COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Trump and Farage - It Doesn’t Get Better Than This:

52 comments:

  1. I think Trump has found his mojo.

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  2. I am blocked from work. Please give it to me in a 2 sentence nutshell.

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  3. Nigel Farage, the man most hated by the British and EU antidisestablishmentantarianism club, those happy to do business as usual, tore it up for the crowd. Trump against the machine.

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  4. While Hillary Clinton remains the heavy favourite in the U.S. presidential election, recent polls suggest her victory isn't looking as assured as it once did.

    I have never seen a political morphosis as what we are witnessing in the last ten days.

    Recently, the CBC's Presidential Poll Tracker was projecting that enough states were considered "safe" for the Democratic nominee to secure victory even if she lost all of the remaining swing states to Donald Trump. If an election had been held last week, a Clinton win would have been projected with more than 95 per cent confidence.

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    1. NOT NOW

      That's no longer the case because Clinton's electoral college vote tally among safe Democratic states has dropped from 273 — just above the 270 needed to take the White House — to 253. Her lead over Trump in the national polls has slipped from a high of 6.4 points among decided voters in early August to 5.1 points today.

      This movement in the electoral college has largely been driven by Clinton's narrowing lead in the national polls, though some surveys at the state level also point to a few tightening races. Still, one poll shows that a linchpin state in Donald Trump's electoral map may be moving out of his reach.

      The three most recent U.S. polls in the Presidential Poll Tracker point to a trend line that is slowly moving against Hillary Clinton.

      An Ipsos/Reuters poll put Clinton ahead by five points among decided voters. Her edge in the Ipsos poll done a week earlier was six points.
      A poll from Morning Consult had Clinton ahead by four points among decided voters, compared to a lead of seven points earlier in the month.
      And the daily tracking poll from UPI/CVOTER has gone from a Clinton lead that was as wide as seven points to a tie with Trump.
      These polls moved Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral college votes from "safe" to "likely" Democrat status, as the last survey conducted in Pennsylvania dates from Aug. 7. That coincided with Clinton's widest lead in the national polls. The state-level data is now relatively older, so the negative trend line in the national numbers carries increased weight.

      Nevertheless, Clinton is still projected to be ahead in Pennsylvania by about eight points.

      http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/grenier-uselection-update-aug22-1.3730844

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  5. While Trump is simultaneously clocking the Trump Jet and Hillary, Hillary is either resting or getting fitted for some bigger pant suits.

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    1. Both.

      Her hypothyroid pills aren't doing the job.

      She's sick.

      And, understandably enough, is avoiding anything but her bought and paid for press.

      Afraid of a wide open press conference....

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  6. Nigel Farage, a key figure in the successful campaign to get Britain out of the European Union, lent his support to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Wednesday, saying Trump represented the same type of anti-establishment movement that he masterminded in his own country.

    ...

    Farage drew parallels between the Brexit movement and the support Trump has received from many Americans who feel left behind by Washington.

    ...

    Trump's new position seemed to resemble in some respects the failed 2007 reform push by former Republican President George W. Bush. That effort offered a way to bring millions "out of the shadows" without amnesty and would have required illegal immigrants to pay a fine and take other steps to gain legal status.

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  7. I can't figure out whether Trump's got a chance, or not.

    I certainly hope he does.

    I was pinning some hopes on the debates, but then I read that debates don't move things much. Then I read how Reagan clobbered Carter, which I watched.

    I'm hoping for more email surprises. The talk now is all about that, which is good for Trump....

    Hillary is a crook, a liar, all her life....

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  8. In the interests of extreme fairness, I've just found one good thing to say about Hillary -

    Meet PharmaSis: Daughter of Dem Senator behind massive Epi-Pen price spike


    posted at 6:01 pm on August 24, 2016 by Ed Morrissey

    Remember PharmaBro? Martin Shkreli, co-founder of Turing Pharmaceuticals and a hedge-fund broker, incurred the wrath of the media and political establishment when he arbitrarily hiked the price for a popular AIDS and malaria medication by 5000%. Congressional hearings pilloried Shkreli in absentia while Shkreli remained obstinately unrepentant. PharmaBro became the symbol of the evils of capitalism, and his arrest on unrelated fraud charges certainly helped cement that reputation.

    If Shkreli was PharmaBro, then Heather Bresch qualifies as PharmaSis. The CEO of Mylan and daughter of Democratic Senator Joe Manchin has presided over a 400% price increase for the Epi-Pen, an epinephrine delivery device to prevent anaphylactic shock in those with severe allergies. Costing just $100 dollars in 2008 for a two-pack, the price has now skyrocketed to over $600, and lawmakers want to know why....

    http://hotair.com/archives/2016/08/24/meet-pharmasis-daughter-dem-senator-behind-massive-epi-pen-price-spike/

    I heard on Fox Hillary is on this, and trying to get it reversed. I pack Epi-pens during the bee season, and have used them 3 or 4 times.

    A decade and a half ago I came up highly allergic to wasps. Damn near took me out, except my wife was with me and we were in town, and she got the emergency medical providers.

    Had zero problem with bees before, stung many times.

    My allergist said we've all got a bucket, of varying sizes. Each time we are stung it's like pouring a quart of water into our bucket. My bucket finally ran over....

    Can happen to anyone.

    Came as a total surprise.

    I was red as a coke can for days....then black and blue....

    I am highly cognizant of the behavior of bees now. It's sunup to sundown for them, 60 degrees or so and above....




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    1. Epinephrine is adrenaline, and keeps your heart beating. Works immediately. Then you take some Benadryl/antihistamine to control the allergic reaction....someone like me has a five minute window to do this....

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  9. CNN/ORC: North Carolina: Clinton +1 | Arizona: Trump +5

    Trump should win North Carolina, and he's ahead in Florida too.

    Come on, Pennsylvania !

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  10. As of Tuesday, the Ipsos Reuters Tracking Poll had Clinton Up 12 in the head to head.

    If I remember correctly, it was about 8 when Johnson and Stein were included.

    NBC/Survey Monkey, also on Tuesday, had Clinton up 8.

    Ipsos Reuters

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    1. All of the "tracking polls" are suspect, right now. The methodologies are just very suspect.

      The next round of Major Polls will start next week, and we'll find out if this Clinton Foundation nonsense had any legs.

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    2. Hmmmm....why did the value of a BillyGoat Speech SKYROCKET when Hillary became Sec of State ?

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  11. Turkish armor is said to have crossed into Syria to battle ISIS after the latest suicide (child) bombing in Turkey.

    Maybe, but I bet they target some Kurds during the process.

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  12. Hillary's Schedule -

    Beverly Hills
    Nantucket
    Hamptons
    Silicon Valley

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  13. August 15, 2016

    One ‘Conspiracy Theory’ Trump Needs to Push

    By Jack Cashill


    Playing a coveted role in the most one-sided assault in the history of political journalism, NBC News ran an article last week that managed -- in the headline -- to insult both the candidate and his base, “Trump's Conspiracy Theories Aren't Far Outside GOP Mainstream".

    Today, if a politically troublesome issue arises, the media feel no pressure to investigate. Confident their peers will slack off as well, they tend to dismiss the issue as a “conspiracy theory” and deride those who raise it as gullible, paranoid, and probably racist.

    Donald Trump has raised any number of such issues, and the media have reflexively attacked him for raising them. His focus has been on Barack Obama’s quasi-fictional past. A more profitable focus, however, would be on Hillary Clinton’s future fitness to be president. I refer specifically here to her role in the corruption of the TWA 800 investigation.

    When my book, TWA 800: The Crash, the Cover-Up, The Conspiracy, was published last month, I hoped the twentieth anniversary of the disaster might prompt at least some media interest. I was kidding myself. The collective urge to stop Trump and elect Hillary has silenced the major media. Trump will have to ask his own questions.

    From her logs, we know that Hillary and President Bill Clinton returned to the White House at 8:35 p.m. on the night of July 17, 1996. Former Chief of Staff Leon Panetta tells us he called the president at 9 p.m. with the news that TWA Flight 800 blew up off the coast of Long Island.

    My source at the White House has confirmed that the Clintons and their consigliere, Deputy National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, holed up in the family residence throughout the night. Berger was the Clintons’ political guy. His boss, Tony Lake, left the room whenever politics surfaced. That night, with re-election looming, all decisions were political, and no one can doubt Hillary’s active role in the conversation.

    By 3 a.m. the Clintons had settled on a strategy. At that fabled hour -- the one Hillary would mythologize in her run against Barack Obama -- Bill called Lake with the following message: “Dust off the contingency plans.” For the time being, the president would quietly blame terrorists for the presumed missile attack....

    That night, the Department of Justice had the FBI take the investigation over from the National Transportation Safety Board, the NTSB. Although illegal, this move was made publicly.

    Less public was the intervention of the CIA. As a treasure trove of recently unearthed CIA documents confirm, “The DI (Directorate of Intelligence) became involved in the ‘missile theory’ the day after the crash occurred.”....


    http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/08/one_conspiracy_theory_trump_needs_to_push.html#ixzz4IJS0bMYt

    I've never believed the line that the fuel tank exploded.

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  14. It just goes on and on -

    Memo undercuts Hillary story on controversial Russian uranium deal, Clinton foundation

    by Raphael Williams

    She had a statutory obligation to act, and she acts through inaction and Russia wins," Gray said in an interview. "What they've given Russia is a foothold, a big entrée into cornering the uranium markets and tipping the entire balance of the energy world."

    http://circa.com/politics/election-2016/clinton-warned-in-2009-memo-that-russian-uranium-moves-were-bad-for-us-europe

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  15. !!!!MUST WATCH!!!

    Julian Assange interviewed by Megyn Kelly on The Kelly File on Fox News

    Part II of interview is tomorrow.

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  16. WikiLeaks founder and editor-in-chief Julian Assange says his organisation plans to release "significant" information linked to the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton before the US election.

    ...

    "I don't want to give the game away, but it's a variety of documents, from different types of institutions that are associated with the election campaign, some quite unexpected angles, some quite interesting, some even entertaining," Assange said when asked how the next revelations would compare with those in July.

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  17. The only question left for Hillary — what else are you hiding?

    By Michael Goodwin

    August 24, 2016

    ....That’s exactly what she did, except she also created all the problems that could lead to her being thwarted again.

    The easy answers about why she did what she did are too obvious: She wanted to get rich and she didn’t want anyone to know her business.

    Throw in her chronic paranoia and sense of entitlement, and she and Hubby Dearest had a rationale for thinking they were above the law. They’d escaped his impeachment trial, so they believed they had lifetime immunity.

    All true, but too simple, and it’s impossible to believe that’s all there is. There has to be more, probably something so big and awful, it would destroy her if it’s discovered.

    Remember, the Clintons were absolutely determined to get back to the White House, which would be the ultimate vindication of their public lives. Victory would make them unique in American history, so it doesn’t make sense that they would risk throwing it all away for the obvious — and ordinary — benefits already revealed.

    The added riches they collected through what I believe are corrupt actions weren’t necessary. They were getting legitimately rich on his and her book contracts alone.

    And what difference would another donation make to the foundation, which was already swimming in more money than it could spend?

    Because none of this adds up to a coherent explanation, I believe we are still in the dark about a hidden bombshell. There must be a secret Unholy Grail that explains her self-destructive behavior of stonewalling and lying.

    I won’t speculate on what the Clintons are hiding because my gifts of imagination are no match for theirs. They always had a knack for pioneering new ways of selling access. No president had ever thought of renting out the Lincoln Bedroom until they did it.

    The sleazy act that so outraged the nation then seems positively quaint now, thanks to the creative ways they’ve monetized power since leaving the White House. Now they could afford to buy the furniture they tried to steal on their way out the door then!

    Of course, I could be wrong. I could be giving them far too much credit.

    Maybe the Clintons really are just ordinary grifters, con artists who enjoy the thrill of pulling off the scam. Maybe it’s not even about the money.

    Then again, it’s always about the money, one way or another.

    And so, as with Watergate, with Bernie Madoff and now with the Clintons, the advice to all gumshoes is the same: Follow the money. Whatever deep, dark secret they are hiding, the money will lead us to it.

    http://nypost.com/2016/08/24/the-only-question-left-for-hillary-what-else-are-you-hiding/

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  18. I'd say cheer up all you old farts, but I really don't have to, you are doing well enough as you are -

    The Aging Paradox: The Older We Get, The Happier We Are


    Deborah Netburn

    August 24, 2016, 10:05 AM


    Believe it or not, there are upsides to getting older.

    Yes, your physical health is likely to decline as you age. And unfortunately, your cognitive abilities like learning new skills and remembering things is likely to suffer too.

    But despite such downsides, research suggests that your overall mental health, including your mood, your sense of well-being and your ability to handle stress, just keeps improving right up until the very end of life.

    Consider it something to look forward to.....

    http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/

    Shakespeare, of course, noticed this.

    Good article.

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  19. Trump and Farage - Well, you've certainly got the "Racist / Neo-Nazi cohort covered.

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    1. More of Ruf's name calling bull shit.

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    2. You should watch Fox News, Rufus.

      Right now you'd see Trump meeting with GOP leaders at Trump Tower with Ben Carson to his right and another black to his left whose name I don't know.

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    3. Actually two African/Americans to his left.

      He was talking about bank loans and blacks and denials and what to do about it.

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  20. Hillary is afraid to have a real press conference.

    She is in hiding.

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  21. Hillary Lied, Withheld Evidence, Traded Power for Money, and Could Be President


    Have Americans buried their moral compass and settled for “transactional politics?”

    © Steve Marcus / Reuters

    By Edward Morrissey

    August 25, 2016

    How much would one pay for control of a mighty nation? Unfortunately, that questions has become depressingly relevant in this election cycle – and it has nothing to do with campaign finance issues.

    In the classic film The Fall of the Roman Empire, filmmakers depicted the inflection point of the decline after the death of Marcus Aurelius, the last of the “good emperors.” In the fictional account, Livius fights Commodus to the death in an attempt to rescue the empire from its corruption. By the time he does, though, he realizes there’s nothing left to save. As he walks away from power, others begin openly bidding to seize the mantle. “One million denarii for the throne of Rome!” yells one, followed by “two million denarii!” from another, and so on.

    “This was the beginning of the fall of the Roman Empire,” the narrator intones gravely as the camera pulls out to a wide shot. “A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.”

    Related: As Millions Flowed to Bill Clinton and the Foundation, Favors Were Granted

    Well, now we know the feeling. And thanks to a new batch of e-mails released by the State Department from Hillary Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State, we have a good idea of the bidding, too. The odds of it affecting the outcome of this election, however, might be too small to calculate.

    An Associated Press review of State Department and Clinton Foundation records produced what the Clinton campaign insists was nothing more than a coincidence. More than half of Secretary Clinton’s official State Department meetings or conversations, outside of government officials, turned out to be Clinton Foundation donors.

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    1. “At least 85 of 154 people from private interests who met or had phone conversations scheduled with Clinton while she led the State Department donated to her family charity or pledged commitments to its international programs,” Stephen Braun and Eileen Sullivan reported. Combined, the eighty-five donors provided $156 million to the group, forty of whom gave $100,000 or more. Those contacts do not include another 16 representatives of foreign governments who donated $170 million more, they note, “because such meetings would presumably have been part of her diplomatic duties.”
      Related: Is the Clinton Foundation Hillary’s Achilles’ Heel?

      Accepting those donations, however, violated a Memorandum of Understanding demanded by Barack Obama before appointing Clinton to run the nation’s foreign affairs. Both the Clintons and the foundation pledged total transparency and solid firewalls in operations of both entities. How did that work out? The Associated Press had to sue to get the calendars from which this analysis was derived.

      The release of e-mails, also long blocked by Hillary Clinton and State, show just how lucrative donor status could be. When the Crown Prince of Bahrain wanted a meeting with Secretary Clinton, her office initially put him off, The Wall Street Journal reports. An e-mail exchange from foundation executive Doug Band on behalf of the $32 million donor to Huma Abedin straightened that out. Two days later, a meeting with Crown Prince Salman was on the calendar.

      That paid off for Bahrain, a country high on the list of Human Rights Watch for the “torture and mistreatment of detainees,” in more concrete terms, too. David Sirota reported in 2015 about the curious increases in arms sales that took place with governments that contributed to the Clinton Foundation during Hillary Clinton’s tenure. Between 2010 and 2012, arms sales to Bahrain increased by 187 percent over a similar period from 2006-8 during the Bush administration, including a $70,000 purchase of toxicological agents. Bahrain at the time was suppressing an Arab Spring uprising of the kind that the Obama administration was encouraging in other places, even in nominally allied Yemen....

      http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2016/08/25/Hillary-Lied-Withheld-Evidence-Traded-Power-Money-and-Could-Be-President

      Cheers !

      Tata

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  22. That's the best they got? Yeah, that's about it - vote Trump because he is anti-establishment. Kinda funny seeing these aging boomers embrace anti-establishmentarianism when, dollars to donuts, they were appalled at their hippie brethren's anti-establishmentarianism back in the day.

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    1. I wonder what Trish has to say about the Colombian FARC deal?

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    2. .

      Hopefully, Trish found herself a new guy and can now give a shit about Columbia and the FARC.

      .

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    3. Odd you should say that, Ash.

      I was wondering the same thing myself.

      Delete
  23. .

    Right now you'd see Trump meeting with GOP leaders at Trump Tower with Ben Carson to his right and another black to his left whose name I don't know.


    The other guy is the one Trump called 'my African American'. He was hired as part of the Trump team. His title is 'temporary contractor place holder'.

    Ben Carson actually came up with a good idea the other day. He suggested that given their ages both Hillary AND Trump have independent health screens.

    Why Trump?

    Well, think about. What's the first thing you thought when his personal doctor came back with an evaluation that Trump's health was 'astonishingly excellent'?

    <(:o)

    .

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    1. I thought that was huuge.

      ...then I thought about his hands.

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  24. 'Southside With You' drops in on the cute beginning of a beautiful Obama partnership

    Set on Chicago’s South Side in 1989 and inspired by the actual first date between Barack Obama and the then-Michelle Robinson, “Southside” is a sweet date-night movie about a date that wasn’t really a date. Until it was.

    http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-southside-with-you-review-20160823-snap-story.html

    How the love African Americans have for the Obamas emboldens 'Southside With You'

    http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-southside-with-you-obamas-feature-20160819-snap-story.html

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    1. First Problem:

      Good looking guy with normal ears.

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  25. St. Louis school sees 90% of their students' attendance increase because of washing machines

    By Walter Einenkel

    Thursday Aug 25, 2016 · 1:19 PM CDT

    Anybody with kids and anybody without kids who doesn’t own a washing machine knows how much of a bummer washing clothes can be. It’s not cheap, it’s not usually convenient, and when you aren’t able to get clothing washed you can feel pretty awful about yourself. Former principal Dr. Melody Gibson at Gibson Elementary School in St. Louis, Missouri, found herself at a loss as to why her (mostly low-income) students were suffering such low attendance rates. They had free or reduced lunches. What else was holding them back?

    In talking to parents, Gunn discovered that many didn’t have easy access to washing machines. Or if they did have machines, they couldn't always use them because they couldn’t afford detergent, or their electricity had been shut off. For these families, laundry had to take a backseat to more pressing needs such as food and rent.

    It turned out that when students didn’t have clean clothes, they often stayed home from school out of embarrassment. Logan, an eighth-grader, spoke about how difficult it is for others to understand his problem: “I think people don’t talk about not having clean clothes because it makes you want to cry or go home or run away or something. It doesn’t feel good.”

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    1. She went to Whirlpool and asked them for a washing machine and dryer. She invited students that had missed more than 10 days of school to wash their clothing. The program quickly became larger, with Whirlpool sending 16 machines to schools in St. Louis.

      “After just one month, we saw an impact,” Gunn tells CityLab. The more long-term results of the program have actually been remarkable. The first year saw over 90 percent of tracked students increase their attendance, with those most in need of the service averaging an increase of almost 2 weeks. Teachers surveyed reported that 95 percent of participants showed more motivation in class and were more apt to participate in extra-curricular activities. The results support research demonstrating that chronic absenteeism isn’t because of kids’ lack of smarts or motivation, but is largely due to coming from a low-income household.

      Income inequality affects us in every aspect of our lives. The mountain of stress and the logistics of being impoverished can be so overwhelming and disheartening it is difficult to explain it to someone who has never experienced it. Whirlpool is expanding its program to Baltimore and Nashville. Many other schools around the country have reached out to them for similar services. When you hear about school funding getting cut along with food stamps and other social services, just remember this: there are elementary school-aged children sitting around in dirty clothes because they cannot afford to wash those clothes. This program is a good one and does good things and while it provides relief to many, it is not a solution to our more profound problems of income and social inequality.

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    2. Nobody here but you cares: They're all racists.

      Delete
  26. Ann Coulter Trashes Trump on Twitter

    Ann Coulter may be on the verge of retracting her support for Donald Trump over his "softening" immigration stance. During a Fox News town hall event hosted by Sean Hannity on Wednesday night, Trump floated a number of ideas for the audience's reaction, strongly suggesting he was changing his hardline stance on illegal immigration. Trump seemed to be channeling "Little Marco's" immigration plan when he posited that illegal aliens would have to pay "back taxes." He assured the audience that there would be "no amnesty, but we work with them." The bombastic billionaire said, "Everyone agrees we get the bad ones out," but lots of "very strong, really great, great people" have told him "it's so tough" to throw out people who have been in the country for 15 to 20 years." He added, "It's a very, very hard thing."

    https://pjmedia.com/trending/2016/08/25/ann-coulter-trashes-trump-on-twitter/

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  27. Take a look at Drudge.

    Hillary needs a step stool to get into a normal car.

    Confirmed: my life insurance agent is another anti-Hillary voter.

    I knew he would be.

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