The NFL's TV Ratings Have Plummeted Because Of The National Anthem Protests

The NFL's chickens are coming home to roost.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Colin Kaepernick and what an ungrateful, hypocritical twit I thought he was for refusing to stand during the National Anthem. Here's a link to that post. In my humble opinion, I felt that Kaepernick should not be using the playing of the National Anthem as a means of expressing his views on racial inequality and shared my thoughts on the matter. 

Among other views I shared I mentioned that as a pampered, multimillionaire, bi-racial athlete who was taken in and raised by white parents, Kaepernick was the last person in the world who should be condemning anything about the U.S.A. But, if he felt a need to go that route and make an ass out of himself, he certainly had the right to do so - on his own time, and certainly not by dissing the American flag and our National Anthem.

A good bit of my diatribe was directed at the San Francisco 49'ers and the NFL, taking them to task for allowing Kaepernick to disrespect the flag and anthem. I pointed out that while Kaepernick certainly enjoys the Constitutional right to freely express his opinions, the First Amendment did not extend to the private workplace nor did it prevent his employer (the 49'ers) from refusing to allow him to take a knee during the playing of the National Anthem. Here's what I said:

"Bottom line? If Kelly, the 49ers, or the NFL wanted to make you get off your well rested rear end and force you to stand for the National Anthem, Colin, they could. They just choose not to.

Which is why I've gone to the trouble of writing this. It's to let you know that you're being allowed to sit during the National Anthem by your coach, by the 49ers, and by the NFL. And the public should let all three of them know what they think of that.

Instead of heaping abuse on a half wit, spoiled, hypocritical has-been athlete like you, people should be venting their anger at the 49ers and the NFL. They're the ones who are being unpatriotic by allowing you to sit during the playing of our country's Anthem. The one we sing to celebrate the greatness of our nation. The one so many people died for."

Be still my heart. Apparently I'm not the only one who thought that the public should let the NFL know that allowing Kaepernick to protest would come at a cost. Millions of Americans have decided that they will not tolerate this kind of political correctness on the part of the NFL or its teams and have hit them where it counts the most - in the pocketbook.

NFL TV ratings have plummeted since the beginning of the 2016 season. Overall TV ratings are down by 10 percent. Ratings for Sunday Night Football, the most-watched TV show during the past five years, are also down 10 percent. Ratings for Thursday Night Football are off by 15 percent.

Monday Night Football ratings are down an eye-dropping 19 percent. The Monday Night Football game between Atlanta and New Orleans received a dismal 5.7 Nielsen rating, a 38 percent drop over the same week last year.

The ratings for a Sunday game between Chicago and Dallas received a 12.9 Neilsen rating. This was a drop from the previous Sunday’s 13.7 rating, and that was down from the first week's 13.9 rating. Ratings also dropped by 18 percent over week three from last year for all the early regional games.

Players are also paying the price for their stupidity. According to a poll conducted for ESPN, Colin Kaepernick has become the most hated player in the NFL. Antonio Cromartie, a former Pro Bowl defensive back, was released by the Indianapolis Colts a couple of weeks after he knelt during the National Anthem and must now say goodbye to his $3 Million contract. The Bronco's Brandon Marshall has lost two of his endorsement deals because of his pre-game protests.

I'm betting more and more players who are protesting will eventually be told not to let the door hit them in the rear on their way out as pressure mounts. Other players will also likely lose  endorsement deals.

As the old song goes, if you wanna dance to the music you gotta pay the piper.

Why the drastic drop in ratings and other financial implications? A Rasmussen poll found that 32 percent of adults surveyed have stopped watching NFL football because of the childish, disrespectful antics of overpaid athletes who have chosen to mix their politics with football games.

Once upon a time, the NFL was actively courting women as a source of increasing viewership but 38 percent of women surveyed said they won't watch NFL games because they are tired of the Black Lives Matter-like protests.

For as long as I can remember, the NFL has gone to great lengths to market itself as an ultra-patriotic organization that prided itself on touting America, Mom, and apple pie. Fans now feel betrayed by the league's political correctness and its perceived approval of players refusing to salute the flag. It is viewed as especially disrespectful as uniformed members of the police and armed forces stand at attention a few feet away. 

What does that mean for the NFL's TV Networks and the NFL itself? Money. Lots and lots of Money.

A drop in ratings means that TV networks must now provide "make-goods" to advertisers. When advertisers and ad agencies buy commercial time for NFL broadcasts, they're promised certain numbers in terms of ratings and audiences. If a game fails to reach those numbers, the networks have to "make good" for the audience shortfall by providing the equivalent of free commercial time.

The last thing TV networks want to do is give up free commercial time. Advertising rates for a 30-second TV commercials during NFL games can cost anywhere from $500,000 to $600,000 for prime time games. That's a lot of moolah to have to give up just because of ratings.

If the NFL's TV ratings continue to fall it will cost the TV networks millions of dollars worth of make-good ads. NFL game programming is the most expensive programming on TV.  Networks reportedly paying some $5 billion per year for the right to air games through 2021 and they don't pay this gargantuan amount in order to forego ad revenue.

I can only imagine how network executives are reacting to the mounting revenue losses they are experiencing after ponying up $5 Billion to the NFL. And with all the organized efforts to boycott the NFL and its advertisers, let's see how long it will be before the networks make the NFL put the kibosh on the National Anthem debacle.

Money talks and bull crap walks. And fans are hitting the NFL where it hurts the most - in the old wallet. You gotta love the protest of the protest.

Obamacare is "The Craziest Thing In The World". This Assessment Brought To You By --- Bill Clinton

Looks like we can finally call it what it is - Obamacare is the biggest disaster that has been legislated in our lifetimes. The Left has tried everything they can think of to dress it up and cake on a mountain of makeup, but they can no longer fool even one high profile Democrat who is beloved by lots of Democrats.

I can't think of a better way to describe Obamacare than the way that certain beloved Democrat publicly described it a few days ago:

"So you've got this crazy system where all of a sudden 25 million more people have health care and then the people who are out there busting it, sometimes 60 hours a week, wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half. It's the craziest thing in the world."

Wow, that really hit the nail on the head. I couldn't have said it better myself. It absolutely is the craziest thing in the world.

I forgot to mention who offered up this frank, no-holds-barred assessment?. On it's face, you'd think it came from the lips of right wing flamethrowers like Newt Gingrich?, Rudy Giuliani, Sean Hannity, or Rush Limbaugh.

Nope.

It was Bill Clinton. That's right. Apparently, Bubba Clinton recently had a momentary lapse of candor and called Obamacare what it is. Let's recap to make sure we're on the same page. "It's the craziest thing in the world," he told the crowd.

Out on the stump for Hillary this week, speaking at a Democratic rally in Flint, Michigan, Billy-Bob ripped into Obamacare for flooding the health care insurance market and causing premiums to rise for middle-class Americans.

Beauty, eh?

Shortly after Bill told it like it is, Democrats' heads exploded and they immediately went into damage control mode. The left began by making it seem like Bill was the crazy uncle in the family who went off the reservation without his drool cup. They issued an immediate Silver Alert and tried to make  people think that Billy didn't know what he was doing or was off his meds.

Hillary's campaign panicked and was the first to try to walk back what Bill said. Hillary's campaign spokesperson couldn't get to a microphone fast enough to say:

“President Clinton spoke about the importance of the Affordable Care Act and the good it has done to expand coverage for millions of Americans. And while he was slightly short-handed, it’s clear to everyone, including President Obama, that improvements are needed.”

News flash, Angela. He said nothing about the importance of the program. He didn't say i needed improvement. We really don't need you to translate what Bill said. If anyone on this planet knows how to parse words and say exactly what he thinks, it's Bill. He candidly said it doesn't work.

Chris Jennings, another Democratic talking head and former numero uno health care official in the Clinton White House, chimed in:

“I think what he was saying was maybe less than precise language, but he was saying what all Democrats say, which is that the Affordable Care Act is a historic achievement that’s made a difference in the lives of millions of people. He was saying, just as Hillary Clinton has said, that it needs to be improved.”

Thanks, Chris but no one cares about what you think Bill said. Moreover, he didn't say anything about what a historic achievement Obamacare has been. He didn't say that it needs to be improved. I'm pretty good at understanding plain English and what Bill said was that it's a "CRAZY SYSTEM".

I don't see the word "historic" in his remarks. I don't see the phrase "needs to be improved" in his remarks.

I do see where he clearly said that it has, "...made a difference in the lives of millions of people" and they "...are getting killed in this deal ... busting it, sometimes 60 hours a week,...." What do they have to show for it, according to Bill? "[T]heir premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half."

But my favorite backstroke attempt by the Left was when a spokesman for Bill Clinton accused the media of taking Bill's description of the law "out of context."

Bwah hah ha ha hah.

For Bill to immediately send out his spokesman to say that he was taken out of context must have been humiliating for Billy Boy. Nobody, especially a former President, likes being told by his wife's surrogates that he stepped in dog poo and should have kept his mouth shut.

On top of that, you know they're scraping the bottom of the barrel when they throw out the old "he/she was taken out of context" cliche'. The context of Bill's remarks was how he assessed Obamacare. He plainly said that t's a crazy system that doesn't work.

That's not a statement taken out of context. It's just a huge embarrassment for Hillary's husband to trash Obama's baby.

But right is right and truth is truth. We all know that the truth has been a foreign concept for the Clintons but in this case, just like a broken clock is right twice a day, Bill Clinton was dead on. He offered up an accurate, unfiltered evaluation of the disastrous health care system we know as Obamacare, embarrassing as it may be for Democrats.

Obamacare is rapidly going down in flames. Health Republic Insurance of New Jersey just announced that it is $46 million in debt and will be ceasing operation. That makes it number 17 in a rapidly growing procession of failed Obamacare co-ops since Obamacare went into effect. These failures have left hundreds of thousands of people scrambling for coverage.

Meanwhile, other insurers can't abandon state exchanges fast enough. Indiana University Health Plans will be exiting the Indiana exchange system in 2017 and will leave 27,000 Indiana residents without Obamacare plans.  Aetna, United Health Care and several Blue Cross and Blue Shield subsidiaries have announced they will be leaving exchanges in 2017.

Any insurers that do not head for the hills will be drastically raising premiums for 2017. In Washington, Premera has received approval to raise premiums by 19 percent next year. Rates across California will go up an average of 13 percent. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas is asking to raise premiums by 60 percent.

All told, Americans are facing challenges when trying to find affordable coverage. When Obama ran for President in 2008, he said:

 “If you’ve got health insurance, we’re going to help that employer save $2,500 per family per year. Those savings are going to be passed along to the workers.”

If you remember, Obama said a lot of other things about his health care plan that turned out to be bald face lies. The one quoted above is just one of those whoppers. Obamacare has not yielded the savings President Obama once promised. Far from it, on a national basis, premium hikes are expected to average 8 percent higher next year on top of the similar increases in premiums over the past two years.

And now we're also finding out that not only is coverage becoming hard to secure, those that do have Obamacare coverage area finding that it's one thing to be "insured", it's another thing entirely to be able to parlay insurance coverage into actual medical care.

The ultimate goal of Obamacare was to provide a means for medical care to be available to tens of millions of uninsured or under-insured Americans. Democrats equated medical "insurance" with medical "care" and people are finally realizing that insurance and care are two completely different things.

While it is true that some 20 million people have gotten insurance coverage with Obamacare in place, many of those new insureds, as well as many of those who were insured before Obamacare went into effect,  are finding that they are second-class patients when it comes to availability of care, physicians, and facilities.

Many of the Obamacare plans provide less coverage, they require higher patient outlays for medicines, and they include a much more limited number of doctors and hospitals that all accept their insurance.

And while employers tend to offer their workers at least one plan that allows them coverage to visit doctors not in their network, many patients buying insurance through Obamacare exchanges do not have that option even if they’re willing to pay higher premiums.

Translation? There may be 20 Million folks who can be touted as having joined the ranks of having health insurance, but that and $2.50 will buy them a cup of coffee at Starbucks. They aren't receiving medical care, which after all is the true measure of whether Obamacare is a success or a failure.

These are some of the realities that Obamacare has created:

• Deductibles are 42 percent higher than plans that were on the individual market in 2013; 
• People who have lost their prior insurance plans and either had to go on the exchanges or find other coverage are facing both higher out-of-pocket costs and drastically higher premiums;
• Obamacare insureds face a much more difficult time finding heath care providers who will take their insurance;
• More and more businesses have reduced the size of their networks and the range of services covered;
• Most businesses are increasing employee contributions, premiums, deductibles, out-of-pocket maximums, and co-pays;
• At least 700,000 people have been dropped from the exchanges for not paying their premiums because they can't afford them;
• Based upon records from eight states, some 6 million policyholders lost their insurance in the individual market because they did not meet Obamacare requirements in 2015. In 2016, about 350,000 additional policyholders have lost their plans. Since these numbers only takes eight states into account, it is certain that these numbers are drastically higher for the entire U.S.;
• Investment in the medical device industry tanked in 2012 after the medical device tax took effect. Medical device makers such as Medtronic, Boston Scientific, Stryker, Abbott Laboratories, Johnson & Johnson, and Smith & Nephew have all implemented layoffs during the last two years;
• Since October of 2015, 8.7 million people have signed up for Medicaid. One million of them would have qualified for Medicaid even without the Obamacare expansion. The Medicaid expansion, however, has not translated to improved access to health care. Research shows that Medicaid beneficiaries have more trouble getting appointments with primary care physicians, specialists, and ambulatory clinics than patients with private insurance, likely due to Medicaid low reimbursement rates. That’s also a big reason they end up seeking care in ER like they did before they became insureds.

All in all, Bill Clinton nailed it. Obamacare is a crazy system that doesn't work.

Hillary is all in on Obamacare with the caveat that it may have a few "problems" that need tweaking. This is yet another of the issues on which Hilary has evolved. It wasn't that long ago that she was totally, unequivocally, absolutely enamored with Obama's castration of our health care insurance system.

You can't tweak a disaster. You get rid of it and start from scratch while coming up with something better. Pre-existing conditions? Absolutely, eliminate them from insurance policies. Allow insurance companies to compete regardless of arbitrarily imposed state lines? Heck, yes. Allow for more competition and a broadening of the pool of insureds so companies can adjust premiums downward.

There may be other improvements to the system we had in place before the destruction caused by Obamacare. But first and foremost, we have to dump it before it dumps us.

The IMF Has Downgraded U.S. GDP To 1.6% For 2016. Economic Growth In The U.S. Is In The Crapper And Will Only Get Worse With Hillary

Hey, America. Suck it up you ingrates. You may think the economy is doing terribly, many of you have stopped looking for work, you haven't gotten a raise since forever, your health insurance premiums have skyrocketed, and you may not be seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.

It's all in your heads, you unappreciative rubes . You just don't understand how great the economy really is and you can't comprendo how good you've had it during the Obama years because you're dumber than dirt. Forget the reality you experience every day of your lives. Real jobs are being created. A chicken is in every pot. Money is falling from the trees. You just have to know where to look.

Obama is finally leaving office and Hillary Clinton has had no choice but to peddle this nonsense to a skeptical public looking for genuine economic relief as the election approaches. And while Hillary is desperately trying to put lipstick on the Obama Economy Pig, her sales pitch just got a lot harder after the IMF released its GDP report on the state of the U.S. economy.

The latest economic reports show the great Obama economy is barely growing.

Oh, yeah. The IMF cut its economic outlook for the U.S. to 1.6 percent growth for 2016, down from the 2.2 percent estimate it projected just three months ago. The reason? Weak business investment and lower demand for goods.

"The U.S. economy has lost momentum over the past few quarters, and the expectation of a pickup in the second quarter of 2016 has not been realized."

The IMF also expressed growing concern over what the future holds - a slower expansion of the U.S. economy, a slowdown in corporate investment, and a gloomy growth outlook for the years ahead if the current policies aren't abandoned.

But Hillary is out there trying to convince Americans that everything is peachy keen. She insists that Obama's economic achievements have been grossly unappreciated because of the big mess he was handed when he took office in 2009 and she's doubling down on his disastrous fiscal policies.

To prop up her argument, Hillary likes to tout disingenuous numbers as part of her smoke and mirrors routine. On the surface, certain numbers look good - 5% unemployment, as compared to the 10 percent rate Obama inherited during the height of the Great Recession; a reduction in the deficit; and the stock market is booming.

But dig deeper and you’ll find the real story.

The deficit is falling because a Republican Congress has held the line on spending.

The market is up because the Fed has kept interest rates at rock-bottom levels so investors have nowhere else to go except to buy stocks.

And the unemployment numbers being thrown around are intentionally deceptive. That 5% number can be tossed around only because people have given up looking for jobs.

If you don't play games with numbers and accurately report how many people are out of work, the real unemployment rate - counting Americans who are out of work - is at 10%.

Here's an explanation Hillary would have to give you if she would actually stop playing hide-and-seek,  actually held a press conference, and was pressed on the issue: 

THE PUBLIC: Let's talk about the unemployment rate in America.
HILLARY: It's the lowest it's been in many years - 5%.
THE PUBLIC: That many people are out of work?
HILLARY: No, 10% of Americans are out of work.
THE PUBLIC: You just said 5%.
HILLARY: That's right. 5% Unemployed.
THE PUBLIC: Oh, OK - 5% are out of work.
HILLARY: No, that’s 10%.
THE PUBLIC: Okay, so 10% are unemployed.
HILLARY: No, that’s 5%.
THE PUBLIC: WAIT A MINUTE. Is it 5% or 10%?
HILLARY: 5% are unemployed.
THE PUBLIC: But, if you are out of work, aren't you unemployed?
HILLARY: No, we don't count the “Out of Work” as unemployed. You have to look for work to be unemployed.
THE PUBLIC: BUT THOSE WHO ARE OUT OF WORK ARE UNEMPLOYED!!!
HILLARY: No, you're missing the point.
THE PUBLIC: But ALL of them are out of work.
HILLARY: No, the unemployed are looking for work. Those who are out of work gave up looking. If you give up, you are no longer considered to be unemployed.
THE PUBLIC: So as more people stop looking for work because they cant find jobs, the unemployment rate goes down?'
HILLARY: The unemployment rate goes down. Absolutely!
THE PUBLIC: The unemployment rate goes down because you don’t look for work?
HILLARY:Absolutely. That’s how it gets to 5%. Otherwise it would be 10%.

Proof that the economy is in the tank is in the GDP pudding. The lack of any meaningful economic growth makes it impossible to deny that the Obama policies Hillary is pushing - increased taxes, over-regulation, Obamacare, and the disingenuous class warfare tactic - have wreaked havoc on the economy and on working and non-working Americans.

Because of this, Hillary has to put on a fake happy face when she tries to defend Obama's economy. She knows the Obama recovery is the most anemic in modern American history despite a disastrous stimulus plan, "shovel ready" jobs that were anything but, and a Fed that has been printing money as if there is no tomorrow.

But there is a tomorrow. And it's here today..

As weak as the Obama recovery has been things are only going to get worse if we continue down the path Obama has laid out for us. That is why Hillary has been anything but a fan of Obama's economic policies - until recently.

You have to walk a mile in Hillary's shoes to understand her dilemma. She's had a hard time deciding whether to embrace Obama's economy or criticize it during this election cycle. In fact, she was against his economic lunacy before she recently decided to be for it.

In effect, Hillary has had to abandon the economic recipe her hubby Bill used to create solid economic growth in the 1990's. Billy Boy replied on lower taxes and fewer regulations and it worked beautifully. Unfortunately, Trump and the GOP co-opted the lower taxes/less regulation market and that left Hillary in tough bind.

At the start of the 2016 campaign, Hillary was critical of Obama's policies. But she had to abandon that tact because Bernie Sanders was relentlessly attacking her from the left. Hillary had to fend off an increasingly worrisome primary candidacy by ol' Bernie, and in order to win over enough of his loony leftists she had no choice but to advocate for higher taxes, lots of free stuff, and a huge expansion of the welfare state.

Hillary also faced another problem that had her between a rock and a hard place. Hillary needs to acknowledge the reality that people are hurting but she must do so without directly attacking Obama for the crippled economy that's causing that pain. Distancing her from Obama only jeopardizes Hillary's support from a lot of people responsible for putting Obama in the White House. Without their votes, Hillary knows her ship will sink so she's having to walk a very perilous tightrope ... with no net beneath her.

So far it has worked to a certain extent as the public has been bamboozled. But the party is over. The election is approaching rapidly and people are starting to pay attention.

Americans may not like Trump, but they see him as someone who is a billionaire businessman who created wealth for himself while also creating thousands of jobs for the masses. Voters are willing to overlook a lot, even if they have to hold their nose as they contemplate pulling the lever for Trump,  especially if they believe he can make their economic lives better.

The latest GDP numbers reflect that the economy, and thus people's lives, are only getting considerably worse. That, along with Hillary's unfavorable ratings, are at the root of her evaporating poll numbers.

As I mentioned previously, it wasn't that long ago that Hillary had a dismal assessment of the U.S. economy after almost eight years of Obama's policies. During the primaries, she even told workers at a furniture plant in New Hampshire that the economy had stalled out:

"I want to be sure we get small businesses starting and growing in America again. We have stalled out. I was very surprised to see that when I began to dig into it. Because people were telling me this as I traveled around the country the last two years, but I didn't know what they were saying and it turns out that we are not producing as many small businesses as we use to."

 She closed by saying, "It's not enough just to tread water."

No it's not, Hillary. And now that you've flipped on the economy and plan to pursue Obama's failed policies, we may not even be lucky enough to tread water. We're going to sink.

No thanks.

Hillary Tells Her Donors That Millennials Are Too Stupid To Live And That They're Losers Living In Their Parents' Basements

The hip, new Hillary trying to court Millennials as she laughs at them behind their backs

Hey, you crazy kids. That's right, I'm talking to you, the 18-35 year-olds out there who hitched their wagons to the Bernie Sanders "Bern-o-lution". The ones who were promptly screwed over by the DNC when it looked like you were feeling too much of the "Bern" and might possibly take Hillary down in the primaries.

Hillary's perception of Millennials - The basement Dwellers

Welcome to the club, kiddies. Hillary has outed you and put you into a brand new basket she's created, side by side with those of us in the Basket of Deplorables. You are the Basket of Basement Dwellers. That includes all of you Millennials to whom Hillary has recently promised the world in order to sucker you into voting for her.

In reality, she thinks you're a bunch of pimple faced, unrealistic losers too naive to see that the whole time she's talking to you she has her fingers crossed behind her back.

Can we talk, please?

Millennials, think long and hard about whether you really want to put this pathological, condescending, two-faced liar into the White House. What you see with Hillary is definitely not what you are going to get.

In case you missed it, Hillary and the Democratic Party establishment has always looked down their noses at you. Every now and then, you got a glimpse of this when their true colors were briefly exposed, but you really had to look hard for it because it was easy to miss.

Like when Hillary's BFF and DNC henchwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was interviewed by a New York Times columnist in early 2016 and was asked why millennial women weren't all gaga over Hillary:

Question: Do you notice a difference between young women and women our age in their excitement about Hillary Clinton? Is there a generational divide? 

Wasserman Schultz: Here’s what I see: a complacency among the generation of young women whose entire lives have been lived after Roe v. Wade was decided.

Or when Hillary has talked about you. There is a theme, and it is essentially that you are naive, foolish children instead of people who can think for themselves.

Going back to 2007, Clinton spoke about you at the convention for New York State Union of Teachers and said:

“I believe it is time we get back to teaching discipline, self-control, patience, punctuality,” she said. “The biggest complaint that I hear from employers is that young people who show up for jobs don’t have those habits. They don’t get there on time. They don’t know how to conduct themselves appropriately.”

More recently, during the 2016 election primaries, Hillary has repeatedly treated you with a combination of condescension and frustration. And month after month, she has given you additional glimpses into her true opinions about you.

January, 2016 - At a campaign stop in Iowa, Hillary was asked by a millennial why people his age think she is dishonest. She responded that it was a symptom of their cluelessness, as they are paying attention to politics for the first time

February, 2016 - Hillary was confronted by a young black protester at a $500-a-plate fundraiser over her lack of apology for supporting mass incarceration and using the racist term “super-predator” in the 1990s. She responded by angrily changing the subject and declined to apologize.

March, 2016 - Hillary sarcastically challenged a young black woman who complained about the lack of diversity in the Democratic Party. “Why don’t you go run for something?” she callously retorted. 

April, 2016 - in a Meet the Press interview, Clinton told Chuck Todd that she felt very sorry for young people who believe the lies Sanders was spreading about her and denied claims made by Greenpeace that she took donations from the fossil fuel industry, but yet an investigative report found that Hillary had accepted millions of dollars in campaign contributions, and the Clinton Foundation had received multi-millions in donations, from oil companies just a year before she approved the controversial Alberta-Clipper oil pipeline.

One final example is her claim that she supports campaign finance reform, but all the while she has relied on the famous 1% to prop up her campaign. Even then, it wasn't enough. Hillary was only able to match Sanders in campaign contributions through the use of Super PACs.

But Hillary has now come to realize that the only way to stem the tide of her evaporating poll numbers is to get you on board the disintegrating Hillary train. She's real sorry about how she and her Debbie-Doers Schultz-ed you out of a fair shot at getting Bernie nominated in Philadelphia. She's now back flipped on the $15 minimum wage concept. She's done an apparent about face on free college. And she's now trying to figure out what else she can tell you that she'll throw in for free.

Why, she's even come up with a brand new volunteer plan aimed at recruiting millions of you for national and local volunteer projects - as interns - because after all, aren't all of you Millennials just dying for a chance to snag an unpaid internship?

Yeah, that'll get you out of the basements in which she thinks you live.

No, before you take MC Hilly at her word and get all jazzed up about her recent foray into Bernie-ism you may want to think back to what she has said and done before she recently realized that she needs you. And you also may want to consider how she once again reiterated what a bunch of losers all of you are.

Remember during the primaries when Bernie kept hammering Hillary about not producing the transcripts of the $250,000 speeches that she gave to her Wall Street buddies and her other elitist amigos in the rarefied air of opulence?

Remember how she kept refusing to do so?

And she still refuses to do so?

Well, there's a good reason. Either Hillary is telling it like it is to them while lying to you, or she's telling them what she wants them to hear, just like she's telling you what she thinks you now want to hear. But if you go back to her track record and what she's historically, repeatedly said about you, not to mention the bazillions of dollars she's received from her elitist friends, who do you think she's going to try to please if she gets into office, you or them?

You're not that naive or clueless, are you? The woman is a proven pathological liar and now would be a good time for you to take anything she has to say with a boulder of salt.

Let me further add to this 4-1-1 wake up call to you. One of those speeches that Bernie kept bringing up was recently leaked to the public? Oh yes it has. And here's what Hillary told her peeps at a Virginia fundraiser, hosted by Beatrice Welters, the former U.S. ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago, and her hubby Anthony Welters, the executive chairman of an investment consulting firm founded by Hillary's former aide, Cheryl Mills.

Hillary, through the guffaws and laughter of her wealthy donors, said that you guys are a bunch of naive, disillusioned ingrates who live in your parents' basements and have no goals except to be a barista at your local Starbucks. In the almost-hour-long love-fest with the Richey Rich, well heeled campaign donors you detest as being part of the rigged system, Hillary characterized those of you impassioned by Bernie's message, and who still haven't come around to Hillary's fold,  as follows:

"Some are new to politics completely. They’re children of the Great Recession. And they are living in their parents’ basemen t... I met with a group of young black millennials today and you know one of the young women said, 'You know, none of us feel that we have the job that we should have gotten out of college. And we don’t believe the job market is going to give us much of a chance.' So that is a mindset that is really affecting their politics. And so if you’re feeling like you’re consigned to, you know, being a barista, or you know, some other job that doesn’t pay a lot, and doesn’t have some other ladder of opportunity attached to it, then the idea that maybe, just maybe, you could be part of a political revolution is pretty appealing."

But wait just a minute. Isn't Hillary going around telling everyone what a great economy we have? And how she and the Obama administration have created millions and millions of great, new jobs? And how things are better than they've ever been? If all this gar-bage is true, why can't you get a decent job?

Take a step back, kids. Assess the state of today's economy, which she thinks is all Gummy Bears and Gumdrops. Gross GDP is barely increasing. The unemployment rate, the real one, not the one that excludes all the people who have given up looking for work, is at almost 10%. And things ain't getting any better with Hillary planning on taking us down the same path we're on right now.

And she berates you for being stuck in dead end jobs, unable to use that college education for something other than flipping burgers, while you live in your parents' basements?

But wait...

There's more, my fine basement dwelling friends.

During that same speech behind closed doors in Virginia, Hillary made it abundantly clear as to where she stood on progressive goals like free college, and free health care while describing her place on the political spectrum as spanning from the center-left to the center-right.

Get this, Berners. Hillary ridiculed Bernie for alluding to social programs in Scandinavia that he (and you) wanted to embrace. She went on to mock you you for ignorantly buying into them. 

You know the ones - universal daycare, family leave, government sponsored health care, and college education.

Hillary The Fake Progressive chuckled about the thought of free college and free health care while comparing these programs to the "extreme" ideas promulgated by the right, which include populism, nationalism and xenophobia:

"[T]here’s just a deep desire to believe that we can have free college, free health care, that what we’ve done hasn’t gone far enough, and that we just need to, you know, go as far as, you know, Scandinavia, whatever that means, and half the people don’t know what that means, but it’s something that they deeply feel. So as a friend of mine said the other day, I am occupying from the center-left to the center-right. And I don’t have much company there. Because it is difficult when you’re running to be president, and you understand how hard the job is — I don’t want to overpromise. I don’t want to tell people things that I know we cannot do.

There’s a reason why Hillary Clinton is not only failing to connect with many of you Millennials, particularly those of you who supported Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders during the primaries, her support is actually dwindling.

You don't buy into Hillary's bull crap. Because you know she's full of crap. Because you know she'll say one thing to one group, like her elitist, Wall Street friends, and another to a different group, like you.

If Hillary was truly a candidate who shared your views, took them seriously, and planned to put them in place, she would not be throwing a a wet blanket on your idealism. If she was truly with you, she wouldn't be telling people behind your backs that that you've bought into a false promise.

She's pandering to you with her recent promise to pay for your college tuition and move to a single payer universal health care system. You're shrewd enough to realize that when push comes to shove, if she were ever to see the light of day in the White House, all of the promises she made to you would be forgotten.

A Quinnipiac University poll released September 14 showed that only 55 percent of likely Millennial
voters are voting for Hillary compared to 34 percent for Trump. 

That poll follows one released just a month before that showed Hillary with 64 percent of that vote, compared to 29 percent for Trump.

She's floundering without you and your support for her is dropping by the minute.

Who's gonna get the last laugh, you or her?

While you're deciding, here's a final thought. Consider how quickly and eagerly Bernie endorsed Hillary, Wall Street's favorite candidate, and how he's now trying to get you on board with her campaign.  Maybe the real false promise was Bernie's so-called revolution. 

Wouldn't it be interesting if someone asked Bernie why he is endorsing the candidate who, behind closed doors, is openly mocking everything that his supporters believe in?

But that may be a question you can ask another day, should Bernie resurface in an election.

Does Hillary have anything to offer you? Nope. But she desperately needs your vote, even if behind the scenes, at generously paid private functions, she mocks you in front of all those present.

Don't reward her hypocrisy. She'll only laugh at you even harder in private and you'll only prove to her that she was right about you all along. Show her the door and tell her not to let it hit her in the tush on her way back to Chappaqua.

If you toss her overboard, you will effectively deprive her of the one thing that means more to her than anything or anyone - the Presidency. How fitting it would be if she fails to realize her dream because the very people she mocked caused her demise.

You do have power. You can make a difference. Do it.

The Inconvenient Truth - Hillary Clinton Is The Mother Of Obama's Birtherism

Once upon a time, there lived a woman who thought she was entitled to be President of the United States. Let's call her ... I don't know... how about Hillary?

Hillary, as in Clinton, has survived to become the current Democratic nominee for President despite political landmines exploding all around her. Scandal after underhanded scandal due to questionable, if not illegal, dealings? Nothing here to see, folks. Move along.  Let's just say that throughout the course of time, Hillary has bobbed, weaved, destroyed evidence, denied, obstructed, schemed, lied like a cheap rug, and shouldered all manner of humiliation, embarrassment, and federal investigations while soldiering on, dreaming that some day, one day, she would be Madame President.

And when it comes to hypocrisy and manufactured righteous indignation, she is the undisputed champ.

Like when she got on her soapbox recently and attacked Donald Trump for having taken part in Barrack Obama's birther stupidity. Ladies and gentlemen, that takes some colossal cojones because Hillary is the unquestionable, indisputable Mother of the Birther rumors pertaining to Obama.

Now, I try to be a reasonably astute, educated individual when it comes to politics. I also try to weigh information and reject stuff that doesn't pass the smell test. Obama's birthplace and the birther stuff was one of those things that smelled to high heaven. For the life of me, I can't understand why The Donald latched on to it like a dog who had never been given a bone and was finally introduced to one.

But OK, he did, and in my mind made a fool out of himself by going down that road even though it was marked "Stupid Lane". But so did Hillary. In fact, she was for the birther crap long before she was against it. And she tried her best to exploit it.

So the next time you hear Hillary attacking Trump as an insensitive, racist birther who has insulted Obama's integrity by publicly questioning his American birth, or the next time Hillary's minions go on cable news programs and bemoan Trump as despicable for having spread such rumors, or when Michelle Obama sniffles, sobs, and chokes up pretending like her hubby had a tough time dealing with the pain of those accusations, just remember this inconvenient truth - Hillary was slinging that same mud long before Trump got his hands dirty.

Naturally, you'll hear the media and Hillary's surrogates bend over backwards to cover for Hillary. They will will say that there's no direct proof that Hillary engaged in spreading the birther rumors about Obama and they're right to a certain extent. Hillary's fingerprints will never be found on that gun. 

But that's because Hillary is too shrewd to have handled the weapon without wearing gloves. I mean, c'mon people... did you seriously expect to find a smoking gun with a confession note penned by Hillary, rubber banded to the barrel, saying, "Yep, it was me"?

This is the same woman who had a team of flunkies scrub, bleach, wipe, and hammer into oblivion any trace of her Blackberrys and computer servers when the email scandal broke. The same Hillary who had thousands of pages of subpoenaed billing documents during a federal investigation disappear from her law firm only for the documents to magically appear in the White House years later.

Take the blinders off, will ya, please?

Hillary has always had a team of hatchet men to do her dirty work so as to insulate her from any connection to the deeds. It's a well worn, simple concept - plausible deniability - and Hillary is the master of this tactic.

For the longest time, one of Hillary's go-to hatchet guys has been Sidney Blumenthal. Back in 2007 and 2008, when Obama appeared to be wresting the nomination from the old girl, what did she do? She turned to her Prince of Darkness, the guy who everyone knew as "Sid Vicious". She instructed Blumenthal to do what he did best - get in the gutter, dig for dirt, roll around in the pig sty, and surface with something, anything that might torpedo the rising candidacy of the aforementioned upstart.

And Blumenthal went to work doing what he does best. He slung mud, spread rumors, and used every dirty, underhanded trick he could deploy on behalf of his Hillary.

With Blumenthal, such assignments become an obsession. After jumping into the political sewer, he began to rail about about the possible existence of a tape from a Chicago church wherein Michelle Obama could supposedly be heard ranting against “whitey”. Blumenthal referred to it as the “whitey tape” and believed that this tape, if it could be found, would destroy Obama's political fortunes. Hillary bought into it hook, line, and sinker, telling anyone who would listen that, “They’ve got a tape, they’ve got a tape."

Just a little insight as to the depths to which Blumenthal  and Hillary went to as far as Obama rumors were concerned;  and, the anecdote refutes any notion that Hillary wasn't abreast of every little smidgeon of dirt that Blumenthal was pursuing while relishing in the thought of finding something in Obama's past that would tank his campaign.

But the tape turned out to be a figment of Blumenthal's perverted imagination. There was no such tape.

So Blumenthal shifted gears. He began to fuel and fan the flames of allegations surrounding Barack Obama’s relationship with former Weather Underground militant William Ayres and with Tony Rezko, a dirty Chicago developer - behind the scenes, of course. 

Taking it up another notch, in emails to the media, Blumenthal derided Obama’s judgement, questioning how Obama would conduct himself in his promised "summits without preconditions” with people such as then Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il.

“Let’s look at how he did with Tony Rezko,” Blumenthal said.

Blumenthal made it a practice of sending these and other anti-Obama emails, often attaching articles  from far-right publications, to reporters and others who he knew would spread the rumors. What he normally dished out was garbage with no basis in fact, but sufficiently intriguing to merit attention.

Peter Dyer from the Huffington Post was the recipient of most, if not all, of those frequent email blasts. They were forwarded to him by one of the people on Blumenthal's list. In a May 25, 2011, Dyer wrote and article for the Post, after growing tired of Blumenthal's smear tactics: 

"[A]cting as a senior campaign advisor to Senator Clinton, Blumenthal is exploiting that same right-wing network to attack and discredit Barack Obama. And he’s not hesitating to use the same sort of guilt-by-association tactics that have been the hallmark of the political right dating back to the McCarthy era. 

Almost every day over the past six months, I have been the recipient of an email that attacks Obama’s character, political views, electability, and real or manufactured associations. The original source of many of these hit pieces are virulent and sometimes extreme right-wing websites, bloggers, and publications. But they aren’t being emailed out from some fringe right-wing group that somehow managed to get my email address. Instead, it is Sidney Blumenthal who, on a regular basis, methodically dispatches these email mudballs to an influential list of opinion shapers — including journalists, former Clinton administration officials, academics, policy entrepreneurs, and think tankers — in what is an obvious attempt to create an echo chamber that reverberates among talk shows, columnists, and Democratic Party funders and activists. One of the recipients of the Blumenthal email blast, himself a Clinton supporter, forwards the material to me and perhaps to others."

If only Peter knew just how many people were on Blumenthal's email list.

Itt included writers and journalists such as Craig Unger, Edward Jay Epstein, Thomas Edsall (Politics Editor of the Huffington Post), Joe Conason, Gene Lyons (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette columnist and author of "The Hunting of the President: The Ten Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton"), John Judis, Eric Alterman, Christine Ockrent, David Brock, Reza Aslan, Harold Evans, and Josh Marshall; academics and think tankers Todd Gitlin (Columbia U sociologist), Karen Greenberg (NYU law school), Sean Wilentz (Princeton historian), Michael Lind, William M. Drozdiak, and Richard Parker; and former Clinton administration officials John Ritch, James Rubin, Derek Shearer, and Joe Wilson.

But the creme de la creme was Blumenthal's birther attack on Obama which he originated after receiving some marching orders from "Who-Me?" Hillary, through her staff.

In March of 2007, Hillary was briefed on her campaign's strategy going forward. In a recently discovered memorandum from Mark Penn, Hillary's Chief Strategist for the 2008 presidential campaign, Penn outlined the campaign's plan of attack on Obama. Obama's "Lack of American Roots" was clearly a key area Penn and Hillary believed was ripe for attack.

But not overtly. Secretly. Discreetly. Never in a way that could ever come back to their doorstep. This was confirmed in the memo, as Penn verified the underhanded manner in which they would be proceeding, to wit: "We are never going to say anything about his background" while nevertheless doing just that under the radar.



And Sidney Blumenthal was given the job of uncovering any dirt on Obama that would undermine Obama's "lack of American roots".

Blumenthal had heard the rumors relating to Obama's suspected Kenyan birthplace and believed them to be true. In typical Blumenthal fashion, he deluded himself into believing them because he was certain tthat would be the end of Obama's candidacy. He therefore began a not-so-subtle email campaign to press this avenue of attack and eventually managed to get the ear of James Asher, a McClatchy Washington DC bureau chief.

Asher has verified publicly that Blumenthal spread the story to him, and that he assigned a reporter to investigate. Moreover, Shashank Bengali, who was the McClatchy bureau chief in Nairobi in 2008, has confirmed that Asher asked him to look into Obama’s background. He has also said he did report on several tips as well as the rumor that Obama was born there, and not in Hawaii.

“Jim asked me to look into Obama’s ties to Kenya and sent a number of tips to check out and one of the things I looked into was the unfounded rumor that Obama was born in Kenya. I don’t have any specific knowledge where that tip would have come from. Jim’s instructions were just to look at everything.”

A 2008 email from Blumenthal to Asher was also forwarded to Bengali raising other avenues of dirt that should be pursued:

"Jim: 

On Kenya, your person in the field might look into the impact there of Obama’s public comments about his father. I’m told by State Dept officials that Obama publicly derided his father on his visit there and that was regarded as embarrassing and crossing the line by Kenyans for whom respect for elders (especially the father, especially a Muslim father, in a patrilineal society) is considered sacrosanct. 

                                                                                                                Sidney"

To punctuate his recollection of his interactions with Blumenthal pertaining to the birther issue, Asher  specifically recalls Blumenthal visiting the Washington McClatchy bureau where the two met in Asher's office. During that conversation and in subsequent communications, Asher steadfastly maintains that he and Blumenthal discussed a number of matters related to Obama and Blumenthal encouraged McClatchy to write stories related to Obama and his connections to Kenya.

He also specifically recalls the conversation wherein Blumenthal encouraged an investigative article about the birther issue after Blumenthal told him that Obama was born in Kenya.

Blumenthal has denied Asher's claims, just as he's denied having spread countless other lies, rumors, and dirt about anyone in his way. To say that Blumenthal's credibility is non-existent is an understatement. And for Hillary to sanctimoniously deny having been involved in any such underhanded, unscrupulous, deceitful, reprehensible, dirty, low down rumor mongering.... well, that smells almost as bad as Blumenthal.  Nobody makes a move on behalf of the Clintons unless they've issued the orders. They're the most micromanaging control freaks God has ever put on the face of this earth.

But before I close, let me make sure you appreciate the totality of the bag of scum that Sidney Blumenthal truly is. That way, you can properly assess anything he might have to say on anything, including a denial of having leaped head first into the birther manure pile on behalf of Hillary.

From the earliest Clinton days, Blumenthal has been the Clintons' Liar In Chief, spreading any lie he could conjure up in order to protect Billy-Bob from himself. 

Some have described Blumenthal as the "whisperer", the guy who was always that mysterious "unnamed source" used by the media to give credence to unsubstantiated rumors that Bill wanted to spread about his foes.

Blumenthal's reputation for dishonesty and underhanded tactics is legendary and amply documented. One notable example is when he lied to the media and Congress after publicly smearing Monica Lewinsky as a stalker.

Blumenthal was also caught spreading false rumors during Bill Clinton's impeachment trial about one of the prosecutors on Kenneth Starr’s team having abused young boys at a Christian summer camp.

Want more? In 1995, Blumenthal told reporters that Colin Powell’s wife suffered from clinical depression and was thus unfit to be a first lady. He did this when Colin Powell was testing the waters for a presidential run against Bill after his first term. and the Clintons were terrified that it could derail a second term for Bill.

And if you have any doubt whatsoever as to whether Blumenthal had his DNA all over the birther issue and that Obama and his people knew about it, all you need to know is that when Hillary wanted to have Blumenthal join her at the State Department as a top aide, Obama not only said, "No", he said "Hell, no."

Obama's key White House staffers detested the man, including Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and Senior Adviser David Axelrod, both of whom threatened to quit if Blumenthal was hired. They knew that Blumenthal had been involved in spreading all of the unsubstantiated, dirty allegations against the Obamas during the 2008 Democratic primary, including the birther issue, and wanted no part of him.

So, when it comes to the birther issue, Hillary rules the roost. Any attempt by Hillary, her minions, or her enamored media to distance her from it belies the fact that Hillary’s 2008 campaign against Obama was the source of the original birtherism attack. She and her campaign tried to exploit the issue and did so in the typical Clintonian fashion: indirectly, secretly, and through hatchet men like Sidney Blumenthal manufacturing and passing along rumors .

Hillary has never learned not to throw stones while living in a glass house. Or she thinks all of us are stupid. Either way, the truth is out, inconvenient as it may be.