Richard Grenell claims he watched Trump ‘charm’ Germany’s Angela Merkel

 https://www.politico.eu/article/richard-grenell-claims-he-watched-trump-charm-germanys-angela-merkel/

 Richard Grenell, America's former acting director of national intelligence and ambassador to Germany, claimed he watched U.S. President Donald Trump “charm” German Chancellor Angela Merkel, despite the commander-in-chief’s famously chilly relationship with his counterpart in Berlin.

 “But that’s the Democrats. Between surveillance, classifications, leaks, and puppet candidates, they never want the American people to know who’s actually calling the shots,” Grenell said. “But with Donald Trump, you always know exactly who is in charge. Because the answer … is you.”

Pentagon slams Russia for 'provocative and aggressive behavior' that injured US troops in Syria

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/27/politics/pentagon-russia-syria/index.html

 The Pentagon slammed Russia's military on Thursday for what it called "deliberately provocative and aggressive behavior" that injured multiple US military personnel following a collision between American and Russian armored vehicles in eastern Syria.

"Russian forces breached our deconfliction arrangement in Syria and injured U.S. service members with their deliberately provocative and aggressive behavior," Chief Pentagon Spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said in a statement, the Defense Department's first public comments about Tuesday's incident.

"We have advised the Russians that their behavior was dangerous and unacceptable. We expect a return to routine and professional deconfliction in Syria and reserve the right to defend our forces vigorously whenever their safety is put at risk," he added.

Rabbi Sacks: US Jews making a 'big, big mistake' in politics

 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/286127

 American Jewish rabbis are erring by endorsing — and opposing — President Donald Trump, according to Jonathan Sacks, the former chief rabbi of Great Britain who said he has always studiously avoided showing an affinity for any particular candidate.

 The consequence of blurring the line between politics and Judaism can be significant, Sacks said.
“You mix religion and politics, you get terrible politics and even worse religion,” he said, adding later, “I’m afraid I have absolutely not the slightest shred of sympathy for anyone who, as a rabbi, tells people how to vote.”

RNC 2020: Key takeaways from Trump speech and Republican convention

 https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-53942272

 While law enforcement was building a physical protective bubble around the White House, the Republican Party has spent the past four days constructing a psychological bubble around the president - a more comforting reality sheltered from the tumult of the past six months.

The goal for the party this week has been to welcome a winning coalition of voters into this bubble - not just Trump's loyal base, but also disaffected suburbanites who may be uncomfortable with the president's policies, women put off by his confrontational tone and ethnic minorities concerned about the nation's growing racial tensions

Recent polls have indicated a sizable majority of Americans believe the nation is heading in the wrong direction. That's poison for an incumbent president seeking re-election. 

 Grievance has always been part of the fuel that has powered Trump's rise - a sense, among his supporters, that something valuable is slipping from their grasp and the unlikeliest of politicians, Donald Trump, is the one who will help them preserve it.

"Always remember," Trump said in a reprise of a line he has said before, "they are coming after me, because I am fighting for you."

It's the recipe for a bare-knuckle autumn campaign, as Trump and his supporters dig in for what will be a long, brutal battle to retain the presidency.

Chris Wallace calls Trump RNC address 'far too long' and 'surprisingly flat' despite 'some good lines'

 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/chris-wallace-trump-rnc-speech-too-long

 While "there certainly were impressive fireworks" on the National Mall following the conclusion of the Republican National Convention Thursday night, "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace said he was "surprised at the lack of fireworks" in President Trump's speech.

"Then he went after Joe Biden, and he had some good lines ...,'" Wallace said, "but I have to say .... his delivery -- and we have seen the president turn on a crowd --  was surprisingly flat and it didn't seem to have the bite that he usually does have in his speeches."

 Wallace added that the speech was "far too long -- 70 minutes exactly" and resembled a State of the Union address.

 "One other thing we have to note," Wallace concluded, "and that is the event itself. The fact that there were 2,000 people in close quarters on the Soth Lawn there with seemingly very few of them with masks, no social distancing, ignoring all the public health recommendations, I suspect that's gonna get a lot of comment in the next few days.

Trump Wants Drug Tests Before The Debates | Morning Joe | MSNBC

OK To Not Vote For Trump If You're GOP, Christian: Fmr. DHS Official | Morning Joe | MSNBC

Here's Donald Trump's most irresponsible theory yet about Joe Biden

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/27/politics/donald-trump-joe-biden-debates-drugs/index.html

 President Donald Trump has spent a lot of breath -- and tweets -- attempting to cast former Vice President Joe Biden as a doddering old man who doesn't really know what's going on.

"Biden can't put two sentences together," Trump told "Fox News Sunday" anchor Chris Wallace last month. "They wheel him out, he's goes up, he repeats -- they ask him questions, he reads a teleprompter, and then he goes back into his basement."

In the wake of a strong speech by Biden at the Democratic National Convention last week, Trump appears to have swapped out the "Biden's out of it!" attack for one even more bizarre.

Just to be clear as to what's going on here: The President of the United States is suggesting that the Democratic nominee against him -- and the man who spent almost a decade as the vice president -- is (or was) using some sort of drugs to enhance his debate performances. Pressed by York on a) what, exactly he was saying and b) what proof he had to make such a bold claim, Trump responded this way:

 "I don't know how he could have been so incompetent in his debate performances and then all of a sudden be OK against Bernie. My point is, if you go back and watch some of those numerous debates, he was so bad. He wasn't even coherent. And against Bernie, he was. And we're calling for a drug test ...

 

Fox News host Tucker Carlson stuns with comment on Kenosha shootings

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/27/media/fox-news-tucker-carlson-kenosha-shootings/index.html

Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Wednesday suggested it was not surprising that a teenager arrested in connection to a shooting allegedly took up arms and tried to "maintain order" during protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

"How shocked are we that 17-year-olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no one else would?" Carlson asked on his prime time television program.

"He just justified murder," added Nikole Hannah-Jones, the New York Times Magazine reporter who won a Pulitzer Prize for her work on the 1619 Project.

 

 

The Use Of The White House In The RNC: ‘Defiled’ | Deadline | MSNBC

Doc Rivers Delivers Emotional Speech On Jacob Blake

John Bolton on RNC from the White House: It's a destruction of standards

Trump Promises Pardons to DHS Officials if They'll Violate U.S. Immigration Laws to Keep People Out

Here are 5 takeaways from the RNC's third night

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/26/politics/rnc-highlights-day-3/index.html

 Uniform through-lines have sometimes been hard to detect at this week's convention, which has veered between fatalistic warnings about Democrats, denial about coronavirus and general economic optimism.

One consistent, however: every speaker has offered a view of the President that, no matter how divorced from reality, is the view he's always wanted to see depicted on television.

 

"I've watched Donald Trump charm the Chancellor of Germany," Trump's former ambassador in Berlin, Richard Grenell, said -- a bold claim for arguably the most powerful woman in in the world.

If the claim stretched credulity, it was nonetheless exactly the person Trump wants to be.

Jacob Blake is not a ‘child rapist’

 https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/aug/26/facebook-posts/jacob-blake-not-child-rapist/

If Your Time is short

• Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, was shot in the back by a white police officer in Kenosha, Wis., on Aug. 23. There is no evidence that Blake is a “child rapist.”

• Court records show that Blake has been charged with one felony count of third-degree sexual assault related to an alleged incident of domestic abuse. Under Wisconsin law, sex with a minor is not one of the offenses included in that charge.

Why Did The Police Shoot Jacob Blake? | The Daily Social Distancing Show

Daniel Dale on RNC claims: Hard for me to know where to start

Pence reinvents Trump's presidency on a disorienting night of crises

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/27/politics/mike-pence-republican-convention-analysis/index.html

 Even by the standards of 2020, it was a disorienting night. Adding to the awfulness of another police shooting of a Black man and the shooting of two protesters (by an apparent Trump supporter) and the pandemic about to claim its 180,000th American victim, a monstrous hurricane tore towards the Gulf Coast.

The RNC has had some effective moments -- especially in highlighting the stories of regular Americans from lobstermen to farmers who say they have benefited from Trump's economic policies. Democrats may have missed an opportunity in not doing more to highlight such inspiring stories.

But for the third night in a row the convention offered a vision of a far different country than the one currently staggering through a cataclysmic year. It was a tale of a resurgent economy, a deadly virus defeated and a benevolent and wise President who was a champion of Black Americans, an empathetic counselor of professional women and a guardian of constitutional values worthy of mention in the same breath as the Founders.

At the Republican National Convention, You Might Think COVID-19 Was Over

 https://time.com/5883905/republican-convention-coronavirus-trump-pence/

 When Vice President Mike Pence took the stage Wednesday night, his speech was a striking example of the Trump Administration’s attempts to reframe the history of the pandemic that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide and nearly ground the American economy to a halt. “Thanks to the courage and compassion of the American people, we are slowing the spread, we are protecting the vulnerable, and we are saving lives, and we are opening up American again,” Pence said, speaking at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, MD. “Because of the strong foundation that President Trump poured in our first three years, we’ve already gained back 9.3 million jobs in the last three months alone.”

 Pence was named chair of the White House coronavirus task force in late February. Experts point to the failure to set up a speedy and functional testing and tracing system, the inconsistent guidance coming from the White House on mask-wearing and other crucial mitigation measures, and the early push to reopen states as costly missteps in the Trump Administration’s response to the virus. In August, more than six months after COVID-19 began sweeping through the U.S., the country continues to lead the world in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and number of deaths. Americans have experienced unemployment rates unseen since the Great Depression. The U.S. will almost certainly surpass 200,000 deaths from the virus before the election. Until a vaccine is approved, testing delays are hampering reopening throughout the country.

 The alternative history spun out during the convention portrays COVID-19 as an unpredictable lightning strike sent from China against a U.S. left unprepared by the previous administration. But Trump had already been in office for three years when the pandemic washed ashore—mostly through Europe—and Trump’s White House had stripped away an office for pandemic response and ignored plans developed after the 2014 Ebola outbreak. More damaging, Trump repeatedly downplayed the seriousness of the virus as it spread in American cities through the spring, and when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended Americans cover their faces in April, Trump said he himself would not.

Israeli diplomat confirms Turkey giving citizenship to Hamas members

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-diplomat-confirms-turkey-giving-citizenship-to-hamas-members/

 An Israeli diplomat on Wednesday confirmed reports that Turkey is granting citizenship to a dozen members of the Hamas terrorist group.

“Some are in the process, some already got (the documents), but we are talking about around a dozen,” Roey Gilad, chargé d’affaires at Israel’s embassy in Turkey, told the Reuters news agency.

Gilad asserted that the Hamas members receiving Turkish passports were financing and organizing terror operations. 

 2012. (AP Photo, file)

An Israeli diplomat on Wednesday confirmed reports that Turkey is granting citizenship to a dozen members of the Hamas terrorist group.

“Some are in the process, some already got (the documents), but we are talking about around a dozen,” Roey Gilad, chargé d’affaires at Israel’s embassy in Turkey, told the Reuters news agency.

Gilad said Israel has evidence of the phenomenon.

“We have already one document that we will present to the government in copy,” he said. “Judging by the last experience we had by presenting a well-based portfolio to the government… and getting no reply, I must say I don’t have high hopes that something will be done this time.”

Gilad asserted that the Hamas members receiving Turkish passports were financing and organizing terror operations.

Turkish President Recep Erdogan met on Saturday with a Hamas delegation that included politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh and the terror group’s No. 2, Saleh al-Arouri — a top military commander who has a $5 million US bounty on his head.

The meeting was harshly condemned by the US State Department, but the Turkish Foreign Ministry rejected the criticism, accusing Washington of “serving Israel’s interests.”

US official: ‘Incredibly positive conversations’ held over selling F-35s to UAE

https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-official-incredibly-positive-conversations-held-over-selling-f-35s-to-uae/ 

 US State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said Wednesday that “incredible positive conversations” were already underway over providing the United Arab Emirates with elite F-35 fighter jets and other military hardware after the Gulf state’s deal to normalize relations with Israel.

“We know that there are more agreements to formalize between the UAE and Israel, but you have taken the first step and I have no doubt that the other steps will come into place, and that’s one of the reasons why Secretary [Mike] Pompeo is here,” Ortagus told Emirates News Agency, WAM, in an interview in Abu Dhabi, referring to Pompeo’s Wednesday visit to the UAE.

 

Log Cabin Republicans chair: LGBT Americans belong in Donald Trump's Republican Party

 https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2020/08/20/donald-trump-lgbtq-lgbt-gay-rights-republican-equality-column/5605491002/

 It hasn’t always been this way. For years, the GOP generally stood against the inclusion of gay and lesbian conservatives. As one of the Republican National Committee's first openly gay members, and a longtime leader of Log Cabin Republicans, I've worked tirelessly alongside many friends and colleagues to pull the party into the future. Today, thanks in large part to the leadership of President Donald Trump, the party has delivered meaningful policy victories for gays and lesbians.

'No one gets punished': RNC utilizes White House for speeches and surprises despite ethics concerns

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/26/politics/donald-trump-rnc-speech-ethics/index.html

 President Donald Trump is slated to accept the 2020 Republican presidential nomination on Thursday with a speech from the White House lawn -- an act ruled permissible by a federal agency. Yet even with the legal sign-off, the Republican convention's use of the White House this week is as norm-busting as anything in the Trump presidency and has gone far beyond his predecessors' actions.

First lady Melania Trump held her speech in a newly renovated Rose Garden. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave a pre-recorded his speech from Jerusalem during an official foreign trip, though the administration maintains his remarks were made in a personal capacity. 

 

The President's use of the White House as a convention speaking venue garnered criticism from ethics experts, but the US Office of Special Counsel -- an independent agency tasked with enforcing the law -- said Trump could deliver his Republican National Convention speech from the White House.

The office told members of Congress in a letter that because the President and vice president are exempt from the Hatch Act, they can deliver remarks for the RNC from the White House grounds.

"The President and Vice President are not covered by any of the provisions of the Hatch Act. Accordingly, the Hatch Act does not prohibit President Trump from delivering his RNC acceptance speech on White House grounds," a letter explaining the determination said.

CDC was pressured 'from the top down' to change coronavirus testing guidance, official says

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/26/politics/cdc-coronavirus-testing-guidance/index.html

 A sudden change in federal guidelines on coronavirus testing came this week as a result of pressure from the upper ranks of the Trump administration, a federal health official close to the process tells CNN.

"It's coming from the top down," the official said of the new directive from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The new guidelines raise the bar on who should get tested, advising that some people without symptoms probably don't need it -- even if they've been in close contact with an infected person.

Previously, the CDC said viral testing was appropriate for people with recent or suspected exposure, even if they were asymptomatic.

 

RNC Night 1: Here’s How You Will Die | The Daily Social Distancing Show

This *is* America: See Historian Condemn White Supremacy In Trump Era | MSNBC

Fed up Chris Wallace BLASTS Trump for illegal acts DURING Republican Convention

Trump’s RNC showcases conspiracists, backer of husbands controlling wives’ votes

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/trumps-rnc-showcases-conspiracists-backer-of-husbands-controlling-wives-votes/

 An advocate of “household voting” in which husbands get the final say. A woman who has argued that school sex ed programs are “grooming” children to be sexualized by predators like Jeffrey Epstein. A candidate who has peddled in racist tropes and bizarre QAnon conspiracy theories. US President Donald Trump has long surrounded himself with controversial characters who hold out-of-the-mainstream views. But the decision by the party to elevate some of those figures by featuring them in prime-time spots at the Republican National Convention or inviting them to witness this week’s events is drawing new scrutiny. 

 Monday’s opening night, for instance, featured Rebecca Friedrichs, an elementary school teacher who railed in her remarks against teachers unions. In a July opinion piece in the Washington Times, Friedrichs argued that public schools groom kids for sexual predators like Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, his longtime companion, who stands accused of facilitating the abuse of girls by the now-deceased sex offender, by teaching them basic sex education.

And then there are the invited guests. On Tuesday, Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican congressional nominee from Georgia who supports the QAnon conspiracy theory, revealed that she had been invited to the White House to attend Trump’s marquee acceptance speech.

Greene has a long history of bolstering the baseless pro-Trump theory, which centers on an alleged anonymous, high-ranking government official known as “Q” who shares information about an anti-Trump “deep state” often tied to satanism and child sex trafficking. She has also made a series of racist, anti-Semitic and Islamophobic comments.

CNN reported Tuesday that, before she ran for office, Greene promoted the debunked “Pizzagate” conspiracy and speculated that the deadly 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was an “inside job.”

Trump has praised her as a “future Republican Star.”