August 4, 2016

Posted by orrinj at 8:45 PM

MR. 30%:

  New poll shows Clinton with largest lead over Trump yet (The Week, 8/04/16)

A new McClatchy-Marist poll released Thursday shows Hillary Clinton has opened her biggest polling lead against Donald Trump yet. The poll, conducted after the conclusion of both parties' nominating conventions, shows Clinton holding a 15-point lead in a head-to-head match-up against Trump, pulling 48 percent support to his 33 percent. In a four-way race including the Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and the Green Party candidate Jill Stein, Clinton still leads Trump by 14 points, 45 percent to 31 percent.

Posted by Glenn Dryfoos at 8:23 PM

A BELATED HAPPY 90th BIRTHDAY...

to Tony Bennett
Posted by orrinj at 12:15 PM

THE FACE OF ISLAM:

After priest's murder, Muslims join French and Italian Catholics at mass (Aidan Quigley, JULY 31, 2016, CS Monitor)


Muslims in France and Italy joined Catholics to celebrate Mass following the murder of a priest earlier this week by two young men who claimed allegiance to the self-described Islamic State.

Between 100 and 200 Muslims joined 2,000 worshipers at the Gothic cathedral in Rouen, a city just a few miles from Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, where on Tuesday two Islamist militants killed 85-year-old priest Jacques Hamel.

Posted by orrinj at 12:07 PM

NO ONE WILLING TO WORK DOESN'T HAVE A JOB:

Requests for unemployment aid rise to still-low 269,000 (LA Timers, 8/04/16)

More Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, but the number remained close to historic lows in a positive sign for the job market.  [...]

Economists estimate that Friday's employment report will show that 175,000 jobs were added in July, with the unemployment rate dipping to 4.8% from 4.9%. 

Posted by orrinj at 11:56 AM

POLITICS IS SKILLED LABOR:

Donors losing patience with Trump (Jonathan Swan, 8/03/16, The Hill)

Both Manafort and the Trump children are trying to get the candidate back on message -- back to talking about the economy and Hillary Clinton and her ethical problems.

But there are more basic problems with the Trump campaign that continue to frustrate senior officials and allies.

Trump's lack of discipline on Twitter remains an issue, despite several aides now working on his Twitter feed.

"I would break his f---ing thumbs if I could ... because he can't stop f---ing tweeting," said the Trump fundraiser. 

The fundraiser said things had gotten so bad over the past 48 hours that there was no point in making fresh fundraising pitches on Wednesday. The only calls at the moment involve donors venting their anger, the fundraiser said.

"You know what a lot of donors are talking about? It's that Trump is saying that the race is rigged ... because he can't accept blame. ... He's one of these personalities who can never say he's wrong, never say he's made a mistake.  

"There's nothing rigged," the fundraiser added. "Look, if a few dead people vote in Chicago or Pennsylvania, who cares? That isn't going to be the difference."

Another senior member of Trump's fundraising team told The Hill that donors are sending messages and emails saying, "Tell Trump to stay on message and keep attacking Hillary and stop the other antics." 

"People don't understand what he's doing," the fundraiser said on Wednesday. "He's not attacking Hillary, he's attacking our own. You eat your young, right?" 

"Do I feel uncomfortable? I've felt uncomfortable all along. The question is when do you lose your enthusiasm and stop working as hard."

Wealthy Republicans Campaign For Hillary Clinton, Reject Trump  (Reuters, 8/04/16)

Groups of wealthy Republicans unhappy with Donald Trump have been privately courting prominent peers to join them in backing Democrat Hillary Clinton's U.S. presidential bid, several people involved in the effort told Reuters.

They say they are seeking money and endorsements from other Republicans disillusioned by Trump, their party's candidate for the Nov. 8 presidential election. Some have received encouragement from Clinton and members of her campaign staff.

"I made the decision that I wouldn't be able to look at my grandkids if I voted for Trump," said Dan Webb, a former federal prosecutor and a self-described "Republican for decades" working to win over prominent Republican business people in Chicago. [...]


Groups formed to support Clinton include Republicans for Her 2016, run by Republican lobbyist Craig Snyder; a grassroots organization called R4C16, led by John Stubbs and Ricardo Reyes, officials in former President George W. Bush's administration; and the Republican Women for Hillary group co-led by Jennifer Pierotti Lim, an official at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.


 Obama Is Right about Trump (KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON, August 4, 2016, National Review)


Yes, Obama is a preening mediocrity and a genuine dullard in the matter of international relations -- but is what he said about Trump true? 

Of course it is true. 

Dennis Prager, who in January insisted that "Trump is unfit to be president" and that arguments about Supreme Court appointments were mostly baloney because there is no reason to have "confidence that he would nominate conservatives to the Supreme Court," is lecturing Trump critics that we must support him in order to "prevent a left-wing Supreme Court." Prager should read Prager. 

Prager, who sells books about anti-Semitism, is among those getting into bed with every Jew-hating weirdo not named Al Sharpton to elect a candidate who opposes conservative ideas at nearly every turn, and who is -- even Obama gets one right every now and again -- morally and intellectually unfit for the office, and he is doing so on the strength of a Supreme Court argument that Prager himself thought was bumf just a few months ago. 

Donald Trump could very well nominate Judge Judy to the Supreme Court. 

If your argument is, "Regardless, I prefer him to Hillary Rodham Clinton," okey-dokey. But let's be honest about what exactly it is you prefer to Mrs. Clinton, what manner of man you would see entrusted with the most powerful political portfolio on Earth. If you are going to do that, then you should have the intellectual honesty and the moral courage to be straight and plain about what it is you are doing.  



Gaps in Melania Trump's immigration story raise questions (BEN SCHRECKINGER and GABRIEL DEBENEDETTI, 08/04/16, Politico)

The racy photos of the would-be first lady, published in the New York Post on Sunday and Monday, inadvertently highlight inconsistencies in the various accounts she has provided over the years. And, immigration experts say, there's even a slim chance that any years-old misrepresentations to immigration authorities could pose legal problems for her today.

While Trump and her husband, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, have said she came to the United States legally, her own statements suggest she first came to the country on a short-term visa that would not have authorized her to work as a model. Trump has also said she came to New York in 1996, but the nude photo shoot places her in the United States in 1995, as does a biography published in February by Slovenian journalists.





Posted by orrinj at 11:48 AM

JUST ADD THEM TO NAFTA:

UK On Course To Reach Trade Deal With Canada Before The EU Can (Harry Phibbs, August 4, 2016, Heat Street)

Six weeks on from the referendum, we already have a pretty good clue that Brexit will mean wider trading opportunities around the world.

"What would Remain look like?" was a question that BBC viewers heard far less often during the campaign. The implication was that all was settled and calm with the European Union and thus the question was superfluous. But the reality for the EU is ever more chaotic and dysfunctional. 

The attempt to agree a trade deal with Canada has been a nightmare of complexity. The haggling has been going on for an extraordinary seven years.

Jean-Luc Demarty, the European Union's director general for trade, sounds like a broken man. He warns the EU will be "close to death" should the deal collapse after all this effort. Yet it may well.

The struggle and delay is scarcely surprising. For a deal to be reached, all 28 member states of the EU have to agree terms. It is reported that Romania and Bulgaria are unwilling to do so. They are cutting up rough over an (unrelated) matter of visa entry to Canada. Doubtless if Demarty manages to placate them, some other country will come up with special demands.

The deal was due to be finalised at a summit in October, but now there are fears that the whole thing could drift on a few more years - or possibly collapse altogether. [...]


Before the referendum result the Canadians officially cautioned  against Brexit - perhaps as a result of some private arm twisting  instigated by Downing Street. But now Freeland is adopting a very different tone. She suspects that a proper free trade agreement with the UK is highly desirable and eminently achievable. She says of the UK: "We have a very robust relationship - we are not just friends, we are family."

Of course a UK-Canada trade deal will still be a major task. Also we in the UK are a bit out of practice in having the freedom to negotiate for ourselves.

Yet it will be an initiative of those who believe in what they are doing and determined to accomplish the task in a straightforward manner - not always on the look-out for mind numbing devices to frustrate the process.

It will be two nations with a shared history and common language seeking agreement. That is a rather different proposition for Canada than dealing with 28 nations.

Posted by orrinj at 11:44 AM

LIKE MANNING THE PUMPS ON THE TITANIC:

11-Year-Old to Pence: Will Your Job Just Be Damage Control for Trump? (Chandler Gill, August 4, 2016, Daily Beacon)

"Good morning Governor Pence," the boy said. "I've been watching the news lately, and I've been noticing that you have been kind of softening up on Mr. Trump's-uh-policies and words. Is this going to be your role in the administration?"

Posted by orrinj at 7:54 AM

NOT A QUESTION OF IF BUT WHEN HE QUITS:

Hillary Clinton Holds Big Lead Over Donald Trump in New Hampshire, Poll Shows (KATHARINE Q. SEELYEAUG. 4, 2016, NY Times)

New Hampshire voters who either prefer or lean toward Mrs. Clinton outnumber those who prefer or lean toward Mr. Trump by 47 percent to 32 percent, according to the poll, conducted for WBUR, an NPR station in Boston, by the MassInc Polling Group. [...]

But 56 percent of New Hampshire voters say she came out of her convention a stronger candidate, and only 39 percent said the same of Mr. Trump.

Perhaps most important, 63 percent say Mr. Trump is not fit to be president.

Given the other polls out today, the election is over as far as the Cheeto Jesus is concerned:

PA Clinton +11 MI Clinton + 9 (4-way) via @RealClearNews

Posted by orrinj at 7:48 AM

ALONG THE ANGLOSPHERE:

What You Need to Know About India's Biggest Economic Reform in Decades (Nikhil Kumar, 8/04/16, TIME)

Late on Aug. 3, after a debate lasting almost eight hours, Indian lawmakers approved plans for a major economic overhaul to turn the country into one unified market in which businesses can trade goods and services across state lines without having to navigate a prohibitive array of federal and local taxes. In what has been billed as the most significant reform since India opened up its economy in 1991, the measure is aimed at sweeping away a maze of levies that have hampered economic growth by making it harder for businesses to expand nationwide. Instead, the idea is to introduce a single tax system that would allow, for example, freight trucks to move quickly across India, rather than spending hours idling at multiple checkpoints filling in forms and making tax payments when they travel between states.

By simplifying the system, India, already the world's fastest-growing large economy, could see growth rise by as much as 2%. The successful passage of the so-called Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill is a big win for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has been criticized for not doing enough to reform India's economy since he came to power in 2014. Here is what you need to know about the landmark reform.
 
India's current tax system has long been recognized as a major drag on the economy. Plans to simplify the process were first mooted more than a decade ago, and the first GST bill came before Parliament in 2011, when Modi was still a regional leader. It was his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), then in opposition in New Delhi, that blocked the law proposed by the Congress Party-led government. But the tables were turned in 2014, when Modi led the BJP to power and the Congress began opposing the measure. More than two years of political bickering followed before the Congress, which found itself increasingly isolated on the issue as the BJP won the support of regional political parties, finally relented this week.