Last Call For Influence Peddling

I'm with Matt Yglesias on Bernie's speech Thursday: Bernie Sanders has specifically run against the party of Obama/Clinton and it's pissed people off in profound ways.

It’s one thing to disagree with people about policy substance or political tactics. But something Sanders has done throughout his campaign and very pointedly did here is straightforwardly challenge the good faith of the vast majority of his colleagues in Democratic Party politics. It’s worked pretty well for him on the stump, but it doesn’t win you a lot of friends. And to be honest, it’s simply wrong — you can raise a lot of objections to Obama’s approach to Wall Street or climate change, but the fact is that the financial services industry and the fossil fuel industries have been fighting him every step of the way. 

This is important to understanding why, at the end of the day, Sanders got so very little institutional support for his campaign despite a very long career in Congress that’s involved a lot of working constructively with other members and left-wing interest groups. 

Even labor unions and progressive members of Congress who share important aspects of Sanders’s worldview have also been there in the trenches and seen these things happen. They’ve fought to get the Labor Department fiduciary rule enacted,fought for net neutrality, fought to raise taxes on the rich in 2009 and again in 2013, and fought to expand Medicaid. 

A lot of the people who’ve fought for those things agree with Sanders that they didn’t go far enough in important ways, or even that key people in the party didn’t push hard enough or strong enough for them. But a lot of Sanders’s rhetoric seems to simply erase these battles, as if the whole party were just sitting on its hands until Bernie and his political revolution came to town.

Bernie Sanders, and increasingly over the last 12 months, his followers, have treated the Democratic party not as something that can be improved and reformed, but as something that must be destroyed as the enemy. And in the process of that erasure, Sanders has erased Democratic voters of color most of all. Obama's strongest supporters are seen as the most misguided, most corrupt, and least worthy among Sanders and his followers of conversion to Saint Bernard's teachings.

It's bad enough as a black voter that I hear "Why are you still on the Obama plantation" from the right, but getting it from the left as well is just pissing me off.

The View Of Orlando

In case there were any doubts about an event as awful as the Orlando massacre last Sunday being seen as a political act, Republicans and Democrats have starkly different views of the horrific incident.

Republicans and Democrats have starkly different interpretations of what the recent mass shooting at an Orlando nightclub represents. While 79% of Republicans view it primarily as an act of Islamic terrorism, the majority of Democrats, 60%, see it as an act of domestic gun violence. Given Republicans' more lopsided views, Americans as a whole tilt toward describing it as a terrorist act.

The results are based on a June 14-15 Gallup poll, conducted days after a Muslim U.S. citizen, Omar Mateen, perpetrated the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history at an Orlando nightclub. Mateen had been listed on the federal government's terrorism watch list in 2013 and 2014, but was later removed. While both President Barack Obama and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton described the incident as an act of terror, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump went further, tying the act to radical Islam. 

Democrats' interpretation of the Orlando shooting may be influenced by Democratic leaders' calls for stricter gun laws in recent days. This was exemplified by a Democratic-led filibuster on the Senate floor Wednesday and Thursday, which ended after Republican leaders agreed to take up proposals on background checks and steps to prevent terrorists from obtaining guns. 

Trump's statements on the event may be contributing to Republicans' views of the Orlando incident as an act of Islamic terrorism, but Republicans' tendency to define it as terrorism may also stem from their greater concern about terrorism in general. 

Independents are evenly divided as to whether the Orlando shooting was an act of Islamic terrorism (44%) or domestic gun violence (42%). 

Whether the Orlando incident was inspired by Islamic terrorism or the actions of a killer able to obtain guns is a debate that cannot be easily settled and, regardless, does nothing to diminish the tragedy of the event. But it is clear that Americans' political views influence how they interpret the tragedy and, by extension, shape their views of the policies leaders should pursue to prevent similar incidents.

By the way, right now the FBI isn't calling this a terror attack, and hasn't been able to substantiate Mateen's connection to ISIS.

That doesn't seem to matter to Republicans, who will be calling this an Islamic terror attack until they day they die.

In other words, this isn't "both sides view the event differently" as much as it is "Democrats are seeing one thing and Republicans are making up another out of whole cloth."  Reality's liberal bias, you see.

The Foggy Bottom Bomb Squad

Like any other workplace, the State Department isn't monolithic, and diplomats disagree on foriegn policy all the time. What is unusual is having such disagreements made glaringly public as an attack on a sitting President and his foreign policy.

More than 50 State Department diplomats have signed an internal memo sharply critical of the Obama administration’s policy in Syria, urging the United States to carry out military strikes against the government of President Bashar al-Assad to stop its persistent violations of a cease-fire in the country’s five-year-old civil war. 

The memo, a draft of which was provided to The New York Times by a State Department official, says American policy has been “overwhelmed” by the unrelenting violence in Syria. It calls for “a judicious use of stand-off and air weapons, which would undergird and drive a more focused and hard-nosed U.S.-led diplomatic process.” 

Such a step would represent a radical shift in the administration’s approach to the civil war in Syria, and there is little evidence thatPresident Obama has plans to change course. Mr. Obama has emphasized the military campaign against the Islamic State over efforts to dislodge Mr. Assad. Diplomatic efforts to end the conflict, led by Secretary of State John Kerry, have all but collapsed. 

But the memo, filed in the State Department’s “dissent channel,” underscores the deep rifts and lingering frustration within the administration over how to deal with a war that has killed more than 400,000 people. 

The State Department set up the channel during the Vietnam War as a way for employees who had disagreements with policies to register their protest with the secretary of state and other top officials, without fear of reprisal. While dissent cables are not that unusual, the number of signatures on this document, 51, is extremely large, if not unprecedented. 

The names on the memo are almost all midlevel officials — many of them careerdiplomats — who have been involved in the administration’s Syria policy over the last five years, at home or abroad. They range from a Syria desk officer in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs to a former deputy to the American ambassador in Damascus.

While there are no widely recognized names, higher-level State Department officials are known to share their concerns. Mr. Kerry himself has pushed for stronger American action against Syria, in part to force a diplomatic solution on Mr. Assad. The president has resisted such pressure, and has been backed up by his military commanders, who have raised questions about what would happen in the event that Mr. Assad was forced from power — a scenario that the draft memo does not address.

This is some pretty heavy stuff  to see from career diplomats, wanting increased conflict and military action (which goes to show you that not everybody in the State Department is against military violence over diplomacy.)

And that leaves us in a quagmire: what's happening in Syria as a result of President Obama's single most enduring policy failure is clearly and not only not working in any fashion, but failing overwhelmingly.  However, nobody seems to have a better idea than what we're doing now that wouldn't turn Syria into a failed state controlled by ISIS.

It's an awful position and President Obama deserves a massive share of the blame for the situation coming to this.  Syria has been a screw-up of Dubya-sized proportions, 400,000 dead and 5 million displaced, in many ways worse than Iraq or Afgnaistan.

"Not making it any worse" will be Hillary Clinton's job in a few months, and I do not envy her. And yet that's exactly what these career State Department diplomats are proposing, to make it far, far worse.

It's depressing.

StupidiNews!

• Jo Cox, a 41-year-old member of Britain's parliament, was shot and stabbed near her office in Birstall, later dying from her injuries, police have a suspect in custody.
• President Obama met with families of the victims of the Orlando massacre yesterday, the president again called for Congress to take action on new firearms regulations.
• The President will head to Carlsbad Caverns and Yosemite national parks this weekend to encourage Americans to respect the environment and help fight climate change.
• Chinese officials have ruled against Apple, saying that the company's iPhone violates patents of a Beijing competitor, which could cost Apple billions in lost sales. 
• Cable TV industry groups want to cut a deal with the FCC over set-top box regulations, but want control over recording shows on third-party devices.

Last Call For Watching Out For Us

I'm glad that Democrats are trying to do something about people on the FBI terror watch list not being able to buy guns, but the fact is that wouldn't have helped in Orlando as the FBI removed Omar Mateen from their watch list two years ago.

Omar Mateen was placed on a terrorist watch list maintained by the FBI when its agents questioned him in 2013 and 2014 about potential ties to terrorism, according to U.S. law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the case. 

He was subsequently removed from that database after the FBI closed its two investigations, one official said. 

In the first investigation, Mateen was questioned by FBI agents after they were told he had made inflammatory comments that co-workers worried were sympathetic to terrorists. 

The FBI agents determined that Mateen had not broken any laws and closed the investigation, a second official said. 

They questioned Mateen again the following year because agents had learned he had contact with an American who later died in a suicide bombing in Syria. 

Agents closed that investigation because they concluded the contacts with the suicide bomber had been minimal, an FBI official said. 

Even if Mateen were still on the terrorist watch list — known as the Terrorist Screening Database — the designation would not have precluded him from buying the semiautomatic pistol and assault-style rifle that he used in Sunday's massacre.

So yeah, in this case the FBI's watch list proved utterly useless.  They closed their investigations, he went on to buy guns, and he slaughtered 49 people with them.

You know what? I have a whole hell of a lot less trust in the FBI and our surveillance regime than I did last week, and I'm thinking it's more than past time to ask some very pointed questions about whether or not Patriot Act powers are still necessary for law enforcment.

Between this and police abuses over the last decade, I've finally gotten around to the idea that we need to roll back this stuff in a major way.

Correct me if I'm wrong, guys, but this has to be yet another department where Obama has utterly failed, and Jesus it's hard to defend the guy sometimes.

Recrossing The Rubio Con

Don't look now, but in the wake of the Orlando massacre, opportunist and failed GOP presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio might very well flip flop again and run to keep his Senate seat after all. WaPo's James Hohmann takes him to task:

Marco Rubio said yesterday that he is rethinking his decision not to seek another term in the Senate and that he may jump into the race before next Friday’s filing deadline in Florida. 

“I enjoy my service here a lot,” the senator earnestly told reporters at the Capitol. 

For anyone who has watched Rubio over the past five-and-a-half years, that statement – and the straight face with which he said it – is farcical. 

The 45-year-old has heretofore made no secret of his distaste for the world’s greatest deliberative body. His friends have said he “hates” the job. Rubio himself was unapologetic about missing more votes than any other senator during his failed presidential campaign, often complaining about how “frustrating” it is to serve as a member of Congress. 

Rubio is congenitally impatient, an unhelpful personality trait in a chamber that was designed to move slowly. James Madison’s idea when he drafted the Constitution was that the Senate would “cool” House legislation, just as a saucer cools hot tea.

Indeed, the GOP is watching control of the Senate implode in real time. GOP senators like Mark Kirk, Kelly Ayotte, Rob Portman and Ron Johnson are losing in rough races, and losing all of those plus Rubio's seat would mean the Dems would take back the Senate.  It's bad enough for the GOP right now that second-tier races are up for grabs and senators like Richard Burr, Pat Toomey, and even Roy Blunt are in trouble.

So yes, the obvious gamble of pushing Rubio to run is something the GOP is now willing to try, but his biggest problem is the anvil around his neck that's at the top of the 2016 GOP ticket: Trump.

Rubio called his party’s presumptive nominee a con artist and said he shouldn’t be able to have the nuclear launch codes. He also might have said something about the size of his hands. 

More recently, he’s said he’ll vote for Trump because he’s not as bad as Hillary Clinton. 

Trump will spend lots of time in the perennial battleground this fall. He may even wind up picking Florida Gov. Rick Scott as his running mate. It will be awkward for Rubio to avoid all of his big rallies, and with less and less split-ticket voting, their fortunes may be inextricably tied. 

Though there is not a sizable Mexican population in Florida, Trump will probably still galvanize record Latino turnout across the board. And Rubio’s Cuban heritage does not mean he can count on others in the Hispanic diaspora, such as the huge Puerto Rican population around Orlando, to vote for him. 

Remember too that Trump whipped Rubio in the Florida GOP primary. The senator risks alienating The Donald’s many supporters every time he speaks out against the nominee’s divisive rhetoric.

Rubio can't run away from Trump and win in a battleground state like Florida, and yet he can't win by running with The Donald either.  And a November loss now would almost certainly end his national ambitions for good.  Republicans don't like losers, folks.

We'll see if Marco runs. Frankly, I hope he does and that Democrat Patrick Murphy stomps him flat.

The Mystery Of The Missing Senator

As I said this morning, Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy lead a 15-hour filibuster to force Mitch the Turtle and the GOP to at least pay lip service to the idea of allowing a vote on gun safety measures. Several Democratic senators pitched in to help Murphy out.

It's been nearly a decade since Congress made any significant changes to federal gun laws. In April 2007, Congress passed a law to strengthen the instant background check system after a gunman at Virginia Tech was able to purchase his weapons because his mental health history was not in the instant background check database. Thirty-two people died in the shooting. 

Murphy said Senate leadership agreed to allow a vote on legislation from Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., that would let the government bar sales of guns and explosives to people it suspects of being terrorists. 

Feinstein offered the amendment in December, a day after an extremist couple killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, but the Republican-run Senate rejected the proposal on a near party-line vote. He said the compromise also will allow a vote on an amendment to expand background checks. 

Sen. Bob Casey, who represents Pennsylvania, spoke at around 12:30 a.m. Thursday, called on legislators to allow the votes. 

"At least put your hand up for a vote that will begin, just begin the long journey to rectify a substantial national problem that takes 33,000 people every year," Casey said. "All we're asking for is a start." 

As Murphy wrapped up the filibuster in the early hours of Thursday, he told the story of Sandy Hook student Dylan Hockley and his teacher Anne Marie Murphy, who died trying to protect him. 

"It doesn't take courage to stand here on the floor of the U.S. Senate… It takes courage to look into the eye of a shooter and instead of running wrapping your arms around a 6-year-old boy and accepting death," Murphy said. "If Ann-Marie Murphy could do that then ask yourself — what can you do to make sure that Orlando or Sandy Hook never, ever happens again."

But do you know which sitting US senator was not among the dozens who supported Murphy's filibuster by speaking out loudly in favor of gun safety regulations?

Bernie Sanders.

On Wednesday, a group of Senate Democrats launched a lengthy and spirited filibuster to pressure Congress into taking action to prevent gun violence. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders wasn't at the filibuster, but he tweeted his support throughout the day in absentia. The lively filibuster continued for more than 12 hours on Wednesday — and Sanders' fellow Senate Democrats showed few signs of slowing down as the clock crept toward Thursday. 

Although he's a senator with a seat around the floor where the action took place on Wednesday, Sanders remained away from the Capitol. That's not unusual or unexpected for a presidential candidate. After all, he may not be the so-called "presumptive nominee," but he's made it clear that he won't concede to rival Hillary Clinton just yet. To keep his campaign alive, Sanders probably needs to focus more on votes from superdelegates than from senators. 

That's not to say that Sanders turned his back on his colleagues at the Capitol. On the contrary, Sanders tweeted throughout the day from his senatorial Twitter account (rather than the campaign account that you're probably more likely to follow). Like many of his fellow senators, Sanders called for a ban on the purchase of military-style weapons, like the rifle used in Sunday's shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando.

Now, there's all kinds of excuses Bernie can make for not being at that filibuster.  Some of them might even be good excuses.  But if I'm trying to keep my campaign alive at this point, when given a national platform and an issue supposedly near and dear to his heart, Bernie chose to stay in Vermont to tweet, and that's not a decision I would have made.

Regardless of the campaign, Sanders is still the senior Senator from Vermont. He could have weighed in, I guess.

Maybe?

Revolutions are hard, I guess.

StupidiNews!

• After a 15-hour filibuster, Connecticut Dem Sen. Chris Murphy has gained promises from a majority of the upper chamber to consider gun safety legislation.
• French Prime Minister Manuel Valls says despite attacks in Paris earlier this year, that the country will not resort to Guantanamo Bay-style detention centers for suspected terrorists.
• Police divers have located the body of a two-year-old boy taken by an alligator Tuesday evening near a Walt Disney World resort, the child's body was intact.
• America's struggling shopping malls have tens of billions in debt coming due as General Growth Properties, the nation's second largest mall owner, has already defaulted.
• Music streaming service Rhapsody will rebrand itself as Napster, using the name of the controversial music sharing site shut down in 2002.

Last Call For Bevin Shuts The Door

And the number of abortion clinics in Kentucky is now down to one.

The Kentucky Court of Appeals granted on Wednesday the Bevin administration’s request to temporarily close a Lexington abortion clinic, reversing an earlier Fayette Circuit Court ruling. 

The appellate court said EMW Women’s Clinic on Burt Road is “temporarily enjoined from operating an abortion facility” until it receives a license from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services or until a final judgment is rendered in this case, whichever comes first. 

The appellate court said it agreed with Bevin’s argument “that the circuit court’s findings and conclusions are clearly erroneous.” 

“As the cabinet points out, this case is not about a woman’s right to an abortion,” the court said in its 24-page order. “The cabinet is not seeking to prevent women from obtaining abortions. It is seeking, however, to enforce its right to regulate the manner in which abortions are performed in this commonwealth.” 

In March, Fayette Circuit Judge Ernesto Scorsone denied the state’s request for a temporary injunction to close the clinic. 

The state claimed the lower court misinterpreted and misapplied relevant state laws and relied on unwarranted assumptions and facts that were not in the court record. 

Scorsone said the state cabinet failed to present adequate evidence during a hearing that it eventually would prevail in the lawsuit or that allowing the clinic to remain open as the lawsuit proceeds would cause “irreparable injury.” 

Scorsone also said closing the clinic would be against the public interest because it is the only physician’s office that routinely provides abortion services in the eastern half of Kentucky. 

The state sued the clinic in early March, alleging that it lacked a required state license. The clinic stopped performing abortions March 9 pending a judge’s ruling, but said it would resume offering the procedure after Scorsone’s ruling. 

The state has said the clinic performed more than 400 abortions in 2015.

So at this point, there's a very good chance that between this closing and the Planned Parenthood clinics in Cincinnati still in limbo, that the part of the country I live in may not have an abortion provider within 100 miles, thanks to Republican TRAP laws.

But it's not about "seeking to prevent women from obtaining abortions".  No, it's never about that.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article83964517.html#storylink=cpy

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Equality

Just another reminder that the next time you hear Republicans mention anything about how "divisive identity politics" are ruining the nation, mention to them that they have no problem trying to pit America's Muslims against America's LGBT population (not to mention the fact that LGBT Muslims exist) for political points, and that when it comes down to "protecting" people, Republicans really don't give a good god damn.

House GOP leaders won’t allow a vote this week on a proposal to ensure that federal contractors can’t discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. 

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), who is gay, filed an amendment to a Defense Department spending bill that would enforce a 2014 executive order prohibiting discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) people. The Defense bill is slated to hit the House floor this week, in the aftermath of the attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando. 

But the House Rules Committee, which serves as an arm of majority leadership in deciding how legislation is considered on the floor, did not green-light Maloney’s amendment for a vote Tuesday night.

Sunday’s shooting, which took place during LGBT Pride Month, has been deemed the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. 

Maloney argued that allowing a vote to prohibit discrimination in the workplace after the targeted attack on the gay nightclub would send a message of solidarity with the LGBT community. 

“It’s hard to imagine that any act that is so horrific could lead to anything positive. But if we were going to do anything, it would be a very positive step to say that discrimination has no place in our law and to reaffirm the president’s actions in this area,” Maloney told The Hill. “Seems to me a pretty basic thing to do.”

Hahaha, you're expecting basic human dignity from Republicans, the vast majority of which refuse to see anyone unlike them as human at all (and the rest look the other way).  Good luck with that, man.

I'm hoping enough people figure this out by November.  We'll see.

Donald Trump In Mathmagic Land

If Donald Trump somehow had not yet convinced a huge swath of Americans that he was a giant prick with tiny hands before last weekend's horrific events in Orlando, then Don the Con's response to the slaughter at Pulse has pretty much sealed that deal.

In the latest sign Americans are dreading their general election options -- and particularly one of them -- negative views of Donald Trump have surged to their highest level of the 2016 campaign, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. 

Trump's unfavorable rating, in fact, far surpasses Hillary Clinton's even as the presumptive Democratic nominee receives her worst ratings in more two decades in public life. 

[Read full poll results and methodology] 

The poll finds 70 percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of Trump, including a 56 percent majority who feel this way "strongly." Negative ratings of Trump are up 10 percentage points from last month to their highest point since he announced his candidacy last summer, nearly reaching the level seen before his campaign began (71 percent). The survey was conducted Wednesday through Sunday among a random national sample of U.S. adults, coming after last week's primary contests, but with the large majority of interviews completed before Sunday's massacre at an Orlando club.

Holy cats. it's going to be a mess.  Let's take a look at those crosstabs, which finds that two-thirds of Republicans like the guy, and 5% of Democrats do. Five. Percent. Yikes. Among independents, Trump has a 30% number. Among Hispanic voters that number is down to 11% now.

Trump is down to 33% among white women and 46% among white men (he was above 50% with them last month.), 39% overall among white voters.

Clinton does fare better, 75% among Democrats, 11% among Republicans, and 34% among independent voters. Clinton however is at 64% among Hispanic voters.

Clinton is however at a dismal 23% among white men and 39% among white women, 31% overall.

These numbers are, granted, very bad for Clinton.  But Republicans are bound and determined to run the one person with even more awful numbers against her.

StupidiNews!

• As presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton won last night's D.C. primary, she met with Bernie Sanders in order to move forward on unifying the party.
• President Obama will meet with the Dalai Lama at the White House on Wednesday, drawing sharp criticism from Chinese officials who call the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader dangerous.
• Britain's largest banks are expected to have extra trading staff on hand ahead of the country's June 23rd "Brexit" referendum on staying in the EU.
• California has overtaken France in GDP as the most populous US state would now by itself count as the world's sixth largest economy.
• Net neutrality rules won a major battle Tuesday as an appeals court ruled the FCC can regulate the internet as a utility, but internet providers are expected to now appeal to the Supreme Court.

Last Call For The Long, Hot Summer Of Trump

Understand that state polling at this juncture is notoriously inaccurate this far out in front of the unifying conventions in July, and the fact that most Americans simply don't pay attention to the presidential contests until afte Labor Day.

Having said that, if this is even remotely close to being true in November, holy Christ.

Our weekly EV Update - Rolling avg, 60 days, polls only. pic.twitter.com/nkIcgbmBCO

— Benchmark Politics (@benchmarkpol) June 14, 2016

I can understand Arizona being moderately in play and even Missouri, but South Carolina? Georgia? Mississippi? FREAKING KANSAS?  No, odds are extremely good that these polls are just statistical noise at this point, and that changing the electoral map by more than three or four states from 2012 is not going to be very likely, even in this election.

But...not impossible.

Hack The Planet

Somewhere, Vlad Putin is burning hundreds of calories laughing at America again, and deservedly so.

Russian government hackers penetrated the computer network of the Democratic National Committee and gained access to the entire database of opposition research on GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, according to committee officials and security experts who responded to the breach. 

The intruders so thoroughly compromised the DNC’s system they also were able to read all e-mail and chat traffic, said DNC officials and the security experts. 

The intrusion into the DNC was one of several targeting American political organizations. The networks of presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were also targeted by Russian spies, as were the computers of some GOP political action committees, U.S. officials said. But details on those cases were not available. 

A Russian Embassy spokesman said he had no knowledge of such intrusions. 

Some of the hackers had access to the DNC network for about a year, but all were expelled over the past weekend in a major computer clean-up campaign, the committee officials and experts said.

The DNC said that no financial, donor or personal information appears to have been accessed or taken, suggesting that the breach was traditional espionage, not the work of criminal hackers.

Let's face it, Putin has all the information he wants on Hillary Clinton already. And who would have better dirt on Trump than the DNC? Saves you the time from having to gather it yourself.  Of course the Russians want to know everything they can about American politicians.

The intrusions are an example of Russia’s interest in the U.S. political system and its desire to understand the policies, strengths and weaknesses of a potential future president — much as American spies gather similar information on foreign candidates and leaders. 

The depth of the penetration reflects the skill and determination of the United States’ top cyber adversary as Russia goes after strategic targets from the White House and State Department to political campaign organizations. 

“It’s the job of every foreign intelligence service to collect intelligence against their adversaries,” said Shawn Henry, president of CrowdStrike, the cyber firm called in to handle the DNC breach and a former head of the FBI’s cyber division. He noted that it is extremely difficult for a civilian organization to protect itself from a skilled and determined state such as Russia.

And it's not like we don't engage in the same activities against other world leaders, guys.

The question is why leak the news now?  Pretty sure we'll find out when the other shoe drops during the campaign. I mean, if you're Trump, getting your good buddy Vlad to steal the DNC's oppo research on you is brilliant.  It's like Watergate, only totally legal. You think maybe this is about Trump throwing the newspaper out yesterday?

I'll tell you who looks like the loser in all this: Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Can this finally be the excuse to get rid of her?

Once A Birther, Always A Birther

Donald Trump wasted no time Monday morning implying that President Obama allowed this weekend's slaughter in Orlando to happen on purpose, for political reasons, because Donald Trump is essentially an awful human being.

"He doesn't get it or he gets it better than anybody understands. It's one or the other," Trump said of Obama on "Fox & Friends," speaking on the phone. "And either one is unacceptable, No. 1, and No. 2, calling on another gun ban, I mean, this man has no clue. First of all, the shooter was licensed. So he went through all the procedures, he was fully licensed to have a gun. So he would have passed the test that the president would have thrown up there. It's so ridiculous. You know, this is a, this is a mentality, this is a state. And you have thousands of shooters like this with the same mentality out there in this country, and we're bringing thousands and thousands of them back into this country, and into the country every year." 

Trump defended a much-criticized tweet he sent on Sunday, saying, "Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism." 

"No, no, no, I'm getting thousands of letters and tweets that I was right about the whole situation," he said. "I mean, I've been right about a lot of things, frankly." 

And Trump again implied that the president was not a trustworthy leader when it comes to fighting terrorism. 

"We're led by a man who is a very -- look, we're led by a man that either is, is not tough, not smart, or he's got something else in mind," Trump said. "And the something else in mind, you know, people can't believe it. People cannot -- they cannot believe that President Obama is acting the ways he acts and can't even mention the words radical islamic terrorism. There's something going on. It's inconceivable."

Trump is basically garbage, but implying that President Obama is bringing "thousands" of Omar Mateens into America on purpose is just ridiculous. Mateen was a US citizen, period.

Sure isn't going to stop the Republicans, who again will tell you that a deadly terror attack is "good for Trump in November".

That's something you might want to reconsider, guys.