A Super PAC tied to Ohio Governor John Kasich is annnouncing a new multi-million dollar effort to torpedo Donald Trump’s campaign for the Republican nomination.
Trump’s continued dominance of national and state-level polling has vexed the GOP establishment and pushed it to near-panic as voting nears.
A recent survey of public attitudes by Reuters/Ispos, though, suggests caution for the GOP establishment.
Whatever failings there may be in his specific policies, Donald Trump’s campaign has tapped into a strong, visceral feeling of millions of Americans. Seeking to destroy Trump, the candidate, may further alienate the Republican party from a rapidly growing block of voters.
According to the Reuters survey, 58 percent Americans say they “don’t identify with what America has become.” While Republicans and Independents are the most likely to agree with this statement, even 45 percent of Democrats share this feeling.
More than half of Americans, 53 percent, say they “feel like a stranger” in their own country. A minority of Americans feel “comfortable as myself” in the country.
There are no doubt lots of reasons underlying this feelings. Demographically, Americans holding these views tend to be white, older, live in the South and have less than a college education. Politically, they are cordoned off as the white working class. While they rarely attract much attention from the political class, they still represent an enormous block of voters.
In a 289-137 vote, the House on Thursday easily approved legislation that requires new screening requirements on refugees from Syria and Iraq before they can enter the United States.
Forty-seven Democrats defied President Obama’s veto threat and backed the bill — enough to override a presidential veto given the six Democrats and two Republicans who missed the vote.
The 47 Democrats who voted for the bill ranged from centrist Blue Dogs, vulnerable lawmakers in tough reelection races and even one member of leadership: Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), who heads House Democrats’ communications efforts.
Two Republicans voted against the bill: Reps. Walter Jones (N.C.) and Steve King (Iowa).
The outcome suggests the House could override Obama if he vetoes the measure, although there’s no guarantee that Democrats will side against the president if they are asked to sustain a veto.
The big question is whether the House will get a chance at an override vote.
The legislation will now go to the Senate, where it may face a tougher path to passage.
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) vowed to block the House bill if it is considered by the upper chamber after the Thanksgiving recess.
It’s beyond surreal that the president of France is making the American president look like a cheese-eating amateur.
The terror attacks in Paris Friday took scores of livesand thrust the entire civilized world into paroxysms of grief and despair. Then something unexpected happened.
French President François Hollande stepped up to the soccer goal. And he displayed the kind of leadership one normally does not associate with the randy politician presiding over the land of vintage Champagne and Brie.
No sooner had ISIS claimed responsibility for the butchery than Hollande got in front of TV cameras and told the traumatized public that the savagery was an “act of war.’’ He vowed to pound ISIS into submission.
Compare that to the American president’s initial reaction. President Obama, who once ridiculed ISIS (or “ISIL,” as he calls it) by comparing it to a junior varsity squad, was loath to point fingers. “I don’t want to speculate at this point in terms of who was responsible for this,” he said.
In any time and place, war is fiendishly simple. It is the ultimate zero-sum contest — you win or you lose.
That eternal truth is so obvious that it should not need to be said. Yet even after the horrific slaughter in Paris, there remains a distressing doubt about whether America’s commander in chief gets it.
President Obama has spent the last seven years trying to avoid the world as it is. He has put his intellect and rhetorical skills into the dishonorable service of assigning blame and fudging failure. If nuances were bombs, Islamic State would have been destroyed years ago.
He refuses to say “Islamic terrorism,” as if that would offend the peaceful Muslims who make up the vast bulk of victims. He rejects the word “war,” even as jihadists carry out bloodthirsty attacks against Americans and innocent peoples around the world.
He shuns the mantle of global leadership that comes with the Oval Office, with an aide advancing the preposterous concept that Obama is “leading from behind.” He snubs important partners like Egypt, showers concessions on the apocalyptic mullahs of Iran, and called the Islamic State the “jayvee team” even as it was beginning to create a caliphate.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) says he thinks President Obama is “not interested” in protecting the United States from terror attacks.
“I recognize that Barack Obama does not wish to defend this country. He may have been tired of war, but our enemies are not tired of killing us,” Cruz said in a “Fox and Friends” interview.
“They are getting stronger. Every region on Earth has gotten worse under the Obama-Clinton foreign policy.”
Cruz, a 2016 Republican presidential candidate, accused the president of ignoring the threats posed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in light of a coordinated set of attacks in Paris on Friday.
He said Obama and Hillary Clinton, the leading Democratic presidential candidate, are “ideologues” who “don’t recognize that enemies of America want to kill us.”
Cruz’s interview came after an attack in Paris left at least 129 people dead Friday. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Despite cheaper gas and interest-free car loans that stretch six years, auto sales in October posted a surprise decline, the Commerce Department said Friday — while retailers continued to post disappointing sales for the three months ended Oct. 31.
Wall Street, fearful that consumers are running out of cash heading into the crucial Christmas retail season, are selling off retail stocks and everything else sensitive to consumer spending.
The Dow Jones industrial average has fallen over 600 points, or 3.4 percent, over the last eight trading sessions. The S&P 500 is down 3.7 percent over the same span.
Overall, retail sales edged up 0.1 percent last month after being unchanged in September, Commerce reported. Economists had forecast sales increasing 0.3 percent.
Car sales fell 0.5 percent in October after rising 1.4 percent in September, according to Commerce.
“Admittedly, this is a not a great start to the fourth quarter, which is important as we head toward the holiday shopping season,” said Jennifer Lee, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto, told Reuters.
Late Thursday, Nordstrom reported profits and sales for the three months ended Oct. 31 that missed Wall Street forecasts. Its shares on Friday morning got clobbered, falling 17.9 percent, to $52.11. Its shares are down 33 percent this year.
Other chains on Friday morning were tumbling as the entire retail sector is coming under attack. JC Penney is down 16 percent, Kohl’s was down 7.3 percent and Macy’s is off 4.2 percent.
In an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Thursday, Obama said he didn’t believe ISIS was gaining strength
The interview aired just hours before ISIS claimed responsibility for the horrific attack in Paris that killed 128 people on Friday
Several social media users, including Donald Trump, have criticized Obama
ISIS has grown during the Obama administration from a group he once called al Qaeda’s ‘JV team’ to the force it is today
Obama set off for the two-day G-20 summit in Antalya, Turkey, on Saturday
See the latest on Obama’s reaction to the Paris terror attacks
By KELLY MCLAUGHLIN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 15:23 EST, 14 November 2015 | UPDATED: 06:31 EST, 15 November 2015
President Barack Obama said that ISIS was ‘contained’ just a day before the terrorist group claimed responsibility for a horrific attack in Paris that killed 128 people on Friday.
In an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that aired on Friday’s broadcast of Good Morning America, Obama declared that he didn’t believe ISIS (also known as ISIL) was gaining strength.
‘What is true is that from the start, our goal has been first to contain and we have contained them,’ Obama said in the interview. ‘They have not gained ground in Iraq, and in Syria they’ll come in, they’ll leave, but you don’t see this systemic march by ISIL across the terrain.’
Since Friday’s attacks in Paris, several social media users, including Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, have criticized the comments made by Obama, who set off for the two-day Group of 20 summit in Antalya, Turkey, on Saturday.
The portion of U.S. homebuyers making their first residential purchase fell for a third straight year, and is now at the lowest level since 1987.
The share of first-time buyers dropped to 32 percent from 33 percent last year, according to a National Association of Realtors survey that covered transactions in the 12 months through June. That’s below the long-term average of almost 40 percent, the group said in its report, released Thursday.
Rising home prices are holding back many young would-be buyers who can’t easily save for a down payment because of student-loan burdens and soaring apartment rents. The median amount of student debt for all buyers was $25,000, according to the survey. And the prices of the least-expensive previously owned homes — those most likely to be bought by first-time buyers — are rising faster than those of costlier residences.
“It’s just a lack of affordable homes, especially in the starter range,” Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors, said in a telephone interview. “At a time when housing wealth is growing, we have fewer people participating in this recovery, and that worsens wealth inequality in the U.S.”
The typical first-time buyer was 31 years old and purchased a 1,620-square-foot (150-square-meter) home costing $170,000, while repeat buyers were more than two decades older and bought a median 2,020-square-foot house costing $246,400.
House Republicans frustrated Obama hasn’t appointed vice chair of supervision for Fed
BY: Ali Meyer
November 5, 2015 4:35 pm
The Federal Reserve’s zero-interest rate policy “absolutely” helps the Obama administration, Rep. Sean Duffy (R., Wis.) told the Washington Free Beacon on Wednesday.
“Whether that’s the sole intent, I can’t get in the mind of Chair Yellen,” Duffy said. “Does it help the Obama administration? Absolutely.”
“But monetary policy only goes so far,” he said. “At some point we have to get the fiscal policy right and we get stopped at every turn when we try to reform our tax code with this administration. It definitely has a benefit, but I don’t know if that’s the sole intent of Ms. Yellen.”
The House Financial Services Committee, on which Duffy serves, discussed at a hearing Wednesday the Fed’s lack of a vice chair of supervision. This position was created by the Dodd-Frank Act to keep the Federal Reserve accountable to Congress, and it has been more than 1,900days since President Obama has been required to appoint someone to fill it.
By keeping interest rates near zero, the Federal Reserve allows the government to continue to finance its debt without worrying about paying high interest on that debt. “The ultra-low interest rates on Treasury debt, with the three-month T-Bill rate now at zero, have allowed the federal government to act as if deficit financing is a free lunch,” explains James Dorn, a fellow specializing in monetary policy at the Cato Institute.
“It’s certainly propping up part of the economy,” said Rep. Scott Garrett (R., N.J.). “And that was the testimony of Secretary Lew and [Chair] Yellen, saying that we see higher prices in the commodities and also on the street as well. And to the extent that this endures to the benefit of this administration, that they’re able to say as they did yesterday in the hearing that things are just going well in the economy and people are profitable – sure.”
Biggest quarterly drop since the aftermath of the financial crisis
This U.S. earnings season is on track to be the worst since 2009 as profits from oil & gas and commodity-related companies plummet.
So far, about three-quarters of the S&P 500 have reported results, with profits down 3.1 percent on a share-weighted basis, data compiled by Bloomberg shows. This would be the biggest quarterly drop in earnings since the third quarter 2009, and the second straight quarter of profit declines. Earnings growth turned negative for the first time in six years in the second quarter this year.
The damage is the biggest in commodity-related industries, with the energy sector showing a 54 percent drop in quarterly earnings per share so far in the quarter, with profits in the materials sector falling 15 percent.
The picture is brighter for the telecom services and consumer discretionary sectors, with EPS growth of 23 percent and 19 percent respectively so far this quarter.
When compared with analyst expectations, about 72 percent of companies have beaten profit forecasts. That’s only because the consensus has been sharply cut in the past few months, Jeanne Asseraf-Bitton, head of global cross-asset research at Lyxor Asset Management says in a telephone interview.
For the year as a whole, S&P 500 earnings are expected to fall 0.5 percent, data compiled by Bloomberg shows. For 2016, earnings growth is now seen at 7.9 percent, down from 10.9 percent in late July.
By Dave Boyer – The Washington Times – Sunday, November 1, 2015
When President Obama signs into law the new two-year budget deal Monday, his action will bring into sharper focus a part of his legacy that he doesn’t like to talk about: He is the $20 trillion man.
Mr. Obama’s spending agreement with Congress will suspend the nation’s debt limit and allow the Treasury to borrow another $1.5 trillion or so by the end of his presidency in 2017. Added to the current total national debt of more than $18.15 trillion, the red ink will likely be crowding the $20 trillion mark right around the time Mr. Obama leaves the White House.
Sam Gerrans is an English writer, translator, support counselor and activist. He also has professional backgrounds in media, strategic communications and technology. He is driven by commitment to ultimate meaning, and focused on authentic approaches to revelation and realpolitik. He is the founder of Quranite.com – where the Qur’an is explored on the basis of reason rather than tradition – and offers both individual language training and personal support and counseling online at SkypeTalking.com. Published time: 18 Oct, 2015 10:27
The United States is in decline. While not all major shocks to the system will be devastating, when the right one comes along, the outcome may be dramatic.
Not all explosives are the same. We all know you have to be careful with dynamite. Best to handle it gently and not smoke while you’re around it.
Semtex is different. You can drop it. You can throw it. You can put it in the fire. Nothing will happen. Nothing until you put the right detonator in it, that is.
To me, the US – and most of the supposedly free West – increasingly looks like a truck being systematically filled with Semtex.
But it’s easy to counter cries of alarm with the fact that the truck is stable – because it’s true: you can hurl more boxes into the back without any real danger. Absent the right detonator, it is no more dangerous than a truckload of mayonnaise.
But add the right detonator and you’re just one click away from complete devastation.
We can see how fragile the U.S. is now by considering just four tendencies.
1. Destruction of farms and reliable food source
The average American is a long way from food when the shops are closed.
The Washington Post reports that the number of farms in the country has fallen by some 4 million from more than 6 million in 1935 to roughly 2 million in 2012.
And according to the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, only about 2 percent of the US population live on farms.
That means that around 4.6 million people currently have the means to feed themselves.
Food supply logistics are extended, sometimes stretching thousands of miles. The shops have nothing more than a few days’ stock. A simple break in that supply line would clear the shops out in days.
2. Weak economic system
The American economic system is little more than froth.
The US currency came off the gold standard in 1933 and severed any link with gold in 1971. Since then, the currency has been essentially linked to oil, the value of which has been protected and held together by wars.
The whole world has had enough of the US and its hubris – not least the people of the US themselves, which the massive support currently for Putin’s decision to deal with ISIS demonstrates.
Since pro-active war is what keeps the US going, if it loses the monopoly on that front, its decline is inevitable.
Fiat economies always collapse. They last on average for 37 years. By that metric the US should have already run out of gas.
Once people wake up and smell the Yuan, the Exodus out of the dollar will be unstoppable.
Here’s the good news: The chaos and upheaval we see all around us have historical precedents and yet America survived. The bad news: Everything likely will get worse before it gets better again.
That’s my chief takeaway from “Shattered Consensus,”a meticulously argued analysis of the growing disorder. Author James Piereson persuasively makes the case there is an inevitable “revolution” coming because our politics, culture, education, economics and even philanthropy are so polarized that the country can no longer resolve its differences.
To my knowledge, no current book makes more sense about the great unraveling we see in each day’s headlines. Piereson captures and explains the alienation arising from the sense that something important in American life is ending, but that nothing better has emerged to replace it.
The impact is not restricted by our borders. Growing global conflict is related to America’s failure to agree on how we should govern ourselves and relate to the world.
Piereson describes the endgame this way: “The problems will mount to a point of crisis where either they will be addressed through a ‘fourth revolution’ or the polity will begin to disintegrate for lack of fundamental agreement.”
He identifies two previous eras where a general consensus prevailed, and collapsed. Each lasted about as long as an individual’s lifetime, was dominated by a single political party and ended dramatically.
First came the era that stretched from 1800 until slavery and sectionalism led to the Civil War. The second consensus, which he calls the capitalist-industrial era, lasted from the end of the Civil War until the Great Depression.
My 13-year-old son told me at the dinner table the other day that Franklin Roosevelt was one of America’s “greatest presidents” because “he ended the Great Depression.” He’s usually a good student, so I checked where he got this tripe, and sure enough, the fairy tale was right there in his American history book.
The textbook tells kids that the New Deal ended the Great Depression and even saved capitalism. Of course, the New Deal exacerbated the pain and financial devastation of a stock market crash, and unemployment lingered in double digits for a decade after Roosevelt was elected until the start of World War II.
We get this kind of rampant revisionism because the left writes the history books—which they are doing right now.
Here’s the latest story line: bailouts, trillions of dollars of government spending and debt, easy money, and re-regulation of Wall Street ended the 2008 Great Recession. The myth took on new life last week when Ben Bernanke took a bow in the Wall Street Journal for, in his mind, saving the economy with his $3 trillion of quantitative easing and zero interest rate policy. No, actually, this is what created the crisis. Don’t be surprised if Bernanke receives a Nobel Peace Prize.
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As my fellow Heritage colleague Norbert Michel and other scholars have thoroughly documented, the crash of 2008 was caused by government policies and regulatory failure, including easy money policies that flooded the markets with debt. Within a decade, these policies led to preposterous mortgage loans being issued, and massive over-leverage of government, companies, and households.
Now the Fed, the White House, and Congress are recreating the very same conditions for another financial bubble. If it pops, we could replay the same devastating effects as occurred during the first bubble in 1999 and 2000. It is doing so in four ways:
First, the Dodd-Frank regulations are exacerbating one of the greatest consolidations of the banking industry since the Great Depression. Those indispensable small banks, like the one Jimmy Stewart operated in the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life,” are disappearing from the American landscape.
This is largely because big government policies are slanting the system in favor of big banks. Because of this, we have created a competitive advantage that allows the sharks to swallow the minnows. Meanwhile, the “too big to fail” safety net to Bank of America, Citi, and other titans exacerbates this cost advantage of big banks and thus makes bailouts even more likely in the future.
Second, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are engaged in the same low down payment lending mania of 2004-07, and the Obama administration is on a Bush-like homeownership push. Fannie and Freddie are again guaranteeing mortgages with as little as 3 percent down payment. Have we learned nothing at all?
Fannie and Freddie are again guaranteeing mortgages with as little as 3 percent down payment. Have we learned nothing at all?
Third, the Fed refused to tighten its stance in September, and, hello, that easy money policy is how we got into the mess in 2000 and then in 2008. Wall Street cheered Janet Yellen’s decision to keep the cheap dollars flowing.
Finally, there is the saturation of debt. When the crisis hit in 2008, the national debt stood at a little under $10 trillion. Now we are over $18 trillion. Government is hopelessly over-leveraged, and the interest rate exposure is enormous. With each one-percentage-point rise in long-term rates, the servicing costs of the debt rises by about $1.8 trillion over ten years.
The point is that government and politicians have no learning curve. All of the conditions of financial wreckage are reappearing. The presidential candidates should start warning voters that Washington is rebuilding another financial house of cards.
If they don’t, when the financial crash comes and Americans see their life savings disappear, the media and the history books will again blame conservatives for the destruction from the rampant financial negligence of government.
US not headed in right direction, some on Main Street say
NFIB surveyed small businesses on issues as the election season intensifies
Kate Rogers | @katerogersnews
As the presidential debate season intensifies, small-business owners are pessimistic about the business climate and feel America is on the wrong track, according to a new survey.
The wide-ranging survey, “Opinions of Small Employers,” from the conservative-leaning National Federation of Independent Business released Monday found nearly 70 percent of small-business owners believe the overall U.S. business climate is fair or poor. What’s more, six years out of the Great Recession, 63 percent of those polled said the country is on the wrong track. The NFIB surveyed 500 business owners with up to 250 employees.
“Small-business owners just aren’t convinced that things are headed in the right direction,” said Holly Wade, director of research at the NFIB. The survey was conducted during the second quarter of this year.
The report comes as optimism among small businesses is holding steady, but still lingering below historical averages.The NFIB’s Small Business Optimism Index for September, released separately Tuesday, found confidence edged up slightly to 96.1 last month. But fewer business owners expect strong sales.
Looking ahead to the 2016 election year, the NFIB found business owners believe Washington should prioritize dealing with the federal budget as their top economic problem with a third of the vote, followed by slowing the rise of health-care costs with 23 percent and reforming the federal tax code with 18 percent.
