July 27, 2016

How do we know that Trump's returns are still under audit? Wouldn't the truth of this

be covered under privacy laws?

July 27, 2016

Trump presser: has anyone asked him about his tax returns?

I missed the first part of this.

ON EDIT -- so he was asked something. Did they follow up by asking him about OLDER tax returns?

July 27, 2016

UK's The Guardian: Bill Clinton's "intensely personal" portrait of Hillary

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/27/bill-clinton-democration-convention-speech-hillary-clinton

In an azure blue tie that picked out the colours of the arena, and with his hands shaking slightly, Clinton delivered an highly personal account of their courtship and marriage that seemed at times to be an attempt to make American fall in love with the girl who he first met in the spring of 1971.

Skipping over the awkward moments in a very public, and at times visibly flawed, marriage, Clinton instead said: “I married my best friend,” recalling two failed proposal attempts and then describing when Clinton’s water broke during her pregnancy with Chelsea – undoubtedly a first in a speech about a US presidential candidate.

“The first time I saw her was in a class on political and civil rights … [she had] big blond hair, big glasses, wore no make up and exuded a sense that I found magnetic,” said a clearly infatuated and somewhat awed Clinton. “I knew I might be starting something I couldn’t stop.”

After spending nearly an hour describing her political and personal accomplishments he turned only briefly to her opponent. And he issued a direct challenge to the two-dimensional “cartoon” image of his wife which had been painted by her political foes.

“How does this square with what you heard at the Republican convention? One is real, the other is made up,” said Bill. “You just have to decide which is which my fellow Americans … Good for you, because earlier today you nominated the real one.”

SNIP

July 27, 2016

Want to see the little house Bill bought to lure Hillary into marrying him? Here you go.

http://oldworldnew.us/bill-hillarys-first-home-fayetteville-ar/

July 26, 2016

Tom Harkin!!!!! Thank you!!!!

One more Dem to make me cry.




For those who missed it: Tom, the brother of a deaf man, taught us all how to say "America" in sign language. The sign is interlocked fingers, moved in a circle -- to include everyone.

Wow. That was brilliant.

July 26, 2016

Bernie Sanders rebuffs Green Party; warns his supporters not to vote 3rd party

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/07/26/sanders-warns-his-supporters-against-choosing-a-third-party/?tid=sm_tw

PHILADELPHIA — Sen. Bernie Sanders rebuffed calls from the Green Party — and a loud minority of his delegates and supporters here — to abandon the Democratic Party and build a third force outside it.

"I don't know the leadership of the Green Party, but I respect what they're trying to do," Sanders said, at a breakfast sponsored by Bloomberg Politics. "They're focusing on very, very important issues. But I think right now — what is it, three, four months before an election — you're going to end up having a choice. Either Hillary Clinton is going to become president, or Donald Trump."

The Green Party, which has never again reached the heights of its 2000 performance under Ralph Nader, has held a series of Philadelphia events since the weekend aimed at persuading Sanders voters to make a "DemExit." Jill Stein, the party's likely nominee, has spoken even as rainstorms shut down meetings, repeatedly calling on Sanders to quit the Democrats and talk to her; Cornel West, a Sanders supporter who was one of his five appointees to the party's platform drafting committee, has appeared at Stein events and canceled at least one Democratic event around the convention.

Sanders, meanwhile, has declined to meet with the Greens and urged his supporters to stay and change the Democratic Party.

SNIP

July 26, 2016

Why experts are certain Russia was behind the DNC email hack and leak.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/why-experts-think-russia-hacked-dnc-emails-n616486?cid=sm_tw

Many U.S. officials and cyber security experts in and out of government are convinced that state-sponsored Russian hackers are the ones who stole 20,000 emails from the Democratic National Committee and leaked them to the public just in time to disrupt the Democrats' national convention in Philadelphia.

Here's why the experts are so confident the Russians did it:

GEOGRAPHY: At least one of the hacker groups attacking the DNC appeared to cease operations on Russian holidays, and its work hours aligned with a Russian time zone, cybersecurity company FireEye concluded in a report.

LANGUAGE: The hackers also left an obvious digital fingerprint, one cybersecurity expert said, perhaps on purpose: a signature in Russia's Cyrillic alphabet.

FORENSIC EVIDENCE: After a different batch of hacked Democratic emails was released last month, a wide spectrum of cyber-security experts concluded that it was the work of Russian intelligence agencies through previously known proxy groups known as COZY BEAR or APT 29, and FANCY BEAR or APT 28. "We've had lots of experience with both of these actors … and know them well," according to the DNC's own contract cybersecurity firm, Crowdstrike, which blogged that one of the two groups had already gained illegal access to the White House, State Department and even the military's Joint Chiefs of Staff.

MOTIVE: Given their mutual and very public bromance, Putin would much prefer a Trump presidency to a Clinton one, and the timing suggests the leak was timed for maximum embarrassment to the Democrats and their presumptive nominee. Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said the campaign was told by cyber experts that Russian hackers stole and released the emails to help Trump. "I don't think it's coincidental that these emails were released on the eve of our convention here," said Mook, "and I think that's disturbing."

SNIP

July 26, 2016

Teen hero performs CPR on baseball teammate with cardiac arrest, saves life!

http://abcnews.go.com/US/teen-performs-cpr-baseball-field-save-unconscious-teammate/story?id=40887054

The Manassas baseball team was practicing for the Southeast Regional Tournament on July 14 when the catcher threw the ball and hit Steve Smith directly in the chest, according to Steve's father Tim.

"His heart stopped immediately," Smith said, who is also the team's coach. "When you get struck in the chest and there is about three hundredths of a second in between each heartbeat and basically if you are hit by something in that time, at the right speed, it stops your heart."

Smith said the whole team ran toward his son as he collapsed on the field.

"When I got to him he was stiff, like his body was trying to breathe but his eyes were rolled back in his head, and he wasn't responding," Smith recalled. "He was basically gone, I guess. He wouldn't wake up, he wouldn't respond. I was shaking him, trying to get him to take a breath. I yelled, 'Does anyone know CPR?'"

That's when Paul Dow, 17, came forward and immediately started performing CPR. Meanwhile, a parent on the sidelines called 911.

SNIP

July 26, 2016

The amazing speech last night that no one's talking about

Cheryl Lankford was wonderful. What a strong, effective, moving speaker -- and her story revealed so much about Trump.

A link to her speech is here, for those who missed it.


https://www.rawstory.com/2016/07/last-nights-best-dnc-speech-is-the-one-no-one-is-talking-about-iraq-war-widow-destroys-trump-u/

The cognitive dissonance over evangelical Christians’ support of Donald Trump was best exemplified at last night’s DNC when Cheryl Lankford, a war widow and Trump University victim, stood up before the convention and admitted how ashamed she had felt when Trump deceived her.

Any Christian evangelicals who had forgotten what scriptures command about the treatment of widows and orphans should have felt a flood of guilt at their support for the man who bilked thousands out of millions of hard-earned dollars.

Lankford exposed herself to the crowd right from the beginning, her vulnerability for all to see: “When you lose a spouse, you know that your life will change forever. You know that it won’t be easy. But I didn’t expect that on top of grieving the loss of my husband and trying to take care of my baby, I would also be the victim of a scam,” she began.

She explained how she had used her widow’s benefit after her husband’s death while serving his country in order to try to better her life. But more than ripping her off, “By conning me out of the money the military gave me after my husband died, I felt like Trump University was disrespecting Jonathan’s memory.”

Lankford confessed that Trump’s betrayal had embarrassed her, and being left without money had also infuriated her and made her scared for her future. But worse was her anger at what Trump did to others — the most vulnerable people in our society: military widows, the elderly. And Donald Trump sucked them in because he told them that they could find financial security if they followed his instructions.

SNIP

July 26, 2016

Huff Post: Michelle Obama -- the Democratic crowd went wild.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/michelle-obama-dnc-speech_us_5796c902e4b02d5d5ed2ac9b