Maddeningly, this news is too little and too late. And long overdue. Just imagine how different the US would be now if Clinton had won in 2016. International standing. Guns. Abortion. Climate. Immigration. All of the debacles the GQP has spread and lovingly tended. SMH. 😡
Imagine where we would be today in terms of fighting climate change, not lying the country into war, preventing Covid deaths, etc., etc., if it had been Clinton-Gore-Obama-Clinton without Bush and Trump thrown in there. 
I wrote this little diddy in December 2016 as a "what if". I revisited it recently and it still holds...
A little alternative reality fun.
Gore wins election in 2000, 9/11 is thwarted months ahead of our reality but still results in increased security at airports and all transpo hubs after learning that jets were the primary weapon. Jeb Bush runs and wins in 2004, policies stifle economy just enough to prevent the grossly overextended markets of 2006/7 and ultimately prevents what in our reality was the Great Recession. JB is reelected in 2008 not because of what he did, but really because he was just so darn benign and because people just weren't ready for another Clinton in office. 2012 brings one of the least exciting elections, mostly because the candidates were bland, one on hand you have Mitt Romney and the other John Kerry, its like c-span vs neighborhood city council broadcasts. The good part, stuff gets done because compromise is the word of the day under a Romney presidency. Not a lot of economic growth, more tax cuts for the rich, some investment in science and tech, more funding for climate research and mitigation, investment in government digital infrastructure to protect the US from foreign hacking. 2016 actually brings a very exciting election. 2 term senator barack obama wins the democratic nomination over hillary clinton while the republicans, enthusiastic after 3 consecutive terms (romney decides to call it one term), nominate former vice president Colin Powell. The American people are vexed that the only two major party candidates they have are both black, educated and highly experienced. Creating the worst conundrum in politics ever experienced (in that reality). While hard core racists and neo liberals refuse to vote for either candidate, strengthening and legitimizing the third party vote, something else even better happens. Our first Black President gets elected along with their running mate, the first female Vice President. A decade later, a third party candidate wins which results in downticket shakeups. huge shakeup of campaign finance laws , corporations are not people, term limits for congress, completely eliminating lobbying firms, flat tax for everyone making 4xPoverty line or more, universal single payer healthcare, universal basic income for all making minimum wage unnecessary, increasing wages and decreasing cost of goods, amnesty for all dreamers and relatives, marijuana declassified as controlled substance leading to most states making recreational marijuana legal and taxable, drug offenses plummet reducing incarceration and recidivism by huge amounts also leading to massive changes in policing policy with regards to discrimination, leading to less arrests overall and less people of color being arrested and suing the state/city for damages. with incarceration rates so low and government expenditures for settlements at all time low, government has no choice but to go lean and reduce waste, becoming more of a shell of structure to direct tax dollars where needed (education, transportation, health, etc) than a slush fund for political donors. Gun fever ends abruptly, mostly because the government is now so lean there is no reason to create a state of fear, the media quickly follows suit. While gun ownership remains a well regarded right, it falls to the wayside as a hobby of sorts, much like bocce ball or pinochle. heavy investment in emissions reduction, alternative energy and alternative fuel vehicles. Smart autonomous cars operate exclusively in the city centers, manual driving only takes place outside city centers, reducing commutes by 75% and increasing productivity of urban workforce. Farming decentralizes into suburban neighborhoods, converting 1 out of every 10 single family plots into food gardens using recycled water. Pretty much as close to utopia as a society can get without the ever controlling government stomping out dissidents.
<B>Yes friends, this could have been our reality and still could be if we all come together and make it so.</B>
In this alternative reality we are missing a few things.
- Election of GWB whose administration was so fraught with deception and fraud and collusion we still to this day do not know the ramifications of the decisions and lies that occurred.
- Terror attack on US soil that in the short term claimed over 3k lives
- Lies to the US people about intelligence of WMDs in Iraq
- A war in iraq that ultimately leads to the capture and execution of its leader which destabilizes the region so much, fringe religious extremist groups gain power
- A war in Afghanistan, which also destabilizes the region, forces extreme groups to help each other and hide in caves and protects the leader which was the architect of the 9/11 terror attack from capture
- Thousands of militants, hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children, thousands of us soldiers dead.
- Fiscal policies, while bad on their own, were coupled with overspending and tax breaks that overburdened the economic system and led to the worst economic depression seen since the 1930s
- Choosing hope and change with no resources or tools to make it possible. The election of Obama was a turn for the better philosophically. In reality it was one of the worst things to happen to the US. It exposed the dark underbelly which most of us thought was gone decades ago. While it didn't turn people into something, it gave them permission to be who they truly are. Hate, bigotry, divisiveness, deception and non-cooperation were the highlights of the day and became mainstream. No longer were fringe attitudes held at bay by common decency. Decency was banished to the outhouse of history along with political correctness, love and being neighborly.
- syria
- emails and servers
- Election of reality show star and real estate developer donald trump.
- nuclear proliferation unseen since the 1950s and 60s
- lying lying and more lying
- distrust in institutions we have entrusted for the truth
- things I can fathom but shouldn't because I'm afraid it will become reality...
And now we find out that after he "retired" from the FBI, he went to work for the firm that helped Jared Kushner ditch his 666 Fifth Ave. property to the Qataris in a 99-year lease with over a billion dollars paid UP FRONT. I have said from the get-go that DoJ needs to start hammering Kushner a LOT harder.
Manafort's decade as a Putin tool in Ukraine for a decade prior to running the Orange Jesus campaign is too often overlooked, as is his massive debt to Deripaska who seems to have acted as his "handler" while he was theoretically employed by the Putin backed criminal regime in Ukraine.
Hmmmm Giuliani announce a "big surprise" just before the 2016 election and then coincidently there was the "Big October surprise" of Hunter's lap top just before the 2020 election. I wonder what "big surprise" we are getting in 2024? I'm hoping the scum doesn't get that far but I'm losing faith. And where is the punishment to Barr for blowing off the Mueller report? No Russian ties my ass
Unless I'm missing something here, with the arrest and indictments of McGonnigal, other than the obvious embarrassment of having been used as a mouthpiece for disinformation, there should be no breach of journalistic ethics for NYT to reveal whether this man was one of their sources in 2016. In fact, it should be their ethical obligation, not requiring the legal coercion of a subpoena. NYT can at least partially redeem itself by coming clean and making public its role in this bombshell of a story.
And for those re-stoking the bonfires to burn Comey, if anything, I think this new evidence tends to show that he - like the Times - were played by forces beyond their control. Maybe they should both be ashamed for being tools, but it seems unlikely they were anything but hapless players trying to do their jobs.
I think NYT should print a retraction until they can learn more. Their story they published, bombshell or not, cannot stand the test of history or journalistic integrity. they don't have to expose their sources but they themselves stated that their source was, law enforcement, FBI and/or intelligence officials, likely in NY. The branch of information is poisoned until they can confirm that is isn't.
Comey violated Dept policy to verify the leak of the re-opened Clinton emails investigation (the re-opening of which was itself a violation of Dept policy so close to the election). He then participated in the cover-up and false denials of the much more serious investigation into Trump-Russia ties, and then trolled the public by claiming he had been bound to silence by Dept policy - the very Dept policy he'd so blatantly violated with respect to Clinton. He was not a hapless player; he was a blatant partisan.
Nah. Comey is just a tool. Calling him hapless is too kind. No matter how he protested his innocence, he was delighted to be a part of taking Hillary down.
Read his book. (From the library, of course.) To me he comes off as credible and sincere in his explanation of why he called for an investigation. I think he made a difficult but wrong decision - and, as we now can see, based on vigorous disinformation and threats of leaks. He certainly had no love or loyalty for *trump, then or ever, nor do I think he had any reason to dump on Hillary.
Jay - I really appreciated your 'delving into ' this extremely troubling & complex issue. I feel a bit more sympathy for Comey now; but I felt truly sorry to see how much it upset Frank Figluizzi (sp ?) when he was a guest 'commentator' on MSNBC yesterday - he'd both known & worked with McGonigal for many years, & was visibly stunned to discover that he was lining his own pockets while helping the very same Russians he was supposed to be investigating ! One other point that came up yesterday was this : the real possibility that McGonigal was (potentially) already beholden to the Russians before he got the task of investigating them ... "Food for Thought" ....
Rachel Maddow featured this story last night. Hillary Clinton knew Trump was a puppet of Putin, and so was Manafort and, we now learn, high-level FBI agent McGonigal. I shake my head at what could have been...
Yeah, I mean, as long as we're speculating, well, we may as well prepare for the worst case scenario as these many years have pretty much blown the roof off of propriety, decency and integrity; the mistake we have apparently been making on repeat is assuming that our leadership is honorable and sincerely patriotic, when it seems a large swathe of those in positions of power may be willfully corrupt or susceptible bat a minimum.
You are so right Mia! And just this morning I listened (very briefly) to an interview by Gale King of Mike Pompeo in connection with his newly-released book. Gale asked him about his possible run for president in 2024 (vomit!), and I had to turn it off as soon as he began with some BS like -"when he and Trump served all American people, blah, blah .....". It is just mind-boggling how these corrupt grifters are not only NOT in jail, but worse considering to run for the highest office of the US.
There is so much collusion with Russia by the GOP and Trump it's hilarious that Trump actually sued Clinton for "weaving a false narrative" about it. So glad that he and his attorneys were ordered to pay nearly $1 million for his "completely frivolous" lawsuit against Clinton.
I'm thinking the NYT needs to retract that article pending further review. mea culpa the s@#$ out of that story until the truth is learned. But that story can no longer stand when the source(s) are now in question, regardless of if that source is this FBI agent. He could have poisoned the well
I find the “defense” offered by Comey that he HAD to tell Congress he was reopening the email case against Hilary Clinton to be disingenuous. A case of the tail wagging the dog. Comey had no control over NY and apparently the FBI. And then there’s the fact that he himself appointed McGonigal. Whose idea was that and how many other FBI agents are loyal only to Russia and the Republicans? As per Comey’s statement— his wife and daughters were right to not talk to him after his statement regarding Clinton. Comey tried to get sympathy about that and it fell flat to my ears. Poor Mr. Comey, he had “no choice”.
Maddeningly, this news is too little and too late. And long overdue. Just imagine how different the US would be now if Clinton had won in 2016. International standing. Guns. Abortion. Climate. Immigration. All of the debacles the GQP has spread and lovingly tended. SMH. 😡
Supreme Court
That, too! 😢
Imagine where we would be today in terms of fighting climate change, not lying the country into war, preventing Covid deaths, etc., etc., if it had been Clinton-Gore-Obama-Clinton without Bush and Trump thrown in there. 
I wrote this little diddy in December 2016 as a "what if". I revisited it recently and it still holds...
A little alternative reality fun.
Gore wins election in 2000, 9/11 is thwarted months ahead of our reality but still results in increased security at airports and all transpo hubs after learning that jets were the primary weapon. Jeb Bush runs and wins in 2004, policies stifle economy just enough to prevent the grossly overextended markets of 2006/7 and ultimately prevents what in our reality was the Great Recession. JB is reelected in 2008 not because of what he did, but really because he was just so darn benign and because people just weren't ready for another Clinton in office. 2012 brings one of the least exciting elections, mostly because the candidates were bland, one on hand you have Mitt Romney and the other John Kerry, its like c-span vs neighborhood city council broadcasts. The good part, stuff gets done because compromise is the word of the day under a Romney presidency. Not a lot of economic growth, more tax cuts for the rich, some investment in science and tech, more funding for climate research and mitigation, investment in government digital infrastructure to protect the US from foreign hacking. 2016 actually brings a very exciting election. 2 term senator barack obama wins the democratic nomination over hillary clinton while the republicans, enthusiastic after 3 consecutive terms (romney decides to call it one term), nominate former vice president Colin Powell. The American people are vexed that the only two major party candidates they have are both black, educated and highly experienced. Creating the worst conundrum in politics ever experienced (in that reality). While hard core racists and neo liberals refuse to vote for either candidate, strengthening and legitimizing the third party vote, something else even better happens. Our first Black President gets elected along with their running mate, the first female Vice President. A decade later, a third party candidate wins which results in downticket shakeups. huge shakeup of campaign finance laws , corporations are not people, term limits for congress, completely eliminating lobbying firms, flat tax for everyone making 4xPoverty line or more, universal single payer healthcare, universal basic income for all making minimum wage unnecessary, increasing wages and decreasing cost of goods, amnesty for all dreamers and relatives, marijuana declassified as controlled substance leading to most states making recreational marijuana legal and taxable, drug offenses plummet reducing incarceration and recidivism by huge amounts also leading to massive changes in policing policy with regards to discrimination, leading to less arrests overall and less people of color being arrested and suing the state/city for damages. with incarceration rates so low and government expenditures for settlements at all time low, government has no choice but to go lean and reduce waste, becoming more of a shell of structure to direct tax dollars where needed (education, transportation, health, etc) than a slush fund for political donors. Gun fever ends abruptly, mostly because the government is now so lean there is no reason to create a state of fear, the media quickly follows suit. While gun ownership remains a well regarded right, it falls to the wayside as a hobby of sorts, much like bocce ball or pinochle. heavy investment in emissions reduction, alternative energy and alternative fuel vehicles. Smart autonomous cars operate exclusively in the city centers, manual driving only takes place outside city centers, reducing commutes by 75% and increasing productivity of urban workforce. Farming decentralizes into suburban neighborhoods, converting 1 out of every 10 single family plots into food gardens using recycled water. Pretty much as close to utopia as a society can get without the ever controlling government stomping out dissidents.
<B>Yes friends, this could have been our reality and still could be if we all come together and make it so.</B>
In this alternative reality we are missing a few things.
- Election of GWB whose administration was so fraught with deception and fraud and collusion we still to this day do not know the ramifications of the decisions and lies that occurred.
- Terror attack on US soil that in the short term claimed over 3k lives
- Lies to the US people about intelligence of WMDs in Iraq
- A war in iraq that ultimately leads to the capture and execution of its leader which destabilizes the region so much, fringe religious extremist groups gain power
- A war in Afghanistan, which also destabilizes the region, forces extreme groups to help each other and hide in caves and protects the leader which was the architect of the 9/11 terror attack from capture
- Thousands of militants, hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children, thousands of us soldiers dead.
- Fiscal policies, while bad on their own, were coupled with overspending and tax breaks that overburdened the economic system and led to the worst economic depression seen since the 1930s
- Choosing hope and change with no resources or tools to make it possible. The election of Obama was a turn for the better philosophically. In reality it was one of the worst things to happen to the US. It exposed the dark underbelly which most of us thought was gone decades ago. While it didn't turn people into something, it gave them permission to be who they truly are. Hate, bigotry, divisiveness, deception and non-cooperation were the highlights of the day and became mainstream. No longer were fringe attitudes held at bay by common decency. Decency was banished to the outhouse of history along with political correctness, love and being neighborly.
- syria
- emails and servers
- Election of reality show star and real estate developer donald trump.
- nuclear proliferation unseen since the 1950s and 60s
- lying lying and more lying
- distrust in institutions we have entrusted for the truth
- things I can fathom but shouldn't because I'm afraid it will become reality...
And now we find out that after he "retired" from the FBI, he went to work for the firm that helped Jared Kushner ditch his 666 Fifth Ave. property to the Qataris in a 99-year lease with over a billion dollars paid UP FRONT. I have said from the get-go that DoJ needs to start hammering Kushner a LOT harder.
I look forward tomthat but fear it will never happen. Kushner seems to be Totally Teflon.
Manafort's decade as a Putin tool in Ukraine for a decade prior to running the Orange Jesus campaign is too often overlooked, as is his massive debt to Deripaska who seems to have acted as his "handler" while he was theoretically employed by the Putin backed criminal regime in Ukraine.
Hmmmm Giuliani announce a "big surprise" just before the 2016 election and then coincidently there was the "Big October surprise" of Hunter's lap top just before the 2020 election. I wonder what "big surprise" we are getting in 2024? I'm hoping the scum doesn't get that far but I'm losing faith. And where is the punishment to Barr for blowing off the Mueller report? No Russian ties my ass
Unless I'm missing something here, with the arrest and indictments of McGonnigal, other than the obvious embarrassment of having been used as a mouthpiece for disinformation, there should be no breach of journalistic ethics for NYT to reveal whether this man was one of their sources in 2016. In fact, it should be their ethical obligation, not requiring the legal coercion of a subpoena. NYT can at least partially redeem itself by coming clean and making public its role in this bombshell of a story.
And for those re-stoking the bonfires to burn Comey, if anything, I think this new evidence tends to show that he - like the Times - were played by forces beyond their control. Maybe they should both be ashamed for being tools, but it seems unlikely they were anything but hapless players trying to do their jobs.
I think NYT should print a retraction until they can learn more. Their story they published, bombshell or not, cannot stand the test of history or journalistic integrity. they don't have to expose their sources but they themselves stated that their source was, law enforcement, FBI and/or intelligence officials, likely in NY. The branch of information is poisoned until they can confirm that is isn't.
Comey violated Dept policy to verify the leak of the re-opened Clinton emails investigation (the re-opening of which was itself a violation of Dept policy so close to the election). He then participated in the cover-up and false denials of the much more serious investigation into Trump-Russia ties, and then trolled the public by claiming he had been bound to silence by Dept policy - the very Dept policy he'd so blatantly violated with respect to Clinton. He was not a hapless player; he was a blatant partisan.
Nah. Comey is just a tool. Calling him hapless is too kind. No matter how he protested his innocence, he was delighted to be a part of taking Hillary down.
Read his book. (From the library, of course.) To me he comes off as credible and sincere in his explanation of why he called for an investigation. I think he made a difficult but wrong decision - and, as we now can see, based on vigorous disinformation and threats of leaks. He certainly had no love or loyalty for *trump, then or ever, nor do I think he had any reason to dump on Hillary.
Yup
Jay - I really appreciated your 'delving into ' this extremely troubling & complex issue. I feel a bit more sympathy for Comey now; but I felt truly sorry to see how much it upset Frank Figluizzi (sp ?) when he was a guest 'commentator' on MSNBC yesterday - he'd both known & worked with McGonigal for many years, & was visibly stunned to discover that he was lining his own pockets while helping the very same Russians he was supposed to be investigating ! One other point that came up yesterday was this : the real possibility that McGonigal was (potentially) already beholden to the Russians before he got the task of investigating them ... "Food for Thought" ....
Rachel Maddow featured this story last night. Hillary Clinton knew Trump was a puppet of Putin, and so was Manafort and, we now learn, high-level FBI agent McGonigal. I shake my head at what could have been...
We all knew he was a puppet of Putin. Him putting it on display while he was POTUS was disgusting
Yeah, I mean, as long as we're speculating, well, we may as well prepare for the worst case scenario as these many years have pretty much blown the roof off of propriety, decency and integrity; the mistake we have apparently been making on repeat is assuming that our leadership is honorable and sincerely patriotic, when it seems a large swathe of those in positions of power may be willfully corrupt or susceptible bat a minimum.
You are so right Mia! And just this morning I listened (very briefly) to an interview by Gale King of Mike Pompeo in connection with his newly-released book. Gale asked him about his possible run for president in 2024 (vomit!), and I had to turn it off as soon as he began with some BS like -"when he and Trump served all American people, blah, blah .....". It is just mind-boggling how these corrupt grifters are not only NOT in jail, but worse considering to run for the highest office of the US.
Hilary should demand an immediate redo of the 2016 election! 😉
It was rigged! She really won! Why haven't we been screaming this for 6+ years?
A brilliant piece of analysis.
The stench runs deep.
The FBI is corrupt.
The Supreme Court is corrupt.
The Republican party is corrupt.
The main stream media is corrupt.
Who do we get the truth from?
Comey again! If there ever was any doubt that he handed the election to DJT on a silver platter, this further evidence should dispel that doubt.
There is so much collusion with Russia by the GOP and Trump it's hilarious that Trump actually sued Clinton for "weaving a false narrative" about it. So glad that he and his attorneys were ordered to pay nearly $1 million for his "completely frivolous" lawsuit against Clinton.
I'm thinking the NYT needs to retract that article pending further review. mea culpa the s@#$ out of that story until the truth is learned. But that story can no longer stand when the source(s) are now in question, regardless of if that source is this FBI agent. He could have poisoned the well
I find the “defense” offered by Comey that he HAD to tell Congress he was reopening the email case against Hilary Clinton to be disingenuous. A case of the tail wagging the dog. Comey had no control over NY and apparently the FBI. And then there’s the fact that he himself appointed McGonigal. Whose idea was that and how many other FBI agents are loyal only to Russia and the Republicans? As per Comey’s statement— his wife and daughters were right to not talk to him after his statement regarding Clinton. Comey tried to get sympathy about that and it fell flat to my ears. Poor Mr. Comey, he had “no choice”.