July 24, 2020

The problem with Trump's strange denial in his new golf scandal

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/problem-trump-s-strange-denial-his-new-golf-scandal-n1234680?icid=recommended

The problem with Trump's strange denial in his new golf scandal
Trump appears to have used government personnel to direct foreign money into one of his own struggling businesses. Even his denial reeks of corruption.

Some of Donald Trump's scandals are complex and take time to disentangle. The new British Open scandal is striking in its simplicity.

The New York Times reported this week that the president urged his ambassador to the U.K. to try to get British officials to steer a lucrative golf tournament to the Trump Turnberry resort in Scotland, one of the president's struggling businesses. The reporting is very easy to believe, not only because of Trump's routine corruption, but also because the ambassador, billionaire donor Woody Johnson, apparently told several colleagues about the president's request, which he acted on.

In case there were any lingering doubts, career diplomat Lewis Lukens, Johnson's deputy in London, confirmed that he warned the ambassador that pressing British officials to boost Trump's private business would be unethical. (Lukens was later fired.)

Initially, the White House had literally nothing to say about the controversy, which was notable in its own right, but at yesterday's press briefing, a reporter specifically asked the president whether he asked Johnson to do this. Trump replied:

"No, I never spoke to Woody Johnson about that, about Turnberry. Turnberry is a highly respected course, as you know, one of the best in the world. And I read a story about it today and I had never, I never spoke to Woody Johnson about doing that. No."

First, there's ample reason to believe Trump's denial is a lie. After all, there's no reason for Johnson, the president's financial supporter and handpicked ambassador, to make this up.

Second, even the denial reeks of corruption. In response to a question about misusing his office to help his business, the president used the White House podium to praise and promote his business.

What's more, if Trump is under the impression that his denial will help make the questions go away, he's likely to be disappointed. Keep in mind that in the NYT's initial reporting we learned that complaints were raised with the State Department’s Office of the Inspector General last fall. The article added, "The findings were submitted in February, and the complaints are expected to be included, according to one of the investigators. It is not clear why the review has not been made public."

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/problem-trump-s-strange-denial-his-new-golf-scandal-n1234680?icid=recommended

July 24, 2020

Justice Dept forced to correct AG Bill Barr's latest tall tale

Justice Dept forced to correct AG Bill Barr's latest tall tale
“To give you an idea of what’s possible, the FBI went in very strong into Kansas City and within 2 weeks we’ve had 200 arrests,” Barr said, despite reality

It's not exactly a secret that Donald Trump and his team are eager to steer the national conversation toward a focus on violent crime. To that end Attorney General Bill Barr held a press conference yesterday to talk up Operation Legend, a federal anti-crime initiative, which Barr said had resulted in hundreds of arrests in Kansas City.

“Just to give you an idea of what’s possible, the FBI went in very strong into Kansas City and within two weeks we’ve had 200 arrests,” Barr said.

This came as quite a surprise to many people in Kansas City, who had no idea what the attorney general was talking about. As the Kansas City Star reported, the Justice Department found it necessary to correct Barr soon after.

Speaking with McClatchy after the Wednesday event, the senior Justice Department official clarified that the 200 figure included arrests dating back to December 2019. It also included, the official said, both state and FBI arrests in joint operations. The official said Barr was referring to the number of arrests made in the city since the launch of Operation Relentless Pursuit, a precursor effort to Operation Legend that surged federal agents in U.S. cities facing crime waves, including Kansas City.

This isn't to say the new Operation Legend has been completely pointless. One young man, Monty W. Ray, was arrested by federal law enforcement late last week and is now facing drug and firearm charges. The accused is apparently the first criminal complaint made in connection with Barr's new crackdown.

This led the Star to add, "Officials in Kansas City said they had no knowledge of any number arrests close to Barr’s figure. When asked just before 11 a.m. Tuesday if there had been any additional arrests since Ray, Don Ledford, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Kansas City, said 'No, not that I’m aware of.'”


That makes it sound as if Barr, after claiming there'd been 200 arrests, was off by 199.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/justice-dept-forced-correct-ag-bill-barr-s-latest-tall-n1234696

July 24, 2020

Trump's briefings were meant to show him in charge -- now they are becoming absurd

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/24/politics/donald-trump-coronavirus-briefing-jacksonville/index.html

(CNN)President Donald Trump says the country is doing great in a pandemic that just infected its four millionth US victim and is killing 1,000 people a day. But his claim is based on a brazen confidence trick, requiring Americans to ignore his responsibility for the spike in the southern and western states as he claims credit for the success of northeastern states that suppressed the disease after not heeding his advice to reopen before the virus was under control.

And that might not even be the most outrageous thing the President said at his third briefing in as many days.


The President, after months mocking mask wearing and social distancing guidelines, trawled for credit and claimed he was setting an "example" after deciding to cancel Republican convention events in Covid-battered Florida.
Though deeming the situation too dangerous to hold the quadrennial political showpiece, he nevertheless insisted that it was perfectly safe for children to go back to school full time in a few weeks.


Trump used northeastern states like New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, which lowered their infection curve with strict stay-at-home orders, as part of a misleading argument that much of the US was free of the virus. What he didn't say is that those states succeeded because they ignored his calls to reopen.


"That's really very much indicating where the problems are," Trump said, referencing a map showing less virus penetration in the Northeast and central plains states, where fewer people live, than across the sunbelt.
"You see from that -- it's in great shape, lots of it," Trump said.

"The Northeast has become very clean. The country is in very good shape other than if you look south and west, some problems that'll all work out," the President said.

States that disregarded scientific advice to satisfy government benchmarks on reopening, many led by pro-Trump governors and that backed him in 2016 -- like Texas, Florida and Arizona -- are now in the middle of a Covid-19 nightmare. Florida, for example, registered 10,249 new cases and 173 additional deaths on Thursday, breaking the previous record of 156 deaths on July 16, according to the state's department of health.

July 24, 2020

New Lincoln project ad..failure

July 24, 2020

"Is this a holdup or something?" woman to black delivery man

Video of a white woman rudely accosting a Black Postmates driver and blocking him from delivering food inside her Los Angeles building has gone viral.

https://twitter.com/notcapnamerica/status/1286339538495975427

“Is this a holdup or something?” the woman asks Jordan Mykel Gipson in one of two videos documenting the interaction and posted on Instagram.

“Just take it off,” she demands, during the exchange.

“I’m glad I was here,” she says in the other video as she blocks the door of her building while Gipson buzzes his customer while clearly holding a bag of restaurant food.

“We don’t want your delivery,” the woman states. “I don’t want you. I don’t want you here. I don’t want you here at all.”

The unidentified woman then berates her neighbor over the intercom and accuses Gipson of appearing out of nowhere and using the food as a ruse, even though he calmly explained his car was parked nearby.



https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-white-woman-blocks-black-delivery-person-from-building-20200723-vw2u6qqtrrh2bkbgevnu5xsyw4-story.html

July 23, 2020

Faux news wants Trump to get points for acknowledging virus getting worse... gets pushback

https://www.foxnews.com/media/trump-admits-virus-getting-worse-press-pans-him-anyway
Trump admits virus getting worse, press pans him anyway

But isn’t it a positive step for Trump, after many weeks of playing down the coronavirus, to say “it will probably, unfortunately, get worse before it gets better”?

Isn’t it a step in the right direction for the president to stop talking about little “embers” around the country and say we also have “big fires,” naming Florida as an example? Especially with a surge in new cases in the South and West, and the country surpassing 1,000 deaths in a single day?

https://www.foxnews.com/media/trump-admits-virus-getting-worse-press-pans-him-anyway

--------------------------comments-----------------------------------------------------------

He rightfully is being panned. What he has brought on this country through negligence, greed and mis-information will not be forgotten.

Of course hes being panned. Too little too late. He's been his own worse enemy. And now you Trump supporters are like a dog biting it's own tail, just getting madder and madder.

Trump supporters please tell him to cool out, he's his own worst enemy. We need him to have a second term to keep the country from going off a cliff to the Left. He gonna increase Democratic turnout which is the only way he could lose.

Of course they pan him for it, and they should. The supposed leader of the free world shouldn't be forced to "admit" obvious reality. The fact that he "admits" it is exactly the problem, kinda like "admitting" the sky is blue... and even then it's obvious that he's only doing it out of desperation caused by polling. Maybe if he had "admitted" that reality exists from the start the response wouldn't have been such garbage and we wouldn't be looking at 150k+ dead and rising.

I give him credit. He tried hard not to sound insane. That might fool some people with very, very short memories, but what the heck, go for it.

Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me 38,542 times, I must be a Trump cult member.

July 23, 2020

Texas sets single-day high for fatalities and California sees record 12,000 cases

The number of infections across the country was nearing a staggering four million cases on Thursday and more than 143,000 Americans have now died from COVID-19
In the past week, the average number of daily cases has reached 66,000 and, based on that trajectory, cases will increase by one million by the first week of August
Daily deaths surpassed 1,000 on Wednesday for the second time this week, while new cases reached 71,000
There has been an uptick in deaths, on average, across the US since the beginning of July after hotspot states including Florida, Texas and Arizona saw explosions in cases and hospitalizations
Texas on Wednesday set one-day records for increases in COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations in the state
Meanwhile, California surpassed New York on Wednesday to have the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the country

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8552655/US-track-1-MILLION-new-COVID-19-cases-two-weeks.html

July 23, 2020

"Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV." -- Trump pushes back on those who think he's not all there

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1286176726062632965

July 23, 2020

video of hockey stick and leaf blower used to send tear gas back

https://twitter.com/MrOlmos/status/1285110589606334465

July 22, 2020

President pressured Woody Johnson to ask UK government to bring event to Turnberry

NYT: Trump Made Big Ask of US Ambassador on British Open
Sources: President pressured Woody Johnson to ask UK government to bring event to Turnberry


(NEWSER) – Robert Wood Johnson IV, the New York Jets owner and Trump donor with no diplomatic experience before being tapped as the US ambassador to Britain, was apparently just the person the president thought could handle a big job: Ask the British government if it could help get the British Open golf tourney onto Trump's Turnberry resort in Scotland. That's what multiple sources tell the New York Times, which reports Johnson felt pressure to broach the subject with David Mundell, then Scotland's secretary of state. Lewis Lukens, Johnson's deputy, warned Johnson that making such an ask would be ethically unsavory, the sources say. A few months later, Johnson fired Lukens, after Lukens emailed State Department colleagues about the request. Mundell himself is staying tight-lipped, with a UK government statement noting Johnson "made no request of Mr. Mundell" on the Open.

Turnberry has long been losing money, despite the family pumping $150 million into it. The Times points out that although Trump as president isn't affected by a federal conflict-of-interest law, he has to adhere to the Constitution's emoluments ban on federal officials accepting gifts from foreign governments. Norm Eisen, who was President Obama's special counsel for ethics, says such a move by an ambassador would be "diplomatic malpractice." "Once you do that, you put yourself in a compromised position," he says. "No experienced diplomat would do that." The only word from the State Department comes via a statement: "We stand by Ambassador Johnson and look forward to him continuing to ensure our special relationship with the UK is strong." Meanwhile, the golf association that runs the British Open says it hasn't been approached by the UK or Scottish governments on this request.

https://www.newser.com/story/293944/nyt-trump-made-big-ask-of-us-ambassador-on-british-open.html?utm_source=part&utm_medium=uol&utm_campaign=rss_top