Thursday, December 15, 2016

The Clinton autopsy

Autopsies are never pretty and Politico's examination of the Hillary Clinton campaign is no exception.  Politico focused on the campaign's operation in Mee-chigan.  Actually, it is more accurate to write that the political website reported on the non-campaign that took place in the formerly blue state. The Michigan campaign is a good microcasm of how the national campaign operated.  A Republican will read this with much glee while a Democrat will read this while resisting the urge to start throwing things at the wall. It is almost a case study in self-inflicted wounds. However, it is a pretty sober analysis and worth reading.  Excerpts are published below with some commentary by yours truly. 


Everybody could see Hillary Clinton was cooked in Iowa. So when, a week-and-a-half out, the Service Employees International Union started hearing anxiety out of Michigan, union officials decided to reroute their volunteers, giving a desperate team on the ground around Detroit some hope.

They started prepping meals and organizing hotel rooms.

This is what veterans do.  They hear the sounds of the battle. They armor up and get to the fight, right? Well, not if you are in Brooklyn. 

SEIU — which had wanted to go to Michigan from the beginning, but been ordered not to — dialed Clinton’s top campaign aides to tell them about the new plan. According to several people familiar with the call, Brooklyn was furious.

Turn that bus around, the Clinton team ordered SEIU. Those volunteers needed to stay in Iowa to fool Donald Trump into competing there, not drive to Michigan, where the Democrat’s models projected a 5-point win through the morning of Election Day.

You read that passage correctly.  The Clintonites tried to head-fake Donald Trump into spending time and resources in Iowa instead of Meeee-chigan.   There was once a valley in Vietnam called Dien Bien Phu.  The French got the brilliant idea to drop 20,000 of their best airborne troops into a valley that was surrounded by mountains that had a triple-canopy jungle.  The idea was to get the Viet Minh to leave the rest of the country to attack the French  and get wiped out in the process.  There was this little matter of the mountains surrounding the valley but the little yellow men who survived only on rice would never figure out how to put artillery in the mountains, much less use it.  Someone forgot to tell that to the enemy because that is exactly what Charlie did. Result: The French were annihilated on the first night of battle as the Vietnamese rained hellfire down on the French.  The French suffered a humiliating defeat that they never thought was possible. 

Michigan organizers were shocked. It was the latest case of Brooklyn ignoring on-the-ground intel and pleas for help in a race that they felt slipping away at the end.

“They believed they were more experienced, which they were. They believed they were smarter, which they weren’t,” said Donnie Fowler, who was consulting for the Democratic National Committee during the final months of the campaign. “They believed they had better information, which they didn’t....

Knowing one is ignorant is the way to wisdom according to the ancient philosophers.   Another lesson lost on the Clintonites.


Then again, according to senior people in Brooklyn, Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook never heard any of those complaints directly from anyone on his state teams before Election Day.

In results that narrow, Clinton’s loss could be attributed to any number of factors — FBI Director Jim Comey’s letter shifting late deciders, the lack of a compelling economic message, the apparent Russian hacking. But heartbroken and frustrated in-state battleground operatives worry that a lesson being missed is a simple one: Get the basics of campaigning right.

Clinton never even stopped by a United Auto Workers union hall in Michigan, though a person involved with the campaign noted bitterly that the UAW flaked on GOTV commitments in the final days, and that AFSCME never even made any, despite months of appeals.

A Democratic Presidential nominee did not even visit a UAW union Hall in Michigan? This is a joke, right?  How the hell did that happen? That is the equivalent of a Republican nominee skipping an NRA convention or avoiding a fund-raiser at the Chamber of Commerce. 

The anecdotes are different but the narrative is the same across battlegrounds, where Democratic operatives lament a one-size-fits-all approach drawn entirely from pre-selected data — operatives spit out “the model, the model,” as they complain about it — guiding Mook’s decisions on field, television, everything else. That’s the same data operation, of course, that predicted Clinton would win the Iowa caucuses by 6 percentage points (she scraped by with two-tenths of a point), and that predicted she’d beat Bernie Sanders in Michigan (he won by 1.5 points).

Let me guess.  They see Nick Saban spouting "The Process" and figure it works for them as well.  If anyone hasn't noticed, Saban is constantly updating the process and adapting it to the latest trends in college football.  Straightjackets usually work against you, not for you.   The model created in Colorado and Iowa worked quite well for Democrats as those states flipped from red to blue.  The Obama team updated the model and thrashed Republicans at the polls in 2012.  The Clintonites forgot the enemy learns a few lessons after getting its butt kicked a few times and that models need to be updated.  However, they were the best and brightest.  No one could tell them anything, much less some bumpkins out in the field who didn't see the "big picture" from New York.  
 
“I’ve never seen a campaign like this,” said Virgie Rollins, a Democratic National Committee member and longtime political hand in Michigan who described months of failed attempts to get attention to the collapse she was watching unfold in slow-motion among women and African-American millennials.

Rollins, the chair emeritus of the Michigan Democratic Women’s Caucus, said requests into Brooklyn for surrogates to come talk to her group were never answered. When they held their events anyway, she said, they also got no response to requests for a little money to help cover costs.

Rollins doesn’t need a recount to understand why Clinton lost the state.

“When you don’t reach out to community folk and reach out to precinct campaigns and district organizations that know where the votes are, then you’re going to have problems,” she said.

No commentary is needed, just a simple "duh" sufficeth.

From the day Clinton released her launch video, the campaign knew she’d struggle with enthusiasm. Yet they didn’t do many of the things voters are used to seeing to give a sense of momentum, insisting that votes didn’t come from campaign literature, door knocking, commitment to vote cards or the standard program of sending absentee ballot applications to likely voters rather than just appealing to the people once they’d already ordered the ballots.

“It was very surgical and corporate. They had their model, this is how they’re going to do it. Their thing was, ‘We don’t have to leave [literature] at the doors, everyone knows who Hillary Clinton is,’” said one person involved in the Michigan campaign. “But in terms of activists, it seems different, it’s maybe they don’t care about us.”

Just curious.  Did any of these geniuses ever actually work in a campaign at the ground-level?  Of course, if the candidate herself has a hard time generating enthusiasm, there will be more than a few problems.  A campaign lacking inspiration usually lacks dedication among the troops and this campaign was no different.  Get ready for what you are about to read.

Michigan operatives relay stories like one about an older woman in Flint who showed up at a Clinton campaign office, asking for a lawn sign and offering to canvass, being told these were not “scientifically” significant ways of increasing the vote, and leaving, never to return. A crew of building trade workers showed up at another office looking to canvass, but, confused after being told there was no literature to hand out like in most campaigns, also left and never looked back.

This is a joke, right? This has to be fiction.  Has to be.  People come to you to pick up yard signs and you tell them to go home? Brilliant, Hillary, Brilliant.  If this is how one treats supporters than that candidate deserves to lose.  Put it right next to not showing up at the election night party to thank your supporters.  Hell, this reminds me of the Blackberry CEO's laughing at the Ipad and Iphone.  This campaign didn't think it needed to practice customer service. 

“There’s this illusion that the Clinton campaign had a ground game. The deal is that the Clinton campaign could have had a ground game,” said a former Obama operative in Michigan. “They had people in the states who were willing to do stuff. But they didn’t provide people anything to do until GOTV.”

We don't need to campaign.  We are smarter than everyone else.  Telling people to go home means they just might stay home on election day- and they did.

The only metric that people involved in the operations say they ever heard headquarters interested in was how many volunteer shifts had been signed up — though the volunteers were never given the now-standard handheld devices to input the responses they got in the field, and Brooklyn mandated that they not worry about data entry. Operatives watched packets of real-time voter information piled up in bins at the coordinated campaign headquarters. The sheets were updated only when they got ripped, or soaked with coffee. Existing packets with notes from the volunteers, including highlighting how much Trump inclination there was among some of the white male union members the Clinton campaign was sure would be with her, were tossed in the garbage.

The Brooklyn command believed that television and limited direct mail and digital efforts were the only way to win over voters, people familiar with the thinking at headquarters said. Guided by polls that showed the Midwestern states safer, the campaign spent, according to one internal estimate, about 3 percent as much in Michigan and Wisconsin as it spent in Florida, Ohio and North Carolina. Most voters in Michigan didn’t see a television ad until the final week.

Most importantly, multiple operatives said, the Clinton campaign dismissed what’s known as in-person “persuasion” — no one was knocking on doors trying to drum up support for the Democratic nominee, which also meant no one was hearing directly from voters aside from voters they’d already assumed were likely Clinton voters, no one tracking how feelings about the race and the candidates were evolving. This left no information to check the polling models against — which might have, for example, showed the campaign that some of the white male union members they had expected to be likely Clinton voters actually veering toward Trump — and no early warning system that the race was turning against them in ways that their daily tracking polls weren’t picking up.

This sounds like the campaign had a few people at the highest levels who were more interested in making money than winning.  Direct mail, TV ads, and online advertising have one thing in common- someone has to purchase them for the campaign and that person usually gets a nice cut of the action.  There is no money to be made in door-knocking and organizing precincts but a nice little fortune can be made in buying ads, commercials, and direct mail campaigns.  Democrats should take a long look at who profited off of these buys and their relationship to the campaign.

The alternative is that the Clintonites were arrogant and incompetent that they saw no use for data from the field.  Sort of like Rummie saying there was no insurgency while we watched IED's kill American troops on a daily basis in Iraq.  Arrogance is arrogance and doesn't discriminate.

People involved in the Michigan campaign still can’t understand why Brooklyn stayed so sure of the numbers in a state that it also had projected Clinton would win in the primary.

“Especially given what happened in the primary,” said Michigan Democratic Party chairman Brandon Dillon. “We knew that there was going to have to be more attention.”

With Clinton’s team ignoring or rejecting requests, Democratic operatives in Michigan and other battleground states might have turned to the DNC. But they couldn’t; they weren’t allowed to ask for help.

State officials were banned from speaking directly to anyone at the DNC in Washington. (“Welcome to DNC HQ,” read a blue and white sign behind the reception desk in Brooklyn that appeared after the ouster of Debbie Wasserman Schultz just before the July convention).....

Unbelievable.  Sanders beats them in a huge upset and they see no need to pay extra attention to Michigan.  Obama would have at least tried to figure out what happened and make sure it didn't happen again.  He damn sure wouldn't have punished people for asking for help.  Hell, he and Bill probably would have been mad if those organizations didn't ask for help when they needed it.  This sounds like Dr. Gray forbidding principals to call JPD when violence breaks out at their schools.   However, it gets worse:

Brooklyn’s theory from the start was that 2016 was going to be a purely base turnout election. Efforts were focused on voter registration and then, in the final weeks, turning out voters identified as Clinton’s, without confirmation that they were.

Marshall, at Mook’s direction, had designed a plan that until the final weeks was built around holding Pennsylvania and winning just one more state — electoral math that would have denied Trump the presidency on the reasonable assumption Michigan and Wisconsin were Clinton’s.

There was a logic guided by data, they say.

“We have built an operation and we run an operation as if this is going to be a close race,” Marshall said in an interview with Politico in early October. “We have not seen an organization in many states on the Trump side that reflects that.”

This is what happens when the candidate is "uninspiring".  The campaign was shooting for the bare  minimum - and it showed on election day.

Michigan was the only presidential battleground that didn’t have an active Senate race, and that cost the state money from Brooklyn. Waving off complaints during a visit to Michigan a few weeks out, Marshall explained to the room that Clinton was going to clobber Trump in the final debate and they were talking about moving money into Senate seats. And by the time they arrived in Las Vegas for that third debate, Clinton’s top aides were boasting about how they were about to expand the lead and pull marginal Senate candidates over the line to give her a governing majority.

 Because debates have swayed so many voters. 

In Michigan, they raised more than $700,000 to cover costs, mostly from in-state donors. Though the campaign said every check was signed off on in Brooklyn, Fowler said the DNC approved a $50,000 rogue transfer — let the Clinton campaign complain to him after Election Day, he told them.

“You’re in a state, your job is to win the battleground state, not to have complete fealty to the national campaign headquarters, especially if the national campaign headquarters is not listening,” Fowler explained.

Among the other workarounds claimed was one from interim DNC chair Donna Brazile, who was persuading the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to hold the $5 million transferred to them from the Clinton campaign and to wait to spend it buying airtime for minority voter turnout in the final week they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to fund.

But there also were millions approved for transfer from Clinton’s campaign for use by the DNC — which, under a plan devised by Brazile to drum up urban turnout out of fear that Trump would win the popular vote while losing the electoral vote, got dumped into Chicago and New Orleans, far from anywhere that would have made a difference in the election.

I knew Donna was dumb but didn't know she was that dumb- or maybe that corrupt.  It makes no sense to dump money in a state that was as red as Louisiana.  Brazile lives in New Orleans.  Was she funneling money to some of her homies? Illinois was a safe state for Hillary yet Donna threw money down that well as well.  Ah... the Chicago way. Who exactly was she trying to help?

 Nor did Brooklyn ask for help from some people who’d been expecting the call. Sanders threw himself into campaign appearances for Clinton throughout the fall, but familiar sources say the campaign never asked the Vermont senator’s campaign aides for help thinking through Michigan, Wisconsin or anywhere else where he had run strong. It was already November when the campaign finally reached out to the White House to get President Barack Obama into Michigan, a state that he’d worked hard and won by large margins in 2008 and 2012. On the Monday before Election Day, Obama added a stop in Ann Arbor, but that final weekend, the president had played golf on Saturday and made one stop in Orlando on Sunday, not having been asked to do anything else. Michigan senior adviser Steve Neuman had been asking for months to get Obama and the first lady on the ground there. People who asked for Vice President Joe Biden to come in were told that top Clinton aides weren’t clearing those trips.

No commentary is needed.  That passage speaks for itself.  It's similar to playing Billy Jo Tolliver and telling Drew Brees to stay on the bench.

Top aides in Brooklyn write off complaints from battleground state operatives as Monday morning quarterbacking by people who wouldn’t have had much of a case if Clinton had won. They continue to blame the loss on FBI Director James Comey, saying he shifted late deciders, not any tactical failures.

They were just in the field, what do they know?  These are the same top aides who are clueless why they lost.  They sure didn't complain about Comey when he cleared Hillary last summer.  I seem to remember quite a few praises that were sang about him at the time.  Admitting any tactical failures means they were actually wrong.  Such is human nature.

“Now of course, in hindsight, there are any number of steps that we could have taken that may have made the difference in a state as closely decided as Michigan, but the consistent theme across all the battleground states was that we saw our numbers drop in the final week after Jim Comey sent his shocking letter to Congress,” said former Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon.

When top aides to the Trump campaign mapped out the best-case scenarios for election night, they always fell short of 270, and Michigan was always the state that they couldn’t see a way through.

Trump’s last stop of the election was a massive rally in Michigan that went on past midnight, his campaign homing in on Trump’s chances there largely from nervousness it sensed coming out of Brooklyn.

Walking out at the end, Trump turned to his running mate, Mike Pence, almost confused: “This doesn’t feel like second place,” he said, according to a person familiar with the conversation.

Democrats felt it too. Rep. Debbie Dingell, who complained throughout the campaign about the lack of urgency and support, has told people since the election that Hillary and Bill Clinton both said in their final appearances in the state that they felt something was off.

People blew off those rallies but they worked for The Donald.  But then again, what do people out in the field know?

 On the morning of Election Day, internal Clinton campaign numbers had her winning Michigan by 5 points. By 1 p.m., an aide on the ground called headquarters; the voter turnout tracking system they’d built themselves in defiance of orders — Brooklyn had told operatives in the state they didn’t care about those numbers, and specifically told them not to use any resources to get them — showed urban precincts down 25 percent. Maybe they should get worried, the Michigan operatives said.

Nope, they were told. She was going to win by 5. All Brooklyn’s data said so.

The troops still tried to win the fight but were backstabbed by their own leaders.  Give them credit.  They did what they could but weren't allowed to go up that hill and take it.  There should be a bloodbath at party headquarters but the perfumed princes always protect their own.  Such is the way of REMFs. 

In at least one of the war rooms in New York, they’d already started celebratory drinking by the afternoon, according to a person there. Elsewhere, calls quietly went out that day to tell key people to get ready to be asked about joining transition teams.

They were soon going to be drinking much more heavily for reasons totally different than what they expected.

 But an hour-and-a-half after polls closed, Clinton aides began making rushed calls, redrawing paths to 270 through the single electoral vote in Maine and Nebraska. Still assuming wins in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, Michigan suddenly looked like the state that was going to decide the presidency.

They scrambled a call with campaign attorney Marc Elias, prepping for a recount in a vote that oddly looked like it would be a narrower win than they had ever prepared for. An hour later, after they hung up, they realized it was over. They could tell by the numbers they were seeing — not the numbers being spewed from their own internal analytics team, but the numbers sitting at the bottom of the TV tuned to CNN. With the recount frozen, Clinton lost Michigan by 10,704 votes.

“I think it’s true, they executed well. I think it’s true that the plan was accomplished,” said a former labor leader in the state. “But the plan was not the right plan.”

How many times has that happened in warfare?

Read the rest of the article.

68 comments:

Anonymous said...

This should be fun, I am sure the comments hear will discount the fact that Putin picked Trump. When that story is verified and told, will you stand with Trump and attack the the press or just ignore the truth?

Anonymous said...

Such analyseeeze are typically referred to as 'post mortem reports', not autopsies. As a legal scholar, you should know this.

Anonymous said...

Explain HOW exactly Putin hacked this election. The hacked emails, whose authenticity was NEVER denied, merely exposed the truth about the Dems. Is revealing the truth now a dirty trick?



There were boxes in Detroit that registered 300 votes but only 50 ballots were found inside the box. By relying on previous turnouts in Detroit the Dems underestimated how much fraud they needed to perpetrate, and it cost them. It's too bad every state didn't get a recount, so we could see the extent of voter fraud that occurred.

Anonymous said...

7:55, is that what teh intarwebs told you? You clearly refuse to recognize that the actual amount of voter fraud that's ever been even close to proveable is remarkably low.

Anonymous said...

If you really don't think that the Russians influenced our elections so that Mr. Vanity would be elected you will be forever blind. Wake up boys, is it that important for you to win that you will let Trump be aided by the Russians?

Messick said...

7:00,

Sources?

Verified, real (not fake), and true?

Anonymous said...

@ 9:42.....

The G_d D__n Germans are probably involved as well!

Anonymous said...

As a woman who votes, I was completely turned off by Hillary's plaid pants suit at the Iowa State Fair. It just screamed Hick, Bumpkin. Maybe it was satire but with me it totally came across as patronizing. Just as did her phony southern accent or her black one.

Anonymous said...

As a man, I deplore Trump. I am dissatisfied with HC. Trump however lacks the basic knowledge of tha American Constitution, American History and treatises upon which this great Nation was founded. My choice would have been ... None of the above. Given the two HC would be the better CIC. Trump is a fool. Drain the swamp and let the crocks.🐊🐊🐊🕷🕷🦂

Go 🐘🐘🐘

Anonymous said...

What kind of a bullet did we dodge?. Hildebeast proved she was willing to say anything/do anything to get elected: faking accents, getting drunk, lying, taking money from fuzzy foreigners, running an illegal foundation, etc.

Yet in the end, it was her own arrogance that brought her down. In the 90's, she was touted as being "the smartest woman in America". Yet she not only lost to a nobody in 2008, she lost to the brash loudmouth in 2016 while having 99% of the media carry her water.

She thought she was above the law with her email server. She lied about videos. She stole furniture and had to give it back.

Then on election night, she suffers a mental breakdown!

We were spared.

Thank D-d, we were spared.

You Whining Losers Go Head On.. said...

Hillary initially had a chance to win. That was before we remembered Bill. And before Brocko came out and toured the country on her behalf. And before Donna Brazille. And before Martha Radditz. And before Wolfe Blitzkreig. And before Anderson and Sheppie and Stephie. And before 90% of the media lined up on bended knee behind her tush. And before we learned of the corruption surrounding her Foundation. And before we were bombarded with the same dishonest democrat faces on the Sunday shows and Wednesday nite programs. And before the account hackers were able to expose the shenanigans. And before we watched her being loaded like a refrigerator on an appliance dolly into the black SUV. But, there's more. For now though...

Donner's Donkey Dupes said...

@7:00 PM is the same sort of Donkey dupe who also believed Benghazi was the result of some unplanned protest provoked by an unheard of anti-Islam video. Come to think of it so did Donner.

*** NINE DAYS AFTER BENGHAZI TERRORIST ATTACK ***

JFP Staff Byline: September 19th, 2012.

JFP Staff: "U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens died—along with another three Americans—in an attack Tuesday where thousands stormed and burned the embassy in Benghazi in response to a video ridiculing the Muslim Prophet Muhammad. Reportedly, 32 others were wounded: 14 Americans and 18 Libyans."

Anonymous said...

Yet another example of HRC's incompetence. This person has a 30 year record of failure. For all the democrats chasing the Russian hacking hypothesis, why are you so quiet on the mainstream media's collusion with the Clinton campaign?

Anonymous said...

It won't be long before you have to dig under the trash can to find a Trump supporter. Trump is already endeared to the Russians, they rent/buy his condos and invest in his companies. That's why he saying there will be no new deals.

Anonymous said...

Rush Limbaugh used to talk about "seminar callers" - people who were trained to call his show with a script to make it appear as if they were conservatives and fans, but then proceed to act as if he were totally wrong and that the "conservative caller" was distraught over his (conservative) position on an issue.

It appears that in this thread we have a raft of JFP-trained seminar posters.

Donna, you're not fooling anyone,

Anonymous said...

If keep seeing this - what if Comey had not written that letter? They leave out the part about what if Comey had had rational, not politicized, testimony before congress. That is when he told of all the lies she told to the FBI and of all the laws she broke and then made the insane statement that no reasonable prosecutor would pursue this. By telling the complete truth he could have killed her campaign right there.
Second, think of what a terrible person and terrible candidate she was and how we have 65 million or so who voted for her. That is scary. I know, Trump shoots himself in the foot. But with Trump you don't really know - he could turn out to be good. With HRC she has been showing us for 30 years what she would do and it would have been a disaster.

Anonymous said...

7:55 am Are you dense? WikiLeaks leaked the emails. Putin, you may remember helped Assange. That's where he ran first to avoid extradition. You seem to forget his first leaks compromised our national security.
Perhaps, you can find every email you ever wrote as you likely have few friends and never delete an email, but you should know how easy it is to alter an email you receive and forward it.
You apparently believe our all our CIA and national security people and all those who have served in a capacity to know are part of some conspiracy to make Putin look good and Trump look bad . You believe these folks don't give a shit about our country even though they've made clear we have spies inside Russia who have confirmed Putin directed this.
You've forgotten that these agencies had people trying to tell you there was no "yellow cake" and no proof Saddam had WMDs as did a few of our allies. But, this time , our allies are confirming that Russia interfered.
You apparently don't know that Russia has used disinformation on the Internet to interfere in other elections.
This started out as typical Russian interference and a cooperative effort with Assange as both hate HRC because of sanctions and Julian is still a fugitive. But, your guy praising Putin and being so clearly uninformed and unwilling to be informed changed the game. Putin saw an opportunity. So, rather than just make our democratic elections look unreliable to show that democracy is a bad idea, Putin seized the moment.
I'm horrified by the ignorance in this country. You do remember Putin was KGB at least, don't you?
GEEZ

Anonymous said...

Chris Suprun is a TOTAL fraud.

Anonymous said...

More irregularities exposed in now halted Michigan recount.

Anonymous said...

@8:33 AM also believes no illegal aliens voted in the election.

Hypocrisy defined said...

Democrats in 2012 - Republicans who worry about Russia are "stuck in a Cold War mind warp"

Democrats in 2016 - Putin’s Russia poses [a threat] to freedom and its most important anchor, the Western alliance.

Democrats in October, 2016 - [Trump's] claim that the election is being rigged against him represents the most outlandish moment yet in a campaign devoted to dismantling political norms.

Democrats in December, 2016 - Russia hacked the 2016 Presidential Election in Donald Trump's favor.

Democrats in November, 2016 - The Electoral College is, "a patchwork Frankenstein’s monster of a system, which in the best of times merely ensures millions of Americans’ votes are irrelevant to the outcome because they don’t live in competitive states, and in the worst of times could be vulnerable to a major crisis.

Democrats in December, 2016 - The Electoral College was designed as a failsafe by the Founding Fathers should the American people ever allow an unqualified presidential candidate to win the general election. The Electoral College was specifically designed by the Framers of the U.S. Constitution to resolve a crisis like today's.

Kingfish said...

Quit your bellyaching about the Russians. It wasn't the Russians who rigged the primaries against Bernie. It wasn't the Russians who gave debate questions to the Hillary campaign in advance of the debate. It wasn't the Russians who tried to infiltrate and change the Catholic Church. I remember the howls from Dems when mosques were merely monitored for terrorists. It wasn't the Russians who had journalists running to the Clinton Campaign to get their stories approved and edited.

This is a case of shooting the messenger. No votes were tampered with by the Russians. No systems were changed. What took place was the Democrats got sloppy with their security and were exploited. They created the opportunity in the first place.

If a reporter had someone obtained these emails and published them, the stories revealed by the emails would still be the same. As a matter of fact, I seem to remember the NYT getting a Pulitzer for some stolen Pentagon Papers. Granted, the thief was a private citizen and not some Russians but the material that was reported was still stolen.

Of course, you clowns are taking someone's claim it was the Russians at face value. Someone who has a vested interest in reversing the results and also has been shown to be a liar. There is no evidence presented it is true. The much-maligned (with good reason) FBI says it is not true and other national intelligence personnel are saying the same thing.

Anonymous said...

Oh so Trump says it isn't true, so it must not be true. You guys will take the win, even if it's tainted, talk about drinking the Kool Aid.All of our current intellegence says Russia and Putin specifically hacked the DNC. The proof is right in front of you. Reagan is turning over in his grave!

Anonymous said...

Seems interesting that not one democrat cared about Hillary benefiting from a Russian Deal (URANIUM ONE). This baffles me.
Why in the world do Democrats want a cold war with Russia.

The Word *Hacking* is being thrown around without actual meaning.

*Hacking*(NO COMPUTERS) NY Times brought up Russian PsyOps. That is not computer hacking, that is propaganda and response.

*Hacking*(Computers) Benghazi emails vs clinton emails on private server. Again NOT One shred of proof only implications that Russia stole it and gave it to WIKILEAKS. NOT ONE SHRED OF PROOF.

*Hacking*(Computers) Voting Machines in Georgia were hacked but no machines show any tampering. Vice news interviewed a professor at Michigan that said it could be done and yet he stated no proof was found of tampering. Georgia even inspected the Diebold machines no hacking.


*HACKING*Story that the CIA says Russia Hacked our election again no proof and the person the site in the story is an EX-CIA analyst. KEY WORD EX. EX people. NOT THE CIA.

Yall remember that moderate journalist in Russia, the US was feeding putin anti-propaganda to?
https://cpj.org/killed/europe/russia/

Another question was there something damning in the Podesta emails that you are defending I don't get it.


Kingfish said...

Again, you are not saying a word about the substance of the emails, just shooting the messenger.

Truth is, any publicity about these emails was minute compared to the publicity over the p_____ comment.

Anonymous said...

Why don't we just keep it simple and truthful. Hillary is a crook. Always been one and will always be one. People were shown in her own words and actions how crooked she was. I don't know if Russia had anything to do with showing the people how crooked Hillary is but if they did, I thank them. Our own govt. would not even let the people know the truth. Whether it be Russia, Germany, Iceland, or France, We the people of the U.S. thank you for showing us beyond any shadow of doubt what the democrats were attempting to do. We just wish our own govt. would have cared enough.

Anonymous said...

7:37pm: A post mortem examination is performed right after death similar to Star Trek's Dr McCoy's call "He's Dead Jim." or on a crime show where the investigator gets the general information. Male, Aprox Age approximate time of death and general condition of the body. An autopsy, however, is the detailed examination of the body in which the body is dissected and the detail scientific measurements are taken to determine a cause of death.

Nice try with the parsing, but Kingfish is correct.

Anonymous said...

There was no "Hack", it was all a pipe dream.

Remember the so called POTUS getting on TV and saying there was no way the election could be hacked as safeguards were in place to prevent this from happening!!!!!!!

Unless the Benghazi Beast gets her butt handed to her for being so smug and assured she was going to win hands down.

Anonymous said...

Deplorable uneducated citizen with a PhD

I am just a simple citizen not a liberal sexual intellectual so please explain to me how Trump is unqualified to serve as president since he is at least 35 years old, a resident for at least 14 years and a natural born citizen. I know of no other qualifications needed.

Anonymous said...

for the semantically-inclined:

autopsy and postmortem are used synonymously In modern usage, you can have a postmortem and no autopsy but an autopsy is part of the postmortem.

postmortem is literally "after death"

autopsy is greek from autopsia, which is "to see with one's own eyes"

Anonymous said...

Sadly, Obama has and will ignore the voting fraud in the major cities. Just blame it on the Russians.

Anonymous said...

Looks like the Chinese just flipped the Kenyan the bird again.

Anonymous said...

It was the Russians. They made Hillary lie and lie some more. Poor thing, and she really, really thought people would believe her. And poor Billy Boy, too. No more hot young interns in the White House. Bye bye Clintons.

Anonymous said...

Had Obama actual proof to demonstrate to the American people and the World beyond any reasonable doubt that the Russians were complicit it would have been leaked to his colluding lapdog press already and certainly before November 8th. He has no credibility and the MSM has even less. The Obama Presidency will go down as one of, if not the, most incompetent administrations in United States history.

Another Ass Kisser Shows Up... said...

10:13 - While accurate in those contexts, you are NOT accurate in this particular context. While a post mortem, in the case of a dead person, may include an autopsy, an autopsy is NOT the proper term used by higher level managers when looking back to place value or criticism on a completed process or event.

Ask any high level Human Resources Vice President who is also an attorney. Until then, just continue sitting over there under the shade tree kissing Kingfish's ass as one of his sheeple.

But; Back to the thread. After reading all the posts I am most impressed with the fellow who said, "You know how easy it is to alter and forward an email you receive". Dayum....so, all along Hillary's emails were on the up and up, mostly about recipes, fabric and stuff but were hacked, altered and published. Gotcha.

Anonymous said...

Post Mortem examination of a completed project.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmortem_documentation

Post Mortem Expert.. said...

10:44 - I'm not sure I'm semantically inclined, but I do know what a process post mortem is and it has nothing at all to do with death.

I've been involved in work-process post mortems for years. You may want to review this link before you speak on this subject again.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmortem_documentation

Anonymous said...

Russia hacking the DNC system, China stealing one of our underwater drones. Looks like the world has decided the U.S. is too weak to do anything. I will have to agree. The last 8 years have shown the truth.

Anonymous said...

@1:26 nothing besides world war 3 will satisfy you people. I fear you may get your wish. Enough souls haven't been sacrificed already; you need more, unwitting apostates of Lucifer.

Anonymous said...

As a famous American woman government official once said "what difference does it make now" or something very similar

Anonymous said...

We are going to ignore the facts the CIA,FBI and others agree that the Russians hacked our elections to help elect a man so vain that he can be minpulated with a simple compliment. It won't be long before you and the world will be praying that Trump dissappears.

Anonymous said...

HRC would screw up making a pot of coffee. She had a very low bar to jump over to win this election. Comey verified she lied about her classified emails, Wikileaks revealed some disturbing information, and destroying information with hammers and other tools after receiving a discovery subpoena. She never really denied this stuff when Trump consistently confronted her and some of her responses didn't pass the smell test. Also, the Clinton Foundation will take money from anybody, including an aardvark. There's legitimate ways to enrich yourself after leaving public office, then there's the Clinton Foundation way. I'm not a Trump fan, but the voters have spoken and many folks are sick and tired of Washington politics on both sides of the aisle. HRC's team has nobody to blame but themselves for missing this layup.

Anonymous said...

2:12, people are not ignoring the fact someone hacked someone. It wasn't the elections as you can't hack an election. The CIA and the FBI disagree on who hacked what. FBI seems to think our own govt. did the hacking.
One thing for certain, we learned the truth about Hillary, the DNC, and our president. People should be very thankful we learned the truth while there was still time to do something about it.

Anonymous said...


Liberal college professor at 8:33 "...I'm horrified by the ignorance in this country."

It's here... the Intelligentsia takes on by the Deplorables.

Anonymous said...

1:48, you are misunderstanding. We do not want war in any way or fashion. Having a weak president was the lead up to a war. The U.S. was losing the respect of other countries. That empowered countries that would not want to go to war to push the U.S. even more.
Maybe next year when we are rid of our pansy president the countries will again respect the U.S. We will be much less likely to be involved in a war.

Anonymous said...

12:51

I think you need to review your life. Using Wiki to establish a basis for argument is as ignorant as saying "postmortem" has nothing to do with death.

Postmortem literally means after death.

Anyone in project management that utilizes the term postmortem, ante-mortem to the demise of the project or even after a successful project completion is a complete idiot.

You x-gens need to learn to think for yourselves and don't use the excuse that everybody does it, so it's ok.

And 12:02 ass kisser,

I am not a high level human resources VP. I am president of a national business consulting firm, that actually does research and provides commentary on businesses' use of such terms as part of a great service.

The term "autopsy" is a more accurate euphemism, even in modern context because it implies a deeper level of looking into what went wrong.

Anonymous said...

Truly hilarious to watch Obama grousing to the press and anyone else fool enough to listen about fake news and Russian hacking. Dude has been in office 8 years and he's whining and crying on his way out the door about inconsequential shit relative to his time in office.

Anonymous said...

Many people are saying that the embrassment of electing "the donald" will poison the GOP for decades.

Kingfish said...

Keep in mind the Clinton crowd pulled this before with the same result.... in Israel. They were helping one candidate and wanted to make sure Sharon represented the opposing party. They managed to nuke Sharon's rivals because they just KNEW Sharon would lose.

Sound familiar?

Anonymous said...

Didn't the Liar in Chief and the Liar wannabe tell the country two days after the election that they would support Trump and hoped he did well. Well it took less than 4-5 days before they started all this crap about the recount, the Russian hacking, and general trashing to Trump. I don't think in my lifetime I have ever seen pieces of sh...t like these folks at this level in our country.

Anonymous said...

7:09, most of the democrats are still acting like they do not know what happened the last time a Clinton was in the whitehouse. They stole the paintings off the walls and the furniture when they left. Only brought it back when threatened with prosecution.
The democrats blame the Russians when it was the contents of the emails that caused so much damage. People were able to see what was really going on. Some democrats were not bothered by the criminal activities of the DNC and the democratic party. Many were bothered but didn't say anything. They just waited until they were in the voting booth.

Anonymous said...

"I am not a high level human resources VP. I am president of a national business consulting firm..."

Well, you've got anonymous balls for admitting right here in front of God and everybody that you are lower than the belly of a prostrate used car salesman.

I've worked with and seen many 'consultants'. None of them was or is worth a damned dime. It's a short matter of time before they are all jettisoned through the tube of reality into the deep abyss of black perpetuity.

Meanwhile, you are still confusing autopsy with post-mortem. But that's typical blabber coming from a 'consultant' (an unemployed yuppie with a briefcase) and one credit card limited to $3400....

Anonymous said...

It's going to be huge when President Vanity is Impeached.

Anonymous said...

Hey, don't worry bout the Trump. He is, like, smart. OK? He don't need any intelligence briefings cause he's already intelligent. He knows more than the generals. How do we know that? Cause Goldilocks says so.

We will not outlive the damage this orange idiot will do to this country. Yes, Hillary is a crook, a hypocrite, a bad actor. But she's not a fool. And that's what we have elected. Even tho he does use, like, the most beautiful words.

Anonymous said...

"..Yes, Hillary is a crook, a hypocrite, a bad actor. But she's not a fool..."

Butt loads of HaHa's!!!!!!

Anonymous said...


For God's sake! NO ONE in the intelligence community and NO sane person is saying that people who gave Trump the votes to win The Electoral College changed their vote because of Comey or Russian interference in our elections. IF that influenced you, it doesn't matter. Your vote still counts and Trump won fair and square.

That is the way a democratic republic works.

But, if you are denying that the Russians hacked the DNC, supported and colluded with Assange with his non-election leaks put American lives at risk and that Russia has interfered in this election with disinformation and if you think Putin is a great leader,you have your head in the sand.

If you aren't worried that Trump has refused to accept the reality and gone so far as to appoint an SOS with such close ties to Russia that he was awarded a medal from Putin, and if you aren't worried that Putin is happy with Trump's election, then you care more about Trump than you do about our Nation.

Ukraine, Crimea and Estonia would beg to differ.

And, if you think you want one party control in this country, then you should move to Russia, because that's what they have.

I'm wondering if what some of you wanted was not good government but one party rule, since like in N.C. , the GOP is doing the same bad things they had accused the Democrats of doing. Only the TP is doing more and worse. Doing the same wrong things and making power grabs is not improving government. What improves government is to pass laws that make grabbing power and corruption more difficult.

Since when are nepotism and conflict of interest good in government?

Since when is taking away local control of government a good thing?

Since when is diluting voting strength of one party by gerrymandering a good thing so that local interests and local familiarity with the character of those they are voting for is lost?

Since when is preventing the balance of power from working as our Founders envisioned a good thing?

Clinton may well have been doing the same or worse right now but that doesn't erase that what your candidate and your party IS doing, saying and ignoring.

Thank God for a few honorable conservatives like Ryan and Graham but I doubt they can prevent the fall of democracy.

There is NO balance of power left. NONE. Look at NC. The legislature didn't just dilute a Democratic governor elect's power, they have just taken away local control of elections.

You have been so blinded by party loyalty that you've forgotten the basic principles of government that made this Nation great. You have ignored that our problems were the political parties making it about their control and enhancing their power that made you angry. They have removed staggering of appointments so that one party can have complete control.

Instead of holding YOUR party and YOUR elected officials accountable , you are still saying " the others would be worse".
You defeated them. Now , damn it , don't do worse than they did. Fix what was broken! Realize that too much power and control is corrupting and YOUR candidates will rationalize their self interest over time because they are human . It has f'ing nothing to do with party ideology and everything to do with greed and power corrupting human beings.





Anonymous said...

The democrats have learned NOTHING from this. Their plan going forward is:

1. Our policies were not nutty enough. We need to listen to folks like crazy Berney and go complete and totally socialists.

2. Our leaders should continue to be people who are all at least 70 years old or older.

I guess I should be happy that they will continue to loose elections. But somehow I can never get over how frickin stupid they are.

Anonymous said...

I here you guys, but why does he act like a Puppet of Bannon. That's the guy we really need to pay attention to.

paulo said...

Why doesn't anyone have the balls identify their self?

Anonymous said...

Wow with all these people contacting electors, I think folks are regretting their vote.... too bad your stuck with it, until he's impeached or he blames Paul Ryan and *itch McConnell for resigning.

Anonymous said...

Finding people to perform at the Trump caranation,is like finding someone to coach at Mississippi, nobody wants to to do career ending gig.#LIVELEARNTODAY

Anonymous said...

Kind of treasonous for Trump to ask Putin to hack Hillary's emails etc - he ought to be in jail - LOCK HIM UP

Make Spelling Great Again.. said...

11:47 - I'll pay your way to the coronation if you'll learn how to spell it.

Anonymous said...

If people really believe Trump has the power to tell the leaders of other countries what to do they should have voted for him. We need a strong leader. If he has the power to tell Putin what to do we should be glad we have him. We have had a weak leader for 8 years. Now even the democrats will tell us how our new president has command over the leaders of other countries.

Smells Donner Kaye said...

Donner Kay still hits the 'carriage return' twelve times after concluding each post. What's up wif dat?





.

Anonymous said...

7:40 I would prefer to go to the impeachment hearings or his resignation press conference where he blames everyone including you and me.

Anonymous said...

7:07, if we were not able to impeach Clinton there is little chance we will be able to impeach any president.

Anonymous said...

Assuming that "the Russians" "hacked" this or that email account or system, that doesn't mean they _RELEASED_ them to anyone.

That said, it does appear that the at least two different groups with almost-certain ties to "the Russians" - one to the Russian military and another to the civilian government intelligence group - hacked numerous email accounts and systems. However, given what is known about the complete lack of rudimentary security of the Clinton and Dem email systems and accounts, it wouldn't surprise to learn that all sorts of hackers, both nation-state intelligence as well as plain ol' fashioned "L33t coder" hackerkids, had unfettered access to the various systems and accounts. Therefore, while "the Russians" are likely among the numerous intruders in these systems and accounts, it does not mean they were the ones who gave WikiLeaks the dump.

And now, it turns out the Anthony Weiner's laptop had emails that contained with classified (at the time and still classified) information on it. How hard would it have been to, pardon the pun, crack into that account? Send him a payloaded vid of some teen-aged crumpet and and in about 10 seconds, you'd have access to everything from Hillary's Pinterest account to the John Podesta's real accounting records. And then, the there's the whole issue of the Clinton crapper-based server. And there's the issue of the original Guccifer having gained access to some of the same group.

It is theorized that at least two high-ranking Dem-orbit folks got whomped by clicking on links that most normal grandmothers wouldn't be stupid enough to click on. And day-to-day emails of most everyday folks are of no interest to hackers of any variety beyond things like financial info or to co-op the machine for further hacktivity, etc. So, in the likely event that multiple parties had access to the various accounts and systems in question, it is entirely reasonable and plausible that "the Russians" had the same intelligence interest in US pols that US intell has in all other foreign pols - we hack into their people, they hack into ours - it is simply good spycraft. But given the likelihood that numerous others also had access, it is also reasonable and plausible that others did the releasing.

And lastly, there have been rumblings from a sketchy British ex-diplomat, with known ties to Wikileaks, who claims to have personally received the dump from a pissed-off Dem insider.

Here is some free advice: 1. If you are high-rolling pol type and you get an email that says, "Click here for a bigger penis (or firmer tits)!," don't do it. 2. Don't set up kludged servers in your guest bathroom dirty clothes hamper.



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Trollfest '09

Trollfest '07 was such a success that Jackson Jambalaya will once again host Trollfest '09. Catch this great event which will leave NE Jackson & Fondren in flames. Othor Cain and his band, The Black Power Structure headline the night while Sonjay Poontang returns for an encore performance. Former Frank Melton bodyguard Marcus Wright makes his premier appearance at Trollfest singing "I'm a Sweet Transvestite" from "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." Kamikaze will sing his new hit, “How I sold out to da Man.” Robbie Bell again performs: “Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be Bells” and “Any friend of Ed Peters is a friend of mine”. After the show, Ms. Bell will autograph copies of her mug shot photos. In a salute to “Dancing with the Stars”, Ms. Bell and Hinds County District Attorney Robert Smith will dance the Wango Tango.

Wrestling returns, except this time it will be a Battle Royal with Othor Cain, Ben Allen, Kim Wade, Haley Fisackerly, Alan Lange, and “Big Cat” Donna Ladd all in the ring at the same time. The Battle Royal will be in a steel cage, no time limit, no referee, and the losers must leave town. Marshand Crisler will be the honorary referee (as it gives him a title without actually having to do anything).


Meet KIM Waaaaaade at the Entergy Tent. For five pesos, Kim will sell you a chance to win a deed to a crack house on Ridgeway Street stuffed in the Howard Industries pinata. Don't worry if the pinata is beaten to shreds, as Mr. Wade has Jose, Emmanuel, and Carlos, all illegal immigrants, available as replacements for the it. Upon leaving the Entergy tent, fig leaves will be available in case Entergy literally takes everything you have as part of its Trollfest ticket price adjustment charge.

Donna Ladd of The Jackson Free Press will give several classes on learning how to write. Smearing, writing without factchecking, and reporting only one side of a story will be covered. A donation to pay their taxes will be accepted and she will be signing copies of their former federal tax liens. Ms. Ladd will give a dramatic reading of her two award-winning essays (They received The Jackson Free Press "Best Of" awards.) "Why everything is always about me" and "Why I cover murders better than anyone else in Jackson".

In the spirit of helping those who are less fortunate, Trollfest '09 adopts a cause for which a portion of the proceeds and donations will be donated: Keeping Frank Melton in his home. The “Keep Frank Melton From Being Homeless” booth will sell chances for five dollars to pin the tail on the jackass. John Reeves has graciously volunteered to be the jackass for this honorable excursion into saving Frank's ass. What's an ass between two friends after all? If Mr. Reeves is unable to um, perform, Speaker Billy McCoy has also volunteered as when the word “jackass” was mentioned he immediately ran as fast as he could to sign up.


In order to help clean up the legal profession, Adam Kilgore of the Mississippi Bar will be giving away free, round-trip plane tickets to the North Pole where they keep their bar complaint forms (which are NOT available online). If you don't want to go to the North Pole, you can enjoy Brant Brantley's (of the Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance) free guided tours of the quicksand field over by High Street where all complaints against judges disappear. If for some reason you are unable to control yourself, never fear; Judge Houston Patton will operate his jail where no lawyers are needed or allowed as you just sit there for minutes... hours.... months...years until he decides he is tired of you sitting in his jail. Do not think Judge Patton is a bad judge however as he plans to serve free Mad Dog 20/20 to all inmates.

Trollfest '09 is a pet-friendly event as well. Feel free to bring your dog with you and do not worry if your pet gets hungry, as employees of the Jackson Zoo will be on hand to provide some of their animals as food when it gets to be feeding time for your little loved one.

Relax at the Fox News Tent. Since there are only three blonde reporters in Jackson (being blonde is a requirement for working at Fox News), Megan and Kathryn from WAPT and Wendy from WLBT will be on loan to Fox. To gain admittance to the VIP section, bring either your Republican Party ID card or a Rebel Flag. Bringing both and a torn-up Obama yard sign will entitle you to free drinks served by Megan, Wendy, and Kathryn. Get your tickets now. Since this is an event for trolls, no ID is required. Just bring the hate. Bring the family, Trollfest '09 is for EVERYONE!!!

This is definitely a Beaver production.


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Trollfest '07

Jackson Jambalaya is the home of Trollfest '07. Catch this great event which promises to leave NE Jackson & Fondren in flames. Sonjay Poontang and his band headline the night with a special steel cage, no time limit "loser must leave town" bout between Alan Lange and "Big Cat"Donna Ladd following afterwards. Kamikaze will perform his new song F*** Bush, he's still a _____. Did I mention there was no referee? Dr. Heddy Matthias and Lori Gregory will face off in the undercard dueling with dangling participles and other um, devices. Robbie Bell will perform Her two latest songs: My Best Friends are in the Media and Mama's, Don't Let Your Babies Grow up to be George Bell. Sid Salter of The Clarion-Ledger will host "Pin the Tail on the Trial Lawyer", sponsored by State Farm.

There will be a hugging booth where in exchange for your young son, Frank Melton will give you a loooong hug. Trollfest will have a dunking booth where Muhammed the terrorist will curse you to Allah as you try to hit a target that will drop him into a vat of pig grease. However, in the true spirit of Separate But Equal, Don Imus and someone from NE Jackson will also sit in the dunking booth for an equal amount of time. Tom Head will give a reading for two hours on why he can't figure out who the hell he is. Cliff Cargill will give lessons with his .80 caliber desert eagle, using Frank Melton photos as targets. Tackleberry will be on hand for an autograph session. KIM Waaaaaade will be passing out free titles and deeds to crackhouses formerly owned by The Wood Street Players.

If you get tired come relax at the Fox News Tent. To gain admittance to the VIP section, bring either your Republican Party ID card or a Rebel Flag. Bringing both will entitle you to free drinks.Get your tickets now. Since this is an event for trolls, no ID is required, just bring the hate. Bring the family, Trollfest '07 is for EVERYONE!!!

This is definitely a Beaver production.

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