2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumWhether you support HRC or not, the right's attacks on Huma Abedin
are despicable. And they are ramping them up in the wake of Orlando.
Roger Stone, an informal adviser and confidant to Donald Trump, appeared this morning on Breitbart News Daily, where he accused Hillary Clintons aide Huma Abedin of potentially being a spy for Saudi Arabia and radical Islamist groups.
Now that Islamic terrorism is going to be front and center, theres going to be a new focus on whether this administration, the administration of Hillary Clinton at State, was permeated at the highest levels by Saudi intelligence and others who are not loyal Americans, he said. I speak specifically of Huma Abedin.
Stone said that Abedin, who has been the target of several far-right conspiracy theories, comes from a family of hardcore Islamic ideologues and has a very troubling past, she comes out of nowhere.
We have to ask: Do we have a Saudi spy in our midst? Do we have a terrorist agent? he added.
<snip>
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/trump-ally-roger-stone-calls-huma-abedin-terrorist-agent
obamanut2012
(26,111 posts)gordianot
(15,242 posts)ChairmanAgnostic
(28,017 posts)Come on. This is but a taste of attacks to come.
That is all he does. That is all he knows. To express "shock" at the beginning of his Huma attacks is almost naive.
Trump is the ani-Midas. Everything he gazes at and discusses becomes terribly tarnished.
cali
(114,904 posts)ChairmanAgnostic
(28,017 posts)Shock is what he seeks.
I wonder if he really wants the presidency. I don't think so. He just loves the attention and the process leading there.
cali
(114,904 posts)And no, he's hardly succeeding with me. I will always find people like trump shocking though not surprising.
ChairmanAgnostic
(28,017 posts)I suspect he would run to a casino and hide. If he were rational.
But, he is not. You may be right.
The Donald has the social IQ of a hungry fish. He looks for and sees the shiny thingie in the distance, and thinks it is food. As for the presidency, the pomp and circumstance, the aura, the title, the being on top of the world - that is all his measly, self-serving, one-dimensional, pathological personality can handle. He does not see the potential for world war all over, he does not see the need for negotiation, compromise, thinking ahead, or cooperation, even with one's enemies as part of the job.
For a while, I was pissed at Obama when he tacked to being the president of all people, not just a democratic president. He, I thought, squandered opportunities to move his - our- no, MY agenda along, and I was dismayed and felt like he betrayed us.
But, looking at almost 8 years of scandal free leadership, with a growing economy, growing employment, and relatively steady society, I realize that he acted as president of a nation, not a party. He has done a remarkable job under extraordinary difficult circumstances, especially the brain rust that makes up today's GOP.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)Very well put.
But this is even better and so nice to read:
"For a while, I was pissed at Obama when he tacked to being the president of all people, not just a democratic president. He, I thought, squandered opportunities to move his - our- no, MY agenda along, and I was dismayed and felt like he betrayed us.
But, looking at almost 8 years of scandal free leadership, with a growing economy, growing employment, and relatively steady society, I realize that he acted as president of a nation, not a party. He has done a remarkable job under extraordinary difficult circumstances, especially the brain rust that makes up today's GOP."
La Lioness Priyanka
(53,866 posts)Demsrule86
(68,643 posts)and why I am a bit harsh with BOB voters. I just can't understand how anyone can call themselves a progressive and vote green traitor party or not at all...a vote that is not cast for Hillary Clinton is a vote for Trump and the crazy right.
Haveadream
(1,630 posts)Thank you for sharing this article, cali. I read about this yesterday and like you, was disgusted. What Stone is doing to Huma is exactly what the RW has done to Hillary for all these years. You know why they do it? Because it is so very easy to pander to the worst sensibilities and prejudices of many on both the right and the left. That is why the many attacks on Hillary always do so well. She and Huma are both "soft" targets. All the "scandals" have always been nothing but cover for reveling in the ugliness that lies in the hearts of those most likely to believe them. They do it because people's bigotry is always predictably there to exploit for political and financial advantage.
Sometimes it is hard to know who is more despicable; the people who promote this trash or the people who are so eager to believe it.
Zorro
(15,749 posts)This article from 2008 has a pretty good (and long) take on Roger Stone.
From the article: Roger is a stone-cold loser, Trump told me. He always tries taking credit for things he never did.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/06/02/the-dirty-trickster
Gothmog
(145,489 posts)Miles Archer
(18,837 posts)And for what it's worth...and I don't think it's worth much at all, because in the eyes of the RNC, Rove failed in two election cycles, Trump has met with him. I don't think Rove would hand Trump anything worse than he's handed us already, with his own people, but yes...here we go, GE 2016.
I posted the excerpt you shared yesterday, but my link was from Mother Jones, and was met with one response that said "I can't believe Mother Jones would print that." Fact is, they had to. How the hell could Mother Jones live up to its "investigative journalism" standard while sticking their head in the sand over ugliness in the Trump campaign?
I'm not a Clinton "supporter"...deciding to vote for her in November, if I do, and "supporting" her record and policies are two completely different things...but this kind of garbage has to be held in the cold light of day, because it is going to generate two results:
1). It throws red mead to Trump's zealot base, and
2). It sickens everyone else. This man has no respect. He's a shameless self-promoter, and as many here have observed, he'd be George W. Bush. Bush had Andy Card prepare a daily "news briefing" DVD culled from one source, Fox News. He rode his bike and staged photo ops of clearin' brush, Stretch, and he delegated everything else to the most motley crew imaginable. Trump would do the same thing. He's floated names like Wolfowitz, for God's sake. The worst of what we've already had would be the "best" that he would offer while most of his days would be spent admiring his comb-over in the mirror and chatting up showgirls and models.
So the Stone remarks are ugly as sin, but we can't turn a deaf ear to anything coming out of the Trump camp.
Regardless of where I stand on Clinton as the candidate, I do believe that she has hired, and will hire, "Internet-savvy" people on her team, who know how to counter Trump if and when it is required. And the reason I say "if and when" is that another key element to Karl Rove dirty campaigns is to define the opponent's playing field and keep them on constant defense so they have no time to play offense.
I don't see Clinton taking that bait. I think she knows how to handle "Rovian" crap from Trump.
mcar
(42,371 posts)They will stop at nothing.
Sheepshank
(12,504 posts)Trump knows full well he is going to lose in the GE. The ONLY way he can save face is to have a rabid, loyal core group so that when the loss is formally announced, at least he can say that as a non-politician, he was able to get 30% of the vote. He will announce that after just one try at running for any public office (and he jumps right in for the highest office in the land) and Hillary after 30 years barely scraped by, he can brag that he did extremely well. So the next question is how to ensure that 30%? By completely bragging, pandering and catering to that group that just love his extremist views and the hope of putting the great, white, unyeilding, unapologetic man back in leadership seat.
I honestly don't think this is about winning the Whitehouse, it's about losing with a hug swath of voters in his back pocket.
jcgoldie
(11,639 posts)Trump made his money, that which he didn't inherit anyway, on the basis of his name. Since his hotels in the 80s his name has been a marketing tool. It has been synonymous with lavish excess and it sells to the nouveau riche. Whether he's peddling real estate or steaks or get rich quick scams like Trump U... it appeals to greedy apolitical people.
But now as a result of this hopefully and almost certainly failed political run, it will mean something altogether different. He has made his name synonymous with bigotry and ignorance. The people that these qualities appeal to aren't the same people who can afford any of his shit. In short, it seems like he's destroyed his most marketable commodity. I don't understand why if he doesn't think he can win.
Herman4747
(1,825 posts)Maru Kitteh
(28,342 posts)very, very soon.
Whatever shall you do?