Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Op Ed: Trump Wants Women Who Have Abortion Punished




Republican presidential candidate gave the nation his “Scarlet Letter” on Tuesday.
He said abortion should be outlawed and women who have them punished.
The New York Times said Trump declared his support for abortion and there has to be some form of punishment” for women who have them.
Trump, as usual tried to back off, but his Republican opponents reportedly reacted by further hedging their guarantees to support Trump if he wins the nomination.
Trump said he didn’t need the support of Sen. Ted Cruz or Gov. John Kasich.
"Just when you thought it couldn't get worse," Hillary Clinton tweeted Wednesday, sharing a tweet about what Trump had said regarding abortion.
"Horrific and telling,” the Hill  reported.”
The Times quoted from an exclusive interview Trump had with MSNBC. The news network brought a Trump spokeswoman on to explain what was going on but she said she had not been fully informed.
Trump also has been criticized by the other Republican candidates this week for refusing to fire his campaign manager, who was accused of assaulting a woman reporter.
Trump’s comments criticizing individual women have already caused his popularity among women to decline.
Trump also criticized Sen. John McCain, who was imprisoned by the North Vietnamese for seven years when his plane was shot down. He said people who are captured are not heroes.
The “Scarlet Letter,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850, tells the story of a woman required to a dress with the letter “A” on her because she had committed adultery.






Sunday, March 27, 2016

Media Falsely Reports on Sanders’ Victories


Sen. Bernie Sanders did not win a “big” victory in Washington, Hawaii and Alaska. In fact, he did not win a single primary in those states.
He won their caucuses.
Whether it was a big victory depends on your definition.
Many in the television media insist on reporting he won their “primaries.”
Some got it right.
538 reported the votes were caucuses, something few understand.
“All five of Sanders’s wins this week came in caucuses. The problem for the Sanders campaign is that there are only two caucuses left on the Democratic primary calendar,” 538 reported.
Polls show Sanders way behind in New York and Pennsylvania and with nearly a double-digit deficit in California.
After working for more than 35 years around the world for The Associated Press I welcomed getting out of the box and telling the truth.
I couldn’t have been more mistaken.
TV pundits, and some Website moderators, seem to only care about keeping the races going.
Hillary Clinton continues to suffer because of a false story in the New York Times, now recognized as false, that she had let her private email be hacked.
It was very much like the Times’ story that claimed Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
Another example of false reporting was the claim that Arizona voters waited past midnight to vote. In fact, 50 percent had voted early. The reason there was a long line was that thousands of independents tried to vote in a closed primary.
Shame on you Rachel Maddow, someone we can almost always trust.


Thursday, March 24, 2016

Phony Arizona Primary Story




If you watched cable TV news, even Rachel Maddow, a progressive who is one of the best, you were misled on the Arizona primary.
We were told they had lines going around the blocks past midnight because the government had not set up enough polling stations. The idea was they wanted to keep minorities from voting, taking advantage of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision.
We may never know the details of what really happened. We do know it was odd there were so many voters because 50 percent, higher in some counties, had voted early.
Arizona’s state law, unlike some states, does not let voters cross over and vote for a party they are not registered in. Democrats can’t for Republicans. Republicans can’t vote for Democrats. Independents/unaffiliated can’t vote for other.
In fact, independents slightly outnumber Republicans. And Democrats are third.
Republican: 1,105,521
Independent/unaffiliated: 1,201, 397
Democrats: 917,411
This is not a new law, and has been observed in previous primaries.
CNN criticized Arizona on election night for not changing the law to allow the thousands of independents who were clamoring to vote to be allowed to cast ballots.
It is hard to say who was behind this false flag operation: Perhaps Donald Trump or Ted Cruz. Clinton smashed Bernie Sanders. There was obvious reason for her to get involved in this illegal action.
This would be mainly an Arizona story except that some Republican leaders are saying they will not accept delegates from primaries that let voters crossover.
Some leading reporters are saying they will reject delegates elected in primaries that allow indepenents and Democrats to vote.
Why?
Bernie Sanders: Website says, “Closed primary elections and caucuses exist as a defense mechanism against political sabotage. Some states’ political parties are concerned that voters, instead of using their vote to support the candidate with whom they agree the most, will vote for a weak candidate in the opposing political party. That is to say, these individuals may subvert the opposing political party’s power as a way to advance the potential of their own political party.”
In 1976, the GOP changed its rules so that Gerald Ford would get the nomination from Ronald
Reagan. Ford lost to a peanut farmer from Georgia, Jimmy Carter.

Some fear if the rules are change this time it will elect Hillary Clinton or Sanders.

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Trump and NATO


Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has stabbed Europe in the back, saying we should cut support for NATO.
Belgium, which fought by our side in two wars and hid American soldiers from Nazis, was digging out from terrorist attacks with Trump’s words ringing in their ears Tuesday.
“NATO is costing us a fortune, and yes, we’re protecting Europe with NATO, but we’re spending a lot of money,” Trump told the Washington Post.
“We certainly can’t afford to do this anymore,” Trump said.
The con artist probably knows little about what Belgium has suffered. Nor does he care.
After all, this is the man who said Sen. John McCain is not a hero.
U.S. cable networks, as usual carried Trump’s reaction to the attacks in Belgium that killed dozens. He sells more of their products.
A U.S. lieutenant colonal assigned to NATO was among those wounded, according to the Military Times.
On Monday they focused on Trump when he was not even speaking, giving much less time to President Obama meeting Cuban President Raul Castro.
Trevor Noah made fun of the networks saying they were waiting for Trump to appear. Noah said they would know when Trump was there. He is not a Ninja.
If this had occurred during the Civil War then -President Lincoln would have jailed Trump. Lincoln had suspended habeas corpus to stop people from interfering with his foreign and domestic policies at a time of war.
Republicans will tell you time and time again that we are fighting a war now.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/03/22/the-brussels-bombings-highlight-just-how-wrong-trump-is-about-nato/




Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Clinton appears presumptive nominee



Hillary Clinton outdid her wildest expectations during Tuesday’s voting, with the counting not ending until Wednesday morning as two races were so close.
Winning Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Illinois and Missouri was like a hydrogen bomb compared to the IED Bernie Sanders surprised her with in Michigan.
Donald Trump did well also, but Gov. John Kasich slapped him in the face in Ohio. It didn’t stop the reality show carnival barker but makes a brokered convention more possible.
It’s hard to imagine his poor showing – he only got pluralities not majorities – weren’t at least partly a result of the bad publicity he has gotten for the violence at his rallies. One sheriff considered arresting him for inciting violence. That charge was dropped. And his outrageous xenophobic, anti-women, racist and anti-Muslim charges may play a factor.
The race caused Florida Sen. Marco Rubio to suspend his campaign.
Even those who are not Republicans or not a fan, were impressed by a speech that reminded people that the American nation is more important than any one candidate.
“I ask the American people: Do not give into fear,” he said. The remark was aimed at Trump. The two candidates have exchanged insults about their urination problems.
Things were going well for Clinton, who made a cameo appearance on the widely popular “Broad City,” a favorite of millenials. She showed she could blink either eye.
Sanders made clear he was not going away, though he would be getting less airtime.
“Our plan on this is we’ve got a long way to go, and we’ve got to demonstrate that Bernie’s the strongest candidate,” said Sanders strategist Tad Devine. “We believe that slowly we can win support for people who aren’t for someone, or who are softly for her, and then we can reach out more.”

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Trump Risking Violent Attacks



Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump ignited violent opposition that could be compared to numerous uprisings in the past, including the Prague and April springs.
But Trump doesn’t have a strong army to send in to shut down opposition.
There are hundreds of millions of guns in the country and millions suffering from mental illness, both partly a result of the Republican Party’s support for the NRA.
Also, the social media now available for organizing disruptions are vastly superior to what brought down several Arab governments.
Of course people who try to break up Trump rallies are organizing, and it is very easy to do it these days.
They can study other uprisings and learn techniques.
Attack one rally at the start, attack the next one near the end. Stay away from one. Or just shout outside. Don’t give away your plans. Mislead. Fly false flags.
Trump himself is at threat of an attack. There has already been on case when a man nearly got next to him. He was easily within distance of shooting Trump except he did not have a gun, and it is not clear he wanted to hurt the candidate.
There also are millions of soldiers trained as marksmen.
Dare Trump go to a theater?
Is Bernie Sanders inciting his people. It doesn’t matter. They do not need to be pushed. They have been dumping on Hillary Clinton since the campaign began.
Just as Trump can say he cannot stop his supporters from attacking his opponents, Sanders can say he can’t stop people from venting their frustration.
This election is becoming increasingly like the 1968 race. The assassination of Robert Kennedy led to the election of Richard Nixon and the quagmire of the Vietnam War.
People dissatisfied with Democratic nominee Hubert Humphrey stayed home. They did not want the lesser of two evils.
Some say Trump is hoping for a repeat of the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.