Presumptuous Politics : Jun 6, 2016

Monday, June 6, 2016

Here’s The ‘HILLARY UNIVERSITY’ Scandal No One In The Media Is Talking About

Democrats and their allies in media have been obsessing on Trump University for weeks now while completely ignoring a major scandal involving Hillary and Bill Clinton’s relationship to a for-profit college.
Breitbart reports:

Hillary University: Bill Clinton Bagged $16.46 Million from For-Profit College as State Dept. Funneled $55 Million Back
With her campaign sinking in the polls, Hillary Clinton has launched a desperate attack against Trump University to deflect attention away from her deep involvement with a controversial for-profit college that made the Clintons millions, even as the school faced serious legal scrutiny and criminal investigations.
In April 2015, Bill Clinton was forced to abruptly resign from his lucrative perch as honorary chancellor of Laureate Education, a for-profit college company. The reason for Clinton’s immediate departure: Clinton Cash revealed, and Bloomberg confirmed, that Laureate funneled Bill Clinton $16.46 million over five years while Hillary Clinton’s State Dept. pumped at least $55 million to a group run by Laureate’s founder and chairman, Douglas Becker, a man with strong ties to the Clinton Global Initiative. Laureate has donated between $1 million and $5 million (donations are reported in ranges, not exact amounts) to the Clinton Foundation. Progressive billionaire George Soros is also a Laureate financial backer.
As the Washington Post reports, “Laureate has stirred controversy throughout Latin America, where it derives two-thirds of its revenue.” During Bill Clinton’s tenure as Laureate’s chancellor, the school spent over $200 million a year on aggressive telemarketing, flashy Internet banner ads, and billboards designed to lure often unprepared students from impoverished countries to enroll in its for-profit classes. The goal: get as many students, regardless of skill level, signed up and paying tuition.

The Clintons are corrupt to the core.
They used her government position of power to enrich themselves.
Keep that in mind the next time she attacks Trump.

Hillary University: Bill Clinton Bagged $16.46 Million from For-Profit College as State Dept. Funneled $55 Million Back

Talk about throwing rocks in a glass house:-)

With her campaign sinking in the polls, Hillary Clinton has launched a desperate attack against Trump University to deflect attention away from her deep involvement with a controversial for-profit college that made the Clintons millions, even as the school faced serious legal scrutiny and criminal investigations.

In April 2015, Bill Clinton was forced to abruptly resign from his lucrative perch as honorary chancellor of Laureate Education, a for-profit college company. The reason for Clinton’s immediate departure: Clinton Cash revealed, and Bloomberg confirmed, that Laureate funneled Bill Clinton $16.46 million over five years while Hillary Clinton’s State Dept. pumped at least $55 million to a group run by Laureate’s founder and chairman, Douglas Becker, a man with strong ties to the Clinton Global Initiative. Laureate has donated between $1 million and $5 million (donations are reported in ranges, not exact amounts) to the Clinton Foundation. Progressive billionaire George Soros is also a Laureate financial backer.
As the Washington Post reports, “Laureate has stirred controversy throughout Latin America, where it derives two-thirds of its revenue.” During Bill Clinton’s tenure as Laureate’s chancellor, the school spent over $200 million a year on aggressive telemarketing, flashy Internet banner ads, and billboards designed to lure often unprepared students from impoverished countries to enroll in its for-profit classes. The goal: get as many students, regardless of skill level, signed up and paying tuition.
“I meet people all the time who transfer here when they flunk out elsewhere,” agronomy student Arturo Bisono, 25, told the Post. “This has become the place you go when no one else will accept you.”
Others, like Rio state legislator Robson Leite who led a probe into Bill Clinton’s embattled for-profit education scheme, say the company is all about extracting cash, not educating students. “They have turned education into a commodity that focuses more on profit than knowledge,” said Leite.
Progressives have long excoriated for-profit education companies for placing profits over quality pedagogy. Still, for five years, Bill Clinton allowed his face and name to be plastered all over Laureate’s marketing materials. As Clinton Cash reported, pictures of Bill Clinton even lined the walkways at campuses like Laureate’s Bilgi University in Istanbul, Turkey. That Laureate has campuses in Turkey is odd, given that for-profit colleges are illegal there, as well as in Mexico and Chile where Laureate also operates.
Shortly after Bill Clinton’s lucrative 2010 Laureate appointment, Hillary Clinton’s State Dept. began pumping millions of its USAID dollars to a sister nonprofit, International Youth Foundation (IYF), which is run by Laureate’s founder and chairman, Douglas Becker. Indeed, State Dept. funding skyrocketed once Bill Clinton got on the Laureate payroll, according to Bloomberg:

A Bloomberg examination of IYF’s public filings show that in 2009, the year before Bill Clinton joined Laureate, the nonprofit received 11 grants worth $9 million from the State Department or the affiliated USAID. In 2010, the group received 14 grants worth $15.1 million. In 2011, 13 grants added up to $14.6 million. The following year, those numbers jumped: IYF received 21 grants worth $25.5 million, including a direct grant from the State Department.

Throughout ten Democratic Party debates, Establishment Media have not asked Hillary Clinton a single question about she and her husband’s for-profit education scam.

Newt Gingrich Cartoons

National Review staff writer David French won't mount independent presidential bid

National Review staff writer and Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran David French said Sunday he will not mount an independent presidential run.
French made the announcement in an article posted on the National Review's website Sunday evening, saying that while he opposes both presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, he determined after "serious study" that he is "not the right person for this effort."
"I gave it serious thought — as a pretty darn obscure lawyer, writer, and veteran — only because we live in historic times," he wrote. "Never before have both parties failed so spectacularly, producing two dishonest, deceitful candidates who should be disqualified from running for town council, much less leader of the free world."
"Given the timing, the best chance for success goes to a person who either is extraordinarily wealthy (or has immediate access to extraordinary wealth) or is a transformational political talent," French wrote. "I’m grateful for the opportunity to serve my country, and I thank God for the successes I’ve had as a lawyer and a writer, but it is plain to me that I’m not the right person for this effort."
French's name was first brought into the political conversation when Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol kicked off the speculation, and the backlash, when he claimed over the Memorial Day Weekend: “There will be an independent candidate -- an impressive one, with a strong team and a real chance.”
Sources told Fox News that Kristol was looking to recruit the constitutional lawyer and Bronze Star recipient.
Kristol, along with other conservative pundits, long has been working to attract an independent candidate to run in November amid lingering concerns in some wings of the Republican Party about Trump’s conservative credentials. This effort to date has struggled to recruit a willing candidate, while running into logistical hurdles -- including the rules and deadlines for getting new names on the ballot.

'Experts' agree: Trump is a dangerous threat to the legal system

The anti-Trump headlines practically leap off the page.
The New York Times went with this: “Trump Could Threaten U.S. Rule of Law, Scholars Say.”
The Washington Post online version: “Trump’s Personal, Racially Tinged Attacks on Federal Judge Alarm Legal Experts.”
Now it’s important to stress that the billionaire’s personal attacks on the judge hearing the Trump University lawsuit are indeed troubling. The fact that he’s tripled down in telling the Wall Street Journal and CNN that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel has an “inherent conflict of interest” in the case because he’s of Mexican heritage—the guy is from Indiana—is rather stunning coming from a presidential candidate.
But as with all things Trump, his confrontational style sometimes causes a blurring of the lines between straight news coverage and commentary.
What the Times and Post stories have in common is that they hang their hat on legal “experts.” This allows the papers to seem above the fray, because after all, they’re just quoting other people.
But the experts here are a vehicle, in my view. The headlines could just as well read “Attacks Alarm Media Experts.”
The experts didn’t spontaneously form a PAC and issue a press release. Reporters set out to round them up to flesh out stories that essentially say Trump is out of control.
The way these stories are framed is an editorial judgment.
The Post story is milder and more narrowly focused, saying Trump’s bashing of Curiel has “set off a wave of alarm among legal experts, who worry that the -Republican presidential candidate’s vendetta signals a remarkable disregard for judicial independence. That attitude, many argue, could carry constitutional implications if Trump becomes president.”
The Times piece is more sweeping and alarmist:
“Donald J. Trump’s blustery attacks on the press, complaints about the judicial system and bold claims of presidential power collectively sketch out a constitutional worldview that shows contempt for the First Amendment, the separation of powers and the rule of law, legal experts across the political spectrum say.”
And it says that even scholars on the right “warn that electing Mr. Trump is a recipe for a constitutional crisis.”
Keep in mind that many experts have strong political opinions. They are not denizens of some ivory tower of neutrality. The Times quotes people from places like the libertarian Cato Institute who may have a dim view of Trump.
Take this quote from David Post, who writes for the Volokh Conspiracy, a conservative legal blog. He said of Trump: “This is how authoritarianism starts, with a president who does not respect the judiciary.”
So now we have a presidency based on authoritarianism and a recipe for a constitutional crisis.
Deep in the piece, the Times gets around to acknowledging that there’s another president who has been accused of lawlessness:
“Republican officials have criticized Mr. Obama for what they have called his unconstitutional expansion of executive power.”
Now I always give reporters credit for going out and interviewing people on the record. But is there no lawyer on the planet (other than Alberto Gonzalez) who could be found to take a less alarmist view of Trump’s remarks?
In this case, at least, the experts do seem to match the media mindset on the danger of Donald Trump.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz.

Sanders campaign reportedly divided over whether to take fight to Democratic convention

Sanders supporters to bring havoc to Democratic convention?

A split is emerging inside the Bernie Sanders campaign over whether the senator should stand down after Tuesday’s election contests and unite behind Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, or take the fight all the way to the July party convention and try to pry the nomination from her.
One camp might be dubbed the Sandersistas, the loyalists who helped guide Sanders’s political ascent in Vermont and the U.S. Congress and are loath to give up a fight that has far surpassed expectations. Another has ties not only to Sanders but to the broader interests of a Democratic Party pining to beat back the challenge from Republican Donald Trump and make gains in congressional elections.
Sanders in recent weeks has made clear he aims to take his candidacy past the elections on Tuesday, when California, New Jersey and four other states vote. But the debate within the campaign indicates that Sanders’s next move isn’t settled.
For now, Democratic officials, fund-raisers and operatives are getting impatient, calling on Sanders to quit the race and begin the work of unifying the party for the showdown with the Republican presumptive nominee.
Orin Kramer, a New York hedge-fund manager who has raised campaign funds for both President Barack Obama and Clinton, said with respect to Sanders’s future plans: “I would hope people would understand what a Trump presidency would mean and act accordingly—and ‘accordingly’ means quickly."

Hillary Clinton wins Democratic presidential primary in Puerto Rico

Hillary Clinton on Sunday won the Puerto Rico Democratic Primary, inching closer to getting enough delegates to clinch the party’s presidential nomination.
After a blowout victory Saturday in the U.S. Virgin Islands and a decisive win in the U.S. territory, Clinton is now 28 delegates short of the 2,383 needed to win the nomination, according to an Associated Press count.
The results were slow to arrive on Sunday, as officials counted ballots by hand and focused first on releasing results tied to the island's local primary elections, said Kenneth McClintock, Puerto Rico's former Democratic National Committeeman.
"We just won Puerto Rico! ¡Gracias a la Isla del Encanto por esta victoria!" tweeted Clinton. As the race was called, Clinton was on stage on Sacramento, rallying voters in California.
With 53 percent of precincts reporting early Monday, Clinton had garnered 62 percent of the vote to 38 percent for Sanders
Clinton had captured at least 31 of the 60 delegates at stake in Puerto Rico. Sanders garnered at least 16, with 13 outstanding. Clinton has 1,807 pledged delegates won in primaries and caucuses; Sanders has 1,517. When including superdelegates, her lead over Sanders is substantial -- 2,355 to 1,563.
The former New York senator and secretary of state is all but certain to secure the Democratic nomination Tuesday, when six states hold primaries in which a total of 694 delegates are available.
While Puerto Rican residents cannot vote in the general election, the island's politics could reverberate into the fall campaign. Tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans have left the island to escape a dismal economy, with many resettling in the key electoral battleground of Florida.
Though Clinton did not spend much time campaigning in Puerto Rico, the victory is fraught with symbolism for her campaign.Eight years ago, with the presidential nomination slipping from her grasp, she rolled through the streets of San Juan on the back of a flat-bed truck, wooing voters to a soundtrack of blasting Latin music.
She beat then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama with nearly 68 percent of the vote.

"I'm for Hillary, girl," said 83-year-old Candida Dones on Sunday as she cast her ballot. "I can't wait for a female president. She's one of us. She wears the pants. If we don't look out for our own interests, who will?"

Both Clinton and Sanders spent Sunday in California, the biggest prize among the six states voting on Tuesday. Sanders shook hands and stopped for photos during a stroll of more than an hour along the shops, restaurants and amusement park rides of the Santa Monica Pier.

That included a stop at a charity "Pedal on the Pier" fundraiser, telling people riding on stationary bikes that the U.S. should have "an economy that works for all people, not just the one percent."

Like Clinton, Sanders made little mention of the outcome in Puerto Rico's primary. He said during an evening rally in San Diego that Democratic leaders should take notice that the "energy and grassroots activism" that will be crucial to the party in the fall "is with us, not Hillary Clinton."

He pointed to polls showing him faring better than Clinton in head-to-head matchups with Trump and his strength among Democratic voters under the age of 45.

"If the Democratic leadership wants a campaign that will not only retain the White House but regain the Senate and win governors' chairs all across this country, we are that campaign," he said.

While those watching the results in Puerto Rico focused on their impact on the race for the Democratic nomination, the focus of many voters on the island was its ongoing economic crisis.

Both Sanders and Clinton had pledged to help as the island's government tries to restructure $70 billion worth of public debt the governor has said is unpayable.

"This is one of the most important political moments for Puerto Rico," said Emanuel Rosado, a 29-year-old Clinton supporter. "I'm taking action as a result of the economic crisis."

Two weeks before the primary, Sanders criticized a rescue deal negotiated by U.S. House leaders and the Obama administration as having colonial overtones. In a letter to fellow Senate Democrats, Sanders said the House bill to create a federal control board and allow some restructuring of the territory's $70 billion debt would make "a terrible situation even worse."

He later promised to introduce his own legislation to help the island. Campaigning on the island last month, Sanders promised to fight against "vulture funds" on Wall Street that he said would profit off the fiscal crisis.

"That bill is anti-democratic and it's not in the best interest of Puerto Rico," said Jorge Gaskins, a 67-year-old farmer who supports Sanders and opposes a control board.

Clinton has said she has serious concerns about the board's powers, but believes the legislation should move forward, or "too many Puerto Ricans will continue to suffer."

Among those voting Sunday was Democratic Party superdelegate Andres Lopez, one of the party insiders who can vote for the candidate of their choice at the summer convention. He had remained uncommitted, but said Sunday he will support Clinton.

With Lopez's endorsement, all seven of Puerto Rico's superdelegates have pledged their support for Clinton.

"It is time to focus on squashing `El Trumpo,"' he said, referring to presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.