2016 - Page 39 of 49 - THE RIDGEWOOD BLOG.

Posted on February 25, 2016February 25, 2016 by James — 1 Comment

Fight the soulless juggernaut: Big money, machine politics and the real issue separating Sanders and Clinton

Democrats face a stark choice: A money-mad, scandal-plagued establishment, or the potential of decency and change

CAMILLE PAGLIA

Despite Bernie Sanders being tied with her for pledged delegates after last weekend’s Nevada caucuses, the media herd has anointed Hillary Clinton yet again as the inevitable Democratic nominee. Superdelegates, those undemocratic figureheads and goons of the party establishment, are by definition unpledged and fluid and should never be added to the official column of any candidate until the national convention. To do so is an amoral tactic of intimidation that affects momentum and gives backstage wheeling and dealing primacy over the will of the electorate. Why are the media so servilely complicit with Clinton-campaign propaganda and trickery?

Democrats face a stark choice this year. A vote for the scandal-plagued Hillary is a resounding ratification of business as usual–the corrupt marriage of big money and machine politics, practiced by the Clintons with the zest of Boss Tweed, the gluttonous czar of New York’s ruthless Tammany Hall in the 1870s. What you also get with Hillary is a confused hawkish interventionism that has already dangerously destabilized North Africa and the Mideast. This is someone who declared her candidacy on April 12, 2015 via an email and slick video and then dragged her feet on making a formal statement of her presidential policies and goals until her pollsters had slapped together a crib list of what would push the right buttons. This isn’t leadership; it’s pandering.

https://www.salon.com/2016/02/25/fight_the_soulless_juggernaut_big_money_machine_politics_and_the_real_issue_separating_sanders_and_clinton/

Posted on February 25, 2016February 24, 2016 by James — 1 Comment

China Warns U.S. After Trump Wins Nevada Caucus

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Trump has promised to punish Chinese currency manipulation

BY: Bill Gertz
February 24, 2016 5:00 pm

China warned the United States on Wednesday not to adopt punitive currency policies that could disrupt U.S.-China relations after Donald Trump’s win in the Nevada caucus.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters in Beijing that “we are following with interest the U.S. presidential election.”

Hua was asked about China’s response to a possible Trump presidency and his announced plan to punish China for currency manipulation with a tax on Chinese goods.

https://freebeacon.com/politics/china-warns-u-s-after-trump-wins-nevada-caucus/

Posted on February 24, 2016June 27, 2021 by James — 12 Comments

No Surprise Voters show little interest in Soda banning Bloomberg 2016 bid

AP-GfK Poll: Voters show little interest in Bloomberg bid

NEW YORK (AP) — Most Americans, regardless of ideology, say they have no interest in voting former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg into the White House.

That’s according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll.

Six in 10 Democrats and Republicans alike rule out Bloomberg in a general election. The total saying they wouldn’t vote for him is the highest level for any candidate in the field.

The media billionaire is set to decide next month if he’ll launch a third-party bid

https://news.yahoo.com/ap-gfk-poll-voters-show-little-interest-bloomberg-140428530–election.html;_ylt=AwrC0wwqu81WqXQAd.3QtDMD;_ylu=X3oDMTBybGY3bmpvBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMyBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzcg–

Posted on February 24, 2016February 24, 2016 by James — Leave a comment

Donald Trump Gets Plurality of Latino Votes in Nevada Against Sen. Marco Rubio

by NEIL MUNRO23 Feb 2016446

Exit polls show that nine percent of votes in the Nevada caucus were cast by people who describe themselves as Latino Americans, and Donald Trump won a plurality of their votes.

CNN reported shortly before 12:30 a.m. that Trump won 44 percent of the votes from Nevada’s GOP Latinos, despite strong competition from two Latino candidates.

“This is the wow number of the night,” said David Chalian, a CNN political expert. “It is just unbelievable,” he added.

That 44 percent is 15 points above the 29 percent score won by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)
79%, who has been touted since 2012 as the GOP’s best shot to win Latino votes.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) 97% won 18 percent of the votes, and Gov. John Kasich won four percent.

Rubio and Cruz are Latinos.

However, the number of Latinos in the poll is so small that the survey has a margin-of-error of roughly 10 percent.

https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/02/23/3127941/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social

Posted on February 24, 2016February 24, 2016 by James — 1 Comment

Latest Polls :New Jersey Dems Favor Hillary and NJ GOP favors Trump

New Poll: Clinton at 55%, Sanders at 32% with NJ Democrats

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton easily beats Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders for the New Jersey Democratic nomination for president, 55 percent to 32 percent, according to today’s Rutgers-Eagleton Poll. Max Pizarro, PolitickerNJ Read more

Rutgers Poll: New Jersey Republican Voters Favor Trump for Prez

Today’s Rutgers-Eagleton Poll of Republican and Republican-leaning voters in New Jersey shows billionaire real estate tycoon Donald Trump with a commanding lead. Max Pizarro, PolitickerNJ Read more

Posted on February 24, 2016February 23, 2016 by James — Leave a comment

How Obama Lost the Mideast to Putin

13-objectively-true-statements-from-the-vladimir-putin-op-ed

Vision, strategy, and courage might have prevented the disaster we see today in Syria. But those elements were nowhere to be found.

LONDON — The Middle East is in flames. Just as Iraq was President George W. Bush’s catastrophic legacy, Syria will be Obama’s. Bush’s sins of commission wrought no less chaos than Obama’s sins of omission. If the Stop the War lobby’s primary motive was to avoid civilian casualties, then by any standard they should slither away shamefully into voluntarily redundancy.

By latest human rights accounts, Syria’s five-year civil war has left 470,000 dead. To add to our disgrace, we don’t even know how accurate these figures are because—as if in despair—the United Nations gave up collecting statistics 18 months ago. Syria has spiraled into the biggest humanitarian, political and security challenge of our time. The Cuban Missile crisis of 2016.

Last week in Munich, the “well-meaning but under-powered” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry optimistically announced a temporary ceasefire, leading up to UN-brokered peace talks scheduled for Feb. 25. Onlookers meanwhile, wondered what sort of “cessation of hostilities” allows Russia to continue hostilities, and questioned whether depressing realities on the ground truly reflect Kerry’s sleight of hand.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/23/how-obama-lost-the-mideast-to-putin.html

Posted on February 24, 2016February 23, 2016 by James — Leave a comment

U.S. judge orders discovery to go forward over Clinton’s private email system

hillary-clinton-what-difference-does-it-make

By Spencer S. Hsu February 23 at 2:21 PM

A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that State Department officials and top aides to Hillary Clinton should be questioned under oath about whether they intentionally thwarted federal open records laws by using or allowing the use of a private email server throughout Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of Washington came in a lawsuit over public records brought by Judicial Watch, a conservative legal watchdog group, regarding its May 2013 request, for information about the employment arrangement of Huma Abedin, a longtime Clinton aide.

A State Department official said that the department is aware of the order and that it is reviewing it but declined to comment further, citing the ongoing litigation.

Although it was not immediately clear whether the government will appeal, Sullivan set an April deadline for parties to lay out a detailed investigative plan that would extend well beyond the limited and carefully worded explanations of the use of the private server that department and Clinton officials have given.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/us-judge-weighs-deeper-probe-into-clintons-private-email-system/2016/02/23/9c27412a-d997-11e5-81ae-7491b9b9e7df_story.html

Posted on February 23, 2016February 23, 2016 by James — 1 Comment

GOP invokes Biden Rule No election-season Supreme Court nominees

Biden in ’92: No election-season Supreme Court nominees

By Sarah Wheaton

02/22/16 04:36 PM EST

Updated 02/22/16 07:19 PM EST

Republicans are delighted that a recently unearthed Joe Biden speech appears to be a strong endorsement of the GOP’s current Supreme Court strategy.

“Politics has played far too large a role in the Reagan-Bush nominations to date. One can only imagine that role becoming overarching if a choice were made this year, assuming that a justice was announced tomorrow that he or she was stepping down,” Biden said on the Senate floor in June 1992, not long after Bill Clinton won the Democratic nomination to challenge then-President George H.W. Bush.

“A process that is already in doubt in the minds of many will become distrusted by all,” Biden continued. “Senate consideration of a nominee under these circumstances is not fair to the president, the nominee or to the Senate itself.”

Nearly 24 years later, after C-Span posted the old video, Republicans are offering Biden a hearty second — at least to the part of the 90-minute speech where he calls on the Senate to “seriously consider” not scheduling confirmation hearings and dismissing the potential impact of a short-handed court.

“The precedent of not confirming SCOTUS justices nominated in election years was established by both parties,” the office of Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) tweeted on Monday, with a link to a 2-minute clip of the old footage.

In the aftermath of Antonin Scalia’s death, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was quick to say that any nominee to fill the vacancy should wait until after the coming election.

The clips and quotes Republicans seized on, however, ignored a passage buried deep in the transcript where Biden called for a “compromise” pick, much as he’s done in the past week.

Posted on February 22, 2016February 21, 2016 by James — 2 Comments

Trump poised to step on the GOP accelerator

BY DAVID LIGHTMAN
CHARLESTON, S.C.

Things sure look good for Donald Trump.

The Republican presidential race expanded across the country Sunday, and polls show the real estate mogul ahead in eight of the dozen states voting in the next nine days.

Trump has now won primaries in two very different states, center-right New Hampshire and evangelical-dominated South Carolina. And the Republican Party system of choosing a presidential nominee favors candidates who continue to win early primaries and caucuses.

“He seems to have about a third of the Republican electorate under his spell, and it’s a durable, non-ideological coalition,” said Kyle Kondik, managing editor at Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball Sunday.

The biggest hope for stopping Trump is for a single strong challenger to emerge, and so far that hasn’t happened.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., finished second Saturday in South Carolina, but he was 10 percentage points behind Trump and barely edged Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, even though Rubio barnstormed the state with popular Gov. Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C.

Rubio also lacks an obvious state where he can win in the next few weeks. He should be a favorite in Tuesday’s Nevada caucus. Rubio lived in Las Vegas as a child, was a church member, and Sunday picked up the endorsement of Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nevada. But a CNN/ORC poll last week showed Trump with a huge lead, with more support than Rubio and Cruz combined.

Posted on February 22, 2016February 21, 2016 by James — Leave a comment

GOP sets another turnout record, Democrats’ numbers slide

By Stephen Dinan – The Washington Times – Sunday, February 21, 2016

SPARTANBURG, S.C. | Republicans’ turnout streak continued, with GOP voters shattering their South Carolina primary record Saturday night.

With almost all precincts reporting, more than 737,000 votes had been counted. That was more than 20 percent higher than 2012, when about 603,000 voted.

It follows record GOP turnout in Iowa’s caucuses and New Hampshire’s primary earlier this month.

By contrast, Democrats’ turnout has tumbled from its 2008 records in all three contests, including Saturday’s caucuses in Nevada. About 80,000 voters took part in the caucuses, with was 33 percent less than 2008’s level.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/feb/21/gop-sets-another-turnout-record-democrats-numbers-/

Posted on February 22, 2016February 21, 2016 by James — 2 Comments

Glenn Beck Responds to South Carolina Primary Results: ‘Join Me’ in a ‘Fast for Ted Cruz’

by BREITBART NEWS21 Feb 201614,524

Following Donald Trump’s victory in the South Carolina GOP primary, talk radio host Glenn Beck urged his Facebook followers to join him and his family in fasting for GOP candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) 97%
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“I would like to ask you to join me and my family Monday in a fast for Ted Cruz, our country and the Nevada caucus,” Beck wrote on his Facebook page after the South Carolina election results showed a decisive double-digit victory for Trump, whose candidacy Beck has been staunchly opposed to.

https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/02/21/glenn-beck-responds-to-sc-primary-results-join-me-in-a-fast-for-ted-cruz/

Posted on February 20, 2016February 20, 2016 by James — 3 Comments

Vatican back peddles on Trump remarks

Vatican: Pope Francis’ Comments About Donald Trump Not ‘Personal Attack or Instruction on How to Vote’

by THOMAS D. WILLIAMS, PH.D.19 Feb 20165,343

The Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, has issued aclarification regarding the Pope’s remarks to journalists Thursday, when he said, in answer to a question about Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, that a person who only thinks of building walls and not about building bridges is no Christian.

Aboard the plane returning from Mexico to Rome, the Pope answered Reuters reporter Phil Pullella by saying, “I would only say: if he said these things, this man is no Christian. But we’d have to see whether he said these things. And in this matter, I would give him the benefit of the doubt.”

Since news reports bore headlines suggesting that the Pope had denied Trump’s Christianity, and other comments by the Pope had also caused some confusion, the papal spokesman released a statement Friday in an effort to clarify what the Pope was trying to say.

Lombardi said that Pope-watchers know that Francis is always repeating that we should not build walls but bridges. “He repeats this over and over, constantly, and he has also said it many times regarding the issue of migration in Europe,” he said. “So it is not a specific issue, limited to this case” but part of his general attitude, consistent with “following the Gospel directives of welcome and solidarity.”

The spokesman also insisted that the Pope was not intending a personal judgment on Trump, or trying to tell Catholics how to vote at the upcoming election.

“This case drew a lot of attention,” Lombardi said, “but he never intended it to be in any way a personal attack or an instruction on how to vote. The Pope has made it clear that he would not meddle in the voting issues in the election campaign of the United States.”

The priest said that media reports often overlooked that the Pope had said that his words “depended on the accuracy and truth of what he had been told regarding the Republican candidate’s positions, thus also giving him the benefit of the doubt.”

https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/02/19/vatican-pope-on-trump-not-meant-as-a-personal-attack-or-an-instruction-on-how-to-vote/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social

Posted on February 20, 2016February 20, 2016 by James — 2 Comments

Miami Police Union Calls For Boycott Of Beyonce Concert

February 18, 2016 11:35 PM By Carey Codd

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Members of the Miami Fraternal Order of Police are calling for all law enforcement officers to boycott Beyoncé’s concert in Miami later this year.

Thursday morning, the president of the group – Javier Ortiz – mailed out a letter saying the group had voted “to have all law enforcement officers boycott Beyoncé’s concert” at Miami Marlins Stadium on April 27th.

The vote was over officers choosing not work the Beyoncé concert. The vote not to work it was unanimous.

“Officers that work these extra duties. They’re called extra duties for a reason. It’s because they’re voluntary and I simply will not sign up and many of the officers that I’ve spoken to said that they’re not going to sign up,” said Ortiz who spoke exclusively with CBS4’s Gary Nelson.

Ortiz says the group believes Beyoncé used the Super Bowl to “divide Americans by promoting Black Panthers and her anti-police message.”

“The message she gave was a very clear message to law enforcement,” said Ortiz. “She has made anti-police message when she put together that 50th anniversary salute, so to speak, about the Black Panthers during the Super Bowl and my members are extremely upset about that.”

https://miami.cbslocal.com/2016/02/18/fop-calls-for-boycott-of-beyonce-concert/

Posted on February 20, 2016February 19, 2016 by James — 4 Comments

Hillary Clinton just can’t win: Democrats need to accept that only Bernie Sanders can defeat the GOP

Bernie Sanders will become our next president and it should come as no surprise to people actually paying attention

H.A. GOODMAN

In one major poll, Bernie Sanders is now leading Hillary Clinton nationally. In most others, he’s not far behind from the former Secretary of State. Vermont’s Senator already has an “edge over Clinton in matchups with GOP opponents,” dispelling Clinton’s electability myth. In an average of national polls, Bernie Sanders is less than eight points from Hillary Clinton, after being over 50 points behind in 2015. In addition, there’s only one person capable of challenging a Republican in 2016 withoutJames Comey declaring national security was jeopardized by a private server.

Bernie Sanders is the only Democratic candidate capable of winning the White House in 2016. Please name the last person to win the presidency alongside an ongoing FBI investigation, negative favorability ratings, questions about character linked to continual flip-flops, a dubious money trail of donors, and the genuine contempt of the rival political party. In reality, Clinton is a liability to Democrats, and certainly not the person capable of ensuring liberal Supreme Court nominees and President Obama’s legacy.

The precious and all-knowing polls already show Bernie Sanders defeating Republicans in a general election and Robert Reich has already explained why Sanders can easily win the presidency. In a Huffington Post piece titled “6 Responses to Bernie Skeptic,” Reich debunks the trusted myth of Clinton supporters and Republicans:

https://www.salon.com/2016/02/19/hillary_clinton_just_cant_win_democrats_need_to_accept_that_only_bernie_sanders_can_defeat_the_gop/

Posted on February 19, 2016February 18, 2016 by James — 7 Comments

POPE PICKS FIGHT WITH TRUMP ENTERS U.S. ELECTION BATTLE

February 18,2016

the staff if the Ridgewood blog

Pope Frances entered the fray of US election politics saying, “a person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not in the gospel. As far as what you said about whether I would advise to vote or not to vote, I am not going to get involved in that. I say only that this man is not Christian if he said things like that. We must see if he said things in that way and in this I give the benefit of the doubt.”

In response to the Pope, Donald Trump released a statement and held a press conference :

If and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS’s ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the Pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been President because this would not have happened. ISIS would have been eradicated unlike what is happening now with our all talk, no action politicians.

The Mexican government and its leadership has made many disparaging remarks about me to the Pope, because they want to continue to rip off the United States, both on trade and at the border, and they understand I am totally wise to them. The Pope only heard one side of the story – he didn’t see the crime, the drug trafficking and the negative economic impact the current policies have on the United States. He doesn’t see how Mexican leadership is outsmarting President Obama and our leadership in every aspect of negotiation.

For a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful. I am proud to be a Christian and as President I will not allow Christianity to be consistently attacked and weakened, unlike what is happening now, with our current President. No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man’s religion or faith. They are using the Pope as a pawn and they should be ashamed of themselves for doing so, especially when so many lives are involved and when illegal immigration is so rampant.

Donald J. Trump

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