So The Secret Service Had A Talk With The Trump Campaign...(Updated)

By driftglass — August 10, 2016

The Secret Service is aware of the comments made earlier this afternoon.

— U.S. Secret Service (@SecretService) August 9, 2016

Here's a review of the video above, remarks by Jim Scuitto at CNN.

The Secret Service has spoken to the Trump campaign, and has actually had more than one conversation with the campaign. The Campaign's response is, he did not intend to incite violence.

Former Secret Service agents interviewed say the agency takes these comments very seriously. If an average citizen made comments like this he or she would certainly be interviewed by the Secret Service, but because Donald Trump has such a large following, these comments make more of an impact.

Man, I couldn't say the shit Trump said about Hillary SWANK without Secret Service breakin' down my damn door.

— George Wallace (@MrGeorgeWallace) August 10, 2016

Did the Secret Service have to increase their protection of a presidential candidate of a major party because death threats from the presidential candidate of the other major party?

Asking for a friend.

By tomorrow, America's millions of Crazy Uncle Liberties will be full of "So whats?' and "Yeah buts..." followed by some BS about Benghaaazi. Or whatever.

Team Very Serious and Both Sides will huddle and spend a day or two finding this all so very deplorable, wondering what every became of the sober and sensible Republican Party that lied us into the wrong was and such. Maybe it has run off with the maid, because that would explain a lot. Anyhoo. after the mnadatory minimum period of carefully calibrated outrage, they'll return to the important business of navigating us back to horse-race territory using their well-thumbing copies of "Hillary is so unpopular because Emails!!"

Hugh Hewitt -- a cyborg sent from the future to destroy American democracy -- will sigh peevishly, cluck his cyborg tongue and go back to what he has been programmed to do. Sean Hannity will weep bitter tears for how unfair the media has been to his reach-around buddy Donald. Corey Lewandowski and Kayleigh McEnany will stare their dead-eyed stares into a CNN camera and utter incomprehensible banalities while listening to the distant sound of Jeff Zucker and Donald Trump's blood-money fill up their bank accounts.

And then, once the sound and fury signifying ratings has died down, things will go back to how they were,

Brother Charlie Pierce asks the most important question of all:

How about the elite political press? Is this enough to push you over the line to admitting every day in your coverage that this is not a normal election because the Republican Party has nominated a public sociopath for President of the United States?

I'm betting the answer is "No". And it will remain "No" until continuing to go along with this kind of insanity starts to carry genuinely catastrophic professional and social consequences.

UPDATE: Did I say "by tomorrow"? Well that was optimistic.

@pattonoswalt @Barbiewithatude @elizabethforma Patton I am big fan of yours, but do you think name calling by either side helps?
— Matthew Dowd (@matthewjdowd) August 10, 2016

When a surrogate descends to Trump's level https://t.co/JprhdMfsbZ
— Trip Gabriel (@tripgabriel) August 9, 2016

It is becoming impossible for me to think of our elite media 'professionals' as "people" at all any more.

Their sheer, absurd mindlessness puts them into the same phylum as algorithms, and simple ones at that.

Simulacra.

And when things get genuinely dangerous -- when the lies and slanders and verbal mercury fulminate being flung around by the Republican candidate for president flies so far outside of their dumb, hardwired Both Siderist parameters -- they go HAL 9000-mad and default to their original Beltway factory settings.