Selected Sunday Reading

As a possible antidote to the ravings on the Sunday "news" shows, here's some suggested non- Comey reading to get us back to the real issues in the election. As always, the entire pieces are worth the time.

First, Susan Faludi has a great, illuminating read on the origins of and motivation for the blind hatred of Hillary Clinton by the frothing knuckle- draggers in the Republican base.  Here's a taste:

Donald J. Trump and his supporters posit their antipathy as a reaction to Mrs. Clinton’s accumulated record over “30 years in power.” It’s important to recall that she was deranging Republicans on Day 1. Understanding her demonization requires admitting her full significance in our political history, for she is not simply a pioneering woman fighting an Ur-misogyny. Mrs. Clinton faces a two-headed Cerberus, an artificial conjoining that occurred in the early 1990s, of wounded Republican invincibility and wounded male prerogative. Our current political crisis won’t be resolved until those forces are separated and the Cerberus slain.

Few current observers seem to recall the wrath that greeted Bill Clinton’s ascension. To the left, “Clintonism” implies accommodation and calculation. But to the right in 1992, it meant usurpation. Reaganism held almost religious significance, and its reign was supposed to be transformative and permanent. For the One True Way to be restored, Clintonism had to be delegitimized. 

That delegitimization ushered in the politics of party restoration at whatever cost, governance and country be damned. This led first to an attempted legislative coup in 1998 and then to a judicial coup in 2000. And to all the more recent outrages of birtherism, government shutdowns, delayed Supreme Court confirmations and, ultimately, the rise of a would-be autocrat as a party nominee. 

Next, Leonard Pitts explains why it's essential that the Republican Party go down to a crashing defeat:

I don’t want the Republican Party defeated next week. 

This is written, just so you know, following an email exchange with a reader who suggested a recent column had been penned in consultation with the White House to soften the ground for a new presidential directive. It is written in the wake of a conservative talk show host telling his audience that the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape that damaged Donald Trump’s candidacy was a setup by CIA agent Billy Bush. It is written as the Internet is in a state of mass arousal over a rumor that candidate Obama “flaunted his erection” to women reporters on his campaign plane in 2008. 

It is written, in other words, on an average day in the pest-ridden, plague-infected swamp of rumor, rancor, conspiracy and flat-out bollocks that now counts as Republican political discourse. More to the point, it is written out of concern over what and how the country will be after next week’s election.

Finally, Harold Meyerson on what distinguishes us from Republicans (and the fact that it all preceded neo- fascist demagogue Donald "Rump" Trump by decades):

It’s during the homestretch of campaigns that political parties often reveal their deepest identities, and that’s never been truer than it is this year. What really distinguishes the Democrats from the Republicans this fall isn’t their ideologies, their platforms, or even their candidates, though there’s contrast aplenty in each of those. What really distinguishes the two parties is what they’re actually doing in the campaign’s final weeks. 

The Democrats are trying to get out the vote. 

The Republicans are trying to suppress it.

If you're young, Latino or African American, the Republicans really don't want you showing up, standing in line, and voting.  The response to that collection of "deplorables" known as the Republican Party must be, borrowing from Leonard Pitts, "Nuke it."

Today's Cartoons - Scenes From Last Week At The Cleveland Asylum

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(Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press)

(Jack Ohman, Sacramento Bee)

Today's Cartoon Threefer - The Republican National Sh*tshow

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(Darrin Bell, via gocomics.com)



(Matt Davies, via gocomics.com)



(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

If you've been looking for "ideas" or "policies" from the podium of the Republican National Convention Sh*tshow, you've been disappointed (?).  What you  have seen are a lot of fever dreams, some plagiarism, a little backstabbing, but mostly you'll get rage-gasms and more rage-gasms,  directed at Hillary Clinton.  They have nothing, zero, nada to offer except their uninformed hatred, conspiracy theories, lies and an unfit, dangerous demagogue as their nominee.

BONUS:  John Avlon echoes the mood at the sh*tshow:

And the illusion of being a party built on policies and principles, rather than cultural and economic resentments, seems lost to the latest generation of Know-Nothings. Free trade has been all but abandoned but the anti-gay platform has been enhanced. 

Hating Hillary, a time-honored pastime in conservative circles, has become the glue that holds this motley crew together. But even that partisan emotional outlet has crossed the line from typical team-ism to something darker and more surreal. A recurring theme in the convention hall is the chant to “Lock Her Up” while wearing T-shirts that say “Hillary for Prison.” There are countries where political opponents are threatened with imprisonment. America hasn’t traditionally been one of them. 

But this time it feels different. America is on the knife-edge of something dangerous. 

Hillary Clinton And The Purist Dead- Enders

Oh look, a moron! https://t.co/kYJGObGgqh pic.twitter.com/1Wo9yPori6

— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) December 25, 2015

We've chosen up until now not to comment on the rash of epistles from dead- enders on the Ralph Nader end of the spectrum who say they won't vote for Hillary Clinton no matter what, and you can't make them!  We frankly can't improve on the existing rebuttals of these purist, born- yesterday dudebros:

BooMan has addressed one of the egregious, privileged twits who plans to withhold his precious vote from Hillary Clinton, Huff Post contributor Ben Spielberg, rogered by Brian Beutler in the tweet above.  There's also the ubiquitous Walker Bragman, who has dropped a few tantrums over at Salon (fast becoming home of Clinton Derangement Syndrome we're sorry to say), his latest having been handled nicely by Tom Hilton and by Yastreblyansky, both at No More Mister Nice Blog.  The great Charles P. Pierce has another Snow White covered here.

Sometimes, one is called upon to cast a vote against a candidate or party, rather than for a candidate or party, and looking at the neo- fascism pervading the Republican side, 2016 will surely be one of those times.

These "progressive" dead- enders aren't progressives, no matter what they might tell you.  They're self- absorbed neophytes who've managed to get a gig with a "respectable" outlet.  But people like them who would cavalierly play games while the future of this country is at stake shouldn't be given a veneer of respectability.  They've never suffered, nor would they, the consequences of a far- right Republican stranglehold on government.  They'll always have a platform and income, and access to the voting booth and health insurance.  They need to be called out, early and often, because they're just as dangerous as the Stormtrumpers.

UPDATE:  The dead- enders might want to take to heart what Sen. Bernie Sanders said today about his competition with Hillary Clinton:

“We want to defeat rightwing extremism in this country, so we are trying to work out our differences of opinion.”

The Roots of Clinton Derangement Syndrome

Former Secretary Clinton's calm, measured and knowledgable appearance before the partisan Benghazi Benghazi! BENGHAZI! House Select Committee stood in stark contrast to the angry, disjointed and prosecutorial behavior of the Committee's Republican cohort. Aside from President Obama, who provokes their enmity for a range of other reasons (race being one), Hillary Clinton has always managed to press the right-wing's rage button. Why?  Adele Stan's article suggests that much of it goes to the right's antagonism to professional, breadwinning women like the former Secretary, who had her own successful career outside of the Arkansas Governor's mansion.

In the right-wing mind, there is nothing so ruinous to America as the liberation of women. The right’s entire ideological structure is built on worship of the Great White Father and veneration of the stern, Caucasian, disciplinarian dad. It’s a worldview centered on a jealous, blue-eyed Father God, a military dispatched to teach the world a lesson, and a president who serves as the national patriarch.

We've certainly seen over the past decades the clear bias of the right wing (Phyllis Schafly, anyone?) against women who choose both families and careers. We'd also propose some additional clues as to the right's Clinton Derangement Syndrome.

First, Hillary Clinton served on the professional Democratic staff of the Watergate Committee, something that the right will never forgive, even though their work rid the country of a truly bad guy. That doesn't matter to the right: Richard Nixon was their guy, the guy with an "R" next to his name.

Second, when Bill Clinton's star began to rise as the charismatic Governor of a southern state, he and Hillary ("you get two for the price of one") represented a mortal threat to the Republicans' "Southern Strategy," formulated by Nixon to peel conservative Dems and Dixiecrats off of the Democratic Party. The Rethugs saw their future viability rested in locking up the old Confederacy for the Republican Party, and this Democratic duo from the South had to be stopped. They weren't, and the Rethugs had to resort to a virtual Constitutional coup in the form of impeachment, which failed and resulted in greater public support for the Clintons. (Impeachment was also a neat form of indirect retaliation to Hillary Clinton for her service on the Watergate Committee).

Something to think about as the 2016 campaign season begins, and as the assault on the former Secretary continues unabated.

Washington Post's Anti-Clinton Fog Machine Continues To Create "Appearances"

Intrepid reporter- of- all- transgressions- Clinton Rosalind S. Helderman has the latest breath-bating scoop at the once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle (our emphases):

For the four years that Hillary Rodham Clinton was secretary of state, her longtime friend and adviser Cheryl D. Mills served next to her as chief of staff. Clinton has said Mills helped her run the State Department’s sprawling bureaucracy; oversaw key priorities such as food safety, global health policy and LGBT rights; and acted as “my principal liaison to the White House on sensitive matters.”

During her first four months at the State Department, Mills also held another high-profile job: She worked part time at New York University, negotiating with officials in Abu Dhabi to build a campus in that Persian Gulf city.

Ooo!  This sounds juicy!  Dish (in the very next sentence):

At the State Department, she was unpaid in those first months, officially designated as a temporary expert-consultant — a status that allowed her to continue to collect outside income while serving as chief of staff.

Hmmm. That sounds a little less juicy.  What else you got?

... The arrangement appears to fall within federal ethics rules,...

Oh, "fall within federal ethics rules."  So, why is this a front page story (other than the paper's well-documented effort to undermine Hillary Clinton)?

... but Republican lawmakers have accused Clinton of allowing potential conflicts of interest at the State Department.

Well, "Republican lawmakers have accused..."!  That, as we have seen, makes it a legitimate story.  (Also, now "It's out there.")

Well done, media ratf*ckers!

BONUS:  Charles P. Pierce took notice, too.

Today's Cartoon - The Quest For The Hillary Clinton Holy E-Grail

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(Tom Toles, once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle)

Among the Republicans' most active co-conspirators in the campaign to take down Hillary Clinton is the "liberal" once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle (another being the also "liberal" New York Times).  While both papers' editorial boards eventually might endorse a Democrat, or progressive policies, their reporting staffs are definitely Republican- wired, and when it comes to Hillary Clinton, their wires are always over- heating:

[Charles Pierce] Take, for example, this Washington Post story about Tuesday's e-mail dump. Right from the headline, you know you've entered the universe operating by the Clinton rules.

"Clinton, using private server, wrote and sent e-mails now deemed classified"

[Charles Pierce] And the sensible among us ask, OK, so what? Some clerk in the intelligence community, for reasons that may involve a simple turf war, has classified something ex post facto that was not classified when HRC was handling it. Maybe some schmuck at a cubicle in Langley is doing some discreet ratfcking. Maybe the intelligence community is simply an irredeemable clusterfck. (That's where my money is.) In any case, this is a headline about nothing.

"Although government officials deemed the e-mails classified after Clinton left office…"

[Charles Pierce] OK, so there's no story here. Let's all get a beer.

"… they could complicate her efforts to move beyond the political fallout from the controversy."

[Charles Pierce] They "could" do that. Since there is now a lucrative cottage industry dedicated to "complicating" HRC's campaign, I'd say it was likely. Hell, there are people who would use what her grandmother had for lunch one day in 1933 to "complicate" her efforts. There is no news here.

Keep in mind the Bezos Bugle and the Times both took a plunge into Clinton Conspiracy Crackpottery when they made a deal with right wing rube fleecer Peter Schweizer, to take excerpts from his debunked "expose" of the Clintons, "Clinton Cash."  The only money trail the sleuthing reporters found in that exercise was the trail leading from the bank accounts of the Bugle and Times back to Schweizer's pocket.   Rubes fleeced;  Mission Accomplished.

So. Must. Find. Something.  We're sure with the help of their Republican "sources," these intrepid tribunes of the people will come up with a lot of bogus trash and non-news in the next year.  All the swill that's unfit to print.

Sweaty Palms Quote of the Day

"No one runs for president anymore unencumbered by invasions of their private life and electronically generated, sensation-producing gossip and conspiratorial hints.  And the media will, all the while, pretend that what drives the day’s reporting are their attempts to uncover where the candidates stand on the issues.  Watching the 2016 campaign will take us all closer to being part of a video game, with the sweaty palms of the media at its controls."-- (emphasis added) Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg, history professors at LSU, in Salon,  explaining the Republican and media frenzy over manufactured "scandals" from a historical perspective.  A good read.

Eye Test

What do these two TIME magazine covers, both published this month, tell you? (Click on images to enlarge).

Don't you love the extra special touch of the little horns coming out of the top of Secretary Clinton's head?  Dark silhouette no extra charge. Subtle.

It looks like TIME is casting its vote a little early.
(See related story, below, about the press' Clinton Derangement Syndrome)

BONUS:  Check out Bill Maher's takedown of the press -- the "stupid infantile press" -- in the clip at this link.

Clinton Derangement Syndrome: It's Not Just About Benghazi!

Given the over-the-top, ultra-conspiratorial tripe being peddled about Hillary Clinton, of which this sophomoric effort by (Content) Free Beacon's Alana Goodman (clock-cleaning courtesy of TBogg) is but one recent example, this headline/ story by humorist Andy Borowitz might not be far off the mark:

Republicans Air Early Attack Ad on Newborn Clinton

Oliver Willis also has a clever rejoinder to the nonsense the right-wing twits are peddling.

UPDATE:  Look no further than one of Rupert "Aaargh" Murdoch's puke funnels, the New York Post, for Borowitz's prophetic headline to come true.  Bottom feeders.