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Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders go after Donald Trump at town hall in Columbus, Ohio

Ohio Democratic Presidential Town Hall

COLUMBUS, OHIO – Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders participated in a town hall event in Columbus, Ohio, Sunday night. The event was televised on CNN. The town hall followed a joint appearance at a dinner hosted by the Ohio Democrats. Each candidate also campaigned individually in Ohio, which holds its primary election on Tuesday.

Clinton said she’s received private messages from foreign leaders asking to endorse her candidacy in hopes of defeating Republican front-runner Donald Trump, who Clinton said is encouraging violence and chaos to win over voters.

Clinton refused to name the dignitaries, though she says she told them that the election must be decided by Americans. But, she says, her experience as secretary of state will offer a powerful contrast with Trump, should they face off in the general election.

“At our best, Americans have rejected demagogues and fear-mongers,” she said.

“…I believe that I will have an opportunity to really focus in on how dangerous a Donald Trump presidency would be for our standing, for our safety and for the peace of the world,” she added

She also said she supports a “very limited use” of the death penalty in cases where there are “horrific mass killings.” Clinton said the states have “proven themselves incapable of carrying out fair trials that give any defendant all the rights that defendant should have.” She added that she would “breathe a sigh of relief if either the Supreme Court or the states themselves began to eliminate the death penalty.” But Clinton added that she thinks the death penalty should still be kept “in reserve” for limited cases in the federal judicial system, citing the Oklahoma City bombing and the 9/11 attacks as examples.

“But what happened to you was a travesty,” Clinton said. “I know that all of us are so regretful that you or any person has to go through what you did.”

 

Sanders called on Donald Trump to “tell his supporters that violence in the political process in America is not acceptable.”

The Vermont senator was asked about the Republican front-runner’s statements that the Sanders campaign sent protesters to disrupted Trump’s rally in Chicago. Sanders called Trump a “pathological liar” and said his campaign has never encouraged “anybody to disrupt anything.” He added he hopes “Mr. Trump tones it down big-time and tells his supporters violence is not acceptable in the political process.”

Originally Written and Published by Associated Press

 

The Epic Hillary Clinton Biography

In the Beginning… God Made Hillary

A hard and pragmatic leader, outspoken advocate for social justice and women’s rights, and resilient and clever politician, Hillary Rodham Clinton has accomplished numerous “firsts” in her roles as very first Lady of the United States, U.S. Senator, presidential applicant, and Secretary of State. As she put it in her 2003 memoir Dwelling Background,

“My mom and my grandmothers could never have lived my lifestyle my father and my grandfathers could never have imagined it. But they bestowed on me the guarantee of America, which made my existence and my options feasible.”

She has also produced several enemies and grew to become one of the most extremely polarizing figures in modern political history.

A Normal Textbook Suburban Up-bringing

The eldest daughter of Hugh and Dorothy Rodham’s a few youngsters, Hillary Diane Rodham was born in Chicago on October 26, 1947. Her father, operator of a tiny material fabric organization, was a staunch Republican from Pennsylvania. Her mom, a closet Democrat who still left her personal dysfunctional property at 14 to function as a nanny, was affectionate and levelheaded. From her dad and mom, Hillary discovered thrift, tough function, self-reliance, support to others, and a enjoy of God and place. Her mom inculcated a deep respect for finding out and coached her younger daughter to struggle back towards bullies: “You have to stand up for your self,” she advised Hillary. “There’s no place in this home for cowards” (Hillary Rodham Clinton, Living Historical past, Simon & Schuster, 2003,twelve). In a discussion during her 2008 campaign, Hillary Clinton would credit history her mother as her defining inspiration, a girl “who by no means received a possibility to go to college, who had a very difficult childhood, but who gave me a perception that I could do no matter what I established my thoughts [to].”

When Hillary was a few a long time aged, the Rodham family moved into a two-story brick property in Park Ridge, Illinois. Hillary participated actively in her Methodist church, excelled in the town’s initial-charge community colleges, and shown an early desire in politics.

Hillary’s Dawning of Political Age in the 1960s

By means of her teenage a long time, Hillary mirrored her father’s political leanings. At thirteen, she canvassed the South Side of Chicago right after Richard Nixon’s defeat by John F. Kennedy, and she volunteered for Barry Goldwater’s marketing campaign in 1964. In 1965, she enrolled as a political science main at Wellesley School, the place she became the president of the Young Republicans Club her freshman calendar year.

But the tumultuous many years of the sixties opened Hillary’s brain to new political views. After listening to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. converse in 1962, Hillary commenced to develop sturdy thoughts about civil legal rights, social justice, and the Vietnam War. By 1968, she was exploring the political landscape and working for politicians of both events.She supported Eugene McCarthy’s (D-Minn) presidential marketing campaign, served as a summertime intern for the Home Republican Conference (attending the Republican National Conference as a volunteer to draft Nelson Rockefeller), and witnessed the protests at the Democratic Nationwide Convention in Chicago. Before the conclude of that yr, she determined to depart the Republican Celebration — or as she afterwards put it, “it left her.”

Pragmatic Activist

As president of the student authorities at Wellesley, Hillary grew to become an activist dedicated to working within the method. Looking for to ward off violence in the wake of King’s assassination, she assisted manage a disciplined two-day strike on campus and labored as a liaison to channel constructive dialogue and significant action. Her commencement address garnered nationwide consideration in Daily life journal.

Hillary Clinton Education: As a scholar at Yale Legislation College, Hillary ongoing to pursue her passions in social justice, kids and family members, and politics. She was on the board of the Yale Overview of Regulation and Social Motion, worked at the Yale Kid Research Center, took on circumstances of youngster abuse, volunteered at New Haven Legal Providers, and investigated the troubles of migrant workers for Walter Mondale’s Subcommittee on Migrant Labor. In her submit-graduate calendar year, she ongoing her function researching kids and medicine and served as personnel lawyer for the Children’s Protection Fund in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

An Absolute Force of Nature

In the spring of 1971, Hillary introduced herself to Invoice Clinton, whom she experienced witnessed around the Yale campus. Bill had “a vitality that appeared to shoot out of his pores,” (Residing History, 52) she reflected. They shared a frequent desire in social justice and politics, and started what would be a lifelong relationship.

In 1974, when Invoice returned to Arkansas to go after his political occupation, Hillary moved to Washington to function as a member of the impeachment inquiry employees advising the Property Committee on the Judiciary throughout the Watergate scandal investigation. When President Richard Nixon resigned later on that 12 months, it brought Hillary’s task to an end, and she made the life-defining decision to go to Fayetteville, Arkansas to be with Monthly bill. The following 12 months they wed in a modest ceremony at their property.

Career Woman, Mother, and First Lady of Arkansas

Hillary commenced out as a school member at the University of Arkansas Law School, exactly where Bill was teaching when he ran unsuccessfully for Congress. In 1976, Invoice won his 1st elected position as Legal professional Basic of Arkansas and the couple moved to the money metropolis of Little Rock. There, Hillary started working at the effectively-recognized and politically linked Rose Regulation Firm, where, inside a few a long time, she became the initial girl to be named a complete spouse. She served on the boards of several non-revenue companies and big firms, including as the first feminine board member of Wal-Mart, and was the major breadwinner for the Clinton family members. She also continued functioning on behalf of people, co-founding Arkansas Advocates for Youngsters & Households in 1977, and on political campaigns, serving as Jimmy Carter’s Indiana director of field operations in 1976.
In 1979, Bill turned governor of Arkansas, and in February of 1980, Hillary gave start off to their daughter Chelsea Clinton. As Bill’s career sophisticated, common general public thing to consider centered on Hillary. Viewing her as an mental feminist from Chicago with a productive occupation, a unique previous title from her husband’s (she experienced held her maiden discover when they married), and a fashion a lot of regarded of as bohemian, many associates of the community thought she did not match the mildew of the conventional politician’s spouse and she grew to turn into a concentrate on for criticism. When Monthly monthly bill misplaced his gubernatorial re-election bid in 1981, Hillary took her critics’ comments to coronary coronary heart, adopting the Clinton last identify and creating previously mentioned her personal style to be a whole lot a lot more in making an attempt to hold with group anticipations. She was also instrumental in organizing his comeback campaign of 1983.

The Hillary Clinton Education Reforms in Arkansas

Hillary performed an unusually distinguished position as Arkansas’ 1st girl in the course of Bill’s whole of 5 terms as governor (1979-eighty one and 1983-ninety two). She chaired the Rural Overall health Advisory Committee, doing work to grow health care facilities for the inadequate, and she accomplished hard-fought reforms in general public education and learning as chair of the Arkansas Educational Specifications Committee. In 1983 she was regarded as Arkansas Woman of the Yr, and Arkansas Youthful Mom of the 12 months in 1984 in 1988 and ’91 she attained a location on the Nationwide Legislation Journal’s record of the one hundred most influential legal professionals in The usa. Her perform on education also aided the general public take into account Bill as the “education governor,” and aided elevate his nationwide profile.

Return to Washington and Tough Lessons

In 1993, when Bill was elected America’s 42nd president, the few moved back to Washington. Hillary was the initial 1st Girl to have a postgraduate degree, her personal specialist profession, and her personal place of work in the West Wing of the White Home. And she was the first since Eleanor Roosevelt to take on a prominent function in plan-generating. Her high profile in the administration once again manufactured her a concentrate on for political opposition.

The first week of his presidency, Bill appointed Hillary to head up the Task Pressure on Countrywide Wellness Care Reform — what he hoped would be a cornerstone initiative of his administration. As she had done with schooling reform in Arkansas, Hillary worked with energy and dedication, touring the nation and listening to constituents’ stories and issues. Even so, after back in Washington, she surrounded herself with a near team of advisers and went behind shut doors to draft the program. It was a disastrous approach — a single she would later blame on her political inexperience — that ultimately failed to interpret what the vast majority wanted, and unsuccessful to get potent stakeholders on board.

Derisively referred to as “Hillarycare,” the controversial Clinton healthcare reform program was besieged by a groundswell of opposition, and by September of 1994 the administration deserted it. It was a significant blow to the administration and to Hillary’s ratings as Initial Woman. “She’d been caught out making an attempt to be a co-President,” mentioned Gail Sheehy, author of Hillary’s Choice, in a latest job interview. Hillary had once more uncovered a lesson about balancing her ambitions with the public’s anticipations of their Very first Woman.
Accomplishments as First Lady

For the duration of Bill’s second expression, Hillary cultivated a far more classic profile. She continued to concentrate on well being and welfare issues, specifically people involving young children, and in 1997, supported the passage and rollout of the Condition Children’s Health Insurance System (SCHIP), which expanded health insurance for kids in reduce-income households. She was instrumental in the enactment of the Adoption and Risk-free People Act, legislation that eased the elimination of young children from abusive circumstances.

Hillary aided produce the Office of Justice’s Office on Violence In opposition to Women in 1994, and throughout her travels to more than eighty countries she was a forceful advocate for women’s legal rights. In 1995, throughout an unparalleled tackle in Beijing to the United Nations Fourth Planet Meeting on Women, Hillary recounted globally abuses and declared:

“It is time for us to say listed here in Beijing, and for the planet to listen to, that it is no longer acceptable to go over women’s legal rights as independent from human rights.”

Growing Controversy and Personal Adversity

During her tenure as 1st woman, Hillary contended with a sequence of investigations into the Clintons’ individual affairs, such as in depth inquiries related to the Clintons’ 1979 expense in the failed Whitewater land offer in Arkansas. The Clintons repeatedly refused to turn above private information to media investigators, a strategy Hillary championed. “Hillary’s perspective toward the push,” Gail Sheehy recounted, “was to pull again, to reveal nothing… to preserve the media or anyone else who’s asked queries about their inside of lifestyle at bay.” But this program of action only escalated scrutiny from the Clintons’ political opponents and from the media, and led to the appointment of a special prosecutor. In the course of the formal investigation, Hillary became the very first First Woman to be subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury. In the end, the investigations concluded there was inadequate evidence of wrongdoing.

The Clintons’ personal lifestyle confronted more general public scrutiny with rumors and accusations close to Bill’s extramarital affairs. In 1992, Hillary experienced defended Monthly bill and their relationship in a notable 60 Minutes interview credited with rescuing his presidential marketing campaign soon after the Gennifer Flowers affair. In 1995, as the scandal of Bill’s affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky unfolded, Hillary won the admiration of the general public through her robust and considerate response. She in the end reaffirmed her commitment to her relationship, Hillary Clinton’s approval rating rose drastically, even as her spouse was in an imminent down-spiral, later leading to what would be known  as the Bill Clinton impeachment. By the time Monthly bill was acquitted in 1999, Hillary was currently creating ideas for her next period, for the initial time concentrating on her very own political occupation.

Senator and Secretary of State

In 1999, nearing the end of Bill Clinton‘s presidency, the Clinton family obtained a home in Chappaqua, New York. The pursuing calendar year, Hillary grew to become the 1st spouse of a president to operate for countrywide elected office. She received the race by a considerable margin, turning into the first woman senator from New York, and she was reelected in 2006 by an even wider margin. In 2008, whilst working for president, she attained the most delegates and major victories of any lady who had operate just before. She was narrowly defeated for the Democratic nomination in a hard and divisive major contest with Senator Barack Obama of Illinois who went on to earn the Presidency. When she agreed to turn into Obama’s Secretary of State, she became the first former First Lady to be appointed and provide counsel within a presidential cabinet. In that role, she has earned higher praise for developing a robust working partnership with her former opponent, touting an immensely positive “Hillary Clinton Approval Rating” before resigning early from the administration.

Hillary has also documented much of her life’s work, challenges, and accomplishments through a vast array of publications, surely impacting the political socialization of many prominent figures today. Be sure to check-out the variety of Hillary Clinton Books on Google Play.

hillary clinton book
hillary clinton book
hillary clinton book

Did Simple Nuclear-Triad Question Stump Trump?

The WORST Answer in Political Debate History? Luckily, Marco Rubio was there to teach Trump what a Nuclear Triad is…

(Source: The Young Turks / YouTube)

Washington (CNN) – Did a simple question about the nuclear triad stump aspiring commander-in-chief Donald Trump?

During Tuesday night’s CNN-hosted Republican debate, Trump gave a meandering response when conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt of Salem Radio Network asked about the U.S. nuclear capability.

“I think we need somebody, absolutely, that we can trust, who is totally responsible, who really knows what he or she is doing. That is so powerful and so important,” Trump said, before touting his opposition to the war in Iraq.

“But we have to be extremely vigilant and extremely careful when it comes to nuclear. Nuclear changes the whole ball game,” he added.

Hewitt followed up by asking which “of the three legs of the triad” was Trump’s priority.

“For me, nuclear, the power, the devastation, is very important to me,” Trump replied.

But “nuclear,” “the power” and “the devastation” aren’t the three legs of the U.S.’s nuclear triad.

So what are the components of the nuclear triad?

The nuclear triad refers to the three ways the U.S. is capable of firing nuclear weapons.

As Florida Sen. Marco Rubio explained during the debate following Trump’s mishmash of a response: “The triad is the ability of the United States to conduct nuclear attacks using airplanes, using missiles launched from silos from the ground and from our nuclear subs.”

To add a little more specificity, the planes are heavy bombers; the silos house intercontinental ballistic missiles and the submarines also use ballistic missiles to deliver a nuclear payload.

Rubio, who avoided attacking Trump on Tuesday, didn’t directly call out Trump for blanking on the national security question. Instead, he directed his explanation to the “people at home” who likely “have not heard that terminology before.”

The Trump campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment.

So why does the U.S. need three ways of delivering nukes?

Rubio summed it up as: “All three of them are critical. It gives us the ability at deterrence.”

In more expansive terms, they’re all key components because they protect the U.S.’s ability to launch nuclear strikes should one or two of those capabilities be destroyed.

If the underground silos backfire and the planes capable of delivering nuclear weapons get destroyed, the U.S. would still have stealthy nuclear submarines to deliver crippling strike.

The U.S. and Russia are the only two nuclear powers in the world to have triad capabilities, and both countries are eager to maintain that edge going forward.

Makes sense. So what’s so pressing that this had to be included in the debate?

All three components of the nuclear triad are aging and the next president is going to have to address that issue.

America’s nuclear submarines are all more than 30 years old and its most dominant bomber jets remain the 60-year-old B-52s. The Pentagon has also called for upgrading the U.S. arsenal of ICBMs, or intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The Pentagon has estimated that it will need to spend as much as $18 billion per year over the next 15 years — for a grand total of $270 billion — to modernize the nuclear triad.

Amid budget cuts on Capitol Hill, it’s struggled to come up with the funding to get that job done.

Written by: By Jeremy Diamond via CNN

Donald Trump gets away with bullshit: The magical secrets that help him con the press

Trump simply isn’t concerned with the truth of anything he says. He’ll elude the media until they understand that

Donald Trump, Ted Cruz

Credit: AP/John Lochner

The reality of Donald Trump’s months-long dominance of the GOP primary race has suddenly started sinking in with political elites, as has a new willingness to openly talk about his pervasive lying.

After that, the willingness to start using the word “fascism” was not far behind. The phenomena are related, of course. GOP politics have been based on lies and authoritarianism since at least the time of Richard Nixon. But now it’s happening in a new key, in a higher register. The old system for managing the lies, manipulating their salience, directing and redirecting the anger and adoration they arose, that system has broken down badly in the last several years, and it now seems to have broken down irreparably.

Nate Silver makes a crucial point, however, tweeting, “One can coherently argue that Trump isn’t ‘lying’ so much as bullshitting, in the H.G. Frankfurt sense of the term.” Frankfurt’s book “On Bullshit” argues that bullshitting is a more radical attack on truth than lying is:

[B]ullshitters seek to convey a certain impression of themselves without being concerned about whether anything at all is true. They quietly change the rules governing their end of the conversation so that claims about truth and falsity are irrelevant.

Bullshitting is anything but new to politics, of course. So the question really is: how is Trump’s bullshitting different? Although David Roberts doesn’t use the term “bullshit”, he does keenly see the problem in similar terms. The establishment media “don’t mind being properly lied to; it’s all part of the game,” Roberts writes. “What they cannot countenance is being rendered irrelevant. Trump is not kissing the ring.” Trump’s contempt for the media is all part of the proto-fascist package, of course, as well as being the natural outgrowth of decades of media-bashing.

More on Roberts in a moment, but first a nod to what the alternative might be. Jay Rosen has a sharp analysis of how this breakdown in gatekeeping function reflects institutional problems connected to a vapid notion of objectivity, which he’s elsewhere critiqued as “the view from nowhere,” a term he’s been using since 2003. If asked “What’s your agenda in covering the campaign?” they would all reply, “No agenda, just solid coverage.” But the one journalist who’s perhaps done the best job of accurately portraying Trump, Univision’s Jorge Ramos, clearly has an agenda — representing his audience’s intense concern for comprehensive immigration reform — and yet, Rosen notes, that doesn’t prevent him from accurate, incisive reporting; in fact, it helps guide him in that reporting, which has pressured politicians of both parties:

The example of Ramos shows that knowing what you’re for doesn’t have to mean joining the team or taking a party line. It’s possible to maintain your independence, win trust with your audience, and gain a clear sense of purpose when you’re out on the campaign trail. But you have to break with the pack.

Of course, every news organization can’t be Univision, but there other ways to find a different agenda, one that actually connects with what people care about. Rosen links back to 2010 proposal he made for a citizen’s agenda approach, one that would start by asking the public, “What do you want the candidates to be discussing as they compete for votes in this year’s election?” and use that as the foundation to build on. Another approach could be built based on public interest polling of the sort developed by Alan Kay in the 1980s, which I wrote about in October. Alternatives exist. And they provide ways to reconnect media with the broader public they’re supposed to serve. But it takes real courage to pursue them.

That said, let’s return to the question of how things suddenly got so much worse this cycle with Trump. As Roberts points out, GOP truthiness long predated Trump, but the media’s power to restrain it has eroded precipitously. He notes that the right has long been working hard to erode the media’s critical power, with constant accusations of bias to stifle critical media judgments on the one hand, while on the other hand developing “a network of partisan think tanks, advocacy organizations and media outlets that provide a kind of full-spectrum alternative to the mainstream.”

The result, Roberts says, “has been a kind of fragile detente. A certain style of lying has become more or less acceptable, as long as it follows unspoken rules,” rules which Donald Trump is now breaking. Or, to rephrase it in Frankfurt’s terms, one framework of bullshit is being challenged by another. Roberts identifies three rules of lying that Trump has broken:

“1.) Lies about policy are fine; lies about trivial, personal or easily verifiable claims are not.” Trump, however, tells both kinds of lies with impunity.

“2.) Lies are fine as long as an ‘other side’ is provided.” But Trump doesn’t bother with this at all. “He rarely mentions studies or experts, other than occasionally name-dropping Carl Icahn. He rarely mounts anything that could even be characterized as an argument. He simply asserts.” Which leaves journalists fresh out of fig leaves. “He calls their bluff, forcing them to be with him or against him,” which clearly they can’t do using what Rosen calls the “view from nowhere” model they’ve lived within for so long.

“3.) Nine lies are fine as long as the tenth is retracted.” Call it the face-saving rule. In contrast to the constant flood of lies, “when a politician goes overboard and makes an obviously, verifiably false claim about a matter of recorded fact, the media will browbeat him or her into retracting it and apologizing.” It lets the press feel relevant, even powerful. “But Trump does not back down, retract or apologize, ever, not even for the most trivial thing. He refuses to allow journalists and pundits to validate their watchdog role.”

Roberts goes on to make additional significant points — that Trump is basically an opportunist beneficiary, “taking advantage of a faction of the electorate that has been primed to respond to someone like him,” over a period of decades, and that “the social and demographic trends driving the Trump phenomenon are far deeper than Trump himself. They will outlast him.” All that is true, and more. Both Roberts and Rosen deserve to be read and re-read in full.

But I believe that this list of ways that Trump breaks the rules is only a first approximation, primarily because it presents an even-handedness that never actually existed. For example, most of Bill Clinton’s presidency was plagued by ongoing rightwing conspiracist obsessions which filtered into the mainstream media. Most of the really wacky stuff (like the “Clinton body count”) never got through to the likes of the New York Times and the Washington Post, but those two bastions of the “liberal media” did carry the torch for the Whitewater investigation, as Gene Lyons documented in Fools for Scandal: How The Media Invented Whitewater. They were instrumental in keeping the investigation alive, most notably by burying the results of the Pillsbury Report, commissioned by the Resolution Trust Corporation, which found the Clintons innocent of any wrongdoing in 1995.

So it’s not really true that the media polices “lies about trivial, personal or easily verifiable claims” whether on the left or the right. Indeed, the explosive growth of conspiracies in the 1990s helped to erode the distinction between such lies and lies about policy. Conspiracy narratives question, reinterpret or outright fabricate facts on the one hand and policies on the other. One hallmark of conspiracist thinking is its self-sealing nature: any evidence that appears to refute it is actually just evidence of an even-deeper conspiracy. The conservative embrace of global warming denialism is a major example of how such thinking has thrown the mainstream media into a semi-permanent state of disarray.

Still, the list Roberts offers is a decent first approximation. If not an iron law, it points to strengths and weaknesses of how the media has generally dealt with lies up till now. What’s more, it helps illuminate the way that Sarah Palin helped set the stage for Trump. In a broader sense, as David Neiwert touched on recently, Palin was a significant figure in the virulent growth of rightwing populism which Trump embodies today, and which is bringing dangerously close to outright fascism.

Perpetuating “lies about trivial, personal or easily verifiable claims” is hardly the worst or most central thing about a movement tending towards fascism, but it is an inescapable ingredient. The sense of grievance is a root sentiment such movements thrive on, and figures like Palin and Trump are master grievance collectors, who never let inconvenient facts stand in their ways: They simply invent new ones to serve their needs. Trump’s breaking of the second lie gets closer to the heart of the fascist direction he’s taking us in: the overthrow of all existing institutions, sweeping them aside as forms of weakness and disease.

With these thoughts in mind, we can look back at a scandal plaguing Sarah Palin as she stepped onto the national stage, and see it in a very different light — the Troopergate scandal. It concerned her abuse of office in pursing a vendetta against her former brother-in-law, Mike Wooten, attempting to get him fired as state trooper and letting her husband run wild in the process.

There were two more deeply troubling stories about Palin that the press overlooked at the time. The first concerned her long history of involvement with secessionists in the Alaska Indepenence Party, an excellent account of which appeared here in Salon, by David Neiwert and Max Blumenthal. It’s certainly hard to square Palin’s self-identification as a “real American” with years of palling around with folks who want nothing more than to leave America forever, but that’s exactly what Palin did. The second concerned her life-long association with an extremist religious cult movement, known as the Third Wave movement, or the New Apostolic Reformation. It’s part of a wider dominionist movement which seeks to take “dominion” over secular society and government in the U.S. and throughout the world. The mainstream media wouldn’t touch reporting on Palin’s NAR involvement; for that you had to rely on researchers like Bruce Wilson and Rachel Tabachnick at Talk2Action.org.

 

Written by  via SALON

How Hillary Clinton could win the White House by March

First, crush Marco Rubio, and then take the rest of the year off.

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(Source: Getty Images/ Chip Somodevilla)

Hillary Clinton’s only real competition among Republicans is Marco Rubio. Ted Cruz and Donald Trump are too extreme for most Americans, and truly leave her unparalleled in experience and political clout.

If Hillary Clinton and her allies are smart, they’ll spend their $50 million-plus campaign war-chest over the next few months making sure Marco Rubio doesn’t get the Republican nomination.

They’ll run ads in the primary states trashing the Florida senator among conservatives — cleverly hiding the source of the ads behind secretive super PACs with conservative-sounding names.

They’ll encourage Democratic activists to cross over to GOP primaries to support Rubio’s extremist opponents.

Hillary herself may even help out by making a couple of high-profile speeches in which she praises Rubio for his “moderation” and “bipartisanship” — especially, she might say, “on the subject of immigration.” Nothing could hurt the young senator more with the GOP base.

Obama could take him golfing.

Following this week’s Republican debate, it looks increasingly like the race is down to three candidates: Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, real-estate huckster Donald Trump and Rubio.

If the GOP goes ahead and picks Cruz or Trump, Hillary could probably take the rest of 2016 off to work on her inauguration speech. Both men are extremists, and are traveling with more baggage than Kim Kardashian. The only people who think they are remotely electable in a general election are the increasingly narrow group of people who make up the Republican party base.

We’re talking about people who think “Benghazi” is one of the top three issues facing America.

Who think global warming is a sinister “one-world” plot to take away our pickup trucks and make us all slaves.

And who think 300 million guns are making us all “safe” while 5-year-old Syrian refugees are going to kill us.

The biggest single fact: While individuals rise and fall from poll to poll, overall the four extremist candidates of Trump, Cruz, Rand Paul and Ben Carson have been consistently sharing about 65% in GOP polls.

It’s hard to credit, but the party of Abraham Lincoln has apparently become the party of Jefferson Davis. “Angry white men of the South, arise!” (Yes, Carson, an evangelical Christian, is African-American — showing that even the most conservative coalitions can evolve.)

Meanwhile, the party is losing millennials, professionals, the college-educated, women and Hispanics by wide margins. Good luck with that.

Rubio, on the other hand, could pose a serious challenge to Hillary. He’s a young, telegenic Hispanic American. Her best chance to stop him is now, not next fall.

Yeah, I know, people will say I’m only writing this because I’m part of the fancy-pants, pointy-headed elitist East Coast liberal media and therefore cheering for Hillary.

That couldn’t be further from the truth.

As a member of the media, I stand to gain the most if America elects an extremist wacko who generates lots of news, most of it bad. Trump would be the best. Under President Trump, no journalist would want for a job, and no website for eyeballs — at least until he was impeached, America declared bankruptcy or nuclear war killed us all. Failing Trump, any of the other GOP extremists would be just fine. Among the Democrats, Bernie Sanders would be pretty good for the news business too.

For journalists, Hillary Clinton would be a terrible president. It would be four or eight years of guaranteed boredom — unless she divorced Bill, say, or had a fling with a male intern in the Oval Office.

Yet, facts are facts. At this point, it seems almost certain it’s going to be Clinton and Rubio. And if Hillary Clinton has smarts, she’ll make sure it isn’t Rubio.

Eight years ago, Rush Limbaugh and right-wing Republicans inserted themselves into the Democratic primary process by launching “Operation Chaos.” Perhaps some Democrats may feel it’s time to return the favor.

If pro-Clinton allies are smart, they’ll create new secretive super PACs with names like “Patriots for American Values” and “Veterans for American Families” and “Patriotic American Veterans for American Family Values.”

And then they’ll swamp the airwaves in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and elsewhere with ads trashing Marco Rubio among conservatives.

Say he’s soft on Hispanics, Muslims and other non-Aryans.

Say he’s for “amnesty.”

Say he’s a “career politician” who’s “never had a real job.”

And take a leaf out of the New York Times’ preposterous stories and say that he’s fiscally irresponsible because he had to pay late fees on his credit cards a couple of times. Oh, yeah, and he once leased a Lexus with his own money.

They’ll tie Rubio’s personal loans to the issue of the rocketing national debt. “If Marco Rubio can’t even handle his own finances, how can we trust him with America’s?” No, it makes no sense, but what’s that got to do with anything?

Stay tuned.

Published: Dec 18, 2015