Hillary Clinton gave this speech just a few days after the Comey letter dropped, an event that prompted The New York Times to publish an edition with this all-caps headline: “NEW EMAILS JOLT CLINTON CAMPAIGN IN RACE’S LAST DAYS” [PDF].
The most prophetic 2 minutes and 44 seconds in American history is:@HillaryClinton warning us about @realDonaldTrump’s ties to Russia…
…8 days BEFORE the 2016 election.pic.twitter.com/0cfevk7Jtr
— Ryan Knight ?? (@ProudResister) November 30, 2018
I hope Clinton gets some satisfaction from the knowledge that she was right about everything. I doubt it’s much comfort since Clinton doesn’t seem to be the sort of person who sees herself as the center of the universe.
Of course, Trump thinks the sun rises and sets in his pants, and we can see how disastrous it is to put someone like that in charge of a large, rich, diverse, heavily armed country. But less malevolent manifestations of the same pathology greased the skids toward our present catastrophe.
Comey is one example. Following boring old FBI protocol wasn’t good enough for a world-bestriding colossus such as Comey, so he inserted himself into the race, and disaster followed.
The front page of that infamous Times edition showcased another example of the “I am the cosmos” syndrome that was instrumental in bringing a once-great nation low: Clinton beat reporter Amy Chozick, whose byline appeared on an article entitled “With 11 Days to Go, Trump Says Revelation ‘Changes Everything.'”
As y’all may know, Chozick wrote a memoir of her time covering the Clinton campaigns in 2008 and 2016. Her book has been optioned for a TV series, which I sincerely hope is the biggest flop in history. That’s not just me being catty (though I am) — it’s a desire NOT to see someone rewarded for doing a shitty job because we’ll get even more of that behavior.
Anyhoo, in a Guardian interview/book review published in April but newly relevant in light of the revelations about Trump’s Russia ties, Chozick attempts introspection, but it leads right back to her own goddamned navel, as always:
“It’s dizzying to realize that without even knowing it, you’ve ended up on the wrong side of history,” Chozick writes, highlighting the difficulty of reporting on hacked emails belonging to Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta. There is almost a tacit admission that perhaps there was some fairness to the Clinton campaign’s repeated suggestion that reporters did not take seriously the alarms they sounded over the Russians and their role in the hacks of Podesta and the Democratic National Committee.
Chozick said Chelsea Clinton’s reaction to her book was part of why she often “felt defeated”. “To be immediately greeted with antagonism when you’re writing something that was pretty sympathetic and self-reflective reminded me of the constant state of play in the campaign where you just can’t win,” she said.
“You write a positive story, there’s something they hate about it.”
Yeah, that’s the important thing here — [sob] “Chelsea haaaaaaates me!”
This post was originally intended to be about Clinton’s prescience, and it is. But it seemed incomplete without showcasing the astounding incompetence and hubris that obscured her prescience. It wasn’t just Comey, and her delusions of grandeur aside, Chozick was merely a bit player, but she’s emblematic of a much larger problem.
It pisses a certain type of person off when a woman is right — not just sexist men, but sometimes grown-ass women who still haven’t gotten over their mommy issues or those who see an advantage for themselves in siding with men to oppose a powerful woman. Call it the Curse of Cassandra.
It’s depressing, but here we are, and I don’t know how we solve this problem.
TenguPhule
Sometimes Justice is delivered unexpectedly.
TenguPhule
Half of the media would go out of business.
/Not that that’s a bad thing, mind you
Betty Cracker
Big earthquake in Alaska, according to the Twitters.
different-church-lady
Well, maybe she should have.
Amy: it’s not your job to be liked. It’s not your job to be hated. It’s your job to report objectively. Grow up.
Cathie from Canada
And now Nancy Pelosi is being described as “relentless” in her campaign for speaker — a harsh cold adjective that seems to be reserved now for a woman who dares to seek a position which naturally belongs to a man.
Miss Bianca
Damn, Betty C, you are so right.
The thing that has made me so furious is the misogyny that fueled the Clinton-Pelosi-Warren-Walters-any strong woman leader-bashing, and the concomitant Trump-fluffing, in the media.
gene108
What always pissed me off about the email coverage was that these were stolen documents being selectively leaked. By covering the emails like they did the media was rewarding the thieves.
There should be consequences for such behavior, but sadly there aren’t
jc
I want to see Hillary (and Obama, Biden, Bernie etc.) come out and loudly start asking pointed questions: Is Trump’s presidency legitimate? Why does the president and his family keep lying about their activities during the 2016 campaign? Why are they so arrogant about their clearly suspicious deals and secret arrangements? When will they come clean and tell the truth to the American public?
It’s time for Dems to start sticking it to the Republicans, like the Rs would be doing if any Dem dared to be anywhere near as corrupt.
Team Trump secretly offered a foreign adversary a $50 million “gift” in the middle of a campaign in which that adversary sabotaged their political opponent. Nothing to see here folks … but the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency.
A Ghost To Most
I have come to the conclusion that HRC may do a better service to America in losing than in winning. Trump has exposed all the corruption and rot in the GOP, and opened many previously closed eyes.
TenguPhule
@jc:
The Democrats we elected to office have integrity. So, sadly, not able to get down and dirty in the Republican’s pig pen.
TenguPhule
@A Ghost To Most:
I have come to the conclusion that I prefer the alternate timeline where she won and Donald Trump committed suicide by shooting himself in the back and then throwing himself out of his Trump tower window.
Elizabelle
@A Ghost To Most: That’s what I think.
And Hillary, IMHO, did not lose. She was denied the presidency she deserved and earned. However, this whole cataclysm may be what we have to go through as the Republican party is destroyed. It’s an actual danger to family and national security.
Whole thing is a tragedy.
PPCLI
@gene108: Not only were they being selectively leaked, but each leak was accompanied by framing descriptions from Wikileaks that were wildly inaccurate. Rather than read the emails themselves, which were typically completely innocuous, work-allergic journalists would run with the distorted Wikileaks framing that suggested something horrifying was being said. Wikileaks played the American media for fools, and the media can’t bear to admit it.
Eljai
I’m with ya there. My hope is that all of Dump’s corruption is revealed and that it is so vast and mindblowing that it renders Amy’s little TV show irrelevant before it even hits the screen.
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: NPR hourly news recap didn’t say anything about a large quake. Although I was not listening intently …
TenguPhule
Who did Nazi this coming?
gene108
@jc:
Outside of dedicated partisans, like ourselves, such aggressive tactics would be a turn off to potential Democratic voters.
For us to win consistently, we need to appeal to and motivate irregular voters to come to the polls and these are people, who already have a cynical view of government and political parties. Copying Republican smear tactics, instead of focusing on good government will be a turn off.
kindness
I will never give the NY Times a dime of my money ever again. I haven’t read it regularly since I moved away from NY in the 70’s so no real big. But I do recall several well meaning ‘progressives’ telling us in 2016 that we all need to get subscriptions to the Times. I bought the digital subscription to the WaPo instead and am so happy that was my call.
TenguPhule
@PPCLI:
Pride cometh before the fall.
TenguPhule
1. Never Happened. Fake News
2. Okay it happened but it was over before the election started
3. What about Hillary Clinton?
4. Okay I did it but it was completely legal! <— we are here.
Elizabelle
@Eljai: Yeah. Amy’s TV series and Haberman’s tell all. No place for either. Past their sellby dates and nothing new to say except “sorry”, for which they lack the self-awareness.
I hope karma hits both of them hard.
It was delicious that the NY Times had to correct the first few paragraphs — literally — of Amy’s book excerpt in the FTF NY Times magazine since she opened with a slam on Chelsea Clinton that could not be confirmed. The readers called her out in real time and it had to be changed. That was rather unforgettable, and would be a cautionary tale if we had a press and media environment that was not all about $$$.
Mandalay
@jc:
You have a point, but three of the four people you named are no longer active politicians, and the fourth is not even a Democrat, and is disowned by most folks here. It’s Democrats in Congress who should be stepping up to the plate.
Some do – in particular I think Maxine Waters and Adam Schiff have made sustained and effective attacks on the Administration – but others….not so much. Schumer’s performance since Trump became president has been pathetic.
Betty Cracker
@Elizabelle: It was a 7.0 with a tsunami warning, according to NWS in Anchorage.
SRW1
A true Cracker, that formulation.
Adam L Silverman
@Betty Cracker: Tsunami warnings have been issued.
gwangung
@gene108:
However, being relentless in pursuing our principles should work. What’s turned off many voters is too many compromises in bedrock Democratic values for little gain or being afraid of being termed “contentious”, “non-bipartisan” or “not collegial.”
TenguPhule
Is that it? Did we get him?
gene108
@TenguPhule:
If the victim was not a veteran police officer, I doubt anything would have happened to the perpetrators.
Amir Khalid
Unfortunately, Chozick has already been paid for the TV adaptation rights. If it flops she doesn’t have to give a penny of it back.
A Ghost To Most
@Elizabelle: Yes, HRC did not lose. It was stolen. Poor choice of words.
The GOP would have gone along its fascist way, demanding their way AND breaking shit. Shit Hitler reveals the corruption, and people are starting to notice. They are back on their heels now. Time to push them off the cliff.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman: Damn. Now we get to wait and hope its not a tsunami.
Kay
Let’s go to the record:
Clinton’s complaints were public- and specific- and Chozick never addressed them but instead decided to go with “antagonistic”
Which shouldn’t inspire a whole lot of confidence in her reporting. since we all read this exchange as it happened.
I’m with you, Betty. I hope her tv series flops. Maybe the NYTimes could find a reporter who isn’t writing a book and creating a personal brand while sidelining in election coverage. Just do the job.
Elizabelle
@Adam L Silverman:
That tsunami warning is strangely beautiful. Reminds one of “The Wave” and boy is it.
Adam L Silverman
@Cathie from Canada: Something like this?
And before anyone starts, I like Pelosi and think she’ll once again be an excellent Speaker of the House. And she needs to be relentless and determined and whole host of other things to make sure that the House functions and does its job.
Kay
I love the cluelessness that says that the public really want to re-live the incredibly crappy job the NYTimes did in the 2016 election.
That’s how fucking arrogant these people are. Once wasn’t enough- we need a book and a tv series about the NYTimes coverage of Hillary Clinton. This is like a 25 year franchise they;ve created- whole careers are based on Clinton-bashing. We’re now on the second generation.
Sasha
This is why Hillary shouldn’t run in 2020 — she is a living reminder of how everyone was wrong about everything and (even worse) that she was right about everything.
It’s arguable that people prefer to be happy than right, but it’s my experience that people would rather remain unhappy rather than admit they’re wrong.
Too many folk would rather stick broken glass up their urethra rather than admit they were wrong by casting a vote for Hillary.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: You forgot while in the bathtub and fully dressed. If you don’t have that, no one would believe it is a suicide.
Peale
@gene108: They wanted them to confirm the Hillary that they made up was the “real” Hillary. They wanted that scope where Hillary wrote to her lesbian lover about how much she hated men and planning a meal of Vince Foster’s kidneys. There was nothing there. That’s what so aggravating about the e-mail scandal. “Maybe this batch will finally sink this bitch” was how they were pitched.
A Ghost To Most
@Mandalay: Schumer is a complete waste as Minority Leader. No detectable spine.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule:
Aleta
She felt defeated by CC’s reaction to her book …
TenguPhule
@Sasha:
The offer is acceptable.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman: I am shocked, shocked to find gambling going on here. : |
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@A Ghost To Most: @Elizabelle: I’m somewhere in that neighborhood, but have trouble putting into a coherent thought, even for myself. I don’t doubt that a Clinton presidency would’ve been bogged down in hearings, and we might well be in some impeachment twilight zone by now, and trump arguably could have done more damage to our polity as a loser ranting and bellowing about a stolen election than having won the electoral college.
But I don’t know if the scales have fallen completely from enough eyes, and not just the tote-bagger types who close their eyes and think of a tax cut, or the dolts who think “they’re all corrupt so it doesn’t matter”. And on our side, from the meatheads challenging Pelosi to the yahoos who think the real enemy is moderate Democrats, and somehow there’s overlap between those two groups.
A Ghost To Most
@Adam L Silverman: Another is how many items in the Steele dossier have been proven accurate.
gene108
@gwangung:
I am old enough to remember, when liberal was a dirty word no politician wanted to be labeled with. From 1988 to 2014, liberal was a label politicians wanted to avoid. That started changing in the 2016 campaign.
I think the desire to compromise was part of trying to avoid the liberal label.
But I think conservatism, has become so bankrupt of anything positive to contribute to society that politicians do not see a reason to compromise anymore. There a clear demarcations like voting rights, gay rights, economic rights for ordinary people, etc that cannot be compromised.
The Moar You Know
Yes, everyone should be nice to you when you are torpedoing their campaign. That’s…pretty fucking self-obsessed.
Does anyone make a garbage disposal that will fit a reporter?
Amir Khalid
@Sasha:
I’m surprised that, two years after Hillary definitively stated she would never run for office again, there are people who still feel the need to argue against her running for office.
A Ghost To Most
@Sasha: Is that you, BorisInPutinland? Long time no see.
TenguPhule
@Amir Khalid:
“No means yes and yes means anal.” //
TenguPhule
@A Ghost To Most: All of em, Katie!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
also, why are people so obsessed with Chelsea Clinton? That trump-supporting gay couple whose story was buzzing around twitter the other day said the same thing: Chelsea snubbed them at some Manhattan restaurant. Reminded me of Cornel West and the Inauguration tickets.
A Ghost To Most
@The Moar You Know: It’s commonly called a wood chipper.
arrieve
@Elizabelle: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” I keep thinking of that quote more and more these days.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: Yep, you and Lester Holt have broken this thing wide open. Take the rest of the day off.
Adam L Silverman
@A Ghost To Most: Yep.
Elizabelle
@arrieve: I know. Upton Sinclair nailed it. (I usually assume that’s a quote from George Orwell, but no.)
(And hope you are all better from the travel illness. No lasting effects, save a desire to travel again and far, soonest.)
Adam L Silverman
@The Moar You Know: I believe the Saudis have one.
A Ghost To Most
@arrieve: I fervently believe that, but would add “or social standing” to salary.
arrieve
@Elizabelle: Thanks for the kind thoughts! I am much much better. The viral secondary infection seems to finally be gone. It affected my heart which is still slow but I can actually focus on something other than how I feel 99% of the time, which is a blessing.
catclub
@A Ghost To Most: and yet the rest of his caucus has not booted him out. Maybe they want him there.
trollhattan
@Adam L Silverman:
7.2 is big but luckily, miniscule compared to the 9.2 Great Alaska Quake of ’64. Still, keep your eyes open, Crescent City and Hilo.
Elizabelle
@arrieve: I was sorry that happened at all. Were you in Rwanda? Remember it was somewhere exceptional.
trollhattan
The Hillary clip reminds me of when somebody would make a speech using words arranged in understandable sentences to deliver meaningful information. Those were golden days.
mapaghimagsik
Cassandra was cursed by the gods. Women are cursed by dipshits
Jim, Foolish Literalist
trump has never understood that Putin sees him as a useful idiot, a tool for destabilizing the US. Putin is just laughing at him. I”m sure Vlad will sneak up on him for a photo op just because he (Vlad) knows trump is trying to avoid him at the moment. Does the dumb Beast have any idea what he’s in for if the Russians decide he’s more use to them as a humiliated POTUS than propped up? I’m speculating, of course, but feel pretty sure they have dirt on him. More about finances than hookers and pee.
Gretchen
@Elizabelle: It wasn’t that it couldn’t be confirmed – it was flat out wrong. Chelsea pointed out that she wasn’t drinking champagne because she was home and pregnant. Chosik took that as Chelsea being mean to her, expecting fact-checking and all.
arrieve
@Elizabelle: Yes, Rwanda. I’ll submit the pictures to On the Road in the next couple of days — reminded by the beautiful Botswana pictures this morning.
WhatsMyNym
Regarding the Marriott International related hack, it was the reservation system for their Starwood group of hotels…
(via CNN)
Sasha
@Amir Khalid: Not arguing against it. (God knows that if any politician deserves to run for President again and win, it’s a dead heat between her and Gore.) I’m just offering an opinion.
That said, I have seen a number of Hillary2020 boosters out there. I don’t get it either.
Sasha
@A Ghost To Most:
Not bad. Enjoying Florida. Winter was two days ago (single day dip into the 50s). :)
The Moar You Know
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: They have so decided. Russian media wouldn’t be dragging him otherwise. It’s not like they choose what to report on or how to report on it.
Emerald
@Sasha:
Even worse: it wouldn’t stop. They’d do it again, and harder this time. They can never admit that they smeared her throughout the campaign with a story that turned out to be completely bogus. They can never admit that the story was completely bogus.
Notice that whenever she puts her head above the battlements they shoot at her again. The NYT will never stop, and neither will the rest of the media. If they had the 2016 election to do over again with total hindsight they would do the same thing, with increased gusto.
I do predict, however, that 20 years from now (or it might take longer, but it will happen) numerous PhDs will be earned by dissecting the media coverage in the 2016 election and concluding that it was the major cause of Orangeymandiyus’s “victory.”
I just hope I’m still alive and moderately conscious when History sets things straight.
MisterForkbeard
…wasn’t Chelsea Clinton’s immediate reaction that Chozick had made up an anecdote about popping champagne on Election Day when some exit polls came in… and hadn’t even asked Chelsea Clinton (or Hillary, or Bill) if it had happened? She just had a “good” sounding anecdote and ran with it, only grudgingly backing off and then blaming the Clintons for hating on her without real cause?
Because that was a microcosm of the entire press coverage of Hillary Clinton. Loudly take something out of context, report on something that MIGHT have happened, and then very quietly update your story without an apology when it turns out you’re full of shit?
EDIT:@Kay: I see you got here before me. Amy Chozick remains a terrible, self-centered journalist.
Nicole
I’m with you, Betty- I don’t know what to do about that kind of entrenched misogyny. I got into it with some friends (not mean; just fervently) on FB yesterday about it, and it was astounding to see these, ostensibly liberal friends, both men and women, spout some really retro attitudes. I’m so tired of women politicians being called “opportunists” and hearing things like, “she just gives me a queasy feeling.” Never, ever, will they say those things about men politicians.
I just finished doing a lesser-known Tennessee Williams play, and the character I played (one of my favorites, ever) spends a lot of time telling the other characters truths about themselves. In return, the other characters (almost all men) call her drunk and crazy throughout the play, and insult and belittle her. No joke, midway through the run, I thought, “Holy cow, the character is Hillary Clinton. She’s always right and everyone hates her for it.”
Gin & Tonic
@The Moar You Know: Ukraine’s Channel 5’s (TV) Moscow correspondent today called the Russian reaction “hysteria bordering on insanity” with respect to the canceled meeting with Putin.
MisterForkbeard
@Sasha: I see quite a few commenters on facebook every time Hillary posts. There’s a lot of people who thank her for her service, quite a few people who wish she was president, and more than a few who say “Hillary 2020!” or something similar. There’s also a lot of trolls and BernieBros hating on her.
But I don’t see anyone of significance or a large organic following begging her to run again. There’s no “draft Hillary” movement, and Hillary plainly doesn’t want to run again. I keep having to explain this to people whenever the latest “Hillary is secretly running for president and will ruin everything arglebargle!” article is manufactured out of whole cloth.
Mnemosyne
@mapaghimagsik:
As with so many of their myths, the ancient Greeks observed a real phenomenon and then made up a bullshit reason why it happens.
The problem isn’t that men don’t listen to women — the problem is that the gods made men unable to hear women’s voices! True fact!
Elizabelle
@Mnemosyne: LOL. One way to look at it.
prostratedragon
This goes here, regarding the burdens of young reporters:
“Quejas de bandoneon [Moans of a Bandoneon],” Troilo and Orchestra
Enhanced Voting Techniques
That, Hillary was punished for being right, that’s a not a gender thing, that’s part of the excessive entitlement culture of the elite right now. Her being a woman might have enhanced it, but the rage would have been be there if Hillary was a man. Being right when they are wrong is like rape an pedophilia, another privilege to them.
J R in WV
@The Moar You Know:
Yes, they’re called wood chippers and can take a log and reduce it to shavings.
Butter Emails!!!
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
They’re wrong all the time. One would think they would be used to it by now.
catclub
@WhatsMyNym:
so not very long, compared with the Roman Empire
catclub
@prostratedragon: I have seen a bandoneon played, apparently the german inventor palmed it off on the Argentines.
It has different fingerings depending on whether the bellows are going in or going out.
WhatsMyNym
@catclub: But before they bought the company.
Miss Bianca
@Mnemosyne: You are, of course, aware that Apollo punished Cassandra specifically for rejecting Apollo’s advances, which she wasn’t supposed to do, even tho’ she was a priestess and all.
“Who will believe thee,” indeed.
ETA: She probably had the temerity to accuse him of sexual assault, as well as refusing to be assaulted.
Chetan Murthy
Which is part of why it’s so delicious, that Nancy SMASH has all their numbers. That, and that she’s my tribune! Ha! But mostly the former.
And yeah, Hillary. Was. Right.
J R in WV
The gods made men incapable of hearing the voices of women. That’s pretty good, that is. Right there is half of what’s wrong in most of society today. Just ask your wife.
Many years ago I heard what I suspect is an old saying: “If Momma isn’t happy, nobody’s happy!” Suspect Trump never believed this saying. May have never heard it, wouldn’t believe it if he did hear it.
I believe it. If everybody isn’t happy, no one is happy. Including Momma.
Chetan Murthy
@Miss Bianca:
This has a long, long history. Even back in the early ’90s, Edith Cresson was being described in negative terms regarding her negotiation skills and tactics, for being implacable and difficult to extract compromises from. Even back then, even back then, it was clear that if she’d been a man, she’d have been a “stick to his guns, knows what he stands for, not one to yield” kinda guy. Sheesh. And I’m sure others can adduce examples going back as far as biography itself.
Jack the Second
@A Ghost To Most: I would take Hillary Clinton in the White House and the GOP stumbling along, Republican control of both chambers of Congress, with no new judges appointed to any bench for the last two or next two years, over the status quo.
JustRuss
These f’ing people. Next time I deliberately disregard the ethics of my profession to screw up royally, nice to know i just have to say “Huh, somehow I seem to have ended up on the wrong side of history!” and all will be well. Because personal responsibility is ALWAYS for other people.