Funny 2016 Election stuff or not so funny

[Mark]

Police: Man Tried to Kill Donald Trump at Vegas Rally

A federal officer says a man arrested at a Donald Trump rally in Las Vegas told authorities he tried to grab an officer’s gun so he could kill the candidate.
A complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Nevada charges Michael Steven Sandford with an act of violence on restricted grounds.

It cites a report by Special Agent Swierkowski, whose first name was not included, saying Sandford told officers he drove from California to kill Trump and went to a Las Vegas gun range the day before to learn to shoot.

Sandford later went to a Trump rally at the Treasure Island **** and approached a Las Vegas police officer to say he wanted an autograph from Trump.

The report says Sandford was arrested after grabbing the handle of an officer’s gun in an attempt to remove it.

It wasn’t immediately clear if he had an attorney. Las Vegas police say Sandford is 19.

http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/06/20/police-man-tried-kill-donald-trump-vegas-rally/

FOREIGNER ARRESTED – Tried to KILL DONALD TRUMP at Vegas Rally (VIDEO)

Anti-Trump protester Michael Sandford was arrested Saturday at Donald Trump’s Las Vegas rally at the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino.



Sandford had been in US 1 1/2 yrs. 1st in Hoboken NJ. Then traveled to Ontario/SB County. Drove to Vegas 6-16-16 to kill Trump per complaint

Sandford had a UK driving license.

The AP has more on Sandford’s arrest.

    A federal officer says a man arrested at a Donald Trump rally in Las Vegas told authorities he tried to grab an officer’s gun so he could kill the candidate.

    A complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Nevada charges Michael Steven Sandford with an act of violence on restricted grounds.

    It cites a report by Special Agent Swierkowski, whose first name was not included, saying Sandford told officers he drove from California to kill Trump and went to a Las Vegas gun range the day before to learn to shoot.

    Sandford later went to a Trump rally at the Treasure Island Casino and approached a Las Vegas police officer to say he wanted an autograph from Trump.

    The report says Sandford was arrested after grabbing the handle of an officer’s gun in an attempt to remove it.

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2016/06/breaking-foreigner-arrested-trying-kill-donald-trump-vegas-rally/

[Mark]

Republican Operatives Launch All-Out Effort To Unbind The Delegates And Deny Trump The Nomination

If you think that Donald Trump already has the Republican nomination locked up, then you don’t understand what is going on behind the scenes.  It has long been my contention that the elite will move heaven and earth in order to keep Trump from ever setting foot in the Oval Office.  One way that they could try to do this is by attempting to deny him the nomination at the Republican convention next month.  Over the past couple of days, the Washington Post, CNN and a whole host of other mainstream news outlets have been reporting on a new “last-ditch effort” that has been launched by Republican operatives to get the Republican convention Rules Committee to unbind all of the delegates and allow them to vote however they want.  As you will see below, they can do this, and if they get enough votes they will do it.

This current effort is different from what we have seen so far during this campaign season, because it is actually being organized by the delegates themselves.  The following comes from the Washington Post…

    Dozens of Republican convention delegates are hatching a new plan to block Donald Trump at this summer’s party meetings, in what has become the most organized effort so far to stop the businessman from becoming the GOP presidential nominee.

    The moves come amid declining poll numbers for Trump and growing concern among Republicans that he is squandering his chance to defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. Several controversies — including his racial attacks on a federal judge, his renewed call to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States and his support for changing the nation’s gun laws — have raised fears among Republicans that Trump is not really a conservative and is too reckless to run a successful race.

This movement is being spearheaded by a delegate from Colorado named Kendal Unruh.  She is actually a key member of the Republican convention Rules Committee, and this is very important for reasons that I will explain below.

For her, it is not about getting some other specific candidate nominated.  Rather, the entire goal is simply to stop Donald Trump…

    “This literally is an ‘Anybody but Trump’ movement,” said Kendal Unruh, a Republican delegate from Colorado who is leading the campaign. “Nobody has any idea who is going to step in and be the nominee, but we’re not worried about that. We’re just doing that job to make sure that he’s not the face of our party.”

So what will it take for Unruh and her allies to be successful?

As Fox News explained, there are basically two courses of action…

    To prevail, Unruh needs a majority of the 112 members of the convention rules committee, which has two delegates from each state and territory. Then, a majority of the full convention’s 2,472 delegates would have to approve.

    There’s a Plan B. If Unruh can win over one-fourth support from the rules committee — just 29 delegates — the full convention must vote on her proposal. So far she’s got around 10 supporters though some prefer delaying the rule’s impact until the 2020 convention, she said.

On Thursday night, Unruh was on a conference call that included at least 30 delegates from 15 different states, and the Washington Post says that regional coordinators for this effort have been recruited “in Arizona, Iowa, Louisiana, Washington and other states.”

One individual that took part in this conference call on Thursday night told CNN that calls are pouring in from people all over the country that want to be part of this movement…

    “I will tell you, about every two hours people contact me about how to join this effort,” Lonegan said. “This has never been done before, so there’s no textbook on how to do it. So we’re building an organic effort, state by state, to convince members of the Rules Committee to sign onto a rule that unbinds the delegates to vote their moral conscience.”

So could the Republican convention Rules Committee actually do this?

Could they actually unbind all of the delegates and allow them to vote however they wished?

Well, yes they actually could do this.  As Time Magazine has explained, the Republican convention Rules Committee essentially has the power to make up any rules that they want…

    It has the power to review and amend all of the rules of the Republican Party, pending ratification by the full convention. If it wanted to, it could insert a rule that says only candidates with blue hair could be the party’s nominee. It’s that powerful. In a contested scenario, the Rules Committee would be ground zero for fights over who and how candidates are nominated on the floor, as well as how the convention itself is conducted.

And thanks to political wrangling by the Cruz campaign, we do know that the rules committee is dominated by delegates that are loyal to Cruz…

    The convention rules committee is made up of one man and one woman from each of the 50 states, U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia. Dominated by party insiders and loyalists to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz—who aggressively worked state conventions to secure slots on the committee—it remains to be seen what the committee’s appetite would be for such a dramatic break from the existing rules.

If I was Donald Trump, I would be taking this very, very seriously.

But at this point he seems to be brushing it off …

    “I have tremendous support and get the biggest crowds by far and any such move would not only be totally illegal but also a rebuke of the millions of people who feel so strongly about what I am saying,” Trump said in a statement. “People that I defeated soundly in the primaries will do anything to get a second shot — but there is no mechanism for it to happen.”

Right at this moment we still have about a month left before the convention.

So that gives those involved in the anti-Trump movement quite a bit of time to rally their forces.

The rule change that would unbind all of the delegates and free them up to “vote their consciences” has already been drafted.  Here is the text of the proposed rule change…

Preserving Delegates’ Ability to Vote Their Individual Conscience

The secretary of the national convention shall receive and faithfully announce and record each delegate’s vote in accordance with these rules. If any such delegate notifies the secretary of his or her intent to cast a vote of conscience, whether personal or religious, each such delegate shall be unbound and unconstrained by these rules on any given vote, including the first ballot for the selection of the Republican nominee for President of the United States, without the risk of challenge, sanction, or retribution by the Republican National Committee. Allowable personal reasons shall include the public disclosure of one or more grievous acts of personal conduct by a nominee candidate, including but not limited to, criminally actionable acts, acts of moral turpitude or extreme prejudice, and/or notorious public statements of support for positions that clearly oppose or contradict the policies embodied in the Republican Party’s platform as established at the national convention.

In my new book, I warn about the great political shaking that is coming to this nation, and if this rule change is even attempted at the Republican convention it would create seismic shifts in the U.S. political landscape.

Of course there is still one huge question that I have not even addressed in this article yet.

If Trump has the nomination taken away from him, who would the Republican nominee be?

Some are convinced that it would be Paul Ryan, but I believe that it would be somebody else.

Mitt Romney has certainly not hidden his disdain for Donald Trump, and right now he is quietly waiting in the wings.  If the anti-Trump forces get their way, I believe that he would be the man that ultimately walks away with the prize.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/republican-operatives-launch-all-out-effort-to-unbind-the-delegates-and-deny-donald-trump-the-nomination

[Psalm 51:17]

This is just my opinion - but I believe the NBA Finals were rigged for the Caveliers, for the reason being that it would provide a big distraction for the city of Cleveland when the GOP convention comes in next month (and they could have planned this advance - at the timing of Lebron's comeback there 2 years ago) - by then, when they want to remove Trump by unbinding the delegates, they would do it without a chirp (as the city is still in a great mood with a Cleveland sports team winning a title for the first time in 52 years).

Seriously - no team in NBA Finals history ever won after being down 3-1! And it was against the team that had THE best record EVER in NBA history!

Has any team ever won a title despite firing their head coach at midseason? Despite winning a lot of games up until then?

If it looks like a rat, if it smells like a rat...

Republican Operatives Launch All-Out Effort To Unbind The Delegates And Deny Trump The Nomination

If you think that Donald Trump already has the Republican nomination locked up, then you don’t understand what is going on behind the scenes.  It has long been my contention that the elite will move heaven and earth in order to keep Trump from ever setting foot in the Oval Office.  One way that they could try to do this is by attempting to deny him the nomination at the Republican convention next month.  Over the past couple of days, the Washington Post, CNN and a whole host of other mainstream news outlets have been reporting on a new “last-ditch effort” that has been launched by Republican operatives to get the Republican convention Rules Committee to unbind all of the delegates and allow them to vote however they want.  As you will see below, they can do this, and if they get enough votes they will do it.

This current effort is different from what we have seen so far during this campaign season, because it is actually being organized by the delegates themselves.  The following comes from the Washington Post…

    Dozens of Republican convention delegates are hatching a new plan to block Donald Trump at this summer’s party meetings, in what has become the most organized effort so far to stop the businessman from becoming the GOP presidential nominee.

    The moves come amid declining poll numbers for Trump and growing concern among Republicans that he is squandering his chance to defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. Several controversies — including his racial attacks on a federal judge, his renewed call to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States and his support for changing the nation’s gun laws — have raised fears among Republicans that Trump is not really a conservative and is too reckless to run a successful race.

This movement is being spearheaded by a delegate from Colorado named Kendal Unruh.  She is actually a key member of the Republican convention Rules Committee, and this is very important for reasons that I will explain below.

For her, it is not about getting some other specific candidate nominated.  Rather, the entire goal is simply to stop Donald Trump…

    “This literally is an ‘Anybody but Trump’ movement,” said Kendal Unruh, a Republican delegate from Colorado who is leading the campaign. “Nobody has any idea who is going to step in and be the nominee, but we’re not worried about that. We’re just doing that job to make sure that he’s not the face of our party.”

So what will it take for Unruh and her allies to be successful?

As Fox News explained, there are basically two courses of action…

    To prevail, Unruh needs a majority of the 112 members of the convention rules committee, which has two delegates from each state and territory. Then, a majority of the full convention’s 2,472 delegates would have to approve.

    There’s a Plan B. If Unruh can win over one-fourth support from the rules committee — just 29 delegates — the full convention must vote on her proposal. So far she’s got around 10 supporters though some prefer delaying the rule’s impact until the 2020 convention, she said.

On Thursday night, Unruh was on a conference call that included at least 30 delegates from 15 different states, and the Washington Post says that regional coordinators for this effort have been recruited “in Arizona, Iowa, Louisiana, Washington and other states.”

One individual that took part in this conference call on Thursday night told CNN that calls are pouring in from people all over the country that want to be part of this movement…

    “I will tell you, about every two hours people contact me about how to join this effort,” Lonegan said. “This has never been done before, so there’s no textbook on how to do it. So we’re building an organic effort, state by state, to convince members of the Rules Committee to sign onto a rule that unbinds the delegates to vote their moral conscience.”

So could the Republican convention Rules Committee actually do this?

Could they actually unbind all of the delegates and allow them to vote however they wished?

Well, yes they actually could do this.  As Time Magazine has explained, the Republican convention Rules Committee essentially has the power to make up any rules that they want…

    It has the power to review and amend all of the rules of the Republican Party, pending ratification by the full convention. If it wanted to, it could insert a rule that says only candidates with blue hair could be the party’s nominee. It’s that powerful. In a contested scenario, the Rules Committee would be ground zero for fights over who and how candidates are nominated on the floor, as well as how the convention itself is conducted.

And thanks to political wrangling by the Cruz campaign, we do know that the rules committee is dominated by delegates that are loyal to Cruz…

    The convention rules committee is made up of one man and one woman from each of the 50 states, U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia. Dominated by party insiders and loyalists to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz—who aggressively worked state conventions to secure slots on the committee—it remains to be seen what the committee’s appetite would be for such a dramatic break from the existing rules.

If I was Donald Trump, I would be taking this very, very seriously.

But at this point he seems to be brushing it off …

    “I have tremendous support and get the biggest crowds by far and any such move would not only be totally illegal but also a rebuke of the millions of people who feel so strongly about what I am saying,” Trump said in a statement. “People that I defeated soundly in the primaries will do anything to get a second shot — but there is no mechanism for it to happen.”

Right at this moment we still have about a month left before the convention.

So that gives those involved in the anti-Trump movement quite a bit of time to rally their forces.

The rule change that would unbind all of the delegates and free them up to “vote their consciences” has already been drafted.  Here is the text of the proposed rule change…

Preserving Delegates’ Ability to Vote Their Individual Conscience

The secretary of the national convention shall receive and faithfully announce and record each delegate’s vote in accordance with these rules. If any such delegate notifies the secretary of his or her intent to cast a vote of conscience, whether personal or religious, each such delegate shall be unbound and unconstrained by these rules on any given vote, including the first ballot for the selection of the Republican nominee for President of the United States, without the risk of challenge, sanction, or retribution by the Republican National Committee. Allowable personal reasons shall include the public disclosure of one or more grievous acts of personal conduct by a nominee candidate, including but not limited to, criminally actionable acts, acts of moral turpitude or extreme prejudice, and/or notorious public statements of support for positions that clearly oppose or contradict the policies embodied in the Republican Party’s platform as established at the national convention.

In my new book, I warn about the great political shaking that is coming to this nation, and if this rule change is even attempted at the Republican convention it would create seismic shifts in the U.S. political landscape.

Of course there is still one huge question that I have not even addressed in this article yet.

If Trump has the nomination taken away from him, who would the Republican nominee be?

Some are convinced that it would be Paul Ryan, but I believe that it would be somebody else.

Mitt Romney has certainly not hidden his disdain for Donald Trump, and right now he is quietly waiting in the wings.  If the anti-Trump forces get their way, I believe that he would be the man that ultimately walks away with the prize.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/republican-operatives-launch-all-out-effort-to-unbind-the-delegates-and-deny-donald-trump-the-nomination

[Psalm 51:17]

http://dcwhispers.com/why-paul-ryan-wants-hillary-clinton-to-win-the-white-house/

Why Paul Ryan Wants Hillary Clinton To Win The White House

Posted on June 21, 2016 by DCWhispers   


Sources now indicate Paul Ryan wants Hillary Clinton to be America’s next president, and is doing everything in his power to secure that very outcome.

If that allows Hillary to nominate up to three more Supreme Court Justices and thus tilt the balance of power of the Court so it represents far-left, progressive views, so be it.

The forty-six-year-old Paul Ryan doesn’t care because he has already been promised, and wishes to make certain, that he is the GOP’s 2020 nominee for president.

And it’s not just the 2020 election cycle that is currently on the table. Powerful Republican insiders are still hinting at a NEVERTRUMP moment at the upcoming GOP convention – and Paul Ryan is their top choice to emerge as a viable alternative.

That is the motivation behind Ryan’s multiple rebukes of Donald Trump’s views on immigration and gun rights in recent days. Ryan has all but given a full-throated defense of illegal immigration, including from nations that are known producers of terrorism, so that he can appear as the political alternative to Donald Trump, a candidate who garnered more primary votes than any Republican in history.

Then came Apple CEO Tim Cook’s recent announcement that his company would not be helping to sponsor the Republican Convention this year due to Mr. Trump’s alleged racism and bigotry. (a fabrication created by the far left – of which Mr. Cook no doubt already knows.)

And what does Paul Ryan do after this announcement is made? Embrace Tim Cook by joining the Apple CEO for a fundraiser the following week, thus sending yet another anti-Trump message. This message is not intended to the American people so much as to the political power brokers of whom Mr. Ryan so clearly has sworn his allegiance to.

Speaker Ryan is not representing actual Republican voters who overwhelmingly chose Donald Trump to be their nominee, but rather the entrenched powers in D.C. who are in turn complicit in allowing the federal government to be controlled by such anti-American influences such as Saudi Arabia and the United Nations.

Paul Ryan is a globalist whereas Donald Trump is an American-first nationalist.

Therein lies the conflict – one that represents the very soul of America.

Mr. Trump’s unlikely ascendancy to the top of the GOP ticket is a direct threat to the globalist agenda and Paul Ryan has been given very clear marching orders to do all he can to prevent a Trump victory from happening. If that means working directly or otherwise to help Hillary Clinton into the White House in 2016, then so be it. The fact is, there is very little difference between the policies of Clinton or Paul Ryan as they are two sides of the very same coin.

Columnist Daniel Greenfield just this week declared Paul Ryan a traitor.

Sadly, Mr. Greenfield is correct.

2016 will not be an election of Republican vs Democrat but rather one of an America that once was and might be again vs an America that is fully absorbed into the globalist collective that would see it utterly destroyed.

Choose wisely.

[Psalm 51:17]

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/brent-scowcroft-endorses-hillary-clinton-224677
6/22/16
Brent Scowcroft endorses Hillary Clinton

Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser under Republican presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, endorsed Hillary Clinton for president on Wednesday.

"Secretary Clinton shares my belief that America must remain the world’s indispensable leader," Scowcroft said in a statement, touting her experience as secretary of state. "She understands that our leadership and engagement beyond our borders makes the world, and therefore the United States, more secure and prosperous. She appreciates that it is essential to maintain our strong military advantage, but that force must only be used as a last resort."

Clinton, Scowcroft stated, "brings deep expertise in international affairs, and a sophisticated understanding of the world," qualities he described as "essential for the Commander-in-Chief."

"Her longstanding relationships with a wide array of world leaders, and their sense of her as a strong and reliable counterpart, make her uniquely prepared for the highest office in the land," he added.

Scowcroft's endorsement comes after his fellow foreign-policy realist Richard Armitage, deputy secretary of state under George W. Bush, told POLITICO last week that he would support Clinton over Donald Trump if he is the Republican nominee.

"I believe Hillary Clinton has the wisdom and experience to lead our country at this critical time," Scowcroft stated.

Scowcroft has said little on the record about Trump's foreign policy ideas and qualifications. But Bush, his former boss in the White House, has made no secret of his distaste for Trump. And the Atlantic Council, of which the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security is a part, has offered pointed criticism of Trump's foreign policy prescriptions.

"If Donald Trump wants to 'make America great again' on a global stage, he cannot do so without NATO," wrote Robbie Gramer, an associate director of the Scowcroft Center's Transatlantic Security Initiative, in a March 23 blog post.

R. Nicholas Burns, a board director and Clinton adviser who served as the No. 3 official in George W. Bush's State Department, denounced Trump as "dangerous" in a late April interview.

[Psalm 51:17]

http://theweek.com/speedreads/631831/hillary-clinton-picks-some-more-republican-endorsements

http://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/some-gop-business-leaders-are-backing-clinton-1466654976

[Psalm 51:17]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/several-gop-business-leaders-are-backing-clinton/ar-AAhvoDx?ocid=spartandhp
6/23/16
Several GOP Business Leaders Are Backing Clinton

More than 50 business executives, including several longtime Republicans, endorsed Hillary Clinton for president on Thursday as her campaign seeks to capitalize on discomfort with Republican Donald Trump.

They include Jim Cicconi, senior executive vice president at AT&T Services Inc., and Dan Akerson, who held top positions at General Motors Co. and Nextel Communications Inc. A Clinton campaign aide provided the list.

The endorsements reflect continuing unease among some Republicans with the presumptive Republican presidential nominee despite his romp through the primary contest.

Mr. Cicconi, who worked in the White House for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, said he has backed every GOP presidential candidate since 1976. “But this year I think it’s vital to put our country’s well being ahead of party,” he said in a statement provided by the campaign. “Hillary Clinton is experienced, qualified, and will make a fine president. The alternative, I fear, would set our nation on a very dark path.”

Mr. Akerson said he has consistently voted for Republicans for president in the past but couldn’t support Mr. Trump. “Serving as the leader of the free world requires effective leadership, sound judgment, a steady hand and most importantly, the temperament to deal with crises large and small. Donald Trump lacks each of these characteristics,” Mr. Akerson, who also served as a Navy surface warfare officer, said in a statement provided by the campaign.

On Wednesday, Brent Scowcroft, a national security adviser for two Republican presidents, endorsed Mrs. Clinton, saying her experience, judgment and understanding of the world prepare her for the job of commander in chief. His support comes a week after Richard Armitage, another longtime Republican foreign-policy hand, said he would back Mrs. Clinton if, as expected, Mr. Trump is the GOP nominee.

The Clinton campaign is seeking to formally organize support from Republicans beyond the list of business executives in the future, an aide said.

After a slow start, Mr. Trump is racing to shore up his standing with his party’s establishment, and has been making overtures to top GOP donors in recent weeks, many of whom supported other Republicans in the primaries, and have been slow to warm to him.

Mr. Trump attended a fundraiser at Le Cirque in New York City on Tuesday, attended by hedge-fund manager John Paulson, who had backed four of his rivals during the Republican primaries.

He also attended a breakfast Wednesday at Cipriani in Midtown, co-hosted by New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, a billionaire who had supported former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Last week, Mr. Trump raised money in Texas, meeting with several of his party’s wealthiest donors.

After a low fundraising haul in May, Mr. Trump has raised at least $19 million for his joint fund with the Republican National Committee in recent weeks and about $3 million for his campaign, people familiar with the matter said.

In addition, Republicans in Congress and from the establishment wing of the party were relieved by news this week that Mr. Trump had fired his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, in whom they had little faith.

Senior Clinton policy adviser Jake Sullivan briefed several of her supporters from the business community on a conference call Wednesday, during which he outlined the economic agenda she laid out in a pair of speeches this week, as well as her critique of Mr. Trump’s record and policies.

The list of business leaders backing her includes several who have supported Democrats in the past, including Eric Schmidt of Alphabet Inc., Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook Inc., and Warren Buffett of Berkshire-Hathaway, Inc.

Others endorsing the former secretary of state include Hollywood-turned-internet executive Barry Diller of IAC/InterActiveCorp; Hollywood executive Peter Chernin, of The Chernin Group; Wendell Weeks of Corning Inc.; Reed Hastings of Netflix Inc.; and Rob Marcus of Time Warner Inc.

Mrs. Clinton still has work ahead of her in uniting Democrats after a vigorous primary challenge from Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who technically remains in the race and hasn’t endorsed her.

He plans a speech titled “Where we go from here” on Thursday in New York City, where he plans to continue pressing his agenda for the Democratic platform without endorsing Mrs. Clinton.

But the former secretary of state has party elites unified behind her. On Wednesday, she was greeted with cheers and applause as she met with House Democrats in the Capitol. Afterwards, House leaders said they were thrilled with her agenda and excited about her campaign.

[Mark]

[Psalm 51:17]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/george-w-bush-former-treasury-142050019.html
George W. Bush’s Former Treasury Secretary Will Vote For Hillary Clinton
June 25, 2016

Former Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., a Republican who served under former President George W. Bush, says he will vote for Hillary Clinton in the upcoming election.

Paulson wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post, saying that Republicans stand at a crossroads.

“The GOP, in putting Trump at the top of the ticket, is endorsing a brand of populism rooted in ignorance, prejudice, fear and isolationism,” Paulson wrote. “This troubles me deeply as a Republican, but it troubles me even more as an American. Enough is enough. It’s time to put country before party and say it together: Never Trump.”

Paulson wrote about why Trump is not qualified to be president and that he would not be able to bridge the U.S.’s partisan divide. He encouraged a bipartisan approach to policy solutions to address the most challenging domestic problems.

Paulson endorsed Clinton, saying, “I’ll be voting for Hillary Clinton, with the hope that she can bring Americans together to do the things necessary to strengthen our economy, our environment and our place in the world. To my Republican friends: I know I’m not alone.”

Paulson is not the only Republican backing Clinton. Earlier this week, Brent Scowcroft, a top national security adviser to several former Republican presidents, endorsed Clinton, saying that her experience in politics gives her a “truly unique experience and perspective” to “lead our country at this critical time.”

[Mark]

[Psalm 51:17]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-silent-landmark-supreme-court-000000549.html
6/27/16
Trump silent on landmark Supreme Court abortion ruling

At about 10 o’clock Monday morning, shortly after the Supreme Court issued its 5-3 ruling striking down a Texas law that would have closed half the abortion clinics in the state, Hillary Clinton sent out a couple of tweets.

“SCOTUS’s decision is a victory for women in Texas and across America. Safe abortion should be a right — not just on paper, but in reality,” the first one read.

Minutes after that, she followed up with, “This fight isn’t over: The next president has to protect women’s health. Women won’t be “punished” for exercising their basic rights.” Both were signed “-H,” meaning she wrote them herself.

At about the same time, Donald Trump tweeted about… himself. “.@CNN is all negative when it comes to me. I don’t watch it anymore,” he wrote.

As of publication time, he still had not addressed Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, which constitutional scholars describe as the most significant abortion ruling in a decade.

That is perhaps because the most recent times that Trump has made comments about abortion have not gone all that well. His appears to be an evolving position: In 1999, he told Tim Russert, “I’m very pro-choice” but then declared himself antiabortion by the time he announced his candidacy.

During Trump’s yearlong presidential run, there have been more than a few times when the subject seems to have confused the presumptive Republican nominee. It began with this exchange with Jake Tapper on CNN one year ago tomorrow:



Tapper: Let me ask you about a few social issues because they haven’t been issues you have been talking about for several years. I know you’re opposed to abortion.

Trump: Right. I’m pro-choice.

Tapper: You’re pro-choice or pro-life?

Trump: I’m pro-life. I’m sorry.

Then, this spring, Trump appeared to change his position on abortion four times within the space of just two days. On the afternoon of March 30, he said during a taped interview with Chris Matthews that, were abortions to be made illegal again, women who have them should face punishment. An excerpt of the interview released online before the program aired led to an immediate outcry, and Trump released a statement saying it should be up to the states to decide whether women should be punished. An hour after that, his campaign sent out another statement, this time saying that it was doctors who perform the procedure, not the patients they perform it on, who should be “held legally responsible.”

The next day brought two more variations on his position on abortion. First, Trump told CBS News that the legality of abortion was established and “we have to leave it that way”; within 90 minutes, a campaign press release clarified that, saying, “Mr. Trump gave an accurate account of the law as it is today and made clear it must stay that way now — until he is president. Then he will change the law…”

So how does he feel today, after the Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that would have required abortion clinics to meet hospital-grade standards? Unclear.

[Psalm 51:17]

While the mass distractions of this "election" going on...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/obama-approval-rating-highest-since-000000655.html?nhp=1
Obama’s approval rating at highest level since killing of Osama bin Laden
6/26/16

President Obama’s approval rating is at its highest level in more than five years, an ABC News/Washington Post poll released on Sunday shows.

According to the results of the survey, conducted in the aftermath of the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., two weeks ago, 56 percent of Americans approve of Obama’s handling of his job as president, compared to 41 percent who disapprove.

The last time the president’s approval rating was this high was in May 2011 following the killing of Osama bin Laden in a nighttime raid led by U.S. Navy SEALS in Pakistan.

The results of the survey are in line with a recent CNN/ORC poll that found 52 percent of Americans approve of Obama’s performance as president, up 5 points since January.

And according to that survey, also conducted in the wake of the nightclub massacre, Obama “ranks as the most positively viewed recent second term president.”

Both Clinton and Ronald Reagan were viewed favorably “by just under half of adults in the spring or summer of their final years in office.” George W. Bush’s favorability rating, by contrast, was just 38 percent at this point in 2008.

All of this is good news for Hillary Clinton, who was endorsed by Obama earlier this month.

The president plans on campaigning for the presumptive Democratic nominee in the coming weeks and has already begun to take aim at her Republican opponent, Donald Trump.

In Seattle on Friday, Obama offered a preview of his anti-Trump stump speech while speaking at a Democratic fundraiser for Washington Gov. Jay Inslee.

“We don’t have time for charlatans, and we don’t have time for bigotry,” Obama said. “And we don’t have the luxury of just popping off and saying whatever comes to the tops of our heads. Don’t have time for that.”

According to the Washington Post, Obama is more popular now than Presidents George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush were at this point in their presidencies, though not quite as popular as Bill Clinton in 2000.

[Psalm 51:17]

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/not-fast-james-dobson-walks-back-comment-donald-trumps-spiritual-conversion/

NOT SO FAST: Dr. James Dobson Walks Back Comment On Donald Trump’s Spiritual Conversion

Now, Dobson is offering some “clarification” on Trump’s conversion to whichever Christianity it is he has converted to. Apparently, it was the Prosperity Gospel heretic, Paula White, who led him in this fruitless conversion. The megachurch pastrix told attendees at a recent Trump rally that Billy Graham had “prophesied over” Trump, declaring that he “loves God.”
6/29/16

James Dobson Says False Teacher Paula White Led Donald Trump To Christ

EDITOR’S NOTE: Last week we reported that Dr. James Dobson had made the announcement that Donald Trump had accepted Jesus Christ. We said at the time that we “hoped that it was true“. Today comes news that Dobson is “modifying” his previous statement somewhat as he revealed that it was Laodicean heretic Paula White that “led him to Christ”.  Yikes, that’s not good. Paula White is a “name it and claim it”, money-grubbing, “anointed prayer cloth” end times faker who asked her followers to send in their $1,144.00 “Lazarus Seed” gift of faith this past Easter. Sorry, people, I wish it was better news, I truly do.

It recently came about that Donald Trump had finally given his life to Christ. In the words of James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family,


I don’t know when it was, but it has not been long, and I believe [Donald Trump] really made a commitment, but he’s a baby Christian.

Now, Dobson is offering some “clarification” on Trump’s conversion to whichever Christianity it is he has converted to. Apparently, it was the Prosperity Gospel heretic, Paula White, who led him in this fruitless conversion. The megachurch pastrix told attendees at a recent Trump rally that Billy Graham had “prophesied over” Trump, declaring that he “loves God.”

Dobson put out the following statement:


“Only the Lord knows the condition of a person’s heart. I can only tell you what I’ve heard. First, Trump appears to be tender to things of the Spirit. I also hear that Paula White has known Trump for years and that she personally led him to Christ.

“Do I know that for sure? No. Do I know the details of that alleged conversion? I can’t say that I do.

“But there are many Christian leaders who are serving on a faith advisory committee for Trump in the future. I am among them. There are about 45 of us that includes Franklin Graham, Robert Jeffress, Jack Graham, Ben Carson, James Robison, Jerry Johnson, and many others whom you would probably know.

“We’ve all agreed to serve. How will that play out if Trump becomes president? I don’t know. It is a good start, I would think. 

“If anything, this man is a baby Christian who doesn’t have a clue about how believers think, talk and act. All I can tell you is that we have only two choices, Hillary or Donald. Hillary scares me to death.

“And, if Christians stay home because he isn’t a better candidate, Hillary will run the world for perhaps eight years. The very thought of that haunts my nights and days. One thing is sure: we need to be in prayer for our nation at this time of crisis.”

The President of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Russell Moore, offered the following commentary on this revelation:


This “faith advisory board” that Dobson speaks of in his statement is the same “faith advisory board” that former SBC president, Ronnie Floyd, is currently serving on. The divide among Southern Baptists is growing at a ferocious rate.

On the one hand, you have the center-left leaning New-Calvinists and Moore-ites, who ruthlessly oppose anything and everything Donald Trump, at the expense of anything–and on the other hand, you have the Falwell tribe, who have more than compromised the name of Jesus Christ and the Gospel for the sake of political gain, including promoting false teachers, and false converts, because they’re “afraid of Hillary.” source

[Psalm 51:17]

http://www.charismanews.com/politics/58003-pentecostal-leaders-pack-out-trump-s-new-christian-advisory-board
6/23/16
Pentecostal Leaders Pack Out Trump's New "Christian" Advisory Board

[Psalm 51:17]

Who is Paula White, Donald Trump’s ‘spiritual counselor’?
7/2/16
https://www.yahoo.com/news/who-is-paula-white-donald-trumps-spiritual-counselor-2-135501897.html

Only a few hours after Omar Mateen’s murderous rampage at the Orlando, Fla., nightclub Pulse, a preacher took the stage of her church 14 miles up the road and led her congregation in prayer.

“This city has to have Jesus right now,” Paula White said, her voice catching with emotion.

White, who has emerged this year as one of Donald Trump’s most stalwart religious supporters, and has been called Trump’s “spiritual counselor” by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, brought forward three other pastors to pray.

Their prayers the morning of June 12, in response to the Orlando terrorist attack, emphasized the Pentecostal tradition of what’s known as “spiritual warfare,” which consists largely of praying against evil spirits.

“Every violent spirit,” Edward Boateng, the church’s associate pastor, yelled, “get out!”

White, 50, stood behind him, repeating after Boateng as he screamed the words “Get out!” four more times, and then continued to yell, “Out!”  The congregation followed suit, clapping rapidly at the same time in the same manner as White.

After two other pastors came forward to pray, White closed out the prayer session with her hope that the terrorist attack would spark a spiritual awakening.

“I’m asking God for revival from this,” White said. “We have to have a nationwide revival, where we repent, we fall on our face, we call out to God again, and we make this nation what it is supposed to be.”

White also said that in response to the shooting that morning, she was “demanding 50,000 souls in return, in Jesus’ name.”

Like the presidential candidate she supports, White is both rich and famous, but has endured ridicule from her chosen tribe. Trump has long been considered a laughingstock by New Yorkers, and White is viewed as a fringe character by many American evangelicals.

As Trump looks to a tough election in November, he needs prominent conservative evangelicals to smooth his way with a constituency that has given 75 to 80 percent of its votes to Republican nominees in recent decades. But both Trump and White still face determined resistance from some evangelical leaders who see each of them as frauds.

Russell Moore, who heads the Southern Baptist Convention’s public policy arm and is one of Trump’s loudest public critics, recently called White a “charlatan” and a “heretic” — serious charges — on Twitter.

Moore told Yahoo News that White preaches a “prosperity gospel” that falsely claims that “God’s favor is seen in increasing wealth and freedom from sickness” and that emphasizes — often to lower-income, less-educated congregants — that the more money they give to the church, the more God will bless them.

“Orthodox Christians of every tribe recognize the prosperity gospel for what it is: an attempt to use the name of Jesus to prey upon vulnerable people,” Moore said.

“Trump University can only bilk someone out of financial stability in this life. That’s a problem but the prosperity gospel can send people to hell while bilking them out of their money,” he added. “That’s much worse.”

White first became known as a Trump ally last September when she helped organize a meeting of pastors at Trump Tower. A video emerged of her leading the group of around 20 other ministers, all men, in praying for Trump.

The group surrounded Trump, who held a large Bible with both hands, and placed their hands on him. At one point messianic Jewish rabbi Kirt Schneider placed his fingers on Trump’s face. Trump stood stiffly, his upper lip jutting out.

White closed that prayer session as well, a role reserved for leaders of leaders in Pentecostal culture.

“Father, we just secure him right now by the blood of Jesus. We thank you that no weapon formed against him would prosper, and any tongue that rises against him would be condemned, according to the word of God,” White prayed, one hand on Trump’s stomach and the other on his arm.

“I secure him, I secure his children, I secure his calling and his mantle, in Jesus’ name,” she said.

At that time, Trump led in the polls but was still not taken seriously as a contender for the GOP nomination. The first primary votes still three months away.

Similarly, White and the other pastors who met and prayed with Trump were largely from the Pentecostal televangelist world that is largely dismissed by American evangelicalism.

The notion that “prosperity gospel preachers” are impostors is widespread enough that a 2013 rap song called “Fal$e Teacher$” denounced White.

“Some who claim to be part of His sheep got some sharp teeth (they’re wolves),” rapped Shai Linne, who in 2015 started a church in his hometown of Philadelphia.

Linne named Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, T.D. Jakes, Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar and Kenneth Copeland, along with White, as “false teachers.”

“Treating Jesus like a lottery ticket, and you’re thinking they’re not the dangerous type, because some of their statements are right,” he rapped. “That only proves that Satan comes as an angel of light.”

White’s son, Bradley Knight, pushed back against Linne’s accusations.

“It is commonplace in our lives to be called ‘heretics,’ ‘false teachers,’ and ‘wolves,’” Knight wrote in an open letter.

“Can you find one, even one instance in which my mother has ‘denied our sovereign Lord’? You cannot because it has never happened,” White’s son continued. “Come see the fruit my mother has borne. Visit the churches we assist in Haiti after the devastating earthquake they experienced…Spend time with us as we visit the prisons and feed the hungry, just as Christ commissioned us.”

There is, however, no questioning that White is extremely wealthy. Her salary is not known but she has been reported to receive a multi-million dollar income and reportedly owns a $3.5 million apartment in Trump Tower. She has at points owned homes in San Antonio and Tampa. She currently pastors New Destiny Christian Center in Orlando, which rents a 7,600 home in the Orlando area for her, according to a 2012 magazine article.

“To me, it’s never been about money,” White told Larry King in 2007, at a time when Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) was heading up a Senate Finance Committee investigation into whether White’s church had mishandled funds (the probe found no wrongdoing). “Financially, I personally believe that you should have enough to do the assignment that you feel is part of your life.”

It was a rare interview for White, who has plenty of forums where she can speak publicly on her own terms. For around 15 years she’s hosted various iterations of a TV talk show that’s been broadcast on the Trinity Broadcasting Network — the one where people are often shown sitting in gold-encrusted, high-backed chairs — but also on BET and Spike TV. Her website boasts that her shows reaches “a potential viewing audience of 2.3 billion people worldwide.” At one point she was even a “life coach” on “The Tyra Banks Show.”

One of White’s few recent interviews was with the Christian Broadcasting Network, on the sidelines of Trump’s meeting with hundreds of Christian pastors and their spouses in New York City.

“Do you ever wonder what God is up to in all this, with Donald Trump, making him the Republican nominee for president of the United States?” asked CBN’s David Brody.

“His plans are not our plans,” White said, smiling. “Here [trump] is, the nominee. That has to be providence. That has to be the hand of God.”

After the interview, Brody told viewers, “Forget politics for a moment. White’s an integral player in Trump’s faith walk.”

But Brody’s credulity about Trump’s faith is at odds with many evangelicals who avoid questioning whether Trump is sincere — that would be anathema to a faith tradition that believes authentic faith is determined ultimately only by God — but find his personal life, his temperament, and many of his policy positions to be at odds with Christian beliefs.

“I think the Christian community, when they come out for Trump, it weakens our position because, ‘What do you really stand for?’” Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family told Yahoo News. “This guy’s belligerent. He’s denigrating. He’s everything we’re not. But people are so desperate to change things.”

White and Trump—who have known each other for more than a decade—share another experience that makes them targets for skeptics in the evangelical community: they have each been married multiple times. Both are on their third marriage, in fact, and have been the subjects of infidelity reports.

In 2010, the tabloid National Enquirer, which is owned by Trump pal David Pecker and has served as an outlet for some of Trump’s most outlandish conspiracy theories and personal smears against political opponents, published photos of White holding hands with fellow televangelist Benny Hinn (then married) in Rome, and alleged the two were having a torrid affair. Both denied it.

Three years earlier, White divorced her second husband, Randy White, after 18 years of marriage. The two had been married in Maryland, and moved to Tampa in 1990 to start Without Walls International Church, which by 2006 boasted 23,500 attendees and upwards of $40 million in donations.

White was raised in Mississippi and then in the semi-rural Maryland region about 40 miles north of Washington D.C. Her personal origins story included a single mother who became an alcoholic after her father committed suicide, leaving the young Paula at the mercy of men and caregivers who she says physically and sexually abused her.

During her marriage to Randy White, Paula formed her own organization, Paula White Ministries, and began to outshine her husband. Years after the two divorced, she met a man named Jonathan Cain on a flight and the two were married in 2015. Cain is the keyboardist for arena rock band Journey, and wrote one of the band’s most famous songs, “Don’t Stop Believin’.”

(Journey’s fame was resurrected in 2007 when HBO’s “The Sopranos” used “Don’t Stop Believin” in the final scene of its series finale. The band is now scheduled to play at the Republican Convention next month in Cleveland.)

Trump and White crossed paths 14 years ago, she told Brody, when the developer called her out of the blue and told her how much he liked her sermons, which he’d seen on TV. According to White, Trump said her sermons “really ministered” to him.

In 2007, Trump endorsed White’s book, calling her “a beautiful person, inside and out.” And in 2008, Trump appeared on White’s TV show, where she asked him to share the secrets to his financial success.

Last fall, White appeared in the video where she and others prayed for Trump. And in March she introduced Trump at a rally in Orlando and intimated even then that Trump’s candidacy carried a divine imprimatur.

“I believe that God will raise up a man for such a time as this,” she said. The phrase “such a time as this” is from the biblical book of Esther, and carries extra meaning and impact for people from church culture.

White has not only attached sacred importance to Trump’s candidacy, but she has vouched for his character and his Christian credentials.

At the Orlando rally, White defended Trump and said that despite his public reputation, he was “a man who had more integrity than most people that I have encountered,” calling him “a compassionate man, a man who is very strong to his core.”

And in her recent interview with CBN, White attempted to explain Trump’s statements a year ago that he had never asked God for forgiveness, a comment in which he also referred to the sacraments of communion as “my little wine … and my little cracker.”

“I don’t bring God into that picture,” Trump said then when asked the question about asking for forgiveness.

White told CBN that Trump “doesn’t know our Christian-ese, and perhaps our language that we know in the Christian world.”

“So if someone’s willing to slam him when he says, ‘Of course I don’t take communion without asking forgiveness,’ I understand what he’s saying because I’ve had those private times of prayer with him, conversations with him,” she said.

“Someone might take a sound bite and say, ‘Oh, see he’s not saved,’ or, ‘He doesn’t love God,’” she continued. “That’s the furthest thing from the truth.”

But in recent days, James Dobson, the past president of Focus on the Family, said publicly that he had heard White had only recently “personally led [trump] to Christ.”

That would run counter to Trump’s claim of a lifelong faith, and days after Dobson made comments to the meeting of Christian leaders in New York, he backed off his assertion to some degree, saying, “Do I know that for sure? No. Do I know the details of that alleged conversion? I can’t say that I do.”

The Trump campaign did not respond to inquiries as to whether the presumptive Republican nominee for president is a recent convert to Christianity. White also did not respond to interview requests.

Regardless of whether Trump is actually a born-again Christian, for older members of the religious right, Trump’s claims to be one of them might be enough, simply because they cannot bear the thought of Hillary Clinton as president.

“We have only two choices, Hillary or Donald. Hillary scares me to death,” Dobson said. “And, if Christians stay home because he isn’t a better candidate, Hillary will run the world for perhaps eight years. The very thought of that haunts my nights and days.”

[Psalm 51:17]

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trump-republican-national-convention-speaking-slots-totally/story?id=40298761
7/2/16
Donald Trump: Republican National Convention Speaking Slots ‘Totally Filled’

With just over two weeks to go before the start of the Republican National Convention, presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump tweeted Saturday that speaking slots at the high-profile event were already “totally filled, with a long waiting list of those that want to speak.”

Trump also indicated in his tweet that the names of those speakers would be released within days.

His tweet comes against the backdrop of reports that the GOP candidate is having trouble attracting big-name speakers to fill the normally-coveted slots at the convention. The Republican Party’s previous two presidential nominees -- former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Arizona Sen. John McCain --  have both said they will not attend the gathering in Cleveland. Earlier this week, Romney said he did not even plan to vote for Trump in November.

At a speech in Colorado on Friday, Trump said that his children and wife would all be speaking at the four-day convention in Cleveland, Ohio, that kicks off July 18.

“Ivanka, Tiffany, Don, Eric -- they are going to be speaking,” Trump said. “My wife is going to be speaking at the convention. We’re going to have a great time.”

Previously, Trump has also suggested having a “winner’s night” at the convention that would likely include nonpolitical speakers such as famous sports figures.

“That’ll probably be the best-attended night” of the convention, Trump predicted at a rally in Dallas earlier this month.

Conventions have also traditionally been an opportunity for rising political stars to introduce themselves on a national stage, as was the case with then-Illinois state Sen. Barack Obama at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.

Spokespeople for the Trump campaign and the Republican National Convention did not elaborate on Trump’s tweet.

[Psalm 51:17]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/republican-delegate-revolt-grows-in-effort-to-sidetrack-trump-nomination/ar-AAi5DEp?ocid=spartandhp
7/4/16
Republican delegate revolt grows in effort to sidetrack Trump nomination

A determined insurgency among some of the delegates to the Republican National Convention is growing, a last ditch effort to sidetrack the nomination of Donald Trump.

The efforts focus on fighting state laws and party rules that bind delegates from states with winner-take-all primaries on the first ballot at the upcoming national convention.

"If we were in a position where we didn't have a divisive or a controversial candidate going into Cleveland we probably would have been ok," explains Arizona GOP delegate Jarrod White. Like several states, Arizona law requires delegates to vote for the primary winner, who in this case happens to be Trump.

White is part of an organization calling itself "Free the Delegates" which is calling on delegates to vote at the convention as their conscience dictates.

Arizona Republican Party Chairman Robert Graham will have none of it.

"I have the law and the rules on my side,” he said. “And it's not to be unfair it's just to manage this entire process and maintain a professional decorum."

Graham says delegates who have decided they can't support the presumptive nominee as promised, should step aside in lieu of an alternate delegate. "Let somebody who's enthusiastically engaged in the process to go and participate."

“That's him saying, you know, 'sit down and be quiet,'" White says. "That's not who we are as grass roots activists."

"Here in Arizona there's a lot of infighting within the statewide GOP," comments a bemused Sheila Healy, Executive Director of the Arizona Democratic Party. "I would say it's uh, it's not unhelpful for our cause," she adds with a hearty laugh.

Yet the Arizona GOP is certainly not alone when it comes to conflict over presumptive nominee Donald Trump.

On the other side of the country, a lawsuit filed in federal district court in Richmond on Friday, June 24 seeks to declare Virginia's delegate binding law unconstitutional.

The suit lists Virginia delegate Carroll (Beau) Correll, a former Ted Cruz supporter, as lead plaintiff. But his attorney David Rivkin explains it was, "brought on behalf of all of the delegates, Democrat and Republican, from Virginia."

The lawsuit seeks a temporary injunction before the conventions start, and asks that Virginia's law ultimately be stricken down as a violation of First Amendment rights to free speech and association.

"There are approximately 20 other states that have such binding laws in various versions,” Rivkin points out, predicting that a win in Virginia, "...in effect will tell everyone in the nation that these types of binding laws are unconstitutional.”

Yet another group calling on GOP delegates to vote for someone, anyone, other than Trump in the first round has released a television ad. The spot by Delegates Unbound called "Follow Your Conscience" shows clips of Ronald Reagan and Trump side by side making starkly contrasting comments. The 30 second spot ends with the written words, "GOP Delegates: follow your conscience."

In the face of these efforts to take the nomination away from him, Trump reminds Fox News that the largest number of primary voters in history got him where he is today.

"Listen I have millions of people out there, almost 14 million to be exact that will be extremely unhappy if that happens,” he said.

The GOP official heading the RNC's permanent Rules Committee agrees.

"I wasn't a Trump supporter to begin with," Bruce Ash says while explaining why he sent a letter (link to letter here, i will include a pdf attachment to my email) calling on his fellow members to take a firm stand against the dump Trump campaign.

In the letter Ash implores, "We at the RNC must stand by our presumptive nominee's side and defend against all who would threaten our legitimacy as a national party. What is more important than anything else is uniting and defeating Hillary Clinton in 2016.”

Arizona delegate Talmage Pearce, also affiliated with the Free the Delegates group, says uniting to defeat Hillary is now secondary.

"If Donald Trump does become the nominee and loses to Hillary Clinton, and (yet) we're able to accomplish what we're able to accomplish, by freeing the delegates and allowing them to vote their conscience, that's something we can be proud of."

Arizona's Chairman Graham points out that all of Arizona's delegates knew the rules going in.

"At the very beginning of our state convention we have a vote on our rules. It was unanimous...and guess what one of the rules are? That they need to sign the pledge.”

Arizona's 2016 Republican National Convention Delegate and Alternate Delegate Pledge of Support reads in part, "...do hearby pledge my vote and support for the nominee who received the greatest number of votes in the Arizona Presidential Preference election..."

"So if they go there and try to change the rules," Graham says, "they are deceiving a million three hundred thousand voters that voted openly. They should actually let that weigh in on their conscience."

He assures Fox News that, "The state of Arizona will announce 58 votes for Donald Trump," at the GOP convention. And if any delegates, "try to disrupt that or do anything along those lines the RNC has told us in writing that they will credit 58 votes to Mr. Trump."

Unhappy delegates like White, remain undeterred. "I don't think we're going to lose at the convention and I think it's going to be a historic moment."

[Psalm 51:17]

BACK-WARDS

http://www.allenbwest.com/allen/heres-why-im-delighted-about-the-fbis-verdict-on-hillary
Here’s why I’m DELIGHTED about the FBI’s verdict on Hillary…
7/5/16

Of course, the news cycle is completely dominated by FBI Director James Comey’s announcement yesterday recommending no criminal charges against Hillary Clinton. And my response is GREAT! I can’t thank Director Comey enough for coming to this decision.

My concern has always been that Barack Obama would release the hounds on Mrs. Clinton and then push for his vice president, Joe Biden, to be the Democrat nominee. And then, to placate the far lefty socialists, who own the Democrat party, Obama would position Sen. Elizabeth Warren as Biden’s VP. That would be a really tough ticket to beat, since Joe Biden’s favorables, regardless of gaffes and such, are extremely high.

However, James Comey just delivered a gift wrapped with a bow. Why do I say that?

Simple, here’s what FBI Director Comey said regarding Hillary Clinton and this email server episode:

•He concluded Hillary was “extremely careless” in handling our nation’s secrets.
•He admitted no reasonable person could have believed putting these emails on a private server was at all appropriate or acceptable.
•He admitted 110 emails on the server were classified at the time they were sent — showing Hillary not only lied, but knowingly endangered national security as secretary of state.
•He admitted Hillary deleted work-related emails before turning them over to the State Department, despite her claims otherwise.
•And, most shocking, Mr. Comey even admitted it’s likely foreign governments hacked her emails — and our adversaries could know critical secrets about the U.S. government because of Hillary’s actions.

Here’s a simple Southern summation. Hillary Clinton was extremely careless with our not just classified, but highly classified, information — why not just term this gross negligence? I can tell you, if I were a member of our Armed Services who’s been punished for misuse or mishandling of classified information, I would be filing an appeal. See, in the military, at a minimum, you’ll lose your security clearance; maximum, you’ll face courts-martial punishment.

Comey has said Hillary Clinton is not reasonable — is that who you want as president and commander in chief? And Mrs. Clinton’s actions were not appropriate or acceptable. That follows with Mrs. Clinton’s blatant lie about not having any classified material on her private server — her unclassified, private, personal server. Hillary Clinton stated there was no classified correspondence she emailed — wrong, a lie. Lastly, Comey confirmed Hillary Clinton inappropriately deleted the property of the American people — State Department, work-related emails. We know from the deposition of her closest aide, the daughter of Muslim Brotherhood associates Huma Abedin, that she admitted to burning emails.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For one, no one even knows who Joe Biden is (Yes, seriously - you should see the polls, and random people asked on the streets - they have no idea who he is). And two, this is a CRIMINAL offense, that deserves JAIL TIME, PERIOD. There's NO spinning around this - Allen West is controlled opposition!

[Mark]

Hillary Clinton Blames Whites, Cops for Deaths of Young Black Men

Hillary Clinton used a CNN interview on Friday to completely embrace the Democrats’ claim that white people and cops must change to help reduce the number of African-Americans killed in tense exchanges with cops.
“I will call for white people, like myself, to put ourselves in the shoes of those African-American  families who fear every time their children go somewhere, who have to have ‘The Talk,’ about, you now, how to really protect themselves [from police], when they’re the ones who should be expecting protection from encounters with police,” Clinton told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.

“I’m going to be talking to white people, we’re the ones who have to start listening to the legitimate cries coming from our African-American fellow citizens,” she said.

“We’ve got to figure out what is happening when routine traffic stops, when routine arrests, escalate into killings … Clearly, there seems to be a terrible disconnect between many police departments and officers and the people they have sworn to protect,” she said.

Federal policing guidelines are needed because “we have 18,000 police departments… [some of which need more training to] go after systemic racism, which is a reality, and to go after systemic bias,” she said.

“We’ve got to start once again respecting and treating each other with the dignity that every person deserves,” she said.

The statement echoed a tweet from Friday morning.

Hillary Clinton ✔ @HillaryClinton
White Americans need to do a better job of listening when African Americans talk about the seen and unseen barriers you face every day.

To win in November, Clinton need a high turnout of African-American voters.

Neither Blitzer nor Clinton suggested that African-American communities have a role in reducing police-encounter deaths, which usually occur in tense engagements between a few cops and a few suspects with extensive criminal histories.

In general, young African-American men are far more likely to commit crimes than young white men, young Asian men or young Latino men. A November 2011 report by the Justice Department showed that young African-American men are just 1 percent of the population, yet are responsible for a disproportionate percentage of murders in the nation.

Clinton suggested that people who disagree with her agenda are racists. “There is so much more to be done… we can’t be engaging in hateful rhetoric or incitement of violence, we need to be bringing people together … we need more love and kindness.”

http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/07/08/hillary-clinton-blame-whites-cops-shooting-deaths-young-black-men/

[Mark]

Sanders endorses Clinton, reversing everything he’s said about ‘Wall Street candidate’

Bernie Sanders gave up his presidential campaign and endorsed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton... a direct contradiction with what he has spent the past six months saying.   

https://www.rt.com/news/350861-sanders-clinton-campaign-quotes/

[Psalm 51:17]

[Psalm 51:17]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/donald-trump-reportedly-picks-indiana-gov-mike-pence-as-vp-171416958.html
Donald Trump reportedly picks Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as VP
7/14/16

NEW YORK — Multiple reports on Thursday indicated that Donald Trump is set to pick Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his vice presidential running mate, a decision he is expected to formally announce Friday morning.

Citing unnamed sources close to the campaign, both Roll Call and CBS News reported Trump was expected to offer Pence the job in a phone call Thursday afternoon. The New York Times also reported that campaign officials had “signaled” to Republicans in Washington that Pence was Trump’s pick. And the Indianapolis Star, Pence’s hometown paper, also reported the Indiana governor was Trump’s pick, citing unnamed sources.

But Trump campaign officials quickly tried to tamp down those reports. “A decision has not been made by Mr. Trump. He will be making a decision in the future,” Jason Miller, a spokesman for the Republican presidential nominee, said in a message on Twitter. A spokesman for Pence did not respond to an email requesting comment, but the governor’s deputy campaign manager was spotted by reporters on a flight from Indianapolis to New York on Thursday morning.

The Pence pick, if true, would end a whirlwind two weeks in which Trump held what amounted to public auditions for who should be his running mate. Last week, the New York real estate mogul appeared with Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker — who subsequently took himself out of the running for the job. That appearance was followed by a joint rally with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in Cincinnati, while New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie introduced Trump at a policy speech Monday in Virginia Beach, Va.

Pence was the last prospective candidate to appear with Trump, joining him on stage Tuesday night at a rally outside Indianapolis. The next morning, Trump met privately with Pence again in Indianapolis — this time joined by his adult children in a flurry of last-minute meetings with prospective running mates.

On Wednesday, a Republican source close to the Trump campaign said most of Trump’s senior advisers, including his campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, were urging him to pick Pence, arguing that the former Republican congressman and staunch conservative could help Trump win over mainstream and base Republicans still wary of his candidacy. Manafort had privately expressed concern about whether Christie and Gingrich, two powerful personalities with their own political brands, had the ability to be disciplined team players behind Trump heading into the fall.

But critics were sure to zero in on Pence’s policy differences with Trump. The Indiana governor, who briefly entertained his own run for the presidency before endorsing Texas Sen. Ted Cruz late in the GOP primary, has publicly criticized Trump’s proposed ban on Muslims entering the United States as “offensive and unconstitutional.” He is also a vocal supporter of free trade and has strongly backed the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership — two trade deals that Trump has repeatedly railed against as “total disasters” for the country.

At the same time, Pence has had a mixed record on the national stage. While polls suggest he is largely unknown to most Americans, Pence made headlines in 2015 when he signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a bill that was widely criticized as allowing legal discrimination against gays and lesbians. After a national outcry, including threats from major corporations to stop doing business with Indiana, Pence signed an amended version of the bill. But the controversy soured his relationships with the business community and even many Republicans in the state, who felt Pence had gone too far. The controversial bill is widely viewed as what killed Pence’s initial 2016 presidential aspirations.

Still, the Pence pick could potentially be a boost for Trump’s campaign in Indiana, a crucial swing state, and could also help solidify his standing with evangelicals — a key bastion of voting support for Republicans that Trump desperately needs to turn out this fall.

[Mark]

[Psalm 51:17]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/donald-trump-says-hillary-clinton-230001736.html
Donald Trump Says Hillary Clinton Can’t Make Mistakes, But Mike Pence Can

In his first interview with his new running mate, Donald Trump said it was alright for Mike Pence to make a “mistake” in supporting the Iraq War, but not okay for Hillary Clinton to have done the same.

“I don’t care,” Trump said on 60 Minutes when journalist Lesley Stahl asked him about Pence’s support of the war.

“But you’ve used that vote of Hillary’s that was the same as Governor Pence, as the example of her bad judgment,” Stahl pressed.

“Many people have, and frankly, I’m one of the few that was right on Iraq… He’s entitled to make a mistake every once in a while,” Trump said.

“But she’s not?” Stahl asked, referencing Clinton. “No,” Trump responded. “She’s not.”

One of Donald Trump’s favorite cudgels against former Secretary of State Clinton is her vote for the Iraq War when she was a senator from New York, saying it shows a key difference in their decision-making ability that she supported the war and he did not. (Never mind the fact that he told Howard Stern in 2002 that he would support an invasion.)

But Indiana Gov. Pence, Trump’s new running mate, also supported the war at the time. He co-sponsored and voted in favor of the bill authorizing the Iraq War when he was a House representative from Indiana, NBC reports.

[Psalm 51:17]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/more-business-leaders-lining-behind-000000096.html
Business leaders like Clinton more than Trump
7/18/16

Business leaders aren’t happy with the two leading presidential candidates this year. But given their choices, they seem to be choosing Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump.

One prominent business figure will speak during the upcoming Republican National Convention next week: Peter Thiel, the billionaire venture capitalist who co-founded PayPal (PYPL). Thiel’s support for Trump is perplexing, since Thiel is gay and Trump’s vice-presidential pick, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, is ardently opposed to gay marriage. Thiel is also a libertarian who supported Ron Paul in 2012.

Other businesspeople scheduled to speak at the convention are unknown to most Americans: Phil Ruffin is a developer who owns the Treasure Island casino in Las Vegas. Tom Barrack is a usually low-key real-estate investor who runs a California private-equity firm called Colony Capital. Dana White is the voluble president of UFC, the mixed-martial arts company recently purchased by an investor group for $4 billion.

Trump has garnered additional support from some well-heeled acquaintances, such as financiers Carl Icahn, John Paulson, Stephen Feinberg, Wilbur Ross and Andy Beal, Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens and GOP fund-raising honcho Woody Johnson, who owns the New York Jets. Such heavyweights have brought Trump’s fundraising pace almost even with Hillary Clinton’s, though she got a strong head start and still maintains an overall fund-raising lead.

In the opposing corner, however, are the 150 technology leaders who publicly declared that Trump would be a terrible president. Senior technologists associated with Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOGL), Facebook (FB), Samsung (005930.KS), Expedia (EXPE), StubHub, Qualcomm (QCOM), Trulia, Cisco (CSCO), MIT and dozens of other organizations recently signed a public letter in the Huffington Post saying, “Trump would be a disaster for innovation.” They claim his efforts to reduce immigration and restrict trade would hamper innovation rather than foster it.

On top of that, corporate America’s two biggest lobbying groups – the Business Roundtable and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – have railed against Trump’s plans to roll back free-trade deals, hunt down illegal immigrants and build a wall on the Mexican border. Such moves would hurt business at big multinational companies, which, love them or hate them, employ millions and account for a large chunk of US GDP. So the jeers directed at Trump from the business community drown out the occasional cheers.

Decrying Trump isn’t the same thing as endorsing Hillary Clinton, and many businesspeople see her agenda as strangling growth, too. Clinton, for instance, favors more regulation of the energy industry and new fees on financial transactions. Her web site lists dozens of incremental ideas that would impose new rules on businesses that already complain of being overwhelmed with government paperwork. And many of those ideas are similar to ones President Obama has been advocating for eight years, with almost no success getting them through Congress.

But Clinton has something Trump doesn’t: a fairly lengthy list of big-name CEOs who support her publicly. These include famed investor Warren Buffett, Alphabet chairman Eric Schmidt, Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook, Marc Benioff of Salesforce (CRM), Reed Hastings of Netflix (NFLX) and Barry Diller of IAC Interactive (IAC). They may not take the stage at the Democratic convention that kicks off in Cleveland on July 25, which will feature big political names such as President Obama, his wife Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, former president Bill Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders.

A lot of other business leaders are simply keeping their mouths shut. CEOs of the 10 largest US companies, for instance – Walmart (WMT), Exxon Mobil (XOM), General Motors (GM) and so on – have had little to say about this year’s election, and have given virtually no money to either candidate. Sometimes the sidelines is the right place to be.

[Mark]

5 Faith Facts on Mike Pence: A ‘Born-Again, Evangelical Catholic’

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence will be presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s running mate.
 
Trump made it official Friday (July 15) — fittingly, in a tweet.

Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump

I am pleased to announce that I have chosen Governor Mike Pence as my Vice Presidential running mate. News conference tomorrow at 11:00 A.M.
10:50 AM - 15 Jul 2016

 Pence became governor of the Hoosier State in 2013. Previously, he had worked as a lawyer, president of the Indiana Policy Review, political talk radio show host and U.S. congressman.
 
He has described himself as a “pretty ordinary Christian” and as “a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order.”
 
But he also once said, “I made a commitment to Christ. I’m a born-again, evangelical Catholic.” That’s not a combination you hear every day, as journalist Craig Fehrman, who has covered the Indiana governor for Indiana Monthly, has pointed out.
 
Here are five faith facts about Pence and how his unusual faith mix has shaped him as a politician.
 
1. He was raised Catholic and later attended an evangelical megachurch.
 
Growing up in an Irish Catholic family that reportedly revered the Kennedys, Pence served as an altar boy and went to parochial school in Columbus, Ind., according to Fehrman.
 
Pence has said he made that “commitment to Christ” while taking part in a nondenominational Christian student group in college, according to the journalist. Pence had told The Indianapolis Star that he and his family attended Grace Evangelical Church in the 1990s, but by 2013, he told Fehrman they were “kind of looking for a church.”
 
2. He supported causes important to evangelicals as a congressman.
 
As a member of the U.S. House from 2000 until his election as governor, Pence had a  “reputation as a culture warrior (that) was unsullied,” according to Roll Call. The website lists his bona fides: He opposed the expansion of abortion rights and federal spending on embryonic stem cell research, pushed a constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage and briefly cut off new federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
 
3. He clashed with the Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis over refugees.
 
Late last year, Pence clashed with the Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis when he halted state support for efforts to relocate refugees, citing security concerns.
 
The archdiocese defied him by welcoming a Syrian family to the city anyway. In the end, the governor said that while he disagreed with the archdiocese’s action, he would not block food stamps and other state aid for the family.
 
On the other hand, he came out against Trump’s plan to halt all Muslim immigration to the U.S., tweeting last December that “calls to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. are offensive and unconstitutional.”

Governor Mike Pence
✔
@GovPenceIN

Calls to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. are offensive and unconstitutional.
10:30 AM - 8 Dec 2015

    11,219 11,219 Retweets
    9,833

Actually it isnt, and has been done many times in the past, even the great  Jimmy Carter has done it. 

4. He supports Israel.
 
Pundits have said one reason Trump may pick Pence is that the governor’s strong pro-Israel sentiment would shore up Trump’s shaky relationship with Jewish voters. Speaking before AIPAC in 2009, then-Rep. Pence linked his support for Israel with his faith:
 
“Let me say emphatically, like the overwhelming majority of my constituents, my Christian faith compels me to cherish the state of Israel.”
 
He backed that up last December at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s conference when he said: “Israel’s enemies are our enemies, Israel’s cause is our cause. If this world knows nothing else, let it know this: America stands with Israel.”
 
5. He signed Indiana’s controversial “religious freedom” law.
 
Last year, Pence found himself at the center of a storm when he supported Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which would have allowed businesses and individuals to refuse to do business with some people based on their own religious beliefs. In his 2016 State of the State address, he added:
 
“I will not support any bill that diminished the religious freedom of Hoosiers or that interferes with the constitutional rights of our citizens to live out their beliefs in worship, service or work. … No one should ever fear persecution because of their deeply held religious beliefs.”
 
His stance on the issue made him the darling of evangelicals and other conservatives, and he signed the bill into law in March. But a week later, he had to sign a revised version after major corporations, organizations and celebrities vowed to boycott Indiana.
 
http://www.christianheadlines.com/news/5-faith-facts-on-mike-pence-a-born-again-evangelical-catholic.html

[Mark]

[Psalm 51:17]

http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-36832095
US election: Melania Trump 'plagiarised' Michelle Obama
7/19/16

Donald Trump's wife, Melania, took centre stage on the first day of the Republican National Convention but faced accusations that a portion of her speech plagiarised Michelle Obama.

Her speech, which brought the convention to its feet, had themes of inclusivity, honesty and hard work.

Commentators noticed similarities with Mrs Obama's 2008 convention speech.

But Mr Trump's team said Mrs Trump used "common words" and blamed Hillary Clinton for the row.

"There's no cribbing of Michelle Obama's speech," said Paul Manafort, Mr Trump's campaign manager.

"I mean, this is, once again, an example of when a woman threatens Hillary Clinton, how she seeks out to demean her and take her down,'' he added.

It was Mrs Trump's first speech of the campaign and she had the help of a speechwriting team.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus  he did not blame Mrs Trump, but added he would "probably" fire the speechwriter over the controversy.

Earlier, Mr Trump's communications adviser Jason Miller issued a statement saying a "team of writers" used her life's "inspirations" as source material.

Meanwhile Mr Trump himself described her speech as "absolutely incredible".

more

[Mark]

[Mark]