Tuesday, October 04, 2016

October surprises: a big fizzle?

Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder who just canceled one of his on-the-balcony appearances, will still be going forward with some sort of data/document dump or another later this week (Wednesday, UK time). Why Assange has gone from tormenting Republicans to tormenting Democrats is beyond me, but there we are: that's the reality for this election cycle. (And who's to say, if Trump wins, that Assange won't revert to outing a Trump administration's secrets?) Things are serious enough that Hillary has apparently joked darkly about drone-striking Assange.

I do wonder, though, whether the promised information will have all that much of an impact. Hillary Clinton is currently laboring under the pall of several scandals, none of which has toppled her. Her family's long history of scandals has likewise left her unscathed, if by "unscathed" we mean "not in jail." While all these PR problems have done much to erode her trustworthiness in the public eye, Hillary lumbers ever forward, still polling strongly. If Assange is planning to release another 20,000 emails that contain unsurprising content, this won't affect the course of the race; if anything, it will elicit cries of, "That the best you can do?"—something the Trumpistas are currently saying regarding the outing of 20-year-old tax documents that show Trump benefited from a tax shelter in the 90s.

Hillary's team is going to have to find proof that Trump is actually a mafioso if she's looking for a PR killshot. Trump is going to have to find incontrovertible medical records that prove Hillary is an alien life form from a race bent on destroying the planet before people are moved to do anything but yawn. He'll also have to stop tripping over himself. Both candidates will probably have to be more dramatic and aggressive in their next two debates if they're hoping to sway undecided voters. The next few weeks ought to be interesting for the rest of us.



8 comments:

King Baeksu said...

"Why Assange has gone from tormenting Republicans to tormenting Democrats is beyond me..."

Because the Democrats are now effectively Republicans? (Somewhere along the line, they managed to slickly replace class with race and identity, thereby allowing someone like Trump to come along and champion the abandoned and forgotten American working-class.)

By the way, Trump has said that he doesn't like to use email as it is an insecure form of communication. Yet one more reason why he is a safer bet that $hillary, who has proven herself to be reckless and indeed incompetent on matters of national security time and time again.

King Baeksu said...

BTW, have you seen this?:

https://twitter.com/JamesOKeefeIII/status/781263804948774912

Or this?

https://www.facebook.com/Danney-Williams-Clinton-1704956276415563/

I think Assange cancelled his press conference because of security concerns (such as the possibility of, say, a drone strike or some such). But expect him to release his material soon enough.

I predict that a perfect storm of epic shitness will be hitting the $hillary campaign very soon. And it's good that this is all coming out now, because they won't have enough time to find a replacement.

Kevin Kim said...

I imagine you've seen Scott Adams's own recent take on what makes Trump a safer bet, as well as his most recent post on being "shadow-banned" on Twitter.

King Baeksu said...

Adams writes: "With a President Clinton, foreign leaders won’t always know what they will get. For one thing, they won’t know where her allegiances are. Is she serving the people, the Democratic Party, or lobbyists?"

I think Adams is being overly generous here, or is simply naive. Foreign leaders know exactly where $hillary's "allegiances" are. When I got my Russian visa last month, the Consul literally told me that they were worried about "the people behind her." (If I have to spell out who those Chosen People are, then you simply haven't been paying attention.)

To suggest that Hitlery might actually be serving "the people" is the best joke Adams has made all week!

King Baeksu said...

T minus 88 minutes to total chaos:

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/783124331513643008

Kevin Kim said...

The WikiLeaks ten-year gala is happening in Germany, so I expect it to be very orderly. Italy might be a different matter.

King Baeksu said...

BREAKING NEWS!! White House Back Room Deal Threats To Ecuador Stopped Wikileaks

King Baeksu said...

OK, the dirt is coming out now from Wikileaks.

As I have been saying for some time now, Krooked Killary literally does not believe in the sovereignty or integrity of the US nation-state:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CuNssL2WcAMJbWK.jpg

She does not have the interests of the American worker or American people at heart. It's just that simple.

Perhaps she should run as Secretary-General of the United Nations, because she has no business in the Oval Office whatsoever.