BLACK WOMEN REGAIN HONOR & RESPECT AT THE POLLS (NO RACIST DRAMA)

BLACK WOMEN REGAIN HONOR & RESPECT AT THE POLLS (POWER OF BLACK VOTE):

DEMOCRATS WON ALABAMA WITH THE BLACK VOTE, MAINLY BLACK WOMEN VOTERS.

BLACK WOMEN ARE NO LONGER BEING RIDICULED OR STEREOTYPED AS DRAMA QUEENS OR WELFARE QUEENS DUE TO INSTITUTIONAL RACISM.

OBAMA WON 97% OF THE BLACK VOTE IN 2008.

BILL CLINTON WON ABOUT 90% OF THE BLACK VOTE IN 1992.

WILL DEMOCRATS TRADE BLACK VOTERS FOR LATINO VOTERS AGAIN AND LOSE AGAIN AS THEY DID IN 2016??

DEMOCRATS GAVE LATINO VOTERS EVERYTHING THEY ASKED FOR IN 2016 YET LATINO VOTERS DID NOT TURN OUT FOR DEMS AT POLLS.

WILL DEMOCRATS TRADE BLACK VOTERS FOR LATINO VOTERS AGAIN?

STAY TUNED.


Sources: The Week, Scholar Works UMB, Washington Post, Youtube


******* BLACK WOMEN ARE EAGERLY USING THE VOTES THEY FOUGHT FOR


On December 12, 2017, Black women voted overwhelmingly for Democrat Doug Jones in his Alabama Senate race against Republican candidate Roy Moore.

Black women made up 17 percent of voters compared to white women, who made up 31 percent.

While 63 percent of white women voted for Moore—a man accused of sexual abuse and harassment by numerous women during their teenage years—98 percent of black women voted for Jones, helping him to win by a slim but decisive 1.5 percent margin.

Without the support of black voters, Jones would have lost the election, and Roy Moore would have been elected to the United States Senate. This would have had a detrimental effect on the lives of black Alabamians.

In September, Moore declared that his support of Trump’s promise to “Make America Great Again” would involve a return to a time when slavery was legal and women had yet to win the franchise. Black women stopped him from winning the Senate race.

The voting power and progressive political thought of black women is an old tradition. In the United States, their history of participation in the passing of the nineteenth amendment has been lost in debates about whether the amendment helped them or was largely a victory for white women.

What these debates often leave out is the history of black participation in the suffrage movement. From the days of its inception, black women decided they would not be left out.

The historical record indicates that it was not an allegiance to white suffragists that determined whether black women participated, nor was it Republican Party loyalty.

These assertions negate the intellectual work black women did to make political choices.

Black suffragists spoke for themselves to win the vote for themselves. This was done to win freedom from racism, classism and sexism.

Black women have always pushed the country to live up to that ideal. Their standing at the intersection of the most marginalized communities in the country ensures that, as they rise economically, politically, and socially, other marginalized communities will rise as well.

In her 1998 book, African American Women in the Struggle for the Vote, 1850-1920 , historian Rosalyn Terborg-Penn points out that black women began their struggle for voting rights while enslaved as abolitionists and after Emancipation as active participants in the women’s suffrage movement.

Debates about the voting power of black women began before the nineteenth amendment, and black women in Colorado, Illinois, and California voted in local elections.

In the 1920 presidential campaign, Warren G. Harding sought the support of black women. Lethia C. Fleming, Mary B. Talbert, and Mary Church Terrell were some of the black women involved in that campaign.

Black women were also running for political office as early as 1920. In Seattle, Washington, Mrs. W. L. Presto was a candidate for the Washington state senate.

Terborg-Penn makes a crucial point about the political thought of black women in the 1920s. Black women were already “reflecting the growing socialist movement among intellectuals and professionals of the times.” Black women were fighting for voting rights as women, black people, and progressives.

Once we understand their political strategies today, we can get closer to supporting them in their intentions to improve conditions for themselves and other women, the black community, and economically marginalized people nationally.

Black women continued to make a space for themselves in the political arena. The life and work of Fannie Lou Hamer decades after the suffrage movement demonstrates that by the mid twentieth century black women in the South were still struggling for the right to vote unharmed and unhampered.

Her speech at the 1964 Democratic National Convention shows that black women in the South were also struggling for representation in the Democratic Party.

Her brave declarations and the larger Civil Rights Movement, made up significantly of black women across the nation, pushed President Lyndon B. Johnson to sign the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

This protective legislation led to more black women voting, and in places where black people made up the majority, black women were elected to office. Hamer was a member of the first policy council of the National Women’s Political Caucus along with another black woman who was especially committed to exercising her right to run for political office: Shirley Chisholm.

Shirley Chisholm won office in New York State as an Assemblywoman in 1964. Four years later, she became the first black congresswoman in 1968 where she served for seven terms. In 1972, Chisholm became the first black woman to run for the office of President of the United States.

Historian Anastasia Curwood describes the political thought of Chisholm in her 2015 article, “Black Feminism on Capitol Hill: Shirley Chisholm and Movement Politics, 1968-1984.”

Curwood notes that Chisholm understood the unique position black women held as black, female, and for a large part of the community, working class. Chisholm referred to this position as “twin jeopardy,” a term influenced by Frances Beal.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s black women were political thinkers and actors.

Recent elections have shown that the political activity of black women is strong. What has changed since the rebellion against the Trump Administration is a deeper understanding of how dependent the Democratic Party is on black women’s votes.

One organization, Higher Heights, is pushing the Democratic Party to recognize the strength of black women’s votes. Higher Heights is an organization that advocates for the political participation and election of black women.

In an open letter to the Democratic National Committee chair, Tom Perez, published in May 2017, Higher Heights petitioned Perez to take black women’s political contributions seriously by meeting with them to discuss their concerns.

They argued that since black women overwhelmingly support the party’s candidates, their support and representation should be increased within the party.

A day after the election of Doug Jones, Perez would declare on Twitter, “Black women are the backbone of the Democratic Party, and we can’t take that for granted. Period.”

People of color, poor people, and women account for the majority of people in this country. As black women vote and advocate for the candidates with their interests in mind, and as people trust their choices, the country will be pushed further to the political left.

So, it isn’t so much that black women “turn out” to vote. It is who they choose, their political agenda, the political party that shares their agenda, and the savvy way with which they cast their votes. It isn’t just that black women vote, it is that they choose freedom.

They choose freedom for themselves and for anyone affected by race, class, and gender in this country.

Organizations like Higher Heights are aware and calling for others to go beyond being excited to directly supporting black women.

Black women must be recognized beyond the times they turn out to vote. That recognition must extend to change.

NEW IMMIGRATION TRAVEL BAN SAME AS 1st TRAVEL BAN (PROTECTS USA BORDERS)

NEW IMMIGRATION TRAVEL BAN SAME AS FIRST TRAVEL BAN (PROTECTS USA BORDERS):

TRUMP SAYS YES TO NATIONAL SECURITY, NO TO BEING POLITICALLY CORRECT.

TRUMP SAYS NO TO ISIL OPERATIVES POSING AS REFUGEES.

HIS PREDECESSORS ENFORCED SIMILAR
ANTI-TERRORISM TRAVEL BANS.


Sources: Fox News, NBC News, YouTube


***** Trump adviser says new travel ban will have 'same basic policy outcome'


Senior White House Policy Adviser Stephen Miller told Fox News' "First 100 Days" Tuesday that a revised version of President Donald Trump's travel ban would "have the same basic policy outcome."

Miller claimed that the new executive order would be "responsive" to federal court rulings which halted the original order and resolve "a lot of very technical issues that were brought up by the court."

However, Miller also insisted that the court ruling staying the original order was "flawed" and "erroneous" and that Trump's action was "clearly legal and constitutional."

"Here's the reality," Miller said. "We’ve got a serious problem in our country of terrorism, radicalization and serious problems of people joining ISIS, joining terror groups, joining Al Qaeda and committing or attempting to commit acts of crime and terror against our nation."

Miller indicated the revised order would apply to the same seven majority-Muslim countries — Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Libya — as the previous order.

Miller spoke to host Martha MacCallum at the top of an hour-long immigration town hall in Jacksonville, Fla. hours after Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly directed agency heads to hire thousands more immigration officers, end so-called “catch-and-release” policies and begin work on the president’s promised U.S.-Mexico border wall.

Senior White House Policy Adviser Stephen Miller told Fox News' "First 100 Days" Tuesday that a revised version of President Donald Trump's travel ban would "have the same basic policy outcome.

Miller spoke to host Martha MacCallum at the top of an hour-long immigration town hall in Jacksonville, Fla. hours after Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly directed agency heads to hire thousands more immigration officers, end so-called “catch-and-release” policies and begin work on the president’s promised U.S.-Mexico border wall.

Through a show of hands, most of the town hall audience indicated that they supported Trump's tough stance on illegal immigration.

"I think [Miller's] main argument was right on point," said audience member Jack Capra. "Securing our borders is a national security issue [and] it's the federal government's job to keep our citizens safe from external and internal threats. I think immigration is a big contributor to that."

However, immigration attorney Francisco Hernandez told MacCallum that Trump's ordered immigration enforcement changes had "written a blank check that he can't cash."

"He’s going to have to get the money from somewhere," Hernandez said, "and we don’t have the money."

In last year's presidential election, a Fox News exit poll found that 10 percent of Florida voters said immigration was the biggest issue facing the country. Of those voters, 69 percent backed Trump over Hillary Clinton.

OBAMA'S "PLEASE VOTE FOR HILLARY" SPEECH (WHITE MALE VOTERS)

OBAMA'S "PLEASE VOTE FOR HILLARY" SPEECH:

OBAMA RETURNS A FAVOR TO THE CLINTONS.

DEMOCRATS NEED WORKING CLASS WHITE MALE VOTERS.

DEMOCRATS NEED EVERY VOTE.

Sources: ABC News, WSJ, Washington Post, YouTube

^^^^^ FYI:

I did not apply for 2016 DNC Media Credentials. Had I applied I'm sure my application would have been approved just as it was approved in 2012 without any glitches.

~ Wednesday’s action in Philadelphia

The main event: President Barack Obama

Subplot: Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton’s running mate

Scene-stealer? Vice President Joe Biden

September of 2012 at the DNC Convention in Charlotte, NC former US Pres Bill Clinton delivered a rousing, extremely persuasive speech to secure the incumbent Pres Barack Obama jr's re-election.

Of course it worked and now it's time for Pres Obama to return the favor.

Wednesday night (July 27, 2016) in PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania in the Wells Fargo Center, 10pm ET., 

Pres Barack Obama Jr will perform a daunting task of persuading registered American voters to believe in Hillary Rodham Clinton's second bid for the Oval Office.

While it's true Obama is a very gifted Orator, the question remains, can Obama sway worried American voters to put their confidence in a good woman with tons of Media baggage clinging to her personal and political reputation?

Hillary is well-qualified to lead the United States as President but her reputation has been all but ruined due to Scandals and NEGATIVE Media stories about her CHARACTER.

As it currently stands, 2016 Presidential nominees Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton share a 50-50% chance of winning the  Presidential election.

But Donald Trump has fewer skeletons in his closet.

Hillary is predicted to attract many BLACK voters, many LATINO voters, many Women voters,  many Bernie Sanders supporters, many college students and most members of the LGBT community.

However most WHITE MALE Working Class voters appear to have been all but abandoned by the Democrat party in this election.

But don't worry Democrats!

Hillary's GOP opponent Mr Trump has already laid claim to every WHITE Male Working Class voter the Democrats have tossed aside.

Stay tuned to very close, nail biting Election night results.

May the best 2016 Presidential nominee win!

Only then will we know if Pres Obama's "Please Vote For Hillary" was effective.

***** What the President Will Focus on in His DNC Speech

President Obama has been working on his speech for the Democratic National Conventionon Wednesday night for the past few weeks, including late into Monday night, Principal Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz said at today’s White House briefing.

Wednesday also marks 12 years since Obama was introduced on the national stage in Boston, which he will reflect on, Schultz said.

“I think he will talk about what the country has accomplished together since then. What the grit, ingenuity and determination of the American people have achieved over the last eight years,” Schultz said. “Whether that's coming back from the brink of economic collapse to the longest stretch of private-sector job growth in the nation’s history, or whether that's changing the nation’s history, or whether that's changing the way the world views the United States for the better.”

President Obama has been working on his speech for the Democratic National Conventionon Wednesday night for the past few weeks, including late into Monday night, Principal Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz said at today’s White House briefing.

Wednesday also marks 12 years since Obama was introduced on the national stage in Boston, which he will reflect on, Schultz said.

DEMOCRATS TAKE PHILADELPHIA FOR HILLARY IN 2016

DEMOCRATS TAKE PHILADELPHIA FOR HILLARY CLINTON IN 2016:

I CAN'T IGNORE HILLARY'S LEADERSHIP ABILITIES.

Sources: Wall Street Journal, YouTube

DESPITE Political & Ideological differences, I still admire Hillary Clinton as a very Powerful woman.

Thus my reason for choosing to cover the 2016 DNC Convention in Philadelphia.

Congratulations!

***** Hillary Clinton to be Anointed Democratic Presidential Nominee in Philadelphia

Tuesday’s action in Philadelphia:

Main Event: Bill Clinton, former two-term president and husband of Hillary Clinton, addresses the convention.

Big Idea: Showing a softer side of Hillary Clinton

Convention Business: A roll-call vote of the states will formally anoint Mrs. Clinton as the party nominee.

The second day of the Democratic convention will test whether Bernie Sanders’s delegates have gotten the message that it’s not a good idea to disrupt the proceedings and boo every mention of Hillary Clinton’s name.

But it’s the candidate’s husband who will provide most of the day-two theater. Former President Bill Clinton is an accomplished speaker whom President Barack Obama once affectionately dubbed the “Secretary of Explaining Stuff.” His speech is a chance to prove anew he’s a legitimate campaign asset.

That point has seemed in doubt. While heading to his plane at the Phoenix airport last month, Mr. Clinton stopped and paid an impromptu visit to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, whose plane had just landed. Though ostensibly a social call, critics said it was wrong for the pair to meet when the Federal Bureau of Investigation was investigating Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private email server.

Voters haven’t seen or heard much from Mr. Clinton since that fateful tarmac encounter. Today they’ll get a close-up of the former president – and he needs to deliver. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll earlier this month showed that only 37% viewed him favorably, while 42% had a negative view of him. The Clinton campaign would like to see those numbers improve as the race barrels toward election day.

With the state-by-state roll-call vote, Mrs. Clinton will officially become her party’s nominee. That’s a milestone, but she still has plenty of work to do. Polls consistently show voters like her experience but haven’t particularly warmed to her as a person.

Various speakers today will try to address that vulnerability. They will talk about her work on behalf of children. Families of black shooting victims will likely mention the outreach they’ve gotten from Mrs. Clinton as they’ve coped with personal loss.

Can a four-day convention help persuade voters that Mrs. Clinton is a more empathetic figure than they might have guessed?

It’s no small feat. Aides to Mrs. Clinton have spent decades trying to make her a more likeable figure. They’ve put her on comedy shows and sat her down with late-night TV talk-show hosts. And yet, she is the most disliked Democratic nominee in recent history, polls show.

The convention is perhaps Mrs. Clinton’s last, best chance to make the case she’s worthy not just of respect, but of affection.

TRUMP'S FREE TRADE SPEECH REMINDS VOTERS ITS ALL ABOUT THE ECONOMY (STUPID)

TRUMP'S FREE TRADE SPEECH REMINDS USA ITS ALL ABOUT THE ECONOMY 

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE ECONOMY STUPID.

Sources: Reuters, CNN, TIME, YouTube

Video Highlights: 

2016 Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald J. Trump's FREE TRADE SPEECH delivered 6-30-2016 in New Hampshire was very encouraging and really made Trump appear as an Intelligent leader.

His speech was strongly focused on renegotiating current Free Trade agreements and bringing American jobs back from overseas.

Without more jobs there will be no MIDDLE CLASS within the American workforce.

**** Trump vows to reopen, or toss, NAFTA pact with Canada and Mexico

(Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Tuesday vowed to force Canada and Mexico to renegotiate the NAFTA trade agreement with the United States if elected, as part of an effort to protect and restore American jobs.

Trump criticized the North American Free Trade Agreement as a U.S. job killer, saying he would be willing to scrap the pact if Canada and Mexico were unwilling to budge. He also tried to link Democratic rival Hillary Clinton to the deal on the eve of a meeting in Ottawa of the "three amigos," the leaders of the three NAFTA signatories: the United States, Mexico and Canada. 

In his most detailed speech on trade, the presumptive Republican nominee said he would pull the United States out of negotiations for a deal among 12 Pacific Rim nations and promised to use executive power to resolve trade disputes with China.

Trump also pledged to revive the U.S. steel and aluminum industry, speaking at an aluminum scrap company in Monessen, Pennsylvania, nearly 30 miles (50 km) south of Pittsburgh, the one-time American steelmaking capital.

Trump has identified Pennsylvania as a state he believes he can wrest from the Democrats in the Nov. 8 election. He also campaigned on Tuesday in Ohio, which like Pennsylvania is a Rust Belt state. 

Democratic President Barack Obama won both states in 2008 and 2012, but manufacturing job losses have led to voter anxiety in the region.

"I'm going tell our NAFTA partners that I intend to immediately renegotiate the terms of that agreement to get a better deal for our workers. And I don't mean just a little bit better, I mean a lot better," Trump said in Pennsylvania.

If Canada and Mexico do not agree to renegotiate the pact, Trump said he would notify them under the agreement's terms "that America intends to withdraw from the deal."

He tried to tie his Democratic rival to the pact, approved in 1993 during the administration of her husband, President Bill Clinton, as he called NAFTA one of the "worst legacies" of the Clinton years.

On MSNBC after Trump's speech, Clinton spokeswoman Kristina Schake called the wealthy New York businessman the "king of outsourcing," in an apparent reference to Trump-branded products such as suits and ties made overseas. 

"It was full of hypocrisy and misstatements and outright lies," Schake said.

Trade has been a vulnerability for Clinton, who struggled for white, blue-collar votes in her Democratic primary race against U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, who criticized her for supporting trade deals and said she was too close to Wall Street. 

TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP

Trump echoed Sanders' criticism on Tuesday, saying Clinton supported the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, while she was secretary of state and only opposed it once she was running for president. Clinton's campaign said she opposed the agreement because it was not strong enough on currency manipulation and other areas. 

Clinton has said she will evaluate each trade deal on its merits but does not believe the TPP is good for U.S. workers. Sanders now says he will vote for Clinton in November, although he has not formally withdrawn from the race.

Trump said he saw no way to fix the TPP, calling it a "death blow" for American manufacturing. Although China is not part of the agreement, Trump said Beijing might try to enter it "through the back door" later on.

Later, during a rally in St. Clairsville, Ohio, Trump said the deal was "just a continuing rape of our country."

Just hours before Trump spoke, Clinton allies sought to pre-empt the planned trade speech by saying Trump's policies amounted to empty promises.

Earlier, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told a trade conference in Washington that "Trump embodies everything that is wrong with our current trade policy. He has consistently sent American jobs overseas to line his own pockets."

The AFL-CIO, which collectively represents more than 12 million workers, making it the largest U.S. labor federation, endorsed Clinton this month.

POPULIST ANGER

Both Clinton and Trump have acknowledged that Britain's vote to leave the European Union signaled a global economic frustration among working-class voters that could reverberate in the U.S. election.

"There is a lot of legitimate anxiety, fear and even anger in many parts of our country because people feel like the economy has failed them," Clinton said in Denver on Tuesday. "I think this is going to be one of the defining issues in this election."

Trump has seized on the historic Brexit vote to bolster his argument that voters are rising up against establishment leaders, saying Americans would reject the "global elite" and support his presidential candidacy.

But Trump has broken with Republican Party orthodoxy in criticizing trade deals, and has threatened to slap tariffs on Mexican and Chinese imports. His rhetoric has drawn criticism from many economists, who say such practices could spark trade wars.

As Trump spoke, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is usually in sync with prominent Republicans on trade policy, said on Twitter: "Under Trump's trade plans, we would see higher prices, fewer jobs, and a weaker economy."

MERRICK GARLAND: HE'S NO JUSTICE SCALIA, OBAMA'S 3RD TERM

MERRICK GARLAND: HE'S NO JUSTICE SCALIA, OBAMA'S 3RD TERM

GARLAND WAS APPOINTED AS AN APPELLATE JUDGE IN 1997 BY BILL CLINTON.

Sources: CNN, Washington Times, Youtube

February 12, 2016 Conservative SCOTUS Justice Antonin Scalia was Murdered.

Wednesday, March 16, 2016 Pres Obama nominated  Scalia's replacement, Appellate Court Judge Merrick Brian Garland, a LIBERAL appointed by former president BILL CLINTON in 1997.

Due to this being a presidential election year, the GOP-controlled Senate has already refused to confirm Garland.

Scalia's open seat places the 2016 presidential election in a dangerous predicament.

If Garland is not confirmed, in the event of a Bush v Gore-style election battle the SCOTUS will remain deadlocked.

A deadlocked SCOTUS court in an election results battle presents two possible scenarios:

1).  A long drawn out, expensive litigation until a decision is made.

2) Obama is legally allowed to remain President until a decision is made.

Thus Obama may get the 3rd term he has been hoping for.

***** Jeffrey Toobin: Sure, Merrick Garland is qualified, but this is politics

Story highlights

• Jeffrey Toobin: Supreme Court nominee is unlikely to survive political maelstrom 
• Toobin says Republicans will likely not bend and allow hearing or vote on Merrick Garland 
• Cost of allowing Obama pick who could tip court is too great for GOP, he says.
• Should Merrick Garland's friends be offering him congratulations -- or condolences? After a distinguished career in public service, Garland has been tapped for the legal profession's highest honor -- to be a Supreme Court justice. But President Barack Obama's nomination thrusts Garland into a political maelstrom he is unlikely to survive -- at least as a judge on the nation's highest court.

Garland, who is 63, has had a storybook career. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School (like the justice he would be replacing, Antonin Scalia), was clerk for a pair of legendary judges (Henry Friendly and William Brennan), and a partner at a prominent law firm -- which he gave up to work as a line prosecutor in the District of Columbia.

He was a Justice Department official and then judge for the last 18 years on the second most important court in the nation. 

The issue of Garland's qualifications to be on the Supreme Court is beyond question.

But Republicans have said that because Obama is in the last year of his term, the seat on the court should be determined by the voters -- who will be choosing the next president. They have vowed, in very explicit terms, to refuse to give Garland a hearing or a vote. 

Most Republican senators will refuse even to meet with him. And while Republican senators have so far avoided attacking Garland's qualifications, conservative interest groups are already pledging to run television advertisements portraying the judge as a mindless liberal and Obama stooge.

It's all very ... political. But the Supreme Court has always been as much a political body as a legal one. Supporters of the President, and of Garland, are seeking to impose the maximum amount of political pain on their opponents in the Senate.

Democrats have already started calling out their Republican counterparts as do-nothing obstructionists. This is how the process will play out, and the outcome will depend on the politics. Do Republicans stick with their base and refuse a vote? Or do they cave under criticism and allow Garland to proceed through the process?

The odds strongly favor continuing Republican solidarity. The seat is the tipping point to a Democratic majority on the court, and the GOP will put up with a lot of heat to prevent the loss of the court for a generation. 

True, a President Hillary Clinton might pick someone even more liberal, but better to risk a fight later than lose one now. When it comes to the Supreme Court, political calculation is nothing new. There were no good old days.

HILLARY CLINTON'S FICTITIOUS BLACK VOTER FIREWALL (CHARLES BLOW'S COLUMN)

@hillaryclinton

~ HILLARY CLINTON'S FICTITIOUS BLACK VOTER FIREWALL (CHARLES BLOW'S COLUMN):

THE DEMOCRAT PARTY'S 2016 "BLACK VOTER FIREWALL" IS A POLITICAL MYTH.

2016 BLACK VOTERS ARE NOT ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT HILLARY'S CAMPAIGN.


Respected BLACK Journalist Charles Blow recently authored an article in the NY Times about how 2016 BLACK voters have created a "Firewall" around Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign to insulate her politically.

I beg to differ with Mr Blow in that no such "BLACK voter firewall" exist for Hillary as it once did for Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

In fact due to the legislative actions of Bill Clinton & Barack Obama against the BLACK American community, many BLACK voters today no longer trust Hillary and are strongly considering supporting a GOP presidential candidate in Nov 2016.

Thus Charles Blow's "BLACK voter firewall" relative to Hillary Clinton's 2nd bid for U.S. President is actually just a Political Myth.




*** Hillary Clinton Stumbles

In October, when Hillary Clinton made a spectacle of the congressional Benghazi committee during a marathon interrogation that seemed designed to make a spectacle of her, she emerged stronger than ever. Her polls numbers surged.

That performance had come on the heels of a strong debate performance the week before in the first Democratic presidential debate.

She had bolstered the image she wanted to project: strong, smart, capable and battle-tested.

But now, on the verge of Monday night’s Democratic town hall in Iowa — the last time the candidates will face off before the caucuses in that state — and with Bernie Sanders’s poll numbers climbing not only in Iowa, but also in New Hampshire, the Clinton campaign seems increasingly desperate and reckless.

I noticed the turn in the last debate as Clinton seemed to me to go too far in her attacks on Sanders, while simultaneously painting herself into a box that will be very hard to escape.

She wrapped herself in President Obama’s legacy so tightly that she could hardly breathe, and then built an image of herself as a practical politician who could build on Obama’s accomplishments by taking small steps and negotiating tough deals.

But practicality and incrementalism, as reasonable as that strategy and persona may be, are simply no match for what animates the Sanders campaign — a kind of kinetic, even if sometimes overblown, idealism. His is a passionate exposition of liberalism — and yes, democratic socialism — in its most positive light.

But, let me be clear and unequivocal: I find his earnest philosophic positions to be clear and often laudable, but also somewhat quixotic.

I think that he is promising far more than even he knows he can deliver, and the electability question is still a real one, even though polls now show him matching up well against possible Republican opponents.

For instance, Sanders’s plan for universal health care is an admirable ambition of any true liberal, but as presented seems to me unworkable, and the prospect of getting it passed through this Congress or any Congress that vaguely resembles it is nil.

Congress has voted to repeal Obamacare, which is far shy of Sanders’s proposal, more than 60 times. Suggesting that it would pass something even more expansive is mere fantasy.

When Sanders is pressed on how he will accomplish his ambitious goals, he often responds with the nebulous answer that it will require a “political revolution,” which seems to mean energizing and engaging an unprecedented number of new voters who would not only ensure his election but flip control of the Senate and possibly the House.

Interesting, but also unlikely. Go talk to all the Blue Dog Democrats who lost their seats in the wake of Obamacare passage. Go talk to all the voters who are being disenfranchised by new voter suppression laws.

Go talk to all the poor people who live in states where conservative voters ensure Republican leadership, and therefore prevent Medicaid from being expanded in their states.

There are political realities that exist in America that can be changed sometimes, and often are, but that are not often subject to sea changes.

Furthermore, Sanders likes to tout that he doesn’t have a “super PAC” and doesn’t want one.

That is a principled position. But the Republican candidate will have the support of many super PACs, awash in hundreds of millions of dollars in dark money, and the Republican nominee himself might even be a billionaire.

They are going to beat Sanders like he is a nail with the “socialist” label and his proposal on new taxation. Middle of the spectrum Middle America is likely to be very susceptible to this negative messaging.

But instead of Clinton finding a way to express that her plans are more tangible than Sanders’s, and her chances in the general election are stronger than his, she and her campaign have made some incredulous inferences about Sanders’s honor.

The swipes at him as being soft on the gun industry as some way of cozying up to it, or of being anti-Obama because he wanted Obama to be stronger in pursuing a liberal agenda, or that he wants to scrap Obamacare, simply do not connect.

Sanders may be a dreamer, but he’s not dishonorable. Trying to sully him in this way only sullies her.

There are a tremendous number of echoes starting to be heard between the way Clinton ran against Obama, and the way she is running against Sanders.

Clinton has what political insiders call the “firewall”: Overwhelming support among black and Hispanic voters in Southern and some Western states. But a win by Sanders in Iowa and New Hampshire could supply a boost of momentum that could greatly erode the Clinton firewall.

If Clinton can’t find a positive, energetic message to project, and soon, she is going to be swept away by Sanders.

Some part of Sanders’s proposals and even his vision for this country may indeed be a fairy tale.

But in the 2008 race, Bill Clinton criticized Obama and his position on the Iraq war as a “fairy tale.”

Well fairy tales sometimes come true, particularly when Hillary Clinton stumbles.


Sources: NY Times, Youtube

DONALD TRUMP & BILL CLINTON FIGHT FOR WOMEN VOTERS (2016 BEEFS)

DONALD TRUMP & BILL CLINTON FIGHT FOR WOMEN VOTERS (2016 BEEFS):

DONALD'S FIRST TERM OR BILL CLINTON'S THIRD TERM?

Donald Trump & Bill Clinton are beefing to attract 2016 Women voters.

Donald claims Bill is a Pedophile (Monica Lewinsky).

Bill claims Donald doesn't care about Women's issues (Planned Parenthood).

So who wins this Gender War to attract Women voters?

Do Women voters care about Donald Trump serving his first term in the Oval Office?

Or.........

Do Women voters care more about Bill Clinton serving a Third term in the Oval Office?

Who wants a 2016 Coronation?

I most certainly don't!

I want to experience a REAL Presidential election just like in 2008.

The fireworks are beginning to heat up and I'm loving it!

Stay tuned.

~ Ex-Ally Donald Trump Now Heaps Scorn on Bill Clinton

For years, President Bill Clinton was the best friend Donald J. Trump always hoped to have.

When scandal engulfed Mr. Clinton’s White House, Mr. Trump leapt to the president’s defense. “He’s probably got the toughest skin I’ve ever seen, and I think he’s a terrific guy,” Mr. Trump told CNN.

Then there were Mr. Trump’s pitches to the former president to settle in a gilded Trump building in Manhattan when he and Hillary Clinton left the White House. They moved to Westchester instead. 

His overtures for them to vacation at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., were also rebuffed. The Clintons preferred the Dominican Republic.

When Mr. Clinton had trouble joining a conservative Westchester golf club, Mr. Trump boasted that he welcomed the former president to a newly built Trump National Golf Club, a five-minute drive from the Clintons’ Chappaqua, N.Y., home.

“He’s a great gentleman, a good golfer and a wonderful guy,” the real estate developer said of Mr. Clinton, who, in reality, is a so-so golfer known for taking mulligans.

In the past week, any semblance of a friendship between Mr. Trump and Bill Clinton came to an ugly end as the former president and his wife’s presidential campaign found themselves in a muddy battle over sexism with the Republican candidate who has upended this election cycle with his insults and attacks.

“If Hillary thinks she can unleash her husband, with his terrible record of women abuse, while playing the women’s card on me, she’s wrong!” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter on Monday.

The criticism of Mr. Clinton’s personal life comes as Mrs. Clinton is increasingly relying on the former president, mentioning him in almost every speech as she praises his economic record.

But Mr. Trump’s attacks on him are now rippling through the race, with other candidates and even a prominent newspaper columnist suggesting that Mr. Clinton’s sexual history is fair game.

“This works for Trump because it reinforces what his most ardent supporters believe to be his greatest strength,” said Kevin Madden, a Republican communications strategist. “He will say things that no one else will say but that need to be said.”

On Monday, Mr. Clinton will hold two organizing events for Mrs. Clinton in New Hampshire — his first solo outing on the campaign trail in a state where he remains widely popular and where polls show Mrs. Clinton slightly trailing Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

Mr. Trump’s turn against the former president started last week when Mrs. Clinton, in response to Mr. Trump’s use of a crude sexual reference to describe her loss to Barack Obama in 2008, accused him of having a “penchant for sexism.”

On Saturday, Mr. Trump said on Twitter: “Hillary Clinton has announced that she is letting her husband out to campaign but HE’S DEMONSTRATED A PENCHANT FOR SEXISM, so inappropriate!”

He went further on Tuesday, saying that in Mr. Clinton’s political career, “there were certainly a lot of abuse of women, and you look at whether it’s Monica Lewinsky or Paula Jones or many of them.”

In response to Mr. Trump’s latest onslaught, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign said in a statement that “Hillary Clinton won’t be bullied” or “distracted by the slings he throws at her and former President Clinton.” A spokesman for Mr. Clinton declined to comment.

Mr. Trump’s tactics could backfire. Mrs. Clinton had some of her highest approval ratings ever after revelations that Mr. Clinton had a relationship with Ms. Lewinsky, a 22-year-old White House intern.

This month at a New Hampshire town hall, a young woman asked Mrs. Clinton about several women who alleged they were sexually harassed by Mr. Clinton.

“You say that all rape victims should be believed,” the woman said. “Should we believe them as well?”

Mrs. Clinton did not hesitate. “Well, I would say that everybody should be believed at first until they are disbelieved based on evidence,” she said, with an awkward smile, as the crowd applauded.

Still, the issue seems to be echoing, at least among her detractors. 

Other Republican candidates, including Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson, have followed Mr. Trump’s lead, saying Mr. Clinton’s history is a legitimate criticism, though Mrs. Fiorina said she doubted voters would care. Mr. Clinton, after all, is 69 years old, and the Lewinsky scandal happened nearly two decades ago.

The Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus has been critical of Mr. Trump but on Tuesday wrote that she agreed with him that Mr. Clinton’s past is relevant to his wife’s campaign. “Trump has smeared women because of their looks,” she wrote. “Clinton has preyed on them.”

Mr. Trump has been the most direct in his attacks on Mr. Clinton, but Republicans, concerned about the party’s declining appeal to women, have long considered using the former president’s personal life and Mrs. Clinton’s response to the women who alleged extramarital affairs.

Stuart Stevens, a Republican operative and Mitt Romney’s chief strategist in his 2012 presidential campaign, said the way the Clinton operation disparaged women who complained about the president’s behavior in the 1990s “would be all but disqualifying in a Democratic primary” nowadays.

During Mr. Clinton’s 1992 campaign, Betsey Wright, a close aide, coined the term “bimbo eruptions” in describing rumors of extramarital affairs involving the candidate.

According to White House-era documents from Diane D. Blair, a close friend of Mrs. Clinton’s who died in 2000, the first lady had referred to Ms. Lewinsky as “a narcissistic loony toon.”

Until last week, Mr. Trump had hardly uttered a negative word about Mr. Clinton. In 1999, he said the president had been treated unfairly for his relationship with Ms. Lewinsky. His criticism, according to an interview with The New York Times at the time, was the president’s choice of paramour: “It was Monica! I mean, terrible choice.”

Mr. Trump has been a donor to the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation and to Mrs. Clinton’s Senate campaign.

While a senator from New York, Mrs. Clinton and her husband attended Mr. Trump’s 2005 wedding to his third wife, the Slovenian model Melania Knauss, held in a $42 million ballroom at his Mar-a-Lago estate decorated to resemble Versailles. (Mr. and Mrs. Trump were not invited to Chelsea Clinton’s 2010 wedding.)

“He liked them and their star quality, and he respected a lot of things Bill Clinton did as president,” said Edward G. Rendell, a former governor of Pennsylvania who is close to the Clintons. “That’s all out the window now,” he added.

In an email, Mr. Trump said his friendship with Mr. Clinton was strictly business. “It was my obligation to get along with all politicians,” he wrote. “And I did it better than anybody.”

He said he did not recall whether the Clintons had stayed at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach. “If they did want to stay there, or stayed there, it only shows that they have good taste,” he added.

Some have suggested that Mr. Trump, whose own affair with Marla Maples and his split from his first wife, Ivana Trump, were splashed across tabloids, is an imperfect messenger on the issue of fidelity.

Mr. Trump also opens himself up to criticism about his own personal life, including allegations that he assaulted Ivana Trump, which he has denied and which the former Mrs. Trump recently backed away from.

Mr. Trump, however, said he was “the perfect messenger because I fully understand life and all its wrinkles,” and reiterated his claim that Mrs. Clinton had bullied some of the women who accused her husband of improprieties.

Republican opponents have highlighted Mr. Trump’s previously fawning comments about Mr. Clinton.

Back in 1999, Mr. Trump expressed admiration for Mr. Clinton’s retail political skills, telling CNBC: “I wish I could be like that. I just can’t.”

And a couple of years later, he echoed that comment, recalling an anecdote about watching Mr. Clinton work a crowd.

“He shook hands with everybody out there,” said Mr. Trump, who is regarded as something of a germaphobe. “And some of these people had filthy hands.”

Sources: ABC News, NY Times, NBC News

DEMOCRATS WANT TO TAKE BLACK VOTES WITHOUT HELPING BLACK VOTERS (MALCOLM X)

DEMOCRATS WANT TO TAKE BLACK VOTES WITHOUT HELPING BLACK VOTERS:

MALCOLM X LABELED BLACK VOTERS WHO BLINDLY SUPPORT DEMOCRATS "CHUMPS".

WHERE ARE THE JOBS FOR BLACK MEN??

BLACK voters are tired of being forced to support the national DEMOCRAT party without receiving anything Constructive in return for our Ballots.

And we don't mean Food Stamps or Welfare!

However it appears that instead of listening to BLACK voters, Key Party leaders want to Force BLACK voters into supporting DEMOCRATS via Strong arm Political tactics, or they want to Steal BLACK votes.

Shortly before he was Assassinated, Malcolm X labeled BLACK voters who blindly support DEMOCRATS as "CHUMPS".

In the land of the FREE, this is not right!

~ When Blacks Voted 80 Percent Dem, Malcolm X Called Them 'Chumps

When blacks gave 80 percent of their vote to the Democratic Party in 1964, black activist Malcolm X called them "political chumps."

White voters, X said, "are so evenly divided that every time they vote, the race is so close they have to go back and count the votes all over again. Which means that any bloc, any minority that has a bloc that sticks together is in a strategic position. Either way you go, that's who gets it."

Yet Democrats, said Malcolm X, failed to deliver on a promised and much anticipated new civil rights bill, knowing the party could still count on their blind support in the next election.

You put them first," said Malcolm X, "and they put you last. 'Cause you're a chump.

A political chump! ... Any time you throw your weight behind a political party that controls two-thirds of the government, and that party can't keep the promise that it made to you during election time, and you are dumb enough to walk around continuing to identify yourself with that party -- you're not only a chump but you're a traitor to your race."

What would Malcolm X say about today's 95 percent black vote?

Did the Democratic Party keep its promises to promote family stability, push education and encourage job creation?

The black community, over the last 50 years, has suffered an unparalleled breakdown in family unity. Even during slavery when marriage was illegal, a black child was more likely than today to be raised under a roof with his or her biological mother and father.

According to census data, from 1890 to 1940, said economist Walter Williams, a black child was slightly more likely to grow up with married parents than a white child. What happened?

When President Lyndon Johnson launched the War on Poverty in 1965, 24 percent of black babies were born to unmarried mothers.

Today that number is 72 percent.

Then-presidential candidate Barack Obama said in 2008: "Children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools and 20 times more likely to end up in prison.

They are more likely to have behavioral problems, or run away from home, or become teenage parents themselves."

Not only has family breakdown coincided with increased government spending, but the money has not done much to reduce the rate of poverty. From 1965 until now, the government has spent $15-20 trillion to fight poverty. In 1949, the poverty rate stood at 34 percent.

By 1965, it was cut in half, to 17 percent -- all before the so-called War on Poverty. But after the war began in 1965, poverty began to flat line.

It appears that the generous welfare system allowed women to, in essence, marry the government -- and it allowed men to abandon their financial and moral responsibility, while surrendering the dignity that comes from being a good provider.

Psychologists call dependency "learned helplessness."

About the importance of education, Malcolm X once said, "My alma mater was books, a good library. ... I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity." What would he say about the Democratic opposition to school vouchers -- where the money would follow the student rather than the other way around?

Urban schools, where students are disproportionately black and brown, are simply not producing children who can read, write and compute at grade level.

The dropout rate can approach 50 percent in some urban districts. Nationwide, 10 percent of parents send their kids to private school. But in cities like Philadelphia and Chicago, 40 percent or more of teachers send their own kids to private schools.

Democrats don't do blacks any favor by supporting "race-based preferences" in admissions to colleges and universities. Turns out, the more a school lowers standards to achieve "diversity," the greater the chance the "diverse" student drops out.

More than that, Democrats have convinced blacks that but for race-based preferences, black growth would suffer. Nonsense. Respected researchers Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom wrote:

"The growth of the black middle class long predates the adoption of race-conscious social policies. In some ways, indeed, the black middle class was expanding more rapidly before 1970 than after."

Finally, as to the economy, then-chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., admitted: "With 14 percent (black) unemployment, if we had a white president we'd be marching around the White House. ...The President knows we are going to act in deference to him in a way we wouldn't to someone white."

Democratic policies have contributed to family breakdown, maintained underperforming urban schools -- with no opt out for parents -- and have promoted tax-spend-and-regulate economic policies that have resulted in a level of unemployment described as "unconscionable" by Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

So would Malcolm X call today's black voter a political "chump" -- or a political "traitor"?

Sources: Town Hall, YouTube