DTecxEWn

1
2Americans need to understand that until it is fixed, money in politics is the only issue that matters in politics.
3
4health care reform doesn't matter:
5http://nlpc.org/2015/03/18/heath-care-task-force-showed-secrecy-nothing-new-hillary/
6
7trade doesn't matter:
8http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-corporate-friendly-world-of-the-t-p-p
9
10preventing financial crisis doesn't matter:
11http://www.americanbanker.com/news/law-regulation/why-citi-may-soon-regret-its-big-victory-on-capitol-hill-1071636-1.html
12	On its face, the House vote late Thursday to approve a spending bill that included an unrelated provision written by Citigroup was a big legislative victory for the bank and its fellow Wall Street behemoths.
13
14"written by Citigroup"
15
16	Yet it's also a victory that may soon come to haunt the largest institutions.
17
18	...
19
20	What they won was the repeal of a Dodd-Frank Act provision that requires them to push out a portion of their derivatives business into subsidiaries. Big banks fought against its inclusion in the 2010 financial reform law and have been steadily fighting to repeal it ever since. The spending bill is expected to pass the Senate in the coming days.
21
22	...
23
24	"It's terrible publicity and I just hate to see that because I think the industry needs to be rebuilding trust with the American people right now. You do stuff like this, it just adds to the cynicism about banks, especially big banks."
25
26	...
27
28	Making matters potentially worse, news reports quickly surfaced that Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase's CEO, also personally lobbied lawmakers on the bill. That helped rebut arguments by some that the provision wasn't a big deal to the big banks and that they weren't lobbying heavily for it.
29http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/05/23/banks-lobbyists-help-in-drafting-financial-bills/
30	“The huge machinery of Wall Street information and analysis skews the thinking of Congress,” said Jeff Connaughton, who has been both a lobbyist and Congressional staff member.
31https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2016/01/16/clinton-record-wall-street-laissez-faire/Z2a3iOsj40wryeRN2iT6qK/story.html
32
33public health doesn't matter:
34http://fortune.com/2016/09/15/john-boehner-reynolds-american/
35http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/us/politics/12boehner.html
36http://bulletin.represent.us/boehner-tobacco-lobby-checks/
37http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/03/us/politics/e-cigarettes-vaping-cigars-fda-altria.html
38	Separately, former Senator Mary Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana, spent part of her first year after losing re-election pressing officials from the White House, State Department and F.D.A. on behalf of the cigar industry — even though records show she had not registered as a lobbyist as required by federal law, which Ms. Landrieu said was an oversight.
39
40defense-contractor overspending doesn't matter:
41http://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=2a601982-f17d-030b-e613-d7226e0b145c
42http://dailycaller.com/2014/12/24/spending-bill-slammed-for-defense-contractor-favors/
43http://foreignpolicy.com/2012/04/26/the-jet-that-ate-the-pentagon/
44http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/03/lockheed-martins-herculean-efforts-profit-defense-spending
45(also fwiw, fund more research in languages that have theorem-proving style formal verification for real-time software systems before trying something like the f-35)
46
47labor protections at home and abroad don't matter:
48http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/morning-shift/2014/12/cromnibus-edition-kline-and-miller-unveil-multiemployer-fix-trade-adjustment-extended-controversial-trucker-hours-provision-stays-in-212543
49http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:A5LRt97uM78J:www.forbes.com/sites/danielfisher/2016/10/07/nestle-still-fighting-slavery-lawsuit/+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=ubuntu
50	“Forced child labor is a complex, global social issue in foreign countries that is not going to be solved by lawsuits in U.S. courts against the very companies that are leading the fight to help eradicate it,” said Paul Bakus, President of Corporate Affairs, Nestlé USA.
51(though there is some progress: http://fortune.com/2016/02/12/congress-closes-86-year-loophole-in-slave-labor-law/ we finally ended slavery in 2016! http://www.ibtimes.com/global-slavery-index-2016-estimates-458-million-people-trapped-modern-slavery-2375985 or not...)
52
53predatory loans don't matter:
54http://money.cnn.com/2014/12/18/pf/payday-lenders-contributions/
55http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/11/predatory-lending-soldiers_n_7258800.html
56http://thehill.com/policy/finance/banking-financial-institutions/271302-dnc-chief-backs-bill-to-hamper-payday-loan
57
58private prisons and mass incarceration doesn't matter:
59https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CoreCivic#Controversies
60http://www.diversityinc.com/diversity-management/who-profits-from-the-prison-boom/
61	In large part because of these laws, the country’s prison population has ballooned from 500,000 in 1980 to 2.3 million in 2009, greater than that of any other nation in the world. Including the number of people on probation and parole in this country, more than 7 million people—one out of every 31—lives under the control of the U.S. criminal-justice system, and 60 percent of them are from traditionally underrepresented groups, such as Blacks and Latinos.
62
63	This rapid rise in prisoners and parolees has been a windfall for the private-prison industry, which has been not only a major player but also a major benefactor of ALEC’s lobbying efforts over the years.
64
65	...
66
67	The industry’s political connections and the endless revolving door between the private-prison industry and the government have raised eyebrows over the years.
68
69	...
70
71	“As the immigration debate continued in 2007, CCA spent $3.25 million lobbying members of Congress to approve funding that would ultimately lead to increased spending on immigration detention,” they write.
72http://lasvegas.cbslocal.com/2012/12/01/school-allows-private-prison-company-to-conduct-drug-sweeps/
73	Arizona’s private prison employees have found a new job – helping law enforcement in public school drug raids.
74
75	...
76
77	“Everybody is locked in, and then they bring the dogs in, and they are teamed with an administrator and go in and out of classrooms. They go to a classroom and they have the kids come out and line up against a wall. The dog goes in and they close the door behind, and then the dog does its thing, and if it gets a hit, it sits on a bag and won’t move,” Hamilton told PR Watch.
78
79	Although drug sweeps are common in schools across the US, it is the involvement of CCA — the nation’s largest private, for-profit prison corporation — that causes this high school “drug sweep” to stand out as unusual; CCA is not, despite CGPD’s evident opinion to the contrary, a law enforcement agency.
80http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Corrections_Corporation_of_America
81	In 2009, Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce (R-Mesa), the ALEC State Chair for Arizona, brought the No Sanctuary Cities for Illegal Immigrants Act" -- later to become known as "S.B. 1070" -- to ALEC for adoption as a "model" bill.
82
83	At the time, CCA was an executive member of ALEC's Public Safety and Elections Task Force, as was Sen. Pearce.[27] Lobbyists for CCA and other private prison industries were in the room when the bill was adopted as a "model;" while CCA stood to profit from increased immigration enforcement and detention, it denies it had any role in crafting the bill.
84
85	A few months later, Pearce introduced the ALEC "No Sanctuary Cities for Illegal Immigrants Act" as Senate Bill 1070 (S.B. 1070), and it quickly passed the legislature and was signed into law by Governor Jan Brewer, an ALEC alumni.
86
87	30 of the bill’s 36 co-sponsors promptly received campaign contributions from the for-profit prison industry. A little over a week after Pearce introduced S.B. 1070, CCA enlisted Highground Consulting, one of the most influential lobbying firms in Phoenix, to represent its interests in the state.
88
89	In addition, Governor Jan Brewer's spokesperson had previously worked as CCA's chief lobbyist in Arizona during his time at the Policy Development Group. CCA also made other hiring decisions to increase its influence in Arizona prior to the bill's introduction. For example, Brad Regans, CCA "Vice President of State Partnership Relations," was formerly the director of fiscal policy in the Arizona House, and former Arizona Senator Dennis DeConcini was selected to be a member of the Board of Directors for CCA.[27]
90
91and so on.
92
93and until this is fixed, it will only get worse:
94http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/10/politics/spending-bill-campaign-donations/
95	Rather than facing the current cap of $32,400, donors would be able to give up to $777,600 each year to funds and committees run by the parties or their campaign arms. That means individuals could give $1,555,200 per two-year election cycle and couples could give $3,110,400 in a cycle, according to several campaign finance groups who have studied the legislative language.
96
97
98The good news is, so long as this monster is festering there's a very easy way to vet candidates:
99
100https://www.opensecrets.org/pres16/contributors?id=N00000019
101https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cycle=Career&cid=n00000528
102
103The voters are not dumb. Corruption and money in politics is the issue of our time:
104https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/voters-angry-about-big-money-in-politics-take-their-complaints-to-city-hall/2016/04/17/e62c0c34-0321-11e6-9d36-33d198ea26c5_story.html?utm_term=.1626cfb7963a
105http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/06/02/us/politics/money-in-politics-poll.html
106http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/12/07/as-more-money-flows-into-campaigns-americans-worry-about-its-influence/
107	Americans of different political persuasions may not agree on much, but one thing they do agree on is that money has a greater – and mostly negative – influence on politics than ever before. Among liberals and conservatives, Republicans and Democrats, large majorities favor limits on campaign spending and say the high cost of campaigning discourages many good candidates from running for president.
108
109This election was our chance to fight back.
110
111Supposedly many potential candidates realised this and might have ran on it:
112https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d12_XpymTB8
113http://everyvoice.org/featured/joe-biden-money-politics-hell-way-run-democracy
114	[Biden] said on a variety of issues, nothing is going to happen until we address the broken system. “If you could do only one single thing, only one, to increase fairness, equity, opportunity to middle class, pass rational gun control, deal with immigration, etc. What would it be? I can tell you one thing I would do. It would be get private money out of political process.”
115
116https://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/08/03/17772/can-joe-biden-raise-enough-money-be-contender
117	Whether there are enough uncommitted, deep-pocketed Democrats out there to fund a Biden bid is an open question. However, one consolation for Biden as he mulls a third White House run: many of his previous donors are keeping their financial powder dry.
118
119http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/22/us/politics/joe-biden-campaign.html
120	As Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign struggles with sliding poll numbers, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s exploration of a presidential candidacy is taking on a new seriousness.
121
122	...
123
124	But the vice president and his closest advisers are also monitoring Mrs. Clinton as she tries to put questions over her use of a private email server while secretary of state behind her. On Thursday, Quinnipiac University released a poll showing troubling signs for Mrs. Clinton in three key states: Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio. In each state survey, at least 6 in 10 voters said the former secretary of state was not honest and trustworthy. Fewer than 4 in 10 voters in each state held a favorable view of Mrs. Clinton, compared with nearly 6 in 10 who viewed her negatively.
125
126	...
127
128	Many of Mrs. Clinton’s backers, while respectful of Mr. Biden, believe that few of her contributors will abandon her, no matter the vice president’s plans.
129
130	“Everybody thinks the world of Joe Biden,” said Jay S. Jacobs, a contributor and former chairman of the New York Democratic Party. “The difficulty that I think he’d face is that not only are almost all or most of the major donors lined up behind Hillary, but I believe they’re enthusiastic in that.”
131
132	...
133
134	Still, his supporters have been cheered by the small donations amassed by Mr. Sanders and have wondered if the vice president could use a similar approach.
135
136http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/why-biden-didnt-run
137	Biden would have had to begin with no money (and no love for raising it), no staff, and no organization in the states. He would have been equipped with little more than a fervent belief that he could be President and an appetite for politics that is inexhaustible even by Washington standards. The former Senator George Mitchell once told me a story of working the phones with Biden, when they were trying to rally support for a bill in the mid-nineties. “Usually a senator would come to me, the majority leader, and say ‘Well, here’s a problem. Can you get the votes?’ Then they go off to dinner.” But Biden asked Mitchell to join him in calling every Democrat at home, a process that lasted until after two in the morning. “After a while, I was up to No. 8, and he was still on No. 2,” Mitchell said, “I said, ‘Joe, I know you want to explain this thing to these guys, but you’ve to got be a little more concise.’ “
138
139	And that is what makes his decision especially memorable. Biden is giving up his last chance at the role that he has always wanted—and a bet that he believes his son Beau wanted him to place. “As my family and I have worked through the grieving process, I’ve said all along…It may very well be that that process, by the time we get through it, closes the window on mounting a realistic campaign for president, that it might close,” Biden said. “I’ve concluded that it has closed.”
140
141https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/6471
142	"Part of our challenge is we are interviewing people in his office and I am concerned [Biden] finds out and additionally feels like we are taking people from under him."
143
144http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/21/politics/joe-biden-not-running-2016-election/index.html
145	The vice president sent a pointed warning to the Democratic front-runner in his remarks, again apparently rebuking her for her comment in last week's CNN Democratic debate that Republicans were her enemies.
146
147	"I believe that we have to end the divisive partisan politics that is ripping this country apart, and I think we can," said Biden, who, though a crafty partisan, often worked across the aisle during nearly four decades in the Senate.
148
149	It's mean-spirited, it's petty, and it's gone on for much too long. I don't believe, like some do, that it's naive to talk to Republicans. I don't think we should look at Republicans as our enemies. They are our opposition. They're not our enemies."
150
151	He added: "For the sake of the country, we have to work together."
152
153	"While I will not be a candidate, I will not be silent," he said in a speech that highlighted Democratic themes on income inequality along with a call for a national movement to cure cancer. "I intend to speak out clearly and forcefully, to influence as much as I can where we stand as a party and where we need to go as a nation." 
154
155http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/joe-biden-beau-2016-214459
156	Joe Biden has been making his 2016 deliberations all about his late son since August.
157
158	Aug. 1, to be exact — the day renowned Hillary Clinton-critic Maureen Dowd published a column that marked a turning point in the presidential speculation.
159
160	According to multiple sources, it was Biden himself who talked to her, painting a tragic portrait of a dying son, Beau’s face partially paralyzed, sitting his father down and trying to make him promise to run for president because "the White House should not revert to the Clintons and that the country would be better off with Biden values.”
161
162
163With Clinton and her friends "clearing the field," we were left with Sanders, who--flawed as he was--was the last candidate running on behalf of the public.
164
165https://berniesanders.com/issues/money-in-politics/
166http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/03/bernie-sanders-fundraising/471648/
167
168With Sanders, we might have siezed our chance at reversing this trend before it's too late.
169
170Instead we got this:
171
172http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/07/23/wikileaks-dump-appears-to-show-dnc-favored-clinton-campaign.html
173
174https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2016/10/11/then-cnn-contributor-donna-brazile-to-clinton-camp-sometimes-i-get-the-questions-in-advance/?utm_term=.5be4caf979d0
175
176https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-hands-off-democratic-race-clinton-sanders-wont-speak-ill-of-each-other/2015/09/06/42e29d56-542e-11e5-8c19-0b6825aa4a3a_story.html?utm_term=.6a16ac9cf526
177	The Democratic race stands in stark contrast. Despite tightening polls, the two leading candidates refuse to draw sharp contrasts, let alone criticize each other, leaving voters to discern the differences in their agendas and priorities largely on their own.
178
179	...
180
181	Sanders and his campaign strategists have calculated that to beat Clinton, he must expand the electorate — and that going negative will turn off too many potentially new voters.
182
183	“We have to follow the formula that brings people into the process,” said Sanders adviser Tad Devine. “Otherwise, we can’t win.”
184
185http://heatst.com/politics/wikileaks-clinton-sanders-agreement/
186	Emails published by WikiLeaks suggest that Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders had a secret “agreement” during the Democratic primary.
187
188	In a May 2015 email exchange, top Clinton campaign aides discussed “Sanders criticism” after Hillary’s primary opponent attacked the Clintons over their extreme wealth by suggesting that they “hustle money.”
189
190	...
191
192	Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook emailed campaign chairman John Podesta to express his displeasure with Sanders’ remarks, and suggested that Sanders had violated an “agreement” of some kind between the campaigns.
193
194	“This isn’t in keep [with] the agreement,” Mook wrote. “Since we clearly have some leverage, would be good to flag this for him. I could send a signal via Welch–or did you establish a direct line [with] him?”
195
196	The “Welch” referred to here is presumably Rep. Peter Welch (D., Vt.), one of the first Democratic lawmakers to publicly endorse Sanders.
197
198
199http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/04/21/hillary-pac-spends-1-million-to-correct-commenters-on-reddit-and-facebook.html
200	“SuperPACs aren’t supposed to coordinate with candidates. The whole reasoning behind (Supreme Court decision) Citizens United rests on (PACs) being independent, but Correct the Record claims it can coordinate,” Watson told The Daily Beast. “It’s not totally clear what their reasoning is, but it seems to be that material posted on the Internet for free—like, blogs—doesn’t count as an ‘independent expenditure.’”
201
202	...
203
204	Correct the Record is run by David Brock, who has earned himself titles such as “right-wing political assassin, turned left-wing political assassin.” In 1992, he rose to infamy by viciously attacking Anita Hill, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s assistant who accused the judge of sexual harassment and lewd behavior.
205
206	...
207
208	In 2001, he confessed to lying and disavowed his disingenuous tactics. He explained he used, “virtually every derogatory and often contradictory allegation I had collected on Hill into the vituperative mix.”
209
210	For the 2016 election cycle, he decided to use his talents to attack Bernie Sanders. According to the Washington Post, earlier this year he said “black lives don't matter much to Bernie Sanders,; accused him of not being healthy enough for the office, and said "he's a socialist. Think about what the Republicans will do with the fact that he's a socialist in the fall."
211
212http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-jeremy-corbyn_us_55f73339e4b00e2cd5e79e11
213	A super PAC backing Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is going negative, circulating an email that yokes her chief rival Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to some of the more controversial remarks made by Jeremy Corbyn, the United Kingdom’s new Labour Party leader, including his praise for the late Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan leader who provided discounted fuel to Vermont in a deal supported by Sanders.
214
215	Clinton’s camp has long said it has no plans to attack Sanders. But the super PAC, called Correct the Record, departed from its defense of Clinton’s record as a former secretary of state in an email Monday that compares Sanders with Corbyn. Correct the Record, led by Clinton ally David Brock, also has sent trackers after Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley.
216
217	...
218
219	The “similarities” between the two, according to the email, include Sanders’ introduction of legislation to terminate the United States’ nuclear weapons program, comments that NATO’s expansion into former Soviet states is dangerous because it could provoke Russia, opposition to more U.S. funds for NATO, and saying he “was concerned” that proposed new NATO members had shipped arms to Iran and North Korea. 
220
221	The more serious stretch comes as the email highlights how Sanders helped negotiate a program with Venezuela’s national oil company in 2006 that provided discounted heating oil assistance to low-income Vermonters. The senator said it was “not a partisan issue,” in the state, which was the sixth to make the deal. His support for the program was apparently enough to merit a mention, since Corbyn has written that the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez’s “electoral democratic credentials are beyond reproach.” 
222
223	Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs wrote in an email to The Huffington Post that Correct the Record was “distorting the record.” The Sanders campaign has argued that attacks from Clinton supporters are inspired by anxiety over his leads in polls of Democratic voters in Iowa and New Hampshire. 
224
225
226	("comments that NATO’s expansion into former Soviet states is dangerous because it could provoke Russia" by the way: http://archive.larouchepac.com/node/30265 although that was then...)
227
228https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgave2.php?cmte=C00578997&cycle=2016
229
230
231https://www.peoplespunditdaily.com/news/politics/2016/11/07/new-leaks-reveal-dnc-cnn-corruption-collusion-hillary-clinton/
232
233https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails//fileid/5953/1591
234
235http://thefreethoughtproject.com/wikileaks-10-most-damning-clinton-emails-media/ (look I know it's Russia controlled just reading the fucking original sources from the links) (how come no U.S.-controlled media has a list like this?)
236
237https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNN_controversies
238	Criticism surfaced online when CNN was found to have deleted the online poll from their official website after the Democratic Presidential debate on October 15, 2015 which showed Bernie Sanders winning the debate by 75% of viewer votes. This poll was later replaced by an opinion piece based upon a Clinton victory.
239
240	...
241
242	On July 22, 2016, the emails and documents published by WikiLeaks revealed information about the Democratic National Committee (DNC)'s interactions with the media. The emails showed DNC staff's "off-the-record" correspondence with CNN media personalities including Erin Burnett,Gloria Borger,John Berman, Jeff Zucker and Kate Bouldan contributing to political bias in support of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
243
244
245http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2016/04/03/bernie-sanders-supporters-protest-election-coverage-at-hollywood-cnn-building/
246	A large group of Bernie Sanders supporters gathered at the CNN building on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood Sunday to protest the cable channel’s coverage of the 2016 presidential election.
247
248	Sanders supporters organized online under the #OccupyCNN and #BernieBlackout hashtags.
249
250	Many protesters voiced concerns that candidates are not getting equal airtime on the cable channel.
251
252	“Stop showing Trump so much,” said a man interviewed by Periscope user Sanders Fangirl. “Stick to the issues.”
253
254	“There should be fair and equal coverage for all presidential candidates,” said a man also interviewed by the Periscope user.
255
256	...
257
258	CNN on early Sunday afternoon had not issued a public statement on the protests.
259
260	...
261
262	“Stop showing Trump so much”
263
264https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails//fileid/1120/251
265
266https://wikileaks.com/podesta-emails/emailid/8519
267	Suggest WJC think very carefully about a strategy of literally ignoring Trump when he campaigns in Iowa and New Hampshire. It will take more discipline than politicians usually have, but it might be the most powerful and effective strategy.
268
269	...
270
271	My suggestion would be for WJC to have ready a litany of "responses" such as "Hillary and I spend a lot of time discussing how to create huge numbers of new jobs and get wages higher and lift up the poor to join the middle class.
272
273	...
274
275	Sooner or later someone in the media will overreach quoting Trump against WJC.....the media is about as popular as the bird flu, but no need to attack the media to make the point.....WJC can deflect with a light touch
276
277	...
278
279	Though my Hillary beats the bully column is getting a very big play :)
280
281http://thehill.com/opinion/brent-budowsky/264147-brent-budowsky-clinton-beats-the-bully
282	December 23rd, 2015
283
284https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/3990
285	Right now I am petrified that Hillary is almost totally dependent on Republicans nominating Trump
286
287
288http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/media-study-trump-helped-clinton-hurt-224300
289	That’s according to a report from the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy out this week, showing that the reality TV star turned presumptive Republican nominee made up for his slow start in the polls with a boost from positive media coverage. The report analyzed coverage from eight traditional print and broadcast outlets, including CBS, Fox, the Los Angeles Times, NBC, The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.
290
291	...
292
293	Based on the eight outlets studied, the ad-equivalent value of Trump's media coverage was worth approximately $55 million. The next closest candidate, Jeb Bush, trailed by $19 million, with an ad-equivalent value of coverage totaling around $36 million. As far as the media’s claims that it has been covering Trump in “watchdog” mode, the study appears to discount that notion. The majority of Trump coverage was positive or neutral in all outlets studied, ranging from 63 percent by The New York Times to 74 percent by USA Today.
294
295http://reverbpress.com/features/bernie-sanders-was-right-media-blackout-badly-hurt-campaign-harvard-study-confirms/
296	Supporters of Bernie Sanders have long criticized the media for ignoring his campaign. A new study by the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy validates that critique, finding Sanders received far less media exposure than any other major political candidate in the race.
297
298	...
299
300	The study analysed “thousands of news statements by CBS, Fox, the Los Angeles Times, NBC, The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post,” and concludes Sanders’ lack of coverage was most severe during the crucial “invisible primary,” or the months leading up to the Republican and Democratic primaries, when name-recognition and visibility are vital.
301
302	The best indicator of who will win the nomination, write the authors, “is how well the candidates position themselves in the year leading up to the Iowa caucus. This period—’the invisible primary’—is when the candidates try to put in place the ingredients of a winning campaign.”
303
304http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/damaging-emails-dnc-wikileaks-dump/story?id=40852448
305	As the primary season wore on, Wasserman Schultz appeared to grow exasperated with Sanders' desire to stay in the race when the delegate math was against him — in one email lamenting the fact that he is an independent in the Senate but was running as a Democrat in the primaries. In an April 24 email she received with an article describing the ways Sanders felt the DNC was undermining his campaign, she wrote back, "Spoken like someone who has never been a member of the Democratic Party and has no understanding of what we do."
306
307https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5llLIKM9Yc
308http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/barbara-hollingsworth/dnc-chair-superdelegates-make-sure-party-leaders-elected
309	“Unpledged delegates exist, really, to make sure that party leaders and elected officials don’t have to be in a position where they are running against grassroots activists,” Wasserman-Schultz explained.
310
311	“We are, as a Democratic Party, really highlight and emphasize inclusiveness and diversity at our convention, so we want to give every opportunity to grassroots activists and diverse committed Democrats to be able to participate, attend, and be a delegate at the convention. So we separate out those unpledged delegates to make sure that there isn’t competition between them,” she added.
312
313	“I’m not sure that answer would satisfy an anxious young voter, but let’s move on,” Tapper replied.
314
315http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/23/us/politics/dnc-emails-sanders-clinton.html
316	Among the emails released on Friday were several embarrassing messages that suggest the committee’s chairwoman, Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, and other officials favored Hillary Clinton over Mr. Sanders — a claim the senator made repeatedly during the primaries.
317
318	In one of the emails, dated May 21, Mark Paustenbach, a committee communications official, wrote to a colleague about the possibility of urging reporters to write that Mr. Sanders’s campaign was “a mess” after a glitch on the committee’s servers gave it access to Clinton voter data.
319
320	“Wondering if there’s a good Bernie narrative for a story, which is that Bernie never ever had his act together, that his campaign was a mess,” Mr. Paustenbach wrote to Luis Miranda, the communications director for the committee.
321
322	...
323
324	In another email exchange, Mr. Miranda asked Ms. Wasserman Schultz whether they should call CNN to complain about a segment the network aired in which Mr. Sanders said he would oust the chairwoman if he were elected.
325
326	“Do you all think it’s worth highlighting for CNN that her term ends the day after the inauguration, when a new D.N.C. Chair is elected anyway?” Mr. Miranda asked. Ms. Wasserman Schultz responded by dismissing the senator’s chances. “This is a silly story,” she wrote. “He isn’t going to be president.”
327
328
329With the "field cleared," the last candidate who would fight on behalf of the public (or at least appeared so) was Trump:
330
331http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trumps-surprisingly-honest-lessons-big-money-politics/story?id=32993736
332	 It’s no secret that Donald Trump is rich. And it's no surprise that money influences politics.
333
334	But few political candidates -- let alone presidential contenders -- speak about it with as much candor and openness as Donald Trump.
335
336	Over the course of his campaign so far, Trump has unashamedly made a string of under-the-radar comments about using political donations to call in favors with politicians while they are in office.
337
338	“I will tell you that our system is broken,” Trump said on stage in Thursday's GOP candidates' debate. “I gave to many people before this -- before two months ago I was a businessman. I give to everybody. When they call, I give. And you know what, when I need something from them two years later, three years later, I call them. They are there for me. That's a broken system.” 
339
340	Trump has snatched more headlines for his comments on illegal immigrants and Fox News moderator Megyn Kelly, but he’s also gone as far as to call fellow GOP candidates “puppets” of Republican mega-donors David and Charles Koch.
341
342    	I wish good luck to all of the Republican candidates that traveled to California to beg for money etc. from the Koch Brothers. Puppets?
343    	— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 2, 2015
344
345    He says his fortune has enabled him to run for the presidency without having to court donors, and it’s led to the Donald offering some pretty poignant critiques of the American campaign finance system. And the comments shed some light on what many Americans suspect about the goals of big money donors in the political sphere.
346
347    	“He [Bush] raises $100 million, so what does $100 million mean? $100 million means he's doing favors for so many people, it means lobbyists, it means special interests, it means donors," Trump said in New Hampshire last month. "Who knows it better than me? I give to everybody. They do whatever I want. It's true."
348
349    	Many of Hillary’s donors are the same donors as Jeb Bush’s—all rich, will have total control—know them well.
350    	— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 5, 2015
351
352    	"I see the donors all over the place. I know them," he said on "Meet the Press" last Sunday. "And I know they don't give because they happen to be nice people."
353
354    ...
355
356    On the campaign trail, the real estate mogul has consistently repeated that he will not be bought by any lobbyists or special interest group.
357
358	As he said in Iowa in July: “I don’t need your money, I never took any of your money, you have no control, bye bye.”
359
360https://www.donaldjtrump.com/press-releases/trump-pledges-to-drain-the-swamp
361	There is another major announcement I am going to make today as part of our pledge to drain the swamp in Washington. If I am elected President, I will push for a Constitutional Amendment to impose term limits on all members of 	Congress.
362	
363	Decades of failure in Washington, and decades of special interest dealing, must come to an end. We have to break the cycle of corruption, and we have to give new voices a chance to go into government service. The time for 	Congressional term limits has arrived.
364	
365	If we let the Clinton Cartel run this government, history will record that 2017 was the year America lost its independence.
366	
367	We will not let that happen.
368	
369	It is time to drain the swamp in Washington, D.C.
370	
371	That is why I am proposing a package of ethics reforms to make our government honest once again.
372	
373	First: I am going to institute a 5-year ban on all executive branch officials lobbying the government after they leave government service.
374	
375	Second: I am going to ask Congress to institute its own 5-year ban on lobbying by former members of Congress and their staffs.
376	
377	Third: I am going to expand the definition of lobbyist so we close all the loopholes that former government officials use by labeling themselves consultants and advisors when we all know they are lobbyists.
378	
379	Fourth: I am going to issue a lifetime ban against senior executive branch officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government.
380	
381	Fifth: I am going to ask Congress to pass a campaign finance reform that prevents registered foreign lobbyists from raising money in American elections.
382
383http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2016/11/04/trump-supporter-39-voter-confessionals-2016-election-ac360.cnn
384https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDGJB_jXK_o
385
386Framed this way, it's arguable that Trump's victory should not be such a surprise--despite all the attacks on him, and Trump's many ridiculous flaws, the public did the best they could to choose the only candidate left who they thought would address the most serious issues that face them.
387
388http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2016/trump_voters_don_t_like_the_feds_clinton_voters_do
389
390	Among all likely voters, 67% are angry at the policies of the federal government, including 34% who are Very Angry, consistent with surveying since 2009.
391
392	...
393
394	A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 96% of Likely U.S. Voters who support Trump are angry at the current policies of the federal government, including 65% who are Very Angry.
395
396(https://www.rt.com/op-edge/350900-bernie-sanders-clinton-endorsement/ rubbing it in?)
397
398
399What we have with corruption and money in politics isn't sustainable. This election was the cracks in the system starting to show, and the culmination of initial rumblings (e.g. occupy wallstreet) into a serious movement for a course-correction. Hillary and those who share her interests curbed this movement and gave it to Trump. This, among other reasons, is how she was a useful idiot for Russia.
400
401The election has shown (or will show) that voting and democracy as we practice it can't make this course-correction. Because of this, we should take seriously the possibility of armed insurrection in the near future.
402
403http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/11/07/the-united-states-needs-a-post-election-peace-plan-clinton-trump-2016/
404
405https://fas.org/irp/eprint/rightwing.pdf
406http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/peter-roff/2009/04/16/dhs-report-on-leftists-not-like-napolitano-report-on-right-wing-extremism
407https://fas.org/irp/eprint/leftwing.pdf
408(lol)
409(by the way, these extremists you're watching so carefully are your fellow American citizens. Being extremist or mislead doesn't change that. And who knows, maybe they have a point... Often it seems people are bad at identifying solutions, but good at identifiying the problem.)
410
411https://www.facebook.com/moveon/videos/10153876630050493/
412https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qA9jPP5tnc
413https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-d4P4eQH3A&t=4m22s
414https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-d4P4eQH3A&t=8m00s
415
416https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf2STe6Cb-g&t=0m41s
417https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf_XrfpdOsM
418
419https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2016/10/15/donald-trump-warnings-conspiracy-rig-election-are-stoking-anger-among-his-followers/LcCY6e0QOcfH8VdeK9UdsM/story.html
420	In an arena normally reserved for ice hockey, the Donald Trump crowd was on edge.
421
422	Some wore shirts with slogans like “[Expletive] Your Feelings” or, in reference to the female Democratic nominee, “Trump that Bitch.” Others had buckets of popcorn, ready for the show. When the media entourage entered, thousands erupted in boos.
423
424	Anger and hostility were the most overwhelming sentiments at a Trump rally in Cincinnati last week, a deep sense of frustration, an us-versus-them mentality, and a belief that they are part of an unstoppable and underestimated movement. Unlike many in the country, however, these hard-core Trump followers do not believe the real estate mogul’s misfortunes are of his own making.
425
426	They believe what Trump has told them over and over, that this election is rigged, and if he loses, it will be because of a massive conspiracy to take him down.
427
428	At a time when trust in government is at a low point, Trump is actively stoking fears that a core tenet of American democracy is also in peril: that you can trust what happens at the ballot box.
429
430	...
431
432	And if Trump doesn’t win, some are even openly talking about violent rebellion and assassination, as fantastical and unhinged as that may seem.
433
434	“If she’s in office, I hope we can start a coup. She should be in prison or shot. That’s how I feel about it,” Dan Bowman, a 50-year-old contractor, said of Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee. “We’re going to have a revolution and take them out of office if that’s what it takes. There’s going to be a lot of bloodshed. But that’s what it’s going to take. . . . I would do whatever I can for my country.”
435
436	...
437
438	“This is my prediction: Trump is going to win the popular vote by a landslide, and the Electoral College will elect Hillary, because of all the corruption,” he said. “Maybe it’ll all work and restore my faith in humanity. But I doubt it.”
439
440	It’s a common strand among the Trump crowd.
441
442	...
443
444	Wright sighs at what seems to her an unfathomable outcome.
445
446	“All I know is our country is not going to be a country anymore,” she added. “I’ve heard people talk about a revolution. I’ve heard people talk about separation of states. I don’t even like to think about it. But I don’t think this movement is going away. We don’t have a voice anymore, and Donald Trump is giving us a voice.”
447
448https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/11/bernie-sanders-momentum-november-election-day
449	Clinton had been anointed the Democratic nominee, courtesy of a count of superdelegates by the Associated Press.
450
451	People in the crowd were wiping tears. Some decided to leave. In scenes reminiscent of Donald Trump rallies, some turned on reporters, furious the media outlets, not voters, were declaring the outcome.
452
453	“You’re not reporting, do your job!” yelled Chris Einfeldt, 54, an attorney in a baseball cap, jabbing his fingers toward the TV cameras. “You have a sacred duty to democracy to do your job – this is advocacy!”
454
455	...
456
457	Much has been written about those “Bernie or Bust” supporters who insist they cannot back Clinton in November. Many of them indeed appear unwilling to budge, even in the face of a Republican nominee like Trump.
458
459	“I’m not going to vote for a lesser of two evils, I’m still going to get an evil,” said Wesley Stewart, a 19-year-old at Sanders rally in San Francisco.
460
461https://www.reddit.com/r/undelete/comments/5g8g15/post_on_outoftouch_politicians_and_making/
462
463http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/28/us/politics/donald-trump-voters.html
464	But beneath the cheering, a new emotion is taking hold among some Trump supporters as they grapple with reports predicting that he will lose the election: a dark fear about what will happen if their candidate is denied the White House. Some worry that they will be forgotten, along with their concerns and frustrations. Others believe the nation may be headed for violent conflict.
465
466	Jared Halbrook, 25, of Green Bay, Wis., said that if Mr. Trump lost to Hillary Clinton, which he worried would happen through a stolen election, it could lead to “another Revolutionary War.”
467
468	“People are going to march on the capitols,” said Mr. Halbrook, who works at a call center. “They’re going to do whatever needs to be done to get her out of office, because she does not belong there.”
469
470	“If push comes to shove,” he added, and Mrs. Clinton “has to go by any means necessary, it will be done.”
471
472	Interviews with more than 50 Trump supporters at campaign events in six states over the past week revealed a distinct change from the rollicking mood earlier this year, when Mr. Trump’s surprising primary successes and emergence as an unconventional Republican standard-bearer set off broad excitement. The crowds appeared on edge and quick to lash out.
473
474	And while some voters emphatically disputed polls suggesting that Mrs. Clinton would win, others offered an apocalyptic vision of what life would be like if she did.
475
476	“It’s not what I’m going to do, but I’m scared that the country is going to go into a riot,” said Roger Pillath, 75, a retired teacher from Coleman, Wis. “I’ve never seen the country so divided, just black and white — there’s no compromise whatsoever. The Clinton campaign says together we are stronger, but there’s no together. The country has never been so divided. I’m looking at revolution right now.”
477
478	...
479
480	Paul Swick, 42, who owns a moving business, went with his wife and daughter to see Mr. Trump speak in Green Bay last week. Mr. Swick considers himself a “Bible Christian” and “Thomas Jefferson liberal,” and said he hoped to beat Mrs. Clinton “at the ballot box.”
481
482	But Mr. Swick, by his own estimation, also owns “north of 30 guns,” and he said Mrs. Clinton would have trouble if she tried to confiscate the nation’s constitutionally protected weapons. (Mrs. Clinton has said she supports the Second Amendment, but she favors certain restrictions, like tighter background checks for gun buyers.)
483
484	“If she comes after the guns, it’s going to be a rough, bumpy road,” Mr. Swick said. “I hope to God I never have to fire a round, but I won’t hesitate to. As a Christian, I want reformation. But sometimes reformation comes through bloodshed.”
485
486	Alan Weegens, 62, a retired truck driver in Colorado Springs, also wondered aloud how the country — with so many citizens who own guns and, he said, “are willing to trample a grandma on Black Friday at midnight to save $5 on a toaster” — would react if Mr. Trump lost.
487
488	“I am not going to take my weapon to go out into the streets to protest an election I did not win,” Mr. Weegens said, “but I think that if certain events came about, a person would need to protect themselves, depending on where they lived, when your neighborhood goes up in flames.”
489
490	Asked what might cause such a conflagration, he pointed to places like Ferguson, Mo., and Charlotte, N.C., which have been hit by unrest after police shootings of black men, and said, “Because hungry people get mean.”
491
492http://www.cnsnews.com/blog/gregory-gwyn-williams-jr/poll-29-registered-voters-believe-armed-revolution-might-be-necessary
493	Twenty-nine percent of registered voters think that an armed revolution might be necessary in the next few years in order to protect liberties, according to a Public Mind poll by Fairleigh Dickinson University.
494	
495	The poll, which surveyed 863 registered voters and had a margin of error of +/-3.4, focused on both gun control and the possibility of a need for an armed revolution in the United States to protect liberty.
496	
497	The survey asked whether respondents agreed, disagreed, neither agreed nor disagreed or did not know or refused to respond to the statement: "In the next few years, an armed revolution might be necessary in order to protect our liberties"
498	
499	Twenty-nine percent said they agreed, 47 percent said they disagreed, 18 percent said they neither agreed nor disagreed, 5 percent said they were unsure, and 1 percent refused to respond.
500	
501	Results of the poll show that those who believe a revolution might be necessary differ greatly along party lines:
502	
503	    18 percent of Democrats
504	    27 percent of Independents
505	    44 percent of Republicans
506	
507	The poll found that 38 percent of Americans who believe a revolution might be necessary support additional gun control legislation compared to 62 percent of those who don't think an armed revolt will be needed.
508	
509	Dan Cassino, a professor of political science at Fairleigh Dickinson and analyst for the poll, says:
510	
511	"The differences in views of gun legislation are really a function of differences in what people believe guns are for.  If you truly believe an armed revolution is possible in the near future, you need weapons and you're going to be wary about government efforts to take them away."
512
513https://www.atf.gov/resource-center/data-statistics
514https://www.atf.gov/n/n/n/sites/default/files/media/2016/07/firarms-processed-2015.gif
515
516https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/01/05/gun-sales-hit-new-record-ahead-of-new-obama-gun-restrictions/?utm_term=.d7179aa5a87d
517	New federal data shows 2015 was a record-smashing year for the American firearms industry, with gun sales appearing to hit the highest level on record. Background checks for gun purchases and permits jumped 10 percent last year to 23.1 million, the largest number since the federal background check system began operating in 1998.
518
519http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/04/17/despite-lower-crime-rates-support-for-gun-rights-increases/
520	For most of the 1990s and the subsequent decade, a substantial majority of Americans believed it was more important to control gun ownership than to protect gun owners’ rights. But in December 2014, the balance of opinion flipped: For the first time, more Americans say that protecting gun rights is more important than controlling gun ownership, 52% to 46%.
521
522http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/01/09/a-public-opinion-trend-that-matters-priorities-for-gun-policy/
523
524http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/gun_control/65_see_gun_rights_as_protection_against_tyranny
525	Two-out-of-three Americans recognize that their constitutional right to own a gun was intended to ensure their freedom.
526
527	The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 65% of American Adults think the purpose of the Second Amendment is to make sure that people are able to protect themselves from tyranny. Only 17% disagree, while another 18% are not sure.
528
529	However, even a majority (57%) of those without a gun in their home hold that view.
530
531http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/leading-republicans-differ-over-armed-insurrection
532	Nearly five years ago, a Republican U.S. Senate candidate named Sharron Angle used a phrase that was as memorable as it was alarming: her political vision included “Second Amendment remedies.” At the time, Angle’s point was that if conservatives disapproved of policies adopted by elected officials, Americans might want to consider armed violence against their own country.
533	 
534	We learned last year that Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), before her election, endorsed a similar perspective. The right-wing Iowan said at an NRA event that she carries a firearm “virtually everywhere,” in case she needs to defend herself “from the government, should they decide that my rights are no longer important.”
535	 
536	This year, it’s Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) who’s dipping his toes in the same waters. Sahil Kapur reported yesterday that the far-right presidential candidate is taking the “uncommon” view that the Second Amendment “includes a right to revolt against government tyranny.”
537	
538	    “The 2nd Amendment to the Constitution isn’t for just protecting hunting rights, and it’s not only to safeguard your right to target practice. It is a Constitutional right to protect your children, your family, your home, our lives, and to serve as the ultimate check against governmental tyranny – for the protection of liberty,” Cruz wrote to supporters in a fundraising email on Thursday, under the subject line “2nd Amendment against tyranny.”
539	     
540	    This “insurrectionist” argument, as Second Amendment expert and UCLA law professor Adam Winkler calls it, is popular among passionate gun owners and members of the National Rifle Association. But major party candidates for president don’t often venture there.
541	
542	Winkler told TPM, “It’s pretty rare for a presidential candidate to support the right of the people to revolt against the government.”
543	 
544	At least it used to be. In the American mainstream, when the people are dissatisfied with the government’s direction, we don’t need to take up arms or threaten violence – we have elections.
545
546
547Since the founders of America were revolutionaries, a respect for armed revolution seems to be a part of American culture and values:
548
549	Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of. Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.
550	- James Madison
551
552	No Free Man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.
553	- Thomas Jefferson, Proposed Virginia Constitution (June, 1776)
554
555	If ye love wealth better than liberty, the Tranquility of servitude better than the Animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.
556	- Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia State House (August 1, 1776)
557
558	God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty.
559    - Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Stephens Smith (13 November 1787), quoted in Padover's Jefferson On Democracy.
560
561    What country before ever existed a century and half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
562    - Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Stephens Smith (13 November 1787), quoted in Padover's Jefferson On Democracy.
563
564    To see that the people be continually trained up in the exercise of arms, and the militia lodged only in the people's hands.
565    - Marchamont Nedhams, reported in Adams', 'A Defense of the Constitutions of the Government of the United States of America 3:471 (1788); Adams wrote there that "[T]he rule in general is excellent".
566
567	In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the govern'd; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.
568    - James Madison Federalist No. 51 (February 8, 1788).
569
570	Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.
571    - Patrick Henry, Virginia's U.S. Constitution ratification convention (June 5, 1788), reported in Elliot, Debates of the Several State Conventions 3:45.
572
573	[A]rms like laws discourage and keep the invader and the plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property. The balance of power is the scale of peace. The same balance would be preserved were all the world destitute of arms, for all would be alike; but since some will not others dare not lay them aside. And while a single nation refuses to lay them down, it is proper that all should keep them up. Horrid mischief would ensue were one half the world deprived of the use of them; for while avarice and ambition have a place in the heart of man, the weak will become a prey to the strong. The history of every age and nation establishes these truths, and facts need but little arguments when they prove themselves.
574    - Thomas Paine, as quoted in "Thoughts On Defensive War" (1775), by T. Paine, Pennsylvania Magazine (July 1775).
575
576    To judge from the history of mankind, we shall be compelled to conclude, that the fiery and destructive passions of war reign in the human breast with much more powerful sway, than the mild and beneficent sentiments of peace ; and that to model our political system upon speculations of lasting tranquility, is to calculate on the weaker springs of the human character.
577    - Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 34 (5 January 1788).
578
579	Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience [has] shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce [the people] under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.
580	- The Declaration of Independence
581
582(interesting that you see some of these here: http://www.patriotnewsalert.com/Founding%20Father%20Quotes.htm also interesting might be how people react to this...)
583(see also https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Second_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution#Quotes_relating_to_the_adoption_of_the_Amendment)
584
585https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/j/johnfkenn101159.html
586	Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
587	- John F. Kennedy
588
589
590http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/03/fix-money-in-politics/473214/
591http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/06/02/us/politics/money-in-politics-poll.html?_r=0
592http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/the-lobbying-reform-that-enriched-congress-224849
593http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/business-a-lobbying/233050-ex-lawmakers-on-k-st-bristle-at-pension-bills
594
595
596http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/04/how-corporate-lobbyists-conquered-american-democracy/390822/
597
598	Things are quite different today. The evolution of business lobbying from a sparse reactive force into a ubiquitous and increasingly proactive one is among the most important transformations in American politics over the last 40 years.  Probing the history of this transformation reveals that there is no “normal” level of business lobbying in American democracy. Rather, business lobbying has built itself up over time, and the self-reinforcing quality of corporate lobbying has increasingly come to overwhelm every other potentially countervailing force. It has also fundamentally changed how corporations interact with government—rather than trying to keep government out of its business (as they did for a long time), companies are now increasingly bringing government in as a partner, looking to see what the country can do for them.
599
600	...
601
602	That lawyer was soon-to-be Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr., whose now-famous “Powell Memorandum” is a telling insight into the frustration that many business leaders felt by the early 1970s. Congress had gone on a regulatory binge in the 1960s—spurred on by a new wave of public-interest groups. Large corporations had largely sat by idly, unsure of what to do.
603
604	In 1972, against the backdrop of growing compliance costs, slowing economic growth and rising wages, a community of leading CEOs formed the Business Roundtable, an organization devoted explicitly to cultivating political influence. Alcoa CEO John Harper, one of the Roundtable’s founders, said at the time, “I think we all recognize that the time has come when we must stop talking about it, and get busy and do something about it.”
605
606	This sense of an existential threat motivated the leading corporations to engage in serious political activity. Many began by hiring their first lobbyists. And they started winning. They killed a major labor law reform, rolled back regulation, lowered their taxes, and helped to move public opinion in favor of less government intervention in the economy.
607
608	By the early 1980s, corporate leaders were “purring” (as a 1982 Harris Poll described it). Corporations could have declared victory and gone home, thus saving on the costs of political engagement. Instead, they stuck around and kept at it. Many deepened their commitments to politics. After all, they now had lobbyists to help them see all that was at stake in Washington, and all the ways in which staying politically active could help their businesses.
609
610	Those lobbyists would go on to spend the 1980s teaching companies about the importance of political engagement. But it would take time for them to become fully convinced. As one company lobbyist I interviewed for my new book, The Business of America Is Lobbying, told me, “When I started [in 1983], people didn’t really understand government affairs. They questioned why you would need a Washington office, what does a Washington office do? I think they saw it as a necessary evil. All of our competitors had Washington offices, so it was more, well we need to have a presence there and it’s just something we had to do.”
611
612	...
613
614	As companies became more politically active and comfortable during the late 1980s and the 1990s, their lobbyists became more politically visionary. For example, pharmaceutical companies had long opposed the idea of government adding a prescription drug benefit to Medicare, on the theory that this would give government bargaining power through bulk purchasing, thereby reducing drug industry profits. But sometime around 2000, industry lobbyists dreamed up the bold idea of proposing and supporting what became Medicare Part D—a prescription drug benefit, but one which explicitly forbade bulk purchasing—an estimated $205 billion benefit to companies over a 10-year period.
615
616
617
618------------------------------------
619
620
621http://www.cbc.ca/news/thenational/the-real-cost-of-the-world-s-most-expensive-drug-1.3126338
622amazing
623
624"Soliris is Alexion's only drug"
625
626
627https://www.reddit.com/r/Documentaries/comments/5g9k42/cbc_the_real_cost_of_the_worlds_most_expensive/
628
629Interesting how the reddit comments go off about covering R&D costs and making profit when there's financial risk (why do these arguments sound so familiar?)
630
631And it's true, maybe that's the only price they can set to make their life-saving research (which I mean sincerely) viable.
632
633Or maybe they're full of shit and it's all a racket.
634
635The thing is, there's no transparency, so we can't know. They want us to trust them.
636
637https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Shkreli#Daraprim_price_hike_controversy
638Except, why should we trust them?
639
640But that's not my problem with this.
641
642The problem is: why are we talking about whether the price is fair? It's a bit of a distraction. Did you watch the documentary?
643
644They're using life-or-death power over children to coerce devestated parents into acting as heartstring-tugging puppets to lobby the government. 
645
646This is a disgrace.
647
648Were they among the more self-deluded corporatists, they might say something like: this is a free market and free society, these people were acting of their own volition and we are free to "reach out to them." You like freedom, don't you? (somehow this all seems familiar) (this is close: https://www.freespeechcoalition.com/why-is-lobbying-important/) (aannnnd there we are: https://votesmart.org/public-statement/249718/grassroots-lobbying-and-freedom-of-speech)
649
650And you know that would be true.
651
652Except we the people are also free to call you what you are (depraved), shame you, make an example of you, and shun almost everyone who works for you, is associated with you, and profits from you for the rest of their lives.
653
654You like freedom, don't you?
655
656We're also free to petition the government for more public research funding for curing rare diseases...
657
658------------------------------------
659
660https://priceonomics.com/when-lobbying-was-illegal/
661
662	It’s hard to say whether America has become more or less corrupt since then. Researchers who study the topic note that most hard data comes from subjective surveys, which are recently initiated and simply ask people about their perceptions of corruption. America does fairly well in these surveys, ranking 16th in the world as of 2015. But explicit bribery still exists: Between 1990 and 2002, 10,000 officials were convicted for corrupt acts. 
663
664	The corruption that dominates headlines today, however, is mostly the legal kind: Bank regulators who act feckless so they can move onto plush banking jobs; Super Pacs that receive millions of dollars from companies that want access and influence; and lobbyists who take out lawmakers for expensive lunches. 
665
666	The result is the cynical political culture that 19th century judges worried about when they refused to sanction even lobbying that seemed above board. Nearly half of all members of Congress now take lobbying jobs when they leave office. Congressmen have written that serving on a congressional committee is now “mainly valuable as part of the interview process for a far more lucrative job as a K Street lobbyist” and that it has “become routine to see members of Congress drop their seat in Congress like a hot rock when a particularly lush vacancy opens up.” 
667
668	Since 2014, as journalist Ezra Klein points out , businesses have spent more money lobbying Congress than taxpayers have spent funding Congress. 
669
670	We have traded an era in which bribery was widespread but provoked outrage and consequences when it was discovered for an age in which corruption is condemned but seen as inevitable, legal, and even constitutional.  
671
672------------------------------------
673
674https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz2_ByJ-szw
675"If Donald Trump does sideways, this is going to continue"
676"The true, partiot movement to make America great again."
677"I just pray to God that Donald Trump stays true, and stays alive, so that we can bring this movement to the Whitehouse and make America great again, but get rid of all the criminal scum that have been sitting on top of this government for way too long."
678
679------------------------------------
680
681http://www.people-press.org/2016/07/07/4-top-voting-issues-in-2016-election/
682http://www.people-press.org/2016/07/07/4-top-voting-issues-in-2016-election/4_2-4/
683
684------------------------------------
685
686http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/28/AR2005122801588.html
687http://dailycaller.com/2016/10/13/jack-abramoff-goes-off-on-hillary-most-corrupt-person-in-history-of-united-states-to-get-this-close-to-the-presidency/
688
689interesting, not sure what to make of this
690
691------------------------------------
692
693https://hbr.org/2014/06/the-price-of-wall-streets-power
694	The ability of a powerful group to reward those who agree with it and punish those who don’t also distorts the marketplace of ideas. This isn’t about corruption—beliefs naturally shift in accord with interests. As Upton Sinclair said, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on not understanding it.” The result can be an entire society twisted to serve the interests of its most powerful group, further increasing that group’s power in a vicious cycle.
695
696http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/08/us/politics/think-tanks-research-and-corporate-lobbying.html
697	Think tanks, which position themselves as “universities without students,” have power in government policy debates because they are seen as researchers independent of moneyed interests. But in the chase for funds, think tanks are pushing agendas important to corporate donors, at times blurring the line between researchers and lobbyists. And they are doing so while reaping the benefits of their tax-exempt status, sometimes without disclosing their connections to corporate interests.
698
699something to keep in mind
700
701http://phys.org/news/2016-11-ceo-corporate-political.html
702
703
704https://www.quora.com/How-does-lobbying-influence-the-decision-making-process-for-the-typical-member-of-Congress
705	Lobbyists major power is the ability to collect the relationships that allow doors to open. They are the hackers in the system that we call 'government.' While most of us in the general public hit the first wall and bounce off, cursing government as we stumble away, lobbyists know all the chutes and ladders to get to the cheese in the maze.
706	
707	Elected officials are people. They are passionate about certain topics, have some interest in others, and are clueless on the vast majority of what is going on in the world and around them.
708	
709	For example, Al Gore was considered an expert on nuclear non-proliferation in the Senate, spoke often about environmental issues and promoted technological policy. More broadly, he was considered a pro-business moderate New Democrat, and he relied on other New Democrats in his coalition to provide signals for legislative votes on issues he was less knowledgeable on.
710	
711	Lobbyists are also people; people with specialties, who are paid to become analytic—if not practical—experts in those fields. Their jobs are to transmit this knowledge to those elected officials who are interested and non-experts in the field.
712	
713	For example, agricultural lobbyists are rarely going to have been farmers, but they're certainly going to study best practices for farming—both technological and organizational—to best represent their clients.
714	
715	No less important to lobbyists' jobs are that they must be experts on reading relationships in the massive human organization that is the US government. The question here that everyone asks is: where is the power?
716	
717	Most high elected officials today are very, very intelligent—the public demands it; however, no one can be an expert in everything, and most federal legislators are smart enough to know that their expertise in one area doesn't translate to every area. As a result, legislators have developed networks in order to take advantage of each others' expertise. 
718
719http://websites.milonic.com/toinformistoinfluence.com/2012%252F05%252F21%252Fpolitics-and-propaganda%252F
720https://www.researchgate.net/publication/10849271_Guard_dogs_of_perception_The_corporate_takeover_of_science
721http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=background.view&backgroundid=208
722http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=aca2e00e-60d4-4c02-b3ab-d660e9e351d1
723http://www.ucsusa.org/our-work/center-science-and-democracy/fighting-misinformation/a-climate-of-corporate-control.html
724https://thinkprogress.org/scientific-proof-that-exxon-and-the-kochs-distorted-the-publics-understanding-of-climate-change-4e2ce795dcf5#.bmm7vwff2
725
726"to inform is to influence"
727
728------------------------------------
729
730
731http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=background.view&backgroundid=208
732	Corporate-funded research designed to influence public policy
733http://www.ucsusa.org/our-work/center-science-and-democracy/fighting-misinformation/a-climate-of-corporate-control.html
734https://thinkprogress.org/scientific-proof-that-exxon-and-the-kochs-distorted-the-publics-understanding-of-climate-change-4e2ce795dcf5#.bmm7vwff2
735
736
737http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=aca2e00e-60d4-4c02-b3ab-d660e9e351d1
738FBI investigating exxon mobil
739
740http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-paradoxical-thinking-20140715-story.html
741	“You take people’s most basic beliefs and turn them into something that is absurd,” Halperin said. “For an outsider, it can sound like a joke, but for them, you are playing with their most fundamental belief.”
742sound familiar?
743
744	Traditional approaches for dislodging strongly held attitudes have proved stubbornly ineffective; numerous studies have shown that confronting people with information that challenges their beliefs often has no effect at all, or even strengthens their initial position.
745
746	strengthens their initial position.
747
748Ideology is a fortress. Attack an idealogy head-on and you will be rebuffed, their defenses redoubled. The only way to win is to slip in through the cracks and dismantle it from the inside.
749
750When you argue with someone, and you really want to change their mind, start by agreeing with them. You MUST understand their logic, beliefs, and values first--those are what defines the battleground (compain all you want about this, but if you are defeating an ideology, then the minds that hold it have home-field advantage--their fortress.) Argue with them on their own terms. Use their own logic and values to show them they are wrong.
751
752This is why the partisan divide is bleak. Neither side appears capable of understanding the logic and values of the other side. It's like they have a visceral reaction to even trying.
753
754https://www.quora.com/Aristotle-said-It-is-the-mark-of-an-educated-mind-to-be-able-to-entertain-a-thought-without-accepting-it.-Why-is-this-so-difficult-to-do
755	"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
756
757http://philosiblog.com/2012/03/07/it-is-the-mark-of-an-educated-mind-to-be-able-to-entertain-a-thought-without-accepting-it/
758	I’m not sure ‘educated’ is the word I would use (it might be an artifact of the translation), but I would consider it as a measure of how open-minded a person is. Can you think about an idea, roll it around in your head, and consider it? Do you just accept an idea because it sounds interesting, because your friends like it, or someone you trust said it?
759
760	In my mind, that is what the quote is about. Someone exposes you to a new idea. Do you reject it out of hand, accept it blindly, or entertain the idea, exploring its strengths, weaknesses, and applicability to the situation? Do you test its merits and adopt it if the new thought works better than your prior thinking?
761
762	...
763
764	The more essential to your beliefs a thought is, the more carefully it should be examined, in my opinion. I was caught off guard a few times in my youth by believing things told to me by (then) trusted people and not doing my own research. Does anyone remember the Global Cooling and coming Ice Age scare of the mid 1970’s?
765
766	Since then, I have become a bit more careful about accepting thoughts without first entertaining them for a while (and by that, I mean grilling them mercilessly). Many people, with the advent of the internet, have become a bit more careful to research new ideas. However, that has been counterbalanced by social media, which offers new ideas (and often contradictory ideas) at an astonishingly quick rate.
767
768	Only you can decide to accept or reject a new thought or idea. Therefore it is up to you to do the necessary research to confirm the validity of the idea. It also helps in defending the idea later, if you have done your homework, as there will always be people of differing viewpoints.
769
770http://www.upenn.edu/president/meet-president/Mindsets-Political-Compromise
771	Political compromise is difficult in American democracy even though no one doubts it is necessary. It is difficult for many reasons, including the recent increase in political polarization that has been widely criticized. We argue that the resistance to compromise cannot be fully appreciated without understanding its source in the democratic process itself, especially as conducted in the U.S. The incursion of campaigning into governing in American democracy--the so called "permanent campaign"--encourages political attitudes and arguments that make compromise more difficult. These constitute what we call the uncompromising mindset, characterized by politicians' standing on principle and mistrusting opponents. This mindset is conducive to campaigning, but not to governing, because it stands in the way of necessary change and thereby biases the democratic process in favor of the status quo. The uncompromising mindset can be kept in check by an opposite cluster of attitudes and arguments--the compromising mindset--that inclines politicians to adapt their principles and respect their opponents. This mindset is more appropriate for governing, because it enables politicians more readily to recognize and act on opportunities for desirable compromise. We explore the dynamics of these mindsets by examining the processes that led to the compromises on tax reform in 1986 and health care reform in 2010.
772
773	...
774
775	Even politicians with the appropriate mindsets need institutional support to succeed in democratic politics. Institutional reforms are therefore an important complement to recognizing the difficulty created by the dominance of campaigning over governing for democratic compromise.64 Useful institutional reforms, for example, would significantly decrease the political incentives of continually raising money from special interests and increase those of collaborating across partisan and other factional lines. Yet major institutional change that would make a significant difference itself requires compromise, and the leaders who would bring it about will themselves have to set their minds to it.
776
777------------------------------------
778
779https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2592472
780https://poseidon01.ssrn.com/delivery.php?ID=986119103022075106081011064109003022008023030035091056091116017064004030078127075117026035013044039111007015102031092012014027007007000016092111003026070000091083091037051036066118095105071089097017006082006085001078116118090016013072001088095005090122&EXT=pdf
781
782	In the waning days of the lame duck 113th  Congress, leaders on both sides of the aisle, on both sides of the Capitol, and on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, focused their attention on the unfortunately dubbed “CRomnibus” bill. For all practical purposes, this spending bill needed to become law. Party leaders in Congress once again fabricated a dramatic, hair-on-fire scenario to force recalcitrant ideological extremists to go along or take the blame for yet another government shutdown.
783
784	Just as the media focused on this episode of legislative drama, so too did K Street.  Because it needed to pass, the government-funding bill presented organized interests in Washington with a golden opportunity to extract rents from the government. Politicians and pundits pounced on Citigroup’s lobbyists who drafted a controversial policy rider that rolled back the Dodd-Frank “push out” rule, effectively allowing them to continue their risky derivatives swaps that caused the Great Recession (Lipton and Protess 2014). Critics also protested a tax accounting provision that appears to benefit only Blue Cross/Blue Shield companies (Levin 2014), a defense line item that doubles the Navy’s request for Lockheed-Martin’s F-35s (Taxpayers for Common Sense 2014), a rule freeing American coal companies operating overseas from domestic environmental restrictions (Prokop 2014), and a legislative clause championed by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association freeing ranchers from the need to obtain EPA greenhouse gas permits for methane-producing cows (Pear 2014).  No doubt there are more examples of special interest influence tucked into this $1 billion spending bill.
785
786
787http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2015/jan/07/mark-pocan/new-law-means-taxpayers-must-back-banks-incredibly/
788	The $1.1 trillion measure, signed by President Barack Obama the day before Pocan made his claim, avoided a government shutdown.
789
790http://billmoyers.com/2015/02/06/crowding-cromnibus-heavily-lobbied-bill-14/
791
792	December’s cromnibus spending package was a bonanza for lobbyists, with the defense, banking, and health care industries especially flexing their influence muscle to make sure their priorities were on the agenda.
793
794Interesting--so it was either cave to special interests or shut-down the government.
795
796	The Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act (H.R. 83), or Cromnibus, which combined a short-term continuing resolution on Department of Homeland Security funding with broader and longer-term omnibus spending approval, was lobbied by more than 204 K Street firms representing at least 676 individual clients, according to a Center for Responsive Politics analysis of last year’s fourth-quarter lobbying reports. In the end, the lame duck bill was hands-down the most heavily lobbied piece of legislation in 2014, triggering spending by a total of 852 clients. For comparison, the No. 2 bill last year had 475 interested parties sending out checks to lobbying firms.
797
798
799------------------------------------
800
801http://www.salon.com/2016/12/03/fake-news-a-fake-president-and-a-fake-country-welcome-to-america-land-of-no-context/
802
803	Arguments that the so-called left should pretty much ignore the deplorables who keep on voting against their own interests, or should abandon “identity politics” in quest of some middle-road economic populism that blends Bill Clinton and FDR, are both missing the point. In a nation where a candidate who won the popular vote by roughly 2.5 million did not win the election, we are no longer dealing with reality, at least as it used to exist.
804
805That's not the problem with this election.
806
807The problem is that great candidates, who actually listen to America
808
809https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d12_XpymTB8
810https://berniesanders.com/issues/money-in-politics/
811
812ran and got shunned by our political system. The doners and "gatekeepers" of this election gave us Clinton vs Trump--the two most hated candidates in history.
813
814And they were able to do this because of money in politics. Every candidate that had a chance of setting us on a course-corection got burned, *because* of money in politics.
815
816It's a self-perpetuating system, and apparently elections won't be able to fix it.
817
818Don't fret about who's team won or who's team lost. As soon as the general was Clinton vs Trump, we both lost. America lost.
819
820	Furthermore, Trump’s supporters may be delusional and misguided, but they aren’t half as dumb as they often look to “coastal elites.” Many of them understood, consciously or otherwise, that his incoherent promises could not be taken literally and that his outrageous personality did not reflect the realm of reality. They were sick of reality, and you can’t entirely blame them. For lots of people in “middle America” (the term is patronizing, but let’s move on) reality has been so debased, or so much replaced, as to seem valueless.
821
822Where is he getting this from?
823
824http://www.people-press.org/2016/11/21/voters-evaluations-of-the-campaign/
825Apparently both parties hate themselves now?
826
827This article seems divisive.
828
829	If reality means lives of pointless service-sector drudgery, downward mobility or stagnation, fast-food dinners, opioid addiction and traffic jams, then escape into fantasy seems forgivable.
830
831Ok now it seems to be saying you should empathize with middle Americans?
832
833	That more or less explains my problem with the Jill Stein recounts and the faithless-elector dreamers and the people who write to me saying that Salon should not use the term “president-elect” to describe Trump because it isn’t accurate until the Electoral College convenes on Dec. 19 and for the love of God, he can still be stopped. Such people are clinging to the norms and standards of an outdated reality; they are almost as deluded as the Trump voters, and more overtly pathetic.
834
835	Somehow the light of reason and the Enlightenment wisdom of the Founding Fathers can remedy this situation, they tell us.
836
837???
838
839weeiirrd article.
840
841who is he referring too?
842
843	Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson didn’t agree on much, but they wouldn’t have wanted an ignorant buffoon and obvious demagogue elected over a competent states(wo)man who got more votes, thanks entirely to the flukes of national geography and demographic division. The authors of the Constitution gave the Electoral College full autonomy to override such an outcome.
844
845Elections aren't supposed to work this way.
846
847Elections are supposed to let us choose the candidate that will tackle the most important problems in our country, like public corruption. Those candidates were blocked.
848
849	On the unhinged outer fringes of “this can’t have happened” liberal denialism, we find the thesis that the Russians are to blame for Trump, which feels like a grotesque parody of right-wing paranoia about Communism, circa 1959. There are certainly websites that circulate pro-Russian propaganda, just as there are sites that spread every other possible variety. But the idea that a sinister campaign of “fake news” and calculated leaks sponsored by Vladimir Putin sank Clinton and got Trump elected rests atop a pyramid of logical fallacies and unproven assertions, most prominently the premise that anyone who criticized Clinton’s hawkish foreign-policy agenda or her ties to Wall Street — indeed, anyone who criticized mainstream political orthodoxy in any way — could only be a Putinite tool or a “useful idiot.” 
850
851Yeah that's true I still think Russia does this on purpose.
852
853Like notice with American history and values, Russia sells a perverted version of America's founding fathers and ideals (e.g. http://www.patriotnewsalert.com/Founding%20Father%20Quotes.htm)
854
855On the other hand, we know "America-hating communist" was a thing for awhile in the U.S. and active measures had played a role in that.
856
857So you see a general trend, where conservatives (on average) believe in an increasingly perverted version of American ideals and traditions, while liberals (on average) get more and more annoyed with them.
858
859
860But since the only version of American values liberals see is the "perverted" version conservatives (and Russians?) keep pushing, they start to hate American values: (e.g. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/galanty-miller/the-constitution-is-outdated_b_5439334.html there are other examples, it's a familiar trend. I guess e.g. flag burning and hating-on/dismissing the founding fathers in U.S. universities is part of this too.)
861
862So it ends up that by exploiting the mechanics of this conflict, you can get both conservaties and liberals to abandon America.
863
864This is bad, since these values hold our country together (this is by design: e.g. free speech and the right to bear arms were supposed to keep the government in check). Yuri Bezmenov said American patriotism was important to countering active measures: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5It1zarINv0
865
866So it's possible Russia targeted patriotism specifically.
867
868(I need to explain this all better, sorry.)
869
870
871	In pragmatic terms, I believe we must behave as if democracy were in dire and perhaps terminal peril
872
873it is
874
875	Undoing the Trumpian moment and combating Trumpism is not a matter of enforcing the Constitution or reforming the Electoral College or even about fighting against policies redolent of fascism, although those things won’t hurt. It’s about escaping the Matrix. It’s about undoing the wonder of the con. It’s about asserting that there is a reality to return to and to wonder at, a place of earth and sky and human life. We have to convince ourselves that is true before we can convince others.
876
877Ok, I think I get it. He's saying we need to return to reality and sanity and not fall for con-men.
878
879Well that seems reasonable.
880
881
882http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/donald-trump-popular-poll-231694
883
884	Forty-six percent of voters now have a very favorable or somewhat favorable opinion of the president-elect. Twelve percent have a somewhat unfavorable opinion and 34 percent have a very unfavorable opinion of him.
885
886That is a problem.
887
888What is it at now?
889
890http://www.npr.org/2016/11/22/503032226/polls-suggest-americans-warming-to-donald-trump-but-with-reservations
891
892	This is Trump's "honeymoon phase," as Morning Consult co-founder Kyle Dropp said of Trump's higher favorability marks. But even mid-honeymoon, voters have reservations about how much Trump will (or won't) keep his family business and politics separate.
893
894	A clear majority of Americans (59 percent) believe that Trump handing over his business to his children "does not go far enough" toward preventing conflicts of interest.
895
896Makes sense why media will harp on that.
897
898
899Anyway the root of the problem isn't that people fall for demagouges. People will always fall for demagouges.
900
901The root is that the government, corporations, and media stopped acting in the interests of the public, and the public noticed. They are angry.
902
903Americans have been warning about this for years:
904http://www.idfiles.com/mediacoverup.htm
905https://chomsky.info/20041011/
906https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/12/15/why-we-still-need-to-worry-about-money-in-politics/?utm_term=.6ae7b1ee62c4
907	These donors collectively play the role of political gate-keepers. It’s not so much that these donors are asking for any specific favors. But they do have different views than most voters.
908http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/08/11/431685770/this-harvard-professor-is-crowd-sourcing-his-single-issue-campaign
909	Harvard Law professor Larry Lessig, a longtime critic of big political money, has set the stage for a presidential bid.
910
911	It's not your usual White House run, however. He said Tuesday that if he can crowdsource $1 million by Labor Day, he'll leave Harvard and enter the Democratic primaries. He'd be a single-issue candidate, campaigning for a legislative package that would undo restrictive voting laws, make Election Day a national holiday, bar the gerrymandering of congressional districts, and finance elections through public matching funds or vouchers for small donors.
912http://www.democracymatters.org/what-you-need-to-know-about-money-in-politics-2/overview/globalization-of-campaign-funding-the-problem-of-private-money-in-politics/
913	Globalization shifts the debate. In the global economy, the question is not the point at which money stops being speech and starts becoming power. The question is whose money, and thus whose speech, should influence American elections? American law is governed by a clear principle that foreign governments, political parties, corporations, and individuals should not directly or indirectly influence any election. This principle is even extended to domestic subsidiaries of foreign corporations, who are allowed to only give contributions that come from domestic profits.
914(heh no kidding. You set it up for them...)
915
916http://qz.com/415161/watch-elizabeth-warren-is-mad-as-hell-about-big-money-in-us-politics/
917http://reverbpress.com/features/bernie-sanders-was-right-media-blackout-badly-hurt-campaign-harvard-study-confirms/
918
919But it seems to have been largely ignored. The media this election distracted the public from this issue even while it was all Bernie would talk about (as well as Biden and Trump to an extent). This helped prove Trump's point about a "rigged system" and Bernie's point about "corporate media." Now a lot of the public distrusts the media and the government.
920
921The Americans who tried to raise this issue and organize were ignored. They didn't have much funding or support. This left an opening for Russia, who had spies, connections, analysits, military strategists, professional propagandists, and the resources of an entire country backing them. Now they have the strongest voice for the issues that the media would ignore or surpress, and they dictate how to frame these issues and influence the beliefs and goals of the public movement against corruption in the government and media.
922
923You handed the country to a foreign-backed demagouge.
924
925
926This is why I keep saying to prove the government can solve it's corruption problem without Trump. The mainstream media can put out all sorts of spin about Trump, but a good chunk of the public won't believe them, or just ignore them. You need to actually make inroads in solving public corruption in a big way and show it to the public.
927
928Until that happens, Trump will be their only hope for solving the problems they are most angry about. I think they don't want to consider that Trump is also corrupt because they think he's, at least, less corrupt than the rest of the government and media, and they have nowhere else to turn.
929
930------------------------------------
931
932http://www.idfiles.com/mediacoverup.htm
933	I truly hate to suggest a conspiracy explanation of anything. Mainstream Americans generally won't buy it, and mainstream media's favorite sarcastic topic for editorials, at least in Arkansas, is "conspiracy nuts." (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's Editorials "This week's conspiracy theory" and "Conspiracies behind every rock") So, imagine how vicious the suggestion of a conspiracy might be attacked by the media if they are accused of being involved themselves. However, I'm going to stick to this conspiracy theory, but bear with me - I will qualify the role of the media. 
934
935Hey I mean conspricies happen, that much is clear now...
936
937	Some secrets may be kept legitimately for purposes of national security, but some secrets are nothing more than a cover-up of the dirty deals and illegal activities of our officials. This is where the conspiracy begins - with dirty officials protecting themselves and other dirty officials, which expands to officials protecting their cronies for favors, which expands to staff members who are rewarded for their loyalty. This web of protection and deceit is next to impossible to escape. Those who have tried to expose it are handily discredited or even destroyed, because the government is in charge of investigating the government. 
938
939This isn't necessarily true. The FBI did the best they could to do their job AFAIK. Only parts of the government might become corrupt, not all of it. Same deal with Plame being thrown under the bus by federal government (and media too? I'm not sure. idk seems like that one got media coverage?).
940
941	There are different levels of culpability, and I don't believe the media deliberately participates in the conspiracy. They are, however, negligent and maybe even reckless. So, am I saying media reporters, editors, and producers/publishers are ignorant? No, I'm saying they're lazy. So, am I accusing them of being unethical? Absolutely. 
942
943That's a good point, but you think for big stories at least the profit motive would get them to act? I don't understand how huge stories got burried this election.
944
945	My brother very eloquently describes today's method of reporting as the three R's - rip, read, and write. The government takes advantage of this three R's method by employing their own news writers to feed the lazy media. There are a reported 10,000-plus federal employees who are responsible for inundating the media with press releases. Just think about that for a minute and try to iminage how many press releases are being sent every day to every major news media source in the world. All a reporter has to do is rip a news release off his fax, and he's got his article for the day. And the real beauty of it is, he doesn't even have to verify the information or its source. It doesn't matter if the information is inaccurate or even a bald-faced lie - it's an "official" statement from the government, so the reporter's butt is covered. 
946
947So saying the government can take advantage of media laziness.
948
949	 On the other hand, what happens if an ambitious reporter wants to investigate the dubious subject of a government news release? He (or she) enters the game with three strikes against him. Strike one: The rest of the media has already given the government's "official" position credibility by reporting it as factual. Strike two: The government agency who put out the release is the keeper of some, if not all, of the evidence proving the information is not accurate. Strike three: If the reporter discovers a fraud, the rest of the media attacks the work and defends their originally reported position (either because they have been made to look like lazy fools, or because they don't want to disturb their cushy status quo three R's method of getting information, or both).
950
951	Bottom line - a forthright investigative reporter who challenges the establishment will have hell to pay. Just ask Gary Webb, Micah Morrison, Chris Ruddy and Emmett Tyrrell, to name a few. This is not to say those reporters don't make mistakes. After all, look what they're up against. They had to dig up censored information the old-fashioned way; I believe they called it wearing out the shoe leather or something like that. Rather than giving these gritty reporters a pat on the back, the rest of the media turn on them. Instead of following up the investigative reporters information and joining the effort to dig for more, they attempt to discredit the reporter, and they take up the government's banner and defend that ever-sacred "official" position.
952
953So what do we do, ban government press releases? Or report them as "the government says..." instead of as ground-truth.
954
955...
956
957How come the mainstream media didn't covered the story of wide-spread voter registration problems in the primaries?
958
959https://www.reddit.com/r/unmoderated/comments/58qfe5/the_fbi_warned_voter_registration_systems_are/
960
961Or Obama and the DOJ sabotaging the email investigation?
962
963https://www.reddit.com/r/unmoderated/comments/58qa3w/has_the_fbi_been_investigating_the_doj_for/
964
965Or the FBI and the Obama administration sparring?
966
967https://www.reddit.com/r/unmoderated/comments/58q8aa/is_the_fbi_at_odds_with_the_obama_administration/
968
969Or the FBI investigation of the Clinton Foundation?
970
971https://www.reddit.com/r/unmoderated/comments/58qa3w/has_the_fbi_been_investigating_the_doj_for/
972
973Or the broader implications of Clinton's email scandal?
974
975https://www.reddit.com/r/HillaryForPrison/comments/55foe6/cia_hillarys_state_department_leaked_cia_officers/
976
977
978No major media outlets picked these up. But all of these are huge stories that the public needs to know. Not even Congress was aware of some of these.
979
980
981What are investigative journalists doing? You'd think for a big story like any of these they would immediately start doing their own research and jump on it.
982
983
984America's founders were very worried about government censorship and corruption:
985http://www.federalistblog.us/2008/10/freedom_of_speech_and_of_the_press/
986
987They remembered sedition laws that would block government criticisms the public needed to hear.
988
989They thought that a free media would inform the public of government corruption, and an armed public would prevent the government from getting out of hand.
990
991That is the intent of freedom of the press: to keep runaway corrupt governments in check. That's what they wanted for us.
992
993Is freedom of the press working today in America?
994
995------------------------------------
996
997http://www.federalistblog.us/2010/09/second_amendment_fallacies/
998
999This seems silly, surely the public can organize their own militia if States or counties don't.
1000
1001It looks like Russia is trying to start the fight between the "regular troops" and the "miltias" that the founding fathers talked about as a safegaurd against tyranny.
1002
1003http://www.constitution.org/fed/federa46.htm
1004
1005	The only refuge left for those who prophesy the downfall of the State governments is the visionary supposition that the federal government may previously accumulate a military force for the projects of ambition. The reasonings contained in these papers must have been employed to little purpose indeed, if it could be necessary now to disprove the reality of this danger. That the people and the States should, for a sufficient period of time, elect an uninterupted succession of men ready to betray both; that the traitors should, throughout this period, uniformly and systematically pursue some fixed plan for the extension of the military establishment; that the governments and the people of the States should silently and patiently behold the gathering storm, and continue to supply the materials, until it should be prepared to burst on their own heads, must appear to every one more like the incoherent dreams of a delirious jealousy, or the misjudged exaggerations of a counterfeit zeal, than like the sober apprehensions of genuine patriotism.
1006
1007	Extravagant as the supposition is, let it however be made. Let a regular army, fully equal to the resources of the country, be formed; and let it be entirely at the devotion of the federal government; still it would not be going too far to say, that the State governments, with the people on their side, would be able to repel the danger. The highest number to which, according to the best computation, a standing army can be carried in any country, does not exceed one hundredth part of the whole number of souls; or one twenty-fifth part of the number able to bear arms. This proportion would not yield, in the United States, an army of more than twenty-five or thirty thousand men. To these would be opposed a militia amounting to near half a million of citizens with arms in their hands, officered by men chosen from among themselves, fighting for their common liberties, and united and conducted by governments possessing their affections and confidence. It may well be doubted, whether a militia thus circumstanced could ever be conquered by such a proportion of regular troops. Those who are best acquainted with the last successful resistance of this country against the British arms, will be most inclined to deny the possibility of it. Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of. Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.
1008
1009
1010
1011http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelpeck/2012/11/15/how-the-u-s-military-would-crush-a-tea-party-rebellion/#6db3517c1870
1012
1013https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/10/patriot-movement-oregon-militias-donald-trump-election-2016
1014
1015------------------------------------
1016
1017http://constitution.org/abus/dhs/hsra-domestic-extremismlexicon_165213935473.pdf
1018
1019damn that is a lot of extremism
1020
1021And DHS is watching all of these popping up as more and more people get pissed at the government like "aww fuck not again"
1022
1023At want point is the government extremist?
1024
1025------------------------------------
1026
1027look government needs to do something to give people faith in the government.
1028
1029Just start impeaching Obama for sabotaging the email investigation or something.
1030
1031That would be great, since a lot of people are pissed at the government and Obama is the head of the government. It would force the media to cover all the things they covered-up too and maybe give them a second wind.
1032
1033Obama doesn't seem to be doing much to help his country anyway, like all he cares about is his legacy. Everything is on fire and Russia is taking over the U.S. and Obama is like "hey kids, look at these Obama-Biden memes!"
1034
1035Another thing that would be great (just thought of this): you know how that article said the media is lazy and just reports press-releases the government puts out?
1036
1037Put out a government press release on government-coverups and lying in the media. Like do a study on it and make a press-release for it. This will force them all to investigate themselves and each other. It would be great.
1038
1039...
1040
1041
1042What are the main reasons people are pissed at the government anyway?
1043
1044A general sense of corruption? Something specific?
1045
1046Of course the economy will always be a factor.
1047
1048A general sense that the government has failed the public?
1049
1050The government seems silly in that they knew for ages about Hillary's email server, that she was corrupt, that Russia had all of her emails, and that Trump was a Russian stooge. Then they let Hillary run and force the election to be Trump vs Hillary, and they doubled-down on Hillary the whole way, strong-arming other candidates out of the race (Obama asked influention people to stop supporting Bernie since he was "hurting Hillary's campaign" and reportedly helped block Biden from running, although I am not sure about the latter).
1051
1052So you just look completely stupid.
1053
1054------------------------------------
1055
1056Actually, shouldn't Obama resign after what he did? If he resigned that would get everybody's attention, and he could say important things in his resignation speech that could help restore faith in the government (in addition to his resignation itself)
1057
1058I think restoring faith in the government was what Comey was trying to do. In his speech he said "the system is not rigged, we do care deeply, and we are working around the clock on your money to work for you."
1059
1060Possibly the FBI could do a lot to improve faith in the government. Like if they are working on a case against the DOJ or other corrupt government officials, they could move forward with criminal proceedings for them.
1061
1062It might be that they move forward with criminal proceedings against a lot of government officials at once in addition to Trump. Like come out with charges against Trump, Hillary, DOJ, (others?) all at once. This would help prove that the government's corruption problem can be solved without Trump.
1063
1064Although, this is a lot of work for the FBI to do... so I dunno, help them? I'm not completely sure what the FBI is doing or what they can do with limited resources and time.
1065
1066I think Comey is the kind of guy who understands how the founders of America wanted America to work, and wants to bring that back. Like look at these quotes:
1067
1068	http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/james_comey.html
1069	
1070	"The spine of the FBI is the rule of law. The spine of the FBI is a commitment to doing the right thing, in the right way, while protecting civil liberties.
1071	Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/james_comey.html"
1072	
1073	"Stuff doesn't matter - boats, cars, fancy things don't matter. What matters, what will matter to me, is the love of the people around me, and did I take a chance? Did I seize an opportunity to do something for people with the talents that I was lucky enough to be given? Did I make a difference in the lives of people who needed me?
1074	
1075	"The people of the FBI are sworn to protect both security and liberty. It isn't a question of conflict. We must care deeply about protecting liberty through due process of law, while also safeguarding the citizens we serve - in every investigation.
1076	
1077	I believe the job of the FBI Director is to be as transparent as possible with the American people because we work for them.
1078	
1079	I see the government operating the way the founders intended.
1080	
1081	I'm a big fan of the rule of law.
1082	
1083	Our obligation is to refuse to let bad win, to refuse to let evil hold the field.
1084	
1085	We have perpetrated a myth in our society that being brave means not being afraid, but that's wrong.
1086	
1087	I believe that Americans should be deeply skeptical of government power. You cannot trust people in power. The founders knew that. That's why they divided power among three branches, to set interest against interest.
1088	
1089	I think that citizens should be skeptical of government power. But I fear it's bled over to cynicism. It is something that is getting in the way of reasoned discussion, and I'm very concerned about how to change that trend of cynicism.
1090	
1091	Public corruption is the FBI's top criminal priority. The threat - which involves the corruption of local, state, and federally elected, appointed, or contracted officials - strikes at the heart of government, eroding public confidence and undermining the strength of our democracy.
1092	
1093	Privacy is tremendously important. I believe the American people, and all people, should be skeptical of government power, should ask hard questions: What is the authority? What is the oversight? That's the way it ought to be.
1094	
1095	The promise I've tried to honor my entire career, that the rule of law and the design of the founders, right, the oversight of courts and the oversight of Congress will be at the heart of what the FBI does.	
1096
1097Comparing how the founders wanted the United States to work to how it works today is depressing. So, influential people need to bring that back. I think that's what Comey is trying to do and more people should help him out.
1098
1099We should make the U.S. government work how it was supposed to: government by the people for the people.
1100
1101------------------------------------
1102
1103http://www.nationalreview.com/author/john-fund
1104http://www.nationalreview.com/article/440896/donald-trump-replacement-plan-impossible-too-many-votes-cast-already
1105http://www.nationalreview.com/article/440638/donald-trump-does-he-really-want-presidency
1106John Fund looks legit
1107
1108http://www.nationalreview.com/article/349610/obamas-chicago-way-john-fund
1109	The administration’s political tactics are straight out of the Daley playbook.
1110
1111	The scandals swirling around the Obama administration have many journalists scratching their heads as to how “hope and change” seem to have been supplanted by “arrogance and fear.” Perhaps it’s time they revisit one of their original premises about Barack Obama: that he wasn’t influenced by the Chicago Daley machine. You know: the machine that boosted his career and whose protégés — including Valerie Jarrett, David Axelrod, Rahm Emanuel, and his wife, Michelle — he brought to Washington with him.
1112
1113
1114http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/apr/13/william-daley-former-obama-chief-staff-clinton-can/ (Obama tight with Daleys?)
1115http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/06/us/corruption-scandal-loosening-mayor-daleys-grip-on-chicago.html (and Daleys corrupt?)
1116http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-meet-the-new-boss-daley-is-obama-chief-of-staff-2011jan06-story.html
1117	 Overhauling his team at the top, President Barack Obama on Thursday named banker and seasoned political fighter William Daley as his new chief of staff, hoping to rejuvenate both a White House storming into re-election mode and an economy still gasping for help.
1118
1119	The choice of Daley immediately brought howls of protest from the left flank of the Democratic Party, where advocates questioned his insider ties to Wall Street. Centrists, business leaders and Republican lawmakers rallied around the move, one that underscored just how much and how fast the face of the White House is changing. 
1120hmmm
1121
1122	Daley is known to be deft at deal making and organizing. He offers Obama credibility with the business community, familiarity with the ways of the Cabinet and experience in navigating divided government. 
1123
1124So he's a money and connections guy?
1125
1126	On Capitol Hill, the top Republican in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, offered the Democratic president some backhanded praise. He called Daley's business experience a hopeful sign in a White House where, as McConnell put it, no one has `'ever even run a lemonade stand."
1127
1128wtf McConnell
1129
1130(http://www.crewsmostcorrupt.org/pages/mitch-mcconnell-kentucky-crew-most-corrupt-members-of-congress   maybe we should just overthrow the government...)
1131
1132	Liberal groups pounced, fearing White House accommodation to ascendant Republicans and a softening toward Wall Street regulation.
1133
1134	"Why in the world is President Barack Obama selecting as his chief of staff a person who comes from the very Wall Street that wrecked the economy?" said Robert Weissmann, president of Public Citizen, a liberal advocacy group. Said Roger Hickey, co-director of the liberal Campaign for America's Future: "I'd be happier if one of these major appointments was closer to Main Street than to Wall Street." 
1135
1136right? seriously
1137
1138Is this Obama's attempt to "work with" Republicans and wall-street?
1139
1140How about just say "I would like to focus my administration on tackling government and corporate corruption, and will provide additional funding and make that a top-priority of the justice department." done!
1141
1142Now wall-street might have your attention.
1143
1144Instead Obama says Comey was the worst appointement he ever made, and apparently rolls over and presents every time wall-street wants something.
1145
1146https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJpTxONxvoo
1147Damn Warren telling it like it is. Apparently Citigroup owns the Obama administration. Maybe explains why they can literally write our legislation.
1148
1149http://www.nationalreview.com/article/349610/obamas-chicago-way-john-fund
1150
1151	The machine’s core principle, laid out in an illuminating Chicago Independent Examiner primer on “the Chicago Way,” is that at all times elections are too important to be left to chance. John Kass, the muckraking columnist for the Chicago Tribune who for years has warned that Obama was bringing “the Chicago way” to Washington, sums up his city like this: “Once there were old bosses. Now there are new bosses. And shopkeepers still keep their mouths shut. Tavern owners still keep their mouths shut. Even billionaires keep their mouths shut.”
1152
1153Reminds me of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsVNKmb6jEc
1154
1155"I come from Chicago, so I want to be honest, It's not just Republicans who've monkeyed-around with elections in the past. Sometimes Democrats have too."
1156So Obama can be honest and critical of his party.
1157
1158"Ya know, whenever people are in power, they have these tendancy to kinda tilt things in their direction."
1159no kidding!
1160
1161"That's why we've got to have a voting rights division in the Justice Department that is non-partisan."
1162A non-partisan Justice Department? wouldn't that be nice!
1163
1164So this could be insight into how Obama thinks. He could distrust the public in who they vote for, and try to steer elections toward who he thinks he should win. He did that with calling for insiders to drop support for Bernie, sabotaging the email investigation, maybe others? I guess he turned a blind eye to the problems with the DNC even while a lot of his constituents were pissed about it.
1165
1166I need to find it again, but Obama sounded contemptious of voters after Trump won.
1167
1168So this is frustrating, since Obama seems to think he knows better than the voters, but by forcing things to go his way he helped destroy the country. If he had taken a firm stance with Hillary, let the FBI bring her down, encouraged Biden to run instead of trying to block him, and didn't cut Bernie short, we could have avoided losing to Russia. And all he had to do was let the voters have what they want. So Obama was wrong.
1169
1170He really is a terrible president.
1171
1172http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-zuesse/is-the-obama-administrati_2_b_3094454.html
1173	NPR continued: “In the House, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., shepherded the bill through” at a time when “many members had already left for the weekend or were on their way out. The whole process took 30 seconds. There was no debate.” Then, at the White House, “when the president signed a bill reversing big pieces of the law, the emailed announcement was one sentence long. There was no fanfare last week, either, when the Senate and then the House passed the bill in largely empty chambers using a fast-track procedure known as unanimous consent. ... ‘There weren’t too many members of Congress who were aware of this legislation,’ says Craig Holman, the government affairs lobbyist for Public Citizen.” 
1174
1175wtf? ok, Obama HAS to know he's corrupt. Why sign that?
1176
1177How does he justify this?
1178
1179http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/january_2016/81_think_federal_government_is_corrupt
1180Right so this is part of why U.S. government should take the possibilty of armed insurrection seriously
1181
1182why doesn't Obama just google "why do Americans think the government is corrupt" and figure it out on his own
1183
1184Like all this research to figure out what corrupt things politicians are doing and what people think about it, politicians can do themselves. Like just take an evening to surf the web and see what people think of you.
1185
1186I mean wouldn't they be curious?
1187
1188Maybe all our politicians are so old they don't know how to use google.
1189
1190Actually, politicians and leaders should do their own research every now and then instead of 100% relying on analysts to avoid group-think. I think there's an effect where analysts could be afraid of giving leaders bad news, which would bias what they report to their superious. So leaders can get new ideas on what to research by trying to listen to the public on their own more often.
1191
1192
1193hmm it could be so much of the government is corrupt, politicians are like "eh, everybody does it" and don't care that they are corrupt. They could just say "well, that's how things are done around here."
1194
1195And when a non-corrupt politician like Bernie comes around they get angry at him for being different and making them feel guilty or something, idk.
1196
1197
1198http://www.huffingtonpost.com/patrick-caddell/what-happened-in-iowa_b_9157958.html
1199
1200	1) As we’ve seen in our polling since 2013, Americans believe our country is in decline (this year, by a two-thirds majority). They believe our kids will not have it as good as we have had it (56% believe the future in the United States will be worse for most children); we may be the first generation of Americans to pass on a country that is worse, not better off - the abnegation of the American Dream. The people believe the U.S. has a two-track economy, where most Americans struggle every day, where good jobs are hard to find, and where huge corporations get all the rewards (72% agree). Three-fourths of Americans believe America is a unique nation and that we should protect our unique character (See Appendix 1).
1201
1202	2) They know why this decline is happening. Eighty-one percent believe the power of ordinary people to control our country is getting weaker every day as politicians of both parties fight to protect their own power and privilege (81% of all voters - across the board - believe this). Even more (84%) believe political leaders are more interested in protecting their power and privilege than doing what is right. In addition, three-quarters of the American people believe that powerful interests, from Wall Street to Unions to interest groups, have used campaign and lobbying money to rig the system for themselves. The reason families in our middle class have not seen their economic condition improve for decades and economic growth is stalled is because of corruption and crony capitalism in Washington (72% agree). The perception of widespread political corruption shades virtually every response in this poll. That’s because the voters feel corruption taints every action and interaction in Washington. Two-thirds of Americans disagree that the US government is working for the people’s best interest. Indeed, 71% believe our government is not only dysfunctional; it is collapsing right before our eyes. (On our 0-10 Issue Scales, for later release, “Government ethics and corruption” ranks among the three top scoring issues.) And 7 out of 10 Americans believe that the government in Washington does not govern with the consent of the people. The state of alienation in our country is unprecedented - in size and scope (See Appendix 2).
1203
1204	3) The Democratic and Republican Parties are essentially useless in changing this situation. Americans overwhelmingly agree (78%-15%) that both political parties are too beholden to special interests to create any meaningful change. This attitude may not be reversible with the current generation of voters. This is the situation that creates opportunity — make that the necessity — for new choices in our political system. Eighty percent believe the federal government is its own special interest primarily looking out for itself. So who’s going to look out for us? That’s what the people ask in this election.
1205
1206ya government get your shit together
1207
1208	And consider these two statements:
1209
1210	• Our party system is very flawed. We need new citizen leaders within our political parties, instead of the same old party machine politicians, to restore the ideals of our parties.
1211
1212	• Both parties have failed us and it’s time to move on from our two party system. We need to vote for independent candidates and let some new political parties come together to truly represent the American people.
1213
1214	Altogether, 75% of all voters support these statements (38%, the first, and 37%, the second within the same question in our research). Indeed, only 15% say the “values and principals of my political party are so important that I strongly prefer to vote for the candidates of my party...”
1215
1216dude that's what I've been saying!
1217
1218	So the people believe the real struggle for America is not between Democrats and Republicans, but between mainstream America and the ruling political elites of incumbent politicians, lobbyists, big business, big unions, big banks, big special interests and the big media.
1219
1220I mean that's a bit of a stretch but sure. >80% did say they hate Citizens united unanimously among Republicans and democrats.
1221
1222	Our free press is no help. In fact, they (74%) see the biased and slanted coverage of the media as part of the problem (See Appendix 3)
1223
1224Right and this is what needs to be fixed to stop Russian media from gaining a stranglehold on the public.
1225
1226	“Candidate Smith’s beliefs are not based on liberal or conservative ideas, just fundamental American common sense. Smith says we can’t change anything with the usual politics, the usual politicians, and the usual interest groups. We need new leaders from mainstream America, like Candidate Smith, who take on the political elites and special interests, and put the American people in charge again.”
1227
1228	While our poll shows that even the current leaders in the Democratic and Republican presidential primaries are perceived far more unfavorably than favorably, Smith’s “favorable/unfavorable” numbers after reading that paragraph are a stunning 77% favorable and 11% unfavorable.
1229
1230Right, this is what I think Russia was trying to do with Trump being more centrist and outside of establishment politics, and considering a democrat VP like Flynn. The same shtick of putting forth what looks like "the solution," but making it all messed up and wrong in a way that furthers their interests.
1231
1232	Without even knowing Candidate Smith, voters of all parties and demographics would choose Smith, running as an Independent, over Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
1233
1234NICE! see, there IS hope for America!
1235
1236	• Smith says no one candidate can fix our system or our country alone. What we need is for ordinary Americans to stand up, take responsibility and take control. Eight-one percent of voters agree.
1237
1238	• Smith believes our economic policies of both parties have failed and we must grow the economy and provide real jobs and better wages for the middle class. Eighty percent agree.
1239	• Smith says that America cannot succeed unless we take on and defeat the corruption and crony capitalism in our government. Seventy-six percent agree.
1240
1241	• Smith says we must fix our broken political system before we can go about solving the other important issues, like economic growth, education, national security or immigration. Two-thirds of all voters agree.
1242
1243wow that last one is interesting. That's like what I had said (and Biden and Bernie) about money in politicis being the only issue that matters now. I wonder what the other 1/3rd think is more important though?
1244
1245http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/11/07/patrick-caddell-real-election-surprise-uprising-american-people.html
1246Hillary might have picked the worst possible time to decide it's "her turn."
1247
1248	Unfortunately, the analysts, the pollsters and most importantly the commentariat of the political class have never understood, and in fact are psychologically incapable of understanding what is happening. And for the entire cycle of this presidential campaign they have failed to grasp what was happening before their eyes – for it runs counter to everything they believe about themselves.
1249
1250lol
1251
1252possibly some truth to that?
1253
1254Patrick Caddell looks legit?
1255
1256https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Caddell
1257
1258	The Arkansas political scientist and pollster Jim Ranchino declared the then 26-year-old Caddell "the best pollster in the business."[7] According to researchers, Caddell had wide influence in the Carter White House, and was the chief advocate of what later became known as Carter's "malaise speech".[8]
1259
1260	His analysis on polls and campaign issues often puts him at odds with the current leadership of the Democratic Party. He has been criticized by Media Matters for America and Salon columnist Steve Kornacki for predicting negative consequences for the Democratic Party.[9][10]
1261
1262bahahahahahaha
1263
1264	He has called environmentalism "a conspiracy 'to basically deconstruct capitalism.'"
1265
1266This guy is great
1267
1268	Caddell was involved in identifying people willing to participate in the 2012 anti-Obama documentary The Hope and the Change, produced by Citizens United.
1269
1270"produced by Citizens United"
1271
1272hmmmmm
1273
1274I guess Citizens United hopes for some change in their coffers?
1275
1276https://twitter.com/patrick_caddell?lang=en
1277
1278Why does he retweet breitbart?
1279
1280I guess those are old tweets though, and possibly he didn't know they were Russia propaganda (or no-one else covered him?)
1281
1282http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/11/07/patrick-caddell-real-election-surprise-uprising-american-people.html
1283
1284	In truth, they are suffering from cognitive dissonance  believing in their righteous superiority and are not capable of realizing that it is they who have become the adversary of the American people. And therefore they have been wrong, in this entire election cycle, every step of the way.
1285
1286Dude doesn't mince words. Apparently a lot of politicians and leaders listened to him for the better. Maybe you should too?
1287
1288	For them, American politics only began yesterday. They know little history and have no appreciation of the collective consciousness of the American people. Whether it is the campaign of Bernie Sanders, who came within a hair’s breadth of knocking out the coronated nominee of the Democratic establishment or on the other side, the emergence of the total outsider Donald Trump, the most improbable candidate of all. In truth, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, sucked from the same trough even if it was from opposite ends. But the critical point that is missed, by almost everyone, was that neither Sanders nor Trump created this uprising. They were chosen vehicles – they did not create these movements, these movements created them.
1289
1290	In less than a day we will know how far this revolt has come. But, make no mistake, whatever the outcome, this revolt is not ending, it is merely beginning.
1291
1292hmmm
1293
1294	Several years ago, I began, with my colleagues at Armada, an ongoing, in-depth research project on what has become known as the “Candidate Smith” project. A good friend of mine, Lee Hanley, who sadly just passed away, volunteered to begin this project with only one charge: that we explore my hypothesis that something profound was happening in the collective consciousness of the American people.
1295
1296	What we learned in our in-depth research was as astonishing as it was unexpected. It became clear from this really deep public opinion inquiry that American politics has entered an historic paradigm. What is emerging in what had been assumed to be the static political system was about to be reconfigured in ways and that we still do not know fully. But one thing is certain: the old rules of politics are collapsing and a new edifice is emerging.
1297
1298	The conventional wisdom that America is absolutely divided into warring tribes is a tired falsehood. Overall, in the attitude structure of the American people, the elements of this new paradigm are commonly shared by upwards of 80 percent of the population – from the Occupy Wall Street movement on the left to the Tea Parties on the right. The political battleground is no longer over ideology but instead is all about insurgency.
1299
1300he puts it pretty clearly I think. I wonder if his "Candidate Smith" project changed him? He sounds like a prophet of doom or something.
1301
1302https://www.amazon.com/Fire-This-Time-Two-Party-Politics/dp/0871136392/ref=sr_1_2/151-3288877-5206613?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1480899728&sr=1-2&refinements=p_27%3APatrick+Caddell
1303no, he's been saying things like this for awhile (1997). Looks like he was right, though.
1304
1305I guess the problem is like I said the parties have become "two different strategies of fucking you over." So the American people caught-on and started hating both.
1306
1307This could also explain why politicians started using fear and hatred of the opposing party to motivate voters instead of trying to prove they have American interests in mind. This would mean we have been demoralizing ourselves as Yuri said.
1308
1309http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/11/07/patrick-caddell-real-election-surprise-uprising-american-people.html
1310
1311	The larger atmosphere is dominated by three overriding beliefs:
1312
1313	First, the American people believe that the country is not only on the wrong track but almost 70 percent say that America is in actual decline. The concept of decline is antithetical to the American experience.
1314
1315	Second, for more than three centuries, the animating moral obligation of America has been the self-imposed obligation that each generation passes on to its children a better America than they themselves inherited. This is what makes us Americans. In Armada’s polling we found that a majority of Americans believe that they are better off than their parents were. But a great majority says that THEIR children will be worse off than they themselves are today. This is the crisis of the American Dream. And it is no surprise that a majority of Americans agree that if we leave the next generation “worse off” that there will still be a place called “the United States” but there will no longer be an “America.”
1316
1317	Third, when asked whether or not everyone in America plays by the same rules to get ahead or are there different rules for well-connected and people with money, a staggering 84 percent of voters picked the latter. Only 10 percent believed that everyone has an equal opportunity.
1318
1319	These over-arching attitudes provide the framework for today’s political revolt.
1320
1321Better to fix this now than later... right?
1322
1323	Here are some of our latest results among likely voters from early October 2016:
1324	
1325	1.  The power of ordinary people to control our country is getting weaker every day, as political leaders on both sides, fight to protect their own power and privilege, at the expense of the nation’s well-being. We need to restore 	what we really believe in – real democracy by the people and real free-enterprise. AGREE = 87%; DISAGREE = 10%
1326	
1327	2.  The country is run by an alliance of incumbent politicians, media pundits, lobbyists and other powerful money interests for their own gain at the expense of the American people. AGREE = 87%; DISAGREE = 10%
1328	
1329	3.  Most politicians really care about people like me. AGREE = 25%; DISAGREE = 69%
1330	
1331	4.  Powerful interests from Wall Street banks to corporations, unions and political interest groups have used campaign and lobbying money to rig the system for them. They are looting the national treasury of billions of dollars at 	the expense of every man, woman and child. AGREE = 81%; DISAGREE = 13%
1332	
1333	5.  The U.S. has a two-track economy where most Americans struggle every day, where good jobs are hard to find, where huge corporations get all the rewards. We need fundamental changes to fix the inequity in our economic system. 	AGREE = 81%; DISAGREE = 15%
1334	
1335	6.  Political leaders are more interested in protecting their power and privilege than doing what is right for the American people. AGREE = 86%; DISAGREE = 11%
1336	
1337	7.  The two main political parties are too beholden to special and corporate interest to create any meaningful change. AGREE = 76%; DISAGREE = 19%
1338	
1339	8.  The real struggle for America is not between Democrats and Republicans but between mainstream American and the ruling political elites. AGREE = 67%; DISAGREE = 24%
1340
1341So the American people aren't dumb, it's just that they aren't in general doing anything about it (well OK some are, like with protests and such).
1342
1343It's possible that they still had hope voting or elections would work. So that's why it's very bad that this election has shown that voting and elections don't work.
1344
1345	Befitting the emerging new paradigm, 2016 has already been an election like none we have ever known. But it is not without some parallels to another election.
1346
1347	In 1980, America was gripped with a foreign policy crisis, there hostages being held in Iran, inflation was exploding and the electorate was very unhappy. The country had two candidates for president: the incumbent – President Jimmy Carter and Republican challenger Ronald Reagan. For the first time in polling history both candidates, Carter and Reagan, were viewed negatively by the American people -- although their negatives were nowhere near the level of Clinton and Trump’s unpopularity. While the shock of Vietnam and Watergate had helped propel an unknown peanut farmer to the presidency, there was nowhere near the level of alienation and discontent that now grips America.
1348
1349	I was Jimmy Carter’s pollster and strategist in 1980 and I know, more than anyone, about what really happened. The entire Carter campaign was premised on painting the controversial Ronald Reagan as too risky to be president and too dangerous to entrust with nuclear weapons.
1350
1351	Exactly a week before Election Day there was a fatal presidential debate (that I wanted to avert) which gave Ronald Reagan his chance to make his case. It shook up the election.
1352
1353	The coalescing of voters around Carter began to break down. Within a couple of days Reagan had established a small lead over President Carter.
1354
1355	On the Saturday before the election the race had rebounded into a tie or slight Carter lead. And then it all fell apart.
1356
1357	My polling for the campaign told the story. By Sunday night President Carter was 5 points down and by Monday night the margin had exploded to 10 points down.
1358
1359	The uniqueness of 1980 is this: In the history of American polling this was the only presidential election that entered the last weekend close and finished in a landslide. The only one.
1360
1361	The question on the table now is: could 2016 be the second such election? If it is, it won’t be for Hillary Clinton.
1362
1363motherfucker is nostradamus
1364
1365	The political class and the mainstream media have a narrative that Trump’s late surge is the result of an intervention by FBI Director James Comey. That narrative, like every one they’ve had over this cycle, couldn’t be more wrong. The momentum of the election was already moving toward Trump before Comey’s announcement to reopen of the Clinton email investigation. That event, like the presidential debate in 1980, tended to accelerate what was already in motion.
1366
1367oh yeah that's a good point
1368
1369	As I look at some of the deeper polling results, the questions I have been able to inject into the Breitbart/Gravis polling questions of recent days, may be in the end, instructive. As with Jimmy Carter in 1980, Hillary Clinton is far more likely to be viewed as qualified to be president and possessing a better presidential temperament.
1370
1371Interesting... did he want to work with Brietbart to influence their polls?
1372
1373	For years, the political elites have governed America for their own benefit and to the detriment of the American people – this election is the best chance in our lives to take back our government. AGREE = 63% (with 46% strongly agreeing); DISAGREE = 31%
1374
1375yikes
1376
1377	Voters were then asked the same two questions of each candidate: Which is closer to your opinion if (Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump) wins: the political elites and special interests win; the political elite and special interests lose.
1378
1379	By 65 percent to 35 percent voters said that if Hillary Clinton wins the political elites WIN.  And by an opposite margin, the majority of voters said that by 57 percent to 43 percent the elites LOSE if Trump wins.
1380
1381	Significant numbers of Clinton’s own voters believe that her win is a victory for the unpopular elites and special political interests.
1382
1383jesus
1384
1385	But regardless of who wins on November 8 this uprising of the American people has just begun.
1386
1387http://civilization.wikia.com/wiki/Happiness_(Civ5)
1388
1389	A civilization with Unhappiness (Civ5) Happiness of -10 or lower is very unhappy. A very unhappy empire does not grow at all, suffers a 20xProduction5 Production penalty, receives a nasty combat penalty (-33%) for all its units, and cannot train Settlers.
1390
1391	When Unhappiness (Civ5) Happiness drops to -20, the civilization's cities go into revolt, and rebels start appearing throughout the empire, based on the number of cities. The rebels are similar to Barbarians, but appear in groups.
1392
1393Obama sucks at civ lol
1394
1395http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/civilization/images/c/c6/Unhappiness_%28Civ5%29.png/revision/latest?cb=20101203081716
1396
1397------------------------------------
1398
1399http://www.adweek.com/prnewser/the-obama-administration-pr-masterminds/59058
1400
1401I don't think Americans like "public relations," despite whatever you think your "realities" are.
1402
1403Can you see why Americans are fed-up and worried about the future?
1404
1405http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zach-kitschke/20-ways-obamas-pr-team-na_b_12040366.html
1406
1407"kids for Obama"?
1408
1409You're making it pretty hard to not overthrow the government right now...
1410
1411
1412"Giving Hope"
1413
1414Well now we're all Hoping for a regime Change!
1415
1416
1417	Another clever tactic employed by the team behind Obama was to create posters that subtly mimicked revolutionary imagery, such as the iconic pictures of Che Guevara or wartime posters. By using low angles, dramatic imagery, and powerful calls to action, the design of these posters subtly hinted to people that to elect Obama was to elect a revolution of change. 
1418
1419bahahahahahaha
1420
1421------------------------------------
1422
1423http://www.talentzoo.com/flack-me/blog_news.php?articleID=14948
1424
1425It's like the Republicans were relentless, so Obama's response was to ramp up the bullshit. It seems like he would've been better-off just talking straight... I think that's whay Americans wanted the whole time. Instead he wasted a whole bunch of money just making the partisan divide worse.
1426
1427------------------------------------
1428
1429http://www.redstate.com/joesquire/2016/08/23/today-day-obama-visits-louisiana-marking-trumps-first-pr-win/
1430
1431ha!
1432
1433"Barrack Obama doesn't care about black people"
1434
1435------------------------------------
1436
1437http://www.ragan.com/Main/Articles/4ce5a0a0-dea1-4228-b5c1-d272308d700d.aspx
1438
1439fml why do I keep trusting politicians...
1440
1441------------------------------------
1442
1443http://www.redstate.com/diary/Erick/2010/04/18/is-the-obama-administration-behind-an-astroturf-anti-tea-party-website/
1444
1445no idea how much of this is true...
1446
1447http://www.rawstory.com/2010/04/antitea-party-group-founder-dismisses-astroturf-charges/
1448
1449who would actually create a website and counter-protest the tea party? this seems supsicious.
1450
1451http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2009/08/tea-party-patriots-greet-obama-s/
1452
1453jesus this has been going on forever, hasn't it?
1454
1455------------------------------------
1456
1457http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/fake-news-josh-earnest-white-house-232205
1458
1459Except don't you make fake news of your own?
1460
1461------------------------------------
1462
1463http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/dec/5/jon-stewart-real-people-paid-a-price-under-obama/
1464
1465damn stewart is the man.
1466
1467Dunno if "optimistic" is the right word for Trump but I like his attitude.
1468
1469------------------------------------
1470
1471http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/dec/6/chairmen-obama-release-refugee-agreement-australia/
1472	The Obama administration has written a secret deal that could let Australia ship more than 2,400 refugees waiting to enter its borders over to the U.S. instead, including refugees from terrorist-connected countries such as Somalia and Syria, two top congressmen said Tuesday.
1473
1474	But the details of the agreement have been deemed classified by the administration, shielding Americans from knowledge of what President Obama has agreed to, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley said.
1475
1476???
1477
1478what? why is it classified? weird...
1479
1480http://time.com/4592692/president-obama-national-security-speech-transcript/
1481	“While we have made it much more difficult to carry out an attack approaching the scale of 9/11,” he said, “we face a threat that will endure.”
1482
1483He says as he secretly ships 2,400 Syrian refugees to the U.S.
1484
1485Is this what the American people wanted?
1486
1487https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/federal-eye/wp/2015/11/17/senior-obama-officials-have-warned-of-challenges-in-screening-refugees-from-syria/?utm_term=.381e162c7a9a
1488Is this what Obama's officials event want?
1489
1490Actually, I think the American people wanted Obama to stand up to the humanitarian crisis in Syria and fix it there instead of rolling over after Putin waltzes through your paper red line.
1491
1492https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/08/15/poll-most-americans-support-u-s-military-action-in-syria-but-only-want-a-limited-amount/?utm_term=.f73576bf8f2e
1493
1494(although in 2013 nobody wanted troops on the ground: http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/14/opinion/opinion-syria-intervention-u-s-politics/ understandable after Iraq)
1495
1496------------------------------------
1497
1498https://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/04/20/17192/insurers-backed-obamacare-then-undermined-it-now-theyre-profiting-it
1499
1500
1501------------------------------------
1502
1503http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/12/06/last-foreign-policy-speech-obama-argues-sustainable-strategy-terror/95012796/
1504
1505	Obama has been unable to make good on his eight-year promise to close Guantanamo Bay because of Congressional restrictions on transferring prisoners to U.S. soil.
1506
1507I wonder if that's an excuse or not?
1508
1509http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/07/us/politics/guantanamo-bay-political-talk-veers-from-facts.html
1510
1511	Yet a key argument Mr. Obama makes for shuttering the prison in Cuba — that its continued operation is contrary to “our values” — crumbles upon examination, too. His plan for closing it would not eliminate the main human rights complaints, because the United States would still be holding several dozen prisoners in perpetual detention without trial and force-feeding those who go on a hunger strike. It would just do that in a prison on American soil.
1512
1513	The loose talk has produced years of politicized stalemate, spotlighted again late last month when Mr. Obama announced with fanfare a plan to close the prison that in reality recycled a plan he has pursued since 2009. Congressional Republicans, who have for years baselessly accused him of having no plan, promptly pronounced it dead on arrival.
1514
1515	“Both the Republicans and the president are significantly exaggerating the threats and harms posed by the other side’s positions,” said Jack Goldsmith, a top Justice Department official in the George W. Bush administration, now at Harvard Law School. “The moral and national security arguments on both sides mostly serve other agendas — political advantage for the Republicans, and legacy burnishing for the president.”
1516
1517	...
1518
1519	From that moment, his plan could no longer be a clarion call to restore a pre-Sept. 11, 2001, understanding of the rule of law and to vindicate human rights. Instead, the administration has offered a hodgepodge of practical considerations, like saving money and rebranding detention to leave behind the toxic image of shackled prisoners in orange jumpsuits from Guantánamo’s early years.
1520
1521	...
1522
1523	Not long after Mr. Obama quietly abandoned his strongest moral argument against the prison, the Republicans discovered its potency as a political hammer.
1524
1525Oh god are you kidding me? of course...
1526
1527	In the 2008 campaign, there was bipartisan consensus that Guantánamo had to close. But in 2009, political headwinds began to rise. A White House plan to release in Virginia two Chinese detainees, judged not to be “enemy combatants” after all, prompted an uproar, and that summer Congress banned any such releases on domestic soil.
1528
1529Right ok so it's just Republicans and Democrats playing games with each other, trying to make the other side look worse, while the detainees rot forever and nobody remembers our values.
1530
1531And the funny part is if Obama had just stuck to moral principles (like the public at large wants), the Republicans would have had nothing on him.
1532
1533THANKS OBAMA!
1534
1535------------------------------------
1536
1537https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2016/12/dear-mr-obama-you-are-still-the-president/509714/
1538
1539ya that's a good idea I guess? and be more honest. Like real-talk as people think Trump does.
1540
1541Although, on the other hand, maybe better he doesn't say anything at all.
1542
1543http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/dec/5/president-obama-becoming-more-powerless-as-world-a/
1544
1545"disitingration of alliances?" I mean I guess it depends on how many of them end up facist. This also probably depends on how America leads and what we do next.
1546
1547If we give up, it would probably demoralize the rest of the free world and energize the facists.
1548
1549But if we win, it could prove that the free world has hope after all.
1550
1551------------------------------------
1552
1553http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/12/06/obama_warns_the_country_about_the_powers_he_s_about_to_hand_to_trump.html
1554
1555not sure, sounds like Obama is saying he doesn't want Trump to declare war on ISIS?
1556
1557Could be interesting, like Obama is hoping to set things up so Trump does minimal damage if he makes it past the electoral college and is impeached.
1558
1559------------------------------------
1560
1561http://nypost.com/2016/12/05/kerry-fesses-up-about-obamas-red-line/
1562
1563why would Kerry say this? Is he fed-up with Obama?
1564
1565------------------------------------
1566
1567https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/12/secret-donald-trump-supporters-change-vote-election
1568
1569"he seems to be insane"
1570
1571on the bright side!
1572
1573http://fusion.net/story/308145/how-to-convince-friends-not-to-vote-trump-cult-deprogrammer/
1574
1575oh cool idk listen to this guy? TODO: read
1576
1577------------------------------------
1578
1579https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-d4P4eQH3A&t=5m15s
1580Americans get it, see? I don't think they want to fight left and right.
1581
1582------------------------------------
1583
1584https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/5hedov/obama_orders_full_review_of_electionrelated/dazum98/
1585
1586https://www.issueone.org/new-poll-shows-money-in-politics-is-a-top-voting-concern/
1587
1588    Americans want sweeping changes to rebalance the scales of power in our country.
1589
1590    An overwhelming majority — 78 percent of respondents — say we need sweeping new laws to reduce the influence of money in politics. Eighty-five percent of individuals age 55 and older, who witnessed passage of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 and the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, believe sweeping changes are necessary.
1591
1592If Trump is stopped, we might get some positive change in our country.
1593
1594http://www.huffingtonpost.com/patrick-caddell/what-happened-in-iowa_b_9157958.html
1595
1596	1) As we’ve seen in our polling since 2013, Americans believe our country is in decline (this year, by a two-thirds majority). They believe our kids will not have it as good as we have had it (56% believe the future in the United States will be worse for most children); we may be the first generation of Americans to pass on a country that is worse, not better off - the abnegation of the American Dream. The people believe the U.S. has a two-track economy, where most Americans struggle every day, where good jobs are hard to find, and where huge corporations get all the rewards (72% agree). Three-fourths of Americans believe America is a unique nation and that we should protect our unique character (See Appendix 1).
1597
1598	2) They know why this decline is happening. Eighty-one percent believe the power of ordinary people to control our country is getting weaker every day as politicians of both parties fight to protect their own power and privilege (81% of all voters - across the board - believe this). Even more (84%) believe political leaders are more interested in protecting their power and privilege than doing what is right. In addition, three-quarters of the American people believe that powerful interests, from Wall Street to Unions to interest groups, have used campaign and lobbying money to rig the system for themselves. The reason families in our middle class have not seen their economic condition improve for decades and economic growth is stalled is because of corruption and crony capitalism in Washington (72% agree). The perception of widespread political corruption shades virtually every response in this poll. That’s because the voters feel corruption taints every action and interaction in Washington. Two-thirds of Americans disagree that the US government is working for the people’s best interest. Indeed, 71% believe our government is not only dysfunctional; it is collapsing right before our eyes. (On our 0-10 Issue Scales, for later release, “Government ethics and corruption” ranks among the three top scoring issues.) And 7 out of 10 Americans believe that the government in Washington does not govern with the consent of the people. The state of alienation in our country is unprecedented - in size and scope (See Appendix 2).
1599
1600	3) The Democratic and Republican Parties are essentially useless in changing this situation. Americans overwhelmingly agree (78%-15%) that both political parties are too beholden to special interests to create any meaningful change. This attitude may not be reversible with the current generation of voters. This is the situation that creates opportunity — make that the necessity — for new choices in our political system. Eighty percent believe the federal government is its own special interest primarily looking out for itself. So who’s going to look out for us? That’s what the people ask in this election.
1601
1602
1603------------------------------------
1604
1605http://lawnewz.com/video/doj-blocked-fbi-investigation-into-potential-public-corruption-at-clinton-foundation/
1606
1607	In May, news broke that the DOJ was conducting an investigation into potential illegal contributions to McAuliffe’s gubernatorial campaign.  Reports also indicated federal investigators were probing McAuliffe’s time on the board of the Clinton Global Initiative, which is part of the Clinton Foundation.  One major donor to the McAuliffe campaign also pledged $2 million to the Clinton Foundation.
1608
1609	When questioned by reporters back in May, McAuliffe said while he was unaware of the scope investigation, he was sure it had “nothing to do with the Clinton Foundation.”
1610
1611------------------------------------
1612
1613https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obama-orders-review-of-russian-hacking-during-presidential-campaign/2016/12/09/31d6b300-be2a-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c_story.html?utm_term=.9284cbc92522
1614
1615	The Obama administration has been debating for months how to respond to the alleged Russian intrusions, with White House officials concerned about escalating tensions with Moscow
1616
1617	...
1618
1619	The reluctance of the Obama White House to respond to the alleged Russian intrusions before Election Day upset Democrats on the Hill as well as members of the Clinton campaign.
1620
1621	Within the administration, top officials from different agencies sparred over whether and how to respond. White House officials were concerned that covert retaliatory measures might risk an escalation in which Russia, with sophisticated cyber-capabilities, might have less to lose than the United States, with its vast and vulnerable digital infrastructure.
1622
1623	The White House’s reluctance to take that risk left Washington weighing more-limited measures, including the “naming and shaming” approach of publicly blaming Moscow.
1624
1625"White House" "Washington" -- reading between the lines here, it doesn't look good.
1626
1627	“The lack of an administration response on the Russian hacking cannot be attributed to Congress,” said Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, who was at the September meeting. “The administration has all the tools it needs to respond. They have the ability to impose sanctions. They have the ability to take clandestine means. The administration has decided not to utilize them in a way that would deter the Russians, and I think that’s a problem.”
1628
1629https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Schiff#Campaign_finance_reform
1630"After the Supreme Court strike down campaign finance reform legislation in the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission and McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission cases, Schiff introduced a constitutional amendment to overturn both decisions, H.J.Res 31, drafted by Harvard Law School Constitutional scholar Laurence H. Tribe.
1631"Despite those reservations, he still accepted an appointment to the Committee because if he felt he "could add value, [he] would serve."
1632"Schiff formed the bipartisan, bicameral Congressional Caucus for the Freedom of the Press in 2006[23] aimed at advancing press freedom around the world."
1633
1634I like this guy.
1635
1636Again, wtf is Obama doing?
1637
1638https://www.dhs.gov/news/2016/10/07/joint-statement-department-homeland-security-and-office-director-national
1639Oct 7
1640
1641http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/16/us/politics/biden-hints-at-us-response-to-cyberattacks-blamed-on-russia.html
1642Oct 14
1643
1644Why did Biden say it, and why would the CIA do the cyber-strike and not the NSA? iirc the head of the NSA apparently sold-out to Trump, and morale has been bad.
1645
1646https://www.google.com/search?q=Biden+CIA+clandestine&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#channel=fs&q=Biden+CIA+cyber+strike
1647Why are all but 2 of the results no-name news or fake news websites? NBC and NY times reported this. (NY times is one of the outlets who Obama hates, NBC did the interview with Biden)
1648
1649You realize this is huge news, right? It's basically suggesting war with Russia (well I mean, we are at war with Russia).
1650
1651http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/10/20/wikileaks-releases-first-batch-president-obamas-emails/
1652http://ijr.com/2016/10/718616-wikileaks-just-released-first-batch-of-obamas-emails-from-his-secret-address/
1653Ocy 20
1654
1655"First Batch" -- where are the rest?
1656
1657"White House officials were concerned that covert retaliatory measures might risk an escalation in which Russia, with sophisticated cyber-capabilities, might have less to lose than the United States, with its vast and vulnerable digital infrastructure."
1658
1659------------------------------------
1660
1661http://freebeacon.com/issues/whistleblower-says-potential-hillary-veep-covered-corruption/
1662
1663	A Labor Department whistleblower accused one of Hillary Clinton’s potential vice presidential picks of corruption and called for an investigation into corruption at the department.
1664
1665	Darrell Whitman, a former inspector at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, published a letter calling for a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of corruption at the Labor Department. Whitman said that Labor Secretary Tom Perez, who is on the short list to become Hillary Clinton’s running mate, retaliated against investigators who attempted to curb corruption at the agency.
1666
1667	...
1668
1669	“Evidence indicates the secretary authorized and/or ratified a retaliatory investigation, which led to my removal, the removal of two other highly qualified and experienced investigators, and the resignation of a fourth highly qualified investigator who was disgusted by these developments,” the letter says. “By the end of 2015, five of the six Region IX investigators who actively objected to the corruption had been removed or forced out of their jobs.”
1670
1671sounds like a swell guy.
1672
1673	Senate Republicans nearly blocked his 2013 appointment over his handling of a corruption lawsuit as the head of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. Perez scrapped a whistleblower suit worth $200 million against the city of St. Paul, Minn. after the city government dropped a Supreme Court appeal that threatened to reverse a precedent on the doctrine of disparate impact.
1674
1675	A House Oversight Committee investigation concluded that Perez acted inappropriately, while the St. Paul whistleblower called his treatment “appalling.”
1676
1677	“Perez took steps attempting to cover-up his involvement in the quid pro quo and offered numerous misleading statements to investigators that are contradicted by the evidence,” then-committee chairman Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) said in a release. “Mr. Perez’s conduct has stained the integrity of the Justice Department and created serious doubt about its commitment to protecting the legal rights of whistleblowers who come forward with legitimate information about abuses of taxpayer funds.”
1678
1679doesn't sound great. Very very much not a fan of corruption in the department of "justice."
1680
1681------------------------------------
1682
1683http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/what-obama-said-putin-red-phone-about-election-hack-n697116
1684
1685CIA seems pissed at him?
1686
1687------------------------------------
1688
1689https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/5jahhx/house_republicans_shut_down_investigation_into/
1690http://www.salon.com/2016/12/19/house-republicans-shut-down-investigation-into-flint-water-crisis-blame-epa-instead/
1691	by Sophia Tesfaye
1692
1693"House Republicans shut down investigation into Flint water crisis, blame EPA instead"
1694
1695Kindof a weird headline considering one of the letters he wrote makes it seem like the oversight comittee likes the EPA, at least Mr. Del Toral
1696
1697https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/2016-12-16-JEC-to-Upton-EC-Flint-Water-Crisis.pdf
1698
1699	In addition to the emergency manager program, the State also oversaw the quality of Flint's drinking water. Under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), the State of Michigan has "primacy" for overseeing and implementing drinking water standards in the State. Throughout 2015, however, MDEQ repeatedly failed in these important responsibilities. In February 2015, MDEQ erroneously reported that Flint's lead water pipes contained corrosion control to prevent the leaching of lead into the city's drinking water. This claim was soon disproven by EPA water expert Miguel Del Toral. In an EPA memorandum released in June 2015, Mr. Del Toral not only confirmed that Flint's water pipes lacked the use of orthophosphate for corrosion control, but also verified "the presence of high lead results in the drinking water." MDEQ was aware of Mr. Del Toral's findings, but was unwilling to take further steps to address the lead danger facing Flint's residents. MDEQ officials dismissed Mr. Del Toral as a "rogue employee" whose findings warranted no attention or credibility. In mid-July 2015, MDEQ's spokesman publicly promised that "anyone who is concerned about lead in the drinking water in Flint can relax." In a July email to the governor's office, an MDEQ official stated the "the bottom line is that residents of Flint do not need to worry about lead in their water supply." MDEQ's persistent refusal to acknowledge and respond to the emerging lead crisis throughout 2015 made the situation worse.
1700
1701
1702$10 says this is all some sort of shill campaign to discredit the oversight committee before they lay the pain on Hillary
1703
1704http://mediamatters.org/authors/sophia-tesfaye/247
1705Tesfaye likes to do hitpeices on people on the right it looks like
1706
1707not sure how related but this is interesting:
1708https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Rehm
1709	On June 10, 2015, Rehm interviewed 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, and stated that Sanders had dual citizenship with Israel; an untruth.[21][22][23][24] Sanders denied that he holds dual citizenship; but Rehm repeated her assertion of the senator's dual citizenship as a fact.[22][23] Rehm's statements were criticized by David Harsanyi in The Federalist for being an anti-Semitic smear.[21] Sophia Tesfaye of Salon pointed out that Rehm apparently fell for an antisemitic canard and did not successfully fact-check her information before she conducted her interview with Sanders.[23] In The Times of Israel, Gedalyah Reback stated that the interview was controversial because Rehm seemed to have accused a Jewish U.S. presidential candidate of maintaining secret Israeli citizenship.[24]
1710
1711	Rehm apologized for her exchange with Sanders in a statement released later that day. "On today's show I made a mistake. Rather than asking if Senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders whether he had dual U.S./Israeli citizenship, as I had read in a comment on Facebook, I stated it as fact. I want to apologize as well to all our listeners for having made an erroneous statement. I am sorry for the mistake. However, I am glad to play a role in putting this rumor to rest."[25] Journalist Josh Marshall called her apology, "a total crock."[26] Law professor David Bernstein found it strange that both Rehm and her producer fell for what he felt was an obvious anti-Semitic hoax. He speculated that frequently-heard strange accusations about Jewish supporters of Israel may have played a role.[27] Elizabeth Jepsen, NPR's ombudsman, took issue with both Rehm's interview and apology: "Far from putting anything to rest, Rehm has now taken a falsehood from the fringes of the Internet and moved it into the mainstream conversation."[28] Thomas Lifson in the American Thinker said that Diane Rehm "has unmasked herself as an anti-semite".[29]
1712
1713incinuating there was some sort of plot to smear Bernie Sanders for being Jewish in the media, and Tesfaye possibly helped by softening the blow for the fallout on Rehm.
1714
1715I guess you could have a strategy of creating a controversy that conveys an extreme message you want people to talk about, then apologize or say you made a mistake so you don't get as much blame for the message.
1716
1717
1718
1719http://www.salon.com/2016/12/19/house-republicans-shut-down-investigation-into-flint-water-crisis-blame-epa-instead/
1720
1721	As President Barack Obama signed a bill on Friday authorizing $170 million to address the problem of the lead being found in drinking water in Flint, Michigan,
1722
1723In other words: looks like shit is getting done and it's wrapping up.
1724
1725	...Republicans in the House quietly closed a nearly yearlong investigation of the disaster — without receiving crucial information from Republican Gov. Rick Snyder.
1726
1727What information? quietly? They sent a letter, posted it on their website, and the media picked it up.
1728
1729	Late on Friday afternoon Utah Republican Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, sent a pair of letters announcing the end of his investigation. His letters offered no new information and essentially summarized what had already revealed about the crisis during several high-profile hearings earlier this year.
1730
1731Was it supposed to have new information? They summarized their findings, wrote down their reccomendations, and sent it in a letter to the Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce.
1732
1733	But on Friday just hours after the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Maryland’s Rep. Elijah Cummings, called for a subpoena of the Republican governor of Michigan responsible for appointing the emergency manager who had switched Flint’s water supply, Chaffetz announced he was ending the congressional investigation. Chaffetz said he had concluded that “a series of failures at all levels of government caused, and then exacerbated, the water crisis.”
1734
1735Cummings has been doing that at least since February 2016:
1736
1737https://democrats-oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/documents/2016-02-22.EEC%20to%20Chaffetz%20re%20Flint.pdf
1738
1739From reading the letter, it's hard to say if the subpeona would actually help or if it was just politically motivated. Cummings suggested politically motivated actions by the oversight committee happen in his letter.
1740
1741Given that the problem seems to be on track to being solved with Obama's authorization of funding, and that the Oversight Committee has reason not to punish politicians who work with them in their investigations, Chaffetz's actions don't seem unreasonable.
1742
1743	Arguing that “the federal regulatory framework is so outdated that it sets up states to fail,” Chaffetz called for EPA funds designated for use for studying and combatting climate change be redirected to water pipe improvement projects across the nation. Chaffetz also called for removing the requirement that federally funded drinking-water construction projects pay prevailing wages under the Davis Bacon Act.
1744
1745pg 5 and 6 here give some context: https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/2016-12-16-JEC-to-Rogers-Approp.-Flint-Water-Crisis.pdf
1746
1747
1748https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Snyder
1749
1750dude sounds like a peice of shit
1751
1752take on it so far is: Snyder covered it up, public put pressure on him, he finally caved and did something and apologized, and appears to be at least sort-of working to fix it. Cummings wants to continue to lay on the pain and expose the coverup (sounds right to me), Chaffetz closed the investigation and sent his reccomendations to the Committee on Energy and Commerce.
1753
1754http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/flint-emergency-manager_us_56b266d9e4b01d80b244e950
1755
1756Chaffetz had subpeoned people in Flint before.
1757
1758
1759------------------------------------
1760
1761http://www.people-press.org/2015/01/14/obama-job-rating-ticks-higher-views-of-nations-economy-turn-more-positive/
1762	The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center, conducted Jan. 7-11 among 1,504 adults, finds that Obama’s job approval has risen five points since December (42%). The president’s job rating changed very little over the course of 2014.
1763
1764	Obama is being helped by a steady improvement in public views of the nation’s economy. Currently, 27% say the economic conditions are excellent or good, up from 16% a year ago. Perhaps more important, almost twice as many expect the economy to be better than worse a year from now (31% vs. 17%).
1765
1766http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/02/business/economy/jobs-report.html
1767
1768http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/americans-not-labor-force-participation-rate-risesdrops
1769
1770http://www.factcheck.org/2016/10/obamas-numbers-october-2016-update/
1771
1772https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000
1773
1774http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/06/news/economy/obama-us-jobs/
1775
1776http://www.newsmax.com/Finance/Ed-Moy/obama-jobs-unemployment-labor/2016/03/10/id/718500/
1777
1778	The Bureau of Labor and Statistics' (BLS) February jobs report was greeted with no small amount of cheerleading from the White House. And true, the addition of 242,000 jobs to the U.S. economy is indeed welcome news. But President Barack Obama and company may want to tamper down the celebration just a bit.
1779
1780	That’s because, following the pattern set since the recession technically ended in 2009, the country has been continually subjected to carefully selected economic data calculated to bolster the political fortunes of those in power.   But the biased and incomplete figures do not fully capture the state of America’s economy or the ongoing angst over its fate in places far from Washington.
1781
1782	First of all, a dig into the new BLS report reveals that the majority of the newly created jobs were in fact low-income and part-time positions. Couple this with the fact that wages actually fell by 0.1 percent and things get a bit less rosy.
1783
1784	...
1785
1786	Unemployment is at 4.9 percent, but that number only reflects all those who are actually looking for work. A near record ninety-four million Americans are still absent from the workforce. This is artificially decreasing the true employment rate, which is closer to 9 percent when part timer workers looking for full time work and those who have given up looking for a job but still want a job are factored back in.
1787
1788	...
1789
1790	But the huge gap in the labor force, besides distorting the actual unemployment rate, means that millions of Americans are earning and spending very little. And when new jobs do open up, those who are trying to reenter the workforce flood the employer, keeping wages low.  That’s one reason why inflation has lagged behind good employment numbers while the Fed has anticipated a robust economy for so long.
1791
1792	Former Chair Ben Bernanke admitted as much last year when he confessed that the Fed is “groping” to find the true employment rate.
1793
1794What is the point of this?
1795
1796------------------------------------
1797
1798https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Pelosi#Post-Speakership_career
1799
1800	In November 2011, 60 Minutes alleged that Pelosi and several other member of Congress had used information they gleaned from closed sessions to make money on the stock market. The program cited Pelosi's purchases of Visa stock while a bill that would limit credit card fees was in the House. Pelosi denied the allegations and called the report "a right-wing smear."[44][45][46] When the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (or STOCK Act) was introduced the next year, Pelosi voted for the bill and lauded its passing. Of Representatives Louise Slaughter and Tim Walz, who drafted the bill, Pelosi said they "shined a light on a gaping hole in our ethics laws and helped close it once and for all."
1801
1802
1803http://bulletin.represent.us/jon-stewart-confronts-pelosi/
1804
1805Sums up about everything wrong with our government (watch both).
1806
1807http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=7586530
1808what's going on here? I think she is lying. There was a controversy over this not sure what exactly.
1809
1810
1811https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/06/17/the-long-and-occasionally-stormy-friendship-of-hillary-clinton-and-nancy-pelosi/?utm_term=.2c6fdc4edac1
1812
1813	During the 2008 Democratic primary, Pelosi carefully avoided endorsing either Obama or Clinton. But some read the tea leaves and thought she was undermining Clinton by urging superdelegates (members of Congress, in this case) to vote the will of the voters in their states. At the time, that was basically enough to get Obama over the top in the tight primary; Clinton needed those superdelegates to vote for her in droves.
1814
1815	The party would be damaged "if superdelegates overturn what happened in the elections," Pelosi said at the time.
1816
1817	Burn, said political insiders.
1818
1819
1820------------------------------------
1821
1822https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2016/12/20/people-who-fear-trump-arent-weak-theyre-being-reasonable/?utm_term=.6c97f4f5591b
1823
1824angry? defiant? not afraid
1825
1826------------------------------------
1827
1828http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/unaoil-bribery-scandal-corruption_us_56fa2b06e4b014d3fe2408b9
1829
1830	Bouazizi’s death set in motion the biggest political upheaval of the 21st century. The Arab Spring was “mostly about corruption,” said FBI Special Agent George McEachern, one of the leading investigators of global graft. “Corruption leads to failed states, which leads to terroris
1831
1832"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable."
1833
1834	By aiding the corruption of already-distrusted regimes and accelerating the flow of money and resources out of poor countries, Unaoil and its partners were risking far more than fines and criminal penalties. They were creating political instability, turning citizens against their governments, and fueling the rage that would erupt during the Arab Spring — and be exploited by terrorist groups like al Qaeda and the Islamic State. 
1835
1836	...
1837
1838	The Unaoil emails don’t show corrupt third-world kleptocracies shaking down helpless Western corporations. They show the opposite: Unaoil, working for Western companies, is seen slowly corrupting foreign officials, starting off with small gifts and shopping sprees and eventually hooking them on major graft.
1839
1840	“There is always somebody who pays,” the billionaire hedge fund magnate George Soros has said, “and international business is generally the main source of corruption.” That’s part of the story that terrorists have long told local populations to justify jihadist insurgency. In many of the cases uncovered here, it happens to be true.
1841
1842It's interesting they turn to a more fundamendal ideology in their insurgency. That's why America might be OK--our fundamental ideology is government by the people for the people.