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PoliGAF 2016 |OT14| Attention NV shoppers, democracy is on sale in aisle 4!

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The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
I live right by an early voting location in FL, and I remember there being a lot of signs for the Presidential race posted outside it in '08 and '12 - I even shamelessly stole one of the Obama signs after the election in '08 to keep as a souvenir. This year - hardly any. First couple days of early voting, there were tons of signs posted nearby for the various local races, but maybe 1 for Trump and none for Hillary (and none for Aleppo, either). Jill Stein had more signs than all the other presidential candidates combined. I had to stop and do a double-take.

By the local yard sign indicator, Stein is winning Florida.

In southeast Wisconsin I'm finally finally seeing Clinton/Kaine signs go up, always always accompanied by a Russ Feingold sign

I think I've seen one Trump sign in the last three months
 
I think one pattern to Trump throughout his..."career(?)" is that when he fails at something, he basically goes into denial publicly that he actually failed, but never actually attempts that failure again. I see something similar with politics. He's harp on it like it never failed or it was rigged, maybe make a mini-career out of going to alt-right functions, maybe launch that TV network, but he'll never directly enter politics again.
 

Boke1879

Member
In southeast Wisconsin I'm finally finally seeing Clinton/Kaine signs go up, always always accompanied by a Russ Feingold sign

I think I've seen one Trump sign in the last three months

Where I'm at in Illinois. By NIU. I haven't seen many signs. Mostly just for the local races and stuff. I haven't seen any Trump signs, and I've seen a few Hillary signs.

I was behind a truck yesterday that had "Hillary for Prison 2016" lol

I just don't think people are going all out like that for this election.
 
He could easily do this. Just say - "Based on his actions over the last several months, I have relieved Director Comey of his position. And further, the Assistant Director will take over temporarily until the next President takes office. Let me be clear, the interim Director will still have full authority over this and all investigations, but it has become apparent that Mr. Comey cannot be impartial in the execution of his job." or something like that.

Hillary won, you lost. Bye bye Comey.
 
Contra to NC, bad early voting day in FL yesterday. Dems only netted 3.5k more early votes than Republicans (last year on this day it was 40k). We need to see the breakdown of regions because it was pouring in southern Florida and that could've dampened (hoho) turnout. Or, Comey.
 

Emarv

Member
So it sounds like no major news on the Sunday morning talk shows? Sad. You'd think the Trump campaign would be overplaying the hell out of this.
 

Chumly

Member
Contra to NC, bad early voting day in FL yesterday. Dems only netted 3.5k more early votes than Republicans (last year on this day it was 40k). We need to see the breakdown of regions because it was pouring in southern Florida and that could've damped (hoho) turnout. Or, Comey.
bad weather would put a damper on voting especially if there is lines out the door
 

Hopfrog

Member
I mean, it is really low-hanging fruit and basically "Trump says stupid thing #2897", but his line about this nothingburger being the biggest scandal since Watergate, a scandal which took down a sitting president, just triggers me for some reason. He is a profoundly ignorant human being, but his torturous use of history really sets me off.
 
https://electionsmith.wordpress.com/2016/10/30/hispanic-turnout-is-the-the-big-story-in-florida/

The presidential election (and the US Senate, too) in Florida will be decided by Hispanic turnout.

Hispanics now comprise 15.6% of the state’s 12.7m active registered voters; in 2012, Hispanics comprised 13.6% of the Sunshine State’s voter rolls.

So far, as of yesterday, October 29, 2016, Hispanic voters are comprising a considerably higher percentage of voters than they did at this point in time in 2012, far exceeding their 2% point share of registered voters.

Here’s the Hispanic share of total votes cast (VBM & EIP) by all voters, 9 days out from election day, in 2016 vs. 2012.

Percentage of all Vote-by-Mail (VBM) ballots cast by Hispanics:

2016 = 12.9%
2012 = 9.5%

Percentage of all Early In-Person (EIP) ballots cast by Hispanics:

2016 = 14.2%
2012 = 9.9%
BUT BUT DEAD HEAT
 
I'm sitting here wondering why the FBI moved so fast on the Weiner scandal. His story literally came out a month ago. The only reason the FBI is involved is because it was an interstate affair. So in the last month, they were able to subpoena his computers, search through and determine there were e-mails related to Hillary? They must have put that investigation on the front burner for some reason....

BTW, that investigation is fucked up by Comey coming out with this. Weiner's defense lawyers are going to have a field day. Expect him to slide on the accusations, at least at a federal level.
 

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
In case anyone missed it, and for those who argue with friends about 3rd party choices, I give you Jill Stein the Wifi nutter doing an AMA

Cv_zn6cVYAAC06B.jpg
 

Bowdz

Member
I'm going to take the unpopular opinion here and disagree with this. We don't know what he found, had he waited, the Republicans in Congress would have had a meltdown, had he done it now, the Democrats would have had a meltdown. Given the damned if he does, damned if he doesn't nature of the situation, it makes sense to announce it as the information comes in.

If this were partisan why didn't he recommended indictment earlier? There was enough evidence that no one would have questioned pushing forward with minor charges (even if they'd have been shot down by a judge).

Comey should have followed the FBI's existing policy, one that he repeatedly reiterates to the public and Congress, and not have commented on an ongoing investigation. He has normalized a degree of public awareness into the details of an ongoing investigation in a way that has been unprecedented from the beginning. Not only did this current update violate DoJ policy with regards to election interference, not only did Comey ignore the explicit requests of the AG and AAG, but it was not legally required in any way. The main WaPo article brought up how routinely the FBI has held off dropping subpoenas until the day after various local elections because of their desire to not tip the scales. This should be not different.

Also, Comey should not be factoring in how the investigation will be viewed by political parties. It is irrelevant. His job, and the job of the FBI, is to investigate various potential criminal actions, not try to wade into the body politic. If someone from the FBI leaked the retrieval of new, pertinent emails to the House GOP, then they can deal with the situation then. From the beginning, he should have stuck to his guns about not commenting on ongoing investigations, just handed down his team's recommendation to the AG, and actually carried this out like a normal investigation instead of turning it into the circus he said he wanted to avoid.
 

Pixieking

Banned
I'm sitting here wondering why the FBI moved so fast on the Weiner scandal. His story literally came out a month ago. The only reason the FBI is involved is because it was an interstate affair. So in the last month, they were able to subpoena his computers, search through and determine there were e-mails related to Hillary? They must have put that investigation on the front burner for some reason....

BTW, that investigation is fucked up by Comey coming out with this. Weiner's defense lawyers are going to have a field day. Expect him to slide on the accusations, at least at a federal level.

Isn't there something to do with underage sexting in the Weiner case? In which case, I would expect the FBI to act very quickly.
 

royalan

Member
What would be worse, Comey staying or the optics of him being ousted when Hillary is elected?

Seriously. Fuck how it looks.

If Kurt Eichenwald, in his interview with Joy Reid this morning, is to be believed, the FBI and Justice Department internally is furious with Comey for breaking precedent like he has. And the FBI not commenting on investigations is a precedent for a reason. The FBI is largely an investigative body; it's not their job to editorialize or read into what they find. They investigate, they report their findings to the DoJ who then makes a determination, and then they stay silent. The damning thing here is that it was leaked that Comey knew EXACTLY what the fallout from his letter would be,but did it anyway over some nebulous bullshit excuse about "fairness." Well, Comey, fairness is not your fucking job. As Elizabeth Warren would say: Do. Your. Job.

In an election year where one of the major candidates has dedicated his entire campaign to delegitimizing standing pillars of government and the bodies that make it up, what Comey has done will not only have effects on his personal credibility (what credibility? he's scum), but the credibility and integrity of the FBI itself, and sadly deservedly so. Comey can write as many brief letters as he wants about how he really, truly (really you guyzzz!!) didn't want to use the FBI as a partisan tool to effect a presidential election, but that's still exactly what happened. And that's why nobody on either side of the aisle is happy with his actions here, other than Trump loonies.

He doesn't deserve his post. His blatant partisanship-over-integrity approach to operating the FBI would be a clear danger to Hillary's administration, it'll likely be difficult or him to command the respect of Bureau after this, and if the only reason to give for keeping him on after this blunder is the "bad optics" of his ass getting kicked to the curb by a Democrat...well, I just don't see that being good enough. And I'd be surprised if Hillary will think that's good enough.
 
Isn't there something to do with underage sexting in the Weiner case? In which case, I would expect the FBI to act very quickly.

FBI has a lot of cases, some of the worst you can think of (rape, murder, etc.). This case is expected to result in a misdemeanor. Why would they need to move very quickly?
 

thebloo

Member
Obama should fire Comey November 9th or something.

I disagree. Let him finish the investigation first. Firing him during the course of the investigation is not a good move.

I mean, it is really low-hanging fruit and basically "Trump says stupid thing #2897", but his line about this nothingburger being the biggest scandal since Watergate, a scandal which took down a sitting president, just triggers me for some reason. He is a profoundly ignorant human being, but his torturous use of history really sets me off.

I still think he has no idea exactly what Watergate was.

If Kurt Eichenwald, in his interview with Joy Reid this morning, is to be believed, the FBI and Justice Department internally is furious with Comey for breaking precedent like he has.

If sources are to be believed, some FBI people were pissed this summer when he didn't recommend an indictment. Should he have been fired then too?
 
What do you do when your coworker tells you he hates Anita Sarkesian and cites Thunderf00t

Slap him in the face and tell him to stop being so triggered by feminism.

If he responds by bringing up Sommers, loudly laugh in his face for bringing up the modern day Phyllis Schlaffly and tell him he's a dumbass for thinking it's feminist to be a rape apologist.

And when he inevitably says you are being rude to him, respond with "I thought you dipshits hated political correctness. Or was that just your excuse for whining about feminism like a child?"

MRA types only respond to superiors, so you need to make him feel demoralized in order to shut him up.
 

bananas

Banned
My mom, who's a republican-lite and was leaning Trump a few months ago, told me she already voted early yesterday.

She didn't vote for Trump, but said she couldn't bring herself to vote for Clinton. GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME!

She also said she voted for Murphy!!!
 

Pixieking

Banned
FBI has a lot of cases, some of the worst you can think of (rape, murder, etc.). This case is expected to result in a misdemeanor. Why would they need to move very quickly?

Partially optics (they don't want to be caught being lazy on an underage sexting crime involving a politician), and partly because Weiner is in so deep being a creep, that I expect they would want to bag him as quickly as possible, and make sure that he's not into anything else suspect. His ties to Huma would also probably require quick action to ensure she's not been complicit (obviously she won't be, but it's probably a concern).
 
To be fair, the biggest theft of party data by actors supporting the opposing party was done this year.

It was when Russia hacked the DNC and then Hillary's team to help Trump.

So there was something like Watergate that happened this year!
 
I think it's more that the FBI saying the Weiner investigation is "unrelated" isn't true at all. They considered the Weiner case completely related to Hillary's case, and that's why they dug so quickly.
 
My mom, who's a republican-lite and was leaning Trump a few months ago, told me she already voted early yesterday.

She didn't vote for Trump, but said she couldn't bring herself to vote for Clinton. GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME!

She also said she voted for Murphy!!!

My conservative mom ALMOST voted for Hillary, but disappointingly she ended up voting for the Libertarian ticket.

The good new is she voted the same way I did with regards to the questions (MA questions: No on 1 and 2; Yes on 3 and 4.)
 

Iolo

Member
Gotta collaborate with the same people every day

Well, that goes both ways, doesn't it—your coworker should not be saying things that makes it harder to collaborate with you. Tell your coworker you are not interested in discussing it, ignore attempts to bring it up, and if it continues then talk to HR.
 
What do you do when your coworker tells you he hates Anita Sarkesian and cites Thunderf00t
Just feign ignorance and ask who she is. Have him explain the whole thing and end it with "wow the gamergate douchebags are really sexist pieces of shit arent they!"
 

bananas

Banned
My conservative mom ALMOST voted for Hillary, but disappointingly she ended up voting for the Libertarian ticket.

The good new is she voted the same way I did with regards to the questions (MA questions: No on 1 and 2; Yes on 3 and 4.)

My mom voted Yes for all.

I told her after the fact about what Voting yes for Amendment 1 actually meant and she was kinda upset because she felt the question tricked her.

Ah well... :\
 

royalan

Member
If sources are to be believed, some FBI people were pissed this summer when he didn't recommend an indictment. Should he have been fired then too?

It would be nuts and dishonest to suggest that the backlash against Comey for not indicting Hillary Clinton among the Bureau and department professionals was the same as what we're seeing here. You're confusing it for Trump backlash. Most lawmakers and people familiar with the investigation and how the FBI worked knew she wouldn't be indicted. What Comey did here is unprecedented.
 
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