"In the past, for reasons I try to explain, I've often felt I had to be careful in public, like I was up on a wire without a net." "Now I'm letting my guard down." Hillary Rodham Clinton
"Now free from the constraints of running [?sic], Hillary takes you inside the intense personal experience of becoming the first woman nominated for president by a major party in an election marked by rage, sexism, exhilarating highs and infuriating lows, stranger-than-fiction twists, Russian interference, and an opponent who broke all the rules." "In these pages [forthcoming book, 'What Happened'], she describes what it was like to run against Donald Trump, the mistakes she made, how she has coped with a shocking and devastating loss, and how she found the strength to pick herself back up afterwards." Simon & Schuster publishing bumph
"Hillary Rodham Clinton has written a new book. Except maybe she hasn’t. It all depends on what the definition of 'written' is." "The former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state had some help on her new memoir, 'Hard Choices.' Clinton employed a phalanx of aides and associates in producing the volume, which is being released Tuesday." "But
don’t expect to hear much about Clinton’s 'book team', as she calls
those who helped her write the book, which carries her name alone on its
cover." "Clinton’s acknowledgment of her three-man team — Dan
Schwerin, a former Senate and State Department aide to Clinton; Ethan
Gelber, another State Department aide; and Ted Widmer, a Clinton adviser
and Brown University historian — appears in just a few sentences on
Page 597 of the 635-page book. Their exact contributions, however,
aren’t spelled out." "Such is the lot of the ghostwriter." Paul Farhi, The Washington Post, June 9, 2014
HiIlary Rodham Clinton listens before signing a
copy of her book, "Hard Choices" at Barnes and Noble bookstore in New
York. (Bebeto Matthews/AP)
On Thursday the announcement of this latest work of fiction from Hillary Clinton was made public.
Instant sensation. The title of her new book leaped forward from its position number 3,350 to 17 on Amazon.com. It is now the 'must-have' tell-all of the month, presumably. Ever hopeful, people who plan to read the exculpatory tome written by someone, certainly not Hillary Clinton, though viewed through her personal lens, will be treated to a version of events that put this woman in high dudgeon until she managed to recover, consoling herself with the assurance that it wasn't her fault.
That Ms. Clinton, the infamously famous woman who imagined herself entitled through a long apprenticeship to sit in the White House, not as a 'first lady' but a First Lady, wrote yet another book is a risible absurdity, and an insult to those who actually labour at the task of writing books. Her name is always front and center as the author of the books in her name, while sometimes the actual name of the person who wrote the book, like the writer of 'It Takes a Village', Barbara Feinman Todd, Georgetown University lecturer and writer who spent 7 months writing it, went unnamed.
These incidental oversights appear to be endemic to Hillary Clinton. She has a casual approach to so many vitally important nods to responsibility and honest revelations, with a penchant toward portraying herself as misunderstood and under-appreciated. Clearly she was misunderstood when she spoke of the type of wretched American voters to whom Trump appealed as presidential material. Just as she was massively under-appreciated when so many of the U.S. voting public felt her past performance revealed too much about her personal style that was unappealing to them as presidential potential.
And perhaps it somewhat stuck in the craw of the ordinary American who struggles to make ends meet living in a society that favours the enterprising and the wealthy -- a nation that prides itself on its exceptionality as a democratic republic that views all its citizens with equanimity in an equal light of opportunity, however disadvantaged a large demographic is when seeking health care, unable to afford what they need to remain healthy and able to maintain employment -- that this woman never missed an opportunity to enrich herself.
And good gracious, here she is, doing it again. Letting her guard down in a mission to explain her lapses in judgement, not those lapses that painted her as unlikely presidential material, but those in failing to understand and connect to the needs of those not as privileged as she. To whom her adversary did appeal and connect with, an issue that in the larger scheme of things, made all the difference. Her defeat at the polls, a 'stunning blow' to someone who expected to breeze into the Oval Office was definitely not her fault. Cue the Russian card. And then-FBI director James Comey; both scuppered her, undeniably.
She talked a good line in excusing herself, from her email server to her State Department response on Benghazi, and her embroideries about being under fire in a field of combat. The field of combat that really mattered to her might have seen a lot of people souring when word of her use of State Department contacts to embellish the charitable enterprise of her husband certainly did her no good. She has a certain way of evincing indignation at suspicions of her self-interested motivation; there we go again, misunderstood.
A flawed candidate in capital letters. In capital letters though she would not have enhanced the status of president while basking in the euphoria of representing the first American woman to hold that position, surely her win at the polls that fateful election day would have been preferable to the election of that uncouth, ignorant, vengeful, egotistical habitual liar whose lack of knowledge and certainty of his personal wisdom is destroying whatever is left of the dignity of political office in Washington.
"This idea that Trump represents such a threat to western civilization -- it's often predicted about presidents and nothing ever happens -- yet if Trump wins it will be an amazing moment of change because it would destroy the power structure of the Republican party the power structure of the Democratic party and destroy the power of the media." Camille Paglia, author, professor of humanities, University of the Arts, Philadelphia
"Everyone -- everyone -- is knocked down in life." "And my mother showed me and taught me, what matters is whether you get back up. And those of us who are people of faith know that getting back up is what we are called to do." "It's unprecedented [revelations by James Comey, director of the FBI] and it is deeply troubling because voters deserve to get full and complete facts." Hillary Clinton, U.S. presidential candidate, Democrat
"[Clinton] set up this illegal server knowing full well that her actions put our national security at risk." "We have one ultimate check on Hillary's corruption, and that is the power of voting. Hillary put the office of secretary of state up for sale and, if she ever got the chance, she'd put the Oval Office up for sale too." Donald J. Trump, U.S. presidential candidate, Republican
Either of these unlikeable, deeply compromised candidates for President of the United States of America would, under any other circumstances, appear some lunatic's idea of a bad, bad joke. It is difficult to believe that American politics have become so degraded and desperately at conflict that candidates of their ilk would represent the best that the United States has to offer at this time. It is a mind-bogglingly frightening reality that either would become president.
The ongoing investigation into whether Mrs. Clinton violated American laws in her casual disregard of classified emails has yet to render a definitive opinion, but the odour that emanates from the issue and Mrs. Clinton's evasive tactics, along with her obvious links while Secretary of State to her husband's Clinton family charity in effect selling to high bidders entree to the inner sanctorums of government is shudderingly reflective of an inappropriate candidate to put it politely.
Why Mr. Comey made his decision when he did, citing 'pertinent' information forthcoming when the newly-revealed emails surfaced on a computer owned by a disreputable, discredited, tawdry sexual molester matching the tarnished record of Mrs. Clinton's husband, both of whom appear as sullied as Donald Trump's own record as a perverse and ugly misogynist denigrating women even while appraising them for their possibilities, is not yet clear. Other than the kind of outraged denunciations he was subject to the first time around when he declared malfeasance but no grounds to prosecute.
The polarized, disgustingly sleazy campaign must present as a delightful diversion to the leaders of China and Russia. Viewing from afar the decibel-level of disbelief and antic manoeuvres and declarations of ultimate grubbiness must surely satisfy schadenfreude at its most appreciative descent into madness. The superiority and righteousness of democracy as the ultimate human-rights defending equalizer of society, stumbling and falling off a humbling cliff.
There will be no dignity in this woman ascending the presidency. And nor would there be any reason to smile should the debased and bizarre Trump trump her for the vote. The world will have cause to tremble and moan when either of the two candidates declares victory; only slightly less so should Hillary Clinton become the first female American president. Stoicism will be required over the succeeding four years and the wish that all that preceded the vote swiftly becomes a forgettable agony of disgrace.
"You know, it doesn't really matter what [they] write as long as you've got a young and beautiful piece of ass." "There are basically three types of women and reactions. One is the good
woman who very much loves her future husband, solely for himself, but
refuses to sign the agreement on principle. I fully understand this, but
the man should take a pass anyway and find someone else. The other is
the calculating woman who refuses to sign the prenuptial agreement
because she is expecting to take advantage of the poor, unsuspecting
sucker she’s got in her grasp. There is also the woman who will openly
and quickly sign a prenuptial agreement in order to make a quick hit and
take the money given to her." "If Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her." "Rosie O'Donnell is disgusting, both inside and out. If you take a
look at her, she's a slob. How does she even get on television? If I
were running The View, I'd fire Rosie. I'd look her right in that fat,
ugly face of hers and say, 'Rosie, you're fired.' "We're all a little chubby but Rosie's just worse than most of us.
But it's not the chubbiness - Rosie is a very unattractive person, both
inside and out." "I really understand beauty. And I will tell you, she's [Angeline Joly] not - I do own
Miss Universe. I do own Miss USA. I mean I own a lot of different
things. I do understand beauty, and she's not." "Can you imagine that [Carly Fiorina], the face of our next next president? I mean,
she's a woman, and I'm not supposed to say bad things, but really,
folks, come on. Are we serious?" "I was going to hit her [Hillary Clinton] with her husband's women and I decided I shouldn't do it because her daughter was in the room," "I moved on her and I failed. I’ll admit it. I did try and f--- her. She was married. And I moved on her very heavily... I moved on her like a b----, but I couldn’t get there. And she was married." Donald Trump, presumptive Republican presidential candidate
All the hallmarks of a degraded mindset are there in living colour. The assertions keep pouring out of this man's mouth like a tap on steroids, fixated on himself as the living arbiter of taste, glamour and physical beauty, he exudes the rank essence of misogyny, as a man who believes he can buy anyone at any time, that nothing is beyond his gasp, even the presidency of the United States of America. The most incredible thing of all is that he may be right. As things stand now, it appears that the presidency is up for grabs by the highest bidder.
If there existed, at any point during the months leading up to the November 9 election, anyone representing either of the leading two parties who exuded leadership qualities, an individual whose background and political involvement gave credit to them as a serious contender, qualified to lead, in whom most Americans could place their trust with the confidence that they would be well served, that person did not appear to galvanize a movement to replace the incumbent with a president the country could be proud of.
Bernie Sanders portraying himself as a Democrat came closest to the goal, not necessarily of proving to the electorate at large that he was capable of answering to the monumental demands of administering the affairs of a great nation, but of appealing to the social conscience of soft democracy verging on socialism, and capturing the loyalty of idealistic youth and a great swath of the comfortable middle class for whom Hillary Clinton's candidacy was a farce. Yet, as flawed and bilious-inducing is her candidacy, Trump's is an absolute disaster.
Clinton and Trump are both crass, hypocritical and unambiguously unfit to serve. And it's hard to argue for either candidate as potentially capable of leading the United States with distinction and unerring statescraft, to bring together disparate parts of the country in a unified whole to work out its problems and satisfy as best as possible the social, civic, security and infrastructure needs of a great country. Yet to imagine that any American could, in good conscience vote for Donald Trump is to imagine a hilarious send-up of a nasty bit of goods, a caricature of failure posing as success.
This leadership campaign has been an exercise in bleak comparisons between the halt leading the blind with an incredulous world looking on in bewilderment, shouting in panic "Is this all there is?!"
Witness to history: lurching to the American presidency 2016 -- 2020
"Already, the tightening polls have caused great angst to Democratic leaders as they have watched Republican incumbents and candidates gain in the crucial Senate contests, also to be decided this year. The politicos have gone from supreme confidence to great doubt about whether they have a chance to take back Senate control and they now generally concede the U.S. House of Representatives to the Republicans." "But what if Hillary Clinton's health issues are more serious than she is letting on? Some experts on Parkinson's disease claim to see its symptoms in her recent conduct. Her health record is far from good." "So the U.S. presidential campaign has been plunged into unknown territory. There has never been a candidate forced to withdraw in the middle of the campaign. Despite Clinton's determination to plow ahead, she may not be able to do so." Dick Morris, author: Armageddon: How Trump Can Beat Hillary
Blood pressure: 100/70
No one can claim with any degree of justification that this man doesn't know the Washington scene and its politics from the close and intimate inside. Formerly ex-P)resident Bill Clinton's chief political advisor, this man has worked for over thirty American senators or governors as well as for foreign political executives. If anyone has the inside track on the persona, capabilities and background of the woman running as an entitled goal for President of the United States, he most be regarded as an outstanding candidate.
Studiously unimpressed with the Republican candidate's lack of political experience, combative and rudely insulting manner, he nonetheless notes that the team behind Donald Trump has prevailed upon him finally to tighten his address, and demonstrate his utter ignorance far less frequently by following a script prepared for him, abandoning for the most part -- albeit not entirely, given his return to the 'birther' controversy -- his clumsily ignorant bait-and-slander technique of attracting supporters.
Sept. 16, 2016Donald
Trump speaks in front of a group of Medal of Honor recipients and
veterans during a news conference at the Trump International Hotel in
Washington, D.C.Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
Exonerating himself and infecting Clinton with the disease they both revel in, the spores of his 'birther' denial of Barack Obama as a true-blue American and a Christian returned Trump to his bumptiously atrocious behaviour of the past year in grooming himself as the next president of the United States whose bloopers, accusations and stereotypes are so beloved of the typical politico-averse average American: "Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther
controversy. I finished it. President Obama was born in
the United States. Period."
From incoherence to coherence and a return to incoherent blathering and outright lies. Wince and carry on. So do Americans truly envision this man as their soon-to-be president? Complacent with the reality of this non-stop village idiot setting the rules for the free world to follow? Of course, there's Hillary Clinton. Of course there is, and he and she enjoy the distrust and disfavour of 50 percent of voting Americans. Which translates nicely as half of the voting population having their heads screwed on right.
So, back to Clinton and setting aside the history of her conduct in the political arena, and her stint as Secretary of State along with her unfathomable decision-making on behalf of her country's security.
In 1998 during her New York campaign her right foot became grossly swollen and she was diagnosed with a large blood clot behind her right knee;
In 2005 she fainted, her aides catching her, blaming a gastrointestinal problem caused the interruption of a campaign speech;
In 2009 she fell, fracturing her right elbow and surgery followed;
In 2009 another blood clot developed, diagnosed as "deep vein thrombosis";
In 2011, she tripped and fell while boarding a plane;
In 2012, she fainted and fell, resulting in a concussion which her husband said "required six months of very serious work to get over";
Again in 2012 doctors discovered another, third blood clot in a large vein alongside her head between brain and skull;
In 2014 and 2015 she experienced prolonged coughing fits while speaking, attributing them to seasonal allergies;
In July of 2015 she experienced a seizure while campaigning, video recording her head moving uncontrollably for ten seconds;
At a 9/11 memorial service she became faint and required propping, then collapsed into a van, revealing eventually a diagnosis of pneumonia.
The scenario goes that, forced to withdraw from the presidential run-off, the Democratic National Committee would then be permitted to select a new candidate to replace Mrs. Clinton, with current Vice-President Joe Biden appearing to be the most preferentially logical choice, appealing to a relieved electorate who would bring him in with something close to popular acclaim, while the world, exhaled.
"It is outrageous to misrepresent Secretary Clinton's basis for meeting
with these individual." "[Reports present] a
distorted portrayal of how often she crossed paths with individuals
connected to charitable donations to the Clinton Foundation." Brian Fallon, Clinton campaign spokesman
"There's a lot of potential conflicts and a lot of potential problems." "The
point is, she can't just walk away from these 6,000 donors." Douglas White, nonprofits expert, past director,
Columbia University's graduate fundraising management program
In this Aug. 16, 2016 file photo, Democratic presidential candidate
Hillary Clinton speaks in Philadelphia. More than half the people
outside the government who met with Hillary Clinton while she was
secretary of state gave money, either personally or through companies or
groups, to the Clinton Foundation. It's an extraordinary proportion
indicating her possible ethics challenges if elected president. (AP
Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
Over fifty percent of those outside American government who happened to meet with then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seemed to feel it was incumbent on them to donate either personally or via the corporations or groups they represented to handsomely benefit the Clinton Foundation operated by Bill Clinton. The appearance of an ethical dilemma appears never to have concerned this runner-up for the U.S. presidency up until the time it was brought to public attention by data leaks.
Of 154 individuals representing private interests who had met or engaged in telephone conversations with Hillary Clinton during her time at the State Department, 85 chose to give generously to the Clinton family charity. Commitments alternately were pledged to its international programs, affirmed by a review of State Department calendars and reported on by The Associated Press.
The 85 donors contributed a combined sum of $156 million, with an estimated 40 donors making good with over $100,000 each, while twenty of the donors released over $1-million each to the Clinton Foundation. A diverse group of people, granted meeting time with Secretary of State Clinton went on to express their appreciation for her time devoted to their requests or problems, by loosening purse strings.
Despite the aura of privilege, concession and obligation and the odour emanating from all of this, evidently there were no legal breaches committed. Access, however, linked to donations are that prevalent that a pattern emerges that cannot be overlooked for a singular lack of ethical consideration. At this date in proceedings former President Bill Clinton promises to step away from active collaboration with his charity should his wife be elected president.
And nor will the foundation in future, or at least during that time when and if she is elected, accept any donations out of country by independent philanthropic sources. "Gifts" from foreign groups, currently the norm, will no longer be accepted. Over six thousand donors have given the Clinton charity in excess of a grand $2-billion since 2000. Quite the legacy trading on resourceful privileged contact.
In this June 10, 2015 file photo, former U.S. President Bill Clinton
speaks at annual gathering of the Clinton Global Initiative America,
which is a part of The Clinton Foundation, in Denver. More than half the
people outside the government who met with Hillary Clinton while she
was secretary of state gave money, either personally or through
companies or groups, to the Clinton Foundation. It's an extraordinary
proportion indicating her possible ethics challenges if elected
president. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)
"Paul Manafort offered and I accepted, his resignation from the campaign." "I am very appreciative for his work in helping to get us where we are today, and in particular his work guiding us through the delegate and convention process." Donald Trump, Republican presidential candidate
"If you had had one of these things happen, it would have been survivable. But you had two of these things in concert. One thing I don't think Trump will tolerate is the focus being on someone else rather than himself." Republican strategist
"He knows he's been doing this stuff. It was going to become an issue. He wasn't prepared to tamp it down When he decided to re-enter high-profile American politics, and he ratcheted it up with lots of Sunday shows and TV appearances, he had to know he was putting himself out there as a target." Manafort associate
Donald Trump isn't so much averse to his trusted agent being involved in past deals with Russian interests as he is offended that a scandal has erupted focusing the limelight on Paul Manafort, rather than on Donald Trump. Trump's own awkward manifestations of doltish intelligence vis-a-vis relations and impressions with and of Vladimir Putin engendered his share of notoriety, but as far as Trump is concerned that old truism that publicity, negative as well as positive is all to the good is good only when it features himself.
He simply leers and babbles his way around any scandal that would undo anyone other than chutzpa-laden Trump, a man whose celebrity founded on bluster and lunatic assertions appears to have secured him a place in American voters' hearts and minds. The fact that one business failure after another has been unearthed, with ample proof of the huckster's deliberate fleecing of those who believe his tall tales appears irrelevant.
The New York Times has just revealed other lies underlying Trump's success as a peerless business manager and entrepreneur; that his real estate holdings in the
United States reveals that companies he owns have amassed some $650 million in debt
— double what appears on public filings he has submitted related to his bid for the White House
The Associated Press reported confidential emails from the Manafort firm put the lie to his claims he had never lobbied in the United States on behalf of Ukrainian political figures aligned with the former Russia-linked political executives, and was paid handsomely for his efforts, scuppering his claims of non-involvement and trustworthiness. But why should a Trump lieutenant be any more trustworthy than the man whose political fortunes he has fronted?
Manafort was listed as the recipient of payments coming in at $12.7 million. Notes describing "Payment for Manafort's services", or "Contract payment to Manafort", dated 2011 and 2012 implicate him without excuse. He's Trump's man in every sense. But in a sense, how different is that from Hillary Clinton and former president Bill Clinton's questionable donations to their charity?
While she was American Secretary of State with all the prestige, power and influence inherent in that exalted position internationally, within the bureaucracy and the White House, she was also linked with the Clinton charitable enterprise; emails have surfaced with direct links between the State Department and the Clinton charity. A charity that was accepting walloping donations from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Russian interests. Is there a difference there?
Where one would-be office holder has been irremediably tainted by association, while another in the same situation but with a background that includes some of the same powers also includes the same issues. Unwholesome, unethical and un-American. Or is it?
America: Is this really the best you can do?!
Bill
and Hillary Clinton's charitable foundation reportedly hired a
security firm to examine its data systems after seeing indications they
might have been hacked.(Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)
"Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish the Second Amendment By the way, and if she gets to pick -- if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do folks." "Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don't know. But I'll tell you what -- that will be a horrible day." Donald Trump, Republican presidential candidate
"This is simple: What Trump is saying is dangerous. A person seeking to be the President of the United Stats should not suggest violence in any way." Robby Mook, Clinton campaign manager "Donald Trump Just Suggested That Someone Shoot Hillary Clinton." "THIS IS NOT OK." Justin Barasky, super-PAC
Chris Keane | Reuters Democratic presidential nominee Hillary
Clinton speaks during a rally at Lincoln High School in Des Moines, Iowa
August 10, 2016.
This is all an elaborate send-up, a nasty little fun-thing, presenting a travesty of bad politics and worse candidates jostling to become the next president of the United States; essentially the world's most powerful leader. So what does some wicked wit do? Send in the clowns. In the process running a popularity contest between a disgusting mountebank whose egocentricity is matched by his eccentricity as a monumental ignoramus, and a politician who has been there, done that, and has become the most distrusted politician in the current American political arena.
He lies constantly because it is integral to his persona as a bullying braggart whose intellectual capacity was stunted at birth which didn't stop him, in the great American tradition of becoming a celebrity through sheer audacity. Remember what Obama so famously said and reiterated during his run for the presidency? Be audacious. See what it gets you?! She lies because not to do so would be to admit she has consistently failed in the trust given her as a political insider whose avocation was amassing a fortune while her vocation was to serve the nation.
How could this pair of clowns be anything but representative of an elaborate scheme to prolong April First? The only puzzle here is why it is taking soooo long for the electorate to fully appreciate that they're being had, teased, being made fools of for believing that the Democratic and the Republican parties would field such amazingly flawed candidates. It's a contest between Trump and Clinton -- which one is more devastatingly inept and self-involved, each desperate to demonstrate they are deserving of the gold ring.
Although halos don't come with the presidential office, a deep need for cerebral functioning, a grasp of integrity, an abiding respect for those who will be represented by the office, and a resolve to do justice to the elite executive position of president and commander-in-chief lest the world exhale a gasp of incredulity threatening an oceanic tsunami of vitriol be exuded threatening to engulf the southern half of North America, excluding Mexico which has enough problems of its own.
So whoever so cleverly devised this bit of authentic theatre, roll it up, please. Enough truly is enough. You've proved your point; the electorate is sadly gullible. Politicians can be despicable. The world is an angry place. Have some pity. Boot out your extras, and please, please bring in the functioning, capable and reliable representatives of America's best for a laudable campaign to result in an acceptable election.
Cornucopia of Lies, More Lies, Damn Lies : A Plague on Both Their Houses
"I actually think Donald, if you hooked him up to a lie detector test, he could say one thing in the morning, one thing at noon and one thing in the evening, all contradictory and he'd pass the lie detector test each time." "Whatever lie he's telling, at that minute he believes it." Ted Cruz, former contender Republican presidential nominee
"[She lies] for good reason: To admit otherwise would be to confess taking, and paying taxes on, what some think amounted to a $100,000 bribe [through cattle-futures trades]." William Safire, columnist, New York Times "Blizzard of Lies"
"On any fair reading, the pattern of behaviour that [investigative reporter Peter] Schweizer has charged is corruption." Lawrence Lessig, director, Edmond Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard University
"Bill and Hillary have mixed personal wealth, power and influence peddling." Jeffrey D. Sachs, Earth Institute Director, Columbia University
A boorish low-lifing, self-promoting narcissist who is a television celebrity, a brash loud mouth, a real estate tycoon and a man whose short attention span and boredom convinced him he could have some fun in the political arena, challenging all the Republican hyenas whose political positions more or less mirror his own but without his charisma and talent, so why not advance himself as someone able to fund his own campaign for Republican candidate for the presidency?
Speaker Paul Ryan has has criticized Trump’s call for a ban on Muslim
entering the US and said his attack on a federal judge was ‘textbook
racist’.
Photograph: Eric Thayer/Reuters
Just to stir up the waters, as it were. To get a high out of seeing all those stiff-mannered, civil clowns blanch at his comments that the man-on-the-street lauds as honest and plain-speaking. Who could have predicted the wave of popular support that would sweep him off his feet? But it's there, and it's genuine as people applaud his authenticity, his diamond-in-the-rough qualities and his extravagant prose, his promises to deliver them back into American pride.
The game became serious for Donald Trump when he assessed the popularity his ebullient self-confidence was met with, his condemnation of dirty, corrupt politics as usual. They enjoy his eccentric boastfulness, they like to see someone who's in the billionaire class being casual and down-to-earth; he's their man, their middle-finger-raised to the Washington crowd, the corporate interests. Overlooking his own, of course, because he's special.
And who is he running against? The most blatantly incompetent, corrupt Democratic candidate that connections and influence and women's lib could conceive. A congenital liar, an underperformer, a schemer who lied about exposing classified government secrets to hostile nations, a woman who as Secretary of State just shrugged off her failure to secure the lives of Americans from terrorists in Benghazi, lying under oath, celebrating her innocence after James Comey's indictment.
A woman accused of fraud, obstruction of justice and corruption. Of course her Republican rival is nothing to brag about as an upstanding citizen of virtuous conduct; he too is suspected of all those venal and illegal practices. But as a private citizen, not an elected official in the executive branch. Betraying the public trust at the most fundamentally deep levels of government administration of the public weal is Hillary's faultline. Trump is just a nasty little charlatan.
The Clintons mysteriously have gone from White House penurious to massive private wealth. The Clinton family foundation did well by leveraging their political influence and power. The Clinton Foundation took in millions in donations from parties involved in the transfer of half of America's domestic uranium output to Moscow through those same parties; what an amazing coincidence was revealed by The New York Times.
Is anyone listening? Doesn't matter, really. Sometimes you're really and truly stuck between a rock and a hard place, and that's where the American voting public now find themselves. Out of a population of 320 million people, two of this low calibre is all that remains to challenge one another for the presidency? Is the United States prepared for this.>
"The
most important difference between our plan and that of our opponents,
is that our plan will put America First. Americanism, not globalism,
will be our credo." "They
[big business/major donors] are throwing money at her [Democratic
Hillary Clinton] because they have total control over everything she
does. She is their puppet, and they pull the strings." "I
have a message for all of you: the crime and violence that today
afflicts our nation will soon come to an end. Beginning on January 20th,
2017, safety will be restored." "...
My greatest compassion will be for our own struggling citizens. My plan
is the exact opposite of the radical and dangerous immigration policy
of Hilary Clinton. Americans want relief from uncontrolled immigration.
Communities want relief." "Yet
Hillary Clinton is proposing mass amnesty, mass immigration and mass
lawlessness. Her plan will overwhelm your schools and hospitals, further
reduce your jobs and wages, and make it harder for recent immigrants to
escape from poverty." Republican candidate for November 2016 U.S Presidential election, Donald Trump
Donald J. Trump greeting supporters in Cleveland on Wednesday.Credit
Doug Mills/The New York Times The inconceivable has occurred. A monomaniacal
self-promoter, with the attention span of a gnat and the intelligence of
a toad has bored himself with business interests, no longer absorbed in
his success as a television entertainer, aspiring to unlimited power
and prestige, now has succeeded in convincing a large and diverse
segment of the American population which has been suckled at the teat of
wealth and celebrity, that he is the ideal candidate for the presidency
of the United States.
It is as though a mass
psychosis has overtaken a significant proportion of Americans; those who
have not personally been offended by the man's insufferable arrogance,
meanness of spirit, doltish behaviour and leering assaults on women,
Hispanics, blacks, gays and Muslims. Incredibly, at the Republican
convention just concluded, there were groups of Republicans holding
signage identifying them as Hispanics for Trump. The master of
ceremonies welcoming convention delegates was a black man with a raucous
voice and a beaming countenance as a Trump standard-bearer.
Trump
accuses Clinton of lies, of corruption, of offending all standards of
decency and official regulations. All of which no one can deny, all of
which he is himself guilty of. The only matter that distinguishes the
two candidates is that she presents as the establishment figure, the
woman who shared the presidency then took up the most powerful executive
position other than the presidency and was incapable of the most
elementary security precautions in protecting state security and he is a
political poseur.
Trump is champing at the bit to have the same opportunities when the same outcome or worse can be guaranteed.
His
xenophobic free trade aversion and his intention to sequester America
from its traditional role as a military, commercial, trade and cultural
power with a wide and vast net of collegial nations would alter the
balance of world power beyond belief. His clumsy, bullish offhandedness
and penchant for abusing people of whom he is critical -- and they are
legion -- represents his fitness as a diplomat on the world stage, but
on the other hand, it is the world stage he plans to vacate the United
States from.
Both Republican and Democratic candidates
are resorting to appealing to the lowest common denominator in their
respective bids to become the next president of the United States of
America. Surely, Americans must feel they deserve considerably better
than to be served by these two horribly flawed candidates each of whom
has dreadful baggage of incompetence, overweening ambition outstripping
suitability for the position, and a host of failures in their
professional lives trailing them.
Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
Hillary Clinton has the current executive
body behind her. Was there even the remotest chance she would face
criminal charges for flouting security of her country when she was
Secretary of State? Mildly finger-flicked as careless, but no cause for
any further action which would obviously destroy the ambition of an
unfit politician to lead the country her entitlements to do as she
wished placed in potential peril. The Clintons who cried poor while in
the White House have parlayed their joint experience into vast wealth
through story-telling publications, speaking engagements and charity.
Donald
Trump, the bored billionaire, is merely attempting to do far more
successfully what previous moneyed contenders have tried, to buy the
White House that will become another piece of commercial property in the
Trump empire. His poor taste and rude commercial attributes were
reflected in his daughter's viewing of the convention as a splendid
opportunity to flaunt her design label, then advertise its modest price
for those eager to appear as fashionable as a celebrity figure.
It's
all in the family, and American voters will get their chance to select
which family they prefer to guide them into the near future and it's a
tossup which of the two could bring a greater blemish of misery and
incompetence to the office each of them, Trump and Clinton, hunger for.
It is a power game, at the most elite level, one an amateur novelist
might have conjured up out of a fevered imagination which would have
received poor literary reviews as a credible storyline.
Mostly because we believe, as rational human beings, that no one could be that ignoble, crass and downright stupid.
This represents a general opinion site for its author. It also offers a space for the author to record her experiences and perceptions,both personal and public. This is rendered obvious by the content contained in the blog, but the space is here inviting me to write. And so I do.
