Crazy In NC: Koch Attack

Koch Network Activates Grassroots Army In North Carolina Senate Race - BuzzFeed News:

The Koch network is unleashing its grassroots army in North Carolina to boost Sen. Richard Burr, following recent polls showing his re-election race tightening and concerns about lack of field organization from the Trump campaign hurting down-ballot candidates.

Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity, which has a heavy presence in the state, will target Burr’s Democratic opponent, Deborah Ross, for her votes in favor of certain tax hikes during her time in the state legislature. AFP will start knocking on doors, making calls and sending out 500,000 mailers on the issue — the first in a series of mailers directed at Ross — this week...

tRump Not Endorsed By Dallas Morning News

Scathing Dallas Morning News Editorial Slams Donald Trump:

...“Trump doesn’t reflect Republican ideals of the past; we are certain he shouldn’t reflect the GOP of the future,” the editorial added. “Donald Trump is not qualified to serve as president and does not deserve your vote...”

tRump's Campaign In Israel

Trump doesn’t have an office in North Carolina but one just opened in Israel’s West Bank:

Israeli supporters of U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump have opened a campaign office in the occupied West Bank, saying they hope to get as many American expatriates as possible to cast an absentee ballot for their candidate...

tRump Bribery Scheme Exposed

Trump Surrogate Admits To Joy Reid: Trump Did 'Pay-For-Play' | Crooks and Liars:

In what can only be described as an epic failure, a Trump spokesman first admits that Trump participates in "Pay for Play" deals, but then tries to justify it because he is a private citizen and *everyone* does it...

Clinton Has Plans; tRump Has Gas

E.J. Dionne Jr.: Phony populism doesn't feed the family | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

...The truth is that Ms. Clinton has offered many more serious policy proposals for raising workers’ incomes than Mr. Trump has. Her website is full of ideas on expanding profit-sharing, a “Make It in America” initiative to promote manufacturing, plans on family leave, child care, cutting student debt and much more.

One of the banes of this campaign is the media’s temptation toward false balance: If a reporter says that Mr. Trump is not offering a lot of plans, he or she feels obligated to say either that Ms. Clinton is short on specifics, too, or that she may have a lot of plans but is not packaging them very well. But if the media doesn’t want to cover them, all the bright bunting in the world won’t matter.

In the meantime, Mr. Trump has effectively reduced his campaign to immigration and trade (plus “law and order”). He’s arguing that the problems faced by American workers will be magically solved if we throw millions of immigrants out of the country and if he gets a chance to negotiate much tougher trade deals...

About Continuing tRump Inc.

Shut Down The Trump Organization. Now.:

...Of course there is one very key difference between money the Clinton Foundation may take, if Hillary Clinton is elected, versus money that the Trump Organization may take, if Trump is elected President.

The Trump Organization money would go directly into Donald Trump’s family’s bank account. Clinton Foundation money has not yet, and would not in the future, make it into the Clinton’s wallets.

All while he is president, the Trump Organization would continue to make deals with foreign nationals, foreign governments, domestic governments, domestic developers, licencees, and more. But, unlike the Clintons, Trump would stand to gain financially from such deals.

Conflict of interest much?

Creepy Clowns Creeeep Into NC

Disturbing clown sightings continue, spread to Winston-Salem | WLOS:

Creepy clown sightings have now spread to North Carolina.

Police say they are doing extra patrols in a Winston-Salem neighborhood after two children reported seeing a person dressed as a clown trying to lure kids into the woods with treats...

Another Quality tRumpian

Today In Trump Supporters Behaving Badly - Candidate Wishes Rape On Reporter | Crooks and Liars:

...Mike published his wish that Ms. Nuzzi would be "raped by a Syrian refugee" to an obscure social media website called Facebook. And sent it to Ms. Nuzzi because that would make her see what an awesome debater he is...

Sounds About Right (Wrong)

Former Texas official says he was told to drop Trump University probe - CBS News:

Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton moved to muzzle a former state regulator who says he was ordered in 2010 to drop a fraud investigation into Trump University for political reasons...

No There There Says Joy Reid

MSNBC's Joy Reid: "The Standard For What Qualifies As A Hillary Clinton Scandal Aren't About Smoking Guns, They're About A Magical Thing Called 'Optics'":

...Except there was no there there either, because the answer to those questions about whether the Clinton Foundation received special access from Hillary Clinton's State Department was a resounding no. As theTimes reports in the story, the State Department never issued the passport to the foundation official who made the request. So why is the media looking for a Clinton scandal when there's none to find and trying so hard to see a Trump pivot when he shows no signs of ever pivoting?..

Poll Fakery

Here's Why Headlines Stating Hillary Clinton Is As Unpopular as Trump Are Bogus:

...One of the consistencies of the 2016 campaign has been a close relationship between Clinton’s approval ratings and the tone of the media coverage that she is getting. When Hillary Clinton gets a spate of bad media coverage her favorables drop. When she gets good coverage, they rise.

Guess what kind of coverage she got after some in the mainstream press embraced the Republican idea that the Clinton Foundation was a “scandal”?

So, the media can thank itself for putting Hillary Clinton anywhere near Donald Trump in popularity. Well done, because obviously these issues are totally on par with Donald Trump’s massive abuse of power as a “businessman” and consistent problems with ethics as evidenced by the never-ending stream of lawsuits he is entangled in, including the deposition stemming from one lawsuit that revealed Trump’s constant stream of lies.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are equally unpopular by one measurement but two other measurements in the same poll explain why the Democrat is winning.

The press is trying to build a horse race out of nothing, and in order accomplish this journalistic sleight of hand they constructing a house built out of straw that is easily blown down by data and facts.

Hidden Clinton Supporters And A "Civic Emergency"

The News and its New Silent Majority: Clinton Supporters – Whither news? – Medium:

...Second, I am voting against Trump and actively opposing him because I see a moral imperative to do so. As Jay Rosen said in my dotNYC podcast, Trump’s candidacy approaches a civic emergency. As Univision’s Jorge Ramos said in Time: “It doesn’t matter who you are — a journalist, a politician or a voter — we’ll all be judged by how we responded to Donald Trump…. And neutrality is not an option.” This is my generation’s “What did you do in the war, Daddy?” Still, I’m not hiding behind any Trump exception to the journalistic canon, arguing that this year is special. If Clinton were running against a reasonable, human, patriotic, unbigoted, smart, articulate, decent, mature, experienced opponent, I’d still be her passionate, open supporter...

Reevaluating The Nothingburger

Georgetown's First Step Toward Slave Reparations Is Necessary and Overdue:

...So, late Friday, the FBI released its full report from its investigation into whatever-the-hell the whole Hillary Rodham Clinton e-mail thing is supposed to be about. What is clear even from a cursory reading is that FBI director James Comey oversold the findings of this investigation in his press conference, and that there really isn't any there there. (The report also makes clear that Colin Powell is being very slippery about what he told HRC about private servers, and when.) Nonetheless, as CNN reports, optics! Narrative! Perception! Playing Into Republican Charges!..,

Stein Lost In (Air)Space

Green Party's Jill Stein Flies To Wrong Ohio City For Rally:

Talk about a detour!

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein ended up in the wrong Ohio city Friday for an unknown reason, delaying a speech she was supposed give at a university, The Columbus Dispatch reported...

Yep. She's ready for the big time.

Pennywise Loose In The Upstate?

What the hell is going on? ‘Creepy clown’ panic spreads from South Carolina to Ohio:

More residents in South Carolina and now Ohio are reporting sightings of “creepy clowns” trying to lure children into the woods.

According to Fox 6 News, the sightings have been occurring since Aug. 23, with more and more residents of the Greenville and Spartanburg areas of South Carolina reporting seeing the ominous figures in the woods...

... or are the clowns looking for the tRump bus? ...or are they aliens in the most appropriate disguise they could muster to observe the election?

Killing Higher Ed

Public Higher Education In America Is Facing An Existential Emergency:

...An example is the University of Texas at Austin: “Around 1980, they got about 60 percent of their funding from the state, now they get 12 percent. But for that 12 percent, [UT-Austin] has to do anything they tell them to do, including allowing [students] to carry guns on campus, because they’re a state entity ― even though they have to find the other giant check of money to fund the place.” It’s the worst of both worlds in the ownership equation, where you have to go out and court private donors, while accepting total dominion from the minority stakeholder state government that has been assiduously diminishing its investment...

CDS Of Highest Order At NYT

New York Times Instructs On Why All Clinton Email Stories Should Be Ignored | Crooks and Liars:

...This is why you shouldn't believe any story about the emails, or the Clinton Foundation. In their zeal to find something -- anything -- to tear down the Clinton Foundation, they'll even conveniently forget an important diplomatic moment in order to gnaw at the edges of an organization doing nothing but good in the world. Why? To tear down the one sane candidate in the presidential race. Because they've got to be balanced!

What's next? A smear story about how ties between Clinton's State Department and Iran cast a shadow on Jason Rezaian's release?

In the age of Trump, they are working very hard to push everything Clinton down and make it something it's not, because they just don't know how to deal with the lunatic running on the Republican side of the ticket. It's far easier to revert to that which has been done so often for so many years, rather than step up and perform actual...journalism.

We have another Clinton rule being formulated: if a Clinton is doing something good, it must be spun to have an evil ulterior motive. So Bill goes to North Korea and basically rescues two people, the despicable NYT slimes that into an attack on SOS Clinton. Sigh. And that NYT  is why I keep refusing your subscription requests. I'd love to read the paper but you're not getting my money as long as your finger is firmly on the GOPer side of the Both Siderism scale.

States Have Rights!....

...as long as they do what we want.

House Republicans Will Investigate Their Ability To Investigate Investigations:

House Science Committee Chair Lamar Smith (R-Texas) wants to exert congressional authority over state attorneys general who are trying to investigate ExxonMobil’s climate record...

tRump Gets Fined For Pay To Skate

Trump pays IRS a penalty for his foundation violating rules with gift to aid Florida attorney general - The Washington Post:

Donald Trump paid the IRS a $2,500 penalty this year, an official at Trump's company said, after it was revealed that Trump's charitable foundation had violated tax laws by giving a political contribution to a campaign group connected to Florida's attorney general.

The improper donation, a $25,000 gift from the Donald J. Trump Foundation, was made in 2013. At the time, Attorney General Pam Bondi was considering whether to investigate fraud allegations against Trump University. She decided not to pursue the case...

I bet this won't be a lead story on any of the MSM's newcasts today, but we will probably hear another breathless report about Clinton meeting with somebody at sometime and how someone gave some money to the Clinton Foundation.

Media Tipping Scale For tRump

One of the best tweetstorms ever is featured.

The media has dropped the ball on covering the election - AMERICAblog News:

...When you know a lot more about Anthony Weiner’s weiner than you do Hillary’s and Trump’s policy proposals (beyond that stupid wall), we’ve got a problem.