June 25, 2016

Many experienced GOP strategists unwilling to work for Trump

Source: Associated Press

By STEVE PEOPLES
Jun. 25, 2016 2:09 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump has finally acknowledged that to best compete against Hillary Clinton he needs more than the bare-bones campaign team that led him to primary success. But many of the most experienced Republican political advisers aren't willing to work for him.

From Texas to New Hampshire, well-respected members of the Republican Party's professional class say they cannot look past their deep personal and professional reservations about the presumptive presidential nominee.

While there are exceptions, many strategists who best understand the mechanics of presidential politics fear that taking a Trump paycheck might stain their resumes, spook other clients and even cause problems at home. They also are reluctant to devote months to a divisive candidate whose campaign has been plagued by infighting and disorganization.

"Right now I feel no obligation to lift a finger to help Donald Trump," said Brent Swander, an Ohio-based operative who has coordinated nationwide logistics for Republican presidential campaigns dating to George W. Bush.

"Everything that we're taught as children — not to bully, not to demean, to treat others with respect — everything we're taught as children is the exact opposite of what the Republican nominee is doing. How do you work for somebody like that? What would I tell my family?" Swander said.


Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/f873962acf334563a1ec585cab0766c4/need-help-trump-finds-few-willing-work-him

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I had to add that last paragraph because my jaw hit the floor as I read it. Has this Swander guy been paying attention to what the Republicans have been doing since 1994???

June 25, 2016

Michelle Obama to visit Africa to highlight girls' education

Source: Jerusalem Post

06/25/2016 05:17

WASHINGTON - US first lady Michelle Obama will travel to Africa on Sunday with daughters Sasha and Malia and her mother as part of an effort to promote girls' education, her office said.

The upcoming, six-day trip will include visits to Morocco and Liberia. She will also visit Spain. The trip will highlight the work of Let Girls Learn, a US government initiative launched by US President Barack Obama and the first lady in 2015.

That project is part of "a US government effort to address the barriers that keep over 62 million girls around the world out of school, particularly adolescent girls," the first lady's chief of staff, Tina Tchen, told reporters on a conference call.

Read more: http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Michelle-Obama-to-visit-Africa-to-highlight-girls-education-457677

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I am really going to miss this First Lady. just like I'm going to miss her husband, the President. Class acts, both of them!

June 25, 2016

CNN staff revolts over Corey Lewandowski hire

Source: NY Post

June 24, 2016 | 9:38pm

Ivanka Trump isn’t the only one who doesn’t want Corey Lewandowski around.

Sources told Page Six on Friday that CNN’s “facing a near internal revolt” over Jeff Zucker’s hiring of Lewandowski as an exclusive commentator for the news network days after he was fired as Donald Trump’s campaign manager.

“CNN is facing a near internal revolt over the Corey hiring,” said a TV insider, who described many in the newsroom as “livid.” “Female reporters and producers especially .?.?. They are organizing and considering publicly demanding” that Lewandowski be let go.

The Post reported on Monday that the Donald’s daughter Ivanka gave her dad an ultimatum to cut Corey loose after she was distressed by news he’d grabbed reporter Michelle Fields by the arm at a Florida event, and by a Page Six report that he recently got into a shouting match on a Midtown street with campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks.

Read more: http://pagesix.com/2016/06/24/cnn-staff-revolts-over-corey-lewandowski-hire/

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Jeff Zucker is a goddamned moron.

June 25, 2016

At Least 23 People Dead In West Virginia Flooding - Pictures Video

I honestly don't know which is sadder: The fact that two dozen people have died, or the 99.9% probability that, come November, West Virginia will vote for a goddamned idiot who will insist these floods have nothing to do with climate change.

June 25, 2016

POLITICO delegate survey: Dump Trump lacks the votes

Source: Politico

By Kyle Cheney
06/24/16 06:35 PM EDT

Republicans looking to dump Donald Trump at next month’s convention have passion, energy and a fierce sense that their party will suffer unless Trump is unseated. What they appear to lack, however, are the votes to make it happen.

POLITICO reached out to all 112 members of the committee that will write the rules of the national GOP convention. This is the panel that anti-Trump activists hope to jam a proposal through to free convention delegates to spurn Trump and select another candidate instead. What emerged from the survey, though, is a portrait of a committee with little interest in the dump Trump crowd. In fact, most members may be eager to stop them.

“I support DJT 100%,” said Alabama rules committee member Laura Payne in an email. “I ran to support … Trump & to represent the voters of Alabama. It may or may not be an attempt, but the voters will prevail.”

"Trying to change the rules in mid-game because you don't like the outcome is tantamount to saying you are going to take your ball and go home because you are losing," said Christine Serrano, a Rules Committee delegate from New Jersey. "I will be supporting our Nominee, Donald J. Trump."

It was a common sentiment. Among the 32 committee members who responded, 25 said they would fight efforts to stop Trump’s nomination. . Another 33 members of the panel have been previously on record as endorsing Trump or rejecting efforts to rip the nomination away from him at the convention.



Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/politico-delegate-survey-dump-trump-unwelcome-in-cleveland-224796

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Caveat: the guy who wrote this article is named Cheney. Granular Sodium Consumption Advised.

June 25, 2016

We're Finally in Niagara Falls

Sadly, John Boehner was there before us and drank them. The whole river, too. Goddamn bastard!

June 24, 2016

(UKIP Leader) Nigel Farage admits £350 million a week for the NHS was a 'mistake'

In fairness to Farage, if the ad was made by the "Leave" campaign itself, and he wasn't involved in it, how is that different from one of our SuperPacs making a dubious commercial for a candidate they support?

June 24, 2016

Brits Scramble to Google “What is the EU?” Hours After Voting to Leave It

Source: Fortune Magazine

by Jeff John Roberts
June 24, 2016, 12:39 PM EDT

A bit late, don’t you think? A report from Google shows the British are madly searching to figure out what the European Union is.

According to Google, “What is the EU?” is the second most searched term about the EU since the announcement of the historic Brexit referendum this morning. Oh, and in the hours prior to the vote, Google says one of the top questions was “What is Brexit?”

These and other findings can be found in a report about the EU referendum posted on Google Trends.



Read more: http://fortune.com/2016/06/24/brexit-google-trends/

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The above-mentioned report is here.

The question I have is: How did Donald Trump sneak so many of his supporters into the UK?

June 24, 2016

There Is a Small but Real Possibility That Brexit Will Never Happen

Joshua Keating, Slate...

For all that Thursday night’s Brexit vote was a historic rebuke of the European Union, nothing is actually different today. Britain is still a member of the EU, and will be for some time. And while there’s probably too much political momentum to stop this process now that it’s rolling, there’s a small, but not trivial, chance that the Brexit might not happen at all.

The referendum wasn’t legally binding, just advisory. Technically, the British government doesn’t have to do anything, though it’s obviously under an enormous amount of political pressure to get things moving. The first concrete result of the vote will be the ignominious resignation of Prime Minister David Cameron, who campaigned for the “Remain” side, in opposition to much of his own party, and lost. Cameron said today that he will leave 10 Downing Street before the Conservative Party conference in October, and will leave the task of beginning negotiations on withdrawal to his successor. (Cameron had previously said that withdrawal would begin immediately after the vote if “Leave” won, but that seems to have been a bluff.)

How the Brexit will go down is a little unclear—after all, no country has ever tried to leave the EU before. (Yes, yes, Greenland. I see you. Not the same thing.) The mechanism by which countries leave the EU is Article 50 of the 2007 Lisbon Treaty. Under Article 50, once a member state notifies the European Council of its intention to withdraw, it has two years to negotiate the terms of that withdrawal and hammer out a new relationship with the EU on issues like trade and immigration. Once the two years are up, the treaties between the EU and the country are severed, whether an agreement has been reached or not.

Could leaders in Brussels find a way to fudge this deadline? Sure, why the hell not. But once Article 50 is invoked, the process is irreversible. The U.K. can’t back out. The terms of Britain’s exit, though not the exit itself, will be subject to veto by all 27 of its very cranky EU counterparts.

As a man of Scots-Irish ancestry, I hope the Brexit does occur, the sooner the better. Screw YOU, Welfare-Queen Windsors!

June 24, 2016

The Clash - Should I Stay or Should I Go?

This song just popped in my head, for some reason.