BloggeRhythms

Long, boring process today, grinding through countless pages of reporting offering absolutely nothing of much major interest. There were, however, a couple of items shedding further light on the presidential nomination contests in both major party’s. 

While it still looks like Trump will certainly win New York's primary, as he should whereas he’s a lifelong resident getting much press, he’s stayed pretty much the same everywhere else. Losing to the combination of his rivals. 

Cruz won all 14 delegates Saturday in Wyoming, to further narrow the gap in the race. Thus, at present, Trump has 744 delegates in total. Cruz has 559, and Kasich 144. Therefore, while together Cruz and Kasich combine to 703, if you then add Rubio to the total becomes 874. Which is 130 more than Trump has right now.

As far as Rubio’s concerned, Ledyard King @usatoday.com, writes: “Sen. Marco Rubio almost certainly won't keep all the delegates he won before quitting his presidential campaign, but he may keep enough to realize his top goal of denying Donald Trump the GOP nomination.

“But even if it doesn't, at least some of the 171 delegates Rubio claimed before leaving the race last month will be barred from voting for anyone else — Trump, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz or Ohio Gov. John Kasich — on that first ballot. And that could be instrumental in keeping Trump from getting the 1,237 delegates needed to claim the nomination. 

“The biggest beneficiary of that strategy figures to be Trump's chief rival, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. There's almost no chance Cruz will get to 1,237 delegates before the convention either, but anti-Trump forces seem to slowly be coalescing behind him. 

"I hope that they'll nominate a conservative." Rubio told commentator Mark Levin in an interview Wednesday. "The only (candidate) that fits that criteria is Ted Cruz." 

Which means that, this race is very far from over at present. 

And then, an article by Jerome R. Corsi @wnd.com, while potentially quite damaging to all Democrats, may even negatively affect Cruz as well. 

Abengoa, a renewable energy company, highlighted perfectly the Obama administration’s shift from carbon-based fuel, providing a European counterpart to the U.S.-based Solyndra. And now, the Spanish-based multinational renewable energies company has collapsed. 

The U.S. is directly affected because: “Last November, the Washington Times reported Abengoa had received at least $2.7 billion in federal loan guarantees since 2010 to build several large-scale solar power projects in the United States. There was no certainty any of the government loans would be paid back amid a collapse that dwarfed the $530 million loss to the U.S. taxpayer with the collapse of Solyndra in 2011. 

“An exposé by Town Hall on Aug. 4, 2012, found that the then-estimated $2.8 billion Abengoa received in U.S. federal grants and loans made the company the second largest recipient of the $16 billion doled out through the Department of Energy Section 1705 loan guarantee program, the same DOE program that had funded Solyndra.” 

On the political side: “In her 2016 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton has argued for the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank, insisting she wants to be “the small business president.” 

“Last June, Breitbart reported that under the Obama administration, Export-Import Bank lending has increased 248 percent, with U.S. taxpayers now holding nearly $140 billion in Export-Import Bank exposure. 

“The same article noted Abengoa has obligations of more than $225 million in Export-Import Bank support.” 

At this point in Mr. Corsi’s article, even AlGore not-surprisingly crawled out of the woodwork of the story: “The fascination of Democratic Party politicos with Abengoa began in 2007, when former vice president Al Gore’s U.K. Generation Investment Management bought a stake in Abengoa, a company Gore touted as “the largest solar platform in Europe.” 

“Gore’s GIM was started in 2004 with several Goldman Sachs’ executives, including David Blood, Mark Ferguson and Peter Harris.” 

And, this is where Cruz entered the picture, whereas: “Today, Goldman Sachs’ enthusiasm for investing in renewable fuels mirrors Ted Cruz’s position on alternative energies. Cruz argues renewable fuels have a place in an “all of the above” energy economy, with the presumption they will succeed with consumers even if government price and policy intervention in the energy marketplace are phased out. 

“During the Iowa primary campaign, Cruz supported the Renewable Fuel Standard, RFS, through 2022, arguing for the retention for six more years of requirements set by the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA requires transportation fuel sold in the United States to contain a minimum proportion of renewable fuels, including cellulosic biofuel, biomass-based diesel and advanced biofuel. 

“My view on energy is simple: We should pursue an ‘all of the above’ policy,” Cruz wrote in the Des Moines Register on Jan. 6. “We should embrace all of the energy resources with which God has blessed America: oil and gas, coal, nuclear, wind, solar, and biofuels and ethanol. But Washington shouldn’t be picking winners and losers.” 

Therefore, while Cruz’s “all-energy” approach makes far more sense than Democrats doing their best to shut off fossil fuel use altogether, which is moronic, he still needs to do a better job of explaining his position to voters. Because, until he does, he’s going to be used by Democrats as an advocate for their closed-minded energy stance, which at the moment is totally unfeasible.    

Bringing us to today’s update on Bill Clinton’s wife, who continues to portray herself as wanting to be a “champion for everyday Americans.” Yet, her history continually reveals the exact opposite personal behavior. 

Yesterday, Anita Kumar, Marisa Taylor and Kevin G. Hall wrote @mcclatchydc.com: “Hillary Clinton recently blasted the hidden financial dealings exposed in the Panama Papers, but she and her husband have multiple connections with people who have used the besieged law firm Mossack Fonseca to establish offshore entities. 

“Among them are Gabrielle Fialkoff, finance director for Hillary Clinton’s first campaign for the U.S. Senate; Frank Giustra, a Canadian mining magnate who has traveled the globe with Bill Clinton; the Chagoury family, which pledged $1 billion in projects to the Clinton Global Initiative; and Chinese billionaire Ng Lap Seng, who was at the center of a Democratic fund-raising scandal when Bill Clinton was president. Also using the Panamanian law firm was the company founded by the late billionaire investor Marc Rich, an international fugitive when Bill Clinton pardoned him in the final hours of his presidency.” 

On the political stump: “Hillary Clinton condemned what she called “outrageous tax havens and loopholes that super-rich people across the world are exploiting.” 

“Now, some of this behavior is clearly against the law, and everyone who violates the law anywhere should be held accountable,” she said, speaking at the AFL-CIO convention recently. “But it’s also scandalous how much is actually legal.” 

However, what she preaches and actually practices are diametric opposites, with many of her relationships to the wealthiest individuals quite complex and covert.   

In that regard, there are four separate articles by the authors, all shedding light on the intricate intertwining's of many individuals involved in one way or another with Bill and his wife. The common denominator, as always is money. And though none of that cash is handled directly, many of the connections are obvious. 

So, here’s a link to the story’s: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/article72215012.html

 

Leading to the ongoing question: Joe Biden, Mayor Bloomberg, Jerry Brown, and Starbuck’s chairman and CEO, Howard Schultz, are you guys reading this?   

That’s it for today folks.