September 16, 2016

Trump wins endorsement from Fraternal Order of Police

Trump wins endorsement from Fraternal Order of Police
By LOUIS NELSON 09/16/16 02:12 PM EDT

The Fraternal Order of Police endorsed Donald Trump for president on Friday, praising the Republican nominee’s “real commitment to law enforcement.”

Trump met with the 33,000-member police union in early August and its endorsement bolsters his claim that he is the “law and order candidate.” The order’s national president, Chuck Canterbury, said Hillary Clinton did not seek his organization’s endorsement.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/trump-fraternal-order-of-police-endorsement-228296

September 16, 2016

Political journalists, Donald Trump has been sent here to destroy you and he's succeeding

Political journalists, Donald Trump has been sent here to destroy you and he's succeeding
By Michael A. Lindenberger mlindenberger@dallasnews.com Editorial Writer
Published: 14 September 2016 06:45 AM

Gary Hart gets caught with a mistress. He's hounded straight out of the race. Joe Biden lifts some lines from a British pol in a speech; he's done. George McGovern picks a running mate with a history of depression and shock treatment? So long Thomas Eagleton and hello Sargent Shriver.

That's how the media plays. You step out of line, and you get hammered. You either step back within the acceptable boundaries, if you can, or you keep getting hammered until you're done.

But what happens when a candidate never steps back in line? And he doesn't quit? And no matter how bad you bash him, he keeps giving you more reason?

The press, ever eager for a spot in the middle, stretches the boundaries all the way up to where Trump is. Trump creates a new normal. And so he suddenly finds himself back in the sweet spot. Way back on the other side of the field? That's Clinton, and every time she takes even the slightest stumble, she's going to get hammered now, too.

http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/latest-columns/20160914-political-journalists-donald-trump-has-been-sent-here-to-destroy-you--and-he-s-succeeding.ece

September 14, 2016

Opioid Companies Lobby Against Medical Marijuana

Opioid Companies Lobby Against Medical Marijuana
09/12/2016 12:16 pm ET Allen Frances Professor Emeritus, Duke University

The exponential growth of addiction to prescription opioids offers a classic example of selfish corporate greed swamping any vestige of corporate conscience.

The Pharma drug pushers are attempting to protect their blood money profits by blocking fair competition from much safer and much cheaper medical marijuana. As usual, Pharma displays great loyalty to its executives, its shareholders, and its subservient politicians, while displaying a shameful disregard for the lives of its customers and the welfare of our society.

Drug cartels are rightly reviled. But drug companies are now more deadly and only marginally less ruthless.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/allen-frances/opioid-companies-lobby-ag_b_11287182.html

September 14, 2016

How Republicans Are Inciting Right-Wing Violence After Election Day

How Republicans Are Inciting Right-Wing Violence After Election Day
In latest incident, Kentucky's governor said a Clinton presidency may necessitate bloodshed
By Lincoln Blades

Over the past several days, pundits and voters alike have been up in arms over "careless" comments made by the Democratic and Republican campaigns. Republicans have whipped themselves into a frenzy over Hillary Clinton daring to characterize half of Donald Trump's supporters as a "basket of deplorables," despite the fact that data supports her claim of Trump's voters being racist xenophobes. (If anything, she underestimated the number.)

On the other side of the aisle, Democrats have been hammering Trump's VP pick, Mike Pence, for refusing to fully denounce former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke. Yet, despite Pence's political cowardice and Clinton's jarring honesty, the most troubling comment of late wasn't made by any of the nominees. It was uttered by Republican Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, who, in a speech at the Values Voter Summit Saturday, said conservatives might have to resort to bloodshed for the nation to "recover" from a Clinton presidency.

The governor wasn't talking to soccer moms when he talked about shedding blood over a Clinton presidency. He was playing dog-whistle politics at a time when our nation's citizenry includes a growing number of resentful, irrational, heavily armed pseudo-patriots – a basket of deplorables, you might say.


http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/republicans-inciting-right-wing-violence-after-election-day-w439871

September 14, 2016

This week Trump supporters punched an elderly woman, slapped a protestor, and hung Hillary in effigy

This week Trump supporters punched an elderly woman, slapped a protestor, and hung Hillary in effigy
Heather Timmons September 14, 2016

There are eight weeks to go before the US presidential election, and the rhetoric and anger appears to be increasing on the campaign trail and off.

In recent days supporters of Donald Trump have physically clashed with protestors demonstrating against the Republican candidate, and one hung a representation of Democratic rival Hillary Clinton from a noose.


Meanwhile, white supremacist David Duke heaped praise on Trump’s running mate Michael Pence, after Pence refused to call him “deplorable” in a Sept. 12 interview.

In Asheville, North Carolina, a 69-year-old woman with an oxygen tank, who was part of a crowd of hundreds of protestors, was punched in the face by a Trump supporter outside a rally on Sept. 12. Shirley Teter told the local ABC affiliate she had told a Trump supporter that he should learn to speak Russian if Trump wins. “He stopped in his tracks, and he turned around and just cold-cocked me,” Teter said. She fell on her oxygen tank, injuring her ribs.

http://qz.com/781174/this-week-donald-trump-supporters-punched-an-elderly-woman-slapped-a-protestor-and-hung-hillary-clinton-in-effigy/

September 14, 2016

Ivanka Trump went on national TV and lied about Hillary Clinton’s childcare policies

Ivanka Trump went on national TV and lied about Hillary Clinton’s childcare policies
They’re on Hillary Clinton’s website.
Bryce Covert Economic Policy Editor at ThinkProgress. Contact me: bcovert@thinkprogress.org


Appearing on Fox News on Tuesday evening, Ivanka claimed that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton doesn’t have any plans when it comes to childcare and paid leave. “There’s no policy on Hillary Clinton’s website pertaining to any of these issues, childcare, eldercare, or maternity leave or paternity leave for that matter,” she said. “There’s no policy that’s been articulated on how to solve the problem.”

Hillary Clinton has three different pages on her website that describe her plans for paid family leave and childcare.

https://thinkprogress.org/ivanka-trump-clinton-policies-663bd0a24823#.vhmjaxxwu

September 14, 2016

Why Are The Media Objectively Pro-Trump?

Why Are The Media Objectively Pro-Trump?
SEPTEMBER 13, 2016 10:37 AM September 13, 2016

Because they are, at this point. It’s not even false equivalence: compare the amount of attention given to the Clinton Foundation despite absence of any evidence of wrongdoing, and attention given to Trump Foundation, which engaged in more or less open bribery — but barely made a dent in news coverage.

Clinton was harassed endlessly over failure to give press conferences, even though she was doing lots of interviews; Trump violated decades of tradition by refusing to release his taxes, amid strong suspicion that he is hiding something; the press simply dropped the subject.

Brian Beutler argues that it’s about protecting the media’s own concerns, namely access. But I don’t think that works.

It doesn’t explain why the Clinton emails were a never-ending story but the disappearance of millions of George W. Bush emails wasn’t, or for that matter Jeb Bush’s deletion of records; the revelation that Colin Powell did, indeed, offer HRC advice on how to have private email the way he did hasn’t even been reported by some major news organizations.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/why-are-the-media-objectively-pro-trump/

September 14, 2016

UPDATE: Rev. Nancy Jo Kemper to call for Bevin impeachment over bloodshed comments

UPDATE: Rev. Nancy Jo Kemper to call for Bevin impeachment over bloodshed comments
WTVQ Web Desk 2 9/13/2016

WASHINGTON, D.C. (WTVQ) – Reverend Nancy Jo Kemper is holding a press conference at 3:00 p.m. in the State Capitol Rotunda to call for the impeachment of Governor Bevin.

A press release from Kemper’s office says she believes that Governor Bevin’s “call to shed the blood of fellow Americans is unconstitutional, and an impeachable violation of his sworn oath to uphold the laws of the Commonwealth.”

http://www.wtvq.com/2016/09/13/gov-bevins-bloodshed-comments-draw-attention-criticism/

September 14, 2016

Arrest warrant issued in assault of 69-year-old female protester at N.C. Trump rally

Arrest warrant issued in assault of 69-year-old female protester at N.C. Trump rally
By Fred Barbash September 14 at 4:09 AM

Police in Asheville, N.C., have issued an arrest warrant in connection with an assault outside a Trump rally on a 69-year-old protester wearing an oxygen tank to treat a lung disease.

Things got uglier as people were leaving, she said, when she taunted them, saying “‘You better learn to speak Russian,'” a reference to Trump’s praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin. “‘The first two words are going to be ha-ha,'” she told WLOS.

At that point, a man “stopped in his tracks, and he turned around and just cold-cocked me,” punching her in the face.

She said she fell on the tank she carried in a backpack and was treated at a hospital for sore ribs, a sore jaw and a scrape on her elbow.

On Tuesday, police said they issued a warrant for Richard L. Campbell of Edisto Island, S.C., in connection with the assault on Teter. He could not be located for comment.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/09/14/arrest-warrant-issued-in-assault-of-69-year-old-woman-protester-at-n-c-trump-rally/

September 14, 2016

Harvard Study Finally Admits Drug Prices Are High Because Govt Grants Big Pharma A Monopoly

Harvard Study Finally Admits Drug Prices Are High Because Govt Grants Big Pharma A Monopoly
BY REALITIES WATCH · AUGUST 28, 2016 By Matt Agorist

In what can only be described as paradigm-shattering research on drug prices, the Journal of the American Medical Association has officially recognized why drug prices skyrocket in America. Big pharma is granted a monopoly by the state which effectively eliminates their competition and allows them to charge any price they want — so they do.

A glaring example of the staggering discrepancies in American drug prices can be seen in the remarkable drug for Hep C, sofosbuvir. Sofosbuvir boasts a near miraculous cure rate of 84-96% for Hep C.

However, the American version of the drug Solvaldi by Gilead, which has an FDA-granted monopoly protecting it, will cost patients a mountainous $84,000.

In India, however, Gilead has to compete in a free market. Competitors, of which there a many, using the older, much cheaper, and equally effective drug, have driven the price down to a mere $4 a pill. This makes the total cost of curing Hepatitis C in India’s free market — $336.

https://realitieswatch.com/harvard-study-finally-admits-drug-prices-high-govt-grants-big-pharma-monopoly/