Earlier this week an investigation by the Daily Caller News Foundation revealed Democrat frontrunner Hillary Clinton and her husband received no less than $100 million from autocratic regimes in the Middle East.

Clinton operatives insist the money showered on the Clintons did not have an effect on foreign policy while Hillary was secretary of state.

Documents released in March by Judicial Watch also show numerous instances of influence peddling at the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative. Clinton and her State Department aides were involved in fundraising for the foundation, according to the documents.

What? No more ugly Hillary pictures to post?

Yes, we get it. Fanatical right wing Republicans no longer consider it to be enough to have superior political views to their opponents, but they must also be ethically and morally superior. The right wingers just love to charge that their opponents are literally criminals.

Judicial Watch is a right wing organization which has been on a crusade against the Clintons for years. In a political system that depends on successful candidates raising big money to be competitive, influence peddling is the prefect mud to throw at an opponent. It can be easily charged in an election campaign, and since it involves a person's MOTIVATIONS and not their ACTIONS, it is essentially impossible for that person to prove actual innocence. It almost never comes to trial of course, since what goes on in a person's mind is very nearly impossible to prove in court. But no problem, the political damage is already done.

It is going to be supremely satisfying to see all the fanatical right wing Hillary hating Republicans weeping bitter tears when Hillary Clinton is sworn in as the 45th President of the United States.

Interesting history on the FDR/Truman era. It should be pointed out that extenuating circumstances of World War played a huge role in '44 a time FDR was visibly dying from heart failure and cardiovascular disease, he died of a massive stroke only five months after being reelected.
Then another set of extenuating circumstances in '48 when the Republicans brokered the candidacy of New York Governor Thomas Dewy. Dewy was heavily favored and Truman was considered an oaf and a bit beneath the Presidency by many with his crass commentary and plain spoken approach and frequent use of profanity in public. A sharp contrast to the dapper buttoned down dandy Thomas E Dewy. Nonetheless he said from the outset " I'm going to beat them and I'm going to make them like it ". So he did, it was a serious blow to the Establishment Republicans who backed Dewy.

Great post. "Dapper buttoned down dandy" describes the arrogant self-righteous New York Governor and former prosecutor Dewey perfectly. It was one thing to lose to FDR in 1944, but his defeat by Harry Truman, the plain spoken "Man from Missouri" in 1948 was one of the greatest upsets in American political history.

Anyone interested in political OR television history might be interested in this video clip of the 1948 NBC television election coverage. (Probably the very first televised presidential election coverage.) Attempts to get a statement from President Truman at his election night headquarters at the Muehlebach Hotel in Kansas City were by telephone, since in 1948, there was not yet a coaxial cable or microwave connection to permit transmission of a live TV picture between Kansas City and New York.

The most interesting part of this 27 minute clip is probably the last half. Just a little desk in the corner of a studio with a TV camera in front of it and vote totals by chalk on a blackboard. Two of the people at the desk are John Cameron Swayze and Ben Grauer -- famous early TV newsmen. Unable to contact Truman by phone in Kansas City, Ben Grauer, just before signoff, makes a big deal of being able to cut to a film of Truman made during the campaign. Being able to cut to film in the studio was apparently unusual in 1948. At least as a part of live TV news coverage.

This TV election coverage would have only been seen live in the East. Probably New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, etc. There was no live TV into Kansas City at the time, and I think I read that the link into the Midwest between New York and Chicago was not finished until about 1949. I think that the live TV link across the Rockies that finally connected New York and California was not completed until about 1957.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MwePofIu8o

Get out and vote...



And if you don't vote for Trump, get a BJ!

Where do I stand on political issues? On neither side.
One side is Piss; the other side is Shit; and the
road before me is Concrete, life goes on and so must I.

This election year I am willing to forego and neglect
my right to vote, because in my eyes ALL poliTICKcians
are Assholes regardless of whatever political party
they represent or are affiliated with.
I've come to this conclusion after a wasted lifetime
expecting Change for the better and seeing nothing
else but the same Shit-show over and over again
with a different face in Office.

It's always been said that "every vote counts".
I do not believe so. Because every time that I
vote for, or against, candidates it is I the Voter
who always gets the shortest straw months later
after the new Asshole assumes his (or her) role
into office of Power.

No matter who I vote for, or against, I am still
placing an Asshole into power only to whine about
it later when my candidate Fails me.

Voters cheer their candidates along the campaign
trail Today... and then they whine when their beloved
candidate Fails them six months or a year later on
down the road, they bitch about it and blame others
for their candidate's failure.

I am sick and tired of being blamed for other
people's candidate's failures.
And I am sick and tired of being in the kind of a
voter position of Love My Candidate Now, Hate My
Candidate Later; and still stuck here holding
the shortest straw in my hands, either way.
It's not fair.

As much as I'm intrigued watching candidates go
into national televised debates with one another,
to me it is all just another Clown Show bated
with media dirt, scandals, mud-slinging, provocations,
and other useless Bullshit "issues" that I naturally
do not give a Fuck about.

Whenever the most important issues become overshadowed
by childish arguments and immature shenanigans between
so-called "professional" and "grown up" candidates
I must look the other way or shut my TV off.
In this case, too much sound-doctrine is poisonous
to my state of being.

Let alone in just one aspect, that of the progress
of LGBT Civil Rights, it no longer matters to me
that any political candidate "supports" my civil
rights as a gay man... as such, I am only good for
my votes and my "disposable income" donations to
political campaigns; and once the candidate is
in Office he or she will no longer give a fuck
about an average-joe queer individual such as me.
It's all a charade, and about Mind Over Matter:
Politicians don't mind, because I don't matter.

Of course, Civil Rights belongs to everyone
regardless of whoever we are or whatever walk of life
you, I, he, or she comes from...
At the end of the day, Politicians don't mind
because we don't matter.
In my own honest opinion.

As for my civil rights, I have all the civil rights
I need right here in my Mind, my Heart, my bare Fists,
and my walkin Boots.
I cannot rely on politicians to fight my battles,
but I refuse to STFU and stand by idle doing nothing
about whatever battles I'm faced against.

"We The People" have failed our National integrity,
our Constitution, our Intelligence, our Democracy,
and our Community as Americans. I am a part of that
failure, and I am also guilty of doing my part
in causing it.

I am not hopeless. I am confused and disappointed.
and more than that, I am very aggravated.

I suppose I really Should have registered to Vote
in this election year...
...but when I look at the "choices" I have in front
of me right now, I am stuck with nothing left
to say but "Thank You, Amuricuh".

Or get blown by Mia Khalifa!