Hillary Clinton on Donald Trump: ‘Attempting to define reality is a core feature of authoritarianism.’
Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Zen Yogi: why would she want such a mean-looking picture of herself in circulation?
Maybe redefining reality has been wearing her out too. She has tried and tried with Russians but it never quite worked. When she had the CIA and the Generals on-stage with her, it didn't seem she had much of a grip on reality or the meaning of authoritarianism.
“Attempting to define reality is a core feature of authoritarianism,” the defeated presidential candidate writes in What Happened, published on Tuesday. “This is what the Soviets did when they erased political dissidents from historical photos. This is what happens in George Orwell’s classic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, when a torturer holds up four fingers and delivers electric shocks until his prisoner sees five fingers as ordered.”
The Guardian: Hillary Clinton's new memoir compares Trump's 'war on truth' to Orwell's 1984
That simplistic summary of "1984" conveniently bypasses the totalitarianism of the heavily-militarized, constantly-warring police state described in the novel and which is precisely the outcome of the Obama / Clinton administration. The widespread distribution of surplus heavy weapons from the military didn't stop until 2015 with the brutality in Ferguson. Clinton and Obama had plenty of time to stop that drive to totalitarianism but they did nothing.
Let's define some more reality.
She argues that Trump has taken “the war on truth” to a whole new level. “If he stood up tomorrow and declared that the Earth is flat, his counselor Kellyanne Conway might just go on Fox News and defend it as an ‘alternative fact,’ and too many people would believe it.”
- Guardian
Her own words give us the perfect example since Trump gives no indication of saying such a thing but Clinton carries it through as fact to tell us what would come of it to make it even more speculative. Commenting on something which didn't happen just adds more swamp gas to a marsh which is explosive with it already.
This part is really delicious, Yogi.
Clinton peppers the book with insults aimed at Trump. These include: “a clear and present danger to the country and the world”; “he’d remade himself from tabloid scoundrel into right-wing crank”; “for Trump, if everyone’s down in the mud with him, then he’s no dirtier than anyone else”; “he had no ideological core apart from his towering self-regard, which blotted out all hope of learning or growing”.
- Guardian
Her mention of Trump's lack of an ideological core implies Clinton has one but anyone who has made even a brief review of the material in WikiLeaks knows is not true. Much of her campaign was based on damage control rather than ideology since she had abandoned the ideology of the Democratic Party when she began espousing the virtues of Centrism.
I'm sure you remember the viciousness of Bernie Sanders.
Zen Yogi: how could I forget?
Clinton also shows little affection for her rival for the Democratic nomination, Bernie Sanders, identifying him as another causal factor in her defeat. “His attacks caused lasting damage, making it harder to unify progressives in the general election and paving the way for Trump’s ‘Crooked Hillary’ campaign. I don’t know if that bothered Bernie or not.”
- Guardian
It's priceless when she gets self-rightous about the "Crooked Hillary" tag after Bernie Sanders set a standard she couldn't meet in refusing high-dollar corporate donations. She had no chance of representing progressives in any case since she didn't stand for much of anything on the progressive agenda such as MEDICARE for all, fifteen dollar minimum wage, legalized marijuana, and on in quite a long list. She had no chance from the start with progressives and only in a willful fantasyland could she ever believe she did.
Show me the money.
Clinton was hammered by both Sanders and Trump over her paid speeches to Wall Street. She admits these were a “mistake”, explaining: “Just because many former government officials have been paid large fees to give speeches, I shouldn’t have assumed it was OK for me to do it. Especially after the financial crisis of 2008-09, I should have realized it would be bad ‘optics’ and stayed away from anything having to do with Wall Street. I didn’t. That’s on me.”
- Guardian
In this she tries to minimize what did as a simple tactical mistake rather than a profound ethical misjudgment. The money she took from the banks were symptomatic of the only vestige of an ideology in her and it rotates entirely around money, no matter where she had to go to get it.
Trying to portray Sanders as a bully is just bloody rubbish, particularly after her own campaign was rife with it.
One more example and that will do it.
Clinton attests to sharing a relationship with Putin that has long been “sour”, saying of the Russian president: “Putin doesn’t respect women and despises anyone who stands up to him, so I’m a double problem.”
It was for that reason, and her desire to pursue a more hawkish posture toward Russia, that Putin had developed a “personal vendetta” against her, Clinton writes.
- Guardian
She flatters herself by saying she was a double problem since she was just another antagonist after many. The idea he had a personal vendetta against her is more of her speculative and self-aggrandizing rubbish. The only statement of any informational value is about her desire to pursue a more hawkish position toward Russia but that's yet another reason she failed. When Russia is already encircled, the only more hawkish position beyond that is to push the button.
Zen Yogi: when she won't run again and we're reasonably sure that's true, what difference does it make if she cops a few shekels on a crumby book?
It does make a difference, Yogi, since she's still trying to be a player within the Democratic Party.
Zen Yogi: why?
For the speaking fees, my furry bear buddy. No matter what else may have been injured in her campaign, her bank balance never suffered at all.
If there's any justice, Clinton just killed the neo party label for Democrats while Trump is killing it for Republicans. That should permit America to get back to being America rather than some obfuscated and transmogrified perversion of it which arose for no more noble motive than filthy lucre.
Zen Yogi: because humans and some bears are better than that?
Damn right we are, Yogi, and I mean all of us. Some danced away with the most pernicious pied pipers the world has endured for some while but we who did not are much better dancers and we can keep the beat so we're not easily swayed unless valid logic justifies some modification.
You can do this, mates, and I'm counting on you. I'm highly confident we want generally the same things. First among them is to stop the wars and it only takes the two reasons you know already since it will save many lives and save many dollars.
I've never heard anyone on Ithaka saying America needs more war or to start more war so that seems a perfectly wonderful bond between people regardless of whether any party labels match. Another of the biggest emphases has been regarding fair treatment of workers, admittedly with some differences as to the best way to achieve that. There's also major authentic concern about heroin and meth addiction.
I believe you will find I'm right about robos taking ever-increasing numbers of jobs since they have been doing it ever since the first multiple-choice telephone answering machine and things of that nature. This isn't a threat but rather a challenge since the answer comes with ...
Zen Yogi: drum roll since they already know the answer?
Lit it rip, Yogi.
(drum roll with a grand fanfare)
The answer is in improving education to handle the new dynamics of the workforce and work environment.
And bloody teach them proper English this time.
Zen Yogi: you provide an exemplary model of that.
I do my humble best, Yogi.
No comments:
Post a Comment