Sunday, October 23, 2016

Clinton, Trump rooted in battlegrounds Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia with time expiring

The campaigns for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton on Saturday hunkered down in the handful of states that will likely decide their presidential race -- with Trump again improvising in Pennsylvania ahead of Clinton’s swing through the state’s two big Democratic strongholds.
The Trump campaign billed the speech in historic Gettysburg as Trump’s vision for his first 100 days in office, if elected.
Trump called for term limits in Congress and even vowed to stop the AT&T-Time Warner merger because, he argued, the deal and other similar ones result in "too much concentration of power.” But first he vowed to sue the women who have accused him in the media of inappropriate behavior -- a situation he says has “rigged” the election against him.
“Every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign -- total fabrication,” Trump told the crowd. “The events never happened. Never. All of these liars will be sued after the election is over.”
Trump made two stops in Pennsylvania before heading to Virginia and Ohio, while Clinton and running mate Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine held late Saturday rallies in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
“There are no more devoted, selfless people than our Christian brothers in the United States,” Trump said at Regent University, a private Christian college in Virginia Beach, in an effort to keep Republicans’ dependable Evangelical vote.
The Hillary for America Campaign said about Trump’s comments in Gettysburg: “In what was billed as a major closing argument speech, Trump’s major new policy was to promise political and legal retribution against the women who have accused him of groping them.”
The race for the White House has, like in most modern-day presidential cycles, come down to which candidate will win the battleground states -- or those in which voters could swing either way.
With early voting already underway in several states, and with Election Day just 17 days away, Clinton leads Trump by 6 percentage points, according to the RealClearPolitics averaging of national polls.
As of Saturday, more than 5.3 million early votes have been cast, far ahead of the pace at this time in 2012.
Balloting is underway in 34 out of 37 early-voting states, both in person and by mail.
More than 46 million people are expected to vote before Election Day -- or as much as 40 percent of all votes cast.
Clinton has been the Democratic frontrunner for the entire race against Trump, the Republican Party’s unpredictable nominee.
She has leads in battleground states including Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Virginia, while Trump leads in Georgia, Iowa, Missouri and Ohio.
"I have a special place in my heart for Pittsburg," Clinton said Saturday in Pennsylvania. "I know we have work to do in Washington, but I think I can do it."
In Ohio, Trump running mate Indiana Gov. Mike Pence attended a pumpkin show in Circleville where he climbed atop a flatbed trailer to examine prize-winning 1,500-pound pumpkins.
Circleville is reliable Republican territory. Mitt Romney won 58 percent in surrounding Pickaway County four years ago. Trump is trying to maximize his advantage outside Ohio's largest cities in hopes of flipping a state President Obama won twice.
Pence started his day on the campaign trail in his home state, at the Future Farmers of America convention, in Indianapolis, where he praised agriculture as an economic and cultural pillar of the United States. He later joined Trump at a rally in Cleveland.
While many Americans see Clinton as better prepared to be commander in chief than Trump, she's consistently viewed unfavorably by more than half of potential voters. Most also consider her dishonest.
In Gettysburg, where Republican President Abraham Lincoln gave his famous address in November 1863 in an attempt to unite Americans amid the Civil War, Trump also called for new congressional term limits. And he said that he’d deport without delay immigrants who were imprisoned for violent crimes.

Saturday, October 22, 2016

Trump Media Bias Cartoons

'HANNITY': Trump says media 'poison the voters' by publishing allegations

Trump

Hannity

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump lashed out Friday at coverage of his campaign, saying that the press was attempting to "poison the voters" by publishing allegations that he had sexually assaulted women in the past.
WATCH: TRUMP SAYS MEDIA 'POISON THE VOTERS'
"Just so you understand, all that stuff it was fabricated, made up, never happened," Trump told Fox News' Sean Hannity on 'Hannity'. "It never happened. It’s not like a question of it may have, none of it ever happened."
WATCH: MEDIA SLAM TRUMP OVER CLINTON JOKES
Multiple women have come forward in recent weeks to accuse the real estate mogul of sexual misconduct. The allegations date as far back as 1979 and up through 2007.
Trump tied the accusations back to emails linked by Wikileaks that showed close professional ties between members of the media and high-ranking Clinton campaign officials.
"Look at what came out today about the New York Times where they have reporters that are soft or safe or something," Trump said. "I have those same reporters and they are brutal. They’re not brutal, they’re dishonest."
"This is all stuff that doesn’t exist," Trump added. "This is dirty, disgusting stuff. And it’ll be revealed at some point ... And you know what, it’s no way that it should be. We’re supposed to be a great democracy."
The GOP nominee also weighed on secretly recorded footage showing Democratic operatives appearing to brag about inciting violence at Republican rallies.
"When you look at those tapes, it’s disgusting," Trump said, discussing a Chicago rally that was canceled due to a riot March 11 "They’re real thugs, by the way. Real thugs and they injured policemen, they injured people and they should be put in jail ... And who got blamed for it? Our rally people. Us. Me. We all got blamed for it and it had nothing to do with us."

Hannity Surges to #1 Rated Show on Fox News, KellyFile Plummets to a Dismal 5th (4 Days ago)

WOW…this is really bad news for Megyn Kelly and shows where Fox News viewers are in terms of what type of coverage they are looking for.

Donald Trump as GOP nominee has caused a Catch-22 for Fox from the start. On one hand, their viewers are over 90% right leaning, but on the other they are an “establishment” network channel and had no interest in an outsider like Donald Trump taking over the GOP party like he did.

Now, they have hedged, by allowing Sean Hannity to have a fair Trump coverage show and going forward with Kelly-file as a non-stop Trump bash-a-thon with the type of biased programming any Hillary Clinton SuperPac would salivate over.

As a result, Hannity has surged to first place and Megyn Kelly has PLUMMETED to a dismal 5th place.Once considered “the future of Fox News” by some, “Kellyfile”(2.104) was ranked BELOW

Hannity (2.471)
O’Reilly (2.231)
Bret Baier (2.168)
TheFive (2.155)

A pretty dismal 5th place when you consider she is the “darling” of Rupert Murdoch.Along with her OBSESSIVE HATE for Trump, Kelly may not admit it openly, but is clearly a Hillary fan and uses the same type of insulting verbiage to attack Trump supporters as Clinton did when she called us a “Basket of Deplorables”

Rush Limbaugh And Michelle Malkin Lead Conservative Attack Against Fox News (1st published Jan. 16th 2016)

If you’ve noticed Fox News becoming more of a shill for establishment candidates and liberal causes lately, well, you’re not alone. After a major shakeup at the network, several major conservative pundits — including Rush Limbaugh and Michelle Malkin — have started to push back against the network’s leftward drift.
In an article published earlier this week by New York Magazine, Fox News insiders said that the conservative network’s architect, Roger Ailes, was being slowly pushed out of the picture.
“(Ailes) seems detached and removed,” an unnamed Fox News personality was quoted as saying.
“He’s not around as much,” a friend of Ailes added. “He doesn’t have as many meetings with talent.”
As Rupert Murdoch’s sons — Lachlan and James Murdoch — have taken over their father’s media empire, Ailes’ role has been relegated to a secondary one.
In addition, the once-conservative network has embraced establishment candidates like former Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. Marco Rubio and Gov. John Kasich. Meanwhile, the network has either marginalized or been hostile to candidates like businessman Donald Trump or Sen. Ted Cruz.
“I can tell you, my base is fed up with Fox,” former Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin said. In her recent book “Sold Out,” Malkin went as far as to call Murdoch a “treacherous bedfellow.”
However, she pointed out that even though Fox was becoming less conservative, there still weren’t many other options for conservatives looking to escape mainstream media’s liberal bias.
“After the big brouhaha with Trump, there was all the apocalyptic talk of the ratings cratering. But there’s still nowhere else on TV to go,” Malkin said. “There’s a big opportunity. These people are sick and tired of seeing (South Carolina Sen.) Lindsey Graham all over Fox.”
Rush Limbaugh agreed. As the man who set the blueprint for much of Fox’s punditry, Limbaugh is in a unique position to judge the network. He’s also in a unique position to judge Roger Ailes, too — Ailes was his producer during Rush’s foray into television in the early ’90s and remains a close friend.
However, Limbaugh recently said he “no longer watches cable news,” a quote a Limbaugh friend told reporters was directed specifically at Fox News.
People within conservative political circles have noticed the drift as well, the article alleged.
“I’ve joked to people that they’ll be doing a segment about kumquats in China and somehow they’ll mention Rubio,” an unnamed associate of Ted Cruz’s is quoted as saying.

Facebook employees fume after push to censor Trump posts rebuffed

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg

Some of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s posts on Facebook have set off an intense debate inside the social media company over the past year, with some employees arguing certain posts about banning Muslims from entering the U.S. should be removed for violating the site’s rules on hate speech, according to people familiar with the matter.
The decision to allow Mr. Trump’s posts went all the way to Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, who ruled in December that it would be inappropriate to censor the candidate, according to the people familiar with the matter. That decision has prompted employees across the company to complain on Facebook’s internal messaging service and in person to Zuckerberg and other managers that it was bending the site’s rules for Trump, and some employees who work in a group charged with reviewing content on Facebook threatened to quit, the people said.
“Facebook has never contacted us about employee complaints and has never removed a post,” a spokeswoman for Trump’s campaign said. “We are not concerned about the liberal Clinton elites who are so intolerant of conservative ideas that they would seek to censor the Trump campaign’s enormously successful Facebook engagement.”
In a statement provided Wednesday evening, a Facebook spokeswoman said its reviewers consider the context of a post when assessing whether to take it down. “That context can include the value of political discourse,” she said. “Many people are voicing opinions about this particular content and it has become an important part of the conversation around who the next U.S. president will be.”
On Friday, senior members of Facebook’s policy team posted more details on its policy. “In the weeks ahead, we’re going to begin allowing more items that people find newsworthy, significant, or important to the public interest—even if they might otherwise violate our standards,” they wrote.

Friday, October 21, 2016

Obama Care Cartoons

President pushes ObamaCare despite double-digit rate hikes

Stupid Democrats?

Despite rate and deductible increases, President Obama on Thursday defended his namesake health care program and said millions of Americans “now know the financial security of health insurance” because of the Affordable Care Act.
His remarks came as ObamaCare sticker shock is getting even worse in some parts of the country, as more and more states are approving soaring rate increases for next year- with one Arizona town seeing a 75 percent hike and another in Minnesota seeing a 190 percent increase in deductibles over the course of four years.
“It’s absolutely unaffordable,” Minnesota Republican House Speaker Kurt Daudt told FoxNews.com. “I don’t even consider that health coverage.”
With some families forced to shell out $2,000 a month for insurance that comes with a whopping $13,000 deductible, Daudt said for some the only option is to pull their coverage and pay a fee for not having insurance, which in 2016 came out to $695 per adult and $347.50 per child (up to a maximum of $2085.)
“It’s catastrophic,” Daudt said, adding that he’s talked to Minnesotans who are being forced to financially drop their coverage, pay the fine and save money on the side for medical emergencies.
However Obama, speaking in Miami, maintained “It’s worked,” but admitted the program wasn't perfect. “No law is.”
Obama was in south Florida to trump up support for the ACA before the Nov. 1 start of the enrollment period.
Problems with rising premiums in many parts of the country as well as major insurers calling it quits have left consumers with few or in some cases no choices next year.
The hikes are fueling criticism of the law, though the White House is now openly pushing the possibility of a public option.
The troubles have bolstered arguments of Republicans and added some top Democratic allies to the crowd of critics, including former President Bill Clinton, who called ObamaCare “the craziest thing in the world,” while Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton said it’s “no longer affordable.”
In Arizona, after months of health insurer exits from the Affordable Care Act marketplace, state regulators have approved plans from two companies that will be the only marketplace insurance providers in 2017.
Maricopa County residents' only health care option will be Centene Corp., which said it will sell its “Ambetter” plans at a 74.5 percent increase next year.
The amount people pay will vary on their age, coverage levels and income, which in turn will determine whether an individual qualifies for subsidies that help offset the cost of monthy premiums. Nearly 70 percent of Arizonans with a marketplace plan get subsidized coverage.
Jumps in finalized rates for big health insurance plans around the country illustrate the challenge the Obama administration faces as it seeks to stabilize the president’s landmark health care legislation before he leaves office.
According to a roundup by The Wall Street Journal, market leaders continuing to sell coverage through HealthCare.gov or a state equivalent are seeking premium increases of 30 percent of more in Delaware, Hawaii, Alabama, Mississippi, Kansas and Texas.
In Montana, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Pennsylvania, the approved rate increases for the market leader top 50 percent.
Blue Cross Blue Shield in New Mexico agreed to start selling plans through the online exchanges after pulling out last year. They agreed to return to the state only if they would be allowed to increase rates 93 percent of their 2015 level.

Clinton's debate reference to nuclear response rekindles judgement questions

The beginning of the Clinton email scandal

Hillary Clinton’s latest mishandling of sensitive information may have occurred before an audience of 70 million.
Speaking at the presidential debate Wednesday night, Clinton noted that it takes four minutes from the time the president makes the call to use nuclear weapons to their actual launch. The remark came amid questions about the fitness of Clinton and GOP candidate Donald Trump to hold the nation’s nuclear codes, but critics, including former intelligence operatives, told Fox News that level of detail about nuclear response times is “protected information.”
“The bottom line on nuclear weapons is that when the president gives the order, it must be followed,” Clinton said. “There’s about four minutes between the order being given and the people responsible for launching nuclear weapons to do so.”
"Whether the four minutes is accurate or not, anything having to do with response capability is generally classified," Dan Maguire, a former strategic planner with Africom, and with 46 years combined service, told Fox News. "She has a tendency to use previous access and her position as secretary (of state) to give an appearance of knowledge to show she has the answers, rather than protect the information."
The reference to a four-minute timeline between the order and the launch was seen by former intelligence officers and military operatives as a possible violation of operational security, known as OPSEC.
A former Navy SEAL officer said the statement appears to be a "direct violation of US national security protocols and governing law. Our country has no greater secrets than those that protect our strategic nuclear deterrence capability."
Clinton, who was investigated by the FBI for a year for “careless” handling of sensitive and even top secret emails on her private server, went on to say that 10 people who have had the responsibility of carrying out such a presidential order are backing her.
A senior official in the Clinton campaign rejected claims the former secretary of state revealed any secret information, and provided Fox News with multiple published reports detailing the response time. In one Bloomberg News article, Bruce Blair, a former Minuteman missile-launch officer and research scholar at Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security, spelled out the step-by-step procedure that follows an order from the president. The procedures include conferring with military and civilian advisers in Washington and around the world including the head of all U.S. strategic nuclear forces at Strategic Command in Omaha.
That meeting can be as deliberative and lengthy as the president wants, but if the decision is prompted by the knowledge that a hostile nation has launched nuclear weapons at the U.S., it could last a matter of seconds, according to Blair.
“About five minutes may elapse from the president’s decision until intercontinental ballistic missiles blast out of their silos, and about fifteen minutes until submarine missiles shoot out of their tubes,” the news article stated. “Once fired, the missiles and their warheads cannot be called back.”
Intelligence experts, including the former Navy SEAL and a former senior intelligence official told Fox News that the mere fact the response time has been reported in academic documents does not authorize government officials who hold a security clearance, or had previous access to classified information, to discuss it publicly.
Clinton’s statement "now validates with specificity something of great sensitivity that has long been speculated by our adversaries and others in the national arena, including academics and think tanks, " the former SEAL officer said.
At a Pentagon press conference with South Korean defense minister Han Min-Koo, Defense Secretary Ash Carter avoided the issue when asked about this by CNN’s Barbara Starr.
"I’m sorry but I’m not gonna answer your first part because it is cast in terms of the ongoing presidential campaign," Carter said. "I’ve said repeatedly I’m not going to not answer questions in that context."
Two senior defense officials reached by Fox News highly doubt Clinton was read into any nuclear response plans as secretary of state and think the “four-minute” comment was an estimation on her part, not a classified number she revealed.
"While the excuse has been given that there has been previous 'talk' in the media and in academia regarding the 4 minute response time, it was just that – talk – it was informed speculation or assumption – it was not confirmed or stated by any official U.S. government official or stated as policy," Tony Shaffer, Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Operations at the London Center for Policy Research, told Fox News.
"There is uncertainty - for a reason – maintained by the Department of Defense- so that adversaries do not know what our capability is or what to expect – that has been blown here by Ms. Clinton," Shaffer added.

Stephen Baldwin doesn't think Alec Baldwin's imitation of Donald Trump is funny

Stephen Baldwin isn’t laughing at his brother Alec Baldwin’s “Saturday Night Live” impressions of Donald Trump.
The youngest Baldwin brother is a Donald Trump supporter, and he thinks his older brother’s skits imitating the GOP presidential nominee aren’t that great, despite their viral success.
“Well he’s got the voice down very well. I think it’s getting a little too nasty right now,” Stephen Baldwin told CBS News following Wednesday’s debate. “What do I think about Alec Baldwin’s impersonation of Donald Trump and ‘SNL’ and everything they’re doing? I don’t want to be a party pooper here, but I don’t think it’s very funny. I don’t think there’s anything funny about this election.”
This season, Alec Baldwin has been teaming up with Kate McKinnon to do skits about Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. The skits have contributed to a ratings boost for “SNL” and millions of views online.

The skits have also gotten attention from Trump. The Republican candidate tweeted about the show on Sunday, stating that he was no fan of the “SNL” bits.
“Alec Baldwin portrayal stinks,” he wrote. He also called the show “boring and unfunny.”

Trump jeered over personal attacks against Clinton at charity dinner

Okay for her but wrong for him, double standard?

Republican nominee Donald Trump was jeered by attendees at a New York white-tie charity dinner Thursday night after his speech crossed from roast-style jokes into personal attacks on his opponent, Hillary Clinton.
The first outburst from members of the audience at the annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner came when Trump said that Clinton was "so corrupt she got kicked off the Watergate Commission."
WATCH: TRUMP JOKES ABOUT CLINTON 'PARDON'
The jeers continued when Trump referenced the Clinton campaign emails leaked by Wikileaks and claimed that the former secretary of state was "pretending not to hate Catholics," an apparent reference to 2011 emails from a current Clinton campaign spokeswoman that mocked Catholics and evangelical Christians.
CLINTON: IT TOOK A VILLAGE TO WRITE THESE JOKES

Some members of the audience appeared to be shouting at Timothy Cardinal Dolan, who was sitting between the candidates, and asking him to take the microphone from Trump, who quickly pivoted to remembrances of attending the event with his father.
Moments earlier, Trump had gotten one of the biggest cheers of the night when he joked about his wife Melania's speech at the Republican National Convention, which was found to have been partially plagiarized from an address by first lady Michelle Obama.
"Michelle Obama gives a speech and everyone loves it," Trump said. "My wife Melania gives the exact same speech and people get on her case and I don't get it. I don't know why."
As Melania Trump rose to acknowledge the applause, her husband remarked, "I'm in trouble when I go home tonight. She didn't know about that one."
Some of Trump's attack lines showed a sense of humor. Clinton was the first one to laugh when Trump joked that she had bumped into him earlier in the night "and she very simply said `Pardon me"' -- an unsubtle reference to the Republican nominee's frequent declarations that his opponent should go to jail.
Clinton, meanwhile, joked that she had taken a break from her "usual nap schedule" to attend and suggested that the audience should be pleased she's not charging her usual fee for speaking in front of potential donors.

But she also got in some digs at Trump, a few of which drew scattered jeers. Clinton said she understood why Trump was leery of teleprompters because they can be difficult to follow and "I'm sure it's even harder when you're translating from the original Russian."
Clinton repeatedly referenced Trump's most controversial moments from the three presidential debates. She joked that if Trump didn't like what she was saying, then he could shout 'wrong."'
She added that she was surprised Trump let her go second because "I didn't think he'd be OK with a peaceful transition of power." And she said Trump "looks at the Statue of Liberty and sees a four. Maybe a `5' if she loses the torch and tablet and changes her hair."
She even took a shot at Trump's running mate, saying that "after listening to your speech, I will also look forward to listening to Mike Pence deny that you ever said it."
The candidates did not greet each other or make eye contact when they entered and took their seats for the event at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, though they did shake hands at the conclusion of the roast.
For his part, Dolan called his seat "the iciest place on the planet," though he later said that he was "very moved" by the candidates' interaction on the dais.
"They were very friendly, very uplifting, very complimentary to one another," he told Fox News outside the event. "The fact that we are together, the fact that they shook hands at the end and said, 'See ya on the campaign trail,' that's not bad."
Clinton and Trump both took some early heat from the night's master of ceremonies, Alfred E. Smith IV, the event namesake's great-grandson. Smith joked that Trump approached Clinton before the event and asked how she was doing, to which Smith responded "I'm fine but now get out of the ladies' dressing room."
Trump laughed at the joke, and again when Smith made another joke about the leaked video which captured Trump using vulgar language, saying while the celebrity businessman was "sitting next to a man in a robe [Cardinal Dolan], but this is not a locker room. Watch your language!"

Smith also teased Clinton, noting that "titans of Wall Street" were in attendance, but told her to restrain herself from seeking donations and to "remember the children."
The Al Smith Dinner, named in honor of the former New York governor and 1928 Democratic presidential nominee, benefits charities supporting needy children in the Archdiocese of New York. Smith IV announced that this year's dinner had raised approximately $6 million.

Thursday, October 20, 2016

Hillary Debate Cartoons

Interim DNC boss Brazile denies receiving question before March town hall

Interim Democratic Party Chairwoman Donna Brazile vehemently denied receiving a question about the death penalty and tipping off the Hillary Clinton campaign prior to a March town hall hosted by CNN and TV One.
The revelation came after WikiLeaks released a batch of emails from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta last week. The day after apparently receiving the question it was provided by TV One’s Roland Martin verbatim to CNN.
“I’m not going to try and validate falsified information,” Brazile told Fox News’ Megyn Kelly after the third presidential debate.
“I have my documents. I have my files. Thank god I haven’t had my emails ripped off from me and stolen and given to some criminal to come back altered.”
The leaked email showed that Brazile wrote in the subject line “From time to time I get the questions in advance” and Kelly added that CNN said Martin, or someone at TV One, had given them to Brazile.
“As far as I know, CNN has never provided me with questions…ever,” Brazile responded.
Kelly followed up, asking what Brazile was referring to when she said she got the questions in advance.
“A lot of those emails I would not give them the time of the day.” Brazile said denying the comments once more, saying they were not verified emails and may have been altered.
Brazile said in a statement after the leak last week that she would never share questions with candidates ahead of time.

The top 9 moments of the third presidential debate

The Top 9 Moments Of The Third Presidential Debate

Donald Trump on Wednesday night didn’t threaten to prosecute his opponent should he win the presidency on Nov. 8. Hillary Clinton didn’t spout off any obviously canned phrases for “Saturday Night Live” to mock. But there were still plenty of fireworks during the third -- and final -- presidential debate of 2016.
Here are the night’s top nine moments:
1. “Bad hombres”
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, raised eyebrows during his response to a question about border security. The content of his answer wasn’t surprising for anyone who’s listened to Trump since he began his run for the White House -- build a wall and deport the “bad, bad people in this country.” But near the end of the remarks, Trump suddenly used a slang Spanish word for “men.”
“We have some bad hombres here and we’re gonna get them out,” Trump said.
Social media immediately lit up with reactions, and “Bad Hombres” was one of the top Twitter trends within minutes. The phrase had been tweeted out nearly 130,000 times by the time the debate ended.
Even Clinton’s digital team quickly jumped on the phrase, tweeting out “Hombres”? #debatenight
2. “Open Borders”
Moderator Chris Wallace pressed Clinton on a controversial remark she made during a paid speech to a Brazilian bank shortly after she ended her tenure as secretary of state. Clinton has resisted releasing the transcripts of her so-called “Wall Street speeches” despite pressure from her primary and general election opponents. Some of the transcripts, however, recently leaked out when WikiLeaks published a trove of stolen emails allegedly belonging to Clinton campaign chair John Podesta.
“We've learned from WikiLeaks that you said this, and I want to quote, ‘my dream is a hemispheric common market with open trade and open borders,’” Wallace asked.
Trump immediately leaned into his microphone and said “Thank you.”
Clinton said the line had been misconstrued. She said she was talking about “energy” coming across borders, not illegal immigration.
Trump rolled his eyes and smirked at the explanation.
3. Vladimir Putin
After the topics of WikiLeaks and the Podesta hack were broached, the discussion turned toward Russia, the nation many intelligence experts believe was behind the Podesta hacking. Clinton attacked Trump for being too cozy with Russian president Vladimir Putin and said Trump would be Putin’s “puppet as president.”
Trump responded: “No puppet, no puppet. You’re the puppet.”
After some crosstalk, Trump continued to counterpunch.
“She doesn't like Putin because Putin has outsmarted her every step of the way,” he said.
4. Abortion and The Supreme Court
The next president might appoint as many as three Supreme Court justices, Wallace noted, a number that could influence whether the court leans left or right for an entire generation. The hot-button topic of abortion was discussed in this context, with Clinton unable to answer if she could ever support any regulation on the controversial procedure.
Trump responded with one of the most passionate -- and graphic -- answers he’d given during any debate.
“If you go with what Hillary is saying, in the ninth month you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother just prior to the birth of the baby,” Trump said. “Now, you can say that that's okay, and Hillary can say that that's okay, but it's not okay with me.”
5. Sexual misconduct allegations
Since lewd comments Trump made on a hot mic in 2005 were revealed two weeks ago, several women have come forward with claims that Trump sexually assaulted them. Trump denied all of the charges and accused Clinton “and her very sleazy campaign” of being behind the stories.
“Well, first of all, those stories have been largely debunked,” Trump said. “Those people, I don't know those people. I have a feeling how they came. I believe it was her campaign that did it.”
Clinton responded: “Donald thinks belittling women makes him bigger. He goes after their dignity, their self-worth, and I don't think there is a woman anywhere who doesn't know what that feels like.”
6. Violence at rallies
Clinton lambasted Trump for being responsible for the rhetoric that she said provoked several violent incidents during his primary and general election rallies.
“This is a pattern, a pattern of divisiveness of a very dark and in many ways dangerous vision of our country where he incites violence, where he applauds people who are pushing and pulling and punching at his rallies,” Clinton said.
Trump, however, said it was Clinton who was guilty of starting the unrest. He cited an edited, undercover video released this week by a conservative activist. The footage allegedly shows Democrat operatives discussing how they have incited violence at Trump rallies.
“So sad when she talks about violence at my rallies and she caused the violence,” Trump said. “It's on tape.”
7. Clinton Foundation vs. Trump Foundation
Clinton and Trump traded shots about their respective namesake charity foundations, both of which have come under fire for various scandals.
When Clinton initially said she was “thrilled to talk about the Clinton Foundation,” Trump saw an opening.
“It's a criminal enterprise,” he said. “Saudi Arabia giving 25 million dollars. Qatar, all of these companies. You talk about women and women's rights. So these are people that push gays off buildings. These are people that kill women and treat women horribly. And yet you take their money. So I'd like to ask you right now why don't you give back the money that you have taken from certain countries that treat certain groups of people so horribly? Why don't you give back the money?”
Clinton retorted: “And I'd be happy to compare what we do with the Trump Foundation, which took money from other people and bought a six-foot portrait of Donald,” Clinton said. “I mean, who does that?”
8. Trump may not accept election results
Though he said during the first presidential debate that he would accept the results of November’s election whether he won or lost, Trump on Wednesday said he wasn’t so sure anymore. Trump has been frequently talking during rallies about his belief that the election is “rigged.”
“I will look at it at the time,” he said Wednesday night. “I'm not looking at anything now I will look at it at the time. What I've seen is so bad.”
Trump also said Clinton shouldn’t be eligible to run for the presidency because of her secret server scandal. Though authorities said Clinton was careless, after a lengthy investigation the FBI declined to charge her.
“She's guilty of a very, very serious crime,” Trump said. “She should not be allowed to run...What I'm saying now is I will tell you. I will keep you in suspense, okay?”
9. Rigged
Following up on Trump’s talk of a “rigged” election, Clinton said the rhetoric was not only untrue, but also a tool commonly employed by the billionaire businessman.
“Every time Donald thinks things are not going in his direction, he claims whatever it is is rigged against him,” she said. “The FBI conducted a year-long investigation into my e-mails. They concluded there was no case. He said that the FBI was rigged. He lost the Iowa caucus; he lost the Wisconsin primary. He said the Republican primary was rigged against him. Then Trump University gets sued for fraud and racketeering. He claims the court system and the federal judge is rigged against him. There was even a time when he didn't get an Emmy for his TV program three years in a row and he started tweeting that the Emmys were rigged.”
After hearing Clinton’s comment about the Emmy’s, Trump interrupted: “I should have gotten it.”

Strong night for Trump, but headline is his refusal to say he'll accept election outcome

Donald Trump had his strongest debate performance here in Las Vegas, and Hillary Clinton had to deal with probing questions about Wikileaks disclosures, late-term abortion and open borders.
In the end they were evenly matched, an outcome that favors Trump as the less experienced debater. But the 90 minutes moderated by Chris Wallace did little to change the dynamic of a race in which the Republican nominee is trailing.
Instead, in an unusually substantive and largely civil encounter, the candidates played to their respective bases on such issues as immigration and abortion.
So while Trump supporters have reason to cheer their man, who was far more sure-footed than in their first faceoff on Long Island, he did not shake up the race.
But Trump may have undone whatever progress he made with a single answer, refusing to say he would accept the results of an election he has increasingly described as rigged. “I will look at it at the time,” he said, adding that “the media is so dishonest and so corrupt” that it has “poisoned the minds of voters.” Clinton called that answer “horrifying” and said Trump often blames a loss on a rigged system, even when his “Apprentice” show didn’t win an Emmy three years in a row.
That will undoubtedly be the big headline coming out of the debate and will dog Trump between now and Election Day.
Trump’s shakiest moment came when he was asked about the allegations of sexual misconduct by nine women. He said their stories were “largely debunked,” that they want their “10 minutes of fame” and said, without evidence, that he believed the Clinton campaign was behind it.
Clinton countered by saying Trump had denied the allegations by suggesting the women weren’t attractive, adding: “Donald thinks belittling women makes him bigger.”
The Democratic nominee stumbled when asked about conflicts at the Clinton Foundation. When Clinton responded by praising the charity’s work, Wallace cut her off and tossed the question of Trump, who called it a “criminal enterprise.”
After two weeks of immersion in allegations of bias, misbehavior and a rigged election, the “Fox News Sunday” anchor brought the focus back to serious issues—and was tough on both contenders.
Some of the sharpest exchanges took place on immigration. Trump made his usual push for strong borders against “bad hombres”; Clinton said massive deportations would “rip our country apart” and accused her opponent of having “choked” by not bringing up his proposed wall during his meeting with Mexico’s president. She also accused him of bashing immigrants.
When Wallace asked Clinton about a Wikileaks disclosure that she had favored “open borders” in a six-figure speech to a big bank, she deflected the question and blamed Russian espionage for trying to influence the election. “That was a great pivot off the fact that she wants open borders,” Trump said.
She shot back by saying that Vladimir Putin wanted a “puppet” as president, prompting Trump to say they had never met and were hardly best friends.
An opening question on the Supreme Court produced a study in contrasts: Clinton talked about the court defending women’s, gay and abortion rights. Trump hit Ruth Bader Ginsburg and said the Second Amendment is under siege.
Prodded repeatedly by Wallace, Trump would not say he wanted the high court to overturn Roe v. Wade but said that would be the outcome since he will appoint pro-life justices. Clinton, of course, said she strongly supports the decision, noted Trump’s criticism of Planned Parenthood and recalled his walked-back remark about punishing women who had abortions if the procedure is outlawed.
Pressed by Wallace on why she voted against banning partial-birth abortion, Clinton said the government should not step in in making that “most personal of decisions.” Trump spoke of the gruesome nature of the procedure.
Wallace, who fought to enforce time limits, was also tough on Trump, saying that when it came to his financial plans, “even conservative economics” say “the numbers don’t add up.” Trump didn’t address that point but attacked NAFTA, pushed through by Bill Clinton, and accused his opponent of flip-flopping on the Pacific trade deal. “There’s only one candidate on this stage who has shipped jobs to Mexico,” she countered.
It is harder for a trailing candidate to shake up the race in a third debate, as impressions harden after the first two. Trump, who owns a major casino in this city, did not win enough chips to change the betting odds. And he continued to question whether the house rules are fair.
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 won’t commit to accepting election results, at fiery final debate with Clinton

Donald Trump would not commit Wednesday night to accepting the results of the presidential election if he loses on Nov. 8, in a striking moment during his final debate with Hillary Clinton that underscored the deepening tensions in the race – as the bitter rivals defined the choice for voters on an array of issues not three weeks from Election Day.
The debate in Las Vegas, moderated by Fox News’ Chris Wallace, started with a measured discussion on policy disputes ranging from gun rights to abortion to immigration. But it ended with the candidates hurling a grab-bag of accusations and insults at each other.
Trump called Clinton a “nasty woman.” Clinton called Trump the “most dangerous” person to run for president in modern history.
The most pointed moment came when Trump – who for weeks has warned of a “rigged” election – was asked whether he will commit to accept the results of the election.

“I will look at it at the time,” Trump said, citing his concerns about voter registration fraud, a “corrupt media” and an opponent he claimed “shouldn’t be allowed to run” because she committed a “very serious crime” with her emails.
Pressed again whether he’s prepared to concede if he loses, Trump again said: “I will tell you at the time. I’ll keep you in suspense.”
Clinton delivered a sharp rejoinder: “That’s horrifying.”
“That is not the way our democracy works,” she said. “He is denigrating, he’s talking down our democracy and I for one am appalled.”
Trump responded by calling the Justice Department’s handling of her email probe “disgraceful.”
The exchange was among many contentious moments at Wednesday’s debate, which covered several issues including the national debt that have gotten little attention in the race so far – but flared with arguments between the candidates over WikiLeaks, over Russia, over the Clinton Foundation and over women’s allegations of groping against Trump.
Through the thicket of accusations and personal animus – they never shook hands on stage – the candidates tried generally to mount a closing debate-stage argument about experience.
“For 30 years, you’ve been in a position to help. … The problem is you talk, but you don’t get anything done, Hillary,” Trump said. “If you become president, this country is going to be in some mess, believe me.”

Clinton countered by contrasting some of her experiences against Trump’s. She said when she was monitoring the Usama bin Laden raid in the Situation Room, “He was hosting ‘The Celebrity Apprentice.’”
“I’m happy to compare my 30 years of experience … with your 30 years, and I will let the American people make that decision,” Clinton said.
Trump, meanwhile, again disputed the multiple allegations of groping that women have leveled against him since the candidates’ last encounter. He also said he thinks the Clinton campaign is behind the claims, charging, “They either want fame or her campaign did it.”
Clinton said, “Donald thinks belittling women makes him bigger.” Trump repeated that “nobody has more respect for women” than him.
Trump then shifted to blast the Clinton Foundation as a “criminal enterprise.” He pointed to donations from countries like Saudi Arabia to question Clinton’s commitment to women’s rights. He asked her if she would return money from countries that treat certain “groups of people horribly,” which she did not answer directly.
The candidates’ third and final debate now sets a bitter tone for the homestretch of the 2016 presidential campaign – a race that already stands out as arguably the most personal, caustic and unpredictable White House battle in modern politics.
Trump, slipping in the polls amid various campaign controversies, said at the last debate that Clinton should be in jail. Clinton has blasted Trump all along as temperamentally unfit for office.
Since the second debate, numerous women have come forward to accuse Trump of groping them, allegations he denies. WikiLeaks also has embarrassed the Clinton campaign by releasing thousands of hacked emails purportedly from her campaign chairman’s account. FBI files alleging a State Department official sought a “quid pro quo” to alter the classification on a Clinton server email added to the campaign’s – and Obama administration’s – woes.
The WikiLeaks controversy came up Wednesday night when Clinton asked if Trump would “condemn” Russian espionage. He denied knowing Vladimir Putin but said the issue is the Russian president has “no respect” for her.
“That’s because he’d rather have a puppet,” Clinton shot back.
Trump responded, “Nope. … you’re the puppet.”
Trump later said he condemns any interference by Russia in the election.
The candidates also sparred over gun rights, with the Republican nominee charging that the Second Amendment is “under absolute siege” and would be eroded if his opponent wins.
“We will have a Second Amendment which will be a very, very small replica of what we have now” if Clinton wins, Trump said.
The Democratic nominee countered, “I support the Second Amendment.”
In a graphic exchange, Trump said Clinton’s position on abortion is nearing a point where one could “rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month.” Clinton accused him of “scare rhetoric.”
They also clashed on immigration, with Trump saying they need to deport “drug lords” and deal with “bad hombres” in the country. Clinton said violent offenders should be deported but then mocked Trump for not pushing his controversial border wall proposal during his high-profile meeting with the Mexican president. “He choked,” she said.
Trump said Clinton “wanted a wall” when she voted for an immigration overhaul a decade ago – and now wants “open borders,” which she denied.
To date, the mounting controversies facing both campaigns have appeared to hurt Trump more than Clinton, who gradually has expanded her lead over the GOP nominee in recent polls.
A Fox News national poll released on the eve of the Las Vegas debate showed Clinton with a 6-point, 45-39 percent lead over Trump in a match-up that includes Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
Trump, in the final three weeks, is thought to be zeroing in on several key battlegrounds including Florida, Ohio and North Carolina – but the polls suggest his path to the presidency remains narrow, as even once-reliably red states like Texas are being contested by the Clinton campaign.

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Dummy Democrat Cartoons

Fox News' Chris Wallace brings experience, sterling reputation to moderator's role

When Chris Wallace takes up the moderator’s role at Wednesday’s third and final debate of the 2016 presidential election, he will bring more than 50 years’ experience and an impeccable reputation to the task.
The debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will air on Fox News Channel on Wednesday, Oct. 19 at 9 p.m. ET.
Wallace, the anchor of "Fox News Sunday," moderated Fox News Channel's GOP primary debates alongside Bret Baier and Megyn Kelly and considers his role to let the candidates take center stage.
"If people say, 'it was a great debate and I don't remember you being there,' I will have done my job," said Wallace.
Wallace has announced the topics, which will be discussed in six 15-minute segments.

Debt and entitlements
Immigration
Economy
Supreme Court
Foreign hot spots
Fitness to be President

The chosen topics may be altered depending on news events leading up to the event.

Wallace has participated in coverage of nearly every major political event and has secured several high-profile interviews with dignitaries and U.S. leaders in his 13 years at Fox News Channel. Serving as moderator of the 90-minute session at University of Nevada, Las Vegas is the latest milestone in an illustrious career.
"I'm the first Fox moderator to do a general election debate and I'm very proud for the news organization,” Wallace recently told Baier. “I think it's a recognition of the fact that we do serious journalism. Some critics say no, but the fact is, you and I know we do. And here's the Commission on Presidential Debates recognizing that."
To watch, tune in at 9 p.m. to Fox News Channel.
The debate also will be streamed live on FoxNews.com and the Fox News app.
CLICK HERE TO LEARN HOW TO WATCH THE DEBATE ON YOUR SMARTPHONE OR TABLET

Wallace has interviewed presidents before, including an exclusive sit-down earlier this year with President Obama, his fourth interview with Obama. He has also handled moderating duties in the past, working alongside co-anchors Baier and Megyn Kelly in August 2015, during the first GOP presidential debate of the 2016 election.
Wallace also co-moderated the network’s second and third debates of the 2016 cycle, held on Jan. 28 in Des Moines, and March 3 in Detroit.
In prior election years, Wallace served as a panel member and moderator of FNC's South Carolina, New Hampshire and Florida debates during the 2012 primary campaign season. He also played an integral role in Fox News' 2008 and 2004 election coverage.
It was 1964 when Wallace got his first taste of presidential politics, serving as news legend Walter Cronkite's "go-fer" at the RNC convention.
Over the next 50-plus years in broadcasting, Wallace has won every major broadcast news award for his reporting, including three Emmy Awards, the Dupont-Columbia Silver Baton, the Peabody Award and the Sol Taishoff Award for Broadcast Journalism, which was awarded to him by the National Press Foundation.
Most recently, he received the 2013 Paul White Award for lifetime achievement and service to electronic journalism from the Radio Television Digital News Association. Wallace has been described as an "equal opportunity inquisitor" by The Boston Globe, "an aggressive journalist," "sharp edged" and "solid" by The Washington Post and "an equal-opportunity ravager" by The Miami Herald.
Before joining FNC, Wallace worked at ABC News for 14 years where he served as the senior correspondent for “Primetime Thursday” and a substitute host for “Nightline.” During his tenure with ABC News, Wallace hosted multiple groundbreaking investigations and received numerous awards for his work.
Prior to joining ABC News, Wallace served as NBC’s chief White House correspondent from 1982-1989. While at NBC, he covered the 1980, 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns as well as the Democratic and Republican conventions in those years. Wallace moderated “Meet the Press” from 1987-1988.
Wallace attended Harvard College.

Emails expose Chelsea clashes with parents' aides, amid Clinton Foundation concerns

“As they say, the apple doesn’t fall far. A kiss on the cheek while she is sticking a knife in the back, and front.”

While the media started asking critical questions about The Clinton Foundation when Hillary Clinton launched her presidential bid last year, newly published emails show Chelsea Clinton was digging deeper into the foundation's dealings as far back as 2011.
According to hacked documents released by WikiLeaks, the former first daughter discovered and shared wide-ranging allegations involving conflict-of-interest concerns, suspected internal cyber spying and other issues.
In nearly four-dozen emails from October 2011 to February 2012, Chelsea Clinton’s sometimes-abrasive relationship with her father’s top confidant and other key Clinton aides is on full display. The emails are purportedly part of a trove of 50,000 messages stolen from the gmail account of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta.
Podesta was named a special adviser for The Clinton Foundation on Oct. 31, 2011, when Chief Executive Bruce Lindsey fell ill and required a hospital stay. The same day Podesta was appointed to the post, Chelsea Clinton, using the pseudonym Anna James, emailed Podesta with an “urgent” issue.
“This is all coming to a head more quickly than we all had hoped,” she wrote.
Chelsea, writing shortly after her grandmother had died, went on to describe an encounter between Bill Clinton and longtime aide, Doug Band. At the time, Band was a board member with the Clinton Global Initiative, an offshoot of The Clinton Foundation, and was co-founder of global advisory firm Teneo. Bill Clinton also had a financial relationship with Teneo in addition to his Clinton Foundation responsibilities. But with then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton entering her final year in President Obama’s cabinet, preparations were under way to clear the foundation of any conflicts of interest that could hinder her post-State Department aspirations. A law firm-directed “Governance Review” was under way, too, in an effort to identify best practices and cut down on any possible conflicts.
Evidently, the changes under way did not go over well with Band.
“Doug called and yelled and screamed at my Dad about how could he do this to [senior adviser] Justin [Cooper] and him, he would be nothing without him, etc.,” Chelsea wrote to Podesta on Nov. 1. “My Dad responded that he could not have this conversation with Doug and that he was trying to do the right thing by all. I cannot believe Doug did this on the day my grandmother died. My mother is exhausted, we are all heartbroken but we need a strategy and my father needs advice/counsel.”
Podesta responded that he would speak to Bill Clinton the next morning.
“Don’t want this situation to get to a point of no return and things are said that hurts everyone,” he wrote.
But Podesta’s efforts evidently were for naught. Three days later, Chelsea unloaded on specific issues that had been reported to her.
She claimed an employee witnessed Cooper loading spyware onto two other employees’ computers, and Cooper also was alleged to have read the emails of at least one other co-worker. She further relayed allegations that Band threatened various employees; Band was “hustling” business for Teneo while working at CGI; and Cooper and Hannah Richert, a personal assistant, had taken “significant sums of money from my parents personally.”
“As ever, on some of the above I am sure there are three sides as my grandmother would say – his, hers and the truth,” Chelsea wrote. “On others, it seems more clear. All of it makes me very sad.”
On Nov. 10, Chelsea told Podesta about a private meeting Bill Clinton had with Cooper and Band. During the conversation “Doug apparently kept telling my dad I was trying to push him out, take over.”
Two days later, Band sent a memo apparently addressing some of the issues Chelsea raised to top Hillary Clinton aide Cheryl Mills, who forwarded the message to Podesta. Band wrote the memo needed to get out “asap.”
“Although I’m sure [Chelsea] won’t believe it to be true [because] she doesn’t want to,” he wrote. “I realize it is difficult to confront and reason with her but this could go [too] far and then we all will have a real serious set of other problems.”
Then Band’s growing frustration spilled out.
“I don’t deserve this from her and deserve a tad more respect or at least a direct dialogue for me to explain these things,” he wrote. “She is acting like a spoiled brat kid who has nothing else to do but create issues to justify what she’s doing because she, as she has said, hasn’t found her way and has a lack of focus in her life.”
A little more than a week later, an email went out announcing that Chelsea has been appointed to the CGI board, though that doesn’t seem to decrease tensions.
Following a benign back-and-forth on Nov. 27 to arrange a meeting time, Band emailed Podesta: “This is the 3rd time this week where she has gone to daddy to change a decision or interject herself in the process she says is so important to maintain…”
On Dec. 6, Chelsea emailed Podesta and other foundation leaders with more distressing information, including reports that one employee has called members of the British Parliament “on behalf of President Clinton … without my father’s knowledge and inelegantly and ineffectually at best …” Chelsea also shared misgivings regarding Teneo. Podesta responded to say the situation needed to be resolved quickly.
Clinton severed his financial ties with Teneo on Dec. 17, no longer serving on the group’s advisory board. Band, meanwhile, decided to leave CGI.
“Bill went to Doug and said, ‘You can do CGI or Teneo, but you can’t do both,’” a friend of the Clintons told The New York Post at the time. “Doug chose Teneo.”
But problems between Band and Chelsea persisted even after the split.
Chelsea reportedly “told one of the Bush 43 kids that she is conducting an internal investigation of money within the foundation from CGI to the foundation,” Band wrote in a January email to Podesta. One of the Bush daughters allegedly repeated the information to someone else who then passed it on to a Republican operative.
Then, after repeatedly raising concerns about them to Podesta, Chelsea wrote Band and Cooper on Jan. 27 to report on a conversation she had with a mutual friend, in a generally pleasant exchange. Band forwarded the message to Podesta.
“She sends me one of these types of emails every few days/week,” Band wrote. “As they say, the apple doesn’t fall far. A kiss on the cheek while she is sticking a knife in the back, and front.”

Vandals toss bricks through window of Indiana county Republican office

Democrats getting desperate?

An Indiana Republican Party office was vandalized last week after someone tossed two bricks through the window, officials said Monday.
Signs for presidential nominee Donald Trump and Rep. Todd Young were hanging in the window of the Delaware County office on Oct. 8 when the landscaping bricks were tossed through the glass, officials said in a Facebook post.
Officials said it would cost about $1,200 to replace the window and those interested in helping out with the cost could donate online.
Delaware County Sheriff Ray Dudley said that there have been numerous reports of campaign signs being stolen from yards in Yorktown and Mount Pleasant Township, according to Fox 59.
Dudley added that the reports were being taken seriously and that removing signs from homeowners’ yards could call for prosecution under the Indiana criminal code.
The news of the Delaware County Republican office being trashed comes days after a Republican headquarters in North Carolina was firebombed.