The US 2020 Presidential Election & Attempts To Overturn It

[Gun Grape]

Not a date that most people would know, or taught in schools but you probably don't know about Confederate Memorial Day or Jefferson Davis's Birthday. Both of which are State holidays in many southern states. The thing is that the targeted group of supported know it. Same as June 19th

On another note the Tennessee Legislature no longer has to proclaim Nathan Bedford Forrest Day. But its still an official day of recognition.

https://www.tennessean.com/story/new...ee/5336437002/

Gov. Bill Lee will no longer have to proclaim Nathan Bedford Forrest Day in Tennessee now that both chambers of the legislature have passed a bill releasing him from the requirement.

After urging the Senate to take up a bill his administration had introduced this session, the upper chamber passed the legislation on Wednesday, following suit after the House did so earlier in the year.

The Senate had not initially included the Senate Bill 2199 on a list of legislation it planned to pass during the General Assembly's brief, post-coronavirus session.

While Lee's bill on the matter as originally filed called for the mention of Nathan Bedford Forrest Day to be completely removed from the state's list of special observances, the bill was ultimately amended to leave all current days of observation on the calendar.

Per state law, since 1969 the Tennessee governor has been tasked with issuing proclamations for six separate days of special observation, three of which, including the July 13 Forrest Day, pertain to the Confederacy. Prior to that, those days were legal holidays.

Lee — and governors who have come before him — have been required by state law to proclaim Jan. 19 as Robert E. Lee Day, honoring the commander of the Confederate Army, as well as June 3 Confederate Decoration Day, otherwise known as Confederate Memorial Day and the birthday of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

The legislation is awaiting Lee's signature and will prevent him from having to sign the Forrest Day proclamation next month, something he faced widespread criticism last year for doing.

Senate Democrats on Wednesday attempted to amend the bill back to its original state to eliminate the holiday completely.

The chamber heard impassioned appeals from two black legislators, Sens. Brenda Gilmore of Nashville and Raumesh Akbari of Memphis, though they voted not to return the legislation to its previous state.

"I really want you all to search your hearts, not just your mind, but your hearts, and I want you to think about what it feels like for the hundreds of thousands of African-Americans in this state, they themselves descendants of enslaved people," Akbari said.

"I want you to think about what if feels like for me, an African-American woman," Akbari continued, to know that the state celebrates a man who became rich by "selling black folks like we're tractors."

Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, R-Franklin and the sponsor of the legislation, said now was not the time to debate the merits of the day and pass a bill to eliminate it, but believed it was more important now to release the governor from having to proclaim any special days.

"When we started this session, the governor was trying to fix that," Senate Minority Leader Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville, said of Lee's original plans to end the day. "And now it's being explained away as though we were just trying to deal with a separation of powers issue."

Asked Wednesday whether he believed the bill went far enough, Lee suggested there was more to be done, but did not definitely say he wanted to remove the day completely.

"I think we're in a process in this country, and I'm grateful for steps in the right direction," Lee said.

Lee's spokesman Gillum Ferguson confirmed Wednesday afternoon that the governor would not be signing the Forrest proclamation come July.

[Bigfella]

Not everything is a dog whistle. The Tulsa riots are not really taught in American public schools, and if you ask the typical American what June 19th is, the answer will be Friday. You can't dog whistle to people who are not familiar with your references.

I'll bet that the people who suggested the date & place knew exactly what they were doing. When the significance of the date & place are pointed out they will feign ignorance and whine about 'librulz' while winking at Trump's base. This isn't just happenstance.

[tbm3fan]

I'll bet that the people who suggested the date & place knew exactly what they were doing. When the significance of the date & place are pointed out they will feign ignorance and whine about 'librulz' while winking at Trump's base. This isn't just happenstance.

Not to mention supposedly Stephen Miller is writing the speech for him on race and what needs to be done. I can think of a corollary or two back in time that would be absurdly similar.

[Bigfella]

Not to mention supposedly Stephen Miller is writing the speech for him on race and what needs to be done. I can think of a corollary or two back in time that would be absurdly similar.

Miller's fingerprints are all over this, and he is who I was thinking of in my post.

[tbm3fan]

Speaking of which when I turned on my TV for Netflix my feed starts off with Spike Lee's movie the Da5Bloods. I doubt Trump would ever watch but I did for 2 1/2 hours. Quite the movie with sometimes subtle stuff placed here and there about previous Vietnam related moves. If you mind is as closed as a clam shell there is probably no reason to watch as it is wasted on you. Outside that then watch as it totally had me the whole time.

[Bigfella]

Fox News gets caught out blatantly altering photo images to make the protests in Seattle seem scarier & more destructive. Not really much point pretending to be surprised.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle...hlJ0BPFt32JsNU

[Albany Rifles]

Miller's fingerprints are all over this, and he is who I was thinking of in my post.

This is like Mengele writing a speech on medical ethics....

[TopHatter]

Trump Says He Gave Out 1 Million Tickets To His Tulsa Rally. That Means 980,801 Fans Won't Fit.

WASHINGTON ― What happens when 1 million people RSVP to say they are coming to a venue that only holds 19,199?

Such is the absurdist situation President Donald Trump and his campaign are boasting about as he resumes hosting political rallies on Saturday at the Bank of Oklahoma Center in Tulsa. “Almost One Million people request tickets for the Saturday Night Rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma!” Trump wrote in a statement he posted to Twitter Monday.

Later, during a White House photo opportunity, the president said an additional 40,000 would be able to watch the rally from the convention center next door on television screens. “Which would mean they would have over 900,000 people that won’t be able to go. But hopefully, they’ll be watching,” he said.

It is unclear why Trump’s campaign – which has already spent three-quarters of a billion dollars since January 2017, only to trail in the polls to Democratic challenger Joe Biden – is even holding a rally in Oklahoma, a deeply Republican state nearly completely surrounded by other Republican states.

“I don’t know why they’re having a rally there at all, to be honest,” said one Republican adviser close to the White House who spoke on condition of anonymity. “They’re fine, if you’re actually doing them in places that matter.”

If past is prologue, Trump may well get on stage Saturday and simply claim that those with tickets who could not get in because of fire marshal restrictions are waiting outside – all 981,000 of them. In reality, it is unlikely that many or even most of those who signed up for tickets on the Trump campaign’s website have any intention of making their way to Tulsa – a city with a population of 406,000 in a state of only 4 million.

In any event, the Trump campaign has long admitted that its rallies are a tool for harvesting cellphone numbers and email addresses of people who sign up to attend. Those individuals are then bombarded with emails and text messages asking for campaign donations and targeted with ads on Facebook and Instagram.

“It’s about the signing up, rather than the showing up,” the White House adviser said, adding that each Trump rally generates thousands of new names, including many people who are not even registered to vote yet. “That’s the only thing that helps organize this campaign, is a rally.”

David Axelrod, an architect of former President Barack Obama’s campaign that set the standard for data-based microtargeting, said merely gathering the names and contact information means little unless that information can be translated into persuading those people to influence their social circle to vote for Trump.

“It’s about activating them as digital organizers to get friends and family to vote, wherever they may be,” Axelrod said.

In the case of Trump, he added, there is likely an alternate rationale, as well: “It’s also about aggrandizing the president’s fragile ego and need, in this vulnerable moment, to be bathed in the love and approval he desperately craves.”

Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale has alluded to voter mobilization efforts along those lines for previous rallies. On Jan. 28, following one attended by 8,000 in Wildwood, New Jersey, Parscale bragged on Twitter that 158,632 tickets had been requested and 73,482 voters had been identified, of whom 10.4% had not voted in 2016, and 26.3% were Democrats.

“Mind boggling,” Parscale wrote, adding an emoji of a surprised face wearing what appears to be a small chef’s hat.

Other Republican consultants, though, had a different explanation of all the hype Parscale and the campaign are using to boost Saturday’s rally in Tulsa.

“You think a Ferrari buys itself?” asked John Weaver, who worked on the presidential campaigns of John McCain and John Kasich.

Parscale, who became close to Trump’s adult children when he designed websites for Trump family businesses nearly a decade ago, has grown renowned for becoming wealthy off his work for both the 2016 and 2020 campaigns, despite no previous experience in politics.

Federal Election Commission filings show that Parscale’s companies were paid $93.9 million for the 2016 election, and $38.9 million for the 2020 election through the March 31 reporting period.

How much of that money wound up in Parscale’s pocket cannot be determined from FEC records, but it was enough to allow him to buy a $1.4 million waterfront home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a $400,000 boat to tie up behind it, a Ferrari, a Land Rover and a pair of $1 million condos.

Weaver ridiculed the idea that Trump was getting anything useful by staging a rally in Oklahoma, a state he won by 36 percentage points in 2016. “Do you think any of these people are undecided?” he asked. “Do they need Facebook ads aimed at them?”

Stuart Stevens, who worked on the campaigns of George W. Bush and Mitt Romney, said Parscale is merely trying to show Trump that he is doing something as his boss’s approval ratings slide from the coronavirus pandemic and anti-racism protests.

“I think it’s Parscale trying to save his job by bragging about it,” Stevens said. “Parscale is a process guy, not a message guy. So, when threatened, he doubles down on process.”

The practice of “overselling” tickets to Trump’s rallies goes back to his 2016 run.

Among all the people with confirmations, the first who show up are admitted, until the venue fills to capacity. Trump’s most loyal fans adjusted by showing up hours or even a day or two early to make sure they would be close enough to the front of the line to get good seats. That, in turn, led to a staple of Trump campaign media coverage of interviewing supporters in lines, sometimes blocks long, waiting for the doors to open.

Handing out more tickets than there is room also gives Trump a standard line at the start of each speech about how many people cannot get in and have to remain outside ― although his claims as to how many are outside have ranged from somewhat exaggerated to downright laughable.

On Oct. 22, 2018, for example, Trump held a rally at the Toyota Center in Houston, which holds 18,300. He told his audience that there were “about 50,000 people outside.” According to the Houston police, there were about 3,000 people outside.

Rick Tyler, a GOP consultant who worked on Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s 2016 campaign, said he doesn’t understand why Trump and his people keep bragging about their rally attendance in the first place.

“Free tickets to a freak show are not hard to give away and a good time will be had by all,” Tyler noted. “But there is a reason the circus only comes to town until the crowds thin and it’s time to move on. The problem for team Trump is that his market share of voters has not expanded beyond people who love clown shows.”
___________________

Free tickets to a freak show...and Trump's market share has not expanded beyond people who love clown shows....

Yep, that's the Trump Administration and his base to a "T".

[TopHatter]

‘Something’s wrong with Donald Trump’: New ad from Republican group that drove president into a fury questions his health


Days after he was shown struggling to descend a gentle ramp at the West Point graduation ceremony, Donald Trump has been hit with a new attack ad drawing attention to what it says is evidence of his poor and declining health.

The 45-second video comes from the Lincoln Project, a group formed by longtime Republican campaign strategists who view the president’s re-election as a risk to the future of the US.

Over shots of Mr Trump teetering down the West Point ramp and struggling to lift bottles of water, the ad’s concerned voiceover urgently informs the viewer: “Something’s wrong with Donald Trump.”

It says: “He’s shaky. Weak. Trouble speaking. Trouble walking. So why aren’t we talking about this – and why isn’t the press covering Trump’s secret midnight run to Walter Reed Medical Centre? Why do so many reporters who cover the White House pretend they can’t see Trump’s decline?

“The most powerful office in the world needs more than a weak, unfit, shaky president. Trump doesn’t have the strength to lead, nor the character to admit it.

“We’re not doctors, but we’re not blind. It’s time we talk about this. Trump is not well.”

The ad hammers its point home with the Lincoln Project’s new #TrumpIsNotWell hashtag.

The “secret midnight run to Walter Reed Medical Centre” the ad mentions took place in November 2019. While the White House claimed Mr Trump was merely undergoing his 2020 physical ahead of schedule, the visit was not announced in advance, and Mr Trump’s schedule remained clear for several days afterwards, fuelling speculation something unusual had occurred.

Mr Trump’s medical status also came in for scrutiny in 2018, when the New York gastroenterologist who wrote him a physical report in 2015 admitted the then-candidate had simply dictated it over the phone. The report was mocked at the time for saying the clearly overweight Mr Trump would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency”.

However, Mr Trump and his aides give as good as they get. As their re-election campaign heats up, they are repeatedly accusing Joe Biden – who they call “Sleepy Joe” – of senility, many times promoting clips and supercuts showing him slurring words or apparently forgetting subjects mid-sentence.

And in the last election, the Trump campaign made much of an episode where Hillary Clinton was seen fainting at a 9/11 memorial event during a bout of pneumonia. Rumours even spread among some Trump supporters that she had Parkinson’s disease, advanced dementia, or even that she had died and been replaced with a body double.

Previous Lincoln Project ads, carefully targeted to appear during Fox News shows the president watches, have so successfully enraged Mr Trump that his reaction has generated days of news coverage – in turn raising the group millions of dollars in grassroots donations.

The group is also running commercials in swing states where Republican senators loyal to Mr Trump are facing strong challengers. Among its targets are Iowa’s Joni Ernst and Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell, who leads the party in the Senate.
______________

Remember, if your elderly parent and grandparent is showing clear signs of mental and physical impairment, just ignore it. You're not a doctor, you can't provide a diagnosis, so STFU.

And if they have a note from their doctor claiming they're “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency of the nursing home fun committee", you should totally believe it.

[Albany Rifles]

Joe,

I have seen some saying that the treatment of Trump is wrong because it is calling out a possible infirmity and insults folks who maybe disabled.

As someone who does have mobility issues...I have neuropathy in my feet and lower legs caused by nerve damage (AIRBORNE!!!) and I can walk with a stagger.

But I will drag this son of a bitch all the way to his grave because remember how he made fun of the disabled reporter at that campaign rally in 2016? And all the drooling MAGAts ate it up.

Fvck them.

[snapper]

Perhaps it is his 'bonespur' playing up again though I saw some footage of him trying to drink a glass of water a couple of days ago; reached for the glass with his right hand but could not bring it to his lips without also raising his left hand to raise the glass. Suggests motor neuron dysfunction to me - my Pater, who is older than Trumpkin, has the same problem drinking wine sometimes.

[Albany Rifles]

Perhaps it is his 'bonespur' playing up again though I saw some footage of him trying to drink a glass of water a couple of days ago; reached for the glass with his right hand but could not bring it to his lips without also raising his left hand to raise the glass. Suggests motor neuron dysfunction to me - my Pater, who is older than Trumpkin, has the same problem drinking wine sometimes.

I am betting his emergency "physical" last fall was the result of a transient ischemic attack (TIA)....aka a ministroke. Saw my MIL suffer much the same way.

[TopHatter]

Trump knocks protests, defends pandemic response at first rally in months

TULSA, Okla. (Reuters) - President Donald Trump addressed a smaller-than-expected crowd with criticism of anti-racism protests on Saturday at a rally meant to reinvigorate his re-election campaign amid U.S. racial unrest and a still-strong coronavirus pandemic.

The president, who revels in large crowds and had predicted his first rally in months would be epic, complained that the media had discouraged attendees from coming and cited bad behavior from protesters outside but did not specifically acknowledge the fact that many seats in the 19,000-seat BOK Center arena were empty.

Attendees largely did not wear face masks at the rally.

Trump was seeking to bring momentum back to his campaign after coming under fire for his responses to the coronavirus and to the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in the custody of Minneapolis police.

He has brushed aside criticism for his decision to hold his first rally since March 2 in Tulsa, the site of the country's bloodiest outbreaks of racist violence against Black Americans some 100 years ago.

Trump, who has encouraged a militaristic response to the demonstrations nationwide while taking criticism for not showing more empathy for the plight of Black Americans, criticized some of the protests.

"The unhinged left-wing mob is trying to vandalize our history, desecrate our monuments - our beautiful monuments - tear down our statues and punish, cancel and persecute anyone who does not conform to their demands for absolute and total control. We're not conforming," Trump said.

The Republican president is trailing the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, in polls ahead of the November election. Biden has hammered Trump for his response to the pandemic.

Trump defended his response, saying that more testing had led to identifying more cases, seemingly to his chagrin.

"When you do testing to that extent, you're going to ... find more cases," he said. "So, I said to my people, 'Slow the testing down, please.'"

Hours before the rally, Trump's campaign announced six members of its advance team had tested positive for COVID-19. Only a handful of attendees wore masks inside the arena.

Oklahoma has reported a surge in new COVID-19 infections in recent days, and the state's department of health warned that attendees face an increased risk of catching the virus.

"I'm not concerned about it. I think it's mostly a hoax," said attendee Will Williams, 46, about the coronavirus, questioning why Democrats were not more concerned about people who die from drug overdoses. Williams did not wear a mask.

The president, unusually, suggested that his own speech to the partially empty arena was not his best.

"So far tonight, I'm average," Trump said.

Trump often feeds off the energy of big groups, something he has not been able to do since the pandemic paused his rallies.

"I've never seen anything like it. You are warriors. Thank you," Trump told the crowd, filled with people wearing red t-shirts, the campaign's signature color. "We are the party of Abraham Lincoln and we are the party of law and order," he said.

Trump campaign officials had said prior to the event that demand far outstripped the capacity of the venue.

Trump and Pence canceled addresses to an expected "overflow" crowd outside the arena after "protesters interfered with supporters," Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said.

Television images showed a dozen or so Trump supporters in the "spillover" area watching the event on a large screen.

There were some scuffles outside the event between Black Lives Matter protesters and Trump supporters.

"Racists go home," shouted a woman wearing a Black Lives Matter shirt.

Tulsa Police reported the arrest of a white woman wearing a T-shirt reading "I can't breathe" from a private event area after she refused to leave.

A small group of armed men could be seen outside the event. One of them told reporters they were there in case "antifa" protesters turned violent, using the acronym for "anti-facist."

The country's racial divide remains a political vulnerability for Trump. His "law and order" reaction to the protests triggered by Floyd's death has put him at odds with the views of most Americans.

After intense criticism, Trump postponed the rally by a day so that it did not coincide with the anniversary of the June 19 commemoration of the end of Black slavery in the United States.

On Friday, he threatened unspecified action against any "protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes" who traveled to Oklahoma, a warning that his campaign said was not aimed at peaceful demonstrators. Critics accused Trump of trying to provoke conflict.

White House and Trump campaign officials had largely dismissed concerns about the rally's health safety, saying masks and hand sanitizer would be available. However, participants were required to waive their right sue if they contract the coronavirus at the event.
_________________

I thought there was "one miillion" people just dying to get into this rally....what happened?

And of course this sociopath says "Slow the testing down". What. The. FUCK.

[TopHatter]

Trump Rally Highlights Vulnerabilities Heading Into Election

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump's return to the campaign trail was designed to show strength and enthusiasm heading into the critical final months before an election that will decide whether he remains in the White House.

Instead, his weekend rally in Oklahoma highlighted growing vulnerabilities and crystallized a divisive reelection message that largely ignores broad swaths of voters — independents, suburban women and people of color — who could play a crucial role in choosing Trump or Democratic challenger Joe Biden.

The lower-than-expected turnout at the comeback rally, in particular, left Trump fuming.

“There’s really only one strategy left for him, and that is to propel that rage and anger and try to split the society and see if he can have a tribal leadership win here,” former Trump adviser-turned-critic Anthony Scaramucci said on CNN's “Reliable Sources.”

The president did not offer even a token reference to national unity in remarks that spanned more than an hour and 40 minutes at his self-described campaign relaunch as the nation grappled with surging coronavirus infections, the worst unemployment since the Great Depression and sweeping civil unrest.

Nor did Trump mention George Floyd, the African American man whose death at the hands of Minnesota police late last month sparked a national uprising over police brutality. But he did add new fuel to the nation's culture wars, defending Confederate statues while making racist references to the coronavirus, which originated in China and which he called “kung flu.” He also said Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, who came to the U.S. as a refugee, “would like to make the government of our country just like the country from where she came, Somalia.”

Trump won the presidency in 2016 with a similar red-meat message aimed largely at energizing conservatives and white working-class men. But less than four months before early voting begins in some states, there are signs that independents and educated voters — particularly suburban women — have turned against him. Republican strategists increasingly believe that only a dramatic turnaround in the economy can revive his reelection aspirations.

“It’s bad,” said Republican operative Rick Tyler, a frequent Trump critic. “There’s literally nothing to run on. The only thing he can say is that Biden is worse.”

But the day after Trump's Tulsa rally, the president's message was almost an afterthought as aides tried to explain away a smaller-than-expected crowd that left the president outraged.

The campaign had been betting big on Tulsa.

Trump’s political team spent days proclaiming that more than 1 million people had requested tickets. They also ignored health warnings from the White House coronavirus task force and Oklahoma officials, eager to host an event that would help him move past the civil rights protests and the coronavirus itself.

His first rally in 110 days was meant to be a defiant display of political force to help energize Trump’s spirits, try out some attacks on Biden and serve as a powerful symbol of American’s re-opening.

Instead, the city fire marshal’s office reported a crowd of just less than 6,200 in the 19,000-seat BOK Center, and at least six staff members who helped set up the event tested positive for the coronavirus. The vast majority of the attendees, including Trump, did not wear face masks as recommended by the Trump administration's health experts.

After the rally, the president berated aides over the turnout. He fumed that he had been led to believe he would see huge crowds in deep-red Oklahoma, according to two White House and campaign officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations.

There was no sign of an imminent staff shakeup, but members of Trump’s inner circle angrily questioned how campaign manager Brad Parscale and other senior aides could so wildly overpromise and underdeliver, according to the officials.

Publicly, Trump's team scrambled to blame the crowd size on media coverage and protesters outside the venue, but the small crowds of pre-rally demonstrators were largely peaceful. Tulsa police reported just one arrest Saturday afternoon.

It's unclear when Trump will hold his next rally.

Before Oklahoma, the campaign had planned to finalize and announce its next rally this week. Trump is already scheduled to make appearances Tuesday in Arizona and Thursday in Wisconsin. Both are major general election battlegrounds.

At least one swing state governor, meanwhile, says Trump would not be welcome to host a rally in her state amid the pandemic.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, said she “would think very seriously about" trying to block Trump from hosting a rally there if he wanted to.

“We know that congregating without masks, especially at an indoor facility, is the worst thing to do in the midst of a global pandemic,” Whitmer said in an interview before the Oklahoma event, conceding that she wasn't aware of the specific legal tools she had available to block a prospective Trump rally. "I just know we have limitations on the number of people that can gather and that we’re taking this seriously.”

Biden's campaign, meanwhile, seized on a fresh opportunity to poke at the incumbent president, suggesting that Trump “was already in a tailspin” because of his mismanagement of the pandemic and civil rights protests.

“Donald Trump has abdicated leadership and it is no surprise that his supporters have responded by abandoning him,” Biden spokesperson Andrew Bates said.
_________

I'll be honest, I was expecting a stadium packed the rafters on the inside, and a war zone on the outside. Instead the whole thing turned out to be a gigantic nothing burger, a fart in the wind.

So what happened? 6200 people? In OKLAHOMA? Can you find a redder state* than Oklahoma?

And the whole "Tik tok trolling" thing is irrelevent: It doesn't matter how many pranksters goosed up the ticket expectations. It still means that only about 10K (I'm being extremely generous here) of Trump supporters turned out. They WERE waiting to get in! Trump's campaign never told people they were OUT of tickets, so anyone who applied for them saw a message that they had them.


*(Wyoming doesn't count, there's more people in D.C. than the entire state of Wyoming)

[Albany Rifles]

This sums it up....