Trump now in 4th place with millennials

A couple of weeks back, I asked whether it was possible that Donald Trump might lose millennial voters to a third-party candidate, Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson.
Well, a new poll shows him losing young voters not just to Johnson, but also to Green Party nominee Jill Stein.
The McClatchy poll shows Trump pulling just 1 in 10 votes — 9 percent — among Americans under 30 years old. Hillary Clinton is at 41 percent, while Johnson is at 23 percent and Stein is at 16 percent.

Speaking of Jill Stein, check out her 90's folk-rock band

Clinton Kaine split on Libya

When the US attacked the Libyan city of Sirte last week, they did so without any explicit Congressional authorization. This was unsurprising, of course, as they never got Congressional authorization for the last Libya war either, nor for the ongoing ISIS wars in Syria and Libya.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D – VA) tried and failed to get war authorizations passed before, and on Sunday was quick to warn that he doesn’t believe there is any legal authorization for this new war, cautioning it sets a dangerous precedent. With no White House intentions to seek such authorization, this would be a non-story, except Sen. Kaine is the Democratic nominee for Vice President.
His running-mate, Hillary Clinton,was quick to disagree with him public, insisting that she has no doubt that the 2001 authorization for the use of military force (AUMF) after 9/11 covers the Libya War, even though it only authorizes force against those involved in 9/11, which ISIS obviously was not.

Why Trump's popularity

Unemployment, inflation and wages get most of the attention when ordinary Americans turn to the economy. But labor productivity tells us more about middle-class living standards—and the message is a gloomy one.
Productivity has declined for nine months straight, and has fallen 0.4% during the last year. In plain English, that means output per worker is drifting down when it ought to be going up. By one measure, productivity growth is the weakest since the late 1970s, right before a severe double-dip recession. For anybody wondering why Donald Trump’s declinist rhetoric resonates with so many people, this is why.
Strong productivity gains led to big improvements in living standards (with a few rough patches) from the end of World War II through the 1990s. But productivity gains have slowed notably during the last decade or so. Between 1947 and 2005, annual productivity gains averaged 2.3%, according to forecasting firm IHS Global Insight. The average rate since 2006: about 1.2%.

Arming the KSA

The U.S. State Department has approved the potential sale of more than 130 Abrams battle tanks, 20 armored recovery vehicles and other equipment, worth about $1.15 billion, to Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.
The approval for land force equipment comes at a time when Saudi Arabia is leading a military coalition in support of Yemeni forces loyal to the exiled government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi who are trying to oust Iran-allied Houthi forces from the capital, Sanaa. The coalition's air strikes have come under criticism from rights groups for the deaths of civilians.

Crisis in Aleppo #1

More than two million people in Syria's Aleppo are in danger of coming under total siege, the United Nations has warned, calling for immediate access to the heavily bombed city.

Crisis in Aleppo #2

The water pumps in Aleppo, Syria, are no longer getting power, leaving 2 million people without running water — and at risk of coming under a full siege.

Crisis in Aleppo #3

“The children in Aleppo have no baby milk; the doctors have severe shortages of medicines, blood, sutures and ventilators; and people have no bread, meat or cooking gas,” Dr. Zaher Shaloul of the Chicago-based Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) told members of the Security Council.
Dr. Samer Attar, who also works with SAMS, showed council members pictures of children with amputated legs and brain injuries. He said Aleppo’s hospitals look more like bunkers, surrounded by sandbags and barrels to offer some protection against near daily bombings. He said at one hospital where he worked, patients were treated in the basement because the upper floor was too susceptible to attack.