Hillary Clinton And The Sorcerer's Stone

If you ever saw the movie Pulp Fiction, then you are aware of the MacGuffin. You see it when Jules and Vincent badinage their way to apartment 49, where they have been sent to retrieve a briefcase.

"Vincent flips the two locks, opening the case. We can't see what's inside, but a small glow emits from the case. Vincent just stares at it, transfixed."

We aren't shown what's inside the briefcase because it doesn't matter. It's a MacGuffin. It's something the hero wants. It just has to seem important, so that, in the words of Ace, the audience understands the hero isn't engaged in some trivial matter, but that the Stakes Are High.

This concept has been deployed by filmmakers going back at least to Hitchcock, and explains what is happening right now in American electoral politics. Hillary Clinton is our Hero, and her MacGuffin is the presidency. Our villain is Donald Trump, and he is standing in her way, creating conflict. We aren't witnessing electoral history unfold so much as we are passively watching a movie being played out on our televisions and annotated by our legacy media.

Today we watched Act Two, Scene Seventeen in the Clinton Chronicles: Our Hero Endures Questioning From The F.B.I.

Hillary being questioned by the F.B.I. is portrayed as a minor obstacle for Our Hero. Like how in Pulp Fiction, Vincent goes on a date with Mia Wallace, then has to save her life after she overdoses ON HIS SMACK. There is no point in the story where we are asked to confront Vincent's moral corruption. He's a scumbag drug addict murderer? Whatever! He dances well and knows what a quarter-pounder is called in Holland.

The New York Times ran a story this morning about Hillary's F.B.I. interview. In the second paragraph, they quote Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill, who said Clinton was "pleased to have had the opportunity to assist the Department of Justice in bringing this review to a conclusion."

Message discipline is kind of like a movie script. Everybody knows their lines. Clinton gave a telephone interview to Chuck Todd after her meeting at F.B.I. headquarters, and said the exact same thing. "I was pleased to have the opportunity to assist the department in bringing its review to a conclusion."

Hillary was so pleased to have the opportunity that she brought five lawyers with her. Also, Hillary, it's not exactly a "review." According to the Director of the F.B.I., it's what they call an investigation.

The New York Times never bothers to reconcile the conflicting narratives. All they are interested in, is how does Hillary "feel?" She feels "pleased" because she felt "eager" to assist the Department in any way.

The Times will never ask its readers to confront the moral corruption of their Hero. Indeed, they are willing to blind the reader to the truth like the Taliban is willing to throw acid into the faces of heretics ("none of the emails on Mrs. Clinton’s private server were marked classified").

Did the American Secretary of State pass along classified information about how German leadership viewed the prospects for a Greek bailout to benefit her son-in-law?

That's not in the script. And anyway, Greek-Americans don't comprise either a voting bloc or a donor bloc. The Beaners, now, there's a voting bloc!