pnwmom
pnwmom's JournalThere is nothing very "awesome" or "exceptional" about Wharton graduates,
according to Donald Trump, who managed to get a degree there. Why shouldn't we believe him?
And there was nothing exceptional about Donald Trump either. He didn't graduate 1st in his class, as some sources claim. He didn't even graduate with honors. And he transferred in as a junior from Fordham, after getting an assist from a family friend. He barely made a mark while he was a student there.
Wharton is the business school associated with U Penn. This is from a U Penn newspaper article, and it is followed by comments from a Fortune article. Both shed some light on Trump's accomplishments at Wharton, or lack thereof.
http://www.thedp.com/article/2015/08/donald-trump-wharton-classmates
He added, “It didn’t take long to realize that there was nothing particularly awesome or exceptional about my classmates, and that I could compete with them just fine.”
During Trump’s rise to the top of the real estate development world, various news publications exaggerated his academic achievements at Wharton, according to a 2011 Salon magazine article.
Reports of Trump’s grades at Wharton vary. The New York Times reported in 1973 and 1976 that he graduated first in his class. But in a 1985 biography of Trump, Jerome Tuccille wrote that he was not an honor student and “spent a lot of time on outside business activities.”
Another biographer, Gwenda Blair, wrote in 2001 that Trump was admitted to Wharton on a special favor from a “friendly” admissions officer. The officer had known Trump’s older brother, Freddy.
http://fortune.com/2015/08/14/donald-trump-wharton/
Last month, comedy website Funny or Die released a viral video, called “Donald Trump: POW.” The “W” in this case stood for Wharton — the prestigious business school at the University of Pennsylvania. The video mockingly applauds Trump’s ability to remain under the radar during his time in Philadelphia: “Trump was careful not to capture any unwanted attention at school, he evaded the Dean’s List and any kind of honors and any kind of recognition of service,” the video quips.
(R-Utah) Bob Bennett's daughters are urging his son Jim to vote for Hillary Clinton.
Bob Bennett, former Utah Senator, apologized to Muslims about Trump's anti-Muslim views before Bennett died.
Now his son Jim has left the Republican party and become an Independent. But his sisters say he should vote for Hillary.
How come no one's interviewing the sisters?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-mormon-republicans_us_57adfc14e4b069e7e504f281?section=us_politics
Jim Bennett, the son of former Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah), said Friday that he recently switched his voter registration to independent because the GOP has changed for the worse under its presidential nominee.
“The Republican Party that was near and dear to my heart for most of my adult life bears very little or no resemblance to the party of Trump,” Jim Bennett told MSNBC’s Kate Snow. “You know, people had called me a RINO, a Republican in name only, and I decided that I no longer wanted to be a Republican even in name as long as Donald Trump is heading the ticket.”
Bennett, who is Mormon, was in the news earlier this year when he revealed that his father had spent time before his death apologizing to Muslims for Trump’s comments.
SNIP
Bennett said he thinks Trump will still win Utah because “tribal loyalties to the Republican Party are very strong.” But he still thinks Clinton has a shot, which he called “astonishing.” He said he currently doesn’t plan to vote for Clinton, but that his sisters have urged him to.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3598854/Former-Republican-senator-spent-dying-days-apologizing-Muslims-Donald-Trump.html#ixzz4HL77Visf
Three-term Utah Senator Bob Bennett passed away on May 4, after a struggle with pancreatic cancer.
In an interview with the Daily Beast, Bennett's family say he spent his last year becoming more and more disappointed in his party for not stopping Trump.
After suffering a stroke in his final days, one of his last wishes in the hospital was to speak to Muslim patients.
Former Bush official supporting Clinton: Trump could be economic 'disaster'
Source: CNN
Washington (CNN)Former Bush administration official Carlos Gutierrez says he will be voting for Hillary Clinton, calling Donald Trump's economic policies a "disaster."
The former commerce secretary under President George W. Bush said he looked at the "totality" of the choice between the two candidates and decided on Clinton.
"I have one resume here for Donald Trump, I have one resume here for Hillary Clinton, and I've chosen this resume," Gutierrez said, indicating Clinton. "I think this person, Hillary Clinton, is the best for the country. I'm not thinking about (it as) a Republican, I'm thinking about (it as) a US citizen. I think at some point, you have to put the party aside and say what's best for the country? I don't want to live in a society that I think Donald Trump will create."
Gutierrez said Clinton would "make a darned good president" based on her "experience," while the thought of a Trump presidency makes him "afraid."
Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/14/politics/carlos-gutierrez-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-election-2016/
"Best Pot Plants": Oregon State Fair to display winner of first ever Marijuana Fair.
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/legal-pot/first-ever-marijuana-fair-opens-oregon-competition-n630056SALEM, Ore. — People flocked to Oregon's first-ever marijuana growers' fair on Saturday, where a competition for best pot plants will be held with the winning entries to be displayed at the Oregon State Fair.
The inaugural two-day event being held in an exhibition hall on the Oregon State Fairgrounds underscores how the once-illicit marijuana industry is starting to go mainstream in Oregon, one of four states to have legalized recreational marijuana use, along with Washington, D.C.
Donald Morse, a pot grower who conceived the Oregon Cannabis Growers' Fair, said attendance was strong, less than two hours after the doors opened Saturday morning. Segments of the industry, from seed providers all the way to a company offering mechanized bud trimmers, were among more than 80 exhibitors at the fair that ends Sunday.
Reggae music thumped from Savant Plant Technologies' display on Friday as owner James Knox, 38, of Corvallis, set up his do-it-yourself grow package, including peat and microorganisms to stimulate plant growth.
SNIP
The Trump-Clinton divide on little people. (according to a business columnist)
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/nation-now/2016/08/12/trump-clinton-economic-plans-little-people-detroit-column/88613520/All it takes, he seemed to say, are a few of these big broad strokes and all will be well. Or as Trump himself put it, "I want to jump-start America and it won't even be that hard."
By contrast, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s plan outlined Thursday in nearby Warren seems to accept that, yes, it will be hard. Therefore she attacks the problems at ground level — down where entrepreneurs need working capital and commuters need reliable public transit and school kids need high-speed broadband.
Trump’s plan, with its emphasis on tax cuts and getting those intrusive government regulators off our backs, comes from somewhere high atop one of Trump’s skyscrapers. It’s a view from the boardroom, from a place where the big deals are done and the little people remain out of sight.
But Clinton’s plan seemed to acknowledge each and every one of those little people. She hopes to counsel first-time homeowners on handling debt. She wants to put at-risk youths to work, and to help returning offenders find jobs, and to bankroll entrepreneurs with their dreams. Her plan has a granular quality; on public transit, for example, she focuses down to the level of bike and pedestrian lanes needed in cities.
There’s an old saying that nothing works but that everything might: that no one silver-bullet solution will turn things around but that if we try 100 different things and each one moves the needle just a bit, then we might make real progress. That seems to be Clinton’s approach.
SNIP
US-backed anti-ISIS coalition frees 2000 hostages in Manbij. Residents celebrate their liberation.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-37066304Residents in the northern Syrian city of Manbij have been celebrating new freedoms after being liberated from the rule of so-called Islamic State.
They have poured into the streets enjoying basic rights they had been denied for two years, including shaving off their beards and smoking.
US-backed Kurdish and Arab fighters fought 73 days to drive IS out of Manbij, close to the Turkish border.
About 2,000 civilians being used as human shields were also freed.
SNIP
Sarcasm means saying one thing and actually meaning the opposite. So apparently when Trump
said Obama and Hillary were the "founders" of ISIS, he actually meant the "opposite."
Which is actually true . . .
http://www.learnersdictionary.com/definition/sarcasm
Why the USC/LA Times tracking poll is a crock.
You may know that it doesn't use a random sample; it uses an online panel.
But the problems go even beyond that. For example, it weights the sample according to its respondents report of how they voted in 2012 -- a number that has often been shown to be inaccurate in the past. (More people always recall having voted for the winner.)
http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-polling-differences-20160809-snap-story.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/09/upshot/a-favorable-poll-for-donald-trump-has-a-major-problem.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fupshot&action=click&contentCollection=upshot®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=4&pgtype=sectionfront
One factor that could be contributing to the panel’s tilt toward Mr. Trump is its decision to weight its sample according to how people say they voted in 2012.
The pollsters ask respondents whether they voted for President Obama or Mitt Romney. They then weight the sample so that Obama voters represent 27 percent of the panel and Romney voters represent 25 percent, reflecting the split of 51 percent to 47 percent between the two among actual voters in 2012. (The rest include newly eligible voters and those who stayed home.)
SNIP
With these figures in mind, the U.S.C./LAT poll’s decision to weight its sample to 27 percent for Mr. Obama and 25 percent for Mr. Romney is quite risky. If the panelists, like those in other surveys, are likelier to recall voting for the winner (Mr. Obama), then the poll is unintentionally giving extra weight to Republican voters. Or you can imagine a counterfactual: If the poll were weighted to 33 percent for Obama and 25 percent for Romney (per the NYT/CBS numbers), then Mrs. Clinton would hold a more comfortable lead.
SNIP
There are many other things that could be causing the difference between the U.S.C./LAT results and other surveys — like its unusual probabilistic measure of vote support (voters indicate how likely they are to vote for a candidate on a scale from 0 to 100) or the difficulties of recruiting and maintaining a panel.
RuPaul explains why he supports "the badass bitch who knows how to get shit done."
http://www.vulture.com/2016/08/rupaul-emmy-nomination-trump-clinton.htmlAnd if you think that you can go to fucking Washington and be rainbows and butterflies the whole time, you're living in a fucking fantasy world. So now, having said that, think about what a female has to do with that: All of those compromises, all of that shit, double it by ten. And you get to understand who this woman is and how powerful, persuasive, brilliant, and resilient she is. Any female executive, anybody who has been put to the side — women, blacks, gays — for them to succeed in a white-male-dominated culture is an act of brilliance. Of resilience, of grit, of everything you can imagine. So, what do I think of Hillary? I think she's fucking awesome. Is she in bed with Wall Street? Goddammit, I should hope so! You've got to dance with the devil. So which of the horrible people do you want? That's more of the question. Do you want a pompous braggart who doesn't know anything about diplomacy? Or do you want a badass bitch who knows how to get shit done? That's really the question.
Michael Morrell, former CIA Acting Director, answers critics about Hillary's achievements
as the Secretary of State.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/12/opinion/q-a-michael-j-morell-on-his-clinton-endorsement.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region®ion=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region
Q. You praise Hillary Clinton’s poise and preparedness at the State Department, but can you speak to any real achievements during her term as secretary of state?
A. She was key to many achievements, including building the international sanctions regime against Iran, the most effective in history and the single factor that forced Tehran to the negotiating table, making possible last year’s agreement that set back Iran’s nuclear program by well over a decade; overseeing the negotiation of a new arms control treaty with Russia that reduced nuclear stockpiles to their lowest levels in decades; and brokering a cease-fire in Gaza that averted a ground war. She played a central role in bringing China and India to the table for the first time on climate change, leading to last year’s Paris accord; in opening Burma to the world and taking the initial steps that resulted in normalized relations with Cuba; and in advancing the rights of women and girls around the globe.
But in my view, her greatest achievement was her work with the rest of the national security team that prevented any attacks by an international terrorist group on the homeland. This is a remarkable achievement, given the intentions, capabilities and plots of Al Qaeda to attack us during her tenure. Secretary Clinton was a leader in our fight against terrorism. In these policy discussions, her voice carried immense weight. She supported aggressive operations against extremists, including drone strikes, the military surge in Afghanistan and the Bin Laden raid. In her diplomatic work, she worked to ensure that our allies and partners were supporting us in this critically important mission.
I think it is ironic that many of Secretary Clinton’s critics, who are raising questions today about her achievements as secretary of state, heaped praise on her both when she was in the job and when she stepped down at the end of President Obama’s first term. In 2012, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said she was “one of the most effective secretary of states … that I have known in my lifetime.” A year earlier, Mr. Graham called her a “national treasure.” In 2014, Mike Huckabee, a former Republican governor of Arkansas, called Secretary Clinton “a policy genius.” Even Newt Gingrich, in 2013, said that she had done a “tremendous job” as secretary of state.
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