News Burst: June 23, 2017 (Patreon)

Hello!

I hope this News Burst finds you all very well.

You may remember that, some days ago, I reached out to ask for input into how I might improve Patreon, keep people engaged, and draw in some new folks. There was one common and popular suggestion, in particular, that I am going to be adding to CLS’ Patreon on July 1st. I’ll keep it a secret until then, but I wanted to take a moment to nonetheless thank you all for your input, which I scoured over and took into consideration. It’s greatly appreciated.

Otherwise, there’s little else to report. I hope you all have a fantastic weekend, and I’ll see you on Monday for an all-new video. (Unless something drastic happens over the next 48 hours or so, it will be a history-driven video, which I know some of you have been hungry for over the last couple of weeks.)

Russia’s Election Assault: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/world/national-security/obama-putin-election-hacking/?utm_term=.62fda848db61

My Take: Just to put it out there, this is probably the most substantial piece of real journalism I’ve seen the mainstream media release in months. It’s a fantastic, informative, and riveting read, and I suggest you all give it a thorough go on your own. It’s extremely long, but well-sourced and insightful. This entire Washington Post piece revolves around Russia’s attempted interference in the 2016 election, and particularly how Obama’s White House, Congress, and the various American intelligence agencies -- both independently and in tandem -- chose to respond.

The general gist of the story is this: American intelligence officials began to receive concrete proof of Russia’s overwhelmingly forceful attempts to somehow trifle with the 2016 presidential election in the summer of 2016, and almost immediately, everyone was thrown into a sort of chaos that didn’t dissipate until after the election was over, and after it was too late to stymie Russia’s attempts in the moment. The entire ordeal was shrouded in significant secrecy that obscured information and developments from everyone apart from who absolutely, positively needed to know.

The overall takeaway is that the White House, Congress, and intelligence agencies responded far too tepidly. Not surprisingly, a lot of that had to do with the overwhelming feeling that Clinton was going to win the White House, and therefore Russia’s meddling wouldn’t have worked anyway. There were a ton of options to work through and a lot of directions our response(s) could have gone in, but Obama and company acted weakly. There’s way, way, way too much in the story to parse through here. You really ought to just read it.

(Related Story | Trump Struggles to Stay Calm on Russia: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-is-struggling-to-stay-calm-on-russia-one-morning-call-at-a-time/2017/06/22/1da3385a-5762-11e7-b38e-35fd8e0c288f_story.html)

(Related Story | Frustrated Dems Think Obama Botched Response: http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/339236-frustrated-dems-say-obama-botched-russia-response)

Senate Healthcare Bill Already in Danger: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-23/senate-holdouts-seek-upper-hand-in-perilous-health-bill-talks

My Take: When the House healthcare bill passed and everyone freaked out, I told them that they were worrying about nothing. Now that the seemingly more moderate Senate bill has come out, I still think people may be worrying about nothing. What’s interesting about the resistance to this bill, however, is that both moderates and conservatives hate it for totally different reasons. The former think that it hurts too many people; the latter think it doesn’t go far enough to destroy Obamacare. That’s a seemingly unwinnable position for Senate Republicans to be in, even if they only need 50+1 votes to get it through.

So far, five Republican Senators have publicly come out against the Senate’s bill. With zero support likely from any Democratic members, it’s safe to assume that the bill, as-is, is DOA. Senator Dean Heller, as this story indicates, is the latest Republican to voice is displeasure, going as far as to say that “it’s going to be very difficult to get me to yes.” He’s up for reelection in 2018, which certainly plays into it, but there’s more here than just politics. This bill just doesn’t do the trick for lots of people, politics aside.

Interestingly, the Bloomberg article makes note that Mitch McConnell, who is no fool, may have intentionally released a weaker bill publicly so that Senators who are on the fence or outright against the bill can then come in and save the day, as it were, by offering amendments that make them look like they’re actually legislating and doing something. Perhaps the amended bill (heavily amended or otherwise) will be more palatable; still, even with only 50 votes needed (#51 can come from Vice President Pence), I can’t see this thing getting through. We’ll see.

(Related Story | Can People Get Insurance For $1 A Day? | http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/339123-rand-paul-insurance-should-be-available-for-1-a-day)

(Related Story | Will the Senate GOP Healthcare Bill Sink? | https://www.apnews.com/e8d9e106fc19441a890222fb4739f96b/Five-GOP-senators-now-oppose-health-bill-_-enough-to-sink-it)

Loretta Lynch Draws Congress’ Ire: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jun/23/senate-announced-probe-loretta-lynch-behavior-2016/

My Take: The Senate Judiciary Committee is officially taking a look at Loretta Lynch, and frankly, it’s about damn time. For those unaware, Loretta Lynch was Obama’s second Attorney General, and she waded into a gigantic pile of shit in 2016 when she had a completely ridiculous, private, and lengthy conversation with Bill Clinton on an airport tarmac. Days later, Hillary Clinton was absolved of any crimes. That was shady enough as it is, but it got even worse than that.

When did it get worse? Mere weeks ago, when James Comey told the Senate that, in essence, he didn’t like the way Loretta Lynch spoke to him about the Clinton investigation, that she explicitly asked him to use certain wording in describing it, and that he held reservations that she could render any impartial decisions, what with her relationship with the Clintons, her words to Comey, and her actions overall. This all slipped through the cracks, and seems to have gone away until Comey spoke up.

While this is unlikely to go anywhere, I think it’s appropriate for the Senate to use its powers to get to the bottom of what, if anything, happened here, and the level of appropriateness toward whatever happened. The credibility of the Justice Department is paramount in American politics; that’s why the approach with Lynch is bipartisan in nature, with both Chuck Grassley and Dianne Feinstein signing letters associated with this new, separate investigation.

(Related Story | Senate Judiciary Committee Chases Lynch: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/23/loretta-lynch-hillary-clinton-probe-senate-judiciary-239905)