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NY Daily News On Comey Flub: Now He Tells Us

The New York Daily News is just about as outraged as the rest of America over FBI Director James Comey’s late in the game intrusion into the election followed by an “oopsie.”

After nearly upending an already-raucous presidential election with an eleventh-hour reexamination of Clinton’s emails, Comey sent a letter to congressional lawmakers that left heads spinning once again.

“Based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July with respect to Secretary Clinton,” Comey wrote, referencing his recommendation to not press charges for Clinton’s use of a private email server. “I am very grateful to the professionals at the FBI for doing an extraordinary amount of high-quality work in a short period of time.”

Comey’s letter came nine days after a controversial note to Congress revealed the FBI was at it again, probing Clinton emails after discovering new messages tied to the latest sexting scandal involving disgraced former Rep. Anthony Weiner — the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

Comey’s last-minute meddling generated immediate calls for his ouster amid charges that he could have affected the outcome of a close presidential election. Indeed, polls showed Clinton losing support — some surveys showed her falling more than 8 percentage points — over the issue in the crucial final days before Election Day. Millions of people in early-voting states have already made up their minds and cast ballots, with the first Comey letter being their last impression before making their decisions.

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CBS News Poll: Hillary Clinton Leads Donald Trump 45% – 41%

CBS News releases it’s last poll of the presidential cycle today, and it shows Democrat Hillary Clinton leading Republican Donald Trump by 4 points, 45% – 41% respectively.

From CBS News:

Trump leads among white men, whites without a college degree, and seniors. Clinton leads among women, African-Americans and younger voters, and she has an edge among whites with a college degree.

Clinton voters are more likely to strongly favor their candidate than Trump voters, while Trump voters are slightly more likely than Clinton voters to cast their vote because they dislike the other candidates.

Hillary Clinton has now closed the enthusiasm gap – her voters are now slightly more likely to say they are very enthusiastic about voting than Donald Trump’s voters. This is a shift from last week, when Trump voters had the edge on enthusiasm.

According to the survey, few voters say they could change their minds at this point.

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John Oliver: Ok, I Admit It, Trump Is My Fault

John Oliver, of HBO’s Last Week Tonight, finally copped to the fact that it is HE who is to blame for a Donald Trump White House run.

Deadline recaps:

“It is frankly hard to believe there ever was a time when people thought a Trump candidacy would be funny, but there was such a time,” Oliver said, in his own defense. “As you may remember, three years ago I guest-hosted The Daily Show. “And, there is something you should see,” he said, cueing up his video confessional.

In The Daily Show video Oliver responds to an MSNBC report the reality TV star will consider a White House run in ’16, taunting Trump, “Do it! Do it! Look at me! Do it!” as his Comedy Central show audience erupts in gales of laughter. “I will personally write you a campaign check now, on behalf of this country, which does not want you to be president but which badly wants you to run,” Oliver added.

(h/t JoeMyGod)

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FBI Director: We Searched New Emails, Nothing There, Nevermind

Ten days ago, FBI Director James Comey shocked the nation when he broke standard operating protocol and shared information about newly discovered emails that “might” be pertinent to the Clinton email investigation.

Today, Comey pulled an “Emily Litella” by issuing a new letter which basically says, “Nevermind.” Nothing new was found, therefore the decision made in July to not charge Clinton is unchanged.

From CNN:

“Based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July,” Comey wrote in the new letter to congressional committee chairmen.

Comey dropped a bombshell on the presidential race last month when he sent a letter to Congress saying the FBI had discovered emails in a separate investigation that could be connected to the now-closed probe of whether Clinton mishandled classified information. The move infuriated Democrats and emboldened Republican nominee Donald Trump.

It’s impossible to know before results are tallied what impact Comey’s actions — first raising a vaguely worded red flag 11 days out, and then lowering it two days from the election — will have on the contest. But the news could help Clinton put to rest a controversy that has dogged her in the 2016 race’s closing days, helping Trump narrow a polling gap nationally and in key battleground states.

Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, blasted Comey’s handling of the review.

“Today’s letter makes Director Comey’s actions nine days ago even more troubling,” Feinstein said in a statement. “There’s no doubt that it created a false impression about the nature of the agency’s inquiry.”
She added: “The Justice Department needs to take a look at its procedures to prevent similar actions that could influence future elections.”

You’ll recall that Donald Trump addressed the news ten days ago saying it was “worse than Watergate” when he knew NOTHING about what was on the laptop computer where the emails were found.

Trump’s followers keep asking how “650,000” emails could have been reviewed by Comey. But as it has been repeatedly reported – 650K was the total number of emails found on the laptop. The vast majority were personal/private to Anthony Weiner and estranged wife Huma Abedin. Only a few thousand seemed pertinent to Clinton.

Plus, there is a vast legion of investigators at the FBI. A few thousand emails searched by hundreds of FBI agents could easily be vetted.

The rest of the Twitterverse was equally appalled:

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Out Music: Tyler Glenn “Midnight”

Tyler Glenn, frontman for multi-platinum band Neon Trees, premiered the music video for the new track, “Midnight” this week.

GOD
I COULD NEVER BE LIKE YOU
I CANT CHANGE
I CANT CHANGE
AND I DONT WANT TO
IVE BEEN ON THE RUN
SO IM NOT COMING SUNDAY ITS ALRIGHT
I’LL PROBABLY TALK TO YOU AT MIDNIGHT

Raised as a Mormon, Glenn came out as gay in a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone and remained steadfast in his faith until last fall, when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) announced a new policy identifying those in a same-sex marriage as apostates and prohibiting their children from being blessed or baptized. The announcement threw Glenn into a tailspin. A tailspin which wrought his new album, Excommunication.

The critics rave:

Billboard: “I don’t think there’s ever been an album like this.”

Rage: “It’s like listening to the seven stages of the grieving process: Shock/disbelief, denial, bargaining, guilt, anger, depression and acceptance/hope. It’s all there, inviting us to take what we need from it and move forward, just as he did.”

The Salt Lake City Tribune: “Glenn doesn’t just want to throw spiritual struggles in your face — he wants you to dance, too, and the soul-baring lyrics are matched with plenty of stomping ’80s-retro synths and beats that Neon Trees fans will find familiar. Ultimately, the dance floor is the church Glenn thinks everyone should belong to.”

Excommunication is available now on all digital download outlets.

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News Round-Up: November 6, 2016

Some news stories you may have missed:

• A visual diversion thanks to Henry Licett. #grrr

• Florida Latinos are showing up bigly at the early voting polls. Guess who has a 30 point lead with them?

• Madonna announces “a surprise intimate very small acoustic concert Monday night in support of Hillary.”

• The National Enquirer paid $150K for the story of a 2007 Donald Trump/Playboy Playmate affair so they could keep the story underwraps.

• The AP confirms that Melania Trump worked as an illegal immigrant in the U.S. #DefinitionOfIrony

• Anthony Rizzo, Dexter Fowler and David Ross of the Chicago Cubs bounced and twerked as male strippers on Saturday Night Live last night. Who says I don’t love my readers?

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NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll: Clinton Leads Trump 44% – 40%

NBC News reports that Democrat Hillary Clinton heads into the final 48 hours of the presidential campaign with a four point lead over Republican Donald Trump.

Clinton garners 44% of the vote, while Trump trails at 40%. Libertarian Gary Johnson received 6% support and Green Party’s Jill Stein sits at 2%.

While I’d certainly rather an eight or ten point lead,  Hillary is better off four points ahead than four points behind.

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SNL Cold Open: The Final Clinton/Trump Presidential Debate

Saturday Night Live gave us one final chance to see “Hillary Clinton” and “Donald Trump” face off in a presidential debate last night.

From the Huffington Post:

“Saturday Night Live” poked fun at Donald Trump’s relationships with the FBI, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the KKK in its final pre-election show. Alec Baldwin as the GOP nominee and Kate McKinnon as Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton appeared on the spoof “OutFront” show.

But instead of asking Baldwin as Trump about his scandals, show anchor Erin Burnett (played by Cecily Strong) just kept questioning McKinnon as Clinton about her emails. It didn’t even matter whether Baldwin as Trump planted kisses on the lips of an FBI agent, a Klansman or a fake Putin.

“Erin, you saw that, right? He kissed an FBI guy?” McKinnon’s character asked Strong at one point. “It doesn’t seem like enough of a story, let’s get back to your emails,” Strong as Burnett replied.

Baldwin and McKinnon later broke character by saying they felt “gross” about the election, before running out into the streets of New York City to hug passersby. “None of this will have mattered if you don’t vote,” Baldwin, as himself, said after they returned to the studio.

“We can’t tell you who to vote for, but on Tuesday, we all get a chance to choose what kind of country we want to live in,” McKinnon added.

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Mini-Documentary, “The Story Of Us,” Chronicles The Hillary Clinton Campaign Journey

Titled “The Story Of Us,” the Hillary for America campaign released this mini-documentary chronicling the journey of Hillary’s race for the White House from April 12, 2015, to today.

Via press release:

The film shares behind-the-scenes footage chronicling the major moments of this campaign – from the building blocks of Iowa, through the historic Democratic nomination and right up to today.

Hillary for America will begin sharing the documentary this afternoon to the 20 million people reached via social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

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New Music: The Hamilton Mixtape

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s long-awaited Hamilton Mixtape album is available for pre-order.

The album features hit songs from the show performed by popular artists, including “It’s Quiet Uptown” by Kelly Clarkson, “Satisfied” by Sia,  and “My Shot” by Busta Rhymes and The Roots.

Click image to enlarge

The mixtape will be released December 2.

From USA Today:

First we have Clarkson doing a rendition of It’s Quiet Uptown. The song is from the musical’s second act, and is sung in the show after (spoiler alert for American history) Alexander’s son is killed in a duel. The mournful ballad fits perfectly with Clarkson’s soft pop style. You might expect to hear her cover right after Because of You on an album.

In a completely different preview track we have My Shot [Rise Up Remix] by The Roots featuring Busta Rhymes, Joell Ortiz and Nate Rues. In the show, Hamilton sings this song early in Act I, and it’s the song that establishes the character as the hero of the piece. Miranda has said the song took him years to write. In the show, the song also features Hamilton’s friends Jon Laurens, Hercules Mulligan and the Marquis de Lafayette. Miranda has also said that he based Mulligan’s rap style on Busta Rhymes. In the remix, Busta gets his shot at verses.

Here’s the two advance tracks. Both are stunning.

(h/t JoeMyGod)