US Politics Mega-thread - Page 2786

On January 25 2016 05:10 GreenHorizons wrote:


You would win the praises of TL'rs, though I think plenty would consider a ban bet between the two of us win-win. Could always pick the sig bet and then make my sig something like "In all matters, I defer to the master of knowledge, Kwark" or something.

I'm sure if you're really confident we could come up with something. Admittedly you're not at the top of my preference list but if no one else has got the guts, I'd take it.

On January 24 2016 23:15 Seuss wrote:


Is that labeled classified or emails actually containing classified information?

As a former government contractor I know that a lot of classified labels get plastered on emails either automatically or out of habit. A lot of people working for the government don't understand classified labels beyond "I need to plaster these labels on my shit or I could get fired".

I mean, I've seen emails that were like:

+ Show Spoiler +

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is taking early steps toward launching an independent campaign for president, seeing a potential path to the White House amid the rise of Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Bernie Sanders.

Bloomberg has retained advisers and plans to conduct a poll after the Feb. 9 New Hampshire primary to assess the state of the race and judge whether there is an opening for him to mount an independent campaign, according to three people familiar with his thinking. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about his plans, which were first reported Saturday by The New York Times.

Bloomberg has set a March deadline to decide on whether to enter the race, to ensure his access to the ballot in all 50 states.

The billionaire media executive, who served three terms as mayor of New York, is said to be concerned by Trump's lasting hold on the Republican field and is worried about the impact of Sanders' campaign on the bid by Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination.

Bloomberg's efforts underscore the unsettled nature of the presidential race a little more than a week before the first round of primary voting. The months-long rise of Sanders and Trump has shaken up the political establishment in both parties and on Wall Street, who've struggled to combat their climb in primary polls.

A longtime Democrat who became a Republican to run for mayor in 2001 and later switched to be an independent, Bloomberg would strongly consider a bid if the general election looked like it could turn into a contest between Sanders and Trump or Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

He is not ruling out a bid if Clinton is ahead on the Democratic side, though people familiar with his plans believe it is not particularly likely Bloomberg would challenge Clinton in a general election. But they said Bloomberg has expressed concern about the damage caused by revelations she used a private email address and server while serving as secretary of state, and he fears she may emerge atop the Democratic field as a weakened nominee.

On January 25 2016 06:45 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
Bloomberg is a Republican.

On January 25 2016 06:45 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
Bloomberg is a Republican.

On January 25 2016 07:13 xDaunt wrote:
Bloomberg is exactly the wrong type of candidate to make a bid in an anti-establishment election year. He doesn't have a prayer.

Jeb Bush on Sunday praised Rick Snyder, the beleaguered governor of Michigan, for “stepping up” in response to the crisis over lead-poisoned drinking water in the city of Flint.

Emails show that Snyder, a Republican, ignored and dismissed the problem more than a year ago, even as children began showing signs of irreparable lead poisoning. A federal state of emergency has been declared.

Calls for Snyder’s impeachment or resignation have come from many quarters, including the Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

Appearing on CNN’s State of the Union, former Florida governor Bush, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, said big government was most likely to blame for the crisis, which occurred after state emergency managers switched the city’s water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint river in a cost-cutting measure.

“I admire Rick Snyder for stepping up right now,” Bush said. “He’s going through the challenge. And he’s fired people and accepted responsibility to fix this. This is going to be a long-term challenge.”

Bush said he had criticized Snyder on the issue, but now applauded the governor for his actions. This week, Snyder apologized. Flint began drawing from the contaminated river in April 2014, as part of a cost-cutting decision by state emergency managers.

On January 25 2016 11:03 Deathstar wrote:
No one is exactly clamoring for a Bloomberg run lol...

The two systems — the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNet) and Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System (JWICS) — are not connected to the unclassified system, known as the Non-Classified Internet Protocol Router Network (NIPRNet). You cannot e-mail from one system to the other, though you can use NIPRNet to send ­e-mails outside the government.

Somehow, highly classified information from SIPRNet, as well as even the super-secure JWICS, jumped from those closed systems to the open system and turned up in at least 1,340 of Clinton’s home e-mails — including several the CIA earlier this month flagged as containing ultra-secret Sensitive Compartmented Information and Special Access Programs, a subset of SCI.

SAP includes “dark projects,” such as drone operations, while SCI protects intelligence sources and methods.

Fox News reported Friday that at least one of Clinton’s e-mails included sensitive information on spies.

“It takes a very conscious effort to move a classified e-mail or cable from the classified systems over to the unsecured open system and then send it to Hillary Clinton’s personal e-mail account,” said Raymond Fournier, a veteran Diplomatic Security Service special agent. “That’s no less than a two-conscious-step process.”

He says it’s clear from some of the classified e-mails made public that someone on Clinton’s staff essentially “cut and pasted” content from classified cables into the messages sent to her. The classified markings are gone, but the content is classified at the highest levels — and so sensitive in nature that “it would have been obvious to Clinton.” Most likely the information was, in turn, e-mailed to her via NIPRNet.

To work around the closed, classified systems, which are accessible only by secure desktop workstations whose hard drives must be removed and stored overnight in a safe, Clinton’s staff would have simply retyped classified information from the systems into the non-classified system or taken a screen shot of the classified document, Fournier said. “Either way, it’s totally illegal.”

On January 25 2016 11:24 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:
If Bloomberg ran against Bernie (supposing he wins) and the Republican candidate (Trump or Cruz or ???), would Bloomberg be more likely to take voters away from Bernie or away from the Republican nominee? Because Bloomberg is all over the place in terms of political affiliation.