User-Supported News Commentary Hosted by Craig Crawford
Biden’s World Series Ad
If we had an Oscar for 2020 campaign ads this is my nominee!
Author: craigcrawford
Trail Mix Host. Lapsed journalist, author & retired pundit happily promoting nothing but the truth for Social Security checks.
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After the chaos of the first presidential debate, Thursday’s matchup will feature a mute button, with each candidate’s microphone turned off for two minutes while his opponent has the floor.
But that won’t stop President Trump from talking over Joe Biden, Trevor Noah predicted on Tuesday. “He’s just going to shout or, even worse, he’ll just walk over to Biden and use his mic,” Noah said. “He’ll probably lick it, too, just to mark his territory.”
A Russian analyst says he is in hiding and “afraid for his life” after being unmasked by top congressional Republicans as the source behind the Steele dossier on Donald Trump and Moscow.
In his first-ever interview Igor Danchenko said he is the victim of a smear campaign by the president and the Republican senator Lindsey Graham. Both have repeatedly alleged that Danchenko is a suspected Russian spy who fed disinformation to Christopher Steele, the former MI6 officer.
Danchenko said he was not a Kremlin operative. He added that the accusation had made him a target for the pro-Trump radical right and left him effectively unemployed. “It’s a stigma. Being a ‘Russian spy’ is quite different from being James Bond. There are myths,” he told the Guardian.
He is now threatening to take legal action against Trump. Last week Danchenko’s lawyer, Mark E Schamel, sent a cease-and-desist letter to Pat Cipollone, the president’s counsel. It said Trump had endorsed and retweeted “completely unsubstantiated lies”, which damaged Danchenko’s professional reputation and were “endangering his life”.
The letter added: “These allegations of treason and espionage are extraordinarily serious. They are also completely false. Yet the president continues to publish these and similar false statements about Mr Danchenko with disregard for Mr Danchenko’s safety and reputation.”
In spring and summer 2016 Danchenko collected much of the raw intelligence that appeared in Steele’s dossier on Trump’s links with Moscow.
He was outed in July, following interviews he gave in early 2017 to the FBI as part of its Crossfire Hurricane investigation into the Trump’s possible collusion with Russia. He was described in FBI documents as Steele’s “primary sub-source”.
[continues]
Danchenko said he collected his raw intelligence from Russia on a “shoestring budget”. He confirmed that he travelled to Moscow and St Petersburg in 2016 for “the Trump-Russia project”.
In August the committee published its counter-intelligence findings into the Trump campaign’s ties with Russia. The bipartisan report was dismissive of Steele’s dossier, but corroborated key elements in it, saying that a Russian intelligence officer was “permanently based” at the Ritz-Carlton hotel, and spied on guests via a “network” of hidden cameras.
[…]
Danchenko said the campaign against him was designed to deflect from the damaging Senate report. “I think they thought I would be an easy target to discredit the dossier. By doubling down on this they would be able to discredit the whole Russia investigation,” he said.
[article goes into his background here before concluding]
He was worried about using his real name when checking into hotels, and was more afraid of renegade Trump supporters than of Kremlin operatives. “I’m afraid for my life. I want to stay healthy. I want to stay alive,” he said.
Law enforcement officials were reportedly notified after voters in multiple states received emails purporting to be from the “Proud Boys” organization filled with intimidating threats aimed at Democrats.
CNN and The Washington Post reported that voters in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Alaska and Florida all said they received threatening emails warning them to vote for President Trump in the upcoming election, adding that the mysterious sender claimed to have access to voter history and “will come after you” should they fail to vote for the president.
“You will vote for Trump on Election Day or we will come after you,” reads one email obtained by the Post. Dozens were reportedly sent, including more than 180 to students, faculty and staff of the University of Florida, a school spokesperson told CNN.
[continues]
that “stand back and stand by” didn’t last very long. D’ump must’ve blown that dog whistle of his and let the dogs out.
There are two people who make my every day a little brighter. The Far Side by Gary Larson is one. Randy Rainbow is the other. During these final weeks of this administration any little laugh is a good laugh.
Rather, as documented by the non-partisan watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW), Ivanka’s unethical conduct dates back to early 2017 and ranges from her receiving trademarks from the Chinese government while her father was in talks with the Chinese president to a complaint filed by CREW in January 2019 with the Department of Justice to assess if Ivanka and husband Jared Kushner violated federal law by profiting from a tax program they had championed.
If Hunter Biden had received a lucrative deal from a foreign country on the very same day his then-vice president father was meeting with the leader of that foreign country, Trump—and many in the media—would be calling that out as sleazy and possibly illegal. But Ivanka Trump has done that and worse and we don’t hear a peep. For example, in April 2017, on the very same day Trump dined with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Chinese government granted preliminary approval for Ivanka’s long-sought-after trademarks for her namesake fashion brand.
I woke up and realized that this totally angry & unhinged “president” will be in the WH the day after. What will he do? What horrible stuff will he do between then and January? *shivers* Stuff that I can’t even imagine.
Try to rig the electoral college with the help of republican-controlled state legislatures. If the results are close and the Senate doesn’t flip, he might get away with it.
MUST FLIP THE SENATE
i could articulate what i think he’ll do, but i don’t want to give Rethuglicans any ideas and i’d terrify myself seeing my own prognostications in stark type.
Go harangue the lazier liberals in your life to go vote.
Pope Francis called for the creation of civil union laws for same-sex couples in a documentary released Wednesday, straying from the Vatican’s traditional position on the topic.
The pontiff expressed his clearest support for same-sex civil unions in the documentary “Francesco” that premiered in Rome, the Catholic News Agency (CNA) reported.
[continues]
It’s crossed my mind to go to a GOP meeting just to hear how they cook up their dirty tricks, e,g, putting fake voting drop boxes out. I picture the WH folks as a coven sitting around and coming up with weird, bizarre stuff like the “pizzagate” folks did. And then cackling their heads off at the thought of it/whatever. “The Song of the Witches” since he’s been involved in oh so many witch hunts and most of his friends and allies are the witches.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg and howlet’s wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Cool it with a baboon’s blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.
(from Macbeth)
KGC, maybe they want to leave that in the past, and they have SO much to deal with now with trumpity? Remember Dems aren’t nearly as bastardly as the repubes.
Washington — Dozens of voters in a heavily Democratic county in Florida and across several states reported receiving emails on Tuesday purporting to come from a right-wing group threatening to “come after” them unless they vote for President Trump.
But an examination of the messages, which are now under investigation by state and federal authorities, shows they were sent via servers located overseas, raising questions about their origin amid concerns about voter intimidation just two weeks before Election Day.
[…]
While at first glance the email seems to come from an account under the domain of a website affiliated with The Proud Boys, a review of the source code embedded in seven emails reviewed by CBS News shows the message originated from IP addresses linked to servers located in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Estonia.
The IP addresses don’t establish that the senders are based in those countries, since the messages could have been routed through the servers from nearly anywhere, according to Dmitri Alperovitch, the co-founder and former chief technology officer of cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. He noted that the messages were sent via a “cloud infrastructure provider in Saudi Arabia called ‘Saudi Executive Cloud.'”
[…]
How the sender connected the email addresses and voter registration status of the recipients was not immediately clear. But under Florida law, much of the personal information on voter registration forms — including birth dates, party affiliation, email addresses — is considered public record.
Two of the emails shared with CBS News included home addresses of the recipients. One of those recipients said the sender appeared to be relying on outdated information, as he had not been registered at that address for months.
[…]
On Sunday, Admiral Mike Rogers, the former head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, said he believes Russia is attempting to spread disinformation on social media and other mediums to sow confusion and discord, including by using false identities.
“What you’re watching the Russians do is really double down on the idea of using disinformation via social media and other paths to continue to polarize our nation, to incite violence, to incite hatred and to attempt to pull us apart,” he said in an interview on “Face the Nation.”
Alachua County was the target of a cyberattack launched by Russia’s military intelligence service, the GRU, in 2016, though the effort to gain access to the county’s election office through a phishing email was unsuccessful.
Does Amy Phony follow through Pope or does she follow her hubby and the cult leader? We’ll see.
Take nothing for granted. Everyone who wants to dump tRUMP needs to vote. The warm and fuzzy video, the good poll numbers for Biden, I really hope folks don’t get complacent.
tRUMP being the assist that he is will feed his base and turn off everyone else.
Biden needs to keep on topic, look at the camera, ignore tRUMP’s pokes, and, simply lay out the case. tRUMP is a liar and a failure. Here’s what Dems will do to help you.
And, while he’s at it, tie up Yertle and Lindsey, etc., with tRUMPsky’s criminal family ring. FLIP THE SENATE AND DUMP tRUMP!
Joe doesn’t need to be nasty to do that, either. He just needs to tell the cold, hard truth about Repugz who prop up a treasonous, wanna-be dictator.
Biden’s surrogates can do the dirty work.
I heard a bit of baloney last night about how close it is in PA and was wondering, wtf ? The polls I’ve seen don’t have trump close in PA, MI, or WI. \\
It’s all just a matter of getting people up off their sofas to vote. If they can’t get to a mailbox, they mask up & can vote in person. If they don’t want to stand in line, they can dance in line : Electric Slide is always good & The Chicken is a hoot. Bring water and a snack. Mask up, Party Up, Vote UP.
Hello could someone please clarify for me if the Dems boycott the committee can the committee carry on without them? Thanks in advance- I know someone here has the answer!
Don’t be so confident so soon about PA. The RCP average is half the margin of that CNN poll. And for god’s sake don’t go looking at 538 – it would breed complacency.
And the weekly changes in covid numbers, courtesy of WaPo:
New daily reported cases rose 9.7%
New daily reported deaths rose 5%
Covid-related hospitalizations rose 7.8%
Among reported tests, the positivity rate was 5.6%.
The number of tests reported rose 2.3%
If there’s one thing we are not it is out of the woods.
Will tRUMPsky still be so roided-up that he’ll say/do something nobody can ignore tomorrow night?
Anyone doubt that they had whatever went down with Leslie Stahl planned before the sit down? That’s just another dirty trick from the propaganda arm of the tRUMPsky/Republican crime syndicate. Try to demonize legitimate journalists to the small-minded base, so they won’t believe it when he loses.
Anyone still propping tRUMPsky is UN-American. He’s building his own, little terror cells, sprinkled around the country. Another high crime.
MJ Hegar’s ad takes down Cornyn as a lapdog of tRUMP/Yertle. No stimulus for struggling Americans and failing business, but he jumps when they tell him to get to DC to rush through Amy Phony.
Nobody is concerned about the put-up job about Hunter. Folks want someone who will be honest about the virus, call for a mask mandate/social distancing/localized quarantines; economic security; healthcare; green energy/jobs; clean water. Things are very real for most Americans. Republicans propping up tRUMPsky just don’t get it…and that means they and their head toad won’t get votes, either. tRUMP is incapable of telling the truth because the truth makes him look bad.
Bless Mike Bloomberg for trying to bring in Florida for Joe. $100 million As Bloomberg says in one of his ads, tRUMP is full of nothing but “hot air and empty promises.”
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/21/politics/fbi-election-security/index.html
Yep, all of the tRUMP-loving racists are being aided by two groups they hate, Muslims and Ruskies. Strange bedfellows. Eh, Rudy?
As for Willard’s proclamation about not voting for tRUMP, it’s meaningless. If he helps Amy Phony, he helps tRUMP. Another hypocritical Republican. Typical.
Donald Trump on Tuesday night told a Pennsylvania rally “nobody wants me” before cutting the event short and dancing off the stage to YMCA.
Outmuscled financially and trailing Joe Biden in most national and battleground polls, Mr Trump did not appear to be his usual energetic self, as he addressed thousands of Make America Great Again supporters crammed into a chilly and dark Erie International Airport.
Two weeks out from election day the president, 74, complained about the temperature, which had been hovering around 10C (50F) telling the crowd he was only there because he was losing, a highly unusual move – even for a president as unpredictable as Mr Trump.
pending in posts is a thread suggestion by X-R you may have missed. let me know if you’re unable to see it or only functioning on your phone and want me to push the button for you. it was submitted on the 20th.
and the winner is ….
JOE BIDEN!!!
NYTimes best of late night:
Do I wanna see orange stucco guy fellate Biden’s microphone ?
more on the debate mute button issue:
“While we’re at it, how about a fast-forward button? Just zip straight to November 3.”
— STEPHEN COLBERT
https://wearenotdivided.reasonstobecheerful.world/moral-values-liberal-conservative-politics-righteous-mind/
Just one America and we are all Earthlings, but how do we get folks like the SCOTUS nominee, who clearly thinks she controls the moral high ground while being very cruel in her rulings, to believe it?
I hope warm and fuzzy gets votes, but red meat seems to do the trick. Still, I hope.
the guardian:
more from above:
the hill:
that “stand back and stand by” didn’t last very long. D’ump must’ve blown that dog whistle of his and let the dogs out.
There are two people who make my every day a little brighter. The Far Side by Gary Larson is one. Randy Rainbow is the other. During these final weeks of this administration any little laugh is a good laugh.
Rather, as documented by the non-partisan watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW), Ivanka’s unethical conduct dates back to early 2017 and ranges from her receiving trademarks from the Chinese government while her father was in talks with the Chinese president to a complaint filed by CREW in January 2019 with the Department of Justice to assess if Ivanka and husband Jared Kushner violated federal law by profiting from a tax program they had championed.
If Hunter Biden had received a lucrative deal from a foreign country on the very same day his then-vice president father was meeting with the leader of that foreign country, Trump—and many in the media—would be calling that out as sleazy and possibly illegal. But Ivanka Trump has done that and worse and we don’t hear a peep. For example, in April 2017, on the very same day Trump dined with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Chinese government granted preliminary approval for Ivanka’s long-sought-after trademarks for her namesake fashion brand.
Great ad!.. saw some good ones also on Sunday Night and Monday Night football.
Nothing from trumpty dumpty…
yup….
yes RR, trump cannot afford the big sports ads, they’re super expensive. good use of Biden’s cash windfall
and Sam Elliott is a good all-american pitchman for non-college whites, about the only demo trump’s got left
It’s like morning in America
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/20/politics/stimulus-negotiations-latest-jim-clyburn-cnntv/index.html
Flip Yertle and the rest of the Repugz!
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/20/politics/amy-coney-barrett-judiciary-committee-questions/index.html
Amy Phony Barrett is a good, little fascist, hiding behind the Bible. Shame on her!
I woke up and realized that this totally angry & unhinged “president” will be in the WH the day after. What will he do? What horrible stuff will he do between then and January? *shivers* Stuff that I can’t even imagine.
“What will he do?”
Try to rig the electoral college with the help of republican-controlled state legislatures. If the results are close and the Senate doesn’t flip, he might get away with it.
MUST FLIP THE SENATE
i could articulate what i think he’ll do, but i don’t want to give Rethuglicans any ideas and i’d terrify myself seeing my own prognostications in stark type.
Go harangue the lazier liberals in your life to go vote.
The newest Borat output has rudie g in a bed playing with himself in front of a “reporter”. Guys, you need to stop it in public. Shame shame.
there goes one of amy’s issues. that is if she and her handmaidens still adhere to what il papa proclaims.
the hill:
lol Barrett is a Constitutional originalist but not a Biblical one
Loved the ad with the nice extra that my Dodgers took the game.
Bink, yep, I don’t want to give an crazy people any ideas either. Who would have ever thought of anyone messing with the post office, for example?
It’s crossed my mind to go to a GOP meeting just to hear how they cook up their dirty tricks, e,g, putting fake voting drop boxes out. I picture the WH folks as a coven sitting around and coming up with weird, bizarre stuff like the “pizzagate” folks did. And then cackling their heads off at the thought of it/whatever. “The Song of the Witches” since he’s been involved in oh so many witch hunts and most of his friends and allies are the witches.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg and howlet’s wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Cool it with a baboon’s blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.
(from Macbeth)
The Clinton race is not like Biden’s at all. Why isn’t there more discussion about the Comey interference and of course the whole icky sexting scandal
KGC, maybe they want to leave that in the past, and they have SO much to deal with now with trumpity? Remember Dems aren’t nearly as bastardly as the repubes.
foreign interference afoot perchance or just some old-style dirty tricksters (mr. stone maybe?)
cbsnews:
“Borat” cameras captured Giuliani in hotel bedroom scene: reports https://t.co/lrL30pCznq
Rudy is heard complimenting the supposed reporter and following her to a bedroom, where eventually he stretches out on the bed. His hand in his pants.
RVAT ‘s latest ad
“Being a single-issue voter is too dangerous.”
See how easy Republicans make it for people to blackmail them?
Checkmate
Does Amy Phony follow through Pope or does she follow her hubby and the cult leader? We’ll see.
Take nothing for granted. Everyone who wants to dump tRUMP needs to vote. The warm and fuzzy video, the good poll numbers for Biden, I really hope folks don’t get complacent.
tRUMP being the assist that he is will feed his base and turn off everyone else.
Biden needs to keep on topic, look at the camera, ignore tRUMP’s pokes, and, simply lay out the case. tRUMP is a liar and a failure. Here’s what Dems will do to help you.
And, while he’s at it, tie up Yertle and Lindsey, etc., with tRUMPsky’s criminal family ring. FLIP THE SENATE AND DUMP tRUMP!
Joe doesn’t need to be nasty to do that, either. He just needs to tell the cold, hard truth about Repugz who prop up a treasonous, wanna-be dictator.
Biden’s surrogates can do the dirty work.
Tell us how you really feel, Ms Dallas. HAHAHAHAHA
I heard a bit of baloney last night about how close it is in PA and was wondering, wtf ? The polls I’ve seen don’t have trump close in PA, MI, or WI. \\
It’s all just a matter of getting people up off their sofas to vote. If they can’t get to a mailbox, they mask up & can vote in person. If they don’t want to stand in line, they can dance in line : Electric Slide is always good & The Chicken is a hoot. Bring water and a snack. Mask up, Party Up, Vote UP.
Sen Portman. Hateful Ohio must hate his gay son
If they don’t vote now: Useless.
The gop: Useless.
What’s left is the number of people trying to have a decent country for everybody.
Hello could someone please clarify for me if the Dems boycott the committee can the committee carry on without them? Thanks in advance- I know someone here has the answer!
Don’t be so confident so soon about PA. The RCP average is half the margin of that CNN poll. And for god’s sake don’t go looking at 538 – it would breed complacency.
And the weekly changes in covid numbers, courtesy of WaPo:
New daily reported cases rose 9.7%
New daily reported deaths rose 5%
Covid-related hospitalizations rose 7.8%
Among reported tests, the positivity rate was 5.6%.
The number of tests reported rose 2.3%
If there’s one thing we are not it is out of the woods.
OSH, yes. If they have a quorum they can conduct business – a majority of committee members physically present.
Will tRUMPsky still be so roided-up that he’ll say/do something nobody can ignore tomorrow night?
Anyone doubt that they had whatever went down with Leslie Stahl planned before the sit down? That’s just another dirty trick from the propaganda arm of the tRUMPsky/Republican crime syndicate. Try to demonize legitimate journalists to the small-minded base, so they won’t believe it when he loses.
Anyone still propping tRUMPsky is UN-American. He’s building his own, little terror cells, sprinkled around the country. Another high crime.
trump will start accusing Joe of being Hunter’s hireling and co-dependent in csa (child sexual abuse)
This could become a mess.
Joe can come back with trump’s rape record, including the 14 y.o. his hand fondling ivanka’s ass.
trump & epstein vs Joe & Hunter : that’d be just what putin wants from a debased debate !
MJ Hegar’s ad takes down Cornyn as a lapdog of tRUMP/Yertle. No stimulus for struggling Americans and failing business, but he jumps when they tell him to get to DC to rush through Amy Phony.
Think the Pope was weighing in on the election and SCOTUS hearing with the timing of his message?
Nobody is concerned about the put-up job about Hunter. Folks want someone who will be honest about the virus, call for a mask mandate/social distancing/localized quarantines; economic security; healthcare; green energy/jobs; clean water. Things are very real for most Americans. Republicans propping up tRUMPsky just don’t get it…and that means they and their head toad won’t get votes, either. tRUMP is incapable of telling the truth because the truth makes him look bad.
Bless Mike Bloomberg for trying to bring in Florida for Joe. $100 million As Bloomberg says in one of his ads, tRUMP is full of nothing but “hot air and empty promises.”
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/21/politics/fbi-election-security/index.html
Yep, all of the tRUMP-loving racists are being aided by two groups they hate, Muslims and Ruskies. Strange bedfellows. Eh, Rudy?
As for Willard’s proclamation about not voting for tRUMP, it’s meaningless. If he helps Amy Phony, he helps tRUMP. Another hypocritical Republican. Typical.
https://www.texastribune.org/2020/10/21/john-cornyn-mj-hegar-texas-2020-spending/
Go, MJ! Like tRUMPsky, Cornyn’s cash is gone.
32% of registered voters in TX have voted.
https://twitter.com/RexChapman/status/1318990127004291073?s=20
Been trying to muster some compassion for Rush and his stage 4 lung cancer.
It hasn’t happened yet.
Jaime Harrison on Lindsey Graham postponing debate: ‘He’s on the verge of getting that one-way ticket back home’
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/522144-jaime-harrison-on-lindsey-graham-postponed-debate-hes-on-the-verge-of
Donald Trump on Tuesday night told a Pennsylvania rally “nobody wants me” before cutting the event short and dancing off the stage to YMCA.
Outmuscled financially and trailing Joe Biden in most national and battleground polls, Mr Trump did not appear to be his usual energetic self, as he addressed thousands of Make America Great Again supporters crammed into a chilly and dark Erie International Airport.
Two weeks out from election day the president, 74, complained about the temperature, which had been hovering around 10C (50F) telling the crowd he was only there because he was losing, a highly unusual move – even for a president as unpredictable as Mr Trump.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/nobody-wants-me-trump-plays-sympathy-card-at-pennsylvania-rally-before-cutting-event-short-and-dancing-off-stage-to-ymca-b1200436.html
Trump World has morphed into one of those great old Warner Bros. Cartoons.
Good Night America
Tonight 227,409 sleep with you, but they shall never awaken in the morning.
I am re-reading Jean Paul Sartre’s The Flies. It seems to say something about our abomination, at least to me.
Earth just had its hottest September on record
https://earthsky.org/earth/2020-hottest-september-on-record
craig,
pending in posts is a thread suggestion by X-R you may have missed. let me know if you’re unable to see it or only functioning on your phone and want me to push the button for you. it was submitted on the 20th.
NEW THREAD