DISGRACEFUL!!! Donald Trump Is A NO SHOW At Event To Honor Fallen Marines!

Jesse Dollemore talks about Veterans Day and the United States Marine Corps birthday which coincided with Donald Trump's trip to France where he disrespected WWI Marines in a cowardly act!

Watch Lindsey Graham Own Himself While Pandering To Trump

By KelleyKramer

This includes a nice little montage of Huckleberry being the most epic hypocrite.....

Senator Lindsey Graham said there would be “holy hell to pay” if Jeff Sessions was fired. Ari Melber breaks down how Graham has reversed so many of his positions on Trump that it has descended into a “hollowing out” of Republican leadership.

Fox News STUNS Lindsey Graham By Reminding Him He Defended Jeff Sessions

Lindsey Graham was left confused and startled after a recent appearance on Fox News where they reminded him that he had once said that firing Jeff Sessions would mark the beginning of the end of the Trump administration. 

Obviously he doesn’t feel this way anymore, but his stupid face when they showed him the clip apparently reminded him that everything online lives forever. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this.

 

blogslut (32,480 posts)

Spreadsheet fans! All of Matt Whitaker's tweets before he locked his account: Get em here!

Link to tweet

THE DANDY WOHLHOLES
‏ @fiondavision

Members of the Press! Especially you, @Acosta & @CNNPR: since @MattWhitaker46 locked his account, here is a nice Google Spreadsheet of every tweet he has ever made! Please also share with the DOJ Ethics Department, and Members of the Judiciary Committees!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-k41kbn0agdzJ-O575Vofl0Xf6trLQIpwWRw4c4tqVY/edit?usp=drivesdk

H/T @RVAwonk

Cornered and raging, Trump begins his coverup. Here’s how Democrats can respond.

By Greg Sargent

Opinion writer

November 8 at 10:25 AM

 

resident Trump has forced out his attorney general and replaced him with a loyalist who will now oversee special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation. Speculation is rampant: Will the new acting attorney general fire Mueller? Constrain his investigation? Block Mueller’s findings from going public? 

 

We don’t know whether Matthew Whitaker, Trump’s replacement for Jeff Sessions, will go through with these things. But here’s something we can conclude right now: Trump surely picked Whitaker, Sessions’s chief of staff, expressly to put him in the position of being able to do any and all of them.

Unlike Sessions, who recused himself from the probe, Whitaker will oversee it, whereas before, that had fallen to Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein. Whitaker can theoretically fire Mueller by invoking some rationale that fulfills the relevant regulations’ requirement for “cause,” or he can revoke those regulations. Or he can severely limit the scope of the investigation, or starve it of funds.

Ask yourself: What would this look like if Republicans had held the House? We would be concluding that Trump is taking steps to close down or limit the probe, or keep its findings covered up, in the full knowledge that congressional Republicans will let him get away with it. Which is why it’s a good thing that Democrats did capture the House.

At his news conference on Wednesday in the wake of the Democratic victory, Trump raged over the investigation. He said that if House Democrats investigate his administration — an activity known as congressional oversight —  that the White House can retaliate by investigating Democrats. Trump vowed a “warlike posture.” This lays the groundwork to dramatically resist whatever Democrats do in response to Trump’s moves against the Mueller probe.

So what can Democrats do in these scenarios, once they’re in the majority? Here’s a rundown:

House Democrats can investigate the firing of Sessions. The question of whether Trump fired Sessions or whether Sessions merely resigned is critical. If Trump fired Sessions, it might not be legit that Trump replaced him with an acting attorney general (Whitaker) who didn’t require Senate confirmation (which Trump may have wanted to do to insulate the replacement from questioning from senators about his intention toward the Mueller probe). Mueller could conceivably challenge the appointment in court if Whitaker does try to shut down or severely constrain the probe.

Though the White House claims Sessions resigned at Trump’s “request,” it seems obvious that Trump did fire him. The Post reports that Sessions thought staying would protect “the investigation’s integrity,” which would leave the country “better served,” as its findings will be “more credible to the American public.” So House Democrats can try to investigate the circumstances leading up to Sessions’s “resignation,” to determine whether Sessions did resist it and was fired.

“The rationale would be that they were investigating to determine whether Sessions was fired as part of a conspiracy to obstruct justice,” Josh Chafetz, a professor at Cornell Law School, told me. “This could entail requests for documents and witness testimony.”

Subpoena Sessions himself. House Democrats can try to question Sessions himself, both about the circumstances surrounding his firing and, more broadly, about the repeated private meetings in which Trump raged at him for failing to protect him from the investigation. Sessions would likely assert executive privilege regarding his conversations with Trump.

But Democrats have recourse. They can “haul Sessions in and make him refuse to answer questions live, on TV,” Chafetz told me. “Then, after some arguing back and forth, if Democrats decide that the assertion of privilege is improper, they can hold him in contempt.” Whether that would do much is anybody’s guess, but at least the spectacle of Sessions refusing to say whether Trump forced him out and why would be dramatized for the country.

Subpoena Mueller’s findings. Under the regulations governing the special counsel, he is to provide a “confidential” report explaining his conclusions to the person overseeing the probe — who would have been Rosenstein but now will be Whitaker. It is Whitaker who is then supposed to provide a report to the bipartisan leaders of the House and Senate judiciary committees, which gives him a great deal of discretion to decide how much to put in that report.

Whitaker could theoretically report little to nothing, in effect covering up what Mueller learned. “Democrats could subpoena Mueller’s findings,” Chafetz tells me. “But expect the White House to put up a fight in response to the subpoena.” Other legal experts think that if the White House defied such a subpoena, the courts would rule against them, meaning Congress would get Mueller’s findings.

As Chafetz has written elsewhere, one key thing Democrats must think hard about is how to use such proceedings to inform the public about what’s happening, both for political and substantive reasons.

Impeach the acting attorney general. This is a far-fetched scenario, but it’s not an impossibility. As it is, Whitaker has publicly opined that Mueller has gone too far in probing Trump’s finances and has openly suggested that one option is to de-fund the investigation. On these grounds, Democrats have called for his recusal.

Here an irony kicks in. A handful of House Republicans loyal to Trump tried to impeach Rosenstein earlier this year on grounds so specious that even many Republicans, including the leadership, rejected it. It’s hard to say what circumstances might justify such a move against Whitaker, if any, but if he shuts down the Mueller probe without good cause, that might be seen as extremely serious misconduct — far more serious than what Republicans alleged against Rosenstein.

Jonathan Adler, a law professor at Case Western University, points out that there are other forms of misconduct Whitaker could commit. Whether or not his public opinions merit recusal, he should still solicit a Justice Department ethics opinion on whether he should oversee the probe. “Rosenstein did this, and some Republicans still called for his impeachment,” Adler notes. “If Whitaker fails to take the same prudent step, it would be inexcusable.”

It seems obvious that once Democrats take over the House, we are headed for a major escalation in hostilities. Trump is already testing to see what he can get away with, so it’s good that leading Democrats just responded with a letter calling on Republicans to hold emergency hearings on Trump’s move, arguing that the appointment of Whitaker is precipitating a “constitutional crisis.” 

Republicans will shrug, but this suggests Democrats recognize the gravity of the moment and are organizing to respond accordingly.

Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III Is Forced Out As Attorney General As Trump Installs Loyalist

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/jeff-sessions-is-forced-out-as-attorney-general-as-trump-installs-loyalist/ar-BBPshQH

Random Observations On The Democrats Getting A Win And Trump Losing

Posted by Rude One

1. Democrats won. Don't let any motherfuckers spin it any other way. It's that simple. No, Democrats didn't win as much as we would have wanted. Yes, they lost a couple of seats in the Senate. Yes, there were some heartbreakers, like Beto O'Rourke losing to the desert skink in a human skin suit, Ted Cruz.

But, in the light of day, after all the counting is done, Democrats began Tuesday by having no power in federal government (beyond the Senate filibuster) and ended it with full subpoena and investigative power as the majority in the House of Representatives. That's a fucking unequivocal win, taking some longtime seats from the filthy hands of the GOP.

And bathe yourself in the blood of the deaths of the political careers of Kris Kobach, Dana Rohrbacher, and Scott Walker, among so many other fucknuts. So quit bitching about the losses, hang in there for the recounts, get jazzed about the local and state victories, and get ready for the coming war.

2. We all want Nancy Pelosi to put on the deluxe spiked strap-on and ream the assholes of the Trump Administration. God, their yowls of pain would be like sweet music for the next two years. Lemme lay out a better strategy.

- Target the most corrupt cockmites in the White House, like Ryan Zinke and Wilbur Ross (although look for their resignations soon).

- Wreck the scumfucks in the GOP caucus, like Devin Nunes, Steve King, and Chris Collins, with ethics investigations. Demonstrate that we don't want traitors and Nazis and thieves in power.

- Shove a hearing enema into the sphincter of things like white nationalism, voter suppression, immigration fuckery, and anything that can shine a light on the shitpile of cruelty, negligence, and outright evil committed by the GOP and conservative nutzoids.

- And release the fuckin' hounds on judicial nominees. Yeah, the House doesn't vote on 'em, but it can sure as shit investigate if someone's a damn sexual predator.

3a. But pick the battles with Trump. Goddamn, I want him to suffer subpoena and arrests so fucking much that I can taste the orange tanning spray dripping off his sweaty face. I want him to watch his horrible jizzstain children sent to prison. I want him to see his fake empire burned to the fucking ground with lawsuits and bankruptcies until he is just another pathetic, poor old racist, mumbling to himself in some stinking room that he used to be someone. But the risk is turning Trump into a martyr because he loves playing the victim who needs his idiot hordes to defend him. Start with his taxes. Find out if he's really under "continuous audit," as he said today (Note: He's not because that's not a thing). Use that info to say he's a lying dickhole and should release his taxes. Then subpoena them. Then have a fuckin' fight. And when the Mueller report is issued (well, if it's issued now), use that as the basis for an investigation into how the Russians own Trump.

3b. The counter to this is that Trump is gonna whine and attack Democrats for any investigating at all, so, fuck it, may as well go whole hog. Go after all of 'em, from dumb thug Eric to skeevy thug Don, Jr. to incest model Ivanka, and make Jared cry. Go after Trump's finances, from his money-laundering to his hotels used as bribe machines to his dicking over of investors. Scorched earth this motherfucker. Fuck it. What do you think Trump's gonna do? Play nice? Make deals? Democrats won the House precisely to be a check on Trump. So fuckin' check away. And impeach the bitch.

4. Trump was a quivering, desperate little jelly man today at whatever the fuck that press conference was. He was lashing out at any reporters who dared to challenge him, going so far as calling an African American reporter "racist" for asking him about racism. You know he wanted to send goons to break CNN's Jim Acosta's legs. He was ranting and sweating and threatening and then trying to say he'd work with Democrats. He praised himself endlessly, going so far as to say that the only lesson he learned from the midterms was that "People really like me." He really said, "God plays a big role in my life." He claimed that candidates who he campaigned for won, despite the fact that that is objectively not true (he went to Montana four times, but Jon Tester won, for example). What we were watching were the wheels coming off the wagon as he realized that Democrats would now be able to show the Americans people that he really is just a tiny mushroom dick.

5. Shit's gonna get crazy pretty quickly. More on that tomorrow.

Random Observations... (Part 2): How Crazy Will Shit Get?

As we tumble and twist to the end of the year and into the new one with Democrats having a whole fuckload of power more than they've had since the end of 2016, you gotta understand that shit's about to go fuckin' crazy. We have a crazy motherfucker in the White House who is getting crazier and crankier every day. He's surrounded by crazy motherfuckers, and the people who believe in him are crazy motherfuckers. And, as I've said so many times before, a motherfucker will fuck mothers. That is a motherfucker's primary purpose. So a whole bunch of mothers are about to get fucked in a motherfucking rage orgy. And when Democrats take over the House, it's gonna get even fuckier.

1. Shit's gonna get crazy in the lame duck session of Congress. The Republicans get to keep the House for four weeks of scheduled sessions before the Christmas break. You can bet that Paul Ryan and the Trump spunk gobblers in his caucus are gonna try to ram through an Affordable Care Act repeal, more tax cuts (or more permanent tax cuts), and whatever else they can. The honest-to-fuck shock is that there are some bipartisan bills that might pass, like criminal justice reform and the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act. Hell, things might be just bizarro enough that they make a deal on immigration: DACA kids for the funding for the bullshit wall (the same deal that was negotiated before that Trump walked away from). But the Senate is gonna amp up the judge approvals, and they'll rubber stamp the asses of anyone Trump nominates to any post. He could send Roy Cohn's skull up for Attorney General, and Lindsey Graham would screech about how qualified it is and how Democrats are jerks for pointing out that it's not alive, Jeff Flake would sigh and tweet how wrong it is, and Orrin Hatch would tongue fuck the eyeholes, all before making Roy Cohn's skull AG.

2. Shit's gonna get crazy in the Justice Department. Right now, with the firing of America's most racist leprechaun, Jeff Sessions, we have a bugfuck insane, walking cockknob as Attorney General. Matthew Whitaker is a repulsive idiot, a filthy con man,  and another Trump dick lamprey. Not only does the nation have to deal with the fallout of Sessions' bullshit approach to criminal justice, like ignoring the threat of far-right violence and gutting consent decrees on police brutality, but now we've got an asshole in there who is a walking conflict of interest. Whether or not the investigation of Robert Mueller gets to continue is now in the hands of Kingpin the AG. This is not to mention that we get to look forward to the confirmation hearing of, perhaps, Chris Christie, which will primarily consist of Republicans fighting each other to suckle at his man teats while Christie insults Democrats.

3. Shit's gonna get crazy with Trump's voters. The MAGA chodes have been told over and over that they will always be winning. Like monkeys who just had their favorite toy taken away, they're going to be confused by Democrats being able to subpoena their orange dolt god and force officials to testify under oath. Monkeys will break shit. They are in full death threat mode already, against Christine Blasey Ford, who dared to tell her story of sexual abuse by Brett Kavanaugh, and against any reporter that Trump calls out, especially April Ryan and Jim Acosta. You might have forgotten, but a MAGA puke sent a dozen bombs to Democrats and liberals opposed to the resident just a week or so ago. These assholes have no chill. They are itching for the chance to take down some libtards. I promise you that right now, they're breaking out their ape memes to attack Michelle Obama for daring to say that Trump was full of shit about birther nonsense. I would lay money down that some piece of shit is locked and loaded and ready to go to Florida (or, more likely, is already living there) to stop the counting of ballots.

4. Trump's gonna go full apeshit. Or he's already doing it. Jesus, at that press conference thing, he mocked Republicans who lost, he shit-talked the media constantly when not being outright abusive, and his self-aggrandizement was the kind of ego rant that one usually associates with a high school student council member who wants more credit for putting together the homecoming dance decorations. One quick example: On North Korea, he said, "We made more progress in that four or five months than they’ve made in 70 years. And nobody else could have done what I’ve done." Bitch, we had actual deals with North Korea and they fell apart. You haven't done shit but put your tiny hand in Kim Jong-un's tiny hand and traded palm sweat. But watch for Trump to lash out even more harshly, as he did today, calling a reporter's question on the Mueller investigation "stupid," and look for executive orders piling up. Frankly, if we're not in a war by the end of 2019, I'll be surprised. Trump is a coward at heart. It's why he has always crumbled whenever he's been questioned under oath. He talks a good game about fighting, but he's one of those punk-ass mob bosses who never got his hands dirty. He's always had goons and lackeys do his bidding. When his family starts being arrested, he's gonna scream and throw shit around and demand his idiot horde battle for his honor.

5. How do you respond to shit going crazy? Simple: You keep poking the crazy until their crazy is clear. Trump and the GOP are gonna say that Democrats are "harassing" them by investigating. It won't matter if Democrats are probing the most obvious shit, like voter suppression. The second some official is forced to produce documents, Trump will say how "no man was ever treated worse." It won't matter. Every Democratic bill will be labeled "socialism." Every opposition to a nominee will be called "obstruction." He is going to war. So be in a war posture. Go on the offense (and I talked how to do that Wednesday), ignore the right-wing noise machine, and bring a modicum of sanity back.

Gird yer loins, sweet Americans. If you thought times have been intense already, we're about to barrel into maelstrom.

Republicans, have a miserable evening

By milestogo

Dems will kick your ass tonight, and we will do it without cheating or fraud.

How to make sure your vote gets counted on Election Day

https://www.miamiherald.com/latest-news/article221026570.html

Oprah Winfrey campaigns with Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams

Oprah Winfrey is joining the campaign trail canvassing for Democrat Stacey Abrams in the Georgia gubernatorial election. Abrams is locked in a tight race with Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp.

George Washington For President

By Thomas L. Friedman

Opinion Columnist

Dear Reader. I think you know, after 23 years of my writing this column, that I’m not lazy. I always try to come up with fresh ideas. Today, though, I am fresh out of fresh ideas. More than any time in my career, I think our country is in danger. It has a disturbed man as resident, whose job description — to be a healer of the country in times of great national hurt and to pull us together to do big hard things that can be done only together — conflicts with his political strategy, which is to divide us and mobilize his base with anger and fear. And time and again he has chosen the latter.

When a person is promoted to a top job in life, usually one of two things happens: He either grows or he swells — he either evolves and grows into that job or all of his worst instincts and habits become swollen and just expand over a wider field. I don’t have to tell you what happened with resident Trump. He is a shameless liar and an abusive bully — only now he is doing it from the bully pulpit of the residency.

When you have a resident without shame, backed by a party without a spine, amplified by a TV network without integrity, reason is not an option and hope is not a strategy. The only restraint on Trump is a lever of national power in the hands of the opposition party that can force some accountability.

The stakes could not be higher. If the coming midterms reaffirm Trump’s grip on every lever of national power — the White House, the Senate, the House and the Supreme Court — he will become even more swollen and more dangerous to our institutions, which are now straining to contain his excesses.

Trump once boasted, “I am a nationalist.’’ He surely is. And remember what President Charles de Gaulle of France once observed: Patriots put love of their own people first, while nationalists put hate for other people first. This is a time for every American patriot to do the only thing that can make a difference now:

In the midterm elections, vote for a Democrat, canvass for a Democrat, raise money for a Democrat, drive someone to a voting station to vote for a Democrat. I repeat: In the midterm elections, vote for a Democrat, canvass for a Democrat, raise money for a Democrat, drive someone to a voting station to vote for a Democrat. I repeat: In the midterm elections, vote for a Democrat, canvass for a Democrat, raise money for a Democrat, drive someone to a voting station to vote for a Democrat.

Beyond that, nothing else matters. We have to protect our institutions until this Trump era passes and we can restore the residency to someone — Democrat or Republican — focused on loving our country more than hating others. To remind us what such a president sounds like, I cede the rest of my space to President George Washington and the letter he wrote, after a visit to Newport, R.I., where he was enthusiastically received by, among others, members of the local Jewish community. It was dated Aug. 18, 1790. (Hat tip to the Jewish Women’s Theater in Los Angeles, Dana Milbank of The Washington Post, NPR and all others who have referenced this letter in recent days.).

Gentlemen: While I receive, with much satisfaction, your Address replete with expressions of affection and esteem, I rejoice in the opportunity of assuring you that I shall always retain a grateful remembrance of the cordial welcome I experienced in my visit to Newport, from all classes of Citizens.

The reflection on the days of difficulty and danger which are past is rendered the more sweet, from a consciousness that they are succeeded by days of uncommon prosperity and security. If we have wisdom to make the best use of the advantages with which we are now favored, we cannot fail, under the just administration of a good Government, to become a great and a happy people.

The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.

It would be inconsistent with the frankness of my character not to avow that I am pleased with your favorable opinion of my Administration, and fervent wishes for my felicity. May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while everyone shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy.

G. Washington

Just another week in hell

Reeling From Tragedy, Many In Pittsburgh Say Trump Should Not Visit

By Trip Gabriel

As people continued to mourn at the Tree of Life synagogue, President Trump announced he would visit Pittsburgh on Tuesday.

 

Credit Brendan Smialowski/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

PITTSBURGH — Still reeling from the horror and grief after Saturday’s massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue, Pittsburgh is now dealing with something else: the barbed politics of the 2018 midterms and widespread opposition to resident Trump’s plan to visit here Tuesday.

Jewish leaders said that President Trump was not welcome in Pittsburgh and accused him of stirring up extremism.

Mayor William Peduto, who strongly rejected Mr. Trump’s suggestion that armed guards in houses of worship are the answer to violence, warned that the resident would be a distraction from funerals taking place Tuesday.

Many in the Jewish community in Pittsburgh cited what they saw as the resident’s divisive rhetoric, which they feel had a role in enabling the violence here, as well as other recent episodes including the mail bombs sent from Florida to prominent Democratic figures and what appears to be the racial killing of two black shoppers near Louisville, Ky. Interviews in Florida reflected a similar urgency and unease about the intersection of violence in American life and the looming midterm elections.

The incidents returned to a boil a long-running issue dating at least to the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017, when Mr. Trump was widely condemned for equating neo-Nazis with demonstrators protesting them.

Now, one week before Americans head to the polls, criticisms that the resident is sowing hurtful divisions in society have become an electoral issue, a turn of events that the White House and Republicans are vehemently pushing back on. Chants of “Vote! Vote! Vote!” broke out during vigils for victims of the synagogue shootings.

Not all Jewish leaders said Mr. Trump was unwelcome. Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, who was in the sanctuary leading a service for the Tree of Life congregation during the shootings, told CNN on Monday: “I’m a citizen. He’s my president. He is certainly welcome.”

The resident’s visit was announced at a briefing Monday. Later Monday, the White House said Mr. Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, would arrive at the Pittsburgh airport at 3:45 p.m. Tuesday, but there were no details about their itinerary in the city.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said the news media were unfairly blaming Mr. Trump for inspiring violent acts by lone individuals.

Donna Coufal, the president-elect of Dor Hadash, one of three congregations that were worshiping in the Tree of Life building, is against President Trump’s visit to Pittsburgh.CreditMichael Henninger for The New York Times

She echoed Mr. Trump himself, who on Sunday night angrily took aim at the media one day after denouncing the Pittsburgh attack as a “wicked act of pure evil and anti-Semitic.”

“The Fake News is doing everything in their power to blame Republicans, Conservatives and me for the division and hatred that has been going on for so long in our Country,” the resident wrote on Twitter on Sunday.

The issue was most painful and raw in Pittsburgh in the wake of the massacre in which the suspect has a record of virulent anti-Semitism.'

“I do not want resident Trump to come to Pittsburgh,” said Donna Coufal, the president-elect of Dor Hadash, one of three congregations worshiping in the same building on Saturday morning when 11 people were slaughtered. “I feel very sad saying that because I think if he was capable of feeling empathy or understanding how much we welcome strangers into our community, he would be welcome here.”

Steve Gelernter, a Republican who lives in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, the backbone of the city’s Jewish population and where Tree of Life is a mainstay, said he was furious that Mr. Trump had not distanced himself enough from views espoused by white nationalists.

“He is giving a platform for the closet racists to come out and have a voice,” Mr. Gelernter said. “You never saw any leader speak this way and the country become so polarized.”

He said he intended to support Democrats on the ballot this year. His 86 year old mother, Francine Gelernter, a Holocaust survivor who has lived in Pittsburgh for decades, said that for the first time she did not feel safe in America. She told a grandson, Max, to tuck the Chai necklace he wears under his shirt.

Mayor Peduto, a Democrat, said a residential visit would be a distraction while congregations are burying their dead.

“We do not have enough public safety officials to provide enough protection at the funerals and to be able at the same time draw attention to a potential residential visit,” he said.

In Miami on Monday, Andrew Gillum, the Tallahassee mayor and Democratic nominee for governor, suggested that Mr. Trump — and Mr. Gillum’s Republican opponent, former Representative Ron DeSantis — bore responsibility if not for the violence then for the tone they set in public.

“Our civic discourse is under attack. That kind of irresponsible language is now leading to loss of life,” Mr. Gillum told reporters after a rally. “You can’t give harbor to it. You can’t decry it in a public statement after a tragedy has occurred and then go back to a public rally and then stoke that same kind of, I think, irresponsible language.”

Image

Letters, signs and flowers were left outside of the synagogue. Credit Michael Henninger for The New York Times

Mr. DeSantis has been accused of courting racist elements in Florida and playing dog-whistle politics — implications he denies.

One Florida voter, Milo Marcos, 30, said he didn’t vote in 2016 but felt compelled to cast a straight-Republican ballot this year. “I don’t want Democrats to get the House or the Senate,” he said.

But he worried that the pipe bombs and Pittsburgh shooting would blunt Republicans’ momentum going into Election Day. “The press was good for the Republicans up to that point,” he said. “The caravan, I think that helped Republicans. You’re putting a face on illegal immigration.”

Now, he said: “It just kind of changes the subject and allows the media to bring back the narrative that people who are supporting Trump want to do terrorism. Which is not true. Every side has crazy people.”

In Pennsylvania, the Republican candidate for governor, Scott Wagner, who styles himself a Trumplike figure, recently recorded a video boasting that he would “stomp all over” the face of Gov. Tom Wolf with golf spikes.

That threat was cited by a voter from Hummelstown, Pa., Jessica Kolaric, 46, who blamed Mr. Trump for a political climate where violence is no longer taboo. “For him to say he’s not inciting the violence within his party and this country, that’s absurd,” she said.

Democratic and Republican strategists suggested most voters’ attitudes were already hardened, including opinions about Mr. Trump’s sowing of division. Some said the latest violent episodes would probably not move many votes.

“There’s plenty of divisive rhetoric on the left: You can go to Eric Holder or Maxine Waters or whoever you like and find abhorrent comments,” said Charlie Gerow, a Republican strategist in Pennsylvania. “I think most voters have made up their mind one way or the other on both the resident’s rhetoric and the rhetoric on the left.”

Still, the scenes out of Pittsburgh during the resident’s visit might paint a picture with the potential to surprise partisans on both sides. Mr. Trump has mostly avoided visiting states and cities where he is deeply unpopular.

Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh, voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton in 2016. 

Josh Friedman, a leader of a progressive Jewish group, Bend the Arc-Pittsburgh, which circulated the letter over the weekend telling Mr. Trump to stay away, predicted the resident would find a hostile reception.

“He’s going to find streets filled with people that don’t want him here,” he said.

Matt Flegenheimer contributed reporting from Miami and Patricia Mazzei from Miami Beach, Fla.

 

A version of this article appears in print on Oct. 30, 2018, on Page A14 of the New York edition with the headline: Strains of Divisive Politics Intrude in a City That Is Just Beginning to Grieve.

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Trump's hypocrisy on hate is glaring

Trump hypocritically tells us he opposes "any form of religious or racial hatred or prejudice."

Trump deserves an award for saying that line with a straight face, given his horrible record.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/28/opinions/trump-hypocrisy-hate-glaring-obeidallah/index.html

Muslim groups raise thousands for Pittsburgh synagogue shooting victims

A crowdfunding campaign started by two Muslim groups has raised more than $40,000 for the victims of the shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue on Saturday.

The campaign on LaunchGood, a Muslim-focused crowdfunding site, reached its $25,000 goal in less than six hours, and is now working to raise $50,000.

“The Muslim-American community extends its hands to help the shooting victims, whether it is the injured victims or the Jewish families who have lost loved ones,” the fundraising page reads. “We wish to respond to evil with good, as our faith instructs us, and send a powerful message of compassion through action.”

The fundraiser was started by Celebrate Mercy and MPower Change, two Muslim-American nonprofit organizations. The groups say they are partnering with the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh to distribute the funds.

At least 11 people were killed and several others injured after a gunman opened fire at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood. The shooting is believed to be the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history, according to the Anti-Defamation League. The suspected gunman has been charged on 29 federal counts.

 

The funds will go to help families of victims pay for funeral expenses and medical bills, according to the LaunchGood page.

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/413513-muslim-groups-raise-thousands-for-victims-of-pittsburgh 

A Week Of American Hate: Bombs Mailed, Black People Executed, Jews Slaughtered

Hate showed what it is truly capable of in America this week.

We've Arrived At This Dark Hour Because Of Donald Trump

Political veteran Steve Schmidt joins to discuss Trump's rhetoric both before and after the resident's critics were targeted with a slew of pipe bombs.

Congressman Lieu Destroys Trump Over Email And iPhone Hypocrisy

A bombshell report from “The New York Times” alleges that Chinese and Russian spies are exploiting vulnerabilities in resident Trump’s iPhone to listen to his conversations.

Trump has reportedly resisted warnings to avoid using the phone.

Rep. Ted Lieu tells Ari Melber that it’s “absolutely hypocritical” for Trump to use a non-secure phone when he campaigned on Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, which was never infiltrated by foreign spies.

Trump's Game of Blame Avoidance Continues! Only the Fools are Fooled!

Jesse Dollemore discusses the latest development related to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, George Soros, Eric Holder, John Brennan, Maxine Waters, Debbie Wasserman- Schultz, and the NYC headquarters of CNN. The list NOW INCLUDES Robert De Niro and Joe Biden. Something must be done!



Coming less than two weeks before the midterm elections, the discovery of the pipe bombs reverberated across a country already on edge, stirring anew questions about whether political discourse had grown too vitriolic. Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Obama, Mr. Soros and CNN have all figured prominently in right-wing political attacks — many of which have been led by Mr. Trump.

He has often referred to major news organizations as “the enemy of the people” and has shown contempt for CNN. Mr. Trump, speaking at the White House on Wednesday, called the attempted bombings “despicable acts.”

 “In these times we have to unify,” Mr. Trump said. “We have to come together and send one very clear, strong, unmistakable message that acts or threats of political violence of any kind have no place in the United States of America.”

New! A Hotline for Racists | NYT Opinion

In this satirical infomercial, the comedian and actress Niecy Nash plays the inventor of a new hotline, 1-844-WYT-FEAR.

The video advertises a phone service for white people to call when they can’t cope with black people living their lives near them.

It’s a real phone number we created so that fearful whites can call it for advice, about their racism.

Republicans Will Hurt You More Than 100 Caravans of Immigrants

Posted by Rude One

You have to be a special kind of son of a bitch to look at filthy, exhausted people wearing rags and desperately trying to get somewhere they won't be raped, tortured, murdered, or forced into gangs or where they won't watch their children starve to death, and think, "Fuckin' stop them because they gotta be terrorists." You gotta be a particular type of motherfucker if you exploit those families, those mothers, those fathers, those children in order to whip a horde of idiots into an orgy of xenophobia and racism where a perverse, heaving mass of flesh, all sweat and pimples and whiteness, so much whiteness, pumps and sucks, fucking themselves until they reach an undulating roar of intolerance.

Goddamn, the stink.

At each of his rallies of the damned, resident Donald Trump, a lump of cow shit with bits of undigested hay stuck in it, has been that son of a bitch and that motherfucker, frothing in a Mussolini-esque squawk about the immigrants and the vile Democrats who allowed this to happen and the depraved leaders of Honduras and Guatemala and Mexico who have not halted the march of the immigrants. Jesus, how the mob of Trumpistas lap it up like semen spooged straight from Jesus's circumcised dick, fighting over each other for who can ingest the last precious drops as Trump does his dance with the ghost of Hitler, demonizing, condemning, promising violence, stopping just short of advocating violence himself, but ensuring that the mob's adoring hatred will drive them to the voting booths to protect him, protect the future he has promised, the white future, the rich future, when the nation is Mar-a-Lago and you're either a member or you're staring in longingly from the gate.

Trump has mastered the art of layering lie upon lie, creating a shit parfait of lies, the essence of his entire career. He told the gathered villagers in Houston last night to get their pitchforks and torches ready for the "caravan" of immigrants traveling to the United States border with Mexico because "I think the Democrats had something to do with it and now they're saying I think we made a big mistake because people are seeing how bad it is...look, that is an assault on our country and in that caravan you have some very bad people. You have some very bad people and we can't let that happen to our country." Yes, the president of the United States, with no evidence at all, is saying that the opposition party is behind a mass of immigrants who are hiding evildoers. He said earlier in the day that, if you search the thousands of immigrants walking over 1000 miles, "You’re going to find MS-13, you’re going to find Middle Eastern, you’re going to find everything."

Many of the Hondurans and others are fleeing from vicious gangs who have threatened to kill them or their families, who have killed family members, who have taken over communities. You think that they'd want open gang members to be along with them? Or are they in disguise as young children being carried by their parents? And, as for Middle Easterners, you think that immigrants who want to start a new life are totally fine covering up for terrorists? They'd probably be able to tell the difference between a Saudi and a Guatemalan.

You know what would happen if those immigrants were treated like asylum seekers and refugees ought to be treated in the supposed wealthiest, greatest, mostest wonderfulest, sexiest nation in the history of the earth and universe forever? The adults would get jobs. They'd open businesses. The kids would go to school. They'd all create safe communities if they didn't have to worry about ICE coming in to tear their worlds apart. They'd want to become Americans if our shit system for allowing that wasn't hopelessly backlogged and broken. They would barely be a blip in the immigration radar.

Some would commit crimes, sure, but, statistically, at a lower rate than citizens. And a few might join a gang because that's just how the world goes. But the vast majority just want a goddamn life and a chance for their kids to survive and thrive and they are willing to fucking walk 1,500 miles for the barest thread of hope. (And, by the way, the caravan is just inside Mexico. Walking nonstop, it'd be at least two months before they got to the border, unless George Soros provides them with some helicopters, so everyone just calm the fuck down.)

Even if every single one of the immigrants were let into the United States, it would have no effect on your life (unless you work in resettlement or enforcement). They're not all gonna settle in your neighborhood. Some would live with family already here. The rest would be dispersed to different areas. The most you might see is a new family moving in next door. If that frightens you, well, you're a fucking dumbass and aren't worth talking to.

You know what will have an effect on your life? If Republicans continue to run the government without any check on their power, Mitch McConnell has vowed to go after Medicare and Social Security cuts to help pay for the tax cuts for the greedy, wealthy pig fuckers who fund our fraught and frayed political system. That's a real goddamned threat to you and your family.

If Republicans keep both the House and Senate, they have vowed to try again to overturn the Affordable Care Act, even as they blatantly lie about protecting the pre-existing conditions exemption. That's a real goddamned threat to you and your health.

If Democrats lose in the midterms, we'll fall even further behind on anything to slow climate change as even supposedly smart Republicans have come down on the "Well, the climate is changing, sure, but we don't know what causes it" side of the bullshit (even though we totally know what causes it). That's a real goddamned threat to you and safety and security and property.

You know what's not a threat to you, your family, your health, your safety, your security, and your property? The fucking caravan of immigrants in Mexico right now. If you give an actual shit about protecting your ass, you'll get rid of the people who have flat-out promised to do shit to kill you.

Vote for Democrats like your ass depends on it.