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August 2016

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 20, 2016 40 Comments
A few weeks ago, my colleague Mary reported that an Australian artist removed his mural of Hillary Clinton after a local council vote. His first rendition put her in a very revealing swimsuit; the second featured a burqa after the council first told him to paint over it. In the US, an "anonymous art collective" has focused its questionable creative efforts on Donald Trump.
It's Donald Trump like he's never been seen before. Life-size naked statues of the Republican presidential nominee greeted passers-by in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and Cleveland on Thursday. They are the brainchild of an activist collective called INDECLINE, which has spoken out against Trump before. In a statement, the collective said the hope is that Trump "is never installed in the most powerful political and military position in the world."

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on August 19, 2016 21 Comments
Earlier this morning Donald Trump's campaign manager, Paul Manafort, resigned from his post. Speculation Manafort was entangled in a pro-Russian lobbying scheme made headlines earlier this week and was cited as a possible reason for his campaign resignation. That speculation has turned into a full-on federal investigation.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on August 19, 2016 18 Comments
Sen. Ben Sasse is not impressed with the Obama Administration's latest spin on the Iran Deal. Earlier this week, the Republican Senator from Nebraska threw down some real talk on the much touted Iran Deal. "The Iran Deal is the Obama Administration's greatest victory in its ongoing war against facts," Sen. Sasse begins. In two minutes, Sasse picks apart three of the biggest Iran Deal lies.

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 19, 2016 31 Comments
Former President Bill Clinton told staffers at the Clinton Foundation if Hillary wins the presidency they will stop accepting foreign and corporate donations. From Fox News:
While Hillary Clinton stepped down from its board after launching her 2016 campaign, her husband and daughter have remained in leadership roles, leading to questions about the ability of the organization to continue its work should Clinton win the White House.

Posted by Mike LaChance on August 19, 2016 18 Comments
Oregon State University will force incoming Freshmen to complete an online program in social justice. If progressive ideas are so attractive and important, why must they always be required? The College Fix reports:
Oregon State to force ‘social justice’ training on freshmen Oregon State University is developing an online course centered on “social justice” that new students will soon be required to take.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 19, 2016 29 Comments
I didn't watch Donald Trump's speech last night, but I saw Twitter blow up but not in the usual way. The speech was being received by all but the most diehard #NeverTrump-ers as the long-awaited "pivot," a reasonable policy and campaign speech read from a teleprompter. The prepared text of the speech is here. It's quite good. But .... It's not exactly the "Let Trump be Trump" pivot we all were expecting with the naming of Breitbart News Chairman Steve Bannon to lead the Trump campaign. With Paul Manafort resigning from the campaign this morning, one would have expected Trump's pivot to be more aggressive. The speech, however, appeared to be the opposite of letting Trump be Trump, at least if Trump being Trump was what we have seen the past year on the campaign trail. Here's an excerpt from the opening [quotes from speech below from prepared text]:
I’d like to take a moment to talk about the heartbreak and devastation in Louisiana, a state that is very special to me. We are one nation. When one state hurts, we all hurt – and we must all work together to lift each other up. Working, building, restoring together. Our prayers are with the families who have lost loved ones, and we send them our deepest condolences. Though words cannot express the sadness one feels at times like this, I hope everyone in Louisiana knows that our country is praying for them and standing with them to help them in these difficult hours.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on August 19, 2016 6 Comments
On a certain level, it was refreshing to see an MSM member admit how he sees his role: as that of a "defense attorney" for Barack Obama. On another level, it was disgusting . . . On today's Morning Joe, during a discussion of the Iran ransom deal in which even State Department spokesman John Kirby effectively conceded that the deal was a "quid pro quo," the Washington Post's Eugene Robinson said "I feel like I need to ask the sort of question a defense attorney would ask at this point." Robinson's point was that some had criticized the Obama admin for not obtaining the release of the hostages as part of the Iran nuclear deal. But no one ever suggested that the US pay ransom for the hostages, as President Obama untruthfully denied doing. The notion was that the US should not agree to the deal unless the hostages were released. But that didn't stop Robinson from going all Perry Mason on behalf of the president.

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 19, 2016 18 Comments
The 2016 primaries and election so far has rattled the GOP, leaving many to wonder if the political party can hold their majority in the House and Senate. GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump's numbers aren't helping:
But, as Trump's numbers — nationally and in key swing states — continue to tank, a creeping fear has taken root within the Republican establishment that maybe, just maybe, a landslide loss at the top of the ticket could cost the party not only the upper chamber of Congress but the lower one, too.

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 19, 2016 7 Comments
Univision has decided to end production at Gawker after they bought the company for $135 million at an auction. Reporter J.K. Trotter wrote:
After nearly fourteen years of operation, Gawker.com will be shutting down next week. The decision to close Gawker comes days after Univision successfully bid $135 million for Gawker Media’s six other websites, and four months after the Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel revealed his clandestine legal campaign against the company.

Posted by New Neo on August 18, 2016 41 Comments
Donald Trump made a speech recently in an appeal to black voters. I've noticed many pundits on both left and right treating this as a very unusual thing for a Republican to do (see this, for example). And here's how one commenter on my blog described it:
Trump makes the best speech of the campaign, and is the one of the first, if not the first, Republican to reach out to the black community in 50 years, a brilliant move both substantively and strategically...
Let's put aside for a moment the question of how much difference a speech can make, and treat the question of whether this sort of outreach in a speech is unusual for a Republican. On what is that assertion based? Memory? But memory can play funny tricks; that's why Google is our friend.

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 18, 2016 17 Comments
The State Department has confirmed the U.S. used the $400 million payment to Iran as leverage for the prisoners they released in January. From The New York Post:
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.

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 18, 2016 43 Comments
The city of Seattle, WA, has offered a class on "white fragility" to white people in order to explain white guilt and why white people cannot "handle matters involving race." From Fox News:
Lecturer Robin DiAngelo, who coined the term, is teaching the taxpayer-funded class for the city Officeof Arts and Culture. She defines white fragility as "a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 18, 2016 13 Comments
Yesterday, a football (soccer) match in Glasgow, Scotland, took place between Glasgow-based Celtic and the Israeli team Hapoal Beersheva in the Champions League qualifying round. Celtic won 5-2. There is a history of anti-Israel Celtic supporters politicizing events. In 2014 where Celtic fans waved Palestinian flags leading to warnings this time against a repeat performance. While based in Scotland, it's important to understand that the
Celtic football club grew from Scotland’s marginalized Irish communities and it draws on struggles for social justice and workers’ rights in Glasgow. The group explained that the protest is opposed to the participation of Israeli teams, “who under UEFA's own rules should not be allowed to participate in this competition due to the system of apartheid laws and practices including religious and ethnic based colonization, military occupation and segregation of what remains of Palestinian land.”

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 18, 2016 45 Comments
The Brazilian police have said that U.S. swimmer Ryan Lochte and three of his teammates were not victims of a robbery and security guards only a pointed a gun at them because they were vandalizing a gas station. Last week, Lochte said a gunman robbed him and three of his teammates after he left a party in Rio. But now different stories have caused authorities to raise eyebrows over the incident.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on August 18, 2016 15 Comments
Tell us, Carol: the leaders of which Black Lives Matter chant would you suggest Donald Trump "reach out" to: "pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon," or "what do we want? Dead cops! When do we want it? Now!" On her CNN show this morning, Carol Costello suggested to Trump supporter Scottie Nell Hughes that Trump should be "reaching out" to Black Lives Matter. When Hughes replied that the Trump campaign has reached out to the black community, Costello interrupted incredulously "to Black Lives Matter?" Perhaps someone can do the research and find the last time Costello suggested to a Hillary supporter that Clinton should be "reaching out" to the KKK or Stormfront.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on August 18, 2016 4 Comments
A newly leaked German intelligence report dubbed Turkey as a major hub for Jihadi groups operating worldwide. The confidential document belonging to German Interior Ministry published by several German newspapers says that Erdogan-ruled Turkey has "developed into a central platform of activity for Islamist groups in the Middle East." The latest revelations should not come as a surprise to anyone, however the publication of confidential document puts more pressure on German government to take a tougher stand against Erdogan's Islamist Regime. The internal assessment drawn by Germany's intelligence service, BND, sees “ideological affinity” between Erdogan Regime and Islamist terror groups. The report specifically focuses on Turkey's ties to Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and Gaza-based Hamas. Erdogan Regime has been one of the strongest backer of Hamas -- ever since the terrorist group took hold of Gaza in 2006.
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