file photo
By Elliot Smilowitz
Anti-Donald Trump protesters briefly tussled with police officers outside the Republican presidential front-runner’s rally in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Friday night.
Videos showed protesters tearing down a security tent and chanting “shut it down” outside the rally, according to Fox 13 in Salt Lake City.
The network also reported rocks were being thrown at Trump supporters as they left the rally, and protesters were pushing up against a line of officers.
The FBI has been investigating Clinton for months—but an even more secretive Federal agency has its own important beef with her
By John R. Schindler • 03/18/16 8:45am
For a year now, Hillary Clinton’s misuse of email during her tenure as secretary of state has hung like a dark cloud over her presidential campaign. As I told youmonths ago, email-gate isn’t going away, despite the best efforts of Team Clinton to make it disappear. Instead, the scandal has gotten worse, with never-ending revelations of apparent misconduct by Ms. Clinton and her staff. At this point, email-gate may be the only thing standing between Ms. Clinton and the White House this November.
Specifically, the Federal Bureau of Investigation examination of email-gate, pursuant to provisions of the Espionage Act, poses a major threat to Ms. Clinton’s presidential aspirations. However, even if the FBI recommends prosecution of her or members of her inner circle for mishandling of classified information—which is something the politically unconnected routinely do face prosecution for—it’s by no means certain that the Department of Justice will follow the FBI’s lead.
Matthew J. Belvedere | @Matt_Belvedere
Political parties, not voters, choose their presidential nominees, a Republican convention rules member told CNBC, a day after GOP front-runner Donald Trump rolled up more big primary victories.
“The media has created the perception that the voters choose the nomination. That’s the conflict here,” Curly Haugland, an unbound GOP delegate from North Dakota, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday. He even questioned why primaries and caucuses are held.
Haugland is one of 112 Republican delegates who are not required to cast their support for any one candidate because their states and territories don’t hold primaries or caucuses.
Even with Trump’s huge projected delegate haul in four state primaries Tuesday, the odds are increasing the billionaire businessman may not ultimately get the 1,237 delegates needed to claim the GOP nomination before the convention.
https://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/16/we-choose-the-nominee-not-the-voters-senior-gop-official.html
The meeting is scheduled for two days after tonight’s primaries in what many Republican operatives believe will determine whether Trump is on an unstoppable march to the nomination.
By SHANE GOLDMACHER
03/15/16 02:33 PM EDT
Three influential leaders of the conservative movement have summoned other top conservatives for a closed-door meeting Thursday in Washington, D.C., to talk about how to stop Donald Trump and, should he become the Republican nominee, how to run a third-party “true conservative” challenger in the fall.
The organizers of the meeting include Bill Wichterman, who was President George W. Bush’s liaison to the conservative movement; Bob Fischer, a South Dakota businessman and longtime conservative convener; and Erick Erickson, the outspoken Trump opponent and conservative activist who founded RedState.com.
“Please join other conservative leaders to strategize how to defeat Donald Trump for the Republican nomination,” the three wrote in an invitation obtained by POLITICO that recently went out to conservative leaders, “and if he is the Republican nominee for president, to offer a true conservative candidate in the general election.”
The meeting is scheduled for Thursday, two days after winner-take-all Florida and Ohio vote in what many Republican operatives believe will determine whether Trump is on an unstoppable march to the nomination or is likely to stall out short of the 1,237 delegates he needs.
by WARNER TODD HUSTON
14 Mar 2016
The protests launched by militant leftists who shut down Donald Trump’s Chicago rally were far more aggressive and destructive than reported, says a Chicago Police officer.
“It seems the [media] aren’t broadcasting footage of the debris being thrown across Harrison by Sanders/Hillary supporters at Trump fans,” the officer wrote shortly after the canceled Trump event.
The officer, who posed anonymously on the Second City Cop blog, also noted the media didn’t report that protesters were running through parking lots and breaking windows of cars with Trump stickers on them, or that the department called out emergency Incident Teams to cope with the anti-Trump riot at the University of Illinois in Chicago.
Later that same day the officer posted a second, much longer post, to detail the failures of the police leaders to plan for and respond to the protests.
The officer insisted there was “pretty much zero in terms of a unified Command Post” for the event, and that officers had no central command to report to or coordinate response from.
The billionaire has already spent or pledged $13 million to help Hillary Clinton and other Democrats this year.
The liberal New York financier George Soros, whose effort to unseat President George W. Bush in 2004 shattered political spending records, is returning to big-ticket giving after an 11-year hiatus.
Soros has spent or committed more than $13 million to support Hillary Clinton and other Democrats this election cycle, already more than his total disclosed spending in the last two presidential elections combined.
Soros has expressed alarm over the past few months at the candidacies of Republicans Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. In a statement last week about a new group he’s funding to increase voting by Latinos and immigrants in the election, he again mentioned the two candidates by name.
“The intense anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric that has been fueled by the Republican primary is deeply offensive,” Soros said in the statement. “There should be consequences for the outrageous statements and proposals that we’ve regularly heard from candidates Trump and Cruz.
This is no ordinary Presidential election. We are experiencing something as close to a revolution as might be possible in America. The outrageous things some of the Presidential candidates are saying have captured the public’s rage, anger, and hate combined with an overwhelming outcry to dismantle the status quo in Washington D.C. At the same time, we are witnessing the evolution of political parties and a redefinition of terms like “liberal” and “conservative.” Donald Scarinci, PolitickerNJRead more
Clinton backers who tout their “realism” need to get real about how she’ll handle the shitstorm coming from Trump
STEVE ALMOND
There are many nauseating aspects of the new reality TV series, “America Picks a Prez,” which airs around the clock on every single channel on earth: the cynical, open-air conspiracy between our Fourth Estate and Donald “Ratings Viagra” Trump. Ted Cruz uttering the word “prayerfully“ while not exploding into a cloud of synthetic piety. Caucasian patriots heroically exercising their right to punch people of color.
Among these, let me nominate one more: listening to Hillary partisans explain to those of us who support Bernie Sanders just how naive we are. Only Hillary, we are told, has a real shot at winning in November. She’s the only one with a realistic grasp of how Washington works, whose moderate (and modest) policy aims might,realistically, be enacted. It often sounds as if Clinton’s central pitch to voters isn’t that she has a moral vision for the country, but that she owns the franchise on realism.
Bernie, meanwhile, is just a sweet-shouting rube whose quarter-century as a congressman and senator has somehow failed to instill in him an appreciation for the twin plagues of grift and gridlock.
For us benighted hippies, the standard counter-argument at this point is that our man understands all too well the magnitude of Washington’s dysfunction, which is why he’s calling for a political revolution: to obliterate the most heinous aspects of the status quo, starting with corporate-sponsored elections.
Hillary Clinton hubris, FBI nemesis
By WASHINGTON EXAMINER • 3/14/16 12:01 AM
“That’s not going to happen,” Hillary Clinton said in Wednesday night’s debate, brushing off a question about what she’ll do if she is charged with federal crimes. “Goodness!” she exclaimed, treating the subject as unworthy of discussion, “I’m not even answering that question.”
This was the Democratic presidential front-runner’s effort to evade a very pointed and relevant question from debate moderator Jorge Ramos: “Would you drop out of the race if you get indicted?”
He had to ask it twice even to get the courtesy of an evasion.
Clinton’s choice of tactic on this issue, to slough it off rather than treat it seriously, is perhaps to be expected, but it plays voters for suckers. Even if an indictment is not imminent or doesn’t seem probable, the fact that she disobeyed the laws and regulations that applied to her during her time in the Obama administration is not even up for debate.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/hillary-clinton-hubris-fbi-nemesis/article/2585561
Edward Luce
Western democracy faces no mortal threat but it is going through an acute stress test
When people strike comparisons with Hitler — or Munich — I usually reach for my earplugs. The same applies to the Great Depression. There is nothing on today’s horizon that compares with the Nazis or the mass privation that followed the 1929 stock market crash.
Yet there are echoes we would be foolish to ignore. Western democracy faces no mortal threat. But it is going through an acute stress test. On both sides of the Atlantic, people have lost faith in their public institutions. They are also losing trust in their neighbours. Co-operation is fraying and open borders are in question. We can no longer be sure the centre will hold — or even that it deserves to.
The most insidious trend is vanishing optimism about the future. Contrary to what is widely believed, the majority’s pessimism pre-dates the 2008 financial collapse. At the height of the last property bubble in 2005, Alan Greenspan, then chairman of the Federal Reserve, said society could not long tolerate a situation where most people were suffering from declining standards of living.
“This is not the sort of thing that a democratic society — a capitalist democratic society — can readily accept without addressing,” he said. This came after several years of falling median income.
For most Americans and Europeans the situation is worse today than it was then. Many have since had their homes repossessed. Median incomes were lower in 2015 than when Mr Greenspan issued his warning. A majority on both sides of the Atlantic believe their children will be worse off than they are.
https://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/be952500-e7a8-11e5-a09b-1f8b0d268c39.html#axzz42pwgE9Xi
By David McCabe – 03/13/16 02:31 PM EDT
The country’s most valuable and visible tech companies are making their presence felt in the 2016 presidential election.
Their efforts — some public, others less obvious to voters — are an aggressive play to make their brands an even biggerpart of the political process and cement their position in American life.
It’s a marked shift from 2008, the last election with nomination contests on both sides. That year technology was decisive in President Obama’s win but the companies weren’t nearly as dominant as they are today.
“To the extent that platforms like Facebook and Twitter position themselves, or [are] capitalizing or raising their profile, as sort of being central to democratic processes, I think they gain a legitimacy as being core information providers and information conduits in democracy,” said Daniel Kreiss, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Media and Journalism.
Tech companies are now regularly co-sponsors of primary debates, their logos visible behind candidatesduring broadcasts that are breaking ratings records.
More than half of the sanctioned primary debates this cycle have been co-sponsored by tech companies. That’s more than in 2012 and in 2008, when the only tech-network partnership, between CNN and YouTube, was treated as a novelty.
The companies are also influencing what gets onscreen. Google has has YouTube stars ask candidates questions and Facebook’s data is regularly referenced by debate moderators as a barometer of the public mood.
Sometimes, what’s happening on social networks affects, in real time, the questions asked on stage.
Social media exploded when Hillary Clinton defended raking in millions in Wall Street donations by saying she represented New York state on 9/11 during a November CBS debate co-sponsored by Twitter.
CBS producers with the help of an embedded Twitter team used new social tools to find a critical tweet. Moderators referenced it in a follow-up question.
“Fifty years of televised presidential debates and [it was] the first time that people yelling at the screen had their voice heard on the stage,” said Adam Sharp, the head of news, government and elections at Twitter.
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/272754-techs-big-play-in-2016
By Kelly Riddell – The Washington Times
Sunday, March 13, 2016
Moveon.Org is conducting fundraising activities from the Chicago protests against Donald Trump that prompted the Republican presidential front-runner to cancel a rally there Friday, and promises that more disruptions are on the way.
“Last night, without consulting local police, Donald Trump abruptly cancelled a rally in Chicago in the face of massive and overwhelmingly peaceful student-led protests,” MoveOn.org wrote in an email Saturday to members. “We’re being flooded with aggressive emails and social media posts from Trump supporters. Some of them are threatening. We refuse to be intimidated by Donald Trump, Fox News, or anyone else.”
https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/mar/13/moveonorg-raising-funds-from-trump-protests-warns-/
Electoral slap tonight for merkel and its immigration policy with the success of the afd at regionals.
Europeans wake up! Marion Maréchal-Le Pen ( France National Front)
German voters’ crushing verdict on open-door migration: Angela Merkel is punished in crucial state elections as far-Right party wins big vote with call to stop flow of refugees
Three German regions vote for state legislatures on ‘Super Sunday’
Baden-Wuerttemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt all vote
Angela Merkel’s party set to lose support in the wake of refugee crisis
Exit polls suggest the Christian Democratic Union has lost in two states
Anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AFD) set to win seats at all three
For more of the latest on Angela Merkel visit www.dailymail.co.uk/merkel
By SARA MALM FOR MAILONLINE and ALLAN HALL IN BERLIN FOR THE DAILY MAIL
PUBLISHED: 04:36 EST, 13 March 2016 | UPDATED: 18:06 EST, 13 March 2016
German voters turned to the far right in droves yesterday in a damning verdict on Angela Merkel’s open door border policy.
In regional elections she was humiliated by the anti-immigrant AfD – Alternative for Germany – party.
Formed just three years ago, it has surged in popularity following Mrs Merkel’s decision to roll out the red carpet for more than a million migrants.
Frauke Petry, who leads the Eurosceptic party, has suggested German border guards should open fire on illegal immigrants.
March 12, 2016, 08:54 pm
By Evelyn Rupert
Trump has changed his strategy on dealing with protesters, promising to press charges against people who interrupt his events from now on.
“I’m going to start pressing charges against all these people,” he said at a rally in Kansas City, Mo. “And then we won’t have a problem.”
“I hope these guys get thrown into jail. They’ll never do it again.”
https://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/272803-trump-vows-to-press-charges-against-protesters
STATEMENT REGARDING TRUMP CAMPAIGN CHICAGO RALLY POSTPONEMENT
Mr. Trump just arrived in Chicago and after meeting with law enforcement has determined that for the safety of all of the tens of thousands of people that have gathered in and around the arena, tonight’s rally will be postponed to another date.
Thank you very much for your attendance and please go in peace
Pictured: The moment a protester tries to rush Trump on stage in Ohio – leaving him visibly shaken – just minutes after he brushed off last night’s Chicago violence as a ‘planned attack by thugs’
Trump took to the stand in Dayton, Ohio, the day after Chicago rally meltdown where bloody brawls broke out inside the University of Illinois at Chicago Pavilion
He addressed yesterday’s violence as a ‘planned attack’ caused by ‘professional people’ and blamed Obama for dividing America
Crowd member tried to rush the stage as four Secret Service agents rushed to Trump’s aid
Man has been named as Thomas Dimassimo – he’s now in custody and will be facing assault charges
At the Chicago rally two police officers were injured and five people were arrested – more than 10,000 people had officially RSVP’d to protest there
Trump says protesters were ‘Bernie’s people’ but Sanders denounced the Donald as a ‘pathological liar’
By ALEXANDRA GENOVA FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and DAVID MARTOSKO, U.S POLITICAL EDITOR IN CHICAGO
PUBLISHED: 17:23 EST, 12 March 2016 | UPDATED: 21:00 EST, 12 March 2016
Donald Trump addressed crowds in Ohio Saturday to condemn last night’s bloody scenes as ‘disgusting’, saying it would have been a ‘tremendous rally’ but descended into violence because of what he called a ‘planned attack’ by ‘professional wiseguys’.
But his speech was disturbed after one crowd member tried to rush the stage and threw an object -it is unclear what – causing four Secret Service personnel to quickly leap to the stage in his aid.
The Republican candidate looked visibly rattled as the offending person was escorted out.
Trump did not explain what had happened, but said: ‘Thank you for the warning. I was ready for ’em, but it’s much better if the cops do it, don’t we agree?’
