When will Hillary Clinton give up her candidacy ?

Party leaders can all still call themselves Republicans. They can even hold a convention with a lot of G.O.P. elephant balloons. But the truth is, the party’s over. Thoughtful Republicans have started to admit that. John Boehner gave up being speaker of the House because he knew that his caucus had become a madhouse, incapable of governing.

A Clinton sweep in November would force more Republicans to start rebuilding a center-right party ready to govern and compromise. And a Clinton sweep would also mean Hillary could govern from the place where her true political soul resides — the center-left, not the far left.

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Progressives by definition are looking for "perfect" administrative/bureaucratic/governmental "solutions" to social & economic problems. In order to do their calculations they must assume they know the wants & needs of various groups of people. That need also fits their self conceptions - i.e. that they (alone) know what's good for everyone else.

Baloney. Conservatives are philosophically opposed to both Social Security and Medicare and have been trying to get rid of them in anything like their present form.

All one has to do is take a look at the present crop of Republicans and their glee at finding ways to not pay off retired public service union members-frequently characterizing them as greedy welfare recipients for wanting the state/city to honor the agreement the union workers made and worked under since the 60 or 70s.

Have you ever been extremely careless in your emails?

Hillary Clinton was hammered last week by FBI Director James Comey for using a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state. But despite numerous attempts by congressional Republicans to trip Comey into saying the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee was criminally negligent, he maintained that there was no evidence Clinton broke the law — only that she was incredibly reckless.

It was a statement that should have elicited more sympathy than it did.

Like anyone who doesn't use encrypted email or messaging systems, Clinton has defended her decision to use the account as one of "convenience."

"I opted for convenience to use my personal email account, which was allowed by the State Department, because I thought it would be easier to carry just one device for my work and for my personal emails instead of two," she said in a 2015 press conference. "Looking back, it would have been better if I'd simply used a second email account and carried a second phone, but at the time, this didn't seem like an issue."

It's a stance that's been mocked as haughty, where only those with privilege haven't time to waste. But it's actually very common; it's a tradeoff we make every day in our personal lives.

Think about it. Have you ever sent your address over email or in a text? What about your birthday or bank account number? Have you ever used public Wi-Fi or the same password for multiple online accounts?

It only takes a name and address — sometimes less — for a hacker to steal your identity. But even though we know that every transaction we make on the internet imperils our security — that every corporate, health insurance, or government agency breach stockpiles digital breadcrumbs that can be used to hack our accounts — most of us have poor digital habits.

For Clinton, the issue isn't whether she knew better — she almost certainly did. But being secretary of state required constant communication which, even in knowing the risks and protocol, put her at odds with the basic tenets of national and cybersecurity. It's a point a senior State Department diplomat made in 2013. "Things appear on your Blackberries that would never be on an unclassified system, but you're out traveling, you're trying to negotiate something, you want to communicate with people — it's the fastest way to do it," former under secretary for political affairs Wendy Sherman said in a speech.

That points to a problem larger than one woman. It's true that Hillary Clinton was extremely reckless, as Comey said when debunking all of her excuses for setting up her private email server. But the bigger issue, as he put it, is that she wasn't alone.

According to the State Department's OIG report released in May, former Secretary of State Colin Powell admitted to using a personal email account to conduct official business under the Bush administration. And similar to Clinton, Powell deleted most of those emails. Following Powell's tenure, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also received some classified
material on personal email.

Even Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), who was particularly acerbic in his questions to Comey during last week's hearing, prefers to use his gmail over his house.gov email address. And while Congress isn't held to the same digital security measures as other branches of government, members are often privy to classified materials.

Nonsense. What exacrly does the deceptive, weasel worded expression , "in anything like their present form" really mean. Both Social Security and Medicare need reform to adapt them to the current demographics and life expectancys....

“Social Security right now is a collectivist system, it’s a welfare transfer system", Ryan said.

Ryan continued, describing attempts by Republicans to privatize, laughing at using the word “personalizing” instead.

Ryan says “if we actually accomplish this goal of personalizing Social Security, think of what we will accomplish.” He adds “every worker, every laborer in America will not only be a laborer but a capitalist. They will be an owner of society, they will be an owner and a participant of our free enterprise system, of our capitalist system.”

The Ryan plan would have necessarily meant benefit cuts for 70 percent of Social Security beneficiaries – while delivering a windfall to Wall Street.

In fairness, it’s important to note that Ryan isn’t still pushing this measure – Medicare privatization remains a key element of Ryan’s plan, but Social Security privatization does not.

"Collectivist" is an interesting term. You'll find it frequently used by the John Birch crowd, including the Koch brothers' daddy.