What’s so remarkable about the following clip from a Bloomberg interview with iconic bond fund manager Bill Gross isn’t so much that he warned about a looming systemic implosion, but how much he struggled to actually say it out loud despite clearly wanting to.
Pretty telling.
10 links today. Enjoy. Vox’s Puff Piece on Goldman Sachs Doesn’t Reveal Goldman Sponsors Vox (Must read, Fairness & Accounting In Reporting) Trump and Clinton Tied Nationwide in Latest Rasmussen Survey (Rasmussen) ‘Clinton Cash’ Has Been Made Into a Movie (Bloomberg) Las Vegas Review-Journal Columnist Resigns After Being Told He Can’t Write About Adelson (Capital New … Read more
Although Lance Simmens has been intimately involved in public life for several decades, you’ve probably never heard of him. As such, a little introduction is needed.
As mentioned, Lance Simmens’ career was spent in public policy. Specifically, he worked for two U.S. Presidents as well as a couple of senators and governors. Since retirement, he’s been a prolific writer, publishing 180 articles at the Huffington Post over the past 8 years. As such, it came as a great shock to him to discover that one of his recent articles was removed by the Huffington Post shortly after publication. It was the first article ever rejected by the online publication, and the unacceptable subject matter was nothing more than a positive review of the banned everywhere documentary VAXXED.
Here’s Lance Simmens describing the ordeal in a recent interview:
Reuters/Ipsos recently conducted a poll in which it asked Americans whether the primary process for choosing presidential candidates was rigged. Here’s what they found:
More than half of American voters believe that the system U.S. political parties use to pick their candidates for the White House is “rigged” and more than two-thirds want to see the process changed, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
The results echo complaints from Republican front-runner Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Bernie Sanders that the system is stacked against them in favor of candidates with close ties to their parties – a critique that has triggered a nationwide debate over whether the process is fair.
Trump has repeatedly railed against the rules, at times calling them undemocratic. After the Colorado Republican Party awarded all its delegates to Ted Cruz, for example, Trump lashed out in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, charging “the system is being rigged by party operatives with ‘double-agent’ delegates who reject the decision of voters.”
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus has dismissed Trump’s complaints as “rhetoric” and said the rules would not be changed before the Republican convention in July.
Some 51 percent of likely voters who responded to the April 21-26 online survey said they believed the primary system was “rigged” against some candidates. Some 71 percent of respondents said they would prefer to pick their party’s nominee with a direct vote, cutting out the use of delegates as intermediaries.
The results also showed 27 percent of likely voters did not understand how the primary process works and 44 percent did not understand why delegates were involved in the first place. The responses were about the same for Republicans and Democrats.
Many people will read this and say, so what? Everyone knows it’s rigged? To that I would say, not quite.
One thing Clinton supporters remain in complete denial about (other than the fact most Americans who don’t identify as Democrats find her to be somewhere in between untrustworthy and criminal), is that a significant number of Sanders supporters will never vote for Hillary. Forget the fact that I know a few personally, I’ve noticed several interviews with voters who proclaim Sanders to be their first choice but Trump their second. Are they just saying this or do they mean it? I think a lot of them mean it.
– From the post: Why Hillary Clinton Cannot Beat Donald Trump
I continue to see Hillary Clinton as one of the most overrated political figures in American history, and Donald Trump as one of the most underrated. This is why I think “the experts” are wrong about the outcome of a potential Clinton vs. Trump showdown in the general election.
Hillary’s weaknesses are obvious. I’ve highlighted new shameless transgressions or scandals on these pages virtually every day for several months now. Furthermore, the fact that the grassroots campaign juggernaut known as the Sanders movement seemingly came out of nowhere, proves there’s a huge ideological vacuum on left just asking to be filled in light of Clinton’s neoconservative candidacy.
The EU is turning a blind eye to an opposition crackdown in Turkey that’s polarizing society and complicating efforts to find a political solution to the nation’s Kurdish conflict, Demirtas said in an impromptu interview en route to Brussels. European leaders are expected to ink an agreement with Turkey on Monday that will offer faster EU membership negotiations and visa-free travel in exchange for stopping refugees from crossing the country to enter Europe.
Demirtas was speaking two days after Turkish government trustees took over one of Turkey’s primary opposition newspapers in a dramatic raid that sparked clashes between protesters and police. The seizure reflects a broader intolerance of dissent that has also undermined the HDP, who are now largely excluded from mainstream media coverage.
On the same day that authorities took control of the Zaman newspaper, European Council President Donald Tusk, who was in Istanbul, tweeted a picture of himself with Erdogan in front of a pair of golden throne-like seats.
It was almost identical to a photo-op with German Chancellor Angela Merkel last year, which was around the same time that the EU agreed to Erdogan’s request to withhold a critical report on Turkish democracy until after the general election a few days later.
– From the post: As Turkey Turns Totalitarian, EU Officials Move to Accelerate EU Membership Bid
It’s been really nauseating watching German Chansellor Angela Merkel pander to Turkey’s thin-skinned, petty tyrant of a President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the hopes that he will reduce the flow of refugees into Europe.
By now, you’ve probably all heard about how Merkel cowed to Erdoğan’s demands by allowing the prosecution of a German comedian for the crime of mocking the sensitive strongman. As the Washington Post reported:
In the aftermath of the most signifiant geopolitical event of my lifetime, the attacks of September 11,2001, the U.S. government proceeded to concoct a fairytale for public consumption in order to advance imperial ambitions overseas and a implement a domestic surveillance state at home. This should be obvious to everyone by now.
The official 9/11 story has been filled with holes since the very beginning, but a traumatized American public was too gullible and emotionally damaged to see them. Those of us who saw such inconsistencies and pointed them out have been derided as “conspiracy theorists” for years, yet fifteen years later, the biggest “conspiracy theory” in modern American history is rapidly becoming conspiracy fact.
At the very least, we now know there was Saudi involvement far beyond just the 15 of 19 hijackers who were Saudi nationals, but that’s still just scratching the surface. Once people come to terms with the fact the tale they’ve been told was completely invented, other obvious questions will have to be asked. Most critically, the question of World Trade Center 7.
As I wrote in the recent post, 60 Minutes Explores the Saudi Links to 9/11 Attacks:
Since we’re never going to get to see the full transcripts of Hillary Clinton’s multiple paid-for pandering sessions to Wall Street fraudsters, I bring you the next best thing.
What follows are excerpts from a piece of satirical brilliance composed by K.J. Noh, and published in full at Counterpunch, titled simply: Hillary Clinton’s Speech to Goldman Sachs.
Enjoy it, I sure did:
CLINTON: Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you very much, Lloyd [Blankfein], and thanks to everyone at Goldman Sachs for welcoming me today. I’m delighted to be back among friends, colleagues, collaborators, supporters, kindred spirits…
17 links today. Enjoy. Clinton Will Hold Fundraiser in Tel Aviv (Very good read, Mondoweiss) Hillary Clinton on Releasing Wall Street Speech Transcripts (One word: Dishonest, YouTube) Senior Clinton Aide Tells Reporter: Fuck Bernie (Wait, so who needs to “tone it down?” Gawker) Ex-BOJ Iwata: BOJ Must Cut Key Rate to -1.0 Percent to Beat Deflation (This … Read more
What is it with the Hillary cult?
As a lifelong Democrat who will be enthusiastically voting for Bernie Sanders in next week’s Pennsylvania primary, I have trouble understanding the fuzzy rosy filter through which Hillary fans see their champion. So much must be overlooked or discounted—from Hillary’s compulsive money-lust and her brazen indifference to normal rules to her conspiratorial use of shadowy surrogates and her sociopathic shape-shifting in policy positions for momentary expedience.
Hillary’s breathtaking lack of concrete achievements or even minimal initiatives over her long public career doesn’t faze her admirers a whit. They have a religious conviction of her essential goodness and blame her blank track record on diabolical sexist obstructionists. When at last week’s debate Hillary crassly blamed President Obama for the disastrous Libyan incursion that she had pushed him into, her acolytes hardly noticed. They don’t give a damn about international affairs—all that matters is transgender bathrooms and instant access to abortion.
– From the post: Camille Paglia – “Enough with the Hillary Cult”
Earlier this week, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, Robby Mook, spent several characteristically painful to read paragraphs whining about Bernie Sanders and his supporters. Rather than subject readers to more of his infantile gibberish than necessary, let me highlight just one paragraph in particular:
This latest incident is part of a troubling pattern of behavior — occurring just as Bernie’s mathematical odds of winning the nomination dwindle toward zero –– in which Sanders and his team are not just debating us on issues (which we all agree is perfectly fair), but rather attacking Hillary Clinton’s character, integrity, and motivations.
Either Robby Mook is a complete imbecile, or he thinks Clinton supporters are the biggest bunch of clueless, low information voters on the planet. He claims Sanders supporters are not focused on the “issues” because they point out glaring flaws in Hillary Clinton’s character, integrity, and motivations. What makes his claim so remarkable, is that anyone paying attention knows that the American people’s lack of trust in her has been the biggest issue of the entire campaign. Moreover, of course such concerns should be seen as a legitimate key issue in any United States Presidential contest.