Politics

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The former U.S. president’s remarks are not only factually inaccurate, but dangerous.

During a conversation onstage at a Moms for Liberty event last week, former U.S. President Donald Trump said that "the transgender thing is incredible."

“Think of it; your kid goes to school, and he comes home a few days later with an operation. The school decides what’s going to happen with your child," he told the Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice.

First, schools are not providing sex-change operations to students. Even from a purely financial perspective, that seems obvious: Teachers still have to buy their own crayons; schools aren’t shelling out for surgeons. Second, educators are not deciding “what’s going to happen” with students, beyond subjecting them to a pop quiz or an in-school suspension.

During a conversation onstage at a Moms for Liberty event last week, former U.S. President Donald Trump said that "the transgender thing is incredible."

“Think of it; your kid goes to school, and he comes home a few days later with an operation. The school decides what’s going to happen with your child," he told the Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice.

First, schools are not providing sex-change operations to students. Even from a purely financial perspective, that seems obvious: Teachers still have to buy their own crayons; schools aren’t shelling out for surgeons. Second, educators are not deciding “what’s going to happen” with students, beyond subjecting them to a pop quiz or an in-school suspension.

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Former U.S. President Donald Trump has long been criticized for what some have called corrupt foreign practices involving money coming from foreign nations, but those issues are only growing deeper, according to a new report.

Before, during, and after his presidency, Trump benefited from foreign deals that largely flew under most citizens' radar.

But those deals are ramping up, "likely in preparation for a second term," according to a report from the Intelligencer.

"Given the financial overlap between Trump, his family, his company, and a constellation of kleptocratic regimes, especially Russia, Trump presented an unprecedented opportunity for foreign regimes to directly access the White House and tilt American policy in the process," according to the report. "Now, with Trump running for the presidency once more, those concerns have hardly disappeared. If anything, foreign governments — including brand-new regimes that weren’t involved in Trump’s first whirlwind in the White House — have only spied new opportunities to burrow into his pockets and into a second administration."

The report outlines various deals [of Donald Trump] from various foreign nations, including Egypt, China, Kazakhstan, and Indonesia, but especially focuses on Trump's multi-prong relationship to the Saudi Arabian government.

Archive.

Noting that the title of the article is not terribly good, as the funds in question have already been appropriated for the purpose of the wall and are not new, and are in fact part of a "compromise" bill that also includes funding for asylum lawyers. Not that I want a compromise bill, or don't think she shouldn't push for better, but it's hardly big news.

That said, the real problem lies at the end:

Zoom in: Beyond embracing the bipartisan bill, Harris' campaign has portrayed her as an immigration hardliner in ads.

• One Harris TV ad frames her time as California's attorney general as that of a "border state prosecutor," and includes images of the border wall.
• In another, Harris' team highlights her support of boosting the number of Border Patrol agents.
• Most of Trump campaign ads have attacked Harris for the Biden administration's struggle to deal with waves of migrants crossing the border.

The bottom line: Like the wall itself, Harris' changes on border policy reflect how Trump has shifted the political debate on immigration during the past decade.

I am getting very, very sick of the trend of Democrats spending more time trying to appeal to bigoted conservatives than trying to actually represent their own constituents or help the people they ostensibly care about.

In an audio clip recorded at a fundraiser on November 6, 2023, Sheehy brags about roping and branding with members of the Crow Nation. He says “it’s a great way to bond with the Indians while they’re drunk at 8:00 a.m.”

Sheehy has a pattern of speaking about the Crow, according to Char-Koosta. At other events, Sheehy mimicked Crow tribal members calling him “white boy” and throwing Coors beer cans at his head when he misses a double-heel shot at their rodeo.

alt-text: the words “no ethical production under capitalism” with production underlined. It is next to the ancom flag, and is over a digital art wooden background.

It just made my morning to see that not only is the AP reporting this correctly, but the headline explicitly states the insane rarity of voter fraud. (Non-citizen or otherwise.) You have a better chance of getting a clear picture of Bigfoot than you do of having a voter fraud incident in your jurisdiction.

A series of actions taken last week by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton reaffirmed that our state is boosting a dangerous national trend. Paxton issued a vague statement about illegal voting registration that appears to be linked to debunked claims that undocumented immigrants in Parker County were registering to vote.

Paxton has also launched an investigation in Bexar, Frio and Atascosa counties where last week officials raided the homes of Democratic political activists. They woke up elderly election workers at pre-dawn hours in what had to have been the fright of their lives. There is a suspicion that the activists are involved in ballot harvesting, a practice of gathering absentee ballots to deliver them to polling places. Paxton’s office has not given a reason for the search warrants but after the disproportionate raids, activists feel targeted and are demanding a federal inquiry.

[...] Paxton and leading Republicans such as Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick are bent on feeding the confirmation bias of a voter base that now believes American elections are stolen when their side loses.

[...]

Earlier this month, a Fox News personality, Maria Bartiromo, known for spreading false information about the 2020 presidential election, claimed that undocumented migrants were registering to vote outside a Department of Public Safety facility in Weatherford, west of Fort Worth.

[...]

Abbott announced that 1.1 million ineligible voters were removed from the voting rolls. The majority were deceased citizens or suspended voters. If you look closer at his statement, you will learn that roughly 6,500 of those voters were considered noncitizens and about 1,300 apparently voted. That is 0.1% of the ineligible voters. In other words, it is statistically insignificant.

Yes, voter rolls need to be checked and cleared regularly. But there is an inevitable lag that happens in the process. Creating alarm over the integrity of our electoral process is what is actually hurting our democracy.

[Edit typo.]

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The signs were created by a self-proclaimed "street artist" who goes by the name of "Sabo."

The Trump-supporting artist revealed to 9News that he has been contacted by Denver Police, who are investigating the signs he has posted as a possible "bias-motivated crime."

Sabo stirred controversy this week when posted signs using the ethnic slur, “Kamala’s Illegals" that also claimed that “Blacks Must Sit At The Back Of The Bus. Kamala’s Migrants Sit In The Front.”

The signs are painted to appear as if they are actual street signs like a crossing sign or simply a black and white sign.

[...]

“If a civil war breaks out and the f------ Guatemalans and Ecuadorians are like coming over the fence and stuff like that, it is straight up target practice,” Sabo said in his YouTube live stream.

[...]

On Facebook, he posted: "I saw Black observers shocked when they saw this."

Archived version

The faces of European influencers have been slapped on a slew of pro-Donald Trump social media accounts raising concerns that hostile state actors from countries such as Russia or China may be trying to sow disinformation ahead of the 2024 U.S. presidential election, a new investigative report by the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) finds.

[...]

"To be honest, ‘what the f---?’ was my reaction," German fashion influencer Debbie Nederlof, 32, told CNN. "I have nothing to do with the United States. With Trump, the political things over there. What the hell do I – from a small place in Germany – care about US politics?”

Yet it's Nederlof's face that appeared on the X (formerly Twitter) profile of a "MAGA Trump supporter" from Wisconsin named Luna who has been praising Trump and slamming Harris to nearly 30,000 followers since March, according to the investigation.

[...]

This is just one of 56 X profiles identified by CNN and CIR in which beautiful, young women appear to support Trump with manipulated imagery and hashtags such as #MAGAPatriots, #MAGA2024 and #IFBAP, which stands for "I Follow Back All Patriots."

[...]

Experts say this could be just the tip of the iceberg," the report states.

Benjamin Strick, CIR’s director of investigation, said he was alarmed by the content of the messaging appearing next to otherwise relatable content.

“By hijacking images of the influencers, these accounts clearly recognise the value of creating a believable human persona that followers can relate to," Strick said. “Some of these accounts are also posting disinformation and conspiracy theories – which in some cases are accruing thousands of views.”

Archived version

Since 2020, election officials across the country have been thrust into the middle of election deniers’ campaign to undermine faith in American democracy. Scapegoated for outcomes that some politicians and voters don’t like, election officials have faced increasingly violent rhetoric and attempts to criminalize their work that are fueled by disinformation and conspiracy theories.

[...]

Perhaps the most infamous example is [the U.S. state of] Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, who received hundreds of threats overnight after former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani falsely accused them of committing fraud in the 2020 election. But other examples abound.

[...]

state and local leaders have contributed to this hostile climate. Since 2020, a dozen states have enacted new criminal laws with harsh penalties targeting everything from minor mistakes to legitimate efforts to help voters exercise their constitutional rights

[...]

All of this has contributed to unprecedented attrition among election officials, which created an opening for election deniers like Steve Bannon to try to orchestrate a hostile takeover of our elections.

[...]

The risk of a politicized Department of Justice targeting election officials is very real. A former department official, Jeffrey Clark, played a prominent role in the attempt to overturn the 2020 election, including through his White House–backed efforts to pressure the DOJ into endorsing bogus allegations of widespread fraud. Officials also floated the idea of seizing voting equipment, and former President Trump was infamously recorded threatening Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, with prosecution.

[...]

Facing unprecedented challenges from election deniers and foreign interference, election officials need more support than ever to carry out the complex, technical work of administering elections. Yet Project 2025, if enacted, would strip away crucial federal aid and escalate the politicized attacks they are already suffering — with potentially dire consequences for our elections.

Project 2025 threatens our rights, and is rife with proposals that would harm real people, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) says.

"Add your name to join our fight to stop it in its track."

This is not the first time Trump has been accused of politicizing the military for his personal gain. He’s allegedly called dead soldiers “suckers and losers,” insulted the late John McCain for being a prisoner of war and recently stoked controversy for saying civilian Medal of Freedom recipients are much better than those who received the Medal of Honor — the highest military award in the country, often given posthumously.

Archived version

Robert F. Kennedy is on Trump’s transition team. But what if Trump wins, and Kennedy lands in his administration—in a public health role, no less?

The temptation among some Democrats will be strong to treat this as low comedy, by highlighting Kennedy’s “weirdness” as part of the broader party strategy of mocking Trump at every opportunity. But Democrats should also cast this move—the idea that Trump would even suggest putting the anti-vax, conspiracy-theory-spouting, whale-head-chainsawing Kennedy anywhere near such an influential role—as a serious danger to the nation and another sign of Trump’s towering unfitness for the presidency.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a powerful lobbying group widely known as AIPAC, has officially spent more than $100 million in the 2024 election cycle so far, pouring staggering sums into Democratic primary races in an effort to unseat progressive opponents of Israel's war on the Gaza Strip.

[...]

AIPAC money has already made a significant impact, helping a pair of pro-Israel Democrats defeat progressive Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.)—two of Congress' most vocal critics of Israel's assault on Gaza—in recent primary contests.

[...]

"A very bad sign for democracy that MAGA billionaires are spending this much money to shape our politics," the youth-led Sunrise Movementwrote in response to the new spending figures, referring to the Republican megadonors who have fueled spending by AIPAC-aligned groups.

[...]

Jan Koum, the former WhatsApp CEO who helped bankroll Nikki Haley's failed presidential bid, is the top donor to AIPAC's super PAC.

"Other UDP [United Democracy Project, which is AIPAC's super PAC] donors in recent months have included the following: David Messer, CEO of Freepoint Commodities, who gave another $250,000 on July 1; Martin Geller, CEO of financial firm Geller & Company, who gave an additional $268,000 on June 25; and Frank Blair, equity portfolio manager at Capital Group, who gave an additional $200,000 in May," Sludge reported.

The move followed a decision last year that the Biden administration had overstepped its authority by trying to forgive more than $400 billion in student loans.

Archived version

More than 200 Republican officials who once worked for former President George W. Bush, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), and the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the presidency and warned of the dangers of a second Trump term in an open letter released Monday.

The letter [...] outlines both the foreign and domestic dangers of a second Trump term: “At home, another four years of Donald Trump’s chaotic leadership, this time focused on advancing the dangerous goals of Project 2025, will hurt real, everyday people and weaken our sacred institutions,” the group wrote. “Abroad, democratic movements will be irreparably jeopardized as Trump and his acolyte JD Vance kowtow to dictators like Vladimir Putin while turning their backs on our allies. We can’t let that happen.”

Archived version

In its immunity ruling, the Supreme Court’s six right-wing justices asserted that a president’s “official” conduct was off limits to prosecutors, meaning that someone — Donald Trump, for example — could order their underlings at the Department of Justice to break the law, perhaps by trying to overturn what they knew to be a free and fair election, and no one could ever charge them with a crime.

That July ruling from the nation’s highest court was seen as a death knell for the cases against the former president, the conservative majority having effectively legalized “criminal and treasonous acts,” per liberal dissenter Justice Sonia Sotomayor. The consolation was that special counsel Jack Smith would at least get to air all his evidence in the D.C. court of U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, an appointee of former President Barack Obama who would get to decide what if any of it could withstand the Supreme Court’s novel new standard.

But Smith, who has charged the former president with conspiring to defraud the United States and obstruct the certification of the 2020 election, himself decided to start over instead. Having seated a new grand jury, on Tuesday Smith returned a fresh 36-page indictment of Trump that maintains the same core charges but with a freshly emphasized framing: these were criminal acts that the former president undertook not in his official capacity but as a private citizen running for public office.

I've never actually seen one of Trump's sales ads. I'm speechless for a number of reasons. How big is that dude's jacket? Somehow, the second one is even worse.

Clips of the first NFT "issuance" made it to late night, but this is some next-level cult shit. Unless I'm misunderstanding, $7,500 gets you invited to no-expenses-paid visit to Mar-A-Lago, where I'm sure you'll be expected to pay for dinner, for the chance to shake his hand and be scammed yet again? Is this what's being sold?

I share this because it's rather eye-opening what he thinks enough people will fall for to be worth it for a handsome profit. There's not much need to watch the analysis after the second ad, but if, like, me you are too stunned to form your own coherent thoughts, it helps on the come down back to reality.

Archived version

The rule, which was pushed by nationally prominent election deniers, only changed in minor ways between being voted down in May and approved in August. Those adjustments made it even less compliant with existing law, experts say.

The rule dramatically expands the authority of county officials overseeing the usually mundane task of certifying elections. The passage of it was enabled by nationally prominent election deniers and the Georgia Legislature. And the board members who passed it were cheered on by former President Donald Trump. It comes at a time when Trump and his allies are already calling into question the fairness of the elections process and making preparations to contest the results — and as Trump slips behind Vice President Kamala Harris in swing state polls.