Grading On A Curve Quote of the Day

"[Grading on a curve] also has been a topic of some rumination over the past few weeks and heading into the debate portion of the competition. Are we grading El Caudillo del Mar-A-Lago, who doesn't know enough about any issue to throw to a cat, on a curve? The answer can be seen plainly enough in how everybody now is pretending that what HRC said isn't god's own truth, or how everybody is arguing that you can't say that stuff out loud because to do so is unkind to white people who are so concerned about unfair trade deals that they go to freaking Stormfront to argue about it." -- Charles P. Pierce, in a must-read column at Esquire.com about the pearl-clutching response by press and pundits over Hillary Clinton's "basket of deplorables" remark about "half" of Rump's supporters (which is pretty close to the mark).  He goes on to detail how the Rethuglican / New Confederate / Stupid Party has been graded on a curve for decades, so that Rethug dimbulbs like St. Ronnie of Hollywood and Dumbya Bush can slip into the Oval Office with a gentleman's "C" and constant dogwhistles to their white nationalist base, which the Beltway media tells us it's impolite to point out.

BONUS: When Secretary Clinton went to her daughter's apartment in Manhattan to rest yesterday, who should pop up across the street to heckle her with shouts of "why are you sick?," "drop out," and "Trump!"? Why deplorable, amoral greedhead Martin "Pharma Bro" Shkreli, the former pharmaceutical entrepreneur whose company jacked up drug prices astronomically and was later fired from his company amidst charges of fraud.  Hop in the basket, Pharma Bro.