Group linked to Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe donated nearly half a million dollars to 2015 state Senate candidate
By
DEVLIN BARRETT
Updated Oct. 24, 2016 4:41 p.m. ET
The political organization of Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, an influential Democrat with longstanding ties to Bill and Hillary Clinton, gave nearly $500,000 to the election campaign of the wife of an official at the Federal Bureau of Investigation who later helped oversee the investigation into Mrs. Clinton’s email use.
Campaign finance records show Mr. McAuliffe’s political-action committee donated $467,500 to the 2015 state Senate campaign of Dr. Jill McCabe, who is married to Andrew McCabe, now the deputy director of the FBI.
The Virginia Democratic Party, over which Mr. McAuliffe exerts considerable control, donated an additional $207,788 worth of support to Dr. McCabe’s campaign in the form of mailers, according to the records. That adds up to slightly more than $675,000 to her candidacy from entities either directly under Mr. McAuliffe’s control or strongly influenced by him. The figure represents more than a third of all the campaign funds Dr. McCabe raised in the effort.
As the story about Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email account broke last year, the head of a pro-Clinton think tank complained that a penchant for secrecy within Clinton’s inner circle only exacerbated the controversy, which would go on to dog her entire presidential campaign, according to a hacked email released Tuesday by WikiLeaks.
In the exchange, Center for American Progress president Neera Tanden complained to incoming Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta that Clinton lawyer and former State Department Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills had allowed the email situation to fester to the point where it became a liability to Clinton’s presidential bid.
“This is a cheryl special. Know you love her, but this stuff is like her Achilles heal. [sic] Or kryptonite. she just can’t say no to this shit. Why didn’t they get this stuff out like 18 months ago? So crazy,” Tanden wrote.
“Unbelievable,” Podesta replies.
“I guess I know the answer. They wanted to get away with it,” Tanden said, urging that Clinton turn over the emails to the National Archives immediately.
The rise of social media would seem an unmitigated boon for free speech, providing a platform to anyone with an internet connection. But recent news about Facebook illuminates pitfalls that belie that optimistic view.
“Some of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s posts on Facebook have set off an intense debate inside the social media company over the past year,” The Wall Street Journal reports. Some employees argued that “certain posts about banning Muslims from entering the U.S. should be removed for violating the site’s rules on hate speech, according to people familiar with the matter.”
Ridgewood NJ, U.S. Term Limits (USTL), the leader in the movement to limit terms for politicians, releases the following statement on Donald Trump’s “Drain the Swamp” plan for congressional term limits:
“Yesterday, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump endorsed a constitutional amendment for term limits on Congress. His specific plan calls for three House terms (six years), two Senate terms (12 years) and no longer limit.
These specifics are consistent with the amendment advocated by U.S. Term Limits.
First, it’s important to correct a misconception about the president’s role in enacting term limits. While term limits on Congress do require a constitutional amendment and the president does not have an official role in that process, the presidential pulpit can add critical momentum to this effort.
That’s why the term limits movement has concluded that a supportive president would be a game-changer for our issue.
The American people – Republicans and Democrats alike – are fed up with the broken system in Washington. Career politicians and special interests have teamed up to cheat the public out of the democracy they deserve. Congress has become the place where new and dynamic ideas go to die. We will work together with anyone who shares the vision of bringing term limits to Congress.
We invite all presidential candidates to join this movement to fix Washington by bringing career politicians home. So far, Donald Trump, Gary Johnson and Jill Stein have endorsed congressional term limits. Hillary Clinton hasn’t stated her position on the issue.
USTL President Philip Blumel commented “U.S. Term Limits does not endorse any candidate for any office, but we encourage every candidate to endorse term limits.”
TERM LIMITS FACTS
-Gallup polling shows that 75% of Americans back congressional term limits, including 82% of Republicans, 65% of Democrats and 79% of independents.
-The 1995 SCOTUS case U.S. Term Limits v. Thornton decided congressional term limits could only come by constitutional amendment.
-Citizens can bypass Congress to propose the amendment by passing resolutions through 34 state legislatures. This process creates an amendment-proposing convention of states. U.S. Term Limits introduced the Term Limits Convention strategy in 2016 to do just that, and has already passed in the Florida Legislature.
-Despite oft-cited myths, lobbyists and special interests are the primary opponents of term limits, with a long history of bankrolling campaigns to prevent, weaken or abolish term limits.
Earlier this morning we wrote about the obvious sampling bias in the latest ABC / Washington Post poll that showed a 12-point national advantage for Hillary. Like many of the recent polls from Reuters, ABC and The Washington Post, this latest poll included a9-point sampling bias toward registered democrats.
“METHODOLOGY – This ABC News poll was conducted by landline and cellular telephone Oct. 20-22, 2016, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 874 likely voters. Results have a margin of sampling error of 3.5 points, including the design effect. Partisan divisions are 36-27-31 percent, Democrats – Republicans – Independents.”
Of course, while democrats may enjoy a slight registration advantage of a couple of points, it is nowhere near the 9 points reflected in this latest poll.
Meanwhile, we also pointed out that with huge variances in preference across demographics one can easily “rig” a poll by over indexing to one group vs. another. As a quick example, the ABC / WaPo poll found that Hillary enjoys a 79-point advantage over Trump with black voters. Therefore, even a small “oversample” of black voters of 5% could swing the overall poll by 3 full points. Moreover, the pollsters don’t provide data on the demographic mix of their polls which makes it impossible to “fact check” the bias…convenient.
Trump Up 2 Points Nationwide, While Clinton Campaigns As If The Race Is Already Won — IBD/TIPP Poll
JOHN MERLINE
With 16 days to go until November 8, Donald Trump leads Hillary Clinton by 2 percentage points — 43% to 41% — in a four-way race, according to the latest IBD/TIPP presidential tracking poll.
Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson saw his support held steady at 7%, while the Green Party’s Jill Stein dipped to 3%.
Unrounded, Trump leads 42.6% to 40.8% — a 1.8-point edge — with Johnson at 7.2% and Stein at 3.3%.
Trump also holds a nearly one-point lead in a two-way matchup — 43.2% to 42.3%.
NATIONAL STEVEN ERTELT OCT 21, 2016 | 12:28PM WASHINGTON, DC
A Catholic bishop is slamming the campaign of pro-abortion candidate Hillary Clinton over recent emails from her top campaign staff trashing Catholic voters.
Bishop Thomas Tobin says Hillary Clinton’s radical proportion position is one of the several issues he has problems with the Democratic candidate on but he’s also very concerned about the recently leaked emails from WikiLeaks that show top Clinton staffers calling Catholic voters “severely backwards.”
Tobin said the emails “reveal the existence of a toxic, anti-Catholic prejudice within the Clinton campaign.”
“The messages marginalize faithful Catholics, ridicule Catholic beliefs, and promote ideological division in the Church,” Bishop Tobin wrote. “They call for the ‘end of a middle-ages dictatorship and the beginning of a little democracy and respect for gender equality in the Catholic Church.’ In light of the widespread anti-Christian, anti-Catholic prejudice rampant in our culture today, should we be at all surprised by this vitriol?”
James O’Keefe and Project Veritas are filing a formal complaint with the Federal Election Commission against Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
The decision comes amid increasing media coverage of the two videos released by O’Keefe, which expose apparently illicit actions by a group of political actors associated with the Clinton campaign, the DNC and the White House.
The establishment media was forced to cover O’Keefe’s videos after one subject, Robert Creamer, announced he would quit working for the DNC. This break came a day after the first video release prompted another subject, Scott Foval, to leave his job with another Democratic political group, Americans United for Change.
James O’Keefe told Breitbart News exclusively:
As the chairman of Project Veritas, our work is financially independent and beholden to nobody. Our work is funded by thousands of contributors, small, medium, and large. What I have learned about our media – and it’s frightening – is that almost everyone is compromised. Media companies are beholden to stockholders and I have sources that I am trying to get to go on the record to explain that these companies are afraid of reporting this story for fear of political retaliation. If the public knew the truth, I think it would change everything about American politics.
O’Keefe’s complaint states:
This criminal conspiracy involves the knowing and willful creation of coordinated expenditures from prohibited corporate sources. As is detailed numerous times in the Veritas transcript, attached as EXHIBIT A, the supposedly independent speech and actions of third-party groups were directed, controlled, or puppeteered by HFA or the DNC. Indeed, the record establishes not just simple violations of the FECA’s coordination provisions, but ongoing knowing and willful evasion of federal election law requirements through a complicated scheme. Because this conspiracy involves large numbers of employees, heightened travel, production, and distribution costs and because of the nationwide scale of the operation, upon information and belief, this triggers criminal penalties under 52 U.S.C. § 30109(d)(1)(A)(i).
By failing to abide by the law, these respondents misled the public about the true identity of speakers and funding sources for political protests and advocacy campaigns . This sort of evasion undermines the public’s trust in the electoral process and allows elite political operatives to operate above the law.
Donald Trump FULL Gettysburg Address Speech – October 22, 2016
Here’s a summary of Donald Trump’s Gettysburg speech, via Trump’s website:
“Gettysburg, PA: Today, in historic Gettysburg, PA, Donald J. Trump presented a game-changing plan for his first 100 days in office. This revolutionary “Contract with the American Voter” will ensure that America’s economy is revitalized and citizens are protected.
“I’m not a politician, and have never wanted to be one. But when I saw the trouble our country was in, I knew I couldn’t stand by and watch any longer. Our country has been so good to me, I love our country, I felt I had to act,” said Mr. Trump in his address.
“Change has to come from outside this broken system. The fact that the Washington establishment has tried so hard to stop our campaign is only more proof that our campaign represents the kind of change that only arrives once in a lifetime,” he continued.
“I am asking the American people to rise above the noise and the clutter of our broken politics, and to embrace that great faith and optimism that has always been the central ingredient in the American character. I am asking you to dream big.
“What follows is my 100-day action plan to Make America Great Again. It is a contract between Donald J. Trump and the American voter – and begins with restoring honesty, accountability and change to Washington,” he concluded.
“Therefore, on the first day of my term of office, my administration will immediately pursue the following six measures to clean up the corruption and special interest collusion in Washington, DC:
FIRST, propose a Constitutional Amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress;
SECOND, a hiring freeze on all federal employees to reduce federal workforce through attrition (exempting military, public safety, and public health);
THIRD, a requirement that for every new federal regulation, two existing regulations must be eliminated;
FOURTH, a 5 year-ban on White House and Congressional officials becoming lobbyists after they leave government service;
FIFTH, a lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government;
SIXTH, a complete ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections.
On the same day, I will begin taking the following seven actions to protect American workers:
FIRST, I will announce my intention to renegotiate NAFTA or withdraw from the deal under Article 2205
SECOND, I will announce our withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership
THIRD, I will direct my Secretary of the Treasury to label China a currency manipulator
FOURTH, I will direct the Secretary of Commerce and U.S. Trade Representative to identify all foreign trading abuses that unfairly impact American workers and direct them to use every tool under American and international law to end those abuses immediately
FIFTH, I will lift the restrictions on the production of $50 trillion dollars’ worth of job-producing American energy reserves, including shale, oil, natural gas and clean coal.
SIXTH, lift the Obama-Clinton roadblocks and allow vital energy infrastructure projects, like the Keystone Pipeline, to move forward
SEVENTH, cancel billions in payments to U.N. climate change programs and use the money to fix America’s water and environmental infrastructure
Additionally, on the first day, I will take the following five actions to restore security and the constitutional rule of law:
FIRST, cancel every unconstitutional executive action, memorandum and order issued by President Obama
SECOND, begin the process of selecting a replacement for Justice Scalia from one of the 20 judges on my list, who will uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States
THIRD, cancel all federal funding to Sanctuary Cities
FOURTH, begin removing the more than 2 million criminal illegal immigrants from the country and cancel visas to foreign countries that won’t take them back
FIFTH, suspend immigration from terror-prone regions where vetting cannot safely occur. All vetting of people coming into our country will be considered extreme vetting.
Next, I will work with Congress to introduce the following broader legislative measures and fight for their passage within the first 100 days of my Administration:
1. Middle Class Tax Relief And Simplification Act. An economic plan designed to grow the economy 4% per year and create at least 25 million new jobs through massive tax reduction and simplification, in combination with trade reform, regulatory relief, and lifting the restrictions on American energy. The largest tax reductions are for the middle class. A middle-class family with 2 children will get a 35% tax cut. The current number of brackets will be reduced from 7 to 3, and tax forms will likewise be greatly simplified. The business rate will be lowered from 35 to 15 percent, and the trillions of dollars of American corporate money overseas can now be brought back at a 10 percent rate.
2. End The Offshoring Act Establishes tariffs to discourage companies from laying off their workers in order to relocate in other countries and ship their products back to the U.S. tax-free.
3. American Energy & Infrastructure Act.Leverages public-private partnerships, and private investments through tax incentives, to spur $1 trillion in infrastructure investment over 10 years. It is revenue neutral.
4. School Choice And Education Opportunity Act. Redirects education dollars to gives parents the right to send their kid to the public, private, charter, magnet, religious or home school of their choice. Ends common core, brings education supervision to local communities. It expands vocational and technical education, and make 2 and 4-year college more affordable.
5. Repeal and Replace Obamacare Act. Fully repeals Obamacare and replaces it with Health Savings Accounts, the ability to purchase health insurance across state lines, and lets states manage Medicaid funds. Reforms will also include cutting the red tape at the FDA: there are over 4,000 drugs awaiting approval, and we especially want to speed the approval of life-saving medications.
6. Affordable Childcare and Eldercare Act. Allows Americans to deduct childcare and elder care from their taxes, incentivizes employers to provide on-site childcare services, and creates tax-free Dependent Care Savings Accounts for both young and elderly dependents, with matching contributions for low-income families.
7. End Illegal Immigration Act Fully-funds the construction of a wall on our southern border with the full understanding that the country Mexico will be reimbursing the United States for the full cost of such wall; establishes a 2-year mandatory minimum federal prison sentence for illegally re-entering the U.S. after a previous deportation, and a 5-year mandatory minimum for illegally re-entering for those with felony convictions, multiple misdemeanor convictions or two or more prior deportations; also reforms visa rules to enhance penalties for overstaying and to ensure open jobs are offered to American workers first.
8. Restoring Community Safety Act. Reduces surging crime, drugs and violence by creating a Task Force On Violent Crime and increasing funding for programs that train and assist local police; increases resources for federal law enforcement agencies and federal prosecutors to dismantle criminal gangs and put violent offenders behind bars.
9. Restoring National Security Act. Rebuilds our military by eliminating the defense sequester and expanding military investment; provides Veterans with the ability to receive public VA treatment or attend the private doctor of their choice; protects our vital infrastructure from cyber-attack; establishes new screening procedures for immigration to ensure those who are admitted to our country support our people and our values
10. Clean up Corruption in Washington Act. Enacts new ethics reforms to Drain the Swamp and reduce the corrupting influence of special interests on our politics.
On November 8th, Americans will be voting for this 100-day plan to restore prosperity to our economy, security to our communities, and honesty to our government.
This is my pledge to you.
And if we follow these steps, we will once more have a government of, by and for the people.”
“Al Gore did not accept the results of the elections, and he said he would,”
by Jeff Dunetz | Oct 21, 2016 | Politics
As interest in contested elections have grown, based on the tenor of the 2016 presidential race, Fred has agreed to update the guest post below which speaks to some of the other of “rigged” presidential elections You will find that Donald Trump charges are not as unique as you may believe.
Guest post by Fred Lucas
Whatever you think of Donald Trump not promising to immediately accept the election result, don’t believe anyone who says challenging the result would be unprecedented. Donald Trump is not the first candidate to say a presidential election was “rigged.”
Ridgewood NJ, readers were pretty evenly divided for the first two polls with Trump hold a slight edge . Trump pulled way ahead after his better than expected the 2nd debate performance .
Who Would You Rather Buy a Used Car from – Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump? Hillary Clinton 47.2 % Donald Trump 52.8 %
Who Won the First Presidential Debate – Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump? Hillary Clinton 51.9 % Donald Trump 48.1 %
Who Won the Second Presidential Debate – Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump? Hillary Clinton 35.2 % Donald Trump 64.8 %
October 18, 2016 6:25 PM By Jessica Flores
Filed Under: Donald Trump, election 2016, Hillary Clinton, Presidential election, Stress
WALNUT CREEK (CBS SF) — New evidence shows that Campaign 2016 is having an emotional impact on people, stressing many out and, in some cases, even ruining relationships.
The fighting and acrimonious campaigning between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump has gone on for months over television airwaves and across the Internet.
“This election is one of the nastiest ones that I’ve seen,” said voter Randall Piona.
“It’s like two high school kids fighting back and forth passing bad notes,” agreed voter Antrone Bradford.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado, October 19, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – New YorkCardinal Timothy Dolan called for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to disassociate herself from anti-Catholic statements made by her campaign chairman and said the remarks were “extraordinarily patronizing and insulting to Catholics.”
Asked about the anti-Catholic comments after speaking at The Bishop’s Respect Life Dinner on Monday night for the Diocese of Colorado Springs, Cardinal Dolan suggested that had other faith traditions been the target of the prejudiced remarks, there would have been a swift apology and absolute disavowal of them.
But as far as an apology from Clinton for the remarks demeaning Catholics, “Hasn’t happened yet,” Cardinal Dolan said.
Emails released last week by WikiLeaks showed Clinton Campaign Chairman John Podesta and Director of Communications Jennifer Palmieri, both Catholics, in conversations with activists from two left-wing organizations. In the emails, Catholics were debased, with their beliefs being called “severely backwards.” Conservative Catholics also were accused of “an amazing bastardization of the faith,” and Rupert Murdoch was mocked for baptizing his children as Catholics in the River Jordan.
The U.S. Church’s bishops were slammed in the emails as well, referred to as “a middle ages dictatorship.”
