Oh, good, an October Surprise—another cache of emails related to Hillary Clinton and the State Department.
Donald Trump must be creaming his jeans (not that he'd ever wear jeans; the man favors billion dollar suits).
And all because Anthony Weiner can't keep his texting in his pants.
The timing, of course, is crucial. And experts on the FBI are all pretty sure there will be no results coming before the election. (The emails must be embedded in Trump's tax returns.)
But it doesn't have to be that way. There might easily be a quick and dirty assessment of the emails. Put ten or twenty agents on them, triage them for applicability to national security.
Unfortunately, that probably won't happen, which could be devastating for Hillary, even if the emails turn out to be the sort of innocuous personal stuff she ordered deleted—a fat sample of the "missing" emails that Trump cries out for, and which probably still exist on computers all over the world.
In order for these latest emails to rise to the level of actual disaster for Clinton (when all the dust has cleared), they would have to contain items of the sort not found in the first batch sent to the FBI. There would have to be the equivalent of Top Secret mash notes sent directly to Putin.
Such emails are far from likely, but in the absence of information, what are folks to think?
Trump has leaped to his conclusion—same as it ever was. And his followers have no doubt followed.
It might not help, but we need to hear from Huma Abedin, Anthony Weiner's wife, to see if she can remember what that stuff was. (She can't just check; it's all on her husband's laptop, now in the possession of the FBI.) Such a statement wouldn't stop Trump from jumping all over her obviously biased testimony, but it might reassure Clinton supporters it's not time to jump ship.
In the absence of data, humans make up the details that do the least damage to their made-up worlds. Later, when the actual data becomes available, it's vetted, distorted, and selectively deleted by the brain—to maintain the illusion that nothing has changed.
Just bidness as usual. And we all have to live with the consequences.
Saturday, October 29, 2016
Thursday, October 20, 2016
ARGUING WITH IDIOTS
With a small smile, Donald Trump declined to answer the question. Would he abide by the results of the coming election? He would have us wait in suspense.
But that's Trump for you.
Every other presidential candidate has agreed up front to abide by the results of American elections. Trump's running mate, Mike Pence, agreed. Trump's campaign manager said they would agree.
But Trump's a maverick. He's not your everyday political chump. He's a man who likes to keep his options clear.
He's also very suspicious of other people's motives. In a discussion of the Second Amendment, when Hillary Clinton mentioned Trump had been endorsed by the National Rifle Association, Trump wondered aloud if she was being sarcastic.
Implying he hadn't been endorsed by the NRA?
Again Trump makes us wonder if he knows the meaning of words.
He said the flap over women coming out to accuse him of misconduct was largely debunked. By which he apparently means: has in no way been debunked.
In fact, corroborating witnesses have said several of the women mentioned the incident at the time, years ago. So much for folks making it up at Hillary's insistence.
Trump is fighting hard to get people to believe he's the sort of fellow who lies about being a scumbag—but is not an actual scumbag. It's a mighty fine distinction for a presidential candidate.
(In her take on the "bus tape," Trump's wife seemed to concentrate on his use of bad language, ignoring that this language was used to describe truly lowlife behavior. She also ignored the fact Trump went into some detail to insure Billy Bush would believe her husband actually did act that way.)
In his explanation of the dismantling the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision, Trump suggested the way the law read, a baby could be ripped out of a woman's womb on the day before the planned delivery—a very late term abortion.
I think it's more likely the baby would simply be delivered one day early. And watched very closely.
Because about the only circumstance that might warrant such extraordinary action would be if the baby were seen to be armed and intent on murdering the woman.
(Think Stewie Griffin.)
On the subject of immigration reform, Trump pointed out President Obama had deported millions of illegal immigrants. He made it sound like an accusation, as if it didn't fit perfectly with his own plan for those folks.
(A month or so ago Trump announced the end of the Birther Movement in tones that suggested he'd had quite enough of such nonsense—as if he wasn't at the center of that nonsense, pushing it forward with everything he had.)
Bringing up a fragment of a Wiki-leaked bank speech, he accused Hillary of wanting "open borders." She explained she was talking about the transport of energy, not people. If true, that ought to have put the "open border" thing to rest, but Trump wasn't buying it. Why should he trust Hillary's version of what she was talking about?
(Of course, releasing the entire texts of all those speeches could go some way in settling the matter, but that's clearly not going to happen now. Similarly, Trump will never release his taxes. Folks should just stop asking.)
Trump's fixing of the economy relies on the same massive tax breaks for the rich that George H. W. Bush deemed "voodoo economics" when fellow candidate Ronald Reagan suggested it. Didn't work then, and there's no reason to think it would work now. Give rich people a windfall chunk of money and it's just as likely to go into the bank—or into foreign investments—than to "trickle down" to folks with lesser incomes.
On the other hand, Trump knows it will work, instantly creating a new Golden Age of America.
As usual, Trump ignored questions to make the usual points: How Hillary created ISIS, how bad NAFTA was, how bad the Iranian nuclear deal was, how Hillary got those guys killed in Benghazi, how she's been at the center of American politics since the Dawn of Time and has gotten nothing done.
If the man didn't have God's own confidence in his abilities, he might be a little humbled by that last point. Maybe things are harder to accomplish in Washington than he thinks they are. "Quickly and easily" may not always be possible.
Unfortunately, the only way to even attempt to teach him that lesson would be to elect the guy president and let him fail at every promised task. But that may not be good for the country.
Also, Trump would undoubtedly produce plenty of scapegoats to blame for any whiff of failure. It's probably not possible to teach the man anything. He already knows it all.
(It's a common human attribute.)
During the debate, Trump spent his downtime smirking and shaking his head and fiddling with his mike. I expected at any moment to see him make the hand gesture that signifies masturbation. His contempt for Hillary was fully manifested.
(His core followers all agree. The Secret Service better hire some more good people.)
Trump's voice often took on a certain put-upon tone, as if he were attempting to explain the obvious to an obstinate child.
I'm reminded of the old saying: Never argue in public with an idiot; bystanders won't be able to tell you apart.
But that's Trump for you.
Every other presidential candidate has agreed up front to abide by the results of American elections. Trump's running mate, Mike Pence, agreed. Trump's campaign manager said they would agree.
But Trump's a maverick. He's not your everyday political chump. He's a man who likes to keep his options clear.
He's also very suspicious of other people's motives. In a discussion of the Second Amendment, when Hillary Clinton mentioned Trump had been endorsed by the National Rifle Association, Trump wondered aloud if she was being sarcastic.
Implying he hadn't been endorsed by the NRA?
Again Trump makes us wonder if he knows the meaning of words.
He said the flap over women coming out to accuse him of misconduct was largely debunked. By which he apparently means: has in no way been debunked.
In fact, corroborating witnesses have said several of the women mentioned the incident at the time, years ago. So much for folks making it up at Hillary's insistence.
Trump is fighting hard to get people to believe he's the sort of fellow who lies about being a scumbag—but is not an actual scumbag. It's a mighty fine distinction for a presidential candidate.
(In her take on the "bus tape," Trump's wife seemed to concentrate on his use of bad language, ignoring that this language was used to describe truly lowlife behavior. She also ignored the fact Trump went into some detail to insure Billy Bush would believe her husband actually did act that way.)
In his explanation of the dismantling the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision, Trump suggested the way the law read, a baby could be ripped out of a woman's womb on the day before the planned delivery—a very late term abortion.
I think it's more likely the baby would simply be delivered one day early. And watched very closely.
Because about the only circumstance that might warrant such extraordinary action would be if the baby were seen to be armed and intent on murdering the woman.
(Think Stewie Griffin.)
On the subject of immigration reform, Trump pointed out President Obama had deported millions of illegal immigrants. He made it sound like an accusation, as if it didn't fit perfectly with his own plan for those folks.
(A month or so ago Trump announced the end of the Birther Movement in tones that suggested he'd had quite enough of such nonsense—as if he wasn't at the center of that nonsense, pushing it forward with everything he had.)
Bringing up a fragment of a Wiki-leaked bank speech, he accused Hillary of wanting "open borders." She explained she was talking about the transport of energy, not people. If true, that ought to have put the "open border" thing to rest, but Trump wasn't buying it. Why should he trust Hillary's version of what she was talking about?
(Of course, releasing the entire texts of all those speeches could go some way in settling the matter, but that's clearly not going to happen now. Similarly, Trump will never release his taxes. Folks should just stop asking.)
Trump's fixing of the economy relies on the same massive tax breaks for the rich that George H. W. Bush deemed "voodoo economics" when fellow candidate Ronald Reagan suggested it. Didn't work then, and there's no reason to think it would work now. Give rich people a windfall chunk of money and it's just as likely to go into the bank—or into foreign investments—than to "trickle down" to folks with lesser incomes.
On the other hand, Trump knows it will work, instantly creating a new Golden Age of America.
As usual, Trump ignored questions to make the usual points: How Hillary created ISIS, how bad NAFTA was, how bad the Iranian nuclear deal was, how Hillary got those guys killed in Benghazi, how she's been at the center of American politics since the Dawn of Time and has gotten nothing done.
If the man didn't have God's own confidence in his abilities, he might be a little humbled by that last point. Maybe things are harder to accomplish in Washington than he thinks they are. "Quickly and easily" may not always be possible.
Unfortunately, the only way to even attempt to teach him that lesson would be to elect the guy president and let him fail at every promised task. But that may not be good for the country.
Also, Trump would undoubtedly produce plenty of scapegoats to blame for any whiff of failure. It's probably not possible to teach the man anything. He already knows it all.
(It's a common human attribute.)
During the debate, Trump spent his downtime smirking and shaking his head and fiddling with his mike. I expected at any moment to see him make the hand gesture that signifies masturbation. His contempt for Hillary was fully manifested.
(His core followers all agree. The Secret Service better hire some more good people.)
Trump's voice often took on a certain put-upon tone, as if he were attempting to explain the obvious to an obstinate child.
I'm reminded of the old saying: Never argue in public with an idiot; bystanders won't be able to tell you apart.
Tuesday, October 18, 2016
TRUMP'S MILITIA
The thing about human beings is that they know what they know and they can't be wrong. About anything. It's just a delusion, of course, but a powerful one that drives most human behavior.
Donald Trump, for instance, knows he's a hell of guy and would make a great president of this country. He also knows Hillary Clinton is a monster from hell who would destroy American in a matter of days.
Given that juicy packet of human knowledge, Trump knows he will easily win the coming election. It just makes sense, right?
It also makes inescapable sense that if he should fail to be elected, there must be something seriously wrong with the election process. It must be rigged.
Hence, his latest hobby horse: the Rigging of the Election.
He doesn't know how, exactly, but he knows it's rigged. Forces are aligned against him: the crooked media, the crooked establishment, maybe even the crooked Republican party, which—let's face it—has been leery of Trump from the git-go.
No doubt Crooked Hillary is behind it all. Which is so unfair, because the woman should be in jail right now for all her crimes. Clearly, the so-called justice system is also rigged.
Trump can only count on his core followers, the ones who have been on his side from the beginning. Hillary calls them the Deplorables.
Trump's opinion of them was expressed quite early. These are the people who will back him no matter what. He could murder a man on Fifth Avenue—in plain view of witnesses and captured on smart-phone video—and his supporters would only smile.
Maybe compliment him on his shooting technique.
Nothing wrong with that, right? If the man wants to shoot somebody, that's his business. If he wants to grab some hot babe's pussy, why not? That's just what real men do.
It's the American tradition, Bubba: hard men doing men's work, life-takers and heart-breakers. Men who take what they want and make no excuses. Men who offer no apologies for being who they are.
Trump was raised to be that guy. According to his dad—and reported in a recent Frontline documentary—the opposite of loser is "killer."
And it's pretty clear Trump wants us to think of him as a killer. A man who takes what he wants. A man who mocks losers for not packing the gear.
It's not enough that a handful of close friends knows the real Trump. He wants everybody to know. Which is why he behaves the way he does in public.
(Could it be he's even crazier in private? When things go wrong, he's known to be a screamer, blaming everybody but himself for the failure.)
What Trump doesn't know—and it's literally unknowable in his universe—is that people are against him because they recognize him for what he is: a bully, a thug, a boastful idiot who thinks he can do all sorts of things in government just by putting his attention on them. He lies about almost everything, then blames others for lying. He is the King of the Deplorables.
If the election is "rigged," it's because it contains Donald Trump as a candidate. He's the rig.
What's amazing is how close it is. I guess we'll have to blame Hillary for that. Talk about a "perfect storm."
The crucial question now is what's going to happen if he loses? How's he going to fix this rigged election?
How many lunatics has Trump primed for battle? One guy told a reporter Hillary should be tried for treason and executed. Another guy said he wasn't going to let the woman remain in power.
Trump inspires people. He especially appeals to white men who go to work right after high school. Men who resent and hate their college-educated bosses. Men who think of themselves as the real Americans.
What vast militia may form after Trump loses the election, dedicated to setting things right?
I guess we wait and see.
Donald Trump, for instance, knows he's a hell of guy and would make a great president of this country. He also knows Hillary Clinton is a monster from hell who would destroy American in a matter of days.
Given that juicy packet of human knowledge, Trump knows he will easily win the coming election. It just makes sense, right?
It also makes inescapable sense that if he should fail to be elected, there must be something seriously wrong with the election process. It must be rigged.
Hence, his latest hobby horse: the Rigging of the Election.
He doesn't know how, exactly, but he knows it's rigged. Forces are aligned against him: the crooked media, the crooked establishment, maybe even the crooked Republican party, which—let's face it—has been leery of Trump from the git-go.
No doubt Crooked Hillary is behind it all. Which is so unfair, because the woman should be in jail right now for all her crimes. Clearly, the so-called justice system is also rigged.
Trump can only count on his core followers, the ones who have been on his side from the beginning. Hillary calls them the Deplorables.
Trump's opinion of them was expressed quite early. These are the people who will back him no matter what. He could murder a man on Fifth Avenue—in plain view of witnesses and captured on smart-phone video—and his supporters would only smile.
Maybe compliment him on his shooting technique.
Nothing wrong with that, right? If the man wants to shoot somebody, that's his business. If he wants to grab some hot babe's pussy, why not? That's just what real men do.
It's the American tradition, Bubba: hard men doing men's work, life-takers and heart-breakers. Men who take what they want and make no excuses. Men who offer no apologies for being who they are.
Trump was raised to be that guy. According to his dad—and reported in a recent Frontline documentary—the opposite of loser is "killer."
And it's pretty clear Trump wants us to think of him as a killer. A man who takes what he wants. A man who mocks losers for not packing the gear.
It's not enough that a handful of close friends knows the real Trump. He wants everybody to know. Which is why he behaves the way he does in public.
(Could it be he's even crazier in private? When things go wrong, he's known to be a screamer, blaming everybody but himself for the failure.)
What Trump doesn't know—and it's literally unknowable in his universe—is that people are against him because they recognize him for what he is: a bully, a thug, a boastful idiot who thinks he can do all sorts of things in government just by putting his attention on them. He lies about almost everything, then blames others for lying. He is the King of the Deplorables.
If the election is "rigged," it's because it contains Donald Trump as a candidate. He's the rig.
What's amazing is how close it is. I guess we'll have to blame Hillary for that. Talk about a "perfect storm."
The crucial question now is what's going to happen if he loses? How's he going to fix this rigged election?
How many lunatics has Trump primed for battle? One guy told a reporter Hillary should be tried for treason and executed. Another guy said he wasn't going to let the woman remain in power.
Trump inspires people. He especially appeals to white men who go to work right after high school. Men who resent and hate their college-educated bosses. Men who think of themselves as the real Americans.
What vast militia may form after Trump loses the election, dedicated to setting things right?
I guess we wait and see.
Monday, October 10, 2016
GABFEST NUMBER TWO
If Donald Trump had been in court, instead of on stage at a presidential debate, he might have ended up in contempt for refusing to keep his answers relevant.
But we know that about Trump: The man is a rambler.
Not that he doesn't have a favorite destination. Every question seems to be an excuse to trot out his hobby horses and give 'em a little exercise.
His first words were interesting. Hillary Clinton had morphed a question about the tone of the campaign to set out her plan for the future of this country, ending by saying she hoped to be elected in November.
Trump said: "I agree with everything she said."
Next up: the hot-mike tape of Trump and Billy Bush. Trump characterized it as "locker-room talk" and said he had apologized. He said it wasn't as bad as ISIS and all the barbaric things those rascals are up to. He did not fail to blame Obama and Hillary for setting the stage for those guys.
Asked if he had done the things he talked about on the Access Hollywood bus, Trump pointed out that he had a great deal of respect for women. As for his comments: "You hear these things. They're said."
Asked again to confirm or deny he'd ever done what he talked about, he finally let it slip, almost parenthetically: "No, I did not."
Apparently the words "locker-room talk" are code for "swapping lies."
Hillary said she didn't think Trump was fit to be president. (What a surprise, Trump added.) After listing his faults in this area, Trump responded: Words, just words.
At first I thought he was reminding the audience that the stuff he said on the bus were just words, not actions. But it turned out he was jumping ahead to one of his favorite new anti-Hillary points—that she talks a good game about helping Americans but has, in thirty years in government, failed to actually do it.
He'll come back to this later.
(He comes back to everything, eventually. And repeatedly.)
Throughout the night, Trump always wanted to respond after Hillary spoke. What he means by "respond" is apparently this: She just said some bad things about me and I want a chance to say some bad things about her.
What we needed was a moderator who could say: Go ahead, Donald, but only if you can say something that directly counters what she just said—and only if you haven't already made that point on this stage tonight.
Trump went on to say (vis-a-vis the "locker-room talk") that Bill Clinton had said and done much worse—that the man was a great abuser of woman. (Trump had some of Bill's victims in the hall tonight.) And Hillary had attacked them, too. For which she should be ashamed. That got applause from the Trump contingent.
Hillary's response included a quote from Michelle Obama ("When they go low, you go high.")
Trump pounced on the name Michelle Obama, bringing up campaign ads from when Hillary faced Barack Obama in the primaries, eight years ago. Turns out Hillary's friend Michelle said some "vicious" things about her. (Trump loves the word "vicious.")
Was Trump implying Hillary displayed bad judgment in choosing her friends?
Trump went on to point out that Hillary had done some horrible things (aided by the DNC) to defeat Bernie Sanders. He was amazed Sanders had "signed on with the Devil" by endorsing Hillary after the convention.
He then said Hillary should apologise for the 33 thousand emails she deleted—an action taken after being subpoenaed by congress for all her emails. Trump also said (with reluctance, he claimed) that if he were elected he would have a special prosecutor go after Hillary. (And he expected her to go to jail.)
(As for the deleted emails: From what I gather, the order to delete them had gone out months before the subpoena, but her staff had failed to get the job done until just after the legal action was taken. Not actually Hillary's fault.)
After all this jabbering about emails, Trump demanded to know why the moderators didn't ask about the emails. He must have thought those guys were sparing Hillary by not bringing them up.
Even though the emails were quite thoroughly up.
Asked how American Muslims could live under the threat of anti-Muslim sentiment, Trump again made his bizarre statement that neither President Obama nor Hillary Clinton would use the term "radical Islamic terror." (Can't fight it if you can't name it.)
I don't know where Trump gets this idea, or why he thinks it's so significant. Clearly both Obama and Hillary Clinton are against this particular form of terrorism.
(It's true, though—you hardly ever hear Obama mention ISIS. But that's because he uses the administration term ISIL. Does Trump think ISIL is somehow a less damning word than ISIS? That Obama is going easy on those guys because he's their founder?)
Concerning Syrian refugees, Trump says we know nothing about them, and shouldn't let a bunch more into the country. He says Hillary is already soft on immigrants who have committed crimes. If the country of origin refuses to take the guy back, Trump is going to force them to take him. (If the offender is from Mexico, Trump can fling the guy off the top of the Wall.)
When asked how he would make the rich pay their fair share of taxes, Trump talked about his tax cuts for the rich.
Asked about evading federal income tax, Trump again pointed out Obama and Hillary created the vacuum that brought about ISIS. (No doubt the logic of this is central to Trump's thinking. All questions about his actions lead to a condemnation of Hillary.)
Asked about Syria and Aleppo, Trump repeatedly said Syria and Russia were fighting ISIS. (And Iran, too, a country we saved from ruin with that disastrous nuclear deal.)
Hearing a quote from running mate Mike Pence, advocating military action against Syria and Russia for bombing Aleppo, Trump said he hadn't talked to the guy and disagreed. (Later, Pence said everything was okay between him and Trump; that he had been misquoted. He is likely incorrect about that.)
Anderson Cooper quoted from one of Trump's books, which said a leader needs to have discipline. He then brought up the series of tweets Trump made between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m., ending with a suggestion folks check out a sex tape.
He was trying to finish the question by asking if this demonstrated discipline, but Trump had heard the words "sex tape" and was already talking: There wasn't check out a sex tape, just a suggestion to take a look at the person Hillary had made out to be "this wonderful Girl Scout—who was no Girl Scout." (Former Miss Universe, a reference to the first debate.)
Trump then went off on a Benghazi rant, triggered by the words "three a.m." in Cooper's question.
He finished by pointing out Twitter was a modern-day form of communication and that he had a lot of followers. Trump said he was "not unproud" of that.
The man clearly enjoys free associating on the stage. Fortunately for him, all paths lead to Hillary's shortcomings.
In the mean time, the actual question about a leader's discipline had disappeared in a puff of smoke.
When asked about the qualifications of a new Supreme Court justice, Trump managed to attack Hillary for not putting millions of her own money into the campaign, seeing as how she got rich in office.
The cool thing is that Trump not only knows his own mind, he knows Hillary's, too. He knows she has no idea who the rebels are in Syria; he knows she has no idea if Russia is behind cyber hacks in this country (he suggested maybe there were no hacks); and he says: "Believe me, she has tremendous hate in her heart."
Humans often think they know what's going on inside other people's heads. In fact, they claim to know things the other guy doesn't even know about himself. The illusion of knowledge is central to a human being's makeup.
In the end, a moment of sweetness. Asked to say something nice about Trump, Hillary praised his children. Trump said he liked that Hillary was a fighter who never gave up.
His statement created the far side of a pair of bookends for this debate. He had begun by meekly agreeing with "everything" she said in her opening remarks, and ended by praising her as someone who never quit.
Words that may come back to haunt him.
But we know that about Trump: The man is a rambler.
Not that he doesn't have a favorite destination. Every question seems to be an excuse to trot out his hobby horses and give 'em a little exercise.
His first words were interesting. Hillary Clinton had morphed a question about the tone of the campaign to set out her plan for the future of this country, ending by saying she hoped to be elected in November.
Trump said: "I agree with everything she said."
Next up: the hot-mike tape of Trump and Billy Bush. Trump characterized it as "locker-room talk" and said he had apologized. He said it wasn't as bad as ISIS and all the barbaric things those rascals are up to. He did not fail to blame Obama and Hillary for setting the stage for those guys.
Asked if he had done the things he talked about on the Access Hollywood bus, Trump pointed out that he had a great deal of respect for women. As for his comments: "You hear these things. They're said."
Asked again to confirm or deny he'd ever done what he talked about, he finally let it slip, almost parenthetically: "No, I did not."
Apparently the words "locker-room talk" are code for "swapping lies."
Hillary said she didn't think Trump was fit to be president. (What a surprise, Trump added.) After listing his faults in this area, Trump responded: Words, just words.
At first I thought he was reminding the audience that the stuff he said on the bus were just words, not actions. But it turned out he was jumping ahead to one of his favorite new anti-Hillary points—that she talks a good game about helping Americans but has, in thirty years in government, failed to actually do it.
He'll come back to this later.
(He comes back to everything, eventually. And repeatedly.)
Throughout the night, Trump always wanted to respond after Hillary spoke. What he means by "respond" is apparently this: She just said some bad things about me and I want a chance to say some bad things about her.
What we needed was a moderator who could say: Go ahead, Donald, but only if you can say something that directly counters what she just said—and only if you haven't already made that point on this stage tonight.
Trump went on to say (vis-a-vis the "locker-room talk") that Bill Clinton had said and done much worse—that the man was a great abuser of woman. (Trump had some of Bill's victims in the hall tonight.) And Hillary had attacked them, too. For which she should be ashamed. That got applause from the Trump contingent.
Hillary's response included a quote from Michelle Obama ("When they go low, you go high.")
Trump pounced on the name Michelle Obama, bringing up campaign ads from when Hillary faced Barack Obama in the primaries, eight years ago. Turns out Hillary's friend Michelle said some "vicious" things about her. (Trump loves the word "vicious.")
Was Trump implying Hillary displayed bad judgment in choosing her friends?
Trump went on to point out that Hillary had done some horrible things (aided by the DNC) to defeat Bernie Sanders. He was amazed Sanders had "signed on with the Devil" by endorsing Hillary after the convention.
He then said Hillary should apologise for the 33 thousand emails she deleted—an action taken after being subpoenaed by congress for all her emails. Trump also said (with reluctance, he claimed) that if he were elected he would have a special prosecutor go after Hillary. (And he expected her to go to jail.)
(As for the deleted emails: From what I gather, the order to delete them had gone out months before the subpoena, but her staff had failed to get the job done until just after the legal action was taken. Not actually Hillary's fault.)
After all this jabbering about emails, Trump demanded to know why the moderators didn't ask about the emails. He must have thought those guys were sparing Hillary by not bringing them up.
Even though the emails were quite thoroughly up.
Asked how American Muslims could live under the threat of anti-Muslim sentiment, Trump again made his bizarre statement that neither President Obama nor Hillary Clinton would use the term "radical Islamic terror." (Can't fight it if you can't name it.)
I don't know where Trump gets this idea, or why he thinks it's so significant. Clearly both Obama and Hillary Clinton are against this particular form of terrorism.
(It's true, though—you hardly ever hear Obama mention ISIS. But that's because he uses the administration term ISIL. Does Trump think ISIL is somehow a less damning word than ISIS? That Obama is going easy on those guys because he's their founder?)
Concerning Syrian refugees, Trump says we know nothing about them, and shouldn't let a bunch more into the country. He says Hillary is already soft on immigrants who have committed crimes. If the country of origin refuses to take the guy back, Trump is going to force them to take him. (If the offender is from Mexico, Trump can fling the guy off the top of the Wall.)
When asked how he would make the rich pay their fair share of taxes, Trump talked about his tax cuts for the rich.
Asked about evading federal income tax, Trump again pointed out Obama and Hillary created the vacuum that brought about ISIS. (No doubt the logic of this is central to Trump's thinking. All questions about his actions lead to a condemnation of Hillary.)
Asked about Syria and Aleppo, Trump repeatedly said Syria and Russia were fighting ISIS. (And Iran, too, a country we saved from ruin with that disastrous nuclear deal.)
Hearing a quote from running mate Mike Pence, advocating military action against Syria and Russia for bombing Aleppo, Trump said he hadn't talked to the guy and disagreed. (Later, Pence said everything was okay between him and Trump; that he had been misquoted. He is likely incorrect about that.)
Anderson Cooper quoted from one of Trump's books, which said a leader needs to have discipline. He then brought up the series of tweets Trump made between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m., ending with a suggestion folks check out a sex tape.
He was trying to finish the question by asking if this demonstrated discipline, but Trump had heard the words "sex tape" and was already talking: There wasn't check out a sex tape, just a suggestion to take a look at the person Hillary had made out to be "this wonderful Girl Scout—who was no Girl Scout." (Former Miss Universe, a reference to the first debate.)
Trump then went off on a Benghazi rant, triggered by the words "three a.m." in Cooper's question.
He finished by pointing out Twitter was a modern-day form of communication and that he had a lot of followers. Trump said he was "not unproud" of that.
The man clearly enjoys free associating on the stage. Fortunately for him, all paths lead to Hillary's shortcomings.
In the mean time, the actual question about a leader's discipline had disappeared in a puff of smoke.
When asked about the qualifications of a new Supreme Court justice, Trump managed to attack Hillary for not putting millions of her own money into the campaign, seeing as how she got rich in office.
The cool thing is that Trump not only knows his own mind, he knows Hillary's, too. He knows she has no idea who the rebels are in Syria; he knows she has no idea if Russia is behind cyber hacks in this country (he suggested maybe there were no hacks); and he says: "Believe me, she has tremendous hate in her heart."
Humans often think they know what's going on inside other people's heads. In fact, they claim to know things the other guy doesn't even know about himself. The illusion of knowledge is central to a human being's makeup.
In the end, a moment of sweetness. Asked to say something nice about Trump, Hillary praised his children. Trump said he liked that Hillary was a fighter who never gave up.
His statement created the far side of a pair of bookends for this debate. He had begun by meekly agreeing with "everything" she said in her opening remarks, and ended by praising her as someone who never quit.
Words that may come back to haunt him.
Thursday, October 6, 2016
LOOKING PRESIDENTIAL
The Vice Presidential Debate was best for me because I saw almost none of it. Then I taped over it.
From what little I could stand to watch, Tim Kaine appeared vice-presidential: grinning impishly as he interrupted Mike Pence time after time. Attack dog with a machine gun, sniping away.
Pence tended to deny that Trump ever said all the things Kaine said he did (and he did). The effect was odd: It made Pence seem presidential, especially in contrast to the A-side of his ticket.
Having not actually seen the debate, I don't know if the boys were asked the one vitally important question—the one that never gets asked:
"If you saw a chance to start Armageddon—and bring Jesus of Nazareth back to the world—would you do it? And if not, why not?"
It always amazes me that the American electorate prefers to hand the keys to the nuclear garage to somebody who sees the End of the World as a good thing.
Generally, you can't get elected Dog-Catcher of America without being a devout Christian. Or at least looking like a Christian.
Mike Pence, for instance, is a well-known evangelical. He thinks religious rights trump gender rights. And by religious rights he means the right to discriminate against others who have a different set of religious beliefs.
(You don't have to turn gay to bake a cake for two guys. Nor do you have to endorse homosexuality—which may be against your religion—to allow gays to drive on roads built with public funds.)
Pence's Christian credentials being bona-fide, he's all set. And he appears to be a lot calmer than Trump.
Is that embarrassing for The Donald?
(Does Trump even understand the concept of "embarrassing"?)
During the primaries, Bernie Sanders skated by without encountering any religion-based bumps. The DNC even speculated about his religion, or lack of it—according to leaked emails.
And for good reason.
If Sanders were now the Democratic candidate it might guarantee the election of Trump, though pre-election polls would probably not show it. Folks tend to vote their religious conscience when they get behind the little curtain, and that makes it difficult to elect a Jew.
Or worse, an atheist.
To be elected in this country, you need to have a head full of unverifiable nonsense. And it pretty much has to be traditional Christian nonsense, arguably the most dangerous variety of cranial crap.
(Mitt Romney thought he was going to be President. Maybe it turned out Mormonism was not Christian enough for folks who said they would vote for him, but then didn't.)
Think about it: Muslims are not looking forward to Judgment Day, let alone considering paths to start it up.
(Some devout Christians support Israel because they think that country's fierce opposition to neighboring Arabs will somehow trigger Armageddon.)
The next Presidential debate comes up this Sunday. There are to be questions from the audience. Maybe somebody will stand up and ask the one about deliberately instigating the End of the World.
But I doubt it.
Remember the old joke: Everybody wants to go to Heaven, but nobody wants to die.
Or even talk about dying, in such a scary way.
And that's the preferred way to thwart the monster: hide under the covers until it goes away.
Good luck with that.
From what little I could stand to watch, Tim Kaine appeared vice-presidential: grinning impishly as he interrupted Mike Pence time after time. Attack dog with a machine gun, sniping away.
Pence tended to deny that Trump ever said all the things Kaine said he did (and he did). The effect was odd: It made Pence seem presidential, especially in contrast to the A-side of his ticket.
Having not actually seen the debate, I don't know if the boys were asked the one vitally important question—the one that never gets asked:
"If you saw a chance to start Armageddon—and bring Jesus of Nazareth back to the world—would you do it? And if not, why not?"
It always amazes me that the American electorate prefers to hand the keys to the nuclear garage to somebody who sees the End of the World as a good thing.
Generally, you can't get elected Dog-Catcher of America without being a devout Christian. Or at least looking like a Christian.
Mike Pence, for instance, is a well-known evangelical. He thinks religious rights trump gender rights. And by religious rights he means the right to discriminate against others who have a different set of religious beliefs.
(You don't have to turn gay to bake a cake for two guys. Nor do you have to endorse homosexuality—which may be against your religion—to allow gays to drive on roads built with public funds.)
Pence's Christian credentials being bona-fide, he's all set. And he appears to be a lot calmer than Trump.
Is that embarrassing for The Donald?
(Does Trump even understand the concept of "embarrassing"?)
During the primaries, Bernie Sanders skated by without encountering any religion-based bumps. The DNC even speculated about his religion, or lack of it—according to leaked emails.
And for good reason.
If Sanders were now the Democratic candidate it might guarantee the election of Trump, though pre-election polls would probably not show it. Folks tend to vote their religious conscience when they get behind the little curtain, and that makes it difficult to elect a Jew.
Or worse, an atheist.
To be elected in this country, you need to have a head full of unverifiable nonsense. And it pretty much has to be traditional Christian nonsense, arguably the most dangerous variety of cranial crap.
(Mitt Romney thought he was going to be President. Maybe it turned out Mormonism was not Christian enough for folks who said they would vote for him, but then didn't.)
Think about it: Muslims are not looking forward to Judgment Day, let alone considering paths to start it up.
(Some devout Christians support Israel because they think that country's fierce opposition to neighboring Arabs will somehow trigger Armageddon.)
The next Presidential debate comes up this Sunday. There are to be questions from the audience. Maybe somebody will stand up and ask the one about deliberately instigating the End of the World.
But I doubt it.
Remember the old joke: Everybody wants to go to Heaven, but nobody wants to die.
Or even talk about dying, in such a scary way.
And that's the preferred way to thwart the monster: hide under the covers until it goes away.
Good luck with that.
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