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Donald Trumps criticism of a MuslimAmerican family that lost a son in Iraq has been called a potentially pivotal moment in the election But for a host of reasons such events are very very rareKhizr Khan father of fallen US Army Capt Humayun Khan speaks while his wife Ghazala Khan looks on during the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on Thursday In Election 2016 it could be called the questionIt has been repeated from the moment Donald Trump entered the race calling Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists And it has been raised again this weekend after Mr Trump criticized the parents of a fallen MuslimAmerican soldierHas Trump gone too far and materially damaged his chances for the presidencyThe reality is voters dont usually make up their minds that way political scientists say Single events rarely decide elections and the constant attempts to forecast Trumps demise speak both to the medias continuing befuddlement over his popularity as well as a penchant toward hyperboleThe failed Iran hostage rescue mission in 1980 doomed Jimmy Carters campaign perhaps The stock market collapse in 2008 gave John McCain an almost impossible obstacle as the perceived heir of the Bush legacyBut Trumps comments about the family of Capt Humayun Khan while perhaps more damaging than other past comments probably wont determine the winner in NovemberA real gamechanger is very very rare says Larry Sabato director of the University of Virginias Center for Politics But you wouldnt know that from watching televisionThe events began at the Democratic National Convention where Khizr Khan whose son died in Iraq sharply criticized Trump Trump responded by implying that the fallen soldiers mother had been silenced by equating his sacrifices in building a successful business with the Khans loss and by trying to refocus the conversation on terrorismSome pundits have called it a pivotal moment in the campaignBut at a moment when the American electorate is increasingly polarized there is a question of whether gamechanging moments can even happen this election Though polls show that Trump and Hillary Clinton are the two most disliked presidential candidates of the past quarter century that dislike can freeze voters in concrete they dont like their candidate but theyre definitely not going to vote for the other oneOver the course of the campaign Trumps comments have often only hardened each sides resolve instead of swaying undecided votersLarge majorities are in concrete about their party and presidential choice says Professor Sabato The game is over for the vast majority of votersBut others say that polls do show scope for some movement Between 5 and 25 percent of voters are not choosing either Trump or Mrs ClintonThis means there is still fluidity there says Gary Nordlinger president of a political consulting firm and adjunct professor at George Washington Universitys school of political managementAnd despite the high unfavorable ratings for each candidate some voters could still switch allegiances suggests Tobe Berkovitz a political media consultant and chair of Boston Universitys department of mass communicationI dont think the cake is baked at this point More important than the undecideds are the persuadables he says They say they are voting for one or the other now but they can be pulled away Its a real holdyournose election They are voting because this one is worse than that oneThe Khan episode could have an influenceThis could have teeth compared with Trumps other controversial remarks says Jennifer Lawless director of the Women and Politics Institute at American University There were multiple facets that people found offensive the mother remarks that the speech wasnt heartfelt questions as to whether the soldier was a hero Take your pick Most people found part of the discussion distastefulThe effect will only become apparent after a couple weeks of polling she saysOne thing is for sure however The media are a poor judge of gamechanging momentsThe phrase game changer was used at least 19600 times during the 2012 presidential campaign according to research by Tim Murphy a reporter with Mother Jones magazine All three presidential debates were deemed gamechangers as were multiple monthly jobs reports and varying endorsementsIts in the medias interest to make everything seem like a big deal thats what the media does and its a selffulfilling prophecy for everyone but the voters says Professor Berkovitz at Boston UniversityAs John Sides and Lynn Vavreck point out in their 2012 book The Gamble gamechangers are emphasized by the media not presidential campaignsThe continual search for gamechangers treats a campaign like a boxing match where the momentum may be shifting back and forth with every punch and the knockout blow could come at any moment In reality there are few knockout punches and most gamechangers do not really change the game that muchAdded Mr Murphy of Mother Jones The moral of the story is that were still really bad at predicting the future

Putin Takes On The NWO October 2016 thinkbig 18 Let me get this straight if leaders of the world combined forces we could alleviate poverty and the constant fear of terrorism Could the Middle East be left alone and not pillaged for oil sending millions of refugees into Europe creating an unprecedented cultural catastrophe in waiting Could certain players on the global arena stop financing terror groups abroad thus removing the threat entirely But wait theres more Mr Putin is not calling for war with the others because only WE are the good guys Unlike Nobel Peace Prize holder over there Tags

November 4 2016 Fort Russ News RIA Novosti translated by J Arnoldski The US should get rid of the illusion that there is the possibility of taming terrorists Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated Terrorism is like a snake you turn your back on it and it bites you Dont play with it she said in an interview to China Radio International Zakharova remarked that Western and regional countries have invested a lot of forces and means in terrorist groupings But these are terrorists and they shouldnt be flirted with Zakharova added In the diplomats opinion the actions of the American side which is not allowing Jebat AlNusra to be destroyed are a clear manifestation of the fact that they are protecting it Zakharova also noted that this is not the first time that Russia is clashing with such an approach by the US Follow us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Donate

The views expressed herein are the views of the author exclusively and not necessarily the views of VNN VNN authors affiliates advertisers sponsors partners technicians or the Veterans Today Network and its assigns Notices Posted by VNN on November 4 2016 With 0 Reads Filed under Civil Liberties Corruption Election 2016 Foreign Lobbies Foreign Policy Government Legislation Police State Politics You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 20 You can leave a response or trackback to this entry FaceBook Comments You must be logged in to post a comment Login WHATS HOT

Texas state troopers have begun asking motorists their race and ethnicity after it was discovered that drivers mostly Hispanicswere often misidentified during traffic stops because of flaws in an automated system meant to guard against racial profilingDepartment of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw told a state Housecommittee that the change took effect Wednesday in an attempt to gather more accurate dataWhat we can do better and what we should have been doing better is collect the data accurately as it relates to Hispanics Plain and simple I would rathera trooper not have to ask McCraw told lawmakers according to a transcript of the hearing But if the data doesnt work there is a problemKXANTV in Austinconducted a database review using millions of records goingback to 2010 that showedtroopers across the state inaccurately reported the race of Hispanic driversThe television stations investigation of DPS traffic citation records also found the number of drivers stopped by troopers and recorded as Hispanic has gone up annually since 2010 from nearly 208000 to 351000 last year while the number of drivers recorded as white declined in the same time period from 19 million to about 12 million last year the Associated Press reportedAmong the most common surnames of drivers listed by troopers as white are Garcia Martinez Hernandez Gonzalez and Rodriguez While a Hispanic name doesnt necessarily mean a person is of Hispanic descent the review of DPS records showedmore than 19 million drivers with traditionally Hispanic names were listed as white Over the same period approximately 16 million were reported as HispanicIn an effort to guard against racial profiling state law requires authorities to document the race of drivers who are arrestedissued warnings or citations But McCraw testified that coding on drivers licenses only allowed for identification as Hispanic since 2010 Prior to that time Hispanic motorists were often identified as whiteMcCraw told lawmakers that he did not know how much it would cost to fix the automated system leaving no other remedy but to direct troopers to specifically ask for the informationOfficers will advise the individual that the officer is required by law to inquire as to the individuals race or ethnicity a DPS memo outlining the new policy stated The officer will record the race or ethnicity as stated by the motoristOnly in cases where an individual refuses to provide the requested information and the database reflects their race or ethnicity as otherwill the officer use best judgment or ability to determine the race or ethnicity of the motoristsDespite the current lack of data McCraw maintained that the agency does not tolerate racial profilingBottom line its against the law he said There is no racial profiling within the DPS

Lambert Strether on 200PM Water Cooler 1142016 I dont know how that private server aab on 200PM Water Cooler 1142016 My point was that it is completely outside Lambert Strether on 200PM Water Cooler 1142016 This is a coherent narrative but Im not Lambert Strether on 200PM Water Cooler 1142016 The story you cant place in Slate or Waldenpond on 200PM Water Cooler 1142016 Oh yes the good ol tradition of laundering Topics

One of the biggest mysteries about the long con of Donald Trumps presidential campaign is how he has convinced millions of middleclass white Americans that he truly gives a shit about them How can it be Ive often wondered that a billionaire who lives in a pinkmarble triplex high above Fifth Avenue one who flies around in his own aging Boeing 757 and who owns a weekend home in Palm Beach and property in New Jersey horse country can somehow become the hero of the people left in the wake of the new digital economy These voters indeed have every right to wonder what happened to their American dream They have every right to be worried about their livelihood and their future They have every right to be equally terrified and aggrieved about the slow growth of the real economy and how it has made the life that we have come to expect for generations all but unattainableTrump of course has never quite evidenced sympathy for the common man According to a recent bombshell report in The Washington Post in fact we now know that Trumps own foundation reportedly spent 20000 to purchase a sixfoot portrait of Trump himself Perhaps Trumps appeal to the Rust Belt results in part from the fact that he is a former television star who showed up in our living rooms every week in a fictitious corporate boardroom Sara Flynn a 55yearold mother of four sons in Hebron Kentucky recently explained to reporters from The New York Times that she has liked Trump ever since she watched him on The Apprentice She said that she believes Trump when he says he can make America great again She seemed wistful Thats a bygone era thats when America was great she said of the old days It hasnt been like that for meI suspect part of the reason that Flynn and others like her feel an affinity for Trump is because of the promises he makes in his speeches like the one he gave on Thursday to the Economic Club of New York at the Waldorf Astoria hotel which is now owned by a Chinese insurance company The speech was likely written by one of the Reaganera economic disciples who whisper in Trumps ears these days Maybe it was Larry Kudlow the exBear Stearns economist and CNBC veteran he was on the dais over Trumps right shoulder Or maybe it was Stephen Moore formerly a columnist at The Wall Street Journal who is now a visiting fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation Trumps words certainly sounded a bit like Reagans Fresh from his twohour photoop in Flint Michigan the day before he told the invitationonly crowd in New York It used to be cars were made in Flint and you couldnt drink the water in Mexico Now the cars are made in Mexico and you cant drink the water in FlintIts a good line and Trump presumably knew it He had in fact also used it in Flint the day before Like some of what Trump says it is funny But like much of what he says it isnt true We make millions of cars and car parts in America A recent study by the Center for Automotive Research in fact revealed that the auto industry accounts for about 3 percent or nearly 75 billion of all foreign direct investment in the United StatesBut Trumps brand depends upon fever dreams more than realities Trump laid the promises on thick at the Waldorf We are going to turn this around he continued My economic plan rejects the cynicism that says our labor force will keep declining that our jobs will keep leaving and that our economy can never grow as it did once before We reject the pessimism that says our standard of living can no longer rise and that all thats left to do is divide up and redistribute our shrinking resources Everything that is broken today can be fixed and every failure can be turned into a great successTrump subsequently promised to create 25 million new jobsmore jobs than certain credible economists believe that there will be workers to fill He promised to cut taxes He promised to cut regulations He promised to repatriate the trillions of dollars in corporate profithe estimated the figure at 5 trillionand to make childcare costs tax deductible He promised to rip up the trade agreements that he despises NAFTA and the TPP He promised that the economy which has been stuck at around 2 percent annual economic growth for the last 10 years or so would start growing at 35 percent per year and maybe 4 percent per year if everything goes as he predicts it will Should that happen Trump suggested our 600 billion annual deficit would decreaseHe also promised to cut the corporate tax rate to 15 percent from the current 35 percent An explosion of new business and new jobs will be created he said It will be amazing to watch He then engaged in a little voodoo economics We are proposing a 44 trillion tax cut that will score as 26 trillion under a dynamic growth model which is how taxes should be scored he said If Larry Kudlow is around could he please translate that sentence into a language one of Trumps supporters or even mere journalists might understand Trump then promised to put coal miners and steel workers back to work despite the fact that so many of the companies that operate in the coal sector face existential struggles and those that operate in the steel sector are a shadow of their former selves

Conspiracy Theorists Believe Theyve Found Justice Scalias MURDER Plot Posted on October 27 2016 by Dawn Parabellum in Politics Share This Its troubling to uncover the dirty secrets in the emails leaked from John Podesta Hillary Clintons campaign chairman and it just keeps getting worse Since the mainstream media refuses to do it many conspiracy theorists are investigating for themselves and internet sleuths believe theyve uncovered the murder plot of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia Unsurprisingly the Clintons may have even more blood on their hands Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia The evidence does look damning In the email where coded language and a disjointed writing technique was used Podesta is offered a script to a movie However thats the only normal part of this email The script writer of the movie is asking Podesta to fund the film which right away makes the exchange odd since the movie isnt political and Podesta is Hillary Clintons campaign manager not a movie investor It seems even more strange once the plot of the movie is revealed in the emails as well Whats worse this is not the first email thought to be about the assassination of Antonin Scalia but I digress The movie is about a Mexican girl on a journey to find her mother She crosses paths with a man named Alex who assists her on her journey They end up at an isolated ranch house with a massive underground tunnel in Tecate California There is a Smithsonian map included in a link which has a line pointing to the setting of the film as seen below Map included in the Podesta emails showing the setting of the movie The map seems inconspicuous enough until it was realized that the pointer of the map is showing the exact location of the Cibolo Ranch where Antonin Scalia died Below is a Google map showing the location of the Cibolo Ranch Google map depicting the location of the Cibolo Ranch The maps were enough to draw the attention of internet sleuths Digging deeper they have uncovered more in the same email discussing the details of this movie and honestly it doesnt feel right The entire script of the movie can be read in the leaked emails but one part stands out in addition to connecting the dots with the maps Ronald Reagan is discussed for some strange reason Its difficult to imagine what President Ronald Reagan has to do with a movie about a Mexican womans journey other than the fact that Antonin Scalia was a Reagan appointee However it gets a little more creepy further down the slightly discombobulated email A portion of the lengthy email conspiracy theorists believe details the murder plot of Antonin Scalia His five film projects arent detailed All he says are two are political one is spiritual and two are just for fun Conspiracy theorists believe this is a list of his assassinations and the best way to describe who has been killed and why Could this all be an elaborate movie and the email sender a poor writer That seems unlikely considering hes claiming to have written an entire script But could conspiracy theorists have jumped the gun Thats also possible Theres still no absolute proof that this is the murder plot of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia but with just over one week left until the nation decides who will be the president and Wikileaks still having many more John Podesta emails to release its possible we may see more about this movie if thats what was really being discussed

Print Could we see violence no matter who wins on November 8th Lets hope that it doesnt happen but as you will see below antiTrump violence is already sweeping the nation If Trump were to actually win the election that would likely send the radical left into a violent postelection temper tantrum unlike anything that we have ever seen before Alternatively there is a tremendous amount of concern on the right that this election could be stolen by Hillary Clinton And as I showed yesterday it appears that voting machines in Texas are already switching votes from Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton If Hillary Clinton wins this election under suspicious circumstances that also may be enough to set off widespread civil unrest all across the country At this moment there is less than two weeks to go until November 8th and a brand new survey has found that a majority of Americans are concerned about the possibility of violence on election day A 51 majority of likely voters express at least some concern about the possibility of violence on Election Day one in five are very concerned Three of four say they have confidence that the United States will have the peaceful transfer of power that has marked American democracy for more than 200 years but just 40 say they are very confident about that More than four in 10 of Trump supporters say they wont recognize the legitimacy of Clinton as president if she prevails because they say she wouldnt have won fair and square But many on the left are not waiting until after the election to commit acts of violence On Wednesday Donald Trumps star on the Walk of Fame was smashed into pieces by a man with a sledgehammer and a pickax Donald Trump took a lot of hits today and not just in the Presidential race With less than two weeks to go before America decides if the ex Apprentice host will pull off a surprise victory over Hillary Clinton Trumps star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was destroyed early Wednesday morning by a man dressed as a city construction worker and wielding a sledgehammer and pickax in what looks to be a Tinseltown first And there were two other instances earlier this year when Donald Trumps star was also vandalized One came in January and the other happened in June This is of course not the first time the GOP candidates star has been attacked or defaced since Trump announced his White House bid in summer 2015 The most extreme measure was a reverse swastika being sprayed on the star at 6801 Hollywood Blvd in late January In June this summer a mute sign was painted on Trumps star in a seemingly protest against the antagonistic language and policies some have accused Trump of promoting and reveling in during the campaign In both cases Trumps star was quickly cleaned and back as new within a day We have seen antiTrump violence on the east coast as well Earlier this month someone decided to firebomb the Republican Party headquarters in Orange County North Carolina On the building next to the headquarters someone spraypainted Nazi Republicans get out of town or else along with a swastika There have also been other disturbing incidents of antiTrump violence all over the nation in recent days A recent Lifezette article put together quite a long list and the following is just a short excerpt from that piece On Oct 15 in Bangor Maine vandals spraypainted about 20 parked cars outside a Trump rally Trump supporter Paul Foster whose van was hit with white paint told reporters Why cant they do a peaceful protest instead of painting cars all of this to make their statement Around Oct 3 a couple of Trump supporters were assaulted in Zeitgeist a San Francisco bar after they were allegedly refused service for expressing support for Trump GotNews reports The two Trump supporters were attacked punched and chased into the street by some thugs that a barmaid called out from the back Lilian Kim of ABC 7 Bay Area tweeted a photo of the men in which one was wearing a Trump Tshirt and the other was wearing a Blue Lives Matter shirt On Sept 28 in El Cajon California an angry mob at a Black Lives Matter protest beat 21yearold Trump supporter Feras Jabro for wearing a Make America Great Again baseball cap The assault was broadcast live using the smartphone app Periscope There is a move to get Trump supporters to wear red on election day but in many parts of America that might just turn his supporters into easy targets Lets certainly hope that we dont see the kind of violent confrontations at voting locations that many experts are anticipating Of course there are also many on the right that are fighting mad and a Hillary Clinton victory under suspicious circumstances may be enough to push them over the edge For example this week former Congressman Joe Walsh said that he is grabbing my musket if Donald Trump loses the election Former Rep Joe Walsh appeared to call for armed revolution Wednesday if Donald Trump is not elected president Walsh a former tea party congressman from Illinois who is now a conservative talk radio host tweeted On November 8th Im voting for Trump On November 9th if Trump loses Im grabbing my musket You in And without a doubt many ordinary Americans are stocking up on guns and ammunition just in case Hillary Clinton is victorious The following comes from USA Today Since the polls are starting to shift quite a bit towards Hillary Clinton Ive been buying a lot more ammunition says Rick Darling 69 an engineer from Harrison Township in Michigans Detroit suburbs In a followup phone interview after being surveyed the Trump supporter said he fears progressives will want to declare martial law and take our guns away after the election Today America is more divided than I have ever seen it before and the mainstream media is constantly fueling the hatred and the anger that various groups feel toward one another Ironically Donald Trump has been working very hard to bring America together In fact he is solidly on track to win a higher percentage of the black vote than any Republican presidential candidate since 1960 If Hillary Clinton and the Democrats win on November 8th things will not go well for Hillary Clintons political enemies The Clintons used the power of the White House to go after their enemies the first time around and Hillary is even more angry and more bitter now than she was back then And the radical left is very clear about who their enemies are This is something that I discussed on national television earlier this month As I write this it is difficult for me to even imagine how horrible a Hillary Clinton presidency would be But at this point that appears to be the most likely outcome Out of all the candidates that we could have chosen the American people are about to put the most evil one by far into the White House Perhaps Donald Trump can still pull off a miracle and we can avoid that fate but time is rapidly slipping away and November 8th will be here before we know it Take a look at the future of America The Beginning of the End and then prepare shares

Stanley Friedman was shot at The ship he was on was attacked by enemy bombers He saw a landmine blow apart a truck carrying two dozen of his fellow soldiers One of them died in his armsBut after he came home from World War II he found himself embroiled in another battle this time with the Veterans Administration as he tried to get his benefitsIn the decades that followed the war Friedman suffered from anxiety depression and nightmares which lasted his entire life affecting his job and his familyYet as he sought treatment and benefits the Veterans Administration told him the military records documenting his service couldnt be found Despite the fact Friedman knew very specific details of the dates and places he experienced the most traumatic events there was no proof so he wasnt entitled to benefits the VA saidI have a huge box of letters that he sent to the VA over the years in his attempt to get benefits said Friedmans wife of 61 years Minna Rae He tried over and over and over again to get help but they just kept turning him downFriedman who as he would later learn suffered from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder was not aloneVeterans of all wars from World War II to the present are fighting similar battles to this day against the VA now called the Department of Veterans Affairs to prove their service and obtain benefits they believe they deserve and finding out that the VAs records are woefully incompleteThe John Marshall Law Schools Veterans Legal Support Center and Clinic which works to assist vets with legal and other issues has lists of former soldiers wrangling with the VA systemIts an issue many many vets have been suffering through for a long time including recent veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan said attorney James GarrettGarrett had been a lawyer with the firm DLA Piper Global in San Diego which has a division that takes on pro bono work assisting veterans The veteran support clinic emailed him in 2009 appealing for help for Friedman Garrett said he was stunned to learn that six decades after the war ended a soldier was still locked in battleI couldnt believe that after all this time a WWII veteran was still having trouble getting benefits he exclaimedFriedman was 89 years old at that timeGarrett and his team began making calls sending letters searching the Internet digging through documents and wading through reams of microfilm just trying to find anything that would prove Friedmans claimsFrustrating does not even begin to tell you the truth of the matter Ive found it incredibly unbelievable as a taxpayer the amount of bureaucracy and ineptitude that was occurring not only in Stanley Friedmans case but in other cases Garrett saidBrian Clauss who is executive director of the clinic at John Marshall said missing records are especially a problem for veterans who served before 1973 when a fire destroyed millions of files at the National Personnel Records Center in suburban St Louis MoNo duplicate copies of these records were ever maintained nor were microfilm copies produced said Clauss Neither were any indexes created prior to the fireA person would need to be a very good detective to come up with proof of service or experiencesIt can be particularly cruel an elderly veteran has to reconstruct their service record Theyre forced to prove their qualifications Clauss saidIn addition to the fire Clauss said records may not have been well kept during combat situations especially if a person was injured and then evacuated It is emergency treatment under extreme conditions he explained It is war people are rushing through the chaos They dont keep detailed recordsCritics also claim the VA is antiquated and behind the times technologically and theres still a great deal of material on paper and not enough staff to deal with it allThe VA did not respond to requests from Fox News for comment for this reportSince Friedmans case came to light theres been more attention paid to the problem of lost veteran records but it continues to be a serious issue for manyGarrett said veterans told him Everyone thought we were lying about things we said we had seen and experiencedOne Vietnam veteran who didnt want his name used said the more publicity we get for this problem the better Americans need to know about itIn 2012 Garrett was able to locate some of Friedmans lost records And after three more years of legal wrangling with the VA offices Friedman was finally able to obtain benefits at the age of 92This validated him It completely changed our lives said Minna RaeOnce he got benefits Friedman had greater access to care which included longawaited therapy for PTSDWere very fortunate he lived long enough to get verification for his service because many other World War II vets died before that happened Minna Rae saidIn the final years of his life Stanley Friedman was eventually able to move to a veterans residence not far from his suburban Chicago home called the Green House homes at the Captain James A Lovell Federal Health Care CenterHe found peace among the caring staff and his fellow veteransFriedman died in his sleep there at the age of 94Ruth Ravve joined the Fox News Channel FNC in 1996 and currently serves as a Chicagobased producer

By 2050 the worlds population is estimated to reach 97 billion people Already 795 million people go to bed hungry each evening Catching up to and alleviating the problem of

If Donald Trump were a car he would be a Porsche If he were an animal hed be a lion And people like Porsches and lionsOr at least Walmart moms do according to a focus group of Republican primaryvoting Walmart moms conducted this past week in Pittsburgh by Democratic pollster Margie Omero and Republican pollster Neil Newhouse Walmart moms are defined as women who have children younger than 18 at home and have gone to the store at least once in the past month The focus groups the two pollsters did another one with swing moms in suburban Philadelphia were funded by WalmartCharacterizing Donald Trump as a type of car or animal resulted in some fascinating descriptions from the GOP group women depicted him as a Porsche a Ferrari a muscle car a boxer who stands his ground a bulldog an Escalade a lion fierce and king of the jungle and as an unpredictable cat Newhouse and Omero wrote in a memo summarizing the results These Moms praised him as someone who speaks his mind stands his ground and is refreshingly politically incorrectThe most baffling moments from Donald Trumps Washington Post ed board interviewThe focus group which was split evenly between Trump supporters and those backing another Republican candidate provides a fascinating window into not only how Pennsylvanians view Trump on the eve of the states primary on Tuesday but also into how the real estate mogul is viewed more broadlyThe findings should be comforting for Trump and deeply concerning not only for Sen Ted Cruz of Texas and Ohio Gov John Kasich his rivals for the Republican nomination but also for the Never Trump movement within the GOP establishmentThese GOP Walmart moms seem to want no part of the NeverTrump movement Newhouse told me Sunday In fact they respect his strength and his straight talk and believe he is the partys best shot to beat HillaryMost importantly the GOP primary race as seen through the lens of these Walmart moms is effectively Trump vs everyone else Neither Cruz nor Kasich make much of an impression with these women even this late in the primary processVoters were generally unable to tell us much about either Cruz or Kasich Republican primary voters seemed to dislike Cruz perhaps more than the swing Moms he was generally described in both groups as religious gorilla almost human or like a neighbors dog you dont know if theyre going to bite Omero and Newhouse wrote Kasichs image was even thinner I think they like him in Ohio said one too sane or Mild like a kitten said othersThen theres the fact that for all the attention paid to Trumps comments about women during his long life in the public eye the vast majority of these GOP Walmart moms seems strikingly unbothered by his views on womenWhen these GOP Moms were pushed about Trumps gender issues there was some acknowledgment that he may be a sexist but general agreement among these women was that I dont really care Ive seen worse Newhouse and Omero wroteThats an absolutely stunning finding at least to meThe new Donald Trump should scare the hell out of the GOP establishmentWhen it comes to the broader delegate fight the women in the focus group think Trump is also in very good shape and think it would be deeply unfair for the person who enters the convention with the most votes and delegates not to be chosen as the Republican nomineeId feel terribly misled one woman said when asked about the prospect Cheated another said Not surprisingly this group was equally dismissive about the prospect of House Speaker Paul D Ryan or some other white knight candidate riding to the rescue at the convention If convention turned to someone like Paul Ryan shows that GOP leaders dont really care about them Newhouse tweeted while conducting the focus groupFinally theres a very strong sense that Trump represents the GOPs best chance of beating Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton in the fall despite lots and lots of polling that suggests he would be a decidedly weak nominee against the former secretary of stateThe Walmart moms said they would feel relieved concerned good and optimistic with Trump as the nominee a remarkable set of emotions toward the business mogul There was no hesitation among the GOP women that Trump could beat Clinton and that they would support the GOP nominee even if he hadnt been their first choice Newhouse and Omero wroteWith Trump coming off a huge win in New York last Tuesday and almost certainly headed to a fivestate sweep this Tuesday these findings suggest that among the GOP rank and file he is considered far more likely to be the Republican nominee than is commonly understood in Washington a frightening prospect for party leaders who believe that nominating Trump could be a massive electoral disaster for their sidePittsburghs not that far from Washington DC but these GOP Walmart moms are a world apart from DC in their views on this race Newhouse said Weve long passed Valentines Day but among these women its coming up all roses for Donald Trump

Jordan Strikes At ISIS Obama Said To Be Preparing To Request War PowersRepeated air strikes on the selfdescribed Islamic State are the beginning of our retaliation for the extremist groups brutal killing of a captured pilot Jordans foreign minister saysNasser Judeh made the remark on CNN adding that Jordan will continue to target ISIS fighters and facilities in both Iraq and SyriaWe are upping the ante Were going after them wherever they are with everything that we have Judeh saidThe fight against ISIS is also a hot topic in Washington where President Obama reportedly plans to ask Congress to authorize the use of military force against the extremist group The Associated Press notes that the president has been relying on Sept 11era authorizations and that the process of getting new legislation wont be simpleHis actions are going to be an important part of trying for us to get the votes to actually pass an authorization House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday This is not going to be an easy liftTheres no word yet on the timing of the request which the AP says would cover three yearsIn the meantime the US military is putting search and rescue crews closer to the fighting in northern IraqAfter Lt Muath alKaseasbeh was captured by the socalled Islamic State when his plane crashed in December the United Arab Emirates withdrew its aircraft from antiISIS coalition airstrikes A retired Jordanian air force general tells NPR that the UAE move was understandable because search and rescue capabilities need to be improved So news that US search and rescue crews are moving to northern Iraq to be closer to the battle space has been greeted warmly here AlKaseasbehs brutal killing has many Jordanians backing their countrys role in the fight against ISIS and the king says Jordans response will be harsh and ongoingAs the TwoWay reported Thursday a UN report issued this week gave more details about ISIS brutal tactics noting several cases of mass executions of boys as well as reports of beheadings crucifixions of children and burying children alive

Hillary Clinton ended her historic presidential campaign Wednesday saying it ispainfuland will be for a long time as she urged for a peaceful transfer of powerDonald Trump is going to be our president she said in her concession speech I hope that he will be a successful president for all AmericansClinton told a room of emotional aides and supporters who gave her an extended round of applauseWe have seen that our nation is more deeply divided than we thought But I still believe in America and always will And if you do then we must accept this election outcome she added We owe him an open mind and a chance to leadClintons vice presidential running mate Tim Kaine introduced her and addressed the unique challenge the former secretary of State faced in her bid to become the nations first female presidentShe has been and is a great history maker he said citing her work as a civil rights lawyer first lady senator and secretary of State She has made history in a nation that is good at so many things but thats made it uniquely difficult for a woman to be elected to federal office adding that Clinton had become the first female majorparty presidential nomineeHe also noted that just like Democrat Al Gore in 2000 Clinton appeared to have won the national popular voteClinton made it clear thatwhile Americans must cherish the Constitutions democratic tradition of a peaceful transfer of power they should fight to protect its core values of the rule of law equal rights and freedom of worship These are all Constitutional protections her campaign had argued were at risk with a Trump presidencyIn closing her remarksClinton made a direct appeal to young people and women of all agesTo young people she said This loss hurts but please never stop believing that fighting for whats right is worth itShe concluded her concession urging the women who supported her not to lose faith in their dreamsWe have still not shattered that highest hardest glass ceiling but some day someone will And hopefully sooner than we might think right now she saidTo all the little girls who are watching this never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your dreams she addedSeveral hours earlier Clinton had called Trumpto congratulate him on becoming the nations presidentelect However she did not make an appearance before backersgathered at the Jacob K Javits Convention Center for what was expected to be a victory partyInstead her campaign chairman John Podesta made brief remarks Its been a long night and its been a long campaign but I can say we can wait a little longer he told Clintons despondent supporters in the late hours of election nightOutside the New Yorker hotel in Manhattan where Clinton would deliver her concession remarks Wednesday disappointed supporters many still wearing their guest badges from the previous nights campaign event tried to get in to see their defeated candidateAnita Broccolinosaid she wanted to getinto the event to show support for Hillary to show her we love herThe loss was a shock to the Clinton team after most major polls showed her with a comfortable lead in all of the major battleground states including Pennsylvania ablueleaning statethat Republicans hadnt carried since 1988 until Trumps win there TuesdayA few weeks ago Clintons lead was even more pronounced Following the third debate in Las Vegas in which Trump called Clinton a nasty woman and would not commit to honoring the outcome of the election an ABC News tracking poll showed Clinton leading the GOP nominee by 11 points nationallyLater in the month FBI Director James Comey announced that his agency was reviewing new emails that might be relevant to its investigation of her private email server but just two days before the election Comey said the emails were either duplicates or not germane and that he was making no change in his previous recommendation against criminal chargesStill the move revived the one issuethat had proved most damaging to Clintons candidacy and her poll numbers began to reflect itAdditionally news organizations including Fox News falsely reported that she would be indicted in a separate investigation related to her familys charitable foundationClinton responded on the campaign trail by shifting her message to take aim at Trump even warning at several rallies that the real estate mogulstemperament risked a global nuclear war On the eve of the election Clinton told supporters in Grand Rapids Michthat there was no veto over a presidential decision to launch a nuclear weapon and that it takes just four minutes to launch oneDemocrats will now begin a long process of soulsearching During the heat of the campaign they had remained optimistic that a number of the setbacks theyd encountered including the WikiLeaks email hack linked to Russia were survivable

Remember the blind Bulgarian mystic who predicted 911 and the rise of ISIS Well shes got some bad news for dare I say it Commander in Chief Donald Trump Via UsualRoutine Baba Vanga whos known to her followers as the Nostradamus of the Balkans has claimed Obama is the last President of the United States of America Vanga allegedly called the election of Barack Obama as well predicting the 44th president of the United States would be an African American also making the chilling claim that he would be the last US presidentUsually Id be happy to dismiss the reaction to Vangas prophetic prediction as the public clinging onto a ray of hope in todays new political climate but actually the blind mystic has a pretty great track record with her visions The prophetess who died aged 85 in 1996 is alleged to have made hundreds of predictions about the future with an 85 per cent accuracy rate from her home in Petrich BulgariaThese prediction include climate change and the melting of the polar ice caps which she allegedly foresaw back in the 1950s saying cold regions will become warm and volcanoes will awakenVangas followers also say she predicted the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami warning a huge wave would descend on a big coast covering people and towns and causing everything to disappear under the water Back in 1989 she warned that the American brethren will be attacked by two steel birds a possible reference to the Twin Tower attacks in 2001She also warned that a group of Muslim extremists would invade Europe by 2016 foreseeing a great Muslim war that would be kickstarted by the Arab Spring in 2010 and play out in Syria eventually resulting in the establishment of a caliphate by 2043 with Rome at the center According to The Mirror she claimed this 2016 invasion by Muslim extremists across Europe would mean the continent would cease to exist by the end of the year She specifically said Extremists would use chemical warfare against EuropeansVangas political predictions take on a new poignancy posthumously could her assertions about the elusive 45th President equate to predicting an assassination attempt or simply that Donald Trump is as previously expected a cyborgBaba Vanga for President Anyone

EAST LAS VEGAS Nevada is especially important because were a swing state Who here knows what a swing state is a Bernie Sanders campaign organizer had asked the room of 15 volunteers overwhelmingly Latino and largely in their teens and 20s during an introductory spiel that was part training and part pep rallySilence The question hung in the air just long enough to become awkwardNo one the organizer asked Clearly surprised but only slightly deterred he barreled on with the rest of his pitchMany of Sanderss enthusiastic supporters are people who are interested in the presidential race because theyre interested in Bernie Sanders not the other way around Thats a big asset for a campaign thats relying on motivated volunteers The Sanders campaign needs these young Latinos to spread Sanderss message of economic populism and his extremely progressive immigration platform to the rest of the Latino communityBut its also an illustration of just how much work Sanderss people have cut out for them in a very short amount of timeThe campaign hopes that this work will cause Latinos to caucus for Sanders on Saturday in high enough numbers to win a state in whats become an unexpectedly close race and in the process prove to observers that Sanders can win with nonwhitesThe campaigns office in East Las Vegas is strategically located in a neighborhood the Sanders organizer referred to as Little Mexico It is also a few blocks from Rancho High School a school of nearly 3000 students more than twothirds of whom identify as Latino This isnt symbolic its an important way to make sure Sanderss most devoted supporters can come to the office to call voters and canvass neighborhoodsThe Sanders campaigns Latino outreach strategy is a matter of who is speaking on the candidates behalf but it doesnt involve changing what those people are saying Fortyone percent of Americas Latino voters and 44 percent of Nevadas are millennials And as far as the Sanders campaign is concerned theyre just like any other millennials They care about a 15 minimum wage and free college tuition and they want to get money out of politicsIn other words the Sanders campaigns pitch to Latinos is strikingly similar to its pitch to everyone else In the words of Nevada state director Joan Kato Sanders is someone whos always fought for equality and making sure the average person is not taken advantage ofIn Nevada at least this message appeals to many young Latinos who are excited about Sanderss ability to transform a political system they dont fully buy into Its not just that they agree with the positions Sanders is espousing its that they believe he will be a reliable champion for them if hes electedBernie is the only candidate that really believes in the Fight for 15 movement a young organizer told the group of volunteers in East Las Vegas referring to the fact that Sanderss opponent in the primary Hillary Clinton has embraced a 12anhour minimum wage but wont go as high as 15 We have to show that support just the way hes supporting usEven though Sanderss economic message has won enthusiasm from many young Latinos the candidates position on immigration is still a key part of his Latino outreach strategyFor many Latino voters immigration is a threshold issue issues like health care jobs and education might be more important to them but they wont even start evaluating a candidate or party on those issues if he or she doesnt support immigration reformEarly in Sanderss campaign during an interview with Voxhe expressed skepticism about largescale lowskilled immigration into the US and it looked like he was setting himself up for attacks from the very vocal immigrant rights movement But instead the Sanders campaign turned his relative underemphasis on immigration prior to his candidacy into an asset for his campaign by bringing immigration activists in to craft an immigration platform that put him substantially to the left of Hillary ClintonDREAMer activists Cesar Vargas and Erika Andiola joined the Sanders campaign last fall with the task of designing the senators immigration platform Along with other Sanders staffers and the candidate himself they essentially crowdsourced the platform asking immigrant activists and legal organizations for suggestions and inputWe were the people who presented the senator with this whole policy platform They knew it was bold and they accepted it Vargas saidVargas and Andiola had some good material to start with Sanderss opposition to big business makes him a natural critic of private forprofit prisons and hed already promised to abolish them That wouldnt have as much of an impact on the overall prison population as most people think but it would absolutely transform the immigration detention system which is dominated by forprofit facilities And for many grassroots immigration activists curbing immigration detention and enforcement is a key goalMany of the activists Vargas and Andiola talked to had personal experience with the detention system One of them was Liz Hernandez an activist with the United Coalition for Immigrant and Migrant Rights in Las Vegas Hernandez was detained by immigration agents at the age of 10 along with her mother 7yearold sister and 2monthold brother Her mother who made and sold homemade cheeses to support the family had to ask the agents for food and water for her childrenSixteen years later and after having told her story countless times in her advocacy work Hernandez crying as she recounts all of this for me Its disgusting to know that there are kids being criminalized at such a young age Hernandez received protection from deportation and work permission under Obamas Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in 2012 her mother is still at risk of deportationHernandez and other local activists met with Sanders himself while Vargas and Andiola were working on the platform She told him about her familys experiences And she says He was like Were going to make something happenHis platform follows through on that commitment While both Sanders and Clinton promise to go even further than President Obama in using executive action to protect unauthorized immigrants from deportations Sanders puts a number on it Hed protect up to 9 million unauthorized immigrants And hed even allow some parents whod already been deported to return to the US and their families It sounds like an immigration advocates wish list because it isIve never been asked to endorse a politician before says Hernandez Its really hard for me to talk about a candidate to say You have to support this person But Sanders won her over The afternoon I meet her shes the most diligent volunteer in the East Las Vegas office calling voter after voter to urge them to caucusAs far as the Sanders campaign is concerned their biggest problem is name recognition Talk to some of their supporters and you might think its the only problemAdriana Arvalo an outreach strategist with the Sanders campaign had a recent encounter with a woman at a soccer tournament who said she supported Hillary because shes the wife of Bill Clinton I said Okay but do you know what shes offering for you for your family Arvalo says the woman left the tournament as a Sanders supporterBut Sanders campaign is making progress One person I spoke to in Las Vegas who asked not to be named because theyre affiliated with a nonpartisan organization said theyre hearing from like Latina housekeepers El viejito he has some good ideas Viejito is an affectionate even nicknamey way to say the old man That they already have a nickname for him wowTheres barely any people who reject Bernie for his ideas says Cynthia a 17yearold Rancho High School student and Sanders volunteer Her confidence is brimming If people were more politically aware theyd already know who Bernie wasThis is an appealing narrative for the Sanders campaign in Nevada because it presents their only problem as something they have the resources to solve All they need is word of mouth and they have an enthusiastic young volunteer core to accomplish thatSometimes it can be hard to tell how big the groundswell of Latino support for Sanders really is The campaign presents its Nevada operation as a response to popular demand There are 12 offices in Nevada multiple staffers took pains to mention more than any other presidential campaign But political journalist Jon Ralston considered the dean of the local press corps thinks thats mostly hype Yeah you have 12 offices but if the lights arent on in 11 of them he says airilyRalston is also skeptical of the campaigns claim that its been endorsed by five Spanishlanguage publications in Nevada when the campaign announced the first three endorsements he called them three Spanishlanguage newspapers nobody has heard of including an ad mag and an online news aggregatorAnd in other cases the campaigns aggressive enthusiasm can look like straightup aggression A student government leader at the College of Southern Nevada who was initially listed among the Sanders campaigns steering committee later said that she hadnt known signing up for the committee implied an endorsement of Sanders and that she would actually be supporting Hillary ClintonThe most powerful union in southern Nevada the Culinary Union Local 226 also harshly criticized the Sanders campaign for sneaking into employee dining rooms and canvassing for Sanders while wearing union pins a move that several advocates in Nevada stressed to me could have gotten the union in serious troubleThe Sanders campaign has a mixed record when it comes to conventional campaign tactics which makes it all the more important that its wordofmouth passiondriven campaign succeed The passionate Sanders supporters are the ones who are expected to spread the word to less politically engaged members of the community that there is in fact a second Democrat running for president and that hes the one who really wants to help them afford college and help their parents avoid deportationThe Clinton campaign urges its staff and volunteers to focus on maximizing voter contacts the goal is that canvassers have knocked on your door four to five times in the last two months Clinton communications staffer Jorge Silva tells me and to develop spreadsheets of who needs a ride to the pollsThe Sanders campaign also wants to reach as many voters as frequently as possible of course but it urges its volunteers not to use their scripts when calling potential caucusgoers and instead to share their personal stories of why they support the senatorWe are the face of the political revolution one staffer told the East Las Vegas volunteers and thats why we gotta call everybody and their moms like 10 timesSpreading the word is obviously important as a force multiplier But theres a more basic reason for the focus on evangelism Many of Sanderss most passionate supporters cant themselves voteSome of the young volunteers can caucus Cynthia for example will be 18 by Election Day in November so Nevada law allows her to caucus in February Furthermore Nevada allows sameday voter registration for Democratic caucusgoers something that was a major factor in helping Obama take more of the states delegates than Clinton in 2008 though he lost the popular voteBut even with early eligibility and sameday registration many of Sanderss most fervent Latino supporters arent eligible to caucus That doesnt stop them from organizing for the candidate as staffers stress time and time again But it could still set a ceiling for the candidateSanderss best asset in the caucuses is the fact that his supporters are likely to be more informed about when the caucuses are and more passionate about showing up to them Some of the most passionate of those supporters are young Latinos of two very different typesThe first are the kind who have been involved in politics long enough that they dont tend to fall in love with politicians but feel theyve finally found someone to trust the Cesar Vargases and Liz Hernandezes of the world Theyre noncitizens like many of their peers in the immigrant rights movement and they cant vote The second are the kind who arent otherwise interested in politics who dont know what a swing state is but who see Sanders as a politician worth paying attention to Some of them are eligible to vote like Cynthia others are simply too youngAt the East Las Vegas office a campaign organizer tried to prepare a few young volunteers to call potential caucusgoers When he turned to ask another staffer for clarification about something one of the volunteers shyly raised his hand and gestured at the young woman next to him We actually kind of have to leave right now Their ride had arrived

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by Yves Smith The law firm Akin Gump issued a warning that might chill the bones of some private equity general partners clawbacks may be acomin From the firms website In recent months managers of private equity funds in the energy sector have been facing a scenario they likely never imagined having to return millions of dollars of their carried interest earnings back to investors For newbies to this private equity practice private equity funds typically pay the profit share prototypically 20 once a target rate of return has been met What creates the possibility of a clawback is the fact that for most US funds the profit computation and any payouts are made every time a portfolio company is sold By contrast in European deals the carry fees are paid only at the end of the funds life The conventional US approach combined with strong general partner incentives to realize profits on at least some promising deals early in the funds life means that the general partners can pay themselves carry fees that are more than they deserved once the impact of doggy companies which are sold late in the funds life are factored in Hence the limited partnership agreements provide for clawbacks as in the recovery of overpayments of carry fees Yet as weve written clawbacks are almost never paid in practice Why First the clawback provisions have tax language that is very favorable to the general partners and has the economic effect that they can hang on what are excessive carry fees based on raw cash flows Second possession is 910ths of the law In those instances where the general partner owes limited partner clawbacks the general partner usually goes to the limited partners and offers them a special deal details often unspecified on their next fund Needless to say this approach has the desirable effect of precommitting those limited partners Akin Gump flagged specifically the lousy performance of some unnamed energy funds In light of the discussion above the limited partners have been sufficiently burned that they have no intention of investing in energy funds any time soon and may also be willing to be atypically forceful about getting money back Recall that limited partners fetishize maintaining frictionfree relationships with general partners Again from the firms missive Several energyrelated funds that were formed in nascent stages of the boom now have terms ending during collapseprotracted downturns Managers may feel as though they could recoup some losses if they could delay liquidating assets until oil recovers further Many fund agreements provide for a one or two year extension of the funds investment period at the managers discretion however to the extent that this option has already been exhausted some managers are now going back to investors to seek additional time and potentially additional capital To placate investors in such cases a manager may need to reduce or eliminate management fees charged to a fund for the duration of any extension period Unfortunately apart from extending a funds investment or harvest period managers have little recourse after a funds inception In other words Mr Market did not bail these funds out and a day of reckoning is coming Interestingly Akins Gump uses pain in the oil patch to argue that general partners should consider building in better means for assuring that general partners can pay clawbacks back if they are due and owing What this document reveals is that limited partners have signed up for clawback agreements that are likely to be empty in practice The money went years ago into the firms carry pool and hence for payouts to senior and midlevel staffers The top dogs may have tied the money up in investments or property houses art that they cant readily liquidate Or the funds may be beyond their reach entirely by having gone to outlays political fundraising or a campaign big gifts to charities or an exwife People below the senior level may have moved on And perhaps as important all the true partners owners of the management company have visavis everyone else who is in the firm is moral suasion How far do you think that is going to go in getting people to write checks to disgorge monies they banked or worse spent years ago What is striking about the Akins Gump article is that the firm is giving what amounts to marketing rather than legal advice The best way a manager can avoid the predicament of having to return a large sum to investors in respect of a clawback is to build preventative measures into the organizational documents of the fund or the vehicle earning the carry at the outset ie escrows at the carry level or the contractual ability to get any distributions back from employees Mind you the private equity business has been around for 40 years and has had large and supposedly savvy institutional investors for 30 plus years The general partners have always been expose to the risk of paying clawbacks when their limited partnership agreements allow for them So what is different now Perhaps it is that investors are more acutely aware of the risk of investing at the peak of cycle than in the past and the example of what happened to energy funds has made them realize that they could see problems like that on a broader basis Moreover given that the mainstream media is much less reverential in its treatment of private equity than in the past if a meaningful minority of funds were to post overall crappy returns resulting in meaningful clawbacks due the press is more likely to expose the failure of investors like public pension funds to get insistent about getting their money back Limited partner suing general partners is unheard of but in a weak returns environment private equity would no longer be a must have portfolio allocation So Akins Gump appears to be alerting the industry to a risk that they had been able to cavalierly ignore that may start to bite them And another reason for concern Further although Section 956 of the DoddFrank Act relating to executive compensation could impose a mandatory returnofincentive compensation scheme on certain financial institutions it is unlikely that the proposed rules in their current formulation would apply to carried interest distributions but they are subject to further clarification The suggestions acknowledge that moneydriven private equity professionals wouldnt be happy with a wait until the dust has settled European structure Some of the ideas include escrowing some carry but not so much as to demotivate staffers 30 was the suggested level interim clawbacks that require the general partner to reckon with any shortcomings as they occur A modified dealbydeal structure would require the general partner to tally up losses and writedowns and earn back the shortfall before any more carry could be paid Akins Gump curiously omitted another option a performance bond Its not hard to imagine that Wall Street firms would be willing to insure this risk or at least after the general partners paid a first loss amount for a suitable fee Nevertheless this alert to general partners as occurs so routinely in private equity illustrates how remiss the limited partners have been It would be gratifying if the underlying assumption in the Akins Gump piece were correct that the deterioration in private equity profit generation is leading to contract terms becoming less onesided in favor of general partners But given the degree of complacency among limited dont expect these changes to take place any time soon 0 0 0 0 0 0

Killing Obama administration rules dismantling Obamacare and pushing through tax reform are on the early todo list

Open Thread NOT US Election 201638 News views NOT related to the US election Use thread below this one for election news views Posted by b on November 7 2016 at 0127 PM Permalink Comments Russia Says Ceasefire in Syrias Aleppo in Place Unless Militants Attack TEHRAN Tasnim The Kremlin said Monday Russias air force would stick to the ceasefire in Syrias Aleppo unless militants launch an offensive The Russian president deems a regime when Russian air forces dont carry out strikes on eastern Aleppo as reasonable if militants dont start combat action Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters according to Reuters Posted by schlub Nov 7 2016 13748 PM 1 Daesh Launches Chemical Attack in Iraqs Mosul November 07 2016 1056 TEHRAN Tasnim The Daesh ISIL or ISIS terrorist group has used mustard gas during a military clash with government troops in Iraqs Mosul a report said Daesh on Sunday fired mortar shells containing chemicals at positions of Iraqi troops who are advancing against the terrorist group in Mosul Sky News Arabia said on Sunday citing Kurdish sources The report added that the Takfiri group had also deployed small drones carrying chemical explosives to blow up the government troops Posted by schlub Nov 7 2016 14321 PM 2 Verify your Comment

Bernie Sanders has civil rights credentials but many black thinkers are wary of his brand of liberal socialism which they say ignores the role of racism in societyTesla under Trump How will electric cars fare under the next presidentWith just a week before the first votes are cast in the 2016 United States presidential election black voters have yet to feelthebern and embrace Bernie Sanderss liberal vision for the countryAnd while the Vermont senator could upset former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the first two Democratic contests in mostly white Iowa and New Hampshire black voters could quickly stop the momentum of the selfdescribed democratic socialist once the election heads to the South many observers sayFor one thing Mrs Clinton enjoys strong support from this constituency perhaps because of her and her husbands long involvement with the black community But for some black thinkers the issue is more Senator Sanders himself and specifically his classbased economic socialismHis outlook they say often ignores deeper questions about race and the divides that the country continues to face And in that respect they see Sanders as not warming up to the kind of radical actions that theyre calling forI think this is where some of the white liberal efforts have failed says Christina Greer a political scientist at Fordham University in New York In the rush to make it all about class you turn on your blinders to certain things that quite frankly arent about class Hes missing a very large piece of the puzzle and what makes some black voters nervous there seems to be a huge gap in his understanding about raceThis summer as the Sanders campaigns message of economic populism first began resonating among many Democrats especially Millennials it ran into problems when targeted by Black Lives Matter protesters many of them boisterous and disruptive They were unimpressed that the radical democratic socialist responded to the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore primarily with a long run solution of better youth employmentWhen a candidate points to high unemployment among black youth as well as high incarceration rates and then dubs himself a radical it seems prudent to ask what radical antiracist policies that candidate actually embraces wrote TaNehisi Coates in The Atlantic on Sunday Hillary Clinton has no interest in being labeled radical leftwing or even liberal he addedMr Coatess muchdiscussed 2014 essay The Case for Reparations laid out a moral argument that even many conservatives found compelling as it recounted the history of government redlining which disqualified most black neighborhoods for federally supported mortgage lendingOver the weekend Coates returned to the reparations issue saying that Sanderss radical bona fides actually reveal the failure of the liberal imaginationSanderss basic approach is to ameliorate the effects of racism through broad mostly classbased policies doubling the minimum wage offering singlepayer healthcare delivering free higher education he wrote This is the same A rising tide lifts all boats thinking that has dominated Democratic antiracist policy for a generationEradicating the deeper effects of white supremacy Coates and other commentators believe requires far more attention to race and much more radical action such as correcting the devastating history of redliningYet even as some black thinkers and the young protesters of Black Lives Matter remain unimpressed with Sanders experts say this doesnt fully explain why black voters are increasingly putting their support behind Mrs ClintonWhile Clinton has seen her support fall among almost all Democratic constituencies this past month that has not been the case among black and Latino Democratic voters In January their support for Clinton jumped to 71 percent according to a Monmouth University poll released last week up from 61 percent in DecemberA lot of this support many say is simply that black voters know both Hillary and Bill Clinton well after more than two decades on the national political sceneThough he lived in Chicago and did all sorts of work with Martin Luther King Sanders is a New England liberal says Randal Jelks professor of AfricanAmerican studies at the University of Kansas in Lawrence In such a white state he really doesnt know a constituency that is diverse and has diverse needsThe Clintons have spent time with black people in black churches and have come out of a strong black presence in Arkansas he continuesThese ties have long been established with black elites especially influential black pastors around the nation experts sayIf youve been friends with the Clintons and have benefited from that friendship with the Clintons this trickles down to voters says Professor Greer an expert in urban politicsBlacks she points out can be pragmatic in their voting decisionsWhat I think a lot of people tend to forget is that black and Latino voters especially black voters historically have been strategic voters as opposed to sincere voters at certain times she saysProfessor Jelks concurs Im not too fond of Ms Clintons policies myself but Im a realist about politics he says noting the Clinton administrations role in a crime bill that led to an even greater disproportion of incarcerated black and Latino young men Sometimes you hold your nose and you vote for the devilyouknow over the devilyoudontknowThis could change however if Sanders indeed pulls off upsets in Iowa and New Hampshire and more black voters in the South take a closer look at the democratic socialistIndeed on Monday a South Carolina lawmaker and lawyer for the family of Walter Scott an unarmed black man shot and killed by a police officer in North Charleston last year withdrew his support for Clinton and endorsed Sanders insteadHillary Clinton is more a representation of the status quo when I think about politics or about what it means to be a Democrat said State Rep Justin Bamberg D said on Monday according to The New York Times Bernie Sanders on the other hand is bold He doesnt think like everyone else He is not afraid to call things as they areThe endorsement could help Sanders as he tries to make inroads among black voters before the critical South Carolina primary experts sayYet many thinkers remain unimpressed with his focus on economic solutions to the countrys racial problemsIts not just about poor black people living in cities says Greer Its about how did those black people get to those cities and why are they poor They were fleeing domestic terrorism in the South they left everything behind and worked lowwage jobs in urban centers And then people said we can redline them and use more aggressive policing and all those sorts of things These arent just issues of a class narrative its also a race narrative

Orlando Florida CNN They get the bronze medal every four years in what is really a twoperson raceThats what it must feel like to be a thirdparty candidate in a twoparty countryBut between Donald Trumps abrupt takeover of the GOP and Bernie Sanders climb from longshot Democratic candidacy to head of a national progressive movement 2016 has been a year for party outsiders And Libertarians hope that could give them an openingWhat gives them hopeThe likely Democratic and Republican nominees each have historically high unfavorable numbers Media attention for the party both the national committee chairman and the partys political director say is at unprecedented levelsSo it is with an air of opportunity to break out of obscurity that Libertarians members of the countrys most prominent third party have gathered for their national convention in Orlando Florida this weekend to officially pick a candidate to pitch to angry votersMany expect former New Mexico Gov Gary Johnson the Libertarian presidential nominee in 2012 to leave Orlando Sunday evening once again his partys standardbearerSince last week Johnson has made the rounds touting his newly minted alliance with former Massachusetts Gov Bill Weld who is seeking the partys vice presidential nomination The two former governors who both also happen to be exRepublicans are fielding a ticket of sorts although the Libertarians elect their nominees separately and no formal ticket will exist at the convention until the party selects its presidential and vice presidential nomineesBut Johnson and Weld first have to navigate an openly hostile convention characterized by its insular proceedings and unwelcome to moderatesWeld will have to overcome meaningful differences between his demonstrated policy preferences particularly past support for gun control measures and his willingness to support Republican politicians Just this year the colorful former governor endorsed Ohio Gov John Kasich for presidentHis supposed transgressions from Libertarian orthodoxy have earned him outright disdain from many of the partys attendees He received loud boos at his introduction to the partys vice presidential debate where he stuck to reciting his conservative bona fides and applauded his opponents on stageWe are not Republicanlight Larry Sharpe a vicepresidential candidate said in a takedown of the JohnsonWeld ticket mere inches away from the former Massachusetts governorAsked after the debate Weld said he thought such attacks were not an issue one way or anotherDespite his bruising reception Johnson said he would strongly prefer not to continue his bid without Weld arguing they were arguably the two most Libertarian governors that ever servedWeld doubled down on this kind of rhetoric at the convention saying that should Trump win the presidency We will be the rogue nation We will be the North KoreaJohnson meanwhile has several serious challengers gunning for the top spot on the thirdparty ticketAmong them is Austin Petersen a young hardcore party advocate with strong backing in Libertarian Internet circles He recently announced the endorsement of Mary Matalin and Erick Erickson vocal antiTrump conservativesPetersen rolled through the convention gladhanding delegates and circling back to his opendoor suite filled with meatballs and alcohol for supporters He belted out insults for Trump calling him Cheetosfaced and fascist as his supporters who he called freedom ninjas hollered in supportHowever in a party that generally swings liberal on social issues Petersen is unabashedly antiabortion He is also 35 years oldAlso expected to post significant support is notorious entrepreneur John McAfee a man who has forged an international identity after becoming a pioneer in the field of cybersecurity Last fall McAfee launched a presidential bid under the banner of his newly formed political organization the Cyber Party As the fall continued McAfee declared his intention to seek the nomination of the Libertarian PartyBuilding off of his name his intense personality and his sweeping command of Libertarian sweet spots McAfee has made a serious bid for the top of the ticketAlthough McAfee has little history with the party and no experience governing his controversies including going into hiding following the shooting death of a businessman near his island compound in Belize and his lack of political experience may actually make up for it In an election cycle dominated by a brash billionaire and reality TV star McAfees libidinous shadowy drugfueled history and cavalier demeanor occasionally might not hurt much in a party built on opposing government controlThe primary has become somewhat contentious and McAfee has repeatedly said that he will not support Johnson if the former New Mexico becomes the nomineePetersen said he would pull it for Gary if the former New Mexico governor won the nomination Weld said he wasnt sure what hed do if Johnson was not the nomineeIm in this because of Gary Johnson Weld saidThe Libertarian nominee will appear in ballots in 50 states butOf course securing the nomination is only one step and an extremely easy one relatively speaking on the path to a Libertarian presidencyThe eventual nominee whoever it is will have to compete in the general election where the odds of victory for the Libertarian Party stand at roughly zeroIf that performance repeats itself in the 2016 general election it will mark the 12th cycle in a row where no third party has earned a single vote in the Electoral CollegeCompared to other years and other third parties however the Libertarians have plenty to feel good about The Libertarian Party has navigated the multitude of onerous requirements for ballot access in all 50 states a task unaccomplished by any other third partyPut more simply the Libertarian nominee will be the only name outside of the mainstream choices on the presidential ballot in all 50 states on November 8On the ballot but not the debate stageJohnson echoing many other thirdparty candidates regularly stresses the Libertarian Partys need to join the presidential debates Inclusion in the presidential debates requires strong poll performance which of course requires inclusion in the polls themselvesFrom the Never Trump crowd to the nascent Bernie or bust movement the eventual Libertarian nominee might have room to grow a base and shake up the already volatile presidential race

Washington CNN Donald Trump got a morale boost this week but it likely wont be enough to propel him to the White HouseAfter weeks of devastating headlines the Republican nominee seemed to give himself a break He largely avoided incessant talk about allegations of sexual assault by multiple women and claims that the election is rigged both of which made wavering Republicans nervousThe drumbeat of WikiLeaks disclosures yielded material to lambast Hillary Clinton and her familys foundation And news of rising Obamacare premiums gave him an opening to criticize President Barack Obamas legacy that Clinton is running to inheritTrump edged up in some state surveys and CNN moved two crucial states Florida and Nevada from lean Democratic to battleground status on its electoral mapBut 11 days before the election Trump is down six points in CNNs Poll of Polls His path to the 270 electoral votes needed to capture the presidency remains daunting and it will be tough to overcome the deficit in the remaining time Trump seemed to acknowledge the challenges ThursdayWith the new changes CNNs electoral college map leaves Clinton with 272 electoral votes from states either solidly or leaning in her direction Trump has 179 electoral votes from states either solidly or leaning in his direction That leaves 87 electoral votes up for grabs at the moment Trump will have to pitch a perfect game to secure the ones he needs especially as he struggles to pull states such as Virginia Pennsylvania or Michigan out of Clintons columnTo have a fighting chance in this election of getting to 270 electoral votes he has to win North Carolina Ohio and Florida If he does win all three that still gives him only 253 electoral votes said Ford OConnell a GOP strategist The biggest problem for the Trump campaign is overall where are you going to get 270 He basically almost has to run an inside straight and almost has to have them all fall into his handsTrump and his aides insist he has a path and momentum citing huge crowds long lines for early voting and the few polls in his favor A Fox News poll Wednesday put the national gap to Clinton at only three points and a Bloomberg Politics survey in Florida said he was two points upI think were going to have a tremendous victory Trump told CNNs Dana Bash Wednesday If I didnt think it I wouldnt say itTrumps schedule shows that he knows the stakesHe spent several days in Florida earlier this week was in North Carolina on Wednesday and spent Thursday in Ohio Without that trio Trump has no platform to mount what even then would be a long shot bid for the White HouseClinton is of the same mind She was in Florida Wednesday and plans to go back Saturday She campaigned in North Carolina with first lady Michelle Obama on Thursday Clinton could effectively stop Trump in his tracks if she can win either state barring a huge and unpredictable upset elsewhereIf Trump does win North Carolina Ohio and Florida he can trace the narrowest of routes to 270 electoral votes by winning New Hampshire a congressional district in Maine Iowa and Nevada But Clinton is leading or in a tight race in those states Trump also cannot afford to drop any red state and is already fighting rearguard actions in Arizona and Utah and some Democrats believe that Georgia could be competitiveAgain Trumps travel is instructive he is campaigning in Maine New Hampshire and Iowa on FridaySome Democrats worry Clintons biggest risk is that her voters think she has the presidency in the bag and will fail to show up to voteNo complacency here Clinton said Wednesday at a rally in Tampa Florida Donald Trump says he can still win and he is right That is why it is so important everyone gets out and votesClintons advisers also warn that the race will probably narrow in the days to comeQuite likely we are in store for one final round of tightening Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon tweeted WednesdayIn essence Trumps hopes rely on a huge turnout of his base voters who are largely white and working class He also needs significantly depressed enthusiasm among Clinton voters and a polldefying shock on the scale of Brexit the surprise British vote this year to quit the European UnionTrump has repeatedly said the polls are wrong And its true that some preelection polls underplayed the size of Obamas reelection victory in 2012 and the Democratic midterm election debacle two years laterBut if he goes into Election Day with his current deficit Trump would require a massive polling miss outside the margin of error in multiple statesThe Republican nominees own strategy makes his task even more difficultSince he has likely alienated minority and educated women with his rhetoric and behavior Trump must pull in vast numbers of new white voters some who may have voted for Democrats in the past to make up for the shortfallBut the Fox News poll like some other recent surveys suggested Trump is underperforming 2012 nominee Mitt Romney among this core constituency Romney won white voters by 20 points over Obama according to exit polls but Trump is only 14 points ahead of Clinton in the poll with the same voting groupTrumps problems with educated white female voters have been well documentedIf those numbers hold it means that the GOP nominee must reverse trends in which white voters have become a smaller share of the electorate in recent electionsThere are just not enough white men in these battleground states for him to win this election said Tharon Johnson who ran Obamas southern states strategy in his 2012 reelection bidStill Bloombergs poll of Florida does suggest Trump has some traction in the state he regards as a second home even though most other recent surveys have given Clinton a lead of a few points Some close observers of Sunshine State politics do believe his intense campaigning is having an impactI think it has moved some polls He has been very strategic about going into some of the media markets where there are a lot of suburban voters said Professor Susan MacManus of the University of South Florida who does not rule out a late Trump surge Never say never in our state On paper it should be Hillarys to lose But its not an on paper election She has soft spots in her base so does Trump

House Speaker John Boehners stunning announcement that he will resign his post and seat in Congress sparked chaos on Capitol Hill Friday with lawmakers immediately jockeying for position ahead of the upcoming reshuffleThis is going to be a barn burner of a leadership election one source saidThe 13term Ohio Republican shocked his GOP caucus early Friday morning when he informed them in a closeddoor session that he intends to step down at the end of October One lawmaker told Fox News he was stunned and that there was some anger in the room against the people who caused this to happenBut the drama didnt stop the almostimmediate scramble for his gavelSome lawmakers swiftly hit the phones making intense calls as they jockeyed for position ahead of what could potentially be an overhaul of the entire leadership teamThe immediate favorite to inherit the gavel is House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy RCalif a Boehner ally Fox News is told hes actively seeking the postAsked about a potential successor Boehner said thats up to the members but then gave McCarthy a nearendorsement I think Kevin McCarthy would be an excellent speakerBut it is far from a done deal with Rep Jeb Hensarling RTexas Rep Pete Roskam RIll and Rep Tom Price RGa thought to be potential candidates who could throw their hats into the ringFox News learned late Friday that Rep Cathy McMorris Rodgers RWash and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise RLa are both looking at running for the leadership positionThe leadership battle also begins as Congress still struggles over a budget measure and efforts by conservatives to defund Planned Parenthood as part of itEven if that issue is resolved in the nearterm the next speaker will confront those same partisan divisionsNot everyone wants that responsibility Rep Paul Ryan RWis the partys vice presidential nominee in 2012 has already ruled himself out of the race calling the job a great job for empty nestersFor his part Roskam attempted to become whip after thenHouse Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost his primary race last June and was replaced in leadership by McCarthy then the majority whip However Roskam was beaten by ScaliseFox News understands Roskam is one of the lawmakers jockeying for position When asked for comment Roskam warned against merely reshuffling the deckIm for somebody who can bridge the divide in our Conference If we dont have a plan to get us out of this dysfunction reshuffling the deck wont make anything betterIm going to work hard to make sure we get the leadership we need not just settle on the fastest easiest choice Roskam saidAn aide to Hensarling told Fox News that he was considering his options and would expect to have a decision next weekShould McCarthy succeed Boehner there would be an opening for House majority leader as well as potentially further down the roster in positions such as majority whipBoehners backing may help McCarthys chances with the establishment but may hurt him elsewhereBoehners backing will help him with the establishment but not with the conservative House Freedom Caucus He may face a challenge from conservatives but even the House Freedom Caucus admit they arent organized and so they may not even put up a candidate GOP strategist Ron Bonjean told FoxNewscom Speed is the key Waiting can hurt your chances Members who can get members behind them can build momentum and a snowball effect allows them to wrap things up Thats what McCarthy is going for theres already a sense of inevitability that hes getting the jobIf conservatives do put forward a candidate of their own Reps Jim Jordan ROhio and Rep Ted Yoho RFla are among the names that could be put forwardDemocrats too will almost certainly run Boehners predecessor House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi DCalif for the postAt a press conference Friday afternoon with Chinese President Xi Jinping President Obama also voiced his own general hopes for the next speakerMy hope is theres a recognition on the part of the next speaker something I think John understood that we can have significant differences on issues but that doesnt mean you shut down the government Obama saidBoehners resignation could make next weeks budget battle easier to resolve in the shortterm Conservatives want to use the budget measure to defund Planned Parenthood and Boehner previously had to worry about an internal party revolt if he tried to strike a deal with Democrats to pass a clean budget billHowever it also could work the other way A lameduck Boehner could open a situation where aspiring GOP leaders are put on the spot and under even more pressure from the conservative wingOnce Boehner resigns the total number of members in the House will be 434 An absolute majority of the House is required to elect a new speaker not a simple majority meaning the magic number of votes that a candidate must get is 218Once Boehner resigns the House will be unable to do anything until it elects a new speakerBoehners resignation is rare but not unprecedented The last speaker to resign in the middle of a Congress was Speaker Jim Wright DTexas who resigned in 1989 amid an ethics scandalFox News Chad Pergram and FoxNewscoms Adam Shaw contributed to this report

Military British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon Photo by AFP British Defense Minister Michael Fallon says the UK is set to deploy hundreds of troops to the Baltic region in Europe to support its NATO allies in the face of a more assertive Russia Fallon told a NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels on Wednesday that Britain would send 800 soldiers to Estonia to fulfill its pledge to deliver one of four battalions to NATOs Enhanced Forward Presence in Eastern Europe Backed by a rising defense budget this deployment of air land and sea forces shows that we will continue to play a leading role in NATO supporting the defense and security of our allies from the north to the south of the alliance Fallon said NATO had announced in July that it would deploy on a rotational basis four multinational battalions to Poland and the Baltic statesEstonia Latvia and Lithuaniato deter what it referred to as any Russian incursion During his address at the meeting Fallon also said that four British Typhoon fighter jets would be dispatched to Romania under the NATO Southern Air Policing mission which is supposed to protect the Baltic states airspace against possible attacks from Russia This is about two things reassurance and that needs to be done with some formidable presence and deterrence Fallon had said in an earlier interview This is not simply a tripwireThis is a serious military presence The move is likely to draw criticism from Moscow which has been angered by NATOs military buildup on its Western borders The USled military alliance cut its ties with Moscow in 2014 and has been reinforcing its presence near Russias borders ever since The UK and Russia have strong disagreements over a number of issues mainly the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine The two countries military forces have been involved in a series of aerial and naval confrontations with Britain sending its jets and warships on several occasions to intercept Russian bombers and naval fleets The latest of those encounters occurred on Thursday when the Russian aircraft career Admiral Kuznetsov and its sevenship task force were shadowed by two British warships on a course to sail through the North Sea and English Channel on their way to Syria Loading

Donald Trump was rushed from a rally stage by his Secret Service detail after someone in the crowd made a ruckus Within minutes his campaign was claiming it was a Hillary supporter with a gun trying to kill their candidate Heres Trumps social media director spinning the tale Trump social media director retweeted a tweet claiming this was an assassination attempt pictwittercomTTUCH4Zbb8 Rosie Gray RosieGray November 6 2016 Donald Trump Jr followed suit telling his followers on Twitter that his father had almost been assassinated He offered zero evidence And in fact absolutely none of those details were true The protester which is believed to have incited the panic was not trying to harm Donald Trump not carrying a gun and wasnt even a Hillary supporter He was a Republican protesting Trump Reporters tracked down the man who says he was holding a sign and was attacked by Trump supporters after someone said he had a gun This is the man who was ejected from the rally sparking panic He was holding a sign Republicans Against Trump pictwittercombZ2JAZ2w88 Paul Lewis PaulLewis November 6 2016 He says hes a Republican He said he was terrified by how the crowd responded I was in survival mode I knew I could die at that moment Paul Lewis PaulLewis November 6 2016 The Secret Service clarified what happened and while their actions were understandable given the circumstances the idea that the Trump campaign could leap from the small amount of details to a fullblown Hillary conspiracy is idiotic and reckless Secret Service statement an unidentified individual shouted gunno weapon was found pictwittercommsH2CPcclE Katy Tur KatyTurNBC November 6 2016 Talking Points Memos Josh Marshall hit the nail on the head This rush to exploit a nonstory by Trumps campaign is cynical and disturbing It also led to Trumps fired up mob seeking to avenge their candidate by attacking reporters a group Trump has repeatedly demonized 4 Clinton supporter When a CNN reporter went into the crowd to try to learn more he was assaulted by feral Trumpers still amped up Josh Marshall joshtpm November 6 2016 There is something cultish about the way Trumps campaign relished the idea that someone would attempt to hurt their candidate The minor detail that none of it was true didnt seem to slow them down They want to portray Trump as a martyr without any of the inconvenience of an actual martyrdom Featured image via Scott OlsonGetty Images Share this Article

WASHINGTON Feb 11 Reuters US President Barack Obama singled out office supply giant Staples Inc as undercutting his healthcare reform law and said large corporations should not use the health insurance issue as an excuse for cutting wages the news website BuzzFeed reportedIts one thing when youve got a momandpop store who cant afford to provide paid sick leave or health insurance or minimum wage to workers but when I hear large corporations that make billions of dollars in profits trying to blame our interest in providing health insurance as an excuse for cutting back workers wages shame on them Obama said in an interview with BuzzFeedThe Affordable Care Act requires companies with more than 50 employees to pay for health insurance for people who work 30 hours a week or more Reuters has reported that some businesses are keeping staffing numbers below 50 or cutting the work week to less than 30 hours to avoid providing employee health insuranceStaples the No 1 US office supplies retailer has told its employees not to work more than 25 hours per week according to a Buzzfeed report on MondayThere is no reason for an employer who is not currently providing health care to their workers to discourage them from either getting health insurance on the job or being able to avail themselves of the Affordable Care Act Obama said in the interview TuesdayI havent looked at Staples stock lately or what the compensation of the CEO is but I suspect that they could well afford to treat their workers favorably and give them some basic financial security and if they cant then they should be willing to allow those workers to get the Affordable Care Act without cutting wages Obama saidNearly 75 million people have signed up for 2015 Obamacare health plans through HealthCaregov with demand increasing as the Feb 15 enrollment deadline approaches according to government figuresStaples and No 2 office retailer Office Depot Inc announced last week a 63 billion plan to join forces to compete against big box stores and online rivals Reporting by Doina Chiacu Sruthi Ramakrishnan Martin Howell Writing by Doina Chiacu Editing by W Simon

Sent Tuesday August 11 2015 600 PM To Kendall David Subject Hi again from AP inquiry about thumb drive Hi David We have been told and we are preparing to report that the FBI has taken possession of the thumb drive that was once in your possession This is what we have been informed and we wanted to see whether there was any sort of comment that could be provided If you wanted to steer us away and say that we are misinformed then I would gladly accept that as well But we have solid reason to believe this Wed welcome any comment you can offer Thanks very much Eric Associated Press reporter says he knows its true but will gladly print that its false Whats truly astonishing in this email is how AP reporter Eric Tucker says he will gladly LIE to cover for the Clintons In plain English he explains that he has solid reason to believe the report about the thumb drive but he will gladly publish a false narrative via the Associated Press and he even suggests what that false narrative should be If you wanted to steer us away and say that we are misinformed then I would gladly accept that as well In other words hes not just corrupt dishonest and fraudulent as a journalist hes also SUGGESTING the false narrative the Clintons should use This is the exact same way the AP talks to the CDC about vaccines and measles by the way Essentially the Associated Press reporters say We are total media whores we will bend over and grab our ankles while you shove your fake story down the throats of our readers who foolishly think were a credible news organization You gotta love Eric Tucker for this The guy takes the prize for finally spelling out in black and white what weve known for years the AP is a total joke when it comes to real journalism Note carefully that the AP wont even fire Tucker for this admission Hell probably get a prize of some sort How many other Associated Presstitutes have deliberately LIED to cover up Clinton crimes It all brings to mind the obvious question How many other Associated Presstitutes deliberately lied to cover up Clinton crimes Just what percentage of AP stories about the Clinton scandals are actually FAKE NEWS pretending to be credible journalism Answer Probably about 99 Its not just AP either Its the same story at every other mainstream news organization across America Theyre all liars and crooks and theyre all working for Hillary Clinton the serial killer and rape excuser SF Source Dreamcatcher Nov 2016 Share this

by DML DAILY November 2 2016 SOCIETY DEVELOPING STORY BREAKING NEWS Two police officers are dead in Des Moines Iowa after they were ambushed early Wednesday morning The killings were in separate incidents within blocks of each each other Police are on a manhunt to find the killer identified as Scott Michael Greene The ambushes both happened as the cops were sitting in their patrol cars BREAKING Police have identified the suspect in fatal shootings of 2 officers as Scott Michael Greene pictwittercom5ECsApJFcn Charly Haley charlyhaley November 2 2016 FROM FOX NEWS The shootings occurred within minutes of each other in Des Moines One Des Moines police officer and another from the suburb of Urbandale were found in their bulletriddled cruisers Des Moines police Sgt Paul Parizek said Theres somebody out there shooting police There is a clear and present danger to police officers right now he said In all appearances it looks just like that that these officers were ambushed Parizek said Neither police officer was identified by officials and as of a 5 am police were still notifying family members Parizek said their names and details about their service would be released later Wednesday Sign up to get alerts about Dennis Michael Lynchs upcoming Donald Trump film and breaking news Subscribe

Donald Trump still holds a wide lead over the rest of the field earning the support of 39 in a Fox News poll released Friday His closest competitor Ted Cruz has 18 Marco Rubio is at 11 and Ben Carson checks in with 9 The rest of the Republican field has 3 support or lessThe survey fielded Wednesday and Thursday largely syncs with other recent national surveys showing Trump with a large doubledigit lead over Cruz and the rest of the field lagging behind that quartetCompared to the last Fox poll taken in the wake of the Paris terrorism attacks Trump has surged 11 points He has similarly gained in other national polls amid increased terrorism fearsTrump has since called for banning all Muslims from entering the US a policy that seven in 10 Republicans say they supportTwothirds of Republicans now say they see Trump as a serious candidate 65 a reversal from June when nearly that many described Trump as a sideshow 64 rather than a serious candidate Despite his dominance in the GOP race Trump lags 11 points behind Clinton in a hypothetical general election matchup Other Republicans fare better against the Democratic frontrunner but still 47 of GOP primary voters think Trump is their best shot to beat Clinton

Ted Cruz won more delegates than anyone else on Saturday night further narrowing the race between Trump and Cruz and weakening Marco Rubio as the race heads to FloridaTed Cruz crushed the Kansas and Maine caucuses on Super Saturday while Donald Trump narrowly won the Louisiana and Kentucky prizes But perhaps the biggest news was Marco Rubio fading in the field to a distant third place despite racking up major endorsements across the mapOver the past six weeks the GOP establishment has moved from denial to anger to bargaining in the stages of grief that have accompanied this outsider election But with Rubios big fade the Hail Mary of a brokered convention looks even less likely And whats left of the partys centerright is heading for the next stage of depression A hug and a drink are in order as their party prepares to be wrested away from reform RepublicansThe Florida Republicanstruggling to present himself as the establishmentfriendly alternative to Donald Trumphad perhaps his worst night yet racking up zero wins and failing to even snag a secondplace finish anywhereIn fact Rubio finished third in three of the four states contested on Saturday And with just 8 percent the Florida senator fell to fourth in Mainefailing to get the minimum 10 percent necessary to win any delegatesMarco has to get out of the race Has to Trump saidTheres now no question that Rubios decision to descend to Trumps level of discourse has been a total failure The attacks on the size of Trumps hands the jokes about him wetting himself the con artist namecalling have all fallen flatAnd the losses on Saturday could rob his campaign of desperately needed momentum Rubio has repeatedly stated that he expects to win in his home state of Florida on March 15 And of course thats technically possible But he has yet to lead in a single public poll of the state And he doesnt want to talk about what hell do if Florida doesnt work outThe billionaire businessman with the flair of a pro wrestler said he hoped for a headtohead matchup with CruzIf Rubio takes Trumps advice then some hot CruzTrump oneonone action could be in our future Best election ever

Early Voting Results In Key Battleground States Appear To Favor Donald Trump 7th 2016 If you want Donald Trump then you have got to be encouraged by what you are seeing so far Early voting has already been going on in a number of the most important battleground states and up to this point the numbers seem to support the theory doing significantly better in key swing states than Mitt Romney did in 2012 As you will see below the latest numbers released by Florida North Carolina Colorado and Arizona all have good news for the Trump campaign Without a doubt I still have an happen tomorrow night but so far at least there are some encouraging signs Florida Early voting has become extremely popular in Florida and at this point close to half of all voters in the state have already cast their ballots Donald Trump cannot win the election without Floridas 29 electoral votes and so to say that this is a must win for the Trump campaign would be a massive understatement Fortunately the Trump campaign appears to be doing much better in Florida than the Romney campaign did in 2012 The following comes from Politico Florida Democrats increased their lead over Republicans in casting preElection Day ballots to nearly 33000 as of Sunday morning but the sheer number of new voters and independents makes it tougher than ever for experts to say whether Hillary Clinton has a clear advantage over Donald Trump in the nations biggest battleground state Of the record 61 million inperson early votes and absentee ballots cast Democrats have an advantage over Republicans of only 05 percentage points with each party casting roughly 39 percent of the ballots Though its a lead for Democrats theyre not going to match their 37percentagepoint lead in early votes by Election Day they enjoyed in 2012 And Republicans tend to outvote Democrats on Election Day in Florida On Monday updated numbers for Florida were released and we found out that the Democrats had increased their lead to about 87000 votes But Trump is still doing much better than Romney was at this stage And the Trump campaign also has to be happy about the fact that firsttime voters account for 25 percent of all the votes cast so far Throughout this election cycle Trump has shown that he can bring out people that have never voted before and so officials in the Trump campaign have to be smiling about this However one sign of trouble for the Trump campaign is the fact that there has been a 100 percent increase in early voting by Hispanics in Florida compared to 2012 and this appears to be fueled by dislike for Trump The following comes from the Miami Herald Through Saturday 565000 Hispanics had completed early inperson voting in Florida a 100 percent increase over 2012 according to an analysis by Dan Smith a University of Florida political science professor who tracks voting data Including absentee ballots 911000 Hispanics have voted more than a third of whom did not vote in 2012 Were witnessing explosive early voting turnout of Hispanics both those newly registered to vote as well as those who sat on the sidelines in 2012 Smith said As discussed above Republicans tend to outvote Democrats on Election Day in Florida so the key for the Trump campaign will be to have the same kind of Election Day turnout that the Romney campaign had in 2012 If Trump wins Florida he will have a legitimate shot at winning the election but if he loses the state it will be virtually impossible for him to make up those 29 electoral votes elsewhere on the map North Carolina Another state that the Trump campaign desperately needs is North Carolina Mitt Romney won this state back in 2012 and according to the Drudge Report the Trump campaign is doing even better than the Romney campaign did during early voting Another dramatic turn of events is being reported out of North Carolina this afternoon Donald Trump has jumped past all expectations in early voting In 2012 Romney hit Election Day down 447000 votes based on early ballots He went on to win the state by 97000 votes Now the DRUDGE REPORT can reveal Trump opens Election Day down 305000 North Carolina is another of the key battleground states that is going to help decide the election While not as important as Florida the truth is that Donald Trump pretty much has to have it to have a legitimate shot Colorado All along most of the pundits have pretty much assumed that Hillary Clinton was going to win Colorado Unfortunately for her the Denver Post is reporting that the number of Republicans that have voted so far exceeds the number of Democrats that have voted Republicans took the lead in early voting in Colorado Friday and held the advantage through the weekend despite robust Democratic getoutthevote efforts The latest early voting numbers released Monday morning show registered Republicans cast 652380 ballots compared to 645020 registered Democrats a 7360 vote GOP advantage The breakdown looks like this 352 percent Republican 348 percent Democrat and 285 percent unaffiliated If Donald Trump could find a way to actually win Colorado that would definitely lessen the pressure of having to win Nevada where he is not doing nearly as well so far Arizona The state of Arizona used to be considered deep red territory but during this election cycle it has been considered a battleground state Fortunately for Trump the poll numbers in Arizona have shifted in his direction in recent days and the early numbers coming out of the state look very good for him The Republican lead in absentee ballots returned is 95000 Bill Dunn the partys director of early and absentee voting said Republicans lead with 365 percent of absentee ballots requested but have an even greater advantage in absentee ballots returned at 40 percent of the total In the waning days of the campaign Donald Trump has been crisscrossing the country and he continues to draw absolutely enormous crowds Conservative voters are far more enthusiastic about Trump than they were about Romney but will it be enough The scene here in Sterling Heights Michigan just before Trumps next rally pictwittercom1OxuTNeXuN Jill Colvin colvinj November 7 2016 Some Republican strategists are convinced that it will not be enough In fact one of them told CNN that he believes going to win by an electoral landslide Hillary Clinton will win in an electoral landslide on Tuesday but the political baggage she has accumulated over the past yearandahalf will dissuade congressional Republicans from working with her administration says longtime Republican political strategist John Weaver I believe shes going to win in an electoral landslide and be the most unpopular president in electoral history which is quite the paradox Weaver told David Axelrod on The Axe Files podcast produced by the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN And ultimately it could be the establishment Republicans and the neverTrumpers that make the difference and deliver the election to Hillary Clinton If you can believe it some establishment Republicans are actually publicly announcing that they have voted for Hillary Clinton and are encouraging others to do the same If they can get just five percent of Republicans to follow them they could completely alter the outcome of the election So let us hope that does not happen On a positive note on Monday we learned that Hillary Clinton has canceled her celebratory fireworks for Tuesday night No reason was given for why the fireworks were canceled but many are taking this as a sign that the Clinton campaign may not be as optimistic as they were previously In any event we dont have long to wait now until we find out who wins and who loses If you want Donald Trump to win please go vote because America may never be faced with this kind of a choice again I am absolutely convinced that this is a pivotal moment in American history and on Tuesday night we find out what happens May God have mercy on the late great United States of America November 7th 2016 Tags 2016 Election Arizona Colorado Debts Donald Trump Election Florida North Carolina Pain Trump Category Commentary

Email Hillary Clinton personally ordered a consultant to use a nonprofit group to troll the Trump campaign with a Donald Duck mascot according to the Democratic operatives who say they arranged it with a nonprofit organization When Breitbart News Washington political editor Matthew Boyle confronted Mook about Creamer and his firm in the spin room after the third presidential debate Mook claimed Theyve never worked for our campaign When asked if Clinton had ever discussed the controversial political operations with Creamer directly Mook replied I dont think so Now however OKeefe and Project Veritas have released video of Creamer claiming that Clinton directly approved one of his more bizarre plans an effort to attract media attention and incite violence by dressing an activist in a Donald Duck costume and sending that activist into Trump events emphasizing the argument that Trump was ducking releasing his tax returns The action if true would be a blackletter violation of federal election law which prohibits presidential campaigns from coordinating activities with outside groups that can collect unlimited dark money from contributors and dont pay taxes on what they collect Project Veritas Action video footage shows Robert Creamer a convicted felon who was forced out of his executive role at the liberal consultancy Democracy Partners saying Clinton chose the duck stunt In the end it was the candidate Hillary Clinton the future president of the United States who wanted ducks on the ground So by God we would get ducks on the ground Creamer says in the video

Holed up in Saudi Arabia the inner circle of President Hadi is rallying tribal leaders to resist Houthi rebels who control much of Yemen The risk is that if and when they regain power the central government will emerge with little authorityUber in court Is it a digital service or an unlicensed taxi companyUber in court Is it a digital service or an unlicensed taxi companyFrom the gilded suites and granite lobby of a luxurious fivestar hotel here the remnants of Yemens embattled government sees a daily lineup of Yemeni tribal leaders Western diplomats and Saudi military commandersOver countless cups of bittersweet coffee and dates and lobster and seafood dinners Yemeni ministers calmly toss out phrases like national dialogue and institution building as they talk up their postwar political plansThey lack the air of urgency or desperation of a government forced to take refuge with its powerful neighbor To hear them tell it they are a government poised to reclaim power from the Shiite Houthi militia and allied fighters that call the shots in much of their countryBut their blueprint for victory may contain the seeds of defeat for a unitary Yemeni state As in Libya the arming of local militia to oust a common enemy could make it even harder to restore central authority in the aftermath of a civil warOver the last two weeks the UNbacked Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi has been working feverously to patch together a broad coalition of Yemeni tribes backed by Arab military intervention against the Iranianallied HouthisThe result is a tribal coalition of some 70000 fighters and the pledge of a SaudiEgyptian expeditionary force Yemeni officials say they are preparing to retake the southern port city of Aden within days and thence fight for control over the rest of YemenFrom day one we have been building a coalition across all segments of Yemeni society to return the rule of law says Yasseen Makawi a close aide to Hadi who has led several talks here with Yemeni tribal leaders Hadi is currently in Riyadh living under tight securityWe will be in Aden soon to start the long fight Mr Makawi saysSo far the Saudiled bombing campaign hasnt stopped the advance of the Houthis which are backed by military units loyal to former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh On Thursday these forces captured Ataq the provincial capital of oilrich Shabwa province after days of clashes followed by negotiations with local Sunni tribes according to news reportsFor Hadis exiled government the stakes are high In order to win over the support of dozens of tribes in south and central Yemen officials have agreed in future to devolve more government powers to the provinces and tribal regions threatening the unity of a state that was only reunified in 1990Yemeni tribal leaders see the situation as an opportunity to press for greater autonomy and perhaps independenceWe are all for a democratic Yemen with greater powers in the hands of the people says Abdullah Kathiri head of the largest tribe in Hadrawmout a wealthy province in eastern Yemen who speaks openly about independence With this understanding tribes across the country are now willing to rise upSuch ambitions speak to the centrifugal forces being unleashed in Yemen Exiled officials concur that by arming and militarizing Sunni tribes across the country they may create a second Libya where tribal militias roam unchallenged and refuse to answer to a weak central governmentWe do not want to place heavy arms into the hands of tribes and have them act outside the army says Transport Minister Badr Mubarak BaSalma who has led talks with tribal representativesWe dont want to finally rid ourselves of Ali Abdullah Saleh to find ourselves with dozens of more Ali Abdullah Salehs Mr BaSalma adds referring to the longtime ruler who stepped down in 2012 Hadi replaced him as president under a Saudibacked transition that began to unravel last yearIn private Hadis inner circle concedes it may be a drawnout yearlong war against the betterarmed Houthi militias and military units loyal to Saleh which swiftly descended from their stronghold in the northern provinces of Saada and Amran to claim over 80 percent of Yemens territoryThe Houthis boast a fighting force of between 80000 and 100000 while forces loyal to Saleh number around 20000 Yemeni government officials and observers sayThe HouthiSaleh fighters boast superior firepower due to the fact that Salehs supporters include entire military units with fierce allegiances to their political and financial backer Some of this equipment is a legacy of US military aid to Yemen during Salehs rule which continued under Hadis governmentThe Houthis control vital military installations outside Sanaa and warehouses of RPGs tanks and armorpiercing grenade and rocket launchersGiven this superior firepower the Hadi governments strategy is to overcome the militias with greater manpower and urge tribal and political factions to rise up town by town village by village against what many Yemenis view as Houthi invadersSix military councils regional groupings of officers loyal to Hadi have been tasked with coordinating with local tribal militias and the Saudiled aerial campaignThe councils have succeeded in fostering armed uprisings in Aden as well Taiz in the oilrich province of Marib However due to the disparity in arms and lack of cohesive units the progovernment militias have failed to even secure Aden where Hadi had declared a provisional government after fleeing SanaaTo recapture Aden several hundred Egyptian and Saudi Arabian Special Forces are preparing to deploy in the port city With fighting intensifying in Aden Saudi and Yemeni official sources expect the operation within the next weekHowever weary of being dragged into a protracted fight Riyadh and Cairo have stopped short of committing ground troops to a wider war across YemenWe are committed to liberating Aden and reinstalling the democraticallyelected government but that is all that is being discussed says a Saudi military liaison close to the operationsInstead the joint Arab force would be used with surgical precision say government insiders using force only to turn the tide in key battles in southern YemenThe Hadi government has also received little commitment from the US and its Western allies officials say they left recent talks sessions with Western diplomats frustrated and dismayedThey want us to lead the war against terrorism and extremism in Yemen but they are allowing our country to be overrun by terrorist groups says a cabinet minister who refused to be named due to the sensitivity of the issueThe US has begun conducting aerial refueling of Saudiled coalition warplanes It has also vowed to speed up delivery of weapons to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf powersShould it regain a foothold in Yemen Hadis government is bracing for perhaps the largest obstacle in restoring control the northDespite rounds of marathon talks with northern tribal and political leaders in Riyadh Hadi and his team have reportedly failed to find ready and willing partners to stand up to Saleh and Houthi forces on their own home turfThere are opponents to Saleh and the Houthis in the north but they are afraid they are outmatched BaSalma says Only by breaking their military power will we break the fear and see people in the north willing to stand upIn return for their participation northern leaders want guarantees of greater power and influence for their region which was an independent republic during 196290 It received a privileged status and government jobs during Salehs three decades in powerThe government has been noncommittal so far on granting greater independence to the north beyond what it agreed in a national dialogue that ended two years ago But it has agreed to permit it greater autonomy under the federal systemHadi is also trying to peel away Saleh loyalists who might defect to the government side in return for an amnesty As an olive branch Hadi officials have promised not to dissolve military units that defect or to cashier their officers Instead they say the military must be reconstituted as an internal security serviceWe dont want to make the same mistakes in Iraq and turn thousands of Yemeni citizens into insurgents Mr Makawi says We are prepared to include the supporters of Saleh as an integral part of a stable federal Yemen state

Charities with ties to Hillary Clinton will refile at least five tax returns after errors in how donations from foreign governments were disclosed according to a published reportReuters reported early Thursday that the errors on form 990s includeunderreporting or overreporting by millions of dollars the amounts donated by foreign governments as well as not disclosing the donations as separate from total revenue Reuters also reported that officials may audit other returns filed by the Clinton Foundation as far back as 15 years ago in the event of more errors being foundThe report will likely add a new layer of scrutiny to the foundation which has been criticized by Republicans and ethics experts for its ongoing ties to several foreign governments during the early stages of Hillary Clintons run for the 2016 Democratic nominationAccording to Reuters the discrepancies are not evidence of wrongdoing in and of themselves but they do undermine the 990s purpose of holding charities accountable for their funding and expendituresFor example between 2010 and 2012 the Clinton Foundation claimed on tax forms that it had not received any money from either the US or foreign governments In fact several foreign governments gave the foundation tens of millions of dollars which was noted on the foundations updating donor listIn addition Reuters reports the Clinton Health Access Initiative CHAI will refile its Form 990s for 2012 and 2013 after failing to note government grants in a separate section from total revenue CHAI had previously refiled returns from 2010 and 2011 for overreporting the amount received in government grants by over 100 millionHillary Clinton resigned from the Clinton Foundations board earlier this month ahead of announcing her presidential candidacy though her husband and daughter both remain directorsClick for more from Reuters

cant wait for musou star hopefully run well in portablecause i wanna it for the vita

Share on Twitter Nearly every day Kathleen Hotard walks down her driveway to meet her son as he gets off the bus Though hes only five years old Kenneth has been taking the bus home from school for almost two years So when Hotard didnt see her son at the bus stop after school she was afraid When she learned why he wasnt there that fear quickly turned to anger Image Credit ScreenshotWWLTV As WWLTV News reports Hotard had gone to the bus stop on Monday and waited for her son to appear When he didnt the worried mother immediately thought about the terrible things that could have happened She tells WWLTV The driver opened the doors and my child was not on the bus The driver informed me he was not there and that she didnt know where he was but that he had not gotten on the bus that day You get this pit in your stomach because you dont know where your child is You dont know if theyre okay or if theyre crying for you Learning why her son hadnt gotten on the bus didnt make things better Upset that the other children were throwing spitballs that sometimes hit him Kenneth had told his teacher he had a note from his mother giving him permission to walk home from school Unfortunately there was no note but the school failed to confirm that fact with Hotard She tells WWLTV I was informed my child had lied and said he had a parental note to walk home I confirmed I never wrote a note and they confirmed they never saw a note He said he had misplaced it After learning that a substitute teacher had taken Kenneth at his word with no followup Hotard is now demanding action from the school Though she says that she is angry with her son for lying she also wonders why the school didnt check with her before allowing her son to walk home alone As for Kenneth a call to the police from a concerned citizen helped find him He was found about a half mile from school heading in the wrong direction down a busy road He admitted that he got kind of lost trying to get home The school superintendent has apologized and promised to investigate what went wrong Hotard hopes that this will be followed by safeguards that will prevent the same thing from happening again She tells WWLTV I dont want any other parent to ever have to feel what I felt I dont want any other child to be on a side of a road by themselves scared

To reject the governments defense of the law Greenhouse writes the justices would have to suspend their own settled approach to statutory interpretation as well as their oftenstated view of how Congress should act toward the states She then addresses the conservative justices who would take Obamacares soul If you do and you proceed to destroy the Affordable Care Act nonetheless you will have a great deal of explaining to do not to me but to historyWell the conservative justices who comprise a 54 majority on the Supreme Court probably do not care that much for the warnings of Linda Greenhouse of the New York Times As she well knows They have their own history to make after all and that is a political one gutting the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act while they have the chance I would like to believe that theyre thinking about this in anything but political terms but its doubtful because theyre wellestablished political hacksThe Democratic and Republican parties understand that theyre political hacks too and it makes sense to play to that side of themThe decision likely comes down to John Roberts again Roberts much to the enmity of his fellow conservative justices upheld the individual mandate in 2012 Even if he didnt go fullhack this was not a neutral ballsandstrikes reading of the law from our selfstyled umpire It was a careful weighing of political considerations He decided thenthat he wouldnt join Scalia Alito Thomas and Kennedy in going out of his way to wipe the entire law from the books That would be too abrupt So he upheld the individual mandate but only on the grounds of taxation and not the Commerce Clause as a way to needle the administration And he also gutted Medicaid as a sop to conservativesHe may regret letting the Affordable Care Act live and now he gets a second lick at the apple That gutting Obamacare over this would damage the courts honoris not very persuasive It implies that theres extant honor for it to lose That train left the station when the court picked up this stupid case to begin with if not much earlierA top concern for Roberts then might be the extent to which a ruling against the government in King v Burwell would send the countrys healthcare system into chaos This shouldnt be a concern for a justice whos deciding on the merits of a case but it is And its a political consideration his court would more easily get away with an inept ruling if he knew there was a safety net Convincing Roberts that there is no safety net then is a priority for the White House and convincing him that there is that everything will be hunkydory if he just goes ahead and ruins Obamacare is a top goal for the RepublicansHHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell appeared before the Senate Finance Committee in what turned out to be a testy hearing yesterday Republican senators repeatedly pressed her for details on what the administrations backup plan is should the court eliminate subsidies for insurance plans bought on federally facilitated exchanges Burwell repeatedly dodged saying that her focus now is meeting targets for the open enrollment period Sen John Cornyn went so far as to suggest she was acting in contempt of Congress Does the administration have a contingency plan Have they thought about what theyd do Well yeah And two former Bush HHS officials who spoke with the Hill seem to nail why Burwell and the administration are keeping their plans close to the chest now because they dont want to signal weakness to John Roberts Of course they have one they should all resign if they dont said Tom Scully an HHS official under former President George W Bush And they certainly should not discuss it either Former HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt who left office in 2009 agreed He added that he isnt surprised that senior officials would rather face a day of bad headlines than signal weakness to the Supreme Court If the court thought they had a plan they might think they felt like their case was weak Leavitt who also served as governor of Utah said in an interview The GOP of course would love for the administration to signal weakness all while they the party that controls both chambers of Congress now signal strength comfort and reassurance Thats why theyre putting effort into developing an alternative to Obamacare after all these years Its all to show John Roberts go ahead guy well take care of everything else Theres no way that any of this should have any bearing on what John Roberts will decide but its a reasonable bet that it will and it makes perfect cynical sense to appeal to John Roberts this way

Here is Elon Musks True Mars On Earth Plan 11012016 GAME N GUIDE Elon Musk the founder of SpaceX recently held a Reddit Ask Me Anything session at 600 pm ET on Oct 23 The session was said to be a followup to the executives speech in Mexico last month Musk unveiled his plans for a refueling site and eventually habitation in the methanerich planet SpaceX is said to have raised more questions lately than it has revealed The inventor and conglomerate went to Twitter to announce the session Engadget reported For instance the companys plan on colonizing Mars is yet to be discussed as well as the reliability of its space rockets and how it can be improved In addition the company also previously revealed that it would be reusing their rockets but have kept mum on how Previously Musk had a speech at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara Mexico in September In the said Congress Musk revealed his plans of sending humans to Mars apparently costing a whooping 10 billion each Moreover he stated that humans will be turned into a multiplanetary species within the span of 40 years to a century Musk revealed his vision with massive reusable rockets launching into a parking orbit stating that the rockets may be refueled by propellant tankers Additionally Musk plans to launch a thousand spaceships with a hundred people each en masse for Mars He further revealed that a refueling station would be placed on the red planet to harvest methane fuel so settlers may come back to Earth Hence the first rocket to be sent is the Dragon spacecraft to search for a site to plant the refueling station followed by a spaceship with equipment to build the refueling station LA Times reported Musk went on to describe his ideal vision for human habitation on Mars Musk revealed that glass panels with carbon fiber frames would be brought to the red planet to build geodesic domes on the planets surface Furthermore several miner and tunneling droids would also be sent to Mars The droids are expected to be used to build large quantities of pressurized space for industrial operations along with glass domes for green living Watch Elon Musks Mars colonization event in 5 minutes

Donald Trump kicks off final campaign day with Fla rally 11072016 BOSTON GLOBE Donald Trump is criticizing the FBIs decision not to criminally charge Hillary Clinton He says now its up to the American people to deliver justice at the ballot box Trump kicked off his Election Day eve blitz with a rally Monday in Florida He told the Sarasota crowd that the system is rigged but at least we know it He claimed that our country is a laughing stock all over the world The Republican nominee than pantomimed quotation marks when he said the word justice as he hit the FBI and the Department of Justice for their handling of the case FBI Director James Comey notified Congress Sunday that a review of new emails connected to Clintons servers did produce evidence that would warrant charges 1145 am An exaide to former President Bill Clinton alleged in a hacked email that Chelsea Clinton used the familys charitable foundation to help underwrite her 2010 wedding The 2012 exchange between Doug Band and Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta was released by the WikiLeaks organization Stolen messages have chronicled tensions within the Clinton Foundation between Band and the daughter of the Democratic presidential nominee Band told Podesta that Chelsea Clinton was gossiping to outsiders that she was investigating questionable spending Band suggested that she is the one who should be scrutinized for using foundation resources for her wedding He did not provide details about this A Clinton Foundation spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment Band was later forced out amid issues with his outside consulting firm 1140 am Donald Trump is kicking off his last breakneck day of campaigning before polls open with a rally in Sarasota Florida Trump is telling thousands of supporters packed into a local fairgrounds arena Monday that the election is now in their hands He told them Get out there I mean I did my thing I worked Trump is planning to continue a frenzied campaign pace with rallies in five states Monday including North Carolina Pennsylvania New Hampshire and Michigan Trump is also continuing to paint rival Hillary Clinton as a corrupt and alluding to the scrutiny of her use of a private email sever as secretary of state Trump is also having some fun At one point he held up a mask in his likeness and complimented its hair 1130 am The White House says it will neither defend nor criticize FBI Director James Comeys decision to send a new letter to Congress about Hillary Clintons emails Thats the same phrasing the White House used when Comey initially announced that the FBI was looking into more emails related to its investigation of Clinton In a followup letter Sunday Comey said the FBI review was completed and it was standing by its recommendation that no charges be filed White House spokesman Josh Earnest on Monday told reporters aboard Air Force One that the White House hasnt been briefed on the investigation and didnt receive advance notice about Comeys latest letter Earnest says Obama still has confidence in Comey 1050 am Philadelphias public transit system will be up and running in time for Election Day now that a weeklong strike has ended Thats a relief to the states Democrats Democratic city officials were worried that the strike could affect turnout at the polls Tuesday Pennsylvania does not offer early voting so Election Day turnout is key The state has favored Democrats in recent presidential elections but polls suggest the race is tightening Democrat Hillary Clinton is counting on strong support in the Philadelphia area Both candidates are campaigning in the state Tuesday The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority and the union representing roughly 4700 transit workers announced a tentative agreement early Monday Subways were soon operating on a reduced schedule and limited trolled serve was restored 1030 am The Justice Department says it will send more than 500 staffers to 28 states on Election Day to monitor the polls Thats a 35 percent reduction from the number four years ago Department officials say personnel will be sent to 67 jurisdictions to watch for potential civil rights violations Mondays announcement comes amid rising concerns about voter intimidation particularly aimed at minorities The number of personnel is less than the roughly 780 monitors and observers who were dispatched in 2012 The Justice Department has said its pollwatching presence has been curtailed by a 2013 Supreme Court opinion that gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act In a statement Attorney General Loretta Lynch said the department is committed to ensuring that every eligible voter can participate in the election 1025 am Hillary Clinton is departing on a multistop swing of the presidential battleground states on the day before the election Shes telling reporters that were just going to work until the last vote is counted Clinton said Monday that while she thinks she has some work to do to bring the country together she wants to be the president for those who vote for her and those who dont She was speaking to reporters at an airport outside New York City Clinton said she has a big agenda ahead of us and is vowing to get a lot done if she defeats Republican Donald Trump The Democratic presidential nominee was campaigning in Pittsburgh Grand Rapids Michigan Philadelphia and Raleigh North Carolina 855 am New Jersey Gov Chris Christie says he doesnt know if the George Washington Bridge lane closure controversy cost him the vice presidential nomination Christie said Monday on CBS This Morning that he was runnerup to be Republican Donald Trumps vice presidential pick He denied a report that Trump had offered him the job then rescinded it He said he thinks Trump thought Indian governor Mike Pence was the better choice Two of Christies former allies were convicted Friday for their role in realigning access lanes to the bridge in a political revenge plot against a Democratic mayor who didnt endorse him Christie says he thinks Trump will defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton Tuesday because the momentum is on his side and the country wants change 835 am Ohio Democrats want the US Supreme Court to intervene in their voter intimidation lawsuit in the swing state The party has filed an emergency request for the nations high court to lift a Cincinnatibased federal appeals court order That ruling Sunday granted the Donald Trump campaigns request to block a federal judges restraining order Democrats said was needed to prevent voter intimidation A 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals threejudge panel said Ohio Democrats didnt show a likelihood of success on their cases merits The party told the US Supreme Court the appellate judges ruled without reviewing critical evidence a lower court judge relied on in ruling that anyone engaging in intimidation or harassment inside or near polling places would face contempt of court charges 735 am Donald Trumps campaign manager says its not true that his staff has stopped him from tweeting Trump has exhibited unusual restraint on social media in the final days of the campaign The New York Times reported on Sunday that aides have finally wrested away his Twitter account President Barack Obama seized on the report at a voter rally in Florida telling the crowd that anyone who cant be trusted with a Twitter account shouldnt be trusted with control of the Americas nuclear weapons When asked Monday about the Times report by NBCs Today Show campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said No its not true 315 am With the cloud of an FBI investigation lifted Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump struck strikingly different tones as they moved into the final hours of a volatile nearly twoyearlong presidential campaign After days of attacks on Trumps qualifications and temperament Clinton cast herself as the candidate of healing and reconciliation perhaps a surprising position for one of the most divisive figures in American politics Trump meanwhile voiced new confidence as he brought his campaign and his dark visions of a rigged American economic and political system to longtime Democratic strongholds Overshadowing the flurry of lastminute campaigning was FBI Director James Comeys latest letter to Congress informing lawmakers the bureau had found no evidence in its hurried review of newly discovered emails to warrant criminal charges against Clinton

For those who cant wait to get this election over with theres good news early voting is startingThe bad news That only applies to you if you live in one of 37 states that offer some kind of early voting in person absentee or by mail without an excuse neededMore than 1 in 3 people is expected to cast a ballot early this year On Friday voters in Minnesota and South Dakota can start turning in absentee ballots On Saturday they can do so in Vermont and ballots will go out in New JerseyVoters have already had the chance to go to the polls in Wisconsin Rapids Wis which started holding early inperson voting Monday In Wisconsin each municipality and county sets its early voting datesOver the next three weeks voters in a third of the country will already be able to voteEarly voting could account for up to 34 percent of the vote this year according to Michael McDonald associate professor of political science at the University of Florida and founder of the Elections Project which tracks turnoutHe predicts that voting methods such as inperson and allmail ballots will become the future of exercising democracy There are even states that operate without physical polling locations relying solely on the mail during an election Washington Oregon and Colorado And as Americans start to cast their tickets some as early as September those votes will carefully be dissected by both campaignsEarly votes will give us a good contour of whos enthused to show up to vote McDonald explainedWhen the absentee ballots begin to flow in a campaign could spin the numbers in whatever direction it wants But those reactions will most likely be overwrought The Trump campaign could spin mailin votes as an indicator of the polls being wrong if they still show Clinton ahead but that would likely be a false reading McDonald said Thats because registered Republicans tend to vote by mail in bigger numbers than Democrats and Democrats tend to use early inperson voting more oftenRomney in 2012 put out records that he was crushing it in Ohio McDonald said They were saying the polls are wrong look at how well hes doing there Well he lost OhioA pointintime comparison is a better indicator of how well a candidate is doing in a certain state By comparing the data and trends of early voting from previous election cycles the campaigns will know if citizens are passionate enough about their platform to participate in voting and if campaigns are hitting their marksEarly voters are people who have already made up their minds McDonald said Clinton and Trump supporters will vote right now and it wont matter what happens until Election Day Theyre welleducated and dedicatedThis could be a component for each of the campaigns successes or failures especially in battleground states that allow early and noexcuse absentee ballot voting Florida for instance saw almost 4 in 10 people vote early 20 percent early inperson 19 percent absentee Professor Paul Gronke of Reed College and founder of the Early Voting Information Center told NPRs Scott Simon that Florida could see an even bigger early vote turnout this yearEarly voting could also be a factor in Ohio and North CarolinaThis is going to change the dynamics in those states so that you will expect to see early rallies timed when the early voting period opens up Gronke said adding that the candidates travel schedule will reflect this because they want to follow up that kind of enthusiasm and get people to the polls right awayIts not clear how the feelings toward these candidates will affect early voting Partisan divisions are at their highest levels in decades and although both candidates hold recordlow favorability ratings Clinton and Trump supporters tend to be pretty adamant about their candidate of choiceThe earliest movement for absentee voting began during the Civil War Soldiers on both sides wanted to cast their ballots in the 1864 election Several state legislators hashed out the details How would the votes be cast How would voter fraud and coercion votes be curtailed And how would the votes be deliveredDespite these sizable challenges 25 Union states passed some form of absentee voting for soldiers battling in the muddy and bloody trenchesSome say Abraham Lincoln might not have been elected if they werent allowed to vote McDonald saidSince then the absentee ballot has evolved to include the sick and the elderly business people who frequently travel and others who can provide valid reasons for being out of state like students in college in a different state There are currently 27 states and the District of Columbia that do not require any reason to request an absentee ballotBy the 1990s many states took up early inperson voting measures which allowed individuals to cast their ballots at a polling location during a specific period of time before Election DayThe only way we can lose in my opinion I really mean this in Pennsylvania is if cheating goes on Trump said at a campaign event in Altoona Pa I hope you people can sort of not just vote on the 8th go around and look and watch other polling places and make sure that its 100 percent fineBut according to McDonald the chances of voter fraud occurring at polling locations is slimIf we look at the weakness in the election system McDonald said its not at the polling places There is impression fraud but its so rareSo rare in fact that there were only about 31 separate incidents of possible voter fraud since 2000 based on data collected by Justin Levitt a professor at Loyola Law School This includes general primary special and municipal elections from 2000 to 2014To put that in perspective there were 1 billion ballots cast in the general and primary elections during that time Thats 0000000031 percentSome of these incidents may not have been an attempt to actually participate in voter fraud but could have resulted in data entry errors a mixup of matching different people with the same name or someone accidentally signing in as the wrong person in a poll bookHowever there is a bigger risk of voter fraud when it comes to absentee and mailin ballots McDonald pointed outAgain this is small not a huge problem he noted Local elections are the most vulnerable not presidential electionsThere were 491 cases of absentee ballot fraud from 2000 to 2012 according to an analysis by News21 If broken down thats about 80 cases every two yearsThere are also checks to confirm the authenticity of these ballots Certain states require people pick up a ballot in person with a valid ID All absentee and mailin ballots require a signature that is crossverified against the voters voterregistration signature Any signatures that look suspicious are thrown outWhile voter fraud is one issue another is whether mailin ballots are filled out and returned correctlyWhere most people make a mistake is through the mail McDonald said They wont sign the privacy envelope People try to save the election board money by putting two ballots in one envelope but they have to throw that away Its vital for people to follow the mail procedures accuratelyVote by mail Washington state switched to an entirely votebymail system in 2011 Officials noticed that by 1996 more than half of voters were casting their ballots through the mail It didnt make economic sense for the state to keep its polling places openThe Internet Its already being used for military members and certain citizens who live outside the country under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act In addition to the ability to return a mailin ballot which may be limited to military members who are serving in remote locations electronic ballot transmission is another optionHow it works per McDonald Voters request electronic delivery of the ballot either by email or by a secured website where the ballot may be downloaded The voter then prints out the ballot completes it and signs it Now if the state permits electronic ballot return the voter will scan the completed ballot and send it either by email or by uploading it to the secured websiteIf the state does not allow electronic ballot transmission the voter must print out and assemble a privacy envelope to deliver the ballot which McDonald said officials call the origami project When officials receive the ballot they check the signature against the one on file with the voters voterregistration applicationThis option is only available for uniformed military stationed both abroad and domestically and overseas citizens through the voting act However Alaska was the first state to extend the electronic ballot delivery and return option to everyoneIt starts in the military and goes down to the general public McDonald said Thats usually how this stuff happensThat seemed to be the case with absentee voting and the Civil War I believe more states will follow Alaskas lead to expand ballot electronic delivery and return in the future McDonald saidBut dont expect the transition to occur anytime soon With the recent hack in Arizona and Illinois voter registration databases and the Democratic National Committees computer system tackling the challenges of cybersecurity will likely take precedence over convenienceWhen can people start voting Inperson or absentee dropoff without an excuseSept 19 Wisconsin Rapids Wis town holding earliest voting in Wisconsin where early voting is set by municipalities and countiesSept 24 New Jersey mailin ballots sent out Vermont until Nov 7Sept 29 Illinois goes until Nov 7 Iowa North Dakota ballots mailed due by Nov 7 Wyoming until Nov 7Oct 10 Los Angeles County Calif early voting is set by countiesmunicipalities LA County has earliest until Nov 7 Maine until Nov 7 Montana absentee ballots set to be available can be turned in in person Nebraska until Nov 7Oct 19 Kansas counties can set earlier dates goes until Nov 7 Oregon most voting is by mail ballots mailed out can be dropped off same day Tennessee until Nov 3Oct 21 Washington state ballots go out that day and can be dropped offOct 22 DC at Judiciary Square until Nov 7 Nevada New Mexico in personOct 24 Alaska until Nov 7 Arkansas until Nov 7 Colorado until Nov 7 ballots mailed out Oct 17 Idaho this is the last day a municipality can begin early voting goes until Nov 4 Massachusetts goes until Nov 4 North Dakota until Nov 7 Texas until Nov 4Oct 25 Hawaii until Nov 5 Louisiana until Nov 1 Utah until Nov 4States without noexcuse early voting Alabama Connecticut Delaware Kentucky Michigan Mississippi Missouri New Hampshire New York Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina Virginia

The Central Bank sees Russias moving up in the Doing Business rating as a good sign Deputy CEO of the Central Bank Vladimir Chistyukhin told reporters That is a very significant leap and a very positive sign for us It shows that the efforts we made in many fields in particular in corporate management were not in vain he said Earlier this week it was reported that Russia moved up to the 40th position in the Doing Business2017 rating which is annually prepared by the World Bank In 2012 Russia ranked 124th in that rating In his May decrees issued in 2012 President Vladimir Putin set the task for the country to reach the 20th position in the rating of the World Bank by 2018 In 2016 Russia was on the 51st place in the Doing Business rating However the methods of calculation of the World Banks rating changed earlier this year Taking into account these changes Russia could have been on the 36th place already in 2015

This is one of Seans most powerful videos It is most definitely worth the 11 minutes it takes to listen G Grannum SF Source SGTreportcom Nov 2016 Share this

A reported twomonth gap in emails from Hillary Clintons private account during 2012 coincides with a period of escalating violence in Libya and the obtaining of a special exemption by her top aide Huma Abedin to work for both the State Department and the Clinton FoundationThe Daily Beast reported late Tuesday that no emails between Clinton and her State Department staff for the months of May and June 2012 are among the estimated 2000 messages that have been released from the Democratic presidential frontrunners accountA State Department spokesman told The Daily Beast that only emails related to the security of US diplomats in Libya or the consulate in Benghazi were turned over to the House select committee investigating the deadly Sept 11 2012 attack If true that means neither Clinton nor her staff communicated via email during a period that saw three attacks on international outposts in Benghazi including one on the consulate itselfThat attack on June 6 2012 involved the detonation of an improvised explosive device outside of the consulate prompting the US Embassy in Tripoli to warn Americans about the fluid security situation in Libya Ambassador Chris Stevens who was killed along with three others in the Sept 11 attack warned his superiors that Islamic extremism appears to be on the rise in eastern LibyaTwo weeks earlier on May 22 the International Red Cross office was hit by rocketpropelled grenades Five days after the consulate bombing a convoy carrying Britains ambassador to Libya was attacked with rocketpropelled grenades injuring two bodyguardsThe State Department plans to release Clintons emails on a regular monthly basis through January 2016 to comply with an order by a federal judge The next release is tentatively scheduled for Friday Clinton campaign spokesman Nick Merrill released a statement saying More emails are slated to be released by the State Department next week and we hope that release is as inclusive as possibleThe Daily Beast reports that the Benghazi committee has only received one email dating from the twomonth period The message in question was sent in June 2012 by longtime Clinton confidant Sidney Blumenthal and dealt mainly with his business interests in Libya Security threats to the US diplomatic presence were not mentionedAnother issue raised by the email gap is the status of Abedin a longtime aide to Clinton and the wife of former New York congressman and mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner The Daily Beast reports that on June 3 Abedin was granted special government employee status allowing her to remain employed by the State Department the Clinton Foundation a consulting firm founded by a Clinton ally and by Hillary herself The special government employee designation prevented Abedin from being subject to some ethics rulesOn Tuesday the Daily Beast reported that State Department lawyers identified 68 pages of potentially responsive documents in response to a 2013 Freedom of Information Act request by the Associated Press for details about how Abedin obtained her special employee status That was the first time the department acknowledged having any documentation about Abedins arrangementMeanwhile Tuesday Republicans on the House Benghazi committee insisted there was no agreement with Clinton over her possible appearance before the panel despite an announcement by her campaign that she would testify Oct 22 Federal investigators said last week they have alerted the Justice Department to a potential compromise of classified information arising from Clintons private email serverA memo signed by the inspector general of the intelligence community said the IGs office had identified potentially hundreds of classified emails among the 30000 that Clinton had provided to the State Department and that are now being processed for public release None of the emails was marked as classified at the time they were sent or received but some should have been handled as such and sent on a secure computer network according to a letter to congressional oversight committees from I Charles McCullough III the inspector general for a collection of executive branch agencies that work on intelligenceThe Associated Press contributed to this reportClick for more from The Daily Beast

Your Most Honorableness October 30th 2016 I read in the papers and on the Internet that the Bundys and their cohorts were acquitted in your courtroom in Portland of all charges I also read that the defendants were not released I also read that their defense attorney while asking for the papers that would keep his clients in jail was attacked in your courtroom by the bailiffs and tasered on the floor after hed been gang tackled Is this your idea of justice Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird said that The courts are the great levelers I dont think that he meant the defense attorney should be leveled in the courtroom by government goons You numbnuts in the court system are losing all and I mean ALL of your credibility with the public We dont believe in your robes and badges and court orders and bits of paper demanding this and that We look at you as robbers You have all become a farcical dangerous and way too powerful You and I are the same age You should know better Sincerely

A network of conservative advocacy groups backed by Charles and David Koch aims to spend a staggering 889 million in advance of the next White House election part of an expansive strategy to build on its 2014 victories that may involve jumping into the Republican primariesThe massive financial goal was revealed to donors here Monday during an annual winter meeting hosted by Freedom Partners the taxexempt business lobby that serves as the hub of the Kochbacked political operation according to an attendee The amount is more than double the 407 million that 17 allied groups in the network raised during the 2012 campaignThe figure comes close to the 1billion that each of the two major parties presidential nominees are expected to spend in 2016 and it cements the networks standing as one of the countrys most potent political forces With its resources and capabilities including a national field operation and cuttingedge technology it is challenging the primacy of the official parties In the 2012 elections the Republican National Committee spent 404 million while the Democratic National Committee shelled out 319 millionThe new 889 million goal reflects the anticipated budgets of all the allied groups that the network funds Those resources will go into field operations new datadriven technology and policy work among other projects along with likely media campaigns aimed at shaping the congressional and White House electionsThe group which is supported by hundreds of wealthy donors on the right along with the Kochs is still debating whether it will spend some of that money in the GOP primaries Such a move could have a major impact in winnowing the field of contenders but could also undercut the networks standing if it engaged in intraparty politics and was not successfulThe threeday conference was held at a luxury resort perched on a rocky hillside near Palm Springs Calif with stunning views of the palmtreespeckled desert floor below The event drew 450 attendees a record number as well as the largest number of firsttime contributors to the networkSaturdays opening dinner held on the resorts wide lawn under strings of twinkling lights celebrated a crop of new US senators whose victories helped put the Senate back in GOP control Their bids were lifted by the Freedom Partners network which had pledged to spend close to 300 million in the runup to the November electionsSens Steve Daines Mont Joni Ernst Iowa Tom Cotton Ark Thom Tillis NC David Perdue Ga and Cory Gardner Colo were on hand to thank donors according to people familiar with the eventBut much of the weekend was spent looking ahead to 2016Freedom Partners President Marc Short said in an interview that 2014 was nice but theres a long way to go noting that the groups ultimate goal is to make freemarket ideals central in American society Politics is a necessary means to that end he said but not the only oneMuch of the conclave served as an informationgathering exercise for network officials who are assessing whether financiers will coalesce around a single candidate in the GOP presidential contest At this point some contributors have said they have little interest in putting money into a bloody internal fight and many others are not yet set on a candidateFew here suggested they would support 2012 nominee Mitt Romney who is considering another run in 2016 Among the favorites are Wisconsin Gov Scott Walker former Florida governor Jeb Bush Sen Marco Rubio Fla and Sen Rand Paul KyIts not as if theres one perfect champion and five bad individuals said one person familiar with donors views who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share private conversationsThe Kochs moves are being carefully watched by operatives throughout the party who are well aware of how the brothers could alter the trajectory of the race if they took sides in the primariesIts not like a Chicago political boss where Charles would say Were all for this guy said conservative activist Grover Norquist who has attended past Koch donor seminars But if he said I really like this guy and did an oped it would matterThe networks influence was underlined by the number of prospective 2016 contenders who flocked to Rancho Mirage to mingle with the deeppocketed crowd Walker arrived Saturday from Iowa after addressing conservative activists at a forum in Des Moines That night over an al fresco dinner of filet mignon the Wisconsin governor thanked the Freedom Partners donors for their past support and touted his efforts to curb state spendingSunday night Paul Rubio and Sen Ted Cruz Tex were on hand to participate in a panel about the economy and foreign policy moderated by ABCs Jonathan KarlThe three senators aimed some of their comments at the business leaders in the audience touting their support for cutting taxes and regulations and dismissed a question about whether wealthy donors have too much influence on politicsThere are a bunch of Democrats who have taken as their talking points that the Koch brothers are the nexus of all evil in the world said Cruz calling that thinking grotesque and offensiveI dont know a single person in this room who has ever been to my office asking from government any special access Rubio added By and large what they want is to be left aloneThe panel was available to news organizations via a live Web stream part of a new posture of openness embraced by the usually private organization For the first time Freedom Partners shared details about the donor conclave including excerpts of Charles Kochs welcoming remarksStill some critics scoffed at the idea that the group was being transparent On Saturday a handful of protesters stood at the base of the curving driveway that leads up to the resort waving a large American flag and holding signs denouncing the KochsThey claim theyre being more open said Tracy Turner a 49yearold retiree from Palm Springs noting that the news media was barred from the event Clearly thats not the case Theyre scripting it very carefullyStarted by Charles Koch in 2003 and originally hosted by Koch Industries the twiceayear donor seminars are now sponsored by Freedom PartnersThe network has evolved into a sophisticated political operation that mirrors those of the official parties Along with its main political advocacy arm Americans for Prosperity the network finances groups such as Concerned Veterans for America the Libre Initiative and Generation Opportunity Last year it added a super PAC to its arsenal but most of the allied groups are nonprofits that do not disclose their donorsNetwork officials used the conference to lay out ambitious goals to promote freemarket principles in government business and the media There were also frank assessments of what they need to do to refine their tacticsOne area seen as a major improvement over 2012 was how the network uses data to improve its voter outreach Another major 2014 investment expanding a national field organization was also viewed as promising but officials believe it will take time to make it more effectiveIn the coming year allied groups in the network will put a renewed focus on the issue of crony capitalism and will pressure Democrats and Republicans alike on issues such as taxcode reform and the ExportImport Bank according to people familiar with the plansDenver investor John Saeman a veteran cable executive who has been a longtime supporter of the network described the mood as measuredIts very much of staying the course he said during a break between sessions This is a battle for hearts and mindsIn his speech Saturday night Charles Koch exhorted his fellow donors to deepen their commitmentIt is up to us he said Making this vision a reality will require more than a financial commitment It requires making it a central part of our lives

Rebels Blame Internal Fights for Growing Losses by Jason Ditz October 31 2016 Share This The Syrian Army has entered the town of Tel Kurdi on the outskirts of Damascus entering the area over the weekend and pushing into yet another rebelheld area bringing their forces yet closer to the rebel city of Douma the last major rebel holding around the capital Tel Kurdi like all the remaining rebel areas in Ghouta was under siege for some time and the rebel forces within fell back almost immediately with no reports of major fighting and the rebels bragging of a scorched earth policy destroying everything of value on their way out One of the members of the rebel council blamed the mounting losses on internal fights among the fashions Indeed over the past several months a lot of towns and villages in the area have fallen either in military offensives or in negotiated pullouts The negotiated pullouts have been the most effective way to displace large amounts of rebels lately with the rebels getting sent north into Nusra Front territory around Idlib This is increasingly boiling down to government control of the area around Damascus and increased rebel influence in the north Last 5 posts by Jason Ditz

The first time the Affordable Care Act came before the Supreme Court its constitutional foundation under attack John G Roberts Jr was its unlikely savior In a spectacular display of spotwelding the chief justice joined fellow conservatives on some points and brought liberals on board for others Roberts was the only member of the court to endorse the entire jerryrigged thing and even he made sure to distance himself from the substance of the law It is he wrote not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices Still his efforts rescued President Obamas signature achievement on grounds that many had dismissed as an afterthoughtAs long as Justice Anthony M Kennedy is on the court he will most often be the decider when the justices split along their familiar ideological fault lines But slowly and quietly Roberts is the one trying to build its legacy He sees it as somehow exempt from the partisan fugue that long ago enveloped Washington Justice Stephen G Breyer has worried that the public might see him and his colleagues as nine juniorvarsity politicians public approval of the Supreme Court is falling But while all of the justices bristle at the notion of a political court the eponymous head of the Roberts court has the most to lose After all its decisions cannot be respected if the court is not respected It is a very serious threat to the independence and integrity of the courts to politicize them Roberts said at his 2005 confirmation hearingsRoberts 60 jokes about the odd historical quirk that gives the chief justice only one vote But he has learned to use the tools that come with the job He shapes the discussion at conference he writes the courts opinion or assigns it strategically when he is in the majority hes happy to settle for nonthreatening incremental changes that may bloom later into something more And last term what Roberts has described as the chief justices particular obligation to try to achieve consensus paid off The share of unanimous decisions soared to 66 percent a level not seen since the 1940s The share of 5to4 decisions high during Robertss tenure compared with those of other chief justices fell to 14 percent the lowest since he joined the courtAnd then here comes Obamacare II In King v Burwell to be argued Wednesday plaintiffs say the text of the law must be interpreted in a way that would neuter it canceling health insurance subsidies for about 75million Americans in at least 34 states Can Robertss portrayal of the Supreme Court as above politics survive another round with the most partisan issue of the decadeRoberts of course has not ceased to be a conservative Before Obamacare or since its hard to think of a case in which he has not voted the way conservative activists had hoped when they recommended him to President George W Bush The Roberts court has been described as the most probusiness in history Its liberals complain that consumers are on a losing streak and that the court has imposed new roadblocks for those trying to prove discriminationAnd when the issue is important to the chief justice or when there seems to be no chance for compromise he has been decisive In a suite of cases for instance the court has systematically dismantled campaign finance restrictions calling them hostile to free speech rights Citizens United v Federal Election Commission being the most famous of several 5to4 votes Roberts wrote the majority opinion in the most recent which featured the Republican National Committee as a plaintiffHe has also forcefully opposed the governments use of racial classifications and he wrote to strike down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act Roberts unlike Kennedy or even Justice Antonin Scalia had never been the lone conservative to join the courts liberals to make a majority in a major case until the Affordable Care ActYet chief justices tend not to see the court as a vehicle for advancing their unadulterated ideas A transformation came over Robertss predecessor and mentor William H Rehnquist after becoming chief As an associate justice Rehnquist wrote so many solo dissents that his clerks awarded him a Lone Ranger doll But like chief justices before him in his new role he felt a responsibility to guard the courts precedents and image The most famous example is his metamorphosis on the Miranda rule requiring police officers to read suspects their rights For years Rehnquist had denounced the rule as constitutionally unsound But after his ascent he voted to uphold it saying the warnings have become part of our national cultureRoberts came to the court as chief so there is no similar evolution to judge But those who know him say his vision of the responsibilities of the chief is paramount Associate Justice Roberts would be much closer to Scalia than Chief Justice Roberts is in terms of their approach to cases says one lawyer who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he argues Supreme Court cases Anticipating this approach Roberts pledged himself to the principle of stare decisis at his confirmation hearings and preached a gospel of judicial modesty saying he came with no agendaWhile he cant change Washingtons partisan warfare Roberts does what he can to avoid becoming a weapon in it those who know him say Unlike his colleagues he does not give interviews He avoids partisan gatherings such as the Federalist Societys annual gala where Scalia and Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A Alito Jr take turns providing the afterdinner remarks or the American Constitution Society where Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor have been honored Even the bipartisan Gridiron Dinner where the nations political elite gather for gentle roasts may have proved too much for Roberts Theres always a seat at the head table for the chief justice of the United States but this one hasnt attended since 2009His protection of the courts image extends to his colleagues In the first Affordable Care Act case conservative activists and pols demanded that Justice Elena Kagan recuse herself because of her work as Obamas solicitor general while liberal groups called for Thomas to step aside because his wife is a prominent conservative activist Roberts without specifically mentioning either tried to shut down those complaints in his annual state of the judiciary report that year I have complete confidence in the capability of my colleagues to determine when recusal is warranted he wrote They are jurists of exceptional integrity and experience whose character and fitness have been examined through a rigorous appointment and confirmation processBut the consensus compulsion is clearest when the court issues narrow opinions With Obamacare for instance Roberts bobbed and weaved agreeing with conservatives that Congress had exceeded its power to regulate interstate commerce but also siding with liberals to save the individual mandate by calling it a tax In the last term narrow rulings made it possible for the court to unite at least on the bottom line in striking down abortionclinic buffer zones in Massachusetts and rejecting efforts to restrict classaction suits alleging security fraudHis efforts are not universally revered John Roberts Thy Name Is Traitor one conservative news site blared after the Obamacare decision Glenn Beck offered Tshirts with Robertss smiling face and the word COWARD underneath John Yoo a former Justice Department official in the George W Bush administration wrote that this coming weeks challenge gives Roberts a chance to atone Scalia a frequent Roberts ally once mocked Robertss faux judicial modesty And in last terms case on the buffer zones he dismissed the chiefs majority opinion as Something for EveryoneRoberts insists that the nations poisonous political climate rather than anything the justices have done is to blame for damage to the courts reputation But he lives in a universe with a gridlocked Congress a combative president who calls out the court at his State of the Union address and colleagues identified as often by party affiliation as by their judicial philosophies Todays partisan split while unprecedented is likely enduring says a study of the court by professors Neal Devins of William Mary and Lawrence Baum of Ohio State A fivemember Democratic Court will reach sets of decisions that are quite different from those of a fivemember Republican CourtPerhaps then political tensions are simply inescapable But paradoxically the court is hard to characterize precisely because of its close balance The Roberts court has found rights for Guantanamo detainees ruled that the Second Amendment secures an individual right to keep guns handed gay rights activists some of their most important victories drastically cut back on the ability of legislatures to restrict campaign contributions and narrowed the options for punishing juvenile defendants Alternating liberal and conservative victories on this terms two most important cases gay marriage and health care offer similar chances for balance when the justices complete their work this JuneThe courts conflicting messages usually depend on Kennedy siding either with the conservative justices or the liberal ones But about twothirds of the time the Reagan appointee finds his natural home on the right And while such snapshots can be misleading in the last term Roberts agreed with Kennedy more than any other justice did Kennedy was on the winning side in more opinions than any of his colleagues Roberts was right behindThis hardly means that either side sees the court as a neutral arbiter Most liberal analysts praised Robertss first Obamacare decision but some forecast that his reasoning would be used to secure conservative victories in the future Others speculated that it gave Roberts cover to move on to issues about which he felt more strongly They felt vindicated a year later when he sided with his conservative colleagues and wrote the 5to4 opinion striking down a crucial component of the Voting Rights ActRoberts appears to know this At an appearance at the University of Nebraska law school last fall he talked about how gridlock between Obama and congressional Republicans means collateral damage for the nine justices too I dont want it to spill over and affect us he said We are not Democrats and Republicans in how we go about it and in nine years Ive never seen any political issue like that arise between us He worried that the nearpartyline confirmation of somebody as eminently qualified as our newest member Kagan could suggest that people perceive the court too as a political bodyIt is a perception that despite Robertss zealous labors the court could soon reinforce at least on the left A 5to4 decision invalidating the premium tax credits in King v Burwell would seriously call into question the legitimacy of the court Tim Jost a Washington and Lee University law professor and healthcare expert said in a video distributed by the liberal Center for American Progress I think its going to be decided pretty transparently for political reasonsFollow our updates on Facebook and Twitter

WASHINGTON President Barack Obamas trade agenda has cleared a key Senate hurdle to move toward a final voteThe Senate has topped the 60 votes needed to begin substantive action on Obamas bid for fast track negotiating authority The vote was 6238Obama says fast track authority will improve prospects for a trade treaty with 11 other Pacificrim nationsLabor unions and other groups vital to Democrats strongly oppose Obamas trade agenda They say freetrade deals cost US jobsObama says US producers need broader access to foreign markets

October Boomerang David Swanson is an author activist journalist and radio host He is a 2015 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee He is director of WorldBeyondWarcom and campaign coordinator for RootsActionorg He hosts Talk Nation Radio Talk Nation Radio is on VT Radio and is syndicated by Pacifica Network The show also airs on WTJU Charlottesville VA WCSXDetroit MI KGHI Westport WA WHUS Storrs CT WPRR Grand Rapids MI KRFPLP Moscow ID KZGM Cabool MO KMUD Garberville CA WAZU Peoria IL WXRD Crown Point IN Geneva Radio Geneva NY KKRN Round Mountain CA KSKQLP Ashland OR WUOWLP Oneonta NY No Lies Radio Pinole CA WYAPLP Clay WV The Detour Johnson City TN WZRD Chicago IL WEFT Champaign IL WXPI Pittsburgh PA WDRT Viroqua WI Veracity Now online Liberty and Justice Radio Shirley MA Ithaca Community Radio Ithaca NY WMCB Greenfield MA PRXorg KAOS 893fm Olympia WA WUSB 901 FM Stony Brook NY WOOLFM Bellow Falls Vermont WSLRLP 965 in Sarasota Florida He also blogs at DavidSwansonorg and WarIsACrimeorg And is a prolific author His latest books are War Is A Lie Daybreak Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union and When the World Outlawed War Swanson holds a masters degree in philosophy from the University of Virginia He has worked as a newspaper reporter and as a communications director with jobs including press secretary for Dennis Kucinichs 2004 presidential campaign media coordinator for the International Labor Communications Association and three years as communications coordinator for ACORN the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now Read his full and complete biography at DavidSwansonorg and also visit book site at War Is Crime All Governments Lie The Movie By David Swanson on October 31 2016 A Film About Liars and the Journalists That Expose Them By David Swanson Picture if you will video footage of vintage early 2016 Donald Trump buffoonery with the CEO of CBS Leslie Moonves commenting on major medias choice to give Trump vastly more air time than other candidates It may not be good for America but its damn good for CBS Thats the introduction to a powerful critique of the US media A new film screens in New York and Los Angeles this week called All Governments Lie Truth Deception and the Spirit of IF Stone The website AllGovernmentsLiecom has screening dates a list of lies and a list of good journalists who expose lies The lists on the website are not identical to the content of the film but theres a good deal of overlap enough to give you a sense of what this project is about Id have made various changes and additions to the film In particular Im tired of all the focus on Iraq 2003 This film touches on war lies since then but still gives that one particular set of war lies prominence Still this is a film that should be shown in cities homes and classrooms across the United States It includes and is driven by Noam Chomskys analysis of how the media system is rigged without those doing the rigging believing theyve done anything at all Its a survey of skullduggery by corporate media Its an introduction to numerous journalists far superior to the norm And its an introduction to IF Stone It includes footage of a presentation of the annual Izzy Award which goes to journalists acting in Stones tradition One of the lies listed in the film and on the website is that of the Gulf of Tonkin nonIncident Anyone paying attention knows of it now as a war lie And it was a transparent war lie at the time in a particular sense That is had the North Vietnamese really shot back at a US ship off their coast that would not have been any sort of legal much less moral justification for escalating a war Id love it if people could grasp that logic and apply it to the Black Sea the Red Sea and every other part of the earth today But the Gulf of Tonkin lies about Vietnamese aggression against the US ships innocently patrolling and firing off the coast of Vietnam were not transparent to people with faith in the US role of Global Policeman Someone had to make the lies transparent Someone had to document that in fact the Secretary of SoCalled Defense and the President were lying Sadly nobody did that in the first 24 hours after the Congressional committee hearings and that was all it took for Congress to hand the president a war And it was decades before White House transcripts came out and before the National Security Agency confessed and additional years before former Secretary Robert McNamara did Yet those revelations simply confirmed what people paying attention knew And they knew it because of IF Stone who just weeks after the nonincident published a fourpage edition of his weekly newsletter exclusively about Tonkin Stones analysis is useful in looking at the incident or lack thereof this past month in the Red Sea off Yemen And in fact it is to Yemen that Stone immediately turned on page 1 in 1964 The United Nations including its US ambassador had recently condemned British attacks on Yemen that Britain defended as retaliatory President Dwight Eisenhower had also warned the French against retaliatory attacks on Tunisia And President Lyndon Johnson even at the time of Tonkin Stone notes was warning Greece and Turkey not to engage in retaliatory attacks on each other Stone who tended to look even at written laws that nobody else paid any heed to pointed out that three of them banned these sorts of attacks the League of Nations Covenant the KelloggBriand Pact and the UN Charter The latter two are still theoretically in place for the US government The United States in Vietnam Stone goes on to show could not have been innocently attacked but itself admitted to having already sunk a number of Vietnamese boats And indeed the US ships Stone reports were in North Vietnamese waters and were there to assist South Vietnamese ships that were shelling two North Vietnamese islands And in fact those ships had been supplied to South Vietnam by the US military and the good old American tax payers Stone did not have access to closed committee hearings but he hardly needed it He considered the assertions made in speeches by the only two senators who voted against the war And then he looked for any rejoinders by the chairmen of the committees He found their denials to be nondenials and nonsensical It made no sense that the US ships simply happened to be randomly hanging around in the vicinity of the South Vietnamese ships Stone didnt believe it Stone also filled in the background information The United States had been supporting guerrilla attacks on North Vietnam for years prior to the nonincident And Stone raised numerous suspicions including the question of why the US ships had supposedly made sure they were out in international waters for the nonincident to not occur and the question of why in the world Vietnam would take on the United States military something nobody could explain though Eugene McCarthy proposed that perhaps they had been bored Missing from the film and website of All Governments Lie is IF Stones work on lies about the outbreak of the Korean War Weve learned more since he wrote it but seen little more insightful relevant or timely for our understanding of Korea and the world today David Swanson is an author activist journalist and radio host He is director of WorldBeyondWarorg and campaign coordinator for RootsActionorg Swansons books include War Is A Lie He blogs at DavidSwansonorg and WarIsACrimeorg He hosts Talk Nation Radio He is a 2015 and 2016 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Follow him on Twitter davidcnswanson and FaceBook Help support DavidSwansonorg WarIsACrimeorg and TalkNationRadioorg by clicking here httpdavidswansonorgdonate

Aaron David Miller is a vice president and distinguished scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and author of The End of Greatness Why America Cant Have and Doesnt Want Another Great President Miller a Middle East negotiator in Democratic and Republican administrations discusses the Paris attacks in this Wilson Center video Follow him on Twitter aarondmiller2 The opinions expressed in this commentary are hisCNN Anyone hoping that the Paris attacks will somehow transform the fight against global jihad and produce a quick and definitive defeat for the bad guys and victory for the good ought to take a deep breathWe must take advantage of the Paris carnage to mobilize international and regional allies in the fight but we should have no illusions it will produce quick or even lasting victoriesEven if the Paris attacks turn out to be transformative event theyre likely to represent another turn in the very long war against global jihad Here are six reasons why Its a long war because 15 years after 911 and decades after Islamic suicide terror made its Middle Eastern debut in Lebanon with Hezbollah attacks against US Marines and embassies were still fighting it The dismantling of al Qaeda central and the killing of Osama bin Laden hasnt ended the threat it has morphed and evolved into other groups such as ISIS Khorasan and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula Its the long war because as necessary and vital as military airstrikes are they cant provide the definitive answer to the problem Indeed 911 resulted in the two longest wars in American history and partly helped to create the situation we face today Massive airstrikes and deployment of thousands of ground forces without securing an end state that ensures coherent and stable governance will not address the underlying conditions on which the jihadis feed In fact the budding grand alliance France the US and Russia will be perceived by radical Muslims as a war between the Christian West and Islam and will only feed jihadi propaganda and even boost recruitment Its a long war because key Arab states are melting down In Libya Yemen Syria and Iraq there is neither good stable nor coherent governance Instead you have large and empty and ungovernable spaces sectarian tensions between Sunnis and Shia empowering transnational actors willing and able to fill the vacuum Even in a country like Egypt we now see a homegrown insurgency affiliated with the Islamic State that has already destroyed a Russian commercial airliner Even if the Syrian civil war ended the jihadi insurgency would continue feeding on local grievances Indeed paradoxically you might see a surge of foreign fighters flocking to Egypt to continue the struggleIts the long war because the West cannot win the fight against radical Islam until the Muslim majority begins to confront and deal with the cancer of the extremist ideology within its midst The West continues to infantilize Muslims by somehow assuming that the war against the jihadis can be won with the great powers taking the lead role Where is the panel on the Sunday talk shows where you have Muslim leaders alongside Western leaders to talk about how theyre going to conquer this problem The West continues to infantilize Muslims by somehow assuming that the war against the jihadis can be won with the great powers taking the lead role Where is the panel on the Sunday talk shows where you have Muslim leaders alongside Western leaders to talk about how theyre going to conquer this problem asked Princeton Professor Amaney A Jamal Instead we get Westerners talking at Muslims about how to resolve their problems Indeed Islam needs reform by Muslim reformers who can offer an alternative vision to counter the one the jihadis are peddling and leaders of these countries need to engage in political and economic reform to eliminate the grievances on which the jihadis feed Its the long war because ISIS has jumped borders and morphed into an idea as well as a physical movement or proto terror state And that idea can inspire the disenchanted alienated and aggrieved and create a sense of aspiration violent though it may be in otherwise purposeless lives Europe is a fertile breeding ground 20 million Muslims out of 14 billion and fully a fifth of the recruits to ISIS hail from European lands European security services are overwhelmed with the challenge of tracking and preempting terror attacks and will continue to beAnd it may be a longer war unless we start describing accurately the nature of the challenge we face Sure this is violent extremism producing heinous acts as both President Barack Obama and Secretary John Kerry have said But its also a particularly vicious kind of terror Its driven by a global jihad of radical and extremist Muslims who draw on actual and perversions of Islamic texts to kill Muslims and nonMuslims in an effort to impose their twisted vision of the world We need to delegitimize the radicals and also be careful with our words so that we dont alienate the vast majority of the worlds Muslims who despise what a minority does in its name John Kerrys Sure this is violent extremism producing heinous acts as both President Barack Obama and Secretary John Kerry have said But its also a particularly vicious kind of terror Its driven by a global jihad of radical and extremist Muslims who draw on actual and perversions of Islamic texts to kill Muslims and nonMuslims in an effort to impose their twisted vision of the world We need to delegitimize the radicals and also be careful with our words so that we dont alienate the vast majority of the worlds Muslims who despise what a minority does in its name John Kerrys recent comments seemingly drawing an understandable distinction between the Charlie Hebdo terror attacks and those in Paris are just the kind of stumble we need to avoidThe global jihad cannot destroy Europe America Western civilization or fundamentally alter the contours of history Global jihad is driven by a vicious fascist ideology that can cause terrible suffering and destruction And should these groups gain access to chemical or biological weapons wed face a catastropheStill the Council on Foreign Relations Micah Zenko notes that terrorism represents only a small fraction of overall violent deaths The annual number of violent deaths worldwide is 508000 according to the Global Burden of Armed Violence 2015 Every Body Counts report In other words less than 7 of violent deaths are a result of acts of terrorism Compare the 32727 terrorist fatalities to the estimated 377000 people who were killed collectively in interpersonal violence gang violence or economically motived crimes Some 63 of all attacks occurred in just six countries Iraq Pakistan Afghanistan India Nigeria and SyriaThis isnt yet a World War IIlevel scourge even though the challenge of global jihad may well be the most critical national security challenge we face today But sadly unlike the Second World War this conflict will be far longer We need to prepare for what promises to be the long war of the 21st century

Email An intriguing Ministry of Finance MoF report circulating in the Kremlin today says that elite Western bankers were stunned a few hours ago after the Bank For International Settlements BIS registered a 18 billion transfer from the Clinton Foundation CF to the Qatar Central Bank QCB through the facilitationabetment of JP Morgan Chase Company JPMand for reasons yet to be firmly established According to this report the Bank for International Settlements is the worlds oldest international financial organization and acts as a prime counterparty for central banks in their financial transactions the Qatar Central Bank is the bank of that Gulf State nations government and their bank of banks JP Morgan Chase Company is the United States largest megabank and the Clinton Foundation is an international criminal money laundering organization whose clients include the Russian mafia With Hillary Clintons US presidential campaign Chairman John Podesta having longstanding ties to the Russian mafia and money laundering this report continues the Foreign Intelligence Service SVR maintains complete surveillance of him and his criminal associatesincluding both Hillary Clinton and her husband and former US President Bill Clinton On Saturday 15 October 2016 this report notes the SVR reported to the MoF that Hillary Clinton and John Podesta met with JP Morgan Chase Company CEO Jamie Dimon at Clintons Chappaqua Compound outside of New York Cityand who in 2009 both President Obama and Hillary Clinton allowed to break US laws by his Dimons being able to buy millionsofdollars of his companys stocks prior to the public being told his JP Morgan bank was receiving a Federal Reserve 80 billion credit lineand that caused JP Morgans stocks to soar and that have had an astonishing 920 dividend growth since 2010 Within 12 hours of the Hillary ClintonJohn PodestaJamie Dimon meeting at the Chappaqua Compound this report continues the BIS registered the transfer of 18 billion from the Clinton Foundation to the Qatar Central Bank To why the Clinton Foundation transferred this enormous sum of money to Qatar this report explains is due to the longstanding ties between this Islamic neopatrimonial absolute monarchy and then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who oversaw the massive bribery scheme that allowed this Gulf State nation to secure the 2022 World Cupand that the Qataris were so appreciative of they donated millions to the Clinton Foundation and incredibly in 2011 gave former US President Bill Clinton 1 million for a birthday presentbringing Hillary Clintons total cash grab from these Persian Gulf sheiks of 100 millionall occurring as recently released secret emails revealed Hillary Clintons knowledge that both Qatar and Saudi Arabia were and still are funding ISIS To what Jamie Dimon said to Hillary Clinton that caused her to suddenly transfer 18 billion to Qatar this report notes revolves around his JP Morgan bank being told by the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation FDIC in April 2016 that this megabanks master plan to save itself had serious deficiencies that could pose serious adverse effects to the financial stability of the United States Two months after the FDICs warning letter to Jamie Dimon in June 2016 this report says he cryptically sounded a warning that the United States subprime auto loan bubble was nearing collapse and stated that someone is going to get hurt Unbeknownst to the American people MoF experts in this report explain is that just 8 weeks ago multiple warnings began to be issued that the United States 1 trillion subprime auto loan bubble was beginning to collapseand that this past week became so severe the Bank of America issued a recession warning telling its elite customers that this market is scary and the Britishbased multinational banking and financial services company HSBC likewise issued a Red Alert warning all of its clients warning them to prepare for a severe market crash With one of the first casualties of this subprime auto loan bubble being the German global banking giant Deutsche Bank that is nearing its doom and laying off tensofthousands of it workers worldwide this report grimly states the American mainstream propaganda media is failing to allow the people of that nation to know the full extent of this looming catastrophewho unlike Hillary Clinton who has just protected 18 billion of her wealth will be left defenseless once again at the hands of their elite rulers As Wikileaks secret Hillary Clinton emails have now proven that the US propaganda mainstream media is now totally controlled by her and who continue their blackout on the Clinton Crime Story of the Century this report continues the absolutely horrifying statistics released this week showing that an astounding 35 of American who have been brutalized by the ObamaClinton regime these past 8 years are so buried in debt they can no longer pay their bills is likewise being kept from these most innocent of peoples

THE DELETER OF THE FREE WORLD Hillarys 33000 emails might not be missing after all Files backed up on multiple platforms never subpoened by FBI Published 19 mins ago New York Post For months now weve been told that Hillary Clintons 33000 missing emails were permanently erased and destroyed beyond recovery But newly released FBI notes strongly suggest they still exist in several locations and they could be recovered if only someone would impanel a grand jury and seize them In a May interview with FBI agents an executive with the Denver contractor that maintained Clintons private server revealed that an underling didnt bleachclean all her subpoenaed emails just ones he stored in a data file he used to transfer the emails from the server to Clintons aides who in turn sorted them for delivery to Congress The Platte River Networks executive whose name was redacted from the interview report said PRN tech Paul Combetta created a vehicle to transfer email files from the live mailboxes of Clinton Executive Services Corp email accounts and then later used BleachBit software to shred the vehicle but the email content still existed in the live email accounts

Hillary Clintons nightmare is not the sudden resurgence of Bernie Sanders It is the fidelity to the rule of law of the FBIThe recent revelations of the receipt by Clinton of a Special Access Program email as well as cut and pasted summaries of state secrets on her server and on her BlackBerry nearly guarantee that the FBI will recommend that the Department of Justice convene a grand jury and seek her indictment for espionage Here is the backstoryIt seems that every week more information comes to light about Clintons grave legal woes Her worries are in two broad categories One is her welldocumented failure to safeguard state secrets and the other is her probable use of her position as secretary of state to advance financially her husbands charitable foundation The FBI is currently and aggressively investigating both What I will describe below is in the state secrets category It is apparently not new to the FBI but it is new to the publicAmong the data that the FBI either found on the Clinton server or acquired from the State Department via its responses to Freedom of Information Act requests is a topsecret email that has been denominated Special Access Program Top secret is the highest category of state secrets the other categories are confidential and secret and of the subparts of top secret SAP is the most sensitiveSAP is clothed in such secrecy that it cannot be received or opened accidentally Clinton who ensured all of her governmental emails came to her through her husbands server a nonsecure nongovernmental venue could only have received or viewed it from that server after inputting certain codes Those codes change at unscheduled times such that she would need to inquire of them before inputting themThe presence of the SAPdenominated email on her husbands server whether opened or not shows a criminal indifference to her lawful obligation to maintain safely all state secrets entrusted to her care Yet Clinton has suggested that she is hopelessly digitally inept and may not have known what she was doing This constitutes an attempted plausible deniability to the charge of failing to safeguard state secretsBut in this sensitive area of the law plausible deniability is not an available defense no judge would permit the assertion of it in legal filings or in a courtroom and no lawyer would permit a client to make the assertionThis is so for two reasons First failure to safeguard state secrets is a crime for which the government need not prove intent The failure can be done negligently Thus plausible deniability is actually an admission of negligence and hence in this case an admission of guilt not a denialSecond Clinton signed an oath under penalty of perjury on Jan 22 2009 her first full day as secretary of state In that oath she acknowledged that she had received a full FBI briefing on the lawfully required care and keeping of state secrets Her briefing and her oath specified that the obligation to safeguard state secrets is absolute it cannot be avoided or evaded by forgetfulness or any other form of negligence and that negligence can bring prosecutionWhat type of data is typically protected by the SAP denomination The most sensitive under the sun such as the names of moles spies working for more than one government and their American handlers the existence of black ops illegal programs that the US government carries out of which it will deny knowledge if exposed codes needed to access state secrets and ongoing intelligence gathering projectsThe crime here occurs when SAPs are exposed by residing in a nonsecure venue it does not matter for prosecution purposes whether they fell into the wrong handsClintons persistent mocking of the seriousness of all this is the moral equivalent of taunting alligators before crossing a stream SAPs are so sensitive that most of the FBI agents who are investigating Clinton lack the security clearances needed to view the SAP found among her emails Most FBI agents have never seen a SAPShortly after the presence of the SAPdenominated email was made known the State Department released another email Clinton failed to erase wherein she instructed her subordinates to take state secrets from a secure venue to cut and paste and summarize them and send them to her on her nonsecure venue Such an endeavor if carried out is a felony masking and then not safeguarding state secrets Such a command to subordinates can only come from a criminal mindEqually as telling is a littleknown 2013 speech that recently surfaced given by one of Clintons former subordinates The aide revealed that Clinton and her staff regularly engaged in digital conversations about state secrets on their BlackBerries This is not criminal if the BlackBerries were governmentissued and secured Clintons was neither It was purchased at her instructions off the shelf by one of her staffCan anyone doubt that Clinton has failed to safeguard state secrets If her name were Hillary Rodham instead of Hillary Rodham Clinton shed have been indicted months agoWhat remains of the rule of law in America The FBI will soon tell usAndrew P Napolitano a former judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey is the senior judicial analyst at Fox News Channel

We Are Change In the fourth undercover video from the guerilla journalists at James OKeefes Project Veritas Democratic operative Robert Creamer claims to be on daily calls with the Clinton campaign and accepts a foreign donationIn the newly released footage Creamer admits to working directly for the Clinton campaign overseeing Donald Trump events I mean frankly I spend most of my time overseeing the Trump event rallies I mean thats what I do for the Clinton campaign Creamer states In previous video releases from Veritas Democratic operatives reveal how they had been working to incite violence at Trump rallies using a tactic called birddogging An operative also reveals to the undercover journalists their stepbystep voter fraud strategy The Clinton campaign originally denied working with Creamer and his firm Democracy Partners OKeefe then released a video of Creamer stating that their Donald Ducks effort was at the request of the candidate herself Every morning I am on a call at 1030 that goes over the message being driven by the campaign headquarters I am in this campaign mainly to deal with what earned media with television radio with earned media and social media not with paid media not with advertising Creamer says in the latest video He also admits to working directly with Barack Obama statements that are backed up by his 340 logged visits to the White House where he met with Obama 45 times I do a lot of work with the White House on their issues helping to run issue campaigns that they have been involved in I mean for immigration reform for the the health care bill for trying to make America more like Britain when it comes to gun violence issues To gain access and trust OKeefe reveals that he had provided a 20000 donation to the Americans for United for Change super PAC from Belize The more money that was promised to Creamer the more access Project Veritas Action journalists seemed to get Project Veritas said in their release Following the release of the first Veritas videos last week the PAC suddenly returned the donation stating that they were concerned it may have been illegal In an unexpected twist AUFC president Brad Woodhouse the recipient of the 20000 heard that Project Veritas Action was releasing undercover videos exposing AUFCs activities He told a journalist that AUFC was going to return the twenty thousand dollars Project Veritas explained He said it was because they were concerned that it might have been an illegal foreign donation Project Veritas Action was pleased but wondered why that hadnt been a problem for the month that they had the money OKeefe has filed a formal complaint with the Federal Election Commission against both Clintons campaign and the Democratic National Committee based upon the shocking revelations that his team has uncovered During a rally in Gettysburg on Saturday Trump promised that he would also be suing the DNC for inciting violence at his rallies based on what he saw in the Project Veritas videos The post Another Project Veritas Bombshell ProClinton PAC Accepts Foreign Donations appeared first on We Are Change

In victory magnanimity said Winston Churchill Donald Trump should be magnanimous and gracious toward those whom he defeated this week but his first duty is to keep faith with those who put their faith in him The protests riots and violence that have attended his triumph in city after city should only serve to steel his resolve As for promptings that he reach out and reassure those upset by his victory and trim or temper his agenda to pacify them Trump should reject the poisoned chalice This is the same old con Trump should take as models the Democrats FDR and LBJ Franklin Roosevelt who had savaged Herbert Hoover as a big spender launched his own New Deal in his first 100 days History now hails his initiative and resolve Lyndon Johnson exploited his landslide over Barry Goldwater in 1964 to erect his Great Society in 1965 the Voting Rights Act Medicare and Medicaid He compromised on nothing and got it all Even those who turned on him for Vietnam still celebrate his domestic achievements President Nixons great regret was that he did not bomb Hanoi and mine Haiphong in 1969 instead of waiting until 1972 and bring the Vietnam War to an earlier end and with fewer US casualties Nixons decision not to inflame the social and political crisis of the 60s by rolling back the Great Society bought him nothing He was rewarded with mediabacked mass demonstrations in 1969 to break his presidency and bring about an American defeat in Vietnam Action this day was the scribbled command of Prime Minister Churchill on his notepads in World War II This should be the motto of the first months of a Trump presidency For the historic opportunity he and the Republican Party have been given by his stunning and unanticipated victory of Nov 8 will not last long His adversaries and enemies in politics and press are only temporarily dazed and reeling This great opening should be exploited now Few anticipated Tuesday morning what we would have today a decapitated Democratic Party with the Obamas and Clintons gone or going Joe Biden with them no national leader rising and only the power of obstruction of which the nation has had enough The GOP however on Jan 20 will control both Houses of Congress and the White House with the real possibility of remaking the Supreme Court in the image of the late Justice Antonin Scalia Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan have indicated they are willing to work with President Trump There is nothing to prevent the new GOP from writing history In his first months Trump could put a seal on American politics as indelible as that left by Ronald Reagan A partial agenda First he should ignore any importunings by President Obama to permit passage of the TransPacific Partnership in a lameduck session and let the trade deal sink by years end On Jan 20 he should have vetted and ready to nominate to the high court a brilliant constitutionalist and strict constructionist He should act to end interference with the Dakota Access pipeline and call on Congress to reenact legislation vetoed by Obama to finish the Keystone XL pipeline Then he should repeal all Obama regulations that unnecessarily restrict the production of the oil gas and clean coal necessary to make America energy independent again Folks in Pennsylvania southeast Ohio Kentucky and West Virginia should be shown by executive action that Trump is a man of his word And when the mines open again he should be there He should order new actions to seal the Southern border start the wall and begin visible deportations of felons who are in the country illegally With a new education secretary he should announce White House intent to work for repeal of Common Core and announce the introduction of legislation to put federal resources behind the charter schools that have proven to be a godsend to innercity black children He should propose an immediate tax cut for US corporations with 2 to 3 trillion in unrepatriated profits abroad who will bring the money home and invest it in America to the benefit of our economy and our Treasury He should take the presidents phone and pen and begin the rewriting or repeal of every Obama executive order that does not comport with the national interest or political philosophy of the GOP Trump should announce a date soon for repeal and replacement of Obamacare and introduction of his new taxandtrade legislation to bring back manufacturing and create American jobs Donald Trump said in his campaign that that this is Americas last chance If we lose this one he said we lose the country The presidentelect should ignore his more cautious counselors and act with the urgency of his declared beliefs

It is endlessly suspicious when politicians control the process by which they and their allies are elected Yet Arizona lawmakers had been battling their own citizens for precisely this power in a lawsuit that culminated Monday in a 54 Supreme Court decision upholding the right of voters not legislators to control how electoral districts are drawnIn 2000 Arizonans voted to take the state legislature out of the redistricting process They hoped to curb partisan gerrymandering by creating an independent bipartisan commission that would handle the duty of redrawing state and federal voting districts after every CensusThe commissions redistricting plan led to Democratic wins in 2012 which upset the GOPcontrolled legislature Republicans claimed that the whole process was unconstitutional because the founding fathers specifically commanded state legislatures to run electionsThey were referring to the Constitutions Elections Clause which reads as followsYes this is another Supreme Court case that hinges on the meaning of a word Here the word is legislature Does the Constitution refer solely to a states body of elected representatives Or does the term legislature here lend itself to a broader interpretation one that would allow citizens to have a direct say in how elections are conductedWriting for the majority Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg argued that the power of regulating elections should ultimately lie with the people such is the spirit of democracy after allIt would be perverse to interpret the term Legislature in the Elections Clause so as to exclude lawmaking by the people particularly where such lawmaking is intended to check legislators ability to choose the district lines they run in she wroteIn his dissent Chief Justice John G Roberts Jr accused his fellow justices of fudging the law to bless a policy that they liked The majority today shows greater concern about redistricting practices than about the meaning of the Constitution he wroteLets stop there for a second Regardless of how the decision was achieved it protects an important attempt by citizens to ensure fair elections at a time when politics isbecome increasingly bitter and undemocraticOne unfortunate fact of American politics is that election districts are becoming more and more misshapen Recently Stephen Ansolabehere a professor at Harvard and Maxwell Palmer an assistant professor at Boston University crunched the numbers on the past 200 years of congressional district shapesThe researchers used several different ways to measure how convoluted a districts borders are All of the methods tend to agree that district complexity has substantially increased since the 1970s The changes occurred across the board Both simple and raggedy districts are starting to look weirder and weirderOf course just because a district looks ugly doesnt mean its unfairly drawn Its important to create districts that represent natural communities and communities often have irregular boundaries Its equally important to preserve minority representation and sometimes districts look like spaghetti in order to prevent the minority vote in a state from being dilutedPartisan gerrymandering cant be detected solely by examining geography and geometry Theres culture and history to consider Thats also why courts and lawmakers have struggled to define what is an unacceptable level of gerrymandering The process is subjectiveFor instance Ansolabehere and Palmer also found that the weirdestlooking districts tend to vote Democratic That doesnt prove that Democrats are the more shameless gerrymanderers thoughBesides Democratic voters tend to concentrate in urban areas which can make it hard to draw compact voting districts that are also fairA 2013 paper published in the Quarterly Journal of Political Science argued that the clustering of Democratic voters creates a natural Republican bias when districts are drawn up Political scientists Jowei Chen of the University of Michigan and Jonathan Rodden of Stanford call the phenomenon unintentional gerrymanderingTo demonstrate Chen and Rodden used a computer to randomly draw district plans using data from the 2000 presidential election in Florida Famously the popular vote in Florida split more or less evenly between George W Bush and Al Gore So in a fair representative plan you might expect half the districts to go for Bush and half for GoreBut across hundreds of versions of these randomly generated district maps paragons of disinterested district making a bias emerged On average threefifths of districts went for Bush even though half of the population was voting for GoreThe explanation according to Chen and Rodden is that Democratic voters are at a disadvantage by dint of their living patternsDemocratic voters concentrate either in big cities or in Democratic enclaves black suburbs college towns scattered across the state The downtown districts are overwhelmingly Democratic while the small Democratic outposts tend to get engulfed by their Republican neighborsMore equal representation might result if planners could better distribute Democratic voters perhaps say by appending some solidly Democratic urban neighborhoods to purplish suburban districtsBut at some point that starts to look like gerrymandering doesnt itThe complex crosscutting considerations involved in redistricting provide cover for partisan shenanigans When legislators start to get creative with district borders are they adjusting for a states uneven political geography Or are they angling for an advantagePutting the process in the hands of an independent body is one way to make matters a little more fair Political scientists have generally observed that courts and independent commissions tend to design more competitive districtsIn a study of congressional elections from 19722012 researchers at the University of Georgia and the University of Texas at Austin found that districts drawn by legislators are significantly less likely to result in close elections even after controlling for polarization candidate quality and regional differences But this effect is only prominent from 1992 onwardThe researchers suspect that computers deserve much of the blame By 1991 all but four states were using geographic information programs to guide their redistricting efforts Nowadays any legislator with a laptop can call on software to concoct districts with whatever characteristics they like Gerrymandering has never been this easy or datadrivenPerhaps then it is no coincidence that some of the most torturedlooking districts were designed in recent years as these maps from Ansolabehere and Palmer showIndependent redistricting commissions are supposed to curb gerrymandering but most lack full control of the redistricting process Some are restricted to making suggestions which legislatures can vote down or amend Others step in only after the legislature has stalemated Like the filibuster the power of redistricting is a political tool that both parties are loath to give up Legislatures in 42 states still have the final say when it comes to determining districts for House seats in Congress And in 37 states legislators control the redistricting process for their own state legislative districtsIn Arizona and California citizens used ballot initiatives to wrest that power away from their legislators The independent commissions in these states are completely in charge of redistricting Their maps cannot be changed or overruled by the legislature To keep politics at bay these committees are kept strictly bipartisan with reserved seats for Democrats Republicans and independents Selection rules exclude politicians and those who work for them California went as far to use a lottery to pick some of the commissionersDespite the cautionary measures these committees have been the site of considerable partisan bitterness There have been allegations that the nonpartisan members on the commission secretly favor one side and that the technical staff assisting the commissions introduced bias into the process For these and other reasons the resulting district plans have consistently been challenged in court As political scientist Bruce Cain writesIn fact Mondays case was merely the first of two GOP lawsuits before the Supreme Court involving redistricting in ArizonaNow after the Court has established that Arizonas independent commission is constitutional it will consider whether the commissions most recent redistricting map apportioned Republicans fairly On Tuesday the Court announced that it will hear this second lawsuit some time next sessionMany political scientists say that all the fuss over gerrymandering amounts to wasted breath Recent decades have seen large decreases in the number of competitive House districts and large increases in political polarization but these twin trends cant be blamed on gerrymandering aloneIn a 2006 paper published in the Journal of Politics Emory researchers pointed out that House elections have been getting less competitive even during years when district boundaries havent changedIf gerrymandering alone were the culprit the number of competitive seats should plummet after each redistricting between 1990 and 1992 or 2000 and 2002 or 2010 and 2012 But the changes that happen between redistricting years have been modestFurthermore Princeton political scientist Nolan McCarty has noted that political polarization increased just as fast in the Senate as in the House Since senators are elected in statewide races they arent affected by gerrymandering Yet the Senate too has been paralyzed by partisan rancorWhat we know and dont know about our polarized politicsGerrymandering it seems is a symptom of increasing viciousness in politics not the root causeBut thats even more of a reason for states to safeguard the districtmaking process from partisanship The ongoing fight in Arizona has demonstrated that political parties will battle tooth and nail to tilt the electoral map in their favorArizona and Californias experiments in independent redistricting attemptto depoliticize redistricting by appointing citizen committees Its possible to take that idea one step further These days software and cheap computing gives every citizen the power to create their own district maps Opening up the redistricting process to public participationand review would offerone more check against legislators acting in their own self interestThat tracks thespirit ofMondays decision in which Ginsburg borrowedliberally from founding father James Madison The genius of republican liberty seems to demand not only that all power should be derived from the peoplebut that those intrusted with it should be kept in dependenceon the people she quotedShe wrote The people of Arizona turned to the initiative to curb the practice of gerrymandering and thereby to ensure that Members of Congress would have an habitual recollection of their dependence on the peopleIndependent redistricting commissions wontheal the nasty rift inAmerican politics But at the very least theywouldensure that anynastinessbe entirely representative of the American public

Gun control homegrown extremism homophobic violence and the war against Islamic State have all been highlighted by the Orlando nightclub massacre but deadlock in Washington means major legislation will probably have to wait until after the November electionWhoever wins the US presidency will find an intray where the threat of terrorism at home and the commitment to wars abroad grinds on 15 years after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001Barack Obama Hillary Clinton and Senate Democrats went on the front foot on Monday calling for laws that would make it harder for terrorists to get their hands on firearms in particular assault riflesIn a vivid illustration of ideological division however Republican flagbearer Donald Trump opposed gun control measures lambasted the immigration system as dysfunctional and claimed vindication in his call for a ban on foreignborn Muslims entering the USA landslide victory for Clinton or Trump with reflected gains in Congress could give one or the other a mandate for change lacking during the Obama years In the meantime there is realpolitik With Obama facing a Republicanled House and Senate the prospects for action are remote even after the killing of 49 people in the worst mass shooting in American historyEven so Senate Democrats lost little time on Monday in urging quick passage of legislation defeated last year to impose additional gun controls The bill would prevent people on terror watch lists and other suspected terrorists from buying firearms or explosivesThe killer in Orlando has been identified as Omar Mateen a 29yearold Americanborn Muslim whose weapons included an AR15 semiautomatic rifle FBI officials said they had investigated him in 2013 and 2014 on suspicion of terrorist sympathies but could not make a case against himObama himself weighed in on Monday The fact that we make it this challenging for law enforcement for example even to get alerted that somebody who they are watching has purchased a gun and if they do get alerted sometimes its hard for them to stop them from getting a gun is crazy Its a problem And we have to I think do some soulsearchingBut again the danger here is is that then it ends up being the usual political debate And the NRA and the gun control folks say that oh Obama doesnt want to talk about terrorism And if you talk about terrorism then people say why arent you looking at issues of gun controlAt the start of his second term Obama pushed legislation to expand background checks ban certain assaultstyle weapons and cap the size of ammunition clips That measure collapsed in the Senate and there has been little movement sinceBut if Trump provokes an electoral backlash handing sweeping victories to Democrats there could be new opportunities for Clinton who has been more outspoken on the issue than candidates in previous yearsOn Monday she told a rally in Cleveland Ohio If the FBI is watching you for suspected terrorist links you should not be able to just go buy a gun with no questions asked And you shouldnt be able to exploit loopholes and evade criminal background checks by buying online or at a gun show And yes if youre too dangerous to get on a plane you are too dangerous to buy a gun in AmericaYet the watchlist argument is less simple than meets the eye The nofly list for example has come under fire from left and right Drawn up by the FBI in the wake of the 911 attacks it contains 700000 names according to one estimate and has mistakenly included infants US military veterans and politicians including Edward Kennedy and John Lewis Analysts describe it as an unfocused and unwieldy blunt instrumentThis is one reason why a Congress that blocked gun control measures after the shooting of 20 schoolchildren in Newtown Connecticut seems unlikely to shift gear now Josh Earnest the White House press secretary admitted I dont know whether this profound tragedy will have more of an impact on the minds of members of Congress Hopefully it willBut Senator Ron Johnson a Wisconsin Republican and chairman of the Senate committee on homeland security and governmental affairs disagreed that stricter gun laws were the solution I think theres other root causes in play he told the Associated Press I think mental health is a huge issueThese are the tangibles more readily quantified What the White House and Congress should do to promote harmony with both the Muslim and LGBT communities is a more textured longterm challenge where tone is crucialWith characteristic bombast Trump charged straight in on Monday When I am elected I will suspend immigration from areas of the world when there is a proven history of terrorism against the United States Europe or our allies until we understand how to end these threats he saidWe cannot continue to allow thousands upon thousands of people to pour into our country many of whom have the same thought process as this savage killerHe added The Muslim communitys so important They have to work with us and turn in the people who are badAt Clintons rally the tone was very different We should avoid eroding trust in that community inflammatory antiMuslim rhetoric and threatening to ban the family and friends of Muslim Americans and millions of Muslim business people hurts the vast majority of Muslims who love freedom and hate terrorIt is no coincidence she added that hate crimes against American Muslims and mosques have tripled since the Paris and San Bernardino attacksShe called on local leaders teachers and communities to develop education to recognize signs of radicalisation And in contrast to Trumps proposed ban on individuals she instead took aim at foreign governments implying she would take a tougher stand than Obama It is long past time for Saudis Qataris Kuwaitis and others to stop their citizens from funding extremist organisationsThe Orlando attack has also focused attention on hate crimes against gay men and lesbians in America The Obama administration has overseen great strides including the legalisation of gay marriage but activists note this can conceal ongoing hostility and prejudice in many communities The recent political debate over transgender bathroom use is seen as one example that contributes to a hostile climateIt was reported on Monday that members of Congress plan to ask the White House to end a decadesold policy that prohibits many gay men from donating blood Senators including Elizabeth Warren have long criticised the rule as discriminatoryUsing the alternative term Isil Obama acknowledged the targeting of LGBT people by Islamic State but gave little hint of new concrete measures Regardless of the particular motivations of this killer there are connections between this vicious bankrupt ideology and general attitudes towards gays and lesbians And unfortunately thats something that the LGBT community is subject to not just by Isil but by a lot of groups that purport to speak on behalf of God around the worldTrump meanwhile set himself up as an unlikely champion of the LGBT community Ask yourself who is really the friend of women and the LBGT sic community Donald Trump with his actions or Hillary Clinton with her words Clinton wants to allow radical Islamic terrorists to pour into our country they enslave women and murder gays I dont want them in our countryBut Trumps remarks met with scepticism from gay rights activists who argue that he has vowed to appoint supreme court justices who would roll back nationwide marriage equalityJay Brown communications director of the Human Rights Campaign said Lets be clear LGBTQ people are MuslimsAnd make no mistake Donald Trump is no friend of the LGBTQ community Donald Trump has vowed to roll back marriage equality pass Kim Davisstyle discrimination and allow governors from coast to coast to pass laws like North Carolinas HB2 Trumps rhetoric today isnt fooling anyone and what he is peddling isnt protection Its poison

The Maryland Democrat made the announcement Monday morning in her hometown of BaltimoreMikulski 78 is known as the Dean of the Senate women helping forge bipartisan relationships for decades that often result in compromise Until Democrats lost control of the Senate she was the chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations CommitteeI had to ask myself this question Am I campaigning for me or am I campaigning for my constituents she said Monday Am I raising money or raising hellPresident Barack Obama praised Mikulski as legendary and called her an institution in the United States Senate in a statement Monday that followed her announcement Barbaras service to the people of Maryland spans decades but her legacy will span generations Obama said Barbara is the longest serving woman in Congress and her leadership serves as an inspiration to millions of women and girls across the globe to stand up and lead Her retirement could present an opening for former Maryland Gov Martin OMalley who left office weeks ago and has been considering a 2016 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination though he could struggle to make waves in that race if as expected Hillary Clinton runs Its not clear whether OMalley would be interested in a legislative seat But his mother has long served as Mikulskis receptionist in her Washington office And OMalley tweeted his praise for Mikulski on Monday I got my start in Maryland politics on SenatorBarbs 86 campaign Very grateful for her service to our state as well as her mentorship Martin OMalley GovernorOMalley March 2 2015 The state is also represented by seven Democratic House members including Rep Chris Van Hollen a member of the partys congressional leadership and they could all scramble for the seat too OMalleys former lieutenant governor Anthony Brown is another contender Also on the list of potential Democratic candidates are Baltimore Mayor Stephanie RawlingsBlake and Labor Secretary Tom Perez

Top Dems want White House to call off Part B demo The next cancer drug shortage

A new conservative watchdog group filed a complaint this week with the Federal Election Commission against the private voter data firm Catalist and dozens of Democratic party and candidate committees accusing them of operating an illegal coordination scheme that has allowed Democrats to instantly sync their voter information with that of independent groupsThe Washingtonbased Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust also alleged that Catalist whose president is Harold Ickes a longtime Democratic strategist and ally of Bill and Hillary Clinton provides its data to candidates and parties below market rate effectively making illegal inkind contributionsFACTs executive director Matthew G Whitaker said Catalist and its Democratic allies have operated outside of the law and called on the FEC to investigateI expect that they will take this seriously and get some answers said Whitaker a former US attorney in Iowa who ran for the US Senate there last year as a RepublicanAmy Weiss a spokeswoman for Catalist said in a statement that the complaint was a politicallymotivated filing without meritIt is common for parties and outside organizationsto exchange voter lists But Democratic party committees and allied interest groups do not conduct such exchanges close to an election according to people familiar with the transactions Thats because conveying nonpublic material related to a campaigns activities through a common vendor could violate coordination rulesIn its complaint FACT challenged that notion citing passages in Sasha Issenbergs 2012 book The Victory Lab that described how Catalist enabled seamless links between President Obamas 2008 campaign and activist groups on the leftThe allegations against Catalist comes four months after a Democraticallied watchdog group filed a similar complaint against a host of groups on the right including the Republican National Committee the super PAC American Crossroads the private firm Data Trust and i360 a data management firm that works closely with advocacy groups backed by billionaires Charles and David Koch and other conservative donorsAmerican Democracy Legal Fund a group helmed by veteran operative Brad Woodhouse charged that the RNC and outside groups were illegally coordinating by exchanging information about individual voters in real time through Data Trust The RNC called the complaint baselessWhitaker said he was not concerned that FACTs arguments against Catalist could be used against the RNC and its allies noting that the group was nonpartisanThis type of behavior shouldnt be allowed on either side he saidFACT was organized over the last several months as a response to watchdogs groups on the left such as American Democracy Legal Fund and Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington The group is backed by 1 million in seed money from donors who support conservative legal causes according to people familiar with its origins Whitaker declined to identify the organizations contributors calling them some freedomloving Americans who live outside of Washington

Soon much of the empires Christian Armenian population would be targeted and nearly wiped out accused of conspiring against the empire with the Russians Many Armenians say the genocide was collective punishment for the actions of a fewIn August after a wave of deportations began that would force hundreds of thousands of Armenians on brutal death marches toward the Syrian desert Varoujan was tortured to death according to eyewitnesses at the time Varoujan was just one of many men women and children who lost their livesThis week Armenians from around the world are gathering in Istanbul to commemorate the deaths of nearly 15 million Armenians who died in what would later be known by many but not by Turkey the United States and some other countries as the Armenian Genocide A century on the killings are hardly a thing of the past with sensitive geopolitics still fueling the controversyRape and beating were commonplace wrote acclaimed historian David Fromkin in his Pulitzer Prizewinning book on the Ottoman Empires downfall A Peace to End All Peace Those who were not killed at once were driven through mountains and deserts without food drink or shelter Hundreds of thousands of Armenians eventually succumbed or were killedAn Armenian man in Istanbul who as a schoolboy discovered his family was Armenian told The WorldPost one story passed down to him by his parents His grandfather too exhausted to walk any farther in the death march toward the Syrian desert refused to go on He would rather drown than walk another mile to his death he told the Turkish Ottoman guards And so the man says they held his grandfather under the water until he was deadThe number of intellectuals reportedly rounded up by Ottoman Turks on April 24 1915 in Constantinople now Istanbul kicking off what would become a massive wave of arrests deportations and killings Many of these Armenians were later deported and in many cases killed Armenians commemorate the anniversary of the Armenian Genocide every year on April 24The number of dead bodies reportedly found in 1916 in a mass grave in Maskanah a northern town in what is now modern day Syria according to Jesse B Jackson US consul in Aleppo As far as the eye can reach mounds are seen containing 200 to 300 corpses buried in the ground he said in a cable to WashingtonThe number of nations that officially recognize the Armenian Genocide The list does not include the United States Israel and many others who on the centenary are grappling with labeling the killings a genocide Germany is expected to finally do so on the anniversaryIf President Obama decided to label the 1915 killings as genocide already strained relations would likely only worsen with Turkey where the United States has an important air base in the south close to Syria Turkey and the US government have butted heads over the Syrian crisis with a USled coalition targeting solely Islamic State extremists while Turkey insists military efforts must also focus on bringing down Syrias Bashar Assad The United States has said Turkey hosting over 17 million desperate Syrian refugees has failed to do enough to counter extremists who often cross its border into Syria with easeThe decision angered many Armenians in the United States and abroad who say they had hoped President Barack Obama would use the centennial as an opportunity to put things right considering his track record of acknowledging the genocide prior to assuming the presidencyA box that contains bones of Armenians who were killed in Syria during their exodus from persecutions by the Ottoman Empire in 1915 are displayed at the Vank Cathedral in the historic city of Isfahan some 250 miles south of the capital Tehran on April 20In a recent column in the Daily Sabah a Turkish newspaper known for its staunchly progovernment rhetoric one columnist wrote that the genocide claimed by Armenians is just a ruse by the Armenian diaspora and descendants in Turkey to tear apart the country and take over Turkish territoryWhile Turkey in recent years has taken more conciliatory steps towards addressing the killings of Armenians with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan making what was considered to be a groundbreaking speech last year in which he offered condolences to the descendants of those killed tempers have recently flared

News about race in America these days is almost universally negative Longstanding wealth income and employment gaps between whites and people of color are increasing and tensions between police and minority communities around the country are on the rise But many claim theres a glimmer of hope The next generation of Americans they say is postracialmore tolerant and therefore more capable of easing these racebased inequities Unfortunately closer examination of the data suggests that millennials arent racially tolerant theyre racially apathetic They simply ignore structural racism rather than try to fix itIn 2010 a Pew Research report trumpeted that the younger generation is more racially tolerant than their elders In the Chicago Tribune Ted Gregory seized on this to declare millennials the most tolerant generation in history These types of arguments typically cling to the fact that young people are more likely than their elders to favor interracial marriage But while millennials are indeed less likely than baby boomers to say that more people of different races marrying each other is a change for the worse 6 percent compared to 14 percent their opinions on that score are basically no different than those of the generation immediately before them the Gen Xers who come in at 5 percent On interracial dating the trend is similar with 92 percent of Gen Xers saying its all right for blacks and whites to date each other compared to 93 percent of millennialsFurthermore these questions dont really say anything about racial justice After all interracial dating and marriage are unlikely to solve deep disparities in criminal justice wealth upward mobility poverty and educationat least not in this century Blackwhite marriages currently make up just 22 percent of all marriages And when it comes to opinions on more structural issues such as the role of government in solving social and economic inequality and the need for continued progress millennials start to split along racial lines When people are asked for example How much needs to be done in order to achieve Martin Luther Kings dream of racial equality the gap between white millennials and millennials of color all those who dont identify as white are wide And once again millennials are shown to be no more progressive than older generations Among millennials 42 percent of whites answer that a lot must be done to achieve racial equality compared to 41 percent of white Gen Xers and 44 percent of white boomersThe most significant change has been among nonwhite millennials who are more racially optimistic than their parents Fiftyfour percent of nonwhite millennials say a lot must be done compared with 60 percent of nonwhite Gen Xers And this racial optimism isnt exactly warranted The racial wealth gap has increased since the 2007 financial crisis and blacks who graduate from college have less wealth than whites who havent completed high school A new paper by poverty experts Thomas Hirschl and Mark Rank estimates that whites are 674 times more likely to enter the top 1 percent of the income distribution ladder than nonwhites And Bhashkar Mazumder finds that 60 percent of blacks whose parents were in the top half of income distribution end up in the bottom compared with 36 percent of whitesAs to how well whites and nonwhites get along only 13 percent of white millennials say not well at all compared with 31 percent of nonwhite millennials Thirteen percent of white Gen Xers and 32 percent of nonwhite Gen Xers agreeIn a 2009 study using American National Election Studiesa survey of Americans before and after each presidential electionVincent Hutchings finds younger cohorts of Whites are no more racially liberal in 2008 than they were in 1988 My own analysis of the most recent data reveals a similar pattern Gaps between young whites and old whites on support for programs that aim to further racial equality are very small compared to the gaps between young whites and young blacksAnd even though the gaps within the millennial generation are wide as with the Pew data there is also evidence that young blacks are more racially conservative than their parents as they are less likely to support government aid to blacksSpencer Piston professor at the Campbell Institute at Syracuse University used ANES data and found a similar pattern on issues relating to economic inequality He examined a tax on millionaires affirmative action a limit to campaign contributions and a battery of questions that measure egalitarianism He says the racial divide in particular the blackwhite divide dwarfs other divides in policy opinion Age differences in public opinion are small in comparison to racial differences This finding is he adds consistent with a longstanding finding in political science Piston finds that young whites have the same level of racial stereotypes as their parents

0 Add Comment TECH giant Apple has today kindly offered to relocate over 1500 refugee children who were left behind at a Calais campsite and to give them fulltime work as general operatives in their many factories littered across the world The opportunity will help clear the remaining refugees from the Calais Jungle while French authorities continue to demolish it from existence like a red wine stain from a woollen rug It is understood the children will begin a series of inhouse training courses before taking to the Apple floor to make phones iPads and MacBook computers I have always loved Apples sleek product design 9yearold Hafez Mohammed who was born in the same week as the first ever iPhone release I cannot wait to start work making such cool products with them as my father and mother are missing and I have no idea where they are Apple CEO Tim Cook said he was more than happy to offer the children this fantastic opportunity as founder Steve Jobs was also Syrian and believes he would have only been delighted to help out his fellow countrymen and women get through this difficult period of their lives Who knows we may have the next Jobs in one of the 1500 new employees Cook told WWN The Apple offer could not have come at a better time as British Prime Minister May rejected a personal demand from Francois Hollande for Britain to accept 1500 child migrants yesterday leaving only child sex traffickers to pick up the tab

The hidden secrets of the Great Pyramid of Giza have intrigued explorers and experts for a long timeThere are probably many hidden chambers that are still left untouched which could give us a lead to the true purpose of this colossal pyramidBut one mystery surrounding the mega structure is the fact that the capstone is missing How come Was there a capstone in the first placeSome researchers say that the capstone may have been completely built in gold so if it was in fact made of such a solid material then how did they achieve on removing such a large massive piece with aproximately 9 meters in heightAnother theory suggests that the pyramid had a large sphere in its summit which served as a conductor of cosmic energy and would turn the pyramid into a massive power plant The sphere could also be associated with the Eye of Horus and the brightest star in the sky Sirius Watch the following video to learn more Disclose TV SOURCE

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Sunday defended his criticism that Hillary Clintons campaign success is based largely on her being a female candidate and dismissed assertions about him having a soft foreign policyThe only card she has is the woman card Trump told Fox News Sunday Even women dont like her If she were not a woman she would not even be in this raceThe billionaire businessman resumed his Clinton attack following his sweep in five Northeast primary contests saying Tuesday that the only card she has is the womans card And frankly if Hillary Clinton were a man I dont think shed get 5 percent of the voteThe frontrunning Trump also dismissed criticism that he sounded like a liberal Democrat in his foreign policy speech last week by suggesting the United States scale back in the Middle East and focus on domestic spendingWe need to knock off ISIS and get out of there said Trump who nevertheless continues to argue that overthrowing dictators has been a failed foreign policy strategy that has led to instability in the Middle EastEvery move weve made in the Middle East has been wrong he said arguing other countries should pay more to protect the world and that more taxpayer money must go to US infrastructureWe cant have this anymore he said We are spending all of our money in the Middle East We need to strengthen our military and pull back In the meantime our country is becoming Third World I will be tougher than ClintonGOP primary rival Texas Sen Ted Cruz told ABCs This Week that Trumps policy speech reflects a weak and naive approach to foreign policyTrump also argued that his attacks on Clinton are no worse than those of her primary challenger Vermont Sen Bernie Sanders who has questioned the former secretary of states qualificationsWhile both Clinton and Trumps favorability ratings among women are low Trumps are worse especially among female general election votersHowever Trump argued Sunday that his numbers will improve if and when he faces Clinton in the general electionOnce I start on Hillary the numbers will change he said Watch what happens with Hillary Watch what happens with her numbers

By Jason Easley on Sun Oct 30th 2016 at 1052 am Republicans hoped that FBI Director James Comeys letter about new Clinton related emails would swing the election for them but a new series of CBS News Battleground polls shows Clinton keeping her lead and within 2 points of Trump in Arizona Share on Twitter Print This Post The CBS News Republicans hoped that FBI Director James Comeys letter about new Clinton related emails would swing the election for them but a new series of CBS News Battleground polls shows Clinton keeping her lead and within 2 points of Trump in Arizona Battleground tracker found that by a small margin Comeys letter made Democrats more likely net 7 to support Clinton In the individual battleground states Clinton leads by eight points in Pennsylvania 4840 North Carolina 4845 and in Colorado 4239 The only state of the four polled where Trump has a small two point lead in Arizona 4442 According to CBS News And the larger demographic difference defining the race between Clinton and Donald Trump has been a gender gap slightly larger now than the last time in these states that offsets a smaller movement of Republicans to Trump To put it another way Hillary Clintons support with women is going up at a larger rate than Republican movement towards Trump These are the first swing state polls to be taken since FBI Director Comey released his now infamous letter on Friday The email story isnt moving voters It is reinforcing the partisanship of the election Democrats are going to vote Clinton Republicans are going to vote for Trump and there arent enough undecided voters to swing the election to Trump Republicans were hoping for a Hail Mary touchdown to save Trump but Clinton continues to lead in critical states with a little more than a week to go before election day If the Comey letter is the big October surprise it isnt working on voters Hillary Clinton Maintains Swing State Leads As Comey Email Letter Flops added by Jason Easley on Sun Oct 30th 2016

With less than five weeks before voters begin weighing in on the 2016 GOP presidential nomination the establishment contenders who until now have been relatively restrained have begun aiming their fire at each otherThe tactical shift on the part of the candidates and their allies reflects a longstanding assumption as to how this crowded nomination battle is likely to play outMany believe the race will come down to a oneonone contest between an outsider who channels the angry Republican base and a candidate more in line with the wishes of the party hierarchy The establishment pick has almost always prevailed in the past though it is far from certain that will be the case in 2016The insurgent faction of the party appears likely to rally around either frontrunner Donald Trump or the ascendant Sen Ted Cruz RTex The leading possibilities on the establishment side include three sitting or former governors and a Florida senator all of whom are running far behind Trump But before any of them can get a shot at taking him on they must deal with one anotherTrumps latest targets New Hampshires largest paper and its favorite candidate ChristieSen Marco Rubio RFla on Tuesday found his record of Senate absences under attack from two directions a blistering ad in Iowa by a super PAC supporting former Florida governor Jeb Bush and a taunt by New Jersey Gov Chris ChristieDude show up to work Christie said during a townhall meeting in Muscatine IowaRubio was making his own swing through Iowa which is set to hold the first contest of the primary season on Feb 1 He responded at a news conference hours later in the town of ClintonYou know Chris has been missing in New Jersey for half the time Rubio said But candidates I think as we get down the stretch here some of them get a little desperate and a little nasty in their attacks and thats fineHe dismissed the attack ad by the proBush super PAC Right to Rise USA as par for the course I mean obviously youve seen that as we get closer to Election Day and millions of dollars of spending have not changed Bushs fortunes hes become increasingly negative in his attacksMeanwhile Right to Rise USA also launched a spot in New Hampshire contending that the gubernatorial records of Christie and Ohio Gov John Kasich do not stack up against that of Bush The ad was gentler in tone than the super PACs assault on Rubio but it attempted to draw a contrast on the experience that all three of the candidates consider to be their greatest assetNew Day in America a super PAC supporting Kasich responded What Team Jeb has failed to address is the political baggage dragging behind Bush and Christie The country doesnt have an appetite for another Bush or another Clinton for that matter As for Governor Christie his mishandling of his state budget and the Bridgegate scandal have earned him a 60 percent unfavorable rating from those who know him best the people of New JerseyThe crossfire said GOP political consultant Alex Castellanos is beginning to look like a Fistful of Dollars gunfight referring to the 1964 spaghetti western that launched Clint Eastwood to stardomIts now down to the last five weeks here Christie told reporters in Muscatine We need to make distinctions between candidates not just on issues but on experience so Ill be talking about it I think its an important distinction to makeThe young and charismatic Rubio is regarded by many as potentially the strongest contender running in the establishment lane if he can find an openingIts pretty clear in this race that Marco Rubio is the candidate of the future If he ever breaks through the line hes got a lot of running room said Castellanos who is not working for any of the 2016 candidates The only one who everyone fears for his explosive potential is RubioWill Rubio work hard enough to become president Some backers are worriedRight to Rise USA said it plans to spend 14 million on the new ad in Iowa in which an announcer says Over the last three years Rubio has missed important national security hearings and missed more total votes than any other senator Politics first thats the Rubio wayChristie sounded a similar theme during a town hall in Muscatine where he noted that Rubio had announced his opposition to a 18trillion yearend spending bill and tax package but then failed to show up to vote against it It passed the Senate 65 to 33Just show up to work and vote no Christie said And if you dont want to then quitRubio spokesman Alex Conant said his campaign is unfazed noting that Rubios skill at dealing with barbs during the candidates debates has only increased his statureObviously we feel very good about our campaign and where were at With success comes scrutiny Conant said Weve been taking some incoming for several months now and were not worse for the wearRubio does have the worst attendance record of all the senators including the five who have run for president this year a fact he does not dispute A CSPAN analysis released last week found that Rubio cast votes for just 219 of the 339 recorded Senate rollcall votes in 2015 a 65 percent attendance record He spoke on the Senate floor eight times just 5 percent of the days that the Senate was in session CSPAN saidIm running for president because I want to change the direction of this country and it will require me for the time being to miss some votes in the US Senate because I want those votes to matter again Rubio saidBefore Tuesdays exchanges the most highprofile attack on Rubios attendance record had been launched by Bush during an October Republican presidential debate Rubio shot back with a response that threw Bush off balanceSomeone has convinced you that attacking me is going to help you Rubio told Bush and then recounted how other senators who ran for president had equally bad attendance records that had not drawn much commentIn his own appearances recently Bush has been focusing most of his attacks on Trump and Hillary ClintonBy law candidates are not allowed to coordinate with the super PACs that support them however Right to Rise USA is run by political consultant Mike Murphy who has been one of Bushs closest political advisers for most of his political career

October 28 2016 By Eduard Popov for Fort Russ translated by J Arnoldski At yesterdays session of the international Valdai Discussion Club Vladimir Putin made a number of statements about the system of international relations He reminded listeners that American hegemony has already left a long trail of military invasions of sovereign countries Yugoslavia Afghanistan Iraq Libya etc This was followed by the reminder that Russia opened up in the mid1990s and hoped for equal dialogue but did not receive the expected By this Putin had in mind the naive trust in Western countries during the decade of Yeltsins rule that was unprecedented in Russian history The United States responded to Russias openness with attempts to maximally weaken Russia from within including by means of reforms and privatizations carried out with the participation of American specialists and from without such as by creating a chained perimeter of border countries controlled by Washington around Russias borders Russia was forbidden from having its own interests beyond its borders while US interests stretched up to Russias borders and even inside the country President Putin also could have added that he himself at the beginning of his presidency pursued policies maximally open towards the West After all it was he who first lent a hand to the American people after the terrorist attack on September 11th 2001 by clearly condemning this act of terrorism and allowing America to establish air bases in Central Asia Patriotic experts harshly condemned Putin for this The Russian president also closed the countrys last military bases and intelligence stations in Cuba and Vietnam After the closure of Russias last military bases abroad NATO expanded its borders East and accepted the former Warsaw Pact countries and union republics the Baltic states into its ranks If not for Russias tough diplomatic resistance Georgia and Ukraine also could have been added to the list of NATO member countries This was a huge mistake on Moscows part but the president gained invaluable experience and is now no longer inclined to trust the pseudodemocratic demagogy of Washington now constantly calling on Eastern European countries Poland and the Baltics to defend against the mythical Russian threat In fairness let us note that many serious observers in the West have spoken against the disastrous policy of pushing Russia into a corner Very bold predictions were made which seemed fantastical 1620 years ago that Russia would revive its military might and restore the country to the status of a great world power The semimarginal lightheavyweight American politician Patrick Buchanan for example called for relying on Russias remaining strength rather than constantly annoying it Today his views do not appear to be marginal even though as far as we can see they remain the ideology of the minority On the other hand in Russia there is the marginal liberal minority whose ideology is that of unilateral concessions to the West Putins popularity lies in that he is supported in foreign policy issues and issues of national security even by opposing trends from communists to nationalists In his Valdai speech President Putin demonstrated a realistic understanding of the external and internal challenges and threats facing Russia Russia has a number of domestic problems ranging from economic and social to demographic ones but the US has no less such problems Hence why Russia is not going to pursue and is not pursuing an expansionist policy Not only because this contradicts its principles but also because it is contrary to Russias national interests In NATO itself there are those who dont believe that Russia actually has plans to conquer the Baltic states or Poland Pushing this line is perhaps in the interests of these countries or rather their comprador establishments but not Russias What Russia is interested in is searching for allies in Europe and even the US itself mainly those outside of the these countries political classes that are so tightly controlled by Washington As shown by the legislation on plutonium disarmament and Putins speech yesterday Russia is already tired of giving unilateral concessions and sacrificing its own interests without getting even moral compensation Thus Vladimir Putins strategy in recent years and even months can be called a transition to active defense Russia is outlining the not too extensive circle of its interests outside its borders and concentrating on its internal problems As the foreign minister of the Russian Empire Prince Gorchakov said after Russias defeat in the Crimean War and the signing of the humiliating Treaty of Paris in 1856 Russia is concentrating After a long 20 years Russia has come to pursue a policy of active defense carefully avoiding occasions for war Russia has not suffered any defeats in 2016 but it still faces the same problems such as concentrating on resolving internal tasks But Russia does not intend to surrender its positions whether inside our outside the country This idea was the main message of Vladimir Putins speech on October 27th Follow us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Donate

in General Health image shutterstock Few experts question the influence a mothers diet can have on her childrens long term physical health Yet many believe this effect is mostly sociological limited to positive or negative role modeling and the development of general dietary habits later in life However research suggests that the foods moms eat could impact the health of their children much more directly Scientists at Tufts Universitys USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging USDA HNRCA near Boston have published findings of a study which shows a strong connection between the quantity of B vitamins pregnant mice consume and the likelihood of their offspring developing colorectal cancer as adults 1 Breaking Down The Study Three test groups of pregnant and nursing mice which were genetically engineered to be predisposed to develop colorectal cancer were fed diets with either higher than normal adequate or slightly deficient amounts of folate and vitamins B2 B6 and B12 Once fully weened all newborn mice were fed identical nutritionally balanced diets through adulthood The occurrence of tumor development appeared similar between both the adequate and B vitamin deficient groups with about 60 percent of the mice in each of these two groups eventually developing colon cancer In comparison less than 20 percent of the mice in the group that was given larger than normal servings of B vitamins were found to have malignant growths While these figures are impressive the researchers caution that the study itself is only a preliminary investigation and additional studies will be needed to further assess the correlation between maternal vitamin B consumption and reduced risk of cancer in humans Dr Jimmy Crott PhD lead author of the HNRCA study We saw by far the fewest intestinal tumors in the offspring of mothers consuming the supplemented diet Although the tumor incidence was similar between offspring of deficient and adequate mothers 54 of tumors in the deficient offspring were advanced and had invaded surrounding tissue while only 18 of tumors in the offspring of adequate mothers displayed these aggressive properties Most healthcare providers already recommend higher than normal intake of folate and other essential B vitamins during pregnancy and while nursing as part of routine prenatal care And accordingly most popular brands of prenatal vitamins contain significantly larger than normal serving of all four B vitamins as compared to regular multivitamins The standard reasons for this however have nothing to do with with the prevention of colon cancer In addition to their potential for the risk of colorectal cancer Vitamin B folate more specifically has long been known to play an important role in the prevention of spina bifida and related defects of the neural tube a sort of embryonic forerunner of the central nervous system during fetal gestation Its also believed to have a strong influence on proper neurological development in very young children References

On this day in 1973 J Fred Buzhardt a lawyer defending President Richard Nixon in the Watergate case revealed that a key White House tape had an 18

Nine in 10 Native Americans say they are not offended by the Washington Redskins name according to a new Washington Post poll that shows how few ordinary Indians have been persuaded by a national movement to change the football teams monikerThe survey of 504 people across every state and the District reveals that the minds of Native Americans have remained unchanged since a 2004 poll by the Annenberg Public Policy Center found the same result Responses to The Posts questions about the issue were broadly consistent regardless of age income education political party or proximity to reservations12 Native Americans talk about the furor over the Redskins nameAmong the Native Americans reached over a fivemonth period ending in April more than 7 in 10 said they did not feel the word Redskin was disrespectful to Indians An even higher number 8 in 10 said they would not be offended if a nonnative called them that nameThe results immediately celebrated by team owner Daniel Snyder and denounced by prominent Native American leaders could make it that much harder for antiname activists to pressure Redskins officials who are already using the poll as further justification to retain the moniker Beyond that the findings might impact the ongoing legal battle over the teams federal trademark registrations and the eventual destination of the next stadium The name controversy has clouded talks between the team and the District widely considered Snyders desired destinationNative Americans indifference on Redskins name could reset DC stadium talksThe Washington Redskins team our fans and community have always believed our name represents honor respect and pride the owner said in a statement Todays Washington Post polling shows Native Americans agree We are gratified by this overwhelming support from the Native American community and the team will proudly carry the Redskins nameBut Suzan Harjo the lead plaintiff in the first case challenging the teams trademark protections dismissed The Posts findingsI just reject the results said Harjo 70 who belongs to the Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee tribes I dont agree with them and I dont agree that this is a valid way of surveying public opinion in Indian CountryTwo other key leaders in the namechange movement did not challenge the validity of the poll and instead issued a joint statement calling the responses from Indians encouragingNative Americans are resilient and have not allowed the NFLs decadeslong denigration of us to define our own selfimage wrote Oneida Nation Representative Ray Halbritter and National Congress of American Indians Executive Director Jacqueline Pata However that proud resilience does not give the NFL a license to continue marketing promoting and profiting off of a dictionarydefined racial slur one that tells people outside of our community to view us as mascotsHow The Post conducted the survey on the Redskins nameSince the nearly halfcenturyold debate regained national attention in 2013 opponents of the name have won a string of highprofile victories garnering support from President Obama 50 Democratic US senators dozens of sports broadcasters and columnists several newspaper editorial boards including The Posts a civil rights organization that works closely with the National Football League and tribal leaders throughout Indian CountryIn response Snyder vowed never to change the moniker and used the 12yearold Annenberg poll to defend his position Activists however have argued that the billionaire must act if even a small minority of Indians are insulted by the term They have also maintained that opinions have evolved as his unyielding stance has been subjected to a barrage of condemnation by critics ranging from South Park to the United Church of ChristBut for more than a decade no one has measured what the countrys 54million Native Americans think about the controversy Their responses to The Post poll were unambiguous Few objected to the name and some voiced admirationIm proud of being Native American and of the Redskins said Barbara Bruce a Chippewa teacher who has lived on a North Dakota reservation most of her life Im not ashamed of that at all I like that nameBruce 70 has for four decades taught her communitys schoolchildren dozens of whom have gone on to play for the Turtle Mountain Community High School Braves She and many others surveyed embrace native imagery in sports because it offers them some measure of attention in a society where they are seldom represented Just 8percent of those canvassed say such depictions bother themA brief history of the word redskin and how it became controversialEven as the namechange movement gained momentum among influential people The Posts survey and more than two dozen subsequent interviews make clear that the effort failed to have anywhere near the same impact on IndiansAcross every demographic group the vast majority of Native Americans say the teams name does not offend them including 80percent who identify as politically liberal 85percent of college graduates 90percent of those enrolled in a tribe 90percent of nonfootball fans and 91percent of those between the ages of 18 and 39Even 9 in 10 of those who have heard a great deal about the controversy say they are not bothered by the nameWhat makes those attitudes more striking The general public appears to object more strongly to the name than Indians doIn a 2014 national ESPN poll 23percent of those reached called for Redskins to be retired because of its offensiveness to Native Americans more than double the 9percent of actual Native Americans who now say they are offended by itA 2013 Post poll found that a higher proportion of Washingtonarea residents 28percent wanted the moniker changedColumn In complex Redskins name debate poll should give both sides pauseHalbritter a key figure and financier in the fight against Snyder has described the issue as one of the most important facing his peopleIt is critical he wrote in a 2013 Post oped Indeed precisely because it is so critical this campaign is not going away no matter how much the NFL or Snyder wants it toBut an overwhelming majority of Native Americans disagree with just 1 in 10 saying they consider the issue very importantI really dont mind it I like it We call other natives skins too said Gabriel Nez a 29yearold Navajo who left his reservation last year to study criminal justice at a college in New MexicoThe name is nothing to me said Jarvis Michael Horn a 39yearold member of the Winnebago Tribe who works at a corner grocery store in IowaFor me it doesnt make any difference said Charles Moore a 73yearold Oneida of Wisconsin who as a physician treated patients for four decades before retiring in MinnesotaThe poll which has a 55 percentagepoint margin of sampling error was conducted by randomly calling cellular and landline phones It asked questions only of people who identified themselves as Native American after being asked about their ethnicity or heritageThose interviewed highlighted again and again other challenges to their communities that they consider much more urgent than an NFL teams name substandard schools substance abuse unemploymentLets start taking care of our people and quit worrying about names like Washington Redskins said Randy Whitworth 58 who lives on the Flathead Indian Reservation in MontanaBut Harjo questioned the validity of the poll results and said they do not reflect what she has seen during her decades of involvement with the issueI dont accept selfidentification People say theyre native and they are not native for all sorts of reasons she said Those of us who are leaders in Indian Country know who we are representing We also know if we are representing a minority view And this is not the case here Our experience is completely the opposite of the Annenberg poll and this one I just reject the whole thingOthers including Senate Minority Leader Harry M Reid DNev Rep Betty McCollum DMinn and veteran NBC broadcaster Bob Costas said The Posts findings would not alter their view that the name is offensiveIt remains uncertain how the poll will affect either the stadium discussion or the trademark caseAlthough the Redskins have a lease at FedEx Field in Landover Md until 2027 team officials have acknowledged that they hope to relocate well before thenMaryland Gov Larry Hogan R Virginia Gov Terry McAuliffe D and Washington Mayor Muriel E Bowser D have all expressed interest in making a deal with the team Hogan has defended the moniker while McAuliffe has avoided criticizing it Bowser and some DC Council members have publicly condemned it as racist and derogatoryOn Thursday a spokesman for the mayor told The Post that the concern about the team name is well documented and far reaching from the Oval Office to the halls of Congress to the DC Council chambersBut news that such a large percentage of Native Americans do not care about the name could provide the necessary political cover for District leaders to welcome Snyders club to return to the site of RFK Stadium where the Redskins used to playThe federal government however would also have to approve because RFK stands on National Park Service land controlled by the Interior Department The current secretary Sally Jewell has echoed Obamas opposition to the nameAttorneys for the Redskins and Native American activists declined on Thursday to discuss the polls potential impact on the trademark case Some experts say the surveys results could help the team but others argue that the data cannot be admitted as evidence because the case is no longer at the trial levelLower courts have said that Indians opinions on the term matters only between 1967 and 1990 when the teams trademarks were registeredTwo years ago the US Patent and Trademark Offices appeal board ruled that Redskins offended a substantial number of Native Americans at the relevant time violating the Lanham Act which bars potentially disparaging names from trademark protection A federal district judge upheld the order last summer Now the Redskins have petitioned the Supreme Court to weigh in arguing that regardless of whether the name offends Native Americans the Lanham Act violates the teams freespeech rightsAmid the legal maneuvering and namechange push some Indians interviewed by The Post voiced resentment toward the activists A small percentage of their community had in their minds spoken for the majorityIts 100 people okay with the situation and one person has a problem with it and all of a sudden everyone has to conform said New York resident Judy Ann Joyner 64 a retired nurse whose grandmother was partShawnee and partWyandot Youll find people who dont like puppies and kittens and Santa Claus It doesnt mean were going to wipe them off the face of the earthBut an important question remains Is it appropriate for the name of a professional sports team to insult any percentage of a population that has historically been so mistreated by this countrys majorityTara Houska a tribal attorney who lives in the District and has organized protests against the name argued that neither a majority opinion nor a fans passion should matter if the imagery hurts the psyches of young natives and research shows that it doesA tomahawk chop and a bunch of people wearing redface does not honor me in any sense of the word and it certainly does not honor Native American children said Houska a member of the Couchiching First Nation To me it doesnt matter if my feelings are hurt Yes it is offensive and I dont like seeing it everywhere But what really matters is how this affects our youthNowhere are the nuances of this complex debate more apparent than in a mobile home amid the mountains rivers and forests on Montanas Flathead Indian Reservation where Rusty Whitworth lives with his wife AnitaWhitworth is a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes A laborer who has worked on ranches most of his life he said he does not mind the nameJust let them keep it he said of the team It aint hurting nobodyAnita Whitworth 62 also belongs to the confederation A mother of five who worked for years as a chemicaldependency counselor she hates the nameShe views it much the same way that many activists do They argue that the central problems ravaging native communities poverty violence and addiction can only be fixed if young people take pride in who they areHer youngest Whitworth said is a darkskinned 13yearold who attends an almost entirely nonnative school in a region long plagued by racial tensionWhen she looks at him Whitworth thinks back to the years of disparagement shes enduredShe has seen store employees follow her because they suspect she will steal something She has heard derogatory comments in restaurantsShe has also been called a RedskinI dont want to ever have my son experience anything like that she said Its time to change Its time to move onIan Shapira Emily Guskin Jonathan OConnell Aaron C Davis and Jennifer Jenkins contributed to this report

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Government secrecy is running rampant in an age where more and more people are demanding transparency Did you know that the US Government classifies over 500 million pages of documents each year Justification for the mass classification of information is apparently done for the sake of national security but as we know The dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweigh the dangers that are cited to justify them There is a very grave danger that an announced need for an increased level of security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of censorship and concealment That I do not tend to permit so long as its in my control JFK source If a scholar wanted to research political historical scientific or any other type of archival work it would prove difficult and limiting seeing that most of their governments activities are kept a secret It is truly impossible to access the factual history of their country The declassification of classified documents a small portion does not occur until decades after that information has been concealed one great example of that is the UFO phenomenon once believed to be a conspiracy theory by the masses before the substantial release of government documents showing otherwise You can read more about that and access some of those documents here Evidence is now pointing to the fact that the US Patent and Trademark Office is no different The office is supposed to legally protect the inventions of entrepreneurs and companies some of whom have developed ground breaking technology Unfortunately thats not the case as new documents obtained via the Freedom of Information Act FOIA reveal how the Patent Office has been using a secret system to withhold the approval of some applications This 50page document was obtained by Kilpatrick Towsend Stockton LLP who commonly represent major tech companies that include Apple Google and Twitter to name a few You can view that entire document HERE 1 The program delaying patent applications is called the Sensitive Application Warning System SWAS Usually when an application is submitted for a patent approval it requires a couple of examiners who work with the Patent office to go through their process of approval This process usually takes approximately 1 to 2 years but applications that are filed in SAWS must be approved from several people and can be delayed for a number of years There is no official channel to notify an applicant once their patent is placed in the system and the Patent Office has denied requests to divulge what applications are on the SAWS list source The documents also indicate areas of technology that might have a patent application placed in the SAWS program these include smartphones internetenabling systems and more This information is set to be published in an online journal called Law360 to inform the public Tech Columnist Alyssa Bereznak at Yahoo News states that most companies are fully aware of this I first came across this recent information in her article which you can view here but I felt compelled to add more information As you will see below there is more information that has surfaced prior to these documents that suggest this type of invention secrecy goes far beyond these technologies One great example out of many of delayed patent applications comes from Dr Gerald F Ross He filed a patent application for a new invention he had devised to defeat the jamming of electromagnetic transmissions at specified frequencies It was not until June 17 2014 almost 37 years later that this patent was granted 2 Invention Secrecy Is Still Going Strong As great as it is to see new information pertaining to invention secrecy come to light its also important to note as reported by the Federation of American Scientists see annotated bibliography that there were over 5000 inventions that were under secrecy orders at the end of Fiscal Year 2014 which marked the highest number of secrecy orders in effect since 1994 3 This is all thanks to an act many people are unaware of Its called the Invention Secrecy Act and it was written up in 1951 Under this act patent applications on new inventions can be subject to secrecy orders These orders can restrict their publication if government agencies believe that their disclosure would be harmful to national security 4 5 As mentioned earlier national security has become an excuse and justification for the classification of a large amount of information on a variety of topics that the public is deliberately kept in the dark about Apparently many of these projects and inventions go far above and beyond presidential knowledge It is ironic that the US should be fighting monstrously expensive wars allegedly to bring democracy to those countries when it itself can no longer claim to be called a democracy when trillions and I mean thousands of billions of dollars have been spent on projects which both congress and the commander in chief know nothing about source Paul Hellyer Former Canadian Defense Minister So what type of technology is under restriction under the Invention Secrecy Act We dont really know but a previous list from 1971 was obtained by researcher Michael Ravnitzky Most of the technology listed seems to be related to various military applications You can view that list HERE 6 As Steven Aftergood from the Federation of American Scientists reports The 1971 list indicates that patents for solar photovoltaic generators were subject to review and possible restriction if the photovoltaics were more than 20 efficient Energy conversion systems were likewise subject to review and possible restriction if they offered conversion efficiencies in excess of 7080 source Secrecy is No Secret A couple of years before the Invention Secrecy Act of 1951 the National Security Act was created As a result a number of intelligence groups and executive bodies followed None of these groups had any active congressional oversight The United States has a history of government agencies existing in secret for years The National Security Agency NSA was founded in 1952 its existence was hidden until the mid 1960s Even more secretive is the National Reconnaissance Office which was founded in 1960 but remained completely secret for 30 years Along with this secrecy is the information these agencies obtained and continue to obtain until this day Special Access Programs are another great example of secrecy From these we have unacknowledged and waived SAPs These programs do not exist publicly but they do indeed exist They are better known as deep black programs A 1997 US Senate report described them as so sensitive that they are exempt from standard reporting requirements to the Congress 7 8 We dont really hear about black budget programs or about people who have actually looked into them However the topic was discussed in 2010 by Washington Post journalists Dana Priest and William Arkin Their investigation lasted approximately two years and concluded that Americas classified world has Become so large so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs how many people it employs how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work 9 You can read more about the Black Budget in detail HERE Today it seems to be evidently clear that secrecy has lead to what Dwight Eisenhower warned us about In the council of government we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence whether sought or unsought by the military industrial complex The potential disaster of the rise of misplaced power exists and will persist We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes source What Has All This Secrecy Led To The fact that so much information is concealed from the public domain has led to a kind of breakaway civilization A term coined by Richard Dolan Someone or some groups are in the know This or these groups who have had access to information over many decades that the public hasnt is no doubt living and perceiving the world in a different way from what the masses do This has led to a world within worlds a separate civilization apart of our own who have access to knowledge that we dont Who are they What are they doing Why are they doing it What do they know You can read what Richard has to say about it here Sources

The salespeople at Ideal Health were thrilled when they heard Donald Trump would become the new face of their company The New York real estate mogul whose reality show The Apprentice made him famous licensed his name to the firm which was then rebranded as the Trump Network in 2009Oh my god people cried when they heard it was him says Jenna Knudsen who worked as a highranking saleswoman for Ideal Health at the time They cried and looked at each other and said Were going to be millionaires Knudsen and her colleagues sold customized vitamins and other health products as part of a controversial business model known as multilevel marketing in which companies pay salespeople commissions for selling products and recruiting more representativesTrump whose presidential campaign is based in part on his reputation as a businessman is well known for licensing his name to golf courses hotels clothing wine and many other products But in this case he became involved in an industry that consumer advocates had long criticized as promising financial independence to sales recruits but rarely delivering it Ideal Health had already faced complaints about its practicesTrump says he was not involved in the companys operations But statements by him and other company representatives as well as a plethora of marketing materials circulating online often gave the impression of a partnership that was certain to lift thousands of people into prosperity In fact within a few years the company fell on hard times leaving some salespeople in tough financial straits It ultimately was acquired by another firmBut when Trump joined forces with Ideal Health he was enthusiastic about its futureWhen I did The Apprentice it was a long shot This is not a long shot Trump told a Trump Network convention of at least 5000 people in Miami in 2009 his face projected onto a giant screen This is going to be something thats really amazingIts going to be our company as a group he addedSales peopleaffiliated with the newly branded company also highlighted the relationship Were working on projects behind the scenes every single day with Mr Trump Kim Stone who was one of the highestlevel sales representativesin the company says in a videothat was posted onlinein early 2010 Literally you will be able to set yourself up for the rest of your life financially speaking if you take advantage of the timing right now with this companyIn an interviewStone said many salespeople believed Trump would be more involved Initially when the owners said were all becoming Trump Network they kind of led the field to believe he was financially a part of it she said And technically it was just this branding dealTrump attorneyAlan Garten said in a statement that Trump has always been transparent about his relationship with the network Some materials such as the companys website did contain fineprint disclosuresHis role in the Trump Network was limited to licensing the Trump brand and providing motivational speeches to its members Mr Trump was never an owner of the Trump Network He also was not involved in the manufacturing or sale of any of the Trump Networks products Gartensaid To be clear Mr Trumps role in the Trump Network was clearly disclosed to everyone involved in the company and its members whether it be in the members independent contractor agreements the marketing materials or on the products themselvesInterviews with nine former salespeopleandindustry and academic experts as well as court filings Federal Trade Commission complaints and Trump Network documents and videos that remain online today tell the story of Trump leveraging his name and reputation only to leave some disappointed when imagined benefits did not materializeTrump Network is not the first Trumpaffiliated company to receive scrutiny Another of Trumps branding arrangements has become a topic in the campaign Trump University which has been sued along with Trump for promising to teach people unique ways to make money in real estate a program that would costthousands of dollars without actually delivering any effective lessonsStudents also say they were misled about the extent of Trumps involvement Trump has rejected the allegationsSome of Trump Networks salesrepresentativeswho suffered after the company ran into trouble say the lack of commitment by Trump and the Trump Networks owners let them down Knudsen who had reached one of the companys top sales ranks had thousands of people working under her and at one point was earning thousands of dollars a month ended up losing her house Her car purchased as part of the companys rewards program was repossessed in the middle of the night She said she was a single mother with no alimony and no child support and her kids were traumatizedThey changed us to the Trump Network so we thought we were his company he was invested in us But we were just an endorsement We were just paying to rent his name Knudsen said Was Trump to blame We dont know but he certainly did not do what he said He did not support us he did not make this company his baby company And somewhere between the owners and Donald Trump they devastated thousands of people And no one ever apologizedThe road to the Trump NetworkWhen he set his sights on Ideal Health in the late 2000s Trump did not hint at any qualms about the industry Im a big fan of network marketing Trump said at the Miami convention in 2009 which featured circus performers on stilts and a massive dance partyIdeal Health was started in 1997 by Scott Stanwood his brother Todd and Lou DeCaprio who had worked together in the multilevel marketing business Ideal Healths flagship product later the Trump Networks was a multivitamin tailored for customers based on a urine test It cost 13995 plus 6995 a month for the vitamins plus 9995 for additional testingevery six months Former salespeoplepraised the product saying it helped customers live healthier lives But some experts say it was of questionable valueTheres very little evidence to suggest that this test is going to provide you with clinically meaningful information or that the supplements they provide are going to make you healthy said Timothy Caulfield a public health professor at the University of Alberta and longtime analyst of alternative medicineBut most of the controversy surrounding Ideal Health and later the Trump Network stems from how these companies rewarded and recruited sales representatives Althoughmany multilevel marketing companies are legal the FTC has called some thinly disguised pyramid schemesScott Stanwood said he couldnt comment because ofconfidentiality agreements with the Trump Organization He said he was speaking on behalf of Ideal Health and the Trump Networks other ownersAs is common with the model Trump Network sales representativesmade money when they sold products and when salespeopleworking under them made purchases They werent employees so they werent guaranteed a salary And because salespeoplepaid upfront for products each month they bore a lot of the riskA Trump Network compensation plan shows that those in sales were promised big rewards for recruitment A hypothetical example presented by the company showed that salespeoplecould build levels of salespeopleunder them and would earn commissions of 100 25 or 20 each time a new recruit bought a business starter kit for 497 Extraordinary growth on Level 7 the plan says 2187 people x 20 A Lot of MoneyIn one complaint to the FTC obtained through aFreedom of Information Act request by The Washington Post one former salesrepresentativerecounted spending 188775 on starter kits and other materials They kept tricking me into believing that I will make money just by selling more products and inviting more people but the rate of return is so low the consumer who is not identified wrote In other words they are scamming and deceiving people making them believe that if they just hang in there they will make moneyGarten saidthe Trump Network did not receive any complaints from the FTCKatie Baker an attorney with the FTC said that the FTC does not reach out to companies to resolve individual complaints but merely analyzes andcompiles themWell before Trump got involved Ideal Health had faced similar questions about its business practices according to documents made public by a 2004 Freedom of Information Act request by the Minneapolis law firm Mansfield Tanick CohenSalesrepresentativessaid they paid thousands of dollars for leadership programs infomercials starter kits and other materials that they never recovered in sales One consumer said theyjoined the company expecting to make a fivefigure monthly income butinstead ended up spending 895620 on promotional materials Another claimed they were encouraged to mortgage their home for 70000 to buy shares in TV advertisingThey try to use peoples hopes and dreams to empty their wallets reads one complaintTrump was not new to multilevel marketing He already had been involved for several years with ACN Inc a company that sells phone and other services According to documents released earlier this year by his campaign in2014 and 2015 Trumpreceived135 million in fees for three speaking engagements with ACN ACN said that Trump was a paid keynote speaker at several company events as were many other industry and business experts and that he was not involved in any other facet of the businessTrump was introduced to Ideal Health in early 2008 through Dean Blechman a former chief executiveof Ideal Health and another associate according to acourt documentfrom a subsequent separation lawsuit between Blechman and Ideal HealthIdeal Health was undercapitalized Blechman said and the companywas seeking a partnership to expand its recognition So he and two other business contacts arranged a meeting with Trump at his office in Manhattan Blechman says Trump liked the idea of promoting health as well as creating jobs and income for people through direct marketingI brought the company a hundredsofmillionsofdollarrevenue opportunity Blechman said There was nobody in the world nobody not a single person in the world that was more perfect than Donald TrumpAt first Trump considered taking a stake in the company according to the court document Trumps attorneyGarten said the billionaire became involved with the Trump Network because he believed in the strength of the management team but said only a licensing agreement was ever envisioned Ultimately in March 2009 the parties settled on an agreement in which Ideal Health would license Trumps likeness and trademarks and Trump would promote its productsTrumps endorsement persuadedsome salespeople to quit their day jobs and recruit friends family and neighbors to join according to interviews and contemporary news stories The network grew to more than 20000 people from 5000 before his involvement the Boston Globe reported in 2010As many Americans were confronting the aftermath of the financial crisis and the Great Recession Trump touted the network as a salvationThe economic meltdown greed and ineptitude in the financial industry havesabotaged the dreams of millions of people Americans need a new plan he said in an introductory video They need a new dream The Trump Network wants to give millions of people renewed hope and with an exciting plan to opt out of the recessionSara Harper a former Trump Network saleswoman in San Diego said the overall message she and her colleagues received made it easy to think that Trump was a substantial part of the business A picture was painted that he was involved at a level of business decisionmaking that I dont think he really was she saidSeveral salespeople said that following in Trumps footsteps was a major attractionPeople saw the Trump Network as an opportunity to be associated with the biggest business brand in the world says Lenny Izzo a chiropractor who was one of the Trump Networks top salespeopleWith Trump coming in they hyped it up to make us believe oh its not going to take us long now were going to make money so much faster said Yvonne Zook who was a midlevel sales representativeBut over the next few years according to several of the salespeople far fewer people started showing up at the annual conferences And by late 2011 some suddenly stopped receiving their payments and beganto leave the companyGarten said many people enjoyed financial success with the network But like with any business venture you get what you put into it he saidHeadded that any problems at the Trump Network that came up were solely the result of the financial crisisOthers though suggest alternativereasons for why the company struggled including mismanagement and profligacy by the owners such as spending on anew office and flashy promotional events and an awkward fit between the Trump brandand ahealth and wellness productSome sales representativesdont criticize Trump for the businesss struggles saying he did his best in a limited relationship He did exactly what he was asked to do And I think thats why people were excited because they thought that this could be the turnaround for the company because they felt that he had the business sense said Carolyn Connolly a top saleswomanAccording to public records the Trump Networks owners Todd and Scott Stanwood and Lou DeCaprio filed for bankruptcy The trio lost the 8000squarefoot home with an infinity pool where they lived together north of BostonAroundthe end of 2011 Trumps licensing contract ended and in early 2012 the business was sold to another company Bioceutica for an undisclosed sum Trumps attorneysays those in sales who signed on withBioceutica received outstanding payments Bioceutica declined to commentIzzo says that Trump could have saved the company if he had stepped in but he didnt have good reason to do that Izzo who also went bankrupt addedCould he have approached this differently Absolutely Could he have taken less fees could he have stepped in and guided the company differently He could have but that wasnt the choiceThe myth and the reality of Donald Trumps business empireDonald Trumps first Cabinet pick is just as controversial as he is and a lot richer

Top Dems want White House to call off Part B demo The next cancer drug shortage

Posted on October 30 2016 by Dr Eowyn 12 Comments On Friday FBI Director James Comey informed Congress that the agency is reopening its criminal investigation of Hillary Clintons unsecured and illegal private email server as a result of the FBI discovering 650000 emails of Hillarys closest aide Huma Abedin on a laptop computer that Abedin shares with her nowestranged husband the disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner See Weinered FBI reopens investigation into Hillary Clintons emails Experts such as Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein say that only the discovery of something truly awful would lead the FBI to reopen its investigation at such a late date with just days to go before the election Now a major US newspaper the Chicago Tribune that endorsed libertarian candidate Gary Johnson for president is saying what needs to be said Democrats should ask Hillary Clinton to step down or risk her being elected President who begins her term of office facing a criminal investigation Note Founded in 1847 Chicago Tribune is the 8th largest newspaper by circulation in the United States Below is Chicago Tribune reporter John Kass stunning article in its entirety Democrats should ask Clinton to step aside by John Kass October 29 2016 Has America become so numb by the decades of lies and cynicism oozing from Clinton Inc that it could elect Hillary Clinton as president even after Fridays FB I announcement that it had reopened an investigation of her emails while secretary of state Well find out soon enough Its obvious the American political system is breaking down Its been crumbling for some time now and the establishment elite know it and theyre properly frightened Donald Trump the vulgarian at their gates is a symptom not a cause Hillary Clinton and husband Bill are both cause and effect FBI director James Comeys announcement about the renewed Clinton email investigation is the bombshell in the presidential campaign That he announced this so close to Election Day should tell every thinking person that what the FBI is looking at is extremely serious This cant be about pervert Anthony Weiner and his reported desire for a teenage girl But it can be about the laptop of Weiners wife Clinton aide Huma Abedin and emails between her and Hillary It comes after the FBI investigation in which Comey concluded Clinton had lied and been reckless with national secrets but said he could not recommend prosecution So what should the Democrats do now If ruling Democrats hold themselves to the high moral standards they impose on the people they govern they would follow a simple process They would demand that Mrs Clinton step down immediately and let her vice presidential nominee Sen Tim Kaine of Virginia stand in her place Democrats should say honestly that with a new criminal investigation going on into events around her homebrew email server from the time she was secretary of state having Clinton anywhere near the White House is just not a good idea Since Oct 7 WikiLeaks has released 35000 emails hacked from Clinton campaign boss John Podesta release another 15000 emails What if she is elected Think of a nation suffering a bad economy and continuing chaos in the Middle East and now also facing a criminal investigation of a president Add to that congressional investigations and a public vision of Clinton as a Nixonian figure wandering the halls wringing her hands The best thing would be for Democrats to ask her to step down now It would be the most responsible thing to do if the nation were more important to them than power And the American news media fairly or not firmly identified in the public mind as Mrs Clintons political action committee should begin demanding it But what will Hillary do Shell stick and ride this out and turn her anger toward Comey For Hillary and Bill Clinton it has always been about power about the Clinton Restoration and protecting fortunes already made by selling nothing but political influence Shell remind the nation that shes a woman and that Donald Trump said terrible things about women If there is another notorious Trump video to be leaked the Clintons should probably leak it now Then her allies in media can talk about misogyny and sexual politics and the headlines can be all about Trump as the boor he is and Hillary as champion of female victims which she has never been Remember that Bill Clinton leveraged the Year of the Woman Then he preyed on women in the White House and Hillary protected him But the political left most particularly the women of the left defended him because he promised to protect abortion rights and their other agendas If you take a step back from tribal politics youll see that Mrs Clinton has clearly disqualified herself from ever coming near classified information again If she were a young person straight out of grad school hoping to land a government job Hillary Clinton would be laughed out of Washington with her record Shed never be hired As secretary of state she kept classified documents on the homebrew server in her basement which is against the law She lied about it to the American people She couldnt remember details dozens of times when questioned by the FBI Her aides destroyed evidence by BleachBit and hammers Her husband Bill met secretly on an airport tarmac with Attorney General Loretta Lynch for about a halfhour and all they said they talked about was golf and the grandkids And there was no prosecution of Hillary That isnt merely wrong and unethical It is poisonous And during this presidential campaign Americans were confronted with a twotiered system of federal justice one for standards for the Clintons and one for the peasants Ive always figured that as secretary of state Clinton kept her homebrew email server from which foreign intelligence agencies could hack top secret information so she could shield the influence peddling that helped make the Clintons several fortunes The Clintons werent skilled merchants They werent traders or manufacturers The Clintons never produced anything tangible They had no science patents or devices to make them millions upon millions of dollars All they had to sell really was influence And they used our federal government to leverage it If a presidential election is as much about the people as it is about the candidates then well learn plenty about ourselves in the coming days wont we John Kass concluded his article with the observation that a presidential election is as much about the people as it is about the candidates So what do the comments from some of the readers of Kass article say about the people and this country Below is a sample MerryPrankster Real journalists should ask John Kass to step aside millekj61 Do you actually think before you write There are 9 days to go before the election who do you suggest they substitute for her pagewerks Did you even do the slightest research The email scandal youre panting over is nonexistent and apparently has to do with another investigation But dont let that stop you from making a damn fool of yourself MChicago99 What is unfathomable about this column and the comments is how disconnected from reality and truth it and the comments are There has been no reopening of the investigation THE emails in question are probably all duplicates of emails the FBI has already examined The FBI did not find anything illegal in Clintons use of the personal server Just a desperate ploy to throw last minute obstacles into the election process Wavo I believe it is time for you to retire from your establishment job at the Tribune John Your shtick is tiresome and inflammatory Maybe you should consider a second act over at Breitbartthey and their readers seem to love your work larrywesbsite You Trumpites actually want national socialism under a national socialist leader who will ride roughshod over the Constitution seeking what you think are simple fast answers to complex difficult questions and problems Maybe you will learn or just blame Trump and move on to the next demagogue All of us will pay the cost for your mistakes dsm606 Sorry angry old white man Im still not voting for Trump Nice try though Jim Kaestner I am tired of tribune columnists telling me how to vote who to support Go tell Trump to quit he has admitted to sexual assault bluedemondan Excuse me you sure this isnt The Onion I usually confuse The Onion with the Tribs editorials JNAlbukerk Kass have you no shame sir Convicting someone with no evidence Clinton is the most vetted and experienced candidate in history Until you have evidence otherwise it is you who should step aside as you have abused the power your employment has granted you You can reach reporter John Kass by email or by Twitter TwitterJohnKass Eowyn

With just four days left until election day many Americans are still perplexed Who should the people cast their vote for on November 8 2016 has brought a variety of topics to the surface for both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump However Americans seem to miss a lot of information from both parties during the debates and rallies Each person is preoccupied with defending themselves or offending the other Believe it or not during all the drama there are clear proposals from both Clinton and Trump on several concernsA Few Prominent Proposals Education When it comes to higher education Clinton and Trump cannot be more opposites Clinton introduced the New College Compact This would allow students entering a fouryear college within their state not have to borrow money for tuition books and feesTrump has opposed the New College Compact and claims he would fight any proposal for debtfree public higher educationTaxes However both do see eye to eye on many tax related problems Clinton and Trump promised the working middleclass Americans a massive tax reduction Also they both ensure that the wealthy will pay their fair share in taxesGun Control Another area that Clinton and Trump agree upon is gun control This may come as a surprise for many yet the similarities cannot be ignored They both want to keep guns out of the hands of violent criminals and the severely mentally ill They also want to expand background checks Trump goes as far as suggesting that we empower all lawabiding gun owners to defend themselves because the police cannot be everywhere all the time With either candidate all gun owners rightfully able to bear arms will be entitled to do so noone is threatening to disarm anyoneImmigration This is one of the most talked about topics among the presidential nominees Within the first 100 days of office Clinton says she will set forth a plan that will treat people with respect fix the family visa backlog end the three and tenyear bars and protect American bordersTrump claims he will have Mexico pay for a wall on the Southern borders and end the catch and release process Trump also explained that he will deport illegal immigrants who have committed a crime in one dayBy going to each of the candidates website people can see a complete copy of their goals as president of the United States Determining which nominee would be a better fit as the commander in chief is an opinion based on how much or how little voters relate to each candidates ideasUnfortunately getting acquainted with Clinton and Trumps prospective plans is not an easy task There has been chaos from the very beginning with these campaigns There has never been a dull moment that is for sure However now is the time to become serious and to remember that the world is watchingBy Amy WeinsEdited by Jeanette SmithSourcesNASFAA 2016 Presidential Candidates Higher Education ProposalsHillary Clintoncom A Fair Tax System Gun Violence Prevention Immigration ReformDonald Trumpcom Tax Plan Second Amendment Rights ImmigrationFeatured Image Courtesy of Steven Bevacquas Flickr Page Creative Commons LicenseTop Image Courtesy of Matt Wades Flickr Page Creative Commons License clinton hillary presidential election Trump

Hillary Clinton launchedher harshest attacks yet on Bernie Sanders during their debate Thursday night in Milwaukee in a clear attempt to define their differences on major issues and win over black voters but they had their most heated exchanges over campaign financing who was the stronger supporter of President Obama and who was a friend of Henry KissingerThe debate fell at a time when Sanders is trying to build his momentum after his big New Hampshire win while Clinton is trying to regain hersAs Sanders pointedly reminded her Youre not in the White House yetBut the candidates at times offered a similar message This was evident as they vociferously called for an overhaul of local police departments that they suggested are unfair to black peopleWe need fundamental police reform Sanders said adding hes sick and tired of seeing unarmed black people shot by police He likened heavily equipped police departments to occupying armiesClinton meanwhile echoed those themes joining Sanders in calling for sentencing reform while saying the countrys systemic racism goes deeper and must be addressed in education housing and the job marketWe are seeing the dark side of the remaining systemic racism that we need to root out she saidThe comments were part of each candidates revived appeal to minority voters a key voting bloc as the Democratic presidential primary heads to South CarolinaBut even as they stressed those issues differences were laid bare at the PBShosted debate in Milwaukee And Sanders came prepared to counter Clintons attacks showing a feistier side than he did at their last showdownWhen Clinton used her closing remarks to suggest Sanders was taking shots at President Obama Sanders called it a low blow and countered One of us ran against Barack Obama I was not that candidateHe even underscored his critique of Clintons foreign policy by pointing to a book where Clinton said she was mentored by former Secretary of State Henry KissingerI am proud to say that Henry Kissinger is not my friend Sanders said calling him one of the most destructive American diplomatsClinton fired back that we have yet to know who Sanders listens to on foreign policyThe two also clashed sharply over Sanders highcost biggovernment plansWe are not England We are not France Clinton saidClinton accused Sanders of pushing programs that would grow the federal government by 40 percent She suggested his health care promises cannot be kept and will be far more costly than he admitsWe should level with the American people she saidShe also said Sanders plans would upend ObamaCare though Sanders said he would not dismantle itThat is absolutely inaccurate he said when she claimed his plans would leave many people worse offIn my view health care is a right of all people and I will fight for that Sanders said adding it would take courageClinton also criticized Sanders for voting against a 2007 immigration reform bill backed by the late Sen Ted KennedySanders explained that the bill had a guestworker program that progressive groups opposedI think Ted Kennedy had a very clear idea of what needed to be done Clinton saidYet the candidates agreed in their joint criticism of the Obama administrations recent deportation raidsSanders meanwhile once again hammered Clinton for her Wall Street ties suggesting the financial sectors big donations are meant to buy influenceLets not insult the intelligence of the American people People arent dumb Sanders said Why in Gods name does Wall Street make huge campaign contributions I guess just for the fun of itThey sparred on the issue as Sanders touted the fact hes the only candidate up here who has no super PAC supporting him A super PAC backing Clinton he said recently raised 15 million from Wall StreetClinton countered by noting that Obama took Wall Street donations too but when it mattered he stood up and took on Wall StreetLets not in any way imply here that either President Obama or myself would in any way not take on any vested interest she said calling for more regulation of the financial sectorThe showdown comes as Clinton tries to reset the race which heads next to Nevada and South Carolina Her narrow victory in Iowa and resounding defeat in New Hampshire have raised fresh questions about her candidacy which at one point was seen as a sure thing for the Democratic nominationPublicly the Clinton campaign is voicing confidence The campaign has been refocusing on the battle to lock down minority voter support asserting that with their help the former secretary of state can easily make gains against Sanders But Sanders is at the same time making a bid to expand his own support beyond rural white voters who largely decide Iowa and New HampshireWhile the Clinton campaign is banking on minority voters as it heads into South Carolina and other delegaterich states down the primary calendar Tuesdays contest exposed serious problems for her She lost in New Hampshire across almost every demographic including womenOverall she lost to Sanders by more than 20 points

Country Saudi Arabia In Seth Ferris NEO article on Yemen back in April it was suggested that the only reason the US suddenly withdrew from Yemen after staying there through thick and thin was because the US had only taken over the country to supply arms to terrorists Now it is back its warships are patrolling the coast so that it can maintain a military presence in another form having yet to be embarrassed by the stolen military files which Ferris claims will prove his case It is these warships which are being attacked by the Houthis These are the people the US claims looted those millions of dollars of weapons which mysteriously vanished So anything can be blamed on them because they are covered by a previous official story However no one has yet provided a clear link between these attacks and the rebels Remains of American munitions have been found but these were not necessarily looted ones Nor were they found near the warships most conveniently they were found like discarded foreign passports in the rubble of factories hospitals bridges and power stations attacked by the Saudi Arabialed coalition not the rebels This stunt is so blatant that even the New York Times is prepared to report it We remember that earlier this year the US military launched cruise missiles at radar sites along Yemens Red Sea coast after its ships were supposedly targeted by missiles fired from rebelcontrolled areas Therefore the justification for making more cruise missile attacks is simply sending warships to the coast during a time of conflict Apparently the last cruise missile attacks didnt work because the rebels are still shooting despite the deadly effect of cruise missiles highlighted so effectively by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament during its various waves of mass support This suggests that neither the attacks on the warships or the US response were real yet more false flags in support of failed US regional policy and the election campaign for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton This whole story looks too bad to be true Looted weapons which no one saw being looted convenient enemies an ongoing conflict the next president has no choice but to support the military in Yemen is currently able to provide it all without the long discussions which would take place if the same was happening in more debated hotspots like Syria Iraq or Afghanistan These attacks suit too many of the wrong people to be taken seriously unless you happen to be Yemeni but as ever the people the US claims to be doing these things for are the least important part of the equation Blame it on Iran The USS Mason a destroyer of the US 6th fleet allegedly came under attack by the Houthis not once not twice but three times within days The US has struck back by targeting and destroying radar sites in Houthi territory if reports are to be believed The missiles used against US warships are claimed to be Iranian Zafzlal III models Of course they are the US public and politicians are used to denouncing Iran as they have been brought up to take that as a default position If the word Iran is associated with something controversial like the gas heater that supposedly killed the former Georgian PM during the George W Bush presidency that is supposed to explain it all Particularly when we understand that Alarabiya is a proSaudi site with a long history of trying to implicate Iran in everything Older heads can recall the Gulf of Tonkin Incident in 1964 in which two attacks were allegedly made on a US destroyer by a North Vietnamese patrol boat The second never happened and the first was misreported as an attack by the Vietnamese boats in whose territorial waters the destroyer was trespassing whereas in fact the US fired first These false attacks led to President Johnson being given the legal justification to launch open warfare against North Vietnam This famously led to crowds following him everywhere chanting LBJ LBJ how many kids did you kill today Gulf of Tonkin showed how is easy it is for a US president who presses the right verbal buttons to manufacture consent for his actions The Houthis are a littleknown and little understood force and can thus be presented in any way the US State Department wants All the vast majority of Americans are aware of is that they are Muslim separatists who are on the other side to the US but that makes them a fair target as they are trying to destroy the American way of life democracy and human rights Perhaps Yemenis dont aspire to the American way of life even if they want the commercial benefits But the US has to believe that everyone does to explain it own success which would be a far more difficult process than assuming it is the product of some moral superiority Shackingup of convenience Saudi Arabia needs US support in Yemen because its adventures there have put the Saudi state itself at risk The Yemen war has deeply damaged the Saudis exposing the incompetence of both the military and the House of Saudto the point that there is a risk it will cause a civil insurrection which will split the country in two The eastern half where Mecca and Medina are wants to break away as its inhabitants are from a completely separate tribal grouping to those of the eastern half where the gilded rulers live The US took advantage of that situation to enter Yemen and make it the regional dirty tricks capital It is not going to leave until it has found another as we saw when it stayed in Georgia with a president it was happy to get rid of until it could start moving its operations to Ukraine using the same individuals The US still has a free hand in Yemen because the Saudis dont have any other friends apart from Bahrain Qatar and Dubai which are also run by despotic dynasties Troops from those nations have fought alongside the Saudis in Yemen but have been no more effective than the Saudi troops being nothing more than fodder for the Houthis cannons So the US has no reason to leave which is what made its sudden withdrawal after those documents were stolen all the more suspicious But the US still has to manufacture consent not only to stay there but justify its previous actions to its own public If they were undertaken as part of a friendly intervention this would be one thing If US ships are attacked by Iranian weapons this transforms the opponent into a known enemy and forces the US to intervene as a combatant in its own right It also deflects any attention from how we got to this point which can be excoriating as Tony Blair has recently found to his cost This desire also explains recent independent Saudi actions towards Iran A senior Iranian military official has recently accused Israel and Saudi Arabia of collaborating on a plot to stir insurrection within the Islamic Republic We have thorough intelligence that Al Saud in collusion with the Zionist regime is hatching plots against our country Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari was quoted by Irans Press TV as saying Calm before the storm Saudi Arabias major foreign policy decisions are often based on a general consensus among a number of senior princes The operation in Yemen is no exception and had the former King Abdullah still been alive he would have most likely chosen exactly the same response to the current situation Saudi Arabias goal is to reinstate the nowdeposed President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi However Saudi troops have suffered major problems with various attempts to invade Yemen and they know that any occupation is out of the question without the help of an outside power such as the US military Supply lines are stretched too thin and are subject to attacks as Houthi know how to fight a guerilla war under the harshest of conditions and have successfully dealt with their neighbour for the last 80 years Some claim that Saudi Arabia wants to sort things out with Yemen comehellorhigh water in order to be able to have a greater impact at regional level It hopes to weigh in on conflicts elsewhere in the MENA Middle East and North African countries However to do this it needs political stability and the reverses in Yemen have put that in question Any longterm occupation of the country would come at too high a cost for the Saudis financially politically and in terms of human lives Attention also needs to be diverted from the 28 pages of the 911 report that basically implicates the Saudi leadership in a terrorist attack on the American homeland and the involvement of Saudi intelligence in Syria and Northern Iraq where it has provided material support to known terrorists groups The US knows it will stay in Yemen for as long as the Saudi monarchy is in danger of collapse as the political systems of countries which lose wars often do The worst of a bad job In Johnsons time the US was expected to act unilaterally Now it acts in partnership with other nations to cover its illegal acts as if acting purely in response to their concerns as a strategic partner not from selfish motives of its own Any temporary lull in such interventions provides an opportunity for all sides to lick their wounds and prepare for the next stage in the fighting or allows the PR machine to catch up with the game plan on the ground especially in an election year But the Saudis have violated all ceasefires to date and will likely try to continue doing the same now and into the future As reported by the NYT millions have been forced from their homes and since August the government has been unable to pay the salaries of most of the 12 million civil servants Now that the Clinton influence peddling scheme has been exposed in the wake of the US presidential elections Saudi donations will dry up as will their blank check to get away with murder The Saudis will have fewer wellconnected friends in the US State Department But this is unlikely to prevent any further adventures in Yemen on the contrary the Saudis will need them all the more to prevent further embarrassments within the US while the US military needs them to prevent its own embarrassment Donald Trump has said several times that he doesnt agree with the US spending all this money on all these foreign wars Not only was a rampingup of the Yemen conflict an attempt to support Clinton it was an attempt to force Trump to support the military ad the general policy of fighting all these wars should he be elected Now that has happened does anyone expect the military to just go home with so many bases still in place and so many arms deals still being serviced Trump cant stop these things on his sayso and is too much of a businessman to try and take on the whole capital structure of the US The selling point of remaining in Yemen may well be that it reduces the Iranian direct involvement in protecting Assad and draws attention away from the movement of terrorist proxy fighters from Iraq back into Syria proper It is much easier for Trump to continue demonising Iran as a Muslim nation than to stop this movement But once this step is taken a precedent for this administration will have been set Trump will either have to take on his military continually or find ways of justifying it and Yemen although not of Trumps making gives him every excuse to do the latter whilst still pretending to follow his campaign policy Henry Kamens columnist expert on Central Asia and Caucasus exclusively for the online magazine New Eastern Outlook Popular Articles

Posted on October 31 2016 by Michael Collins FBI Director James Comey Wikimedia FBI Director James Comeys letter to Congress on new evidence in the Clinton email scandal represents interference in the presidential campaign commensurate with his failure to indict candidate Hillary Clinton for crimes greater than those committed by citizens that are now serving time His actions are a paradigm for the dysfunctional and dangerous state of the political system in the United States UPDATE Two former Republican Attorneys General harshly criticized FBI Director James Comey for his letter to Congress on the Hillary Clinton email affair Michael Collins 542 EDT Mukasey blasts Comey and attorney general over Clinton email case Louis Nelson 103116 0716 AM EDT Director Comeys letter to Congress of October 28 about emails that appear to be pertinent in the Clinton investigation was a deliberate premeditated action that will harm Democratic candidate Hillary Clintons chances in the presidential election His letter may have an even greater impact on Democratic Party downballot candidates in Senate and House races and as a result influence the post election balance of power in Congress There is no question that Comey knew that his actions would have significant political impact just days before the election The fact that he defied established procedures of the Justice Department and instructions from superiors shows the intentional nature of his acts Comeys abuse of power and illegal interference in the election is another major marker on the road to the total evisceration of constitutional rights and protection begun in earnest with the Patriot Act of 2001 His actions should be judged as a blatantly illegal act by one of the nations most powerful law enforcement officials It doesnt matter if you support Clinton Trump Johnson or Stein Allowing the FBI to get away with this outrageous attempt to influence elections kills any hope of finally achieving the goal of an open political process and fair elections Comeys Profound Insincerity The Department of Justice has established policies for handling legal matters that may impact an election Former Attorneys General Janet Reno and Eric Holder outlined policies stating that the Justice Department should avoid prosecutions or other actions close to elections that might influence those elections Attorney General Loretta Lynch made this point to Comey Despite reports that FBI agents had not been able to review any of the material because the bureau had not yet gotten a search warrant to read them Comey somehow deduced that the emails might be significant He took the unusual step of informing Congress about the emails he had yet to examine Former Assistant United States Attorney Nick Ackerman argued Director Comey acted totally inappropriately He had no business writing to Congress about supposed new emails that neither he nor anyone in the FBI has ever reviewed Does Director Comey think we are idiots Clearly he went out of his way to influence the election in a conspicuous fashion There can be no doubt about this assertion After some significant blowback from former Justice officials Comey felt compelled to write an explanatory memo to FBI employees He said I also think it would be misleading to the American people were we not to supplement the record of the original email investigation At the same time however given that we dont know the significance of this newly discovered collection of emails I dont want to create a misleading impression In trying to strike that balance in a brief letter and in the middle of an election season there is significant risk of being misunderstood but I wanted you to hear directly from me about it James Comey memo to FBI employees Washington Post Oct 28 2016 This passage from his letter is an admission that Comey knew his actions would influence the election Before knowing the significance of this newly discovered collection of emails he released an update to Congress that could easily be interpreted as an indication that there was a significant development in the Clinton case Why else would he write the letter Comey told FBI employees I dont want to create a misleading impression If Comey wanted to avoid a misleading impression he might have told the truth if he insisted on writing a memo to Congress Based on what we know now he should have said There are some emails on the computer belonging to a close Clinton aid No one at FBI has seen the emails We dont even have a warrant to download them These emails might or might not be important enough to warrant reopening the investigation The fact that Comey failed to tell the truth about the status of the emails proves his ill intent toward the Clinton campaign Comeys Violation of Law The 1939 Hatch Act bars Federal employees from a broad range of political activities Richard Painter a former lawyer in the Bush White House Counsels office filed a formal complaint against FBI Director Comey for violating that act He argued I believe that the Hatch Act and ethics rules are violated if it is obvious that the officials actions Comeys could influence the election there is not another good reason for taking those actions and the official is acting under pressure from persons who obviously want to influence the election Comeys actions will clearly influence the elections There was no good reason to release the memo on evidence not yet reviewed or analyzed And Comey admits that he acted under pressure from critics in Congress Republicans who obviously want to influence the election In addition Painter cited another law on the use of public office for private gain Painter refers to the following section of the United States Code 2635702 Use of public office for private gain An employee shall not use his public office for his own private gain for the endorsement of any product service or enterprise Comeys actions have the direct effect of endorsing the Trump campaign enterprise Trump has insisted again and again that the email case be reopened Comey reopened it on the flimsiest of grounds The net effect of his actions props up the Trump campaign just when it looked like the enterprise was finished Comeys Reports to Comeys actions serve the Trump campaign and its donors It wasnt an easy form of service by the FBI Director Comey had to ignore established policies common sense his superior the Attorney General and the Hatch Act in order to send his very high impact letter Will it be worth it If Comey acted on his own without any outside inducements or threats we should all pause and say a short prayer for him In that scenario he is an utter fool playing in a league way above his skill set and doing great and memorable damage to the political process But Comey is no fool I wrote favorably about his willingness to stand up to the Bush White House in 2007 Comeys Evidence of a Crime Then he seemed to have a quality not often seen in government or corporate environments a willingness to stand up to the boss That may have been true at the time Today however Comey seems unable to decide who his boss is He clearly caved in to the administration and the Clinton interests when he failed to indict Hillary Clinton for even a misdemeanor for her many violations of national security policies Now hes caving into the interests of the Republicans and the repellant Trump campaign The key question is who got to Comey and how We know that both Clinton and Trump are unfit for the presidency or any other elected or appointed office in the United States However we need to know who has the type of power and force to make the FBI Director behave like a fool

One week before the first votes of the 2016 campaign are cast Donald Trump has solidified his standing nationally according to a new Washington PostABC News poll Republicans see Trump as the strongest candidate on major issues and by far the most electable in the large field of GOP hopefulsThe Republican electorate is in a sour mood as its members prepare to begin the process of picking a presidential nominee Almost 9 in 10 say the country is seriously off on the wrong track and more than 8 in 10 are dissatisfied with the way the federal government works including nearly 4 in 10 who say theyre angry about itTwothirds worry about maintaining their current living standard more than 6 in 10 say people with similar values are losing influence in American life and about half say the nations best days are behind it Half also say immigrants mainly weaken American society compared with 55percent of the overall population who say immigrants strengthen AmericaAmid this political climate Trump has maintained his place atop the Republican field for six months He now receives the support of 37percent of registered Republicans and Republicanleaning independents almost identical to the 38percent support he enjoyed a month agoSen Ted Cruz of Texas runs second in the national survey with 21percent surpassing his previous high of 15percent in December Third place belongs to Sen Marco Rubio of Florida at 11percent virtually unchanged from 12percent a month agoRounding out the field are retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson at 7percent former Florida governor Jeb Bush at 5percent New Jersey Gov Chris Christie at 4percent businesswoman Carly Fiorina at 3percent former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and Ohio Gov John Kasich at 2percent each and Sen Rand Paul of Kentucky at 1percent Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum registered less than 1percentWhen first and second choices are combined Trump is named by 49percent Cruz by 39percent and Rubio by 32percent well ahead of the othersAt this point in presidential campaigns as the primary season is beginning candidates support can be tenuous and shift quickly in response to the first statelevel contests Results in Iowa which holds its caucuses Monday and in New Hampshire which votes eight days later often scramble national numbers Trump enters this crucial phase strong nationally but it isnt clear what a loss in Iowa would do to his supportBut The PostABC survey offers some clues Trumps supporters appear more committed to him than do people backing other candidates A majority 57percent of Trump supporters say they will definitely vote for him For all the other candidates combined 34percent are as firmly committed while nearly twothirds say they could change their mindsTrumps committed support exceeds what the previous Republican nominee received before the Iowa caucuses four years ago 36percent of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romneys supporters said then that they would definitely support his candidacyThe poll also finds no sign that Trumps support wavers among the Republicans who are most likely to attend primaries and caucuses which are typically lowturnout contests Trumps 16point advantage among all registered Republican voters is similar to his lead among Republicans who say they are certain to vote report voting in 2012 Republican contests or are following the race very closelyAlthough there was resistance to his candidacy at the beginning Trump now is broadly acceptable to GOP voters About 2 in 3 Republicans say they would find him acceptable as their nominee a percentage almost identical to Cruzs and Rubios Rubio is seen as the least unacceptable followed by Cruz Carson and then Trump Only about half of Republicans say Christie and Bush are acceptable and Bush has the highest unacceptable percentage at 45That fluidity underneath Trump is the other story of the Republican race to date One after another candidate has been seen as surging in Iowa or New Hampshire Cruz surged into a narrow lead in Iowa and then got into a fight with Trump after which Trump has regained a small advantageCruz Christie and Kasich have claimed some momentum in New Hampshire Rubio is seeking a clear thirdplace finish in Iowa and a strong finish in New Hampshire to use as springboards into the later contests But whether Republicans are heading for a threeperson race or a twoperson race wont be clear until the results are in from the first four statesThe new PostABC survey suggests that a sizable majority of Republicans believe that whatever happens in those early states Trump will emerge with the nomination a dramatic shift from when he first entered the race in June to mixed reviews and overcame widespread unfavorable impressions among GOP voters before his campaign launched Today more than 6 in 10 Republicans say Trump is most likely to win the nomination up from 4 in 10 in the late fallTrump leads among nearly all demographic groups including a narrow advantage among white evangelical Christians a key target of the Cruz campaign Trumps strongest support comes from those with incomes below 50000 Previous surveys showed Trump with significantly more support among those lacking a college degree compared with those who have graduated from college The new survey finds no significant differenceThe reality TV star scores best among those who are most dissatisfied with government and the countrys direction and with those who say they prefer someone from outside the political system rather than a candidate with political experience Overall a bare majority of Republicans say they are looking for an outsider while just over 4 in 10 who want someone with experience in politicsOn a wide range of issues and candidate attributes Trump dominates his rivals Majorities of Republicans say he has the best chance of getting elected president and is most likely to bring needed change to Washington More than a third say he is closest to them on issues He and Carson are seen as the most honest of the GOP candidates while Trump and Cruz are seen as having the best personality and temperament to serve as presidentHalf or more of all Republicans name Trump as the candidate best able to handle the economy and regulate the banks More than 4 in 10 say he would be the best to handle immigration and the threat of terrorismTrump is seen by about 3 in 10 as the most capable of the GOP candidates to handle a major international crisis Cruz is second named by almost a quarter of RepublicansRepublicans are bullish about their chances of winning in November Three in 4 say Trump would defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton while just over 6 in 10 say Cruz or Rubio would defeat the former secretary of state Republicans are even more optimistic about winning a general election against Sen Bernie Sanders of VermontAmong the broader public however Clinton is seen as a favorite to defeat Trump Cruz or Rubio She is perceived as having a better chance of winning than would SandersTrump won the endorsement of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin last week but her support appears to be mostly a nonfactor in the race About 8 in 10 of the Republican respondents in the poll said it makes no difference and the rest split evenly on whether it makes them more or less likely to back Trump Overall 56percent of Republicans have a favorable impression of PalinThe PostABC poll was conducted Jan 2124 among a random national sample of 1001 adults reached on landline and cellular phones The margin of sampling error for overall results is plus or minus 35 percentage points the error margin is 55 percentage points among the sample of 356 Republican and Republicanleaning registered voters

Decembers job growth numbers are in and they make it official 2015 was the secondstrongest year for job growth since the 1990s and only slightly behind the big gains of 2014 Unemployment fell in 2015 from an already low 56 percent at the end of 2014 to 5 percent in December 2015 Wages grew 25 percent during 2015 which isnt a huge number but looks more impressive when you remember that inflation was close to zero for the yearSo what accounts for the second straight year of strong economic results The US economy is a complex system so it would be a mistake to point to any single factor as driving economic growth and job creation No one fully understands how and why economies grow And to some extent you could look at 2015s solid but not spectacular performance as the kind of thing that happens when theres nothing holding the economy backBut we can also identify several specific factors that positively influenced economic growth in 2015Shortterm interest rates fell to zero percent in 2008 and the Federal Reserve kept them there until December 2015 Lower interest rates tend to promote economic growth and job creation Some people believe the Fed should have done even more earlier in the recession the Fed ran a series of quantitative easing programs to pump even more money into the economy which it phased out in 2014 but theres little doubt that the Feds decision to keep interest rates near zero percent for most of the year promoted faster job growth than an earlier interest rate hike would have doneIn December the Federal Reserve raised its target interest rate by 025 percent and signaled that it may increase rates further in 2016 That may create a drag on the economy this yearOil prices were high around 100 per barrel from 2011 until mid2014 But then prices started to fall and they havent stopped since They were around 50 per barrel when 2015 began and theyve now fallen below 35 per barrelEnergy is an important input to lots of different products and services so cheaper oil and other fossil fuels like natural gas meant that everyone not associated with the oil industry had a bit of extra cash in their pockets in 2015Its hard to say exactly where that extra cash went at least some of it went to boost peoples savings and pay down debt but consumers also spent some of it on other stuff That provided a nice economic tailwind throughout 2015Since the Great Recession state and local governments have been tightening their belts Early in the recession this added to the magnitude of job losses later it partially offset job gains in the private sectorBut as this data from the Brookings Institution shows things started to change in mid2014 After years of shedding employees state and local governments started hiring againOverall Brookings estimates that federal state and local government spending and tax policies exerted a modestly positive effect on the growth of gross domestic product thats after four years of spending cuts and tax hikes that Brookings argues imposed a net fiscal drag on economic growth

by Yves Smith Yves here Its hardly a secret that the Clintons are deeply loyal to Wall Street Bob Rubin and his numerous wellheeled followers are a powerful arguably dominant faction in the Democratic party and they are tightly aligned with the Clintons Nomi Prins gives a useful overview of how Hillary has attempted to blame the financial crisis on everything but the deregulation that her husband supported and the reckless behavior that resulted and how her antibank noises like her criticism of Wells Fargo is tepid and late in coming However I quibble with some of her article Its surprising to see her single out Gary Gensler former head of the CFTC as a bank crony Gensler is widely seen as pushing for much tougher oversight and enforcement despite being in the disadvantaged position of being at a secondary regulator Recall that he was up against Bernanke and Geithner a weak Mary Shapiro at the SEC and an indifferenttocaptured Obama at the helm Its also surprising to see Prins fail to mention the cronies rumored to be Clintons top picks for Treasury Secretary Larry Fink of BlackRock and Tony James of Blackstone Both firms would profit ginormously if the Wall Street looting plan that Hillary supports and James is promoting that of having all workers pay 3 of their pay into mandatory retirement accounts were to become law As weve indicated the cost of this fix is greater than any of the ideas proposed to shore up Social Security as opposed to cut it by stealth I hate to say it but I believe Prins failure to flag this risk is due to her still hewing to orthodox financial views and thus believing that Federal deficits are a problem as opposed to desirable most of the time and regarding senior members of the asset management heavyweights as less dangerous than executives of TBTF banks Since even the modest reregulation that has taken place since the crisis has increased shadow banking and firms like Blackrock and Blackstone are major players it would be naive to depict them as problemfree and disinterested By Nomi Prins a former Wall Street executive and the author of six books of which the most recent is All the Presidents Bankers The Hidden Alliances That Drive American Power Nation Books Originally published at TomDispatch As this endless election limps toward its last days while spiraling into a bizarre duel over voterigging accusations a deep sigh is undoubtedly in order The entire process has been an emotionally draining frustrationinducing rageinflaming spectacle of repellent form over shallow substance For many the third debate evoked fatigue More worrying there was again no discussion of how to prevent another financial crisis an ominous possibility in the next presidency whether Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton enters the Oval Office given that nothing fundamental has been altered when it comes to Wall Streets practices and predation At the heart of American political consciousness right now lies a soulcrushing reality for millions of distraught Americans the choices for president couldnt be feebler or more disappointing On the one hand we have a petulant vocabularychallenged manboar of a billionaire who hasnt paid his taxes has regularly left those supporting him holding the bag and seems like a ludicrous composite of every bad trait in every bad date any woman has ever had On the other hand were offered a walking photoop for and wellpaid speechmaker to WallStreet CEOs a onewoman moneyraising machine from the 1 of the 1 who despite a folksiness that couldnt look more rehearsed has methodically outplayed her opponent With less than two weeks to go before Eday despite the Trumptilian upheaval of the last year the high probability of a Clinton win means the establishment remains intact When we awaken on November 9th it will undoubtedly be dawn in Hillary Clintons America and that potentially means four years of an economic dystopia that will as would Donald Trumps version of the same leave many Americans rightfully anxious about their economic futures None of the three presidential debates suggested that either candidate would have the ability or desire to confront Wall Street from the Oval Office In the second and third debates in case you missed them Hillary didnt even mention the GlassSteagall Act too big to fail or Wall Street While in the first debate the subject of Wall Street only came up after she disparaged the tax policies of Trumpedup trickle down economics or as I like to call it the Trumpledown economics of giving tax and financial benefits to the rich and to corporations In this election Hillary has crafted her talking points regarding the causes of the last financial crisis as weapons against Trump but they hardly begin to tell the real story of what happened to the American economy The meltdown of 20072008 was not mainly due to tax policies that slashed taxes on the wealthy or a failure to invest in the middle class two subjects she has repeatedly highlighted to slam the Republicans and their candidate It was a byproduct of the destruction of the regulations that opened the way for a toobigtofail framework to thrive Under the presidency of Bill Clinton GlassSteagall the Depressionera act that once separated peoples bank deposits and loans from any kind of risky bets or other similar actions in which banks might engage was repealed under the Financial Modernization Act of 1999 In addition the Commodity Futures Modernization Act was passed which allowed Wall Street to concoct devastating unregulated side bets on what became the subprime crisis Given that the people involved with those choices are still around and some are still advising or in the case of one former president living with Hillary Clinton its reasonable to imagine that in January 2017 shell launch the third term of Bill Clinton when it comes to financial policy banks and the economy Only now the stakes are even higher the banks larger and their impunity still remarkably unchallenged Consider President Obamas current treasury secretary Jack Lew It was Hillary who hit the Clinton Rolodex to bring him back to Washington Lew first entered Bill Clintons White House in 1993 as special assistant to the president Between his stints working for Clinton and Obama he made his way into the private sector and eventually to Wall Street as so many of his predecessors had done and successors would do He scored a leadership role with Citigroup during the time that Bill Clintons former Treasury Secretary and former Goldman Sachs coChairman Robert Rubin was on its board of directors In 2009 Hillary selected him to be her deputy secretary of state Lew is hardly the only example of the busy revolving door to power that led from the Clinton administration to the Obama administration via Wall Street or activities connected to it Bill Clintons Treasury Under Secretary for International Affairs Timothy Geithner worked with Robert Rubin later championed Wall Street as president and CEO of the New York Federal Reserve while Hillary was senator from New York representing Wall Street and then became Obamas first treasury secretary while Hillary was secretary of state One possible contender for treasury secretary in a new Clinton administration would be Bill Clintons Under Secretary of Domestic Finance and Obamas Commodity Futures Trading Commission chairman Gary Gensler who was Im sure you wont be shocked a Goldman Sachs partner before entering public service These then are typical inhabitants of the Clinton inner circle and of the politicalfinancial corridors of power Their thinking like Hillarys meshes well with support for the status quo in the banking system even if like her they are willing on occasion to admonish it for its mistakes This thruline of personnel in and out of Clinton World is dangerous for most of the rest of us because behind all the talking heads and genuinely amusing Saturday Night Live skits about this bizarre election lie certain crucial issues that will have to be dealt with decisions about climate change foreign wars studentloan unaffordability rising income inequality declining social mobility and yes the threat of another financial crisis And keep in mind that such a future economic meltdown isnt an absurdly longshot possibility Earlier this year the Federal Reserve the nations main bank regulator and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation the government entity that insures our bank deposits collectively noted that seven of our biggest eight banks Citigroup was the exception still have inadequate emergency plans in the event of another financial crisis Exploring a TwoFaced World Politicians regularly act one way publicly and another privately as Hillary was outed for doing by WikiLeaks via its document dump from Clinton campaign manager John Podestas hacked email account Such realities should be treated as neither shockers nor smoking guns Everybody postures Everybody lies Everybodys twofaced in certain aspects of their lives Politicians just make a career out of it Whats problematic about Hillarys public and private positions in the economic sphere at least isnt their twofacedness but how of a piece they are Yes she warned the bankers to cut it out Quit foreclosing on homes Quit engaging in these kinds of speculative behaviors but that was no demonstration of strength in relation to the big banks Her comments revealed no real understanding of their precise role in exacerbating a fixable subprime loan calamity and global financial crisis nor did her fingerwagging mean anything to Wall Street Keep in mind that during the buildup to that crisis as banks took advantage of looser regulations she collected more than 7 million from the securities and investment industry for her New York Senate runs 18 million during her career In her first Senate campaign Citigroup was her top contributor The four WallStreetbased banks JPMorgan Chase Citigroup Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley all feature among her top 10 career contributors As a senator she didnt introduce any bills aimed at reforming or regulating Wall Street During the leadup to the financial crisis of 20072008 she did introduce five out of 140 bills relating to the housing crisis but they all died before making it through a Senate committee So did a bill she sponsored to curtail corporate executive compensation Though she has publicly called for a reduction in hedgefund tax breaks known as closing the carried interest loophole including at the second debate she never signed on to the bill that would have done so one that Obama cosponsored in 2007 Perhaps her most important gesture of support for Wall Street was her vote in favor of the 700 billion 2008 bank bailout bill Bernie Sanders opposed it After her secretary of state stint she returned to the scene of banking crimes Many times As we know she was also paid exceedingly well for it Friendship with the Clintons doesnt come cheap As she said in October 2013 while speaking at a Goldman Sachs AIMS Alternative Investments Symposium running for office in our country takes a lot of money and candidates have to go out and raise it New York is probably the leading site for contributions for fundraising for candidates on both sides of the aisle Between 2013 and 2015 she gave 12 speeches to Wall Street banks private equity firms and other financial corporations reaping a whopping 2935000 for them In her 2016 presidential run the securities and investment sector aka Wall Street has contributed the most of any industry to PACs supporting Hillary 564 million Yes everybody needs to make a buck or a few million of them This is America after all but Hillary was a political figure paid by the same banks routinely getting slapped with criminal settlements by the Department of Justice In addition the Clinton Foundation counted as generous donors all four of the major Wall Streetbased megabanks She was voracious when it came to such money and tonedeaf when it came to the irony of it all GlassSteagall and Bernie Sanders One of the more illuminating aspects of the Podesta emails was a series of communications that took place in the fall of 2015 Thats when Bernie Sanders was gaining traction for among other things his calls to break up the big banks and resurrect the GlassSteagall Act of 1933 The Clinton administrations dismantling of that act in 1999 had freed the big banks to use their depositors money as collateral for risky bets in the real estate market and elsewhere and so allowed them to become ever more engorged with questionable securities On December 7 2015 with her campaign well underway and worried about the Sanders challenge the Clinton camp debuted a key Hillary oped How Id Rein in Wall Street in the New York Times This followed two months of emails and internal debate within her campaign over whether supporting the return of GlassSteagall was politically palatable for her and whether not supporting it would antagonize Senator Elizabeth Warren In the end though GlassSteagall was mentioned in passing in her oped she chose not to endorse its return She explained her decision not to do so this way and her advisers and media apostles have stuck with this explanation ever since Some have urged the return of a Depressionera rule called GlassSteagall which separated traditional banking from investment banking But many of the firms that contributed to the crash in 2008 like AIG and Lehman Brothers werent traditional banks so GlassSteagall wouldnt have limited their reckless behavior Nor would restoring GlassSteagall help contain other parts of the shadow banking sector including certain activities of hedge funds investment banks and other nonbank institutions Her entire characterization of how the 20072008 banking crisis unfolded was well wrong Heres how traditional banks like JPMorgan Chase operated they lent money to investment banks like Lehman Brothers so that they could buy more financial waste products stuffed with subprime mortgages that these traditional banks were in turn trying to sell They then backed up those toxic financial products through insurance companies like AIG which came close to collapse when what it was insuring became too toxically overwhelming to afford AIG then got a 182 billion government bailout that also had the effect of bailing out those traditional banks including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley which became traditional during the crisis In this way the whole vicious cycle started with the traditional banks that hold your deposits and at the same time could produce and sell those waste products thanks to the repeal of GlassSteagall So yes the loss of that act caused the crisis and in its wake every big traditional bank was fined for crisisrelated crimes Hillary wont push to bring back GlassSteagall Doing so would dismantle her husbands legacy and that of the men he and she appointed to public office Whatever cosmetic alterations may be in store count on that act remaining an artifact of the past since its resurrection would dismay the bankers who over the past three decades made the Clintons what they are No wonder many diehard Sanders supporters remain disillusioned and skeptical not to speak of the fact that their candidate featured dead last 39th on a list of recommended vice presidential candidates in the Podesta emails Thats unfortunately how much his agenda is likely to matter to her in the Oval Office Go Regulate Yourselves Before he resigned with his ninefigure golden parachute Wells Fargo CEO and Chairman John Stumpf addressed Congress over disclosures that 5300 of his employees had created two million fake accounts scamming 24 million from existing customers The bank was fined 185 million for that out of a total 10 billion in fines for a range of other crimes committed before and during the financial crisis In response Hillary wrote a letter to Wells Fargos customers In it she didnt actually mention Stumpf by name as she has not mentioned any Wall Street CEO by name in the context of criminal activity Instead she simply spoke of he As she put it He owes all of you a clear explanation as to how this happened under his watch She added Executives should be held individually accountable when rampant illegal activity happens on their watch She does have a plan to fine banks for being too big but theyve already been fined repeatedly for being crooked and it hasnt made them any smaller or less threatening As their top officials evidently view the matter paying up for breaking the law is just another cost of doing business Hillary also wrote If any bank cant be managed effectively it should be broken up But the question is Why doesnt ongoing criminal activity that threatens the rest of us correlate with ineffective management or put another way when was the last time you saw a major bank broken up And dont hold your breath for that to happen in a new Clinton administration either In her public letter she added Ill appoint regulators who will stand with taxpayers and consumers not with big banks and their friends in Congress On the other hand at that same Goldman Sachs symposium while in fundraising mode she gave bankers a pass relative to regulators and commented Well I represented all of you for eight years I had great relations and worked so close together after 911 to rebuild downtown and I have a lot of respect for the work you do and the people who do it She has steadfastly worked to craft explanations for the financial crisis and the Great Recession that dont endanger the banks as we presently know them In addition she has supported the idea of appointing insider regulators insisting that the people that know the industry better than anybody are the people who work in the industry Lets not forget that former Goldman Sachs CEO and Chairman Hank Paulson ran the Treasury Department while the crisis brewed Among the emails sent to John Podesta that were posted by WikiLeaks is an article I wrote for TomDispatch on the Clintons relationships with bankers She will not point fingers at her friends I said in that piece in May 2015 She will not chastise the people who pay her hundreds of thousands of dollars a pop to speak or the ones who have long shared the social circles in which she and her husband move I also suggested that she wouldnt call out any CEO by name To this day she hasnt I said that she would never be an advocate for GlassSteagall And she hasnt been What was true then will be no less true once shes in the White House and no longer has to make gestures toward the platform on which Bernie ran and so can once again more openly embrace the bankers way of conducting business Theres a reason Wall Street has a crush on her and its monarchs like Goldman Sachs CEO and Chairman Lloyd Blankfein pay her such stunning sums to offer anodyne remarks to their employees and others Blankfein has been coy about an official Clinton endorsement simply because he doesnt want to rock her campaign boat but make no mistake this Wall Street kingpins silence is tantamount to an endorsement To date 10 trillion worth of assets sits on the books of the Big Six banks Since 2008 these same banks have copped to more than 150 billion in fines for precrisis behavior that ranged on the spectrum of criminality from manipulating multiple public markets to outright fraud Hillary Clinton has arguably taken money that would not have been so available if it werent for the illgotten gains those banks secured In her usual measured way albeit with some light admonishments she has told them what they want to hear that if they behave something that in her dictionary of definitions involves little in the way of personalized pain or punishment so will she So lets recap Hillarys America past present and future Its a land lacking in meaningful structural reform of the financial system a place where the big banks have been and will continue to be coddled by the government No CEO will be jailed no matter how large the fines his bank is saddled with or how widespread the crimes it committed Instead hes likely to be invited to the inaugural ball in January Because its practices have not been adequately controlled or curtailed the inherent risk that Wall Street poses for Main Street will only grow as bankers continue to use our money to make their bets The 2010 DoddFrank Act was supposed to help on this score but has yet to make the big banks any smaller And heres an obvious corollary to all this the next bankinstigated economic catastrophe will not be dealt with until it has once again crushed the financial stability of millions of Americans The banks have voted with their dollars on all of this in multiple ways Hillary wont do anything to upset that applecart We should have no illusions about what her presidency would mean from a Wall Street vs Main Street perspective Certainly JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon doesnt He effectively endorsed Hillary before a crowd of financial industry players saying I hope the next president she reaches across the aisle For Wall Street of course that aisle is essentially illusory since its players operate so easily and effectively on both sides of it In Hillarys America Wall Street will still own Main Street 0 0 0 0 0 0

Cant say under God at Hilary speech Looking for YouTube link and sorry on my phone first post and idk how to post videos But this is completely infuriating Anonymous Coward OP Re Cant say under God at Hilary speech Uhhh yea bump and pin rn Anonymous Coward OP Re Cant say under God at Hilary speech She must be defeated at all cost in the name of Jesus almighty Page 1 Mail with questions or comments about this site Godlike Productions GLP are registered trademarks of Zero Point Ltd Godlike Website Design Copyright 1999 2015 Godlikeproductionscom Page generated in 0008s 7 queries

So if you dont trust voting machines and you have good reason not to you must demand a paper ballot As it turns out there may be some problems with paper ballots as well One Conservative mother of two in Illionois reported that she had been hearing rumors of voter fraud She talked to her friend in South Carolina and found the following Would you look at that The Democrat ticket of Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine is listed twice with Pacific GreenProgressive of Jill SteinAjamu Baraka and Libertarian Gary JohnsonBill Weld also list No Republican ticket of Donald TrumpMike Pence listed Others went online after voting only to find that their mail in ballots who listed Donald Trump as their candidate of choice were not counted supposedly because the signature on the ballot did not match the signature on the letter Fortunately these people checked and are taking action before it is too late The Clinton Foundation leftist billionaire George Soros and the Democrats have power and they have been shown to be corrupt Do not let this kind of voter fraud happen to your vote We cannot prove right now that the system is rigged but something is not right Make sure that your vote counts

Home POLITICS US NEWS 8 POINTS VANISH IN 4 DAYS 8 POINTS VANISH IN 4 DAYS 0 SHARES 102816 Donald Trump has gained on Hillary Clinton during the past week according to a new Washington PostABC News tracking poll solidifying support among core Republican groups as well as political independents Roughly 6 in 10 still expect Clinton to prevail while the poll finds shrinking concerns about the accuracy of the vote count and voter fraud in the election Clinton holds a slight 4844 percent edge over Trump among likely voters with Libertarian Gary Johnson at 4 percent and Green Party nominee Jill Stein at 1 percent in the survey completed Sunday through Wednesday Clinton held a sixpoint edge in the previous wave and a 12point edge in the first wave of the tracking poll by ABC News Sunday 50 percent Clinton vs 38 percent Trump In a twocandidate contest Clinton holds a fivepoint edge over Trump 50 to 45 percent Trumps growth in support from 38 percent to 44 percent is fueled by shoredup support among Republicanleaning voting groups as well as a significant boost among political independents Trump has made up ground among whites particularly those without college degrees and women Trump now leads by a 30 percentage point margin among white voters without college degrees up from 20 points from this weekend White women now tilt toward Trump by 48 to 43 percent after leaning 49 to 43 percent in Clintons favor before Trump saw his biggest gains among political independents favoring Trump by a 12point margin in the latest tracking poll 49 to 37 percent after giving Clinton a narrow edge in late last week Neither candidate has maintained a consistent lead among independent likely voters in PostABC polling this fall Post navigation

Just days after Donald Trump showed faint interest in building broadbased Republican support and House Speaker Paul Ryan seemed averse to his partys nomineeinwaiting the two have met and now theres talk of GOP unityWhy this about face after acouple of hours of face time in the nations capital Because Trump and Ryan are numbers guys one with real estate the other with federal budgetsAnd these numbers stand out 93 32 and 5In 2012 Mitt Romney reaped 93 percent of the GOP vote However Republicans constituted only 32 percent of the national electorateTrump doesnt win in November without a better quantitative showing And Ryan could be back in the minority should Trump lose by more than 5 percent in states with vulnerable Republican congressmanSimply put its in both Trumps and Ryans shortterm interests to be cordial at a minimum even while maintaining serious policy differences that arent going away anytime soon despite this first attempt a little dtente youll know its a bromance if the hardexercising Ryan agrees to a round of golf or Trump goes bowhunting in WisconsinDespite the hoopla surrounding this meeting it doesnt ensure Republican peace in our time as a failed British prime minister famously said Though Trump has on occasion shown signs of a willingness to alter stances most notably the mass deportation of illegal immigrants publicly acceding to a congressional agenda undermines Trumps brand of antiestablishment and antistatusquo thinking that warned him the partys nomination Just as Ryan wont publicly give up on his conservative principles most notably entitlement reform which Id guess is the closeddoor promise hes seeking from Trump in exchangefor a public endorsementThen again would you rather be Donald Trump trying to strike a deal with a practical fellow like Paul Ryan or Hillary Clinton trying to come to terms with an irascible 74yearold socialistThe more primaries he wins the more Vermont Sen Bernie Sanders buys into the notion that hes on a mission Such selfdeluded candidates dont retire from the field gracefully Good luck finding unity there And good luck getting it without having tofurther to socialist vision that work only in thoseparts of America where Whole Foods and marijuana dispensaries are plentifulWC Fields had it wrong Id rather not be in Philadelphia where the Democrats will convene for their national convention and try to settle their differencesBill Whalen is a research fellow at Stanford Universitys Hoover Institution where he analyzes California and national politics He also blogs daily on the 2016 election at wwwadayattheracesblogcom Follow him on Twitter hooverwhalen

Jury Nullification Live itLove itLearn it maidasweeney I usually get paid around 6k8k monthly on the internet So if you are prepared to finish simple at home task for some hours a day at your home and make valuable checks while doing it Then this invitation is for you httpclckruA54RG sdfghjk normagregory I currently gain roughly 6 thousand8 thousand bucks a month with an internet task i found on the internet Everyone eager to finish simple computerbased tasks for 25 h daily from your house and gain solid benefit for doing it Test this work httpkortanuNDe carmensandoval I currently make roughly six to eight thousand dollars month on the internet Anyone prepared to finish easy freelance task for few h a day from ease of your home and get solid benefit in the same time This is a work for you httpkortanuNDe barbaraaustin94 After losing my job 6 months ago I was lucky to learn about this great website that was a lifesaver They offer jobs for which people can work online from their home Last paycheck after working for them for three months was 12k Great thing about is that only requirement for the job is basic typing skills and internet access httpkortanuMDe lynnortega Earn 90 dollars each day for working online from comfort of your own home for couple of hrs daily Get regular payment every week Everything you need is a computer net connection along with a little leisure time httpkortanuNDe Vincent DEmidio This just proves that Americans are returning to the intelligence that they possessed in the Glorious 1970s Stefanovitch Which is WAY better than the witch hunts in the much more glorious Dark Ages You know When ignorance prevailed and pain and suffering were the MD solutions of the day Kind of like how people who oppose the legalization of MJ are not NEARLY so concerned about the harm bestowed on society by alcohol and prescription pharmaceuticals Vincent DEmidio During the 1970s the Archie Bunkers of society were losing and it appeared that they were beginning to accept the World as it was turning outas a Liberated society Then in 1980 after President Carters disastrous handling of the Iranian Hostage Crisis The majority voted for Reagan as President elect However unknown to many of his supporters at the time Reagan and his biblethumping fellow travelers had a different idea Not only would they be tough on a foreignpolicy level they ACTUALLY thought that they could turn back the clock on Social issues and reverse all of the advancements that were instituted during the 1960s and 70s Ronnie came to Washington and brought along his biblebanging buttbuddies and they proceeded to undo all of the progress we had made Thanks to the Democrats acting like jellyfish they reinstituted the War on the American People oops I meant the War on ahem Drugs no actually I truly meant the TRUE liberated American people In doing so they STOPPED progress in the Marijuana legalization area Thank the TRUE God the one that I pray to that the American people never really bought all of the Republicans horror stories about herb and we are finally returning to the path we were on during the 70s tom browne carter did not handle the crisis disastrously the secret govt made a deal known as the October Surprise the only way you could know that was by being there and you were not the entire country went down after the 70s as the secret govt sucked so much money out that homelessness became a fixture govts today can not afford to fix road so much money is being absconded we cant afford a govt we cant control flydon1954 Free Country but lawyers cannot even speak the words Jury Nullification in court If I remember right there is one State they can if they do the Judge will hold them in contempt Think about that a LAW on the books that THE COURT SYSTEM are withholding for Juries The system has taken the rights of the people to know that law WHY If there is a juror on a trial that knows this law they can inform the rest of the jurors of the law JURY NULLIFICATION and even though your found guilty of the crime the jury can set them free Please inform every person you know of this law post it on all your social media sites the more Americans who become aware of it the more we can go against punishments that are outrageous for the crime There are thousands and thousands in jails across the country for nothing more then using or growing their own medicine STOP THE TRYANNY Jake Seilman That her former physician flew all the way from Maine for her defense makes him a hero in my eyes Sending you a mental hug Dr Dustin Sulak Phil Freeman How does one manufacturer a plant Sirios

Sent Tuesday August 11 2015 600 PM To Kendall David Subject Hi again from AP inquiry about thumb drive Hi David We have been told and we are preparing to report that the FBI has taken possession of the thumb drive that was once in your possession This is what we have been informed and we wanted to see whether there was any sort of comment that could be provided If you wanted to steer us away and say that we are misinformed then I would gladly accept that as well But we have solid reason to believe this Wed welcome any comment you can offer Thanks very much Eric Associated Press reporter says he knows its true but will gladly print that its false Whats truly astonishing in this email is how AP reporter Eric Tucker says he will gladly LIE to cover for the Clintons In plain English he explains that he has solid reason to believe the report about the thumb drive but he will gladly publish a false narrative via the Associated Press and he even suggests what that false narrative should be If you wanted to steer us away and say that we are misinformed then I would gladly accept that as well In other words hes not just corrupt dishonest and fraudulent as a journalist hes also SUGGESTING the false narrative the Clintons should use This is the exact same way the AP talks to the CDC about vaccines and measles by the way Essentially the Associated Press reporters say We are total media whores we will bend over and grab our ankles while you shove your fake story down the throats of our readers who foolishly think were a credible news organization You gotta love Eric Tucker for this The guy takes the prize for finally spelling out in black and white what weve known for years the AP is a total joke when it comes to real journalism Note carefully that the AP wont even fire Tucker for this admission Hell probably get a prize of some sort How many other Associated Presstitutes have deliberately LIED to cover up Clinton crimes It all brings to mind the obvious question How many other Associated Presstitutes deliberately lied to cover up Clinton crimes Just what percentage of AP stories about the Clinton scandals are actually FAKE NEWS pretending to be credible journalism Answer Probably about 99 Its not just AP either Its the same story at every other mainstream news organization across America Theyre all liars and crooks and theyre all working for Hillary Clinton the serial killer and rape excuser

CNN The 2016 election is setting new lows for presidential transparency in the modern eraHillary Clinton is under fire for waiting until she nearly collapsed at a public event Sunday to disclose she was diagnosed Friday with pneumonia She hasnt provided a full accounting of her health though Donald Trump has revealed far less The Republican nominee is departing with decades of tradition by not releasing his tax returns which could provide key details about his investments and financial interests And both candidates have declined traveling with a protective pool of reporters that follow them to provide continuous coverage of their activitiesOn Monday night transparency questions surfaced again as PBS interviewer Charlie Rose grilled former President Bill Clinton about his familys foundationIn other words Trump and Clinton have less than two months to close the sale but most voters arent sure exactly what theyre buyingFew candidates relish throwing open their most intimate health and financial secrets But the issue is particularly acute this year given Trumps decades of business dealings And of course Trump 70 and Clinton 68 would be the oldest and second oldest presidents inaugurated for a first term in a job that comes with intense physical and mental demands making their health a highly relevant issueIts just the kind of thing that if it happens to you and youre a busy active person you keep moving forward she said I think its fair to say Anderson that people know more about me than almost anyone in public life Theyve got 40 years of my tax returns tens of thousands of emails a detailed medical letter report all kinds of personal detailsTrump has said he will soon release details of a physical exam he underwent last week In an interview Monday with CNNs Wolf Blitzer on The Situation Room Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence said both candidates should release detailed medical informationTrumps campaign manager Kellyanne Conway fought back against the allegations Tuesday that Trumps campaign shared Clintons lack of transparencyAs far as I can see there are two major party candidates running for president and only one of them has pneumonia and lied about it especially to the press because she always treats you all like second class citizens Conway told CNNs Alisyn Camerota on New DayPeople have a right to knowPeople are vying for the highest office in the land the Indiana governor said People have a right to knowBut when it comes to taxes Pence said Trump wasnt violating any laws by withholding the data though he acknowledged theres a bit of a tradition hereTrump has said he would release his returns once the Internal Revenue Service completes an audit When pressed why Trump would not release topline information about previous returns now which would not interfere with the audit process Pence told Blitzer the Republican nominee would release his returns in totality and not parse them out piece by pieceStill the Clinton campaign is already trying to use her weekend misfortune to increase pressure on TrumpWe know more about Hillary Clinton in than any presidential candidate in history we know almost nothing about Donald Trump and he has got to come forward Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook told CNNs Jake TapperI hope that there will be an even standard applied to getting them both to release sufficient information not just on health but obviously we have the ongoing issue on taxes too Kaine said in OhioPoliticians have long tried to shroud themselves in secrecy to varying degreesYou have had candidates that have been a little close to the vest before many of them if not all of them having something they would rather not talk about said Bruce Buchanan a presidential historian at the University of Texas at AustinBut this year threatens to set unprecedented levels for the lack of disclosure Buchanan said because the election matches up two candidates who have reputations in that veinPresidential candidates have not always been under such a spotlightAfter all President Franklin Roosevelt took extensive and successful measures to hide his paralysis during his 1932 election campaign and subsequent presidency President John Kennedy despite a conjuring a mythology of youth and vitality was one of the most unhealthy presidents ever to hold the office but his multiple ailments were not common knowledge at the timeClintons case appears to have little in common with those two Democratic presidents and pneumonia is a fairly common complaint that should not impair her capacity to serve as PresidentBut her wobbly exit from a ceremony Sunday commemorating the 15th anniversary of the September 11 attack in New York created a sudden political storm for two reasonsFirst the episode and video of Clinton staggering into her van played into conservative conspiracy theories that she is hiding some kind of secret illness since sustaining a concussion while secretary of state and is not fit to serve a narrative without evidence that is often trumpeted by her opponent and his surrogatesThen the length of time it took for her campaign to say what is wrong with journalists in the dark about where she was fostered the idea that something was being covered upIts not health itself that is the problem she has to deal with CNN senior political analyst David Axelrod said on Monday By allowing that sixhour gap they created this sense that they were trying to put one over on people and that is not helpful to her candidacyThe incident also played out as the Clinton campaign has spent months rebutting arguments against the Clinton Foundation which Republicans have argued was a conduit for access to Hillary Clintons State Department In the Monday interview with Rose Bill Clinton insisted we have been as transparent as we can be when it comes to the foundationWeve been more transparent than any other foundation more transparent than any other foundation has been asked to be and certainly more transparent than anybody else in this line of work he saidTransparency is often uncomfortable for candidatesBut at the same time people who run for President are assuming the ultimate public trust the Presidency of the United States a position for which good health and a freedom from conflicts of financial interest are desirable if not essential So any unwillingness to comply with what have become political norms for disclosure risks reflecting badly on a candidates characterClintons campaign promised to do better going forward and is planning to offer more details about her health later this weekIn political terms she now has little choiceIf they keep trying to hide and obfuscate her real condition it is going to be a big albatross all the way to election day said Douglas Brinkley a historian at Rice University on CNNs At This Hour with Berman and BolduanFor her part Clintons physician did issue a health statement last year certifying that she was fit to serve as President Trump has offered no such information His only health disclosure was a note from his doctor saying his health was astonishingly excellent and that he would be the healthiest person ever elected presidentNeither candidate has approached the level of disclosure that another senior citizen candidate John McCain offered in 2008 when the cancer survivor invited select reporters to view over 1000 pages of health recordsEven if Trump offers more health details he still risks setting an unprecedented example on financial disclosure for future candidates The billionaire has steadfastly refused to match Clinton and previous presidential nominees by releasing years of tax returnsNobody cares about itNobody cares about it except some of the folks in the media Nobody cares about it Trump said in a Fox News interview earlier this monthTrump has made his record in building a global business a pillar of his argument that he would be able to turn the economy around as President Yet he has refused to publish tax returns that would allow voters to make their own assessment of his financial health or claims about his incomeSuch disclosures would also permit voters and reporters to view Trumps charitable giving which he has said has been substantial without providing evidenceTrump did comply with election laws in May requiring candidates to release a financial statement which claims a net worth of 10 billion and business interests all over the world Trump also lists 16 liabilities for which he owes at least 315 million according to the statementBut the information does not offer details on the source of Trumps annual income information that would more typically be available on a tax return Thats important for voters to size up whether Trump would face conflicts of interest as President given his vast businesses interests around the globe Critics have suggested that Trump could be compromised as President if he has heavy exposure to US adversaries like China and RussiaIts also possible that Trumps returns show he paid a very low tax rate if his income comes mainly from capital gains or can be written off against property investments a factor that could be politically embarrassing

Tensions between the Republican Party and its own frontrunner erupted into a fullblown public battle as top party officials rebuked Donald Trump on Friday for alleging that the GOP primary system was rigged against himThe dispute which has been simmering for days centers on Trumps failure to win any delegates last weekend in Colorado which selected its 34 delegates at a party convention rather than a primary attended by voters All went to Trumps chief rival Sen Ted Cruz of TexasThe outcome prompted a daily stream of complaints and allegations this week from Trump who wrote in an oped published in Fridays Wall Street Journal that the system is being rigged by party operatives with doubleagent delegates who reject the decisions of votersA senior Republican National Committee official fired back with a thinly veiled response writing in a Friday memo to reporters that each process is easy to understand for those willing to learn itIt ultimately falls on the campaigns to be up to speed on these delegate rules wrote RNC communications director Sean Spicer Campaigns have to know when absentee ballots are due how long early voting lasts in certain states or the deadlines for voter registration the delegate rules are no differentThe fight again pits Trump against a Republican establishment that is still broadly opposed to his candidacy and struggling to reconcile with the possibility that he could be the GOP presidential nominee in November Veterans of past presidential campaigns warned that the feuding could have an adverse effect on downballot races and on the ability to defeat Hillary Clinton seen as the likely Democratic nominee in the fallTraditionally this is the time that the party and frontrunner come together and make the plans necessary to defeat the Democratic candidate in the fall said Michael Steel who was an aide for Jeb Bushs campaign and previously worked on the Mitt Romney campaign in 2012 and as spokesman for John A Boehner ROhio when he was House speaker Thats clearly not happening and its going to make it tougher to beat Secretary ClintonRon Bonjean a former top adviser to Republican congressional leaders called the TrumpRNC showdown unprecedented and warned that taking a flamethrower to the Republican Party machine could backfire on TrumpThis is like a general severely criticizing his own special forces before ordering them to go into battle he said in an email Trump runs the risk of demoralizing grassroots party organizers when he is going to need every asset to help him beat the Democratic nomineeOne of the keys to Trumps success until now has been his willingness to harshly criticize the party establishment but he will need the support of the RNC in fundraising and getoutthevote efforts if he wins the nomination This has left Trump boomeranging between fighting the party and trying to embrace itEarly this week for example Trump used Twitter and his rally speeches to call the nomination process corrupt rigged and one that rewards candidates who play dirty tricks in order to pick up delegates In an interview with The Hill on Tuesday Trump said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus should be ashamed of himself because he knows whats going onPriebus responded on Twitter Nomination process known for a year beyond Its the responsibility of the campaigns to understand it Complaints now Give us all a breakAt the same time behind the scenes Trumps campaign staff was finalizing plans to send representatives to the RNCs upcoming spring meeting in Florida and to open an office in Washington On Wednesday the real estate mogul had lunch at Trump Tower in Manhattan with Megyn Kelly of Fox News a longtime target of Trumps who has come to symbolize his ongoing fight with the party establishment Later that day Trump announced he had hired GOP strategist Rick Wiley who has a long history at the RNCBy Wednesday night in Pittsburgh where he held an evening rally Trump seemed to have softened his tone But then around midnight he complained about Colorado again in a series of tweets The rules DID CHANGE in Colorado shortly after I entered the race in June because the pols and their bosses knew I would win with the voters Trump wrote at 1153 pmSteve House chairman of the Colorado Republican Party said he has been angered by Trumps assertion that Colorado Republicans changed their rules in an attempt to block his rise State law bars them from holding a primary so the party held caucuses at the local level and completed its delegate slate at a convention he saidI cant believe people would think that Donald got in the race and we changed them because of him he said an interview No we voted not to change our rules at allOn Thursday it was back to peacemaking as one of Trumps top aides met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill and the candidate attended two fundraisers for Republicans in New York At a 1000perplate dinner in Manhattan Trump skipped his usual criticisms of his rivals and the Republican PartyBut then Thursday night the Journal oped under Trumps name went online reigniting the firesThe fresh tension comes just as the party heads into another busy period of delegate allocation and selection This weekend seven states will hold meetings to select at least some of their delegatesRepublicans will gather in Georgia Kansas Oklahoma South Carolina and Virginia for meetings in congressional districts to award their delegates And in Wyoming Republicans are hosting a convention similar to the one held in Colorado and Trumps team concedes that they are again poised to lose to CruzCorrection An earlier version of this story incorrectly characterized how Colorado selects its Republican convention delegates

Joseph Sohm Shutterstockcom According to the mainstream media in a recent speech in West Palm Beach Donald Trump finally completely lost it Sawing the air with his tiny hands in a unmistakeably Hitlerian manner he spat out a series of undeniably hateful antiSemitic code words like political establishment global elites and yes international banks He even went so far as to claim that corporations and their ahem lobbyists have millions of dollars at stake in this election and are trying to pass the TTP not to benefit the American people but simply to enrich themselves He then went on to accuse the media of collaborating with the Clinton machine presumably to benefit these global elites and international banks and lobbyists Now a lot of folks didnt immediately recognize the secret meanings of these fascistic code words and so mistakenly assumed that global elites referred to the transnational capitalist ruling classes and that lobbyists referred to actual lobbyists and that banks meant well you know banks As it turned out this was completely wrong None of these words actually meant what they meant not in antiSemitic CodeSpeak So the mainstream media translated for us Political establishment meant the Jews Global elites also meant the Jews Banks meant Jews Lobbyists meant Jews Even corporate media meant Jews Apparently Trumps entire speech was a series of secret dogwhistle signals to his legions of neoNazi goons who immediately following Clintons victory are going to storm out of their hidey holes frontally attack the US military overthrow the US government and yes you guessed it kill the Jews OK maybe Im exaggerating the mainstream medias reaction just a little bit Or maybe Trumps speech really was that fascistic Judge for yourself Read the transcript NPR offers a complete version of it here Then compare the reactions of The Wall Street Journal The New York Times Washington Post The Inquirer The Guardian and other leading broadsheets and magazines and blogs like Mother Jones Forward Slate Salon Vox Alternet and a host of others most of which rely on Jonathan Greenblatt CEO of the AntiDefamation League and former Special Assistant to the President as their authoritative source on Trumpian cryptology Mr Greenblatt incidentally should know better given the treatment he has received from hardline Zionist publications for refusing to demonize Black Lives Matter and for taking sides against the State of Israel Look Im not defending Donald Trump who I consider a selfaggrandizing idiot and a soulless huckster of the lowest order and whose supporters include a lot of real antiSemites and racists and misogynists and other such creeps Im simply trying to point out how the corporate media have for months been playing the same hysterical tune like an enormous Goebbelsian keyboard instrument and how millions of Americans are singing along as they were before the invasion of Iraq which posed no threat to the USA but which according to the media had WMDs and how terribly fucking disturbing that is In case you didnt instantly recognize it the name of the tune is This guy is Hitler and it isnt the short vulgarian fingers of Donald Trump that are tickling the ivories And no it isnt the Jews either Its the corporate media and the corporations that own them and the rest of the global capitalist ruling classes in other words those global elites The thing I find particularly disturbing is how these rather mundane observations ie a that a global ruling class exists b that its primarily corporate in character c that this class is pursuing its interests and not the interests of sovereign states how such observations are being stigmatized as the ravings of unhinged antiSemites This stigmatization is not limited to Trumpists Anyone to the left of Clinton is now apparently an antiSemite For example Roger Cohen in The New York Times riding the tsunami of condemnation of the insidious verbiage of Trumps West Palm speech executed an extended smearjob on Jeremy Corbyn and his Corbynistas theyre fond of coining these epithets the media denouncing their virulent antiAmericanism antiCapitalism antiglobalism and antiSemitic antiZionism Which let me hasten to add and stress and underscore and repeatedly emphasize is not to imply that the Labour Party or the British Left or the American Left or any other Left is antiSemitismfree Of course not There are antiSemites everywhere That isnt the point Or it isnt my point My point is that this stigmatization campaign is part of a much larger ideological project one that has little to do with Trump or Jeremy Corbyn or their respective parties Smearing ones political opponents is nothing new of course its as old as the hills But what were witnessing is more than smears As I proposed in these pages back in July political dissent is being gradually pathologized ie stigmatized as aberrant or abnormal behavior as opposed to a position meriting discussion Consider the abnormalization of Sanders back when he was talking about banks global elites and other things that matter or the medias portrayal of British voters as racists in the wake of the Brexit referendum And yes the charges being leveled against Trump much as we might despise the man AntiSemitism inciting violence paranoid conspiracy theorizing insurrection treason et cetera these are not legitimate arguments one needs to counter with superior arguments they are symptoms of deviations from a norm signs of criminality or pathology which is increasingly how the corporate ruling classes are dismissing anyone who attempts to challenge them A line is being drawn in the ideological sand On one side of it are the decent people the normal people in their business wear with their university degrees and prescriptions and debts On the other side are well the deplorables the ignorant racist antiSemitic neonationalist populist extremists This line cuts through both the Left and the Right supersedes both Left and Right making bedfellows of supposed adversaries like Obama Clinton Kagan Wolfowitz Scowcroft and their ilk on the Normal team and a motley crew of Trumpists Putinists European populists Corbynistas Sandernistas socialists anarchists Wikileakers antiZionists anticapitalists neoNazis Black Lives Matterers angry Greek pensioners environmental activists religious zealots the Klu Klux Klan David Graeber most of the contributors to CounterPunch and various other extremist types many of whom detest each other in the Deplorables current starting lineup The corporate media is sending a message a message aimed at a much broader audience than undecided American voters assuming such creatures really exist The message is get with the fucking program or get stigmatized as an antiSemite or a racist or a Russian spy or whatever The message is drop the populist rhetoric shut the hell up about the Wall Street banks and the corporations and the one percent and actually forget about politics completely except for identity politics of course Go ahead and knock yourself out with that The message is youre either with us or against us and it doesnt matter why youre against us or what it is you think youre for Right Left who gives a shit Its one big Basket of Deplorables to us This message of course displays many of the hallmarks of the classic authoritarian mentality the need for nearly total conformity mindless allegiance to ones socalled superiors delegitimization of all opposing viewpoints and the infantile type of heroworship figures like Obama and Clinton inspire not the oldfashioned authoritarianism that wouldbe despots like Trump represent but rather a more attractive version a hopey changey lovey version where there are no frightening Hitlerian leaders barking out antiSemitic code words and no one is exterminating thousands of people in faraway countries they want to destabilize in order to entirely dominate the region No this is the version where Obama sells the TPP on the Jimmy Fallon show and wars of aggression are not wars of aggression but humanitarian interventions Its also the version where universal healthcare is regrettably unrealistic but 38 billion for the State of Israel so it can operate its Apartheid State and weapons sales to Saudi Arabia so they can bomb the shit out of farmers in Yemen and cut off peoples heads for blasphemy is somehow in Americas vital interests But what do I know Im just a satirist I should probably leave all this complex stuff like what is and isnt in my interest and what words really mean and all that to the experts in the mainstream media Since they did so well decoding Trumps speech maybe they could translate some of these other code words Ive been having trouble with like the ones I put in scare quotes above or other such code words like enemy combatant free trade agreement security barrier indefinite detention targeted killing or troubled asset relief program I could go on but I probably shouldnt Odds are Im already on the list of Putinworshiping antiSemitic racist misogynist neonationalist nonstanding up for the National Anthem conspiracy theorizing Americahaters The last thing I need to do at this point is start jabbering about how the United States is an authoritarian corporatist dystopia ruled by a global capitalist elite that couldnt give less of a shit about Americans or any other actual people living in any other actual countries where the corporate media can whip up mass fanatical support for wars of aggression or corporate puppets by pointing their fingers at yet another bogeyman and shouting Hitler at the top of their lungs Next thing you know Id be writing about banks and global corporations and national sovereignty and we all know what thats about dont we C J Hopkins is an awardwinning American playwright and satirist based in Berlin His plays are published by Bloomsbury Publishing UK and Broadway Play Publishing US He can reached at his website cjhopkinscom or at consentfactoryorg Reprinted from Counterpunch by permission of author or representative

Despite the email FBI probes currently ongoing Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton holds a 6point lead over her rival Donald Trump On October 31 2016 at approximately 400 Pm EDT NBC announced James Comey FBI Director released a statement about the Democratic nominee having several emails on a nonsecure serverThe timing of the FBI probe while Clinton holds a 6point lead over Trump remains coincidental According to NBC A recent poll tracking the election asked voters whether or not the release of Comeys letter was a publicity stunt to distract them or an attempt to address an actual problem Due to the timing of the letters release about 56 percent of voters believe the letter was to deter voters from voting for the Democratic nominee and remains unaffectedVoters have spoken out about the need for the FBI to probe Clinton as she poses a threat to Trump as she holds a national 6point leadUpdate CNN Politics A Poll conducted by CNN Politics shows that Clinton has a 5point lead over North Carolina a state Trump needs to winWritten By Jhayla D TysonEdited by Cathy MilneSourcesCNN Politics New Polls Show Tight ClintonTrump Race Nationally BattlegroundsNBC News Poll Clinton Maintains National Lead Over Trump Despite FBI LetterFeatured Image Courtesy of Michael Kovacs Flickr Page Creative Commons License clinton Doanld Trump fbi Hillary Clinton probe

The Republican nomination is hisNow theres a new question Can Donald Trump win the White HouseWith a decisive victory in the Indiana primary Tuesdaythe billionaire businessman who was initially ridiculed as a realityTVcandidate was declared the presumptive nomineeby Republican National Chairman Committee Reince Priebus Trumps final two rivals Texas Sen Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov John Kasich called it quits sealing the most remarkable political rise in modern American historyNow some of his primary rivals andother senior Republicans argue that Trumps lack of governmentalexperience and his unprecedented negative ratings including amongsuch crucial electoral groups as women Latinos and young people will doom his prospectsin NovemberBut as Trump likes to remind people the conventional wisdom has been wrong about him from the startIts been some unbelievable day and evening and yearTrump declared in a victory speech Tuesday night in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York where he had announced his candidacy almost a year agoWere going to win big league believe meHe faces what could charitably be described as an uphill battle A national CNNORC poll taken April 28May 1 showed Clinton with a daunting lead over Trump of5441 To win the White House he needs to hold all of the states Mitt Romney won in 2012 with a total of 206 electoral votes then add at least 64 more to get to the 270 mark to claimthe presidencyA look at five states that could hold the key toboth how a Trump victory is possible and how difficult it will be Heres one scenario thatwould give Trump 273 electoral votes and the White HouseIn the past 16 presidential elections Arizona has voted Democratic just once in 1996 But Trumps characterization of Mexican immigrants as rapists and murderersand his vow to build a wall along the Southern border have energized Latino voters here In the latest RealClearPolitics average of recent statewide polls Clinton leads the state by35 percentage points She and Trump showed strength in Arizona in its primaries last month eachwinning by double digitsDemocrats say North Carolina has been moving in the partys direction but after Barack Obama carried the state in 2008 he lost it in 2012 Now Clinton leads Trump by 2 points in statewide polls and both husband Bill Clinton and daughter Chelsea Clinton have visited the statein recent weeksBoosted by her solid support among African Americans Clinton won the primary over Vermont Sen Bernie Sanders by 14 points in March Trump edged Texas Sen Ted Cruz by 3 pointsFlorida defines a swing state In the last six elections Democrats have carried it three times Republicans have carried it three times In statewide polls Clinton now leads but by just 22 points Shes already returned to the state for campaignrelated events since the Democratic primary in March which she won by more than 30 pointsButTrump has roots in Florida including his lavishMaraLago estate in Palm Beach Hecrushed Florida Sen Marco Rubio in the primary by close to 20 points after pushing former governorJeb Bushout of the race entirely Would Little Marco as Trump calledRubio pitch in to help in the fallNo Republican has won the White House without carrying Ohio and since 1960 the Buckeye State has hada perfect record of going with the national winner At the moment Clinton holds a lead in statewide polls but its narrow 35 points In March she easily won the states Democratic primary Trump lost the Republican primary to the homestate governor John Kasich But Ohios struggling manufacturing base and its hardpressed bluecollar voters could provide a receptive audiencefor Trumps message in the general election Kasichwould be in a position to boost the GOP nominee if he chose to do so And where was Clinton campaigning Tuesday OhioPennsylvania hasnt voted Republican in the presidential race since 1988 but the state includes many of the white workingclass voters who are Trumps most fervent supporters In last weeks primary Trump won twothirds of Republican voters who didnt have a college degree defeating Cruz overall by more than 21Clinton won the Democratic primary by 12 points In statewide polls now Clinton leads by 74 points As in Florida and Ohio Pennsylvania has a competitive Senate race that could also play a role

Email The day after Hillary Clinton testified in front of the House Select Committee on Benghazi last October John Podesta the Democrats campaign chairman met for dinner with a small group of wellconnected friends including Peter Kadzik a top official at the Justice Department The dinner arrangement revealed in hacked Podesta emails released by Wikileaks is just the latest example of an apparent conflict of interest between the Clinton campaign and the federal agency charged with investigating the former secretary of states email practices Podesta and Kadzik the assistant attorney general for legislative affairs were in frequent contact other emails show In one email from January Kadzik and Podesta who were classmates at Georgetown Law School in the 1970s discussed plans to celebrate Podestas birthday And in another sent last May Kadziks son emailed Podesta asking for a job on the Clinton campaign The postBenghazi dinner was attended by Podesta Kadzik superlobbyist Vincent Roberti and other wellplaced Beltway fixtures The exchanges are another example of the Clinton campaigns cozy relationship with the Obama Justice Department one former US Attorney tells The Daily Caller

Ohio Democrat Tim Ryan does a lot of media but only has 2 public supporters

Under the Surface Naomi Klein and the Great Barrier Reef Share on Facebook Tweet In Under the Surface a special Guardian film the awardwinning writer and environmental campaigner Naomi Klein travels to the Great Barrier Reef with her son Toma to see the impact of coral bleaching caused by climate change In a personal but also universal story Klein tells how she wants him to bear witness Just in case amid the coral that is still alive he can find something read more In Under the Surface a special Guardian film the awardwinning writer and environmental campaigner Naomi Klein travels to the Great Barrier Reef with her son Toma to see the impact of coral bleaching caused by climate change In a personal but also universal story Klein tells how she wants him to bear witness Just in case amid the coral that is still alive he can find something beautiful to connect with something he can carry with him as he navigates life on a warmer harsher planet than the one I grew up on Because climate change is already here and kids are on the frontlines watch video below

Donald Trump hitting reset on his 2016 campaign is preparing to roll out his first wave of general election TV ads in four pivotal battleground states after shaking up the top echelon of his team in a bid to focus his message and make up lost ground in the polls against Hillary ClintonI am committed to doing whatever it takes to win this election and ultimately become President because our country cannot afford four more years of the failed ObamaClinton policies which have endangered our financial and physical security the Republican nominee said in a statement early Wednesday announcing the latest staffing changesIn what was described as an expansion Trump promoted pollster Kellyanne Conway to campaign manager and named Stephen Bannon the cofounder of Breitbart News as campaign chief executive Trump said in the statement that Paul Manafort who took over following the departure of Corey Lewandowski in June will maintain his current title and work closely with Conway and Bannon on the campaign moving forwardMeanwhile a senior Trump aide told Fox News the campaign will be rolling out TV ads Friday in the battleground states of Ohio Pennsylvania Florida and North CarolinaThis would be three days earlier than Manafort originally planned the campaign had been preparing to launch ads after the Olympics which end Sunday Clinton though has been plastering the airwaves with ads while taking a significant postconvention lead in a number of battleground and national pollsTrump seems to be changing up his approach amid concerns that his offthecuff style could be hurting him in the general election environment In a shift he delivered a scripted speech to a rally audience Tuesday night in Wisconsin appealing to minority voters in part by accusing Clinton of bigotry and saying she sees AfricanAmericans as no more than votes to be wonIn an interview with Fox News Trump voiced confidence in the state of his campaignWeve got a lot of money in the bank and I havent spent any of it he said while confirming his campaign would be airing ads soonWeve got some pretty good ads he saidIn a statement Trump also called Conway and Bannon extremely capableConway told Fox News that everyone else on the campaign will remain in placeThis is an expansion during the busy homestretch in the campaign she addedTrump will step off the stump Wednesday in order to attend his first classified briefing from intelligence officials at the FBI office in New YorkOn a conference call Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook suggested little would change for Trump despite the staffing changesWhats become clear from this is that no matter how much the establishment wants to clean Donald Trump up and get him on message he has officially won the fight to let Trump be Trump he said Its time that we believe himThough Trump previously has resisted repeated calls from fellow Republicans to change his approach on the campaign trail that has powered his surge to the top of the GOP field in the primary season recent poll numbers have showed that Clintonhas a sizeable leadin several key states It could force Trump to pivot as the campaign moves forward though he still downplays that possibilityYou know I am who I am he told a local Wisconsin television station Tuesday Its me I dont want to change Everyone talks about Oh well youre going to pivot youre going to I dont want to pivot I mean you have to be you If you start pivoting youre not being honest with peopleThe Associated Press reported that the moves were discussed at a lengthy senior staff meeting at Trump Tower Tuesday while the billionaire mogul was on the road Additional senior hires are expected to come in the next few daysTrump whose campaign is built on his persona as a winner said several times that the campaign is doing well and said his speech hours earlier in Wisconsin Tuesday was wellreceivedWere going to be doing something very dramatic Trump addedIn the Wisconsin outing Trump accused Clinton of bigotry and being against the police claiming that she and other Democrats have betrayed the African American community and pandered for votesClinton campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri responded with a statement early Wednesday accusing Trump of being the bigot insteadWith each passing Trump attack it becomes clearer that his strategy is just to say about Hillary Clinton whats true of himself When people started saying he was temperamentally unfit he called Hillary the same When his ties to the Kremlin came under scrutiny he absurdly claimed that Hillary was the one who was too close to Putin Now hes accusing her of bigoted remarks We think the American people will know which candidate is guilty of the charge she saidFox News Christopher Snyder Carl Cameron Dan Gallo and Jason Donner and The Associated Press contributed to this report

Election Today a kingdom will be toppled November 08 2016 President Obama aboard Marine One departs on the last day of campaigning from the White House On Election Day Eve Senior Editor of Charisma Magazine releases an Election Day dream Today a kingdom will be toppled Jennifer LeClaire describes the dream as spiritually disturbing She shares of the many people that have contacted her with dreams they have had as well The claims of prophetic messages range from declaring Donald J Trump as the next commanderinchief to Obama not handing over the keys to the White House The visions of chaotic turmoil disrupting in the streets of America have also been very vividly shared LeClaire like many of us admits that she has never seen such prophetic whirlwind over an election in her lifetime The night before Election Day she had a dream about the number of prophetic voices and among them she saw some with selfish agendas either for monetary gain or seeking accolades from man During LeClaries time of reflection after this powerful dream she assures to have heard these words clearly Today a kingdom will be toppled Although she is still praying over what she believes to have been divinely revealed the urgency to share the dream was clear In an interview with TRUNEWS last week LeClaire clearly shared her position as one with a focus on intense prayer She talked about the importance for the Church to be lead by the spirit and keep their faith on Christ Original article by Charisma News TRUNEWS analysis Article by Correspondent for TRUNEWS Got a news tip Email us at Help support the ministry of TRUNEWS with your onetime or monthly gift of financial support DONATE NOW DOWNLOAD THE TRUNEWS MOBILE APP CLICK HERE Donate Today Support TRUNEWS to help build a global news network that provides a credible source for world news We believe Christians need and deserve their own global news network to keep the worldwide Church informed and to offer Christians a positive alternative to the antiChristian bigotry of the mainstream news media Top Stories

Via AP Donald Trump was elected Americas 45th president Tuesday an astonishing victory for a celebrity businessman and political novice who capitalized on voters economic anxieties took advantage of racial tensions and overcame a string of sexual assault allegations on his way to the White HouseHis triumph over Hillary Clinton will end eight years of Democratic dominance of the White House and threatens to undo major achievements of President Barack Obama Hes pledged to act quickly to repeal Obamas landmark health care law revoke the nuclear agreement with Iran and rewrite important trade deals with other countries particularly Mexico and CanadaThe Republican blasted through Democrats longstanding firewall carrying Pennsylvania and Wisconsin states that hadnt voted for a GOP presidential candidate since the 1980s He needed to win nearly all of the competitive battleground states and he did just that claiming Florida Ohio North Carolina and othersGlobal stock markets and US stock futures plunged deeply reflecting investor alarm over what a Trump presidency might mean for the economy and tradeA New York real estate developer who lives in a sparking Manhattan highrise Trump forged a striking connection with white working class Americans who feel left behind in a changing economy and diversifying country He cast immigration both from Latin America and the Middle East as the root of the problems plaguing many Americans and taped into fears of terrorism emanating at home and abroadTrump will take office with Congress expected to be fully under Republican control GOP Senate candidates fended off Democratic challengers in key states and appeared poised to maintain the majority Republicans also maintained their grip on the HouseSenate control means Trump will have great leeway in appointing Supreme Court justices which could mean a major change to the right that would last for decadesTrump upended years of political convention on his way to the White House leveling harshly personal insults on his rivals deeming Mexican immigrants rapists and murderers and vowing to temporarily suspend Muslim immigration to the US He never released his tax returns breaking with decades of campaign tradition and eschewed the kind of robust data and field efforts that helped Obama win two terms in the White House relying instead on his large freewheeling rallies to energize supporters His campaign was frequently in chaos and he cycled through three campaign managers this yearHis final campaign manager Kellyanne Conway touted the teams accomplishments as the final results rolled in writing on Twitter that rally crowds matter and we expanded the mapThe mood at Clintons party grew bleak as the night wore out with some supporters leaving others crying and hugging each other Top campaign aides stopped returning calls and texts as Clinton and her family hunkered down in a luxury hotel watching the returnsAt 2 am Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta told the crowd to head home for the night Were still counting votes and every vote should count he saidTrump will inherit an anxious nation deeply divided by economic and educational opportunities race and cultureExit polls underscored the fractures Women nationwide supported Clinton by a doubledigit margin while men were significantly more likely to back Trump More than half of white voters backed the Republican while nearly 9 in 10 blacks and twothirds of Hispanics voted for the DemocratDoug Ratliff a 67yearold businessman from Richlands Virginia said Trumps election would be one of the happiest days of his lifeThis county has had no hope said Ratliff who owns strip malls in the area badly beaten by the collapse of the coal industry You have no idea what it would mean for the people if Trump won Theyll have hope again Things will change I know hes not going to be perfect But hes got a heart And he gives people hopeTrump has pledged to usher in a series of sweeping changes to US domestic and foreign policy repealing Obamas signature health care law though he has been vague on what he could replace it with building a wall along the USMexico border and suspending immigration from countrys with terrorism ties Hes also praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and spoken of building a better relationship with Moscow worrying some in his own party who fear hell go easy on Putins provocationsThe Republican Partys tortured relationship with its nominee was evident right up to the end Former President George W Bush and wife Laura Bush declined to back Trump instead selecting none of the above when they voted for president according to spokesman Freddy FordHouse Speaker Paul Ryan a reluctant Trump supporter called the businessman earlier in the evening to congratulate him according to a Ryan spokeswomanRead the entire story