Michael Ramirez for August 26, 2015

The whole server thing is stupid. It was legal and even Republicans like Colin Powell had one. Like Benghazi there are endless investigations that mostly come up with nothing but more unfounded accusations. It is all mud slinging and politics.

Your recall is defective, but you can fix that. Look up “Colin Powell’s laptop.” He was in the White House, and unlike Hillary, didn’t even keep records of his emails. Also look up “Mitt Romney’s computers,” which he spent $100,000 in taxpayer money to destroy to hide his records as governor. If you can find a single conservative who was angry about those, that conservative has the right, I suppose, to be angry about Hillary Clinton’s email server (which, incidentally, contained no classified or top secret information). .This is a transparent partisan attempt to gin up a scandal where there isn’t one, like Whitewater, like Benghazi, like the IRS. Until the GOP loses its majority, these investigations will never end, despite the lack of any evidence, because keeping them alive makes Republicans happy. They pray that someday the Democrats could be caught with a scandal as gloriously corrupt as the scandals of Nixon, Reagan, and Bush.

Ok, so, you really believe this a bad thing and must be dealt with urgently. When you’re through whining or defending, what can a congress - that truly cares about its people - do to prevent this being done from now on?

Good question. They both are equally vulnerable, except for a couple things. Both have encryption of some sort, so they are even there. Both use the internet, same there. A laptop has more vulnerabilities to in-person hacking because you have the physical machine. But a server has more vulnerabilities to internet hacking because, while it may have a firewall it hides behind (if it’s set up right, and it appears it was not), it maintains a static IP, so they can brute force the server’s security protocols and bypass the encryption. A laptop is not “always connected,” especially if it’s in sleep or hibernation mode. So if the laptop is off, hacking is stopped in its tracks. But a server is always on, and is a large repository of information. That’s what I was referring to when I was talking scope. The more information that comes out, the more we find that there were multiple users of this server, and its security protocols were not up to snuff. I’m not justifying Colin Powell’s use of his personal computer (again, I haven’t researched it, because it was so long ago), but his error does not excuse Hillary’s more blatant disregard for national security. Really, it begs the question: What else is she hiding?

In addition, I find it offensive and nearly report-worthy that you are lumping all Republicans together and accusing us of being racist. It’s not racist if you feel the person’s ideas are stupid. I’m an equal-opportunity hater.

Every now and again I like to post a short report on my experiences with the Ontario single-payer health care system. I know that’s not the topic of this cartoon, but this cartoon doesn’t really have a topic. So here goes.Monday morning I noticed that I had a small hard swelling. I thought, well this is something to keep an eye on. Tuesday morning it was bigger, and then bigger again by the afternoon and evening. I began to get concerned, so after dinner I went down to the emergency department at a nearby hospital. I arrived at nine o’clock. I had to wait, because there were some people who had some more serious problems, but a doctor saw me around 11:30 and I was out before midnight. The doctor said she had a pretty good idea of what the problem was, but she wanted an ultrasound to make sure. So she made me an ultrasound appointment for this morning at 10:00. I had the ultrasound and went back down to the emergency department. Again I had to wait a little while, but shortly before noon the doctor (a different doctor, of course) saw me and said that the ultrasound indicated that the swelling is some kind of cyst (technical details omitted here). It’s not big enough to warrant treatment as yet, and it may go away on its own, so I’m to keep an eye on it and if it gets much bigger I’m supposed to go back and they will deal with it, and if it goes away, hey, it’s gone. In the meantime, I can check with my family doctor.I was very pleased with the care I received. I was seen in under three hours with a minor complaint at night, and then the next day, I had an ultrasound and followup within two hours. Not bad. (I should also mention that everyone I dealt with was super nice.) And of course I had no dealings with any insurance company. I just show my health card and that’s it. As I always say, I know the Canadian system isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty good.

We both know that applies to anyone from both parties. Don’t try to play the virgin in a whore house here.^Why not that’s what all you liberal trolls do.

And there it is again. The most basic liberal play, disagree with me & I will just call you names! But then again when you are wrong, it’s just so much easier to act like a child.

This is the Republican’s Shakespeare Strategy at work:

Lacking anything Substantive to say, make Much Ado About Nothing.

All the total stupidity over Benghazi and emails just reminds me of what the stupidest thing Nancy Pelosi ever said or did after the lies that got us into Iraq; “Impeachment is off the table.” Worst decision by any House Speaker in history.

Thanks for your note about your own cyst. I think you’re right. I will have to live with this for a while and hope it goes away. If it doesn’t, if it gets bigger, I know that there’s a simple treatment.It was an excellent experience, that is, I think I received excellent care. (I would gladly have skipped the whole thing, but life doesn’t allow that all the time.) Some of those who oppose “socialized” medicine claim (among other things) that you have to wait for days to get treatment in Canada. I’m not going to say that there’s never a wait, but I thought the waiting I experienced was completely reasonable. There were people there who were seen more quickly than I was, because they needed to be seen. I was put in the “Less Urgent” category, and I still received treatment in less than three hours. I might mention that my GP also sees me very quickly; if I call her in the morning I can see her in the afternoon.I don’t suppose that those opposed to universal health care won’t change their minds just because of evidence, but at least I hope those who are open to evidence will get the point.

Well, that wasn’t very mature.

Not the most civil discussion, but let’s look at a few facts:Colin Powell also used a personal email account when he was Secretary of State. The rules about such things were far more lax at the time, but it still raises questions about his judgement.Jeb Bush sent information about Florida National Guard deployments to the Middle East through his personal email account when he was governor. He has only released about half the emails he sent through the account in his two terms. He clearly falls short on the transparency side.Hillary may have violated rules about handling mail that was considered classified, even though it was not marked as such. Mainly it centers around a policy that any communication made by a foreign official is automatically considered classified. I’m inclined to suspect that none of those communications were much above the, “I like waffles”, sort of statements. The FBI will investigate, but I’m not holding my breath for any major findings.