Thursday, June 30, 2016

From Vice President Biden: Hillary is a Force of Nature


Friend --
We’re just one day out from the final fundraising deadline of this primary, and after a long, tough fight, we have a presumptive nominee who’s going to be a terrific president: my friend, Hillary.
I’m proud to endorse Hillary, and I’m grateful you’re part of her team -- our whole country is counting on you to make sure she wins this November. President Obama and I are going to be hitting the campaign trail hard to help out as much as we can -- and we hope you’ll join us.
With a big deadline like the one the campaign is facing tomorrow and a 250,000 donation goal to hit, every $5 helps -- can you chip in right now?

I’ve known Hillary for a long time -- from the time she was First Lady, Senator from New York, and our Secretary of State. She is a force of nature. She’s tough, she’s brilliant, and she genuinely loves serving this country. Hillary is the kind of person who, at the end of the day, wants to help people and make their lives better. That’s who you want as your president.
That’s especially true when your other option is Donald Trump.
Donald Trump's politics of fear and intolerance have no place in America. He won't solve our problems -- he'll make them worse. Because let me tell you denigrating our allies isn't a foreign policy. Telling the world the United States can't be counted on to pay our debts isn't an economic policy. And attacking the ethnicity of a federal judge violates everything we stand for -- and believe -- as Americans.
I've always believed this nation succeeds best when we come together as one America. But everything about Donald Trump's campaign is determined to divide and pull us apart.
There’s no one I trust more than Hillary to lead the fight against Trump, and I’m hoping you’ll come through as part of her team again and again. She needs you. We all do.
I hope you’ll chip in $5 before tomorrow's critical deadline -- I can’t thank you enough for being part of the fight to keep our country moving forward:
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Thank you,
Joe
US Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton smile as US President Barack Obama welcomes South Korean President Lee Myung-bak during a State Arrival Ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, on October 13, 2011. Obama hosts his South Korean counterpart for a full day of official State ceremonies, including a State Dinner. AFP PHOTO / Saul LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)
US Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton smile as US President Barack Obama welcomes South Korean President Lee Myung-bak during a State Arrival Ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, on October 13, 2011. Obama hosts his South Korean counterpart for a full day of official State ceremonies, including a State Dinner. AFP PHOTO / Saul LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Hillary Clinton's Statement on the Puerto Rico Debt Bill

Statements-Fact-sheets

Hillary Clinton Statement on Passage of Puerto Rico Debt Bill

Hillary Clinton released the following statement on the passage of PROMESA, which authorizes the Government of Puerto Rico to restructure their debt and creates a federal oversight board:
“Puerto Rico’s continuing economic crisis has caused real suffering for the people of the island.  The bill the Senate passed today is the best chance we have of averting a fiscal crisis on July 1. The bill is by no means perfect, and I continue to have serious concerns about some of the provisions it contains. That’s why, as this bill is implemented, I will continue to stand with the people of Puerto Rico to ensure that the oversight board created by this legislation is made up of members who will act in the best interest of Puerto Ricans, and protect their health care, pensions, wages, and well-being. And it is past time that we put the interests of American citizens ahead of hedge fund profits—which is why I will fight with the people of Puerto Rico to put the island’s economy back on a stable and prosperous path, including by ensuring Puerto Rico is treated equitably under federal law.”

Declaraciones de Hillary Clinton sobre la aprobación del proyecto sobre la deuda de Puerto Rico

Hillary Clinton hizo las siguientes declaraciones sobre la aprobación de PROMESA, el cual autoriza al gobierno de Puerto Rico reestructurar su deuda y crea una junta federal de supervision:
“La continua crisis económica de Puerto Rico ha causado gran sufrimiento en los puertorriqueños. El proyecto de ley aprobado hoy por el Senado es la mejor opción que tenemos en este momento para evitar una crisis fiscal el 1ro de julio. El proyecto no es para nada perfecto y continúo teniendo serias preocupaciones sobre algunas de las provisiones. Es por eso que a medida que la ley se implemente yo continuaré estando del lado del pueblo de Puerto Rico. Quiero asegurarme que la junta de supervisión creada por esta legislación esté compuesta por miembros que actúen trabajando por el mejor interés de los puertorriqueños, protegiendo su sistema de salud, sus pensiones, sus salarios y su bienestar. Desde hace tiempo deberíamos haber puesto los intereses de ciudadanos estadounidenses por encima de las ganancias de los gestores de fondos. Es por eso que lucharé junto con el pueblo de Puerto Rico para poner la economía de la Isla de vuelta en un camino de estabilidad y prosperidad, incluyendo asegurarnos de que Puerto Rico sea tratado con igualdad bajo la ley federal”.
Can you chip in and show Hillary some support before the upcoming FEC deadline? Every dollar helps! Thank you!

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Hillary Clinton: I Need to Know

Tomorrow is the final FEC deadline before I officially accept the Democratic nomination at the convention in Philadelphia. So, I need to know:
Are you still with me?
There are just over four months between now and Election Day, so each and every moment counts, including this deadline. Your donation today isn’t just about the money -- it's about saying you're ready to take on this next phase of the campaign with strength and focus.
We aren’t just fighting for 270 electoral votes -- we’re fighting for our country, and I need you with me. Please let me know you’re by my side.
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Thanks,
Hillary
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Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Hillary Clinton's Creator Town Hall in Los Angeles

Beautycon Media curated the first digital content creator Town Hall with Hillary Clinton at NeueHouse Los Angeles this evening.  Questions came from the audience and from texts. Earlier in the day, Hillary unveiled her technology and innovation agenda in Denver.

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Hillary Clinton's Statement on the Terrorist Attacks in Turkey

"All Americans stand united with the people of Turkey against this campaign of hatred and violence." —Hillary
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Benghazi ... the last word ... really

Seven days late and seven million dollars short, the Republicans of the Select Committee on Benghazi released their report today.  No Democrats on the Committee were involved in crafting the 800-page Republican report.  They released a report of their own yesterday. 

To the surprise of no one, the Republican report contains no new evidence that Hillary Clinton did anything wrong, slept through the 3 a.m. phone call, gave any stand-down command, or that she blamed the attack on a video - which did exist - but she never cited that video as the motivation behind the attack. Neither did any "Clinton administration" have anything to do with these attacks. One ended in 2001 and the other doesn't begin until 2017.  Trey Gowdy's slips of the tongue really say it all.

Nothing has been so wasteful in time and tax dollars as this so-called investigation.

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Hillary's defense team was quick to respond to the Republican move.

“New Revelations” From Benghazi Report Notably Old

Republican efforts to exploit the Benghazi tragedy to score political points against Hillary Clinton has been both disturbing and fruitless.
Two years and $7 million after its inception, the taxpayer-funded partisan witch hunt known as the Benghazi Committee concluded quite fittingly: Republican members, who insisted in breaking precedent and releasing their own report rather than a bipartisan one from the committee, selectively leaked out portions of their report in the middle of the night.
As objective viewers quickly determined, the report offers no new evidence of wrongdoing by Hillary Clinton. So, having once again failed in their efforts to uncover a smoking gun, committee Republicans have opted to repackage previously known information and present it as new. Here are a few examples:
“NEW REVELATION” – A team of Marines was delayed on a runway in Spain as there were deliberations over what uniforms they should wear.
Benghazi Republicans Report Summary: “The following facts are among the many new revelations in Part I… A Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team (FAST) sat on a plane in Rota, Spain, for three hours, and changed in and out of their uniforms four times.”
FACT – The uniform issue was revealed in 2013. It was again confirmed by Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee in 2014. Moreover, it had zero impact on the mission, and safety was the driving concern.
Fox News, 1/22/2013: “Fox News has learned that U.S. Marines who were part of a FAST (Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team) responding to Libya were told by the State Department to deplane, change out of their U.S. military uniforms and put on civilian clothes before flying to Tripoli… Defense Department spokesman George Little says that the FAST team would not have been in Libya in time to save any lives, and any delays to change out of military uniforms likely did not make a difference since all surviving State Department personnel left the consulate for the CIA Annex about an hour and 45 minutes after the attack began”
GOP Armed Services Committee Report on Benghazi, 2/2014: “Presumably, warfighters changed out of uniform because of concerns that the arrival of combat-ready troops might unduly alarm or inflame Libyan observers.  Although General Dempsey acknowledged to the Senate that this action delayed the platoon’s arrival in Libya, he said it was not enough to prevent it from getting to Benghazi before attack survivors departed.”
Select Committee on Benghazi Interview of Marine FAST Commander, 9/2/2015: QUESTION: And you mentioned that, even had you had aircraft collocated and loaded up within an hour, you could not have made it to Benghazi prior to the second attack. Is that right?
FAST COMMANDER: That is correct, ma’am. And as per FAST mission, we are not designed as a hostage rescue force. We are not—what was happening on the deck on the evening of the 11th to the morning of the 12th is not within the parameters of FAST mission. [...]
QUESTION: And you mentioned in the last hour even the confusion you had over the uniforms did not make a difference in your ability to complete your mission. Is that right?
FAST COMMANDER: Absolutely not.
Pentagon Joint Staff Director For Operations Admiral Kurt Tidd, Interview with Select Committee on Benghazi, 4/4/2016: “It was from a security perspective that, I think, they were thinking of not moving uniformed marines at night in buses through the—you know—or, actually, in the early hours of the morning through downtown Tripoli to the embassy.”
“NEW REVELATION” – Clinton had planned to visit Libya at the end of 2012, and witness testimony asserted that she wanted the Benghazi post made permanent.
Benghazi Republicans Report Summary: “The following facts are among the many new revelations in Part III… Emails indicate senior State Department officials, including Cheryl Mills, Jake Sullivan, and Huma Abedin were preparing for a trip by the Secretary of State to Libya in October 2012. According to testimony, Chris Stevens wanted to have a “deliverable” for the Secretary for her trip to Libya, and that “deliverable” would be making the Mission in Benghazi a permanent Consulate.”
WaPo: House Benghazi report: Clinton was planning a trip to Libya before the attacks
The Hill: “Among the report's new revelations is the notion that Ambassador Chris Stevens, one of the Americans killed, was in Benghazi with the aim of erecting a permanent diplomatic post, to replace the temporary one that came under fire.”
FACT – In 2013, Gregory Hicks, the Deputy Chief of Mission to Libya, publicly testified that Clinton had wanted the Benghazi post made permanent and had planned to visit Tripoli.
House Oversight Committee Hearing, 5/8/2013: REP. THOMAS MASSIE [R-KY]: Did you tell the Accountability Review Board about Secretary Clinton's interest in establishing a permanent presence in Benghazi? [...]
GREGORY HICKS: Yes, I did tell the Accountability Review Board that Secretary Clinton wanted the post made permanent. Ambassador Pickering looked surprised. He looked both ways on the -- to the members of the board, saying, "Does the 7th floor know about this?" And another factor was our understanding that Secretary Clinton intended to visit Tripoli in December.

“NEW REVELATION” – Hillary Clinton attended a video conference that was held on the night of the attacks.
NBC News: “In a newly revealed two-hour secure video conference on the night of the attacks led by White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and attended by Clinton and others…”
FACT – The video conference was previously known about; Hillary Clinton even wrote about it in her own book, ‘Hard Choices’.
Hillary Clinton, Hard Choices, pg. 327: “I headed to the Operations Center for a secure videoconference between various government agencies and the White House Situation Room, officials from the National Security Council, the CIA, the Department of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and other agencies. This was a Deputies meeting that did not include Principals, but protocol was the last thing on my mind. I downloaded to the group my discussions with Greg and President Magariaf, and I stressed how critical it was to get our people out of Benghazi as quickly and safely as possible.”
Hillary chimed in briefly from the campaign trail in Denver where she unveiled a technology and innovation agenda.


Time to move on and worry about the almost 33,000 gun-related deaths a year in the United States.

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Hillary Clinton at Galvanize in Denver


This video is slightly longer and ends with Hillary's brief statement on the release of the Republican Benghazi Committee Report.

Hillary Clinton Tours Galvanize in Denver

Following a tour on Tuesday at Galvanize—a tech workforce training facility and community for businesses in Denver—Hillary Clinton unveiled a comprehensive technology and innovation agenda to build an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top. As part of an ongoing conversation to create more jobs and build a stronger economy that helps us grow together, Clinton highlighted three specific goals to realize these visions:
1) Help young people become entrepreneurs by letting them defer their federal student loans for up to three years; 2) Provide every student in America access to computer science education before graduation; and 3) Connect every household in the U.S. to high-speed internet service by 2020.
Pointing to Donald Trump’s lack of a real job creation strategy and steady vision for the economy, Clinton said, “I want America to get back in the future business.  Saying that you want to make America ‘great again’ is code for saying, we want to go back to the way it used to be, forget about technology, forget about inclusivity, forget about giving everybody an opportunity to have a real shot at the best possible future. Well, that is not who we are as Americans; we don’t go back, we go forward, but we’ve got to go forward with intelligence and a real sense of purpose.”
Clinton will also travel to Los Angeles on Tuesday to participate in a live town hall with 100 online content creators and digital influencers. The moderated Q&A session will allow Clinton to address issues important to these influencers’ online audiences—and emphasize her plan to promote young entrepreneurs.
Below is a transcript of Clinton’s remarks in Denver today:
“Thank you, thank you.  Well, first let me say, I am blown away and really happy to be here, and I wish each and every one of you the very best as you become not only galvanizers, but entrepreneurs, and innovators, and business leaders in every way.
I want to thank Jim for letting me come and visit one of these campuses of Galvanize.  I really am taken by the model, and want to do everything I can to lift it up and create more pathways for more people to have these opportunities.  I want to thank Stephanie, who came from Governor Hickenlooper’s staff to be part of this.  And I had a chance to visit with the governor earlier, and was talking about the workforce planning that is going on here in Colorado.  It’s a real model for the rest of the country creating all of these pathways to give people the skills that are needed in the 21st century economy.
Julie Anne Lerner, thank you very much for the exciting work that Pan Exchange is doing.  I know just a little bit about commodities – and their trading, their buying, their selling – both futures and the actual commodities themselves.  And what you are doing, Julie, is just transformational, because for most of the world, the agricultural workers are women.  More than 60 percent of the farmers in the world are women who farm small plots and who do not have access to information.
Very often, until cellphones came with SMS still, to get some kind of weather reports, they didn’t even know what the weather would be – couldn’t plan.  They don’t have access to good seed or pesticides by and large, and what we’re doing through this kind of effort is opening up markets, creating more transparency which will benefit so many of the people who are actually doing the hard work of producing food and trying to get it to market, and create a better life for themselves, their families, and their communities.  So, I’m thrilled by that.
And I want to thank Josh Anderson, CEO of Patriot Boot Camp, for working on another set of challenges, and that is how we do a much, much better job creating employment pathways for our vets – something that I have spent a lot of time thinking about and working on.  There are good ideas out there, but they’re not yet broad enough, deep enough, so that we are really doing what we should to give our vets the chance to have a good future.  It needs to start as – I was just talking to Josh and Ben about – it needs to start while they’re still in the military, before they leave.  We don’t do a good enough job with transition planning.  And then we’ve got to do more to get them connected with successful programs that produce results as opposed to being scammed, which happens too often at the programs that they are looking at, or enticed into being part of, without really any employment at the end of it.
So, using Patriot Boot Camp as an example, and giving the results that you’ve had, gives me a lot of hope that we can do a much better job for our vets.  And that’s something that I am 100 percent committed to.  I am so excited about being here.
Now, I do plead guilty to being a policy wonk, and I know that can be boring, and I know that putting out plans can sometimes seem less than inspirational, but it really matters what we do and how we do it, if we’re going to create the economy of the future.  And it matters to me to find examples – like here at Galvanize – that we can lift up and try to take to scale.  I was delighted to learn that there will soon be a Galvanize in New York, and that we will have the benefit of that.
So I am on a mission to find out what works – not what we hope will work, because we’ll get to that – but what works right now, and how we do more of it, and how we create a lot more of this kind of model, because what we’ve been doing is not sufficient.  It doesn’t really produce the results we want for the vast majority of young Americans, or even mid-career Americans coming out of the military, changing jobs in the civilian workplace.   So this is part of a pioneering community, and you all are part of that, and I am thrilled to see what you’re accomplishing.
I know across Colorado, you have made smart investments in technology and innovation that’s helping to create a lot of good-paying jobs.  It’s not an accident that Denver, and Colorado in general, have a lower than average unemployment rate, because there are opportunities here, there are magnets of jobs and futures that people are drawn by, and we’re going to continue to build on that.  I learned that nearly a quarter of the people in and around Denver and Colorado Springs now work in STEM fields.  So that is what we are trying to help create elsewhere.  The rest of the country could learn a lot about what’s working here.
I want America to get back in the future business.  Saying that you want to make America ‘great again’ is code for saying, ‘We want to go back to the way it used to be, forget about technology, forget about inclusivity, forget about giving everybody an opportunity to have a real shot at the best possible future.’ Well, that is not who we are as Americans; we don’t go back, we go forward, but we’ve got to go forward with intelligence and a real sense of purpose.
So my goal is, we build an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top, and that’s why today, I am releasing a comprehensive plan to keep America on the cutting edge of technology and innovation.  It is one of our biggest assets, and I want it to be democratized.  I want more people in more places to feel that their future lies in STEM, in technology, in helping to create the jobs that we’re going to attract.
So first, let’s make it easier for young people to become entrepreneurs – exactly what’s going on here at Galvanize.  I’ve talked to a lot of people in the field, and starting out can be daunting.  There’s a lot of risk, even if you’ve got a good idea – how you translate that into a business, how you grow that business, how you make a living from it.  It can be a lot harder if you’re juggling student loan payments, and that can cut into what you’re able to do, what kind of risk you think you can take.
So we’re going to help people with student loans refinance their loans to lower rates, and then we’re going to let young people who want to start something new defer your federal student loan payments for up to three years, so you won’t pay a dime on whatever loans you have for three years. And we want to go even further, so if you get that enterprise up and going, we want to forgive a portion of your debt because you’ve become a job creator, and we need more job creators, and we need more young people starting business, startups, and other kinds of opportunities.  So the burden of student debt is not only an individual burden that affects your life choices, it’s an economic burden.  $1.2 trillion in student debt – think of how more productive that money could be spent.  So this is going to be one of our priorities.
Second, we have to make sure every student in America – no matter what ZIP code that student lives in – gets the chance to learn computer science before they graduate from high school. Those are skills you know so well – you’re here at Galvanize – that will help you compete and succeed in the global economy.
When I used to visit schools as First Lady of Arkansas, First Lady of the United States – a long time ago – I would have what I called ‘the Chelsea test.’  In other words, would I send Chelsea to this school?  And some were a resounding ‘yes’ – the creativity, the energy, the collaboration – and some were absolutely not, and no child should go to these schools.
So now, I’m a grandmother, so I have the Charlotte and Aidan test.  Would I send these precious grandchildren to any of these schools that I visit? There is such a divide, it’s heartbreaking.  Some of you may have had schools where you really got exposed to technology, where you had a chance to both learn on your own and be guided in your learning, but I bet a lot of you didn’t.  We can no longer tolerate that.  Part of what we have to do, though, is make sure that the benefits of technology and the internet are widely shared.  It’s hard to believe, but we still have lots of parts of our country – rural and urban – where you do not have access to high-speed internet. In fact, it’s spotty and it is a economic impediment.
I’ve traveled a lot around our country and you can see what it means not to be connected with the global economy. And I’m thrilled whenever I see places that are historically left out finding ways to get in. So in eastern Kentucky earlier this year, I learned about a successful program that trains former coalminers to be computer programmers, but the lack of affordable, high-speed broadband is a real barrier.  So I intend to make sure we do what we did with electricity in my grandparents’ generation – we connect every home and business in America to high-speed internet, and we do it on as fast a timescale as possible, no later than the early 2020s because every year we waste means we leave people behind and left out in a way that is heartbreaking and wrong.
Now, I really believe part of what this election will turn on is how we’re going to create more good jobs with rising incomes, and there’s a lot of legitimate anxiety, fear and even anger in many parts of our country, because people feel like the economy has failed them – they haven’t recovered from the Great Recession; government has failed them – because they haven’t been a good partner in helping people find their footing in going forward.  So I think this is going to be one of the defining issues in this election, and I’m going to keep talking about what we can do together – a positive vision that, if we do it, will give so many more people life yourselves a chance to be galvanizers.  And I’m going to talk about why we need to get back into the future business, because that’s who we are as Americans.  I don’t think we’re people who look backwards.  We should be looking forward.  And we’re going to focus on what will make the American economy work for everyone, not just those at the top.
So coming here today is a real treat for me because it’s exactly what I want to see everywhere, and it is something that I also want to be sure is available to every American, and somehow we’re going to have to work to make that so, and that has to start in schools, and it has to start with people believing that every kid can be a part of the future – not just some of us, but every single one of us.
So thank you for really being part of this future that we have to create.  It is something that I care deeply about, and I wish you all well.  I think it’s great you are here being not only interested in your own future, but helping to build a learning community for technology, as the sign says.  And I look forward, Jim, to keep hearing more about what you’re doing, why it works, and what more we can do to help you.  I’ve already gotten some good ideas from the folks I’ve talked to today about what more we can do to make this work for more people, but let me have a chance to just shake some hands and greet you all, as many as I can before I have to leave.  But again, it’s a thrill to be here and I wish you all the very best.  Thank you very much.”
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