Hissyspit
Hissyspit's JournalPresident Obama commutes sentences of 214 people, most issued by president in single day since 1900
Source: NBC News / Buzzfeed
@BreakingNews: President Obama commutes sentences of 214 people, most issued by president in single day since 1900 - BuzzFeed News https://t.co/ch88VFG0Bv/s/3e2P
POLITICS
Obama Commutes Sentences Of More Than 200 People Serving Federal Sentences
“We’re going to keep our foot on the gas pedal when it comes to reviewing applications for clemency,” White House counsel Neil Eggleston says. President Obama has now commuted the sentences of 562 people.
Originally posted on August 3, 2016, at 1:30 p.m.
Updated on August 3, 2016, at 1:41 p.m.
Chris Geidner
BuzzFeed News Reporter
WASHINGTON — President Obama commuted the sentences of 214 people serving federal sentences on Wednesday — the most commutations issued by a president in a single day since at least 1900 — White House officials told BuzzFeed News.
The commutations are the latest in a series of such reprieves issued by Obama after announcing his support in 2014 for a clemency review process to address those serving harsh sentences that they would not be subject to if convicted today. The Clemency Project has led Obama to to grant a series of such commutations beginning in July 2015.
"This is a good day — not just for the 214 individuals who are getting a hard-earned second chance, but for the people at the White House and the Department of Justice and at advocacy organizations across the country who work every day to remedy injustices in our sentencing laws,” White House counsel Neil Eggleston told BuzzFeed News. “We're going to keep our foot on the gas pedal when it comes to reviewing applications for clemency, but we are also going to need leaders in both parties in Congress to pass long overdue reforms to our criminal justice system to achieve lasting change on the scale that is needed."
Sixty-seven of Wednesday's commutations are for people serving life sentences – almost all, per the White House, for nonviolent drug crimes. A quick review of the full list of commutations provided to BuzzFeed News appears to show that the same holds true for the vast majority of the underlying offenses involved in the other commutations as well.
Read more: https://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/obama-commutes-sentences-of-more-than-200-people-serving-fed?utm_term=.kyovoyPLE#.fl8gbJ0ZP
Just noticed election.princeton.edu, an election forecast site, uses the term "Trump-safe" state...
Let that sink in for a moment. There are Trump-safe states.
By the way, they are as good as, if not better than, 538: http://election.princeton.edu
Newsweek Cover Story: Donald Trump's Many Business Failures, Explained
http://www.newsweek.com/2016/08/12/donald-trumps-business-failures-election-2016-486091.htmlDONALD TRUMP'S MANY BUSINESS FAILURES, EXPLAINED
BY KURT EICHENWALD
ON 8/2/16 AT 6:10 AM
COVER STORY
- snip -
Lost contracts, bankruptcies, defaults, deceptions and indifference to investors—Trump’s business career is a long, long list of such troubles, according to regulatory, corporate and court records, as well as sworn testimony and government investigative reports. Call it the art of the bad deal, one created by the arrogance and recklessness of a businessman whose main talent is self-promotion.
He is also pretty good at self-deception, and plain old deception. Trump is willing to claim success even when it is not there, according to his own statements. “I’m just telling you, you wouldn’t say that you're failing,” he said in a 2007 deposition when asked to explain why he would give an upbeat assessment of his business even if it was in trouble. “If somebody said, ‘How you doing?’ you're going to say you're doing good.” Perhaps such dissembling is fine in polite cocktail party conversation, but in the business world it’s called lying.
And while Trump is quick to boast that his purported billions prove his business acumen, his net worth is almost unknowable given the loose standards and numerous outright misrepresentations he has made over the years. In that 2007 deposition, Trump said he based estimates of his net worth at times on “psychology” and “my own feelings.” But those feelings are often wrong—in 2004, he presented unaudited financials to Deutsche Bank while seeking a loan, claiming he was worth $3.5 billion. The bank concluded Trump was, to say the least, puffing; it put his net worth at $788 million, records show. (Trump personally guaranteed $40 million of the loan to his company, so Deutsche coughed up the money. He later defaulted on that commitment.)
Trump’s many misrepresentations of his successes and his failures matter—a lot. As a man who has never held so much as a city council seat, there is little voters can examine to determine if he is competent to hold office. He has no voting record and presents few details about specific policies. Instead, he sells himself as qualified to run the country because he is a businessman who knows how to get things done, and his financial dealings are the only part of his background available to assess his competence to lead the country. And while Trump has had a few successes in business, most of his ventures have been disasters.
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AP sources: CEO at Democratic National Committee Resigns (Amy Dacey)
Source: Associated Press
AP sources: CEO at Democratic National Committee Resigns
By JULIE BYKOWICZ and JULIE PACE
Aug. 2, 2016 12:54 PM EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) — The chief executive of the Democratic National Committee has resigned in the wake of an email hack that embarrassed the party on the eve of its convention.
That's according to three Democratic strategists familiar with Amy Dacey's decision to leave her job. The people spoke on condition of anonymity, because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.
The Democrats say other personnel moves at the party are also expected Tuesday.
The content of the hacked emails exposed an apparent lack of neutrality in the primary race between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, with party officials disparaging Sanders.
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/f7ebd00c63fa43169ec9b7609fe851f3
Fred Tomlinson, Singer, Songwriter on Monty Python, Dies ("Lumberjack Song," Vikings Spam)
Source: Telegraph UK
Fred Tomlinson, Singer, Songwriter on Monty Python - Obituary
2 AUGUST 2016 • 5:24PM
Fred Tomlinson, who has died aged 88, was the founder and leader of the Fred Tomlinson Singers, who provided vocals for Monty Python’s Flying Circus, The Two Ronnies and other television shows.
For some 20 years from the late 1960s Tomlinson’s singing, playing, arranging, compositional and even whistling skills were frequently called upon for musical items in television programmes.
Among other things he co-wrote the Python team’s Lumberjack Song (his singers played the Mounties in the original sketch and the Vikings singing Spam! Wonderful Spam! in another famous skit) and had a starring role as a soloist on The Two Ronnies in the St Botolph Country Dance Team’s rendition of Bold Sir John. It was often left to Tomlinson to complete other people’s musical ideas. The comedians and script writers would come up with suggestions for a musical sketch and then say: “We’ll leave the rest to Fred.”
Tomlinson did not confine his musical interests to the popular field and, as a bass singer, was often roped in as a last minute “stiffener” by amateur choral groups. He did much work for John McCarthy and the Ambrosians, a vocal ensemble which performed at concerts and operas, as well as in musicals, films and television.
Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2016/08/02/fred-tomlinson-singer-on-monty-python--obituary/
"Among other things he co-wrote the Python team’s Lumberjack Song (his singers played the Mounties in the original sketch and the Vikings singing Spam! Wonderful Spam! in another famous skit)"
Paul Krugman Coins Term for Trump Behavior When Beginning to Realize for Sure He Will Lose:
'Derp Spiral'
Aha! I think I have the term for what happens to Trump if (when) he finds himself ever more likely to lose: he will go into a derp spiral.
Nate Silver: Clinton’s Bounce Appears Bigger Than Trump’s
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/election-update-clintons-bounce-appears-bigger-than-trumps/AUG 1, 2016 AT 11:35 AM
Election Update: Clinton’s Bounce Appears Bigger Than Trump’s
By Nate Silver
Filed under 2016 Election
Initial polls conducted after the Democratic National Convention suggest that Hillary Clinton has received a convention bounce. In fact, it appears likely that Clinton’s bounce will exceed Donald Trump’s, which measured at 3 to 4 percentage points. Thus, Clinton will potentially exit the conventions in a stronger position than she entered them, perhaps also making up for some of the ground she lost to Trump earlier in July. This is good news for Clinton, but we’ll need to wait a few weeks to see if she can sustain her bounce before we can conclude that the race has been fundamentally changed.
Before we continue, a quick note or two about terminology. When we refer to a candidate’s “bounce,” we mean the net gain in her standing in the polls, including changes to her opponent’s vote share. For example, if the previous XYZ News poll had it Clinton 42 percent, Trump 40 percent, and their new poll has it Clinton 44, Trump 39, we’d call that a 3-point bounce for Clinton, since Clinton gained 2 percentage points and Trump lost 1 point.1
Also, when evaluating the gains a candidate has made, it’s important to note when the previous poll was conducted. Based on our models, Clinton led by 6 to 7 percentage points throughout most of June, but her lead dissipated to around 3 percentage points by mid- to late July, just before the conventions. Then, after the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Trump pulled into an approximate tie with Clinton. It’s those post-RNC polls that make for the best comparison when describing Clinton’s bounce.
So far, however, the post-convention polls have been strong enough for Clinton that there isn’t a lot of need to worry about semantics. They suggest that she possibly holds a lead over Trump in the mid- to high single digits, instead of being tied with him. Here are the fully post-convention polls we’ve seen so far:
- A CBS News poll has Clinton ahead by 5 percentage points, in the version of the poll that includes third-party candidates (which is the version FiveThirtyEight uses). Trump led Clinton by 1 point in a CBS News poll conducted just after the RNC, so that would count as a 6-point bounce for Clinton.
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Massive Flash Flood in Ellicott City MD Last Night
Amazing. I have been there many times. If you are not familiar, Main Street runs at a steep incline down through rock to the bridge over the Patapsco River. That is what you are seeing here. Four streams come together toward where the town is. One woman reported found dead in the river.
Ghazala Khan Wash. Post Op/Ed: "Trump criticized my silence. He knows nothing about true sacrifice."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ghazala-khan-donald-trump-criticized-my-silence-he-knows-nothing-about-true-sacrifice/2016/07/31/c46e52ec-571c-11e6-831d-0324760ca856_story.html?tid=sm_fbGhazala Khan: Trump criticized my silence. He knows nothing about true sacrifice.
By Ghazala Khan OpinionsJuly 31 at 9:45 AM
Ghazala Khan’s son, U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan, was killed in Iraq in 2004.
CHARLOTTESVILLE
Donald Trump has asked why I did not speak at the Democratic convention. He said he would like to hear from me. Here is my answer to Donald Trump: Because without saying a thing, all the world, all America, felt my pain. I am a Gold Star mother. Whoever saw me felt me in their heart.
- snip -
The last time I spoke to my son was on Mother’s Day 2004. We had asked him to call us collect whenever he could. I begged him to be safe. I asked him to stay back, and not to go running around trying to become a hero, because I knew he would do something like that.
He said, “Mom, these are my soldiers, these are my people. I have to take care of them.” He was killed by a car bomber outside the gates of his base. He died trying to save his soldiers and innocent civilians.
- snip -
When Donald Trump is talking about Islam, he is ignorant. If he studied the real Islam and Koran, all the ideas he gets from terrorists would change, because terrorism is a different religion.
Donald Trump said he has made a lot of sacrifices. He doesn’t know what the word sacrifice means.
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Clinton Leads Trump by 6 Points After Democratic Confab: Reuters/Ipsos Poll
Source: Reuters
Fri Jul 29, 2016 | 6:17 PM EDT
Clinton leads Trump by 6 points after Democratic confab: Reuters/Ipsos poll
By Grant Smith | NEW YORK
(Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton held a 6- percentage-point lead over Republican rival Donald Trump, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll with new wording that was released on Friday, the day after she formally accepted her party's nomination for the Nov. 8 election.
Nearly 41 percent of likely voters favor Clinton, 35 percent favor Trump, and 25 percent picked "Other," according to the new July 25-29 online poll of 1,043 likely voters, which overlapped with the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1092M5
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