Turkey Suspect Roundup , Hillary and Hamilton

Aftermath: Turkey has carried out raids rounding up 13 Islamic State suspects after the suicide attack at Istanbul’s airport. Turkey believes the Islamic State is responsible for the attack that killed 42 and wounded 230.

Turkey has been a transit station for Islamic State fighters from around the world passing into Syria. Turkey has been cracking down, and recent attacks, including the airport bombing, are evidence of ISIS displeasure.

Permawar: US warplanes hit an Islamic State convoy outside Fallujah, Iraq, killing as many as 250 ISIS fighters. In Afghanistan, a Taliban bomb attack on a police convoy outside Kabul has killed 30 people.

The Horse Race: A new Fox News poll of registered voters has Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump 44 to 38 percent in a general election. In May, Fox had Trump leading by three points.

The Fox poll says Trump is beginning to lose support among men and his numbers with women are just woeful. Women are behind Hillary 51 to 32 percent.

Nate Silver, the poll cruncher of the FiveThiryEight blog, said on ABC’s Good Morning America yesterday that Clinton has a 79 percent chance of winning and Trump only 20.

“We’re at halftime of the election right now,” Silver said. “She’s taking a 7-point, maybe a 10-point lead into halftime. There’s a lot of football left to be played. She’s ahead in almost every poll, every swing state, every national poll.”

Success: The NY Times has taken a closer look at Donald Trump’s “Trump Institute,” a paid business seminar which, like its cousin “Trump University,” wasn’t what it was cracked up to be. Trump promised in a promo video that, “I put all of my concepts that have worked so well for me, new and old, into our seminar. I’m teaching what I’ve learned.”

And what he’s learned is that there’s a sucker born every minute. Customers paid $2,000. The Times reports that seminar was run by a couple that had a shady record and that much of the materials were cribbed from a 1995 book published by Success magazine.

The 51st State: With Puerto Rico on the verge of a major debt default, the Senate yesterday approved a financial relief bill that President Obama says he will sign.

It’s not a bailout. The bill allows Puerto Rico only to restructure its debt so it can manage the payments. Treasury Secy. Jack Lew told the NY Times, “I could write a bill that I think would be a better bill, but I don’t know that anyone could write a better bill that would pass the Congress that also solves the problem.”

#OscarsLessWhite: In response to complaints that Oscar voters are predominantly white males, The Motion Picture Academy announced that it’s inviting more women and minorities to join this year.

The Academy says 46 percent of this year’s 683 invitees are women, and 41 percent are minorities. They’ve got some makeup work to do. If all the women and minorities they’ve invited actually join, minority membership would be 11 percent women 27 percent. Bring up the music.

Pool News: Michael Phelps won the 200-meter butterfly in Omaha yesterday to qualify for his fifth Olympics. He’ll be the first male swimmer to compete in that many Olympics. He’s already won 22 medals, 18 of them gold.

The Obit Page: Alvin Toffler, whose 1970 bestseller “Future Shock” predicted much of the social and technological change the world is experiencing today, has died at age 87. His book sold millions of copies and is still in print.

Toffler foresaw cloning, personal computers, the internet, cable television and telecommuting, and the social upheaval in a world in which knowledge would have more economic value than labor.

Orchestral Maneuvers: It’s been an unusual year in presidential politics and it just got stranger. Donald Trump didn’t say anything outrageously new and Bernie Sanders hasn’t quit. Now Hillary Clinton is running a contest for supporters to win tickets to the Broadway hit Hamilton and a chance to meet Hillary herself.

The contest rules promise, “No purchase, payment, contribution, or signing up to receive texts is necessary to win, and will not improve chances of winning.” Also, the rules include a properly presidential disclaimer: “Void where prohibited.”

Sunday, December 22, 2024

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It's Been Said

"Christians, get out and vote, just this time. You won't have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what, it will be fixed, it will be fine, you won't have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians. I love you Christians. I'm a Christian. I love you, get out, you gotta get out and vote. In four years, you don't have to vote again, we'll have it fixed so good you're not going to have to vote."

  • Donald Trump courting the vote of the Christian right

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