Herewith BackChannels presents reference to the best and most scathing skinny on our two and all too human President candidates, Donald “Braggadocio” Trump, the consummate “Washington Outsider” who . . . well, the list is long and blogger Andy Rhodes of Persuade Me Politics covers it thoroughly, and then there’s Hillary “Trust Me” Clinton, the consummate “Washington Insider” who . . . the list is different but no less worrisome as covered by David A. Graham in The Atlantic.

Because this election is so divisive, so rancorous, and so fundamentally besmirches American ideals and values with some of the worst trespasses known boy and girl scouts as behaviors to avoid in life’s great adventure, BackChannels will reserve its own opinion of the two.

However, this blog has noted that America’s division serves Moscow’s effort to weaken European Union and NATO cohesion: “FTAC – America’s Division Leans Toward Moscow“.

As you read, take into consideration Moscow’s sustained relationships with terrorist organizations Hamas, Hezbollah, and PFLP, emerging history involving the PLO (both Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas have had association with the KGB) and possibly al-Qaeda (reference: blogger Kyle Orton’s year-old analysis from London: “How Russia Manipulates Islamic Terrorism”, The Syrian Intifada, September 8, 2015).

Read and read more!

Not one of the sixteen other 2016 Republican presidential candidates would have thought to ban all Muslim immigrants; bully and insult dozens of leaders on all sides as if imitating the most selfish and immature children of elementary school age; pour praise on terrible demagogues like Muammar Gaddafi, Vladimir Putin, Bashar al-Assad, Kim Jong Un and Saddam Hussein; aggressively promote forms of torture worse than waterboarding; advocate for killing terrorist’s families; constantly talk about building a wall across our southern border; display fiercely authoritarian and sociopathic tendencies against anyone who challenges them or if it increases their celebrity in even the tiniest manner; make a wide range of outlandishly racist, misogynist and bigoted statements repeatedly; denigrate Mexicans in a sweeping damnation; sympathize with KKK members and other hate groups; overtly incite violence at campaign rallies and promise to pay legal fees for supporters who act on his pleas; suggest dropping a nuclear bomb on ISIS; deeply question a federal judge’s ability to do their job fairly because of their ethnic background; invoke numerous wild conspiracy theories about other candidates; and effusively and narcissistically praise themselves daily as if worshiping a supernatural god. It’s true that many of those types of things (with the notable exception of the self-aggrandizing techniques) were encouraged and said in hyper-macho, alienating and fear-mongering ways by a whole lot of Republican leaders in recent decades (which puts much culpability on their shoulders for what has happened in this campaign), but no one had ever taken it to the Trumpesque extreme.

Rhodes, Andy.  “Donald Trump: Patriot, Savior, or Tyrant (Part 1).” Persuade Me Politics, October 5, 2016.

With Hillary Clinton the Democratic nominee for president, every Clinton scandal—from Whitewater to the State Department emails—will be under the microscope. (No other American politicians—even ones as corrupt as Richard Nixon, or as hated by partisans as George W. Bush—have fostered the creation of a permanent multimillion-dollar cottage industry devoted to attacking them.) Keeping track of each controversy, where it came from, and how serious it is, is no small task, so here’s a primer. We’ll update it as new information emerges.

Graham, David A.  “From Whitewater to Benghazi: A Clinton-Scandal Primer.”  The Atlantic, September 23, 2016.

Addendum and Reference

I sat Trump beside Vendela, thinking that she would get a kick out of him. This was not the case. After 45 minutes she came over to my table, almost in tears, and pleaded with me to move her. It seems that Trump had spent his entire time with her assaying the “tits” and legs of the other female guests and asking how they measured up to those of other women, including his wife. “He is,” she told me, in words that seemed familiar, “the most vulgar man I have ever met.”

Carter, Graydon.  “Donald Trump: The Ugly American* (with apologies to William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick)”.  Vanity Fair, November 2016.

Collinson, Stephen.  “Can Donald Trump recover from this?”  CNN Politics, October 8, 2016.

Eichenwald, Kurt.  “Dear Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, I Am Not Sidney Blumenthal.”  Newsweek, October 10, 2016.

From an Earlier Election Season

Mr Clinton should ‘level with the American people on the draft, on whether he went to Moscow, how many demonstrations he led against his own country from foreign soil,’ Mr Bush declared on the Larry King television show.

‘I don’t have the facts, but to go to Moscow one year after Russia crushed Czechoslovakia, and not remember who you saw – I think the answer is, level with the American people,’ Mr Bush repeated.

Walker, Martin.  “Bush challenges Clinton over 1969 week in Moscow.”  The Guardian, October 9, 1992.

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