Progressive Breakfast: Donald Trump's Trick To Pose as a Populist

MORNING MESSAGE

Bill Scher

Donald Trump’s Trick To Pose as a Populist

Donald Trump has a trick he likes to use when he wants to communicate two different messages to two different constituencies: incoherence. It doesn’t take much to expose incoherence, yet it seems to flummox media headline writers who are itchy to summarize only one message.

TRUMP ALIENATES GOP DONORS

With Kochs sitting on their wallet, Trump turns to RNC. NYT:“Donald J. Trump took steps to appropriate much of the Republican National Committee’s financial and political infrastructure … Trump has no fund-raising apparatus to resort to … Mark Holden, chairman of … one of the Koch network’s main umbrella groups, signaled that it would require a significant change in tactics by Mr. Trump … for his group to open the spigot.”

Major GOP donor Paul Singer sits out. NYT quotes:“It’s essential that we — individually, collectively, and through our institutions — stand up for what we believe [which are not] embodied in either choice that will apparently be on the ballot this November.”

Trump tries tacking left. W. Post quotes:““Now, I’m no fan of Bernie Sanders, but he is 100 percent right … Hillary Clinton is totally controlled by the people that put up her money. She’s totally controlled by Wall Street … NAFTA has been one of the great economic disasters. Who signed it? Clinton. Clinton…”

Sen. Warren not buying it. NYT:“Ms. Warren is one of the few high-profile leaders in either party to repeatedly challenge Mr. Trump with clarity and directness, portraying him as both dangerous and a charlatan.”

BERNIE POISED FOR WV WIN

Sanders has edge in WV primary today. Reuters:“Clinton apologized in West Virginia last week after being confronted by angry voters for her remark in March that she would ‘put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business’ with her plans to increase renewable energy sources. She said her comment had been taken out of context and that she wanted to help retrain people who worked in the industry…”

Sanders not hurt by his environmental message. TNR’s Emma Foehringer Merchant:“…Sanders has been able to glide by on his union-friendly image and populist rhetoric … But Sanders’s actual proposals for coal country are similar to Clinton’s … a resounding defeat would mean that Clinton’s pitch to promote both environmentalism and jobs still needs some serious refinement.”

Clinton lays out ambitious child care plan. HuffPost:“Clinton will explain her vision, campaign aides told The Huffington Post, during an appearance in Kentucky … Clinton will say that the federal government should commit to making sure that no family ever pays more than 10 percent of its income on child-care expenses.”

BREAKFAST SIDES

Obama admin denies coal export permit. NYT:“The coal industry, shaken by dropping global demand and tighter air quality regulations, took another major hit on Monday when the United States Army Corps of Engineers said it would deny the permit for what could have been nation’s largest coal export terminal here in Washington [State].”

Investor rights attorneys Kathleen M. Donovan-Maher and Steven L. Groopman argue for SEC rule on “dark money,” in NYT oped:“When it comes to political spending, companies are often not as informed as one might think … By mandating disclosure, the rule would allow investors to serve as a potential check on risky political donations, and help investors determine whether a company’s political spending habits make its shares a good investment in the first place.”

Progressive Breakfast is a daily morning email highlighting news stories of interest to activists. Progressive Breakfast is a project of the Campaign for America's Future.more »

RSN: Who Hatched Rubio?

Senator Marco Rubio. (photo: NBC)

Who Hatched Rubio?

By Greg Palast, Greg Palast's Website

05 February 16

The big boys are confident that Sen. Marco Rubio has locked up the Republican nomination. But who’s locked up Rubio?

 called my bookie in London. The betting professionals were not surprised at Marco Rubio’s big Iowa showing. The smart money has been on Rubio since October 31--despite the fact that Rubio was polling at just 9%.

Paul Krishnamurty, politics odds analyst at Betfair.com, told me that, among professional betters, over just two days, Rubio soared from zero to odds-on favorite to win the GOP nomination.

Why would the guys who bet the rent money place it all on Rubio—and what suddenly changed on October 31?

Because, despite the fact that 9 of 10 Republicans rejected him, on Halloween, Rubio won the only vote that counts: The Vulture’s.

It was page one news in the New York Times: Paul Singer, Influential Billionaire, Throws Support to Marco Rubio for President.

I’ve been hunting Singer, AKA The Vulture, for nine years across four continents. And now the carrion-chewing billionaire has decided who will be your next President.

The Vulture, not the Kochs, has become the Number One funder of the Republican Party. The Vulture’s blessing signals to the other billionaires where to place their bets.

Singer doesn’t “donate” to candidates. He invests in them. And he expects a big, dripping return on his money.

But why Rubio? Because Singer’s little hatchling is doing The Vulture’s bidding already. Singer has launched a murderous financial “vulture” attack on Argentina. Singer is shaking down the gaucho nation for $3 billion.

Here’s the story. Decades ago, Argentina’s military dictatorship issued bonds that sucked the nation dry. When democracy returned, 97% of the banks that had funded the dictatorship agreed to take a low payment for these bonds.

Then down swooped The Vulture. Singer and his partners bought up the “hold-out” 3% for $50 million – and now Singer demands that Argentina pay him $3 billion, a 6,000% return on his “investment”—or he’ll bring Argentina to its knees.

That’s why he’s called The Vulture – because Singer has used this same junk-bond ransom trick to swipe aid funds meant for cholera clinics in the Congo. (When I uncovered that scheme for BBC Television, Britain’s Parliament banned Singer’s vulture fund from British courts. His operations are outlawed throughout most of the civilized world.)

But The Vulture has a problem: Hillary Clinton. As Secretary of State, Clinton went to court on Argentina’s side and body-blocked every ugly attempt by The Vulture to savage Argentina.

Singer is screeching. A President Hillary would cost Singer billions. (As would a President Sanders, a stalwart foe of vulture financiers.) To counter Hillary, The Vulture hatched a Senator: one Marco Rubio. Senator Rubio has made several ethically dubious attempts to bully the Treasury and State Departments on Singer’s behalf.

That failed, so Singer has decided to put the anti-gay martinet Rubio into the White House. (Singer’s son is married to a man—but hey, to Singer, a feast of billions means more to him than family.)

Yet Singer knows you can’t put a Rubio in the Oval Office by winning the most votes. No way. Changing demographics doom almost any GOP candidacy.

The only way to take the White House is to block the vote of millions of voters of color.

And that’s why Singer has become donor Numero Uno to Karl Rove’s operation Crossroads.

I’ve been on the trail of racist vote suppression tactics since 2000 when Katherine Harris was Purge’n General. And behind so many of the moves to disenfranchise voters, all too successful, is the Rove operation.

Now I’m on the hunt again. I’m in the middle of ripping the lid off the biggest, most secretive vote suppression operation since Jim Crow was law.

I’m in the thick of making the movie, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: A Tale of Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, about the coming attempt to swipe the 2016 election through ugly—but unbelievably sophisticated—vote suppression trickery.

For BBC Television, The Guardian and Rolling Stone, I’ve been on the beat of ballot bandits – and the billionaires behind them for 16 years. This film – and a related series of articles, web videos, and a book – which we must release in Spring 2016 – has one aim: to save The House I Live In, the America of Martin Luther King and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

This is not about whether Rubio or Clinton or Sanders or any other candidate should win. This is about making sure that the ballots, not the billionaires, determine the election.

I’m asking you to help me complete this documentary.

And we’ll be covering The Vulture and his hatchling.

Singer’s knuckle-draggers muscled me out of his Rubio fundraiser last month—when my disguise fell off. No kidding. So I have to try again.

While The Best Democracy Money Can Buy movie will have heavyweight, real, undercover, no-BS investigative reporting, it will present the eye-popping truth in an eye-popping manner, with all the humor and heart you expect from a Palast team film.

Watch this sneak peek.

I am asking you, to add your name as a Producer or co-Producer of this film (for a tax-deductible donation of $1,000 or $500 respectively) and you will receive a movie producer credit and an invite to join me at our opening in Hollywood. (You can, of course, choose to remain anonymous.)

For a $100 donation, you’ll be listed in the film credits as a supporter – and receive the signed DVD of the film.

Or support the film for any amount you can, no matter how small or large.

Please make this donation to our foundation right now.

I can’t thank you enough for your support—not just financial, but your vote of confidence in me and my team’s work over the years.

It’s what keeps us going.

* Paul "The Vulture" Singer by Rob Bischoff from the film, 'The Best Democracy Money Can Buy' ©Palast Investigative Fund

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/35015-focus-who-hatched-rubio