Countdown to Extinction: The 2016 Presidential Election

[San Antone]

The Selective Moral Outrage of the Left


The Fact-Checkers Keep Destroying Fact-Checking

[San Antone]

Media Abandons Its Integrity to Take Down Trump

Rape Victim: Hillary Clinton Laughed at Me for Getting Raped

Obama Lied. My Third Health Plan Just Died

[San Antone]

Gowdy to Comey: You Have Five Immunity Agreements and No Prosecution, "That's Not The FBI That I Used To Work For"

[Karl Henning]

The Selective Moral Outrage of the Left

This is actually a double-edged sword.  If one argues against Bill Clinton here, where is the argument for giving El Tupé a pass?

So, which side of the political spectrum is being selective, again?

And since Bill Clinton isn't running for President, remind us all of the relevance?

[Karl Henning]

Rape Victim: Hillary Clinton Laughed at Me for Getting Raped

snopes.com is our friend

Which, under the circumstances, makes your link to a fact-checking piece something of an irony, yes?

[Rinaldo]

Can't speak for others, but my chief problem with Russia is the simple fact that it basically became an ugly dictatorship again. I'm at peace with the fact that the world is run by superpowers who look after their interests, but I prefer my superpower democratic. America is far from nice & peachy, but Russia mutated back into something I abhor. From the oppression of both the free press and political opposition to the persecution of gays, that's not a country I want to see interfering with global affairs, simple as that.

[Karl Henning]

snopes.com is our friend

Which, under the circumstances, makes your link to a fact-checking piece something of an irony, yes?

Trump is wrong: Hillary Clinton did not laugh about the rape of a 12-year-old

  By Zack Stanton
  | 10/09/16 09:25 PM EDT

"Her client she represented got him off and she is seen laughing on two occasions laughing at the girl who was raped." — Donald Trump

It is totally false to say that Hillary Clinton laughed about the rape of a 12-year-old. And it has been thoroughly debunked. In 1975, Hillary Rodham was a young attorney when a criminal court judge appointed her to defend an indigent man accused of raping a 12-year-old girl. In her memoir, Living History, Clinton wrote that she "really didn't feel comfortable taking on such a client, but [the prosecutor] reminded me that I couldn't very well refuse the judge's request."

In the 1980s, Arkansas journalist Roy Reed interviewed Hillary Clinton about the case, recording their conversation on tapes for a magazine story than never ultimately was published. In the recordings, there are spots where Clinton chuckles — but never about the central thrust of the case. At one point, recounting that her client passed a polygraph test, she chuckles while saying that it "forever destroyed my faith in polygraphs."

You can listen to the tape here.

Before the debate, Trump held an unusual press conference with three women who have accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct ranging from harassment to assault to outright rape. Juanita Broaddrick alleges that Bill Clinton raped her when he was running for Arkansas attorney general in 1978. Paula Jones sued Clinton for allegedly exposing himself to her in a hotel room in 1991. The Jones suit, which went all the way to the Supreme Court, was ultimately dismissed by a judge on the grounds Jones could not show damages. While it was on appeal, Bill Clinton paid $850,000 to settle the suit without admitting liability.

The Jones case revealed his affair with Monica Lewinsky, and Clinton's decision to lie under oath about Lewinsky in the proceedings ultimately led to Clinton's impeachment by a Republican-controlled House, and acquittal by the Senate.

Kathleen Willey claims Clinton forcefully kissed her and groped her in the Oval Office in 1993.

Bill Clinton has denied the claims, and no charges were brought in any of the cases. Jones, Broaddrick, and Willey say Hillary Clinton was complicit in her husband's actions because she denied their stories or threatened them.

Also joining Trump was Kathy Shelton, who was the 12-year-old victim in a rape case in Arkansas in 1975. As the court-appointed defense attorney for the alleged perpetrator, Hillary Clinton pressed for a psychiatric exam of Shelton and won a plea bargain in which her client pled to a reduced charge. Clinton has said she had a professional duty to vigorously defend her client.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-presidential-debate-fact-check/2016/10/trump-is-wrong-hillary-clinton-did-not-laugh-about-the-rape-of-a-12-year-old-229455#ixzz4MzUujuuf

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Can't speak for others, but my chief problem with Russia is the simple fact that it basically became an ugly dictatorship again. I'm at peace with the fact that the world is run by superpowers who look after their interests, but I prefer my superpower democratic.

On the other hand, liberal and/or democratic states are often very aggressive and imperialistic. A survey of European or American history makes this clear.

If my entire family has been incinerated by a drone strike, I'm probably not going to be comforted by the fact that the country that killed them holds somewhat competitive elections from time to time.

Democracy is better than dictatorship, but it's no guarantee of a sensible or peaceful foreign policy.

[Karl Henning]

Democracy is better than dictatorship, but it's no guarantee of a sensible or peaceful foreign policy.

True enow.

[(poco) Sforzando]

This is actually a double-edged sword.  If one argues against Bill Clinton here, where is the argument for giving El Tupé a pass?

So, which side of the political spectrum is being selective, again?

And since Bill Clinton isn't running for President, remind us all of the relevance?

Yes, we keep hearing this: it's an example of the "tu quoque" logical fallacy. "Tu quoque or the appeal to hypocrisy is an informal logical fallacy that intends to discredit the validity of the opponent's logical argument by asserting the opponent's failure to act consistently in accordance with its conclusion(s)". In other words, to suggest that what Trump has done isn't culpable because Bill Clinton is guilty of the same thing. (As was JFK.) But so what? As KH reminds us, Bill is not running, and what's more the temper of the country has changed since those times, those vulgar towards women are less likely to get the free ride they might have even a decade ago.

But the latest I'm hearing from the Twitterspace is that some of Trump's followers are now urging a repeal of the 19th Amendment (women's suffrage). Good luck with that. Ah, that US Constitution; we all love it so long as we ignore what it actually says.

[San Antone]

This is actually a double-edged sword.  If one argues against Bill Clinton here, where is the argument for giving El Tupé a pass?

So, which side of the political spectrum is being selective, again?

And since Bill Clinton isn't running for President, remind us all of the relevance?

First of all, Trump has not been accused of raping anyone. 

Secondly, the major media is going all out with attacking Trump on the groping issue (even going back 30 years) and ignoring the hypocrisy of Hillary Clinton who did not consider Bill's sexual assaults disqualifying behavior for either the presidency or as husband. 

Thirdly, the media, while they focus on discrepancies in Trump's story, do precious few stories on the lies Hillary has told and continues to tell concerning her emails/server/cover-up and the discrepancy between her secret language to donors as opposed to her public statements to voters. 

For every one story the WPost or NYT or CNN may do on the WikiLeaks they run ten or more on Trump's tape or "bimbo eruptions" - a phrase Hillary coined to ridicule Bill's victims.  Also, Bill's victims were all "Friends of Bill" who morphed from fundraisers and campaign volunteers into members in a "vast right-wing conspiracy" by Hillary - another bit of abuse the victims were treated to at the hands of one of the Clintons.  This aspect is a non-story for the major media.

In their zeal to sink Trump the press has abandoned its journalistic integrity.  In the process our society has lost a necessary element of our political process - the 4th estate.  It has been going on for decades but this year it has reached its zenith of partisan bias.  I know the Democrats lampoon the idea of a Liberal press.  It is hard to give up such an ally, and much easier to simply deny it while suppressing a grin.

Thomas Jefferson believed that America's democracy could only work with a free press.  Of course he never imagined a press actively siding with one party over the other and offering a biased view to the electorate in order to help elect one candidate.

[North Star]

Wait, what is this about Hillary's emails? I haven't heard about them, probably because the media haven't written about it enough.

[drogulus]

Yes, but it's not actually a military alliance, is it?

     Yes, it is.

Thomas Jefferson believed that America's democracy could only work with a free press.  Of course he never imagined a press actively siding with one party over the other and offering a biased view to the electorate in order to help elect one candidate.

     He assumed that a free press would be biased because that was what saw all around him. I guess he didn't count bias as an argument against press freedom.

[Brian]

First of all, Trump has not been accused of raping anyone. 

Frankly, it's only a matter of time.

For every one story the WPost or NYT or CNN may do on the WikiLeaks they run ten or more on Trump's tape or "bimbo eruptions" - a phrase Hillary coined to ridicule Bill's victims.

And that has a lot to do with economics, not bias. Many of the most damning policy arguments are boring to the average TV viewer, compared to, well, sex.

For example - just sticking to Trump - in recent days he has said that the US should have allowed Serbia to continue its genocide (edit: he now says that interview was a hoax); that the Central Park Five were guilty; that he wants the Republican Party to tell him the questions before the next debate; and that Hillary is conspiring "with international banks to plot the destruction" of American sovereignty. Also, Trump appears to use his charitable "foundation" as an illegal tax evasion scheme. But those stories aren't getting the same traction in the mass media because clicks and sex.

Oh, and by the way, WaPo and NYT ran WikiLeaks stories at the top of their front pages.

[San Antone]

Wait, what is this about Hillary's emails? I haven't heard about them, probably because the media haven't written about it enough.

Yours is typical of the kind of response one has come to expect from Democrats/Liberals.  Right, you can act like the NYT, WPost and CNN have covered the issue fairly.  While they did run one story when the Inspector General and FBI reports were released the majority of their stories are written attempting to minimize her culpability and blaming the bru-ha-ha on a right-wing obsession.

All of the analysis of what she did and the coverup has been provided by the Wall Street Journal, National Review (both of which were vocally anti-Trump), and Fox.  Yes, right leaning media (if you counted up major media, you could find dozens of Liberal leaning for those three).  But if not for their coverage they would be no clear-eyed critical repotage on Servergate.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

   
     Yes, it is.

Or maybe not. Perhaps it depends on how you define it:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/05/30/map-the-u-s-is-bound-by-treaties-to-defend-a-quarter-of-humanity/#comments

"While clearly defense-orientated pacts such as NATO or bilateral agreements are included, the Organization of American States (OAS) also features, even though the OAS is rarely considered a defense pact"

The article is quite interesting, BTW.

[Brian]

Yours is typical of the kind of response one has come to expect from Democrats/Liberals.  Right, you can act like the NYT, WPost and CNN have covered the issue fairly.  While they did run one story when the Inspector General and FBI reports were released the majority of their stories are written attempting to minimize her culpability and blaming the bru-ha-ha on a right-wing obsession.

All of the analysis of what she did and the coverup has been provided by the Wall Street Journal, National Review (both of which were vocally anti-Trump), and Fox.  Yes, right leaning media (if you counted up major media, you could find dozens of Liberal leaning for those three).  But if not for their coverage they would be no clear-eyed critical repotage on Servergate.

This is false. The email server story was originally broken by the NY Times on March 2, 2015.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/03/us/politics/hillary-clintons-use-of-private-email-at-state-department-raises-flags.html?_r=0

[Pat B]

American diplomacy has no long term view whatsoever. None at all. What they do is purely an action/reaction reflex, inasmuch as the USA is itself concerned, and only in that case. Reaction (bomb, invade, then pull out) followed by zero planning for the aftermath. Most Americans have no collective global memory. They know their own history, but are clueless about the rest of the world.

Generally agree, except for the part about knowing our own history.

[San Antone]

Frankly, it's only a matter of time.
For example - just sticking to Trump - in recent days he has said that the US should have allowed Serbia to continue its genocide (edit: he now says that interview was a hoax); that the Central Park Five were guilty; that he wants the Republican Party to tell him the questions before the next debate; and that Hillary is conspiring "with international banks to plot the destruction" of American sovereignty. Also, Trump appears to use his charitable "foundation" as an illegal tax evasion scheme. But those stories aren't getting the same traction in the mass media because clicks and sex.

Trump is truly unhinged thinking he has nothing to lose, except the election of course.  The guy never had a clue as to how to present himself as a presidential candidate, no sense of how to frame the issues.  He tendancy is to go for the sensational as opposed to a sober presentation of what he would do as president.  That's way to boring for a wild and crazy guy like him, who just wants execise his right to party. 

All true.

But it does not release the press from doing a responsible job of covering Hillary's potential for abuse of power as president.

[San Antone]

This is false. The email server story was originally broken by the NY Times on March 2, 2015.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/03/us/politics/hillary-clintons-use-of-private-email-at-state-department-raises-flags.html?_r=0

As I said, the NYT and other media has reported the story but most of their coverage ever since has been to shield Hillary from the worst of the fallout.