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KoKo

KoKo's Journal
KoKo's Journal
May 19, 2016

Keiser Report: World Economy Manic to Manias--Bernie and Trump/Professor Steve Keen

Keiser Report: World Economy Manias (E914)
Published on May 14, 2016
Check Keiser Report website for more: http://www.maxkeiser.com/

In this episode of the Keiser Report Max and Stacy discuss the world economy going from mania to mania hoping it all pays off, as it did for fantasy and sci-fi writer, Ray Bradbury. In the second half Max continues his interview with Professor Steve Keen on Donald Trump’s debt plans and the UK’s shrinking manufacturing. China, Japan, Australia and the Global Fix with Traders, Over Investment in Real Estate in London, Vancouver, Sidney, NYC and Elsewhere.

Debt Jubilee's to deal with Speculation that has gone Wild with Manic Traders!

What is coming if Bernie/Trump win? What might be their Policy.


May 18, 2016

Former SOS Deputy Assistant Set to Testify in Clinton E-Mail Civil Lawsuit

by Chris White | LawNews, 11:24 am, May 18th, 2016

Depositions are set to begin this week and will continue well into the summer as part of a civil lawsuit concerning Hillary Clinton’s use of private e-mail server while serving as Secretary of State. Lewis Lukens, a former deputy assistant secretary of state, will be the first former Clinton aide to testify under oath when he appears for his deposition on Wednesday.

The deposition schedule was released late Tuesday by the conservative legal watchdog group Judicial Watch. Earlier this year, U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan entered an order that allows Judicial Watch to conduct discovery into whether the State Department and then Secretary of State Clinton deliberately thwarted Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) disclosure laws. The specific focus of the lawsuit is to obtain records about the employment status of Huma Abedin, former Deputy Chief of Staff to Clinton.

In addition to Lukens, at least five other top Clinton aides are expected to be questioned under oath by Judicial Watch attorneys in depositions over the next several weeks.

Clinton’s former Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills and Stephen D. Mull, executive secretary of the State Department from June 2009 to October 2012 are scheduled to be deposed next two weeks.

The man who is widely believed to have set up Clinton’s private e-mail, Bryan Pagliano, is scheduled to give testimony during the first week of June. Pagliano is the only Clinton aide publicly known to have received immunity from the Department of Justice in exchange for his cooperation in the FBI/DOJ investigation into the potential mishandling of classified materials. Last week, State Department officials announced they could not locate a single one of Pagliano’s e-mails from his time at the State Department. Several FOIA attorneys told LawNewz.com that revelation was highly suspicious.

Huma Abedin and State Department Undersecretary for Management Patrick F. Kennedy are scheduled to testify during the last week of June, according to the deposition schedule filed in the lawsuit.

“This court-order testimony could finally reveal new truths about how Hillary Clinton and the Obama State Department subverted the Freedom of the Information Act,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement released on Tuesday.

Continued at:
http://lawnewz.com/high-profile/former-aide-set-to-testify-on-wednesday-in-clinton-e-mail-civil-lawsuit/

May 18, 2016

Hillary Clinton and the 2-for-1 presidency


By LISA LERER and CATHERINE LUCEY
Associated Press --
May 16, 4:17 PM EDT

HOPKINSVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- The notion of a 2-for-1 Clinton presidency is back.

Recalling sunnier days of growth, low unemployment and budget surpluses under her husband, Hillary Clinton is telling Americans that Bill Clinton will take the lead on the economy if she wins the White House. What his work would be remains unclear: not a cabinet post, she indicated. But in some way, he'd be "in charge of revitalizing the economy."

Bill Clinton reigned over a strong economy, especially in the final years of his presidency, yet his economic legacy is mixed. The late 1990s were the last period to see sustained income gains for the typical American household. Middle-income wages have stagnated since then.

But his refusal to step up regulation of exotic financial instruments known as derivatives was blamed in large measure for the collapse of the financial sector years later. The tech bubble of his time burst. And his agenda was driven by support for free trade deals, including one that gave China better access to the U.S. market, that are held responsible by elements of both parties for driving jobs out of the country.

Still, in those pre-9/11 days, it's a stretch of peace and prosperity like Americans haven't seen since and with her latest remarks, in Kentucky, Hillary Clinton is more firmly laying out how important he would be to her agenda.The situation is highly unusual: Not only would Clinton be the first president to have a "First Dude," she'd also be the first to have a former president in the East Wing.

Now, facing a two-front fight against Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, she's stressing that Bill Clinton would be an asset in her administration, particularly with the kind of Southern white voters who once backed him but now are drawn to Trump. "Tell me anybody else who's been here as much or knows us as well," said Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, of Bill Clinton, during a campaign event in West Virginia. Hillary Clinton lost that primary - a state her husband won by double digits - earlier this month to Sanders.

The GOP front-runner and his team are making a different political bet. They see Bill Clinton's history of scandal as ripe for exploitation.

Continued at:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_DEM_2016_CLINTON_KYOL-?SITE=ORBAK&SECTION=HOME
May 18, 2016

Clinton leads Trump by 2 points in NH--But Sanders Leads by 17 Points

It's early yet, but New Hampshire has a long history of choosing the President.

-------------

May 18, 2016, 07:21 am
Clinton leads Trump by 2 points in NH--But Sanders Leads by 17 Points

By Mark Hensch

Hillary Clinton would squeak past Donald Trump in New Hampshire if the general presidential election happened today, according to a new poll.

Clinton leads Trump, 42 to 40 percent, in the WBUR survey released Wednesday. Six would percent prefer another candidate while 9 percent do not know or are undecided.
Trump faces a more daunting challenge in New Hampshire if Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) ultimately becomes the Democratic presidential nominee.

Sanders leads Trump by 17 points in that scenario, 53 to 36 percent. Four percent would prefer another candidate while 6 percent do not know or are undecided.

Wednesday’s results also show that Clinton and Trump are viewed unfavorably by a majority of likely New Hampshire voters.

Clinton and Trump both hold 58-percent unfavorability ratings, pollsters found.

Sanders is the best-liked presidential candidate in New Hampshire, boasting a 55-percent favorability rating.

WBUR surveyed 501 likely voters in New Hampshire from May 12-15. Its survey has a 4.4-percent margin of error.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/280309-poll-clinton-leads-trump-by-2-points-in-nh

May 18, 2016

I've seen Bernie Campaign Manager, Jeff Weaver Twice Today!

He is exceptional. He doesn't shoot "BS" in an interview and he lays out Bernie & His Campaign positions in a way that the Blitzer's and other Repub Ops can't get at him to having him Caving and Running and Re-Positioning himself to cater to the MSM! And, their Lies!

Here's to Jeff Weaver!



May 16, 2016

They Just Can't Stop Themselves--Washington’s Military Addiction


And The Ruins Still to Come

By Tom Engelhardt

There are the news stories that genuinely surprise you, and then there are the ones that you could write in your sleep before they happen. Let me concoct an example for you:

“Top American and European military leaders are weighing options to step up the fight against the Islamic State in the Mideast, including possibly sending more U.S. forces into Iraq, Syria, and Libya, just as Washington confirmed the second American combat casualty in Iraq in as many months.”

Oh wait, that was actually the lead sentence in a May 3rd Washington Times piece by Carlo Muñoz. Honestly, though, it could have been written anytime in the last few months by just about anyone paying any attention whatsoever, and it surely will prove reusable in the months to come (with casualty figures altered, of course). The sad truth is that across the Greater Middle East and expanding parts of Africa, a similar set of lines could be written ahead of time about the use of Special Operations forces, drones, advisers, whatever, as could the sorry results of making such moves in [add the name of your country of choice here].

Put another way, in a Washington that seems incapable of doing anything but worshiping at the temple of the U.S. military, global policymaking has become a remarkably mindless military-first process of repetition. It’s as if, as problems built up in your life, you looked in the closet marked “solutions” and the only thing you could ever see was one hulking, over-armed soldier, whom you obsessively let loose, causing yet more damage.

How Much, How Many, How Often, and How Destructively

In Iraq and Syria, it’s been mission creep all the way. The B-52s barely made it to the battle zone for the first time and were almost instantaneously in the air, attacking Islamic State militants. U.S. firebases are built ever closer to the front lines. The number of special ops forces continues to edge up. American weapons flow in (ending up in god knows whose hands). American trainers and advisers follow in ever increasing numbers, and those numbers are repeatedly fiddled with to deemphasize how many of them are actually there. The private contractors begin to arrive in numbers never to be counted. The local forces being trained or retrained have their usual problems in battle. American troops and advisers who were never, never going to be “in combat” or “boots on the ground” themselves now have their boots distinctly on the ground in combat situations. The first American casualties are dribbling in. Meanwhile, conditions in tottering Iraq and the former nation of Syria grow ever murkier, more chaotic, and less amenable by the week to any solution American officials might care for.

And the response to all this in present-day Washington?

Continued at......

http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176139/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_they_just_can't_stop_themselves
May 16, 2016

Here’s the Thing So Many Americans Can’t Grasp About Bernie Sanders

Here’s the Thing So Many Americans Can’t Grasp About Bernie Sanders

The U.S. likes to brand itself 'the land of opportunity'—yet our poster boys for innovation go to Harvard

By Pete Ross • 04/25/16 2:30pm

Watching this year’s presidential nomination process from Australia has been a very interesting affair. I can’t say I’ve followed every single speech or piece of news, but I’ve certainly kept abreast of what is going on and have seen plenty of articles and commentary from people on my feed putting their opinions forward. What interests me the most are the people and media pundits who emphatically denounce Bernie Sanders and his supporters. The reasons all generally boil down to the fact that he is the reincarnation of Karl Marx and he wants to turn the U.S. into a communist state. That he is so far left of centre that he’s basically off the chart.

For those people, here’s a reality check.

Around the rest of the world, Mr. Sanders represents a point on the political spectrum that is mildly left of centre. His “wacky” ideas of free (and we’ll get to that term a bit later) education, free healthcare, regulating banks and corporations and so on are all actually staple ideas of many of the happiest and most prosperous countries in the world. Don’t believe me? Take a look at the happiest countries in the world index for 2016. The U.S. doesn’t make the top 10—but almost every single country that does has the kind of policies Mr. Sanders is promoting at some level. Looking at the other candidates, Hillary Clinton would in most countries be considered right of centre, not left. Donald and Ted? Man, those guys are so far right of centre you couldn’t plot where they exist—they’re pretty much off the spectrum.

But back to Bernie. Throughout the nomination process, Bernie’s critics always seem to be asking the wrong questions. The most common one I see is “how is he going to pay for all of this?” This question misses the point entirely. Even if economists say that he can’t, does that really invalidate everything he’s aiming to achieve? If he can’t pay for all of it and the only thing that actually gets passed is universal college education and a reinstatement of Glass-Steagall, is that such a horrible thing? Why does it have to be so all or nothing? That’s why it also baffles me when people say that they don’t want the kind of revolution Mr. Sanders is pushing—the reality is that even if he is swept to victory, the amount of change he’ll actually be able to implement won’t be half of what he wants to do.

Continued at:

http://observer.com/2016/04/heres-the-thing-so-many-americans-cant-grasp-about-bernie-sanders/

May 14, 2016

Three Voices of the Democratic Divide Discuss: What Are Hillary's Negatives:

CrossTalk: Hillary's Negatives: Three Voices of the Democratic Divide
Three Voices of the Democratic Party's Divide:

Published on May 13, 2016
Few have run for the presidency with the kind of name recognition as Hillary Clinton. She has an established name and is also the establishment’s trusted candidate. Though among many voters she has significant negatives. Barring an upset she is positioned to win her party’s nomination. The question is - can she win the hearts and minds – and votes of the American people?
CrossTalking with Don DeBar, David Swanson, and Richard Goodstein.


May 14, 2016

Renowned Pollster, Ann Selzer, says Bernie "Makes a Very Fair Point" on General Election Argument

By Brianna Gurciullo

05/10/16 05:53 PM EDT

Renowned pollster J. Ann Selzer said Bernie Sanders "makes a very fair point" when he says he would do better in a general election against Donald Trump than Hillary Clinton.

Selzer, the president of Iowa-based public opinion research group Selzer & Company, said on Bloomberg's "With All Due Respect" on Tuesday that the polling backs Sanders' claims.

"I think he makes a very fair point, which is that in these polls, our polls have shown it as well, that when you do a head-to-head with Hillary Clinton versus the field or Bernie Sanders versus the field, Bernie Sanders' numbers are uniformly higher than Hillary Clinton,"
Selzer said. "It certainly tells us that this is an electorate that is in a mood for a change."

She added that she thought it would be interesting to look at whether Sanders supporters would be willing to vote for Trump over Clinton because "he's the change guy."

"But it makes sense that the mood of this electorate, which has been the strongest predictor of how these primaries have played out, have landed on Bernie Sanders and landed on Donald Trump, two people that a year ago we would have thought had no chance, that they represented such a different path, but people want a different path," Selzer said.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/bernie-sanders-polls-selzer-223027
May 14, 2016

Bill Clinton's Rough Day on the Trail...Politico

Bill Clinton's Rough Day on the Trail

Friday the 13th was an unlucky date for the former president.

By Annie Karni

05/13/16 07:32 PM EDT

PATERSON, N.J. — Bill Clinton’s name was splashed across the front page of the New York Post Friday morning. “Blonde Bombshell,” the sneering headline read, detailing how the former president steered $2 million of Clinton Global Initiative funds to a company of a very attractive “friend.”

He was more than an hour late to a rally at Passaic County Community College in Paterson, New Jersey, because he got stuck behind a truck accident on the Tappan Zee Bridge.

And when he finally arrived at the organizing event where he dutifully touted his wife’s record and the significance of winning the June 7 New Jersey primary, he was heckled by a Bernie Sanders supporter for his passage of the 1994 crime bill.

“Why did you put more people in prison?" the heckler yelled out from the crowd.

It wasn’t an easy day — and it hasn’t been a smooth ride — for the Big Dog. Over the past few months, Bill Clinton has kept up a frenetic, cross-country campaign schedule almost as packed as Hillary Clinton’s. Along the way, he’s drawn huge crowds in small towns unaccustomed to seeing a former leader of the free world. But he also has been criticized for having lost his "magic" on the stump, knocked by loyal foot soldiers for talking more about his own record than about his wife, and left by his wife’s campaign to defend himself against a steady drumbeat of criticism of the 1994 crime bill, a significant part of his legacy. He’s also emerged as a prime target for Donald Trump, who has branded him an "abuser" of women.

Yet for all his drawbacks, Clinton is still viewed by his wife’s campaign as an inimitable surrogate, one who allies believe will be second only to President Barack Obama in his ability to get out the Democratic vote in a general election.

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Despite his downsides, he remains a critical surrogate in a state like New Jersey, where Clinton allies want to end primary season with a decisive victory. “We have to win convincingly enough in New Jersey and California that all but the most extreme Sanders voters will say, ‘We lost fair and square,’” Rendell said. “If we lose, the Sanders people will say, ‘It was stolen from us, we had all the momentum.’”

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But as Clinton took the stage Friday in New Jersey, his foundation was busy putting out fires. The foundation pushed back on the report that the Clinton Global Initiative had awarded money to a for-profit company that was part-owned by a Clinton friend, saying the original Wall Street Journal report — the one that sparked the tabloid headlines — “misleads readers.”

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Clinton did not address the unflattering headlines. Instead, he tried to find a bright side to the ragged day. “I left right on time and a truck fell over on the Tappan Zee Bridge,” he explained to the crowd. “But if you go over the Tappan Zee, you see our biggest new construction project, the new Tappan Zee — that’s what we need in America.”

Continued at:

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/bill-clinton-new-jersey-campaign-223178

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