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The latest import prices and export prices, including data and reports. (Photo: REUTERS)

The Labor Department said on Thursday that import prices unexpectedly rose in July by 0.1% after an upwardly revised 0.6% increase in June. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast import prices falling 0.3% in July after a previously reported 0.2% gain in June. In the 12 months through July, import prices fell 3.7%, the smallest decrease since November 2014, after declining 4.7% in June.

Even though a drop in petroleum prices was offset by increases in the price of other goods, data indicate underlying inflation in the coming months will remain weak. Export prices also increased 0.2% in July after rising 0.8% in June, though they are down 3.0% from a year ago.

The Labor Department said on Thursday that

unemployment-benefits

Weekly jobless claims, or first-time claims for unemployment benefits reported by the Labor Department.

Weekly jobless claims rose by 1,000 to 266,000 for the week ending August 6, higher than the median forecast that called for 265,000. The Labor Department said prior week was revised lower by 2,000 at 267,000.

The four-week moving average–which irons out weekly volatility–was 262,750, an gain of 3,000 from the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised down by 500 from 260,250 to 259,750.

A Labor Department analyst said there were no special factors impacting this week’s initial claims and no state was triggered “on” the Extended Benefits program during the week ending July 23. This marks 75 consecutive weeks of initial claims below 300,000, the longest streak since 1970, but the number of eligible applicants is also at a similiar low due to long-term unemployment.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending July 23 were in Puerto Rico (3.1), Alaska (2.7), Connecticut (2.7), New Jersey (2.7), Pennsylvania (2.4), West Virginia (2.3), California (2.2), Rhode Island (2.2), Wyoming (2.1), and Massachusetts (2.0).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending July 30 were in California (+487), Kansas (+405), Indiana (+315), Virginia (+292), and Washington (+285), while the largest decreases were in Michigan (-1,864), Illinois (-1,458), Oregon (-1,084), Georgia (-1,021), and Alabama (-908).

Labor Department said weekly jobless claims rose

Former President Bill Clinton, Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Vice Chair of the Clinton Foundation Chelsea Clinton, discuss the Clinton Global Initiative University during the closing plenary session on the second day of the 2014 Meeting of Clinton Global Initiative University at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona March 22, 2014. (PHOTO: REUTERS)

Former President Bill Clinton, Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Vice Chair of the Clinton Foundation Chelsea Clinton, discuss the Clinton Global Initiative University during the closing plenary session on the second day of the 2014 Meeting of Clinton Global Initiative University at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona March 22, 2014. (PHOTO: REUTERS)

Attorney General Loretta Lynch refused a referral by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to move forward with a criminal probe into the Clinton Foundation. While previous reports have revealed the FBI went to Justice Department (DOJ) earlier this year asking for it to open a case into the Clinton Foundation, PPD confirmed this happened at least twice on two separate occasions.

However, on both accounts, DOJ refused the recommendation and the decision was not a lower, unit-level decision. The revelations raise new questions about Attorney General Lynch, who came under fire recently after a local reporter in Phoenix revealed that she met in secret on her government airplane with Bill Clinton in late June. Mr. Clinton was in fact a target, not a witness, in the FBI investigation. The secret meeting took place ahead of the statement by FBI Director James Comey, which announced the Bureau would not recommend charges against Mrs. Clinton for her use of a private email server.

It is unclear what the FBI will do next, with one source telling People’s Pundit Daily they might not even know how to proceed, themselves. What we do know is that the investigation was ongoing as recent as last week. The source said the FBI investigation into public corruption supported at least a charge of racketeering.

In his testimony to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Director Comey refused to comment on whether the Clinton Foundation was the target of a current investigation. To be clear, that’s a tell-tale sign of an open investigation.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch refused a referral

Democratic President Barack Obama, left, embraces Hillary Clinton, right, after speaking to the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Arena in Philadelphia. (Photo: AP)

Democratic President Barack Obama, left, embraces Hillary Clinton, right, after speaking to the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Arena in Philadelphia. (Photo: AP)

When it comes to unity, the Democrats talk a good game — but in the end they promote disunity because their electability depends on dividing society into groups and inciting anger, resentment and distrust.

I don’t need to cite examples of Democrats’ blaming Republicans for divisiveness and falsely extolling their own aspirations of unity. They are everywhere. It’s what they do, from their talk of our “common humanity,” to their glorification of all kinds of diversity, except diversity of thought, to their proclaimed monopoly on tolerance.

It’s ironic that Democrats get away with this lie. It is Republicans, or at least the conservatives among them, who preach that a rising tide lifts all boats — that economic growth across the board will help the most people.

Democrats simply can’t be honest about economic policy. They have to demonize the wealthy to incite class warfare. They must perpetuate and expand government dependency programs, which means creating incentives for people to remain out of the work force. They must vilify the rich for not paying their fair share of taxes, despite the undeniable fact that upper-income earners pay far more taxes — actual and percentage — and that the lower half of income earners pay no income taxes at all. How much “fairer” can it be for them?

I am old enough to remember then-Senator Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign promise to bring all people together in a spirit of harmony and healing. I also remember him doing just the opposite once elected.

And I remember Obama’s 2012 gamble of appealing directly to minorities and alienating other groups, apparently on the theory that disaffected groups outnumber the sum of all others — or at least that agitating them would increase their turnout and ensure his victory. If a Republican candidate had dared such overt divisiveness, the mainstream media would have tarred and feathered him.

The Democrats are having a field day attacking Trump, and he’s giving them way too much ammunition. But no matter whom Republicans put up, Democrats will viciously disparage them. To them, almost all Republican candidates and officeholders are mean-spirited bigots.

If only Republicans could successfully communicate their case that perpetual malaise, which is the only thing Democrats offer anymore, is unnecessary and correctable. If only they could demonstrate that the Democrats’ socialistic and regulatory policies thwart prosperity for all groups of people — except, ironically, the very wealthy.

But we haven’t made our case, or it’s falling on deaf ears, because Democrats are paying people, in effect, to remain on their plantations. They are encouraging them not to be productive members of society. They are deliberately undermining the nuclear family. They are fomenting envy and disharmony. It’s tragic.

Look at Hillary Clinton’s ballyhooed economic plan. What an utter package of deceit! She tells us she’s going to create more than 10 million new jobs — by continuing the same miserably failed policies of Barack Obama. Obama and Clinton claim they saved the economy from collapse after the 2008 financial crisis, which their policies caused. But eight years later we’ve yet to see appreciable economic growth from this team. For them, 1 percent growth is the new 5 percent.

Obamanomics has given us the worst recovery since World War II. Indeed, it is an insult to the term “recovery” to designate this mess as such. No matter what he says now, President Obama promised his obscene $800 billion “stimulus” package would actually stimulate, and it did the opposite.

But Clinton would continue the ruse, expecting us to believe four more years of this insanity will produce different results. Her five-part plan is more of the same nonsense: 1) Investing in infrastructure. (Deja vu, anyone?) 2) Make college available for all. (But how will graduates get jobs in their recessionary economy?) 3) Make companies share more profits with their employees. (And these people claim they’re not socialists). 4) Make corporations, the wealthy and Wall Street pay their fair share. (I’ve covered this.) 5) Create policies that “support 21st-century families” — equal pay, paid leave, reduced child care costs.

Seriously, which of these strategies could conceivably unleash sustained economic growth? Other than the infrastructure spending (which also won’t create long-term growth), these ideas have nothing to do with expanding the economic pie, but only with redistribution. Not only is Clinton’s five-point plan destined for failure, she will expand the regulatory state, which is smothering small businesses.

If Democrats ever believed in economic growth, they’ve long since abandoned it, going with the myth that we have a finite pie and that they, as Big Sister, must control how it’s allocated, the free market be damned.

I repeat: The Democrats’ viability requires keeping us at each other’s throats. They must divide us. Consider Clinton’s recent shunning of police unions. She is so desperate to retain 90 percent of the African-American vote that she told the 335,000-member National Fraternal Order of Police she won’t seek their endorsement.

The chilling truth is that Hillary Clinton would give us a third Obama term, and I don’t know how we can come back from it.

Look at Hillary Clinton's ballyhooed economic plan.

Democratic President Barack Obama, left, embraces Hillary Clinton, right, after speaking to the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Arena in Philadelphia. (Photo: FOX)

Democratic President Barack Obama, left, embraces Hillary Clinton, right, after speaking to the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Arena in Philadelphia. (Photo: FOX)

We may be getting ahead of ourselves assuming that Hillary Clinton will be next president, but let’s proceed on that (comforting) notion. Few are better prepared to preserve and improve upon the Affordable Care Act than Clinton, who’s long immersed herself in health care policy.

Obamacare is complicated — built that way to get past an army of vested interests and a hard wall of Republican opposition. But though it has things that need fixing, all in all, the program has been a success.

Obamacare has brought coverage to some 20 million more Americans. It’s made individual insurance cheaper than it was in 2010, according to Health Affairs. Average premiums are down. (The premiums going up would have risen more without the law.) And surprise, Obamacare will cost $2.6 trillion less over five years than earlier estimated, a recent Urban Institute study reports.

One undeniable frustration has been the high cost of coverage for many in the marketplace. Now some of those “found” trillions could go to raising subsidies, making coverage more affordable.

Clinton proposes a “buy in” option to Medicare for Americans 55 to 65. One must currently be 65 or older to automatically qualify for Medicare. Clinton would pay for this Medicare expansion through a higher investment surtax for upper-income people.

Lowering the Medicare age is a fine idea on several counts. Medicare has been good at controlling the cost of health care, and the beneficiaries love it. Since older people tend to use more health care than younger groups, moving them into Medicare takes some pressure off the insurers in Obamacare. At the same time, bringing younger old people into Medicare strengthens the Medicare risk pool.

Bernie Sanders promoted “Medicare for All” in his presidential run, and the idea is solid. Clinton’s gradual approach, “Medicare for More,” with better-planned funding, tops it for political palatability.

Assessing Donald Trump’s health care plan takes no time at all. Trump says he’d repeal Obamacare and replace it with “something terrific.”

The Republican House replacement plan, released by Speaker Paul Ryan in June, offers more specifics. To its credit, the proposal recognizes the need for a strong government hand in guaranteeing access to health care — even as it opens the window for more privatization, which adds complexity.

Gone would be the mandate requiring everyone to obtain health coverage. To discourage people from seeking coverage only after they’ve become sick, the proposal lets insurers charge what they may to those who hadn’t been buying insurance. The average Joe understands the risks of not maintaining coverage and of getting seriously ill. Right?

Unlike Obamacare, the House Republican plan sets no national standards for minimum coverage: Ordinary people will read, study and compare insurance policies. Perhaps.

The Republican plan takes away from older Americans. It would not lower but (SET ITAL) raise (END ITAL) the Medicare age to 67. This would unfortunately make the Medicare risk pool older and sicker. The proposal would also let private insurers charge a lot more than they do now to those not quite old enough for Medicare. Last but hardly least, it would move Medicare toward a voucher system.

The most serious flaw in the Republican plan is what’s missing: a price. If you’re not going to say how much it’s going to cost, why not throw in free facials on fur-lined couches?

Notably few Republicans these days call for repealing Obamacare without a replacement. A fully fleshed-out alternative would be most appreciated.

Clinton remains intent on keeping and making it better. Happily, the likelihood of her being in charge is rising. Health care mechanics is Clinton’s specialty, and that’s more good news for Obamacare.

Few are better prepared to preserve and

Hillary Clinton

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton participates in a round-table discussion with HIV/AIDS activists at her campaign headquarters in New York, in this May 12, 2016, file photo. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

When former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was asked last week if she has misled the American people on the issue of her failure to safeguard state secrets contained in her emails, she told my Fox News colleague, Chris Wallace, that the FBI had exonerated her. When pressed by Wallace, she argued that FBI Director James Comey said that her answers to the American people were truthful.

After Clinton recognized that even her strongest supporters doubted her statement, she attempted to walk it back. In doing so, she repeatedly lied again, but offered as an excuse a bizarre claim that she had “short-circuited” her answer.

Who knows what that means? She claimed that she and Wallace were talking over each other and her answer had been misunderstood and misconstrued. Yet, Clinton said that Comey exonerated her as being “truthful” to the public when in fact he stated that she had been truthful during her three-hour, closed-door, unrecorded interview with the FBI.

Clinton told a group of largely pro-Clinton journalists that she had short-circuited her remarks. Then, she acknowledged that Comey had only referred to whatever she told the FBI as being truthful. Then, she lied again, by insisting that she told the FBI the same things she has told the press and the public since this scandal erupted in March 2015.

But that cannot be so, because she has issued a litany of lies to the press and to the public, which the FBI would have caught. In her so-called clarifying remarks, she again told journalists her oft-stated lie about returning all work-related emails to the State Department. She could not have told that to the FBI because Director Comey revealed in July that the FBI found “thousands” of unreturned work-related emails on her servers, some of which she attempted to destroy.

On the state secrets issue, she has told the public countless times that she never sent or received anything marked classified. She could not have said that to the FBI, because even a novice FBI agent would have recognized such a statement as a trick answer. Nothing is marked “classified.” The markings used by the federal government are “confidential” or “secret” or “top secret.” When Director Comey announced last month that the FBI was recommending against indictment, he revealed nevertheless that his agents found 110 emails in 52 email threads containing materials that were confidential, secret or top secret.

The agents also found seven email chains on her servers that were select access privilege, or SAP. SAP emails cannot be received, opened or sent without knowing what they are, as a special alphanumeric code, one that changes continually, must be requested and employed in order to do so. SAP is so secret that the FBI agents investigating Clinton lacked access to the code.

Could Clinton have legally received, opened, stored or sent a secret or top secret email without knowing it, as she has claimed? In a word: NO.

That’s because, on her first day in office, Clinton swore under oath that she recognized her legal obligation to recognize state secrets and treat them according to law — that is, to keep them in a secure government venue — whether they are marked as secrets or not.

This past weekend, we learned how deadly the consequences of Clinton’s failure to secure secrets can be.

Last Sunday, Iran executed a scientist who sold Iranian nuclear secrets to the U.S. The secrets were eventually passed on to Secretary of State John Kerry for his use during the negotiations that led to the recent U.S.-Iran nuclear accord. But the sale of the secrets and the U.S.’s payments for them (several million dollars) were consummated under then-Secretary Clinton’s watch. The scientist was lured back to Iran, fearing harm to his family. Upon his return, he was arrested, tried and convicted of treason.

One email sent to Clinton, from Richard Morningstar, a former State Department special envoy for Eurasian energy, referred to this scientist as “our friend.” The fact that Clinton’s aides referenced this spying scientist as “our friend” shows a conscious awareness of their duty to hide and secure state secrets — his name and what he had done for the U.S. Yet, at the same time, Clinton put these state secrets at risk by having them sent to her via her nonsecure home servers. This “our friend” email was a top-secret email, which Clinton failed to keep secure. It was either one of the 110 that the FBI found on her servers or one of the work-related emails she did surrender.

Could this email have been used as evidence in the treason trial of the now-executed scientist?

That is not an academic question. Most of the intelligence community seriously mistrusts Clinton, as her recklessness has jeopardized their work. Some feared that many of their undercover colleagues were compromised or even killed due to Clinton’s emails.

Hillary Rodham Clinton has established a clear and unambiguous record of deception. Her deceptions are not about the time of day or the day of the week; they are about matters material to her former job as Secretary of State and material to national security.

Do you know any rational person who continues to trust her?

Last week, Hillary Clinton repeatedly lied again,

Incumbent Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and former Democratic congressman and governor Ted Strickland. (Photo: AP)

Incumbent Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and former Democratic congressman and governor Ted Strickland. (Photo: AP)

At an event for the AFL-CIO on August 8, Ted Strickland of Ohio said the passing of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia “happened at a good time” for the Democratic Party and the progressive labor agenda.

“A lot of average citizens out there don’t understand the importance of [the U.S. Supreme Court],” Strickland, a former governor and congressman told the audience. “I mean the death of Scalia saved labor from a terrible decision.”

“I don’t mean anyone ill but what happened, it happened at a good time,” Strickland said, which was followed by applause from the leftwing audience. Mr. Strickland, a longtime Clinton ally who was defeated in 2010 by Ohio Gov. John Kasich, is again running for office. He is challenging incumbent Republican Sen. Rob Portman, who has picked up significant labor support and running ahead in his Buckeye State bid. The race is rated “Leans Republican” on the PPD Senate Election Projection Model.

[brid video=”58417″ player=”2077″ title=”Ted Strickland “Death of Scalia Saved Labor Happened at a Good Time””]

At a recent event for the AFL-CIO

All six Baltimore police officers charged in the Freddie Gray case.

All six Baltimore police officers charged in the Freddie Gray case.

Six Baltimore police officers were fired as a result of a yearlong Justice Department investigation culminating in a scathing report released Wednesday. Further, the Baltimore police department agreed to negotiate court-enforceable reforms to stop what the report called routinely discriminating against blacks.

The federal investigation by the DoJ was launched after the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man whose neck was broken while unrestrained in the back of a police van in April 2015. The death, in which six police officers were charged and acquitted, sparked protests and riots.

Nevertheless, the report claims that Baltimore police officers make too many stops–mostly in poor, black neighborhoods–without legal justification and unlawfully arrest citizens when officers “did not like what those individuals said.” According to the report, black residents account for approximately 84% of stops, but they represent just 63% of the city’s population.

Further, they make up 95% of the 410 people stopped at least 10 times by officers from 2010-15, while during the same period no individuals of any other race were stopped more than 12 times. However, they do not address the level of crime committed by blacks in relation to other races and their percentage of the population.

baltimore-mayor-stephanie rawlings-blake

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake struggles to answer questions from Leland Vittert of FOX News regarding the crime boom.

“These violations have deeply eroded the relationship between the police and community it serves,” Vanita Gupta, the head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, said during a news conference alongside the Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Police Commissioner Kevin Davis.

Davis said six officers who committed egregious violations have been fired this year. The report, which includes interviews with residents, was a damning indictment not only of the city’s police officers’ tactics, but their motives and collective character.

“BPD teaches officers to use aggressive tactics,” the report reads. “BPD’s trainings fuel an ‘us vs. them’ mentality we saw some officers display toward community members, alienating the civilians they are meant to serve.”

Marilyn-Mosby-Baltimore

Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby. (Photo: Tanjug/AP)

State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, the city’s top prosecutor, said the report serves to “confirm what many in our city already know or have experienced firsthand.”

“While the vast majority of Baltimore City Police officers are good officers, we also know that there are bad officers and that the department has routinely failed to oversee, train, or hold bad actors accountable,” she said in a statement.

Six officers, three white and three black, were charged in the death of Mr. Gray, but the charges against all have been dropped. The development came after Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams found Lt. Brian Rice, the highest ranking officer charged in the Gray case, not guilty. Lt. Rice was the fourth officer to stand trial was tried after Judge Williams, who is black, previously acquitted Officers Edward Nero and Caesar Goodson Jr. of all charges. Another officer’s trial ended in a mistrial.

The charges were dropped before they could serve as an embarrassment to Ms. Mosby, who was slammed by and legal scholars observing the Gray case. Ms. Mosby, continues to face growing calls for disbarment over her conduct during the prosecution. Indeed, it was Ms. Mosby who was ordering the offensive policing in the area at the time of Gray’s arrest. A memo obtained in the wake of the investigation shows Ms. Mosby was encouraging the very tactics she now denounces.

Professor John F. Banzhaf, a law professor at George Washington University School of Law, filed a disciplinary complaint with the Maryland Bar Counsel that states Mosby violated multiple provisions of the Maryland Lawyer’s Rules of Professional Conduct (RPC), to include withholding exculpatory evidence, making inappropriate statements in public (to poison the jury) and continuing to prosecute a case after it has been established there is insufficient evidence to support a conviction.

Nevertheless, the Mayor Rawlings-Blake and Commissioner Davis promised the report would serve as a blueprint for sweeping changes to the department.

[caption id="attachment_43151" align="aligncenter" width="740"] All six Baltimore

[brid video=”58348″ player=”2077″ title=”Julian Assange on Seth Rich”]

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange suggested on Dutch television program Nieuwsuur that Seth Rich was murdered for leaking the DNC emails. He also seemed to indicate that Rich, who was murdered when he was shot in the back on the streets of D.C., was the source in the scandal.

The emails, which were released before the Democratic National Convention, exposed mass media corruption and collusion on behalf of the DNC against Sen. Bernie Sanders. Not a single journalist–including but not limited to those working at The Washington Post and Politico–have been fired or even reprimanded.

Mr. Rich, who essentially worked on voter outreach and registration, was allegedly killed in the course of a robbery, according to the DNC. However, as Mr. Assange noted, there is simply no evidence of a robbery. His wallet and cellphone were both recovered at the hospital where he was taken. While he was still alive when first responders arrived on the scene, he could not speak.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange suggested on Dutch

[brid video=”58347″ player=”2077″ title=”Hillary Clinton Ignores Reporters Questions About Father Of Orlando Shooter Attending Her Rally”]

Hillary Clinton refused to response to reporters’ questions about Omar Mateen’s father endorsing her and attending one of her rallies in a VIP spot. The father of Omar Mateen, the Orlando Islamic terrorist who killed 49 gay and lesbian people at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, attended a Clinton rally in Kissimmee, Florida.

Only the local NBC affiliate WPTV noticed Seddique Mateen standing behind Mrs. Clinton at the rally. Seddique, himself a terrorist and Afghanistan Taliban supporter, said he was invited to the rally and is a card-carrying member of the Democratic Party. He also said Mrs. Clinton would be “good for national security.”

Hillary Clinton refused to response to reporters'

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