Monday, October 17, 2016

Election Treachery

Douglas V. Gibbs
In all, people identified in federal campaign finance filings as journalists, reporters, news editors or television news anchors — as well as other donors known to be working in journalism — have combined to give more than $396,000 to the presidential campaigns of Clinton and Trump, according to aCenter for Public Integrity analysis.

Nearly all of that money — more than 96 percent — has benefited Clinton: About 430 people who work in journalism have, through August, combined to give about $382,000 to the Democratic nominee, the Center for Public Integrity’s analysis indicates.
Corporate journalists receiving checks from multi-billion dollar conglomerates have become just as out-of-touch as politicians receiving hundreds of millions from billionaire plutocrats.

And that may be one of the most important revelations WikiLeaks has exposed yet.
The latest trove of emails released by WikiLeaks on Monday proves even further collusion between large, ostensibly mainstream media outlets and the Democratic Party.

In an astonishing email, Politico chief White House political correspondent and senior staff writer Glenn Thrush runs his latest article by Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta to make sure nothing offends the Clinton henchman.


WikiLeaks has dumped another collection of emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair, John Podesta.

The newly released emails include campaign staff exchanges on handling media queries about Clinton “flip-flopping” on gay marriage, galvanizing Latino support and locking down Clinton’s healthcare policy.

The organization had already published over 12,000 Podesta emails online by Sunday. This latest release brings the number of Podesta emails now in the public domain to over 15,200.
A few things you’re unlikely to read elsewhere: Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy – and Americans’ ability to choose their next leader – is being destroyed by a sequence of events way too well orchestrated to be coincidental.

This is not about the billionaire’s qualifications or disqualifications to move into the Oval Office, his braggadocio, his awful manners, alleged sexual harassment, crass behavior, ostentatious wealth.

Americans have had unsavory political leaders before, most recently Hillary Clinton’s charming unfaithful hubby who, among other things, received oral sex from an intern in that same revered office. And then lied about it to authorities.

This is about Americans being politically manipulated quite cleverly, something people do not appreciate, if they’re allowed to be aware of it. Recent events could be a movie called “Wag the Dog – Again.”

'It is frightening the way the media can ruin someone's image with accusations like the ones leveled against Trump,' Shane Barbi, now 53, said.

'While I never want to dismiss a woman's claim of sexual abuse, in our personal experience we saw no indication that Donald Trump would do anything like that.'

'On the contrary,' she wrote, 'he was a perfect gentleman to us, and to all of those other beautiful women that were all over him.'

Shane said she and her sister don't plan to vote for Trump in November. She had hoped Florida Sen. Marco Rubio would emerge as the Republican nominee.

'My first choice for president was "Little Marco," someone Trump made fun of,' she said. 'And now we are voting for Jill Stein of the Green Party. So we have nothing invested in saying this.

'Trump had a trashy mouth on "Access Hollywood" and "Howard Stern," but we saw him in so many situations with tons of gorgeous women where he was a total gentleman.'

Sia Barbi recalled Hugh Hefner's magazine publicists setting her up to attend parties and hit night-spots with Trump in order to fuel rumors that the billionaire real estate developer was dating one – or both – of the twins.

"It is a painful moment in our culture."

Calling the state's current law "illogical" and "bizarre," a federal judge late Sunday ordered the state of Florida to give thousands of voters a chance to make sure their vote-by-mail ballots are counted.

U.S. District Judge Mark Walker ruled that county election offices should notify voters if their signature on a vote-by-mail ballot and their voter registration forms don't match. Voters would then be given a chance to fix the problem by 5 p.m. the day before the election.


The American electorate has turned deeply skeptical about the integrity of the nation's election apparatus, with 41 percent of voters saying November's election could be "stolen" from Donald Trump due to widespread voter fraud.

Less than a month before the Nov. 8 election, allegations of voter fraud in Tarrant County are under investigation by the state, prompting concern that the timing may intimidate some voters — and possibly lay groundwork for the Legislature to enact more restrictions on voting next year.

The complaints focus on mail-in ballots, which allow people to vote from their homes without any ID or verification of identity.

Supporters have long said mail-in balloting is crucial for overseas residents, the military and senior citizens. Critics maintain that such voting is ripe for abuse and raises concerns about “vote harvesting,” in which people could fill out and return other people’s ballots.


Some say the investigation is politically motivated; others say it’s addressing a practice that has been a problem for years.

Nearly 40 percent of Americans have experienced tension with friends or family over the 2016 presidential election.

Together with SSRS, a survey research firm, ABC News asked voters how often they discuss the presidential election with relatives or friends and whether the subject causes any friction.

Ninety percent of Americans talk about the presidential race often with friends or family, the survey shows.

Of those, 58 percent discuss the election very often and 32 percent somewhat often. Only 4 percent never talk about the presidential election.

Thirty-seven percent of respondents said the 2016 race has caused tension with relatives or friends.

The major-party nominees, Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, are two of the most disliked presidential candidates in history

About 200 people walked out of Amy Schumer's comedy show at the Amalie Arena in Tampa Sunday when she mocked Donald Trump as, among other things, an "orange, sexual-assaulting, fake- college-starting monster." (Read Jay Cridlin's review of the show).

Loud booing from a vocal, but small minority of the arena crowd started about halfway through the show, when Schumer's raunchy humor veered into more topical matters, including gun control and the presidential election.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

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