Presumptuous Politics

Friday, June 10, 2016

Emails at center of Clinton FBI probe focused on drone strikes, report says

A series of emails between American diplomats in Pakistan and Washington over drone strikes are the focus of the criminal probe involving presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's handling of classified information, according to a report Thursday by The Wall Street Journal.
The emails in 2011 and 2012 were sent through a "computer system for unclassified matters" that gave the State Department input into whether a Central Intelligence Agency drone strike went forward, congressional and law enforcement officials briefed on the FBI probe told the Journal.
Some of those emails were then sent by then-Secretary of State Clinton's aides to her personal email account and private server, officials told the Journal.
The vaguely worded messages, however, didn’t mention the “CIA,” “drones” or details about the targets, the Journal reported.
The emails were written within the often-narrow time frame in which State Department officials had to decide whether or not to object to drone strikes before the CIA pulled the trigger, officials told the newspaper. The still-secret emails are still a part of the ongoing FBI investigation.
In January, the intelligence community deemed some of Clinton’s emails “too damaging" to national security to release under any circumstances, a U.S. government official close to the ongoing review told Fox News. A second source, who was not authorized to speak on the record, backed up the finding.
The determination was first reported by Fox News, before the State Department formally announced that seven email chains, found in 22 documents, will be withheld “in full” because they, in fact, contain “Top Secret” information.
Law-enforcement and intelligence officials told the Wall Street Journal that State Department deliberations about the covert CIA drone program should have been conducted over a more secure government computer system designed to handle classified information.

State Department officials told FBI investigators they communicated via the less-secure system on a few instances, sources told the Wall Street Journal, which happened when decisions about imminent strikes had to be relayed fast and the U.S. diplomats in Pakistan or Washington didn’t have ready access to a more-secure system, either because it was night or they were traveling.
Emails sent over the unclassified computer system sometimes were informal discussions that occurred in addition to more-formal notifications through secure communications, the officials said.
One exchange reported by the Journal came before Christmas in 2011 when the U.S. ambassador sent a note about a planned strike that sparked an email chain between Clinton's senior advisers. Officials said the exchange was clear those involved in the email were having discussions because they were away from their officials and didn't have access to a classified computer.

Fox News Poll: Majority thinks Clinton is lying about emails

American voters think Hillary Clinton put national security at risk by mishandling classified emails -- and that she’s lying about it.
By a 60-27 percent margin, they think she’s lying about how her emails were handled while she was secretary of state, according to the latest Fox News national poll of registered voters.
And by 57-32 percent, voters say U.S. safety was at risk because of Clinton’s mishandling of national secrets.
“Clinton’s explanations are clearly not cutting it with voters,” says Republican pollster Daron Shaw, who conducts the Fox News Poll along with Democratic pollster Chris Anderson.
CLICK TO READ THE POLL RESULTS
“This issue continues to act as a drag on her personal ratings.”
Over half of voters feel Clinton lacks the integrity to serve effectively as president (54 percent), and nearly 6-in-10 have an unfavorable opinion of her (56 percent).
Roughly one third of self-identified Democrats think Clinton is lying about her emails (35 percent) and put national security at risk (32 percent).
Twenty-seven percent of those backing Clinton over Republican Donald Trump in the presidential race think she’s lying about her emails.
The State Department Inspector General concluded May 25 that Clinton failed to comply with department policies by using a private email server.
“The question is whether beliefs about Clinton’s handling of emails are already fully baked into perceptions of her, or if the issue can drag her down further,” says Anderson.
“Her emails must be the most talked about in the history of emails. Some voters are certainly bored with the issue and tuning it out.”
Views on this issue are holding steady. Earlier this year, 60 percent said Clinton had mishandled classified emails (February 2016). And 58 percent felt she was lying about it in September (the last time the question was asked on a Fox News Poll).
The Fox News poll is based on landline and cellphone interviews with 1,004 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from June 5-8, 2016. The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points for all registered voters.

Dozens of lawsuits accuse Trump of not paying his bills, reports claim

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has been sued at least 60 times by individuals and businesses who accuse him of failing to pay for work done at his various properties, according to two published reports.
USA Today also reported, citing data from the Department of Labor, that two of Trump's now-defunct businesses were cited 24 times beginning in 2005 for failing to pay overtime or minimum wage. The cases were settled when the companies — the Trump Plaza in Atlantic City and Trump Mortgage LLC — agreed to pay back wages.
The paper also reported that more than 200 liens have been filed against Trump or his businesses by contractors and employees dating back to the 1980s. The claimants include curtain makers, chandelier shops, cabinet makers and even Trump's lawyers who represented him in prior cases.
Trump told USA Today that he only withheld payment from contractors if he wasn't pleased with their work.
"Let’s say that they do a job that’s not good, or a job that they didn’t finish, or a job that was way late. I’ll deduct from their contract, absolutely,” Trump said. “That’s what the country should be doing."
The USA Today report cited one case involving a 1990 project at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, during which New Jersey regulators found that Trump had failed to pay at least 253 subcontractors in full or on time.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, former Trump Plaza president Jack O'Connell said Trump made withholding payment a part of his business strategy.
"Part of how he did business as a philosophy was to negotiate the best price he could," O'Connell said. "And then when it came time to pay the bills," Trump would say "'I’m going to pay you but I’m going to pay you 75% of what we agreed to.'"
O'Connell added that Trump Plaza executives used to pay vendors in full despite their boss's orders, saying "it used to infuriate him."
More recently, USA Today reported that the management company behind Trump National Doral Miami settled with 48 servers who sued for unpaid overtime after working a 10-day Passover event. The average settlement for each worker was $800.
Also last month, a Florida judge ordered that the resort be foreclosed on and sold to pay a painter more than $30,000 for his work as part of a Doral renovation more than two years ago. In that case, the manager of the contractor behind the renovation testified that the painter was not paid because Trump had "already paid enough."
In his ruling, the judge noted that Trump's attorneys "visibly winced, began breathing heavily, and attempted to make eye contact" with the witness. Those attorneys have since filed a motion to delay the sale.

Thursday, June 9, 2016

Elizabeth Warren Cartoons

Huffington Post writer defends 'violent resistance' against Donald Trump

A writer for the Huffington Post is defending his recent op-ed that "a violent response” is the “logical” approach to stopping presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.
Jesse Benn wrote in the op-ed titled “Sorry Liberals, A Violent Response To Trump Is As Logical As Any,” posted on Monday, “[T]here’s an inherent value in forestalling Trump’s normalization. Violent resistance accomplishes this.”
"These denunciations of violence from anti-Trump protestors rest on the misguided view that the divide Trump’s exposed is a typical political disagreement between partisans, and should be handled as such.," he wrote. "This couldn’t be further from the truth. Trump might not be a fascist in the 20th century European sense of the term—though many of his supporters are—but he might represent its 21st century US version."
"Violent resistance matters. Riots can lead to major change," Benn wrote. "It’s not liberal politicians or masses that historians identify as the spark underlying the modern movement for LGBTQ equality. Nor was it a think piece from some smarmy liberal writer. It was the people who took to the streets during the Stonewall Uprising."
"Assuming anti-Trump protests should be strictly focused on electoral politics and not these broader goals would be a detrimental oversight," he wrote. "Understanding European anti-fascists use of violent tactics to shut down large rallies from White Supremacists can be illustrative here. Because while Trump isn’t leading full bore White Supremacist rallies, there is value in making it clear that even his fascism-lite has no place in civilized society."
Benn took to Twitter to defend his piece.
"It is funny I wrote that piece specifically calling out liberals but it’s #AltRight fanatics/White Supremacists throwing a tantrum over it," he wrote.
He also received plenty of backlash online.
This controversial piece came nearly a week after an editor with the website Vox was suspended for a series of tweets encouraging protesters to "start a riot" at Donald Trump rallies – shortly after the Republican candidate's supporters were attacked outside a San Jose rally the night before.
"We welcome a variety of viewpoints, but we do not condone writing that could put others in danger,” the site's founder, Ezra Klein, said in a statement announcing the suspension of Emmett Rensin.
Rensin, deputy editor for the site's first-person section, had taken to Twitter as reports first emerged of the chaotic scenes last Thursday night outside the California rally, where protesters confronted supporters of the presumptive GOP nominee as they departed. Supporters were punched, and one woman was seen on film being hit with an egg and other trash.

Jesse Benn (Idiot)

Elizabeth Warren to endorse Hillary Clinton, source says

Surprise :-)

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren is expected to endorse presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton next week, a source told Fox News Wednesday.
The endorsement from the senator could come as early as Monday, according to the Democratic source.
The move represents a shift for Warren, who up until now has not backed either Clinton or Bernie Sanders.
The fiery critic of Wall Street and popular figure among progressive Democrats is often mentioned as being on the short list for Vice President.
Some Democrats believe she is the best chance for the Clinton campaign to attract Sanders voters, and that she can effectively tussle with Trump on his most-effective medium: Twitter.
Last month, Warren called the presumptive Republican presidential candidate a "small, insecure moneygrubber" who doesn't care whom he hurts, as long as he can make money in a speech in Washington.
Warren pointed to comments Trump made in 2007 that he's always made more money in bad markets than in good markets.
"Donald Trump was drooling over the idea of a housing meltdown because it meant he could buy up a bunch more property on the cheap," Warren said. "What kind of a man does that? Root for people to get thrown out on the street?"
"Pocahontas is at it again," Trump said in an email to The Associated Press in response to questions about Warren's remarks. "She scammed the people of Massachusetts and got into institutions because she said she is Native American. She's one of the least successful Senators in the U.S. Senate."
During her 2012 election campaign, when she ousted incumbent Republican Sen. Scott Brown, Warren was criticized after being listed in law school directories as having Native American ancestry.
Warren has dismissed similar criticism by Trump in the past as recycling what she described as "Brown's hate-filled attacks on my family."

Clinton says email scandal, FBI probe 'absolutely' won't be general election problems

Hillary Clinton doubled down Wednesday on claims that her personal email scandal will not hurt her presidential bid or result in an indictment, in an interview with Fox News in which she made only a passing reference to another more immediate hurdle -- Sen. Bernie Sanders.
The Vermont senator continues to stay in the Democratic primary race despite Clinton securing enough delegates earlier this week to become the party’s presumptive presidential nominee.
“I applaud Sen. Sanders' vigorous determined campaign,” Clinton told Fox News' Bret Baier one day after her big win over Sanders in California. “I think that our primary contest was good for the Democratic Party and good for America.”
Clinton said the probe into the Clinton Foundation -- in addition to the controversy about her use of a private email server when secretary of state and the related FBI investigation -- will not impact her general election bid, though such issues did create problems in her primary campaign.
“That's what I'm saying. That happens to be the truth,” Clinton said in the interview.
Clinton also reiterated what she told 1070 Radio on Friday about the FBI probe into the email scandal not resulting in an indictment.
“Absolutely that is not going to happen,” she said. “There is no basis for it. And I'm looking forward to this being wrapped up as soon as possible.”
However, Clinton declined to say whether anybody inside the department told her or any associates how the investigation will conclude, saying only that she knows the department has spoken to “a number of people” close her and that she’s willing to talk to federal investigators.
Clinton said she previously declined to talk to investigators about the email issue because “what they wanted to ask, we'd already talked about … in the public arena.
She pointed out her 11 hours of Capitol Hill testimony on the matter and concluded the exchange by saying she wasn’t going to comment on ongoing litigation “or make any legal points.”
Clinton also repeated her arguments that she never sent or received classified information by the server system and that previous secretaries of state had similar setups.

Clinton also waived off a question about whether her husband President Bill Clinton understands the modern-day economy well enough to be an economic adviser if she becomes president.
“I think there are lessons to learn from what my husband did during his eight years,” she said. “I'm going to be looking for good advice, and one of my best advisers about what we can do to really help people who feel left out and left behind will be my husband.
Sanders said after losing in California said that he will compete in the primary in Washington, D.C., next week. However, it's unclear whether he will continue to take his campaign into the party's July nominating convention, trying along the way to get superdelegates committed to Clinton to instead vote for him.
Sanders is scheduled to talk Thurdsay with President Obama in a meeting in which they will liklely speak about Sanders staying in the race or dropping out to help create party unity.

Could Sanders seek DNC chairwoman's removal in deal for party unity?

Bernie Sanders has a lot to talk about when he meets with President Obama Thursday in Washington – and Fox News has learned one potential issue the still-kicking Democratic presidential candidate may raise is whether Debbie Wasserman Schultz remains at the helm of the party.
Sanders and the Democratic National Committee chairwoman have been at odds for months, with Sanders’ team long accusing her of helping now-presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton.
Though Sanders has yet to concede the race, a question on Capitol Hill is whether he may seek Wasserman Schultz’ ouster as part of a deal toward party unity.
“I don’t see how she makes it through the convention,” one Democratic lawmaker told Fox News. “The key to Hillary winning is getting Sanders supporters on board.”
Speculation over Wasserman Schultz’ position has swirled for months, however, and so far she has retained the public support of the White House. President Obama also endorsed her earlier this year in her House primary battle.
Asked Wednesday about the possibility of Sanders seeking her removal during meetings Thursday with Obama and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Wasserman Schultz said she’s not worried about her job.
“I'm going to be remaining as the chair of the Democratic National Committee as President Obama has asked me to do until January 21, 2017, and I appreciate the president’s support,” she said.
As for concerns about being able to unify the Democratic Party, she said: "I’m very confident that we are going to be unified."
Still, Fox News has learned some factions in the Democratic Party as well as Sanders loyalists have pushed for Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, as a potential replacement at the helm of the DNC. Gabbard is a Sanders supporter, which could help with outreach to Sanders backers and bring Sanders himself into the fold.
When asked if she was interested in being party chair, Gabbard told Fox News she was not.
She also noted she has not called for the DNC to relieve Wasserman Schultz of her duties.
Gabbard said she has no plans at this point to meet with Sanders in Washington on Thursday.
However, Gabbard said Sanders should continue to fight through the convention.
“If you look at the people who voted for Sanders, their voices should be heard,” Gabbard said.

Friday, June 10, 2016

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Thursday, June 9, 2016