April, 2017 archive

Shaun Mullen, in a lengthy post, cites ways in which he believes Hillary Clinton contributed to her own loss. I’m excerpting perhaps the most perjorative portion of his post, which in its entirely is rather balanced, because I want to disagree with it.

History will show that Clinton’s propensity for self-inflicted wounds, as well as some very bad luck, was gasoline that helped fuel the fire that The Times story so compellingly recounts. These wounds included a penchant for secrecy that was driven, most certainly in part, by her right-wing tormenters that nevertheless resulted in her questionable use of a private email server and squirrely email practices, shadowy family foundation activities and enormous paydays making private speeches to Wall Street fat cats while publicly decrying their profligacy.

And while I’m piling on, what did Clinton stand for? Why was she running for president? Beyond “because it’s my turn,” I still have not been able to suss out a plausible answer, and neither could the staffers calling the shots in a presidential campaign so atrociously run that it resembled a Kafka-esque comedy minus the laughs unless you consider the consequence — a Trump presidency — to be funny.

I found it quite clear what Hillary Clinton stood for: moderation, sanity, and continued progress on the economy and human rights. So she is not an ideologue; generally, ideologues do not fare well in American national elections, whether the ideologue is, just to pick two, George Wallace or Bernie Sanders. (As for Donald Trump, though he sounds like an ideologue to please his base, his actions indicate that, if he idealizes anything, it’s TV ratings; he is a hollow man, a blowhard who says whatever he thinks his audience of the moment wants to hear.)

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Badtux goes to the movies.

Werner Herzog’s Bear suggests that Trumpery is all about the spectacle. A snippet:

Trump is described as a real estate developer, but he is in reality a television personality. His ability to manipulate the levers of television was his huge tactical advantage. . . .

Trump’s obsession with spectacle continues. He still attacks “fake news” even in interviews with the AP and other mainstream news outlets that give him a platform. In his most recent interview he has infamously gloated about how his ratings on cable news were the highest since 9/11. He has defended Sean Spicer’s ineptitude by citing his “ratings” as well. He dropped the much-promoted “Mother Of All Bombs” in a military operation that was more spectacle that war. He has called the entire Senate to come be briefed by him in what is likely a photo-op rather than a national security summit.

Trump is a medicine show, and persons bought enough snake oil to blow up the world.

Via Raw Story.