Open thread for Sunday, August 30th: ‘Ever Fallen in Love?’
Here is the open thread for Sunday, August 30th. Please feel free to post links to interesting articles and to discuss whatever issues arise during the course of the day. Nothing is off-topic here.
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Have you ever fallen in love with someone you shouldn’t have fallen in love with? Here is The Buzzcocks with that very same question.
Jeb Bush’s top fundraisers leave his campaign
Despite the establishment’s best efforts to foist him upon us Jeb Bush has not been able to gain much momentum after some early success. With his campaign now sputtering comes news that some of his top fundraisers are bolting his side.
Here is more:
Three top Jeb Bush fundraisers abruptly parted ways with his presidential campaign on Friday, amid internal personality conflicts and questions about the strength of his candidacy, POLITICO has learned.
There are different versions of what transpired. The Florida-based fundraising consultants — Kris Money, Trey McCarley, and Debbie Alexander — have said that they voluntarily quit the campaign and were still working with Bush’s super PAC, Right to Rise Super PAC. Others said the three, who worked under the same contract, were let go because they were no longer needed for the current phase of the campaign.
There are conflicting stories as to why these men have left the campaign, as well as whether they were fired or if they left on their own, however Jeb Bush’s remaining people are trying to put a happy face on for the public.
Donors last week told POLITICO that they still felt good about Bush’s chances and that they weren’t worried about Bush’s recent slip from second to third place in averages of national polls. As the son and brother of former presidents, the former governor of the third-most populous state in the nation has a broad, deep-pocketed and savvy donor base.
Normally I would agree with this because once the establishment picks its candidate it is a guarantee that the money will flow in while at the same time the other Republican candidates will be strangled out by the establishment–the money, except for individual donations, will dry up and eventually the preferred candidate will win. And of course the voters will believe they chose the candidate when nothing could be further from the truth, it is an illusion.
But this is not a normal election year and there is a wildcard in this case in the name of Donald Trump. The establishment will not be able to strangle him out of the race by cutting off the money because he has the means to support himself and his candidacy. This could just be the beginning of Jeb Bush’s problems…
Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Federal judge blocks EPA’s new water regulation
The EPA was set to enact a new water regulation which many people believe would grant the agency power to regulate puddles and small streams on private property but last night a Federal judge, Ralph Erickson, issued a temporary injunction ordering the EPA to put a halt to the implementation of this rule while an ongoing lawsuit is decided.
Here is more:
President Obama’s push to extend the EPA’s regulatory hand to ditches and small streams to enforce clean water rules was blocked Thursday by a federal judge, who said the administration had overstepped its bounds in trying yet another end run around Congress.
Judge Ralph R. Erickson called the Environmental Protection Agency’s attempt “inexplicable, arbitrary and devoid of a reasoned process,” and issued an injunction preventing the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from claiming oversight of millions of acres of land that contain small bodies of water.
Judge Erickson, who sits in federal district court in North Dakota, said he’d looked at all the evidence he could, and couldn’t see how the EPAjustified the 4,000-foot standard.
“The rule asserts jurisdiction over waters that are remote and intermittent waters. No evidence actually points to how these intermittent and remote wetlands have any nexus to a navigable-in-fact water,” he wrote.
He said the change in definition was big enough that the administration should have gone through a full public notice and comment period.
He also ruled that it appeared as if the EPA overstepped its bounds:
Republican leadership has no plans to talk about illegal immigration at Town Hall meetings
For all of my perceived problems with Donald Trump there is one issue (as a couple of people who regularly comment on America’s Watchtower have reminded me) that he has brought to the forefront of the debate which otherwise would have been forgotten, and that is the issue of illegal immigration.
For all of the Republicans’ bluster on this issue concerning Barack Obama’s Executive Orders none of the candidates were talking about it and that is because when it comes to illegal immigration and amnesty the Republicans and the Democrats are on the same side.
The Republicans would rather not talk about this issue for the aforementioned reason and if this story is true they still have no plans to talk about it despite Donald Trump skyrocketing to the top of the polls. Here is more:
Hillary Clinton compares pro-life Republicans to terrorists
Hillary Clinton compared pro-life Republicans to terrorists earlier today, here is what she had to say:
“Now, extreme views about women, we expect that from some of the terrorist groups, we expect that from people who don’t want to live in the modern world, but it’s a little hard to take from Republicans who want to be the president of the United States,” Clinton said. “Yet they espouse out of date, out of touch policies. They are dead wrong for 21st century America. We are going forward, we are not going back.”
Of course, like most Democrats, she couched this by basically claiming that the Republican are anti-women but this is a blatant misrepresentation of what those of us who believe an unborn baby is a life actually stand for and I find the comment to be despicable. I am not alone:
Donald Trump has been unwilling to vow not to run a third-party candidacy if he does not win the Republican nomination. If he were to run as an independent it would ensure the Democratic nominee would win the Presidency and he sees this as leverage in the Republican primary.
I however see this threat as more like extortion than anything else–vote for me or I will do what it takes to make sure nobody but a Democrat wins in 2016. This threat could also entice people who would otherwise not vote for him in the primary to do so out of fear of a third-party run, however according to this story Donald Trump is now telling the Republican leadership he will forego a third-party run if he does not win the nomination.
Here is more:
Donald Trump opens up 24 point lead in latest New Hampshire poll
According to a new poll Donald Trump has opened up a gigantic lead against his Republican rivals in New Hampshire, here is more:
Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump is dominating the crowded GOP field in the early-voting state of New Hampshire, holding a 24-point lead over his nearest rival, according to a new poll.
Trump is supported by 35 percent of GOP primary voters in the state, followed by Ohio Gov. John Kasich (11 percent) and businesswoman Carly Fiorina (10 percent), according to the survey released Tuesday from the left-leaning Public Policy Polling.Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker each take 7 percent, followed by retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson at 6 percent. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio each have 4 percent, while Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul has dropped to 3 percent.
Three Federal agencies confirm emails found on Hillary Clinton’s server were classified from the beginning
Hillary Clinton has maintained that she did not send or receive any classified emails on her personal email server although she recently tweaked her story to say none of the emails were “marked” classified at the time she received them. A small distinction which could play a large role when it comes to one of her top aides–Huma Abedin.
However three intelligence agencies are now confirming that emails found on the former Secretary of State’s server were indeed classified at the time they were written and remain classified to this day. Here is more:
Fox News chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge reported this morning that three government agencies are now confirming that information contained in Hillary Clinton’s private email was classified at the time it was sent.
Herridge said the classified information was in an email three years ago from Clinton aide Huma Abedin to the then-secretary of state, and the messages kickstarted the ongoing FBI probe of Clinton’s email server.
The DIA, the NSA, and the NGA, which oversees U.S. government spy satellites, confirmed to Herridge that the information was classified at the time and remains classified now.
And due to an Executive Order issued by Barack Obama back in 2009 no agency is allowed to remove the classified marking of another agency, only the agency which generated the email is allowed to do so.
According to this story, back in 2010 the Department of Homeland security instituted the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation program which mandated ALL Federal agencies to “submit a list of systems, vulnerabilities and configuration issues to DHS every 30 days” so that the DHS could evaluate them for security risks.
At this time Hillary Clinton’s email server was holed up in what I suppose is the most secure bathroom closet in the nation but even though the former Secretary of State performed ALL official State Department business on this home brew server, meaning it should have been reported to DHS, it never was–DHS has no record of its existance.
Here is more:
When thinking about the Hillary Clinton email scandal an important, but as of yet mostly unasked, question comes to mind and it is this: If Hillary Clinton was using a personal email server to conduct ALL State Department business who else was also using a personal account for official business?
It seems like a logical question to ask for if one public servant was using a personal email server to hide her activities and keep them beyond the reach of oversight committees and FOIA requests it stands to reason that others would as well–especially if they are engaged in nefarious activities.
And speaking of nefarious activities that brings us to Lois Lerner and the IRS targeting scandal. According to this story the IRS is now admitting the agency has found a second personal email account on which Lois Lerner conducted at least some IRS business.
Here is more:
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