Luke Skywalker
Super Moderator
{vb:raw ozzmodz_postquote}:
Happy<span style="color: Red;">*</span>240th birthday, America! You don’t look a year over 239.
How did we celebrate the week before our nation’s big day? With hopes of rebirth, partisan truth-telling and more arguing over what we officially believe.
[h=3]TRUMP GETS A NEW LOOK (SORT OF)[/h]xEmbed
xShare
Donald Trump shook up his presidential campaign Monday with an announcement that his controversial campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, is out. USA TODAY
New,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>experienced staff, headed by<span style="color: Red;">*</span>veteran political operative Paul Manafort. Slicker,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>whitewashed tweets. And<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Chris Christie doing more<span style="color: Red;">*</span>than the thousand-yard stare on stage. This is the new Donald Trump campaign.
After<span style="color: Red;">*</span>firing campaign manager Corey Lewandowski<span style="color: Red;">*</span>amid lagging polls and waning enthusiasm at rallies (and parting ways with<span style="color: Red;">*</span>more people this week, including one<span style="color: Red;">*</span>hired just two weeks ago), Team Trump snagged a handful of advisers who are famous<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in the political world<span style="color: Red;">*</span>for more<span style="color: Red;">*</span>than being famous.
This includes Ted Cruz’s former press secretary (who magnanimously<span style="color: Red;">*</span>deleted a bunch of mean tweets<span style="color: Red;">*</span>about Trump before coming on board) and Rand Paul’s former digital director, who is needed to build a voter outreach database that can compete with the Hillary Clinton juggernaut.
But lest you think the new cadre has stopped letting Trump be Trump, he responded<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to a supporter’s misguided question in Classic Donald fashion. A woman at a New Hampshire rally complained about the TSA hiring<span style="color: Red;">*</span>people who wear “hibby jobbies”<span style="color: Red;">*</span>– that’s hijabs – over veterans.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>To which Trump replied: “I understand that. Yeah. ... And we are looking at that. We're looking at a lot of things.”
[h=3]BENGHAZI REMAINS A POLITICAL FOOTBALL[/h]xEmbed
xShare
The Republicans of the House Committee on Benghazi released their findings Tuesday. USA TODAY
Jack Nicholson was right. We really can’t handle the truth about Benghazi. What initially was a bipartisan investigation into the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens and another American split into<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Republican and Democratic versions<span style="color: Red;">*</span>of what happened and who's<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to blame for it.
Which means after months (OK, more like years) of study, two major partisan reports released this week offer little clarity or closure. Did Hillary Clinton as then-Secretary of State<span style="color: Red;">*</span>not even try to save anyone<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and then lie about it, as Republicans alleged? Or is<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Clinton innocent<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and it’s somehow Donald Trump’s fault, as Democrats insinuated?
We may never know.
[h=3]TOEING (OR KICKING) THE PARTY LINE[/h]xEmbed
xShare
Bernie Sanders has continued to remain a strong voice despite in the Democratic party despite losing the nomination. Wochit
If you can’t win the nomination, the next best thing is to get your ideas included in the official party platform. That’s Bernie Sanders’s new M-O,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and he has pledged to wage a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Braveheart-like fight<span style="color: Red;">*</span>for the next few weeks to get it. But as the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Mother Jones headline<span style="color: Red;">*</span>asks, “Can Bernie Sanders take yes for an answer?”
Dems have<span style="color: Red;">*</span>moved to the left<span style="color: Red;">*</span>on several issues, including a $15-an-hour minimum wage and opposition to the death penalty. Then again, the party’s draft platform also rejects most of Sanders’s big ideas, including single-payer health care and opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership. So,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Sanders continues to fight<span style="color: Red;">*</span>until every last talking point is adopted.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Paul Ryan is taking the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>unusual step of releasing a plan<span style="color: Red;">*</span>that some<span style="color: Red;">*</span>hope<span style="color: Red;">*</span>will be adopted in its entirety at the Republican convention. His “A Better Way” platform<span style="color: Red;">*</span>weighs in on everything from health-care reform to reduced taxes and is largely seen as an effort to define the party’s beliefs before Trump completely ignores them.
[h=3]ICYMI FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL[/h][h=3]WE’RE TAKING SOME ‘MERICA TIME[/h]We’ve been bringing you the best (or worst?) of this crazy<span style="color: Red;">*</span>race for months. But it’s time to do our patriotic duty and stop – for a day, at least. We’re taking July 4th off<span style="color: Red;">*</span>because there probably won’t be much news to report, unless Trump does something all ‘Merica on us. And even if he does, that can wait until Tuesday. So, what does Team FTR do on a day off? We don’t know. It’s been so long since we’ve had one. All we can say for certain<span style="color: Red;">*</span>is that alcohol will be involved.
[h=4]Posted![/h]A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.
Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed