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Ever since alternative media sources made Hillary Clintons health a legitimatecampaign issue, much of the mainstream media has been comically and instinctively rallying aroundher, smugly proclaiming that anyone who questions Her Highness physical or mental fitness for office to bea deranged rightwing conspiracy theorist.

Whats so amusing about the tacticsof these self-important pundits is their willingness to do the exact same thing they demonize fringe bloggersof doing:playing doctor.Most of those rushing out to confidentlyensurethe public that everything is just fine and dandy with Hillary Clintons health lack any medical credentials. Theyre just journalists and pundits who have decided Hillary is fine based on atwo-page letter from internist Dr. Lisa Bardack. Doeswritingfor theWashington PostorCNNmake them the authority on Hillary Clintons health? Of course not.

To highlight just how unquestioning and extremely biased much of the mainstream media really is, lets take a look at what comes up as the top story when I search Hillary health debunked.

Does this makeCNNsound like a legitimate media source or just a Clinton-pandering tabloid?The new birthers, debunk and conspiracy all in one title.Seems a bit over the top doesnt it? Kinda like something you might findon a fringe blog.

The author of the article, Gregory Krieg, is described byCNNas a reporter at CNN Politics covering buzzy political news. Perhaps Im missing something, but looking athis LinkedInI dont see any evidence of medical expertise. So his credentials are more or less in line with fringe bloggers when it comes to medicine, but I suppose he can still brag to his friends about writing for the Clinton News Network. Which means nothing to anyone at this point.

In order to get some semblance of neutrality on the Hillary health story, you have to go to much less mainstream websites. Such asThe Hillfor example.

Here are a few excerpts from anarticle published earlier today titled,Clinton Health Questions: Off Limits or Legitimate Issue?

Hillary Clintonis 68 years old. Shes been diagnosed with cerebral venous thrombosis;head trauma, pregnancy, cancer, brain infection, autoimmune diseases and inborn clotting abnormalities are all predisposing factors, per The Washington Post.Shes currently taking blood thinners. Fouryears ago, Clinton fainted, hit her head and suffered a concussion.

Shes also the odds-on favorite to assume one of the most strenuous jobs on the planet as president of the United States.

But lately many in the media have become outraged that Clintons health is being broached at all. And what are the primary two words associated whenDonald Trump, a Trump surrogate or conservative media bring up Clintons medical condition?

A prime example comes in the form from Beth Israel Medical Centers Dr. Bob Lahita, who is not a fringe medical expert or one who engages in political advocacy.

Dr. Lahitas resume is impressive: Currently chairman of the department of medicine at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center. His opinion is so respected, hes been tapped as a medical expert by CBS This Morning, MSNBC, ABCs Good Morning America, Fox Business Network and Health on 12 in New Jersey.

He has also written numerous books, including Lupus: Everything You Want to Know and Women and Autoimmune Disease, The Mysterious Ways Your Body Betrays Itself, via Harper Collins. He serves as the editor of the Yearbook of Rheumatology.

So with that kind of reputation and resume, its notable that on the Fox Business Network recently, Dr. Lahita made a compelling argument regarding both concerns around Clintons health and the need for more transparency regarding health records of any presidential candidate.

This is a very unusual story with Hillary, said Lahita, pointing to the two blood clots shes been diagnosed with in the past. The very fact that shes having these clots and shes had two bouts of thrombosis is disconcerting to say the least.

When asked if questions about Clintons health are legitimate and not part of a political conspiracy, Lahita said without hesitation,I dont think its a conspiracy.

It had dire effects for our country, going from Kennedy to Roosevelt, to Woodrow Wilson, whose wife ran the White House for some time, he continued, So we have issues here and I think both candidates should be very forthcoming and perhaps have an impartial panel of physicians review the data and make that kind of decision before Americans go to the polls.

Interestingly enough, Woodrow Wilson is the guy who signed the Federal Reserve Act into law, on the day before Christmas Eve in 1913.

Clintons last release was a two-page letter from Mount Kisco, N.Y., internist Dr. Lisa Bardack more than one year ago simply stating she was as a healthy 67-year-old female whose current medical conditions include hypothyroidism and seasonal pollen allergies.

So heres a respected medical doctor who is publicly saying that questioning Hillarys health is not a conspiracy theory, and that its a legitimate campaign issue. He also says that both candidates should be subject to an independent medical review, which is something I agree with given the age of both Trump and Clinton.

So youd think Dr. Lahitas statementswould be big news that would be covered by Americas so-called independent, competent media, but youd be wrong. Here are the Google search results for Dr. BobLahita Hillary.

Crickets from mainstream media, and Id note there was no mention of Dr. Lahita in theCNNarticle by Gregory Krieg, despite it being published today and highlighting the opinions of otherdoctors. Which brings me to another point

Some in the mainstream media are so freaked out about Hillarys health becoming a campaign issue, they are publicly begging Google to hide results deemed to be conspiracy theory byNew York Timescolumnists.

What I am referring to is this, now famous, tweet by Farhad Manjoo:

He proceeds to explain whats really bothering him, the fact that Infowars appears at the top of Google search results on the issue.

This is particularly interesting because as I demonstrated above, when you search the very non-conspiracy theory sounding Dr. BobLahita Hillary, you also getInfowarsat the top of search.

Howis this Googles fault? Either the mainstream media isnt covering the issue at all, or it is doing so in such a non interesting way that no one is reading their articles. As such, alternative media sites end updriving all traffic on these issues, which leads tomainstream media columnists whiningto Google for help.

They now demandthat Google rely on the facts (determined by the geniuses attheNew York Timesof course), and work to separate all conspiracy theory from non-conspriacy theory in global news.Good luck with that.

Meanwhile, perhaps I missed it since I dont follow him, but I failed to see the outraged tweet from Mr.Manjoo demanding that Google hide the ubiquitous Trump is a Russian agent conspiracy theories from search, which mainstream media gatekeepers have no problem propagating liberally.

Of course, theNew York Timesrendering judgment onthose pushingconspiracy theories would be downright hilarious if it werent so sad. For example, the paper itself exhibited no such restraint when it came to peddling U.S. government conspiracies about Iraq in the run up to one of the most inhumane, unnecessary and destructive foreign policy blunders in American history. In fact, the paper was ultimately so embarrassed by its own behavior, it issued a statement in 2004 titled,FROM THE EDITORS; The Times and Iraq. Here are a few excerpts:

We have found a number of instances of coverage that was not as rigorous as it should have been. In some cases, information that was controversial then, and seems questionable now, was insufficiently qualified or allowed to stand unchallenged.Looking back, we wish we had been more aggressive in re-examining the claims as new evidence emerged or failed to emerge.

The problematic articles varied in authorship and subject matter, but many shared a common feature. They depended at least in part on information from a circle of Iraqi informants, defectors and exiles bent on regime change in Iraq, people whose credibility has come under increasing public debate in recent weeks. (The most prominent of the anti-Saddam campaigners, Ahmad Chalabi, has been named as an occasional source in Times articles since at least 1991, and has introduced reporters to other exiles. He became a favorite of hard-liners within the Bush administration and a paid broker of information from Iraqi exiles, until his payments were cut off last week.)Complicating matters for journalists, the accounts of these exiles were often eagerly confirmed by United States officials convinced of the need to intervene in Iraq. Administration officials now acknowledge that they sometimes fell for misinformation from these exile sources. So did many news organizations in particular, this one.

Some critics of our coverage during that time have focused blame on individual reporters. Our examination, however, indicates that the problem was more complicated. Editors at several levels who should have been challenging reporters and pressing for more skepticism were perhaps too intent on rushing scoops into the paper. Accounts of Iraqi defectors were not always weighed against their strong desire to have Saddam Hussein ousted.Articles based on dire claims about Iraq tended to get prominent display, while follow-up articles that called the original ones into question were sometimes buried. In some cases, there was no follow-up at all.

So because we failed to do our job, millions of lives wereruined, ISISemergedout the resultant power vacuumandover $2 trillionin U.S. taxpayer money was squandered. Sorry everyone!

But look, we all make mistakes. Unfortunately, cheerleading a nation into a disastrous unprovoked war in the Middle East seems just slightly more damaging than asking questions about Hillary Clintons health. So whats really going on?

I am of the opinion that the mainstream media is not freaking out about the popularity of Hillarys health as a campaign issue just because they are biased in her favor (which they are).My contention is that this goes a lot deeper than that.

As I lookat the landscapein 2016 to-date, I observe emergentsigns that alternative media is finally beginning to take over from the legacy mainstream media when it comes to impact and influence. The mainstream media (unlike with John McCainin 2008), had decided that Hillary Clintons health was not an issue and chosenot to pursue it. Many in thealternative media world took a different position, and due to mainstream medias failure to inform the American public for decades, the alternative mediadrove that issue to the top of the news cycle. Thats power.

This is an incredibly big deal, and the mainstream media intuitively knows what it means. It means a total loss of legitimately, prestige and power. All of which is well deserved of course.

Two tweets I sent out yesterday perfectly summarize what I think of the situation (excuse my typos):

So heres the bottom line.2016 represents the true beginning of what I would call the Media Wars. Alternative media is now capable of driving the news cycle. Mainstream media now has no choice but to fight back, and fight back it will. It will fight back dirty. This is going to get very ugly, but by the time the dust has settled, I think much of the mainstream media will be left as a shell of its former self.

All completelywell deserved of course.

For related articles, see:

You Know You Are a Conspiracy Theorist If(one of my most popular posts ever)

Why Isnt the Media Covering Hillary Clintons Extremely Bizarre Behavior?

Yes the Government is Spying on You Through Your Webcam Another Conspiracy Theory Proven True

Conspiracy Fact How the Government Conducted 239 Secret Bioweapon Experiments on the American People

In Liberty, Michael Krieger

The rest is here:
Questioning Hillarys Health is Not Conspiracy Theory ...

Factsheets

Today, Hillary Clinton announced hercomprehensive plan to support Americans living with mental health problems and illnessesby integrating our healthcare systems and finally putting the treatment of mental health on par with that of physical health. Nearly a fifth of all adults in the United States, more than 40 million people, are coping with a mental health problem.[1]Close to 14 million people live with a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.[2]Moreover, many of these individuals have additional complicating life circumstances, such as drug or alcohol addiction, homelessness, or involvement with the criminal justice system.[3]Veterans are in acute need of mental health care, with close to 20% of those returning from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars experiencing post-traumatic stress or depression.[4]And the problem is not limited to adults: an estimated 17 million children in the United States experience mental health problems,[5]as do one in four college students.[6]

Americans with mental health conditions and their families need our support. The economic impact of mental illness is enormous at nearly $200 billion per year nationwide in lost earnings[7]and the human cost is worse. Too many Americans are being left to face mental health problems on their own, and too many individuals are dying prematurely from associated health conditions. We must do better. To date in this campaign, Hillary set out policies that will direct support to individuals with mental health problems and their familiesincluding a detailed agenda to support military service members and veterans, an initiative to end Americas epidemic of drug and alcohol addiction, and a robust caregivers agenda. Today, she is building on those proposals with a comprehensive agenda on mental health. Hillarys plan will:

As a down-payment on this agenda, Hillary will convene a White House Conference on Mental Health during her first year as President. Her goal is that within her time in office, Americans will no longer separate mental health from physical health when it comes to access to care or quality of treatment.The next generation must grow up knowing that mental health is a key component of overall health and there is no shame, stigma, or barriers to seeking out care.

Early Diagnosis and Intervention

Most mental health conditions have their origins in childhood and adolescence. But today, two-thirds of children with mental health problems receive no treatment at all,[8]and children in high-risk groups such as those in juvenile justice settings, in the child-welfare system, or whose mothers experienced depression during or after pregnancy are particularly underserved. The consequences of delayed and inadequate treatment for children and young adults with mental health problems play out over decades. For instance, adolescents with serious mental illness are about three times more likely to drop out of school and twice as likely to face a premature death as are their cohorts who do not face such problems. Hillary is committed to expanding early diagnosis and treatment of mental health conditions, and preventing them when possible. As president, she will:

Federal Support for Suicide Prevention

Suicides, which are usually fueled by mental illness, are rising among numerous population groups, from adolescents and college students[11]to veterans[12]and older adults.[13]The overall rate of suicide increased by 24 percent between 1999 and 2014, and is now at its highest level in 30 years.[14]Over 40,000 Americans die of suicide every year, making it the tenth-leading cause of death nationally.[15]As the former director of NIMH, Dr. Tom Insel, often notes, suicides have 11 victims: the person who dies, and at least 10 people close to them who will never be the same. Hillary believes that suicide is a critical issue that she will prioritize as president. She will:

Integrate our Healthcare Systems and Expand Community-Based Treatment

Demand for mental health services far outpaces supply, and our health care system lacks the treatment infrastructure and behavioral health workforce necessary to provide adequate care. Of adults experiencing any mental illness today, nearly 60% are untreated. Of those with a serious condition, 40% are untreated.[16]We need to close the treatment gap, and ensure that there is no wrong door to access care. Hillarys plan will:

Improve Outcomes in the Criminal Justice System

Today, our criminal justice system is increasingly becoming the front line of engagement with individuals with mental health problems. Law enforcement officers routinely have to intervene or respond to unfolding situations that involve individuals with mental illness. As many as 1 in every 10 police encounters may be with individuals with some type of mental health problem.[21]And our county jails today house more individuals with mental illness than our state and local psychiatric hospitals.[22]Hillary believes that while greater investments in prevention and community-based treatment for behavioral healthcare will minimize these encounters with the criminal justice system, there are also specific steps we should take to improve outcomes for those individuals who do end up interfacing with law enforcement. She will:

Enforcing Mental Health Parity

The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, which Hillary proudly co-sponsored, requires that mental health benefits under group health plans be equal to benefits for other medical conditions. The Affordable Care Act built on this important law by requiring that insurance plans offered in the individual and small group markets offer mental health coverage as an essential health benefit. But while the right laws are on the books, they are too often ignored or not enforced. Millions of Americans still get turned away when seeking treatment for mental illness, even when the interventions are well-established and evidence-based. A recent report published by the National Alliance on Mental Illness suggested that a patient seeking mental health services is twice as likely to be denied coverage by a private insurer as a patient seeking general medical care.[24]As part of her commitment to fully enforcing the mental health parity law, Hillary will:

Housing and Job Opportunities

Hillary supports a full range of housing and employment support for individuals with mental health problems, to help them lead independent and productive lives. As president, Hillary will:

Brain and Behavioral Science Research

We are still in the early stages of unraveling the mysteries of human brain development and behavior. Hillary believes we need a pioneering, multi-sector effort to transform our knowledge of this fieldfrom mapping the human brain to generating new insights into what drives our behavior to investing in clinical and services research to understand the interventions that work best and how to deliver them to patients. Combining neurobiological research with behavioral, clinical, and services research will help us develop new therapies to help patients today while laying the foundation for future breakthroughs. Through it all, Hillary believes we must ensure that the resulting data and insights are widely available to researchers. As president, Hillary will:

***

Hillary is committed to delivering on the above agenda and to ensuring that mental health is treated like the national priority it already is. As a down-payment on her agenda, Hillary will convene aWhite House Conference on Mental Healthwithin her first year in office, to highlight the issue, identify successful interventions, and discuss barriers that must be removed to improve todays system.

Hillary has also laid out policies that offer additional support to individuals with mental health problems and their families, beyond todays announcement. Earlier this year, she released a robustCaregivers Agenda,to support family members and workers who care for individuals with health conditions, including mental illness. She also set out a $10 billionInitiative toCombat Americas Deadly Epidemic of Drug and Alcohol Addiction,which provides incentives to every state to dramatically expand its prevention and treatment programs for substance use disorders. And she has released a detailedVeteransAgendathat outlines a robust plan for tackling the issues facing veterans, our service members, and their families, including expanding access to mental health care and treatment, ending the epidemic of veteran suicide, and reducing homelessness.

Hillary Clintons Record

The comprehensive mental health agenda Hillary released today builds on her record of fighting for better services for Americans with mental illnesses. In the U.S. Senate, she co-sponsored the Campus Care and Counseling Act, which established critical mental health support and early suicide prevention for college students across the country. She supported a $500 million increase in mental health care for veterans, co-sponsored the Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act, and worked across the aisle to make sure their mental health needs would not be forgotten in policy recommendations to the Department of Veterans Affairs. And she strongly supported the enactment of mental health parity laws, which have helped ensure that millions of Americans with mental illness do not lose access to the services that they need because of financial restrictions or arbitrary treatment limits. This record reflects Hillarys strong belief that mental illness must be treated no differently from other medical conditions and her commitment to the needs of Americans and their families coping with mental illness.

[1]Behavioral Health Trends in the United States: Results from the 2014 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, September 2015,http://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/NSDUH-FRR1-2014/NSDUH-FRR1-2014.pdf).

[2]Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality,Behavioral Health Trends in the United States: Results from the 2014 National Survey on Drug Use and Health(2015). The range of conditions includes depression, which the CDC estimates will soon become the second leading cause of disability in the world, PTSD, which affects nearly 8 million Americans, anxiety, and bipolar disease and schizophrenia.

[3]Nearly half of the people in treatment for drug or alcohol addiction also have a co-occurring mental health problem, as do more than half of incarcerated individuals. See SAMSHA, National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services, at 3 (2013),http://www.samhsa.gov/data/substance-abuse-facilities-data-nssats/reports; NIH,http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/prevalence/inmate-mental-health.shtml(using DOJ reports) A quarter of those who are homeless have a mental health problem. HUD, The Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress, at 18 (2010),https://www.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/2010HomelessAssessmentReport.pdf.

[4]SAMSHA,http://www.samhsa.gov/veterans-military-families.

[5]Child Mind Institute (2015),Childrens Mental Health Report,

http://www.speakupforkids.org/ChildrensMentalHealthReport_052015.pdf

[6]NAMI, Mental Health on Campus (http://www.bestcolleges.com/resources/top-5-mental-health-problems-facing-college-students/)

[7]Insel, T.R (2008) Assessing the Economic costs of Serious Mental Illness. American Journal of Psychiatry. 165(6), 663-665.

[8]Child Mind Institute (2015),supra.

[9]Pam Belluck, New Findings on Timing and Range of Maternal Mental Illness,New York Times15 Jun. 2014.

[10]Efforts to identify the most promising programs are ongoing. See Nathaniel Counts and Paul Gionfriddo, New Initiative Explores the Intersection of Education and Mental Health,Health Affairs Blog, 23 Aug. 2016http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2016/08/23/new-initiative-explores-the-intersection-of-education-and-mental-health/.

[11]Suicide is the second leading cause of death for people aged 15-34.SeeCDC (2015), http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/suicide-datasheet-a.pdf.

[12]Veterans commit suicide at rates 50% higher than the general population. Seehttp://www.annalsofepidemiology.org/article/S1047-2797(14)00525-0/. Veterans can be in a state of heightened suicide risk even 30 years after their active service ends.

[13]See, e.g.,The high suicide rate among elderly white men, Wash. Post (Dec. 8, 2014).

[14]Sabrina Tavernise, U.S. Suicide Rate Surges to a 30-Year High,New York Times22 Apr. 2016.

[15]American Suicide Foundation, http://afsp.org/about-suicide/suicide-statistics/.

[16]APA By the Numbers, 7-27-2015.

[18]American Psychiatric Association Report: S. P. Melek, D. T. Norris, and J. Paulus,Economic Impact of Integrated Medical-Behavioral Healthcare: Implications for Psychiatry (Denver, Colo.: Milliman Inc., April 2014.)

[19]AMA/AACAP resources.

[20]The Obama Administration took similar actions to expand the pipeline of mental health providers in the wake of the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary. In 2013, the Department of Health and Human Services announced $30 million in grants to training programs at hospitals and universities across the country, in order to train 4,000 new mental health and substance abuse health professionals.Seehttp://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2014/09/22/hhs-announces-99-million-in-new-grants-to-improve-mental-health-services-for-young-people.html. Hillary will evaluate the success of those investments in making future awards.

[21]Arun Rath, When Cop Calls Involve the Mentally Ill, Training is Key,NPR14 Jun. 2014, http://www.npr.org/2014/06/14/322008371/when-cop-calls-involve-the-mentally-ill-training-is-key

[22]APA By the Numbers, 7-27-2015.

[23]Re-engineering Training on Police Use of Force,Police Executive Research Forum, Aug. 2015,http://www.policeforum.org/assets/reengineeringtraining1.pdf

[24]Michael Olive, Despite Laws, Mental Health Still Getting Short Shrift, 7 May 2015, http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2015/5/07/despite-laws-mental-health-still-getting-short-shrift

[25]NAMI, Road to Recovery: Employment and Mental Illness, at 3-4 (2014), https://www.nami.org/About-NAMI/Publications-Reports/Public-Policy-Reports/RoadtoRecovery.pdf

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Hillary Clintons Comprehensive Agenda on Mental Health

Dr. Drew on May 14, 2016, in Redondo Beach, CA. Credit: Tara Ziemba/Getty Images

Getting the dial tone. Dr. Drew On Call is ending after five seasons on HLN, the network announced Thursday, August 25, with the news coming not long after hostDr. Drew Pinsky's controversial comments about Hillary Clinton's health.

Dr. Drew On Call is a current-affairs series that launched in April 2011 and is hosted by the board-certified physician and reality TV mainstay. Its final episode will air Thursday, September 22.

In a statement, CNN exec Ken Jautz said that he and Pinsky "have mutually agreed" to end the series. "Dr. Drew and his team have delivered more than five years of creative shows, and I want to thank them for their hard work and distinctive programming," Jautz said. "Their audience-driven shows, in particular, were innovative and memorable TV."

The decision follows Pinsky's comments made on the McIntyre in the Morning radio show's August 17 episode about the Democratic presidential candidate, who suffered a concussion in 2012 after hitting her head following a bout with a stomach virus. Donald Trump and some conservative pundits have claimed recently that the former Secretary of State and Senator is in poor health.

"Based on the information that she has provided and her doctors have provided, we were gravely concerned not just about her health, but her health care," Pinsky, 57, said. "She's receiving sort of 1950s-level care, by our evaluation."

"When she hit her head [in 2012], she had to wear these prism glasses when she came out," the former Loveline host continued. "That is brain damage, and it's affecting her balance. Now clearly, it hasn't affected her cognition, but tell us a little more about that. That's profound."

Pinksy continues to host a podcast and makes frequent appearances on MTV's Teen Mom franchise.

This is a time of transition for HLN, as Nancy Grace who has been with the network for more than a decade is leaving in October when her contract expires.

Tell Us: Will you miss Dr. Drew's show?

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Dr. Drew Show Canceled After Hillary Clinton Health Claims ...

Hillary Clinton? A bigot? That makes no sense. It's absurd. Hillary Clinton has spent much of her career working to improve race relations. She is the furthest thing imaginable from a bigot. So what in the world is Trump doing here?

Trump is employing the technique of the reverse attack. When he is faced with a legitimate criticism of himself, he attempts to deflect away the criticism by attacking Clinton for the exact same shortcoming that plagues Trump, regardless of whether it actually applies to Clinton.

Trump faced serious and legitimate criticism for his own appalling racism, so he responded by making the false accusation that Clinton is racist.

Trump also pulled the reverse attack on the issue of being mentally unfit to be president. Questions about temperament are a legitimate criticism of Trump due to all his outrageous behavior and statements.

Trump has accused Clinton of being a "bully" when obviously it is Trump who is the bully. The examples go on and on. So does it work? Is the reverse attack effective?

Well, it certainly is not the best way to overcome a criticism. An ideal response would be to clearly show that the criticism is inaccurate, say, by listing specific qualifications to be president. But when there are no good responses to a criticism, the reverse attack comes into play.

The objective is to create confusion. The bigger the mess, the better. This way, the focus of attention shifts away from the devastating criticism because everyone becomes caught up in the food-fight. This is Trump's playbook. He is the circus ringmaster who creates all sorts of spectacles to divert attention away from his own disqualifying inadequacies.

While the reverse attack is devious indeed, it ultimately falls short. Once the technique is understood, the reverse attack is easy to identify and the truth becomes clear. After all, the reverse attack is rooted in lies because the target of the attack simply does not possess the same flaws that plague the attacker. It is a flat-out lie to say that Clinton is a bigot.

Trump's attacks create a spectacle but after a while all the fighting becomes tedious and we recognize its futility. After we sober up, we see very clearly that Trump is not offering any solutions whatsoever. He has no policies. He has no good ideas. He has no strategy.

Shockingly, Trump's circus act has carried him to the top of the Republican ticket for president. The polls indicate that Trump is running behind Clinton but within striking distance, so from this perspective, Trump's underhanded reverse attacks may work. The question is whether the voters will begin to see through Trump's circus act before it is too late.

See the original post:
Hillary Clinton is a Bigot? The art of the reverse attack ...

Fredreka Schouten and Christopher Schnaars, USA TODAY 9:42 a.m. EDT August 23, 2016

But some still consider Trump's efforts impressive, considering how late he started fundraising. Newslook

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are pictured.(Photo: Getty Images)

WASHINGTON Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump each raced to their strongest fundraising month of the campaign in July, but Clinton and her allies continue to outmuscle her GOP rival in the air and ground war for the presidency, according to new details of the candidates spending.

Clinton pulled in more than $52 million directly into her campaign last month and spent more than $38 million, according to her campaigns filings Saturday with federal election regulators.

Trump raised nearly $36.7 million for his campaign and spent at a far slower pace than Clinton, reporting nearly $18.5 million in expenses in July as Clinton and her allies savaged him on the airwaves.

USA TODAY

Hillary Clinton's super PAC raised $9.3 million in July

USA TODAY

Trump outlines his 'reform agenda' at Virginia rally

Trump, who has shunned much of the traditions of presidential campaigns, grew his staff modestly last month, employing 82 people, a USA TODAY review shows. Clinton, by contrast, employed 703 aides in July as she readied for her confrontation with Trump in key battlegrounds such as Ohio and Florida.

New campaign reports filed Saturday with the Federal Election Commission show Clinton with another advantage: Super-wealthy Democrats are giving early and often to boost the former secretary of States presidential bid and to aid Democrats hoping to seize seats in Congress. Billionaires, such as California environmentalist Tom Steyer and financier George Soros, plowed millions into Democratic-aligned super PACs last month.

Steyer alone pumped $7 million of his hedge-fund fortune into his super PAC, NextGen Climate Action, which plans an aggressive campaign to turn out voters to help Clinton and others in the party.

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Two deep-pocketed Democrats, Slim-Fast founder Daniel Abraham and financier Donald Sussman, contributed $3 million each last month to Priorities USA Action, a super PAC aiding Clinton. In all, Sussman has doled out $11 million to Priorities so far in this election. A super PACcan raise unlimited amounts.

Trump, a real-estate magnate who self-funded his bid for the GOP nomination, has relied less on the super-wealthy for financial support, drawing a large share of his donations from the supporters who flock to his rallies, follow him on Twitter and answer his email solicitations.

His filings show that Trump pulled in $12.7 million last month from people who donated in amounts of $200 or less. That accounts for nearly 65% of his individual contributions.

Clinton, however, is making inroads among small donors who can be tapped repeatedly for contributions before they hit the $2,700 limit on general-election contributions.Last month, she took in about $11.4 million in small contributions, up from $5.88 million in June.Those small donations made up about 36% of her contributions from individuals last month, up from nearly 25% a month earlier, the filings show.

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Trumps reliance on small donors comes as few of the GOPs wealthiest givers have invested in his presidential ambitions.

Two of the super PACsaiding his bid Great America PAC and Make America Number 1 together raised nearly $4.5 million in July. A single contributor, New York hedge-fund manager Robert Mercer, accounted for $2 million of that total.

Another super PAC that has begun to spend heavily to promote Trumps candidacy, Rebuilding America Now, and has ties to a longtime Trump friend, California businessman Tom Barrack, wont file a report on its fundraising until later this year.

In all, Clintons campaign team boasts that it collected $90 million last month for Hillary for America and its two joint fundraising operations with the Democratic National Committee.

Her campaign alone started August with nearly $58.5 million in available cash.

Trumps aides have said the campaign collected $80 million directly and through joint-fundraising arrangements with the Republican National Committee, after lagging behind Clinton during the first two months of the general-election campaign.

His reports, released late Saturday night, showhis campaign starting August with $38.4 million in available cash, far less money than Clinton had stockpiled. However, Trump can boost that number easily by dipping into his personal fortune.

Trump added another $2 million of his own money to the campaignlast month, bringing his total contributions to nearly $45 million, FEC records show.

His campaign continued to pay money to Trump'scompaniesfor expenses, such as rent and travel. More than $782,000 went to various Trump enterprises, including his airline,Tag Air.

Trumps single largest expense in July: $8.4 million paid toSan Antonio companyGiles-Parscale for digital consulting and online advertising.Payments to the firm accounted for more than 45% of Trumps expenses last month. The firm has longstanding ties to the Trump Organization. Its websitelists several other Trump-related enterprises in its clientportfolio, including Trump Winery, Trump International Realty, the Eric Trump Foundation andMelaniaTrumps cosmetics and fashion-jewelry business.

The firm's president Brad Parscale became the Trump campaign'sdigital directorin June.

The filing also shows Trump making a $20,000 payment to Green Monster Consulting, the firm run by his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, weeks after Lewandowski left the campaign.

With Team Trump improving its financial picture in July, Clinton and her running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine,are intensifying their fundraising pace, barnstorming the country in the weeks ahead to collect cash from wealthy Democrats and celebrities.

On Tuesday, for instance, Hollywood power couple, singer Justin Timberlake and actress Jessica Biel, are slated to host a Clinton fundraising lunch.

Trump, who has shunned creating a traditional campaign structure, is relying heavily on the Republican National Committee to help organize his high-dollar fundraising events and to build a field operation to identify and turn out voters.

The RNC has deployedhundreds of workers to battleground states. Saturdays campaign filings show the RNC with 251 people on its payroll in July.National party officials say they now have 504 staffers in the field, with the highest numbers working in Pennsylvania and Florida, where Trump needs to gain ground on Clinton.

On Friday, Trump launched his first commercials of the general-election campaign, spending $4.8 million to run ads into those two states, along with Ohio and North Carolina.

Clinton and her allies, however, have dominated the airwaves since June, pumping more than $100 million into TV ads that promote Clinton and blister Trump as unfit to serve in the White House and out of touch with working Americans.

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Hillary Clinton outspends Trump in White House showdown