You're Not Helping

I don't know what to make of this article chastising men for what the author calls "benevolent sexism."

It's a symptom on the overboard sense of individual prerogatives these days that you can somehow pick not only your allies, but how they express their allegiance.  That's not really how it works.

The Louis CK bit was hilarious and on-point.  It was caustic and crude as his stuff usually is, but it makes arguably one of the best arguments for Clinton I've heard.  The assertion that he's somehow wanting Clinton to be the stay-at-home mom of democracy is ridiculous.  He's not arguing for her moral purity, in fact just the opposite.  He says he wants a "conniving bitch-mom who gets shit done."  He's not making a Victorian argument about the moral superiority of women, he's arguing that women work harder than men.

From my perspective, I have a hard time seeing the sexism in that.

Ignorance Is Not Strength

Matthew Yglesias makes an important point.  Rarely has a discussion of policy been so absent from media coverage of an election.  Next week we elect a new president, a new House and a third of the Senate.  This will lead the country in one direction or another.  We have not had a discussion about what direction that will be.

Trump will largely carry out Paul Ryan's economic plan while harassing minorities.  That means something.  That means a lot more than his personal moral emptiness or Clinton's emails.

The GOP is wedded to a frighteningly extreme economic and fiscal agenda.  Electing them next week would have dramatic consequences.

But if you watched or read the news, you'd have no idea this was true.

Some of this is Clinton's fault.  I understand why they made Trump's personality their central line of attack.  The decision, however, abandons the policy discussion that could further sink him.

Trumpism

I remain oddly optimistic about the election a week from today.  I certainly hope that optimism is warranted.

A few items have come out in the last 24 hours that deserve attention.

First, we have a report that there was consistent and suspicious contact between a server in Trump's offices and a bank in Russia with ties to Putin.

Second, we have a veteran intelligence officer convinced Trump has been cultivated as a Russian pawn.

This is almost certainly what Harry Reid was referring to when he accused Comey of a double standard in releasing his Friday letter and not releasing his investigation into Trump's apparent contacts with Russia and Putin.  There is obviously the additional information that Russia clearly hacked the DNC and that Putin has a history of engaging in ratfucking Western elections.

This fits in nicely with a piece by Jon Chait about how Libertarians like Peter Thiel and perhaps Paul Ryan are despairing of democracy.  If your goal is to funnel wealth upwards - and that has clearly been the GOP modus operandi for 36 years - then you are unlikely to find much support among the great mass of the voting populace.  So, you engage and activate the ethnic and racial resentments of white Americans to win elections.

If that doesn't work, then to hell with elections.

Chait goes on in a longer piece about how the GOP is increasingly becoming an authoritarian party, with no respect for democratic governing norms.  We now know that a GOP controlled Senate will not confirm any of Clinton's Supreme Court nominees because they simply don't give a shit about democracy anymore.  The GOP has abandoned the very idea and practice of governing.  They control a co-equal branch of government, but they simply won't do the basic tasks of governing.

Norm Ornstein's thesis that the GOP has become a radical insurgency within American politics has never looked more true.  And that is separate from the phenomenon of Trump.  Trump isn't wildly out of step with the GOP elite, he's simply embarrassing them by not using his inside voice.  He's a personal disaster, but his threats to democracy?  Whatever.  In the end, Paul Ryan can look back Trump's "textbook racism", veiled and not so veiled threats of violence and virulent misogyny to support someone who will give him power.

The GOP was headed to a historic defeat last week.  Right now, we have a deficit of polling, as I imagine everyone pulled their polls after Comey's letter.  We are stuck looking at shitty tracking polls.  If this letter gives us Trump, I weep for our country.  But if it merely preserves GOP control of the Senate and removes the ability of the Democrats to win the House, I shall weep still.

There simply isn't a margin big enough to teach the GOP to stop violating the norms that govern our governance.  

Presumption Of Guilt

Yglesias on how the Clinton Rules have rendered basic ideas of justice moot, as long as the target is named Clinton.

Why We Are In The Gutter

James Comey felt the need to cover his ass by releasing information about an on-going investigation ten days before an election.  This is unprecedented and against Justice Department rules and norms.

Democrats are beginning to push back, with Harry Reid waiving the Hatch Act around and Steve Cohen calling on him to resign.  In many ways, this is lamentable.  I've never been a real fan of "Democrats should fight dirty because Republicans fight dirty."  I think the Party of Governance should hold itself to a higher standard.

Comey was clearly more scared of getting attacked by Republican lawmakers than Democratic lawmakers.  He was scared of rogue agents within the FBI leaking this info to the press, primarily because they tilt Republican in Hooverville.  In other words, the FBI shows signs of becoming a partisan outfit.

If the Democrats don't counterpunch, this won't stop.  What Comey did was craven, and it might or might not have an effect on the election.  My thinking is that it stops the possibility of a wave election that might carry the House.  If we allow people within the civil service to influence our elections, we are screwed as a country.

So, counterpunch away, fellas.

I'm Going To Miss Harry Reid

Harry Reid may or may not have inside information about Donald Trump's ties to Russia.  I would honestly say it's 50/50 that he does.  Because Harry Reid doesn't give a fuck.

So, he's more than willing to accuse James Comey of violating the Hatch Act and working to help Republicans (Comey is a Republican after all).  If he's wrong, he's retiring anyway. If he can force the FBI to release damaging information about Trump's ties to Russia?

That would make him a steely-eyed missile man.

Your Weekend Read

Susan Faludi explains where Hillary hatred begins and why it needs to be defeated.

If History Be Our Guide...

I'm guessing there is zero or close to zero new information in those new emails found on the shared computer of Huma Abedin and walking human sewer Anthony Weiner.

The FBI was investigating Weiner.  They found emails to Clinton.  They have to investigate.  At this point, they could be looking at emails that they already have seen from Clinton's end.

For 20+ years, we've been living through this same dismal, fucking cycle: Horrifying Headlines; Conditional Caveat; Walking Back the Allegation; Inevitable Deescalation.  Remind me again what was so awful about the Clinton Foundation?  Remind again what was so terrible about Whitewater?

As Ezra Klein notes this gives both sides what they want.  It allows Republicans to think that they might actually win and it allows Democrats to freak out and run around sure that they are going to lose.  That latter is so freaking depressing it hurts my brain.

The real issue is unlikely to be whether Clinton wins the White House.  My guess is that most voters have made up their minds about this race by now.  The issue, as Martin Longman points out, is that this arrests the possibility of a wave election that sweeps Democrats to control of the House.  Such a result is not only preferable from a partisan point of view, but having Democrats control all three branches of government for even two years would allow for some actual governing to occur.  Republicans are simply unwilling or unable to accomplish basic tasks of legislating, so a few years of having a functioning Congress would be awesome.

This feels like a procedural nothing-burger that could wreck American politics even more.

UPDATE: Josh Marshall points out that Comey managed to make an untenable and impossible position and make it worse.

The Other Shoe

I've been expecting another round of bad Trump leaks to drop any day now.  I figured about 10 days out from the election - on a Friday - would be a good time to drop some opposition research out there.

Turns out it was the FBI that was waiting to drop a bomb.

It certainly seems like this is just due diligence, and I am willing to bet the farm there is nothing especially damning in whatever they discovered.  In short, the big issue here again is the Clinton family tendency to let a scandal bleed out and play poorly, rather than ripping the Band Aid off quickly.

No doubt this will also embolden morons like Rep. Chaffetz who want to relitigate Benghazi, the Clinton Foundation, Vince Foster, the Lindbergh baby and Jack the Ripper.

However, if the Clintons are holding on to a nice juicy piece of Trump being an asshole, now might be the time to let it fly.

You Need To Read This

Zach Beauchamp basically lays out - yet again - why David Brooks is fundamentally illiterate about the politics of this country.

If you don't understand the history of race, you don't understand America.  Not its past.  Not its future.  And certainly not its present.

Bad News/Good News

The Trump campaign wants to engage in voter suppression.

Luckily they don't have enough money to do it well.

What Is White Privilege?

This is white privilege.

Radical Transparency

Here is what might be an interesting discussion on the WikiLeaks dumping of John Podesta's emails.  (I don't know, I'm proctoring an essay and can't listen to it.)

I will admit that I find Glenn Greenwald an insufferable douchecanoe who lives in the sort of Magical Unicorn Land of Brightly Colored Pixies that typifies a certain type of Libertarian Narcissist.
But I wanted to talk about the very idea of "radical transparency."  Klein, apparently, feels that there should be limits to this transparency, because - SURPRISE! - it might be applied to her.  It turns out that taking pot shots at the powerful isn't so much fun when you yourself become a public figure.

I would argue even further that the very idea of radical transparency is corrosive of democratic government.

By all means, government ACTIONS should be transparent.  Bills should not be forced through a vote in the middle of the night without sufficient public review.  The deliberation that go into writing a law absolutely should be secret.  The horse-trading and log-rolling that typified legislating prior to the Tea Party and the radical transparency movement is what made the whole freaking mess work.  American democracy didn't work because it was "super awesome with terrific sauce" but because it consisted - from the very drafting of the Constitution - in a series of backroom deals and compromises.

The radical transparency movement seeks to destroy that climate of private deal making.  This is the ultimate expression of purity politics.  We expect elected officials to agree with us all the time, and if they deviate from the One True Faith, we shall excommunicate and crucify them.  This is more true on the Tea Party right, but certainly represents a powerful force on Left.

Hillary Clinton is - in many ways - the perfect person for this moment.  She is very adept at backroom dealing and compromise. She's a doer.  And she's also completely out of fucks to give about how people view her.  She probably resents being called Killary or Shillary by her putative allies, but in the end, she's tougher than most people give her credit for.

I would love to see us return to a few more smoke filled rooms, a few more efforts at compromise legislation that don't get torpedoed by someone leaking the deliberations to the rapist in the Ecuadorian embassy.

Ultimately, I want politics to work again.  It doesn't have to be pure, and I don't have to agree with it.  I don't expect my politics to be like a Netflix cue where I hand select exactly the show I want to watch, while my son watches something else in the next room.  I expect it to be like family movie night where we argue and search for compromise and eventually wind up watching something we can all agree on.  The Netflix option is easier.  By far.

But family movie night is so much healthier and robust.  We've lost that capacity in our politics, and I would argue that while our a la carte approach to life in the Internet Age is partly to blame, the creed of radical transparency simply makes it worse.

Winning Message!

Bill Weld has something to say.

Funny 'Cause It's True

SNL had a well-deserved bit of political humor, and it wasn't their hilarious take on the debates.

Jamelle Bouie explains.  Subtlety and sophistication aren't really hallmarks of SNL's political humor, but I think he's right.  This sketch really pulls off something observant and true.