Friday, September 8, 2017

Hillary Storms Onward

Poor Hillary Clinton can't catch a break.

Just when she was all set to claim entitlement to saturation media coverage of the latest version of her life, a hurricane named Irma is sucking it all up instead. Irma even has the nerve to totally crush Florida, which Hillary also memorably lost to her favorite stalker, Donald J. Trump. Didn't Irma get the message that there's a special place in hell for women who don't support other women? So Irma is either a Bernie-bro, a Putin troll, a James Comey FBI entrapment schemer, an Anthony Weiner sexting partner, or a Wikileaks dumpster fire that got way out of control.

Or probably all of the above. The important thing is that if something inconveniences Hillary Clinton, nobody else - not the homeless, the jobless, the drowned -  could possibly ever hope to reach the level of her sublime victimhood.

I don't plan on reading Hillary's book when it officially comes out. But judging from reviews of deliberately leaked copies, it is a nauseating combination of political revenge porn and self-pity. Not a good look. As a matter of fact, the speculative parodic review I already wrote concerning What the Hell Happened pales in comparison to the real thing. I was half-kidding when I predicted that she would also blame Obama for her loss. But she really goes there, chiding him for not abusing his office by hijacking the airwaves to deliver a  fear-mongering address about Russian interference in her coronation. 

She outlines numerous instances when she wanted to do something, but her handlers wouldn't let her. Her instincts and her intellect lost out every single time. Donald Trump was literally breathing down her neck on national television during a debate and she had to force herself to smile like a docile lady and keep quiet. She wanted to lash out at James Comey after he called her illegal email set-up "careless" but she had to keep quiet. Yada yada yada. She actually still cedes power to white male supremacy while pretending to fight against it even as she struggled to represent white male supremacy as the very first First Lady ever to ride her husband's coattails to the Oval Office.

Not a good look for someone who claims to have such unprecedented qualifications for leadership. Hillary was not and never will be a feminist with the courage of her own convictions.  

As Simone de Beauvoir writes in The Second Sex, "when a woman is named or elected to a position of power, she still represents the patriarchy; the lot of her female subjects/constituents/employees doesn't automatically improve. A queen (or a president) is not a woman first and foremost - she is an institution."

 A Clintonian restoration, with its neoliberal, plutocrat-friendly agenda, would have done little or nothing to elevate working class women.

De Beauvoir could have been forecasting Hillary's faux feminism, her sense of "it's my turn" aggrieved entitlement, and her current blame-game antics when she observed nearly 70 years ago:
She was promised compensations, she was assured that if she abdicated her opportunities into the hands of the man, they would be returned to her a hundredfold, and she considers herself duped; she accuses the whole masculine universe; resentment is the other side of dependence; when one gives everything, one never receives enough in return.
The snippet in Hillary's memoir which I find the most interesting and troublesome, though, was her claim that she was actually napping on Election Night as the returns came in. This is not a good look for a potential president who needs to stay awake and alert during critical national and international moments. Forget the 3 a.m. phone call. This dame couldn't even last past 9 p.m.

Was she hitting the bottle? She seems to admit, every chance she gets, that she does love her Chardonnay.




Was she on some other medications? Did Wolf Blitzer's stentorian CNN babble render her unconscious? Was she simply bored?

Perhaps she was just getting caught up on her beauty sleep in order to look her best at the Javits Center coronation gala. Perhaps she was lying about her election night snooze altogether.

I don't know, and frankly, I don't care. As Hillary herself famously scoffed about Benghazi, what difference at this point, does it make?

What I do know is that Hillary Clinton must be a bit short on the excessive cash needed to maintain herself and Bill and Chelsea and the grandkids in their lifestyles. Why else would she charge thousands of dollars for tickets to her book tour appearances? Most authors are only too happy to sign autographs for the price of just the book, score a few unpaid interviews, and then call it a tour.

But where there is chutzpah and where there are globs of money to be made, there is life in the old gal yet. So along with the book tour comes the political campaign to keep the centrist Democratic Party dream alive. Somebody's got to stand up against the growing anti-capitalist chorus for Single Payer health insurance, after all. So it might as well be Hillary. If she can't destroy something good, then what good is she?  She already managed to destroy the possibility for universal coverage once, during her husband's administration, so who says she can't try, try again?

I got an email from her just today, slugged "re: bravery" as though I were part of some ongoing trendy, insidery discussion. Hillary being Hillary, of course, she had the gall and the bad taste to immediately use the name of murdered Charlottesville activist Heather Heyer as a means to suck money off someone else's courageous dead body. In coordination with her book tour, Clinton is using her political action slush fund to "fight back" against the very hate and divisiveness which her tortured new memoir absolutely wallows in and perpetuates!

"Some days, it feels like the work left to do is insurmountable," she writes in the spammy email, probably typed out between exhausting sips of Chardonnay. "But if I've learned anything, it's that those (sic,hic) are the days we need each other* more than ever. That's one of the reasons we created Onward Together: to support smart, passionate activists who know what needs to be done and could use a little of our help to get there."

If you think Hillary Clinton would ever have given a dime to smart, passionate Bernie Sanders supporter Heather Heyer or any other anti-fascist, then I've got a ghostwritten memoir to sell you. Of course, what she really wants is money for her collapsed little eye-wall of  functionaries and campaign operatives, who are now doing such amazing work as collating maudlin quotes from other functionaries in a clunky new propaganda website called Verrit. (rhymes with Ferret.) 

Read the fine print: Hillary's slush fund will do nothing to make ordinary people's lives better today, or even tomorrow. It is classic neoliberal claptrap, a purely aspirational and intentionally vague public relations gimmick:
Onward Together works to build a brighter future for generations to come by supporting groups that encourage people to organize in their communities or run for office."
 Translation: give Hillary Clinton money to pay Clinton people a fraction of this money to inspire volunteer Clinton people to support other unpaid Clinton people. And if you're very lucky, some amazing shards of shattered glass ceiling might even eventually trickle down to your grandkids after you're long dead.

The designated grift sweepstakes winner for today is a group called Run For Something, (the hills?) which is designed to suck up money for only "good and necessary" causes, defined as winning more seats for centrist Democrats who are not in the Bernie Medicare For All Brigade. Oh and to get you even more inspired, click here to score a ticket to one of Hillary's own upcoming pity party/revenge porn appearances!

And while you're breathlessly waiting to see Hillary in the flesh, she suggests that you also do your mental health part and show your class solidarity by attending Broadway shows.
I've been fortunate enough (wealthy enough)  to see quite a bit of theater - if you get the chance to see Come From Away on Broadway, take it."
 By "you," she obviously doesn't mean people on fixed or low or no incomes. She means only those fellow Fortunates with enough disposable income to afford the three-figure price of admission to a hit Broadway show. Just by this suggestion alone, Hillary gives her own whole show away. Her appeal is both geographically and financially limited to the Acela Corridor/Wall Street and Silicon Valley/Hollywood.

But in her book, she nevertheless persists in claiming not to understand why her approval ratings stand even below those of her favorite stalker. It must be on account of her XX chromosomes and the vast, right wing He-Man Woman Haters Club. What other explanation could there possibly be?


Then again, this troubling confusion is probably understandable from a woman who says that her favorite reading material is mystery novels. She is a cozy closed-room puzzle unto herself, in dire need of an emergency dose of Hercule Poirot-level little gray cells to help her in the fine art of honest self-examination.

The hoped-for whirlwind of a comeback from a comeback from a defeat is barreling toward some mighty cold waters in the form of dismay from her fellow Democrats. Her book might be storming sales lists on Amazon this week, but all forecasts point to a rapid weakening to classic tropical depression status in the overstock bin.

But there will always be fine wine from Hillary's Zazzle collection. At only $6.65 a bottle, even the deplorables can feel the Clinton glow and afford to drown their sorrows with the Hillary Signature Star, Woman's Place White House, or Love Trumps Hate Heart (?) labels.

*oppressed wealthy elite donors of the superior knowledge class who couldn't care less about those annoying and demanding purists in the bottom 90%.

15 comments:

  1. Karen, you nailed it!

    Hillary is a fake feminist, fake liberal, and fake Democrat. We're all 'Stronger Together' by her attacking and burning bridges with the better part of the Democratic Party? What's to gain by that? Oh, right, money from book sales and events which goes to show just how greedy and unscrupulous she is.

    IMHO, Hillary is a high functioning, low self-awareness alcoholic and the poster child for failure to learn from, and cope with, failures. Her book comes across as a loud, shrill cry for help.

    Hillary asks "What makes me such a lightning rod for fury? I'm really asking. I'm at a loss."

    Well, she could start by asking people in Iraq, Syria, Gaza, Honduras, Haiti, and Libya. Or the victims of her husband's sexual predation whom she publicly called bimbos and liars. She could even ask the people she's bitching about in her book who were only trying to help her by supporting, advising, and even campaigning for her. The list of her victims is endless. What an ingrate.

    SOUR GRAPES should really have been the title of her book. She might be smart but she's not honest, even with herself. It was her husband who pulled her all along the way in her political career, but she won't admit that because she's still playing the victim card with Bill to insure he keeps doing everything he can to get her what she craves, i.e. money and power.

    She claims being victimized when Trump called her Crooked Hillary, as if that's a serious criticism rather than juvenile schoolyard taunt. Trump gave her a pass when he only hinted at her drinking problem with comments about how much 'rest' she needed and how often. She's lucky he didn't really go after her. She has Bill to thank, once again. Trump and Bill were 'bosom' buddies and that history was too hot for either of them to let out of the bag.

    Just imagine if a courageous, intelligent adult could have simply spoken the truth about her record and her character. Bernie didn't dare because, as Wikileaks revealed, they had some kind of leverage on him which we still don't know about.

    Hillary plays the victim card but she's actually the perp. Any harm done to her has been purely self-inflicted.

    The fact is, Hillary needs a good psychiatrist instead of self-medicating with Dr. Chardonnay. It's incredible that she's been harping about fake news while she herself has been living a fake life in her own fake version of reality, and even then has to soothe it with drink. Imagine what she'd need if she had to face reality like the rest of us, especially if she was in a position of real power.

    Thank God she didn't become President.

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  2. From THE HILL

    Why Sanders would have defeated Trump in the 2016 election by Brent Budowsky

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  3. Good reads here today. This is why I buy this paper.

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  4. The NYT asks "What do you think Hillary Clinton should do in the future? What roles do you think she should take on?"

    Here's my take:

    I always thought she lacked balance in her life - it was all politics, all the time. So I'd recommend she get out of that toxic rut first of all.

    In her campaigns she was always 'finding her voice', 'finding her footing', or 're-inventing' herself or her message. According to her book, she was always bending to someone else's advice or not following her own instincts which she deeply regretted. I believe that's because she never took the personal time out to do that for herself, and I don't mean a week or two.

    She needs to finally find herself. She could start by finding a hobby or recreation, like kayaking, or bicycling around Europe. She could get more in touch with nature. Maybe go on a meditation retreat. Travel for pleasure, not for business. In other words, start having a lot more fun and relaxation, but put down the Chardonnay. Sour grapes do her no good.

    I read somewhere she was interested in the ministry,. After she finds herself, and IF she can find it in her heart, soul, and political view, she might admit her mistakes and become the public voice and people's leader of the global anti-war/peace movement to atone for her sins. What on earth could do more good for women, children, families, and the planet? No election required. The media hangs on her every word. She has financial security.

    We haven't had a high profile anti-war voice in a half-century. When Hillary discovers herself, I hope and pray that's who she finds.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/09/sunday-review/hillary-clinton-book-election.html

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  5. The NYT didn't consider my comment acceptable. Big surprise.

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  6. Annenigma: Your last comment was very gracious and sensible. However, I wonder if at her age and background she is able to throw out the old Hillary and get in touch with a new one. Money, social connections, need for praise, are a difficult system to remove from one's psyche.
    Although I detested her, one reason was that I saw an intelligent woman whose weaknesses dominated her behavior and suffocated her. I wonder if her daughter is different, but then that $10 million condo gets in the way.

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  7. Don't ya think hIllary is more of a symptom of the problem than the problem? Why obsess over her?
    And cripes, I'm no wine lover, but if she wants to have a glass of chardonnay, what is he problemt?

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  8. Kat,

    I write maybe one Hillary post a month. I wouldn't call that "obsessing".

    She jokes a lot about drinking a lot. She admits that she turned to alcohol after her defeat. Any alcoholic will downplay the disease this way in an attempt to render it harmless and comic. The symptoms are there, including her perseveration, flying in the face of all fact,and falling asleep on Election Night.


    And she is much more than just a "symptom". The Clintons were the founders of the reactionary Democratic Leadership Council and were instrumental in destroying much of FDR's New Deal. The only thing that stopped Bill Clinton's perverse secret deal with Newt Gingrich to privatize Social Security was Monica Lewinsky. (see "Listen Liberal!" among many other works of factual history for the gory details.) This woman, so derided by liberals as a "bimbo," deserves a medal. Hillary, for her part, deserves to go back into the woods.

    It's not so much that people are "obsessing" over Hillary. It's that Hillary is so obsessed with herself that she has become a laughing-stock to all but the very rich and the very privileged, whose main goal is to see the rest of stay in our proper places as we continue to be inspired and heartened by the occasional crumb. She, and they, need to challenged in this campaign of destruction.

    With any luck, even the corporate media will be so disgusted by her mean, nasty, self-serving book that we will no longer feel much need to obsess over her. As long as they keep fawning, though, we should keep obsessing.

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  9. “I was up against the Russian intelligence apparatus, a misguided FBI director, and the godforsaken Electoral College.”

    - Crooked Hillary

    "Drag a hundred-dollar bill through a trailer park, you never know what you’ll find.”

    - James Carville (D) on Bill Clinton's mistress

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  10. It will be interesting to see the reaction when she comes to Toronto at the end of September to give a speech.
    And where is Bill these days?

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  11. ... but obsessing for 9 months and passing judgment, before there's any real evidence, about alleged Trump and Russia collusion is a-ok?


    Hillary Chardonnay Clinton does indeed mention drinking every chance she can get and she's been doing that in one form or another for quite awhile, so she's brought this upon herself. There is ample proof of her enjoyment of spirits in the form of photos of her tipping a glass, bottle, or mug and having a great old time.

    During the debates she would sometimes come back from the break with a liquidy, sparkly twinkle in her eyes which was so noticeable to me that I once made a comment about it in this blog. Does she need something to keep her feeling happy and relaxed? Only Huma, and maybe Bill's old friend Trump, knows. Alcohol is absorbed first and immediately in the mouth, then in the stomach, so it's a quick hit, especially when there's already some on board.

    And how about all her trips, falls, episodes of dehydration, naps, and rests? I've seen head and facial injuries of alcoholics who are prone to falls. They claim they just ran into the door or something else (with their eyes closed?) It's the pattern that gives it away. So many alcoholics I've come to know are professionals and high-functioning, i.e. 'working alcoholics'. As a nurse I was trained to detect the signs and symptoms in anyone, part of my job or not.

    But hey, I admit it, if I was married to a known serial cheater and sexual predator but didn't have the guts or confidence to get a separation and instead chose to cover up his affairs, keep his secrets, make excuses (he was "ministering" to Monica!!!) and attack his victims, I'd probably end up an alky too.


    I agree with you, Karen. Hillary doesn't have it in her to subordinate her ego and her luxurious trappings to a cause bigger than herself. I was just projecting what I would do if I were in her shoes with all her many advantages in life. I was also thinking of Lady Diana and her work on land mines and AIDS victims.

    Can you even imagine Hillary teaming up with someone like Malala? Me neither. No humility at all. None.


    Btw, NYT closed the comments this morning, then opened them back up, then dumped a backlog from last night all out at once. Mine ended up lost somewhere in the middle.

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  12. ... but obsessing for 9 months and passing judgment, before there's any real evidence, about alleged Trump and Russia collusion is a-ok?
    Not sure where I mentioned the stupid Russian investigation or said it was "A-OK".

    And the destruction of the new deal was a long process that began well before Clinton gained the presidency. How did it come about? How are ideas spread?

    Why are we speculating on Hillary's alcohol abuse? Must everything come down to some personal pathology?

    Hillary lost. This changed nothing. Honestly, it seems like neoliberal ideas are everywhere. When someone who is a "proud Sanders supporter" is exhorting individuals to patronize a business that is following a social enterprise model (something I read recently on a neighborhood message board) you just have to say "I give up".

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  13. Annenigma,

    You nailed it yourself. Hillary is certainly no Princess Diana. She doesn't even make a pretense of embracing Noblesse Oblige. But as you say, there's always room for her to become a professional church lady. Maybe she can give Joel Osteen a run for his money with her own mega-church.

    Speaking of obsessing, despite the fact that I am no longer an obsessive New York Times reader or commenter, I checked out the homepage yesterday in between bouts of watching Anderson Cooper in his tight black t-shirt waiting in vain in Tampa Bay for the gusts of wind - which would be his cue to tilt his bod at a 45 degree angle as he fought Irma and make us forget about all the poor souls who fought Irma in vain. Maybe it happened when I was sleeping. If so, I apologize.

    Anyway, the top-trending story was the one about Hillary and What She Should Do. So she did end up fighting Irma and winning during the height of the storm after all. Sadly,though, she was down to Number Nine on Monday morning, having been unfairly replaced by Steve Bannon.


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  14. Annenigma,
    you write about what you would do if you were born with Hillary's privilege. I ask this with all sincerity-- how do you know what person you would be if you grew up like her? I am never sure about myself whether I had grown up with less or more privilege as well as other circumstances what sort of person I would be.
    I don't think the wealthy donor classes are sadists that want to keep us in their place. I think it is more likely that a person such as myself is just not real to them. We are so far divided. At most, I am just a mark to make money off of. Anyway, I think for the most part we are all a mixed bag-- capable of goodness and selfishness. Focusing on individuals lets unjust or unfair systems go unquestioned.
    One of the more ridiculous sideshows following the election was Bernie Sanders purchase of a 500K lake house-- I believe his third house. On one side we heard "what a socialist! Why isn't he donating that money!" (this tends to be the belief on the right-- that to be a socialist (not that Bernie "socialism! Like Sweden!" Sanders is an actual socialist) means that you give all your wealth away. On the other side, we had the whole cult o' personality Sanders supporters saying "what a modest lake house! A modest lake house! For me, I can't imagine describing any second home as "modest". Anyway, what we weren't discussing was how is it that so many people have substandard housing which they are paying half their income to and others have more than one home ("modest" or not). Why are beautiful places increasingly privatized and off limits to so many?

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  15. I just read an amazing take Hillary has on Orwell's 1984:

    "The goal is to make you question logic and reason and to sow mistrust toward exactly the people we need to rely on: our leaders, the press, experts who seek to guide public policy."

    - Crooked Hillary on Orwell's 1984

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