she will move our armed forces from the afghan border directly into russia!

Hillary Clinton is being sold as some kind of foreign policy genius, yet not knowing the location of Mosul is a large gaffe.
This geographic illiteracy, which came out during her third debate with Trump, was quickly noted by the Greens and Libertarians, according to US News & World Report (excerpts of its coverage below).

Greens:

"The fact that Hillary Clinton incorrectly identified Mosul as being on the border of Syria, despite having led us into war with Iraq and advocating U.S. intervention in Syria as secretary of state, highlights the insanity of our current bipartisan foreign policy," says Jill Stein, the Green Party presidential candidate who often polls fourth behind the major-party candidates and Johnson.

"The political and media establishment have built up Clinton as the best and most experienced candidate on foreign policy, when the reality is that her experience includes a trail of destruction and failed states, from Iraq to Libya and Honduras," she says in an emailed statement. "This is much more troubling than Gary Johnson's 'Aleppo moment,' yet we expect the corporate media will largely ignore it because their owners don't want to discredit the preferred candidate of Wall Street bankers and war profiteers."

Libertarians:

Though greeted with a yawn, Justin Raimondo, the editorial director of Antiwar.com, says Americans should care about Clinton's description of Mosul.

“It's concerning in the general sense that Hillary Clinton is simply getting a free pass from the media – and also that the media doesn't seem to know where Mosul is, either,” Raimondo says.

“It's more than merely concerning in a more specific sense because Mrs. Clinton's comments were uttered in the context of her strategic plan to take on ISIS,” he adds, using an alternative name for the Islamic State group. “If she really thinks that taking Mosul will somehow provide a gateway to ‘press into Syria,’ then she is in for a big surprise.”

the russkies again

Lambert Strether annotated this tweet by the president of CAP (the Clinton-supporting Center for American Progress):

neera-e1476773430843

A few people have posted links to "expert" opinions that the Russians hacked the DNC. This is exceedingly hard to prove but who cares anyway? If you start talking about Russians at this stage of the American election we know who you are voting for. Poking a stick at the Russian bear -- smart campaign tactic! (Did you know they have nukes?)

Update: This Tanden person is a loose cannon who is rumored to be in line for a Clinton administration top job. Yikes.

Update, December 3, 2020: The "loose cannon" link above went dead so it's been switched to the Internet Archive version.

you would be in jail

The responsible pundits of Washington think Trump's comment was beyond the pale. Ha ha, it was a happy moment for all of us who've sat helplessly watching the FBI and Justice Dept. scrub the Clintons' record. Bill gets on the plane with AG and boom -- no indictment. Bernie Sanders considers it too unseemly or un-collegial to call out an obviously corrupt opponent. $153 million in speaking fees buys what, honesty?
Below are two appearances of the quote, first from Corey Robin, who has been questioning the "Trump is the worst" propaganda coming from the center-left. Worse than Reagan? Really? Second is Lambert Strether liveblogging the debate, so typed on the fly and not wholly accurate but it captured the wonderfulness of the "jail moment."

http://crookedtimber.org/2016/10/11/trump-the-ringmaster-and-his-unwitting-clowns/

TRUMP: And I tell you what, I didn’t think I would say this, but I’m going to and I hate to say it. But if I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation. Because there has never been so many lies, so much deception. There has never been anything like it. And we’re gonna have a special prosecutor.

CLINTON: Everything he just said is absolutely false, but I’m not surprised….Last time at the first debate ,we had millions of people fact checking so I expect we will have millions more fact checking because, you know, it’s just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country.

TRUMP: Because you would be in jail.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/10/2016-presidential-debate-2-trump-v-clinton-washington-university-live-blog.html

Lambert Strether
October 9, 2016 at 9:24 pm

CLINTON [TRUMP?] It’s just words, folks, it’s just words. Heard when Hillary was going to bring back jobs to upstate NY. Inner cities. I’m gonna help AAs, Latinos, inner cities, she’s done a terrible job. She wants their votes, does nothing.

RADDATZ [Back to the tape.] Facebook, social network. Bring in social media question.

JEFF Trump says it’s changed him. How? When you walked off the bus, did that change you?

TRUMP Locker room talk, not proud of it. If you look at Bill Clinton, mine are words, his are actions. You can say it any way, Bill was abusive. Hillary attacked them viciously. Kathy Shelton. Don’t tell me about words. Absolutely I apologize for words. Clinton was impeached, lost his licesne to practice law, paid Paula Jones $850 It’s disgraceful and she should be shamed. [applause]

CLINTON So much not right. He can run his campaign as he wants. I am reminded of what my fried Michelle Obama said “When they go low, you go high [cheers]. If this were just about one video. But everyone can draw their own conclusions about whether the man on the stage is real. He never apologizes to anybody. Not ht Khans. Not the Federal judge. The reporter he mocked, our children were lying. Never apologized for the racist lie on birther. He needs to take

TRUMP Your campaign manager Sid B needs to apologize for sending the pictures around. And Michelle B. I’ve gotten to see the commercials talking about you Hillary. You talk about friends! You lost fair and square.

You should apologize for the 33K emails. And two boxes [???]

If I win, I am going to instruct my AG to get a special prosectutor to look into your situation. Never anything like this! You get a subpoena and then delete 33K and acid watch, bleach. People’s lives have been

CLINTON Everything he said is absolutely false. Good thing Trump isn’t in charge of the law.

TRUMP BC you’d be in jail [applause]

my private position is "you stink"

The text of Hillary Clinton's lucrative speeches is finally coming to light (TYT reads them aloud on YouTube). Inspired by Steven Spielberg's portrayal of Lincoln (!) she believes that as a politician "you need a public and a private position." So when she says at the Democratic Convention that she opposes the TPP trade bill, you can assume that privately she'll do everything in her power to get it passed. Another grabber is her complaint that when people "with successful and complicated lives" come to Washington they have to divest assets. She sees this attempt to prevent bias as "onerous and unnecessary." She also admits to bankers that she is "far removed" from middle class life because of "the fortunes that my husband and I now enjoy." Fortunes, indeed. In a leaked email her campaign manager admits that Bill Clinton accepted a million dollar contribution from a Keystone Pipeline supporter. (An earlier estimate of the Clintons' haul from "speaking fees" since the early 2000s was $153 million.)

Hillary-voting friends say they "don't want to look at Clinton's evil right now." We should all vote for evil because it's strategic, or something.
Other friends were quick to accept the spin that the Russians were meddling in the US campaign (as if that has anything to do with the substance of the emails). Because some security experts say they backtraced it.

alt-right-whatever

Carl Beijer notes that the increasing use of "alt-right" to mean "any right wing fringe groups" legitimates claims that there must be a corresponding alt-left that is somehow associated with Clinton and the Democrats and is similarly fringe-y. Am not sure why that matters but Beijer links to a Counterpunch "history of alt-right" that's worth a read. I assumed a-r referred to internet savvy frat boys pissed about Obama but according to Counterpunch it's an intellectual movement that somehow grew out of paleoconservatism (Pat Buchanan/Taki/Anti-Interventionism) but with a more overtly racist component. Oddly, this group doesn't place white people at the top of the racial spectrum but apparently thinks "semites" rank higher -- the better to manipulate the rest of us, you know. East Asians also rate higher, possibly because the frat boys witness them doing better in school. Anyway, good for a wallow in half-baked theory.