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Volvo Trucks USA / August 9, 2016 .

One of Jay's best update videos yet.

Car & Driver / August 9, 2016 The Ford Raptor‘s Fox shock absorbers were perhaps its single best feature, even ahead of the brawny V-8 and the grille-mounted clearance lights. Knowing their capabilities, you sped up for any obstacle—speed bumps, curbs, Mount Kilimanjaro. Now, they offer even more wheel travel for the all-new 2017 model. The new Raptor’s three-inch-diameter shocks are a half-inch burlier than before. Maximum wheel travel increases to 13.0 inches up front and 13.9 inches in back (compared with the previous Raptor’s 11.2 and 12.0 inches). Within the shocks, nine internal bypass zones let the hydraulic fluid flow at varying damping rates, allowing the suspension to be as firm or as soft as necessary with minimal risk of bottoming out completely. Ford also mentioned greater approach and departure angles, although it made no mention of actual numbers. .

Those dual headlamp assemblies were readily available from the parts bin. They were used on the G-Model.

DNC staffer murdered for revealing e-mails to Wikileaks ? The Washington Post / August 9, 2016 The speculation started within days of Seth Rich being gunned down in what D.C. police believe was an attempted robbery near his townhouse in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Northwest Washington. Some wondered if Rich was killed because of his work as a staffer with the Democratic National Committee, even suggesting he had handed WikiLeaks the 20,000 emails that embarrassed the DNC and forced the ouster of its chairwoman. Others suggested he was helping the FBI expose wrongdoing in the presidential election, and that made him a target. On Tuesday, WikiLeaks shoved those conspiracy theories into the mainstream when it announced on Twitter a $20,000 reward for information leading to a conviction in Rich’s killing on July 10 in the 2100 block of Flagler Place NW. The reward adds to a $25,000 reward offered by D.C. police, customary in all District homicides. Rich’s father, Joel I. Rich, said he was offended by what he termed “bizarre” reports that are circulating on Internet discussion and message boards. Rich and his wife, Mary Ann, who live in Nebraska where their son grew up, visited the location of the shooting last week and appealed for help in finding the killer. On Tuesday, Joel Rich said that the WikiLeaks reward seemed to legitimize the rumor mill. “I don’t think I want to comment,” he said at first, then added, “I hope the additional money helps find out who did this.” But, he said, “I don’t want to play WikiLeaks’ game.” Assistant D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham said that “at this time we don’t have any information to suggest” a connection between Rich’s killing and the WikiLeaks data or other theories raised online. Newsham also said, “We are very pleased if anyone is going to assist us with the giving of reward money.” Rich was shot twice in the back as he walked to his townhouse about 4:20 a.m. Nothing was taken, but police have said attempted robbery is their leading theory for a motive, noting a spike in robberies in the neighborhood in the preceding weeks. WikiLeaks released the trove of emails later that month, on July 22. Rich, 27, had worked for the DNC for two years and helped develop a computer program to make it easier for people to find polling places on Election Day. After his death, the DNC’s then-chairwoman, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.), attended a vigil for Rich in front of his home, and Hillary Clinton, before she was nominated in her run for president, evoked his name during a speech in which she advocated for limiting the availability of guns. A spokesman for the DNC refused to comment on WikiLeaks or the speculation about Rich. Wasserman Schultz, who was ousted as DNC chair after the embarrassing emails became public on July 22, did not respond to questions given to her spokesman. An official with Clinton’s campaign and some cybersecurity experts have alleged that Russia may be behind the email hack. WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange said that he would not confirm or deny whether Rich was a source for the organization, which over the years has obtained and released massive amounts of internal emails and other documents from the military, the State Department and other agencies. He said that policy “also covers alleged sources who were deceased.” “We treat threats towards any suspected WikiLeaks sources with extreme gravity,” Assange said. “This should not be taken to imply that Seth Rich was a source to WikiLeaks or that his murder is connected to our publications. We hope our efforts will contribute to the family’s calls for information and to the separate reward issued by police. We have a history of obtaining information that has significantly contributed to many legal proceedings, including successful prosecutions.” .

Philippines president calls US ambassador S.O.B. & gay, Washington demands clarification RT / August 9, 2016 The US summoned the Philippines’ envoy after its president, Rodrigo Roa Duterte attacked America’s ambassador with expletives. Giving a speech in front of servicemen in Camp Lapu-Lapu in Cebu City on Friday, Duterte described his attitude towards US officials. The Philippine president said “I am okay with him,” referring to US Secretary of State John Kerry, who had visited the country in late July. However, he then lashed out at the US ambassador to the Philippines, Philip Goldberg, saying “I had an argument with their ambassador, that ‘bakla’ [gay]. Son of bitch, he really annoys me.” Goldberg has never publicly identified himself as gay. Duterte also accused Goldberg of “interfering in elections, giving statements here and there… He was not supposed to do that.” On Monday, US Press Office director Elizabeth Trudeau said that the remarks made by the Philippines’ president concerning Goldberg were “inappropriate,” while refusing to quote them. “We have asked the Philippines charge [d’affaires] to come into the State Department to clarify those remarks,” she said. A feud between the two goes back to before the country’s June 2016 election, when Goldberg commented on a gross joke made by Duterte regarding the 1989 murder of Australian missionary Jacqueline Hamill, who was gang raped and killed during a jail riot in the city of Davao, where Duterte was mayor at the time. Back in April, then-presidential candidate Duterte effectively said that he had been mad about the Australian being raped at the time because “she was so beautiful. The mayor should have been first.” The remark prompted outrage in Australia; Amanda Gorely, the country’s ambassador to the Philippines, said that violence against women must not be “trivialized.” Goldberg also commented on the issue. “I can only agree with the colleague from the Australian Embassy,” the US ambassador said in April. “Any statements by anyone, anywhere that either degrade women or trivialize issues so serious as rape or murder, are not ones that we condone.” Presidential hopeful Duterte slammed Goldberg over what he called interfering in the Philippine’s national elections, while threatening to sever all diplomatic ties with Washington if Goldberg did not “shut [his] mouth.” Rodrigo Duterte won the Philippine presidency in May, securing 38.9 percent of the vote.

U.S. taxpayers give $50 million of military hardware to Lebanon Reuters / August 9, 2016 The United States delivered 50 armored Humvees, 40 M198 155mm howitzers with 1,000 tons of ammunition and 50 grenade launchers to the Lebanese army on Tuesday, part of its efforts to bolster Lebanon against a threat from militant groups in neighboring, conflict-ridden Syria. The equipment, worth $50 million [actually more], is part of an aid package that has now topped $220 million this year, making Lebanon the fifth-biggest recipient of American military assistance, U.S. ambassador Elizabeth Richard said during the delivery. Fighting between Islamic State and other Islamist militant groups in Syria often flares in the mountains along Lebanon's northern frontier and the violence has periodically spilled across the border. Eight Islamic State suicide bombers targeted a Christian village in Lebanon near the Syrian frontier last month, killing five and raising fears of a new campaign of attacks. Fighters from Islamic State and other groups also stage regular incursions across the poorly demarcated border around the northern Lebanese town of Arsal, which they briefly overran in 2014 before the army drove them out. Lebanon has a weak government and a number of countries support its armed forces as a bulwark against destabilization in a country where around a quarter of the population are Syrian refugees. This year Saudi Arabia, traditionally an important financial backer of Lebanon, suspended a $3 billion aid package for Lebanese security forces because of what it called Beirut’s failure to condemn attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran in January. The move has raised concerns in the US, prompting it to discuss the issue with the Saudis in early March. Syria once dominated its smaller neighbor, whose own sectarian fissures fueled a 15-year civil war from 1975-90. Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement has fought alongside Syrian government forces in Syria's civil war since 2013. .

Zika virus could be linked with 'whole spectrum' of disorders The Guardian / August 9, 2016 Study linking virus with severe joint deformities leads experts to say that Zika could be associated with range of problems A study by scientists in Brazil that suggests a possible link between the Zika virus and rare, but severe, joint deformities in babies has led experts to warn that the virus could be linked to a host of other problems in babies, some of which might only become apparent as they get older. Experts say the study opens up the possibility that microcephaly, a condition in which babies are born with abnormally small heads, could just be one facet of a congenital Zika virus syndrome. The Zika virus is primarily spread by mosquitoes and is currently present in more than 50 countries and territories worldwide, including many in Latin America. While the implications of Zika virus infection for unborn babies have yet to be fully unravelled, the virus has already been declared to be a cause of the birth defect microcephaly. But now experts say the virus appears to be linked a severe joint condition seen at birth. Known as arthrogryposis, the condition is characterised by problems with joint movement and muscle weakness, with joints often fixed in abnormal, curved positions. The condition is thought to have a number of possible causes, including problems with the movement of the foetus in the womb, which can itself have several origins. But, if the link with Zika is confirmed, it will be the first time the condition has been associated with an infection in the foetus. “I think this is part of the move from describing microcephaly, which is just really a component of the congenital Zika syndrome, to starting to describe the whole spectrum of the Zika syndrome,” said Laura Rodrigues, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, who was not involved in the study. Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he was not surprised by the findings of the new study and believes many more Zika-linked conditions will be discovered. “As opposed to linking Zika just to microcephaly there is a whole spectrum which they are now referring to as the [congenital] Zika syndrome, within which is included microcephaly but it is not limited to microcephaly,” he said. “This [research] is just a very good example of the broadening spectrum of the abnormalities that can occur in children,” he added. “I can predict to you now that it is likely that the children who look reasonably normal, don’t have any gross formation defects, might later on have issues that relate to subtle things like visual defects, or hearing defects, or intellectual landmarks children get as they develop. So I think the syndrome is going to continue to broaden.” The research, published in the BMJ, followed up on two previous reports that hinted at a link between Zika and arthrogryposis, and involved the study of seven children born during the autumn of 2015, all of whom had the joint condition and displayed a similar pattern of limb abnormalities. Six of the children had been diagnosed with microcephaly, while all showed brain imaging results consistent with congenital Zika infection, including abnormal brain development, reduced brain volume and a build-up of calcium in certain regions of the brain. Four of the children also showed spinal cord thinning, while some of the children also showed eye or ear abnormalities. For all of the children, other causes of the microcephaly such as HIV, syphilis and rubella were ruled out by tests, suggesting that the likely cause was the Zika virus. “The pattern of [the] brain images are typical of congenital infections and we excluded other causes of congenital infections,” said Vanessa van der Linden, lead author of the research from the hospital Barão de Lucena in Recife, Brazil. Three of the children have so far been found to have antibodies for the Zika virus, two at the time of writing the study and one since, she adds. The clustering of the cases in space and time is also suggestive says Rodrigues. “Arthrogryposis is extremely rare, and suddenly there are seven cases and all happened during the [Zika] epidemic,” she said. “I think that it is reasonable to assume that it is part of the [Zika] syndrome.” When the scientists carried out ultrasound imaging on the children they found that all seven showed no abnormalities in the tissue, cartilage, joint fluid and structures around the joints. That, the authors say, suggests that the arthrogryposis was caused not by a disorder of the tissues, but rather a problem with the nervous system that prevented the foetus from moving around normally in the womb – a mechanism by which foetuses develop their joints and tissues correctly. “It is damaged nerves that has lead to this rather than muscle damage or joint damage so it links to brain and nervous infection by Zika during pregnancy,” said Jimmy Whitworth, professor of international public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. While Whitworth says the evidence for a link between the Zika virus and arthrogryposis is not yet conclusive, he believes that the results of the new study are “compelling”. “It needs to be added to things that doctors think about when they see arthrogryposis – could this be congenital Zika infection that has occurred?” he said.

My 2 cents: It’s funny how this damning and discrediting news about Kissinger, and I’m not saying it isn’t true, is declassified at the same juncture that Kissinger refused to be a signatory of the anti-Trump letter (above). Full of suspense, mystery and drama, the “elections show” is sure to win a Grammy this year. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kissinger hindered US effort to end mass killings in Argentina, according to files The Guardian / August 9, 2016 Newly declassified files show the former secretary of state jeopardized efforts to crackdown on bloodshed by Argentina’s 1976-83 military dictatorship Former secretary of state Henry Kissinger jeopardized US efforts to stop mass killings by Argentina’s 1976-83 military dictatorship by congratulating the country’s military leaders for “wiping out” terrorism, according to a large trove of newly declassified state department files. The documents, which were released on Monday night, show how Kissinger’s close relationship to Argentina’s military rulers hindered Jimmy Carter’s carrot-and-stick attempts to influence the regime during his 1977-81 presidency. Carter officials were infuriated by Kissinger’s attendance at the 1978 World Cup in Argentina as the personal guest of dictator Jorge Videla, the general who oversaw the forced disappearance of up to 30,000 opponents of the military regime. At the time, Kissinger was no longer in office after Carter defeated Gerald Ford in the 1976 presidential election, but the documents reveal that US diplomats feared his praise for Argentina’s crackdown would encourage further bloodshed. During his years as secretary of state, Kissinger had encouraged Argentina’s military junta to stamp out “terrorism”. In contrast, Carter and Zbigniew Brzezinski, his national security adviser, made human rights a cornerstone of US foreign policy and were exerting pressure on Argentina’s military regime by withholding loans and sales of military equipment. The newly declassifed cables show how Kissinger lauded Videla and other officials for their methods during his 1978 visit. “His praise for the Argentine government in its campaign against terrorism was the music the Argentine government was longing to hear,” says one of the documents. Another diplomatic cable describes how, during a lunch with Videla, “Kissinger applauded Argentina’s efforts in combatting terrorism” and lamented that “it was unfortunate many Americans thought Argentina was a soft drink. He said this indicated that Americans are not aware of Argentine history nor of its struggle against terrorism.” Kissinger even held a private meeting with Videla without the presence of the US ambassador to Buenos Aires, Raúl Castro, at which human rights and Carter’s foreign policy were discussed. “Videla prearranged it so Kissinger and the interpreter would meet with him privately half an hour before ambassador’s arrival,” one cable shows. In another off-the-record meeting with the Argentinian Council of International Relations (CARI) – a group of conservative and highly influential Argentinian diplomats – Kissinger went even further, stating that “in his opinion the government of Argentina had done an outstanding job in wiping out terrorist forces”. US ambassador Castro was shocked by Kissinger’s behaviour. “My only concern is that Kissinger’s repeated high praise for Argentina’s action in wiping out terrorism ... may have gone to some considerable extent to his hosts’ heads,” the ambassador said in a lengthy cable to Washington. “There is some danger that Argentines may use Kissinger’s laudatory statements as justification for hardening their human rights stance.” Officials in Washington were furious. “[Kissinger’s] praise for the Argentine government in its campaign against terrorism was the music the Argentine government was longing to hear,” National Security Council official Robert Pastor wrote in a summary of Kissinger’s visit for Brzezinski. “What concerns me is his apparent desire to speak out against the Carter administration’s human rights policy,” Pastor fumed. The newly released documents show that at one stage the Carter administration considered asking Pope John Paul II to intervene with Argentina’s military rulers. A lengthy September 1980 cable marked “confidential” said that “the Church and the Pope have far more influence here than the US government and can be the most effective advocates of a full return to the rule of law”. The cable – to US officials in Rome – says that “the Vatican may be the most effective advocate” before the Argentinian authorities, for whom “disappearance is still the standard tactic”. The documents do not reveal if US diplomats did approach the Vatican, and the exact role of the Catholic church during those dark years remains an issue of debate: many reports indicate that priests were present during torture sessions. It was not until 2000 that the Argentinian Catholic church finally apologized for turning a blind eye to the repression. The cables also give a frightening picture of the delusional antisemitism prevalent among Argentina’s generals, who were convinced that Brzezinski (a Polish-born Catholic) headed a worldwide Jewish conspiracy against Argentina. To fight against this perceived conspiracy, the regime kidnapped the successful Jewish newspaper publisher Jacobo Timerman. Thanks largely to strong pressure from the Carter administration, Timerman was finally freed, although he was stripped of his Argentinian citizenship and expelled to Israel, where he spoke to US diplomats about the torture he had endured. “Timerman said that the main focus of questioning during his imprisonment was his role as the Argentine ‘leader’ of an alleged world Zionist conspiracy,” states a declassified cable from the US embassy in Tel Aviv. Another report from Pastor to Brzezinski – headed “You don’t look Jewish” – relates incredulously how Timerman told US diplomats that “much of the Argentine military believe that a world-wide Jewish conspiracy is at the heart of the terrorist problem in Argentina, and that you (Brzezinski) are at the head of that conspiracy”. When Timerman pointed out to his captors that Brzezinski was Catholic, they told him it was simply a ruse, Pastor wrote. “They ‘know’ you are Jewish because they studied the New York City phone book and found that a number of ‘Brzezinskis’ had Jewish first names!” he wrote. The documents’ release – which had been announced by Barack Obama during a visit to Argentina in March – was welcomed by Argentina’s human rights secretary, Claudio Avruj. “We’re surprised by the speed with which the US has delivered this documentation,” he told reporters. “We thought it would take longer.”

Summer Fed lull has investors ‘whistling past the graveyard’ The Financial Times / August 9, 2016 August has a history of turning ugly, but there could be deeper trouble further ahead Periods of calm across markets rarely last long and August has a history of turning decidedly ugly for investors. The summer has been distinguished by very supportive central banks, with the Bank of England’s kitchen sink effort in the wake of the Brexit vote just the latest example of the “central bank put” pumping up asset prices. With many central banks still looking to ease policy, one stands apart and holds the key to whether global equities can keep climbing, led by US share prices setting a record pace. In the wake of last week’s robust employment data, the shadow of tighter US Federal Reserve policy and, by extension, that of a firmer dollar remains faint with little prospect of a sharper outline emerging over the coming weeks. For now, complacency reigns, with the US bond market and many investors convinced the Fed will stick to the policy sidelines and keep interest rates low for a long time. Two solid months of job gains in June and July falls into the camp of constituting the best of both worlds for markets. US equities are rising on the idea that second-half activity may gather pace and hopefully ignite earnings growth, while the bond market shrugs off a strong jobs print and continues to expect no action from the Fed. Market expectations of a US interest rate tightening only rise above 50 per cent by March of 2017. The current two-year Treasury note yield of 0.72 per cent remains below last December’s level of 1 per cent, when the Fed finally began tightening policy. Such a belief in the mantra of “lower for forever” against the backdrop of aggressive bond purchases by other central banks has compressed global bond yields and spurred a stampede into emerging market sovereign debt that sport higher fixed returns because they also reflect a greater degree of risk. As measures of market volatility compress ever tighter and the search for yield embraces risqué areas of bond land, investors are largely viewing the world through the lens of secular stagnation. The idea that the US economy will shift into a higher gear and trigger a reappraisal of the dollar with dangerous consequences for elevated EM prices, let alone US assets, notably expensive looking bond proxies — the shares of high dividend paying companies — appears a dim prospect to investors. One can’t blame them for whistling past the graveyard at this juncture, however. Playing a role is the calendar, with the Fed not meeting until well into next month. As Lou Crandall at Wrightson Icap notes: “There is still plenty of time for events to undermine the case for a rate hike, as they have done repeatedly in recent quarters. It is much too early to say with confidence that the data will line up in favour of a rate hike on September 21.” The annual gathering of central bankers at Jackson Hole in late August, with a speech from Janet Yellen, will probably offer little new information about the policy outlook. Not until we see the tone of the August jobs data early next month, does the potential beckon for a stronger reaction from investors and the dollar. This is when things might become interesting. Based on employment and inflation considerations, a tightening of US policy from a meagre 0.25 to 0.5 per cent range is warranted. Longview Economics makes the point that two forces — growing wages via a tightening jobs market and accelerating credit and money supply growth — support higher US service sector inflation. “The risks to the consensus view are therefore skewed to the upside, with the growing likelihood that the Fed is forced, at some stage, to once again begin talking up the prospect of rate hikes,” says Chris Watling at Longview. Such talk, however, raises the prospect of a stronger dollar, and as we have often heard, Fed officials do worry about financial market turmoil stemming from a rejuvenated reserve currency tightening financial conditions. At some point and perhaps sooner than the market thinks, US policy officials need to break this impasse. The longer the Fed stays on the sidelines, the more distorted markets become, storing up a much more painful outcome for investors.

Norfolk, Virginia-based Turkish rear admiral seeking asylum in United States Reuters / August 9, 2016 A Turkish military officer on a U.S.-based assignment for NATO is seeking asylum in the United States after being recalled by the Turkish government in the wake of last month's failed military coup, U.S. officials told Reuters. The asylum bid is the first known case involving a Turkish military officer in the United States as Turkey purges military ranks after mutinous soldiers commandeered fighter jets, helicopters and tanks in an unsuccessful attempt to oust President Tayyip Erdogan. The case has the potential to further strain ties between the United States and Turkey, which is already demanding Washington hand over a U.S.-based Turkish cleric it alleges was responsible for the failed coup. The two U.S. officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the Turkish officer was working at the headquarters of NATO's Allied Command Transformation, located in Norfolk, Virginia. They did not name him or offer his rank. However, an official at Turkey's embassy in Washington said Turkish Navy Rear Admiral Mustafa Ugurlu had failed to report to authorities after Turkey issued a detention order for him last month. "On July 22, on that day he left his badges and his ID at the base and after that no one has heard anything from him," the official said, also speaking on condition of anonymity. The Turkish official said he was unaware of a subsequent asylum request. An April news article on the NATO website identified Ugurlu as the Norfolk-based command's assistant chief of staff for command and control, deployability and sustainability. The Turkish official said two other lower-level officers had also been called back from the United States to Turkey. "But there's no detention order for them," the official said. "One of them has gone back, and the other will go back shortly." MILITARY PURGES The purges within Turkey's military, which has NATO's second largest armed forces and aspires to membership in the European Union, has resulted in thousands of soldiers being discharged, including around 40 percent of generals. There are concerns within the Turkish opposition that the restructuring lacks parliamentary oversight and is going too far. Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis refused to comment. The Norfolk mission where the Turkish officer was assigned is the only NATO command in North America. It directs Allied Command Transformation's subordinate commands, including the Joint Warfare Center in Norway and the Joint Force Training Center in Poland. A spokeswoman at the Norfolk-based mission said 26 Turkish military personnel were assigned there, and she [being politically correct] praised Turkey's contribution, including hosting U.S. and allies at its Incirlik Air Base, an important staging area for the U.S. forces fighting ISIS militants in Syria. "We want to state that Turkey is a valued NATO ally that continues to make important contributions to the fight against ISIS," said [a politically correct] U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Karen Eifert said, while refusing to comment on questions about an asylum request. A NATO official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Turkey's internal reorganization of its military has not had a practical impact on NATO-led commands. "Turkey has notified NATO about the changeover of a number of Turkish military personnel. There has been no impact on the implementation of NATO-led operations and missions or on the work of NATO commands," the official said, refusing to comment on any asylum request. "I would refer you to the Turkish authorities for any further details on their staffing." U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services refused to discuss the case. The State Department has refused to comment. ANTI-U.S. SENTIMENT RISING The case comes as Turkey presses Washington to hand over U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen. Gulen, an ally of Erdogan in the early years after his Islamist-rooted AK Party took power in 2002, has denied any involvement in the coup, which came at a critical time for a NATO state facing Islamist militant attacks from across the border in Syria and an insurgency by Kurdish rebels. Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said anti-American feeling among Turks was on the rise and "turning into hatred" and could only be calmed by the United States extraditing Gulen. Still, the U.S. and Turkish militaries have long had extensive ties, extending beyond the NATO alliance. One U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, estimated there were around 160 Turkish military personnel on assignment in the United States, including those at NATO in Norfolk and others at exchanges at prestigious U.S. military institutions. Navy Lieutenant Commander Patrick Evans said 123 Turkish military personnel were participating in the U.S. International Military Education and Training Program in the continental United States as of August 9. Asked how many of those participants had been recalled to Turkey, Evans said: "We are aware of one student currently at the Army War College who received a recall notice to return to Turkey." The status of the student at the War College, located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, was not immediately clear. Evans refused to comment on any individual cases.

Ford Starts Shipping Super Duty Pickups From Kentucky Factory Bloomberg / August 9, 2016 Ford Motor Co. has begun shipping its new aluminum-bodied Super Duty pickup, one of its most profitable models, from a Kentucky factory, the automaker’s top North American executive said. “This is one of the strongest products in our portfolio,” Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s president of the Americas, said in a presentation Tuesday at a JPMorgan Chase & Co. conference in New York. “This is the first all-new Super Duty in 18 years.” The second-largest U.S. automaker said last month that its profit goals for the year are at risk because it no longer sees the U.S. vehicle market growing. The cost of introducing the new Super Duty pickups, such as the F-250, was already going to pressure margins in the year’s second half, Ford had said. But rising incentives and slowing sales are also taking a toll, as Ford’s North American pretax profit slid 4.8 percent in the second quarter to $2.7 billion. The Super Duty, which began shipping this past weekend, will eventually provide some relief, once Ford gets through the costly launch phase when it’s spending to overhaul the factory in Louisville, Kentucky, and market the new truck. The automaker rolled out an aluminum-bodied version of its smaller F-150 pickup over the last two years, which can be seen as a guide to how Super Duty will eventually improve profit, Hinrichs said. “There certainly are costs associated with the launch period,” he said. “Once we got past the F-150 launch, we set a record for every quarterly profit.” Ford rose 1.2 percent to $12.32 at 1:17 p.m. in New York. The shares declined 14 percent this year through Monday. Market Leader The Super Duty accounts for 43 percent of the U.S. heavy-duty pickup market, making it the leader of that segment, Hinrichs said. The new version, with its lightweight aluminum body, will have the best fuel economy in its class. It also will have 17 new features, including driver-assistance technologies, he said. “Super Duty is a very, very important product,” Bob Shanks, Ford’s chief financial officer, told analysts last month. “It’s high volume. It’s very high margin.” The U.S. auto market slowed sooner than Ford anticipated. The automaker now sees U.S. industrywide sales of 17.4 million to 17.9 million vehicles, down from an earlier forecast of about 18 million. Excluding medium-duty and heavy trucks, the new projection translates to a light-vehicle market of 17.1 million to 17.6 million, compared with last year’s record 17.5 million. Although Ford’s incentives have risen this year, Hinrichs said the company will remain “very disciplined” in its pricing. The restructuring during the last recession, in which Ford closed factories and cut jobs, has left the company prepared for the next downturn, he said. “We feel good about where the North American business is,” Hinrichs said. “We still believe we can be profitable in a downturn.”

Ohio man arrested for rape of 3-year-old ABC News / August 9, 2016 An Ohio man has been arrested on sexual assault charges after a woman caught him raping a 3-year-old girl inside an abandoned garage. Charles Sadler, 34, of Columbus, was taken into custody Friday in connection to the alleged assault. According to police, a woman was driving in west Columbus when she heard a scream and saw a man, later identified as Sadler, raping a little girl in the 300 block of South Richardson Avenue. The Good Samaritan, who has children of her own, called 911 and followed Sadler for several blocks until officers responded to the scene and arrested him. Sadler's family told WSYX they thought the 34-year-old was 'passed out drunk somewhere' at the time of the incident. He is currently being held in the Franklin County Jail on $200,000 bond. The child provided testimony to investigators after being examined in the hospital. The victim’s mother expressed her frustration with the judge's decision to set bond for his release. Sadler has been released, and is due back in court August 15. .

Georgia baby’s parents charged with murder The Atlanta Journal-Constitution / August 9, 2016 Alcovy Judicial Circuit District Attorney Layla Zon has filed murder charges against the parents who brutally beat their infant daughter. The baby girl was taken off life support Monday, three months after she was hospitalized with injuries she suffered when her father beat the then 2-month-old infant. Murder warrants were secured today for both parents, Jamie Cason Whited and Justin Lee Whited, both age 23, for the death of 5-month-old Dinah Paige Whited. Both parent have said they did not abuse their child. Dinah had been on life support for three months because her father would not agree to have her taken off the machines keeping her alive. But in an emotional hearing before a juvenile court judge in Walton County on Wednesday and after speaking with his wife, Justin Whited agreed to let the child go. Dinah was admitted to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston with bleeding on the brain, two broken collar bones and breaks in all but three of her ribs. Dinah was pronounced dead at 3:31 p.m. Monday. Her father, 23-year-old Justin Lee Whited, of 311 Mobley Circle, was arrested April 24 at the hospital and charged with aggravated battery and cruelty to children. Her mother, 23-year-old Jamie Cason Whited, of 723 Masters Drive, was arrested April 30 at the hospital and charged with cruelty to children. .

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BBC / August 9, 2016 An open letter signed by 50 Republican national security experts has warned that nominee Donald Trump "would be the most reckless president" in US history. The group, which includes the former CIA director Michael Hayden, said Trump "lacks the character, values and experience" to be president. Many of the signatories had declined to sign a similar note in March. In response, Trump said they were part of a "failed Washington elite" looking to hold on to power. The open letter comes after a number of high-profile Republicans stepped forward to disown the property tycoon. "He weakens US moral authority as the leader of the free world," the letter read. "He appears to lack basic knowledge about and belief in the US Constitution, US laws, and US institutions, including religious tolerance, freedom of the press, and an independent judiciary." "None of us will vote for Donald Trump," the letter states. Trump said the names on the letter were "the ones the American people should look to for answers on why the world is a mess". "We thank them for coming forward so everyone in the country knows who deserves the blame for making the world such a dangerous place," he continued. "They are nothing more than the failed Washington elite looking to hold on to their power and it's time they are held accountable for their actions." Also among those who signed the letter were: John Negroponte (a British-born American diplomat of Greek descent), the first director of the NSA and later deputy secretary of state; Robert Zoellick, who was also a former deputy secretary of state and former president of the World Bank; Two former secretaries of homeland security, Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff. The letter echoed similar sentiment shared by some Republican national security officials in March, but the new additions came after Trump encouraged Russia to hack Clinton's email server. Missing from the letter were former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, James Baker, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice. The letter was drafted by John Bellinger, a former State Department legal adviser to then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, with edits from Bob Blackwill, a former George H.W. Bush White House adviser, and Eliot Cohen, also a former adviser to Rice. Some of the latest letter's signatories plan to vote for Mr Trump's Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton while others will refuse to vote, but "all agree Trump is not qualified and would be dangerous," said Bellinger.

Trump: TPP Will Be Bigger, Worse Disaster Than NAFTA Bloomberg / August 9, 2016 Trump speaks about his economic plan. He speaks at the Detroit Economic Club Video - http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2016-08-08/trump-tpp-will-be-bigger-worse-disaster-than-nafta

Trade Trucks AU / August 9, 2016 Evolution in buckles plus curtain tension solution seeks time savings per drop Fewer, better buckles coupled with an existing curtainside technology developments are the headline features of Freighter’s new T-Liner II trailer. Unveiled in Melbourne’s Truganina, the new model aims to save drop times and limit the risk of repetitive strain injury by reducing the original T-Liner buckles from 22 to six. "Less buckles results in less time spent opening and closing curtains," Freighter general manager Mario Colosimo says. "Operators can save up to 10 minutes per drop, which is a significant productivity gain without the need for an additional investment into automation." "Decreasing the number of buckles to just six on a traditional T-Liner means the risk of repetitive strain injuries is greatly reduced, improving work health and safety." The T-Liner Mark II borrows ideas from a number of Freighter innovations coupled with a new ‘high force’ buckle. "Previously it hasn’t been possible to reduce the number of buckles on a curtain without loss of vertical tension, which is vital to ensuring the curtains stay safely closed and don’t flap in the breeze when in transit," Colosimo says. "The use of Freighter’s proven ‘curtain arc technology’ spreads the vertical tension out evenly over the width of the curtain, making what was previously impossible, possible," he said. Freighter’s ‘curtain arc technology’ uses a high-strength nylon rope running through a series of arcs at the bottom of the curtain to create vertical tension quickly, simply and reliably. Higher tightening forces are achieved via a new buckle mechanism specifically designed for the T-Liner Mark II, while the unique strap fastening point on the tie-rail also gives the buckle extra leverage. A further advancement in the buckle is the inclusion of a non-slip clamp which ensures the high forces that the buckle produces are held in place while in transit. Freighter plans to upgrade its standard buckle design across its entire range to include it. "The non-slip feature is included on the Liner Mark II buckle, effective immediately," Colosimo says. "It will be added to existing T-Liner, Insuliner, Load Hold and AutoHold models by the end of 2016." The T-Liner Mark II incorporates a number of patented and patent pending features. It is a culmination of a series of rolling upgrades to the Freighter range over the past 18 months which have included a two-piece roof rail, easy-glide curtain rollers and two new load restraint gate options. "Freighter is committed to taking the next step in furthering safety and productivity within its trailer designs and the T-Liner Mark II typifies that mantra," Colosimo says. .

Can Big Trucks be Hacked? Heavy Duty Trucking / August 8, 2016 If you have read any of the headline stories about the trio of researchers from the University of Michigan who successfully hacked into the J1939 databus of a 2006-model-year truck, you might now believe that it's discouragingly easy. While the researchers did manage to seize control of the truck's throttle and engine brake controls, they used a laptop computer connected directly to the truck's dataport (OBD port) to pull off their experiment. A YouTube video accompanied several of the online reports about the hacking attempt showing the vehicle lurching along a test track, the would-be hacker in the back seat of the club-cab truck with his laptop, while the driver and a passenger (presumably the trio or researchers) comment on the performance of the truck. It's one thing to hack into the J1939 databus from onboard the vehicle. But the question the U of M researchers were keen to delve into is the likelihood of carrying out the same type of hack, or perhaps a more serious disruption of the vehicle controls, remotely via the telematics links now emerging as a popular maintenance management option. The research paper is titled "Truck Hacking: An Experimental Analysis of the SAE J1939 Standard," published by Yelizaveta Burakova, Bill Hass, Leif Millar, and Andre Weimerskirch of the The University of Michigan. The paper was presented Monday in Austin, Texas at 10th Usenix Workshop on Offensive Technologies. It's available to download here. It focuses on what an adversary could accomplish while physically connected to the truck's internal network, and analyzes the impact of insecure electronic control units in heavy vehicles by exploiting the inherent openness of the J1939 architecture -- which is something common to all heavy trucks in North America and a great deal more diesel-powered equipment as well. According to the report, the motivation for J1939 stems primarily from a desire to electronically control drivetrain components of a vehicle. Because so many different organizations are involved in the building of heavy vehicles, a standard was needed to minimize engineering effort and the complications of integrating systems. While standardizing these communications has proven crucial in allowing various suppliers and manufacturers to work together and cut costs, it also means that all heavy vehicles currently on the road from tractor-trailers to garbage trucks and cement mixers to buses, utilize the same communication protocol on their internal networks. By contrast, the authors say communications networks on consumer vehicles tend to be proprietary to the OEM that designed that particular vehicle and kept secret. For that reason, the authors note, "deciphering consumer vehicle network traffic involves the tedious process of reverse engineering any messages observed on the bus to determine their function." Not so with J1939, and that's part of the vulnerability at least partially exposed by the report. The SAE J1939 standard used across all U.S. heavy vehicle industries gives easy access for safety-critical attacks and these attacks aren't limited to one specific make, model, or industry," the authors point out. The report also provides example of the sort of attack they were able to accomplish: INSTRUMENT CLUSTER: By spoofing the status messages that originate in various ECUs of the truck, researchers were able to control all gauges on the instrument cluster, including oil temperature, oil pressure, coolant temperature, engine RPM, speed, fuel level, battery voltage, and air pressure. Researchers indicated that it would be "possible" to spoof the air pressure indicator to read a normal operating pressure when in fact the pressure could be physically reduced initiating a spring parking-brake application while traveling at highway speed. POWERTRAIN: Researchers were able to override the driver's input to the accelerator pedal and simultaneously cause either direct acceleration or remove the ability to provide torque to the wheels while the truck was in motion. ENGINE BRAKE: Certain message could be configured to disable the truck's ability to use engine braking at speeds below 30 mph. Researchers acknowledged that the driver retained control of the service brakes, but noted that if they had been able to control the engine brake above 30 mph, it would could have implications for trucks operating on long downhill grades. The story appeared on several technology publication websites whose authors are more familiar with pure technology that the current state of the trucking industry. They envisioned the potential for autonomously controlled trucks running pell-mell across the country leaving trails of destruction in their wake. Insiders, on the other hand, would recognize the "attacks" described by the authors of the study as potentially risky, but generally not life threatening in every circumstance. But we should not be lulled into a false sense of security because this particular exercise didn't come up with a crash 'n burn scenario. Foremost on the authors' minds was the potential for remote access to the vehicle's internal electronic controls via some telematic interface wi-fi, cellular or satellite connectivity. The paper makes for some interesting reading, as do a couple of other stories that appeared online following its release -- if you can forgive the doomsday scenarios. Forbes.com: There's A Windows PC Helping Control Fleet Trucks -- Any Idiot Can Start Hacking It In 30 Seconds Wired.com: Hackers Hijack a Big Rig Truck’s Accelerator and Brakes Salon.com: As era of autonomous trucking arrives, Michigan researchers prove how easy it is to hack trucks

Clearly, the folks at Peterbilt (i.e. Paccar) would like customers to gravitate to the 567 Heritage, which uses the new cheaper-for-Paccar-to-build cab shared with Kenworth, so that the truckmaker can discontinue the traditionally built (more costly for Paccar) Model 367 tractor. If you want a traditionally-constructed high quality truck, buy a 367 before Paccar stops accepting orders. You don’t have much time.

Driving the Peterbilt 567 Heritage Truck News / August 8, 2016 Old meets new with classic-styled throwback The Peterbilt truck brand was born to meet the needs of northwestern US loggers, so it was only fitting that my opportunity to drive the 567 Heritage came to fruition at the Paccar Technical Center in Mount Vernon, Wash. The 567 Heritage resurrects the classic styling drivers and owner-operators fondly remember, in a package that’s also decked out with modern features that make the truck comfortable and efficient to operate compared to the good ol’ days. It’s the best of both worlds, really, and if drivers don’t mind sacrificing a little bit of on-highway fuel economy compared to the ultra-aero 579, it’s a truck that’s fit to do a wide variety of jobs, while looking good doing it. “Peterbilt’s Model 567 Heritage elevates the classic styling of Peterbilt with a package of unique features that will command attention on highways and jobsites,” said Darrin Siver, Peterbilt general manager, when the truck was introduced this June. This is a custom truck for those who want to leave the customizations to professional designers and order style in one convenient package. It’s a set-forward front axle (SFFA), which Peterbilt claims makes it the industry’s most modern SFFA truck. Modern and classic are terms that can both be used freely when describing the 567 Heritage. The truck can be ordered as a day cab or with a 72- or 80-inch sleeper. My 567 Heritage (for the day, I can only wish it was permanent) had a spacious, well-appointed 80-inch sleeper. There was no mistaking this was no ordinary truck. Everything from the wood paneling on the dash was upgraded in this model. The high-end leather seats served as a constant reminder that I was operating a luxury vehicle. Accent stitching could be found on the steering wheel and seats while the Heritage logo was embroidered into the headrests and back of the bunk. Door pads with wood brown trim rounded out the interior design. The exterior was painted in Peterbilt’s newest color: Legendary Red. This color has a certain glimmer-effect that other reds just don’t match. It was achieved by mixing tiny glass particles into the paint, giving it a bass boat-type shimmer. It really sparkled under the bright sun. The exterior of the 567 Heritage is sure to turn heads. It features subtle Heritage badging (the first 567 will be numbered) and not so subtle splashes of chrome, including the air intake bezel and metal hood latches. A bright bumper, grille bars, exhaust stacks, mirrors and sun visor add to the truck’s distinctive exterior. Every bit of this truck’s exterior shined. It also featured pod-style headlights, which allow for easy bulb replacement and give the truck a bold face. As for how the truck drove, no question there, handling fell into the modern category. We sought out some of the roughest country roads near the Tech Center and the Peterbilt front air leaf suspension evened out the bumps as well as could be expected. We were pulling a loaded 48-ft. van trailer. On the highway, the truck offered a smooth, quiet ride. Power came from the Paccar [DAF] MX-13 engine rated at 500 hp and 1,850 lb.-ft. of torque but Cummins engines are also offered. Disc brakes on the front and rear axles provided exceptional stopping ability but the brakes were rarely needed on this drive thanks to the excellent engine braking capabilities of the MX. The transmission was an Eaton Fuller MXP-series UltraShift Plus, designed for heavy-duty performance. This transmission can handle anything you throw at it, and has no published maximum GVWR. The dash-mounted shifter opened up plenty of room between the seats for a cooler or unimpeded access to the sleeper. The bunk is another area where modern trumps classic, with a flat panel TV mount and 1.8 cubic foot refrigerator. Visibility out of the expansive one-piece curved windshield left no room for complaint. The brightness of the digital gauges – everything from engine oil temperature to air suspension pressure – on the SmartNav display popped out. But the driver can also use SmartNav for navigation or infotainment purposes. Peterbilt expects this truck to be popular in vocational applications where the majority of time is spent on-highway. Think tanker, flatdeck or oilpatch. You’ll surely see a few of these in Alberta when commodity prices recover. It’s also an attractive reward truck that image-conscious fleets could hand over to their top-performing drivers. It’s hard to imagine a frowning face behind the wheel of the 567 Heritage. Peterbilt is now taking orders for the new truck, with full-scale production set to begin in September. Photo gallery - http://www.trucknews.com/transportation/riving-peterbilt-567-heritage/1003073396/

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Car & Driver / August 8, 2016 After more than two years, thousands of warranty claims, and hundreds of owner complaints, German transmission supplier ZF is finally issuing a recall to fix its 9-speed automatic. The transmission can unexpectedly shift into neutral while driving due to an improper crimp on a wiring harness attached to the sensor cluster, which controls the “shift pattern and quality,” according to ZF. The manufacturing defect results in high electrical resistance that causes the transmission to shift into neutral. So far, ZF says this problem affects 505,000 cars in the United States, the majority of them sold by Fiat Chrysler. A software update will either prevent the random shift to neutral or give the driver “adequate warning” before the transmission does so anyway. ZF is not recommending automakers make any physical repairs to the affected cars despite making a crimping change to its production line starting in July 2014. Reviewing the database on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website, we found at least 895 owners complaining not just of sudden shifts to neutral but acceleration surges, rough shifts, hesitation to downshift, and even vehicles that rolled away in neutral or engaged drive after the owners claimed they had selected park. At least 10 related injuries have been reported to NHTSA, three of which involved drivers who claimed they were run over as they got out of their cars after selecting park. When asked if it would fix these other reported problems, ZF deferred to the automakers. “In this instance, ZF provided the necessary documentation to NHTSA to address a specific issue,” company spokesman Bryan Johnson said. “All other concerns and filings need to be addressed by our customers. It is ZF’s policy to refrain from speaking on their behalf.” Current vehicles equipped with the ZF 9HP transmission include: 2014–2016 Jeep Cherokee 2015–2016 Jeep Renegade, Chrysler 200, and Ram ProMaster City 2016 Fiat 500X 2014–2017 Range Rover Evoque 2015–2017 Land Rover Discovery Sport Upper trims of the 2015–2016 Honda Pilot Six-cylinder versions of the 2015–2017 Acura TLX. Other than FCA, no other automakers have issued a recall, and FCA is not recalling the 2016 models, at least not yet. Problems with the ZF transmission surfaced first on the redesigned Jeep Cherokee in May 2014, months after FCA delayed the new vehicle’s launch by several weeks to recalibrate the transmission software. At that time, a dozen owners reported vehicles shifting into neutral and poor shift quality. By February 2015—when FCA recalled nearly 78,000 Chrysler 200 sedans for apparently unrelated electrical problems that caused the same transmission to shift into neutral—more than 120 transmission complaints were registered with NHTSA on the 2014 Cherokee. A second recall involving the Chrysler 200 this past May cited faulty parking pawls and rods within the transmission for causing rollaways. Nearly 4000 warranty claims have been submitted to FCA through June 30 of this year, according to the automaker. To date, there are at least 661 complaints regarding the Cherokee’s transmission problems and more than 130 complaints on the Chrysler 200. Of the 10 total injuries reported to NHTSA related to this transmission, nine injuries have occurred in FCA models. FCA dealers—as well as Honda and Land Rover dealers—have continued to update the transmission software and replace entire transmissions to no avail, according to complaints. FCA is only recalling models up to the 2015 model year (412,855 in total), despite at least 16 more owner complaints on 2016 models. Another 10 complaints on 2016 Honda Pilot and Acura TLX models have also been logged. ZF and FCA are also under fire—including a NHTSA investigation into the death of actor Anton Yelchin—for the design of an eight-speed automatic shifter on several late-model Jeep, Chrysler, and Dodge models. FCA has begun to recall the 811,000 cars to apply a software update to those models.

Hillary Clinton? Never. The National Interest / August 8, 2016 When Bill and Hillary Clinton arrived in Washington as president and first lady in 1993, the Wall Street Journal editorial page went on the attack, suggesting they brought with them from Arkansas a brand of politics that was inherently corrupt, with personal gain routinely and consistently factored into official decision making. The paper took a lot of heat for this line of editorial criticism in the absence of definitive proof of mendacity on the part of the new president and his wife. Then came the cattle-futures scandal, in which Hillary hauled down a $98,540 profit in cattle futures in less than a year of trading on a $1,000 investment, without maintaining the normally required fund reserve to diminish the risk of leverage. Further, she was advised on the matter by an outside lawyer for Tyson Foods, a giant Arkansas company with big interests before the state government, where Bill Clinton served as attorney general and then governor. Thus began a pattern that has led us to Hillary Clinton now as the Democratic presidential nominee even as multiple polls indicate that fully two thirds of Americans consider her dishonest and untrustworthy. During the Clinton White House years, following the cattle-futures scandal, came "travelgate," "filegate," and the Whitewater land investment scandal, in which a box of missing papers, under subpoena for two years, miraculously appeared in the White House living quarters—but only in copy form; the originals were never recovered. It seemed that the Clintons were constantly mired in scandal or hints of scandal, always struggling to stay ahead of nettlesome little revelations that raised persistent questions about their ethical rectitude. There can be no doubt that these episodes from the distant past, combined with Hillary Clinton’s more recent ethical lapses related to her doing public business on a private email server, have contributed to her reputation as a person who can’t be trusted to tell the truth or conduct herself strictly on the up and up. Does it matter? That’s for the voters to decide. But every voting booth decision requires a multidimensional analysis that includes an assessment of the favorable and unfavorable attributes of each candidate. Herewith an assessment of Hillary Clinton’s unfavorable attributes, constituting a case against her. This isn’t designed to be definitive for any voting decision but rather a warning that all candidates have downsides, and Clinton’s are significant. One could argue, in fact, that the Democratic Party was reckless in granting her the nomination, given her past embroilment in scandal and prospects that new revelations could catch up with her during the campaign or through her presidency. Although FBI Director James Comey didn’t recommend an indictment against her related to her email server, he said she was "extremely careless" in her handling of "very sensitive, highly classified information." Thus, he declined to take actions to destroy her candidacy and left it to voters to assess the magnitude of her lapses. But the recklessness of her behavior is reflected in questions now being raised about whether damaging new revelations about her could be forthcoming from hackers, foreign or domestic, who gained knowledge of her activity via her unprotected server. Security experts have suggested there is a strong likelihood that China, Russia and other hackers gained access to all 63,000 emails on Clinton’s private, unprotected server—including the 33,000 she destroyed under the contention that they were merely personal and had nothing to do with her official actions and decisions. But if those emails contain evidence of questionable actions, as the Wall Street Journal’s L. Gordon Crovitz has argued, Russian President Vladimir Putin "will have the capacity to blackmail her at will" should she become president. What kind of evidence of questionable actions could be found there? We don’t know, but it would be imprudent to dismiss the possibility that it could be related to the Clinton Foundation, that international good-works institution created by Bill Clinton that doubles as a repository of political/financial power for the Clintons. It has served as a lucrative way station for Clinton cronies waiting for Hillary Clinton’s next campaign. It has positioned Bill Clinton to collect huge speaking fees from major overseas and American corporations and from foreign governments—some $105 million for 542 speeches between the time he left the White House and the time Hillary left her job as secretary of state, according to the Washington Post. It has rewarded Clinton friends and political allies within a Clinton network that constitutes a potent political force. The foundation, we learn (through not from the Clintons), continued to receive money from foreign governments even during Hillary’s tenure as secretary of state, although she had promised that no such money would be accepted during her public service. The money flowed in from such countries as Algeria, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Swiss bank UBS contributed some $500,000 after Secretary Clinton helped settle an IRS problem dogging the bank. The Associated Press reported that Hillary Clinton excised from her official State Department calendar some seventy-five meetings she held with "longtime political donors, Clinton Foundation contributors, and corporate and other outside interests." Was there actual corruption going on here in the form of quid pro quos, or merely the appearance of corruption? We don’t know, though those 33,000 emails may hold the key to that question. But, in any event, we see a pattern that first came to light with the cattle futures scandal—big sums of money flowing to the Clintons as they conducted official business to the benefit of the individuals and organizations providing the money. Leaving aside the corruption question, the Clinton Foundation represents a giant stride toward American oligarchy—the flow of power from the people at large to clever and connected elites who know how to game the system to their political and financial advantage. It is noteworthy that, in this year of seething political anger directed against the country’s elites, Hillary Clinton is emerging as the likely next president even as she projects herself as the embodiment of what is stirring all that national anger. Which brings us to another major element in the case against Hillary Clinton. She will give us, as many have suggested, Barack Obama’s third term. The country is deeply divided on the Obama presidency, and it’s appropriate that Americans should debate his legacy as his departure nears after White House eight years. But, whatever one may say about him, it can’t be denied that he failed to solve the country’s crisis of deadlock. When the country needed a new paradigm of governmental thinking to break the deadlock and move the country in a new direction, he doubled down on the stale old politics perpetuating the political stalemate of our time. There is no reason to believe Hillary Clinton would break the deadlock. She represents the politics of old when the country desperately seeks something fresh, capable of scrambling up the old political fault lines and forging new political coalitions that can give propulsion to a struggling America. Hence, under her leadership, we likely will see the continuation of the current deadlock crisis for another four years. That’s a long time for that kind of crisis to fester, generating ever greater anger, frustration and civic tension.

For Kaine, war powers issue shows a break with Clinton — and a push that fell short The Washington Post / August 8, 2016 Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia is holding fast to his long-held belief that the current military operation against Islamic State forces has not been properly approved by Congress — a position that puts him at odds not only with President Obama but also with his running mate, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Kaine placed the blame squarely on Congress for its inability to tackle the issue. “I don’t think the current legal authorities are sufficient to wage this war against ISIS,” Kaine said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday. As Obama’s first secretary of state, Clinton supported the president’s position that he had all the authority he needed to wage military action in Syria, Iraq and other trouble spots without first seeking congressional approval. While she has supported Kaine’s push for more congressional action, Clinton has also been clear that she will continue to act under the same authority Obama has, even when Capitol Hill doesn’t weigh in. Kaine’s ongoing, unsuccessful effort to draft and win approval for a new war resolution serves as a window into how Kaine views the relationship between the executive and legislative branches. It has also shown the limitations of his ability to coax allies across the finish line, even on his hallmark issue — suggesting that his courtship approach might not work in today’s hyper-partisan era. Finally, how Kaine handles this issue going forward will offer telling evidence of his influence within the next administration, should the Democrats win. The first clue came when he delivered his 30-minute acceptance speech for the vice-presidential nomination in Philadelphia last month — without mentioning the war powers issue. Nowhere did Kaine describe how much he has tried to compel Congress to define the parameters of an increasingly hot war. After winning election in 2012, Kaine led the effort to draw up a new war resolution to replace those written more than a decade ago to take on Osama bin Laden and then Saddam Hussein. Almost single-handedly, he turned what congressional leaders in both parties had considered a nuisance into a defining cause about congressional duty and the constitutional boundaries a president faces. “The unwillingness of this Congress to authorize the war not only shows a lack of resolve, it sets a dangerous precedent,” Kaine said in early June, introducing amendments to try to force a debate on the issue. “It’s not hard to imagine a future president using this inaction to justify the hasty and unpredictable initiation of military action.” But Kaine, 58, and a small band of younger allies in the Senate failed. They never even got full consideration in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on which he serves. Even Kaine’s close friends recognize that he now must adhere to whatever posture Clinton takes on this issue. “Tim knows he’s applying for a job that is very different,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a close ally who sits next to Kaine on the Foreign Relations Committee. However, Kaine’s generation of lawmakers hope that in choosing her running mate, Clinton demonstrated that she wants to engage Congress on a new authorization for the use of military force, as war resolutions are technically known. Given the past two years of gridlock on the issue, Kaine faces long odds of being any more successful on crafting and passing a war resolution as Clinton’s vice president. It had been an area of concern for several years, but in the summer of 2014 — as the Islamic State took over more land in Syria and Iraq while committing high-profile murders of Western hostages — Obama ramped up a bombing campaign and sent more U.S. troops into those hostile territories to help advise Iraqi military leaders. At issue is the president’s authority to take the country to war without first seeking congressional approval. Obama has claimed that congressional authorizations passed in the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, permit him to order any actions combating terrorism. And he has bluntly said that he has no timeline for how long the forces would be deployed. Kaine has said that the post-Sept. 11 authorizations were too “open-ended,” arguing that actions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria all required separate congressional approval. One of those resolutions was meant to target bin Laden, who was killed in 2011; the other dealt with Hussein, who was captured, tried and killed by the new Iraqi government in 2006. In an early 2015 interview, after Republicans took the Senate, Kaine said that he would judge Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s stewardship of the chamber on a single issue, whether he allowed a full war debate on the Senate floor. One of the ironies in the fact that it never happened is that Republicans were fully willing to approve a broad, sweeping authorization giving Obama, and any future president, almost unlimited power to go after ISIS. It was the Democrats, including Kaine, who wanted to place limits on both time and deployment of ground troops on any future authorizations. “There’s no reason for us to give him less authority than what he has today, which is what he’s asking for,” John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), the House speaker at the time, told reporters after a 2015 trip the Middle East. Key Republicans, including Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), agreed with the president’s view that the 2001 war declaration gave the administration all the authority it needed. Kaine can sound like a tough military hawk calling for a war debate, but his own position is squarely on the liberal side of the argument. He wants a strict timeline — one proposal called for a three-year war against Islamic State forces, after which the next president would have to withdraw or get new authority to act. He wanted limits on ground forces in those territories, which most Republicans consider a non-starter. Murphy called Kaine a “strong defender” of Obama’s use of forces so far. “His bone of contention has been that the strategy has been unauthorized,” Murphy said. Kaine also could never win over his own leadership. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the majority leader in 2014 and now minority leader, essentially told Kaine to drop the matter, Sen. Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.) and other Democrats said. “This is an issue that’s easy to brush aside,” Coons said. Reid preferred letting Obama act on his own. Irritated by Reid’s inaction, Kaine used direct channels into the West Wing, emailing senior advisers to try to get them to push Reid. But Kaine could never persuade Obama to push Congress to act. Obama periodically raised the issue and said Congress should pass a new resolution, but he never gave it top priority and was content continuing to make his war decisions with no congressional input. Ultimately, Kaine even lost the support of his longtime allies on the issue. Both Murphy and Coons said that as the Republican presidential primary unfolded, they lost interest in the war resolution bid. The Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, and the second-place finisher, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tex., both advocated a forceful use of the military. Democrats simply decided they couldn’t risk compromising with Republicans and giving more power than they were comfortable with, if Trump ended up winning. “It’s a different animal today,” Murphy said. .