Presumptuous Politics

Monday, October 17, 2016

WikiLeaks: Podesta lamented that a Muslim, not a white man, named as killer in 2015 massacre

Top Hillary Clinton aides were upset a Muslim man was publicly named as the shooter in a 2015 massacre that left 14 people dead, and a longtime Clinton confidant even expressed regret that the terrorist wasn’t a white man, according to purported emails released by WikiLeaks on Sunday.
The emails were part of a trove of messages stolen from the gmail account of Clinton campaign chair John Podesta, who has had a long association with the Democratic presidential nominee and her husband, former President Bill Clinton. The email chain began on Dec. 2, when digital operative Matt Ortega forwarded a tweet from MSNBC host Christopher Hayes that named one of the shooters in the San Bernardino, Calif., attack as Sayeed Farook. Consultant Karen Finney forwarded the email to Podesta, commenting, “Damn.”

Podesta responded: “Better if a guy named Sayeed Farouk [sic] was reporting that a guy named Christopher Hayes was the shooter.”
Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, gunned down 14 people and injured 22 in a terror attack during a holiday party at the Inland Regional Center on Dec. 2. The attackers pledged their allegiance to ISIS before dying in a shootout with police later in the day.
But Podesta’s written lament of the shooter’s ethnicity underscores a long-running aversion in the Clinton campaign – and many in the Democratic party at large – to associating terrorist acts with any aspect of the Islamic religion.
In a 154-page debate prep book that was developed two months after the San Bernardino attacks, and also unearthed in the WikiLeaks document dump, topic 47 is devoted to “Should we call this Islamic terrorism?” Nowhere in the suggested seven-point answer does “Islamic terrorism” make an appearance. Instead, it’s suggested that Clinton call the enemy “radical jihadists.”
“Now, of course there are those who twist Islam to justify mass murder,” point three begins. “But we can’t buy into the same narrative that these barbaric, radical jihadists use to recruit new followers. Declaring war on Islam or demonizing the Muslim-American community is not only counter to our values – it plays right into the terrorists’ hands.”
Point seven states: “Radical jihadists underestimate us. We won’t turn on each other or turn on our principles. We will keep our country safe and strong, free and tolerant. And we will defeat those who threaten us.”
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has made a concerted effort to note that Clinton and President Obama don’t use Trump’s preferred descriptive term, “Radical Islamic terrorism.” Obama held a lengthy press conference earlier this year to specifically address why he refused to link Islam and terrorism. But in the wake of the Orlando nightclub terror attack in June, and amid more Trump prodding, Clinton relented somewhat.
“Whether you call it radical jihadism or radical Islamism, I’m happy to say either,” she said at the time. “I think they mean the same thing.”
The latest email release was the ninth day this month that emails from Podesta's account were revealed on WikiLeaks. So far, about 12,000 of 50,000 alleged emails have been released.

Hillary Clinton backers worried about Clinton Foundation scandals

Notable revelations in 9th WikiLeaks dump of Podesta emails

Hillary Clinton’s aides and supporters expressed concern about public perception of the Clinton family’s charitable enterprise, with one left-leaning pundit writing that Clinton seemed unaware of the “danger” of her “money problem,” according to purported emails disclosed by Wikileaks on Sunday.
Opinion columnist Brent Budowsky was chiefly concerned with the potential damage that could be caused by the publication of Peter Schweizer’s 2015 book “Clinton Cash,” emails show. The bestseller explored whether there was a relationship between donations made from foreign entities to The Clinton Foundation and the contracts that were approved by then-Secretary of State Clinton for foreign companies. Hillary Clinton has denied the allegations of quid pro quo.
“I have been vigorously criticizing the Schweizer book, but I absolutely believe the Clintons have a money problem, and they are not fully aware of the danger of this,” Brent Budowsky wrote in an April 26, 2015, email to Clinton campaign chair John Podesta.
Budowsky warned that congressional Republicans could try to ensnare Clinton in “a long-term perjury trap and endless cycles of news stories.” He was also troubled the public could grow weary “talking about Clinton issues and may simply want to move on.”
“The net net of everything HRC has done since leaving the State Department is that her trust numbers have fallen dramatically,” Budowsky wrote.
Budowsky advised ending “ALL foreign donations to the foundation NOW.”
Bill Clinton announced in August that, if Hillary won the presidency, the foundation would cease to accept foreign or corporate money and Bill would resign from the board. Hillary Clinton has not served on the board since April 2015.
“The views I express here represent the overwhelming majority of private views of Democrats I know, but I am not convinced they have expressed this to her, as directly as I am expressing this here……” Budowsky wrote.
But it may have initially appeared to Podesta that Budowsky’s worries were unfounded. A May 2015 New York Times poll apparently found that controversies regarding The Clinton Foundation since the publication of Schweizer’s book were gaining little traction with the public. Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri sent an email to Podesta advising him of a conversation she recently had with an unnamed individual who had access to an early version of the Times poll and its accompanying story.
“He also said the foundation story wasn’t breaking through with real people,” Palmieri wrote.
But internal polls taken just two months later painted a different picture.
“Secretary Clinton’s top vulnerability tested in this poll is the attack that claims as Secretary of State she signed off on a deal that gave the Russian government control over 20 percent of America's uranium production, after investors in the deal donated over $140 million to the Clinton Foundation,” a June report from the Benenson Strategy Group concluded. “Half of all likely voters (53 percent) are less likely to support Clinton after hearing that statement and 17 percent are much less likely to support her after that statement.”
Sunday’s release was the ninth day of WikiLeaks’ steady disclosure of purported emails stolen from Podesta. The anti-secrecy website has said it has 50,000 of Podesta's emails, though only about 12,000 have been made public so far.

Sunday, October 16, 2016

Liberals Cry Over Everything Cartoons

Fox Television Stations CEO Jack Abernethy and Senior Executive Vice President Bill Shine

FOX News co-presidents Jack Abernethy and Bill Shine

Rupert Murdoch, Executive Chairman

NEW YORK – September 14, 2016 – FOX News co-presidents Jack Abernethy and Bill Shine have signed new multi-year contracts, announced Rupert Murdoch, Executive Chairman of 21st Century Fox and Executive Chairman of FOX News & FOX Business Network.
In making the announcement, Murdoch said, “Jack and Bill have been instrumental in FOX News’ continued dominance in the ratings and historic earnings performance. I am delighted they’ve each signed new deals, ensuring stability and leadership to help guide the network for years to come.”
Abernethy and Shine added, “We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to continue leading FOX News and FOX Business into the future and look forward to working alongside the incredible roster of talent, both on and off air, to make each network even more successful.”
Promoted to co-presidents in August, Abernethy and Shine oversee both FOX News Channel (FNC) and FOX Business Network (FBN), dividing responsibilities for all facets of the networks. While continuing to run FOX Television Stations (FTS), Mr. Abernethy manages all business components of FNC and FBN including finance, advertising sales and distribution units. Mr. Shine runs all programming and news functions of each network, including production, technical operations and talent management.
In his role as CEO of FOX Television Stations, Jack Abernethy oversees 28 owned and operated stations in the nation’s largest television markets, including WNYW/WWOR in New York, KTTV/KCOP in Los Angeles, KDFW/KDFI in Dallas, WTXF in Philadelphia, WTTG/WDCA in Washington, D.C. and KTVU/KICU in San Francisco. He also operates FOX Television Stations’ first-run development and the programming service, MyNetworkTV.
Prior to this position, Mr. Abernethy served as the Executive Vice President of FOX News, where he led development for long-term strategic and business plans for the network. His responsibilities at FOX News evolved to include oversight of finance, legal & business affairs and affiliate sales. Mr. Abernethy also spearheaded the launch of FOX News Radio to more than 500 stations across the country.
Bill Shine has served as Senior Executive Vice President of Programming for FNC and FBN since August 2014. In this capacity, he ran all programming and synergies for both networks. Previously, he oversaw all opinion programming and production as an Executive Vice President.
Mr. Shine notably launched a new primetime line-up in the fall of 2013, which included the debut of The Kelly File, now the second highest rated show in cable news behind only The O’Reilly Factor. He has led FNC’s powerhouse daytime and primetime programming to its number one status in cable news for 176 consecutive months, routinely topping basic cable for multiple quarters as well. Under his leadership of both networks, FNC is on track to have its highest rated year ever and FBN’s key programs continue to edge CNBC.
Mr. Shine began his career at FNC as producer of Hannity & Colmes when the network launched in October 1996. Under his direction, Hannity & Colmes’ ratings grew 200% and became a formidable competitor to CNN’s Larry King Live. He also served as the executive producer of The Pulse, an investigative newsmagazine on FOX Broadcasting from 2001 to 2003. Shine was named Network Executive Producer in December 2000 and was promoted to Vice President, Production in 2003.
About FOX News Channel
FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well as political and business news. A top five cable network, FNC has been the most-watched news channel in the country for more than 14 years and according to a Suffolk University/USA Today poll, is the most trusted television news source in the country. Owned by 21st Century Fox, FNC is available in more than 90 million homes and dominates the cable news landscape, routinely notching the top ten programs in the genre. On the web at www.foxnews.com

Fox News Channel Just Received TERRIBLE NEWS – BREAKING!

For more than a decade, Fox News Channel has attributed its success to conservatives tuning in for their programming. For years, hosts Bill O’Reilly, Megyn Kelly, and Sean Hannity have enjoyed incredible success with millions of viewers. They have always left competitors – CNN and MSNBC – in the dust, and went on to compete against large cable channels for impressive viewership numbers.

But that just changed! Fox News, largely thanks to their biased treatment of conservative businessman Donald J. Trump and ignoring Dr. Ben Carson in the GOP debates, has now seen a dramatic dip in their “perception” with the Republican Party’s base.
Several studies have confirmed: Conservatives no longer trust Fox News for “fair and balanced” coverage:

Since the first GOP presidential debate last August, Fox News Channel seems to have lost its perception mojo with its core right-leaning audience.
By mid February, FNC’s perception by Republican adults 18 and over had reached its lowest point in more than three years, and has declined by approximately 50% since January of this year.
Coinciding with Trump’s rise to front-runner in the GOP presidential race, Fox News Channel has seen its perception by Republicans slide. In early August 2015, right after the first GOP debate aired on Fox News Channel,Trump went on a Twitter war with moderator Megyn Kelly, saying she “bombed” and calling her “a lightweight reporter.”

Via Brand Index
Their survey collects data while asking viewers if they have heard anything – positive or negative – about the Fox News Channel. The score range is between -100 and 100, with a score of 0 being neutral, it’s clear that Fox News is in major trouble:

On January 1, 2013, Fox News Channel’s Buzz score with Republican adults 18 and over was 49. By the first GOP debate last August, the score had dropped to 38. The downward momentum accelerated earlier this year when Fox News Channel’s score dropped from 36 on January 18th to 14 on February 12th. Trump declined to participate in FNC’s sanctioned GOP debate on January 28th. Fox News Channel’s current Buzz score is 17.

Below shows the poll results from Republicans (in red) and Democrats (and blue)… The recent dip is quote pronounced:

Fox News was set to make money off the 2016 presidential campaigns and down-ticket races, as their viewers are so conservative that advertising on that channel is an effective use of resources for many campaigns. But if those viewers turn off Fox News because they can no longer trust the network, that is bad for Fox News’ bottom line.

Bill Clinton’s taxpayer-funded pad may violate nonprofit rules

Bill Clinton is enjoying the private residence above his presidential library in Arkansas at the expense of taxpayers and his charity foundation — a potential violation of nonprofit regulations.
The 5,000-square-foot penthouse which sits atop the William J. Clinton Library in Little Rock is largely funded by the National Archives in Washington, which pours nearly $6 million into program and maintenance costs every year, a spokeswoman for the federal agency told The Post.
Costs are also offset by a $7 million endowment from the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation. Last year, the interest from the endowment amounted to just over $200,000, which was used to offset the operation and maintenance costs of the library and penthouse, the spokeswoman said.

–– ADVERTISEMENT ––

Yet, Clinton uses the penthouse for private soirées, in some cases inviting library interns to the apartment for drinks and to give him a foot massage, writes Ed Klein in his new book “Guilty as Sin.”
If Clinton is using the apartment for personal interests above the work of the Clinton Foundation and the library, he needs to inform the IRS, a charity expert says.
“If it’s just personal, you need to declare it as a benefit on your taxes,” said Marcus Owens, an expert in nonprofit law and a former IRS official.
The apartment was completed along with the $165 million library in November 2004.

Trump insists election ‘rigged,’ calls for drug test for him, Clinton before debate

Donald Trump on Saturday repeated his argument that the election is rigged against him and returned to his suggestion that Democratic rival Hillary Clinton appears physically unfit to be president -- so both of them should take a drug test.
“Looks to me like a rigged election,” Trump said at a rally in New Hampshire. “The election is being rigged by the liberal media to push outright lies to rig the election."
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has since this summer hinted at the possibility of voter fraud in big, Democrat-run cities like Philadelphia swinging the election for Clinton and about having poll monitors to stop such problems.
However, Trump, a wealthy businessman and first-time candidate, has recently pointed the finger more at liberal-leaning news outlets for publishing or airing stories that included audiotape of Trump bragging about mistreating women and stories from women making allegations about unwanted Trump sexual advances over roughly the past 30 years.
“Nothing ever happened with any of these women. Totally made up nonsense to steal the election. Nobody has more respect for women than me!” Trump tweeted after the rally.
Trump also suggest the drug test, like the kind pro athletes are required to take, before his final debate this election cycle, on Wednesday, with Clinton, whom he suggested wilted at the end of their second debate.
“I think we should take a drug test. At the beginning of the last debate, she was all pumped up ... but at the end she was,” he told the crowd without finishing his sentence. “Anyway I’m willing to do it.”
The 70-year-old Trump has repeatedly questioned whether Clinton, 68, is physically up to be president.
Speculation about Clinton’s health began this summer when she had a couple of coughing spells on the campaign trail. Then she abruptly left a 9-11 memorial ceremony and stumbled to her campaign van, which was followed by officials acknowledging that Clinton had days earlier been diagnosed with pneumonia.
“And right now she’s resting for the (Wednesday) debate,” Trump said. “This is Saturday.”
He also suggested WikiLeaks recently releasing hacked emails from the Clinton campaign “makes more clear than ever” that the news media does not cover the Clinton family “the way they should be covering them.”

WikiLeaks hacked emails reveal more about Clinton's once-private Wall Street speeches

More hacked emails released Saturday from WikiLeaks appear to show more about Hillary Clinton’s private, high-priced Wall Street speeches including her argument that Washington lawmakers would pass the Dodd-Frank banking reform law merely for “political reasons.”
“With political people … there was a lot of complaining about Dodd-Frank, but there was also a need to do something for political reasons,” Clinton said at a 2013 Goldman Sachs investment symposium.
“If you were an elected member of Congress and people in your constituency were losing jobs and shutting businesses and everybody in the press is saying it's all the fault of Wall Street, you can't sit idly by and do nothing,” Clinton also said in the speech.
The speech was just one of several for Wall Street audiences and for which Clinton was paid more than $200,000, according to an analysis of her financial disclosure forms released this spring.
The Democratic presidential nominee purportedly earned roughly $1.8 million for eight speeches to big banks, including Goldman Sachs.
The hacked emails, from Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta and others associated with Clinton, are emerging months after Clinton’s primary rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, called for her to release transcripts of the speeches -- in an attempt to prove her believed ties to big banks.
Other documents in the trove released Saturday, including a transcript of the Goldman Sachs speech, appear to suggest Clinton wanted the United States to intervene in civil war-torn Syria in a more covert manner.
“My view was you intervene as covertly as is possible,” she said. “We used to be much better at this than we are now. Now, you know, everybody can't help themselves. They have to go out and tell their friendly reporters and somebody else: Look what we're doing and I want credit for it, and all the rest of it.”
Also on Saturday, WikiLeaks release a 2015 email exchange from Clinton campaign spokesman Nick Merrill and long-time Clinton aide Heather Samuelson about the State Department’s apparent plans to place a favorable story with Associated Press reporters Matt Lee and Bradley Klapper about the release of emails from Clinton confidant Sydney Blumenthal as the missives are turned over to a Republican-led congressional committee.
(Clinton was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.)
Merrill also says in the exchange that he would like the story to run during the release of a Supreme Court decision because it will distract the “news hyenas.”
The emails are thought to have been hacked by Russians and released in an attempt to influence the outcome of the Nov. 8 General Election between Clinton and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Podesta on Friday fired back at Julian Assange as his WikiLeaks group released another set of hacked emails, which have been an embarrassing distraction for the Clinton campaign.
“I bet the lobster risotto is better than the food at the Ecuadorian Embassy,” Podesta tweeted, while Assange starts his fifth year at the Ecuador Embassy in the United Kingdom, amid a 2005 rape allegation in Sweden.
The tweet also included a picture of Podesta and celebrity chef Daniel Boulud recently preparing the dish at a private Clinton fundraiser.
Clinton campaign spokesman Glen Caplin on Saturday compared the Podesta email hack to the Watergate break in.
"Four decades later, we’re witnessing another effort to steal private campaign documents in order to influence an election,” he said. “Only this time, instead of filing cabinets, it’s people’s emails they’re breaking into … and a foreign government is behind it."
Earlier this month, WikiLeaks posted what it said were thousands of emails obtained in a hack of Podesta’s personal email account.
Among those was an internal review of Clinton’s Wall Street speeches to survey the political damage her remarks could cause if they ever became public.
In what aides calculated were the most damaging passages, Clinton reflected on the necessity of "unsavory" political dealing, telling real estate investors that "you need both a public and private position."
To investment bankers from Goldman Sachs and BlackRock, Clinton admits that she's "kind of far removed" from the middle-class upbringing that she frequently touts on the campaign trail.