StupidiNews!

• Airstrikes by Saudi coalition forces have hit a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Yemen, killing 11 and damaging the facility.
• Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett has imposed a curfew in the city to try to quell protests over the police shooting of a black robbery suspect over the weekend.
• The Pentagon has announced the transfer of fifteen inmates from Guantanamo prison to the UAE, the largest single transfer of prisoners from the facility so far.
• Pennsylvania Democratic AG Kathleen Kane has been found guilty on multiple counts related to leaking legal information in order to harm her predecessor, and then trying to cover it up.
• Federal prosecutors say automaker Volkswagen could now face criminal charges for its diesel emissions scandal and could be seeking a settlement.

Last Call For Through The Looking Glass

We're totally off the map where There Be Dragons on the American political front as we've now witnessed "America's Mayor", Rudi "A Noun, A Verb, And 9/11" Giuliani actually forget that 9/11 happened.

Speaking in Youngstown, Ohio ahead of Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, who was the mayor of New York City on 9/11, declared that Islamic extremists hadn't carried out any terror attacks on American soil before Barack Obama's presidency.

"Under those 8 years, before Obama came along, we didn't have any successful radical Islamic terrorist attack in the US," Giuliani told the crowd. "They all started when Clinton and Obama came into office."

It's not the first time Giuliani has made remarks that seemed to gloss over the terror attacks that left nearly 3,000 dead and that defined him in the eyes of many Americans. While suggesting in 2010 that Obama could stand to take some cues from George W. Bush, the former mayor claimed, "We had no domestic attacks under Bush."

We've finally reached the fact-free portion of the 2016 campaign where the scores don't matter and the points are just made up.

But for Rudy Giuliani, the man who was mayor of goddamn New York City when 9/11 happened, to willfully pitch the event from his mind in order to attack our current president?  That's just insanity. Calculated insanity, but insanity nonetheless.

Then again of course this was going to happen during this campaign.  We already have a majority of Trump voters believing Obama is a Muslim traitor anyway, so what the hell do facts and issues have to do with anything coming out of the GOP anymore?

The Long Rhode To Gunmerica

Kim Rhode is an Olympic legend that most of us haven't heard of, and last week in Rio she became the first woman in history to win medals in six consecutive Olympic summer games.  That's a massive accomplishment for sure, a testament to her skill and longevity in the world of sport.

The issue is that Rhode's sport is skeet shooting, and her views on gun control are not very accommodating to say the least.

US Olympic Gold Medal shooter Kim Rhode is wading into the gun control debate and defended the Second Amendment ahead of her competition in Brazil. 

"We should have the right to keep and bear arms, to protect ourselves and our family," the skeet shooter said in an interview Wednesday with Time Magazine in Rio de Janeiro. "The Second Amendment was put in there not just so we can go shoot skeet or go shoot trap. It was put in so we could defend our First Amendment, the freedom of speech, and also to defend ourselves against our own government."

It's weird to see any Olympic athlete admit that her sport should be used to kill people, but sure.

The California native said that she hopes to pass shooting along to her three-year-old son "when he becomes of age." 

"I started when I was like 7 or 8 years old, and it was something that was a big deal in my family, to gain that rite of passage," she said. 

The skeet shooter also criticized gun control measures that were passed in California following the December 2015 San Bernardino terror attack that left 14 dead.

And if you're wondering why Rhode sounds like a walking billboard for the NRA and the firearms industry, it's because she is one.

Yet if the best form of compensation is colored green, there’s no need to feel sorry for Rhode. On her webpage—“Kim Rhode, just a girl shooting guns and stuff”—she provides a list of sponsors that include a firearms retailer, a hunters’ conservation group, and manufacturers of guns, ammunition and gun-cleaning equipment. A wife and mother, she is her family’s primary breadwinner, she says. “Compared with other sports, we have a massive industry behind us,” says Rhode, a 37-year-old skeet shooter.

An estimated 20 million Americans hunt, and more yet compete at shooting ranges, so Olympic medalists can serve as compelling faces of the firearms industry. After winning a gold medal in London, Rhode made an appearance at a hunting trade show on behalf of a sponsor, Otis Technology, a maker of gun-cleaning kits based in Lyons Falls, N.Y. “The line stretched way down the hallway with people wanting her autograph,” says Heather Bennett, marketing manager for Otis, which also sponsors sharpshooting biathletes in the Winter Games. 

TruckVault, a maker of secure in-vehicle storage lockers, began sponsoring Rhode after she became a customer, following the theft of a shotgun from her vehicle. “Part of the responsibility of owning a gun is securing your weapons,” said Don Fenton, sales marketing director for TruckVault, based in Sedro-Woolley, Wash. He calls Rhode “a great young athlete deserving of manufacturers’ dollars.”

Safari Club International, a hunters’ conservation group based in Tucson, Ariz., sponsors Rhode and two other female U.S. Olympic shooters because it “strongly supports women in the shooting sports,” says Phil DeLone, chief executive officer, adding that the Olympians are a big hit at the organization’s annual convention.

So yeah, Kim Rhode is certainly one hell of an athlete, setting a record for consistency and skill that spans two decades and five continents, an achievement that definitely puts Usain Bolt's track accomplishments and Michael Phelps's mastery of the water in perspective.

Rhode also is paid very well by the gun industry for doing what she does.  It's one thing to pitch Nike or Gatorade or Wheaties as an Olympian.  It's another to sell guns.

The Con Man's Con Man

What makes Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort uniquely qualified to run the con job of a campaign that he's running today? Apparently, the answer is that Manafort is a master grifter who helped loot millions and buy elections in Ukraine at his previous job for Victor Yanukovich.

Handwritten ledgers show $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments designated for Mr. Manafort from Mr. Yanukovych’s pro-Russian political party from 2007 to 2012, according to Ukraine’s newly formed National Anti-Corruption Bureau. Investigators assert that the disbursements were part of an illegal off-the-books system whose recipients also included election officials.

In addition, criminal prosecutors are investigating a group of offshore shell companies that helped members of Mr. Yanukovych’s inner circle finance their lavish lifestyles, including a palatial presidential residencewith a private zoo, golf course and tennis court. Among the hundreds of murky transactions these companies engaged in was an $18 million deal to sell Ukrainian cable television assets to a partnership put together by Mr. Manafort and a Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, a close ally of President Vladimir V. Putin.

Mr. Manafort’s involvement with moneyed interests in Russia and Ukraine had previously come to light. But as American relationships there become a rising issue in the presidential campaign — from Mr. Trump’s favorable statements about Mr. Putin and his annexation of Crimea to the suspected Russian hacking of Democrats’ emails — an examination of Mr. Manafort’s activities offers new details of how he mixed politics and business out of public view and benefited from powerful interests now under scrutiny by the new government in Kiev.

Anti-corruption officials there say the payments earmarked for Mr. Manafort, previously unreported, are a focus of their investigation, though they have yet to determine if he actually received the cash. While Mr. Manafort is not a target in the separate inquiry of offshore activities, prosecutors say he must have realized the implications of his financial dealings.

“He understood what was happening in Ukraine,” said Vitaliy Kasko, a former senior official with the general prosecutor’s office in Kiev. “It would have to be clear to any reasonable person that the Yanukovych clan, when it came to power, was engaged in corruption.”

Mr. Kasko added, “It’s impossible to imagine a person would look at this and think, ‘Everything is all right.’”

Paul Manafort definitely has a history of helping pro-Putin dictators win elections by cleaning up their messes and influencing the vote and apparently he was paid very handsomely to do it, far more than was previously reported.

Now he's helping Donald Trump, who loves him some Vlad the Dudesplainer.  In other words, the guy screaming about rigged elections has a campaign manager that rigs elections.

So where's the $12 million, Paul? And how much are you taking from Putin now?  Suddenly several news outlets are focusing on Manafort and with good reason.  Supposedly more stories on Trump's campaign manager and his dealings with Putin are on the way, folks.

Buckle up.  It's about to get nasty.

StupidiNews!

• Several thousand residents of Clearlake, California have been evacuated out of the path of a massive wildfire that has scorched 3,000 acres.
• No evidence of shots fired in Terminal 8 of JFK Airport has been found after reports of gunfire Sunday night interrupted air traffic for hours.
• Jamaica's Usain Bolt won the100m dash in Rio Sunday as he opened his unprecedented bid to win the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay golds in three consecutive Olympics.
• An attack by Ugandan-based Islamic rebels in the city of North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed at least 36, according to government media.
• Commercial space company SpaceX has now completed water landings of its Falcon 9 rocket four out of five times in the last year.

Last Call For Blue Bayou

Meanwhile, Louisiana is suffering from some of the worst flooding the state has seen since Katrina, with the Baton Rouge area along I-10 and I-12 the hardest hit.

Rescue efforts intensified Sunday as historic rain that paralyzed much of southeastern Louisiana eased while floodwaters continued to bring havoc to the battered region.

State Police helicopters delivered food and water to hundreds of motorists stuck for more than 24 hours in flooding near Baton Rouge. More than 7,000 people — and 500 pets — were rescued from homes, businesses and cars overwhelmed by the unrelenting waters, Gov. John Bel Edwards said. He said the death toll from flooding remained at three, with one person missing.

Parts of the area have been blasted by up to 25 inches of rain since Friday. The weather improved Sunday, but Edwards warned that flooding issues will continue for days.

"This is a serious event, ongoing," Edwards said at a Sunday news conference. "It's not over."

The Amite and Comite rivers were among those hit with record flooding. Jeff Gaschel, a hydrologist for the National Weather Service, said some areas of the Amite River won't crest until Monday. He said the area had similar rainfall amounts in 2001, but over a longer period of time.

Gov. Edwards himself had to evacuate the governor's mansion due to record flooding.  Expect to see more extreme, record-setting weather events like this as climate change magnifies the effects of storms and temperature.

The Coming Av-Hill-Lanche, Con't

Trump's corrosive rhetoric is starting to do permanent damage to his chances to win in November, as yet another set of swing state polls, this time from CBS, show he continues to be in dire odds of getting swamped.

Hillary Clinton has extended her lead in Florida and is now up five points over Donald Trump, 45 percent to 40 percent; she led by three points in June.

And Clinton now has a dominant nine-point lead in New Hampshire, 45 percent to 36 percent, a lead that has her threatening to take that battleground state off the board entirely, just as last week, a double-digit lead in Virginia made that state look like anything but a toss-up.

In Georgia - usually a Republican state not typically considered a battleground - Trump leads 45-41 but Clinton has things closer than in most presidential races, down just four points.

New Hampshire, just like Virginia, Pennsylvania and Colorado, is looking increasingly out of reach for Trump.  North Carolina, Ohio, and Florida are all moving into the Clinton solid lead column. Georgia, Arizona, and South Carolina are moving into play.  These are all states that Trump nees to win, and Clinton is starting to look like she's going to run the table.

But here's what I mean about "permanent damage" to Trump's chances:

Among women in New Hampshire, zero percent of those not with him are an affirmative "yes" and a scant nine percent say "maybe" they'd consider him going forward. Ninety-one percent say they never would.

And it also highlights the kinds of trouble he's had among voters of his own party: he's at 78 percent support among Republicans, compared to Clinton's 93 percent of Democrats.

Trump has lost women, and I'm betting he's lost black voters, Hispanic voters, and Asian voters as well.  People are not coming back to give him a second look, and that means there's not much more he can do to shift the numbers in his favor, even with 85 days left to go.

Trump hasn't made any headway since June in allaying the concerns of Florida voters who were put off by his campaign. Back in June half of them said watching the Trump campaign scared them, and those numbers are effectively the same today. The number of voters not with Trump who'd consider him has also slipped, from 16 percent in June to 10 percent now.

The movement in Florida, such as it is, has come from Clinton pulling in those previously undecided. Although she does get a few more Republicans now than Trump does Democrats, both of their support bases have remained largely locked in, and it remains a campaign in which voters feel they don't have a lot of choice. That may in turn explain why there have been so few outright swing voters.

In Florida, one-third feel they're choosing a candidate despite not liking either one, and just two percent feel they have two good choices between Trump and Clinton. In New Hampshire, that number is just one percent.

And in a year that's already provided so many counterintuitive findings, here we find that authenticity - often believed to be a valued attribute for a candidate - doesn't always correspond with who is ahead. Seven in ten voters feel Trump is showing who he really is on the campaign trail, but he is trailing. A majority feel Hillary Clinton isn't showing who she really is, but she's leading nonetheless.

Clinton's lead is starting to get locked in, guys.  It also means that the Clinton campaign's efforts to get out the vote have to be top notch in order to keep people motivated to get out and vote in November.

I still believe this is going to be one of the lowest presidential election turnouts in a long time.  The most recent nadir was 49% in 1996, just below the 50.3% in 2000 that ended up in front of the Supreme Court.  I think we'll be in the upper 40's at best and maybe less than 45%, which is why I have a pretty bad feeling about the the Dems taking back the House and Senate and Congress remaining in GOP hands.

But...who knows?  I could be wrong.  Maybe Trump's awfulness will get people to come out and vote against him -- and the GOP -- like they did in 2008.  If that's the case, the Trump campaign may hit a critical mass and implode, taking Republicans this year along with it.

We'll see.

Black Lives Still Matter

Another shooting by police, this time of an armed black man suspected of robbery in Milwaukee, that led to a crowd gathering in protest and violence.

A standoff between police and an angry crowd turned violent Saturday night in the hours after a Milwaukee police officer shot and killed an armed suspect during a foot chase on the city's north side.

After an hours-long confrontation with officers, police reported at 10:15 p.m. that a gas station at N. Sherman Blvd. and W. Burleigh St. was set on fire. Police said firefighters could not for a time get close to the blaze because of gunshots.

Later, fires were started at businesses — including a BMO Harris Bank branch, a beauty supply company and O'Reilly Auto Parts stores — near N. 35th and W. Burleigh streets, a grim and emphatic Mayor Tom Barrett said. He spoke at a midnight news conference at the District 3 police station at N. 49th St. and W. Lisbon Ave. 

He and Common Council President Ashanti Hamilton pleaded with the public for calm. Barrett promised a strong police presence in coming days.

The mayor said some involved in the disturbances took to social media early in the evening to encourage others to come out and participate in trouble-making. He said many of them were young people, and he urged parents to keep tight reins on their children to avoid a repeat of Saturday night.

"Our police officers are doing everything they can to restore order," he said. But he said everyone needed to help restore calm.

"If you love your son, if you love your daughter, text them, call them, pull them by their ears, get them home."

The mayor said police had "shown an amazing amount of restraint" Saturday evening.

Hamilton said, "Our city is in turmoil tonight." He promised a full and open investigation into the the police-involved shooting.

"When we get information, we are going to share it with the public, please allow the process to work," he said.

First, it's weird how even in situations where police are dealing with armed white suspects that they are "captured" or "taken alive" but black ones are killed far more often.

Second, what would lack of restraint look like by the Milwaukee PD? Killing suspects before they could be tried or something? Rolling tanks down the streets? How is this in any way restraint by the police?

Third, Milwaukee is arguably the most segregated large city in America and has been for years. That directly affects the makeup of the Milwaukee PD, the conditions of income equality in the city, everything. Some 40% of Milwaukee residents are black, and the overwhelming majority live on the city's north side.  This was apparent even back in 1999 when I was in town for GenCon and my friends and I drove north to Appleton to meet our old pal from high school.  We went through that part of town and my friends were pretty stunned at what they saw.  Nothing much has changed since.

Black Lives Still Matter, guys.  Police reform is still needed, badly.

Sunday Long Read: 15 Years And A World Apart

As we now approach 15 years since September 11, 2001, this week's Sunday Long Read is Scott Anderson's sweeping magnum opus in the NY Times Magazine on how Iraq came apart and took the rest of the Middle East with it. It is the story of how the cosmically awful and morally indefensible actions of Bush 43 and the multiple failures to fix the problem by Obama during that time affected the ground level view of the mayhem we caused over the last decade and a half, all from the point of view of the people who lived there, whose lives America destroyed.

The opening note from the editor-in-chief sums it up:

This is a story unlike any we have previously published. It is much longer than the typical New York Times Magazine feature story; in print, it occupies an entire issue. The product of some 18 months of reporting, it tells the story of the catastrophe that has fractured the Arab world since the invasion of Iraq 13 years ago, leading to the rise of ISIS and the global refugee crisis. The geography of this catastrophe is broad and its causes are many, but its consequences — war and uncertainty throughout the world — are familiar to us all. Scott Anderson’s story gives the reader a visceral sense of how it all unfolded, through the eyes of six characters in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan. Accompanying Anderson’s text are 10 portfolios by the photographer Paolo Pellegrin, drawn from his extensive travels across the region over the last 14 years, as well as a landmark virtual-reality experience that embeds the viewer with the Iraqi fighting forces during the battle to retake Falluja.

It is unprecedented for us to focus so much energy and attention on a single story, and to ask our readers to do the same. We would not do so were we not convinced that what follows is one of the most clear-eyed, powerful and human explanations of what has gone wrong in this region that you will ever read.

This took me most of the morning to get though, and it was absolutely worth it, and it may be the single most important foreign policy piece I've read in years.  I would have missed it if my best friend hadn't tipped me off to it, so thank you.

Trump Cards, Con't

The Trump campaign's continuing damage to the legitimacy of American elections continues apace.

Donald Trump's campaign is seeking to recruit "election observers" following the Republican nominee's repeated claims that the general election is "rigged."

In a move that's unprecedented in a presidential election, the campaign late this week launched a page on its website proclaiming, "Help Me Stop Crooked Hillary From Rigging This Election! Please fill out this form to receive more information about becoming a volunteer Trump Election Observer."

Those who wish to be a Trump "observer" are asked to fill out information on the website that should match their voter registration. Once submitted, voters are directed to a donation page.

Hours before the site gained traction Friday night, Trump said at a rally in Altoona, Pennsylvania, that the only way he would lose in Pennsylvania is "if cheating goes on."

“She can’t beat what’s happening here. The only way they can beat it in my opinion, and I mean this 100 percent, if in certain sections of the state they cheat,” Trump said of Clinton campaign in Pennsylvania.

Although laws vary from state to state, campaigning by political parties is typically banned at polling sites under voter intimidation laws.

But of course, Trump can't be held responsible if he tells his followers that the election is rigged, that he needs people to "observe" these elections to "stop cheating" and that these happen to be swing states like Ohio, which have open carry laws.

No possibility of Trump being held responsible for what might happen, right?

Getting Really Hacked Off

The Russian theft of Democratic party information online continues to be problematic as hacker "Guccifer 2.0" has now posted the personal, private contact info of nearly 200 House Democrats for the world to have.

The massive data breach plaguing the Democratic Party led to another leak on Friday.

A hacker group calling itself “Guccifer 2.0” posted the personal cell phone numbers and emails of nearly 200 Democratic congressional members, The Wall Street Journal reported.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer were among those affected.

The ongoing leaks, which have been roiling the Democratic Party since before its national convention last month, have prompted an FBI investigation.

That investigation widened this week when it became clear that Russian hackers were targeting Democratic Party insiders and people on Hillary Clinton's campaign staff.

Members of several homeland security committees were also affected, including those on the House Intelligence Committee, and the Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees, The Journal noted, prompting concerns that members of those groups could be further targeted by spies.

Lawmakers have worried that the leaks may be an attempt to influence the election. The party has been bracing for the possibility of another damaging leak before November.

The data is there pointing to Guccifer 2.0 as yet another Russian front like WikiLeaks, and our good friends in Moscow must be laughing their asses off at how easy it is to pull the strings on our election press.

The hacker(s) included a message about US elections along with the stolen documents posted Friday: "As you see the U.S. presidential elections are becoming a farce, a big political performance where the voters are far from playing the leading role. Everything is being settled behind the scenes as it was with Bernie Sanders. I wonder what happened to the true democracy, to the equal opportunities, the things we love the United States for," the hacker(s) wrote. "The big money bags are fighting for power today. They are lying constantly and don't keep their word. The MSM are producing tons of propaganda hiding the real stuff behind it. But I do believe that people have right to know what's going on inside the election process in fact."

Sure, but only the Democrats, see.  Funny how that works.  Funny how Trump then carries into arguably his most dangerous tirade yet.

Donald Trump again raised the specter of election fraud Friday, saying that the only way he would lose Pennsylvania is to Hillary Clinton is if "they cheat."

The Republican nominee, speaking at a rally in Altoona, Pennsylvania, repeated his concerns about the fairness of the election.

“The only way we can lose, in my opinion — I really mean this, Pennsylvania is if cheating goes on and we have to call up law enforcement and we have to have the sheriffs and the police chiefs and everyone watching because if we get cheated out of this election, if we get cheated out of a win in Pennsylvania, which is such a vital state especially when I know what is happening here,” he said. “She can’t beat what’s happening here. The only way they can beat it in my opinion, and I mean this 100 percent, if in certain sections of the state they cheat.”

So you publish the info of several Democratic House members -- including in Pennsylvania -- and then say the only way those people can win is if those people cheat in "certain sections" of the state.

You know, the sections represented by Democrats.

Maybe some Second Amendment supporters should do something, you know?

And on and on we go.  There's no question now that the Russians are playing the incitement game in order to damage the Democrats and to damage the credibility of US elections.  Trump is playing along because he's a fellow traveler.

This just got a whole lot scarier, folks.

Last Call For Economic Anxiety

So it turns out that "working-class white voters" aren't voting for Trump over economic reasons at all, and as a matter of fact Trump supporters aren't "working-class" in the least.

Economic distress and anxiety across working-class white America have become a widely discussed explanation for the success of Donald Trump. It seems to make sense. Trump's most fervent supporters tend to be white men without college degrees. This same group has suffered economically in our increasingly globalized world, as machines have replaced workers in factories and labor has shifted overseas. Trump has promised to curtail trade and other perceived threats to American workers, including immigrants. 

Yet a major new analysis from Gallup, based on 87,000 interviews the polling company conducted over the past year, suggests this narrative is not complete. While there does seem to be a relationship between economic anxiety and Trump's appeal, the straightforward connection that many observers have assumed does not appear in the data. 

According to this new analysis, those who view Trump favorably have not been disproportionately affected by foreign trade or immigration, compared with people with unfavorable views of the Republican presidential nominee. The results suggest that his supporters, on average, do not have lower incomes than other Americans, nor are they more likely to be unemployed. 

Yet while Trump's supporters might be comparatively well off themselves, they come from places where their neighbors endure other forms of hardship. In their communities, white residents are dying younger, and it is harder for young people who grow up poor to get ahead.

So what's happening is the GOP is screwing over their base, and has made sure through Congress to keep Democrats from passing economic measures that would help the GOP base.  An angry base votes, and votes reliably.  That's always been the plan.

The bigger problem is of course this puts to bed the polite, accepted cover for Trump's virulent and obvious racism, misogyny, and Islamophobic campaign of hatred.

I wonder what the excuse will be for the rest of the contest?

The Turtle's Lament

Even Mitch The Turtle thinks the GOP keeping control of the Senate with Trump rampaging through the landscape is going to be a real problem for them come November.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday that GOP prospects for keeping control of the Senate after the November elections are "very dicey," sounding an alarm amid mounting Republican concerns about presidential nominee Donald Trump, 

Speaking to a Louisville-area civic group in his home state, McConnell said Senate Republicans were going to be "on defense" in this year's election, regardless of who led the ticket as the party's presidential candidate. 

Twenty-four GOP-held seats are on the ballot this year, compared with 10 for Democrats, he noted. McConnell was promoted to majority leader two years ago when a Republican surge wrested Senate control from Democrats.

McConnell did not mention Trump as being a drag on Republican down-ballot races, but he chided Trump's campaign tactics. The Kentucky senator said he hopes Trump "settles down and follows the script."

When asked by a reporter about Trump's comments labeling President Barack Obama as the "founder" of the Islamic State group, McConnell replied: "I'm hoping that we can make this election about Hillary Clinton. I think if we do, we can win." 

With the election less than three months away, McConnell said Republicans are in "a dogfight," and listed GOP-held seats in New Hampshire, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Florida and Indiana as "very competitive." 

"I may or may not be calling the shots next year," McConnell said.

You're probably not going to be calling those shots next year, Mitch.  Let's be honest. And as far as telling Trump to settle down, well, good luck with that.

Donald Trump’s campaign and top Republican Party officials plan what one person called a “come to Jesus” meeting on Friday in Orlando to discuss the Republican nominee’s struggling campaign, according to multiple sources familiar with the scheduled sit-down. 

Though a campaign source dismissed it as a "typical" gathering, others described it as a more serious meeting, with one calling it an "emergency meeting." It comes at a time of mounting tension between the campaign and the Republican National Committee, which is facing pressure to pull the plug on Trump’s campaign and redirect party funds down ballot to protect congressional majorities endangered by Trump’s candidacy.
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The request for the Orlando Ritz Carlton meeting originated with Trump’s campaign, according to a source familiar with the broad details, and is being viewed by RNC officials as a sign that the campaign has come to grips with the difficulty it is having in maintaining a message and running a ground game. 

“They want to patch up a rift that just keeps unfolding,” one source said. “They finally realize they need the RNC for their campaign because, let’s face it, there is no campaign.”

Considering Trump lacks a ground game in Cincy, and in other key places in key swing states, maybe that's true.  I think it's far, far more likely that Trump truly believes his own ego-inflated press and that America will proclaim him leader for life through adoration, because he can't possibly conceive of losing an election. He's Donald Trump, after all.

His rude awakening is going to be lots of fun. Even Mitch is expecting it, and the closer we get to Trump's Waterloo, the more nervous Mitch is going to get about his chances of remaining in that big office in the Senate building.

Trump Cards, Con't

The Rough Orange Beast was in Florida on Thursday, slouching towards Guantanamo Bay, waiting to imprison Americans there for, well, whatever reason he deems fit.

A President Donald Trump might push for Americans accused of terrorism to be tried in military tribunal at the U.S. Navy base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, the Republican nominee told the Miami Herald on Thursday. 

“I would say they could be tried there, that would be fine,” Trump said in a brief interview ahead of his speech to home builders in Miami Beach. 

Under current federal law, it’s illegal to try U.S. citizens at military commissions. Changing the law would require an act of Congress. 

In the wide-ranging interview focused on key South Florida issues, Trump continued to question climate change caused by humans. He said he plans to soon sit down with Cuban Americans in Miami to hash out a Cuba policy. And for the first time, he said Congress should set aside money to combat the Zika virus. 

Asked about Guantánamo in the past, Trump has said he would like to “load it up with bad dudes.” He wouldn’t specify to the Herald whether as president he would again allow terrorism suspects captured abroad to be transferred to the detention center. 

“I want to make sure that if we have radical Islamic terrorists, we have a very safe place to keep them,” he said. President Barack Obama, he added, is “allowing people to get out that are terrible people.” 

“Would you try to get the military commissions — the trial court there — to try U.S. citizens?” a reporter asked. 

“Well, I know that they want to try them in our regular court systems, and I don’t like that at all. I don’t like that at all,” he said. “I would say they could be tried there, that would be fine.”

Sure.  The gulag era of the America experiment sounds like a great idea, but at least it's on a sunny island like Cuba, right?  Guess what happens when Trump figures out he gets to decide as President who qualifies as a "terrorism suspect" in this scenario?

Gonna be fun times for all the kids on the Gitmo beaches with the Trump junta, baby.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/election/donald-trump/article95144337.html#storylink=cpy

StupidiNews!

• Multiple bombings in Thailand have killed four and injured more than 30 in less than 24 hours as police search for any connections and who may be responsible.
• An insurance executive for New Your Life has been fired after making public threats in a Facebook rant against a Black Lives Matter activist.
• Congressional leaders in both parties were briefed a year ago on signs that Russian hackers had stolen classified information from Democratic party sources.
• In Rio Simone Biles captured the all-around Olympic gymnastics gold, teammate Aly Raisman took the silver as US domination of the sport continues.
• Despite the shutdown of internet drug site Silk Road, internet sales of illegal drugs remain a multi-million dollar business.