Watching Hillary be Strafed

There was that famous incident where Hillary claimed to have been strafed in Eastern Europe and there were videos showing that she was not strafed.  Hillary’s haters cite that as evidence that she is a liar.

I see it more as a metaphor for her world view.  She feels strafed.  She wears a facial expression that makes it look as if she is being strafed.  She speaks in a tone of voice of someone who is constantly being strafed. 

In fact, she is constantly being strafed — constantly being attacked over incidents that are not worthy of attack.

She recently famously told this story about being harassed during the LSAT.  Some critics claimed that the graduate deferment was ended that year, so that these alleged events made no sense.  They concluded that she was lying. 

Of course, we can’t go back to that LSAT and see what really happened.  It was before the days of ubiquitous video surveillance.  Unless, a guilty party should have a twinge of conscience and confess, we’re not likely ever to really know.  Was she harassed?  Were the offensive parties not aware of the end of graduate deferments? Did she perhaps take her LSATs a year earlier than the critics are suggesting?  Were the offensive parties perhaps hoping that the graduate deferment would be reinstated so that they believed what they were saying, even tho it turned out to be moot?  Does she really remember false events, because her perception of being constantly strafed manufactures these memories?  Or is she really lying?

Lying implies that she knows that what she is saying is false. Many people believe and say false things for many reasons.  This doesn’t mean that they are lying.  That’s my impression of Hillary.

I find the alleged scandals surrounding her to be horrifying in the inappropriateness of the accusations.

I do not find her reckless in her use of confidential information in e-mails.  A few e-mails that were inappropriately marked may have been forwarded inappropriately, but it is not at all clear that she noticed, or should have noticed that they were classified.  Moreover, to me, reckless is if you take a file and put open on a bar and then go dancing, leaving it open for anyone to read.  If you have a file in a password protected server, and it gets hacked, that’s not reckless.  Even if it had been in the government servers it still might have been hacked.  There is a huge difference between a mistake or carelessness and recklessness.

I do not find her irresponsible for what happened in Benghazi.  She asked for more funding for security.  Republicans are diverting attention from their own refusal to provide more funds for security by accusing her.

Moreover, these things happen.  The good news is that most people in the world respect diplomacy and most embassies and diplomatic personnel are not attacked.  I suspect more foreign diplomatic personnel have been killed in the USA, due to crime, than have been killed in Libya.  Still, sometimes diplomatic personnel are attacked.  People who take these posts know that that can be a risk, especially in a place like Libya.  The sister of one of the men killed has pointed out that her husband knew that he was at risk and chose to stay. Chris Stevens Sister on Benghazi

Pillorying Hillary over this detracts from the heroism of State Department personnel who go into these types of environments. They are heroes. 

Then comes the Clinton Foundation.  Kos about the Clinton Foundation  Charity Watch rating of the Clinton Foundation

This marvelous charity supplies half the AIDS medications that are distributed in the world. They have literally saved the lives of millions of people.  Countries donate to it because it provides services that they may have difficulty providing themselves. 

You don’t want Hillary to meet with donors?  Maybe you want all those people in the 3rd world to die of AIDS instead?

Still, this is where I get into what inspired me to write this blog in the first place.  I was having one of those fantasies of what Hillary should say, again.  Clinton Fantasies blog

I had a re-imagining of what she would say about the Fernando thing

[sad, wistful smile] Ah yes, Rajiv,..  I met him because he was a donor.  He impressed me.  He was so creative and charismatic.  [more insistent and sadder] His colleagues impressed me, too.  They said he was so creative, how he could go into a meeting -- cold -- with people who were dealing with a longstanding conflict; and find a solution, almost instantly, that would satisfy everyone.  He reminded me a bit of how I saw Bill when I first met him.  Also, Rajiv's mother was from the sub-continent, where we have 2 new nuclear powers now. I thought, maybe, he could help. 

[looks frustrated, but humorous]  Then of course there was this whole allegation of scandal thing, how he had no national security qualifications, and our appointing him was corrupt — so we had to take him out. 

[thoughtful] You know, the way creative people come into new situations and find solutions that others did not find — that’s not from expertise.  That’s from looking at a problem with fresh eyes — creative eyes.  Curiously, that’s how people feel about Trump that he’s a smart, creative person who will look at problems with new eyes.

[insistent] Unfortunately, I don’t think that Trump’s that person.  He inherited his money.  He didn’t build any successful businesses himself.  His most successful venture is being a TV performer, a comedian.

[wistful, quiet, wondering] But I still wonder what would have happened if Rajiv had stayed on that committee.  Would he have found a creative solution? Would we be living in a safer, happier world right now?

Then I thought about myself as a child, being bullied.  I think I, too, like Hillary, was the sort to feel that I was constantly being strafed, and to look ahead with a hunted expression and not reply to my tormentors.  Perhaps that was part of what encouraged them to continue. 

There’s also this effect of years of smears.  After people repeat them so often, they start to believe what they’re saying more and more.  That’s what happened with Madoff.  Everyone was saying that his fund was such a great place to invest.  After a while, people believed it, when really it was a scam. 

I feel that’s what’s going on with Hillary. People believe malicious gossip, because everyone around them convinces them it’s true.

I guess I’m dreaming of being her speech writer