Last Call For In Mortal Perry

Looks like the first casualty of last Thursday's GOP debate isn't one of the also-rans with 1% or so, or the disaster that is Trump, but somebody who given his performance in 2012 should be doing far better than he is right now: former Texas Gov. Rick Perry may be the first out of the Clown Bus.

Former Texas governor Rick Perry's presidential campaign is no longer paying its staff because fundraising has dried up, while his cash-flush allied super PAC is preparing to expand its political operation to compensate for the campaign's shortcomings, campaign and super PAC officials and other Republicans familiar with the operation said late Monday.

Perry, who has struggled to gain traction in his second presidential run, has stopped paying his staff at the national headquarters in Austin as well as in the early caucus and primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, according to a Republican familiar with the Perry campaign who demanded anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

Perry campaign manager Jeff Miller told staff last Friday, the day after the first Republican presidential debate, that they would no longer be paid and are free to look for other jobs -- and, so far at least, most aides have stuck with Perry -- according to this Republican.

"As the campaign moves along, tough decisions have to be made in respect to both monetary and time related resources," Miller said in a statement. "Governor Perry remains committed to competing in the early states and will continue to have a strong presence in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina."

Katon Dawson, Perry's South Carolina campaign chairman and head of a six-person staff there, said, "Money is extremely tight. We all moved to volunteer status." But, he added, "Our team is working as hard as it was last week."

Let's face it folks, the smart money was never on this idiot.  He crashed and burned in 2012 after his famous "I'll close three government departments" disaster when he could only remember two of them, and even Republicans realized the last person people were going to vote for was another idiot of a Texas GOP governor.

Perry (like Huckabee and Santorum, also in the basement of the poll numbers) is a proven loser.  Republicans don't like losers. The news that Perry doesn't have the cash to keep going makes him even more of a loser, so he'll lose even more fundraising.  Republican fundraisers are tired of backing losers, it's expensive and embarrassing.

That SuperPAC will keep him going or a while, but that too will stop taking in money as the deck reshuffles after the rise of Trump.

But barring a miracle, Perry's done.

The Real Ferguson Problem

Ferguson Police and St. Louis County Police haven't changed a bit in the year since Mike Brown was gunned down by Darren Wilson, and the way protesters were treated over the last 48 hours proves it.

First, Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery has been charged with trespassing and interfering with a police officer stemming from his coverage of the Ferguson protests from last year.

Wesley Lowery, a reporter on The Post’s national desk, was detained in a McDonald’s while he was in Missouri covering demonstrations sparked by a white police officer fatally shooting an unarmed black 18-year-old. 

A court summons dated Aug. 6 — just under a year after Lowery’s arrest — was sent to Lowery, 25, ordering him to appear in a St. Louis County municipal court on Aug. 24. The summons notes that he could be arrested if he does not appear. 

“Charging a reporter with trespassing and interfering with a police officer when he was just doing his job is outrageous,” Martin Baron, executive editor of The Post, said in a statement Monday. “You’d have thought law enforcement authorities would have come to their senses about this incident. Wes Lowery should never have been arrested in the first place. That was an abuse of police authority.

“This latest action represents contemptible overreaching by prosecutors who seem to have no regard for the role of journalists seeking to cover a major story and following normal practice,” Baron continued. 

According to the summons, Lowery is being charged with trespassing on private property despite being asked to leave. He is also charged with interfering with a police officer’s performance of his duties because, the summons alleges, he failed to comply with “repeated commands to immediately exit” the restaurant.

It is very, very noticeable that Lowery is so far the only reporter charged with a criminal act from last year's coverage of Ferguson...and that Lowery is black.

Meanwhile, armed white men were allowed to roam free, unaccounted, in Ferguson on Monday night.

Heavily-armed members of a controversial right-wing "patriot" group added an extra dose of unease to protests in Ferguson, Missouri, early Tuesday. 

The Oath Keepers organization says its members — all former military, police and first responders — pledge to "defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic." 

However, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar described their presence as "both unnecessary and inflammatory." 

Protesters and police confirmed that a handful of Oath Keepers with what appeared to be assault rifles, bulletproof vest and camouflage gear were seen early Tuesday on the streets of Ferguson, which was under a state of emergency following demonstrations pegged to the anniversary of Michael Brown's death.

Several protesters confronted members of the group, asking why they were allowed to openly carry weapons. 

"I'm happy that we're able to defend ourselves," one Oath Keeper replied in footage from NBC station KSDK. "It's been our right for a long time." 

The St. Louis County Police Department said it would consult with the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorneys Office about the legalities of the issue. 

Missouri allows individuals with concealed weapons permits to openly display firearms, unless it is done in an "angry or threatening manner." 

Shawn McGuire, a spokesman for St. Louis County Police, said he did not believe officers had confronted the Oath Keepers or told to leave. 

"We do not know who sent them," he added.

Inflammatory, but unlike the dozens of unarmed black protesters rounded up by cops for sitting at a courthouse earlier Monday afternoon, these idiots remained untouched by police.

I guarantee you that if these were Ferguson's black residents who showed up armed and carrying openly like that, there would have been an absolute bloodbath in the streets of Ferguson last night. But these Oath Keepers clowns were white, so it was 100% OK.  No police harassment, no arrests. No tear gas, no tasers, nothing.

When I talk about institutionalized racism in Ferguson, and in America, this is what I mean.

Mitch The Non-Leader

Let's be clear here: Mitch McConnell is trying to save his own ass on budget negotiations for the bill due at the end of next month, not the country.

Mitch McConnell is discretely laying the groundwork for the fall’s budget negotiations, which promise to be a major headache for the new Senate majority leader.

The Kentucky Republican has three priorities for the year-end talks that will dominate Congress starting next month.

He wants to keep the government open, avoid a federal default and avoid alienating his conservative base, which wants big concessions connected to legislation funding the government and raising the debt ceiling.

Government funding expires on Sept. 30 and the debt ceiling needs to be raised by year’s end, according to the administration. 

You can only have two of those three priorities, Mitch, and you know it.

Conservatives will erupt in anger over any year-end deal that busts the budget cap set in 2011 for non-defense spending, which McConnell regularly touts as a significant GOP achievement.

An agreement to boost spending and pay for it with a tax increase would infuriate the party’s base even more.

McConnell wants to avoid both these scenarios, according to sources familiar with his thinking.

The problem for him is a non-defense spending increase offset by tax increases and other revenue-raising provisions is exactly what Democrats are demanding.

So at some point, Mitch and John Boehner will have to come crawling to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi again.  Like I said, we know how this story ends.  How much damage is done to our economy on the trip through hell to get there?

StupidiNews

• Police in Ferguson, Missouri declared a state of emergency in response to protests Sunday and civil disobedience on Monday, arresting dozens throughout the afternoon and evening.
• Former "Little House on the Prairie" television star Melissa Gilbert will run as a Democrat in Michigan's 8th Congressional district, taking on incumbent House Republican Mike Bishop.
• China has devalued the yuan in response to poor economic data this summer, but analysts believe a further slide in the currency may just be beginning.
• US Securities officials have broken up an insider trading ring that used Ukrainian hackers to steal corporate press information from financial news services to profit illegally.
• Google is now a part of Alphabet, Inc, a new parent company formed by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to restructure the company's varied corporate interests.