August 31, 2020

Prosecutors are looking into financial crimes committed in connection with Trump's inauguration

A former Melania Trump friend and adviser said she is working with multiple prosecutors on investigations into potential financial crimes committed in connection with President Trump’s inauguration. `

"I'm working with three different prosecutors, and it's taken over my life," Stephanie Winston Wolkoff told ABC News in an interview Monday, referring to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York and local attorneys general in New Jersey and Washington, D.C.

Winston Wolkoff said she considered Melania Trump a close friend for more than a decade. She served as a leading organizer for President Trump’s inauguration and later as an adviser to Melania Trump.

<...>

In her forthcoming book she writes she was made into “the cover girl for the inauguration shenanigans,” according to ABC News.

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/514428-former-melania-trump-friend-says-she-is-working-with-multiple-prosecutors-on

August 25, 2020

Trump wanted to gas, maim, and "pierce the flesh" of migrants

<...>

When it came to the border wall, Trump would dream up “sickening” medieval plots “to pierce the flesh” of migrants, rip all the families apart, “maim,” and gas them, Taylor claims. “This was a man with no humanity whatsoever,” Taylor says. “He says, we got to do this, this, this, and this, all of which are probably impossible, illegal unethical,” Taylor recalls, but he was writing them down as the president spoke. “And he looks over me and he goes, ‘you fucking taking notes?’”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-administration-insider-president-wanted-to-maim-immigrants?source=twitter&via=desktop

August 24, 2020

Katie Porter Takes Just Seconds to Get Postmaster DeJoy to Admit He's Ignorant of Basic Facts

WATCH: Katie Porter Takes Just Seconds to Get Postmaster DeJoy to Admit He’s Ignorant of Basic Facts About Postal Service

By Reed Richardson

Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) repeatedly stumped Postmaster General Louis DeJoy with basic questions about the U.S. Postal Service and burrowed in on his potential conflict of interests during a brutal House hearing on Monday.

<...>

During the Congresswoman’s time she began with a series of basic queries about the costs of mailing several different items, from postcards to Priority Mail packages. DeJoy repeatedly failed to know the simple answers.

“You don’t know the cost to mail a postcard?” Porter confirmed.

“I don’t.”

“What if I wanted mail — you said 55 cents for a first class stamp, what if it is a greeting card that is a square envelope, what is the postage?”

“I’ll submit that I know very little about the postage stamp.”

“And what is the starting rate for U.S. Post office — USPS priority mail?” Porter asked.

“The starting rate for what?”

“USPS priority mail.”

“Starting weight? 14 ounces,” DeJoy said, answering the wrong question.

“No, the rate. The price.”

“I don’t know. Don’t know.”

<...>

“Do you know about within a million or so, could you tell me how many people voted by mail in the last presidential election?”

“No, I cannot.”

More:
https://www.mediaite.com/news/watch-katie-porter-takes-just-seconds-to-get-postmaster-dejoy-to-admit-hes-ignorant-of-basic-facts-about-postal-service/

August 22, 2020

We just crossed 180,000 coronavirus deaths

That's the equivalent of 45,000 Benghazi's.

Republicans had hearings for several years because 4 people died in Benghazi under Obama.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

August 22, 2020

Photos of the people who "renovated" the White House Rose Garden...which now looks like a cemetery

Melania Trump’s Rose Garden Renovation Gets Torn Up On Twitter: ‘Funeral Home For White Supremacists’

First Lady Melania Trump revealed her renovation of the White House Rose Garden, to fairly brutal social media reviews that likened it to a “funeral home for white supremacists,” among other things.

https://www.mediaite.com/news/melania-trumps-rose-garden-renovation-gets-torn-up-on-twitter-funeral-home-for-white-supremacists/





Before and after:

August 21, 2020

Europe essentially tells Pompeo and Trump to go fuck themselves when it comes to Iran.

On Iran, Pompeo and Trump find themselves isolated and defeated
By Steve Benen

When the international nuclear agreement with Iran was reached five years ago, much of the west feared that Tehran wouldn't live up to its side of the deal. It's why the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) included a "snap back" provision: if Iran failed to honor its commitments, economic sanctions would immediately be re-imposed.

In practice, the trigger was a moot point: each of the countries involved in the agreement stuck to the deal. At least, that is, until Donald Trump came along, decided he didn't care that the policy was working, and announced that the United States would stop honoring its commitments.

Predictably, Iran proceeded to accelerate its nuclear program -- the program was on indefinite hold before Trump got to work -- concluding that there was no longer any point in holding up Tehran's side of the deal.

This week, that led the White House to make an exceedingly difficult pitch: the Trump administration is demanding the full enforcement of an international agreement it's already abandoned. (The State Department has been reduced to arguing that we're a "participant" in the deal we've officially withdrawn from.)

As the Associated Press reported, the pitch was not well received.

More: https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/iran-pompeo-trump-find-themselves-isolated-defeated-n1237702

August 19, 2020

US Postal Service delays force Department of Veterans Affairs to shift prescription delivery methods

Source: CNN

The Department of Veterans Affairs has been forced to find alternative ways to ship mail-order prescriptions for patients whose medication is delivered by the United States Postal Service, including FedEx and UPS, CNN has learned.

The VA acknowledged the change in an email to a veterans group called Disabled Vets of America after it raised the issue on behalf of patients who had reported significant delays in receiving medication from USPS in recent weeks amid a nationwide slowdown, according to a copy of the correspondence reviewed by CNN.

"The VA has now confirmed to us that the United States Postal Service (USPS), which is responsible for delivering about 90% of all VA mail order prescriptions, has indeed been delayed in delivering these critical medications by an average of almost 25% over the past year, with many locations experiencing much more significant delays," the group's national commander, Stephen Whitehead, said in a statement Monday.

"To help mitigate these postal delays, the VA has been forced to switch to alternative delivery services in a number of areas across the country and is taking other actions to expedite processing and delivery of prescriptions," Whitehead added.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/18/politics/veterans-affairs-us-postal-service-prescription-delays/index.html

---

How is this not criminal?

August 17, 2020

Coronavirus testing is decreasing across the US and it's all part of Trump's strategy

(CNN)Just as more students head back to school, health experts are worried about a disturbing trend in much of the country: decreasing testing combined with high test positivity rates.

In other words, Covid-19 is still spreading rampantly, but there's less testing to find and isolate cases.

The number of tests performed each day in the US has dropped by an average of 68,000 compared to the daily rate in late July, according to data from the Covid Tracking Project.

<...>

"One of the reasons that testing is decreasing is that supplies aren't being shipped to places that can test. I think it's part of a strategy not to count how many people are infected," Haseltine said.

<...>

Dr. Kent Sepkowitz said he's worried some states may be taking cues from President Donald Trump, who said "when you do more testing, you find more cases," which might make the US "look bad."

Sepkowitz noted that several states that have touted decreased case counts also had some of the highest test positivity rates -- an indicator that the virus is spreading rampantly.

More:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/17/health/us-coronavirus-monday/index.html

August 11, 2020

Idaho Republican: Listening to the medical experts is an elitist approach

Republican legislators in Idaho warned of abuses of power and concerns about totalitarianism as they pushed to take away health districts’ ability to close schools due to the coronavirus, the Idaho Statesman reports.

Said state Sen. Steven Thayn (R): “Listening to the experts to set policy is an elitist approach. I’m fearful of an elitist approach. I am also fearful it leads to totalitarianism, especially when you say, ‘We are doing it for the public good.'”

https://politicalwire.com/2020/08/11/gop-lawmakers-look-to-strip-school-closure-authority/

August 11, 2020

Trump: If I don't win the election, China will own the US and you'll have to learn to speak Chinese

August 11, 2020 at 11:15 am EDT

“If I don’t win the election, China will own the United States. You’re going to have to learn to speak Chinese, you want to know the truth.”

— President Trump, in an interview with Hugh Hewitt.

https://politicalwire.com/2020/08/11/extra-bonus-quote-of-the-day-597/