Elections

Federal, State, and Local Election Antics

Trump Reaches Magic 1237

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Do you hear cheering from The National Review, the Bush’s, or the GOPe, yet?  Or from the Mittens Romney compound?  Here’s the headline from the AP, “Trump reaches the magic number to clinch nomination“.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump reached the number of delegates needed to clinch the Republican nomination for president Thursday, Trump_At_His_Wall (2)completing an unlikely rise that has upended the political landscape and set the stage for a bitter fall campaign.

Trump was put over the top in the Associated Press delegate count by a small number of the party’s unbound delegates who told the AP they would support him at the national convention in July. Among them is Oklahoma GOP chairwoman Pam Pollard.

Hillary Was Afraid To Open Her Own Emails

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From the Washington Times we find that, “Hillary Clinton failed to report several hacking attempts, grew afraid of opening emails“.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a secret email to conduct official business broke a number of department policies, an inspector general Hillary_Liar_Land_Ramirezconcluded in a report sent to Capitol Hill Wednesday that also suggests she used the account to try to hide her communications from the public.

The 83-page report, obtained by The Washington Times, is devastating in its evaluation of Mrs. Clinton’s behavior, saying it can find no record of her getting approval from either security or legal staffers for her unique arrangement. The report also undercuts many of her campaign’s explanations for her use of the system, dismisses comparisons to her predecessors’ email use, and points to repeated hacking attempts that she failed to report.

Feeling the “Bern” in Venezuela

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So how is that “Free” thing working out for you in the Socialist Utopia of Venezuela?

From YahooNews, “Venezuela, where a hamburger is officially $170“.

Caracas (AFP) – If a visitor to Venezuela is unfortunate enough to pay for anything with a foreign credit card, the eye-watering cost might suggest they were in a city pricier than Tokyo or Zurich.

Bernie_Sanders_Breadlines_2016A hamburger sold for 1,700 Venezuelan bolivares is $170, or a 69,000-bolivar hotel room is $6,900 a night, based on the official rate of 10 bolivares for $1.

But of course no merchant is pricing at the official rate imposed under currency controls. It’s the black market rate of 1,000 bolivares per dollar that’s applied.

But for Venezuelans paid in hyperinflation-hit bolivares, and living in an economy relying on mostly imported goods or raw materials, conditions Bernie_Sanders_Hollywood_Foolsare unthinkably expensive.

Even for the middle class, most of it sliding into poverty, hamburgers and hotels are out-of-reach excesses.

“Everybody is knocked low,” Michael Leal, a 34-year-old manager of an eyewear store in Caracas, told AFP. “We can’t breathe.”

– Shuttered stores –

John McCain Endorses Donald Trump

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According to CBSNews.com in their report, “4 ways Republican officeholders are reacting to Donald Trump“, John McCain falls somewhere in the “mushy middle“.  Can you tell by his face exactly where in that “middle” he falls”?

Others have suggested they’ll support Trump, but they’ve taken pains to avoid using his name, referring to him instead as simply with the generic “nominee.”

John_McCain_Endorsing_Trump“I feel, as a Republican and a longtime Reagan Republican, that I support the nominee of the party, and that’s what I’ve said all along,” Arizona Sen. John McCain told the Washington Post last week.’

Still others have said they can’t bring themselves to support Trump yet, but they’ve made clear they’d like to consult with the presumptive nominee with an eye to eventually endorsing him.

“I hope to support our nominee, I hope to support his candidacy fully,” House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, told CNN last week. “At this point, I’m just not there right now.”