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riversedge

The real Clinton email scandal is that a bullshit story has dominated the campaign

(Vox) Emailgate, like so many Clinton pseudo-scandals before it, is bullshit. The real scandal here is the way a story that was at best of modest significance came to dominate the US presidential election — overwhelming stories of much more importance, giving the American people a completely skewed impression of one of the two nominees, and creating space for the FBI to intervene in the election in favor of its apparently preferred candidate in a dangerous way.

Laxman

Bridgegate verdict: Bill Baroni and Bridget Kelly guilty on all counts

(NJ.Com) Two former Christie administration insiders charged in a bizarre scheme of political retaliation against a mayor who refused to endorse the governor for re-election were found guilty Friday on all counts in the long-running Bridgegate saga.

In a seven-week trial that saw their own words used against them, Bill Baroni and Bridget Anne Kelly were convicted of helping orchestrate massive traffic tie-ups at the George Washington Bridge in September 2013. The plot was hatched to send a pointed message to Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, after he stepped back from his earlier public support of Gov. Chris Christie.

Miles Archer

Rudy Giuliani Confirms The FBI Leaked Information To The Trump Campaign

(Huffington Post) Rudy Giuliani said Friday that he knew the FBI planned to review more emails tied to Hillary Clinton before a public announcement about the investigation last week, confirming that the agency leaked information to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

The former New York City mayor and Trump surrogate has recently dropped a series of hints that he knew in advance that the FBI planned to look at emails potentially connected to Clinton’s private server. The agency discovered the messages while investigating former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) for allegedly sexting with a minor. (Weiner’s estranged wife, Huma Abedin, is a top aide to Clinton.)

Giuliani has bragged about his close ties to the FBI for months, mentioning in interviews that “outraged FBI agents” have told him they’re frustrated by how the Clinton investigation was handled. And two days before FBI Director James Comey announced that the agency was reviewing the newly uncovered emails, Giuliani teased that Trump’s campaign had “a couple of surprises left.”

EricMaundry

Democratic insiders: Clinton's ground game will sink Trump

(Politico) The presidential race may be tightening, but Democrats are convinced they have an Election Day ace-in-the-hole: Hillary Clinton's ground game. They're confident it will withstand Donald Trump’s late surge in key battleground states.

That’s according to The POLITICO Caucus — a panel of activists, strategists and operatives in 11 swing states, 7 of which are seeing significant early- and absentee-voting operations. In those seven states where large numbers of voters are expected to cast their ballots before Election Day — Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin — more than three-quarters of Democrats think their party has done a better job turning out key voters thus far.

babylonsister

Charles P. Pierce: The FBI. Giuliani. Of Course.

(Esquire) Since the passing of Mike Royko and with the possible exception of Kevin Cullen at The Boston Globe, there is no reporter who knows an individual city as well as Wayne Barrett knows New York. Years ago, when he was writing for The Village Voice and I was starting out at The Boston Phoenix, Barrett was one of the people I read to learn the difference between the alternative press and everything else. He is steeped in the political history of modern New York, particularly the history of the last quarter of the 20th Century and the various ambulatory relics who are still wandering through our politics here in the first quarter of the 21st.

On Thursday, in The Daily Beast, Barrett came as close as anyone has in explaining the Byzantine internal politics of the FBI as regards the presidential campaign. It involves Rudy Giuliani, his pals in the FBI from his days as a U.S. Attorney, and his current role as security jefe for El Caudillo del Mar-A-Lago.

deminks

Newsweek: Why Vladimir Putin's Russia is Backing Donald Trump

In phone calls, meetings and cables, America’s European allies have expressed alarm to one another about Donald Trump’s public statements denying Moscow’s role in cyberattacks designed to interfere with the U.S. election. They fear the Republican nominee for president has emboldened the Kremlin in its unprecedented cyber-campaign to disrupt elections in multiple countries in hopes of weakening Western alliances, according to intelligence, law enforcement and other government officials in the United States and Europe.

While American intelligence officers have privately briefed Trump about Russia’s attempts to influence the U.S. election, he has publicly dismissed that information as unreliable, instead saying this hacking of incredible sophistication and technical complexity could have been done by some 400-pound “guy sitting on their bed” or even a child.

DonViejo

Chatter grows that Ryan could step down

(The Hill) Chatter is growing louder on Capitol Hill that Paul Ryan’s days as Speaker are numbered.

Four House Republicans, including a senior lawmaker close to leadership, told The Hill they expect Ryan to step down after Tuesday’s election, arguing that he faces a daunting path to the 218 votes he needs to win a full two-year term leading the House GOP.

Aides to the Wisconsin Republican insist he isn’t going anywhere and say he’s completely focused right now on protecting the GOP’s historic majority in the lower chamber. “The Speaker's only focus until Election Day is defeating Democrats and protecting our majority, and nothing else,” said Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong.

blogslut

Hillary Clinton excited to see Cubs World Series victory.

DonViejo

President Obama to Donald Trump: ‘You’re a Loser’

(Time) President Obama dinged Trump on his claims that the presidential election would be rigged against him, calling his statements the musings of a “loser” at a rally in North Carolina on Wednesday.

“If in the middle of the game you’re spending all your time arguing with the refs,” Obama said Wednesday, “then you’re a loser and you shouldn’t win.”

DonViejo

Homeland Security Chairman: Clinton Could Be Impeached If Elected

(TPM) Reacting to the FBI's announcement last week that it was reviewing a newly discovered batch of emails related to Clinton's use of a private email server as secretary of state, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) was emphatic that impeachment would proceed if a criminal indictment of Clinton appeared imminent.

"This investigation will continue whether she wins or not, but assuming she wins and the investigation goes forward, and it looks like an indictment is pending, at that point of time in the Constitution, the House of Representatives would engage in an impeachment trial," McCaul said referring to a House investigation into Clinton's e-mails. "It would go to the Senate, and impeachment proceedings and removal would take place."