TRUMP is seriously dangerous

[Iamwhomiam]

Let's watch Nordic try to spin this source as imaginings of polarized Democrats. Still awaiting your response, my friend, to my question:

"Nordic, do you not believe the Russians, unlike us, are not at all engaged in cyberwarfare against us?"


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLGOBB-hElE

Waiting to see him try to convince someone that Anonymous is a closet Democrat, or maybe that this guy, who is admitting publicly to having committed treason to any and all clickers whose diet consists of this sort of tripe, is rational or truthful. and not a Republican or Conservative Party hack.:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov5kvWSz5LM

[seemslikeadream]

TRUMP IS seriously dangerous

'Vote Trump' painted on burned Miss. black church
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nati ... topstories

Vote Your Conscience ....Vote with the KKK...Vote for Trump Make Lynching Great Again

Obama on FBI: ‘We don’t operate on innuendo’
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/pos ... -innuendo/

Perfect: Now James Comey’s big mess is featured in a Trump political ad
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/pl ... e1f403cc00

[semper occultus]

...that Church looks a little bit convenient for the PTB.......but whatever sincerely hope there isn't going to be another Jo Cox type incident

[seemslikeadream]

oh so it wasn't a Trump supporter who burnt that church?

Burning Black churches is what racists do in this country...that's how they intimidate Black people into not voting

I'll get back to you when they catch the racist...and it won't be some PTB....you think the PTB would fuck with some little black church in Mississippi?

There's history to take into account here

Mom: Teen son shook in fear after white Mississippi schoolmates put noose on him
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mom-teen-so ... se-on-him/

Killer serves less than 4 years in Mississippi 'hate crime'

THE CLARION-LEDGER Ethel Tribble still suffers pain from the killing of her son, James McCoy, in what experts say was a hate crime. MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS Terry Magee Jr., who pleaded to killing and kidnapping James McCoy, walked free from prison in less than four years. SPECIAL TO THE CLARION-LEDGER A gang of white men beat and killed James McCoy on Oct. 11, 2003. His convicted killer served less than four years in prison. THE CLARION-LEDGER/FILE Madison/Rankin County District Attorney Michael Guest reopened the James McCoy slaying case when he took office in 2008. THE CLARION-LEDGER Ethel Tribble still suffers pain from the killing of her son, James McCoy, in what experts say was a hate crime. MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS Terry Magee Jr., who pleaded to killing and kidnapping James McCoy, walked free from prison in less than four years.
1 of 4
MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS Terry Magee Jr., who pleaded to killing and kidnapping James McCoy, walked free from prison in less than four years.
BY JERRY MITCHELL

A Rankin County deputy found James McCoy's body in the middle of Mississippi 43.

It was after 1:30 a.m. on Oct. 11, 2003, when he saw the 40-year-old African-American lying on his back in a pool of blood. There was no pulse.

Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/news/article76 ... rylink=cpy

Hate Crime In U.S. Survey Up 6 Percent; But Anti-Muslim Rise 89 Percent, NYC Up 24 Percent So Far In 2016
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-lev ... 00232.html

Police: 'Vote Trump' vandalism, fire at Mississippi church a hate crime

By Eliott C. McLaughlin, CNN
Updated 2:20 PM ET, Wed November 2, 2016
Church torched, vandalized with 'vote Trump' graffiti


Church torched, vandalized with 'vote Trump' graffiti 00:45

Fire, vandalism at black church in Mississippi is viewed as hate crime, police say

Greenville mayor: "We're in 2016 and that should not happen"

(CNN)Police are treating the burning of a black church in Mississippi -- during which vandals spray-painted "Vote Trump" on an exterior wall -- as a hate crime, saying it amounts to an act of voter intimidation.

A 911 call reporting the fire at Hopewell Baptist Church in Greenville came in at about 9:15 p.m. Tuesday, police said. Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze.
Most of the damage to the 111-year-old church was to the sanctuary, pastor Carilyn Hudson said at a news conference.
"We do believe that God will allow us to build another sanctuary in that same place," she said, though the extent of the damage was unclear.
There were no reports of injuries, and no one had been in the building since about 1 p.m. Tuesday, Hudson said.
Vandals set Hopewell Baptist Church in Greenville, Mississippi, on fire Tuesday night, police say.
.
Investigators continue to collect evidence, and while there are no suspects yet, police are "possibly talking to a person of interest," Greenville Police Chief Delando Wilson said at the news conference.
Authorities are treating the act as a hate crime, he said, because it's viewed as an attempt to intimidate voters.
"It tries to push your beliefs on someone else, and this is a church, a predominantly black church, and no one has a right to try and ... pressure someone into the way they want to decide to vote in this election," the chief said.
History of hate: The burning of black churches
The west Mississippi city of about 33,000 located near the Arkansas border is 78% black, according to the most recent census. Surrounding Washington County is 71% black.
Mayor Errick Simmons said he spoke to some of the church's 200 congregants who were fearful and felt intimidated. They felt the vandalism was not just an attack on the church, but on the black community, he said.
The vandals also wrote "Vote Trump" in crude, white spray paint across the church.
The vandals also wrote "Vote Trump" in crude, white spray paint across the church.
"It happened in the '50s, it happened in the '60s, but we're in 2016 and that should not happen," he said.
Greenville faced another race-based attack in September when someone painted the n-word on the city's boat ramp, Simmons said. He ordered city workers to paint over the pejorative, he said.
Because it's an African-American church, the FBI is working "with our local, state and federal law enforcement partners to determine if any civil rights crimes were committed," said a statement from the FBI's office in Jackson, the state capital.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is assisting the Mississippi State Fire Marshal's office, ATF special agent Joseph Frank said.
ATF agents weren't able to enter the structure until mid-morning Wednesday because it was still too hot, Frank said.
A GoFundMeaccount set up to help the church rebuild had garnered more than 500 donations by early Wednesday afternoon, far surpassing its goal of $10,000

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/02/us/missis ... ote-trump/.

Vote Your Conscience ....Vote with the KKK...Vote for Trump Make Lynching Great Again

[stillrobertpaulsen]

White nationalists plot Election Day show of force

KKK, neo-Nazis and militias plan to monitor urban polling places and suppress the black vote.

By Ben Schreckinger

11/02/16 05:01 AM EDT


David Duke said his supporters plan to monitor polls with an eye toward “some of the more inner-city areas." | AP Photo

Neo-Nazi leader Andrew Anglin plans to muster thousands of poll watchers across all 50 states. His partners at the alt-right website “the Right Stuff” are touting plans to set up hidden cameras at polling places in Philadelphia and hand out liquor and marijuana in the city’s “ghetto” on Election Day to induce residents to stay home. The National Socialist Movement, various factions of the Ku Klux Klan and the white nationalist American Freedom Party all are deploying members to watch polls, either “informally” or, they say, through the Trump campaign.

The Oath Keepers, a group of former law enforcement and military members that often shows up in public heavily armed, is advising members to go undercover and conduct “intelligence-gathering” at polling places, and Donald Trump ally Roger Stone is organizing his own exit polling, aiming to monitor thousands of precincts across the country.

Energized by Trump’s candidacy and alarmed by his warnings of a “rigged election,” white nationalist, alt-right and militia movement groups are planning to come out in full force on Tuesday, creating the potential for conflict at the close of an already turbulent campaign season.

“The possibility of violence on or around Election Day is very real,” said Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center. “Donald Trump has been telling his supporters for weeks and weeks and weeks now that they are about to have the election stolen from them by evil forces on behalf of the elites.”

It is difficult to know at what scale these plans will materialize, because Anglin and his fringe-right ilk are serial exaggerators, according to Potok. And rather than successfully uncover widespread voter fraud — for which there is a lack of compelling evidence — or successfully suppress minority turnout, Potok said the efforts are most likely to backfire.

“If on the morning of Election Day it turns out that we have white supremacists standing around looking threatening at polling places, I think it would arouse anger,” he said. “People would vote just to prove they’re not being intimidated by these radical racists.”

Despite Trump’s claims that American democracy is compromised by massive voter fraud, so far in this election only one person — a Trump supporter in Iowa who attempted to vote twice — has been arrested for it. That has not stopped fringe groups already inclined to believe that minorities are stealing the election from heeding Trump’s call to monitor voting in “certain areas.”

In an email, Anglin, the editor of the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer website, said he had already led a “big voter registration drive” and that he was “sending an army of Alt-Right nationalists to watch the polls.” Anglin said he was working in conjunction with the alt-right website TheRightStuff.Biz.

A representative of that site wrote in an email: “We are organizing poll watchers in urban areas to cut down on the most traditional type of voter fraud. We also will have stationary cameras hidden at polling locations in Philadelphia, to monitor anyone that comes in to vote and make sure that the same people are not voting at multiple locations. If we see people voting in multiple locations the footage will be submitted to the [Federal Election Commission] as well as put out on social media to undermine the legitimacy of [Hillary] Clinton should she steal the election.”

The representative, who did not provide his name, went on to explain, "Many polling locations are in schools, and black schools are so disorderly that pretty much any official-looking white person with a clipboard can gain access to them ahead of time and set up a hidden camera. You don't really ever even have to speak with an adult. Simply walk in like you belong there and no one even asks you why you are there. So we usually go in teams of two, one person driving and one person dressed as a blue collar worker with a clipboard, and we set up a hidden camera in the school cafeteria. Go during lunchtime and the teachers are all so busy trying to contain the kids that no one says anything. We already have a few set up."

The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

A senior Trump adviser told Bloomberg Businessweek last month that the campaign is working on a three-pronged voter suppression strategy that includes an effort to depress black turnout. Though other Trump advisers later pushed back on the report, Anglin’s partners say they are hoping to put Trump over the top by doing just that.

“We also have some teams going in to the ghettos in Philly with 40s and weed to give out to the local residents, which we think will lead to more of them staying home. We have had success with this in the past,” wrote the representative of TheRightStuff.biz, who said four teams of two employed this tactic in Detroit during the Democratic primary in an effort to help Bernie Sanders. “40s” are 40-ounce bottles of malt liquor. POLITICO could not independently verify his claims.

It remains an open question whether the neo-Nazis’ plans materialize, and to what extent.

Mark Pitcavage, who monitors extremists for the Anti-Defamation League, said Anglin lacks a track record of organizing real-world action and that he was skeptical he could “get even close” to what he was promising.

More concrete, said Pitcavage, are the plans of the Oath Keepers, a militia movement group formed in 2009. It has thousands of active members, drawn largely from the ranks of former military, law enforcement, intelligence and first responders, and a track record of mustering heavily armed members in public places.

The group issued a statement last month claiming that James O’Keefe’s latest Project Veritas video provided evidence of “a well-orchestrated campaign of criminal vote fraud on an industrial scale” and urging members “to form up incognito intelligence-gathering and crime spotting teams and go out into public on Election Day, dressed to blend in with the public.” The group said it believed most vote-rigging was “leftist” but that it would seek to expose fraud committed by anyone. Last week, The Washington Post reported that the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law would ask the Justice Department to investigate the group’s Election Day plans.

Stone, who first began advising Trump in the ’80s and describes the alt-right as “the new mainstream,” has also come under scrutiny for his Election Day plans. The Republican operative — less concerned with fraud committed by voters than with vote-rigging by elections officials — is organizing a volunteer exit-polling operation he hopes will reach 7,000 precincts that he sees as prone to rigging because of the voting methods employed and their one-party control. Stone said the precincts targeted included 2,000 in Philadelphia as well as some Republican-controlled areas in Ohio, though he declined to specify where. “If I told you, I would be warning the [Republican Gov. John] Kasich machine,” he said.

Stone said he planned to present his findings to Trump and that he would consider any deviation of more than 2 percent between his exit polls and the posted precinct totals to be suspicious, citing the State Department’s standard for monitoring foreign elections.

But it is doubtful that a hastily assembled volunteer effort could result in reliable exit polling data, and Potok warned, “Anything he would produce would merely create more conflict and not lead us any closer to the truth of what happens out there.”

Other groups are combining poll-watching with more traditional forms of politicking, including leafleting, rallies and get-out-the-vote efforts.

Jeff Schoep, leader of the National Socialist Movement, said he was organizing a Saturday rally at the Pennsylvania Statehouse in Harrisburg, where he expected between 75 and a few hundred people to show up, to mobilize supporters ahead of the election. Schoep said the party, which has not officially endorsed Trump though its members overwhelmingly support him, would deploy “informal” poll watchers through its roughly 50 chapters across the country.

William Johnson, chairman of the American Freedom Party and an advocate of deporting nonwhites from the United States, said his party members are working through Trump’s operation rather than organizing their own efforts.

“We have some of our members that are doing poll watching, but they’re not doing it as American Freedom Party members,” he said. “They’re doing it through the Trump campaign.”

“We have a lot of people that are involved with the get-out-the-vote through the various Trump organizations,” said the Los Angeles-based Johnson, who added that the party’s California members are focused on aiding the Trump campaign in Nevada.

Members of the party were also working with an Ohio car dealer to throw an Election Day party in Las Vegas at a rooftop location overlooking Trump International Hotel but could not pull together the financing for it, according to Johnson, a lawyer who made headlines this week by commissioning robocalls in Utah that attack independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin as a “closet homosexual.”

Meanwhile, members of the white nationalist Traditionalist Workers Party will descend on Ohio to hand out leaflets hailing Trump as “the peace candidate,” according to the party’s leader, Matthew Heimbach.

Though a pale shadow of its former self, the KKK is also mobilizing for Election Day. Thomas Robb, national director of knights of Ku Klux Klan, which considers itself the national standard-bearer of the KKK, said party members across the country would be working to get voters to the polls for Trump.

And Louisiana Senate candidate David Duke — a former KKK grand wizard who supports Trump but was disavowed by the New York businessman in February after some hesitation in a CNN interview — said his supporters plan to monitor polls with an eye toward “some of the more inner-city areas” that he said exhibited suspicious voting patterns in the state’s 1991 governor’s race.

But Duke said his supporters would not limit their efforts to black neighborhoods. “It’s good to watch everywhere because there always can be major mistakes,” Duke said. “Or unintentional mistakes. Who knows?”

[Belligerent Savant]

.

I find myself agreeing with the comments more so than the offering in the below link. As such, I'll let y'all click on the link at your leisure while memorializing a few choice comments:

http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/ ... dream.html

Hubert Horan said...
No issues with your basic assessment of Clinton as the embodiment of the elite consensus, or the distrust of the "talking heads" who have told the public that There Is No Alternative to these elite policies. But from a practical political standpoint there is no reason to believe that a Trump victory would do anything to weaken elite power in the near term, despite the fact that Trump (and most of his supporters) actively disagree with major elements of elite policy (military spending, immigration, trade, etc). A Trump election means unified control of all three branches by the Republicans, and an end to the stalemates that have kept things from getting worse. Trump has absolutely no ability or interest in coordinating or controlling what the Republican congress does. Congressional Republicans, despite the active hostility of rank-and-file Republican voters are far more dedicated to the programs for unlimited military spending, no infrastructure investment, enhancing corporate and financial power, and upward income redistribution than the elite Democrats. The Democrats will at least look after the interests of the top 20% while the Republicans are totally focused on the 1%. These Republicans are far better at employing the "talking heads" to push their pro-corporate anti-working class agenda than the Democrats. The Republicans and their backers have been salivating at the prospect of unified control of Washington for decades, and once they get it they'll be absolutely ruthless about exploiting that position. Trump understands power; as President he won't have it but Congress and their financial backers will, so he'll play along with 95% of what they want in order to prevent the appearance of impotence. SO, accepting your general predictions of life following a Clinton election, I'd argue everything gets worse with Trump. There will be symbolic sops to hard-core Trump voters while everything else is for the benefits of the plutocrats and rent-seeking big corporations. Just like there were always sops to the religious right on "social" issues that business didn't like but weren't financially important.
The comparisons to the late stage USSR are important. Maybe you've done this in the past but I think the key parallel is the use of propaganda techniques--not just Fox News or your "talking heads" but 40 years of corporate/plutocrat investment in "narratives" and the ability to use propaganda techniques to totally hollow out journalism, academia, the judiciary and similar groups in order to totally exclude evidence and arguments that might have challenged the dominance of these elite groups.

Mister Roboto said...
Okay, so I did vote...straight-ticket Libertarian. I might not be a libertarian as such, far from it in fact, but they offered a full slate of candidates on the Federal level for which to vote where I live, and I also respect their consistent stance against hegemonic militarism and the encroaching police-state. The Green Party couldn't be more irrelevant if it tried, and sometimes I wonder if it is indeed trying! The one state-level office up for grabs here, state representative, I left blank because the only choice was a safely-ensconced Scott Walker Republican versus a Democratic old union-boss challenger at whom I'm sure sixty percent of the voters will flip the finger when they vote for the incumbent.

I find Trump too detestable to cast my vote for him (he's going to be charged with fraud for his Trump University scam and he's an aggressive sexual harasser if not a rapist), but if the Flyover Country laboring classes want to put him in the Oval Office, I won't stand in their way, because I know how fully legitimate their grievances are. The whole shebang is precipitously heading for collapse anyway and the rot of our society and its politics fully reflect this fundamental truth, so "what the hey"?

I only hope whoever wins doesn't start the ICBMs flying. Last night someone was hot-rodding down my street in their muscle-car, and the sound was a little bit like how the civil-defense sirens sound when they start their nightmarish wailing call. Let me tell you, my heart started thumping like the proverbial jackrabbit!

Bill Pulliam said...
One flaw in all this discussion though: Trump is not a man of any principles or beliefs at all, in a policy sense. He is a performer, a "reality" TV actor. He would/will quickly wind up being just be a rough-talking figurehead puppet for pretty much the same neocon/neoliberal consensus of the last several decades. You could say the same was true of Reagan, but by the time he became president he had a substantial history in politics and his principles and policies were well-formed, well-known, and (at least for practical purposes) sincerely held. George W. Bush was more similar, but in reality you can kind of draw a line from Reagan (actor turned politician with real policies) to Bush II (Mindless Prettyboy from a political dynasty figurehead for the Neocon movement who did what he was told) to Trump (Publicity hound who has no actual foundation principles or policies and will just chase the spotlight).

Clinton's one positive is that she is a known quantity, no mystery about what a Clinton administration will and won't try to do. The devil we know, or the loose canon we don't?

My own vote has been cast, for neither of them.

Substantial prospects for significant change in the American trajectory on this presidential cycle evaporated early in the primary season.

On a p.s. I do find it interesting that many seem to think the current narrowing of the polling gap between Clinton and Trump is because of the FBI email stuff. It seems far more likely from the timing of it all that is it because of the huge rate hikes in Obamacare premiums. Of course "85% of enrollees don't have to pay the full rate" so it's not a problem... except for that other 15%, who I guess don't count? I think the average voter has already heard more about Clinton's e-mails than they care to think about and just glossed over the latest crap, but health insurance hits right in the gut and the wallet. But the FBI announcement lets the Dems ignore the problems with the ACA yet again and focus on something meaningless instead.

Vadim said...
Dear JMG,
as interesting and intelligent your writing is, it seems to miss some important points. One is, both candidates are equally disliked by a big group of electorate. However, there is very little proof (to say the least) that D.T. has any intention or abilities to change anything in DC. He has showed some abilities in staying on top of a wave of discontent (even at that he is far from being brilliant), and an astonishing lack of anything resembling leadership qualities. He got that far only because both the things are quite bad in the "flyover states" and his opponent is, well what she is.
I do find your reading of the situation a bit disturbing. 'cause, if you really see DT as somebody "admitting issues" or "takes the stand on them", the country is really primed for a collapse.
Then, maybe, it is because I am one of the better-off coastal liberals?

Rich_P said...
Trump *won't* change things enough to matter, as he's avoided talking about root causes and does not understand the Constitution, federalism, etc. I view this entire circus of an election as a textbook example of how the failures of statist progressivism inevitably engender populist uprisings that allow would-be Caesars to take control of bloated federal apparatuses to ultimately destroy the republic. President Obama, ironically enough, has voiced concern that he's leaving behind a "loaded gun" for the next president to use. You think?

What's concerning to me (as a self-described republican [little 'r'] constitutionalist who favors decentralized governance) is that we've reached this point. Where healthcare for a nation of 300+ million people is based around a failed program named after a president. Where desperate people look to the president to somehow bestow upon them jobs as though he's Jesus with loaves and fishes. Where in Article II of the Constitution are these powers given to the Chief Magistrate (as Washington called the office)? This is extraordinarily dangerous and, dare I say it, pathetically desperate.

The fallacy of statism is that economic and political power consolidated in the hands of the "benevolent" and "all-knowing" few is desirable and productive. Instead, it creates corruption, disconnectedness, and ultimately threatens liberty itself. E.g. we defeated the Soviet Union so our economy could be steered by a politburo of econ PhDs at the Fed who debase the fiat currency for the benefit of asset holders.

Unlike other coasties, though, I am not surprised by Trump's ascent, though I always viewed his candidacy as a rather ham-fisted "F U" to a clearly-broken system. I am saddened that this justifiable anger is not directed at intelligently fixing the underlying issues and has instead been channeled behind an egomaniac blowhard.

[JackRiddler]

...that Church looks a little bit convenient for the PTB.......but whatever sincerely hope there isn't going to be another Jo Cox type incident

Seriously? With all due respect, sir, fuck off.

[Wombaticus Rex]

...that Church looks a little bit convenient for the PTB.......but whatever sincerely hope there isn't going to be another Jo Cox type incident

Seriously? With all due respect, sir, fuck off.

There's nothing sacred about burnt churches. The past five years has been a parade of proofs that both Red and Blue teams are quite capable of ham-fisted false flag attacks, most recently the Republican HQ in North Carolina boasting a classic KKK warning from alleged Hillary pantsuiters. "Get Out of Town or Else" is just as dubious as slapping "Vote Trump" on a burned church.

We're kind of ... all about sustaining suspicion past the point of critical paranoia here.

[JackRiddler]

In the U.S. south, the husk of a burnt church with a racist slogan on it. (And yes, it becomes that when it's a racist spraypainting it on the husk of a burnt church, see?) And I'm supposed to think what? The thousands of lynchings, the Tulsa pogrom, the police shootings to this day, the mass incarceration of non-violent "drug offenders," all the massacres and beatings, the assassinations of all the best leaders, all the other goddamn church burnings and bombings, hundreds of years of social terror, the way all this shit gets swept under in both History and the News, but wait -- this one's the false flag! What's special about this one, pray tell? Or maybe it all was, from Reconstruction forward. A psyop to cause division between regular white folk and their more openly racist brothers? It's all to make Trump look bad? Now if you said that the black church was burned in the way that black churches are burned all through U.S. history, but the spraypainting might be some opportunist's idea of defaming Trump - okay, I can see that as a possibility. But either way, to see the burnt church and the slogan and then go straight there is just gob-smacking me. It clearly comes from someone for whom racism in the US is no salient issue, or a triviality.

[JackRiddler]

My misunderstanding: The current report for what it is worth is that the "vandals" who burned the church also did the spraypainting. I didn't realize this just happened, I falsely assumed that it was a picture of one of the MANY BLACK CHURCHES IN THE SOUTH THAT HAVE BEEN HIT WITH ARSON RECENTLY.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/02/us/missis ... ote-trump/

[seemslikeadream]

pardon me I thought we were talking about this southern black church

[seemslikeadream]

Trump’s Foreign Business Entanglements Would Create Unparalleled Conflicts
His adult children, who would run operations if their father becomes president, have long dealt with politically connected firms and individuals, an overlap of business and politics unseen in the modern White House

By ALEXANDRA BERZON
Nov. 2, 2016 6:39 a.m. ET

Donald Trump’s adult children have spent a decade doing business with politically connected foreign firms—a role that will present potential conflicts of interest whether he wins on Nov. 8 or continues to pursue politics if he loses.

Those whom Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump have worked with abroad include: the family of a developer in India who is a ruling-party politician, an Azerbaijani government minister’s son and a media company that became the Turkish president’s outlet of choice during the July 15 coup attempt.

No recent president has had a portfolio of international business interests as extensive as Mr. Trump’s—or as great a level of business engagement on his behalf by offspring, who have also played a role in his campaign.

READ MORE ON CAPITAL JOURNAL

Capital Journal is WSJ.com’s home for Election 2016 news.

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U.S. law exempts the president and vice president from conflict-of-interest rules that require many federal employees to recuse themselves from decisions involving their financial interests. Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan voluntarily put most assets in blind trusts. Presidential candidate Mitt Romney said that, if elected, he would have created a federally qualifying blind trust.

A President Trump “would not be involved in the business,” said Trump Organization general counsel Alan Garten. “His focus obviously would be on the office of the presidency, and Don, Ivanka and Eric would run the company.” Mr. Trump’s campaign referred questions to Mr. Garten. The three Trump children didn’t respond to requests for comment sent through the campaign and the company.

Donald Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr. appeared with an executive of Lodha Group at the launch of Trump Tower in August 2014 in Mumbai, India.
Donald Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr. appeared with an executive of Lodha Group at the launch of Trump Tower in August 2014 in Mumbai, India. PHOTO: KUNAL PATIL/HINDUSTAN TIMES/GETTY IMAGES
Trump Organization is the umbrella company operating the family’s businesses, including real-estate assets and units that manage hotels and condo towers around the world. Much of that is domestic, but its new business in recent years has been heavily overseas—the last 10 new real-estate or real-estate branding deals it has announced are all abroad.

That business largely consists of licensing deals, and in some cases management deals, with foreign developers building condo and hotel towers. Clients include wealthy business people and politicians who buy Trump-branded condos. Mr. Trump’s adult children have in recent years taken over day-to-day management of much of the business.

The filial arrangement would raise questions about potential conflicts of interest in a Trump presidency, especially in dealings abroad, said Aaron Friedberg, a national-security adviser to Dick Cheney when he was vice president.

“The fact is that his family is involved in business with a list of players—I don’t assume we know them all—in all kinds of places, in many of which the distinction between politics and business is blurry,” said Mr. Friedberg. “Anybody you’re dealing with in those places that has a lot of money is involved in politics in some way. How can you insulate it?”

0:00 / 0:00
Donald Trump has made big gains nationally in the polls, closing the gap with Hillary Clinton. However, WSJ's Gerald F. Seib explains how the GOP candidate's gains may not be enough to impact the key battleground states where the election will be decided. Photo: AP
This would also likely come up as an issue for Mr. Trump if he stays involved in politics, Mr. Friedberg said. “It seems to me that a number of questions have been raised that have not been answered,” he said. “It’s not going to go away.”

Mr. Friedberg is among former Republican national-security officials who signed a letter stating they wouldn’t vote for Mr. Trump because they didn’t believe he was qualified from a foreign-policy perspective. Mr. Trump called the signatories “the failed Washington elite” and released a list of military leaders who support him.

The letter Mr. Friedberg signed didn’t mention Mr. Trump’s foreign business ties, but he and several other signatories said those ties contributed to their reservations. The Trump children would be doing business with companies that might assume they have unique access to the president, Mr. Friedberg said, and with companies whose interests might differ from the national interests their father would be representing.

VIEW INTERACTIVE
Those potential conflicts are similar to those that have arisen from the Clinton Foundation’s foreign donors, said Eric Edelman, who directed Defense Department policy under President George W. Bush and signed the letter opposing Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump and others have called those Clinton Foundation donations a “pay-for-play” arrangement, suggesting foreign contributors to the Clinton family charity may have expected to gain access to Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state.

“They are slightly different cases,” said Mr. Edelman, “but both raise very serious concerns about influence peddling and conflicts of interest.”

The Clinton Foundation, whose donations go into charity work, said it has stopped accepting most foreign donations and would stop taking all such donations if Mrs. Clinton became president. It said her daughter Chelsea Clinton would remain involved with the foundation.

Trump Organization’s Mr. Garten acknowledged that the extent of Mr. Trump’s international business connections is unique for a presidential nominee. “I respect that this is different,” he said. “It is a new situation. I don’t believe it presents a conflict.”

Mr. Garten and the Trump campaign didn’t respond to subsequent inquiries as to Mr. Trump’s plans beyond the presidential race.

Among potential conflicts is the Trump company’s relationship with Turkey’s Dogan Holding, said Mr. Edelman, the former Bush-administration official and onetime ambassador to Turkey. Dogan operates oil companies, a real-estate empire and media properties in Turkey.

Mr. Trump’s May 2016 federal disclosure reports income to one of his companies in the range of $1 million to $5 million since the beginning of 2015 from Dogan related to Istanbul towers bearing Mr. Trump’s name—a deal involving Ivanka Trump early on, according to a 2012 Trump press release. She and her father visited the tower a day after Recep Tayyip Erdogan, then Turkey’s prime minister and now president, attended the official opening of its associated mall.

Donald and Ivanka Trump posed in front of the Trump Towers Istanbul Mall in April 2012 with a Dogan Holding executive. ENLARGE
Donald and Ivanka Trump posed in front of the Trump Towers Istanbul Mall in April 2012 with a Dogan Holding executive. PHOTO: TOLGA BOZOGLU/EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY
The night of the failed coup, Dogan’s flagship television network became the venue through which Mr. Erdogan appealed to citizens to oppose the putsch. That was a turnabout for Dogan, whose chairman and other executives this year were charged in Turkey with criminal tax evasion, widely seen as retaliation for a perceived antigovernment slant by Dogan media outlets. A person close to the Dogan family said there has been no wrongdoing.

Since the failed coup, Dogan’s media group has taken on a more pro-government line, including broadcasts supporting Mr. Erdogan’s claim that Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen was responsible for the putsch.

Turkey has asked the U.S. to extradite Mr. Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania and has denied the allegation. The U.S. Justice Department has said it is reviewing that request; privately, many senior U.S. officials have said they are skeptical of Turkey’s claims against Mr. Gulen.

The next American president will likely inherit that thorny bilateral dispute.

Mr. Garten said the Dogan relationship wouldn't be a problem because the Trump Organization would be separate from Mr. Trump. The person close to Dogan said the company would prefer to remove the Trump name from its buildings based on the candidate’s “anti-Muslim rhetoric.”

When Donald Trump Jr. sought a few years ago to expand his father’s real-estate empire in Latin America, he turned to businessman Camilo Benedetti, brother of a Colombian senator.

Mr. Benedetti took the younger Mr. Trump around Mexico in 2010 and Colombia in 2011, where Mr. Benedetti had relationships with top government officials, Mr. Benedetti said. One meeting was with Colombia’s leader at the presidential palace, Casa de Nariño. “I asked him as a favor,” Mr. Benedetti said of the president. The meeting didn’t result in any active business developments, said Mr. Benedetti and Mr. Garten.

“There’s no question that whenever the Trump Organization looks into a project or enters a new market, there is often excitement both from the business sector and maybe even, in some countries, the government,” Mr. Garten said of the meeting and others like it that the Trump children have had with foreign leaders.

One of the newest Trump partners, Indonesian media magnate Hary Tanoesoedibjo, had business ties with family members of Suharto, the country’s late dictator. He ran unsuccessfully for vice president in the most-recent national election and formed a political party critical of the current government.

Last year, Trump Organization announced a deal to manage a Bali resort owned by Mr. Tanoesoedibjo’s company, PT Global Mediacom Tbk, and to develop a golf resort in West Java with him. Mr. Trump reported a range of $2 million to $10 million income to his companies from the projects since the beginning of 2015 in his May 2016 federal disclosures. Donald Trump Jr. was involved in the deals, according to news releases announcing them. Mr. Garten declined to comment on the Indonesian project. Mr. Tanoesoedibjo’s assistant didn’t respond to requests for comment.

In Mumbai, India, the Trump Organization has a brand-licensing deal for a condo tower with Lodha Group, whose founder, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, is among India’s wealthiest property owners and a member of his state’s legislature from India’s ruling party.

Mr. Trump’s May 2016 federal disclosure shows income to a Trump Organization company of $1 million to $5 million since the beginning of 2015 from the licensing deal. A Lodha spokeswoman said both companies “work with the highest standards of professionalism and integrity.” Mr. Garten said that Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. worked on the project and that he isn’t concerned that Mr. Lodha is a politician.

“There’s a great relationship between Mr. Trump’s children and the principals of that project,” he said. “I don’t see the potential issue.”

In Azerbaijan, Mr. Trump’s July 2015 federal disclosure reports that a company owned by Mr. Trump had received $2.5 million in income since the beginning of 2014 in a deal that includes management services for a hotel and condo tower being developed by Anar Mammadov, whose father is the country’s transportation minister. Ivanka Trump’s website says she oversaw the project “since its inception.” Mr. Garten said the project is on hold.

The Azerbaijan America Alliance, in a press release, listed Mr. Mammadov as its founder. The group spent $12.6 million between 2011 and 2015 on federal lobbyists to promote Azerbaijan interests in Washington, according to federal filings compiled by Center For Responsive Politics. Calls to the number given on Mr. Mammadov’s company website weren’t answered. Calls to the Azerbaijan America Alliance’s number were answered by a lobbying firm that said it didn’t represent the alliance anymore.

“It’s not unusual for people around the world successful in a business to play some role in government,” Mr. Garten said of Trump Organization’s dealings with politically connected foreign businesses. “That doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong or inappropriate.”
http://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-fore ... 1478083150

[Luther Blissett]

There was a (fake) report today about how a group of alt-right Trump supporters were planning on distributing free "40s and weed" in the "ghettoes" here. I found the timing fairly coincidental compared to what I just posted on this thread yesterday detailing legitimate information about two far-right groups: "Stop the Steal" and "VoteProtectors," who plan on executing illegal voter intimidation against mostly older, mostly non-white Philadelphians, including off-duty cops who plan on packing as they make their rounds.

[seemslikeadream]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQ8swY06eRU


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGn-C0G6xcw

[8bitagent]

I just don't get why all the polls are showing black enthusiasm and vote participation incredibly low in states that matter compared to 2008 and 2012.

Voter suppression and intimation targeting black precincts to me is blood boiling, regardless of my views of Clinton. I rewatched Selma recently(which should be required viewing by all)
and people need to remember how many people died in America for everyone's ability to vote. From the FBI working with the Klan to murder of 60s civil rights warriors Viola Liuzzo and Fred Hampton to people who came
before. That said I just can't help but feel that arson black church feels suspicious. However in the UK in the runup to Brexit, a crazed pro Brexit lunatic murdered a woman MP.

Another topic of research that would be illuminating would be, when the hell did Donald Trump decide to openly court the far right? I know he was pissed as hell at Obama and SNL's Seth Myers at
that 2011 dinner roast.

It just seems the journey Trump has taken these past 18 months in the campaign seems a far cry from Trump in the past (negating his dads racial housing practices and central park 5 ads)




When did Trump's heart turn racist?