Presumptuous Politics

Monday, July 4, 2016

Clinton's supporters, potential veeps defend presumptive nominee on emails, Benghazi, FBI probe

Rep. Becerra talks Clinton email probe, Benghazi report

Top Hillary Clinton supporters blanketed the TV airwaves Sunday, trying to build voter trust for the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee amid her evolving email controversy and other issues, while also appearing to audition for the role of vice president.
“She understands that she's got to earn people's trust,” California Democratic Rep. Xavier Becerra said of Clinton on “Fox News Sunday.” “She's going to work very, very hard to do that. And I give her credit for saying that she's made some mistakes.”
Becerra was one of four Democratic lawmakers purportedly on Clinton’s vice presidential short list to appear on the Sunday morning talk shows.
He deferred on the question about being vetted for the job by saying, “That's a question that has to be asked of Secretary Clinton. … We’ll see.”
Becerra was joined on the Sunday shows by New Jersey Sen. Corey Booker (CNN,) Labor Secretary Tom Perez (NBC) and Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown (ABC.)
Clinton appears qualified to become president, considering she is a former first lady, secretary of state and U.S. senator for New York.
However, her campaign has been slowed from the start by questions about her trustworthiness.
Such questions date back to the Clinton administration and more recently are about donors to the Clinton Foundation and Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state -- including the 2012 Benghazi terror attacks and her use of a private email server for official correspondence while at the State Department.
A Gallup survey released Friday found 27 percent of Americans don’t trust Clinton.
On Saturday, Clinton was interviewed by the FBI regarding the agency’s investigation into whether her using a personal server for official communication violated government rules regarding the handling of classified information.
Earlier last week, her husband, former President Bill Clinton, held an impromptu meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who will decide whether to bring criminal charges in the FBI probe.
Even Lynch acknowledge the meeting “cast a shadow” over the investigation. She also said that she “fully expects” to accept the recommendations of the FBI director and career prosecutors.
However, a Justice Department spokeswoman clarified Lynch’s remark by telling Yahoo News that “the attorney general will be the ultimate decider.''
Also last week, Republicans on the special committee investigating the attacks on a U.S. outpost in Benghazi, Libya, issued a final report on the matter that concluded Clinton as secretary of state and others in Obama administration told the public that the attacks were inspired by an anti-Islam video, despite eyewitness accounts that they were terror attacks.
U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the attacks.
Booker told CNN’s “State of the Union” that the FBI interview was merely “routine” and that Clinton being indicted over the emails is “just not going to happen.”
“We're going to be seeing an investigation closing up,” he said. “And I think she, like most Americans, wants this thing to be concluded and so we can move beyond it and focus on the real issues of this campaign.”
Booker dismissed the Clinton-Lynch conversation as little more than a chat about grandchildren and golf.
“This is nothing that in any way undermines this case,” said Booker, who also deferred to the Clinton campaign regarding a question about being a potential 2016 running mate. “I know a lot of it is coming from the Trump campaign … trying to whip up conspiracy theories.”
Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, another potential Clinton running mate, told ABC’s “This Week” that he doesn’t think Clinton will be indicted.
“I'm not worried. I see what Clinton has done,” he said. “She's always been willing to talk. The story that is missing is what we don't know about (presumptive GOP presidential nominee) Donald Trump.”
He called the Clinton-Lynch encounter “unfortunate” and focused his answers on criticizing Trump and touting Clinton’s knowledge on key issues, including the future of the U.S. auto industry.
“She clearly understands these issues, and she talks in great depth about them in individual interviews and rallies. You get none of that from Donald Trump,” said Brown, also deferred to the Clinton campaign regarding a question about being a potential running mate.
Trump said this weekend on Twitter about the FBI investigation: "It was just announced -- by sources -- that no charges will be brought against Crooked Hillary Clinton. Like I said, the system is totally rigged!"
Labor Secretary Tom Perez on Sunday also showed his potential to be a good running mate in attacking the general election rival.
“Donald Trump is a fraud. He's the outsourcer in chief. And listening to him talk about how he's going to put America first again, he spent his entire career putting his own profits first,” said Perez who has already joined Clinton on the campaign trail, in part to bring progressives around to her trade policy.
Perez, in the pre-taped interview Friday with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” even responded to a vice president question by touting Clinton over Trump.
“Trump is such a volatile individual, and what I have seen working with Secretary Clinton is that she is a steady hand,” he said. “And I think she is exercised sound judgment throughout.”

Spokesman: Indiana governor had 'warm' meeting with Trump

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and his wife met with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his wife Saturday as Trump considers potential running mates, but a Pence spokesman told Fox News on Sunday that "nothing was offered."
"The Pences enjoyed spending a warm and productive time with the Trumps," Pence campaign spokesman Marc Lotter told Fox News. "They talked about policies that are working in Indiana and the future of this country."
Pence is running for re-election against former Democratic state House Speaker John Gregg.
Asked whether Trump and Pence had discussed the possibility of Pence becoming Trump's running mate, Lotter said "nothing was offered." Lotter declined to discuss Pence's level of interest in the position, echoing a comment from Pence last week that he did not want to comment on "a hypothetical."
Lotter referred other questions to Trump's campaign, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump has never held public office and is considering a small group of political veterans as potential running mates.
People with direct knowledge of Trump's vetting process say the list includes Pence, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions.
In addition to serving as governor, Pence served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 12 years.
He also at one time had his own presidential ambitions but last year ruled out a run after his popularity fell in the wake of criticism over his handling of the state's religious objections law.

Suicide attack carried out near US diplomatic site in Saudi Arabia

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – A suicide bomber carried out an attack early on Monday near a U.S. diplomatic site in the western Saudi city of Jiddah, according to the Interior Ministry.
The ministry said the attacker detonated his suicide vest when security guards approached him near the parking lot of a hospital. The attacker died and two security men were wounded with minor injuries, according to the ministry statement, which was published by the state-run Saudi Press Agency. Some cars in the parking lot were damaged.
Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki was quoted in the statement as saying the attacker caught the attention of the security guards, who noticed he was acting suspiciously at an intersection located on the corner of the heavily fortified U.S. Consulate in Jiddah, located by the Dr. Soliman Fakeeh Hospital. Most of the consulate's staff had reportedly moved offices to a new location.
The U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia confirmed there were no casualties or injuries among the consular staff. The embassy said it remains in contact with Saudi authorities as they investigate the attack.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for attack.
The Interior Ministry did not specify if it there are indications the bomber intended to target the U.S. diplomatic compound, saying an investigation was underway to determine his identity.
A 2004 al-Qaida-linked militant attack on the U.S. Consulate in Jiddah killed five locally hired consular employees and four gunmen. The three-hour battle on the compound came amid a wave of al-Qaida attacks targeting Westerners and Saudi security posts.
More recently, Saudi Arabia has been a target of Islamic State group attacks that have killed dozens of people. The extremist Sunni group views the Western-allied Saudi monarchy and government as heretics. Saudi Arabia is part of the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.
In June, the Interior Ministry reported 26 terror attacks had taken place in the kingdom in the last two years. Local affiliates of the IS group have targeted minority Shiites and security officials.
Monday's attack comes just days before the end of the holy month of Ramadan, during which observant Muslims fast daily from dawn to dusk.
The U.S. Embassy regularly issues advisory messages for U.S. citizens in Saudi Arabia. In a message issued Sunday and another one issued after the attack Monday, the embassy urged Americans to "remain aware of their surroundings, and take extra precautions when travelling throughout the country." It also advised citizens to "carefully consider the risks of traveling to Saudi Arabia."

Fourth of July 2016: What the Founders ask of us

President Abraham Lincoln

When clicking on the fox news web site I came upon this article which had a small picture of the founding fathers of America. But when you go to the actual article it only shows a picture of Lincoln and not the Founding Fathers. Is the fox news network afraid to show the photo because the founding fathers were a bunch of old white guys and they do not want offend anyone? Fair and Balanced or once again political correctness gone crazy?

Founding Fathers

And now here is the article:

It is remarkable that Abraham Lincoln never delivered a Fourth of July speech.
The closest he came was on July 10, 1858, in Chicago during one of the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates, when Lincoln spoke of the Founders as “iron men.” He remarked how, every July 4, Americans celebrate those “iron men” and their extraordinary achievement, because we are “historically connected” with it.
Lincoln meant this literally. He was speaking to those who were old enough to remember the Founders from their youth and those descendants of the Revolutionary generation.
But then Lincoln spoke about another set of Americans, the ones whose families came here after the great Revolution was over. In a word, immigrants. Of these, Lincoln said:
“If they look back through this history and trace their connection with those days by blood, they find they have none. They cannot carry themselves back into that glorious epoch and make themselves feel that they are part of us, but when they look through that old Declaration of Independence, they find that those old men say that, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,’ and then they feel that the moral sentiment taught in that day evidences their relation to those men, that it is the father of all moral principle in them, and that they have a right to claim it as though they were blood of the blood, and flesh of the flesh, of the men who wrote that Declaration, and so they are.”
And so we are. None of us fought at Bunker Hill or Lexington or Concord. None of us endured famine, cold, or the impact of a musket ball. None of us signed our names to a document that made us traitors, fit to be hung.
Yet, despite all that, we are still Americans, and the Fourth is still our celebration, because we hold dear the “moral sentiment” for which those iron men fought and died — “That all men are created equal.”
Lincoln would fight and die for it, too.
Lincoln reassures us that this alone is enough to form that “historical connection” with men who in all other things bear no relation to us. Or, as he puts it: “That is the electric cord in that Declaration that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together, that will link those patriotic hearts as long as the love of freedom exists in the minds of men throughout the world.”
As this speech was delivered in response to Stephen Douglas, a congressman from Illinois, Lincoln connects the “electric cord” in the Declaration with the question of slavery.
“If one man says [the Declaration] does not mean a negro, why not another say it does not mean some other man?”
In a few short paragraphs, Lincoln eviscerates Douglas’ contention that the ideals of the Declaration were reserved for only the true descendants of the American Revolution. It is remarkable that there was a time when Lincoln’s idea, now so central to our American mindset, was not dominant.
And yet we find our present culture riven by a hypersensitive strain of identity politics. We are told, even by some who belong to Lincoln’s party, that we should provide this group of Americans with one kind of government handout and that group with another.
We are told that we must “speak to” a certain group of Americans in a certain way or else lose their vote. We are told that skin color or sex determines whether a group is more or less deserving of government perks. If one disagrees, one is shouted down as a racist, bigot, or chauvinist.
Yet Lincoln would disagree. The Founders would disagree as well. And so must all whose connection with that great and glorious generation of “iron men” consists of embracing an ideal that was meant to be taken literally; namely, that all men are created equal.
But it is not enough to believe this. We must do more than reread those words this Fourth of July in between the barbeques and fireworks. We must do what the Founders did, and what Lincoln did in his own time, and fight against the insidious notion that those words mean other than what they say.
Lincoln believed the Founders asked this of him and his generation. It is what the Founders ask of us still.

Sunday, July 3, 2016

Independence Day: What is it and why is it celebrated on 4 July?

On Monday, Americans will gather to celebrate Independence Day, which marks an event of massive historical significance for the country. These are the origins America's biggest holiday.
What is it?
4 July is the most significant national holiday in the United States. It celebrates the Declaration of Independence, adopted on 4 July, 1776. The Thirteen Colonies of America declared themselves to be states and no longer part of the British Empire, though the revolutionary war continued for some time after.
What’s the story behind it?
The original United States of America was made up of a collection of East Coast states known as the Thirteen Colonies. These were: Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts Bay, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
These mainly agricultural colonies were run by the British - who had been present on the continent since 1587 - and exploited for their resources, in particular tobacco.
While the relationship between the settlers and British was once amicable, tensions began to escalate over British laws and taxes, such as the Sugar Act, driven by British financial needs. There was also a growing sense of nationalism in the country.
From 1765, some settlers began to demand ‘no taxation without representation’, calling for their voice to be heard in the British parliament.
This tension sometimes erupted into fighting and acts of dissent, such as the Boston Tea Party in 1773. The event was a protest against the Tea Act, legislation which gave the British East India Company a monopoly on sales of tea in the Thirteen Colonies.
Further ill feeling was caused by the Coercive Acts – which became known as the ‘Intolerable Acts’ to American Patriots – which were implemented in response to the Boston Tea Party. The laws took power away from semi-autonomous Massachusetts.
In response to these factors, Continental Congresses – a meeting of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies – were convened. At the second meeting, in 1775, a war of independence against Britain was declared.
The next year, the Declaration of Independence was signed by 56 representatives of thirteen self-styled states (previously the Thirteen Colonies). The signatories included future president Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.
The conflict continued until the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended the war in favour of an independent America.
How has it been celebrated through history?
Fireworks, speeches, parties, feasts and general celebrations have marked the day since the 18th century. In Bristol, Rhode Island, there was a salute of 13 gunshots in the morning and evening in 1777. The town has held the nation's longest running Independence Day celebration.
The first recorded music commemorating independence was the ‘Pslam of Joy’, written by Johann Friedrich Peter in Salem, North Carolina.
Many towns and cities across the US have their own annual celebrations.
How has the government marked it?
Congress made the day an unpaid national holiday for federal workers in 1870, and in 1938 it became a paid holiday across the country. Government officials also take part in celebratory functions and make speeches.
How do people celebrate it today?
Firework displays and parties are the most well-known activities associated with Independence Day. All major cities have fireworks displays and there is also one given by the White House. As a national holiday, it also serves as an occasion for reunions and vacations.

Obama MeMe Cartoons

Penalties Clinton could face if indicted over private server

Republican Colorado official steps down after posting Obama meme on Facebook

DELTA, Colorado – The chairwoman of the Delta County Republican Party who was accused of favoritism and posting a racist meme on her Facebook page has resigned.
Party officials were upset after a photo compared President Barack Obama to a chimpanzee appeared on Linda Sorenson web page, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reported.
Sorenson stepped down after an accountability meeting was convened by the county's Republican Central Committee investigating the allegations. She announced her decision to resign in an email to supporters.
The committee was investigating allegations that Sorenson and others made that her Facebook page was "hacked" and whether she violated party rules by endorsing a primary candidate.
Sorenson said her Facebook page was hacked, but Colorado Party Chairman Steve House said that was not the case.
And in an interview in May after the image was posted, Sorenson said she didn't care if people were offended by the image.
Don Suppes, mayor of Orchard City, who is running for the Delta County Commission, said he wasn't at the meeting, but he got the email and agreed with the decision.
"There's no room for racism, intended or unintended, in society," he said. "It's best for the party, best for the county, that she step down."
Party members said Sorenson also urged people to vote for U.S. Senate candidate Daryl Glenn, even though six Republicans were competing for the right to challenge Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet in the June 28 Republican primaries. Glenn won the primary.
Under party rules, officials of state and local parties, including their leaders, are not allowed to endorse one primary candidate over another.
"That is one of the hardest parts of that job," Suppes said. "You have to stay neutral no matter how strong your feelings are one way or another. You have to stay neutral."

Trump says he's filled convention speaker spots; tries to reverse slide, seize on Clinton's tough week

Donald Trump said Saturday that he’s filled all of the speaker slots for the fast-approaching Republican National Convention -- trying to capitalize on rival Hillary Clinton’s tough week and stop talk about key GOP figures distancing themselves from him and the event.
Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, said on Twitter that he’ll announce the lineup on Wednesday and that he has “a long waiting list of those that want to speak.”
Trump critics have for weeks kept a running tally of top Republicans not attending the four-day convention in Cleveland that starts July 18 -- from such standard-bearers as former President George W. Bush to New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who is in a tough re-election campaign.
Speaking on the convention stage is considered a coveted opportunity for politicians, especially for up-and-coming ones to raise their national profile. Barack Obama’s keynote address at the 2004 Democratic convention, for example, helped him ascend from a freshman Illinois senator to president.
Dr. Ben Carson, a Trump primary rival, will reportedly speak at this year’s GOP convention. However, the Trump campaign has not confirmed such reports. And Trump shot down an earlier report that former boxing champion Mike Tyson would speak.
Trump is also expected to announce his running mate at the convention, but a news report earlier this week stated the announcement could come earlier.
Neither Trump nor Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, have scheduled campaign events over the Fourth of July weekend.
Clinton spoke Saturday morning to the FBI in Washington about the agency’s investigation into her use of a private email server while secretary of state.
She was in her Washington home and is expected to spend the rest of the weekend in the family’s home in Chappaqua, N.Y.
Her rough week started when top aide Huma Abedin had a six-hour deposition Tuesday with the conservative group Judicial Watch about Clinton’s use of the server and private email address for government communication while they both were at the State Department.
While the court-ordered deposition didn’t result in any ground break revelations, Abedin acknowledging the setup “frustrated” her and that a “hack” on the system was attempted sidetracked the Clinton campaign’s attacks on Trump.
"Judicial Watch represents everything that is wrong with our political system,” Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill told FoxNews.com on Wednesday. “They are only interested in headlines and have made a complete mockery of our (judicial) system.”
Then on Thursday, Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, added to the larger controversy when he initiated an impromptu meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who decides whether to prosecute the server case based on the recommendations of career federal prosecutors and the FBI director.
Lynch, appointed by Obama, who backs Clinton’s White House bid, has said she’ll accept the recommendations of the agency officials.
Clinton, who has risen slightly in recent polls against Trump, has no scheduled events until Tuesday, when she attends an event in Washington, then in North Carolina with Obama, their first together in the 2016 campaign.
Last year, Clinton caused a big flap over the Fourth weekend at a parade in key primary state New Hampshire when campaign staffers used a rope to keep reporters away from her.
Trump, a first-time candidate and billionaire businessman, struggled in June to gain GOP support in large part after suggesting a judge in a civil suit against his Trump University real estate school might be bias, considering Trump has proposed building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and the judge’s parents are from Mexico.
Trump’s next scheduled event is Wednesday in Cincinnati.

Trump calls for charges against Clinton after FBI interview in email investigation

Confirmed: Clinton met with FBI about email investigation

Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump called for charges to be filed against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton Saturday after the former secretary of state met with the FBI regarding the agency’s investigation into her use of a private email server for official correspondence.
"It is impossible for the FBI not to recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton," Trump tweeted Saturday afternoon. "What she did was wrong! What Bill did was stupid!"
The Clinton campaign said the voluntary meeting lasted about three-and-a-half hours and took place at FBI headquarters in Washington.
Clinton “is pleased to have had the opportunity to assist the Department of Justice in bringing this review to a conclusion” campaign spokesman Nick Merrill said in a statement. He also said Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, would have no further comment about the interview.
The campaign issued the statement Saturday shortly before 12:30 p.m. ET, practically minutes after Clinton returned to her Washington home, then departed again about 30 minutes later.
“Hillary Clinton has just taken the unprecedented step of becoming the first major party presidential candidate to be interviewed by the FBI as part of a criminal investigation surrounding her reckless conduct,” said Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus. "We must ask ourselves if this is the kind of leadership we want in the White House.”
There was no immediate comment from the FBI or Justice Department Saturday.
Clinton’s use of a private server and email address -- and whether classified information was mishandled as a result of that setup -- has cast a shadow over her campaign from the start.
The FBI investigation is purportedly coming to a close, and the Clinton interview is considered among the final steps in the case.
Trump has seized on the email issue and repeatedly said the probe undermines Clinton's fitness for office. Trump has called his opponent "Crooked Hillary" and said she cannot be trusted in the White House.
The former first lady and New York senator has argued that she is more trustworthy than Trump on handling the issues that matter to most Americans: foreign policy, national security and running the economy.
But the email investigation has lingered throughout her campaign, and Trump has asserted that Clinton will receive leniency from a Democratic administration.
Earlier this week, the entire, ongoing email scandal grew when Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, initiated an impromptu meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch on her airplane in Phoenix.
"The American people need to have confidence that the Obama Justice Department is conducting a fair and impartial investigation, but when the attorney general meets secretly with Bill Clinton just days before Hillary’s interrogation is conducted discreetly over a holiday weekend, it raises serious concerns about specialtreatment,” Priebus also said.
There was already speculation about whether an agency under the Obama administration could conduct an unbiased probe, which only intensified after Clinton met with Lynch, a President Obama appointee who decides whether to bring charges in the case.
Lynch says she will accept whatever recommendations she receives from the agency's career prosecutors and lawyers.
Clinton has said relying on a private server was a mistake but that other secretaries of state had also used a personal email address. The matter was referred for investigation last July by the inspectors general for the State Department and intelligence community following the discovery of emails that they said contained classified information.
The State Department's inspector general, the agency's internal watchdog, said in a blistering audit in May that Clinton and her team ignored clear warnings from State Department officials that her email setup violated federal standards and could leave sensitive material vulnerable to hackers. Clinton declined to talk to the inspector general, but the audit reported that Clinton feared "the personal being accessible" if she used a government email account.
Agents have already interviewed top Clinton aides including her former State Department chief of staff Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin, a longtime aide who is currently the vice chairwoman of Clinton's campaign.
The staffer who set up the server, Bryan Pagliano, was granted limited immunity from prosecution by the Justice Department last fall in exchange for his cooperation. The FBI as a matter of course seeks to interview individuals central to an investigation before concluding its work.
The emails were routed through a server located in the basement of Clinton's New York home during her tenure as the nation's top diplomat from 2009 to 2013.
Dozens of the emails sent or received by Clinton through her private server were later determined to contain classified material.
Clinton has repeatedly said that none of the emails were marked classified at the time they were sent or received. As part of the probe, she has turned over the hard drive from her email server to the FBI.

Saturday, July 2, 2016

Crooked Hillary Cartoons

Trump: Lynch-Clinton meeting 'opened up a Pandora's box'

Donald Trump tore into a recent meeting between Bill Clinton and Attorney General Loretta Lynch Friday, telling a conservative crowd it had “opened up a Pandora’s box” and was "a very serious thing."
Speaking at the Western Conservative Summit in Denver, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee blasted the recent private meeting between the former president and Lynch aboard her plane at an Arizona airport.
Lynch has sought to temper the controversy over what she says is an impromptu meeting, admitting it “cast a shadow” over the public perception of her neutrality of the FBI-led probe into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state. Legal watchdogs have called the meeting highly improper and called for the Department of Justice’s Inspector General to investigate.
Trump mocked Lynch's claim that it was an impromptu meeting saying sarcastically, “he just happened to be there at that time." He was also skeptical about Lynch's claim that the pair just talked about golf and grandchildren.
"I love my grandchildren so much. But if I talk about ‘em for more than nine or ten seconds, where are we? I love my grandchildren. I love that one, I love that one, I love, love, love that one,” Trump said. “After that, what are you going to say? Right?”
However, he added that the situation was very serious.
Its not a joke, it’s a very serious thing,” Trump said, before calling Hillary “so guilty.”
“I think it really opened up a Pandora’s box, and shows what’s going on and shows what's happening with our laws and our government,” Trump said.
In the speech, Trump rallied his base with a speech that ranged from immigration to the economy. Both he and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin sought to rally the base, with both giving optimistic presentations of the 2016 race.
“We’re doing great everywhere, much better than the press would have you believe,” Trump said.
“There are more of us than the disconnected left can even fathom,” Palin remarked, who also called Trump a “a golden wrecking ball” who broke down the walls of the “old boy’s club."
Outside, scenes turned ugly when a man grabbed pro-Trump bumper stickers from a woman outside the city's convention center, ripped them up and threw them in her face, The Associated Press reported.
A pushing match followed and people spilled into the street.
Police swarmed the crowd and ordered people to get out of the street. They led two men and a woman away, including the man who took the bumper stickers.
Some protesters sang "We Shall Overcome" and others waived the Mexican flag, saying "No justice, no peace."
Palin made reference to the protests in her speech, calling them paid protestors and joking: “Not even president yet and [Trump] is already creating jobs.”

Biggest private coal producer warns of cutting 80 percent of workforce, head blames Obama policies

Murray Energy Corp., the largest privately held coal miner in the U.S., has warned that it may soon undertake one of the biggest layoffs in the sector during this time of low energy prices.
In a notice sent to workers this week, Murray said it could lay off as many as 4,400 employees, or about 80% of its workforce, because of weak coal markets. The company said it anticipates “massive workforce reductions in September.”
The law requires a 60-day waiting period before large layoffs occur.

Layoffs 'due to the ongoing destruction of the United States coal industry by President Barack Obama, and his supporters, and the increased utilization of natural gas to generate electricity'
- company statement

The American coal industry, especially in Appalachia, has languished as cheap natural gas replaces coal as fuel for power plants. World-wide demand for coal has also slumped, and new environmental regulations are making many coal mines unprofitable to operate.
The Central Appalachian coal price benchmark is $40 a ton, or half its level from five years ago. Almost all of the biggest coal producers in the U.S. have declared bankruptcy in the past 18 months, including Peabody Energy Corp., Arch Coal Inc. and Alpha Natural Resources Inc.
Robert Murray, the controlling owner of Murray, is a fierce opponent of President Obama and a supporter of Donald Trump. In a statement, the company said the potential layoffs were “due to the ongoing destruction of the United States coal industry by President Barack Obama, and his supporters, and the increased utilization of natural gas to generate electricity.”
The move came just a day after the United Mine Workers of America said it would reject a proposed new labor deal with Murray. The existing contract expires at the end of this year.
Phil Smith, a spokesman for the union, said the rejected deal is just a first step.
“Hopefully the coal market will come to the point where [the layoffs are] not necessary,” he said. “It’s no secret the coal market is bad right now.”
The UMWA represents about 3,000 Murray workers, half of whom have already been laid off.

Clinton sought secret info on EU bailout plans as son-in-law's doomed hedge fund gambled on Greece

Hedge fund manager Marc Mezvinsky had friends in high places when he bet big on a Greek economic recovery, but even the keen interest of his mother-in-law, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, wasn't enough to spare him and his investors from financial tragedy.
In 2012, Mezvinski, the husband of Chelsea Clinton, created a $325 million basket of offshore funds under the Eaglevale Partners banner through a special arrangement with investment bank Goldman Sachs. The funds have lost tens of millions of dollars predicting that bailouts of the Greek banking system would pump up the value of the country’s distressed bonds. One fund, exclusively dedicated to Greek debt, suffered near-total losses.
Clinton stepped down as secretary of state in 2013 to run for president. But newly released emails from 2012 show that she and Clinton Foundation consultant, Sidney Blumenthal, shared classified information about how German leadership viewed the prospects for a Greek bailout. Clinton also shared “protected” State Department information about Greek bonds with her husband at the same time that her son-in-law aimed his hedge fund at Greece.
That America’s top diplomat kept a sharp eye on intelligence assessing the chances of a bailout of the Greek central bank is not a problem. However, sharing such sensitive information with friends and family would have been highly improper. Federal regulations prohibit the use of nonpublic information to further private interests or the interests of others. The mere perception of a conflict of interest is unacceptable.
Through its press representative, Eaglevale declined to comment for this story. Clinton’s campaign press office did not respond to a request for comment.
A former Goldman Sachs broker himself, Mezvinsky formed Eaglevale Management with two ex-Goldman Sachs partners in October 2011. As a “global macro” firm, Eaglevale’s strategy is to seek profit opportunities in politically volatile situations. Mezvinsky set up several funds in the Cayman Islands, a secretive tax haven, with Goldman Sachs serving as Eaglevale’s prime broker and banker. The giant brokerage firm has a checkered history of manipulating the value of Greek debt to the detriment of Greece.
The same month that Eaglevale incorporated its offshore arm, Gary Gensler, the head of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which polices hedge funds, emailed Clinton that a bailout by the European Central Bank could “turn market sentiment” in favor of Greek bonds.
Gensler had previously worked as co-head of finance at Goldman Sachs; he is now the financial director of Clinton’s election campaign. Goldman Sachs has donated up to $5 million to the Clinton Foundation and $860,000 to Hillary Clinton’s political campaigns. Shortly after Clinton resigned, Goldman Sachs paid her $675,000 in speaking fees.
Clinton’s deputy in charge of economic policy was Robert Hormats, a former vice chairman of Goldman Sachs. Hormats and Clinton shared an extensive email trail about the possibility of bailing out Greece, including classified materials, and internal state department memos about the debt from the U.S. ambassador to Greece.
Again, monitoring Greece was part of Clinton’s job description, but, ethically, that does not mean that a family member should make bets that depend upon the actions of another family member—leaving aside the question of whether “insider” information was divulged to Mezvinsky by Blumenthal or his parents-in-law.
During 2011, Secretary of State Clinton lobbied the leaders of European governments to bail out the Greek financial system. She advocated imposing austerity measures on Greece—raising taxes, cutting public employee salaries and eliminating social welfare programs—to make the investors holding the debt happy.
Driven by investor’s belief that Greece would be bailed out, the speculative value of its debt climbed into the stratosphere in late 2011 and early 2012. The bonds gradually sank to 2008 levels by the end of the year, with temporary spikes, as investors alternately gained and loss confidence in the prospect of a bailout. In other words, there were multiple opportunities for Greek-bond hedge funds to buy cheap and sell dear.
At a February 2012 summit meeting about the Eurozone debt crisis in Munich, Clinton urged leaders of the European Union to commit to a Greek bailout.
In April, Eaglevale booked $19 million from a dozen investors. California’s public employee pension fund, CalPERS, reportedly invested $13 million. Goldman Sach’s CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, jumped in with his own money, as did Chelsea Clinton’s former boss, Marc Lasry, who specializes in buying distressed debt.
In May, Blumenthal, emailed two “confidential” memos about the Greek debt situation to Clinton. Hormats was included in the email loop.
The first memo, Blumenthal told Clinton, is “based on conversations with German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble and those close to him … the information comes from an extremely sensitive source and should be handled with care. This information must not be shared with anyone associated with the German government.”
The unnamed spy reported that in secret meetings with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Schauble had searched for a politically acceptable way to bail out the Greek debt in order to avoid collapsing the economies of Greece, Italy, Spain and Ireland.
The second memo was classified and blacked out by State Department censors when Clinton’s emails were released. No doubt, it was informative.
In June, Clinton’s deputy, Jake Sullivan emailed her “a depressing snapshot” of reports that Greek banks were failing and that Merkel was against a Greek bailout. The next day, he reported “re: Greece” that Ambassador Dan Smith “just spoke to the Central Bank Governor and assessed that the economic situation was “ok for now” provided that “small depositors put money back into the banks.”
A few days later, Clinton asked Sullivan for a confidential state department report, “Solidarity Bonds Greece Revised.” He sent it to her adding, “If you like, send it on [to] WJC," presumably a reference to William Jefferson Clinton.
Clinton ordered an aide, “Pls print two copies” of the Greek bond report. The report was blacked out as a “protected” document when the emails were made public.
Did Mezvinsky benefit from his family connection?
The emails show that Clinton did at least one official favor for her son-in-law. In August 2012, she forwarded Deputy Secretary Thomas Nides an email from Mezvinsky lobbying on behalf of his former Goldman Sachs colleague, Harry Siklas.
Siklas and Goldman Sachs were invested in a deep sea mining venture called Neptune Minerals. Siklas asked Mezvinsky to broker a talk with Clinton about “current legal issues and regulations” on deep sea mining. Clinton ordered Nides to “follow up on this request.”
Nides replied, “I’ll get on it.”

FBI could interview Hillary Clinton this weekend, report claims

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton could be interviewed by the FBI about her private email system while secretary of state as early as this weekend, according to a published report.
The Daily Caller, citing a source close to the investigation, reported Friday that Clinton was scheduled to meet with the FBI Saturday. The source added that the talk could take place at Clinton's Washington D.C. residence.
Clinton has no campaign events scheduled over the July 4 holiday weekend, which could make such an interview easier to arrange.
Meanwhile, ABC News reported Friday that the Justice Department hopes to complete the investigation before the two major party conventions later this month. The Republican convention begins July 18 in Cleveland while the Democratic convention begins July 25 in Philadelphia. ABC also reported that investigators want ample time to review Clinton's interview and compare her statements to the facts it has gathered in the case.
The FBI has previously interviewed several of Clinton's top aides, including her former Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills and former deputy Chief of Staff Huma Abedin. as part of their investigation into whether Clinton mishandled classified information that passed through her so-called "homebrew" server.
The reports emerged on the same day Attorney General Loretta Lynch said she regretted meeting former President Bill Clinton at the Phoenix airport this week, sparking criticism from both parties for creating an apparent conflict of interest.
"I certainly won’t do it again," Lynch said, admitting the meeting "has cast a shadow over this."
An FBI source told Fox News Friday that agents were "livid" about the Phoenix meeting. The source said the agents' issues with the meeting went beyond appearances, since Bill Clinton is a potential target and witness in the investigation, which also deals with Hillary Clinton's ties to the Clinton Foundation while Secretary of State.
Lynch said Friday that she would accept the recommendation of investigators about whether to bring charges against Clinton, saying "they are acting independently."

Friday, July 1, 2016

Al Gore Cartoons

Al Gore's daughter among 23 arrested in Boston pipeline protest

BOSTON – Former Vice President Al Gore's daughter was among 23 people arrested during a protest of a pipeline under construction.
The arrests happened Wednesday at the site of Spectra Energy's West Roxbury Lateral pipeline in Boston.
Karenna Gore was among demonstrators who tried to block construction activity on the site by lying in a trench dug for the pipeline and refusing to move until firefighters removed them, said protest group Resist the Pipeline & Stop the West Roxbury Lateral.
The group opposes the pipeline because of safety and climate change concerns.
Protesters facing trespassing and disturbing the peace charges were being arraigned Thursday.
Gore, who serves as director of the Center for Earth Ethics at the Union Theological Seminary in New York, and others facing resisting arrest charges will be arraigned Friday.
Gore said in an email that she was honored to be part of the protest "as they made the case that there are higher moral principles at stake here that merit nonviolent civil disobedience."
"The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission should be helping us transition to renewable energy like solar and wind but instead they almost always defer to the fossil fuel industry," she wrote.
Al Gore, who served as vice president under Democratic President Bill Clinton, said he was proud of his daughter.
"We are facing an existential crisis and should speed up the transition away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy and a decarbonized economy," he said through a spokeswoman.
Houston-based Spectra Energy Corp. said it does not condone actions that take first responders away from their duties.
"Our pipelines provide a vital source of reliable, affordable energy for the nation's homes, hospitals, businesses and schools. Low energy prices help everyone, particularly those least able to pay their bills," company spokesman Creighton Welch said in a statement.
The 5-mile pipeline is part of a larger, roughly $1 billion plan to expand natural gas capacity in New England.
Protesters said Buddhist, Jewish and Christian clergy members were among those charged with resisting arrest, as was noted climate change activist Tim DeChristopher, who a few years ago tried to stop drilling operations in Utah.
"We can no longer pretend like what Spectra is doing here in West Roxbury is anything other than digging a mass grave," DeChristopher said in remarks at the protest.
DeChristopher tried to thwart drilling near Utah's national parks by posing as a buyer during a 2008 government oil and gas lease auction. He served 21 months in federal prison, and his probation ended this April.

Trump doubles down on trade talk amid Chamber of Commerce feud

Donald Trump, in an interview with Fox News, doubled down on his criticism of U.S. trade policies while making clear he's not backing down from a simmering feud with the Chamber of Commerce over the issue.
“The trade deals are ripping our jobs apart,” Trump told Fox News on Wednesday. As for the chamber, he said the group is “totally controlled by the special interest groups.”
Trump and the Chamber of Commerce have been trading shots all week, underscoring a divide in the Republican Party on the trade issue. The chamber, a traditionally friendly group for mainstream GOP candidates, went after Trump hard on Tuesday over proposals the group said would cost jobs and hurt the economy.
Trump, though, reiterated Wednesday he believes new trade deals should be negotiated because foreign countries are taking advantage of the United States.
“I’ve got it, I understand it, you see the crowds I am getting, nobody has crowds like we have,” Trump told Fox News. “And it’s about, really, I think in this case trade.”
Trump initially went after the chamber on Tuesday during a rally in Bangor, Maine. The New York real estate developer accused the organization of being a special interest that only “wants to have the deals that they want to have.”
“They want to have TPP, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, one of the worst deals, and it’ll be the worst deal since NAFTA,” Trump said, claiming the chamber’s motives were “pretty sinister.”
The chamber, the world’s largest business organization, represents the interests of more than 3 million businesses and has members ranging from mom-and-pop shops to large corporations. The group rejects the "special interest" charge.
Trump once again is waging somewhat of a two-front war, taking on traditional GOP allies while also facing the scorn of President Obama. On Wednesday, Obama slammed Trump’s call for a withdrawal from trade deals as “the wrong medicine.”
"Ordinary people who have concerns about trade have a legitimate gripe about globalization," Obama said pointing to "growing inequality and stagnant wages."
"The question is, what do you do about it? And the prescription of withdrawing from trade deals and focusing solely on your local market -- that's the wrong medicine," he said, during a trip to Canada to meet with North Americans heads of state.
Obama added that Trump’s idea is “not feasible” because local businesses would lose jobs if they didn’t have access to international markets.
For its part, the chamber ripped Trump’s Tuesday trade policy speech in real time on Twitter, picking it apart point by point. His comments were also slammed by the National Association of Manufacturers President Jay Timmons, who tweeted that Trump’s got “it backward.”
Trump’s comments also have not been received well by some wealthy Republican donors like billionaire Paul Singer, who told CNBC Wednesday that Trump's plan for trade deals would not end well.
"The most impactful of the economic policies that I recall him coming out for are these anti-trade policies," Singer said during a panel discussion at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado.
But Trump’s tough talk has gotten the attention of some experts like Art Laffer, the former economic adviser to President Reagan.
Laffer told Newsweek while he didn’t like the “tone” of Trump’s Tuesday speech, he saw some improvements.
"I saw negotiating better trade deals rather than throwing away all the trade deals we have now. He points out the flaws in these trades, and that’s all true," Laffer said. "I don’t like the tone of it, but I dislike the tone less today than I did three weeks ago.”

Trump 'flabbergasted' by meeting between AG Lynch, Bill Clinton

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said Thursday that reports of a private meeting between Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former President Bill Clinton left him "flabbergasted."
Lynch and Clinton met on Lynch's plane after she landed at the Phoenix airport Monday evening. Lynch has denied that the two spoke about the ongoing FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while secretary of state. However, Republicans and Democrats have criticized her for creating a possible conflict of interest, and some lawmakers have called for Lynch to recuse herself from the investigation.
"I actually thought ... 'No way, there's no way that's gonna happen' and it happened." Trump told Fox News' Sean Hannity. "I think it's amazing. I've never seen anything like that before."
The encounter between Lynch and Clinton took place the night before the House select committee investigating the 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi released its report. The investigation criticized the Obama administration for huddling to craft a public response to the video even as military assets waited hours to deploy to Libya.
"Who wouldn't have sent help after you got the first messages?" Trump asked Hannity. "[Hillary Clinton] has bad judgement. [Ambassador Chris Stevens] is asking for help."
"She lied," Trump said of Clinton. "That's what she does. She lies."

State Department seeks 27-month delay for release of Clinton Foundation emails

The State Department has sought to delay the court-ordered release of emails between four of Hillary Clinton's top aides and officials at the Clinton Foundation and a closely associated public relations firm.
The motion, filed in federal court by the Justice Department late Wednesday, seeks to put off the release of the emails by 27 months. It was first reported on by The Daily Caller.
In the filing, the State Department says it originally estimated that approximately 6,000 emails and other documents were exchanged between the aides — identified as former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Michael Fuchs, former Ambassador-At-Large Melanne Verveer, Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills, and Deputy Chief of Staff Huma Abedin — and the Clinton Foundation and Teneo Holdings, a communications shop that former President Bill Clinton helped launch.
However, the State Department said that due to errors in the initial document search, the number of "potentially responsive documents" was in fact more than 34,000. The department estimated that it had more than 13,000 pages still left to review.
U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras had previously ordered the State Department to release the requested documents by July 21.
If the State Department request is granted, the emails would not be released until October 2018, nearly halfway through the first term of a potential Hillary Clinton presidency. The documents are being sought by the conservative nonprofit group Citizens United.
"The American people have a right to see these emails before the election," Citizens United President David Bossie told The Daily Caller, adding that the delay was "totally unacceptable."
The motion was filed two days after Attorney General Loretta Lynch met Bill Clinton at the Phoenix airport. Lynch denied the meeting was anything other than a chance encounter, but Republicans and Democrats have criticized her for at least creating the appearance of a conflict of interest in the midst of a federal investigation into Hillary Clinton's time as America's top diplomat.
On Thursday, State Department spokesman John Kirby cited a surge in Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests in explaining the State Department extension request.
"The Department handles FOIA in an entirely nonpartisan manner," Kirby said.
The former secretary of state has come under scrutiny over whether she used her position to aid corporate and foreign government donors to the Clinton Foundation.
In addition, Abedin worked as an employee at Teneo while simultaneously working at the State Department while Mills held a position at the Clinton Foundation while also serving in the State Department. Both matters have been flagged by Congress as possible conflicts of interest.

Monday, July 4, 2016

Sunday, July 3, 2016

Saturday, July 2, 2016

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Friday, July 1, 2016