The 2016 Emmy Awards, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, brought in the lowest ratings of all time. People thought the disaster last year — hosted by Andy Samberg — was bad, but this year was far worse. The Emmys drew in 11.9 million viewers. Last year, it was 15.6 million. This year was lower than 1990, when the Emmys made its first appearance on Fox and attracted 12.3 million viewers.
Award shows, for the most part, have become a cesspool of left-wing propaganda that it’s no wonder so many people are tuning out. Would you want to watch a show where your political ideology was routinely ridiculed and mocked for the sake of stroking the political feelings of other performers in the audience?
The producers of the Emmys may want to take a look at the possibility of letting presenters and recipients know that politics should be left at home. There is a strong likelihood some of the celebrities would object to the point of threatening not to attend, but so what? Would the producers rather have seven to eight million more people watching the telecast or spend time assuaging the feelings of a handful of celebrities who think awards shows are their own personal political platforms?
It starts with the host, and while Jimmy Kimmel was happy to poke fun at Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton went unscathed. Jokes made at the expense of politicians are nothing new but when all the jokes focus on only one side, people will notice.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus in accepting her Emmy award brought everybody tears with a touching tribute to her father who had died only days before. However, she couldn’t resist taking a shot at Trump when she said, “Our show started out as a political satire, but it now feels more like a sobering documentary. So I certainly do promise to rebuild that wall and make Mexico pay for it.”
Jill Soloway, creator of “Transparent,” won the award for Best Directing in a Comedy Series. She finished off her speech by shouting, “Down with the patriarchy!” and then launched into anti-Trump tirade backstage where she said,
He needs to be called out at every chance he gets for being one of the most dangerous monsters to ever approach our lifetimes. He’s a complete dangerous monster, and any moment that I have to call Trump out for being an inheritor to Hitler, I will.
That’s a tad melodramatic. People certainly have differing opinions on Trump, but the idea he is anywhere akin to a man who set in motion events that resulted in the extermination of six million people is asinine.
If the commentary from performers wasn’t anti-Trump, they were certainly happy to express their fondness for Hillary Clinton. Courtney B. Vance, who won for his portrayal of Johnny Cochrane in “The People v. O.J. Simpson,” ended his acceptance speech saying, “Obama out! Hillary in!”
Kate McKinnon, who has done a masterful job portraying Hillary Clinton on “Saturday Night Live,” won the award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. She accepted her award and thanked Hillary Clinton personally. Despite her spot-on portrayal, she is a Clinton supporter. Hillary Clinton congratulated McKinnon on Twitter.
A lot of viewers simply aren’t going to tolerate this kind of blatant politicking on an awards show when it is so one-sided. The producers need to be aware of that. They need to stop operating under the assumption that conservatives don’t watch any of these shows and therefore aren’t going to tune in, regardless. It’s not true.
People, including conservatives, like to see their favorite television shows, movies, and musical performers win awards for their work. It’s the blatant left-wing politics they can do without. If producers put an end to that, they’d likely see their ratings increase substantially. (For more from the author of “Hey, Hollywood, Want Better Emmy Ratings? Start by Cutting the Liberal Crap” please click HERE)
On Friday, the cease-fire in Syria, which was brokered by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, collapsed as Russian and Syrian warplanes resumed their scorched earth airstrike campaign in Aleppo.
“Russia has no vested interest in stability in the Middle East,” Stephen Blank, senior fellow for Russia at the American Foreign Policy Council, told The Daily Signal.
“For Russia, security is only achievable if everyone else is insecure,” Blank said. “They’re not peacemakers, it’s a pretense. They want to force people to accept that Russia is important.”
The collapse of the cease-fire in Syria is the latest in a series of setbacks for U.S.-Russian relations.
Repeated attempts to cooperate in defusing conflicts in Ukraine and Syria have fallen flat. And a pattern of Russian warplane flybys of U.S. military aircraft and naval vessels in Eastern Europe, as well as allegations that the Kremlin is trying to influence the U.S. election through cyberattacks have exacerbated tensions.
Joint operations to support the International Space Station are among the last holdouts of post-Cold War cooperation between the U.S. and Russia.
Verbal sparring between Kerry and Lavrov at a United Nations Security Council meeting Wednesday highlighted how relations between Russia and the U.S. are at a post-Cold War nadir.
“Russia and the United States are in a state of conflict,” Blank said. “But it’s not a new Cold War. It’s a struggle between democracy and autocracy, not communism and capitalism.”
War of Words
The Syrian cease-fire, which went into effect Sept. 12, was dead on arrival, underscoring how far U.S.-Russia relations have deteriorated. The failed truce also highlighted intractable differences of opinion over key questions related to the war in Syria, such as the fate of the country’s ruler, Bashar al-Assad.
The 5-year-old war in Syria has displaced half of the country’s population and is estimated to have killed more than 400,000 people.
Fighting briefly ebbed last week in Syria after the cease-fire allegedly went into effect, but the war never stopped.
The cease-fire edged toward total collapse Monday night when, according to U.S. officials, Russian warplanes bombed a convoy transporting humanitarian aid to the 78,000 people trapped in the rebel-controlled city of Aleppo.
Twenty out of the convoy’s 31 trucks were destroyed, and about 20 people died, according to news reports.
The strikes were likely carried out by two Russian Su-24 warplanes, which were recorded as operating in the vicinity of the convoy, according to U.S. officials.
Marine Corps Gen. Joe Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during Senate testimony on Thursday that either Russian or Syrian warplanes might have attacked the convoy.
“It was either the Russians or the regime,” Dunford said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that the Russians are responsible. I just don’t know whose aircraft actually dropped the bomb.”
At the U.N. on Wednesday, Kerry blamed Russia for the attack.
The Kremlin has subsequently suggested a series of alternative scenarios, including the possibility that a U.S. drone carried out the strike, or that the convoy was attacked from the ground by opposition forces fighting against the Assad government.
“I listened to my colleague from Russia and I sort of felt like we’re in a parallel universe here,” Kerry said in response to Lavrov’s remarks at Wednesday’s U.N. Security Council meeting.
Kerry called for a halt in Syrian and Russian airstrikes to allow the cease-fire to take hold.
Yet, as of Friday, Russian and Syrian airstrikes had resumed in Aleppo and a new offensive by Assad’s forces to take back the city had begun, according to news reports from the region.
Machinations
In a gambit to increase its importance on the world stage, Moscow has positioned itself as a key player in negotiating peace deals in conflicts it started, such as Ukraine, or elbowed its way into, as in Syria.
“I think Russia, through Putin, is the ultimate opportunist,” said Steven Bucci, visiting fellow at The Heritage Foundation’s Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies.
“They see U.S. weakness and exploit it,” Bucci, a former Army Special Forces commander, said. “I’m not sure if they want to be peace arbiters, but they want influence, and they need domestic control. Their growing engagements give them both. They are now seen as a serious player on the world stage, who many believe are more steady than the U.S. That turnaround is remarkable.”
Some experts claim that Russia has little genuine interest in ending the conflicts in Ukraine or Syria. The longer those conflicts last, some say, the longer Russia is able to remain relevant as a global power.
“That creaking sound you hear is Russia’s international credibility taking an additional hit,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters in Washington.
Modern Russia doesn’t have the Soviet Union’s military clout to force countries in Eastern Europe to succumb to its vassalage or to shape outcomes in other regions like the Middle East.
But the metrics of state power in the post-Cold War era are not defined by the ability to invade or subjugate countries. Russia has created diplomatic leverage in Ukraine and Syria through limited military operations, which exploit the reluctance of U.S. and European leaders to become entangled in those conflicts.
In 2013, Assad used chemical weapons against rebel-controlled pockets of the Damascus suburbs. The attacks killed about 1,500 civilians, including more than 400 children, and tested President Barack Obama’s “red line” warning to Assad—that the use of chemical weapons would spur a U.S. military response.
As the U.S. prepared to attack, Russia stepped in to arbitrate a last-minute deal to dismantle Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles. The U.S. never launched punitive strikes, and Assad, a Moscow ally, remains entrenched in power.
“Russia is working hard to show the U.S. is not the leader it claims to be, but Russia is,” Bucci said. “They know Obama does not want or have the stomach for difficult foreign policy situations, and that Kerry is a incompetent negotiator. They are taking full advantage of that.”
In Ukraine, the more than 2-year-old conflict is in a perpetual holding pattern, periodically spiking in violence. Russia played a hand in brokering multiple failed cease-fires while it simultaneously and covertly armed pro-Russian separatists and deployed its own troops inside Ukraine.
“Nowhere is Russia’s intervention in internal affairs more brazen and bloody than in the conflict in Ukraine, which Russia continues to fuel by arming, training, and commanding so-called ‘separatists,’” Tom Malinowski, U.S. assistant secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, said during remarks at a Sept. 19 meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Warsaw, Poland.
“The Cold War was a global struggle between two power blocks—that’s not the case today,” Blank said. “Today, it’s a multipolar world order. Russia is upset they don’t have the status they had during the Cold War. They want to be coequal to the United States, but they’re not going to get it.” (For more from the author of “Syria Cease-Fire Collapse Highlights How Far US-Russia Relations Have Fallen” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/8311238162_5ba2862b51_b.jpg6761024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-09-25 21:23:592016-09-25 21:23:59Syria Cease-Fire Collapse Highlights How Far US-Russia Relations Have Fallen
When Congress returns to Capitol Hill on Monday to hammer out a stopgap spending measure, House conservatives plan to introduce a spending safety valve that would eliminate the possibility of a government shutdown.
Congress has struggled for months to reach a spending agreement.
As the end of the fiscal year approaches and government’s spending authority expires Oct. 1, lawmakers have opted to pass a temporary funding extension. Known as a continuing resolution, that measure will extend spending authority into December and requires Congress to revisit the issue shortly before Christmas.
Now, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, and Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., a founding member of the caucus, say they will introduce an amendment to that short-term spending bill.
The amendment would trigger an automatic, 40-day extension of government funding if Congress fails to pass a long-term spending bill in December, during a lame-duck session between the Nov. 8 election and the beginning of the new Congress in January.
“I’m trying to give as much flexibility [as possible] to our leadership and appropriators, while at the same time realizing that a potential [government] shutdown should not be the focus of any conversation,” Meadows told The Daily Signal.
“This 40-day extension amendment would allow us to negotiate in good faith,” he said.
The Freedom Caucus considers itself a group of the House’s most conservative members. The new proposal is part of conservatives’ effort to be part of a process that already is moving quickly in the Senate.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., introduced the Senate version of that legislation Thursday, over complaints from some in his party that it doesn’t include conservative policy proposals.
“There have been broad requests for a clean continuing resolution,” McConnell said, referring to the fact that the measure has no policy riders tacked on to draw votes. “So that’s what I’ve just offered. It’s the result of many, many hours of bipartisan work across the aisle.”
McConnell’s unwillingness to fight in the Senate puts conservatives at an early disadvantage in the House, Rep. Bill Flores, R-Texas, told The Daily Signal on Friday:
Unfortunately, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is caving in to this irresponsible behavior by surrendering important conservative policies while allowing liberal interest riders to be attached to government funding.
The view of Flores, chairman of the Republican Study Committee, the House’s largest GOP caucus, carries weight. Some of his fellow House Republicans complain that they didn’t have a say in negotiations.
Earlier in September, before the party reached a unified agreement on spending levels, McConnell announced he was working with the White House and Senate Democrats to reach a deal.
A temporary fix, the Senate measure extends federal funding at the current $1.07 trillion level until Dec. 9. That timetable sets up another fight over spending during the lame-duck session after the election.
The Senate’s legislation also includes relief funds for victims of the flooding that battered Louisiana in August and money to combat the Zika virus that has spread in the South all summer.
It does not contain a provision that would keep money meant to fight the Zika virus from flowing to the nation’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood. Democrats torpedoed three earlier Zika bills that contained the prohibition.
But Democrats still weren’t satisfied.
Democrats want Republicans to include funds to address the Flint water crisis in the stopgap spending bill. Their request comes months after President Barack Obama publicly drank a glass of water in May to reassure residents of the Michigan town that the public health crisis was over.
Raising the possibility of a government shutdown for lack of a budget deal to fund the government, the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, called on her colleagues “to vote against” the legislation because it didn’t contain money for Flint.
Conservatives weren’t pleased either.
The Senate’s continuing resolution doesn’t contain any language barring the White House from relinquishing U.S. control of ICANN, the nonprofit that functions as the directory of the internet by curating website domain names.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said he was “profoundly disappointed” in McConnell’s final spending bill. The Texas senator had quarterbacked an effort to stop the transfer of ICANN to an international body for more than a month.
The Senate recessed after introduction of the spending measure and it’s not clear when, or if, it will pass.
That could be to the benefit of Democrats. If the process drags on, Republican senators considered vulnerable on Election Day are kept on Capitol Hill and off the campaign trail.
“I would’ve thought we’d be done by now,” a senior GOP aide told The Daily Signal. “But the Senate has just stalled and stalled. From my perspective in the House, it looks like [the Democrats] are trying to shut down the government.”
By law spending bills must originate in the House, but House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., appears to be waiting on the Senate to send over its version of the continuing resolution. After months of infighting among House members, Ryan predicted a vote on the Senate measure would be “low drama.”
House factions have clashed all year over how to fund the government, with conservatives conceding on every point.
They originally opposed any bill that exceeded the $1.04 trillion spending limits established in the 2011 Budget Control Act and allowed lawmakers to move major legislation during the lame-duck session.
Conservatives fear the lame duck because it provides an opportunity for outgoing—and thus unaccountable—members of Congress to legislate.
Recently, however, Flores and several members of the House Freedom Caucus told GOP leadership that they could concede on both points in exchange for additional screening for Syrian refugees and a stop to the ICANN transition.
Though conservatives said those “sweeteners” would be enough to help them swallow a spending bill they loathe, Democrats decried both as “poison pills.” Neither made the cut in the Senate bill.
“That doesn’t really give conservatives hope for anything,” a second GOP aide told The Daily Signal. “And if we’re not getting anything now, how are we going to get anything better in the lame duck?”
Unable to add anything to the legislation so far, conservatives remain dissatisfied. If that doesn’t change, Republican leadership likely will have to seek Democrat votes to pass the short-term spending measure out of the House. (For more from the author of “House Conservatives Resort to Spending Plan B to Avoid Government Shutdown” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/12987762075_4c8029f05d_b.jpg6831024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-09-25 21:17:292016-09-25 21:17:29House Conservatives Resort to Spending Plan B to Avoid Government Shutdown
Fairbanks, Alaska. September 23, 2016 — Joe Miller today blasted Governor Walker’s executive action stealing more than half of the Permanent Fund Dividend many Alaskans depend on for basic necessities.
“The governor’s decision to make Alaska’s most needy families pay for the politicians’ irresponsible public policy is just outrageous,” Miller said. “But the collective yawn coming from the rest of the political class is just as offensive. And there’s good reason for that. Lisa Murkowski has been pushing this regressive policy to fund big government for years.”
Murkowski co-sponsored a measure in the state legislature to use a portion of the PFD for government expenditures, despite an overwhelming vote of the electorate to reject the policy.
Murkowski was also a member of the Alaska’s Fiscal Policy Caucus that recommended using PFD funds for state expenditures as well.
Earlier this year, Murkowski suggested that putting the PFD on the table as a solution to the state’s fiscal woes was an appropriate option.
“But it doesn’t stop there,” added Miller. “Lisa’s silence in the face of Governor Walker’s illegal and unconstitutional PFD grab is reminiscent of her response to President Obama’s repeated assaults on the Constitution and Congressional powers. In most of these instances, she has just been AWOL.”
Months before deciding to run for Alaska’s US Senate seat, Miller began working with grassroots Alaskans to stop the PFD grab.
Joe Miller is a limited government Constitutionalist who believes government exists to protect our liberties, not to take them away. He supports free people, free markets, federalism, the Constitutional right to life, the 2nd Amendment, religious liberty, American sovereignty, and a strong national defense.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Picture-Murkowski-Walker.jpg600913rdesotohttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngrdesoto2016-09-24 13:24:222016-09-25 15:30:28Joe Miller Blasts Governor’s Action, Murkowski’s Long Time Advocacy For Regressive PFD Grab
Sen. Ted Cruz announced Friday that he intends to vote for Republican candidate for president Donald Trump.
“This election is unlike any other in our nation’s history,” Cruz wrote in a post to Facebook. “Like many other voters, I have struggled to determine the right course of action in this general election.”
“After many months of careful consideration, of prayer and searching my own conscience, I have decided that on Election Day, I will vote for the Republican nominee, Donald Trump.”
Cruz cited two reasons for this decision. One, that last year he promised to support the Republican nominee, “and I intend to keep my word.” Two, “Hillary Clinton is wholly unacceptable—that’s why I have always been #NeverHillary.”
Sen. Cruz then laid out several specific areas of policy that “inform” his decision. He lists the Supreme Court, repealing Obamacare, the Obama/Clinton war on coal, immigration, national security, and internet freedom among the policy issues that make Mr. Trump a preferable choice for the presidency.
On the Supreme Court, Cruz said that he secured an “explicit commitment” from Donald Trump “to nominate only from that list” of justices the Trump campaign has released.
Read Cruz’s full statement below:
(For more from the author of “Here’s Why Ted Cruz Will Vote for Donald Trump” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/5844354288_9027953931_b.jpg6831024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-09-24 00:41:592016-09-25 15:23:03Here’s Why Ted Cruz Will Vote for Donald Trump
Breaking like a clap of thunder out of a clear sky, announcement by the Alaskan Libertarian Party that Joe Miller is running on their ticket for US Senate really electrifies this campaign. Suddenly, true constitutional conservatives and Republican Party Platform adherents have someone they can rally behind.
Simultaneously, it has stimulated visibility of the long-standing, widening gulf between the left-leaning GOP leadership and the mid-to -right-leaning party base. Mirroring the national Republican Party, Alaska’s Good ‘Ol Boys Club has long brushed aside their own official platform and bullied the party toward liberalism. They repeatedly demonstrate to all who pay attention that their primary loyalty and effort is not to the jealous upholding of their party platform principles, but the tenacious maintenance of their iron grip on party control and power, principles be damned.
GOP party bosses’ regard for party politics and power over principle is plainly on exhibit as a matter of open record. The most cursory glance reveals their continued enthusiastic backing of Lisa Murkowski, whose track record is voting counter to the GOP platform and more consistently with the Democrats than all but one other US senator identified as Republican. Attempts by some of the true conservatives remaining active within the party to officially censure Murkowski for her consistent anti-party performance have been forcefully put down by GOP powers.
On the other hand, those same powers recently censured and damaged Lora Reinbold for her very straight-up adherence to GOP platform principles. Then just a few days ago party bosses openly threatened Amy Demboski for publicly announcing she will back the Alaskan Libertarian Party’s US Senate candidate because he sticks to principles that line up with the Republican platform.
Go figure!
Many loyalists to the conservatively constructed Republican Platform now find more commonality by gathering under outlying tents. One is the growing Alaskan Republican Assembly, “the Republican Republicans.” The poster child of State Republican Assemblies’, Ronald Regan called them “the conscience of the Republican Party.” Another tent is the surging Constitution Party, this election represented by six running for state office. Their platform is very similar to the Republican’s. When asked to explain the difference between Constitution party and GOP memberships, leading Constitution Party candidate Pam Goode stated, “Essentially, the main difference is this: we mean it!”
Another gathering camp whose core values are close to the GOP’s is the Alaska Libertarian Party, the ones who are presently banded behind Joe Miller. Note: Something these local libertarians would be quick to point out is this: Alaska’s Libertarian platform is much closer to the Republican Platform than is the national Libertarian Party’s. Most notably, the Alaskans veer from tenants of the national platform which so many conservatives take staunch exception to.
Former Republicans have gravitated to several other groups such as non-party-aligned Independents and Can’t-Take-It-Anymore Fed Ups who have thrown up their hands and given up on voting, period.
To make it very simple, every one of these outlying groups believes in and practices platform principles far closer to the Republican Platform than do so-called “Republicans” who run the GOP and their RINO senator.
Now turning from GOP Good ‘Ol Boys grime to focus on something bright and exciting to those on the right: true conservatives of all parties and non-parties now have a U S Senate candidate in Joe Miller who sticks tighter than bark on a birch as an unbending Constitutional, rule-of-law adherent and is as uncompromisingly conservative— both fiscally and socially—as they come.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Bear-Paw-Parade5-cropped-1030x764-1.jpg7641030Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-09-24 00:34:322016-09-24 00:34:32Joe Miller Champions Principle Over Power Politics
Top Hillary Clinton aide Cheryl Mills received an immunity deal during the FBI’s investigation into the former secretary of State’s private email server, lawmakers familiar with the agreement said Friday.
“This is beyond explanation. The FBI was handing out immunity agreements like candy,” House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said in a statement.
“I’ve lost confidence in this investigation and I question the genuine effort in which it was carried out. Immunity deals should not be a requirement for cooperating with the FBI.”
The Associated Press first reported the deal.
Democrats quickly pushed back on what they termed “inaccurate Republican leaks” on the deal. (Read more from “Top Clinton Aide Granted Immunity Deal in FBI Probe” HERE)
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who finished second to Donald Trump in the GOP presidential primaries, has done an about-face since his speech at the Republican National Convention in July.
Instead of endorsing Trump as nominee, Cruz said, “To those listening, please, don’t stay home in November. If you love our country … stand and speak and vote your conscience. Vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution.”
The senator was booed by the audience and received a lot of criticism for his decision.
Trump responded to Cruz’s lack of support at the time by saying, “He’ll come and endorse in the next little while because he has no choice. … I don’t want his endorsement. Ted, stay home, relax, enjoy yourself.”
Cruz announced his reversal in a Facebook post Friday.
“After many months of careful consideration, of prayer and searching my own conscience, I have decided that on Election Day, I will vote for the Republican nominee, Donald Trump,” the senator said.
While Cruz changed his mind about the endorsement, Trump changed his mind about accepting it.
After learning of the endorsement, the GOP nominee said, “I am greatly honored by the endorsement of Senator Cruz. We have fought the battle and he was a tough and brilliant opponent. I look forward to working with him for many years to come in order to make America great again.”
Cruz explained the reason for his change of heart in his Facebook post.
He cited first his earlier promise to endorse the party’s nominee. Second was his belief that supporting Democrat Hillary Clinton is “wholly unacceptable.”
The senator went on to praise Trump for his commitment to appoint Supreme Court justices “in the mold of [Antonin] Scalia.”
During the primaries, Trump and Cruz often bumped heads.
At one point, Trump, quick to assign a nickname to an opponent, started referring to Cruz as “Lyin’ Ted.” He also mocked the appearance of Cruz’s wife and suggested the senator’s father was involved with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Before ending his campaign, Cruz called Trump a “serial philanderer,” “utterly amoral” and “a narcissist at a level I don’t think this country’s ever seen.”
Vice presidential nominee Mike Pence is credited by some with having a major role in easing the tensions between the two men.
Cruz and Trump have communicated by message and phone as well as meeting in person once. (For more from the author of “After Cruz’s About-Face, Trump Follows Suit, Graciously Accepts Endorsement” please click HERE)
Communications from President Barack Obama have been discovered among those in the cache of emails recovered from Hillary Clinton’s private email server.
The emails show that during the time Clinton, now the Democratic presidential candidate, was secretary of state in Obama’s first term, Obama used a phony name when he was emailing Clinton and other officials.
The latest disclosure came in 189 pages of documents released Friday by the FBI.
The FBI has been investigating Clinton’s use of a private server while she was secretary of state. Although the FBI said Clinton has been careless in handling classified information, she was not charged with breaking any laws. The FBI has been issuing reports from its investigation.
The FBI report includes an interview with Clinton aide Huma Abedin in which she was shown an email exchange between Clinton and Obama. However, Abedin did not recognize the sender’s name.
The report explained what happened next.
“Once informed that the sender’s name is believed to be pseudonym used by the president, Abedin exclaimed, ‘How is this not classified?’” the report says. “Abedin then expressed her amazement at the president’s use of a pseudonym and asked if she could have a copy of the email.”
The contents of the emails between Obama and Clinton have not been made public by the State Department, which has cited “presidential communications privilege,” to hide the communications from the Freedom of Information Act.
The FBI report does not provide details about the emails between Clinton and Obama.
The report is the first clear evidence that Obama used Clinton’s unsecured email server to communicate with his secretary of state.
The FBI earlier revealed Clinton had relied on others’ judgment to not send her classified material during email correspondences.
“Clinton did not recall receiving any emails she thought should not be on an unclassified system,” the FBI said in its Sept. 2 report. “She relied on State officials to use their judgment when emailing her and could not recall anyone raising concerns with her regarding the sensitivity of the information she received at her email address.”
The information revealed Friday includes the FBI interviews with a number of individuals, including Clinton aides Abedin and Cheryl Mills; senior State Department officials; and Marcel Lazar, better known as the Romanian hacker “Guccifer.”
Friday’s reports also covered interviews with Jake Sullivan, Clinton’s policy director; Bryan Pagliano, a former Clinton technology aide; Monica Hanley, a Clinton aide; and Sidney Blumenthal, a Clinton confidante.
Interviews were also released from FBI sessions with former Secretary of State Colin Powell, former CIA acting director Mike Morell, State Department official Patrick Kennedy, and other officials. (For more from the author of “FBI Report: Obama Used Phony Name to Email Clinton on Her Private Server” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/28176472126_d40c0ce9d6_b.jpg6851024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-09-24 00:09:162016-09-24 00:09:16FBI Report: Obama Used Phony Name to Email Clinton on Her Private Server
The American presidency may be the world’s most demanding job, aging presidents twice as fast as the general population, and there are increasing concerns that Hillary Clinton may not be up to it. Clinton, 68, has had several medical issues in recent years.
During one such incident, while being interviewed by reporters, her head started shaking violently for several seconds. At other times, she has lapsed into blank stares and lost her focus. She admits she has fallen or passed out more than once. Even this week, questions were raised by The Hill about abnormal eye movements during a speech last week in Philadelphia.
Clinton’s Health
Clinton’s health is negatively affecting her campaigning. She recently canceled trips to California, sending her husband Bill Clinton in her place to headline Hollywood fundraisers. She went 257 days without holding a single press conference over the past year, only resuming them a few weeks ago. She has missed events that presidential candidates would normally participate in, such as visiting the flood-ravaged areas of Louisiana in August.
Some suspect Clinton and her staff are covering up the seriousness of her health problems. After she collapsed near Ground Zero after leaving a ceremony for the 15th anniversary of 9-11, her doctor, Lisa Bardack, released a letter assuring the public that Clinton was in good health and had merely suffered the effects of pneumonia. Bardack, chair of internal medicine at CareMount Medical in Mount Kisco, New York, asserted that Clinton was fit to serve as president. She said a CAT scan of Clinton’s brain in March revealed no abnormalities.
However, not all doctors agree with the clean bill of health. The pro-Clinton New York Times reported that “doctors not connected with the candidate’s care say that the letters omit basic information like height and weight, and that a more detailed history of her blood clots and a 2012 concussion should be disclosed.”
In the article, a clinical professor of medicine at New York University, Lawrence K. Altman, explained that Clinton has “had serious medical problems in recent years.” His review of her health issues covered her recent pneumonia, her history of blood clots, the medications she’s taking, recovery from the 2012 concussion and her cardiac health. It revealed areas for concern, including her not having public neuropsychological exams, but no serious medical problems.
But the problems Altman highlighted are not the only concerns about Clinton’s health.
A Neurological Disorder?
An increasing number of doctors are suggesting that Clinton’s symptoms appear to indicate a neurological disorder, most likely Parkinson’s Disease. Dr. Lee Hieb, an orthopaedic surgeon specializing in spinal surgery, explained to WND that people who faint from the usual causes, like low blood pressure and heat stress, “slump limply,” but Clinton “is rigid and in spinal extension.”
Further, “Any doctor who has treated pneumonia can affirm that if you are sick enough to pass out, you are not going to recover in an hour to become a smiling, waving Hillary exiting her daughter’s condo.” The bobbing of her head and the exaggerated eye and facial movement are both seen in late Parkinson’s patients, he continued.
Parkinson’s patients are notorious for falling during “freeze” episodes because they cannot initiate movement to catch their balance. … People with Parkinson’s very frequently have dementia, cognitive deficits (reasoning problems), mood alterations and can have anger issues.
Dr. Erika Schwartz, who treats women’s health, similarly noted on KABC’s Midday Live how strange it was that Clinton was seen a few hours after her September 11 fall waving and talking to people outside her daughter Chelsea’s apartment. “You don’t tend to see the kind of recovery [after a fall due to pneumonia] that Mrs. Clinton seemed to exhibit that day,” Schwartz remarked.
Dr. Ted Noel, former director of the NovaMed Surgery Center in Orlando, writes on his website, “Hillary Clinton has had Parkinson’s Disease for at least ten years. She has known it for all of that time. Her campaign shows a complete disregard for America in the pursuit of personal graft.” He says during a short news video he created, “Everything … fits the theory,” he said. “Video evidence is solid. [There’s] strong evidence of having advanced Parkinson’s disease.”
Dr. Jane Orient, executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, and Dr. Elizabeth Lee Vliet, who treats women’s health, also echoed this concern. Orient told Breitbart that Clinton’s neurocognitive functioning is the biggest concern when it comes to Clinton’s health. In the same article, Vliet noted that Altman’s summary of Clinton’s medical issues in the Times didn’t even go far enough. He “doesn’t address the abnormal movements we have seen on multiple public videos of events where she is speaking.”
What else do we know about the Democratic nominee’s health? Something, if we accept everything in her doctor’s letter, but there’s also a lot we don’t know.
Concussion
Clinton suffered a concussion in 2012. She apparently contracted a stomach virus after foreign travel which dehydrated her, causing her to faint. She fell down in her bathroom and hit her head on the toilet. After she was treated, a blood clot (her third, see below for the history of the first two) was discovered in one of the main veins connected to her brain.
Bill Clinton said her concussion “required six months of very serious work to get over,” but — as Altman points out — Clinton’s doctor said she recovered in only two months. Bardack also said the concussion and clots were completely resolved by 2013.
Similarly, Dr. Jamie Wells, MD, FAAP, a Board-Certified physician and Director of Medicine at the American Council on Science and Health, notes, “As we have seen with football players and other people with head injuries, traumatic brain injury does not always just ‘go away.’” Orient noted how Clinton telling the FBI she forgot several things may be evidence of lingering damage.
Altman noted that head injuries may hasten dementia. They are also considered a possible risk factor for Parkinson’s.
Blood Clots and Phlebitis
Clinton suffered her first blood clot in 1998 while First Lady. It developed in her calf, which is known as phlebitis. Her second blood clot, in 2009, also afflicted her calf, causing it to swell. She refused to be hospitalized as doctors recommended, citing the rigors of campaigning.
In 2012, a third blood clot, known as a transverse sinus venous thrombosis since it developed in her brain, forced her to spend a few days in the hospital and take a month off work. She takes Coumadin, a powerful blood thinner, for the clots. Also known as warfarin or Jantoven, it comes with its own additional set of risks. If a patient gets a cut or takes the medication improperly, it can cause heavy bleeding. Some of the possible side effects are so serious they require immediate medical attention. In addition to heavy bleeding, they include dizziness or weakness, bruising without a cut, and red or brown urine, among others.
Pneumonia
An anonymous board certified internist writing at Powerline thinks it’s more likely that Clinton has aspiration pneumonia, where food or liquid gets into the lungs, than a neurological condition. He says this “raises profoundly troubling implications for her possible election as president.” Unlike regular pneumonia, “This is especially worrisome because it is likely to recur given the underlying, usually incurable disease process and because it can be a life-threatening event.”
Sinus and Ear Infection
Clinton developed a sinus and ear infection last winter. As a result of progressive pain in her left ear, a myringotomy tube was placed in her left ear. Myringotomy is considered minor surgery, but it requires general anesthesia.
Lingering Cough
Last year, Clinton started coughing frequently during debates and interviews. Her doctor asserts it is allergy related, but it could also be a symptom of Parkinson’s Disease, since those afflicted sometimes have difficulty clearing their throat due to lack of motor control.
Lingering Concerns
Clinton has a sluggish thyroid, known as hypothroidism, for which she takes medication. In 2009, she slipped inside a government garage and fractured her elbow — another fall.
She still has not released her medical records from her White House years, which could reveal even more serious issues.
While she has released more medical records than Donald Trump, he hasn’t shown any signs of serious health problems. Trump’s doctor, Harold Bornstein, issued a letter stating that the presidential candidate is in “excellent physical health.”
Clinton’s defenders are trying to discredit questions about her health as “conspiracy theories.” She can continue denying she has serious health problems, but if she really does have them, she will not be able to hide them forever. Dr. Wells observes, “Dr. Bardack is ethically bound not to violate the expressed privacy wishes of her patient but she is also responsible for not making false claims.”
Since early ballots are already being mailed in parts of the country, it is unlikely the Democrats will replace Clinton with another presidential candidate. If she does have Parkinson’s, the disease will progress. At stage three of Parkinson’s, falling becomes more frequent, and the disease “significantly affects daily tasks at this stage.”
Stage four may require a walker. According to Healthline, “Many people are unable to live alone at this stage of Parkinson’s because of significant decreases in movement and reaction times. Living alone at stage 4 or later may make many daily tasks impossible, and can be extremely dangerous.” If Clinton does have this debilitating disease, there is a very good chance if elected president she will not be able to complete her term, requiring her vice-presidential pick Tim Kaine to relieve her as president.
On Wednesday, Hillary Clinton was asked by reporter Sarin Fazan of ABC News’ Tampa affiliate WFTS whether she would, as some doctors have suggested, take neurocognitive tests. She laughed off the suggestion.
Regardless of what may be ailing Secretary Clinton we pray for her health, that she receives the proper treatment and that she will trust the American people enough to share with them the truth. (For more from the author of “Concerns Over Hillary’s Health Increasing as Parkinson’s Rumors Surface” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/24588265245_b90a5a7658_b-1.jpg6831024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-09-24 00:02:192016-09-25 15:29:12Concerns Over Hillary’s Health Increasing as Parkinson’s Rumors Surface
