2420: Talent Show

[My Sweaty Balls]

Originally Posted by Electric Squirrel

Chemda was pointing out that there is sexism against Hillary. I don't think anyone disagrees with that.

C'mon, she is the odds on favourite for the most powerful job in the world. What would she be if sexism didn't hold her back, the super-president?

Originally Posted by Electric Squirrel

What Michael and Keith were saying was that, whether or not she was targeted for these things because she's a woman, she still did these things.

Not exactly, Keith in particular was saying any presidential nominee would come under the same scrutiny. Of course.

[Sparrow]

i, too, am uncomfortable with the narrative that b/c she's a woman she's beyond reproach; that her womb is proof enough to dismiss any criticism. i think it pulls us right back to the days people didn't think women could murder.

vaginas and boobs aren't character references.

[MichaelApproved]

Originally Posted by therewillbesnacks

Yes to Michael having a political podcast!

Thanks to you and everyone else in the thread who would like this show! I like the suggestions I've been reading here too. Keep them coming.

Originally Posted by therewillbesnacks

On the FBI announcement, it absolutely is a big deal. Here's a great article on it that puts it more eloquently than I can:
https://theintercept.com/2016/07/05/...llary-clinton/

The bar for indictment is intent. Like it or not, that's what we're working with. Comey couldn't find any other case that didn't include intent. The article you linked says the sailor's case was similar. Let's take a look:

From the article

Prosecutors allege that Petty Officer First Class Kristian Saucier used a cellphone camera to take photos in the classified engine room of the nuclear submarine where he worked as a mechanic, the USS Alexandria, then destroyed a laptop, camera and memory card after learning he was under investigation.

Last July, Saucier was indicted on one felony count of unlawful retention of national defense information and another felony count of obstruction of justice.

WTF legitimate use did taking cellphone camera photos of the classified engine room have? Sounds like spy shit to me. How is that the same?

Originally Posted by therewillbesnacks

Whether she deserves to be indicted or not, looking at this as an isolated incident, is not the main issue. The real issue is the inconsistency with security cases and prosecution. Anyone else in her position, based on previous security cases that were much more trivial than this, would have been charged without question.

James Comey, the lifelong Republican Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, disagrees with you. According to him and his year-long investigation into this, there are no other cases that are similar to Hillary's. Anything similar to Hillary would've been handled administratively. That means her boss would likely revoke her security clearance and fire her. It's embarrassing that someone who should have their security clearance be revoked is going to be the Democratic nominee but that's the political shit-show we are living.

Originally Posted by therewillbesnacks

Another thing that Michael didn't mention is the fact that after Comey's announcement, we now know that she lied about not sending and receiving classified information. The FBI found 8 email chains that they marked "Top Secret", i.e. the highest classification of confidentiality, and 102 others that were also marked as confidential.

She lied to us, the American people, but not to the FBI or under oath. Can't prosecute her for that.

Originally Posted by therewillbesnacks

On Obama, I was only 12 when he was first elected, but my Mom recently told me that she remembers him back when he was giving a speech during Kerry's 2004 campaign, and she just thought "Why the hell isn't this guy running? He's intelligent, well-spoken and he actually has some charisma." So I think that combined with the fact that he's black is what won him the primary/general. Any other candidate wouldn't have had a chance against the political machine that is the Clintons, and even still he lost the popular vote, but won with delegates. So I don't know that would have won if he wasn't black, but he's also the most likable president we've had in years.

I don't think being black played as big a part as other people think but that'll always be up for debate. Though Obama definitely has charisma!

[Rosa]

I was very happy to hear a more balanced discussion of Hillary on this show. One thing I wanted to pipe up about... Michael suggested that Obama being black was nothing more than the cherry on top of an otherwise shoe-in candidate. He said that people did not vote for him just because he was black (or that his being black was not a significant contributing factor), and that if people did, it was probably black people who always vote for the democratic candidate anyway. If you look at the numbers, it turns out Obama won because of a huge surge in the number of black voters who came out to vote. It wasn't just that they voted for Obama, it's that so many more black voters voted than usual: 2008 Surge in Black Voters Nearly Erased Racial Gap - NYTimes.com

[Rosa]

Originally Posted by MichaelApproved

Originally Posted by therewillbesnacks
"Another thing that Michael didn't mention is the fact that after Comey's announcement, we now know that she lied about not sending and receiving classified information. The FBI found 8 email chains that they marked "Top Secret", i.e. the highest classification of confidentiality, and 102 others that were also marked as confidential."

Michael: She lied to us, the American people, but not to the FBI or under oath. Can't prosecute her for that.

Ok, let's be clear about the facts. Those emails were retroactively marked classified. As in, their status was changed after she used them on her server.

Look, Hillary was reckless (though not criminal) with her email. This stemmed from a much larger systemic issue with how the state department, and our government more broadly, handles email communication and security: Don?t Blame Hillary for the Classified Email Scandal | Foreign Policy. The public outrage and concern should be focused on this larger issue. the reason it hasn't been is because this scandal Is not about email, it's about trying to delegitimize Hillary Clinton. It's the same old double standard we've seen levied at Hillary by the GOP for decades, most recently with Benghazi: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/29/us...imes&smtyp=cur
“After more than two years and more than $7 million in taxpayer funds, the Committee report has not found anything to contradict the conclusions of the multiple, earlier investigations...This report just confirms what Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and even one of Trey Gowdy’s own former staffers admitted months ago: this Committee’s chief goal is to politicize the deaths of four brave Americans in order to try to attack the Obama administration and hurt Hillary Clinton’s campaign.”

[My Sweaty Balls]

Originally Posted by Apia

I'm also for a political podcast with Michael. Co hosted with a female would be great, I liked how Chemda pointed out that Hilary has been asked different questions like about the China in the white house. Sorry men, but there are points you don't see or think are normal because it's always been that way.

It wasn't sexism against Hilary - it was probably written by the Clinton camp

Secretary Clinton -- first ladies, as you well know, have used their position to work on important causes like literacy and drug abuse. But they also supervise the menus, the flowers, the holiday ornaments and White House decor," ABC News journalist Martha Raddatz asked Hillary Clinton.

"You have said that Bill Clinton is a great host and loves giving tours but may opt out of picking flower arrangements if you're elected. Bill Clinton aside, is it time to change the role of a president's spouse?" she asked.

It was a softball so she could talk about her statesman husband. (I would grant you that it might have been sexist against every other potential first lady - one of whom for instance was a Judge)

[MichaelApproved]

Originally Posted by Rosa

I was very happy to hear a more balanced discussion of Hillary on this show. One thing I wanted to pipe up about... Michael suggested that Obama being black was nothing more than the cherry on top of an otherwise shoe-in candidate. He said that people did not vote for him just because he was black (or that his being black was not a significant contributing factor), and that if people did, it was probably black people who always vote for the democratic candidate anyway. If you look at the numbers, it turns out Obama won because of a huge surge in the number of black voters who came out to vote. It wasn't just that they voted for Obama, it's that so many more black voters voted than usual: 2008 Surge in Black Voters Nearly Erased Racial Gap - NYTimes.com

I don't think I said or meant to imply that Obama was a shoe-in. He fought hard to win the nomination and it came down to the wire.

I'm saying that Obama didn't suggest that people should vote for him just because he's black. Being competent and inspirational leader is what got him the votes. Being black was a cherry on top of the competence.

On the other hand, Hillary is openly saying that people should vote for her because she's a woman.

Great point about surge in the black voters!

Originally Posted by Rosa

Ok, let's be clear about the facts. Those emails were retroactively marked classified. As in, their status was changed after she used them on her server.

According to Comey, that's the lie that Hillary was spreading. Check out this excerpt from this article. Emphasis mine.

FBI director: Hillary Clinton 'extremely careless' but no charges recommended - CNNPolitics.com

Comey said of the 30,000 emails that Clinton's team turned over to the State Department, 110 emails in 52 email chains were determined to have contained classified information "at the time they were sent or received," Comey said. Eight of those chains contained information considered "top secret," the highest level of classification.

That's in addition to 2,000 emails that were "upclassified," or determined to have classified information only in hindsight.

[My Sweaty Balls]

Originally Posted by Apia

Just don't have a white straight male as a co host.

When I think about it, the opinion of a black woman would be the most interesting to me. You had some good ones on the show.

The show could be called Thug Politics

[MichaelApproved]

Originally Posted by My Sweaty Balls

The show could be called Thug Politics

I'm thinking something like "Politics Approved"

[MichaelApproved]

Looks like Comey will be testifying about the email case. If this is just a single hearing about his decision, I think it'll be a great thing. I love that Comey isn't being a blackbox about his decision. So far, he's been pretty transparent and, the more he explains his recommendation, the better.

However, if this becomes a never ending shit-show of hearings the Republicans love wasting money on, it'll suck.

FBI chief James Comey faces questions over Clinton emails - BBC News