Under Trump, a red carpet for Dinesh D'Souza, who claims Hitler was a liberal in new documentary

Source: WaPo

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From cutting rooms to college campuses, one of the sharpest arrows in the quiver of right-wing provocateurs has been the charge that they are trivialized and victimized. But this weapon has lost its edge in the Trump era, as the president, his family members and his allies roll out the red carpet for figures whose propagation of hateful myths once placed them beyond the pale of mainstream American discourse.

On Wednesday, there was a literal red carpet, down which D’Souza walked with Donald Trump, Jr., at the Washington premiere of his new documentary. The event was the latest illustration of how the president or his associates have breathed life into far-right theories with little or no basis in reality — theories that now enjoy a following among some members of the Republican Party who see themselves as most closely aligned with the White House.

The president’s elder son told his 2.93 million Twitter followers that the film — the main argument of which is that President Trump is a modern-day Lincoln, while Democrats are the intellectual heirs of the agents of slavery and genocide — is “going to fire up Republicans for the midterms exploring how fascism so closely links to the platform of the progressive left today.”

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Among the attendees, according to images posted on social media, were Ben Carson, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development who once tried to link Hillary Clinton to Lucifer, and David A. Clarke, Jr., the former sheriff of Milwaukee County who faced allegations that inmates were mistreated in his jails. Lee Stranahan, a reporter for the Kremlin-controlled Sputnik news agency, and Jack Posobiec, an alt-right troll who has been retweeted by the president, were also there.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/08/02/under-trump-a-red-carpet-for-dinesh-dsouza-who-claims-hitler-was-a-liberal-in-new-documentary/

Trump's wildlife protection council is mostly trophy hunters and donors, lawsuit says

Source: WaPo

Advocacy groups sued the Trump administration Wednesday over what they call the biased makeup of a wildlife advisory council.

The lawsuit filed in a U.S. District Court in New York alleges that the International Wildlife Conservation Council is made of “hunting enthusiasts” and “politically-connected donors” who are likely to craft favorable policy for groups that profit from hunting “imperiled animals,” the complaint said.

“It’s very obvious [the 17-member council has] an intent to undermine some of the protections put in place” based on the affiliations of its members, Zak Smith, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, told The Washington Post. Smith said the law requires advisory councils to be balanced so that all sides are represented.

The panel was announced in November 2017 by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. Its purpose is to increase American awareness of conservation, ensure the support of hunting as a tool to combat illegal poaching and recommend the “removal of barriers to the importation into the United States of legally hunted wildlife,” the charter said. In its ranks are a National Rifle Association official, six members who are listed as active hunters and five members who are said to represent wildlife conservation groups.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2018/08/01/trumps-wildlife-protection-council-is-mostly-trophy-hunters-and-donors-lawsuit-says/?tid=sm_tw

Lorde (after Audre Lorde), 2017 by Johannesburg based artist Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi, ...

Lorde (after Audre Lorde), 2017 by Johannesburg based artist Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi, from her recent painting series 'Heroes' #womensart

Lol... check out Jill Wine-Banks' pin on MSNBC today:

Obama Endorses Long List Of Candidates Ahead Of 2018 Elections

Source: TPM

Former President Barack Obama on Wednesday announced a list of candidates he was endorsing ahead of the 2018 elections.

Included on the list were some well-known Democrats who’d already advanced past their state’s primary race, such as California gubernatorial candidate c and Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.

Obama endorsed the former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Richard Cordray, to be Ohio’s next governor, and J.B. Pritzker, the brother of Obama administration Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, to be Illinois’ next governor.

Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/obama-endorses-long-list-of-candidates-ahead-of-2018-elections

Barack Obama: Today I'm proud to endorse such a wide and impressive array of Democratic candidates..

... Erdogan, faced a criminal investigation in 2013/14. He called it a "deep state witch hunt,"

Trump calls on Sessions to end Russia probe 'right now'

Source: The Hill

President Trump on Wednesday said Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop the Russia investigation, which he dubbed a “Rigged Witch Hunt.”

“Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA,” he tweeted.

..This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2018

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/399841-trump-calls-on-sessions-to-end-russia-probe

HEARTWARMING: This grocery store employee helped an autistic teen and is being praised for making...

'We are Q': A deranged conspiracy cult leaps from the Internet to the crowd at Trump's 'MAGA' tour

Source: WaPo

On Tuesday evening, the dark recesses of the Internet lit up with talk of politics.

“Tampa rally, live coverage,” wrote “Dan,” posting a link to President Trump’s Tampa speech in a thread on 8chan, an anonymous image board also known as Infinitechan or Infinitychan, which might be best described as the unglued twin of better-known 4chan, a message board already untethered from reality.

The thread invited “requests to Q,” an anonymous user claiming to be a government agent with top security clearance, waging war against the so-called deep state in service to the 45th president. “Q” feeds disciples, or “bakers,” scraps of intelligence, or “bread crumbs,” that they scramble to bake into an understanding of the “storm,” the community’s term — drawn from Trump’s cryptic reference last year to “the calm before the storm” — for the president’s final conquest over elites, globalists and deep-state saboteurs.

What Tuesday’s rally in Tampa made apparent is that devotees of these falsehoods — some of which are specific to faith in the president, others garden-variety nonsense with racist and anti-Semitic undertones — don’t just exist in the far reaches of the Web.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/08/01/we-are-q-a-deranged-conspiracy-cult-leaps-from-the-internet-to-the-crowd-at-trumps-maga-tour/?utm_term=.5ee491e3a8ba&tid=sm_tw