Ladies, just in case you weren't listening ....

Quote:

I have questions: since she was selected to speak at the RNC, that means the Republican Party is endorsing these people AND their views, right? Her views are gonna piss off a lot of women. Is this the message the party wants to put out there? Obey your husband? Or does the RNC not know the contents of the speech beforehand?

RNC speaker: The husband in a ‘godly household’ should get ‘final say’ on who to vote for
BySky Palma

Anti-abortion activist Abby Johnson spoke at the Republican Convention this Tuesday night, which means that her social media history is now up for grabs. Sure enough, Twitter sleuths found posts from recent months showing that Johnson has some outdated views on who should be allowed to vote in elections.

“What is the most controversial thing you believe?” Johnson asked on Twitter back in May.


“I would support bringing back household voting,” Johnson replied to her own tweet. “How anti-feminist of me.”

One Twitter user asked Johnson, “But what happens when the husband is a Republican and the wife is a Democrat or vice versa?”

Johnson replied that they “would have to decide on one vote.”

“In a Godly household, the husband would get the final say,” Johnson added.

Johnson was employed by Planned Parenthood for eight years before become an anti-abortion activist and founding “And Then There Were None,” an organization that supports the career transitions of individuals working in facilities that perform abortions.

Watch her RNC speech below:

"But so I think, I think it would be, I think it would be very, very, I think we'd have a very, very solid, we would continue what we're doing, we'd solidify what we've done, and we have other things on our plate that we want to get done." ~ Trump, on his plans for a second term

Judge voids 50,000 absentee ballot requests in Iowa county
The ruling marks an initial victory for Trump's challenges to absentee voting procedures in three counties in Iowa, which is expected to be a competitive state.

A judge ordered an Iowa county Thursday to invalidate 50,000 requests for absentee ballots, agreeing with President Donald Trump's campaign that its elections commissioner overstepped his authority by pre-filling them with voters' personal information.

Judge Ian Thornhill issued a temporary injunction ordering Linn County Auditor Joel Miller to notify voters in writing that the forms should not have been pre-filled with their information and cannot be processed. Instead, they'll have to either fill out new requests for absentee ballots or vote on Election Day.

The ruling marks an initial victory for Trump's challenges to absentee voting procedures in three counties in Iowa, which is expected to be ...

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According to Laura Ingraham, Robert Trump died of COVID-19

https://twitter.com/AmericanVirgins/sta ... 9073882113

Meanwhile, it appears that all FBI records relating to Robert Trump have been destroyed.

https://qr.ae/pNYn6C

Yale psychiatrist: Trump’s convention lies and fear-mongering may “provoke a lot of violence”
"Donald Trump has infected followers with his symptoms," Dr. Bandy X. Lee told Salon
IGOR DERYSH

A Yale psychiatrist who has sounded the alarm on President Donald Trump's mental health for years warns that the party's attempt to stoke fear in the electorate at the Republican National Convention could lead to violence against the president's opponents.

The convention featured an unprecedented number of false claims and downright lies, unhinged conspiracy theories, and hours of racial fear-mongering. Bandy X. Lee, a forensic psychiatrist at Yale School of Medicine who taught at Yale Law School, told Salon that the stoking of fear was so coordinated that pushing back could provoke a violent response.

Lee has studied violence for years. She is the author of ...

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"Just think of your life before the pandemic came in -- it was the best it's ever been." ~ Trump

Senior intelligence officials will no longer brief Congress in person on foreign threats to the 2020 election
Ellen Nakashima

Senior intelligence officials will no longer brief Congress in person on foreign interference in the 2020 election. Instead, they will inform lawmakers of threats in writing, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said Saturday.

The decision, made with Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe’s assent, arose out of concerns that briefings to lawmakers have resulted in leaks of classified information, an ODNI official said.

But the change threatens to undermine the community’s pledge to be transparent with Congress and the public at a time when three foreign adversaries, including Russia, are seeking to influence the American political process.

“I believe this approach helps ensure ... that the information ODNI provides the Congress ... is not misunderstood or politicized,” Ratcliffe wrote in letters to congressional leadership, including the chairmen and vice chairmen of the House and Senate intelligence panels.

Read the director of national intelligence’s letters to Congressional leaders

“It will also better protect our sources and methods and most sensitive intelligence from additional unauthorized disclosures or misuse,” he wrote. The development was first reported by CNN.

Democrats, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), immediately cried foul.

“This is a shocking abdication of its lawful responsibility to keep the Congress currently informed, and a betrayal of ...

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This guy is nucking futs ...

McConnell inexplicably claims that Democrats want to tell Americans 'how many hamburgers you can eat'

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) asked Americans to "support Republican Senate candidates across the country and re-elect my friend, President Donald Trump" during the Republican National Convention on Thursday night — including making an ominous (and false) threat that Democrats are prepared to take away your hamburgers if you don't.

McConnell has been a bit of a reluctant ally — and even occasional foe — of the president's, even initially announcing he had no plans to talk at the convention before walking the statement back. But speaking from the verdant fields of Kentucky, McConnell stressed the importance of the election for conservative voters. Democrats "want to tell you when you can go to work, when your kid can go to school," McConnell claimed. "They want to tax your job out of existence, and then send you a government check for unemployment."

He added that Democrats "want to tell you what kind of car you can drive, what sources of information are credible, and even ....

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Justice Dept. Never Fully Examined Trump’s Ties to Russia, Ex-Officials Say

As Donald Trump seeks re-election, major questions about his approach to Russia remain unanswered. He has repeatedly shown an unexplained solicitousness toward Russia and deference toward Vladimir Putin, even as Russia, on Putin’s orders, has been systematically trying to subvert American democracy – and the democratic systems of allies of the United States. He has refused to criticize or challenge the Kremlin’s increasing aggressions toward the West, or even raise with Putin the issue of Russia paying bounties to Afghanis who kill American soldiers. Michael S. Schmidt writes that one reason we still do not have answers to questions about the scope of Trump’s ties to Russia, and how these ties have influenced his perplexing attitude toward Russia and Putin, is because Rod J. Rosenstein, the former deputy attorney general, maneuvered to keep investigators from completing an inquiry into whether the president’s personal and financial links to Russia posed a national security threat.

As Donald Trump seeks re-election, major questions about his approach to Russia remain unanswered. He has repeatedly shown an unexplained solicitousness toward Russia and deference toward Vladimir Putin, even as Russia, on Putin’s order, has been systematically trying to subvert American democracy – and the democratic systems of allies of the United States. He has refused to criticize or challenge the Kremlin’s increasing aggressions toward the West, or even raise with Putin the issue of Russia paying bounties to Afghanis who kill American soldiers. The president has also rejected the intelligence community’s finding that Russia interfered in 2016 to help him win the election – and he is rejecting the spy agencies’ evidence-based conclusion that Russia is trying to sabotage this year’s election again on his behalf.

Michael S. Schmidt writes in the New York Times that the truth about Trump ties to Russia may not be known any time soon because the Justice Department secretly took steps in 2017 to narrow the investigation into Russian 2016 election interference and any links to the Trump campaign, according to former law enforcement officials, keeping investigators from completing an examination of President Trump’s decades-long personal and business ties to Russia.

Schmidt adds:



SOURCE

there's an article by this title on the NYT website but I don't have access to it

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/justice-dept-never-fully-examined-trump-s-ties-to-russia-ex-officials-say/ar-BB18wjoG

New COVID-19 cases surge in U.S. Midwest, weekly deaths down nationally
I'm not going to reopen my shuttered restaurant. I'd rather feed children in need
The New York Times logoJustice Dept. Never Fully Examined Trump’s Ties to Russia, Ex-Officials Say

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department secretly took steps in 2017 to narrow the investigation into Russian election interference and any links to the Trump campaign, according to former law enforcement officials, keeping investigators from completing an examination of President Trump’s decades-long personal and business ties to Russia.

More---> https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... r-BB18wjoG

Anything to get reelected...

Trump inflames tensions and justifies violence -- and there's a reason why
Stephen Collinson

For Donald Trump's America-on-fire campaign strategy to work, he needs violence to boil in cities right up until Election Day, or at least for enough voters to believe the nation is spiraling into an abyss of chaos and savagery.

That brought the extraordinary spectacle Monday of a president -- who would by tradition call for calm at a time of civic unrest -- justifying violence by his supporters and all but excusing a pro-Trump vigilante who allegedly killed two protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin. At the same time, in the White House briefing room, he minimized police brutality against African Americans that sparked a summer of protest and agony in the Black community as examples of officers who sometimes "choke."

Trump's inflammatory behavior on Monday came on a day that could come to be seen as critical for the destiny of the White House after Democratic nominee Joe Biden launched a counterattack, warning no one was safe in "Trump's America" -- which he said was hobbled by disease and fear.

It also unfolded on the eve of Trump's visit to Wisconsin, which local leaders pleaded with him to cancel to avoid exacerbating tensions. Instead, the President gave every indication that he plans to use the trip to troll his critics with his claims of a nation on the edge from a platform in a key swing state.

Dismissing the notion that his appearance at a raw moment might increase violence, the President said, "it could also increase enthusiasm and it could increase love and respect for our country."

Trump's provocative appearance represents a bet that a hardline "law and order" campaign can drown out the pandemic that he has badly mismanaged, that has killed more than 180,000 Americans and on Monday crossed the 6 million mark in known infections. No one doubts that protests and violence rattled US cities from Minnesota to Wisconsin and Washington, DC, to Chicago this summer -- amid a national epiphany on race caused by the death of George Floyd.

The spectacle of a "strong" President vowing no tolerance for rioters may be an attractive one to many voters. But the situation is far more complicated than the idea that left-wingers and "terrorists" who support Biden are going on the rampage. There is evidence that far-right groups and other extremists are also involved. Most protests have been peaceful and violence has often been sparked by opportunists. And even cities like Portland, Oregon, are not perpetually in flames as Trump claims. But the President is presenting a simpler and misleading narrative.

"They want to destroy our country. They're going to destroy our suburbs," he said during an appearance in the White House briefing room mislabeled as a "news conference," not even bothering to hide his goal to scare voters in affluent White areas around swing state cities into believing that Biden would bring political unrest that would shake America to its foundations.

Trump's day of fury reflects how he has now firmly settled on a campaign of demagoguery to save his presidency.

In a characteristic piece of projection, he accused Biden -- who earlier condemned violence from all sources -- of using Mafia talking points and Democrats of stirring disorder with "dangerous rhetoric."

On Tuesday he portrayed protests at the White House after his convention speech on Thursday night -- in which Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and his wife were harassed -- as if they were among the most flagrant examples of disorder in modern US history.

"It was a terrible, terrible thing to witness," Trump said. His alarmism was expressed in a rant that resembled a highlight reel of conservative media buzz words and conspiracy theories including "radicals," "maniacs," "Antifa," "looters," "arsonists" and "fascism."

In a classic authoritarian tactic, Trump also vastly over stated the extent of lawlessness and political violence, then promoted himself as the kind of strongman needed to restore order. And he tipped his hand over his new campaign tactic by opening his appearance with a boast about the stock market and a perfunctory mention of the pandemic that brought the country to its knees. Then it was on to his real topic: "left-wing political violence."

In one sense, Trump's gambit has already succeeded. He has ...

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We need to talk about that plane load of people in black outfits AND GEAR, people in the shadows, the "investigation" now being done as we speak, and even Ingraham's talk of conspiracy theories.
He's lost his last marbles.

Bob Giusti

Over the weekend, Republican Steve Schmidt, who ran John McCain's 2008 campaign for president, was interviewed on MSNBC.
In response to a very general question regarding the Trump Presidency, Mr. Schmidt spoke for two solid minutes and gave the most insightful and brutally honest response of what the Trump Presidency has done to our great country.

“Donald Trump has been the worst president this country has ever had. And, I don't say that hyperbolically. He is. But he is a consequential president. And, he has brought this country in three short years to a place of weakness that is simply unimaginable if you were pondering where we are today from the day where Barack Obama left office. And, there were a lot of us on that day who were deeply skeptical and very worried about what a Trump presidency would be. But this is a moment of unparalleled national humiliation, of weakness.”

"When you listen to the President, these are the musings of an imbecile. An idiot. And I don't use those words to name call. I use them because they are the precise words of the English language to describe his behavior. His comportment. His actions. We've never seen a level of incompetence, a level of ineptitude so staggering on a daily basis by anybody in the history of the country whose ever been charged with substantial responsibilities.”

"It's just astonishing that this man is president of the United States. The man, the con man, from New York City. Many bankruptcies, failed businesses, a reality show, that branded him as something that he never was. A successful businessman. Well, he's the President of the United States now, and the man who said he would make the country great again. And he's brought death, suffering, and economic collapse on truly an epic scale."

"And, let's be clear. This isn't happening in every country around the world. This place. Our place. Our home. Our country. The United States. We are the epicenter. We are the place where you're the most likely to die from this disease. We're the ones with the most shattered economy. And we are, because of the fool that sits in the Oval Office."

Huh?

I guess he is hallucinating now.

Not at all. His imaginary friend is real.

Trump Used Stand-In for Kenosha Business Owner Who Refused Photo Op With Him
Chris Walker

Abusiness in Kenosha, Wisconsin, which had fire damage after uprisings in the city following the police-perpetrated shooting of Jacob Blake in August, was featured by President Trump to the media as he toured damage in the city on Tuesday.

Trump stood alongside John Rode III, whom he introduced as the “owner” of Rode’s Camera Shop, one of the businesses in the building that was affected by fire. Yet, Rode is not the current owner of that business — Tom Gram is.

Gram, who was originally asked by Trump’s people to stand alongside the president during the photo op, had refused to do so. “I think everything he does turns into a circus, and I just didn’t want to be involved in it,” Gram said, explaining why ...

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They're already making excuses for Trump's performance during the debates. And they haven't even happened yet. (Does this mean that Fox isn't toady enough anymore?)

Trump Campaign Criticizes Picks for Debate Moderators: Some Are ‘Clear Opponents’ of the President
By Josh Feldman

The Joe Biden and Donald Trump campaigns had very different reactions to the moderators announced for all four debates this fall.

Fox News’ Chris Wallace, C-SPAN’s Steve Scully, and NBC News’ Kristen Welker will be moderators for the first, second, and third presidential debates, respectively, and USA Today’s Susan Page will moderate the vice presidential debate.

The Biden campaign reacted in a statement saying, “As Joe Biden has said for months — without farcical antics — he looks forward to participating in the debates set by the commission, regardless of who the independently chosen moderators are.”

The Trump campaign, meanwhile, made it clear they’re not exactly happy with the moderators, saying some of them care “clear opponents” of the president and would basically be a “teammate” for Biden:

“These are not the moderators we would have recommended if the campaign had been allowed to have any input. Some can be identified as clear opponents of President Trump, meaning Joe Biden will actually have a teammate on stage most of the time to help him excuse the radical, leftist agenda he is carrying. One thing is sure: Chris Wallace’s selection ensures that Biden will finally see him face-to-face after dodging his interview requests. That is, if Biden actually shows up.”


Early last month the Trump campaign put out a lost of proposed debate moderators that included a number of Fox Newers (notably excluding Wallace) and some reporters and anchors from other news outlets.

Wallace recently called out Biden for not coming on Fox News Sunday for an interview after his marathon face-off with the president. Trump, of course, hasn’t been shy in going after Wallace…

SOURCE

live links at source

Eric Trump Takes The Fifth As New York AG Tightens Criminal Noose

Eric Trump, the president’s son, is taking the Fifth Amendment and refusing to be interviewed by the New York State Attorney General.

The Washington Post reported:

In the filing, signed by a deputy to Attorney General Letitia James, the attorney general’s office said it is investigating Trump’s use of “Statements of Financial Condition” — documents Trump sent to lenders, summarizing his assets and debts.

The filing asks a New York state judge to compel the Trump Organization to provide information it has been withholding from investigators — including a subpoena seeking an interview with the president’s son Eric.

….

The filing said that Eric Trump had been scheduled to be interviewed in the investigation in late July, but abruptly canceled that interview. The filing says that Eric Trump is now refusing to be interviewed, with Eric Trump’s lawyers saying “we cannot allow the requested interview to go forward … pursuant to those rights afforded to every individual under the Constitution.”

Eric Trump is an official in the Trump Organization. The most recent filing from the New York State Attorney General, which is a different investigation from the one being conducted by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance is proof that there is a very real possibility that Trump and his kids could soon be facing criminal charges for bank fraud.

Trump lost multiple court decisions last week in his bid to keep his tax returns out of the hands of prosecutors. The walls are closing in on the Trump family, as what appears to be a business built on decades of fraud could land multiple members of the Trump family in prison.

https://www.politicususa.com/2020/08/24 ... dment.html

Nate Silver is always interesting.

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/20 ... -forecast/

Fox News Mocked For Blasting Through Disastrous Trump Poll Numbers At Warp Speed
Evan Brechtel

While some polls showed Democratic nominee Joe Biden's lead over President Donald Trump narrowing slightly after the controversial Republican National Convention, most signs are showing that Trump's claim that Biden is secretly socialist is proving insufficient.

Conservative network Fox News' own polling shows that Biden leads by nine points in Arizona, eight points in Wisconsin, and four points in North Carolina—with better favorability ratings than Trump among multiple demographics in these states. Trump won all of these states in 2016.

Notably, Biden has twice as ...

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