[rtpoe]

Thanks to some fine journalism at Newsweek, we now know that there are other serious problems with a Trump presidency:

"A close examination by Newsweek of the Trump Organization, including confidential interviews with business executives and some of its international partners, reveals an enterprise with deep ties to global financiers, foreign politicians and even criminals, although there is no evidence the Trump Organization has engaged in any illegal activities. It also reveals a web of contractual entanglements that could not be just canceled. If Trump moves into the White House and his family continues to receive any benefit from the company, during or even after his presidency, almost every foreign policy decision he makes will raise serious conflicts of interest and ethical quagmires."

http://www.newsweek.com/2016/09/23/donald-trump-foreign-business-deals-national-security-498081.html

Some of the potential conflicts of interest cited:

SOUTH KOREA - Thanks to a licensing agreement, the Trump Organization gets about $8 million a year from Daewoo Engineering and Construction. In his campaign speeches, Trump has said that he thinks South Korea should take over its own military defense, even including nuclear weapons. One of the major companies in South Korea involved in nuclear energy, and therefore likely to get a lot of business if the country needs to pull its own weight in defense? Daewoo Engineering and Construction......

INDIA - Another branding deal over a development is in limbo now that the government is looking into possible illegalities in the development's construction. Could pressure from a President Trump make that investigation go away?

TURKEY - This one's even more serious. A branding deal over two buildings in Istanbul in 2012 is now on the rocks after an Istanbul court accepted an indictment of Aydin Dogan, chairman of the Dogan Group (Trump's partner in the deal), on charges he engaged in a fuel smuggling. And as a result of Trump's anti-Islam rhetoric, Prime Minister Erdogan called for the Trump name to be removed from the complex. This is no minor thing. Turkey is among the few Muslim countries allied with America in the fight against the Islamic State militant group; they've allowed the U.S. Air Force to use a base as a major staging area for bombing and surveillance missions against ISIS. Also, Turkey is at war with the Kurds, America’s allies in the fight against ISIS in Syria. Kurdish insurgent groups are in armed conflict with Turkey, demanding an independent Kurdistan. If Turkey cuts off the Trump Organization’s cash flow from Istanbul, will Trump, who has shown many times how petty and impulsive he can be, allow that to influence how the U.S. juggles the interests of these two critical allies?

One doesn't even need to go overseas to find conflicts of interest. Trump just opened a new luxury hotel in DC. In a market oversupplied with hotel rooms, his hotel is the most expensive (starting at $735 per night). And Trump is already in a legal fight with two **29** chefs, José Andrés and Geoffrey Zakarian, who pulled out of their plans to have restaurants in the hotel after Trump's insults to Mexicans and immigrants went too far. "He’s clearly a racist and makes racist comments, and we have an industry that has always reached out to an immigrant population and built on the work of an immigrant population," Top Chef’s Tom Colicchio, the owner of Craft who was reportedly approached by the Trump Organization after Andrés and Zakarian bailed, told Mother Jones magazine.

It's not like Trump can divest himself of all this or put it in a blind trust. He already knows who the major players are in his deals, and they are generally far too complicated to be easily put aside.

Keep in mind that all this has absolutely nothing to do with his character, health, or general qualifications for office. This is all business. Remember back when everyone was saying that Goldman Sachs bought Clinton because she gave a speech to them? This is far more serious. The connections are already in place, with many times the amount of money involved.

If Trump were to become president, could we really trust him to put the nation's interests ahead of his own financial status?

[TheZookie007]

Keep in mind that all this has absolutely nothing to do with his character, health, or general qualifications for office. This is all business. Remember back when everyone was saying that Goldman Sachs bought Clinton because she gave a speech to them? This is far more serious. The connections are already in place, with many times the amount of money involved.

If Trump were to become president, could we really trust him to put the nation's interests ahead of his own financial status?

No, we couldn't.

Regarding Clinton and Goldman Sachs, and the Republican candidate for president and his claims that he was self-funding his campaign:

a) if he really is self-funding his campaign, how come he's soliciting for money via emails to "normal" people (apparently he raised $90 million in the month of August alone in this manner) as well as from foreign individuals (which is prohibited by federal election law)?
b) if Clinton really is palling around with "millionaires and billionaires" (as Sen. Bernie Sanders would say) how come she's soliciting for money via emails to "normal" people?

Now that apparently the Fourth Estate has woken up to their responsibilities to delve into actual criminality by a presidential candidate (as opposed to people just repeating "Crooked Hillary" as if it were independently-verified fact), I wonder if it isn't too little, too late.

[StrikezOne]

[rtpoe]

Also on that list is "McCain (R-AZ)" - which can only be Senator John McCain, a military veteran himself. This (along with the lack of any supporting documentation like which bill was being voted on) leads me to believe that list cannot be trusted.

Oh, and...

Now that apparently the Fourth Estate has woken up to their responsibilities to delve into actual criminality by a presidential candidate (as opposed to people just repeating "Crooked Hillary" as if it were independently-verified fact), I wonder if it isn't too little, too late.

TRUMP FOR PRISON 2016!!!!!

(that felt good.....)

[StrikezOne]

Also on that list is "McCain (R-AZ)" - which can only be Senator John McCain, a military veteran himself. This (along with the lack of any supporting documentation like which bill was being voted on) leads me to believe that list cannot be trusted.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-joint-resolution/59

(Sec. 403) Revises the cost-of-living adjustment to the retirement pay of members of the Armed Forces who have not reached age 62 to require an annual adjustment to such pay, beginning on December 1, 2015, based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) less 1%. Requires the Secretary of Defense (DOD) to recompute the retired pay of members when they reach age 62 to restore reductions made to their cost-of-living adjustments.

Anyway, all these Trump "scandals" dont come even close to the history and scandals and corruption linked to the Hillster. People just cannot seem to think for themselves and simply follow this liberal leftist media. The media, afterall, is the most powerful thing on this planet.

It can make the guilty look innocent, and the innocent look guilty as Malcom X once said.

Not to say Trump is innocent, far from it actually. Im sure we all have dirt. But to foolishly think his scandals are "more real" and Hillarys' are just made up alt right conspiracies... I cant think of a better example of having your head in the sand.

I think she can start coughing blood on stage against trump and the media will say its normal or shes fine and her supporters will still believe it. There can be emails released showing the people her true colors and nature when it comes to war and the people will still love her. She can have an exorcism on live tv and her supporters will still vote for her! There can be evidence telling you that she destroyed 13 of her cellphones and her supporters will still think she is not a liar with nothing to hide........ oh wait..

Hillary!

[mastert]

You forgot to mention that this was a cloture vote, not a vote on the bill itself.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-joint-resolution/59/all-actions?overview=closed&q=%7B%22roll-call-vote%22%3A%22all%22%7D

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuing_Appropriations_Resolution,_2014_(H.J.Res_59)

[rtpoe]

Anyone catch Drumpf's latest "announcement"? The one that was actually an infomercial for his new hotel?

The one that he wrapped up with a thirty-two word statement that contained two blatant lies?

No, Clinton did NOT start the "birther" lie. And no, Drumpf, you did NOT end it in 2011.

If you did end it then as you claimed, why were you Tweeting in 2012 that Obama's "long form" birth certificate was a fake? Why, when asked by Wolf Blitzer in January of this year if Obama was a US Citizen, did you answer "Who knows?"

"What we have here is a candidate for president of the United States who makes stuff up all the time, but is either incapable of realizing that he’s telling a lie, or constitutionally unable to take blame for being untruthful.

"Yet, according to the polls, Hillary Clinton’s biggest problem is that the public thinks she’s dishonest. Amazing. - Gail Collins, NYTimes, "Trump Makes His Birther Lie Worse", 9/16/16

[StrikezOne]

Holy f***ing sh*t.

United States coalition forces struck a Syrian airbase, killing 62 Syrian army troops, "paving the way" for ISIS militants.

Is the United States openly supporting ISIS now? Proxy war anyone?

Centcom Command Admits “Mistake”, U.S. Break Cease-fire in Syria

Stunning is an understatement. This is beyond absurd. There has been a tenuous cease-fire in Syria for the past 4 days, negotiated by Russia, between Bashir Assad’s Syrian Army and the militant fighters in the Islamic State (ISIS).

A mistake? …that accidentally assists ISIS.

Whoooops, accidentally attacked an air base, oh well shit happens. Since when does ISIS have airplanes? 

Strong Accusations by Russia now

“If previously we had suspicions that Al-Nusra Front is protected this way, now, after today's airstrikes on the Syrian army we come to a really terrifying conclusion for the entire world: The White House is defending IS [Islamic State, formerly ISIS/ISIL]," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Rossiya 24.

“We demand a full and detailed explanation from Washington. That explanation must be given at the UN Security Council,” Zakharova added.

It also seems that Austrllia and the Danish were also involved. Does this mean that 3 countries made the same mistake??

First a ceasefire giving the terrorists a time to regroup, then an airstrike kills soldiers, then POOF! .... fresh terrorists locked and loaded ready to go!

Nothing dodgy going on here, move along.... Trump is a racist and that whole birther bullshit, lets ask Trump again about Obama....

[TheZookie007]

Trump is a racist and that whole birther bullshit, lets ask Trump again about Obama....

"What we have here is a candidate for president of the United States who makes stuff up all the time, but is either incapable of realizing that he’s telling a lie, or constitutionally unable to take blame for being untruthful.

"Yet, according to the polls, Hillary Clinton’s biggest problem is that the public thinks she’s dishonest. Amazing. - Gail Collins, NYTimes, "Trump Makes His Birther Lie Worse", 9/16/16

I won't even go into the white supremacist thinking that would make him feel he has the right to "vet" the "papers" of the first black President, but he's spent the past five or six years blatantly slandering the president of the United States. The least he could do is apologize. But he won't even do that, because he is such a dishonorable man.

Meanwhile, the fact that last Friday he called for Hillary Clinton’s bodyguards to disarm to ‘see what happens to her’ is glossed over. We have Kurt Eichenwald's detailed piece about his relations with Russia, China and others in his business empire, and the conflict-of-interest implications for his governance, and yet the talking heads on TV have instead been focusing on his bizarre appearance on Dr. Oz (and shame on Dr. Oz for participating in that nonsense) or on Secy. Clinton's supposed "body double"...

[TheZookie007]

Maclean's: "An absurd week in America’s two-tier election", by Scott Gilmore

This may have been the most absurd week in U.S. politics in recent history.

Here is a list of gaffes, mistakes, or scandals that came out of the Trump campaign, just in the last seven days, just off the top of my head:

Let’s begin with the Commander and Chief Forum. Trump lavished praise on the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. He then made the unprecedented error of discussing his classified intelligence briefings and claiming his briefers were unhappy with the current President. After that, Trump lied, yet again, that back in 2003 he opposed the Iraq War.
It was then revealed by the Washington Post that Trump had taken credit for charitable giving by others. It reported he lied to the IRS, claiming donations he never made. What’s more, he illegally used $20,000 earmarked for his charity to buy a six-foot portrait of himself.

Trump then gave a TV interview to the Kremlin’s propaganda network RT, and afterwards claimed he only did it because he was “tricked” by Larry King. In another appearance he gave an incoherent monologue about something he called “nuclear warming,” which included false accusations against Clinton and sentences like, “Uranium is big, big stuff because it means the ultimate.”

Next, as the terror attacks of 9/11 were remembered, a radio clip emerged of Trump (on the very day of the attacks!) boasting that his building was now the highest in New York. Then it was reported Trump has publicly lied about helping to recover bodies at Ground Zero. He also claimed he personally had “hundreds” of friends who died in the attack, not one of whom his campaign was able to name.

While all of this was going on, he made an unprecedented personal attack on the chair of the Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen. He renewed his attacks on Elizabeth Warren, once again calling her “Pocahontas.” He promised he would start a war with Iran if its sailors made inappropriate gestures. After his VP released his own tax returns, Trump once again refused to do the same. His son tweeted a neo-Nazi meme. And one of his chief surrogates disavowed the Geneva Conventions.

By comparison, how was Hillary Clinton’s week? She failed to smile at Matt Lauer. She echoed numerous polls by asserting half of Trump’s supporters are racist. And she almost fainted while suffering from pneumonia. Which is all to say, the media consensus as delivered by the pundits and the headlines is that Clinton had a really bad week. This is absolutely, unequivocally, insane.

Every day, Trump says something or is revealed to have done something that would have disqualified every other candidate for president over the last 40 years. Howard Dean’s political career ended after he yelled too loudly at a campaign rally. All Michael Dukakis had to do was pose for a picture in a tank and his campaign was over.
By contrast, Trump is exposed as a liar, a fraud or a bigot on an hourly basis. He is shown repeatedly to be ignorant of the most basic elements of the U.S. Constitution or international affairs. You could describe his entire campaign as a train wreck, if a train was able to crash day after day non-stop. But still, the pundits roll their eyes—“That’s just Trump being Trump”—and turn to Clinton’s cough.

There are a few possible reasons for this. It could be the dog-bites-man problem: The media only focuses on what is new or unusual. Trump’s lies are neither. There could be a desire to ensure some obvious “balance” in the media coverage. If news outlets reported on every single Trump gaffe, there’d be almost no room left to cover Clinton. Others have speculated that it’s just sexism; Clinton is getting much more scrutiny because she’s a woman. It is hard to imagine a male candidate being criticized for not smiling enough. Clinton’s unique relationship with the media is to blame, too. She and her husband are notorious for cutting corners with the truth and hiding their activities. This has ensured she doesn’t get a pass on anything.

But it doesn’t really matter why it is happening. What matters is that it is happening at all. Everyone needs to step back from the daily coverage and cast their eyes over the massive smoking wreckage of this election. As soon as you do, it becomes painfully obvious that Trump is the most unsuitable candidate for president in living memory. My God, he isn’t even qualified to be president of the Hair Club for Men.

The absurdity of the last seven days has made it impossible to deny there aren’t two tiers of scrutiny in this election. Maybe, as a result, we’ll see a turn toward sanity. Maybe, the media will begin to judge Trump as a candidate for the office he covets, and not as the reality-TV star he is.

[rtpoe]

For those **86** to do all the digging, Keith Olbermann has collected all the complaints (or at least 176 of them) about Trump in one convenient article.

With links - so you can see for yourself.

176 Reasons Donald Trump Shouldn't Be President

"The Republican Party has actually nominated for president an irresponsible, unrealistic, naive, petulant, childish, vindictive, prejudiced, bigoted, racist, Islamophobic, anti-Semitic, misogynistic, fascistic, authoritarian, insensitive, erratic, disturbed, irrational, inhuman individual named Donald John Trump."

Kevin Drum, meanwhile, has collected 84 reasons to vote FOR Clinton:

The Progressive Case for Hillary Clinton Is Pretty Overwhelming

And finally, Politifact has been keeping track of the veracity of statements made by both Trump and Clinton. With hundreds of statements investigated, here's how "telling it like it is" Trump stacks up against "Lyin' Hillary" (Green is True, Red is False):

[StrikezOne]

So the United States attacked a foreign countries army and people rather talk about Trump and his potential at failing in foreign policy? Yes, he will have a different approach since he is not affiliated with the Council of Foreign Relations.

People sure are stupid though. Maybe they cant read? Ill repeat it...

THE UNITED STATES ATTACKED A FOREIGN COUNTRIES ARMY.

[TheZookie007]

So the United States attacked a foreign countries army and people rather talk about Trump and his potential at failing in foreign policy?

Yes, because we cannot afford to have someone so clearly unsuited to the job become president. That's what you do during a political campaign: talk about the candidates and judge their potential to do the job.

Yes, he will have a different approach since he is not affiliated with the Council of Foreign Relations.

I'm not sure how his being not affiliated with the CFR necessarily means that "he will have a different approach", nor how his having "a different approach" necessarily is a good thing, or a thing that will be beneficial to the United States.

People sure are stupid though. Maybe they cant read? Ill repeat it...

THE UNITED STATES ATTACKED A FOREIGN COUNTRIES ARMY.

I believe that's called "being at war". Which is something we apparently have been in since at least 9/12/01. Please try and keep up.

[TheZookie007]

For those **86** to do all the digging, Keith Olbermann has collected all the complaints (or at least 176 of them) about Trump in one convenient article.

With links - so you can see for yourself.

176 Reasons Donald Trump Shouldn't Be President

"The Republican Party has actually nominated for president an irresponsible, unrealistic, naive, petulant, childish, vindictive, prejudiced, bigoted, racist, Islamophobic, anti-Semitic, misogynistic, fascistic, authoritarian, insensitive, erratic, disturbed, irrational, inhuman individual named Donald John Trump."

Kevin Drum, meanwhile, has collected 84 reasons to vote FOR Clinton:

The Progressive Case for Hillary Clinton Is Pretty Overwhelming

And finally, Politifact has been keeping track of the veracity of statements made by both Trump and Clinton. With hundreds of statements investigated, here's how "telling it like it is" Trump stacks up against "Lyin' Hillary" (Green is True, Red is False):

And yet, with all of that factual information (not "opinion", not "we have to wait for the evidence to come in", but real, actual, verifiable, unequivocal facts), there are still those who want to do the "bothsides dance". It's truly baffling.

To repeat: if I had a choice between Sen. Bernie Sanders and Secy. Clinton, I still would have chosen Sanders. But the choice isn't between them, the choice is between Secy. Clinton and the man who lies close to 90% of the time -- and that is one of his lesser negative traits. The choice is between a head cold (Clinton) and a metastasized cancer (the current Republican candidate).

As someone said on the BBC last night, "It shouldn't even be close."


To take a moment to look at the Senate race (34 seats up for grabs) and the House of Representatives race (435 seats up for grabs):

270toWin says that if the election were held today the Senate will be 45 Democrats, 44 Republicans , 1 Independent (go Bernie!) and ten tossups, and the House will be 192 Democrats and 227 Republicans.

RealClearPolitics says that if the election were held today the Senate would be an even split of 47 Democrats, 47 Republicans with six tossups and the House would be 189 Democrats, 231 Republicans and 15 tossups.

Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball says that if the election were held today the Senate would be 47 Democrats, 49 Republicans with four tossups and the House would have a Democratic gain of 10-15 seats, short of the 30 net seats they need to gain to win the House.

Finally, Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight still has Clinton most likely to win the whole thing (59.3% to her opponent's 40.6%). His "Crazy and not-so-crazy scenarios" list and his "It’s all about the 538 Electoral College votes" map are pretty clear.



49 more days of this death march to go.

[rtpoe]

I got a political flyer in the mail today which accused a local candidate of being a "Career politician"....

When did being a career politician become a bad thing? Why is politics the one significant field where inexperience is preferred? You wouldn't want to be operated on by a rookie doctor, have a wet-behind-the-ears lawyer defend you in a trial, or have your house built by someone with no knowledge of construction....

Why does devoting years to government and public service disqualify you from continuing in that job?