Presumptuous Politics

Thursday, September 8, 2016

Trump, Clinton rip each other over Iraq War, ISIS at military forum

Trump, Clinton trade jabs ahead of forum

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton slammed each other over the Iraq War and the fight against ISIS at a national security forum Wednesday, with the Republican nominee also appearing willing to allow undocumented immigrants wishing to serve in the military to remain in the U.S.
Though Trump and Clinton did not appear onstage together at the USS Intrepid museum in New York, the NBC News forum was a debate in all but name and came fewer than three weeks before the candidates' first debate.
Trump's response to a question about whether illegal immigrants who plan to serve in the military can stay in America marked another apparent shift for the Republican nominee, who caused outrage during the GOP primary with his call to deport all illegal immigrants.
"I think that when you serve in the armed forces, that's a very special situation, and I could see myself working that out," Trump said. "We need to be careful and vet carefully, but it would be a special circumstance, yes."
Trump levied unusual criticism against America's military leaders, saying the generals have been "reduced to rubble" during President Barack Obama's administration. He also suggested he would shake up the military's top ranks if he wins in November, saying there would probably be "different generals."
Trump remained persistently non-commital about his plans for defeating ISIS, insisting that he privately has a blueprint for taking on the terror group but wanted to remain "unpredictable."
"I have a very substantial chance of winning," he said. "If I win, I don't want to broadcast to the enemy exactly what my plan is."
Clinton took the stage first by virtue of a coin flip, and immediately faced a barrage of questions from moderator Matt Lauer about her email use at the State Department, where she used a personal email address and a private server.
The former secretary of state repeated her claim that none of the emails she sent through the server was marked "classified," "top secret," or "secret." However, she also acknowledged that "it was a mistake to have a personal account ... I make no excuses."
At times, Clinton grew visibly irritated with the repeated focus on her past actions, saying "I'm asking to be judged on the totality of my record."

Later in her segment, Clinton described her 2003 Senate vote to authorize military action in Iraq as a "mistake" and criticized Trump for supporting military action against Iraq in a 2002 interview on the Howard Stern radio show. She vowed that "we are not putting ground troops in Iraq ever again" to help defeat ISIS "and we are not putting ground troops in Syria ever."
"I was totally against the war in Iraq," Trump said in response. "I said it would destabilize the Middle East, which it has."
Trump accused Clinton of having a "happy trigger [finger]" regarding overseas military intervention, specifically criticizing her response to Libya's uprising against Muammar Qaddafi and subsequent civil war.
Clinton defended her support for U.S. military intervention in Libya, despite the chaos that has consumed that country since then.
"Permitting there to be an ongoing civil war in Libya would be as threatening and as dangerous as what we are seeing in Syria," she said.
Trump also spoke glowingly of Russian president Vladimir Putin, praising him for having "great control over his country." The real estate mogul added that if Putin "says great things about me, I'm going to say great things about him." Trump also claimed, however, that Putin's compliments would not influence his decision-making as president.
Clinton has spent much of the summer trying to paint Trump as ill-prepared to be commander in chief and too unpredictable to make decisions that put American service members in harm's way. She drew an implicit contrast with Trump when asked for the most important quality a commander in chief must possess.
"Steadiness, an absolute rock steadiness," she said, "mixed with strength to make the hard decisions."

Assange says public has right to know about upcoming release of Clinton documents

Assange: Clinton, liberal press creating 'demon' climate

More documents connected to Hillary Clinton’s campaign are set to be released as early as next week, according to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Assange said in an interview with Fox News talk show host Sean Hannity, which aired Wednesday, the public has a right to know about these documents.
While he didn’t give much information regarding the details of the documents, Assange did say that, “the material we are working on around the clock is significant”.
During the interview on “Hannity,” Assange said that the liberal press is legitimizing a “ruling party candidate to come out and say that opposition leaders and the press are foreign agents in order to turn around a domestic scandal, that’s a really serious problem.”
When discussing the DNC leak, Assange said that “we saw the resignation of five of the top DNC officials including the president.” He also added that, “in fact MSNBC, Politico and NBC were exposed as conspiring with the DNC to subvert Bernie Sanders campaign.”
The WikiLeaks founder added that the public is the one that runs with the scandals, suggesting that the liberal media pushes certain agendas aside.
While WikiLeaks is determined to “wake people up” and expose the truth the public has very little to worry saying, “we publish information from political parties and governments, were not interested from private individuals unless their billionaires or trying to manipulate or to drive the political system in some way.”
Hannity asked Assange if he had any information regarding Republican Presidential Candidate, Donald Trump, Assange said they would publish any information they had, but while he “makes controversial statements, he doesn’t have any history of being in government”.
Hannity then joked that Trump doesn’t use his email personally, a reference to Clinton’s ongoing email scandal for using her private email address during her time as Secretary of State. Clinton’s server had over 2,000 emails containing classified material.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell gave Clinton tips for private email use

Did Clinton destroy evidence during email investigation?

The House Oversight Committee released an email exchange Wednesday between Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and former Secretary of State Colin Powell in which he advised her on the use of personal email.
The exchange between Clinton and Powell took place two before the start of tenure as secretary of state. According to The Wall Street Journal, Powell told Clinton that he used a personal computer to conduct government business and took steps to ensure his digital correspondence wasn’t “going through the State Department servers.”
Powell said he had "a personal computer that was hooked up to a private phone line ... so I could communicate with a wide range of friends directly without it going through the State Department servers. I even used it to do business with some foreign leaders and some of the senior folks in the Department on their personal email accounts."
The emails were cited in the FBI’s notes about the possibility that Clinton or her aides mishandled classified information during her time at the State Department. The Wall Street Journal reported that the FBI quoted some, but not all, of the conversations between Powell and Clinton.
Clinton told federal authorities that she didn’t follow Powell’s guidance, even though she used a private email account to handle government business. FBI Direct James Comey recommended no charges should be brought against Clinton, but said that she had been “extremely careless” with classified documents.
According to The Journal, Powell responded to Clinton’s note on Jan. 23, 2009 saying he used a “personal computer” and a PDA. Clinton had asked Powell’s advice on how to bring her Blackberry along with her to the State Department.
The latest release appears to show that Powell acknowledged that he exchanged work-related emails with foreign leaders and State Department officials using a personal device. He said the setup allowed him to “bypass the government’s computer network.”
“I didn’t have a BlackBerry. What I did do was have a personal computer that was hooked up to a private phone line (sounds ancient.) So I could communicate with a wide range of friends directly without it going through the State Department servers,” Powell told Clinton, according to the paper.
“I even used it to do business with some foreign leaders and some of the senior folks in the Department on their personal email accounts. I did the same thing on the road in hotels.”
The release of the email by Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md. came on the eve of a House Oversight hearing in which Republicans are expected to focus on Clinton’s use of a private email server and whether the State Department had been forthcoming with Freedom of Information requests.
However, Cummings came down on Republicans accusing lawmakers of holding Clinton to a double standard during the investigation into her private email server.
“If Republicans were truly concerned with transparency, strengthening FOIA, and preserving federal records, they would be attempting to recover Secretary Powell’s emails from AOL, but they have taken no steps to do so despite the fact that this period—including the run-up to the Iraq War—was critical to our nation’s history,” he said.
Clinton has repeatedly said the she’s followed in the footsteps of her predecessors in regards to using a private email server to handle government business.
Powell has denied encouraging Clinton to use a private email server.
A spokesperson for Powell issued a statement last month, saying he had “no recollection” of a dinner conversation between him and Clinton about using a private email server while in office.
“He did write former Secretary Clinton an email memo describing his use of his personal AOL email account for unclassified messages and how it vastly improved communications within the State Department. At the time there was no equivalent system within the Department.
"He used a secure State computer on his desk to manage classified information," the statement added.
The Wall Street Journal reported that federal law requires government email exchanges to be preserved for archiving and could be released through FOIA requests. Powell appeared to be aware of that an warned Clinton about using her BlackBerry for government work.
“There is a real danger. If it is public that you have a BlackBerry and it it (sic) government and you are using it, government or not, to do business, it may become an official record and subject to the law... Be very careful. I got around it all by not saying much and not using systems that captured the data.”
Powell also warned Clinton about the possibility of being hacked by foreign agents. He said he had numerous meetings about why he couldn’t bring his BlackBerry into secure areas of the State Department.

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Colin Kaepernick Cartoons

Team USA hockey coach says he'll bench any player who sits for national anthem

The always-colorful John Tortorella will be behind the bench as head coach of Team USA during the World Cup of Hockey later this month. He's already making it known that he's not going to tolerate any national anthem protests from his players during the tournament.
"If any of my players sit on the bench for the national anthem, they will sit there the rest of the game," Tortorella told ESPN's Linda Cohn on Tuesday.
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick has made headlines over the past few weeks thanks to his protests of the national anthem before his team's preseason games. Kaepernick has chosen to remain seated or kneeled for the anthems as a way to speak up against police brutality and racial injustice in America. Several other athletes -- including Seattle Seahawks cornerback Jeremy Lane and American soccer player Megan Rapinoe -- have followed in the quarterback's footsteps.

Van Susteren leaving Fox News, Hume tapped as replacement through election

Greta Van Susteren is leaving Fox News

Greta Van Susteren, who has hosted a top-rated evening program at Fox News for 14 years, is leaving the network.
The abrupt announcement today, in the middle of the presidential campaign, was coupled with word that Brit Hume, Fox’s senior political analyst and a former Washington managing editor, will take over as host of “On the Record” through the election.
Van Susteren, an attorney who hosted a legal show at CNN before joining Fox, has had a richly varied career, from interviewing presidential candidates to flying off to disaster zones such as Haiti, where she opened an orphanage and school named after her. The Wisconsin native has also been a forceful presence online, with her blog and with more than 1 million Twitter followers.
Bill Shine and Jack Abernethy, recently named co-presidents of Fox News, said in a joint statement: “We are grateful for Greta’s many contributions over the years and wish her continued success.” They also praised Hume as “one of the best political analysts in the industry” and “the ideal choice to host a nightly political program while the most dynamic and captivating election in recent history unfolds.”
Hume said he is “happy to take on this assignment for the balance of this extraordinary election. My Fox News colleagues have set a high standard for political coverage which I’ll do my best to uphold. I’m honored to be asked.”
According to a source familiar with the process, Van Susteren asked to renegotiate her contract after Roger Ailes resigned under pressure as Fox News chairman following a sexual harassment lawsuit. Van Susteren is one of a number of key Fox personnel whose contract included a “key man” clause allowing her to leave if Ailes departed.
When those negotiations deadlocked, Van Susteren chose to invoke the departure option, the sources said. Her last show was Thursday, and the swiftness of events did not allow her to deliver an on-air farewell.
Hume, who spends part of the year in Florida, is not interested in taking over the Washington-based show permanently. The sudden vacancy could set off a competition to fill the 7 p.m. ET slot.
This would be among the first major programming decisions made by Rupert Murdoch since the network’s owner stepped in as acting CEO of Fox News after Ailes’ resignation.

US made $1.7 billion transfer to Iran in foreign cash, Treasury says

Senators push bill to stop US Iran payments

The Obama administration acknowledged Tuesday that a $1.7 billion transfer to Iran earlier this year was paid entirely in foreign hard currency.
An initial $400 million delivery was sent to Tehran Jan. 17, the same day Iran agreed to release four American prisoners. Congressional officials told the Wall Street Journal that the remaining $1.3 billion was paid in two more installments delivered on Jan. 22 and Feb. 5.
A Treasury spokeswoman told the Associated Press the cash payments were necessary because of the "effectiveness of U.S. and international sanctions," which isolated Iran from the international finance system. The payments were made in Swiss francs, euros and other currencies.
Officials from the Treasury, Justice and State Departments briefed congressional staffers on the payment details Tuesday at the Capitol.
The $1.7 billion was the settlement of a 37-year-old arbitration claim between the U.S. and Iran. The remaining $1.3 billion represented estimated interest on the Iranian cash the U.S. had held since the 1970s.
White House officials had said that they believed the U.S. would lose the arbitration case over the initial $400 million payment, made by the last Shah of Iran months before the Islamic Revolution. Such a decision would have made them liable for much more money.
The Obama administration had claimed the transfer and the prisoner release were unrelated events, but recently acknowledged the cash was used as leverage until the Americans were allowed to leave Iran. Congressional Republicans have accused the White House of paying ransom to Iran in exchange for the prisoners, a charge Obama has rejected.
On Tuesday, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., introduced bills that would bar such payments in the future.
"The U.S. government should not be in the business of negotiating with terrorists and paying ransom money in exchange for the release of American hostages," Rubio said in a statement.

Hack Attack: Are Trump or Clinton 'choking' in this election?

Kurtz: Which candidate is coughing up the election?

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to (cough) focus on choking.
And by that, I don’t mean Hillary Clinton’s coughing spell the other day, which sparked some of the old conspiracy chatter about her health (and #HackingHillary quickly became a top Twitter trend).
And it led to these eight stacked headlines on the Drudge Report:
10 Doctors Question Hillary Health...
MSNBC Cuts Live Feed as She Sputters For Air...
FIT LASTED OVER 4 MINUTES...
She slams 'conspiracy theories'...
Media Blame Pollen...
Complete timeline of 2016 coughing fits...
PRUDEN: Voters have right to ask...
Thyroid problems linked to sudden cardiac death...
Oh, and Donald Trump tried as well, tweeting: “Mainstream media never covered Hillary’s massive 'hacking' or coughing attack, yet it is #1 trending. What’s up?”
(Trending topics are the new assignment editor!)
Clinton, for her part, told reporters on her plane—actually taking a number of questions from her press corps for the first time this year—that she would not be distracted by rumors about her health.
No, I’m talking about choking as the term is used in sports: the 9th-inning strikeout, the dropped pass in the end zone, the clunker off the rim as time expires on the clock.
The trash talk started with Donald Trump’s visit to Mexico. John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman, ripped Trump for saying he and Enrique Pena Nieto did not discuss his demand that Mexico pay for a border wall:
“It turns out Trump didn't just choke, he got beat in the room and lied about it,” Podesta said. (The “lying” allegation relates to Pena Nieto saying he had told Trump his country would never pay, but Trump may have been referring to his decision not to negotiate.)
Trump fired back yesterday, using the same verb, on “Good Morning America”:
"So let me just tell you about choking. I don't choke. She chokes. Look at the deals she's made. She's responsible for so many bad things that have happened to our country, including the signing by her husband of NAFTA, which has drained our country of its jobs. I've been given A-plus, including by you people ... I have been given A-pluses for the job I did in Mexico.”
Now there’s a serious issue beneath the locker-room jibes: Who can withstand the pressures of the presidency? It’s reminiscent of the 3 a.m. phone call ad that Clinton ran against Barack Obama eight years ago.
The charges and countercharges have been flying fast and furious in the last 48 hours. Clinton, on her plane—and I’m glad she’s finally taking press questions—said Trump must have something to hide in not releasing his tax returns.
Trump said Monday that “I think people don’t care. I don’t think anybody cares, except some members of the press.” It’s worth noting that every presidential nominee since Richard Nixon has released tax records.
Clinton also said she must be creating jobs in the “conspiracy theory machine factory.”
Trump, meanwhile, has been hammering away at questions surrounding the Clinton Foundation. In an echo of that earlier Hillary ad, his communications chief Jason Miller said: “When that 3 a.m. phone call comes, we can’t have an ethically-challenged president on the line who took truckloads of cash from other countries.”
And discussing Russia yesterday, Trump said: “Putin looks at her and he laughs, OK? He laughs. Putin. Putin looks at Hillary Clinton and he smiles.”
The intensified pace comes as the media are gradually acknowledging that the polls are tightening. I wrote yesterday that the media narrative was lagging behind the surveys showing Trump closing the gap in national numbers. And yesterday, a new CNN poll gave Trump a 2-point lead over Clinton, or within the margin of error.
No wonder the candidates are accusing each other of coughing, choking and caving in.
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.

Trump says latest FBI document dump 'disqualifying' for Clinton

Donald Trump makes strong push for the veteran vote

Donald Trump said Tuesday that recently released FBI documents proved that Hillary Clinton "fails to meet the minimum standard for running for public office," as both presidential candidates tried to appeal to military and retired voters in Southern swing states.
At a rally in Greenville, N.C., Trump said Clinton's use of a private email server for her correspondence while secretary of state was "disqualifying," a pointed escalation of his case against the Democratic nominee.
"It’s clear from the FBI report that Hillary Clinton lied about her handling of confidential information," said Trump, who added, "This is like Watergate, only it's worse."
Late last week, the FBI published scores of pages summarizing interviews with Clinton and her top aides from the recently closed criminal investigation into her use of a private email server in the basement of her New York home.
The summaries revealed that the FBI identified 13 mobile devices associated with Clinton's two phone numbers, but the Justice Department was unable to obtain any of them. On another occasion, an aide to former President Bill Clinton recalled "two instances where he destroyed Clinton's old mobile phones by breaking them in half or hitting them with a hammer."
"Who uses 13 different iPhones in four years?" Trump asked rhetorically Tuesday. "People who have nothing to hide don't destroy phones with hammers. They don't ... destroy evidence to keep it from being publicly archived as required under federal law."
Earlier Tuesday, Clinton accused Trump of insulting America's veterans and pressing dangerous military plans around the globe.
Clinton, addressing supporters in Florida, warned that Trump would lead the nation back to war in the Middle East. And to military vets and their families, she pointed anew to his summertime dust-up with the Muslim parents of a slain American soldier.
“He called the military a disaster,” Clinton said. “He said, ‘I know more about ISIS than the generals do' ... His whole campaign has been one long insult to all those who have worn the uniform."
She also vowed to help the military by giving it the proper equipment to “dismantle terror networks” and providing members and ex-members with better mental-health care.
In response, Trump touted a letter from 88 retired generals and admirals citing an urgent need for a "course correction" in America's national security policy. At his evening rally, the real estate mogul suggested that he would rely on the generals to make up for his own lack of national security inexperience to take on ISIS. He vowed to give military leaders a "simple instruction" soon after taking office: "They will have 30 days to submit to the Oval Office a plan for soundly and quickly defeating ISIS."
Clinton pushed back, saying Trump has lagged in securing key military supporters compared to past Republican nominees including John McCain and Mitt Romney. She pointed to her endorsements from retired Marine Gen. John Allen, who blasted Trump at the Democratic National Committee, and former CIA deputy director Mike Morell.
Trump also also extolled a new CNN/ORC poll that shows him leading Clinton 45-43 percent in a four-way race with Libertarian Gary Johnson at 7 percent and Green Party’s Jill Stein at 2 percent.
The numbers are a stark reversal from mid-August, when Clinton led by roughly 8 percentage points.
“As for polls, I don’t pay much attention,” Clinton told reporters Tuesday on her new campaign jet en route to Tampa for her only event of the day.
The Democratic nominee said she is instead focusing on what she calls Trump’s un-American views on dictators, illegal immigrants and religious tolerance.
“So dark, so divisive, so dangerous,” Clinton said in Tampa. “I want to be a president who brings a country together. I’m glad that [running mate] Tim Kaine and I are running a campaign of issues, not insults.”
The conflicting messages came as the candidates prepared to appear at an MSNBC forum Wednesday night on national security. While they will appear separately and not be on stage at the same time, it could serve as a warm-up to their highly-anticipated first presidential debate on Sept. 26 at New York's Hofstra University.
Meanwhile, Clinton's campaign released a new television ad entitled, "Sacrifice," showing military veterans watching some of the New York businessman's more provocative statements.
The spot includes clips of Trump claiming to know more about ISIS than military generals, and his criticism of McCain, the Republican senator from Arizona and a former prisoner of war. The ad, which features former Georgia Sen. Max Cleland, a triple-amputee who served in Vietnam, also keys on Trump's assertion that he has sacrificed a lot compared to families who have lost loved ones in conflict.
"Our veterans deserve better," reads a line at the end of the ad, which is airing in Ohio, Florida, Iowa, Nevada and Pennsylvania.
Clinton spent much of late August fundraising in such wealthy enclaves as Hollywood and the Hamptons -- for the TV ads, state-level operations and other campaign expenses needed in the final 62 days of the White House race.
She raised a combined $143 million in August for her campaign, along with the Democratic National Committee and state parties -- her best month yet.
Clinton began September with more than $68 million in her campaign's bank account to use against Trump, who has not yet released initial fundraising totals for August.
Clinton on Monday used a campaign plane for the first time this election cycle, a Boeing 737 with about 100 seats for passengers and crew.
She has since taken serious questions at least twice from reporters flying with the campaign, in an apparent attempt to quell criticism that she has avoids the news media and has not held a full-fledged press conference in 276 days, arguments the Clinton camp disputes.
Trump flies in a private jet, while his press corps travels in a separate one. The wealthy businessman on Monday allowed reporters on his plane, which he said lacks such accommodations, but vowed to occasionally continue taking questions onboard.

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

U.S. Congress Cartoons

Congress returns for brief, election-year session with Zika funding, avoiding shutdown topping its list

Back to business: Lawmakers' big agenda after summer recess

Lawmakers return Tuesday to Capitol Hill for a short election-season session in which their main -- though politically daunting -- objective will be providing money to keep the government running, with outside hopes of providing funding to fight the growing, mosquito-borne Zika virus.
The House and Senate will have less than four weeks to passing a temporary spending bill, known as a continuing resolution, to keep the entire federal government operating past October 1.
Democrats and Republicans, after a seven-week summer recess, are indeed eager to pass such a bill to avoid being blamed for a government shutdown like the one in 2013 -- with control of the White House and Senate at stake, as well as all 435 House seats on the ballot.
However, disagreement between the parties and within the GOP will, as in years past, likely result in political wrangling until the deadline.
Conservatives, and even Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, want a package that lasts until next March, which would prevent such negotiations in a so-called “lame duck” congressional session in November with a newly-elected president and Congress.
However, the consensus among leaders in both parties appears to be a temporary measure through December.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said last week that he and fellow Democrats in the chamber won’t support a spending plan that runs beyond Christmas.
"We are not doing anything into next year, and every Republican should be aware of that right now," the Nevada Democrat said.
Because the shutdown-prevention measure simply has to pass, it's a tempting target for lawmakers seeking to use it as a vehicle for their preferences. For instance, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., is pressing for emergency grants to help communities in his flood-ravaged state to recover.
"I hope we can accomplish that in September," Cassidy said.
Lawmakers left Washington in July without resolving a dispute over money for Zika. The virus can cause severe birth defects and is linked to a host of other maladies.
The Senate is making the issue its first order of business -- holding a procedural vote on Tuesday.
Obama asked Congress in February for $1.9 billion in emergency money, but legislation to partially pay for his proposal collapsed in July amid various fights. Among them was a Republican provision to deny money to Puerto Rican affiliates of Planned Parenthood.
Voters in Florida, where the virus is spreading from Puerto Rico, meanwhile, are blaming Republicans for the lack of additional funding and for taking such a long break amid such a major health concern.
GOP leaders probably will try to keep the spending bill as free of unrelated additions as possible, especially now. If GOP leaders were to grant Cassidy's request, it would make it more difficult to say no to others, such as Democrats seeking money for fixing the lead-tainted water system of Flint, Michigan.
House conservatives also are looking to press ahead with impeaching IRS Commissioner John Koskinen over the destruction of agency emails and misleading testimony on whether the tax agency, before his arrival, improperly scrutinized conservative groups seeking nonprofit status.
The impeachment drive is a headache for Republicans who believe that Koskinen's conduct isn't serious enough to warrant impeachment, but who may be reluctant to support the Democratic appointee in such a politically charged environment.
In a recent memo, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said lawmakers will take up legislation regarding the Obama administration's $400 million payment to Iran in January, made immediately after four U.S. prisoners were released.
The payment, for undelivered arms to the shah of Iran, was made on the same day of the prisoner release, and Republicans call it "ransom."
The as-yet-unreleased legislation is designed to prevent a repeat, but seems like an election-season messaging effort.
In addition, House Republican leaders recently conducted a half-hour conference call with their rank-and-file member about a September game plan.
However, sources familiar with the call said the leaders offered few specifics on their strategy on such big issues as Zika, funding the government and the possible Koskinen impeachment effort.
“It was the least informative call I’ve ever been on,” groused one Republican lawmaker.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., also wants to advance a popular water-projects measure.
But the priority is to simply adjourn the chamber to allow embattled incumbents such as Sens. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and Richard Burr, R-NC, to get back home and campaign for re-election against the political headwinds created by Trump.
The abbreviated session should give GOP-run committees a final pre-election chance to hold hearings on the Obama administration and other targets such as EpiPen manufacturer Mylan, N.V.
That company has come under withering criticism for steep price increases for its life-saving injector, which can stop potentially fatal allergic reactions to insect bites and stings, and foods such as peanuts and eggs.
House Republicans are promising hearings on Hillary Clinton's emails. FBI Director James Comey criticized Clinton's use of a homebrew email server to handle sensitive work-related emails as "extremely careless," but said his agency's yearlong investigation found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
Republicans now are demanding that the Justice Department open a new investigation into whether Clinton lied during testimony last year before the House Benghazi committee.
They claim the FBI note may show Clinton provided inconsistent answers to questions about her handling of emails containing classified information.

Clinton suggests Russia using cyberattacks to influence White House race

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said Monday she was “really concerned” about recent reports and other indications that the Russian government might be trying to interfere with the White House race.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Clinton cited official assessments that Russian intelligence services are behind the recent cyberattacks of computers at the Democratic National Committee. Hackers were able to breach DNC servers this summer, which led to WikiLeaks publishing 20,000 DNC documents prior to the Democratic National Convention.
The leaks showed that party officials leaned favorably toward Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders and led to Debbie Wasserman Schultz stepping down as the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee. Clinton compared the hacks to an electronic version of the Watergate scandal.
Clinton also expressed concerns over Republican nominee Donald Trump’s remarks in late July about urging the Russians to find emails her office had deleted, which Trump’s campaign later said were taken out of context. Clinton pointed out that Trump vowed, if elected, to “pull out of NATO “and furthermore has praised (Russian President Vladimir) Putin.”
“We’ve never had a foreign adversarial power be already involved in our electoral process with the DNC hacks,” she said. “We’ve never had the nominee of one of our major parties urging the Russians to hack more. So I am grateful that this is being taken seriously and I want everyone—Democrat, Republican, independent—to understand the real threat that this represents.”
Putin has repeatedly said that Moscow wasn’t involved in the hack attack of the DNC servers, but called the cyberattacks a public service in an interview with Bloomberg News.
“Listen, does it even matter who hacked this data?’’ he said. “The important thing is the content that was given to the public.’
“There’s no need to distract the public’s attention from the essence of the problem by raising some minor issues connected with the search for who did it. But I want to tell you again, I don’t know anything about it, and on a state level Russia has never done this.”
Security experts have also pointed to Russian groups as being involved in the security breaches.
Clinton’s comments came in a rare question-and-answer session with reporters. She also defended her handling of confidential material as secretary of state and answering several other pressing questions, amid criticism she has largely avoided the news media during her campaign.
The news media, Clinton critics and others have argued that Clinton has not held a full-fledged press conference in roughly 275 days.
Her campaign disagrees, pointing to an exchange last month with reporters at the conclusion of a National Association of Black Journalists conference in Washington, D.C.
Whether Monday’s exchange with reporters was an attempt to end the criticism, and whether such criticism will end, remains unclear.
The campaign plane is a Boeing 737 with about 100 seats for passengers and crew.

Polling mania: Why are many pundits still convinced that trump can't win?

The presidential race is tightening, according to the polls that journalists swear by.
But much of the coverage still portrays Donald Trump as a long shot and Hillary Clinton as a virtual shoo-in.
What’s up with that?
A giant caveat: those of us in the news business are way too addicted to polls. We treat every 2-point, margin-of-error swing in a swing state as a tremor, if not an earthquake. It’s early September, we haven’t had the debates yet, and too many of us are impersonating Karnak the Magnificent.
When Clinton jumped out to as much as a 12-point lead after the Democratic convention, many pundits were convinced, privately if not publicly, that Trump was toast. But it was fairly obvious that the race would tighten, as races tend to do, and Hillary has been slipping, especially in the wake of new revelations about her email and family foundation.
And yet here was a major headline on Politico: “Clinton’s Advisers Tell Her to Prep for a Landslide.”
Yes, “advisers to Hillary Clinton’s campaign have identified so many paths to an Election Day victory they are now focusing not only on the one or two battlegrounds that would ensure a win but on opening up the possibility of an Electoral College landslide.” And these advisers’ leaked assessments reveal “a level of confidence Clinton’s inner circle has been eager to squash for weeks.”
The same day, there was another Politico headline. “Inside Trump Tower: Facing Grim Reality.”
That story flatly declared: “Donald Trump’s campaign is teetering, threatening to collapse under the weight of a candidate whose personality outweighs his political skill.”
Threatening to collapse. Wow.
No wonder we’re seeing more stories about Clinton’s White House agenda, Clinton’s potential Cabinet picks, and whether reaching out to moderate Republicans will push Madame President toward the center.
Now Clinton is the front-runner, no question about it. But a Fox News poll has her up by just 2 points in a four-way race (and 6 points in a head-to-head, down from 10 points in early August). Morning Consult shows Clinton by 2. IBD has them tied. Rasmussen has Trump by 1 point. The L.A. Times puts Trump up by 2. USA Today has Clinton by 7.
After the horrible stretch that Trump endured over the summer, that is a competitive race.
Now the battleground polls are what count, and there Clinton is ahead, by varying margins, in virtually all key states. She has succeeded in making such reliably red states as Arizona and Utah at least competitive, while Trump hasn’t been able to do that in such traditionally blue states as Pennsylvania and Michigan.
But he’s within striking distance in enough states that he could wind up at 270.
Bottom line: The geniuses who declared that Trump could never win the GOP nomination ought to be careful about saying, implying or insinuating that he can never win the White House.
At least until October.
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.

Clinton, Trump take jobs message to battleground states, in Labor Day barnstorm

Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump on Labor Day barnstormed through America’s industrial heartland appealing to workers with promises of better-paying jobs and a return to prosperity -- in a White House race so narrow now that their entourages shared the same airport tarmac and roadway in battleground Ohio.
“It's kind of interesting to have all the planes here on the same tarmac. Just shows you how important Ohio is. We're going to be here a lot," Democratic vice-presidential nominee Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine told Clinton after she flew into Cleveland, using a campaign plane for the first time this election cycle.
Clinton used the plane -- a Boeing 737 with about 100 seats for passengers and crew -- to take several questions from some of the roughly 40 reporters onboard, amid criticism she is largely avoiding the news media.
She addressed the issue of saying dozens of times that she couldn’t recall specific information or events when the FBI interviewed her last month about her use of a private computer server while secretary of state, according to recently released FBI notes.
“The fact that I couldn’t remember certain meetings doesn’t affect the commitment I had to the treatment of classified material,” Clinton said.
She also said she was “really concerned” about recent reports and other indications that the Russian government might be trying to interfere with the White House race.
And she said she was unaware that aides had erased 23 days of emails, after revelations about the private server became public.
By the end of the day, Clinton and her Democratic presidential team made stops in Illinois, Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Meanwhile, Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, and running-mate Indiana Gov. Mike Pence made four stops in Ohio, where recent polls show Trump now trailing by less than 2 percentage points.
“You see the crowds,” Trump told Fox News at a fair in Canfield, Ohio. “We're going to bring jobs back.”
Clinton got off to a rough start at her first event, in Cleveland, suffering through a coughing spell, telling supporters, “Every time I think about Trump I get allergic.”
“If Tim and I are elected, we’re going to stop the attacks on unions,” continued Clinton, who was joined on stage by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. “We’re going to bring jobs back to Ohio.”
Earlier in the day, Kaine teamed up with Vice President Biden at Pittsburgh’s annual Labor Day parade, in the Clinton campaign’s effort to ensure union support turns into union votes in November.
“We have to make sure labor is right there with us,” said Kaine, arguing organized labor’s efforts have increased wages for all U.S. workers. “Nobody understands team work like organized labor.”
Biden took the stage next, telling the crowd: “I work for Hillary Clinton. … Unions have built this country.”
Former President Bill Clinton made stops in Detroit and Cincinnati, while Clinton primary rival Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders campaigned for her in New Hampshire.
The Clinton-Trump race has gotten closer over the past weeks, according to recent polls.
The RealClearPolitics polls average shows Clinton leading Trump by roughly 4 percentage points, compared to about 8 points in mid-August.
Her numbers dropped amid the FBI report and more revelations about the level of access Clinton Foundation donors had to the State Department while and after Clinton ran the agency from 2009 to 2013.
However, Trump also trails in essentially all of the of so-called battleground states that will largely decide the race -- including Colorado, Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Clinton unveiled the campaign plane amid criticism she has not held a full-fledged press conference in roughly 275 days to talks about the emails, the foundation and other issues.
At Trump and Pence’s first stop, a round-table discussion with union members, Trump, a wealthy businessman, warned that America's manufacturing jobs are "going to hell."
Trump also appeared with Democratic Mayor Tom Coyne, of Brook Park, Ohio, who said he supported Trump in this spring's Republican primary and would vote for him this fall.
"The mayor today is just one example of what's happening across this country," Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said. "Voters who traditionally have not voted Republican or haven't even voted in a very long time seem to be coming out to support this messenger and this message."
As he left Cleveland for his next stop in Youngstown, Trump extended a rare invitation to a handful of journalists on his private jet, and said that "on occasion," he will invite journalists to travel with him.
"It doesn't have to be all the time," he added.
No Republican has won the White House without winning Ohio and Trump is trying to overcome some splintering in the state party, which was supportive of Ohio Gov. John Kasich during the presidential primary.
While Labor Day has traditionally been the kickoff to the fall campaign, both Clinton and Trump have been locked in an intense back-and-forth throughout the summer.
Clinton has questioned Trump's temperament and preparation to serve as commander in chief while seeking to connect the reality television star to the extreme "alt-right" movement within the Republican Party.
Trump visited a predominantly black church in Detroit on Saturday in a rare appearance with minority voters, aiming to counter Clinton's argument to moderate and suburban voters that he has allowed a racist fringe to influence his candidacy.
The start of full-fledged campaigning opens a pivotal month, culminating in the first presidential debate on Sept. 26 at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. Polls show Trump trailing Clinton in a series of must-win battleground states, meaning the debates could be his best chance at reorienting the race.
Clinton will have millions of dollars at her disposal this fall to air television advertising and power a sophisticated get-out-the vote operation in key states.
The former secretary of state raised a combined $143 million in August for her campaign, the Democratic National Committee and state parties -- her best month yet.
She began September with more than $68 million in her campaign's bank account to use against Trump, who has not yet released initial fundraising totals for August.

Monday, September 5, 2016

Putin and Obama Cartoons

Obama, Putin meet on sidelines of G20, vow to keep working toward Syria deal

The U.S. and Russia failed to come to a deal Monday on how to end the bloodshed between U.S.-backed rebels and Syria’s Russian-aligned regime, but vowed to keep up negotiations as the G20 summit in China came to an end.
President Barack Obama and Russian leader Vladimir Putin attended an economic summit as pressure mounted to get a deal done. Obama and Putin huddled for 90 minutes on the sidelines of the G20, according to a senior White House official.
The official told the Associated Press that the two sides clarified some of the large gaps in how a deal would be implemented. The two leaders directed their teams to schedule a meeting for some time later this week.
Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also met, but came out of their meeting without a deal to announce. The two diplomats met for an hour but emerged still at oods on certain issues, a senior State Department official said.
The talks culminated a several weeks of searching for a cease-fire between Syrian President Bashar Assad's government and moderate rebels that would expand access for hundreds of thousands of civilians caught in the crossfire. The strategy has hinged on an unlikely U.S.-Russian militarily partnership against extremist groups operating in Syria.
But beyond the Islamic State and Al Qaeda, the two powers have conflicting views about who fits in that category - as well as a deep and mutual distrust that the other party will hold up its end of the bargain.
"We're not there yet," Obama told reporters Sunday. "It's premature for us to say that there is a clear path forward, but there is the possibility at least for us to make some progress on that front."
Kerry and Lavrov hoped that a deal could come together and even scheduled a press conference to announce what they were speaking about. Those plans were canceled after both parties couldn’t reach an agreement.
"I've said all along we're not going to rush," said Kerry, who has negotiated several failed truces with Russia in recent months.
Kerry said the two sides had worked through many technical issues but said the U.S. didn't want to enter into an illegitimate agreement. In recent days, the State Department has said it only wants a nationwide cease-fire between Assad's military and the rebels, and not another "cessation of hostilities" that is time-limited and only stops fighting in some cities and regions.
The talks faltered Sunday when Russia pulled back from agreement on issues the U.S. negotiators believed had been settled, the State Department official said.
As the diplomats were negotiating, Syrian pro-government forces backed by airstrikes launched an offensive in the northern city of Aleppo, capturing areas they lost last month and besieging rebel-held neighborhoods. It was a major blow to insurgent groups that was likely to raise fresh concerns about Russian support for the Syrian military's attacks on Assad's opponents.
The Syria conflict has killed as many as a half-million people since 2011 and caused millions of Syrians to flee their homes, contributing to a global migration crisis. Amid the chaos, IS has emerged as a global terror threat.
Kerry and Lavrov's talks represent their third significant attempt since July to finalize a new U.S.-Russian military partnership that Moscow has long sought. The package would include provisions so aid can reach besieged areas of Syria and measures to prevent Assad's government from bombing areas where U.S.-backed rebels are operating.
U.S. officials have said that as part of a deal, Russia would have to halt offensives by Assad's government, something it has failed to do over months of diplomatic efforts. And the U.S. must get rebels to break ranks with the Al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, a task that grew tougher after its fighters last month successfully broke the siege of Aleppo, Syria's largest city and the site of fierce recent fighting.
Negotiators on both sides have spent weeks poring over maps of potential areas where opposition groups operate and where Assad's forces would be prohibited from launching airstrikes. The idea is for Russia to use its significant influence over Assad to ensure compliance with the deal.
But the U.S. has long been skeptical of the military coordination part of the deal, because it says Russia has mainly targeted moderate, U.S.-backed opposition groups in a bid to prop up Assad. The U.S. wants Russia to focus exclusively on ISIS and Al Qaeda-linked groups. Both Defense Secretary Ash Carter and National Intelligence Director James Clapper have expressed misgivings about sharing intelligence and targeting information with Moscow.
Neither side explained Sunday in detail what sticking points remain. Kerry said the U.S. wanted a deal with the best chance for survival. Lavrov's deputy, Sergei Ryabkov, said a deal was "close" but that Washington had to dissociate itself from Nusra.
"Many of the groups considered acceptable by the U.S. have actually affiliated with the Nusra Front, while the Nusra Front is using them to avoid being attacked," Ryabkov told Russian media, citing a longstanding complaint of his government.

US soccer star Megan Rapinoe kneels during national anthem in 'little nod' to Kaepernick

Another Spoiled Idiot.

U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe knelt during the national anthem Sunday night before the Seattle Reign’s match against the Chicago Red Stars “in a little nod” to San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
"It was very intentional," Rapinoe told American Soccer Now after Seattle's 2-2 tie in the National Women's Soccer League game. "It was a little nod to Kaepernick and everything that he's standing for right now. I think it's actually pretty disgusting the way he was treated and the way that a lot of the media has covered it and made it about something that it absolutely isn't. We need to have a more thoughtful, two-sided conversation about racial issues in this country.
"Being a gay American, I know what it means to look at the flag and not have it protect all of your liberties. It was something small that I could do and something that I plan to keep doing in the future and hopefully spark some meaningful conversation around it. It's important to have white people stand in support of people of color on this. We don't need to be the leading voice, of course, but standing in support of them is something that's really powerful."
The 31-year-old Rapinoe helped the U.S. win the World Cup last year and played in the Rio Olympics.
"It's the least I can do. Keep the conversation going," Rapinoe tweeted.
Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the anthem to protest racial injustice and minority oppression sent a shockwave across the nation when he remained seated on the bench before a preseason game against the Green Bay Packers.
On Thursday, he and safety Eric Reid kneeled during the anthem on Salute to the Military Night in San Diego. Seattle Seahawks defensive back Jeremy Lane sat before his game against the Oakland Raiders as well.
Kaepernick has said that he will continue to sit or kneel through the national anthem until he feels change has been made. He also plans to donate the first $1 million he makes this season to groups that help communities.
"I'm going to continue to stand with the people that are being oppressed," Kaepernick said last week. "To me this is something that has to change. When there's significant change and I feel like that flag represents what it's supposed to represent, this country is representing people the way that it's supposed to, I'll stand."
Santa Clara police have now threatened to stop working 49ers games in retaliation to Kaepernick’s protest.

Carson supports Trump's appeal to black voters, suggests Dems 'fear' losing base

Ben Carson: Trump was right to highlight Chicago violence

Ben Carson on Sunday supported Donald Trump’s outreach to African-American voters, defending Trump against accusations that the Republican presidential nominee is pandering to minorities and arguing Democrats “have the explaining to do.”
“I’ve had many discussions with him about it. He becomes very animated during those discussions. This is a subject about which he cares deeply,” Carson, a former 2016 Republican presidential candidate, told “Fox News Sunday.” "And what is going to be accomplished is something that many in the Democrat Party fear -- and that is an alternative."
The retired neurosurgeon made the comments a day after Trump attended services at the Great Faith Ministries International church in Detroit, where he vowed to listen to the concerns of black voters and to help them and other minorities in U.S. cities plagued by crime, high unemployment and underachieving schools.
“The Republican Party has not made an extensive outreach to certain communities, including the African-American community because they've pretty much written that off as Democrat territory. Donald Trump is changing that narrative,” said Carson, a Detroit native who accompanied Trump on his visit.
Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, and other members of her party have repeatedly tried to discredit Trump’s outreach efforts, arguing he has a long history of “bigotry” and criticizing his pitch to minorities of: “What the hell do you have to lose?”
The backlash follows weeks of Trump aggressively courting the black vote, accusing Clinton and other Democrats running major U.S. cities of implementing policies that have failed to help minority residents for decades.
Most polls show Trump is likely to get about 1 percent of the black vote in November.
Later on “Fox News Sunday,” New York Democratic Rep. Gregory Meeks said Trump was trying to “con” minority voters, including fellow blacks.
“It’s not real,” he said. “This was his first time visiting a black church. What you see here is a bait and switch.”
Meeks stopped short of calling Trump a bigot but said he has said “racist things” and has exhibited “racist tendencies.”
Carson on Sunday also defended criticism that Trump has called for “school choice” though he's presented no formal plan.
“You get to choose the school of your choice,” said Carson, arguing that Trump supports a voucher system that will allow families to send their children to better schools if the ones in their neighborhoods are underperforming.
“It’s really the Democratic Party that has the explaining to do,” Carson said. “They’ve been in charge of our cities for a long time. ... Detroit was once the most prosperous city in the United States, some people say in the world. From there it went to the largest bankruptcy. That was not a coincidence. And we see that in our large cities across the nation under Democratic control."