Criminal donOld trump's puppet master not happy, so sad. Putin's republican buddies expected to do an investigation, maybe an impeachment inquiry of Zelenskyy. 😆

Shoigu and Gerasimov during today's meeting with Putin on the situation in Kursk region.

Caption their faces? https://t.co/sCj1WyfWJa pic.twitter.com/7LkI0QwM5F

— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) August 12, 2024

We just put up these billboards around Trump’s golf courses in Doral and Bedminster. pic.twitter.com/IICt4n3IqC

— Anti-Psychopath PAC (@PsychoPAC24) August 12, 2024

I knew there was a reason he chose J.D. Vance! 😂 pic.twitter.com/YINITKcHhW

— Annie (@AnnieForTruth) August 12, 2024

US air force avoids PFAS water cleanup, citing supreme court’s Chevron ruling
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/12/air-force-epa-water-pfas-tucson
EPA says Tucson’s drinking water is contaminated but air force claims agency lacks authority to order cleanup
Tom Perkins
Mon 12 Aug 2024 07.29 EDT
Last modified on Mon 12 Aug 2024 08.52 EDT


Several air force bases are largely responsible for trichloroethylene (TCE) – volatile organic compounds – and PFAS contaminating drinking water sources in Tucson. Photograph: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

The US air force is refusing to comply with an order to clean drinking water it polluted in Tucson, Arizona, claiming federal regulators lack authority after the conservative-dominated US supreme court overturned the “Chevron doctrine”. Air force bases contaminated the water with toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” and other dangerous compounds.

Though former US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials and legal experts who reviewed the air force’s claim say the Chevron doctrine ruling probably would not apply to the order, the military’s claim that it would represents an early indication of how polluters will wield the controversial court decision to evade responsibility.

It appears the air force is essentially attempting to expand the scope of the court’s ruling to thwart regulatory orders not covered by the decision, said Deborah Ann Sivas, director of the Stanford University Environmental Law Clinic.

“It’s very odd,” she added. “It feels almost like an intimidation tactic, but it will be interesting to see if others take this approach and it bleeds over.”..........................


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‘A different level than 2020’: Trump’s plan to steal election is taking shape
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/12/trump-overturn-result-presidential-election-vote
Trump’s refusal to accept the 2020 election results serves as a preview to expected challenges in November
The fight for democracy is supported by guardian.org
Sam Levine in New York
Mon 12 Aug 2024 06.00 EDT

There wasn’t anything particularly controversial about Georgia’s presidential primary in March this year. Donald Trump won the Republican contest – picking up a little more than 400,000 more votes than Nikki Haley, who had long dropped out of the race.

Nonetheless, two Republicans on the five-person Fulton county election board refused to certify the election.

Julie Adams and Michael Heekin didn’t point to specific irregularities. Instead, they said they needed more information from election administrators, like chain-of-custody documents for ballots. Adams and Heekin were outvoted.

But it didn’t end there. In May, Adams, who is a part of an election activist network founded by Cleta Mitchell, voted against certifying another Georgia primary election. Again, despite no irregularities, she said she needed more information. With the backing of a group closely aligned with Donald Trump, Adams had also recently sued the Fulton county board, asking a judge to declare that she and other commissioners could choose not to certify the election.

It was an unusual request – verification of ballot totals happens in the extensive process that leads up to certification and state laws generally do not permit those responsible for certifying them the discretion to investigate.

In early August, the Republican-controlled state election board in Georgia adopted a new rule that essentially gave Adams what she wanted. It requires local election board members to conduct an undefined “reasonable inquiry” into any discrepancies before they can certify the election. There are concerns that officials could use that discretion to hold up certification of the election.

The episode in Fulton county, and the new rule in Georgia, could be an alarming dress rehearsal for how Donald Trump and his allies will try to challenge the election results in November if he loses.

Trump has repeatedly refused to commit to accepting the election results, declining multiple times to do so during a 27 June debate. He has suggested that Christians would “never have to vote again” if he wins. The anti-democratic sentiment has been echoed by other prominent conservatives, including Mike Howell, the director of the oversight project at the Heritage Foundation, who said earlier this year there was a “0% chance of a free and fair election”.

“I’m formally accusing the Biden administration of creating the conditions that most reasonable policymakers and officials cannot in good conscience certify an election,” he said at a Heritage Foundation event this summer.

The effort poses a challenge that again would test the strength of the US’s voting system and its democratic institutions. It could probably stretch from little-known county election officials to the Congress.

In some ways, Trump’s attempt to challenge the election result in 2024 could look a lot like his effort in 2020. It has begun months before election day with the seeding of doubt about the integrity of the election and could continue after.

Trump's election challenges by the numbers

7 States in which Donald Trump convened fake electors
42 Legal challenges filed by Trump's campaign
10 Election contests filed by Trump's campaign and allied organizations across Arizona, Georgia and Nevada. None were successful.
4--Number of election recounts (two each in Georgia and Wisconsin). None found any irregularities or wrongdoing.


There are two key differences.

First, Trump may be better prepared. Mitchell, a close Trump ally, has spent the last few years building up a network of activists focused on local boards of elections. And the Republican National Committee’s election litigation team is now being led by Christina Bobb, an election denier who is now facing criminal charges for her efforts to overturn the 2020 race. The RNC claims it is recruiting an army of 100,000 poll observers who could provide significant disruption during voting and counting.

“I think we saw efforts by Republicans in 2020 that were pretty ham-handed,” said Marc Elias, a top Democratic voting rights lawyer. “I worry that there will be both legal and extralegal efforts by Republicans to keep ballots from being counted.”

But more significantly, the idea that the 2020 election was stolen has moved from the fringes to being a pillar of the Republican party. A January poll from PRRI found that 66% of Republicans believe the 2020 election was stolen. “The most important thing we have to do is protect the vote. You have to keep your eyes open because these people want to cheat and they do cheat, and, frankly, it’s the only thing they do well,” Trump said in a prerecorded video that played all four nights during the Republican national convention in July.

The belief in stolen elections, Elias said, was “no longer the provenance of crazy people like Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powell. This is no longer the province of people who thought that there were bamboo filaments in paper or mythical sea creatures involved in the election with Venezuelan dictators.

“It has become now the standard position of the Republican party.”

Seeds of doubt in 2020 to bloom in 2024
Trump began seeding doubt in 2020 by pointing to mail-in voting as evidence the election was being stolen months beforehand. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, many states were quickly changing the rules around voting by mail, allowing expanded access because it was not clear if it would be safe to vote in person on election day.

This year, Americans are unlikely to use mail-in voting at the same levels they did during the pandemic, and Republicans are now encouraging their supporters to take advantage of it. But Trump and allies are using a new messaging tactic in its place: that there are scores of non-citizens and other ineligible people on the voter rolls.

"They’re hanging the hooks to later hang their hat on
Sean Morales-Doyle of the Brennan Center

Mitchell has played a key role in leading a coalition of groups that has pushed the false idea that there is a serious threat of non-citizens voting in US elections. Her coalition has supported federal legislation championed by the House speaker, Mike Johnson, and others to require proof of citizenship when registering to vote. Such a restriction would probably do little to prevent fraud, which is exceedingly rare. Instead, it would probably make it harder for millions of eligible voters to cast a ballot. Nearly one in 10 eligible voters – 21 million Americans – lack easy access to proof of citizenship documents, according to one study released earlier this year.

Even though Johnson’s congressional bill passed the House, it will probably go nowhere in the Senate. But it helps create an impression that something is amiss with American elections. To make matters worse, when Kamala Harris replaced Joe Biden at the top of the ticket, Republicans also immediately sought to suggest her candidacy was illegitimate, calling the effort a “coup”.

A constellation of groups – including the RNC, the Public Interest Legal Foundation and United Sovereign Americans – has also filed several lawsuits in various states to create the false impression that voter rolls are not properly being cleaned in several swing states. These lawsuits use misleading methodology and legal claims to suggest that there are a suspiciously large number of people registered in certain jurisdictions. Among other issues, they compare up-to-date voter registration information and outdated data from the American Community Survey.

“They’re hanging the hooks to later hang their hat on,” said Sean Morales-Doyle, the top voting rights expert at the Brennan Center.

“It’s all part of creating sort of a pretext to say, ‘Oh, we need to throw out this set of ballots’ or ‘We can’t really know who the real winner is,’” said Ben Berwick, a lawyer at the non-profit Protect Democracy who works on voting rights issues. “I think much of it won’t stick, but I think the point is to have enough of it stick to create enough uncertainty for that critical post-election period.”

‘Tricky legal questions and room for shenanigans’
Any effort to challenge the election results will probably start at the local level.

Just as there was in 2020, there’s likely to be a period of uncertainty after election day when votes are still being counted in key swing states. Two of those, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, still do not allow election officials to begin to process mail-in ballots until election day.

“I’m definitely concerned that you’re gonna have a lot of efforts to disturb the process of counting those votes, if we go into the late evening, early hours of the next day and all of that,” said Richard Pildes, a professor at New York University who specializes in election law.

The observers amassed by Mitchell and the RNC could have a significant role. In 2020, chaotic confrontations at polling sites offered misleading evidence that Trump and allies used in their effort to try to overturn the election. Trump’s effort to challenge the election results in Arizona, for example, was undergirded by affidavits from observers and poll watchers who falsely claimed they saw ballots being rejected because of the type of pen voters were using.

In Georgia, Trump pointed to reports from observers in Atlanta falsely claiming they were removed from the facility where mail-in ballots were counted. In Michigan, Trump’s team used as evidence an “incident report” from an election observer who falsely said she heard workers giving instructions to count a rejected ballot.

Accusations of fraud may find a receptive audience at county boards responsible for certifying elections. Until 2020, no one gave much thought to these positions, sometimes filled by elected officials and other times by little-known party loyalists. In 2020, Trump’s campaign made a strong effort to try to delay certification at the local and state level as part of his effort to overturn the election.

In Wayne county, home of Detroit, Trump personally called two Republican canvassers on the board responsible for certifying the vote there. The two officials briefly refused to certify, then reversed themselves and did. At the state level, Aaron Van Langevelde, a Republican on the state board of canvassers, faced pressure not to certify the vote, but decided to anyway.

In Wisconsin, Republicans nearly got the state supreme court to block certification of the state’s election. In Arizona, Trump called the then governor, Doug Ducey, as he was certifying the vote amid a pressure campaign to stop the certification of votes there.

Since 2020, there have been at least 20 instances in eight states of election officials refusing to certify election results.

The first red flag came in 2022, when county commissioners in Otero county, New Mexico, refused to certify the results of a primary election, citing vague concerns about voting equipment. The secretary of state eventually went to court to force the commissioners to certify the election.

In July of this year, two Republicans on the county commission in Washoe county, Nevada – a key county in a battleground state – refused to certify its primary vote, setting off alarms. The commissioners who refused to certify eventually reversed themselves. Nevada’s secretary of state, Cisco Aguilar, has since asked the state supreme court to clarify that county commissioners have an obligation to certify votes.

"There’s damage done even where certification is eventually forced
Ben Berwick of Protect Democracy
Sometimes election officials who refuse to certify have pointed to mistakes that happened during the election, even though they did not affect the outcome. In other cases, like Adams’s in Georgia, officials have refused to certify to protest about what they view as unfair laws.

While courts would probably force recalcitrant officials to certify the vote, significant damage could still be caused.

“You can force certification through legal mechanisms, [but] those events tend to be like rocket fuel for conspiracy theories and misinformation and undermining confidence in the election. So there’s damage done even where certification is eventually forced,” said Berwick, the Protect Democracy lawyer.

The timeline for certifying the vote is important because, under federal law, states must have an official election result by 11 December, six days before the electoral college meets. Delaying certification efforts at the local level could put states at risk of missing that deadline.

“If we get past that deadline, it opens up a lot of questions, like tricky legal questions and room for shenanigans,” Berwick said.

Pildes, the NYU professor, said that while he was concerned about efforts to block certification at the local level, he was confident that state courts could resolve any disputes by the time the electors meet.

A new law, the Electoral Count Reform Act, should provide a significant new layer of protection against election subversion. The bipartisan bill passed Congress at the end of 2022.

The law makes it so that Trump and his allies cannot repeat what they did in 2020 and submit false slates of electors from key swing states. Significantly, it says that the slate of electors submitted by a state’s executive is the legitimate slate and raises the threshold in both houses of Congress to object to the electoral result.

While the law controls what Congress must do once it receives certificates from electors, it doesn’t have much to say about what must happen in the lead-up to the electoral college vote. That could leave a lot of wriggle room for Trump and allies to try to slow down certification and go to court to try to force states to miss their certification deadline.

Prepared for challenges

After Donald Trump nearly succeeded in overturning the 2020 election, is the US better prepared to stop a similar effort in 2024?

Lawyers and other activists say they are ready, having spent the last four years studying and understanding the vulnerabilities that Trump and allies targeted in 2020. Any effort to block certification is likely to be swiftly challenged in courts, where Trump has already been unsuccessful dozens of times.

The new Electoral Count Reform Act should offer additional safeguards should there be an effort such as there was in 2020 to get Congress to stop its certification of the vote

Yet it would be a mistake to dismiss the threat altogether. The same pressure points that existed in 2020 exist in 2024, and in some places election deniers have been elevated to positions of power.

“This has started earlier in the cycle and is louder and is more consistent,” said Morales-Doyle of the Brennan Center. “That is all just at a different level than it was before 2020.”


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Anywhere the GOP is attacking democracy with voter suppression tactics, check your voter registration multiple times. Probably be good wherever you might be, republicans are attacking our rights nationwide anywhere they can.

You’re reminder to CHECK your registration. Bad dudes are purging voter rolls. Make sure you’re good to go at https://t.co/xL8HC04R7x

— Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) August 10, 2024

GOP nominee to run North Carolina schools advocated pro-Trump military coup in January 6 video
https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/09/politics/kfile-michele-morrow-january-6-comments/index.html
By Em Steck and Andrew Kaczynski, CNN
6 minute read
Updated 6:11 PM EDT, Fri August 9, 2024

A lot of the #ncpol Right wants to quietly ignore @michelemorrownc and downplay the obviously crazy stuff she believes because they think it serves the ultimate purpose of beating the Democrats.

This, of course, is what has happened to the GOP at large. And everyone sees it.

— Carolina Forward (@ForwardCarolina) August 11, 2024

Elon Musk sues his critics into silence. So much for ‘free speech.’
The X boss sued a group of advertisers for using their rights of freedom of association to not associate with the racist content on the social media site.
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/elon-musk-x-advertisers-lawsuit-social-media-rcna165605
Aug. 10, 2024, 4:00 AM MDT
By Andy Craig, Director of election policy at the Rainey Center

Elon Musk, self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist,” is demanding the government infringe on free speech rights. Again.

Despite his posturing as a defender of free expression, Musk is one of the nation’s most vexatious litigants against anybody who exercises their First Amendment rights in a way he doesn’t like. His latest target is GARM, the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, an industry association of advertisers on online platforms of which X, formerly known as Twitter, is still a member. The lawsuit also targets several of GARM’s members for the supposed crime of declining to purchase ads on Musk’s website.

Major corporations generally do not want to pay for ads running next to posts praising Adolf Hitler.

X’s CEO, Linda Yaccarino, posted a video on Tuesday explaining that the suit is part of the company’s noble pursuit of preserving “the global town square … the one place that you can express yourself freely and openly.” Yaccarino wore a pendant around her neck that read “FREE SPEECH.”

On Thursday, GARM, citing its inability to handle legal fees that would likely run into the seven figures, simply shut its doors, ending all operations. Musk’s censorial bullying worked — abusing the legal system to shut down his critics.

Musk’s argument against GARM fits a long-running pattern for him: attacks on free speech wrapped in the rhetoric of defending free speech.

Major corporations generally do not want to pay for ads running next to posts praising Adolf Hitler, among other noxious content that has flourished on X under Musk’s ownership. It’s hardly an unreasonable position, and GARM worked to promulgate shared standards companies can adopt for this type of brand safety. This, Musk alleges, amounted to a violation of antitrust laws.

Deciding where to purchase ads is an exercise of core free speech and free association rights for any individual or organization. Boycotting X because it’s overrun with hate speech is no different from a conservative advocacy group declining to pay for ads on a progressive podcast. It’s also a case of business judgment for for-profit corporations. PetSmart might well choose to buy magazine ads in Cat Fancy rather than Cigar Aficionado, for example.

It’s the latest in a long line of Musk lawsuits seeking to silence his critics, a tactic known as a strategic lawsuit against public participation, or SLAPP.

He’s also sued Media Matters for documenting how X fails to keep ads from large corporations away from extremist content. In the same vein, he’s gone after the Center for Countering Digital Hate. He also endorsed the patently absurd criminal investigations into Media Matters launched by the Republican attorneys general of Texas and Missouri, already enjoined by a federal court as the obvious First Amendment violations they are.

It’s the latest in a long line of Musk lawsuits seeking to silence his critics, a tactic known as a strategic lawsuit against public participation, or SLAPP.

Sometimes Musk’s interest in promoting censorship extends beyond his own critics, such as when he agreed to pay the legal fees of a Canadian anti-vaxxer who had sued a wide range of people for being mean to her.

For many years, actual free speech advocates have been pushing for anti-SLAPP laws, which make it easier to promptly dismiss and receive legal fees for litigation targeting constitutionally protected speech. Texas and California among other states have adopted these robust protections. Unfortunately, there is no national anti-SLAPP law for lawsuits based on federal law claims, such as Musk’s antitrust theory. Federal circuit courts are also divided on whether state anti-SLAPP laws can apply even to state law claims, such as defamation, being heard in federal court under interstate diversity jurisdiction.

In the meantime, Musk’s anti-speech lawfare has its intended effect even when it could never plausibly reach a final decision in his favor.

In addition to shutting down GARM, Media Matters recently laid off several employees, too, with many observers pointing to Musk’s litigation as a likely contributor. This is the defining feature of SLAPP strategy: process as punishment, ruining targets with the expense of fighting a case even when it lacks any legal merit. The tactic can be particularly effective aimed at nonprofits and individuals, whose relatively modest budgets simply cannot handle a protracted court battle with one of the world’s richest men.

Beyond simply being a rich and powerful bully who can waste his own money on vexatious, performative litigation, Musk’s theory of “free speech” is a censorship wolf in sheep’s clothing. He and those he agrees with should be free to speak their minds, the thinking goes, but nobody else should be allowed to criticize or disassociate from them in response. If it falls under nebulous labels like “cancel culture” or the “woke mind virus,” your speech is actually bad for speech and so shouldn’t be allowed. It’s unabashedly statist in its eagerness to use and abuse government power to police the discourse.

Musk is free to run his own website however he wants, as he should be. But his claims to be a champion of free speech are a hypocritical farce. In reality, he is one of the biggest enemies of the First Amendment, and should be recognized as such



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Bishop is known as "Bathroom Dan", election denier, voted against certifying President Biden's election, panders to the extreme right, and had to be schooled by Raskin on the constitution.

LOL Raskin just schooled Bishop on the House Floor pic.twitter.com/EdCl8L7Nkr

— Acyn (@Acyn) May 15, 2024

The August edition of the Carolina Forward Poll wrapped up yesterday.

For this one, we partnered with @YouGovAmerica to survey 800 registered North Carolina voters.

Releasing results Monday. All we can say for now is: wowza. 😳#ncpol

— Carolina Forward (@ForwardCarolina) August 10, 2024

Fully expected, was going to post this yesterday and didn't get to it. Russia, China, NK, and Iran have been at it for awhile. It's all in adversaries playbook, the same one the republicans get their tricks out of.

Iran is accelerating cyber activity that appears meant to influence the US election, Microsoft says
https://apnews.com/article/iran-russia-china-election-disinformation-hacking-ee65e29b866852b146e75c9f3312a1ae
By ALI SWENSON
Updated 6:47 PM MDT, August 9, 2024

NEW YORK (AP) — Iran is accelerating online activity that appears intended to influence the U.S. election, in one case targeting a presidential campaign with an email phishing attack, Microsoft said Friday.

Iranian actors also have spent recent months creating fake news sites and impersonating activists, laying the groundwork to stoke division and potentially sway American voters this fall, especially in swing states, the technology giant found.

The findings in Microsoft’s newest threat intelligence report show how Iran, which has been active in recent U.S. elections, is evolving its tactics for another election that’s likely to have global implications. The report goes a step beyond anything U.S. intelligence officials have disclosed, giving specific examples of Iranian groups and the actions they have taken so far. Iran’s United Nations mission denied it had plans to interfere or launch cyberattacks in the U.S. presidential election.

The report doesn’t specify Iran’s intentions besides sowing chaos in the United States, though U.S. officials have previously hinted that Iran particularly opposes former President Donald Trump. U.S. officials also have expressed alarm about Tehran’s efforts to seek retaliation for a 2020 strike on an Iranian general that was ordered by Trump. This week, the Justice Department unsealed criminal charges against a Pakistani man with ties to Iran who’s alleged to have hatched assassination plots targeting multiple officials, potentially including Trump.

The report also reveals how Russia and China are exploiting U.S. political polarization to advance their own divisive messaging in a consequential election year.

Microsoft’s report identified four examples of recent Iranian activity that the company expects to increase as November’s election draws closer.

First, a group linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in June targeted a high-ranking U.S. presidential campaign official with a phishing email, a form of cyberattack often used to gather sensitive information, according to the report, which didn’t identify which campaign was targeted. The group concealed the email’s origins by sending it from the hacked email account of a former senior adviser, Microsoft said.

Days later, the Iranian group tried to log into an account that belonged to a former presidential candidate, but wasn’t successful, Microsoft’s report said. The company notified those who were targeted.

In a separate example, an Iranian group has been creating websites that pose as U.S.-based news sites targeted to voters on opposite sides of the political spectrum, the report said.

One fake news site that lends itself to a left-leaning audience insults Trump by calling him “raving mad” and suggests he uses drugs, the report said. Another site meant to appeal to Republican readers centers on LGBTQ issues and gender-affirming surgery.

A third example Microsoft cited found that Iranian groups are impersonating U.S. activists, potentially laying the groundwork for influence operations closer to the election.

Finally, another Iranian group in May compromised an account owned by a government employee in a swing state, the report said. It was unclear whether that cyberattack was related to election interference efforts.

What to know about the 2024 Election

Today’s news: Follow live updates from the campaign trail from the AP.
Ground Game: Sign up for AP’s weekly politics newsletter to get it in your inbox every Monday.
AP’s Role: The Associated Press is the most trusted source of information on election night, with a history of accuracy dating to 1848. Learn more.

Iran’s U.N. mission sent The Associated Press an emailed statement: “Iran has been the victim of numerous offensive cyber operations targeting its infrastructure, public service centers, and industries. Iran’s cyber capabilities are defensive and proportionate to the threats it faces. Iran has neither the intention nor plans to launch cyber attacks. The U.S. presidential election is an internal matter in which Iran does not interfere.”

The Microsoft report said that as Iran escalates its cyber influence, Russia-linked actors also have pivoted their influence campaigns to focus on the U.S. election, while actors linked to the Chinese Communist Party have taken advantage of pro-Palestinian university protests and other current events in the U.S. to try to raise U.S. political tensions.

Microsoft said it has continued to monitor how foreign foes are using generative AI technology. The increasingly cheap and easy-to-access tools can generate lifelike fake images, photos and videos in seconds, prompting concern among some experts that they will be weaponized to mislead voters this election cycle.

While many countries have experimented with AI in their influence operations, the company said, those efforts haven’t had much impact so far. The report said as a result, some actors have “pivoted back to techniques that have proven effective in the past — simple digital manipulations, mischaracterization of content, and use of trusted labels or logos atop false information.”

Microsoft’s report aligns with recent warnings from U.S. intelligence officials, who say America’s adversaries appear determined to seed the internet with false and incendiary claims ahead of November’s vote.

Top intelligence officials said last month that Russia continues to pose the greatest threat when it comes to election disinformation, while there are indications that Iran is expanding its efforts and China is proceeding cautiously when it comes to 2024.

Iran’s efforts seem aimed at undermining candidates seen as being more likely to increase tension with Tehran, the officials said. That’s a description that fits Trump, whose administration ended a nuclear deal with Iran, reimposed sanctions and ordered the killing of the top Iranian general.

The influence efforts also coincide with a time of high tensions between Iran and Israel, whose military the U.S. strongly supports.

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said last month that the Iranian government has covertly supported American protests over Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. Groups linked to Iran have posed as online activists, encouraged protests and provided financial support to some protest groups, Haines said.

America’s foes, Iran among them, have a long history of seeking to influence U.S. elections. In 2020, groups linked to Iran sent emails to Democratic voters in an apparent effort to influence their votes, intelligence officials said.


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Half true at least, donOld's campaigning bills are left unpaid wherever he goes. Never changes, he stiffed contractors, businesses, and people all his life. Now he stiffs the American people and lets our taxes pay his bills. But I'm not sure of the airport denials, would need a lot more verification from reliable sources.

When Trump comes to town, he brings excitement, leaves unpaid bills
https://dailymontanan.com/2024/08/08/when-trump-comes-to-town-he-brings-excitement-leaves-unpaid-bills/
By: Jenna Martin - August 8, 2024 12:39 pm

Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump speaks at a rally outside Schnecksville Fire Hall on April 13, 2024 in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania. Hundreds of supporters waited hours in a line stretching for more than a mile to see Trump speak in a suburb of Allentown, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to be in Bozeman on Friday for an 8 p.m., rally at the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse at Montana State University. While rallies of presidential candidates are known to bring large crowds and media attention, they also bring a slew of logistical and technical challenges.

“Large political rallies like this aren’t common,” says Montana State University spokesman Mike Becker, adding that the last time the Fieldhouse hosted a political rally of this scale was during Obama’s visit in 2008. “We use the same processes of working through the logistics of the event, but it’ll be unique to work with the Secret Service.”

For Secret Service, the indoor venue is a welcome change from Trump’s typically outdoor rally sites, but indoor venues located in the heart of cities rather than at the airport, as Trump so often prefers, require far more safety precautions and coordination.
The logistics

Trump’s Sept. 6, 2018 rally in Billings at MetraPark, for example, necessitated a multitude of security measures, including protection, crowd control and traffic management. According to 2018 press releases by both the Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office and the Billings Police Department additional assistance was also required from outside agencies Montana Highway Patrol, Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks, the Laurel Police Department, and both Rosebud County and Carbon County Sheriff’s offices. Even Billings Public Works employees were called on to use large city vehicles to help block off two square blocks of downtown Billings for close to 20 hours.

“It’s usually a pretty all-hands-on-deck situation,” says Billings Police Department Public Information Officer Lt. Matt Lennick. “We work closely with the Secret Service and usually have to bring in extra staff, because at the same time we still have to monitor our calls for service and respond to calls within the city. It’s pretty extensive for our department and costly because of the amount of overtime and things like that.”

That cost can quickly add up, and for many municipalities it’s often impossible to predict ahead of time what that cost will be. As Billings Police Chief St. John told the Billings Gazette in 2018 in preparation for Trump’s rally in Billings, “We won’t have any idea of the cost (of Trump’s visit) until we get the final bill.”

And it’s something that can’t be stuck in a budget plan.

“I’ve never seen the situation where we knew ahead of time in a budget year that we were going to have a visit because they (candidates) don’t put out their schedules that far in advance. My understanding is we normally recoup whatever cost we can on the backside,” Lennick said.

Attempting to recoup those costs is what the Billings Police Department, years later, is still trying to do.
The taxpayer burden

Trump’s campaign has been notorious for flaking on bills for security. According to a 2019 report from the Center for Public Integrity, Trump owed more than $840,000 to various city governments, and likely more, as Trump’s campaign does not acknowledge a single one of these city governments as debt in his federal campaign financial disclosures.

In Billings, the protective measures put in place for his September 2018 rally resulted in 1,362 overtime hours between Billings PD and the Yellowstone County Sheriff’s office: 951 hours from the former, and 411 hours from the latter, bringing the total cost to $58,830.

While the Yellowstone Sheriff’s office did not bill Trump’s campaign for the $12,930 cost it incurred – a standard practice the office follows for all political campaigns – Billings PD did, and as of the publication date of this article, that $45,900 bill has been left unpaid.

Earlier that year, Vice President Mike Pence and Donald Trump Jr. also made stops in Billings. The vice president spoke at a public rally on July 25, also at MetraPark, organized by America First Policies. Donald Trump Jr. spoke at the Republican Convention in Billings on June 22.

According to an internal memo sent to city council on Sept. 13, 2018, Vice President Mike Pence’s July 25 visit required 647.50 hours of overtime pay, totalling $31,200. Donald Trump Jr.’s visit ran $5,000 in overtime pay, bringing the total amount spent by the Billings Police Department alone on security for Trump’s campaign rallies in Billings in 2018 to $82,100.

Billings isn’t alone. Missoula county commissioners also sent a bill to the Trump campaign in 2018 for nearly $13,000 for public safety staffing costs. The county requested $10,835.41 for officer salaries, $1,059.26 for dispatcher salaries, $693.72 for Office of Emergency Management salaries, and $334.43 for miscellaneous expenses. According to Missoula County Communications Manager Allison Franz, that bill has also not been paid.

Some municipalities, like Great Falls, don’t submit requests for payment, instead eating the cost from their own budgets. The Great Falls Tribune reported Trump’s July 5 visit to Great Falls cost the city, Cascade County and Montana Highway Patrol a total of $57,236, none of which was submitted for payment to Trump’s campaign.

In total, in 2018 alone, Trump’s campaign cost various city and state departments – whether they billed for reimbursement and weren’t paid, or never billed at all – at least $150,000 in taxpayer money.

“It’s a lot for a budget,” Lennick said. “It’s not something that’s built into our initial budget that we plan every year.”
A different ballgame

Trump’s rallies, while similar in size to other candidates, consistently have higher security costs. For one, he is a former president, which comes with an added layer of security compared to other candidates.

For example, Trump’s October rally in Missoula had an estimated 8,000 attendees and cost Missoula County nearly $13,000 while Bernie Sanders 2016 rally had 9,000 attendees and the mayor’s spokeswoman told NBC Montana that the cost to the city was minimal, resulting in only five paid hours in police overtime. The rest of the cost was covered by Secret Service.

Trump’s rallies are also known for their large crowds of protestors, an added safety concern for all parties involved.

“It’s important that your local sheriff is the one handling protestors because we know these people,” says Cascade County Sheriff Jesse Slaughter, adding that no matter the cost law enforcement will always be up for the job. “As local law enforcement it’s our duty to protect the process of our elections and keep our community safe when candidates and presidents show up.”

The total cost for Gallatin remains to be seen. Sheriff Dan Springer declined requests for comment and City of Bozeman Communications and Engagement Specialist Allison Killip directed all questions regarding potential costs to Trump’s campaign.

It’s unknown whether or not the assassination attempt at Trump’s July 13 Pennsylvania Rally will drive security costs further.

Montana State University however, will at least get some money ahead of time.

“Anyone who rents the Fieldhouse has to put down a deposit,” says university spokesman Mike Becker, which amounts to the first day’s cost of $3,250. “If they cancel, they’d owe $6,500.”


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Walz vs Vance financials. Quite telling.


How Tim Walz’s personal finances compare to JD Vance, other politicians
Walz’s financial portfolio makes him by far the least wealthy candidate on either major party ticket this year.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/08/08/tim-walz-personal-finances-worth-house/

Crowdless, crying, criminal donOld trump is running out of ketchup and diapers. lol As Jo said, "The only way Trump could draw a crowd this big and this happy would be if they gave out tickets to watch him walk into federal prison at the start of his sentence."

This is Glendale #Arizona , we ain’t red and we ain’t weird.

Let’s go!!! pic.twitter.com/qNLSTDqv2L

— Scottacular (@Scottcrates) August 9, 2024

Musk should be having an arrest warrant out for him also.

Two men jailed for social media posts that stirred up far-right violence
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/aug/09/two-men-jailed-for-social-media-posts-that-stirred-up-far-right-violence

People who threw stones, hurled racist abuse and pushed a burning wheelie bin at police also sent to prison
Jessica Murray, Rajeev Syal and agencies
Fri 9 Aug 2024 13.35 EDT
Last modified on Fri 9 Aug 2024 16.49 EDT

Two men have been sent to prison for stirring up hatred and violence online after the Southport attack, in the first cases of their kind linked to the recent riots seen across the country.

Jordan Parlour, 28, was jailed for 20 months after pleading guilty to inciting racial hatred with Facebook posts in which he advocated an attack on a hotel in Leeds as part of the violent public disorder that swept England last week.

In Northampton, Tyler Kay, 26, was given three years and two months in prison for posts on X that called for mass deportation and for people to set fire to hotels housing asylum seekers.

They are the first people to be charged for posting criminal messages online linked to the recent far-right violence.

Parlour’s post said: “Every man and their dog should be smashing [the] fuck out [of] Britannia hotel.” More than 200 refugees and asylum seekers lived at the hotel. The initial post received six likes, but could be forwarded more widely owing to Parlour’s privacy settings.

Passing sentence on Friday, the judge, Guy Kearl KC, accepted Parlour took no part in the violence but said: “There can be no doubt you were inciting others to do so.

“You went on to say that you did not want your money going to immigrants who ‘rape our kids and get priority’,” Kearl said. “You were encouraging others to attack a hotel which you knew was occupied by refugees and asylum seekers.”

Nicholas Hammond, mitigating, told the judge Parlour was “not part of any sinister group activity designed to stir up violence” and was “not affiliated with any group”.

In a letter to court, his mother said: “We can only speculate he’s been caught up and swept away by emotions circulating throughout the country.”

Parlour appeared to blow a raspberry as he was led from the court. Rosemary Ainslie, the acting head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s special crime and counter-terrorism division, said: “Let me be absolutely clear, people who think they can hide behind their keyboards and stir up racial hatred should think again.”

Kay used his own name and profile picture on his account, while advising others on “staying anon” and saying he had “watched enough CSI programmes” and would “categorically not be arrested”. He also tagged Northamptonshire police force in one of his posts.

Elsewhere, a woman who pushed a burning wheelie bin into a police line before falling to the ground and being arrested was jailed for 20 months. Stacey Vint, 34, was sentenced for her part in the riots in Middlesbrough town centre on Sunday.
A woman is led away by police after pushing a burning wheelie bin into the police lines during the far right riots in Middlesbrough on Sunday
Stacey Vint was apprehended by police in Middlesbrough on Sunday. Photograph: Gary Calton/The Observer

Charlie Bullock, 21, who was described as “the main instigator” of a large group pushing against a police line and throwing stones and rocks at officers, was jailed for 18 months.

In Sunderland, a balaclava-wearing rioter identified by his distinctive tattoos was jailed for two-and-a-half years. Josh Kellett, 29, was identified by an anonymous member of the public who watched a live stream of the riot and contacted police to say they recognised a person throwing stones at police.

Jordan Plain, 30, was jailed for eight months after he was filmed making monkey gestures and shouting “rubber lips” towards black and Asian people as hundreds of people took part in rival demonstrations in Leeds city centre.

Jordan Davies, 32, was jailed for two years and four months after he was seen with a knife near a vigil for the victims of the Southport stabbing. Sentencing him, the judge Dennis Watson KC said Davies was on his way to join a “mob” who had seen an opportunity to “stir up trouble”.

Kay, Vint, Bullock, Plain and Davies all pleaded guilty to their charges. Senior police officers have said rapid sentencing has helped act as a deterrent to far-right agitators. But those who are jailed will be entering a prison system at maximum capacity and could be released from prison early under a scheme to tackle overcrowding, the Ministry of Justice has confirmed.

Last month, ministers announced they were changing the law to allow some criminals to leave prison early because of a lack of space. This means that prisoners who do not fall into exempt categories, such as those serving sentences for serious crimes, will be released under the new scheme after they have served 40% of their sentences, rather than 50%.

The release points for those convicted of involvement in violent disorder will depend upon the offence they are convicted of and the sentence they receive. Sentences for serious violent offences of four years or more, including arson and terrorism-related offences, are among those excluded from the early release scheme.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “The government has brought in over 500 new prison places early, to ensure there is a cell waiting for everyone involved in the recent disorder and thuggery. The lord chancellor was forced to introduce the emergency capacity measures last month, to address the prison crisis the government inherited.”


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Ukraine politically blackened both Putin's eyes and bloodied his nose. Strategically did some damage too.

The Ukrainian blackout on the invasion of Russia is gone. Here are soldiers of the 61st Brigade recording a video at the Gazprom offices in Sudzha, a district center of the Kursk region of Russia. “The city is under the control of armed forces of Ukraine and quiet.” pic.twitter.com/xNfrI4Ur54

— Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) August 9, 2024

Ukrainian soldiers several miles inside the Ukrainian-occupied part Russia seem relaxed enough to start repainting town names with the Ukrainian spelling. Not sure this is what Putin had in mind in February 2022. pic.twitter.com/Zp7zRMDzEw

— Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) August 9, 2024

A russian woman desperately crying: “Putin, help us, please. Where is our government?”

I want to make three comments:

First, I feel no sympathy toward her. They were rejoicing when russian soldiers attacked Ukrainian cities, raped women, and killed children.

1/n pic.twitter.com/KKM3OC2Umu

— Roman Sheremeta 🇺🇦🇺🇸 (@rshereme) August 8, 2024

TranslateMom has subtitled your video in English!

For instant translations and captions, visit our web app at https://t.co/vgpywdvEdE, trusted by 100,000+ happy users worldwide.

Tool created by @montakaoh.

You've reached your daily limit for translation requests. pic.twitter.com/E6MWFhWeYL

— TranslateMom (@TranslateMom) August 9, 2024

We need an electoral landslide. If we're ekeing this out, we're going into a very bad place. Because the other side is going to be decertifying votes and trying to set up a contested election.

The punditocracy is already trying to get us to take our foot off the gas because they benefit from a close election.

“No more couch jokes!” 😱
Fuck off.

We need to win by a large margin. We need an electoral landslide. Also, mocking fascists is a patriotic duty. Let’s ride. https://t.co/VUedKyyNd6 pic.twitter.com/lOyPtg4kEN

— Jim Stewartson, Counterinsurgent 🇺🇸🇺🇦💙🎈 (@jimstewartson) August 9, 2024

Without paywall:

Texas’ voter suspense list tops 2.1 million. Here’s what to do if you’re on it

More than 2.1 million Texas voters are on the state’s suspended list, three months before the presidential election between Trump and Harris.https://t.co/FfwvAyBRCz

— Simsala 🪄 (@SimsalaMaya) August 9, 2024

Trump’s Social Security Benefit Tax Repeal Would Lower Taxes, Accelerate Program Insolvency
https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/trumps-social-security-benefit-tax-repeal-would-lower-taxes-accelerate-program-insolvency

Former president Donald Trump’s plan to repeal the tax on Social Security benefits would lower taxes for US households by an average of $550, according to a new analysis by the Tax Policy Center. But that tax cut would come with a big price: By reducing Social Security and Medicare hospital insurance (HI) revenues by $1.5 trillion over the next decade, Trump would drive both programs into insolvency faster, resulting in sharply reduced benefits for tens of millions of recipients.

Winners And Losers

TPC estimated that lower-income households would get little or no benefit from the tax cut in 2025. Those making $32,000 or less would receive no tax cut since most of their Social Security income already is untaxed. Those making between $32,000 and $60,000 would get an average tax cut of about $90.

In dollar terms, the biggest winners would be those in the top 0.1 percent of income, who make nearly $5 million or more. They’d get an average tax cut of nearly $2,500 in 2025. But as a share of after-tax income, the biggest beneficiaries would be middle- and upper-middle income households, those making between about $63,000 and $200,000.

One reason for that seeming inconsistency is that Social Security benefits often account for a substantial share of middle-income household earnings. Thus, repealing the tax on those benefits reduces their average after-tax income by a larger percentage than for very high-income households, who get a relatively small amount of their total income from Social Security.

Less than 1 percent of the lowest-income households (those making about $33,000 or less, would get any tax cut at all. But about 28 percent of middle-income households would get a tax cut. Among the top 0.1 percent, about 20 percent of households would get a tax cut.

TPC’s analysis included all Social Security benefits, incorporating survivor’s and disability benefits, as well as retirement. It was unable to break out taxpayers by age due to data limitations.



Trump announced his idea in one sentence on his Truth Social site. Keep in mind he is not talking about the Social Security payroll tax, which is paid by current workers to fund Social Security and Medicare’s HI trust fund. Rather, he’d repeal the current tax on Social Security benefits, which is paid by individual recipients making $25,000 or more annually ($32,000 for married couples) who currently owe tax on half their Social Security benefits. That revenue is used to shore up Social Security’s retirement trust fund.

The Cost To Social Security And Medicare

Social Security recipients with annual incomes over $34,000 ($44,000 for married couples), are taxed on an additional 35 percent of their benefits, with that revenue going to help support Medicare HI.

Repealing the tax, which has been in place since 1984 and was expanded in 1994, would accelerate the looming insolvencies of both trust funds. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates Social Security would have to reduce promised benefits by one-quarter if the tax is repealed. Its old age trust fund would become insolvent in 2032 instead of 2033. The Medicare HI trust fund would become insolvent in 2030, six years faster than under current law.

Lower Taxes, Fewer Benefits

Low-income households not only would miss out on any tax cut, they’d take a significant financial hit when Social Security falls into insolvency. A recent analysis by my Urban Institute colleagues Richard Johnson and Karen Smith found that, even under current law, Social Security insolvency would reduce annual median benefits by $5,900 by 2045 and throw 3.8 million seniors into poverty. It would slash incomes of the lowest-income 40 percent of households by one-fifth.

And they analyzed current law. The situation would be worse for low-income older adults if the Social Security benefits tax is repealed, which would magnify and accelerate the program’s financial woes.

Repealing the tax on Social Security benefits conflicts with Trump’s months-long promise to oppose any cuts in the program. The 2024 Republican Party platform, orchestrated by Trump, says, in all capital letters: FIGHT FOR AND PROTECT SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE WITH NO CUTS, INCLUDING NO CHANGES TO THE RETIREMENT AGE.

It’s notable that Trump also proposed deporting millions of immigrants, many of whom improve Social Security’s finances because they work and pay payroll taxes but are unlikely to collect benefits. Now, he’d repeal the tax on Social Security benefits, without proposing any way to shore up the retirement system by either raising other taxes or otherwise restructuring benefits. It is the latest example of how his agenda inevitably would result in exactly the kind of Social Security cuts he vows to oppose.


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GOP official with multiple sexual misconduct allegations joined JD Vance’s Michigan presser
https://heartlandsignal.com/2024/08/08/republican-prosecutor-with-multiple-sexual-misconduct-allegations-preaches-public-safety-at-jd-vances-michigan-presser/

By Richard Eberwein – 8/08/24

Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, speaks at a campaign event at Shelby Township Police Department, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024, in Shelby Township, Mich. Macomb County Prosecutor Peter Lucido, right, also spoke at the event. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

During a press conference in Michigan on Wednesday, Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance spoke with Macomb County Prosecutor Peter Lucido, a former Republican state representative with numerous sexual harassment claims filed against him.

The press conference was held in front of the Shelby Township Police Headquarters on Wednesday afternoon, and it was focused on public safety. Lucido and Vance shared the stage together.

“Macomb County residents and businesses must rely on law enforcement to keep them safe and free from harm by others,” Lucido said. “As the Macomb County prosecutor, I am committed to bringing wrongdoers to justice.”

After Lucido’s words, the Ohio senator returned to the podium and said, “Look these guys are doing a good job.”

Throughout his career, Lucido has been accused of sexual harassment, offensive comments and inappropriate touching from female colleagues and coworkers. In 2020, while Lucido was a state senator, he told reporter Allison Donahue that she should “stick around” because he knew a group of teenage boys who could “have a lot of fun with you.” The incident prompted bipartisan calls for an investigation and an apology from Lucido that he later retracted on the claim that he was misquoted.

In January 2020, Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D-Royal Oak) filed a sexual harassment complaint against Lucido stemming from an incident in 2018 where Lucido allegedly grabbed her lower back and grazed her hip with his fingers when they first met. The incident happened on the same day Lucido spoke at a sexual harassment orientation, saying that the culture is “just the way it is.”

In the same month, Lucido received a third sexual harassment complaint, this time for inappropriately touching, staring and commenting about a woman’s appearance for an extended period of time. A Senate investigation into these three allegations found them credible enough for Lucido to be stripped of his chairmanship of the Advice and Consent Committee and asked to repeat sexual harassment training.

However, Lucido was still allowed to chair the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee. A liberal political group called Progress for Michigan criticized the punishment for not going far enough, and a spokesperson said, “Any decent workplace would fire someone for showing a pattern of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior.” Lucido continued to maintain that he did not do anything wrong after the investigation.

This pattern continued after Lucido was elected the prosecutor of Macomb County in November 2020. Sexual harassment claims were brought forward by a judge and at least one employee from Lucido’s office. An investigation into the prosecutor’s office resulted in nine people corroborating “brutal” and “rude” remarks made by Lucido to female employees, with one claiming that Lucido was “boisterous when speaking to male employees, but that he treats female administrative staff much worse.”

In addition to sexist remarks, Lucido also reportedly stated that he wanted to assign a Black prosecuting attorney for the “Shelby Five” case so “those people” could not complain that he was being unfair.


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Trump's Damaged Brain
https://unprecedented.ghost.io/archive/trumps-damaged-brain/
3 Mar 2024 • 0 comments

Is it the drugs? Or dementia? It's time to get serious about Trump's mental deterioration.
Trump's Damaged Brain

Let me start by saying I'm not a psychologist or a family member, so I'm not really in a position to speculate about the state of Donald Trump's brain.

So instead I'll quote Trump's niece, the psychologist Mary Trump, who just told CNN's Christiane Amanpour:

"We've seen in the last decade or so the difference in how he performs in depositions, for example. He appears to have much less impulse control. And he appears to have a much-lessened ability to be coherent for any length of time."

And Mary Trump's not the only one who's noticed.

Nikki Haley and Nancy Pelosi are tuned into the problem.

On social media and (finally!) in mainstream media there is a growing acknowledgment that he's "glitching" more frequently.

It seems that everyone's suddenly saying #TrumpIsNotWell.
So, what's new?

For the past many months we've been told repeatedly by outlets like The New York Times that Biden is old and the age issue is hurting him more with voters than it's hurting Trump.

And Fox News has convinced most of its viewers that Biden has now entered an advanced stage of dementia caused by eating ice cream.

Biden "moves more tentatively than he did," says the Times, while Trump "uses his physicality to project strength in front of crowds."

But then Biden and Trump both open their mouths and we see that the reality is something quite different.

Appearing on the Seth Meyers show on 26 February 2024, Biden proved he's got the experience, wit and wisdom to defeat Trump again. He spoke about the Israel-Hamas war with a level of knowledge and compassion that Trump could never even imitate.
https://x.com/EdGreenberger/status/1762497614577127593

Meanwhile, Trump just keeps glitching.

https://x.com/JoyceWhiteVance/status/1764100641272832279

On Election Day 2024, Biden will be 81 and Trump will be 78.
What are the differences between these two old timers when it comes to "the cognitive"?

As Biden himself can attest, he's always been a walking "gaffe machine" and having to overcome a childhood stutter that he still struggles with doesn't help.

The fact that he's 81 may bother some people but there's no doubt that he's a smarter, more effective—and more future-oriented—President than Trump will ever be.

Three years in, when Biden gives the State of the Union address on March 7, he'll have a very strong and very powerful list of accomplishments that puts Trump's record after three years to shame.

Meanwhile, Trump has a whole lot of mental problems.

As regular readers of this newsletter know, Trump is a diagnosed psychopath. That reality alone makes the idea of electing him to a second term a horrifying thought.

https://x.com/TheDailyEdge/status/1761437061234438244

When it comes to Trump, there has also been a lot of talk about drug abuse. It's something Noel Casler, a comedian and former Apprentice staffer, has highlighted for years. Actor and comedian Tom Arnold said the same thing, claiming Trump snorted Adderall on the set of The Apprentice and Mark Burnett knew about it. Trump is known to take a vanity hair loss drug that can cause mental confusion. And, as was recently revealed, prescription drugs and controlled substances flowed freely in the Trump White House, possibly leading to some of Trump's most garbled late-night tweets.

In addition to Trump's psychopathy and alleged drug abuse, we should also consider the impact that his history of cardiovascular disease (CVD) as well as his hospitalization for a severe case of Covid-19 might have had on his addled and aging brain.

According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association:

CVD can negatively affect the integrity of cognition and communication long before an individual is diagnosed with a major neurological disorder like stroke or dementia.

While the American public was never fully informed about the severity of Trump's COVID-19 illness in 2020, what we do know is incredibly troubling.

As the New York Times later reported: "Trump had trouble breathing at the White House. He was twice given oxygen before being taken to Walter Reed."

The Times also revealed that Trump had:

Extremely depressed blood oxygen levels at one point and a lung problem associated with pneumonia caused by the coronavirus... His prognosis became so worrisome before he was taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center that officials believed he would need to be put on a ventilator... he was found to have lung infiltrates, which occur when the lungs are inflamed and contain substances such as fluid or bacteria. Their presence, especially when a patient is exhibiting other symptoms, can be a sign of an acute case of the disease.... Trump’s blood oxygen level alone was cause for extreme concern, dipping into the 80s... The disease is considered severe when the blood oxygen level falls to the low 90s.

As the Alzheimer's Association makes clear, the effects of COVID-19 on the brain can be incredibly damaging and long lasting, especially for obese patients over 70 who require hospitalization and oxygen supplementation.

Other studies have shown a link between COVID-19 infection and new-onset dementia, and the acceleration of cognitive decline in older adults.

Trump is old in much the same way that Biden is old. There's little more than three years difference in their ages.

But that's where the similarities end.

With Biden, we pretty much know what we're getting. And we can judge him on his successful record as President.

With Trump, we have a rapist and business fraud whose biggest talent has always been conning people into believing he's something that he's not. If Trump feels his brain is going, he's not going to admit it, at least not until he needs to offer an insanity defense.
"A much-lessened ability to be coherent for any length of time"

Before we consider what experts have to say about Alzheimer's and dementia, let's just state the basic fact that, according to the National Institute on Aging: "people who are only mildly impaired may be adept at covering up their cognitive decline and reluctant to address the problem."

It's perfectly natural for an average person to try to deny or conceal their mental decline. Now imagine the lengths to which Trump—a congenital con artist—might go to downplay his own mental deterioration.

In assessing the situation, we must recognize that:

Trump is an obese old guy with a heart condition who had a really bad case of Covid not long ago. He may be a long-term drug user. And he's definitely a psychopath. He's hardwired to be deceitful, shameless and irresponsible—and never concede a weakness.

As Mary Trump says, he's having a harder and harder time appearing coherent. He's also facing the stress of 4 indictments, 91 felony counts and massive fines to punish him for multiyear business fraud and his relentless defamation of a woman he once raped.

But at the same time, many of his glitches aren't new. Anyone paying close attention has seen this before.

Here's one tweet of mine from June 2020:

https://x.com/TheDailyEdge/status/1272028689694416897

In 2024, though, other medical experts are observing that Trump is indeed "getting worse."

One recently responded to Trump's continued bragging about "acing" his dementia test by tweeting: "If you think a dementia screening test is very difficult, you may have early dementia."
So, does Trump have Alzheimer's or dementia?

In one widely discussed March 1 article from Salon, psychologist Dr. John Gartner, tells Chauncey DeVega that he sees "more evidence of (Trump's) accelerating dementia" based on "the fundamental breakdowns in his ability to use language."

According to Dr. Gartner, Trump is exhibiting "phonemic paraphasias," giving as examples:

He was trying to say evangelist, for example, but haltingly said "evangelish.” He was trying to say “three years later," but said, “three years, lady, lady, lady.”

Gartner later adds:

In my family we call sandwiches “slamichs” because that’s what my stepson called them when he was three. It was cute then. It’s not cute watching and adult man regress to the mental age of a three-year-old.

Gartner also says that Trump is showing signs of "semantic aphasia," i.e. using words in the wrong way.

Trump previously spoke about "the oranges of the investigation." More recently he displayed confusion saying:

“We’re going to protect pro-God….” In mid-sentence, he goes blank and looks at the ceiling. The words he uses to complete the sentence don’t really make sense: “…context and content.”

Gartner also explains why Trump's mental deterioration should scare anyone not part of the MAGA cult:

Whatever personality disorder someone has, it gets dramatically worse as their cognitive functions decline. All of Trump's viciousness, hostility, and unpredictable and other pathological behavior is only going to get worse.

If he's re-elected that means:

There will be no guardrails to Trump's absolute most primitive, impulsive, destructive, and insane actions. There will be no pushback from within his inner circle and regime. It is certainly very possible that a person in a state of cognitive decline is in a state where they are highly vulnerable to suggestions and being manipulated by others. I can easily imagine a scenario where Trump is a figurehead and there is a real power behind the throne pulling the strings.

As my recent two-part interview with Dr. Vince Greenwood made clear, it's scary to think of a mentally competent Trump on a second-term revenge tour. But it's perhaps even more terrifying to imagine a mentally feeble Trump as the puppet of an anti-democratic party of religious extremists equipped with "detailed plans to implement their fascist vision."
We all need to know what's wrong with Trump

Is it the drugs? Or is it dementia? Were the problems we began to observe during Trump's first term accelerated by his heart disease or his Covid hospitalization?

It's in Nikki Haley's interest to make ageism a factor in this year's presidential race. But maybe she's right about when she says Trump needs a mental competency test.

Because whatever the causes of Trump's accelerating mental deterioration, it's time for us all—including the media—to take that deterioration more seriously.


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"The Last Word, good watch;"

Correction; a really great must watch.

https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/lawrence-stupidest-candidate-trump-did-not-answer-reporters-questions-216787525948


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The Last Word, good watch;

Lawrence: 'Stupidest' candidate Trump did not answer reporters' questions
https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/lawrence-stupidest-candidate-trump-did-not-answer-reporters-questions-216787525948

Donald Trump rambled and lied for over an hour without any follow up questions or fact-checking. MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell says that while he hopes Vice President Harris answers questions from reporters, after the press conference that Donald Trump turned into a “charade,” Vice President Harris has “absolutely no greater obligation to do so because of what Donald Trump pretended to do today.”Aug. 8, 2024


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America First Policy Institute's recent pivot to election litigation is part of a larger right-wing focus on rolling back voting rights and sowing discord in elections through the courts. Here's what you should know about the Trump-linked think tank.https://t.co/11O2Vt9daG

— Democracy Docket (@DemocracyDocket) August 9, 2024

Beside NC voter suppression tactics and installing criminal donOld trump loyalist and election denying extremists to effect the certification of elections;

Republican leaders in North Carolina's legislature are deliberately starving the State Health Plan.
The plan, which covers hundreds of thousands of state employees and their families, will lose $100M this year and is creeping towards insolvency.

State Health Plan could be unable to pay bills as soon as 2026, NC Treasurer says
Rising health care costs, longer lifespans and a lack of financial support from the state legislature are putting the State Health Plan's solvency at risk, North Carolina Treasurer Dale Folwell says.
https://www.wral.com/story/state-health-plan-could-be-unable-to-pay-bills-as-soon-as-2026-nc-treasurer-says/21563678/
Posted 3:57 p.m. Aug 6 - Updated 4:01 p.m. Aug 6

There are literally too many official corruption stories in #ncpol to track right now:
- @JasonSaine97th cashing in on casinos
- @markrobinsonNC's Balanced Nutrition fraud scheme
- Now: a bunch of GOP #NCGA lawmakers flew to Paris for the Olympics on paid junket by lobbyists.

— Carolina Forward (@ForwardCarolina) August 9, 2024

Jill Stein is a traitor, worked with traitor flynn, and definitely had influence with Clinton election. You might think this guy just sounds like a conspiracy theorist, but he pretty much told exactly what and how J6 was going to play out way before it happened and as it was developing. He has been a major thorn in traitor flynn and his cohorts, so much that flynn has sued and lawfared him and sent his underlings to terrorize him, his family, and his backers. Jim won against flynn in the courts, but I think certain cases are still pending. But these extremist are not doing lawfare for a "win", their main intent is to just drain resources and threaten their opponents along with taking whatever court wins they can muster.

Since Jill Stein is trending, it’s a good time to remember she has been a Russian agent engaging in election interference since she sat across the table from Mike Flynn and grinned while Vladimir Putin praised RT chief Margarita Simonyan on 12/10/15.
pic.twitter.com/5v4PG6MaKR

— Jim Stewartson, Counterinsurgent 🇺🇸🇺🇦💙🎈 (@jimstewartson) August 3, 2024

Criminal donOld trump and his republicans aren't worried about ads, they've got their republicans in congress doing sound bite theater, and they know that they are losing the vote. The only thing they are focused on is suppression of the votes with lawfare, paying for the army of lawyers that are getting ready to cancel our votes and have their republicans in congress picking their candidate.

The money isn’t going into resources to win the election.

The money is going into resources to change the results. pic.twitter.com/O2kK1zljlk

— Jack E. Smith ⚖️ (@7Veritas4) August 8, 2024

"The target of the smear is you", don't let them control the court.

Realize; the target of the smear is you. It's harmless if it's confined to Truth Social or GETTR. The goal is to get YOU talking about it. So ideally, we'd just ignore LaCivita's lies about Walz. The problem is, media is now helping them. They're making the smear the story. 2/ pic.twitter.com/UqujxW1E8F

— capitolhunters (@capitolhunters) August 8, 2024

This smear matters ONLY because media is amplifying it - like they did to John Kerry. Your goal is to quash the smear, but the more you talk about it, the more it spreads. If you're rebutting lies over and over again, you're not helping - you're letting Trump set the dialogue. 4/ pic.twitter.com/Nz9MJF6Dlv

— capitolhunters (@capitolhunters) August 8, 2024

This response is a master class. Do not respond to provocation. Hit it back, pivot, and go back on offense. 6/https://t.co/IN0UgId1HH

— capitolhunters (@capitolhunters) August 8, 2024

For those looking for a "reputable source" to deflect to, one option is VoteVets. But don't RT their rebuttal, instead use an article with a headline that quashes. Like this one: "Vets Group calls BS ..." The goal is to squash the lie and move on. 8/https://t.co/tbwhlwtqqu

— capitolhunters (@capitolhunters) August 8, 2024

As you might expect, a veterans' group also understands tactics - here they've nicely executed the pivot to offense. Now it's your turn: don't get stuck on the defense, instead RT their offense. Make the story JD's lack of support for vets. 9/https://t.co/0OuI6Q6SNM

— capitolhunters (@capitolhunters) August 8, 2024

The definitive guide to Project 2025
https://www.mediamatters.org/project-2025/definitive-guide-project-2025
Media Matters presents a close look at Project 2025, from a secretive 180-day plan to a MAGA staffing database to extreme proposals that would turn back the clock on a whole host of issues

Written by Media Matters Staff

Research contributions from Madeline Peltz, John Knefel, Jacina Hollins-Borges, Jack Wheatley, Sophie Lawton, Justin Horowitz, Allison Fisher & Olivia Little

Published 08/08/24 10:36 AM EDT

Project 2025 is an extreme right-wing initiative organized by The Heritage Foundation to provide policy and personnel to the next Republican presidential administration. The effort involves more than 100 partner organizations, a database of potential MAGA staffers, a secret 180-day plan, and its nearly 900-page policy book — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise — represents a major threat to democracy. The below PDF is also available here.............................


.

Criminal donOld trump with 2025 author and recording of him complimenting Walz;

pic.twitter.com/85YEjamwUY

— Aes🇺🇸 (@AesPolitics1) August 7, 2024

Hallucinations of the criminal donOld. Criminal trump sneaks a post by his managers. His handlers have been trying hard to create some form of overseeing with his dementia issues, cleaning up his poopy butt and ketchup off the walls, editing his posts, but they can't get them all. lol

I'm still laughing MAO from your post. Thank you, Thelma!

— DrJackBrown 🌊 (@DrGJackBrown) August 8, 2024

Elon Musk shares fake news claiming UK rioters will be sent to ‘detainment camps’

Elon Musk is at it again.

Amid an ongoing feud with the British government about unrest on the country's streets, the X owner boosted, and then deleted, an entirely-manufactured news headline pushed by a far-right political party.https://t.co/1fnerJR12B

— POLITICOEurope (@POLITICOEurope) August 8, 2024

Scott Ritter's passport was seized a while ago and he hasn't been able to get back to Russia.

Meanwhile at Scott Ritter's lair: looks like the FBI left with lots of goodies. pic.twitter.com/o8Czl7JkXw

— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) August 8, 2024

Why do disgraced Americans like Scott Ritter spout pro-Putin propaganda in Russia?
https://www.euronews.com/2023/05/24/why-do-disgraced-americans-like-scott-ritter-spout-pro-putin-propaganda-in-russia


Scott Ritter, former chief UN weapons inspector, in front of a courthouse in the US after he was sentanced to 18-66 months for unlawful contact with a minor. 26 October 2011

Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter is touring Russian cities and claiming Ukraine will lose the war. Why do he and other disgraced Americans insist on defending Putin's rhetoric?

Russian propaganda outlets have loved quoting Americans they believe are arguing in Moscow's favour ever since the 2014 invasion of Ukraine, and even more so since the full-scale attack launched in February last year.

While the concept of Western intellectuals kowtowing to Soviet leadership – and downplaying their crimes – was relatively common during the Cold War, it has gained new momentum since Russian President Vladimir Putin made clear his plans to either break up or occupy the entirety of Ukraine.

Scott Ritter, a former UN weapons inspector in the 1990s, and a Marine Corps analyst during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan a decade prior, is among the cohort of Americans courted by Russian propaganda sources.

Taylor Swift Shows in Vienna Canceled After Terrorism Threat
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-08-07/taylor-swift-shows-in-vienna-canceled-after-terror-plot-arrest?

By Marton Eder
August 7, 2024 at 2:23 PM MDT
Updated on August 7, 2024 at 2:48 PM MDT

Taylor Swift shows planned for this week in Vienna have been canceled after Austrian police arrested two people on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack.

Concerts for the American pop megastar were canceled after the Austrian government confirmed the planned terror attack at the Ernst Happel Stadium, concert organizer Barracuda Music said on its website. A government spokesman said the decision was made by the organizer.

The singer-songwriter was scheduled to perform three shows in Vienna as part of her Eras Tour on Thursday, Friday and Saturday before the tour’s final European performances in London.

Police arrested a 19-year-old Austrian citizen in Ternitz, Lower Austria, on Wednesday morning under the suspicion he was planning attacks against mass events in Vienna, Director General Franz Ruf told reporters. The unnamed person had been radicalized by Islamic State and had focused on Taylor Swift’s concerts as a potential target, he said.

Officials found chemical substances at his home, and later detained another person in Vienna.

Austrian officials in recent years have arrested a number of people affiliated with Islamist and far-right groups, though terrorist incidents have been rare. In 2020, a gunman killed four and wounded more than a dozen in an attack claimed by IS.


.

Not sure, Musk is deleting, blocking, agitating, and and a whole lot of suppression of things that are posted against the extreme right and criminal donOLD's republicans. Even the most simple or silly statements sometimes gets hit and especially things noting Elon's degeneracy.

I think this might be it.



Other tweets about this, he's also aggressively suppressing;

UK government calls on Elon Musk to act responsibly amid provocative posts as unrest grips the country
https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-britain-riots-tweet-df3df49e7ba70b5af68f4fafa2fb4e68?

X Is Boosting the Far Right’s UK Riots as Telegram Scrambles for Control
Far-right protesters are trying to share violent rhetoric on social media. For the first time, Telegram is blocking them—while X is giving them a platform.
https://www.wired.com/story/telegram-is-blocking-the-far-right-from-boosting-the-uk-riots-x-is-emboldening-them/

Man who helped ignite George Floyd riots identified as white supremacist: Police
https://abcnews.go.com/US/man-helped-ignite-george-floyd-riots-identified-white/story?id=72051536

This ought to have some "swift" results.

This is our place, we’re having a call! 💙

Join us on Tuesday, August 27 at 7 pm ET to kick off the organizing efforts of our #SwiftiesForKamala coalition committed to protecting democracy by working together to elect Vice President Kamala Harris as our next President! pic.twitter.com/F4DlU3fkc9

— Swifties For Kamala (@Swifties4Kamala) August 7, 2024

Walz is a Union member.

NEW: Tim Walz is the first union member on a presidential ticket since Reagan.

He comes from the working class and champions ideas that make a real difference for working class people.

He capped insulin at $35, banned junk fees, gave every student free school lunch, and more. pic.twitter.com/krvzcuqMp0

— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) August 7, 2024

Good luck. He aims to burn everything down. His behavior is intentional. https://t.co/mPL5P1irMa

— Dave Troy (@davetroy) August 7, 2024

Wow. 140,000 people at this rally (in Trump units). pic.twitter.com/jWKlhHrOyx

— Adam Mockler🇺🇸🦅 (@adammocklerr) August 7, 2024

The Wide Angle: Peter Thiel and the American Apocalypse
by Dave Troy
Jul 30, 2024 | Economy, The Wide Angle


Peter Thiel and J.D. Vance
PHOTO CREDIT:
Gage Skidmore

Between the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race, and the rapid coalescence around Kamala Harris as the presumptive Democratic nominee, everyone’s rushing to update their political calculus. But there’s one recurring thread that haunts us that people aren’t yet talking about: the debt ceiling, which must be addressed once again by January 2nd, 2025.

As I’ve reported in The Washington Spectator previously, any default on US debt would be unprecedented, sparking a global catastrophe with unpredictable outcomes. How soon we forget — in 2021 Moody’s estimated that default could mean the loss of at least 6 million jobs and the destruction of $15 trillion in wealth. (The COVID bailout packages amounted to about $4 trillion, by comparison.)


CBS News Moneywatch, September 22, 2021 (CBS News)

We got lucky in 2021, when Congress passed a $2.5 trillion increase right before the Christmas break. That kicked the can down the road to January 19, 2023, when we hit the limit once again. Janet Yellen enacted “extraordinary measures” to stretch available cash until June 5; House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Biden struck a deal which was passed just days before default, or “X-Date.”

That deal (which really only registered with political and finance nerds) bought us until January 2025. If sane people are elected to Congress and the Presidency, that shouldn’t be a problem: just sort out some kind of deal, pass it, and live to fight another day. But these are not sane times. It’s wise to plan for the worst, which unfortunately is quite a plausible eventuality.

J. D. Vance’s selection as Trump’s running mate suggests that Vance’s benefactor, Peter Thiel, is running the show, reprising an aborted effort to run the show from 2016. He seems to have learned from his mistakes. Thiel’s main hook into the first Trump administration was Steve Bannon, and their efforts were largely stymied by Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner and other advisors; Bannon was ultimately forced out and left the administration after the deadly white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville in August 2017.

In The Contrarian, a 2021 biography of Thiel, author Max Chafkin describes Vance as an “extension” of Thiel, who was a primary funder of Vance’s victorious 2022 race for Senate in Ohio. If Trump wins, Vance will be a heartbeat away from the presidency — and that should give everyone palpitations of their own.

A new Congress will be sworn in on January 3, 2025 — one day after we hit the debt ceiling. The Treasury Secretary (presumably Janet Yellen) will then again have to enact “extraordinary measures” to avoid default. That may buy us anywhere from a few weeks to a few months, depending on who is elected President, and who is appointed Treasury Secretary.

President Biden must try to prevail on Congress to put together another debt ceiling deal before the end of the year. If that doesn’t happen, that task will fall to the next President. Depending on who is in control of the House and the Senate after the election, the current Congress may decline to act and wait for the next Congress to take this up, adding to the drama. And if Mike Johnson retains his status as Speaker of the House, it’s possible that the House will not introduce a bill at all — or if they do, it might be coupled with draconian measures, like a return to pre-COVID budget levels, as the Cato Institute and others have proposed.


Joe Lonsdale interviewing Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society on his podcast, “American Optimist.” March 7, 2024, “Ep 80: Leonard Leo Knows How to Win and How to Save Our Country” (YouTube)



The biggest concern, however, is that Thiel is coordinating with his old “PayPal Mafia” colleagues including David Sacks, Elon Musk, and Joe Lonsdale. While Thiel runs Vance, Sacks is bundling contributions and running his own propaganda effort in support of the Republican campaign. Musk and Lonsdale have recently teamed up to create a “Super PAC” in support of the Trump/Vance ticket, which has been buffeted almost daily by revelations of Vance’s earlier denunciations of Trump, and his own bizarre views of women and human sexuality.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk might support that PAC to the tune of around $45 million per month. Musk has denied that specific claim since, but the America PAC, which is run by Lonsdale, appears to be created to support the “PayPal Mafia” worldview — which includes (and indeed depends on) the bankruptcy of the United States (see below).

Another secretive network may have helped provide Vance with the necessary momentum to become a favorite for VP. The Rockbridge Network, founded in 2019 by Vance, Thiel, and Chris Buskirk, publisher of the pro-Trump publication American Greatness. According to Puck News, the group’s network has included Republican donors Harlan Crow, Rebekah Mercer, David Sacks, and other familiar names.

According to Chafkin, Thiel believes that the 2008 financial crisis should have led to a depression. Indeed, it was the investment thesis of his firm, Clarium Capital, that this would happen. But low interest rates and other bailout measures kept Thiel’s “bet against the United States” from working out. Now, he’s out for revenge.


Tweets from Elon Musk suggesting that the United States will default on its debt. (Source: X)


Musk has expressed similar views in connection to last year’s debt ceiling standoff. In April 2023, he said, “Given Federal expenditures, it is a matter of when, not if, we default.” And he’s taken up a similar line more recently. This week, Musk tweeted “America is going bankrupt btw,” citing a story that claims interest debt is “eating 76% of all income taxes collected.”

However one may feel about the national debt and the need to curb budget deficits, one thing is certain: a default will launch a global catastrophe from which recovery will be difficult or even impossible. And unfortunately, this seems to be their plan, and it is aligned with similar ideas expressed by Christian Nationalists and Putin-aligned actors.

James Scaminaci, a scholar of Christian Nationalism, has warned about the “North-Paul Strategy,” a scheme dreamed up by Christian firebrand Gary North and the Libertarian ideologue Ron Paul. Their plan envisions taking control of the United States through bankruptcy, asserting that “God’s judgment, which is pro-revolution, will produce a cataclysmic collapse of the American political-economic system.” In 2013, North predicted a “Great Default on $205 trillion dollars of unfunded liabilities.”

Sergey Glazyev, an economist leading the idea of a BRICS currency as an alternative to the US dollar, wrote a book in 2016 called “The Last World War: The U.S. to Move and Lose,” describing much the same scenario. He wrote, “The financial and information hegemony of the U.S. is threatened by the ever-growing likelihood of collapse of the pyramid of debt obligations denominated in dollars.”

Glazyev was also very close to crank political theorist Lyndon Larouche and his wife, Helga Zepp Larouche, who now runs Larouche’s organization, the Schiller Institute, which has published many papers along the same lines. The Schiller Institute was deeply involved in the “Rage Against the War Machine” rally in Washington D.C. in February 2023, has also promoted voluminous material about the “Noosphere” concept — one basis of Putin’s policy agenda.

In May, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) introduced H.R. 8421, the “Federal Reserve Abolition Act” which aims to “abolish the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve and the Federal Reserve banks” and repeals the 1913 Federal Reserve Act, the law that created the Federal Reserve System. What would happen after that is unclear, but this bill, as designed, would end the current dollar system and introduce a new financial system rooted in a gold-backed dollar and cryptocurrencies. It should be obvious that this may have catastrophic consequences for individuals, potentially obliterating their life savings.


Books by BRICS architect Sergei Glazyev and Project 2025 architect Kevin Roberts (original cover design).
Vice Presidential Candidate J.D. Vance wrote the foreword for Roberts’ book.


While Donald Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025, the controversial policy package developed by the Heritage Foundation, J.D. Vance has become closely associated with the scheme. Kevin Roberts, like Leonard Leo a member of the secretive extremist Catholic organization Opus Dei and one of the principal architects of Project 2025, wrote a book called “Dawn’s Early Light: Burning Down Washington to Save America,” with J.D. Vance supplying the foreword. The title was subsequently changed to replace “burning down Washington” with “taking back Washington,” to avoid the obvious and literally incendiary implications of the former. Vance wrote of Roberts’ book, “We are now all realizing that it’s time to circle the wagons and load the muskets. In the fights that lay ahead, these ideas are an essential weapon.”

Project 2025 also contains recommendations for terminating the Federal Reserve, echoing Rep. Massie’s H.R. 8421, specifically on page 694, “that the next Administration should think about proposing legislation that would “effectively abolish” the Federal Reserve and replace it with “free banking,” whereby “neither interest rates nor the supply of money” would be “controlled by government.”


Donald Trump has become a leading proponent of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency projects. (X, Bitcoin conference)



Donald Trump, who in 2021 said Bitcoin was a “scam against the dollar,” is now an ardent advocate of Bitcoin and NFTs (non-fungible tokens), both of which have provided him with a significant financial boost. Trump is a headliner at the annual Bitcoin conference in Nashville, along with Putin apologists Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Russell Brand, and Edward Snowden. CNBC recently reported that Trump has raised more than $4 million in Bitcoin and other digital assets since he began supporting cryptocurrencies. At that conference, Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) proposed establishing a “strategic Bitcoin reserve,” which she claims will “create a brighter future for generations of Americans by diversifying into Bitcoin.”

Vance is also a major backer of cryptocurrencies and disclosed in a recent filing that he held between $100,001 and $250,000 in Bitcoin. He has also gone on record in favor of devaluing the US dollar to boost exports.

A former adviser to Thiel recently suggested to me that his worldview was “largely self-referential,” and that of a “kid in high school who was picked on.” This source went on to assert that Musk’s America PAC amounted to the “neuro-atypical leading us into [a] business coup,” referencing the 1934 “Business Plot” (See: Paranoia on Parade.) And given Vance’s role as an “extension” of Thiel, per Chafkin, this is cause for grave concern.

Michael Anton, another character from the Thielverse, wrote an essay describing the 2016 election as a “Flight 93 Election,” comparing Hillary Clinton to the 9/11 terrorists. Anton, who is connected to the conservative Hillsdale College and is a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute, more recently has called for a “Red Caesar,” or a leader whose “post-Constitutional rule will restore the strength of his people,” with Vance now seemingly cast in that role. And as the Supreme Court recently ruled, if he manages to become president, he will now have immunity for any “official acts.”



Musk has made similar proclamations, calling for an American “Sulla,” famous for being the first Roman general to march his army on Rome, seizing control by force. Retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn seems ready to take up that role and has continued to call for various “black swan” events, and has made repeated warnings about potential assassinations, including of Donald Trump.

We have seen how rapidly public opinion can now shift based on the interplay between traditional media, social media, and authority figures. The Silicon Valley Bank run and the crisis of confidence in Joe Biden following his poor debate performance shared similarities. In early 2021, I circulated a memo privately in Washington suggesting that Musk and Thiel were aiming to do the same thing to the US dollar. And now we see that plan coming into place, with Thiel, Musk, Russia, and other right-wing media planting seeds of doubt in the dollar. Thiel ally Balaji Srinavasan just published an article arguing that default is unavoidable.


New York Times Headline, July 16, 2024. (NY Times)

A Harris victory is a necessary but insufficient condition to avoid a catastrophe. Biden must act now to provoke Congress to resolve the debt ceiling situation, ideally permanently. A prospective Harris administration must educate itself on the perils of gold-standard revanchism, and understand that cryptocurrencies are neither innovative nor neutral, but rather instruments of warfare which will be used by our adversaries to upend the world order. The system, as they say, is “blinking red,” and if there ever was a “Flight 93 election,” it’s this one. May we have both the wisdom and capacity to intercept these threats before it’s too late.

Dave Troy is an investigative journalist focused on exposing threats to democracy. Based in Baltimore,  
 his background as a technologist with an interest in studying online extremism affords him a unique perspective.  
 His work has appeared at MoMA in New York, and he is a fellow with New America Foundation’s Future Frontlines.  
 Dave writes regularly about information warfare, history, and politics. He is the host of the podcast Dave Troy Presents,  
 and speaks regularly at conferences on disinformation, extremism, and information warfare.  
 Contact information is available at davetroy.com.