Month: July 2016

Neoconservatives outraged by FBI verdict on Hillary Clinton: Daily Bullshit, July 6, 2016 (updated again and again)

benfell

Updated for confirmation that the Department of Justice will not prosecute Hillary Clinton for her mishandling of classified information.[1] Updated again (twice) for articles on the Chilcot report,[2] on which I’m expecting much more tomorrow.

Hillary Clinton

As Andrew McCarthy puts it, the FBI

has told the public that because Mrs. Clinton did not have intent to harm the United States we should not prosecute her on a felony that does not require proof of intent to harm the United States. Meanwhile, although there may have been profound harm to national security caused by her grossly negligent mishandling of classified information, we’ve decided she shouldn’t be prosecuted for grossly negligent mishandling of classified information.[3]

There are lots of neoconservatives at the National Review and one wouldn’t expect them to be happy with how Hillary Clinton handled her email. That said, all I’m seeing among Clinton’s apologists in response so far are variations on the “vast right-wing conspiracy” that the Clintons blame for all their troubles. That’s not a substantive defense.

In my dissertation, I criticize conservatives for devaluing evidence in favor of ideology.[4] I can’t say that today. There may be a substantive refutation to what these conservatives[5] are alleging. I’m not seeing it. Rather, it’s the folks on the left who are overlooking evidence in favor of the preferred candidate. And yes, I’m still waiting for Jonathan Turley to check in (actually he has, from Alaska, where he doesn’t seem to be paying much attention[6]).

Congressional Quarterly Roll Call, “No Prosecution of Clinton, Attorney General Says,” July 6, 2016, http://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/no-prosecution-clinton-attorney-general-says

Jon Gabriel, “Hillary Clinton: Too Big to Jail,” Ricochet, July 5, 2016, https://ricochet.com/hillary-clinton-too-big-to-jail/

Andrew C. McCarthy, “FBI Rewrites Federal Law to Let Hillary Off the Hook,” National Review, July 5, 2016, http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/437479/fbi-rewrites-federal-law-let-hillary-hook

Chilcot Report

It’s been pointed out previously that, among her many foreign policy mistakes, Hillary Clinton enthusiastically supported the Iraq War.[7] Now, “[t]he damning judgements kept coming [in the Chilcot report on the decisions that led to British involvement in the invasion of Iraq], delivered in the cool, temperate prose of Whitehall, but no less searing for that.”[8] Such judgments are even more damning against George Bush and that Hillary Clinton supported Bush is more evidence of the neoconservative consensus that rules Washington, D.C.

Jonathan Freedland, “Blair’s Iraq war legacy leaves him damned for all time,” Guardian, July 6, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jul/06/blairs-iraq-war-legacy-is-now-damned-for-all-time

Luke Harding, “Tony Blair unrepentant as Chilcot gives crushing Iraq war verdict,” Guardian, July 6, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jul/06/chilcot-report-crushing-verdict-tony-blair-iraq-war

  1. [1]Congressional Quarterly Roll Call, “No Prosecution of Clinton, Attorney General Says,” July 6, 2016, http://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/no-prosecution-clinton-attorney-general-says↩
  2. [2]Jonathan Freedland, “Blair’s Iraq war legacy leaves him damned for all time,” Guardian, July 6, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jul/06/blairs-iraq-war-legacy-is-now-damned-for-all-time; Luke Harding, “Tony Blair unrepentant as Chilcot gives crushing Iraq war verdict,” Guardian, July 6, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jul/06/chilcot-report-crushing-verdict-tony-blair-iraq-war↩
  3. [3]Andrew C. McCarthy, “FBI Rewrites Federal Law to Let Hillary Off the Hook,” National Review, July 5, 2016, http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/437479/fbi-rewrites-federal-law-let-hillary-hook↩
  4. [4]David Benfell, “Conservative Views on Undocumented Migration” (doctoral dissertation, Saybrook, 2016). ProQuest (1765416126).↩
  5. [5]Shannen W. Coffin, “FBI Director Comey Is Wrong: The Case for Prosecuting Hillary Clinton Is Strong,” National Review, July 5, 2016, http://www.nationalreview.com/article/437493/hillary-clinton-email-scandal-fbi-director-comey-built-strong-case-decided-against; Jon Gabriel, “Hillary Clinton: Too Big to Jail,” Ricochet, July 5, 2016, https://ricochet.com/hillary-clinton-too-big-to-jail/; Andrew C. McCarthy, “FBI Rewrites Federal Law to Let Hillary Off the Hook,” National Review, July 5, 2016, http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/437479/fbi-rewrites-federal-law-let-hillary-hook; James Taranto, “Laws Are for Little People,” Wall Street Journal, July 5, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/laws-are-for-little-people-1467742661;↩
  6. [6]Jonathan Turley, “Day Eight: Whittier,” July 6, 2016, http://jonathanturley.org/2016/07/06/day-eight-whittier/↩
  7. [7]Medea Benjamin, “Hillary Clinton Hasn’t Learned a Thing From the Iraq Experience,” Truthdig, October 29, 2015, http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/hillary_clinton_hasnt_learned_a_thing_from_iraq_20151029; Marjorie Cohn, “Want Endless War? Love the U.S. Empire? Well, Hillary Clinton’s Your Choice,” Truthdig, February 1, 2016, http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/want_endless_war_love_the_us_empire_hillary_clintons_your_choice_20160201; Daniel Larison, “Clinton’s Reliably Bad Foreign Policy,” American Conservative, April 12, 2016, http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/clintons-reliably-bad-foreign-policy/; Jackson Lears, “We came, we saw, he died,” review of Hard Choices, by Hillary Clinton, and HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton, by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes, London Review of Books 37, no. 3 (February 5, 2015), pp. 8-11, http://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n03/jackson-lears/we-came-we-saw-he-died; Lauren McCauley, “Critics Aghast at ‘Disgusting Speech’ Clinton Just Gave to AIPAC,” Common Dreams, March 21, 2016, http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/03/21/critics-aghast-disgusting-speech-clinton-just-gave-aipac; Robert Scheer, “Go Ahead, Back Hillary Clinton and Forget All About Her Record,” Truthdig, October 9, 2015, http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/go_ahead_back_hillary_clinton_and_forget_all_about_her_record_20151009; Stephen Zunes, “Hillary the Hawk,” Cairo Review of Global Affairs, Winter, 2016, http://www.thecairoreview.com/essays/hillary-the-hawk/; Stephen Zunes, “The Five Lamest Excuses for Hillary Clinton’s Vote to Invade Iraq,” Foreign Policy In Focus, January 26, 2016, http://fpif.org/five-lamest-excuses-hillary-clintons-vote-invade-iraq/↩
  8. [8]Jonathan Freedland, “Blair’s Iraq war legacy leaves him damned for all time,” Guardian, July 6, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jul/06/blairs-iraq-war-legacy-is-now-damned-for-all-time↩

Cynics are vindicated as FBI recommends no charges for Hillary Clinton: Daily Bullshit, July 5, 2016 (updated)

benfell

Updated for more on Hillary Clinton’s email controversy.

Hillary Clinton

Experts were especially disdainful of the FBI’s finding that highly classified information turned up in emails that Clinton sent and received on her unsecured server. That alone was in violation of the Foreign Affairs Manual, a comprehensive set of State Department policies, that, among other restrictions, require that a different computer system be used when dealing with classified documents and that a physical distance, or “air gap,” separate it from other computers.[1]

“Someone else in a similar situation could face ‘security or administrative sanctions,’” says FBI Director James Comey, so why not Hillary Clinton? “But that is not what we are deciding now.” Republicans (and I and I assume a few others) want to know why Clinton is above the law,[2] Comey apparently “simply ignored — or rewrote — the plain language of § 793(f), which does not require any showing of criminal intent,”[3] Scott Stewart of Strafor rejected Clinton’s failure to use dual systems as “not carelessness” but rather “intentional,”[4] and I will be looking for comment from Jonathan Turley.

Regardless, “[t]he result is a public relations disaster for Clinton: Republicans will air footage of Barack Obama’s FBI director (a Republican, but an Obama appointee nonetheless) calling Clinton reckless on camera thousands and thousands of times between now and November.”[5] (Apparently being very careful to avoid the terminology of degrees of culpability, Comey actually said that “there is evidence that [Secretary Clinton or her colleagues] were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.”[6]) “[T]he absence of an indictment” will nonetheless “provide Trump and the Republican National Committee plenty of ammunition.”[7] Further, Comey flatly contradicted much of the Clinton’s narrative regarding the scandal.[8]

Hannah Allam and Tim Johnson, “Clinton’s handling of email went beyond carelessness, experts say,” McClatchy, July 5, 2016, http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article87848077.html?rh=1

Rachael Bade, “5 ways Comey contradicted Clinton’s email claims,” Politico, July 5, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/hillary-clinton-emails-comey-225121

Brian Beutler, “The FBI director’s pronouncements about Hillary Clinton were extremely unusual—and she has herself to blame,” New Republic, July 5, 2016, https://newrepublic.com/minutes/134865/fbi-directors-pronouncements-hillary-clinton-extremely-unusualand-blame

Shannen W. Coffin, “FBI Director Comey Is Wrong: The Case for Prosecuting Hillary Clinton Is Strong,” National Review, July 5, 2016, http://www.nationalreview.com/article/437493/hillary-clinton-email-scandal-fbi-director-comey-built-strong-case-decided-against

Daniel R. DePetris, “The End of the Beginning of Hillary Clinton’s Email Problem,” National Interest, July 5, 2016, http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-skeptics/the-end-the-beginning-hillary-clintons-email-problem-16856

Julian Hattem, “FBI recommends no charges against Clinton,” Hill, July 5, 2016, http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/286472-fbi-no-charges-against-clinton

James Taranto, “Laws Are for Little People,” Wall Street Journal, July 5, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/laws-are-for-little-people-1467742661

Brexit

Marianna Duarte De Aragao, “Pound Tumbles to 31-Year Low as Brexit Starts to Inflict Damage,” Bloomberg, July 5, 2016, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-05/pound-drops-toward-31-year-low-as-selloff-resumes-before-carney

Lucy Meakin, “U.K. Business Expectations Fall ‘Off a Cliff’ on Brexit Vote,” Bloomberg, July 5, 2016, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-04/u-k-business-expectations-fall-off-a-cliff-after-brexit-vote

  1. [1]Hannah Allam and Tim Johnson, “Clinton’s handling of email went beyond carelessness, experts say,” McClatchy, July 5, 2016, http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article87848077.html?rh=1↩
  2. [2]Julian Hattem, “FBI recommends no charges against Clinton,” Hill, July 5, 2016, http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/286472-fbi-no-charges-against-clinton; James Taranto, “Laws Are for Little People,” Wall Street Journal, July 5, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/laws-are-for-little-people-1467742661↩
  3. [3]Shannen W. Coffin, “FBI Director Comey Is Wrong: The Case for Prosecuting Hillary Clinton Is Strong,” National Review, July 5, 2016, http://www.nationalreview.com/article/437493/hillary-clinton-email-scandal-fbi-director-comey-built-strong-case-decided-against↩
  4. [4]Hannah Allam and Tim Johnson, “Clinton’s handling of email went beyond carelessness, experts say,” McClatchy, July 5, 2016, http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article87848077.html?rh=1↩
  5. [5]Brian Beutler, “The FBI director’s pronouncements about Hillary Clinton were extremely unusual—and she has herself to blame,” New Republic, July 5, 2016, https://newrepublic.com/minutes/134865/fbi-directors-pronouncements-hillary-clinton-extremely-unusualand-blame↩
  6. [6]Julian Hattem, “FBI recommends no charges against Clinton,” Hill, July 5, 2016, http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/286472-fbi-no-charges-against-clinton; James Taranto, “Laws Are for Little People,” Wall Street Journal, July 5, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/laws-are-for-little-people-1467742661↩
  7. [7]Daniel R. DePetris, “The End of the Beginning of Hillary Clinton’s Email Problem,” National Interest, July 5, 2016, http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-skeptics/the-end-the-beginning-hillary-clintons-email-problem-16856↩
  8. [8]Rachael Bade, “5 ways Comey contradicted Clinton’s email claims,” Politico, July 5, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/hillary-clinton-emails-comey-225121↩

A giant meteor strike would be a credible contender in the U.S. presidential race: Daily Bullshit, July 3, 2016 (updated)

benfell

Updated for the first credibly-sourced article on alleged possible fraud in California’s primary.[1]

Horse race

Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations attributes the claim that “truth is stranger than fiction” to an anonymous author and to the story of Don Juan a quotation “’Tis strange—but true; for truth is always strange; Stranger than fiction.”[2] Then there’s the aphorism that “You can’t make this shit up.” But then there are the survey takers who thought to put a giant meteor strike up against Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential race.[3]

Justin Carissimo, “Too many people would rather see a giant meteor strike Earth than Clinton or Trump as president,” Independent, July 3, 2016, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-elections/too-many-people-would-rather-see-a-giant-meteor-strike-earth-than-clinton-or-trump-as-president-a7116691.html

Hillary Clinton

Julian Hattem, “FBI director takes center stage in Clinton email case,” Hill, July 2, 2016, http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/286349-fbi-director-takes-center-stage-in-clinton-email-case

Anita Kumar, “Indicted or not indicted, Clinton could lose politically,” McClatchy, July 2, 2016, http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/article87312972.html?rh=1

Yves Smith [Susan Webber], “Uncounted: The True Story of the California Primary,” Naked Capitalism, July 3, 2016, http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/07/uncounted-the-true-story-of-the-california-primary.html

  1. [1]Yves Smith [Susan Webber], “Uncounted: The True Story of the California Primary,” Naked Capitalism, July 3, 2016, http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/07/uncounted-the-true-story-of-the-california-primary.html↩
  2. [2]John Bartlett, Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, 17th ed., ed. Justin Kaplan (New York: Little, Brown, 2002), 424.↩
  3. [3]Justin Carissimo, “Too many people would rather see a giant meteor strike Earth than Clinton or Trump as president,” Independent, July 3, 2016, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-elections/too-many-people-would-rather-see-a-giant-meteor-strike-earth-than-clinton-or-trump-as-president-a7116691.html↩

Why are voters ignoring experts? Because experts are ignoring voters: Daily Bullshit, July 2, 2016

benfell

Brexit

Jean Pisani-Ferry, “Why Are Voters Ignoring Experts?” Project Syndicate, July 1, 2016, https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/brexit-voters-ignoring-experts-by-jean-pisani-ferry-2016-07

Janosch Delcker, “Angela Merkel’s critics join Brexit blame game,” Politico, July 2, 2016, http://www.politico.eu/article/angela-merkel-cdu-critics-join-brexit-blame-game-sigmar-gabriel-frank-walter-steinmeier-spd/

Hillary Clinton

Harper Neidig, “Clinton interviewed by FBI as part of email server investigation,” Hill, July 2, 2016, http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/286366-clinton-interviewed-at-fbi-headquarters-over-server

Class politics

John Feffer, “The Most Important Election of Your Life (Is Not This Year),” TomDispatch, June 26, 2016, http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176157/tomgram%3A_john_feffer%2C_donald_trump_and_america_b/

Bill Black, “The Terrible Cost to Democrats and Our Nation of Ignoring Tom Frank’s Warnings,” Naked Capitalism, June 30, 2016, http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/06/bill-black-the-terrible-cost-to-democrats-and-our-nation-of-ignoring-tom-franks-warnings.html

A special prosecutor for Hillary Clinton? Daily Bullshit, July 1, 2016

benfell

Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton hasn’t even been elected to the presidency and already, there may soon—if Republicans have their way—be a special prosecutor investigating her.[1] As things stand, it seems to me that Attorney General Loretta Lynch has, by promising to accept the recommendations of career prosecutors and the FBI on whether or not to prosecute,[2] diverted the political pressure onto those folks. Maybe their shoulders are broad. Maybe this isn’t really a problem. But their’s is not a position I envy in this situation.

Julian Hattem, “Lynch pressured to recuse herself after Clinton tarmac meeting,” Hill, July 1, 2016, http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/286202-lynch-pressured-to-recuse-herself-after-clinton-tarmac-meeting

Del Quentin Wilber, “Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch defends meeting with Bill Clinton amid email probe,” Los Angeles Times, July 1, 2016, http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-trailguide-updates-attorney-general-loretta-lynch-defends-1467311246-htmlstory.html

Del Quentin Wilber, “Lynch to accept recommendation of FBI, career prosecutors in Clinton email probe,” Los Angeles Times, July 1, 2016, http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-lynch-clinton-email-probe-20160701-snap-story.html

Brexit

Tories have only themselves to blame for the Brexit outcome. But this is a message that applies more broadly to those who advocate so-called “free” markets.[3]

Kevin O’Rourke, “Markets and states are complements,” Irish Economy, July 1, 2016, http://www.irisheconomy.ie/index.php/2016/07/01/markets-and-states-are-complements/

  1. [1]Julian Hattem, “Lynch pressured to recuse herself after Clinton tarmac meeting,” Hill, July 1, 2016, http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/286202-lynch-pressured-to-recuse-herself-after-clinton-tarmac-meeting↩
  2. [2]Del Quentin Wilber, “Lynch to accept recommendation of FBI, career prosecutors in Clinton email probe,” Los Angeles Times, July 1, 2016, http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-lynch-clinton-email-probe-20160701-snap-story.html↩
  3. [3]Kevin O’Rourke, “Markets and states are complements,” Irish Economy, July 1, 2016, http://www.irisheconomy.ie/index.php/2016/07/01/markets-and-states-are-complements/↩