Last Call For Ditching Mitch

Things are not looking good for Amy McGrath here in Kentucky when it comes to beating Mitch McConnell this fall, as a new poll finds her down 17 points.

A new survey by independent polling firm Morning Consult shows Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell with a commanding lead in his bid for a seventh term in Kentucky, leading 53% to 36% over his Democratic challenger Amy McGrath. 

About 700 likely voters in Kentucky were surveyed online from July 24 to Aug. 2 by Morning Consult, whose results have a margin of error of +/- 3.5%. 

The race between McConnell and McGrath is expected to be one of the most expensive U.S. Senate races in the country this year, as both campaigns had over $16 million in cash on hand at the end of June. 

McGrath spent over $9 million in June alone to pull out a narrow victory over underdog Charles Booker in the Democratic primary, whose campaign surged in the final month by portraying him as a more authentic and progressive Democrat. 

The poll showed McGrath still has work to do in consolidating support among Booker voters and other Kentucky Democrats, with 79% supporting her, 12% supporting McConnell and 6% indicating they will vote for someone else. 

McConnell had the support of 84% of Republicans surveyed, while independents favored the senator 45% to 33% over McGrath. 

Over 6% of the likely voters surveyed indicated they would vote for someone besides McConnell and McGrath, with nearly 6% still undecided. 

While a survey two weeks ago from the internal pollster of McGrath's campaign showed McConnell leading by only 4 percentage points, two other polls since June found McConnell up by at least 20 percentage points. 

A survey conducted in mid-June by Oakland, California-based pollster Civiqs and commissioned by progressive think tank Data for Progress found McConnell leading McGrath 53% to 33%.

This is going to be as bad or worse than 2014 and Alison Lundergan Grimes's loss.  Kentucky Democrats have always had a problem with registered Dems voting straight up for Republicans, but McGrath can't even get 80% of the party.  It's very clear that voters here still see Mitch as Senate Santa, delivering the money and the power to the state.  It worked for Hal Rogers in the House for decades, and it's worked for Mitch for some time now and will continue to.

Mitch is pretty much going to win this comfortably because voters here believe Mitch when he lies like this:

Senate Republicans proposed a major rescue package: A trillion dollars for kids, jobs, and healthcare. But Democrats are blocking it all. The American people need a bipartisan outcome, not Democrats’ stonewalling behind closed doors.

— Leader McConnell (@senatemajldr) August 4, 2020

This is a lie.  It's Mitch and the Senate GOP who have refused to vote on the House Democrats' HEROES Act which passed May 15. But people here believe Mitch because he delivers. He's Senate leader.  He wouldn't lie to us, right?  Not to his constituents, right?

Oh, and Charles Booker?

He would be losing by 20 points or more. Just sayin'.

Orange Meltdown, Con't

Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance is indeed looking into the Trump Organization's criminal fraud and racketeering activities, run by the Mobster-In-Chief.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office suggested on Monday that it has been investigating President Trump and his company for possible bank and insurance fraud, a significantly broader inquiry than the prosecutors have acknowledged in the past.

The suggestion by the office of the district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., came in a new federal court filing arguing that Mr. Trump’s accountants should have to comply with a subpoena seeking eight years of his personal and corporate tax returns. Mr. Trump had asked a judge to declare the subpoena invalid.

Until now, the district attorney’s inquiry had appeared largely focused on hush-money payments made in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election to two women who said they had affairs with Mr. Trump.

In the new filing, the prosecutors did not directly identify the subject of their inquiry. But they said that “undisputed” assertions in earlier court papers and several news reports about Mr. Trump’s business practices showed that the office had a wide legal basis for the subpoena.

“In light of these public reports of possibly extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization,” there was nothing improper or even unusual about the subpoena, the filing said.

They cited newspaper investigations that concluded the president may have illegally inflated his net worth and the value of his properties to lenders and insurers. They also included an article on the congressional testimony of his former lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen, who told lawmakers last year that the president had committed insurance fraud. Lawyers for the president have denied wrongdoing.

The suggestion that the investigation, which has gone on for nearly two years, was broader than Mr. Vance’s office had previously acknowledged could raise the stakes for Mr. Trump, his company and its executives, if the inquiry were ever to lead to charges of bank or insurance fraud, which are felonies.

The inquiry into the hush-money payments seemed to center on a less serious crime, the filing of false business records.

A spokesman for Mr. Vance’s office declined to comment. Lawyers for Mr. Trump did not reply to requests for comment.

Donald Trump is going to a New York state penitentiary for the rest of his days if he leaves power (or he'll skip the country for Moscow.) He knows he will die in prison if he stays in the US. He knows a future Republican president won't be able to pardon or commute his sentence.

He will do everything he can to hold on to power, including everything illegal he and his crew of gangsters can think of.

Be prepared.

BREAKING: Massive Explosion In Beirut

A catastrophic explosion in Lebanon's capital of Beirut was caught on video as a smaller explosion and subsequent fire that broke out at the city's port warehouse district, the smoke visible for miles, turned into a blast wave that absolutely devastated the city earlier today.

At least two explosions in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, resulted in widespread damage and injuries on Tuesday, throwing a country already mired in political and financial distress into further chaos.

Videos posted on social media show massive blasts near Beirut’s port, one of the busiest in the Eastern Mediterranean. A top Lebanese Red Cross official reported at least “hundreds” of casualties, including those dead and wounded.

Lebanon’s general security chief, Abbas Ibrahim, told local reporters that the initial explosion was not a bombing. He said it was caused by a fire in a warehouse that had been storing “confiscated highly explosive materials.”

Initial reports from Lebanese state-run media said the fire had broken out in a facility storing fireworks, but Ibrahim dismissed that theory.

According to the country’s health minister, the blast left scores of casualties and inflicted severe damage on the city.

“I have never in my life seen disaster this big, this grand, this catastrophic,” said Beirut’s governor, Marwan Abboud, before he broke down crying. “This is a national catastrophe. This a disaster for Lebanon. We don’t know how we’re going to recover from this. … We need to stay strong and we need to be courageous, but this, our people have been through so much.”

Lebanese Prime Minister Hassam Diab has declared Wednesday a national day of mourning.

pic.twitter.com/PetjNK79Gf

— Afif Tabish 🇱🇧🇨🇦 (@afif) August 4, 2020

More as the story develops...

Black Lives Still Matter, Con't

Set aside 30 minutes for this US History class taught by John Oliver.



That's it, that's the post.

Share it with someone who can benefit from it, which is basically all of us.

StupidiNews!

• The Apple Fire in Southern California has burned more than 20,000 acres near San Bernardino and is threatening homes and wildlife, fire officials say the blaze is only 5% contained.
• Israeli jets bombed targets in Syria after an attempted attack on the Golan Heights as Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu faces growing protests to resign over his corruption trial.
• Congressional Democrats say they have made "progress" in talks with the White House over a major COVID-19 aid package for Americans, but both sides say they are still far apart.
• Donald Trump says Chinese social media app TikTok must sell its US division by September 15th or he will order the service banned in the United States. 
• Google is buying a $450 million stake in home security company ADT in order to install Google Nest home security products professionally around the country.