Gas Bandit's Political Thread V: The Vampire Likes Bats

Kinda like how all the money raised by lotteries for hospitals just resulted in the government budget for hospitals being reduced.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
The FBI is investigating the suspected hacking attempts by Iran that targeted both the Trump and the Biden-Harris campaigns. The investigation includes attempted hacks targeting three Biden-Harris campaign staffers, as well as Roger Stone, who said he’d been contacted by authorities about unauthorized use of his email account. The hackers reportedly used access to Stone’s email account to try to gain access to the account of a senior Trump campaign official. The FBI has not released any information about the hacking attempts other than to say it was investigating “a campaign cyberintrusion,” but Microsoft issued a public report last week warning that Iranian hackers had tried to break into the email account of a “high-ranking official” on a U.S. presidential campaign in June. The report prompted Trump to accuse Iran of hacking his 2024 campaign, but he never alerted the FBI due to his distrust of the agency. (Washington Post / Politico / NBC News / CNN / New York Times / NPR / Axios / The Guardian / CBS News)
  • News outlets were leaked insider material from the Trump campaign. They chose not to print it. “Their decisions stand in marked contrast to the 2016 presidential campaign, when a Russian hack exposed emails to and from Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, John Podesta. The website Wikileaks published a trove of these embarrassing missives, and mainstream news organizations covered them avidly.” (Associated Press)
  • Trump and his allies once cheered hacked materials. No longer, now that they say he’s a target. “Russia, if you’re listening,” Trump said during a press conference in his 2016 presidential run, when Hillary Clinton’s deleted personal emails were a hot topic, “I hope you are able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.” That changed when Trump’s latest presidential campaign declared this weekend it had been hacked by Iran. “Any media or news outlet reprinting documents or internal communications are doing the bidding of America’s enemies and doing exactly what they want,” Steven Cheung, the campaign’s communications director, said. (ABC News)

Voters in Arizona and Missouri will decide in November whether to enshrine the right to an abortion in their state constitutions. The Arizona secretary of state’s office certified 577,971 signatures that abortion rights groups had collected – 50% more than were required to put the constitutional amendment on the ballot and the highest number of certified signatures for any ballot measure in state history. In Missouri, the secretary of state’s office certified more than 380,000 signatures – more than double the minimum 171,000 needed to qualify for the ballot. The Missouri ballot measure would create a right to abortion up until fetal viability, around the 24th week of pregnancy, except to protect the life or health of the mother. Abortion-rights measures will also go before voters in Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Nevada, and South Dakota this November. (Associated Press / NPR / NBC News / ABC News / New York Times / Washington Post / CNN)

Elon Musk’s “conversation” with Trump on Twitter was plagued by 42 minutes of technical difficulties. When Musk and Trump finally began, about a million people appeared to be listening – far short of the “8 million concurrent listeners” Musk had claimed the platform was capable of supporting. Musk claimed without evidence that Twitter was the target of a “massive DDOS attack” that had made it impossible for the event to proceed as planned. Once the discussion got underway, Musk repeated his claim that “as this massive attack illustrates, there’s a lot of opposition to people just hearing what President Trump has to say.” People from within the company, however, said there wasn’t a denial-of-service attack at all, but instead there was a “99 percent” chance Musk was lying. During the unstructured interview, Musk told Trump he thought his actions after the assassination attempt were “inspiring.” Trump replied that being shot at was “not pleasant” and that the ear is “a very bloody place.” The two agreed that illegal immigration is bad; that “really bad people” within the government are “more dangerous than Russia and China”; that there was “zero chance” of the Russia-Ukraine war happening if Trump was in charge; and blamed “this stupid administration” for allowing inflation to happen. Trump also reiterated his plan to “close the Department of Education” during his second term. Throughout the conversation, Trump appeared to have a lisp at times. (Mother Jones / The Verge / New York Times / Politico / Axios / NPR)

The United Auto Workers filed federal labor charges against Trump and Elon Musk for illegally threatening and intimidating workers who engage in protected labor activity, such as strikes. During their conversation on Twitter, Trump told Musk: “I mean, I look at what you do. You walk in, you say, ‘You want to quit?’ They go on strike. I won’t mention the name of the company, but they go on strike, and you say, ‘That’s okay. You’re all gone. You’re all gone. So, every one of you is gone.’” Trump was referring to when Musk fired about 50% of Twitter employees taking over the social media business in 2022. Musk, who has endorsed Trump, laughed at the comments but didn’t directly address them. Under federal law, it’s illegal to threaten to fire workers for going on strike or to actually do so. The UAW is one of the country’s largest unions and recently endorsed Kamala Harris for president. (CNBC / Axios / Washington Post / Wall Street Journal)

Trump spent the weekend traveling from Montana to Wyoming to Colorado for campaign events on a private jet previously owned by sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Trump chartered the jet after his “Trump Force One” experienced mechanical issues while traveling to a rally in Montana. Trump’s campaign claimed that it had “no idea” that the Gulfstream G550 jet was once owned by the deceased sex offender. The jet used by Trump, however, is not the plane known as the “Lolita Express,” which Epstein used to traffic underage girls to and from his private island. (Miami Herald / New York Times / Business Insider)
 
Texas A.G. threatens lawsuit over State Fair of Texas gun policy

Reminder that "Last year, 23-year-old Cameron Turner opened fire at the fair, shooting three people." So now the fair wants to prohibit people from carrying guns at the event. Paxton says that violates sate law, and is giving them 15 days to change the policy, or face a lawsuit.
There a lot of beer and wine at the fair. It is illegal to carry in a bar. How should it be legal to take one to a fair?
 
I remember slamming my Kindergarten Teacher when every Monday she played a recording of her son's Sunday sermon.

"Isn't this against the law?"

This was in the early 70s.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Trump asked the judge overseeing his election interference trial involving falsified business records to postpone his sentencing until after the presidential election in November, arguing that the Sept. 18 sentencing date advances what he claims is “naked election-interference objectives.” Judge Juan Merchan already delayed Trump’s sentencing once, at Trump’s request, following the Supreme Court’s decision on presidential immunity. Trump’s request for a delay comes one day after Merchan declined – for the third time – to recuse himself from the case and criticized Trump and his defense lawyers for raising “inaccurate and unsubstantiated claims.” In denying Trump’s motion, Judge Juan Merchan wrote, “this court now reiterates for the third time, that which should already be clear – innuendo and mischaracterization do not a conflict create.” Trump was found guilty by a jury on May 30 on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to Michael Cohen’s $130,000 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels to avert a sex scandal before the 2016 U.S. election. Trump faces up to four years in prison. (ABC News / CNN / The Hill / Politico / New York Times / Associated Press / Reuters / Politico / CNN)

The Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the Republican Legislature can refer to fetuses as “unborn human beings” in the informational pamphlet sent to voters to help inform their choice on an abortion rights ballot measure to enshrine abortion access to the state constitution. The secretary of state’s office, however, said “unborn human being” would not appear on the ballot itself. (Associated Press / KJZZ / Axios)

The Biden administration will save Americans $6 billion as a result of the first Medicare drug price negotiations. The new prices take effect in 2026, and the discounts range between 38% and 79% on the medication’s list price for the 10 drugs selected in initial round of negotiations. Those who are enrolled in Medicare Part D will save around $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs. (Associated Press / CBS News / Politico / Bloomberg / Washington Post)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tried to meet with Kamala Harris to discuss a cabinet job in her administration in exchange for him dropping out of the race and endorsing her. Harris, however, rebuffed the meeting from the Los Angeles man, who launched an independent campaign for president after discovering a dead worm in his brain and confessed to leaving a dead bear cub in Central Park in 2014 because he thought it would be “amusing.” The effort comes weeks after Kennedy and Trump met during the Republican National Convention, where the two discussed a possible role for Kennedy in a potential Trump administration in exchange for an endorsement. (Washington Post / New York Times / CNN)

68% of voters are enthusiastic about the Harris-Trump race. Before Biden dropped out, enthusiasm never topped 50%. Among Democrats, 85% are enthusiastic about their nominee (from 46% in June), while 71% of Republicans are enthusiastic for Trump (identical to June). (Monmouth University Poll)
 
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tried to meet with Kamala Harris to discuss a cabinet job in her administration in exchange for him dropping out of the race and endorsing her.
Here is a text I received today:
Hi, this is xxxx with Freedom and Prosperity PAC! Robert F. Kennedy is running on a platform of uniting the country and healing our partisan divides. To do this, he supports pardoning both Hunter Biden and Donald Trump from criminal charges. Knowing this, who would you vote for if the election were held today?
A = Robert F. Kennedy
B = Donald Trump
C = Kamala Harris
The PAC's website is here, if you want to see their stated opinions on things, but here are the first two paragraphs:
Let’s face facts: The left still wants to blame Donald Trump for every issue the federal government has failed to address. From immigration to race relations to our nation’s failing infrastructure, to out-of-control spending and the bloated size of our government.

The left’s failures are plentiful, but they don’t want anyone to notice. They simply want to indoctrinate our children, cause law-abiding citizens to become vulnerable to rising crime and eventually these leftists will use the force of government to control everything we do.
Yes, because nothing says "Fascism" like being a leftist.

--Patrick
 
Here is a text I received today:

The PAC's website is here, if you want to see their stated opinions on things, but here are the first two paragraphs:

Yes, because nothing says "Fascism" like being a leftist.

--Patrick
I already think he's an idiot, but how does "let's pardon one of the biggest traitors and grifters the country has ever seen, along with someone who might've abused his last name" bring "unity"?
Does the RFK campaign really not understand that the way to justice is to prosecute them both to the fullest extent of the law?
If Hunter Biden did anything illegal, go right ahead and fine or jail him. I don't give a rat's ass. Too bad for his dad, but, you know, most criminals have parents who will will be sad when their kid suffers the consequences of their own stupidity.
 
I already think he's an idiot, but how does "let's pardon one of the biggest traitors and grifters the country has ever seen, along with someone who might've abused his last name" bring "unity"?
Does the RFK campaign really not understand that the way to justice is to prosecute them both to the fullest extent of the law?
If Hunter Biden did anything illegal, go right ahead and fine or jail him. I don't give a rat's ass. Too bad for his dad, but, you know, most criminals have parents who will will be sad when their kid suffers the consequences of their own stupidity.
He does not, he is a moron.
 
how does "let's pardon one of the biggest traitors and grifters the country has ever seen, along with someone who might've abused his last name" bring "unity"?
I honestly think this offer is being presented like a prisoner exchange, where these PAC people believe Dems see the GOP as hating Hunter just as much as the GOP thinks the Dems must hate Trump, so they're trying to come off as Centrist. This concerns me not because they think Hunter's crimes are on par with Trump's but because they think Trump's crimes are no worse than Hunter's.

--Patrick
 
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