Saturday, August 20, 2016

Bribery: Hillary approved Russian uranium deal, her foundation got $2.35 million, and she accuses Trump of being pals with Putin

From the San Diego Union-Tribune editorial, here:

[Special interests] are not paying hundreds of thousands of dollars [to the Clintons] to hear shopworn speeches because they expect to obtain profound insights. They want the Clintons’ help, and they’re willing to pay for it.

That is the obvious conclusion to draw from The New York Times’ 2015 bombshell about how a Russian firm obtained control of one-fifth of all U.S. uranium production capacity from 2009-13 — which required approval from then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — while the company’s owner used a Canadian partnership to surreptitiously convey $2.35 million to the Clinton Foundation.

DNC finance director Jordan "no homo" Kaplan is out, returns to full time consulting

Story here, which of course doesn't mention his Wikileaks "no homo" fame.

Friday, August 19, 2016

Another reason to throw Turkey out of NATO: age of consent for sex lowered to 12

Story here.

Crack pusher given early release by Obama in August 2014 killed three in January 2016, now eligible for death penalty

Way to go, Brownie! Your man slit the throats of children, who could have been yours.

Story here, here and here.

"A convicted crack dealer who left prison early as part of the Obama administration’s mass release of federal inmates has been indicted by a grand jury for fatally stabbing his ex-girlfriend and her two kids in Columbus, Ohio. The gory crime drew national attention because the children, ages 7 and 10, were murdered to eliminate them as witnesses in the brutal massacre of their 32-year-old mother."

Hillary actually took twice as much money from the Saudis as Manafort supposedly took from "Ukraine"

$25 million.

Inspector General says Hillary's State Dept. mismanaged $6 billion in contracts

From the story here:

The [Inspector General] alert revealed that State Department officials lost contract files and maintained incomplete contract files, thus exposing taxpayers “to substantial financial losses.” Federal law and State Department policy requires maintenance of all files required to document a government procurement from start to finish.

In a blistering summary, the IG alert said such failures create “conditions conducive to fraud, as corrupt individuals may attempt to conceal evidence of illicit behavior by omitting key documents from the contract file. It impairs the ability of the department to take effective and timely action to protect its interests and, in turn, those of taxpayers. Finally, it limits the ability of the government to punish and deter criminal behavior.”

Polls troll, and Brexit showed the bookies weren't any better

Seen here:

Analysing outcome likelihoods in the real world is a risky business. But if all else fails, you can always rely on the one interest group that has a consistent stake in accurate outcome prediction – betting companies. OddsChecker currently has best odds for a leave vote at 11/4 (27% likely) and stay at 1/3 (75% likely). Make of that what you will.

Mark Belling's right: Hillary's a lying liar and will only continue to lie to you as president

And Donald Trump isn't going to stop being who he is, either.

Better bookmark his Twitter feed.

Hillary suspends campaign Thursday through Saturday to rest, news media shift you to Olympic swimmers' "lies"

Nothing on Hillary's schedule 18th-20th
The only possible headline in the political universe: "Hillary Bush suspends campaign to rest from rigors of the trail".

Notice how Hillary's calendar doesn't treat Sunday as the first day of the week, as in all Christendom?

How the mighty are fallen: The Financial Times calls National Review "establishment GOP"


"Publications such as the National Review have long been part of the establishment GOP while drawing on outsider status as the Democrats held control of the White House."

That whir you're hearing is William F. Buckley, Jr., who died in 2008, spinning in his grave.

Thursday, August 18, 2016

State Dept. spokesman finally admits US paid ransom for hostages in Iran, making Obama a liar yet again

Quoted here:

The State Department admitted Thursday that the US would not hand over $400 million in cash to Iran until it released four American hostages — two weeks after President Obama insisted the payment was not a “ransom.”

State Department spokesman John Kirby was asked at Thursday’s press briefing: “In basic English, you’re saying you wouldn’t give them $400 million in cash until the prisoners were released, correct?”

“That’s correct,” Kirby replied.

Flashback: One week before the November 2012 election Rasmussen had Romney ahead by 2+ in FL, OH, VA and NH but Romney lost them all

And with those losses Romney did not get to 270 and finished instead with 206.

Romney lost by 166,000 votes in OH, 149,000 in VA, 74,000 in FL and 40,000 in NH . . . 429,000 votes.

Flashback here.


The Rasmussen presidential poll isn't really a poll of likely voters, either

From the Rasmussen methodology page, here:

For political surveys, census bureau data provides a starting point and a series of screening questions are [sic] used to determine likely voters. The questions involve voting history, interest in the current campaign, and likely voting intentions. 

Well, that's not polling likely voters. That's polling people who SAY they are going to vote. Likely voters are voters you KNOW voted recently, say in 2014 or 2012.

Polling such people is very expensive, which is why they don't do it.

The polls are not reliable because you can count on only about 30% of the population to tell the truth unfailingly.

The rest of you are liars, and you have the government you deserve. You lie, and you elect liars.  

 

"Science": "Hottest July on record", but not in Seattle, Boulder, Madison, Chicago or Grand Rapids

Seattle's hottest Julys
Boulder's hottest Julys
Madison's hottest Julys
Grand Rapids' hottest Julys
Chicago's hottest Julys

July 2016 hottest on record, they say, but not in Grand Rapids, MI: Average temperature ranked 21st since 1892

Warmest average July temperatures in Grand Rapids ranked

But 70% of the top ten hottest Julys in Grand Rapids, Michigan occurred before World War II.

Michael Warren of The Weekly Standard is convinced the polls are right because they are "scientific"

The guy probably believes the Arctic is ice-free, too.

Here:

Cohen's obstinate challenge to the plain fact that scientific polls show Trump is losing indicates this head-in-the-sand mentality has permeated the culture in Trump World. Remember, it's not spin if you believe it.

Mort Zuckerman pays his respects to John McLaughlin


Mort puts his time on The McLaughlin Group at about 24 of the 34 years, but has been notably absent in the last year and otherwise has been more quiet than usual.

The last time I remember him writing much of anything was early in 2013 when he reiterated that America was in actuality experiencing another economic depression.

Toronto Canada is the new crucible for molten salt reactors

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard reports here:

Canada is now the crucible for molten salt reactors. Terrestrial Energy in Toronto is the most advanced such project in the world with an integral molten salt reactor, and is already pre-licensed. "We can bring our reactor to the commercial market in the 2020s," said the chief executive Simon Irish.

"Once we put a shovel to the ground we can build it in three to four years. The parts can be manufactured on a mass scale.  We believe we can produce power for 40-50 US dollars per megawatt hour," he said.

Vlogger Louis Cole aspires to become the new Walter Duranty, not for The New York Times but for YouTube


In the description section of one of his North Korea videos, Cole writes, “I’m trying to focus on positive things in the country and combat the purely negative image we see in the Media.” Which, O.K., sure. But as another vlogger shows us in his own video from the DPRK (vloggers seem to be going there en masse), these videos are meant to capture a very carefully curated vision of a country whose human rights abuses are “without parallel in the contemporary world,” according to Human Rights Watch. Cole has, so far, not really made mention of any of that, choosing instead to go for a light tone, oohing and ahhing over abundant food in a country ravaged by hunger.