Mikey Likes It!: 2024-10-13

Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Going home, I have a line I don't cross

Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Dancing With Himself" went up tonight.

Benjamin Wermund and Austin Bureau (HOUSTON CHRONICLE) report:

The Texas Senate race remains close just a week out from early voting, with U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz up 4 percentage points over U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, according to a new statewide poll.

The Hobby School of Public Affairs at the University of Houston survey found nearly enough voters remained undecided to make up the 51-46 difference in the Senate race, with 3% saying they still had not made up their mind between the two-term Republican senator and Dallas Democrat challenging him.

I hope Colin wins. That said, I'm heading home. That's part of why I wasn't in the mood to write last night. Daniel Villarreal (LGBTQ NATION) reports:

Texas U.S. House Rep. Colin Allred (D) has become the first national Democratic candidate ever to release a TV ad responding to Republican transphobic attacks.

“I don’t want boys playing girls’ sports,” Allred says in a new ad. The ad is a response to several aired on behalf of his Republican opponent for the U.S. Senate, anti-LGBTQ+ Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). Cruz’s ads have attacked Allred for supporting the Equality Act — a federal law that would ban anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination — and opposing a national Republican ban on trans athletes in sports.

Trans advocates have insinuated that Allred’s ad is transphobic and needless, seeing as most American voters aren’t concerned about transgender athletes. Recent polling shows that Allred is three to five percent behind Cruz among state voters.

It was a stupid thing to do. Cruz's ads were hurting him not Colin. The ad Colin is now showing is hurting Colin. He's gone from seeming strong to seem to be easily pushed around. Cruz went too far in attacking kids and people had respect for Colin. Door to door and at meet ups? That's vanishing.

It's his own fault.

Colin would make a great senator and I'd vote for him. But I've spent weeks campaigning for him already and his decision to respond to Ted Cruz's transphobia -- which was hurting Ted with voters -- by agreeing with Ted's nonsense? I've got a gay brother. Is that who Colin would sell out next? I don't know. But I put in my weeks campaigning for him up until that point. Now I'm done and going home.

Not wanting him to lose but I don't use my personal time to help anti-LGBTQ+ people. I'm scheduled for several things tomorrow and than that's it. We plan to fly out tomorrow night.

So good luck to him. Had some fun seeing Texas. But I've got things to do and they don't include staying in this state to turn out the vote for him.

I'm not C.I., I don't know how she does it. It seems easy enough the first week and even the second. But that by the third it takes determination. It's also intimidating some mornings when you look at the schedule and see every minute of your time for the day blocked in. C.I. and Ava cope with that by ignoring it until the morning of and just focusing on bits and pieces of the schedule. Me, I would look at the whole thing and just feel overwhelmed.

But the people I got to speak with always made up for feeling overwhelmed or under the weather. And it was fun.

If Colin hadn't decided to play Ted's game, I would've stayed on up until the first Sunday of November. But he made his decision and that forced mine. Elaine wants to go home as well -- and our daughter's wanted to go home for a week now. So it's time. Good luck to Colin.

He's still a good guy. Just not a strong one who stands up for everyone.

Donald Trump's best friend is losing it. Fabián Torres (MARCA) reports:

The New York QB specified that he found the whole thing "a little ridiculous" and now it will be up to the NFL to analyze his statements..

The Jets' loss to the Bills hit hard within the New York team, especially their quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, who simply blamed the referees for his team's bad night.

In a game in which they even finished tied in fouls (11 each), Rodgers even came down hard on the referees on a foul that favored them after Bills defensive back AJ Epenesa was penalized for a hard foul against himself.

Ever since he lost 'roommate' Kevin (lover), Aaron's been a snit fit and a conspiracy nut. He's also lost all interest in even appearing to be a good sport or team player. Chris Roling (SPORTS ILLUSTRATED) notes:

Former Los Angeles Chargers wide receiver Mike Williams isn’t having a great time with the New York Jets.

Williams, in his first season with the Jets after seven years with the Chargers, ranks just fifth on his new team in receiving with 10 catches for 145 yards.

And he just earned the ire of Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers on a primetime stage.

Speaking with reporters after the game, Rodgers called out Williams for running the wrong route on his game-clinching interception, saying that the other wideout absorbed coverage away from Williams—but the former Chargers standout wasn’t where he needed to be.

“I’m throwing to the red line and he’s running an in-breaker,” Rodgers said, via Paul Andrew Esden Jr of The Score 1260. “It’s gotta be down the red line. I was throwing to the red line but when I got to about here, I saw he was running an in-breaker so I had to kind of adjust it a little bit. But the play is two guys vertical, one down the seam, one down the red line.”

He's 40 years old. It's time to retire. Tom Brady waited until he was 45 but Tom had a lot more talent than Aaron does. He needs to retire. Maybe he'd stop being so cranky and such a poor sport; however, I think it'll taking coming out of the closet to make him a real person.

Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

Tuesday, October 15, 2024. Every day the stakes in this election get higher.

Let's open with this from Kamala Harris noting a passing:

Lilly Ledbetter was a tireless leader in the fight for equal rights.

After finding out that she had been systematically underpaid for nearly two decades compared to her male colleagues, Lilly became an advocate for equal pay. Her efforts contributed to the passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which strengthened protections against pay discrimination, and which was the first bill signed into law during the Obama-Biden Administration.

I have always believed when we lift up the economic status of women, we lift up the economic status of families and communities – and all of society benefits. That’s why I co-sponsored the Paycheck Fairness Act in the United States Senate, a bill that Lilly was a powerful supporter of, and which would further increase pay transparency. And that’s why I continue to fight for the Paycheck Fairness Act – to honor Lilly’s legacy, and continue building a more fair and equitable future for women, and all Americans.

Lilly’s advocacy has improved the lives of millions, and will inspire generations to come. Doug and I send our condolences and prayers to the Ledbetter family.

That's a passing of a life that mattered because she stood for something. The United States is supposed to stand for something and if we allow our democracy to pass in this election, I wonder who would be left to note it.

He is the most dangerous person ever. I had suspicions when I talked to you about his mental decline and so forth, but now I realize he is a toral fascist. He is the most dangerous person to this country.

That's what Gen Mark Milley, former Joint Chiefs of Staff, told journalist Bob Woodward who discussed his new book WAR with Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC last night.

Steve Benen (MSNBC) notes:

Milley’s assessment of the Republican candidate is rooted in first-hand experience: Trump handpicked Milley to serve as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the general worked alongside the then-president for more than a year.

“No one has ever been as dangerous to this country as Donald Trump,” the general told Woodward. “Now I realize he’s a total fascist. He is the most dangerous person to this country.”

Milley went on to note that he feared a possible court martial in a second Trump term — despite the fact that he’s now a civilian — and those concerns are well grounded. After all, according to Trump’s former Defense secretary, Mark Esper, Trump set out to have two highly decorated retired military leaders — Stanley McChrystal and William McRaven — court martialed for saying things about the former president that he didn’t like.

(It was, of course, impossible to court martial civilians in private life, so the then-president talked to military leaders about the Pentagon recalling the retired general and admiral to active duty so that Trump could formally punisPeoh him.)

As for Milley, Trump used to target the retired general with juvenile taunts — calling the general a “dumbass” and an “idiot” — but it was last fall when the Republican falsely accused Milley of having committed a “treasonous act” in the wake of Trump’s 2020 defeat. “[I]n times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!” Trump wrote on his social media platform.

The accusations were bonkers, though Milley felt the need to take “adequate safety precautions” to protect his family in the wake of the Republican’s radical offensive.

Or put another way, civil life in the United States now involves a former president falsely accusing his former handpicked Joint Chiefs chair of treason, forcing the decorated former general to fear that a politician’s enraged followers might harm his family. The former president’s political party doesn’t find any of this alarming, and Americans might soon return him to power.

People need to grasp that this not normal, this is not politics as usual. When Liz Cheney or Adam Kinzinger speak out, they know they're risking their own safety -- from the nuts in Donald's cult to Donald himself if he becomes president again. This isn't minor, this is about democracy, this is about the country we're going to live in and what type of country it is.

Christopher Mathias (HUFFINGTON POST) explains:

Part of Milley’s warning about Trump revolves around the former president’s promise to get revenge on his perceived political enemies. Trump has frequently told his supporters on the campaign trail: “I am your retribution.” Milley, who clashed with Trump in the White House and who has since been publicly critical of the current Republican presidential nominee, told Woodward that he’s afraid of being recalled from retirement to be court-martialed if Trump wins the election next month.

According to the Guardian’s report on Woodward’s book, Milley warned his former colleagues in Washington that Trump was “a walking, talking advertisement of what he’s going to try to do,” adding: “He’s saying it and it’s not just him, it’s the people around him.”

Milley was pointing in particular to how Steve Bannon — who rose to White House strategist after chairing Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, and who is now in jail for being found in contempt of Congress — has threatened him. “We’re gonna hold him accountable,” Bannon has said of Milley.

Woodward’s book also details a tense Oval Office discussion Milley had with Trump and his second secretary of defense, Mark Esper. Trump reportedly wanted to get revenge on, or potentially court-martial, William McRaven, the retired Navy admiral who led the 2011 mission in which al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed. Trump was enraged that the retired admiral publicly criticized him.

Milley told Woodward he was able to mollify Trump by saying he would “take care” of it but then warned McRaven and other former military commanders to keep off the “public stage” for a while and ease up on their criticisms of Trump.

The Trump campaign did not respond to a HuffPost request for comment about Milley’s reported comments to Woodward.

Milley’s stories about Trump in the White House are similar to recollections from other military figures, including retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, who was Trump’s chief of staff. As noted by the Guardian, Kelly said Trump reportedly insisted that generals should be “like the German generals” serving under Adolf Hitler during World War II, who were “totally loyal.”

On the campaign trail this year Trump has said he’d be a “dictator” on his first day in office. He has also repeatedly used explicitly fascist rhetoric while talking about immigrants in the United States.

Milley is not alone in his assessment that Trump is a fascist.

Robert Paxton, considered one of the foremost scholars of fascism, initially declined to call Trump a fascist during his rise to the White House in 2016, but he changed his tune after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“Trump’s incitement of the invasion of the Capitol on January 6, 2021 removes my objection to the fascist label,” Paxton wrote at the time. “His open encouragement of civic violence to overturn an election crosses a red line. The label now seems not just acceptable but necessary.”

That's pretty serious but MEDIA MATTERS' Tyler Monroe notes the media silence that has greeted this:

National broadcast news networks and print outlets buried recent comments from Donald Trump’s former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff retired Gen. Mark Milley calling the former president “fascist to the core.” Almost all broadcast news shows and the major newspapers ignored the comments, with only NBC’s Meet the Press and The Washington Post covering Milley’s “fascist” remarks.

Reporting surfaced on October 11 that Milley called Trump “fascist to the core” in comments reported in journalist Bob Woodward's upcoming book War. The comments were the latest in a long back and forth between Milley and Trump, with the former president previously suggesting Milley be executed for his comments that Trump was “shameful” and “complicit” in the January 6 attack.

Broadcast and print news almost completely ignored Milley’s characterization of Trump as “fascist.” From October 11, when the comments were first reported, through 12 p.m. ET on October 14, ABC’s Good Morning America, World News Tonight, and This Week; CBS’ Mornings, Evening News, and Face the Nation; and NBC’s Today and Nightly News all failed to mention Milley's comments. Among corporate broadcast news programs, only NBC's Meet the Press discussed the comments at all, with anchor Kristen Welker asking former Rep. Liz Cheney about Milley's comments.

Media Matters also reviewed print articles across five of the top U.S. newspapers by circulation for coverage of Milley's comments and found only one article in The Washington Post mentioning them. The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal all failed to cover Milley's comments calling Trump fascist.

On the October 11, 2024, edition of All in with Chris Hayes, Ian Bassin stressed the need for the American press to put the comments from Milley on “banner headlines.”

Milley's description of Trump as a fascist is just the latest example of a former Trump official denouncing the extremism of the former president.

Greg Sargent (THE NEW REPUBLIC) notes this morning:

Over the weekend, J.D. Vance tried to argue that Donald Trump will not target his political enemies if he’s reelected president. Yet at around the same time, Trump was confirming the opposite point with a new rant Fox News, declaring flatly that he’ll use the military to target the “enemy within.” Indeed, Trump regularly says openly at his rallies that in a second term, he will persecute unnamed enemies of MAGA. We talked to Politico reporter Myah Ward, author of a great new piece on what he’s been saying at these rallies, about how blatant he is now being about his second-term intention to grotesquely abuse presidential power. Listen to this episode here. A transcript is here.

With all that's going on, you'd think FAIR would be very busy noting how the news outlets work overtime to make Donald sound sane and to ignore his racist threats but, as a former FAIR staffer pointed out to me last night on the phone, FAIR apparently can no longer cover more than one topic. And everything it's done in October -- which we're halfway through with -- has been on Gaza.

Donald's made very clear what he plans to do -- kill Palestinians -- but let's all pretend that didn't take place and let's all pretend -- like FAIR does -- that things are safe and sound in the US and we can put all of our attention across the ocean because we're not in the midst of an election -- certainly not one that'll determine whether we remain a democracy or become a fascist state.

Matthew Chapman (RAW STORY) reports:

Former President Donald Trump's one-time National Security Adviser Michael Flynn is ramping up his apocalyptic rhetoric to a new and dangerous extreme, Ja'han Jones wrote for MSNBC's "ReidOut Blog."

Flynn, who was fired from Trump's administration and took a plea deal for lying to federal investigators about his ties to Russia before being pardoned by Trump, has since descended into extreme conspiracy theory circles, in particular forming close ties to the QAnon movement, which believes Trump must save America from Satanic child sex trafficking cannibals. He has previously suggested the U.S. should undergo a military coup like that in Myanmar.

His latest rhetoric suggests he hasn't backed down from that position at all, Jones wrote.

Flynn recently spoke at the Rod of Iron Freedom Festival, sponsored by a radical schismatic sect of Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church, which worships the AR-15 as a holy instrument ordained by God. And when an attendee in the crowd asked him about the possibility of military tribunals and executions of Trump's enemies, Flynn promised a lot more than that if the former president secures victory.

“I think a lot of people actually think like you do, and I think that that’s your right and our privilege. ... There’s a way to get after this, but we have to win first,” said Flynn. "I’m about winning. We have to win. And these people are already up to no good. So, we gotta win first. We win, and then, 'Katy, bar the door.' OK? Believe me: The gates of hell — my hell — will be unleashed."

Let's wind down with the speech Kamala gave on Sunday in North Carolina:

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon, church. Good afternoon.

Oh, please have a seat. Please have a seat. (Laughter.)

Bishop O’neal, I thank you so very much. We — we’ve had some time to visit before we came out into the sanctuary, and I just thank you for the leadership that you have provided for so long.

You know, in times of crisis, and — and we’re looking at the images of the aftermath of the hurricane. But it — it is easy in these moments of crisis to — to question our faith, to sometimes lose our faith for a moment, because what we see is so hard to see that we lose faith or a vision of those things we cannot see but must know. (Applause.)

And you are such a leader in all of those ways, and I thank you. (Applause.) I’m honored to be with you. I’m honored to be with you. I’m honored to be with you. Thank you.

And, KCC family, thank you for welcoming me today. (Applause.) (Laughs.) Thank you. And thank you for the opportunity to allow me to worship with you. It does my heart and soul good.

So, scripture teaches, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” (Applause.)

So, I first encountered the words of Galatians as a young girl at 23rd Avenue Church of God in Oakland, California, which is where I sang in the children’s choir and first learned the teachings of the Bible. My earliest memories of those teachings are about a loving God, a God who asks us to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, to defend the rights of the poor and the needy.

And so, at an early age, I learned that faith is a verb. It is something we show in action and in service. And we show it by heeding the words of my pastor, who Bishop spoke with yesterday, Reverend Dr. Amos C. Brown, who often invokes the words that we all know: One must do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.

That truth is important at all times and especially in moments of difficulty and disaster, especially in moments like this, as we navigate storms that have inflicted so much harm across our country.

And to all those who have loved ones who have been affected by Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene, Doug and I, my husband, are holding of you close in our hearts and in our prayers. And we are thinking of everyone who has been affected by these storms.

Now, I know Helene’s impact was further west, but I also know that the people of Greenville, like all Americans, have been inspired by the way communities are coming together, Bishop, in the wake of these storms. Amid ruined homes, downed power lines, swollen rivers that have been choked with debris, we have seen — we have seen children rescued by neighbors in a kayak; we have seen those who have lost everything gathering donations for others.

You know, it’s been my experience to see that in a moment of crisis, isn’t it something when you know that, often, it is the people who have the least, give the most? (Applause.) Right?

Moments of crisis, I believe, do have a way of revealing the heroes among us, the angels among us, and of showing us all the best of who we are. And these hurricanes have revealed heroes around all of us, heroes who do not ask the injured or stranded whether they are a Republican or a Democrat — (applause) — but who simply ask, “Are you okay?”; who ask, “What can I do to help?” — heroes who, as I like to say, see in the face of a stranger, a neighbor.

Yet, church, there are some who are not acting in the spirit of community. And I am speaking of those who have been literally not telling the truth — lying — about people who are working hard to help folks in need; spreading disinformation, when the truth and facts are required. And the — the problem with this, beyond the obvious, is it’s making it harder, then, to get people lifesaving information, if they’re led to believe they cannot trust.

And that’s the pain of it all, which is the idea that those who are in need have somehow been convinced that the forces are working against them in a way that they would not seek aid.

And let’s let that sink in for a moment. Right now, fellow Americans are experiencing some of the most difficult moments in their lives. Yet, instead of offering hope, there are those who are channeling people’s tragedies and sorrows into grievance and hatred. And one may ask, “Why?” And I think, sadly, frankly, the motives are quite transparent: to gain some advantage for themselves, to play politics with other people’s heartbreak. And it is unconscionable.

Now is not a time to incite fear. (Applause.) It is not right to make people feel alone. That is not what — and this is a church full of leaders — that is not what leaders, as we know, do in crisis.

Now is a time to bring folks together, to come together, to be there for one another, and follow the example of all of the heroes all around us. And now is the time to live up to the fundamental values that reflect our nation at its best: the values of compassion and community and honesty and decency — the values that define the people of Greenville, the — the people of North Carolina, and — and the people like a fellow who I met recently. His name is Eddie Hunnell. And I’m going to tell you a quick story about Eddie Hunnell.

So, I met him in Charlotte the other week. He was visiting Grassy Creek for his son’s wedding when he saw a woman in the raging floodwaters. First, he tried to rescue her by canoe. When that didn’t work, this ma- — a perfect stranger, he’s watching — he jumped in the river and pulled her ashore.

And when I talked with Eddie about his act of courage, here’s what he said to me. He said, “Well I didn’t feel I had a choice.” But, of course, he had a choice. Of course, he had a choice.

But his choice was to take a risk for the sake of another. Didn’t even reflect on the risk he might have been taking. (Applause.) Right?

His choice was to follow his conscience. His choice was, in the words of Isaiah, to be “a refuge for the needy in their distress.” (Applause.) He chose to remember that we are all in this together.

And if that is true during a terrible storm, it is also true when the storm passes. (Applause.) It is true in our everyday lives.

When Paul wrote his letter to the church in Galatia, he knew folks might feel the weight of the burden of doing good, that they may feel a temptation to turn away from others in their time of need, to believe, “What does it matter?” But Paul reminded them and us that God calls us not to become weary of doing good.

Because we each have the power — God tells us this — the power, each one of us, to make a difference. And that tells us that the measure of our strength will be clear when we see what we can do to lift other people up — (applause) — just as Eddie did and as the heroes and the angels in this church and all over are doing after these storms. Across North Carolina, Florida, and impacted communities, we are witnessing faith in action. (Applause.)

So, I close with this. Let us continue to look in the face of a stranger and see a neighbor. (Applause.) Let us recognize that when we shine the light in moments of darkness, it will guide our feet onto the path of peace. And let us always remember that while weeping may endure for a night, joy cometh in the morning. (Applause.) (Laughs.)

Thank you. May God bless you. And God bless the United States of America.

Thank you, church. (Applause.) END

New content at THIRD:

The following sites updated:

Miss Sassy loses his crowd appeal

Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Diaper Duty."

I'm going to be quick tonight. First, love the comic. Miss Sassy is always changing Donald's diapers, that's all Miss Sassy's good for. No backbone, no ethics.

Is it the end of Miss Sassy? JD can't attract a crowd. Jordan King (NEWSWEEK) reports:

JD Vance was met with multiple empty seats at a campaign event in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania over the weekend.

Donald Trump's running mate spoke at JWF Industries, a factory for military vehicles in the steel industry city of Johnstown, on Saturday.

Photos from The Associated Press show rows of empty seats on one side of the venue, while Vance is on stage speaking.

The audience filled around half the seats in the venue, according to The New York Times journalist Chris Cameron, who was reporting from Johnstown.

Sean Craig (NEWSWEEK) reports:

Republican hardliner and Texas Senator Ted Cruz could screw up his party’s chance of flipping the Senate, the GOP super PAC in charge of delivering the chamber in November has warned.

A memo from the Senate Leadership Fund, obtained by Politico, shows the PAC’s own internal polling has the firebrand podcaster Cruz at 48 percent, leading Democratic opponent Colin Allred by a single percentage point.

Cruz’s lead was three points last month, according to the poll. Support for the incumbent senator in Texas also trails support for former president Donald Trump by two points—Trump, with 50 percent support, leads Vice President Kamala Harris by five points in the state.

“Beginning in early August, Colin Allred has been heavily outspending Ted Cruz on TV, closing up the multicandidate ballot to a single point,” the memo says, adding that outside GOP outside groups including a dedicated Cruz super PAC are closing the spending gap. We are carefully monitoring additional media placements and will have fresh polling numbers here next week.”

Cruz is the subject of FEC complaints alleging he struck a sketchy deal to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars from the company that syndicates his three-times-a-week podcast to a super PAC backing his election. He claims he does the podcast as a “volunteer.”

And that's going to be it for me tonight. I'm tired. I was doing El Paso in one day. I spoke to four groups but it's so spread out. And dry. It's also pretty, El Paso. I just wasn't used to the dry and feel exhausted.

Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

Monday, October 14, 2024. Let's review some of the things at stake this election cycle.

Let's start with this press release from Senator Sheldon Whitehouse's office:

New report details how the Trump White House restricted FBI investigators and lied to the American people about the investigation and tip line. Six-year-long Senate inquiry was hampered by repeated executive branch obstruction.

Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, today released a report detailing disturbing shortcomings in the supplemental background investigation conducted after allegations of sexual misconduct emerged during the 2018 confirmation process of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Whitehouse’s report is the culmination of a six-year-long investigation hindered by executive branch obstruction, particularly during the Trump Administration.

Whitehouse released the following statement on the report:

“In 2018, I pledged to Christine Blasey Ford that I’d keep digging, for however long it took, and not give up or move on from the Trump White House’s shameful confirmation process for Justice Kavanaugh. A full, proper investigation is the bare minimum that victims who come forward – like Dr. Ford and Deborah Ramirez – deserve. This report shows that the supplemental background investigation was a sham, controlled by the Trump White House, to give political cover to Senate Republicans and put Justice Kavanaugh back on the political track to confirmation.

“The lack of FBI investigative standards helped the Trump White House thwart meaningful investigation of the allegations against Kavanaugh, denying Senators information needed to fulfill their constitutional duties. The FBI must create real protocols so Senators and the American people get real answers – not manufactured misdirection – the next time serious questions about a nominee emerge late in the confirmation process.”

President Donald Trump nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court in July 2018. After the Senate Judiciary Committee’s regular hearings on his nomination in early September 2018, senators learned of accusations by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while the two were in high school. After Dr. Ford came forward, further allegations of sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh emerged. None of the accusations were uncovered during the FBI’s “full-field” background investigation in Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

The Judiciary Committee held an additional hearing on September 27, 2018, where Ford and Kavanaugh both testified. After this hearing, the Judiciary Committee asked for a supplemental background investigation to resolve the new allegations against Kavanaugh. The supplemental background investigation raised immediate concerns from Democratic senators that the FBI’s review had been curtailed by the Trump White House.

The four key findings of Whitehouse’s years-long investigation into this episode are:

The supplemental background investigation was completely controlled by the Trump White House. The FBI was never given “free rein” to conduct a thorough, complete investigation. Statements to the contrary from former President Trump and White House and Department of Justice officials were false.

Trump White House and FBI assertions that the Kavanaugh supplemental background investigation was conducted “by the book” according to standard FBI procedures were false and misleading, failing to disclose that there are no standard procedures for supplemental background investigations. Instead, FBI practice, which the Trump Administration never disclosed, requires step-by-step instructions from the White House. This practice may be appropriate for handling many routine, minor questions that can arise after an initial background investigation, but it was uniquely inappropriate for investigating the serious, high-profile allegations against Kavanaugh.

The investigation was directed by the Trump White House to pursue only first-hand evidence and not corroborating evidence. Senate Republicans then cited the absence of corroborating evidence to justify confirming Kavanaugh.

The FBI’s public “tip line” investigation was a fake. No tip was ever investigated; Kavanaugh-related tips were delivered straight to the Trump White House without FBI investigation. Indeed, the Trump White House could have used tip line information to steer FBI investigators away from derogatory evidence.

These major failings in the FBI’s supplemental background investigation made it unworthy of reliance by the Senate for advice and consent. This must never reoccur, so the report recommends that better standards be established for FBI supplemental background investigations—particularly for situations where major misconduct allegations come to light after an initial background investigation is complete.

Senator Whitehouse and other Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats spent almost six years seeking information about these failures from the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the White House, via written correspondence, live and written questioning during committee hearings, and meetings with executive branch officials. The senators’ inquiries were blocked by obstinate executive noncompliance. During the Trump Administration, the executive branch provided no information to this investigation, while providing a fast lane for Crossfire Hurricane information to Senate Republicans. Even when cooperation improved during the Biden Administration, senators struggled to secure complete and timely answers to oversight requests.

The full report is available here.

Press Contact

Meaghan McCabe, (202) 224-2921

What does that mean? It means very little if Donald Trump gets back in the White House. It can mean a great deal if Kamala Harris is elected president.

They government works for us, not the other way around. We have a democracy which means they are supposed to tell us the truth. Trump and his administration lied to us and they lied to our Senate. They plotted and executed a conspiracy to get Kavanaugh on the bench. Now that that's known, it can be addressed. What they did was deceit -- planned deceit. The American people were targeted and lied to and, yes, that does qualify as grounds to impeach.

It's not the only grounds to impeach but all by itself it is grounds for impeachment.

If Donald gets back in the White House? It gets swept under the rug and he gets at least one more Supreme Court justice appointed to the Court.

There is so much at stake this election cycle.

Joe Arpaio did not just racially profile and abuse immigrants. What he did was target people he suspected were immigrants. That was bad enough. But in order to target Latino immigrants, he had to target all Latinos -- and did. Let's not pretend otherwise.

Let's not pretend that will not happen again if Donald Trump claws his way back into the White House.

The video below got a lot of attention this weekend.

Miss Sassy JD Vance sat down with Lulu Garcia-Navarro and apparently thought she'd break under pressure. We noted her back when she was covering Iraq -- as an unembeded reporter. You have to wonder about Vance and his tiny brain that he walked into that interview after also have been a reporter from Iraq and he didn't know a damn thing to expect.

Repeatedly, she asks him if he would have certified the 2020 election and repeatedly he refuses to answer.

He also looks a lot fatter doesn't he? Guess that's why they were using AI on his face -- to make it slimmer -- after his debate with Tim Walz.

He didn't do much better on Sunday when he faced off with Martha Raddatz on ABC's THIS WEEK. A warning before you stream, when JD Vance tries to smile, he looks like a small child sitting on the toilet and struggling to get a poop out. Again, you have been warned.

Corbin Bolies (THE DAILY BEAST) reports:

JD Vance couldn’t muster up a defense of Donald Trump’s repeated mischaracterizations of migrant issues in Aurora, Colorado, on Sunday, so he resorted to a familiar one for a successful author: semantics.

This Week host Martha Raddatz questioned Vance about Trump’s Springfield, Ohio-esque assailment of the town and the subsequent pushback by its Republican mayor Mike Coffman. Trump had claimed the city was “conquered” by Venezuelan gangs, while Coffman said Trump’s descriptions “have been grossly exaggerated and have unfairly hurt the city’s identity and sense of safety.”

Hannah Demissie (ABC NEWS) notes it and other moments as well.

Let me be clear, he's smarmy little liar, a tiny hen-pecked man trying to play big boy on the national stage and, no, it doesn't work for me.

So I can't get through that entire segment but what I can get through goes to the lies he keeps telling over and over that no one's calling him on.

He says immigrant problems are due to all the executive orders Kamala Harris issued.

Why does no one scream liar in his face when he does that?

The vice president of the United States does not issue executive orders. That right is reserved for the president. He does this all this lie all the time.

Only the president.

Do you get that?

Because I don't see anyone in the media who does grasp that.

Miss Sassy may be lying -- and should be confronted -- but then again maybe JD is just that damn stupid.

If that's the case, he especially does not need to be running for office because he doesn't understand how the government works.

Kamala Harris has issued zero executive orders. When he claims she's issued even one, he's lying.

One more thing, JD's losing his hair. Have you noticed how much his hairline has retreated in the last year?

Settle down into the clickety clack
With the clouds and the stars to read
Dreaming of the pleasure I'm going to have
Watching your hairline recede
My vain darling
Watching your hair and clouds and stars

-- "Just Like This Train," written by Joni Mitchell, first appears on her COURT & SPARK

And, for those waking up slowly this morning, that hairline? Joni's singing about the awful James Taylor. Her "vain darling." And if you're still not processing, that's the same vanity from the same man that inspired this song.

Yes, James did take a plane to Saratoga. And, yes, in her opera ROMULUS HUNT: A FAMILY OPERA, when the ex-husband shows up at their son's performance, Carly quotes "You're So Vain" to underscore what the ex-husband truly is.

And Donald spent the weekend showing us who he truly was. Friday, Donald menaced Aurora, Colorado. Before he took the stage, professional hate merchants and liars White Nationalist Stephen Miller and groping whore Lauren Boebert fed the crowd lies about Venezuelan gang members taking over the city. Then Donald took the stage and hit the lie even harder. Matthew Chapman (RAW STORY) reports that Aurora's mayor -- Republican Mike Coffman -- declared, "There were thousands of people who attended the rally today, some of whom might have visited Aurora for the first time, who were able to see firsthand the mischaracterizations of our great community."

Sebastian Murdoch (HUFFINGTON POST) reminds, "On Thursday, Trump gave a long, rambling speech in Detroit, where he trashed the city he was speaking in, attempted to define the word “grocery” and got defensive about the crowds at his events" while OK! notes, "The Republican recently raised concerns after he dubbed Election Day on November 5 will be 'Liberation Day' for the United States and that he would hunt down" and deport undocumented immigrants if he wins the 2024 election." Ashleigh Fields (THE HILL) notes:

Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D) told viewers that former President Trump “does not have the ability to tell the truth” during a Saturday appearance on MSNBC.

“Even those people that are in need in North Carolina, or Georgia, or Tennessee, or whatever state, Florida, that they’re in need, they literally are harming themselves because he does not have the ability to tell the truth about what it takes to get help, and he thinks it’s going to help him in the campaign,” the Harris-Walz campaign co-chair said on air.

“At the end of the day, you cannot say that you’re a leader when you’re absolutely seeking to harm people, and that’s who he is,” she added.

And Igor Bobic and Arthur Delaney (HUFFINGTON POST) note:

Even by the usual Donald Trump standards, this week was bonkers.

The Republican presidential nominee went on unhinged, racist rants against women and immigrants, denigrated one of the largest majority-Black cities in the U.S., threatened news networks with retaliation and spread falsehoods about critical assistance to people devastated by back-to-back hurricanes that ravaged several states.

The former president flooded the zone with so many ridiculous and offensive things that individual comments struggled to break through the noise. Some Republicans pushed back against a few of the most outrageous lies, without calling Trump out, while the overwhelming volume of garbage forced the media to move on.

What's going on? Juliann Ventura (THE HILL) quotes Jared Polis, Governor of Colorado, stating, "I don't know if it's, you know, some say it's cognitive decline, whatever — whatever it is." Rachel Sharp (INDEPENDENT) notes Chris Christie declared, "I saw decline in his skills in '20 from '16, and you see significant declines still." Travis Gettys (RAW STORY) reports:

Panelists on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" debated whether Donald Trump's mental fitness should be more of a campaign issue.

Co-host Mika Brzezinski started off Friday morning's episode with a profane takedown of the former president's rambling haranguing in Detroit, and she convened a panel later on to discuss whether Trump is showing signs of age-related mental illness.

"I want to point out, it never was a huge story that Donald Trump promised a day of violence to solve crime," Brzezinski said. "What is that? What are you talking about? A day of violence, are people going to run around shooting people in the country? I'm actually serious. Take a look at what has already happened in a Trump administration, even if it was on the end of it, where he had people being beaten in [Lafayette] Park. There was Jan. 6. This was when there were a modicum of restraints. He is going to hire who he wants to hire. You can bring up Project 25 and have people knock it down, saying Trump has nothing to do with it. He does. You can also listen to what he says. A day of violence? I'm scared."

The only thing worse than the Convicted Felon are the racists who support him and the disgusting people he wants to build an administration with.

Let's start with his racist followers first. Kathleen Culliton (RAW STORY) reports:

Former President Donald Trump has ramped up his campaign rhetoric by taking it back to a terrifying time in global history — 1930s Germany, experts told Politico Saturday.

Trump's claims that migrants have "bad genes" and will "cut your throat" mimic the lies and feed on the prejudices that scholars say Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler exploited ahead of the Holocaust.

“What is so jarring to me is these are not just Nazi-like statements," said Robert Jones, founder of the Public Religion Research Institute. "These are actual Nazi sentiments."

Jones comment came in response to Politico's analysis of 20 recent Trump rallies that found not only that his rhetoric is dark — but it's much darker than it used to be, and more specific.

"He is no longer just talking about keeping immigrants out of the country, building a wall and banning Muslims from entering the United States," Politico wrote. "Trump now warns that migrants have already invaded, destroying the country from inside its borders, which he uses as a means to justify a second-term policy agenda that includes building massive detention camps and conducting mass deportations."

[. . .]

Jones told the outlet Trump's increasingly threatening language has close similarities to Hitler's and, should Trump win the presidential election, he could take the nation to a similar place.

“Hitler used the word vermin and rats multiple times in Mein Kampf to talk about Jews," Jones said. "These are not accidental or coincidental references. We have clear, 20th century historical precedent with this kind of political language, and we see where it leads.”

And Will Carless (USA TODAY) reports:

At a campaign event last week for GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance, attendees waved placards emblazoned with a slogan that is also used by a notorious white supremacist group. Meanwhile, anti-drag and anti-LGBTQ hate sees a resurgence this week, and a new report shows extremists and conspiracy theorists spinning up lies in the wake of Hurricane Helene.

It’s the week in extremism, from USA TODAY.

At a Trump/Vance campaign rally in Saginaw, Michigan, late last week, attendees held up placards bearing the slogan “Reclaim America.” That’s the main slogan of the Texas-headquartered white supremacist hate group Patriot Front, which took to social media to question whether the signs were a tacit endorsement.

Video from the event shows Trump supporters waving placards with the “Reclaim America” slogan behind the speakers.
Patriot Front, which specializes in spreading white supremacist propaganda and holding events where chino-clad masked men march around chanting and waving flags, portrays itself as a protector of “European heritage.” Leaks and infiltration of the group have revealed it is a hardcore racist neo–Nazi organization.
Members of Patriot Front have been charged with conspiracy to riot and the organization is being sued in at least two high-profile cases.
This week, the official Patriot Front Telegram channel proudly announced the Trump campaign had “adopted” the reclaim America slogan, posting: “The phrase "Reclaim America" is a well-known slogan of Patriot Front. It remains unclear whether the Trump campaign is aware of this connection and PF's use of the phrase, especially since a simple Google search of the slogan will return a plethora of results featuring the organization.”
The Trump/Vance campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Now let's look at his would-be team. Sara Boboltz (HUFFINGTON POST) reports on Donald's MAGA wet dream Mike Davis:

Davis spoke to far-right pundit Benny Johnson one year ago about what he would do as acting attorney general — or as he referred to it, his “three-week reign of terror.”

“Before I get chased out of town with my Trump pardon, I will rain hell on Washington, D.C.,” he told Johnson, reminding him how they’d discussed the subject in the past.

Davis listed his main objectives: fire “a lot of people” in the executive branch; indict Joe Biden, who defeated Trump in the 2020 presidential election; deport “10 million people and growing,” or about 3% of the country’s population; detain “a lot of people” in Guantanamo Bay and “the D.C. gulag”; and pardon those charged over the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“We’re going to put kids in cages. It’s going to be glorious,” Davis said of migrant children.

The former president’s son Donald Trump Jr. and far-right pundit Steve Bannon both sang Davis’ praises in a profile of the “Make America Great Again” loyalist published last month in Politico. In front of reporter Adam Wren, Trump Jr. told Davis he wanted him to be attorney general “all four years” of a second Trump term.

As outrageous as Mike Davis is, he does fit in with the psychos around Trump. Evan Williams (TAG24 NEWS) reports:

Roger Stone, a long-time ally of former-President Donald Trump, was caught on tape calling for "armed guards" to be deployed at polling stations in the upcoming election.

In audio published by Rolling Stone, Roger Stone tells an undercover reporter: "We have to fight it out on a state-by-state basis, but you have to be ready,"

"When they throw us out of Detroit, you go get a court order, you come in with your own armed guards, and you... and you dispute it. Instead, our guys just left," he says.

[. . .]

In 2019, Stone was indicted on charges of witness tampering, obstruction of justice, and making false statements to Congress.

Since 2020, he has been a leading voice in a campaign to delegitimize the results of that year's election, and has regularly lent his voice to false conspiracy theories of Trump being "robbed" of a second term.

There's a lot at stake with this election.