Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Death and politics: Today's news for August 10, 2016

Presidential candidate Donald Trump is taking a bruising today. Or is this just free publicity for him? 

Fox News:
Donald Trump was accused Tuesday of advocating violence against Hillary Clinton, as he warned voters at a North Carolina rally about what a Clinton presidency would mean for the Second Amendment – though the Trump campaign later rejected the characterization of his remarks.   
The candidate made the comments after telling voters in Wilmington that his Democratic rival wants to “abolish” the Second Amendment. 
“If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do folks,” he said. 
Trump then added, “Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know.” 
Almost immediately, social media lit up with accusations that Trump was essentially calling for someone to kill Clinton.
WHAT?! He said practically nothing. If anything, when I hear "Second Amendment people", I think NRA. And suggesting they can do something, I think he means some kind of serious lobbying effort.

If anything, Trump played the social media like a drum, with the real MSM following suit.

On to other things Trump...

CNN:

I won't quote the CNN article linked above. All I will say is it is a rehashing of Trump's tendency to gossip and push conspiracy theories. This isn't news. Why CNN would repackage old news and make it their lede story is beyond me. Lazy editing at CNN, or a slow news day? You decide.

Speaking of conspiracy theories...

Gateway Pundit:
On July 8, 2016, 27 year-old Democratic staffer Seth Conrad Rich was murdered in Washington DC. The killer or killers took nothing from their victim, leaving behind his wallet, watch and phone.

Shortly after the killing, Redditors and social media users were pursuing a “lead” saying that Rich was en route to the FBI the morning of his murder, apparently intending to speak to special agents about an “ongoing court case” possibly involving the Clinton family.

...On Tuesday Wikileaks offered a $20,000 reward for information on the murder of DNC staffer Seth rich.

Now this…
Julian Assange suggested on Tuesday that Seth Rich was a Wikileaks informant.
Note that Assange merely suggested it. When directly asked if he was claiming Rich was an informant, Assange backed off. Here is the Assange interview:


I won't say this conspiracy theory isn't true. Without a doubt, Seth Rich's death was suspicious. The fact he was a DNC staffer adds a potential element of political intrigue. But until you have enough evidence to show a conspiracy is possible, all we have is suspicion. For example, we don't even know which "ongoing court case" involving the Clintons it is, or if it even was a court case (it may have just been an investigation). This story has more loose threads than one of my old tshirts.

That said, the Drudge Report headline linked to this story makes an intriguing point:

Drudge Report:

If the Russians didn't feed Assange with the DNC data, then who did? It would have had to be an inside job, and Seth Rich is a possibility.

Mind you, this doesn't get the Russians off the hook for hacking the DNC. They might have. But even if they did, that doesn't mean they are selling their hacked info to Western sources. Both China and Russia hack a lot of info.

For example, when I was on vacation from blogging a few weeks ago, I came back and noticed something odd: Most of the traffic to my blog during the week off was from Russia. I once had a dental hygienist who was from Russia, which is as close to Russia as I ever got, but I never told her about my blog.

Unless I have a secret fan club in Russia, I could easily fall into conspiracy theories about Russia trying to hack my blog. I think I will stick to the "secret Russian fan club" theory for now.  

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