Trump Decries Washington Insiders, Then Hires One to Save His Campaign

Throughout his presidential campaign Donald Trump has played the angry populist, railing against fat-cat donors, influence peddlers, and Washington establishment insiders who rig the system to the detriment of the American people.

"These people have hundreds of millions of dollars that they've given to these politicians, and these politicians are puppets for them.  With me, I'm going to do what's right for the country."

Yet when Trump needed a political operative to oversee his campaign's crucial delegate strategy—which could determine whether he wins the nomination at the Republican convention in July—he hired one of the most prominent Washington insiders: Paul Manafort, a veteran Republican lobbyist and consultant who has made millions of dollars working the system on behalf of corporations seeking government favors as well as Third World strongmen and kleptocrats.

Manafort, who was the Dole campaign's convention manager, led the effort to minimize the role at the convention of Patrick Buchanan, who had placed second in the GOP nominating contest. Hunting delegates was a side job for Manafort, who focused on lucrative work as a lobbyist for under-fire corporations and reviled political figures.

In 1985, for example, Manafort and an aide flew to Angola, which was then in the middle of a bloody civil war, to woo Jonas Savimbi, a onetime Maoist and brutal warlord who allegedly relied on blood diamonds to fuel his army. He managed to land a $600,000-a-year contract to represent Savimbi and his UNITA party in Washington, DC, and to try to help Savimbi win US funding.

For $600,000 a year, the firm has represented Angola's thuggish Jonas Savimbi, an alleged witch burner, and his guerilla group UNITA, helping promulgate his "freedom fighter" image and persuading Congress to approve more than $230 million in covert aid to Savimbi's rebel forces.

Though Trump has talked tough about confronting Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Manafort has links to the darkest corners of Putin's foreign policy world. In the mid-2000s, Manafort went to work for former Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych, a Putin ally who was deposed in 2014 following mass protests over his administration's corruption and vote-rigging.

In another chapter of Manafort's long career, he pulled off a feat that epitomizes the kind of inside-the-Beltway cronyism that Trump rails against. In 1986, Manafort was paid more than $326,000 by a developer to lobby a Reagan administration official to approve a $43 million taxpayer-funded grant for a housing project in New Jersey that local officials didn't even want. His role in the deal became the subject of a congressional hearing, where Manfort told members of Congress that he shouldn't be faulted for knowing how to game Washington. 

How serious is Trump about his crusade to rid Washington of high-paid, system-rigging influence peddlers? By putting Manafort on his campaign payroll, he has demonstrated he certainly isn't against using these insiders if it benefits his own special interest. 

Baseless ad hominem attacks are not just a tool of the Left anymore

NoisyRoom 

There are quite a few rumors floating around in social media about Presidential Candidate Ted Cruz.

Americans are used to the mainstream media lying about Ted Cruz (see here & here for just some examples.) But it is particularly painful when the lies come from supposed truth-tellers. The largest culprits starting and perpetuating anti-Cruz falsehoods are Sundance of the Conservative Treehouse and Dianne Marshall of the Marshall Report. They blatantly lie, or tell cherry-picked half truths, which are promptly disseminated in social media by their army of bullies who are seemingly not interested in civil debate.

Why create false stories if the candidate is so bad?

The clearly coordinated effort is particularly disturbing because: 1.) it frankly smashes conventional wisdom that ad hominem baseless attacks are the tool of the left – not the principled right, and 2.) the social media bullies may serve to intimidate people from posting positive stories or opinions about Ted Cruz.

Here are some of the most persistent lies, myths and rumors about Ted Cruz:

Read More Here

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This has all become very tiring. It's a long time yet to the convention. If you have a candidate, then by all means promote him, and tell us why we should vote for him based on issues instead of lying about his opponents. If you're are going to take a shot at them, at least take them down with the truth. We are setting the table for the democrats, who you know will say, "They lied all the way through the primaries,why should you believe them now?"

Mark Zuckerberg's Solution to Global Islamic Terrorism:

"Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg believes he's found the solution to global Islamic terrorism: love and empathy. He has announced that, essentially, all we need to do is hug it out, that perhaps one Giant Hug will overcome the global jihadist network of maniacs who exist only to murder. ...

To have someone as engaged in the tech and information world as Mr. Zuckerberg propagate the nonsense that all the world needs is a hug, highlights the dramatic importance of rejecting this tripe, showing global leadership the door and elevating those who understand the worldwide threat. You won't be surprised to learn the solution is actually very kind -- introducing Islamists to Allah. As quickly as possible." — Tammy Bruce

A Good Monday Morning

Breaking: Spokesperson From Progressive Insurance Detained By Trump Security

MFNS -Trump Tower N.Y. - After in-house security this morning found all the elevators in the Trump Tower apartments plastered with 'Bernie Sanders 2016' posters, MFNS has learned a few hours ago the actress from the Progressive commercials, Flo, was bodily dragged from her palatial apartment on the 16th floor of the Trump Towers and escorted off the premises to an undisclosed location.

Donald Trump is calling Flo a “person of interest in the case,” but has yet to explain why he plans to detain her indefinitely.

“Look, this is covered in the Patriot Act and I am the number one acting patriot.”  

Donald Trump also told reporters: 

“I'm not saying she's guilty, but she's very progressive. She's very progressive. She wears the word on her shirt, even when she's not on camera she wears it on her shirt. So is she worth questioning? I think she is, which is why she was detained by my people. Don't worry, I have the best people on this. I have Great people working for me. Tremendous people. They will get the truth out of her, one way or another." 

We were also able to learn Flo was able to get a message to the Amnesty International, but it was mostly garbled gasps for air with intermittent spitting sounds. When we contacted the Bernie Sanders Campaign headquarters about the posters, they denied any involvement and declined any further comment, but hilarious laughter was heard in the background. 

The Geico gecko, Benito Juarez, formerly known as the 'Frito Bandito' and the guys from the Sonic commercials are all publicly demanding her immediate release.

Here's Your Stop. Have a Good Day!

The Most Desired Attribute.....

The most desired attribute for a statesman in an authoritarian society is intelligence; because he is literally expected to solve all of the problems of the people. The most desirable attribute of a statesman in a free society is character; for he is simply a representative of the will of the people entrusted to vote and to act in their stead. Americans have traditionally been more interested in the story of their candidates than in their rhetoric. Who is he or she as a person? Is there a reason that they should be trusted to do as they claim? This concrete approach based on a candidates character and history is a source of security for a free society. In an authoritarian society the people lay under the emotional sway of rhetoric rather than reality. Rhetoric becomes reality. The statesman can paint any portrait of himself he likes with the instrument of rhetoric and a people desperate to embrace such a picture will do so, passionately. The scope and power of rhetoric is absolutely unlimited because it is merely language. It can excite the imagination without bounds. This is where the cult of personality comes from in an authoritarian context.

But where one’s opinion of a statesman or candidate comes from concrete facts and history such a cult is impossible. All that is possible here is an intelligent sober decision between two prospective candidates based upon their history.

Philosophical Conservatism

Kim Jong Un Blames Decadent U.S. For North Korean Food Shortage

MFNS Nork Bureau / Hana Ho - The Democratic People Republic of Korea State News Agency has told North Korean citizens to brace themselves for another "arduous march" forward in revolution' during which "we will have to chew the roots of plants once again".  Warning of impending food shortages, they asked the North Korean people to sacrifice for the good of the revolution.  

In a statement issued from the palace of Kim Jong Un and broadcast nationwide on television watching machines, the blame was laid directly on the United States.

"The decadent Imperialist United States and it's Big Eared Warmongering Leader, Hussein Obama, who has encouraged gluttony and immorality among people of the U.S. and the West, have consumed the entire world's food supply, including the seeds that sow in the abundantly rich fields of the Peoples Republic of Korean.

And because of the foolish actions of the United States and it's leaders by building mass supplies of military weapons to threaten war against the people of the DPRK, they have driven themselves into bankruptcy and can no longer afford to bargain for the worlds only supply of rich agricultural fertilizer produced by the great industrious people of DPRK.

Capitalism is a failure!  The west is Ripe for a Peoples Revolution! So we must remain strong in our coming "Arduous March"!  Therefore, Dear Leader Kim Jong Un orders that you forward 2 pounds of your rice supply to Pyongyang every month, starting immediately!"

As proof of the hardships experienced in the west, they included this documentary of the appalling circumstances in the U.S: 



(H/T Will Profit &Co. for Video) 

Never Get Between a Cop and His Donuts...

Philadelphia, Pa — An ex-transit cop has been found guilty of false imprisonment and official oppression stemming from a Christmas Day incident when he stepped on a woman's foot and refused to apologize after cutting in line at Dunkin’ Donuts in 2013. When the woman attempted to alert the officer's superiors, he slammed her head into an ATM machine, and placed her under arrest.

Douglas Ioven, a former officer with the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA), cut in line in front of Muibat Williamson, a nurse at Einstein Medical Center, who was on her way home from a night shift. When Ioven was leaving, with coffee and doughnuts in hand, he stepped on Williamson’s foot.

In testimony about the 2013 row, reported philly.com, Williamson said she confronted the officer and demanded he apologize,  but Ioven refused. An argument ensued, and an unnamed witness said she even inserted herself between the pair to remind them of the holiday. She overheard Ioven tell Williamson, 

“Next time, move out of the way.”

During two days of testimony last week, a retired SEPTA police sergeant told the jury that, after the incident, Ioven told him,

"I think I screwed up because I thought she was a homeless person, but she was a regular person. "

So much for the City of Brotherly Love. 

To Compare the Two Parties at This Time in Our History is to Indulge in False Equivalency

"The sins you perceive in Democrats are the usual ones — misguided policies, ill chosen means for dubious ends, and the normal complement of rhetorical dishonesty and political squalor. However mistaken you may find Clinton and Sanders on the issues, their debate is addressed to the world as it exists and therefore open to a sensible critique. The squalor to which the GOP has sunk, an alternate reality rooted in anger and mendacity, transcends mere differences in policy, threatening the country with profound, perhaps irreparable, damage.

This is not simply about Donald Trump. For Trump is not the result of forces which will come and go, but of a deterioration within the Republican Party that has been accelerating for years. The GOP has become a Frankenstein monster, assembled from dysfunction, demagoguery, myopia and myth, nurtured in a fever swamp where lies and hysteria kill off reason. Nothing better will arise until you help drive a stake through its heart." -Richard North Patterson, Novelist and Republican

Trump Threatens Louisiana on the Twitter With His Legions of Sleazy Lawyers

After claiming to have been shut out of important Republican National Convention committee slots in Louisiana, Donald Trump’s campaign argued on Monday that the posts were chosen at a “secret meeting” to which Trump delegates weren’t invited. Trump adviser Barry Bennett told MSNBC an interview Monday:  

“The problem we’re having here is that there was a secret meeting in Louisiana of the convention delegation, and apparently all of the invitations for our delegates must have gotten lost in the mail.”  

Bennett also said during the TV interview that the Trump campaign’s “legal team” will try to decertify Louisiana’s delegates. Trump late Sunday threatened on Twitter that there was a “lawsuit coming” against someone in Louisiana.

Just One Big Problem: Mr. Trump’s two Louisiana state co-chairmen both attended the “secret meeting” which was in fact a gathering at the Louisiana state GOP convention March 12, according to Jason Dore, the state party’s executive director. Dore said the state party held its election for delegation committee posts in accordance with state party rules, which were implemented and published online in 2015.

Trump got his legal delegates, his  whining real issue are the votes from five delegates awarded to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who has since suspended his campaign, and five other unbound delegates. Both the Rubio delegates and the unbound delegates are free to vote for any candidate at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

This is an attempt create controversy in his favor. But what Mr. Trump fails to understand is the Louisiana GOP are also  themselves a pack of sleazy Lawyers, and are well versed on the underbelly of politics he seems to lend himself to lately.

(WSJ)

John Kerry Cringes at GOP’s Perception Overseas

Our Honorable Doofus of State

Secretary of State John Kerry said on national television the Republican Party is an embarrassment to the United States because of the recent rhetoric that’s hailing from the GOP presidential campaign trail.  He mentioned specifically in an appearance on CBS's “Face the Nation” that the talk among some Republicans about barring Muslim entry into the country, or policing Muslim-dominated neighborhoods in America, or waterboarding those captured by U.S. intelligence officials, are all proving "an embarrassment to our country. It' upsets people's sense of equilibrium about our steadiness, about our reliability."

"Everywhere I go, every leader I meet, they ask about what is happening in America. They cannot believe it. I think it is fair to say that they're shocked. They don't know where it’s taking the United States of America."

Kerry, who also defended President Obama’s stay in Latin America both during and after the Brussels terrorism attack, a decision that sparked criticism from many in the Republican camp and among the media, for the public relations message it sent, then said the optics of the GOP campaign don’t look good on the international stage.

Seeing Mr. Kerry has spent most of his tenure dealing making concessions to our enemies, and his predecessor did much else but sip cocktails with world leaders while the Middle East fell into chaos, rather then projecting the power of the United States, we can only believe the "Leaders" he speaks of believe the U.S. is not as "Enlightened" as them. And our enemies see us as weak.

Yes Mr. Kerry, you and your predecessor over the last 7 years have projected nothing but weakness in negotiations and actions, and set the bar so low that when Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz speak from a position of strength and power in domestic and foreign affairs, it's hard for foreign governments to believe, and it's scares them......as it should.