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States deny RFK Jr.’s requests to be removed from the ballot, thwarting his plan to help Trump

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed former President Donald Trump, but his plan to boost the Republican candidate by taking his name off the ballot in 10 battleground states is being thwarted by states that say it's too late to do so.

"Our polling consistently showed that by staying on the ballot in the battleground states, I would likely hand the election over to the Democrats, with whom I disagree on the most existential issues," Kennedy said at a news conference before endorsing Trump. But three of those states  — Michigan, Wisconsin and the less competitive Colorado — have already denied his request to remove himself from the ballot, citing election laws.

"Minor party candidates cannot withdraw, so his name will remain on the ballot in the November election," Cheri Hardmon, a spokesperson for Michigan's secretary of state, said in a statement to The Detroit News. "The Natural Law Party held their convention to select electors for Robert Kennedy Jr. They cannot meet at this point to select new electors since it's past the primary," she continued, referring to RFK Jr.'s successful bid to get the small party to nominate him.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission voted 5-1 to block his removal on Wednesday, citing state law that says "any person who files nomination papers and qualifies to appear on the ballot may not decline nomination."

Kennedy, who is reportedly trying to help Trump in order to receive an important post in his second administration, did successfully remove himself in other battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Arizona and Nevada. The situation in North Carolina is unresolved, though election officials told state outlets that Kennedy's name has already been printed on some ballots.

“Defamation situation”: MSNBC host threatens to sue Trump aide Corey Lewandowski for misquoting him

During Wednesday's episode of “The Beat” on MSNBC, host Ari Melber accused newly rehired Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski of lying about him, warning that if he continued to do so then the two would be entering a "defamation situation," Mediaite reported.

Contention between two men developed into a cacophony of overlapping talk but the essence was simple: Melber believed the former Trump 2016 campaign manager, brought back earlier this summer, was consciously lying about comments he made concerning the attempted assassination of the former president.

During the interview, Melber pressed Lewandowski about a September 2019 House hearing in which he admitted to lying to MSNBC in an interview in February of that year, claiming he did not recall ever being asked to serve as a conduit between Trump and the Department of Justice. At the time, Lewandowski told lawmakers he had lied during the interview as he had “no obligation to be honest with the media because they’re just as dishonest as anybody else,” The Daily Beast reported. 

Avoiding Melber's questions, Lewandowski instead chose to criticize Melber himself, highlighting comments he made about Trump during the Republican National Convention, prompting the host to threaten legal action.

What Lewandowski referenced was Melber’s comments concerning the attempted assassination of the GOP candidate, when he read part of a New York Times article, saying: “On the first night of this convention, Trump was his own biggest prop. [He] entered the VIP box… a large white bandage on his injured right eat,” Mediaite reported.

The host later added, in his own words, that the moment is “an image for political mobilization, a spectacle for this candidate who, we know is, by his own admission, obsessed with assorted spectacles.”

“Ari, if we’re going down this road, are you going to state that Donald Trump had a bandage on his ear just for a spectacle? Are you going to state that that was false?” Lewandowski asked. “The guy got shot in the head, and you said the only reason he had a bandage on his ear — I could read you the quote if you want —  that you said it was just for a spectacle. So if you want to apologize, Ari—”

“Corey, you’re not answering the question,” Melber stated. “I’m putting you on notice: If you continue to repeat falsely that I said that, you will be potentially in a defamation situation, because I didn’t say that. But I understand that you’re working off the internet, which has a lot of false information.”

How the only Afghan restaurant in the US Michelin Guide “became a standard-bearer of excellence”

When searching for Afghan restaurants in the United States on the Michelin Guide website, there is only one result: Lapis in Washington, D.C, which has a "Bib Gourmand" distinction. While not a highly-coveted star, Bib Gourmand status is highly respected, as Michelin's aim in selecting Bib Gourmand restaurants is indicative of high quality and lower cost, often highlighting special three-course meals.

In a season 2 episode of Padma Lakshmi's "Taste the Nation" on Hulu, Lakshmi profiled Afghan people, culture and food in her usual inquisitive, empathetic manner. On a trip to Washington, DC, she cooked with and interviewed Chef Shamim Popal of Lapis.

Popal, who's not only the executive chef of Lapis, but also one of the heads of the family-run Popal Group, a management and restaurant company which also oversees Lutèce in Georgetown.

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In the episode, Popal makes qabuli palow for Lakshmi, "the way it was made before war." Popal confidently and calmly walks Lakshmi through the recipe, discussing the oil, turmeric, lamb and rice, with Lakshmi's calling the recipe "a love letter to the country [Popal] left behind."

Popal tells Lakshmi about how she came to the U.S in 1987 due to the Soviet invasion, getting emotional as she speaks about leaving her home country and giving birth to her son around that time. "We brought all the good things from our country and show it to the people [here in the states]," Popal says as she pulls the finished qabuli palow out of the oven, with Lakshmi excitedly eating it as she speaks about the fragrance and cookery of the rice and lamb. 

Salon Food delved a bit deeper with Popal, asking her about her role in the restaurant and the restaurant group, the humor present on the Lapis menu, what being a chef means to her and how proud she is that Lapis is such a "family place" that has "become a standard-bearer of excellence for Afghan cuisine."

 
Chef Shamim Popal of LapisChef Shamim Popal of Lapis (Photo courtesy of the Popal Group)

The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Your menu highlights traditional Afghan cuisine and tweaks it slightly. What is the difference like between classic Afghani food, served to a crowd or family-style and the elevated kind served at Lapis?

We serve authentic Afghan dishes that have been around for centuries.  Our more modern take incorporates some healthier alternatives such as olive oil, varied seasoning and a greater emphasis on Afghanistan’s wide array of vegetarian and vegan dishes to cater to the city’s health-conscious tastes.

For those unaffiliated or unfamiliar with Afghan cuisine, how would you explain its tenets and fundamentals?  

Afghan food has been influenced by different cultures across Asia given the country’s location at the crossroads of the famous “Silk Road” trading corridor of centuries past.  We have a variety of meat (beef, lamb primarily) and vegetarian dishes — beans, spinach, lentils, cauliflower, okra, [etcetera] — with rice and bread as key staples.

Dumplings (aushak and mantoo) are also very popular in Afghanistan. The Afghan word mantoo comes from Korean (mandoo) for dumpling given the historic trading ties across Asia. Cumin, coriander, cardamom, ginger represent the array of spices commonly found in Afghan cuisine, particularly at Lapis. 

What are the three most important ingredients of any cook looking to get into Afghan cooking? What is your favorite ingredient to work with? 

Cumin, coriander and ginger are among some of my favorite because they are healthy and flavorful. Each chef brings their own flavor choices.  My sisters and I may make the same dish but with slightly different flavors and seasoning depending on our own tastes.

 Art on the wall at LapisArt on the wall at Lapis (Photo courtesy of the Popal Group)

What stands out for you as a formative moment that got you into cooking or food at large?

When I fled Afghanistan as a young woman in her mid-20s, I had no choice but to learn to cook for my family.  That was the formative moment for me. I relied on advice from my uncle and siblings who were far better cooks and I took some culinary courses with professional foreign chefs while living abroad. 

What would you say is an ideal “gateway” recipe for someone who’s never cooked or eaten Afghan food before?  

Learning to prepare Afghan rice is an essential first step.  It’s the equivalent of preparing a good plate of pasta in Italy.

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How does Lapis practice sustainability in its kitchen? 

We use trusted local and national vendors, our meat is Halal and we are mindful about using eco-friendly packaging.   

To you, what is the most important duty a chef can focus or strive towards? 

A chef is the leader in the kitchen and has to motivate a team, ensure quality and have a vision that sets the restaurant apart from other competitors.

 Dish at LapisDish at Lapis (Photo courtesy of the Popal Group)

Do you have any tips on cutting down on food waste for home cooks?  

Be precise about your recipes and err on the side of less — especially at the beginning. 

What are you most passionate about as a chef, both within Afghan cuisine and in general?  

The joy and satisfaction of sharing my Afghan culinary heritage with people who have never tasted Afghan food and seeing their smiles when they savor its rich flavors. 

What would you like to see next for Lapis — and Afghan food in general? 

I’m proud to see Lapis become a standard-bearer of excellence for Afghan cuisine.  My family and I look forward to bringing our culinary offerings to many more diners. We are also proud to see the rise in popularity for Afghan food thanks to the great work of other Afghan restaurateurs in DC and the region. 

Lapis is the only Afghan restaurant in the US Michelin guide. How significant is that representation and that platform? 

It’s very significant for us culturally and we couldn’t be prouder given the pedigree and prestige of Michelin globally.  

How would you define an "Afghan bistro?"  

An Afghan bistro is our version of a cozy  and comfortable French bistro-but with Afghan food.  Our décor has elements of a French bistro given our years of experience operating French restaurants in the city (Café Bonaparte, Napoleon, Lutece) coupled with hints of Afghan culture. 

I love the humor on the menu, like the subtitle on the vegetarian dishes section that reads "Afghanistan's best-kept secret because most people think we are meat-eating mountain people with large turbans (also true)." I also love the "as formidable as Afghanistan's mighty mountain ranges" under signature dishes and the "(yes they exist), Genghis Khan wasn’t the only guy who knew a thing or two about dumplings" under Afghan dumplings. How did these tongue-in-cheek jokes come about?

I credit my son for those.  We wanted to play on people’s assumptions and stereotypes of Afghanistan as a distant and exotic land with a twist of humor and I think it has paid off!

Your website says that Lapis is a "family place." Can you talk a bit about that experience, leaving Afghanistan, coming to America and "pursuing an entrepreneurial path to channel of creativity?"  

My husband and I always wanted to immigrate to America to give our children a better life and we are proud to be Americans by choice.  Our success in the restaurant business over the past 20 years was possible by the dedication and vision of our family. Lapis represents our culinary home and we consider every guest dining there as a guest in that home away from home.

In addition to Lapis, you've owned and operated Bonaparte, Napoleon Bistro, Malmaison and Berliner — how would you differentiate between all of them? 

We have also recently added Lutece (formerly Café Bonaparte) and Pascual (Mexican cuisine) to our roster.  Each concept has offered something unique to Washington but with a consistent commitment to great food, service and ambiance true to our brand.

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The website states "Lapis has been a dream a long time in the works. Here we cook the flavors of our childhood and fill the kitchen with scents of a distant home." So beautiful put — what does that mean to you? 

The dishes are those that we would enjoy in our childhood homes in Afghanistan.  Their aromas and flavors are reminiscent of that childhood and a life that once was.  We have tried to recreate the best parts of that culinary life here in America for ourselves and our guests.

 The Popal FamilyThe Popal Family (Photo courtesy of the Popal Group)

You came to the US in the late 80s as an Afghan refugee with no restaurant cooking experience. How did your growth — both in and outside of the kitchen — result in such a successful restaurant and restaurant group?

Faith, optimism, courage and a creative family that pushes you to venture outside your comfort zone. 

Talk to me a bit about being in a family-owned restaurant, working side-by-side with family. What’s that experience been like? 

Running a family business is both extremely gratifying and at times challenging because you are never really off the clock as a family.  But we have managed to hit our stride and it helps to have distinct duties and good sense of family unity and a shared vision for success.  

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Woman who reported “sickening” Trump Arlington incident fears “retaliation” from his supporters

There is video footage that totally exonerates Donald Trump and his campaign, his team claims, which if you only saw it would convince you that Democrats, the mainstream media and officials in charge of the nation’s most revered military cemetery are all lying when they suggest the former president’s MAGA entourage was abusive towards a woman who tried to stop them from filming a campaign ad on top of soldiers’ graves.

“We are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made,” Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung told NPR on Monday — ahead of a report that campaign staff had violated federal law by filming in Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery, where veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are buried. According the broadcaster, and subsequent reports from The Washington Post and The New York Times, Trump’s staff had been warned against using the cemetery for “partisan political activities,” a Department of Defense official confirmed, but then verbally harassed and physically brushed aside an employee who tried to enforce the same rules that apply to all visitors.

An Arlington National Cemetery official has confirmed that an “incident” took place, noting that filming political ads is expressly prohibited by federal law. But the Trump campaign playbook appears to be a mix of denial and “so what?”

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"Sick and tragic": Veterans, Democrats criticize Trump for "incident" at Arlington National Cemetery

“You guys in the media, you’re acting like Donald Trump filmed a TV commercial at a grave site,” Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, said at a campaign rally on Tuesday. “He was there providing emotional support to brave Americans who lost loved ones and there happened to be a camera there and somebody gave him permission to have that camera there. This is not a gross violation of federal law.”

For good measure, Vance also told Vice President Kamala Harris to “go to hell,” attempting to spin her campaign’s criticism of the Arlington visit as the actually shameful politicking.

But if there is indeed video that exonerates Trump and his entourage, proving as Cheung previously claimed that the cemetery official was suffering from a “mental health episode,” for some reason his campaign is not releasing it. Instead, on Tuesday the Trump campaign went ahead and released a commercial, if not for TV then for TikTok (at least for now). The 21-second clip shows the Republican candidate within the restricted area of Arlington National Cemetery, posing for photos with the family members of a soldier who died in the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan — supporters who had invited him, to be sure, but who had no ability to offer the consent of other families who absolutely did not want Trump campaigning on their loved ones’ remains.

“And there you go,” the liberal veterans group VoteVets responded on social media. “Donald Trump is using footage and photos his campaign took at Arlington National Cemetery for political purposes,” it noted, describing it as “sickening” and an “affront to all those hundreds of thousands of families who never agreed to allow their deceased loved ones to be dragged into politics.”

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Master Sgt. Andrew Marckesano, whose grave stone is visible in the clip, died by suicide in 2020 while suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, having served eight combat tours. He’s one of those whose families did not agree to becoming content for a Chinese social media site that Trump previously wanted to ban as a national security threat (one of his campaign megadonors, billionaire Jeffrey Yass, is a major investor in TikTok).

Marckesano’s sister, Michele, urged Trump and others to remember that dead soldiers are not campaign props.

“We hope that those visiting this sacred site understand that these were real people who sacrificed for our freedom,” she said in a statement, “and that they are honored and respected accordingly.”

Trump, however, is incapable of understanding the concept of sacrifice or engaging in normal human empathy — that’s not according to some liberal critic, laying it on thick, but those who worked with him when he was president and heard him repeatedly denigrate veterans (“suckers” and “losers,” per former Chief of Staff John Kelly).

“He never understood why would you do anything that doesn’t benefit you,” a former senior Trump White House official told the Post, reacting to the cemetery scandal. “I remember talking to him about death and sacrifice for the country and it was like talking Greek to him,” the official said, arguing that the military family that invited Trump to the cemetery in the first place could be forgiven for not knowing any better.

“They don’t know who he is and what he’s really about,” the official said.

But many others do know what Trump and his campaign are really like, having assessed the publicly available evidence: for example, the woman his campaign allegedly abused to get that TikTok video and photos of a grinning Republican candidate giving a thumbs-up beside soldiers’ graves.

According to the Times, that cemetery employee filed an incident report after the altercation with the Trump campaign but later decided against pressing charges. “Military officials,” the outlet reported, “said she feared Mr. Trump’s supporters pursuing retaliation.”

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Fox News poll: Harris now beating Trump in Sun Belt battleground states

Fox News anchor Jesse Watters, bickering with "The Five" co-host Jessica Tarlov, insisted that Vice President Kamala Harris had a "terrible" week and that — far from receiving a post-convention bounce — was "down in all the battleground states."

“RealClear, check it out, right now, in the break, I’ll prove you wrong," he said, referring to the polling and political news aggregate RealClearPolitics, which actually shows Harris leading in swing states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Less than hour after Watters made his claim, Fox News' Bret Baier reported on a post-convention poll by the network itself that showed Harris leading Trump in most of the Sun Belt battlegrounds as well. The poll, conducted August 23-26, shows Harris ahead of Trump by 2 points in Georgia and Nevada and 1 point in Arizona among registered voters, while Trump leads Harris by 1 point in North Carolina.

Previous Fox News surveys showed Biden trailing Trump by 5 to 6 points in those states. Harris' improvement is buttressed by 79% support from Black voters, a group Democrats feared might move in Trump's direction as Biden struggled to make headway against Trump. Trump still retains much better numbers among Black voters than he did in 2020, nearly tripling his support from 7% to 19%, but lost 6% of his support among white evangelical Christians.

Democratic candidates in down-ballot races hold an even wider lead than Harris, with Rep. Ruben Gallego leading Republican Kari Lake by 15 points in Arizona's U.S. Senate race. Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nevada, is also ahead of Republican Sam Brown by 14 points in her re-election bid.

“Crude, sexist and misogynistic”: Trump shares “blowjobs” attack against Harris on Truth Social

Former President Donald Trump spent Wednesday night reposting a string of pictures on Truth Social of Vice President Kamala Harris depicted as a communist, in an orange prison jumpsuit and hiding from reporters. But he's under fire for one image in particular that implied his Democratic rival traded sexual favors to advance her political career.

The images originally posted by @Beware_of_penguin shows an older photograph of Harris and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton followed by the comment: "Funny how blowjobs impacted both their careers differently," referring to the fact that Harris once dated San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and Clinton's husband had an affair with a White House intern.

Pundits and journalists on CNN reacted with disgust to Trump's sharing of the post, but were not necessarily surprised. CNN host Anderson Cooper, calling the picture "crude, sexist and misogynistic," said that it was "not exactly out of character" for the Republican nominee to demean women who opposed him and played a supercut of Trump calling various women, including Clinton, New York attorney general Letitia James, former aide Omarosa Newman and CNN political correspondent Abby Phillip "nasty," "stupid," and "low IQ."

Trump typically reserves the "nasty" label in particular for women, though he has occasionally deployed it against men, such as Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who ran against him for the GOP nomination in 2016.

Phillip, who Trump castigated for having "stupid questions" when she asked if he wanted then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to "rein in" special counsel Robert Mueller, agreed with Cooper about Trump's "pattern of behavior," saying it's clear that when it comes to women who challenge him, "Trump doesn't believe that they would ever be qualified" on their own merits.

"He could be attacking her on a whole host of substantive things," she said. "But the thing he attacks her on is something that is very clearly false because of the fact that she — of all that she's accomplished, her education et cetera — this is who Trump is. It's also exactly the thing that disturbs moderate independent voters the most about him."

Whatever Trump was trying to accomplish by sharing the post, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman said that the former president simply "likes posting things like this."

“I think he has been trying to bait Kamala Harris and her supporters into a fight about race, a fight about gender,” she told CNN host Pamela Brown. “And that’s what this speaks to. And I think that they have for the most part ignored it.”

Republicans for Harris: GOP gets ready to rescue MAGA from Trump

The 2024 presidential race may answer a question none of us knew we would ever ask: What can 70,000 disgruntled Republicans on one phone call do to save humanity?

I ask this question as Donald Trump is calling on the God Squad this week for pontification, gesticulation, inspection, detection, rejection of reality and, in an attempt to avoid the putrefaction of his presidential campaign less than a week after the end of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, emancipation and exoneration. Appealing to the almighty above (or wherever the deity dwells), Donny Darko claimed that if Jesus were counting votes, he’d win California. I guess he’s admitting it will take a miracle for him to win California (credit to Mark Hamill who tweeted this). From my point of view, “Jesus Counting Votes in California” sounds like an Eagles song, or maybe a Lynyrd Skynyrd effort. 

But where Trump really needs divine intervention is in court. His luck has been fairly spotty so far, but he always does manage, like the cats his vice-presidential candidate JD Vance hates so much, to land on his tiny little feet. He’s scheduled to face sentencing for his 34 felony convictions in Manhattan in a little more than two weeks, and Jack Smith, the federal special counsel who still resembles “Coach Beard” from Ted Lasso and is Trump’s personal man-eating shark wrapped in the law and a two-piece suit, filed a superseding indictment in federal court this week.

In other words, as we head into the final nine weeks of a historically arduous presidential campaign that has already had more twists than an M. Night Shyamalan movie, Trump, the GOP nominee who is already a convicted felon, is once again being charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights. However, the charges are now being presented in such a way as to accommodate the recent U.S. Supreme Court opinion (written by friends and fans of the convicted criminal nominee) that gives a sitting president immunity for “official” actions as determined by the Supreme Court.

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“The superseding indictment, which was presented to a new grand jury that had not previously heard evidence in this case, reflects the Government’s efforts to respect and implement the Supreme Court’s holdings and remand instructions,” the special counsel’s office said in the filing.

Trump’s immediate response to his latest criminal indictment was to ask his social media followers for more money. I’m shocked. Well, shocked that it took him more than five minutes to do so, anyway. A bit later, Trump whined that the DOJ was engaging in election interference by indicting him so close to the general election. I guess he conveniently wants us to forget that in 2020 he called on Attorney General Bill Barr to indict and lock up Joe Biden for imaginary crimes just a month before that election.

His actions, of course, are typical of Donald Trump and the MAGA party; deflection and rejection of facts, topped off by a juicy and salacious accusation. The Trump menu never changes. But, it appears a lot of people are tired of that menu — especially former and current Republicans. Former Tea Party Republican Joe Walsh, whose run for president against Trump in 2020 could be measured in “Scaramuccis,” said he was on a phone call three weeks ago with “well over 70,000 Republicans” who want to dump Trump. He and former Rep. Adam Kinzinger were on a phone call wherein they became charter members of the “Republicans for Harris” movement.

“Yeah, it’s amazing and it’s indicative of something. The party is shrinking. A lot of Republicans like me have left. Some like Adam [Kinzinger] are hanging on, but they won’t vote for him,” Walsh said. “And look, Harris needs us. In the margins in a few states, we can help make a difference. But it goes to show we can never normalize Trump. He is an existential threat to this democracy and a lot of Republicans are prepared to vote for a Democrat for the first time because of that.”

Recent polls show Trump losing steam — and while Trump has, as Walsh pointed out, historically done better at the ballot box than in political polls — his recent flaccid public appearances and Vance’s never-ending gibberish have contributed to the sudden realization that the Trump bubble is bursting. The New York Times, Reuters, Newsweek, Washington Post and, yes, even Fox News have noted the continuing surge in popularity of the Harris-Walz ticket following the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

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Trump continues to flail about, claiming that Harris is responsible for every bad and dangerous thing on planet Earth, except for climate change because Trump doesn’t believe in it. Everything else is on Harris, including athlete’s foot and horseflies. Meanwhile, he’s letting his New Jersey golf club be used to host an event celebrating a mob attack on police officers at the Capitol. Yes, he’s hosting a gala for Jan. 6 insurrectionists, while at the same time telling us Harris and Walz are communists who are avoiding the press. 

So, Harris and Walz will sit down for a tandem interview with Dana Bash on Thursday. Sure, that has nothing to do with Trump. It’s all a coincidence. As CNN reported, “It occurs as the candidates embark on a bus tour through the battleground state of Georgia and marks the first time Harris has sat with a journalist for an in-depth, on-the-record conversation" since Joe Biden left the race on July 21.

Meanwhile, both the Harris and Trump camps continue their criticism of the media as they fence around their debate scheduled for Sept. 10. Trump, of course, hates ABC News, calls all of us fake media and says the media is colluding with the Harris campaign to deny him a second term in the Oval Office.

The Harris campaign, or more precisely many of its supporters, have recently joined in, objecting to a pair of New York Times opinion pieces published with the headlines, “Joy isn’t a political strategy” and “Trump can win on character.” Mind you, these are merely opinion columns, but for some Harris supporters, they prove the Times is biased and loathsome. 

I usually enjoy reading opinions different from mine. I understand that opinion columns in the Times and other newspapers reflect the views of the writers, not the publication. The conservative movement used to feature people like William F. Buckley, whose opinions may have been obtuse but were grounded in facts and reason. What the New York Times showed us this week is that those who support Donald Trump are as morally and intellectually bankrupt as he is. For that, I suppose I should thank the paper of record, for it is obvious there are absolutely no intellectuals on the far right — just those who insult, berate and emotionally torture their readers. My question for the Times is this: If there is no better voices for Trump available, can we see an opinion piece about that?

What gets lost in this Trump fanfare is the fact that the U.S. government still must function and handle some contentious international problems that are at least as existentially challenging as the Republican nominee. Trump, of course, has limited his discussion of those issues to praising Vladimir Putin and other authoritarians.

Benjamin Netanyahu remains a divisive character — almost as divisive as Trump himself, while Putin is still trying to crush an independent Ukraine. The war in the Middle East is becoming increasingly problematic. U.S. Navy vessels have been fired upon. Rockets have been launched from and fallen on parts of Lebanon. The whole area is threatening to explode into a cataclysm of violence, death and pain. Hamas and Iran seem intent on fanning the flames. Netanyahu is ignoring the cries of innocent civilians in Gaza and pro-Palestinian protesters at the DNC in Chicago continued to yell “Genocide Joe has to go,” even though Joe already went.

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The war in Ukraine had a little twist recently as Ukrainian forces invaded a few miles into Russia. As White House national security communications adviser John Kirby reminded reporters this week, Biden is still dealing with this particular threat to humanity while the Democratic Party deals with Trump.

“That’s the job and we’re going to continue doing it,” Kirby said. 

Other officials, on background, expressed concern about whether Biden can get a ceasefire in Gaza before he leaves office. Although they remain hopeful, with the sunset on the president's term fast approaching, they see little change coming on American policy in either Ukraine and Gaza — at least if Harris is the next president.

That, of course, is a huge “if” — even though things are looking better for the Democrats every day. “I think the biggest effect is in Gaza,” I was told on background, “If Bibi wants a deal, Trump can’t get it done. [Netanyahu] knows his best bet is while Joe is in office.”

I wonder if the Israeli leader agrees. On Ukraine, I was told, “Whether or not Joe is in office won’t make a difference in our long term efforts — I hope.”

Hope — that's a big part of the Democratic dialogue these days. So is “joy,” “patriotism” and chanting “USA.” That’s a lot different from the Republican chants of “Mass deportation now.”

With a newly energized Democratic electorate, there is a renewed sense that the race against Trump is winnable and the future will be brighter without him. No one should forget that phone call with 70,000 Republicans. Republican votes matter more than ever before — and that’s exactly what scares Donald Trump.

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from Brian Karem

Curious about adding solar power to your home? Watch out for scams

I'm a relatively eco-conscious person. I'm all about the green economy, I save packing materials like a World War II grandma and I have logged time in the sustainable energy industry. I understand that renewables come with their own challenges and opportunities.

"Home solar is one of the only power plants that will fit on your roof, generate electricity without causing pollution and use fuel that is free and abundant for everyone," said my former colleague Gene Rodrigues, who is now the assistant secretary for electricity for the U.S. Department of Energy.

Sunlight is certainly free, and for many, solar power makes sense. But after my run-in with a big solar company, I was horrified to think it might all be a scam. In fact, attorneys general in multiple states have their hands full with deceptive fraud complaints against companies that allegedly prey on people by selling expensive plans with high interest rates, or inappropriately sizing systems. (The Better Business Bureau has a scam tracker that can be a rabbit hole of information but is a good way to gauge if a company is legitimate.)

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An indecent proposal

My husband, daughter and I moved into a Burbank, Calif., house that came with a logic-defying floor plan, a generous orange tree and a 20-year lease on a rooftop solar array that can produce 2.65 kilowatts of power from the sun — the equivalent amount of electricity, roughly, to run a dishwasher and possibly a blender at the same time. The fee to the solar company for this offset, which saves some money on our electricity bill but did not zero it out by any means, was about $50, plus a 3% increase year-over-year. This will culminate in an $80.75 monthly bill for the last year of the lease, 2035.

I was concerned about getting into a long-term relationship with a company so inept it nearly tanked the sale of our property by delaying the transfer of the contract.

"Twenty-year deals can bug future buyers, but lower bills may still sway them," said Crystal Olenbush, an Austin real estate agent. A Zillow study shows that homes with solar sell for more.

Still, we were curious about adding more solar power. "Let's take a look at your system and see what we can do," said our new solar salesman, a charming friend of a friend. He analyzed our energy load and figured we would need nine or 10 more panels to optimize our system and zero out our electric bill, which hovered at an average of $137 a month.

Our new system would have added $86 a month to the existing amount — and then escalate 3% a year to $172 a month by 2049. It's a lot of math, but after some migraine-inducing number-crunching, I realized that over 10 years, we would be paying $5,000 to $7,000 more than if we had just paid the electric company — even factoring in rate hikes, which are unpredictable at best.

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So, while I would not call the sales guy a scammer by any means — he was just doing his job and offering the best option from his company — we appreciated all his effort but ultimately did not sign.

Is solar right for you?

Every home is a different scenario: energy usage, electricity costs and access to abundant and optimized sunlight all factor in the decision to go solar. In general, leasing usually has low to no upfront costs, and you will pay your solar provider monthly while saving on your electricity bill. However, you will get a better return on your investment by paying cash to buy a solar system outright (or taking a loan at a low-interest rate — watch out for hidden fees and balloon payments at the end of the contract).

If you purchase your panels, you can also benefit from federal tax incentives. Last year's Inflation Reduction Act invests in clean energy solutions, especially in lower-income households and tribal lands. For example, a new tax credit defrays 30% of the costs of installing rooftop solar and battery storage.

Ben Delman is a spokesperson for Solar United Neighbors, a nonprofit that enables communities to buy solar panels in bulk. The group is also a great resource for the solar-curious. "We're eager to chat with folks and walk them through any questions that they have so they feel confident," he said.

The Database of State Incentives is another place to find rebates and credits.

What to ask

When you're looking for a contractor to install your solar, as with any major purchase, double down on research, get at least three bids and ask your friends and neighbors for referrals.

Look at the calculations for how much the proposed system is poised to generate and how long it will take for your investment to pay you back based on your energy needs and past bills, keeping in mind escalating fees for a solar power purchase agreement (PPA) and rising energy costs, which are not predictable.

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Delman suggests asking each candidate for your business the following:

  • How many systems have they installed?
  • What experience do they have with the kind of roof you have? (Slate, for example, is notoriously more difficult.)
  • Can they provide customer references?
  • Will there be a NABCEP-certified installer working as part of the installation crew?

Then do your own math and become an expert on the fine print, including interest rates and surprise costs and fees. Will it meet or beat your current electric bill? Once you get into a contract, it's hard to get out of it, even if there's a failure to perform on the company's part — an alarming number go out of business, and then it's even harder to file a claim.

When you don't have a roof for solar

Renting? Can't install solar for whatever reason? Some states allow people to buy or lease a share of an offsite solar array and earn credits on their electric bill.

If your end goal is to save on your electric bill, consider using more efficient appliances, running full loads only and taking advantage of timed rates (charging your car when the rates are lower, for example). As Rodrigues often reminded me, the cheapest (and cleanest) kilowatt is the one you never use.

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Trump Media exec jumped the line for U.S. visa after company lobbied GOP lawmaker

ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.

A congressman intervened to help former President Donald Trump’s social media company jump the line for a difficult-to-obtain foreign-worker visa to bring a company executive to the U.S., according to interviews and records reviewed by ProPublica.

A former staffer for Rep. Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican, said the congressman personally instructed her to help Trump Media, even though she thought it was inappropriate to mix politics with the office’s constituent services duties.

“I specifically did not want to do this,” Bacon’s former director of special projects, Makenzie Cartwright, told ProPublica when asked about emails showing the lawmaker’s intervention. “It was specifically the congressman that suggested I needed to deal with it.”

“Thank you so much for your help on making sure we push this forward,” the company’s chief operating officer wrote to another Bacon staffer in January 2022, according to an email reviewed by ProPublica. “I will make sure to thank the congressman as well!”

Trump Media, which now accounts for roughly half of Trump’s net worth, presents conflicts of interests for the former president, according to ethics experts. While there have been concerns about donors and special interests seeking to curry favor with the Republican candidate for president, this is the first known instance of a politician helping Trump in a private matter involving his social media business.

And it shows that as Trump has presented himself as an immigration hawk, his company has sought special treatment to bring its own foreign executive to the United States.

His administration generally pushed U.S. companies to hire Americans over foreign workers and instituted policies that made it harder to secure visas for skilled workers. Trump’s current platform pledges to “strengthen Buy American and Hire American Policies.”

Trump Media’s relationship with the executive, a software developer in North Macedonia, began in part because American candidates for the same work were more expensive, according to a person involved.

Dan Berger, an immigration attorney who handles such cases, called Trump Media’s hiring of a foreign worker “hypocritical.”

“It got harder in every way possible,” he said of the visa cases he handled during the Trump administration. “It was just one thing after another.”

Before Trump Media reached out to Bacon’s office, the company had already helped get the executive, Vladimir Novachki, approved for the visa. But a backlog at the American embassy in the Balkan nation was causing severe delays in scheduling interviews for Macedonians to finalize the process.

Bacon’s office helped fix the problem for Trump’s company, according to the person involved. Last year, Novachki, who had moved to Florida, was named Trump Media’s chief technology officer.

Bacon’s intervention on behalf of Trump’s company came at the same time Trump was talking publicly about recruiting a primary challenger against the moderate Republican congressman.

“Is there favoritism being extended to the potential president?” said Virginia Canter, a former government ethics lawyer. “Was there some sort of concern of what happens if you don’t make the call?”

“It’s a classic conflict of interest,” she said.

It’s common for companies to ask members of Congress to help speed along such applications. But they typically do so when the applicant or company is based in the lawmaker’s district. Trump Media, headquartered in Sarasota, Florida, is far outside of Bacon’s Nebraska district.

In response to questions from ProPublica, Bacon’s spokesperson said the office was barred from discussing the details of the case because of privacy concerns, but said Trump Media was not given special treatment. The request, the spokesperson said, came from a Trump Media employee who lived in Bacon’s district.

“This case was not treated any differently than the hundreds of cases we process every year” at multiple federal agencies, the spokesperson said. “Politics don’t come into play for official congressional work.”

A spokesperson for Trump Media declined to answer detailed questions but said in a statement: “ProPublica has grotesquely manufactured this hit piece by fabricating statements, misusing stolen communications containing our employee’s private information, and maliciously insinuating wrongdoing where categorically none exists.”

The hiring of a foreign chief technology officer is part of a larger effort by Trump’s company to source labor abroad, interviews and records show. Trump Media has contracted with a foreign outsourcing firm, according to invoices, and multiple people based abroad list jobs at Trump’s company on their LinkedIn profiles, even as Trump has promised to “stop outsourcing” and “punish” companies that send jobs overseas.

A Trump campaign spokesperson said in a statement that “when President Trump is back in the White House, he will enforce our immigration laws and deport illegal immigrants.” The spokesperson added that “Trump has always been in favor of allowing in thoroughly vetted highly skilled immigrants who do not undercut American wages.”

A lawyer for Trump Media sent ProPublica a letter threatening a lawsuit and accusing the outlet of intending “to publish yet another hit piece on the company that includes false, misleading, and defamatory statements.”

Novachki got his start coding in grade school when he came across a textbook that taught basic concepts without requiring access to the internet. He went on to develop an app, called Skopje Taximeter, that allowed residents of North Macedonia’s capital city to use their smartphones to track their own cab fares.

But his biggest break came when he got a job at Cosmic Development, a Canadian IT and tech outsourcing company with offices in North Macedonia. The firm was co-founded by Chris Pavlovski, who also started the video platform Rumble, which has become a popular alternative to YouTube among American conservatives and which partners with Trump Media. Novachki quickly rose through the ranks.

As a Cosmic employee, Novachki, who didn’t respond to requests for comment, began working with Trump’s company in its early days. Pavlovski recommended him as someone who could build a prototype of the company’s Truth Social platform cheaper than American bidders, according to a person with knowledge of the process.

Trump Media and Novachki applied for a visa reserved for those with “extraordinary ability” in their fields, known as an O-1.

The Department of Homeland Security had approved his application, but before he and his family could come to the United States, they needed an appointment with the American embassy in North Macedonia to finalize the process. In January 2022, emails show, the embassy notified Novachki that his interview was scheduled for December 2023.

But Trump Media wanted Novachki in Florida sooner: “It is extremely important for Vlad to be in the United States so he can work side-by-side [with] other high-level technology executives to ensure our product and tech stack functions well,” one of its executives wrote in an email at the time.

One of Trump Media’s executives, Andrew Northwall, a Nebraska political consultant, reached out to Bacon’s office.

An aide to the congressman replied promptly, assuring the former president’s company that Bacon’s office would get to work: “We will follow up with the proper officials about your concerns.”

The request from the former president’s company came at a delicate moment in Bacon and Trump’s relationship. Bacon had supported Trump in both his presidential campaigns up until that point. But he was also willing to buck his own party at times, criticizing Trump’s actions during the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, for example, and voting for President Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill.

That vote prompted Trump to release a statement in January 2022 raising the specter of a primary challenge against Bacon that year: “Anyone want to run for Congress against Don Bacon in Nebraska?”

The emails from Trump’s company asking for help from Bacon’s office came a couple weeks later. Canter, the ethics expert, said the timing made the request more troubling, potentially increasing the pressure on Bacon to help. (No significant primary challenger materialized, but Trump did not support Bacon in his race.)

Records show Bacon’s office quickly went into motion, gathering the forms and rationales it would need to push the case forward with the State Department.

When ProPublica first reached out to Cartwright, Bacon’s former director of special projects, she initially said she had only a faint recollection about the case. She called back hours later unsolicited and in a brief conversation shared some details about her role. She recalled that someone had called the congressman to ask for his intervention and that the request was not treated like typical pleas for help from constituents. A

“It was higher-level than your average Joe,” she said.

Cartwright did not say if she told Bacon or anyone else that she thought it was inappropriate for her to work on the request. She asked that the article not include her name, but ProPublica did not agree to that request.

The next day, a spokesperson for Bacon reached out to ProPublica and accused a reporter of harassing the former aide and of misrepresenting her statements about the Trump Media visa: “Ms. Cartwright has informed us she didn’t say this to you and that you twisted/misrepresented her words.”

Asked about that claim, Cartwright said in a text message “you misrepresented what I said” and said she worked hundreds of cases at Bacon’s office and all of them were “via the direction of Mr. Bacon, as we have been directed to help constituents.”

In his letter to ProPublica, the Trump Media lawyer said the company “utilized standard constituent services, offered and performed by every member of Congress to obtain legislative assistance in connection with Mr. Novachki’s visa application.” The letter added that portraying the company as “having acted inappropriately” would be “categorically false” and “defamatory.”

If Trump is elected again, not only would his companies potentially get an inside edge in influencing the government to further their interests, but ethics experts have also warned that his more than $2 billion stake in Trump Media could become a path to influencing him. Advertisers, vendors or investors who have political agendas could be in a position to use the social media enterprise to get favorable treatment.

Last month, ProPublica reported that the company quietly entered into a business deal with a major Republican donor who has interests before the federal government.

The Trump administration was sometimes hostile to the various types of visas reserved for skilled foreigners. Immigration lawyers complained during his term that visas with subjective criteria, such as the O-1, became more challenging to obtain. Vetting of an applicant’s acclaim in their field got more vigorous, they said. The Trump administration also stopped deferring to prior approvals for applicants looking to extend their visas.

Most significantly, in 2020 amid the pandemic, Trump enacted restrictions blocking entry to people seeking O-1 and similar visas. The Trump administration said the moves were made to slow the spread of the virus and protect Americans jobs during uncertain times, but immigration advocates alleged the administration was using the pandemic as a pretext to crack down on legal immigration.

Trump has at times expressed more openness to skilled immigrants. A couple months ago, for example, Trump said during a podcast hosted by Silicon Valley venture capitalists that he would allow foreign students at American universities to stay after they graduate.

Trump Media’s reliance on labor from abroad extends beyond Novachki. ProPublica obtained an invoice showing at least one other employee working for Trump Media through the foreign outsourcing firm Cosmic. The LinkedIn pages of five other people, who describe themselves as based in the Balkans, mention working for Trump Media in tasks including software engineering and customer support.

Cosmic did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump in the past has been accused of straying from his immigration platform in his own affairs.

Earlier this year, the Associated Press reported that Trump Media had successfully applied for an H-1B visa, a more common visa generally reserved for those who have specific degrees. The company told reporters at the time that the application was made by prior management and that current management “swiftly terminated the process” when it learned of it.

And Melania Trump, after she had married Donald Trump, sponsored her mother’s application to immigrate from Slovenia and get permanent residency in the U.S. Trump has criticized this so-called “chain migration” — immigrants applying to have their relatives follow them into the country.

“CHAIN MIGRATION must end now!” he once tweeted. “Some people come in, and they bring their whole family with them, who can be truly evil. NOT ACCEPTABLE!”

Do you have any information about Trump Media that we should know? Robert Faturechi can be reached by email at robert.faturechi@propublica.org and by Signal or WhatsApp at 213-271-7217. Justin Elliott can be reached by email at justin@propublica.org or by Signal or WhatsApp at 774-826-6240.

The tragedy of MAGA’s conspiracy theory about Tim Walz’s “fake” dog

Hannah Arendt famously described the psychology of Nazi propaganda as "the point where [the masses] would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true." It's a quote that comes to mind often when contemplating the lies of Donald Trump and his MAGA movement. And it cropped up for me again while reading about the new right-wing conspiracy theory targeting Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and his dog. 

It's a twisty road that led us to this point. Scout, the beloved pet of Kamala Harris' running mate, stands accused by rabid Trump fans of being a fake. While this story is a silly sideshow, it has serious implications. Unable to handle the strong possibility that their candidate will lose in November, Trump's followers are preemptively immersing themselves in a fantasyland where everything they don't like is "fake," from Harris' crowd sizes to the pet photos of their opponents. This isn't just a coping mechanism, either. As we saw on Jan. 6, 2021, the non-stop accusations that Democrats are "faking" everything can lead Trump's followers down dangerous and even violent pathways. 

For those fortunate enough not to have seen this story yet, a quick recap: Walz has a Labrador retriever mix named Scout, who crops up regularly on Walz's social media. One time he took Scout to a dog park, where he was videotaped petting another dog. Right-wing pundit Dustin Grange took a screenshot from the video and falsely claimed Walz tried to pass off this other dog as Scout. The lie spread rapidly, racking up millions of views. 

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Grange's lie is strangely lazy. As many folks noted, Walz doesn't say that dog is Scout. It's just another dog in the dog park where he took Scout. In the video, Scout is visible playing with the brown dog, as the caption says. But even this fact check misses the larger weirdness here: Grange is saying that the governor would fake having a pet dog. That lie is bizarre and bordering on psychotic. But it's exactly what Arendt warns readers to look out for in fascist propaganda, which assumes an audience "ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd."

"Believing" their own B.S. is beside the point. The pleasure comes from participating in an ugly rumor mill that benefits MAGA. 

Grange's purpose in creating this disinfo isn't mysterious. Walz, simply by being the corny middle-American dad he is, disproves the MAGA claim that such a lifestyle is incompatible with progressive values. So they want to somehow "prove" that Walz isn't really who he says he is. The problem is that Walz's cheery Midwestern normalcy has an authenticity that's hard to assail. In his desperation to say otherwise, Grange whipped out this "fake dog" nonsense. 

What happened next is, in many ways, even more telling. Caught in an obvious lie, Grange pretended he wasn't trying to spread disinformation at all. Instead, he insisted it was all performance art to get revenge on "the left’s manufactured outrage" over what he claims is a made-up "story about JD Vance," Trump's running mate. He didn't explain what the supposed made-up story was. Headache-inducing, to be sure, but as Parker Molloy pointed out in her newsletter, this is Grange arguing that "misinformation [is] a legitimate tool for scoring points against opponents." It's also, as she notes, "a textbook example of projection." Grange falsely accused progressives of lying to justify his actual lying. 

This goes beyond childish psychological games, however, as Arendt predicted:

The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.

Related

Donald Trump likes to pretend he is still president — but his act caught up with him at Arlington

As I've written before, Trump and his co-conspirators use the oldest trick of con artistry on the MAGA masses: convincing the mark they're in on the hustle. Most people who shared the "fake dog" story didn't pause to consider whether it was true. If they had, perhaps they would have considered how idiotic it is to think Walz would fake adopting Scout in 2019, fake all these photos and then somehow "forget" what his "fake" dog looks like. Getting a real dog is much less work! But "believing" their own B.S. is beside the point. The pleasure comes from participating in an ugly rumor mill that benefits MAGA. 

But that's why they're the marks and not the masters here. No doubt it feels empowering in the moment for the typical MAGA follower to repeat a Trumpian lie, whether it is a serious one, like "the 2020 election was stolen" or a dumb one, like "Walz fakes having a dog." Trump has convinced them that when they don't like reality all they need to do is create their own. For that brief moment when they're spreading a conspiracy theory, that feeling of power that comes from asserting fantasies trump reality provides a straight shot of dopamine to the brain. 

The ugly truth, however, is that this is how Trump is controlling his cult-like followers, by convincing them to cut all ties with empirical reality and even basic common sense. By luring people to promote delusions for MAGA, Trump is breeding an immorality and cynicism that cannot help but cause mental and emotional rot in the people who go along with it. Trump has been on a bender with lies to deny that the big crowds and exuberance of the Harris campaign. He falsely claims her crowds are generated by "AI." He declared that a Time cover magazine depicting Harris must be fake because she "looks like the most beautiful actress." In both cases, what he's reacting to are simply photographs that accurately depict the moment captured. 

Trump's narcissism may be fueling this, but the effect it's having on his supporters is alarming. Looking especially dour Sunday on CNN, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., denied the outpouring of happiness TV viewers saw at the Democratic National Convention last week. "This whole joy lovefest doesn’t exist in the real world," he declared, arguing that, in reality, the U.S. is a miserable place full of nonstop pain. His reason? Gas and grocery prices are higher than they were before the pandemic. 

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Seems like an overreaction! The inflationary bump has been unpleasant, but it's overkill to paint it as the end of joy itself in America, especially as travel rates are rising, consumer confidence is high and Americans continue to gorge on the social activities we missed during the pandemic. But this refusal to believe the pent-up release of joy is real has become a talking point throughout MAGA. I've seen it with my GOP-voting relatives, who have been steadily posting memes on social media claiming the Harris enthusiasm is all "manufactured" and the "hope" and "joy" shown on TV are all fake. 

I usually try not to respond to these kinds of posts, but in this case I gave in to the urge. I was at the DNC and saw the hope and joy with my own eyes. Not that I think I can persuade anyone to abandon the delusion, but still, it's unsettling to see people you have known your whole life reject the evidence of their own eyes and ears. Worse, they think it's "savvy" to deny that hope and joy are real emotions people can feel in a political context.

This is how Trump ultimately manipulates his followers. He convinces them that better things are not possible, hate and anger are the only "real" emotions, and politics can only ever be used to inflict pain on others, not to uplift people. It's a dark and depressing worldview, and it's spreading rapidly, aided by authoritarian propaganda that assures the MAGA masses that anything appealing about Democrats must be "fake." 

In that context, we can see how sinister the "fake dog" conspiracy theory is. The Harris-Walz message of "joy" is a counterpoint to what Trump is offering, which is an endless barrage of anger, despair, nihilism and sadism. Walz playing in the park with his dog offers a visual example of this contrast. The picture asks us to imagine a future where we let go of all the hate and just hang out together with our dogs at the park. The only way to disrupt the appeal of such an image is to deny that it's even possible, arguing that vitriol and violence is all that we can ever hope for. Dogs are such happy, easygoing creatures. Faced with such sweetness, the only thing MAGA can do is call Walz's dog "fake." 

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about the GOP's weirdness era

“Downright strange”: How Trump’s warped litmus test for MAGA Christians spread beyond abortion

The 2024 Election is existential. It will decide if the United States will remain a democracy or succumb to some form of authoritarianism and neofascism under Dictator Trump and his MAGAfied Republican Party and movement.

The stakes of the 2024 Election are literally that high.

President Biden attempted to make this danger the centerpiece of his campaign, but for a variety of reasons — many of which were not his fault — he was not able to effectively communicate it to the American people. With the ascent of Kamala Harris, it will be her responsibility to communicate this message and then act on it in defense of American democracy and the American people.

“Democracy” is an abstract concept to many Americans. Research on civic literacy and political knowledge suggests that many if not most Americans cannot even define what “democracy” is. If they cannot even define democracy, then how can they be expected to know its value and why it should be defended?

Instead of abstract concepts and language that many people may not understand, pro-democracy Americans need to speak in clear and direct terms about what Trumpism and neofascism will mean for the day-to-day lives of the American people.

They will have their basic rights and freedoms such as freedom of speech, association, and assembly severely curtailed if not ended. The right to vote will also be dramatically restricted—voting for the Democrats may be "legal" but those votes will be suppressed if not nullified as being "fraudulent."

The social safety net will be even more drastically reduced as corporations and the very rich pay even less (if any) taxes and have even more control over American society and the American people’s economic and financial lives and (lack of) security and future(s).

Women will not have control over their own bodies as reproductive rights and freedoms are taken away. Men who do not comply with the Trump regime’s and the American neofascist movement’s normative models of “real manhood” will also be marginalized and punished.

The rights of the LGBTQ community, Black and brown people, Muslims, Jews, and others who do not practice the “right” type of “Christian” religion will have their civil and human rights taken away. There will be mass deportations that will break up families. Birthright citizenship will be revoked for many millions of Americans. The U.S. military will be ordered to occupy major cities and other “blue” parts of the country deemed to be in rebellion or opposition to Dictator Trump and the MAGA movement.

In total, American democracy will be transformed into an Apartheid White Christian plutocracy where a very small number of rich white men who will literally be above the law will make decisions for hundreds of millions of people. This power will be justified through a form of religious politics that argues that “the Bible” and “God” have mandated the United States be ruled through “Christian” principles — as interpreted by the same small group of powerful white men. Such irrational, antirational, and magical thinking are antithetical to real democracy.

These plans and many others to end American democracy are a matter of public record and have been detailed by Donald Trump and his propagandists and agents, and in Project 2025, Agenda 47, and elsewhere.

Bradley Onishi is President of the Institute for Religion, Media, and Civic Engagement and the Founder of Axis Mundi Media. In 2023 he published, “Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism." Onishi is also a faculty member in Religion and Philosophy at the University of San Francisco.

In this conversation, Onishi explains how Trumpism is a de facto type of right-wing “Christian” religious political movement and the ways that White Christianity has made support for right-wing extremism a litmus test for being members of that faith community and therefore real “Christians.”

At the end of this conversation, Onishi reflects on what it means to be a Christian or otherwise religiously minded in the Age of Trump and the democracy crisis, and how faith and one’s conscience should factor into one’s political decisions such as voting.

This is the first part of a two-part conversation.

Given the state of this country and the world, how are you feeling now? How are you orienting yourself?

Like a lot of people, I'm feeling hopeful. Since we spoke last there's been a transformation in the feeling around the country regarding the presidential race and the possibilities ahead, and so I think hope is quite surprising at times, and when it's unexpected, it feels the best. And I think that's kind of where I am, and a lot of others are around the country.

These last few weeks here in the US have felt like years if not a decade(s). This is especially true for those of us who follow news and politics closely—or for a living. How are you managing on the day-to-day? What suggestions do you have for everyday people who may feel overwhelmed and confused by all that is going on?

I'm somebody who digests more news every day than is probably healthy, and I do that because of the nature of my work. It's a lot. It's often overwhelming. And I think for me, I have to find ways to incite joy in my day, whether it's through my kids or through some other avenue. If you don't do that, you end up in a place that is morose and in some strange way, addicted to cortisol. Joy is presence. A reprieve from what was and what might be. We need it every day, even in small doses.

The Age of Trump and the democracy crisis and ascendant neofascism are not purely “political” crises. This is a moral crisis and test for the nation. Why are so many in the news media and political class still afraid to speak in those terms?

Trumpism presents a unique challenge to American media, because Trumpism flouts every norm, every process, every expectation. The moral failings of Trump are different than those of other politicians, because on one hand, usually, those failings come in the form of scandals that erupt into public view, causing media outcry for months and months and months. We could think of Bill Clinton's Monica Lewinsky scandal. On the other hand, Trump's moral failings, whether they be with Stormy Daniels or in other ways, keep coming every day, all the time, so it's hard to pick out the exception. And for the news media, moral failings are the exception. They're the things that happen. They're an event, they're a fall, they're a misstep, and if Trump's every day is one ongoing flouting of the moral norms of political life, then it's hard to cover that for them, and it's flummoxing.

"What we have now in the Age of Trump is a situation where what it means to be a Christian is adherence to political conservative orthodoxy, rather than Christian doctrinal orthodoxy."

Additionally, though, and I think more importantly, the moral failing of Trumpism is a flouting of democracy. It's one that says the system we have a democratic system is not the one I want as a candidate. I think of Project 2025, I think words from everyone, from Stephen Miller to Steve Bannon to Jack Posobiec to JD Vance, and so many other Trump-adjacent figures, really reflect the fact that Trumpism is about going beyond democracy to something else. I don't think our media are trained to cover that kind of moral failing. So, when he talks about being a dictator for a day, the media doesn't have training for covering the fact that it seems that he's hinting at completely trespassing our democratic boundaries. Thus, we're caught in a place where "both sides" and "balance" and “the make sure to give equal time” rule the day. There's a real reticence to point out on a daily, ongoing, minute-by-minute basis, that the Trump campaign is a campaign based on a set of morals and a political worldview that does not align with American democracy.

What do you see as the role of religion in the Age of Trump and the country’s democracy crisis?

Religion is pervasive in Trumpism. The last nine years have shown us that being trained in understanding religious communities, traditions, and jargon is really important if we want to understand our political moment. One of the things that comes to mind for me about religion and Trumpism, and that I warn people around the country all the time, is that there are people cultivating religious impulses in MAGA spaces who are openly anti-democratic, who are openly calling for a Christian prince or a red Caesar or some form of autocrat to lead us. I read Project 2025 through the lens of the theologians and the pastors and the podcasters and the pundits who are out there telling their many tens of thousands and millions of followers that we'd be better off with a king.

How was the recent attempt on Donald Trump’s life understood within the right-wing Christian community?

The attempt on Trump's life was responded to in a very predictable way by many right-wing Christians to be a kind of divine intervention. He was saved by God's will — God stepped in in order to allow this man to be president. And of course, the forces of evil are stacked against former President Trump because he's been chosen by God to be our leader. The assassination attempt was enveloped seamlessly into the narrative that these right-wing Christians tell about him. He's chosen. The forces of evil are trying to stop him, and we are praying for him. We are supporting him, and we are doing everything possible to make sure he's president so that God's will can be accomplished. Trump has been appointed by the divine to be our leader. Many right-wing Christians also saw the assassination attempt on Trump’s life as being an extension of what they, quite incorrectly, imagine to be the “persecution” of “Christians” in America.

When Trump got up and yelled "Fight! Fight! Fight!" it was to them a sign of how he is the embodiment of the American founding as a “Christian nation” and is chosen by God. For them, Donald Trump has some kind of superhuman or divinely appointed power and strength.

How were Republicans and “conservatives” able to develop a brand where they are viewed, by the mass public, as somehow being synonymous with “Christian values” when their policies are generally antithetical to them?

Over the last 75 years, there has been a branding of American Christianity as the Christian Right and now as Christian nationalism. I used to ask my students on the first day of class: “Give me some examples of American Christians.” And they would all give me examples like George W. Bush or other evangelicals. We would then spend the semester talking about how in the years before World War II and even in the decade after, the brand name of Christianity in the United States was in many ways, a mainland Christianity, where the likes of FDR or the Niebuhr brothers or Martin Luther King Jr, might have been seen as the most prominent Christians in the United States.

What we're seeing now, is leaders who have really radical right-wing views on family and reproductive rights as being representative of Christianity or supporting mass deportations of undocumented brown people. There are many who are not Christian in that way. You can be a Christian and not be this focused on other people's bodies and families. It's okay. There are ways that you can follow Jesus Christ and not fetishize the social order in a way that feels restrictive and downright strange.

What does it mean to be a “Christian” in the Age of Trump?

Over the last five years, conservative churches have elevated culture war issues to the level of doctrine. This means that if you want to be a Christian in many conservative churches across the country, whether they're evangelical or charismatic, not only do you need to be willing to confess that there's one God who is a trinity, that his son, Jesus rose from the dead, and so on and so forth, but you also need to be willing to agree that you are absolutely against abortion and/or that you would like to build a wall. You also need to not support the rights of transgender people and the LGBTQ community more broadly. What we have now in the Age of Trump is a situation where what it means to be a Christian is adherence to political conservative orthodoxy, rather than Christian doctrinal orthodoxy.

How should religiously-minded people be informed (or not) in their voting this election by their faith and questions of conscience?

On one hand, there are large swaths of American Christianity that believe that voting for Trump is the only option and that if one does not vote for Trump, they are not a Christian. There is a repeated argument that if you vote Democrat, you cannot be a Christian. For many Christian nationalists, whether they be evangelicals or Pentecostals, charismatics or Catholics, there's really no choice to make. The choice has already been made, and if you make a different choice, then you are not simply disagreeing with the community politically, but you're probably no longer welcome in the community. 

There are people who are concerned about issues like abortion and see it as not lining up with their religious beliefs. I disagree with them, but I understand the complexities of conscience that they are facing as religious people. But we are also seeing many Christians saying, "I can't vote for Donald Trump a good conscience because of the racism, the xenophobia, and the protofascist elements of his candidacy, but I can vote for Kamala Harris, even though there may be aspects of her platform that don't align with my understanding of the world." These are not easy things to navigate. I think we need to be sensitive to how people approach such difficult matters. 

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Rare, deadly mosquito disease is causing alarm in New England. But how risky is “triple E” virus?

For some, the high-pitched buzz of a mosquito has become even more sinister than usual. In Massachusetts, a coastal county called Plymouth has shut down its parks and fields between dusk and dawn in response to the town’s “high-risk status” of eastern equine encephalitis (EEE), a rare, but severely fatal mosquito-borne illness. It's also known as "triple E" or sleeping sickness and gets part of its name from the fact that it infects horses as well as humans.

According to a public health department press release, athletic leagues and other organizations utilizing public parks and fields will be prohibited from continuing outdoor activities beyond dusk. Signs have been placed at all public parks and fields to emphasize this message. 

The move comes after health officials revealed that a man in his 80s was infected with EEE after being exposed in nearby Worcester County. Other individual cases have popped up in Vermont, Wisconsin and New Jersey, while in New Hampshire, an adult (who has not yet been identified) was hospitalized and died from EEE.

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“The risk from EEE is high in parts of Plymouth County and critical in parts of Worcester County,” Dr. Catherine M. Brown, a state epidemiologist, said in a press release. “In addition to recommending that people use mosquito repellent with an EPA-registered active ingredient and clothing to reduce exposed skin, we also recommend that evening outdoor events be rescheduled to avoid the hours between dusk and dawn.”

This is because mosquitoes most likely to spread EEE are most active during those hours, state health officials said. According to the Massachusetts Department of Health, EEE is a rare disease. Since it was first identified in the state in 1938, there have been just over 115 cases. A majority of them are from Bristol, Plymouth, and Norfolk counties. Outbreaks occur every 10 to 20 years and typically last between two to three years. The most recent outbreak in Massachusetts was in 2019, which saw 12 cases and six fatalities.

"The rate of it is way less than even being struck by lightning."

And it’s not just in concentrated areas of Massachusetts. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a few cases are reported throughout the United States each year, with most cases occurring in eastern or Gulf Coast states.

The first symptoms of EEE are a fever, stiff neck, headache and lack of energy. They usually show up three to 10 days after a bite from an infected mosquito. Encephalitis, swelling and inflammation of the brain, is the most serious complication of the disease. Unfortunately, there is no known treatment for EEE. 

Dr. David Sullivan, a professor in the department of molecular microbiology and immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, emphasized to Salon there are typically less than 10 cases of EEE in the United States each year. Within that, it’s estimated that one out of 10 million people will have a symptomatic case. Typically, people between the ages of 20 and 50 don’t have a symptomatic case. However, young children and older adults are more susceptible to severe symptoms. 

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“The rate of it is way less than even being struck by lightning,” Sullivan told Salon. “It’s very rare, but that said, there are no treatments for the disease, and 30 percent of the people that get it die and it does affect young kids under age 18.”

For those who do survive, he added, 50 percent of them are left with long-term physical or mental impairments, running the gambit from intellectual disability, seizures, paralysis and cranial nerve dysfunction.

“We also know that for each symptomatic case, there's probably about 10 or 20 other asymptomatic cases that are never detected,” he added, emphasizing this isn’t a “brand new” disease. “But I think because of its lethality with no known treatments, the public health response is warranted — and the peak case rate is in August and September, but it rapidly goes down after that.”

Separately, the news of EEE follows a report that Anthony Fauci, former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was hospitalized for a West Nile virus infection. Some might be wondering: is this an abnormal mosquito season? And how worried should people be outside of the Massachusetts area? 

Sullivan said no. Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease and senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told Salon he agreed. 

“I don't think it's abnormal,” Adalja said. “I think this is mosquito season, and just because a celebrity gets infected, it doesn't mean that it's an abnormal year.”

He added 2003 was a “way worse” year for West Nile virus, which was one of the deadliest years for since the virus was introduced to the U.S. in 1999. In 2003, 9,862 people were infected and 264 died. At least 216 cases of West Nile virus have been detected in 33 states this year, according to the CDC.

“I think that post COVID, the media treats infectious disease a little different than they did pre-COVID, so they reported a lot more aggressively,” Adalja said. “I don't think there's any evidence of anything different than an ordinary year for West Nile, and it’s an ordinary year for EEE at this point.”

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For people living outside of Massachusetts, both experts told Salon the risk of illness is low, but that people in the months of August and September should make an effort to protect themselves from mosquitoes. 

“I think certainly it's just good practice in August and September to minimize your interaction with mosquitoes,” Sullivan said. “In the end, probably less than one out of 1,000 mosquitoes actually carry something. It's not like all mosquitoes are carrying infectious disease.”

Adalja added that vector control agencies are sampling mosquitoes around the country to try and get ahead of outbreaks. 

“There are a lot of efforts that are going on behind the scenes,” he said. “And they often will make reports about mosquito pools testing positive.”

In general, mosquito-related illness is on the rise thanks to warming climates from burning fossil fuels. The bugs, after all, like it hot. This includes illnesses like malaria, dengue, Zika and more. These diseases are sometimes described as "neglected" because many Western nations treat them like a problem for the Global South despite having pandemic potential. As mosquito ranges increase, that could change and we may see more future cases of EEE, as rare as it is. So far that isn't the case, but in the meantime, all we can do is surveil and test for the disease while treatments and vaccines are developed.

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American parents are so stressed out it’s now a public health crisis

It’s no secret that American parents are stressed out. From books about parental burnout to articles about the struggle of modern motherhood, the voices of parents across the country are loud and clear. But this week,  U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy shed a new light on the issue when he issued a U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on the mental health and well-being of parents, declaring it an urgent public health issue. For content, Murthy has issued similar advisories on gun violence, loneliness, and youth mental health.

Murthy said parents have “a profound impact on the health of our children and the health of society.”

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“Yet parents and caregivers today face tremendous pressures, from familiar stressors such as worrying about their kids’ health and safety and financial concerns to new challenges like navigating technology and social media, a youth mental health crisis, an epidemic of loneliness that has hit young people the hardest,” Murthy said. “With this Advisory, I am calling for a fundamental shift in how we value and prioritize the mental health and well-being of parents.” 

In the United States, there are an estimated 63 million parents living with children under the age of 18. Over the last 10 years, parents have been reported to be more likely to experience high levels of stress compared to other adults; according to the advisory in the previous month, 33 percent of parents reported high levels of stress compared to 20 percent of other adults. 

The advisory calls for national paid family and medical leave programs and paid sick time for all workers. Additionally, Murthy calls for increased support for child care financial assistance, universal preschool, and a culture shift. 

“It’s time to value and respect time spent parenting on par with time spent working at a paying job, recognizing the critical importance to society of raising children,” he said. Murthy has previously issued advisories about loneliness, firearms and more.

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New poll shows Gallego defeating Lake by whopping 15-point margin in Arizona Senate race

A newly released FOX News poll has Democrat Ruben Gallego up massively in the Arizona Senate race.

The poll, released on Wednesday evening, showed Gallego beating Lake by a margin of 56% to 41% in the upcoming race to replace Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. The same poll showed former President Donald Trump down by one to Vice President Kamala Harris.

In the same poll, Harris takes the edge in sun belt states Arizona, Georgia and Nevada, while trailing Trump by just one point in North Carolina. The expanded lead in the historically redder battleground states make Harris’ paths to electoral college victory even wider, and put the Trump campaign on defense after both campaigns dumped cash into Pennsylvania.

Gallego, who snagged a coveted endorsement from the Arizona Police Association on Monday, even after its president spoke at a Trump campaign rally just before the weekend, has managed to assume endorsements from numerous moderate organizations, despite his somewhat progressive tenure as a congressman representing parts of Phoenix.

"Congressman Gallego has continually fought for robust, increased funding for America's Law Enforcement, and specifically Arizona Law enforcement," the Association said in a statement.

The seat, currently held by Democratic-caucusing Independent Sinema, is a crucial part of any hope for Democrats to hold control of the Senate.

The pair are slated to debate on Oct. 9, the day early voting by mail begins in Maricopa County, Arizona’s most populous county.

Lake, who continues to deny the results of the 2020 election, and the 2022 gubernatorial race that she lost, was awkwardly pushed off the stage by a string of increasingly aggressive prompter messages at the Friday Trump rally when she went over her allotted speaking time.

Lake is currently embroiled in a defamation suit launched by the former Republican Maricopa County recorder, who she claimed had to do with her loss, which she appealed all the way to the Arizona Supreme Court.

Elon Musk hires GOP political consultant to give Trump a big push

Elon Musk, who has already pledged eye-popping sums to support former President Donald Trump’s re-election bid, is hiring his own Republican political operative to push his agenda further.

Chris Young, a Republican political strategist, will join Musk’s personal team, seemingly in an effort to expand the billionaire’s far-right field organizing and get-out-the-vote efforts.

Young — a senior political official at PhRMA who came up under Louisiana former Gov. Bobby Jindal and worked as the national field director for the Republican National Committee — has directed efforts to turn out voters, advise deep-pocketed donors and wield political power for conservatives for a decade.

The strategist role will allow Musk to more closely direct the America PAC, a group he finances that was caught scraping user data and misdirecting swing state residents attempting to register to vote earlier this year.

Musk, whose Tesla and SpaceX companies have faced hurdles from federal safety and labor regulators in recent months, pledged $45 million a month to boost Trump’s campaigning efforts and endorsed the former president in a post to his social media platform X in July.

Per the New York Times, Musk sees field organizing as a must in the upcoming race, dismissing traditional advertising and urging the PAC he funds to directly engage voters ahead of the November race.

For the South African-born Musk, the stakes in November are high. Not only has the executive blasted liberal positions on social issues — making anti-trans comments about his daughter and platforming racist rhetoric — he's also leading a charge against the tax increases and increased regulatory scrutiny on his various companies.

In an antitrust lawsuit, Yelp accuses Google of artificially boosting its own review feature

Once-market-dominant Yelp is taking Google to court for alleged antitrust violations, claiming that the search giant prioritized its own review platform in business search results, in an effort to “stifle competition and keep consumers within its own walled garden.” 

Yelp, which has taken steps to increase user trust and business transparency on its site in recent years, said the platform was prioritizing Google products and services over organic search results, in the suit filed in the Northern District of California federal court on Wednesday, adding that Google’s services are often worse for consumers than Yelp’s.

“Google manipulates its results to promote its own local search offerings above those of its rivals, regardless of the comparative poorer quality of its own properties,” a post on Yelp’s website about the suit reads.

The suit comes three weeks after a federal judge handed down a ruling that Google was indeed a monopoly in the search engine space, citing the platform’s payoffs to other tech giants to guarantee itself the default engine on a vast majority of devices.

That antitrust suit, launched by the Department of Justice last year, is one of the largest antitrust cases in recent history, and part of a massive push against anticompetitive and monopolistic business practices by the Biden administration.

Legal experts saw the precedent set in that case as a momentum-builder for other antitrust cases against the search engine and its practices.

Google — which has also sought to keep users from clicking on search results by launching AI-powered summaries that have been accused of plagiarizing content — prioritizes its own map, review and stock systems over natural search results. 

Yelp is seeking a restructured approach to search rankings, allowing competition in spaces which Google operates competitors, along with financial damages.

SpaceX launch plans paused by FAA after rocket failure

The FAA is grounding SpaceX rockets after one of the company’s Falcon 9 failed to land safely on Wednesday morning.

The failure came just hours after the spacecraft maker pushed back the launch of the manned Polaris Dawn mission, the first commercial attempt at a spacewalk, citing weather conditions.

Per the FAA, the Falcon 9 would remain grounded pending a full safety investigation, also posing delays for the Polaris Dawn launch, as four astronauts wait in quarantine ahead of the mission.

“An investigation is designed to further enhance public safety, determine the root cause of the event, and identify corrective actions to avoid it from happening again,” the agency said in a statement, according to NPR.

The launch, which succeeded in its second stage despite the first-stage failure, was designed to send even more of the company’s Starlink satellites into orbit, adding to the 6,000+ strong fleet, while some North Carolina residents allege the satellites often end up as dangerous debris in their yards.

The failure, and regulatory scrutiny, marks another for the young private aerospace manufacturer, which has scooped up countless federal contracts as its founder, billionaire Elon Musk, throws his weight behind presidential candidate Donald Trump, who led deregulation efforts during his time in office.

SpaceX was also slated to take over a rescue mission next month of two American astronauts, left stranded on the International Space Station after Boeing’s Starliner suffered a failure. The news sent an already-battered Boeing’s stock down further on Monday morning. 

Beyond SpaceX’s competitors, the Elon Musk-founded Tesla also faced technical hurdles this week, when reports revealed that the automotive manufacturer’s long-championed full self-driving technology could not navigate through the company’s one-lane empty tunnels beneath Las Vegas.

Ice-T ridicules troll claiming “Law & Order: SVU” is going “woke”

Ice-T is making headlines again for his sharp online banter, this time for shooting down a complaint made by an online troll regarding "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit."

The "SVU” star, who’s played Detective Odafin Tutuola in the series for nearly 25 years, was apparently not having it when one conservative X user replied to a month-old post of the rapper and actor on set, writing, “Did they write SVU back to normal yet? It started to go woke."

“What the F is Woke? lol Like I give a F**k,” Ice-T, set to reprise his role in an upcoming 26th season of the show, wrote in response, prompting praise from fans.

The allegation that the NBC crime drama was “going woke” mirrors countless conservative gripes with media, and its use of plotlines and characters which they argue increasingly center diversity.

The series, which has famously centered on police investigating sexually-based crimes for all 25 of its seasons, has been running since 1999. Conservative fans picked apart one episode in particular on fan forums and YouTube videos back in January, blasting the portrayal of a crime victim’s nuanced response to the justice system and the biases within it as “absurd.” 

But the brief response from the actor, who has appeared in more than 450 episodes within the “Law & Order” universe, is yet another example of the backlash against an “anti-woke crusade” led by right-wing politicians.

“Woke is everything the right doesn't like,” one X user explained to Ice-T.

JD Vance attempts to shrink Arlington National Cemetery incident as a “little disagreement”

Republican Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance downplayed reports that Trump campaign members pushed an Arlington National Cemetery staffer enforcing policies at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday afternoon.

“It is amazing to me that . . . some staff member had a little disagreement with somebody and the media has turned this into a national news story,” Vance said, referring to an altercation condemned by veterans and Democratic elected officials as deeply disrespectful. 

Vance went on to repeat claims that Vice Presidential nominee Tim Walz, who served in the National Guard, “lied about his military service.”

Trump’s photo-op in Arlington on Monday ruffled feathers when reports emerged that the candidate’s team had gotten into a physical altercation with cemetery staff, who were attempting to inform the campaign of a rule against filming in a section where recent U.S. military casualties were buried. The cemetery confirmed the altercation in a statement to NPR and said the campaign’s activities were prohibited.

“Federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries, to include photographers, content creators or any other persons attending for purposes or in direct support of a partisan political candidate’s campaign,” the cemetery said.

As the cemetery notes in its media policy, it enforces a ban on filming for political or fundraising purposes as mandated by the Hatch Act, a law banning civil service employees from engaging in political acts in the workplace.

Vance, whose candidacy has been plagued by resurfaced recordings and awkward public appearances, slammed the Biden administration’s response to the 2021 Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan, which he referred to in a verbal slip as “Abbey Road,” when asked about the Arlington altercation.

Vance accused Vice President Kamala Harris of being “asleep at the wheel” for failing to investigate the incident, a duty far outside the scope of the office of the Vice President.

“She can go to hell,” Vance said of Harris.

In a later event in Wisconsin on Wednesday, Vance added that the media was "acting like Donald Trump filmed a TV commercial at a gravesite," defending the act while acknowledging cameras were present to capture the moment.

Here’s why Dolly Parton continues to champion literacy throughout her life

Dolly Parton, the queen of country music, is also the queen of children's literacy.

The country music legend has made it her mission to improve literacy and book accessibility through her Imagination Library book giveaway program. Parton's program has taken on a life of its own, expanding across the U.S. in Missouri and Kentucky where children under five can sign up to have books delivered monthly to their homes for free. These are just two of the 21 states that Imagination Library services across the country. 

“The Imagination Library has meant as much, if not more, to me than nearly anything that I have done,” Parton said Tuesday at an event with Gov. Andy Beshear at the Lyric Theater in Lexington, Kentucky. During the event, the legend was made a Kentucky Colonel, "a title of honor given by the governor recognizing someone’s achievements and service," the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.

Parton's literacy mission is rooted in her family history. She shared at another event at the Folly Theater in Kansas City, Missouri, that her father, Robert Lee Parton grew up poor in Tennessee and never had the opportunity to learn how to read, The Associated Press reported.

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"In the mountains, a lot of people never had a chance to go to school because they had to work on the farms. They had to do whatever it took to keep the rest of the family going," she shared.

Parton grew up one of 12 children in a poor Appalachian family in Tennessee. Despite Parton saying her father was “one of the smartest people I’ve ever known,” she said he was embarrassed that he couldn’t read.

This is the reason the star created the Imagination Library. The program started in Tennessee in 1995 and began in only one county in the state. But now it services 21 states, and over 3 million books are delivered to children every month. Nearly 30 years since it began, the program has sent books to more than 240 million kids in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia.

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Parton has expanded her Imagination Library in states like Missouri where child literacy rates are between 28% and 30%, slightly under the national average of 32% and 29%. Missouri also covers the full $11 million cost program. However, in Kentucky, where 69% of 4th graders are not proficient in reading, the program will now reach children in the state's 120 counties, Beshear said Tuesday.

Kentucky First Lady Britainy Beshear said that more than 120,000 Kentucky children will be enrolled to receive books through the program.

Parton said, "It’s really a great way to teach children when they’re very young to learn to love books and to learn to read."

Eventually, Parton said she wanted to see the Imagination Library in every state across the country. While every state has an Imagination Library program, only 21 states have ratified legislation, ensuring all kids under five can enroll.

"The kids started calling me the 'book lady,'" Parton said. "And Daddy was more proud of that than he was that I was a star. But Daddy got to feeling like he had really done something great as well."

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Pro-Trump accounts on X impersonated women with stolen influencers’ photos, investigation reveals

Photos of European influencers were stolen and used to promote Republican candidate Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, in the upcoming presidential election, a joint investigation by CNN and the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) has revealed.

CNN and CIR used reverse-image search tools to analyze over 54 suspect accounts. Each account used photos of influencers from European countries including Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Russia to pose as conventionally attractive young women who were also Trump supporters. 

The accounts all grew suspiciously fast in followers and pushed pro-Trump messaging, using the hashtags #MAGAPatriots and #MAGA2024. The posts also frequently contained English-language errors. 

“By hijacking images of the influencers, these accounts clearly recognise the value of creating a believable human persona that followers can relate to – they share photographs of the women at the beach, out at a café, or doing their make-up,” Benjamin Strick, director of investigations at CIR, told CNN. 

One X account that has since been deleted, @Luna_2k24, amassed a large following since it was created in March. Posing as a 32-year-old Trump supporter, the account praised the former president and she posted photos of “herself” to accompany the posts. 

But the photos Luna was posting were actually photos of German fashion influencer Debbie Nederlof, a single mother and trained optician in Trier, Germany.

“To be honest, ‘what the f**k?’ was my reaction. That was my reaction, because I have nothing to do with the United States, with Trump, the political things over there. What the hell do I, from a small place in Germany, care about U.S. politics?” Nederlof told CNN.

Another account, @queen0_gabriela, used photos of 27-year-old Demi Maric, an Amsterdam-based business student. Another, @eva_maga1996, used photos of 22-year-old influencer Neriah Tellerup Andersen from Copenhagen, Denmark.

“I feel used, like someone is taking something from me. It’s my image. I don’t want to think people think that I do what those profiles are sometimes promoting,” Andersen told CNN.

The fake accounts seem to be part of a sophisticated, coordinated effort, Emily Horne, former global head of policy communications at Twitter, told CNN. She warned that the accounts could be a sign of foreign intervention in the upcoming 2024 presidential election, which is less than 70 days away.

“This could be a state actor. The level of sophistication indicates it could be any of the hostile state actors, including Russia, Iran and China,” she told CNN.

Legal scholars warn SCOTUS could “manipulate” immunity definition to torpedo new Trump indictment

The Supreme Court's lack of clarity in its presidential immunity ruling's definition of "official" conduct leaves room for former President Donald Trump to fight the refiled indictment alleging he conspired to thwart the results of the 2020 presidential election.

On Tuesday, Special Counsel Jack Smith filed a slimmed down indictment — which he secured from a grand jury that only heard streamlined evidence. 

Smith's new indictment again includes four felony charges against Trump but excluded evidence concerning Trump's official conduct in office, including the removal of former DOJ official Jeff Clark and his alleged efforts to place him in control of the department to pursue his election fraud claims.

Legal observers say the refiled indictment has an overall stronger chance of holding up on appeal by excluding evidence that appears to fall squarely into the Supreme Court's definition of official conduct in last month's ruling.

But some legal experts warn that the refiled indictment isn't a slam dunk.

"It’s not clear whether this will work, because on appeal the Supreme Court can manipulate the category of official conduct to create a broader immunity covering other elements of the indictment," said Syracuse University law professor David Driesen, an expert in constitutional law and the author of the book “The Specter of Dictatorship: Judicial Enabling of Presidential Power.”

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Experts: Supreme Court left a "clear road map" to prosecute Trump — but now it's "up to Jack Smith"

In July, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that presidents have "absolute immunity from criminal prosecution" for acts that fall within the "exercise of his core constitutional powers he took when in office."

Presidents, according to the ruling, have "at least presumptive" immunity from other official acts, and no immunity for unofficial acts.

In a section of the ruling that drew 5-4 support from justices, the ruling also stated that prosecutors can't present evidence of official acts when charging former presidents.

Dissenting justices warned that the ruling would empower presidents to use their official power for political and private reasons to escape accountability.

And Dreisen said the ruling still leaves room for Trump to topple any convictions.

“It’s difficult to know whether Trump will end up in prison or not," Dreisen said. "The Supreme Court has been very creative in protecting MAGA misdeeds. It ruled, for example, that invading the Capitol is not an obstruction of an official proceeding, thereby wiping out some criminal convictions of Jan. 6 insurrectionists."

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Dreisen added that the fact that Smith felt he had to refile the indictment in the first place is troubling.

“The Supreme Court ruling clearly overrode longstanding constitutional norms forbidding presidents from issuing orders to investigate political opponents or to challenge election results," Dreisen said. "The forcing of these amendments to the indictment highlights how the high court has opened the door wide to autocracy.”

University of Texas Law professor Lee Kovarsky said the indictment is "weaker than what it was."

"The allegations about Jeffrey Clark and Trump's attempt to have DOJ intimidate states with false accusations about widespread voter fraud was extremely incriminating, and now it's gone," he said on X.

He called the new indictment a "smart move" — but agreed that Trump could dispute how Smith characterized and described his alleged conduct.

"Amendments to the [superseding indictment] ensure that DOJ won't accidentally plead itself into an immunity problem, but the Trump folks will still have a chance to dispute the [superseding indictment's] characterization of various conduct, in an attempt to have it designated as official, & potentially immunized," Kovarsky wrote.

Trump has complained that the superseded indictment violates the DOJ's practice of avoid filing new criminal charges or undertaking investigative activities within 60 days of an election.

But former federal prosecutor and University of Michigan Law School professor Barb McQuade told Salon: "These are not new charges or new investigative activity, but rather following the guidance of the Supreme Court to advance a pending case."

McQuade noted that Smith included Trump‘s conduct to pressure Mike Pence to block the certification of the election.

"Smith characterizes Pence as acting in his role as president of the Senate when counting votes, but I expect Trump to argue that any conversations between him and the vice president is core executive activity," McQuade said. "This is the only set of allegations that strike me as potentially protected by immunity. The remaining allegations seem to be clearly unofficial acts that should be fair game for prosecution."

If Trump wins, McQuade expects he'll direct his attorney general to dismiss the case.

Otherwise, she said it's likely the case will go up to the Supreme Court before any trial as the court figures out how to apply the immunity ruling to the allegations.

"That means trial in this case likely will not occur until a year or so from now," she said. 

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“Women are strong”: Sigourney Weaver talks Kamala Harris and Ripley from “Alien” franchise

Actor Sigourney Weaver became emotional during a press conference at the Venice Film Festival while talking about playing Ellen Ripley in the "Alien" films, threading the impact of her past role with her admiration for Vice President Kamala Harris.

When asked to what extent cinema could affect Harris' potential to become the first woman to hold the office of U.S. President, Weaver stated that she was “so excited about Kamala.”

“To think for one moment that my work would have anything to do with her rise makes me very happy, actually, because it’s true,” she said. “I have so many women who come and thank me.”

“It’s been difficult since 2016, and we’re all very grateful about her," Weaver added, observing her appreciation for the Veep.

“I’m always asked why I play strong women and I always think that’s such a weird question because I just play women, and women are strong and women don’t give up,” she continued. “You know why? We can’t. We have to do it.”

 

 

Naomi Osaka wears Kobe Bryant jersey at US Open to “keep his spirit with me”

Tennis star Naomi Osaka during a recent U.S. Open press conference shared the reason behind why she wore NBA legend Kobe Bryant's Los Angeles Lakers jersey while speaking to reporters. 

The conference followed Osaka's first-round win at the Grand Slam tournament in Flushing, Queens, after she bested Latvia's Jelena Ostapenko at the Louis Armstrong Stadium, marking her first win against a Top 10 player in more than four years.

Osaka shared that Bryant — who died in a tragic helicopter crash in 2020 — had attended the Open five years earlier, sitting in Osaka's box to watch her compete in the tournament's second round on the same court. “I honestly remember being a little bit in disbelief that he was coming specifically to watch my match. Just to feel that support was unreal,” Osaka said. 

“I think for me I always wear Kobe jerseys after matches and practices because I feel like a little bit, like, I can kind of keep his spirit with me,” she added.

Earlier this month, Osaka and Aussie tennis player Nick Kyrgios sported No. 24 and No. 8 Lakers jerseys in Bryant's honor during a mixed doubles exhibition match at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Osaka posted a photo of herself and Kyrgios on the court, captioning the image with an assortment of emojis, including a snake — in an ostensible reference to Bryant's "Black-Mamba" alter ego, an infinity sign and a heart. 

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