The devil we guess.
One of the very dumbest "HILLARY IS THE DEVIL!" conspiracies going around this week has idiots like Walker Bragman and assorted wingnuts losing it over some words plucked from a leaked email (hacked by the Russians and released by their yappy yet loyal dachshunds at Wikileaks), a quote Hillary Clinton gave during a speech to the National Multi-Housing Council in 2013. Because the right-wing/Jill Stein sections of the internet are nothing if not honest and level-headed, and because they love context and nuance so much, all most people have heard about the email is that Hillary said you have to have a "public" and a "private" position on issues, which means DEMON HILLGHAZI IS LYING AGAIN, INPEACH!!!!!1!!111!
Hell, even debate moderator Martha Raddatz screwed the pooch when she asked Hillary about it during Sunday night's presidential debate:
RADDATZ: This next question from the public through the Bipartisan Open Debate Coalition’s online forum, where Americans submitted questions that generated millions of votes. This question involves WikiLeaks' release of purported excerpts of Secretary Clinton’s paid speeches, which she has refused to release, and one line in particular, in which you, Secretary Clinton, purportedly say you need both a public and private position on certain issues. So, Tu (ph), from Virginia asks, is it OK for politicians to be two-faced? Is it acceptable for a politician to have a private stance on issues?
OK, so maybe it was some idiot out there who came up with the question, but Raddatz and Anderson Cooper could have decided it was a shitty question and tossed it.
In her answer, Hillary did that annoying thing where she tries to actually explain a thing at a grown-up level, and it's just too many words for the average Cheeto-freebasing American to understand:
CLINTON: As I recall, that was something I said about Abraham Lincoln after having seen the wonderful Steven Spielberg movie called “Lincoln.” It was a master class watching President Lincoln get the Congress to approve the 13th Amendment. It was principled, and it was strategic.
And I was making the point that it is hard sometimes to get the Congress to do what you want to do and you have to keep working at it. And, yes, President Lincoln was trying to convince some people, he used some arguments, convincing other people, he used other arguments. That was a great — I thought a great display of presidential leadership.
She then said it's kind of alarming we're letting Russian hackers influence our election with these leaks, especially since it's so obvious they're doing it because they want the Idiot Trump to be president. A Trump presidency would diminish American power in the world, and that is a #win for the Kremlin.
But we were already off to the Hillary-hatin' races. Donald Trump blustered around like "LOL ABRAHAM LINCOLN YEAH RIGHT OK LIKE THAT IS EVEN A PERSON" and added that the difference between Honest Abe and Crooked Lying Hillary is that Honest Abe wasn't a Crooked Lying Liar like Hillary.
After the debate, possibly senile Rudy Giuliani crowed about Hillary's answer, saying she is a big liar because HE SEEN THE TRANSCRIPT and it wasn't about Abraham Lincoln at all!
Well. Bad news for Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump, the "alt-right," the Hillary-hatin' left and their Russian handlers. Here's the full transcript. Surprise, it's exactly what Hillary said it was during the debate:
*CLINTON SAYS YOU NEED TO HAVE A PRIVATE AND PUBLIC POSITION ON POLICY* *Clinton: “But If Everybody’s Watching, You Know, All Of The Back Room Discussions And The Deals, You Know, Then People Get A Little Nervous, To Say The Least. So, You Need Both A Public And A Private Position.”* CLINTON: You just have to sort of figure out how to — getting back to that word, “balance” — how to balance the public and the private efforts that are necessary to be successful, politically, and that’s not just a comment about today. That, I think, has probably been true for all of our history, and if you saw the Spielberg movie, Lincoln, and how he was maneuvering and working to get the 13th Amendment passed, and he called one of my favorite predecessors, Secretary Seward, who had been the governor and senator from New York, ran against Lincoln for president, and he told Seward, I need your help to get this done. And Seward called some of his lobbyist friends who knew how to make a deal, and they just kept going at it. I mean, politics is like sausage being made. It is unsavory, and it always has been that way, but we usually end up where we need to be. But if everybody’s watching, you know, all of the back room discussions and the deals, you know, then people get a little nervous, to say the least. So, you need both a public and a private position. And finally, I think — I believe in evidence-based decision making. I want to know what the facts are. I mean, it’s like when you guys go into some kind of a deal, you know, are you going to do that development or not, are you going to do that renovation or not, you know, you look at the numbers. You try to figure out what’s going to work and what’s not going to work. [Clinton Speech For National Multi-Housing Council, 4/24/13]
OMGHAZI!!!!!11111!!!11111111111!!!! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER ...
Yeah. If you're freaking out about this, if that Hillary quote is somehow shocking to you, then newsflash, babydolls: THAT'S HOW POLITICS WORKS. It's not always pretty, but it's the reality of how things get done.
If you didn't know that before, great, now you know!
If you did know, but you're so blinded by Hillary hate that you refuse to share your knowing with the world, fuck you.
[ Quartz ]
Mr. Fatale calls me "the Dishwasher Nazi." (a la "Soup Nazi")My mother-in-law once told me: "Gee, I've never seen anyone get as much into the dishwasher as you!"
Always.