about that Hill story about Weiner being set up by a diabolical 15/16 year old girl.

[geek tragedy]

It cites a posting an "investigative news site" called whowhatwhy.org, whose findings it passes with zero critical evaluation, let alone an attempt to contact anyone or verify a single fact.

http://thehill.com/homenews/news/334511-report-girl-in-weiner-sexting-case-lied-to-damage-clinton?rnd=1495456865

Whowhatwhy.org is a leftwing version of infowars, with a more sober pretense of rationality.

The founder of the website (and author of the piece The Hill picked up) believes that Richard Nixon was the victim of the real Watergate conspiracy.

Let that sink in for a minute. Nixon as the real victim of Watergate. That's industrial strength cray-cray.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_of_Secrets

He describes Watergate "not as a ham-handed act of political espionage but as a carefully orchestrated farce designed to take down President Richard Nixon.[1]

Also, who effing cares about the mental state state of a teenage girl? Weiner broke the law, and wound up knee-capping Hillary in the process. He's the legal adult.

[LisaM]

1. It's a strange source and I don't see any reason to trust it.

However, if there was a plot to try and tap in Weiner's laptop to undermine Hillary's chances, I absolutely care about that (not saying it happened, mind you). If it's the case, then there is wrongdoing on both sides. It's not always "either/or".

[geek tragedy]

2. "if" is the most powerful word in the English language. nt

[LisaM]

3. Exactly.

This is one of those things to tuck away for future reference.

[karynnj]

7. That seems far fetched.

Given Huma's own need to protect the privacy of the State Department and later the campaign, she absolutely should not have had that information on a shared computer -- even if she wholeheartedly trusted Weiner. I know couples do that -- but most of us do not work with information - that even when not classified -- should be held private. Not to mention, given that Weiner's tweets were certainly not PC, one might have guessed that he had a totally private laptop with that account on it.

For the target to have been what happened, the person would have to guess that Hillary's emails would be on a shared computer that Weiner used for his perverted tweets.

Not to mention, this is poorly sourced and it troubles me that they lead with - "it's not a 15 year old, but an almost 17 year old". Does that make anyone here feel better? The other angle that she was a Republican and tried to elicit this reaction to hurt Hillary, I suspect it more likely that she was intentionally wanting to get Weiner, which would embarrass Huma and possibly create a diversion among top campaign officials - possibly with Huma resigning.

[demmiblue]

4. K&R

These clickbait sites are really dumbing down the discourse.

[Lurks Often]

5. I'm going to believe acting US Atty Joon Kim

that the person involved was 15 years old over some questionable website.

Far too many people are entirely too willing to believe stories that fit what they WANT to believe instead of unpleasant facts.

[mercuryblues]

6. The fruit

was hanging from a tree and Weiner willingly picked it. If he wasn't such a scum bucket, he may have chosen to save his marriage instead.