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.