July 28, 2020

Georgia GOP Senator's Campaign Claims 'Anti-Semitic' Ad Was Just A Graphic Design Gaffe

https://twitter.com/jbendery/status/1288101364896342016

Sen. David Perdue’s campaign says it was "an unintentional error" by graphic designers that resulted in distorting an ad that shows Jon Ossoff, who is Jewish, with a bigger nose.


A GOP senator’s reelection campaign team was accused of playing off anti-Semitic tropes with a digital attack ad involving a manipulated image of his 2020 opponent.

Sen. David Perdue’s (R-Ga.) campaign has now removed from Facebook the ad, below, that showed Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff, who is Jewish, with a bigger nose:





https://www.huffpost.com/entry/gop-senator-facebook-ad-jewish-opponent_n_5f1fd3dfc5b638cfec494990?io

July 22, 2020

Trump closed the Chinese Consulate in Houston. There's a fire in the courtyard

https://twitter.com/KPRC2Tulsi/status/1285772143788261376

This video shared with us by a viewer who lives next to the Consulate General of China in #Houston shows fire and activity in the courtyard of the building.
DETAILS SO FAR: https://click2houston.com/news/local/2020/07/22/houston-fire-and-police-responding-to-reports-of-documents-being-burned-at-consulate-general-of-china/


CHANGSHA, China — The United States has ordered China to close its consulate general in Houston "in order to protect American intellectual property and American's private information," State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said Wednesday.

Beijing vowed to retaliate against the order, calling it "an unprecedented escalation" in a broader conflict between the world's two biggest economies, which now encompasses trade and technology, freedom of the press and religion, and the coronavirus and the race for a vaccine.

“The U.S. has far more diplomatic missions and staff working in China. So if the U.S. is bent on going down this wrong path, we will resolutely respond,” Wang Wenbin, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, told reporters Wednesday.

The State Department did not elaborate on the alleged violations, but Ortagus suggested that China had violated the Vienna Convention, which says diplomats must "respect the laws and regulations of the receiving State" and "have a duty not to interfere in the internal affairs of that State."


https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/china-vows-to-retaliate-after-us-orders-closure-its-consulate-in-houston/2020/07/22/41e5c6ea-cbf1-11ea-99b0-8426e26d203b_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_china-us-445am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans

July 21, 2020

Trump threatens to veto military bill over Confederate bases, forcing a showdown with Republicans

President Trump formally threatened to veto a $740 billion military spending bill Tuesday hours before the House passed the legislation by a veto-proof majority, heralding a potential showdown between the White House and Congress over a bipartisan effort to rename several Army posts that commemorate Confederate generals.

The president’s threat — and House lawmakers’ response — is a moment of reckoning for Senate Republican leaders, who must now decide whether to allow votes on key bipartisan modifications to their version of the annual defense bill that might incur a similar veto warning, or attempt to tailor their legislation to stay closer in line with Trump’s wishes.

In a statement, the White House listed several provisions of the House’s legislation that the president considers objectionable, chief among them a directive to the Pentagon to rename the 10 bases within a year. While avoiding mention of the Confederacy, White House advisers nevertheless called the order “part of a sustained effort to erase from the history of the Nation those who do not meet an ever-shifting standard of conduct” and an attempt “to rewrite history and to displace the enduring legacy of the American Revolution with an ever-shifting standard of conduct.”

Trump’s move, which had been expected, failed to prevent the Democratic-controlled House from approving its version of the defense bill four hours later, in a vote of 295 to 125. But while the veto threat was focused solely on the House bill, it also presents a challenge for the Republican-controlled Senate, where lawmakers are debating a parallel measure ordering similar changes to bases named for Confederate officials, albeit under a three-year timeline.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/trump-veto-confederate-bases/2020/07/21/9a45fa88-cb7b-11ea-91f1-28aca4d833a0_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-low_defensebill-537pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans

July 21, 2020

Trump's Request of an Ambassador: Get the British Open for Me

By Mark Landler, Lara Jakes and Maggie Haberman
July 21, 2020
Updated 7:05 p.m. ET



LONDON — The American ambassador to Britain, Robert Wood Johnson IV, told multiple colleagues in February 2018 that President Trump had asked him to see if the British government could help steer the world-famous and lucrative British Open golf tournament to the Trump Turnberry resort in Scotland, according to three people with knowledge of the episode.

The ambassador’s deputy, Lewis A. Lukens, advised him not to do it, warning that it would be an unethical use of the presidency for private gain, these people said. But Mr. Johnson apparently felt pressured to try. A few weeks later, he raised the idea of Turnberry playing host to the Open with the secretary of state for Scotland, David Mundell.

In a brief interview last week, Mr. Mundell said it was “inappropriate” for him to discuss his dealings with Mr. Johnson and referred to a British government statement that said Mr. Johnson “made no request of Mr. Mundell regarding the British Open or any other sporting event.” The statement did not address whether the ambassador had broached the issue of Turnberry, which Mr. Trump bought in 2014, but none of the next four Opens are scheduled to be played there.

Still, the episode left Mr. Lukens and other diplomats deeply unsettled. Mr. Lukens, who served as the acting ambassador before Mr. Johnson arrived in November 2017, emailed officials at the State Department to tell them what had happened, colleagues said. A few months later, Mr. Johnson forced out Mr. Lukens, a career diplomat who had earlier served as ambassador to Senegal, shortly before his term was to end.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/21/world/europe/trump-british-open.html?referringSource=articleShare

July 17, 2020

Welcome to the next phase of rising authoritarianism

https://twitter.com/waltshaub/status/1284064720820023296?s=21



Welcome to the next phase of rising authoritarianism. Anyone who says the republic can survive four more years of this is lying to him/herself or lying to you.


Oregon Public Broadcasting confirms tweets today that federal officers in camouflage but no agency identification or badges, driving unmarked non-government rental cars, are grabbing protestors off streets in Portland and not talking w local authorities



Walt Shaub
and Mary Trump are right. Our Democracy won’t survive 4 more years of Trump.

July 12, 2020

You Trump skells didn't think we noticed? New Lincoln Project ad

https://twitter.com/therickwilson/status/1282108422494867458?s=21



https://twitter.com/bettemidler/status/1282119814325174272?s=21


https://twitter.com/projectlincoln/status/1282121964895731712?s=21

July 10, 2020

Facebook considers political-ad blackout ahead of U.S. election

https://twitter.com/bpolitics/status/1281669291625140224



I've reached my free article limit on Bloomberg so can't post content. This would put a crimp in the Trump campaign's shenanigans but they'd probably find a way around it.

July 10, 2020

A plasma shot could prevent coronavirus. But feds and makers won't act, scientists say

It might be the next best thing to a coronavirus vaccine. Scientists have devised a way to use the antibody-rich blood plasma of COVID-19 survivors for an upper-arm injection that they say could inoculate people against the virus for months.

Using technology that’s been proven effective in preventing other diseases such as hepatitis A, the injections would be administered to high-risk healthcare workers, nursing home patients, or even at public drive-through sites — potentially protecting millions of lives, the doctors and other experts say.

The two scientists who spearheaded the proposal — an 83-year-old shingles researcher and his counterpart, an HIV gene therapy expert — have garnered widespread support from leading blood and immunology specialists, including those at the center of the nation’s COVID-19 plasma research.


But the idea exists only on paper. Federal officials have twice rejected requests to discuss the proposal, and pharmaceutical companies — even acknowledging the likely efficacy of the plan — have declined to design or manufacture the shots, according to a Times investigation. The lack of interest in launching development of immunity shots comes amid heightened scrutiny of the federal government’s sluggish pandemic response. There is little disagreement that the idea holds promise; the dispute is over the timing. Federal health officials and industry groups say the development of plasma-based therapies should focus on treating people who are already sick, not on preventing infections in those who are still healthy.

https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2020-07-10/injection-prevent-coronavirus-feds-manufacturers-fail-to-act

July 8, 2020

" We have to be prepared for Trump losing" - Laura Ingraham at dinner party

“WE HAVE TO BE PREPARED FOR TRUMP LOSING”: AS CHAOS ENGULFS TRUMP CAMPAIGN, INGRAHAM, OTHER LOYALISTS LOOK FOR THE NEXT THING


BY GABRIEL SHERMAN

JULY 8, 2020

A couple of weeks ago, Roger Ailes’s widow, Elizabeth, invited Fox News host Laura Ingraham and a few others for dinner at her $36 million Palm Beach home. The political conversation around the table was melancholy, a person familiar with the gathering recalled. With COVID cases hitting record highs and Donald Trump’s poll numbers going in the opposite direction, guests agreed that Trump is probably incapable, or unwilling, to take steps to turn things around. “We have to be prepared for Trump losing,” Ingraham told her dinner companions, according to the source. Perhaps anticipating that Fox News could pivot in a post-Trump media environment, Ingraham said she’s been in talks to take over for Rush Limbaugh, who recently revealed his Stage 4 lung cancer might force him off the radio. “Laura’s really interested in Rush’s job,” a person close to Ingraham said. (Ingraham did not respond to a request for comment.)

In the days since the Palm Beach dinner, Trump’s political standing has slipped further. On Tuesday, Trump’s favorite pollster, Scott Rasmussen, released a poll showing Trump at 39% approval, the lowest number Rasmussen has ever recorded for Trump. Trump’s popularity among Republicans dropped four points since mid-June, to 80%. The dismal polling is one reason why visible cracks in Trump’s Republican firewall are increasing. Staunch Trump ally Lindsey Graham, facing a tough reelection, broke with Trump this week over the president’s Twitter attack on Black NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace and Trump’s defense of the Confederate flag. Yesterday aides to Senators Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski said the three senators would not be attending the Republican convention next month in Jacksonville (if the convention even takes place, as Trump has backed away from his plan to deliver an indoor convention speech in front of 15,000 people).

At a moment when he needs to calm restive Republicans, Trump may antagonize them further by commuting Roger Stone’s 40-month sentence. According to sources, Trump has told people he wants to commute Stone’s sentence before Stone reports to prison on July 14. Rumors swirled over the weekend that Trump would announce it on Sunday night. Sources say the West Wing is at war over a possible Stone commutation. White House counsel Pat Cipollone is against the move, and even Attorney General Bill Barr is opposed. “Barr has told Trump not to do it, and if he does there will be a mutiny at DOJ,” said a source briefed on the internal debates. People close to Trump fear he won’t listen. “You can’t underestimate how hard it is to get information through to him,” a Republican close to the White House said. “When you talk to him, he just talks at you. He doesn’t like to read memos, so there’s not really a way to get through to him. Everyone agrees.” (The White House declined to comment).

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/07/chaos-engulfs-trump-campaign

July 8, 2020

Kanye West takes anti-vaccine, anti-abortion stance in US presidential bid

Kanye West has given more details about the policy platform he will adopt in his bid to become US president in November, declaring himself anti-abortion, sceptical about a Covid-19 vaccine and keen to return “fear and love of God” to education.

In an interview with Forbes, he announced that he would run under the banner of the Birthday party, “because when we win it’s everybody’s birthday”. His campaign slogan is a leaner version of Barack Obama’s “Yes we can” message, reading simply “YES”.

West has missed the deadline to appear on the ballot in a number of states, but he argued that he could be added as a latecomer due to the coronavirus.He said he was “going to speak with Jared Kushner, the White House, with Biden” to make his bid a reality – although he was also critical of the presumptive Democratic nominee.

West’s campaign advisers are his wife, the TV star Kim Kardashian-West, and the Tesla founder Elon Musk, both of whom have endorsed him. Speaking about Musk, West said: “I proposed to him to be the head of our space programme.”

West said that if he were to win – either in 2020 or 2024, the year in which he previously hinted he would run – it would be “God’s appointment”. He praised Donald Trump as “the closest president we’ve had in years to allowing God to still be part of the conversation”.


https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jul/08/kanye-west-takes-anti-vaccine-anti-abortion-stance-in-us-presidential-bid?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

The rapper intends to run for election under the banner of “the Birthday Party.”

“I would run as a Republican if Trump wasn’t there. I will run as an independent if Trump is there,” West told Forbes

West says he believes he was sick with Covid-19 in February and is suspicious of a potential vaccine, according to Forbes.

West denied that his announcement was a publicity stunt for his upcoming album

West has selected Michelle Tidball, a preacher from Wyoming, to be his running mate, according to the report

NOTE: West has taken almost no concrete steps toward a presidential bid, including filing papers officially declaring a candidacy, qualifying for ballot access or building out a campaign infrastructure

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-08/rapper-kanye-west-says-he-no-longer-supports-trump-forbes


Who is Michelle Tidball, his running mate?

In a wide-ranging interview with Forbes — in which Kanye West confirmed he is serious about running for president—the famed billionaire rapper said he plans to tap as his running mate Michelle Tidball, who describes herself as a “biblical life coach,” and who once said on one of her bible teleconferences that she doesn’t “watch news.”

In Cody, the 57-year-old Tidball runs her own online bible study program under the nonprofit name “Abundant Ministries.”

On her biography page, Tidball touts “various degrees in mental health and criminal justice” and says she previously “worked as a mental health therapist for ten years” before transitioning into life coaching.

Tidball previously served as an executive director of Bright Futures Mentoring Program, a nonprofit that helped mentor students in Cody https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackbrewster/2020/07/08/who-is-michelle-tidball-kanye-wests-proposed-presidential-running-mate/#7cb4b1341ee1