Friday 15 July 2016

The US elections - 07/14/2016


Donations to Jill Stein’s Campaign 

Jump 1000% Following the Bernie 

Betrayal

Michael Krieger

Headline of the day, courtesy of Yahoo.
14 July, 2016

People are going to be pissed off no matter who wins this election and that is a very important social dynamic I believe is vastly under appreciated by the majority of mainstream pundits and analysts out there.  This is also very distinct from the environment that prevailed in 2008.  Four years ago, the financial markets were crashing and the economic future of America was circling the toilet bowl, yet a majority of Americans embraced the potential of a young, inexperienced biracial politician from Illinois who was saying all of the right things.  Despite the gigantic disappointment he has proven to be as President, there is no denying that he had all of the Democrats and most Independents under his spell on this day four years ago.

Fast forward to 2012 and the county isn’t “divided” as mainstream media talking heads like to say.  The country is pissed off.  Genuine and legitimate frustration permeates the land from sea to shining sea and rightly so.  Ever since the banker coup of 2008, crony capitalism has been institutionalized as the only real way to make money.  If you aren’t connected or “too big to fail,” sorry but America isn’t the place for you.  What makes the economic nightmare so much worse is that it is being coupled with a complete and total decimation of civil liberties.  One by one the Bill of Rights is being ignored and indeed trampled on systemically by the political and economic oligarchs emboldened by their successful takeover of the executive, legislative and for the most part judicial branches of government. 

From the 2012 post: The Seventy Percent

Most Americans dislike both Presidential candidates on offer from the two major political parties. I would include myself in this category, with the caveat that I haven’t liked a major party candidate for President since I was born.
So while I’ve always been hard to please curmudgeon, this election really is different from a general public perspective. For example, here are a few remarkable findings from a recent Associated Press-GfK poll:
WASHINGTON (AP) — The vast majority of Americans say they are afraid of at least one of the two major candidates — Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump — winning the White House, a remarkable finding that reflects an unsettled nation unhappy with its choice.
Eighty-one percent of Americans say they would feel afraid following the election of one of the two polarizing politicians, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll. That includes a quarter who say it doesn’t matter who wins: they’re scared of both.
Three-quarters of voters say their pick for president is motivated by a desire to cast their Election Day ballot against Clinton or Trump, more than those who say they’re voting for the candidate who shares their positions on the issues or is the most qualified to hold the office. 
Said Dennis Fernandez, 67, of Florence, Arizona: “If Hillary Clinton won, I’d probably consider suicide. I’m definitely not a fan.”
And Lawrence James, 55, of Durham, North Carolina, said: “If Trump wins, well, we’ve already checked out Malta and New Zealand. I’m just not comfortable that he’s not going to make rushed, uninformed decisions.”

Rushed, uninformed decisions you say. Like what, invading Iraq, creating a catastrophe in Libya, making millions from Wall Street speeches and then hiding the transcripts, or inappropriately installing a private email server for official government business to shield yourself from FOIA requests. Rushed uniformed decisions like those?
Fifty-six percent of Americans said they would feel afraid and 48 percent say they’d feel regret if Trump wins the White House. Just 22 percent said they’d be proud and 26 percent excited should America pick Trump on Election Day.
Clinton doesn’t fare much better: If she’s elected president, 48 percent say they would be afraid and 46 percent say they would feel regretful. Only 27 percent of Americans would be proud of that choice, and 26 percent would be excited at her election.

If you think the above environment provides fertile ground for third and fourth party candidates, you’d be right — a development I welcome with open arms. In the wake of the Bernie betrayal, Jill Stein of the Green Party is proving to be the greatest beneficiary.
For instance, The Guardian reports:
We received 375 responses on readers’ plans for their November vote. And despite the show of solidarity with Clinton on Tuesday, Sanders’ fans aren’t all convinced the presumptive Democratic nominee is who they will now support: Green party nominee Jill Stein was the most popular among reader respondents, with 171 new supporters, more than double the number who said they would move their support to Clinton. 
A write-in vote for Sanders was also a popular option, with just 20 respondents opting for Trump. These results aren’t necessarily a representative sample, and they differ significantly from a Pew Research Center poll released Wednesday, which found that 85% of Sanders supporters intended to vote for Clinton.
Personally, I found that Pew poll preposterous. I have several friends who are staunch Sanders supporters and precisely 0% of them will be voting for Hillary. In any event, here are the results from The Guardian:
Screen Shot 2016-07-14 at 11.37.48 AM
Now let’s follow the money, which seems to be flowing into Jill Stein’s coffers. US Uncut reports:
Jill Stein, the presumptive Green Party presidential nominee, is seeing an unprecedented surge of energy for her campaign in the wake of Bernie Sanders’ endorsement of Hillary Clinton.
Stein, who is running her second presidential campaign in four years, said donations to her campaign have increased tenfold in just over 24 hours, obviously due to Bernie Sanders’ endorsement of Hillary Clinton and a resulting fallout from the Democratic Party.
Since Tuesday morning, the Green Party has received over $80,000 in contributions, over half of which comes from first-time donors, and half of which comes in the form of contributions under $50. Tellingly, about 615 of those contributions totaled $27, the exact number commonly trumpeted and solicited by the Sanders campaign during his revolutionary grassroots funding movement.
There’s been an explosion of Berners coming in through every portal of the campaign, and it’s really exciting,” Stein told US Uncut in a phone interview. “There is so much courage out there to stand up to the marching orders handed down by the usual suspects.”
Stein’s social media accounts have also seen tremendous growth and engagement in the past 24 hours. A recent livestream posted to the Stein campaign’s Facebook page has been viewed over 300,000 times in less than a day. Her page itself has added approximately 44,000 new likes in the past week. Her Twitter account has over 145,000 followers as of this writing, increasing by the tens of thousands just this week, with 5.6 million impressions on July 12-13 alone. There have also been 10,000 new signups for her email list since yesterday.
Other Sanders supporters seem to be preparing a mass exodus from the Democratic Party to help Stein reach her goal of 15 percent in national polls, which would secure a spot for her on the general election debate stage with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, the presumptive nominees of the Republican and Democratic parties. Many influential Sanders supporters and pro-Sanders accounts with tens or hundreds of thousands of followers have already announced their intent to vote for Stein in November.
According to Stein’s website, her campaign has secured ballot access in 23 states and Washington, DC, and petition signatures are currently being collected for ballot access in 27 others. Stein said her campaign has “many irons in the fire” and will be on “90 to 95 percent” of ballots after petitions are delivered to various Secretaries of State.
There are 43 million young people and not-so-young people who are locked into predatory student loan debt,” Stein said. “The birth rate is plummeting in this country because we have a generation that’s basically become indentured servants. They don’t have a place to live, they don’t have relationships, they don’t have a future, they don’t have families, they don’t have a job. We really have a generational crisis right now that we’re in the midst of. And there’s one way that crisis can be solved with the stroke of a pen. That debt can be cancelled, and I’m the only candidate who will do that. Those 43 million votes have only one place to go.”
If that word gets out, that can be a very powerful motivator for those people to vote for my campaign, and that’s a plurality of votes.” Stein continued. “In the words of Alice Walker, ‘The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.’”

While the outcome may be miserable, it’s certainly going to be an interesting election.
For related articles, see:

In Liberty,
Michael Krieger


Homeland Security Prepares For Violence At Republican Convention



Zero Hedge

14 July, 2016


Following yesterday's stark warning by the militant "black power" organization, the New Black Panther Party, which warned it would arrive in Cleveland packing firearms for self-defense ahead of the republican convention, we were curious how long it would take the various US authorities to admit that the upcoming Republican and Democratic conventions will be ground zero for the next round in escalating US violence. The answer, it turned out, was just about 24 hours.

Earlier today, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and FBI Director James Comey told lawmakers, that they are preparing their agencies for the "possibility of violence, both from unruly demonstrators and terrorists", at the upcoming Republican and Democratic nominating conventions.
In what could end up being a self-fulfilling prophecy, Jeh Johnson, speaking before the House Homeland Security Committee, said he was concerned that demonstrations at the events could get out of hand.

"I am concerned about the prospect of demonstrations getting out of hand," Johnson told members of the House Homeland Security Committee at a hearing on terrorist threats. "I am concerned about the possibility of violence."




Johnson said he will travel to Cleveland on Friday to inspect security preparations at and around the convention site. The convention is scheduled to begin Monday and run through Thursday night at the Quicken Loans Arena.

Johnson said he also will go to Philadelphia next week to inspect security there in advance of the Democratic National Convention, which begins July 25.

"There will be a lot of security and a lot of preparation at both sites," Johnson said, adding that federal officials have been planning security for the events for a year.

In an interview with Reuters following his testimony, Johnson said he knew of no specific or credible threat to either convention but that it was important to be prepared.

Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy told USA TODAY much the same, saying on Tuesday that no specific or credible threats to the conventions have been identified. However, he also confirmed that security planning for the Republican convention includes preparing for worst-case scenarios such as the ambush in Dallas in which a lone gunman shot and killed five police officers.

He said protesters have the constitutional right to voice their opinions and that right will be respected. He said there will be roped-off areas for demonstrators near the Cleveland arena. Considering that an admittedly“virulently racist and anti-Semitic organization whose leaders have encouraged violence against whites, Jews and law enforcement officers" will be present, that sounds like a prudent idea.


According to Johnson, the Department of Homeland Security would send more than 3,000 personnel to each convention.

As extensively documented here previously, recent clashes between attendees and protesters at rallies for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump have led to physical assaults and arrests.

The Republican National Convention being held July 18-21 in Cleveland and the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia from July 25-28 follow a string of high-profile shootings.

Comey told the committee that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was monitoring the threat of violence at the conventions "very, very carefully."
"Anytime there is a national spotlight on a political event in the United States, there is a risk that groups that aspire to do just that, engage in acts of domestic terrorism, will be attracted," Comey said.

It goes without saying, that if anyone wished to discredit Donald Trump at what will be the most watched Republican political event of the year, an act of "domestic terrorism", ad hoc or scripted, would be precisely the way to achieve that.



Watch CNN Cut-Off Reporter After She Calls Out Hillary Clinton’s Hypocrisy (VIDEO)

14 July, 2016

Let's just call this what it is - CNN is censoring news in order to protect their darling candidate, Hillary Clinton from more criticism and scandal.
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You will see for yourself, but it is obvious that this was no accident or technical glitch. Protecting Hillary Clinton from any criticism has been CNN’s number one priority since the circus, known as the US presidential election, kicked off.




Luckily where CNN stops, the internet begins:
The American Mirror reports…
What happened on Tuesday isn’t going to do anything to help CNN shed the “Clinton News Network” moniker.
As reporter Brianna Keilar was appearing live from Hillary’s speech in Springfield, Illinois — and critiquing her record — the feed was mysteriously lost.
Largely Hillary Clinton’s comments here today, John, were based around the recent violence that we have seen,” Keilar reported.
The police-involved shootings of black men in Minnesota, in Louisiana, and the killing of white police officers by a black gunman in Dallas. That was really what she based her comments on around today.
And remember Hillary Clinton has some vulnerabilities herself.
Even as she calls for criminal justice reform because of her support in the 1990s for anti-crime legislation that ultimately helped contribute to this era of mass incarceration that she now speaks out again–,” Keilar was saying.
The screen suddenly went black with only the graphics — referring to Donald Trump as “dangerous” — remaining.
We just lost Brianna Keilar who was in Springfield, Illinois where Hillary Clinton just spoke,” anchor John Berman said, before moving on.


Democratic Party & Clinton NOT Seeking Unity with Sanders Supporters But Obedience


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