TRUMP & RUBIO - 2016 GOP PRESIDENTIAL GOLD

TRUMP & RUBIO - 2016 GOP PRESIDENTIAL GOLD:

I NOMINATE BOTH CANDIDATES.

Sources:  CNN, YouTube

If current 2016 GOP Presidential Frontrunner Donald Trump had not entered the race, Hillary Clinton & Bernie Sanders would have most likely sucked all of the Media air out of this election, leaving lesser known GOP candidates largely ignored.

Trump is an Amazing Businessman and a Marketing genius who knows how to attract large crowds to GOP events.

Trump also knows how to drive voters to the Polls.

Trump has sharpened all of his GOP Opponents, including MARCO RUBIO via his Bold leadership style and Bravado.

In fact, thanks to Mr Trump, MARCO RUBIO is now a top tier presidential candidate.

Considering how Mr Trump has helped make the GOP platform relevant again to American voters,  why are Establishment leaders still trying to force him out of the 2016 race??

TRUMP and RUBIO embody the spirit of a Conqueror.

If asked to choose between the two candidates, I would have to nominate both Men for the office of U.S. President.

**** Trump Says He Has No Questions About Rubio's Eligibility To Be President

(Circa Sunday January 17, 2016)

Donald Trump drew a distinction between eligibility questions surrounding Marco Rubio's run for the presidency versus those clouding Ted Cruz'sbid, saying the Florida senator is qualified because although his parents were not U.S. citizens at the time of his birth, he was born in the U.S. -- unlike Cruz.

"It's a different, very different thing because he was born here. He was born on the land," Trump told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union." "Ted was not born on the land, and there's a very strict reading that you have to be born on the land. (Harvard Law professor) Laurence Tribe actually said based on Ted's views, he would have to be born on the land."

Cruz was conferred American citizenship at birth because his mother is an American citizen, and legal experts have largely agreed that would qualify him for natural-born citizenship. The Texas Republican also had Canadian citizenship until he renounced it in 2014.

"He was born in Canada. He was a Canadian citizen until 15 months ago, if you can believe that," Trump said.

"He says he didn't know," Tapper replied.

"He didn't know. Well, he didn't know about his financial papers either. You know, how are you going to be president if you didn't know about a million dollar loan from Goldman Sachs," Trump asked, referring to a controversy that surfaced earlier this week over Cruz's 2012 Senate bid. "And you said it's something you don't know about. Now he doesn't know that he was a Canadian citizen? I mean that's in a way maybe worse than all the other things we're talking about."

A lawsuit was filed this week questioning Cruz's eligibility for the presidency, as Trump predicted.

"There have been lawsuits filed. And I said lawsuits are going to be filed," he said. "The Democrats are going to file lawsuits. They filed lawsuits. Now, he's got a problem." 

Trump also hammered Cruz over his criticism of "New York values," which the Texas senator said referred to the Empire State's support of abortion rights, same-sex marriage and a focus on money and greed. Trump called those remarks "very, very insulting."

"I immediately thought of the World Trade Center, and the bravery of New Yorkers and the genius of New Yorkers to be able to take that whole section and rebuild after the tragedy," he said. 

Asked if Cruz was making a subtle ethnic dig with his "New York values" comment, Trump said he didn't know, adding, "probably you would have to ask him."

But, Trump said, "I thought it was disgraceful that he brought that up ... I think he came across badly. Some people gave him pretty good reviews on the debate. I think he came across as very strident and not a nice person, and people don't like that."

Trump said the "only place (Cruz) is doing fairly well is in Iowa."

"I you look at these other places, he's not doing well, and certainly not doing well nationally," Trump added.

Still, he doesn't want to take any chances, which is why he's been spending on ads recently.

"I'm going to start spending money for two reasons. Number one, I feel guilty because I'm $35 million under budget," he said. "Number two, I don't want to take a chance."

Jeb Bush

Trump pointed out that spending millions has not helped former Florida Jeb Bush emerge as a leading candidate.

"Jeb is spending so much money. Think of it, he spent $69 million, I spent nothing. He's at the bottom of the pack, I'm at the top of the pack," he said.

He then attacked former presidential candidate Lindsey Graham for endorsing Bush.

"I think it's incredible. First of all, Lindsey Graham got out with zero. He had zero. He had nothing. That's number one, so he's not gonna get any voters and I think it's a very bad thing for Lindsay Graham," Trump said. 

Tapper asked Trump about his proposal to create a "deportation force" to remove the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. In the past, Trump has cited the efforts of President Dwight Eisenhower to remove undocumented immigrants as part of "Operation Wetback"during the 1950s.

"A lot of people think that was a shameful chapter in American history, though," Tapper said.

"Well, some people do, and some people think it was a very effective chapter, and what happened was when they removed some, meaning brought them back, when they brought them back, they removed some, everybody else left," Trump said. "And it was very successful, everyone said. So I mean, that's the way it is. Look, we either have a country, or we don't. If we don't have strong borders, we have a problem."

Campaign finance reform 

Trump said the American political process is in need of campaign finance reform, adding that he -- a candidate who has repeatedly touted his decision to self-fund his campaign as a selling point for his candidacy -- hasn't decided if he would accept public financing for the general election.

"I don't know yet. I haven't thought of it. I am thinking about this one," he said. 

Trump also said Cruz and other candidates are more likely to do the bidding of their donors if elected opposed to looking out for the best interest of the country.

"That's the way it is. Somebody gives them money. Not anything wrong, just psychologically, when they go to that person, they're going to do that," he said. "They owe them, and by the way, they may therefore vote negatively towards the country. That's not gonna happen with me."

The American political process is in need of campaign finance reform, Trump said.

"Well I think you need it, because I think PACs are a horrible thing," he said. "First of all everybody is dealing with their PAC. You know, it's supposed to be like this secret thing -- they're all dealing."

Trump says he wasn't mocking reporter with disability

Trump was previously criticized for appearing to mock Serge Kovaleski, a New York Times reporter with arthrogryposis, a chronic condition which limits the movement of his arms. 

At a South Carolina rally in November, Trump waved his arms in an awkward manner while discussing a comment made by Kovaleski. But Trump said he wasn't mocking him.

"If you could go back and do it again, would you do it differently?" Tapper asked.

"Yes, I would. But let me just tell you something. I had no idea what this reporter looked like or that he had difficulty," Trump said. 

Trump told Tapper he would never mock a person with a disability. 

"I was not imitating. I would never -- who would ever do that? If somebody had a disability, who would mock a disability? I would never. I'm a smart person ... Who would ever mock somebody, especially if you're running for office?" Trump said. 

"I would have not done it, because it's confusing," he added. "Some people believe me when I say it, I mean, I swear to you, that's true. I had no idea."

Trump and God

Trump said he is doing so well with evangelicals because he has a "very great relationship with God." 

"One of the potential attack lines has to do with an answer you gave to Frank Luntz months ago when you said that you've never asked God for forgiveness. Do you regret making that remark?" Tapper asked.

"No, I have a great relationship with God. I have a great relationship with evangelicals," he said.

Trump said he doesn't ask for forgiveness because he doesn't do a lot of bad things.

"I don't like to have to ask for forgiveness. And I am good, I don't do a lot of things that are bad, I try and do nothing that's bad. I live a very different life than probably a lot of people would think," Trump said.

Haley criticism was an 'honor'

Tapper asked Trump how it felt to be implicitly criticized by South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in her Republican response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address last week.

"It was my great honor because I'm angry and they both said I was angry. And I get along very well with Nikki, and you know, Nikki said we're friends and we are friends. I supported her, but I am angry," Trump said. "And when she said there's an anger that we shouldn't have, I said, well, I disagree with one thing. There's an anger that we should have. Our country is going to hell."

RUBIO vs TRUMP: I NOMINATE BOTH CANDIDATES (SC PRIMARY)

SOUTH CAROLINA VOTES - 2016 GOP PRIMARY: (FEBRUARY 20)

RUBIO vs TRUMP: I NOMINATE BOTH CANDIDATES.

TRUMP ATTRACTS NEW INTEREST & BRINGS GREAT BUSINESS EXPERIENCE TO THE GOP.

RUBIO ATTRACTS YOUNG & LATINO VOTERS AND BRINGS GREAT POLITICAL EXPERIENCE.

Sources: Insidegov, The State, WMUR, Youtube

**** Poll:  Donald Trump Still Leading In SC Republican primary

Four new polls out Thursday show New York billionaire Donald Trump holding his lead in Saturday’s Republican presidential primary.

Trump averaged 32 percent support from S.C. Republicans in the surveys. U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are battling for second place, with Cruz and Rubio averaging 18 percent and 16 percent, respectively.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush averaged 11 percent across the polls, two of which had him at 9 percent and two, at 14 percent.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich averaged 10 percent across the polls, followed by retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson at 6 percent.

The polls, released Thursday, are from American Research Group, Fox News, the S.C. House GOP, Harper Polling and the Emerson College Polling Society.

They all were taken after the GOP presidential debate in Greenville last weekend, when Trump criticized former President George W. Bush for the 9/11 terrorist attacks happening on his watch – a comment that some predicted might hurt him in South Carolina where the Bush family is popular.

Facebook Apps Privacy Breach: Jealous Conspiracy Or Marketing Tool?

Facebook In Privacy Breach

Many of the most popular applications, or "apps," on the social-networking site Facebook Inc. have been transmitting identifying information—in effect, providing access to people's names and, in some cases, their friends' names—to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found.

The issue affects tens of millions of Facebook app users, including people who set their profiles to Facebook's strictest privacy settings. The practice breaks Facebook's rules, and renews questions about its ability to keep identifiable information about its users' activities secure.

The problem has ties to the growing field of companies that build detailed databases on people in order to track them online—a practice the Journal has been examining in its What They Know series.

It's unclear how long the breach was in place. On Sunday, a Facebook spokesman said it is taking steps to "dramatically limit" the exposure of users' personal information.

"A Facebook user ID may be inadvertently shared by a user's Internet browser or by an application," the spokesman said. Knowledge of an ID "does not permit access to anyone's private information on Facebook," he said, adding that the company would introduce new technology to contain the problem identified by the Journal.

"Our technical systems have always been complemented by strong policy enforcement, and we will continue to rely on both to keep people in control of their information," the Facebook official said.

"Apps" are pieces of software that let Facebook's 500 million users play games or share common interests with one another. The Journal found that all of the 10 most popular apps on Facebook were transmitting users' IDs to outside companies.

The apps, ranked by research company Inside Network Inc. (based on monthly users), include Zynga Game Network Inc.'s FarmVille, with 59 million users, and Texas HoldEm Poker and FrontierVille. Three of the top 10 apps, including FarmVille, also have been transmitting personal information about a user's friends to outside companies.

Most apps aren't made by Facebook, but by independent software developers. Several apps became unavailable to Facebook users after the Journal informed Facebook that the apps were transmitting personal information; the specific reason for their unavailability remains unclear.

The information being transmitted is one of Facebook's basic building blocks: the unique "Facebook ID" number assigned to every user on the site. Since a Facebook user ID is a public part of any Facebook profile, anyone can use an ID number to look up a person's name, using a standard Web browser, even if that person has set all of his or her Facebook information to be private. For other users, the Facebook ID reveals information they have set to share with "everyone," including age, residence, occupation and photos.

The apps reviewed by the Journal were sending Facebook ID numbers to at least 25 advertising and data firms, several of which build profiles of Internet users by tracking their online activities.

Defenders of online tracking argue that this kind of surveillance is benign because it is conducted anonymously. In this case, however, the Journal found that one data-gathering firm, RapLeaf Inc., had linked Facebook user ID information obtained from apps to its own database of Internet users, which it sells. RapLeaf also transmitted the Facebook IDs it obtained to a dozen other firms, the Journal found.

RapLeaf said that transmission was unintentional. "We didn't do it on purpose," said Joel Jewitt, vice president of business development for RapLeaf.

Facebook said it previously has "taken steps ... to significantly limit Rapleaf's ability to use any Facebook-related data."



Facebook prohibits app makers from transferring data about users to outside advertising and data companies, even if a user agrees. The Journal's findings shed light on the challenge of policing those rules for the 550,000 apps on its site.

The Journal's findings are the latest challenge for Facebook, which has been criticized in recent years for modifying its privacy rules to expose more of a user's information. This past spring, the Journal found that Facebook was transmitting the ID numbers to advertising companies, under some circumstances, when a user clicked on an ad. Facebook subsequently discontinued the practice.

"This is an even more complicated technical challenge than a similar issue we successfully addressed last spring on Facebook.com," a Facebook spokesman said, "but one that we are committed to addressing."

The privacy issue follows Facebook's effort just this month to give its users more control over its apps, which privacy activists had cited as a potential hole in users' ability to control who sees their information. On Oct. 6, Facebook created a control panel that lets users see which apps are accessing which categories of information about them. It indicates, for example, when an application accesses a user's "basic information" (including a user ID and name). However, it doesn't detail what information friends' applications have accessed about a user.

Facebook apps transform Facebook into a hub for all kinds of activity, from playing games to setting up a family tree. Apps are considered an important way for Facebook to extend the usefulness of its network. The company says 70% of users use apps each month.

Applications are also a growing source of revenue beyond advertising for Facebook itself, which sells its own virtual currency that can be used to pay for games.

Following an investigation by the Canadian Privacy Commissioner, Facebook in June limited applications to accessing only the public parts of a user's profile, unless the user grants additional permission. (Canadian officials later expressed satisfaction with Facebook's steps.) Previously, applications could tap any data the user had access to, including detailed profiles and information about a user's friends.

It's not clear if developers of many of the apps transmitting Facebook ID numbers even knew that their apps were doing so. The apps were using a common Web standard, known as a "referer," which passes on the address of the last page viewed when a user clicks on a link. On Facebook and other social-networking sites, referers can expose a user's identity.

The company says it has disabled thousands of applications at times for violating its policies. It's unclear how many, if any, of those cases involved passing user information to marketing companies.

Facebook also appeared to have shut down some applications the Journal found to be transmitting user IDs, including several created by LOLapps Media Inc., a San Francisco company backed with $4 million in venture capital. LOLapp's applications include Gift Creator, with 3.5 million monthly active users, Quiz Creator, with 1.4 million monthly active users, Colorful Butterflies and Best Friends Gifts.

Since Friday, users attempting to access those applications received either an error message or were reverted to Facebook's home screen.

"We have taken immediate action to disable all applications that violate our terms," a Facebook spokesman said.

A spokeswoman for LOLapps Media declined to comment.

The applications transmitting Facebook IDs may have breached their own privacy policies, as well as industry standards, which say sites shouldn't share and advertisers shouldn't collect personally identifiable information without users' permission. Zynga, for example, says in its privacy policy that it "does not provide any Personally Identifiable Information to third-party advertising companies."

A Zynga spokeswoman said, "Zynga has a strict policy of not passing personally identifiable information to any third parties. We look forward to working with Facebook to refine how web technologies work to keep people in control of their information."

The most expansive use of Facebook user information uncovered by the Journal involved RapLeaf. The San Francisco company compiles and sells profiles of individuals based in part on their online activities.

The Journal found that some LOLapps applications, as well as the Family Tree application, were transmitting users' Facebook ID numbers to RapLeaf. RapLeaf then linked those ID numbers to dossiers it had previously assembled on those individuals, according to RapLeaf. RapLeaf then embedded that information in an Internet-tracking file known as a "cookie."

RapLeaf says it strips out the user's name when it embeds the information in the cookie and shares that information for ad targeting. However, The Wall Street Journal found that RapLeaf transmitted Facebook user IDs to a dozen other advertising and data firms, including Google Inc.'s Invite Media.

All 12 companies said that they didn't collect, store or use the information.

Ilya Nikolayev, chief executive of Familybuilder, maker of the Family Tree application, said in an email, "It is Familybuilder's corporate policy to keep any actual, potential, current or prior business partnerships, relationships, customer details, and any similar information confidential. As this story relates to a company other than Familybuilder, we have nothing further to contribute."



Sources: Wall Street Journal, CNN, Facebook, MSNBC, Washington Post, Youtube, Google Maps

Tiger's "Golf's Golden Boy" Image Takes A Big Hit...Can It Be Saved?

Tiger's drink dropped; decision before saga. "Gatorade Tiger Focus" is being discontinued by PepsiCo's Gatorade unit. CNBC's Darren Rovell has the details.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The "Tiger Effect"

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

(MSNBC)
Tiger Woods TV ads vanish from Prime-Time



Advertisements featuring Tiger Woods have vanished from prime-time since Nov. 29, two days after a Nov. 27 car crash involving the No. 1 ranked golfer, according to data from Nielsen Co.

The research firm said the last prime-time ad to appear featuring the golfer was a 30-second ad on Nov. 29 for the Gillette Co. That commercial aired eight times during November, spokesman Aaron Lewis said.

There have been no other commercials since then on all broadcast networks and 19 cable networks during the evening news, prime-time, late-night and during weekend sports, he said.

Meanwhile, Gatorade is discontinuing its Woods drink but says it made the decision before the golfer's car accident led to a media firestorm surrounding his personal life.

The decision to drop the drink, called Tiger Focus, was first reported by trade publication Beverage Digest in an issue dated Nov. 25, two days before the incident at Woods' home in Florida. The publication's editor, John Sicher, said he learned of the decision the week of Nov. 9.

The brand — a unit of PepsiCo Inc. — says the decision does not have to do with recent events. A spokesman says the decision came several months ago.

The drink debuted in March 2008.

Beverage Digest estimates it represents less than 5 percent of Gatorade's volume. Sales volume of Tiger Focus was down 34 percent this year through October.

Along with Gillette and PepsiCo's Gatorade, Woods has endorsement agreements with Nike, Electronic Arts, AT&T, Accenture, Tag Heuer, Upper Deck and others. The sponsors collectively pay him about $100 million a year.




(The Daily Beast) Shattering the Tiger Dream

As the golfer's handlers assess their damaged pitchman, Janice Min on how a post-racial poster boy fell from grace.

The first U.S. golf course designed by Tiger Woods is being marketed, along with its adjacent lush country-club homes, on the Web site for The Cliffs at High Carolina.

With a blissful ignorance of current events, four video vignettes reveal the Woods
of 10 mistresses ago strolling amid breathtaking fall-foliage scenes of the Blue Ridge Mountains as his perfectionism and family values are extolled. “With a wife and two kids, your perspective on life changes,” Woods muses in one video. “I want to bring them up here and feel safe and secure… my priorities changed when I had kids.” All told, the almost automaton Woods references family 14 times (two mentions of his wife, three of his kids, and nine of "family").

Alas, Woods’ carefully constructed Utopia was the equivalent of emotional astroturf. His actual dystopia involves astonishing recklessness (exhibit A: sex with a Perkins’ waitress in a church parking lot), extreme cruelty (cheating with abandon on his twice-pregnant wife), and previously unknown extravagance (“He lives the whole Entourage lifestyle,” pro golfer Notah Begay III told Us Weekly of the boozing, Ambien-popping superstar).

In fact, everything we have learned about Woods post-crash is in stark contrast to the man Sports Illustrated once believed to be “boring with a capital B.” “[Tiger] works hard on perpetuating that cool, calm and collected image,” said the magazine in 2003. “He makes no waves, takes no stances. We get the feeling that money and winning are more important to him than anything. And that's kind of hard to cozy up to.”

Clearly, that’s the way he and his handlers wanted it to be. Deliberately blank, void of detail and human quality, he presented a fairytale marketer’s dream not just of domestic Utopia but of a racial one, too. He was a hard-working, gifted non-white who transcended divisions of color like no one since Oprah Winfrey (who once introduced him as “America’s son” to thunderous applause on her show). So much so that he was even enlisted to sell multimillion-dollar country-club homes, with taped messages of family and safety, on the border of North and South Carolina—a state that still flies the Confederate flag.

It’s no surprise, really, that when asked in 2003 about the NAACP boycott of the state, Woods refused to engage. “I’m a golfer,” he said. “That’s their deal, not mine.” In a world divided by black-white, left-right, good-bad, Woods had become the ultimate post-racial poster boy in a sport that only in 1961 removed its “Caucasians-only” clause, and in just the year before Tiger won the 1997 Masters, had forced one Alabama PGA Tour spot to stop banning blacks.

Certainly, Woods’ Swiss-style neutrality on all issues—including race—had unspoken appeal to his sponsors and golf fans (a sport with very low African-American participation). Adamant about not being labeled African American, Woods calls himself “Cablinasian”, a mix of Caucasian, black, Native American, Chinese, and Thai. Perhaps that’s why in 1997, he quickly accepted pro golfer Fuzzy Zoeller’s apology after he called Woods a “little boy” who might serve “fried chicken.” Years later, through his agent, Woods said there was no “ill-intent” in a Golf Channel anchor’s call to have his competitors “lynch him.” Even in 2006, when asked about hate mail, Woods replied, “People have different views, and I understand that.”

In a 2001 anthology, Sports Stars, two academic authors reference an earlier Business Week story that explained Woods’ “breath of fresh air” popularity by saying Americans were “tired of trash-talking, spit-hurling, head-butting sports millionaires.” “Although race is not explicitly mentioned,” the authors write, the comments were “clearly about African-American basketball players… routinely depicted… as selfish, insufferable and morally reprehensible.” Woods was none of those things—as far as we knew. He was a cut above. And we ate it up, perhaps looking for perfection in others where we lacked it ourselves.

Now that Woods has already established himself as golf’s preeminent player, perhaps his handlers—in their frantic rewriting of the Tiger Woods 2.0 script—can bring themselves to encompass some of his human qualities. Not the profound idiocy that he’s “just another black guy,” as some Web site commenters are asserting, but that he’s a guy who is not so different—maybe just a lot richer and sleazier—than many others in his messed-up personal life.

After all, on a day when Woods’ mother-in-law was rushed to the hospital amid reports that his wife’s relatives have gathered in town to console his wife, the Fauxtopia of Tiger Inc. rings even louder. My favorite line from the Woods’ country-club sales’ videos? "Families obviously need to spend more time together," says Woods. "It's as good as it gets."



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Sources: The Daily Beast, MSNBC, NBC Sports, CNBC, Golf Digest Mag., Google Maps