July 26, 2020

The wealthy Republicans who want to oust Trump in November's election

July 24, 2020 / 6:03 AM / Updated 11 hours ago
The wealthy Republicans who want to oust Trump in November's election
Tim Reid



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Jimmy Tosh, who runs a multi-million dollar hog and grain farm in Tennessee, is a lifelong Republican. He is pro-gun, supports lower taxes and agrees with most of Republican President Donald Trump’s agenda.

He is also spending his money to help defeat Trump in November’s election.

“I agree with 80% of the things he does; I just cannot stand a liar,” Tosh, 70, said of Trump.

Tosh is one of a growing number of wealthy conservative Americans who say Trump is a threat to democracy and the long-term health of the Republican Party. They are actively supporting his Democratic opponent in the Nov. 3 vote, former Vice President Joe Biden.

Several billionaire and millionaire donors to The Lincoln Project, the most prominent of Republican-backed groups opposing Trump’s re-election, told Reuters that elected Republicans should also be punished for enabling him. Some even support the ouster of vulnerable Republican senators to hand control of the chamber to Democrats.

Their money has fueled an unprecedented campaign from members of a sitting president’s own party to oust him from office. This is a sign that Trump has alienated some Republicans, most recently with his response to the coronavirus pandemic and nationwide protests over police brutality against Black Americans.

more...

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-republicans-donors/the-wealthy-republicans-who-want-to-oust-trump-in-novembers-election-idUSKCN24P12Q

July 25, 2020

DOD is scouting contractors to set up potential mobile coronavirus hospitals in Florida...

Better call Cuomo; he's been there, done that. But damn good thing DeSantis has this under control

Health and Science
DOD is scouting contractors to set up potential mobile coronavirus hospitals in Florida as outbreak worsens
Published Fri, Jul 24 20201:58 PM EDTUpdated Fri, Jul 24 20203:57 PM EDT
Will Feuer

The Department of Defense is canvassing Florida for potential contractors and locations to set up emergency mobile hospitals to treat coronavirus patients across the state, according to a contract notice posted by the Army Corps of Engineers.

The Army is helping the state in case it needs to quickly build out more surge capacity at its hospitals as Covid-19 cases continue to rise, seeking contractors who can build temporary facilities with 10 days notice. The state doesn’t know how many facilities will be needed or where, but officials want to get an idea of how quickly they could build out surge hospital capacity, just in case, according to the notice.

The state is putting out a blanket call “to solicit and purchase any number of these facilities needed necessary to meet the State’s need,” according to the notice that was posted online Tuesday.

more...

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/24/dod-is-scouting-contractors-to-set-up-potential-mobile-coronavirus-hospitals-in-florida-as-outbreak-worsens.html

July 25, 2020

The Rude Pundit: AOC Fucks the Patriarchy's Shit Up

https://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2020/07/aoc-fucks-patriarchys-shit-up.html

The Rude Pundit
Proudly lowering the level of political discourse
7/24/2020
AOC Fucks the Patriarchy's Shit Up


The line from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's calm evisceration of Rep. Ted Yoho yesterday on the floor of the House of Representatives that will likely be the one that is remembered is something that shouldn't need to be said: "Having a daughter does not make a man decent. Having a wife does not make a decent man. Treating people with dignity and respect makes a decent man." Too many terrible men have tried to use the fact that they're related to women as a defense for their shit behavior. Ocasio-Cortez was done with that, as we all should be. Ted Bundy had a mom. Bill Cosby has a wife and daughters. Donald Trump has had three wives and two daughters. Their proximity to women did nothing to ameliorate their hideous acts towards women.

Ocasio-Cortez said that she wasn't speaking so much because Yoho had called her a "fucking bitch" on the steps of the Capitol but because, the day before, Yoho had offered the fake apology of a fucking bitch. Yoho has long been a fucking bitch. He rode into DC on one of the racist Tea Party waves in 2012, representing a district in Florida that's 75% white. He's been a loyal gobbler of Koch money, the kind of piece of shit Republican who votes to defund Planned Parenthood, won't say if the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is constitutional, and refuses to vote for a federal anti-lynching bill because that would be "overreach." What had so upset Yoho that he felt he had to confront Ocasio-Cortez? The Democrat from NYC had said a month ago that poverty leads to crime, something that we've fucking known since at least Les Miserables. But that set off Yoho because if there's one thing a Republican doesn't want to hear, it's that you might need to actually help people.

Then, proving that he's one of the littlest fucking bitches in the bitch-filled GOP caucus, Yoho went to the mic in the House on Wednesday to say, in essence, "Sorry if what I said upset you. Oh, and I didn't say it. Oh, and I might have said it but I didn't intend for her to hear it. Oh, and I only said the thing I didn't say because I love my country and God and my wife and daughters and I'm gonna hide behind all that because I'm a fucking bitch." More or less, that was it.

snip//

Yoho's pathetic little slap at Ocasio-Cortez is just another of the last gasps of a white patriarchy that has been on oxygen for at least a decade, kept alive by unholy medical procedures and the force of pure racist and sexist fear, like Sheldon Adelson or the thankfully dead Strom Thurmond, that their day may finally, at long last, after so much delay, be over. And it's going to be women like Ocasio-Cortez and the dozen-plus women in Congress who stood with her, as well as the daughters and granddaughters of soon-to-be extinct creatures like Yoho.

Goddamn, it can't come soon enough. Please take the keys away from men, whether in Congress or in other positions of power and hopefully the presidency one day soon. God knows people like Ted Yoho have fucked this nation he supposedly loves for everyone, including wives and daughters. No, the people who really love the United States know it must change or it will die. Ocasio-Cortez and Pramila Jayapal and Ayanna Pressley and Mikie Sherrill and Rashida Tlaib and so many more will keep giving the patriarchy a beat down in the Congress and elsewhere until it's finally yielded to the hope of progress.

July 25, 2020

'Make America Normal Again': Trump backers plead for a virus plan

That ship has sailed and is not returning.


‘Make America Normal Again’: Trump backers plead for a virus plan
Political allies say outlining a more specific plan to battle the coronavirus might be the most important factor for Trump's reelection.
By ANITA KUMAR
07/24/2020 07:45 PM EDT


President Donald Trump restarted the White House coronavirus briefings. He urged Americans to wear masks. He even scrapped his party’s convention.

To many of his own allies, it’s still not enough.

Trump’s political allies, alarmed by his sinking poll numbers, are warning that the president’s best chance to get reelected is to outline more detailed plans to conquer the coronavirus he keeps trying to wish away. They are advising him to offer people something concrete they can look to as the pandemic surges in dozens of states, eroding months of progress.

“The message has to be about the path forward,” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Trump ally.

For weeks, Trump had been doing anything but that. He demonized protesters. He crowed about mail-in voting fraud. He bragged — more than once — about the results of a cognitive test.

Then this week, Trump made more public attempts to change his focus. He spoke of plans to protect nursing home residents. He discussed an agreement to purchase potential coronavirus vaccines. He backed away from strident demands for the next economic relief package being hashed out on Capitol Hill.

Yet the president continued to offer contradictory messages, pushing again for schools to open in the fall, despite the concerns of public health officials. And he didn’t outline any specific plans for addressing complaints about the long wait for test results and the lack of contact tracing, one major key to curbing the spread of the disease. And he claimed that his administration had filled all its requests from states for supplies, though governors dispute that.

more...

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/24/trump-backers-plead-virus-plan-381316

July 25, 2020

Biden Has Opened Up Huge Lead

https://politicalwire.com/2020/07/25/biden-has-opened-up-huge-lead/

Biden Has Opened Up Huge Lead
July 25, 2020 at 7:41 am EDT By Taegan Goddard

July 25, 2020

House GOP Pleas to RNC Go Unanswered

https://politicalwire.com/2020/07/25/house-gop-pleas-to-rnc-go-unanswered/

House GOP Pleas to RNC Go Unanswered
July 25, 2020 at 7:31 am EDT By Taegan Goddard

July 25, 2020

State and local officials sue Trump over census order

TheHill.com
State and local officials sue Trump over census order
By Harper Neidig - 07/24/20 04:41 PM EDT


A coalition of state and local officials sued President Trump and his administration Friday over an executive action that would exclude undocumented immigrants from being counted in the 2020 census.

The lawsuit, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, alleges that the order "unequivocally" violates the Constitution's directions for conducting the census.



New York was joined by 19 other states, Washington, D.C., and more than a dozen cities and states. The coalition includes Colorado, Massachusetts, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, as well as Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle.

more...

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/508951-state-and-local-officials-sue-trump-over-census-order

July 24, 2020

Kim Guilfoyle, Don Jr. Reportedly Stranded Trump Staffers In South Dakota

Shocker-not.

Kim Guilfoyle, Don Jr. Reportedly Stranded Trump Staffers In South Dakota
After Guilfoyle tested positive for COVID-19, she and the president’s son apparently took a jet back to New York, leaving staffers to fend for themselves—an incident some say is emblematic of the turmoil on her fundraising team.
By Eric Lutz
July 24, 2020


Kimberly Guilfoyle may not have the Trump surname, but she certainly fits in, evidently possessing that special blend of incompetence and carelessness that’s central to the family brand. Guilfoyle, a former Fox News personality and girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr., formally joined the president’s re-election bid as a senior adviser in 2019 and has been serving since February as the campaign’s national finance chair. In some respects she’s been successful, helping Donald Trump to build up a considerable war chest. But, according to Politico, she’s also overseen a money-raising operation rife with chaos, cronyism, and backstabbing.

Republicans familiar with her fundraising unit told the outlet that Guilfoyle’s staff is in a state of “upheaval,” with employees leaving and being replaced by additions with little to no relevant experience other than connections to Guilfoyle and her deputy, Sergio Gor, who has feuded with longtime fundraiser Caroline Wren. Caught between Gor and Wren, staffers have reportedly been further upset by Guilfoyle claiming credit for their work—and for apparent disregard for rank-and-file campaign workers, as evidenced by an episode earlier this month in which she and Don Jr. left junior staffers stranded in South Dakota after she tested positive for COVID-19.

The couple had originally made plans to road trip back to New York from South Dakota, where the president gave a dark and divisive speech in front of Mount Rushmore, but apparently took a private flight instead, leaving several junior campaign staffers who’d been in contact with the infected Guilfoyle behind to quarantine alone in their hotel rooms, “scared they’d get sick in a city they’d never set foot in before,” according to Politico. The incident left the staffers so shaken that they reportedly sought out campaign chief of staff Stephanie Alexander weeks later, and several last week sought a meeting with Brad Parscale, though that fell through after he took the fall for the sputtering campaign.

more...

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/07/kim-guilfoyle-don-jr-stranded-trump-staffers-in-south-dakota

July 24, 2020

Anti-gay politician who decried mask mandate as "draconian" has been hospitalized for COVID

Anti-gay politician who decried mask mandate as “draconian” has been hospitalized for COVID
He wanted to cut funding for "Sesame Street" this year for promoting "the radical LGBTQ agenda."
By Bil Browning Friday, July 24, 2020


An anti-LGBTQ Arkansas Republican who called his state’s mask mandate “draconian” has been hospitalized with a coronavirus infection.

State Sen. Jason Rapert (R), who proposed defunding PBS over an episode of Sesame Street in which out actor Billy Porter appeared, calling it part of “the radical LGBTQ agenda,” has been hospitalized for pneumonia and tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, according to an announcement posted to his Facebook account.

“This is a difficult time for my family, but we know that God is with us always,” Rapert said. “We’re sincerely grateful for the many prayers of love and support that have been expressed on our behalf.”

Despite claiming in a Facebook post that “we have all been doing our best to wear a mask,” the senator was recently seen attending church without a mask. He also condemned the governor’s mask mandate “on principle.”

more...

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2020/07/anti-gay-politician-decried-mask-mandate-draconian-hospitalized-covid/

July 24, 2020

LeBron James joins push to turn out ex-felon vote in Florida

LeBron James joins push to turn out ex-felon vote in Florida
By GARY FINEOUT
07/24/2020 01:32 PM EDT


TALLAHASSEE — A group founded by NBA superstar LeBron James and other Black athletes and entertainers is stepping into the fight to register Florida voters with felony records, saying it will help pay court debts and fees so they can cast ballots in the November presidential election.

More Than A Vote, a group established by James and others in the wake of George Floyd's death in Minneapolis, on Friday said it will donate $100,000 to help pay outstanding court debts of ex-felons so they can register to vote. The money will go to the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, which in 2018 successfully pushed to a constitutional amendment that lifted Florida's lifetime voting ban on people with felony convictions. After the amendment passed, the Republican-led state Legislature earlier this year raised the bar for felons to vote, passing a law that is being challenged in federal court.



The partnership will help ensure that "formerly incarcerated American citizens — many of them Black and brown — are able to pay their outstanding fines and fees and register to vote in the 2020 election and beyond.”

The coalition already has raised more than $1.5 million for its fees-and-fines fund, but the partnership with More Than A Vote is expected to bring attention and awareness to the effort.

Desmond Meade, executive director of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, said the partnership will strengthen democracy and make more voices heard.

The partnership comes amid a bitter legal fight over the voting requirement, which Democrats and civil rights groups have likened to an unconstitutional poll tax. One study projected that as many as 775,000 people in Florida with felony convictions have financial obligations that render them ineligible under the law. Of the more than 13.7 million voters registered in the battleground state, nearly a third are either Black or Hispanic.

more...

https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2020/07/24/lebron-james-joins-push-to-turn-out-ex-felon-vote-in-florida-1303417