BlueMTexpat
BlueMTexpat's JournalClinton's "Revenge Enemy List"
While this meme has popped up on occasion, several posts today have raised this as "evidence" that more Dem pols have not yet endorsed a candidate other than HRC, specifically they have not yet endorsed SBS for fear of being added to the CREL.
So some see out 2015 on a wave of new speculation about HRC's seemingly omnipotent control of Democratic politics and politicians.
I can only speculate. But it seems to me that if there is such a thing as the CREL, it must be comprised of the same team that is sending out thank-yous from the Clinton campaign to supporters of SBS for their non-existent contributions to HRC's campaign, as well as fundraising emails to SBS supporters. Because we all KNOW that such things have never - EVER - happened before to other candidates during political campaigns.
The CREL Team's responsibilities likely include keeping track of every Dem pol who does not endorse HRC and then making their political lives absolute HELL forever afterwards, although even I can't speculate as to how that would happen without a lot of time, expense and thankless effort.
In order to help the CREL Team, I am posting the most comprehensive lists of each candidate's endorsements, including pols and non-pols. I caution that the source is Wiki, although the descriptions are my own based upon general comments seen on DU.
HRC Endorsers ("craven brainwashed creatures/Dem 'Establishment'"
: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hillary_Clinton_presidential_campaign_endorsements,_2016
SRS Endorsers ("courageous enlightened fighters for All That Is Good" : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bernie_Sanders_presidential_campaign_endorsements,_2016
MOM Endorsers ("those who fear Dem 'Establishment' persecution/have not yet recognized All That Is Good" : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_O%27Malley_presidential_campaign,_2016#Endorsements
This "craven brainwashed creature" wishes you all a very Happy New Year nonetheless! Thank God that the current wingnuttery will - hopefully - soon be behind us all!
Daily Kos: Preview of Politico attacks on Hillary Clinton
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/12/29/1464556/-Politico-previews-how-it-intends-to-help-Republicans-attack-Hillary-Clinton-if-she-s-the-nominee...
But on to the real meat of the story, which posits that the things Clinton has said and positions she's taken will fuel a potential general election campaign against her. Those issues: on ISIS ("We now finally are where we need to be." Note that the Iraqis just had a pivotal victory against ISIS in Ramadi); on Republicans (the enemy she's most proud of, compared to the kinds of things Republicans have been saying about her and her husband for the past 23 years); on the nothingburger email scandal (her joke about wiping her server "like with a cloth or something"
; and her support for closing the gun show loophole and an assault weapons ban.
...
Clinton certainly isn't running a perfect primary campaign and wouldn't be perfect in the general, but the idea that anyone in this Republican field could make hay on any of these things is pretty laughable. This Republican field, full of blowhards and pathological liars. Not that Politico won't do its very best to help.
Politico also has a lot of help from some here on DU.
Hillary in New Hampshire for town meetings
http://www.ibtimes.com/hillary-clinton-new-hampshire-town-hall-live-stream-economic-plan-be-touted-2242706During her Portsmouth event, she emphasized her plan to focus efforts on Alzheimer’s research -- a proposal she unveiled last week -- and took several questions from the crowd that largely focused on other issues she frequently discusses, such as gun control, college debt and improving the economy.
“The decision that New Hampshire makes is so important and I’ve had a great time traveling across the state, meeting by now thousands and thousands of people,” she said in her opening remarks. “I know that we are going to make the right decision not because my name will be on the ballot but because all of us know what the stakes are and how high they happen to be.”
Man killed by exploding condom machine in Germany
This is about as off-topic as I can find. Not a pretty Christmas story, though.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/man-dies-after-blowing-up-condom-machine-while-trying-to-rob-it-on-christmas-day-a6788411.html
The 29-year-old man was hit in the head by a piece of metal from the machine as he attempted to take cover from the explosion.
He was accompanied by two other men who escaped the explosion and fled the scene in a car, leaving money, condoms and the pieces of the vending machine scattered in their wake.
...
The two men then attempted to tell hospital staff their friend had injured his head by falling down the stairs, but staff grew suspicious of the story and called police.
My view too.
About this:
He's a good candidate, a decent person, and I will proudly vote for him if he is the Dem nominee. But debates are not his forte, at least not debates with Hillary and Martin. Bernie's stump speech is outstanding and I love the economic issues that he raises. But when he is presented with a non-economic issue where he has to think on his feet and adapt not only to the questions but to the responses of the other candidates, he is not quite as strong.
On the other hand, MOM is an excellent debater.
Wall Street is Clinton's achilles heel and for Sanders's sake it will stay that way
Interesting read from The Guardian. I am posting it here to avoid the snipers it will undoubtedly attract in GDP that will distract from its main points.
http://www.theguardian.com/money/us-money-blog/2015/dec/27/wall-street-hillary-clinton-achilles-heel-bernie-sanders?CMP=fb_gu
From the link:
...
It’s true that Clinton’s reform plan for Wall Street isn’t as dramatic as that proposed by Sanders. She wants to keep the Dodd-Frank Act in place and keep funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at robust enough levels to ensure the organization is effective in fulfilling its mandate. Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, who oversaw the creation of the CFPB and who has been an outspoken critic of Wall Street, hailed this and some other aspects of Clinton’s plans, even though the two differ on the extent to which Wall Street should be regulated.
...
Clearly, aggressive risk taking by banks was a major cause of the financial crisis. But of the institutions that were most directly responsible for triggering the 2008 crisis – Bear Stearns, Washington Mutual, Lehman Brothers, AIG, Fannie Mae – none was a big bank created by the repeal of Glass-Steagall. They were traditional investment banks, savings and loan institutions, insurance companies and a government-backed housing finance entity.
,,,
But it’s far from certain that simply restoring Glass-Steagall would be a panacea, or that failing to do so suggests that Clinton is in the bankers’ pockets. Indeed, Clinton’s plan has the virtue of stretching beyond the banks, and recognizing that real financial power on Wall Street often resides elsewhere: in the hands of hedge funds, private equity funds, offshore institutions, high-speed traders, and other kinds of trading platforms. The banks may be big and powerful, but they are the employees of these shadow institutions and individuals – folks like hedge fund manager John Paulson, whose firm made $15bn and who personally made $4bn (or $10m a day) shorting mortgage securities during the financial crisis. Clinton’s suggestions for regulating Wall Street call for more oversight of this “shadow” world.
Donald Trump’s Six Stages Of Doom
Some common sense remarks from Nate Silver ...
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/donald-trumps-six-stages-of-doom/
History’s lesson isn’t necessarily that Trump’s candidacy will go bust tomorrow, however. There are plenty of examples of fringe or factional candidates who held on to their support for much longer than the month or two that Cain and Bachmann did. Sometimes, they did well enough in Iowa or New Hampshire, or even won them. Pat Buchanan claimed New Hampshire in 1996, for instance, while Mike Huckabee won Iowa in 2008. Steve Forbes took 30 percent of the Iowa vote in 2000.
The lesson, rather, is that Trump’s campaign will fail by one means or another. Like Cain, Bachmann and Gingrich, Buchanan, Huckabee and Forbes came nowhere close to winning the Republican nomination.
Much more at the link.
'I'm alone': migrant children explain why they risked crossing the border
Among the sadder stories of the past year ...
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/26/unaccompanied-migrant-children-us-mexico-border
“Historically the numbers would not be at the levels we see right now,” Kerlikowske said, while standing in a warehouse where about 20 migrant children rested on large green mattresses, wrapped in reflective plastic blankets. “The concerning part is, are we seeing the new normal?”
A total of 10,588 unaccompanied children crossed the US-Mexico border in October and November, more than double the 5,129 who crossed during the same two months in 2014, federal statistics show. The number of family members crossing together, meanwhile, has nearly tripled, to 12,505. And though the influx began in July, the numbers were slightly higher this fall, a time when colder weather usually drives down the number of migrants crossing.
Indian prime minister makes surprise stopover in Pakistan
Wouldn't it be nice if peace actually broke out between these traditional - and nuclear-armed - enemies?
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/25/indian-prime-minister-makes-surprise-stopover-in-pakistan
...
Modi was on his way home after a visit to Russia. He stopped off in the Afghan capital, Kabul, earlier on Friday, where he inaugurated a new parliament complex built with Indian help. The Lahore visit comes after India and Pakistan resumed high-level contact with a brief conversation between Sharif and Modi at climate change talks in Paris late last month, part of efforts to restart a peace dialogue plagued by militant attacks and longstanding distrust.
A spokesman at Sharif’s office earlier said the two leaders were to discuss a range of bilateral issues, including the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, the most contentious issue dividing the nations. A close aide to Modi said the visit was a spontaneous decision by the prime minister and his national security adviser, Ajit Doval, and that it should not be seen as a sudden shift in India’s position. “But yes, it’s a clear signal that active engagement can be done at a quick pace,” the aide said, declining to be identified.
Leader of powerful Syrian rebel group killed in airstrike
Source: The Guardian
The leader of one of the most powerful rebel groups in Syria appears to have been killed in an airstrike near the capital. A well-placed rebel source told the Guardian that Zahran Alloush, the leader of Jaysh al-Islam, one of the largest opposition groups that commands thousands of fighters on the ground near Damascus, was killed in an airstrike on Friday.
His death was first reported by the Reuters news agency citing two rebel sources. The Syrian state news agency said Alloush was killed in the eastern Ghouta region, where Jaysh al-Islam holds sway. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a network with wide contacts inside Syria, said aircraft targeted a meeting of Jaysh al-Islam’s leadership in eastern Ghouta, killing Alloush and five other senior leaders.
If true, the death of Alloush, who is reportedly backed by Saudi Arabia and Turkey, will be a major blow to the opposition.
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/25/zahran-alloush-leader-syria-rebel-group-killed-airstrike
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