HILLARY FOR PRESIDENT

[HairOfTheDog]

Obama kinda took a lot of people off-guard by endorsing Hillary while Bernie is still formally in the race.

Here's his just-released endorsement, which includes a special nod to Bernie.



Obama was also interviewed on The Tonight Show by Jimmy Fallon, where he joked around and then got serious about Donald Trump.

[Duchess]

I think Bernie will hold a press conference late tonight or early tomorrow saying he is ending his run.

I was wrong.

[Donovan]

I expect we will continue to see a shift in Bernie's message from "victory" to "legacy" moving forward, and a formal withdrawal at the convention itself. It would be fantastic to see Hillary extend the veep offer to him, but I'm not sure she will. Especially if he drags it out.

[HairOfTheDog]

I don't think Clinton will seriously consider Sanders for VP -- I can't see them working well together in that capacity.

Bernie's status in the senate has already been elevated though, and he'll likely remain very visible and very active. The Democratic party seems to have a strategy to use Trump's own words and actions to not only keep him from winning the presidency, but also to sway congressional elections and scoop up some seats that are currently filled by Republicans whose constituencies are younger and more diverse. Bernie is the top member of the Democratic caucus serving on the budget committee. If the Dems take the Senate back in 2017, Bernie Sanders will become Chairman of the Budget Committee. Powerful position.

Anyway, I think Bernie will formally suspend his campaign after the last primary in DC on Tuesday -- he seems to want to complete the process and that's a good end of the road for him and his supporters. The fat lady sung today with virtually every Democratic politician who hadn't endorsed Clinton doing so very enthusiastically and publicly. So, I don't know how many Bernie supporters will bother voting in DC though. Bernie's friend and fellow ultra-progressive Senator Elizabeth Warren ripped Trump apart when pledging her support for Clinton. And, Joe Biden -- in his typically calm fashion -- did the same.

Donald Trump is a celebrity who tells people what to do and he's learned over the years how to utilize the media to promote himself and his brand -- he's very good at it. He can't afford to self-fund a general election campaign and I'm not sure he's gonna be able to get traditional GOP mega donors to pony up what it takes. Many of them are reportedly not comfortable with him and are waiting to see if he can back away from using his political standing to try to settle personal/private vendettas and disparage minorities. But, Trump says he doesn't need the donors or top Republicans' support anyway since he'll be able to use the media whenever he wants to get his message across and attract voters. Like other career celebrities, he bitches about the media, but he needs it and courts it like nobody's business.

[Donovan]

I think Trump might have overplayed his hand in targeting the media though, there's nothing they like better than tearing down people they've built up.

I suspect you're right that Bernie won't be the VP nom, but I don't think it's because they couldn't work together. I have been very impressed with the relative dignity they both showed during the primary and in a perfect world Bernie would be a great progressive balance to Hillary's more centrist approach. Unlike in the GOP side of things I never got the feeling they dislike one another.

Either way, Bernie will come out of this with tremendous clout as you say. And I'm okay with that.

[HairOfTheDog]

Pay for Play? Cash for Favors?

I want to know more about this and allegations like it and hope the mainstream media investigates and presses Clinton for definitive answers. I'm sure Trump will be touching on such allegations in his speech on Monday.

If there's a reasonable explanation and no wrong-doing or causal connection between big donations to the Clintons and appointments within the State Department, and no truth behind insinuations that the Clintons took high paying speaking engagements in return for government favors to foreign Clinton Foundation donors, I think voters should hear that directly from Clinton.

This old insinuation of corruption is being circulated based on research of Clinton's emails by Citizens United, which is an anti-Clinton group. But, that doesn't mean it's not true and doesn't deserve to be addressed clearly and honestly.

Snip:
A major political donor to the Clintons and other top Democrats was selected by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to serve on a key State Department intelligence board in 2011, despite having no clear background in the area, according to emails released this week.

Rajiv Fernando has donated $9,400 to Clinton's two White House bids -- first her 2008 run and again this year -- and has been a generous donor to Democrats running for the House and Senate and to President Barack Obama.

Fernando, a Chicago securities trader, has also been a prolific donor to the Clinton Foundation, giving at least $1 million to the organization, according to its website.

In July 2011, Fernando was appointed to a seat on the (voluntary) International Security Advisory Board (ISAB), a panel filled with top-level foreign policy advisers and security experts.

Former Democratic presidential candidate Gary Hart chairs the current panel, which includes retired generals, the former chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and other high-ranking national security experts.

As a member of the top-level group, Fernando was granted a Top Secret security clearance and given access to highly sensitive information.

Fernando, professional State Department staff noted, seemed an awkward selection for the group and spurred concern when an ABC News reporter inquired about him in 2011.

"We must protect the secretary's and under secretary's name, as well as the integrity of the board. I think it's important to get down to the bottom of this before there's any response," Jamie Mannina, a State Department official, wrote in an August 15, 2011, email obtained by the conservative group Citizens United and released to CNN.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/10/politics/h...index.html
=====================

Fernando resigned from the Board two days after the ABC inquiry into his appointment, citing pressing professional obligations.

I tend to believe if there was evidence of corruption, wrong-doing, or security breach associated with the appointment, the media would have been all over it and not let it drop 5 years ago.

But, that's not a given and if it gets brushed off as "just another smear by the right with no basis in fact" or "everybody did it" and Clinton doesn't address the appointment with specific facts, her trustworthiness in the eyes of voters will only continue to drop, understandably.

[Duchess]

Pay for Play? Cash for Favors?

I was listening to some pundits talk about this last night. It sounds kinda fishy. Members of the press were trying to get a comment about this person after the hiring and I think it was Hillary's chief of staff who asked them to hold off until the following afternoon. They granted that request but by the next afternoon the person had already resigned their position. I was only half assed listening but what I heard sounded sketchy. I might not even had paid much attention but while I was listening to the pundits they said that person didn't even have credentials for that position.

[Duchess]

Fuckface is taking credit for Hillary saying radical Islamism. Her statement was that she viewed radical jihadism and radical Islamism as one and the same. She went on to say the one thing she will not do is declare war on an entire religion. Good, because that is as it should be.

I'm looking forward to having his entire speech to mock today. I hope he name calls and is as disrespectful and repugnant as he usually is.

[HairOfTheDog]

Hillary Clinton gave a speech today in Ohio.



At the 35 minute mark, she speaks about how she, as President, will address internet radicalization, gun control (including banning what she calls "weapons of war"; assault rifles), countries like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait who fund radical Islamic ideology, etc..

She also advocated diversity as a means to deter radicalization, and encouraged everyone to band together to support each other, avoid blaming peaceful Muslims, and committed to having the back of the LGBT community.

Clinton asked for everyone in the country to come together like we did on ⁹⁄₁₂ and talked about how the Republican president and Republican governor of New York worked together with her and other other Democratic politicians to address the threat back then.

[HairOfTheDog]

Hillary Clinton walloped Bernie Sanders in the final Democrat primary in D.C. last night.

She and Sanders also had a 90-minute one-on-one meeting yesterday, presumably to discuss his exit strategy and what he wants to see incorporated into the Democratic platform (see post 1119) in order to endorse Hillary for President.

In addition to what's listed in post 1119, Sanders wants to see changes made to the party's voting processes. He wants to see Super Delegates eliminated, wants the primaries to be open (so Independents can vote too), wants more voter-friendly voting times and access, and really wants the DNC to dump Debbie Wasserman-Schultz as the chairperson (she says she ain't leaving -- too bad).

Anyway, it's looking like Bernie and his earned delegates are going to the convention and will push for the changes he's seeking after all. I don't know what he's gonna do til then, but he may well wait until after after the convention to get behind Clinton. He's not going down quietly.

[HairOfTheDog]

Hillary Clinton will be making a speech in just a bit.

She'll be challenging Donald Trump's ability to lead the country economically given all of his business failures and questionable character/temperament.

Should be interesting...

[Blindgreed1]

Hillary Clinton will be making a speech in just a bit.

She'll be challenging Donald Trump's ability to lead the country economically given all of his business failures and questionable character/temperament.

Should be interesting...

Meh... Pissing contest.

[FAHQTOO]

He either owns or has investments in over 500 companies. I hardly think he's a failure.
4 bankruptcies is nothing. His reality show was a huge success.
He win win over her with the economy issue.

[HairOfTheDog]

I don't know FAHQTOO.

Lots of investors have large portfolios. How successful is his judgment in making investments? We don't know -- he hasn't provided his tax returns. We don't know if his claim of being worth $10 billion is accurate. Based on public records available, most analysts put it below $3 billion.

How many of Trump's investments are simply a case of Trump selling his name/brand to companies for royalties, where he has no management or oversight involvement? How many jobs has Trump himself actually created vs. how many has he cut?

Trump has four casino bankruptcies, but he started or put his name on a lot of other businesses that went under and he's being sued for fraud.

Clinton contends he's failed and been shady when it comes to many of his business endeavors. I don't know, but I'm open-minded. I'm not taking only Donald Trump's word for it; he is a big boaster and his claims often don't check out.

I'll consider what Clinton presents, but will toss it if it's not backed up by facts.

Tomorrow, Trump will give his postponed speech on 'crooked Hillary'. I'll also listen to what he has to say and toss out anything that's not substantiated.

I think both speeches will be interesting, in any case.

[Duchess]

Mark Cuban doesn't believe fuckface is a billionaire at all. Donald had to file some papers for something where one had to list all their cash, liquid securities and bonds and Donald has little more than $135 million.

...and for everyone who continues to believe he is funding his own campaign, think again. He may have put the money up front but the campaign coffers are paying him back every cent, he gets his dime before anyone else gets theirs. Almost every penny going out of the campaign fund has Trump's name on it. He charged his own campaign nearly ¹⁄₂ million dollars to use Mar-a-Lago for a speech he gave.

It just gets better & better.

[Maggot]

I would think that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange should be just about ready to release as many of the 33,000 missing Clinton e-mails as he can. I wonder what is in them? Oh yeah, Yoga classes and stuff. This will get better.

[Duchess]

What's he waiting for, an invitation?

[Donovan]

Trump is in a LOT of trouble. His campaign is broke, he refuses to contact potential donors, his finance forms he released look like he just basically paid out all the money to his own companies. There's even a 30,000 payment to a fictional advertising company: Sterling Draper from Madmen that appears to be a complete con. And his kids fired his campaign manager.

And Hillary is just getting warmed up. Your Cheeto Jesus is fucked. By a girl.

[Duchess]

Hehehe

[Donovan]

Hehehe

I almost feel guilty laughing at him, he's getting whipped like a redheaded stepchild.