October 20, 2020

Trump Fundraisers Spun Wheels, Spending 77 Cents to Bring in $1

(Bloomberg) President Donald Trump’s campaign found it harder to raise money from small-dollar donors in the final months before the election, spending 77 cents of each dollar it received in the third quarter on future fundraising efforts, according to federal disclosures that highlighted the funding gap with Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

Spending by the campaign’s grassroots fundraising arm, Trump Make America Great Again, to pursue small donors was far higher than throughout his re-election campaign, when it spent 47 cents per dollar raised.

Over the last three months, TMAGA paid $181 million of the $235.7 million it raised from small donors to vendors for more fundraising expenses, the organization’s latest filing with the Federal Election Commission shows. ...........(more)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-20/trump-fundraisers-spun-wheels-spending-77-cents-to-bring-in-1

October 20, 2020

Fox NFL Duo Rip Military Jet Flyovers On Hot Mic, Say Biden Would Stop Them

A hot mic exchange between two Fox sports announcers managed to grab a share of the NFL spotlight over the weekend, and their off-camera chat wasn’t about X’s and O’s. (Check it out below.)

Joe Buck and former star quarterback Troy Aikman zeroed in on a military jet flyover at a mostly empty Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, before the host Buccaneers played the Green Bay Packers on Sunday. The banter got political, too.

“That’s a lot of jet fuel just to do a little flyover,” Aikman commented.

“That’s your hard-earned money and your tax dollars at work!” Buck replied.

“That stuff ain’t happening with Kamala-Biden ticket, I’ll tell you that right now, partner,” Aikman said. ............(more)

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/troy-aikman-joe-buck-flyover_n_5f8ebef3c5b66ee9a5f3515d?

October 20, 2020

"Creative Destruction" or Just "Destruction"?

THE WOLF STREET REPORT: “Creative Destruction” or Just “Destruction”?
by Wolf Richter • Oct 18, 2020 •
Under the effects of the Pandemic, consumers and businesses grapple with their own “Reset.”

October 20, 2020

David Perdue -- just a good ole boy, never meanin' no harm.......

GOP senator who mocked Kamala Harris once asked Black supporter about Perdue chicken and Herman Cain
Republican Sen. David Perdue is NOT part of the family who owns Perdue Farms


(Salon) Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., drew swift backlash on Friday night after he deliberately mispronounced Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris' first name at a rally, adding several syllables as he drew laughs from the crowd.

The senator's re-election campaign said the Republican senator had "simply mispronounced Senator Harris' name, and he didn't mean anything by it." Harris' press secretary rebuked the remarks as "incredibly racist" as members of the media poured cold water on the campaign's claim.

"Perdue has served with Kamala Harris in the Senate for four years," Washington Post White House Bureau Chief Phil Rucker tweeted. "He knows how to properly pronounce her name."

....(snip)....



Nevertheless, the senator once invoked this likeness during a brief conversation with a Black man at a 2014 campaign event. Upon introduction, the Republican asked whether the young man liked Perdue chicken before referencing Herman Cain, the former Black Republican presidential candidate. The unprompted exchange, which took place at a campaign stop in the northwest Atlanta suburb of Marietta, was caught on video footage first obtained by Salon. ...............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2020/10/20/senator-who-mocked-kamala-harris-name-once-asked-black-voter-about-perdue-chicken-and-herman-cain/

October 19, 2020

Supreme Court Rules Pennsylvania Can Count Ballots Received After Election Day

The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday that election officials in Pennsylvania can count absentee ballots received as late as the Friday after Election Day so long as they are postmarked by Nov. 3.

The Court declined without comment to take up one of the highest-profile election law cases in the final stretch before Election. Pennsylvania Republicans had sought to block the counting of late-arriving ballots, which the state's Supreme Court had approved last month.

Republicans sought the emergency stay, arguing that it is up to the state's legislature — not the court — to set rules for how elections are conducted. They also said the court's ruling could allow ballots cast after Election Day to be counted. .........(more)

https://www.npr.org/2020/10/19/922411176/supreme-court-rules-pennsylvania-can-count-ballots-received-after-election-day

October 19, 2020

New York bars wedding of a Brooklyn rabbi's grandson expected to draw 10,000 people

(CNN)A wedding at a Hasidic Jewish synagogue that was expected to draw up to 10,000 people has been barred by a New York state order, according to officials.

A grandson of the grand rebbe (rabbi) of Congregation Yetev Lev D'Satmar in Brooklyn planned to get married Monday, according to a statement attributed to the synagogue which CNN received from the Satmar Wedding Committee.

After an investigation into the planned wedding, New York State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker on Friday signed a section 16 order barring the event, Beth Garvey, special counsel to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, confirmed at a press conference on Saturday.

"It was outside the target red, or orange or yellow cluster zone, but the information that our investigation revealed was that upwards of 10,000 individuals ... planned to attend," Garvey said. .............(more)

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/19/us/new-york-bars-hasidic-wedding-covid-19/index.html

October 19, 2020

Videos From Right-Wing Site That Preaches 'The Left Ruins Everything' Assigned In Ohio School

(HuffPost) An Ohio public school has been giving students extra credit for watching videos from PragerU, a right-wing website that produces clips of talking heads such as Candace Owens and Ben Shapiro discussing conservative viewpoints, HuffPost has learned.

The PragerU videos — with titles such as “Build the Wall,” “Why the Right Was Right” and “The Left Ruins Everything” — were assigned to a 10th-grade history class at Maumee High School, along with a series of questions about the videos’ “most important messages.”

The assignment came at the same time that the website has tried to gain further influence in K-12 classrooms. Earlier this month, the organization launched a program directly aimed at parents and educators, complete with study guides with sections such as “Conservatives Are the Real Environmentalists” and “The Ferguson Lie,” based on a HuffPost review of the materials.

Andrea Cutway, the mother of 16-year-old student Avery Lewis, brought the assignment to the attention of Maumee City Schools administrators and immediately pulled her daughter out of the class. Maumee is about 10 miles southwest of Toledo. ..............(more)

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/right-wing-videos-public-schools-prageru_n_5f889a29c5b6e9e76fbb6db8?

October 19, 2020

"You cannot reach Republicans, it's just not possible. Something in them died long before...."

OCT 19, 2020 AT 4:54 AM
15 Days And Counting

by Thomas Clay Jr.


You cannot reach Republicans, it's just not possible. Something in them died long before they devolved into this cult of personality that embraces religious tyranny and ignorance while raising imbecility to be a virtue.

Think about how craven and depraved someone must be to look at a man who says windmills cause cancer and that we should inject disinfectants into our bodies and think such a man should be leader of the free world. The deplorables are always keen to say, 'well he was just joking.' Well was he also joking about airports being attacked during the revolutionary war? As Mr. Twain was prone to say, 'no amount of evidence can persuade an idiot.'

I know it's hard to come to terms with the fact that friends or relatives you've known your entire life are both heartless and stupid but we cannot afford to be riddled with the cognitive dissonance that plagues them. The worst kind of liar is not the one who lies to deceive, it's the one who lies to themselves. Trump does both and no person with anything resembling a conscience could summon the amount of evil it would take to walk into a voting booth and vote for four more years of this kind of chaos.

One of my mother's most important lessons to my sisters was to say, 'leave after the first lie.' Republican women are incapable of comprehending such a notion because they have to lie to themselves to see the men they marry as something besides what they are and what they are is monsters. The women are vacant vessels devoid of probity. ............(more)

https://www.patreon.com/posts/15-days-and-42910314

October 19, 2020

What Gov. Whitmer's '8645' Pin Really Means

(Detroit Free Press) Speaking on NBC's Meet the Press Sunday, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer condemned President Trump for inciting domestic terrorism. "It is wrong. It's got to end. It is dangerous, not just for me and my family but public servants everywhere," she said.

Whitmer's comments came ten days after the public learned the FBI thwarted a militia group's attempt to kidnap her and one day after President Trump spoke at a Michigan rally where his supporters chanted, "Lock her up."

The Trump campaign pointed out a small pin resting on the table behind Whitmer during her interview. The pin contained the numbers "8645." "Whitmer is encouraging assassination attempts against President Trump," Trump's campaign alleged, explaining that "86 can be shorthand for killing someone." The last two numbers refer to Trump, who is the 45th president of the United States.

....(snip)....

According to Merriam-Webster's dictionary, "86" is slang for refusing to serve a customer. It can also mean to get rid of or throw out. The etymology for the term is disputed, explains Ben Zimmer in The Atlantic, but it has its origins in the restaurant industry to refer to menu items that are no longer available.

....(snip)....

"The silly season is officially here. It's pretty clear nobody in the Trump campaign has ever worked a food service job," wrote Bobby Leddy from Gov. Whitmer's political team in an email to the Detroit Free Press. ...............(more)

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2020/10/19/8645-meaning-whitmer-trump/3708927001/

October 19, 2020

Michigan troopers will watch polls in counties where sheriffs may ignore voter intimidation: AG

(Detroit Metro Times) Amid increasing concerns about voter intimidation, Michigan plans to dispatch state troopers to polling places in counties where officials fear local sheriffs may not enforce the law, Attorney General Dana Nessel said Sunday on Showtime’s The Circus.

Election officials across the country are bracing for potential trouble as President Donald Trump continues to call for an “army” of supporters to “monitor” voting.

Those concerns are amplified in places like Barry County, where Sheriff Dar Leaf appeared to defend the suspects in a plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Nessel said the state is preparing “for every possible scenario.”

"If you have a county sheriff that seems to be sympathetic to any of these organizations and we think they're not going to enforce the laws, then we'll get somebody else who will, the Michigan State Police," Nessel said. .............(more)

https://www.metrotimes.com/news-hits/archives/2020/10/19/michigan-troopers-will-watch-polls-in-counties-where-sheriffs-may-ignore-threats-of-voter-intimidation-nessel-says