Wow, wottan election. Just before this last debate, the Internet was abuzz with the news that Julian Assange's Internet was cut off by the Ecuadorian embassy; this apparently triggered a dead-man drop of new documents. Some company named T&C Enterprises, the apparent owner of the Todd and Claire Dates Website, released an accusation that Julian Assange groomed an eight-year-old girl online. Naturally, both Assange and his team said it was a false accusation; Wikileaks' statement is here
Of course, someone like me is prone to believe Wikileaks :)
But the story gets even weirder from here. About 24 hours ago, a /pol-fag at 4Chan started digging up who really owned T&C. Others joined in, and that led to a sleuthing drive that went down a pretty durn deep rabbit hole. You'll see how deep by reading this sleuth thread If you don't have time - I don't blame you if you don't! - a helpful anon drew up a nice infographic which you'll have to click to read at full size. EmtyLightHouse wrote a helpful summary. The tl;dr: at the bottom of the rabbit hole, you will find some good friends of Hillary...and of John Podesta.
I can't think of any better way to capture the surrealism of this year's Presidential election than to say: this election, 4Chan - 4Chan!! - is now a political force.
To be shockingly frank, I half-expected 4Chan /pol/ to be mentioned in the debate! Yes, folks, 2016 has really been that surreal.
Same Old, Same Old
In many respects, this last debate was a lot of the same old, same old. It took this long for me to figure out the kind of person that would see Hillary as oh-so-much better than The Donald. She appeals best to those who believe that "articulate" => "trustworthy". The same type of folks do see outspokenness as a turn-off, so they're naturally inclined to think of Donald as disreputable.
Hillary largely stuck to her same old, same old talking points. In the first half-hour of the debate, she showed her chameleon side. She not only said that she would appoint a special trade prosecutor "for the first time in history", but she also said that she supports "an individual right to bear arms." When I heard both of those, I wondered how a Bernie Sanders fan would react. Not because of guns or trade, but because she was showing the same co-optive color-change that she's already shown to the Bernie fans.
Interestingly, she did get off one successful heckle near the end of the debate that got a laugh out of the audience. She managed to pull off a thunder-steal that's been a signature move of Donald Trump. Chinese steel...
Earlier, during the section on border security, Donald himself pulled a maneuver that had the fingerprints of Ted Cruz's advice. If you've been in debating clubs, you know that one of the masterstrokes is to convince the judges/audience that the opposition - without them knowing it - has argued your case for you. Donald pulled that one during the section on border security, when he said more that once "Hillary [when she was a Senator] voted for the wall!"
So both candidates stepped out of themselves in ways that benefited them.
Donald stuck to the same old, same old as well. He did mention the Project Veritas Action stings, but the bulk of his thunderings contained the same old themes.
The final section, on the national debt, is one where jaded folks like us know that both candidates are going to pour out the magic syrup. We know quite well that the debt-based fiat money system is going to careen to its inevitable ending. But until then, it's going to keep growin' the way it's growin'. We all know that the national debt is going to be increased even if Pepe the Frog get voted into the Oval Office.
So, the point where any candidate discusses how he or she is going to balance the budget is the point where you see most clearly what brand of syrup the candidate is peddling. In Hillary's case, the snake oil is "Investment". Spend now, save later. She seems unaware that this exact same result, though with different buzz-words, was promised by Lyndon Johnson back in 1965. He sold his Great Society programs by claiming that they would be good for the budget some time down the road.
Trump's syrup, on the other hand, was "growth." We'll grow our way outta dis. Well, you can't say the feller ain't an optimist...
Speaking of libertarian-oriented matters, Hillary's full-throated defense of the pro-choice position says all you need to know about the success of Libertarianism these days. Weirdly, the Progressives who are eager to regulate everything in sight sound almost Libertarian when abortion comes up. In this twisted world, the pro-life activists have been sneakily restricting abortion by clothing those restrictions in the same regulatory rationale that Hillary's folks apply to...virtually everything in the economy. I say flatly: it's abortion, the right of a woman to freely choose whether or not to abort her baby, that's given libertarianism the political and cultural leverage it enjoys.
Overall, this last same-old, same-old debate was a wash like prior last one. No knock-out punch, no unforced errors big enough to sway the thing, no clear winner. Naturally, this means that both sides will claim victory and the Conservatives will trash the moderator. :)
It's nice to have some stability in a world where 4Chan is important enough for Correct The Record to pay people to shitpost there...
So much to look forward to in 2017!!! Some of you may think we've hit Peak Weird, but I don't.