“I’m not saying the military’s in love with me,” Donald Trump said on Monday. “The soldiers are. The top people in the Pentagon probably aren’t because they want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy.”
Trump Is Throwing Billions at the Pentagon But Wants Us to Believe He’s a Dove | The Smirking Chimp
To boost book sales, celebrity journalist Bob Woodward concealed a tape of Donald Trump that contained information about the pandemic that may have prevented thousands of deaths. This isn’t hyperbole. This is peak 2020 insanity.
Bob Woodward Made Himself Complicit in Trump’s Coronavirus Crime Against Humanity
The presidential election is just 56 days away, and as Donald Trump struggles to gain ground in key states, he is increasingly relying on deceptively altered media to bend reality in his favor.
AG BARR RIDES SHOTGUN FOR THE DON (ODT)
The DOJ wants to substitute the U.S. government for Trump as the defendant in the suit brought by author E. Jean Carroll, who has accused the president of rape.
Justice Department Jumps In To Help Trump In Lawsuit Filed By Rape Accuser | HuffPost Australia
The outcome, as things, stand, promises to be traditional in geopolitics and health. Old divisions and inequalities will be reasserted with marked savagery. The rich and affluent will get first dibs and first jabs; the impoverished will have to wait their turn. And the virus will continue to do its work.
Vaccine Nationalism, Big Promises and Warped Speed – » The Australian Independent Media Network
What’s odd is RTA the Russian News agency is calling the research into this a hoax. Why would that be? Is it because bikers tend to be Trumpsters
It was a 10-day celebration of big bikes and inalienable American freedom for which more than 400,000 people descended on a South Dakota town. But, three weeks on, the 80th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is feared to have been a “super-spreader event”, with doctors recording scores of coronavirus cases linked to it.
Sturgis biker rally ‘was super-spreader event’
Iowa City and Ames endure worst surge in the country as cases have risen sharply across the whole midwest
coronavirus cases have risen sharply across the whole midwest in recent weeks putting the region at the forefront of America’s pandemic. The region accounted for six of the eight states with the highest number of new Covid-19 cases by early September even as infections fell in other parts of the US previously among the worst hit.
North Dakota has the largest number of positive cases per capita in the country over the past 14 days. Iowa and South Dakota are enduring the highest percentage increases. Missouri has seen more than 1,300 new cases a day on average over the past week.
Iowa refuses to close bars and require masks as Covid-19 cases surge in cities | US news | The Guardian
Marie Antoinette reportedly said “Let them eat cake” when told the peole had no bread. Trump moment came when he said he understood the cop who shot Blake 7 times in the back “he chocked” “it was like missing a three foot putt”. Marie went to the Guillotine will Trump? (ODT)
All points well-taken. But we can go deeper here. The president’s “three-foot putt” analogy doesn’t just reveal the sordid worldview of an impulsive man. Trump’s vile equivalence between a golf putt and police violence has so much more to tell us about the bubble of enormous wealth that has always enveloped him — and so many others of his super-rich class.
Trump’s Metaphor of ‘Missing a Putt’ for Police Killings says everything about our spoiled Plutocrats
Hitler simply burnt the books sacked anyone that didn’t support or might not support the Nationalist version of history and it’s symbols in any Institution throughout the country. Trump is just cutting funding.(ODT)
Trump has claimed systemic racism is not a problem in America. Trump’s comments come in the middle of a nationwide reckoning on race sparked by protests against racism and police violence. Suggest a correction
Trump Threatens To Yank Funding From Schools That Teach 1619 Project | HuffPost Australia
Trump dodged the draft ever since he’s disparaged the Military to boost his own ego Dr Mary Trump hit the nail on the head. (ODT)
In formed observers, like the Washington Post’s Paul Sonne, pointed out that the president included defunding Stars and Stripes in the proposed budget he presented to Congress earlier this year.
Not ‘Under My Watch’ Claims Trump After Pentagon Push to Destroy Stars and Stripes Happened… Under His Watch | Common Dreams News
The Trump administration has raised concerns with Australia’s competition regulator about proposed legislation that would force powerful US tech companies Google and Facebook to pay publishers for news.
Trump administration concerned about Australia’s tech giant crackdown
Biden Had 2 sons that served not a single Trump has ever served for his country. Trump turned his back on the Kurds a proud act of a leader and chief took their oil and left the troops in place. (ODT)
US President Donald Trump confronted a crisis on Friday that could undercut badly needed support in the military community for his re-election campaign as he sought to dispute a report that he privately referred to US soldiers killed in combat as “losers” and “suckers”.
US election 2020: Trump angrily denies report he called fallen soldiers ‘losers’ and ‘suckers’
Unlike Heather Heyer’s killer, Kyle Rittenhouse, the Illinois teenager who allegedly crossed state lines with an assault rifle to confront Black Lives Matter protesters in Wisconsin and shot three people, has become a conservative celebrity. Tucker Carlson praised him as a patriot willing to stand up where Democratic cities wouldn’t—“17-year-olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no one else would,” he said. An incoming Republican member of Congress shared a meme hailing Rittenhouse for having “fought back.” A Christian fundraising site raised a quarter of a million dollars for Rittenhouse’s legal defense. And on Monday, Trump broke his silence on the episode by asserting that Rittenhouse had acted in self-defense. “He was in very big trouble,” Trump said. “He probably would have been killed.” This time, he didn’t equivocate; the very fine people are only on his side now.
Donald Trump and His Allies Are Trying to Rewrite the History of Charlottesville – Mother Jones
Trump is the Swamp. He’s Quick Sand (ODT)
That is the big picture that we have to keep in mind because, as we approach the November election, we’re getting into extremely dangerous territory when a sitting president is willing to corrupt the entire federal bureaucracy to assist him in getting reelected.
Trump Is Corrupting the Entire Federal Government to Help His Reelection | Washington Monthly
Murdoch media globally have tried to deflect this by declaring Biden is senile? What on earth then is Trump’s?
Trump’s “Dark Shadows” interview with Laura Ingraham was scary. Former FBI Agent and nonverbal communications expert Joe Navarro shows why narcissists become even more dangerous when they fail. Navarro is the author of the best seller Dangerous Personalities, about narcissistic personality disorder. According to the former FBI profiler, when the narcissist faces public failure there are fourteen actions we can expect:
Trump’s “Dark Shadows” Comments: Narcissists Become More Dangerous When They Fail | Crooks and Liars
Some of Trump’s responses were so out of bounds that Ingraham appeared to subtly help him rephrase his comments to avoid any controversy that might hurt him in the election.
Trump was so unhinged on Fox News, Laura Ingraham tried (and failed) to coach him through it – GOOD
During an interview aired on Fox News Monday night, Trump told host Laura Ingraham that he knew of a super-scary, extra-secret plot uncovered by “somebody” who saw a plane full of “thugs” traveling from some unknown city to disrupt the Republican National Convention ― which was largely a remote event. “We had somebody get on a plane from a certain city this weekend. And in the plane, it was almost completely loaded with thugs, wearing these dark uniforms, black uniforms, with gear and this and that,” he said.
Trump Repeats Conspiracy Theory About Super-Scary Antifa-Laden Planes | HuffPost Australia
There has never been a moment in American history when its democracy has come under a more profound attack than the presidency of Donald Trump. Many have suggested that America faces a moment of crisis this November, but with the U.S. Senate Select Committee concluding that Trump’s team was – and most likely remains – unwitting agents of Russia, that crisis appears to be arriving ahead of schedule.
Russia involved in Trump campaign — again
Another indication of how Donald Trump could care less how many people die due to his malfeasance on protecting lives from the Covid-19 pandemic.” —Chuck Idelson, National Nurses United
‘White House Cover-Up’: Covid-19 Task Force Reports Withheld From Public Reveal Trump Knew of Threats as He Spread Lies | Common Dreams News
“The CDC, changing its Covid-19 testing guidelines, no longer recommends testing for most people without symptoms, even if they’ve been in close contact with someone known to have the virus. Many doctors are puzzled by the agency’s change. Some doctors and infectious disease experts were more than puzzled; they were angry. One factor that makes this disease so dangerous is its capacity for asymptomatic spread. Perhaps as many as 40 percent of those infected show no symptoms. To get a handle on how and where the virus is spreading requires testing.
Rotten in Denmark: The Centers for Disease Control stopped Recommending Testing and Tracing
He’s certainly more preWW2 German than he was ever American. The Germans are more American than America is at present. (ODT)
More Trump voters said they were loyal to President Donald Trump than they were to the Republican Party, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll.
The GOP Is Very Much Trump’s Party, Poll Shows | HuffPost Australia
The US 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 Donald Trump’s decades-long personal and business ties to Russia.
US Justice Department shielded Trump from Russia probe, ex-officials say
But law enforcement officials never fully investigated Trump’s own relationship with Russia, even though some career FBI counterintelligence investigators thought his ties posed such a national security threat that they took the extraordinary step of opening an inquiry into them.
Within days, the former deputy attorney-general Rod Rosenstein curtailed the investigation without telling the bureau, all but ensuring it would go nowhere.
“#Unfit” might not be potent enough to fully indict Trump, and it could arrive too late for anyone to listen to its warning. If nothing else, though, it allows Gartner and his peers to be secure that they made their best effort. “I am more confident in my diagnosis of Donald Trump than I have been of any other diagnosis, because I have more information,” he says. That we can believe.
“#Unfit” delivers a Trump diagnosis we all know and warns of dire consequences for ignoring it | Salon.com
The final night of the 2020 RNC, according to Los Angeles Times reporter Stephen Battaglio, had “an average audience of 21.6 million viewers” — whereas former Vice President Joe Biden’s acceptance speech at the DNC attracted 24.6 million viewers.
Trump’s Republican National Convention was a ratings flop | Salon.com
This is 26-year old Anthony Huber, one of the victims shot dead last night in #Kenosha during the protests and chaos that ensued. His partner says he was the smartest, kindest, loving man she ever knew. She told me he was an amazingly talented skater, went semi pro in his early teens. They’re honoring his memory by asking people to skate in his honor at Basik Skate Park in Kenosha. #Wisconsin #SkateForHuber #RIP
This is 26-year old Anthony Huber, one of the victims shot dead last night in #Kenosha during the protests and chaos that ensued. His partner says he was the smartest, kindest, loving man she ever knew. She told me he was an amazingly talented skater, went semi pro in his early teens. They’re honoring his memory by asking people to skate in his honor at Basik Skate Park in Kenosha.
https://theintercept.com/2020/08/28/kyle-rittenhouse-violent-pro-trump-militias-police/
The Republican National Convention, dominated by veneration of Donald Trump and bleak warnings of the dangers of socialism, has completely ignored the climate crisis, an omission that has disturbed some conservatives who warn the party risks being left behind by voters.
Republicans at the Convention Did Not Lay Out a Plan for Climate Change—Much Less Acknowledge It – Mother Jones
Few would doubt that China poses challenges for America, but we can no longer pretend that American policies are always just, or that China is the evil empire. China used to provide a major market for American agriculture and the auto industry; now it doesn’t. President Trump determined that. China used to work closely with WHO sharing their massive data on Covid-19; now they don’t. President Trump determined that. China could offer critical help in mounting an effective response to climate disaster, but that would make no sense to Trump, who sees the world as a collection of races not keeping their places. Connect the dots. At a time when no one can escape pandemic or global heating, policy may matter more than ideology. If a “Democratic” nation revokes emission standards, everyone will suffer. If a “Communist” country develops effective pandemic responses, everyone benefits so long as nations share ideas and data. Traditionally, liberals tend to embrace these kinds of common-sense strategies. Why should anyone opt for race over reason just because someone uttered the word “China”?
When is China-Bashing Racist?
FACT CHECK
The problem is that Trump’s rhetoric on those issues, like his rhetoric on almost all issues, is a complete fantasy with no grounding in reality. Let us just consider four planks of his personal platform.
How Trump brought us 11.1% Unemployment, lost Manufacturing Jobs, worsened Trade Deficits and Kowtowed to China
President Trump has a woman problem: they have turned from him in droves since the last election. So who better to tout his credentials, and gloss over his flashes of overt misogyny than his wife? Surveys have shown she is the most effective of all the Trump surrogates at shaping the way people – especially, crucially, independent women – think of her husband. Which is why Trump’s campaign officials have been trying to coax her out of the shadows, urging her to take more of an active role.
There’s something odd about watching Donald Trump’s women spruik for him
MAFIA IN THE WHITE HOUSE
The White House has warned The Washington Post that it’s collecting a “dossier” on one of its journalists after he reported that President Donald Trump’s private business, the Trump Organization, has charged taxpayers at least $900,000. The chilling, Kremlin-esque threat was made in response to a story Thursday by Pulitzer Prize-winning Post reporter David Fahrenthold, Josh Dawsey and Joshua Partlow that the Trump Organization has charged the Secret Service steep fees for agents guarding the president during his multiple trips to his own properties.
White House Amassing Reporter ‘Dossier’ After Story On Trump’s Business Charging Taxpayers $900,000 | HuffPost Australia
The empathy of a Psychopath (ODT)
The estate of Leonard Cohen is not happy. US President Donald Trump has taken the most cherished song in Cohen’s catalogue for his political purposes. Hallelujah, a source of divine spiritual uplifting was played at Republican National Convention.
Trump’s misuse of ‘Hallelujah’ shows song cannot remain the same in US
He killed people on the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin on Tuesdaay night as Republicans were fueling the white-hot furnace of fear and hate at their convention from Hell. And, once again, we must sort through the surreal emotions that leave us both shocked and not at all surprised.
Our Long-Dreaded Fear is Here | The Smirking Chimp
When Tucker Carlson set off a firestorm of criticism on Wednesday — by describing a 17-year-old Trump supporter who opened fire on protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Tuesday, killing two, as a well-meaning kid who decided he “had to maintain order” in the Democrat-run state because “no one else would” — the Fox News host was surfacing an idea that had already spread widely on the far-right.
Trump supporters defend teen who killed protesters in Kenosha
GOP Convention Shows Footage From Spain To Warn About ‘Biden’s America’ | Crooks and Liars
Image from: YouTube Screenshot You didn’t expect anything truthful from the Republican National Convention, did you? On the first night, as one of their videos played, voiceovers forecasted the evil violent unrest that awaits should Joe Biden be elected president. The images that flashed across the screen, however, weren’t of unrest in Biden’s America. In fact, one of them wasn’t even a photo of America at all. It was a photo of fires burning in a street in Spain.
GOP Convention Shows Footage From Spain To Warn About ‘Biden’s America’ | Crooks and Liars
If Joe Biden promises to cancel all student debt, he will defeat Donald Trump in a landslide. Everyone who is serious about removing Trump from office should pressure him hard to do it right now.
If Joe Biden Wants to Win Big, He Should Pledge to Cancel Student DebtRather than motivate a large untapped base that would give it a sure win, Biden and the Democrats are playing a risky game and going for a miniscule margin of victory that relies on a small number of persuadable Republicans.
They aren’t acting like they think democracy is at stake. They aren’t acting like beating Trump is the world-historical task they say it is. Rather, what’s most important is beating him with a voter base that won’t push the party too hard to make things better for working-class and poor people. It’s worth it to risk losing, to win that way.
The most important thing is not really to win but, to quote Joe Biden, to make sure “no one’s standard of living will change, nothing [will] fundamentally change.”
It’s the year 2020, and anything could happen. Joe Biden could very well win this election. But if he follows the path he’s on, it won’t be because of anything he’s done.
Give us something to vote for, Joe. Cancel student debt.
It’s these situations that have increased because of Trump not despite him (ODT)
In response to the violence wrought by law enforcement, that night protesters took to the streets in Kenosha and protests continued over the next few days. Police officers fired tear gas and rubber bullets and protesters shot off fireworks and set fire to police cars and other property. Then on Tuesday, a group of white armed vigilantes shot three protesters, killing two. It should go without saying that their actions were illegal. Sadly, it probably also goes without saying that they were met with less police violence than Blake faced for turning his back on some officers.
What Conservatives Really Mean When They Call for Law and Order – Mother Jones
The moral case for egalitarian reforms is overwhelming. Obscene wealth disparities are a product of political and economic power, not virtue or extraordinary talent.
The Triumph of Monopoly Capitalism is Hurting American Workers’ Life Expectancy | The Smirking Chimp
Take him to court he has SCOTUS protection says Trump (ODT)
The chairman of a Democratic-led US House of Representatives subcommittee announced on Tuesday an investigation into whether Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s appearance at the Republican National Convention breaks federal law and regulations.
Democratic US lawmaker says he is probing Pompeo’s Republican convention appearance
Trump’s other big promises from the 2016 campaign — a grand infrastructure overhaul not seen since the 1950s and the replacement of Obamacare with an even better health care program — haven’t materialized.
The ‘I Alone Can Fix It’ President Asks America For A Do-Over | HuffPost Australia
Video on social media appears to show officers in Kenosha shoot at Jacob Blake seven times as he leaned into vehicle
Wisconsin deploys national guard amid protests over police shooting | US news | The Guardian
Under pressure from the Trump White House on the eve of the Republican National Convention, the Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization yesterday for a potential therapeutic against COVID-19. But mainstream news coverage of the announcement largely ignored objections from public health experts that critical data needed to justify this move from the FDA is missing.
Media outlets ignore objections from public health experts on FDA emergency use authorization of convalescent plasma | Media Matters for America
Twitter slapped President Donald Trump with a violation notice on a tweet he sent out Sunday regarding ballot drop boxes for the upcoming election. The flag appeared about five hours after Trump tweeted.
Donald Trump Slapped With Violation Notice By Twitter After Tweeting About Ballot Drop Boxes
For all his volatility and incompetence, then, Trump is the default choice — even the safe choice — for a critical mass of white voters and business owners. The deaths of nearly 170,000 Americans to COVID-19 won’t change that, in part because the victims are disproportionately Black, Indigenous, people of colour and poorer workers. With all this history on his side, Trump will be hard to beat even if he fights fair, which he almost certainly will not do. The Democrats are in for a desperate fight.The Conversation
Trump could win again (without cheating)
Trump walks Alone: Former US Allies Britain, France, Germany join Russia and China in Forcefully Rejecting Trump Iran Sanctions
Trump walks Alone: Former US Allies Britain, France, Germany join Russia and China in Forcefully Rejecting Trump Iran Sanctions
America’s postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, conceded on Friday he had implemented recent changes that led to mail delays at the United States Postal Service (USPS) but said he would not reverse the decision to remove mail equipment ahead of the election.
USPS chief concedes changes causing delays but won’t restore sorting machines | US news | The Guardian
Apart from legal trouble, what Bannon, Manafort, Flynn, Cohen, Stone, Gates and Papadopoulos have in common is the president
‘Conmen, grifters and criminals’: why is Trump’s circle so at odds with the law? | US news | The Guardian
Jim Acosta tells Anderson Cooper that Trump and Steve Bannon have indeed been in touch recently, contrary to Trump’s claims otherwise.
Trump: ‘Bannon? Haven’t Seen Him.’ Bannon: ‘LOL Saw Him A Few Weeks Ago’ | Crooks and Liars
a familiar talking point for Trump, who returns often to the theme of how much he juiced “the greatest economy that we’ve had in our history, the best.” Donald Trump’s economic record is not as stellar as he would have you believe. Donald Trump’s economic record is not as stellar as he would have you believe.Credit:AP None of those historical claims are true. In his first three years, he wrought slightly less employment growth than his predecessor did, the same gross domestic product growth, slightly better stockmarket growth and the same wage growth. Before the pandemic, Trump’s economic record was unremarkable for a 21st-century president, even though he was able to enact a large amount of the agenda he ran on in 2016, and even though he enjoyed what by one measure was more supportive policy from Congress and the Federal Reserve than any president in a generation.
Turning a blind eye: Trump missed the chance to make the economy great
President Donald Trump’s campaign, ordered by a federal court judge in Pennsylvania to back up its claims of fraud in the state’s vote-by-mail system, has documented only a handful of cases of election fraud in recent years — none of which involved mail-in ballots. The revelation, which came in the form of a partially redacted 524-page document produced by the Trump campaign last week, undermines the claim by Trump team operatives that mail-in ballot fraud is a grave risk to Pennsylvania voters.
Trump Team Fails to Cite Mail-in Election Fraud Cases in Court
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