‘Pushing every button’: Trump mobilizes the government in campaign’s final days

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The cumulative acts reflect the extent to which Trump has transformed parts of the federal bureaucracy into a factory of threats, directives and actions — an outgrowth of a campaign strategy which the president and his political advisers settled on as their best chance to hold the Republican congressional majorities.

“This is the most focused and concerted effort to use all of the powers of the presidency to shape a midterm election that I have ever seen,” said William A. Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Governance Studies Program and a former domestic policy adviser in the Clinton White House.

“President Trump is pushing every button on the console and he is mobilizing all of the power, including the communications power, of the federal government on behalf of his party’s campaign in this midterm,” Galston added.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/pushing-every-button-trump-mobilizes-the-government-in-campaigns-final-days/2018/10/30/009067b2-dc52-11e8-b732-3c72cbf131f2_story.html?utm_term=.e0cbc08f5db3

https://media.newyorker.com/photos/5bd24fa323ddfa4b39256b75/master/w_3000,c_limit/CoverStory-STORY_ulriksen_halloween.jpg

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-halloween-new-yorker_us_5bd9b738e4b0da7bfc15d4f5

Even scary-looking characters run from a trick-or-treating Donald Trump on The New Yorker’s Halloween-themed cover.

In the artwork titled “Boo!” that fronts the Nov. 5 issue, the president grins as he saunters down the street holding two jack-o’-lantern buckets overstuffed with candy. But his presence strikes fear into other trick-or-treaters dressed in spooky costumes. They attempt to skedaddle as their hard-earned treats fall to the ground.

http://www.electproject.org/early_2018

https://twitter.com/MrFilmkritik/status/1057347777049583616

He came to Calif for a fundraiser and they snuck him in and out. No one has had the opportunity to protest him in 2 years. Today he couldn't avoid it

As Election Day draws near, Karin Housley, a Republican state senator running to represent Minnesota in the U.S. Senate, apparently thinks people with pre-existing conditions are “wealthier.”

In an update to the health care page on Housley’s website and in a new TV ad, the Republican now says she supports coverage for people with pre-existing conditions but characterizes them as “generally older and relatively wealthier.” Her previous health care page had a total of three sentences, according to a screengrab from last week on the Internet Archive.

Housley’s claim that she supports coverage for people with pre-existing conditions is dubious. Earlier this year, she said she was disappointed that Republicans in Congress failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Had they succeeded, they would have gutted protections for people with pre-existing conditions. And she recently said she supports Republican proposals to sell so-called “skinny” health insurance plans that don’t cover as many services and can exclude coverage for pre-existing conditions.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/karin-housley-pre-existing-conditions_us_5bd8e577e4b01abe6a192135

Housley made headlines earlier this month after HuffPost reported that in 2009 she compared then-first lady Michelle Obama to a “chimp” in a Facebook post. In the comment thread on her post, Housley said the chimpanzee in the 1951 film “Bedtime for Bonzo,” starring then-actor Ronald Reagan, likely had better posture than Mrs. Obama.

Even many Kansas Republicans are terrified of what will happen if Kris Kobach becomes their governor.

With just over a week until the final votes are cast, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach is still too toxic to get unified support from his fellow Republicans in his run for Kansas governor.

While Kansas is a deep-red state, a chorus of former and current GOP officials have publicly signaled their support for Kobach’s Democratic opponent, Laura Kelly.

To date, nearly 30 prominent Republicans in Kansas have crossed the aisle to side with Kelly over Kobach.

They include two of the state’s former GOP governors, Mike Hayden and Bill Graves; former Republican U.S. Senator Nancy Kassebaum; and more than two dozen other current and former state officials.

And while not all Kansas Republicans have endorsed Kobach’s Democratic opponent, plenty of others would prefer to avoid talking about Kobach at all.

Nearly 40 percent of Republicans in the Kansas state legislature wouldn’t tell the Wichita Eagle last month if they planned on supporting Kobach in November.

https://shareblue.com/kobach-struggles-to-get-his-fellow-republicans-to-publicly-support-him/

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/10/29/trump-daily-schedule-executive-time-944996

WHITE HOUSE

9 hours of ‘Executive Time’: Trump’s unstructured days define his presidency
The president’s schedule shows huge swaths of his day unplanned, allowing his whims and momentary interests to drive White House business.

President Donald Trump had about three times as much free time planned for last Tuesday as work time, according to his private schedule. The president was slated for more than nine hours of “Executive Time,” a euphemism for the unstructured time Trump spends tweeting, phoning friends and watching television. Official meetings, policy briefings and public appearances — typically the daily work of being president — consumed barely more than three hours of his day.

The president was slated to spend 30 minutes on the phone with CEOs and make brief remarks at a state leadership conference. He was briefed by senior military leaders in the evening and joined them for dinner. Aside from an 11:30 a.m. meeting with White House chief of staff John Kelly — his first commitment of the day — the rest of his day was unstructured, some in blocks as long as 2 hours and 45 minutes.


A review of one week of the president’s private detailed schedules, from Monday Oct. 22 through Friday Oct. 26, showed the president had more free time on Tuesday than on any other day that week, but his Tuesday agenda was hardly atypical. And while the notion of Executive Time, and the president’s increasingly late start to the day, has come under scrutiny over the past year, this new batch of schedules obtained by POLITICO offers fresh insight into the extent to which that unscheduled time dominates Trump’s week and is shaping his presidency, allowing his whims and momentary interests to drive White House business.

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Asked if he'll do events in inner cities to attract African-Americans, Trump says, "I'm doing them. I already have them scheduled." He does not have them scheduled.


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Trump repeats his usual false claim about Asian-American unemployment being at a record low. It hit a low in May but has jumped back up, now to 0.9 points above the level it was at in Obama's last full month.

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Asked if he'll do events in inner cities to attract African-Americans, Trump says, "I'm doing them. I already have them scheduled." He does not have them scheduled.

7:28 PM - 29 Oct 2018

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Trump keeps saying that car companies are coming back to Pennsylvania. There are no auto assembly plants in Pennsylvania.

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Responding to Obama saying he's "fearmongering" about impoverished migrants, Trump says, "Well he's trying to do the opposite."

https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1057095756807577601

Olympian Is 'So Sorry' About His Halloween Costume
Shaun White dressed as a disabled character from 'Tropic Thunder'



http://www.newser.com/story/266577/olympian-is-so-sorry-about-his-halloween-costume.html?utm_source=part&utm_medium=uol&utm_campaign=rss_top

The three-time winner of Olympic gold went out this weekend as Simple Jack, the disabled character from the movie Tropic Thunder, and promptly issued an apology Monday, People reports. "I owe everyone in the Special Olympics community an apology for my poor choice of Halloween costume the other night," he tweeted. "It was a last minute decision. It was the wrong one. The Special Olympics are right to call me out on it. They do great work supporting many tremendous athletes and I am so sorry for being ------------


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In fact, a rep for the Special Olympics tells TMZ Sports ...

"We are truly disappointed that Shaun White, an acclaimed Olympian, would choose this costume which is so offensive and causes so much pain."

"Disability is not a joke nor should it be a punchline. We hope that Shaun White and others learn that this just continues stigma, stereotypes and discrimination."

Others have sounded off on Shaun's IG page -- where he posted the pic.

"I'm not sure if it’s worse that this is an actual movie or that you’d think it’s okay to mock individuals who have disabilities. It’s 2018, man. #spreadthewordtoendtheword #rwordhurts," one person wrote.

Another wrote, "You’re a real POS! Really? At the expense of those who can’t defend themselves?? Hope you’re working on your lame apology speech...I know this will be deleted!! Grow up you douche! #spreadthewordtoendtheword #specialolympics."


http://www.tmz.com/2018/10/29/shaun-white-halloween-costume-special-olympics/?adid=partner-newser-pubexchange_article