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On September 21, Hillary Clinton gave the world her worst optics yet:
(Image credit: The Conservative Treehouse)
She said, ‘Why aren’t I 50 points ahead, you might ask?’
She then went into a tirade against Donald Trump and the right to work. Note the point in the video where she aims her forefingers at the camera, suggesting the Gunfight at the OK Corral:
When I first saw this, I thought she wanted someone to film a private rant.
However, it turns out that she was speaking via videoconference — indicating she was too ill to attend — to the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) in Las Vegas.
She heard her audience and ramped up her voice and rhetoric.
However, for the rest of us, because there is no sound other than her voice in the video, she looks and sounds seriously affected by Donald Trump, as if he were occupying real estate in her mind.
This has not gone unnoticed.
Fox News’s Monica Crowley tweeted:
Mr Nolte from North Carolina gave us a voter’s view:
He is right. Not good.
Here’s a compare and contrast set of photos that are positively dire. The one on the left was taken on her plane when she took questions about the bombing in Manhattan on September 17:
Last week Sarina Fazan, a reporter for an ABC affiliate in Florida, asked Clinton about her recent bout with pneumonia and hoped she was feeling better (emphases mine):
She added: “Some doctors have said because of your age, as well as your opponent’s age, that you could be at higher risk for dementia or even Alzheimer’s, and have suggested that you take some neurological test. Would you be willing to do that?”
Clinton laughed at the suggestion, pointing to a recent detailed look at her health history that found her in “excellent mental condition.”
“I’m very sorry I got pneumonia, and I’m glad antibiotics took care of it, and that’s behind us now,” Clinton said. “I am physically and mentally healthy and fit to serve as president of the United States.”
When Fazan pressed, Clinton clarified that she would likely not release a neurological test.
“There’s no need for that. The information is very clear, and the information, as I said, meets the standards that every other president has ever had to meet,” Clinton said.
By contrast, on September 15, Donald Trump released a full set of health data to Dr Mehmet Oz on his television show:
Dr. Mehmet Oz told NBC News after the taping he was “surprised” Trump provided him with the information.
“I looked at them and tried to process it pretty quickly and I got to say as a doctor, if he was my patient, they are good for a man of his age,” Dr. Oz said.
Those in the audience told NBC News after the interview that Dr. Oz gave Trump a clean bill of health.
Monday, September 26, sees the first of the presidential debates. Which Hillary will appear?
A nation holds its collective breath, especially because both candidates must debate from lecterns.
For a good laugh that’s so close to the truth, check out the Townhall cartoon, ‘2016 Debate Prep’.
On Monday, September 19, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump met separately with Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in New York, where world leaders gathered for the UN General Assembly.
Politico reports:
Clinton met with Sisi on Monday evening; the Egyptian leader told her at the start of the meeting that he wished to talk to her “about the path that we are taking in order to build up a new civil society, a new modern country that upholds the rule of law, that respects human rights and liberties. And as a matter of fact we are taking this path that is eventually leading up to this target,” according to a pool report of the event.
Trump’s team released an account of his meeting with Sisi that was striking in how much praise the Republican heaped on Egypt. Trump expressed to Sisi “his strong support for Egypt’s war on terrorism, and how under a Trump administration, the United States of America will be a loyal friend, not simply an ally, that Egypt can count on in the days and years ahead.”
A full statement of Trump’s meeting includes a mention the presence of Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Lieutenant General Michael Flynn (Ret.).
Whilst Sisi is seen as a controversial leader, The Conservative Treehouse points out:
Al-Sisi has been one of the voices within the Mid-East, along with Jordan’s King Abdullah (both pictured right), who has consistently advocated for secular governance and minority religious protection. In short, both Abdullah and Sisi have been lone calm voices amid a fury of chaos unleashed by Obama’s policy.
At the core of their leadership perspective, and when comparing their views and perspectives toward national governance as it relates to larger global issues, both al-Sisi and Donald Trump have much in common. Which raises the possibility of a very real and reasonable realignment within the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
…Think about Fatah al-Sisi, Benjamin Netanyahu, Mahmoud Abbas and Donald Trump meeting together in Camp David and finding a real estate solution possibly including part of the Northern Sinai region.
Lastly, if you think about the current construction enhancements, and changes taking place with the Suez Canal zone, there’s an outline -tenuous though it might be- of something entirely possible.
The Treehouse included this 2012 photo of Egyptians hostile to Clinton which could indicate difficulties to come if she is elected in November:
Egypt Built has this tweet regarding Clinton:
That’s says a lot.
When the explosive device went off in the Chelsea area of New York on Saturday, September 17, both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump called it a ‘bomb’.
News reports were later edited to show footage of Trump saying ‘bomb’ and Clinton advising caution. British media carried this same omission on Sunday’s news. I watched Channel 4, by the way.
Media analyst Mark Dice has full coverage of both using the word:
Trump’s running mate Mike Pence gave an excellent radio interview on Monday, September 19, to Sean Hannity. Early in the segment, Pence referred to the events in New York, New Jersey and Minnesota as ‘radical Islamic terrorism’. In order to combat that, he said that America needs a change of leadership:
That morning, Fox and Friends interviewed Trump, who also gave an outstanding interview on the terror threat as well as a variety of other topics, such as John Kasich’s lack of endorsement, despite having signed the Republican Party candidate pledge to support the nominee.
Fox and Friends rightly credited Trump for saying last year that the United States could expect more terror attacks.
Trump ably discussed the weekend’s attacks and lauded Israel for its profiling policy:
On profiling, CNN deliberately distorted Trump’s words. At no time did he ever mention ‘racial profiling’. He spoke only of ‘profiling’.
Scott Adams, Dilbert’s creator, rightly called out Clinton News Network:
This is yet another example of distortion in Big Media reporting.
Are you picking up on the bias? I know a lot of people offline who aren’t.
Add to that the blame Clinton piles on Trump — a private citizen:
On a brighter note, this is a great little video featuring Germaine, a Starbucks employee, taking drinks and food to New York policemen investigating last Saturday’s bombing:
New York is a great city with great people. Long may it remain so.
On Monday, September 19, the main suspect in the New York and New Jersey bombings at the weekend was finally arrested.
Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, of Elizabeth, NJ, was found asleep in the neighbouring town of Linden. He was slumped in the doorway of a tavern there.
The owner was at another establishment across the street. He thought Rahami was a drunk until he recognised him. He rang the police.
When police awakened Rahami, the suspect opened fire, wounding one policeman in the chest. The other officers pursued him on foot. Rahami shot at a police car. The bullet ricocheted and grazed another officer’s face. The chase ended when police shot him several times and took him to hospital.
Rahami was not particularly forthcoming when questioned after surgery.
The investigation is ongoing and, as I write, it is unclear whether there is a terrorist cell in greater New York and whether Rahami had help. CNN has full details of what happened at the weekend.
There have been extremist Islamic terror cells in the United States for many years. Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that they exist. The map below, courtesy of Free Thought Nation, shows terror activity and compounds dating back to the 1980s:
CNN reported that Rahami’s family accused the city and police of Elizabeth, NJ, of discriminating against their First American Fried Chicken restaurant because they had to close at 10 p.m. while other establishments in the neighbourhood could stay open later. However (emphases mine):
In 2011, the city council voted to close the restaurant at 10 p.m. because of “all the people hanging out there” around the clock, Elizabeth Mayor J. Christian Bollwage said Monday.
Owner Mohammad Rahami and his two sons filed a lawsuit claiming the city conspired to “discriminate” and “illegally harass” them by subjecting them to citations for allegedly violating a city ordinance on hours of operation.
The case alleged the Rahamis were “threatened and harassed” by a police officer. It argues that officers and city representatives said “the restaurant presented a danger to the community.”
It also accused a neighboring business owner of telling the Rahamis that “Muslims make too much trouble in this country” and “don’t belong here.”
The defendants, including police officers and city officials, denied the allegations.
Federal court records show the case ended in a “statistical closing.” Bollwage said Monday the 2012 ruling on the case favored the city, adding that the family’s restaurant was “disruptive in the city for many, many years.”
Rahami’s sister put up a post on Facebook asking for privacy at this time.
The Daily Beast reports that Rahami and members of his family have freely travelled to and from Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Investigators are now trying to piece together his activities abroad.
Rahami’s father last travelled to Pakistan in July 2011 and stayed until September that year. Rahami had to appear for a court case — possibly the one connected with his restaurant — and, while he was present, his lawyer:
informed the judge that while the father had returned, his “family is in Afghanistan” but was expected to return within days.
Rahami’s brother is currently in Pakistan.
Rahami has a wife in that country:
U.S. Rep. Albio Sires told the Bergen Record that Rahami contacted his office via email in 2014 seeking an immigrant visa for his wife in Pakistan who was 35 weeks pregnant and whose Pakistani passport had expired.
The Rahami family arrived in the United States in 1995 as asylum seekers from Afghanistan:
There has been some confusion over when Rahami or his family were officially granted legal residency in the country, but it may have taken some time for their application to be processed and approved.
In 2013, one of the suspect’s brothers, Mohammad K. Rahami, posted a Facebook message in 2013, accompanied by a photo. It read:
I bring the men who desire death as ardently as you desire life.
In another Facebook entry in April that year:
Mohammad posted a photo of himself with a man identified as Ahmad in a comment. The two men are sitting outside, grilling kebabs.
Currently:
Authorities have not named either brother as suspects or persons of interest.
Ahmad Khan Rahami is known to the police, with:
a series of escalating run-ins with the law beginning in 2008, when he spent a day in jail for unpaid parking tickets, and another in 2012 after he allegedly violated a restraining order, The New York Times reports. In 2014, Rahami spent three days in jail on weapons and aggravated assault charges, after allegedly stabbing a person in the leg, The New York Times reports. A grand jury dropped Rahami’s charges for the fight, which allegedly began as a domestic dispute.
Before Rahami was arrested in Linden, authorities raided his family’s home in Elizabeth at 3 a.m.:
according to time-stamped cellphone footage reviewed by The Daily Beast. The video, taken by a neighbor across the street, shows heavily armed officers at the family’s Elizabeth home waiting for family members to come out, one by one. Two of Rahami’s brothers came out first, followed by a woman and a young child. The father came out last, the neighbor said.
At the same time:
A Perth Amboy address linked to Ahmad Rahami and brother Mohammad Khan Rahami was subject to loud banging at 3 a.m., a neighbor told The Daily Beast. Police later confirmed they had investigated a Perth Amboy address. Maintenance workers were changing locks on the front door late Monday morning.
The explosive devices:
track closely to what was suggested in al Qaeda’s Inspire magazine in an article titled, “Make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom.” The guide was written by Samir Khan, a U.S. citizen born in Saudi Arabia who fled to Yemen to join Anwar al-Awlaki, an American cleric turned al Qaeda propagandist.
Khan advised aspiring bomb-makers to make pipe bombs and link them together for greater effect, just as Rahami is alleged to have done at two sites in New Jersey. Khan advised building larger bombs using pressure cookers.
Similar devices were used in the Boston and San Bernardino attacks.
The First American Fried Chicken restaurant in Elmore Avenue became a magnet on Monday for patrons and friends of the Rahami family:
Patrons and public records say the family appears to have five sons and three daughters. Two of the children are minors. The status of their mother is unknown, the customers said.
A 60-year-old musician named Jacob said that he has known Rahami — the father — for 14 years:
“When I met them [the Rahami siblings], they were kids. But lately they’ve been holding down the store,” Jacob told The Daily Beast, as he watched police work the scene. “They seemed like normal people.”
The longtime neighbor called Ahmad Rahami’s father, Mohammad, a “pretty decent, guy” and “real quiet and laid back.”
The dad talked of visiting Afghanistan on vacations and would hook Jacob up with turkey sandwiches and gyros, he said.
“He was cool. I’m just sorry that this happened to him,” he said.
Saul Asian, a 21-year-old classmate of one of Rahimi’s brothers:
described the Rahimi chicken spot as a hangout for middle-schoolers of the nearby Abraham Lincoln School. He used to see Ahmad work as a cashier.
“I didn’t want to believe it… until I saw it on the news,” Asian said of Ahmad’s arrest.
But not everyone was so positive.
Fox News reports that a young woman named Maria fell in love with Ahmad when they were both in high school. She has a little girl. He is the father. She says that he:
didn’t pay child support and often railed against American culture. The 26-year-old, who spoke after her grandmother called her for a reporter who produced his press credential and identified himself at the grandmother’s home in Elizabeth, said she had not seen Rahami in two years.
“He would speak often of Western culture and how it was different back home,” she said. “How there weren’t homosexuals in Afghanistan.
“He seemed standoffish to American culture, but I never thought he would cross the line,” she added.
The boy who was once a ‘class clown’ at Edison High School grew into a man who:
demonstrated his hatred for the U.S. military.
“One time, he was watching TV with my daughter and a woman in a [military] uniform came on and he told [their daughter], ‘That’s the bad person,'” she said.
Maria also told Fox that:
Rahami would often go back to Afghanistan to see family, and would stay for weeks, or even months. Right before their daughter was born, Rahami was in Afghanistan and had trouble returning because authorities in Afghanistan confiscated his passport for unknown reasons, Maria said. The last time Maria knows that Rahami visited his homeland was nine years ago. He brought back a wife and another child, she said.
She ended the interview by expressing why her former love made her afraid and why she cut off his visits:
My greatest fear is that he would try to take my daughter.
But, readers, as we all know, none of us must dare to call this man a terrorist.
On Monday, September 19, both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump spoke to their supporters.
Clinton held a small meeting with students at Temple University in Philadelphia, a city that is in the tank for her. Temple has an enrollment of 37,788.
Jesse Watters was on hand to take a photo of a dozing student:
So this is the vibe at the Hillary Clinton “rally” right now… #imwithher #turnup
Look at the enthusiasm from the students. They look as if they are being held hostage. Still, they probably got extra credit for attending:
The Gateway Pundit reported that only a few hundred attended.
That might be because of Clinton’s health problems. She might need smaller venues.
She also needed to be helped up the stairs. Gateway Pundit has the photo.
Some readers might have seen a banner on Fox and Friends that morning (4:30-4:48) stating that Clinton was cancelling an appearance in California later that day. People’s Pundit Daily reported:
Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton has again cancelled an event in California as a result of her health and the campaign is claiming she is being treated for pneumonia. The cancelation marks the third day–following Monday and Tuesday of last week–that the candidate’s health has pulled her from the campaign trail …
On Sunday, Mrs. Clinton held a brief presser and spoke to reporters on her campaign airplane to respond to her rival Donald Trump regarding his comments after the terror attacks in Minnesota, New Jersey and New York. Critics claim she appeared to be heavily sedated, or at least extremely fatigue[d] …
That afternoon, Trump held a rally in Fort Meyers, Florida. People started queuing at 8:30 a.m. The event was sold out, with 8,000 in attendance:
On September 20, RealClearPolitics shows Hillary with only a 1.3% poll lead over Trump and a 1.1% lead if the other two candidates — Gary Johnson (Libertarian) and Jill Stein (Green) are factored in.
Big Media are panicking: ‘The fight isn’t going Clinton’s way’ (Boston Globe), ‘Dear Swing Voters: Please Don’t Do It’ (The Daily Beast) and ‘Wake up, Millennials, and back Hillary’ (New York Daily News).
Huffington Post went further with ‘Why Hillary Lost: A Premature Obit’.
The sites sceptical of or downright anti-Trump have these articles: ‘Trump Cutting Into Clinton’s Huge Lead With African-American Voters’ (Washington Examiner) and ‘Not Voting for Trump Is Republican Suicide’ (National Review).
Amazing.
Some say the turnaround is because of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, where this took place on September 15. The Left are complaining that Fallon ‘humanised’ Trump:
Referencing the HuffPo article, self-identifying Hillary supporter Scott Adams (Dilbert’s creator) tweeted:
We can but see when the first debate takes place on Monday, September 26.
On Friday, September 16, I posted on Donald Trump’s ‘basket of deplorables’.
Thank you, Hillary Clinton, for coining a marvellous phrase designed to denigrate millions of Americans. Instead, it became a joyous campaign cry.
The top image — in that post (as well as my About page) with appropriate credit — belongs to an artist who goes by the name of Keln. He adapted a Les Misérables image (at left).
Trump’s campaign team even used it as the backdrop for his rally on Friday, September 17 in Miami, complete with the song from the musical:
The image is now all over the world.
But what about Keln? Is he making any money off it? Can he copyright it and collect royalties?
Last Friday, on his site Nuking Politics, he wrote about what happened after he posted the image on Reddit. They banned him. (Maybe he should have posted on The_Donald subreddit rather than a general news one?)
Reddit mods didn’t even respond to his request for a reason why.
So, while the image was tweeted and posted on other social media all over the world, Keln was anathema to Reddit.
That is, until just hours before Trump’s Miami rally:
Reddit reinstated my account. Claimed I had been picked off by the spam filter. Uhuh…suuuure.
The Daily Mail carried Keln’s story on September 17:
He was pleased the Trump campaign used his artwork.
‘Thank you @realDonaldTrump for using my meme to stick it to Hillary and her ilk. #MAGA We are just gonna keep winning,’ he tweeted.
‘I made it, I am glad He used it,’ he added, insisting the Trump campaign had a right to turn his work into a campaign backdrop.
Less gratifying is that a tee shirt company is using Keln’s image without permission. Keln told his readers:
They did not ask for nor received my permission.
Let’s hope he can get that sorted out soon. He should be able to make some money off his intellectual property.
Moral of the story: protect your work! What seems like a small creation can turn into something ‘yuge’, as the Donald would say.
Speaking of whom, in Miami, he greeted his supporters:
Welcome to all you deplorables!
They responded with roaring applause.
Ex-Democrats at the Crawdad Hole point out that Trump has played this well (emphases mine):
Mic drop! Seriously! Turning negative campaigning/memes into a battlecry, amazing! This really is brilliant. Any other repub candidate would have had a weak spine by now and let her win.
Yep.
Hillary played an own goal here:
Not to mention he is actually paying attention to those that support him. Deplorable was met with laughter. T-shirts, mugs, pins user names. We have weeks to go. My prog friends don’t even dare debate. She has become a joke. That is never good …
This campaign will redefine politics for the foreseeable future.
Donald Trump has rewritten the playbook.
You can read more about Keln’s artwork and Trump’s rally at The Conservative Treehouse, where the image made its debut. He is a frequent commenter there.
On Friday, Donald Trump put an end to birtherism by saying the present incumbent was born in the United States.
McClatchy reported:
Donald Trump said that President Obama was born in the United States during an event at Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. on September 16, 2016. He also claimed that the birther issue was started by Hillary Clinton’s campaign when she ran for president in 2008.
For several years now, the Democrats have alleged that the Republicans — particularly the Tea Party — were responsible for casting doubt over Obama’s origins and background. That is incorrect.
While it is true that Trump was responsible for getting Obama to finally come forward with his long form birth certificate in 2011 — just over two years into his first term in office — Trump did not start the birther movement.
Far from it.
In fact, everything started with Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2007.
(Image credit: #NolteNC)
December 2007 — heated exchange between Clinton and Obama
Reggie Love served as Obama’s personal aide between 2007 and 2011.
In 2015, he released a book, Power Forward, a memoir of those years.
He described events in December 2007 which he said were the turning point in the campaign fortunes of the then-Senator Obama. The Washington Post covered this excerpt on January 29, 2015. A summary follows, supplemented by quotes. Emphases mine below.
The Clinton campaign put out information accusing the Illinois senator of using drugs and being a Muslim.
Billy Shaheen was the man who mentioned that the GOP would seize the drugs angle:
Billy Shaheen, then co-chair of Hillary Clinton’s New Hampshire campaign, had speculated to The Washington Post that Republicans would attack Sen. Barack Obama on the drug use the candidate had admitted to on the trail and in “Dreams From My Father,” his 1995 memoir. As Shaheen put it: “It’ll be, ‘When was the last time? Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you sell them to anyone?’ There are so many openings for Republican dirty tricks.”
The next day, Obama and Clinton were at Reagan National Airport on their way to Iowa for a televised debate featuring the Democratic primary candidates. Reggie Love wrote in his memoir:
“I want to apologize for the whole Shaheen thing,” Clinton said. “I want you to know I had nothing to do with it.”
The candidate very respectfully told her the apology was kind, but largely meaningless, given the emails it was rumored her camp had been sending out labeling him as a Muslim.
Then:
Before he could finish his sentence, she exploded on Obama. In a matter of seconds, she went from composed to furious. It had not been Obama’s intention to upset her, but he wasn’t going to play the fool either.
To Love and Obama’s entourage witnessing this exchange:
it was an obvious turning point in our campaign, and we knew it.
From that point on through to Hillary’s standing down six months later, the tension between the two campaign teams was, in Love’s words, ‘electric’:
their respective staffs reflected the understanding that she was no longer the de facto Democratic candidate. Her inevitability had been questioned. . . .
Later that day, Obama told Love that:
he knew he was going to win the nomination after that moment on the tarmac, because Clinton had unraveled, and he was still standing and keeping his cool. It was just the confidence boost he needed.
Wow. It all boiled down to personal composure. What a lesson for the rest of us.
That is how an unknown junior senator from Illinois became a two-term president of the United States.
Incidentally, Billy Shaheen resigned from the Clinton campaign that day:
“I made a mistake and in light of what happened, I have made the personal decision that I will step down,” he said in a statement.
2008: Clinton campaign continued casting doubt
On September 16, in another McClatchy article reporter David Goldstein revealed more details about Hillary Clinton’s first presidential campaign and the way two people in particular sowed doubt about Obama:
Two supporters of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign reportedly shared the claim that then-rival Barack Obama was not born in the United States and thus was not eligible to be president.
One was a volunteer in Iowa, who was fired, Clinton’s former campaign manager said Friday. The other was Clinton confidant Sidney Blumenthal, according to a former McClatchy Washington Bureau chief.
It’s interesting that the people David Goldstein interviewed for his McClatchy article have such differing views on whether the Clinton campaign was responsible for birtherism and other rumours.
Phil Singer, her press secretary in 2008, emailed to say:
The idea that the Hillary Clinton campaign had anything to do with spreading the birther issue has as much credibility as the birther issue itself: none. It didn’t happen.
However, Patti Solis Doyle, who was Clinton’s campaign manager at that time:
said she’d called Obama campaign official David Plouffe at the time “to apologize and basically say that this was not coming from us. It was a rogue volunteer coordinator.”
Sidney Blumenthal — who worked as an adviser to Bill Clinton during his time in the White House, then on Hillary’s 2008 campaign and later, for a time, at the Clinton Foundation — emailed the Boston Globe to say:
This is false. Period.
Yet, former McClatchy Washington Bureau Chief James Asher tweeted and emailed on Friday, September 16, that Blumenthal had given him information about Obama’s origins:
Blumenthal had “told me in person” that Obama was born in Kenya.
“During the 2008 Democratic primary, Sid Blumenthal visited the Washington Bureau of McClatchy Co.,” Asher said in an email Friday to McClatchy, noting that he was at the time the investigative editor and in charge of Africa coverage.
“During that meeting, Mr. Blumenthal and I met together in my office and he strongly urged me to investigate the exact place of President Obama’s birth, which he suggested was in Kenya. We assigned a reporter to go to Kenya, and that reporter determined that the allegation was false.
“At the time of Mr. Blumenthal’s conversation with me, there had been a few news articles published in various outlets reporting on rumors about Obama’s birthplace. While Mr. Blumenthal offered no concrete proof of Obama’s Kenyan birth, I felt that, as journalists, we had a responsibility to determine whether or not those rumors were true. They were not.”
As Asher points out, McClatchy was not the only media outlet investigating these rumours.
The McClatchy journalist who went to Kenya is Shashank Bengali. His report from Kenya on Super Tuesday 2008 — February 5 — states that Obama’s African relatives were fed up with all the reporters:
Barack Obama’s extended family in Kenya issued this plea to journalists:
Please leave us alone.
The media outlets set up equipment in the small village of Nyang’oma Kogello to record family members’ reactions as the Democratic primary results rolled in that night.
Bengali’s article has a photo of Obama and Mama Sarah, his paternal grandmother. Mama Sarah had been besieged by reporters since … 2006:
Mama Sarah figures she’s been interviewed and photographed by hundreds of journalists in the past two years.
Bengali’s conclusion is interesting for Americans who hold that natural born citizenship — a requirement for the president and vice president of the United States — involves being born on American soil or military base overseas and both parents holding American citizenship at the time the two people occupying — or vying for those offices — were born:
Yes, Obama’s father was Kenyan, and yes, it’s mildly diverting that a man who has a better than reasonable shot of living in the White House has about 30 relatives living in a village of mud huts and fishermen. But haven’t we sort of covered the waterfront on this story?
Fast forwarding to 2016, McClatchy’s David Goldstein gave these details on September 16:
Clinton, at a speech in the nation’s capital, said Trump needed to apologize.
“For five years, he has led the birther movement to delegitimize our first black president,” she said. “His campaign was founded on this outrageous lie.”
The Trump campaign issued a news release with a portion of Solis Doyle’s interview and a link to memos back then to Clinton from Mark Penn, her 2008 pollster. One raises the issue of Obama’s “lack of American roots.” Obama was born in Hawaii. His father was Kenyan and his mother was from Kansas.
A former ‘Hillary insider’ writes
Before I get into further specifics of this issue, I remember the birther controversy as it unfolded after Hillary ended her campaign in the summer of 2008, weeks before the Democratic National Convention that year.
My better half and I watched Hillary’s lengthy speech explaining why she was withdrawing from the race in 2008. It was broadcast here in the UK in full on a Saturday evening in June, if I remember rightly.
We found it so astonishing that SpouseMouse suggested I go see how Democrats were reacting online.
That evening changed my outlook on the Democratic Party forever.
The first two sites I ran across were Hillary is 44 — which has supported the Republican candidates in 2008, 2012 and 2016 — and No Quarter.
I still read both every other day during general election campaigns and highly recommend them.
With regard to No Quarter, its founder and principal contributor is Larry Johnson, who worked for the CIA and is a recognized expert in the fields of terrorism, aviation security, crisis and risk management. He has his own business consulting firm which offers expertise combating terrorism and investigating money laundering. You can read more at the link.
On September 16, Larry Johnson wrote ‘Confessions of a Hillary Insider’, which I urge every Clinton supporter and active Democrat to read in full — including all his referenced 63 posts from the first half of 2008.
In his ‘confessions’, Johnson says that Sidney Blumenthal provided him with several sets of information about Obama in 2008.
This information concerned the then-candidate’s links to corruption via Chicago’s Tony Rezko, links to Palestinian radicals, ties to 1960s terrorist Bill Ayers and radical clerics, his citizenship status and childhood in Indonesia with stepfather Lolo Soetoro.
Johnson says:
I am shocked at the audacity of Hillary Clinton to decry Donald Trump as a birther because her campaign not only pushed that item in a bid to discredit Barack Obama, but mounted a sustained campaign attack Obama on a broad array of issues. How do I know? I was part of that effort and was in regular email and phone coordination with Sidney Blumenthal. Sidney was the conduit who fed damaging material to me that I subsequently posted on my blog.
In some cases Sid Blumenthal actually provided a draft piece that I would slightly modify and publish under my name. Most of the time, however, Sid provided background information and researched material that I would use to craft pieces.
By the time I discovered No Quarter, all of Johnson’s readers — also Hillary supporters — were well versed in the questions and issues surrounding Obama.
In fact, every Hillary supporter knew about these issues — regardless of what websites they read.
One of the big ticket items was a tape recording that never materialised. Allegedly, it featured audio of the present first lady using the term ‘whitey’. Hillary’s supporters waited and waited for nothing. Johnson regrets having fallen for the story:
I published that after being told about the “tape” by Sid Blumenthal. (I learned a few weeks later that the story of the tape actually originated with Media Matter’s David Brock and he confirmed its existence to me in person).
Now, it is true that Hillary herself never circulated or said anything about these rumours. However, other people writing about them helped sow FUD — fear, uncertainty and doubt — about Obama. Johnson says:
Hillary knew about all of these lines of attack on Obama. In fact I was told by Sid on one occasion in the summer of 2008 that the Big Dog (Bill of course) was very pleased with the pieces going up at NoQuarterUSA and thought they were helping Hillary.
But the biggest issue was Obama’s birth certificate, although, interestingly, Johnson states:
the Birth Certificate issue was not pushed hot and heavy by Sid to me.
However, it is equally interesting that conservative broadcasters and writers began to mistakenly credit Johnson with birtherism. Johnson reproduced a lengthy transcript from a Rush Limbaugh broadcast wherein the radio host named him personally.
Yet, Johnson has always shied away from the birth issue. I can vouch for that. When it was in full flow after Obama won the nomination, he never gave it credence:
I never argued or wrote that Barack Obama was not legally qualified. Never. Ever. Just the opposite. I am on the record that he is legally qualified to be President. The first time I ever wrote about the birth certificate controversy was 12 June 2008, “What Does an Authentic Hawaiian Birth Certificate Look Like?“. In July 2008 I was very clear that BARACK WAS NOT BORN IN KENYA …
Today, in 2016, Johnson says:
It is true that I once believed Hillary was qualified by virtue of experience to be President. I was wrong and have written about my error in judgment. Her dishonesty and the incompetence she demonstrated while Secretary of State have convinced me beyond any doubt that she cannot be trusted with the power of that office. That does not mean I trust Donald Trump, but my focus here is in exposing the cynical propaganda that Hillary Clinton is trying to foist on the uninformed voter …
I cannot stomach Hillary pretending like she had no role in attack[ing] Barack Obama on a host of issues that many would consider “racist” if pursued by Donald Trump or any other Republican.
As for Obama:
I only regret getting played on the Whitey Tape. The rest of the information was on target–Barack Obama, by virtue of his associations and friendships, was a terrible choice to be President. I can say now, with the benefit of 8 years of hindsight, that my concerns about his incompetence and ignorance have been confirmed and validated.
Obama’s birth certificates
The controversy about Obama’s birth certificate ramped up during the Democratic campaign following the convention in 2008.
He wrote in his memoir Dreams from My Father that he had lost his original birth certificate. He had been using it as a bookmark.
This modern Certification of Live Birth from the State of Hawaii is what his campaign team expected Americans to accept in 2008.
Not surprisingly, Hillary’s people and many Republicans were less than happy seeing a few bits of information about their future president. Obama’s lack of transparency on other issues — the absence of interviews with old friends, no photos of him at Harvard, among others — also raised legitimate questions in voters’ minds.
He just had — and still has — a lack of transparency about him and an insouciance that Americans had not seen before in a presidential candidate.
It was thanks to Donald Trump’s sustained efforts that the American public were finally able to see a copy of Obama’s original birth certificate in April 2011.
The difference between that and the earlier document is astounding.
Why did Obama not simply request a copy of the long form certificate in 2008? He could have done so and there never would have been any controversy.
To clarify: Trump was not among the original ‘birthers’. He came on board later after all the failed lawsuits, which I’ll get to in a moment. However, Trump was the catalyst for getting Obama to produce the ‘long form’ certificate in 2011. In March that year, he said:
“The reason I have a little doubt — just a little — is because he grew up and nobody knew him,” he told ABC News.
Original birthers and failed lawsuits
The first birthers were Democrats.
In fact, The Telegraph wrote in 2011 that the ‘Birther row began with Hillary Clinton supporters’.
Politico stated the same thing at the same time:
The answer lies in Democratic, not Republican politics, and in the bitter, exhausting spring of 2008. At the time, the Democratic presidential primary was slipping away from Hillary Clinton and some of her most passionate supporters grasped for something, anything that would deal a final reversal to Barack Obama.
After Hillary stood down, Pennsylvania lawyer and Hillary Clinton supporter — Philip J Berg — was the first to challenge Obama’s birth record. Wikipedia tells us:
Berg filed a complaint in federal district court on August 21, 2008, against Democratic Party presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic National Committee and the Federal Election Commission, alleging that Obama was born actually in Mombasa, Kenya and that the “Certification of Live Birth” on Obama’s website is a forgery. The court dismissed the complaint as “frivolous and not worthy of discussion.”[15][16] The judge also found that the harm Berg alleged did “not constitute an injury in fact” and that Berg’s arguments to the contrary “ventured into the unreasonable.”[15][16] Berg filed a petition for writ of certiorari to the United States Supreme Court and also sought an injunction to suspend the election. The injunction was denied by Justice David Souter on November 3, 2008. Berg also sought an application for injunction pending the disposition of the petition for writ of certiorari; Justice Souter denied it, Berg refiled and submitted it to Justice Anthony Kennedy (who denied it), then refiled and submitted it to Justice Antonin Scalia, who referred it to the Court. On January 12, 2009, the Supreme Court denied Berg’s petition for writ of certiorari (555 U.S. 1126),[17] and on January 21 the Court denied the application for injunction (555 U.S. 1134).[18]
In 2016, it looks as if Berg is aboard the Trump Train, judging from his Facebook posts.
By December 2008, several other Americans filed lawsuits.
Leo Donofrio of East Brunswick, NJ, also a lawyer, was one of them. He documented his lawsuit, citizenship research and other people’s efforts on his site, Natural Born Citizen.
Donofrio’s tack was different. He alleged that, not only was Obama ineligible because his father was a British citizen (Kenya was still a colony then), but so were John McCain and Roger Calero. McCain was born in Panama when his father was serving in the Navy; a signed Senate certificate had to be produced allowing him to run for the Republicans. Hillary Clinton was one of the signatories. Roger Calero was born in Nicaragua and ran for the Socialist Workers Party, no questions asked.
Donofrio was unsuccessful. Despite that, he also helped other plaintiffs with their lawsuits. All failed. That had nothing to do with him or them. In short — and avoiding legalese — the Supreme Court considered that all lacked standing. No one filing a lawsuit — even if in the military, as one plaintiff was — personally or directly would be affected by Obama’s natural born citizenship or lack thereof.
Most people concerned about the issue think the Supreme Court didn’t want to open a can of worms.
On March 13, 2012, Donofrio gave up practising law:
After long consideration and discussion with my family, I am saying goodbye to this blog and the law. I am retiring my law license and will be concentrating on making films, and writing music …
The other plaintiffs from 2008 and 2009 include — but were not limited to — Orly Taitz and Cort Wrotnowski.
By then, Democrats opposed to Obama and concerned Republicans started converging online.
By July 2009, the controversy ended up being more of a Republican Tea Party than a Democrat meme. It is possible that the Democrats were tired of it by then. For Republicans, it was a relatively new issue.
It is also worth pointing out that prominent Republicans and conservatives joined with Democrats in believing that Obama is a natural born citizen, whatever that means these days. At least three different definitions float around. According to one, Obama, Ted Cruz and others with one American citizen parent are natural born citizens. That is not what we 50+s learned at school.
Historical footnote – Chester A Arthur
Questions over an American president’s citizenship arose only one other time, back in the 19th century with Chester Allan Arthur.
Leo Donofrio relates the history, which I — and many others — did not know. It has never been in the history books we had at school.
In short (emphasis in the original):
Chester Arthur was a British citizen/subject by virtue of his father not having naturalized as a United States citizen until Chester Arthur was almost 14 years old.
That means Chester Arthur was a British subject at the time of his birth.
We’ve uncovered news clips exposing a thorough trail of lies, all of which served to obscure Chester Arthur’s true history of having been born as a British citizen.
Chester Arthur’s lies came during his Vice Presidential campaign in 1880. His fraudulent attempt to obfuscate family history provides context and evidence that in 1880 it was recognized that having been born as a British citizen would make one ineligible to be President or VP. His falsification of family history indicates he was aware of POTUS ineligibility.
Conclusion
This post, lengthy as it is, provides the history of those who questioned Obama’s origins or who wanted to smear him during his 2008 campaign.
Republicans were not the originators. Democrats were.
The End.
Since Hillary Clinton began an attempt at campaigning in earnest after Labor Day weekend, millions of Americans continue to question the state of her health.
In the past ten days, the world has seen a presidential candidate with potentially serious issues.
As I wrote on August 31 and September 1:
she has conditions that could rightly restrict an average person’s employment, never mind that of a president and leader of the free world.
Currently, Clinton is recovering from pneumonia. Many of us were brought up knowing that pneumonia requires staying away from the general public, getting medical attention and lots of bed rest. Today’s antibiotics will go a long way to help recovery, but they also need time to take effect.
It is possible that she has aspiration pneumonia, which might not be contagious to others. If she does have aspiration pneumonia, it means that she probably has an underlying condition which has caused it. If true, this would indicate she has a neurological disorder or Parkinson’s disease.
This is because people who get aspiration pneumonia have an impaired gag reflex whereby they cannot swallow phlegm or post-nasal drip. Instead, it goes into their lungs and causes an infection.
On the other hand, someone with a normally functioning gag reflex can swallow bronchial or nasal waste, which then enters the gut and is expelled in the usual manner.
Reviewing last weekend’s timeline, Clinton spoke at a fundraiser in New York City on Friday, September 9. Her physician said that was the day the candidate was diagnosed with pneumonia.
Clinton then attended a 9/11 memorial service on Sunday morning. She was in a crowd of people and left early because she was ‘overheated’. That was one of the coolest mornings New Yorkers had experienced all summer. The temperature would have been between 75° and 77° F during the time of the ceremony. Humidity was low.
Once away from the crowds, she collapsed and had to be bundled into her van:
Secret Service protocol says that, in such an event, the candidate must be taken to hospital. However, Clinton wanted to go to her daughter Chelsea’s flat for treatment and rest.
She later emerged outside Chelsea’s residence, looking refreshed. She touched a little girl on the shoulder for a photo op. These two photos taken on September 11 have been doing the social media rounds. I won’t reproduce them below because they are stock agency pictures. However, the caption reads:
ACCORDING TO HILLARY’S DOCTOR SHE WAS DIAGNOSED WITH PNEUMONIA ON 9/9/2016
I GUESS JOINING THIS CROWD AND STOPPING FOR THIS PHOTO OP ARE EXAMPLES OF HER GOOD JUDGEMENT AND COMMITMENT TO AMERICANS’ SAFETY
The following day, Monday, September 12, People featured an article on Clinton staffers who became ill with — wait for it — pneumonia. Excerpts follow:
“Everyone’s been sick,” a campaign source tells PEOPLE.
Interestingly, People heard that the spread of pneumonia occurred two weeks before the candidate herself was diagnosed with it:
At the end of August, two weeks before Clinton was diagnosed with pneumonia, a debilitating bug was making the rounds among staff at her headquarters and campaign aides who travel with Clinton, a source tells PEOPLE.
At least half a dozen senior staff were felled, including campaign manager Robby Mook. Two top advisers even needed emergency medical treatment, the source says. One top adviser diagnosed at a Brooklyn urgent-care center with a respiratory infection was being treated with antibiotics in the days before Clinton’s diagnosis. Another top adviser was taken by ambulance to the ER after collapsing from what turned out to be severe dehydration, the source said.
While Big Media covered for Hillary, daughter Chelsea told a reporter from Time Warner Cable News North Carolina during a campaign stop in Raleigh on Wednesday, September 14 (emphasis in the original):
I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her, um, so tired. And she was tired, she has pneumonia and that’s miserable.
That day, Dr Milton Wolf gave Gateway Pundit his observations based on reading articles and watching videos of Clinton. Wolf’s observations are listed in the article, some of which follow:
Hillary Clinton suffered a dural sinus thrombosis (blood clots in the brain). Very serious. Significant risk of stroke, intracranial hemorrhage and death.
They blamed the clots on a concussion. Not a chance. Concussions don’t cause blood clots. It would take a skull fracture with tearing of the dural sinus.
She suffered/suffers residual/recurrent neurological deficits (visual disturbance, balance, memory, mental status). Bad prognostic indicator.
Clinton is also on Coumadin (i.e. Warfarin, rat poison). Although there are many safer blood thinners on the market, some people need to take it for various reasons, one of which is explained below.
Wolf concludes (emphasis in the original, the one in purple mine):
It’s more likely than not that Hillary suffered a stroke in 2012 that they called a concussion. Stroke is extremely common following sinus thrombosis (of patients with clot in SSS: 75% stroke and 60% have intracranial hemorrhage). Overall about half the cases of sinus thrombosis resolve completely but that’s obviously not her since she exhibits and confesses to lasting neurological deficits. This is med school 101 stuff.
One of Gateway Pundit‘s readers gave a highly medical assessment, which takes apart Hillary’s doctor’s report. Much of it is too deep for me, however, most of it is below:
The doctor [Hillary’s physician] says that HRC had no fever, no elevated WBC, and a normal oxygen saturation level, and how often does that happen with bacterial pneumonia? Almost never. And normal vitals signs means HRC had a normal blood pressure and pulse. That is even worse. She should have an elevated pulse and low blood pressure if she is going to be weakened due to dehyrdration from pneumonia. And how likely is it that she gets dehydrated if she doesn’t have a fever and the temp in NYC is 80 degrees? Very unlikely. This doctor just destroyed her own excuse for the syncopal event.
On the other hand, doctors frequently see aspiration pneumonitis on chest x-rays in patients who aren’t that sick with normal vitals and no fever, and aspiration pneumonitis is not contagious.
Then there are some other really fishy things here. She has a sinus and ear issue as do many Americans and is no big deal. She has a CT of her sinuses which is fine, but why the comment about a CT of her brain being fine? That is out of place. Why did you do a CT of her brain for a chronic sinus issue? And is this whole ear thing included to try to justify her chronic dizziness?
… she has a much more serious issue going on causing her thyroid to plummet. Thyroid sets the metabolism for the body (Trump’s low energy comment was right on then) and thyroid plummets when the body needs metabolism to be lower like with a bleed or other serious strain on the body like an infection or serious chronic disease.
… Warfarin has one advantage though that the newer agents like Xarelto don’t have, and that is that the warfarin can be reversed very quickly with fresh frozen plasma. Why is that important? The biggest side effect with warfarin is bleeding, and the most critical area to have a bleed would be the brain, and that would be really important in a person who is falling all the time and could potentially hit her head. Didn’t Bill just say that HRC falls frequently?
And you don’t even have to have a fall to have bleeding in the brain with warfarin. All you need to is tap the head with your fingers and a potentially fatal brain hematoma can develop.
And we still haven’t been given a good reason for HRC’s fainting spell bc it sure as heck wasn’t dehydration and pneumonia.
… You have a woman with coagulation issues, low thyroid, frequent syncopal events per her husband, and on “relatively stable Coumadin levels?” This the course of events one finds in your average nursing home patient. This doctor has given enough to have HRC disqualified IMO on the basis of her health. HRC is done.
Following Clinton’s collapse on Sunday, Sundance from The Conservative Treehouse included several photos of her, past and present. He summarised Clinton’s health from her fall in 2012 through to last weekend. Brief excerpts follow. Please read his post in full:
In 2012 a cold became a flu, that became a slip and fall, that became a concussion, that became blood clots, that demanded months of care far away from public review.
He says that the same symptoms were present during her book tour in 2014:
An inability of Hillary Clinton to effective[ly] use normal motor skill function, a seemingly obvious lack of visual acuity, and the consistent need for physical aid (specifically pointing her and guiding her) was noted for almost two years post 2012 medical episode.
The issues have seemingly only worsened in 2015 and 2016.
Anyone voting for Clinton should bear in mind the likely possibility that, if she wins, Tim Kaine — VP — might take over. Alternatively, it could be Clinton’s advisers working in the background whilst she is ill.
Until now, the United States has never had a presidential candidate requiring constant medical presence for a neurological disorder affecting brain function.
A Clinton victory in November does not bode well for the Great Republic.
On September 2, left-leaning Clinton water carrier Paul Krugman wrung his hands in the New York Times over lead poisoning, which still poses a problem in the United States.
No one would deny that lead should continue to be reduced, so that America’s poorest children are safe.
Therefore, it was disingenuous for him to say that Republicans just don’t care.
The truth of the matter is that Republicans have next to nothing to do with how the municipalities in question are run.
An NYT commenter put the blame where it firmly belongs — with the Democrats in power at local level (emphasis mine):
“You may think that I’m talking about the water crisis in Flint, Mich., which justifiably caused national outrage early this year, only to fade from the headlines.”
And why did it fade from the headlines? When it became clear that those responsible for the crisis were local Democratic officials and state employees, not the Republican governor. In other words, once the crisis lost its political impact it ‘faded from the headlines’.
Democrats can do no wrong. To make it worse, the families who are at risk from lead poisoning continue to vote for them!
Lead paint was banned in 1978 under Jimmy Carter’s administration. Today’s immediate lead risk appears in natural elements, such as water — e.g. Flint — and soil.
If Democrats at local level really cared, they would put together — then execute — a plan to eradicate lead. But why bother when they are guaranteed election and re-election time and time again by doing nothing?
