third multiplier -- $4.2 million. If you think $75 is too much to park -- that's how much Jerry Jones gets for close-in spaces at AT&T Stadium on Cowboys game days -- then cut it by a third to $50 and it's still a tidy $2.8 mil a year.
The fate of the above-ground part of the Dome is still to be determined. Judge Emmett is stuck on a convention hall, but a park really seems like its most likely fate to me. It's all about who pays, as always, and the taxpayer isn't going to be paying anything no matter what.
The takeaway here is that I might know what I'm blogging about. Most of the time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)