Today’s Big News:
Donald J. Trump said Wednesday that he hoped Russia had hacked Hillary Clinton’s email, essentially encouraging an adversarial foreign power to cyberspy on a secretary of state’s correspondence.
People are comparing this to
Watergate:
There were 5 burglars arrested on June 17, 1972 at the Watergate offices of the Democratic National Committee.
James McCord plus 4 men from Miami. I guess one could say Nixon had the dignity of hiring domestic workers. But a lot of Republicans favor free trade and outsourcing when foreigners have a comparative advantage. So maybe when they stop claim Trump was only clowning around, they will give him credit for moving away from his protectionist stance.
He also claimed that China did the hacking of the DNC.
ReplyDeleteThe really funky conspiracy theory out there is that this leak was done by supporters of Hillary, knowing that it would damage Trump. Of course Trump is in deep doo doo both because he and Putin have been saying such googly googly things about each other as well as the fact that his campaign manager used to work for Putin flunky Yanukovich of Ukraine and Trump is rumored to owe a bunch of Russian oligarchs a bunch of money, with this a major reason he continues to refuse to release any of his tax returns. His excuse that he is being audited is just rank bs, with the IRS saying he can even release this year's that are being audited, and certainly nothing is stopping him from releasing past ones. Clintons have released 33 years worth, those crooks, and all other prez candidates for the last 40+ years have done so. The longer Trump holds out on this, the worse it is going to look.
This highlights the enduring disaster for democracy that is "the myth of Watergate."
ReplyDeleteWho cares about a bungled burglary? No one. But the myth of its monumental importance justifies the self image of press parasites, paid employees of for profit corporations, as "agents of democracy".
What Trump did has more in common with the Chenault Affair. But the press didn't warn us about that genuine threat to democracy, so it's not part of the story.
The Chenault Affair was indeed worse than Watergate:
ReplyDeletehttp://historynewsnetwork.org/article/146770
"But a lot of Republicans favor free trade and outsourcing when foreigners have a comparative advantage."
ReplyDeleteDoes comparative advantage include exploitation of labor, reducing working people to a commodity? The problem isn't China, Mexico, Pakistan,et al. The problem is a corporate mentality that produces a constant search for the most exploitable labor on the planet. Corporations are no longer identified with a national character. They are global, as we've been hearing for a long while, and as such they are continuously on the prowl for nations willing to sell their workers for a cheap price.
Wonder what Trump would say if his tax returns show up on Wikileak?
ReplyDeleteSpencer - that would be interesting. But it would also mean either his accountant leaked it or the IRS leaked it. The latter would likely be a crime and a violation of Trump's rights which of course would give him yet another excuse to go off on the Twitter.
ReplyDelete