TRUMP is seriously dangerous

[kool maudit]

Holy fuck he's a weirdo about dogs.

Better topple Assad.

[seemslikeadream]

Twice, Zucker made Trump a winner. And twice, Trump made Zucker a winner.

But what about the rest of us?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyl ... tyle_pop_b

[seemslikeadream]

Wikileaks Press Conference Triple Stamps Donald Trump’s Double Stamp

OCTOBER 4, 2016

It doesn’t matter if you can’t triple stamp a double stamp. There are no erasies in what will be remembered as the most surreal election cycle in American history. Wikileaks promised an October surprise to end all October surprises and delivered a rambling two-hour press briefing which also included 40% off its books.

I almost feel sorry for people staying up till 4 am. Settling in with leftover pizza. Debating buying the latest P90X product. That damn Flex Seal looks legit…

You had a lot of old people stay up Julian. 3 am is tough on Trump’s base. Hell, the only thing on at that time is infomercials or Starz showing the movie Volcano.

There was the normal Wikileaks line of we live in a bubble ‘neo-McCarthyist hysteria’ and the mainstream media is evil. McCarthyism? Really? Come on Julian. If you’re taking hacked documents and files from a country run by a former KGB agent, aren’t you the definition of what McCarthy was frothing on and on about?

Trump Supporter Rick Rolls Trump Supporters

Wikileaks had built up the press event with promises of a major announcement. Trump surrogates breathlessly built it up further promising Hillary Clinton was done.

infowars @infowars
The Clintons Will Be DEVASTATED: Infowars Historic LIVE COVERAGE Of #Wikileaks10 Press Conference - Share this link! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-sVGIp6E9g …
6:07 PM - 3 Oct 2016

“@HillaryClinton is done,” longtime Trump associate Roger Stone tweeted Saturday. “#Wikileaks.”

Hell, if Julian Assange didn’t give it away it would be bs, Roger Stone should have sealed it. Assange did nothing to tamp down expectations heading into this morning. He happily told Fox News his data dump would upend the race with documents “associated with the election campaign, some quite unexpected angles, some quite interesting.”

Unexpected would be if this election took a hard turn towards sanity. We know that’s not happening, but we do have a new hashtag – #wikirolled.

Alex Jones ✔@RealAlexJones
Release the documents NOW @wikileaks! We only have a month before #Election2016 comes to an end! #Wikirolled #TrumpvsHillary
4:37 AM - 4 Oct 2016
965 965 Retweets 1,690 1,690 likes

Alex, your business thrives with Hillary in office. Imagine all the hats you can sell. And nothing replaces the original:


Turn those frowns upside down Trump supporters. I know you’re working on about three hours of sleep, but see the fun in it. Trump Rick Rolls the press. For reasons unknown, your purported ‘savior’ did the same to you.

Tim Black ™ @RealTimBlack
Did #julianassange just make me stay up 20 hours straight for him to say see you in November? #wikileaks
4:21 AM - 4 Oct 2016
88 88 Retweets 301 301 likes

Can you trademark Tim Black? That’s badass, my man. And yeah, if anyone asks you to stay up till 4 am, the probability of regrets skyrockets faster than Al Gore’s hockey stick Global Warming chart.

Matt Dougan @Americooligan
Best troll ever: Assange asking why I'm up at 4am, while I'm wondering why I'm up at 4am, after he told me to be up at 4am. #OctoberSurprise
4:18 AM - 4 Oct 2016
762 762 Retweets 1,960 1,960 likes

Matt has a valid point here. Assange did push this as an event to only to remark: “If we are going to make a major publication about the U.S., we wouldn’t do it at 3 a.m.” Damn Julian, you missed Donald’s rage tweet time by 30 minutes brother.

Wikileaks Forgets its October

So, wtf does Assange have? He promised to release documents weekly for the next ten weeks. Someone should nudge him and say the election is a month out. I know you’ve been stuck in a dark room, but that’s four weeks, not ten.

As to their importance? “We think they’re significant,” was all Trump supporters got. Don’t worry Wikileaks. The press has been clicking Donald’s Rickroll link for 18 months. You still got it.

Want a nice endcap to the presser? The founder of Wikileaks made sure to make a plea for donations. YUGE donations for the best discount ever ever ever.

Just when I thought political comedy was dead, real life did this and totally redeemed itself.

https://www.newsledge.com/wikileaks-pre ... rence-dud/

[Wombaticus Rex]

In the aftermath of Assange's past three acts, how are we feeling about him?

Is the Guccifer dump of Clinton Foundation documents real?

Is Donald Trump still seriously dangerous or are we all having fun yet?

[Searcher08]

In the aftermath of Assange's past three acts, how are we feeling about him?

He is a prize asshole, but then he has always been. His ability to crap on people seems at the black belt level. I dont think he has anything significant beyond more "being mean to Bernie" level stuff.

Is the Guccifer dump of Clinton Foundation documents real?

According to some of the comments on the Guccifer site, they are related to Dems in Virginia, not the Clinton Foundation. A folder called Pay to Play ?? Hmmmm...

Is Donald Trump still seriously dangerous or are we all having fun yet?

Jeffrey Epstein is probably grinning like a cheshire cat. I would say, no, Donald is not dangerous.
OTOH, I'm finding Milo and undoomed and sargon on youtube very very entertaining, so yes, I am having fun. The engagement of alt Right and regressive PoMo / critical theory drenched left is eerily similar to watching Ricky Starr at work.
Kayfabe 2.0 ?

[Harvey]

In the aftermath of Assange's past three acts, how are we feeling about him?

If I'd harboured any expectations they'd be badly mauled.

[JackRiddler]

.

It's mistaken to tie your hopes on any individual. Great artists, maybe.

Any of you care to imagine what would be left of your mind after four or five years of being trapped in an "embassy" that consists of a single apartment? How much space does he have? You think he gets to pace around the ambassador's office during off-hours? Does he get to order takeout, and what does that involve in terms of dangers? Can he answer the door himself? Not a second outside, and probably very little chance if any to masturbate. It's not Guantanamo, true. Which was sort of his motivation to hide out there in the first place! I'm sure he's had quite a few screaming fits, and I'm not considering that with the least Schadenfreude. He's sacrificed a lot more and accomplished a lot more in the realm of politics than all of us here together, I shall presume to say.

So now he's at least mildly more nuts than he was to begin with, which was already moderately nuts, and stuck on a permanent one-sided revenge kick against Clinton and the DNC. Could be worse. How well do you figure you would be doing, oh reader?

That still doesn't mean he's a Putin puppet, or that the DNC oriented leaks are coming from Russia or the post-KGB, or that he's wrong when he observes that the DNC and US media are running a neo-McCarthyite campaign (since they don't want to directly address Trump as the All-American beast that he is). It still does not mean that he's not right in about 90% of the observations I've heard from him since his asylum stay began, or that the UN rapporteurs who said he's effectively a political prisoner are not also correct. That still doesn't make him worse than the DNC itself, of course. Or the British authorities who are keeping him trapped in that box.

Let's keep things in proportion. If nothing else on the scale of the Manning revelations ever comes from him, those will earn him a proper and on balance positive paragraph or two in the history books (at least the fair and balanced ones, ha ha).

.

[8bitagent]

In case there was a few knuckleheads out there deluding themselves into thinking Trump was less of a hawk, Pence tonight laid out how they want full on military action to topple Assad
Which flies in the face of Trump's high school crutch on Putin. Either way with Clinton or Trump, the path toward global catastrophe is set

In the aftermath of Assange's past three acts, how are we feeling about him?

He is a prize asshole, but then he has always been. His ability to crap on people seems at the black belt level. I dont think he has anything significant beyond more "being mean to Bernie" level stuff.

Is the Guccifer dump of Clinton Foundation documents real?

According to some of the comments on the Guccifer site, they are related to Dems in Virginia, not the Clinton Foundation. A folder called Pay to Play ?? Hmmmm...

Is Donald Trump still seriously dangerous or are we all having fun yet?

Jeffrey Epstein is probably grinning like a cheshire cat. I would say, no, Donald is not dangerous.
OTOH, I'm finding Milo and undoomed and sargon on youtube very very entertaining, so yes, I am having fun. The engagement of alt Right and regressive PoMo / critical theory drenched left is eerily similar to watching Ricky Starr at work.
Kayfabe 2.0 ?

Seeing the "We're the REAL ALT RIGHT" jew hating romper stomper neo nazis fighting with the Milo Alt right is a kneeslapper. who knew that SJW tumblristas and fascist neo Nazis could be both triggered in similar fashion by a flamboyant troll working for Breitbart?

So far Wikileaks has had an impeccable track record since 2007, which is leading some to wonder why Assange is playing with conspiracy theories that may not at all be true(Implying Seth's death was a Hillary hit and he was the source of the leaks) Some are getting the sense that Assange is lately acting like the boy who cried wolf. I tend to think he/they wouldn't be hyping this up unless they did have something damning.

To me the Clinton Foundation taking tens of millions from Saudi Arabia is more damning than the Trump tax return thing

Also if the Clinton mused a hit on Assange thing is real, I can see why Assange would have an axe to grind. It may not be true, but we've seen the Obama administration be pretty drone trigger happy along with have an extra vendetta on whistleblowers

[8bitagent]

Political seasons do make for some strange position swapping Jack, regarding Assange and Wikileaks. I remember much of the right called for Assange and Manning to be shot for treason and public enemy #1.

Now the right wing is in love with Assange, and waiting with baited breath for some sort of "October Surprise" early Christmas present

[Freitag]

How about that VP debate? I listened to it on the radio and thought it was great. I like how civil they were to each other. They pointed out their agreements as well as their disagreements. Obviously Pence more closely represents my political views but Kaine came off as bright and articulate. The whole thing was just... mature. Two mature human beings having a debate. I wish it were these two running for Prez.

[8bitagent]

Anyone else get the feeling Trump will win it all a month from Saturday? Just a gut feeling.

You look at

- Brexit, which all polls including exit polling showed Brexit had lost til the night's final tallies
- Democrats have not won three consecutive Presidential elections in a row since 1938
- Theres a messianic like jubilation regarding Trump. From thousands of people standing in cold rain
to see him to the arena rock star fervor when he takes the stage
- On all my social media I look at, and personal life, I don't know a single Clinton supporter
I see a couple older people saying they're reluctantly voting for her
- This is an outsider/change election, hence why Sanders had a messianic fervor
- Polls are showing millennials will most likely sit this one out
- Even with a crazed bigot as GOP nominee, polls are showing Black and Latino voters below the 2008 and 2012 commitment to the Democrats
- Theres a wide belief people in phone polling are lying, as well as lying in other polls given the stigma of supporting Trump
- Theres still some major "October" surprises that could really damage Clinton
- It doesnt seem like theres a single controversy, let alone a tidal wave tsunami of controversies, that can sink Trump

Plus synchronistically....we had an actor named Ronnie, now we have a tv actor named Donnie. And looking at Ronald Reagan, Schwarzennegger,
Jesse Ventura, ect. the actor celeb always seems to win out

[seemslikeadream]

How about that VP debate? I listened to it on the radio and thought it was great. I like how civil they were to each other. They pointed out their agreements as well as their disagreements. Obviously Pence more closely represents my political views but Kaine came off as bright and articulate. The whole thing was just... mature. Two mature human beings having a debate. I wish it were these two running for Prez.

All of Mike Pence's Awful Positions on Women's Rights

A reminder that the Indiana governor has some of the most extreme anti-abortion stances in the country.


By Prachi Gupta
Oct 04, 2016
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence’s views on abortion rights are heavily influenced by his religion as a born-again evangelical Catholic. During the first (and only) televised vice presidential debate of the 2016 election Tuesday night, he said, "For me, my faith informs my life."

Though it may have been the first time watching Pence speak for some, many voters — particularly, many women — may already be familiar with Pence, who is one of the most extreme anti-abortion legislators in the country. "It all, for me, begins with cherishing the dignity, the worth, the value, of every human life," he said.

Earlier this year, Pence signed a controversial anti-abortion law that would have banned abortions of fetuses sought over gender, race, ancestry, or diagnosis of a genetic disorder. The law also criminalized fetal tissue collection or transferring, a practice that is vital to life-saving fetal tissue donation and research (including for understanding the Zika virus), and required women to view the fetal ultrasound hours before receiving an abortion. The law was so far-reaching that women in Indiana began calling Pence’s office to tell him about their periods — you know, since he seems to care about women’s reproductive health so much. A federal judge blocked the law in June.


As a member of Congress and later as governor, Pence also gutted Planned Parenthood funding in his state, which resulted in the closure of multiple clinics. In 2015, this "inadvertently created" an HIV outbreak in one Indiana town, Media Matters reported, "by shutting down access to the only HIV testing centers available to many residents."

Though there is little doubt how extreme Pence’s anti-abortion stance is, he made it explicitly clear on the campaign trail. “I’m pro-life and I don’t apologize for it,” he said during a town hall in July. Of a Trump/Pence administration, he said, “We’ll see Roe v. Wade consigned to the ash heap of history where it belongs."


Pence also has a history of making homophobic comments. In 2006, he said that same-sex couples were a sign of “societal collapse," and he voted against repealing the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy. Last year, Pence signed a religious freedom bill that critics said enables anti-gay and other types of discrimination. According to the Huffington Post, the bill "would allow any individual or corporation to cite its religious beliefs as a defense when sued by a private party" — meaning that businesses that "don’t want to serve same-sex couples, for example, could now have legal protections to discriminate." After the backlash from business leaders, Politico reports that Pence "backpedaled on language" in the bill that worried critics.

Oh, and for an extra kick in the pants: While in Congress, Pence voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act — which calls for equal pay for women — three times.


This post was updated on 10/4/2016 at 11:24 pm to include Pence’s comments on abortion during the vice presidential debate.
http://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/a4 ... ion-views/

Think Trump Is Scary? Check Out Mike Pence On The Issues.

Trump might blow up the world, but Pence would set the clock back to 1954.

10/03/2016 01:48 pm ET | Updated 21 hours ago

Jerry Bowles
Writer, Editor, Old Guy

MIKE SEGAR / REUTERS
Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump (L) greets vice presidential nominee Mike Pence after Pence spoke at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. July 20, 2016.
Mike Pence looks like a guy who watched too many episodes of “Mary Tyler Moore” as a kid and came away imprinted by the character of Ted Baxter, the pompous and self-deluded silver-haired newsman, whose perpetual cluelessness amused millions of TV watchers across the country. Little Mike appears to have seen Ted’s uninformed close-mindedness as a virtue and grew up to become an unapologetic evangelical social conservative who sees the last 40 years of progress on abortion, gay rights, civil rights, criminal justice reform and race relations as a disaster for the country.

Why does it matter? Because there is a possibility that Pence could become president of the United States. I know, I know. He’s running for vice president but consider that if he wins, Trump would be the oldest person ever elected to the job. He hides it well behind the constant rage and Agent Orange hair dye, but the Talking Yam is 70. At 6’3” and 236 pounds, he is overweight. He lives on Big Macs and Kentucky Fried Chicken. And, we know from John Kasich, who turned Trump down, he envisions making his VP the most powerful in history—kind of a chief operating officer while Trump handles the really important things like 3 a.m. tweets.

Donald Trump might blow up the world, but Mike Pence would set the clock back to 1954. It’s hard to say which would be worse. Here are some of Pence’s positions that should give even the most lukewarm progressive voters pause.

Abortion

As governor of Indiana, Pence signed the most abortion-restrictive regulations in the nation, banning abortion even in cases where the fetus has a “genetic abnormality” such as Down syndrome and holding doctors legally liable if they had knowingly performed such procedures. The law also required that aborted fetal tissue be buried or cremated. Following the Supreme Court’s decision in a landmark abortion case in June, a federal judge blocked the law from going into effect.

He led the national fight to defund Planned Parenthood and forced so many of its clinics to close in Indiana that he triggered an H.I.V. epidemic in one county.

LGBT Rights

in 2015, Pence helped pass one of the nation’s harshest “religious freedom” laws that would have protected businesses who wanted to refuse service to LGBT people if they cited religious objections. After businesses pulled out of expansion plans into the state, Pence signed an amended version of the law that was nominally intended to provide protection for sexual orientation and gender identity.

As a congressman, he opposed federal funding that would support treatment for people suffering from H.I.V. and AIDS, unless the government simultaneously invested in programs to discourage people from engaging in same-sex relationships.

He has resisted changes to hate-crime laws that would have included acts against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. And he was against the end of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” a Clinton administration policy that allowed gays to serve in the military.

He has said publicly, “I long for the day that Roe v. Wade is sent to the ash heap of history.”

Immigration

In 2006, Pence proposed an immigration compromise that envisioned a guest worker program that required undocumented immigrants to “self-deport” before returning to America legally. His plan did not offer a path to citizenship, nor did it propose a “deportation force.” He’s down with the big beautiful wall. He fought against having Syrian refugees settled in Indiana.

Education

Under Governor Pence, Indiana has diverted $53 million in the past two years from public school to funding vouchers for private schools, including religious schools, and to charter school programs. He was the first governor to try to repeal Common Core. Pence earned an F on the official NEA legislative report card in eight of his 12 years as a member of Congress.

He was one of only 25 Republican congressmen to vote against George W. Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” initiative.

The Environment

He is skeptical of climate change and wrote a letter to President Obama threatening to disobey the new regulations on coal mandated by the Clean Power Plan.

Trade

In 2014 Pence tweeted, “Trade means jobs, but trade also means security. The time has come for all of us to urge the swift adoption of the Trans Pacific Partnership.” Presumably, he has, or will, walk that one back.

Guns

Take a wild guess. He has an “A” rating from the NRA and is opposed to any restrictions on assault rifles.

Bonus: Troubling Personal Fact

Campaign finance records from a 1990 run for Congress show that Pence, then 31, had used political donations to pay the mortgage on his house, his personal credit card bill, groceries, golf tournament fees and car payments for his wife.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/thi ... bd896a11db

Purvi Patel: What you need to know about the woman arrested under Gov. Mike Pence’s abortion law

One state's quest to arrest a woman because of her fetus
SALON STAFF

Purvi Patel: What you need to know about the woman arrested under Gov. Mike Pence's abortion law

As a result of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence’s crusade against reproductive rights, a woman named Purvi Patel was convicted of feticide and neglect of a dependent in what was called an illegal abortion. The charges were dropped, and Patel was spared a 20-year prison sentence. But the case remains a mark of the dangers that women face under Gov. Pence’s rule.

Salon has covered the case, as well as the war against abortion and reproductive rights, many times.

–Woman sentenced to 20 years in prison after claiming she had a miscarriage, March 30, 2015
– Religious right’s next crusade: What they want to throw women in jail for now, April 3, 2015
– Secrets of the hate-pizza revolution: Indiana’s dreadful culture-war week, April 4, 2015
– Pregnant women are now targets: The tragedy of Purvi Patel, April 26, 2015
– Purvi Patel to appeal conviction: “Feticide is an extreme, extreme proposition, April 29, 2015
– America’s criminalization of women continues: Woman charged after allegedly self-inducing abortion, June 9, 2015
– The dark road to criminalizing pregnancy: Why everyone should care about the “feticide” conviction of Purvi Patel, May 2, 2015
– Abortion rights at stake: Purvi Patel and the fate of pregnant women in Indiana, May 25, 2016
– The case of Purvi Patel: How Mike Pence won his crusade against abortion in Indiana
http://www.salon.com/2016/10/05/purvi-p ... rtion-law/

[seemslikeadream]

Trump Used Foundation Funds for 2016 Run, Filings Suggest

By Rebecca Berg
October 04, 2016
As Donald Trump began making noise about a possible bid for president in 2011, South Carolina conservative activist Oran Smith caught the celebrity businessman’s eye as a particularly vocal and potentially influential critic.

"Trump would get thumped here,” Smith, president of the Palmetto Family Council, a social conservative public policy group, told the Christian Broadcasting Network. “He is a celebrity, but an apprentice at politics.”

Smith’s comments appeared in a March 2011 CBN story alongside feedback from other key national evangelical leaders such as Ralph Reed and Tony Perkins. Shortly after the story ran, Trump called Smith and invited him to meet at Trump Tower in New York, Smith told RealClearPolitics, “to see if he could convince me those things weren’t true.”

“It probably had something to do with, I was in an early primary state,” Smith said. Trump was “laying the foundation for a ... campaign,” Smith thought at the time, although “it was difficult trying to tell if he was serious about running for president or not.”

During their meeting in Trump’s office, they discussed Christian faith and religious liberty. Smith was struck by “a different Donald Trump than I expected.” On his way out the door, Smith asked that Trump consider donating to the Palmetto Family Council.

“He was never heavy-handed about any quid pro quo,” Smith said.

But Trump delivered.

“It was a quiet donation that came with a simple cover letter,” Smith said. It read: “Great meeting with you and your wife in my office,” dated May 6, 2011. Enclosed was a check for $10,000 from the Donald J. Trump Foundation.

That check is one of at least several donations to suggest Trump used his private foundation, funded by outside donors, to launch and fuel his political ambitions. Such contributions, if they were made solely for Trump’s benefit, could violate federal self-dealing laws for private foundations.

From 2011 through 2014, Trump harnessed his eponymous foundation to send at least $286,000 to influential conservative or policy groups, a RealClearPolitics review of the foundation’s tax filings found. In many cases, this flow of money corresponded to prime speaking slots or endorsements that aided Trump as he sought to recast himself as a plausible Republican candidate for president.

Although sources familiar with the thinking behind the donations cautioned that Trump did not explicitly ask for favors in return for the money, they said the contributions were part of a deliberate effort by Trump to ingratiate himself with influential conservatives and brighten his political prospects.

“He was politically active starting in 2011,” said one source with ties to Trump, and at that point he “started to make strategic donations.”

The lion’s share of those donations came from Trump’s personal funds and went straight to political campaigns or parties. But others, in particular those directed to the nonprofit arms of conservative policy groups, originated with Trump’s foundation.

“If he could do 501(c)(3) to 501(c)(3), he did it that way,” said the source, using the tax code designation for nonprofit organizations.

But Trump has not donated to the foundation that bears his name since 2008, CNN reported last month, which means other donors bore the cost of his giving.

The donations to groups that granted Trump plum speaking slots or otherwise promoted his political aspirations also might run afoul of self-dealing rules for private foundations, which prohibit a foundation’s leadership from using donor money for its own gain.

“Getting the right to speak or access to networking events, that’s definitely starting to push into self-dealing, where you’re using the private foundation assets to benefit Mr. Trump,” said Rosemary Fei, a partner at the Adler & Colvin law firm in San Francisco, where she specializes in charity law.

Multiple Trump campaign aides did not respond to requests for comment.

This potential conflict echoes other improper donations and practices by the Donald J. Trump Foundation that have recently come to light during his campaign for president.

Earlier this year, the Washington Post revealed that Trump’s foundation improperly donated $25,000 to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi in 2013, later misreporting it on its annual filing in a way that obscured the contribution. Trump’s foundation this year paid a $2,500 fine to the IRS as a result, the Post reported last month.

The Post also reported that Trump and his wife, Melania, have spent thousands of Trump Foundation dollars at charity auctions for items they have personally kept, including two portraits of Trump and a football helmet signed by Tim Tebow.

Most recently, the Post found that Trump’s foundation solicited donations in New York without proper certification from the state. In the wake of that story, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman ordered Monday that Trump’s foundation immediately stop soliciting donations.

Schneiderman, a Democrat who has endorsed Hillary Clinton, has opened a broader investigation into the foundation, a probe that Trump and his campaign have cast as “political in nature.”

But RCP’s review of IRS filings by the Trump foundation turned up a fresh conflict: a 2013 donation of $10,000 to The Family Leader, a 501(c)(4) established to “develop, advocate and support legislative agenda at the state level.” Unlike a 501(c)(3), or a nonprofit organization, a 501(c)(4) can effect policy and engage in limited political activity, and thus is subject to greater restrictions on contributions from charities.

If the Trump foundation sent its money to The Family Leader and not its affiliated nonprofit, it did not properly note it in the filing and might have failed to earmark the money for charitable purposes, a violation of IRS rules. If the money was sent to the Family Leader Foundation, it was not recorded as such.

“There’s a mistake somewhere,” said Fei. “It might be a really substantive mistake, or it could just be a reporting error or sloppiness. But improper reporting is still a violation of tax law. That’s something the IRS would look at.”

The donation also appears to have been geared toward boosting Trump’s political prospects, raising the specter of another possible violation for self-dealing.

In the same year that Trump’s foundation made that $10,000 contribution, The Family Leader featured Trump as a marquee speaker for the first time at its influential leadership summit in Iowa. The announcement raised eyebrows: Craig Robinson, editor of the Iowa Republican blog, wrote that Trump was “an odd fit for a social conservative confab,” while the Family Leader was roundly criticized by other Iowa conservatives for including Trump in the program.

But Bob Vander Plaats, the group’s president and CEO, nevertheless heaped praise on Trump — telling RCP at the time that Trump “sure would be” a serious presidential candidate in 2016 if he were to run.

“I think the best predictor of the future is to look at the past, and he’s been a pretty successful guy, so I wouldn’t count him out,” Vander Plaats said. The following year, in 2014, Trump’s foundation donated another $10,000 to The Family Leader — but this time to its nonprofit arm, in accordance with tax law. A spokesman for The Family Leader did not respond to a request for comment.

Meanwhile, there are half a dozen other such examples of Trump having used his foundation to help curry or cement favor, the IRS 990 forms show.

The Rev. Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, for example, might have seemed an unusual political ally for the brash mogul from New York — but in April 2011, Graham began to publicly express support for the celebrity businessman as Trump weighed a bid for president.

"When I first saw that he was getting in, I thought, ‘Well, this has got to be a joke,’" Graham told ABC News at the time. "But the more you listen to him, the more you say to yourself, ‘You know, maybe the guy's right.'”

Sometime in 2012, Trump used his foundation to send $100,000 to Graham’s association — one of the largest donations the foundation would make to any group that year.

But Trump’s most impactful donations might have been those to conservative groups that could offer him a platform from which to test his presidential message and garner media attention for it.

In 2013, Trump took the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, outside of Washington, D.C., where he touted his business record, railed against President Obama’s policies, and declared: “We have to make America great again.”

That same year, Trump used his foundation to donate $50,000 to the American Conservative Union Foundation, the nonprofit arm of the group that organizes CPAC and sets its program. He did not ask for a speaking slot in return, but he did not need to.

“Everyone’s too smart to say, ‘Donate and we’ll let you speak,’” said one source familiar with the donation. “It was kind of understood.”

Trump was also listed as a CPAC sponsor in 2015, in the immediate lead-up to his presidential campaign. ACU Chairman Matt Schlapp did not respond to an email from RCP asking whether Trump’s foundation footed the bill or he did.

But Trump’s greatest early political exposure might have come from Citizens United, a conservative political group whose president, David Bossie, met with Trump in 2011 about a potential presidential bid and remained a close ally. More recently, Bossie took leave from his group last month to join Trump’s campaign as deputy campaign manager.

In April 2014, when Citizens United hosted a “cattle call” of would-be Republican candidates for president in New Hampshire, Trump was there. In January 2015, at Citizens United’s Freedom Summit in Iowa, Trump was again on the program. And at the group’s South Carolina summit in May 2015, Trump also took to the stage.

The high-profile events were held in three key battleground states. And it was no fluke: Bossie had insisted Trump be included in one of the group’s events “because he was a good friend to Citizens United,” said a source with knowledge of the discussions.

It might have helped that, in 2014, Trump’s foundation donated $100,000 to the Citizens United Foundation, by far its single largest donation to any group that year. RCP reached Bossie by phone Monday and offered him an opportunity to respond; Bossie said he would call back but did not and subsequently could not be reached for comment.

Trump has maintained that his speaking invitations prior to his candidacy for president were a reflection of his popularity. At an event at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C, in December 2014, Trump thanked the club’s president, David Rubenstein, for inviting him to attend.

“David called and he said, ‘Would you do this?’” Trump said. “When David calls, I say yes.”

Trump was planning to travel to Iowa in a few weeks for the Citizens United summit there, and Rubenstein kicked off the discussion by asking whether that might mean Trump was weighing a bid for president.

Trump looked out into the crowd. “It’s a great group, so many friends. One of them is David Bossie, who right now is heading up that whole dinner and whole weekend in Iowa. He said, ‘Would you do it?' And I have great respect for David and what he’s done and what he represents, so I agreed to do it. And it’s going to be a great event.”

Of running for president, Trump finally said, “I am considering it very strongly.” And, for roughly an hour thereafter, he discussed policy and political themes in a setting that lent him gravitas and legitimacy.

It’s unclear when the check for $6,000 from the Donald J. Trump Foundation arrived for the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. But Trump gave his remarks Dec. 15 — and the donation appears on the foundation’s 2014 filing, suggesting it was written prior to the event or in the two weeks following it.

The money, and other donations like it, could raise further questions about whether Trump used money from his foundation’s donors for his own benefit rather than for charity.

“If what he talked about was promoting his candidacy or fundraising for his campaign, it is not only self-dealing but potentially involves the foundation in making a grant to support political activity,” said Fei. “That’s prohibited.”
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articl ... ggest.html

Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.

[Luther Blissett]

Just a note: almost all quotes attributed to Assange were actually from Roger Stone and Alex Jones.

Something will supposedly be released before Election Day, but what it pertains to we don't know. The ghoulish conservative pundits were weaving fantasies and every blogger fell for it.

[seemslikeadream]

In the aftermath of Assange's past three acts, how are we feeling about him?

Is the Guccifer dump of Clinton Foundation documents real?

Is Donald Trump still seriously dangerous or are we all having fun yet?

In the aftermath of Assange's past three acts, how are we feeling about him?

upset that I am agreeing with Alex Jones

Is the Guccifer dump of Clinton Foundation documents real?

I don't think so

Is Donald Trump still seriously dangerous?

YES and his basket of deplorables will always be seriously dangerous

or are we all having fun yet?

it's always fun around here until someone gets hurt