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99th_Monkey

99th_Monkey's Journal
99th_Monkey's Journal
February 5, 2016

Intercept/L.Fang: Hillary Won’t Say if She’ll Release Transcripts of Goldman Sachs Speeches

Hillary Clinton Won’t Say if She’ll Release Transcripts of Goldman Sachs Speeches
by Lee Fang * Feb. 4 2016 * The Intercept

During the Democratic presidential debate Thursday evening, MSNBC moderator Chuck Todd picked a question offered by a viewer and pointedly asked Hillary Clinton if she would release the transcripts of her paid speeches to giant investment bank Goldman Sachs. Todd then broadened the question, asking: “Are you willing to release the transcripts of all your paid speeches?”

It was the second time Clinton has been asked if she would release transcripts of the paid speeches she gave behind closed doors. When I asked her in Manchester, New Hampshire, two weeks ago, Clinton simply laughed and turned away.

Asked this time on network television, she said, “I will look into it. I don’t know the status, but I will certainly look into it.” (Video clip from msnbc NH Debate embedded in article here)

Clinton went on to say that she made money from paid speeches by talking “about issues that had to do with world affairs,” suggesting she gave a boilerplate talk. But according to accounts offered by several attendees of one of the Goldman Sachs speeches, Clinton reassured the crowd, telling them that banker-bashing was unproductive and foolish.

https://theintercept.com/2016/02/04/hillary-clinton-refuses-to-say-if-she-will-release-transcripts-of-her-goldman-sachs-speeches/
February 5, 2016

TRANSCRIPTS PLEASE of Goldman Sachs speeches?? HRC "I'll look into it" <--WTF?

What kind of answer is that .. "I'll look into it" ...

February 5, 2016

My 40 y.o. furnace repair guy today was Feeling the Bern

Once he'd finished fixing our furnace in the basement, he came upstairs to fiddle with
the thermostat. He asks, "was that Bernie Sanders I was hearing from downstairs?"

I was a little caught off-guard, not entirely sure where he was going with his question,
but when I said "Yes it was! I'm totally supporting Bernie." he lit up and told me how
excited he is to finally feel like there's a candidate who's really speaking for him and
his family. He couldn't say enough about how thrilled he's feeling about Bernie's
candidacy.

He went on to say how whenever Bernie comes on the radio in the car, he pulls over to
listen, because he wants his children to be exposed to what's going on in US politics
today, because it's their future Bernie's talking about. I at first thought that was a little
'over the top' but the more I thought about it, I appreciated his passion for wanting his
kids to "get" the historical significance of Bernie's run, and his sense of solidarity with
Bernie's message.

Needless to say, it was an uplifting encounter. And I couldn't help appreciate the irony
of his profession being to help people stay warm i.e. to "feel the bern" when they most
need it.

February 4, 2016

Hillary Clinton Turns Stand-Up Comic: "I’m a Progressive Who Gets Things Done"

Hillary Clinton Turns Stand-Up Comic: "I’m a Progressive Who Gets Things Done"
by Jeff Cohn * February 04, 2016 * Common Dreams

In her speech claiming victory after the Iowa caucuses, Hillary Clinton proclaimed herself “a progressive who gets things done.” I had to laugh. And it wasn’t just because former President Bill Clinton – the centrist Triangulator-in-Chief – was standing behind her, beaming and clapping.

"Like her husband, Hillary can come off as either centrist or progressive depending on the audience. And depending on the season – left-leaning during primary election season, and corporate centrist in office."
A quick review of Hillary Clinton’s record shows that much of what she gets done is anti-progressive (not unlike President Clinton in the 1990s). For example:

Promoting Fracking Worldwide is Not Progressive: On behalf of Chevron and other US oil companies, Secretary Clinton and the State Department pushed fracking globally, as Mother Jones has documented: “How Hillary Clinton’s State Department Sold Fracking to the World.”

Boosting Corporate-Friendly Trade Deals is Not Progressive: Secretary Clinton repeatedly praised the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) – as it was being negotiated by the US Trade Representative and her State Department – and she recruited countries into the deal. In October, with Bernie Sanders climbing in the polls, Clinton said she no longer supported the pact, and prevaricated about her earlier boosterism.

Enabling Military Coups is Not Progressive: When she headed the State Department, it enabled a military coup in Honduras that overthrew democratically-elected President Manuel Zelaya, a progressive. Clinton was briefed on the dishonesty that allowed aid to illegally reach the coup government.

Pocketing Millions from Corporate Lectures Fees is Not Progressive: When Wall Street, Big Pharma and other corporate interests paid a soon-to-be presidential candidate an average of $230,000 for a speech, did Hillary Clinton think it was for her brilliant stand-up comedy? Or was it more akin to political bribery? Clinton now says these firms just wanted to hear the views of a former Secretary of State on our “complicated world” – or about the Bin Laden raid. But Politico reported in 2013 soon after one of her three speeches to Goldman Sachs: “Clinton offered a message that the collected plutocrats found reassuring, according to accounts offered by several attendees, declaring that the banker-bashing so popular within both political parties was unproductive and indeed foolish.” (Releasing the speech transcripts would help settle the matter.)

Escalating the Afghan War is Not Progressive: As insider books on the Obama administration have revealed, Secretary Clinton was among the most hawkish of Obama’s advisors in country after country – for example, vociferously urging the failed and pointless 2009 troop surge in Afghanistan.

Chaotic Military Intervention in the Middle East and Libya is Not Progressive: If not for Hillary Clinton’s 2002 Senate vote in support of Bush’s Iraq invasion, Obama would not have defeated her in 2008. As if having learned nothing from the post-invasion chaos in Iraq, Secretary Clinton was one of the strongest voices in 2011 urging Obama to militarily depose Qaddafi in Libya, a country now in total, deadly chaos.

More: http://commondreams.org/views/2016/02/04/hillary-clinton-turns-stand-comic-im-progressive-who-gets-things-done
February 4, 2016

Clinton Last Night: "Name Anything [Wall Street Has] Influenced Me On" -- OK, I Will

Clinton Last Night: "Name Anything [Wall Street Has] Influenced Me On" -- OK, I Will
By HumanOfEarth * Thursday Feb 04, 2016 * Daily Kos

It is wrong and unfair to attack or critique candidates on anything but substance, policy, or record — and Clinton’s statements last night definitely fall underneath this umbrella. The following is not an unbridled attack against Clinton, but a response to a statement she made last night that went unanswered, and should not have.

--

While being questioned about her Wall Street ties, Clinton said to Anderson Cooper, the moderator—

“But you know anybody who knows me who thinks that they can influence me — name anything they’ve influenced me on. Just name one thing. I’m out here every day saying I’m going to shut them down, I’m going after them.”


Challenge accepted.

In 2007, while running for president, Clinton made campaign speeches attacking the tax break for hedge-fund and private-equity executives — one of the infamous loopholes that allows rich people to pay way less in taxes than they’re supposed to — but did not sign her name onto legislation that would have ended the tax break and closed the loophole.

Just as she’s doing now, she was “out [t]here every day saying I’m going to shut them down,” but did not actually use her elected-official power to keep her word, and follow through with the simple act of signing her name onto someone else’s bill.

As Politico reports,

When [Clinton] had a chance to support a 2007 bill that aimed to curb a tax break she publicly decried for hedge-fund and private-equity executives, she failed to sign on.
Clinton said one thing in public, but did another behind closed doors. She attacked Wall Street to voters, but helped them as a senator.


Why?

Because Wall Street executives were the biggest donors to her 2006 Senate campaign and her 2008 presidential campaign.

Clinton got millions from the financial industry while also protecting them — she is most assuredly influenced by her Wall Street donors.

That’s one thing right there, per Clinton’s request — but here’s even more.

In 2007 and 2008, Clinton did not work with the other senators in Congress to pass a housing bill to stop individual financial players from destroying the economy.

As ProPublica reports,

When a broad housing bill finally became law in 2008, Clinton was not among the more than dozen senators credited by party leaders as playing a key role.


She was not a leader in the Senate to stop Wall Street’s reckless behavior. In fact, she was barely even a follower.

MORE:http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/2/4/1479904/-Clinton-Last-Night-Name-Anything-Wall-Street-Has-Influenced-Me-On-OK-I-Will
February 3, 2016

Tweety: "SOCIALIST!!!! SOCIALIST!!!! SOCIALIST!!!! Red-Baiting every guest he has on.

What a useless tool, an obnoxious fool, an inveterate blabber-mouth spewing nonsensical
Red-baiting bullshit. Constantly saying "Bernie's NOT Democratic, not a Democrat!!!
..


February 3, 2016

Which is it? ... or is it "Heads I Win, Tails You Lose?"

Has anyone seen or heard of this? I'm puzzled by it, not certain of the source, but am curious what this
is about, or if there's any basis for the claim that the coin-toss rule in IA give the delegate to the "looser"
not the "winner" of the toss?

According to news outlets, and caucus reporters 6 delegates were given to Clinton because she won a coin toss, however the ruling states that the coin determines not the winner, but the loser of the delegate. Since Clinton won the toss, that means she lost the delegates, and they must go to Bernie instead, meaning he actually is the winner 698-690.

Please share, tweet, and get this message out, so that we can be certain who won the Caucus, and who lost.


Source: https://pivotamerica.com/bernie-wins-in-iowa-winner-of-coin-toss-loses-the-delegate-per-rule-28/

UPDATE: here’s a source I found, though does appear different from the image on twitter, but in rule 26 it does have the same language.. http://www.isea.org/assets/document/IA/2016-1-7%20ISEA%20Caucus%20Kit%201.6.2016.pdf
February 2, 2016

Did the "missing precinct" ever get its votes/delegates counted?

Votes from one precinct in Iowa were still missing Tuesday morning, and Democrats from that neighborhood scrambled to find party officials so that they could report their tally: Bernie Sanders won by 2 delegates over Hillary Clinton.

With Des Moines precinct No. 42's results, Clinton's excruciatingly close lead narrowed further, making the final tally for delegate equivalents in the Democratic Iowa caucuses:

Clinton: 699.57
Sanders: 697.77.

It quickly raised questions about whether Sanders had won the popular vote in Iowa. Sanders backers called for Iowa Democratic Party officials to release the raw vote totals.

“It’s important considering how close the race is. We need to be sure everyone has our accurate count,” Jill Joseph, a rank-and-file Democratic voter who backed Sanders in at No. 42 Monday night, told The Des Moines Register.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2016/02/02/some-democratic-precinct-results-unaccounted/79682184/

February 2, 2016

Bernie wins yet another key SC endorsement: "SC Rep. Joe Neal to endorse @BernieSanders!"

South Carolina Rep. Joe Neal to endorse @BernieSanders!
By slinkerwink * Tuesday Feb 02, 2016 * Daily Kos

Bernie Sanders just picked up an endorsement from SC Rep. Joe Neal! His county is the second most populous in South Carolina — woohoo! Let’s make some inroads in South Carolina, and make it too close to call!



http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/2/2/1478692/-South-Carolina-Rep-Joe-Neal-to-endorse-BernieSanders

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