[QUOTE=only_human;436661]Trump's motivations are unclear; there seem to be so many possibilities that could draw upon activities in the past. I'd feel a lot better if he released his tax returns.[/QUOTE]

I'd like a double data-dump: Trump's tax returns and the transcripts/videos of Hillary's "I told them to cut it out" high-paid speeches to dozens of TBTF banks. Oh, and some of those 30k "nothing to see here" e-mails dating from her days doing the people's (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) work using a privatized insecure e-mail server, in bold defiance of clear State Department policy, black and white classified-document-handling rules and public-records-keeping laws. Can you say "extensive track record of corrupt use of public office?"

Just like I'd like to see the same reporter who asked Trump's daughter how she feels about her dad's treatment of women ask the same question of Chelsea Clinton.

[QUOTE=ewmayer;436665]Oh, and some of those 30k "nothing to see here" e-mails dating from her days doing the people's (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) work using a privatized insecure e-mail server, in bold defiance of clear State Department policy, black and white classified-document-handling rules and public-records-keeping laws. Can you say "extensive track record of corrupt use of public office?"[/QUOTE]

I would agree, as an outside observer, that the use of a private email server by Hillary Clinton from her residence was a ***REALLY*** stupid idea.

But, do you think that the US of A Government was not aware of this while it was happening?

[url=bigstory.ap.org/article/7006105d422740f0b4b8675c90f9a154/emails-key-security-features-disabled-clintons-server]Emails: State Dept. scrambled on trouble on Clinton's server[/url]
[quote]WASHINGTON (AP) — State Department staffers wrestled for weeks in December 2010 over a serious technical problem that affected emails from then-Secretary Hillary Clinton's home email server, [u]causing them to temporarily disable security features on the government's own systems[/u], according to emails released Wednesday.

The emails were released under court order Wednesday to the conservative legal advocacy group Judicial Watch, which has sued the State Department over access to public records related to the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee's service as the nation's top diplomat between 2009 and 2013.

The emails, reviewed by The Associated Press, show that State Department technical staff disabled software on their systems intended to block phishing emails that could deliver dangerous viruses. They were trying urgently to resolve delivery problems with emails sent from Clinton's private server.

"This should trump all other activities," a senior technical official, Ken LaVolpe, told IT employees in a Dec. 17, 2010, email. Another senior State Department official, Thomas W. Lawrence, wrote days later in an email that deputy chief of staff Huma Abedin personally was asking for an update about the repairs. Abedin and Clinton, who both used Clinton's private server, had complained that emails each sent to State Department employees were not being reliably received.
...
Clinton has repeatedly denied there is any evidence her private email server ever was breached. Her campaign did not immediately provide comment Wednesday.

Days after the technical crisis, on Jan. 9, 2011, an IT worker was forced to shut down Clinton's server because he believed "someone was trying to hack us." Later that day, he wrote, "We were attacked again so I shut (the server) down for a few min." It was one of several occasions when email access to Clinton's BlackBerry smartphone was disrupted because her private server was down, according to the documents.

The AP reported last year that in the early morning hours of Aug. 3, 2011, Clinton received infected emails, disguised as speeding tickets from New York. The emails instructed recipients to print the attached tickets. Opening an attachment would have allowed hackers to take over control of a victim's computer.

In a blistering audit released last month, the State Department's inspector general concluded that Clinton and her team ignored clear internal guidance that her email setup broke federal standards and could leave sensitive material vulnerable to hackers. Her aides twice brushed aside concerns, in one case telling technical staff "the matter was not to be discussed further," the report said.[/quote]
On top of the ever-deepening record of criminal incompetence, another law broken: the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which prohibits “intentionally … affecting a government computer,” in this case dropping crucial firewalls on the entire State Department computer system in an effort to debug problems with Hillary's illegal homebrew server and insecure Blackberry. [h/t Jim Haygood] Ka-ching!

And some people want this lady - who has also aggressively pursued a policy of "bear baiting" in an effort to ignite Cold War 2.0 (see [url=http://www.mersenneforum.org/showpost.php?p=436498&postcount=234]this post about the insane NeoCon mind-set at work[/url] here) - anywhere near the launch codes? I agree the choice appears to be a LO2E (lesser of 2 evils) one, but if offered possible evil vs proven evil, the only moral choice is to either gamble on the unknown quantity or abstain. Further, Trump's persona would almost surely put him at loggerheads with Congress, meaning very little gets done, which when it comes to our completely out-of-control FedGov these days is highly preferable. In other words, even were Trump to prove to similarly evil instincts as Hillary, he would almost certainly be a "less effective evil".

Regarding the (near-0) likelihood of prosecution, NC reader "Sam Adams" comments: "...it’s all being played as a French bedroom farce with doors opening and slamming shut. There is no way that Hillary Clinton or her minions will be prosecuted once Obama endorsed her campaign. There may be some doors opened, the FBI may enter stage right and Loretta Lynch may even have her skirts above her head, but in the end Obama and Clinton will go happily into the neocon-neoliberal night."

[QUOTE=ewmayer;436831]On top of the ever-deepening record of criminal incompetence, another law broken: the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which prohibits “intentionally … affecting a government computer,” in this case dropping crucial firewalls on the entire State Department computer system in an effort to debug problems with Hillary's illegal homebrew server and insecure Blackberry. [h/t Jim Haygood] Ka-ching![/QUOTE]
I refuse to believe that you don't remember the [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_White_House_email_controversy"]Bush White House email controversy[/URL].

What Hillary did was reckless, illegal, colossally stupid and contains some aspects of lying. No, I'm not gonna add a "but."

Nor do I dismiss your comments about her war hawkish ways. I do not feel her war hawkish ways are substantially different from all of the Bush years. Nor do they feel different from many neocon hawks or anything else post 9/11. I'd hoped Obama would deliver some change or sunshine on some of that, but it never happened.

I still will go with this known evil over Trump. It's not just his unknown evil quotient; I don't like the agitating ugliness that drove him to the front of the ticket. He just arrived on Scotland talking in support of angry Brexit voters. I wish they'd keep him.

I would hope that US readers can interpret this better than I: [URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-36599724"]US election: Trump's emails to British MPs cause uproar[/URL]

Given that he has form in the gentle art of losing friends and antagonizing people, I'm not too surprised myself.

[QUOTE=xilman;437322]I would hope that US readers can interpret this better than I: [URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-36599724"]US election: Trump's emails to British MPs cause uproar[/URL]

Given that he has form in the gentle art of losing friends and antagonizing people, I'm not too surprised myself.[/QUOTE]
Doesn't his crass and illegal spam solicitations for foreign election contributions directly from members of foreign governments make you love him more?
Get ready to embrace his torture philosophy too. Maintaining a special relationship with the US in security matters may be a consideration because politics.
[URL="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-torture-waterboarding_us_5775d740e4b04164640f6597"]Trump Amps Up His Call For Torture: 'We're Going To Have To Do Things That Are Unthinkable'[/URL]

I don't believe that is legal. It sounds like other country could put in place what president they like, if they could contribute with funds, and then later ask him for favors in return. I totally think that financing for these "events" have to be integrally internal.

edit: crospost. I read the article, it is indeed illegal. Grr... what a jerk.

[QUOTE=xilman;437322]I would hope that US readers can interpret this better than I: [URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-36599724"]US election: Trump's emails to British MPs cause uproar[/URL]

Given that he has form in the gentle art of losing friends and antagonizing people, I'm not too surprised myself.[/QUOTE]

To use a term from finance (trading), sounds like a serious "fat finger" fubar on the ol' e-mail distribution breadth selector there. See, truly savvy political operators know that if you want to engage in that sort of side-channel campaign financing, the way to do it is via a [url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3659123/Slush-funds-pay-personal-consultant-Huma-Abedin-luxe-Caribbean-holiday-daughter-Chelsea-payoffs-silence-Bill-s-sex-accusers-Hillary-used-donations-Clinton-Foundation-personal-piggy-bank.html]philanthropic foundation[/url]. The Haitian orphans thank you! And you don't do anything as crass as send e-mails asking for $$ ... you do the ol' [url=http://www.nationalreview.com/article/437312/hillary-clinton-emails-secret-meetings-clinton-foundation-donors]off-the-books meeting scheduling[/url] two-step. Silly Donald - you gonna give professional grifting and grafting rackets a bad name with your bull-in-a-China-shop antics.

[QUOTE=ewmayer;437335]Silly Donald - you gonna give professional grifting and grafting rackets a bad name with your bull-in-a-China-shop antics.[/QUOTE]I'm also wielding Hanlon's Razor here.

o [url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/kass/ct-bill-clinton-loretta-lynch-kass-0701-20160630-column.html]Bill Clinton up to his old tricks in meeting with Loretta Lynch[/url] - Chicago Tribune

An NC reader [url=http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/06/links-63016.html#comment-2626647]comments[/url] (it's funniest if you imagine Bill's distinctive raspy ahm-just-a-country-boy-from-Arkan-sass drawl while reading):
[quote]Somewhere on a hot, remote ramp at the Phoenix airport
[i]….”Loretta, make yourself comfy over here by ‘ol Billy Boy, on this couchy thang ... Ah jus have to press this here button and darn if she dont recline!,,, aint that the greatest thang evah? Slicker than a salamander in a big ol tub of spermicide jelly!!

So that ‘ol Capt told me they jus couldnt get that dang APU goin soes to faar up the AC on this cranky ‘ol bird.

Here have a sip a this!

Oooohhh baby doll, lemme help youall with them hot ‘ol pantyhose, ahh know them dawgs can get awful sticky in this heat ... Now did ah evah tell you how it came to pass that ah was the first black president an ‘ol Barry Boy was the last??[/i][/quote]

o [url=http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/07/01/clinton-sought-secret-info-on-eu-bailout-plans-as-son-in-laws-doomed-hedge-fund-gambled-on-greece.html]Clinton sought secret info on EU bailout plans as son-in-law's doomed hedge fund gambled on Greece[/url] | Fox News

o [url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/06/30/the-billionaire-pedophile-who-could-bring-down-donald-trump-and-hillary-clinton.html]The Billionaire Pedophile Who Could Bring Down Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton[/url] - The Daily Beast

I'd heard of Bill Clinton's frequent-flyer status on Esptein's [i]Like a Virgin™[/i] private airline:
[quote]Bill and Hillary Clinton have remained mum about their ties to the Palm Beach pedophile—despite evidence that shows Bill was one of the most famous and frequent passengers on Epstein’s “Lolita Express” and that Epstein donated money to the Clinton Foundation even after his conviction.[/quote]
... but seems The Donald was also at least an occasional passenger, and attendee at several Epstein soirées. Will post any updates on this I come across. (In the extremely improbable - IMO - event that it turns out Bernie Sanders was also a guest at any Epstein "social events", I swear I'm turning my back on politics forever, except for senile mutterings of the "they should all be strung up from lampposts" variety.)

Disclaimer: Of course anyone can allege anything - as the article notes, "Johnson has a number of non-anonymous supporters, though it’s a cast of characters who do little to allay Trump’s assertion that her claim was brought solely to influence the election" - and where the rich are concerned there is a clear "hush money" incentive to do so, but merely associating with someone as vile and notorious as Epstein should act as a huge red flag about the person's judgment and character.

I will not vote for negligent secretary Hillary or socialism spouter Bernie.

I will not vote for Pence, Sessions or Christie as billionaire builder Trump's veep.