Thursday Open Thread | Loretta Lynch defends private Clinton meeting

Posted on June 30, 2016 by SouthernGirl2

Attorney General Loretta Lynch is on the defensive after admitting meeting privately with former president Bill Clinton earlier this week, despite the ongoing criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private server. Lynch claims that there was nothing wrong with the meeting aboard her plane.

CBS News reporter Paula Reid called Bill Clinton meeting privately with Loretta Lynch “shocking, absolutely shocking.”

About SouthernGirl2

A Native Texan who adores baby kittens, loves horses, rodeos, pomegranates, & collect Eagles. Enjoys politics, games shows, & dancing to all types of music. Loves discussing and learning about different cultures. A Phi Theta Kappa lifetime member with a passion for Social & Civil Justice.
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87 Responses to Thursday Open Thread | Loretta Lynch defends private Clinton meeting

  1. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    June 30, 2016 at 9:10 pm

    https://youtu.be/QGFh3UNvuCQ&rel=0

    What seems to be sci-fi movie, the researchers at NOAA Expedition who were on-board the Okeanos Explorer were filming the bed of the ocean near Mariana Trench by making use of an ROV a few days back. They spotted a totally unusual creature suddenly and were shocked when this creature came in the frame. It had a few wiry tentacles and had a cluster of 8 bright and reflective orbs inside its body.

    It was a jellyfish they had never seen before! When you look at the image suddenly, it might appear to be photoshopped as the details look intricate. However, this tiny and exotic animal is for real and has been living roughly 3,700 meters below the ocean surface. Take a closer look at this jellyfish and you will truly be amazed with what you see.

    (excerpt from http://themindcircle.com/bioluminescent-jellyfish/?utm_content=buffer49203&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

    Reply
  3. rikyrah says:
    June 30, 2016 at 8:53 pm

    From p.m. carpenter:

    Where are those much-pooh-poohed “trigger warnings” when one actually needs them?

    It was cruel, unnerving, even borderline sadistic of MSNBC yesterday to abruptly switch from live coverage of President Obama at the North American trade summit to deadhead coverage of Donald Trump, grifting in Maine. My sensibilities are less than delicate, nevertheless I experienced a deeply disturbing kind of characterological-culture shock from which I am still recovering.

    One minute I’m admiring the eloquent thoughtfulness of presidential sophistication squared; seconds later — with no more than a brutally curt, “We’re now cutting to …” — I’m watching a second-rate swindler bamboozle a bunch of first-rate imbeciles. My equipoise of admiration and respect was thrown into asymmetrical disorder. It was like switching the channel from the Metropolitan Opera to “Hee-Haw,” or from a Bogart movie to Pee-Wee Herman. (Nothing personal, Pee-Wee; besides, compared to The Donald’s exhibitionism, your honor is intact).

    Reply
  4. SouthernGirl2 says:
    June 30, 2016 at 8:51 pm

    Donald Trump #Amerikkka. Muslims have a right to defend themselves. Don’t forget it. You do not have to put up with anyone’s ISH!

    https://twitter.com/iramfali/status/748690576493703169

    Reply
  14. rikyrah says:
    June 30, 2016 at 7:33 pm

    Which is the entire point of all the public sector firings from the GOP Governors.

    …………………….

    TWIN THREATS: HOW DISAPPEARING PUBLIC PENSIONS HURT BLACK WORKERS
    June 30, 2016
    Robert Hiltonsmith

    Public sector jobs, with the pensions they provide, have been one of the most important ways for black families to enter the middle class since the 1960s, when civil rights legislation and the expansion of the federal government opened the door for African American workers to enter public service. In particular, the establishment of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was responsible for enforcing workforce anti-discrimination provisions in the Act, and President Johnson’s 1965 Executive Order 11246, which prohibited government contractors from discriminating on the basis of race and other categories, created opportunities for black workers to enter civil service en masse.

    Between 1961 and 1965, black workers were hired for 28 percent of new positions in the federal government despite comprising just 10 percent of the U.S. population.The importance of public sector employment for African American workers has continued to the present day, with 21.2 percent of all black women and 15.4 percent of all black men working in the public sector, compared to 17.5 percent and 11.8 percent of white women and men, respectively.

    Despite decades of efforts to reduce employment discrimination in the private sector, public employment remains important to African American workers as a source of income security, helping to close the wage gap between white and black workers. In 2014, black private sector workers earned just 78 percent, on average, of the wages of their white counterparts. In the public sector, however, this gap was significantly smaller: black public sector workers earned 90 percent of the wages of white public sector workers. Even when broken down by education level, the earnings gap between black and white workers was smaller in the public sector for workers of all levels.

    As important as public employment is to the black middle class, the pensions provided by public employment are perhaps even more crucial to the retirement security of black workers. This brief uses data from the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement5 to examine the importance of public pensions to black retirement security, and why the twin threats to public pensions—cuts to state pension benefits and the decline in public employment over the past two decades—particularly threaten the retirement security of African American workers. We find that public pensions are vital to ensuring a decent standard of living for black retirees: the poverty rate among black retirees without public pensions is nearly 20 percent higher than the poverty rate among black retirees with public pensions—almost double the difference in poverty rates between all retirees with and without public pensions. These figures show that if the twin threats to public pensions continue, African American retirees may lose much of the retirement security they’ve gained over the past half-century.

    Reply
  26. rikyrah says:
    June 30, 2016 at 6:25 pm

    lamh
    Ugh…I want to say I wish a mofo would…but with cameras around, I may just have to wait until the cameras are off. But shiid if no cameras…this bish ass would be grass!

    She found the right one. This ain’t no Jim Crow days, Black folk today will lay hands on a mofo…

    White Woman Attacks News Crew, Calls Reporter ‘Ni**er’ [VIDEO] http://bet.us/296c409

    Reply
  27. rikyrah says:
    June 30, 2016 at 6:24 pm

    skepticalbrotha now11 seconds ago
    Stacey Dash Calls Jesse Williams a ‘Hollywood Plantation Slave’ http://www.theroot.com/blog/th… … via @TheRoot

    Reply
  29. Ametia says:
    June 30, 2016 at 3:17 pm

    Here we go, folks

    Remaining Freddie Gray Cops File Motions to Dismiss Their Cases
    The officers allege that the prosecution encouraged false testimony and violated their right to due process.

    Two Baltimore police officers—Caesar Goodson, Jr. and Edward Nero—have been acquitted in the death of Freddie Gray. Now, the four remaining officers who are slated to have their days in court later this year have filed motions that they hope will keep them out of the courtroom entirely.

    The Baltimore Sun reports that attorneys for Officer Garrett Miller, Officer William Porter, Lt. Brian Rice and Sgt. Alicia White argued this week that “defects” in the prosecution led to violations of their right to due process and that their cases should be dismissed.

    From The Baltimore Sun:

    The defects, the officers’ attorneys argued, relate to two recent disclosures—one by a Baltimore sheriff’s major, who said he agreed with prosecutors to sign off on the officers’ charges without personal knowledge of their basis, and another by a police detective, who said prosecutors

    http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/freddie-gray/bs-md-ci-rice-filings-20160628-story.html

    http://www.colorlines.com/articles/remaining-freddie-gray-cops-file-motions-dismiss-their-cases?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+racewireblog+%28Colorlines.com%29

    Reply
    • Liza says:
      June 30, 2016 at 4:20 pm

      I was expecting this. I didn’t know what they would come up with for justification, but I figured they would think of something. The trials don’t matter at this point from the perspective of justice for Freddie Gray’s murder. There will be no justice for Freddie Gray. Judge Barry Williams is going to acquit the rest of these people, we know that. All the trial does is force them to go through the process which is not totally without merit because it means that the state does not agree they are “not guilty.” And we have to have as many of these trials as possible until that big ship in the ocean starts to turn and some of these perpetrators get convicted. It’s a slog, but giving up is not an option.

      The Department of Justice should be doing this work, but they are not. And if AG Lynch is asked to “stay on”, don’t look to the Feds for help, but keep the pressure on. Someday that ship will sail.

      Reply
  31. SouthernGirl2 says:
    June 30, 2016 at 2:28 pm

    LIZA!

    Potus remarks about the race. He mentioned Donald Trump by name and “the Democratic nominee”. Not Hillary as the nominee. So what’s up? I’ll have to listen to his speech.

    AG Loretta Lynch, Bill Clinton Meet Privately Amid Hillary Email Scandal

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldsRTiPsz-Q&feature=youtu.be

    Reply
    • Ametia says:
      June 30, 2016 at 2:58 pm

      PM Trudeau is crushin’ hard on PBO. LOL

      Reply
    • Liza says:
      June 30, 2016 at 4:28 pm

      I think that PBO not calling the “Democratic nominee” by name is just PBO being careful what he says. Bernie has not officially backed out and gotten in line for Hillary’s coronation, and PBO would most definitely want to avoid an MSM frenzy about his “endorsing” Hillary. I just don’t see anything in this, as much as I might wish there were.

      Reply
  32. SouthernGirl2 says:
    June 30, 2016 at 2:19 pm

    I read so much and had to stop. I can’t read it anymore. It’s too much. Heal my heart & mind, Lord.

    https://twitter.com/ShaunKing/status/748594175864676352

    Reply
  33. rikyrah says:
    June 30, 2016 at 1:43 pm

    Donald Trump’s fundraising takes an even more controversial turn
    06/30/16 10:07 AM
    By Steve Benen

    When Donald Trump’s Republican presidential campaign reported paltry fundraising totals last week, much of the political world was taken aback, and his woeful finances became a controversy unto themselves.

    But when it comes to the GOP candidate and fundraising, we’re just getting started.

    This week, for example, Team Trump thought it’d be a good idea to send out an appeal to donors telling would-be contributors they had a chance to “indict Hillary Clinton” on unidentified charges.

    Making matters worse, the Trump campaign has reportedly sent fundraising solicitations to elected officials in foreign countries. The Washington Post reported:
    [A] wave of fundraising pleas [were] inexplicably sent by the Trump campaign in recent days to lawmakers in the United Kingdom, Iceland, Australia and elsewhere. The solicitations prompted watchdog groups in Washington to file two separate complaints Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission alleging that the Trump campaign was violating federal law by soliciting funds from foreign nationals.

    “The scale and scope of this does seem somewhat unprecedented,” said Brendan Fischer, associate counsel for the Campaign Legal Center, which joined Democracy 21 in one of the complaints.
    Worse still, some of the Trump campaign’s specific fundraising boasts appear to be literally unbelievable, and Hillary Clinton’s campaign argued that the Republican’s claims are very likely “total bunk.”

    All of which brings us to the new controversy surrounding Trump’s loans.

    Reply
  34. rikyrah says:
    June 30, 2016 at 1:39 pm

    Brexit backers took ‘an American-style media approach’
    06/30/16 12:50 PM
    By Steve Benen

    As the dust settled on the United Kingdom’s “Brexit” vote, it wasn’t long before observers started noticing that the Leave campaign succeeded thanks to some pretty brazen falsehoods. For example, Leave proponents repeatedly told voters that the country would save 350 million pounds a week by parting ways with the European Union – money that could be used to bolster the National Health Service.

    As it turns out, none of that was true, a detail U.K. Independence Party leader Nigel Farage struggled to defend in a now-infamous interview the day after the vote.

    It was therefore of great interest yesterday when The Guardian published this report on insurance multi-millionaire Arron Banks, described as the “Brexit campaign’s biggest financial donor,” who shared some insights on his political tactics.

    Banks has been credited with professionalising Ukip’s referendum push through the Leave.EU campaign. He deployed senior executives and staff from his insurance companies and hired the Washington DC political campaign strategy firm Goddard Gunster on a multimillion-pound fee to sharpen its message.

    “It was taking an American-style media approach,” said Banks. “What they said early on was ‘facts don’t work’ and that’s it. The remain campaign featured fact, fact, fact, fact, fact. It just doesn’t work. You have got to connect with people emotionally. It’s the Trump success.”

    Reply
  35. rikyrah says:
    June 30, 2016 at 1:36 pm

    Add Native Americans to Team Trump’s list
    06/30/16 08:00 AM—UPDATED 06/30/16 08:01 AM
    By Steve Benen

    It can be challenging to keep track of every American constituency Donald Trump and his campaign have offended with insulting language. At various points, the Republican presidential candidate and his operation have alienated women, Latinos, African Americans, Muslims, veterans, and people with disabilities, among others.

    But in case it wasn’t obvious before, Native Americans certainly belong on the same list.

    But while Trump was hammering trade and his should-be allies-turned-adversaries, it was his opening act that picked up the mantle of attack against Democrats, specifically Elizabeth Warren. Taking a cue from Trump’s nickname of “Pocahontas” for Sen. Warren, conservative New England radio host Howie Carr took the moniker once step further during the pre-rally show.

    “You know Elizabeth Warren, right?” Carr said, tapping his hand over his mouth in a mock tribal chant. The crowd loved it, some joining in with chants of their own.

    Slate’s Josh Voorhees raised an important point about all of this: “In the big bucket of Trump-sanctioned racism, a mock war cry from a guy who introduced the guy who introduced the candidate is but a drop. Still, if this were anyone but Trump we were talking about, he or she would be pressured to condemn the remarks. Trump, though, has dulled everyone’s senses with a year’s worth of controversy, so this barely registers.”

    Reply
  38. rikyrah says:
    June 30, 2016 at 12:13 pm

    Why Kneecapping Trump Won’t Work
    by BooMan
    Thu Jun 30th, 2016 at 08:47:14 AM EST

    The American Research Group (ARG) gets a C+ grade in Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight pollster ratings. They are punished modestly for having a slight Republican bias, and punished heavily for only calling the correct winner in 75% of the 260 polls that Silver analyzed. In other words, they’re less partisan hacks than just crappy pollsters. They do not appear to be good at their jobs.

    This could explain why they are the only polling outfit that sees Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire with a lead in her reelection bid against Democrat Maggie Hassan. ARG gives Ayotte a comfortable nine-point lead, outside the margin of error, while three other recent polls have shown the race essentially tied (Public Policy Polling: Hassan +2, WBUR/MassInc: Hassan +1, Boston Herald/FPU: Ayotte +1).

    In any case, Ayotte’s reelection prospects are a thin reed to rely on if you want to rationalize Mitch McConnell’s kneecapping of Donald Trump as an essentially rational decision to cut bait on the Oval Office and focus on preserving his Senate majority. Here’s Allahpundit of the right-wing blog, HotAir:

    Let’s recap McConnell’s choicer soundbites about Trump over the past two months. On May 4th, the day after Trump won Indiana and Cruz and Kasich dropped out, McConnell endorsed him, albeit tepidly. A month later, after watching Trump spend several weeks talking about the “Mexican” judge in his civil suit instead of Hillary Clinton, McConnell urged him at a press conference to get on message. Three days after that, he tore Trump apart in an interview with Bloomberg, admitting “it’s pretty obvious he doesn’t know a lot about the issues” and hinting that he might yet rescind his endorsement. After that, he stopped taking questions about Trump at his weekly press briefings altogether. Then, two days ago, he was asked on “This Week” whether Trump is qualified to be president. He dodged, saying that’s for voters to decide. And so we arrive at today, with McConnell responding to a question about whether he thinks Trump is a “credible” candidate for the presidency with this withering backhanded reply: “He’s getting closer.”

    Question: Does Mitch McConnell want Trump to win? Before you answer, note that when he was asked about Hillary Clinton in this same interview, he described her as “intelligent and capable.” If I told you that Mitch the Knife had described one candidate in a certain race as capable and the other as not quite credible (yet), which one would you assume he’s supporting?

    The obvious explanation for his hedging on Trump is that he’s trying to protect his caucus. He had to endorse him for the same reason Paul Ryan did, because it’s unthinkable for a Republican congressional leader to hold out for long on a Republican nominee, but I’m sure McConnell cares more about retaining a Senate majority than he does about Trump winning the White House. If Trump falls far behind Clinton later this summer, McConnell and other top Republicans will shift quickly to a “Save the Senate!” message encouraging ticket-splitting. He’s laying the groundwork for that now: If you’re an independent who’s disgusted with Trump, well, just know that your friendly neighborhood Republican majority leader shares your disgust and strongly believes you shouldn’t punish Republican incumbents for Trump’s sins. So far, it’s working!

    Reply
  41. rikyrah says:
    June 30, 2016 at 11:20 am

    Malia Obama will be interning at the United States Embassy in Spain.
    Congratulations for the First Daughter.

    Reply
  46. Liza says:
    June 30, 2016 at 9:52 am

    This is nice…

    This is an excerpt from my Book #BlackSeeds titled "For Black Girls who Fight" pic.twitter.com/k8M7a38Glc— TariqTouré طارق تورى (@TariqToure) June 30, 2016

    //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    Reply
  49. SouthernGirl2 says:
    June 30, 2016 at 9:26 am

    The media is scaring people. Stop it, got dammit!

    https://twitter.com/CNBCnow/status/748521485371842560

    Reply
  52. Liza says:
    June 30, 2016 at 9:15 am

    Good Lord, AG Lynch, is that the best you can do? Why, you would think that Bubba and her were buddies from way back and they were just catching up.

    Reply
    • Liza says:
      June 30, 2016 at 9:36 am

      Of course, Bubba did nominate her for that U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York gig back in 1999. I wonder if he mentioned that while they were shooting the breeze about those grand children and golf etc…

      I’m glad the they got caught. Anyone think she will be asked to “stay on” as AG so that the “investigation” can sort of fade away?

      Reply
  57. rikyrah says:
    June 30, 2016 at 8:48 am

    NBC NEWS:

    Trump said he forgave loans to campaign, but won’t release proof.

    ………………

    I and others have said it. NO WAY he forgave those loans. and, the GOP Donor Class knows it, because THEY KNOW HIM. And, they will NOT be opening their checkbooks to this con man. They are not the rubes that show up at his rallies.

    Reply
  58. rikyrah says:
    June 30, 2016 at 6:50 am

    You not only have to avoid impropriety, but the APPEARANCE of impropriety.

    Reply
  59. rikyrah says:
    June 30, 2016 at 6:49 am

    Good Morning 😊, Everyone 😆

    Reply
  67. SouthernGirl2 says:
    June 30, 2016 at 1:35 am

    A private meeting to talk about golf and Bill Clinton’s grandchildren? We are not fools Loretta Lynch.

    Reply
    • Ametia says:
      June 30, 2016 at 10:27 am

      wow, just WOW! AG Lynch is not going to have one iota say in the outcome of these FBI investigation. Nicely planned, AG Lynch & Clintons!

      Reply
  68. SouthernGirl2 says:
    June 30, 2016 at 1:31 am

    Bill Clinton showing up at polling stations, meeting privately with Loretta Lynch while his wife is under FBI investigation. #SlickWillie bum!

    Reply
  69. SouthernGirl2 says:
    June 30, 2016 at 1:31 am

    Good morning, everyone

    Reply

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