Op-ed: The final votes remain to be counted but Hillary Clinton got 2 million votes more than Donald Trump. She got 63 million and he got 61 million.
Sixty-one million people cast ballots for Trump. And the Times and others say as more West Coast votes are counted her margin is likely to increase. Hundreds of thousands of voter fraud were reported on Twitter but a Trump administration is unlikely to investigate. There also were stories of voter suppression. In fact, Clinton has accused the FBI of winning the election for Trump with false accusations. FBI Director “James Comey's announcement of a new inquiry into her use of email while secretary of state shortly before election day had stopped her campaign's momentum,” Clinton told the BBC. This same Comey blocked allegations of Russia intervening on Trump’s side because it was too close to the election. “The Russian government maintained contacts with members of Donald J. Trump’s “immediate entourage” during the American presidential campaign,” one of Russia’s top diplomats said Thursday. “There were contacts,” Sergei A. Ryabkov, the deputy foreign minister, was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. “We continue to do this and have been doing this work during the election campaign,” he said. This is the fifth time the winner of the popular vote has lost because States voted in the Electoral College. In all five cases Democrats had the most votes. While Trump has sought to be conciliatory, particularly on Obamacare, it remains to be seen whether the Republicans in the Senate and House will cooperate. And his base will soon be calling him a liar if he backs off. Trump’s “Trump University” fraud trial is still set to begin Nov. 28. The judge handling the case has refused to delay it but has suggested a settlement might be a good idea because the presidency is involved. One again, Trump would be settling a lawsuit with money. And when will be the public get to see his taxes. He may not be able to hide them once he is in the White House. New York Times CNBC New York
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Op-ed: Could Our Next President Go To Jail?
“Lock her up,” “Lock Her Up,” is often heard at Donald Trump rallies, along with pro-NAZI, KKK and anti-Jewish shouts. There is a precedent for such action after a presidential election. And it even occurred more than four years after the election. The president and vice president generally have immunity for acts committed while in office. But it was a Republican – then Vice President Spiro T. Agnew. Elected as Richard Nixon’s vice president in 1968, he got in trouble in his second term. “In 1973, Agnew was investigated by the United States Attorney for the District of Maryland on charges of extortion, tax fraud, bribery, and conspiracy. He was charged with having accepted bribes totaling more than $100,000 while holding office as Baltimore County Executive, Governor of Maryland, and Vice President. On October 10 that same year, Agnew was allowed to plead no contest to a single charge that he had failed to report $29,500 of income received in 1967, with the condition that he resign the office of Vice President,” Wikipedia reports. “Nearly ten years after leaving office, Agnew paid the state of Maryland nearly $270,000 as a result of a civil suit that stemmed from the bribery allegations.” Although Trump has been able to escape jail with settlements of numerous fraud cases his luck may be running out. The first of at least one trial for fraud at his “Trump University” and he faces trial for allegedly raping a teen. That case is set for December. In some cases these trials have been repeatedly delayed. “A jury trial will begin on November 28 in California federal court for one of the three pending class-action lawsuits against him over Trump University.The civil fraud case going to trial alleges the university violated false advertising laws with its programs in Florida, New York, and California for claiming that Trump would handpick instructors and that they would have extensive real estate experience. Students also say they were deceived into maxing out their credit cards to pay for Trump University fees without getting any practical advice in return. “Another case is also pending in California federal court on behalf of all Trump University participants. “The third is in New York state court following a lawsuit filed by New York’s attorney general accusing Trump University of fraud as it “repeatedly deceived students into thinking that they were attending a legally chartered ‘university.’” That lawsuit also claims students were misled about the instructors. The university was not in fact accredited, nor was Trump involved in selecting instructors. They instead were given scripts that told them to pretend they had met Trump.” These are civil cases. He could go to jail on rape charges if convicted. “Trump’s lawyers will appear in New York district court on December 16 for a lawsuit claiming that he raped a child, referred to only as “Jane Doe,” when she was 13 in 1994. Doe’s complaint alleges that Trump and Jeffrey Epstein (the latter a former banker and a sex offender) subjected her to “acts of rape, sexual misconduct, criminal sexual acts, sexual abuse, forcible touching, assault, battery,” and other forms of emotional and physical duress. The instances, it says, took place at a series of parties at Epstein’s residence in New York City. Doe says that during their last alleged encounter, Trump tied her to a bed and then violently raped her in a “savage sexual attack” while she pleaded with him to stop. She says that he told her if she ever spoke publicly about what happened, he would hurt her and her family, Think Progress also reported. Think Progress  Op-ed: Not only is Donald Trump behind in polls with about two weeks to go, pundits believe his remarks about nasty women will elect more of them than ever before. “The irony is that Donald Trump may result in Democratic women having their best year ever. In the final two weeks of the 2016 contest, Democrats are casting the GOP nominee’s insult-driven, misogynistic campaign as the embodiment of everything they say the Republican Party gets wrong on women. And their effort looks poised to deliver record-setting results,” Politico reports. “It’s not just Hillary Clinton, who would of course be the first female president if she defeats him, or Nancy Pelosi, who has a slim chance of reclaiming the speaker’s gavel if enough Republican seats get sunk by Trump. In many of their most competitive races, Democrats are poised to win House and Senate seats that could easily bring the number of women to new levels in both chambers, along with potentially two female governors winning their first elections.” For three weekends in a row, after he bragged about being such a big star he could grab any woman’s private parts, Trump has been the target of hilarious skits on Saturday Night Live that have gotten some record ratings. The election website 538 predicts Trump’s foul tongue will depress the turnout of Republicans. “The nightmare scenario for the GOP is that high-information Republican voters, seeing Trump imploding and not necessarily having been happy with him as their nominee in the first place, feel free to cast a protest vote at the top of the ticket. Meanwhile, lower information Repubican voters don’t turn out at all, given that Trump’s rigging rhetoric could suppress their vote and that Republicans don’t have the field operation to pull them back in,” said 538. The New York Times has published a list of Trump insults. Last weekend a Saturday Night Live skit, hosted by the popular Tom Hanks, drew laughs by saying Trump had won the national election insult “Bingo.” The latest polls have Hillary Clinton with a lead of at least five percent, some put her in double digits. To win she needs 270 votes in the electoral collect. Many believe she will top 330 votes. New York Times Politico 538 Vox  Op-ed: When Donald Trump called Hillary Clinton the devil and threatened to jail her it was not the first time I had heard such talk, though not in recent years and in America. It reminded me of political contests in the Third World, and often the incumbent made good threats to jail opponents. Sometimes they were never seen again. This was over the top even for a potty mouth. We don’t threaten opponents on debate stages. "If I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your (missing email) situation," Trump said, "because there has never been so many lies, so much deception." Trump's threat -- which he has made before on the campaign trail -- is extraordinary even by the standard of the vitriolic 2016 campaign. Clinton responded first by calling Trump's comments about her emails false, then said, "It's just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country." Trump, as if continuing her sentence, added: "Because you'd be in jail." It was very Nixonian, said former Attorney General Eric Holder, a Democrat. He recalled Nixon’s attorney general quit when ordered to fire the Watergate special prosecutor. But Republicans were shocked as well. “Former White House said, "Winning candidates don't threaten to put opponents in jail," he tweeted. "Presidents don't threaten prosecution of individuals. Trump is wrong on this." There was a certain irony as Trump stalked Hillary on the stage, to use the verb chosen by several pundits, to talk about jailing her. He is the one facing trial three weeks after the election for running a phoney university. And he will face trial in more than one state for ripping off students. Trump’s Foundation has been ordered to cease and desist taking donations because it is not registered. In our living room, and many others from what I heard on several stations, people wondered why the taller Trump kept creeping up behind Clinton when it was her turn to speak. It seemed like something from a Frankenstein movie. In the past such bizarre behavior has worked for Trump. Appparently not Sunday night. Nearly as scary as the jail threat was his total lack of knowledge of Russia’s role in Syria. It reminded some viewers of Libertarian Gary Johnson’s comment “What is Aleppo.” The two polls taken right after the event showed Hillary the winner. Before the debate many Republicans had abandoned him, others said they would look for a strong performance to get him back in the race as his poll numbers tumble. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/who-won-the-debate_us_57fb0e0ae4b068ecb5dfbc2c http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/09/politics/eric-holder-nixon-trump-presidential-debate/  Op-ed: Monday was the first televised debate with Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton sharing the same stage.
At times it appeared Donald Trump was one of Dr. Jane Goodall’s chimpanzees. Asked about Russians or others spying on us, Trump said it could have been anyone, even a “400 pound man sitting on a bed.” Time after time he took the bait when Hillary Clinton talked about the government loopholes he had benefited from. He boasted of making money from the recession which cost millions their homes. “That’s called business, by the way.” He was unclear about when and if he would release his tax details, at one point saying he would if she, Mrs Clinton, released her emails and then saying he would not. Clinton responded: “Well, I think you've seen another example of bait-and- switch here. For 40 years, everyone running for president has released their tax returns. You can go and see nearly, I think, 39, 40 years of our tax returns, but everyone has done it. We know the IRS has made clear there is no prohibition on releasing it when you're under audit. “So you've got to ask yourself, why won't he release his tax returns? And I think there may be a couple of reasons. First, maybe he's not as rich as he says he is. Second, maybe he's not as charitable as he claims to be.” Trump has refused offers of millions of dollars from billionaire Mark Cuban if he would simply answer some questions about his alleged wealth. A CNN poll and others said Clinton won the debate, but time will tell. The 538 website said her poll numbers will rise if she did win the debate. Trump frequently interrupted Clinton but she did not seem to react. “Polling over the next few days will reveal how voters, particularly those who haven’t made up their minds about whether or for whom they will cast their ballots, processed the debate. Immediate reactions from focus groups and spot polling showed Clinton the victor,” said Real Clear Politics. Rolling Stone said: “The most important exchange of the night came on climate change. Clinton, after outlining her plan to make America a clean-energy superpower, hit Trump as a denier: "Donald thinks that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese," she said. "I think it's real." “Trump then lied. Flat out lied. In a night full of lies, Trump's attempt to disavow climate denial was "bigly" the biggest. "I did not. I did not," Trump said, overtalking. "I do not say that." “But Trump did say that. In a tweet in November of 2012, Trump insisted: "The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive." “This is not the only time Trump has blasted climate change as a myth. Indeed, climate denial is a drum Trump likes to bang nearly as much as the racist birther lie."
Op-ed: Fat Trump a Health Risk for President
While the TV nation focused on Hillary Clinton’s brief episode with pneumonia, it was learned that Donald Trump has a much more serious health problem. He is so fat, or obese, that he may be prone to heart attacks and diabetes, and he is 12 years older than Mrs Clinton. He gobbles fast food, not healthy for anyone. It is bizarre that in a country that worships thinness Trump has been able to pull this off. And not only is it a question of how models look, but doctors have warned that obesity is a killer, especially among the elderly. They say it is at epidemic levels. Trump is 70, and would be the oldest president in nearly a century, and close to the most obese ever. Some accounts list him at 237 pounds, others at 267. He is 6 foot 3. And his only exercise is an occasional round of golf. “There’s a legitimate issue,” said Dr. David Plouffe.” A paper put out by the National Institutes of Health said: “Obesity is a significant risk factor for and contributor to increased morbidity and mortality, most importantly from cardiovascular disease (CVD) and diabetes, but also from cancer and chronic diseases, including osteoarthritis, liver and kidney disease, sleep apnea, and depression. The prevalence of obesity has increased steadily over the past 5 decades, and obesity may have a significant impact on quality-adjusted life years. Obesity is also strongly associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality as well as cardiovascular and cancer mortality.” “Considering Trump’s age, his weight becomes a significant risk factor.” A Georgetown University report on obesity among older Americans includes this startling warning: “Rates of chronic conditions are higher among obese adults than among their non-obese counterparts, but the differences between groups are particularly great for adults ages 51 to 69. Obesity can also affect the severity of chronic conditions. For example, obese older people with arthritis are more likely to say the condition limits their activities than non-obese adults age 51 and older." Obesity, like smoking, heavy drinking, and poverty is a known health risk factor. Of the four risk factors, obesity is the most serious problem. It affects more people and is more strongly linked to very high rates of chronic illness than the other three risk factors. In terms of chronic conditions, the effects of obesity are similar to the effects of 20 years of aging.” The Washington Post said, “It is ironic that Trumpkins have made such a to-do about Hillary Clinton’s health. He’s got a real issue that isn’t going to be cured by a couple days of bed rest. “Nevertheless, he won’t provide documentation for voters to assess his health and how that might impact his presidency. No presidential candidate of a major party in modern times has gotten away with stiffing voters and concealing personal information. “The media, once again, seems to miss the forest for the trees in this campaign. Entirely legitimate questions get raised about a candidate who has never held public office. He has a demonstrated pattern of blatant lying. And he refuses to come clean by providing verifiable information about his finances and health. Why isn’t that the story day in and out? Trump plainly has a lot to hide, and neither the media nor the voters should let him get away with it.” http://wapo.st/2cLsD3M http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2879283/ https://hpi.georgetown.edu/agingsociety/pubhtml/obesity2/obesity2.html
Op-ed: Donald Trump’s new, darker image took less than 24 hours to hit the Internet and rightwing TV.
How he would have us praying for Hillary Clinton, whose health problems might mean she won’t make it election day. Trump replaced his top two campaign managers who can only be described as pit bulls after manager Paul Manaford was seen as too close to Russsian President Vladimir Putin. One, Stephen Bannon, was running one of the most anti-human rights sites in the nation, Brietbart. It predicted she would be dead soon. His first attack was Clinton’s health, whose public health records have been released to anyone who wants to see them, citing a celebrity doctor, Pinsky. Pinsky said he was "gravely concerned" about Clinton's health, noting her doctor's 2015 assessment that showed a "1950 level sort of care" by the evaluation of himself and a colleague. Pinsky said Clinton was being treated for her hypothyroidism with "Armour Thyroid, which is very unconventional and something that we used to use in the 1960s." "Then she falls and hits her head and as a complication of that has a transverse sinus thrombosis," Pinsky said, in reference to Clinton's 2012 medical episode. "This is an exceedingly rare clot. I have only seen one in my career. It just seems like she's getting care from somebody that she met in Arkansas when she was a kid and I just -- you gotta wonder. You got to wonder. It's not so much that her health is a grave concern, it's that the care she's getting could make it a concern." As has so often occurred this was too much even for Republican leaders. Newt Gingrich said: "Well, I think first of all, just to get down to the human level for a second, all of us ought to include Hillary Clinton in our prayers. You can be opposed to somebody without hoping they have bad health and I hope that she's all right," Gingrich responded. "Second, I’m always dubious, with all due respect to television doctors, when you have a doctor who has never seen the patient, begin to give you a complicated, fancy sounding analysis based on what? I mean, I would be very cautious and I would recommend to doctors for professional reasons to be very cautious deciding you’re going to start analyzing people. Because next you're gonna get a left-wing psychiatrist explaining Donald Trump in negative terms." … "I think we ought to recognize that's kind of junk medicine," Gingrich said. "That’s not the real deal." Politico reported: Clinton's internist, based in Mount Kisco, New York, released a statement on the candidate's health in July 2015. Clinton Health Statement- https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2188570/letter.pdf http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/clinton-health-concerns-pushback-227159 http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/01/08/sudden-death-dr-drew-warns-of-coming-pulmonary-embolism-with-hillary-clintons-shoddy-health/ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-gunter/im-a-doctor-heres-concerning-trumps-medical-letter_b_11565838.html |
