Teacher Who Voted For Trump Takes Her Regrets Public In Union Ad Campaign

In 2016, Pennsylvania special education teacher Jane Scilovati voted for Donald Trump, because “I thought he was going to shake up the system.” In 2020, she’s so committed to not voting for Trump that she appears in an American Federation of Teachers ad against Trump. 

The AFT is putting six figures into a digital ad campaign featuring the ad. “Pennsylvania voters know that Trump has failed to work for their families because his Administration has prioritized politics and enriching himself and his cronies over responding to a global pandemic,” AFT President Randi Weingarten said in a statement. “Make no mistake,” she added, “there are more teachers like Jane who recognize how dangerous a second Trump presidency would pose for both education and for our kids’ future.”

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Trump, under fire for alleged comments about veterans, has a long history of disparaging military service

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As Donald Trump laid the groundwork in 1999 to run for president as the Reform Party candidate, he made a little-remembered attack on the person he saw as a rival in a possible general election campaign: Republican John McCain.

Many considered McCain a war hero for surviving five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, and a television interviewer asked why Trump felt he was more qualified to be commander in chief.

“Does being captured make you a hero? I don’t know. I’m not sure,” Trump said in the CBS interview. Continue reading.

Trump steps off the golf course and takes a swing at John McCain

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With the news cycle exploding over reports that Donald Trump called American soldiers who died to stop a German attack on Paris “losers” and “sucker,” it’s obvious that Trump had only one choice: Spend the day honoring America’s military by chasing a little white ball around his private golf course in Virginia.

But if Trump’s scheduled for Saturday seemed incredibly callous and tone deaf, his continuing reaction to the scandal is just as predictable as the way he shaves off just a few strokes on his scorecard. Trump’s most recent tweets starts off with a series of lies about all the great things he’s done for the military. A list that for some reason doesn’t include stealing the money that was meant to be used for housing, schools, and hospitals to be used for his nonexistent and useless “Wall.” Then Trump declared that The Atlantic author Jeffrey Goldberg was a “slimeball reporter” who was ruining all his hard work in doing things like the Veteran’s Choice bill that President Obama actually signed.

Trump also accused Goldberg of “making up a horrible charge” and said that he was “maybe working with disgruntled people.” Disgruntled people apparently covers any White House official because the statements first reported by Goldberg have been confirmed by The Washington Post, and the Associated Press, and Fox News. Not only that, Losergate is perfectly in line with everything Trump has said since before he was elected. Oh, and Trump couldn’t even make it two tweets without taking a swing at John McCain. Continue reading

Here are 10 things Donald Trump has done that are at least as bad as calling veterans ‘losers’

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Donald Trump has turned the Gish gallop into the Trump torrent, spewing out both lies and scandal at a rate that seems to make the national media incapable of maintaining a thought for long enough to have an impact. At the moment, there’s a lot of focus on Trump’s calling military veterans “losers” and “suckers,” on his denigration of John McCain, and on how he turned up his nose at having veterans march in his dictator-style military parade because “nobody wants to see” the wounded and amputees.

But this too shall pass. Jared Kushner may have once advised Saudi prince Mohammed bin Salman to keep his head down until a little thing like a brutal international assassination of a journalist blows over, but Donald Trump has a different strategy—he’ll just find something worse to talk about. And if you think there can’t possibly be anything worse … you’ve clearly been asleep for the last four years.

So, before the current outrage is replaced by the newer, more disgusting outrage, here’s a quick reminder of what Trump has done, in order of most outrageous… Continue reading.

Furor grows over Trump’s reported remarks on war dead

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Democratic nominee Joe Biden offered an emotional rebuke of President Trump on Friday following an anonymously-sourced report in The Atlantic accusing the president of disparaging dead military veterans as “losers” and “suckers.”

“If what is written in The Atlantic is true, it’s disgusting,” Biden said. “It affirms what most of us believe to be true, that Donald Trump is not fit to be the commander in chief.”

The Atlantic story dominated political discussions on Friday as Republicans expressed skepticism of the anonymous sources behind the story and Democrats expressed outrage over remarks that mirror the president’s past disparagement of military veterans, including the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). Continue reading.

Trump appears to encourage North Carolinians to vote twice to test the system

Washington (CNN) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday appeared to encourage people in North Carolina to vote twice — once by mail and once in person — during the November general election to purportedly double check that their initial vote was counted, which is already receiving push back from state election officials. 

Americans can only vote once per election.

When Trump was asked by local news station WECT in Wilmington, North Carolina, whether he was confident in the state’s absentee voting system, the President launched into a somewhat rambling answer. Continue reading.

Former Trump chief of staff John Kelly says telling the president that things he wanted to do were illegal was like ‘French kissing a chainsaw’

The former White House chief of staff John Kelly has said that having to refuse President Donald Trump’s requests “was like ‘French kissing a chainsaw,'” according to a new book.

Donald Trump v. The United States: Inside the Struggle to Stop a President” by the New York Times correspondent Michael Schmidt is due to be released on Tuesday. The book’s synopsis describes it as the story of Trump “and the officials of his own government who tried to stop him.”

The chainsaw simile was included in an Axios report on the book. Continue reading.

2 QAnon Promoters Will Rally Voters For Trump At Official Events This Weekend

The Trump campaign is not requiring masks or social distancing at the events — but attendees must sign a COVID-19 liability waiver.

The Trump campaign is hosting events across the country this weekend to capitalize on whatever momentum the Republican National Convention created and mobilize the party’s base of voters to turn out in November. HuffPost found that official campaign events in Georgia and Nevada will be hosted by people who promote QAnon, the hateful conspiracy theory that the FBI recently flagged as a domestic terror threat. 

Neither masks nor social distancing appear to be mandatory for any of the gatherings — and they have not been required at numerous Trump reelection events over the past two weeks, where campaign surrogates and supporters have frequently crowded into relatively small spaces without proper protection. Attendees are required to waive their right to sue the campaign and the host venue if they contract the coronavirus at the event. 

QAnon adherents baselessly claim that the world is controlled by a cabal of satanic, pedophiliac Democrats and wealthy Hollywood socialites who run a global sex trafficking ring and feed on the blood of abused children. They claim that President Donald Trump is engaged in a secret battle against the satanists and their so-called deep state supporters in government. QAnon rhetoric is steeped in anti-Semitism and threats of violence, and the FBI has warned it poses a domestic terrorism threat. Continue reading.

Secret Service copes with coronavirus cases in aftermath of Trump appearances

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When President Trump gave a speech to a group of sheriffs in Tampa late last month, his decision to travel forceda large contingent of Secret Service agents to head to a state that was then battling one of the worst coronavirus surges in the nation.

Even before Air Force One touched down on July 31, the fallout was apparent: Five Secret Service agents already on the ground had to be replaced after one tested positive for the coronavirus and the others working in proximity were presumed to be infected, according to people familiar with the situation.

The previously unreported episode is one of a series of examples of how Trump’s insistence on traveling and holding campaign-style events amid the pandemic has heightened the risks for the people who safeguard his life, intensifying the strain on the Secret Service. Continue reading.

New documentary raises alarms about Trump’s mental health and exposes his ‘all-consuming narcissism’

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Whatever the outcome in November — whether voters elect former Vice President Joe Biden and vote President Donald Trump out of office or give him four more years in the White House — a long list of pundits, journalists and political insiders will no doubt continue to dissect and analyze Trump’s presidency for years to come. Much of the analysis of Trump will take place from a policy standpoint, but the documentary “#Unfit: The Psychology of Donald Trump” mostly analyzes him from a mental health standpoint. And long-time Chicago Sun-Times film critic Richard Roeper, in an article published this week, explains why he is recommending “#Unfit.”

Roeper, despite his high opinion of the film, acknowledges that “#Unfit” is unlikely to turn Trump’s hardcore MAGA base against him.

“Some might even sit through all the arguments and watch the presentations making the case Trump is unfit and react by saying, ‘And that’s exactly why you’re all so scared of him and he’s the greatest president of all time!” Roeper writes. “Nevertheless, we are recommending ‘#Unfit’ not for any political reason — in fact, the film is not about Trump’s policies, but about his personality — but because it offers some valuable insights into Trump’s behavior.” Continue reading.