Octopus Overlords

Between 1991 and 1998, Saturday Night Live included Deep Thoughts on the show as an interstitial segment between sketches. Introduced by Phil Hartman and read live by Handey (neither actually appeared on screen), the one-liners proved to be extremely popular. Hartman would intone "And now, Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey...", and peaceful easy listening music would play while the screen showed soothing pastoral scenes, much like a New Age relaxation video. Handey would then read the Deep Thought as the text to it scrolled across the screen. They became an enduring feature of SNL, which often had multiple Thoughts in each episode, and made Handey a well-known name.

hepcat wrote:I think it makes him infinitely more likeable. If you have a talent, use it. His talent is comedy. I don't get the feeling that he's being crass or overly insulting in that pursuit. Hell, from what I'm reading, he's been pretty low profile for the last decade or so.

Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch said Friday she will “accept” the recommendations from prosecutors and others leading probes into the use of a private email server by Hillary Clinton during her time as secretary of state.

Lynch’s statement during a gathering in Colorado underscored the intense sensitivity surrounding the FBI and Justice investigations into the past use of an exclusive email server by the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

By promising to abide by the recommendations, Lynch directly addressed worries by Clinton critics and others that she — as an Obama administration appointee — could ultimately overrule the investigators.

She said she will “briefed and will accept” the recommendations from the investigation teams, which she described as led by “independent” officials whose careers span from “administration to administration.”

The total includes $40.5 million raised for the Clinton campaign and another $28 million split between the Democratic National Committee and dozens of state parties. These sums are by far the highest monthly fundraising totals for the campaign so far this election cycle, which is no doubt due to Clinton having become the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in June. The total is almost identical to the amount Obama raised in June 2012. The campaign enters July with $44 million in cash on hand.

Isgrimnur wrote:WaPo

Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch said Friday she will “accept” the recommendations from prosecutors and others leading probes into the use of a private email server by Hillary Clinton during her time as secretary of state.

Lynch’s statement during a gathering in Colorado underscored the intense sensitivity surrounding the FBI and Justice investigations into the past use of an exclusive email server by the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

By promising to abide by the recommendations, Lynch directly addressed worries by Clinton critics and others that she — as an Obama administration appointee — could ultimately overrule the investigators.

She said she will “briefed and will accept” the recommendations from the investigation teams, which she described as led by “independent” officials whose careers span from “administration to administration.”

Grifman wrote:This was so stupid on so many levels. Do these people just not think?

RunningMn9 wrote:

Grifman wrote:This was so stupid on so many levels. Do these people just not think?

The idea that she would meet on a plane with Bill Clinton is incomprehensibly stupid.

Hillary Clinton was interviewed by the FBI about her use of a private email server as secretary of state, her campaign said Saturday, as federal investigators neared the end of the probe that has hung over her White House bid. Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, gave a voluntary interview for 3 1/2 hours on Saturday morning at FBI Headquarters in Washington, her campaign said. "She is pleased to have had the opportunity to assist the Department of Justice in bringing this review to a conclusion," Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said. "Out of respect for the investigative process, she will not comment further on her interview." Spokespeople for the FBI and the Justice Department declined to comment Saturday. The interview was expected and it does not suggest that she or anyone else is likely to face prosecution. Some legal experts view criminal prosecution as exceedingly unlikely. The interview may indicate that the Justice Department's yearlong probe is drawing to a close. But the ongoing investigation represents a major risk for Democrats as Clinton is merely four weeks away from being formally nominated as the party's presidential candidate.

Kraken wrote:If the former President and future First Gentleman asks if he can drop by to say howdy, are you really going to tell him you're washing your hair? The poor judgment belongs on Clinton, as far as I'm concerned.

Kraken wrote:

RunningMn9 wrote:

Grifman wrote:This was so stupid on so many levels. Do these people just not think?

The idea that she would meet on a plane with Bill Clinton is incomprehensibly stupid.

If the former President and future First Gentleman asks if he can drop by to say howdy, are you really going to tell him you're washing your hair? The poor judgment belongs on Clinton, as far as I'm concerned.

Max Peck wrote:Clinton interviewed by the FBI about private email server

Hillary Clinton was interviewed by the FBI about her use of a private email server as secretary of state, her campaign said Saturday, as federal investigators neared the end of the probe that has hung over her White House bid. Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, gave a voluntary interview for 3 1/2 hours on Saturday morning at FBI Headquarters in Washington, her campaign said. "She is pleased to have had the opportunity to assist the Department of Justice in bringing this review to a conclusion," Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said. "Out of respect for the investigative process, she will not comment further on her interview." Spokespeople for the FBI and the Justice Department declined to comment Saturday. The interview was expected and it does not suggest that she or anyone else is likely to face prosecution. Some legal experts view criminal prosecution as exceedingly unlikely. The interview may indicate that the Justice Department's yearlong probe is drawing to a close. But the ongoing investigation represents a major risk for Democrats as Clinton is merely four weeks away from being formally nominated as the party's presidential candidate.

What would happen if Clinton were to be indicted and, presumably, forced to drop out of the race? Would Sanders become the default candidate or would the party be able to parachute in an alternate more to their liking?

Max Peck wrote: What would happen if Clinton were to be indicted and, presumably, forced to drop out of the race? Would Sanders become the default candidate or would the party be able to parachute in an alternate more to their liking?

Grifman wrote:

Max Peck wrote:Clinton interviewed by the FBI about private email server

Hillary Clinton was interviewed by the FBI about her use of a private email server as secretary of state, her campaign said Saturday, as federal investigators neared the end of the probe that has hung over her White House bid. Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, gave a voluntary interview for 3 1/2 hours on Saturday morning at FBI Headquarters in Washington, her campaign said. "She is pleased to have had the opportunity to assist the Department of Justice in bringing this review to a conclusion," Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said. "Out of respect for the investigative process, she will not comment further on her interview." Spokespeople for the FBI and the Justice Department declined to comment Saturday. The interview was expected and it does not suggest that she or anyone else is likely to face prosecution. Some legal experts view criminal prosecution as exceedingly unlikely. The interview may indicate that the Justice Department's yearlong probe is drawing to a close. But the ongoing investigation represents a major risk for Democrats as Clinton is merely four weeks away from being formally nominated as the party's presidential candidate.

What would happen if Clinton were to be indicted and, presumably, forced to drop out of the race? Would Sanders become the default candidate or would the party be able to parachute in an alternate more to their liking?

I believe the party would choose, not sure how. But Betnie's people would have a cow if he wasn't chosen, that's for sure. I've heard Biden and Kerry mentioned as possible replacements, I don't think Bernie is popular with party leadership.

Pyperkub wrote:Yeah, I'd expect the delegates would have to decide. Bernie would be politicking Hillary's delegates, but I also expect that Biden & Kerry as well as others would be doing the same - as well as others (CA Gov. Brown would be a great possibility, IMHO).

Anonymous Bosch wrote:

Pyperkub wrote:Yeah, I'd expect the delegates would have to decide. Bernie would be politicking Hillary's delegates, but I also expect that Biden & Kerry as well as others would be doing the same - as well as others (CA Gov. Brown would be a great possibility, IMHO).

Biden's probably the odds-on favourite. Newsom would likely be more palatable than the decrepit fossil of Gov. Moonbeam, though.

The FBI won't recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server while secretary of state, agency Director James Comey said Tuesday, lifting a major legal threat to her presidential campaign. Comey said that although the investigation found "extremely careless" behavior by Clinton and her staff in their handling of sensitive information, the FBI had concluded that "no charges are appropriate." He said the agency believed that "no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case." The announcement came three days after the FBI interviewed Clinton for hours in a final step of its yearlong investigation into the possible mishandling of classified information. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said last week that she would accept the recommendations of the FBI director and of career prosecutors, meaning that Comey's decision almost certainly brings the legal part of the issue to a close and removes the threat of criminal charges. However, it's unlikely to wipe away many voters' concerns about Clinton's trustworthiness. And it probably won't stop Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has called for criminal charges, from continuing to make the server a campaign issue.

Max Peck wrote:Sorry Rip...

FBI says it won't recommend charges in Clinton email matter

Attorney General Loretta Lynch said last week that she would accept the recommendations of the FBI director and of career prosecutors, meaning that Comey's decision almost certainly brings the legal part of the issue to a close and removes the threat of criminal charges.

GreenGoo wrote:
Article this morning said that Lynch has said she will recuse herself after much media pressure. No idea who will take her place or whether the replacement will differ on her decision.

Defiant wrote:

GreenGoo wrote:
Article this morning said that Lynch has said she will recuse herself after much media pressure. No idea who will take her place or whether the replacement will differ on her decision.

I thought she said she would accept the FBI's recommendation

GreenGoo wrote:

Defiant wrote:

GreenGoo wrote:
Article this morning said that Lynch has said she will recuse herself after much media pressure. No idea who will take her place or whether the replacement will differ on her decision.

I thought she said she would accept the FBI's recommendation

That was earlier in the week/end of last week (not sure the exact date). With the Director coming out with his recommendation, not sure if she will follow through on her recusal or not. I got the feeling that she did not know the director was about to make an announcement.

Shrug. Seems like news is coming out in bits and pieces and communication between the various players is slow to non-existent.

edit: Just found the article on my phone. It said that she announced last Friday that she was going to recuse herself. Not sure how that aligns with her announcement that she would accept the FBI's recommendation.

Max Peck wrote: The article has it wrong, then. She didn't recuse herself, she just said she expected to accept the FBI/prosecutor recommendations.

Ralph-Wiggum wrote:And that they found no evidence of the Clinton team trying to coverup anything.

hepcat wrote:FBI recommends no criminal charges against Hillary over email server.

I look forward to Rips frustrated and angry proclamations that this is one huge conspiracy.

Rip wrote: She actually could shoot someone and get a pass.

Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case. Prosecutors necessarily weigh a number of factors before bringing charges. There are obvious considerations, like the strength of the evidence, especially regarding intent. Responsible decisions also consider the context of a person’s actions, and how similar situations have been handled in the past.

In looking back at our investigations into mishandling or removal of classified information, we cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts. All the cases prosecuted involved some combination of: clearly intentional and willful mishandling of classified information; or vast quantities of materials exposed in such a way as to support an inference of intentional misconduct; or indications of disloyalty to the United States; or efforts to obstruct justice. We do not see those things here.

To be clear, this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances, a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences. To the contrary, those individuals are often subject to security or administrative sanctions. But that is not what we are deciding now.

Rip wrote:

Yes, yes he did.

To be clear, this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances, a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences. To the contrary, those individuals are often subject to security or administrative sanctions. But that is not what we are deciding now.

Politico: “We do assess that hostile actors gained access to the private commercial email accounts of people with whom Secretary Clinton was in regular contact from her personal account. We also assess that Secretary Clinton’s use of a personal e-mail domain was both known by a large number of people and readily apparent. She also used her personal email extensively while outside the United States, including sending and receiving work-related emails in the territory of sophisticated adversaries. Given that combination of factors, we assess it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton’s personal email account.”

Transcript: For example, seven e-mail chains concern matters that were classified at the Top Secret/Special Access Program level when they were sent and received. These chains involved Secretary Clinton both sending e-mails about those matters and receiving e-mails from others about the same matters. There is evidence to support a conclusion that any reasonable person in Secretary Clinton’s position, or in the position of those government employees with whom she was corresponding about these matters, should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation. In addition to this highly sensitive information, we also found information that was properly classified as Secret by the U.S. Intelligence Community at the time it was discussed on e-mail (that is, excluding the later “up-classified” e-mails).

... when one of Secretary Clinton’s original personal servers was decommissioned in 2013, the e-mail software was removed. Doing that didn’t remove the e-mail content, but it was like removing the frame from a huge finished jigsaw puzzle and dumping the pieces on the floor. The effect was that millions of e-mail fragments end up unsorted in the server’s unused — or “slack”— space. We searched through all of it to see what was there, and what parts of the puzzle could be put back together.