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Top 10 Conservative Idiots #9-15: Wouldn't It Be Nice Edition
Top 10 Conservative Idiots #9-15: Wouldn’t It Be Nice Edition
Welcome back to the Top 10 Conservative Idiots! How’s everybody doing? Are you guys doing fucking good? I know, right? This is our last Top 10 before the regular election. Now you might be wondering – why is this? And I answer you, sir or madam, is that this is the most important election of our lifetime and we can’t afford any screwups. I will be taking two weeks off because you don’t need my commentary or tomfoolery. I mean I appreciate you viewing our little program here, but you can definitely do without me until the election. What? Just my commentary and a few mildly amusing jokes interspliced with some Simpons GIFs? Yeah no I am not needed this week or next. Because we have 14 fucking days until the end of this thing and we’ve covered the entirety of the Donald J. Trump administration over 4 years and 216 editions, that’s 2,160 entries. And I know y’all haven’t seen a lot of these, so if you’re looking for some fresh content, just go check out one of the older editions and pretend it’s a new one. I’m just going to sit here and browse Simpsons related Twitter feeds on my phone. Hey, I voted. It’s time for everyone else to do the same! So go, go on, vote. We will come back once the dust has settled on 11/11. Once we hand Trump the eviction notice he so badly deserves, we can get back to having life again. OK that’s enough of the intro. We have a lot of idiocy to get to. But first Jon Oliver is back and he delves into why the World Health Organization is important and why the US is making a mistake not to participate:
So where do we begin for our final Top 10 before the 2020 election to end all elections? The top slot this week is going to go to of course the guy who we currently and inexplicably still call president, Donald J. Trump (1). Yeah so he enlisted the reigning kings of fake news, the New York Post, in an attempt to smear Hunter Biden, and it backfired on him to the point where he and his supporters got kicked off of social media outlets! So much for the “October Surprise”. In the second slot this week, is also Donald J. Trump (2) and despite that there’s still a raging pandemic, he isn’t stopping his super-spreader rallies, and his one in Iowa last week was particularly insane. In the number 3 slot this week is California Republicans (3) – they have had quite the banner week whether it was Gavin Newsom fighting with Trump or some light election fraud, we’ve got everything boiled down to a single entry! In the fourth slot this week is Conservative Rappers (4). Yes, this is a thing and it’s not just limited to Kanye, everyone from 50 Cent to Ice Cube is weighing in their opinions on the election! In the number 5 slot this week is our weekly investigative piece, Top 10 Investigates, and this week we’re going to take a look at COVID cures – the WHO found 4 to be completely bogus, and one is Trump’s favorite drug of choice, hydroxycholorquine! I’m shocked, shocked I tell you! Taking the 6th slot this week is of course our weekly visit to the Holy Church Of The Top 10 in “Holy Shit” (6) and this week the Vatican has been putting priests on trial! Our resident pastor is going to dial up his Pope Hotline to find out what’s up! Taking the 7th slot this week is a new This Fucking Guy (7) and while Trump has been harping on Hunter Biden, we profile his idiot sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr! In the 8th slot this week is a new edition of Conspiracy Corner (8) and the right still will not shut up about Benghazi and I’m not going to point fingers, but it goes all the way to the president! In the number 9 (NEIN!!) slot this week we have a new I Need A Drink and this week we’re going to get drunk and finally talk about politics, because Ice Cube has been pegged as a Trump supporter and it’s causing the internet to lose their minds! But whose side is he really on? Finally this week in Road To The White House (10), it’s our last one before the election and we’re going to have our final thoughts on what has been a certainly insane primary that got hijacked by COVID-19. Enjoy! And as always don’t forget the key!
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[font size="8"]Donald Trump
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OK so you know how every single election going back to 1960 there’s always some sort of gigantic breaking news story like two weeks before the election that seems to favor one candidate over another that puts themselves in a position to win it all? Well it happened back in 2016 when the Comey Hillary e-mail story first broke. Trump got a taste of the high life in 2016 when he first won. This time, 4 years later, he’s again try to find the proverbial “October Surprise”. Only this time he’s completely full of shit and we know that he’s completely full of shit. Trump is attempting to lay the smackdown on Hunter Biden using his fixer and it’s backfiring on him big time.
President Donald Trump demanded that Attorney General William Barr open an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, just two weeks before Election Day.
“We’ve got to get the attorney general to act,” Trump said Tuesday in a phone interview with the TV show “Fox & Friends,” in response to a question about whether a special prosecutor should be appointed to probe unsubstantiated allegations against Hunter Biden.
“And he’s got to act fast. He’s got to appoint somebody,” Trump added, saying it should be done before the Nov. 3 election.
The president has publicly called for Barr to probe a number of his political opponents ahead of the election, including former President Barack Obama and Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, in addition to the Bidens.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-20/trump-demands-attorney-general-barr-investigate-hunter-biden
“We’ve got to get the attorney general to act,” Trump said Tuesday in a phone interview with the TV show “Fox & Friends,” in response to a question about whether a special prosecutor should be appointed to probe unsubstantiated allegations against Hunter Biden.
“And he’s got to act fast. He’s got to appoint somebody,” Trump added, saying it should be done before the Nov. 3 election.
The president has publicly called for Barr to probe a number of his political opponents ahead of the election, including former President Barack Obama and Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, in addition to the Bidens.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-20/trump-demands-attorney-general-barr-investigate-hunter-biden
That is a good question – why? Well Trump is a mob boss and he’s using his fixer to fix the election by trying to make Hunter Biden look like the most corrupt POS on the face of the planet. But he’s really not, and neither is his father. That’s the thing – Trump is trying to throw shade where there isn’t, and people are finally starting to see through his lies and red tape, and are finally getting bored of the MAGA movement in general. But what about Trump’s own kids – mainly his daughter Ivanka and her equally shady husband Jared?
A recent Senate committee report entitled “Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on US Government Policy and Related Concerns” contains this statement: “The extent to which Hunter Biden’s role on Burisma’s board affected US policy toward Ukraine is not clear.”
Translation: Despite their best efforts, Senate Republicans could find no evidence that Hunter Biden’s role on the board of a Ukrainian energy company directly affected US policy toward Ukraine. If Senate Republicans had uncovered such evidence, they would deliver it, gift-wrapped, to Sean Hannity, all in the interest of tainting former vice president Joe Biden. But they could not. So, denied an official smoking gun, President Trump’s political allies turned to the smoke of a New York Post story so dubious that the staff reporter who wrote much of it refused to put his name on it, The New York Times reported.
Trump’s strategy is clear. His own children are brazenly trading on the Trump family name to advance the Trump Organization’s business interests. Changing the subject to “What about Hunter Biden?” becomes a way to project the corruption spotlight onto the Bidens and away from the Trumps. Plus, if the final weeks of the campaign are all about Hunter Biden, that allows Trump to distract from what are the real issues: Trump’s failed leadership, especially regarding the coronavirus pandemic; Trump’s ongoing commitment to dividing the country by race and political ideology, rather than trying to unite it; and Trump’s utter lack of character, integrity, and honesty.
The Hunter Biden-Burisma story isn’t pretty. The Senate committee report said the work that Hunter Biden did in Ukraine, for which he was paid $50,000 a month, created a conflict of interest when his father, as vice president, was the public face of the Obama administration’s handling of Ukraine. Hunter Biden — who clearly has had challenges in life — “cashed in” on his father’s name, the report said, raising concerns from at least two Obama administration officials. Still, the report found no clear connection between his role with Burisma and US policy with Ukraine. The New York Post is trying to establish one, with its story alleging that Hunter Biden helped arrange a 2015 meeting between a Burisma executive and his father. The Biden campaign says no meeting, as alleged by the Post, took place.
https://subscribe.bostonglobe.com/B6570/?p1=BG_Meter_Meter1
Translation: Despite their best efforts, Senate Republicans could find no evidence that Hunter Biden’s role on the board of a Ukrainian energy company directly affected US policy toward Ukraine. If Senate Republicans had uncovered such evidence, they would deliver it, gift-wrapped, to Sean Hannity, all in the interest of tainting former vice president Joe Biden. But they could not. So, denied an official smoking gun, President Trump’s political allies turned to the smoke of a New York Post story so dubious that the staff reporter who wrote much of it refused to put his name on it, The New York Times reported.
Trump’s strategy is clear. His own children are brazenly trading on the Trump family name to advance the Trump Organization’s business interests. Changing the subject to “What about Hunter Biden?” becomes a way to project the corruption spotlight onto the Bidens and away from the Trumps. Plus, if the final weeks of the campaign are all about Hunter Biden, that allows Trump to distract from what are the real issues: Trump’s failed leadership, especially regarding the coronavirus pandemic; Trump’s ongoing commitment to dividing the country by race and political ideology, rather than trying to unite it; and Trump’s utter lack of character, integrity, and honesty.
The Hunter Biden-Burisma story isn’t pretty. The Senate committee report said the work that Hunter Biden did in Ukraine, for which he was paid $50,000 a month, created a conflict of interest when his father, as vice president, was the public face of the Obama administration’s handling of Ukraine. Hunter Biden — who clearly has had challenges in life — “cashed in” on his father’s name, the report said, raising concerns from at least two Obama administration officials. Still, the report found no clear connection between his role with Burisma and US policy with Ukraine. The New York Post is trying to establish one, with its story alleging that Hunter Biden helped arrange a 2015 meeting between a Burisma executive and his father. The Biden campaign says no meeting, as alleged by the Post, took place.
https://subscribe.bostonglobe.com/B6570/?p1=BG_Meter_Meter1
Um… just a little? This is a whole lot of shade. It’s a boat load of shade. And once again like literally all things with Trump, it all comes back to Russia. That’s right – the Russkies might be involved in influencing Trump’s Hunter Biden smear. I mean isn’t it obvious by now? If you hang with Trump you’re going to get a virus, and the Russians might be involved somehow. But really it’s seriously weird how everything with Trump almost always comes back to Russia.
A New York tabloid’s puzzling account about how it acquired emails purportedly from Joe Biden’s son has raised some red flags. One of the biggest involves the source of the emails: Rudy Giuliani.
Giuliani has traveled abroad looking for dirt on the Bidens, developing relationships with shadowy figures, including a Ukrainian lawmaker who U.S. officials have described as a Russian agent and part of a broader Russian effort to denigrate the Democratic presidential nominee.
Yet Giuliani says foreign sources didn’t provide the Hunter Biden emails. He says a laptop containing the emails and intimate photos was simply abandoned in a Delaware repair shop and the shop owner reached out to Giuliani’s lawyer.
That hasn’t stopped the FBI from investigating whether the emails are part of a foreign influence operation. The emails have surfaced as U.S. officials have been warning that Russia, which backed Trump’s 2016 campaign through hacking of Democratic emails and a covert social media campaign, is interfering again this year. The latest episode with Giuliani underscores the risk he poses to a White House that spent years confronted by a federal investigation into whether Trump associates had coordinated with Russia.
https://www.nbc15.com/2020/10/18/fbi-probing-if-russia-involved-in-hunter-biden-email-story/
Giuliani has traveled abroad looking for dirt on the Bidens, developing relationships with shadowy figures, including a Ukrainian lawmaker who U.S. officials have described as a Russian agent and part of a broader Russian effort to denigrate the Democratic presidential nominee.
Yet Giuliani says foreign sources didn’t provide the Hunter Biden emails. He says a laptop containing the emails and intimate photos was simply abandoned in a Delaware repair shop and the shop owner reached out to Giuliani’s lawyer.
That hasn’t stopped the FBI from investigating whether the emails are part of a foreign influence operation. The emails have surfaced as U.S. officials have been warning that Russia, which backed Trump’s 2016 campaign through hacking of Democratic emails and a covert social media campaign, is interfering again this year. The latest episode with Giuliani underscores the risk he poses to a White House that spent years confronted by a federal investigation into whether Trump associates had coordinated with Russia.
https://www.nbc15.com/2020/10/18/fbi-probing-if-russia-involved-in-hunter-biden-email-story/
And speaking of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, the GOP’s equivalent of Kevin Bacon, Rudy Guilaini, somehow has his creepy claws in this story and well this is where it gets weird. And once again he tends to fuck everything up that he touches. And if the mob – Trump and Guiliani are involved – that’s when things start to go fuck up. Just remember kids – if Rudy comes out and sees his shadow, that means 8 more months of nuclear winter!
When the New York Post published the alleged contents of a computer hard drive purporting to document the Ukrainian and Chinese business activities of Hunter Biden, the newspaper cast the information as a "smoking gun."
Enter the FBI.
Less than three weeks before one of the most contentious presidential campaigns in history, federal authorities are investigating whether the material supplied to the Post by Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, is part of a smoke bomb of disinformation pushed by Russia.
The inquiry, according to a person familiar with the matter, is at least in part, aimed at determining whether Russia has set its sights on a familiar target: Biden's father, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. The person is not authorized to comment on the matter publicly and asked not to be named in order to speak candidly.
The FBI has declined to comment, refusing to either confirm or deny the existence of an investigation.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/10/17/fbi-probes-possible-russia-link-hunter-biden-data-trump-ally-giuliani/3661895001/
Enter the FBI.
Less than three weeks before one of the most contentious presidential campaigns in history, federal authorities are investigating whether the material supplied to the Post by Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, is part of a smoke bomb of disinformation pushed by Russia.
The inquiry, according to a person familiar with the matter, is at least in part, aimed at determining whether Russia has set its sights on a familiar target: Biden's father, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. The person is not authorized to comment on the matter publicly and asked not to be named in order to speak candidly.
The FBI has declined to comment, refusing to either confirm or deny the existence of an investigation.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/10/17/fbi-probes-possible-russia-link-hunter-biden-data-trump-ally-giuliani/3661895001/
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[font size="8"]Donald Trump
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We are literally two weeks away from the election where we will hopefully send our current and inexplicable president Donald Trump and the Christian right the eviction notice that they wholeheartedly deserve. And he’s losing it big time. I wanted to talk about his Iowa rally but then he had to come to my home turf of Orange County and throw quite the shit show of one of last and final stops on the World COVID Deplorable Tour 2020. The venue? Newport Beach and the support? None other than the legendary group the Beach Boys. And that’s mainly what I wanted to talk about for this entry – the feud between the Beach Boys is still going strong 60 years later!
Two of the original Beach Boys, Brian Wilson and Al Jardine, made it clear on Sunday they had no part in the performance at a fundraiser for President Trump by the current touring version of their group headed by Mike Love.
Speaking to Variety through a spokesperson, Wilson and Jardine said, “We have absolutely nothing to do with the Trump benefit today in Newport Beach. Zero. We didn’t even know about it and were very surprised to read about it in the Los Angeles Times.”
The Beach Boys performed on Sunday at a short fundraising event in Orange County where ticket prices started at $2,800 and went as high as $150,000.
This is not the first time the two members have chosen to disassociate themselves with the band's appearances at a Trump event. In February they both signed on to a Change.org petition calling for a boycott of the touring Beach Boys due to the group headlining an event at the Safari Club International where Donald Trump Jr. was a keynote speaker. In a statement they said they were both strongly opposed to trophy hunting, which the organization supports.
https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/521674-al-jardine-denounce-beach-boys-appearance-at-trump-fundraiser
Speaking to Variety through a spokesperson, Wilson and Jardine said, “We have absolutely nothing to do with the Trump benefit today in Newport Beach. Zero. We didn’t even know about it and were very surprised to read about it in the Los Angeles Times.”
The Beach Boys performed on Sunday at a short fundraising event in Orange County where ticket prices started at $2,800 and went as high as $150,000.
This is not the first time the two members have chosen to disassociate themselves with the band's appearances at a Trump event. In February they both signed on to a Change.org petition calling for a boycott of the touring Beach Boys due to the group headlining an event at the Safari Club International where Donald Trump Jr. was a keynote speaker. In a statement they said they were both strongly opposed to trophy hunting, which the organization supports.
https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/521674-al-jardine-denounce-beach-boys-appearance-at-trump-fundraiser
Yes, wouldn’t it be nice? I mean even two of the original Beach Boys – that’s Brian Wilson and Al Jardine – have condemned this idiotic fundraiser appearance. And we’re still in the middle of the COVID pandemic so that makes having concerts even worse! So yes the third remaining original member of the legendary group – Mike Love – is a MAGA! So the Beach Boys were already apart as a band, Mike Love being a MAGA is making it even worse!
On Sunday, for somewhere between $2,800 and $150,000, you could go see the Beach Boys play a Donald Trump fundraiser in Newport Beach, California. The idea was to help solve a cash flow problem for Trump—“no one really thinks about how Orange County, California, is an ATM machine,” Jon Fleischman, a former Republican state official, told the Los Angeles Times. Whether or not the event raised enough money to meaningfully help Trump, it has at least revived an intra-Beach Boys rift.
The Beach Boys’ touring group is currently led by Mike Love, but doesn’t include all the members most associated with the band’s best-known work. “We have absolutely nothing to do with the Trump benefit today in Newport Beach. Zero,” Brian Wilson and Al Jardine told Variety through a spokesperson. “We didn’t even know about it and were very surprised to read about it in the Los Angeles Times.”
As the trade noted, the last time all the surviving members of the Beach Boys performed together was in 2012, for a 50th anniversary tour. More recently, Wilson and Jardine have toured together under Wilson’s name, sometimes playing Beach Boys songs, while Love has the license to use the band name for his concerts.
https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2020/10/trump-california-fundraiser-beach-boys-rift
The Beach Boys’ touring group is currently led by Mike Love, but doesn’t include all the members most associated with the band’s best-known work. “We have absolutely nothing to do with the Trump benefit today in Newport Beach. Zero,” Brian Wilson and Al Jardine told Variety through a spokesperson. “We didn’t even know about it and were very surprised to read about it in the Los Angeles Times.”
As the trade noted, the last time all the surviving members of the Beach Boys performed together was in 2012, for a 50th anniversary tour. More recently, Wilson and Jardine have toured together under Wilson’s name, sometimes playing Beach Boys songs, while Love has the license to use the band name for his concerts.
https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2020/10/trump-california-fundraiser-beach-boys-rift
That was the Beach Boys way back when! I can hear grandparents back then complaining about music then, and our grandparents complain about music now, and soon when we’re grandparents, we’ll be complaining about our grandkids’ music! See how that cycle works? And speaking of grandpa complaining about music, actual musicians are weighing in on this controversy, like David Crosby, for instance!
David Crosby has laid criticism on Mike Love, saying on Twitter that the Beach Boys co-founder and vocalist “most assuredly has no talent at all”.
Mike Love currently helms the touring edition of the Beach Boys – without co-founders Brian Wilson and Al Jardine – which just a few days ago (18 October) headlined a Trump fundraiser at Newport Beach, California.
A Twitter follower asked Crosby: “What do you think about the Beach Boys voting to let Mike Love use the name of the band to endorse the cult leader?” To which the Byrds co-founder replied, “Those aren’t the Beach Boys and I doubt they voted.”
“Mike Love is, in the opinion of almost every musician I know, a shithead, most assuredly has no talent at all, and, as you can probably tell… I just don’t like him,” Crosby continued.
https://guitar.com/news/music-news/david-crosby-beach-boys-mike-love/
Mike Love currently helms the touring edition of the Beach Boys – without co-founders Brian Wilson and Al Jardine – which just a few days ago (18 October) headlined a Trump fundraiser at Newport Beach, California.
A Twitter follower asked Crosby: “What do you think about the Beach Boys voting to let Mike Love use the name of the band to endorse the cult leader?” To which the Byrds co-founder replied, “Those aren’t the Beach Boys and I doubt they voted.”
“Mike Love is, in the opinion of almost every musician I know, a shithead, most assuredly has no talent at all, and, as you can probably tell… I just don’t like him,” Crosby continued.
https://guitar.com/news/music-news/david-crosby-beach-boys-mike-love/
Wrong band, man! Oh and you know how when a musician starts talking about their political opinions and then a million people jump on them and yell “STAY IN YOUR LANE!!!”. Well our good friend Jason Isbell, of his band Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, has a solution for that. And that is basically to shut the fuck up! And we support this opinion whole-heartedly! Just shut up and sing and pay the troll toll!
If Jason Isbell had five bucks for every time a troll’s tweeted at him to “shut up and sing,” he might not be able to purchase his second 1959 Les Paul but possibly a 1969 Les Paul. And definitely a ’79 Paul.
In addition to being a Grammy winning musician, one of rock’s great comeback stories and perhaps his generation’s most revered lyricist, Isbell is known for being politically outspoken.
Outspoken in interviews. And on social media. And of course, in his songwriting. “Be Afraid” a single from his latest album “Reunions,” even contains the lyric: “We don’t take requests/We won’t shut up and sing/Tell the truth enough/You find it rhymes with everything.”
Isbell, a Green Hill native and former Shoals resident, leans left politically. OK, more than leans.
https://www.al.com/life/2020/10/jason-isbell-why-not-ask-beach-boys-to-shut-up-and-sing-after-trump-support.html
In addition to being a Grammy winning musician, one of rock’s great comeback stories and perhaps his generation’s most revered lyricist, Isbell is known for being politically outspoken.
Outspoken in interviews. And on social media. And of course, in his songwriting. “Be Afraid” a single from his latest album “Reunions,” even contains the lyric: “We don’t take requests/We won’t shut up and sing/Tell the truth enough/You find it rhymes with everything.”
Isbell, a Green Hill native and former Shoals resident, leans left politically. OK, more than leans.
https://www.al.com/life/2020/10/jason-isbell-why-not-ask-beach-boys-to-shut-up-and-sing-after-trump-support.html
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[font size="8"]California Republicans
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Sigh… this is why we don’t get nice things. As you know the governor of my home state, the great state of California, is in a war with Trump over funding for disaster relief. And then Trump did what he always does – flip flop! You don’t mess with the Newsom! Yes, that’s the title of this week’s edition and it was the best I could come up with at the time. But that’s not what this entry is about. The republicans of California are pure fucking evil. I mean come on, we’re the state that gave the country Devin Nunes of all people. This week the California conservatives have been caught trying to rig the election and they’re failing miserably at it.
California officials lowered the temperature Friday in their legal standoff with the California Republican Party over its unauthorized ballot boxes, saying the party had committed to enough changes for now to satisfy their concerns.
Secretary of State Alex Padilla, a Democrat, said the state GOP had agreed to “no longer deploy these unstaffed, unsecured and unofficial ballot drop boxes.” The practice had drawn national interest as the major parties jockey for seats in California congressional battlegrounds that Democrats won in the 2018 midterms — and as Republicans continue to attack the state's election system.
In an earlier response to Padilla, the California Republican Party said it would continue to accept mail ballots at boxes but promised some safeguards: The boxes will be attended to whenever the public has access to them, and ballots will be secured and then delivered to elections officials within the required 72-hour frame, the party said. The party pledged to not represent those boxes as “official,” saying a volunteer had done so in error, while arguing that the process was legal due to a 2018 law that loosened collection requirements.
"If they want to continue ballot collection activity, that is legal in California, but they must abide by state law around the ballot collection program," Padilla said.
https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2020/10/16/california-allows-republican-ballot-boxes-with-safeguards-1326076
Secretary of State Alex Padilla, a Democrat, said the state GOP had agreed to “no longer deploy these unstaffed, unsecured and unofficial ballot drop boxes.” The practice had drawn national interest as the major parties jockey for seats in California congressional battlegrounds that Democrats won in the 2018 midterms — and as Republicans continue to attack the state's election system.
In an earlier response to Padilla, the California Republican Party said it would continue to accept mail ballots at boxes but promised some safeguards: The boxes will be attended to whenever the public has access to them, and ballots will be secured and then delivered to elections officials within the required 72-hour frame, the party said. The party pledged to not represent those boxes as “official,” saying a volunteer had done so in error, while arguing that the process was legal due to a 2018 law that loosened collection requirements.
"If they want to continue ballot collection activity, that is legal in California, but they must abide by state law around the ballot collection program," Padilla said.
https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2020/10/16/california-allows-republican-ballot-boxes-with-safeguards-1326076
Yeah where’s that lawyer when you need him? Seriously if you’re in one of the counties affected by the fake ballot boxes, you might want to register for Track My Ballot. But yeah this is a fight that started out with some intention and then just fizzled out. Make no mistake that the GOP is trying to rig the election and so far the numerous attempts they have had is almost like Natasha and Boris trying to catch Moose and Squirrel! Ha, I pulled that reference out of my hat!
In a press conference seemingly designed to deescalate a week-long legal standoff, declare victory and profoundly confuse the California press corps, Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Secretary of State Alex Padilla said they would not be taking legal action against the California Republican Party for its makeshift ballot box program.
But the two Democrats insisted that the GOP had changed policy in response to their warnings — a claim the Republicans denied.
“We are not going to mother or shepherd someone through every day of activity, but what we are trying to do is make it clear what the law requires,” said Becerra, two days after he threatened the California Republican Party with criminal prosecution.
“We are prepared to enforce those requirements of the law and we wait to see what the Republican Party does. Based on what we find the evidence to be in terms of their activities, that will determine what we do.”
When reporters noted that state Republican Party officials said that, in fact, they would be continuing on with their program as planned, the attorney general said that it was “the deeds not the words that count.” He also said that his office is issuing subpoenas and would continue to monitor the program.
https://www.abc10.com/article/news/politics/ballot-box-battle-california/103-dfa267a8-c876-4187-8c9e-3a68b148e5d7
But the two Democrats insisted that the GOP had changed policy in response to their warnings — a claim the Republicans denied.
“We are not going to mother or shepherd someone through every day of activity, but what we are trying to do is make it clear what the law requires,” said Becerra, two days after he threatened the California Republican Party with criminal prosecution.
“We are prepared to enforce those requirements of the law and we wait to see what the Republican Party does. Based on what we find the evidence to be in terms of their activities, that will determine what we do.”
When reporters noted that state Republican Party officials said that, in fact, they would be continuing on with their program as planned, the attorney general said that it was “the deeds not the words that count.” He also said that his office is issuing subpoenas and would continue to monitor the program.
https://www.abc10.com/article/news/politics/ballot-box-battle-california/103-dfa267a8-c876-4187-8c9e-3a68b148e5d7
Now here’s where this fight gets weird and you knew it was going to. Of course I’ve been saying this about everything that’s been happening in this incredibly shitty and dark year that is 2020. So pretty close to where we tape the Top 10 in normal times is the town of Baldwin Park – that’s the home to Knotts Berry Farm, don’t you know? Well, a ballot box caught fire there and well, it might be arson.
“The arson of an official ballot drop box … has all the signs of an attempt to disenfranchise voters and call into question the security of our elections,” Hilda L Solis, LA county supervisor, said in a statement, adding that the county has asked the state attorney general and FBI to investigate.
The LA county registrar’s office, which oversees the elections in the state’s largest county, has not responded to questions about how many ballots were affected, but said officials had last collected ballots from the site at 10am on Saturday. The fire was reported around 8pm on Sunday, and the damaged drop box location has since remained closed.
A fire department spokeswoman said three arson investigators were dispatched to the scene, and that the fire department spent nearly two hours on site responding to the blaze.
George Silva, a local resident who saw the fire on Sunday night while on a bike ride, told the Guardian firefighters initially struggled to put out the blaze.
“I saw a lot of smoke coming out of the ballot box,” said Silva, 33, who lives nearby in Baldwin Park, a majority Latino city in south LA county. “Clearly somebody lit something and threw it in there. There’s no way this was an accident. It’s completely outrageous.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/19/la-drop-box-fire-ballots-damaged-suspected-arson-attack
The LA county registrar’s office, which oversees the elections in the state’s largest county, has not responded to questions about how many ballots were affected, but said officials had last collected ballots from the site at 10am on Saturday. The fire was reported around 8pm on Sunday, and the damaged drop box location has since remained closed.
A fire department spokeswoman said three arson investigators were dispatched to the scene, and that the fire department spent nearly two hours on site responding to the blaze.
George Silva, a local resident who saw the fire on Sunday night while on a bike ride, told the Guardian firefighters initially struggled to put out the blaze.
“I saw a lot of smoke coming out of the ballot box,” said Silva, 33, who lives nearby in Baldwin Park, a majority Latino city in south LA county. “Clearly somebody lit something and threw it in there. There’s no way this was an accident. It’s completely outrageous.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/19/la-drop-box-fire-ballots-damaged-suspected-arson-attack
Yeah so everything burns, and so do ballot boxes. This is getting seriously scary and we have 13 days until the election people! We need to get our shit together! We have Joe Biden, or the biggest asshole who’s ever called himself a leader since Adolf Hitler. The good news is that the criminals will be found and prosecuted and the FBI is on it!
"This attack on a county ballot drop box was reprehensible,'' Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn said about the Sunday night fire. "Burning ballots is not just vandalism, it is an attack on our democracy and on our residents' right to vote. Whoever did this must be found and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
Crews responded to the 4100 block of Baldwin Park Boulevard, outside the Baldwin Park Library, around 8:30 p.m. and quickly put out the fire.
Inside the box were some 200 ballots, according to the Mayor of Baldwin Park Manuel Lozano.
"What we do know is that there were 230 pieces," Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan told reporters.
County officials last picked up ballots from the drop box location on Saturday, Oct. 17 at 10:10 a.m., according to the county's registrar's office.
https://www.foxla.com/news/fbi-notified-of-arson-investigation-after-ballot-drop-box-set-on-fire-in-baldwin-park
Crews responded to the 4100 block of Baldwin Park Boulevard, outside the Baldwin Park Library, around 8:30 p.m. and quickly put out the fire.
Inside the box were some 200 ballots, according to the Mayor of Baldwin Park Manuel Lozano.
"What we do know is that there were 230 pieces," Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan told reporters.
County officials last picked up ballots from the drop box location on Saturday, Oct. 17 at 10:10 a.m., according to the county's registrar's office.
https://www.foxla.com/news/fbi-notified-of-arson-investigation-after-ballot-drop-box-set-on-fire-in-baldwin-park
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[font size="8"]Black Rappers
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Black Rappers, what the hell is wrong with you? Have you been listening to Kanye again? Don’t you know that’s bad for you? Well I’m sure that you saw Ice Cube trending on Twitter last week. You know Ice Cube – friend of the show. Multi-platinum recording artist. Star of some of the best comedies and movies of the last 20 years. And now apparently he’s a MAGA for some reason. Well let’s get to the bottom of this controversy. Because last week, somehow he was outed as a MAGA, and social media just collectively lost their shit. But if you’re like Mr. Cube and you somehow see this election as a lesser of two evils, can’t you see that Biden is the lesser of two evils? I mean really?
Ice Cube, like many Americans, is looking at the upcoming presidential election as a battle of the lesser of two evils.
On Wednesday President Trump's Senior Advisor Katrina Peirson tweeted that rap legend Ice Cube is working with his administration to help develop The Platinum Plan. This proposal is a list of deliverables to the Black Community in the form of jobs, health care, and education.
Ice Cube soon put out a tweet of his own confirming that he had reached out to both the Democratic and Republican parties about discussing his Contract With Black America (CWBA). According to the 51-year-old rapper/actor/director, Democrats wanted to wait until after the election to talk about the CWBA. Trump's campaign, on the other hand, made adjustments to their plan, and is presumably using it as a method to gain the Black vote.
Many on social media were left speechless. Why would one of the most vocal Trump detractors and pioneers of gangsta rap align himself with the genre's biggest enemy?
https://www.popdust.com/is-hip-hop-conservative-2648222330.html
On Wednesday President Trump's Senior Advisor Katrina Peirson tweeted that rap legend Ice Cube is working with his administration to help develop The Platinum Plan. This proposal is a list of deliverables to the Black Community in the form of jobs, health care, and education.
Ice Cube soon put out a tweet of his own confirming that he had reached out to both the Democratic and Republican parties about discussing his Contract With Black America (CWBA). According to the 51-year-old rapper/actor/director, Democrats wanted to wait until after the election to talk about the CWBA. Trump's campaign, on the other hand, made adjustments to their plan, and is presumably using it as a method to gain the Black vote.
Many on social media were left speechless. Why would one of the most vocal Trump detractors and pioneers of gangsta rap align himself with the genre's biggest enemy?
https://www.popdust.com/is-hip-hop-conservative-2648222330.html
So that begs the question – is Ice Cube a MAGA or not? Well in addition to the Ice Cube controversy, another rapper has thrown his hat into the political ring. 50 Cent has outed himself as a MAGA because – wait for it – Trump is promising to lower his taxes! God after this election is over, I need to go take a cold shower, and bury my head in the sand until January 20th. Yes, 50 Cent is a MAGA.
An October surprise for the ages.
In a stunning announcement that surely portends something, rapper 50 Cent has endorsed President Trump for another term in office after previously criticizing him for the nation’s coronavirus failures.
The change of heart appears to have originated from 50 Cent seeing a graphic that shows Joe Biden’s tax proposal from the CNBC program “Power Lunch.”
The Biden tax plan only applies to people making more than $400,000 a year.
50 Cent immediately moves close to the top of the list of celebrities who have endorsed Donald Trump, which includes Kid Rock, Jon Voight, Roseanne Barr, Kirstie Alley, Scott Baio and several others.
https://www.nydailynews.com/snyde/ny-50-cent-endorses-president-trump-20201019-57eibalflnamraejdwdu4p6zmi-story.html
In a stunning announcement that surely portends something, rapper 50 Cent has endorsed President Trump for another term in office after previously criticizing him for the nation’s coronavirus failures.
The change of heart appears to have originated from 50 Cent seeing a graphic that shows Joe Biden’s tax proposal from the CNBC program “Power Lunch.”
The Biden tax plan only applies to people making more than $400,000 a year.
50 Cent immediately moves close to the top of the list of celebrities who have endorsed Donald Trump, which includes Kid Rock, Jon Voight, Roseanne Barr, Kirstie Alley, Scott Baio and several others.
https://www.nydailynews.com/snyde/ny-50-cent-endorses-president-trump-20201019-57eibalflnamraejdwdu4p6zmi-story.html
Roll credits! Now here’s where it gets weird. And you knew it was going to. Apparently Eric Trump got a hold of a picture that shows Ice Cube and 50 Cent together to apparently prove some bizarre theory that the two know each other, naturally they must be MAGA BFFs right? I mean seriously that’s the kind of shit third world dictators do to prove that people like them, when secretly we despise their guts!
Eric Trump on Tuesday shared a manipulated photo on Twitter of rappers Ice Cube and 50 Cent wearing “Trump” hats after both made headlines over endorsing or appearing to work with his father, President Trump.
The doctored photo, which has since been taken down, featured Ice Cube and 50 Cent sitting together, both wearing hats that say “Trump 2020.”
“Two great, courageous Americans,” Eric Trump tweeted along with the image.
Ice Cube tweeted the original photo in July as part of a birthday message to 50 Cent. In the original, both rappers are wearing baseball caps with sports logos. Ice Cube’s hat says “Big 3,” and 50 Cent's has a New York Yankees logo.
Ice Cube gained attention last week after Trump campaign adviser Katrina Pierson said he was working with the administration on its platform for African Americans.
https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/521898-eric-trump-shares-manipulated-photo-of-ice-cube-and-50-cent-in
The doctored photo, which has since been taken down, featured Ice Cube and 50 Cent sitting together, both wearing hats that say “Trump 2020.”
“Two great, courageous Americans,” Eric Trump tweeted along with the image.
Ice Cube tweeted the original photo in July as part of a birthday message to 50 Cent. In the original, both rappers are wearing baseball caps with sports logos. Ice Cube’s hat says “Big 3,” and 50 Cent's has a New York Yankees logo.
Ice Cube gained attention last week after Trump campaign adviser Katrina Pierson said he was working with the administration on its platform for African Americans.
https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/521898-eric-trump-shares-manipulated-photo-of-ice-cube-and-50-cent-in
But wait! There’s more! Here’s where it gets even weirder! The idiot Trump brothers are attempting to race bait Joe Biden and it’s backfiring on them! This is one of the strangest stories in the hip hop world since the Bernie Sanders / Public Enemy debacle back in March (see: Top 10 #8-9 ). Bottom line is that you don’t mix politics and hip-hop, and we’re saying this since we know Ice Cube wrote a song about Trump called “Arrest The President”!
Rapper Ice Cube responded to a tweet from President Donald Trump's son Eric Trump on Tuesday morning, after Trump praised him and rapper 50 Cent for "supporting" Trump's re-election campaign.
Trump shared a doctored photo of the two rappers sitting side by side, both wearing "Trump 2020" hats. The president's son called them, "Two great, courageous Americans," but Ice Cube was seemingly not pleased by the manipulated image.
"N***a please," the former N.W.A. member wrote in a quote tweet.
Eric Trump has since deleted the tweet, but it was shared in a screenshot by Buzzfeed media editor Craig Silverman. He also included a tweet from Ice Cube that included the unedited photograph of 50 Cent and Ice Cube wearing a Yankee hat and Big 3 hat, respectively.
https://www.newsweek.com/ice-cube-slaps-down-eric-trump-after-his-tweet-praising-rapper-50-cent-1540664
Trump shared a doctored photo of the two rappers sitting side by side, both wearing "Trump 2020" hats. The president's son called them, "Two great, courageous Americans," but Ice Cube was seemingly not pleased by the manipulated image.
"N***a please," the former N.W.A. member wrote in a quote tweet.
Eric Trump has since deleted the tweet, but it was shared in a screenshot by Buzzfeed media editor Craig Silverman. He also included a tweet from Ice Cube that included the unedited photograph of 50 Cent and Ice Cube wearing a Yankee hat and Big 3 hat, respectively.
https://www.newsweek.com/ice-cube-slaps-down-eric-trump-after-his-tweet-praising-rapper-50-cent-1540664
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[font size="8"]Top 10 Investigates: Hydroxychloroquine II
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It’s time to investigate beyond the headlines! This is Top 10 Investigates!
Science is desperate to find a cure for the novel coronavirus that showed up back in March and has wrecked our lives and ruined this year. But so far many attempts have been tried and almost none have succeeded. In fact since President Trump came into contact with COVID-19, his methods of treatment have been questionable at best. Most notably in the spotlight is hydroxcholorquine, a drug that is commonly used to treat lyme disease. It has been adopted by the anti-mask movement as a symbol that COVID can be cured. But can it really? In fact new studies have proven just the opposite and that a lot of the “proven cures” for COVID are nothing more than bogus snake oil. Here’s what the FDA is finding out lately.
An international group of researchers believe there is enough evidence that anti-malarial drugs could be repurposed to treat COVID-19 and that they should be assessed for efficacy in clinical trials. The review article, published online in Trends in Parasitology, outlines the evidence for the antiviral and anti-inflammatory properties of certain anti-malarial drugs that could play a role in tackling COVID-19.
The research group, from institutions across Europe, Asia and Africa, point to a combination of the drugs artesunate and pyronaridine as the most promising.
Both drugs have demonstrated antiviral effects on the SARS-CoV-2 virus in human lung cells in laboratory studies and pyronaridine is more potent than hydroxychloroquine in these tests. Artesunate also has anti-inflammatory effects and could work in a similar way to dexamethasone, which has been shown to improve survival in hospitalized COVID-19 patients receiving oxygen. And artesunate use doesn't incur the same risk of adverse effects as dexamethasone.
These drugs are both inexpensive and have a well-known safety profile, meaning they could be trialed in symptomatic patients with a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis with minimal risk. They could also easily be manufactured at scale.
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-10-anti-malarial-therapies-hydroxychloroquine-covid-.html
The research group, from institutions across Europe, Asia and Africa, point to a combination of the drugs artesunate and pyronaridine as the most promising.
Both drugs have demonstrated antiviral effects on the SARS-CoV-2 virus in human lung cells in laboratory studies and pyronaridine is more potent than hydroxychloroquine in these tests. Artesunate also has anti-inflammatory effects and could work in a similar way to dexamethasone, which has been shown to improve survival in hospitalized COVID-19 patients receiving oxygen. And artesunate use doesn't incur the same risk of adverse effects as dexamethasone.
These drugs are both inexpensive and have a well-known safety profile, meaning they could be trialed in symptomatic patients with a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis with minimal risk. They could also easily be manufactured at scale.
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-10-anti-malarial-therapies-hydroxychloroquine-covid-.html
Except that Panda Virus isn’t really a thing. At least we’re hoping that’s not a thing. So hydroxycholorquine is proving to be nothing more than a bunch of snake oil. Now that said, the anti-maskers are making a claim that Uganda has a low case count because they’ve embraced hyrdoxycholorquine in the EasternAfrican country. That’s simply not the case. That is shocking, we know. But we live in a world where facts are irrelevant!
Hydroxychloroquine has been touted by some — including President Donald Trump — as a treatment for COVID-19. But studies have found it is not an effective treatment and may cause serious side effects for some patients, as we’ve reported.
False claims about the drug nevertheless continue to circulate on social media. An article shared on Facebook from the website palmerfoundation.com.au is headlined, “Hydroxychloroquine is why Uganda, with a population of 43M, has only 15 COVID-19 deaths.”
“Uganda, a country in east-central Africa, has a 2018 population of 42.729 million, which is 13% of the United States’ population of 328.239 million in 2019,” the article says. “And yet Uganda has 1,603 COVID-19 cases and just 15 deaths (h/t Rush Limbaugh), whereas the U.S. has 5,656,744 COVID-19 cases and 175,105.”
The article continues, “This is why: Uganda is afflicted with malaria, a disease caused by parasites that enter the body through the bite of a mosquito. Malaria is common in Africa. In 2012, Uganda had the 6th highest annual deaths from malaria in Africa. Hydroxychloroquine is a drug used to treat or prevent malaria.”
https://www.factcheck.org/2020/10/ugandas-low-covid-19-cases-due-to-restrictions-not-hydroxychloroquine/
False claims about the drug nevertheless continue to circulate on social media. An article shared on Facebook from the website palmerfoundation.com.au is headlined, “Hydroxychloroquine is why Uganda, with a population of 43M, has only 15 COVID-19 deaths.”
“Uganda, a country in east-central Africa, has a 2018 population of 42.729 million, which is 13% of the United States’ population of 328.239 million in 2019,” the article says. “And yet Uganda has 1,603 COVID-19 cases and just 15 deaths (h/t Rush Limbaugh), whereas the U.S. has 5,656,744 COVID-19 cases and 175,105.”
The article continues, “This is why: Uganda is afflicted with malaria, a disease caused by parasites that enter the body through the bite of a mosquito. Malaria is common in Africa. In 2012, Uganda had the 6th highest annual deaths from malaria in Africa. Hydroxychloroquine is a drug used to treat or prevent malaria.”
https://www.factcheck.org/2020/10/ugandas-low-covid-19-cases-due-to-restrictions-not-hydroxychloroquine/
So hydroxychloroquine Is a no. But what about the president’s other drug of choice, Remdesivir? That on the other hand has been proven to work. If you listen to actual scientists instead of your creepy racist uncle on Facebook, then you know that Remdesivir is a drug that is worth exploring further. But don’t buy into the conspiracy theories surrounding hydroxychloroquine on Facebook, because those simply aren’t true.
WHO today accepted the recommendation from the Solidarity Trial’s International Steering Committee to discontinue the trial’s hydroxychloroquine and lopinavir/ritonavir arms. The Solidarity Trial was established by WHO to find an effective COVID-19 treatment for hospitalized patients.
The International Steering Committee formulated the recommendation in light of the evidence for hydroxychloroquine vs standard-of-care and for lopinavir/ritonavir vs standard-of-care from the Solidarity trial interim results, and from a review of the evidence from all trials presented at the 1-2 July WHO Summit on COVID-19 research and innovation.
These interim trial results show that hydroxychloroquine and lopinavir/ritonavir produce little or no reduction in the mortality of hospitalized COVID-19 patients when compared to standard of care. Solidarity trial investigators will interrupt the trials with immediate effect.
For each of the drugs, the interim results do not provide solid evidence of increased mortality. There were, however, some associated safety signals in the clinical laboratory findings of the add-on Discovery trial, a participant in the Solidarity trial. These will also be reported in the peer-reviewed publication.
https://www.who.int/news/item/04-07-2020-who-discontinues-hydroxychloroquine-and-lopinavir-ritonavir-treatment-arms-for-covid-19
The International Steering Committee formulated the recommendation in light of the evidence for hydroxychloroquine vs standard-of-care and for lopinavir/ritonavir vs standard-of-care from the Solidarity trial interim results, and from a review of the evidence from all trials presented at the 1-2 July WHO Summit on COVID-19 research and innovation.
These interim trial results show that hydroxychloroquine and lopinavir/ritonavir produce little or no reduction in the mortality of hospitalized COVID-19 patients when compared to standard of care. Solidarity trial investigators will interrupt the trials with immediate effect.
For each of the drugs, the interim results do not provide solid evidence of increased mortality. There were, however, some associated safety signals in the clinical laboratory findings of the add-on Discovery trial, a participant in the Solidarity trial. These will also be reported in the peer-reviewed publication.
https://www.who.int/news/item/04-07-2020-who-discontinues-hydroxychloroquine-and-lopinavir-ritonavir-treatment-arms-for-covid-19
So the next time anyone you know starts spouting conspiracy theories based on hydroxycholorquine on Facebook, you might just want to know that it’s a steaming load of bullshit. Also keep in mind that politicians and senators who are praising the drug have absolutely no idea what they are talking about, and that we need a president who listens to science, not quacks. Unfortunately right now we have a president who listens to quacks and we won’t get any real answers anytime soon.
When the president’s doctors described the range of treatment Trump received to deal with the virus, however, hydroxychloroquine was not mentioned.
Dr. Sean P. Conley, the president’s physician, said that Trump was given an infusion of an experimental antibody treatment, which involved a five-day course of antiviral drug remdesivir. He also was given zinc, vitamin D, melatonin, aspirin and the heavy-duty steroid dexamethasone. But not hydroxychloroquine.
As Kellie Owens, a health researcher at Data & Society, pointed out, “To be clear, because hydroxychloroquine got so much attention from the president, and was subsequently studied so heavily, it’s probably one of the things in the pandemic where the science is the most settled. The most recent meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials that I’ve seen showed no benefit to hydroxychloroquine, and suggests potential increases in mortality.”
That hasn’t stopped Biggs, however, whose personal and political success is not based on the study of “meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials” but on once having been handed a sweepstakes-winning $10 million check by Ed McMahon and Dick Clark.
https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/ej-montini/2020/10/16/trump-covid-treatment-exposes-hydroxychloroquine-kooks-like-andy-biggs/3674420001/
Dr. Sean P. Conley, the president’s physician, said that Trump was given an infusion of an experimental antibody treatment, which involved a five-day course of antiviral drug remdesivir. He also was given zinc, vitamin D, melatonin, aspirin and the heavy-duty steroid dexamethasone. But not hydroxychloroquine.
As Kellie Owens, a health researcher at Data & Society, pointed out, “To be clear, because hydroxychloroquine got so much attention from the president, and was subsequently studied so heavily, it’s probably one of the things in the pandemic where the science is the most settled. The most recent meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials that I’ve seen showed no benefit to hydroxychloroquine, and suggests potential increases in mortality.”
That hasn’t stopped Biggs, however, whose personal and political success is not based on the study of “meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials” but on once having been handed a sweepstakes-winning $10 million check by Ed McMahon and Dick Clark.
https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/ej-montini/2020/10/16/trump-covid-treatment-exposes-hydroxychloroquine-kooks-like-andy-biggs/3674420001/
That’s it this week for Top 10 Investigates! Good day!
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[font size="8"]Holy Shit
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Gather around my fair brothers and sisters! It’s time to take a seat in the virtual pew make an online donation in the LAWRD’s virtual collection plate, for the Holy Church Of The Top 10 has convened and it’s time to remind you that the holiest among us are the most full of:
My fair virtual congregation! You know the world is very weird and a very dark place right now. And it doesn’t get much darker than the Vatican. Now we’ve been avoiding this topic as much as we can because it’s our policy not to make fun of extremely dark situations. So this week, I am instead going to marvel at the utter insanity that is the Holy Catholic Church. Because as the Dude himself said, this aggression will not stand, man! I mean this situation is so utterly horrifying, but hey what happens at the Vatican stays at the Vatican, am I right? Well, Holy Mother Church has a much different talking point than what we’re used to on this subject.
Two priests are going on trial before the Vatican’s criminal tribunal this week, one accused of sexually abusing an altar boy who served at papal Masses and the other accused of covering it up.
The trial, confirmed Monday by the Holy See’s press office, marks the first known time that the Vatican has criminally prosecuted a case of sexual abuse that allegedly occurred within its walls.
The proceedings, which begin Thursday, were forced on the Holy See after victims and a whistleblower went public in 2017. Their stories undermined Pope Francis’ pledges of “zero tolerance” for abuse because the alleged crimes occurred in his own backyard and had gone unpunished for years.
The case concerns the closed world of the St. Pius X youth seminary, a palazzo inside the Vatican walls just across the street from where Francis lives. The seminary serves as a residence for about a dozen boys, aged 12 to 18, who serve as altar boys at papal Masses in St. Peter’s Basilica.
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-10-13/vatican-priests-trial-abuse-coverup
The trial, confirmed Monday by the Holy See’s press office, marks the first known time that the Vatican has criminally prosecuted a case of sexual abuse that allegedly occurred within its walls.
The proceedings, which begin Thursday, were forced on the Holy See after victims and a whistleblower went public in 2017. Their stories undermined Pope Francis’ pledges of “zero tolerance” for abuse because the alleged crimes occurred in his own backyard and had gone unpunished for years.
The case concerns the closed world of the St. Pius X youth seminary, a palazzo inside the Vatican walls just across the street from where Francis lives. The seminary serves as a residence for about a dozen boys, aged 12 to 18, who serve as altar boys at papal Masses in St. Peter’s Basilica.
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-10-13/vatican-priests-trial-abuse-coverup
Now seriously, why the fuck would any parent allow their boys to participate in the Catholic Church these days knowing what everybody knows about this religion? I mean this is so fucked up that there’s no way you could possibly make fun of it, so we won’t try. Really if the Catholics want to earn respect I think they need to clean up their organization and this is going to be a start at least!
Two Catholic priests went on trial in the Vatican, in what is the first lawsuit for an alleged case of sexual abuse in the city-state.
Gabriele Martinelli, 28, is accused of raping an altar boy between 2007 and 2012.
Enrico Radice, 72, is accused of covering up the alleged crime while he was rector of the school of theology where sexual abuse is said to have occurred.
Neither of them took a stand on the charges.
Although many priests have faced abuse allegations around the world, the Vatican has so far never held a judgment on suspected sexual abuse within its own walls.
The trial, which began with a brief hearing on Wednesday (10/14), has high symbolic value, as the Vatican is home to the spiritual leaders of the Roman Catholic Church, such as Pope Francis.
https://alkhaleejtoday.co/international/5104764/The-two-priests-accused-in-the-first-sexual-abuse-trial-in.html
Gabriele Martinelli, 28, is accused of raping an altar boy between 2007 and 2012.
Enrico Radice, 72, is accused of covering up the alleged crime while he was rector of the school of theology where sexual abuse is said to have occurred.
Neither of them took a stand on the charges.
Although many priests have faced abuse allegations around the world, the Vatican has so far never held a judgment on suspected sexual abuse within its own walls.
The trial, which began with a brief hearing on Wednesday (10/14), has high symbolic value, as the Vatican is home to the spiritual leaders of the Roman Catholic Church, such as Pope Francis.
https://alkhaleejtoday.co/international/5104764/The-two-priests-accused-in-the-first-sexual-abuse-trial-in.html
Yeah but definitely not this! I mean I really might have to go take a cold shower after this because it’s insane. But how does the church keep getting away with this? It’s because they don’t care, the Vatican controls the laws for the priests to follow, they can keep pushing back the actual trials as long as they want to! I’m not a lawyer but I’m pretty sure that’s not how the law works! Oh wait, they want GAWD’s law! Because GAWD and JAYSUS rule all!
TWO priests are going on trial at the Vatican on Thursday in the first criminal prosecutions related to paedophilia to take place in the city state itself.
One is accused of sexually abusing an altar boy in St Peter’s Basilica and the other of covering up the incident.
The accusations against alleged abuser Gabriele Martinelli and Enrico Radice, then rector of the St Pius X youth seminary, have been dismissed as “mud” and “calumny” by the order that runs it, Opera Don Folchi.
The trial comes as Pope Francis publicly met Australian Cardinal George Pell for the first time following his acquittal on sex abuse charges that lie at the heart of an international financial scandal. The Holy See released video footage of their meeting.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/w/first-vatican-paedophile-trial-beginning-pell-meets-pope
One is accused of sexually abusing an altar boy in St Peter’s Basilica and the other of covering up the incident.
The accusations against alleged abuser Gabriele Martinelli and Enrico Radice, then rector of the St Pius X youth seminary, have been dismissed as “mud” and “calumny” by the order that runs it, Opera Don Folchi.
The trial comes as Pope Francis publicly met Australian Cardinal George Pell for the first time following his acquittal on sex abuse charges that lie at the heart of an international financial scandal. The Holy See released video footage of their meeting.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/w/first-vatican-paedophile-trial-beginning-pell-meets-pope
Something tells me I don’t want to see video of that meeting, but I am sure that it went like that! But you might think these are the only trials involving priests. Oh no my fair congregation! This isn’t a comedy this is a horror movie! I mean even Kevin Smith couldn’t come up with something as creepy and weird as the modern day Catholic Church. Like I said I might need to go take a cold shower after this one because this was pretty disturbing, my friends!
The sexual abuse trial of Piero Alfio Capuana, the lay leader of the 5,000-member Catholic Culture and Environment Association, began in this small Sicilian city on Sept. 15, three years after the abuse allegedly took place.
Capuana, 75, known as "the Archangel" by acolytes, is accused of delegating his associates to select and organize his targets, some as young as 11 years old. The accusers told Religion News Service that they would be called to a back room at the Cenacle, as the association's headquarters is known, after ceremonies in which Capuana would purportedly speak on behalf of the Holy Spirit. Behind closed doors, the young girls said, they would be instructed to bathe him and perform sexual acts.
Three of his closest associates, known as the "12 Disciples," are also charged, accused of organizing and facilitating the abuse.
Even after accusations that their leader was sexually abusing girls first emerged, few members believed them. When parents watched Capuana kiss their underage daughters on the lips or request solo dances with them, most were not concerned.
https://www.ncronline.org/news/accountability/trial-catholic-lay-leader-highlights-gaps-churchs-sex-abuse-oversight
Capuana, 75, known as "the Archangel" by acolytes, is accused of delegating his associates to select and organize his targets, some as young as 11 years old. The accusers told Religion News Service that they would be called to a back room at the Cenacle, as the association's headquarters is known, after ceremonies in which Capuana would purportedly speak on behalf of the Holy Spirit. Behind closed doors, the young girls said, they would be instructed to bathe him and perform sexual acts.
Three of his closest associates, known as the "12 Disciples," are also charged, accused of organizing and facilitating the abuse.
Even after accusations that their leader was sexually abusing girls first emerged, few members believed them. When parents watched Capuana kiss their underage daughters on the lips or request solo dances with them, most were not concerned.
https://www.ncronline.org/news/accountability/trial-catholic-lay-leader-highlights-gaps-churchs-sex-abuse-oversight
Holy shit indeed! Whew, this one got dark! My producer is getting fired tomorrow and we’re never touching this subject again! Mass has ended, may you go in peace! That’s it this week for:
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[font size="8"]This Fucking Guy
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This week’s This Fucking Guy is actually a twofer – Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump. While their father, the 45th president of the United States, and is somehow still inexplicably holding onto the job, Donald J. Trump, is trying to throw shade at Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden, let’s not forget these two exist! Let’s first not forget that these are what one might call “children of privilege” in that they’ve grown up around obscene wealth and their father is also president! Man I bet that makes for some awkward Thanksgivings and Christmases, doesn’t it? Well let’s look at where the two are headed for the rest of the campaign trail! Trump Jr and his crazy girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle are headed to Woodstock because reasons.
Donald Trump Jr., son of President Donald Trump, and Fox News personality Kimberly Guilfoyle visited Woodstock last week to speak at a Trump rally at Bull Valley Golf Club.
The event took place Oct. 13 and featured an indoor meet-and-greet fundraiser with Guilfoyle and Donald Trump Jr., followed by an outdoor rally that ran from 5 p.m. until about 7:30 p.m.
Event host Gary Rabine said he was able to draw the big names using his connections within a few Republican organizations to convince the Trump campaign that it would be worth their while.
"I can basically tap into friends to say, 'Hey friend such-and-such, can we get Don Jr. or Don Sr. to town, to Woodstock, so that we can show that you care about this part of the country,'" he said.
Rabine is the CEO and founder of Rabine Group, a Schaumburg-based construction engineering company. He also is part owner of the Bull Valley Golf Club, where the event was held, according to reporting by the Northwest Herald. Rabine is on the executive committee for the Republican Governors Association and is the founder of the Job Creators Network.
https://www.dailyherald.com/news/20201020/donald-trump-jr-kimberly-guilfoyle-visit-woodstock-for-trump-rally
The event took place Oct. 13 and featured an indoor meet-and-greet fundraiser with Guilfoyle and Donald Trump Jr., followed by an outdoor rally that ran from 5 p.m. until about 7:30 p.m.
Event host Gary Rabine said he was able to draw the big names using his connections within a few Republican organizations to convince the Trump campaign that it would be worth their while.
"I can basically tap into friends to say, 'Hey friend such-and-such, can we get Don Jr. or Don Sr. to town, to Woodstock, so that we can show that you care about this part of the country,'" he said.
Rabine is the CEO and founder of Rabine Group, a Schaumburg-based construction engineering company. He also is part owner of the Bull Valley Golf Club, where the event was held, according to reporting by the Northwest Herald. Rabine is on the executive committee for the Republican Governors Association and is the founder of the Job Creators Network.
https://www.dailyherald.com/news/20201020/donald-trump-jr-kimberly-guilfoyle-visit-woodstock-for-trump-rally
Yeah that’s what happens when you don’t get the rights to your songs or character! But that said the Trump clan is full of some absolutely shady characters. What is Trump Jr campaigning about? Well he claims that his campaign And here’s the thing Don Jr. – Big Tech is not out to get conservatives, that’s a steaming load of bullshit. They are however, out to get assholes. Being conservative and being an asshole tend to go hand in hand!
Republicans have long claimed that social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter “censor” conservative voices, going so far as to hold entire congressional hearings re: this alleged prejudice. “I’ll just cut to the chase, Big Tech is out to get conservatives,” Representative Jim Jordan declared in July. “That’s not a hunch. That’s not a suspicion. That’s a fact.” In reality, right-wing accounts have been suspended from time to time for doing things like proposing that people purposely infect themselves with COVID-19 or suggesting that a Democrat be tried and hanged for treason. (Some left-wing accounts have also been temporarily banned.) In the saddest cases, conservatives have insisted that the proof tech sites are throttling them lies in the paltry number of likes and retweets their posts have received, refusing to consider the possibility that said posts were simply bad, unfunny, or stupid. Speaking of which!
Yes, that’s a real clip of Donald Trump Jr. lying in bed with his head in such a position that his neck is completely obscured, nursing what appears to be a serious sunburn, and claiming that Instagram has been purposely hiding his posts from his legions of followers. “Hey guys, hope you’re doing well,” the president’s eldest son says, again, from his bed. “Just watching my algorithms getting crushed. I guess I did something to piss off the Instagram gods, so hopefully you’re seeing this stuff anyway. We’ll do what we can. Talk to you soon.”
From the outside, it’s extremely difficult to understand why Donny boy posted this clip, the only logical explanation being that he thinks he looks good. Or that he can’t conceive of any reason why the video wouldn’t garner a sufficient number of likes other than Big Tech being out to get him because they’re afraid of the truth. While Twitter temporarily prevented users from sharing a supremely shady article about Hunter Biden’s hard drive last week, a decision the company eventually reversed, it’s not clear that’s the reason Don Jr. isn’t setting records for view counts.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/10/donald-trump-jr-bed-video
Yes, that’s a real clip of Donald Trump Jr. lying in bed with his head in such a position that his neck is completely obscured, nursing what appears to be a serious sunburn, and claiming that Instagram has been purposely hiding his posts from his legions of followers. “Hey guys, hope you’re doing well,” the president’s eldest son says, again, from his bed. “Just watching my algorithms getting crushed. I guess I did something to piss off the Instagram gods, so hopefully you’re seeing this stuff anyway. We’ll do what we can. Talk to you soon.”
From the outside, it’s extremely difficult to understand why Donny boy posted this clip, the only logical explanation being that he thinks he looks good. Or that he can’t conceive of any reason why the video wouldn’t garner a sufficient number of likes other than Big Tech being out to get him because they’re afraid of the truth. While Twitter temporarily prevented users from sharing a supremely shady article about Hunter Biden’s hard drive last week, a decision the company eventually reversed, it’s not clear that’s the reason Don Jr. isn’t setting records for view counts.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/10/donald-trump-jr-bed-video
Yeah cue the Sad Hulk Music for that one! So while Donny Jr is sitting in bed wallowing in his sorrows about how social media websites are big meanie heads and won’t let him say the racist and sexist drivel conservatives are known for, his brother Eric Trump is proving to be just as big of a moron as he is! Yes, Eric is accusing Joe Biden of squatting! Yes, Eric thinks Joe Biden lives in a house he doesn’t own!
Since before the 2016 election, critics have asked to see President Donald Trump's tax returns to no avail. Several weeks ago, the New York Times reported Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017, heightening critics' suspicions about Trump's finances and financial dealings. Now, Eric Trump is using an aerial photo of Democratic nominee Joe Biden's former home to raise questions about Biden's finances.
“The salary of a U.S. Senator is $174,000 per year. This is Joe Biden’s house.... seems legit,” Eric Trump shared on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram Oct. 17.
However, Eric Trump's claim is false: Biden no longer owns that home and Biden has not made a senator's salary in more than a decade.
The pictured home is a 5-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom house at 6 Montchan Drive in Wilmington, Del. Redfin estimates the 10,012-ft home is worth $1,643,478.
Biden bought the former Dupont mansion for $185,000 in the mid-1970s after learning it was set for demolition. The home was abandoned and needed repairs. The Wall Street Journal described the DuPont purchase as one of Biden’s many strained financial ventures.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/10/19/fact-check-biden-no-longer-owns-house-eric-trump-highlighted-online/3703380001/
“The salary of a U.S. Senator is $174,000 per year. This is Joe Biden’s house.... seems legit,” Eric Trump shared on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram Oct. 17.
However, Eric Trump's claim is false: Biden no longer owns that home and Biden has not made a senator's salary in more than a decade.
The pictured home is a 5-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom house at 6 Montchan Drive in Wilmington, Del. Redfin estimates the 10,012-ft home is worth $1,643,478.
Biden bought the former Dupont mansion for $185,000 in the mid-1970s after learning it was set for demolition. The home was abandoned and needed repairs. The Wall Street Journal described the DuPont purchase as one of Biden’s many strained financial ventures.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/10/19/fact-check-biden-no-longer-owns-house-eric-trump-highlighted-online/3703380001/
And by the way in case you’re wondering if they couldn’t possibly be any dumber, just look at where Eric Trump was planning on having a campaign stop. Remember last week when those scary looking white guys attempted to kidnap Governor Whitman? Well one of Eric Trump’s stops apparently included stopping at the gun shop where the men were known to congregate! Yeah even the best comedy writers in the world couldn’t come up with this shit!
The son of President Donald Trump will not appear at a Michigan gun store on Tuesday for a campaign event after the store announced it briefly employed one of the men accused of plotting to kidnap and possibly kill Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
The store, Huron Valley Guns in Hudson, was set to host Eric Trump for a "Make America Great Again" event Tuesday morning. But on Monday afternoon, the store — which in addition to selling firearms offers a shooting range, barbershop and restaurant — announced the venue change in a Facebook post.
The post did not name which of the 13 men arrested worked at the store. It noted the man was fired after only a few weeks, speculated as to how the governor and others would react to the news and said it was important this information was released before the event occurred because "we would not want anything to hurt the chances of President Trump."
"In February 2020 we had a young man that worked on the range who would show up for work in a LOT of tactical gear. We found that a little odd. We weren't comfortable with him for a few other reasons and fired him after 3 weeks. He ended up being one of the fringe characters arrested for the Governor Whitmer kidnapping," the post states.
"A lot of us here at HVG are pro, current or ex-police. We are all Pro USA and are very patriotic. While all of you know who we are and what we're about...a lot of people dont (sic). The Governor would have had a field day against the Trump campaign. They would accuse the administration of sending his son to a facility where terrorists work and train. This could not be further from the truth, but imagine the left spin."
https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/10/12/eric-trump-michigan-new-hudson-gretchen-whitmer/5970258002/
The store, Huron Valley Guns in Hudson, was set to host Eric Trump for a "Make America Great Again" event Tuesday morning. But on Monday afternoon, the store — which in addition to selling firearms offers a shooting range, barbershop and restaurant — announced the venue change in a Facebook post.
The post did not name which of the 13 men arrested worked at the store. It noted the man was fired after only a few weeks, speculated as to how the governor and others would react to the news and said it was important this information was released before the event occurred because "we would not want anything to hurt the chances of President Trump."
"In February 2020 we had a young man that worked on the range who would show up for work in a LOT of tactical gear. We found that a little odd. We weren't comfortable with him for a few other reasons and fired him after 3 weeks. He ended up being one of the fringe characters arrested for the Governor Whitmer kidnapping," the post states.
"A lot of us here at HVG are pro, current or ex-police. We are all Pro USA and are very patriotic. While all of you know who we are and what we're about...a lot of people dont (sic). The Governor would have had a field day against the Trump campaign. They would accuse the administration of sending his son to a facility where terrorists work and train. This could not be further from the truth, but imagine the left spin."
https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/10/12/eric-trump-michigan-new-hudson-gretchen-whitmer/5970258002/
So feeling sorry for themselves because they can’t be assholes on social media and campaigning at gun shops where violent government overthrows were being planned. That’s the sons of the president – Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump – this week’s:
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[font size="8"]Conspiracy Corner
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Yes folks it’s a new edition of Conspiracy Corner! When there’s things in the news that can’t be explained, we naturally turn to conspiracy theories. And they’re just getting weirder and nuttier by the day! We are of course coming to you live from a remote location deep in the alakali flats of the New Mexico badlands – you know the same place where Walter White ran a meth lab out of the back of an RV. Just allow me to adjust my tin foil hat for maximum government interference… and you know what there we go! So this week, it’s been announced that Facebook – purveyors of getting your creepy uncle’s racist rants out there since 2005, is banning that Trump-loving social movement known as Q Anon, though Q Anon is really just a creepy cult!
Facebook said Tuesday that it is banning all QAnon accounts from its platforms, a significant escalation over its previous actions and one of the broadest rules the social media giant has put in place in its history.
Facebook said the change is an update on the policy it created in August that initially only removed accounts related to the QAnon conspiracy theory that discussed violence, which resulted in the termination of 1,500 pages, groups and profiles.
A company spokesperson said the enforcement, which started Tuesday, will “bring to parity what we’ve been doing on other pieces of policy with regard to militarized social movements,” such as militia and terror groups that repeatedly call for violence.
“Starting today, we will remove Facebook Pages, Groups and Instagram accounts for representing QAnon. We’re starting to enforce this updated policy today and are removing content accordingly, but this work will take time and will continue in the coming days and weeks,” Facebook wrote in a press release. “Our Dangerous Organizations Operations team will continue to enforce this policy and proactively detect content for removal instead of relying on user reports.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/facebook-bans-qanon-across-its-platforms-n1242339
Facebook said the change is an update on the policy it created in August that initially only removed accounts related to the QAnon conspiracy theory that discussed violence, which resulted in the termination of 1,500 pages, groups and profiles.
A company spokesperson said the enforcement, which started Tuesday, will “bring to parity what we’ve been doing on other pieces of policy with regard to militarized social movements,” such as militia and terror groups that repeatedly call for violence.
“Starting today, we will remove Facebook Pages, Groups and Instagram accounts for representing QAnon. We’re starting to enforce this updated policy today and are removing content accordingly, but this work will take time and will continue in the coming days and weeks,” Facebook wrote in a press release. “Our Dangerous Organizations Operations team will continue to enforce this policy and proactively detect content for removal instead of relying on user reports.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/facebook-bans-qanon-across-its-platforms-n1242339
Yes so when you surrender yourself to Q Anon, just remember that Trump is equal parts God, Rambo, John McClane, Rocky Balboa, and Dirty Harry combined. And everyone who doesn’t agree with his politics is a satanic pedophile. But why do they have to bring Satan into it? That’s a mystery! Because everyone knows even Satan wouldn’t do that sort of thing. Even crazier is that this is happening after the group known as Q formed! And now Q Anon is going international!
Facebook said Tuesday it will ban any pages, groups, and Instagram accounts representing the conspiracy theory QAnon from its platform.
The move comes three years after the far-right conspiracy theory began. During those years QAnon adherents have embraced a number of different and often contradictory theories, but the basic false beliefs underlying QAnon are claims about a cabal of politicians and A-list celebrities engaging in child sex abuse, and a "deep state" effort to undermine President Trump. Last year an FBI office warned that Q adherents are a domestic terrorism threat.
Facebook's move will be welcomed by some, but the platform has allowed the conspiracy to grow and spread for years.
There are now multiple Republicans running for Congress who have expressed support for QAnon.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/06/tech/facebook-qanon/index.html
The move comes three years after the far-right conspiracy theory began. During those years QAnon adherents have embraced a number of different and often contradictory theories, but the basic false beliefs underlying QAnon are claims about a cabal of politicians and A-list celebrities engaging in child sex abuse, and a "deep state" effort to undermine President Trump. Last year an FBI office warned that Q adherents are a domestic terrorism threat.
Facebook's move will be welcomed by some, but the platform has allowed the conspiracy to grow and spread for years.
There are now multiple Republicans running for Congress who have expressed support for QAnon.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/06/tech/facebook-qanon/index.html
But that said
Seriously a little crazy? This a screeching violin short of being full blown Norman Bates level psychotic, and in normal times we’d take people like this and lock them in insane asylums complete with straight jackets and padded walls. This is some seriously crazy shit. Conspiracy theories like Q are really nothing new, but when you consider that Trump himself is a conspiracy theorist, he is only amplifying the crazy!
Recent decisions by Facebook and YouTube to crack down on the far-right conspiracy theory movement known as QAnon will disrupt the ability of dangerous online communities to spread their radical messages, but it won’t stop them completely.
Facebook’s Oct. 6 announcement that it would take down any “accounts representing QAnon, even if they contain no violent content,” followed earlier decisions by the social media platform to downrank QAnon content in Facebook searches. YouTube followed on Oct. 15 with new rules about conspiracy videos, but it stopped short of a complete ban.
This month marks the third anniversary of the movement that started when someone known only as Q posted a series of conspiracy theories on the internet forum 4chan. Q warned of a deep state satanic ring of global elites involved in pedophilia and sex trafficking, and asserted that U.S. President Donald Trump was working on a secret plan to take them all down.
QAnon now a global phenomenon
Until this year, most people had never heard of QAnon. But over the course of 2020, the fringe movement has gained widespread traction domestically in the United States and internationally — including a number of Republican politicians who openly campaigned as Q supporters.
https://www.niemanlab.org/2020/10/facebook-and-youtubes-moves-against-qanon-are-only-a-first-step-in-the-battle-against-dangerous-conspiracy-theories/
Facebook’s Oct. 6 announcement that it would take down any “accounts representing QAnon, even if they contain no violent content,” followed earlier decisions by the social media platform to downrank QAnon content in Facebook searches. YouTube followed on Oct. 15 with new rules about conspiracy videos, but it stopped short of a complete ban.
This month marks the third anniversary of the movement that started when someone known only as Q posted a series of conspiracy theories on the internet forum 4chan. Q warned of a deep state satanic ring of global elites involved in pedophilia and sex trafficking, and asserted that U.S. President Donald Trump was working on a secret plan to take them all down.
QAnon now a global phenomenon
Until this year, most people had never heard of QAnon. But over the course of 2020, the fringe movement has gained widespread traction domestically in the United States and internationally — including a number of Republican politicians who openly campaigned as Q supporters.
https://www.niemanlab.org/2020/10/facebook-and-youtubes-moves-against-qanon-are-only-a-first-step-in-the-battle-against-dangerous-conspiracy-theories/
Yes!!! This is a theory that goes all the way to the president! Of course all theories do go all the way to the president. After all this is the presidency of, by and for late night conspiracy theory talk shows. But what happens when a conspiracy goes too far? It’s like the My Chemical Romance song says “This is for the broken, the beaten and the damned.”. So if you ever wonder how groups like ISIS, the Taliban, and Al Qaeda came to be, look no further than Q Anon!
YouTube is following the lead of Twitter and Facebook, saying that it is taking more steps to limit QAnon and other baseless conspiracy theories that can lead to real-world violence.
The Google-owned video platform said Thursday it will now prohibit material targeting a person or group with conspiracy theories that have been used to justify violence.
One example would be videos that threaten or harass someone by suggesting they are complicit in a conspiracy such as QAnon, which paints President Donald Trump as a secret warrior against a supposed child-trafficking ring run by celebrities and “deep state” government officials.
Pizzagate is another internet conspiracy theory — essentially a predecessor to QAnon — that would fall in the banned category. Its promoters claimed children were being harmed at a pizza restaurant in Washington. D.C. A man who believed in the conspiracy entered the restaurant in December 2016 and fired an assault rifle. He was sentenced to prison in 2017.
YouTube is the third of the major social platforms to announce policies intended rein in QAnon, a conspiracy theory they all helped spread.
Twitter announced in July a crackdown on QAnon, though it did not ban its supporters from its platform. It did ban thousands of accounts associated with QAnon content and blocked URLs associated with it from being shared. Twitter also said that it would stop highlighting and recommending tweets associated with QAnon.
https://apnews.com/article/youtube-qanon-conspiracy-theories-ef03a889e68239de6692ce42666d97d8
The Google-owned video platform said Thursday it will now prohibit material targeting a person or group with conspiracy theories that have been used to justify violence.
One example would be videos that threaten or harass someone by suggesting they are complicit in a conspiracy such as QAnon, which paints President Donald Trump as a secret warrior against a supposed child-trafficking ring run by celebrities and “deep state” government officials.
Pizzagate is another internet conspiracy theory — essentially a predecessor to QAnon — that would fall in the banned category. Its promoters claimed children were being harmed at a pizza restaurant in Washington. D.C. A man who believed in the conspiracy entered the restaurant in December 2016 and fired an assault rifle. He was sentenced to prison in 2017.
YouTube is the third of the major social platforms to announce policies intended rein in QAnon, a conspiracy theory they all helped spread.
Twitter announced in July a crackdown on QAnon, though it did not ban its supporters from its platform. It did ban thousands of accounts associated with QAnon content and blocked URLs associated with it from being shared. Twitter also said that it would stop highlighting and recommending tweets associated with QAnon.
https://apnews.com/article/youtube-qanon-conspiracy-theories-ef03a889e68239de6692ce42666d97d8
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[font size="8"]People Are Dumb
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Hit it!
Of course you know by now that people are people, and people are dumb! So who is dumb this week you might ask? Well I answer you good sir or madam. I want to start with this batshit story out of the Badger State – the great state of Wisconsin! We go to the town of Eau Claire for this story and it might be the single craziest People Are Dumb story that I’ve ever covered – “Mother let dog run loose in Wisconsin Walmart and performed a series of karate moves while son stripped naked, police say”. Yes that is a thing that happened! And well enough of my ramblings, I will let the story do the talking, and it’s one of the craziest ones yet!
Police got quite the kick out of a mother and son wreaking havoc inside a Wisconsin Walmart with their dog.
Officers with Eau Claire Police Department responded to reports of a theft in progress at the shopping center around 8:30 p.m. Friday, where they found 46-year-old Lisa Smith “screaming in the entryway" and chasing after her loose canine, authorities said in a statement.
Shoppers and Walmart employees told responding officers the dog, Bo, was not wearing a leash when Smith arrived and started running up to customers while his owner “erratically started pulling apart store displays and placing them in her cart.”
Smith was asked to leave the store, but continued to cause trouble in the parking lot, where she performed a series of karate moves. Bo meanwhile, attempted to escape the Walmart with a stolen treat — a box of Jiffy Cornbread Muffin mix.
Her 25-year-old son, identified by officers as Benny Vann, was also “in the store causing problems,” police said. He made his way to the back of the Walmart and stripped down, exposing himself to other customers.
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/ny-mother-son-karate-wisconsin-walmart-naked-arrested-20190413-gvvqufmw5jbqpokmxjbyxen4eu-story.html
Officers with Eau Claire Police Department responded to reports of a theft in progress at the shopping center around 8:30 p.m. Friday, where they found 46-year-old Lisa Smith “screaming in the entryway" and chasing after her loose canine, authorities said in a statement.
Shoppers and Walmart employees told responding officers the dog, Bo, was not wearing a leash when Smith arrived and started running up to customers while his owner “erratically started pulling apart store displays and placing them in her cart.”
Smith was asked to leave the store, but continued to cause trouble in the parking lot, where she performed a series of karate moves. Bo meanwhile, attempted to escape the Walmart with a stolen treat — a box of Jiffy Cornbread Muffin mix.
Her 25-year-old son, identified by officers as Benny Vann, was also “in the store causing problems,” police said. He made his way to the back of the Walmart and stripped down, exposing himself to other customers.
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/ny-mother-son-karate-wisconsin-walmart-naked-arrested-20190413-gvvqufmw5jbqpokmxjbyxen4eu-story.html
Yeah I’m really guessing that “stripping naked in a Wal-Mart” doesn’t qualify as “great skills”, now does it? Next up – rap music! Yes, even the music industry has its’ fair share of idiots (and yes, I’m looking at you, Takeshi Six6 Nine9 or whatever your name is). But this guy might be one of the worst offenders in an industry that has spawned many! And this story is why I wanted to do a People Are Dumb segment this week. So yeah if you’re going to commit fraud against the government, maybe don’t sing about it before you commit the crime!
A rapper who bragged about defrauding the government’s unemployment program in a music video has been arrested on federal charges of carrying out the exact scheme he mentioned in his video, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
Fontrell Antonio Baines, 31, who goes by the stage name “Nuke Bizzle” was arrested after applying for more than $1.2 million in jobless benefits and using stolen identities in a scheme to fraudulently obtain unemployment insurance benefits under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
Baines, originally from Memphis Tennessee but who now resides in the Hollywood Hills in California, was allegedly exploiting the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) provision of the CARES Act which the DOJ says is designed to expand access to unemployment benefits to self-employed workers, independent contractors, and others who would not otherwise be eligible.
“Baines possessed and used debit cards pre-loaded with unemployment benefits administered by the California Employment Development Department (EDD),” the DOJ said in a statement announcing Baines’ arrest. “The debit cards were issued in the names of third-parties, including identity theft victims. The applications for these debit cards listed addresses to which Baines had access in Beverly Hills and Koreatown.”
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/rapper-bragged-defrauding-government-music-video-arrested/story?id=73678566&cid=clicksource_4380645_4_heads_hero_live_headlines_hed
Fontrell Antonio Baines, 31, who goes by the stage name “Nuke Bizzle” was arrested after applying for more than $1.2 million in jobless benefits and using stolen identities in a scheme to fraudulently obtain unemployment insurance benefits under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
Baines, originally from Memphis Tennessee but who now resides in the Hollywood Hills in California, was allegedly exploiting the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) provision of the CARES Act which the DOJ says is designed to expand access to unemployment benefits to self-employed workers, independent contractors, and others who would not otherwise be eligible.
“Baines possessed and used debit cards pre-loaded with unemployment benefits administered by the California Employment Development Department (EDD),” the DOJ said in a statement announcing Baines’ arrest. “The debit cards were issued in the names of third-parties, including identity theft victims. The applications for these debit cards listed addresses to which Baines had access in Beverly Hills and Koreatown.”
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/rapper-bragged-defrauding-government-music-video-arrested/story?id=73678566&cid=clicksource_4380645_4_heads_hero_live_headlines_hed
Next up – dumb computers! Yes, even these machines that have so greatly enhanced (or not) our lives can also be stupid! Such is the case with the St. John’s Onion Company out of Newfoundland, Canada where their advertising for their signature product – onions – was apparently deemed too sexy by Facebook! I mean come on, anyone with a food fetish can certainly see the sex characteristics of the onion, with all its’ curves… right? I mean right???
If you look at a photo of onions, you'll most likely just see onions. But Facebook apparently sees them differently, and has told a St. John's business its onions are too risqué for advertising on the site.
Jackson McLean, a manager at Gaze Seed Company, said the business was unable to advertise its walla walla onions on Facebook after the company told them the picture on the seed's packaging went against Facebook's advertising guidelines.
"We got notified the other day that it's an 'overtly sexual image' that they had to ban from the site," McLean said Monday. "I guess something about the two round shapes there could be misconstrued as boobs or something, nude in some way."
McLean said the business pays Facebook for advertising, and was preparing to advertise the onions in the spring. When he got the response back from the site, he said all he could do was laugh.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/onions-too-sexy-for-facebook-1.5750881
Jackson McLean, a manager at Gaze Seed Company, said the business was unable to advertise its walla walla onions on Facebook after the company told them the picture on the seed's packaging went against Facebook's advertising guidelines.
"We got notified the other day that it's an 'overtly sexual image' that they had to ban from the site," McLean said Monday. "I guess something about the two round shapes there could be misconstrued as boobs or something, nude in some way."
McLean said the business pays Facebook for advertising, and was preparing to advertise the onions in the spring. When he got the response back from the site, he said all he could do was laugh.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/onions-too-sexy-for-facebook-1.5750881
Yeah maybe don’t listen to that guy! Next up – good old Florida! And where would be without the craziest state in the union? Well first off if you can afford to rent a $200,000 Porsche – good for you, you still have a job in 2020! But if you get to rent a car as luxurious as a Porsche, maybe don’t go for a joyride in it, especially when you’re the only one who rented it! Yeah that makes you easy to identify.
BIG PINE KEY, Fla. – A Florida man was cited after driving over 100mph in a 35mph zone in the Florida Keys around 11 p.m. Thursday.
Habib Palacios, 39, of Miami, was cited for improper start and speeding more than 50mph over the speed limit. He is facing thousands of dollars in fines, according to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.
Palacios told a deputy the Porsche 911 Turbo is a fast car and cannot go slow after “burning out” pulling away from a stoplight and reaching speeds over 100 mph.
The Miami native was clocked on radar at 102 mph and given a mandatory notice to appear in court.
Deputies discovered the Porsche was listed as a rental.
https://nbc-2.com/news/crime/2020/10/16/florida-man-speeds-over-100mph-in-rented-200000-car/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Habib Palacios, 39, of Miami, was cited for improper start and speeding more than 50mph over the speed limit. He is facing thousands of dollars in fines, according to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.
Palacios told a deputy the Porsche 911 Turbo is a fast car and cannot go slow after “burning out” pulling away from a stoplight and reaching speeds over 100 mph.
The Miami native was clocked on radar at 102 mph and given a mandatory notice to appear in court.
Deputies discovered the Porsche was listed as a rental.
https://nbc-2.com/news/crime/2020/10/16/florida-man-speeds-over-100mph-in-rented-200000-car/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
That’s true! Finally this week – once again sticking with America’s most penis-shaped state, the great state of Florida – you know that Halloween is coming up and naturally there’s going to be all sorts of stories like this! And really guys, there’s plenty of ways to kill demons but giving your kids guns probably isn’t the best way to do this. You do know that Zombieland is just a movie right?
ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. (WESH) – A now-former Orange County deputy is accused of giving a gun to a child and telling her to shoot anyone who entered his apartment. He also allegedly performed an exorcism on a second child.
According to local NBC affiliate WESH, Christopher Dougherty was arrested on Sunday after deputies were called to an apartment on Thursday.
Deputies said the found Dougherty with a gun at the apartment and saw a young girl lying on the floor with a rifle.
“She was wearing a Kevlar helmet and bulletproof vest. She was ready to shoot anyone who entered the apartment,” a deputy wrote in the arrest report.
https://nbc-2.com/news/state/2020/10/20/florida-deputy-gives-kids-guns-to-fight-demons-he-said-were-in-home/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
According to local NBC affiliate WESH, Christopher Dougherty was arrested on Sunday after deputies were called to an apartment on Thursday.
Deputies said the found Dougherty with a gun at the apartment and saw a young girl lying on the floor with a rifle.
“She was wearing a Kevlar helmet and bulletproof vest. She was ready to shoot anyone who entered the apartment,” a deputy wrote in the arrest report.
https://nbc-2.com/news/state/2020/10/20/florida-deputy-gives-kids-guns-to-fight-demons-he-said-were-in-home/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
That’s it this week for:
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[font size="8"]Road To The White House: The Final Thought
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Welcome back to our ongoing coverage of the 2020 election to end all elections in… *cue reverb* ROAD TO THE WHITE HOUSE!!!! Ooh that was some good reverb there. This week it’s our final thoughts on what has been an absolutely insane 2020 that got completely upended by a virus that has stalled campaigning and sent Joe Biden underground while Donald Trump goes and conducts business as usual which has well, not been good for him. But let’s not forget about the incumbent president. While the primaries were insane and we finally have a real leader in Joe Biden, let’s not forget about Trump. In fact this has had one of the worst outcomes that a presidential campaign stop can have, because well, Trump has been linked to COVID. And yes as I have repeatedly stated here, if you hang with Donald Trump, you’re gonna get a virus. I’m just saying it happens!
Nine people who have contracted the coronavirus reported attending a Donald Trump rally in Bemidji, Minn., last month, state health officials said Friday, including two who were hospitalized.
One of them remains in an intensive care unit.
Doug Schultz, a Minnesota Department of Health spokesman, said in an email that the department cannot say definitively that the infections were acquired at the rally, due to widespread community transmission of the disease — “only that they attended the rally during the time when they were likely to have been exposed to the virus that made them ill (i.e. 14 days prior to illness onset).”
At least one person was likely infectious while at the rally, the department said.
Two other people who contracted the virus reported attending a protest in response to the rally.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/09/trump-minnesota-rally-coronavirus-cases-428425
One of them remains in an intensive care unit.
Doug Schultz, a Minnesota Department of Health spokesman, said in an email that the department cannot say definitively that the infections were acquired at the rally, due to widespread community transmission of the disease — “only that they attended the rally during the time when they were likely to have been exposed to the virus that made them ill (i.e. 14 days prior to illness onset).”
At least one person was likely infectious while at the rally, the department said.
Two other people who contracted the virus reported attending a protest in response to the rally.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/09/trump-minnesota-rally-coronavirus-cases-428425
Gee, who could have seen that one coming? We’re in the home stretch of the campaign and Biden is playing it safe while Trump is being completely reckless and irresponsible. But you know what? Trump is doing this for us everybody! That’s right – he’s an everyday con man and he’s keeping you in your house and making sure you have access to all the supplies you need to keep you through this pandemic! Oh and did I mention that this is all a steaming load of bullshit?
With just days to go before the election, President Trump has a lot of things on his mind. And water pressure for toilets appears to be one of them. In a lengthy digression during his rally in Carson City, Nev., on Sunday, Trump claimed that Americans have to “flush their toilet 15 times” due to restrictions on water usage.
“You know what really bothers me? When you go into a new hotel or new house, they have these faucets, and you turn them on and no water comes out,” the president said. “So you go into a hotel or you buy a house, and they have what’s called the restrictor. Right? Same thing, by the way, same thing with your dishwasher. I freed that up too. The dishwashers, they had a little problem,” the president said.
“They didn’t give enough water, like, so people would run them 10 times, (wash the dishes 10 times) so they end up using more water. And the thing’s no damn good. We freed it up. Now you can buy a dishwasher and comes out and beautiful. Go buy a dishwasher. Go buy it. Those companies. I said, ‘What’s wrong with this thing? It doesn’t clean the dishes.’ Right? The women come up to me, the women who they say don’t like me, they actually do like me a lot ... a lot. Suburban women, please vote for me. I’m saving your damn house.”
“We have a situation where we’re looking very strongly at sinks and showers and other elements of bathrooms, where you turn the faucet on in areas where there’s tremendous amounts of water, where it all flows out to sea because you could never handle it all, and you don’t get any water,” Trump said. “They take a shower and water comes dripping out, very quietly dripping out. People are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times, as opposed to once; they end up using more water. So EPA is looking very strongly at that, at my suggestion. I did this for you.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-toilet-water-pressure-story-rally-183213209.html
“You know what really bothers me? When you go into a new hotel or new house, they have these faucets, and you turn them on and no water comes out,” the president said. “So you go into a hotel or you buy a house, and they have what’s called the restrictor. Right? Same thing, by the way, same thing with your dishwasher. I freed that up too. The dishwashers, they had a little problem,” the president said.
“They didn’t give enough water, like, so people would run them 10 times, (wash the dishes 10 times) so they end up using more water. And the thing’s no damn good. We freed it up. Now you can buy a dishwasher and comes out and beautiful. Go buy a dishwasher. Go buy it. Those companies. I said, ‘What’s wrong with this thing? It doesn’t clean the dishes.’ Right? The women come up to me, the women who they say don’t like me, they actually do like me a lot ... a lot. Suburban women, please vote for me. I’m saving your damn house.”
“We have a situation where we’re looking very strongly at sinks and showers and other elements of bathrooms, where you turn the faucet on in areas where there’s tremendous amounts of water, where it all flows out to sea because you could never handle it all, and you don’t get any water,” Trump said. “They take a shower and water comes dripping out, very quietly dripping out. People are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times, as opposed to once; they end up using more water. So EPA is looking very strongly at that, at my suggestion. I did this for you.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-toilet-water-pressure-story-rally-183213209.html
That’s right Trump, you’re fired! And let’s not forget that he’s such an asshole that he can’t stand even the slightest bit of negative press! That’s right, and that’s why he’s so afraid of people like Amorosa, who wrote a tell all book two years ago! But that raises another problem – he’s a delinquent when it comes to paying his bills! Not only does he stiff cities with security for his rallies, he doesn’t pay his bills!
Donald Trump’s campaign wants Omarosa Manigault Newman to pay up for penning an incriminating tell-all book about the president in 2018. But it’s the Trump campaign that hasn’t paid its bills.
The delinquent $52,000 payment — revealed in a previously unreported letter dated Oct. 14 and obtained by POLITICO — is just one example of how the Trump campaign is handling the flurry of legal actions it has taken to both protect the president and attack his enemies in the final weeks of the campaign.
In some instances, the campaign is pressing ahead. In others, it has let the cases go dormant. The through line, however, is that the campaign has started a lot of fights in court, yet is not close to resolving them with just two weeks left until Election Day.
In the action against Manigault Newman, the campaign may simply let the case dissolve. In 2018, the Trump campaign filed an arbitration case against the former West Wing aide over her book, which rocked the White House with stories of Trump using lewd, sexist and racist language. At one point, Trump’s attorneys suggested Newman pay for a nearly $1 million ad campaign “to counteract the long-term adverse effects” of her remarks.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/20/trumps-case-omarosa-problem-unpaid-legal-bills-430237
The delinquent $52,000 payment — revealed in a previously unreported letter dated Oct. 14 and obtained by POLITICO — is just one example of how the Trump campaign is handling the flurry of legal actions it has taken to both protect the president and attack his enemies in the final weeks of the campaign.
In some instances, the campaign is pressing ahead. In others, it has let the cases go dormant. The through line, however, is that the campaign has started a lot of fights in court, yet is not close to resolving them with just two weeks left until Election Day.
In the action against Manigault Newman, the campaign may simply let the case dissolve. In 2018, the Trump campaign filed an arbitration case against the former West Wing aide over her book, which rocked the White House with stories of Trump using lewd, sexist and racist language. At one point, Trump’s attorneys suggested Newman pay for a nearly $1 million ad campaign “to counteract the long-term adverse effects” of her remarks.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/20/trumps-case-omarosa-problem-unpaid-legal-bills-430237
That’s right – everything burns! And Trump is burning money so fast that he can’t seem to keep a positive balance! I wanted to talk positively about how the Democrats are handling things, but I’m having way too much fun bashing Trump instead. Let’s not forget the fact that the man is fucking broke and he seems to spend money faster than he can keep it. My final thought – do you really want this man to continue running our government? Do you? @realDonaldTrump, guess what? You’re fired.
President Donald Trump’s sprawling political operation has raised well over $1 billion since he took the White House in 2017 — and set a lot of it on fire.
Trump bought a $10 million Super Bowl ad when he didn’t yet have a challenger. He tapped his political organization to cover exorbitant legal fees related to his impeachment. Aides made flashy displays of their newfound wealth — including a fleet of luxury vehicles purchased by Brad Parscale, his former campaign manager.
Meanwhile, a web of limited liability companies hid more than $310 million in spending from disclosure, records show.
Now, just two weeks out from the election, some campaign aides privately acknowledge they are facing difficult spending decisions at a time when Democratic nominee Joe Biden has flooded the airwaves with advertising. That has put Trump in the position of needing to do more of his signature rallies as a substitute during the coronavirus pandemic while relying on an unproven theory that he can turn out supporters who are infrequent voters at historic levels.
“They spent their money on unnecessary overhead, lifestyles-of-the-rich-and-famous activity by the campaign staff and vanity ads,” said Mike Murphy, a veteran Republican consultant who advised John McCain and Jeb Bush and is an outspoken Trump critic. “You could literally have 10 monkeys with flamethrowers go after the money, and they wouldn’t have burned through it as stupidly.”
https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-virus-outbreak-joe-biden-donald-trump-impeachments-8ac355b6ebd62b19d8a44fedcbf5b128
Trump bought a $10 million Super Bowl ad when he didn’t yet have a challenger. He tapped his political organization to cover exorbitant legal fees related to his impeachment. Aides made flashy displays of their newfound wealth — including a fleet of luxury vehicles purchased by Brad Parscale, his former campaign manager.
Meanwhile, a web of limited liability companies hid more than $310 million in spending from disclosure, records show.
Now, just two weeks out from the election, some campaign aides privately acknowledge they are facing difficult spending decisions at a time when Democratic nominee Joe Biden has flooded the airwaves with advertising. That has put Trump in the position of needing to do more of his signature rallies as a substitute during the coronavirus pandemic while relying on an unproven theory that he can turn out supporters who are infrequent voters at historic levels.
“They spent their money on unnecessary overhead, lifestyles-of-the-rich-and-famous activity by the campaign staff and vanity ads,” said Mike Murphy, a veteran Republican consultant who advised John McCain and Jeb Bush and is an outspoken Trump critic. “You could literally have 10 monkeys with flamethrowers go after the money, and they wouldn’t have burned through it as stupidly.”
https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-virus-outbreak-joe-biden-donald-trump-impeachments-8ac355b6ebd62b19d8a44fedcbf5b128
All right folks, this is it. This is the real deal. I’ve spent 4 whole years covering the Donald J. Trump administration – from the time he wormed his way down that gold escalator to his Newport Beach COVID rally. I don’t need to tell you how high the stakes are here. I am preaching to the choir. Go out and vote. Get out the vote! We’ll be here waiting for you when you get back! We will be running a best of next week and 11/4 will go dark. We will be back in full on 11/11 with a brand new edition and I will be either in a good mood or ready to throw my TV out the window!
See you in three weeks!
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