As Chris Hayes told you last night when you said that lie, a man named Andy Martin, a Republican (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Martin), started the birtherism campaign against Obama.

As reported by the NY Times:



http://mobile.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/us/politics/13martin.html

In all, this is an almost nonexistent case for “pay-for-play.” Obama’s executive order, the result of discussions that included agencies besides the State Department, logically flows from administration policies. There is no evidence that Ericsson’s mobile business in Iran was ever under consideration to be part of the executive order — or that Bill Clinton’s speech five months earlier in Hong Kong played a role in what, ultimately, was an order signed by Obama.

One can certainly question the size of Bill Clinton’s speech fee — and whether it was appropriate, given his wife’s job as secretary of state. But that’s a different matter than suggesting that Ericsson influenced U.S. policy through the Hong Kong speech.

Interestingly, Trump has denied that he engaged in pay-for-play when his charitable foundation made a $25,000 donation to Pam Bondi, Florida’s attorney general, a few days after news reports indicated that Bondi’s office was reviewing complaints of deceptive practices against Trump University. After the donation was received, Bondi dropped the case. The donation was a violation of tax laws, but it was not noticed for several years because the Trump Foundation listed the donation in tax filings as a contribution to an unrelated group with a similar name as the Bondi’s political group. The foundation recently paid a fine for making an improper political contribution.

Perhaps it was all a coincidence, as Trump claims. But if his contribution to Bondi is not pay for play, by his standards, then he has even less evidence in the Ericsson case to level this charge against Clinton.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/09/12/trumps-thin-case-for-pay-for-play-regarding-clinton-and-ericsson/?hpid=hp_special-topic-chain_factchecker-840a%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

CNN points out she has been absent since she read a speech at the RNC that plagiarized part of a Michelle Obama DNC speech. CNN further notes that she has yet to appear to make a promised speech spelling out her immigration process. They played a clip of her talking to Anderson Cooper, telling him she came over on a visa, and returned to Slovenia every three months to get it stamped. But CNN notes that the type of visa she would need that would allow her to work would not require stamping every three months; a work visa is good for three years.

http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2016/09/09/where-is-melania-trump-kaye-dnt-ac.cnn

Source: HuffPost

Four new state polls out Sunday morning from NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist show that although Donald Trump leads in typically red Arizona and Georgia, they are up for grabs. And in typically close Nevada and New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton leads, but only by a razor-thin margin.

All four state polls show the race within the margin of error.

In Arizona, Trump leads by 1 point among likely voters, 42 percent to 41 percent. Among registered voters, Clinton has the 1-point advantage, 41-40. With Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson and Green Party nominee Jill Stein in the race, Trump leads by 2 points.

The poll confirms Arizona’s status as a battleground state in this election. The state has been solidly red since 1952, with the exception of Bill Clinton’s 1996 re-election. HuffPost Pollster’s estimate based on publicly available polls gives Trump only a 1.6-point lead over Clinton.

Read more: http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_57d5536ce4b03d2d459ad24b

Source: ABC News

A Democratic group affiliated with an anti-Trump super PAC filed a complaint with the Department of Justice on Wednesday night against Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi for the $25,000 her re-election fundraising group accepted from the Trump Foundation in 2013.

"We believe that Pam Bondi, Florida Attorney General, and Donald Trump have violated federal voting laws including but not limited to bribery across state lines by way of a $25,000 campaign contribution from Trump to Bondi during her 2013 election by way of the Trump Foundation in return for AG Bondi dropping an investigation into Trump University. We ask the DOJ to investigate this matter," a complaint filed by the Democratic Coalition Against Trump reads.

Now that a complaint has been filed, the Department of Justice is obligated to review it and respond to the group that filed it.

“This potential bribery by Donald Trump is further evidence that he and his campaign have no respect for the American democratic process that our nation was built upon,” said Jon Cooper, chairman of the Democratic Coalition Against Trump. “Mr. Trump is completely devoid of any sense of ethics, accountability and responsibility. We cannot allow him to make it anywhere near the Oval Office.”

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/election-complaint-filed-doj-florida-ag-2013-trump/story?id=41954631

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Insulting the generals/Hurrah for Putin

For someone who prides himself on being pro-military, Trump did a number on the senior military command, at least those who served under Barack Obama. There was progression in his views in that he refrained from repeating his notion that he knows more about ISIS than the generals and that he would ask them to develop a plan. But his battering of the career military and his statement that those who worked on these issues in the Obama administration had been "reduced to rubble" was hardly the kind of sentiment that a commander in chief wants to engender in the military. Indeed, it's stunning to consider that Trump seemed more deferential and solicitous to Vladimir Putin (saying the Russian President has an 82% approval rating and that he's been a leader far more than our President) than he was prepared to be to President Obama.

Temperament/experience

Here is where the biggest gap appeared between the two candidates. It's not that Clinton was compelling or particularly charismatic. When asked what quality was most important to foreign policy leadership, Clinton replied that it was steadiness married to strength -- a compact response that seemed sensible and appropriate, particularly when compared to what Trump said. Asked by NBC's Matt Lauer what prepared him to make leadership decisions, Trump fell back on responses about building a great company, traveling around the world, dealing with China and having great judgment: "I called the shots." On balance, Clinton acted and sounded more serious and more presidential.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/07/opinions/trump-clinton-commander-in-chief-forum-opinion-miller/index.html

Source: US New & World Report

The number of vacant positions in the U.S. labor market climbed to an all-time high in July, according to a report published Wednesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

American employers were looking to fill nearly 5.9 million open jobs that month – a notable gain from June's 5.6 million vacancies. The month of July over the last few years has shaped up to be a strong one for openings, as July 2015's tally of 5.79 million vacancies held the previous record.

Openings were spread widely across sectors, with typically well-paying professional and business services employers and health care outfits looking to recruit 1.27 million and 962,000 new workers, respectively. Retail trade and leisure and hospitality companies, meanwhile, were looking to fill 627,000 and 763,000 positions, respectively.

Read more: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-09-07/us-job-openings-hit-all-time-high-as-layoffs-drop-to-3-year-low

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Good news for the US is bad news for Trump.

Stephen Colbert Teases Viewers With Spoof Interview Of Donald Trump's 'Top Cop'
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_57ca7fd9e4b0e60d31df5044

Hilarious!

Donald Trump's immigration speech in Arizona Wednesday night may have undone his chance to win Hispanic voters, with several of his major Latino backers distancing themselves from him as a result of the address and the Clinton campaign jumping to pour resources into the contested the state.
...
Hillary Clinton's campaign pounced on the turn of events.

"Trump just failed his first foreign test: Diplomacy isn't as easy as it looks," the candidate tweeted. In an email, Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta said Trump "didn't just choke" in his meeting with Pena Nieto, "he got beat in the room and lied about it."

After the Phoenix speech, which the campaign called "his darkest speech yet," they launched a six-figure ad buy in Arizona. The campaign plans to air its "Role Models" ad, showing young children apparently watching some of Trump's most inflammatory remarks.

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-0901/trumps-immigration-speech-backfires-with-latinos