New Donald Trump thread

Irishman · August 12, 2020

Trump calling someone a RINO is absolutely hilarious.

swordfish · August 13, 2020

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/08/13/trump-israel-united-arab-emirates-agree-establish-diplomatic-ties/3364243001/

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump announced Thursday the United Arab Emirates and Israel had agreed to reestablish diplomatic relations, a potentially historic agreement and a rare foreign policy win for the president during an election year.

As part of the deal, Israel agreed to halt its controversial plan to annex parts of the West Bank, land that Palestinians see as vital to their hopes of a future state.

A joint statement, released by the White House Thursday, said Israel and the United Arab Emirates "agreed to the full normalization of relations" and negotiators from the two countries would meet in the coming weeks to sign a series of bilateral agreements on everything from investment to tourism to security. The deal was finalized during a phone call Thursday between Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed, crown prince of Abu Dhabi.

"This is an icebreaker between these two countries," Jared Kushner, a top Trump adviser and the president's son-in-law, said in a rare appearance in the White House briefing room. Kushner said the agreement would allow flights from Abu Dhabi to Tel Aviv, which he said would “allow Muslims a real entree to come and visit Israel peacefully and to come and pray at the mosque with whatever frequency they deem appropriate.”

In a pair of tweets, Netanyahu called it a "historic day," while Bin Zayed highlighted Israel's agreement to "stop further Israeli annexation of Palestinian territories."

With the annexation plan paused, Israel will instead "focus its efforts now on expanding ties with other countries in the Arab and Muslim world," the joint statement says.

Trump officials and other experts said the agreement could usher in a broader rapproachement between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

"Israel’s broader acceptance in the region is good for Israel and good for American interests in the Middle East, and we hope that other countries will follow suit," the Israeli Policy Forum, a group focused on building support in the U.S. for a two-state solution, said in a statement Thursday.

The agreement makes the UAE only the third Arab nation to have active diplomatic ties with Israel. The other two are Egypt and Jordan.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said he welcomed the agreement.

"The UAE’s offer to publicly recognize the state of Israel is a welcome, brave, and badly-needed act of statesmanship," Biden said in a statement.

Biden said Israel's annexation plan "would be a body blow to the cause of peace," and said he strongly opposes it. "It would virtually end any chance of a two-state solution that would secure Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state and uphold the right of Palestinians to a state of their own."

There's "only one reason" Netanyahu would give up his annexation proposal right now, said Tamara Cofman Wittes, a senior fellow with the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, and former deputy assistant secretary of state in the Obama administration. "Because he expects he will not have an annexation-friendly president in DC soon, and he wants to maximize his gains," Wittes said in a tweet.

Asked how long Israel had agreed to suspend its annexation plan on the West Bank, Kushner refused to give a direct answer. He said he believed Israel would "not take action to move forward unless we have an understanding between America and Israel that it's the right action at the right time."

Kushner also said it would be “a while" for the agreements to be fully implemented. Israel "sees a lot of exciting opportunity in doing what's being done today with other Arab and Muslim countries," he added.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo argued the development could boost Trump’s Middle East peace plan, which had been widely seen as dead on arrival.

"I hope the Palestinians will see this for what it is ... a historic opportunity for the Middle East to be stable and peaceful," Pompeo told reporters traveling with him in Europe.

Trump's Middle East peace plan endorsed a "two-state" solution – an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. That has been a hallmark of Israeli-Palestinian peace initiatives for years, but Trump's commitment to it has been an open question.

Trump's proposal also essentially gave a green light to Netanyahu's plan to annex up to 30% of the occupied West Bank, and it sought to limit Palestinians to specific parts of East Jerusalem and leave Israel in sole charge of holy sites that are sacred to both sides.

Israel and the Arab Gulf countries have been quietly working to improve ties for years, according to Omar Rahman, a visiting fellow at Brookings Doha Center, a think tank.

But Arab leaders have been hesitant to go public for fear of alienating the Palestinians and inflaming the Israel-Palestinian conflict, he wrote in a 2019 analysis of the Israel-Arab Gulf state relationship. A 2002 Arab peace initiative envisioned that Arab countries would only normalize relations with Israel in exchange for returning territory Israel seized in 1967, among other concessions.

Some said this agreement represented an "abandonment" of the Palestinians.

"While normalization of relations between Israel and the Arab states is in itself to be desired, this abandonment of the Palestinians, will not serve the interests of peace, nor the real interests of Israel," said Jerome Segal, president of the Jewish Peace Lobby, an advocacy group based in Maryland. "Unfortunately, it will underscore the narrative of the Israeli right-wing, that any semblance of justice for the Palestinians can be ignored."

Ian Bremmer, president and founder of Eurasia Group, a global research and consulting firm, said the deal signaled a "new geopolitics" in the region and suggested that the Palestine issue was no longer a priority for Gulf States.

It is also "very bad news for Iran," Bremmer said in a tweet.

Mark Dubowitz, an Iran hardliner and executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, agreed.

“The peace deal between UAE and Israel is an extraordinary breakthrough that will bring even greater opportunities for regional peace and prosperity in its wake. The mullahs in Iran are the only losers,” Dubowitz said.

He said the agreement likely means that Israel and the UAE will deepen their intelligence, security and military cooperation – to the detriment of Iran.

"The agreement also paves the way for Bahrain, Oman, and eventually Saudi Arabia to deepen this cooperation and promote a more stable and peaceful Middle East," he said. "The regime in Iran is weakened by peace and stability elsewhere in the region. It means the Islamic Republic will be less able to export their destabilizing revolution.”

While they are sharply divided over the fate of the Palestinians, Israel and the Gulf states share their concern about Iran's growing influence in the region.

The rest of the US - "Yeah, but COVID"...........

DanteEstonia · August 13, 2020

46 minutes ago, swordfish said:

While they are sharply divided over the fate of the Palestinians, Israel and the Gulf states share their concern about Iran's growing influence in the region.

The Shi'ites (Iran is the only majority Shi'ite country, BTW) and the Sunnis (every other Muslim country) hate each other. It's a ploy to screw over rivals, not a nicety.

Muda69 · August 14, 2020

Mike Pence Comes Out Against Marijuana Banking Bill That Would Actually Save Taxpayers Money

https://reason.com/2020/08/13/mike-pence-comes-out-against-marijuana-banking-bill-that-would-actually-save-taxpayers-money/

Quote

Vice President Mike Pence took to Lou Dobbs Tonight on Fox News earlier this week to gripe that Democrats were attempting to include legislation related to marijuana and banking in the latest coronavirus relief bill.

"I heard the other day the bill mentions marijuana more than it mentions jobs," Pence said to Dobbs. "The American people don't want some pork-barrel bill coming out of the Congress when we've got real needs for working-class families."

Maybe he's trying to remind everybody that Joe Biden isn't the only vice president who's still resisting marijuana legalization?

There are two ironies here. First, the bill Pence is complaining about makes it possible for cannabis businesses to safely engage in banking in states where cannabis is legal, which helps those "working-class families" who rely on the cannabis industry. Second, the bill he's referring to will actually save taxpayers money, unlike much of the rest of this relief legislation.

The "Secure and Fair Enforcement Act of 2019," a.k.a. the "SAFE Banking Act," would allow legally operating cannabis businesses to have the same legal access to banks, loans, and deposit protections as other legal businesses. Because the sale and possession of marijuana are still forbidden by federal law, banks are reluctant to have any dealings with dispensaries and growers, even when they're legally operating within their home states.

This is not a pork-barrel bill. While the marijuana industry would love to have access to federal coronavirus relief, the SAFE Banking Act would allow them only to use banking services the way other businesses do. According to the Congressional Budget Office, passing the bill would actually reduce the federal deficit by $2-3 million dollars a year. This is small potatoes in the grand scheme of things (the federal deficit for 2020 stands so far at $2.8 trillion), but as Reason Foundation Policy Analyst Jacob James Rich observes, legal banking creates a framework for the expansion of the cannabis industry and also improves bookkeeping and revenue and income reporting. Both of those actions ultimately lead to more commerce and more revenue for the government:

Issues of underreported marijuana income are endemic across all municipalities and states that have regulated cannabis. This should come as no surprise since cash-based businesses tend to underreport their incomes by 50% in general, which might be even larger in the marijuana industry as suppliers transition from illegal to regulated markets. Additionally, employees of cash-based businesses tend to report less than 20% of their incomes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The best way to address these issues would be to allow marijuana businesses access to banking services, which provide much better records for accounting purposes.

The country is in a recession and experienced an unprecedented 32.9% drop in gross domestic product (GDP) for the second quarter of 2020—due largely to the coronavirus pandemic and the economic lockdowns many state and local governments implemented. While seeking to grapple with the pandemic, recession—and eventually needing to confront the nation's unsustainable spending, both conservative and liberal policymakers in Congress should consider provisions, like marijuana banking law reforms, that could help the economy, state and local governments, small businesses, and be a net positive to the federal budget.

Pence and Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R–Ky.) are using the SAFE Banking Act as a cudgel to accuse House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D–Calif.) of including "non-germane" content in coronavirus relief legislation. Back in May, when the House previously attempted to add the SAFE Banking Act to coronavirus legislation, McConnell took the same approach as Pence is taking now, mocking the bill for referencing "cannabis" more than it references "jobs," which is a cheap and lazy way to score points. The number of times a bill uses a particular word is not a good indicator of what the bill does.

The SAFE Banking Act passed the House last September, 321-103. Only one Democrat (Terri Sewell of Alabama) voted against it, while 90 Republicans supported it. Thanks to McConnell, it hasn't been taken up by the Senate, despite having the support of fellow Republican and Kentuckian Sen. Rand Paul, who tweeted in support of it just yesterday.

While there are myriad issues with the federal government's coronavirus relief efforts, allowing state-legal cannabis businesses to use banking services is not one of them.

Muda69 · August 14, 2020

Lawmakers: Postal changes delay mail-order medicine for vets: https://apnews.com/22b2d77511b94d33076f64b9f7577aa2

Quote

Policy changes to slow delivery at the U.S. Postal Service are taking a toll on military veterans, who are reporting much longer wait times to receive mail-order prescription drugs, according to Democratic senators.

In a letter Friday, the 31 senators take aim at new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a GOP fundraiser who took the post in June and has since imposed several operational changes that have led to mail backlogs across the United States. His cost-cutting measures have come as President Donald Trump rails against increases in mail-in voting and says he may hold up postal funding to impede the balloting in November.

The senators say they’ve heard from hundreds of veterans, as well as Department of Veterans Affairs staff, who cited weekslong mail delays, “causing veterans to miss doses of vital medications.”

The VA website offers assurances that prescriptions typically arrive within three to five days.

The lawmakers called on DeJoy to reassess the impact of the postal changes on veterans and urged him to work with VA Secretary Robert Wilkie to reduce delays. Veterans are an important constituency for Trump, broadly supporting him in 2016 and during his presidency.

“Access to prescription medications is especially integral during the COVID-19 pandemic when routine health care appointments may be delayed or cancelled,” according to the letter, which was led by Montana Sen. Jon Tester, the top Democrat on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. “No veteran should have to wonder when their antidepressant or blood pressure medication may arrive — and the effects can be devastating if doses are missed.”

VA fills about 80% of veteran prescriptions by mail. That translates to almost 120 million prescriptions a year, with deliveries arriving daily to about 330,000 veterans across the country.

Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, has been investigating the postal delays after he said DeJoy failed to provide answers about why they were happening. Peters is asking a dozen veterans organizations to provide him with information about wait times for mail-order prescriptions or other problems. He says some veterans have reported to him financial harm caused by late fees after their bills and payments took much longer to arrive in July and August.

Memos from post office leadership, obtained earlier this month by The Associated Press, detailed an elimination of overtime and a halting of late delivery trips that are sometimes needed to make sure deliveries arrive on time. One document said if distribution centers are running behind, “they will keep the mail for the next day.” Another said: “One aspect of these changes that may be difficult for employees is that — temporarily — we may see mail left behind or mail on the workroom floor or docks.”

Additional records obtained by the AP outline upcoming reductions of hours at post offices, including closures during lunch and on Saturdays.

“Those who gave so much to serve this country should be able to count on the nation’s Postal Service to deliver their medications in a timely manner,” the lawmakers wrote Friday.

So why does Mr. Trump hate veterans?

Howe · August 14, 2020

More FBI corruption.

Howe · August 14, 2020

swordfish · August 14, 2020

The first domino falls?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/kevin-clinesmith-fbi-trump-russia-john-durham/2020/08/14/2f579994-de26-11ea-809e-b8be57ba616e_story.html

A former FBI lawyer has agreed to plead guilty to altering an email that helped justify surveillance of a former Trump campaign adviser as part of the 2016 investigation into Russian interference in the election, according to his lawyer and a person familiar with the matter.

Kevin Clinesmith, who worked in the FBI general counsel’s office, is expected to admit he doctored an email so it said that former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page was not a source for the CIA, even though Page previously had a relationship with the agency. Relying on what Clinesmith had said, the FBI ultimately did not disclose Page’s relationship with the CIA as it applied to renew a warrant to monitor him as a possible agent of a foreign power.

The case is the first against someone involved in the Russia probe brought by U.S. Attorney John Durham, who was specially tapped by Attorney General William P. Barr to broadly look into how the FBI handled that matter.

Clinesmith is hardly a household name, and the allegations against him have been known since last year, when Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz issued a report excoriating the bureau for its handling of the applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for permission to monitor Page.

Court documents filed in the Clinesmith case do not allege a broader political or anti-Trump conspiracy within the FBI or Justice Department, and a person familiar with the matter said Clinesmith does not intend to describe any such efforts when he enters his plea. It was not immediately clear when Clinesmith would formally enter his plea.

President Trump brought up the expected plea at the beginning of an afternoon news conference, calling Clinesmith “a very corrupt FBI attorney who falsified FISA warrants in James Comey’s very corrupt FBI” and suggesting Durham would uncover more broad wrongdoing. FISA is an acronym for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the law under which the FBI was applying to monitor Page.

“That’s just the beginning, I would imagine, because what happened should never happen again,” he said.

Clinesmith had previously been found to have sent text messages indicating a dislike of Trump.

A lawyer for Clinesmith said: “Kevin deeply regrets having altered the email. It was never his intent to mislead the court or his colleagues as he believed the information he relayed was accurate. But Kevin understands what he did was wrong and accepts responsibility.” The expected plea was first reported by the New York Times.

The Justice Department revealed in May 2019 that Barr had tapped Durham to review the Russia probe, which Trump has derided as a “witch hunt” designed to undermine his campaign and presidency. Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut, has been interviewing witnesses on a range of topics, and increasingly his probe has become politically fraught.

Republicans are hopeful Durham will validate their long-held skepticism of the Russia probe, and they are growing inpatient with the pace of his work. Democrats, meanwhile, have asserted they fear Barr and Durham might be planning a late revelation of his findings in a way that might alter the presidential race.

To Democrats’ dismay, Barr has said he will not delay Durham’s probe because of the election. Justice Department policies call for prosecutors not to time steps in cases to affect elections, though Barr has said they do not apply to Durham’s investigation because those whose conduct is at issue are not political candidates.

He has stressed former vice president Joe Biden, Trump’s opponent in the 2020 race, is not under investigation, nor is former president Barack Obama.

On Thursday, Trump seemed to take a veiled swipe at his attorney general, telling Maria Bartiromo of Fox Business, “Bill Barr has the chance to be the greatest of all time, but if he wants to be politically correct, he’ll be just another guy, because he knows all the answers, he knows what they have, and it goes right to Obama and it goes right to Biden.”

Thursday evening, Barr appeared on Fox News and seemed to try to placate Republican concern over the pace of Durham’s probe, telling host Sean Hannity there would be “significant developments before the election.” He said one development would come Friday, but played down its significance.

“It’s not an earth-shattering development, but it is an indication that things are moving along at the proper pace, as dictated by the facts in this investigation,” Barr said. Barr has previously said that Durham is mainly focused on uncovering criminal wrongdoing but that he expects “there will be public disclosure in some form of report.”

Horowitz, the inspector general, had first exposed Clinesmith’s alleged wrongdoing in a 2019 report in which he examined the applications to surveil Page and other aspects of the Russia probe. He detailed a series of troubling errors that showed officials repeatedly emphasized damaging information about Page while downplaying any material that might show he should not be kept under surveillance.

Among the failures was what the bureau told the court about Page’s relationship with another U.S. government agency, and what an FBI lawyer relayed internally about that relationship. Horowitz’s report does not name the agency or the lawyer, but people familiar with the matter have said they are the CIA and Clinesmith.

The agency had told the FBI in August 2016 that it had a relationship with Page. That was before the bureau applied to monitor him. In the spring of 2017, when Page was under surveillance, he asserted publicly that he had worked in the past with the CIA. That might undercut the idea that he was an agent of a foreign power worthy of invasive monitoring.

In June 2017, an FBI agent working on the application to renew the warrant to surveil Page decided he wanted a “definitive answer” on whether Page had been a CIA source. Clinesmith, according to Horowitz’s report and people familiar with the matter, got in touch with a CIA liaison, and the liaison indicated in an email that Page “had or continued to have a relationship” with them. But when Clinesmith forwarded that email to the FBI agent, he added the words “not a source,” according to the report.

The agent then did not disclose Page’s relationship with the CIA to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, according to the report.

A criminal information — a court document filed Friday with the defendant’s consent — describes in detail the exchanges that led to Clinesmith’s planned plea.

In a series of instant messages with the FBI agent, Clinesmith wrote the CIA liaison “confirmed explicitly” that Page was never a source of theirs, according to the information. When the agent asked if they had that in writing, Clinesmith said yes and forwarded him the email with the altered phrase.

Clinesmith “did willfully and knowingly make and use a false writing and document,” the information said.

In 2018, then-Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), now the White House chief of staff, publicly named Clinesmith as the lawyer referred to only as “FBI Attorney 2” in a separate inspector general report documenting the FBI investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal email server.

Horowitz found that the lawyer, who was the primary FBI attorney assigned to the Russia probe in its early days, sent multiple instant messages indicating a strong dislike of Trump, including one saying “Viva le resistance.” Clinesmith insisted to Horowitz’s investigators that many of them were jokes and that he did not let his political views affect his work.

Meadows tweeted Friday, “One down, hopefully several more to go.”

Horowitz’s report concluded the bureau had an “authorized purpose” to initiate the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible coordination with the Trump campaign. Page was only a part of that inquiry, and Horowitz has said he did not find evidence of the problems there “infecting” the rest of the probe.

But Horowitz has said he was concerned the FBI did not reevaluate its examination of Page, particularly as agents failed to uncover wrongdoing and wondered among themselves why they were still investigating the former Trump campaign adviser.

Inspector general: FBI should have reassessed whether to continue investigating former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page

Durham has said he disagrees with some of Horowitz’s findings on the cause the FBI had to open the 2016 investigation.

In questioning witnesses, his investigators have shown particular interest in why the bureau kept pressing forward after it came to have doubts about the credibility of Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer whose work the FBI relied on in part to obtain the secret court order to surveil Page, people familiar with the matter said.

Investigators were particularly interested in doubts raised about Steele by one of his sources of information, the people said, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing case.

Barr told Fox News host Mark Levin this week that Durham has “a sprawling number of issues” to examine, though he did not elaborate.

“There are a lot of different conspiracy theories, and part of our responsibility is to look at all of these things so we can assure people that these various theories have been looked at, and so this takes some time,” he said.

perfect loops GIF

DanteEstonia · August 16, 2020

On 8/14/2020 at 7:41 AM, Muda69 said:

Lawmakers: Postal changes delay mail-order medicine for vets: https://apnews.com/22b2d77511b94d33076f64b9f7577aa2

So why does Mr. Trump hate veterans?

I don't know, let's ask @TrojanDad, who has a son who will eventually fall into this category.

swordfish · August 17, 2020

20 hours ago, DanteEstonia said:

I don't know, let's ask @TrojanDad, who has a son who will eventually fall into this category.

But on the other hand.....(FTA) the same article.....

In a statement, VA disputed the notion that mail-order prescriptions were arriving weeks late and pointed to guidance on its website encouraging veterans to request refills at least 10 days before they need it.

“VA always encourages veterans to order routine prescriptions in advance,” said VA spokeswoman Christina Noel. “When it comes to emergent prescriptions, VA either fills them onsite or uses commercial carriers to ensure timely delivery.” She said prescriptions delivered by the Postal Service are averaging less than three days for delivery, while 95% of those sent by UPS next-day service have been on time.

VA fills about 80% of veteran prescriptions by mail. That translates to almost 120 million prescriptions a year, with deliveries arriving daily to about 330,000 veterans across the country.

DanteEstonia · August 17, 2020

14 hours ago, TrojanDad said:

Win or lose in Nov, he won't be a veteran in 4 years unless something bad or unplanned happens

BTW, his pay increases have been far better under Trump than the guy before him.

The 3.1% in 2020 was the first time 3% increase had occurred in 10 years

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/2019/12/26/biggest-military-pay-raise-in-years-takes-effect-jan-1-check-out-the-complete-chart/

pretty lean during the Obama years....

https://militarypay.defense.gov/Pay/Basic-Pay/AnnualPayRaise/

Bribing the military is an old tool of dictatorial regimes.

swordfish · August 17, 2020

51 shot, 7 dead in NYC over the weekend......and it's Trump's fault (according to Cuomo) .... Certainly wouldn't want to point the finger at NYC Mayor Deblassio ....or himself.......

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/cuomo-blames-trump-for-new-york-crime-after-rejecting-federal-assistance

New York's tax base has fled both the city and the state en masse as rioters loot and shoot the Big Apple into a state of urban decay rivaling, if not surpassing, the days of Needle Parks and '70s crime sprees. This past weekend of urban America's summer of love included more than a 600% increase of shooting victims in New York City in comparison to this weekend last year. And who is to blame? According to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, it's President Trump.

"Now, the genesis of the crime you can have a great debate about, but the Trump economy, Trump not providing COVID relief, the George Floyd murder, Trump’s response to the George Floyd murder, race relations stress, Trump, there are good people on both sides, Ku Klux Klan,” Cuomo said of Trump's guilt in the matter. “So, I think Trump has some liability for the increase in the crime."

This would be rich coming from even the most sycophantic of Republicans looking for a last-minute scapegoat after months of actually working with the president. But Cuomo publicly rebuffed Trump's offer of federal law enforcement assistance.

"I also said that at this point, I think the situation can be managed by the state to the extent anything can be done," Cuomo said in late July of a conversation with Trump.

Apparently not. Arrests from the beginning of this year to Aug. 9 are down 39% from the same period of 2019. The result? An explosion of violent crime predominately targeting nonwhite New Yorkers, and the state's tax base chased out to Connecticut as robberies in the city's nicest neighborhoods triple.

Trump is not the reason the New York's law enforcement has been strong-armed into letting rioters take over the street. Trump is not the reason Cuomo's ban on business has resulted in cataclysmic economic losses. And Trump is absolutely not the reason woke white folks feel empowered to turn the greatest city in the world into their intersectional playground of abolishing private property rights and basic law enforcement so criminals can run rampant.

swordfish · August 24, 2020

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/23/politics/kellyanne-conway-george-conway-white-house-lincoln-project/index.html

Washington (CNN)White House counselor Kellyanne Conway announced Sunday evening she will leave her post at the end of the month while her husband, George Conway, said he was withdrawing from The Lincoln Project, both citing a need to focus on their family.

"I will be transitioning from the White House at the end of this month. George is also making changes," Kellyanne Conway said in a statement.

"We disagree about plenty but we are united on what matters most: the kids. Our four children are teens and 'tweens starting a new academic year, in middle school and high school, remotely from home for at least a few months. As millions of parents nationwide know, kids 'doing school from home' requires a level of attention and vigilance that is as unusual as these times."

George Conway tweeted minutes earlier that he was withdrawing from The Lincoln Project -- a group formed by anti-Trump Republicans -- to "devote more time to family matters."

Kellyanne Conway is scheduled to speak at this week's Republican National Convention, but it's unclear if she will still do so.

One of the Conways' high school-aged daughters has generated attention on social media about her family and their political views over the last several months.

The Sunday evening announcement marks an abrupt end to Kellyanne Conway's high-profile time in the White House where she earned a reputation as one of the President's fiercest -- and most controversial -- defenders. She landed her position in 2016 after becoming the first female campaign manager to win a presidential race.

But political tension with her husband had spilled into public view in recent years.

A Washington lawyer who was considered for multiple Justice Department posts early in Trump's tenure, George Conway quickly emerged as a prominent critic of the President.

He's previously said that Trump is "guilty" of being unfit for office, called for Congress to remove the "cancer" of Trump from the presidency and openly questioned the President's mental health.

His opposition took on new meaning when he joined The Lincoln Project.

Each of the Lincoln Project principals had aligned themselves with the "NeverTrump" movement in the 2016 election and have been outspoken critics of Trump and the Republican Party ever since.

Trump himself rebuffed George Conway last year, labeling him "Mr. Kellyanne Conway" in a tweet.

Earlier Sunday, George Conway had said in a tweet thread "I *may* be taking a Twitter hiatus soon" before listing out some of his critical op-eds about the President.

Still, Kellyanne Conway maintained in her statement Sunday that "the incredible men, women and children we've met along the way have reaffirmed my later-in-life experience that public service can be meaningful and consequential."

"For all of its political differences and cultural cleavages, this is a beautiful country filled with amazing people. The promise of America belongs to us all," Kellyanne Conway said.

She also stressed that the decision "is completely my choice and my voice."

"In time, I will announce future plans. For now, and for my beloved children, it will be less drama, more mama," she said.

I wonder if the feminists would ever drag Mr. Conway through the mud since he has forced the first female Presidential campaign manager to win an election out of her job to stay at home.......over politics......

Muda69 · August 26, 2020

Covington Catholic's Nick Sandmann: 'I Would Not Be Canceled'

https://reason.com/2020/08/25/nick-sandmann-rnc-spech-republican-convention-covington/

Quote

On January 18, 2019, a misleading viral video briefly transformed a Catholic high school teenager into the smirking face of racial aggression in Donald Trump's America—an erroneous judgment that quickly collapsed upon scrutiny. Today, that teenager, Nick Sandmann, was a featured speaker at the 2020 Republican National Convention.

"While the media portrayed me as an aggressor with a relentless smirk on my face, in reality the video confirms I was standing with my hands behind my back with an awkward smile that hid two thoughts: Don't further agitate the man banging a drum in my face, and never do anything to embarrass your family, your school, or your community," said Sandmann in his remarks.

Sandmann's summary of his ordeal was accurate. After attending a pro-life rally in Washington D.C., Sandmann's class decided to visit the Lincoln Memorial, where they encountered a group of provocateurs called the Black Hebrew Israelites. This group antagonized the boys for over an hour, but despite incessant taunts and insults from the black nationalists, neither Sandmann nor anyone else in his group took the bait. They were then approached by Nathan Phillips, a Native American activist, and his entourage. A video of this encounter made it appear like the Covington kids targeted Phillips for racial harassment, and that Sandmann specifically had chosen to face down the man and block his path. Phillips himself encouraged this false interpretation; in reality, the students were mostly just confused about why Phillips had decided to march through their midst while chanting and drumming. Sandmann didn't do anything wrong at all.

"I learned what happened to me had a name," said Sandmann, reflecting on his experience. "It was called being canceled. As in annulled. As in revoked. As in made void. Canceling is what's happening to people around this country who refuse to be silenced by the far left. Many are being fired, humiliated, or even threatened, and often the media is a willing participant."

Indeed, Sandmann is perhaps the most infamous victim of the media's penchant for rushing to judgment—particularly with respect to social media incidents that play to progressive journalists' political biases. Many well-known reporters, celebrities, and politicians tweeted obscene and hateful condemnations of Sandmann without knowing all the facts:

Reza Aslan, a scholar and television pundit on CNN, tweeted that Sandmann had a "punchable" face. His CNN colleague Bakari Sellers agreed. BuzzFeed's Anne Petersen tweeted that Sandmann's face reminded her of Brett Kavanaugh's—and this wasn't intended as a compliment. Vulture writer Erik Abriss tweeted that he wanted the kids and their parents to die. Kathy Griffin said the high schoolers ought to be doxxed. As a USA Today retrospective noted, "comedian Patton Oswalt called the students in the video 'bland, frightened, forgettable kids who'll grow up to be bland, frightened, forgotten adult wastes.'…Writer Michael Green, referring to Sandmann's apparent smirking at the Native American man, wrote: 'A face like that never changes. This image will define his life. No one need ever forgive him'…Huffington Post reporter Christopher Mathias explicitly compared the students to violent segregationists.

And while many mainstream outlets—including CNN and The Washington Post—ultimately conceded that they got the story wrong, several ideological publications stubbornly kept to their initial judgments.

Sandmann concluded his speech with an appeal for fairer media coverage and then donned his MAGA hat once again. It should surprise no one that someone in Sandmann's position would be pushed more firmly into Trump's orbit: That's what happens when the mainstream media positions itself as the opposition tribe, and then judges everyone outside that tribe as obviously and irredeemably racist on the thinnest of pretexts.

Muda69 · August 26, 2020

House lawmakers introduce bipartisan resolution to condemn 'dangerous' QAnon conspiracy theory

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/25/politics/house-resolution-qanon-theory/index.html

Quote

Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski and Republican Rep. Denver Riggleman on Tuesday introduced a bipartisan resolution in the US House to condemn QAnon, which has increasingly started to take hold in mainstream politics after originating as a fringe conspiracy theory on the internet.

The resolution "condemns QAnon and rejects the conspiracy theories it promotes," according to a draft released by Malinowski's office.

Although the legislation is largely symbolic, it does provide Republican lawmakers with an opportunity to denounce a movement that's increasingly gaining currency in their party and whose followers have been praised by President Donald Trump. A few Republican candidates for Congress have appeared to embrace the fringe conspiracy theory.

QAnon's prevailing conspiracy theories -- none based in fact -- claim that dozens of Satan-worshipping politicians and A-list celebrities work in tandem with governments around the globe to engage in child sex abuse. The group also peddles in conspiracies about coronavirus and mass shootings -- none grounded in reality. Followers also believe there is a "deep state" effort to annihilate Trump.

The FBI has labeled QAnon a domestic terror threat.

The bipartisan House resolution encourages the FBI and law enforcement to "strengthen their focus on preventing violence, threats, harassment, and other criminal activity by extremists motivated by fringe political conspiracy theories."

The resolution also urges Americans, regardless of party, to seek information from "authoritative sources, and to engage in political debate from a common factual foundation."

In a tweet Tuesday, Malinowski said their aim is a "fully bipartisan Congressional repudiation of this dangerous, anti-Semitic, conspiracy-mongering cult that the FBI says is radicalizing Americans to violence."

"Conspiracy theories that falsely blame secret cabals and marginalized groups for the problems of society have long fueled prejudice, violence and terrorism," he said in a statement Tuesday. "It's time for us to come together across party lines to say that QAnon has no place in our nation's political discourse."

Riggleman called QAnon and the conspiracy theories it promotes "a danger and a threat that has no place in our country's politics."

"I condemn this movement and urge all Americans to join me in taking this step to exclude them and other extreme conspiracy theories from the national discourse," Riggleman said the statement.

Last week, Trump embraced followers of the fringe group, praising them for supporting him and shrugging off its outlandish conspiracies, while Vice President Mike Pence dismissed the group when asked about it by CNN.

Another House Republican, Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, has also forcefully spoken out against QAnon, arguing that the conspiracy has no place in Congress. His office said Tuesday he will sign on as a cosponsor.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told Fox News last week that "there is no place for QAnon in the Republican Party" and claimed that Georgia GOP candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has a history of incendiary rhetoric and promoted QAnon, had disavowed the conspiracy theory.

This resolution just proves the Q theory. Only a devil worshiping politician would push and support such a thing.

swordfish · August 26, 2020

I wonder if congress would ever entertain investigating Black Lives Matter.......Or labeling them a "domestic terror threat".......since, well you know........

Howe · August 27, 2020

11 hours ago, Muda69 said:

Covington Catholic's Nick Sandmann: 'I Would Not Be Canceled'

https://reason.com/2020/08/25/nick-sandmann-rnc-spech-republican-convention-covington/

Nicholas Sandmann was a multi millionaire before the age of 18 as CNN and the Washington Post settled defamation lawsuits. ABC, CBS, The New York Times, Gannett and Rolling Stone are next. The liberal mainstream media is fake news and the scum of humanity.

Muda69 · August 27, 2020

swordfish · August 27, 2020

30 minutes ago, Muda69 said:

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/don-lemon-turns-anti-riot-now-that-they-poll-poorly-for-the-democrats

CNN’s Don Lemon is now anti-riot, but not because looting and violence are wrong.

The cable news host who bills himself as a serious, objective journalist opposes the anti-police riots now because he is worried that the destruction and mayhem will hurt the Democratic Party’s electoral chances in the fall.

How is that for a principled stand?

Lemon’s about-face on the righteousness of rioting came Tuesday evening as his CNN colleague Chris Cuomo warned that the anti-police violence in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where two rioters have been shot and killed, is “a Rorschach test for where this country is.”

Cuomo, who appears also to have experienced a change of heart on the issue of anti-police rioting due to bad polling numbers, added, “I think it probably represents the biggest threat to the Democratic cause.”

Lemon agreed, saying Cuomo took the words right out of his mouth.

“Kenosha is a Rorschach test for the entire country, and I think this is a blind spot for Democrats,” said Lemon. “I think Democrats are ignoring this problem or hoping that it will go away, and it's not going to go away.”

“But guess what?” the cable anchor added. “The rioting has to stop. Chris, as you know and I know, it's showing up in the polling. It's showing up in focus groups. It is the only thing — it is the only thing right now that is sticking.”

Ah, the rioting must stop because it polls poorly for the Democrats, not because people are getting hurt and livelihoods destroyed. Got it.

This is such a farcical change of attitude for these two partisan operatives. Lemon himself defended anti-police riots in May, soft-pedaling them as the “mechanism for a restructure of our country or for some sort of change.” Lemon’s idiot co-worker, Cuomo, also attacked critics of the riots in June, claiming that “too many see the protests as the problem.”

“And please,” Cuomo added at the time, “show me where it says that protesters are supposed to be polite and peaceful. Because I can show you outraged citizens are the ones who have made America what she is and led to any major milestones.”

The word "peaceably" is right there in the text of the First Amendment.

Cuomo continued his attacks on those who have been critical of the rioters, claiming in July that they are “ignoring the reality and … are picking on the aberrations for bad reason.”

But that was then. This is now. Now, polling and focus group results show that, actually, razing cities and towns to the ground is bad for the business of getting elected.

“The ongoing violence in American cities is an increasing vulnerability for Dems,” communications professional and Bulwark publisher Sarah Longwell said on Aug. 24. “It’s popping in my focus groups as well. Americans were originally on the side of protesters. But as the unrest continues, attitudes are shifting. It’s the one R talking point starting to stick.”

She added, “This is why Trump is leaning so hard into the LAW AND ORDER message. It’s starting to resonate — and beyond Trump’s base. And my guess is you’ll hear a lot about violence at the convention as R’s want to make sure they connect it to Democratic lead cities and not Trump’s America.”

This is why two CNN anchors who have previously defended the anti-police riots have changed their minds suddenly. It is because the destruction may hurt the Democratic Party at the polls.

Looks like the Democrats are starting to come to their senses.......

Muda69 · August 28, 2020

Trump's War on Economic Freedom

https://reason.com/2020/08/26/trumps-war-on-economic-freedom/

Quote

If Donald Trump's sister is right that he "has no principles," he does at least have a few enduring instincts. Perhaps the most persistent is the president's conviction that American greatness is threatened by voluntary economic exchange, the most powerful engine of peace and prosperity in human history.

Each of us has a fundamental right to the fruits of our labor, which includes the right to exchange the money we earn for products and services. When governments respect that right, mutually beneficial transactions replace zero-sum interactions that forcibly transfer resources from losers to winners. The value of those voluntary transactions does not depend on where buyers and sellers happen to be located.

Trump's rejection of those principles pervades the second-term agenda he unveiled this week. He promises not only to "create 10 million new jobs in 10 months"—which itself betrays a basic misunderstanding of the president's powers and the way a market economy works—but also to "keep jobs in America" through "Made in America" tax credits and "fair trade deals that protect American jobs."

Even keeping jobs in America is not enough to satisfy Trump, who also wants to dictate who can fill those jobs. He would use immigration law to "prohibit American companies from replacing United States citizens with lower-cost foreign workers."

Notwithstanding his vociferous rejection of the "socialism" he ascribes to the Democrats, Trump believes the government must manipulate the economy, which means overriding the choices Americans otherwise would make, to ensure his preferred outcomes, down to details as mundane as the location of air conditioner and washing machine factories. In his mind, trade is not a right to be respected but a process to be managed by politicians.

Ignoring the principle of comparative advantage as well as the self-evident benefits of transactions that both parties freely choose, Trump believes Americans should not be using oil, pharmaceuticals, or medical supplies produced in other countries. To "end our reliance on China" and "bring back 1 million manufacturing jobs," he would provide tax benefits to companies that "bring back jobs from China" and deny federal contracts to businesses that "outsource to China."

Trump's obsession with stopping Americans from buying Chinese goods is at odds not only with his party's former support of free trade but also with its avowed resistance to tax increases. Taking into account retaliatory tariffs as well as the taxes Trump imposed directly, his trade war with China is costing American consumers an estimated $57 billion a year, on top of the costs borne by U.S. farmers and manufacturers caught in the crossfire.

In contrast with his positions on, say, abortion or gun rights, Trump's beef against free trade is longstanding and seemingly sincere. No matter what pointy-headed economists say, he knows in his gut that money spent on foreign goods is wasted, that immiserating autarky is the key to American greatness, and that something nefarious is going on whenever imports from a particular country happen to exceed exports.

"You only have to look at our trade deficit to see that we are being taken to the cleaners by our trading partners," Trump wrote two decades ago in a book that likened peaceful economic exchange to warfare. "If we didn't trade," he averred two years ago, "we'd save a hell of a lot of money."

When Trump ran for president in 2016, the Republican platform likewise bemoaned "massive trade deficits," even while paying lip service to "open markets." This year the party decided to forgo a platform, saying it stands for whatever Trump has in mind.

Whatever that is, we can be pretty sure it will ignore a wise warning from the 2016 GOP platform. "We are the party of a growing economy that gives everyone a chance in life, an opportunity to learn, work, and realize the prosperity freedom makes possible," the Republicans said then. "Government cannot create prosperity, though government can limit or destroy it."

Lysander · August 28, 2020

20 hours ago, swordfish said:

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/don-lemon-turns-anti-riot-now-that-they-poll-poorly-for-the-democrats

CNN’s Don Lemon is now anti-riot, but not because looting and violence are wrong.

The cable news host who bills himself as a serious, objective journalist opposes the anti-police riots now because he is worried that the destruction and mayhem will hurt the Democratic Party’s electoral chances in the fall.

How is that for a principled stand?

Lemon’s about-face on the righteousness of rioting came Tuesday evening as his CNN colleague Chris Cuomo warned that the anti-police violence in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where two rioters have been shot and killed, is “a Rorschach test for where this country is.”

Cuomo, who appears also to have experienced a change of heart on the issue of anti-police rioting due to bad polling numbers, added, “I think it probably represents the biggest threat to the Democratic cause.”

Lemon agreed, saying Cuomo took the words right out of his mouth.

“Kenosha is a Rorschach test for the entire country, and I think this is a blind spot for Democrats,” said Lemon. “I think Democrats are ignoring this problem or hoping that it will go away, and it's not going to go away.”

“But guess what?” the cable anchor added. “The rioting has to stop. Chris, as you know and I know, it's showing up in the polling. It's showing up in focus groups. It is the only thing — it is the only thing right now that is sticking.”

Ah, the rioting must stop because it polls poorly for the Democrats, not because people are getting hurt and livelihoods destroyed. Got it.

This is such a farcical change of attitude for these two partisan operatives. Lemon himself defended anti-police riots in May, soft-pedaling them as the “mechanism for a restructure of our country or for some sort of change.” Lemon’s idiot co-worker, Cuomo, also attacked critics of the riots in June, claiming that “too many see the protests as the problem.”

“And please,” Cuomo added at the time, “show me where it says that protesters are supposed to be polite and peaceful. Because I can show you outraged citizens are the ones who have made America what she is and led to any major milestones.”

The word "peaceably" is right there in the text of the First Amendment.

Cuomo continued his attacks on those who have been critical of the rioters, claiming in July that they are “ignoring the reality and … are picking on the aberrations for bad reason.”

But that was then. This is now. Now, polling and focus group results show that, actually, razing cities and towns to the ground is bad for the business of getting elected.

“The ongoing violence in American cities is an increasing vulnerability for Dems,” communications professional and Bulwark publisher Sarah Longwell said on Aug. 24. “It’s popping in my focus groups as well. Americans were originally on the side of protesters. But as the unrest continues, attitudes are shifting. It’s the one R talking point starting to stick.”

She added, “This is why Trump is leaning so hard into the LAW AND ORDER message. It’s starting to resonate — and beyond Trump’s base. And my guess is you’ll hear a lot about violence at the convention as R’s want to make sure they connect it to Democratic lead cities and not Trump’s America.”

This is why two CNN anchors who have previously defended the anti-police riots have changed their minds suddenly. It is because the destruction may hurt the Democratic Party at the polls.

Looks like the Democrats are starting to come to their senses.......

What violence?

image.jpeg.e7e0088626b76cc9515c62f3ff9976be.jpeg

swordfish · August 28, 2020

A Poll On “Fiery But Mostly Peaceful” Because “I Gots To Know….”* | Ethics Alarms

On another note -

https://theburningtruth.us/2020/08/28/u-s-marshals-find-dozens-of-missing-children-in-georgia-breaking911/?fbclid=IwAR0bZySpSC0I76CrmYQzIKfc1BYkF5AhUY9h5OvwvWJJIv9qTuJQ20JUMXY

U.S. Marshals Find DOZENS of Missing Children in Georgia – Breaking911

Washington, DC – The U.S. Marshals Service Missing Child Unit, in conjunction with the agency’s Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and Georgia state and local agencies, led a two-week operation in August in Atlanta and Macon, Georgia, to rescue endangered missing children.

“Operation Not Forgotten” resulted in the rescue of 26 children, the safe location of 13 children and the arrest of nine criminal associates. Additionally, investigators cleared 26 arrest warrants and filed additional charges for alleged crimes related to sex trafficking, parental kidnapping, registered sex offender violations, drugs and weapons possession, and custodial interference. The 26 warrants cleared included 19 arrest warrants for a total of nine individuals arrested, some of whom had multiple warrants.