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Cooley Hurd

Cooley Hurd's Journal
Cooley Hurd's Journal
June 29, 2016

Quinnipiac gets it wrong again: Poll: Clinton and Trump run neck-and-neck

Despite EVERY poll showing Clinton crushing Trump, Quinnipiac has them "neck-and-neck"?

http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/29/politics/quinnipiac-poll-hillary-clinton-donald-trump/index.html

Washington (CNN)A new Quinnipiac University poll shows Hillary Clinton leading Trump by just two points, 42% to 40%, a much closer race than other recent surveys have shown.

With third-party candidates included, Clinton leads 39% to 37%, with Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson at 8% and Green Party candidate Jill Stein at 4%.

This Quinnipiac poll is quite different from other recent surveys on the presidential race, showing a much tighter contest than others. Its field period overlaps with those of the Washington Post/ABC News and NBC News /Wall Street Journal polls released Sunday, both of which found Clinton significantly ahead of Trump.

</snip>


They STILL suck at polling...
June 29, 2016

Elvis guitarist Scotty Moore dies aged 84

Source: BBC

Pioneering rock guitarist Scotty Moore, who was a member of Elvis Presley's original band, has died aged 84.
He died in Nashville on Tuesday after several months of poor health.

He is credited with helping Elvis shape his music that came to be called rock 'n' roll, and inspired generations of guitarists.
Moore was the last survivor of Elvis's original band which included Presley, bassist Bill Black and producer Sam Phillips.

As part of The Blue Moon Boys Moore backed Presley on many of his legendary songs including Heartbreak Hotel, Blue Suede Shoes and Jailhouse Rock.

Keith Richards from The Rolling Stones was one of those inspired by Moore. He once said: "When I heard Heartbreak Hotel, I knew what I wanted to do in life.

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-36660103



Cross gently, Scotty...
June 27, 2016

Brexit's broken promises: Health care, immigration and the economy

http://money.cnn.com/2016/06/27/news/economy/brexit-broken-promises/index.html

So much for all those promises. Leading politicians in the campaign to pull the U.K. out of the European Union are back-pedaling fast on a number of pledges, particularly over extra money for health care.

</snip>

Campaign promise #1: We'll give EU cash to the National Health Service: The official Vote Leave campaign claimed that membership in the EU cost the U.K. £350 million a week, "enough to build a brand new, fully staffed ... hospital every week."

<snip>

About half of the money Britain hands over to the EU is returned to the country via subsidies for farmers, grants for research and funding for infrastructure. And that money is already committed.

<snip>

Campaign promise #2: We'll take control of the UK's borders: During the campaign, Brexiteers attacked the U.K. government for missing its target to cut net migration to tens of thousands (it was 333,000 last year), saying that only by leaving the EU could Britain control immigration.

<snip>

Leave campaigner and lawmaker Nigel Evans told BBC radio that there had been "some misunderstanding" over the Leave campaign's position on reducing immigration.

When asked if the number of people coming into the country would fall significantly, Evans said that a new Australian-style points system for EU migrants meant the U.K. would be able to control immigration -- but he didn't say it would fall.

</snip>


More at http://money.cnn.com/2016/06/27/news/economy/brexit-broken-promises/index.html
June 25, 2016

The Business Plot and the hero who exposed it

Many might see this man in DUer's avatars, but may not know who he is.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler

Smedley Darlington Butler[1] (July 30, 1881 – June 21, 1940) was a United States Marine Corps major general, the highest rank authorized at that time, and at the time of his death the most decorated Marine in U.S. history. During his 34-year career as a Marine, he participated in military actions in the Philippines, China, in Central America and the Caribbean during the Banana Wars, and France in World War I. Butler is well known for having later become an outspoken critic of U.S. wars and their consequences, as well as exposing the Business Plot, an alleged plan to overthrow the U.S. government.

By the end of his career, Butler had received 16 medals, five for heroism. He is one of 19 men to receive the Medal of Honor twice, one of three to be awarded both the Marine Corps Brevet Medal and the Medal of Honor, and the only Marine to be awarded the Brevet Medal and two Medals of Honor, all for separate actions.

In 1933, he became involved in a controversy known as the Business Plot, when he told a congressional committee that a group of wealthy industrialists were planning a military coup to overthrow Franklin D. Roosevelt, with Butler selected to lead a march of veterans to become dictator, similar to other Fascist regimes at that time. The individuals involved all denied the existence of a plot and the media ridiculed the allegations. A final report by a special House of Representatives Committee confirmed some of Butler's testimony.

In 1935, Butler wrote a book entitled War Is a Racket, where he described and criticized the workings of the United States in its foreign actions and wars, such as those he was a part of, including the American corporations and other imperialist motivations behind them. After retiring from service, he became a popular activist, speaking at meetings organized by veterans, pacifists, and church groups in the 1930s.

</snip>


...and about the Business Plot itself:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot

Butler and the veterans

Bonus Army



On July 17, 1932, thousands of World War I veterans converged on Washington, D.C., set up tent camps, and demanded immediate payment of bonuses due to them according to the World War Adjusted Compensation Act of 1924 (the original act made the bonuses initially due no earlier than 1925 and no later than 1945). Walter W. Waters, a former Army sergeant, led this "Bonus Army". The Bonus Army was encouraged by an appearance from retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler; as a popular military figure of the time, Butler had some influence over the veterans. A few days after Butler's arrival, President Herbert Hoover ordered the marchers removed, and U.S. Army cavalry troops under the command of General Douglas MacArthur destroyed their camps.

Butler, although a self-described Republican, responded by supporting Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1932 US presidential election.[7]

By 1933 Butler started denouncing capitalism and bankers, going so far as to say as a Marine general he had been "a racketeer for capitalism."[8]

Reaction to Roosevelt[edit]
Roosevelt's election was upsetting for many conservative businessmen of the time, as his "campaign promise that the government would provide jobs for all the unemployed had the perverse effect of creating a new wave of unemployment by businessmen frightened by fears of socialism and reckless government spending."[9]

Some historians have said concerns over the gold standard were also involved; Jules Archer, in The Plot to Seize the White House, wrote that with the end of the gold standard, "conservative financiers were horrified. They viewed a currency not solidly backed by gold as inflationary, undermining both private and business fortunes and leading to national bankruptcy. Roosevelt was damned as a socialist or Communist out to destroy private enterprise by sapping the gold backing of wealth in order to subsidize the poor."[10]

McCormack–Dickstein Committee
The Committee began examining evidence on November 20, 1934. On November 24, the committee released a statement detailing the testimony it had heard about the plot and its preliminary findings. On February 15, 1935, the committee submitted its final report to the House of Representatives.[11]

During the McCormack–Dickstein Committee hearings, Butler testified that Gerald C. MacGuire[12] attempted to recruit him to lead a coup, promising him an army of 500,000 men for a march on Washington, D.C., and financial backing.[13] Butler testified that the pretext for the coup would be that the president's health was failing.[14]

Despite Butler's support for Roosevelt in the election[7] and his reputation as a strong critic of capitalism,[15] Butler said the plotters felt his good reputation and popularity were vital in attracting support amongst the general public and saw him as easier to manipulate than others.

Though Butler had never spoken to them, Butler implicated several prominent businessmen and veteran leaders as backers of the plot including heads of Chase Bank, GM, Goodyear, Standard Oil, the DuPont family and Senator Prescott Bush. The committee chose not to publish these allegations because they were hearsay.[16][17]

Given a successful coup, Butler said that the plan was for him to have held near-absolute power in the newly created position of "Secretary of General Affairs", while Roosevelt would have assumed a figurehead role.

Those implicated in the plot by Butler all denied any involvement. MacGuire was the only figure identified by Butler who testified before the committee. Others Butler accused were not called to appear to testify because the "committee has had no evidence before it that would in the slightest degree warrant calling before it such men ... The committee will not take cognizance of names brought into testimony which constitute mere hearsay."[16]

In response, Butler said that the committee had deliberately edited out of its published findings the leading business people whom he had named in connection with the plot.[18] He said on February 17, 1935, on Radio WCAU, "Like most committees it has slaughtered the little and allowed the big to escape. The big shots weren't even called to testify. They were all mentioned in the testimony. Why was all mention of these names suppressed from the testimony?"[18]

On the final day of the committee,[19] January 29, 1935, John L. Spivak published the first of two articles in the communist magazine New Masses, revealing portions of the Congressional committee testimony that had been redacted as hearsay. Spivak argued that the plot was part of a "conspiracy of Jewish financiers working with fascist groups", referring specifically to Felix Warburg, the McCormack–Dickstein Committee, and certain members of the American Jewish Committee in collusion with J. P. Morgan. Hans Schmidt concludes that while Spivak made a cogent argument for taking the suppressed testimony seriously, he embellished his article with his "overblown" claims regarding Jewish financiers, which Schmidt dismisses as guilt by association not supported by the evidence of the Butler-MacGuire conversations themselves.

</snip>


June 24, 2016

Bernie Worrell, Masterful P-Funk Keyboardist, Dead at 72

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/bernie-worrell-masterful-funk-keyboardist-dead-72-40116805

Bernie Worrell, the ingenious "Wizard of Woo" whose amazing array of keyboard sounds and textures helped define the Parliament-Funkadelic musical empire and influenced performers of funk, rock, hip-hop and other genres, has died.

Worrell, who announced in early 2016 that he had stage-four lung cancer, died Friday at age 72. He died at his home in Everson, Washington, according to his wife, Judie Worrell.

Throughout the 1970s and into the '80s, George Clinton's dual projects of Parliament and Funkadelic and their various spinoffs built upon the sounds of James Brown and Sly and the Family Stone among others and turned out some of the most complex, spaced out, political, cartoonish and, of course, danceable music of the era, elevating the funk groove to a world view.

With a core group featuring Worrell, guitarist Eddie Hazel and bassist Bootsy Collins, P-Funk maintained an exhausting and dazzling pace of recordings, from the hit singles "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker)" and "Flash Light" to such albums as "One Nation Under a Groove" and "Funkentelechy Vs. the Placebo Syndrome." And the studio music was just a starting point for the live shows, costumed spectaculars of wide-brimmed hats, war paint, dashikis, military gear or perhaps a white sheet with only a fig leaf underneath.

Worrell was among the first musicians to use a Moog synthesizer, and his mastery brought comparisons to Jimi Hendrix's innovations on guitar. Anything seemed possible when he was on keyboards, conjuring squiggles, squirts, stutters and hiccups on Parliament's "Flash Light" that sounded like funk as if conceived by Martians. On Funkadelic's "Atmosphere," his chatty organ prelude, like a mash-up of Bach and "The Munsters," set up some of Clinton's more unprintable lyrics.

</snip>


Also played kb w/ Talking Heads in Stop Making Sense



Cross gently, Bernie!
June 23, 2016

House cameras about to be turned on, per Dem Reps...

...in deference, the social media feeds have been turned off.



On edit: The Periscope feed is coming back? Are we witnessing a bad, failed fake-out by the Speaker?



Social media feeds back on @ 10pm!

June 22, 2016

Rep Rick Nolan MN - what a congressman!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Nolan

A speech that will go down in the history of the US House!

Clamoring for video now...

On edit: WTF???? Someone put their hand in front of the camera and the feed went dead!!!!!!

On edit again: The C-Span feed is NOT the official one. What we're watching on C-Span is a Periscope feed from Rep Scott Peters (D-CA). There is no official feed from the House because they are technically "in recess".

Here's an explanation of it from earler today:


June 21, 2016

Iowa congressman wants to block $20 Tubman

Washington (CNN) An Iowa congressman has proposed legislation that would block Harriet Tubman from replacing President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill.

Republican Rep. Steve King introduced an amendment to bar the Treasury Department from spending any funds to redesign paper money or coin currency.

If the amendment is enacted, it would nullify the Treasury Department's plans to replace the current image of Jackson on the $20 bill with a portrait of Tubman, one of the most prominent abolitionists for her work in the Underground Railroad during the Civil War. She would become the first black woman ever to appear on a U.S. banknote.

King's reason for introducing the amendment was not immediately clear, and his office did not immediately respond to a CNN request for comment.
</snip>

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/21/politics/harriet-tubman-20-bill-steve-king/index.html


What an absolute racist fuckwad!
June 20, 2016

Hi Skinner. How do you alert on duplicates in LBN?

I saw a duplicate and attempted to alert on it but none of the choices were appropriate.

Thanks,
Cooley

June 20, 2016

Man at Vegas Rally Said He Wanted to Kill Trump, Feds Say

Source: nbcnews.com

Man at Vegas Rally Said He Wanted to Kill Trump, Feds Say
by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LAS VEGAS — A federal officer says a man arrested at a Donald Trump rally in Las Vegas told authorities he tried to grab an officer's gun so he could kill the candidate.

A complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Nevada charges Michael Steven Sandford with an act of violence on restricted grounds.

It cites a report by Special Agent Swierkowski, whose first name was not included, saying Sandford told officers he drove from California to kill Trump and went to a Las Vegas gun range the day before to learn to shoot.

Sandford later went to a Trump rally at the Treasure Island Casino and approached a Las Vegas police officer to say he wanted an autograph from Trump.

The report says Sandford was arrested after grabbing the handle of an officer's gun in an attempt to remove it.

</snip>

Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/authorities-man-vegas-rally-said-he-wanted-kill-trump-n595876

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