“Hello Petey. I love you. I’m talking to you. Can you hear me? If you can’t, you’re in trouble.” — Elizabeth Popoff, wife of faith healer Peter Popoff (1986)
The reason Petey would be in trouble is because he was pretending to divine information about congregants who had health problems. It established credibility with his audience when he, seemingly miraculously, knew the names, specific health problems, and even street addresses of congregants. In reality, he knew so much about his flock because his wife transmitted the information to him via an earpiece, which she read off of prayer cards.
It can be impressive to watch a speaker with access to more information than the listener thinks he – or she – has. On debate stages, too.
“From time to time I get the questions in advance,” wrote somebody with the indecipherable email address “donna@brazileassociates.com” to Hillary Clinton’s campaign in March of this year. Part of me wonders if it’s from then-DNC vice-chair Donna Brazile, but that can’t be because she denied it. And lying to win elections is simply something Democrats never ever do.
For you right-wing Haliburton-affiliated nutjobs who care about this kinda thing, the “donna@brazileassociates.com” email was sent the day before a CNN Town Hall in which Hillary competed with Bernie Sanders. You probably haven’t heard of any of this if you rely on “the paper of record” to, well, record. The quote “From time to time I get the questions in advance,” for example, does not appear on the New York Times website until 10 days after the WikiLeak. You may have been under the faulty impression that Samuel Morse made that kind of delay history, but nope. It turns out Democrat scandals still transmit at Pony Express speeds. And besides, how is the rigging of a United States presidential primary news, anyhow?
Which brings us to a recent leak which is even Popoffier. “donna@brazileassociates.com” sent another March 2016 email to Clinton’s employees, this time, again, the day before a contest against Sanders. The subject was, “One of the questions directed to HRC tomorrow is from a woman with a rash.” That sounds promising. What’s next: The laying of hands?
The email’s body begins: “Her family has lead poison and she will ask what, if anything, will Hillary do as president to help the ppl of Flint.”
You can watch how the question was handled by each candidate at 18:58. Sanders didn’t speak to the lead aspect of the question: After all, he is not a scientist and so is probably unaware whether lead service lines are necessarily dangerous or not. Clinton, by contrast, seemed to know an astonishing amount on the topic:
“I want us to have an absolute commitment to getting rid of lead wherever it is because it’s not only in water systems, it’s also in soil, and it’s in lead paint that is found mostly in older homes. That’s why 500,000 children today have lead — lead in their bodies.
So, I want to do exactly what you said. We will commit to a priority to change the water systems, and we will commit within five years to remove lead from everywhere.”
After all, who doesn’t happen to know how many children today have lead poisoning? Geez, try reading a book once in awhile Bernie. You might learn something.
Clinton’s miracle work is more of a preventative than Popoff’s cures are. Maybe he should’ve been the running mate: She knows how many kids have lead poisoning, he knows their addresses. She can stop ‘em from ingesting lead, he can pull it out of those who ingested it during the Obama years which immediately preceded Hilltopia.
Thousands of people were taken in by Peter’s deceit. Next week, we’ll see some indication of how many are taken in by Hillary’s.
Adam Mala is a podcaster and writer who covers politics and current events and wants limited government.