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Archive for July, 2016

The Stronger Together bus pulled up in front of the Fort Hayes Metropolitan Education Center in Columbus, Ohio this afternoon, and the candidates emerged and fired up the waiting crowd.  WJC was MIA.

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Give them a boost before the midnight FEC filing deadline tonight!

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Hillary attended Sunday services this morning at Imani Temple Ministries in Cleveland.  She briefly addressed the vitriol Donald Trump is leveling at the Khan family.

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Captain Khan and his family represent the best of America, and we salute them.

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Sooner or later it was going to happen.  There would come a Sunday when Hillary would have to go into the Foxhole.  Today was that day and she did very well.  Even in interviews it is hard to defend yourself when the host controls the content.  Here are her full remarks at the transfer of remains ceremony at Andrews and she absolutely did use the word terror.

I think she did a beautiful job here, and Chris Wallace did not make it easy.  For those who say she is not warm and not “human” watch her talking about that speech and her daughter.  Also watch her reaction to the question about Pat Smith in comparison to how Donald Trump is tweeting about the Khans today. 

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The Stronger Together bus convoy rolled across the state line last night and into Youngstown, Ohio. There is something that struck me in the course of yesterday’s rallies.  A former Trump associate mentioned in a recent article that Trump wanted his name in very large print on a book cover.  We have all seen his private plane.   I suppose Hillary could have put her name on her bus, but she chose instead to put her unifying slogan.   That says a lot about who she is and why she is running.

The photo is from this behind the scenes peek at the bus tour.  There are more great pics here >>>>

 

 

In Youngstown, Clinton & Kaine Complete Second Day of Jobs-Focused Bus Tour Calling Trump Unfit to Be President

At a rally in Youngstown, Ohio on Saturday night, Hillary Clinton closed out the second day of a jobs-focused bus tour touting her “100 Days Jobs Plan,” the largest investment in American jobs since World War II they would make in their first 100 days in office. Clinton criticized Trump after he called General John R. Allen, who served with courage and honor, a “failed general.” Clinton also pointed to Trump’s volatile temperament as proof that he is unfit to be President. As Clinton said, “Donald Trump is not a normal presidential candidate. Somebody who attacks everybody has something missing. I don’t know what it is.  I’m not going to get into that.  But yesterday he attacked a distinguished Marine general, John Allen. He attacked the distinguished father of a soldier who sacrificed himself for his unit, Captain Khan.  He’s attacked immigrants and women.  He’s attacked people with disabilities.  It’s a long list, my friends. I don’t know, maybe he doesn’t have anything positive to say […] I think it is fair to say he is temperamentally unfit and unqualified to be president and commander-in-chief.  And as I said Thursday night, someone who can get provoked by a tweet should not be responsible for nuclear weapons..”

Kaine called Trump’s aversion to policy specifics unacceptable and asked, “do you really think that there’s nothing wrong with his tax returns? Do you think Donald Trump, if he wants to be president, should do what every presidential candidate in modern history has done and show his tax returns to the American public? […] We are too great a nation to put it in the hands of a slick-talking, self-promoting, empty-promising, one-man wrecking crew.”

Clinton and Kaine’s remarks, as transcribed, are below: 

TIM KAINE:

“Hey, guys.  Man, this is great.  Wow.  This is great. Hey, were we worth the wait?  Were we worth the wait?  Yeah, absolutely. It is – thank you for giving us this great shot of energy.  Hello to the Valley.  Hello to Ohio.  We’re so glad to be here on our bus tour. We’ve come out of a spectacular Democratic Convention in Philadelphia, and we’re glad to be in Ohio. There’s a reason why traveling through Pennsylvania and Ohio comes first.  It’s because you guys are so critical to the outcome of this election.  And I can’t tell you how proud we are to be here with you.  Thank you for this warm, warm Ohio welcome. We had great UAW introducers, Glenn and Robert.  We are so glad to be here with your formed governor and future senator, Ted Strickland.  We served together; he’s a huge, huge hero of mine. You’ve got one of the best congress members of the United States Congress, Tim Ryan.  Give it up for him.  Give it up for Tim. And then your state senator, who is the lead Dem in the Ohio legislature, who told me that he was going to get us the best pizza in Ohio for the bus on the way after tonight.  Give it up for Joe Schiavoni.

This has been a long day and a fun day, and I am so glad to be here with my wife, Anne, who until a few days ago was the secretary of education in Virginia.  But my wife Anne walked into the office Monday, before we went to the convention, and resigned so she could be full-time on the trail to make sure Hillary Clinton is elected our next president. And how great is this to be campaigning with President Clinton?  I mean – I started my career in elected office 22 years ago, and I’ve learned more on the bus in the last eight hours – about politics than I’ve learned in 22 years.  We have had a wonderful, wonderful time.

It has been a great week, and I tell you, when Hillary Clinton called me at 7:32 last Friday night – I mean, who’s counting? –7:32-ish last Friday night and asked if I would be her running mate in this history-making campaign in an incredibly important time in our country, I just can’t tell you how humbled it made me – excited, but humbled too.  I mean, this is just a remarkable woman, a remarkable leader, the most qualified person. As President Obama said the other night when he spoke – wasn’t his speech fantastic Wednesday night? As he said the other night when he spoke, Hillary Clinton is the most qualified person to head a ticket of any party for a long time, and probably ever. And so of course I was honored; as somebody who’s been a mayor and a governor and Senator, I was honored to say I would love to be on this ticket to help this most qualified person be the next president and to help tackle one challenge after the next and keep America moving forward with an optimistic and patriotic view of this country.  Of course I’m going to do it.

But there was one other reason that made me very, very excited.  As we stood out on the stage  together on Thursday night after she gave that magnificent speech following that fantastic introduction by Chelsea – as we stood out on that stage together with balloons falling and the history of electing – nominating the first woman of a major party to be our nominee, my 81-year-old mom, Kathy, was with me out on stage; Anne and my whole family, my mom and dad were there.  And my mom looked at me as the balloons were falling and said, ‘Tim, this is the best night of my life.’  And I’ll tell you why.  We’re backing Hillary because she’s the most qualified person to be president, but we can add to our excitement a little bit because I just was reflecting, as my mom said that, the number of strong women who have supported me through my 22-year political career – Anne supporting me just as I’ve supported her in her career. But think about – thinking about all the campaign managers and volunteers and finance directors and staff and voters, and the majority of the American electorate is women, and by far the majority of the electorate to vote for Democrats is women, and I have always been able to be in leadership positions because strong women were willing to support me.  And I think it’s just about time, after like 240-plus years – after about 240-plus years. I think it’s time.  I think it’s time.  I think it’s time for strong men to show that they can support strong women in leadership positions, including the president of the United States.  It’s just about time. It’s just about time.

So everything about this week has been great except one thing.  Now, I mean, everything’s been great.  Until I joined the ticket, I was under the radar screen and Donald Trump wasn’t saying anything bad about me. I mean, he wasn’t threatened by me, so he didn’t have to say anything bad about me.  But as soon as I got onto the ticket, Donald Trump had to come up with something to blast me about.  So let me tell you what he said.  The morning after I accepted the nomination of our party, the oldest party in the world, the Democratic Party, to be vice presidential nominee, Donald Trump said about me, ‘That Kaine, he was a lousy governor of New Jersey.’  I mean, I guess I was a lousy governor of New Jersey.  I mean, I don’t have the thick skin that Hillary Clinton has built up during the campaign, so that kind of affected me.  I was kind of feeling bad about it, and then I realized, wait a minute, I was never governor of New Jersey. I’ve never lived in New Jersey.

But look, you’ve got to give Donald a break.  He’s new to this thing.  So 50 states, and Virginia is different than New Jersey.  I mean, okay, so he doesn’t understand much; this whole thing is a big civics lesson for him. But he wants to be president, so go figure.  I mean, go figure.

We have been on this tour because what we want to do is talk about something really important: how to make sure that our economy grows and […] for a few, but for everybody.  Now, you all […] this. Hillary Clinton and I both grew up in small business families.  She’ll probably talk about her dad’s business, a drapery and printing fabric factory in Chicago.  I grew up working in my dad’s manufacturing business, an ironworker-organized union shop in the stockyards of Kansas City – welding and ironworking. And it was five employees in a bad year, eight employees in a good year, plus my mom, plus my brothers and me.  The old thing, if you’re in a family business, if there’s an order that has to go out then the kids are working on weekends or the kids are coming in on holidays or summers, and that’s what we did.  So we come out of a small business background, though, and that’s where jobs get created.  And we’re here to talk about – in Youngstown and in Pennsylvania earlier today and yesterday – how to grow the economy for all.

And this is – on the economy, this thing is super simple.  Super simple.  Do you guys want […] a ‘you’re fired’ president or a ‘you’re hired’ president?  I thought so.  I thought that would be the answer.  I mean, you know that Trump’s the ‘you’re fired’ guy.  These are the two words that he is most known for.  And I’ve got a prediction: after this whole campaign is over and after Donald Trump has lost and after people have forgotten everything about the race he ran, the two words they will remember about Donald Trump is, ‘You’re fired!’

Hillary has been just laying out the details and talking about a ‘you’re hired’ economy, a job-growth economy.  So it’s skills training, and it’s tax reform.  Right now we have a tax code that loves investors and hates workers.  We’ve got to flip that around.  I like investors; that’s great.  But we’ve got to love workers as much or more, and that’s what she’s talking about.

We have to promote manufacturing.  We’ve got to promote research – this great innovation.  We have to promote – I mean, what about, like, wages?  I mean, a minimum wage so you’re not under the poverty level.  Or what about the radical notion that women should make the same salary and wages as men?

One of the best lines in my opinion that – from Hillary’s speech the other night – she had a lot of great lines, but one I really liked because I’m kind of a – look, I was a mayor, I was a city council person, I was a governor.  I kind of like the details about things.  You know, it’s not just pie in the sky.  You’ve got to tell people how you’ll do it.  And Hillary Clinton said the other night, ‘I’ve got a lot of plans with some details to it.  I feel like I ought to tell you what I’m going to do.’  And some give me grief about that, but if it’s your kid or your business, it’s not just details.  It’s kind of a big deal.  Right?  I mean, you’re entitled to know what your president wants to do before you cast a vote in the ballot box, and that’s one of the things that I love about Hillary Clinton. The details matter.

If you want to, go home and go on hillaryclinton.com, and you can see how she’ll make college debt-free, and how she’ll invest $10 billion to regrow advanced manufacturing, and how she’ll make sure that we combat bad trade deals and only accept trade deals if they’re really good for American workers, and how we’ll get to pay equity, and how we’ll raise the minimum wage.  You go on that web page, you will know how she’ll pay for it and how we’ll benefit by it.  And that’s what a presidential candidate ought to do.

On the other hand, on the Trump side, he doesn’t give any details, folks.  You’re not getting any details.  I mean, when he tells you, ‘We’re going to be rich,’ and you ask why and he just says, ‘believe me.’  Or, ‘We’re going to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it, believe me.’ Well, wait a minute.  ‘Believe me.  We’re going to defeat – believe me.’ ‘Don’t worry, there’s nothing suspicious in my tax returns, believe me,’ Now, I know something about Ohio folks.  I know you ain’t gullible.

Do you really think that there’s nothing wrong with his tax returns?  How about this:  Do you think Donald Trump, if he wants to be president, should do what every presidential candidate in modern history has done and show his tax returns to the American public?  Absolutely.   Because what we’ve seen, and the convention laid this out, is Donald Trump has said ‘believe me’ to a lot of people.  Now, he’s saying it in 2016 to the American voters.

But let’s just go back before the election.  He said ‘believe me’ to a bunch of contractors who have done work for him, and then he stiffed them on paying their bills.  He said ‘believe me’ to a bunch of employees at his companies, and then he outsourced their jobs and laid them off.  He said ‘believe me’ to retirees who gave him money because they wanted to live in a condo community in Florida, and then they ended up losing their money, they didn’t get their condos, and Trump walks away with a lot of dough.  He said ‘believe me’ to thousands of students of Trump U. and what did they get?  They lost their dough, and they got a certificate that wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on.  When Donald Trump says ‘believe me’ and you believe him, you’re going to get hurt.  You’re going to get hurt.

And I just think we are too great a nation to put it in the hands – to put it in the hands of a slick-talking, self-promoting, empty-promising, one-man wrecking crew.  We just can’t do it.  we just can’t do it.  So can I ask you, is there anybody here in this place who believes Donald Trump? The guy who co-wrote his autobiography says about Donald Trump recently, ‘Lying is second nature to him.’ So when he says ‘Believe me,’ I got this question – well, here’s my attitude:  I ain’t believing you.  I ain’t believing one word.  Not one word, folks.  Not one word. Not one word. Not one word.  Not one word.  Not one word.

Not one – but we can believe somebody who has been about helping others since she was a teenager, a Midwestern Methodist Church kid growing up inspired by a wonderful youth pastor in her church in suburban Chicago who opened up the fact that in this broad world, there are a lot of folks who need a voice, who need a friend, who need a hand.  And from that early moment, Hillary Clinton has been battling, and battling hard, for families and kids, long before she was in office.  Long before she was in office.

So I said to you, do you want a ‘you’re hired’ president or a ‘you’re fired’ president?  And you answered right.  But I’m going to bring up Hillary Clinton now and say the real issue is– the real issue is, with Donald Trump, you get a ‘me first’ president.  With Hillary Clinton you get a ‘families and children first’ president.  And Ohio, I know how you’re going to pick.  We got work to do..  Let’s bring a warm Ohio welcome to the next president of the United States, Hillary Rodham Clinton!”

HILLARY CLINTON:

“Thank you! Thank you so much! Thank you all!  Thank you!  I got to tell you, it is so great, so great being back here with you.  I am excited about our bus trip, which started in Philadelphia, and we’ve gone across Pennsylvania, and now we’re in the great state of Ohio, starting in the Mahoning Valley!  I apologize for us being late.  We ran into a lot of thunderstorms, and it slowed us down.  I really appreciate all of you waiting.  It means the world to us to be here with you tonight. And there’s a big overflow crowd, and I understand they can hear us, and I want to thank them for being here as well.

I want to thank Glenn Johnson and Robert Morales for being up here to introduce us to the stage.  I am very proud to have the support and the endorsement of the UAW. I’m also very pleased to see our long-time friend, your former governor, Ted Strickland, a decent, hard-working, committed man who I hope you will send to the United States Senate in November. I appreciate State Senator Joe Schiavoni, and Joe, we do want that pizza.  We need that pizza.

And finally, I got to tell you, I am just the biggest fan of your congressman, Tim Ryan. How many of you saw him speak at the Democratic Convention?  Wasn’t he terrific?  Tim and I have a lot in common.  I started the Manufacturing Caucus in the Senate when I was there.  He has led the House of Representatives Manufacturing Caucus.  We are both commit to bringing manufacturing back so that there is a real path to the middle class for people who help to actually make things in America again.

Tim and I also share a love for hot sauce.  And he told me there would be one up here, but Tim, somebody got to it.  It’s gone. So I’m going to hold you to it.  I understand there’s kind of a special hot sauce that’s made right here.  Right?  Hot peppers! […] Yes, I want to try that. I told Tim some years ago that when Bill ran for President in 1992, I read an article which said that if you ate hot peppers, it would build your immune system.  I figured, well, it’s worth a try.  I started heating hot peppers back in ‘92.  I’m still eating them.  And I’m still standing.  And I’m still ready to go to the White House!

Now, we’re on this bus tour to highlight what our plans are to create more good jobs and raise incomes.  And we wanted to come to Pennsylvania and Ohio because these are two states where people still make things, where people believe that it’s possible to be a builder, to make a contribution, to have a good life for your family.  So we’ve been visiting factories.  We’ve been talking to folks, getting ideas.  And here’s what I think.  I think that if you agree that our major challenge economically is to create more good-paying jobs with rising incomes and good benefits so that more people in America – right here in the Mahoning Valley, across Ohio, and across our country – have a chance to get ahead and stay ahead, which is the basic bargain of America that joined this campaign.

I started that Manufacturing Caucus back in the Senate because I represented New York.  And in Upstate New York – some of you know because you may have traveled through there – we had a lot of hard-working people who got caught up in technology, with automation, with jobs being moved out of our country.  And they deserved better.  And we began to put together plans, and that’s exactly what I will do as your president.  We’re going to have the biggest job creation program since World War II. And we’re going to invest in infrastructure, we’re going to build and maintain our roads, our bridges, our tunnels, our ports, our airports, our water systems. There is so much good work to be done in America.  And it’s not just what we can see; not just the physical infrastructure, which is critically important.  We need a new electric grid.  If we’re going to be creating renewable energy, we’ve got to be able to distribute it.  We need to make sure every person, every home, every business in America has access to broadband.  Internet connectivity that will give them a chance to compete and win in the economy.

I said in Harrisburg Pennsylvania last night that that’s what I wanted to do, and I told folks that teachers had told me, just recently, there was a big national survey of teachers – and you know I love teachers.  And so these teachers that were telling me that after they did this survey, they found that about 70 percent of our nation’s teachers assign homework that requires kids to use the Internet.  And I see some teachers’ heads nodding.  Well, that makes perfect sense because we want our kids prepared for the future.  They’re going to live in the information age, and goodness knows, it’s going to be moving even faster.

That’s the good news.  The bad news is, there are 5 million kids in America who cannot access the Internet from their homes when they’re supposed to be doing their homework.  And there are parts of every state – because when I finished speaking last night, I went out, as I will later, and meet everybody, shake your hands – and some of the people there told me, they said, you have no idea how bad it is in places in Pennsylvania.  We still have dial-up.  A lot of places, we can’t get access.  That is unacceptable.  It is 2016.  We are going to finish providing broadband Internet connectivity to every place in America.

We are also going to invest in advanced manufacturing.  I can’t wait until I get to work with Tim Ryan and Ted Strickland and Sherrod Brown about how we’re going to do this. We’re going to invest, we’re going to work the public and the private sectors to make sure, number one, that businesses get the support they need in order to have the kind of plant and equipment that will enable them to be more competitive.  We are going to make sure that people have the skills that they can immediately put to work.

I am a strong believer is that, yes, it’s great to get a four year college education, and we’re going to make that debt free.  But I don’t believe that a four year college education should be the only path for people having a good middle class job, and a future that gives them and their kids better opportunities. We were in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and we were meeting with the management and the Steelworkers Union, a unionized plant, and they helped to train their people.  And then their workers are making, on average, $70,000 a year.  I’m telling you, we can do this.  Because there are now million jobs in America that are not being filled.  We don’t have enough machinists, tool and die workers, welders, coaters.  We need more skilled people in the trades. I’ve got a plan to encourage businesses to pay to train people, and to support union apprenticeship programs so that we get those skills and get ready to make a good future.

And, you know, I believe strongly that some nation is going to be the clean energy superpower of the 21st century.  I want it to be us.  Because there are millions of new jobs and businesses if we do this.  So we are going to grow the economy.  I’m going to invest $10 billion in manufacturing communities like those in the Mahoning Valley. And I’m going to do it by defending American workers.  We are not going to let Republican governors and Republican legislatures undermine the right to join a union, undermine the right to bargain collectively. I believe Right to Work is wrong for America, and I will stand against that effort.

And we are going to say no to unfair trade deals.  I’m going to appoint a special trade prosecutor to go after companies and countries that undercut our businesses and are unfair to our workers. We’re going to enforce rules of origin.  We saved the American auto industry from a certain demise.  And I’ll tell you, it was the Democrats who did it, wasn’t it? And it was the right thing to do.  The American auto industry just had its best year ever last year. Well, we’re going to keep that going.  And the way we are is, we’re going to stand up for our companies and our workers, and we’re not going to let China continue to dump cheap steel into the American market.

Another way we’re going to grow the economy is by supporting small business.  You heard Tim say his dad was a small businessman.  So was mine.  My father had a small business that printed fabric for draperies.  He had a – what we called a print plant.  It was a kind of low ceilinged, kind of dark place in Chicago, with two really long tables.  And the way you did this – because I helped him when I had to, and he needed the help – you would take the fabric, you’d put it on the long table, then you’d take what’s called a silkscreen, and you’d put it down, and then you’d take the paint – you’d pour it into the silkscreen, then you’d take the squeegee and you’d go from left to right, then you’d lift it up and you’d keep going down the table.

I know how hard he worked.  And I know how many opportunities that hard work gave my family.  That’s why I take really personally what Donald Trump does to small businesses.  This is not just a campaign talking point.  This is personal.  You know, because my dad did all that work – he would get contracts, he’d load the fabrics into the car, then he’d take them – he’d provide them to the hotel or the restaurant, the office – and then he expected to be paid.  I mean, that’s the way we do business, isn’t it?  I mean, my first job is I babysat.  I expected to be paid.  Every job I’ve had since, I expected to be paid after I did the job.

Well, apparently Donald Trump thinks he’s immune from all of those rules and requirements.  And so, person after person has come forward to say the same thing: I got the contract, I did the work, he wouldn’t pay me.  I’m talking about plumbers and painters, glass installers, marble installers, all kinds of people.  And then what happens is, you know, they do the work, they go to get paid – he or his minions say, no, we’re not going to pay you.  And, you know, it’s a kind of – like, a shock – what do you mean you’re not going to pay me?  They say, if you don’t like it, go sue us.  Well, if you’re a small business person, you can’t afford to sue a guy who puts his name on big buildings all over the place, has a battalion of lawyers.  This man has been sued 3,500 times.  He plays the odds.  ‘A lot of people won’t sue me.  A lot of people will give up if they try.  So maybe at the end we’ll have to pay them 50 cents, 30 cents on the dollar.’  That is so wrong, and it is something – it is something that people who have been treated like this are coming to the forefront to speak out about.  Because, you know what?  They don’t want America being treated by Donald Trump the way they were treated by Donald Trump.

I looked it up: nearly 98 percent of businesses in Ohio are small business.  So again, I take this personally.  We’re going to help small business.  We’re going to help get you more access to credit, cut red tape, remove obstacles so that small businesses can thrive.  But we’re not only going to grow the economy, we’re going to make the economy fairer.  Because the economy needs to work for everybody, not just those at the top.  And we need to be doing everything we can to lift more people up.  So we’re going to raise the national minimum wage.  We’re going to make it a living wage that can produce a good, solid, middle-class life.

And the fastest way to increase family incomes is to make sure women get paid for the work that we do. Now, I’ll tell you, this is not a woman’s issue.  It’s a family issue.  If you have a working mother, wife, daughter, or sister, it’s your issue.  And so therefore, finally, we’re going to put this right.

So I’m excited about what we’re going to do to create jobs, raise incomes, grow the economy, make it fair.  And we’re going to pay for everything, I’m telling you, and I’m telling you how I’m going to pay for it.  It’s pretty simple.  We’re going to increase taxes on corporations, Wall Street, and the wealthy in America.

Now, that is not because I’m against success.  We don’t resent success in America.  But it’s because that’s where the money is.  90 percent of the income gains have gone to the top 1 percent of Americans.  So it’s like that movie.  You want to know what we’re going to do?  We’re going to Follow the Money, and the money leads to the super wealthy and corporations and Wall Street, who need to be paying for the benefits that they have received from living in the greatest country in the world.

So as you can tell, I’m pretty excited.  It may be late, but I’m really jazzed up about what we’re going to do. And I don’t think the stakes could be higher.  Tim told you some of the reasons why Donald Trump is offering empty promises and totally at odds with what he’s done in business, how he’s treated people.  Well, let’s just take one more example.  He talks about let’s make America great, right?  Well, he talks about putting America first, right?  Well, then why does he make Trump suits in Mexico instead of Brooklyn, Ohio?  Why does he make furniture in Turkey instead of Cleveland? Why does he make barware in Slovenia instead of Jackson, Ohio?

Well, if you saw your great senator, Sherrod Brown, at the Democrat convention – he was great.  He said he bought his suit not far from where he lives in Cleveland, bought his tie in Ohio, bought his shirt in Ohio.  Now, I don’t want to stir up any rivalry with Pennsylvania but – my husband is wearing a shirt that was made in Reading, Pennsylvania. So if we’re going to make America great again, Donald Trump ought to start making things in America again.

This is going to be a very intense campaign, right?  One hundred days from today, people are going to go vote. Tim and Ann and Bill and I and everyone working with us, we’re going to work our hearts out, because I have to tell you this is not a normal election.  Donald Trump is not a normal presidential candidate. Somebody who attacks everybody has something missing. I don’t know what it is.  I’m not going to get into that.  But yesterday he attacked a distinguished Marine general, John Allen. He attacked the distinguished father of a soldier who sacrificed himself for his unit, Captain Khan.  He’s attacked immigrants and women.  He’s attacked people with disabilities.  It’s a long list, my friends.  I don’t know, maybe he doesn’t have anything positive to say.

But when you run for president, it’s kind of like a giant job interview.  If you were interviewing somebody to hire and that person came in to see you and that person spent all of his time insulting and scapegoating and blaming other people, and then got up and left your office, you’d be kind of wondering what does that person do.  I think it is fair to say he is temperamentally unfit and unqualified to be president and commander-in-chief.  And as I said Thursday night, someone who can get provoked by a tweet should not be responsible for nuclear weapons.

So here’s what I’m asking you.  We’re going to be back.  We’ll be in the Mahoning Valley.  We’ll be all over Ohio.  Because I want people to understand what the choice is and how it will affect you, your job, your future.  And just yesterday, the Republican economist who advised Senator John McCain when he ran for president in 2008, he looked at the plans that I’ve put forth and he’s looked at what Donald Trump has said he wants to do, and here’s what he concluded: Under my plans, America will create at least 10 million new jobs in the first four years. And this is not me saying it.  This is not me saying it.  It’s not even a Democrat saying it.  But then he goes on and says under Trump’s plans America will lose 3.5 million jobs. So this is serious business.  Yes, don’t boo.  Vote.

So here’s what I’m asking.  I am asking for your help in this campaign.  I want you to talk to your friends, your neighbors, your family members.  I know that there are people here in the Mahoning Valley who think they want to support Trump.  I just want you to try to have a conversation with them.  I want you to ask them please to look at the facts.  I want you to ask them to look at the stories that are coming out in the press every day about people who were stiffed, mistreated.  I want you to look at the stories of all the foreign workers that he hires.  I want you to look at where he makes the things he sells.  And then I want you to ask your friends and neighbors, ‘Is this somebody who really cares about the people of the Mahoning Valley, the people of this great state?’

And I want you to join the campaign.  Here’s what you can do:  Text JOIN, J-O-I-N, to 47246 or go to hillaryclinton.com.  And by the way, we are hiring organizers in Ohio, so if you’re interested, go to hillaryclinton.com and look for where we’re hiring, because we are going to reach out.  We’re going to register 3 million more people.  We are going to turn everybody out to vote.

Because like I said, I want you to know what my plans are as your president and I want you to hold me accountable.  I’m not going to sit in the White House.  I’m going to keep traveling around America.  I’m going to come back to the Mahoning Valley.  I’m going to sit down; I’m going to ask you what’s working, what’s not working.  As you heard in the convention, when I tell you I will try to help you, you can count on it, because I will do everything I possibly can to deliver results for you.

So I know the hour is late.  I know you have been incredibly patient.  But I am so excited to be back here.  I will be back.  My team will be back.  And we want you to be part of winning this election and moving our country into the future with optimism.  Thank you.”

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The Clinton/Kaine ticket was introduced in Pittsburgh by native son Mark Cuban who took the opportunity to speak about leadership and Donald Trump.  He told the crowd that leadership is not accomplished through fear and that Trump, who never outlines any plans, is bluffing.

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The bus tour carrying Hillary and Bill Clinton and Tim Kaine and Anne Holton stopped in Johnstown today. They visited Johnstown Wire where Tim Kaine joked about Trump mistaking him for former NJ Governor Tom Kean, but talked seriously about how Trump stiffed and even destroyed small businesses that had contracted with him.  Kaine’s family ran a small business when he was growing up.  He introduced Hillary, whose dad also ran a small business.

Hillary spoke on tax reform and against trickle-down policies.  She said that she has plans and that some people make fun of her for that, but it doesn’t hurt her feelings anymore.  Hillary talked about broad job creation and manufacturing initiatives. She also spoke firmly in support of organized labor and against unfair trade deals.  She will name a trade prosecutor.  Her policies will support and sustain small businesses and their job creation initiatives. She said 98% of the businesses in Pennsylvania are small businesses. If you would like to take a tour then get your tickets for bus tours from PEI, they are a lot of fun and you get to see some amazing sights.

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In Johnstown, Clinton and Kaine Contrast 100 Day Jobs Plan with Trump’s Record of Outsourcing

On the second day of their “Stronger Together” jobs-focused bus tour through Pennsylvania and Ohio, Hillary Clinton and Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia continued introducing the American people to their 100 days jobs plan, which will make the largest investment in new, good-paying jobs since World War II during their first 100 days in office. They visited Johnstown Wire Technologies, a factory with a record of creating jobs and investing in America. highlighting her plans to invest $10 billion to strengthen manufacturing communities like Johnstown. She also highlighted an economic analysis by a former McCain advisor that said Clinton’s plans would create over 10 million jobs in her first term alone.

Clinton and Kaine also contrasted their shared vision for an American economy that works for everyone—not just those at the top—with Trump’s long record of outsourcing products to be made overseas, instead of here in America.  As Clinton said, “Donald Trump, you hear him, he talks a big game about putting America first. Well, with all due respect, please explain to me what part of America first leads Trump to make Trump dress shirts in Bangladesh, not Ashland, Pennsylvania. Or to make Trump furniture in Turkey, not Freeburg, Pennsylvania. Or Trump picture frames in India, not Bristol, Pennsylvania.”

Tim Kaine praised Clinton’s dedication to protecting American manufacturing jobs, saying “And we’re on this tour so that we can talk about the American economy: to talk about manufacturing; to talk about the way to grow jobs and make sure everybody benefits from our economic growth, not just a few. And that’s why I admire Hillary so very, very much.”

Clinton and Kaine’s remarks, as transcribed, are below:

TIM KAINE: “How you guys doing? So good to be here at Johnstown Wire, and thank you for welcoming us. I want to thank Jim and Ron. And I had a great chance to visit with Nick a little bit, and heard about what you all do. It is a treat for us to bring our bus tour here. You can see my voice has gotten a little hoarse this week. I don’t know why. It’s not like I’ve been doing a lot of talking. I want to say a special thanks to Leo Gerard, the head of the steel workers. Leo, it’s so good to have you here.

The largest steelworker union in the international, the largest […] local, is in Newport News, Virginia. Local […], which is the manufacturers who build the most complicated things on planet Earth – nuclear aircraft carriers and subs. So we’re glad to have our steel workers there in Virginia, Leo.

This has been an incredible week. And my wife, Anne, up until a couple of days ago was the Secretary of Education in Virginia, but she stepped down to campaign full time so we can get Hillary Clinton elected President. The week has been amazing, and I’m just really humbled and honored to be part of this ticket. Being asked by a public servant who is as superb as Hillary Clinton, to join her on this ticket and to do good things for the economy, to grow it so that all benefit, to make us strong in the world with stronger alliances to build a community of respect – It’s deeply humbling.

There has only been one bad thing about being asked to join this ticket. And I’ll just be blunt about it. Once I was on the ticket, Donald Trump had to decide how he was going to make fun of me. So he basically decided at a press conference a couple of days ago, it really hurt my feelings, by saying what a lousy governor of New Jersey I had been.

When you work hard in public life, and then somebody trashes your record, you feel bad. I was feeling bad for a few minutes, and I thought, ‘Wait a minute, I wasn’t governor of New Jersey. I’ve never lived in New Jersey. I was governor of Virginia.’ So then I started to feel better. You’ve got – listen, you’ve got to give the guy a break. He’s new at this. He’s still getting the briefing memos on 50 states and New Jersey’s different than Virginia. So give him time, I guess, give him time. Well, look. I took this nomination a couple of days ago, and I talked about my own background, which makes me feel proud to be here. I was talking to Jim and Ron and Nick as we came in.

I grew up in Kansas City, and my dad ran an iron-worker organized ironworking and welding shop in the stockyards of Kansas City. My mom was his best salesman. My brothers and I worked in a manufacturing business that is pretty similar to this, except a whole lot smaller. Five employees plus family and […], plus family in a good year, but I know the deep importance of manufacturing: the deep importance of cooperation between management and union labor. So that’s why I’m so glad to come here today.

And we’re on this tour so that we can talk about the American Economy: to talk about manufacturing; to talk about the way to grow jobs and make sure everybody benefits from our economic growth, not just a few. And that’s why I admire Hillary so very, very much. She —

No, please. please. Hillary also grew up in a small business family. You know, we were comparing notes. The businesses were different, but one thing’s the same if you grow up in a small business family. Everybody, it’s all hands on deck, just like this campaign.

Everybody comes down and the kids come down. If you’ve got to get an order or if it’s a holiday or a weekend and something is needed, everybody gets pressed into service. And she learned those same values growing up in her family in suburban Chicago and she’s been living them for her entire career. And she’s got just about the best life partner that you could imagine if you’re trying to serve others. Please give a great round of applause to President Clinton.

For all of us on stage and frankly for anybody who’s got their values straight, it’s not about title, it is not about money, it is not about prestige, it’s not about popularity it’s about what you can do to help folks out. And that’s why I’m so excited to be here on this tour with Hillary, Bill and my wife Anne.

For us to just be sitting on a bus shooting the breeze with Hillary and Bill Clinton – I mean, I’ve got to tell you, I’m still sort of pinching myself. And yesterday – we have a boy in the Marines who deployed overseas earlier this week. And we were able to – and […] that Nick is a Marine – we were able to get him on the phone and talk to our running mates, and man that just blew him away. That’s something that he felt so good about many time zones away.

But look, we’re here because the convention was great and Pennsylvania did a superb job. We think we know hospitality in Virginia, but Philly and Pennsylvania did a superb job.

But this is the part of the campaign I like best, not in the suit but with the jacket off and with the tie off, just going out and pounding the pavement. 100 days from now and we are pounding the pavement to make sure we win. On this bus tour, which is in Pennsylvania and Ohio, we’re talking about creating jobs, raising wages and the leadership that we need to show in order to make that possible.

In this county, you’ve got 125 to – 129 manufacturing businesses just like Johnstown Wire that employ nearly 4,000 people. And Hillary’s going to talk at some length about our ‘Make It in America’ plan that will invest $10 billion in communities just like Johnstown.

We’ll put workers first, we’ll put their wages first, we’ll put their families first. We’ll reject trade agreements like the TPP that don’t meet the standards that they ought to meet.

And we need to do something that has a direct tie to Johnstown Wire’s business, which is invest in infrastructure, so that everybody’s able to get around. We can have a power grid that works, we’ve got bridges that are solid, because these kinds of jobs and infrastructure hire people today and raise our platform of economic success down the road.

This way to build the economy so that all benefit is just one of the few issues at stake in the campaign, but it’s really the most important one, because if we can build those ladders of success for every community and every industry and every region, then our country’s going to be very, very strong.

We saw in Philadelphia this week a united Democratic Party. And look, for Dems that’s not always just an automatic. I will just be honest. We came in and there were challenges, because we are a family that doesn’t mind airing debates and having robust debates and there were challenges on Monday morning, but by Thursday night, when our candidate hit the stage, took the nomination and laid out her vision for the country, they saw the Democrats pull together behind a relentlessly upbeat and patriotic view of this country, right?

And aren’t we all patriots and aren’t we all optimists?

I think the vision we put on display was a sharp contrast from the darker and more twisted version that we saw in Cleveland and we like being the upbeat, positive people. We don’t sugarcoat stuff, we don’t whitewash challenges, but we know we can solve our challenges because of you.

This election, the stakes are very clear and the stakes are very high. It’s a choice between a leader who’s been working her entire life on behalf of families and children or somebody who’s spent his entire life watching out for himself no matter who gets hurt. There’s a story that the campaign has told of a guy named Andrew Tesoro who’s an architect. You might have seen it – there’s a video and an ad, and the reason we mention him, he lives in New York but he’s been teaching over at Carnegie Mellon, so that’s why I wanted to mention him, Donald Trump hired him as an architect to design a clubhouse for one of his golf courses, that was a huge honor to him.

He believed Donald Trump. He believed he could do good work for him, and he did. He honored his part of the bargain, he designed, and they built this clubhouse, this very nice place. But as he so often does, Donald decided, ‘Hey, I can stiff this guy.’ And even told him, ‘You know what, because you’re a nice guy, I’ll pay you half.’ You know, if he didn’t like him, he was going to pay him less than that.

And Andrew couldn’t hire the […] lawyers to go after a big machine like the Trump machine. And so I guess he figured, well, I guess, probably can’t go after him. So maybe I’ll have to settle for half. But after he did that, Trump had second thoughts about paying him half. He bullied this guy, this small business owner, this entrepreneur, he threatened him, he said he’d tie him up in court forever, and so the guy basically had to settle for virtually zip when he had already done all of the work.

He had already paid for all of his work, all of his folks, and all the entire project, and built the clubhouse that Trump gets to take advantage of and enjoy. This was a small business that took a punch because they believed Donald Trump. So when it comes to Trump there is, there are just too many stories like that, I talked about it at the convention the other night, so many people when they believed in him, they found out they got stiffed. And now he’s still saying, ‘Hey folks, believe me.’

We’ve got a candidate who respects you enough to lay out a plan, here’s what I’ll do, here’s how I’ll do it. And I thought when of the best lines that Hillary said the other night was, ‘I’ve got details, but remembers when it’s about your own kid, or it’s about your own business, it’s not a detail, it’s a big deal, and you ought to have to tell people, what you’re going to do.’

But Trump just says, ‘Look, believe me. Trust me.’ And we’d be fools to do it. I can’t help but think what would have happened if my dad’s business had been trying to do work with seven or eight employees for a guy like Trump, who just felt like he could use them and then just kick them aside, I wouldn’t have the opportunities I have today had my Dad dealt with people like that when he was running his iron-working shop.

So the last thing I’ll say before I bring up the Secretary is this: Virginia and Pennsylvania share something in common, and that is we call ourselves a commonwealth, not a state. There’s 46 states and there are four commonwealths, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Mass, and Virginia. Once when I was Lieutenant Governor I went to a school and I talked to a student just about your age, young lady, standing right in front of me, and I was in a classroom and a little girl asked me, ‘Hey, why are we a Commonwealth and everybody else is states?’

And I did what a good politician was who doesn’t know the answer, I made something up on the spot. And I said, ‘Commonwealth – a state is a dotted line, it’s geography, Commonwealth says, it’s something about our values.’ The wealth we hold, we hold in common, it’s got to be about the community. It’s got to be about bringing everybody together, and Pennsylvania, you have the boldness to say that’s how you want to be known, and in Virginia, we have the boldness to say that’s how we want to be known.

That’s our values. The wealth we hold, we hold in common, and those are Hillary Clinton’s values too. So, I’ll just ask you this last question and then bring up our next President. I think as far as it goes with the economy, we’ve got a really, really clear choice, and I’ll boil it down to this: Johnstown, Pennsylvania – do you want a ‘you’re fired’ President, or a ‘you’re hired’ President?

I mean I don’t think it could be any simpler, we’ve got a ‘you’re hired’ President in Hillary Clinton, and I’m so proud to be her running mate and I’m so proud to bring her up to talk to you! Hillary Clinton, give her a big round!

HILLARY CLINTON: 

Well I’ll tell you what, I’m glad I told Tim Kaine, ‘You’re hired,’ because you just got a great look at why the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia keep promoting him. He started off in the city council of Richmond, went on to become mayor of his hometown, got elected Lieutenant Governor then Governor, and now United States Senator, because he’s someone who really instills confidence in those whom he serves.

And as America gets to know him, that’s exactly what I think will happen as well. We’ve got an incredible week here in Pennsylvania, I can’t tell you how much I love being here.

And some of you may know that my father was from Scranton. My grandfather came as a small child from England, immigrant, to Scranton with his family. He worked in the Scranton lace mills, a factory his entire life, because he believed that he could produce a better life for his children, and he did. And every time I come to Pennsylvania, I think about the many journeys we made from where we lived, outside of Chicago, to Scranton, every single year.

We would go every summer, we went some Christmases, I was brought back, as were my brothers to be christened in the little Court Street Methodist Church, we really have a great deal of love and affection for Pennsylvania. My father plus one of my brothers played football at Penn State, so –

It’s always a joy for me to be here. And to come to Johnstown, a place that I’ve been to before and look forward to coming back and being here.

And having this opportunity to come and visit with you. I want to thank Ron and Jim for welcoming us, […] thank you for explaining some of the work you do and telling us that Nick was a Marine at Camp David when Bill was President, we’ve actually met him in his prior life, so that was a very special treat. I want to thank my friend Leo Gerard, a man who has fought for justice, for working families in America, North America, and who sets a great example, as does this company, where business and labor work together.

And Ron and Jim told me about something called gain share, where when you get more productive, get more productive, don’t have as much scrap, those gains are shared. That’s what I believe we ought to be doing in every single business in our country. So on Thursday, I was incredibly humbled and grateful to accept the Democratic Party nomination.

I have to tell you, it was pretty overwhelming to be out there and to think about the awesome responsibility of taking on the challenges facing our country, but I’m an optimist, and I’m confident, because I think if you look at American history, that’s how we get things done. It’s not the whiners and the complainers and the insulters who move our country forward. It’s the workers and the builders, it’s people who get up every day and try to figure out how it’s going to be better for them and their families.

So then yesterday, Tim and I and Anne and Bill hit the road, going across Pennsylvania — sorry we were a little late, the rain was really heavy and we have kind of a long convoy, so I apologize for that, but we are visiting places that prove what Americans can do. We have the most productive, competitive workers in the world, we just need to give our people the chance to succeed. So from Philadelphia to Hatfield to Harrisburg and now here in Johnstown, that’s exactly what we’re doing. We’re talking to people, meeting people who have each others’ backs. And you truly are the reason why I have so much confidence that America’s best days are still ahead of us, so –

It’s in stark contrast to the vision that Donald Trump is laying out, because I don’t think we’re weak. I don’t think we’re in decline. I think we can pull together because we are stronger together, and if anybody like him spent a day on the factory floor here, they’d see what teamwork looks like. They’d understand what it means to create and build.

Every day you are showing that America is home to the best products, the hardest workers, the most innovative entrepreneurs in world. And so as we are honest about our challenges here at home and abroad, let’s start from understanding that this country and our people have what it takes to get ahead and stay ahead if we have the leadership that gives us that chance. And most of all, we know better than to believe anybody that says, ‘I alone can fix it.’ Right? Those were actually Donald Trump’s words at the Republican Convention in Cleveland last week. And I think they should set off alarm bells for everybody. Because by saying that, he’s forgetting what all the rest of us do every day. He’s forgetting our troops on the front lines; our businesses who see possibilities in every problem; our unions who fight for working families every day.

He’s forgetting companies like this one who invest in employees. Americans don’t say, ‘I alone can fix it.’ We say, ‘Oh, okay. How are we going to fix this together? How are we going to raise a family, build a business, heal a community, lift a country?’ And that’s why we have to stand together. My grandfather, as I said, worked at the Scranton lace mills from the time he was a teenager, until he retired at the age of 65. It was dangerous work in those days, but he was one of the kindest and gentlest men I’ve ever known. He knew that hard work in America meant that his family would get ahead — that it would pay off.

And he was right. My dad, as I said, made it to college, made it to Penn State. Now, if he were still alive, he’d tell you it’s because he played football. But that’s okay. He got an education. He was proud to get it. He started working as a salesman, enlisting in the Navy after Pearl Harbor. And when the war was over, he started his own small business printing fabric for draperies. And it was a really small business. He would recruit my mother, my brothers and me. He had a print plant. It didn’t have any natural light. It was a pretty dark place.

But it had long tables where the fabric would be rolled out, and then the silk screens would be laid on the fabric. And then the paint for the color you wanted to put on the fabric would be poured onto the silkscreen, and then we would take squeegee. One person on one side of the table, another person at the other side — sometimes me. We’d take that squeegee. We’d roll it — you had to add exactly the right pressure to the other side of the silk screen —, lift it up, move the screen, go down the table and keep going.

I remember watching my dad standing for hours over those silk screens. Why did he do it? Because he wanted to give my brothers and me opportunities he never had. And he did. I believe every single family in America deserves that same chance in 2016.

And you know, I know we’re living in a time of really hot politics. People say all kinds of things — hateful things; insulting things. I’m sorry about that. I think we should have a much better dialogue and debate so that voters can decide which way they want to go. And sometimes, because of all of the static going back and forth, we lose track of where we are. We’ve come along way since the worst financial crisis in a generation. And it could have gotten a whole lot worse, my friends.

When I think back to 2008, I was in the Senate then, before I accepted President Elect’s offer, President Elect Obama’s offer, to become Secretary of State. We were losing 800,000 jobs. 9 million Americans lost their jobs. 5 million homes were lost. But it’s fair to say we did not know where the bottom was. Unemployment: over 10 percent. Stock market: down to 7,000. This was one of the riskiest economic moments in our country’s recent history.

And I will say it: I don’t think President Obama and Vice President Biden get the credit they deserve for doing what they had to do to save our economy.

And one thing they saved, and I’ll say it over the opposition of the Republican Party, they saved American auto industry, which is a big customer of this plant.

I found that debate back then just unbelievable. People saying, giving speeches: “Let the American auto industry just fall.” Millions of jobs were at stake — many millions more families of the people who worked in the American auto industry. And I’m proud that it was saved, and I’m even prouder that it had the best year it’s had in a long time last year on behalf of selling American-made automobiles. So that’s progress.

And I just want people, as we go into this election, to be fair. Because yes, we do have work to do. We can’t be satisfied with the status quo — I’m not. Not by a long shot. We’re still facing deep-seated problems that developed long before that recession and have stayed with us through the recovery. But let’s be fair and let’s be clear about where we’ve come from and where we need to go. And let’s not buy the same failed economic policies that got us into the mess we were in in the first place.

You know that old saying: “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” When people come around and say they’re going to cut taxes on the wealthiest Americans, we have seen this before and it does not turn out well. And it’s about time we say, “No, we’re going to make the wealthiest Americans, for a change, pay their fair share of taxes and support America.” That’s why I’ve gone around the country talking to working families across America.

And I’ve heard all the concerns people have that, you know, the economy isn’t working it needs to. Too many people feel like they’re out on their own. Well I can tell you that Tim Kaine and I will get up every single day. We will fight for you and we will work for you. We will look out for you. How do you know that? Because I’ve actually told you what I want to do. I’m not standing here insulting my opponent and making crazy promises. I’m telling you what I want to do. I actually have plans. Some people make fun of me for having plans. Yes, it used to hurt my feelings. It doesn’t anymore.

At each of conventions, you get four days to tell the country what you want to do. That’s what they’re supposed to be for. At the Republican convention, they spent more time on insults for me than on jobs for you. Donald Trump spoke for 75 minutes and offered zero solutions. Now, I don’t think that’s good enough. I have the […] idea if you’re going to ask somebody for their vote, we owe you a clear explanation of what you’re going to get for it.

And I have said from the beginning of this campaign, my mission from first day to my last, will be to create more opportunity and more good wages that will give people a chance at their own dreams. We’re going to create jobs in Pennsylvania and across America, especially in places that have been left out and left behind. And that means from our inner cities, to our small towns, to Indian country, to coal country, from communities ravaged by addiction like too many in this county.

I believe with all my heart that the economy should work for everyone, not just those at the top. Leo knows because when I was privileged to work with him. To stand up for steelworkers. To start the very first Manufacturing Caucus in the United States Senate. I had no idea then that I was going to run for president. What I cared about is that I had lots of great people in New York who saw their jobs leave.

Who lost them to automation and technology. Who were the victims of efforts to bust unions and undercut fair wages and benefits. So what I wanted to do was to make it clear that in America, we’re going to keep making things. Anyone willing to work hard should be able to find a job that pays well enough to support a family. That’s the basic bargain of America.

So, here’s how we’re going to do it. Within the first 100 days of our administration, we are going to break the gridlock in Washington and make the biggest investment in new, good paying jobs since World War II. We will start by making the boldest investment in America infrastructure since we built the Interstate Highway System back in the 1950s.

Now, Donald Trump may think we never win anymore and our country is full of losers, but, boy, is he wrong. We still do big things and we can do more big things. We’re not going to build a giant wall, we’re going to build roads and bridges and tunnels and forts and airports and water systems and a new electric […].

And we’re going to connect up all of America to high-speed internet connectivity. You know, yesterday night in Harrisburg we had a great rally at the Broad Street Market, if any of you know that. We were outdoors. It was a beautiful night. And I said, you know, I’m not just talking traditional infrastructure. I’m talking about broadband, virtual infrastructure. Electricity.

And I made a point that some teachers told me. There’s been a recent survey. 70 percent of teachers said that they assign homework that requires the student to go on the internet. Well, you know, that makes sense if you’re going to live in an information age you want your kids to be prepared and smart and savvy about how to use the internet.

But here’s the kicker – 5 million don’t have access at home to high-speed internet. And then I was talking to some of the people who were there after the rally and they said boy, were you right. We have places in Pennsylvania where it’s still dial up.

I mean, how are we supposed to be competitive in the rest of the world if we have smart, hardworking people – their businesses, their kids – their essentially shut out of being able to access information quickly and use that information. So, we’re talking broadly here. And I’m going to do everything we can to create a national infrastructure bank so that we are going to have investments made every year, not just when Congress decides to appropriate money for that.

The second thing we’re going to do is invest in American manufacturing. Anybody who thinks we can’t make it in America ought to come to Pennsylvania and do a tour as I have. Now, the products that you’re making here in the Commonwealth are being sold all over the world, including products made right here. Ron and Jim were telling me about a big order you had from Bangladesh. You know, we can export. Donald Trump, you hear him, he talks a big game about putting America first.

Well, with all due respect, please explain to me what part of America first leads Trump to make Trump dress shirts in Bangladesh, not Ashland, Pennsylvania. Or to make Trump furniture in Turkey, not Freeburg, Pennsylvania. Or Trump picture frames in India, not Bristol, Pennsylvania. In fact, my husband told me on the bus ride here that I was telling him that I just find it maddening that Trump goes around saying this and all the stuff he makes, he makes in other countries. And Bill says, well you know the shirt that he has one right now, he said that’s made in Reading, Pennsylvania.

And, look, you’re not going to believe this because it’s going to sound too coincidental – it’s made at a company called Bills.

Well, so Donald Trump says he wants to make America great again. Well, he could start by actually making things in America again. Now, if we’re serious about investing in America manufacturing, we have to be serious about defending American workers, and that means we’ve got to defend the right to organize and bargain collectively, which helped to build the American middle class in the first place.

That’s why I love coming to plants like this that work business and labor together. But, that’s not Donald Trump. He actually hires union busting firms to break up organizing campaigns. He did that at the hotel in Las Vegas. And then he says he wants to do to America what he’s done to his businesses. We can’t let that happen. We’re going to fight back against attacks on working families, against assaults on the right to organize and bargain collectively. Right to work is wrong for workers and it’s wrong for America.

And we’re going to say no to unfair trade deals. We’re going to stand up to China. We’re going to support our steelworkers, our autoworkers, our homegrown manufacturers. I feel strongly about this, and I need your help. I need your ideas about how we’re going to do this because I’m sick and tired of us having an open market where everybody gets to sell to us, and they often do it at lower costs, undercutting our workers, our businesses, that’s not fair and it’s not right. Now we’ve won a few cases, haven’t we Leo, in the International Trade Commission?

But we’re going to go after that much more aggressively. I will be the first President who has what I’m calling a trade prosecutor to prosecute cases that are undercutting and hurting American manufacturers. Third, we’re going to make America the clean energy superpower of the 21st century because there are millions of new jobs and businesses in that. Pennsylvania is doing some good work.

We owe to future generations to work together to combat climate change, not dismiss it as a Chinese hoax the way Donald Trump has. I love this – he dismisses it as a Chinese hoax when he’s standing on a stage running for president and then he goes and asks for help because he’s worried about some of his golf courses that are maybe going to be hurt by climate change.

I mean that is just hard to believe but we’ve got to take it for what it is. There is no other Donald Trump; you’ve got to look at it from both sides here. So we’re going to set bold goals. We’re going to install a half a billion solar panels and generate enough clean energy to power every home in America within 10 years.

And we are going to create more good-paying jobs, clean energy jobs like the ones that are being created here in Pennsylvania. Fourth, we’re going to support small businesses like the one that my Dad and Tim’s Dad ran, put their hearts and souls into them when we were growing up.

And it’s important for you to know this. Just as Tim told you, we don’t make this up. We actually try to tell you what is factually accurate. We go to a lot of trouble so we can tell you what is actually happening, not just pull it from the air. Just a few hours away in Atlantic City, you’re going to find a lot of hard-working contractors, small businesses, workers, painters, plumbers who lost everything because Donald Trump refused to pay his bills.

We’ve been meeting some of these people – painters, landscapers, plumbers, glass-installers, marble-installers – people who did the work and deserve to be paid and didn’t get it, not because he couldn’t pay them but because he wouldn’t pay them. That’s just not the way it works in America, Donald.

In America we make good on our promises and when somebody puts in the work you are supposed to pay them. You can’t go around bullying small businesses like the one Tim’s Dad ran or my father – if my father had done all that work to print those drapery fabrics and most of his customers were hotels and businesses, and he used to load them into a van and deliver them and then put them up – after all that work, Donald Trump had said, “We’re not going to pay you,” my father first of all would have been stunned.

And then he would have been furious. But what could he have done? Trump would have said, “Well you don’t like it? Sue me. Otherwise take 30 cents on the dollar.” That is so wrong, it just gets my blood boiling. I think about my Dad, I’m sure Tim thinks about his – small businesspeople who did not deserve to be treated like that and 98 percent of businesses in Pennsylvania are small businesses.

That’s one million small businesses, creating jobs, strengthening communities. When you hurt small businesses, you hurt our economy. It’s time we gave small businesses a boost. Let’s cut the red tape, let’s make it easier to get credit. Way too many dreams die in the parking lots of banks these days and we’re going to change that too.

In America, if you can dream it, you should be able to build it. And I will tell you how we’re going to pay for everything that I’ve just proposed. That’s not complicated, either. Wall Street, corporations, and the super rich are going to start paying their fair share of taxes.

Now let me be absolutely clear here, we don’t resent success in America. But when more than 90 percent of the gains in income have gone to the top one percent, that’s where the money is. Remember that old movie? Follow the money! Well, that’s what we’re going to do. American corporations that have gotten so much from our country should be just as patriotic in return.

Many of them are. Johnstown Wire Technologies is, but too many aren’t. So under our plan, if companies try to move headquarters to another country to avoid paying their taxes, we will make them pay an exit tax. It’s wrong to take tax breaks with one hand and give out pink slips with the other. So we’re going to take back all the money that counties and cities and our governments have given to companies. We’ll make them pay it back. And we’ll put that money to work right here, creating good jobs.

The basic principle is simple. America thrives when the middle class thrives, and I will not rest until we get wages and incomes rising for all Americans, not just those at the top. Just yesterday, an economist who advised John McCain, the Republican candidate for President in 2008, just put out a new analysis. He analyzed what Trump has said. He analyzed what I’ve proposed. He said my plans would create millions more jobs than Trump’s. In fact, under my plans, the economy would create at least 10 million jobs in our first term.

As for Donald Trump? Well, his policies were found that they would actually cost us nearly three and a half million jobs. So what’s the difference between Donald Trump’s plan and my plan in terms of jobs created? The combined workforce of Pennsylvania and Ohio. In fact, the more you listen to Donald Trump, the more you realize he is not offering real change. He’s offering empty processes, and what little we know about his economic policies, from running up our debt, to starting trade wars, to letting Wall Street run wild, could devastate working families.

So here we are, my friends. Now I know we’ve got to fight for every single vote. And I’m ready to do that. That’s why we’re on this bus tour, that’s why Tim and I and Bill and Anne and our campaigns are going to cover the country. Because we want you to know the differences. We want you to understand what we’re proposing and why we think it will work, and to contrast that with what Trump is saying.

Now when I say things like this, like his plans would cost 3.5 million jobs, although I’m just quoting an economist, he lashes out. He loses his cool at the slightest provocation. Just yesterday, he went after retired general John Allen, who commanded our troops in Afghanistan. General Allen is a distinguished Marine, a hero and a patriot. Donald Trump called him a “failed general.” Why? Because he does not believe Donald Trump should be Commander in Chief.

Well I’d say that proves it. Our Commander in Chief shouldn’t insult and deride our generals, retired or otherwise. That really should go without saying, but I’m going to respond on behalf of General Allen to those kinds of insults. So, look, I know people are angry and frustrated. I think we just heard one. I understand that. I’m not going into this with some kind of rose-colored glasses. I know we’ve got work to do, but I’ll tell you this, when you’re President, and I know it, because I had a front row seat. I watched my husband as he struggled, and after eight years, we had 23 million new jobs, my friends. Incomes went up for everybody.

And then, unfortunately, the Republicans came back. They slashed taxes on the wealthy, I voted against that. I spoke against that. Then they took their eyes off of the financial markets and the mortgage markets and you know what happened. And then we elected another Democratic president, who inherited another mess from the Republicans. It’s our choice, America. We can grow together, we can have plans that will enable us to create more jobs, give more people a chance to live up to their own dreams.

Or we can go with demagoguery. We can go with insults. We can go with no plans and insofar as they are even understandable, that would cost us jobs. That’s the choice. And boy, is it a historic choice for America. I’m going to do everything I can in this campaign to make the case about what we can do, being stronger together. And I’m not going to respond to what Trump says about me, I don’t really care.

I’ve grown a pretty thick skin. But I’m going to respond when he insults Americans, when he insults workers, when he insults unions, when he insults people who work hard for a living every single day. So let’s go out, let’s make our case, let’s win the election! Thank you and God bless you!”

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Last night on the campaign trail, Donald Trump told his disciples that he was beginning to agree with their “Lock her up” chant. Next to inviting Russia to hack Hillary Clinton’s email, this is the most unAmerican sentiment ever expressed by a U.S. presidential candidate on the hustings.

We do not lock up our political opponents. So where did this idea come from? Who is orchestrating the slogans? Is this just a slogan or is it something more?

I am reblogging this from last week.

Still4Hill

Michael Flynn, who spoke at the RNC last week, appeared with  Bill Maher and brushed off the “Lock her up” chants at the convention as just sloganeering.  Really? Here are some dots.

Once-intimate colleagues say they have not seen Manafort, 64, in years and hear from him only in occasional email missives. His most recent firm, Davis Manafort, functionally broke up shortly after the 2008 presidential election.

As that campaign was unfolding in the United States, the notorious political fixer emerged overseas, playing a familiar role in an unfamiliar place: advising Yanukovych, the pro-Russian strongman whose ouster last month has triggered an international crisis reminiscent of a Cold War spy novel.

Prosecution of Ukrainian Opposition Leaders

June 24, 2011 by still4hill

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (L) shakes hands with former Ukrainian prime…

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So it is a real live barnstorming tour!  The bus pulls up.  They get out, and the podium and crowd are right there. They mount the podium, and it begins.

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In Harrisburg, Clinton Highlights Bipartisan Praise for Her Jobs Plan

In Harrisburg on Friday, on the final stop of the first day of a bus tour pushing for the largest investment in American jobs since World War II, Hillary Clinton highlighted a study released today by Mark Zandi, a former economic advisor to John McCain, that claims more than 10 million jobs would be created in her first term if her plans were implemented, while his earlier analysis found Donald Trump’s plans would lose 3.5 million jobs. Clinton said, “We are going to have the biggest job creation program that we’ve had in our country since World War II.  We’re going to be investing in infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, clean energy technology.”

Clinton reiterated the four key parts of her plan to make the largest investment in American jobs since World War II in her first 100 days in office: rebuilding infrastructure; boosting manufacturing; growing clean energy jobs and encouraging small businesses to grow and prosper. Clinton argued that American manufacturing like the auto industry brought us back from the recession and will be the backbone of an American economy that is built to last.

Tim Kaine praised the ticket’s jobs plan, saying “we are on a tour that we started this morning, Pennsylvania and Ohio, to talk about jobs.  To talk about jobs and the economy.  Because we know that America’s been through tough times – the biggest recession since the 1930s – and while the economy is coming back, there are still communities and individuals and industries and families that are counting on us to take us farther so that we can build the economy – an economy that works not just for a few but for everybody, and we’ve got the right leader in Hillary Clinton to do just that.”

Clinton and Kaine’s remarks, as transcribed, are below:

TIM KAINE:  

“I want to thank the Governor and Frances Wolf.  Boy, Pennsylvania knows how to put on a Democratic Convention.  You guys are great. And seriously, that convention was not just important for our party as we’re unifying to win in November behind a spectacular presidential candidate in Hillary Clinton – that’s important, but it was also important that we show to the nation and to the world who America is, and that’s what we did in Philadelphia this week.

Wasn’t it different than Cleveland?  Oh, my gosh.  Cleveland was – it was a dark and twisted journey through the mind of Donald Trump, a very scary place to be. But in Philadelphia, we showed the optimistic, can-do spirit that is the spirit of the Democratic Party and that is the spirit of our presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and that’s what America and that’s what the world needs to see.

I am so honored to be on this ticket, I just can’t put it into words.  I’m so honored.”

AUDIENCE:  “Hillary!  Hillary!  Hillary!”

TIM KAINE:  “When Hillary Clinton called me precisely one week ago at 7:32 – but I mean, who’s counting – 7:32-ish to ask if I would be part of this ticket, and I just was just stunned and humbled and so excited, because it’s just rare that you get a chance to partner up with somebody who is as talented and public-minded, who has such a track record of achievement and such prospect for success for this country as Hillary Clinton, and I just want to say to her here and to President Clinton and to thank my wife Anne for all her support.  I’m just glad to be part of this great team, folks.  Glad to be part of the team, glad to be part of the team.

There’s a lot at stake.  There’s a lot at stake, and we are going to win.  We are going to win. We have to win.  We have to win.  I’ve been – we are on a tour that we started this morning, Pennsylvania and Ohio, to talk about jobs.  To talk about jobs and the economy.  Because we know that America’s been through tough times – the biggest recession since the 1930s – and while the economy is coming back, there are still communities and individuals and industries and families that are counting on us to take us farther so that we can build the economy – an economy that works not just for a few but for everybody, and we’ve got the right leader in Hillary Clinton to do just that.

We’ve been going to manufacturing firms today, and we’re going to be talking to folks at businesses and firms and workers, meeting with labor folks right after this meeting to talk about this economy that works for everybody, where we train our workers with debt-free college and apprenticeships and community college investments in career and technical and trades.  (Cheers.)  Where we invest in infrastructure – bridges, roads, ports, airports – to put people to work and then raise the platform for economic success for decades to come.  These are the kind of investments that we’re going to make.

And then we talked about the policies that we have to put in place to make sure people are treated fairly: a tax system that doesn’t reward investors and punish workers; minimum wages so that you don’t have to work full-time and live under the poverty level, but you can be paid a living wage and get ahead; and so many other policies.  And you know that the differences are stark, and I’ll just – I’m going to say this for a sec and then introduce you to Secretary Clinton, our next president.  The differences are stark. The differences are stark.

You no doubt followed a lot of what Donald Trump has been talking about.  I call our candidate – I call our candidate the ‘you’re hired’ president and Donald Trump the ‘you’re fired’ president. And when this campaign is all over and everybody’s forgotten every last thing about the Donald Trump campaign, the one thing they will remember about Donald Trump is, ‘You’re fired!’  Yeah.

You heard him say he’s going to fix everything – ‘I alone can fix it.’  Hillary did a great job of puncturing that balloon last night. But unlike Hillary Clinton, when Donald Trump talks about fixing it, no details, no plans.  It’s just, ‘It’s going to be great, believe me.’ ‘Everybody is going to be rich, believe me.  We’re going to beat ISIS, believe me.’  Does anybody here believe him? How about this?  Does anybody here believe one word of what he says? Not one word, folks.  Not one word!  Not one word!  Not one word!  Not one word!

And I’ll tell you why, the reason we shouldn’t believe even one word, is he’s got a track record of people believing him and then getting stiffed and getting hurt.  From contractors that work on projects and do all the work and end up not getting paid and having to go bankrupt, to students who get bilked out of their dollars to get a worthless education from Trump U and they find out that the certificate is worth less than the paper it’s written on.  Again and again and again – to retirees who give him money for condos in Florida and then end up finding out that the money’s gone and there’s no condos.  When people believe in him, people get hurt, and that’s why we’re not going to believe in one word.

Good news is we’ve got a candidate we can believe in. We’ve nominated for president somebody who has been, with her husband and with so many others, a lifelong battler, especially for families and children, and nothing is more important to Harrisburg, to Pennsylvania, to Virginia or the entire nation than the fate of our families and children. You saw Chelsea introduce her last night and talk about the battles that she’s been in, and didn’t Chelsea Clinton just do an awesome job?  Awesome.  Awesome. And so we need somebody who’s been battle-tested, who’s gotten results, who doesn’t mind telling us how she’s going to get things done.  We’ve got 100 days tomorrow to campaign and win this election.  Everybody in this country and people all around the world are counting on us to do what we know how to do, to carry out politics like Pennsylvanians know how to carry it out.  The races may not be easy, but we never asked for easy.  This thing is tough, but we don’t mind tough.  And we’re going to have to show that we’re willing to do everything and be tough because people are depending on us to elect as 45th president of the United States and to make history for this country, our friend, Hillary Clinton.”

HILLARY CLINTON:

“Hello, Harrisburg!  Hello!  Whoa.  We are so excited to be here with all of you and to have this chance to travel around Pennsylvania.  I want to thank the Governor, Frances.  Thank you both for being part of this bus trip, but also for the great job you’re doing trying to bring commonsense policies that will help the people of Pennsylvania to the state capitol.  Thank you both.

What a beautiful night it is. Oh, it is so exciting to be here and it’s so wonderful to have this chance to talk with all of you.  I think I made the right choice when I called Tim Kaine last week at 7:32. Tim and Anne have become great partners already.  We are looking so forward to working together to win this campaign, but most importantly, to go into the White House next January to get to work for you.

Now, when you think about it, when you think about it, this is like a big job interview.  We’re here to tell you what we want to do if you hire us.  We’re here to lay out our plans, to tell you what we think our country can do, because we believe we are stronger together. And so that’s what our convention was about.  We laid out over four days what we believe in, and why we think we can produce results for you.

We know that there’s another candidate who’s gotten a lot of attention and who has a very novel way of running for president, because he doesn’t tell you what he’s going to do.  But slowly it is becoming clear.  It’s becoming clear what the differences between us are.”

AUDIENCE:  “Hillary!  Hillary!  Hillary!”

HILLARY CLINTON:  “I have to tell you – I have to tell you that we’re starting to get information.  Some people don’t want to know what the facts are.  That’s okay.  But I think most people do, and here’s what I want you to know.  Today, today an economist, a Republican economist, actually, an economist who worked for John McCain said that, after analysis, my plan will create millions, millions, more jobs than Trump’s.

I didn’t even know about this until I got off the bus.  And I don’t know what – who’s doing analysis.  I don’t have any way of knowing what Republicans or Independents or Democrats or economists or anybody else are doing.  But here is what they found.  Under the plans I’ve laid out, our economy would create over 10 million jobs in our first term and probably even more. Now, this is – this is not me saying it.  It is not Tim saying it.  It’s an Independent, a Republican, who advised John McCain, saying it.

And you know what he said about Trump’s plans?  What he said about Trump’s plans is they would lose our economy three and a half million jobs.

Now, look.  I understand that there are people who feel like the economy is not working well for them.  Maybe that gentleman was one of them.  I don’t know. And I understand that because I’m not satisfied with the status quo.  Are you?”

AUDIENCE:  “No.”

HILLARY CLINTON:  “I think we can do better.”

AUDIENCE:  “Yes.”

HILLARY CLINTON:  “I believe – I believe we had to recover from the recession that we inherited from the last Republican administration. I love it when Republicans criticize us as though they want everybody to have amnesia and forget that when Barack Obama became President, we were losing 800,000 jobs a month. 9 million Americans lost their jobs during the Great Recession.  And I don’t think President Obama gets the credit he deserves for digging us out of the ditch we were in.

And so since they can’t really argue with the facts that it was Republicans in charge when that all happened, sometimes you’ll hear them say, ‘Well, but the recovery is slow.’ Well, we would not have needed a recovery if they hadn’t driven our economy into the ditch in the first place.

So I know we can do better, but I am glad that we are stable.  We’re on firm ground.  Now we’ve got to figure out, what do we do next?  And this election will be, in large measure, about what each of us says we can do to try to get the economy moving.

And along comes this analysis from this Republican, who worked for John McCain, saying, ‘Whoa.  Just looking at the plans, the Clinton-Kaine Administration will create at least 10 million jobs.’  ‘Mr. Trump will cost you three and a half million jobs.’  Now, why should that be a surprise?  He has cost people jobs all over our country. And I find it pretty much the height of something or another, not quite sure what when he talks about ‘Make America great again’ but he doesn’t make a single thing in America.

So here is what we are going to do.  And I also have to say I feel like I have a very good idea about how a president can help create jobs because over the 8 years my husband was president, we created 23 million new jobs.

So we’re going to be – we’re going to be working really hard.  And I told Bill if he thought he was going to get to retire, he was wrong. It’s all hands on deck.  So here’s what we’re going to do.  We are going to have the biggest job creation program that we’ve had in our country since World War II.  We’re going to be investing in infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, clean energy technology.

And I love the idea of infrastructure because it will create millions of jobs, but, equally importantly, it will lay the groundwork for millions more because it will be not only about our roads, our bridges, our tunnels, our ports, our airports, our water systems.  It will also be about a new electric grid that will be able to use the clean renewable energy that we’re going to be creating across America. It will be about making sure we connect up every home in America to high-speed broadband so that every American is connected to the global economy.

Did you know that in a recent survey, 70 percent of teachers said that, yes, they assign homework that required students to use the Internet?  Well, that makes sense because most jobs require people to use the Internet.  But 5 million of our children don’t have access to high-speed Internet.  So, even at their earliest ages, kids are being left out and left behind.  So we are going to finish the job and make sure that everybody is connected.

We are also – as we grow our economy, we’re going to be making it fairer.  That is why we are going to raise the national minimum wage so people are not living in poverty. That is why we are going to do more to help small businesses, because too many small businesses are stalled.  They can’t get access to credit.  There’s too much red tape, too much bureaucracy.  We know two-thirds of the new jobs are going to be created by small businesses.

My dad was a small businessman.  As Tim said, he was born and raised in Scranton, went to Penn State, played football as a Nittany Lion.  So I know how important it is to support small business.

And you know the fastest way to raise incomes in America?  It’s pretty simple.  Pay women equal pay for the work we do. And this is not – this is not a woman’s issue.  This is a family issue. If you have a working mother, wife, daughter, sister, you want them to be paid equally, too.  That helps everybody.

We’re also going to double down on education and training.  I want to start with early childhood education because I want every kid to have a good chance to get to school prepared to learn.  And I am going to support our teachers.  I am going to stand with our teachers.

And we’re going to provide more options.  As I said in my speech last night, it’s great.  It’s great to try to provide college.  And that’s why we’re going to make tuition debt-free for everybody, and why we’re going to help people pay back their debt.  I can’t believe Donald Trump gets to be forgiven from his debts.  Students and families can’t refinance college debt.  That is a gross injustice. A man who has gone bankrupt six times?  Well, we’re going to be fair to the students and families of America.  We’re going to help you refinance your debt, and we’re going to put a limit of the number of years you have to pay back your debts.  And if you do national service or public service, you’ll be forgiven of your debt.

And we’re also going to emphasize that getting a four-year college degree is not the only way to get a good job and make a good living.  We stopped at a wonderful business in Hatfield on our way here, and we were talking to the people who run it.  It’s a family business.  They make things like Lincoln Logs and other great toys and pieces of plastic and other parts for things.  And they were telling me that they have jobs, but they need people who have the skills.  And I looked.  There’s 1 million jobs in America right now that aren’t being filled, jobs for machinists and welders and tool-and-die makers and coders, and all kinds of jobs.  We’re going to make community college free. We’re going to make it possible to have more apprenticeship programs.  We’re going to have more technical education.  And we’re going to give more people a chance to do well.

Now, we’re going to provide the opportunity because we know that those are the jobs of today and tomorrow.  Donald Trump is offering the false promise that he can somehow turn the clock back to the jobs of yesterday.  Those days are over. But that doesn’t mean we can’t do a better job in making it possible for everybody else to get prepared to take the jobs that will be here.  And that is exactly what we’re going to do.

And we are also going to make sure we get the cost of health care down, copays, deductibles, and we’re going to finish the job to make sure everybody can have quality, affordable health care. We’re going to get the cost of prescription drugs down.  And we’re going to do more to help people who are suffering from mental health and addiction problems.

I’m pretty excited about what we could do together.  And I am excited that we are going to run a campaign for the next 100 days that will take this message to the country because I know that if we set forth our plans and you vote on them, then you will hold us accountable.  And that’s what I want.  I’m telling you what we will do because I want you to say, okay.  She came here with Tim Kaine for their job interview.  They told us what they will do.  Now, what did the other guy offer? Nothing.

And what he has said about cutting taxes for millionaires and billionaires will cost three and a half million jobs, according to the Republican economist.  So people then can compare because I want, when you vote in in November, to know that we are going to work toward the future that you deserve, and that when we take that oath of office next January, we are doing it because we know we can make life better.  We know we can create more good jobs.

But there’s a role for everybody.  We can’t do this alone.  We’re not like Donald Trump, saying, oh, I can fix it alone.  No.  That’s not how America’s ever worked.  I don’t think one person built that building. No.  We are in this together.  We have been for 240 years, since our founders met in Philadelphia and had the audacious idea that they could break away from the greatest empire of that time, that they could form a new nation, that they could embody the values of freedom, equality, justice, and opportunity in that new nation.

I believe with all my heart that we can do that.  We can build on that tradition.  But we can go even further.  As I look at this crowd and see people of all ages, people of all different backgrounds, that is what makes us unique.  There is no country in the world (cheers) that has our diversity. And I want us to embrace that and to find a place for everybody in it.

So here’s what I’m asking, everybody.  I’m asking you to join this campaign.  Tim and I want this to be our campaign, yours and ours.  Here’s what I want you to do.  Text ‘join,’ j-o-i-n, to 47246, or go to hillaryclinton.com.  And I want to also tell you we are hiring organizers here in Pennsylvania. So if you go to hillaryclinton.com, if you’re interested, you could find some information because we want to register three million more people, and we want people to commit that they will vote because at the end of the day, every rally, every speech, none of it matters if folks don’t vote.

I was thinking as we got on the bus, the first time I campaigned on a bus and came to Pennsylvania was way back in 1992. Looking at this crowd, there are a bunch of you who weren’t even born in 1992. But we got on that bus, and we started driving through Pennsylvania.  And as we stopped to talk to people, do events like this, it was exciting because we knew that if we worked together, we could get results for people.  We could cut through all of the rhetoric and all of the insults and all of the attacks and do the job that needs to be done.

Well, I feel exactly the same way.  This is a moment of reckoning for our country.  This is one of the most important election choices that you will ever make in your life. I have so much confidence and optimism about our country.  I don’t recognize the country that Donald Trump describes. I don’t recognize the mean-spiritedness, the bigotry, and the blustering and the bullying.  I don’t recognize that because that is not who we are as Americans.

And what I hope you will do is get involved in this campaign for the next 100 days.  Do everything you can to talk to your friends and neighbors.  And if somebody is not interested in voting, if somebody has given up on politics, if somebody says it won’t make any difference, ask them to give us a chance.  By the time Bill finished eight years in the White House, we not only had 23 million new jobs, incomes went up for everyone. The median family income went up 17 percent. Now, I don’t say this just because I’m proud of him.  I say this as an American.  We were on the right track, my friends. We even had a balanced budget and a surplus in our federal government.

And I went to the Senate in 2001 representing your neighbor, New York.  And I watched as a different philosophy was applied.  Cut taxes on the wealthy.  Get out of the way of regulating Wall Street. We saw what happened, didn’t we?  We went broke, and people went broke.  People lost their homes, their jobs, their savings.  So now we’re coming back, but we need to build on what we have achieved, not allow the Republican nominee to take us in the opposite direction.

So please, join us in this campaign.  Let’s work because we’re stronger together to make an America that is strong, confident, and optimistic!  Thank you!”

 

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On Jobs Tour, Clinton and Kaine Promote American Manufacturing Jobs

At the KNEX factory in Hatfield, Pennsylvania on Friday, Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine discussed their focus on making the largest investment in good-paying American jobs since World War II. Their comprehensive jobs plan would boost American manufacturing in their first 100 days: invest in infrastructure; provide $10 billion to regions with manufacturing potential; make America a clean-energy superpower and invest in the kinds of small businesses Donald Trump has stiffed. Contrasting with Donald Trump’s practice of placing his own profits before his workers’ well-being, Hillary Clinton highlighted her commitment to helping more places “make it in America,” in stark contrast to Trump’s record of making products overseas that could be made here.

Senator Tim Kaine also highlighted Trump’s record of outsourcing jobs while in business, saying “Rodon K’NEX was fighting against that trend, fighting to make it in America by proud American workers with high-quality products that nobody in the rest of the world can match.”

The stop is part of a Pennsylvania and Ohio bus tour that focuses on Clinton and Kaine’s shared vision for an American economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top.

Clinton and Kaine’s remarks, as transcribed, are below:

HILLARY CLINTON:

“Thank you so much.  Wow.  I am – I am very honored and excited about being here with all of you.  I am grateful to be here with your United States Senator, Bob Casey, someone whom I’ve known a long time and had the privilege of working with in the Senate, as Tim Kaine has had.  I also am delighted to be here with Governor Tom Wolf, somebody who knows about family-owned businesses and how important it is that we keep them alive and thriving. And I also want to thank Michael, Michael Araten, for describing about what this company does, why it’s important, and the goals and the values that undergird it.  So, in addition to Michael, I also want to recognize Joel Glickman and Bob Glickman, Garrett Talley, all of the families and employees associated with this company. Now, we could have come a lot of different places because we started off in Philadelphia after the end of the convention last night, but we wanted to drive through Pennsylvania, a state I’ve spent a lot of time in because my father was born in Scranton and we used to grow to Scranton every single summer and a lot of Christmases from our home outside of Chicago.  So I’ve been all over Pennsylvania.  And my dad played football at Penn State. My brother played football at Penn State.  And it’s a place that’s very meaningful to me. And I was particularly pleased that Tim could be joined by his wonderful wife, Anne, who is the commissioner of education in the Commonwealth of Virginia. And I was so pleased that I could be joined by my husband, who knows a little bit about getting the economy to work well for everybody. And if you’re looking for a kind of pessimistic, downbeat vision of America, we’re not your folks. We do not buy into that dark, divisive image that was presented at the Republican convention last week.  Donald Trump says America is weak, that we’re in decline.  Well, all I can tell you is, we are the best-placed country in the world to seize the future.  But that doesn’t happen by wishing for it.  It happens by building for it, something that you here at K’NEX know a lot about. That’s why we’re on a jobs tour.  We want to tell you what we will do if we’re so fortunate enough to be the president and vice president.  We know that companies like this one provide some very important lessons.  You have to have a well-trained workforce.  The STEM and STED skills are important for the combination of design and production.  We know that if we’re smart about it, we can bring jobs back from China and other places if we make up our minds to do that, just like that’s happened here.  We know that companies that invest in their employees – as we were walking through the back, I introduced myself to a few of the employees.  One had been here 24 years.  One had been here 23 years – because Rodon and K’NEX actually see employees as assets to be invested in and treated with respect. So that’s why I’ve laid out throughout this campaign very specific plans about how we’re going to get the economy growing again, creating more good jobs, and helping people acquire the skills to fill the more than one million jobs that are available in America today, that are open, that are not being filled.  There’s nothing we can’t do if we make up our minds that we’re going to address these challenges. So let me just briefly say we’re going to make big investments in infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, clean energy technology.  We’re going to do more to help small businesses start, grow, and succeed.  We’re going to make it possible for more people to acquire the skills that you need to be competitive in the economy of today and tomorrow.  We’re also going to make it a government policy to invest money in manufacturing communities, like Hatfield, so that more companies can make it in America. It’s absolutely wrong that American companies take tax breaks and then export jobs.  They get the tax breaks in order to have jobs in America, and I believe if they take tax breaks and then they try to export jobs, they should have to pay back every single penny of every tax […] made for our country. And we will then put that to work in communities like Hatfield with companies like this.  We’re also going to make America the clean energy superpower of the 21st century. Now, this is something that I think is such an opportunity for America.  As I said last night, I believe in climate change.  It’s real.  It’s happening.  I’m not denying it.  Why would I deny it? It’s real. […]  And we can either wring our hands, or we can deny it, or we can accept it and we can treat it as both a challenge and opportunity. So that’s why I want us to produce and deploy half a billion more solar panels in the next four years, and enough clean energy to power every home in America. And I know that there’s clean energy jobs here in Montgomery County.  Right, Marcel?  Because I have visited some of those clean energy jobs.  Some states are moving ahead and creating more clean energy through wind and solar and geothermal and other approaches.  Some states are denying it. There’s a Republican governor in Florida who sent out an edict to his state employees as governor, if you can believe it, telling them that they would be disciplined and maybe lose their jobs if they wrote about or talked about climate change.  (Booing.) And then down in South Florida, you have noonday floods happening.  You have salt water getting into wells.  Of all the states in America that are the most at danger from climate change, Florida is number one.  And you’ve got a governor who is denying it at the cost of increasing insurance premiums and other kinds of risks.  This is crazy. And when somebody like Donald Trump says, well, he thinks it’s a hoax, and that he’s not a scientist, well, go talk to a scientist.  There are a lot of them right here in Montgomery County. We’re going to make sure that people start making and building things in America because we know that small businesses are at the core of creating most of the good jobs in America.  As you heard Tim Kaine say, Donald Trump goes around with that hat on, Make America Great Again.  Everything he makes he makes somewhere else besides America.  The only thing he makes in America are bankruptcies, both his own and of the people who […] And it really is shocking.  I didn’t know any of this before he became the leading Republican candidate.  But then I started running into people who told me stories.  Then I went to Atlantic City, and I met small businesses that had been ruined because they took work offered by one of Trump’s hotels and casinos.  I met the man who installed the glass in one of his casinos, a small company.  Submitted the bill.  The work was done.  The Trump organization said, no, we’re not going to pay.  What do you mean, you’re not going to pay?  I did the work.  I employed people.  I put my money up front to buy the supplies.  We’re not going to pay you.  It’s shocking. Then after a while they’ll come back and they basically say to the small businesses, go ahead and sue us.  He keeps a battery of lawyers on hand in order to make it impossible for people to sue and be successful even when they’re in the right.  I met the man whose small business – third generation, as I recall – supplied all the marble for one of the casinos.  Same thing happened.  We’re not going to pay you.  It’s shocking.  Then they come back and say, well, maybe we’ll pay you 50 cents on the dollar.  Maybe 30 cents on the dollar.  The marble company and its owners had to take bankruptcy, and they didn’t walk away with somebody else’s money the way that Trump did.  They were destroyed as a company. We have a film about an architect who designed the clubhouse at one of Trump’s golf courses.  It was a big job for this small architectural firm.  He was really proud of it.  Finished it.  Ribbon cutting.  It was opened.  Events being held.  The architect submits his bill.  Doesn’t hear anything.  A couple months go by.  He calls.  They say, we’re not going to pay it.  The architect was so shocked, he said, well, I have to talk to Mr. Trump.  I can’t believe he knows what you’re doing.  Fine.  The architect was in New York City.  Goes into one of those big buildings with Trump’s name on it.  Gets ushered into an office.  Trump’s there with his lawyers.  We’re not going to pay for it.  But it’s built.  I did the work.  If you want to take 30 cents on the dollar, that’s all you’re going to get. I tell you those stories because if someone runs for president and says their primary qualification for being president is because they claim to be a successful businessman, then it’s only fair to ask, how did you become successful?  We don’t resent success in America.  But we do resent people who take advantage of others in order to line their own pockets on the way up. If I weren’t the Democratic nominee, I would still be going around the country saying, hey, take a hard look.  When someone says, I can fix it alone, what does that really mean?  Because I don’t know anybody who can.  Instead, we are stronger together.  We’re going to work together.  We’re going to set goals together.  We’re to achieve those goals.  And the centerpiece of my presidency will be more good-paying jobs with rising incomes for more Americans, because if you’re willing to work hard, you ought to be able to get ahead and stay ahead, in my experience. I’m just so happy to be here in a company with such a great history, such great values, such a great success, bring jobs back from China, and then exporting around the world.  That’s what we have to do. Nobody can outcompete America when we put our mind to it.  We’re going to roll up our sleeves and we’re going to get to work, and America’s best years are still ahead of us.  Thank you all.”

TIM KAINE:

“[…] great to be here.  And I know we’ve got employees from Rodon, K’NEX.  We’ve got students.  And raise your hand.  I think we have a lot of teachers here.  Raise your hand if you’re a teacher. All right. Very, very important. To begin, let me just say with Governor Wolf standing right behind me Philadelphia and Pennsylvania just knocked it out of the park.  What a powerful combination.  […] I mean, I like to brag in Virginia about Southern hospitality, but apparently there can be hospitality just about everywhere. And you guys did such a good job.  And we really appreciate it.  My wife, Anne, and I are now on the trail, excited to be part of this team. And just a couple of thoughts before I introduce our next president, thoughts about manufacturing, thoughts about education, and thoughts about pride. Manufacturing.  This brings back memories coming here and seeing some machinery that is really familiar to me and then some machinery that is not so familiar.  I grew up in a household where my dad ran a business called Iron Crafters Inc. in the stockyards of Kansas City.  And it was an ironworking and welding shop.  The first room we walked into, a lot of presses, punches, lathes looked exactly like the ones that I grew up working on, with his five or six employees and my two brothers and me and my mom basically all making that business work.  That’s what small businesses do. So you will hear people say when it comes to manufacturing in America manufacturing is dead, but that is not the case.  And it’s often these family businesses, just like Rodon K’NEX, that are keeping it alive that then are revitalizing it and bringing a renaissance so that we can do it in the 21st Century.  And so we honor that in you, and that’s why we wanted to come by on sort of our first road stop on a two-day bus tour in Pennsylvania and Ohio to talk about jobs.  We’ve got to bring manufacturing back.  And the way we do it is using the examples of successful companies, like Rodon K’NEX. Second, education.  We’ve got educators here.  And we know how important that is. I’ll tell you something that I really liked last night.  There were many moments in Secretary Clinton’s speech that I really liked.  One of the ones was when she was talking about the need for a great workforce.  She, as you know, has laid out a pretty important plan for families to enable us to educate our children and to try to guarantee them that they would go through college debt-free.  Now, that would be a really, really big thing we could do for our kids. But you may have noticed that she also kind of said and really underlined it in what she said that we shouldn’t just perpetuate sort of the myth that it’s only about college education.  It’s got to be about apprenticeships.  It’s got to be about technical skills and trades and careers.  Often jobs in these areas are the most likely jobs not to ever be outsourced.  And so we have to have an education system that inculcates in the students an appreciation for manufacturing and trades. And that’s another reason, Mike, to you and the whole team here, Rodon K’NEX gets it.  The products that you produce capture and spark that imagination in students, but you also work with educators to advance that cause.  Hillary Clinton is a big believer that we’ve got to define educational success in a very broad way so that we can train and inspire the next generation of neighbors, just like Rodon K’NEX does. Now, the third thing is pride.  This company has a pride story.  This company had 50 percent, maybe more than 50 percent, of its product being produced outside of the United States, manufactured outside of the United States, before 2009.  And when a lot of companies; in fact, including companies that are owned by the Republican nominee, Donald Trump, are pushing more and more jobs overseas and when there are policies, even tax policies, in the country that give you a benefit if you push jobs overseas, Rodon K’NEX was fighting against that trend, fighting to make it in America by proud American workers with high-quality products that nobody in the rest of the world can match.  This is a pride story.  And that is one of the reasons we’re here, too.  You should be proud of yourselves just like Hillary. Hillary Clinton understands that pride.  She feels that pride.  She knows that the years, especially since 2008, with the greatest meltdown of the economy since the 1930s, have imposed an awful lot of pain on an awful lot of people and an awful lot of industries and an awful lot of communities.  The American economy has climbed back up the ladder to climb out of it, but we have a long way to go.  And she has laid out very clearly a set of strategies from the education strategies I talked about earlier to important strategies to make sure that those who are working are treated fairly in their benefits and their wages and also to investments to grow the economy, whether those be investments in innovation and research or investments in infrastructure to build the society that we want. Hillary Clinton is proud to be here, and so am I.  Hillary Clinton is proud of the American worker and just wants to make sure that we have policies that reward work as much as we say we’re proud of the workers.  And that’s one of the reasons why I am just so honored to be part of this ticket. So will you please do this with me:  give a great Pennsylvania welcome to a history-making person who is going to lead us […] the 45th president of the United States, Hillary Rodham Clinton.”

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Hillary has a corps of dedicated neighbors in Chappaqua, New York who energetically support her every day they can in every way they can. The Chappaqua  Friends of Hill and Tim have organized local events to raise voter awareness and funds for the campaign. They diligently register voters, canvass, and phone bank both from home and at campaign headquarters in Brooklyn.  For them, distance is no obstacle so it was no surprise that they organized a field trip to Philadelphia where they attended the convention to see Hillary make history.

Here’s how the hometown magazine, Inside Chappaqua/Inside Armonk, reports their story.

Joy-Filled Members Celebrate Hillary Clinton’s Historic Nomination

By Susan Youngwood

It started with a single Facebook post, on April 12, 2015, the day Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy for president of the United States.

Dawn Evans Greenberg invited her friends in Chappaqua to join her for a drink to celebrate. A small group gathered, and decided they wanted to help the campaign. The group mushroomed, and now has 750 members ages 16 to 69. A satellite group in Rivertown has 200 participants.

Fifteen months later, after hours of making phone calls, knocking on doors and registering voters, ten members of Chappaqua Friends of Hill and Tim (the name officially changed last week) attended the Democratic National Convention to watch Clinton accept the nomination.

Chappaqua Friends of Hill and Tim arrive for their first night in the arena on Wednesday. (L–R): Beth Sauerhaft (in orange), Julie Gaughran, Jason Lichtenthal, Dawn Evans Greenberg, Iris Weintraub Lachaud and (front, center) Randee Kessler Glazer

Read more >>>>

They will continue to work hard for Hillary and Tim through the general election cycle. Who knows?  One day you might pick up the phone and one of them might be at the other end of the line encouraging you to volunteer or to vote for Hillary!

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